ã€ŠReincarnation Of The Strongest Spirit Masterã€‹


 Chapter 1 Going Back For Twenty Years

    ?"Is this the man you trained to stop me? Pathetic!"

    *Thud!*

    In the middle of what was previously a rich forest, only barrennd could be seen around. The ce was filled with deep trenches and holes that prated the ground so deep to even show orange colour down there.

    Thick tongues of smoke rose up from many spots, adding more gloomy touches to this ce. Seeing this from high above would make anyone suspect it was hell appearing in the middle of heaven.

    It was obvious that a brutal battle just went on at this part of the world, especially with the broken bodies and scattered limbs that scattered all over the ce.

    In the middle of such carnage, three figures stood in the centre. One clocked person flying midair with a mask covering his face. He looked cold and uncaring about how bloody and merciless the ground around was.

    In front of him, another man stood in midair hundreds of metres apart. This dude looked weird as he had the vibe of a ferocious beast and nine tails dancing behind him. He was a monster, one who would give scare to anyone watching him.

    In between the two, a broken figure of a young manid helplessly and powerlessly at the ground. His body was hacked at many ces, drenching his shattered armour with his red blood.

    Just with a simple wave of one of the monster''s tails, the body of the heavily wounded young man was picked up, took a circle in the air before getting thrown on the ground. The tail prated his chest like an unstoppable spear.

    The giant figure of a human-like monster stood midair like a merciless god, looking like a mountain blocking the sun. He wasn''t that big to begin with, but at this moment he felt like an insurmountable being in the eyes of that young man.

    ''How did thingse to such an end?'' Despite such clear disparity in power between the two, the young man felt bitter, all bitter deep down his soul and heart. He did all his best, and yet he failed.

    "All of them are trash," the monster shifted his eyes around, to the ground littered by the blood and organs of the devastated twenty disciples of the masked and cloaked master standing in midair away from him. "I held high expectations for our encounter, and yet this is the result¡­ How disappointing!"

    "Don''t think high of yourself, you are only a mere fox and not a god!" the young man said in a weak voice, yet it was void of any surrender. Instead, it was filled with determination and defiance.

    "You¡­"

    *Fwoosh!*

    One tail moved and brought that young man to stop metres away from the face of that monster. At this moment, the young man could clearly see the real face of his enemy for the first time.

    Pale yellow skin, cracked and deformed before getting reformed again. It felt like the monster body was getting copsed yet at the brink of destruction it was brought back together by some sort of unknown force.

    Golden yellow pair of elliptical eyes, showing no signs of humanity or kindness. Unlike his face, which gave anyone the impression of being a handsome man, nine big tails erected behind his back and danced in the air as if they contained a consciousness of their own.

    These tails alone made it clear that he wasn''t human. One of these tails prated the chest of that young man and protruded from his back at a different spot from the earlier hit. This was clear evidence that this monster wasn''t even kind or merciful.

    "I never thought you bred foolish people as your disciples," the monster ignored the enraged paled face of that young man and instead looked past the dying man''s shoulders, looking in mockery at the cloaked person floating in midair.

    "Do it!" a deep voice came but it was decisive. It came from the floating cloaked person, the master who witnessed his own disciples getting devastated under the brutal attacks of such an unbelievable enemy.

    "What exactly? Ain''t you going to cry? Plea for mercy? Kakaka!" the monster seemed to be amused, as if he just heard the funniest joke ever. Yet he was mistaken as the master in front of him wasn''t speaking to him just now.

    "You are an abomination, Mark! A monster shouldn''t have the power of gods! You will die here, one way or another!" the young man shouted, struggling to say every single word.

    The heavily wounded young man was called William. He was a spirit master, a formidable one in the terms of the entire world.

    William trained for long years alongside many others whom he used to call brothers and sisters. They were following the superb teachings of the legendary master of his, all for taking down that hideous monster.

    The nine tailed fox was a scary monster, the scariest enemy spirit masters ever faced. And despite the heavy training and dense preparations, they failed to bring such evilness down.

    "And who is going to stop me? A human like you who is half a step past the door of death? Or a worthless master like the one standing behind you and can''t move a finger against me?"

    *sh!*

    William wanted to scream and shout, wanted to shout many things. However he knew his soul was on the verge of shattering. He had limited energy to spare, and so he didn''t dy and used his deadliest attack.

    Per his master''s words, he grabbed something from his sleeves. He held it just in front of his chest, close to the protruding tail that was covered in his blood. With just this simple move, he covered this item with his own blood without the need to exert much power.

    "The beads of destiny? No way!" the face of that monster changed for the first time. When the monster recognised the beads attached with thin thread in the hands of William, covered with a thinyer of William''s red blood, a tinge of worry appeared on its face.

    "Kakaka, even if you were in your prime condition, you wouldn''t even have the ability to touch me with this." However that tinge of worry disappeared and was reced instantly with an expression of ridicule.

    Just as the monsterughed in mockery, the thread seemed to break apart on its own. Seven glorious beads flew all of sudden and began to glow. Then they started to circle around William. Each bead was like a universe of its own, shimmering in a myriad of lights while flying in a random rhythm up and down, rotating around the body of the wounded man.

    In ancient records, these beads were known as the myriad beads, or the miraculous beads. They looked like ornaments, but when activated they would turn into a lethal weapon.

    "We''ll see about that," it was the cloaked master who icily spoke, "Do it, honour my teaching and kill him."

    It was simple words yet it made William''s heart tremble.

    William''s master wasn''t just a simple spirit master. His life was saved by this master. The confidence in his master''s words made his dying heart thrilled with excitement, excitement of aplishing the task even if it ended up with his death.

    *Rumble!*

    Unlike what the nine tailed fox expected, the beads didn''t emit their deadly rays as an attack. Instead they shone brighter while stopped moving, as if being controlled with invisible force.

    If William tried to activate the beads with his exhausted power, then nothing would happen. However the young man attempted to aplish something more frightening than that.

    "Trying to detonate them? I won''t let you have your way, damn human!" The nine tailed fox wasn''t ignorant. He recognized the lethal self destruct attack that dying youth chose.

    If the bleeding William chose to attack him using the energy inside the beads, the monster wouldn''t even bat an eye to block the attack. That in case the attack seeded. After all, the attack stemmed from the energy of the beads, but its fierceness depended on the amount of energy inside the body of the user.

    The human in front of him chose to sacrifice the beads by detonating them. And that would turn things quite ugly for that fox.

    That mere thought made the scalp of that fox numb. These beads would be considered priceless treasure, one that an equal of wouldn''t be found in the entire world. So the fox monster never expected William to sacrifice the beads and that was why he lowered his guard against that human.

    Without waiting for his enemy''s attack toe to fruition, the fox monster moved all his tails and prated the body of that human in every possible killing spot.

    "I''m the nine tailed fox, the legendary existence born under the curses of heaven itself! I''m the one destined to crush the barrier and be a god. I won''t let an ant ruin the ten million years worthy of my cultivation! Not a mere pathetic human like you can touch me, no one can stop me!"

    The world in front of William faded slowly and only the face and the roaring voice of that monster remained in his world.

    William knew he was dying. He could feel his life force seeping away from his body. He felt his body growing cold and numb, gradually losing all control over it.

    William felt the world go in slow motion at this moment. He didn''t feel panic or regret. He simply showed a smile¡­ A smile of ridicule appeared on his face at thisst moment of his life.

    "You will fail, human!" Just when William was about to embrace his death, the vicious voice of that fox rang in his mind.

    The monster tried to toss William away, free his tails from the body of that insane spirit master. But no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn''t budge a single tail an inch away.

    The power in the beads worked as a ma, entrapping the two sworn enemies together in an inescapable.

    "I won''t let you have it your way. No matter what, even if it takes me a hundred times, a thousand times, I''ll kill you! Die you bastard!"

    William''s voice wasn''t loud or majestic, yet it carried a special aura of itself. Even the monster at this moment, the legendary monster who wrecked havoc and spread terror in the hearts and souls of all creatures born and lived on this world, felt tremor of fears shaking up his stone cold heart.

    *Boom!*

    Like a nuclear bomb, the beads smashed into each other and all together mmed onto the body of William and that fox. A massive explosion erupted, engulfing both a human and a monster inside its bright light.

    However even with such an attack, the monster didn''t die. It was just seriously injured. Amidst this explosion, and without anyone noticing, a big golden drop of blood fell from the severed tails of the monster and seeped deeply inside the body of William.

    Seven shes of light moved in a blink of an eye and merged with William''s body.

    "Kakaka, I''m not dead yet, idiot! I''m not dead! Kakakaka!" and thest thing the young man heard was the voice of the monster.

    "I''m going to kill you! I swear even if it took me a thousand lives I''ll kill you with my hands!"

    *Huff!* *Huff!* *Huff!*

    In a small wooden cab, in a narrow space where it could allow a single person to live, a small body was jolted awake from his deep sleep.

    Just moments ago he was screaming in a strange tone, speaking in a hoarse voice like it came from the depth of hell itself.

    The small body was drenched in sweat, soaking his simple clothes around his small figure. His chest kept racing up and down like he just ended a marathon.

    "This¡­" he was a small kid, not exceeding eight years at most. His body was so small and his figure was so fragile with no evidence of a single muscle anywhere.

    But he carried the same defying look, the look which the young man daggered the nine tailed fox with.

    It took roughly five minutes for this kid to calm down and start to look around. The more he saw, the more doubtful and shocked he became.

    "Where... Is this ce?" he slowly pushed away the simple nket that covered his body. At this moment he noticed his body and couldn''t help but frown.

    He raised both hands in front of his small eyes and examined them. He had petit hands, thin fingers, with dirty white bandages covering up both fists. He looked at his body which was covered with simple white cloths that were made out of the cheapest kind of fabric.

    "This¡­" a thought shed past his mind, a thought he didn''t dare to believe. The next moment he sprung from his simple wooden bed and stood in front of a small wooden disk.

    The disk was so simple with one drawer and a wooden chair. If anything was special about it then one could notice the dust that covered it.

    Up that disk, a rounded mirror appeared there. It was small, only with the size to show his face. But it was enough for him at this moment.

    He raised it and got it closer to his face. As he inspected his face, he raised his messy dark blue hair aside to see his face clearly.

    ck wide eyes, looking like they were put inside two deep grooves in his face. His cheeks were thin and long, with a chin that had an indentation at its tip.

    As he saw this face, he couldn''t help but smile, showing his small teeth. He even had a space in his upper teeth, with one that fell and yet to regrow again.

    "No f*cking way! Hell! No way!!" he screamed in shock while jumping like getting bitten by a snake. "This is¡­ No f*cking way! I''ve returned, I came back!"

    He looked around and this time he didn''t stand idle. He started to examine the narrow room. There wasn''t much to inspect actually. Aside from this disk, there was a simple drawer where his belongings were.

    Three identical customs like the one he was wearing were inside. A big bag that could be hung on his back was there. It was made out of brown leather, made for people like him.

    And in the middle of the room at one of the walls he could see something old and familiar at the same time. He stood in front of that emblem, rounded with a concave surface, showing a symbol of a tiger head getting smashed by a hammer.

    "The Aspire academy¡­ I''m back... Back for twenty years in time! Unbelievable!"

    As he said these words, he slowly dragged the wooden chair and didn''t care about the dust that covered it. As he sat down, all he could think about was the incidents that happened before, and his current circumstances.

 Chapter 2 Testing Spirit Power

    ?The small kid was called William. he sat on his simple wooden chair inside his simple and narrow ce with an absent look on his face.

    Just moments ago he was getting hacked by his sworn enemy. He looked at his body and checked where these tails just prated him, yet he found zero mark left by any of that.

    This was weird, but what was much weirder was what he just experienced. He felt like a boat with broken mast that was tossed in the middle of a thunderstorm.

    He started to control his ragged emotions and messy mind after an entire hour. The world outside was pitch ck, showing how deep in the night the time was.

    Yet he wasn''t in the mood to even think about sleep. He just got resurrected, sent back in time by a mysterious power. His desperate battle with the nine tailed fox monster was still lingering inside his mind even after an entire hour.

    "So I came back to the academy¡­ sigh," he took a deep breath while recalling how his past life in this academy was.

    William wasn''t living a nice life at this point. He didn''te from a prestigious n or a rich family to begin with. This academy was considered one of the most prestigious in the entire southern human kingdom, but he joined it as a mere porter.

    A porter had only one task, to help in carrying and providing all kinds of supplies to the registered formal disciples of the academy. Those kids came from wealthy families and strong ns, and he had to serve them in the daytime.

    It might seem like a poor life, but it wasn''t that bad actually. In return for working for eight hours everyday, he could have a ce of his own to live in, have little resources from the academy, and also the chance to attend sses and even get into outside expeditions.

    However,pared to the life that just had ended at the hands of the nine tailed fox, he knew this wasn''t the kind of life he deserved, not the life he wanted.

    "I have to change everything," he clenched both fists and his fragile body faintly trembled, "I got this chance to return the favour double to that damned fox. I can''t waste a single moment, not like this."

    He looked outside through the only small window in this tight room. This might be called his own space to live in, but it was a useless cab situated on the outskirts of the academy campus.

    He never imagined that hisst moment wish woulde true. He barked in front of that fox but it never crossed his mind, even in his wildest dreams, that he would really be sent back in time and relive his life again.

    As he recalled thest words he bellowed out before his death, he started to calm his mind down. "I need to n things properly," he said to himself before opening the only drawer in his desk and getting something out.

    It was a pure milky white crystal with a faint glistering surface. It was a known crystal in this world, known as a spirit crystal, the universal currency in this world.

    He didn''t keep the crystal as he ced it over the desk after clearing a spot of dust. Then he took another item from the drawer.

    It was a thick short candle. Its outer surface was covered in irregr rounded green spots that came from the melting of the candle.

    It was the candle of light, a regr thing found in this world and used for clearing darkness. There was nothing else but this green material, but when touched with fire, it would burn and emit enough light to push away darkness from the room.

    It was made of amon ore that was found on the sides of big ore mines. It had no value other than spreading light in the middle of the night. However William knew many uses of this material.

    The two items William took were considered fairlymon and without much value in this world. It wasn''t a surprise that a porter like him would get such kind of supplies from the academy.

    "I recall my former strength was stagnant for a long time before the big fall, but I have to test it," he muttered before holding the spirit crystal in one hand, and the candle of light in the other hand.

    He used the weak spirit power inside his body to ignite the fire over the top of the candle of light, then waited.

    In the eyes of others, the candle would look useless to test anything. But he knew that the material of the candle was a perfect stimtor of any conductor material like the spirit crystal.

    Testing the spirit power in this world used different means, but to William these ways were considered rudimentary and retarded in his eyes. He nned to use a new way to test his spirit power up, a method not yet known in this world.

    Spirit crystals were excavated from big mines around the world. The one he had was considered of the lowest ranks. It contained a mediocre amount of spirit power, but it was enough to be used in his test.

    The moment the fire appeared, the entire green candle got ignited and shone with its usual faint green colour. However William''s eyes were attached over the candle itself, not its light.

    The fire caused the entire candle to be warmed up. This material would turn into liquid once exposed to fire just like any candle. Beads of faint green colour started to be formed on top of the irregr surface of the candle.

    Seeing this, William leant the candle over the crystal and let these small green beads fall over the smooth surface of it.

    One bead, five beads, a hundred beads. Once the entire surface got covered, he put the candle aside and held the spirit crystal in both hands before slowly rubbing it.

    The green material of the candle covered the entire surface evenly before he stopped.

    *Fwoosh!*

    He slowly injected his own spirit power inside the crystal. The moment his spirit power touched its surface, it started to shine in faint green light before the green material started to dissipate inside the crystal and vanish like it was never there.

    However, his small face didn''t show any reaction at all. The moment thest speck of the green material vanished, a new change urred at the centre of the spirit crystal.

    A sh of light appeared shyly before it started to evolve. William kept injecting his energy inside the crystal until the changes stopped and a clear scene appeared in front of his eyes.

    He raised the crystal closer and examined the pattern and colour inside the crystal.

    "Faint white, twelve dots only¡­ So this was my strength back then¡­ Sigh!" he said in a mncholic tone. "Twelve spirit points, not even close to being considered a spirit master," he didn''t know if he should cry orugh at such a result.

    If anyone came back in time to his younger self and told him that his destiny would change and be a mighty spirit master in the next twenty years, he would call this man a lunatic!

 Chapter 3 Spirit Masters Holy Triad

    ?William knew that his fate would change. After all he was the one who experienced all this. "My spirit was still in the mud phase¡­ I still have a long way ahead of me," he put the crystal back on the desk before tapping on the surface with his fingers, lost in deep thoughts.

    If anyone saw him at this moment he would never believe this kid was only eight years old. Either his expression, the way he seated, the strange rhythmic knocking on the desk, or even the determined gaze that came from his eyes¡­ Everything gave the impression of an experienced person in life, an adult and not a kid.

    That was expected. After all he returned back in time but still held all his memories and most importantly his experience. He knew lots of knowledge, thanks to his master''s teachings, thanks to his long and hard life after the fall of this world.

    "I have a lot of things to do¡­ But there is still one thing that still stands out even after returning in time," he slowly stood up, went towards the main drawer in the room before taking out the big backpack and putting it on his shoulders.

    "Strength is the only and true thing that rules one''s life and destiny," he said these words before closing the door behind.

    The world outside was darker than it appeared from his window. He knew this was ate hour at night. Yet that didn''t stop him from walking through the empty road, heading towards the big forest up ahead.

    This was the big southern monster forest, or known as the Blessing Forest. The entire world had two main continents, with five narrow stretches ofnd linking between the two.

    The academy was situated in the southern continent, under the rule of one of the most powerful kingdoms in the entire continent; the Novistic Kingdom.

    One could say that this academy was one of the top five academies in the entire kingdom, making it one of the top hundred academies in the entire world.

    It wasn''t that great indeed, but it wasn''t that bad either.

    It went without saying how strong the disciples and masters here were. But in William''s eyes, this academy and even other academies in this world were retarded in their teachings. They were all weak!

    That wasn''t their fault. He knew this was a deep plot done by the sworn enemies of humans; the monsters.

    As someone who lived to witness and survive the destruction of this world, and went to ces beyond the reach of others, he could frankly say the simplest of his knowledge was far beyond the understanding of people here.

    Let''s take the basic knowledge about spirit masters for example¡­

    In this world, spirit master strength was discovered at the age of six years old using special methods. It wasn''t much different than the age of the test in the outer world that William lived at. What differed here was the aspects of the test itself and how to interpret it.

    People here only relied over the innate spirit produced during the test, and focused mainly on the value of the spiritual power.

    For example a person who had the spirit of a moustached lion would be considered a strong spirit master. Others with far blessed spirits like the flying tiger holy spirit or the scaled snake dark spirit would be considered geniuses.

    The same went for the value of the spirit power detected at the test. Values above twenty-five were considered eptable as spirit masters. While values above hundred would make the kid a genius.

    For someone like William, whose spirit didn''t have any distinctive shape and his spirit power only measured twelve at the age of eight years old, he was considered a failure. People here wouldn''t even bother nourishing such kids, and so he was left to dust and served other spirit masters for living.

    However William knew better, much better than that. These starting points might be a good factor in determining future strength, but they weren''t the only factors.

    From the life he lived outside this world, he knew the true spirit master world had three keystones in assessing any spirit master potential, known as the spirit master''s holy triad.

    These were: Spirit power, spirit purity, and spirit training technique, or cultivation manual in other sayings. What mattered wasn''t the starting point for any spirit master, but what the spirit master did after that point.

    For example, the second holy triad cornerstone, spirit purity, was considered a life changing concept in William''s life. Spirit purity aspect was built over a concept that any human was a spirit master, having a spirit of his own with different impurities.

    Cleansing these impurities would unlock the true potential of any human, turning a loser and a failure like William into a real powerhouse and true hegemony in the world of spirit masters.

    Yet it was easier said than done! To cleanse one''s spirit, one had to do many things on a regr basis, best to be as a daily routine. And the trickiest part was that he needed to link this with a good spirit training technique, plus raising his spirit power constantly.

    It was all rounded effort, but William wasn''t worried about doing that. After all he did such things when he exceeded the age of seventeen. In other words, even when it was considered impossible by the standards of the true spirit world outside, he still had done it.

    And it was all thanks to his master.

    So how could he doubt his abilities to repeat what he previously did at the current age of eight?

    "I need to get money first," he knew the biggest obstacle in his n was money. He came from a poor family, so he had no one to depend on but himself.

    To get money he needed to go to the forest and hunt down monsters. Normal monsters were strong enough to kill someone powerless like him.

    But he wasn''t out of options.

    The Blessing Forest was one of thergest forests in the entire world. It spanned across the borders of many kingdoms, with over a dozen of academies sharing their activities inside this forest.

    It would be logical for the academy to control the ess to the forest, especially if it could turn someone like William into a rich and strong person. But the academy didn''t restrict ess to the forest at all, and it wasn''t the sole academy in doing so.

    After all, if weak people like porters, like William, decided to go inside the forest, then they should be responsible for their lives there.

    The forest wasn''t a nice ce to spend time at. Death was drooling at each corner. One could lose his life easily. So what was the point in restricting ess to the forest?

    The only restriction would be for outsiders to go through the areas controlled by the academy. As William was part of the academy, he found the main route towards the forest easily and started walking further ahead.

    Midway he took out his backpack and examined its content. The bag only had three things, an iron sword that had rust over parts of its edge, a bottle of water, and a small piece of ore that was used as a signal re for help.

    William''s bag didn''t contain anything else. After all, porters would deliver everything they salvaged to the disciples they were serving at the end of the day.

    If William would describe his current equipment, he would say this was the worst gear he ever had in his life. Even if he considered this as his second worst situation in his life, he couldn''t find any situation toe first.

 Chapter 4 Meeting Troublemakers

    ?William wasn''t dejected by this. He took the sword and hung the bag over his shoulders. Just before he could take a single step forward, his path was blocked by a group of peopleing from the opposite side.

    They were five in number, fairly taller than him. He stopped the moment he noticed them, as they were gazing up at him like they were witnessing something funny.

    "Wow! Look what we have here," one of them said in a mocking tone. He was almost twenty centimetres taller than William. He stood there with broad shoulders, exposed abdominal muscles that bulged and showed how strong this kid''s body was.

    His long brown hair that reached the middle of his back was a signature of his family. Alongside his bronzed eyes, faint bronzed tanned-like skin, he was definitely one of the bronzed lizard family.

    William recalled what he knew about such a family. Arrogant, dirty schemers, endless hunger for power¡­ All of these negative remarks surfaced in his mind the moment he recognized this youth''s family.

    They were one of the strongest families in the academy and the kingdom, famous for their abuse and tyranny all over the ce.

    Even William recalled he got mistreated and harassed on more than one asion under the hands of this family''s kids. Recalling all this looked like an old dream he experienced, but it still made his blood boil.

    "Young master, he is a porter, a useless kid among herds of others our academy showed empathy towards," another kid said, with his simr characteristic features like that young master.

    When William heard the title that kid just said, he knew he met one of the badass guys in the academy. He was Guanin, considered a prodigy in the entire academy from the age of six.

    And he was known to be one of the big bullies all over the academy. He had such racist opinion towards anyoneing from weak or poor families and ns like William.

    ? In Guanin''s eyes, not everyone was worthy to waste resources upon. In his opinion, people like William should be ves, not treated equally like himself.

    "Scram," Guanin said in his usual arrogant tone, "people like you shall sleep early to wake up fresh and ready to serve people like me."

    William clenched the hilt of his sword with a calm heart. Someone like Guanin couldn''t even stir up a speck of worry inside his heart. In William''s eyes, Guanin was such a loser, a spoiled kid who got everything spoon-fed to him since his birth.

    He didn''t work hard to get what others craved for, not worthy for even a single thing of what he had right now. However, William didn''t lose his head, the difference in strength at this moment was immense.

    "I have to go and help someone inside the forest," William calmly said without showing any sign of weakness.

    "Are you tired of living?" another kid stepped forward, pointing his long and curved sabre towards William, "if you don''t leave now, don''t me me for teaching you some manners."

    "Humph," even if there was an obvious gap in strength between the two sides, William didn''t n to retreat. He wasn''t out of options at all. He still had his vast battle experience and a lot of tricks up his sleeve to back him up.

    Even if he couldn''t beat them up, he wouldn''t end up wounded no matter how hard they tried.

    "If you don''t clear my path, I''ll scream and call the guards to help," William threatened back, "this is the academy grounds, not your family''s." Yet William decided to y by the rules, using the simplest trick ever to extricate himself out of this situation.

    "You¡­" the kid was shocked and taken aback by William''s words. Before he could move a muscle in response to such provocation, a sudden shout came from behind William, stopping all of them.

    "He is here to help me; do you have any problem with that?"

    William turned around to find a graceful looking young girl walking in steady steps towards him. She wore a white and long gown that covered her body and stopped just before her ankles.

    Small nose, wide and rounded eyes, buffy lips, small cheeks, and long red hair that made a mess and fell all over her shoulders. The dress she wore showed two slim and elegant looking gaps from her neck towards her arms, exposing the pointy and small angles of her shoulders.

    Red hair, red eyes, very beautiful features, and got the courage to stand up to someone like Guanin¡­ William instantly recalled a name from his old memories that matched such angelic face, a name that Guanin said in surprise

    "Berry¡­ What are you doing herete at night?!"

    "None of your business," Berry moved until she stood by William''s side, "and blocking the path of my porter isn''t a nice thing to do. Don''t you have anything better to do?"

    "Humph, says the one stuck at ny-nine spirit power for years now," Guanin showed a look of disdain over his face, "if not for your father, I won''t even have shown you any face!"

    "Go back to your mammy then, I heard she gets worried when you aren''t by her side," Berry weed the mocking tone and expression with another of her own.

    Seeing her stand just steps away, with her slightly taller body than William despite being of the same age, made thetter feel awkward.

    He knew her. She was once called the pure angel of the Long n. The Long n was different from the bronzed lizard family. It was a big n, with many families serving it.

    And Berry happened to be the sole daughter of the current acting patriarch of the n, the granddaughter of the old patriarch known as the fiery dragon all over the world.

    But she was considered a loser in the eyes of many, including Guanin. She was admitted to the academy two years ago and considered a genius with a spirit power of eighty-eight.

    Yet even after two years, her spirit power was stagnant at ny-nine bottleneck with no signs of breaking through. And that wasn''t the end of her miserable tale.

 Chapter 5 Whats Wrong With You?

    ?Seeing her pretty face this close made William feel a little conflicted. He knew such a good person had a horrible end, an end that no one would have ever seening.

    Back in William''s past life, he knew she ended up iming her own life inside the Blessing Forest. It was a grave incident that caused much trouble for the academy back then.

    People spoke a lot about her depression from such long time stagnation, a depression that forced her to take out her life with her hands.

    William gazed up at her. From his past life he recalled rare asions where he came in contact with such a high figure. And without exception, she stepped in and helped him in each single time of them.

    She had such a famous pure heart and kind soul to step in and help those in need, even if they were porters like him. Standing this close to her made him frown. He didn''t feel any depressive aura at alling from her, only confidence and steadiness, like the air he felt from any mighty figure.

    ''What''s going on?'' he couldn''t help but wonder in doubt. After all, that dark incident of suicide would only ur less than one month from now if he recalled things right.

    "Don''t overestimate yourself!" what she said managed to enrage Guanin who had his face all red, "if not for your grandfather, who would even put you in the eye?"

    "Let''s go," she seemed to not care about what Guanin said, or the least interested in continuing such useless talk, "we arete for our business."

    "A loser''s business is always a failure," Guanin said in mockery, yet he cleared a path for her and William to walk in between his group. "Mark my words, the heavens will never show mercy to those deemed unworthy!"

    "...!!!"

    This time it was William''s turn to be shocked. He sharply turned and gazed up at Guanin, a move that was misinterpreted by Berry on his side.

    "Keep walking, or do you want to die by their hands?" she whispered with care, fearing that weak porter to get impulsive and do something stupid.

    However, that wasn''t what William was thinking about. At this moment his mind only had the voice of Guanin ranging and echoing, repeating the same sentence thetter just said.

    It might seem empty words, but it was a signature phrase that stuck with those spirit master traitors of his past life.

    When he managed to barely escape the big fall with much luck, his luck didn''t run shortter as he met his master.

    From the master he learned everything he knew right now. One of the things he learned about was the true nature of this world.

    Monsters might be mighty, treacherous and cunning, but they wouldn''t be able to do all this damage to the human world on their own.

    After all, humans were always wary of monsters, not trusting them, not even dealing with them under normal circumstances. If a spirit master met a monster, then fighting to death would be the sole result of such a meeting.

    Yet there was an exception. There was a group of people who sold their souls and hearts to the monsters. The master called them the dark serpents, the dark spirit master. But William found a better nickname for them, the traitors!

    No matter which ces he met such traitors, they always blurted out one phrase. His master once told him that this phrase was the keystone of their belief, the main reason behind betraying humans and backstabbing them.

    ''The heavens will never show mercy to those deemed unworthy! ¡­ Damn! I never expected to run into one of those traitors once I came back!'' he thought to himself before controlling his emotions, while taking a mental note of this Guanin.

    "Thanks for the help back there," after walking for a few minutes and getting away from the danger, William honestly expressed his gratitude to Berry.

    As his master said: Treat your enemies with wrath and show gratitude towards those who are kind to you.

    "You are really insane to try and stand against Guanin," she rolled her eyes. Being this near and seeing her long and curved eyshes swap up and down made William involuntarily swallow his saliva.

    She was really a sessful project for a stunning beauty! He had to admit this to himself.

    "What are you doing here anyway? Is there anyone asking for your help as you imed?" she gave him a deep nce filled with doubt.

    William knew she didn''t believe his reason, just like Guanin. After all, those who came inside the forest to hunt monsters at night didn''t need any help from porters.

    Yet even when she knew he was lying, she treated him differently than Guanin. She could have just walked past them without batting an eye, but she didn''t.

    "I''m going to hunt monsters inside," he honestly said.

    "If you don''t want to say it, then don''t lie," she shook her head as if she considered what he said as a lie. "Anyway, stay safe and don''t put yourself into any kind of danger. The forest isn''t a nice ce for someone like you, alright?"

    William didn''t know what he should say to her. He told her the truth, but she took it as a way to cover up his real reason behind his presence here.

    Despite that, she gave him such sincere and honest advice and warning. William felt slight warmth inside his heart. People with such kind souls were rare, not only in this world, but even in the outside world as well.

    Usually, people tend to mind their own business and not meddle with anyone else. But Berry reminded him of a certain person, someone he cherished as a master.

    "Thanks for your advice, may I ask about something?" As she was this kind to him, with no speck of ill intentions at all, he decided to try and find out the reason behind her weird incident that was supposed to happen less than a month from now.

    Someone who was assessed to have an innate eighty-eight spirit power with an outstanding fire dragon soul wasn''t someone to be stagnant in such a low bottleneck for years! Not to mention ending up being so desperate to take out her life with her own hands.

    Something else was going on here, and he had a vague feeling he could help her out in the problem she had.

    "What? Don''t tell me you also want to be my boyfriend!" She said it like a joke and evenughed. However, herugh showed a tinge of bitterness, like a dark shadow looming over her heart regarding such matter.

    "Well, it might be a sensitive topic like that," William said and when she red at him in a fierce way he hurriedly added, "but it''s not the same."

    "Then ask¡­" she demanded and yet her face showed a in expression without telling William if she was mad about what he just said.

    "I want to know more about what Guanin just said back then," William slightly paused and when her face didn''t change, he added, "that bottleneck of yours¡­ What''s wrong with you?"

 Chapter 6 The Test

    ?William was worried that raising such a question might be sensitive to Berry. He knew she was famous for many things, but not strength and spirit power. And he feared he might have overstepped his boundaries by asking such a question.

    Yet unlike what he expected, she gave him a simple nce before her face broke out withughter. "Is this all? Wow, I thought you were like others."

    William didn''t know what to say, so he remained silent and waited for her answer.

    "It''s not a secret anyway," she shrugged and continued with an apparently fake good mood, "I don''t know what went wrong, but no matter what I tried, my spirit power never increased an inch no matter what I do. I''m stuck at that bottleneck of ny-nine spirit power for over a year and half! Can you imagine that? Even my dad asked for all physicians to inspect my case, believing I was poisoned by our enemies. Can you believe that?"

    Her true self was a surprise to William. She was cheerful and glowing even when speaking about a matter that would crush anyone.

    She was far, far away from the depressed Berry he always heard stories about. If he suspected it before, now he was sure about it. Such a radiant girl would never take her life in less than a month.

    "Can I ask you for another thing?" as he confirmed his earlier hunch, he decided to try and see what was wrong with her.

    "What? Do you want to try your luck and get that rich reward like many others?" she lightly said but William''s expression didn''t change. He really decided to help her.

    "I just know of a method¡­ It''s an ancient one, that I once learnt back when I was in my family," he gave such a white lie to cover up any misunderstanding that might happenter, "do you have a spirit crystal and candle of light with you?"

    She didn''t say anything and simply touched a bracelet on her right wrist. The eyes of William instantly recognized that extremely valuable storage item, which was considered pricey in the spirit world, very pricey for someone like him.

    "Here," she took dozens of crystals and candles out and handed them over to William as if they were dirt, "are they enough?"

    "Wow, I only need one from each," he randomly selected one crystal and one candle and waited for her to store the rest away. But unlike what he expected, she didn''t retreat her hands.

    "Just take them," she said with her kind nature, "I know porters never had any items or supplies with them. I don''t know what brought you here in thiste hour, but these candles can help in saving your life."

    Her kind words and care touched his heart. He looked at her in appreciation while realising that she wouldn''t budge if he rejected. So, he simply epted them. "Thanks," he said while storing everything inside his bag, "now I want you to do as I say."

    The method to test the person''s spirit must be done by that person. So, he gave back the crystal and candle and exined what she had to do.

    She listened with an expression that told him that she took this as an amusement experiment. She didn''t hold any hopes for what he wanted to do, mistaking that as a way for him to stay by her side for a much longer, mostly for protection and little for admiration.

    Being such a beautiful youngdy made her the centre of attention not only in her ss, but in many higher sses. Not to mention her strong and wealthy background that made many seek after her.

    "Rub it evenly, yes like that," William didn''t stand idle and kept guiding her through the entire process before the green material covered the glistering surface of the crystal, "inject your spirit power inside the crystal."

    "Then what?" as a little girl waiting for a magic trick, she asked.

    "Keep pouring out your spirit power until I say stop," William didn''t know if he shouldugh or cry at this moment. But he kept instructing her and waited on the side for the result of this simple test of hers.

    He already was aware of her spirit type. She had a fire dragon spirit as a direct descendant of her n.

    The moment she injected her spirit power inside the crystal, the green matter vanished, and a change urred in the centre of the crystal.

    Unlike what William experienced, she had ny-nine white dots shimmering in the centre of the crystal. However, that wasn''t what caught his eyes and made them even open wide.

    "Wow! There are strange lights inside," Berry never expected this y to turn out to be this fun, "but what are these beautiful lights in there? Red and¡­ golden?" she raised her head in confusion and interest, to be met with the shocked expression over William''s face.

    "What''s wrong?" as she saw his face, she knew something was off. Although she loved the scene inside the crystal, feeling a strange intimacy with those lights hovering around its centre, she only felt anxious when looking at William.

    "No wonder! No wonder you couldn''t breakthrough before," and when she waited for him to say something funny and amusing, he said something that made her heart clench.

    The tone, the attitude, and the expression over William''s face told her that he knew what he was speaking about and not simply making it up. She came from a deeply rooted n, and her knowledge about spirit master ways to assess spirits was unravelled.

    Yet the method William used with her right now was new to her. She had never heard of such a method before.

    "Phew, I just mistook you for someone else for a brief second," just when that thought shed over her mind, the thought of William knowing what really was wrong with her, she declined such an idea instantly.

    Who was William? He was a weak person, one of the porters. Yes, she felt empathetic towards people like him, but how could she trust that someone as weak as William would know what was wrong with her?

    But William didn''t mind herst remark and simply raised his head for his eyes to meet hers.

    All she saw was a firm look and a mature gaze, one that would nevere from a kid of his age, not to mention a weak porter kid like him.

    "I know what''s holding you back, and I also know of a method that can help you breakthrough."

    At this moment, even her breaths stopped for a long moment before she inhaled and exhaled in a ragged way. "Come on, stop saying such dangerous stuff," she patted her chest before reluctantly extending the crystal back to him.

 Chapter 7 The Crux Of The Problem

    ?Berry felt a strange link with the lights dancing inside the crystal, so strong and intimate that handing it over to William felt like severing part of her soul away.

    Yet unlike what she expected, when William reflexively took the crystal from her, the lights never vanished or even faded.

    "Look," William pointed at the crystal while motioning for her toe closer. And without knowing why, she listened to him. "Look carefully past the white dots filling the crystal. Can you see these red and golden specks of lights?"

    She already noticed them. So, she nodded. "What''s special about them?" she asked with little expectations to hear something new.

    Yet what William was going to say was something that would flip her life upside down!

    "You have twin spirit," William released the shocking news he just realized from seeing the result of her test.

    "Twin spirit?" she gasped in surprise, paused with a gaped open mouth for a few seconds before adding in doubt, "I never heard about something like that."

    "That''s expected. After all, anyone with a twin spirit would face a deadly encounter when reaching the ny-nine bottleneck, just like you."

    "D¡­ Deadly¡­ Did you say deadly?!" her face turned ashen white at this moment. She didn''t know why but she started to lose all the doubt towards what William was saying, as if she was listening to a grand master''s wise words.

    "It''s not that deadly for now, at least if you didn''t force a breakthrough," he said while in his mind, the old incident became fishier.

    A spirit mastering from such a grand n with a twin spirit¡­ Howe her death from his past life be this simple?

    ''I''ll save you,'' he decided in determination. ording to his master''s instructions from before, he had to repay kindness with generosity.

    Plus, he hated to owe anyone favours, not in his past life and for sure not in this life. She helped him, not just today but many times before. He considered his help now as a way to repay all his debts towards her.

    "Then¡­ What shall I do now?" she asked while feeling relieved that she wasn''t in any danger, not anytime soon at least. "And what does this twin spirit even mean?"

    "You know we are born with a spirit that we can train. In your case, you have two different spirits inside you."

    "They are these red and golden dots?" she pointed at the crystal in his hand before leaning over like any kid would do and gazed closer at its content, "the red might be rted to my fire dragon spirit, right? Then what''s about this golden light? What spirit is it?"

    William slowly nodded before saying, "the red one is rted to your n''s spirit. But the golden lights are rted to another spirit, one that''s considered a nemesis of any dragon¡­ Phoenix spirit!"

    "What?!!" She was a smart kid, a genius if one had to describe her. So, it was simply easy for her to understand what William said. "Howe I have such a hostile spirit to my dragon spirit inside me?"

    She looked at her body as if she was exploring it for the first time. William could only sigh. As his master used to say, any disaster was actually a blessing in disguise.

    "What''s important now is the state of your spirits and their rtionship with your stagnation," he said before waiting for her to be more focused with him, "The two spirits inside you are fighting over the dominance of your body. If you keep going in this path, letting them get entangled like this and fight with each other, then no matter what you do, your spirit power won''t budge an inch!"

    "That makes sense when you put it this way¡­" she paused for a long minute thinking about what he said.

    Shecked all the knowledge and experience William had, but she was a smart kid after all. With the simple exnation of William, she realised the issue she had, and knew the reason behind her own problem.

    "What shall I do then?" her eyes suddenly sparkled as she recalled something William said, "You said you can fix it, right?"

    Her voice carried immense expectation. She might act tough, uncaring for her current situation. She even joked about it, treating this disaster lightly as if she wasn''t bothered by it.

    Even when she saw her father panicking over her condition, she treated it as a funny situation.

    But deep down her heart she knew she wasn''t feeling this way. She never felt cool towards such stagnation, no one would be cool in such a position.

    She resorted to jokes when she failed to deal with the real problem. Deep inside her heart, she craved to get over this predicament. She wanted a way out, but everything around told her there was none.

    Instead of crying bitterly over her disaster or ming the world for such a curse, she decided to act as if she didn''t care about anything.

    But right now, at thiste hour of the night, and inside the outskirts of the Blessing Forest, she finally found a light at the end of her dark tunnel.

    It came from someone she would never consider a saviour, not be considered at all as a person capable of saving her! She didn''t know if William could really treat her, but she chose to believe so.

    She decided to believe in him. And her feelings were conveyed through her wide opened eyes and sincere tone to William.

    So how could he stop now?

    "There is a solution," he slowly said, "but this one requires a lot of time, many resources, and a great deal of effort from you."

    "I''ll do anything," she said in a totally different demeanour than before, "I''m willing to do anything to solve it! As for your reward¡­"

    She paused. She didn''t pause out of being stingy, but because at this moment, her emotions overwhelmed her. She resisted the urge to let her tears pour out through her eyes.

    If someone ever managed to treat her condition, then she was willing to be even his wife and lover. That was a secret pledge she made a long time ago.

    Wealth? Resources? Power? No matter what William wanted, she would give it to him. Even if he asked for her body, soul, and heart, she would also agree.

    "Don''t talk about rewards for now," but William wasn''t such an opportunistic person, not the kind of person she thought her saviour would be. "I''m doing this to help you as my friend. Since when was there such a thing between friends?"

 Chapter 8 A Third Spirit

    ?"But¡­"

    "Just stop mentioning rewards and it will be fine," William stopped her from saying anything else, "now let''s talk about what we shall do about your problem."

    She watched him bringing up the crystal closer from his eyes as if he was examining something inside with interest.

    She knew if she pushed the matter of the reward further, he wouldn''t agree. But that didn''t mean she would resign to his words. In her eyes, the person responsible for helping her held the highest ce in her heart and her life.

    So she remained quiet and watched in silence what he was doing without expressing any of her inner thoughts. She pledged that if he managed to really help her, she would definitely do everything in her power to help him back.

    A person like William,ing from a weak and poor family, was in need of all the help he could get. She looked at his face, his weak body and couldn''t help but inwardly sigh.

    She never expected her problem to be sorted out by someone like William. she even doubted that if she came back to her father and told him about William, her father would believe her!

    William didn''t know about all this. He was totally focused on observing the red and golden dots inside the crystal.

    From his knowledge, the phoenix spirit was always pink in colour. That spirit might hold a degree of redness in it, but it wasn''t that golden.

    The reason he recognized the phoenix spirit here was the famous mark of the phoenix spirit. He wouldn''t tell Berry this, but in his eyes, he wasn''t seeing dots but a general pattern the dots were taking as a shape inside the crystal.

    There was a dragon spirit pattern side by side with the phoenix pattern. But what were these golden dots then?

    There was no pattern at all in that gold light, making him more confused. When he closely observed for the next five minutes, he finally realised what was going on.

    "Damn!" he couldn''t prevent himself from cursing out loud when he reached such a crazy conclusion.

    "What? What is it? Is it bad? Is it this bad? Am I going to die?!" As a normal girl of her age, she was quite impatient to jump to conclusions.

    She mistook his reaction for discovering something bad. It was something big indeed, but not bad at all.

    William nced at her without knowing what he should say. For a second, he felt envious towards her. A girl in her age having, not only a twin spirit, but also such an extremely rare and precious opportunity. It was something worthy of being envious of.

    "It''s a good thing," he finally got over his shock, "you¡­ are really blessed with luck."

    "Me?" she pointed at herself in a weird way, "what did you discover? Come on, I knew all the time that I was a genius, hahaha!"

    In a rare moment she showed a side of her personality she never showed to others; a carefree one. William looked at her without knowing if he should smile orugh.

    "Your two spirits aren''t fighting only for dominance, but for unknown reason they are merging together," he said before pointing at the crystal in his hand as he added, e, do you see these red and faint red dots in the middle of the golden tornado?"

    The golden dots were surrounding the red ones in a shape that he decided to call a tornado for now. As for the red dots, when he looked closer, he discovered they weren''t of the same origin.

    After all, he was looking for the ce of the phoenix spirit in this mess and finally found it. He was previously wrong when he considered the red dots to be only a dragon spirit.

    Half were dark red, while others were slightly fainter. Without looking closer and examining it with great attention, one would simply miss that.

    But who was Berry? She was a girl! And girls had such innate talent to recognize colours, not like boys.

    "Yes, there are definitely two different types of red colours there," she only took one single closer look before raising her head away, "are these the two spirits I have?"

    "They are," William nodded with a new envy towards her ability to simply recognize the two.

    "Then¡­ What about these golden specks of light?"

    "They are the result of the merge, a totally new spirit," William said in pure envy.

    "A third spirit?!!" but unlike what he expected, she was surprised for a different reason. "I have three types of spirits inside my body? Wow!"

    William didn''t know how his master would react if she was here. "There are three spirits for now, but in the future only one spirit will remain," William paused as he tried to simplify things over to her, "consider it a spirit mutation¡­ Yes, it''s like that."

    "Oh, so I have to wait until the two are finally merged together?" She was smart enough to realise this point by herself.

    "We can''t do that," but unlike what she expected, William shook his head in decline, "if we left them to continue fighting and merging, not only will they damage your body, but they will also harm your spirit channels and meridians."

    "Spirit¡­ What?" as he slipped off and said something of his vast knowledge in such a casual way, she couldn''t help but ask.

    "Never mind it for now," he hurriedly corrected his slip of tongue, "now we need to deal with this process and try to control it in a better way. Once we make the two spirits morepatible with each other, you''ll break through."

    "Compatible¡­" Berry frowned as she was lost in deep thought, "but aren''t dragons and phoenixes like fire and water? How can we make these two hostile spiritspatible with each other?"

    William wasn''t surprised by her way of thinking. After all, this world was rudimentary in its knowledge regarding spirits and spirit masters.

 Chapter 9 Your Manual Is Broken!

    ?"What I meant wasn''t to alter the nature of the two spirits. Not only is it impossible, but it will also harm you instead. We don''t need to care about their rtionship, after all they are merging together."

    She realised what he wanted to say. "Then how can we make them morepatible?" yet this answer of his didn''t exin what he said earlier.

    "It''s simple, your spirit power was only directed towards one spirit of the two: your dragon spirit. For now, it might be considered as your dominant spirit."

    "That''s right, my family''s spirit is tyrannical, hahaha!" again she showed that side of her personality.

    "It won''t work this way," he resisted the urge to hit her on the back of her head, as what his master used to behave when he said or did something stupid, "we need to make the two spirits equal in spirit power so the first phase of the merge will seed and you''ll breakthrough."

    "I got it!" this time her eyes shed with realisation, "but how can I do that? No matter how I trained, I couldn''t break through."

    "Not with me around," William knew if he had to thoroughly exin things to her then an entire day and night wouldn''t be enough. And she wouldn''t get what he wanted to do in the end. "Let me see your training manuscript."

    "Here."

    Asking someone from another family or n about their training manuals was a taboo in the spirit world. Training manuals were considered as secrets, grave secrets that shouldn''t be exposed to anyone who was an outsider.

    But at this moment, Berry had no speck of doubt towards William. she was even willing to give him her body and heart. What was the value of a small piece of paper and a training manuscriptpared with that?

    On the other hand, William was astonished by her smooth approval andpliance. He imagined she would resist, throw tons of questions over his head or even directly refuse. He even prepared a long list of excuses to convince her to do so.

    "Aren''t you afraid I might steal it?" he expressed his own astonishment by asking so.

    "What''s there to be afraid of?" Yet she simply shrugged and didn''t even budge her extended hand towards him, "you are genuinely trying to help me here. I''ll do whatever you ask me for, not only for now but from this moment onwards."

    "Tsk," William knew she was stubborn to be reasoned with. She was still clutched with that reward thing in her mind and now he realised she might have made a decision about how to reward him.

    He wasn''t someone to refuse anything good, but not in return for paying his old debts with her. She was the first to show kindness to him, but she didn''t know about that part of his past life.

    "Alright," so he epted the paper and started to read its content. In the span of a minute, he finally read through everything that the training manual contained.

    And he couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. "The training manuscripts of this world are really out of date. Not to mention this one is messing up many key points to make the spirit master training in it breakthrough the barrier."

    The script in his hand should havee from the direct house of Berry''s mighty n. If even such a strong and big n had a broken manuscript as their top training manual, then it would express how bad the situation in this world was.

    William didn''t train before in this world. He embarked on the path of cultivation after leaving this world. So, his knowledge about the training manuals here was close to zero.

    The manual he received from Berry was just doing many things wrongly, just to enable the spirit master to wield great power without the ability to better control it. All for the reason to breakthrough the barrier at the end, which would eventually turn into a futile endeavour.

    To breakthrough to the ranks in legends, breakthrough the barrier around this world and enter the vast world outside, one needed not only to train diligently but to train correctly.

    Without a full manuscript that had an intact path to ranks beyond the legendary rank, the supposedly higher rank in this world, no one would ever have the chance to breakthrough at all!

    "I get it then," he handed the paper back. And this time it was Berry''s turn to be shocked.

    "You read it? Did you find it so hard to understand? Want my help?"

    She misunderstood him. In her eyes, he was a porter who didn''t train much in his life before. So, she thought he didn''t get anything from her manual.

    "No, it''s simple," he honestly said, "but it''s broken and not suitable for you."

    "..."

    This time she looked at him with wide eyes and gaped open mouth. Who dared to call her treasured training manual that was long passed from the first patriarch of her n as broken and not suitable for her?

    She didn''t know what to say to him. At this moment she felt d her father wasn''t witnessing this, or else the response her father would give might be much different!

    "Do you have a brush and paper?" He didn''t have such resources in his bag. During the day he might have, but not now.

    "Here," helplessly she put aside her manual inside her bracelet before taking out a long red brush and stack of yellow paper. "Enough?" she asked before adding, "what do you want these for?"

    "It happens that I know of a far suited manual to train your two spirits in," he epted the two before going to the side and taking a big rock as his table.

    She heard what he said and watched him seriously drawing and writing with fast speed.

    What did he say just now? In the spirit world, not anyone had the knowledge to say he knew of a manual better than what her family held as a treasure.

    Broken manual? Far suited manual for her twin spirit? She repeated what he just said to herself in great amazement. At this moment she felt like she never truly knew William at all.

    If not for her firm knowledge about his current status and power, she would take him for another person. A porter like him had the knowledge to not only read top refined manual like the one she had, but also dared to criticise such top manual and had in the memory two other manuals he said to be mightier?

    That was truly unheard of before!

    In her eyes, he was either bluffing or he was truly a genius!

    Yet when she recalled what William did and said since she met him almost an hour ago, she felt a strange belief in his words. And a weird expectation!

 Chapter 10 Unexpected Accident

    ?It wasn''t logical to think this way, but for unknown reasons, Berry found his words to be trustworthy. Besides, she would see what he was iming as a better manual than what she owned.

    "Here," after almost half an hour, William finally stopped. He didn''t only write over two pieces of paper but used a dozen to write detailed instructions for her. "This one is for your dragon spirit, and this is for your phoenix," he exined while giving her the papers.

    To say she wasn''t a bit interested at the moment was a lie. The moment he handed the papers, she literally jumped and grabbed them fast. Then she started to read through the papers which he pointed towards as the dragon spirit manual.

    The training papers were really detailed. Not only did they contain drawings describing the body posture during training, but William even wrote down his own instructions about how to channel energy inside the body.

    He even drew a simple sketch about lines and seven dots scattered along the body. He marked these as meridians and gates, making her recall what he earlier said.

    But that wasn''t the astonishing part about it. Any training manuscript would contain a basic incantation as the foundation for the training. When she just read through the incantation mentioned in the manual, she swore she felt her soul tremble faintly in response to it.

    What did this imply?

    Not to mention she never felt anything for long months and even beyond a year and half, her soul never reacted this way towards her family''s treasured manual''s incantation.

    The mere thought about the reason behind this made her heart palpitate like never before.

    Hope¡­ At this moment she truly felt hope like she could touch and grab it for real!

    "This¡­" yet the more she read through the other papers regarding her dragon spirit manual, the more she was astonished.

    Any kid from a wealthy and powerful n like hers would start training from a young age on many things. One of them was regarding how to read and assess manuals.

    After all, the family treasured manual wasn''t the only beneficial manual to the n''s spirit masters. There were training manuals out there in this world beyond one''s imagination.

    Each manual had its pros and cons. By using great manuals together, one could truly make up for the shorings of the rare ones, just like Berry''s n''s treasured manual.

    So one had to know how to, not only read, but also to assess any manual to determine its value. And right now, just from what she read, she could say there were many sophisticated concepts and practices behind the teachings in this manual.

    To put it out simply, if this manual was considered second then she doubted any other manual would be first in this world ording to her knowledge.

    "This¡­" As she reached such a conclusion, she couldn''t help but raise her head and pause in her words.

    She didn''t need to say anything. William knew shecked arge amount of info regarding the real spirit world, but she could at least realise the value of this manuscript.

    It was one of the famous and highly effective manuals in the true spirit world, the world beyond this one. Per his master''s words, this manual was considered one of the top and legendary manuals that ever existed for fire natured spirits.

    Yes, it wasn''t a manual solely directed towards dragons. After all, William was attentive to this point. Despite Berry having a dragon based soul at the moment, she also had a phoenix spirit.

    One of the reasons that led to her current stagnation was the damage her family''s useless manual did to her other spirit. Not to mention her two spirits were merging together.

    So in the future she would end up with a totally different spirit than the dragon or phoenix. He didn''t know what kind of spirit she would finally have, but it would definitely be rted to fire.

    After all, themon thing between dragons and phoenixes was their strong affinity with fire.

    "Check the other one," William diverted her attention towards the other manual, "you shouldn''t try and train your dragon spirit for now. Let''s first focus on nourishing your phoenix spirit before doing anything else."

    "... Ok¡­" like an obedient girl, she nodded. She wanted to ask more about the source he gained such a precious manual from, even ask howe someone who casually took out such a manual could be in such a lousy state.

    William knew she wanted to speak about this, but he had no answer for such questions at this moment. His current situation might be best described as a loser, but he nned to change all of this in the near future.

    So instead of struggling to exin, he simply diverted her attention away. But he never expected her to be more shocked when seeing the other manual.

    That one was a pure phoenix spirit training manual. If William decided to make the first manual the one which would continue with her for her entire life, then the other manual was dedicated to solving the impending twin spirit problem.

    It went without saying that out of Berry''s twin spirits, one was acting rampant and the other was getting suppressed. If Berry trained only in the legendary fire manual, only her dragon spirit would benefit from it.

    So, the other manual was meant to create a bnce, to make the phoenix spirit stronger.

    The moment Berry started to read through it, she first read the incantation written there. She was eager to feel that long missed feeling of stirring up her soul again. And when she did that, something huge happened.

    "Sh*t!" William totally missed this point. He never thought that the long suppressed phoenix spirit would react in such a way just by reading the incantation.

    Things happened so fast. The moment Berry read the incantation, a faint red light, might be described as pink colored light, emerged and took control over her body.

    Her hair, her pair of eyes, and even her skin changed colour at this moment to be faint red.

    The phoenix spirit reacted instantly to the incantation and started to absorb the spirit power from nature like crazy.

    "Damn! What shall I do now?" In such an unexpected situation, William didn''t know if he shouldugh or cry. His master once told him that training didn''t only depend on the manuals or the spirits, but the state one''s spirit, mind, and heart was in.

 Chapter 11 A Tricky Situation

    ?This was the best description of what was going on here. After so many years of suppression, the first time Berry read a phoenix spirit based incantation, her dormant spirit rejoiced and showed scary signs of vitality.

    But that wasn''t the problem here. The problem was that the two of them stood at the outer border of the blessing forest, in the middle of the main route linking the forest with the academy.

    It wasn''t the matter of monsters alone, but also other kids from the academy would definitely pass through here in the next hours!

    "Why did it end this way?!" as he knew he would be in deep trouble the moment people discovered the two of them, William had to make a choice. Either to abandon Berry or to do something about their current situation and help her in such a weird situation.

    Of course, he chose thetter. Without much hesitation he pressured on himself and carried the stiff and heavy body of Berry on his shoulders.

    Before carrying her, he looked at the papers in her hands. He tried and found out to his disappointment that taking the papers away from her hands looked impossible without tearing the papers up. So, he had to let her keep the papers for now and moved in a different road away from this spot.

    However, just as he carried her for less than five hundred metres, he realised that he made a grave mistake.

    "Hoof¡­ Hoof¡­ My body can''t take it anymore¡­ Hoof¡­ Hoof¡­"

    As he carried her around, he got tired so fast. He overestimated the condition of his body. At this moment, it was impossible to keep moving her body like this.

    "Sorry about that," he left her standing on the ground, inside an open space with a small running water stream, "but if I tried to take you with me, we both would be doomed."

    He took out the ring signal of help without any more hesitation and used it. Before long some guards woulde and rescue her for sure.

    The academy had many guards standing on duty around the forest. From such a small distance from the academy main campus, the rescue team would be here in less than a few minutes.

    As he did that, he started to run with his highest speed. Worrying about monsters attacking her wasn''t an issue. After all, this part of the forest was constantly cleared of any strong monsters. And weak monsters would hesitate toe near such an oppressive aura of Berry.

    Just after a few minutes of his departure, he could hear many voicesing from behind. He knew she was saved and now he was ready to start his dyed work.

    He came here to train and kill monsters, to collect monster cores and different monster materials. Despite him being so weak at the moment, he wasn''t out of options.

    The type of monster he aimed to kill was called the scarlet monkeys. They were famous for their big numbers and weak strength. But even with their weak strength, the numbers they moved in made it hard for a single spirit master to hunt them down alone.

    Scarlet monkeys were famous for their scarlet fur, monster cores, and also a sort of needle at the end of their tails. Collecting all this would make him gain at least one hundred spirit crystals per monster.

    So, if he killed a hundred, he would obtain a fortune without doubt. These monsters usually moved inrge groups, each with numbers over fifty. They were attracted to blood, and that made them very violent and dangerous in this forest.

    Imagine if a group of spirit masters just killed a monster. They would be weary and tired. But instead of resting and recuperating, they had to be on guard from any sneak attacks from those monkeys.

    Annoyance was the term that apanied such monsters. With theirrge numbers, high agility, and their love for sneaky attacks, they were the enemy of many disciples at the academy.

    But that wasn''t the case for William. William had a way to clear them out even with his weak strength. But he had to prepare first.

    The first thing he did while running forward was to inspect the ground. He was looking for a sort of nt, verymon and with little uses in the spirit world.

    It was called the Aptica Bellusa, or the red leafed flower. It was famous for its beautiful look, making them even sold as gifts from boys to girls.

    Large curvy petals, with faint redness in the centre and white all over, long thin stem with red leaves which gave it its name.

    "It''s good to have people ignorant about some valuable things sometimes," as he walked through the forest, he found many of these flowers. He wasn''t polite and gathered a good number of them.

    At this moment he had to envy Berry again for having a storage bracelet at such a young age. If he had such a gear, he would instantly store all the flowers he met.

    But as he was limited with his bag, he couldn''t store more than fifty of them.

    "It''s enough for now," helplessly he stopped looking for the flowers and started to focus on the area around. "I recall there were some sort of small hills scattered in this region," he muttered to himself while examining the ce.

    The darkness in the forest was much deeper than the outside world. But using light candles was a grave mistake. Monsters were sensitive to human scent, but they were more sensitive to light in the darkness of the night.

    So, he refrained from using one and kept walking ahead guided by his old and rusty memory.

    In his past life, he visited the forest many times to help other disciples as a porter. Saying he knew the forest like the back of his hand was an exaggeration but saying he would know a little about the famous hunting spots here was a true statement.

    Of course, that was only applied to the outer part of this forest. The deeper parts were still aplete mystery to him.

    His n was simple. He would use part of his knowledge to his advantage. Luckily this wouldn''t need any strength or consume spirit power.

    "There it is," after cautiously and slowly walking for almost an hour, he finally found what he was looking for. Standing a few hundred metres away, one could see this small hill like a dark behemoth lying in the middle of the world.

 Chapter 12 Scarlet Monkey Monsters

    ?William moved directly towards the top of the hill. The first thing he did was to clear a spot of any nt at the centre of that top using his rusty sword. After doing so for half an hour, he finally cleared enough space for his next step.

    Without hesitation he injured his left hand and let the blood drop over his fingers. Then he started to write some letters belonging to a weirdnguage, encircling the area he just cleared, using his blood.

    These letters looked a bit weird, and anyone looking at him right now would suspect they even meant anything. But William knew the meaning of these letters. He wasying down some sort of protective spell surrounding the central region.

    "Done," after finished, he didn''t wrap his wound and instead went towards the sloping side of the hill.

    He wasn''t worried for his blood to attract those monkeys. After all, he wanted them toe. As he reached the edge of the twenty metres tall hill, he took out one red leafed flower, squeezed it with his bloodied hand and let the blood mix with its fragrance and fall on the ground.

    It was unknown to people of this world the magical features of this flower. If mixed with blood, it could turn into a ticking bomb, enough to cause a small explosion.

    Of course, the stronger the blood owner was, the stronger the explosion became. But even with his current weak condition, he was sure the explosion this flower would create was enough to kill a couple of monkeys at least.

    He had fifty flowers in his bag, in addition to many more he found on the top and side of the hill. It took him ten minutes to prepare everything.

    Once done, he started to write another weird symbol on different ces around the hill with his blood.

    "It''s ready," after exhausting all his flowers, he went back to the central zone he cleared before in wide strides.

    Just moments ago, he could hear the swift rustling noises of the leaves around, marking the arrival of his prey.

    As he went back to the top, he found the area he cleared and left his blood marking its border showing little changes. Up there he found a faint glistering dome that appeared to cover an area of ten metres radius.

    He was sure he was the only person able to see this. After all, this protective dome was made by his blood.

    It was an invisible shield, created using old runic symbols of a long fallen spirit master empire. The bombs and the shield didn''t consume his spirit force, but they consumed a big portion of his vitality.

    At this moment, he was staggering to keep himself walking erect towards that dome. But once got inside, he couldn''t withstand it anymore and crashed heavily on the ground.

    He struggled to sit and tried his best not to close his eyes. The first thing he did next was to circte his scarce spirit power inside his body.

    One had to know that William obtained a huge encyclopaedia of knowledge regarding the spirit world. If he could produce two top grade training manuals for Berry to use on a whim, then he had more suitable and far formidable manuals for himself.

    But his low spirit power was the main problem he had at the moment. Not to mention his spirit being in the mud phase. So, he only circted his spirit power in the most simple and basic way.

    *Screech!*

    The monkeys announced their arrival by their distinguished voices. William wasn''t worried about them following him inside the dome. After all, this invisible shield didn''t only block vision, but all the five senses as well.

    These scarlet monkeys were simple minded monsters. If faced with far intelligent ones, he might be worried about getting discovered.

    Sitting up there allowed him to observe therge number of the iing group of monkeys. He didn''t know if he shouldugh or cry, but therge amount of blood he used so far managed to attract not only one group but three.

    He estimated his trophy this time to go to around three hundred monsters getting killed. Yet he waited, patiently letting the monkeys climb up and scout the hill with interest.

    After all, once he started his attack, the monkeys far away would instantly retreat. Even if they were dumb, they still had their survival instincts.

    So, he waited, patiently waiting for more monkeys to climb the hill. The monkeys acted like any typical monster, acting slightly cautious but still daring.

    In less than a span of five minutes, the entire hill was filled with monkeys. They could smell blood but couldn''t find any living monsters or humans here. Not even a corpse was found.

    "Boom!"

    As the entire hill was covered, it was time to hit them. He simply activated the blood link he got with the symbols he left behind. And the next moment lots of explosions appeared, wreaking havoc among therge number of monkeys around.

    Even with such the weak strength he got, the many flowers he used and scattered all around turned the entire hill into a scorching piece of hell. William felt the entire hill trembling faintly under the might of his attack.

    So, it was expected what happened to the monkeys. Those who got hit directly were killed. As for those on top of the hill, they panicked and ran all around, trying to get away by running through the scorching side of the hill painted with orange fire on such a dark night.

    *Screech!* *Screech!* Screech!*

    They screamed in pain before they all fell to their death. William kept himself inside his invisible shield and waited for his vitality to recover.

    His shield was able to stand almost for ten hours straight without problems. Yet if it was discovered by anyone, then this shield might only withstand attacks for much less time.

    That was his sole worry, for the monkeys to identally discover the shield. But against his worries, the monkeys were only driven by their survival instincts, and ran all down the hill, to be killed by fire.

    They were dumb monkeys indeed!

    What he feared next was for such noise and blood scent to attract more formidable monsters. Even with the loud sound of the raging fire, he could hear some scary noises from time to time,ing from the direction of the forest.

    Yet not a single monster dared to break through the thick veil of fire. The fire kept running wild for a long hour before it finally died down.

    Yet the devastation left behind was really terrifying. An area of over a kilometre in radius was now painted in ck, with many leftovers from the fire expanding to the areas of forest around the hill.

 Chapter 13 Shocking Discovery

    ?William knew this fire must have been stopped by monsters lurking in the forest. Or else the fire would simply keep moving outwards and expand in time to cover a vast stretch of the forest.

    Yet his goal was reached. As he finally could freely move, he stepped outside the protective shield and started to examine the world around.

    Utter silence! There wasn''t a single sign of life in this zone anymore. William wasn''t a lover of destruction, but he had no other choice but to do so.

    "Time to reap the loot," as his goal was reached, he wandered around and gathered the monster materials.

    His left hand was still paining him. He stopped the bleeding temporarily by using part of his white clothes as a tight bandage. Yet he missed his abnormal healing abilities, a privilege of being a strong spirit master.

    Such a wound would take days to recover, if not an entire week. Yet that didn''t prevent him from iming his rewards. After all, he put this point in mind when causing such a wound, making it on his left and not right hand.

    However, he never expected something else to happen when he started collecting the monster materials.

    The first monkey he met was burnt and covered with ayer of ckness, hard like a tree bark. From the look of it, the monkey didn''t have any time to react when the fire came.

    It was the same case for many dead monsters here, and William didn''t care for any of that. He simply used his sword to hit this shell-likeyer to expose the fur underneath.

    The fur wasn''t affected with such heat, or else it would be considered nothing worthy in this world.

    Just with a few hits, the ckyer was broken apart and the bright scarlet thick fur appeared in front of his eyes. He used the tip of the sword to cut at certain ces before he skinned the monster and stored the fur in his bag.

    He was thinking about how his bag would fit for all this loot. After all, he was sure he had more than three hundred monsters here. Even if he had to drag all this with extreme effort, he wouldn''t hesitate to do so.

    He would never leave behind what was originally his.

    After iming the fur, he worked for the tail needle and then he opened the body and got out the monster core.

    The core was like the spirit crystal, yet it was filled with red and ck colours. William knew the red belonged to the spirit power of the monkey and the ck was the residual spirit inside the core.

    Just as he held it in his hand, he felt a strange resonance, like something buried deep inside his soul got stirred up at this moment.

    "What''s wrong?" he frowned. He never experienced such a thing before. He held the sword in his right hand, the bag on his back, and the monster core in his left bloodied hand.

    Then without any warning, he felt a surge of heat inside his body, like his blood was boiling for unknown reason. Then the wound he tried to control before was opened again, making his blood gush out and cover the core in arge ssh of redness.

    But that wasn''t the end of it.

    *Sizzle!* *Sizzle!* *Crumble!*

    Just in a span of a few breaths, the core issued a series of audible sizzling sounds before it started to get crushed. Under the shocked gazes of William, the core he just salvaged turned into dust, mixing with his blood before another bizarre phenomenon appeared.

    The blood once got in touch with the red powder moved back like it was drawn by a hidden force. The wound started to strangely heal, while his body kept burning hot without an exnation.

    "This¡­" William was more astonished when he examined his body. "My spirit power¡­ It increased slightly¡­ Howe¡­?!!" At this moment, he felt himself like a frog lying down in the bottom of the well.

    All the knowledge he had from his past life didn''t help at this moment. He knew something was happening inside his body. It wasn''t only limited to the spirit power''s slight increase, but his body got a slight boost in strength as well.

    "I need to test it again," this time he jumped towards the next monkey. He didn''t care about the fur as he simply opened the corpse using his sword in a hurry to experience that amazing feeling once again.

    He knew of many ways to use the monster cores for increasing one''s spirit power. Yet they all required many preparations and more resources. Not to mention they all paled inparison to what he just experienced.

    This wasn''t a simple way of using the monster core and turning it into strength. It was like his body devoured the entire core, using the entire spirit power stored inside to strengthen his spirit power and body.

    This time he was more attentive to what was going on, even closing up his eyes and trying to feel every tiny detail. The same thing happened again and this time he managed to see it clearer than before.

    "This¡­ Isn''t it like the legendary devouring ability of that damned fox?" As he noticed everything happening in his body, his mind started to link the missing dots fast. He felt a strange familiarity with this technique.

    Being his sworn and greatest enemy, William studied the unique abilities of that nine tailed fox. To defeat an enemy, one must be fully aware of its characteristics and abilities; that was what his master kept telling him before.

    And one of these unique abilities, and the main reason behind the nine tailed fox being this great even amidst the monsters, was his unbelievable devouring ability.

    He could devour monsters and use their spirit power to his advantage. That was like a cheat way in the spirit world, even among monsters. That was also one of the reasons that made that fox the not only the enemy to humans, but also being feared by monsters as well.

    "Damn! I identally got his ability¡­ Damn!" This time William was really thrilled and excited. If he had such ability under his control, then forget about his earlier ns. All he needed to do was to consume monster cores and his strength would sour in leap and pounds.

    But that also meant he would face a big loss in his gains. The initial one hundred crystal price for each monkey here would dwindle to around twenty crystals.

 Chapter 14 Going To The Academy Market

    ?But who cared! William didn''t care about such loss. Losing spirit crystals for now and gaining a lot tomorrow was a profitable deal for him.

    This time he worked hard and fast, collecting his loot from all other monkeys scattered around. The bag on his back didn''t permit for more than ten monster materials to be stored within. Even after constantly consuming the monster cores on the spot, the bag was already filled.

    And yet that didn''t stop William. By the time he finished absorbing all the monkeys'' cores, his individual strength showed a greater change than before.

    His stagnating and low spirit power increased to be thirty instead of just twelve! Thirty in just a few hours, not to mention he absorbed the cores of slightly over three hundred monkeys to achieve that.

    But these monkeys were all low white grade monsters. When he finished, the loot he gathered was arranged behind him in a big pack he made roughly using broad tree leaves he gathered from the forest around.

    He didn''t hurry to leave. After all, the thrill and excitement of getting strong in such a short time was really priceless.

    "Damn! I swear even my master would have cursed if she was here with me," heughed out of happiness before considering something.

    Despite his gain, he knew the spirit power he got from these monkey''s cores began to be thin and useless after crossing the twenty-five mark.

    "What if I used the crystals, I''ll gain to buy higher monster cores? Forget about white cores, even bronzed cores might be a bit pricey, but I believe a single one worth more than a hundred of those white cores. And these higher cores will give me more spirit power for sure¡­"

    As he thought about this, he suddenly felt how blessed that fox was. Just by this single ability of his, William was now eyeing the world in a different way.

    "Time to go back," as he finished wrapping all the loot inside a primitive looking bag made of broad leaves sewed together with wooden ropes he gathered from nearby intact trees, he started to drag all this back to the academy.

    If one looked from far, then he or she would be shocked. A single human with a fragile body was dragging an astonishingrge pile of loot like he was dragging a hill behind him.

    But that wasn''t the main issue bothering William at the moment. He feared what would this scene cause inside the academy if seen by other disciples.

    Guards were elite disciples and even masters inside the academy. But luckily for him there was no one back when he returned.

    What he didn''t know was that the incident that idently happened to Berry was shocking the entire academy right now.

    Once discovered, the group of guards instantly took her stiff body back to the academy higher masters. They examined her body and found no reason for the current bizarre status she was in.

    Being puzzled and fearing that something bad might have happened to her, the masters fetched the news back to her n.

    In the next span of hours, the academy''s main headquarter was bustling with activity. Berry''s father was about to go insane when he discovered the strange condition of his beloved and treasured daughter.

    He sent for many physicians toe and examine her, but with no result. No one had ever seen such a weird condition before.

    With such ack of knowledge, he really went insane, shouting and threatening even the academy''s big masters with a brutal war if something bad happened to his daughter.

    His daughter might be considered a crippled spirit master in the eyes of the academy. But they would never dare to risk an open war with the fire dragon Long n.

    They weren''t afraid of this mad father, but the terrifying grandfather standing behind him. They all prayed that nothing bad would happen and the young miss would get awakened before the news reached that scary grandfather of hers.

    Or else... Even if she woke upter and became fine, things might be beyond salvation by this time.

    As the one behind all this mess, William was oblivious to all this. He returned to his simple cab, feeling lucky to not meet anyone during his return journey.

    Once he arrived there, he started to sort out how to store everything inside his bag.

    Seeing how huge his gains were, he had to take out everything, literally everything, even his bed, out of the cab. This was the only way to clear enough space for his loot to be stored inside his cab and start organising things there.

    After finishing, he had limited space for him to sleep inside. Despite that, he wasn''t feeling down at all. Instead, he started to count his own gains from this night and how to buy further cores.

    Out of his excitement, he stayed awake until the next morning. Just when the sun slightly rose up in the sky, he packed all of his gains together, carrying them with wide strides towards the bustling main market of the academy.

    The academy wasn''t just a ce for teaching. Without a strong financial foundation, nothing could resist the brutal effect of time.

    On one side of the academy, just near one of its main gates, a big market was allowed to be present there. To prevent anyone from sneaking inside the academy and disturbing the disciples and masters, a big wall was constructed inside, limiting the space of that market and allowing the guards to watch over it easily.

    The journey to the market took almost an hour. And despite never meeting anyone during his walk, he didn''t notice any of this. His mind was pretty upied with the limitless potential of his newly discovered devouring power.

    William examined his new strength after sorting out everything he gained from this trip. And he never got tired from examining and testing his spirit power.

    He estimated his individual physical strength to go beyond what his spirit power reached. Also, during this short period of time, he gained five more spirit points, meaning his body was still digesting the cores it consumed.

    He dragged everything he gained fromst night until he got closer to the market. And there he started to meet a few disciples.

    The scene of him dragging that big pile with great ease astonished those who passed by him.

    He was a porter in the academy for two years already, helping a lot of disciples during their daily sses. Even if the disciples wouldn''t bother to recall his name, they would definitely remember his face and recognise his white porter uniform.

    Seeing his abnormal strength made them all puzzled. Porters were famous for being weak and vulnerable, yet this kid was showing evidence that defied such logic.

    William didn''t bother with them. After all he nned to increase his strength fast using his gained crystals. He would aim to hit the one hundred mark and enter a new realm from there.

 Chapter 15 Striking A Good Deal

    ?William noticed these gazes falling on him but didn''t care about them at all. He kept walking towards the market without batting an eye towards anyone around.

    What if others wondered about what went wrong with him? They didn''t even spare an eye for him before. Why would he bother with those who never bothered themselves to help or care for him before?

    Just as he arrived at the market entrance, his appearance attracted the attention of more eyes. It was still early in the morning, but the market was open with many sellers waiting for disciples and masters toe and buy from them.

    "Excuse me my friend, are you here to sell those items?" Just as he walked past a few stalls there, one of the merchants got over his surprise and moved to warmly wee him.

    He was a fat and short guy, in mid fortieth, and looked like a man who lived long and saw a lot. His movement was fast, much faster than what such a big body would allow. The look of respect he gave to William made him feel like he was the best guy in the entire world.

    This was a standard trick of merchants, making anyone feel like he was the best out there. But to William this didn''t matter. All he cared about was to get the best deal for his things and im more crystals out of this deal.

    "Yes, what will you offer for all these?" William wasn''t feeling tired at all. His excitement dulled his sense of fatigue, making him only crave to get his wealth and purchase monster cores.

    William opened his bag slightly while exposing what was inside. He stepped aside and let the merchant examine his things.

    "Well, for a single fur it''s worth twelve crystals," the seller was excited to get such a good deal in the early morning. But he wasn''t nning to make it easy for the young William.

    Strength wasn''t the only thing of value in this world, age and appearance were also important. In the eyes of such an experienced merchant, he measured William to be one of those disciples who got admitted into the academy from weak ns and poor families.

    He came alone, dragging everything on his own. He had no entourage, no porters to help him carry all this loot. He was also young, only eight years old, looking fragile, and wearing the useless white uniform of porters. Which meant he was na?ve and inexperienced to even miscalcte about uniforms and pick the wrong one up.

    It never crossed the merchant''s mind that William didn''t make a mistake to select his clothes and he was a real porter in the academy.

    After all, porters weren''t allowed to keep anything from helping their masters. And for such a disciple toe with this loot meant he had strength beyond what porters should have.

    "As for the monkey needles, each will be sold for two crystals," the merchant added after putting a fake struggling expression on his face.

    "No deal," yet the swift and firm decline from William came to crush all this merchant''s dreams. "The fur worth at least twenty crystals, and the needles worth five," he made his offer before adding a threat, "if you aren''t going to buy, then clear the way for me. I don''t want to waste my time on shitty deals."

    He didn''t even show any respect with his words, and he started to move to close his bag, intending to keep looking for another merchant. He knew the value of the furs and needles might not amount to much. But their real prices were much more than what this stingy merchant offered him.

    "Wait, please wait young master," the merchant instantly panicked. He felt like his luck was turning to worse, "what about sixteen crystals for each fur and four for each needle?" The merchant didn''t want to lose such a valuable trade but didn''t want to suffer a loss either.

    William knew this was the basic price of the market. But this was in case he was selling only a few. His old experience showed up as he said in a firm resolve:

    "Not a single crystal short of the offer I gave you. If you aren''t willing, I believe many are."

    Showing empathy for merchants was a grave mistake. He knew merchants would never strike a losing deal.

    "Ok, I''ll get them all," the merchant inwardly cursed. Who said age mattered? This eight years old kid was acting like an adult! Even a hard one to deal with.

    "They are all yours then," as he got what he wanted, William was in a better mood, "get someone to count them and prepare the crystals for me."

    "Sure, sure," the merchant didn''t show any of his inner thoughts over his face or attitude, e and have a seat. May I know what''s the name of the young master?"

    "William," William didn''t mention his family name. After all he knew his family wasn''t a big thing to use in front of such a sly merchant.

    The merchant wanted to know William''s family name so he would strike a deal with himter. Something told the merchant that this young kid''s visit to the market wasn''t the end, but simply the beginning.

    Knowing more about the background of his customers was the standard move he and other merchants loved to take. By knowing more, they''d know the true value of the ones they were dealing with. And that would help a lot in evading any future trouble in disrespecting the descendants of big families or showing more respect to the ones who hailed from weaker and nameless ones.

    But William simply refused to introduce his family to him, leaving this merchant with nothing else but to deal with cautious towards him.

    "Alright, here are the crystals we agreed upon," after sitting inside the wide stall and drinking a fragrant cup of tea that was worth a dozen of crystals, the merchant returned with a bag filled with the agreed price.

    "Thanks," William didn''t even open it and simply shook the bag to know how much was within. William used his own experience to the number of crystals inside with the weight of the bag. And this simple and natural move of his attracted the attention of the merchant''s keen eyes.

    One had to know there was arge number of crystals inside. Using only weight coupled with the sound of crystals shing against each other was a sign of how experienced William was in dealing with wealth.

    "Do you have monster cores to sell?" As he finally got his small wealth, William was impatient to try his own theory and test it out.

    "We have all kinds of cores, what grade do you seek?" having the means to get back a few of what he paid, the merchant''s smile became genuinely wider.

    "I''m looking for white cores, five at least, any monster will do," William slowly started his own conditions and the merchant kept nodding before he vanished inside the stall and returned with a smaller bag.

    "Here, each will cost a hundred crystals each," the merchant said with a bigger smile and better mood. Just in a span of breaths, he managed to get back five hundred crystals.

    William finished the deal and hurried back to his cab. From this day onward, he would solely focus on one thing: getting stronger.

    As a porter he had to go and work for many hours each morning. But he decided not to stick to such a schedule.

    Just by his current thirty-five spirit power, he could simply enrol in the academy as an official disciple. So why would he bother about something like working as a porter again? Serving others and wasting his time instead of training and getting stronger?

    Not to mention he aimed to climb higher than this. He decided to start with these five cores as a test. If his ability worked, then his daily life would change.

    He was just worried his ability might not work on all monsters, and that might be a problem if he failed to absorb these five crystals.

    But if this worked out, he''d rather spend his night hunting monsters in the forest, and during the day he would train after selling and buying monster cores.

    But there was one simple problem he had to solve. The academy wouldn''t allow him to stay inside its doors without serving a purpose. So he had to show up his strength soon and got himself enrolled in the academy as an official disciple.

    ? For a porter, a weak and useless porter for consecutive two years like him, turning into a formal disciple of the academy would create an uproar. This was simply unheard of.

    William knew that would happen. Instead of worrying about that, he decided to work harder to give everyone not a shock but a scare. He wouldn''t try to enrol in the academy right now but would wait for a week before going to assess his spirit power.

    His target was to enter the second year ss of the academy, the ss epting kids with spirit powers above one hundred; the bronze spirit master ss. He aimed to cause an earthquake in the academy.

    As his master always said: If you are going to do something, make sure to do it with style!

 Chapter 16 Trouble

    ?William returned to his empty cab with running more than walking steps. His poor belongings were on one side outside the small cab. So, he had to lift them in, and that took him roughly half an hour.

    ? Once finished, he couldn''t wait any longer.

    "Time to test things out," he didn''t even spare a nce over the bag full of crystals. He took out one of the five cores he bought and used his weak sword to reopen the wound on his left hand.

    The wound was already healed during the past hours, leaving behind a faint thin lined scar.

    Once blood gushed out, he impatiently waited for the miracle to happen. But he was doomed to be disappointed.

    "This¡­ howe this doesn''t work?!!"

    What he feared the most happened!

    After testing over the five different monster cores he bought, he finally realised something was wrong. He tested this methodst night over hundreds of cores, none ever failed.

    "Let me think calmly first¡­" he tried to control his emotions and thought rationally about this. And soon he found what went wrong here.

    "These monsters weren''t killed by me¡­" he said while looking at the blood staining the clothes he wore. "So, I need to kill any monster before doing this again¡­"

    This was the crux of the problem he thought about, the first logical exnation he could find that made sense.

    He developed such a theory which exined why this method failed. But he wasn''t sure about it. He needed to put it to the test first before raising his hopes once more.

    Or else he would have one more exnation as an answer¡­ This method of devouring only worked over scarlet monkeys. But just thinking about this made him unwilling to ept such a theory.

    As his clothes were ruined by his blood, the first thing he did was to change them. While eating the few pieces of bread he had, he started to think about his next move.

    "If I was going to kill monsters, then I need more weapons and more preparations," he muttered while throwing the sword that had its de rusted at some parts, irregr and dull at other parts aside.

    Killing weak monsters like those monkeys wasn''t his aim anymore. Last night he gained a lot of spirit power, but he knew the reason behind that.

    He could keep killing monkeys, ending up with useless cores that would give him nothing worthy in return.

    His spirit power was already low, very low from the start. He doubted the same result would reur if he repeated the same method.

    Plus, he devoured hundreds of cores to get over thirty spirit points. His target was to get over a hundred points and shock the entire academy.

    That meant sixty-five spirit points must be gained during the next week. Just depending over the white monster cores wouldn''t help much and eventually they would lose their purpose.

    Of course, these were only his spections. But regarding his vast experience from past life, who would say his thoughts were wrong?

    Considering everything, he knew he had to go back and buy a lot of things. After all, he prepared to go inside the forest and vanish during that week.

    If he dared toe back, the academy would put him under investigation as a result of declining his tasks as a porter. His only way out would be through testing his spirit power again. But before reaching his desired benchmark, he didn''t want that to happen.

    So, putting aside the weapons and his tricks, he needed enough rations to keep him alive for all this time.

    Monster meat wasn''t that bad in taste, but he sucked at cooking. He knew if he depended only on himself, he would end up being poisoned or make food that wouldn''t be suitable to be eaten.

    "I have slightly over seven thousand crystals," he checked the bigger bag where he found one hundred small crystals and sevenrger in size and more glistering ones.

    Those slightly bigger ones were known as the basic crystals. Each was equal to one thousand spirit crystals. "I''m not that poor anymore. I can go and buy whatever I need," he muttered to himself before finally getting out.

    However, just after walking for ten minutes, his path was blocked by a group of disciples.

    At this hour, the lectures started, and the entire academy was bustling with studying and training. However, for his luck, he ran into a group of disciples he shouldn''t meet at this point.

    "Well, well, well¡­ Look at who we have here¡­" just as he saw that familiar face fromst night, William knew this wouldn''t bode well in the end. "Hey Lang, wasn''t your n looking for any clue regarding your young miss?"

    Unlike what William expected, Guanin didn''te directly at him. Instead, he called over a group of disciples standing not far from him. "Come, I have an interesting piece of news for you."

    William didn''t know what was happening, but he felt it wasn''t good at all. A sly and dirty person like Guanin wouldn''t do anything good, especially to him, especially afterst night.

    William tried to move aside and bypass the blocking group of disciples led by Guanin.

    "Where do you think you''re going?" but before he could take more than a few steps, one of the disciples moved and red evilly at him.

    When William saw this look, he knew something bad was going to happen.

    Under the cautious gazes of William, he noticed the approach of the other group of kids. They didn''t look any different from Guanine and their group, all were disciples of the second grade in the academy.

    The uniforms on their bodies were the same.

    "What do you want?" it seemed the one called Lang didn''t have a good impression of Guanin. His tone and attitude told William the two must be rivals, if not enemies.

    "C''mon, don''t be like this when I''m trying to help," Guanin gave a sly smile before he pointed at William and added, st night I met the young princess walking away with that porter. If anyone knows what happened to her, then he should be the one."

    ''Sh*t!'' At this point, William who was oblivious to all this realised what was going on. He knew that Berry would take a long time to recover, probably a day.

    He wasn''t to be med to not link the dots early on. His mind was pretty upied by what things he needed to purchase and prepare for his uing adventure.

    If he was in his right mind, he''d instantly have linked everything together, at least linked the name of Lang to the Long n, and thus back to Berry.

    Hearing the words of Guanin made William realise what was that all about. He never expected things to be thisplicated about what happened to her. Without the need to ask, he knew her n and family must treat this as some sort of danger.

    He totally forgot about what happened to Berry before, never gave it another thought since leaving her behind.

    And Guanin was trying to throw him directly in the middle of such a hot spot. ''What a bastard!'' William inwardly cursed.

    He knew that what Guanin made up to frame him was real. No one was with the two when Berry ended up in such a weird state. It seemed Guanin wanted a payback for what happenedst night, and so he decided to link William to such a mess.

    Unluckily for William, Guanin''s usation was right on the spot. He was the only person who knew what was going on with Berry.

    But would William let Guanin frame him this easily? Not a chance!

    "What happened to young miss?" he put on his innocent face while facing the sceptical gazes from the two groups.

    "You should be the one telling us about that!" Guanin harrumphed. He felt like it was time to make someone else take his revenge without dirtying his hands. That was the kind of person Guanin was.

 Chapter 17 Telling A Little Lie

    ?"Were you with Berryst night?" Lang didn''t seem to believe Guanin''s words, but he asked to be sure.

    "Yes," unlike what Guanin expected, William admitted it himself.

    "See? I told you, hahaha!" like winning the lottery, Guaninughed wholeheartedly.

    "I was with the young missst night as she stepped in to save me from that disciple," William acted like he didn''t know Guanin and returned the finger from before with another.

    "You¡­" Guanin was almost about to lose his cool, but he controlled himself at thest moment. After all, he was famous for being violent and vicious in the academy, a big bully to those weaker and lower than him in status and power. So, if he moved a finger now, he would just confirm the words of William.

    In his eyes, William dug his own grave by what he just said.

    As for Lang, he seemed to not be surprised by what he heard. From the white and simple clothes of William, he instantly recognized him as a porter.

    In Lang''s mind, this fitted exactly the typical actions of Guanin. And the words of William also matched the kindhearted Berry of his n.

    "Then what happened?" Lang didn''t change his interrogating tone, but William noticed the slight pause before his words.

    "She was angry as that disciple who gave her dirty nicknames and humiliated her in front of his people," William didn''t lower his finger or even shift his eyes away from Guanin.

    "Do you want to die?  Brother Lang, don''t believe any of that bullshit!" If Guanin could barely control himself earlier, then this time he hardly could. Just before he would move a single inch forward, Lang stepped in and intervened.

    "Easy brother Guanin," Lang said in a tone that carried no speck of respect, "I have to hear everything this kid knows before doing anything to him."

    He then intentionally paused before adding in a calm and domineering way, "You know this matter is rted to my n."

    Guanin red at the handsome features of Lang before he finally retreated. Lang just gave Guanin a hidden warning to not mess up with the important witness in front of him, and Guanin had toply in the end.

    Guanin would be brave in front of people like William, but against someone like Lang, he''d know his limits. He was just this kind of a coward and a sly spirit master, a disgrace in the eyes of Lang and William.

    A true spirit master should lean towards facing troubles and challenges directly in the face, not evading them and leaning to use underhanded methods to achieve results.

    William inwardly snorted as he watched the dark expression at Guanin''s face while walking away.

    ''You called this upon yourself, don''t me me for being honest!''

    "Humph! As if I didn''t know about his toxic tongue speaking behind our backs," Lang finally revealed his true face once Guanin withdrew.

    William was a mere porter, a person that Lang would never put in his eye. The expression he made was a mix of anger and disdain. As William expected, these two had a long history of enmity.

    "Forget about him, but do you know what really happened to Berry?" Lang''s face changed and became a bit gentler. When he saw the weird look over William''s face he added:

    "Berry is famous for her kind heart. She doesn''t like to see anyone getting mistreated. Forget about him, he seems to hold a grudge against you fromst night."

    "Thanks for young master''s understanding," William cupped his hands in a gesture of respect as it was the tradition of gratitude between spirit masters, "but regarding young miss, she left after helping me and went deeper inside the forest."

    Even if William was touched by the kindness of Lang, he would never be foolish enough to sell himself out and spill out the truth.

    "Oh," a look of disappointment shed over Lang''s face before he returned to be calm, "sorry to disturb you then. If I ever need a porter this week, I''ll fetch for you. What''s your name again?"

    William knew Lang was trying to buy his silence about this incident using this empty promise. After all, if the news widely spread about what happened to Berry, many might take them as fools.

    Even if people like Guanin knew about what happened to Berry, the n wanted to control the spread of news. The academy also wanted the same, or else dark minded people might try to further muddle the water.

    "Thanks for the young master''s generosity, my name is William."

    "Alright, see youter."

    William only heaved a deep sigh of relief after Lang moved away with his entourage. In fact, his little lie had a small w, but luckily Lang didn''t notice anything.

    If what he said was true, then he was considered thest person to see Berry before what happened to her. If Lang thought deeper about it, took this matter a bit more seriously than he did just now, he''d have seen through this and have Williame with him to the n to get interrogated.

    Luckily for William, his identity as a porter served as the best cover up for him. Not a single one would suspect a porter to do anything to a spirit master. And so William got out of this problem easily without having much trouble.

    "I need to hurry and leave the academy as fast as possible," he knew Lang might be a bit careless. If anyone else from the n''s upper echelon heard about this story, that w would be spotted.

    William didn''t think Berry would stay all this time in such a state. At this moment he was d he didn''t stay behind with her.

    William wasn''t worried about discovering his little lie. Once Berry woke up, she would stand up for him. He was worried about getting his little lie discovered before Berry would wake up. The anxious family members of hers might do anything to unravel the entire truth.

    He only was worried about Guanin. That sly spirit master seemed to hold his grudges to the heart.

    This time it was his luck, but William didn''t want to depend on luck for long. If he waited here for more than a day, Guanin might find any excuse to get him into trouble. So he decided to wrap everything he wanted to do here in one day, then leave without taking a single nce behind.

    As he reached the market again, he found the ce more bustling with disciples and masters from the academy. He headed directly towards the merchant he dealt with in the morning.

    "Young master, what brings you so soon?" the merchant instantly recognized him, while looking in slight disappointment at the emptiness behind William.

    "I want to buy more stuff," William entered the stall and sat over an empty corner. And the merchant followed.

    "What do you need?" the merchant asked with a drooling expression on his face.

    "I want the Homos y, the scarlet vibrant ore, a hundred light candles, and a strong bow," William narrated what he wanted.

    "The Homos y and the scarlet vibrant ore are all present here inrge quantities. But the bow¡­" the merchant paused, showing a fake face of struggle.

    William knew this merchant was specialised at dealing with materials like crystals, cores, materials, and ores, not weapons. But he was a merchant, so he must know who was the best to sell good weapons here.

    "Just buy it and add your fees," William leisurely said, "I need a bow with a price not exceeding one thousand crystals. A good one, not just a mere toy," he added while giving a serious look on his face.

    If he wanted, he could simply take a look around stalls specialising in selling weapons. But he''d have to waste more time and might not even get what he wanted in the end with the same price range.

    "Leave it to me then," the merchant smiled widely. After all, his fees would add more profit to him. "How many kilos do you want for the other two goods?"

    "What''s the price of the kilo?" William didn''t give a direct answer before adding, "and stop ying those little games with me. I hate people wasting my time."

    The Homos y was a fairlymon material in this world. It was found just near big riverbeds, with few uses in alchemy.

    So, its price was fairly low. From William''s old memories, he recalled the price wouldn''t exceed ten crystals per kilo.

    As for the scarlet vibrant ore, it was found in the widely scattered mountains all over this world. That ore was just like the y, with few uses limited mostly to decorations.

    The ore was in a diamond shape, with bright redness that gave its scarlet name. Spirit masters tried to use it in forging, but whenever they smashed it or exposed it to heat or spirit power, it violently exploded.

    Without melting and hammering it, how could they use it in forging? So, it became useless, only used for its beautiful look.

    But in William''s hands, anything useless would be extremely valuable.

 Chapter 18 Buying A Bow And A Bag

    ?"The price of the Homos y is eleven crystals per kilo, as for the ore it costs fifteen per kilo," the merchant said, and William knew he added one more crystal to each kilo.

    "Bring me twenty kilos each," but he wanted the merchant to help him with something else. So, he didn''t make a fuss this time. "I also want a storage bag, one equipped with expansion and weight reducing runes."

    "This¡­ might cost a bit," the merchant paused before his mind worked and calcted how much wealth this kid in front of him had. "I don''t have a suitable one for you, but I know a friend who has one."

    William knew what the merchant meant was that the bags he had here all cost more than what he could afford. This was why he let him have little profit before, to use him to find a suitable bag that wouldn''t cost him much.

    Storage bags with runes engraved over them were used like storage devices. However, the differencey in the big size of the bag, and its inability to remove all the weight.

    But thanks to that, their price was always lower than the storage devices. And that was what a price William could currently afford.

    "How much will it cost?" William calmly asked.

    "At least five thousand spirit crystals," the merchant said.

    "With your fees of course," William didn''t let the merchant have his way this time. The price was already too much, and the merchant knew this from the start.

    So, the merchant could only nod. He knew if he became greedy and pushed for a higher price, that little kid wouldn''t be able to afford it and would lose the entire deal.

    "Wait for me until I prepare everything for you," the merchant excused himself and didn''t forget to make a worker to attend William with another cup of tea.

    The merchant took half an hour before he returned. He didn''t carry anything but a ck leathered bag with writings shing all over it in silver symbols.

    It was a backpack, easily carried by two strips on the back. "Here, I got everything you purchased inside."

    William took the bag and felt how light it was. The bad seemed like it got nothing. He opened it by clicking on a red button on its centre with his thumb. The bag must be linked with spirit power and once done, he could easily examine everything inside and take anything he needed out.

    There was everything he purchased inside the bag without affecting its weight. William patted on the bag in satisfaction before ying a little with it, feeling its weight when he held it on one shoulder or both.

    "Here," William then paid almost his entire wealth before leaving the stall and the happy merchant behind.

    He didn''t even flinch when he did so. All this would turn into strengthter on. As for crystals, he would find many chances to get more of them.

    In this deal he was left with a few hundred crystals. He didn''t n on keeping them for himself, as he stillcked something to do what he wanted.

    As he got out of the market, he used his old memories of the academy and went towards a certain direction.

    Like his cab, that direction led him towards the outskirts of the academy, but on the opposite side of it. To cover the distance fast, he started to even run.

    Even with running, he crossed the massive area of the academy in five hours! Just as he stopped, he was heavily panting.

    William got a slight increase in spirit power, but not enough to support him running all this distance without taking a few stops of rest.

    "I need to get stronger," as he stood beside a tree to rest, he started to examine the big building lying up ahead.

    It wasn''t a grand single building, but it was more like a series of small sized houses stacked together in a wide space. The highest part was only three stories high, and the entirepound was surrounded with a low levelled wall.

    A big sign was hung over the main opened gates. "The Forging Department" was written on it with big golden letters.

    "Time to get it done," after ten minutes of rest, he started to walk again.

    He bought the y and the ore, even the bow. But what hecked was the arrows. And he nned to forge them himself.

    This ce was especially quiet during the rush hour of the normal academy day. After all, not many of the disciples or masters were fond of forging. The same went for alchemy. But William knew how valuable the two were in the world of spirit masters.

    Just a hundred metres away from the main gate, he could clearly hear the loud bangs of hammers on anvils. Hearing such a familiar sound again made him smile without knowing it.

    "Hello little brother, do you want to do something here? For which disciple?" As he just passed through the gates, a middle aged woman stood in front of him with panting breaths.

    Her body was long, longer than him by one metre! Almost two metres and twenty centimetres tall. Long ck hair curled on the back of her head taking the form of a big rose, exposed arms and abdomen while showing off her strong muscles despite being ady.

    William didn''t know her. From that golden hammer emblem on the side of her chest, he knew she must be a master here.

    As she treated him nicely, William decided to show his manners to her in return.

    "Sorry to disturb the master, I''m here to do business of my own," William respectively said. But what he said made thedy frown.

    It seemed that forging left traces even on her face. Her smile looked hard to be described as one, turning her face ugly and not pretty like the sacredw in the girls'' world.

    "Do you want to learn how to forge?" the master asked just to make sure she heard him right. She sized him up and down while saying that, not in any offensive way as William felt.

    He knew she recognized his status here from his clothes. And when looking at his fragile body, she couldn''t help but add:

    "You know we don''t limit anyone toe and try, but in your case¡­" she paused as she didn''t know the right words, she should use to describe this awkward situation.

 Chapter 19 Spirit Master Vow

    ?She wanted to dissuade him from taking such a feat. But who told her William was this weak or simple minded?

    "I know a bit of forging myself but didn''t have time toe and try it before," he lied. After all, William would be considered a genius in forgingpared to the standards of this world here.

    "I just want to use the free rooms to test my skills and make something I need."

    "Ok," despite not believing a single word of what he said, she decided to stop her daily running session at this moment and lead him herself towards one of the small houses that filled the Forging Department.

    The ce wasn''t spacious, but it had everything William needed. An oven, an anvil, a table used for moulds, plus arge amount of wood and ores used for the forging process.

    Once William looked at these items, he couldn''t help but smile. He came here specifically for these items.

    But before he could do anything, there was a problem he had to solve first.

    That master stood on the entrance while folding her arms. The expression on her face was like: Come on, show me how you''ll do it!

    "Ahem, I don''t want to waste my master''s precious time," he cleared his throat while trying to act as respectful as possible.

    "I have nothing else to do," yet the answer from the master came to cut any path on him to kick her out. William couldn''t believe he came all the way here to just be stopped by this master.

    William knew his ways of forging would be on another level of those used in this world. So if that master stayed there watching him, she''d discover how weird his ways were. And that might bring him trouble.

    "I have something to confess," as he had no other way to kick her out, he had to handle the situation differently then.

    "What? You don''t know how to forge, right? You were just ying and joking... What was it? A poker game? A do or dare game lost by your assigned disciple and you are just taking the burden off their shoulders?"

    Once he said it, thedy''s eyes shone in realisation. All this time she never believed what he said. She believed he came here for anything else but to forge.

    "It''s neither," William slowly shook his head before he put on his serious expression, "I have a forging master already, and he asked me toe here and do a task for him."

    "A master in the academy?" Thedy''s face didn''t change much but her eyes looked sharply at William.

    "He is someone you might not know about," William might be rude in saying these words, but he had to continue, "he isn''t one of the academy masters. But my master''s teachings are his top secrets. If the master wants to stay, then I have to ask for your word to not leak what you see here."

    This was his bottomline. If she didn''t agree, then he''d have to drop the idea of forging here and look for somewhere else to make his arrows.

    Thedy kept her silent daggering gazes for a long minute before she broke inughter all of sudden. "That''s fun," she said as if what she heard was some kind of a joke. "I, Ellina, swear on my spirit that I will keep anything I witness here to myself."

    It was the sacred pledge, one of the toughest oaths in the spirit world. Unlike what William expected, this master seemed to be amused by the little porter in front of her and decided to y with him all along.

    She didn''t flinch when she took such a serious vow. To her, she never believed a single word of what William said.

    She never expected for even one second that this little kid was able to do something she didn''t know. She never believed he was able to forge in the first ce!

    "Great," once he got over his surprise from her unexpected action, William''s features rxed much. Now he could start working without any burdens or worries.

    The first thing he did was to empty his bag out of ores and y. The appearance of the y startled Ellina, as they had zero usage in the world of forging. However, when she noticed the scarlet vibrant ore, she got instantly scared.

    "What the hell do you think you''re doing? Hurry up and take those dangerous cursed ores away now! Do you want to die?" She couldn''t control her fear and even took a few steps to the back.

    Who wouldn''t be familiar with the devastative effect of using such ores in forging? Even if she was a strong master, she wouldn''t risk it with such ores.

    "Calm down, I know what I''m doing," William didn''t exin anything as he picked up one ore and flipped it in his hand. The sight of the scared Ellina was really amusing.

    "These are going to explode once touching fire or spirit power," Ellina felt that William didn''t know how dangerous these scarlet vibrant ores were, "hurry, take them away!"

    "I know about that," William just said before he went to check the materials gathered in one corner, "and I''m not that tired of living to throw away my life like that."

    "Then why are you bringing them out?" Ellina didn''t even consider that William could deal with such ores.

    Such ores were taboos in the world of forging. Many spirit masters lost their lives while experimenting on such ores. And the fear William showed was simply natural.

    "I''ll show you a great trick of my master," William picked up a few white grade lodges before throwing them inside the oven, "consider yourself lucky to be here."

    "This¡­" Ellina didn''t know why, but the tone and attitude of William seemed not to fit his looks, position, and age at all. "Fine, if you want to die then go ahead, but I won''t let you harm our ce."

    Once said that she took out arge ball and instantly ingested her spirit power inside. The ball buzzed as if it got alive and released an instant shield that enveloped the space inside this building.

    William looked around. That shield looked strong enough to even sustain the attack of a gold grade monster. It covered him and things inside, protecting the walls of the building from any uing st.

    "This is my creation," Ellina proudly said, "of course you won''t be able to appreciate it. But it''s enough to make sure whatever explodes inside won''t leak outside."

    "Ok," William shrugged as if this action didn''t bother him at all. Ellina was sceptical towards him. In other situations, she might have even kicked him away and never let him do anything.

    But what William said earlier piqued her interest, and she was famous for being a curious master. She wanted to see what William could possibly do with this dangerous stuff of his.

 Chapter 20 Shocking The Master

    ?William first used his spirit power to ignite fire. As the fire raged on, he went to therge number of materials he took out of his bag.

    He started to organise them first. He ced the y on one side, the candles on another. As for the red ores, he ced them into two groups, one had seven kilos and the other got three.

    Ellina made a bet with herself. She betted that William wouldn''tst inside more than five minutes. Even if he had some forging knowledge like he imed, he would never be able to survive the st of the scarlet vibrant ores.

    She even prepared herself to intervene once he faced any danger. No matter what, a porter or a disciple, he was a human being in her eyes.

    But unlike what she expected, the first item William picked to use was the y.

    The y looked like a giant piece of blue slime. Despite having a soft and tender body, its weight was still there. The ten kilos took a space of only three metres square, not too much to be honestpared with the y''s tender looks.

    He simply used bare hands to cut a piece of it. The y easily followed his hands movement and then he went towards a big pot made of special alloy and ced it inside.

    "Do you have ready moulds here? For arrowheads?" William asked while putting the pot carefully over the raging fire.

    "Here," with a wave of her hand, a one metre square mould appeared in front of William''s eyes. It was made of special alloy that could withstand the high temperature of the melted ores. And it contained hundreds of spaces to form arrowheads.

    William checked the spaces and inwardly admired them. Each space was in the shape of a diamond, making the arrow heads slightly tapering at their ends. This wouldn''t only give the arrows more prative powers, but also would help in increasing their flying speed and momentum as well.

    "It''s my personal mould for making arrowheads," Ellina noticed the admiring gaze of William and couldn''t help but boast, "can your master have something good like this?"

    "My master? Humph, she is much more skilled than you may even think," despite admiring Ellina''s craftsmanship, William knew if he had time, he would create a far better mould than that.

    Of course, he wasn''t totally lying about his master, he really had a master in his past life.

    "Let''s see what that master of yours taught you then," Ellina took the insult harshly as she red back at William.

    Thetter didn''t speak again and simply ced the mould aside for now. He then waited for the y to melt.

    The Homos y was a famous material used in alchemy, but no one ever tried to melt it using direct fire like he was doing right now. Adding the y to any recipe would help in refining its grade in a better way.

    But when faced with fire, not only it would melt fast, but some impurities inside would also be burnt away. The simply looking blue y turned in a span of one minute into a sparkling blue liquid, even attracting the attention of Ellina.

    To her surprise, the first simple action of William was something she had never heard about before. And that realisation made her frown inside and seriously question herself about what he imed earlier.

    "It''s ready," as the y turned into such a state, William carefully took the pot out of fire and ced it carefully over the specially designed table. Then he grabbed his scarlet vibrant ores and ced them one by one over the table in swift moves.

    Ellina wanted to stop him out of her innate fear, but William moved really fast. In a blink of an eye, he managed to arrange tens of such ores on the table. Then he grabbed the pot and poured its content slowly over them.

    *Sizzle!*

    Like water poured on fire, the y once touched the ores emitted a loud sizzling sound. It wasn''t only this, but it also emitted strange dazzling blue light before the amount he poured started to slowly disappear.

    The scarlet vibrant ores absorbed all the liquid and slowly turned into dim scarlet ores. The earlier sparkling red light seemed to lose much of its vibrancy under the effect of the Homos y.

    And that was the secret William knew about the y. The y didn''t have any upgrade abilities as alchemists mistook it for, it had a controlling effect that rivalled many other top materials that William couldn''t possibly get for now.

    The scarlet vibrant ores main issue was their uncontroble intense inner energy. Once stirred by a stimulus, the ores would instantly explode, and their energy would grow out of control.

    By using the controlling feature of the y, William forced such berserk energy to be stored within and turn into docile form. And that was his first step in handling these ores.

    Ellina wasn''t a normal forging master. Inside the entire department, she was considered in the top five. Her senses were so keen, and she had rich experience in forging.

    The subtle effects of ores instigated by the y didn''t escape her eyes, making her open her mouth agape without feeling it.

    She was shocked, shocked beyond description. What she was seeing in front of her eyes right now was least considered a miracle in the world of forging!

    Didn''t everyone know about the rich energy stored within the scarlet vibrant ores? Any forging master would dream about finding a way to control such a berserk energy and tame it under his control.

    But throughout the long history of forging in the spirit master world, not a single one ever seeded to do so per her knowledge. And now that little porter in front of her, the one who simply appeared out of nowhere, just managed to do so! Simply like he was eating a meal.

    Once she controlled her shock, William managed to finish handling arge amount of scarlet vibrant ore. He next put another piece of y on fire and started to pack the handled ores on one side.

    She wanted to speak and ask. At this moment, there were tons of questions raging wild inside her mind. But seeing how concentrated William was working, she refrained from doing so for now.

 Chapter 21 Using Weird Skills With The Hammer

    ?The only question that kept shing inside her mind was that if this was the secret William mentioned before or he still had more to astonish her.

    Soon she got the answer.

    William worked diligently like this for an entire hour. After exhausting most of the Homos y, he finally managed to cover up the seven kilos of the scarlet vibrant ores.

    "One task is done, more toe," as he ced aside thest batch of handled ores, he muttered to himself before stretching out his body.

    Despite raising his spirit power to thirty-five points, he still was considered weak. In the next task, he had to use the hammer in forging, and he had to do it in a tedious way.

    But that didn''t stop him. As William picked the hammer here, he found it slightly heavy. The hammer wasn''t made of any special alloy, but its weight was at least more than five kilos.

    Raising it with one hand made him feel a little strain over his muscles. But he had to not only hold it with one hand, but he needed to keep moving it for a long time.

    "Need a hand here?" At this point, Ellina''s earlier impression about William changed drastically for the better. Just the show he put earlier was enough to consider him a forging genius.

    Her past harsh attitude vanished and was reced with a gentler one. Besides, she wanted to know more about him. So, helping him here was the best way to get what she wantedter on.

    "No need, but thanks," William simply refused before taking one normal vibrant ore from the three kilos stash and took a deep breath.

    "Careful with that," Ellina shouted in fear. If she was previously saying such a warning out of her kind and pure soul, she was now honestly and sincerely concerned about William''s safety.

    If something wrong happened to him, she would lose a genius forging disciple. She wouldn''t allow this to happen.

    Instantly she gushed out spirit power outside her body, preparing herself to intervene with all her might if things went wrong.

    Thick pure golden energy appeared enveloping her body, giving her a holy appearance. William just gave her a mere nce, feeling surprised that she was a gold grade spirit master, so close to bing a dark gold spirit master.

    One had to know most of the forging spirit masters were at silver grade. Gold and above ranks were considered experts in this world. He knew she was a strong master before, but he never expected her to be this strong.

    Spirit masters learning other professions like forging and alchemy had to spend a lot of time on these professions. That meant they would pay less attention and pour less effort in raising their spirit power.

    So, if silver spirit masters were consideredmon, in such a secondary profession world, they were considered elites.

    Ellina expected the ore in William''s hands to explode. After all, from his stance, she knew he was trying to forge it directly using the hammer and his spirit power.

    If he didn''t use the hammer and instead threw the ore inside the fire, even if it was inside that melting pot, then this would cause the berserk energy inside that little piece of ore to violently explode.

    But what William did next didn''t only startle her, but it even made her freeze out of pure shock!

    *ng!*

    William didn''t intend to do such a suicidal act as she expected. Standing in his ce, he simply threw the ore high in the air as if he was ying with a ball or something, before starting to rotate himself while holding the hammer.

    The hammer was heavy, so he simply raised it horizontally and let its weight drive his body in rotation. He exerted little strength at first to start the rotation, butter on his body was literally dragged by the hammer.

    In a span of a few seconds, his speed escted to a terrifying degree, even creating images while rotating.

    The piece of ore he threw high lost its driving force and started to free fall. Just when it reached the level of his hammer, William acted.

    He simply let the hammer hit the ore. Under normal circumstances, the ore wouldn''t sustain the heavy force of the hammer and would either crash and explode or be thrown far away and explode.

    But neither happened! The moment the hammer touched the ore, William delicately adjusted the hammer to slide over one of its surfaces and not directly smash into it.

    As the hammer glided over the ore, it continued to rotate afterwards like nothing happened. In return, it lost little of its driving force, something William easily countered by exerting little force during the next rotation.

    But the astonishing part wasn''t in that subtle, yetplicated move, but in what happened to the ore itself. Logically speaking, even if William managed to avoid shing directly with the ore, the ore piece would drop to the ground under gravity.

    However, under the watchful shocking gazes of Ellina, the ore stood in its ce motionless as if it was held by an invisible hand.

    And just in a blink of an eye, the hammerpleted one circle and returned to hit the ore again¡­ again¡­ and again for continuous five minutes.

    "What is he trying to do?!!" Elline could now swear that the skills William showed weren''t simple! She totally believed what he said earlier. And seeing such weird skills that she never saw or heard about before made her quite sure that he had some sort of a mysterious master behind his back.

    But soon enough she knew the answer to her puzzlement about William''s actions. As the hammer kept mming in such a genius way at the ore, the size of the ore started to get smaller.

    One piece of ore was in the size of a closed fist. But after five minutes of continuous hammering and tapering, it became the size of a finger, even looking like one of the thin fingers of William.

    "Phew," at this point, William suddenly stopped and couldn''t help but rotate a couple of times freely as he deliberately controlled the speed of his body and forced the hammer to gradually stop. But he was drenched in sweat, panting heavily in racing breaths, while his face looked slightly pale.

    *Thud!*

    As the hitting force vanished, that final piece of ore finally lost its invisible force holding it midair and fell on the ground in a muffled voice under the petrified gazes of Ellina.

 Chapter 22 A Harsh Master

    ?"This¡­" just seeing the state William ended up at gave Ellina a big scare. She instantly cancelled her useless shield and appeared next to his side, supporting his body with her strong arm.

    "T¡­ Thanks¡­" William was so tired to speak properly at this moment. During the past five minutes, he truly went overboard and pushed his body beyond its limits.

    "Here," Ellina took out a yellow bottle and handed it over to William, "this is the spirit breath, one of the best potions in recovering one''s spirit and cleanse fatigue."

    "Thanks," William couldn''t refuse such a precious thing from her. As far as he knew, the price of such a bottle was at least ten thousand spirit crystals! And it was even smaller than this one.

    Just taking a sip of that potion made him feel instantly refreshed. Few drops were enough to restore his exhausted strength. After all, William was still a weak spirit master to begin with.

    Besides, William didn''t want to deplete all this precious potion in one go. He intended to keep a few drops left for his future adventure.

    "I have to admit," Ellina honestly said, "that master of yours is really a genius! But she is also a harsh one!"

    William wanted to bitterlyugh, but he controlled himself. If this was considered harsh, then what Ellina would call the inhuman training of his master back then?

    "Thanks for this," William said in honest gratitude while motioning towards the potion she gifted him with.

    "It''s nothing, I just want to see what you will do in the end," Ellina waved her hand before she stood on the side and didn''t move.

    This potion might seem priceless to someone like William, but to Ellina it was indeed nothing.

    "Won''t you get back there?" William pointed at the spot where Ellina stood before. But Ellina shook her head.

    "I''m now trusting what you said... You won''t throw your life simply like that," she firmly said while her main goal was to be closer and attentively watch the innovative things that William was doing here.

    She didn''t want to miss a single thing he did, and from this experience she might even try and replicate everythingter on.

    William already saw through her intentions, but he didn''t stop her. She already vowed to keep the secrets she saw here to herself. Besides, she already paid enough price to get such a privilege using this potion.

    As his strength replenished, he returned to repeat the same process again and again. The drawbacks of this method weren''t only limited to the exhaustion it brought to his body, but also the time it consumed.

    William was only able to deal with a single ore once every five minutes. He also needed at least a couple of minutes to consume few drops of the potion and rest.

    With the presence of the breath of spirit potion, he got a little courageous and exerted more force and got this time shortened by half. But it wasn''t enough.

    He took over fifteen hours to finish this hard task. During this time, the sky outside dimmed, and night fell, but neither did he stop, nor Ellina left.

    She kept watching his moves without even blinking during the first hour. The more she watched, the more she admired William and his mysterious master.

    ''So, he is using the percussion caused by the hammer to eliminate the impurities off¡­ Using vibrations to cleanse such berserk ores without triggering the energy inside¡­ Brilliant! Why didn''t I think about using the same method before?''

    She kept thinking about giving it a try and using the same way to cleanse the vibrant ores. However, when she thought about being inexperienced in such moves, she refrained from doing so.

    And like that she decided to continue watching and learning, mimicking William''s actions in her mind to better engrave them to her memory.

    In time she got hungry, she sent for a disciple to bring a fancy meal that would be enough for five people.

    William refused to eat until he finished this task. He was absorbed in the process. He feared losing his focus if he stopped. So, he pushed himself and kept going.

    His fatigue was already cleansed away by the potion. His strength was restored as well. But his body still needed to eat, and his mind couldn''t recover from the mental exhaustion of constantly focusing like his body. Just a few hours before he stopped, his stomach started to ache and make weird sounds from time to time. As for his mind, he felt an annoying headache, like his head got opened by a brutal axe or something.

    "Phew, I''m done," as he finally cleansed thest piece, he stopped and drank a few drops to replenish his strength. When he noticed the darkness outside, he couldn''t help but feel a little weird.

    Just now he realised that Ellina stayed all this time by his side without moving an inch. This meant she remained here for over fifteen hours!

    ''Doesn''t she have anything else to do or what?'' William thought to himself before Ellina pointed at a new wooden table that her disciple brought.

    "Come, let''s eat."

    "Thanks," once he saw the food, all the hunger he had suppressed exploded without control. Without acting polite, he went and sat on the opposite side of Ellina before gulping food like a monster.

    "Hahaha, easy, or you''ll get yourself choked, hahaha!" Seeing him like that made Ellina''s mood better. Just as this moment William returned to the little eight years old kid, and that mysterious air he emitted during his forging process vanished without a trace.

    Ellina might have bought the story of the mysterious master, but who said reading a book was enough to be an expert?

    One had to be talented, and that wasn''t enough. Constant training over these skills and techniques was also required. So even if William had a formidable master like he imed, then that master also had a scary disciple to execute such skills in such precision.

    "I can''t believe you are only eight years old," after asking about his age, Ellina couldn''t help but express her surprise. "I see you are a porter, why not quit this useless job and join us here?"

    In her eyes such talent would be left to dust and be wasted if William continued to be a porter. William didn''t stop eating while answering her with full mouth:

    "I will, but not now."

    "Why?"

    William kept eating as he felt his headache and hunger were cleansed clean with food.

    "It''s my master''s wish," William shrugged and put a helpless look on his face as if this was out of his ability to decide.

    "Sigh, that master of yours¡­ I can''t criticise her, but her methods are really strange," Ellina couldn''t believe that a master would force her disciple to work in such a low job when he could shine and live a life of kings in the Forging Department.

    But if William surprised her for his abilities, then she was sure his master must be something else. How could she say anything about such a master''s teachings?

 Chapter 23 Striking A Great Deal

    ?"Can you tell me your master''s name at least?" After so many failed attempts in prying over the identity of William''s mysterious master and her current whereabouts, Ellina couldn''t help but ask about this question.

    If she knew the name, she could start digging more information about that master and might even get lucky and know her whereabouts.

    She wanted nothing more right now but to go and meet such a legendary master. If her disciple, one who lived in the academy as a porter, was showing such awesome tricks and skills, then Ellina could only imagine what William''s master was like.

    "I can''t say anything without her permission," but William didn''t even budge, "you know she is my master and I have to follow everything she says."

    "Keeping herself this hidden is a miracle in itself," Ellina sighed, "I can''t believe such an outstanding master is present in the same world I live in without knowing about her."

    She never ceased trying to guess that master''s identity. But from all the famous and renowned names she knew about, none matched the identity of William''s master.

    She wasn''t only a mysterious master in her way of forging, but she seemed to seclude herself away from any known force in the spirit master world. Besides her unusual ways in forging, if such a person was known in this world, then she would be famous for her bizarre techniques.

    And yet, she had not even a single name to fit such criteria. If anyone else told her about this, she might question the integrity of the story rather than believing it.

    But she was the one who saw everything and witnessed how William dealt with the scarlet vibrant ore using new skills.

    "Then can you tell me more about the things you''ve done here?" After William finished eating, nearly sweeping half of the rich meal, she had the courage to ask.

    "May I ask about the reason?" William didn''t hurry to refuse her request. After all he might get something useful like that potion in return from this.

    "I think that y method can be used with other ores, right?" Ellina didn''t hide her own thoughts. When William didn''tment, she continued, "if we used the thunderous lick ores for example instead of the scarlet vibrant ores, we could craft brutal weapons that can kill dark gold monsters even!"

    She seemed excited, and William understood the reason behind that. "That might work in theory, but not practically," he slowly said, "such berserk ore is hard to control using this y."

    "Why?" She forgot that she was speaking with an eight years old kid and a porter. She then started a long session of discussion like she was talking to one of her colleague masters in the Forging Department.

    William didn''t limit his answers to just yes and no. He started to slowly exin a simple concept known in the outside world, the energy capacity concept.

    Homos y had a good control ability, but its innate power limited its usages. When he slowly exined this to her, she started to gain insights into a totally brand new world.

    "If you are this curious, then I can ask my master to write a few ways to control some hard to forge ores to get better benefits from them," William finally threw in his piece, "but that wille at a price, of course."

    "Anything is negotiable," Ellina didn''t even hesitate to agree, "anything she wants will be agreed upon by me acting as a guarantee."

    She wasn''t overstepping over her boundaries here. She was sure any other forging master would agree if he was in her spot.

    "It''s not a big deal," William casually said, "In addition to that, I can bring many manuals about how to forge new alloys and such to make outstanding gears. Yet, the things made out of my master''s methods and instructions will be sold at a high price. Of course, after cutting away the initial cost of the materials, my master will ask for fifty percent share of any profit."

    "This¡­" Ellina paused and William mistook her silence for refusal.

    "You have to know the value of such methods aren''t only in the price of the final gears, but in the renovative way of thinking itself," William slowly said, exining in deep meaning why he asked for fifty percent.

    "It''s not that, it''s just the price seems a bit low," Ellina knew from a profitable point of view, this might be a good deal to not turn down. However, her eyes weren''t on this deal, but on the master shrouding in mystery behind William.

    "What about this, your master will take fifty percent of any item price, no need to consider the material cost in this," she decided to give a profitable deal to William so she would build a strong rtionship with his master.

    "Deal!" No matter what she nned, William would be a fool if he turned down such a deal. "I''m going to meet my master soon anyway. After I return, I''ll hand over the techniques if the master agrees."

    Despite there being no master and he was the owner of everything, William decided to do things this way. Who knew, people had different hearts after all.

    Ellina might be a good person, but if another one with a darker mind and twisted soul found out about that, he might face problems he couldn''t deal with.

    He had to put his master in the front as a kind of protection, even if that meant he had to waste time in return.

    "Alright, how long will you be away?" Ellina was feeling excited from striking this deal. If not for William''s need to finish his final product, she would have left and gone to the headmaster of the forging department and shared the news with him.

    "Almost a week," William couldn''t give an exact answer. After all, his return was linked to his spirit power upgrading ns.

    "A week isn''t that long," Ellina heaved a sigh of relief before she realised something but didn''t express it in words. If William needed a week to visit his master and be back, then his master must be living nearby.

    She decided to keep such a note to herself and try to find a way to search for that master personally.

    If not fearing for creating misunderstanding, she would rather tag along and track William''s steps during this trip.

    "May I ask what you are doing?" As William finished the deal, he stood up in a fresh state and started to work again.

    Ellina stood by his side while watching him arranging the first dim ores he handled.

    "I''m building arrowheads," he gestured with his head towards the mould she produced in a way as if he was saying: Isn''t it obvious?

    "I mean what do you n to do with this ore?" Ellina rolled up her eyes in a funny way. If not for her tough features, she would look pretty by doing so.

 Chapter 24 Forging Arrowheads

    ?"You''ll soon be able to see for yourself," William finished putting the dimmed ores on the table before he went ahead and did something different. Unlike what Ellina expected, William didn''t ce the ores on fire but another thing.

    "These candles¡­" she muttered while watching William liquifying the candles. It didn''t take much time before three pots were filled with melted green liquid, shining brightly the entire room at suchte hours in the night.

    "Do you want light during work? I have a higher grade candle here," she took out a much bigger, a lot thicker, and deep green candle of light from her storage ring.

    "No, I''m using it in the forging process," William brought another pot and filled it this time with the dimmed scarlet ores.

    Once ced on fire, Ellina couldn''t help but call out her spirit power in fright. The deep fear of these ores'' explosions ran deep through her bones and made her reflexively react.

    But nothing like what she feared happened! Just the miracle she never expected appeared there and the ores got liquified smoothly and without any problems.

    It took roughly ten minutes to melt the entire ores into bright scarlet red fluid. William didn''t hurry to start hammering it, and instead he ced that pot carefully on the ground before taking one of the three green fluid pots and slowly poured some into the scarlet liquid.

    *Swoosh!*

    A thick cloud of steam assaulted him and rose fast to fill part of the room. His face was slightly burnt by the gush of heat, and his hair looked a bit dishevelled. However, that didn''t prevent Ellina from witnessing another miracle.

    The red melted vibrant ores once got in touch with the green liquid started to emit dazzling sparks of light like fireworks. It seemed there was something inside the green liquid that stimted the melted scarlet vibrant ore.

    Ellina didn''t know what it was, but William knew. The candle of light material had an outstanding ability to augment any spirit power conducting material, just like what it did with the spirit crystals.

    However, this wasn''t the only effect it had. It also had the ability to regte any energy conduction. The candle of light turned the fierce natured scarlet vibrant ores that got slightly under control using the y material into more smooth and obedient ones.

    It was like a second calming bonus added to the scarlet vibrant ores to prevent them from going berserk under any condition. Doing this ensured the further forging process of these ores safely without any unforeseen ident.

    Within the thick cloud of red mist, William reopened his wound and let his blood fall over the mix. He didn''t wait for the mist to clear as he ced the pot aside to cool off and grabbed another one.

    During the next hour he kept doing that until he finished melting everything he had. The number of light candles needed wasn''t that much. Out of the number he bought before, he was left with almost half of it.

    "Time to temper it," he returned one pot to the fire and carefully waited for five minutes. He didn''t want the mix to be liquid, but in semi-solid form.

    Then he took it out, poured it over the anvil before starting to hammer it.

    He didn''t have enough strength to hammer it properly and efficiently, so he used the same method as before. Rotating for a few times before finallynding the hammer down was enough to cleanse the semi-solid mix and release sparks of fire all around while burning impurities.

    Despite it being a simple hammering process, William didn''t have enough strength or spirit power to use the hammer efficiently in doing so. And soon enough Ellina noticed this.

    "Let me do it for you," at this point, Ellina knew this was William''s weakness. He had such a fragile body and that would limit the amount of cleansing he could do.

    "Thanks," Knowing his limits, William didn''t refuse the help. He stood on the side while preparing other pots for her. And Ellina started to show her position as one of the top five forging masters in the entire academy.

    *ng!* *ng!* ng!*

    Each hit was done with all her strength, making even the entire room tremble under her fierce hammering. William looked in envy towards her and couldn''t help but aspire to get such strength and more.

    "It''s ready," after hammering, cooling, reheating and repeating the process for a dozen times, the earlier scarlet bright mix with a few lines of green changed to be silver in colour.

    Such change was bizarre in Ellina''s eyes, but it was expected for William. After all, the real colour of the scarlet vibrant ore''s essence wasn''t scarlet red, but silver!

    All that red was the impurities which invaded the ores from other minerals and soil. The first piece to be ready was left again inside the fire before it turned totally into fluid.

    Ellina didn''t continue working and William knew the reason behind that. She wanted to witness hisst moves before returning to work on the remaining scarlet ores.

    "Do you want special water for cooling?" she didn''t consider this as a simple forging process. In her eyes, William might be doing arrowheads, but these heads looked special to be cooled with normal water.

    "No need," but William knew wasting such resources over these consumables wasn''t a wise move. After all, the forging process went better than what he expected thanks to the timely help of Ellina.

    Besides, using higher grade cooling water wouldn''t add any boost effect to the arrowheads. So, he calmly declined her offer.

    The next thing was done like any usual forging process. He poured the melted mix inside the mould and then used water from the big basin inside the room to ssh it evenly on the mould to cool it off. Steam came out again, but it didn''tst long this time.

    *ng!* *ng!*

    As he got done from forging these arrowheads, William just flipped the mould on the side and hit it with his fist. The pieces fell and the arrow heads were ready to be used.

    "These contain such tremendous power¡­ enough to wound silver grade monsters," Ellina examined a few arrow heads and gave out her surprised opinion.

    "Wound? Humph, if these arrows are used properly, forget about silver monsters¡­ They can even wound gold grade monsters in a fatal way! As for silver ones, they would be long dead by the explosion," William said in pride without holding back his ego.

    After all this was his work. How could he let Ellina misjudge his arrowheads like that?

    "Really?" Ellina seemed to doubt him, "can I keep some for me to test?"

    "Take whatever you want," William knew she didn''t ask this out of her curiosity. She was thinking not only to mimic his brilliant forging process, but also to show such unique products to the forging high ranked master.

    Or else how could she make these masters agree on the deal she promised him?

 Chapter 25 Gold Grade Sword

    ?The two kept working on the rest of the ores for hours. When the light of the next day appeared, they were about to finish.

    "Phew, that took longer than I expected," Ellina wiped the non-existentyer of sweat over her forehead while William''s eyebrows twitched when he heard that.

    If it was him, then forget about taking hours. Even an entire day might not be enough!

    "What are you going to do with these?" she pointed at the smaller batch of the scarlet vibrant, the ones that William handled before using his hammer.

    "Do you happen to have flying knife moulds?" William didn''t answer her directly and instead asked for what he wanted.

    "Flying knives? What are these?" but just like he expected, such a concept was still unknown in this world.

    "Do you have a mould we can modify? I want to do something special with these ores," William said and Ellina just produced a mould that had a few holes in it with much anticipation.

    She already got shocked by William''s actions more than once. Hearing that he wanted to do something special about something she never heard about before made her mind run wild about ideas of what he was going to do.

    "I was still working on this one," she pointed towards the mould she brought out of her storage ring before adding, "but to modify it you''ll have to use a huge amount of spirit power. Let me do it instead. Just tell me what shape you want and how many of them."

    William knew what she said wasn''t false, but it wasn''t the only way to modify the mould here. However, he didn''t say anything regarding this to her and simply started to draw on the ground with his finger.

    "Twenty centimetres long, the first half of it is just like the arrow heads here but slightly thicker. The other half will be in cylindrical shape, as a handle," he described what he had in mind using words and drawing.

    "These¡­ Aren''t these like knives used in cooking?" but what she heard and saw made her frown. She thought he woulde up with a revolutionary concept once more, but it turned out to be cooking knives.

    "They are like these but cooking knives have different ratios," William exined after getting over his surprise from herment, "the cooking ones had four fifths of their length like the arrow heads, with short handles."

    "Alright," Ellina didn''t see much difference in both. Yet she decided to follow William''s instructions. A thick wave of bright yellow energy gushed out of her body and enveloped the mould in mere seconds.

    Cracking sounds erupted as the mould started to show signs of changing. Concave parts began to form while slowly taking out the shape of what he just drew on the floor and described.

    "How many of them do you want?"

    William looked at the pile of his purified ores and made a rough estimate in his mind. "Twenty," he said.

    "It''s done," as the design was ready, she didn''t need much time to prepare the mould. The design was the hardest thing of making any new item, and changing the mould was the easiest and fastest part of the process.

    The only drawback such a process had in her eyes was for the huge amount of spirit energy needed to alter such high-grade mould.

    William examined the mould carefully first. He had to admit to himself that she did this task brilliantly using her spirit power.

    "Now what?" she asked.

    "Time to add the final touch," William went back and used the pots from earlier. This time the other half of his light candles left in the pots were ced again at fire. Then he put the refined scarlet vibrant ore needles into three pots and let them melt.

    The candles melted faster, but he didn''t hurry to take them off fire. Ellina mistook this as he wanted to let them in liquid state.

    But after the passage of ten minutes on fire, a new change urred to the green liquid. After being still for long minutes, sparks of dark green fire started to dazzle the entire room.

    "This¡­" Ellina never expected the candles would have another stage of purification. What she didn''t know was that the candles had more than one stage of purification, five stages at least.

    But right now, William only needed the second stage of it. The first stage would burn the impurities that were basically hindering the candle material to work properly in forging.

    In other words, this was done when anyone would lighten up the candle. After all the light emanated from the fire was done by burning these impurities away.

    But the second stage would act on the fine impurities and also to concentrate the green material into a higher form. To do this, the entire candle had to be inside a pot and ced directly on fire for ten minutes at least.

    This form wouldn''t only help in augmenting and conducting energy, it would also add another feature, long distance control!

    That was the basic concept behind flying weapons in the outside world. Right now, and with William''s limited spirit power, he could only control such low weighed knives. And he could at most control three of them with his low spirit power.

    Each knife would require at least ten spirit points to control. If he used a bigger weapon, then this consumption would sour higher.

    Even if he couldn''t use all of them right now, he wouldn''t miss this chance to produce more and store them forter.

    He nned to raise his spirit power above hundred. By then he''d be able to control around ten flying knives. If his spirit power grew past two hundred mark, he''d be able to control all the twenty knives with ease.

    While waiting, he didn''t stand idle. As he left the pots on fire, roughly knowing it would take around twenty to thirty minutes to get ready, he went to the logs of wood on one corner to finish another task.

    "Do you have a sword?" he asked, "mine got ruined."

    "Don''t tell me you still have that old useless scrap of metal," Ellina was surprised to hear that. As a porter, he''d get the lowest grade swords. These weremonly in a very bad state, usually ending up getting broken in less than a few years at most.

    She weirdly eyed him in doubt. He was indeed fulfilling all the criteria of a porter. But she was bewildered as she knew how formidable the master standing behind him was.

    If weapons were pricey and hard to get for anyone else, for forgers it was a piece of cake.

    William could only bitterly smile. He nned to buy a decent sword before he dropped the issue thanks to his low wealth.

    He thought he would pay for getting the work done here. But if he knew Ellina would be here to help, and he wouldn''t even pay a single spirit crystal, then he would have bought a better sword than his old rusty and useless one.

    "Here," just without caring, like taking out a bar of chocte, she took out a long sword with its scabbard and threw it towards William.

    "This¡­ isn''t that a gold grade sword?!" The moment he unsheathed the sword, William got an instant fright out of shock. His top dream in buying a sword would be a decent white grade or even a mediocre silver grade.

    "This is nothing," Ellina developed a wide smile over her face, "consider it as a mere gift."

    She would never miss a chance to get closer to this kid. In her mind, she wasn''t interested at all in William but in his master.

 Chapter 26 Leaving The Academy

    ?"Thanks," William would never act polite, not when such a weapon that would cost tens of thousands of crystals was offered to him free of charge.

    He turned to the logs of wood and started to scatter them around.

    "What are you looking for?" Ellina came to his side and asked with a curious look.

    "I have arrowheads but no shafts," he said while picking up faint brown logs and putting them aside, "these would do perfectly fine."

    "The brown bark woods?! That''s amon and weak grade of wood! If you want, I can get better wood for you."

    William was momentarily tempted before he dropped the idea. It wasn''t the issue of quality, rather he wanted something to serve his goals best.

    If it was another time, he would prefer to agree. But he knew if he did so, it would take much longer to check the other types of wood Ellina would provide. And he already lost an entire day in his preparations and still not finished.

    Despite gaining a lot froming here, he still regretted all this time wasted on making these arrows.

    "Thanks, these will do," he gathered up ten thick and short logs of that brown bark wood and then started to cut them using his sword.

    His work was diligent and precise, cutting the wood into simr cylindrical thin pieces to act as shafts. In the span of twenty minutes, he got everything ready.

    From the side, Ellina couldn''t help but feel weird about his actions. To chop wood, one would use an axe not such a sword! But she refrained from speaking and kept watching in silence, keeping her thoughts to herself.

    Under the curious gazes of Ellina, he took one green pot out. The former sparkling green liquid seemed to get smaller in size and brighter in light. In her eyes, it looked like pure water, and the normal candle material became like mud.

    *Sizzle!*

    Without waiting he poured the liquid over the shafts he prepared. They emitted loud sizzling noises before the shafts absorbed all of it. Not a single drop even fell over the ground.

    William didn''t just want to have long distance control over the arrows he made. Even if his control over the arrows wouldn''t as perfect as the flying knives, such trick woulde handy at desperate moments.

    Those faint brown shafts changed colour and showed a tinge of green. One pot wasn''t enough, so he had to bring another before he was all done.

    Around a thousand shafts were ready. He then left them to cool down and took the scarlet red pots out and poured the rest of the green liquid over them.

    Each red pot had one green pot emptied over it. Then William waited for five minutes for the mix to slowly and partially solidify before taking it over the anvil.

    "Can I use your help again?" as he saw how efficiently Ellina worked, he didn''t shy from being shameless and asked her for help.

    She started to help again. In the span of the next couple hours, shepleted the task. Every Time she finished cleansing, William woulde and take the final mix and pour it on the mould.

    Twenty flying knives were produced like this. Before he would give any mix to Ellina, he would drop a few of his blood over it to establish a blood link with these knives.

    As for the time she kept hammering, he started to get busy assembling the arrows. Using drops of blood to link these arrows to him, he made sure to establish a weaker form of link with them as well.

    Flying arrows would consume a lot of his spirit power if he insisted on doing it the same way as the flying knives. But the way he did it allowed him to just exert a little control over the arrows while being airborne.

    This might decrease the amount of consumption, and also help him exert a little control to change the direction slightly.

    "Thanks," after finishing all that, William saw that this trip to the forging department was worth his time and effort. He didn''t feel any regret about losing much time here.

    He not only made what he wanted, he also gained a good sword, better than what he expected.

    "Say hello to your master for me," Ellina stood at the doors of the academy leading to the forest. She insisted on apanying him this far, and William wouldn''t miss the chance.

    After all, he was worried about Guanin and his gang. What if they stopped him and tried to cause trouble again inside the academy? Not to mention Berry''s n would look for him if they noticed his little lie from earlier.

    "Sure," William nodded with a big smile that didn''t make Ellina satisfied.

    "Next time we meet we''ll work on our deal," Ellina reminded him, stressing over this point again, "I''ll take care of things inside the forging department for you and your master. Just make sure the esteemed master will agree."

    "She will," William firmly said. After all there was no master, and he was the one holding the final say here.

    If this deal was done properly, then William would solve a big part of his financial problems. He might not face any big obstacles for now. But once his spirit power started to climb higher, he would definitely need a ton of resources.

    And any resource in the spirit world would cost lots of spirit crystals.

    So securing this deal early on was a good piece of news for him. Despite it not being enough, it would buy him more time to find more sources of profit to his pockets.

    As he stepped into the forest, his attention became focused on two things. First, he needed to get inside the deeper zones of the forest, the area he wasn''t any familiar with. And second, he had to solve his mud spirit phase issue.

    Despite having the godly devouring ability of the nine tailed fox, this would only help his spirit power and physical strength.

    Yet his spirit was still immature. Pushing his spirit power further without having a good foundation was amon mistake he wouldn''tmit.

    "To elevate my spirit, I need to select carefully which monster I should merge with," he muttered to himself while tons of information flooded his mind.

    Having a mud spirit wasn''t a big deal. In the outside world most of the spirit masters were born like him. It was the same case here as well.

    But what made a big difference in the outside world was the simple and yet game changing concept of spirit purity. Anyone had a chance to upgrade his spirit from the mud phase all the way to the top-grade spirit ranks.

    Mud phase might be considered the bottom line of any spirit master. Some might be blessed enough and born with higher spirit grades like Berry. Those were the ones who were considered spirit masters in this current world of his.

    But William knew better. Mud phase might be called phase zero of any spirit master where spirit power would range below thirty.

 Chapter 27 For Messi, The World Cup Champion

    ?Above the spirit mud phase there was the spirit formation phase, spirit foundation phase, spirit expansion phase, spirit strengthening phase, spirit enhancement phase, spirit evolution phase, spirit purification phase, spirit advancement phase, spirit phantom phase, and thest legendary phase, the spirit ascension phase.

    Even the ones considered geniuses in this world would mostly be at the spirit foundation phase. With each upgrade in spirit power level, the spirit would get enhanced as well and enter a higher stage.

    But if things were left to this, then the end phase any spirit master in this world could reach was only limited to spirit enhancement or even at best spirit evolution phase.

    To be able to ascend higher than his past life strength, he needed to reach higher phases. If he wanted a chance against that nine tailed fox, he had to reach at least the spirit advancement phase.

    But raising one''s spirit grade technique wasn''t a big deal for him. The main problemid in the path he would select. Once the spirit master selected the path of his future spirit form, he wouldn''t be able to easily change it.

    Even those born with spirits like Berry, they still had a chance to modify it all the way to the top. But the choices would be limited by the innate spirit they were born with.

    Despite that spirit masters here would consider mud phased spirit masters weak and failures. But William knew in the outside world they were considered lucky. They got all the paths opened for their spirits to develop, not limited by their inherited spirits.

    People like Berry would be limited inparison. For example, she had a twin spirit, and even with that she couldn''t merge with earth based or even water or ice based monster spirits.

    Her two spirits were fire based ones. The earth based monster spirits would hinder the berserk and brutal nature of her fiery spirits. And about the water or ice based monster spirits, it wasmon knowledge how the two reacted with fire.

    The only choices for her would be limited to fire, light, darkness, and thunder based monster spirits. One had to know that fire based monster spirits weremonly found, but the other types were like gold found in mud. They were rare, extremely valuable and very difficult to kill.

    When talking about Berry as an example, even with howmon fire monsters were, not all of them were suitable for her. After all, she had double high end fire based spirits within her.

    Low level or even mediocre level fiery monster spirits wouldn''t give her anything worth of value. Her options would be limited to the mid and top grade fiery monster spirits. And those types were harder to find, and much harder to kill.

    So sometimes, blessing mighte as a curse, and vice versa.

    As for William, he didn''t consider fire based monster spirits for now. If he had to choose, then he would aim for those rare spirits, thunder, light, and darkness for example.

    Selecting the first spirit monster to integrate with wasn''t a simple decision to make. It was much better for William to select a rare type based monster spirit thanmon ones.

    The Base spirit he''d merge with would determine lots of thingster on. If he limited himself to fire, water, or earth based monster spirits, he''d face much difficultiester on.

    Selecting a rare monster spirit was better as they weren''t just rare, they were also flexible and overbearing againstmon monster spirits. If he selected light based monster spirit for example as the base spirit of his, he could add fire, water, ice, earth, and even wind based monster spiritster on without worrying about any conflicts between these spirits.

    The nine tailed fox had a darkness based spirit, one that helped him create his legend. It was also one of the reasons behind his superiority above most enemies he faced. Even William lost thanks partially to this difference in spirit quality.

    So, when considering what type his spirit would be, he couldn''t help but crave for light or lightning. Light was the nemesis of dark based spirits. And lightning had a useful purification effect against darkness as well.

    He was nning for his battle of revenge against that damn fox in the far fetched future, even if he was in such a weak state of power right now!

    But hoping was something, and really getting one of these two spirits was another. William''s own experience about this forest from past life was limited to the outer region only.

    He ventured deeper only on a single asion, when he was running for his life when the world was falling apart. Inside the outer region, he was sure there were no single light based or lightning based spirit monsters at all!

    These monsters would be considered tyrannical. However, even if he didn''t know the inner region of the forest, he still heard stories from disciples about their adventures there.

    He heard about the presence of few light and lightning based monsters at some deep regions of this forest. But he never saw a detailed map about the deeper zones of the forest before ever in past life.

    Even if he knew about these locations, getting there was a trouble in itself. In addition to that, and by his current strength, he wouldn''t stand a chance against any brutal monster of them.

    One had to know that both types of monsters were famous for their insane speed and devastating attack power. Even if he was extremely lucky to find a white grade monster of either two spirits, William wouldn''t be able to contend against it with his current strength.

    "I need to raise my spirit power first," he came to this conclusion and so he didn''t hurry to venture into the deeper parts of the forest.

    His aim for now was to hunt more monkeys and weaker monsters using the same method he used before. After staying in the outer region of the forest for an entire day, William finally killed thousands of these monsters and devoured their cores.

    His spirit power now was fifty-six. He got an increase of twenty-one spirit points during a single day. Even so, he wasn''t satisfied.

    "As I thought," after devouring thest batch of monkey cores, he stood and muttered to himself, "the higher my spirit power climbs, the weaker the effects of these cores will be."

    He was now sure that he could absorb cores of monsters he''d kill. He killed a few other types of monsters aside from the monkeys, and he was able to absorb their cores as well.

    At thest few batches, he devoured over a thousand cores and yet only gained five spirit points only. His rising speed was affected now by his increased spirit power.

    "I can''t keep going on like this," as he reached this conclusion, he decided to exit the safe outer forest region and risk entering deeply inside.

    The issue wasn''t only for increasing his spirit power, but about his mud phased spirit. He needed to elevate it before hitting the seventy point mark.

    Doing so would help him in increasing his spirit power faster. Also, he would be able to use his spirit during the fight, which would be a significant boost to his strength.

    William started to walk deeper in the forest, while trying to be cautious when he reached areas he didn''t recognize.

    He took out his sword and hung it over his waist, took out his bow and made an arrow always at the string. He was ready at any moment to wee a fight once a monster would appear in front of him.

    The bow wasn''t as great as his sword, but it was still useful. Its main effect was to slightly boost speed and make the arrows move faster.

    Yet it didn''t boost his strength or the power of arrows themselves. William knew if the bow had either of these two effects, then it would be considered a silver or even a gold grade weapon instead.

    He checked his gold sword before. It didn''t only have a sharpness boost, but it also boosted strength and agility. Just moving it around created a series of afterimages behind. And William was sure even if he fought a dark gold monster with it, the sharpness and strength boosted by the sword would leave behind a deep wound at such a monster.

    *Tick!*

 Chapter 28 Fight!

    ?*Tick!*

    It was a faint sound, but the all cautious William managed to detect it. He already walked through the deeper parts of the forest for half a day. Encountering many monsters that were mostly bronze grade and few silver grade made his guard always raised.

    But he didn''t try to kill any monster. He wanted to first locate the one he needed. Even if he couldn''t kill it, he would assess its strength and abilities and then retreat fast before getting killed.

    He didn''t have it all nice at all. He had to run for his life a few times and was this close from using his weapons a couple of times already.

    He didn''t dare to start a fight as he feared the sound of battle and smell of blood would attract more monsters. He didn''t want monsters to flood his path, or else he''d end up dying no matter how he tried.

    Not to mention he didn''t know the terrain here. So, if things went wrong, he''d not be able to run away in time. He might even run into more monsters while trying to escape.

    In brief, he decided to evade all monsters until he''d face something he''d be forced to fight, or he''d find his target.

    As he heard that subtle sound, he ducked on the ground and protected himself by the long weeds around like he used to do every time he met a monster. Darkness already prevailed in the world, but this didn''t stop William.

    He used his ears to locate the monster and get more information about it. ''From the pattern of its moves, it must be an agility based monster,'' he assessed the monster by the ces it emitted sound from.

    The monster seemed to notice William, as it was moving in a wide circle surrounding him. ''Trying to get me when I''m unprepared? A cunning monster indeed.''

    Monsters in bronze grade held a little level of intelligence. But it was enough for them to gauge their targets. They might not be this easy to kill thanks to their high alert and ability to assess the strength of their foes.

    But this monster felt different. It showed the intelligence of silver grade monsters. If not being near the outer zone of the forest, William might mistake it for being a higher grade monster.

    ''Will it be the one I''m looking for?'' thinking about that raised the level of excitement in his heart. William met silver monsters before, but they were all unsuitable for him. And he ended up disappointed many times already.

    As he waited, the sounds kept getting closer. ''Being impatient already? That''s a normal thing for such a silver grade monster like you,'' he inwardly sneered while tightening the bow in his hand.

    The bow was a totally curved one, made out of red wood and supported with a few thin tes of light ores. William closed his eyes and focused entirely and listened attentively to that monster''s moves.

    He would never underestimate a bronze grade monster, not to mention a silver one like this dude here. If he couldn''t escape at the right moment, he''d use his arrows to buy himself time before finding a way out.

    He was worried about the agility of this monster. Speed blessed monsters were this hard to shake off, and he was lucky to not meet something like that except this time.

    In time the monster got closer to him, he already figured out its moving pattern. It was jumping from a spot to another ten metres away, always in curves and not straight lines.

    The monster seemed to have feathers that emitted subtle noises while moving. William knew a lot of monsters like this, so he needed to first see his target before deciding its kind.

    Without the need to say, he knew he couldn''t run away this time without a fight. From the speed that monster showed, William knew he''d be outrun if he depended solely on his legs to run away.

    The monster was this fast and it was just trying to surround him. If a battle erupted, then that monster would show a higher level of speed.

    William started to ready himself for this battle. He was fortunate enough to evade fighting for half a day already. But his luck seemed to run thin at this moment.

    He hoped it''d be one of the two types of monsters he was looking for. Even if he ended up killing it and it wasn''t suitable, he would just absorb its core and raise his spirit power.

    As for the smell of blood, he''d have to run away fast enough and pray the battle here wouldn''t attract many monsters.

    "Got you!" Once the monster became closer than fifty metres, William didn''t wait any longer. His bow could release arrows for a hundred metre distance at least. So, he still had a buffer zone to hit that monster before running away.

    *Fwoosh!"

    Just as he released his arrow, he stood up, opened his eyes wide, and a candle of light was thrown the next moment. The arrow travelled fast, and it seemed to startle the monster as it didn''t expect its prey to fight back.

    "Roar!"

    This time it was a unique thunderous roar. William didn''t even need the help of the green light of the candle to determine this monster''s kind.

    "The nightfall lightning fox¡­ Damn! I ended up meeting such a rtive to you, old fox," Instead of panicking, William wasughing in pure excitement.

    His prayers were answered this time, as that fox was just perfect for his needs.

    This monster hailed from the fox n, but it came as a variation between foxes and lightning birds. So, it was normal to have feathers on its body, a mix between dark and lightning spirits.

    Instead of the small physique known for foxes, this one was more like a cheetah. William looked at his foe while the arrow he released just flew fast towards it.

    But with such a roar, a strange light emitted from its mouth, dazzling to the eye, pure milky white in colour. In an instant it mmed against the arrow, smashing it into pieces.

    "Not going to fall easily, aren''t you?" Despite thising as a surprise to William, he instantly reacted. That attack from the fox monster wasn''t just aimed to stop his arrow, but it also covered the remaining distance and went towards him as well.

    Such a monster showed another variation. That attack seemed to carry the element of lightning and light, making that fox monster a hybrid type monster. Hybrid monsters were strong and vicious, which exined why it showed such intelligence while being only silver grade.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh*

    This time William demonstrated his vast fighting experience. That monster wasn''t the only one with quick reflexes, William also was.

    The moment that light attack appeared, William jumped to the side instantly to evade it. At the same time, he took out two arrows and released them in session, one towards the monster, and the other to the left side of it.

    "Roar!"

    Another light attack fell and the arrow heading directly towards the monster got destroyed.

    As for the other arrow, the monster didn''t give it any heed. It seemed the monster mistook William''s actions for his attempt to close any escape route on it. Or just a preemptive move from William, future reading its next moves and aiming at that spot it would jump at next.

    But it underestimated William!

    *Boom!*

    Using the weak spirit connection with that arrow, William diverted its course at thest moment. The arrow strangely arched midair before mming heavily on the unprepared monster.

    Then a loud explosion urred.

    The efforts of William weren''t wasted. Just from the size of the exploding fireball, William knew if this monster wasn''t killed, then it would be heavily injured.

 Chapter 29 The Nightfall Lightning Fox

    ?William made his arrows to deal perfectly well with silver grade monsters. Even if this was a mix between two species of monsters, and also a hybrid, William doubted it would emerge unscathed from his arrows.

    But the next moment, William had to jump again to evade another light attackbined with a mighty roar from the monster.

    "Still not enough to take you down then," William felt pain in the roaring of the monster, yet he didn''t feel any sign of weakness. It was apparent that his arrow didn''t inflict the expected damage for reasons he could guess.

    Without waiting for the cloud of fire, smoke, and dust to be cleared, he instantly took out three arrows and released them in three different directions.

    "Roar!"

    The monster attacked again. This time he didn''t ignore any of William''s arrows. It learnt its lesson from a painful past experience and made sure to attack the three arrows at the same time. And with each attack, it kept roaring in loud and annoying way that got on William''s nerves.

    "Shut the hell up! You are going to wake the entire forest, goddammit!"

    The roars were so loud, even louder than the explosions of his arrows. There was a lightning effect in these roars, but that didn''t affect William greatly.

    lightning would add a numbing and even paralysing effect to any attack even if it was a sound based one.  And as the monster used a sound based attack like this, it wanted to meddle with his mind and will. Yet this didn''t put William under much pressure.

    After all, William''s own will wasn''t of an eight years old kid. Trying to affect his mind and movement using such useless weak lightning wasn''t enough.

    If the monster used a direct hitbined with lightning like that light bolt attacks, then William would be in danger by then.

    *Woosh!* *Woosh!* Woosh*

    Likest time, William released three arrows before he threw something afterwards. The monster attacked the arrows like before, but this time there was another thing hidden behind them.

    "Roar!"

    It was a much painful roar this time, and it told William that that monster got severely wounded by his knife. What William threw after his arrows was one of his flying knives. Even if the monster could smash his arrows, he couldn''t affect the totally under his control knife.

    And William was sure his knives were much stronger than the arrows.

    "Roar!" but this was only the beginning of hell for this monster. William didn''t only send four more knives to attack it, he also controlled the knives once they got into that monster''s body and made them move deeper in its flesh.

    The more they moved, the weaker the roars of the monster became.

    "Die in peace and silence," as the monster became much weaker, William didn''t depend on such a slow way to kill it. He wasn''t a sadist to begin with. So he sent three arrows in session, killing that monster in the middle of three mighty explosions.

    The monster issued itsst roar before it fell with its big body. During this shing battle that didn''tst more than half a minute, William couldn''t clearly see its body.

    But once the monster died, he made sure of his earlier guesses. Once he started to examine the fox''s body, he was sure this wasn''t a simple nightfall lightning fox.

    There was a strange long bone stretching all the way from its neck to its thick furred long tail. That bone was bright silver in colour, meaning it was one of the best ces in its body brimming with spirit power.

    One had to know that silver grade monsters could give more materials than white or bronze grade ones. William ced his hand on that bone and felt its smooth and slightly soft contour.

    "So, you are a hybrid with an interesting light element," he muttered in low tone as this was the first time ever for him to see such a monster. "I guess it''s my lucky day! I didn''t only get one of the elements like I hoped for, but three at once. Thanks buddy, I appreciate your help."

    It got dark, lightning and a light element. It was just awesome and perfect for William.

    Unlike before, he didn''t hurry to dissect this monster at the spot to im his loot. Instead, he started to grab its huge body to a safer ce; a slight cave covered by thick bushes he found a mile away.

    William was sure this battle must have attracted the attention of many monsters around. Even if he tried his best to finish it fast, just the sounds of explosions from his arrows and the noisy roars of that monster were enough to attract many eyes here.

    Not to mention the smell of blood would attract more in the next few hours. But he got a solution already for the problem of blood smell.

    As William knew evading battles here was nearly impossible, he made preparations to solve the most important problem of any battle, the smell of blood.

    As he knew he had to fight eventually, he kept looking for perfect hide spots everywhere he went to. And that just came handy at this moment or else he''d have to look for a suitable ce to hide and absorb the monster''s spirit, wasting precious time in the process and putting himself into danger.

    The body of this monster was really heavy. It spanned for five metres in length and almost one and half metre in width. The variation it got by that light element bone made it a little heavier than William initially thought.

    But that didn''t stop William from moving the carcass. If William waited for few more minutes there, he was sure he''d end up fighting more monsters.

    William moved towards that cave which he met just before meeting the fox monster. It was the safest ce he could think of around this region, the only safe ce he met close to the battlefield.

    Once moved there, he started first to scatter the powder he got from crushing roots of certain nts he picked along the way.

    "This will help mask that heavy blood smell," he shook his hand off the powder after finishing covering the entire cave area and the closest part of the path he took toe here.

    Then he went inside and ced the heavy body of that fox in the end of this cave.

    The process of absorbing monster spirit wasn''t short or simple. Besides, any interruption in the middle of it would end with a failure and a big bacsh.

    So, William took his time to close the opening of that cave with more nts and roots. He even used some dirt. He didn''t want anything to interrupt him during the process.

    This cave was underneath the roots of a big, towering tree. The tree itself needed a group of ten people together to surround it.

    But it was situated on the edge of a slope, and the cavey just in that spot with a narrow hole appearing from outside.

    The small opening led into a slightly spacious cave. It wasn''t that wide butpared to his cab, it certainly was big enough.

    "Time to get myself a good spirit," he said while eyeing the monster he killed with eyes filled with greed and much anticipation.

    He sat beside the dead body of the monster and didn''t even light a single candle. It was still dark outside, and light could be noticed easily by monsters.

    He closed the opening, but he doubted what he did was enough to block the light of the candle. If monsters from outside noticed the light here, then he''d get interrupted while absorbing the spirit of that fox monster.

    Lying in such darkness, he felt the body of that monster before reopening the old wound on his left hand. He felt weird, as he started to feel his left hand turning into his blood donor in this life.

    *Doom* *Doom!* *Doom!*

    Like a heart beating, once his bloody hand touched the monster, the entire body of that dead fox started to emit a faint myriad of different lights. William wasn''t startled by this. After all this was an expected result.

    The way to absorb any monster spirit depended entirely on using spirit master''s blood in the process. And William already got the unbelievable devouring ability. So, he expected a much fiercer reaction and even few changes to the process he was familiar with.

    He didn''t remove his hand or even stop the bleeding. Instead, he pressured with his hand further while making sure there was no gap between the two.

    The more beating it came, the more changes happened to his blood and to the monster''s body. The blood started to move, coalescing together and forming a unified nket of white material.

    It was a manifestation of his current spirit. It wasn''t pure white, but white that was mixed with many impurities, turning it slightly darker and less appealing to the eye.

    As for the monster''s body, it started to turn translucent under his bloody touch. All the ces covered showed its internal organs, bones, until a thin wisp of fog appeared deep in the centre of that body.

    This was the monster''s spirit; the one William aimed to absorb and merge with at the moment.

 Chapter 30 Waking Up After Four Days

    ?That wisp of smoke was silver in colour, expressing the grade of this monster. William didn''t hurry to absorb it as he first waited for his blood to entirely cover the monster''s body before making his move.

    All he did was to think about sucking this wisp and the wisp moved. Like being attracted by a hidden force, that smoke moved inside William''s body.

    Then everything went nk in his eyes while William entered a state of trance.

    That wisp of silver smoke started to melt slowly and merge with his spirit. William stayed in such a state for a longer time than he predicted.

    He imagined it would take roughly half a day, a day at most. But it took far longer than that. For four consecutive days, William remained in his position while his spirit kept absorbing the spirit of the monster.

    *Crack!*

    Just staying like this for a long time left a stiffening effect on his weak body. The moment he moved; his body issued cracking sounds before opening his eyes.

    A sh of silver light passed there, before it instantly vanished. William looked around and couldn''t help but feel strange when he noticed the faintyer of dust on his body.

    "Did I take a whole day here or what?" He wasn''t aware of the time he spent here. He focused solely on the merging process, but from the bright world outside he could tell it was already daytime.

    "Let''s see what changed," as he finished this merge, he didn''t even try to eat or drink something. He took out a spirit crystal and one of the candles before he started assessing his power.

    The moment he injected his spirit power inside the crystal, the entire crystal shone in bright silver light. "I passed the spirit formation stage and entered the spirit foundation one¡­ That''s great!"

    He expected this fox''s spirit to just bring his own outside the mud phase into the spirit formation stage. But now that silver light was a trademark for the spirit foundation stage.

    For a spirit to be in the mud phase, it wouldn''t show any shape at all. At spirit formation stage, the spirit would show a faint shape of the monster it belonged to.

    Just like Berry''s case, her spirit power took the form of a phoenix and a dragon. So, she was in the spirit formation stage.

    In the spirit foundation stage, the spirit would start to show small circr movement around, taking what could be said as pir bases in the spirit. And even before his spirit could take a full form, he noticed the presence of these pir bases in his spirit.

    As the light stabilised, William started to inspect the crystal. What he saw made his jaw drop without knowing if he shouldugh or not.

    "This¡­ I didn''t imagine I even took that bastard''s spirit away!"

    Just inside the crystal, a small version of a fox with two tails appeared. The fox was smaller in size, with faint silver fur covering its body.

    William knew it wasn''t like the fox he killed and absorbed its spirit. If so then that monster only had one tail, not two! Not to mention the difference in the shape and colour of the fur.

    The monster he killed had feathers and not fur. No matter how William saw it, it was a miniature version of the nine tailed fox he fought before dying anding here.

    "There is that back bone extending over its back, so it can be considered as a mixture between the two foxes or what?" William muttered to himself while closely inspecting that fox spirit he had.

    But aside from that backbone, everything else was just simr to the old enemy of his.

    "Two tails¡­ Hmm¡­ Never imagined that damned fox had to gain its tails by advancing his spirit grade," this was a new knowledge he didn''t know about his enemy.

    Gaining two tails was linked to having achieved the spirit foundation stage, which was considered phase two in the spirit evolution path. Thinking like that matched the nine tails that fox had when William fought him. That fox was in the ninth spirit stage, which was trying to ascend to the legendary tenth stage and be a god.

    When William thought about it, he couldn''t help but feel a bit weird. It was a very simple conclusion, yet neither anyone managed to link things together before.

    "So, I got your devouring ability plus your spirit, hehehe! I can''t imagine the look on your face if you ever heard about that!"

    William was satisfied by this. He knew such a result happened because he identally absorbed the spirit of a monster rted to that damn fox. Or else his fox spirit wouldn''t have grown into such a state.

    He realised now he ascended two stages directly thanks to such coincidence. And that made him grin evilly.

    Then he started to count the spirit power spots inside the crystals. "Eighty points? I gained almost thirty points in just one day! Wow!"

    He didn''t know he was here for four days. But even if he knew, gaining such an increase in the span of four days was already something good.

    He gained such an increase thanks to the little modification the method to raise one''s spirit experienced in his body. His devouring ability made sure to absorb spirit power from that fox''s core, adding thirty points to his tally.

    In usual times, few points would be added to one''s spirit power count, no more than ten points. But others didn''t have his heaven defying devouring ability which enabled him to get more spirit power.

    But the good news ended here. When he sought the dead monster body for its core, he was disappointed to find nothing there.

    "Did I consume it while absorbing its spirit? Was it the reason behind my spirit power increase?" he frowned but the facts were there in front of his eyes.

 Chapter 31 A Backlash!

    ?He wasn''t aware that the core moved with the monster spirit and was digested with it. As he didn''t have the core, he started to dissect the monster''s body.

    And again, he got disappointed.

    "What''s going on here?" he stood in front of the monster''s body, "the parts are all ruined like they got decayed. This won''t happen until more than a day has passed!"

    At this point, he realised he stayed longer than one day in his absorption process.

    "Time to test the spirit I gained," he threw all this behind his back and anticipated using his spirit for the first time.

    For spirit masters, using their spirits was one of the ways to fight. The process usually required spirit power and the spirit master would transform into a version of the monster his spirit had.

    The duration of such transformation depended entirely over one''s total spirit power. The stronger one became, the longer his transformation would be.

    That was why having spirits with different elements and unique traits was something crucial to any spirit master. The more elements one had, the stronger he''d be in battles.

    "Cough! Cough!" Yet the moment he tried to activate his fox spirit; he felt a strong bacsh that made him cough up blood. His body felt like it got mmed against a fast moving train, ending up shaking all over and getting suddenly weakened.

    "Damn! It seems my spirit power isn''t even enough to activate this spirit¡­" he fell on the ground while coughing blood again, feeling a little weak.

    He tried to activate his spirit and failed, which was something heavily taxing on his body. He never imagined his newly evolved spirit would bring him such bad news.

    "My spirit power didn''t even scratch the bronze ranking of spirit masters¡­ And my spirit is considered in the second phase of spirit evolution¡­ Does that mean I have to wait until I be a bronze spirit master before trying it again?"

    He felt a little doubtful about this. The bacsh was indeed painful, and if he repeatedly failed in such an attempt, his body might get permanent damage.

    He took a couple of hours to rest, not daring to move abruptly or do anything at all. He took part of the food he had and ate to restore his wasted energy while lost in deep thoughts.

    William thought deeply about this, taking such a matter quite seriously. It was like someone having a grand sword, but he couldn''t even wield or use it!

    It was quite frustrating to him. Yet he tried to remain calm and thought rationally about this.

    "I have to get over one thousand and half to get to be a silver ranked spirit master. If my guesses are correct, then I should wait until my spirit power count is closer to this number or even wait until I cross it¡­ Tsk! How unlucky!"

    This came as terrible news for him. Raising up his spirit power to such a number was a task that''d take a long time even for someone like him.

    But he also was aware of how risky it''d be to try out summoning his spirit and he wasn''t ready yet. Against his unwillingness, he decided to not give it another attempt until he reached silver grade first.

    This left him in quite a bad mood.

    "I shall test my new spirit power, hopefully nothing bad will happen this time."

    Before he could distract himself and try examining his increased spirit power, he heard a loud banging from outside, followed by a massive explosion.

    The explosion was strong enough to shake the entire cave, making thick lines of soil to fall over.

    "What''s going on?" William threw behind all his disappointment and disturbed thoughts and moved towards the block of bushes and soil he ced at the entrance. And there he tried to see through the small gaps and check what was going on outside.

    "You don''t have any ce to run to, hahaha!"

    "Come on, stop running already! We have been chasing you for an entire week!"

    "You should sumb to your fate. Your family is destroyed, and all your rtives are killed by our n. You are lucky tost all this time on your own, but your luck runs out here."

    Many mean and sinister shouts came for William to hear perfectly fine even inside his sealed cave. From the gaps in the entrance blockade, William could see a group of nine youths surrounding one whose face couldn''t be seen, covered by a mask.

    That dude wasn''t short, at least twenty centimetres taller than William. He had tall ck hair, held two swords in his hands, standing tall and mighty in front of all those people while protecting a smaller body behind.

    She was a little girl, not exceeding six years old. The panicked expression on her face was obvious, with traces of mud, blood, and dried up tears spoiling her childish angelic face.

    Just from seeing her face, William felt a gush of sadness inside his heart. It was like there was no other person much sadder than this little girl at this moment in the world.

    And that face was evidence of how brutal the fight she and the person shielding her faced during the past week. It seemed that the proimed chase didn''t happen smoothly as anyone would expect.

    "You bunch of barbarians! You used our people, and in the end, you decided to bind us with such an enving marriage contract! When we said no, you killed all of us! I won''t let this grudge down even in hell. If you have the courage thene, I''ll make sure to take a few of you to visit hell with me!"

    Just as William was trying to get the head and tail of this weird encounter, that masked dude spoke in a loud tone. It didn''t carry any speck of fear, only rage and regret.

    That voice also carried another surprise for William. It was loud and clear in his ears, and he could tell it was a girl''s voice.

    William was surprised to realise that this brave youth was a girl, a girl with such courage and determination to fight such an unfair fight to protect that little girl''s life and hers in front of nine strong looking enemies.

    "Tsk, I hate those ganging up over girls like this," William muttered to himself while counting the enemies again.

 Chapter 32 The Two Sisters

    ?Even when she was surrounded like this, she never showed any sign to surrender. Instead, she challenged and even threatened those youths around, using strong and firm words.

    And that left a deep touch in William''s heart. He greatly admired those brave ones, who chose to keep their heads high even in the face of unchangeable obstacles.

    "Who said you should have such abnormal powers and live freely? Your people aren''t humans, but monsters. You shall be in the lowest rank in the entire world, not to ask for any right like any spirit master. And you should have listened to us and do as you are ordered. If you did, none of this would ever have to happen," one of the groups surrounding the two girls said in vicious tone before another one added:

    "Our young master got fond of you. You should have agreed and not rejected his grace. The blood of your people is all on your hands, b*tch!"

    "You are going to die by my swords, I swear," what that youth said seemed to trigger the wrath and hatred of the masked girl.

    "We are nine and you are all alone. I can''t believe even with your strength you can stop us from killing you and your little sister," despite saying such big words, no one ever took a single step forward.

    William felt that this group of people were really afraid of that girl.

    "Don''t you care about your little sister? Come on, you can''t be this cold-hearted person," another tried to persuade her to surrender herself without putting up ast stand against them, "If you came back with us and agreed to sleep with our young master, I''m sure he will forgive your little sister at least."

    "Don''t listen to him, sister. I prefer to die than to let that maniac touch you."

    Yet the answer didn''te from the masked girl, but from the trembling and terrified little one behind.

    Even with all the fear she was feeling and expressing, she said such brave and strong words that made William decide to act.

    He wasn''t a guy fond of charity. However, seeing such brave girls stand against those bullies made his blood boil. He always got bullied when he was weak, and most people just closed an eye and moved to live their lives as if nothing happened.

    Besides, something seemed fishy here. From the brief discussion he overheard he just heard; he felt the origin of these two girls wasn''t simple.

    Not to mention from the look of things, that masked girl shouldn''t be that strong. Even if she had spirit power higher than one hundred, the others also should have the same level of power. And there were nine of them!

    William asked himself this: Why were these nine acting in such fear and caution in front of her?

    "Excuse me fellow friends from far," at this moment, William decided to step out and show himself. The moment he appeared and talked; everyone got an instant scare as all the eyes fell over him at this moment.

    Even the two girls looked at him as well. It seemed no one ever noticed his presence until he spoke up and moved out of that sealed cave.

    All this just happened a few tens of metres in front of that slope. Yet none managed to see through the thick cover he ced over that little cave''s opening that night.

    "You are¡­" one of the youths, who seemed to be the leader of those thugs, spoke first. He turned to William while gazing up and down at him, sizing him up.

    And as William finally got out from that cave, everyone managed to take a full nce at him, and recognised his origins.

    "White clothes and that mark on your chest¡­ It''s the Aspire academy porter clothes," another youth spoke up, identifying William''s identity in mere seconds.

    As William went outside, he could clearly see this group as well. They weren''t much older than him. Their bodies looked tough and robust, and they wore dark blue outfits with a golden mark on their right shoulders.

    "Golden eagle mark, dark blue tight outfits with long capes and silver hoods¡­ You are from the golden sky academy, second year disciples I believe."

    In return for the earlier remark from that kid, William also didn''t dy in greeting them in the same way, or even a better and more detailed manner.

    "A porter from such a trash academy has no say in our matters. If you don''t leave while I''m being kind, don''t me me for killing you," the one who spoke first said in such an arrogant and cold tone.

    He wasn''t acting kind or anything. But the presence of a porter meant there was a group from the Aspire academy nearby. And that was what made that kid refrain from touching William.

    Killing a porter wasn''t a big deal in any academy. But killing a porter on the hands of a rival academy was. That dude feared to start an undesired fight with spirit masters from another academy, fearing the two girls would slip away with their lives, taking advantage of the chaos brought up by such battle.

    That spirit master who just spoke had a strange scar on the side of his chin, making his chin look like it got divided into two halves by an axe or something. This wasn''t the only ugly thing he had, but also his nose bridge was broken and showed a couple twists, indicating unattended care for his injuries.

    William didn''t care about such useless threats, and instead started to calmly examine that dude from head to toe.

    He had short brown hair, faint brown eyes like honey, with strange earrings ending up with small spiky metal balls at the end of each¡­ All those fine details gave William an insight about his origin.

    "You are from the Rockos n, right?" William didn''t show any signs of being humble or terrified. Least he showed any intention of leaving.

 Chapter 33 Go And Kill Him

    ?He might have been a porter in his past life, but information regarding famous ns and families of rival academies was well known news to everyone in his academy. So, he didn''t find any difficulty in recognising that dude.

    "A porter like you knows about our prestigious n? Then scram before you''ll lose your life here," another kid said in aggressiveness, but he didn''t move an inch towards William.

    It seemed these kids were afraid of their prey going berserk and escaping if an opening presented itself. So, all they could do was to try and scare William away, using anything possible to achieve that.

    "I recall hearing some stories about your n," William nodded in agreement before his face was covered up with a cold expression, "I know you are one of the big traitors inside that academy. Not only are you bad guys, bullying little girls, but you also work with the enemy. Tell me, why should I let you all live?"

    The moment the words of Williamnded and the expression over the nine faces of them instantly turned unsightly. William knew the names of a few of the dark spirit master ns from his past life. And it just happened that this n was one of that short list of his.

    He couldn''t believe his luck was this great, meeting up such an old enemy in such an unexpected way.

    "You just signed the death sentence of yourself, idiot," one of themughed before others broke inughter as well. William could feel the strange gazes falling all over his body from the masked girl.

    In their eyes, he was a harmless and powerless porter, one who didn''t even have enough spirit power to harm them. Not to mention they were bronze graded spirit masters of a much stronger academy.

    So even if they risked a battle with the team William served, they were willing to do so after what he just exposed about their hidden truth.

    They didn''t know how William got to know such a secret, but they knew William was going to die a horrible death thanks to his useless tongue.

    As for William, he was busy thinking about something entirely different!

    He decided to show up to help on a whim, but now he was d he did. He would never allow such traitors to exist in this world, not while he had the chance to kill them.

    In the eyes of any bystander, William was seeking his death. He wasn''t only outnumbered, but he was also a porter, not even a spirit master.

    But William wasn''t weak, nor seeking death.

    In fact, anyone watching this bizarre situation would frown! Two weak looking girls were enough to scare nine strong and robust spirit masters. And now a powerless porter was standing without fear, challenging them!

    Yet, the spirit world was filled with many mysteries, and miracles as well.

    Fighting in the spirit world followed a certain set of rules.

    Spirit power might be a way to determine the individual strength of any spirit master, but it wasn''t the main factor in determining the fighting ability of anyone.

    A strong spirit master must have a strong spirit, a suitable training manual, learn suited fighting techniques, and have vast fighting experience on top of that.

    The spirit would give spirit masters many options per the elements the spirit controlled. Unluckily for William, his spirit couldn''t be used or else he''d rather move a finger and end up killing all of them in a sh.

    Techniques were ways to utilise one''s spirit power in more efficient way. The more techniques the spirit master knew, the stronger he''d be in any fight.

    But each technique required a certain amount of spirit power to use. It would be useless for a spirit master to know tons of techniques while his spirit power was too low.

    And that was precisely the case of William right now. He knew tons of techniques, and many were formidable and even considered legendary. Yet his spirit power was too low to even consider using any.

    As for the spirit power, it just acted like fuel for any machine. Without it, no spirit master could fight properly. But having a higher spirit power didn''t mean one would win any fight for sure.

    Yet what made him stand in such a cool way without feeling any speck of worry was his vast fighting experience.

    Who was William? He was someone who lived a life full of fighting and intense battles. Hisbat experience alone was enough to scare any other spirit master.

    Did it matter? Of course, it did! Like this situation, even when faced up with nine higher spirit masters than him, William didn''t even feel any pressure at all. In fact, he just felt how silly it was for just green horn spirit masters toe out and challenge such a veteran like himself.

    "If you have the ability to do it, thene and show me," William provoked them and his words managed to enrage the nine.

    "Go with Mark, bring me his head," the one who spoke was the one who spoke with William before. It seemed to be this little group''s leader. And he pointed his sword around his gang before sending two to fight William.

    As for the gap left by these two, he rapidly adjusted the encirclement around the girls to prevent them from escaping.

    Even at this moment, not a single one put William in the eye as a threat. Even the masked girl didn''t see him as a saviour.

    "I can''t believe a mere porter has the courage to even speak back to us," one of the two said in disdain while raising his sword high in the air, "you are a mere ve! It seems the Aspire academy has be quite weak recently to let such a useless brat speak up to his masters!"

    "If I were at your useless academy, I would have killed such an impudent porter like you a long time ago with my two hands! No wonder they always lose to us all the time," the second one said with a sneer as he also raised his sword above his head as well.

 Chapter 34 [Bonus ] The Real Value Of Combat Experience

    ?The two took the same stance, holding the hilt with both hands while a mocking smile appeared over their faces.

    They took him lightly enough that none ever considered the need to use their spirits while fighting him.

    William heard about the spirit type of this n; it was all rted to fiery smanders. He also recognised the fighting technique the two were using just from that sword stance.

    It was the red smander descending from the sky technique.

    "Don''t slow it down! Just kill him fast!" before they''d get closer to him, the leader shouted in impatience.

    It seemed he didn''t like how lightly and casually they were dealing with William. After the angry words of their leadernded, the two kids didn''t hold back anymore and summoned their spirits.

    Their bodies emitted faint red colour before getting a bit swollen. Only the upper half of their bodies got such changes, while both arms swelled up the most.

    "Watch out! One is releasing a fire sh and the other is releasing a wind sh!" Just before the attack started, the masked girl seemed to take pity on William and shouted in warning.

    "A wind smander? That''s a good variant spirit," William snorted before he unsheathed his gold grade sword from its scabbard. "Let''s see how you''ll deal with me."

    "Even at the face of death you are still an ignorant porter, humph," one of the two harrumphed but he never expected what William did next.

    Just as the masked girl said, one of the twonded his sword first before the other followed. The spirit power gathered up in the upper body was released through the sword and formed two identical curved shes, one of fire and the other of wind.

    Since the two merged with their spirits, they gained the boost of the elements their spirits supported. One kid had the typical fire spirit of that n, and the other had a variation of wind element instead of fire.

    The wind sh moved faster and merged with the fire attack before the two travelled faster as the fire got fiercer. The wind didn''t only boost the speed of fire, but also helped in increasing its intensity.

    However just when the two imagined William getting engulfed with their strongbined attack, William vanished from his ce.

    "Good," William simply jumped to the side, with an evil smile on his face, "you two are out of the game... You are next!"

    Without pausing, William started running towards the closest member of the group surrounding the two girls. William just stirred his spirit power inside his body, adding a tinge of whiteyer over his skin.

    "Damn! He isn''t a porter, he is a spirit master," the leader instantly shouted in surprise, "be careful John, he ising for you."

    "Got it!"

    The one name John wasn''t any bit slow and instantly raised his sword high and held it with both hands. His body showed the same changed that appeared over the other two.

    The next instant another fire sh appeared and travelled fast towards William.

    "Going to help you, bud," another kid joined in and released another fire sh towards William.

    But like before, William simply jumped in session and avoided the two attacks without any trouble. "Four are out," his evil smile didn''t escape his face for even a second before turning around and started to run into another direction.

    "Kill him!" At this point the leader of this team realised that William wasn''t simply jumping around like a monkey, evading the attacksing at him as it might seem from the outside.

    Unknown sense of danger overwhelmed that leader at this moment and drove him to shout in distress, "cover up any ce he can jump at, don''t let him escape this one."

    "Humph," William didn''t feel any pressure at all. Just this shout made him want to loudlyugh. The leader in the middle of his panic seemed to miss William''s real goal here.

    The other fourunched their attacks towards William in unison. One hit the ce William was at, two came on both sides, and one aimed for the rear.

    "Let''s dance," but instead of retreating, William did an unexpected move by stepping forward and weed the iing attacks. This looked insane, as he was now facing all the iing curved sword shes head on.

    Yet just like he said, he danced. His legs started to alternate right and left while jumping one time to the right and another to the left. With such bizarre moves, William evaded all the iing attacks with shocking ease.

    Even thest one, which aimed at the rear with a brilliant curve, William evaded it with a simple move. He ducked on the ground by bending his legs. And with it he let his body lean to the ground, letting that sword sh move above his head, without touching a single hair of his.

    This might seem to take a long time, but it all happened in a span of seconds. In less than ten seconds, William forced this group tounch their strongest attacks, activate their spirits, and evaded them all.

    "Eight are worthless now," William stood up with his irritating smile, "you shouldn''t have used your strongest attack from the start. Idiots! That''s why thebat experience matters more than anything else!"

    At this point, William was already envisioning the death of all of them. In fact, when he faced the first two, he was doing this to probe them.

    It was obvious, this group of traitors were hunting down the two girls for a week. From the look of things, the two sides shed together frequently during such a fervent chase.

    William suspected they weren''t in their top form, but he never expected them to have such little spirit power left. Just by using a single technique, their spirit power was exhausted.

    The sign of depleting the spirit power appeared in the fast withdrawal of the spirit power from all around the body. When the first two kids activated their spirits and used their attacks, the spirit started to fade away even before the sword shes merged together andbined.

    It was a sign that the experienced William''s eyes wouldn''t miss.

    "Go and kill them and have your revenge," as he pushed these traitors over the edge of the cliff, William said to the shocked masked girl. "They are all without enough spirit power to even defend themselves," and he let the honour of pushing them over that cliff to that girl.

 Chapter 35 Kill Them All!

    ?It didn''t matter if you have a higher spirit power, what mattered was how you''d use it in the fight. Even the strongest spirit masters wouldn''t stand a chance if he depleted his spirit power in such idiotic way like this group here.

    "They¡­" the masked girl was taken aback by what she heard.

    "Spirit masters with not enough spirit power to cast a single technique are like sitting ducks," William knew such a concept of fighting that wasn''t known to this world. "Just go and I guarantee they will only scream and plead for mercy."

    "They won''t get any mercy from me," at this moment the masked girl was stirred up with the words of William as she coldly said. Holding two swords horizontally like they were wingsing out from her, she went in steady steps towards the all frightened and pale faced spirit masters.

    In this world, only the spirit master would know if his spirit power was depleted or not. After hearing what William said, and seeing the death reapering to them, they got freaked out!

    "Stay back, stay back or I''ll kill your sister!" the leader, the only one with enough spirit power to fight, screamed in panic. He wanted to threaten her, but his voice came trembling and weak.

    He had to feel like that! In a span of seconds his superiority here turned upside down in such a shocking way.

    If his group got killed, then he had zero confidence in keeping his life intact against this brutal girl and weird kid in front of him.

    His threat managed to force that masked girl to pause. "Do your business," yet the calm voice of William came as if he didn''t put that leader in his eyes, "leave him to me."

    The girl nodded towards William while thetter put aside his sword and took out his bow.

    "I''ll kill you damn liar! I never met a shameless spirit master like you before, acting like you are a porter," the leader shouted in rage and panic. Then he started to gather his spirit power around.

    He didn''t intend to use any of his techniques. After all, it proved useless against the all agile and slippery William. And he feared if he used a few techniques and missed, he would end up the same as his friends.

    "Humph, who pulled such a prank on you and told you war was fair?" William snorted as he took three arrows and released them one by one towards the leader. "me only your n for being such traitors to the human world."

    The leader wasn''t weak, and he still had enough spirit power. The first two arrows were evaded by a hair breadth before the third mmed onto him.

    "Duck!" and just before the arrow would hit the leader, William shouted for the little girl to duck and protect herself from what was going toe next.

    William easily guessed the direction that leader would move in. After all, he knew the spirit masters of this worldcked enough footwork in fighting and his third arrow would definitely hit that dude.

    As the third arrow exploded, sending the body of that leader airborne, it came fast towards the little girl. But as she listened to his words, the little girl fell to the ground, letting that broken body of that leader fly over her, before he mmed heavily on a tree.

    Landing there with deep wounds, he couldn''t even move. The masked girl paused for a second, feeling a surge of shock inside.

    The group of nine who tortured her all the way from the Golden Sky academy to here were simply going to fall here, by her hands! And it just happened in such an easy way!

    And the most shocking aspect was that they fell under one single person, one who looked harmless and wore a porter uniform.

    "Finish what you have to do fast and let''s leave this ce," William''s words jolted her awake. He was right, after all it was hard to believe that the n would only send one team after her and her little sister.

    "Ahh!"

    "You''ll die a horrible death! Do you hear me? A horrible and lonely death! Ahhh!"

    One by one the team was all killed by her. Even that heavily wounded leader was killed by the two swords of her.

    William watched her moves and was surprised to not feel a single speck of spirit powering from her. Even when some tried to run and she chased, she never used spirit power at all.

    William frowned. From the strength she disyed, he knew she wasn''t weak. But howe she didn''t use her spirit power during the attacks?

    "Thanks, mister, for helping me and my little sister," once done, the masked girl brought her sister along. With her words, she knelt on the ground while bowing her head deeply to William. "I''m Lina, and this is my little sister, Tina. we both are now in your care, young master."

    William knew what these words and that stance meant. The two girls acknowledged him as a master. He thought little about that before waving his hands.

    "Let it be this way, in front of others you call me young master. But between us, you call me big brother, alright?" He wasn''t fond of having people linked to him in such a way.

    Humans weren''t animals, and he didn''t like the idea of enving people. Yet he felt these two girls held a deep secret behind. Not to mention the clear grudge against one of the famous traitor ns.

    "Thanks, young master," the little girl, Tina, spoke in a fragile tone before her body suddenly copsed, giving her big sister a fright.

    "Tina¡­ Tina¡­ Can you hear me?" Lina shook Tina''s body but without any response from thetter. After simply examining her body, William found that it was so cold, and her little heart was weakly beating.

    "When was thest time you had a rest? Ate and drank something?"

 Chapter 36 The Selvators

    ?"We¡­ Only ran all the time from them," Lina''s voice trembled when she realised what was going on. Her little sister copsed out of exhaustion, hunger, and thirst.

    And she also felt a strange weakness when she realised that.

    "Wait here," William didn''t hurry to leave before he checked the bodies of the dead kids. Even if they were traitors, they came from one of the famous ns in the Golden Sky academy.

    "A good harvest," as expected, he found something valuable on the body of the leader he hit with his arrow. A dark red ring with a ck symbol of a smander appeared on the index finger of that leader.

    "Young master¡­ Don''t¡­" just before he could take it off, Lina stopped him, "this ring has a tracing rune inside. The n will be able to track its whereabouts and find you."

    "Thanks for the warning," William felt her genuine worry over him, yet he still took it off. This ring was a storage device, just like the one Berry had. It was more suitable for him than the bag he had on his back.

    "Such a little trick can''t stop me," as held it, he injected his spirit power but didn''t inspect the ring. He first sensed the body of the ring, before finally finding that small rune and crushed it.

    *Sizzle!*

    Like dried weed meeting fire, the smander symbol was burnt to flying ck ash before disappearing. "Like this it''s not traceable," William ced it on his middle finger.

    That leader had a bigger body than his, so the ring was a bit wider than his index finger. "He is worthy ofing from a big n," just as he examined the ring''s content, he was delighted to see what was inside.

    Many resources were there! From a mere nce, William felt there were tens of thousands of spirit crystals inside. The space of the ring was around fifty metres square, giving him a far bigger space to store up his belongings than his bag.

    He was a little disappointed to not find a single piece of decent gear to use inside. As for the gears these kids had, he collected them and added them inside the ring.

    The best piece was the armour that the leader wore. But it got damaged by his arrow. William decided to find a wayter on and fix this gold grade armour.

    Without thinking about it, he took everything from his storage bag and ced them inside the ring. As for the bag itself, he threw it over to Lina for her personal use.

    Such a ring would cost at least a hundred thousand spirit crystals in the market. Losing the five thousand worth bag he bought before wasn''t an issue right now.

    "Here... Give her a few drops from this and she will improve," he took a potion out of the ring and threw it over to Lina.

    She didn''t decline or hesitate to hold her sister, opening her mouth slowly, before pouring the few drops into her mouth.

    "She is getting better," William checked and found that Tina wasn''t in a dangerous situation at the moment.

    The potion he used was the one he got from Ellina.

    "Let''s go," after doing all this, he led the two girls away from this location. He knew the next hours would be intense when other teams would arrive and find out about this massacre.

    He left Tina for Lina to carry, while the two started their walk away from here.

    But William didn''t intend on going back to the academy right away. Instead, he led the two girls in wide circles, going deeper inside the forest.

    He knew he wouldn''t be able to evade monsters if he did so, but it was better than going towards the direction his enemies would predict.

    After all, they were close to the territory of the Aspire academy. It didn''t need a genius to figure out whoever did this to that group from the Golden Sky academy came from the Aspire academy.

    So he had to take a long detour and waste more time walking around before heading back to the academy.

    "What''s your story anyway?" As the three went away from the massacre''s location, William started to ask about the two girls'' backstory.

    He was truly curious to hear about what happened to them and what origins they had.

    "We belong to the Selvator people," Lina answered without any hesitation.

    "The Selvators¡­ That exins it then," William nodded in realisation. Selvators were part of a few special existences in this world where they weren''t like humans or monsters.

    Unlike the two, the Selvators didn''t have known spirits. William knew this was the main reason behind their inability to use spirit powers in this world.

    But he knew far more than that. There was nothing like species without spirits. However, the spirits of Selvators were unique. Unlike humans and monsters, they had their spirits merged with their bodies.

    That meant their bodies were the reservoirs of the souls they got.

    Selvators in this world were famous for their inhuman physical strength. In fact, their bodies grew stronger much faster than spirit masters raising their spirit power ranks.

    When he heard they were Selvators, he withdrew his earlier assessment of Lina''s age and considered lowering it by two years at least.

    That meant Lina, who looked like a ten years old girl, wasn''t any older than him.

    "We were part of a small family, one that was once a big n but declined to a tiny scale. The Rockos n''s patriarch''s grandson saw me in the academy and sought me as his girl, but I refused."

    "Why is that?" William asked, "in fact it seems better to get attached to a stronger n, right?"

    "We can''t betray our masters because they became weak," yet the answer Lina gave was firm and clear, "no matter what benefits he offered, my loyalty was for the Toros n, the one who I swore allegiance to from the moment I was born."

 Chapter 37 [Bonus ] The Toros Clan

    ?"Toros? You don''t mean the n with the earth element, the mighty armoured elephant spirit masters, do you?"

    William was instantly taken aback when he heard the name of that family. The Toros family wasn''t only a once strong and extremely famous n, but he had another tie with them.

    "They are¡­ Do you know them?" Lina''s eyes sparkled as she was surprised by William''s on the spot rightment. For a second there she recalled what William said when he met the Rockos'' kids.

    With a nce he recognized them, as he also recognized the Toros family.

    "Oh god¡­ Don''t tell me the Toros family got destroyed!" William didn''t answer her as he asked about another thing.

    "The Rockos attacked our people alone," Lina said, "but they didn''t touch the Toros family yet. The academy won''t allow them to do that."

    "For now," but William said another weirdment that left her more puzzled. "Tell me, are they still living in the remote red hills? At the northern borders of the academy?"

    "Damn! Are you a spirit master of the Aspire academy or the Golden Sky academy?!!" Lina was now pretty much shocked and confused.

    The Toros family was once strong and famous, renowned for their strong defensive capabilities. Yet that was over a century ago. Something old happened back at that time and the Toros n diminished to such a weak state, living in the shadow and protection of the academy.

    But what William said was right again and on the correct note. The Toros family did indeed live in that spot. He wasn''t only able to recognize them, he also knew where they lived. For a second there, Lina even doubted he was part of the Golden Sky academy.

    "I just love knowing about the world''s issues," William shrugged and didn''t exin. After all, his own ties with the Toros family weren''t easy to exin.

    If he had to describe it, then he owed a lifetime debt to one of them. If not for that spirit master''s help, he wouldn''t have escaped the previous destruction of this world alive or live to experience the outside world.

    "So, are you a porter or a spirit master?" Lina didn''t know why but after finding out that William knew her old masters, she couldn''t help but speak more friendly with him.

    "It''s¡­ Complicated," William mysteriously said before pointing to her mask, "are you nning to keep that thing on you all the time?"

    "I''m sorry, young master," under his sudden remark, she returned to her conservative attitude, "I swore to not show my face ever again as a redemption towards my family losses."

    "Not even a single peek? Don''t tell me you are this ugly," William teased her and all he could see was her eyes rolling.

    "Not a chance, young master."

    "Calling me a young master and not meaning it, that''s cold," Williamughed before he waved his hand, "never mind! Tell me, have you trained your spirit before?"

    "Spirit? Is it food?" and all of sudden, the weak voice of Tina echoed in both their ears, greatly startling them.

    As they travelled, William took out another potion, the breath of life''s precious potion, and sipped a few drops into the cracked lips of Tina from time to time.

    She seemed to get better as she slowly opened her eyes and weakly asked.

    "Tina? Are you awake? Thank God!" Lina forgot about everything else and hugged her little sister. William stood on the side without saying anything while Lina examined her sister.

    "Let''s go and have a ce to rest at," this time William chose a site on the side of a running river nearby.

    They gained enough rest this time. They already walked away from the battle region for a long enough distance. And by Tina''s regain of consciousness, William decided to spend a few hours there to let the two girls regain their strength, eat and drink.

    William then travelled with the two girls for almost four more days. During these, he kept killing bronze grade monsters and a couple silver grades without rest. The main problem he faced was that many of such monsters moved in packs.

    He didn''t dare to attack them. He still hadn''t started using any of his training manuals as there was time for such a thing. So, he was just limited with the arrows, the flying knives, the footwork, the little tricks he knew using ores and terrain in a fight, plus the help of Lina.

    Lina was really helpful, yet she only depended upon her physical strength. Shecked any technique to use, any spirit power to augment her strength. So, William couldn''t risk facing arge group of monsters even with her on his side.

    That made him lose much time in looking for suitable targets to attack. After four days of fighting, he finally exceeded the one hundred spirit power target by fifty points.

    "Time to go back," he finally decided to head back to the academy. During this time, his main concern wasn''t focused on killing monsters and increasing his spirit power alone, but to deal with another threat.

    He feared to meet any spirit master from the Golden Sky academy. So, he decided to move in wide circles, paths away from the direction of his academy. And his luck was good that he didn''t even meet a single one of them so far.

    "Young master, do you have a private residence back in the academy?"

    Despite the fact that he asked the little Tina many times already to not call him that, she kept using that title when addressing him.

    "Well, for now there is nothing I have back there," William couldn''t lie in front of the wide and innocent ck eyes of Tina, "but soon I''ll have arge ce of my own."

    William didn''t say he already had a small cab. After all, he was going to cause a stir back in the academy by his sudden and out of this world increase in strength.

    He officially entered the ranks of the bronze spirit masters by his spirit power alone. As for his spirit grade, it was already at silver grade or even equal to the spirit level ofmon gold spirit masters.

    Yet the academy didn''t know about spirit grading, so he didn''t put any hope on that. As he led the two girls back, killing any monster on their path, even the white grade ones, he kept dreaming about the shock he would give to the academy.

    Yet he didn''t know that he already caused a stir back in the academy while he was busy in the forest! He also didn''t know that his name and face became so widely known inside the academy, even among the academy masters!

 Chapter 38 I Want To Announce Something

    ?Two days ago, something expected happened. The little lie William told to Lang was discovered by Berry''s uncle.

    When Lang realised that William lied to him, he was instantly enraged. He searched the entire academy upside down looking for William without a single trace found of thetter.

    Such results made the image of William far worse than any porter would have and pushed many unsightly suspicions in the heads of the higher ups of Berry''s n. The next day, a huge number of posters were hung all over the academy with a detailed sketch of William''s appearance and a handsome reward for anyone telling the n about his whereabouts.

    Just when these posters were spread all over the academy, another person saw them and felt instant rage. She was the forger''s master, Ellina.

    Since William left her, Ellina took the few arrowheads he made and went to see the forging headmaster. The old man was busy with his work, but when he listened to Ellina''s unbelievable story and examined the arrowheads, he was given an instant delight.

    It wasn''t a surprise for the old man to agree on the deal Ellina struck with William. When he also knew about his true status inside the academy, just a mere porter, he decided to bestow an honorary title inside the department as a genius forging disciple.

    He even considered taking William as his direct disciple, to soon drop this thought under Ellina''s persistence.

    William already stated it clearly, he had a master, and a formidable one as well. Trying to give him such a position might greatly help him inside the academy, but it might also cause unneeded trouble with his master.

    So, Ellina kept waiting for William''s return. William promised her to convince his master and bring a list of new ways of forging that would change the entire forging future in the academy.

    One had to know that just from the few tricks William showed to Ellina, many applications were birthed out of these. The headmaster himself led a team of experienced masters to work on all the possible applications of such revolutionary ideas.

    Even the flying knives were mimicked and gave an enlightenment to these masters, not to mention shocking them as well.

    So, when Ellina saw the posters all over the academy and read their content, she didn''t hesitate to go back to ask for the headmaster''s help.

    The old man felt how weird it was. The timing gave him lots of doubt, but he didn''t jump to conclusions and went to see Berry''s father first.

    After all, the headmaster was from the same generation as Berry''s grandfather. And that made him a senior to Berry''s father.

    Knowing about traitors wasn''t a rare knowledge solely limited to William. Any formidable master in this world was well aware of their existence. Yet few traitors got linked with their dirty deeds.

    Just when the forging department found such a genius, such opportunity, such a thing happened. The old man didn''t believe this was a mere coincidence, but he also knew that the Long n wasn''t, under any means, a dirty n.

    Just when he went to visit the n, another thing happened. Berry woke up!

    Her waking up came as a pleasant surprise to everyone. When the old man of the forging department reached the Long n''s residence in a ce close to the academy, he noticed the cheers and the celebratory atmosphere there.

    But inside the main mansion of the n patriarch, things weren''t that good.

    "Father! He is my friend!!" When the old man arrived at the main hall, he found Berry shouting in rage, with tears running from her two eyes.

    In front of her were the big names of the Long n, led by her father and even her grandfather was present.

    Seeing the old man of the Long n present here, the forging department headmaster withdrew his intended performance to use his seniority over Berry''s father and reced it with utmost humbleness.

    "Excuse me, the forging department headmaster is here to pay his respect to the honourable patriarch."

    Just before any of the old men in the hall could say anything, the forging department headmaster stepped in, speaking with a strong tone, and yet a humble attitude.

    If Berry''s father was the only one here, he wouldn''t show any humbleness at all. But her grandfather was present. With such a formidable master here, one who was renowned worldwide, the old man had to lower his head a bit and greet that unreachable peak.

    "Little brother Sang, it''s been a long time since west met¡­ What pleasant surprise brought you here to my little n?" the grandfather, with bald head and wrinkled face, yet with bright fiery red eyes brimming with strength and life, said in greeting to Sang.

    On the side, Berry''s father gave her a silent signal from his eyes. In fact, the intense reaction from this precious girl made everyone here shocked.

    They were already celebrating her safety, but she was now crying. How could they not feel such shock and even depressed and puzzled?

    Yet before any of them would get to know the bottom of this, the forging headmaster, Sang, came in and entered the main hall.

    "I''m here for the posters you hung all over the academy," Sang knew it wouldn''t be easy to get what he came for with the presence of that old patriarch.

    "That porter called William?" Berry''s grandfather frowned a bit before giving his adorable and beloved granddaughter a side nce. "Do you happen to know anything about him?"

    Sang knew he couldn''t beat around the bush with such formidable spirit master in front of him. He knew Berry''s grandfather attitude and personality quite well and ying tricks or using talk games wasn''t something favourable for this monster.

    So, if Sang wanted to save William, he had to speak up directly and use an excuse that even Berry''s grandfather wouldn''t be able to refuse.

    "I came here today to announce something," Sang stopped almost ten metres away from Berry''s grandfather and others, "this kid, William, is from now on an honourable disciple in my department. Coming at him meansing at me."

 Chapter 39 A Promise He Will Soon Regret

    ?The old Sang''s words fell and caused a huger stir than Berry''s words among those present here. Who was Sang? Even the old patriarch had to give him a face and show special treatment to him.

    "Uncle, have you met him?" Berry''s face couldn''t help but brighten up when she heard the words Sang said.

    "I wasn''t the one to meet him, but he is safe and will always be," the old Sang felt the honest concern of Berry towards William, so he answered her question without holding back. "I won''t say it again," but he turned to face the frowned old patriarch, "this kid holds a great significance to the entire academy."

    "I want to meet this little dude even more right now," unlike what Sang expected, Berry''s grandfather suddenly broke intoughter. "Come, let''s sit down and talk about this William. I want to hear everything about him from you."

    "You¡­" the old Sang didn''t expect such a response. But as the old patriarch himself invited him, and so he couldn''t decline. And then he started to tell the tale Ellina told him.

    Berry didn''t exin things to her father or grandfather when she woke up. She thought that William was in enough trouble already. If she told them about what he did for her, who knew what the old men here would do to him.

    Just a simple misunderstanding brought William such trouble already. Besides, she didn''t know if she got the right to expose William''s secrets to others, even to her father and grandfather.

    "Grandfather, we need to remove these posters now," after everything was cleared, Berry finally had the courage to speak about her thoughts again.

    "Of course, of course," her grandfather was in a better mood now. Who was he? He was one of the powerhouses of the entire academy. Even amidst the empire, his name was still ringing with his big deeds.

    So, when he heard about what William did when forging his arrows, the old patriarch could see the importance of William. he inwardlymended the decisive actions of the forging headmaster by giving William such special treatment.

    "Come, let your grandfather check your status," after the old Sang left, the grandfather sat with Berry in a secluded room.

    When his little granddaughter hesitated and put up such a funny frowning expression, the old patriarchughed. "You might trick others'' eyes, but not me. I know you made a breakthrough in your strength. Tell me, was it that kid''s doing?"

    Berry felt an instant scare and started to give excuses for William, yet her grandfather didn''t have the slightest intention of touching William.

    In his eyes this mysterious kid didn''t only give new insights and opened brand new doors for the forging masters here, but he also helped his granddaughter in her crucial problem.

    Even he himself failed to help to solve such a disastrous problem. So, when Berry woke up, he noticed the strange fluctuations her body emitted.

    He might not be familiar with the concept of twin spirit or spirit merging, but he could see the faint golden spirit power amidst the usual red one.

    Berry was a little girl, and she loved her grandfather too much. So, under his repeated questions and persistence, she couldn''t help but speak.

    Especially when her grandfather promised her to not touch William under any condition. And that made her feel great relief.

    Berry didn''t hold anything back from him. With her grandfather''s strict promises, she decided to spill all the beans out. In her little eyes and mind, she cared most for William''s safety more than his secrets.

    And soon enough, her grandfather would regret being rash in giving her such promise.

    "Twin spirits? What does that even mean?!!"

    Inside his own room, and after sending Berry away, the old patriarch was all in deep puzzlement. The words his granddaughter told him were still fresh in his mind. And he kept repeating them until he memorised them by heart.

    "Sigh, why did I give her such a promise?" At this point he felt quite itchy, so itchy to go outside and seek that kid''s whereabouts and force him to tell him everything William knew. "Sigh! if I went out and looked for him, and didn''t touch him... This won''t count as me breaking the promise, right?"

    Finally, he couldn''t hold himself back anymore. The old patriarch left on the fourth day after William''s departure and started to look for William''s whereabouts.

    With his own level of strength as a high level dark gold spirit master, one step away from the legendary rank, he found William''s ce fast. William was inside the cave of his, still lost in his own world of merging.

    "What is he doing?" Seeing this mysterious kid and recognizing him from the poster, the old patriarch couldn''t help but feel more puzzlement.

    But he didn''te closer or tried to inspect William using his superior spirit power. Instead, he walked to a hiding ce and waited.

    He feared to rm such a kid of his presence. Berry''s grandfather wanted to see the true essence of this kid. After all, the rtionship between his beloved granddaughter and this presumingly porter didn''t miss his keen senses.

    Starting from there, everything William did was seen by him. The fight with the Golden Sky academy kids made the old patriarch gain more insight about William''s personality.

    He was sure now this kid wasn''t as easy as it might seem. He was sure William was a spirit master, feigning to be a porter before. And that greatly puzzled him.

    In his eyes, there was no reason for a spirit master to hide such fact and live a torment life of a porter in the academy, or in any academy.

    "Can it be his mysterious master?" Berry''s grandfather couldn''t help but think about such a possibility. And yet he couldn''t even understand the benefits someone like William would get by such suffering.

    With more questions gained rather than answers, he followed William during the next few days.

 Chapter 40 The Disaster At The Academys Gates

    ?What the old patriarch saw made him more puzzled thanprehensive. In front of his eyes, that kid killed monsters, grabbed their cores and these cores crumbled and turned into dust.

    No matter how he tried to exin this, he couldn''t. William''s way was simply revolutionary to him, especially when he noticed something else that shocked him.

    "His spirit power is increasing?!!!" This came as the greatest shock besides what William did to his granddaughter. "Howe he increases his power by just walking around, touching cores, and turning them into dust?!!!"

    He couldn''t pinpoint the issue here. But from what he saw, William wasn''t just a simple spirit master. He used various fighting ways and tricks that even such a big shot in the spirit world didn''t know about few of them.

    It was obvious to such a veteran spirit master''s eye; William had such vast and deep fighting experience that went beyond his age.

    The words William said before to the Golden Sky kids rang in his ears. The old patriarch didn''t take such words seriously before. But right now, he had no reason except to take what William said as the truth.

    How old was William? ording to his best estimate, he wasn''t any older than ten years old. Howe such a kid had an immense battle experience that could rival even his?!

    The old man couldn''t tell the reason except for that mysterious master he heard about. Even thinking about that didn''t make him any satisfied.

    As William finally started to return to the academy, the old man was now seeing William in a different light. He wasn''t considering him as a porter or a genius forger, but a strong and capable spirit master.

    "I have to watch him more often," at this point the old patriarch decided to abandon his previous ns of training outside and focus more on William.

    In his eyes, William had a brilliant future ahead of him. Not to mention he was on their side, the side of humans and not a traitor.

    On top of that, and from what he saw, he started to believe that if his beloved granddaughter had a chance to be a real powerhouse, then it would only be through the help of this mysterious kid.

    Not to mention he grew curious to know the true identity of William''s hidden master.

    William was oblivious to all this. It might be thanks to the vast difference in the two''s strengths, but he never suspected or felt someone was spying on his actions.

    As the old patriarch kept following the small group of three in such secrecy, William walked towards the academy while Tina kept asking naive childish questions.

    "Do you have ice cream there?"

    "Do you have fries?"

    "I love festivals! I hope you have a few at the academy."

    "Does the young master have a young miss?"

    During their walk, the little girl spoke more like this. William at first was attentive to answer all of her questions. Butter on, and by the help of Lina''s silent gestures using her eyes and hands, he knew it was better to let the little girl ask and answer herself.

    Tina was just a dreamer in her own little world. She asked questions, answered them, and even spoke more in detail about the answers she came up with!

    As they got out of the forest, William didn''t know why he felt relieved. Tina was like a little devil, all talking without a single moment of rest.

    "We are here," he said with a silent sigh of relief, "witness by yourselves the beauty of your new home."

    "Not bad," Tina looked around as they passed through the main gate, "it''s not as good as the Golden Sky academy, but it''s ok."

    William could only raise his eyebrows. This little girl was really too demanding. Just before Lina could say something to lighten the mood up, a new change urred.

    "Hey, aren''t you that porter called William?" a group of disciples standing on guarding duty moved towards them and blocked their path.

    The tone they spoke with wasn''t friendly, with too much hostility. William frowned when he saw this group of thirty disciples cutting off his path.

    He didn''t recognise any of them. And that made him question why they stopped him.

    What made his frown deeper was that they called him by his name and knew about his current position in the academy right on the spot. He wasn''t a known person before in the academy, just a mere porter.

    Howe they recognized him by just a single nce?

    Despite feeling their hostility and having many doubts about how they recognized him, William cupped his hands in a traditional salute and said:

    "It''s me, William. May I ask what business senior brothers have with me?"

    "Humph, you are under arrest. Take him away and kill those girls," the one to speak was a tall youth. The moment William saw him, he couldn''t think of anyone else but Guanin.

    The two shared many features like they were rtives. Just as the wordsnded, the group of disciples moved as ten of them went to surround William and the others went towards Lina and Tina.

    "Young master¡­" Tina screamed in panic while Lina gazed in silence towards William.

    Under her mask, her face turned cold. If William gave the signal, she wouldn''t hesitate to start killing for him.

    "Anyone daring to touch a single hair of my friends will die," William didn''t hesitate to unsheathe his sword and move to stand in front of the two girls. His move was swift, and no one could stop him.

    Even if he didn''t know what was going on, he''d never allow something like that to happen. If it meant to start a battle in the campus of the academy, then he was more prepared to do so than those kids in front of him.

    "Are you out of your goddamn mind? This is the academy''s territory, and you are asking for death by doing so!"

 Chapter 41 No Way Out Except By Fighting Everyone!

    ?These words weren''t said by that Guanin rtive, nor from any of the group of disciples around. They came from a direction where a new group of people appeared.

    William looked up and all he saw was a tall youth with a robust body where his muscles appeared from the gaps in his opened shirt.

    He had a serious looking face with sharp features, long nose, protruded chin, faint hair covering his cheeks, and short blue and silver strands of coarse hair over his head.

    His eyes shone in brightness and decisiveness like his face and words. He wasn''t alone as he walked towards here with a group of twenty disciples as well.

    At this moment William could rx a bit. It seemed for unknown reason Guanin managed to weave a trap for him. But thankfully someone came and interrupted this dirty n.

    That was what William could think of to exin all this. The thought that what he did to Berry back then brought this up to him never crossed his mind at all. And things that he simply did after that escted to reach such a disastrous end point.

    "Tang, what are you doing here? This isn''t part of your business!" the Guanin rtive said in a low tone that was filled with deep enmity and hatred.

    "What? We both are disciples of the fourth year, prodigies of the same academy and also young masters of our ns. Not to mention we both are captains of the guards of the academy. What do you think you are doing exactly? Bending the rules and doing things no one asked you for? Not to mention killing is forbidden in the academy!"

    The youth called Tang seemed to not put that Guanin rtive in the eye. And from the mere words Tang said, William knew things weren''t that good either for him.

    It seemed he was under arrest by thew of the academy. All he could think about was his absence from his daily duties. But since when had such a thing been considered a big crime? A porter missing his duties for almost a week was a big crime now! To the extent of being called to arrest and even sending two guards of fourth year disciples to capture him!

    That was his current line of thoughts at this stressful moment.

    One had to know that inside the academy there were seven grades of sses. The first year ss held all the spirit masters below spirit power one hundred. As for the second and third year sses, they held spirit masters in bronze grade.

    The second year ss had the junior bronze grade spirit masters and the third year ss held the seniors.

    The fourth year ss had the silver grade spirit masters. The first four sses were collectively known as the outer academy sses. Starting from ss five it was considered an inner academy ss.

    Those would be considered working masters at the academy until they graduate and be real powerhouses either in the academy or at the kingdom.

    Having two groups of guardsing here and look for him, all led by disciples of the fourth year, was really something big. William felt that he missed something here, so he had to ask:

    "What did I do wrong to make the two seniorse here looking for me?"

    "Humph, you know what crime youmitted, traitor!" that Guanin rtive pointed at the two girls behind William before adding with a sneer, "bringing two rouge disciples from the Golden Sky academy is a sin met by death. Make way, I''ll kill them both by my hands and I want to see who dares to stop me!"

    That evil disciple didn''t stand in his ce after saying that. He took out two long spears and started to walk towards William.

    William clenched the hilt of his sword and prepared for a big fight. He knew fighting in the academy was forbidden, but he wouldn''t allow that treacherous disciple toe near his two girls.

    At the same time, he felt more puzzlement. He just met the two girls almost five days ago. During this time, not a single encounter with people from the Golden Sky academy happened. Not to mention he never met anyone from his academy as well.

    Then howe the academy knew about what he did? Something smelled fishy here, but he had no time to think rationally about that.

    "Stay your hand," just as that Guanin rtive moved, Tang also moved. He took out arge and heavy looking ck halberd and jumped to stand between William and his approaching enemy, forcing him to stop.

    And he wasn''t alone. In the next moment, all the disciples standing beside Tang shifted their positions and started encircling William and the two girls inside, protecting them in threeyers of circles.

    "What''s the meaning of that? Are you insane enough to stand against the orders of the headmaster himself?" Guanin''s rtive shouted in a vicious tone, trying to make his voice as loud as possible.

    But he was met with a loudugh from Tang. "It''s you who is trying to break the rules andmit a crime of killing inside the academy. No matter what, these three are asked to be brought back safely and in one piece, no harm is permitted."

    The two were entangled against each other in such a deadlock situation, with no one of them showing any intention of backing off.

    At the side, William felt more puzzled. He just heard the words of the two and knew this order came directly from the academy headmaster, the strongest person in the entire academy.

    ''It seems Guanin outdone himself this time,'' William inwardly snorted. Even if the academy decided to expel him, he wouldn''t even care. But no matter what, he wouldn''t allow for the two girls he took under his wings to be harmed.

    Such a thing would never happen under his watch.

    Without saying anything, William took out his bow and pulled its string as hard as he could. This time, he ced five arrows inside, the highest number of arrows he could control at the same time.

    Meanwhile he was ready to take out his flying knives. After raising his spirit power, he could now control a terrifying group of fifteen knives at the same moment while using the arrows as well.

    William was ready to go all out, even to the extent of thinking about using the extremely violent scarlet vibrant ores he still had some of.

    "What''s happening here?"

 Chapter 42 Orders From The Headmaster

    ?From his vast battle experience, William knew diverting his attention off his enemies was a grave sin. No matter who wasing and shouting, he wouldn''t shift his gaze away from those enemies up front, especially in such tense situations.

    Yet when the voice appeared, William could clearly see the sudden change in the face of that Guanin rtive and his group of thugs. They seemed terrified, as if the personing here was someone they shouldn''t offend.

    "Elder¡­" even Tang who stood on his side trembled faintly when he heard this shout. William finally turned his attention away when he heard that word.

    What did an elder signify in the academy? He must be one of the strongest bunches of old men in the academy aside from the headmaster.

    A dark gold, just a few steps away from the legendary ranked spirit master, that was the sole requirement for being an elder in the academy. Age didn''t matter, but no one managed to get to such an esteemed title without getting old.

    "What''s that nonsense?" in front of William, a bald old man appeared with many wrinkles on his face. Yet from his red eyes, William felt a strange familiarity with him. But he didn''t think too much about that.

    William paid more attention to what the situation here would end up with after the appearance of such an elder.

    The two groups bowed at the same time in respect and fear, all but William and his two girls. Tina was already terrified by all this, while Lina was prepared to fight at any moment.

    As for William, he was ready to give up his life in the academy to protect his girls. So he didn''t show any sign of respect to this elder before knowing to which side such a formidable master belonged.

    "Answering the esteemed elder," the first to speak was Tang, whose voice seemed calm and steady, "we came to arrest the porter William under the orders of the headmaster. But that group of guards wanted to kill the two girls with him without any reason."

    "That''s not true," Guanin''s rtive hurriedly said in a shaky voice, "we heard that porter William brought spies from the Golden Sky academy to ours. It''s just right to kill them on the spot."

    William instantly saw the little change in words which that dirty disciple used. And from this simple and little detail, William knew that elder was on his side, at least he wasn''t going to make things hard for him and his two girls.

    "That''s not true, esteemed elder," Tang retorted but the next moment that elder raised his hand to stop the two.

    "Take Porter William and the two girls back to the headmaster now," the elder said to Tang before turning to the Guanin rtive and his gang, "as for you¡­ Deliver yourselves to thew enforcement elder and wait for my punishment."

    And with these words, William became surer of what side this elder was on. Seeing the pale face of his enemies, William knew their fate was going to be bad.

    "Esteemed elder¡­" Guanin''s rtives shouted in panic but the next words of the elder silenced him.

    "One single word and I''ll be the one killing you right here on the spot and will bear the consequences. As if your n will be courageous enough toe and ask for an exnation or even justice."

    The icy cold tone coupled with the rich killing intent that the elder emitted made the Guanin rtive pack tremble in fear. In their eyes, going to thew enforcement elder was much better than facing this elder here.

    "Porter William, please follow me," Tang didn''t even turn to William as he bowed in respect to the elder with his group before leaving.

    William didn''t forget to cup his hands in gratitude and bow towards the elder in respect as well. If not for the timely arrival of the elder, a big fight would have erupted here. And the consequences of such a battle would be quite severe.

    What made William a little puzzled was that smile on the face of the elder when William said so. It was a smile of satisfaction, as if this elder was quite pleased by what he did. William didn''t know why but that elder reminded him of someone, Berry.

    "You can take back your weapons," as they walked deeper inside the academy, Tang''s voice came from front, "no one will dare to touch you here. You have good friends in the forging department who asked many to ensure your safety, yet I was the fastest to arrive to your aid."

    William instantly understood part of what happened. "Thanks senior brother Tang for help and rescue. But I''m still not aware of what I did wrong," he said while trying to get more information about his crime.

    "You''ll get to know everything from the headmaster and the council of elders soon enough," yet Tang seemed to have no intention of exining things to him. "If you seek my advice, then you should be prepared to defend yourself and the two girls of the Golden Sky academy you brought with you."

    William felt that there were strict orders to not divulge anything directly to him. But that didn''t stop Tang from leaving a clue for him here.

    "Thanks senior brother for the advice," he said in honest gratitude, but Tang didn''t say anything anymore.

    William now was sure about his proimed crime. Something must have happened, and he missed it during the past days. Someone must have spotted him and delivered the news back to the academy.

    But he was a mere porter, someone that none would care about. ''Was my performance back at the forging department the reason?'' he mused silently to himself while trying to see through the mysteries of this weird situation.

    He couldn''t find any other reason for others to pay attention to him but that. Even the little lie he gave to Lang about Berry wouldn''t bring him such severe attention. Whoever did this must have a deep grudge against him.

    Little he knew he underestimated that little lie and the fierce response the Long n showed.

 Chapter 43 A Trial!

    ?As hecked enough intel, William decided to not care about the reason anymore. No matter what happened, he was now going to meet the higher authority in the academy and get everything cleared up for him.

    The residence of the headmaster was situated in the centre of the academy. It was a big and vast four-storey building with a grand garden and a mid-levelled wall.

    Around it, there were other central and important buildings as well. The Mercenary Quest centre which was specialised in issuing quests to the disciples from the affiliated families and ns to the academy in exchange for handsome rewards, the Bounty Hunter centre which would ept outsiders'' quests and send disciples far away at far dangerous missions were there.

    Also, the Recruitment centre was there where all the top forces of the entire kingdom and other kingdoms in the continent would post recruiting offers there. Not to mention the Inner Disciple centre, the Master centre, the Guard centre, and the Law Enforcement centre were also there.

    William noticed the presence of many people in the garden. It was his first time evering here. In his past life, he never visited this building, or any of the buildings around.

    "Follow me," Tang said in low tone once they entered the garden, "and don''t say anything until you are asked to."

    William nodded and gave Lina and Tina a silent warning gaze to stress over this point. No matter what his crime was, offending the pride of the headmaster would be much worse than anything else.

    Once entered, a vast hall met William and everyone. It was almost five hundred metres square, filled with many seats and tables for discussion and few statues and paintings held on the walls.

    It was vast yet simple, and most importantly practical. Decorations and luxury weren''t encouraged in the spirit master world as many saw them as signs of getting distracted by lowly worldly matters.

    The hall wasn''t empty. At this moment, William could see around fifty people standing around a central and slightly high seat like a throne. A big symbol of the academy emblem was drawn on arge red curtain hung behind that throne.

    A middle aged man with a face that gave anyone seeing him a rxed feeling sat on it. He was the current headmaster of the Aspire academy, the great Mont spirit master.

    William recalled the little info he knew about this man. He came from a famous n that brought many great figures to the spirit master world and the academy.

    ording to the rumours from his past time, he knew the seat of the academy master usually belonged to a direct descendant of this n. He didn''t know anything about their spirit or true strength, but holding such fame and authority was enough to tell everything about them.

    Despite being calm, he looked strong and quite domineering. William didn''t let such a face trick him into lowering his guard. Instead, he raised his guard much more.

    He felt a lethal grade of dangering off from this peaceful looking man.

    "Silence!"

    Just as William entered with the two girls while Tang and his men were moving ahead and around them, a loud and deep shout came from the group of people.

    Without saying anything else, the people all dispersed, each took a seat, and all red up and down at William and the two girls he brought with, sizing them up in such immense pressure.

    "Greeting headmaster and elders," Tang walked a few steps to the front after issuing with his head for William and his group to stop. He cupped his hands and bowed in respect like usual. "I''ve brought the porter William per orders."

    William was now the centre of attention in the entire ce. In fact, if anyone else was in his ce, then he would feel great pressure from all this focus and would feel the urge to piss himself right at the spot!

    Right now, all the big shots in the academy were gathered in this hall, and all were looking at him without exception. Even the headmaster gazed at William for long moments before he said:

    "Let the trial begin¡­ Whoever has anything against porter William please step forward and speak up."

    William was silent per the advice of Tang. he also wanted to hear everything rted to the crime he didn''tmit.

    Once the headmaster spoke, an old man with long brown hair falling on his shoulders stood up with a group of three people with him.

    "I''m Guo, the acting patriarch of the Bronze Lizard n," the old man spoke in a calm tone before he added while pointing at William, "this kid overextended his authority inside the academy. A porter going outside and bringing back two spirit masters of a rival academy can''t be seen except for an act of treason."

    William wanted to speak up and curse that old man, but he restrained himself at thest moment. William thought Guanin didn''t hold such a level of authority in his n. But it seemed he underestimated that dirty young disciple.

    For a reason William didn''t grasp, the acting patriarch of Guanin''s n showed up and came for his blood! And when William thought that old man said enough, Guo didn''t stop there and kept speaking.

    "He went outside alone inside the forest. A porter, a weak and useless porter with no power to defend himself, didn''t only go inside the forest and return without harm, but he also is rted to arge killing event in the ranks of the Golden Sky disciples that happened at an area not too far from here."

    "What evidence do you have on this?" The headmaster didn''t seem to take any side here as he calmly added, "using someone with treason is a big thing, you know that very well."

    William felt the rtionship between the headmaster and the old man called Guo wasn''t that good. Thest remark seemed to not say much. But at least the headmaster didn''t give full support to such usations and instead asked for an exnation in such a strong attitude.

 Chapter 44 He Is A Traitor!

    ?"A group of our scouts found the dead bodies hundreds of miles deep in the forest," Guo said while pointing his head towards another ce where other masters sat, "you can ask the leader of the Scout department for more details about this."

    A middle aged man with a luxury outfit that seemed to be weaved of golden light sparkling threads stood up. He looked like a dazzling star in a pitch ck starless night with his eye-catching clothes.

    "My men found dozens of killed Golden Sky disciples at that spot like Guo brother said."

    His voice came in such a soft tune, suiting a girl and not a man. William frowned. He did kill the Golden Sky disciples, but he only in nine and not dozens of them.

    Aside from that, it seemed that the leader of the Scout department in the academy had rtions with Guo and the Bronze Lizard n.

    "Where is the proof that our kid, William, was the one to do it?"

    At this moment, another old man that William never saw before stood up and spoke in an aggressive tone. That man didn''t only defend William, but he also called him our kid, not a porter like others did.

    "The scouts who found the dead bodies said they saw him lurking around the ce," the head of the Scout department wasn''t that surprised by the strong stance of that old man.

    "Did they see him kill them personally?" The headmaster spoke to stop any unneeded trouble in the meeting.

    "That''s another point to speak about," old Guo said in a sly tone and such an evil expression painted all over his face. "The scout team also saw arge group of dark clothed disciples belonging to the Golden Sky academy. They also noticed a few of them used the forbidden dark techniques of the notorious dark spirit masters. And brother Sam can confirm this as well."

    The one called Sam was the one dressed like a bride, the leader of the Scout department.

    Sam simply nodded while Guo added:

    "We have to think about this deeply and thoroughly before jumping to conclusions. What facts do we have here? One is that this porter has no power at all to defend himself. Yet he managed to not only escape the deaths inside the forest, but to venture into the far dangerous inner parts of it. Brother Sam''s scout team tagged along and saw him walking under the protection of those infamous dirty dark spirit masters before they delivered the two spies, these two girls, to him to bring them back to our academy."

    "We ask for justice against the Golden Sky traitors, the agents of dark spirit masters and this traitor!" Sam suddenly shouted before many old men stood up and shouted the same words.

    William frowned. He didn''t know how this information found its way back to the Bronze Lizard n and others allying with them, but it did indeed create such a scene. He was sure he scouted that area back in the forest with great attention yet found nothing.

    He felt no presence at all. And that wasn''t only limited to the area around that battle, but also all the ces he visited beforeing here.

    That meant a higher and far stronger spirit master was there and watched him kill those dirty Golden Sky academy disciples.

    William knew old Guo and his allies were twisting what happened, adding more spicy content to what truly happened to doom him. In the middle of all these lies, the fact that he met, fought, killed the Golden Sky disciples stood above all.

    And he indeed got Lina and Tina from the Golden Sky disciples, yet the way he did that was totally different from that bullshit told by old Guo, Sam, and others.

    Linking things together, William could only exin this as follows: one of the dark spirit strong masters saw what he did and reported this back to Guo. As the Bronze Lizards were traitors in William''s eyes, things became easier to exin.

    However, what puzzled William was that if there was such a formidable dark spirit master around, why didn''t that dude try to attack and kill him and the two girls instead of taking such trouble?

    "We need more proof before saying such dangerous words," the old man who stood earlier stood up again and said in a tone filled with pure hatred and great enmity.

    William wanted to go and thank that elder at the moment for standing up like this for him. William didn''t know his identity, but he could tell how sincere this old man was and how truly he cared for his safety.

    "There are the two girls with him," Guo said with a snort, "besides, the scout team saw him taking the storage ring of one of the killed disciples. One of those dark spirit masters gave it personally to him. The ring had the famous emblem of the Rockos n, a simple way to instigate war and trouble between our academies. Isn''t all this enough as a proof for the crimes hemitted?"

    "We demand justice against the agents of the dark spirit masters and that traitor!" another wave of shouts came. William was now sure of his earlier guess, someone must have seen and watched him during his fight with the Rockos kids.

    He now realised what his crime was. And he got to admit, it never crossed his mind that what he did back there at the forest woulde and stab him in the back so soon.

    Yet even if he had to face such false charges, he didn''t regret any of what he did!

    Instead of panicking or regretting anything, William kept thinking about this total mess. It all happened because that formidable spirit master spied on everything he did.

    But why didn''t that man interfere and stop him from killing them back then? Why didn''t he move out to kill him and the two girlster on?

 Chapter 45 Who Said Im Not A Spirit Master?

    ?William didn''t know the answer for such weird questions. He felt he missed a great deal of the truth here. If that master wasn''t present, then howe the Bronze Lizard n and others knew about what he did back then? He couldn''t even find a full exnation that wasn''t filled with holes.

    And just as he was lost in his thoughts, he heard the strong voice of the headmaster loud and clear.

    "Let''s hear his defence then," the headmaster said as he waved his hands in a signal for everyone to stand down and sit back. Thest thing he wanted was for the strongest people of his academy to start a fight between each other.

    Especially if this was all led by a n he didn''t personally like, the Bronze Lizard n.

    Everyone gazed up at William at this moment. William could feel a mix of feelings conveyed from everyone. Some were angry, others were supportive, but the most were showing a neutral stance here.

    "You heard what the Bronze Lizard acting patriarch said against you," the headmaster motioned for William to step forward, "what do you have to say about this?"

    "This is all bullshit!" William''s first words were so heavy and rude that caused an instant uproar in the hall.

    "Silence!" The headmaster''s voice this time was loud, and it showed his dissatisfaction with what William said. "I hope you aren''t trying to insult us before your death."

    "I don''t have such suicidal intentions, headmaster," William slightly bowed his head, showing a faint humble expression on his little face, before all this vanished the next moment. "But if others are trying to fabricate a funny story and use me of things, I didn''tmit then I can''t be respectful towards them."

    "Watch your tongue, porter, or I won''t show any courtesy to anyone here and kill you!"

    Guo instantly said with a threatening domineer, but William didn''t even spare a nce to him.

    "I heardme usations and silly things about what I did. Let me ask you, esteemed headmaster, a simple question¡­ Is this the Aspire academy or the Golden Sky academy?"

    Even the headmaster furrowed his brows when he heard this, but he said nothing and remained silent.

    But others around started to cause ruckus again. With a single gaze from the headmaster, all went back to silence.

    William didn''t lose his head, or act like he had nothing to lose or didn''t care about his life. He felt that his enemy already weaved a tight rope around his neck. If he wanted to get out of this, then acting with caution and respect was thest thing he wanted to do.

    "We are the Aspire academy. Speaking as if we are theckeys of the Golden Sky academy doesn''t suit us," William''s tone and attitude were all filled with pride and strength as he added, "our two academies aren''t only rivals, but enemies. If any of us meet any of them, then a fight must erupt to death."

    William sucked in a deep breath before adding in a loud tone, "I killed those disciples from the Golden Sky academy, killed nine of them by my own hands. I find nothing to be ashamed of here about that, not to mention a crime."

    "Impudence! You are a porter and not a spirit master," the leader of the Scout department said with a shortugh, "and you are saying that my boys are liars? They saw you, saw everything you did back there."

    "Saw me? Ok, let me for one second believe your words. You said I met up with dark spirit masters, correct?"

    "Yes. You are a traitor and won''t get away from this," Guo said in a vicious tone while showing his support to the elder leading the scout department.

    "That''s nice, then I have to ask an esteemed elder for an exnation regarding this issue," William said while turning fully to face a random elder from those hostiles to him.

    "Dark spirit masters are widely known for their diversity in the mysterious and hideous dark element techniques. Howe a mere group of scouts managed to not only spy on us, but even run away without getting caught and killed?"

    The face of that elder became darker while William continued, addressing the entire elders sitting there as he added in loud tone:

    "If scouting over the dark spirit masters was this easy and safe, then why didn''t the Scout department ever seed in doing so before? Not only our academy''s Scout department, but any scout formidable master will find it hard and quite risky to do so."

    William wasn''t exaggerating. This wasn''t only the case in this world, but also at the outer vast world.

    Dark spirit masters have very sinister and hard to grasp ways of detecting those who tried to spy or follow them. And the end result usually was either by failing to aplish anything, or a brutal fight where most of the scout spirit masters would get killed and heavily wounded.

    "Are you saying that I''m a liar? Are you insane, damn piece of trash porter?" the Scout department leader said in a deep tone, filled with death threats.

    "A porter or not, it''s not up to me to use you of anything," William shrugged as if such a threatening attitude meant nothing to him, "you have to exin such allegations, if you still stuck to your own side of the story, to everyone here, including the headmaster."

    "Then what about what you said earlier?" Guo didn''t let that elder fall into the trap William devised for him as he added, "you said you killed them, howe? A mere porter killing bronze grade spirit masters? A full group of them? If so, then I can say I''m the strongest spirit master in the world!"

    William knew that hideous spirit master was trying to hit him at his weak spot, but he didn''t show any rage on his face. Instead, a warm smile appeared there.

    "Who said I''m not a spirit master?"

 Chapter 46 Using Big Words

    ?This time the ruckus that his words caused was louder than ever.

    "Liar! You are registered in the academy as a porter," one of the elders standing on Guo''s side blurted out in a storm of fuming rage.

    If William was a spirit master, then all of this trap they carefully devised would be instantly ruined! The strongest base they got for such allegations was based on the fact that William was a porter.

    However, they truly missed this simple point, a point the ones who told them about what happened and instigated all this forgot to tell any of them about!

    "Saying such things isn''t a joke or a y," the headmaster spoke at this moment to stop anyone from speaking again, "if you are a spirit master, then you shall prove it."

    "I won''t say no to a test," William said with a bright smile. He finally reached the point he wanted from the start.

    He knew as a porter, his standing and rights in the academy were literally null. In the eyes of everyone, he was considered someone who should be grateful to be given a ce here.

    But if he was a spirit master, he would have all this instantly changed. Not to mention his spirit power was already above one hundred and fifty points.

    It was enough to scare anyone here with such a shocking transformation.

    From a mere porter all the way directly to a second year disciple! What a stir such revtion would bring to everyone in the academy? What was better than this grand assembly to cause the shock William wanted before? He''d use this scene and create a name for himself!

    "You are asking for a test?" an elder spoke in surprise while another one said in disdain.

    "Let him have it. I bet one hundred thousand crystals he is just faking it!"

    "I bet another hundred thousand that he is a spirit master!"

    "Me also will join, betting on him faking it!"

    In the span of a few minutes, a grand bet was done in the hall. Without the need to count, the side standing against William was already bigger.

    William wasn''t affected by this. In fact, he felt little regret incking the ability to ask for part of this huge wealth amassed under his name. But this wasn''t something he cared about for now. He just gazed silently and fixedly at the headmaster who finally spoke after everyone calmed down:

    "Bring a grand spirit gem to test this kid."

    Everyone participated in such a bet, all but the headmaster. It wasn''t that he wanted to act impartially, but because he was busy at this time.

    As everyone was busy cing their bets, the headmaster was speaking using spirit telepathy with someone else.

    Amidst such mess, no one of the elders here noticed such discussion, or the slight change over his face when he heard what the other side said.

    But William noticed this. It was simply described by a shocking expression. William didn''t know what was going on, but when the headmaster had such a weird expression for a brief second, his eyes rolled to size William up and down once again.

    It was as if he was seeing him for the first time, under a bright new light.

    The testing process in the academy was just like any testing process everywhere. Using a big orange spirit crystal gem to test the spirit power of anyone was the standard method in this world.

    The spirit crystal gem was some sort of ore that was highly sensitive to spirit power. But it couldn''t help in assessing anything else. The method William used to assess his spirit power and spirit type and grade was unique and revolutionary, unknown yet to this world.

    Not to mention it wasn''t easy to obtain a spirit gem, unlike spirit crystals that weremonly and cheaply found everywhere.

    And the method of testing one''s spirit power was different between the spirit gems and crystals.

    "Leave a drop of your blood here," the headmaster pointed at the big gem that a couple of spirit masters brought just now. It was one of the biggest gems William ever saw, almost reaching five metres height and three in width.

    Williamplied and left a drop of his blood there. The next moment, the gem started to shine brightly in white light before a bronzed colour appeared.

    This wasn''t the end of the test. Inside the gem, dots of sparkling lights appeared. This scene not only left the entire hall in silence, but William felt shocked gazes on his back like daggers.

    After all, many betted against him being a spirit master. And they were definitely going to lose a good deal of their wealth right here.

    "One hundred and seventy-six spirit points¡­ Damn kid! You aren''t just a spirit master, but also a bronze spirit master as well!!" One of the elders who betted on William''s win couldn''t control his excitement and shock anymore and blurted out in a loud shout.

    The headmaster was also surprised but didn''t show the same shock that appeared on others'' faces. It seemed like he expected William to be a spirit master, but he didn''t expect him to be a bronze spirit master.

    "Are you satisfied now?" William turned to look at the pale face of the Scout department leader, "With my power, I can kill any spirit master of bronze grade, the same grade you imed my enemies were at. If it was up to me, I''d never say they were bronze grade and only would consider them white grade."

    "You¡­" This time the voice of that elder became quite shaky and unstable.

    "That doesn''t prove anything yet," Guo cleared his throat, making William frown. This bastard seemed to be deadly fixated on getting him a punishment. "You killed them or not doesn''t matter. The fact that you worked with the dark spirit masters still persists!"

    "Humph," as William heard such a bold usation, he harrumphed in a mocking way, "who says that? Is it the group of liars who said they saw the dark spirit masters kill those kids from the Golden Sky academy? Or is it you?"

    "Kid, my patience has limits!"

 Chapter 47 The Ring!

    ?"Mine as well," William didn''t show any sign of weakness against such a traitor and an enemy. Instead of shutting up his mouth as Guo hoped for, William pushed him over the edge by saying:

    "You have nothing to back your false usations up but your own words. So, you either deem the ones who said these lies as traitors and punish them ording to the academyw or take responsibility for your words and get punished for them."

    "I''ll kill you!" Guo couldn''t believe a mere eight years old kid was speaking back to him head-to-head and even dared to threaten him in such a rude way.

    Even the headmaster who had many arguments and differences with wouldn''t dare to speak to him in such a humiliating way.

    William didn''t get matters over his head or acted on impulse. Just after he secured a way to extricate himself from such a deadly scheme, he knew others supporting him would step in.

    If not for those elders who showed support during the bet or before it, William would have been a little conservative in his choices of words.

    "I dare you move a finger against him with me here," just at this moment, the old elder who previously supported William stood up again. And this time, just as William expected, he wasn''t alone.

    Many elders also stood up from both sides.

    "If you want to break my academy rules, go outside and do it away from my sight," the headmaster''s voice fell and suddenly everyone paused in fear.

    Who was the headmaster? He was one of the strongest three spirit masters in the entire academy. And he still had his own n and many strong ns to support him.

    Even if the traitors led by Guo wanted to do something to William, they couldn''t possibly stand a chance against the headmaster and his faction.

    "This issue will be put under closed discussion for now," the headmaster said in a firm and decisive tone before turning to William and added, "go there and wait for the old men here to finish handling this problem for you."

    "Thanks for your understanding, headmaster," William cubed his hands and bowed before moving with the two girls towards the direction the headmaster pointed towards.

    "He has a ring that will bring death to our academy," just before William could move for a few metres away, the sudden shout of one of the elders on Guo''s side stopped him. "That ring is connected to the Rockos n. They''ll know we killed their kids ande for retaliation."

    "Yes, we shouldn''t risk war with the Golden Sky academy," another elder on their side stood up and spoke, "especially when the uing spirit masterpetition is going to be held at their academy."

    "He should deliver that ring to us, and we''ll dispose of it as we see appropriate."

    "Yes, the ring must be delivered! For the safety of everyone!"

    For a second there, William didn''t know why they were still targeting him like this. The headmaster himself called for a closed discussion and it was obvious he was going to get his way out of this.

    But when those elders kept mentioning the ring, William finally started to connect all the dots he missed.

    ''Oh, so you want to take my ring back to the Rockos n? Or to the dark spirit masters behind you?'' William finally realised what was going on here.

    He never thought that the ring he casually took from that spirit master held such significance. He scanned its content rashly before, without properly examining everything.

    ? At that time, all he cared about was therge amount of the spirit crystals in the ring. He didn''t get to check anything else as nothing truly attracted his attention before.

    But it seemed that the ring contained something valuable, so important to the point of making everyone here on their edge.

    "My ring belongs only to me," William said in a decisive tone, "there is no such a rule in the academy to force any of us to deliver our own loot to the academy. Besides¡­"

    He paused before he snorted, "don''t tell me you are this afraid of the Golden Sky academy, are you?"

    "Don''t overestimate yourself," Guo said in a deep tone, "this matter is rted to the entire academy, not just a mere spirit master."

    "That ring has a traceable connection with the Rockos n. And we all know how the big ns usually work," another elder said, "they hold their grudges deep and won''t let this matter pass by easily," Sam, the Scout department leader, joined and chimed in alongside Guo.

    He was feeling so bad after what William said and did. And right now, he found a way to vent out his anger by taking that ring from William''s possession.

    William felt thest words of that elder made their way into the souls of many elders here. So, he had to counterattack.

    "This ring indeed had such a connection," William raised his hand before he lowered all his fingers but the middle one, "but see? I removed that thing you are all worried about. So, this ring is safe and pure now. It''s mine!"

    "You¡­" Guo and other elders went on their feet when William raised only one finger, the middle one, in front of their faces. No matter how anyone would see it, William just stuck his middle fingers out to them.

    "I said it before, this matter is now under closed discussion," the headmaster had to step in again and stop such a circus happening in front of him, "William, go back and wait for the results. A group of servants will deliver some food and drinks for you and the two girls."

    "Thanks, headmaster," William cupped his hands again before giving Guo and others a challenging gaze before patting on his ring, as if it was his most precious belonging in the entire world.

    He knew what they were aiming for from this pathetic show. William wasn''t trying to stir up trouble. But he knew no matter where or when, any traitor crossing his path was deemed to end up crossing swords with and bing his enemy.

 Chapter 48 Toxin!

    ?So, using this moment to memorise the faces of all those traitors was a good chance he wouldn''t miss. He went to the side, almost a hundred metres away from the elders before sitting on a big sofa with the two girls.

    "Are we going to be alright?" Tina said in a shaky childish tone.

    "Sorry for all the trouble we brought for the young master," Lina said in a sincere apologetic tone.

    Since the beginning, the girls never spoke a single word. But since things became clear about what was going on, Tina was scared, and Lina was burdened with guilt.

    "It''s nothing much," William could read through the two girls'' minds, "in fact I''m destined to cross paths with such people sooner orter. So, no harm in doing this early on."

    He wasn''t trying to console them. In fact, he felt gratitude for his own luck this time.

    Knowing about his enemies from earlier was a blessing not a curse for him. The most dangerous enemy to him was the one he was ignorant about.

    The talk took longer than expected. There was a dome now covering elders within, blocking vision and sound from prating through.

    William wasn''t worried. After all, he just showed his worth to the good elders here and the headmaster. But he was also surprised. The number of traitors in the elder circle alone was already this big.

    It wasn''t enough for the dark side to take over things in the academy, but it was also significant enough to stir big problems up at decisive times. At this moment, William could see the real reason behind the fast fall of the academy, and many other academies when the grand monster disastrous outbreak began.

    During their wait, a group of five servants brought arge stroll with huge quantities of food on it.

    "Thanks god! I was starving," Tina moved first and extended her little hand to grab one of the cupcakes provided there. She acted just as what a typical little girl should do, totally forgetting all the worry and sadness she felt just moments ago when seeing the food.

    However, the moment William saw the cupcakes, he hurriedly pushed her hand away while giving her a warning nce.

    "Thanks," despite doing this, he thanked the servants before waiting for them to leave.

    "What''s wrong?" Lina knew something was off here.

    "One sec," William didn''t speak as he took out one of his arrows. He removed the arrowhead before taking a candle of light out of his ring.

    As he was doing this, his face was covered with a serious look that warned the two girls from saying anything. It was obvious that he noticed something, and that thing wasn''t by any means good.

    William didn''t know that at this moment, his actions were all watched by many. The headmaster even noticed what he was doing, leaving all the useless debate between the elders around while fixing his gaze upon William.

    William simply ignited the candle, then let a few green drops fall on the arrowhead. The green material was a good spirit energy conductor. And he needed it to prove his doubts.

    After covering the arrowhead with the green material, he pricked his finger using the arrowhead. He controlled his spirit power and let it get into that arrowhead. Then he moved his other hand to touch the different food presented here. As he touched each, his frown couldn''t help but deepen.

    He picked one cupcake that was faint pink in colour. It was one of the most famous desserts in the world.

    One point worthy of remark here was that all the food delivered to them was mainly desserts and sweets, things that any girl or kid would love to eat.

    "What''s wrong, young master?" Lina couldn''t control her curiosity anymore. She couldn''t get a thing from William''s actions, neither did the headmaster or the few elders watching from inside the dome.

    "Just a minute," William didn''t hurry to give an answer. He simply dipped the tip of the arrowhead in the middle of thatrge piece of cupcake that had the size of his little fist.

    Just as the tip of the arrowhead touched it, the cupcake started to change. ck fog emitted from it, covering the entire cake like it was a rotten piece of meat.

    A very bad odour spread, one that instantly turned William''s face more serious.

    "Get away, now!" he didn''t hesitate to issue this warning shout before he moved his arrows head around the entire tray. All the food touched by it showed the same changes as that cake.

    In the span of one minute, the entire ce they sat in was covered up by a thick cloud of a big ck fog.

    *Fwoosh!*

    Just at this moment a body flickered and appeared next to the girls. It was the headmaster, and his face showed a dark look and a deep frown.

    "Sir, the young master¡­ The young master is still inside," Lina held her little sister closer as thetter kept crying in bitterness from two reddened eyes.

    William warned them to move away, but he didn''t retreat. He was still inside that ck fog. When the headmaster tried to touch that fog, a warning shout came from deep within.

    "Don''t, this toxin can''t be countered with normal spirit power," William''s firm voice came from the heart of this cloud, announcing his wellbeing for the time being.

    During the next few moments, many silhouettes shed and appeared next to this ck fog. Many elders had a dark expression on their faces, but few stood there in silence as if they were aware of what was going on.

    Inside the ck fog cloud, William was emitting his spirit power outside without a moment of pause. He recognized the faint smell of that famous toxin when Tina touched that piece of cupcake.

    This toxin was famed for its serious effects on any unprepared spirit masters dealing with it. But it held no threat against William. What made him frown wasn''t the food being poisoned, but the fact that this toxin wasn''t part of this world.

 Chapter 49 This Matter Is Over!

    ?"The ck fog spider queen toxin¡­ Damn! If I was a momentte, Tina would have died!"

    This toxin held a great threat to any spirit master not knowing how to deal with it. It works mainly by eroding the body and turning it like what happened to the cake and other food, rotten like dead meat!

    The fog had a strong arsenic smell, making William want to vomit what was inside his stomach. But it wasn''t time to rx. Once he released all the toxin fog, he started to take out many of his arrows, ores, and light candles, doing the same as what he did a short while ago.

    The only way to deal with this toxin was to circte it through a medium that could contain it. Using the brutal scarlet vibrant ore to detoxify it was the ideal method he currently had.

    He used his spirit power through his blood drop earlier to just confirm his guess. He never imagined the amount of such toxin to be this severe, fiercely reacting to his method in such a way.

    But right now, he didn''t need to risk anything by the use of his spirit power. He could simply use something brutal, with fiery and explosive nature to detoxify this poison without any risks.

    As for the green material of the light candles, they acted just as a way to channel the toxin into the arrowheads.

    He lit up the candles, used their drops to cover the arrowheads. He ced these arrowheads on the ground, with their tips touching the scarlet ores.

    Like these the light candles'' green material would permit for the toxin to pass through the arrowheads, ending up at the vibrant scarlet ores. And the berserk nature of the energy inside these ores would do the rest.

    What William feared the most was for these ores to explode. To his luck, nothing of that happened. The toxin didn''t stir anything inside the ores and ended up getting burnt and consumed by these ores.

    William kept himself inside the ck fog for a long half an hour. This toxin might be a weakening toxin to any spirit master, but for Lina and Tina it was quite deadly.

    The two girls were Selvators, with their spirits being held in their physical bodies. If their bodies got eroded, then their souls would be damaged and even die on the spot.

    To normal spirit masters, their bodies would be eroded, and many ces would be like rotten meat. It wasn''t that deadly, but it''d take a long time to get rid of such effects. And that would hinder the progress of many spirit masters for long years.

    As for the two girls, if they got lucky, they''d have ended up getting crippled. "Damn! I was careless again!" as he worked to detoxify the toxin, he started toment himself.

    He thought he read through all the dark intentions of the dark elders here. But he overlooked the presence of the two girls.

    They must have known or heard vital information regarding the dark spirit masters or their ns. Or else why would such a toxin that wasn''t from this world be used here, a toxin that was the nemesis of their race?

    This attack was directed at the two girls. William recalled the words and actions of Guanin''s rtive when he entered the academy; he wanted to kill the two girls in such rashness, even if he was going to break the academy rules.

    Facts proved he underestimated his enemies. For a moment there, William regretted not having the strength to go all out right now and kill all those traitors himself.

    He was a protective kind of person, one who held those close to him in his heart. Targeting his girls meant targeting him, meaning this old feud just got another reason to target those traitors.

    During this time, no matter how the headmaster or other elders around tried, no one was able to get a single peek through that ck fog.

    To them, no matter what they did, their spirit power got eroded and was eaten away the moment it touched this fog.

    And so, everything William was doing inside went without getting noticed by any from the outside.

    After working for half an hour, the entire fog cleared all of sudden, revealing William. At this moment, he was exhausted from the stress and not the effort. After all he simply used his spirit power to just ignite the candles, nothing more.

    "Young master!"

    "Thank god you are safe!"

    The two girls directly jumped into his embrace while Tina kept weeping. She felt that she lost the kind master of hers for a second there. As a kid, she had such a fragile mind and pure heart.

    "Don''t worry, I''m fine," William said these words in a loud tone, with the intention to deliver a message to those who were behind this. He also didn''t forget to issue daggering and threatening gazes to Guo and his gang, promising them in silence that their generosity would be rewarded in the same way one day.

    "The decision is final," all of sudden the headmaster said in a strong tone, "this kid is free of any charge."

    "Headmaster¡­" Guo was shocked to hear these words. The round of discussion was interrupted by what happened here, and they didn''t yet reach a decision.

    For the headmaster to take such a decision solo wasn''t a simple matter at all. But the cold gaze from the headmaster made him swallow what he wanted to say.

    "From this moment onward, William is a formal disciple of the academy," the headmaster continued as if he didn''t hear what Guo just said, "he is going to be a bronze spirit master, attending sses in the second year."

    "Thanks for the headmaster''s kindness," William cupped his hands and bowed to the headmaster. He knew thetter just issued such a decision in such a way to protect him.

 Chapter 50 Asking For A Favour

    ?Yet William misunderstood the real intentions of the headmaster.

    "Come, I have a business to discuss with you," out of the blue the headmaster said these words before turning to the rest, "everyone else leave now. This matter is closed."

    Although Guo and his gang of traitors didn''t like such an ending, they had no other choice but to leave. William watched them walk away while dragging their legs and lowering their heads. No matter what, this sh ended up with his victory.

    "Send for my son toe," just as William and the two girls followed the headmaster back to his throne, he ordered one of the servants. "Tell me, do you know what toxin this was?"

    As the headmaster asked, William didn''t hide his knowledge about it. "I have learnt little about toxins, and that one is a nasty toxin."

    "Hmm¡­" the headmaster seemed to think about something, "I heard you have a mysterious master who excels in forging, but never knew she also is an expert in toxins."

    William didn''t feel weird for the headmaster to know about his little white lie. But if he had to cover up many of his brilliant actions, he was now more than happy to stick closer to such a lie.

    "My master isn''t just a forging master. She is a formidable spirit master who is experienced at many things," he said while adding more mystery to his master, adding moreyers of protection for himself.

    "That''s great then," the headmaster sat on his throne while William sat on one of the smaller seats in the front. The two girls were acting respectful and silently stood just half a metre away from William.

    "Do you know that my son died a few years ago?" The headmaster suddenly said something out of the blue that made William surprised. He looked at the old man with a questionable gaze while the headmaster bitterly smiled.

    "I had one son, and he had one son and one daughter. The daughter is around your age, in the third year ss right now. As for my grandson¡­" the face of the headmaster changed.

    For a brief moment, William noticed a sh of sorrow and regret over the face of that old man. At this brief moment, it looked like the headmaster aged decades over his years, looked so old and quite miserable.

    But that didn''tst but for more than one second. The headmaster sucked a deep breath in, controlled his ragged emotions before his face returned to its normal.

    "My grandson is like a son to me, after all my legacy and my family''s legacy will be inherited by him," he said while his eyes returned to fall on William, "but as my son mysteriously died at such a young age, his son is also following in his footsteps. Fifteen years of age but he is still limited to ss four in the academy."

    "Isn''t it considered good?" William knew that by the standards of this world, being fifteen years of age and bing a fourth year student here wasn''t that bad.

    Yet if hepared this dude with his little sister, then he''d be doing a little worse than her.

    "If I told you he had been stuck there for four years, what would you say?" the old man dejectedly said before adding, "our family is world famous for the rapid ascension of our spirit power. He can''t stay there for all these years without a reason, and¡­"

    The old man didn''t say more, yet William could already read in between the lines and guess what the headmaster wanted to say.

    "Did you suspect he got poisoned by the same toxin?" William asked, "or did you smell its awful arsenic scent beforeing out from his body?"

    The eyes of the old man shone. For a moment there, a merciless pressure exuded uncontrobly from him. William strengthened himself in response using his spirit power. Yet he failed to sustain the pressure.

    He used his full spirit power, but it wasn''t enough to face such a mighty and berserk aura of a formidable spirit master.

    In the end, William had to stand up from his seat as he staggered a few steps behind. As for the two girls, they both screamed in fright, ending up falling to the ground in trembling bodies. As for William, he had his entire body drenched in sweat under the pressure he was facing.

    Despite the immense pain he felt, he didn''t shout or scream like the two girls. He simply gritted his teeth, and tried to resist and persist, not falling to the ground.

    "If I found out that my son and his son were poisoned with that nasty toxin¡­  The ones responsible for this¡­" the old man said the moment his aura went out of control, in an icy cold tone.

    Then in the next second, he recalled his aura and spirit power back, stopping the pressure William and the two girls suffered from.

    "Sorry about that," the headmaster said in an honest and apologetic tone, "I only need to ask a favour from you. Can you check him out for me? He is now my sole heir, the one who is supposed to inherit my ce in the next few years."

    Despite William not liking the unjust treatment this old man was treating his two grandson and granddaughter with, he didn''t refuse to help the headmaster.

    "I''ll see what I can do," William didn''t promise him much. After all, he got lucky to see the toxin in its preliminary inactive form. If that toxin went into one of the girls'' bodies back then, he would stand powerless and couldn''t do much.

    Getting exposed to this toxin would only leave a weakening effect on any spirit master. But if he got repeatedly poisoned, then the situation would greatly differ.

    If the spirit master got poisoned for a long time, it would affect his spirit power growth, stagnating him at his current level of strength.

 Chapter 51 A Weird Meeting

    ?From the words of the headmaster, William was sure this grandson was poisoned by that toxin indeed. It was just like what the headmaster here suspected and guessed on his own ord.

    And this solved a big mystery for William. Thetter knew a lot about this toxin. He was puzzled that such poison came from the outer world and was delivered to the traitors inside the academy to deal with his two girls in such short notice.

    The poison was already here from the start, and that exined everything for him.

    As for dealing with this toxin in that grandson''s body, William knew how quite challenging this would be. The process to eliminate such nasty toxin was something William couldn''t do with the little spirit power he got. Not to mention it required lots of materials, few weren''t avable in this world.

    He needed at least to be a gold grade spirit master before doing that. But he couldn''t refuse such a sincere request, especially from the old man who just supported him minutes ago.

    Even if William couldn''t cure him, he could at least stop the progress and spread of that toxin in the grandson''s body.

    "Did you send for me, headmaster?"

    Just as William and the two girls sat there for a couple more minutes, a tall young spirit master entered. From the first look, William could point out many simrities between him and the headmaster.

    But that wasn''t the reason behind William''s expression of surprise when he saw this dude. He recalled him, recalled his face from the past.

    ''How can this be¡­?!!!'' William was inwardly shocked when he saw that dude. William didn''t have any status before in his past life in the academy to know such a high figure in person, or even serve him. But he saw that face before.

    He was leading a group of cloaked dark spirit masters to hit and chase down any survivors from the academy back when the disaster struck the world. William would never forget his face, especially when he was this close from losing his life in his hands if not for the timely intervention of luck and a group of strong spirit masters from the academy.

    It was true that destined enemies would meet around each corner! William controlled his emotions, turned to look at the headmaster while inwardly sighing.

    ''What''s going on here?'' William knew that the headmaster asked him to check on the status of his grandson. But if his grandson was already on the side of the dark spirit masters, howe he would be poisoned?

    Something felt amiss here. But at any cost, William decided to not cure him even if he had the ability to do so!

    "Come here my son and drop such an attitude. These are friends."

    "Friends? A porter and a traitor working for the dark side? And two spies from that Golden Sky academy? Humph! What a bunch of friends you have here, grandfather!" but just as he arrived twenty metres away from the headmaster, that grandson stopped and spoke in such a rude and arrogant way.

    From the look on his face, the impression William got wasn''t friendly at all. And that also confirmed his earlier guesses about where this young spirit master''s loyalty lied.

    "Don''t say that! These are all false usations!" The headmaster seemed irritated when his grandson repeated the same nonsense other elders said and was proven wrong.

    "Being true or false is all ountable to time to prove," that young spirit master harrumphed, "they weren''t proved wrong this time. But I swear I won''t rest before exposing their true colours to you and to everyone else."

    "You¡­ Stop right there!" Just as that rude grandson said these words and pointed at William and the two girls while speaking, he turned around and left. Even when the headmaster tried to stop him with such a domineering shout, he never even paused his steps.

    "This damn filial kid! I don''t know what went wrong for him to end up being like this!" and just as that youth left as fast as he appeared, the headmaster couldn''t help but weakly fall on his throne-like seat, with a look of exhaustion on his face that made him look older again.

    And this time, such an old looksted for more than a minute.

    Hearing what the old headmaster said made William realise such an attitude wasn''t an exception. That youth seemed to go overboard on many asions before. That branded him with the picture of a spoiled brat, born with a golden spoon that he aimed to destroy since his young age.

    William didn''t know what he should do or say here. From one angle, this headmaster was just like any loving grandfather, caring for his only grandson''s wellbeing.

    Yet on another side, this grandson was a traitor! And he just dered his enmity with William even in the presence of the headmaster. How could William show sympathy towards such a deadly enemy?

    "It seems the loss of his father greatly affected him negatively," yet William couldn''t bring himself to publicly criticise that traitor and kept all this to himself.

    "That''s¡­ True indeed¡­" the headmaster sighed, taking what William said as the sole excuse behind such rude and weird actions of his grandson.

    The look of exhaustion over his face vanished, and instead a caring look reced it. "Don''t mind what he just said. In the academy, you are getting more supporters than rain dropping from the sky."

    "Thanks for the headmaster''s care and concern," William knew this old man favoured him. But that didn''t mean he would spare that treacherous grandson just for his sake.

    Even if William didn''t truly get what the headmaster meant by getting support, the former didn''t ask. The headmaster realised that William didn''t get his point, so he added:

    "You do know you caused a little ruckus during thest few days?" As things rted to curing his grandson ended in such a way, the old man decided to overlook this point and close this page down for now.

 Chapter 52 The Headmasters Sudden Offer

    ?In his eyes, William was going to be one of the big and powerful powerhouses in the academy during the next ten or twenty years. He also knew that his son didn''t die all of sudden. And so, there were lots of chances to get that disobedient grandson under the care of William.

    "Oh, how so?" William could guess a thing or two already when he started to think deeply about the hints the headmaster implied. He did something back to Berry, and there was also what happened at the Forging department.

    "The forging grandmaster is fond of you, even to the extent of dering that if anyone touched you, it would be like touching himself! Can you believe that?"

    The headmaster said it in such a way whileughing, making light of this matter. William expected a long interrogation, but all he was faced with was thisugh.

    And the headmaster didn''t bring up the issue of Berry.

    "I¡­ Just forged a few arrow heads back there," he honestly admitted it, without delving into many details.

    He was sure this old man got to know everything he did back at the Forging department and might even know every single word he said back there.

    But if the headmaster himself didn''t ask, William wouldn''t volunteer and exin.

    "Are they the ones you used to detect this toxin with?" the headmaster''s eyes shed, "can you give me some?"

    "Sure," William knew that the headmaster wanted to guard against this toxin from now on. After all, his inner circle was infiltrated by the dark spirit masters.

    William didn''t know what this old man intended to do towards such traitors. But he casually gave a stack of one hundred arrows to him without batting an eye.

    "Quite fierce indeed¡­" and just with holding them, the headmaster could assess their value at once, "they are quite formidable, and can kill any normal silver grade monster¡­ No, they can even wound gold grade ones."

    "That''s true," William didn''t cover up the truth about his arrows'' deadly effect.

    "Great, now you have one little problem to solve."

    "What problem?"

    "The Long n," the headmaster gave him a serious and deep look, "that old fellow is looking out for you. He wants you to go to the n''s base right away. No dy is allowed."

    ''Berry''s grandfather?'' William heard a few stories about this crazy and immensely powerful spirit master before in his past life. He heard that in the entire academy, only the headmaster was the sole spirit master able to stop this dude.

    "But¡­ I just returned from a long journey outside. I want to get some rest and also register myself as a disciple in the academy."

    "Leave the registration and admission thing to my people," the headmaster waved, "but that will take at least a few days. After all, you need to be relocated from that shitty ce you lived at so far."

    William wanted to say that this shitty ce was appointed to him by the academy which that old man led. But he refrained from saying so, fearing to instigate this old man''s wrath.

    William knew that people in powerful positions always had a hard to grasp temper. So, it was better for him to avoid getting himself into any unneeded trouble.

    "A few days¡­" William was lost in thought. He knew relocating himself would take time, but he never expected it''d take a few days to happen.

    He had a small and narrow ce where he and the two girls wouldn''t be able to properly live.

    Not to mention he wanted to do many things during this period of deserved rest.

    He wanted to speak with the two girls about the secrets and things they knew about the dark spirit masters. Also, he wanted to see what was special inside that ring of his.

    Speaking about such stuff wouldn''t happen at such a poor shack. If he did, then anyone could eavesdrop and listen to what the two girls would say.

    Andstly there was the issue regarding his techniques. He wanted to train himself after what happened in the forest and in the academy.

    He wasn''t safe! At any moment, he''d find himself forced to fight against much stronger foes.

    His spirit wasn''t ready yet to be used. And so, he had only his vast knowledge of techniques to use.

    He got a gold grade sword as his main weapon. And he knew lots of fighting techniques rted to swords.

    Yet to train at such techniques, he needed a spacious ce, better to belong solely to him. It wouldn''t be that nice to train over his techniques in front of the eyes of his enemies.

    Returning back to his little ce was out of the question. And not getting a single day of rest before meeting such a scary person was also out of the question.

    "If you want, you can stay here for one night," the headmaster suddenly said, "the ce is quite spacious and there aren''t many people living here."

    William gave the headmaster a deeper look. To him, his thoughts and doubts were all read by this old fox as if he was an open book. Which was something not that nice at all.

    "Sure," William said, "but one night can''t do. How about I stay here for three days?"

    "You have to know that after these three days, you''ll have to go to the Long n," the headmaster looked seriously into William''s eyes, "and aftering back you won''t remain here, got it?"

    William knew the headmaster was telling him that this stay here was temporary. And William had no objection to that.

    In fact, he didn''t like being under the watchful eyes of such a formidable spirit master. William knew if the headmaster wanted to spy on him, then he wouldn''t be able to stop such a scary spirit master forever.

    But he had no other option but to ept such an offer. It was better than just staying in his little ce and letting everyone spy on him.

 Chapter 53 He Is Different

    ?"Sir headmaster, you sent for me?" and just as William was thinking about the real intentions of the headmaster from extending such an invitation, he saw the same spirit master who guided him here before.

    It was Tang!

    "Take William and these two girls and let them stay at the northern residential house," the headmaster casually said.

    William noticed that the face of Tang slightly changed for a brief second before bowing as he said:

    "I will," he then motioned his eyes for William and the two girls to follow him before turning around and moving away.

    William bowed to the headmaster and the other two girls followed his suit before the three left the hall and followed Tang''s steps outside.

    "You know you are able to squeeze everything we wanted from him when he goes to your ce," and after a few minutes after William and others'' departure, the headmaster suddenly spoke.

    He was all alone and yet he spoke in a certain direction. The moment he said these words, another figure suddenly appeared from the same direction the headmaster was looking at.

    He was an old man. If William was here, he''d instantly see the simrities between him and Berry.

    He was Berry''s grandfather, Long n''s fearsome patriarch, Kong!

    What William did not know was that when he was chatting with the headmaster, the headmaster was speaking using spiritual telepathy with Kong.

    The two agreed on sending William towards the Long n''s base where Kong would squeeze everything out of him.

    But when William asked for a period of rest, Kong proposed for the headmaster to let him stay in this huge mansion.

    The headmaster didn''t agree at first, but when Kong spoke to him about how beneficial this was going to be, he decided to follow such a n.

    "This kid gives me the vibe of an old fox," Kong said in a tone that was void of any jokes, "he won''t spill out his beans in such an easy way as you expect."

    "I find it hard to believe for anyone to keep any secret in front of you," the headmaster bitterly smiled.

    "I''m telling you, he is different," Kong gazed towards the direction where William vanished into, "and it''s better to let him show us what he can do before trying out to know more."

    "As if he is going to do anything," the headmaster snorted in objection.

    "He is," but Kong''s eyes remained quite serious, and he slowly nodded to his old friend, "or else this old fox wouldn''t have asked for a few days before leaving for my ce."

    The headmaster didn''t get what was in Kong''s mind. The former felt William was just a simple kid who got lucky to meet up with a good master. But thetter felt different about him. To Kong, William gave him the same vibe he felt when dealing with equal in standard and strength masters.

    He felt how unfathomable William was, and that feeling made him quite curious about uncovering William''s secrets.

    "You said you tracked him for many days," the headmaster looked deeply at Kong after a minute or pause, "didn''t you discover anything at all about him?"

    "I can tell you this¡­ No matter what he did, I found myself oblivious to his way of fighting."

    "This¡­" this time the headmaster was taken aback. If such words came out from someone else, then he wouldn''t feel the same.

    But who was Kong? He was one of the strongest in the entire kingdom. And in the entire world, he was one of the top hundred.

    "Not only that," and when the headmaster thought Kong was going to stop giving him more shocks, thetter added, "he also has vast fighting experience that never suited his age nor his position nor power. No matter what situation he found himself in, he always pulled the right method to ovee his enemies and win."

    "Is it thanks to his master?" the headmaster couldn''t help but ask.

    "I didn''t get to see his proimed master," Kong slowly said, "I took a few days to catch up with him. I already spoke with Ellina from the Forging department and aligned the time when he left the academy."

    "And? What did you get?"

    "If that master is present, then she''d be not that far from here, or he never had the chance to meet up with her. But if I had such spirit master, then I wouldn''t rest for a second before going to meet up with her"

    The headmaster kept looking at Kong in silence. And thetter didn''t speak for a long minute before adding in a slow and heavy tone that suited the current atmosphere, "if she is alive, then she''ll be his master."

    "No way!" the headmaster knew exactly whom Kong was speaking about, "we both saw her body turning into shreds from that deadly explosion."

    "We didn''t see her body suffer from such an explosion," Kong slowly said, "we only assumed her death back then."

    "No one can survive such a deadly explosion! Not even you and Ibined at our current level of power."

    "We still didn''t see her body take that hit or find any remains of her," Kong persisted, "and there is no other candidate to be this mysterious master but her."

    "Then why didn''t shee back? Why did she stay out there in the forest?"

    "This¡­ I can''t exin until we meet up with her," Kong returned again to gaze at the direction where William vanished, "and that''s why we need to deal with this kid more cautiously."

    "Tsk!" The headmaster didn''t like the way of thinking of his best friend. But he also couldn''t refute what Kong said.

    That old ident the two were speaking about in such riddles was still leaving behind heavy fingerprints over their hearts, spirits, and minds.

    As for William, he wasn''t aware of any of this.

    He''d never expect the half lie he told would revive such old hopes for two of the strongest spirit masters in the entire kingdom.

 Chapter 54 Rick And Sara

    ?"I don''t know how you did it," as William walked following Tang, thetter couldn''t help but speak up in envy, "only esteemed guestsing out from outside will get a chance to stay inside the headmaster''s mansion."

    "Consider me as one of them then," Williamughed while he couldn''t tell if Tang was on his side or not.

    Just in case, William motioned for the two girls to keep their silence using his warning gazes.

    "It''s your luck to stay here," Tang kept speaking in his envious tone, "only the headmaster and his little family members live here."

    "You seem to know quite a lot about the headmaster and his family," William wanted to take such a chance and learn more about his future enemy, "are you friends with the headmaster''s grandson?"

    "Rick? No, he isn''t that friendly to anyone outside from his gang," Tang said in hidden enmity, "he is a hard person to befriend or even speak with."

    "I can vouch for that," William chimed in and used such a chance to ask, "but I heard his spirit power is stagnant. Howe he is acting in such a way despite that?"

    "It''s not only him," Tang sighed, missing the hidden goal of William, "anyone from his gang is a jerk as well. If not only for my respect to the headmaster, I would have said different words about them."

    William now could tell that Tang wasn''t the same side as Rick. and that meant he wasn''t part of the dirty dark spirit masters at least.

    And that was a good start.

    "I heard he has a sister, is she like him as well?" William paused before adding, to clear up any unneeded misunderstanding, "I don''t want to end up pumping into her and getting myself into any awkward situation or something."

    "Oh Sara? No, she is totally different from him," Tang realised what William meant and yet he added in warning, "but don''t hold any thoughts about her. The headmaster favours Rick, but Sara is different. She is like part of his spirit or something like this."

    "I''m just asking to avoid any sort of trouble."

    "I''m also rifying things over for you, so you won''t end at one big disaster you won''t be able to handle," Tang even stopped in his tracks and gave William a deeper nce, adding more weight to his words.

    "Thanks for the warning," William didn''t have any real intentions about this Sara. He just wanted to assess how deep the dark spirit master infiltrated the house of the headmaster of the academy.

    "You won''t pump into her anyway," Tang resumed walking, while his tone returned to be calmer, "she is a working maniac, always training. Even her free time is spent in studying different techniques and manuals, researching the big library of the academy."

    "Cool," William admired such a mindset. If not for the headmaster to already ce his eyes for his heir over Rick, Sara would make a fine candidate as a future headmaster.

    Yet before all this could happen, William knew the world had first to survive the uing deadly disaster.

    "Here¡­" as the small group walked in between many gardens through a twisted path, they finally arrived at a separate building that was three stories in height.

    It was separate from the main building of the mansion, surrounded by a small garden and low-level wooden wall.

    It was a simple ce to stay at. "This is the entrance key to the ce," Tang said while giving a small orange orb to William.

    Thetter epted it without asking anything about it. William knew that many important buildings were locked up using special arrays.

    This was the case in his outer world, and here. Such orb was considered his safe ticket to enter this ce.

    "Servants will pass three times a day to deliver food," Tang said before seriously adding, "your stay is limited to just this house and its garden. Don''t wander around or else you''ll get punished."

    "Thanks for the warning," William cupped his hands while watching Tang leave.

    William didn''t intend on discovering this entire ce. After all, he never ced such a mansion in his eyes. He had already seen and lived in many more grandiose mansions than this little one here.

    Besides, he wasn''t the one after the secrets of the headmaster, thetter was after his.

    "I like it here!" Just before William could say anything, Tina jumped and was about to enter that building.

    "Wait," Lina was faster to stop her sister from activating the restrictive and defensive array around this ce. She held her sister and pulled her a few steps back.

    "Let the young master step in first," Lina seemed to be familiar with how arrays in this world worked. William feared Tina would cause more trouble, and so he hurriedly stepped through the small wooden gate, holding that orange orb in his hands.

    "Go inside, little monster," William said in a joking tone while Tina didn''t hold up herself and ran all the way inside.

    And Lina followed in fast steps.

    William walked slowly inside the building. In his eyes, he was thinking about what he should do next.

    "It''s a nice ce indeed," despite the building looking simple from outside, it was quite spacious from inside.

    There was a nice hall in front of the door, which led into three twisted corridors leading away from the hall to around twelve rooms.

    There were two stairs heading to the next level. When William was just halfway through the lowest floor, the two girls were already on the third one.

    "I love it here!" Tina met with William at the stairs leading to the second floor, "I want to stay here forever!"

    "Tina, we can''t," Lina was like a caring mother who kept running after her naughty child. William knew if not for that mask, Lina''s face would show clear signs of worry and exhaustion.

    "I''m sure our next ce will also look quite good," William smiled as he tried to prepare this little devil for what was yet toe.

 Chapter 55 Selecting Aa Suitable Fighting Technique

    ?"Will it be like this one here?" Tina looked at William with wide and innocent eyes that were filled with expectation.

    William felt bad to lie to such cute eyes and felt worse to let her down. "It will be quite a nice ce as well," he only managed to say these words before Tina took this as an agreement.

    "Yes! I knew the young master was capable and strong! Hurray!"

    She raised her little fist high in the air while jumping the remaining few stairs beforending and ran off to check the rooms again. "I''m going to select my room first. No one is allowed to select before I do," she shouted from where she was.

    And William couldn''t help butugh at what she said.

    "Sorry young master," Lina said in apology.

    "No worry, this ce is huge for the three of us," William got what she wanted to say, but he shifted the topic to another point.

    The eyes of Lina blinked twice as she realised what William meant by his response.

    William didn''t put any of what happened since returning back to the academy into his mind at all. He knew it wasn''t the fault of Lina and Tina. They were running for their lives, and he had to take the heating up at him from saving them.

    "Thanks young master for your support and understanding," Lina bowed in deep respect, and William didn''t care about any of that.

    "Take this day off," William simply said, "tomorrow we will talk about your past life."

    "As the young master says," Lina left to chase after her little sister while William decided to let the two girls enjoy this day as a rest.

    "They are innocent and naive," William knew despite what they lived through, they didn''t see the full ugly and true face of the world yet.

    He felt sympathetic towards them as he saw himself through these two little girls.

    He also was living a naive life before, and only after running for his life did he start to get to know how bad this world was.

    His life changed after that incident. And he knew their lives would change as well after their miraculous escape from the Golden Sky academy.

    As for what he nned to do today, he decided to take the day off as well.

    "If he wanted to spy on me, then I''ll make him suffer a little before that," William randomly selected a room and let his body rest on the king-sized bed inside.

    Despite staying there for long hours, closing his eyes and resting up his body, his mind never stopped working for a single moment.

    He now had a spirit and spirit power enough to make use of different techniques. Yet the main problem he got was what type of fighting technique he should train in.

    ''I now got light, darkness, and lightning spirit types,'' he thought to himself, ''so if I can train in any of the affiliative techniques, I can protect myself better against stronger spirit masters¡­''

    William knew that to fill in the gap of power between him and stronger spirit masters he had to depend on his unique spirit elements.

    Even in this world, whoever used techniques based on such elements would be considered a true monster.

    But even if he could train in many techniques, and he already knew lots of suitable ones to his three elements, he was faced with a little problem he couldn''t solve.

    ''My spirit power expenditure¡­ I can''t even execute a single technique without having my spirit power entirely depleted¡­''

    He knew lots of techniques, but they were quite formidable and had a scary spirit energy consumption rate. He even doubted with his current low level of spirit power, he''d be able to pull out the full strength of any technique he knew of.

    ''Shall I learn normal techniques then¡­'' he considered this, but that would be pointless. He wanted some sort of an ace to be used at times of distress.

    If Tang and that elder didn''t show up back then, William would have found himself fighting much stronger spirit masters without having the means to kill them all without losing his life in return.

    ording to his vast knowledge, the fighting techniques had different ssifications. One of these ssifications was the element of the technique. There weremon techniques which could be executed by any spirit master regardless of his spirit element.

    Such techniques were useful in many ways. They could be used by any spirit master and wouldn''t consume lots of spirit power in return.

    But one of their main drawbacks was howmon they were. So, in William''s eyes, aside from their weak strength, they were well known to many, and that meant they could easily be countered or evaded.

    William wasn''t against the use of such techniques, but he wanted to take these few days of rest to arm himself up with a stronger technique.

    And that was the specific element techniques were. And those would bring out deadly effects in return for high spirit power consumption rate.

    The next type of techniques were the ones rted to n''s and families passed down manuals.

    For example, the training manual Berry used to train at had many techniques rted to it.

    William knew many techniques rted to training manuals, including a few scary techniques. But to use these, he had to first be efficient at these training manuals before being able to use any of these techniques.

    He was quite picky in matters rted to his training manuals, especially with his special devouring ability and the special spirit he got.

    He still was discovering his spirit, and he didn''t want to just use any manual to train his spirit power. Especially when he didn''t need to go for such trouble and could just increase his spirit power efficiently by consuming monster cores.

    Yet he also was well aware that to break the barrier of this world, he needed to push his spirit power through the limit. And to do so, the monster cores wouldn''t be of any help.

 Chapter 56 The Three Deadly Techniques

    ?After all, the highest grade monsters here were limited by the roof of power in this world. And that wouldn''t help him break through the limits of this world at all.

    He knew his devouring ability would take him all the way through the top ranks of this world. But if he wanted to go beyond, he had to find a training manual that would help him take such step.

    ''I can dy the matter of selecting my training manual for the time when I hit the gold rank at least,'' he decided before shifting his attention towards the next type of techniques.

    The next type was the one he sought after; the ones rted to elements. Although such techniques were quite overbearing, they still ced much pressure over his spirit power.

    And after many hours of considering everything, he decided to go all out and modify a few techniques he knew to better suit his current situation.

    ''I know the main theories behind these techniques¡­ But I have three elements I never got in my past life before¡­ So, I have to first try and test things out¡­''

    He didn''t take too long to select three techniques he could use with his spirit.

    After a thorough thinking, his option list was already narrowed down to these three.

    First, they were the lowest in terms of spirit power consumption rate and requirement. Secondly, they were rted to each of his three elements.

    Andstly, they were suiting his gold grade sword.

    Techniques were also rted to the weapon spirit masters used. For example, techniques for daggers, swords, sabres, and knives might look simr and suitable to be used by any of these.

    However, William knew the little differences that many spirit masters might overlook were enough to raise the spirit power consumption by great margin.

    He wouldn''t act like these ignorant spirit masters and wouldn''t use a technique that wasn''t suited for swords in the first ce.

    Then it came down to the theories behind each technique.

    Each technique would beposed of the steps needed to perform the technique, the spiritual element requirement behind it, the amount of spirit power needed to trigger its lowest form, and the spirit energy consumption rate during performing any technique.

    However, the most important thing would be the theory behind each technique.

    William knew not all the spirit masters were well aware of this. And those who did were able to modify and evene up with totally new techniques like what he intended to do.

    As for these three techniques, one was rted to the lightning element. It was called the Lightning Hawk technique.

    This technique would allow the spirit master to run a hundred metres or more in one second, gather up the momentum before jumping up for almost ten metres in the air and then falling with the sword over the target.

    The strike created by such technique would be formed entirely of lighting, looking like a hawk falling from high altitude and descending over the ground to hunt its prey.

    It was a deadly technique, and the deadliest element in it relied on the speed it showed.

    If the enemy wasn''t able to match such speed, then he''d end up getting involved in the devastating attack that''d follow.

    Not to mention speed was needed to build up the momentum and even the explosive attack that wouldeter on.

    The essence behind this technique was simple, speed! William knew without the momentum gained before releasing such a strike, then the attack would lose much of its strength, even failing to get executed.

    But the pressure his body would suffer from it wasn''t that easy to handle. He had to elerate in less than a second and cross a distance he wouldn''t be able to cross in even ten seconds.

    The second technique was rted to the darkness element. It was known to be a deadly assassin type attack that couldn''t be easily guarded against.

    It was called the Silent Moon technique. When used, the spirit master would blend with any darkness around, moving at a very fast speed that would enable him to travel hundreds of metres in the span of few seconds.

    The spirit master would be powered by the darkness around, ending up saving tons of spirit power for him to execute such a strike.

    During the travel through darkness, the spirit master would move his sword around in a circr way, yet without causing a single sound.

    All the sounds and energy of the swings would be stored at the sword until the moment the spirit master reached his target. By then he''d unleash a strong attack that stacked lots of power inside and release it over the target in an inescapable attack with a thunderous boom.

    The deadliest element about such technique would be in how it would be silent until the moment of the strike.

    Many would think the base of such technique would be in the darkness around the spirit master. After all, darkness concealed the movements of the spirit masters using this technique and allowed them to perform brilliant assassinations that couldn''t be countered easily.

    However, William knew this wasn''t true.

    The true essence of such technique relied upon the gathering of many swings'' powers during the silent march of the spirit master through darkness.

    Without stacking as many swings as possible, thest strike wouldn''t bring the devastating effect it was infamous for.

    The third technique was rted to the light element.

    It was a widely spread mistake from many spirit masters, formidable ones included, that the light based techniques were all rted to purifying effects and such.

    But William knew how deadly the light element based techniques could be.

    The technique he selected was called the Burning Star technique. By waving the sword many times, the spirit master would release his spirit power and let it burn through his sword.

    At least twenty moves needed to be done in the span of five seconds to charge up the attack. As for these strikes, each had to be done in a specific way that William was familiar with.

 Chapter 57 Thinking About A New Technique

    ?Unlike what the strike''s name would tell, the spirit master didn''t need to hit anything at all while charging up his sword.

    In fact, the strike name was rted to the use of one''s spirit power. With moving the sword around in star shaped moves, one strike would be counted, and a little star shaped light would appear along the edge of the sword.

    Twenty circles, twenty strikes, twenty little stars¡­ Then the technique would be ready to get unleashed.

    With the sword edge that was filled with twenty little stars, the spirit master could finally release his stars towards his target.

    The attack didn''t need the sword to hit the target, but the target shouldn''t be too far from the spirit master. The distance should not be more than ten metres for the twenty stars to be unleashed.

    Each star would fly around the target to cover up a distance of ten metres radius, before finally exploding.

    The explosion of each star would push the target towards the next star exploding up. That meant the stars were going to detonate in a predetermined sequence.

    That meant the target would have zero chance to get away from such a deadly attack once he got trapped within. And the deadliest fact about such an attack would be that the target didn''t need to get into such a sequence from the start.

    If the target got hit with the fifth or even the fifteenth star explosion, he''d end up entrapped in the subsequent star explosions.

    The essence of such an attack relied upon the circles the spirit masters drew while charging his technique up.

    William knew the movement of the sword before unleashing the attack wasn''t going to be this simple. The direction these circles pointed at would be the locations where these stars would explodeter on.

    Some sort of general nning of the entire pattern should be done before starting to attack. And some sort of connection should be present between the twenty stars'' exploding locations.

    So the spirit master using such a technique had to be able to predict where his target would be and where his stars would end up at. It was a very tricky technique that required not only spirit power but much training and prediction.

    William wanted to merge the essence of these three techniques together, do little tweaks here and there, and end up forming a totally new technique.

    To devise a new technique, any spirit master had to start from the base of the technique he had in mind just like what William just did.

    ''The first technique depends on speed, the second depends on the number of strikes stacked before unleashing the strike, and the third one needs precision and prediction to control the direction of each sword move before releasing the attack¡­''

    William kept repeating such phrase in his mind over and over until his mind started to formte many ways where he could execute his desired technique.

    He wanted to move his sword around in a semi-circr way to solve the problem of his small spirit power.

    If he wanted to do it just like the initial techniques did, then things wouldn''t end up quite well for him. Instead of using the circr moves of the Silent Moon technique, he''d use crescentic shaped moves.

    This would save up much of his spirit power and time needed to execute such a technique of his.

    Not to mention he needed to control the direction where these strikes wouldunch at, and at the same time he''d power such moves up using speed.

    He didn''t select the fast speed movement of the second dark element based strike. After all he was going to use lightning and light based moves in his technique, and these two were the true nemesis of darkness.

    And that was also the reason why he didn''t aim towards the silence and hard to counter nature of the second technique.

    ''Will they bepatible with each other¡­'' as he thought deeper about how to execute his hypothesis, he couldn''t help but frown at this problem.

    Light and lightning werepatible with each other to some degree. However, darkness wasn''t.

    In William''s mind, he thought of a technique that''d start up by the lightning element''s high movement speed, then the darkness element part rted to stacking up the strikes would kick in.

    And while doing this, he needed to concentrate over the directions which he wanted his technique to get unleashed at in the end, which belonged to the light element technique.

    If he managed tobine all this together, then the final form of such technique would be quite hard to evade and would result in a very scary powerful attack.

    William couldn''t tell if his final technique would end up by forming stars like the light based technique or would form a devastating hit like the lightning based technique.

    ''The darkness element will be used in the middle of the other two¡­ If I can''t stabilise the technique at such a stage, then it''ll all fail¡­''

    To William, failing wasn''t an issue. He knew with each failure he''d learn something new. And eventually he''d end up seeding.

    But he started to get worried over the initial issue that because of it, he decided to devise such a new technique in the first ce to solve; his spirit power consumption rate.

    He knew by forcing too much spirit power at the technique, any conflict between ipatible elements would be solved. But that also meant the spirit power expenditure would skyrocket. And he didn''t want that.

    ''I need to test these theories first¡­'' After spending almost most of the day in thinking, William returned back to the initial problem he needed to solve.

    He didn''t want to test anything while being closely watched by others. Or elseing here in the first ce would lose its meaning.

    He knew the headmaster''s residence was the most secure ce in the entire academy. However, the headmaster himself was nning to spy on his doings.

    And yet he still had a way to solve such a problem. But he needed little help to do it.

 Chapter 58 The Concealment Array

    ?''I need to find someone to bring what I need out here,'' he decided to use the privilege he was bestowed upon by being here and use the excuse of his inability to go out for now to seek the few materials he needed.

    As for what he wanted to do, it was simple. He would make up an array, a concealment array, which would be enough to stop the prying eyes of even someone formidable like the headmaster.

    ''It''s considered my luck that this type of array doesn''t take much spirit power from me¡­'' he thought to himself while finding his way towards the main hall of the lowest floor.

    "You are here¡­ That''s great!" and once he reached down there, he found five servants delivering the food for him and the two girls.

    "Do you need anything, young master?" Just as he reached the hall, he heard the voice of Linaing from a different direction from behind.

    "I want one of them to bring me something," William paused for a moment before starting to enlist a long list of materials, reaching up to fifty.

    "I want them all," he finally said, "did you memorise them or shall I repeat them again?"

    "This¡­" the five servants looked at each other, feeling puzzled about what William just said.

    They weren''t puzzled because of the list of materials he asked for, but for the request in itself.

    "If you aren''t sure about it, just go and ask permission from the headmaster," William could tell why the servants looked at him in such a way.

    To them, going to the material warehouse and fetching back such materials wasn''t a big deal. They got used to hearing such requests from the guests staying here in this building.

    However, they also were aware of who William was, a spirit master who was previously a porter, not too much different from them. So, they felt little difficulty in deciding what to do.

    Yet when William said such words, the servants didn''t dare to follow what he asked for. Disturbing the headmaster at such an hour for such a trivial reason was something not a single servant would dare to do.

    William didn''t know that the headmaster had already retreated into his own ce and ordered to not get disturbed for any reason.

    The headmaster just wanted to spend his full time spying on William. The former little knew that thetter was preparing to seal such a spying operation on him using the weird collection of materials William just asked for.

    If he knew about that, he''d not allow his servants to bring any material to William at this moment.

    But the headmaster didn''t know any of that. And as he and Kong were sitting inside his secluded ce watching every action of William, the two decided toply with thetter''s request and see what this kid wanted to do using these materials.

    William checked the food delivered first to make sure nothing bad was going to happen to his girls again.

    As everything was fine, William let the two girls eat the food as he joined them. Just in the time he spent eating and drinking with the two girls, had enough fun to make him forget everything about theplicated thoughts he had, the servants returned again with the materials he asked for.

    "Do you need any help, young master?" After the leave of the servants, Lina asked after seeing all these materials stored on the ground of the hall. But William simply shook his head.

    "You deserve to rest tonight," William knew that the two girls didn''t get such a nice ce to sleep for over a month at least.

    He wasn''t that powerless about making such an array on his own without their help. And so, he denied Lina''s request and let the two girls go upstairs and get a nice and long night of rest.

    Then he went towards the garden outside. He decided to make the best use of that ce in testing out his theories.

    As he stepped outside, he started to review the array in his mind.

    This array was slightlyplicated thanks to therge number of materials it needed. However, thanks to that, the grade and rarity of these materials wasn''t that highpared with the effects of it.

    William could handle the cost of purchasing these materials himself with the current wealth he had. Most of these materials weremonly found in this world.

    These materials mostly worked at channelling and absorbing energy from the world outside. And so, William didn''t need to spend too much of his spirit power to activate and keep it running.

    He just only needed his spirit power to link the array to himself, not allowing anyone to even see anything as long as he didn''t allow it.

    Despite usingmon grade materials, by using the spiritual power of the world, this array was enough to seal the eyes of anyone of the headmaster''s calibre.

    To establish this array, he needed to dig holes in the ground and ce the different materials there.

    After digging for almost an hour, he finally finished. The array was in the shape of seven ovepping diamond shapes, which had seven holes each alongside the entire course of the array.

    And at each hole, he left part of the materials he gained before linking them with himself using his blood.

    The number of materials he asked for was enough to create dozens of such arrays, not just a single one.

    After cing all the materials needed, he closed the holes again as if they never existed.

    "It''s ready," once he got done from doing all this, he simply stood at the centre of this array and started to activate it.

    Activating it required him to gush out a small part of his spirit power and then the entire array would work.

    "What is going on?!" And just when the array got activated, William vanished from the sight and senses of the two formidable spirit masters, making the headmaster frown.

 Chapter 59 Ouch!

    ?The two exchanged silent looks for a few seconds before Kongughed.

    "I told you; this kid isn''t simple."

    "I hate such type of people," the headmaster showed a rare expression of disdain, "if he knows something, he shall share it with us."

    "As if he is obliged to do so," Kongughed again, feeling happy that his earlier guess and doubt were proven correct too fast, "doesn''t that remind you of someone?"

    "Not again," the headmaster rolled his eyes before adding, "what will we do now?"

    "Humph! I refuse to believe the two of us can be stopped by such a simple array," Kong paused before adding, "let''s try it  this way then... You do a simr version of that array and let me try to see what you are doing inside. Like this we can get to know how to properly break it fast."

    Yet what Kong and the headmaster thought of as an easy task didn''t prove to be so. The array William used was unbeatable! And that was simply because it used the simple concept of absorbing the universal spiritual power to negate any spirit master''s spirit power.

    As the two formidable spirit masters got themselves absorbed in testing this new array to them, William also started to test his theories out.

    "I need to test the general theory first and see if the three elements will work perfectly fine together," William knew he couldn''t be spied on anymore, so he started to speak his thoughts out loud without any fear.

    The moment that array got activated, a thick cloud of fog surrounded him inside, as if he was standing in the middle of a big cloud in the sky.

    He held out his sword, stood in his ce motionless for a few minutes revising the steps he''d take to initiate this technique.

    Before reaching the stage of testing thepatibility of the three elements together, he first had to see how to execute each element part.

    That meant he had to test each element role in a separate way before trying to mix them up together.

    The first step was to use his lightning element and speed himself up. It wasn''t that easy as he never had any of these three elements before.

    "Ouch!" Just when he tried to move ording to the steps in his mind, activating his lightning element inside his spirit, he rushed fast and mmed into the walls of the garden.

    He stood up feeling quite sour at his nose. He wasn''t ready for such high speed, and in addition to that he ended up depleting lots of his spirit power.

    "Damn! I never thought I''d need a way to regenerate my spirit power¡­" he got lost in thoughts, deciding to try out a simple and yet effective training manual on the spot.

    He just depleted more than half of his spirit power to cross more than one hundred metres in a sh. He couldn''t properly control his body as this was his first time using such an element.

    But from such failure, he got to learn a lot. Yet the depleted spirit power turned out to be a problem he missed to count for.

    The solution he used was a manual technique that''d elerate the absorption of the spiritual power from the world around.

    Yet it needed a ce too rich in spiritual power to be used. And luckily for him, the array he just used turned this garden into such a ce.

    He sat down, crossed his legs, closed his eyes, and started to regte his breathing ording to the training manual. He controlled his spirit power, forcing it to move around his body in a certain fashion to absorb too much of the spiritual power from outside.

    In almost half an hour, he managed to replenish what he lost. After all, his spirit power wasn''t that high from the start.

    One needed to know that by usingmon training manuals to replenish spirit power, one would take half a day to recover what William did.

    "Time to test again¡­"

    "Ouch!"

    "Damn!"

    "I can''t believe I can''t control such a technique!"

    He started to fail one time after another. After each failure, he''dy on the ground to replenish his lost spirit power and also to think about his failures.

    With each time he failed, he''d modify part of the technique. He was just using the lightning element and he still wasn''t able to fully perform it the way he wanted to.

    For him to get the entire technique done, he needed to have total control over his body and movement. He nned to move his sword in a precise way. And to do so, he needed his body and mind to get used to his movement speed.

    Or else he''d end up just like now, failing to control his direction and speed, ending up mming against the wall, or even mming onto an enemy he was fighting.

    As he persisted in trying, he spent almost half of the night solving this problem alone.

    In the end, and under his persistence, he finally managed to find a way to control his body movement speed and evade the wall.

    But that also shone light over another issue¡­ The spirit power consumption rate.

    During all this time, he spent almost half of his spirit power in each use. Even when he tweaked the movement and reduced his speed a little, he ended up spending almost forty percent of his spirit power.

    To him this wasn''t a good thing. He still needed to perform two other moves which would spend more of his spirit power.

    If he did so, then what was the point in inventing such a technique from the start?

    "I need to find a way to reduce my spirit power consumption¡­" as he sat again to replenish his spirit power, he thought to himself about this issue.

    He wasn''t without a clue here. He got few options to try out, and the simplest was to reduce the distance he would cross using this technique.

 Chapter 60 Damaging The Garden

    ?He tried to lower his speed but that didn''t make much difference already, so he aimed toward reducing the distance crossed in his next attempts.

    The technique allowed him to sh for more than a hundred metres without any problem. But to make the spirit power consumption lower, he had to decrease that range from one hundred metres down to thirty metres only.

    In return for such a decrease in range, the spirit power consumption became less than ten percent. And for him, this was simply perfect!

    Trying to lower this distance anymore ended up failing in executing the technique. Not to mention trying to get the enemy from a distance of twenty metres or shorter wasn''t practical in many situations.

    "Time to try out the third move then¡­" as he got satisfied with such results, he started to shift his attention towards the light based move.

    He didn''t hurry to test his darkness element based move as he knew it was going to take more time to make itpatible with the other two moves.

    He first decided to execute the lightning and light based moves before trying out the darkness move in the middle of the two.

    As he took more than half of the night to perform the first move, he expected the night would be over and he''d be able to barely finish the second move.

    He nned to get little rest after fully executing the third move the way he desired.

    Then he''d meet up with the two girls, get to know what they knew about the dark spirit masters and their ns. Then it''de down to his storage ring''s secret, and finally he''d try to execute the second darkness based move and merge it with the other two as well.

    He expected that by the end of the third day, he''d be able to execute such a technique in its basic way. It''d take longer time and much effort for him to master such a technique, but he wasn''t in a hurry to do so right now.

    Using the simple version of it was enough for him to execute something heaven shaking in the eyes of other spirit masters, enough to protect his life against much stronger spirit masters.

    Not to mention during the time he''d take to go to the Long n,e back here to study in the academy, he''d get many chances to hunt down more monsters and elevate his spirit power.

    The more spirit power he had the better his chances in executing this technique in its full power.

    So, he just wanted to learn the basic form of this technique for now. And three days were enough for him to do so.

    However, he truly underestimated the light based move he was learning!

    "Damn! What a fierce explosion!!" Unlike what he expected, just from the first try, he seeded in executing the third part. However, the explosion that happened was fierce enough to suck almost the entirety of his spirit power dry!

    "Hoof! Hoof! If I didn''t drop the sword at the right moment¡­ Hoof! Hoof!"

    He was now lying on the ground, at the edge of a deep crater that looked as if an asteroid just hit this ce. Thick tongues of dust and smoke rose up from this hole that extended to five metres down.

    In the middle of it, his gold sword was inserted all the way to its hilt, deeply stabbing the ground.

    William stayed there for almost half an hour before finally getting back part of his strength and spirit power. He hurriedly sat on the ground and thought about what just happened.

    "That light move is really formidable! With my current spirit power, I can''t tolerate such fierce consumption. And even when I stopped it, it ended up creating such a crater¡­ Damn fierce!"

    Despite feeling helpless about the insane consumption that he felt, he was still impressed by how brutal such a move was!

    It was even suitable to be a separate technique on its own!

    In his eyes, if he tried to execute the entire technique as he envisioned, then a fierce explosion would erupt, one that was on a whole new level than the one that just happened minutes ago.

    But he also realised that using such a move as a standalone technique wouldn''t be possible without reaching at least silver grade spirit master rank. Or else he''d end sucked dry, facing the same fate as those nine Golden Sky disciples from before.

    The part he executed was rted to stacking up shes and releasing them in predetermined directions.

    As he didn''t yet try out the darkness element move, he had to use the moves from the initial light technique. But instead of moving the sword in star shapes, he did it in a simple shing way while using his spirit''s light element in each wave of the sword.

    "I only managed to use ten shes! Only ten! They didn''t even follow the standard star shaped movement! And that ended up causing such a ruckus¡­ I also failed to control the direction properly as I abruptly ended the technique¡­ So, what will happen if these ten strikes getbined together into one? Interesting¡­"

    He kept training and replenishing his exhausted spirit power for almost one hour. During this, he started to change theyout of his move.

    "Instead of focusing on making twenty strikes, I can only do five¡­" he considered such a possibility.

    He already seeded in pulling such a move, but he had to tweak how to put it under leash.

    ? Things happened too fast for him to detect which part consumed the most of his spirit power. But he could tell that one thing in that move consumed most of his power.

    Seeing the damage he brought to the garden made him crave for the finalbined form of attack. "I need to try it again¡­" he stood up and decided to give it another try, not fearing to end up like the first time.

    This time he decided to drop trying to control the direction of each sh. He knew by using the darkness element he''d be able to execute the same destructive power. Yet he wanted to see which part took the most of his spirit power before anything else.

 Chapter 61 Another Failure!

    ?If it proved that trying to control the direction of each strike consumed more, then he''d try to lower the number of strikes he''d control. For example, if he executed ten strikes or more to stack together using the dark element, then he''d just control two of them to block the path over his enemy.

    He wanted to use the entrapping method of the Burning Star technique. And that to make sure his enemy wouldn''t have a chance to escape from his iing attack and end up losing too much or die in the end.

    Not to mention any foe entrapped in such an attack wouldn''t have the ability to fight back.

    But when he witnessed how truly scary the attackbining part of this technique was, he started to think less about the entrapment portion.

    In his mind, another variation of his new technique began to take shape. He imagined if he was able to merge both stacking part of the dark technique with thebining part of the light technique, how devastating his final technique would be?

    *Boom!*

    ? This time the explosion that came out from using just five shes wasn''t fierce like the first attempt. It also didn''t suck his spirit power dry.

    "As I thought¡­ The hard part lies in trying to control the direction of each sh¡­" he examined his spirit power and found out that he depleted almost twenty percent of it in doing so.

    "If I used ten strikes then¡­" he replenished his spirit power for ten minutes before returning to test his theory again.

    "It caused the same devastating damage as the first attempt¡­ And it only consumed thirty percent of my spirit power¡­" he now realised that by only focusing overbining his shes, the damage was brutal, and the spirit power consumption wasn''t that bad.

    "So¡­ If I tried to merge the lightning and light techniques together¡­" he grew curious about such a possibility. After all, the two elements werepatible with each other.

    The lightning part he learnt consumed ten percent of his spirit power. So he hypothesised that after using the two parts together, around half of his spirit power would get consumed at most.

    But when he tried, he found himself in an unexpected situation.

    *Boom!*

    He shed fast, moved his sword ten times beforending the strike over the ground. This time the explosion was so severe that he even felt the ground trembling faintly under the tip of his sword.

    The explosion was fierce enough to cause a much deeper crater in the ground, almost reaching to twenty metres in depth. At the same time, the two elementsbined together and that brought up changes he never expected.

    First the lightning started to arc and dance around his sword. With each full swinging move of the sword, one arc was produced, and William felt how deadly the energy inside was.

    But when he executed the strike, he was bewildered to see only one arc slip through his sword and touch the ground. "Such a deadly strike came only from one arc. And there are nine others?!" he muttered in disbelief while lying on the ground again.

    He raised his sword in front of his face, while his spirit power got almost depleted again. He didn''t get why this happened. By his calctions, it was supposed for the spirit power to only decrease by forty up to fifty percent.

    And that was by hitting with all the might his technique had. But reality proved how naive he was thinking before.

    "Spirit power isn''t that predictable, just like the fighting techniques and special spirit elements¡­ Tsk!" He recalled one of the phrases he once heard. He learnt about it at one of the many lectures his master once gave to him, and it was rted to this part.

    He almost forgot such words as he never had any of these elements in his previous life. But as he was now seeing how things turned out, these words resurfaced again, solving this puzzlement out for him.

    It wasn''t like one plus one equalled two. In this case, trying to merge the two special elements together yielded much different result than the one he thought before.

    And that made him wonder what it would be like when merging the three elements together.

    "At least I had a technique that can hit many opponents at the same time¡­"

    *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

    He sat down and prepared to replenish his lost spirit power, muttering to himself such a good point about his attempt while throwing the sword away.

    And when the sword touched the ground, it uncontrobly released the stacked nine attacks in session.

    The ground shook like it was the end of the world. And gradually William felt the ground he sat on caved in slightly with each explosive rumble.

    When the dust settled, William could see a hole that extended for almost fifty metres at its centre. The edges looked like a slope of a mountain, and this hole epassed most of the garden here.

    He found himself sitting on that sloppy part.

    "I can''t imagine the look on that headmaster''s face when he sees this¡­" When William saw such irreparable devastation, he could only inwardly sigh and ept such a result.

    He shifted his attention from worrying about what possibly could happen to him thanks to his actions here from the headmaster and focused on how to solve this big problem he had.

    When he unleashed that arc from before, he could feel his spirit power getting sucked dry by this attack. "I can''t show the full power of such an attack before getting to silver¡­ Even to gold grade at least¡­" he pondered about this and felt more helpless.

    All the answers he found required him to get stronger. He wanted a solution for his current problem, not something for tomorrow.

    "This attack¡­ It better suits thrown out objects¡­" as he thought about it for much longer, he recalled the great damage the nine arcsbined did.

 Chapter 62 Calling It A Day

    ?Even if using a different weapon than swords produced a slightly weaker version of attack than the single arc he unleashed before, it was still a fierce kind of attack.

    After all the two moves he used were driven from sword based techniques.

    "But the theory behind this worked best on thrown weapons¡­ Arrows can''t be held like swords. I can''t stack the attacks on them¡­ It''d be hrious if I had to dance in front of an enemy before killing him¡­ What will they call me then? The dancing crazy spirit master or what?"

    He didn''t get much disappointed by this failure. He simply tried to find other uses of what he discovered here.

    After all, he didn''t totally fail. He seeded in executing his technique, but it required much more spirit power than he had.

    So instead of using his spirit power while attacking with a sword, he thought about stacking these attacks over something he could throwter and sever his connection with afterwards.

    Like this, he wouldn''t be forced to give away his spirit power. And only his spirit power would get consumed when executing the prunch part of his technique.

    He thought of his arrows, but he soon dropped such an idea as it looked quite embarrassing to use a funny such a way in a fight. And there was another good reason for dropping such an idea.

    "If not for my sword to be a high grade one, it wouldn''t be able to sustain such devastating power stacked over it¡­" he thought about another problem he''d face if he decided to use another weapon, not specifically arrows.

    "The best is ives and spears¡­ I''d go for ives. Dancing with such a ferocious weapon won''t be too embarrassing. And I can just throw it at my enemy like it''s a stick or something. The enemy won''t ever expect such an attack tond from such a weird move¡­"

    But he didn''t have a ive, not to mention a spear. And trying to purchase one wasn''t going to be easy.

    Swords, axes, sabres, knives, bows, and spears were themonest types of weapons avable in the academy, in any ce in the world.

    But it was known that swords, sabres, bows, and knives were cheaper than axes and spears. As for ives, they were harder to find, and would cost almost double if not triple the standard prices of swords.

    "And trying to forge one with my current limited spirit power won''t get me any good grade ive as well¡­" he could only inwardly sigh and push aside using such formidable technique with thrown out weapons for now.

    He then started to think about another way to use such a technique with his current power. "I can try a single strike then¡­" as he had no other option but to use his sword for now, he decided to give it another try after modifying this technique.

    The next attempt proved futile. Using just one sh wasn''t enough to even trigger anything. He kept trying, slowly increasing the number of stacked shes until he reached five.

    By five, the technique got triggered. Five arcs of lightning danced across the edge of his sword. But when he unleashed one arc, he ended up in the same devastative and miserable condition again.

    "It''s not rted to the number of stacked shes along the sword, but to the power of each stacked sh¡­ I have to throw it then," after many failures, he got fed up with this. The sky was now void of any darkness and there was bright light everywhere.

    The day came fast and now he felt mentally tired and wanted to get a little rest. But he didn''t want to call it a day before finding a way to use such a devastating attack.

    The damage brought by this technique was too tempting for him to ignore. So he decided to stack not only five, but ten strikes before throwing his sword away and watch it fall on the ground.

    A mighty and violent ten explosions erupted in session, changing the entirendscape once again.

    "It works!" as he guessed, throwing away his sword would yield a weaker version of this technique, but it wouldn''t consume much of his spirit power.

    Causing such scary explosions came at the cost of just consuming twenty percent of his spirit power. "But I''d end up without a weapon this way," he knew this might look great, yet it wasn''t perfect.

    In the middle of a battle, standing alone without a weapon was just like a death sentence for any spirit master.

    "It''s a problem forter," he collected his sword, cancelling the concealment array before taking back his materials.

    After all this time, the materials looked half good as he first used them. The array seemed to struggle against something, and that elerated the depletion rate of these materials.

    William didn''t find it weird as he precisely knew who caused such conflict with his array. Least to his knowledge there wasn''t just one formidable spirit master spying on him, but two.

    Then he returned into the building, leaving behind a totally damaged garden and even fallen parts of the wall!

    The array shielded any spying attempt on the inside, and also prevented anything happening inside from leaking out.

    So, when he returned into the small mansion, he found the two girls absent. He knew they were still sleeping. And so, he randomly selected a room and let his body fall over the soft bed mattress, before falling into deep sleep.

    ___________________

    "This array¡­ How can it be so stubborn against my spirit power!"

    The two formidable spirit masters stayed their night testing and experimenting with the concealment array which William used.

    Unlike what the two expected, breaking such an array proved to be quite challenging.

    For such two formidable and pretty experienced spirit masters, this was something they rarely met for a long time already.

    At first, they decided to test things out as they wanted to see what William was doing inside that array. However, after a few hours, they lost interest in that goal and got immersed in such an amazing feeling.

 Chapter 63 Who Is This Kid?!

    ?They rarely felt such a feeling, like they were frogs inside a deep well. That array made them feel helpless against, and such feeling wasn''t that depressing to such masters.

    Instead, it was like steroids, pumping up their will to try and break it even more.

    William thought the array followed a concept that wasn''t known in this world. But he was mistaken. Or to be precise, he underestimated the genius minds of such formidable masters.

    The two masters failed to break the array, but they at leastprehended how it worked.

    "Absorbing the vast and endless universal spiritual power to keep the array running is just a genius idea¡­" the headmaster said at one point when he realised this issue.

    "It''s not just that," Kong slowly shook his head. He already grasped such concept slightly faster than his friend, "the universal spiritual power contains all the elements in the world. So, no matter what element we use, it will get negated in the end."

    "That''s¡­ It''s brilliant, sigh! Howe I never thought of something like this before?"

    The concept was very simple and yet quite formidable at the same time. This made the two experienced spirit masters question why they never thought about it before.

    It was too simple to be easily missed, which made them quite admirable towards William''s master.

    After all, the two never thought that William came up with such a genuine idea on his own.

    "How to break such a thing then?" The headmaster already felt a great headacheing from this.

    "If such a concept is known to the dark spirit masters¡­ Then¡­" Kong''s eyes suddenly shed in cold light. And seeing his friend like that made the headmaster wrongly get what he truly meant.

    "Don''t! William isn''t part of those bastards."

    "I didn''t think that way," Kong realised that his friend mistook his meaning, "I''m saying that if the dark spirit masters are using such a concept to conceal their bases and actions, then it exins a lot, right?"

    The headmaster realised what Kong wanted to say. "You got a good point here. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn''t even discover a single base of them."

    "We need to learn how to break this array," Kong made up his mind, "even if we have to force this kid to tell us how to do it, it''s a must!"

    "Let''s test things out ourselves first," the headmaster knew how crazy his friend would be if something piqued his interest. And from the tone, expression, and vibe he felt from him, he knew Kong already decided on learning how to break this array no matter the cost.

    They started trying to break the array down to see what William was doing yet ended up wanting to unveil the mystery surrounding their deadliest enemies.

    "What the heck is that?!!!" As the two lost themselves in their attempts to break the array, they never stopped watching William.

    The moment William cancelled his array and started to collect his materials, the entire garden got revealed in front of the two masters'' eyes, or what was left out of it.

    What they saw was something quite shocking to the two. Devastation spread all over the garden, and the entirendscape changed too much for one night.

    It wasn''t right to call it a garden anymore. In their eyes, it was typically what was left after a long and brutal battle.

    Holes, rubbles, even smoke rose from a few spots here and there¡­ The entire garden was gone and even the wall around showed signs of getting affected as well.

    Parts of the wall fell, and the other standing ones had scars and ck marks over them.

    "This¡­" the two exchanged silent and long gazes that were filled with doubts and tons of questions before they acted at the same moment.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    The two instantly shed and appeared just outside the destroyed garden, observing the immense damage around. "My beloved garden¡­" the headmaster felt real pain when he watched the gruesome look of his ce.

    At this moment, William entered the building without feeling anything. The gap between him and these two was already too much for his senses to feel their presence.

    "This kid¡­ Great!'''' Unlike the troubled headmaster, Kong felt more excitement when he saw this scene, "let''s go. He didn''t leave for long and traces for what he was doing here are still lingering around. Let''s see what we can get."

    "Ok¡­" the headmaster was still fuming with rage inside about the current state his garden ended up in.

    If not for the two keeping tight eyes around William and this ce, the headmaster would have suspected that enemies infiltrated through this ce and tried to kill William.

    "This¡­ It''s a lightning element!" The first spot Kong reached was the deepest point of the hole in the middle of the garden.

    He knew to leave behind such a deep scar, a formidable attack should be used there. And that was why he selected this spot to first examine it.

    He released his spirit power and started to feel the area in a thorough way. What he found was something he wouldn''t mistake, and it even managed to change his face as a look of real shock appeared.

    Elements like fire, wind, earth, and wood were consideredmon elements. They were found anywhere, and most of the spirit masters and families were able to use one or more of these.

    Just like Kong''s family and n, they could use the fire element, with variations of spirits that could use earth and wind elements. But elements like lightning, ice, darkness, and light were considered extremely rare and pretty much precious.

    Meeting someone using one element of those might not happen even once to any spirit master. And right now, Kong felt the presence of one of these elements in the traces left by William.

    "Who is this kid?!" Kong muttered to himself, greatly doubting what he learnt about William so far.

 Chapter 64 Lets Investigate Him

    ?All this time he believed that William was acting in such a way thanks to his master. But no matter how formidable one''s master was, they couldn''t change the elements one could yield.

    Elements were rted to spirits, and ording to what he knew, William didn''t have a strong spirit at all.

    He came from a weak and poor family, one that didn''t bring any spirit masters for hundreds of years. Most of their members worked as porters in the academy for generations, never managing to leave a name for themselves.

    Howe such a kid who came from such a family to have a spirit that was rted to the lightning element?

    No matter how Kong tried to see this, it was clear that this was William''s own trait. Kong tried to test the traces again and again, and he reached the same conclusion every single time.

    "A kid who was a porter for two years ending up being a bronze spirit master in a few days is hard to believe¡­ But for a porter to have a spirit with a lightning element is impossible!!!"

    And just as he was trying to understand what was going on here, the headmaster whispered in his mind using spiritual telepathy, giving him another shocking piece of news.

    "I found traces of light element! It''s the light element!!"

    *Fwoosh!*

    Kong didn''t stay idle for a single moment and instantly teleported to stand next to his friend.

    There was another hole that appeared on the sloppy edge of the old garden. And there, Kong checked and felt what his friend told him.

    "How can this be¡­" the headmaster also had the same line of thoughts like Kong.

    "Go there and check that ce out," Kong pointed towards the deepest point in the pit, "and try to control yourself, ok?"

    Even if the two were standing just tens of metres away from where William was, they were concealing their presence and exchanging words using telepathy.

    But Kong expected how his friend would react when seeing the lightning element traces back there. It''d be just like what he was feeling right now, a shattering wave of shock was messing with his mind!

    "That¡­ That¡­" the headmaster said in a shaky voice while Kong motioned for him to keep hisposure.

    It was indeed quite shocking for the two of them. But Kong didn''t stop there and kept inspecting the entire ce.

    "These traces¡­ He used a sharp weapon to cause these attacks¡­" The headmaster also followed suit and started to closely examine the marks left by William''s sword.

    "He got a sword, a fine one that he got from Ellina of the Forging department," Kong slowly exined as he witnessed William fight using his sword in the forest. And he got to hear the story behind this sword from Ellina herself.

    "What was he trying to do here exactly?" After an hour of searching, the headmaster couldn''t tell a head or tail about any of this, "and howe he has not only one rare element, but two?! Have you ever heard about something like that happening in the academy before?!"

    Kong gave his friend a long look, as if he was saying this was your academy not mine, pal!

    "This question can''t be answered except by him," Kong slowly said, "it''s rare to find such elements in a single spirit master, not to mention the two elements at the same time. You do know who has such a high number of such scary monsters, right?"

    "No! Howe the dark spirit masters send someone like him to infiltrate the academy? As a start, we aren''t one of the big ten in the entire world! And such a spirit master having two rare elements will be considered a genius! They won''t easily let him out."

    "It''s just a possibility," Kong slowly said. In fact, he had another motive behind saying these words, which was his beloved granddaughter.

    He was that kind of overprotective person. And he was quite sceptical about whoever was near his beloved ones.

    Letting such a kid with mysterious powers and backgrounds, with suspicious circumstances, get near his Berry made his blood overflow with rage.

    In his eyes, it was better to not let Berry interact with such a kid anymore. It was better to be safe than sorry.

    However, despite being willing to, he knew he had no say in this matter. That kid already found his path into his little girl''s heart, managed to cure her illness and left a deep impression inside her heart.

    The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to unveil the fog around William''s true identity and intentions.

    If he proved that William was an agent to dark spirit masters, then it''d be quite possible to let Berry forget about him.

    Even if she liked him, she wouldn''t align herself with someone belonging to their deadliest enemies.

    "We need to think about such matters quite deeply first," the headmaster didn''t believe William was an agent to the dark spirit masters even after such shocking revtion, "if he isn''t part of them, then it''ll be a golden chance for our academy."

    "My worst fear is they sent him precisely for the same words you just said," Kong didn''t drop his suspicion or change his mind, "but you are correct. We need to thoroughly dig everything this kid has done since he was born up till now, just to be safe¡­"

    "Why do I feel like you have another motive to do so?" The headmaster couldn''t refute what his friend said. But for some reason, he felt Kong was behaving weirdly about this matter.

    He felt like Kong wanted William to be a traitor.

    "I''m just thinking about what''s best for your academy, and you are using me of having an ulterior motive¡­ Tsk!" Kong behaved in a much weirder way, making his friend suspect him even more.

    But the headmaster knew what Kong said, despite his suspicious motives, were right. "I''ll send my orders to investigate everything he did since joining us. As for his family¡­"

 Chapter 65 They Are My Sworn Enemies

    ?"I''ll handle this part," Kong knew he had to do this himself. After all, he wanted to dig more about the history of such a low family and see if they got any spirit master throughout their history with any of the two elements.

    Having one variation to a spirit master was quitemon, but having two variations happening, and both of them were rted to such special elements was unheard of!

    This confusion that William unintentionally caused was mainly thanks to the limitation of knowledge in this world. If this happened in the outer world, then the exnation would be quite simple.

    But the two formidable spirit masters were limited by this world.

    "Still¡­ What was he trying to do here?" The headmaster couldn''t get that devastational scene out of his mind.

    "It''s either he is trying to learn a fierce technique or¡­"

    Kong paused as a wild thought came up into his mind.

    "Or what?"

    "Nothing," Kong didn''t want to speak up his mind. After all, he didn''t believe a kid like William would be able to do this.

    ''Trying to invent a new technique? Is it possible?!!'' Kong thought to himself, while another wild thought surfaced into his mind, ''Don''t tell me he was trying to merge both elements together in one technique! Spirit fusion and now spirit element fusion¡­ Who the hell taught this kid such weird stuff?!!!''

    Thinking about these unheard of methods made Kong rte everything back to William''s mysterious master. But the issues he was thinking about were truly unheard of before in this world.

    So even if William got such a formidable master, Kong never believed this master would truly exist in this world. Or else such revolutionary concepts would have stirred up the entire world a long time ago.

    William wasn''t aware of any of this. He went into his room and fell into a deep and peaceful sleep. The two spirit masters retreated and started their serious investigation about his past.

    The headmaster sent people to thoroughly investigate what William did during his past two years here. As a porter, it was hard to gather up intel about what he did during such a long time.

    After all, no one ever paid attention to such a negligible person before.

    As for Kong, he simply sent a few of his nsmen to investigate William''s family. It wasn''t as difficult as his friend''s task, as using the name and fame of his n made things easier for whomever he sent.

    Then the two masters sat back together inside the big mansion of the headmaster, waiting for William to wake up and see what he nned to do.

    The two didn''t idly sit around. They took advantage of William''s rest to try and break that array. This time they got much more reasons for doing so. And that made their effort more sincere than before.

    They wanted to see everything William was going to do from now on. And that array stood out like an unshakeable mountain in front of their eyes and senses.

    When William got up, it was already close to evening. He stretched out before sneezing for ten times in a row!

    "Damn! Who is speaking bad about me? Huh?" he looked around as if he was speaking to those spying on him.

    He went out to the hall to find the two girls standing outside the building. Lina was standing out there motionless while Tina was jumping around, ying in the holes William createdst night.

    "Young master¡­ Have you seen what happened here?"

    And when he approached, Lina asked in worry.

    "I caused this," William didn''t find any reason to hide such a thing. And through her mask, he could see Lina''s eyes wide open.

    "Come inside, we need to eat and talk," William was feeling much refreshed thanst night. Sleeping for long hours helped his body and mind a lot to recover from the stress he sufferedst night.

    And now it was time for him to learn more about the dark spirit master secrets from Lina.

    Tina tagged along, jumping around as she was speaking nonstop about how fun it was to y in these holes. William ignored her and focused more on Lina.

    Thetter was old enough to remember many things. After eating from the leftover meal delivered few hours ago, he finally turned to Lina as he seriously said:

    "I know you came from the Golden Sky academy and got chased for something rted to a marriage refusal¡­"

    "Does the master want to know why I refused that jerk?" Lina couldn''t tell why William spoke about this all of sudden. She thought he wanted to know why she refused such an offer, despite she already exined everything back to him.

    "No, I''m not interested in these matters," William waved his hand before adding, "I want to know if you heard or saw anything that can be considered a secret."

    "Secret? To whom?" Lina paused before a realisation hit her, "do you want to know secrets about the Golden Sky academy?"

    In her mind and heart, there was nothing she missed or felt still rted to such a ce except for her old masters.

    William saved her and her sister''s lives, brought them back here and shielded lots of pressure to keep them safe.

    So if he wanted to know more about the Golden Sky academy, she was ready to tell him everything she knew about.

    Yet again William rejected what she said with a shake of his head before saying:

    "You heard me say it before, those disciples from the Bronze Lizard n are traitors," William paused slightly before adding, "are you aware of the dark spirit masters?"

    "Who doesn''t know about them," Lina sighed.

    "I know they are bad people!" Tina jumped in, trying to take part in such serious talk.

    "They are indeed quite bad," William slowly nodded, "and they are our enemies."

    "Is young master referring to the entire spirit master world?" Lina slowly asked, trying to get William''s stance from this delicate matter.

    "They are the enemies to everyone, and more precisely they are my sworn enemies," William said in an ice cold tone, emitting a vibe that made Lina shiver.

 Chapter 66 Hearing Linas Intel

    ?His hatred and enmity towards such folks ran deep through his bones. So, without knowing or feeling it, he emitted a very dangerous air around him when he spoke such words.

    "You noticed what happened when we came back," William couldn''t help but add, "the ones who instigated all this are agents of the dark spirit masters in my academy. I already spotted a n who belonged to them. And such a n caused that useless trial against the three of us."

    "Is that what happened?" This was the first time for William to exin things in such a way to Lina. Thetter didn''t say much, only sharing the same enmity as William.

    After all, she knew that she got chased down by a n belonging to the dark spirit masters. And she had a good reason to believe so.

    "Young master¡­ There is something that happened before and I want to tell you about it¡­" and after a moment of hesitation, she decided to exin in full detail.

    What she said made William''s eyes shine in understanding. He knew that refusing a marriage proposal was something insulting to a big n like the Lizards, but it wasn''t enough tounch such a big hunt or entice such events here.

    From what Lina said, she exined that she idently stumbled across a suspicious meeting. It was between spirit masters from the Golden Sky academy led by the young master of the Bronze Lizard n and a group of dark veiled spirit masters.

    ording to her words, one day she was walking across the forest around her academy when she passed through a concealment array, one that didn''t stop her.

    She didn''t know why she could pass through such an array without even doing anything. However, that unexined happening ended up ruining her life.

    She witnessed the two groups exchanging stuff, holding papers with maps drawn over them. She managed to get a short nce around before hurriedly running away for her life.

    And starting from there, the young master of the Bronze Lizard n showed a sudden interest in her. He tried to buy her from her old masters but failed.

    Then he came up with the idea of marriage, and this also failed thanks to her firm refusal.

    Then the disaster befell over her family, and she ended up running for her and her little sister''s lives before finally meeting up with William.

    Thetter finally linked all the missing dots and got to see the full picture of what happened to her crystal clear.

    "Do you recall what you saw back then?" William couldn''t help but ask, hoping she''d recall a thing or two about that meeting.

    "I just took a glimpse over these papers," she paused before adding, "but I recognised a familiar map. It was a map of the area surrounding a few ns at that academy."

    "Hmm¡­" William was lost in thought. It seemed what she saw idently was part of the dark spirit masters'' ns for the Golden Sky academy. And yet he felt somehow uneasy about such news.

    When he tried to find out why he felt this way, he felt like something was inside his mind for a second before it floated into thin air the next moment.

    After pondering deeply for a few minutes without any sess, he sighed and decided to drop such a matter entirely and forgot about his uneasy feeling.

    "It doesn''t matter. You are now living in the Aspire academy, having nothing to do with the Golden Sky academy anymore."

    William was partially correct about that. After all, he didn''t know lots of things that the other two formidable spirit masters knew.

    "This¡­" the face of the headmaster instantly changed the moment he heard what Lina said. He turned to Kong, and thetter didn''t show any better expression than his friend''s.

    "They don''t know that the uing big spirit masterpetition will be held at the Golden Sky academy¡­ If what this little girl said is true, then our kids will be in great danger!"

    The two spirit masters didn''t need to say anything else. They shared the same thoughts, and they shared the same worry for the future of the spirit masters they nned to send there as well.

    "I wanted to send my grandson and granddaughter there¡­" the headmaster slowly muttered in a grave tone.

    "I nned to send Berry there as well¡­" Kong decided that after Berry''s sudden recovery, she deserved a chance to experience the real world of spirit masters.

    The two shared the same heavy gaze, one that expressed more worry and much concern over the ones they held close to their hearts.

    They were also worried about other spirit masters the academy and the Long n nned to send.

    These kids were considered the bright future of their academy and n. If something bad happened to them, then the consequences would be quite severe.

    The spirit masters they nned to send were considered the future of the entire academy and the Long n. So, losing them would be quite a hit to both.

    As the two kept worrying over this, William tried to squeeze his mind, trying to recall anything big that happened at the Golden Sky academy back then.

    But he was a mere porter back then, and hecked much intel about lots of big things happening at the outside academies and world.

    "Aside from these papers, I heard part of their discussion when I stumbled across their meeting," Lina didn''t stop telling more intel as she added, "I heard that young master of the Bronze Lizard n shout that such a plot will negatively impact his people, attract the hatred of many big ns. And he asked for a change of the selected ce away from his n."

    "This¡­" William didn''t know what he could make out with these words. "Is there anything else?" He tried to know more so he could get the best use of what he learnt.

 Chapter 67 A Countermeasure

    ?"No, that''s all¡­" she paused for a moment before adding, "by the way, back then that young spirit master didn''t have that ring on his fingers, the one you took after killing him."

    "This ring?" William raised his hand but kept his fingers raised in full and didn''t lower any.

    "Yes, that''s the one," Lina nodded, "he didn''t wear it back then."

    "Are you sure?" William paused and Lina nodded again, "how many days passed between crashing into that meeting and the start of everything?"

    "Three days," Lina gave a firm answer, and William was lost in thoughts after that.

    "If what she said is true, then there is a big possibility that this ring came from the dark spirit masters," William thought to himself after returning back to his room.

    There was lots of mystery surrounding that ring. And the more he thought about it, the more he became sure of his earlier doubts.

    This ring hid a very important secret, and he was determined to find out what it was.

    He spoke a little more with Lina but failed to learn anything new. She was quite scared back then and hurriedly left without waiting any longer.

    He understood what she went through. After all she got terrified from seeing all these spirit masters and realised the mistake she identally made.

    So, he dropped the things she said and started to focus more on his ring. Even if Lina knew something vital about the dark spirit masters'' ns, these were all invaluable to him.

    He didn''t n to go to the Golden Sky academy anytime soon anyway. Instead of worrying about such useless stuff, he held his ring in his hand and kept staring at it for a long time.

    He checked its content when he returned to his room. Aside from the normal things he found before, he couldn''t find anything out of norm.

    "A ring with a mysterious origin, one that was enough to stir up the dark spirit master rats here to try and get it from my hands¡­ I can understand why they targeted the two girls¡­ But this ring¡­"

    He kept looking at the ring without knowing what was wrong with it. The ring looked quite normal, and it didn''t contain anything that could attract anyone''s attention.

    The more normal it was, the more suspicious he became. In his eyes, this ring didn''t have anything to link that young master to the dark spirit masters, nor had any secrets that would endanger the dark spirit masters at all.

    He was sure that something was fishy about this ring. Storage devices were considered one of the safest ces for any spirit master.

    It was normal for spirit masters to hide anything in them. They were quite small in size, could be carried anywhere, and weren''t that easily taken from any spirit master without killing him.

    William thought he''d find something to link that young spirit master or his n with the dark spirit master world, or find more ns of dark spirit masters that might target his academy¡­ And yet he found nothing at all.

    "It''s a normal ring, one that can be found with any spirit master¡­" William tossed the ring in the air thrice before finally wearing it again, "I''ll keep it close until I''ll unravel its secrets one day."

    "Tsk¡­ All I got is useless intel about a faraway disaster that has nothing to do with me¡­ Did they get scared by the spread of news about their rtionship with the dark spirit masters or what?"

    William thought there was nothing that connected him right now with the Golden Sky academy. Least to his knowledge that his path was going to intersect with that n in the following months. And such trivial knowledge he thought useless would one day save his life, and even turn him into some sort of a hero to many.

    He decided to drop these issues for now. Unless he got lucky enough to entrap one of those rted to dark spirit masters in the academy and interrogate him, he''d never know the truth behind this illogical situation.

    "We need to change our ns¡­" away from his ce, the two old spirit masters were having a totally different type of discussion.

    The knowledge they idently eavesdropped upon changed everything in their eyes.

    "It''s better for one of us to be there," Kong slowly said, while feeling more anger towards the daring actions of the dark spirit masters.

    Things weren''t that clear to their eyes yet, but their reaction was totally different from William.

    The big contest that was held each few years wasn''t something they couldn''t retreat from. Thispetition was responsible for putting academies at their rightful ranks in the entire continent.

    Based on such ranking, the academy would get resources from the kingdom, and even get a few applications from wandering strong spirit masters or disciples from far away locations.

    If they didn''t send anyone, that meant their rank would end up at the rock bottom. That would be quite severe for their prestige and future in the next few years.

    On one side, they knew danger lurked and awaited their potentially strong offsprings. And on another side, they knew they couldn''t get away from such danger or else the consequences would be quite severe.

    "That''s a good solution¡­ I will also apany you," the headmaster refused to believe that with the presence of the two of them together, they would fail to protect their kids.

    "Who said I''m going?"

    "Don''t try to trick me, I know you already made up your mind the moment you spoke up," the headmaster bitterly smiled, "do your preparations, and do them quite well and quite discreetly, ok?"

    "I won''t risk anything to happen to my people," and in his heart, Kong added another line, "I won''t let anything happen to Berry."

    The headmaster had the same type of thoughts. As the two decided on such a response, they started to speak further about other things rted to this decision.

 Chapter 68 A Thing They Missed

    ?For example, whom they''d bring with them for extra protection in thispetition. They got quite a long list made up of the strong spirit masters they''d recruit from the academy and other ns to bring with them out there.

    They also discussed telling others of their allied ns about such danger. But they reached a conclusion that they shouldn''t.

    And the main reason behind this was that they wanted to keep a close eye over the traitors inside the academy. If they spread the news around, then they''d end up rming them and perhaps making the dark spirit masters change up their entire ns.

    At least they got news about what was going to happen. And the two agreed that at some point, they''d try to get more information from Lina.

    William didn''t ce much importance on the map she saw, but these two did. And luckily for them, there were still a few months before thatpetition would start.

    "Should we send him?" After long hours of intense talk, the headmaster suddenly asked, referring to William.

    "Why not?" Kong seemed to agree with what the headmaster had in mind, "he is showing quite the progress. It''d be a shame to not use him in thatpetition."

    "Ok," the headmaster gave his friend a long look, trying to see through his inner thoughts but failed.

    "But we first need to clean his name up," Kong added, "I won''t feel safe bringing someone I don''t fully trust with our kids."

    "After what he said and did so far?" The headmaster already cleared any suspicion he previously harboured against William.

    He heard what William said about the dark spirit masters and got to learn about his stance about them. And if William was one of them, then he''d end up trying to kill Lina to silence her.

    But Kong didn''t think like his friend. He still was quite suspicious thanks to his worry over his beloved granddaughter.

    "We need to wait for the reports of investigation to arrive first before making such a decision," Kong shifted his attention back to watch William before adding, "and I''ll also wait until meeting with him face to face before making my final decision."

    William remained in his room all this time. He was trying first to inspect his ring before finally dropping such an idea after gaining zero clue.

    So instead of wasting his time and effort on such a matter, he started to think about how to deal with his current problems with his new technique.

    He finished executing the first and third parts of the technique. And from what he learnt, if he managed to pull sessfully this technique, then it''d end up being quite scary.

    Its strength would be on a whole different level than what he imagined before. However, the same problem still kept haunting him down.

    "The spirit power consumption is still quite high for me to tolerate," he muttered to himself. He felt how the entire situation looked ironic.

    He started everything up trying to solve this problem using his technique. And yet he ended up suffering from the same problem in the end.

    Not to mention he didn''t fully seed in executing the third move. All he did was to throw the sword away for the technique to get done without exhausting much of his spirit power.

    But in the grand scheme of his technique, he didn''t want to do that. "I will try the second move first, and then I''ll see if I cane up with something to solve such a problemter on¡­"

    The world outside was already starting to get dark. He didn''t know if this was a coincidence or not, but he was going to test out his technique again in the middle of the night.

    "At least that can help me better execute the second move¡­" he thought to himself while returning back to the devastated garden.

    Likest night, he started first by digging holes in the ground and cing his materials there.

    "Thisd is going to damage my garden again¡­" and far from his ce, the headmaster said while bitterly smiling.

    "Your garden is already gone, suck it up," Kong said with a shortugh. He knew how his friend deeply treasured his gardens, even treating them as his kids.

    That was thanks to the thing the headmaster had towards alchemy. And Kong knew the specific reason behind such weird affection even when the headmaster was a lousy alchemist himself.

    Kong ignored the ring eyes of his friend and focused again over the array William was making. "This kid¡­ Howe we missed this little thing before?!"

    "What are you talking about?" the headmaster returned to spy over William and failed to notice what his friend did.

    "Last night we did the array in the same way he did," Kong slowly said while closely inspecting something, "but we jumped over a little matter and didn''t notice it before."

    "Which is?" Kong said many things but failed to give any answer to what the headmaster asked about.

    "He didn''t use all the materials he got from you yesterday," Kong was now confident about this point before adding, "he is just using ten percent of the entire amount!"

    "Only ten percent?!! Howe?!" the headmaster finally realised what Kong meant.

    The two took care to notice every move William made but missed such trivial detail about the amount of the materials he used.

    They thought he ced the entire amount he received and didn''t focus on how much he used. In return they just focused over what steps William took to form such an array.

    "If he used only ten percent of the materials¡­ Then¡­ That¡­" the headmaster''s eyes shone brightly while his mind stirred and imagined what it would be like to use just a small portion of these materials.

    "Breaking such an array is possible!" Kong''s eyes shone in determination as well. They were trying their best all this time to take down an array that was ten times in strengthpared with what William had.

    By realising this, they knew that breaking that array was going to be an easy task for them.

 Chapter 69 Trying The Second Move Out

    ?"Let''s do it then," the headmaster was more eager to break that array down and see what William was doing to bring such damage to his garden.

    He also felt slightly enraged from William''s actions. Thetter used his ignorance and got much more materials than what he needed.

    If not for all of these materials to be quitemon, the headmaster would have considered punishing this daring kid.

    Yet even with using just ten percent of materials, the array proved to be challenging. However, they could feel how much weaker this array became after using such a small number of materials than before.

    They spent many hours of the night trying to break that array. During that time, William stood on the edge of that deep pit, considering how he should execute the second move.

    The second move depended on his darkness element. Out of the three elements he got, this one he knew lots about.

    After all, his deadliest enemy had such an element. So, he studied it thoroughly to know what abilities such an enemy would have and how to counter them.

    "Darkness is silent, deadly, and quite an overbearing element¡­" William recalled the knowledge he knew about such element from his past life.

    "There are tons of ways to use the darkness element in different attacks¡­ But thanks to its overbearing nature, it''s quite hard tobine it with any special element," he knew that his enemy couldn''t merge such element before with others, even like ice orva elements, thanks to its domineering nature.

    Darkness got something that was known as an annihtion like ability. If it met up with an element it couldn''t control, it''d tend to wipe it out.

    "It''s either to be the dominant element in any technique, or wipe other elements out¡­ Quite a troublesome element indeed¡­"

    Despite that, William didn''t think too much of this for now. He first needed to learn how to execute this move before worrying about anything else.

    As for merging darkness with light and lightning, William hoped this would work. After all these two elements were considered nemesis of the darkness element, and his former enemy didn''t dare to try any of these two elements out per his knowledge. As there were no records about failure of such attempts, hope still existed for him to seed.

    "The part I needed is the stacking ability of the Silent Moon technique¡­ It''s just like what the light ability showed¡­"

    As he got experience fromst night about how such a method worked, he expected what was going to happen.

    He took out his sword and started to move it in crescentic shaped moves.

    To activate the Silent Moon technique, he needed to blend with darkness first and move fast while waving his sword in full circles like a full moon.

    Yet he didn''t do this. He simply stood in his ce motionless and tried to just move his sword around.

    "It''s not working¡­" After trying for a few times, he failed to trigger the darkness element inside his spirit or the technique, "it seems I need to move or blend with darkness¡­"

    These were the two options he had. He first tried to move in fast steps. Trying to blend with darkness was thest option he didn''t want to use for different reasons.

    When he moved fast, he felt something getting triggered in his spirit. The darkness element got stirred up, and without his control his body started to feel the darkness around, blending with it.

    "Damn!" When that happened, each wave of his sword managed to stack up. He didn''t dare to stack more than five before finally releasing the attack.

    *Boom!*

    A violent explosive attack erupted. But it wasn''t that simr to the attack he brought up with his light and lightningbined attack from yesterday.

    "The two are quite overbearing," as he executed this attack, his spirit power got depleted again. He grew used to such a thing already and muttered to himself while sitting on the ground to replenish his lost power.

    "Thebined technique from yesterday had a very explosive nature, one that''s enough to affect the area around the ce of the strike. However, ¡­"

    He was lost in thought, recalling what happened when he executed his darkness based move.

    "The darkness element made the attack quite precise and conserved most of its strength in the strike itself¡­" he recalled the deep hole he created with his sword, the one that extended for many metres deep down.

    Few cracks appeared around that hole, but it didn''t expand outwards and copsed the ground like what thest nightbined technique did.

    "It really suits assassins and dark spirit masters¡­ Tsk!" He knew how scary such an attack was. It didn''t aim towards creating a fuss like thebined attack did. But it did release a single attack that was able to threaten the life of gold spirit masters even.

    He couldn''t tell how deadly such an attack was. He first needed someone to fight against to test this attack. Just judging from his feelings when he executed this strike and the narrow hole that was left behind wasn''t enough.

    "At least I managed to execute it¡­" he took a deep breath, stood up after one hour of rest and recuperation. "But it''s not enough! I consumed most of my spirit power while stacking five shes only. I have to lower that number and cut it by half first¡­"

    He recalled hisst night experience when he tried to lower the number of stored shes while using his light based move.

    He failed to trigger the attack when he used less than five shes. "And what about this merge with the darkness around? Is itpulsory for the technique to get executed? But it got triggered on its own¡­"

    He was careful to not pull such a move back then. However, his body moved on its own and merged with darkness.

    He didn''t have any control on that, and it felt like he was doing it naturally like breathing or eating. Its appearance was surprising for him, and he wasn''t prepared and missed many details when that happened.

 Chapter 70 A Way To Break The Array

    ?He knew if he left such a thing untouched or dealt with, then when trying to merge the three elements together, something bad would happen.

    "Dealing with the darkness element in my spirit is totally different than dealing with the same element in the world around¡­" he knew thetter would be quite challenging and different than the former.

    He had a chance to pull this through if he limited the merge with the elements of his spirit than with the world. But if he left the darkness element from the world to interfere, then this entire technique wouldn''t get done properly.

    As he thought about all these in his mind, he started to execute his move again. This time he paid close attention towards the darkness outside, feeling how his body got triggered and blended with it without his control.

    And he just used two shes this time.

    Unlike what he was worried about, the darkness in his body got stirred up from the first sh he did. At the same time, the moment the darkness element inside got activated, he felt like some sort of a seal got removed.

    It was like a fish returning to a pond of water, his body perfectly blended with darkness around without the need for him to do anything.

    It was a move that looked quite natural, like he already belonged to that darkness. He felt like the darkness in the entire world was weing him as a son returning from a long trip abroad.

    *Boom!*

    The fierceness of this strike was much weaker than the first one. But he also ended up creating a deep hole that he couldn''t tell how deep it was. And also, his spirit power got depleted by almost fifty percent.

    "I got my spirit power expenditure rate lowered¡­ But that blend with the darkness thing is quite annoying¡­ Tsk!"

    It wasn''t just a worry about how the world''s darkness would affect the other two elements, it also had a great limitation for this technique.

    If he couldn''t deal with that darkness blending move, then no matter how he tried, he wouldn''t be able to execute such a technique except at night or in dark ces.

    "Not to mention if my enemies realised this w, they might use some ring items like the candles to weaken the darkness around, ending up with me failing to execute the technique or bring the full power of it¡­"

    There were lots of limitations if he couldn''t solve this problem. As he sat and recovered his strength back, he kept thinking about what he should do.

    No matter how he tried next, it proved futile to stop such a merge. He managed to lower his spirit power consumption to reach only twenty percent while using a single sh only.

    Even when a single sh was used, the attack was quite domineering. Yet he couldn''t do anything about merging with darkness around.

    This move came in a very natural way. If he didn''t find a way to stop the darkness around from touching his body, then he''d end up merging with the darkness no matter what!

    "If so¡­ I can wait until the morning to test this out¡­ Or¡­" he didn''t want to wait all these hours without trying.

    So, he took out many candles of light, scattered them around and lit them up. The dancing green mes danced and pushed away darkness around a circr zone they surrounded.

    He stood in the centre, took a deep breath, and started to activate his move again.

    *Fwoosh!*

    Like a dam broke down, releasing the entrapped huge amount of water behind, the moment he used his move, the darkness around swirled and pressured the light of candles.

    One by one, the zing green mes got extinguished one after another, as if wind erupted out of nowhere.

    William was keenly observing his surroundings, and he never felt any winding. "Quite a fierce element indeed! Even against its nemesis, the darkness pushed itself inside and killed the mes¡­"

    He felt what happened crystal clear and didn''t miss anything. The mes died down as if they met something they couldn''t fight against.

    It was a small fight, one which ended up quite fast by the prevailing darkness. The moment many mes died down, darkness surrounded his body, curdling around him and taking him into its embrace.

    "Tsk! I can''t handle this in the night then¡­" reaching such a point, he knew it was pointless to keep trying this move in the night. He already executed the move and reached a stage where his spirit power could handle.

    As using the candles failed, he had nothing else to do but to try doing this in the morning. He knew it''d be quite hard to execute darkness based techniques during daylight, but he had no other choice but to do so.

    "I''ll try out thebined version of thest night technique then¡­" as more than half of the night passed without reaching a conclusive result, he decided to not waste his time in rest and try out the other technique he came up withst night.

    He still couldn''t handle the fierce spirit consumption rate of that technique, nor did he manage to control the entire technique properly yet.

    And during his stay in the array, testing out his darkness element based move, the two formidable spirit masters were trying their best to break up his array.

    "We did it! Hahahaha! We finally did it!" Just minutes before William decided to try out hisbined technique, the headmaster screamed in triumph when he managed to find a reliable way to break the array.

    "That little bastard¡­ It took us two nights to break it!" Kong wasn''t just happy about it, but also feeling quite vengeful.

    The theory behind breaking this array was simple. They identally discovered that the array covered the area above the ground, not underneath it.

    During their many failed attempts, Kong lost hisposure and delivered a strong fist towards the ground, creating a small hole there.

    The headmaster went crazy when he spotted that hole, but Kong didn''t apologise. He didn''t even move an inch from his ce, standing motionless there as he examined that hole in shock and delight.

 Chapter 71 The Control Effect

    ?After telling the headmaster about what he felt, the two stood around the hole and felt how simple and yet tricky it was to bypass that array.

    The two discovered that the hole wasn''t covered with the array energy, not sealing anything at all from them.

    When they sent their senses through that hole, they managed to cross the insurmountable edge of the array and see what was inside.

    Starting from there, the two started to try out different ways until they finally managed to totally bypass the array without the need of any holes or gaps in the ground.

    Even with such devastation around, William''s array covered everything up. So, outside the array, things looked quite normal.

    Besides, they wanted to find a reliable method they could use in different situations to eavesdrop over the meetings and bases of the dark spirit masters without alerting them.

    "Let''s see what that little devil is doing inside my ce," once the two finally learnt the right way to break the array, the way that even William didn''t know about, the headmaster was more eager to try it out.

    It happened just at the moment when William was trying hisbined technique out. And they saw what he was doing crystal clear this time.

    William wanted to find a way to better control his stacked-up arcs of lightning over his sword.

    He couldn''t lower the number of these arcs below five, and so he wanted to see if he could find another way to handle such an issue.

    "This¡­" However, the moment he finished executing his technique, he stood in the middle of the new crater he created with his sword, feeling a little puzzled and quite shocked.

    He did exactly the same as he didst night, merged the two elements together. Five lighting arcs umted around the edge of his sword, yet when he released the attack, something new happened.

    "What''s going on?!" he stood motionless while looking at his sword. Last night he tried the technique and only managed to release one arc out of five.

    Yet this time he released the five and his spirit power still had close to thirty percent of its total capacity.

    This was something he never expected. And he didn''t feel something happening to his technique or did anything different at all.

    "I have to try it out again¡­" such a result came as a pure shock to him, one he never expected to happen without doing anything.

    As he couldn''t tell what caused such a change, he decided to retry it again. But first he sat on the ground and started to replenish his lost spirit power.

    "What is this kid doing?" from far, the headmaster stood by the side of Kong as the two watched what William just did.

    In their eyes, William moved quite fast for a spirit master in his rank. And the move he executed next was quite novel in the eyes of the headmaster.

    "I¡­ Never saw such a technique before¡­" Kong''s eyes kept shimmering in mysterious light, "but no matter what he did, he isn''t quite satisfied with it."

    "I also felt so¡­ And it''s quite weird¡­" the headmaster paused before seriously adding, "such a move is enough to cross ranks and threaten stronger spirit masters. Howe he isn''t satisfied with it?"

    "I don''t know what''s going on inside the head of that little devil anymore," Kong felt the same helplessness as his friend about William''s technique.

    In his eyes, he felt this technique was on the same level of his n''s formidable techniques. However, William seemed quite unsettled and unsatisfied. And that made him wonder about the reasons William had for such a response.

    If he was in William''s stead, he''d be quite thrilled about doing something like that.

    Least to their knowledge that William wasn''t satisfied as they felt, he was just puzzled and confused.

    He felt like his technique was now more perfect than ever to get used in any battle. But as he didn''t know what happened to drive out such change, he wasn''t celebrating such a result yet.

    After replenishing his lost spirit power, he stood up and tried to execute his new technique. This time his attention was totally focused over any change that might have brought such desirable results.

    "No way! This¡­ This¡­ Howe¡­!!!"

    And when he executed the technique for the fourth time, he finally managed to find out what caused such change.

    To his surprise, what brought such change came from something he never imagined doing so, the darkness element inside his spirit!

    After repeatedly stirring up the darkness element, the element got easily activated. And as the first step in activating this element relied on the fast movement, the same first move he''d take to activate hisbined technique, then his darkness element got activated as well.

    And as the stacking part of his light element was simr in concept to his darkness move, the darkness inside his body started to act.

    However, this wasn''t as simple as it might seem. To unravel the full truth about this, he started to repeatedly use the technique until the early hours of the next day.

    ? "So¡­ This is it¡­" William muttered aloud to himself, not realising that every single word he''d say was picked up by two hungry wolves watching him right now, "I didn''t move the sword in the same way as the Silent Moon technique required. So even when the darkness got stirred up, it wasn''t enough to fiercely sh and antagonise the other two elements¡­"

    He paused there and started to think again about the things he discovered after all these attempts.

    He felt it crystal clear by now, his darkness element got activated, but not to the degree to start impacting his entire technique in a negative way.

    Just this level of activation brought up an effect he never imagined or knew it existed before, a control effect!

    Thebined version of the two elements had one sole side effect, it was too overbearing and explosive to get executed properly by his current level of spirit power.

 Chapter 72 Someone Else Is Watching

    ?When the darkness element got slightly activated, the darkness exerted some sort of control over the berserk nature of hisbined technique, andplimented it. As a result, the previously hard to control technique became more docile and easily executed by him.

    He still didn''t know how the darkness element managed to do this, or what exactly this control did or changed to tame up such fierce technique.

    But the end result was clear to him, the final technique was nowplete and ready to use with his current low level of spirit power.

    And this was the thing he wanted the most from the start.

    Even if he didn''t yet get to unravel all the mysteries about what the darkness element did, and even if the course of executing this technique deviated from what he initially thought, he was epting such a result with a grin on his face.

    "I now have a thing that can be used against those dirty agents of the dark spirit masters," he clenched both fists, feeling more excitement and energy than the exhaustion he should feel after such a long night.

    "I shall give it a name¡­" and after reaching such a great result in such an idental way, he started to gather up his materials from the ground, cancelling the array while returning to be all silent about what he decided to call this technique with.

    He knew he was closely watched by the headmaster, but he never realised that the two formidable spirit masters already found a way to bypass his array and were spying on every move of his for hours!

    "I''ll call it the Holy Sword technique," he decided in his mind while finding his way to a randomly selected room, throwing his exhausted body over the bed, and fell into deep sleep.

    "This kid¡­ Shall we go and ask him about the name he selected?" the headmaster looked up at his friend, and Kong could only sigh.

    The two were quite formidable and well respected spirit masters in the entire world. And yet they couldn''t control themselves against such a kid.

    The two wanted to know the name of such a scary technique. During the past hours, they got to see and know lots of William''s secrets and more details about that technique.

    "So¡­" the headmaster knew this was the end of this surveince task. After all, two days passed already and tomorrow was the date agreed with William to send him to Kong, "what do you n to do?"

    "He got three rare elements, and not just one," Kong returned again to such a heated debatable issue.

    The two heard the words William kept mumbling to himself during the past few hours. They learnt that William was trying to merge three rare elements together in that technique.

    And that stirred quite a debate between the two which seemed to not end even after such long hours of talk.

    It was a revolutionary concept for the two, especially when they realised that two elements were ipatible with the third one, even considered nemesis.

    And yet William seeded in pulling such an impossible feat! They watched him execute that technique sessfully many times already.

    The devastation that William added to the garden didn''t stir the headmaster again. In return for feeling enraged about this, he felt curious about how William managed to do such a feat.

    Opposite to him, Kong didn''t feel that way. Thetter still kept bbering about the rtion between William and the dark spirit masters, linking all the dots in a totally wrong way.

    "You heard what he said at the end," the headmaster knew how difficult it was to change the mindset of his friend if he believed in something, "he did all this just to secure his life against dark spirit masters and traitors in the academy."

    "Words are deceiving," yet as the headmaster predicted, his friend wasn''t convinced by what he said in William''s favour, "but facts can''t be wrong! He is a very sneaky little bastard! And he has three rare elements together! It''s something I never heard about before."

    "He might have a spirit variation," the headmaster didn''t stop trying to convince his friend.

    And Kong firmly shook his head.

    "A variation that ended up not only having one rare spirit element but three? No way! This kid has a big secret behind him, and I intend to not let him off the hook this easily."

    By these words, the headmaster knew how futile it was to try and convince Kong anymore. So he sighed, and watched the small body of William fall on the soft bed mattress and fell into deep sleep.

    "What do you n to do with him then?"

    "I''m going to squeeze the truth out of him," Kong said in such a threatening and domineering way, "I''ll find out the truth, no matter what!"

    "Tsk! Just don''t end up killing him or turning him from our side to the totally opposite one," the headmaster said in a simrly serious way, "I believe in his innocence. And if so, it means we ended up finding a hidden gem!"

    "I can''t promise anything before meeting with him," and by such an answer, Kong''s body faded fast from the eyes of the headmaster, "make hime to me once he woke up. Don''t try anything funny, or else I''ll get myself into your academy and capture him myself."

    "Tsk!" the headmaster could only shake his head in a helpless way. He knew he couldn''t stop his friend if thetter got serious about doing something.

    "I hope he won''t die at your hands," he muttered as thest speck of Kong''s image vanished from his ce.

    As the two masters ended up in such disagreement, someone else stood hundreds of metres away from William''s mansion.

    "Why did I feel such unrest when that kid was there?" A tall young girl, one who wasn''t that much older than Berry or William, but was a little taller than the two, stood in the middle of a few trees, gazing up at the direction of the destroyed garden.

 Chapter 73 A Visitor

    ?Since the two formidable spirit masters managed to break the array, they focused entirely over spying on William. The two missed the area around and didn''t detect the presence of such a young girl.

    The girl appeared just a couple of hours after William started to try out the final version of his Holy Sword technique.

    She couldn''t see anything through the array William casted, and yet for a reason she felt a weird resonance inside her, one that she couldn''t even exin.

    She felt like she lost control over herself, stood there motionless for hours, while weird shes of images kept ying in her mind.

    She never got what these images meant until the array suddenly vanished, exposing the young kid who was inside.

    The moment she saw his face, even from such a far distance, she felt tremendous shock.

    She recognised his face; it was the same face that showed up in her unexined images that popped up in her mind.

    In these shes of images, that kid was holding a sword, moving fast, shing his sword around, before releasing a fearsome attack.

    She kept having such images once per hour, and everything vanished like it never existed the moment William went back into the building to sleep.

    "I have to ask him about that," she never felt this way before. Besides, she had an unexined craving to go and try out such moves she saw in her mind.

    Such a feeling was quite weird and new for her. And so, she decided to wait here, wait for that kid toe out from that building and ask him about such weird things.

    And all that happened under the nose of the two scary spirit masters, but they never knew about any of that.

    Even when that girl stood in her ce motionless for hours, the headmaster never detected her presence. Thetter cut off his spiritual sense after William slept and Kong left.

    The headmaster nned to wait for William to wake up and meet with him before sending him to meet his fate.

    But just in a few hours, he received an urgent report that required his instant attention. And so, he left instructions for William when he''d wake up, to wait for him and not move towards the Long n''s ce before meeting up with him.

    William was quite oblivious to all this. He didn''t know that he stirred lots of trouble and brought the wrath of such a scary person like Berry''s grandfather.

    And he didn''t know that he also attracted the attention of an unexpected young girl.

    "Young master, you are finally awake," William was extremely tired, but for a reason he didn''t sleep for more than five hours this time.

    His excitement from getting his technique done took over his fatigue, ending up with him only sleeping a little this time.

    "What''s wrong here?" and as William arrived at the main hall, he found the two girls standing around an alien face to him.

    Bright ck eyes, long ck hair, and a small nose that had a tiny sparkling silver earring at one side¡­ A beautiful face of a young girl met his eyes.

    He didn''t know her, but for a reason he felt weird simrities with two people he met before.

    "You are?" Despite having a guess in his mind, one he didn''t want to ept, he asked to confirm what he thought.

    "I''m Sara," and she spoke in a soft tone, and yet one that held determination and quite a confidence behind it, "I want to speak with you about something."

    "Right now?" William couldn''t help but raise an eyebrow when he heard what she said. He confirmed his early guess and was sure now this young and confident looking girl was the headmaster''s granddaughter he heard about.

    He knew she was a working maniac, and so seeing her standing in front of him like this made him quite puzzled.

    And the way she spoke up made him more confused. She didn''t even introduce herself properly or dered her current status. Instead, she directly said she wanted to speak with him.

    "You can speak here freely," as she wanted to speak with him, William didn''t act humble and met her confidence by sitting on a chair, cing one leg over another.

    And like he did, she also sat on an opposite chair, cing one leg over another.

    She wore a dark blue dress that was slightly tight at her chest, bing tighter the closer it got down to her heels. And when she ced one leg on another, a long cut appeared that seemed concealed, exposing part of her white skin.

    She was a real beauty indeed. But William wasn''t just a simple spirit master. He didn''t get affected by such beauty, and simply gazed deeply into her eyes.

    She blinked twice before starting to speak:

    "What were you doing in the gardenst night?"

    "It''s something that isn''t of your business," William knew she was trespassing her boundaries here and asking about things she shouldn''t ask about.

    But even if she acted rude, he wouldn''t meet up her rudeness with a simr attitude. The words Tang spoke to him were still fresh in his mind.

    So, he kept control over his words and tone, acting as neutral as he could be while firmly rejecting her request.

    "I¡­ I felt something weirdst night¡­ Something I can''t exin¡­" As he refused toply with her request, she didn''t show any anger as William expected.

    William still rted this young girl with her arrogant brother. But it seemed the two were heavens apart.

    "What did you feel?" William felt how struggling she was to speak up her mind as if she was really facing something she didn''t quite understand. And that made him more puzzled.

    He asked himself about what rtionship he had with what she felt, and why she started up by asking about what he was doingst night in the garden.

 Chapter 74 Giving Him A Scare!

    ?"Just speak up and don''t worry, I won''t judge," as he saw how conflicted she looked when he said his earlier world, he added, trying to encourage her to further exin what troubled her.

    "Sigh! It''s like this¡­" and when she listened to his words and started to speak up, William got an instant scare and quite the shock!

    Everything she said was like she stood in front of him and watched what he didst night. The more she tried to describe the weird images that appeared in her mind, the more shaken he became.

    She was precisely and urately describing the times when he executed his techniquest night.

    Everything she said he did, and she even described his moves very urately.

    "And so I decided toe here and ask you about that. Can you exin what I experiencedst night?" she paused, giving him a careful look before adding, "I saw your face in these images, and all this vanished the moment you came out from the garden."

    "Hmm¡­" despite feeling quite shocked, he didn''t confess or deny doing such things. He controlled his face to not show any of his disturbed thoughts at the moment as he added in a calm tone, "I want to ask, what did you exactly feel back then?"

    "That¡­ Is hard to describe," she hesitated, as she was really finding it hard to answer that question of his, "I felt like¡­ I had some rtion to what you were doing. Something moved inside of me, something thatpelled and forced me to stay motionless for hours and watch nothing but an empty garden until you came out from it. How did you do that by the way? It looked like you teleported there or appeared out of thin air!"

    He now realised that she didn''t see through the protection of his array. And that made him not feel any better.

    The first exnation he got in his mind was that this young girl had something special that allowed her to see through his array. But that wasn''t true. She couldn''t see through the concealment of his array.

    "If that''s the case then¡­" as he rejected such possibility by what she said, he mumbled to himself, thinking about a much crazier possibility, "can I ask you to do something for me?" he suddenly looked up at her and asked.

    "What thing?" She felt weird about what he said. She came here seeking answers, and now he wanted her to do something for him.

    During the time William created a fuss in the academy, she was pretty much busy with training.

    Tang wasn''t lying, she was a true embodiment of what a work maniac should be. She kept her entire time training or reading ancient records and manuals in the library.

    So she never learnt about the storms William caused, nor even heard about William''s name before.

    She learnt about his name from the mouth of the talkative Tina while William was sleeping.

    After William entered the building, she couldn''t control her curiosity for more than three hours and finally decided to get into the building and seek William out.

    As William didn''t get out at all for three hours, she just came inside and met the two girls. Lina was quite sceptical about her, but Tina was very weing.

    From thetter, Sara learnt that they stayed here by the invitation of her grandfather. Despite feeling a little weird about that, she had no say in such matters and didn''t think much about it.

    She had far more important things to keep her mind busy, not caring that much about the real reasons behind her grandfather''s weird actions.

    "I just want you to hold this crystal¡­" William took out one spirit crystal and a light candle from his ring, before simply exining things over to her.

    "This¡­" after listening to his simple exnation, she couldn''t help but ask, "what will this do?"

    "It will show things about your spirit and power thatmon means can''t show," William didn''t hold back such a thing off her.

    After all, he already had a wild guess in his mind about the reason behind what she experiencedst night.

    And telling her that would save him a lot of troubleter on if what he thought woulde true.

    "Weird¡­" She was quite a knowledgeable spirit master. She read tons of records and manuals, read through many weird stuff and secrets that she lost count for.

    But she still never heard of such a way before to test out one''s spirit and power.

    William heard before from the headmaster himself that Sara was studying at the third year ss. That meant her spirit power was at a silver grade, having over one thousand and five hundred spirit power.

    That was quite a distance away from what he currently had. But that didn''t make him feel any disappointment. He knew he started out quitete than others. But he got a cheat code that''d secure his advantageter on over his peers.

    "Like this?" And as she did as he asked for, covering up the crystal with the green material from the light candle, she raised her head and asked for a confirmation.

    "You are doing it right," and William nodded, while his eyes never moved aside from the crystal in her hand.

    If she came here out of curiosity about what happenedst night, then William had much more curiosity to know the reasons behind what she experienced.

    After all, she managed to feel and see things she couldn''t possibly have under normal situations.

    And in the next minute, many dots started to shine inside that small crystal.

    "Wow! That looked pretty!" Even if she was a work maniac, she was still a young girl. And like all girls, she got attracted to pretty stuff.

    Unlike her, William didn''t get attracted to the crystal thanks to the pretty look it had, but to closely examine the densely packed dots inside that crystal.

 Chapter 75 A Disaster!

    ?From a general look, he could see arge number of dots gathering up together, taking the form of something that looked like a two headed brown tiger.

    It was the first time for him to see the legendary Great Mont spirit of the headmaster''s family. And he was surprised to see two small wings attached to the back of this lion.

    It wasn''t just an earth element spirit, but a rare flying one as well.

    William didn''t stop there and started to see deeper through these dots.

    He knew she had enough spirit power to get over the two thousand mark easily. She was also in the spirit expansion phase, the third stage of spirit evolution.

    That alone would make her a prodigy in this world, a talent that wasn''t found quite easily here. But that wasn''t what he was looking for.

    He wanted to see deeper, much deeper than the spirit dots at the surface. And when he did, he found the thing he was looking for.

    "As I expected¡­" When he saw these dark threads forming some sort of a deep down at the centre of all the shimmering brown dots, he couldn''t contain his shock and muttered in low tone.

    "What did you find? What''s wrong with me?"

    "Why does everyone jump to a bad conclusion when I say such words?" William felt weird about this as he thought to himself.

    "It''s something great for you," William didn''t lie to her, "Tell me, are you aware of the concept of spirit elements?"

    "Sure," Sara gave William a weird look, "it''smon knowledge for anyone."

    "Then are you aware of the dormant spirit elements?" William expected she''d know about the spirit element term. Yet he didn''t ask her that just to waste time or make fun of her.

    "What does that mean?" she blinked twice, and he couldn''t help but show a satisfying smile on his face.

    Seeing this smile made Sara a little irritated. "Tell me, what does that mean?" and in return for his smile, she had to show her demeanour as the granddaughter of the academy headmaster.

    She didn''t go out a lot or even interacted with many disciples from the academy. So she expected him to not know her real status. And with such a smile, she considered properly introducing herself.

    She didn''t do that before as she didn''t think their paths would walk further together after this meeting. And she wasn''t as arrogant as her big brother.

    Yet the attitude William gave her made her feel like this kid was looking down on her, using a sort of showy and useless method to tell her things she never heard about before.

    But before she''d start talking about herself, which was something she didn''t like, William was half a beat faster than her as he said in calm tone:

    "The spirits we got have elements. I''m sure you are aware of this. But not all the elements we got since our birth will be activated. On a few rare asions, we may end up having dormant elements, waiting for the right trigger to get stirred up¡­"

    And his sudden calm words that made quite sense cut all her negative thoughts about him and made her mumble in low tone: "Just like what happened to mest night?"

    And William nodded in response to her words.

    "But¡­ Do you know what element I have dormant inside me? Do you know how to activate it?"

    If he said such words, that meant he already knew the element dormant in her spirit. And above everything else, if he didn''t know how to activate it, then this talk was all for nothing.

    "Do you see these little ck dots in the middle of all the brown ones?" William didn''t hurriedly answer any of her questions. Instead, he got closer to the crystal and pointed towards its content.

    She followed his finger and narrowed her eyes, trying to focus on what he was talking about.

    When she didn''t see anything clearly, she lowered her head to get a better look.

    She saw the crystal content and checked them before. To her, she just saw a very beautiful collection of shining brown dots, moving slowly inside the crystal in her hand.

    But when she looked closer, at the centre of all these shimmering pretty brown dots, she saw a few ck ones that were hard to notice before.

    "What are these?" she raised her eyes to him, asking in doubt and confusion.

    "They represent the element dormant in your spirit," William slowly exined, "you got an earth element in your spirit. And that''s why your dots are shining in brown light. If you get the dormant element activated properly, then these brown dots will be darker, with a tinge of ckness in them."

    "ck? ck spirit element? Isn''t that¡­" a wild thought shed into her mind, one that even she didn''t dare to voice out loud or even believe.

    "It''s correct," William slowly nodded, "the darkness element is dormant in your spirit, waiting to get activated."

    "But¡­ Howe?!! Wait¡­ Does that mean¡­" she trembled, even took a step to the back while loosening her grip around the crystal.

    William expected such a reaction and moved swiftly to grab the falling crystal and prevent it from smashing to pieces.

    "What the hell do you think you''re doing?!"

    *Crash!*

    But just before William would manage to reach the crystal, a thunderous loud voice erupted all of sudden in his ears, forcing him to stumble back a few steps and even cough up blood.

    The next instant a silhouette appeared in the room, one that was quite familiar to William.

    "Headmaster!"

    "Grandpa!"

    The two kids shouted at the same moment in bewilderment. Just moments ago, the headmaster finished the urgent matter he was taking care of and spied on William out of habit.

    Yet when he saw William''s room, the one he slept inst night, he froze in his ce out of the shocking and unbelievable scene he saw!

 Chapter 76 A Very Wrong Situation

    ?In his eyes, he saw his beloved granddaughter standing so close to William as the two seemed like they were hugging or flirting with each other.

    It was the moment when William asked Sara to check the ck dots. Without the two realising it, they got so close from each other to even fool the eyes of the headmaster.

    He froze from the scene he saw, not even listening to a single word the two said. As he woke up from his momentarily daze, he saw her beloved Sara stumble to the back with a reddened face.

    And a wild thought shed into his mind, one that shattered any sense of logic inside him and forced him to instantly teleport to the room.

    "Shut up!" the headmaster turned to Sara with a very enraged face, "I''m going to deal with youter on! As for you¡­ Good! Very good! I trusted you and let you live next door, to end up being the wolf eyeing my beloved girl! Very good!"

    As he shouted at Sara, the headmaster slowly turned towards William, speaking every single word in a very threatening and domineering tone.

    He was genuinely angry, very angry at this moment. In his eyes, William trespassed on his beloved granddaughter, and made something that should never happen between the two of them.

    What made him more enraged was the fact that he was the one who invited William here and defended him against Kong! Yet right now all he felt was an uncontroble desire to kill this damn yboy in front of him.

    "Sir headmaster¡­ You got everything quite wrong¡­ We were¡­" when William felt the true rage and desire for his heading from such a formidable and scary spirit master, he didn''t dare to ck or try any of his mind games.

    He wanted to confess everything, exin what happened here even to the extent of spoiling lots of secrets in the process.

    "Shut the hell up! What do you take me for? A fool? I won''t kill you, no, I won''t show you such mercy. I''ll torture you for a year or so¡­ I''ll make you beg for death and wish you never were born! Damn filial brat!"

    "Grandpa! Stop this madness right away!" Just when the headmaster was about to extend his arm and grab William, Sara couldn''t control herself and jumped to stand between the two.

    She knew how scary her grandpa would be when he turned mad, and she never saw him acting like this before except on very rare asions that would be counted on her little fingers.

    And every single one the spirit master who did make him reach such a stage was never heard of again.

    She was the one who put William in such danger! Despite the two never having anything going on between them, and she didn''t get how her grandpa got such a weird and wrong idea about what they were doing here, she found her body acting on his own to jump and stop her grandpa''s threatening arm.

    "Sara! Step aside now!" seeing her stand in front of William, shielding thetter from his reach, enraged the headmaster even more. He said every single word while gritting his teeth, not wanting to show his real rage to the beloved face of his granddaughter.

    "You got it wrong! All wrong!" Sara couldn''t help but yell back, "we weren''t doing anything wrong here! He was just teaching me stuff¡­"

    "Such stuff shall be taught to you by your man, not someone like him! Step aside now! Let me teach this kid a good lesson, one that will end his life in the end!"

    "Grandpa!" when she heard such wordsing from the mouth of her grandfather, Sara''s face couldn''t help but blush.

    "We were really exchanging knowledge, that''s all," William didn''t want to end up in the hands of such a crazy man or else he''d never see the light again.

    William hated to be shielded by a girl, but he didn''t have any choice here. If he didn''t stand behind Sara''s body, then that enraged lion wouldn''t hesitate to devour him alive.

    He didn''t know what made the headmaster get such wrong ideas, but that didn''t matter at the moment.

    What really mattered was for him to move away from this mad man as fast as he could and never meet up with him again.

    But even if he wanted to, he knew he couldn''t outrun such a scary spirit master. There was already a huge gap in strength between the two. And so, there was no other way out from here but through words.

    "Stop talking nonsense! I saw it! Saw how the two of you were holding each other and did¡­ Damn! I can''t even imagine that again! Sara! Move away now, let me vent my anger by his blood!"

    "Grandpa! Look there, he was teaching me new stuff using that spirit crystal!" the more the headmaster spoke, the more redness appeared on the face of Sara, the weaker her voice became.

    Yet she couldn''t help but point towards the direction of the shattered crystal on the ground, the only proof that might calm down her grandpa.

    "This¡­ What the heck does that thing have to do with what I saw?" the headmaster didn''t buy any of what Sara said. Instead, the mere thought of how twisted and evil minded William was to the extent of turning his beloved granddaughter to fall into his love and stand up for him made him more enraged.

    "He was showing me this¡­" as her grandpa refused to listen to her words or consider the evidence on the ground, Sara took out a crystal and a candle from her ring with shaky hands.

    She repeated what William taught her in trembling body and fingers. And yet she never made a single mistake in executing such a simple method, which looked quite difficult to get done under the immense pressure of her grandpa.

 Chapter 77 Its Over!

    ?"This¡­" the headmaster wasn''t totally oblivious to such a method. He already heard about it from Kong, even the two tried it out, following the words of Berry. "So you are walking around, grabbing girls left and right using such cheap tricks? What do you take yourself for? A Casanova or something?"

    Yet even when seeing this, the headmaster''s rage didn''t quell down. On the other hand, it grew to another level, misunderstanding the entire thing.

    "Grandpa! He told me I got a dormant spirit element! A darkness spirit element!" When everything failed to push reason into her mad grandpa Sara couldn''t help but yell while her tears started to roll down her eyes.

    When the headmaster saw the reddened eyes of his beloved granddaughter and the tears rolling over her cheeks, he finally started to calm down.

    A sense of guilt assaulted him fiercely when he saw her broken face and tears. "I came to him, as I felt something weirdst night. I asked him to exin things over, and he was just trying to help¡­"

    Once one tear came running, more started to roll and fall without an end. Her voice choked in the middle of her words, forcing her to stop talking while crying.

    "Sara¡­" the headmaster''s body slowly trembled as he started to regain hisposure. But before he''d add anymore, Sara ran while burying her face inside her hands.

    "If my father was still here, he''d never let anyone mistreat me, not even you¡­" and while she was running out from the room, she left behind such shocking and harsh words.

    When the headmaster heard such words, he felt like his entire spirit got shattered. He stood with a face that kept ageing fast in front of William''s eyes, while his body kept trembling uncontrobly for a few minutes.

    Turning from such domineering into a pathetic person made William feel bad for the headmaster.

    William didn''t know what made the headmaster get the wrong idea about what happened between him and Sara. He thought thetter was spying on him all this time, and yet something felt amiss here.

    "You¡­" and after a few long and heavy minutes of silence, the lifeless eyes of the headmaster turned and fell over William, making thetter take a few steps to the back, ready to start a desperate battle for his life.

    "Move out now and head to the Long n, no dy is allowed," the headmaster spoke in a tone that was void of any of his earlier strength and vitality.

    "This¡­" William felt the sudden turn of events here was too much for his fragile heart to endure. But the headmaster seemed to not tolerate the sight of William anymore, or even wanting to stay here for another second.

    He waved his hand, and his image started to slowly fade away as his words rang in the room:

    "Don''t dy, or this fellow might go berserk. I can''t hold him if he ever went into such a state, you got me? Don''t y with him, I''m warning you! He isn''t the type who will tolerate your little petty games, not as patient and understandable like me."

    "Not patient and understandable like you?" seeing the image of the headmaster vanish like this, William couldn''t help but heave a deep sigh of relief.

    No matter what triggered such a scary event, it was over by now. His life wasn''t in any danger, and he was able to run away from here as far as he could.

    He swore he''d nevere here again or have any dealings with such a crazy and scary family. And so, he went out of his room, and there he met with the two sisters.

    "What happened?!" the moment he appeared in front of him, the two girls stood up in shock as if they got electrified or something.

    William checked himself and found out that his uniform got entirely soaked wet by his cold sweat as if he just came out from the shower.

    He never felt that at all! And that made him inwardly sigh while returning back to the room and changing his uniform.

    "Let''s go!" he didn''t want to speak about what happened even when Tina kept pestering him about that. Lina acted more mature and knew that a disaster must have befallen him and passed without causing much damage.

    "Are we going to be ok?" As the three walked outside, Tina couldn''t help but ask in such a childish way. Atst, the little girl realised that something bad must have happened, and she got worried all of sudden instead of being curious.

    "Sure, why not?" William shrugged, while pushing aside his own thoughts and worries. No matter what happened with the headmaster, it wasn''t a problem for him for the time being.

    Instead of worrying from that headmaster, he had to think about the other crazy dude he was going to meet.

    "It''s just¡­ We feel like we brought bad luck and lots of trouble to the young master," Lina could only sigh, as a tone of guilt appeared in her voice, "I believe we ruined the young master''s life since we joined it."

    For a reason, Lina linked what happened back at the house with their presence with William.

    "Don''t say it like that," William could only return such sadness and worry with a sweetheartugh. He didn''t know how Lina linked what he faced with the headmaster and Sara with herself and her sister.

    Without delving into what happened, heughed again and added, trying to change the topic, "I''m destined for greatness. And any great spirit master must face hard times, right?"

    "That''s¡­ Isn''t this arrogance, sister?" Tina couldn''t help butment in such a straightforward way, making William''sughter louder and longer.

    "It''s not bad to be arrogant," William said, as if he was teaching Tina a valuable lesson, "as long as you can back up what you im, one can act in the way he likes."

 Chapter 78 Venting Out Anger With Words

    ?"Humph, big empty wordsing from a mere liar and traitor."

    And just as William said this, another voice came, one he instantly recognised.

    "Guanin¡­ What brought you here?" William stopped as his path was blocked by a group of five, led by none other than Guanin.

    "I heard such a funny story, about a weak and powerless porter who suddenly turned into a strong spirit master of bronze grade. Is it true?"

    "What does this have to do with you?" William didn''t answer him, as he simply stood in his ce motionless, putting such an expression of ridicule on his face, while crossing his arms in a challenge.

    He was in a bad mood already from what he suffered at the hands of the headmaster. And just when he was trying to get over this, Guanin came to act as a punching bag for his frustration.

    If he had to fear Guanin before, then all this changed. The two of them were already in the same ss, spirit masters of bronze grade.

    William even suspected that Guanin''s spirit power wasn''t that much higher than his.

    "I heard you are going to join the second year ss. As the ss vice president, I have toe and make sure this piece of news is just a mere joke."

    "Humph! That''s not up to you to decide," William didn''t stop in his ce for a single second, started to move forward, directly heading towards Guanin and his group.

    "Fighting is forbidden in the academy!" and just as William moved closer, one of Guanin''s men shouted in such a loud way.

    "What? Are you scared?" and what he got back was a shortugh from William and such a meanment. William forcibly pushed Guanin by the shoulder, making thetter''s face change and be all red out of frustration.

    Just a few days ago, William was a mere useless and powerless porter who would try to run away from any path Guanin would take.

    And now? This porter dared to walk just through his group, even brushing his shoulder in such a daring way. So, he grew mad, and William didn''t just stop there as he turned his head and added in mockery:

    "Getting mad already? Tell me, what can you do about it? Run and cry to your mama? Hahahaha!"

    And as he just said, what Guanin could do here? The rules of the academy were strict about any fight inside the walls of the academy.

    "Just wait¡­ A chance will present itself to me very soon¡­ And I swear you''ll regret that foul mouth of yours," And as William and his little entourage of two girls walked away, Guanin couldn''t help but clench both fists. Even his veins popped up there.

    "Young master, we have eyes over them," one of the men around Guanin leant over and whispered, "also we got an intel. They are going outside, going to visit the Long n."

    "Long n?" Guanin''s eyes shed in such fierce light, "that''s great! Spread this intel, let everyone know about this. Heavens will never show mercy to those unworthy! Call everyone on our side, let''s show this little hot headed fool what''s the difference between a stray dog and a real descendant of a strong n like us."

    Guanin muttered the motto of the traitors, while giving the order for his group to gather up. He didn''t know how strong William became, but he wouldn''t let his rage and arrogance get into his head.

    After all, William was rumoured to kill a full team of the Golden Sky academy solo. And they were rumoured to be bronze grade spirit masters on top of that.

    So, he didn''t hurry to chase after William and the two girls until he received confirmation from other groups.

    The true retaliation of the traitors in the academy against William was just about to begin.

    But soon things started to die down once a higher order came to all the ready to move teams to stand down.

    They got nothing but a simple message; Don''t pursue them for now.

    Guanin couldn''t do anything against such an order. He knew other teams would retreat. If he was a little stronger, and if not for the rumours he heard about what William did, he would have gone alone and put William under test.

    ? As for William, he went towards the nearest gate of the academy feeling more refreshed. He vented part of his anger and doing this to Guanin made him feel quite special.

    Almost two weeks before, Guaning made him feel powerless and helpless. And now he returned the favour double.

    He kept walking towards the academy gate while the two girls kept speaking andughing about what just happened back there.

    "Our big brother is really scary, hahaha! I swear his face turned ashen white back there," Tina was still enjoying what happened like a little kid.

    As for Lina, she just motioned with her eyes for William to just ignore her. William knew Tina returned to act like the time when they roamed the forest together for the first time.

    "Excuse me senior, I want to ask about something," and as the three took an hour and half to arrive at the nearest gate, William stopped in front of a disciple who was part of the patrolling guard unit there.

    "A porter? Where is your master?" William didn''t change his uniform yet, giving that older disciple the false impression.

    "Ahem, I''m now a formal disciple of the academy," William gave a warning gaze to the two girls, especially when Tina was about to reflexively reply in her childish way.

    If she was allowed to speak, things would grow bad without the need to.

    "You¡­ I never saw a disciple wearing the clothes of a porter before¡­" The disciple who was in year five at least, with such a tall stature and thin yet well built body, examined William as thetter examined him.

    For the first time ever, William didn''t recognise the disciple in front of him.

 Chapter 79 The Pride Disciple

    ?He got golden hair, like he stole a sun and dyed his hair with its rays.

    His eyes were ck but got such lustre that was golden in colour. Aside from this, his face looked very normal, just like anymon person one would meet on the street and forget about their identities.

    William frowned. He never expected to meet someone William would never recognise his family or n in the academy.

    "I was a porter but got officially epted into the academy just recently."

    "When is this recently exactly?" This disciple seemed to not believe William''s words, "I just checked the list of our new disciples this morning, and I never heard of such a person like you."

    "Our young master was appointed by the headmaster himself just a few days ago!" and at this point, Tina couldn''t help herself but speak in such a funny loud childish tone.

    She wanted to act arrogant, learning from what William instructed her before to do. But that didn''te as she wanted and ended up looking cute as any child.

    Yet in front of such cuteness, that disciple didn''t even smile. In fact, his face frowned a bit. "Did you join the academy in the hands of the headmaster himself? First year then¡­ A fresh man who is mistakenly wearing the wrong set of clothes¡­ Sigh! Why do I have to deal with such idiots all the time? Is it karma?"

    And just like a mad man, this disciple started to speak to himself, in such a loud tone, enough for the three in front of him to hear what he said.

    William didn''t know if he shouldugh or cry. His luck made him end up with such a weirdo.

    As for the other two girls, they just felt how weird this disciple was. Even Tina refrained from speaking, feeling a little unsettled being close to this disciple.

    She moved closer to her sister, holding up her sister''s clothes in the form of protection.

    "I''m not in the first year, I''m in the second," William started correcting the mistake made by this disciple, "I''m William. nice to meet you."

    "Thanks, but I''d prefer not to befriend you¡­ Just wait! You said you are in year two? Howe¡­?!!! Is this some sort of a joke? Oliver, get your ass down here right now! This prank isn''t funny at all! Stop doing such silly jokes or else¡­"

    Just as the previous act of his didn''t make him look weirder enough, he started to look around while shouting at the air.

    "Calm down senior, I''m really in my second year."

    "Prove it!" this disciple suddenly turned all serious, "I hate it more when you go deeper into a joke! I already blew your cover up!"

    "I''m not joking, I''m a second year disciple."

    "Then prove it and you shall pass!"

    "It''s not fair doing it like this," William paused for a few seconds before his eyes shed with some sort of an idea, "why don''t we do it this way? I prove that I''m in my second year, and you''ll apany us towards the Long n residence."

    "Long n¡­ Are you out of your mind? No outsider is allowed to get there without an invitation!" that disciple shouted in such distress the moment he heard what William said.

    And thetter just looked at this disciple in such a helpless way. If not for being at four or fifth year, William would have turned around and looked for another disciple to ask for help.

    William never went to the Long n residence before. So, he had to ask the help of others if he wanted to go there.

    But dealing with such an entric dude made William unwary and unsure of his response if he ever turned around and looked for another disciple to help.

    "I got an invitation already."

    "You¡­ You are going too far with your act, bravo," the disciple pped as if this was a great performance, "alright then. But don''t you see this is also unfair for me? What if you turned out to be a liar? What will I get in return?"

    "Whatever you ask, I''ll afford," William acted in such a way as he knew he wasn''t lying. In other times, he would rather think thrice before saying such big words.

    "Cool, then if you turned out to be a liar, you''ll give me this chick with the mask to serve me forever."

    "Keep dreaming," William had to hold the arm of Lina before she''d do something the three of them would regretter on.

    In William''s eyes, this dude was strong enough to kill the three without blinking! Without using his Holy Sword technique, they all would be in danger.

    But that wasn''t what made William stop Lina. They were still inside the academy walls. And fighting there was prohibited byw.

    This was a high grade spirit master, enough to be considered a master for the early years and might be a master in his ss or something.

    "It''s either that or none!" Yet that disciple seemed to not be nning to back off. And that got on William''s stressed out nerves.

    "I ept," William nodded before fiercely adding in a cold tone, "but if I won, you''ll have to do the same."

    "What do you mean?"

    "You will serve me¡­ Forever," and as that dude said, William used his words against him.

    Once William said it, the face of that disciple suddenly changed.

    "What? Dare to ask for something that you are afraid to do?" Lina aggressively said, feeling satisfied with William''s words and their effect on that rude disciple.

    After all that disciple just asked for her to be with him forever.

    "It''s not that¡­ But¡­" in response to Lina''s aggressive tone, that disciple couldn''t help but try to defend himself. However, he seemed to not be able to do so.

    "Is there anything wrong, senior?" Unlike Lina, William felt something was off here, "if it''s ok then let''s drop everything and let us pass."

    This all started because William wanted the help from this disciple. But seeing how things ended up, and how this disciple weirdly acted before, William didn''t want to stick around him any longer.

    William wanted to leave sooner thanter. As for the direction towards the Long n, he would ask anyone else about that.

    "It''s¡­ I just can''t promise you that as I''m a Pride disciple of the academy."

    "Pride disciple?" William muttered before he finally got what was going on here.

 Chapter 80 Going To The Long Clan Home Base

    ?Pride disciples were those who had their parents died serving the academy or the kingdom. Their luck was bad that they got no other rtives around, making them orphans.

    As a payback for what their parents did for the academy and kingdom, the academy epted them as disciples and nourished them to grow and be strong spirit masters.

    This might seem fair. But in such a harshmunity of spirit masters here, they got ill treated and looked down upon.

    In the eyes of arrogant disciples like Guanin and his likes, Pride disciples were just spirit masters without any backings. They were considered the second lowest spirit masters in the world, evening lower than those who hailed from weak and poor families and ns.

    Only porters and normal people came lower than them, and the three were looked down upon as trash in this world.

    The sole reason behind that wasn''t because they were just orphans, but because they got all this support in return for selling their services forever to the academy.

    The academy could easily appoint them to do missions, go outside and do dirty or hard tasks, even asking them to stick around certain ns and families, even serving powerful figures.

    The Pride disciples got no saying in any of that!

    So, they were looked upon as servants, not spirit masters with their own freedom.

    And that was why the face of this disciple dropped when he heard what William asked for.

    "Listen¡­" William gave the two girls a silent meaningful gaze before adding, "let''s forget about this bet. I''ll prove to you that I''m a spirit master and we can all let this matter drop, alright?"

    He was speaking in the name of the two girls, while waiting for this disciple''s response.

    "I¡­ Have no issue with that. Let me get a crystal to test you then¡­" That disciple left in a hurry, still feeling awkward from such an unexpected situation.

    He thought William was part of a prank pulled on him from his mates. It was amon thing to happen, and now he knew this wasn''t the case.

    William and these two girls didn''t look like bad people.

    William waited on the side while lost in deep silence. He could feel how helpless and powerless this disciple was, as he was living a simr life before like his.

    He waited for a few minutes before that disciple returned back with an orange crystal that he held in his hand. William poured his spirit power in that crystal. And the next moment, the colour of the crystal turned bronze while dots appeared. This disciple was shocked when that colour appeared. It meant William wasn''t lying, he was indeed a bronze spirit master, a disciple of the second year ss.

    "Wow! I¡­ I''m lost for words¡­" and as William wasn''t lying, the disciple felt he did William wrong here. "How about this¡­ Let me apany you to the Long n¡­ I hope you really got an invitation to the n, or else¡­"

    "Don''t worry about that," William said while blocking the path over Lina to say anything to irritate this disciple.

    In William''s eyes, this senior was living a hellish life, one that he once lived and suffered from.

    "We were invited by the n¡­ One of the n disciples here invited us," William felt that saying he was invited by the scary patriarch of the Long n would add more doubts to this disciple, "and thanks for the trouble. If senior isn''t free, you can just tell us the directions and we will go there."

    "No, I was just passing by when I met you," The Pride disciple waved his hand while his mood started to grow slightly better, "my name is Arnold, and my friends call me Ary."

    "Nice to meet you, Ary."

    "Nice to meet you too," Arnold said before pointing at the gate behind, "let''s go. No one is going to stop you as long as we are together. Of course, they might get the wrong idea¡­ Ahem, but that will be temporary until you change these clothes. By the way, why are you wearing the uniform of a porter?"

    As they started to move outside, Ary proved to be a more talkative dude than he seemed before. To William, he was inwardly cursing his luck. He was just having a headache from Tina''s habit of talking all the time. And now he got himself anotherpanion who wasn''t worse than her.

    Soon enough, Tina and Ary made a perfect duo. They kept speaking, speaking all the time, to the degree of making William and Lina didn''t know if they were just talking and not listening to each other.

    And to their shock, the two kept speaking and responding to each other''s words and questions, like they were actually listening while speaking at the same time!

    "Sorry young master," as they walked like this for almost five hours, Lina couldn''t help but whisper to William.

    "Sigh! It''s just lucky he wasn''t going to stick around for much more," William tried to console himself by repeatedly saying that.

    "Are we still too far from that n?" Lina asked after another hour.

    During their march, they were taking a formal road. It was one that was paved with limestone, with special ores that were embedded at its edges to scare the weak monsters away.

    This road was moving inside a small portion of the forest, a part that only had weak monsters within.

    It wasn''t that dangerous to walk here alone thanks to such ores, but the problem lies in the possibility of losing one''s direction here.

    Each few miles, the path would divide into two, and sometimes three, each heading towards a different direction. Gradually, even William lost track of the direction they were heading at, feeling remarkable at Ary''s ability to know the right path each time.

    If they were speaking about useful stuff, like how to raise one''s spirit power, how to fight, or even how the situation in the academy was, then the march wasn''t destined to be a torture for William and Lina.

 Chapter 81 We Are Done For

    ?But Tina and Ary kept talking about weird stuff. For example, they kept talking for half an hour just about the path they were walking on and how it was built.

    William wasn''t that much interested in knowing the types of ores used, the length of this path, or the uses of it for trade, people travelling, and linking ns together with the academy.

    These were all eithermon knowledge or useless to him.

    Especially when Ary didn''t know everything about the ores used, but he kept making up stuff, enticing the excitement of Tina even more.

    "We are here," Ary said the moment the path ended in a grand open space, void of any tree or nt, surrounding arge gathering of houses in the distance.

    They took almost ten hours to arrive at the Long n home base. And William and Lina couldn''t help but inwardly heave a sigh of relief.

    The buildings there were surrounded by arge wall and many strong looking towers, giving a good example on how strong this n was.

    And an open ce was left between such walls and the forest they came out from.

    William was sure this empty space was left on purpose. Like that, anyone standing on the walls, or inside these scattered towers would see whoevering at them from the forest.

    It was a good and nice defensive tactic, one that told him a great effort was made by the Long nsmen to keep this zone empty all the time.

    "Wow! It''s a big vige¡­" Tina turned her eyes and blinked twice before jumping in such delight.

    Everything to her seemed like a nice trip or interesting topic to talk about.

    Yet unlike her, Ary suddenly turned serious as he said in warning:

    "You have to be extra careful here. The Long folks are nice to friends, even treating me nicely back at the academy. But they won''t tolerate anyoneing to their doorsteps and making ruckus."

    William got what he wanted to say as he nodded. "Like before, don''t speak until I permit it. If anyone asks you something, just point at me as an answer. Don''t respond to any provocation and let me handle everything. Got it?"

    "Yes, young master," the two girls said, Lina in a low yet decisive tone, and Tina in a cheerful loud childish tone of hers.

    "Stop right there, this is a private region of the Long n¡­ No outsider is allowed" and just as they walked towards the nearest big gate, a sudden shout came surprisingly from behind.

    William was startled when he heard such words. It wasn''t because of its content, but because he missed the presence of the speaker.

    It meant whoever spoke was a strong spirit master, at least two grades higher than his strength.

    "An elder of the n? Damn! Our luck is just¡­" Ary seemed to recognise the status of the uing middle aged spirit master from the uniform he was wearing.

    In William''s eyes, he was wearing a silver set of clothes, covered with bright golden armour that covered only his chest.

    He held a big spear and moved in such confidence as if he was walking inside his home. There was nothing special about his face, but his hair was gathered up in a small and neat looking bun in the middle of his head.

    "It''s time," Ary turned to William as he whispered in such distress, "Long n never tolerate jokes! It''s not a big deal to lose face and expose this joke now. Or else¡­"

    ''Sigh!'' William inwardly sighed. It seemed up till this moment, Ary was still considering what he said as a joke.

    "Don''t worry senior brother," William patted Ary''s arm, as he couldn''t reach the level of his shoulder, "let me handle this."

    "We are¡­ Done for!" and as William walked a few steps to meet the elder, he heard what Ary muttered to himself from behind.

    If not for the seriousness of the uing meeting, and William wasn''t feeling that welling here to meet the old patriarch of such a mighty n in the first ce, he would have smiled or evenughed at what Ary just said.

    "Sorry to interrupt, senior, but I was asked toe here to Long n," William said while respectfully cupping his hands and slightly bowing in a move that was copied by the two girls behind and also by Ary who did it out of his own will.

    "You were summoned here? By whom?!" The look of surprise appeared on the face of the elder, especially when he moved his eyes between William and Ary.

    He seemed confused that William, the porter, was speaking while Ary, the fifth year disciple, was standing behind in such silence and respect.

    In this elder''s eyes, if someone asked for anyone of the two toe to his n, then it was supposed to be the fifth year disciple, not the porter.

    "By the old patriarch."

    "You¡­" the next moment, the elder pointed his spear towards the neck of William. His move, his speed, all came in such a natural and smooth way that didn''t give William any chance to even feel it moving.

    ''Scary!'' William muttered. He came back to this life and was still immersed in his past life, the life where he was a formidable spirit master.

    But this time it was a nice waking up call for him. He felt the coldness of the sharp de, theyer of dark gold energy that started to conglomerate over the spear out from the elder''s body. It was a clear sign that this dude wasn''t taking anything lightly, even when he was faced with eight years, weak looking, porter.

    "Senior¡­" William raised his hand to stop the shouting girls from doing anything stupid, "I really came by the orders of the academy''s headmaster. He informed me that Long''s n patriarch invited me to the n, and so I dide."

    "You¡­" the elder pushed the tip of his spear ahead for an inch, making William stand on the tips of his toes.

 Chapter 82 Lofias

    ?At this moment, William realised he had to wake up and return to this world, a world where a mere dark gold spirit master was way beyond his reach.

    He felt such a helpless and powerless feeling just hours ago when he met with the enraged headmaster. And he just felt it now on the hand of a passing elder.

    Even if William knew tons of things others didn''t, and even if he came from a time when he was fighting the scariest and strongest enemy in the entire world, and even with his formidable technique, he was still starting his journey from such a low point.

    He was doing well indeed, but he didn''t get things straight in his mind until this moment.

    "Fine! I hate liars more than funny idiots! Let''s go in and check on what you are saying. I swear on my spirit, if what you imed about my uncle is wrong then you will be done for! Do you hear me?"

    "Yes, senior," William didn''t even tremble or flinch, or even show a tinge of fear over his face. Such fine details never missed the keen eyes of such a formidable spirit master.

    And that made that spirit master wonder, what the heck happened to this world while he was away training away?

    In the eyes of that elder, a porter was standing in front of him without even getting his legs shaking like it was supposed to happen.

    Not to mention he pointed his spear towards the neck of that porter, making him question himself if he was really a porter or a spirit master.

    "Wee back, elder Gran."

    "Wee back, elder."

    Just as William and the group moved towards the main gate of the Long n residence, they were weed with different groups of spirit masters.

    Each group was formed of ten spirit masters at least, looking like they were doing patrolling tasks.

    Once they spotted them, they looked vignt first before noticing their elder. They all stopped and greeted the elder in such respect, making William smile after they passed the gate.

    "It seems the elder has a good reputation inside the Long n."

    "Something a porter like you won''t understand. And besides, who gave you the right to speak to me like this? Hey! Aren''t you his master? Why aren''t you saying something to shut him up?"

    That elder named Gran seemed annoyed with William''s attitude, being the only one speaking to him ever since their meeting.

    "Elder, he isn''t a porter¡­ And I''m not his master," Ary stole a gaze at William, to feel thetter didn''t want him to unravel too much about his identity in front of this elder.

    "Not a porter? Not his master? What a weird bunch of a group you are!" Gran shook his head, "what happened to this world while I was away? I didn''t disappear for more than a couple of months!"

    "Elder was training outside?" William got from his words this clue, "or just doing a mission for the n?"

    "You¡­ Are you this tired of living? If I told you, you''ll have to die, do you know that?" The tone of Gran was a bit aggressive, but it also was filled with his surprise.

    In the n, in the academy, even in the kingdom, not many could speak to him in such a carefree way.

    The more Gran looked at William, the more he felt unsettled. After all, William''s neck was still attached to his spear, making him wonder if this kid had loose screws in his head or what.

    "So you were out there training," William nodded, and his remark made Gran more stirred up. "I want to hear about elder''s opinion about porters."

    "About what?!!" and just as Gran was this close from exploding in the face of William, even considering killing him regardless of anything else, William suddenly asked such a weird question.

    "About us, porters. I know we are the lowest in the entire spirit master society. But I''m curious about the elder''s opinion about people like me."

    "You aren''t a porter, or are you one?" Gran shifted his eyes over Ary, questioning what thetter said before to him. Ary couldn''t help but inwardly curse for the bbering mouth of William.

    William just met this elder, and he wanted to get to know him better. William knew if he waited until they''d meet up with the Long n''s patriarch, then this elder might consider what he would say.

    So if he wanted to know what a man truly this Gran was then this was the right moment to do so. Gran lowered his guard, underestimated William. so, he wouldn''t care about what he''d say.

    "I was one," William didn''t give a direct answer, "but what about the elder''s opinion about us?"

    "What do you think an elder like me shall think about someone like you?" Gran pushed aside his anger and confusion and felt more curiosity to hear William''s opinion about this.

    "Well¡­ For an elder like yourself, you shall not concern yourself with people like myself. But that doesn''t mean you shall treat us badly, right?" William threw this bait back and waited for the elder''s response.

    "Treating you bad? A porter or a spirit master, if you cross the line then you''ll pay the price just like anyone else. That''s how I live my life."

    ''A straightforward righteous dude you are,'' William inwardlymented over what Gran said, without exposing any of that over his face.

    "Elder Gran, you arrived atst."

    Just before William would say anything more, a spirit master recognised his elder before running at him.

    "Lofias¡­ What''s wrong?" Gran seemed to recognise this young spirit master as well. Yet when Lofias once came closer, he spotted this weird group with his elder.

    "This¡­" and just as he spotted the porter that was threatened by his elder''s spear, he couldn''t help but hesitate while gazing up and down at William.

    William didn''t know anything about the poster incident from before. So, he felt a little weird about the gazes of that spirit master.

 Chapter 83 Realising Who William Was

    ?Lofias recognised him from the posters. Even the description he heard about William matched the porter that had his neck cornered by his elder''s spear.

    "What''s wrong, Lofias? Do you know him?" Gran wasn''t an idiot. He instantly knew there was something wrong about this prodigy spirit master in his n.

    From the look over Lofias face, Gran knew thetter recognised William. and that made him wonder if William was really honest about what he imed before or if he did something terrible worthy of such infamy.

    "Sorry elder¡­ But can I have a word with you?" Lofias paused, looked at William before adding, "in private?"

    "Hmm¡­ Ok, let me see what you have to say," Gran turned to William and his group, "don''t move a single step away from here. Or else¡­"

    The elder just did something simple. He called forth his dark golden spirit power, making it envelop his body like he was lit on dark golden fire.

    "I will wait for you," William cupped his hand in respect without caring about such useless show of power.

    Running away? He came all this way to meet this n''s patriarch, not to just run away from a mere elder.

    "Humph," Gran didn''t like William''s response on the surface, showing his discontent about it. However deep inside, he was feeling more puzzled about William''s state of mind and will.

    And just as the two moved away, Ary couldn''t help but heave a sigh of relief before hurrying to pull William''s shoulder.

    "Are you out of your mind?" Ary said this in low tone while gritting his teeth, "do you want him to kill you? We are inside his n, and here no other rule but the Long''s n''s rules apply!"

    "Easy Ary," William shrugged his shoulders free from William''s grasp, "we are inside the spirit master world where spirit master world rules apply."

    Ary didn''t get what William just said, blinked thrice before he shifted his gaze at the other two girls.

    And when he saw their honest calm expressions, he couldn''t help but roll his eyes.

    "We¡­ Are doomed!" he weakly returned to his ce, behind William, while muttering, "what the hell did I do wrong in my life to end up dying in such a shameless way? At least dying at the hands of my enemies has more honour than dying here."

    "Rx," William couldn''t help but chuckle, "we aren''t in any sort of danger. You will see soon enough."

    "Sigh!" and Ary didn''t buy a single word of what William just said.

    The elder and his n''s prodigy spirit master took almost ten minutes away from the group in secretive talk before Gran returned alone.

    From the look on his face, William got that this elder was briefed about what he missed. But William didn''t know there was much more than just the side of the story he knew.

    Lofias told Gran everything that happened starting from that weird incident with the young miss ending up with the development of William''s current situation.

    In fact, Gran never thought William to be causing all this mess. He got the feeling that William wasn''t simple, but not to such an extent.

    From what he heard from Lofias, Berry''s stagnant spirit power big problem was solved, and it was all thanks to this little porter in front of him.

    He also heard about the ruckus that happened following Berry''s weird status, the posters the n distributed, the intervention of the forging headmaster, and atst the shocking news that just arrived at the n.

    A porter, one with spirit power lower than thirty point mark, turned in a few days into a strong spirit master of bronze grade.

    That was quite shocking! Gran wasn''t shocked by William''s bronze spirit master grade. In his eyes that wasn''t a spirit master worthy of his attention.

    But the way William reached this grade was enough to drive anyone crazy! William turned in a few days into a spirit master from a porter, and he just heard that William stayed as a porter for almost two years in the academy.

    Not to mention what he did to Berry, something that even the grand patriarch confirmed to be true.

    These were all shocking to him, making him not know what he should do with this annoying brat in front of him, one he failed to read or even fathom.

    Lofias confirmed what William told him before, the patriarch was waiting for him and sent him an invitation toe.

    And Gran could guess correctly part of the truth. He could tell the old patriarch, his uncle, wanted to confirm what William did with Berry.

    "Everything is ok, elder?" Once Gran stood a few metres away, looking in such a weird way towards William, thetter couldn''t help but ask.

    "Shut up brat! Let''s go, the patriarch is waiting for you," Gran just said these words before turning around and starting to move.

    "Damn me! It''s true!!" and from behind, Ary couldn''t help butment in such a funny way.

    As he took the lead, Gran wanted to ask William many things, yet he refrained. First, he cared about his image in front of these kids. And second, he knew the meeting with his n''s patriarch wasn''t going to be an easy one for such a daring kid.

    For a reason he felt that the old monster of his n was also feeling puzzled about William. Or else why would he ask him toe here and meet with him personally?

    If it was to thank him for whatever he did to Berry, then Berry''s father would be suitable for such a task. Even if the patriarch was curious about what William did to cure Berry, he could have assigned this task for her father, while that scary monster would watch from the shadows.

    The more he thought about this, the more he got puzzled. So, Gran decided to wait for the meeting to start to confirm his doubts. During their silent walk inside the huge Long n''s residence, Gran was upied, recalling his meeting with William in great detail.

 Chapter 84 Berry

    ?Gran recalled everything this kid did and said. What puzzled him was the weird question about his vision about porters.

    At some point, he couldn''t help but steal a gaze at William, sizing him up and down. ''Damn! Was he trying to assess me back then or what?!''

    He guessed it right. William wanted to do this exactly. After knowing everything about William, Gran knew that question was never a simple one.

    William wasn''t a porter, and yet he spoke as if he was still one. He didn''t lie when he said he was once a porter, never lied about anything he said actually. And that made Gran add more points to William''s assessment in his mind.

    William wasn''t ying around, not acting as what kids of his age should. If such a kid got himself powerful in such a short time, turning from a mere porter into a spirit master of bronze grade, then he should be acting arrogant, or jumping around and screaming in joy, showing off what he aplished.

    Yet all he noticed from William was calmness, like what happened wasn''t that big of a deal to him. Gran didn''t even feel a speck of joy or pride inside William, not even once.

    He was acting like a grown up man, one with a deep and unfathomable mind.

    "We are here," after half an hour of walking, and as Gran didn''t answer any greetinging from spirit masters who met him on the way thanks to his disturbed mind, he finally stopped in front of a big mansion.

    It was the n patriarch''s residence, lying in the heart of the entire region. William looked at such a grand building, five stories high, spanning over a wide stretch ofnd as if ten buildings merged together to form it, with arge wall and big gate.

    It was a nice building indeed, one that reminded William of the big residence he once had before in his past life.

    "Impressed by our patriarch''s ce?" Gran noticed and mistook the longing gaze over William''s face when he saw this mansion.

    "It''s¡­ Ok," but what William said made him want to punch that kid, teaching him lessons about how to behave in good manners.

    This mansion was even grander than the academy''s headmaster''s mansion. Gran didn''t know what to say and so he led the way towards the inside.

    Passing the big gate led to a wide garden. William noticed the presence of many good herbs here, giving him a good impression about the long vision and care for alchemy of this patriarch.

    Others might use good looking flowers and nts to decorate their gardens. But this patriarch ced the important use of these herbs for his n''s alchemists above anything else. Which was something that would benefit the spirit masters of his n in the end.

    "Oh, isn''t it brother Gran? When did you arrive?"

    Just as the group was passing through the garden, a loud shout came from inside the mansion before a tall and robust middle aged man appeared there with a wide smile on his face.

    "Brother Callom, I see you are in better health than when I left."

    The two greeted each other, not in the usual formal way in the spirit master world, but in the way family members would do.

    They patted each other''s arm in such a way that told William both were rted by blood.

    ''Are they brothers perhaps? Or cousins?'' William muttered while looking at the two seemingly close to each other in age and also in features.

    And surprisingly enough, William found a simrity between the two and someone he knew.

    "William! You are here?!!"

    And just as William was thinking about her, a loud shout came from the direction of the second floor, where a head full of hair just turned and vanished.

    "She ising," William smiled while the others around, including the two middle aged men, didn''t get what was going on here.

    "Is she someone you know?" Just as everyone was puzzled, Ary leant over William and asked in such a low tone, as he didn''t get to properly see the face or Berry.

    "I do," William recognised the voice, just like the two puzzled elders standing not far away.

    And just as Ary said this, Berry appeared from the door, running towards William before she threw herself into his embrace.

    "I was deadly worried over you," she said, and William could feel his sincerity from her tone.

    And also, he felt she got a little stronger than before, making him grin in satisfaction.

    "I see you are having your fun during my absence to even forget about me," the elder who led William here said in such discontent.

    "U¡­ Uncle?! And¡­ Father¡­.?!!!" Berry seemed to get a little scared here for a second. William couldn''t help but step forward and cupped his hands, showing his fast reaction and quick wits to extricate Berry from such an awkward situation.

    "Sorry for that, uncles, but I didn''t see her for a week or so," Gran noticed that William changed the way he addressed him from senior and elder to uncle. And that made him feel how sneaky William was with words.

    "Stop dreaming about coating your way out of here, little kid," the one who Berry called father said. Callom''s eyes kept moving up and down, assessing William for more than three times before adding:

    "A weak looking kid, wearing white clothes of the academy porters, daring to act this way with my daughter in front of my eyes¡­ Are you the one rumoured to help my daughter?"

    "I''m William," William thought he was going to be let out of this unscathed, "nice to meet uncle."

    "I''m not that d about meeting you," yet the next moment a sword was drawn out and got pointed towards William, "a kid iming to be my daughter''s friend must prove his worth before taking a single step out of here. Come, take out your weapon. Let''s have a proper spirit master duel."

    "Father!" Berry instantly got scared when she heard that.

 Chapter 85 A Slip Of Tongue

    ?"What? Don''t think you are going off this as well! I will deal with youter, youngdy," Callom spoke in a much harsher way than what the headmaster did to Sara in William''s eyes.

    What William didn''t know was that this father was much more overprotective and attached to his beloved daughter. Even if he felt grateful for William''s actions to save his daughter from her misery, he couldn''t take what he saw when Berry jumped into William''s embrace out of his mind.

    Just seeing this made his blood boil in rage, and he wanted to teach this kid a lesson on the spot to warn him froming closer to his daughter again.

    If not for what William did to Berry, Callom would have even thought about cutting this kid''s head and letting it roll on the ground to get rid from such trouble once and for all.

    "B¡­ But¡­" Berry turned to her uncle who helplessly lowered his head, refusing to step in and help William in such a dangerous situation.

    "It''s alright," yet unlike what everyone expected, William unsheathed his sword as he added, "I''m sure senior won''t bully such a weak and young spirit master like me, right?"

    "Damn this tongue of yours! I now know how you made my girl fall for you! Come, let me see what you got other than that toxic silver tongue of yours."

    "William!!" Berry turned and tried with her reddened eyes and specks of tears over her face to dissuade him from doing this.

    "It''s going to be alright," yet William just patted her shoulder, having to stand on his toes to do that.

    After all, Berry was at least ten centimetres taller than him.

    "Humph! Daring to touch her again in front of my eyes? Quite bold and reckless! Do you have a death wish perhaps?!"

    William did this on purpose indeed. He didn''t like how he got invited here in the first ce. And instead of this loving and caring father to thank him for what he did for his daughter, he issued such a challenge and dealt with him in such a rude way.

    But William didn''t know that this was how this caring father used to get to know people better.

    He was such a strict spirit master, even on himself and those close to him. He didn''t like talking to get to know others.

    As he always kept saying: Tongues can lie and cover up fake souls and twist intentions, but swords don''t.

    So, he issued this challenge to get to know William better, and to know his true intentions towards his daughter.

    Also, he was curious about him. Such a weak looking spirit master, even shorter than his daughter, managed to cure his daughter''s incurable disease by the opinion of all the grand and prestigious physician spirit masters in the entire kingdom and even beyond.

    And as William dared to ept his challenge without even pleading for him to be stopped, this father ced a few good points in his favour, just a little.

    And in front of the two stubborn males, two of the closest to her heart, Berry couldn''t help but tremble in fear while her eyes kept releasing silent waves of tears.

    "How are we going topete?" William stood twenty metres away from this scary spirit master.

    Spirit master duels had many versions, and so William wanted to know what they''dpete in right now.

    Trying to fight him using spirit power was insane! As for techniques, William knew a lot but didn''t have time to practise any but his Holy Sword one.

    And if he used it topete with such a dark gold spirit master, the grade William expected Berry''s father to be at, he''d end up without getting any advantage on him.

    His technique was overbearing, enough to wound gold grade spirit masters. But Callom was stronger than that.

    "I''m your senior as you just said, so I won''t use any of my spirit power. But don''t celebrate it too early¡­ A spirit master of my calibre isn''t weak without his spirit power."

    "A dark gold spirit master you are, right?" William didn''t show any expected sign of joy when Callom said he wouldn''t use his spirit power. And that made Berry''s father more puzzled.

    "My daughter told you about my grade... Interesting!"

    This was the only exnation for how William knew his spirit master grade. But William got it from just not sensing a single speck of spirit power from him, even when he stood this close by.

    Such a thing meant this father was a spirit master higher than him by at least two grades. And as he was now a bronze spirit master, that meant this father was dark gold grade at least.

    Not to mention Gran was around his age and was an elder like him. As Gran was a dark spirit master, William guessed that Berry''s father wasn''t any much weaker.

    "What are the rules?" William asked again, and that made everyone watching this feel that William was the stronger one amongst these two.

    "You got balls, I give you that," the father slowly nodded as his will to fight got stirred up by William''s calm attitude, "I heard that you use different ways to take down monsters. Bring it on and show me what you got."

    ''Killing monsters using different ways?!!'' and just by hearing this, William felt vignce for the first time ever since being here.

    When he met the academy headmaster, he realised that those traitors who pointed a finger at him faked it all.

    He never thought that someone was trailing and watching what he did.

    But from these casual words of Berry''s father, William got that he was indeed being watched.

    He killed monsters without anypanion, except for the two girls here who belonged to him and never spoke about this with anyone else and would never do.

    And since that time, he never met a single monster or killed one. So, if anyone saw him do it, it must have been since that time when he was in the forest.

 Chapter 86 Spirit Master Duel

    ?Even Berry didn''t get a chance to see him in action.

    ''Who is he?'' This was the second question that got in his mind, ''is he a friend or a foe?'' and that was the third question that popped up in his troubled mind.

    Berry''s father wasn''t slow at getting things. When he noticed the slight frown over William''s little face, he got what he did out of his carelessness.

    ''Damn! Why does it feel that it''s too hard to deal with this little kid? He got so suspicious from such a clue I slipped with. No way! That''s not a kid''s attitude at all!''

    He got a point here. Even if he mistakenly said something like this in front of his n''s prodigies, the chance of them reacting in such a way in such a short notice was quite far.

    Yet from William''s change in face, his weird silence, and the vignt feeling he got from William, he knew thetter grew quite suspicious about what he said.

    Callom got to know this from his father, and that old patriarch stressed over not telling William anything about that.

    Yet from just a mere unintentional mistake, William suspected that someone watched him back then.

    But William would never get that the person who did this was no one else but the scary old monster of the Long n, Berry''s grandfather, Kong.

    "So how is the winner decided?" William got over his inward shock fast enough and asked this in such a mature way.

    ''Not a simple kid indeed,'' and Berry''s father didn''t know how a kid like him got raised up to reach such a mature level. But that made William gain a few more points in his favour.

    "I''ll spar with you for three times, each will end by me hitting you. I won''t harm you, but you won''t be spared from a beating, that''s my bottom line for your impudent actions."

    "And my win? By hitting you first? Will it be the best out of three?"

    "Best of what? Hahahaha! You can''t possibly dream about that! To win you will have to just hit me once, only one time and I''ll admit defeat," Berry''s father didn''t put William''s words in the eye.

    He took William''s words as a childish attempt to keep a speck of his face after his expected defeat.

    "And if I managed to hit you twice?" Yet William kept pushing forward on this path, making even that uncle on the side gaze up at him, not knowing if he shouldugh or cry.

    ''Is he crazy?'' Gran thought to himself, ''Tsk! Facing such a fierce and bloodthirsty dark gold spirit master and trying to provoke him? That''s quite the balls this kid got!''

    "Humph! If you have the ability then I''ll let youe here and spend time with my daughter," the father snorted, "let''s see if you got it in you."

    "I''ll be the judge," the uncle feared over William''s life after thestment and that fiery gaze that came from Callom, "I''ll interfere if anyone went overboard," and he was speaking to his brother, trying his best to knock some sense into him.

    Who was William? He was a bronze spirit master, and it was quite suicidal topete against a dark gold spirit master like Callom. That was what this uncle thought. Asking a bronze spirit master to fight a dark gold one and expecting the former to win? That was indeed crazy!

    Even if that fighting addict brother of his wasn''t going to use his spirit power, Gran knew it was impossible for William to get a hit from him and get away unscathed.

    "Get ready," Berry''s uncle took out a rounded and small shield from his storage ring just in case Callom went overboard with William. If Gran couldn''t interfere in time, he could toss the shield to William, giving thetter a chance to live, "you can start in three¡­ Two¡­ One¡­ Now!"

    "I won''t strike first to not be rumoured I bullied a youngster. Come, you got the first move," Berry''s father tried to look as if he was kind and generous, despite his tone and fierce features proved otherwise.

    "Don''t me me for that," and yet William didn''t reject such an advantage. In any fight. The one to strike first would secure a big advantage over his foe.

    As William said it, he suddenly jumped backward, pulling enough space between him and Callom, before touching his ring and taking something out from it.

    ''A spirit ring? Is he from a wealthy family or what?!'' and when Berry''s uncle saw this, he couldn''t help but get surprised.

    He never expected William to have such a thing. And yet what came out disappointed him greatly. ''Just few arrows? Without even a bow? Tsk, you are underestimating my brother too much.''

    Yet Berry''s uncle was the one to underestimate William. The moment he got out his arrows, William knew he secured the first hit for sure.

    *Boom!*

    Just as the arrows were thrown in such a lousy way as if they were a group of sticks, Berry''s father didn''t think much differently than Gran. What would arrows do without a bow? So, he let down his guard and started to move forward, evading the arrows with swift leg moves while watching them fall around him.

    Yet when the first arrow hit the ground, a fierce blow came with such an explosion, enough to stir out lots of dust.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Then sessive explosions came one after another. What the young spirit masters here couldn''t see, and the experienced eyes of Berry''s uncle saw was that these arrows weren''t carelessly thrown out there.

    They were thrown in such an arrangement, one that would totally entrap Berry''s father inside. And that wasn''t all.

    William even timed the arrows for the first to explode, which would be the one in front of Berry''s father. Then the second would be the two he sent at his back, and thest four to explode were the ones at the sides.

 Chapter 87 Wounding Him

    ?In other words, William didn''t just seal his path out, he also timed it to make it impossible for such a spirit master to run away without getting hit.

    "Damn you! What are those little things of yours?!!" And just from the thick and big bellow of dust that appeared here, a silhouette shed, getting out from inside while shouting in such an enraged voice, while aiming at William''s chest with his fist.

    "My brother¡­ You lost," and just before Callom''s fist wouldnd on William, Berry''s uncle couldn''t help but get over his little shock and announce this result, "you used your spirit power and that''s not allowed."

    "Damn! Fine! Let''s see if this brat will get another hit at me as he imed," and when Berry''s father heard Gran''s words, his will to fight was ignited as he started to move towards William in such slow, yet heavy steps.

    William knew he did something that this spirit master never expected. He didn''t just force him to use his spirit power, but at the moment when he hesitated to do so, he got a slight cut wound at his right shoulder from this explosion.

    "Don''t me me for being overbearing," and as Berry''s father walked towards William, while his rage knew no limits.

    He couldn''t believe he got forced to use his spirit power to evade those arrows. And now he decided to crush them head on, not giving William a chance to set such an attack again.

    So, he took out a sword, while saying these words in a tone filled with fighting spirit.

    *ng!*

    ? "Childish way! Knives are only for pussies!" and just as Berry''s father took a few steps forward, William retreated the same distance, took out a couple of knives and threw them one after another towards Callom.

    Thetter expected arrows like before, yet to face thrown out knives. Yet that didn''t change anything of his tactic, as he simply deflected them. Even from such a close distance, William''s ability to throw them wasn''t that greatpared with a dark gold spirit master''s swinging sword speed.

    "Damn! Watch out!" Just as Berry''s father was about to take another step forward, two unexpected spots of pain came from his back, making him quite puzzled.

    And with his brother''s warning shout, he knew something was wrong!

    "This¡­" he froze in ce for a moment, extended his hand towards his back to check the source of this pain. To his surprise, the two knives he just deflected and sent flying were inserted into his back.

    He wasn''t wearing any battle armour, as he never thought he would need one. As his hands touched something sticky and warm, he knew it was his blood.

    "You¡­" and just as Callom felt this, he ignited all his spirit power amidst his rage, "you are such a sneaky and untrusted bastard! You shall not get a single step near my daughter!"

    In Berry''s father''s eyes, this weak spirit master who was disguised as a porter wasn''t a straightforward fighter. He leant to use such dirty methods to secure his win. And that made William lose all the points he gained before, and even got a ton of minus points instead.

    Yet Berry''s uncle didn''t shout to warn his brother, but William. In fact, he never expected such a sh to end in such a way.

    Gran didn''t expect what William did. It was the first time for Gran to see such arrows which ended up exploding by mere falling on the ground and without the use of any spirit power to trigger them.

    Even if William showed remarkable ability to control the timing right and in such precision, it wasn''t that shockingpared with his second attack.

    These knives! At first, they were looking like normal kitchen knives. But when his brother deflected these two, Berry''s uncle saw them curve midair without releasing much spirit power fluctuation.

    If one wasn''t focusing on them with all his senses, he would be easily missing such fluctuations, change in trajectory, ending up getting hit by them. And that''s what exactly happened to his brother.

    Yet when he saw the knives curve in the air and aim at his brother''s back, he anticipated what was going to happen and how Callom would react to this.

    His brother was a fighting maniac, but he was also such a bitter loser. So that warning shout wasn''t directed at his brother, but towards William.

    And as his brother said and was about to do what he expected, Berry''s uncle had no other choice but to move fast and stood in between the two.

    "It''s better if you stop right now," Gran said to his brother, trying to knock some sense back into him.

    "Ast hit still remains, or do you think I''ll admit defeat just from these two losses?" Yet Berry''s father had no intention of backing down.

    "Father! Please stop!" and just as Berry''s father didn''t intend to budge an inch, the screaming from his beloved daughter stopped him in his tracks.

    "He is a bad person! He leant to use such dirty methods to attack me! He didn''t even use his spirit power or any spirit technique! Is he really a spirit master? Knives are for pussies, not real men! Are you even a spirit master?"

    He directed hisst question towards William who simply answered by raising his left hand. A faint bronze spirit power appeared like a small dancing fireyer around his hand before he closed his fist and then Berry''s father roared.

    "Damn you! I''m going to kill you now! Let me see who dares to stop me!"

    William didn''t use his spirit power just to answer Callom, but to pull out the deeply inserted two knives at Berry''s father''s back. And that was his response to what Berry''s father asked, and also to his threats.

    "Is senior going back on his words? Killing me is easy yet washing one''s stained reputation is impossible."

 Chapter 88 You Are Shameless

    ?Just as Berry''s uncle was preparing to stop his brother with everything he got, William''s words made him freeze.

    He turned to look at William and thought that this little kid was indeed fierce and quite daring. He stood in front of such a death god and didn''t get a glimpse of fear on his face.

    William wasn''t really faking it. He wasn''t afraid of this dark gold spirit master. Even if his current spirit powercked, his cunning way of fighting coupled with his vast fighting experience and Holy Sword technique backed him up.

    Even if he didn''t have the means to wound this man, he could still protect his life for long enough.

    After all, William was here thanks to Berry''s grandfather''s invitation. And they were standing this close from that old man''s mansion.

    William betted that Berry''s grandfather would interfere and stop his raging son. Least to his knowledge that his image and reputation inside that formidable spirit master was under question.

    So, it was a real gamble from William, one he never imagines how big its stakes were.

    "You are really shameless! I''ll give you that."

    "Shameless? If anyone can be called this infamous title here then it would be you not me," William snorted, and that made the two middle aged men in front of him stop from doing or saying anything out of their surprise.

    The two were at loss of words and didn''t get how the mind of this little kid even worked!

    Even when faced with such an enraged dark gold spirit master, William wasn''t showing any sign of fear. Instead, he kept returning words by others, not showing any weakness at all!

    Even the all angry Callom had to freeze in his ce for such an attitude from William.

    "Good! Great! Keep talking, as these will be thest words you''ll ever say in this life," Berry''s father took what William said as hisst desperate way to insult whoever was going to kill him.

    But William wasn''t desperate or even thought for a second he was going to die.

    "You set the rules yourself. So, tell me, senior, which rule did I break just now?" William didn''t even stop there and even dared to cross his arms in such a challenging way.

    He wanted to waste more time, allowing that old monster inside the mansion to show his presence.

    But the thought that Kong was struggling to interfere to help or let this show go on never crossed William''s mind.

    And luckily for thetter, his attempts to buy time helped Kong to take a decision in the end.

    "This isn''t helping! You can''t reason with him using words!" Berry''s uncle shouted out of his running thin patience from William''s attitude.

    In his eyes, this little kid wasn''t helping himself at all. All what William was doing was just to secure his death further with whatever he was saying.

    "You dare to question me? Fine! Let me ask you then, when did you ever use your spirit power? Give me a single example and I''ll let you off the hook."

    ? "This¡­" and just as Berry''s father said it, his brother couldn''t help but return to watch him in shock, blinking thrice without being able to say anymore.

    Callom was never the type to ept any verbal discussion. He was a fierce spirit master who only relied on fighting to solve anything.

    Besides¡­ It might have been missed by his brother, but he saw it clearly. These knives¡­ They were controlled and affected by spirit power.

    It was faint, but he felt it!

    If so¡­ Then didn''t that mean his brother was giving William a way out? Was this intentionally or coincidentally done by Callom? Gran died to know the answer.

    "Then how can you exin this?" William moved his left hand again, and his bronze spirit power was ignited once more.

    This time the two knives who fell to the ground behind Berry''s father rose up in the air and flew fast, just a few inches away from Berry''s father''s neck.

    "You¡­"

    "You asked for a proof, and I''m giving you one," William didn''t give a heed to Berry''s father''s rage and instead he kept moving the knives in the air with ease, wasting more time in doing so.

    He moved his left hand around as if he was ying on an instrument or something.

    "What the hell is this kind of sorcery? You dare to call yourself a spirit master?"

    "I''m using spirit power to control them, howe I''m not a spirit master?" William ced the two knives just one side each of his head, pointing at Berry''s father without any reservation for any face of that mighty spirit master.

    "It''s not my problem that you didn''t know about the use of spirit power and knives in such a way before. I made them, and these are part of my power."

    "This¡­ Fine!" In one rare moment, Berry''s father scoffed and seemed to get slightly easier on William, "how about your arrows then? You also made these?"

    "That''s correct," William didn''t deny this.

    "You''ll need to prove this by your actions then!" Just as Berry''s uncle thought his brother got a rare moment of sanity here, what he said next made him roll his eyes.

    "If my friend''s father is seeking such arrows and knives from me, you can simply do it by directly asking. Why lean towards such twisted methods?"

    But as Berry''s uncle read through his brother''s intentions, William also did. Yet thetter didn''t give a face to Berry''s father and exposed his little scheme in such a bold way.

    "You¡­ You¡­" and as William said it, Berry''s father couldn''t help but frown for a few seconds before getting over his surprise. He never expected that such a little kid would see through what he really wanted.

    Even his brother felt the same but remained all silent and didn''t say anything and kept watching.

    "I''m not lying to you, I have a formidable master by my side, and she is quite strict about promises and such."

 Chapter 89 You Cant Go In

    ?William knew he had to put on a great show here. So, he had to return to lean back on his assumed formidable master''s story to secure himself.

    After all, that old patriarch of this n kept himself hidden and didn''t show up so far.

    He did such a show for two more reasons. First, he would sell such goods at the forging department of the academy. So, securing such a deal from such a mighty and wealthy n wasn''t a bad thing.

    And secondly, he was sure one just watched him while he was fighting in the forest. If so, then this mysterious person saw him fight using his arrows and knives.

    And that spirit master was indeed part of the n. Or else that academy headmaster would have shown signs of him knowing about his little secrets.

    William didn''t know that the headmaster already knew after that trial. So thetter didn''t bring such things up as the second time they met was quite intense.

    "And? Do you think the Long n fears anyone?" Berry''s father responded in such an arrogant manner.

    "I didn''t mean that," William slowly shook his head, "but the ways of forging such items and more are my master''s great secrets. I can''t tell anyone about these. I hope senior can understand."

    "This¡­"

    "But I got another piece of good news for uncle," and just as Berry''s father didn''t know what to say, William returned to call him uncle. And such a swift change in his words made the two elders in front of him respond by raising both eyebrows at the same time.

    "These items and much more will be sold at the academy Forging department."

    "So, you refuse to show us your way to forge it and instead you are showing those to the academy cksmiths? And what''s with that uncle thing? Wasn''t I your senior a few moments ago?"

    Even if William gave him such news, Berry''s father didn''t intend for such a change of attitude from this daring and rude kid to go without a remark.

    "We were just sparring, and in that you are my senior. We are done, and I''m the winner. So now you are my dear friend''s father."

    "Dear¡­ Good¡­ Keep talking like this and I swear I''ll teach you a lesson regardless! Humph! Howe my little innocent daughter fell into such a dirty mind spirit master with such a twisted soul!"

    He kept muttering and shaking his head in regret, as if he was sad by this. Yet his little act didn''t fool his brother.

    ''Old patriarch¡­ You must have intervened!'' Berry''s uncle knew if there was a person able to calm down his brother''s storm of rage with a single word of his then it would be their mighty patriarch.

    And that was truly what happened.

    During the time William wasted here, Kong made up his mind. Thetter intervened and protected William''s life for now.

    "I''m just using what I have to win," William didn''t show any sign of backing off, "or else howe you expect a bronze spirit master like myself to win against a dark gold spirit master like yourself?"

    "I¡­ Wasn''t using my spirit power!" Berry''s father bellowed back in such a weak argument.

    "Who said spirit masters got strong by only using their spirit power? Your body got tampered with such power over the years. You can''t possibly believe I can match your speed or reflexes? Not to mention the power in each fist of yours. I''m still a kid, and a recent bronze spirit master on top of that. Howe I can match an experienced dark gold spirit master like you?"

    "..." and with William''s logical argument, Berry''s father couldn''t find a single word to say to defend himself against this kid.

    "Hahaha! Atst, you found your match! Hahaha! Seeing this shameless and bold kid reminds me of you, hahaha!"

    And from the side, Berry''s uncle couldn''t help butugh, stirring up the fire inside his brother once more. Yet a single and brief warning message managed to kill down such fire in a sh.

    The situation here was already under control, and Berry''s uncle, Gran, knew the old patriarch was the one behind this.

    Or else, his dear brother would have already done something crazy like always.

    "Brother, I and you will have a talkter," even if the old man interfered and stopped his hand off William, he still was mad at his brother.

    He felt that Gran was enjoying this. Callom wanted to vent the anger he forcibly stopped inside on someone. And Gran was the perfect candidate for that.

    "Uncle, I was called toe here and meet the n''s patriarch," William cupped his hand, knowing that he was lucky to get unscathed from the hands of such a brutal father.

    He didn''t know why, but he seemed to get the wrath of those around the girls he interacted with!

    From the side, Berry was watching all this in amazement. She knew the temper of her father, and how crazy about solving anything with fighting he was.

    So, letting William off without getting back at him was something shocking to her. ''Thanks grandpa,'' she thought to herself, as she also knew that the only one who could handle her father would be her grandfather.

    "I can''t let any outsidere this close to my father without getting a word from him first," and even if Callom knew everything, he still acted stubborn and blurted such words out in a cold tone.

    "Brother¡­" Gran gave Callom a weird look from the side, seemingly surprised by such words.

    He never trusted William''s words before. But when his uncle interfered to stop Callom, Gran knew what William imed was true indeed.

    "Just wait here¡­" Even if Callom couldn''t touch William, couldn''t even vent his anger over him, he wanted to go and meet his father to understand why.

    What the heck was all this about? Why was he protecting this little kid in such a way? Callom had such thoughts in his mind when he started to move towards the mansion''s big doors.

 Chapter 90 A Piece Of Advice

    ?"I''ll wait here for the news, uncle," and from behind, William cupped his hands and shouted these words, making Berry''s father stop for a brief second before continuing to walk once more.

    "Kiddo, if you really do care about your head staying intact on your little shoulders, then you have to avoid doing two things¡­"

    And when Berry''s father vanished from their sight inside the big mansion, Gran turned and spoke in such a serious way.

    "First, never try to draw a nerve out of this crazy brother of mine," he pointed at the direction where Berry''s father vanished into, "I love him, and he is a great man and formidable spirit master. But he is too strict, too much over the border of logic can reach! And he is a fight maniac, and you¡­ You are still a bronze spirit master. Got it?"

    "Thanks, uncle, for such kind words," William didn''t ce any of what Gran said in his mind. And surely, he''d never ce what Gran would add next into his heart.

    "And second, stay away from our n''s prettiest rose, or else¡­ You won''t have to deal with my brother''s wrath alone."

    Gran pointed at Berry, whose face turned all red at this moment.

    She felt shyness from her uncle''s words, without truly knowing about the hidden reason in her heart. In addition to that, she felt little guilt as well.

    All this happened because William helped her back to the forest. All of this mess was caused by the kind heart and intentions of William.

    "Sorry uncle, I can promise to try and consider the first thing. But for the second¡­ Berry is a dear friend to me," yet unlike what Berry and everyone else, including Gran, expected, William said these words in such a straightforward manner.

    "Are you this tired of life or what? Don''t you understand? You need tens of years to reach close to the level of ours! And many ended up dreaming about just touching our realm."

    "Thanks senior, but what others take tens of years to achieve I''ll reach in few."

    "S¡­ Senior! How rude and daring of you! Do you think rising up from your rank to mine is an easy task? Do you believe the higher you climb the easier it''ll get?"

    What William said got on the nerves of Gran, making him shout uncontrobly on William''s face.

    "Senior was advising me about cultivation and so I had to show him respect," William didn''t feel any pressure, even if such a dark gold spirit master was shouting at his face.

    He already faced a much deadlier dark gold spirit master in a far riskier situation than here, "and mark my words, senior, I''ll achieve what I said, and you''ll see by yourself."

    "Humph, kids¡­ I hate kids¡­" Gran blinked twice before scoffing. In his eyes, William was acting delusional as any kid would do.

    Gran didn''t lie. The higher a spirit master climbed in the long path of cultivation, the harder it became to ascend to the higher level.

    Just thinking about the growing gap in spirit power needed form any spirit master to climb in ranks from a white grade to a bronze, and from a bronze to a silver was enough evidence on that.

    To be a bronze spirit master, one had to cross the one hundred spirit power mark. And to reach silver grade, one had to cross the one thousand and five hundred mark.

    This gap kept growing the higher any spirit master climbed.

    Least he knew that William meant and intended every single word he just said.

    "How are you doing now?" As Gran took a few steps to the side, distancing him from William to not lose his calm, William took the chance to finally check on Berry.

    "You¡­ You do know that you gave me a heart attack just minutes ago?"

    "Hahahaha!" William couldn''t help butugh, "get used to this from now on. I''m not someone who meets challenges without embracing them."

    "What''s wrong in here, huh?" Berry knocked over his head. At this moment, even if the two were of the same age, she was still taller and could poke him with just stretching out her arm.

    "Ouch, easy on me, I''m fragile and might break."

    "Then knock knock, what''s in there? A jelly? A chocte?"

    "Hahahah, it''s ice cream," Williamughed, and Berry couldn''t help but shake her head andugh as well.

    From the side, Gran looked at the two while feeling danger rising up.

    The rtionship between these two seemed to grow much faster than he ever thought. He never saw his niece acting this friendly before towards anyone, even from the n.

    Berry used to distance herself from most if not all the nsmen around her age. She wasn''t trying to be cold, but she was burdened by her illness to the extent of making her prefer to be away rather than getting embarrassed or insulted by anyone.

    To him, to everyone in the n, they knew how fragile her heart was. And so seeing her act in such a way made him feel quite surprised and also rmed.

    "Tell me, have you trained as I instructed? How are the results?" William ended this session of joking as he turned towards what really mattered.

    "I got to the bronze rank already," and when he asked, she raised her head in such a showy manner, giving even her uncle a fright.

    "What? Is that for real? Is this true?" Gran couldn''t control himself and jumped over, held Berry from her arms and kept asking in such a nervous and disbelieving way.

    He knew she got cured, but never got to know about her breakthrough yet.

    "Yes, I broke through and that''s all thanks to him," Berry motioned in her head, as her two arms were held hostage to the brute force of her uncle.

    "This¡­ That¡­" Gran moved his eyes between her and William, not daring to believe what he just heard, "is this¡­ Real? Show me, hurry, take out a crystal and show your uncle now!"

 Chapter 91 [Bonus ] Venerable Senior

    ?"Well¡­" Berry felt hesitant, and William slowly nodded.

    "Show him in the usual way," William said, and his few words didn''t miss the keen senses of Gran.

    Even though he was over excited at this moment, he still was a dark gold spirit master. And for those high grade spirit masters, their senses were the sharpest thing they got in life.

    "What do you mean by that?"

    "It''s a secret," and just as a typical kid, William tucked out his tongue and teased the uncle.

    "Damn you! How can anyone exchange a few words with you without losing his temper!! Damn kids!!!"

    "Uncle, it''s indeed a secret," Berry tried to step in and help William in this, "and he¡­ He did many great things for me. So please, let him keep his own secrets."

    "Humph, fine," Gran could only resign to the will of his beloved niece, "show me then, through the normal way all of the spirit world here knows of."

    He said thest words while focusing his eyes over William. and thetter didn''t let this remark pass by withoutmenting as usual.

    "Like uncle said, with what''s known here."

    "You¡­"

    "Uncle¡­" and just before another fight would erupt, Berry said, "here, see for yourself."

    She ingested her bronze spiritual power into the orange crystal, making it shine slightly in front of Gran''s eyes. And this managed to finally distract him from William.

    "You¡­ You¡­" and when he saw the bronzed coloured spirit power inside the crystal, he started to tremble, not believing his eyes."

    "This is all thanks to William," Berry stressed over this point again, "and that''s why grandpa asked for him toe. He wanted to see and reward the man who helped me."

    "M¡­ Man?!!" for a moment there, all the excitement faded, and his eyes twitched from the corner.

    Gran already could smell fire. He knew girls always tend towards those who are kind and generous, all caring and attentive to them. And what William did was something that would be least called a lifetime debt.

    "William, by the way, I forgot to ask," and when he felt this nervous as he could already see where this little rtion between these two kids would lead to in the future, Berry suddenly shouted as she jumped towards William, grabbed him by the arm and whispered:

    "When I woke up, I didn''t find any of the papers you left me."

    "What?!!!" this time, it was William''s turn to get shocked, "how so? I left them for you to keep studying when you woke up."

    "This¡­ How? I asked, and all the guards who were there by my side denied seeing any papers. Even my grandpa asked himself!"

    Her tone and attitude told William she wasn''t lying. And from the side, Gran could hear what she said.

    "What? Did someone dare to steal from my n''s precious rose?" his tone changed, but it was nothingpared to what William was feeling right now.

    He knew that leaving the papers in her possession was risky, but he thought that no one would risk and try to get these from her.

    Or else, just like how Gran reacted here, this would bring forth the wrath of the entire Long n on whoever dared to do such a crime.

    "I will personally look into this," but what William said next made Gran size him up and down. And when William noticed that gaze, he added, "I never tolerate anyone stealing something precious from me, or from my close up friends."

    "But¡­" unlike the wrath these two in front of her felt, Berry felt regret and med herself for losing these papers, "they were¡­ They were precious to you and¡­" she wanted to add more but words choked in her throat and couldn''t say anymore.

    "Don''t worry, I got them all in my head," William mistook her thoughts, and said to reassure her.

    But from her perspective, she didn''t see these papers as not only the magical solution that saved her life and freed her from such misery¡­ She considered them as the first real gift William gave to her.

    And to her, this first gift was priceless! And losing it was a grave crime to her.

    "And I promise I''ll find whoever did this and properly punish him and whoever helped him!" and in front of her eyes, William said, taking such a heavy vow on himself.

    "Goodd," Gran softly muttered in a tone that wasn''t heard by any of the kids standing here.

    He could feel the determination William ced in the words he just said.

    "Leave this issue over to us, kiddo," and just as William''s words justnded and left such a deep impression inside those present here, a strong and deep voice came from the direction of the mansion''s entry.

    "Patriarch!"

    "Grandpa!"

    William saw an old looking, yet strong and healthy old maning out from the big gate of the mansion.

    And he wasn''t alone as he was followed by an entourage of fierce looking strong spirit masters and Berry''s father, whose face was slightly darker than usual.

    "I''m growing more interested in knowing the current bad state of the academy¡­ Humph! I don''t know what that old man is doing out there! Leaving such rodents infest the full ce without retaliating¡­ As if this was something funny!" The strong and deep voice of Kongnded, expressing how truly mad he was.

    "Venerable senior," if William would call Berry''s father and uncle senior, then he''d call this legendary old man venerable senior.

    And as he cupped his hands and slightly bowed, the other three on the side who stayed silent for all this time followed suit.

    "At least you got some manners for such an ex-porter," Berry''s grandpa was the biggest head in the entire n, so he acted in such carefree way while sizing up and down William.

    Although part of his rage was directed towards William, he had to keep his image in front of everyone.

 Chapter 92 The Interrogation Begins

    ?Besides, he knew that using force to threaten this kid wouldn''t work! He just heard about the situation between his friend and this little kid.

    Kong felt puzzled when he heard the headmaster''s words, but he kept all the guesses inside until he''d see through this kid first.

    In his eyes, this little kid was riddled in a thick fog of mysteries and a good deal of suspicion.

    Kong watched how this little and weak bronze spirit master managed to win his fierce son in wits. Even if he saw him fight before in the forest, every time he saw William, he got new insights about his seemingly bizarre abilities.

    Just like Gran, what William did didn''t miss his keen eyes. And that old and experienced spirit master had to admit to himself; everything William was doing was out of his vast scope of knowledge.

    And that made him more determined in squeezing more info and secrets out of William, getting to know his true essence and where his loyalty truly lied.

    If he was on their side, then Kong found himself unable to refute the words his friend spoke to him before. William could be their sharpest de, or their Achilles heel.

    "Come, this isn''t a proper ce for our long talk," and as he said it, Kong turned and left without waiting for William''s answer.

    ''Don''t tell me he wanted to do the same as that crazy headmaster did back then!'' William couldn''t help but inwardly sigh, cursing his luck with those rted to the girls he met.

    He also suspected that Kong knew about what he did back at the forest. Adding what he did here with Callom, William could already expect a long session of interrogation and intense talk.

    Least to his knowledge that Kong knew much more than what he expected. If William got to know what Kong knew, read the entire situation, he might not haveplied before toe here and meet up with Kong.

    "Others will wait here," and like a god dering his edict to mortals, the deep and strong voice of Kong came just when he vanished inside.

    "Go, what are you standing all idle here for?" and when William hesitated, Berry''s father said in such a bitter way.

    And from the side, Gran couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. He could tell that Kong nned to squeeze the truth out of William. And he didn''t know if he should feel sympathetic over this kid orugh at his misfortune.

    What William did here, and what he showed them were just the tip of the iceberg. There were still many secrets lying in his little head, and it was clear that Kong decided to crack everything in this meeting.

    And that made Gran finally feel sad for William.

    William followed Kong inside the huge mansion to be met with a vast hall with many paintings on the wall. Each one was inside a golden frame, while showing a fierce looking man.

    "This is our long series of ancestors," the old patriarch appeared next to William, looking like a mountain with his immense pressure, "each patriarch since the founder till my father is here."

    "What about you?" William asked, without even looking at the old man''s direction.

    "I''ll be hanged over these walls after my death," Kongughed, e, let''s go inside that room over there. It''s well protected with many incantations, making it impossible for any outsider to eavesdrop on our little talk."

    William''s perception about Kong''s knowledge of what he did back at the forest deepened when he heard these words. Least to his knowledge that this meeting wasn''t going to be a simple one, at least not just over what he did back at the forest or how he helped Berry recover from her illness.

    "So¡­ You were a porter a few days ago, is that correct?"

    As William followed him into that room, William found a small room as the old man described.

    It was only five metres wide and ten metres long. In the middle, a small oval shaped wooden table was there alongside six small seats where the two sat opposite to each other.

    And when they did, the old patriarch said with a serious look over his face. Kong''s eyes showed a weird tinge of coldness, as if he wasn''t meeting up with a kid, but a formidable foe.

    "Don''t you need to activate the protective enchantment here first?" William slowly said, looking calm and collected despite the unexined slight enmity he felt from Kong.

    "Oh, for a young fellow and an ex-porter, you know a lot," the old patriarchughed, "don''t worry, the moment I passed through this door, these enchantments got activated."

    "Yes, I was a porter before."

    "And you are now a spirit master, right?" Kong kept his eyes ring over William who felt the pressure but wasn''t affected by it.

    "I''m a bronze grade spirit master," William said while keeping his face calm.

    "That''s something amazing, and quite suspicious, don''t you agree?" Kong jumped straight towards the main topic he wanted to meet William for.

    "You do know that I''m not on the side of traitors, right?"

    William met such heavy interrogation with a challenging answer. The old patriarch kept looking at him for a long minute in silence before slowly shaking his head.

    "I can''t tell if you are on our side or theirs."

    "Why?" William felt little shock when he heard such an answer. And then a bad omen enveloped him entirely the next instant.

    He thought by what he did to Berry, what he did back at the forest, and even his actions at the trial back at the academy must have proven his side.

    And yet for a reason he couldn''t fathom, this old man in front of him wasn''t convinced by any of that.

    But that short and instant answer from William surprised Kong.

    "Why are you the one asking questions here? Don''t you know who I am?"

 Chapter 93 The Issue Of The Thief

    ?The old patriarch was surprised by the way this meeting was heading. He thought William would act like any kid, scared and shaking in his boots while sitting in front of him.

    Even if Kong didn''t see William as a simple kid, he was still a weak spirit master.

    Any spirit master below dark gold grade would feel the same. And those in dark gold grade would look at him in respect and veneration.

    But what he felt from the little kid in front of him was¡­ Nothing! Not awe, not fear, and surely not getting affected by the pressure of his presence at all.

    This was the first time for Kong to meet William face to face like this. Even when he spied on him, he never had the chance to test this kid personally.

    ? "I''m just talking, aren''t we here for that?" and as the old patriarch was examining William again, recalling the brief words of the headmaster about how William acted before him when he got mad, thetter responded in such a collected way.

    "You do know that you are full of mysteries? In my eyes, you are a hard kid to read," Kong decided to jump over William''s unexpected attitude and paused for a moment before heavily adding, "and I hate those with deep secrets."

    "Every spirit master has his own secrets. And I''m not different from them."

    "But no one has such secrets, or weird ways to do things in our world," the things Kong meant and what William got from his words were totally different.

    "Aren''t you happy that I saved Berry''s life?" As William realised this old man was dead fixed over knowing his secrets, he changed his way from defending by evasion into defending by being bold.

    "Don''t tell me you did it without expecting any reward."

    "I didn''t do it for that," William shook his head in disappointment, "I did it for her sake."

    "It''s love then... Or just a trick to get my n''s trust to infiltrate uster on?"

    At this point, William became more aware that something was wrong here. This old man in front of him wasn''t fazed by his help to Berry when he mentioned it.

    Instead, Kong twisted the entire thing and rted it to the dark spirit masters again. And that was something that made William be on high alert.

    "Don''t get me wrong," William''s face turned all serious as he decided to clear such doubts once and for all, "I do care about her. Such a kind hearted spirit master in such a dark world filled with evil intentions and turbulent times are rare."

    "I''m ttered by these words. How old are you by the way?"

    "Old enough to know my limits," William''s answer made the old patriarch gaze deeper over him.

    Everything pointed out that William wasn''t a simple kid, not even close from being a normal one. Even his selection of words left the old man in front of him puzzled. And such a daring attitude also made Kong not able to decide if he should buy what William said or be more suspicious.

    How could a kid be so careful and meticulous about his words, in such a way to show his support to his granddaughter and also draw a line between him and her.

    "Don''t tell me you don''t like my n''s precious gem!" Kong threw in a bait to see what William truly thought about Berry. The old patriarch decided to test Wiliam by handling one troublesome issue at a time.

    After all, he felt trying to squeeze the entire truth out from William in one big talk about everything wasn''t going to work.

    Kong had to take a much slower approach with William, discussing the things that birthed out doubt one after another separately. After all, this little kid proved to be quite formidable in using words, able to extricate himself from any situation Kong forced upon him.

    "I can''t dream about getting over the clouds without learning how to fly first, right?" And William persisted in his stance to avoid getting more trouble here.

    "Such wise wordsing from such a small kid¡­ Who are you? Really, who are you?" Kong still pressured William with his cold and hostile eyes.

    Even after speaking with Willian for a few minutes, Kong felt the direction this discussion was heading was way off what he initially expected and nned.

    And so he asked him directly the most puzzling question he and his friend were trying their best to find an answer to.

    "Someone who is just trying to help, someone who isn''t on the side of the dark spirit masters. In fact, I''m considering them my sworn enemies," William avoided answering such a tricky question about his true identity and shifted it to stress over where his loyalty lied.

    After all, he felt that his loyalty was under doubt by such a scary spirit master, "but we got a problem that needs our attention first."

    "That thief you mean?" The old man got what William meant, and also got what he wanted to do by changing the topic in such a sudden way.

    But Kong decided to follow William''s bait, to close such a matter once and for all before returning back to what truly mattered to him.

    "It''s not that simple," William shook his head when he felt how lightly Kong was taking this issue, "whoever took these papers knew they belonged to your n''s precious girl. And yet, he dared to do it."

    "Such a wrong decision would cost him his life."

    "What if he was still in the academy?"

    "What do you mean?"

    The old patriarch didn''t ce much importance over this little issue. He knew that William was the one to write these down, and that meant the lost information could be replicated by him.

    In his eyes, he considered what happened as a mere mistake, a greedy moment where one of the dirty folks back at the academy lost control over himself and took these papers to inspect them.

 Chapter 94 Something Big Is Coming

    ?Kong took what William said here as a way to change the tide of this discussion.

    But he never expected that William wasn''t trying to do just so. In fact, William had another motive for shifting the topic over this issue.

    He wanted to achieve another goal by speaking about this topic right now.

    "What if the one who stole these belonged to the agents of the dark spirit masters in the academy? The real traitors?"

    Kong eyed William in suspicion before asking:

    "What makes these traitors eye my Berry''s things? What''s so special about your training manuals?"

    Kong already knew what Berry missed were the training manuals provided to her by William. And in his eyes, no matter how special these things were, there was no real motive for those traitors to act and risk exposing themselves for them.

    "What if I told you that I got these from my master¡­" William paused for a long moment, letting the silence add more weight to what he was going to say next.

    After all, he shifted the topic to this issue not to divert the attention of Kong away from suspecting him, but to wipe out such suspicion once and for all.

    "... What if I told you that my master got these manuals from the outside world?"

    "Bullshit!" the answer came swiftly and decisively from Kong, "no one can reach out there! It''s our dream to reach such a stage!"

    William knew he piqued the interest of that old man, despite his show of rage and rejection of what he just said.

    "I don''t know if you are aware of this or not, but dark spirit masters are this strong and unique thanks mainly to their ability to get in contact with the outer world," and William knew he had to spill part of his beans if he wanted to clear up his name.

    Living in the academy while someone scary like Kong was suspecting him? That would be a life William wouldn''t desire at all! "And like them, my master has her own ways to get in touch with the outside world."

    "Stop saying nonsense!"

    "That''s why the methods that I learnt from my master look weird and unheard of in your eyes. That''s why anything I did would look alien and suspicious."

    "Bullshit! What if you are one of the dark spirit masters? What if the one you are calling as a master is one of them?"

    "Then tell me, why two mighty and formidable training manuals, two which my master described as being one of the rare manuals that held true paths towards the gate of this world to the outside one, got stolen from the hands of Berry?"

    "..." This time, William managed to silence the old man in front of him after exposing his true colours.

    William suspected that Kong was questioning his loyalty and thinking of him as part of the dark spirit master world by a slight amount before. But after pushing this old man to shout and expose his inner thoughts like this, William became one hundred percent sure of that possibility.

    And so, William decided to wrap all the disasters he met so far and twist facts to serve his goal.

    "Then exin to me why the dark spirit masters will ce such importance at framing and even killing someone like me?"

    "Because you jumped over ranks, turning from a porter to a bronze spirit master rank!" Kong fumed out his rage, answering William openly without showing any reservation like before, "or else this is all a show, for us to believe in you!"

    "A show that can end my life? No way! If not for the headmaster''s intervention and protection, I''d have been branded as a traitor and got killed or imprisoned for my entire life! Howe the dark spirit masters frame someone belonging to them and wanting him to get exposed in the first ce?"

    "I don''t know, you tell me!" Kong meant that as if William was part of their circle. So, William should know the answer to that question, not him.

    "And on top of that," yet William didn''t directly answer him, "I''m just a bronze spirit master! Even if I created a miracle of transcending ranks, I''m still too damn weak to affect anything in the entire world''s grand affairs! And yet they ced a mark over my head and wanted me dead. Even the things I left for your Berry ended up getting stolen! Why is that? Why?"

    William kept calmly speaking, yet his words seemed quite heavy and explosive. Against such will and confidence, against such logic and strong words, even Kong was out of options on how he should answer this kid.

    So Kong remained silent, and William returned to use his protective spell: "It''s because of my master. It''s because of what she is capable of. It''s because of what she knows."

    "Who is she then? Why didn''t she show herself up here and meet me and the others?" Kong finally couldn''t hold back his other suspicion about the true identity of William''s master.

    "She doesn''t want to meet you, any of you," and when William made up such an answer on the spot to extricate himself from such a tricky question, he never expected what he said to stir up storms inside the old man sitting in front of him.

    "When you say it this way¡­"

    Just when the old patriarch was speaking, wanting to learn more about the identity of his mysterious master, he paused. William mistook it for something he realised, a clue or something. Or perhaps he got convinced by what he said and finally cleared all suspicion off him.

    Least he knew that things were going to turn for the worse in this part of the world.

    "This¡­" and when the old man stood slowly on his feet, William knew things weren''t like what he guessed.

    "What happened?"

    "Something big ising¡­" Kong looked at William for a long minute, "don''t tell me¡­ It''s rted to you!!"

 Chapter 95 A Disaster!

    ?"Me?" William pointed to himself without knowing what was going on here.

    "You look like a ma to trouble," the old patriarch started walking towards the direction of the closed door, "anyway, you are going to remain here a little longer. My n is under attack by a swarm of monsters for the first time in a few hundred years!"

    "..."

    William didn''t think the reason he came up with to clear up his name would backfire and bring such a disaster on this n, on him!

    And as the old man vanished from William''s sight, William kept standing in his ce while only one exnation rose up in his mind.

    This attack¡­ It was indeeding here for him.

    "Do you think it''s that easy to get rid of me?" he clenched both fists, looking like a wounded veteran spirit master at this moment.

    Just as William went outside the mansion, he found argemotion waiting for him.

    Everyone was running in such a scary way. And William didn''t find this weird.

    He knew that in his past life, when a wide monster outbreak and swarm arrived at any ce, all the humans would lose their homes and their lives.

    It wasn''t a light matter at all!

    He was one of those few, lucky enough to run away with his life intact from a simr disaster.

    He didn''t ever hear about such a monster outbreak to happen before in his past life at the Long n.

    ''But that doesn''t mean this swarm is like that one¡­ At least there are lots of years left from that doomsday,'' he thought to himself while watching such a familiar scene ying again in front of him.

    "Uncle¡­" as he saw Gran, he didn''t stop himself by courtesy and almost jumped in his way to block his path.

    "What? It''s not the time to chit chat!" Gran gave him a deep look, one that held more of a threat than a warning.

    "What''s the grade of this outbreak? What kind of monsters are we going to face?" William''s next words left that elder and uncle hesitant.

    He said it in such a serious way, making Gran unable to decide if this little boy was just acting tough or what.

    "It''s still too early to decide, but at least it''s a grade three monster outbreak," Gran paused for a long moment, out of hesitation before watching his beloved niece running to stand beside William with the other three who came with thetter.

    "The early reports say they are scarlet type monsters, one that we are well experienced to deal with."

    Gran then heard his name being shouted from one direction before he started to move away, "don''t risk your lives. It''s not worth it. Trust us, the old men, to do our job and protect you, kids," he said these caring words not just for anyone around except for his beloved Berry.

    Yet Berry once turned her eyes away from the far departing uncle''s back, she got a bad feeling from that dark look over the face of William.

    She started to look up at William as someone who never felt any danger or fear, someone who knew everything and could solve any situation. She learnt about what part of what he did in the forest from her father when William went inside the mansion to meet with her grandpa.

    She heard before about his amazing deeds at the Forging department. She also learnt about his fantastic meeting with the academy headmaster, making his image in her mind grow much bigger and grander.

    Not to mention what she personally experienced with him.

    All this made her take that grave look on his face to be bad news, very bad news.

    What a f*cking bad luck is this?'' and just as Berry was looking at him in fear, William was having the shock of his life.

    He wasn''t that a big shot or someone that mattered before in his life, at least that was the case in this world.

    But news and events rted to monster outbreaks never failed to reach his ears back then. And even if he took this matter quite lightly first, he was now treating such news with all his attention and focus.

    The red rm in his mind kept ringing until it was about to explode his head to shreds!

    "This is weird¡­ This is¡­ Bad¡­" and as he stood in the middle of his little group, he couldn''t help but shiver.

    The events from his past life yed themselves again in his mind. During the time of his stay in the academy, only two monster outbreaks urred before that deadly doomsday happened.

    The two belonged to the lightning and wind monsters, bringing no small harm to the academy and its people.

    Yet not a single monster swarm ever targeted a single n before, not to mention such a huge scale monster outbreak.

    "What''s wrong?" Berry was quite sure that something terrible was going to happen.

    "Tell me¡­ How much leverage do you have in the n?" And without exining any of what he felt or thought about, William couldn''t help but turn to her and ask in such a serious tone.

    "Leverage¡­ What do you mean by that?" Berry was puzzled. What her status in the n and her connections had to do with what was going to happen here?

    "I want help, lots of help¡­" William paused when he noticed her looking around as if she was looking for her family members, "not the kind that will need the intervention of them."

    "This¡­" Berry felt much weirder when she heard that. In her eyes, the best leverage she got was the one provided by her grandfather, then her father and uncles.

    "We can''t distract them from preparing the n from taking proper measures against that monster invasion," William had to work his mind fast. And at this moment his vast life experience showed its worth.

    "Uhm, I understand," and at this moment, Berry was just outyed with William. Thetter felt sorry about that for a brief moment before discarding such feelings aside.

 Chapter 96 The Terrifying Scarlet Bears

    ?William knew if they ever asked for the help of those elders and patriarch, then they''d end up failing in the end.

    And even if he tried to tell them what he knew, none would ever believe him! Instead of helping him out, they might even imprison them in a ce they wouldn''t be able to get out from until it would be toote to do anything.

    "I¡­ I have to go and seek help from my older brothers and sisters then," Berry looked around again, and this time William didn''t stop her. "Let me go and look for them¡­ Don''t leave here, ok?"

    "We will wait for you," William didn''t mind the look of worry and fright on her face while watching Berry briskly move towards one direction before vanishing.

    As he watched her leave, he became lost in thoughts.

    ''This monster outbreak¡­ No way! Don''t tell me it''s happening!''

    ''No way! When I researched about itter on, I got to know that they needed much time to prepare such a wide scale invasion. This is soon, too soon to use such a deadly tactic to destroy us.''

    ''But¡­ It''s a monster outbreak of grade three and it''s formed entirely from scarlet type monsters! There is no way it''s like that damn outbreak from that time¡­Can it be?''

    His thoughts kept wrestling against themselves while he was squeezing his brain, trying to remember anything he missed.

    But there wasn''t!

    Facts were like this¡­ When that deadly doomsday happened, monster outbreaks all over the world were all grade three.

    Monster outbreaks were ssified into five known grades by the terms of this world. Grade five was the weakest and smallest, while grade one was the deadliest and scariest.

    Of course, he got to call what happened and ended this world as a grade zero monster outbreak.

    It was on a scale that no one had ever seen or imagined existing. And it started with a grade three warning just like that.

    And all the monster outbreaks all over the world were formed of scarlet monsters, just like what was happening right now.

    The trick that monsters did was to keep the deep regions of the forests scattered all over the world forbidden on any human.

    And there, they bred the most terrifying kind of monsters, scarlet bears.

    Scarlet bears shared the same origin as the scarlet monkeys he killed before. They followed the same pattern and attitude, very bloody, very brutal, and they always moved in great numbers.

    But there was a catch, they needed lots of time to grow, and they needed a zone free of any dangers. Or else their numbers would always stay small and stagnant.

    Facing a couple hundred scarlet bears wasn''t an issue for any gold grade spirit master. They were like scarlet monkeys for low grade spirit masters just like William.

    But if one thought about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of these bears, or even millions of them, then the situation would be very terrifying.

    Not even a dark gold elite group would escape alive from them. And in such a deadly battle of life and death, dealing with them must be on the premise of killing these monsters and not just running away.

    William still recalled the scenes from his past. The sheer number of scarlet bearsing up, leading a grander army of other scarlet monsters like leopards, lions, tigers, elephants, and even monkeys was really something no one would easily forget.

    Even if he faced many dreadful situations after that, including his fight against that damn fox, William still ced this event on top of the list of his deadliest and scariest moments in his entire past life.

    At least he was the one he sought that fox out and prepared for too long to fight him.

    And now he had this gut feeling that such a tragedy was about to rey itself again, and this time it was directed solely at him.

    Without the need to think too much about it, he already guessed the reason behind that.

    ''That damn bastard who stole the papers from Berry must have delivered it to the monster leaders¡­'' This was the only reason William got to exin all this.

    Monsters weren''t like humans, they had ties and strong rtions with the outside world. Seeing these techniques would indicate that the one who did these was just someone with ties with the outside world.

    And that was something monster leaders truly feared to the bone.

    They would never allow such a person to exist.

    ''No¡­ I''m thinking about it in the wrong way¡­'' William thought about all the facts he knew so far, and all told him his guess just now was wrong.

    Whoever took the techniques from Berry wouldn''t link these with him, but with her. ''I was just unlucky enough to be here¡­'' he paused, looked around, ''or was I lucky?''

    This n¡­ It wasn''t a bad n in his eyes. They stuck to the rules of supporting humankind and fighting monsters without showing any signs of betrayal.

    They were one of the strong backbones of the academy, strong spirit masters who shouldn''t be allowed to fall here.

    He knew what wasing, knew how this disastrous battle would develop. And no matter what, such a n alone was weak and vulnerable against any grade three monster outbreak not to mention this deadly one.

    Even if things didn''t go that wrong, and the enemy couldn''t muster up the same terrifying number of scarlet bears like what happened in his past life, this was a n and not the academy or the kingdom.

    The patriarch here held some kind of reputation and respect, but that didn''t mean all strong ns around would answer their call for help.

    Many would back off and watch such a strong opponent fall for many reasons. Be it stemming from the deep sense ofpetition or rivalry, or even the direct orders from monster leaders and dark spirit masters to their traitors to not help; it didn''t matter.

 Chapter 97 Meeting Lang Again

    ?The result would still be the same!

    William clenched both fists and his body faintly trembled out of his immense anger and hatred. He hated his weakness back then, when his world was falling apart, his academy was taken down, and his life was in grave risk.

    But now¡­ Things weren''t that much different now.

    "No, things aren''t going to end up the same this time¡­" His body trembled again while this time it was caused by his determination.

    Yes, hecked a lot in terms of his overall strength. But he got his knowledge.

    "Young master¡­ Is everything alright?" From the side, it was clear how terrible William was looking right now. Only Lina got the courage to ask.

    Just in the past few minutes, William looked like a ferocious beast, one that''d intimidate all without even moving a finger.

    "We are going to fight," William sucked in a cold air of breath, while moving his eyes among his threepanions. "Tina, can you stay here for now?"

    "I''m not weak!" the little girl acted out of her age or character at this moment. "I can fight!"

    "Tina¡­ Please stay here," Lina had to act when William shifted his gaze over to her. He silently asked her for help.

    William knew how hard the uing battle would be. So having such a little girl with them would be a burden.

    "Fine!" Tina puffed out her cheeks in such an amusing way. At other times, William would find it funny and even smile orugh.

    But his mind was burdened by what was going to happen.

    "Stay here, and don''t wander around the ce, got it? Don''t do any harm, don''t cause any trouble, and don''t ce yourself in any danger of any kind." Lina started to say her long list of warnings, acting like a mother in this moment and not just an older sister.

    "I''m not a little girl! I know how to deal with all this myself!" Tina puffed out her chest, acting again out of her age and capabilities.

    "Where are we going? And why are you acting like the end ising?"

    From the side, all silent and watching in daze Ary finally spoke up.

    "Something terrible ising our way," William realised that he got the two girls tied up to him, but not Ary. For a moment there he thought about letting this dude loose, give him the chance to break free and escape before it was toote.

    "Interesting¡­" yet unlike what William expected, Ary''s eyes shone brighter, "let me then contribute to this war."

    "Contribute?" The selection of words made William unable toment further. He recalled the origin of Ary. He was a Pride disciple of the academy.

    Such a word, contribution, wouldn''t be said except by those who came from families who served the kingdom in the army. And that befitted Ary''s background.

    "What? Won''t you wee an extra hand?" Ary gave William a deeper look, one that was totally different from what William saw from this dude before.

    "Cool, I just thought you might consider running away with your life," William was straightforward and when he said that he noticed Berrying back with a small group of youths.

    They weren''t more than twenty, all looking distressed and having a face that told William they were both scared and agitated.

    And from them, William could ascertain a single familiar face, one he once met before.

    It was Lang!

    William got a good impression of that youth. Lang met William when Guanin tried to frame him after the night that he helped Berry at.

    The grouping with Berry and led by Lang seemed to be mostly around their age. William would estimate if his luck was good, the strongest one would be part of the third year ss, a silver grade spirit master.

    "Brother William don''t insult me. I came from a father who sacrificed his life for the sake of humanity. He fell on the ws of monsters. And don''t mistake it, this kind of trauma made me more eager to follow his path rather than cowardly running away and living a longer life as a pathetic and honourless coward!"

    "Well said!" At this moment, Berry came and moved away from the group and stood beside William. The one who spoke was Lang, and he got to recognise William just when he came closer.

    "You¡­" he paused, looked in doubt towards William and didn''t know what to say or do. Berry might have missed many stressful moments when she was unconscious, but other kids and youths of the n burdened it all.

    The news about clearing William''s name spread, yet without any exnation of why. The feats William did were all unknown to all the people like Lang.

    So instead of looking in gratitude like William deserved, he gave William such a heavy gaze.

    If not for the strict orders from the higher ups about noting near William or trying to instigate any conflict with him, Lang would have started a fight right now with him.

    Lang didn''t care about how William cleared his name; he still held the grudge of that lie from before.

    "So¡­ You asked our help for such a liar?" Lang ignored William as he turned to Berry, seemingly ming her.

    "What? Who is the liar?!!" Berry''s sudden shout and intense response left Lang hesitant.

    "It''s not time for such talk," William knew why Lang acted in such a way towards him. But there was no time to waste in clearing out such misunderstanding, "we got little time. Brother Lang, do you know when the monster tide will arrive? Any news about it?"

    "Hey porter, mind your own words while speaking with our young master!" Just as William finished his words, one of Lang''s entourage blurted out, saying such mean words in such a rude way, "he is a second year disciple, a highly esteemed bronzed spirit master, one you can only aspire to look towards and not speak to."

 Chapter 98 These Are The Clans Secrets!

    ?"ine, mind your own words or else I swear I''ll let my grandpa give you a beatingter on!" Just when that dude called ine added hisst words, Berry couldn''t help but retort back in such an angry way.

    Berry''s attitude was known to all, especially those from her n, especially those who were close to her age.

    She was famous for being kind to weak spirit masters and miserable people like porters and Pride disciples. But there wasn''t a single time that she showed such a fierce response, even to the point of asking for her scary and vulnerable grandfather''s intervention.

    "Berry¡­ He¡­"

    "Let''s all calm down first," William was still feeling little guilt about his small lie from before. He knew the kids around Lang knew about such a thing and that was why ine acted in such aggressiveness.

    William was the one who started all this, but he got no way out back then except by twisting up facts and not telling the whole truth, "After all I''m going to attend the same ss as brother Lang once this monster outbreak is over."

    "What do you say?!!!" This time, Lang''s response was that of shock and disbelief. He gave William a look, one that was filled with much warning and threat.

    The news only spread to his ears about clearing William''s name from the crime of treason and working for the Golden Sky academy. But he never heard a thing about the sudden change in William status in the academy.

    Lang took William''s words as a lie, another one that he weaved like the one he pulled back then.

    "I vouch for that," but when Berry stood to William''s side, there was no room for more talk.

    Lang knew this was something crazy, quite impossible actually. But if Berry supported such a scary and crazy theory, he had no way to refute it or say anything of what he had in mind.

    "Anyway, soon enough you''ll know the truth," William didn''t divulge more into this matter, "but right now we have an urgent task to do."

    "By whose orders are we going to do such a task?" Before William would continue his words, another kid spoke up, yet to be silenced by a sharp gaze from Lang.

    "Under my orders¡­ Low grade spirit masters like us aren''t that needed at the uing battle, right?" Berry said as she wore such a veil of being a boss. Even the air she emitted showed her demeanour, making Lang''s corners of mouth twitch slightly.

    Yet when he recalled the spreading rumours around the n, about how Berry managed to get cured from her illness, he exerted more control over himself.

    Berry always kept herself away from others even close to her age. And so, Lang didn''t know her true personality, like many others in the n and academy.

    "These are bronze and white grade spirit masters¡­ In such a grand battle, bronze grade spirit masters and lower are asked to leave the frontline and just secure the inner buildings," Berry said, in a tone that told William she was apologising for not bringing a real expert over.

    "They will do just fine," unlike what she expected, William moved his eyes around the group while nodding in satisfaction.

    He might have expected one or two of them to be at silver grade. But even without any, he wasn''t that disappointed at all.

    What William needed the most was a big number of spirit masters. And he knew dreaming about getting more than that at such a time was a fantasy.

    And such an arrangement of spirit masters made him admire the order in this n. Asking bronze spirit masters to fight against monster outbreak of category three? That was insane and would be like fetching them to their death.

    "So, what are we going to do here?" Lang had to speak up while giving another warning gaze to his mates.

    He didn''t want any of them to suffer from another burst of anger from Berry.

    "I''ll exin soon enough," William took the lead of this small group, "but first tell me all you know about the monster tide news," he paused before turning to Berry as he added, "is there a ce where the n specified for forging?"

    "Sure, we got a big yard filled with ovens, anvils, and everything needed for forging¡­ But why?" Berry felt puzzled when William shifted the topic away from the uing battle or the reason he asked her to bring these spirit masters here.

    When she went to look for Lang and the other bronze grade spirit masters, she thought William asked for them to form a small fighting unit.

    She thought that her long dream about acting heroic, venturing through herds of monsters with an elite team woulde true.

    "You''ll know once we arrive there," William paused before adding, "you are sure the ores and materials are there as well, right?"

    "These are our n''s secrets," Lang got over his surprise and reminded Berry in such an indirect way about such a grave mistake.

    "Nothing is secret to William," yet Berry didn''t have the same good impression as William about Lang. She spoke in such a serious and slightly challenging way.

    "I just need an answer," William didn''t want to waste more time and just wanted to start his n.

    "There are more than enough," Berry didn''t shift her eyes away from Lang who could only inwardly sigh.

    This was the granddaughter of the scary patriarch, which meant she was the acting patriarch in the future if things went by logic.

    How could he, the oneing from a side family, speak and antagonise the decisions made by her? He did his part to gently remind her, and from her actions just now he knew he seeded in his job.

    Other than that, it wasn''t his turf or area of his control or responsibility. But he intended to deliver what happened here to the n elders after the end of this crisis.

 Chapter 99 Blue Frost Ores And Bronzed Silver Ant Wax

    ?Seeing an outsider, a porter who he didn''t ce in his eyes before, a liar who lied to him about Berry''s issue, getting to learn about such inside news of the n made him and all the other spirit masters behind him feeling quite unsettled.

    "Great," William rubbed his hands, "let''s go then. I''ll speak during our run."

    "Run?" Berry gave him a questionable look and William simply nodded for her to lead the way. "Fine, tag along and don''t get lost."

    She started to run while William shifted his attention towards Lang.

    "Tell me, how bad it is."

    "Well, from the look of it, things aren''t that bad," Lang said, and William could only inwardly sigh. Of course, category three monster tide wasn''t that risky if others came to help, and enough preparations were done.

    But he knew this wasn''t the real situation they were facing. If it was up to him, he''d reassign this grade to be grade one without any hesitation.

    "The monstersing are in grade three, arge scale indeed but the elders already dispatched teams to ask for help from the academy and other ns."

    ''That''s if they responded,'' William muttered to himself without showing anything over his face. He only motioned for Lang to continue. After all, what he needed to know wasn''t yet told by this dude.

    "As for the estimated time," Lang got a whim of what William needed to hear the most, and he deliberately left it to thest, "the scarlet monsters areing here in four hours, give or take two."

    "That''s not bad¡­" William nodded while muttering these words which made Lang and everyone else mistake his real intentions.

    He wasn''t speaking about the difficulty of the iing monsters, but the time needed for them to finish their preparations.

    "Can you exin now what you are nning to do?" Lang took this chance to ask what he was dying to know.

    "We are here," and just before William would say anything, Berry suddenly shouted, "it''s up there."

    William looked and up ahead lied a great open space which wasn''t even walled. It was filled with big ovens and cauldrons, lots of wood stacked inrge batches at one side, while a small group of buildings was on the opposite side.

    The ce was void of anyone, a clear sign that the patriarch and elders already called for everyone they could muster to prepare for battle.

    Arrangements for war must have been prepared a long time ago, or else this n wouldn''t deserve the title and fame it got.

    "Cool, now listen up," even before they''d arrive there, William started distributing his orders, "what we need is to gather up all the Blue Frost ores, all the Bronzed Silver Ant Wax you can find, plus all the arrows and spears you can get."

    "Arrows? Spears?" Lang was puzzled.

    "But¡­ The Blue Frost ores aren''t used mainly to forge anything. They are just used to temper the cooling water, adding a faster frosty effect to it!" Berry was more puzzled by what William said.

    She got from her grandfather about how William performed extremely well back at the Forging department of the academy. But from the two items William asked for, there wasn''t any suitable material for forging!

    "And the wax¡­ The Bronzed Silver Ant Wax is used just to blend the forged pieces together, making them look much sturdier and firmly attached to each other," ine said, expressing his knowledge about such a topic.

    "Just do as I say," William knew what he was using right now might be considered an unorthodox method, but it was their hope, their only hope if his bad projection became true.

    Even if he was totally wrong about anything, the n wouldn''t lose materials of high value. And that was why he was acting this calm.

    "Anything else?" Berry rolled her eyes, feeling more helpless to issue her doubts than ever. She was supposed to stand and support William, not antagonising his actions in the open.

    "These will do," William paused, "just fetch a small group of three, all must have storage rings to store up the arrows and spears we need."

    "That¡­ Do you think storage rings are so cheap?!!"

    "Do you think we can get such valuable items from the n at such a time?"

    William calmly looked at ine who issued thestment, as he slowly and confidently replied:

    "Arrows and spears are valuable indeed. But I refuse to believe there aren''t extra amounts in the n right now. If not, then we''ll have to forge them ourselves. And you''ll be the ones doing this, not me."

    "You¡­" ine''s face changed from such provocative words. In Williams'' eyes, he was already doing this n a lifetime debt and help. So, he didn''t n to act humble or be conservative in his words or actions.

    "I got my ring, Lang has one too, and ine got the third," Berry ignored what ineined about before stopping in front of the many furnaces and cauldrons as she added, "hurry, give three fast runners the three rings. And get the extra arrows and spears from the n warehouse."

    She stressed over herst words, while her eyes red at ine. She knew, as everyone in the n, that the n''s warehouse had tons of such weapons.

    "Any grade can do," and when William said his piece, Berry waved her arms as if they had no other reason toin.

    Even if she didn''t get what William wanted to do, she was sure he was going to marvel and shock everyone, including her.

    This wasn''t the first time she dealt with him. Back at the forest when he spoke casually and lightly about curing her, she took it as a joke.

    Yet she now knew he wasn''t joking, even if his words and attitude told otherwise.

    "The three will go and gather up all the weapons needed then," as everyone didn''t move, Berry started to take off her ring before adding, "bring all the useless arrows and spears from there, in addition to anything the n didn''t need right now."

 Chapter 100 A Very Intense Situation

    ?"Great," William seemed to ignore the looks of doubt and resentment over the faces of everyone around, "don''t forget the two materials I asked for."

    "This¡­" Lang was still hesitant about it. Yet under the stern look from Berry on the side, he couldn''t help but lower his head and ept such outrageous quests from William.

    "Go," once he decided, he took his ring out and ine couldn''t object anymore and had to do the same.

    Berry gave her ring to Lang, and thetter selected three of the fast runners in his little group. "Don''t stop at anything and bring all the needed materials here," he added while looking at Berry to hold her ountable for all this.

    In his eyes, Berry was bending the n''s rules too much for the sake of an outsider. Even if she was the beloved granddaughter of the mighty patriarch, he was sure she wasn''t going to evade punishment after this would be all over.

    "Ok," three spirit masters received the rings, nodded their heads and then vanished in high speed.

    Watching them leave, William nodded his head in satisfaction. ''They''ll be helpfulter on,'' he took a note of these three in his mind before turning his attention towards the ovens around.

    This ce seemed to not just harbour the forging work of the n, but also alchemy.

    "What now?" Berry asked from the side, waiting to see what this all would end up at.

    "Go and bring wood, light up all the ovens here. Ah, I need a hammer, the higher the grade the better."

    "This¡­"

    "Dude, the higher the grade of a forging hammer the heavier it will get. Are you sure you can even sustain its weight with the two thin arms of yours?"

    Lang couldn''t help butment from the side. Everyone here might not be adept in forging, but such a weakness was apparent up in his eyes.

    "Just do as I say," troubled from their continuous doubtful questions that wouldn''t get them anywhere, William couldn''t help but add with a frown, "you may not know this, but the survival of your n depends entirely on you."

    "What? The heck are you saying?!!" ine already was on the opposite side of William. He saw him as an arrogant kid who was wearing a porter outfit.

    William didn''t know this, but part of the indignation and resentment directed at him came just from his white attire.

    Appearance mattered, and even for spirit masters. To them, what they wore represented their identities. And unconsciously everyone here still saw William as the porter clothes he was wearing, a porter they got used to giving orders to, not receiving orders from.

    Not everyone was like Berry.

    "I don''t know what made you think this way, but my n¡­ We are strong!" Lang from the side couldn''t take such words anymore. And while saying these words, he showed off the air of being a bronzed spirit master.

    "William¡­" from the side, Berry knew she wouldn''t be able to do anything to calm this terrifyingly growing explosive situation.

    "I''m here to help, but I''m not obliged to do so," William grew tired from such growing hostility against him. "If you don''t need help and feel so high and mighty, then tell me right now. I''ll take my people and leave on the spot. But don''t regret your decisionster on."

    "What a rude porter!"

    "What if you created a miracle and raised up your spirit power? You are still a bronze spirit master! We have more than what you can count at this stage and beyond!"

    "Prosperous!"

    "What''s going on here? Why are you standing here instead of looking for a shelter?" Just when William was about to tell them to scram and move away from his sight, deciding to find a way to convince Berry toe with him, a loud shout came before a figure shed and appeared in front of the group.

    "Fourth elder¡­" With the sudden appearance of this spirit master, all of them went into silence and couldn''t help but retreat a couple of steps before cupping their hands in respect.

    Even Berry showed a face of respect mixed with a tinge of fear on her face when she saw him, greeting him in a way she didn''t use when meeting up with Gran.

    And such a simple detail didn''t miss William''s eyes.

    "Can anyone exin to me?" William looked at this young man who was in histe twentieth or early thirtieth. He wasn''t as old as Callom or Gran, but looked as confident, releasing an aura like a savage beast.

    He was strong. And it seemed he got a high ranking and quite a reputation in the n.

    William reassessed the man again while Lang dared to speak about what happened here. Even if he felt resentment against William, he didn''t block any facts and narrated what truly happened.

    William didn''t find it strange. After all, he got a good impression of this little dude''s personality.

    As for that fourth elder, despite looking young, he got a lot of white hair on his head. It didn''t give any feeling aside from being magnanimous, especially if coupled with those pair of sharp faint brown eyes that kept reminding William of the vibrant strong powerhouses he met before in his past life.

    He was strong, and he got confidence that stemmed from his true abilities without any illusion of arrogance or greed for power.

    "You¡­ Did you bring my precious n''s gems here and ordered them to waste their time doing such useless things?" When the fourth elder heard half of the story, he couldn''t help but look at William while speaking in such an enraged way.

    With his words, a hidden pressure was exerted over William, one that was able to render not only bronze spirit masters, but even silver spirit masters scared.

    He was a dark gold spirit master. Even if William felt he wasn''t as strong as Callom or Gran, he wasn''t that far off from them.

 Chapter 101 The Fourth Elder

    ?"Do you think bringing them here to do something valuable and crucial is a waste of time? Compared to what? Asking them to go and hide?" Even if he was faced with the pressure of such a formidable figure, William didn''t show any sign of distress as his words came out quite calm.

    "You¡­" against what the fourth elder expected, thed in front of him remained calm as if he was a grounded mountain.

    But that fourth elder wasn''t shocked as he should be.

    William didn''t know, but this specific elder was present when he went to meet the academy headmaster. He saw it all, stood on the side in silence watching the show unfolded in front of his eyes.

    And to be honest, William left a good impression on him when he dealt with his usations. And when that ruckus urred about the food incident and that nasty poison, that impression deepened.

    The fourth elder didn''t watch the entire incident from the start, and just jumped with otherster on. Yet just from the fact that William was adept in recognising and discerning poisons was indeed enough to make him have a good impression about thisd.

    One had to know that poison stuff was a very hard and tricky field in this spirit world. Not to mention a bronzed spirit master, even someone like him, a dark gold spirit master, wouldn''t dare to call himself an expert at poisons.

    Yet William managed to do something unexpected and dealt with a poison that neither he nor the academy headmaster seemed to recognise.

    And on top of that, thisd was still eight years old! Which made him wonder about where and when he learned all this.

    When he got back, he got to learn about the news spreading inside the higher up circle. He heard about William''s deeds, and that mysterious master backing him up.

    So even if William wasying low in the academy, which was the only reason the knowledgeable fourth elder would think about, it didn''t mean he wasn''t without a formidable backing.

    "William, he is our fourth elder, one who is famous for his unorthodox method of cultivation and fighting, and he is known as the n''s professor and tutor," from the side, Berry didn''t know about any of what was inside that elder''s head, mistook his silence to be a sign of rage.

    He wasn''t mad, he was just testing thisd. But Berry''s kind heart couldn''t take that her benefactor would end up getting mistreated by everyone when he was trying to help.

    Making problems with other spirit masters in her age was something, and a conflict with an elder was something else. Especially at such a hard time, when her father, uncle, and grandfather were all busy with many grave things.

    "So, you are saying that what they are making here is much more important than saving their lives?" The fourth elder didn''t show any angry expression on his face.

    Instead, he waved his hand to silence Berry and stop anyone from interrupting him, while his gaze fell on William like they were prating through him.

    "Fourth elder, he went to the extent of saying that what he asked us to do here is going to save the entire n."

    "What?!" this time, the fourth elder couldn''t control his surprise and doubt. He heard ine''s words, and when he turned to the others, they all nodded fervently to confirm what ine just said.

    "Are you saying that our n is going to fail in defending this monster tide?" Without showing any sign of rage, the fourth elder turned his entire focus over William. And yet the pressure he exerted seemed to grow by several folds.

    Even if he didn''t show it on the surface, he was truly mad!

    Saying these words meant one simple thing; thatd was saying that his n wasn''t able to defend itself. And such a statement would be considered an insult anywhere anytime it''d be said at. Not to mention it was said right in the heart of the n''s homebase.

    "Sigh! I know if I exined you won''t get it," unlike what others expected, William didn''t prostrate himself, didn''t kneel down and apologise. He simply shook his head and spoke as if he was speaking to a foolish kid.

    "Lad! I can mind anything but rude words filled with arrogance and ignorance! My n isn''t weak! My n is strong enough to fend off monster tide grade three alone!"

    Just like how ine and Lang reacted, the fourth elder showed the dignity of such a strong n.

    And amidst the elder''s words, the pressureing at William became even worse.

    "What if I told the elder that the iing monster outbreak isn''t as simple as tier three?"

    Yet William spoke as calmly as he could, while gritting his teeth and enduring such insane pressure, as his veins popped up from face.

    "Not grade three? Are you even doubting the assessment done by our patriarch?" The rage inside the fourth elder was slowly getting out of control.

    This rude kid in front of him wasn''t just insulting his n, but he also dared to insult the greatest figure in it!

    "Can I regain my freedom and get a chance to exin things to elder?" William knew he wouldn''t be able to talk if this crazy elder kept pressuring him.

    So first he had to free himself from this insane pressure, or else he''d not be able to speak another word.

    "And?" The elder didn''t show any change over his reddened face as he simply ced both hands behind his back. Yet he slightly withdrew his pressure, allowing William to heave a sigh of relief momentarily.

    "If I''m wrong, kill me on the spot. If I''m right, not only will you stop harassing me, but you''ll also ask to help me in doing my business here."

    William knew the little group he had was going to be barely enough to execute his n. And it''d be better if he got more spirit masters to help.

 Chapter 102 Listening To His Explanation

    ?The situation already got out of his control. Be it either the growing hostility from the kids around, or the appearance of that elder, the entire situation could be least described as disastrous!

    As he was pincered like this, his calm mind immediately decided to take this chance and flip this disaster into a chance.

    If he could turn this enraged elder to his side, then he''d secure more helping hands thanks to his support.

    "Oh, you seem this confident about this!" The elder was about to give thisd a proper beating before he recalled all the things he knew about William.

    Thisd was acting out of logic so far, just reminding him of himself. And so, after a few moments of contemting over it, he decided to give it a go.

    What would he lose if he let the other party freely speak up his mind? William wouldn''t be able to even take a single step before dying on his hand.

    A bronzed spirit master against a dark gold one? That was even a joke to consider this idea.

    "Fine, tell me then what you want to say," the fourth elder removed the suffocating pressure over William entirely, "but if you spouted nonsense, death only waits for you."

    "Fourth elder¡­ He¡­" Berry''s body staggered when she heard the fourth elder''s words.

    "Berry, I know you are caring for him for many reasons. But making a favour to the n doesn''t give anyone the right to speak in such ill way against us. He had dug his own grave when he spoke in such a way. He should have kept his mouth shut and not say anything like this."

    "But¡­"

    "Even if your grandfather was here, he would have said the same words as I did," the fourth elder could easily guess the train of thoughts in Berry''s mind. And with such words, Berry could only shut up.

    She stole a nce at William, not knowing how such a situation turned from helping the n and getting recognised into getting threatened to be killed on the spot.

    She had only one hope, and that was for her grandfather to be nearby or something. She knew the only person able to stop the fourth elder would be her grandfather, just like what he did with her father before.

    But they were already away from the walls.

    Even thinking about sending something to notify her grandfather wouldn''t work either. No one would be ready to do such a thing for her and William. Besides the time taken if she ran herself to find her grandfather would be too long and William would already be dead.

    So, she only could inwardly sigh and hope that William knew what he was doing.

    The fourth elder just waited for William to speak up. If William said something silly, he''d be killed on the spot, no mercy was allowed for such rude spirit masters in his eyes.

    Ignorant to all this, William was looking at the fourth elder without any shred of fear or hesitation.

    And against what everyone expected to see, William simply leant to the side, grabbed a thin piece of woodying on the ground nearby and used it as a stick.

    Without saying a single word, he started drawing something on the ground.

    It was a rough drawing of a big semicircr shaped space. And once he was done with this circle, he started to speak without stopping his childish drawing of more shapes.

    "This is considered the area surrounding the n''s ce to the north," he spoke while drawing a small circle at the bottom of the crescentic shaped line he drew before.

    Comparing the two together, one had to notice how the difference in size was between the two.

    "If I''m correct, then your n is going to use the monster pration formation to fend off this monster tide, right?" William drew several vertical linesing out from the circle he drew before. And these lines headed towards the direction of the crescentic line.

    Yet they all stopped after crossing almost one fifth of the distance towards the line.

    "You¡­ How do you know about this formation?!" The surprise was apparent in the voice of the fourth elder, "yet it''s not enough to prove anything."

    "I''m not done speaking yet," William didn''t even bother to raise his head to speak with the fourth elder. Instead, he drew a few small circles which got prated by the lines.

    "This formation is really good, enough to fend off any monster outbreak below grade two. So, dealing with a monster outbreak of grade three is going to work, right?"

    "That''s what logic says, not your insane ims, humph!"

    "Then let me ask elder then¡­ This formation works by driving out the spirit power of those using it to form gigantic spears made out of energy. These spears are quite sharp and strong, enough to keep killing monsters as long as the spirit power continues to run from the spirit masters'' bodies, right?"

    "Correct," this time the fourth elder didn''t express his surprise for such ad to know such aplicated thing in such great detail.

    He found a simple answer for all this, William''s imaginary master. For a kid like William, it was an impossible feat to know such knowledge. But for his master, it would be like a childish y.

    In the fourth elder''s eyes, William was fortunate enough to witness his master speak about such a formation before, and even saw her teach others how to use it.

    "To sense the approaching monsters from far, the n must have established sensing formations around the n," William didn''t return back to the matter of that offensive formation, instead he drew arger circle that ended up where the offensive formation lines ended as well.

    "This¡­"

    "You don''t need to confirm my words, I know it''s one of the n''s deepest secrets. I''m just stating facts," William shrugged, "but that also means that the sensory abilities of the n only stopped here, right?"

 Chapter 103 This Is All For Her

    ?"Hypothetically speaking, it''s correct," the fourth elder wouldn''t dare tomit such a newbie mistake and just gave such an indirect answer.

    "Then if I told you this monster tide is just a preparatory phase, and something much scarier lies far beyond, will you believe me?"

    "This¡­" the look over the fourth elder''s face was filled with doubt.

    "I know what you''ll ask next, how to prove all this. And the answer is simple, I can''t," unlike what the fourth elder expected, William shook his head without giving any exnation.

    "This¡­ Don''t tell me it''s just a theory of yours!" At this moment, the fourth elder got the feeling that he had been yed. And that made his old rage swell up once more with the suffocating pressure.

    "Listen to the logic then, if my theory is false then by being here, we won''t waste anything. Your n will be able to fend off the iing monster outbreak and no harm wille to anyone. Even the materials and things I asked for can''t be considered valuable in any way. But what if my theory is correct? What do you expect will happen?"

    William had to rush his words as he was getting suffocated with such crazy pressure. Even if he came from the future, and even if he possessed a mighty power before, right now he was just as weak as a kite getting fiddled within a violent tornado!

    "This¡­" but just as he hurriedly blurted these words out, the face of the fourth elder darkened. He was lost in deep thought, contemting what William just said.

    Indeed, it was a crazy theory. As an elder who saw a lot in the world, he knew neglecting something just based on its unlikeability to happen was a grave mistake.

    It was just like what William said moments ago. If he was wrong, then no harm woulde to the n and their little spirit masters gathered up here.

    But if he was right¡­ Then his n would be doomed!

    Such scary thoughts shed in his mind when a sudden shout crisped in his ears while feeling an impatient tug over his clothes.

    "Fourth elder, please release him!"

    "Oh¡­" just while he was contemting what William just said, he forgot to control his spirit power.

    And that left the bronzed spirit master in front of him in a sorrowful state. William''s face started to grow pale and blue from such suffocating pressure, while foam started to form in his mouth as his eyes swayed right and left in a scary way.

    He was going to die at this rate and that caused Berry to scream in such fright, even daring to pull the fourth elder''s clothes.

    "Fine," the fourth elder retracted his power, "I can''t say your crazy theory is right. However¡­ I can''t disregard it as well."

    The moment the words of the fourth elder fell, they left everyone present in a state of shock and awe.

    William said lots of things, but never gave single evidence on what he imed. Not even a kid would believe him. Yet they were the kids and the fourth elder was the grown up man who saw lots of illogical misfortunes happening in this world.

    To be safe, even if it''d make him look crazy and unbelievable, he had to take such a theory into his ount.

    "Cough¡­ Cough¡­" as he was finally freed, William didn''t possess any strength and fell to the ground. He coughed while rushing air inside his lungs.

    This time he ended quite badly just thanks to his intention to help. Yet he didn''t feel any resentment towards the fourth elder.

    For someone of his status, he should ce the n''s interest above anything else. And that was what William entirely depended on before opening his mouth in the first ce.

    Despite the course of this debate being harsh and risky, he finally got what wanted, the recognition of this elder.

    "Are you okay?" Berry briskly moved towards William with such a distressed and awful looking face. In fact, her face wasn''t any worse than William. yet thetter nodded his head while trying to stabilise his body.

    "From your words and actions¡­ I can tell you already know the nature of this scheme¡­" The fourth elder''s serious gaze fell upon William, not caring about the miserable state he was in.

    There were two possibilities out of William''s words. However, when the fourth elder thought slightly about what William said, he realised that William gave many details to be just a mere fantasy.

    The fourth elder felt like William was already aware of everything he spoke about, as if he knew about all these secrets and ns!

    It wasn''t that hard to link all these doubts together. And everything pointed towards a single and simple fact; William knew what wasing at his n.

    Even his n''s mightiest figure, the legendary patriarch, didn''t notice any of this. Yet such a kid was able to think about such a deadly scheme, evening up with such a move to prepare for what yet toe.

    "I can''t speak more, or else you''ll keep doubting me and seeing me as a crazy kid," William staggered and struggled to stand up with the help of Berry.

    "That¡­"

    "In time you''ll know. Frankly speaking, I pray to the heavens that my conjuncture will be false, and this will be just a normal monster outbreak. However¡­"

    "It''s better to be safe than sorry," the fourth elder nodded his head, "then let me ask you this¡­ As an outsider, you aren''t tied with us in any way. So why are you taking such trouble to do it?"

    "This isn''t for me," William got what the other party was inclining at. In an unexpected move to all, he turned to look at Berry on his side before adding, "this is all for her."

    And at this moment, Berry''s mind went nk for a long moment before her body shuddered deep within.

 Chapter 104 I Will Give You Fifty

    ?Even her soul trembled when William said such words in such a way.

    He was doing this for her! These words were very simple, yet they carried the weight of the entire world inside. And as a little girl, her heart was still pure and didn''t experience much in that part of life yet.

    "I¡­ See¡­" Understanding what was obvious from William''s words, the fourth elder couldn''t help but ept such irrational logic from this kid in front of him.

    Even if he showed shining moments as a genius, a kid was a kid after all. Even if William showed many signs of being an outstanding genius, he still was a kid who would ce his heart above anything else, even his life itself.

    For the fourth elder this was something silly. Yet from the words and actions of William, he could ascertain his sincerity and didn''t question it.

    ''Sorry about that,'' as for William, he wasn''t oblivious to what his words would bring to everyone here. But it was the only fool proof way to extricate himself from further doubts and interrogation.

    He grew tired from this. Not to mention they were wasting precious time.

    His reasons for doing this were much grander and held more logic, but they''d cause more trouble than help if he ever expressed them. For a kid like him, one who lived his entire life as a mere porter, it didn''t make sense to speak about the role of the n in fighting the dark spirit masters and monsters in the future, or even speak about things yet to happen.

    It was more logical and expected for such a no named kid who lived in the shadows his entire life to have something for such a princess on his side.

    It made all sense, even if it wasn''t all true. Yet William decided rationally to use such an excuse, without having that much regret.

    After all, Berry was indeed a far-reaching princess from someone like him without doubt.

    "Cough," feeling weird at the spot, the fourth elder knew he shouldn''t delve more into such matters, "so I should leave you to do your business."

    "Fourth elder¡­ May I ask for something?" William wouldn''t let that fourth elder run away this fast. He took all this trouble not just to extricate himself from death, but to also take advantage of the other party.

    Hearing thest words of the elder drove what least could be described inside him as an instant scare!

    What surprised William was how fast the fourth elder decided to run away from here. It was as if such matter would bring great trouble to someone like him. And being away from William and Berry was like staying away fromnd filled with mines.

    ''What? Don''t tell me her father is this hard to reason with!'' William felt helpless inside. If he decided to tell this lie, then he should keep the act till the end.

    As for Berry''s father, he already met and defeated him before. Of course, he was a tough man to deal with, but wasn''t there that grandfather who invoked fear in such a person?

    Least to William''s knowledge that the real threat didn''te from Berry''s father, but her grandfather!

    "Ask for what?" The fourth elder wanted to leave here as fast as possible.

    "It''s like this¡­ What I wanted to create is something that won''t cost the n any big loss. As you heard, I just asked for a bunch of arrows and spears alongside two of the mostmon materials."

    "And?" the fourth elder urged with his eyes, limiting his responses to just one single word.

    "Ick manpower," William paused before adding, "I need one hundred more."

    "One hundred? Do you think this is the right time for that?"

    Even if the fourth elder ced what William said in his mind, he still saw it as a mere theory to guard against. The possibility of what William imed to happen wasn''t that much higher than zero point one percent in his mind.

    And he needed to wait for the early waves of the monster to arrive to make up his mind about this entire hypothesis.

    "I need more hands. Or else if things go south, I won''t be able to do anything big."

    "This¡­ Fine, I''ll give the order and relocate one small team over," the fourth elder knew if he didn''tply, William would keep pestering him, "they are fifty spirit masters of the silver grade. Don''t dream of getting anymore at such a time."

    Even before William would say anything, the fourth elder used the advantage of his high cultivation and soared in the direction of the walls, rapidly running away.

    ''I just wanted to thank him!'' From behind, William couldn''t help but feel surprised by such a fast runner.

    He wanted more spirit masters to help. And frankly speaking, he thought he''d be lucky to get twenty more spirit masters at most.

    He knew the fourth elder would hustle about it, so he asked for one hundred to get twenty.

    Yet he ended up getting fifty, all in silver grade. And that made him heave a sigh of relief.

    ''It can be done!'' He clenched both fists tightly before tuning to Lang, ine, and others.

    From the look on their faces, he could sniff what they were thinking about. They got an ashen white face, knowing that they screwed up just now.

    Even the elder they asked help from, the hardest ever person to deal with in their n aside from Berry''s grandfather, didn''t stand up for them and just left them here for their fate.

    And from the fiery look on William''s face, they misinterpreted it for him having ill intentions of revenge against each one of these spirit masters.

    "William¡­ You do know they were just worrying about the n and me, right?" From the side, Berry also got confused with William''s expression. She couldn''t help but tug on his porter clothes and say these words for them.

 Chapter 105 Preparing Everything

    ?''Thanks Berry, you are such a kind hearted person,'' this thought shed in the minds of everyone here. If she was someone else, she''d have taken advantage of this situation, asking William to exert revenge and even help him in doing so.

    After all, they tried to scheme against William despite her utmost actions to stop them. And they inclined hidden words to frame her as well.

    "Ah, let''s not talk about it then," William snapped out of his momentarily daze, "until the new team promised by the fourth elder arrives, let''s start preparing the stoves here."

    "Yes," in unison, everyone shouted as they recalled thest order, he gave them before things went hectic.

    And without waiting for him to reiterate his order again, they all moved fast and went to gather up different kinds of wood and find a hammer for him to use.

    "This¡­ Since when they have been thiscent and obedient?" William was oblivious to what everyone had in mind, so he saw their sudden change in their actions quite weird.

    "It seems that the fourth elder of the n holds a great prestige," from the side, all silent Ary said, exining what he thought.

    "Of course, he is," Berry confirmed his words, "he is someone highly valued even by my grandfather."

    "Your grandfather surely has a keen eye for good talents," William nodded as he got a good impression about this rational elder.

    Even when he was met with such a situation, where his nsmen were using William of something big, and even with William''s rude attitude, the fourth elder kept a bnced control over the situation and kept trying to get to the bottom of it.

    This was something which William valued from this meeting. ''It seems this n is filled with good people,'' he took a note in his heart before turning to Berry, Ary, and Lina, "let''s go and check the ovens. We need to make sure things are ready once everything is assembled."

    "What are we trying to do here exactly?" Not able to control her curiosity anymore, Berry hurriedly walked to the side of William and added, "and is it true? What did you tell the fourth elder about?"

    "It''s a possibility," he nodded without exposing much more than what he did already, "and we are here to guard against it."

    "I see," she clenched both fists as her train of thoughts drifted into a bizarre path like always. ''He didn''t only try to help me, he also is trying to help the n,'' shemented in her heart, feeling the image of the kid walking by her side to grow by a noticeable degree.

    William moved once he said his words towards therge group of ovens up ahead.

    The ce was arranged so that the ovens would be grouped on one side, while the cauldrons would be on the opposite side. Each side was arranged in different smaller groups, to allow more spirit masters to work and learn properly.

    Once arrived, William started to examine the status of these ovens. "Not bad¡­" he loudlymented, nodding his head in satisfaction.

    The condition of these public ovens wasn''t half bad. Many were grade silver, with few even at gold grade.

    Of course, the grade of the oven was important in crafting high grade gears. But for William and his current mission, such a thing wasn''t needed at all.

    Even a white grade useless oven would do the task in hand.

    "Let''s disperse," he gave the order, "let''s clean all the ovens from the residuals and dust, making sure they are clean."

    "Ok," everyone didn''t find this task any important, but for William he knew how crucial it was.

    "Don''t leave a single speck of dust behind," he stressed over, "or else it will affect the end product."

    "What are we making exactly?" Berry asked again, and William could only provide his usual answer about it.

    "You''ll see once done."

    "Tsk," she didn''t like how mysterious he was acting, and thought he was just trying to entice her curiosity. And in that regard, he indeed achieved a big sess.

    As everyone dispersed, William controlled the wheel beside the oven in front of him and made it tilt slightly to the side.

    It was a gold oven, big enough to allow for arge number of ores to be ced within and get melted.

    He simply shook it using his fist, allowing the force to repel many of the impurities, dust, and leftovers outside.

    As he kept doing this, everyone else repeated what he did. In his mind, even if what he wanted to make didn''t require a high grade material or oven, it needed purely clean stoves.

    If there were little dust or leftovers from previous attempts to forge gears, then the end product would fail.

    So, he attentively did his task diligently while everyone kept following his lead.

    In this entire ce, a group of twenty-seven stoves in different grades and sizesid on the ground. Each stove had a grand pot shaped body with a small wheel to the side to control its cement, and a tray below that would be filled with woodter on to produce fire.

    On the side of each group of three stoves, arge basin of clear water was there. It was used to cool the melted ores down or smother the final product.

    There was also an anvil ced near each stove. And this dude didn''t have a high grade as it was all unified bronze grade anvils.

    William didn''t mind such low grade anvils, and only cared about cleaning them from any impurities or dust.

    As he did it, everyone else in his little group followed his lead.

    At the same time, Lang and others kept moving wood from the nearby warehouse over to here.

    "ce a few here, here, and here," William instructed them asionally to make sure each group of stoves had enough wood to run the fire for hours.

 Chapter 106 Moving The Hammer

    ?For the time they finished cleaning the ovens, pots, and anvils, the team responsible for bringing wood did their task, and the three fast runners returned atst with three storage rings filled with what William demanded.

    "Brilliant," examining everything, William nodded in contempt.

    "Now¡­ What will we do?" Berry wasn''t the only one feeling such curiosity about it, everyone else did.

    They knew they were in it whether they liked it or not. So, they kept thinking about what they were going to make here.

    "Don''t be haste, first let''s start doing something simple," William took everything out and arranged them in three groups. Then he restocked two rings each with different material, giving one to Berry and another to Lang before adding, "this has the blue frosty ores, and this has the bronzed silver ant wax¡­ Make sure to fill half of the ovens with each substance, and then start lighting the fire."

    "This simple?!!" This was the shock everyone felt. They expected William toe up with a brilliant move, yet he just asked them to add the two together without any regard to anything.

    "Just do it, and leave the rest to me," William didn''t say anymore before adding, "the amount inside is enough to fill these pots dozens of times already. The time needed to melt the two together won''t take more than five minutes. Then you can pour them into these moulds before finally delivering the mix to me."

    "This¡­"

    Everyone looked at the direction he pointed at. It was a ce where in moulds wereying there, without any special designs at all.

    "Isn''t it needed to reshape the moulds first by the design of the items we are forging before we pour the melted mix?" ine couldn''t help but ask, and William simply waved his hand.

    "Just do it and leave the rest to me."

    He knew that trying to exin what they''d eventually got to see was useless. They would soon get to know what he was up to. And trying to say it in words was pointless.

    "Where is the hammer?" under their weird gazes, he couldn''t help but ignore all this and ask about the most important thing.

    "Here," Lang took out a hammer that had a short handle and big head, "it''s a silver grade hammer, the best hammer I found in there."

    "Not bad," William nodded but when he got the hammer, he felt how heavy it was.

    Even Lang needed to hold it using both hands, making it obvious how heavy and hard to wield it was.

    However, unlike what they expected, William didn''t flinch from holding it.

    Even when William''s arms fell to the ground when he held the hammer, he didn''t show any sign of distress or annoyance at all on his face. Instead, there was a tinge of excitement.

    "Good, the heavier the better," and as he said it, everyone couldn''t help but gaze up at him in doubt.

    In their eyes, he was just feigning being strong and cool.

    "Go and start working," William noticed that everyone was gazing up at him without moving.

    "Let''s start working," Lang was the one to issue the order this time. He wanted to see how this arrogant and showy kid would act when he''d be forced to use this hammer.

    Up till now, not a single act of William made any sense. They all thought about him faking all this to show up. And there was a single reason to exin such an attitude, Berry.

    William said it himself. He was doing all this for her sake. They all believed what he said back then, and even now they felt like he was just trying to show off to attract her attention.

    ? Despite understanding where this dide from and it seemed logical, they still felt furiously inside.

    William dragged not only them to this pathetic act, but also asked for fifty more spirit masters to be relieved from their utmost important duties ande to help him to impress Berry.

    A porter who turned into a spirit master without any backing or strong n helping him needed more than just favours and nice words to make a girl like Berry notice him.

    Of course, they all believed so, even Ary and Lina believed so.

    But Berry herself knew that William didn''t need any of that. He already gave her something that would''ve left her indebted for him her entire life.

    And that made such a possibility that everyone thought seriously about not holding that much value in her eyes.

    To her, he was doing this for another reason. And for some reason, he might be really trying to help the n, believing in his crazy possibility to actually happen.

    Five minutes passed and as William said, the two useless materials he asked for melted together and were ready for use.

    "We are ready," Lang said while keeping the rest of his words in his mind. He wanted to tell William that the time to expose all his acts was up.

    "Pour the melted mix on a mould," unlike what everyone here expected, William who stood all silent all this time finally started to act.

    As everyone saw, he held the heavy hammer using his two hands in much difficulty. Yet unlike what they expected, William didn''t try to raise the hammer.

    Instead, he started to rotate and sway it around.

    At first, it looked crude, and his movement was drawing funny smiles towards him. But when the hammerpleted full rounds in session, William''s speed of movement started to gain momentum.

    The hammer that was heavy to hold was now moving smoothly in the air, shing in elerated pace, making everyone surprised about this.

    "Bring one mould here," and amidst his control over the hammer, William''s words came to surprise everyone, "hurry up!"

    They didn''t know what he was going to do. He was simply going to repeat the remarkable moves he did before while he was at the

    Forging department.

 Chapter 107 Cleansing The Mix

    ?"Here," the first to move was indeed Berry. She moved and grabbed one mould, before asking, "what shall I do with it?"

    "Throw its content high," William said in such a surprising manner, "just do it and leave the rest to me."

    "Are you sure?" Despite the mould being able to let the melted mix cool down, its heat was still able to harm a bronze spirit master like William.

    "Just do it," William confidently said, "and then empty the content of the pots one by one and bring them here in session. After finishing with one mould, throw another''s content for me to handle. As for the emptied pots, continue filling them with the two materials and melt them down."

    He nned to keep doing this, and everyone didn''t know what he was up to. Just from seeing his brilliant and new to behold move of the hammer, everyone started to slightly change their view on him.

    He wasn''t trying to put on a show or something. He had a n and the ability to execute it.

    It was surprising, but as Berry experienced the same situation with him before, she was the first to regain herposure fast and threw the content of the mould in her hands high in the air as he demanded.

    And when that happened, William who remained in his ce all this time and just kept swaying his arms holding the hammer started to move.

    In the eyes of everyone, the hammer that was heavy for their strongest, Lang was now looking like it was as light as a feather.

    And William''s next moves made their eyes pop out of their sockets. He simply took a few steps forward before suddenly jumping in the air.

    Doing this was exceptionally surprising. But when he jumped, he made sure the trajectory of the hammer in hand wouldnd at part of the thrown out melted mix.

    *Sizzle!*

    A soft sizzling sound erupted, alongside the ssh of arge amount of sparkling orange fire at the same time. It looked like he didn''t just hit that melted mix, but he caused a huge amount of impurities to get expelled from within.

    What the heck was that? That was what everyone was thinking about. The two materials William used were just the mostmon and useless two materials in the world of forging.

    Trying to call them ores for forging was an insult. They were just used to aid in the process of forging, nothing else.

    Then why was William trying his best to cleanse these two materials from impurities? What did he n to do exactly with them? And how could such simple and useless materials show such a fierce reaction when getting hammered?

    One had to know that the higher the grade the forging ore was, the more impurities it would have.

    Under the watchful curious gazes of others, Williamnded and when he did, his hand controlling the hammer didn''t stop and kept it rotating.

    Then he moved slightly to the side, gaining advantage of the recoil caused by the fierce sh of the hammer and the melted mix, before jumping again and repeated the same move.

    He was using the same moving method of the hammer, but he didn''t use the previous gliding method here. He just used the momentum and recoil forces to help him cleansing these two mixed materials.

    res of fire kepting up with each hit. And within a few breaths, his speed got increased and he seemed to not struggle to keep up with such weird moves.

    Against what they noticed and guessed, his moves were nned and not just randomly done. Each step he took, each jump he made were all part of his way to cleanse and turn this mix into something amazing.

    Yet they were too oblivious and not that adept in forging to notice that little detail.

    "Why are you standing still? Bring that mould back and bring me more," after nearly two minutes of doing so, William''s voice reverberated and echoed in the ce, making everyone jolted back to their senses.

    The melted mix previously was huge in size, making the mould it held beforepletely filled like it was filled with a foamy substance or something.

    The mould was ten metres in length and four in width, with almost half a metre in depth.

    Yet when everyone got jolted awake, they noticed the final lump hanging up in the air greatly changed. Turning from the greyish white substance it was before, it became bright blue, showing spots of ckness scattered in seemingly orderly manner.

    This looked entirely different from the substance that William worked on from before. And they didn''t get how he did it using just a hammer and jumping all over the ce.

    It seemed like he magically transformed the two materials into something brand new just by using a hammer.

    "Hurry, bring that mould over," William shouted and instantly Berry and others noticed how ragged and tired he was.

    Doing this wasn''t an easy feat indeed. Back when he was at the Forging department, he couldn''t have done all this without the help he got back then from Ellina.

    But here there was no stronger or more experienced spirit master than him. So, he had to do it himself.

    In just two minutes, he felt his breaths racing up and he was extremely tired.

    "Here," the empty mould was already in the hands of Berry, so she just extended it on the ground and shouted, "you can let it fall down."

    "Wait a second," just when everyone thought he''d just stop, hended, took a couple of steps while rotating the hammer without jumping.

    In their eyes, it was like he was storing up his energy and the next thing he did was to jump much higher than his past jumps.

    Instead of waving the hammer with one arm, he grabbed it with both and treated it as if he got a sledgehammer and not a forging one.

 Chapter 108 Kong

    ?"Get down there!" as if he was battling against a beast, he mmed his hammer heavily with all his might, forcing thest lump to jolt for a brief second before finally following his will and falling over the empty mould.

    During all this time, that melted mix got suspended in the air and didn''t fall. It looked like it was magically held in ce by some sort of invisible force, adding a more mysteriousyer over William''s actions.

    The hitnded so fast. And when the final lump William cleansed fell, the entire mould trembled as if a meteorite had justnded on it.

    *Thud!* and in the next moment, William''s bodynded weakly next to the mould, while panting for breaths.

    "Are you ok?" Berry hurriedly ran to support him, and from the pale look on his face she knew he wasn''t that well.

    "I''m fine," he reassured her, "go now and bring me another mould."

    "What about this?" Lang came and motioned with his head towards the mould that had that blue lump with ck dots in it.

    The big mix that was here before got greatly smaller, forming just a formless lump that didn''t take up to one tenth of the entire mould space.

    Thinking about it, Lang wasn''t the only one feeling great shock. Everyone knew that the work of forging depended on cleansing the ores from their impurities, making them shrink in size.

    But no one ever heard before about any material losing most of its bulk in the process. Especially when this didn''t take longer than a couple minutes.

    "We will leave it to cool down first," William said amidst his rashing breaths.

    "Are you able to do it again?" Berry was worried about him. And against her and everyone''s expectations, he slowly nodded.

    "I have to¡­ There isn''t a single one here who can handle this task but me. Now go, bring me one more mould."

    Of course, by his current speed, and the number of the avable ovens, he wouldn''t be able to match up. There were twenty-seven ovens working at the moment, meaning he got twenty-seven melted materials to work on.

    And from the look of it, he could maintain that crazy move for just two minutes before taking a rest of one minute. Then he''d resume his crazy work again, working on another melted mix.

    Yet he never asked them to stop, and they kept filling the moulds with the melted ores without pause the moment he finished cleansing.

    "We are here under the orders of the fourth elder," just after half an hour of doing so, a group of fifty strong looking spirit masters approached them from far.

    "Atst," William was in the middle of resting, "it''s time to start working on the next step."

    William didn''t want to just melt down the two materials and cleanse them. He wanted to use them over the arrows and spears he asked for.

    "Is it William? I''m Kong, the fourth elder sent us to help," the silver spirit master called Kong stepped forward as he recognised William easily.

    Among the group here, this dude looked like he was the leader or something, the centre of attention of everyone.

    Plus, he was the only one wearing the white porter clothes of the academy.

    "I''m grateful for your help," William nodded his head before pointing at the moulds he just finished, "I''m going to trouble you with something. I''ll do a thing using these arrows and spears here, and you have to just follow my steps, got it?"

    "Piece of cake," Kong seemed to be impatient and overconfident. Yet from the gazes of everyone, he felt something was off.

    He didn''t know what happened here, nor how weird William''s orders and actions were. He came during William''s rest and didn''t see how crazy William acted just minutes ago.

    "Look¡­ You''ll do this¡­" William resisted the umted fatigue that assaulted him and started to grab the final cleansed mix as if he was holding a y or something.

    Weirdly enough, the cleansed mix that everyone thought to be solid followed William''s hands and acted exactly how y was supposed to do.

    The final mix got smaller in size, and not only that, but it was also left to cool down for a long time, enough to turn any melted ores into a solid form again.

    "And then rub the entire spears and arrows with it this way," when William acted, everyone expected to see something grand and amazing.

    Yet what they ended up with was just this simple and basic move, one that made them doubt what they were seeing.

    Was it this simple? Did he take all this trouble just for doing this? That was what everyone in the first group thought about.

    However what William said next made it clear how hard this simple looking move was.

    "When rubbing it, infuse your spirit power gently into this substance. Don''t worry, your spirit power will get absorbed and it will help the arrows and spears to absorb this material."

    William didn''t give a name to what he made. And when he said that everyone could see his bronzed coloured spirit power seeping into the substance he was rubbing.

    Before using his energy, this substance just covered the arrows and spears in a thickyer like a coat. But when William infused his spirit power, it seemed like the substance turned into something new. It seeped slowly into the arrows and spears he touched with both hands, getting absorbed just like what he said.

    William was already exhausted, and he exerted his spirit power all the time to support his actions with the hammer. So, he didn''t prolong what he was doing and just stopped after doing this for a dozen arrows and spears.

    "Got it?" he turned to ask, and Kong nodded.

    "It''s not that hard," thetter paused, "but how much can we use over these arrows and spears?"

    The pile of arrows and spears William received from before wasrge. The number swelled up for tens of thousands.

 Chapter 109 Can You Forge?

    ?"You can make one round over all of them before repeating the process again," William paused, "I believe five rounds is enough with all the amount of substance we got here. And don''t worry about the amount of spirit power used, the substance will absorb a fixed amount per second, and will get absorbed without wasting too much power."

    "Ok," Kong nodded, "what is this substance used for then?"

    "A diversion," William mysteriously said, and no one here understood his meaning.

    "Fine," unlike what everyone else expected, the newly arrived Kong didn''t delve much about this topic as if he didn''t care about any of this.

    Under the fourth elder orders, he got to leave the frontline ande here to help this bunch of weaker spirit masters in doing something.

    The fourth elder didn''t stress over the matter, and that made Kong realise it was nothing of utmost importance.

    Kong nned to finish his task here fast before returning back to the frontline.

    "By the way, when will the battle begin?" William stopped Kong and asked. Back when he met the fourth elder, he didn''t have time to ask about that.

    But Kong seemed like an easier person to deal with. He just came from the frontline, and he surely got reliable news to deliver.

    "Three hours at most," Kong paused, "so we got two hours to help before returning back to the frontline."

    "We''ll see about that," William didn''t agree or disagree with this spirit master. After all, he just needed them to infuse the material into the spears and arrows for a few rounds before Lang and others would be freed from their current task.

    Then if Kong insisted, William could let the new group leave while entrusting this task over to Lang and others.

    Looking at William in weird gazes, the old group watched the newly arrived spirit masters starting their part of this task.

    William didn''t hurry to return back to his task and watched them for a few minutes before he finally nodded his head in approval.

    This task was simple, yet very crucial in what yet toe. So, he made sure they were doing it exactly like he instructed, before returning back to his hammering routine.

    "This¡­ How is this even called forging?!!!"

    Just when William started to cleanse the melted mix again, Kong and a few other spirit masters with him couldn''t help but stop in their tracks, looking in disbelief towards what William was doing.

    "He kept doing it for half an hour already," Lang said from the side, "we still don''t know what he is trying to do. But from his words with the fourth elder, he imed that a cmity ising to the n, and we are the only hope to save our home and people."

    "This¡­ Is he for real?!!" Kong pointed at William and Lang only shook his head. Thetter could understand how the former felt, but he didn''t speak any further.

    Talk was going to do nothing about this weird situation, so Lang saved his breaths and just said one more thing before leaving:

    "The fourth elder went through it with him and failed to prove him wrong. In the end he sent all of you fearing that what this crazyd said would be true."

    "This¡­" Kong''s eyes narrowed before getting attracted to how William was moving again. Adding everything up, he felt something was off here.

    "What shall we do?" One of his close up friends came closer, "we need to return back to our posts before the assault starts."

    "We¡­ Are going to wait here," against what everyone expected, Kong said in low tone, "if even the fourth elder trusts his words, then we have to wait by his side and act if this madness bes real."

    "But¡­"

    "Lacking fifty spirit masters of our calibre won''t make a big difference out there," Kong knew what his best friend was thinking about, "but if that kid''s words proved to be true, then our help will make a huge difference. That''s why the fourth elder sent us here."

    "I¡­ See¡­" Knowing that once his friend decided to do something, it was impossible to change his mind. His friend shook his head and motioned with his eyes for everyone around to keep working.

    All returned to do what William told them, but Kong remained behind. He kept watching the novel moves of this little kid wearing the clothes of a porter.

    "I never saw such a forging technique before in my life!" Kong softly whispered, while his words attracted the attention of many.

    William didn''t know this, but Kong was a forging spirit master who was nourished and supported by the n.

    Just like any forging spirit master, his spirit power wasn''t rted to his true ce in the Forging department. He was considered a forging prodigy in the entire n; one the n higher ups held their future forging hopes on.

    And that was the main reason why the fourth elder selected him. The elder thought about William''s words carefully. If he got a choice, he''d personally stay here and watch what this little kid was doing.

    But as things weren''t looking that good in the n, he had to take his role as everyone else in the upper echelon. So, he entrusted Kong toe here, knowing this youth''s eyes wouldn''t miss what William would do.

    Yet Kong was oblivious to all that until he came here and watched the genuinely new forging technique William showed.

    And just in twenty minutes and a few attempts from William, Kong''s eyes turned red as he couldn''t resist the desire to try this technique out.

    "Going on like this is a bit risky," using the minutes William needed to catch his breaths and replenish his lost spirit power, Kong stepped forward atst, not able to endure this anymore, "let me help."

    "Can you forge?"

    "Brother William didn''t know anything about me," the way he addressed William changed to be a brother, "I''m a disciple at the Forging department at the academy."

 Chapter 110 Teaching Him

    ?"For real?" Despite saying this in a surprising way, William didn''t give off any air of being surprised, "do you have a hammer?"

    "This is my bronze grade hammer, one that I''ve used to forge many gears so far," Kong shed his hand and from his storage ring, a hammer appeared.

    It wasn''t as heavy or grand as William''s, but thetter knew it was enough.

    "Have you watched what I was doing?" William asked in doubt, and Kong nodded.

    "I may need little guidance here," Kong said, and William knew he was right. After all this technique of his was a revolutionary concept in the forging world. And it wasn''t that simple to grasp it by just watching.

    "First you need to wave your hammer¡­ No, not just inly wave it, you need to move it in a circr way," William started to guide Kong, starting from the initial moves up to the leg movement and the jumps.

    "Don''t just simply hit it, use your hammer as if it''s your weapon. Use every spirit power you have to augment your strikes, and each single one must be enough to kill your enemy."

    The first attempts of Kong didn''t do the same as William''s actions. Yet under William''s guidance and correction of his mistakes, Kong finally managed to perform the same amazing deed of William.

    Sparks of fire kept released while Kong felt excited about it.

    "Don''t push it too much, two minutes is enough. Then take five steps like I taught you, store up your spirit energy before jumping high up, hold the hammer with both hands and m the material down with all your might."

    "Got it!" Kong was stronger than William, so he felt he could keep doing this for a few more minutes than thetter.

    However, William dismissed this idea. Taking more time in cleansing this material wouldn''t yield better results.

    So, it was better to save up strength and finish this process before starting another one.

    "Cool, you are now eligible to join me," William nodded. He might have wasted five minutes to teach this spirit master, but in the end, it was worth the effort.

    Having another hand meant halving the time needed for him to finish this task. William moved his eyes around, seemingly hoping for another spirit master to step forward and admit his intentions to help.

    Yet none did. It was quite expected, and yet he was a little disappointed. After all, secondary professions in the world of spirit masters weren''t amon thing.

    Everyone focused mainly on cultivation and getting themselves stronger by training and doing external missions for the academy and the n.

    So only a handful of the grandmunity of spirit masters were interested in secondary professions, and forging wasn''t the most sought out career path as well.

    It needed lots of strength, tons of patience and endurance, plus a hefty sum of money to train over many ores and ept endless failure attempts.

    If one was lucky and managed to forge an equipment, then selling it might pay for part of the losses he suffered during the process of learning.

    Until one reached a certain level of proficiency and grade in forging, his forging career would have to be a bottomless pit for money.

    Unlike alchemists for example, who just needed to roam the forest and collect herbs without costing them much.

    Thus, Artisans were considered a low sought out career in the spirit master world.

    Yet it was one of the most important careers in the meantime. So, each n would decide to nourish one up to five spirit masters each decade to be Artisans.

    The n wouldn''t matter if all of them seeded or only few of them did. In the end, the n would have enough to secure their supply of gears. They weren''t after profit, and Kong seemed to be one of those lucky spirit masters.

    But he was the only one here who was this lucky. William could only sigh. He didn''t see Artisans the same way the spirit master world here did. Without good gears, how would spirit masters expect themselves to exert the full potential of their might then?

    Forging might be seen as a very costly profession, but it was a must. In William''s opinion, spirit masters without enough knowledge about appraising, forging, and alchemy weren''t considered good spirit masters in his eyes.

    "Let''s start then," as he failed to find another one to help, the two of them started to work on cleansing this newly forged material of his.

    Kong was the only one here feeling blessed to meet William. In fact, he was immersed in his forging experience, not wanting it to end.

    He kept trying his hardest to train and learn how to forge good gears. Yet this was the first time he learned something this cool!

    William didn''t exin it in words to him, but from this little time he experienced moving his hammer right now, he realised it wasn''t just a simple forging technique.

    It felt like a cultivation technique, unique only for Artisans. He felt his mind was tempered with each sway of the hammer, his spirit power getting refined alongside the lump of material he was hammering one time after another.

    A crazy thought then shed in his mind. If he kept using this weird technique in forging from now on, would this also reflect changes and improvement over his spirit master grade? Would his spirit power increase? Would he grow stronger?

    He didn''t know the answer, but William did. It was just how Kong felt it.

    William knew that spirit master world wasn''t that simple. To be a strong spirit master didn''t mean one had to be totally absorbed in cultivation and training solely.

    Secondary professions weren''t just for show. They yed a great role in tempering one''s will, power and mind, turning any weak spirit master into a real powerhouse if he followed the right path.

    Imparting such novel technique over to Kong might be considered his one in a lifetime chance to ascend to supreme powerter on. As for how powerful Kong would be at the end, William knew it was up to Kong himself.

 Chapter 111 Finishing The Task

    ?For two more hours, the two of them kept working on cleansing the melted mix. Kong was indeed much faster than William, as he was supported with his higher spirit power. So he didn''t need to rest after each cleansing and could jump from one unrefined lump to another without rest for five times in a row.

    But soon, something huge happened.

    *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

    All of sudden, the ground shook in an obvious way while distant explosive sounds started to appear from the distance.

    It looked like the end of the world just arrived!

    Everyone halted, even William and Kong stopped what they were doing andnded on the ground.

    And then a heavy and suffocating silence prevailed over the young spirit masters here for a long minute.

    "This¡­ It''s a bit early, right?" William turned to Kong and others, seemingly wanting to confirm that less than three hours had passed since they came here.

    From Kong''s words, he understood that they had more time on their hands. However, from what just happened, it seemed the battle had already started.

    "I¡­ Don''t know¡­" Kong felt like he was the main suspect and couldn''t help but speak in such a hesitant tone.

    "It''s alright¡­" William sucked in a deep breath, "if they came, then we got little time left¡­ How many times have you covered the arrows and spears?"

    William turned to ask Kong''s men, Lang and his men. During this time, Lang''s team ended their task of melting down everything and now we''re helping Kong''s team in their task.

    "We were just in the fourth round," Lang looked at the spirit masters around. Everyone here was nsmen, and they knew each other.

    "Four¡­ Not bad," William thought for a moment, "we''ll move when we make it to five. Go, let''s race against time."

    William didn''t even pause when another shock happened and lots of fierce booming and rumbling sounds came from far once more.

    "Aren''t we going to join them?" Kong was slightly worried about the battle erupting at the gates of his n.

    "Don''t worry, we won''t take more than half an hour," William estimated, "then we will join them."

    "And these?" ine pointed at the tens of thousands of arrows and spears they were working on for the past hours, "are they going to cause something out there to help us or what?"

    "They are going to help," William wielded his heavy hammer once more before starting to rotate it in full circles, "but it''s not going to bring much damage actually."

    "This¡­"

    "Then why are we even doing it?"

    "Isn''t it better to go and help others?"

    William heard many of such low tone exmations, but he gave no heed to them. He already got much more than what he initially hoped for.

    "If anyone wants to leave, he can do it now," William said while he jumped once, hit the material in the air, beforending and taking a step to the side, "but don''t forget, we are all weak and won''t do any help at all. In fact, being there might bring more trouble than help to the n."

    He didn''t add more. His wordsnded and left many unsettled. Even the silver grade spirit masters weren''t that highly effective in such a high grade battle.

    Kong wanted to refute William, but from a single look at Lang, thetter warned him silently using his eyes to not delve into any argument with William or he''d lose.

    Lang tried more than once to stop William from doing this and miserably failed. Even when William himself said this wasn''t going to do any damage to the enemy, thetter didn''t stop in his tracks and kept working.

    Even if what he said was true, in such a battle moving resources like arrows and helping in aiding the wounded wasn''t a bad task.

    It was also seen as a contribution in wars.

    But William just said their help wasn''t that much, and that meant one thing¡­ He wasn''t talking about their expected role in the battle. He was simplyparing this to what their contribution in his n would do.

    Spirit masters weren''t stupid, and they got the hint from William''s words. But they didn''t get why he didn''t state it directly to them.

    "Keep working," Berry''s voice rang to jolt everyone awake. Behind her words, the echo of the distant violent battle noise was acting as a scary background.

    Berry was doing one simple task, raising the moulds high up and delivering the melted mix over to William and Kong. She also helped in adjusting the empty moulds position, before handing the finished lumps over to Lang and others.

    As for Ary and Lina, the former worked with Lang and others, and thetter helped Berry in her task.

    Seeing William, Kong, Lang, Ary, Lina, and Berry return to work as if nothing happened, others didn''t have any say in the matter and resumed their task again.

    One minute passed slowly after another while everyone was distracted by what was going on at the distant battlefield.

    William knew if they were going to work diligently like before, then forget about half an hour, they''d be able to finish this task in less than ten minutes.

    But he knew it was impossible for such spirit masters to work with clear and concentrated minds.

    They were quite distracted. And that was expected. After all, this ongoing battle was happening right before their home, the ce they were born and raised at.

    Anyone would lose his cool when ced under such circumstances. And that made William expect them to take half an hour to finish.

    Eventually, they took close to one hour, exceeding even his estimation by fifty percent.

    "Good work," William knew that they wasted more than half an hour here than he expected. And he prayed the grand scheme of the monsters wouldn''t start until he''d arrive at the walls.

    In fact, he was praying for his conjectures to end up being wrong in the first ce and none of all this would be needed.

 Chapter 112 A Weird Talk!

    ?As they finished, he got everything they made and stored these inside his storage ring. His actions didn''t stir anything from the kids around, as they just were thinking about one thing only at this moment, and nothing else mattered.

    "Now what?"

    "Can we return to the frontline and help?"

    "Are we now free to go and fight?"

    Many spoke, yet William raised his hand to calm them all.

    "Aren''t you curious about what I asked you to make?" Out of the blue, he said these words, attracting the weird and even hostile gazes of all.

    Dude¡­ Weren''t you the one who refused to tell us anything before? Why all of sudden showing this act of generosity? This was what shed in their minds, feeling a little enraged, much fear and a great deal of doubt.

    "You are the one to refuse speaking, not us," even Berry couldn''t take his words and rolled up her eyes.

    "Let me ask you then," all of sudden, William''s attitude changed and became all friendly and open to talk, "what do you know about our enemy?"

    "Is this the time for that?"

    "Let''s go there and see for ourselves then!"

    "This isn''t the right time to talk about that!"

    "The scarlet kind monsters?"

    A hum appeared in the ce while William started to slowly walk around, acting as if he was their leader or something.

    "Then let''s speak while we are on the move," William said before turning around and started to run, leading the group towards the direction of the big walls.

    And as he finally allowed them to move, the group''s hostile and nervous attitude faded away slightly and became more lenient towards the new William.

    "They are monsters with scarlet monster cores. There are lots of different types of these, and they acted furiously when smelling blood," Lang spoke about general knowledge, wanting to get done with such an unexpected pause and go to the frontline to help.

    And William kept nodding from the side.

    "I heard that the scarlet bears are one type of these. Although they can be considered as part of the fire typed monsters, they aren''t vulnerable to water, but fire," Berry added, while giving William a weird look.

    "That''s true," Kong said, still lost in his good feeling about the move he just learnt from William, "I also find it weird how fire based monsters are vulnerable to fire and not immune to it!"

    "That''s because they aren''t fire based monsters," William started to exin as if he was their teacher or something.

    "If they aren''t, then what are they?" Berry blinked twice before William took a deep breath.

    This little detail was amon misunderstanding to most if not all of the spirit masters in this world. And it was just a mere example of how the spirit mastermunitycked lots of knowledge about their enemies.

    Even the fundamental information about the deadly monsters, like the scarlet bears, weren''t that known to the spirit masters in this world.

    "They are blood based monsters," William finally said.

    "Blood what?" from the side, ine tried to bark in, expressing his doubts. Yet with a single look from both Lang and Kong, as each had their different reasons from doing so, ine had to shut up his mouth.

    "I know how brother ine is feeling," William didn''t act in any aggressive way towards ine. For a reason, since they finished their task, William started to act like a different person.

    "The news I know about these monsters are all about how they belong to the fire based ones," Lang said in doubt.

    "It''s not just that," finding that the other party was open to talk, ine chimed along with his friend, "but I never heard of such type of monsters before!"

    William''s eyes dimmed slightly when he heard that. He knew it was impossible for such information to not be known in this world.

    The blood type monsters weren''t known... That was a joke!

    But on a second thought, he realised that the only spirit masters able to ascertain such information would be only the strongest in this world.

    And as they were mostly aloof, separating themselves from any contact with other spirit masters, so such intel about such scary kinds of monsters were destined to not circte around.

    Not knowing everything about the big yers in your enemy camp? Not knowing anything at all? This was pretty damn bad indeed!

    "Let me then tell you this," William knew this group of spirit masters helped him for various reasons and different motives, but loyalty wasn''t one of them.

    However, he held a good impression on many of them, specifically Lang, Kong, ine, and indeed Berry.

    So, he treated this as a way of expressing his thanks to them.

    "In every army, generals are a necessity, correct?"

    "..."

    Everyone exchanged looks with each other. Their silence wasn''t because they didn''t know if that was true or not.

    Even a kid would know the answer to that.

    But they got what he wanted to say here.

    If monsters were moving in suchrge numbers, forming monster tides and such, then from William''s words, there must be leaders and generals leading them.

    But how so? They never thought about it! What William said was indeed logical and made quite sense. But it was something that never crossed their minds, bringing them immense shock and disbelief when they thought about it.

    By the simple words William said, their vision towards their sworn enemies changed. Instead of considering these monster tides as berserk outbreaks of bloodthirsty creatures, they saw these as movement of grand armies!

    Such a simple and logical concept was quite revolutionary in their eyes. And that made them wonder why no one ever told them about such a fact before.

    Even if they were still weak spirit masters, caring only about getting strong and such, then what about their stronger spirit masters? Their elders? The higher ups in the academy? Why has no one ever told them about such a fact before?

    "Sometimes, knowledge might scare the cat, or even kill it," William slowly muttered.

 Chapter 113 Tough Choice!

    ?"Leaders in any monster army are those who hold special powers and intelligence within them. You may think that monsters with dark gold spirit grades would be the leaders. But this isn''t the typical case¡­"

    William took in a deep breath before deciding on which parts of his vast knowledge he should impart on them here.

    "Like humans, we got offensive type, defensive type, and strategist type generals; monsters also got the same with different names and attitudes."

    "Brother William¡­ How?!!!" Kong couldn''t hold his shock and doubts, looking in a weird way towards William.

    Either the other party was making all this up, or he got the luck to stumble over such huge secrets by chance.

    And Kong didn''t believe in the former. From William''s unique forging technique he just learnt, he knew this porter looking dude wasn''t simple.

    Of course, all of the spirit masters here were oblivious to the little lie William kept spreading about his master. And that made someone like Kong had such doubts.

    "It happens that I got a very formidable master," William realised that none of them knew about his little lie. So, he returned to use the card of his mysterious master to shove off any doubts, "he told me all this and told me much more as well."

    He didn''t want them to keep questioning him about such facts.

    And when he said it, everyone''s eyes shone in the brilliance of understanding and envy. Many looked at him, wondering if being a porter was part of the spell of luck that he got or something.

    "So¡­ Are you saying that these scarlet bears are the monster tide generals or what?" Lang jumped over that point and returned the talk back to the right track William desired.

    "No, but it means the formidable ones among them will be generals," William paused, "and if there are a single general in an army, things will be much different than facing a leaderless bunch of enemies, right?"

    For a second, those who were smart and experienced enough like Lang and Kong, got a cold shiver down their spine when they heard his words.

    And they started to grow a gloomy expression over their faces.

    They recalled what William said before, and how they kept mocking him. Even if William didn''t provide any proof, yet from the calmness in his tone, the logic in his words, and the confidence he spoke with, none doubted the integrity of his ims.

    "Did we do that to take down their leaders?" Kong''s eyes shone brightly, but William''s next shake of head made all his hopes fly out of the window.

    "We are too weak and unprepared to take such beasts head on," William exerted enough control over himself so he wouldn''t add what swelled up in his mind.

    He wanted to say even if the higher ups of the academy and the n merged together, taking the general leader here wouldn''t be possible without many preparations.

    And that was why he was bossing them around all this time! They were the needed preparations to bring down such general calibre foes in the monster tide.

    And that was just one aspect of the true value of what they made here during the past few hours.

    "Then¡­"

    "We are not going after these scary dudes, we are going after foiling their ns," William said, and he knew such a concept was hard to grasp by these kids.

    So, he added, "for any general, even the most genius ones, they needed soldiers to execute their orders in the correct way. We can''t take down the head of the snake, but our little group here can act against the traps and schemes of the generals, rendering all their ns hopeless."

    "This¡­"

    "Can we do it?"

    "But brother William, we are speaking about a few hundred thousand monsters!"

    "Is this even possible?!"

    Many exmations of shock spread among many, and William didn''t mind them.

    "I won''t brag and say we can do miracles out there but remember that we were working hard for the past hours. These things you take as light as nothing good are enough to create such a miracle."

    He didn''t boost or exin in much detail about his n. If he did, they either wouldn''t believe him or reverie him as a god or something.

    Of course, none of this was his true aim from doing all that. He wanted to just help the n, secure the situation, and save a capable n on the side of humans.

    "So, we are going to use these arrows and spears¡­ For what?" Kong suppressed the urge to keep arguing about what William just said.

    Time passed fast while they were speaking and running. They were already on the verge of the grand wall of their n without realising it.

    Beyond that wall, shouts and noises of brutal fighting kept ranging all over the ce. And hearing such noise quite clearly jolted everyone awake from the immersion William drowned them in.

    "I''ll tell you at the right time," William switched back in a sh to his past harsh personality, "but I can tell you one thing as a fact¡­ To do such a miracle, we have to go all the way out there."

    "Out¡­ Where? Out there?!!" This time, it wasn''t just ine who spoke in doubt and shock, but many did.

    "William¡­ This¡­" Berry was happy from the course of discussion that happened just now. From her n''s kids around, she could feel the hostile attitude towards him wavered and changed to the good side.

    But all of this vanished the moment he spurted out hisst words.

    "This is the moment of truth when you will all have to choose a side," William stopped abruptly, turned around and faced the anxious and scared faces of everyone here.

    "I know that asking you, a weak spirit master who can''t fend off themselves against any monster out there, to go out and venture to the frontline is crazy. However, I have to tell you this¡­"

 Chapter 114 Monster Tide Category Two!

    ?William paused, his face wore a very serious look, one that was impossible for such a kid to have at such a young age, "if you don''t, then the survival of your n will be under a huge test here. I won''t force anyone, nor will I try to order you around using anything. I want each and every one of you to make such a decision by yourselves. The fact is¡­"

    William paused when a mighty explosion ranged far behind, violent enough to cause the entire ground shake.

    "As I can guarantee the safety and survival of your n if you follow me out there, I can''t guarantee the same for any of you. This is a suicidal mission, take it or leave it, that''s up for you to decide."

    And as his wordsnded, screams of shock and panic erupted from the walls.

    "Watch out! More monsters areing!"

    "A gate of monsters appeared! Inform the elders, inform the patriarch, a dark gold grade gate of monsters appeared!"

    "A gate of what?"

    "What the heck?!!!"

    "Isn''t it¡­ Supposed to be a grade three monster outbreak?!!!"

    Just as such exmations of shock and terror ranged all over the ce, the faces of the group here paled.

    All of sudden, and like a magical twist of events that none would expect or imagine, the entire battlefield shook with such unforeseen development.

    A gate of monsters? That was enough to raise the grade of this monster tide by one grade at least.

    Grade two monster outbreak? What the hell was going on in the world?!

    Unlike the shock everyone here had, the party around William had a different kind of shock.

    They all gazed up at William as if they were eyeing a monster or something.

    Didn''t William keep iming that this monster tide wasn''t a grade three one? Didn''t he go all the way out and endure all kinds of harassments and meanments, aggressive attitude from all of the spirit masters here, just to make preparations to take down monster tide higher than category three?

    They eyed William like they were eyeing a monster. But for Berry and Kong, the two looked at him in such reverie and awe.

    "Just how¡­" Lang was the most shocked one here. He was the one who looked down on William and kept mocking him and moving others against him.

    Berry might not have known this, but ine worked under direct orders from Lang. Thetter wanted to harass and teach William a lesson, to make thetter know his true ce. And yet, under Berry''s protection, he had to make someone else do it.

    So, he kept himself on the side, ying neutral and only stepping in when the heat over ine was too much.

    But at this moment¡­ He only felt regret, doubt, and shock.

    He couldn''t have imagined the nonsense this kid kept sprouting all this time was proven to be right just like this!

    It was just unbelievable!

    William simply sighed and didn''t take to his heart any of their previous deeds against him.

    He could understand their position and their train of thoughts. However, right now, he was sure they would never question him anymore.

    "I''m waiting for your decisions," unlike what everyone expected him to behave, William stood calm and collected, like a mighty spirit master who anticipated all this and foresaw everything.

    William didn''t delve into any detail, didn''t exin anything. He knew the presence of such a monster gate was enough to make everyone believe what he told them and kept warning them against it for all this time.

    Monster gates were such a mysterious thing that only appeared in monster tides of grade two and one. Not a single spirit master here would know about why and how they were formed.

    Yet William knew. And that was expected when he heard about the nature of this monster tide in the first ce.

    Monster gates were a portal that''d link two distant ces together. Like this, an army of monsters would appear like magic, out of nowhere, and join any monster tide without the need to worry about getting spotted.

    And that was why their presence was an rming matter. These gates were indestructible, by the current means of the spirit masters in this world.

    William knew it wasn''t the issue of theirck of strength, butck of understanding.

    How would anyone fight against something hecked even the simplest and basic knowledge about it?

    If one seeded, then it''d be out of pure luck. And he wouldn''t be able to repeat such a feat again even if he tried his best.

    The appearance of one monster gate wasn''t the main concern. As one appeared, two more were destined to show up soon enough.

    That meant the army of monsters the spirit masters here were struggling against just got a boost of three more formidable armies.

    And they came out of the blue, bypassing all the trapsid around the n base.

    That meant these monsters were going to just escape a deadly assault and be freshly ready to take down the Lang n base here.

    The grim look over the faces of everyone around was enough to tell how bad this situation was. In each spirit master''s heart, they all came to the same conclusion.

    They were all doomed!

    And that was what William kept telling them about during the past hours, but none truly believed him!

    "The reinforcements from the academy just sent a distress signal!"

    "The reinforcements from the nearby ns just sent a distress signal!"

    "Sigh!" Hearing such scary shouts from everyone around, William couldn''t help but sigh, "the two other gates were prepared to stop the iing reinforcements."

    That said everything about how determined the generals and leaders of the monster army were to take down this n.

    William narrowed his eyes. He thought that the monsters would ce a great importance on taking him or Berry down.

    But it seemed they were adamant on not just taking him alone but taking down the entire n with it.

 Chapter 115 Deserters!

    ?"What am I missing here?" William couldn''t help but wonder. Something kept bothering him. He missed a little thing, and he didn''t have time to consider what it was right now.

    Even if he knew the monster tide''s true and scary nature from the start, he rted everything to the techniques he gave to Berry.

    If so then the monster leaders would bring the three gates here, to fasten their invasion of the n and find him or Berry or both.

    However, from such ayout, it only meant that the monster army leaders didn''t only want to kill him and Berry, but they wanted to destroy and totally annihte this entire n.

    And that would be exined by how the monster leaders arranged the other two gates to iste the n, buying themselves enough time to do anything they wanted with the n without any outside interruption.

    "Am I just overthinking things here or what?" William questioned himself and thought that this might be rted to how brutal and overconfident the other side was.

    So, he shifted his attention away from such thoughts and focused over the matter in hand.

    "What will you do?" At this point, William knew it was a moment of truth that''d show each one''s calibre.

    Spirit masters were the ones destined to fight against heavens. But not all had such unwavering will and loyalty towards something, even if it was towards their n and people.

    At the true moment of life and death, people would show their true faces. Cowards would run away, and brave ones would remain behind and fight till theirst breaths.

    William waited, patiently watching the faces of the young spirit masters in front of him as if he was a master teacher assessing his disciples.

    He didn''t doubt the survival of himself and the n in this battle. After all the secret all lied within the things he kept forging all this time.

    Yet he kept such little and known information shielded from them. At this moment, their minds would only think about one thing; would they stay and die, or flee and live?

    "I''ll follow you," the first to speak was none other than Lina. William knew he said he wouldn''t force anyone to follow him, but he felt Lina''s decision was expected.

    He knew what essence this girl was forged from. "I''ll also follow you," and the second to voice out her opinion was none other than Berry.

    If anyone else here had an effect over everyone''s decision, then it would be simply Berry. If she, the little princess of their n, would move out to the frontline, despite her weak constitution and spirit power, then how about the much stronger ones here?

    "I''ll go!"

    "Count me in!"

    "Don''t try to give me this bullshit about running away. I''ll stay and fight. This is just a glorious ce to fall in!"

    Three spoke at the same time, and they were Lang, Kong, and Ary. William nodded inwardly in his heart, as he knew his previous assessment about them was right.

    "I¡­ I will stay behind," but not all the spirit masters were the same. Just as many voiced their desire to join the fray, few spoke about their desire to remain behind.

    Yet when William scaled everyone, those who got cold feet and cowardly weak hearts were just four.

    Four out of the group of over seventy spirit masters here wasn''t a bad percentage at all. William took a note in his heart about this and knew this n was indeed worth saving.

    He might try to help them from time to time. Such good spirit masters were something he aspired to nourish and support. He even thought about adding a few to his future team and helping them with each step in their cultivation.

    If most of the spirit master world was just like this bunch of kids here, then things would be greatly different for humans.

    However, William knew if this was considered a very good result, this was still an exception. If he went to another ce, be it n or academy, the percent of cowards, traitors, and deserters would skyrocket for sure.

    "Fine," he didn''t take anything to the heart. Those who were cowards weren''t destined to achieve anything great but having their lives prolonged in such a dishonourable way, "those who decided to remain behind can retreat now. Go back, go far into the depth of the n, and take shelter there."

    William didn''t show an offensive attitude on his face or tone. He even advised them not to stay here and retreat far in the back.

    "Bunch of cowards!" Yet not everyone held the same mentality and line of thoughts as William. "I''ll have a word with the n elders about themter on!"

    "Don''t," William slowly shook his head, while stopping ine from making things worse for these kids.

    "But¡­"

    "Don''t expect everyone to be just like you," William said in an honest tone, not only for ine but for everyone present here, "the spirit world isn''t a nice ce and life isn''t that simple. Having few with weak hearts and will is inevitable."

    "They should have recognised to whom their loyalty lied!" Kong seemed to also adopt the same idea of ine.

    Frankly, most of them saw these four retreating spirit masters as traitors who abandoned the n in their most dire situation.

    "Recognising something and having the power to protect it is something entirely different," William slowly said, "running around to extract weak seedlings will only bring misfortune to the n and great trouble in the long run."

    "This¡­"

    "Just consult with your seniors and elders when everything is settled," William knew he said enough, and even if he tried to exin, most wouldn''t get even half of what he''d say.

    And above all, time was already against them.

    He didn''t just need to stabilise the situation here, but to also try to save the entrapped reinforcements. The two armies sent by the academy and supporting ns were also facing grave dangers.

 Chapter 116 Lets Wait For Them

    ?At least the n had their defensive preparations, the huge wall and various huge weapons to rely upon.

    Unlike them, the other two armies were fighting monsters in the open. Not to mention no matter how many spirit masters they had; their number wouldn''t be equal to the army of a n fighting for its survival at its homebase.

    All that made their situation actually much more serious than the n''s.

    ? As everyone snapped back from their sense of disdain towards these four, they realised again how distressing the current situation was.

    "What shall we do now?" it was the question that everyone had in mind. As William kept iming, he got a way to save their n. So, this was the moment to prove that everything he imed was true.

    "We have to wait for them," yet William responded with such confusing words.

    "Wait?!!! How?!!! Wait for who?!!!" ine was on the verge of exploding in William''s face when he heard what thetter said.

    Yet unlike what everyone expected, William went towards the nearest flight of stairs directly before hopping over to the top.

    Looking at each other, and without having the need to say anything, they started following.

    And then a gruesome scene was lying in wait for them.

    "This¡­ Are you sure we have to wait?" Kong clenched both fists. Even if he looked in disdain towards the backs of the four retreating spirit masters, he couldn''t help but feel his legs turn soft at the sight before him.

    The entire ce in front of the walls was covered in a densely packed seemingly endless swarm of monsters, fighting against a smaller number of spirit masters.

    Just from watching for a few seconds, anyone could tell how brutal and desperate this fight was. And that drove a sense of weakness and helplessness inside every single one of them.

    They were just weak spirit masters. They were young and considered strong in the eyes of their peers. But to the entire world, they were insignificant ants.

    Could such a group of less than a hundred weak spirit masters do anything here? Could the survival of their n really depend on their actions?

    How would they make a move against such an insanely terrifying army of monsters?

    "We have to wait¡­ For them."

    "Them?!!!" hearing the few words of William and the look of seriousness that he wore again made them realise something. And in the next moment, everyone''s hearts fell to their knees.

    This wasn''t the end of their nightmare. Their true nightmare was yet to start.

    Just the monster tide of second degree attacking here was enough to devastate the n base to the ground. And yet William here was hinting about the presence of a more terrifying enemy that had yet to appear.

    How the heck did he know all these? And how in the world was he able to hold hisposure and calm despite knowing all this?

    William kept ring at the distance. The sight of spirit masters dying was indeed painful, but he grew dull to it.

    "This is called a big battle? Humph! You are just country pumpkins who didn''t see enough of the real world yet!" William heard the soft whispers of fear, doubt, and shocking from all over the ce. Even the stronger and more experienced spirit masters on the wall whispered the same words.

    He remained calm despite all the chaos and terror spreading like wildfire around him. And that wasn''t a show or act as everyone guessed. He was truly calm. Once he knew his enemy, spotted their weakness, and got prepared to turn tables around, his calmness would always prevail over everything else.

    And that all stemmed in his confidence in crushing any scary enemy in front of him.

    Afraid? Of course, he was! He was a human, just like them. Even when he was in his top form of power, he still felt fear.

    But the key was how he dealt with such fear. Would he sumb to it and let fear take control over him and paralyse his mind and senses?

    No, he wasn''t that type of a spirit master.

    If he got afraid of something, he''d do everything in his power to find a way to face the source of such terror and tear it apart by facing it head on and crush it.

    And that was what he intended to do exactly right here.

    In almost all situations he faced like this one, when he moved to face the source of his danger, his enemy would never expect his weak prey to get balls toe and face him head on.

    Surprising attacks always worked magic in his past life. And using unexpected tactics and unheard of ns were his greatest assets in any hard fight.

    Especially when all his tactics aimed towards the deadly weaknesses of his enemy.

    And he used to get his actions misinterpreted by even his allies. But that didn''t affect his mindset and kept the end goal in front of his eyes.

    Just like now, when everyone took him for a fool, he didn''t flinch and kept preparing. When everyone felt hope was dead and there was no light at the end of this pitch ck tunnel, he held a scorching red ring torch high up and led the way.

    He was just waiting for the big yers to arrive. He knew going by logic, such a scale of monster tide was enough for him to start acting.

    And yet there was something that seemed off in his eyes¡­ There was still a scary figure on their side, Berry''s grandfather. And this old monster didn''t act yet.

    William got his reasons to not move. But how about that old man?

    ''Don''t tell me¡­ You already sniffed that something is off,'' William could only reflect on such an exnation to exin Berry''s grandfather''s actions.

    He sent out all the elites and strong spirit masters to the battlefield. Yet William never saw any of the dark gold spirit masters, the elders he was aware of.

 Chapter 117 This Is Our Target!

    ?Neither Berry''s father nor uncle were anywhere to be seen. Also, that fourth elder who gave him a good impression was missing.

    It wasn''t just the missing grandfather, but also all the dark gold spirit masters were missing from such a threatening battle.

    That meant only one thing; they were ordered to stand down andy in wait. And there was a single person here who could issue such an order¡­ The n''s old patriarch.

    ''Hope you can adapt fast and catch my moves early on,'' Williammented in his heart, hoping that extra aid would be ready when time woulde.

    Depending just on this bunch of weak spirit masters to take down formidable monsters and change the oue of this battle? Of course, William wasn''t that delusional.

    All he wanted to do was to create amotion, enough to attract the attention of many big shots in the n. Like this, they''d flock his way to help. And with them, everything would change drastically.

    That was William''s aim from the start. And that was why he tried to get more helping hands to make enoughmotion, enough to be spotted by the big shots in the middle of all this mess.

    Missing the chance to help would be a deadly strike to his ns. One way or another, William knew he''d get spotted by the two formidable forces on both warring sides.

    The first to move and reach him first would im the victory. Contemting deeper about this, William decided to not just depend entirely on hope.

    "I need something from you," as he knew the hour was drawing near, he leant and whispered in Berry''s ears.

    And when he finished what he said, Berry''s face showed a troubled expression.

    "I''ll do it ande back here, got it?" she seemed to get a different idea from what William said. "Don''t dare to leave without me, do you hear me?" And when William watched her briskly jump down the stairs at her fastest speed, he realised what went through her little mind.

    ''Silly girl! Did you think I sent you away to ensure your safety?'' he could only shake his head and inwardly sigh.

    Yet for a reason, something warm in his heart fluttered when he thought about such an idea. But soon enough, he shook such useless emotions aside for now.

    The spirit master world wasn''t that nice ce to y romance, not in the middle of such a deadly battle.

    This wasn''t the time for that, and he wasn''t the kind of man to focus on such things. He didn''t get a second chance in life just to enjoy it. He had a grander goal, and all his efforts must lead towards achieving it.

    "Can you tell us at least what we are waiting for?"

    After half an hour, the young spirit masters here couldn''t take it anymore.

    The scenes happening in front of them were just too much for them to contain themselves out there without doing anything to help.

    But they weren''t asking to step in and help using their meagre spirit power and abilities. They started to trust William''s words and promises and were believing in what he said the more time passed.

    Yet that dude who wore porter clothes was just acting out of logic all the time! When they wanted to join the battle and leave the forging ce, he insisted on them to work.

    And when they came here to fight, he was the one to stop them again from joining the fight.

    And that was on the premise of waiting for something they didn''t know anything about.

    Gradually they lost their cool and were on the verge of pleading with him to join the fight. But just before a single one of them would break down to such lousy state, William suddenly pointed his finger to the distance as he muttered:

    "They are here!"

    Just these three words and his simple action made everyone turn their heads and take a look at where he pointed at.

    And there, they found something truly scarying their way!

    The outer region of the n was a cleaned area ofnd. Yet beyond it, arge forest lied.

    Even after all this fighting, the forest didn''t show much signs of damage.

    However, at this moment, and as they followed the direction William pointed towards, they could see lots of trees shaking vigorously before they mmed on either side and vanished from sight.

    A growing wound in the heart of this great forest was forming in front of their eyes, and it kept expanding and drawing near their n in a fast speed that defied logic.

    With such a weird sight, a great cloud of dust started to rise. And the more frightening thing was that such a thing didn''t just happen at one spot, but it happened at twenty others at the same time.

    This sight¡­ It was quite terrifying!

    "Brother William¡­ This¡­" just as Kong was lost in words, Berry finally arrived while panting.

    "I delivered the¡­ What the heck is that?!!"

    With a jump in fright, she pointed towards the distance and pointed at the rising high thick dust cloudsing towards the n and the grand twenty gaps in the middle of the forest that kepting towards their direction.

    It was like a tsunami wave was building up momentum and rising slowly to form the scary and gigantic waves of terror and death.

    "Get ready," William steeled his heart and clenched his hands, "this is our target."

    "..."

    "What? Weren''t you just on the verge of crying for not joining the fight? What the hell is wrong with you now?!!"

    William''s corner of mouth twitched while everyone didn''t know what to say. They wanted to join the fight, but such crazy thingsing in their direction were actually¡­ their targets?

    Dude¡­ We are just white, bronzed, and silver spirit masters, not legendary figures! That was what everyone thought in their heads while meeting up William''s gaze.

 Chapter 118 Protect The Kids!

    ?William knew this was expected, and that was the main reason behind him not saying anything about their real foes before.

    If he said anything, then forget about the four who chickened away, even having four remaining with him would be considered a blessing.

    "William¡­ Can you at least exin¡­ What ising at us? What do we have to fight against?"

    As she saw this terrifying scene, one that made her heart fall to the deepest abyss, Berry couldn''t help but turn to William and asked in plea and hope.

    She wanted to help the n, like everyone else. But who said going against heavens was something everyone ready for?

    Whatever wasing towards them, they must have great bodies and immense strength to cause such mess up there.

    And Berry didn''t want him to exin anything. In fact, what she needed to hear was just one thing, for him to ensure that they had the ability to stop whatever wasing!

    She just wanted to hear anything about hope in such darkness.

    As for William, he totally missed her point. He looked around and realised that everyone didn''t need him to recite how fearsome the new enemies were. So, he just bypassed that part and focused on the only thing that mattered in his eyes.

    "Sometimes, a huge bull might be as deadly to oneself as to the enemies."

    He just blurted out such non-logical words. And after he did, he took out his sword.

    Without waiting for their reactions, he went towards one of the many huge ropes hanging on the edge of the walls and leading all the way down to the bottom.

    "Follow me, brazen yourselves and let''s march together and save your n!"

    Just before he''d vanished from their sight, he shouted these words, making everyone tremble. His words worked like a magic spell, turning all of their fear, doubt, and confusion into a desire for battle.

    They all ran towards the edge of the wall, watched himnd perfectly fine before turning his sword around and started killing.

    He wasn''t just using his sword, but also his flying knives flew and started killing. Five knives appeared all over the ce, moving right and left, hitting the scarlet leopards and tigers in the ces that were deadly for them.

    Even if they were stronger than him, in a fight, using one''s point of weakness while he was distracted was deadly. Especially if he was using his gold grade sword and sharp knives.

    William wasn''t acting suicidal here. He had his Holy Sword technique up his sleeve. And he was keeping his vignce for any threatening foe or a deadly situation to use it.

    However, before any of that would happen, something he never expected urred in the entire battlefield in the next few minutes¡­

    By seeing him take out dozens of monsters in just mere seconds while slowly walking around like a formidable figure, everyone started to get infected with his bravery.

    Just an outsider was down there all alone, on the same level of power as them or perhaps even weaker. He was risking his life to save their n, then why were they hesitating?

    And then the words William said before jumping down there echoed in their minds, loud like thunderous bolts.

    Mentioning the goal of saving their n and ensuring such a thing with his simple actions turned those frightened kids into ferocious lions!

    "Let''s go!" The first to move was Berry, and after her Lina followed with Lang and Kong.

    As everyone started to shout, they started to descend. The sight of these kids and weak spirit masters jumping over the walls and joining the battle made everyone around feel more rage.

    The kids were forced to join the fight and that was thanks to the ipetence of the older spirit masters of the n. That was the only thought that appeared in every single older nsmen''s minds when they spotted William and his little group.

    Such a simple act that William never thought highly about before turned to ignite a zing spark in the entire battlefield! And it drove a far more significant result than just that!

    "Protect them! Protect the kids!!" No one knew who shouted it first, but soon such a shout turned into a fire that kept growing without control.

    Just as William was pondering about how to rally some of the spirit masters here to reach the far frontline, a group of stronger and far experienced spirit masters started to join their ranks while such shouts reverberated in his ears.

    No one in the entire battlefield outside the n knew why the kids were here. There was no point in dissuading them from joining the fight as it was already toote to do so. They were on the ground, outside the walls, and desperately fighting against the ferocious monsters.

    "Head forward!" using such unexpected help, William pressed forward and got use of such growing momentum. His simple shout startled the older and stronger spirit master around, thinking he went crazy or something.

    Then a scene that baffled all of them happened! The youngsters who they never ced their role in the defence of the n before in their mindsplied and pushed forward.

    "This¡­"

    "Isn''t she the young princess?"

    "It''s Berry!"

    "Damn! Why in the world is she here?"

    "Listen up, guard them with all your might!"

    Everyone suddenly got caught off Berry''s figure amidst the group of kids. She was one of the earliest to follow William''s crazy order, and so she was easily spotted by many.

    When they recognised her, it caused a sensational shock among all the spirit masters around.

    Without William anticipating it, his group started to pick up more formidable spirit masters and gain considerable momentum.

    Seeing that made him grin. "We can do it! We surely will!" he clenched on his sword''s hilt while shifting his gaze up front.

    There was a gigantic monster gate standing at one side out there. And behind it, gigantic and scary twenty groups of dust storms were drawing closer to the n.

 Chapter 119 Let Me Go!

    ?"Come¡­ It''s either I die, or you die, there is no way around it!" Even if he was scared by such a terrifying sight, William steeled himself and kept racing the steps forward.

    It was finally time to show the magical effect of what he spent hours painstakingly making back at the forging ground of the n.

    He intended to create amotion when he jumped off the walls, using his unique methods, so the higher ups and scary spirit masters would notice him.

    Even if he did something to solve this for him, he still didn''t have much confidence in the final decision of the n''s higher ups.

    But he didn''t need to worry about it right now! Only a blinded fool would ignore such a grand scene that was destined to shift the entire battlefield and rock even the ground itself with their achievements.

    "It''s time, get ready!" William shouted, and this time there was no speck of hesitation in his tone. He was one thousand percent sure of their sess.

    ''This battle¡­ It''s my victory motherf*ckers!''

    When William jumped down the walls, he instantly called for his flying knives to help.

    He knew alone he wouldn''t be able to secure himself. Even when others jumped down, he knew the path forward was destined to be paved with many lives on his side.

    And he was even prepared to use his Holy Sword technique if the situation required so.

    Yet the sudden twist of events took him by surprise, and delight. He didn''t expect that by the movement of a few kids, the grownups would get stirred up in such a way.

    And everything got better when Berry was spotted.

    "Let me go! Why the hell are you blocking my path?!!"

    A thunderous shout came from one spot at the wall. It was loud, but not enough to ovee the chaotic noisesing from the battlefield down below.

    So not too many noticed this enraged shout from Berry''s father, Callom.

    "Easy, do you think I don''t care for her?" Berry''s grandfather showed a displeased look on his face.

    "If so, then why are you stopping me? Father! This is Berry! My girl! My child! Let me go! I''ll go now and kill every single one of those bastards, starting with that damn kid first!"

    "Stop this crazy act right now!" Berry''s grandfather shouted in such an annoyed tone before pointing towards the outer battlefield, "see for yourself. Even if he took her deep down the danger, directly shing with these monsters, he made sure to keep her safe. And he has something up his sleeves!"

    "I don''t care! It''s Berry!"

    "It''s about the entire n, not just Berry!"

    Under the father and son''s intense fight, everyone cowarded and took a silent stance. Even Gran didn''t join in, and the fourth elder couldn''t help but shake his head.

    He met William before and got how annoying and troublesome it was to deal with this kid. His methods were unique and umon, and his personality was peculiar.

    Unlike any kid and genius he met before, this one gave him a special feeling and left a deep impression behind.

    "I know! If you just let us, go down there and fight, we wouldn''t have lost this much!"

    "Are you questioning me? Dumb headed fool! If not for the distress we are facing, I''d have taught you a lesson like a rogue kid!"

    Berry''s father realised that amidst his fuming rage, he spouted something he shouldn''t.

    But it was toote to regret it.

    "See for yourself, idiot! What are thoseing at us? Can you tell me for sure that you can stop them? That we, alone, can stop them?" Berry''s grandfather pointed at the direction of the falling trees and the gigantic dust clouds before adding, "I felt something amiss the moment this kid spoke that nonsense before! Don''t ask, don''t try to speak! Just see and ask yourself this¡­ Are we able to defeat them?"

    Berry''s grandfather was at his patience limit here. He first thought this was going to be a tough battle, yet his n would be secured in the end.

    He reached out to the academy and nearby allied ns for help. As expected, they dly epted and formed two strong armies to help.

    But eventually things started to go south, and it all started with William!

    He was too busy to track this kid''s actions and locations. But when the fourth elder sought him out for advice and narrated what William said, he started to feel unease.

    The words of an outsider weren''t enough to shake him. But from what he heard; William got a good point indeed. In fact, he got the feeling that William was acting based on a firm belief that a devastational disaster was imminent.

    Even though he doubted William and never got to clear such a suspicious cloud inside his mind about him yet, he couldn''t refute what that kid said.

    William spoke about their entire defensive ns as if he was present when the n higher ups decided toy it centuries ago!

    William knew exactly what they nned to do, and even knew the limitations of their defences. This wasn''t something a little eight years old kid would know!

    No matter how he suspected him, he couldn''t bring himself to doubt William''s ims. And when William hinted about the presence of a farrger monster tideing their way, Kong couldn''t help but lose himself in deep thoughts.

    Such a trivial possibility was so grave to be neglected. As the fourth elder reacted and sent the fifty silver grade spirit masters to help William, the old patriarch here also agreed on this decision.

    And even more, he started to pay close attention and spy on William''s actions.

    He got to hear about everything William said after finishing what he was doing. Even if Berry''s grandfather never knew what William wanted to do here, his heart skipped a beat when William spoke about the true nature of the scarlet bear monsters.

 Chapter 120 Watching William

    ?Kong knew these monsters were blood type spirit monsters. And he also knew such information wasn''t widely spread among themunity of strong spirit masters.

    Hearing William educate his n''s future generation in such a way made his doubts ease a little bit. William was giving them a lecture that any formidable spirit master would do to these kids.

    And that also shone the light over something else¡­ From the look of it, William knew exactly what wasing at them and knew perfectly well how to stop it!

    It was something even he, one of the prominent figures in the entire world of spirit masters, wouldn''t dare to say he knew or could do!

    And when he thought about it more, this grand spirit master knew there was something off indeed about everything.

    The monsters came and attacked his n without a reason. When he thought back to William''s words, he couldn''t help but shake his head in denial.

    For any monster tide to appear somewhere, one of a short list of reasons must apply. He got himself too busy, absorbed in dealing with the defensive preparations of the n and sending for reinforcements, that he neglected such simple matter.

    ording to the long history between humans and monsters, this list of reasons was reliable and never failed even once to his knowledge.

    And that wasn''t all! Each reason was apanied with a grade of the monster tide assaulting humans.

    As he never knew why the monsters came here in the first ce, he wouldn''t dare to say for sure this tide belonged to category three monster outbreaks.

    In fact¡­ And from just the little kid''s words and actions, such a formidable spirit master started to doubt the truth about this matter.

    To be safe, he decided to not send out his strongest force, the elders and himself. He kept confining them inside the walls, even when the monster gate appeared.

    Seeing this gate made his face darken. He knew the grade of the monster outbreak changed from grade three to two just by the presence of this gate.

    If it was only that, then he''d not have to worry that much.

    Yet when the other two gates appeared to block the path of the iing reinforcements, a bad omen prevailed.

    And that was when he recalled what William imed before about this entire war.

    The first thing he did was to check over William. And he couldn''t help but eye that kid in a new light based on such changes in the entire battlefield.

    The reason he got for William to know such things before they happened was clear, William''s formidable master must have taught him such secret information and might also taught him a lot about monster tides and their nature and schemes.

    After all, what his n was facing right now was least described as a poisonous scheme from the monsters.

    As he was lost in thought, William told his group to wait as what he was waiting for didn''t arrive yet.

    Berry''s grandfather rejoiced in his heart that he kept vignt and didn''t send his strongest force out yet.

    Or else they''d be entangled at this crucial moment with the monstersing out from that gate, and it''d be too hard and too harmful for the entire fight to withdraw them back.

    Then things happened fast. Trees started to fall, and dust clouds started to rise in such scary fashion.

    This time, such a scene was typical for something scary. It wasn''t just Berry''s grandfather who recognised this terrifying scene, and which scary enemy wasing from far towards them.

    All the elders here, all the dark gold spirit masters knew what it was. And when they realised this, all of their faces darkened.

    If they thought before they got a chance of surviving this and saving the n, then by the addition of the new enemy, things started to look dire and desperate.

    There was no hope! Not for them, not for the n!

    Berry''s grandfather couldn''t help but recall the earlier words of William. "This kid¡­ Great! Just great!" he clenched both fists as his body faintly trembled for a brief second.

    When William decided to educate the kids of the n about the scarlet type monsters, he used the example of the scarlet bears.

    Kong didn''t think too much about this before, as these monsters were known to be the scariest amidst the scarlet monster entire family.

    But right now, he felt different. It was if William could see through the thick fog of the future and tell that the scarlet bears wereing towards the n.

    And that made Kong hope that William got such a fact beforehand and did his weird stuff to stop these bears.

    After all, William said he waited for something to arrive. And the old patriarch couldn''t help but link the two together.

    Just when things seemed to hit the worst point, William started his crazy assault towards the enemy.

    And with his courageous and sudden leap, the rest of spirit masters joined him including Berry.

    Kong couldn''t help but admire the few words William spoke before jumping off. Any doubt he had towards this kid vanished the moment William followed his words with his daring and reckless actions.

    Not a single dark spirit master would risk his life in such a way to even infiltrate the biggest ns and academies in the world!

    But these were only Kong''s own thoughts. Someone else begged to differ with him at such a crucial moment.

    Just seeing his daughter throw herself like this into danger, just to follow William, her father couldn''t control himself anymore.

    Even if there was no hope for him, for everyone he knew and treasured in the n, he wouldn''t stand idle and watch his daughter get killed in front of his eyes like this.

    And just when he was about to move and kill all the monsters around his daughter, nning to drag her back and let her escape to somewhere safe, his father stood like an unshakable mountain, blocking his path.

 Chapter 121 Berrys Will!

    ?This drove his suppressed rage and despair to explode in front of his father''s face.

    Callom knew that if not for William, his beloved daughter wouldn''t have gone down there to face danger.

    He didn''t care about any logic. He didn''t consider any reason. When things came down to his daughter, he used to act in such an illogical way.

    "Patriarch, patriarch¡­ Urgent news!" Just when the old father was trying to control his enraged son, someone from the n hurried towards their location.

    Seeing his face, everyone here recognised who he was.

    "Butler Lude, what news do you have?" The patriarch had tons of bad news already, making him unable to expect anything good.

    What would be more urgent than the current dire situation the entire n and his family was facing?

    "I got a message, left over by the little miss," the butler called Lude wasn''t initially part of the n. Yet on one of the many adventures of the old patriarch outside, he met him identally and saved his life.

    Acknowledging his potential abilities, the old man decided to recruit him into the n to act as his family''s butler.

    "A message? Tell me what she said right away," the old patriarch''s face changed. And he wasn''t the only one to show the same reaction. Everyone presented here had the same change, including the enraged Callom.

    "She¡­ Left a written message." Unlike what everyone expected, the butler took out a yellow paper and handed it over to the old patriarch.

    "This¡­" Berry''s grandfather held the message in his hand while the look on his face was quite unsightly.

    "Father¡­ She left a will! A will! A f*cking damn will! I dare anyone to stop me or stand in my path. I''ll kill whoever dares to do so!'''' At this moment, and just while the old patriarch was reading the message left by his granddaughter, Berry''s father bellowed in such a storm of rage and was about to jump off the walls.

    "Stop saying nonsense, will you? Or else I swear I''ll teach you a lesson in front of everyone in the n when this is over! No, I''ll do it right now if you dare to move a finger!"

    Unlike what everyone expected, the old man shouted in such annoyance and anger without lifting his eyes off the paper.

    Everyone jumped to the same conclusion as Berry''s father. A message was delivered in such a timely manner that meant only one thing for all of them¡­ It was a will, thest words left by one who nned to die.

    However, this was a conclusion that was way off the mark from all of them! Even the old man holding the paper held the same bad conclusion before reading the content of the message.

    He recognised the handwriting of his beloved granddaughter from the first nce. That small and neat handwriting was something he''d never fail to recognise anywhere, anytime.

    "Dear grandfather¡­ By the time this message reaches you, I''ll be fighting for the survival of the n¡­" the beginning of the message left the heart of the old man shuddering into many pieces.

    These words, which told him the state of mind his beloved granddaughter now held, were too harsh and much more painful than fighting the grand army of monsters down below alone.

    It was a perfect start of ast will and words indeed. However, starting from the next words, he couldn''t help but get shocked.

    "... I''m writing this to you under the request of brother William. He asked me to send you this message and inform you to not move when the big scarlet bears appear¡­"

    "This damn brat!" reaching here, the old patriarch couldn''t help but fume in rage and impatience. As he thought, William could recognise the identity of their iing terrifying enemies.

    Just like everyone presented here, they could see the scary signs of the gigantic and brutal scarlet bears that wereing towards their n and causing such fierce dust clouds and shaking the entire forest.

    The scary thing wasn''t that they were the scarlet bears, but they came inrge numbers unlike usual. The old patriarch knew how hard it was to deal with a single group of thousands of them. And now he estimated that at least hundreds of thousands wereing towards the n.

    It was futile to win this without any miracle.

    However, when he continued reading, his eyes couldn''t help but shrink, just like his heart.

    "... Brother William asked you to hold back and only send a few to lead part of the spirit masters down below to safeguard us. I know his words sound crazy, but I trust him! He is trying to help, and I can''t understand most of his logic and actions, yet he is capable!"

    Without feeling it, the old man stole a gaze towards his son before shaking off his head in a helpless way.

    This weird gaze left all the elders here baffled, all but one, the fourth elder.

    He already guessed that Berry''sst words must be speaking about that kid he met previously. William stated it clear to him, he wasn''t doing this for the n''s sake, but for Berry.

    That meant the two held affectionate feelings for each other. Or else Berry wouldn''t have stuck to his side like this.

    "What? What does she say?" Berry''s father wasn''t in the mood to get how weird his father was looking at him. He was dying inside to know what his only daughter wrote before throwing her life away like this.

    "Just shut up! She isn''t throwing away her life," the old man could guess what his son had in mind right now, and he could tell Berry didn''t intend to do so from what he read.

    If she nned to do so, then after the perfect start she''d have continued by adding the familiar lines of how she loved them and how she hoped they''d live happily after her departure.

 Chapter 122 Kongs Decision

    ?Yet all she talked about was the n of William and how he was capable.

    "This¡­" and after he read the rest of the message, the old man''s hands trembled faintly. It wasn''t something normal and instantly attracted the attention of everyone here.

    "Uncle¡­ What did she say?" Gran gave his brother a warning nce to silence him before he took the lead.

    Things didn''t seem like Berry was going to sacrifice herself for the n. And if that held a great news to them, she was still down there risking her life nheless!

    "My Berry¡­ She really grew up¡­" the old man took a deep breath, turned his head to the sky while a weird smile that didn''t fit this situation at all appeared as he muttered these words.

    "Father¡­" Callom couldn''t hold it anymore. He just took a single step forward before the message he tried to snatch and read vanished from his sight.

    "Let''s focus on the things at hand first," the old man''s face changed into a serious one, "we can''t let ourselves get embarrassed by the youngsters."

    "What do you mean?" Everyone was already in deep puzzlement and confusion.

    "They have to do something, and we have to do something else," the old man said, moving his eyes around everyone here, "and don''t mistake it. We are going to face danger not lesser in any way than what our kids are facing down below."

    "But father¡­"

    "No, none of you will move down there," the old man knew what Berry''s father wanted to ask for. And this time he decisively and firmly put an end to such a matter.

    "If you are angry and worried, as any father shall feel, then keep all this deep inside. Soon enough, you''ll have your moment to vent all this. Don''t disappoint me, don''t disappoint our kids fighting down there, risking their lives to give us a chance, and don''t disappoint your daughter."

    The eyes of the old man shone in a fierce light while he watched the small group of young spirit masters moving forward as the rest of the spirit master army down below wasing to their aid.

    Seeing this from above, it looked like the entire army down below got reformed and changed into what could be best described as a spear tip wave.

    It was a famous offensive formation, but it was never used before in defensive battles. It was suitable to use in battles between two armies at opennds.

    Yet right now, the old man''s gaze was fixed over two; his beloved granddaughter and that smaller and thinner youngster who ran by her side.

    This all started by the actions of that youngster. And the content of the message he received from him left him baffled and shocked from the depths of his heart.

    William asked Berry to find her grandfather and deliver him this message before setting off. Berry thought this was his way to keep her away from harm''s way.

    Finding her grandfather in the middle of such a messy battle was something hard and time consuming. So, she decided to find a middle solution, as she found their family''s butler and handed him the message that she wrote down in a hurry.

    She didn''t get most of the crucial part in the message, yet she delivered it by the letter, just like how William said it.

    Then she went back and joined William and others just moments before they jumped off the walls to join the battle.

    "Won''t we join the battle?!!" feeling the doubts over the faces of everyone, Gran couldn''t help but speak up what the top powerhouses of the Long n had in their minds.

    "No, we have to wait for the big enemy to be lured first," Despite knowing how weird it might sound, the old man decided to trust William just like his granddaughter did.

    After all, the only person here who knew about all this beforehand was none other than the eight years old ex-porter!

    At the same time, he got another logical reason behind his decision.

    If that big enemy didn''te, then helping those kids wasn''t going to be toote. The old patriarch decided to watch the initial impact between his n and the iing scarlet bears first before deciding anything else.

    If William delivered what he promised, a way to solve this impending crisis, then he''d wait for further and anticipate the arrival of his moment to act with everyone here.

    If not, then he''d ditch all he read and jump first to help his granddaughter, these kids, and his n.

    He wasn''t acting recklessly here, but the words William asked Berry to deliver were simply too shocking. He knew William got secretive knowledge about the blood type monsters from his mysterious master.

    And so, it didn''t feel that weird for him to know another piece of secrets from his master.

    The main issue here was¡­ Was what he imed to be true? Would that cmitye true?

    If so, then waiting was indeed the wisest decision to take.

    "Acho!" far away from the ce where all this happened, William sneezed. He was too busy dealing with the monsters who tried to stop them.

    Of course, with the help of all the spirit masters who came to their aid on their own ord, things started to look much better and far easier than what he initially imagined.

    Yet he never stopped moving his knives, hacking all the monsters at the forefront to shreds with the help of other shy and strong attacksing from everyone apanying him.

    When everyone joined him in such a crazy charge, none expected such a kid wearing porter clothes to be able to do such a brilliant performance.

    He got a weak body on top of that. However, these shing knives he controlled were always aiming towards the deadlies spot in each monster around.

    The growing small army of humans started this crazy charge dealing with the weak and injured monsters near the n''s base. Yet this all changed when they delved deeper.

 Chapter 123 Three Gold Spirit Masters

    ?If not for the unexpected timely help of other spirit masters still pouring here, their death was going to be set in stone already.

    "Stop!"

    Just when everyone thought they were going to throw their lives at the rapidly approaching deadly enemies from the forest, William suddenly raised his fist while shouting for them to stop.

    The entire group of youngsters stopped first, with panting breaths and mixed looks of exhaustion, rage, excitement, and fear.

    They knew they were going to die if they shed with the terrifying things reshaping the entire forest around the n. And knowing such a thing held a heavy impact over their hearts and minds.

    It felt like a heavy rock was ced over their chests, making their breaths hard and ragged. If not for the general strong atmosphere gained by the addition of stronger and older spirit masters during the past minutes, they''d have not managed to reach even half of the distance they crossed so far or kill half of the monsters they in.

    "It''s time for you to know what we are doing here," unlike what everyone expected, William suddenly spoke such weird and illogical words.

    He repeated his bizarre attitude he showed since the first moment they saw him again! And that made many roll their eyes in helpless way.

    They already grew dull of such weird kid!

    "Brother William, there is no need to say anything," Kong was already epting the fact of his death, just like everyone else, "it''s an honour to die on the battlefield defending my people."

    "Shut up already!" William briskly shouted to silence him before he suddenly retrieved a spear from his storage ring, "I didn''t ask you to do all this ande all the way here just to throw away your lives. Follow my orders to the letter and there is a great chance that most of us will celebrate our victory tonight."

    "..."

    If he said such words while they were on the walls, they might have believed him. Or even they might have epted such a lie and convinced themselves to buy it.

    But right now? Saying all this right now? It was impossible even to convince themselves to believe such a lie! It was impossible to lie to themselves in front of the door of death!

    "I want to say that¡­ You did really great in this fight," William moved his eyes around, not faking his tone and words, "for many times, I thought you''d turn around and run. Yet you stuck around, and even if this annoyed me a little, I''m greatly appreciative of your courage and loyalty."

    ''What the heck is this dude saying?'' all of the young spirit masters here couldn''t help but ask the same question in their minds.

    "Now it''s time for me to exin everything you died to know before," he said but unlike what he dered, he turned to Berry and added, "ask the spirit masters to expand around, create enough vacancy for the things we made. I also need one spirit master with a strong earth rted spirit element and techniques, a gold grade at least if possible."

    William wanted to give such demands out for the spirit masters around in person. But he knew, as an outsider, none would answer him.

    So, it was better to ask for Berry to do it. After all, without her presence here, this miracle wouldn''t have happened.

    "This¡­"

    "I know it''s hard to find one here, but I need someone to st open the ground and expose what lies underneath," William had to exin further. After all this was the Long n, one who excelled at fire element and fire rted techniques, not Earth element and techniques.

    "Ok," Berry helplessly sighed. She got used to how illogical this kid in front of her would act all the time. Yet she still trusted him and decided to do as he asked.

    She turned and shouted at the people around. Her wordsnded before everyone started to move ording to what she said.

    In the middle of all this mess, the shout of someone they trusted was enough to make everyone respond.

    "Young miss, I''m here to help."

    "I can use piercing explosive shots to uncover deep earthyers."

    "I can ask magma toe out and create holes in the ground!"

    More of such gold ranked spirit masters stepped forward to answer Berry''s call.

    After all, the strongest spirit masters here were of gold grade calibre.

    Berry got relieved when she heard these shouts, and yet she didn''t know what to do. So, she turned to William, silently asking him by using her eyes about what to say or do next.

    After all, it was William who asked her to do it.

    "You three are enough," William took over from her at this point, "see this piece ofnd there? Open it apart."

    William pointed at the ce which appeared after the spirit masters started to expand outwards instead of sticking around them.

    It might have brought much trouble to them, but William ignored this all. The monsters were already flocking this region in dense numbers, and it proved so hard to create enough space for what he wanted to do.

    "Make sure to not harm anyone," William added, while motioning his head to the inner side of the circle of spirit masters who were pushing the line outwards.

    "Young miss¡­" The three spirit masters who were in their early thirties looked at Berry who simply nodded.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    And like that, three violent explosions urred. One of them even was so fierce to release out arge fountain of magma.

    The spirit master who did it had to interfere again. He executed another technique and led the magma away, letting it fall over arge number of monsters clustered just nearby. And with such a simple act the area avable to William and others got expanded by at least one fold.

    "Great job," Williammended before walking slowly and steadily towards the three big holes in the ground.

    "What is he trying to do?"

 Chapter 124 Scarlet Bears Are Coming!

    ?From far, what happened here didn''t miss the keen gazes and senses of all the big shots of the n.

    After what the old patriarch said, and as he stressed over them to not move, he asked them as well to keep a close watch over that part of the battlefield.

    In fact, it wasn''t needed for him to say so. After what happened, the entire battlefield changed, and the fight was mainly focused over what was happening out there.

    And when William stopped, everyone noticed that. Then they watched the spirit masters push the frontline further outwards, expanding their area of control, leaving behind a growing wide space.

    And before anyone would speak out their doubts from such a foolish and useless move, three loud explosions urred.

    They watched William moving towards the three holes that were left behind such violent explosions.

    "Is he trying to use magma to kill monsters? Nice try, but he will fail," the fourth elder shook his head. It might seem like a good strategy, but it wasn''t enough against such an insane number of monsters.

    If they were facing a grade three monster outbreak, then this might work. However, at this moment, just this kind of attack would bring many deaths but not enough to change the fate of this battle.

    "No, I don''t think so," Gran had a deep impression about William. he saw him execute a weird move against his brother, even managing to win the bet back then.

    So, he took this youngster to never do things in any rational way.

    Just as he said it, William raised the spear he took out before high in the air. As everyone listened to William, trying to get what he intended to do, the old patriarch felt something huge was going to happen.

    He trusted his instinct and decided to act upon it.

    He started to ry the same words that came out from William''s mouth at this crucial moment using his own voice. He felt the urge to do so to stress over the importance of William''s words.

    And so, everyone around him started to listen to the words Berry''s grandfather was saying the next instant William said them.

    "I asked you all to forge something that might look useless. A mix between the Blue Frost ores and the Bronzed Silver Ant wax? Of course, it won''t make anything formidable. However, this mix has some incredible abilities that not many know about¡­"

    William paused, stood at the edge of one of the holes while lowering his spear down. At the same time, he motioned for all the youngsters who apanied him all this time to step forward and see whatid before them.

    "This¡­"

    "What the heck is that?!!"

    "Since when there was a river under the ground here?"

    "Why is this river coloured yellow?"

    "Is this magma? Or something else?"

    Many eximed in doubt, while William lowered the spear, making it point towards that weird yellow river. Then he held his spear out after a few moments of lowering it in that hole.

    Just in the holes just created, everyone could see a thickyer of rocks that extended for almost twenty metres below the ground.

    Then a running stream of yellowish liquid was there. And it wasn''t standing still but moving towards the n.

    "It''s the guiding spirit power used by the blood type monsters," William raised his spear high, announcing such truth that none knew about.

    The spear wasn''t that long to begin with, and by logic none of it should touch the river. Yet for a reason, when he raised it, it got all covered in a weird yellowishyer of light.

    No matter how hard he tried, he shouldn''t be able to touch that deep stream.

    "If you look closer, you''ll notice it running towards the direction of the n. And it''s used to guide therge number of berserk, terrifying scarlet bear monsters all the way to the n, to destroy it."

    His wordsnded, and the faces of many changed. Others didn''t get what he meant, asked in doubt:

    "What are these monsters? Are they strong?"

    "Strong my ass! They are deadly! I heard they got born with unparalleled strength rivalling dark gold spirit masters!"

    "They are scary! They have giant bodies, a crazy level of defence, a formidable strength, and a very deadly ability to sense blood."

    "I heard their sole weakness is their need for a long time to sleep. Without sleeping enough, they won''t get stronger and grow."

    "I also heard from one of the elders that they needed a long time to grow up to obtain such huge bodies."

    "Are we really going against those scary ones?"

    William stood on the side and kept listening to all of their words without saying anything. When they ended, and Berry and others looked up to him, waiting for his answer, he smiled.

    Under such a situation he dared to be so carefree and even smile!

    "What you all said is true," William said such shocking words out of their expectations. They felt that they made a grave mistake when he smiled, but he added more terrifying pieces of news, "they used to be seen in the deepest parts of the forest. Usually in small numbers of hundreds. Yet what we are going to face are in the calibre of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of them."

    "..."

    His words left everyone speechless out of despair and terror. They looked at each other to confirm they heard these words right. And from the dark look over everyone''s faces, everyone knew they heard it right.

    They turned back to William and got weed with such an annoying and unfitting smile.

    "Don''t panic. As many said, it takes a long time for them to grow up. And they need lots of time to sleep and reserve their strength to grow. And this is the greatest news we can ever have."

    "Brother William, stop jesting," Kong couldn''t help but bitterly say, "we do know we are doomed! Don''t try to make it look nicer, please."

 Chapter 125 Throw This Spear At The Gate

    ?"I''m not!" William firmly shook his head before pointing at his spear and added, "this little toy here will make all the difference based on that piece of facts."

    "..."

    William knew they wouldn''t take his words for granted or even truly and seriously consider what he said. He didn''t have either the time or the intention to exin anything to them.

    This was a hard to learn knowledge, one he gained painstakingly from his past life. Even if he tried to exin it using more words, he doubted they''d understand.

    Besides, they got limited time as well.

    He estimated for the gigantic bears to arrive here in less than ten minutes.

    "Let me tell you something amazing about these scary bears¡­ Once they get disturbed and wake up from their sleep, or get deprived from it, they''d lose their ability to see and smell."

    He moved his eyes around, knowing that none of the young or old spirit masters here would pick up on what he just hinted.

    "Like this, they needed something to guide them to their targets. That''s the use of this yellow stream. Don''t get me wrong, it''s not something that has been here for a long time. It just appeared hours before the battle started, and it was made by the ones who are standing behind such a monster tide."

    They looked at each other, seeing the same look of doubt and despair on their faces. Kong wanted to interrupt William and remind him again to not try his best like this to fabricate things to make them feel better at theirst moments.

    But William gave him a silent warning gaze as if this dude was able to read through his mind and intentions.

    "They got only their instincts to follow. This yellow river had something their souls would crave towards. It''s like the most precious thing in the world to them. And so, they will follow it even if it''s buried deep under the ground. However¡­"

    At this moment, William knew speaking wouldn''t do them any good. So, he held the spear and went to one of the three gold spirit masters who dug the holes before.

    "Can I ask senior to throw this spear in that direction?" William randomly selected a spirit master of the three and a direction. The direction he casually selected happened to be just near the monster gate.

    "This¡­"

    The monster gate was almost one mile away from them. William would never have the power nor the ability to do it. So, he asked the gold ranked spirit master to do this task instead for him.

    Selecting any other target wouldn''t prove his point greatly. "This is the monster gate, and it''s well known and heavily guarded by the monsters. Can a senior throw this spear out there?"

    William selected this spirit master specifically for his great strength. The ability to break a hole in the ground and summon magma out? Damn! This was such a cool technique indeed, and a very formidable one.

    If the n had a small unit formed of spirit masters like him, then dealing with the monsters around would be much easier.

    But William knew such an ability came from a variation in that spirit master''s spirit. And it was something pretty impossible to replicate by this world''s current means and knowledge.

    So, this spirit master was the strongest out of the three here. William reached this conclusion and acted based on it, making it look like he randomly selected him.

    "Please, senior," the moment Berry interfered and with her words, the spirit master sighed. He held the spear and simply took a few turns around, gaining momentum and piling up his spirit power, before releasing the spear like a lightning bolt towards the direction of the gate.

    "I don''t know what you''re trying to do, but I hope it''s not just a y for fun to you," that spirit master said while William ignored him and watched the elerating spear until it hit the monster gate.

    The material needed to make these gates was nothing else but rocks from the ground around. So, it was easy for the spear to get stuck on the gate. But the gate was world famous for its strong build, so the spear didn''t even cause a single rock to fall.

    Everyone looked in wait and anticipation for something insane to ur, but against their expectations nothing happened.

    Before they could expose their displeasure and disappointment, William pointed towards another direction as he shouted:

    "Behold the mighty and terrifying scarlet bears! Watch how these weak spears will change the fate of this battle, of your n, of the entire world!"

    William''s words weren''t just heard around him, but also reverberated in the distance by the old patriarch.

    And at this moment, not a single one of these formidable spirit masters wasn''t looking in the direction of the monster gate. They all stood on the edge of the walls, looking in anticipation to see what was going to happen.

    The words William said were all delivered here thanks to Berry''s grandfather. And despite feeling immense shock and doubt, they felt like kids watching a scary movie and sitting on the edges of their seats.

    The next moment the forest broke open and the first scarlet bear came to everyone''s sight.

    Saying it was huge was an understatement indeed! With a body spanning over ten metres in height while moving on its huge four limbs, with over fifteen metres in length, this dude was colossal.

    If it stood on its rear two legs, it would exceed twenty metres in height for sure! Each limb had a fierce paw, one that ended with seven very sharp and curved sword-like ends.

    If it grazed it gently against the mighty walls the n was proud of, these walls would be torn to pieces in an instant.

    Not to mention any spirit master below dark gold grade would be left in minced meat.

    Its body was covered in fur like all bears, scarlet red fur that gave its name and identified its belonging to the scarlet family of monsters.

 Chapter 126 One Spear To Change The World!

    ?The ends of the fur flickered with sparkles of scarlet red and orange coloured electrical wisps of fire. William knew these wisps weren''t just for show, and a single one of those troublesome monsters was enough to soak an entire hundred metre area with an ocean of undying fire.

    In such situations, spirit masters had no way to kill this fire unless by killing the monster itself or forcing it to use another technique of it.

    And one had to know such a fearsome monster had a long list of very frightening techniques, all were fire rted.

    Just when everyone held their breaths out of horror, the one bear that jumped out of the forest while crushing down its trees abruptly stopped.

    It came out just hundreds of metres away from William and his group''s location. Everyone felt intense fear as the elliptical purple eyes of this scary monster moved around them as if they were the eyes of death god.

    As it stopped, silence prevailed. Even other scarlet monsters here ceased in their actions, looked at it as if they were looking at their fearful god.

    The bear stood up on its rear legs, showing the magnificent horrifying body of it. William was the only one who held his calm, knowing that this wasn''t going to be a bad end for any of them.

    He noticed what most didn''t. Even if that monster scanned them with its eyes, it couldn''t actually see them. Its eyes were covered in a thinyer of semitransparent membrane that ended up making it unable to see.

    In fact, it was in a state that would appear after getting forcibly woken up from its hibernation sleep.

    Such bears would grow berserk once they were interrupted in their sleep. And even if they were considered in the most dangerous state after getting woken up, they''d still lose their ability to see or smell, even to properly think.

    Only their natural instincts would kick in. and that was exactly what was going on here.

    William knew that for the yellow stream river to be covered by tens of metres of rocks, these bears were only feeling a faint presence of it.

    Unlike it, the presence of the spear, which was just thrown out at the gate, felt much stronger.

    The presence of two feelingsing from two different directions puzzled the bear for a few moments before it finally followed its instincts. It went directly towards the strongest feeling, heading towards the spear nted on the monster gate.

    Its sudden charge and change of direction baffled everyone. They all imagined the scenes of their deaths on its paws.

    However, when that bear started to move, the ground shook fiercely, and that came as a waking up call for all.

    Without saying a single word, they all watched in awe the bear running on four, speeding up, before mming on the far distanced monster gate in less than ten seconds.

    During which, more bears appeared and started to show the same phenomenon.

    Yet everyone wasn''t focusing on the newly arrived scary bears or their weird behaviour, but kept looking in a single direction, towards that small spear inserted into the gate.

    After all, they all got it. Such a miracle happened here thanks to such a harmless looking spear.

    *Boom!*

    The sh that happened was simple, as the bear mmed at the gate with its colossal body. Yet the aftermath was too overbearing, leaving behind a tremendous shocking wave that even forced many of the monsters around the gate to the ground.

    "With these simple spears, we can control the direction of attacksnded by these bears," William paused intentionally until the fierce bear started to sway its deadly paws and attack that gate without pause.

    With each paw, the gate trembled faintly. Yet it was evident, it''d need more than that to be taken down.

    And that was quite expected. After all, these gates were world famous for how sturdy they stood against the assault of a team made of dark gold spirit masters.

    However, who said that just one bear was going towards that gate?

    As more bears appeared, they started to move towards the gate. William used this moment to add:

    "Each spear can hold up for up to five minutes. Then it''d lose its power and release the bears free again. Yet don''t worry¡­"

    With a wave of his hands, a huge number of spears appeared. They were numbered in thousands, even reaching up to ten thousand at the moment.

    These were the spears he painstakingly crafted with others. Seeing this miraculous scene unfolding in front of their very eyes and realising that what they crafted and never realised its value yed such a godly role, every single spirit master who helped William felt an unexined sense of pride and joy.

    ''See this¡­ This is our creation¡­ This is what we made¡­ This is how we are going to save the n¡­'' words like these echoed in their minds, adding more sense of pride into them.

    At the same time, all of them stole a nce at William. This weak looking, thin spirit master who wore porter clothes was the one who made all this possible.

    They didn''t understand most of what he said, yet they got that thanks to his illogical n, their n was going to be safe. And they were going to be branded as the heroes of this war.

    "I''m going to trouble the strong spirit masters around," at this point, William started to shout at the other spirit masters, acting as their temporary leader or something.

    "I want you to hold these spears, point them into the three holes for a few seconds, then throw them in the direction of the gate. Never stop until you bring the gate down, got it?"

    William was an outsider, a weak spirit master in his own regard. Compared to most of the spirit masters around, it didn''t make sense for him to just issue orders and expect them to listen.

 Chapter 127 A Total Switch In Beliefs

    ?But this was just the normal on any other day, not this day. They all got and guessed most of what happened. These youngsters, the ones they never expected much from, did such a miracle¡­ And that was thanks to William.

    If he asked them to throw away their lives, they''d dlyply without any hesitation. At this moment, William held a very high prestige in their hearts, one that no one else but the mighty and formidable figures at the n enjoyed.

    Of course, William wasn''t delusional. He knew this was just a temporary effect from his outstanding effort here. Give these spirit masters time, and they''d break free from such a spell he casted upon them and return to act all arrogant and haughty again towards him.

    Listening to his words, part of the strong spirit masters moved. They grabbed the spears, pointed them in the three holes, and started throwing them all away, all in the direction of that gate.

    They mimicked his actions, letting the spears into the three holes first for a few seconds, letting it get soaked with the yellowish fluid, before throwing them away.

    If one spear wouldst five minutes at most, then it''d be better to shower this damn thing with spears until it goes down.

    What William didn''t tell them was that the spears didn''t get just a time limit, but also an effect limit. In his estimate, and under the best conditions, the single spear could divert up to one hundred bears to its location.

    And so he didn''t just need them to throw many spears to counter the time limit, but to keep up with therge number of bears still pouring towards their direction.

    William also knew that even if this gate kept trembling like this, it was still a long way for it to get broken. It wasn''t only because it held a high defence, but also because of the size difference between it and the huge number of bears heading towards it.

    If he let all the bears go towards the gate, they''d end up killing each other under their weight to just reach the gate. And that wouldn''t add anything in the speed and efficiency of taking this gate down.

    And so William interfered once more after the passage of one minute and added another order.

    "Use the spears and direct the bears towards the densely packed monsters," William''s next instruction was to use the most out of the bears to tear the threatening monster army.

    Even if he found a way to deal with the scarlet bears for now, there was still tons of scarlet monsters of other types surrounding the n.

    After all, this was a category one monster outbreak in his eyes, not even two as everyone now suspected.

    If he didn''t act fast and kill most of the monsters here, then by the time the gate would be brought down, the monster army would be unstoppable.

    And the spears he got would be greatly depleted by that time.

    So, he decided to act against the vast monster army, using the aid of the bears.

    It was a great feat to control such scary bears around. It looked like what the enemy schemed for all this time was for nothing. The enemy got cheated on and William managed to flip the tables, turning such scary weapons in the hands of their enemies into his trump card.

    It wasn''t something any of the spirit masters here expected, including the elders, including the old patriarch.

    Standing on the wall and seeing all this unfolding in front of their eyes, every one of the Long n''s upper echelon didn''t make a single sound out of their immense shock.

    What the heck was this? Weren''t these the all frightening and scary bears? Since when did they change and be this docile? Since when did dealing with this impending death crisis be this easy?

    These questions wreaked havoc into their minds. If they didn''t see it, they''d call anyone iming such stories insane.

    "This kid¡­" The first to speak was the old patriarch, "he really did it!"

    He was the most shocked here. And he had many reasons for that!

    He started the day by waiting for William to arrive. He held ill intentions towards this kid, envisioning scenes where he''d torture him to get the bottom of the truth out.

    He waited for William to make sure he''d expose his poisonous nature, and yet things ended up in such an unbelievable way!

    First William yed his son. Even if William used a trick the old patriarch already saw before at the forest, it was still quite an amazing feat to beat his dark gold grade fighting maniac son.

    And then William proved to be quite slippery when he tried to squeeze him out of everything he knew. Before the old patriarch would get anything of value out of William, and when he thought he was getting him cornered, his n faced such an impending crisis out of thin air.

    The old patriarch held tons of doubts inside about such a monster outbreak, especially when he recalled thest words he had with William.

    Yet all of this paled and became quite insignificant in front of what this kid aplished during the past few hours!

    The old patriarch wasn''t a kind of stubborn person, and above all his son had such a fiery nature of trusting swords rather than words out of him.

    Seeing the actions and the miracle William managed to pull here under his nose made Kong admit it deep inside his heart and mind.

    This kid¡­ There was no way he had a rtionship with the dark spirit masters! If there was such a thing, then it should be eternal enmity just as William said it himself before.

    Seeing what William did here made Kong turn all the way from his greatest advisor into his strongest ally. And the old patriarch knew for sure that what William imed about his master, despite how crazy and illogical it might seem, was true.

 Chapter 128 New Orders

    ?Managing to trick these scary bears in such a way? That was a feat never heard of before in the annals of history of this world.

    The most brilliant part of William''s actions here wasn''t just because he knew how to control such a fearsome army of these bears, but because of the message William sent him through his granddaughter.

    Not only did William foresaw such insane events, not only did he produce such a miraculous way of handling such a disaster, but he also managed to predict another crazy thing.

    "Uncle¡­ This¡­" Gran couldn''t help but turn in excitement towards his formidable patriarch. They all knew their n was going to fall. Who were they fooling by expecting a win or even ending up saving part of their n? Themselves? Others? Or fate?

    They knew this, just as the spirit masters down below knew, just like their kids down there knew. Since the appearance of the monster gate, everyone realised that this was the end of their n.

    They were a dragon n, but just at this moment they were like phoenixes, rising from the ashes, soaring towards the highest sky with a sharp and crisp cry of victory.

    Unbelievable as it might seem, but if this continued and this kid had enough of these wondrous spears, then their n would be saved.

    And it wasn''t only that, it was also a victory that''de at a cheap price of their nsmen and n.

    It was like a dream! A fantastic dream they didn''t want to get awakened from.

    "Stay put," the old patriarch knew what Gran wanted to speak about right now. If the entire war was taking a smooth turn for them down below, then their presence here in wait wasn''t needed.

    They wanted to descend and join this battle like everyone else, be part of such a historical victory. However, the old patriarch seemed to still not authorise such a thing yet.

    They all turned and looked in a weird way towards him. What were you waiting for exactly? This was the question that spanned like fire in their minds.

    Unlike what they expected, this fight was still far from done.

    "I need groups of you to take groups of these," at the same moment, and far away from the walls, William was distributing orders like crazy.

    This was a very crucial moment of the battle. William knew that a single mistake, a single dy in executing orders, then everything they all worked hard to get would crumble and this victory would puff out in thin air.

    So, he made sure that everyone was going to do their part as they should be.

    "What do you need from us?" At this point, everyone was frantically looking at William in admiration. He was the one behind this miracle. And that spell he casted wasn''t that easily broken or forgotten at the time being.

    "I want two teams to be formed, all of them gold ranked spirit masters. Also go and find one elder to lead each team¡­" William wasn''t aware that every single action and word of his were delivered to the far away elders of the n, "take all the spears you need and head towards the directions of the reinforcements. Make sure these two damn monster gates and hordes of monsters gushing out from are dead. Then return here as fast as you can and report to the patriarch."

    At this moment, he acted as if he was the real leader of this entire battle or the acting patriarch or something. And yet none questioned or doubted him again like he used to.

    His words were logical and made quite sense. Just when he said these, even the old patriarch on the wall felt astonished, couldn''t help but nod in agreement and support.

    "What the hell is his brain made of? Howe such a kid can be so meticulous and attentive to all the details?!" such shockingments rose up not only from many fighting spirit masters on the battlefield, but also from the elders on the wall.

    It was a logical move, yet it was all missed by them in the middle of the heat of theireback. And the most impressive thing was that William seemed to not miss such a thing in his ns from the start.

    And the one who knew best of this was none other than the old patriarch.

    His mind worked fast and linked what William said and nned with the content of the message he received.

    "I''ll go!"

    "Me too!"

    "Let me lead one team! I did nothing during this entire thing!"

    All of sudden, all the elders around him voiced out their desire and intention to go and lead one team of the two.

    The old patriarch moved his eyes around and thought to himself.

    ''I can''t lose to such a youngster¡­''

    As he moved his eyes around, he had to select the weakest elders from this lot. He knew a huge and brutal fight was going to happen soon enough, and he needed all the help he could get.

    "You and you¡­ Go down there and lead one team each," his eyes paused on two of the recently joined elders. They were the youngest, the most eager to prove themselves worthy despite being the weakest in the elder circle.

    "Don''t dwindle for too long. Take the spears in your rings and move fast, even ahead of your teams. Make sure to save the situation out there and then head back with all the dark gold ranked spirit masters you can find. Don''t take long or else expect a hefty penalty when all this is over."

    None of those present here knew the real intentions behind such strict orders from their patriarch. From the look of it, from the tone and the way the old patriarch spoke, they all got the impression that they were still in a deadly situation.

    Going to rescue the reinforcements and return with their top elite spirit masters fast? Everyone exchanged gazes in doubt and confusion.

 Chapter 129 Old Man!

    ?"What the hell are you waiting for? Go now!" Seeing such a reaction, the old patriarch shouted in an enraged way that jolted everyone awake.

    ''Yes¡­ The situation is far more dangerous than we initially thought¡­'' This mere sh of thought appeared in everyone''s minds at the same moment.

    However, the two who got selected didn''t dy any further. They jumped off the walls and made a run as they were running for their lives.

    Their scary patriarch was getting mad for no reason. Wasn''t this war heading towards their victory? What was going on exactly? Yet such questions kept ringing rming bells in the heads of the elders, even the two who moved away.

    Only the patriarch and William knew the root of this.

    On the frontline, the two elders surprised everyone by their sudden presence. Even William was taken aback before he understood everything.

    "So, you are watching all this time? That''s great¡­ I thought you were growing old, bingzy or something!"

    "Cough! Cough!"

    When the two elders heard his words, they couldn''t help but have a change in their faces and cough. William mistook that only the patriarch was listening and didn''t know that he was delivering his words to everyone at this moment.

    What would be the case when the patriarch would repeat such words in front of everyone? And howe William was speaking to their venerable figure in such a way?

    "Don''t forget, there is still another battle up there to fight!" but before any of the two elders would reprimand him for saying such mean words, what William said left them all stupefied.

    What the heck?! They all cursed inwardly, even the far away elders. But at this moment, they all started to link up the dot, beginning to see the entire picture for the first time.

    It was all William''s doing! The message that Berry left must have something to do with the weird attitude their patriarch had.

    There was still another fight waiting? Howe?

    Seeing the terrifying bears moving towards the gate and other monsters, they all asked the same question in their minds:

    ''Is there a much more terrifying enemying up? Damn!''

    "This damn brat¡­ Humph!" And on the far away walls, the old patriarch couldn''t help but fume in rage when he realised what he just said on behalf of William.

    Yet this was all a false rage, and he inwardly still admired such a kid. Even in this situation, he was still putting a strong front, acting in an attitude that befitted a real experienced powerhouse, not just a mere eight years old kid.

    "Take these," William took out a few thousand extra spears, "these shall be enough."

    He didn''t wait for a single moment behind and went to resume his control over the battle, distributing more orders over the directions the other spirit masters should throw the spears at.

    The two elders exchanged looks and each saw the seriousness in each other''s eyes.

    If they nned before to finish this task and return fast for the sake of avoiding the scary patriarch''s wrath, at this moment they knew their n was still in danger.

    So, they''d better move right away and do their task beforeing back fast.

    "Come with me," each one took one team of the volunteer spirit masters and started running. They didn''t even hold their speed or waited for their team members to catch up.

    From a single nce, the two elders seemed to be in a fervent race, seeing which one would finish his task first or something like that.

    "Father¡­ What did Berry tell you exactly?" As things were starting to clear up in front of the elders'' eyes, Berry''s father decided to take the initiative and ask about details.

    "You guessed it right, but we can''t talk about it right now," the old man paused and before his stubborn son would speak again, he added, "we are watched by the enemy. So, it''s better to keep our tactics and strategies hidden."

    "..."

    It was a shocking revtion. And none of them suspected that such an intel didn''te from this formidable patriarch but from William.

    William left such a warning at the end of the message. Even Berry didn''t take it for real and considered him joking.

    Someone was spying over her mighty grandfather? This was insane!

    Yet the old man realised that everything William imed happened. Even if he imed the sky to fall and the world to end at this moment, this old man wouldn''t doubt his words anymore.

    So, if he said they were being watched, then someone was really doing it. By the two elder''s absence, the battle returned to the same old routine that William held total control over.

    "Throw a few spears there, new monsters areing out from the forest."

    "Don''t miss this bunch of bastards, take them down right now!"

    "Attack that zone, stop any way of retreat for them."

    "Don''t lead bears to the walls, they will attack us afterwards!"

    In the middle of all this, and even if William tried to exert total control over the situation, there were still many things that were doomed to happen.

    Few excited spirit masters threw spears and directed a lot of the bears towards the walls.

    They wanted to use the bears'' help to clear all the monsters around the n. ''Dammit! What did they take these bears for? Work ves or something?'' William inwardly cursed while watching the bears approaching the walls.

    "Old man, you know what you shall do. Don''t let them destroy the walls, it''s your n after all."

    For some reason, William started to speak in such a way towards the old patriarch. Thetter was feeling more embarrassed by such an attitude and wanted to go all the way down there and teach this rude kid a lesson.

    Even if he was the hero of this battle, even if he helped their n to survive, he shouldn''t go overboard and act this arrogantly!

 Chapter 130 The Crazy Old Man

    ?However what William said was true. These bears once freed from killing the monsters would turn around and kill the spirit masters around.

    The bears weren''t seeing or differentiating anything right now. They just followed the scent of that yellowish fluid around and kept attacking anything and anyone around the spears or the river.

    In addition to that, once these monsters got killed, where should these brilliant spirit masters lead these bears towards next?

    At the n walls, the number of monsters wasn''t that much to begin with. So, the bears were supposed to go all out and hit the walls next.

    And that was what made such a move a terrible one. And it red at the difference between William and other spirit masters'' way of thinking.

    It wasn''t a difference in ranks or strength, not a difference in age. There was a difference in intelligence, in wisdom, and in rich battle experience between the two.

    "Weren''t you eager to fight?" seeing the bears making their way into his nsmen and approaching the walls, "go down there and kill them."

    "Yes, patriarch," everyone had a fiery expression over their faces. They wanted to go all out and kill these bears.

    "Remember," yet before any of them moved a muscle, the old patriarch warned, "don''t overdo it, and don''t reveal everything."

    "We got it, patriarch."

    The warning was simple, yet it held great weight indeed.

    The old man was trying to remind them of the ones watching them. They were their enemies, and it wasn''t wise to expose one''s strongest techniques in front of their enemies.

    Watching the sharpest swords of his n step into the stage, the old man had finally one moment of peace.

    "Patriarch¡­"

    "F*ck! Why didn''t you go down there with others?"

    Just when he was about to close his eyes and take a moment to grasp the hectic situation with all its details, the sound of the fourth elder resounded in his ears, startling him greatly.

    "There¡­ There is something I wanted to tell you about¡­" the fourth elder was surprised by the nervous reaction of the patriarch, yet he spoke, nheless.

    "Say it then¡­" the old man was annoyed. He wanted to recall all the information he got from William, match them with what this kid did here to learn the big secrets revealed in this war.

    Even if he knew most of the knowledge William either spoke or showed in action, the key to their victoryy in two things.

    William knew from the start that the iing monster outbreak wasn''t third grade but higher. He even knew the nature and way of attack of the enemy from the start.

    Then it came down to this weird and simple forging technique which made all the difference in this war entirely.

    William usedmon grade materials, two of the most insignificant ones to form something he yet had to understand.

    What was special wasn''t the materials, but the way William nned to use them to counter the monsters. From the look of it, this didn''t seem like a sudden inspiration or a moment of tion.

    William knew what he was doing from the very start.

    It was shocking, but he already had a reason to exin all that. If William''s master already spoke about the blood-typed monsters and those scary bears to him, then it was also possible to speak about how to solve their crisis.

    Yet even with knowing so, the ability to decide such a tactic on the spot and standing firm against all the mocking and mean treatment William experienced was something admirable.

    And that meant William didn''t just hear it from his master, he also got to see such tactics before, or even better¡­ He used it himself and was certain of its effects.

    Or else, he''d have to show signs of hesitation when ced under such immense pressure from everyone.

    Even Berry doubted him!

    "It''s about Berry¡­" and when the old patriarch was thinking about Berry''s reaction towards William, he suddenly heard the fourth elder mention her name with a weird look on his face.

    "And William¡­" and when he continued his words, the eyebrows of the patriarch rose up before motioning for him to continue speaking.

    "It''s¡­ That''s what happened¡­" The fourth elder knew this wasn''t the right time to speak with the patriarch about this sensitive topic, but he knew after this battle William was destined to rise to glory.

    He wanted to warn and inform the patriarch first before he''d do something he''d regretter on.

    And besides, Berry''s father, who was hard to deal and reason with, was already gone.

    "Oh¡­ So that''s his true intentions then¡­" against what the fourth elder expected, the old patriarch didn''t explode out in a storm of rage.

    If anything could describe his attitude right now, then it''d be one¡­ He was excited!

    "Keep this to yourself," and when the fourth elder was puzzled by this unexpected reaction, the patriarch added, "I don''t want anything to go wrong thanks to your words being heard by the wrong people."

    The fourth elder looked in more disbelief towards the old patriarch. In his mind he kept questioning what he heard.

    What? Do you think an outsider like him deserved your granddaughter to this extent or what?

    This was the only logical exnation he could find. This old man was epting William''s move and intentions towards his granddaughter.

    In fact, like anyone in the elders'' circle, the fourth elder held Berry in a special ce in his heart. She was gentle and kind, yet she had to suffer all this time without any way for him to help.

    In his eyes, in everyone''s eyes, she deserved a man who was like a zing sun in the entire world.

    Yet an unknown porter sprung out of nowhere, and he took the initiative to help her. In addition to that, he came here and helped his n to survive.

    The fourth elder knew what the old patriarch was thinking about. And yet he didn''t ept such a line of thoughts.

 Chapter 131 Arrows!

    ?In the old patriarch''s mind, only blindfolded dudes with narrow minds and thoughts would decline mating the two together.

    If he had to even act as the matchmaker between the two, he already decided on doing this even if his son objected to such a thing.

    Yet things turned out to not need his intervention at all to make the two get together and be closer to each other. Then howe he wouldn''t get excited about such an unexpected twist in events?

    As for the fourth elder, he knew even if the patriarch said it casually, he meant each word he uttered. He could also guess the source of trouble the old patriarch warned him against, Berry''s father.

    He nned to never tell that madman anything at all. He wasn''t crazy to do it or else he might also get part of the heat of that man''s fury.

    So, he decided to keep his mouth shut about this secret, even if he had to take it to his grave.

    By the joining of their elders and mighty figures, the morale of the nsmen fighting down below skyrocketed to a new level.

    They started to fight fervently and seeing this, the elders couldn''t think about retreat.

    They kept fighting down there, yet they remained attentive to the patriarch''s warning words.

    They kept fighting, yet they saved most of their strength and strongest techniques for the mysteriouster on battle.

    In fact, there wasn''t much for them to do. The magical twist that William directed made it easy for the fight to progress smoothly.

    The number of monsters started to decrease, and cracks started to spread over the outer lining of the monster gate.

    William was keeping a close eye over everything happening around him. He knew they were winning, but he never underestimated his enemy even at such moments.

    Celebration of victory should bemenced when the enemies would end up being dead. Before this, it was risky to even think about something like this.

    Just in less than one hour, shes of many figures started to appear from two directions. William looked and heaved a sigh of relief.

    "Old man, I know you are listening," he suddenly turned his attention towards the n, "your moment is now. Start moving out and don''t forget¡­ Don''t miss a single enemy of them or else you know the consequences."

    The ones standing around William wore puzzled expressions over their faces. And such puzzlement got deepened when they saw the fast shy movement of their patriarch, leading arge group of formidable spirit masters.

    Seeing this, seeing their big shots from their side moving away from the battle, made everyone frown at first. Yet when they thoughtter about it, they all got one simple idea in their minds.

    Something big was going to happen!

    The patriarch wasn''t any less attentive and cautious than William. Even if they were winning, it was still their n homebase. It was dangerous to leave it without proper security.

    So, he assigned a group of five dark gold spirit masters, led by the fourth elder, to stay behind and defend the n.

    Two of them came from the academy and allied ns. Then the patriarch moved with everyone else, leading them without saying anything towards the depth of the forest.

    William told him one thing; whoever led this battle wasn''t situated far away. He estimated them to be less than fifty miles away, and he gave him a hint as well.

    Follow the trail left out by the bears!

    This all started by the plot made by those monster leaders. And that plot started by waking up the bears from the depths of the forest and leading them here.

    Before they''d start their all out onught, they had to secretly move the bears closer before letting them loose.

    The bears must havee from fixed points. And these were the directions these leaders must be present at.

    The old patriarch knew that with the destruction of the three monster gates, those despicable leaders would announce this as their loss and flee.

    So, they had to act fast. But the sole problem remained in theirck of enough forces to give a proper chase.

    And that was why William purposefully dyed the destruction of the third portal near the n, leaving it standing the longest.

    If he wanted, he could simply have crushed it in less than half an hour.

    Working to ensure even such tiny details was something amazing that the old patriarch himself noticed and admired.

    ''Are you sure it''s ok? Tons of these bears are still alive!''

    Just when the old patriarch passed over William''s head, he sent this message discreetly using spiritual telepathy.

    William wasn''t startled. After all this was an ability gained by the strong spirit masters.

    "Watch then¡­" William decided to show him in actions and not mere words.

    In the next instant, he took out the arrows he kept hidden all this time.

    He knew that by the sudden move of all the terrifying figures, the enemy would be instantly rmed.

    So, it didn''t matter to elongate this battle for any further.

    If they were to expose everything, it was better to go all out then.

    William pointed at the arrows before shouting:

    "Those who can use bows,e and pick these up. Use them the same way you used the spears so far. And make sure to target the bears, nothing else."

    His words made all the spirit masters around him quite puzzled, yet they followed his orders. The first bellow of arrowsnded at the nearby bears. In the next few moments, they all turned around and started killing each other.

    Seeing this shocking scene left another shock on the entire battlefield. Even the patriarch and strong spirit masters paused for a second from the horrifying scenes they were seeing.

    What the heck was wrong with this kid? Was his brain normal or what?!!

    "Keep firing!" The only one who remained calm and held hisposure was none other than William.

 Chapter 132 Victory!

    ?The terrifying impact passed fast under William''s loud orders. The spirit masters started to fire in fervent fashion when they saw the result of these useless looking arrows.

    Using arrows to inflict internal fights between the terrifying bears? That was something unheard of before! It wasn''t any less in magnitude than the effect of spears over directing and controlling these bears.

    Seeing this, the old patriarch knew things were going to be much smoother than he expected. So instead of worrying over the fight here, he focused his attention over the battle waiting for him.

    Each bear hit by an arrow ended up getting attacked by other bears. As the arrows were smaller than spears and were used in batches, in a few minutes many bears were just battling against each other.

    Without the need of thinking too much, anyone would guess the fate of this battle.

    There would be only a few bears surviving at the end, and they''d all be heavily wounded and extremely exhausted. The spirit masters around even suspected the need to continueunching these arrows after an hour had passed.

    All the bears which came here were already hitting and attacking each other in a crazy manner.

    It was a mad situation! One which the scary enemy turned to be this idiotic to fight among themselves.

    You thought you were terrifyingly strong? Then how about you deal with each other then?

    After two hours, William knew there was no need to continue controlling this battle anymore.

    The huge number of bears that initially spanned for tens of thousands, even reaching to a staggering hundreds of thousands, was now dwindling to a few hundred.

    And all of them carried heavy wounds and were on the verge of dying.

    *Boom!* and after all this time, the monster gate finally crashed down, exploding into tiny pieces.

    The door of hell that kept gushing out endless monsters was closed. William regretted not being strong enough or else he''d prefer to pass through this gate and keep killing monsters on the other side of it.

    He hated monsters, hated them deep down his bones.

    "This¡­"

    "Is this¡­"

    "Our victory?!!!"

    Just in less than another hour, the entire battlefield went under a deadly silence. The scarlet bears were already exhausted and heavily injured, so it wasn''t that hard to kill them.

    As for monsters, they weren''t of any concern to the spirit master army here. In addition to that, with their high morale, they could face tens of such scarlet monster armies with the exception of the bears.

    Many spirit masters stood erect and tall, with different sized enemies scattered endlessly all over the ground.

    Blood covered their faces, their gears, their weapons, and their bodies. They gave off a very dangerous aura, had such a savage look, and yet they all remained silent.

    They moved their eyes around in disbelief. The fight that was supposed tost for a day or two, the defeat they all envisioned before, the n they imagined falling, their lives they thought to be gone¡­ All this didn''t happen!

    Instead, a miracle happened!

    And they ended up being victorious!

    "We won!"

    "It''s our victory!"

    "Yes!"

    "Long live the young miss!"

    "Long live Long n!"

    One and half hours ago, the reinforcements from the academy and allied ns arrived. Yet to their shock, there was nothing much for them to be done.

    In fact, what they saw made them all stupefied!

    "What the hell is that?"

    "Arrows getunched, and monsters start to fight among themselves?"

    "Damn! Do my eyes trick me or what?"

    The newly arrived reinforcements were all shocked, but none was free to exin anything to them. When you got an upper hand, no matter what reason caused it, you had to press forward and seize the chance, not waste time in talking.

    Looking around, William could finally heave a sigh of relief. From the start till now, he felt like he was smashed by a boulder, having him push it all the way up a mountain.

    Yet he seeded! Despite all the odds, against all the hardships, he finally managed to secure and save this n.

    "Let''s go," William collected the remaining spears and arrows around. He didn''t even spare another nce over the battlefield and moved back to the n.

    His task here, the one he didn''t seek, was finally done.

    "William¡­ You¡­"

    All this time, and since the start of his fearsome and shocking performance, Berry kept her silence, watching everything from the side.

    Everyone might not know everything about what he did, yet she was the one to deliver the message over to her grandfather.

    She didn''t think what William told her was true. But when she saw him devastate their terrifying and unstoppable enemy, seeing her grandfather lead an army of formidable figures and head away, she knew what William asked her to deliver was true.

    In her rounded big eyes, William wasn''t that kid who needed her protection and care anymore, not that kind of porter and weak spirit masters she always felt sympathy towards.

    He was much grander than that!

    In her eyes, he was as tall as her grandfather, as mighty as him, and even was much more mysterious than she ever thought.

    In her eyes¡­ He turned to be not only her saviour, but her hero.

    The first time she met him, he saved her. The second time she met him, he saved her n.

    Without knowing it, she started to fall truly and fully for this kid.

    "Let''s go," William held her hand without the need of permission, as if this was a normal thing between the duo, "trust your grandfather and family, trust your n and their allies¡­ They''ll kill those who are targeting you and you will be safe."

    And when he said these words, she suddenly recalled what he said to the fourth elder.

    At that time, she was busy worrying about William and the attitude of others towards him. She didn''t want him to face any trouble just because he wanted to help.

 Chapter 133 Admiration!

    ?But right now, and when she heard his words and felt his gentle touch, she suddenly got it, she got the reason behind his help, the true reason.

    It was all for her! And no girl could resist such a charming act even if it came from a kid who looked shorter and thinner, wearing a hacked uniform of a porter.

    Clenching the fists while wearing a face filled with redness over her cheeks, and with sparkling eyes she said to the back of the kid walking in front of her in a soft tone like a whisper: "Thank you."

    William''s moves halted for a brief moment when he heard her words. Her voice was like the sweetest melody he ever heard. Even his heart trembled faintly when he heard her voice.

    But he regained hisposure fast and kept walking again without saying anything. After all, there was nothing else for him to say.

    Just as William led the way and Berry followed, Lina and Ary moved as well.

    Lina already knew how strong William was. Yet that was just in the field of facing enemies of simr powers like the two of them.

    However, in such a battle, where they were facing such formidable enemies, with numbers that were too silly to count, he pulled a miracle again.

    In her eyes, her escape with her little sister was already considered a miracle. For every individual, miracles had their own standards and different values.

    As for Ary, this spirit master who lived his entire life indebted to the academy and working as a ve in some way, was deeply shaken like everyone else who truly knew William.

    He met William before at the gates of the academy and he seemed¡­ Quite harmless!

    But such a person, who he mistook as a weak and useless porter, was the mastermind behind such overwhelming victory.

    Crushing a monster tide of second grade in just a few hours? Smashing a massive army of monsters, led by hundreds of thousands of terrifying dark gold scarlet bears in mere hours? This was unprecedented!

    Even if the formidable figures from all over the academy and its subsidiary ns were gathered up, they''d not be able to pull such a feat!

    Ary was looking at William''s back like he was seeing a monster! And what scared him the most was the fact that William was indeed weak at this moment.

    ''What will happen when he''ll get a bit stronger? What kind of shaking the world actions he''ll do when he reaches the gold ranks? The dark gold ranks? Can he go beyond that, and achieve the impossible?''

    This was what Ary was thinking about.

    In this battle, he prepared himself to not return. And even if he thought abouting back alive, then his body would be totally hacked, losing a limb or couple of them at least.

    And yet here he was, walking behind William with a totally intact body. There was blood and dust, little wounds here and there, but that was all!

    And that was quite shocking as a result in Ary''s eyes.

    "Let''s go," as William led Berry and the other two towards the n, Kong could finally break free from his shock and said in solemn tone to his mates.

    He always took himself to be the most genius spirit master in the n, in his ss at the academy, among his peers.

    Yet seeing this seemingly weak spirit master who was still wearing the clothes of a porter pulling such a feat made him deeply shaken.

    ''A genius! What the heck was I thinking all this time?!!!''

    He wasn''t the only one shaken by this. On the other hand, Lang also had the same heavy feeling.

    He met William much earlier than Kong. At that time, William looked like a frightened rat who was caught by a wild cat.

    The meeting that went on with Guanine and his gang didn''t happen long ago. Yet when Lang recalled the feats William did since then, saving the rest of the n, getting stronger and bing one of his ss, and finally saving his n¡­ He felt like this happened decades ago.

    Looking at him made him question himself; what did heck to be this strong?

    Just without asking anyone to follow, once William moved, the group of white, bronzed, and silver young spirit masters of the n who followed him before in forging these spears and arrows, followed his steps again without saying a single word or receiving any order to do so.

    In all of their eyes, William turned to be their unshakable leader, one they''d trust no matter how crazy he seemed or acted.

    Just as this group of youngsters started to move, a wide path opened in an instant in front of them from all the spirit masters on the field.

    They all looked in respect, in a deep and sincere respect, towards this small group of youngsters.

    They were mostly formed of youngsters of their n, the future seedlings who would take over things in a decade or two and protect their n.

    It wasn''t easy for the older generations to respect the potential and deeds of the younger ones. Yet when the little group marched, the atmosphere around felt like they were marching like heroes.

    And that didn''t stem from them, it was the feeling that others around gave to them, the credit they deserved.

    ''Saying that next generations were going to be weak and untrustworthy? Come look at our n''s future generation¡­ They are more capable than any of us!''

    This was what everyone had in mind. The scenes of these youngsters jumping off the walls, joining the desperate battle by then was unforgettable in the minds of all the spirit masters standing here.

    ''Speaking about how the future generations shall learn how to be dauntless? Come and watch our future generation in action to learn!''

    William noticed this, felt the change in atmosphere and saw the wide path opened by all the spirit masters in the field.

 Chapter 134 A Grand Salute Of Repsect!

    ?He knew he was the hero behind this victory, but he had to step back and let others enjoy the limelight of this huge credit.

    He might be the mastermind behind all this, yet without their help, he wouldn''t have seeded.

    He tested these youngsters more than once, and eventually they gained his respect. They followed him even when he took that impossible leap, plunging directly towards the opened mouth of death.

    And yet they kept advancing and never retreated! It didn''t matter to him if they got questions and doubts. They all were humans and that was a natural thing.

    He cared more about their actions. When they jumped after him and followed him in the middle of the sea of monsters, he knew he could trust these kids.

    As for the matter of nourishing them and guiding them in their training in the future, it was another matter postponed for another time.

    Once he decided to make them enjoy this treatment first handed, he paused and waited. The little spirit masters behind him paused while Berry was about to ask in puzzlement when he raised his hand to motion her to wait.

    He knew this was going to grow into something big, something that these young spirit masters of his team deserved.

    A grand salute from their n!

    As William expected, once he stopped and gave enough time for others, all the spirit masters in the field came and stood on the side, forming two grand lines, lining the path with eyes filled with respect and admiration.

    Then in an unexpected move, he took a step back while gently giving Berry a soft push at the back.

    It happened so fast and without any warning, taking Berry by surprise. However, before she''d turn to question him, a spirit master shouted, and it turned into a thunderous chorus: "Long live the n! Long live our young miss! Long live our young spirit masters!"

    One said it amidst the heat he felt churning inside his chest, and in an instant others followed.

    Strong spirit masters could send thunderous shouts to control a big battlefield. And when arge group of strong spirit masters gathered and shouted like this, even the ground itself trembled from their voices.

    "Hold your heads up high," William said in a low tone, one that could be heard by everyone around him, "march after your young miss and walk like heroes. You deserved it, you did a great job!"

    Just when he said it, he ced his hand behind Berry''s back and gave her a gentle push for the second time.

    One step was taken out of her will, then she kept walking without the need of his help.

    Walking in between the staring gazes filled with indescribable admiration and warm feelings for them was something they''d never forget for the rest of their lives.

    Each step they took felt like a step to the glorious heavens. They felt invincible, and the shouts that reverberated and shook the entire world were turning into a melody that hypnotised them.

    Walking all the way to the n homebase felt like it took an entire lifetime from them to be done.

    "Open gates for our heroes!" Another shout came and with it, the gates were wide opened and the cheering from behind kept ranging until they all vanished into the n base.

    Walking into the streets for a while, not a single one ever said anything. Even the outsiders, Lina and Ary, felt the same as they also were part of this.

    Even if they weren''t part of the n, they were part of such a legendary atmosphere.

    William moved behind Berry without saying a word. In fact, he did all this to repay what these kids did for him, to reward and nourish their daring spirits and loyalty for humankind.

    He didn''t feel anything like they had. After all he held much deeper and richer experience than him in regard to battles and great wars.

    And he felt lots of such moments before, to make him grow numb from such big events.

    He knew these moments were priceless and would eventually shift anyone''s future for the better. Yet whenever he recalled his oldest and fiercest foe, he couldn''t help but clench his fists uncontrobly.

    Such precious moments were what drove him before when he was young to grow stronger. And he knew better than anyone else that these weren''t enough to crush the human''s biggest enemy.

    So, none of this affected him or managed even to get into his head. His mind was crystal clear, while knowing that he did his part and saved the n from the impending danger.

    And now it was the turn of the n''s formidable spirit masters led by their patriarch to do their part.

    He stole a nce at the walking ahead Berry with a wide smile and satisfied expression over her face.

    He first mistook such assault to be targeted against him. It made sense as the techniques stolen held information that were only avable in the outside world.

    However, when he thought about it again, it was easy for the enemy to hunt him down anywhere else. Why risk it like this to get the n demolished?

    This was a clear move to destroy the Long n and its spirit masters. And that left him puzzled for a while as he wasn''t actually part of the n.

    Yet when he recalled the series of events in his mind many times, he knew he just missed a tiny detail.

    The enemy didn''t know at all that he was the one to write these techniques in the first ce!

    The techniques were retrieved and stolen from Berry when she was found in the forest. The person who did it had to run fast and escape the academy once he got such dangerous papers.

    In the eyes of the enemy, the true target they wanted to kill wasn''t him, but her. They linked the techniques to her and had only one possible exnation for that.

    Her grandfather!

 Chapter 135 Thinking About His Loot

    ?So, taking down the n was a must, and killing everyone including Berry and her grandfather was something they had to do.

    William wasn''t worried over the old man. He could guess he wasn''t that simple or easy foe.

    Even if he asked the old man to venture deep into the enemy territory and fight the monster tide''s formidable leaders, it wasn''t going to end badly for him.

    William didn''t miss this part as he made sure to remind the old man to keep all of his strong aces intact and rested.

    In addition to that, the old man seemed to move a step ahead and didn''t involve his strong forces early on in the battle. William didn''t know the exact reason, but he felt the old man was acting cautious and seemed to sniff something wrong in all this.

    At the same time, the reinforcementsing from the academy and the allied ns sent out their elites as well.

    To kill the old man required much more work and more formidable forces than the enemy already prepared up ahead.

    William wasn''t worried about the old man''s life for all this. Yet he was worried about his failure.

    Letting a single one of those leaders of the monster army escape would turn outter to be a disastrous mistake.

    After all, the knowledge of him being behind saving Berry wasn''t a big secret and a growing number of people were learning about that every passing day.

    William didn''t want to be annoyed all the time by the harassmenting from the monster side. It was better to uproot the source of the problem and retrieve the documents stolen as fast as possible, kill anyone who knew about them, and bury such a secret forever.

    The time between getting the techniques and moving out was short. And that made William expect the leaders of the monsters in this part of the world didn''t inform anyone else about what they found.

    In their eyes, there was no actual need to do this. They were so sure about their victory. That was the most logical line of thoughts such arrogant monster leaders would adopt in such a situation in William''s eyes.

    If a single one escaped, he''d go and exin what happened here. Then more ferocious attacks would target Berry and William.

    After all, William decided to keep Berry by his side most of the time. And that meant if she was in danger, he also would be.

    And who knew? Few traitors might find out about him behind curing her and helping her recover and link the dots with the mysterious appearance of these techniques in this world.

    ''Hope you''ll do your part well, old man,'' so unlike what others were experiencing right now, William''s mind was quite tense while knowing this wasn''t up for him to decide.

    He was still too weak to even take part in such a brutal sh. And he had toy all his hopes on others this time. ''That''s not a good feeling to be honest. I have to increase my spirit power as soon as possible.''

    Thinking about that, he couldn''t help but turn his head back and recall the sea of dead monsters out there.

    And when he thought about their monster cores, his eyes gleamed in a fierce light of greed.

    He wanted these cores! But wanting something and getting it was a totally different matter.

    He knew he did so many things to the n. But these cores and other monster materials were considered the assets of the n.

    The n took considerable damage. Even if it could be considered an overwhelming victory for them, they lost a lot of good spirit masters.

    So, the n needed to nourish more spirit masters and help them get stronger to replenish their lost strength.

    After all, monsters weren''t just the only enemies of any n in this world. The biggest threat wasing from the rivalling ns around.

    William knew he''d get part of the spoils of this war, but he was worried about the actual size and quality of this part.

    There were different types of monsters on the battlefield. He wanted the high grade monster cores, those of gold and dark gold grades, not the mediocre and low ranked ones, like white, bronze, or silver.

    He didn''t directly kill any of these monsters. Even if the method used to direct and control the bears were forged by him, the ones who killed most of these monsters out there were the bears themselves, then the spirit masters of the n.

    He didn''t kill that much in this battle, and the ones he killed were impossible to find in the middle of all this mess.

    He wouldn''t be able to absorb these cores for sure, but he could simply sell them out for a huge price.

    He wasn''t greedy for wealth to be rich, but to use such wealth in obtaining more formidable gears and items.

    For example, he could sell these cores and get a scary spear to test out his new technique with. He could also upgrade the bow he got and get himself a good grade bow to suit his arrows.

    He could also buy tons of materials, hire a ce to forge and do alchemy without the interruption of anyone, or even buy a ce for himself!

    Not to mention if he wanted to properly nourish and start forming a team that solely belonged to him, then he needed to have the ability to fund such a team on his own.

    Letting others interfere with money would be like inviting trouble toe inside the team. And gradually his methods would get to be known by others, and that would drive lots of heat and trouble towards him.

    Just the little incident he never expected from giving Berry the techniques taught him a valuable lesson in what he should behave from now on.

    He could do lots of things with wealth, and that was why he cared too much about his gains from this battle.

 Chapter 136 Sleeping On The Sofa

    ?William knew he had to stay here for a slightly longer time and wait for the return of the patriarch. He could smell the scent of gunpowder in the air just by imagining the future negotiations he would have with the n about such spoils of war.

    ''I can still use her,'' William stole a gaze at the back of Berry and couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. ''Don''t take it against me, I need to grow stronger fast, help you and others to be stronger as well. It''s for your own good too, got me, right?''

    He was a little maniptive here, but that didn''t mean he was evil. Even if he found such a good excuse to justify his actions, he knew it wasn''t that great to use a girl to get what he wanted.

    ''Anything to get what I wanted,'' he ended this little debate in his mind before finally stopping with everyone else.

    They finally arrived back to where this all started, to the old patriarch''s mansion.

    The ce was empty and silent,cking any sign of life at the moment. All the residents in the entire n were either moved to the frontline or moved to the safe ces to avoid any unneeded losses.

    William looked at the residence up front and suddenly felt the urge to rest. He wasn''t the only one who felt this way in front of the mansion. This fight didn''tst for long, but it was all stressful over him and others.

    "Let''s get some rest," William was the first to speak and his words moved everyone after him inside the residence.

    "Can we sleep here?" Kong and others were familiar with this building, even more than any other building in the n and the academy.

    Yet When ine spoke up, he asked William and not Berry. Weirdly enough, everyone here looked up at William, waiting for his answer.

    In their eyes, he was their leader. Even if they didn''t run any elections for that, they all acknowledged him for such a thing.

    "Sure, why not? I''m sure the old man won''t object on such a thing, right Berry?" William took this matter quite lightly, much more than it should be.

    After all, this wasn''t his ce to rule over and issue such statement. And he even called the old patriarch the nickname he decided to call him from the moment he met him before.

    "S¡­ Sure," Berry was surprised by this, and snapped out of the amazing and intoxicating feeling she and everyone felt from the nsmen reception and salute from before.

    Just when everyone followed him inside, even if they all felt heroic and invincible, being in the main residence of the patriarch helped them snap out of such an amazing feeling.

    "This¡­"

    "Is it ok for us to be here?"

    "Is it really... Ok?"

    Despite ine already asked before about this, and even if they heard the short words between William and Berry, they still couldn''t handle being inside the mansion of their scary and respected patriarch.

    Just as they hesitated, William found arge couch in the main and spacious hall they entered. Without even waiting for them, he threw his body over and closed his eyes.

    "Just enjoy your moment, it isn''t easy to be the hero of your n every day."

    As he said these words, everyone moved their eyes around before Berry coughed.

    "It''s better to wait into the guest room before¡­"

    Just when she was in the middle of her words, the snoring sound came from William and interrupted her.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ Is he already asleep?!!" Lang couldn''t help bute closer. Before he''d check over him, William snorted again while turning his body around, showing such an angelic face.

    Seeing him in deep sleep left everyone baffled with his actions.

    "He¡­ Must be tired¡­" Berry coughed again, "let''s leave him here. There are prepared guest rooms at the back. Come, we''ll wait and rest there¡­"

    As she said it, and as she was the only one in the group that knew the residence like the back of her hands, she started to lead them around.

    Yet before she''d take a single step away, she took ast nce at William. For a moment there, she wanted to lead everyone to the guest rooms beforeing here and staying by his side.

    For a reason, she didn''t want to leave him.

    Ary also had the same thought before the two decided to follow others to the guest rooms and have some rest.

    As for Lina, she didn''t stand idle the moment they arrived at the mansion. She went around and searched for Tina, before finally finding her at the garden at the back of this mansion.

    When she brought her sister back, William was already snorting and everyone was moving their legs, following Berry.

    She noticed how everyone was moving like they were holding mountains in their legs or dragging rocks or something.

    And when she saw how William fell in such deep sleep, and how everyone else was showing signs of fatigue, she also felt sleepy and wanted to get some rest.

    So, she followed others and forgot everything about hearing what happened with her little sister when she was away.

    This battle wasn''t that stressful only on William, but on everyone else.

    William didn''t feel himself except twelve hourster. The stress his body took from thinking over and over about this battle and the ns about it left a heavy toll over his fragile body.

    Even if he returned back in time, and kept all of his memories and experiences intact, he still had a very weak body, one that crumbled under such intense stress.

    So, the moment his body touched that soft sofa, and even before he could hear the words Berry spoke up with, his mind seeped deeply into the mysterious world of dreams.

    The moment he opened his eyes, he noticed pairs of eyes looking back at him, giving him an instant scare.

    *Thud!*

 Chapter 137 Can You Deliver A Message?

    ?In reflex, his body jolted up and pushed the sofa to fall on the other side. Just when he stood erect, his flying knives flew around, fifteen in number, dangerously vibrating and moving right and left.

    And he got his sword and bow out, one in each hand, while a few arrows were thrown in swift moves in the air, ready to be grabbed and used at any given moment.

    He was ready to fight the moment he woke up, ready to do so using his full power.

    "Nice response¡­ I''m d you aren''t lowering your guard even after getting such a win.

    William narrowed his eyes while his mind started to regain its awake state fast enough.

    Faces that looked blurry and unclear moments ago became clear and familiar to him.

    "Old man?" William asked in doubt and with surprise, while the old patriarch had the corners of his eyes twitch when he heard his words.

    "Damn brat! Isn''t it enough that you are sleeping in the middle of my ce! What? Did you expect me to let you have it or what?"

    As the old man bellowed in such rage, the others around kept themselves silenced.

    Even Berry''s father had kept himself silent despite wanting to explode as well.

    Just when they all returned from the hectic battle, they found William waiting for them, sleeping on the sofa while snoring loudly and daringly acting as if he owned the entire ce.

    Seeing this brat drove Berry''s father mad again. If not for the warning words of his father before they even came to the n, that crazy spirit master would have punched William in the face already.

    He hated William''s face, hated William''s voice, he hated William himself!

    Just seeing him made Callom recall what he did to his daughter back in the battle. In other''s eyes, William did a great job in protecting their n and the young miss.

    Yet for Berry''s father, this was something entirely different. In his eyes, William allowed Berry to put herself in such grave danger. In his eyes, William was such a sly youngster whose daughter should stay miles away from.

    But the one who got forced awake from such deep and nice sleep didn''t notice any of the weird atmosphere or Callom''s exploding gazes at all.

    "I was waiting for you¡­" William yawned, as if he didn''t care about the old man''s wrath. At the same time, his mind started to spin fast, while he examined the fake rage expression over the old patriarch''s face.

    ? William could easily tell that the old man was simply putting out a show, not seriously meaning anything of what he just said.

    "By sleeping on my sofa? Why didn''t you just hold yourself a little and go to the back rooms to sleep there?"

    "I just wanted to surprise you," William chuckled, before adding in a sincere tone, "plus your sofa isfier than any bed I ever slept over at the academy."

    Hearing these words, the face of the old man twitched for a brief moment before he took a look at William''s clothes.

    ''Indeed¡­ The life of a porter was never easy¡­'' he got the meaning behind William''s words and knew this kid wasn''t just trying to be annoying.

    "Go now and join others, it''s not a ce for you to be at."

    "First tell me¡­" before even moving a single muscle, the face of William showed a serious look, "have you done it?"

    "Who do you think I am? Ipetent patriarch or weak spirit master?" the old man snorted before waving his hand again, "go, everything is settled."

    "And the papers?"

    "I got them all here," he patted on his ring before adding, "don''t dream about retrieving them."

    "..."

    William wanted to bark again against the old patriarch, reminding him that it was him who wrote these techniques in the first ce. However, when he took a nce around and saw the serious looks over the elders'' faces, he decided to silently leave.

    Yet just as he took a few steps, he had to stop. "Sorry but¡­ Where is the way to these back rooms?"

    "I''ll lead him there," just before the old man would say anything, the butler, Lude, moved and expressed his willingness to help.

    William took a nce at him and all he felt was unfathomable power. This butler wasn''t a simple dude without doubt.

    And for a reason, William felt he didn''t belong to the n.

    "Thanks for saving the young miss," along the way to the back rooms, the butler said, "don''t take any offence from the patriarch. He appreciates everything you did."

    "d to hear," William didn''t know if the butler was speaking on his own ord or if this was the arrangement of the old patriarch, "by the way, can you help me deliver a message over?"

    "Sure."

    "Tell the old patriarch that I''m expecting rewards for my actions."

    Just as William said it, the butler coughed and stumbled in his tracks, almost on the verge of falling.

    "What? Did you think I did all this out of charity?" William rolled his eyes as he felt a little enraged inside, "I expect part of the loot from this battle. Tell the old man this."

    "Ahem¡­ I''ll deliver the message and see what he says¡­ But I can''t promise you anything¡­ Ahem¡­" The butler tried to regain hisposure in front of this troublesome kid.

    He thought so high of William, yet he never expected him to be this materialistic.

    Spirit masters didn''t like money or worldly stuff. In their eyes, they were a distraction.

    However, at least this butler and other elders in the n would know about William''s real intentions.

    He wasn''t after money, never was. In their eyes, he was doing all this for their young miss. But in reality, William was solely after power, just like anyone else.

    But even if William knew by asking for part of the loot he''d give the wrong impression over to them, he never intended to correct such misunderstanding. He just kept his silence and walked behind the butler.

 Chapter 138 [Bonus ] Ignorant Brat!

    ?William wanted part of this grand loot for his future ns, and he wouldn''t be stopped by such ame excuse of being seen as a materialistic person, being greedy, or something like that.

    When he arrived in the back room section, he saw a long corridor with many doors opening at it.

    Through the slightly opened doors of some rooms, he found out that everyone inside was in deep sleep.

    At this moment, and through the opened windows in these rooms, he noticed that it was pitch ck outside, and that meant he slept for a long time but still awoke in the middle of the night.

    "I''ll rest then," William excused himself when the butler led him to an empty room in the side of the long corridor, "I''m going to leave tomorrow, so I expect to get my reward before leaving."

    "... Have a nice sleep," the butler knew if he lingered around for any longer, he might lose all respect for this kid.

    When he left, all he thought about was that kids were really kids, no matter what. Even if William had such a formidable master, pulled such a miracle, saved their n, he was still acting and thinking as a kid.

    William closed the door behind to be weed with a veryrge bed. In his eyes, this was much more worthy than any other rewards at the moment.

    He never got the chance before to sleep on such arge bed sinceing back. Even the sofa looked like a dream to him.

    He discarded any of his thoughts and simply jumped over the bed. As his body felt the cosy feeling of the sheets, he couldn''t resist falling again under the magic spell of sleep.

    This time, it wasn''t just fatigue who drove his body to sleep, but also the desire that deeply came from his body to enjoy a moment of rest, just like his past days when he was a mighty figure owning a ce much grander than this.

    Morning came fast, and the first thing William saw after getting out of his room was the faces of Lina, Ary, and Berry.

    Others were nowhere to be seen. William didn''t need to ask as this was considered an internal matter of the n.

    "Did you sleep wellst night?" seeing himing out from his room atst, Berry couldn''t help but hurriedly ask.

    She was concerned about him, eyeing him as her man from yesterday''s battle.

    "Uhm, it felt great," William honestly answered, oblivious to her thoughts he turned to Lina and Ary, "are you ready to go back to the academy?"

    "I¡­ I received an order to remain here," Ary suddenly showed a weird look on his face.

    For someone like him, his life wasn''t his own to control. To his surprise, a messenger from the academy came with this simple yet shocking order.

    He was asked to stay here and be one of the guards of the n.

    And that wasn''t all! When the messenger left, the butler of the n, Lude, told him that he was selected by one of the elders to be a direct disciple and a personal guard of his.

    This was an honour he never expected. But he wasn''t that delusional to think he really caught the eyes of that elder.

    It was all thanks to William.

    He was seening with William''s group and seemed to have a close rtionship with him. So, the n higher ups seemed to try their best to get the favour of William by doing this.

    William wasn''t stupid either. He knew this was done to get to the good side of him.

    ''But¡­ Did they intend to get away from the rewards just by doing that?'' he frowned before he saw a girl running and jumping over into his embrace.

    It was Tina!

    "Young master! I heard about what you did! It''s awesome!"

    Seeing her bright face and hearing herughs made Williamugh and leave such troubling thoughts behind.

    He''d have to worry about such matterster on when he''d meet with the old man.

    "Little devil, where were you hiding?" William yed with her hair and Tinaughed. She seemed happy as she said:

    "I hid in the house. It''s a very huge one. And after the battle ended, I got to y with many kids during the morning while waiting for you to wake up. Big sis stayed all this time in front of your room''s door, waiting for you to wake up."

    The moment she said these words, William turned towards Lina, and thetter looked to the side.

    If not for her mask, William imagined a face filled with redness waiting for his eyes to meet.

    He ignored such a remark, turned to foil with Tina''s hair as the little devil enjoyed such treatment and considered it as a game or something.

    Tina seemed to enjoy her time, and this was what kids should do at her age. But William knew with her background, she and her sister didn''t have the luxury to enjoy such life for long.

    William kept such thoughts to himself. He intended to raise up these two and support them with things he only knew in this world.

    If they had such a troublesome background and bloodline, they were fortunate enough to meet him.

    "Are you really leaving today?" Berry stood on the side and watched this warm atmosphere before slowly asking.

    "Don''t tell me you n to keep hiding here forever," Williamughed, "if I''m leaving, then I''m taking you with me."

    "Take who with you, ignorant brat!"

    Just before Berry''s smile would brighten up her face, a snort came from behind and a man showed up.

    It was her father!

    "What? Isn''t she part of the academy or what?" William knew how hostile this father acted towards him. And he wasn''t the man to back down from such confrontation.

    "Humph! The n just got out from such a disaster. We need everyone to help rebuild everything we lost."

 Chapter 139 Take Us To See Her Then!

    ?"Don''t tell me you are going to use your girl as a worker!" William raised one eyebrow, faking to misunderstand the words of Berry''s father.

    And the man in front of him clenched both fists until his veins popped up, clenched his jaws and William could hear the sound of his teeth cracking.

    William managed to truly enrage that man, and yet Callom controlled his rage and didn''t act. It seemed like he got warned clearly by the old man, William thought and inwardly snorted.

    "Don''t stand in front of her like this¡­" William paused when Berry''s father lost control over himself and took a step forward, intending to teach him a lesson. "She just became a bronze spirit master, and she needs to cultivate."

    And just before the father would take a second step forward, William retreated a couple behind as he hurriedly added.

    "Father¡­" from the side, Berry had to shout to stop her father from doing anything regretful to William.

    "And you are going to teach her that?" the father controlled his rage by hair breadth, "humph! Stop dreaming! We already got the techniques you left for her, and we are now studying them."

    "If you want me to teach you, then just ask."

    "Dammit! Come here! I dare you to stop and talk like this in front of me again!" Just as William said these words, the eyes of the father red in dangerous light, forcing the former to retreat and run for his life.

    He knew he provoked a beast, and to stop him he needed another beast to do so.

    "Hey hey! What do you take my manor to be? A yground or what?"

    Just as William ran out of the long corridor, he ended up at the vast hall he slept atst night.

    And there he saw the old patriarch walking out with two of the guests William had never seen before. Seeing him run like this made Kong lose his temper, as he hurriedly shouted to stop him.

    Yet when he saw his son chasing after the next moment, the old patriarch couldn''t help but freeze on the spot. With ring eyes and twitching mouth corners, he gave his son a promising look.

    Seeing that, William couldn''t help but stop and look back at Berry''s father with a smug look on his face. ''You wanted to teach me a lesson? Humph! You ended up being the one who''ll get such a lesson, hehehehe!''

    "This is¡­" one of the two unknown spirit masters looked at the patriarch as he pointed towards William.

    "Oh, it''s him," the patriarch said as if he was referring to someone they spoke about earlier.

    When the old patriarch said it, William felt the two in front of him check him out in a weird way. One seemed pretty excited, and the other looked doubtful.

    And the two weren''t any much younger than the old patriarch, but William felt they weren''t as strong as that old monster.

    "Why are you wearing porter clothes?" the other spirit master asked, and he was the one who gave William a hostile feeling.

    "I was one," despite feeling annoyed, William responded in such a formal way as he greeted the two with cupping his hands, "William, bronze spirit master, greets the two masters."

    As they were standing in such carefree ways and speaking to the patriarch of the n in such a friendly way meant they were at least close to his level of power or authority.

    Even if William didn''t know them, he could guess a thing or two.

    The war just ended, and there was a group of ns who came to Long''s n aid.

    William guessed that they belonged to two of the ns who came to help. And the fact that they were alone with the old man meant they were the strongest out of those who came.

    "At least he has manners," the one who was excited to see William said in support.

    "But he has no background, no history of training before. Howe he wields such power?"

    "Master, I''m weak," William prevented himself from rolling his eyes. Bronze spirit master considered strong? Since when?

    "You managed to change the fate of this battle single handedly," the one who acted aggressive kept talking while his eyes seemed to prate through William, "if this isn''t called powerful, then what being strong means?"

    "Master must be jesting," William was holding his tongue back. He didn''t just save the Long n, but also its allies, including these two''s ns.

    So, seeing one acting in a hostile and rude way towards him despite what he did wasn''t something nice.

    William knew the words of that man made sense in some way. After all, he didn''t have enough history to exin what he did so far.

    He turned from a worthless porter in their eyes to a bronze spirit master. And he also yed a decisive role in the battle against the monster tide here.

    But at least William expected some appreciative words, not just straightforward interrogation like that. A simple Thank You would make it look a bit nicer than such direct and offensive interrogation.

    Besides, William already got his perfect answer for such doubts.

    "I had an esteemed master who taught me all this. I can''t take the credit away from her," again William had to lean towards the card of his mysterious master.

    "But we never heard of such a master before," the hostile old man spoke again, "who is she? Does she have a name?"

    "My master loved peace and tranquillity," William evaded the answer, "and she doesn''t like others to know about her identity without her permission."

    "Cool, take us to see her then."

    "Then I''ll turn into a filial disciple. How can I do something my master instructed me to not do?"

    "This¡­ Then how can we verify what you said?"

    "Give me another exnation then," William couldn''t take it anymore. He tried to act polite, yet this dude kept pushing him all the time. "If the master has a theory about how I gained all I have without the help of a formidable master, then I''m open to hear."

    "You¡­"

 Chapter 140 Another Meeting

    ?"Hahahaha, young generations are always interesting," the one who supported William from the start decided atst to intervene, "don''t be upset. This old friend of mine is just jealous because you are going to be a rising, strong spirit master. And you don''t belong to his n."

    "I''m not this pitiful!"

    "If you don''t feel this is all true, then I''m d to confirm it to you, hahahaha!" the two seemed to be on the verge of fighting before Berry''s grandfather interfered and said:

    "Old friends, we just got out from such a hard fight. Let''s go back and rest, shall we?"

    William looked at all this and he knew this was all an act. One acted supportive, the other acted neutral, and one acted hostile.

    The three were working in tacit understanding together, just like how friends should. William knew they were curious about the identity of his supposedly formidable master and were trying their luck in getting anything from him.

    ''That was¡­ Amusing¡­'' William inwardlyughed. The exact master they were looking for was just right under their noses. But even if he told them the truth, they wouldn''t buy a single bit of it!

    Yet he kept watching in silence while the old man walked them away before returning back. And there the old patriarch looked in silence towards his son. And without the need to say a single word, Berry''s father had to walk away.

    One nce was all it needed for Berry''s father to retreat in defeat.

    Yet even with the presence of the old man, that father gave William a warning nce before vanishing.

    It was like: I''m watching you kid, watching you closely!

    And William returned the same look with a light smile on his face, as if he was saying: If you have the guts, let me see what you can do to stop me!

    From the side, the old patriarch noticed these silent exchanges and couldn''t help but sigh.

    In fact, he was approving of William''s approach to his granddaughter. He could already foresee the bright future William was going to have.

    He knew if William had ten more years, he''d be a figure that the entire world heard about his name and deeds.

    It wasn''t a bad idea to entrust his precious girl to a man capable of defending her, a man destined for greatness. Even when he was just eight years old he managed to clear all the dangers surrounding her, including the incurable disease of hers.

    If he did that at such a young age, what would he doter on?

    "Come, we have things to talk about," as the old patriarch watched the vanishing silhouette of his son in one of the corridors inside the mansion, he turned to the meeting room and invited William in.

    William entered the room which he had visited before. Last time, things went out of hand, and their meeting ended early on.

    "You did great deeds in that battle, but let me ask you this¡­ Did you already know about the type of monster tide and the tactics of this army from the start?"

    the old patriarch sat opposite to William, while his gaze was locked at him.

    "Quite straightforward about it, aren''t you?" As the two were together again, and all alone, William didn''t hold back his real attitude and acted out of his age once again.

    "Don''t me me for this, what you did back then was a great help to my n and I''m grateful for it. However¡­" The old patriarch paused and didn''t continue, while his eyes held a lot of words for William.

    It was as if he wanted to say that what William did was simply defying any logic and sense in the world. And he wanted to hear the reason behind such miraculous actions.

    "I just told you out there," William could get what the old man in front of him wanted. And that proved to him that the weird meeting that happened minutes ago was indeed some sort of a show.

    And so, William motioned his head to the outside of the closed doors, implying that he got what that little show was for.

    "You can''t expect me to believe that your master is behind all this!"

    "Then I''ll ask again, if not for my master, what other reasons can be there to exin such a situation?"

    "Perhaps¡­"

    "Don''t give me that bullshit about me being part of the dark spirit masters¡­ Just from what I did here I''m sure such an allegation turned into a funny joke, right?"

    William knew what the old man in front of him was going to say, and so he interrupted him and said in a calm tone, without missing such a softugh to close such a page once and for all.

    If he was still getting suspected even after doing all this, then it''d be quite hrious! An agent to the dark spirit masters acted to foil their grand ns against one of the strongest ns in the kingdom¡­ That would ce him at the top list of the most foolish and idiotic people in the entire world!

    "I heard you asked for rewards," Suppressing the urge to ask about the identity of William''s master, and if she was the person Kong had in mind or not, and as continuing down the path of doubting William was futile as thetter expressed, the old patriarch decided to shift the topic towards something else.

    "I indeed did ask for such a thing."

    "Then help me understand this¡­ You helped my granddaughter and cured her illness but never asked for a reward. And now you are asking for one¡­ Why?"

    ''Dammit! Dealing with such a formidable figure is really hard!'' William wanted to p his forehead for missing such a tiny detail.

    He just asked the butler to deliver such a request when he was half awake. He didn''t think deeply about it and thought it was just a normal thing to do.

 Chapter 141 Tough Negotiations

    ?William was so impatient about getting his desired loot to miss such a point.

    If he was a materialistic person, then he should have asked for a reward before when he saved Berry. And that made his actions look quite contradictory, indicating in a ring light that he had an ulterior motive behind his request.

    If it was another person he was dealing with, then William wouldn''t have gotten caught like this.

    But this old sly fox in front of him didn''t miss such contradictory actions of his. And he was right, the two seemed to be opposite to each other in concept.

    If William was doing this all for Berry''s sake, then why did he ask for a reward?

    If he was a materialistic person, then why didn''t he ask for a reward before?

    The old man kept ring at him, and William knew dying his answer wasn''t going to do him any good but raise unwanted suspicions again. Or even worse, arousing the curiosity of this scary old man and making him stick his nose around his affairs all the time.

    "Ahem, I have a use for these monster cores," as he got busted, then the best way out was to tell the honest answer directly.

    "Like what?"

    "Research."

    "Research? Are you trying to fool me?"

    "Don''t get me wrong," William knew if he said he was going to use these to secure funds for himself and for others in his future team, the old patriarch wouldn''t believe a single word of his, "it''s all for my master."

    "For real?" the old Kong raised one eyebrow as he didn''t also buy such a theory.

    If William''s master was this formidable and quite resourceful, then why would she care about having cores of these scarlet monsters?

    "As you know, there are many unknown things about certain monsters in our world. My master is very interested in studying everything about monsters like these bears."

    "Oh¡­ I see¡­ So, you are after the bear cores, right?"

    "Not for me, for my master."

    Even if he was cornered, William wasn''t that stressed to note up with the perfect lie. The best was the one which got weaned using bits of the truth.

    And through delivering such a lie, he also gave hints about his real aim from all this.

    He didn''t just want normal scarlet monster cores; he wanted the rare and most precious cores of the scarlet bears.

    The old patriarch started to tap on the table with his fingers, seemingly a habit of his when thinking deeply. He couldn''t tell if William was telling the truth or lying to him.

    However, he knew something was amiss here.

    "Fine, I''ll give you one hundred cores then," the old patriarch didn''t need to say which type of monsters they belonged to. They of course belonged to the scarlet bears.

    "Only a hundred?" William raised both eyebrows, "don''t be stingy. If not for my master''s teachings, how could I have stepped in to help?"

    "It was luck," the old Kong showed his thick skin at this moment, "besides, it''s not only your master who is interested in researching those monsters."

    "But you got hundreds of thousands of cores! Giving me just a hundred is an insult to my master!"

    "That''s the n''s loot from such a battle, something that we''ll leave for the future generations. You saw how great our kids are, and they need us, the old folks, to show them total support and devotion in nourishing and growing them stronger by any means."

    William knew he was getting part of his own medicine back at this moment. Yet he still felt this was a cheap, very cheap price to pay.

    ''One hundred cores? Why don''t you give me nothing then?'' William thought to himself, before starting his long bargain with this old dragon.

    "But one hundred is still few¡­"

    "We also have a n that got destroyed, and we need to reward the other ns and the academy for their help, paypensation for their losses, so¡­"

    The corners of William''s mouth twitched. ''Can you stop giving me such bullshit, please?''

    "Ahem, then ten thousand is enough."

    "T¡­ Ten thousand!!! Why note and rob us from all the cores then?!!!"

    "It''s for my master," William put the most innocent face he could show on his face. And seeing such an expression made Kong''s corners of mouth twitch for a few seconds, resisting the urge to punch William in the face.

    "It is too much, one hundred and fifty is enough."

    "This¡­ I''m asking for thousands, and you are giving me hundreds? Don''t tell me you are a cheap and stingy person!"

    "You¡­ Can''t you at least respect the difference in power and rank between us?"

    "I can''t just ept a loss on behalf of my master¡­ My master is a crazy person!"

    "And? I don''t believe she won''t be satisfied with such a number of cores!"

    "Give me five thousand then, and I''ll see how to manage her rage."

    "Five thousand? No more than five hundred cores will be delivered to you! Humph! What a bad kid who tarnishes the name of his master by dwindling over such useless matters!"

    William gave this old man a deep gaze. He wanted to retort back the same words and throw them into the face of this old and shameless man.

    But he controlled himself. At the end of the day, this stingy and greedy old man was the one holding the pen to sign over such an agreement or tore the entire paper into shreds.

    "Fine! I''ll settle with two and half thousand then," This was William''s bottomline. In fact, he nned to keep a few for himself and try to sell the rest or trade them for more resources, spirit crystals, and weapons.

    Even if the old patriarch held the final call here, William didn''t n to ept such a loss.

    After negotiating for more than two hours, William only came out with nine hundred and fifty cores.

 Chapter 142 One Goal, Different Approaches!

    ?It wasn''t even close to what he expected before, but that old man showed such stinginess and stubbornness that left William unable to get what he wanted.

    William regretted not going all out back then and dissected the monsters directly for their cores.

    The number of dark gold bears alone was in the hundreds of thousands! And this old man kept harassing him about the price of tens and hundreds!

    Even when William lowered the number down to one thousand, the old patriarch didn''t settle with that and lowered it by fifty. William couldn''t help but finally agree, to extricate himself from such a weird situation.

    William couldn''t believe it! However, at least he got out with such arge number of high end cores, and from such a rare breed of monsters as well.

    This, no matter how William struggled in the past two hours, ended up with him getting enough to secure his needs for a long time.

    This bargain came to such a weird conclusion where both men won, and no one came out losing despite what everyone felt inside that he got the other tricked.

    The old patriarch didn''t believe William. He was sure he was going to use these cores for himself, selling them and gaining profit. William didn''t know he got seen through, and even if he knew, he had no way nor desire to clear such doubts.

    After the two finished speaking about such a point, the old patriarch brought up something else to their talk.

    "You do know that even if many didn''t witness this battle, all got the news," the old Kong suddenly said in warning.

    "So? Shouldn''t I leave the academy for the time being or what?" William knew the old man''s words held no ill intentions.

    "You did things that are still hard to grasp by many of us. We tried to study that material you crafted, however¡­"

    "Don''t bother, what do you need to know about it? Come on, I''ll tell you¡­"

    "Goodd."

    "... In case you gave me five hundred crores in return."

    "..."

    The old patriarch''s face twitched as he fell in William''s trap. "Forget it then," he had to drop such an idea before adding, "but for your safety, you shouldn''t go outside frequently."

    "I know," William knew his performance here might attract trouble to him. However, he didn''t intend to really hide inside the academy.

    Doing that wouldn''t do him any good at all. He was different, and he wouldn''t need the normal path of others to grow stronger.

    He needed to consume lots of monster cores and had to kill them himself. He helped in crafting the spears and arrows, so he knew he got a slim chance to consume the monster cores from these bears.

    If he managed to do that, then he didn''t need to go outside the academy at all. But if that failed, and there was a great chance for him to fail, he''d find himself with no other choice but to go outside and venture the world.

    As for trying to purchase just monster cores from the market, this wasn''t going to help him in any way. He already tried this method out and failed.

    "You do know that I''m concerned about your life," the old Kong got the feeling of insincerity from William.

    So, he had to blurt it out directly if this thick headed kid in front of him didn''t get hints.

    "Thanks, I''m going to listen to your words by the letter."

    As William didn''t express his thoughts about what he intended to do, the old Kong could only sigh.

    No matter how the old patriarch saw it, William didn''t n to stay inside the academy. It was clear that he was going to visit the forest again, even with the direct warning of old Kong.

    "About the kids you led before¡­" As the old Kong failed at this point, he postponed it forter and brought up another matter.

    "There are good seeds in the n, good job!" Out of what the old patriarch expected, William suddenly spoke as if he was the patriarch or a formidable master.

    Hearing such words made the corners of old Kong''s eyes twitch for a brief second. "We are the Long n!" The old Kong couldn''t control himself from acting arrogant.

    "In any n, there are good and bad seeds," William didn''t care about the tone of annoyance and arrogance the old man in front of him spoke with, "and knowing whom from which is a rare chance for the n."

    "I know how to deal with things rted to my n, kid!" The old Kong couldn''t believe this kid was thinking about giving him advice regarding how to rule over his n!

    "I just want to thank you for helping them to understand the world better back then," the old patriarch cleared his throat, coughed once before adding, "and to your knowledge, Lang is in the same ss as yours."

    "I know," William knew the real point behind the old man''s words, "and Berry as well."

    Mentioning Berry made the face of the old man in front of him change slightly. The old patriarch didn''t bring the name of Berry as he wanted William to focus more on Lang and other kids from the n.

    "I want to meet them before I''m gone," ignoring the weird reaction of the old man, William added in a calm tone.

    "With all of them? For what?" The old patriarch acted as if he didn''t get what William wanted by his words.

    Even if the two had the same goal in mind, which was nourishing these kids and making them stronger, the two had totally different methods in their minds.

    The old patriarch wanted William to befriend his n''s kids at the academy, join their faction, and deliver advice and guidance to them from time to time.

    Yet what William had in mind was something entirely different. He didn''t want to join anyone''s faction or side. He wanted to create his own faction and recruit others to join him.

 Chapter 143 Leaving In Two Hours

    ?William sat his eyes over the few who attracted his attention from that battle.

    "Not all of them of course," William rolled his eyes, and that made his face look a bit funny, "I want to meet with Kong, Lang, and ine," William mentioned the three who caught his attention the most.

    Kong left a deep impression on him, especially after learning the hammer technique. William liked this kid, and wanted to rope him in.

    As for Lang, he was in the same ss as him. And he was someone who left a good impression long before that battle.

    ine might have picked on the bad side of William for a long time, but that also spoke about how direct and daring this kid was.

    Even though William felt some of ine''s stances and actions were a little forced a few times, even making William suspect he worked under the words of someone else, ine still left a good impression as well.

    Spirit masters weren''t supposed to be docile or easy going dudes. In fact, most of William''s past life friends came from shing against them first before ending up being his friends or followers.

    Lang and Kong held one more advantage than ine in William''s mind. The two were considered little leaders in their circle of the same age peers. And that meant if he managed to rope them to his side, he''d end up having more pool of talents to select from.

    William thought about recruiting spirit masters from the academy. But when he thought about the high number of traitors there, he decided to wait a bit longer, keep watching others, before making any move to recruit any.

    Yet he didn''t need to do any of that with the kids who fought by his side and showed their true essence in the direst situations.

    "These three?" When the old patriarch heard the three names, he could guess parts of what William had in mind. And for a moment, he felt like William was trying to do something that didn''t follow his ns.

    He wanted to recruit William and rope him to his side, but he felt like thetter was trying to do the opposite.

    He gave William a deeper nce, feeling like he wasn''t sitting with an eight years old kid, but someone on the same level of power and experience as him.

    "Is meeting them a problem?"

    "No," the old patriarch could only push aside such thoughts, deciding to wait a bit longer and let time expose the real intentions of William, "but they are required to rebuild the n, just like others. So¡­"

    William got what the old man wanted to say. It was a rejection, a sort of rejection that would prevent him from meeting the three right now.

    "Sure, I can wait," William said this while the smile on his face told the old Kong something different.

    It was as if William was telling him this: You can protect them from me as long as they are inside your n. But they won''t stay there forever and will eventuallye back to the academy. By then, they''ll be mine!

    "They won''t stay here for long, so you can meet up with them back at the academy," and in response to William''s smile, old Kong also showed a simr one on his face.

    It was as if he was saying to William: If you get the ability, let''s see how you''ll take my kids away from me!

    "As for returning back to the academy," the two kept the weird smiles on their faces for a long minute before the old patriarch added, "you will return back with an elder."

    The old patriarch paused when William gave him a weird look, "Ahem, we have matters to discuss at the academy and people to thank."

    "Sure," William knew this was all bullshit. He knew that the old man would send this elder to just keep him and Berry safe. But from the weird look on the old patriarch''s face, William felt there was something else behind doing this.

    He might even go beyond that, letting that elder remain back at the academy to watch his actions there twenty-four seven. That was what William thought about at this moment.

    William just prayed inside it wouldn''t turn out to be Berry''s father. ''That dude isn''t that free, right?'' he thought to himself when the old patriarch added:

    "Go and prepare then. You''ll all leave in two hours," the old man didn''t want to see him again for quite some time.

    Even if he got tons of questions for William, he decided to just keep them to himself for now. He''d wait and watch this troublesome kid from far without William realising it. And by time when this issue of cores would be forgotten by this kid, he''d return again with his questions.

    As the meeting was over, William moved back to the back room section. The old patriarch gave him two hours to get ready, but he knew he got nothing to prepare before leaving.

    "Humph! Did he think he could get rid of me this easily?" William knew the issue of delivering the monster cores would be solved by the elder that old fox decided to send with him. And that wasn''t what bothered him.

    These two hours were too little for him to do anything here before leaving. The old man wanted to prevent him from meeting any of the kids he sought to meet.

    "Two hours¡­ Not that long to take a tour around," William returned to the corridor to find Lina standing with Tina while Berry was gone.

    "Where is Berry?" This was the first thing that jumped in his mind. After thest encounter with her father, it was easy to guess what happened to her.

    "She was asked to leave by her father''s orders," Lina said in a weird tone before adding, "are you alright? Is everything ok?"

    "Sure," William realised that thest thing Lina saw was the crazy chase between that enraged father and him, "prepare to leave in two hours."

 Chapter 144 Meeting Them Again

    ?"Are we finally going back to the academy?" Lina asked before Tina jumped in a fright.

    "Are we leaving so soon? I didn''t say goodbye to any of my friends here!"

    "Oh, let me apany you then to say goodbye to all of them," and when William heard her innocent words, he responded with a sly smile on his face.

    His chance presented itself even when Berry wasn''t around. During his absence in that battle, Tina got to befriend lots of the n''s kids.

    And William found his way through this situation using these kids.

    "Really? That''s great! Let''s go then, I know the home ce of a few of them," Tina was still a kid, totally missing out what William truly meant or that evil expression on his face.

    But neither of them missed Lina''s eyes and senses.

    "What do you want to do exactly?" As the three went outside the mansion through a backdoor Tina showed them, Lina whispered softly from the side.

    As for Tina, she kept jumping in delight and pure excitement, leading them through the streets of the n, oblivious to what her sister said.

    "Nothing," William shrugged. And when Lina''s eyes fixed on him for a long minute he added with a broad smile, "I just want to repay kindness with another, that''s all."

    "Tsk!" Lina knew that was nothing near what William intended to do. She didn''t get to stay by William''s side for long, but she already could sniff troubleing from his actions.

    William and Tina walked through the n''s homebase before, but that was during the stressful moments of the battle.

    So, while following Tina, the two didn''t find anything familiar or would rte with anything they saw before.

    Unlike the two, Tina seemed very familiar with the n as if she grew up here. She led them through many streets and houses, before finally reaching a ce where few kids around her age were.

    "Arno, Genny, hey, I''m here," Tina waved and shouted the moment she saw the group of five kids ying and running around. The moment they heard her shouts, they stopped and ran towards her as well.

    "Kids'' life is really great," William couldn''t help but sigh when he felt how innocent and peaceful these kids looked.

    "Can you help me in finding Kong''s ce?" After giving the kids a few minutes to speak andugh with each other, William stepped in and asked.

    "He is my young master, a very good person," Tina added when the five kids looked in confusion and curiosity towards William.

    If they were a little older, then they''d surely have recognised William on the spot. But all of these kids were just six years old, about the age of getting their spirit tested and their spirit power measured.

    "But mister, we got lots of Kongs in our n," one of the kids with wide eyes blinked twice before saying such a shocking thing.

    William didn''t know that the name ''Kong'' was famous in the n thanks to the old patriarch.

    "This tall, silver spirit master¡­" William started to describe what Kong looked like.

    "Oh, you mean my big brother?" The girl named Genny said while William was midway in his words, "he was just here. Come, let me take you to him."

    Genny was the same age as Tina, but her body was slightly taller and looked much healthier than her.

    William saw no weirdness in that. One girl came from a family who served a falling n, and another was the sister of a prodigy in a strong n.

    Just before Genny would lead them through one street, William spotted Kong.

    And to his surprise, Kong wasn''t alone. He had Lang with him.

    "Brother William, it''s great to see you again," Kong showed a warm smile the moment he saw Williaming from the distance.

    "Oh, you met my young brother whileing here?" Lang motioned his head towards one of the five kids, a shy one who didn''t speak too much before.

    "He was asking about you," Genny turned to William before adding with her innocent childish tone, "is my brother the one you were looking for?"

    "Yes," Williamughed while Genny''s words added ayer of confusion over the faces of Kong and Lang.

    "I wanted to see you before returning back to the academy," William lightly said, exining his purpose from seeking the two out in such direct and simple words.

    "You are leaving right now?" Kong seemed to be surprised. And that made William surer about his earlier doubts.

    The n higher ups kept the news of sending him back secret from all the kids who helped him.

    "In less than two hours," William paused before adding, "how about this? We can meet up when you return to the academy, ok?"

    "Sure," Lang smiled as he added, "I''m going to return in two days at most. By then, we can meet up at the ss, alright?"

    "Sure," William liked such a good start.

    "Don''t worry about anything," yet Lang misunderstood the real intentions of Williaming to find him, "Guanin won''t be able to do anything to you back there."

    "Oh, he is a bitter loser," William chuckled as he got what Lang mistakenly got.

    "He is a toxic viper," yet from the side, Kong suddenly said, surprising William that he knew about such a dude in a lower ss than his, "I got few of his n in my ss. And it seems they follow his lead or something."

    William got the hidden meaning behind Kong''s words. Thetter was trying to warn him from Guanin. But William didn''t even put such a kid in his eyes anymore.

    "What about we meet after the sses are over?" William got to strike a meeting with Lang, but Kong kept himself silent about such an issue.

    "Well, I have lots of things to do at the Forging department," Kong paused beforeughing, "and don''t dream about bossing me around again. I never follow anyone weaker than me in rank and power."

 Chapter 145 The Third Elder

    ?"That''s not an issue then," William didn''t take the meaning behind these words to his heart. Instead, he countered back by adding, "I have a much higher rank than yours in the Forging department."

    "Oh! You already applied there?" Kong''s eyes shone brightly when he heard that. He said hisst piece just to tease William, never thought that William already decided to join the Forging department.

    ? Kong wasn''t stupid. He knew all the disciples and masters in the Forging department. Yet he never met, saw, or heard about William''s name before.

    Not to mention the weird and novel techniques William used in forging these arrows and spears back then.

    William said it himself; he got a formidable master by his back. And Kong was quite sure such master wasn''t part of the academy, at least not part of the Forging department.

    His thought drifted actually towards the kingdom, thinking that this master belonged to a big family or n there.

    "I''m already higher than you in the Forging department," William puffed his chest, acting in a fake arrogant attitude that was clear to all around him, even the little kids.

    "How so?!" Kong was puzzled now more than ever, "what''s your rank there?"

    "I heard I got to be the Forging department honorary disciple or something like that," William once heard this title before, but didn''t get what it really meant.

    But he was sure it was much higher in position than Kong''s current ce.

    "This¡­ This¡­ Are you trying to scare me here or what?" Kong''s reaction was more intense than what William thought.

    His face paled slightly out of his immense shock.

    "That''s what I heard," William shrugged, "but I know nothing about what such a title really means."

    "It means¡­ It means a lot!" Kong clenched his fists before adding in weird excitement, "the n had no honorary disciple for many decades! The honorary disciple is the one who is supposed to lead us in the uing spirit master bigpetition."

    "Lead who? Whatpetition?" William asked in doubt and confusion. He never thought big about such a title that he got out of the blue. He thought the Forging department was trying to protect him against the dark spirit master traitors in the academy using such a title.

    But he never expected such a position woulde with such weird responsibility. In his past life, he was too low in the pyramid of power in the academy to hear such grand things as the big spirit masterpetition.

    "What are you doing here?" And just before Kong would spill out the beans about thispetition, a deep voice came from behind, making Kong''s face change.

    He wasn''t the only one who showed such a reaction, Lang and even the kids showed the same look, before they turned around and saluted the one who spoke in deep respect.

    "Third elder!" They said that in greeting to the middle aged man who walked out from a nearby street.

    William turned and saw someone who didn''t look as if he belonged to the n at all.

    First, he didn''t have the same familiar eye or hair colour, or face features of the n members William met so far.

    This dude was slightly fat, with a belly and fat instead of muscles in his arms. Yet he looked quite strong!

    His short hair and eyes were ck with a tinge of silver in them, giving William a weird feeling about this dude.

    He wasn''t part of the n, that was a given fact. But he was someone who was referred to as the third elder.

    William met Berry''s father and uncle and spoke with the fourth elder before. If the former two held the titles of first and second elder, then this dude here was the third one in such a bunch of elites in the n.

    "You are?" This was the first time for William to meet him, and he couldn''t recognise his n or rtion to any family William knew from his outer appearance.

    "I''m Fang, the third elder of the Long n," the middle aged man stopped almost ten metres away from the group, not moving his eyes off William for a long minute before adding:

    "I was outside when the n got hit. And when I returned in a hurry, I received the great news about how you managed to help the n in that battle. Great job!"

    He spoke as if he was speaking to a real kid, and that slightly annoyed William. Thetter questioned such an attitude deep inside. It was as if that third elder didn''t hear everything about what William did or was just faking ignorance.

    "Thanks for the senior''s kind words," William cupped his hands before adding, "I was just saying my farewell to my friends in the n before leaving."

    "Then follow me," Fang gave the kids serious gazes, like a warning or promising them of something, before turning around as he added, "as you are ready to move out, let''s go out right away then."

    "But¡­" William knew he got interrupted in his sneaking operation, and he would never get another chance to speak with these kids until they''d return to the academy.

    Yet that wasn''t what made him frown. The old man told him that an elder would be dispatched to apany him and Berry towards the academy. He felt little weird about Fang''s words until thetter exined further without turning his back:

    "I''m the one who is going to lead you to the academy. Hurry up, I hate those who slow me down."

    Fang''s steps were light and fast, not matching his seemingly heavy body at all. William got a moment to get what was going on here.

    ''So, you saw what I did and sent the man responsible for seeing me out to get rid of me this fast? Nice move!'' William thought to himself before saying his true farewell to Lang and Kong, and the other kids as well.

    Then he led Lina and Tina to follow Fang.

 Chapter 146 Fangs Story

    ?"Senior, we have to pick up Berry as well¡­"

    "She is waiting for us at the gates," the third elder seemed to grow a habit of interrupting others while they were in the middle of their words.

    ''You really do hate those who slow you down indeed,'' and William took such note in his heart, while waiting for a chance to know better about this mysterious elder''s background and history.

    The elder named Fang didn''t give William any chance to speak at all until they arrived at the gates of the n. During their walk, or better described as run, the elder kept himself at the forefront, using the advantage of his higher spirit power to keep the distance between himself and William fixed no matter what.

    Seeing this made William know this elder got everything about what he did before in the battle and the academy. And it seemed this elder decided to exert more caution while dealing with him, unlike all the other elders William met so far from the n.

    William didn''t mind such an attitude. He knew during the return journey; he''d find many chances to ask about the things he wanted.

    When they arrived at the n''s walls and main gate, it was clear the battle didn''t end before leaving a deep mark over there.

    The walls had many parts of them cracked and falling apart. Even some of the closest buildings to the walls got part of this devastation as well.

    William could tell the reason behind that without the need to ask anything. The big mistake many spirit masters made back at the battle, leading arge number of scarlet bears towards the walls, ended up with such a result.

    And yet that wasn''t something that would really matter. Such scars and partially damaged walls could be described as the best oue the n didn''t even imagine ending up with after that battle.

    William saw arge number of spirit masters and even normal people trying to repair the damage and relieve all the signs of this battle. Their number was huge, which made William suspect aid came from other ns and even the academy.

    In the middle of all this, it was easy for him to spot Berry. She was standing with a group of strong looking spirit masters as if they were guarding her or something.

    The moment she spotted him, she discarded anyone around and ran towards him.

    "I thought you are going to take more time to get ready," she said, and he inwardly sighed.

    It seemed Berry''s father and grandfather made her wait for him here using such ame excuse.

    "I got nothing to pack anyway," he shrugged, moved his eyes over her shoulders and saw the guards who were protecting her, "are theying with us?"

    "No, they are just here to observe the repair process of the n''s damage," she paused before noticing the third elder, "third elder, you are here as well."

    "Yes, let''s depart," Fang seemed more eager to leave here than anyone else. And that reminded William of what this dude said before.

    He was already away from the n when the attack happened. Did that mean he hated being in the n or something?

    As the little group started to march towards the academy, William got to chat a lot with Berry and learnt a lot of things.

    ording to Berry, Fang was someone trustworthy and quite strong and capable. He wasn''t part of the n as he guessed, but he married ady from the n and became part of it by marriage bonds.

    As for his real origins, William was surprised to know that he didn''te from any strong family or n. He was just like him,ing from a weak family with no background.

    And yet he experienced a spirit mutation, adding the rare Lightning element into his spirit that originally had themon Earth element in it.

    Earth element was famous for changing battlefield terrains and used mainly for defence. But when adding lightning with it, the spirit master would turn from a supportive and defensive role to a frighteningly strong offensive one.

    William also got the reason behind such a rash attitude of Fang. Per Berry''s words, his beloved wife got ill and needed rare herbs to be gathered from far away mountains and deep parts of the forest.

    So, he spent most of his time travelling, trying to get his hands over these precious herbs. As for trying to buy them, he must be someone filthy rich to be able to afford such a thing.

    And as a member of a no named family, he got nothing like that. As a result, he had to depend on his strength and effort, gathering herbs while epting all the risksing his way.

    William just knew this far. In the middle of Berry''s words, Fang turned and red back at the kids walking behind him. And such a gaze was enough to silence Berry and force her to change the subject.

    She then spoke about how the repair project of the battle aftermath was going.

    When the small group left the gates and went to the open space outside the n, they saw the aftermath of the battle getting cleared.

    ording to Berry, the supporting ns to hers sent many to help in dealing with such damage. And that wasn''t out of their good will or something.

    They took part of the loot in return for such help in terms of manpower and resources. William guessed that the same negotiations that happened between him and the old man happened as well with many others from other ns.

    He even suspected the two old spirit masters he met before experienced the same tough and long talk with the old man about the size of the loot gained.

    ''Tsk! Even if I knew that, I won''t feel any bad for you, old man,'' William thought to himself, while listening to more of Berry''s words.

 Chapter 147 The Clan Isnt Safe

    ?Yet what she said next wasn''t something he was truly fashioned with. She spoke about the reaction and response of that battle in the entire spirit mastermunity of the academy and kingdom.

    News reached far and wide about such victory, and many expressed their happiness and offered support to her n to clear out the aftermath from such disaster.

    However, the old man refused most of such offers. After all, his n didn''t end up in such a bad state as others thought. And that old fox knew what other foxes thought about and eyed.

    "Third elder, I want to ask about something¡­"

    "Your reward is with me," William got used to such an impatient attitude of Fang, and also got to know the reason behind it, "but I won''t deliver it until we arrive safely to the academy."

    "Tsk," William didn''t like having his own stuff held by someone else. However, he kept hisints to himself.

    He just wanted to be sure that old man kept his word. Or else he''d turn around, and head back to the n and not leave there until he''d get what he deserved.

    The journey to the academy didn''t take that much time or effort. As Berry finished her tales, only Tina kept speaking,ining about leaving behind her newly acquired friends.

    "Can Ie back and y?"

    "I just miss them, they looked so nice, and I liked them."

    "Sister, please take me back again."

    "The n isn''t far away so we can go to it frequently, right?"

    "Why didn''t you leave me behind to y with them?"

    More and more words like these came from her while everyone kept their mouth shut during the journey.

    William learnt it hard by lesson to not answer her and keep her talk like that. As for her bigger sister, she was used to such an attitude already.

    The elder didn''t speak up during the entire journey. He just kept himself aloof and didn''t say anything. For a reason, William felt his eyes to stick over him during the entire journey, as if he was watching his every move.

    The only one who kept talking with Tina was Berry. Berry kept answering all of her questions, and even the two started a y for hide and seek at one point, giving the elder protecting them quite a scare.

    When they reached the academy, William couldn''t help but heave a sigh of relief. Tina was the perfect example of the talkative energetic kids who kept talking nonstop for a long time without pause or getting tired.

    "We are here," William turned to the elder and cupped his hand in courtesy, "thanks senior for the trouble. We are going off now. How about the cores?"

    William acted in respect by his salute, but still extended his hand after doing this gesture, asking for his belongings.

    "Oh, I have something to do at the Disciple Affairs department. Why don''t we go there together?" And yet the elder simply said that, turned around and started moving towards one direction.

    ''What''s wrong with that dude?'' William inwardly sighed. He didn''t know what to say. Yet if the elder said it and started to move already, he couldn''t help but walk after him.

    And the three girls just followed Fang alongside.

    This department was the one responsible for all the internal affairs rted to the disciples. For example, allocating disciples to their residential ces, providing monthly support of spirit crystals, giving outfits, and also looking for their attendance in sses, giving grades, assessing exams, and such.

    William could guess the intention of the elder and the old man behind him. Even if the old man acted stingy towards him, William was d he still got conscience and decided to help him in providing a good residence for him.

    Yet when William saw what the elder did there, he was at loss for words.

    The elder arranged for him to stay just in a ce next to Berry. ''Come on old man, isn''t this a bit too obvious or what?!''

    Even if William and Berry found it weird, the two had nothing to say about this matter.

    "I took the liberty and registered you two to your sses," the elder said and William couldn''t help expressing his gratitude with words and sping his hands.

    "But for her¡­ I didn''t know what to do so I came here to ask," just when William was expecting the elder to extract himself away, he pointed at Lina, making William constrict his pupils in a reflex.

    So, the old man didn''t even miss his Selvator girl, seemingly nning to rope Lina and Tina in the n to further bind his movements in the future.

    Yet William wasn''t out of solutions to such a problem.

    "She isn''t suitable to learn cultivation," William gave this answer which wasn''t entirely true. He knew the main prerequisite for her race to train. All he needed to do was to just tell her and her little sister the trick behind it, help them open that locked door and start cultivating.

    However, if he intended to do it, he nned to do it secretly. After all, it was better to have some hidden cards, even from his allies.

    "I see¡­ Then she can have the identity of a porter. How about her sister? She isn''t old enough to join the academy yet."

    William could see the determination in the Long n''s intentions in getting at least one of his two girls to the n.

    Just when the third elder said his words, the all talkative and inattentive Tina cowered behind her big sister, while thetter gave William a serious gaze.

    "She can be registered as a porter too," William shrugged before adding, "she is beyond six, and that''s above the allowed age to join the academy."

    "Isn''t it better for her to stay in a far safer ce? y with her newly acquired friends and such?" Fang didn''t yield in this easily and showed a rare moment of such an open talk for negotiations.

 Chapter 148 The Old Mans Trick

    ?Hearing such words made Berry frown from the side. She knew the third elder quite well, and this attitude seemed a bit forced and weird to her.

    As for Fang, he knew he couldn''t force William here. The third elder had to get William''s permission by blocking all paths on his request to reject such an offer, using words to corner such a troublesome kid and force him toply.

    "It''s better for her to stay with her master!" Lina couldn''t take it anymore and blurted it out.

    "The n isn''t safe," and as the third elder acted this daring and shameless, William didn''t show any courtesy in his words anymore, "you just got out from such a deadly fight."

    "Still, it''s considered a safe ce, not like here where she can get into trouble easily while you venture outside."

    "No ce in the world is safe," William gave such a decisive reply, one that couldn''t be refuted by the elder in front of him, "the only safe ce lies in one''s power''s reach, not what others can provide."

    The third elder gave William a long nce. His face didn''t show any reaction but inside¡­ He felt shaken by such words said by such a young kid.

    This was true indeed. In such a harsh world, no ce was safe. The only guarantee to keep one''s life intact was by getting stronger. By strength, anyone could secure his life within limits. And such a concept couldn''t be grasped without experiencing the real world.

    And that made Fang quite admirable for this little kid here. He heard many stories about William before but meeting that kid in person gave him a new perspective.

    "I''ll register her as a porter then."

    The elder couldn''t help but resign to William''s will, return back, vanish inside for ten minutes, beforeing out and giving the kids three emblems and uniforms.

    As for Berry, he simply handed her a storage ring which would contain everything she''d need.

    "These are the official clothes, the official emblems, and the keys to your ce," he said before waving his hand casually, taking out a ring, "this is a gift from the n. Keep the ring and things inside."

    "Thanks senior," William''s attitude shifted one hundred and eighty degrees, totally to the opposite, when he got that ring.

    "I''ll return now. I hope you won''t ck off in your training," as William started to check the content of the ring, the third elder waved his hand and started to move away.

    And despite what he just said, he didn''t walk towards the direction of the academy''s big gates. William could tell he was heading to the headmaster''s residence.

    "Thanks, elder," William, Lina, and Berry greeted the elder before he walked away.

    But just before he''d take few steps away, he paused, and said:

    "By the way, the patriarch said he will widely sell these cores around the academy."

    And once he said it, he kept walking away as if he didn''t say anything at all.

    "Why is he acting weird today?" Berry from the side couldn''t help but shake off her head while William inwardly smiled.

    Thisst side note wasn''t just casually mentioned. The old patriarch was convinced that William nned to sell the cores he got.

    ''So, you decided to overflood the market here with these cores to lower their prices? Suffering a bit of loss on your side to make me refrain from selling them? Tsk!''

    This was what thest words of Fang really meant. William was sure the price of each core might reach a staggering fifty thousand crystals or even more.

    These monsters were rare, very rare. And they were dark gold cores on top of that. However, if the old patriarch sold lots of cores in a short time, the market would get oversaturated and such price would lower to half or even lower.

    William got less than a thousand, while the n had hundreds of thousands. It was clear who got the power to control the market price of these cores.

    ''Humph! Do you think this will stop me? Very naive!'' And yet William didn''t think too much about this. After all, he got other ns for how to sell these cores anyway.

    He then checked his new ring, and that old man didn''t just give him the cores they agreed on. He also gained one thousand lower grade cores, plus twenty thousand spirit crystals.

    Seeing this made William''s smile on his face broaden. It was as if the old patriarch waspensating him a little for such a loss.

    But to William, this wasn''t justpensation. The old man didn''t know that he just helped to solve the problem he initially created!

    Adding what he had inside his other ring, William now got close to fifty thousand spirit crystals. And that was just more than enough for his future ns.

    William put that ring on the middle finger of his left hand. And now he got himself two rings without paying a single crystal for any of them.

    As for Berry''sment, he casually asked: "What''s different exactly? He acted the same as you described before."

    "He is¡­ Still acting differently¡­" Berry couldn''t tell in words why she felt this way. And William could only nod and decided to let this matter drop.

    After all, a great deal of such weird feelings of Berry came from her grandfather''s actions, not this elder.

    "Let''s go," William was about to move before he looked right and left, "where is that ce I got? I forgot to ask for directions!"

    ? "Hahahaha, you don''t need to. After all, we both are neighbours now," Berryughed before she led the way, e, we are living in the eastern district."

    "Eastern? Isn''t this reserved for high valued spirit masters only?" William was surprised by this. Yet this made Berryugh even further.

    "What? Do you think my n will let me stay atmon ces? And as you are my neighbour, you also reside in the same area. So, you are a highly valued spirit master now."

 Chapter 149 Wont You Come With Me?

    ?William was speechless. In his past life in the academy, all he enjoyed was such a tight room with a harsh bed.

    He knew such a treatment was thanks to the old man''s arrangements, but this was simply too much to ept.

    After all, he didn''t intend to use that ce for any of his future ns. He got enough cores to get him a good ce away from the academy.

    Yet he needed time to n things right. The n wasn''t that far away from the kingdom''s capital. But travelling there would take at least a month if not more.

    One month might seem a lot, butpared to the vastness of this world, it wasn''t that much actually.

    Besides, William knew there were other ways to get there in much less time than that!

    He needed to go to the kingdom''s capital not just to buy a base for his future team there, but also to visit the auction house.

    He got his hands on rare monster cores. Even if the old man didn''t try to foil the market here, the cores William intended to sell would do the same effect regardless.

    William needed a bigger market for his cores to get the best value of them. And that was only avable to him at the kingdom''s capital. That was where he decided to go next.

    But first he needed to settle in, start joining the sses, before taking a single step towards the kingdom''s capital.

    As the group passed through the streets, they started to hear whispers and words about the battle that happened at the Long n.

    Everyone was circting rumours everywhere about this battle. Some imed that some hidden masters came and stepped in to help the Long n fend off such scary monster tide.

    Others imed that the losses of the Long n were in fact quite disastrous and winning that battle came at a bitter price no better than losing the n itself! These folks believed that the Long n just formed out such lies to cover up their losses and didn''t show any of their current weakness.

    The more they listened, the more surprised they got by the wild imagination of everyone, and the tons of fake news many were circting around.

    "This¡­ Shouldn''t we step in and rify things?" Berry was speechless for almost half an hour before she turned to William and whispered.

    "Telling them what? Let them run their imagination wild," Williamughed and didn''t care about that. In fact, he was d of such a situation.

    He was worried a little about the spread of the real news. A porter like him turning into some sort of unfathomable hero in the span of a couple of weeks? This was something that''d drive more trouble his way than good luck.

    As William didn''t agree, Berry dropped the matter of exining. Yet she couldn''t help but get mad the more she listened.

    The journey ended in front of a medium-sized, one storey building. The building had a small garden, a short heighted steel fenced wall, and a good looking front.

    William instantly liked it. And Tina fell in love with it. However¡­

    "This isn''t anything like the couple of ces we stayed at before!" The little girl couldn''t help but mutter inint, making the other three aroundugh on herment.

    William knew that he promised Tina to live in a simr ce like what they stayed at inside the headmaster''s residence. Yet he casually gave her such a promise, and that made him feel a little guilty.

    "It''s not that bad actually," William paused before adding, "it has a garden, few balconies, and it''s quite spacious inside. I''m sure you''ll like it."

    "Is it ours then?" Like any kid, Tina simply flipped the switch from being discontent to being excited.

    "It''s ours," William turned to Berry, asking for her confirmation here. And thetter nodded.

    "This is your ce indeed," Berry''s smile on Tina''s actions didn''tst more than a few seconds before a serious look appeared again. She was still fuming with rage about what she heard, "what will we do now?"

    William looked at her in puzzlement before she pointed to the sky, "it''s still noon! We have sses to attend."

    "Oh, I forgot about that. But I just moved in so¡­" William knew he wouldn''t get anything from listening to the masters'' teachings in this ce.

    He knew more, much more than all of thembined!

    In his past life he didn''t attend sses except to help carry things. His main role was when spirit masters here decided to go out and venture into the forest.

    "See¡­ This is the timetable of the sses we got," Berry unfolded a piece of paper which had a table, names, and times of different sses, "we have a fighting basics ss next in less than one hour."

    William felt as if she was asking him to join her. But he wasn''t that interested in going to the ss now.

    He wanted to take a break for himself, think about what he should do in his new life here.

    For a reason, William felt she was a bit excited about going to the sses. When he gave it a little thought, he knew she was acting so as this was the first time for her to attend such sses.

    In his past life, she was always attending the first year sses in the academy, never sitting foot ever at the second year sses.

    He could understand the reason behind her excitement, but he also didn''t agree. "You can go and attend it then. I''m going to rest for a day or two."

    "Won''t you join me?" She was a little disappointed.

    "It''s just two days," William knew why she was acting this impatient, "we just ended a huge battle. And I need more rest."

    "Fine," she pouted her lips before adding, "but I will visit you from time to time."

    "You know we have no food or drinks¡­"

 Chapter 150 Getting Little Rest

    ?"Stop joking," she finallyughed, even if it was a short one. Seeing her face brighten up again, William felt a little relieved for no reason.

    As for attending the sses, he was someone who didn''t need that. However, he had to go, even from time to time, and that for two main reasons.

    Even if he wasn''t that much interested in these sses, he had to show up his hard work to exin his soon toe rapid growth.

    People wouldn''t doubt much if he grew stronger while attending sses. But if he didn''t, he''d have to face the same storm of doubt and suspicion he got when he jumped through ranks and became a bronze spirit master.

    Going against logic and without following the usual routes was something that would bring disasters on the head of anyone.

    In addition to that, William needed to broaden and deepen his rtionship with others. Be it the kids from the Long n, other kids from other ns, William needed to get to know as many as he could.

    The bigger the pool of talent he''d find, the better the seeds he''d select to support.

    Also, he didn''t want to let those traitors in the academy live their lives in peace. He wanted to keep a close eye over the big trends in the academy, sniffing around and trying to uncover any dirty schemes of those traitors to foil them.

    "Don''t take the sses lightly," she felt like William wasn''t that much interested in attending sses, so she added while taking her leave, "the sses aren''t far from here. Not attending them or getting therete will have points deducted from your record."

    "Don''t get used to resting," she shouted as she went towards the nearby building, "I''ll nag you all the time to make sure you won''t miss the sses tomorrow."

    "I''m not going tomorrow!" William shouted back and she simply ignored him and went towards her residence.

    "Record? Points? What are these?" Tina''s bright eyes blinked as she asked while watching Berry vanish into her ce.

    "It''s a system of the academy," William took in a deep breath. He had to adapt to his new identity as a formal disciple of the academy and try to make a name for himself here following the normal rules of the world.

    "So," he rubbed his hands while turning his attention back to the house, "let''s get in first."

    "Yes!" Tina jumped and like a little kid, she forgot all about herst question.

    Learning her lesson from before, Tina didn''t hurry to enter the building, waited for William to use the orb in his hand to open the restrictions around.

    As William used the keys given to him, the trio entered the house. The garden looked nice and properly taken care of. Flowers were there and a few beautiful looking nts as well.

    Yet there wasn''t a single herbal nt here. This garden paled greatlypared to the one at the Long n patriarch''s residence he visited before.

    However, this didn''t depress him. He knew he could nt anything he wantedter on. And he intended to do so in the near future, collecting different herbs when he''d explore the forest.

    When they entered the house, they were surprised by how spacious it truly was! It didn''t give them such an impression from the outside.

    It had two big halls, five sleeping rooms, and two study rooms. There were many pieces of good furniture, and William was quite satisfied with how clean and neatly organised this house was.

    It was like he purchased it from an owner who used to live here until a few days ago.

    "I''ll take this one! Don''t fight me on it!" Tina was running around like a little rabbit. And so, she got the chance to select the first room. She liked it as it had a small balcony that wasn''t that much off the ground.

    William could only shake his head when he heard Tina''s words. The ce had enough rooms for all of them. And there was no reason for anyone to fight for anything!

    Lina selected the next room to her sister without hesitation. And William selected one that was on the rear.

    He loved being alone, and he knew if he selected a room next to Tina, then he should give his sleep and training a goodbye kiss.

    After finishing all this, he finally got the chance to change his attire. His uniform was already hacked, stained with monster blood, and didn''t represent his real status.

    When he took that white uniform off, it seemed as if he was changing his entire life with it. This uniform kept sticking to him in his past life until he left this world and went to the outer one.

    Seeing this white uniform that wasn''t pure white anymore made him heave a long sigh. "You did give me a lot of trouble, and it''s time for you to rest," he said to his old uniform, patting on it like he was patting an old friend or something.

    After all, part of the hostility he got everywhere came from wearing such a uniform around!

    When he changed, a bronzed coloured uniform covered his body, matching his weak build quite perfectly. William got a bigger mirror in his room, one that took almost half of an entire wall.

    He checked himself and a faint image of his future self ovepped over the current image of him at this moment.

    "At least I''m on the right track," he was quite satisfied with that.

    He wasn''t that tired, but that didn''t mean he shouldn''t get some rest.

    He slept for a few hours, and when he woke up again, the sun was still shining on this world.

    He stretched and didn''t actually leave the bed. Instead, he remained resting there while everything he lived through sinceing back shed in his mind.

    "You brought lots of trouble to yourself, William," he muttered to himself while realising how high profile he acted sinceing back.

 Chapter 151 A Little Dilemma

    ?He didn''t intend any of this from the start. And yet starting from the first step he took outside his little shack; he kept doing crazy things.

    "But I don''t regret any of that," he didn''t feel a single speck of regret. Instead, he felt quite lucky to meet up such good spirit masters and get to know the truth about many others.

    "What should I do next?" As he started his new life with such a big bang, he didn''t n to retreat. He''d keep doing whatever he liked, not caring about anything else or what others felt.

    "I have that deal from earlier with Ellina¡­" As his thoughts drifted around many things, he stopped over this point and got lost in thoughts.

    He started this deal out of his desire to secure a stable ie for himself. In addition to that, he''d slowly impact the future path of forging inside the academy and its subsidiary ns.

    "Should I do it?" he thought to himself while walking outside his room, intending to go to one of the two study rooms here and thoroughly think about this deal.

    He had lots of spirit crystals right now. Not to mention the immense wealth he''d gain after selling off his cores.

    "No harm in being richer, right?" Just as he took a few steps outside his room, he made up his mind. Even if he got enough cores to cover up his needs, he was still far from getting to the kingdom''s capital to sell them. "But what techniques shall I give them?"

    "Young master! A big problem! A disaster! A huge one!" And before he could even think about what he should give to the Forging department of the academy, Tina suddenly jumped out of nowhere, shouting in such a loud and rming tone.

    "What?" William wasn''t slow in his reaction, took out his sword and a few of his flying knives. He emitted a scary pressure as he got into fighting mode at once, while scanning the surroundings in vignce.

    "Easy, don''t take her words seriously," From behind, Lina came while speaking in a much calmer tone.

    ? "She said disaster!" William gave Tina a weird look, and that little girl didn''t show any sign of feeling guilty or wronged at all.

    "It''s indeed a disaster, a big one as well!"

    "Stop it already," Line just smacked the back of her little sister''s head in a light way before turning her attention to the all puzzled William, "it''s just this¡­ We don''t have food or drinks here."

    "This¡­" William moved his eyes between the two sisters and finally heaved a sigh of relief.

    He took back his sword and knives, looked at Tina while Lina added with a soft chuckle, "to her, not eating is a big disaster."

    "I''m hungry!" Tina felt like the two in front of her didn''t take such a matter quite seriously at all. So, she puffed her cheeks,ined while mimicking the grownups by folding her arms, "the servants didn''te to deliver anything for hours!"

    "Servants?!" William was taken aback for a second, before finally realising the crux of the issue here, "silly girl! The servants won''te here anymore. We need to bring our food ourselves."

    "Bring it? Like to buy it? Or make it?" Tina blinked twice, as if part of her dreams just got shattered on the cold ground of reality.

    "That''s true," William nodded, took out twenty spirit crystals from his ring and left them on the nearby table, "take these and ask for the marketce. There you''ll find a few stalls opening and selling ready food or ingredients to make meals."

    "This¡­" Tina was still feeling shocked and depressed, while Lina could hardly contain herughs from behind her mask.

    "Come on, you heard the young master. It''s like how we lived back at the Golden Sky academy."

    "But¡­ We got servants to deliver food to us here!"

    "That was just a weing ceremony, not a permanent thing," William couldn''t find any other thing to say but such a white lie. And his smile made it more like a lie than a truth.

    "That''s unfair! Totally unfair!" Tina keptining while her sister dragged her away from William, took the crystals and left to buy food for the three of them.

    Seeing the two leave, William shook his head, before heading towards the study room in front of him.

    He couldn''t believe how Tina linked the special treatment they received back at the headmaster''s ce with the entire academy. But he didn''t me her for that. She was a little kid after all.

    As he pushed such a small and funny incident aside, his mind returned again to think about what he should give to the Forging department.

    Thinking about this was indeed a problem. It wasn''t because hecked the right techniques and methods to craft good gears to give, but he simplycked enough knowledge about the true abilities of forging in this world.

    "If I gave too much, revealed lots of novel techniques and methods, then it''ll be disastrous!" he tapped on the desk he sat on, thinking deeply and quite seriously about this issue.

    He wanted to help the academy and get rewarded in return. But thest thing he wanted was to get rewarded with battles and deadly fights, not spirit crystals and treasures.

    Deciding such a thing gave him quite the headache. "Shall I go and pay them a visit?" He thought about going to the Forging department and checking over how they used to forge by himself.

    However, when he imagined how Ellina would pester him about the deal from before, he dropped such an idea.

    "I''ll eat first then head towards the library," he heard the ruckusing from outside, announcing the return of the two sisters.

    Unlike what he expected, Tina wasn''t causing such noise out of her disappointment. Just like usual, she totally forgot about that misunderstanding and disappointment, and seemed quite happy.

 Chapter 152 Going To The Library

    ?"Young master, I found a big cake and my sister bought it for me, a big chocte cake, hahahaha!" The moment she spotted him, she jumped around and keptughing and speaking in such a loud tone.

    "Sorry, but she snatched it away before I could do anything," as for Lina, she came and apologised for this. The price of this cake alone was one spirit crystal! And to her, it was a bit too much, not to mention this wasn''t her money to begin with.

    "It''s alright," seeing the big smile and hearing the cheerfulughs of Tina, William couldn''t help but nod in agreement. "If she wants cakes, you can bring her one every time you go to bring food."

    "This¡­"

    "Yes! The young master is the best young master ever in the world!" When Lina frowned after hearing this, her little sister jumped in delight, cheering for William.

    And thetter couldn''t help butugh, pat on Lina''s shoulder as he added, "kids like to eat desserts. And I''m not that poor or stingy."

    He kept a little piece hidden to himself and didn''t tell it out loud. When he was a kid, and during his past life as a porter, he always visited the market to bring things over to his masters. And just like Tina, he always craved such cakes.

    He used to stand in front of the stalls selling such delicious looking cakes and could only dream about eating one for himself. So, when he saw Tina, he couldn''t help but recall such events, and decided to let her have all the cake she desired.

    A single cake would only cost one spirit crystal, which was a price someone like him couldn''t afford as a porter in his past life. But surely, he could do it now in this life.

    "Let''s eat," feeling the disapproval of Lina on how William started to spoil her little sister, William passed by the two and said while motioning his head towards the table.

    They brought enough food and drinks for days, in addition to many ingredients that would make more meals.

    After the weird atmosphere during the meal the three had, where Tina keptughing and smiling and Lina just stayed silent, William left the two inside and went towards the direction of the library.

    It was night already, but William knew it wasn''t an issue. Per what he recalled from his past life, there were two libraries in the academy, one that was open for everyone, and another that was exclusive only for the masters.

    The library dedicated for the masters was inside the headmaster''s residence. And William didn''t have any means to ess it at the moment.

    He went towards the library that was open for everyone. William was sure the documents provided there wouldn''t be at the same level as the one inside the headmaster''s residence, but it would satisfy his needs for now.

    He didn''t want to visit there to learn something, he just wanted to check over themon techniques used in forging.

    The library was located in the northern sector of the academy, not that far away from his ce. As William walked, he noticed that he didn''t get any weird looks anymore from those he met.

    "Tsk, people do care a great deal about appearances," William inwardly sighed before finally arriving at his destination after getting lost for half an hour.

    The library was a ce that wasn''t thatmon to spirit masters. The mindset of most spirit masters was to train, try to muster their techniques and training manuals, gathering up more spirit power to breakthrough to the next rank before repeating the same process again.

    Learning the techniques and training manuals came either from their families, ns, or masters in the academy. If they got time, they''d go outside and collect monster cores, sell them to get spirit crystals, buy gears and elixirs, train again and so on.

    It was a tight and boring way of life, one that William didn''t agree on. Yet that was why secondary professions weren''t thatmon, and ces like libraries were considered deserted.

    Only those who came from no background, without a family, n, or wealth to support themselves, would visit the library from time to time.

    William did oncee here in his past life, but he never repeated the same trip again. And that was for very good reasons¡­

    "Entrance fee is ten spirit crystals," Just as he arrived there, an old looking spirit master was sitting in front of the main door of the big building, asking him for a fee to enter.

    William already knew this. Paying these ten crystals back then was a great incident for him. When he came here before, he paid the fees as he ced great importance on the knowledge he''d gain from inside more than the little wealth he painstakingly umted over months.

    But when he went inside, he was baffled by how immensely huge that ce was! There were too many documents there to count! And many weren''tplete versions of what these documents spoke about!

    And this wasn''t the only problem he faced back then.

    "You got one day, then you have to leave," That spirit master received the ten crystals, then added in a deep and bored tone, "if you damaged anything inside, don''t expect anyone to help you. Even if you were Rick, the grandson of the headmaster himself, you won''t get away without paying the price for what you ruined inside."

    William inwardly sighed when he heard such scary words that ruined his experience here before.

    Having just a single day wasn''t practical at all! Especially when it was his first visit here. This library needed one to stay inside for a long time to get to know where to go and which to read.

    And thatst part of the warning wasn''t just for show. William still recalled how he struggled to get ess to many documents regarding training manuals, and yet he failed.

 Chapter 153 A Single Item Solves Everything

    ?Most of the important and valuable documents were guarded with ayer of seal. To ess any of these, one had to have a higher level of spirit power than these seals.

    William even heardter on from the masters whoughed on his failed visit that many documents were guarded with enchantments that would attack the spirit master if he tried to open the seals.

    William didn''t know who left such seals behind, and he knew no one in the academy knew as well. ording to the stories he heard from back then, this library was established by a mysterious old headmaster, one that no one recalled his name right now.

    William could guess the value behind such seals. It wasn''t done to just annoy the disciples, but to limit anyone from knowing something that was way beyond his current powers or abilities.

    And that meant for the past porter of him to end up having nothing to learn from this ce.

    Trying to open these seals wasn''t that simple. He still recalled the many failed attempts he had inside, and how the seals fought fiercely back like they were real creatures and not seals!

    Amidst such shes, the risk of damaging the interior of the library was great. William had to give up every time he tried, fearing such a promised punishment from that scary spirit master lurking outside.

    As he went inside, he met with a very wide space that extended for almost one thousand metres in all directions.

    The library was formed of a single, yet grand building that covered up a one kilometre square area. Inside, there were many smaller walls, lined up in neat groups, holding a huge number of documents inside.

    "Tsk! Back then, these masters never bothered to tell me any valuable information about this ce," he shook his head when he saw such a grand ce in front of his eyes.

    And without any speck of hesitation, he turned around, got outside and went back in his tracks.

    "Out already? Humph! I know the current generations are quite useless!" and the moment he went outside, that old spirit master spoke as if he expected such a thing.

    "Senior, can I trouble you with something?" And yet what that old man said didn''t stop William or even change his face even in the slightest.

    "What? Asking for a refund? Hahahaha! You are quite naive to think about that! Scram now, go as far and fast as your legs can carry you, or else¡­"

    Just in the middle of his angry talk, that old man choked and ate all the rest of his threatening words.

    William didn''t intend to say anything to clear up such a bad impression about him. He simply took something out from his ring and showed it in silence to the old man.

    And as he expected, the moment the old man saw what he held in his hands, he stopped his trash talk, and showed instead an expression of disbelief on his face.

    "If you want it, then all I need is for you to guide me inside," William tossed what he got out in the air, caught it again without sparring a single nce to it.

    He gave that old man the impression that he never cared about such a precious thing. "So, will senior help me?" William looked straight at the old man''s eyes, waiting for the obvious answer.

    "This¡­ I heard that the Long n just got out from a hellish fight and tons of scarlet monsters got killed¡­ Are you part of the Long n? No way! You don''t look like one of them!"

    William knew the elder in front of him would recognise the scarlet bear monster core he held in his hand.

    It might be something worthy of fifty thousand spirit crystals or more, very rare to find in the first ce. But William knew the intentions of the old patriarch in flooding the market with these cores.

    So, in the academy and regions around, these cores would lose most of their value. And that was why William took such a precious core out without even a single speck of hesitation.

    "I was there when things went south," William gave such a random excuse that got most of the truth inside.

    He wasn''t just there; he was the one who made such a miracle possible.

    "Even if you were present there, there is no way that stingy dude would give his precious cores to anyone," the elder paused, his face changed and became more serious, "who exactly are you? What''s your name? What''s your n?"

    "I''m William," William didn''t know that such an elder knew the old patriarch this well, "and I''m just nobody. I came from a weak family with no n."

    "This¡­"

    "Senior, do you want this core or not?" William hated it when people kept questioning him everywhere he went. Besides, he just wanted the help of this elder inside the library, nothing that would be worth such interrogation.

    And when that elder didn''t respond, William swiftly stored the core away, turned around, and was about to leave.

    Wasting his time in the library without guidance was something he''d never do again. If this old man wouldn''t help, then he''d go back and wait for Berry to visit, asking her for a solution to this little problem.

    However, the moment he turned around, that elder felt instant scare and hurriedly shed, blocking the path in front of William.

    "Why be impatient? I was just trying to start a conversation here."

    "I''m not that free," William blinked, putting on an innocent expression as if he got baffled by the actions of the elder, not expecting them, "and the senior looks busy. So, I''m going to find another senior to help."

    "Find no one," the elder waved his hand, releasing his pressure suiting a dark gold spirit master, "I''m going to lead you inside. Don''t you want someone to guide you in the library? Come, let me show you the secrets of this ce."

 Chapter 154 Going Into The Library

    ?William knew the elder was already in his pocket. Even if hecked strength, by using the right methods, he could turn such a scary spirit master into hisckey!

    "I don''t want to trouble senior," William still acted as if he was surprised or something.

    "I don''t have anything else to do anyway, soe," the elder gestured for William to enter the library with him, "this ce is too big to visit it all in a single day. I''ll take care of things and you can stay here inside as long as you want."

    "Thanks senior," William cupped his hands, showing a fake attitude of gratitude. Exchanging tens of spirit crystals for fifty thousand or more? That was indeed quite a cunning move from such an elder.

    "But I have sses to attend, so can''t stay here for more than two days¡­"

    "Don''t worry about that, I''ll let you enter anytime you want. Juste here when you have timeter, ok?"

    "Thanks senior," William took out the core, tossed it towards the elder, acting as if he didn''t know the true value of such a precious thing, "can we enter now?"

    "Sure,e¡­ I''ll take you to the most valuable documents of training technique and manuals."

    "Thanks, but¡­"

    "Don''t think that it''s difficult to get such valuable things. I''m a dark gold spirit master anyway, so only a few items inside can resist my power."

    The elder who introduced himself while walking into the library as Lorance, mistook what William wanted to say. William wanted to tell him that he didn''t care about training manuals and techniques. He just came here to check the forging documents.

    However, what he said at the end piqued the interest of William. "Are there things that even senior can''t get ess to?" That was indeed surprising.

    The ceiling power of the spirit master in this world was the legendary rank. And the reason behind calling it the legendary rank was because the number of people who managed to get ess to such rank was considered pretty low.

    ording to William''s knowledge from the past, only rumours spread about those who once managed to set foot into such a realm.

    There was no real evidence of the presence of such formidable figures before ever in history. And William got to know the reason behind this.

    If anyone managed to set foot into such a realm, then he''d attract the instant hostility from the monsters and dark spirit masters.

    The legendary rank known here was the basic rank in the outside world. And that meant whoever managed to get to such a stage would get the ability to break through the barrier of this world to the vaster outside one.

    So, the fate of these figures would be either by getting killed in the hands of the enemy or finding a way to escape such entrapment here.

    As for passing through the final turn and jumping from the dark gold rank to the legendary rank, this wasn''t easy at all!

    The dark gold rank was such a huge gulf to surf for any spirit masters. The most powerful known figures in this world throughout the long history till now were always stuck at the quasi-legendary rank for their entire lives.

    William knew one reason behind such a weird phenomenon, which lied mainly in the training manuals everyone was using in this world.

    These manuals were broken, losing the right path towards the legendary rank and beyond.

    If one didn''t have aplete road map towards his destination, then he''d get to that ce by pure luck, or mostly lose his way towards that direction. Out of tens of billions of attempts, one might get lucky and find the right path.

    And the worst thing was that such a lucky dude wouldn''t even know the crux of the problem he and everyone else got, or how he got to solve it. So even if he managed to reach such a legendary rank, he''d not be able to help others trapped inside this world with what he did.

    Replicating what one did to reach such a stage wasn''t going to work. There were too many variables, including the three holy triad of any spirit master.

    But William was different. He already knew tons of manuals that came directly from the higher world. The two he randomly gave Berry came from the outside world.

    If she trained diligently into them, then she''d end up reaching the legendary rank easily and quite fast as well. And she wouldn''t just stop there and would continue climbing higher.

    ? William got the power to entirely change anyone''s life if he desired. But he also was quite aware that overdoing this would turn things quite ugly for him.

    He had to keep getting stronger, and he needed to do this as fast as possible to secure his life.

    Once he reached the dark gold grade, he''d be more confident in his strength. At that point, mass teaching others wouldn''t be problematic like if he did it right now.

    "Sure, this ce is quite mysterious," Lorance paused as the two entered inside the library, "no one, even the headmasters of the academy, could get everything in here. There are many items that have been kept sealed for god knows how long."

    "Hmm¡­ I can''t believe this," William''s curiosity grew more. And using his advantage as a kid, he yed Lorance quite in his palms.

    "Come, I''ll show you," Lorance felt a little agitated from the words of William and started to lead the way towards one direction of this vast ce.

    The two passed through many shelves with lots of documents that got sealed withyers of light.

    William could see colours like white, bronze, silver, gold, and dark gold, sealing the documents inside. And these seals weren''t just oneyer.

    They would be oneyer at some ces, twoyers at others. He even once spotted three dark goldyers of seals protecting a single document while following Lorance.

 Chapter 155 The Holy Triangle

    ?William noticed that the deeper they moved, the more high level seals that appeared around. William ended up in a deep zone of this library where a weird triangle made of shelves stood in the middle of a wide area.

    This triangle looked weird, as William never saw such an alignment before while moving inside the library towards here.

    Each shelf was twenty metres in height and width, looking like a perfect square or something. The three shelves left three gaps between each other, enough for one adult person to pass through.

    There were many lightsing from the ceiling of the library, lighting up the ce even on such a dark night. Inside that triangle, lights seemed to fade away, giving a gloomy dark appearance to anyone seeing it from outside.

    ? "This is the holy triangle," and the next words of the elder made William''s heart race, "ording to the note left by the venerable person who left this library behind, the secret of breaking through the shackles of our world lies within it. However, no matter who, no matter how many times we tried, none managed to know a single secret from here."

    If William wanted to describe the feeling, he got from Lorance when he said his words then willingness, eagerness, faint bitterness and rage would be the best words to describe that.

    "The holy triangle¡­" William muttered, thinking about the famous holy triad concept in the outer world. The familiarity he found in the name, coupled with the words Lorance said about that note left by whoever left this library behind, meant only one thing.

    ''So, there was someone who knew the secrets of the outer world and left them here for others¡­ But what''s the point in sealing them? Why won''t he leave everything open for everyone to learn?''

    This slightly puzzled William, and yet he couldn''t resist the urge to go and see these shelves in person.

    "You shall enter the triangle to ess what''s stored inside the Holy Triangle," when William went to check the shelves of one side of the triangle, Lorance said in a calm tone.

    William just arrived at that side, and there he found to his surprise that the shelves here weren''t like any other shelves he saw before.

    The wall he selected was filled with holes, like a huge honeb. It was the same as any other shelf in the library. However, there was a little and major difference.

    The holes in any shelve would be closed by a thinyer or manyyers of coloured film that was made of energy. It was the seal, and inside, one could see a scroll, a bottle, or even a piece of rock lying in peace and waiting.

    However, these holes here weren''t like that. They weren''t covered with any seals, but a thickyer of fog. It felt like these holes were inside a thick ck cloud, cloaking anything inside from getting seen by anyone standing outside.

    William couldn''t tell if there were scrolls, bottles, or nothing at all inside each hole. He couldn''t tell anything, and that seemed to be the normal of this holy triangle.

    "I need to get inside to see?" William pointed towards the closest gap that would let anyone inside the centre of the triangle, "what''s inside exactly?"

    At this moment, it wasn''t wise to keep acting like a curious kid, but a cautious one. William knew if the one who left such a treasure behind didn''t want just anyone to get the knowledge he left, then there must be traps or tricks waiting for him inside.

    "It''s why no one ever managed to unlock the seal," Lorance bitterly sighed, "anyone entering the triangle will experience different things than others. For me, I''ll find myself standing in the middle of a desert, standing in front of a flight of stairs, surrounded by a thickyer of ck fog, while lightning will fry me out!"

    William noticed a faint tremble at the body of Lorance when he said this. It seemed his experience was really quite painful, enough to make his body react unconsciously in such a way.

    "Hmm¡­ So, it''s quite deadly?" William was doubting this.

    "Not deadly," Lorance shook his head, before seriously adding in warning, "but if you have a weak will, don''t even dream about stepping inside."

    "Weak will?" such a word made William frown for a brief moment, before all of sudden his eyes went all wide.

    Lorance didn''t hear about any of William''s deeds before as he got himself stuck around the library, trying to get through the weird lock of the holy triangle here.

    He didn''t care that much about the slight change in William''s face and took it as a normal reaction any kid would show to such words.

    "It''s indeed a test of will," Lorance shifted his gaze towards the triangle, "our ancestors already reached such conclusion. To unlock the secrets inside this triangle, one needs to endure the hellish tortureing at him inside while ascending. I got lightning, others got fire, some got ice, and others got rocks falling on their heads without a single moment of pause or rest."

    "So, one needs to endure for how long to ess these secrets?" William asked, as he already started to see part of the grand scheme behind this holy triangle.

    "Not for long," Lorance shook his head again, "there is a path, one that''s leading to the top of a small hill. There are around ny-nine stairs there, and one has to cross them to reach the top to unlock the seal."

    "Ny-nine steps Will Trial?!!!" Even if William looked pretty much shocked, even to the extent that his body trembled faintly, Lorance still missed all of that.

    William gazed differently now towards that triangle, feeling immense shock inside.

    ''Weren''t such trials only present at the most formidable ces in any lesser world? Why is one here?!!"

    William knew the Aspire academy was strong, but he also knew it wasn''t that strong to have such a thing inside.

 Chapter 156 The Ninety-Nine Stairs Will Trial

    ?The ny-nine stairs will trials were a very famous thing in the outside world. They were controlled by a single faction out there, one that called on themselves The Holy Guardians.

    It was as the ancestors of the academy here guessed; this trial was all about testing one''s will. And William didn''t need Lorance to speak further as he knew the ins and outs of such a trial.

    "Each step taken will bring much fiercer lightning down," but Lorance didn''t notice any of the reactions on William''s face, and kept speaking about the trial, "and for others, each step will do the same. The highest record was done almost five hundred years ago, and it''s at the seventy-three step."

    "Only this?" William couldn''t help but mutter in doubt. This was considered a pretty low result in such trials.

    "Don''t belittle this thing here, even dark spirit masters won''t be able to get past the fifty steps easily."

    William went into deep silence, considering one simple issue: Shall I help this dude? Help the academy? Shall I do it now?

    This was what he thought about. He knew that the mindset of this elder, the mindset of almost all of the spirit masters who tried this trial, was wrong.

    This wasn''t a test of personal power but will. It was easy to confuse the two together, thinking about using strength all the time to solve things.

    However, this wasn''t true. In fact, if one used strength, then his will would get affected as he''d be distracted.

    The real trick in oveing this trial would be by doing two things. One was to let the spirit masters experience more battles and ovee life and death situations to strengthen one''s will.

    William was quite sure that not a single spirit master reaching the dark gold status would arrive there without sharpening their will. So, this wasn''t the issue here.

    The issue lied in not using any force at all whiles dealing with the iing attacks that trial would throw at one''s face!

    When facing any attack, any spirit master would reflexly think about using spirit power to defend against the iing attacks.

    But as Lorance said, this kind of attack wouldn''t kill anyone. It wasn''t a real attack actually, but one that yed on a spiritual level.

    To pass such a trial, one had to not use a speck of his power, stand all the way there and wee everythinging while enduring the pain he''d feel.

    The pain wasn''t real, just like the attacksing towards anyone. It was just a pain of the spirit, not truly harming one''s body at all.

    After thinking for a few seconds, William decided to drop such a matter. He wasn''t a god who could change the entire fate of the world alone, nor did he want to do such a tiresome task in the first ce.

    He just wanted to train a team, nourish them for the impending great cmity lurking in the future. Then he''d take this team with him, survive that disaster, and go to therger world together.

    If he got lucky, he''d end up with prodigies, with immense talent and bright future, and might help him at the end when dealing with that fox.

    He wanted to act like his master, gather worthy spirit masters to nourish and train them to get stronger. William knew by this time; his master would start her long task of doing that. And he nned to meet up with her in the future with a strong and formidable team by his side.

    Besides, he was more curious about the hidden motives behind the intentions of the Holy Guardians by cing such a thing here.

    Until he discovered such motives, he wouldn''t bring more trouble to himself right now.

    "Won''t you try it out?" Just as he decided to not step in and help the elder or the academy, William started to walk away.

    "Sorry senior, I have little time today. I want to see documents rted to forging."

    "Forging? Weird! Are you interested in such useless things?" And against William''s expectations, Lorance seemed to have a totally opposite view about forging.

    "Forging isn''t that useless," William said, waving his hand as he took out his sword, "they can add more power to us without the need to consume lots of time."

    "That''s wrong," Lorance walked by William''s side, while shaking his head in disappointment, "these things, forging and alchemy, are a distraction! At the end of the day, they are an outside force, one that doesn''t belong to you."

    William got what Lorance here was speaking about. And he could only inwardly sigh.

    Such a viewpoint was considered logical, but it was still impractical. "Senior is right indeed," he didn''t want to start a debate with Lorance, especially when he knew he''d get nowhere by talking about such matters.

    "Then you shall focus more on learning training manuals and fighting techniques. Come, let me show you a few gems."

    "Thanks senior, but I still want to check on forging gems," William decided to take a step back, but he didn''t intend to totally drop the real goal behinding here.

    "You are quite stubborn as a kid!" Lorance shook his head again, and even heaved a deep sigh, "you won''t get what I said anyway. But one day you''ll remember my words and regret not listening to me."

    William resisted the urge to argue with such a stubborn old man. But as Lorance finally resigned to his will, William swallowed all the words he wanted to say.

    The library was indeed a giant maze! William followed Lorance through many shelves, took lots of turns right and left until they finally stood in front of one of the huge walls lining the academy.

    The shelves here stretched from the ground all the way to the dome shaped ceiling! And with all the holes inside, the entire academy looked like a terrifying colossal beehive!

    William spotted a few movable long wooden stairs that could lead anyone all the way to the top.

 Chapter 157 A Huge Difference!

    ?"Here is the section about forging. Tell me, what do you seek? Forging manuals of gears? Weapons? Or forging techniques?"

    "I want¡­ Documents about the basics," William paused for a brief second before making up his mind.

    He wanted to read the basics to tell the difference between the forging he knew about and the forging this world was familiar with.

    "Ahem, I''m starting to practise forging," and when Lorance gave him such a weird look, William added to justify what he said earlier, "I''m a bronze spirit master after all."

    "Sure," after giving William a long nce, Lorance realised that he overestimated the abilities of this kid.

    And when he realised this point, he couldn''t help but inwardly question himself. ''Why did I think of him like someone stronger?''

    "Here," after pushing aside such an annoying note, Lorance randomly selected a few holes, passed through their white, bronze, and silveryers of seals without any trouble, before handing the scrolls stored inside to William.

    William got almost twenty scrolls at first. Beside this region, there was arge oval shaped table with many chairs around. It was designed to let any spirit master read what he imed without the need to leave the library.

    After all, it was prohibited to read the documents of the library outside. Or to be more precise, if anyone tried to sneakily take anything out, the scrolls would fly back to its hole like it was bound with some sort of hidden force.

    "Bring me more," William added while heading towards the table, "and bring me some of the forging techniques as well."

    To better understand what heights the forging realm here reached, William needed to learn the basics and themonly used forging techniques.

    Lorance could only watch this kid throw away his life in vain in silence as he kept shaking his head and sighing. To him, William was just wasting his effort in something that wasn''t that worthy.

    Yet he kept taking out documents and delivering them to William.

    As for William, he thought he''d take a long time to read through all of the increasing piling documents next to him. However, that wasn''t true.

    "This is the basic hammer movement¡­ But it speaks about a rudimentary and crude way to do it¡­"

    Just with a few nces, he could identify the content of any scroll, recognise what the entire document said, and even spot the few mistakes from the first written lines there.

    Each scroll unfolded to show a long document that spanned for at least half a metre in length. The words written there came in small size, arranged in blocks while many drawings were present there to help anyone understand the true meaning behind these words.

    Just by seeing these drawings gave William an instant realisation of the document content. And by reading the first lines in every document, he''d grasp what the entire document would talk about.

    "Tsk¡­ This¡­ This is quite retarded indeed," it was the first time for him to get in touch with knowledge of how to forge in this world.

    And from what he read after almost ten hours, he realised that he did the right thing toe here first.

    All the basic concepts and theories, all the techniques used in forging¡­ They were all quite rudimentary in his eyes! He realised that even if he randomly picked a topic and spoke lightly about it, he''d still spill out tons of secrets about forging.

    He now realised why Ellina acted in such a way before when she saw him forge. It wasn''t just the revolutionary ideas of his forging techniques, but the basic concepts thaty behind them.

    In this world, forging was like scraping the surface of a mine, just taking the shallow and most useless ores from outside.

    The real gems always lied deep within the ground. William knew the gems, and now he had a big dilemma about what he should teach artisans here. "Tsk! I thought it''d be quite easy to find the right amount of knowledge to share¡­ But this¡­"

    The more he read, the more depressed he became. After five more hours, he decided to call it a day.

    "Thanks, senior, for the trouble," he said at the door of the library.

    "If you ever wanted to read anything, juste here and I''ll help you with it," Lorance didn''t stop trying to convince William to read documents about techniques and training manuals while seeing him out, "and think about what I already told you about."

    "Sure, thanks for the senior''s care and concern," William knew even if that spirit master was a bit stubborn and quite wrong in his viewpoint, he''d still take the trouble to advise William out of his good intentions.

    Even if a great part of this came from the core he got from William, thetter still felt warm towards such an attitude.

    "I stayed all night inside¡­" When William got out from the library, he found the sun in the middle of the sky. He felt a little hungry and tired, so he walked back to his mansion with a troubled mind.

    His body might not match his past life, but his mind did. So even during his slow walk back, he never stopped thinking about what he read and learnt.

    "Going by logic, the forging role in helping spirit masters in this world is quite limited," he realised why people like Lorance had such a viewpoint about external help that came from forging and alchemy.

    It wasn''t just an issue of concept or belief, but it was also thanks to the limited role the gears and elixirs had to the spirit masters here.

    "I didn''t read anything about alchemy, but I have the feeling it won''t be that different," as he returned back to his ce, he ate and drank, before retreating to his room to sleep while muttering this to himself.

    He heard the noises made by Tina. "This little devil never rests!" William sighed, before closing up his eyes and getting a long nap of rest.

 Chapter 158 Getting A Map

    ?He slept for five hours before opening his eyes on a repeated knocking on his door.

    "Who? What?" Still lost in the world of sleep, he shouted in slight annoyance.

    He hated it the most when someone interrupted his sleep. Especially after spending his past night reading through all the documents.

    "Rise and shine little prince, it''s already past noon!" Berry''s voice came brightly and loudly from behind his closed door.

    "One minute," William rose up, took a shower before heading out. He found Berry sitting in the big hall of the entrance, seemingly having an annoyed look on her face. "What''s wrong?"

    Seeing her like this made him slightly puzzled. She wouldn''t get mad just because he took half an hour to get out, right?

    "It''s that jerk," she said in an angry voice, "I hate him!"

    "Who?" William felt like he missed something here.

    "Who else but that damn Guanin?"

    "What did he do?" William got interested at once. It wasn''t because she was mad about Guanin. After all, when speaking about such a jerk, who wouldn''t get mad?

    But William paid close attention to any news about the dark spirit masters. And Guanin was just one of them.

    "That jerk is the one behind all the rumours regarding my n!" she said such a thing in a very angry voice, making William on the verge of letting out augh.

    He couldn''t believe she was still focusing on such a thing! "Just let him do whatever he likes," he lightly said, "he is just jealous of your n, a perfect example of a bitter loser."

    "Humph, and he should be," she showed such an arrogant expression before adding, "by the way, I passed here at night but didn''t find you. Where did you go? Train?"

    "I went to the library," William didn''t hide his visit to the library, which made Berry give him a weird look.

    "Why? It''s just a boring ce!"

    "I wanted to read the documents there," William said the first thing that came into his mind, "by the way, how is your training going?"

    "I haven''t trained since that battle," she showed a depressed look before adding, "but I intend to start training tonight!"

    "Good," William nodded, turned around and noticed the two girls were ying outside. "By the way, do you know if others returned from the n?"

    "Kong and Lang?" she paused, and he nodded, "they areing tomorrow night."

    "Good, let''s meet them after sses then," William thought for a moment before asking, "by the way, do you have a map about the academy?"

    "I got one of the entire kingdom," she touched her ring and took out one scroll, "you can have it."

    "Thanks," William wanted to get a copy of the area around the academy, yet he ended up having a grander map of the entire kingdom.

    Berry didn''t stay for long as she excused herself when the lunch time came. William was all silent during the meal while Tina kept talking nonstop.

    His mind was burdened with thoughts and ns of the future. He already got enough assets to start training the kids he sat his eyes on, but hecked a suitable ce to do so.

    But now this wasn''t going to be an issue. He wanted to rent or even buy out a ce in one of the cities not far from here, a first step before heading to the kingdom''s capitalter on.

    The kingdom had lots of towns, and few cities. And William wanted to visit one of these cities.

    After the meal, he retreated to the study room where he started to consider lots of things.

    The first thing he decided was what he should give to the Forging department here. He got tons of forging manuals, but all depended on totally different concepts than those known in this world.

    Finding good manuals that wouldn''t expose too much and would still provide great help to the spirit masters here was a big dilemma. Yet after six hours of serious thinking, he decided on ten forging manuals, and wrote them down.

    He made sure to exin the concepts behind forging these gears, making sure anyone without any prior knowledge would learn how to forge these gears without a problem.

    The gears he selected were two greatswords, one knife, one sword, two bows, one boot, one helmet, and two shields.

    From all of them, he''d select the boots to be the best of valuepared to anything else.

    These boots would make the steps of any spirit master quite faster, adding the ability to jump higher, and that was quite valuable in any fight.

    Unlike the rest of the gears he selected, these boots would bring up quite the stir, provided that spirit masters realised their true value.

    As he got done with such an issue, he started to work over another thing. He took out the map he received from Berry and started to slowly examine it.

    The map was fully detailed, showing lots of areas and regions known to man. Aside from the immensely huge forest, there were arge number of towns around the academy.

    William saw that most of the ns belonging to the academy weren''t that far away from the n, all except for Guanin''s n.

    "Hmm¡­ They are situated far from here, almost three days of travel¡­ That''s quite suspicious."

    William knew by just this far away location; the Bronze Lizard n would give excuses for not taking part in any big war. Just like what happened with the Long n, they''d arrive long after the end of the battle.

    William spent many hours studying the map until a n formed in his mind.

    The next day, when the sun was in the middle of the sky, William headed towards the Forging department to meet Ellina.

    During this time, it was ss time. Disciples were busy attending different sses, and so the path towards the department was already void of any spirit master.

    William reached the ce where he found a small row standing in front of the tightly shut gates of the Forging Department. He looked around, and all he could see was older spirit masters, almost at fourth and beyond sses, with serious looks over their faces.

 Chapter 159 One Hundred Per Person

    ?He could see ck lines under the eyes of everyone, as if they stayed their past nights awake or something.

    "What''s going on here?"

    William could tell something big was going on here. The doors that were wide open before were now tightly shut.

    "What brought a kid of the second year here?" Just as he felt lost and confused about this, a deep voice came from behind.

    "Senior, can you tell me what''s going on here?" that dude wore a silver attire, just like many standing here.

    William could also see few gold attires, meaning these disciples were gold grade, at least at fifth year.

    "Coming here without knowing about this big day? Who are you?" The one who spoke to William was in his early twentieth, giving William no impression about his n or family.

    He was bald, with a long beard that gave him a unique look. "Sorry senior, I came here to meet with someone inside and didn''t know anything about this big day."

    William told the truth, and yet he felt many weird and even hostile gazes fell on his back.

    "Don''t bother with him," one of the few wearing gold attire disciples said, attracting the crowd''s attention, "he is that porter who turned into a bronze spirit master in a few days!"

    "Him?!"

    "This kid?!"

    "I heard he was a traitor!"

    "I don''t want to be associated with someone like him!"

    William suddenly heard lots of remarks about him, mostly speaking about the false charge that he got cleared from.

    When he experienced this, he couldn''t help but recall Berry. ''Tsk! It really sucks when someone spreads false rumours about you indeed,'' he inwardly sighed, didn''t give all of them any heed while focused on the silver spirit master standing in front of him.

    That dude showed a surprised look over his face before that look vanished and instead a look of respect appeared on his face.

    "A traitor or not, that''s an issue left to the academy to decide," that dude spoke in a loud tone, seemingly defending William, "what truly matters is how he did it!"

    "I''m not interested in dealing with someone like him!"

    "I heard many disciples from higher ns already announced their enmity with him."

    "I don''t want to attract the wrath of any of those scary ns."

    "Alfred, it''s better if you stayed away from him!"

    William noticed how his reputation was very low in the academy! He never expected for his name to be widely known and be associated with such infamy.

    He felt the urge to speak up and defend himself, and soon withdrew such a thought. He should focus on things he decided to do, not care about what others thought about him.

    People were just like this, believing rumours and not showing any interest in the truth or seeking it.

    "Don''t bother with them," Alfred said, ignoring what others advised him about, "tell me, is there a secret behind what you did or what?"

    "What do you think?" William liked this dude, and yet he kept himself away from trouble and answered back with a question.

    "You are an interesting kid," Alfredughed before adding, "if not for this day, I''d have asked you many questions. But now it''s better for me to revise what I''ve learned so far."

    "Revise? Is an exam going on today?" William got the hidden hint behind Alfred''s words.

    "It''s an exam to decide the batch taking part in the uing spirit masterpetition," Alfred paused, seemingly hesitating about what he should add next, "I don''t know how you don''t know about it, but it''s a big deal!"

    "I lived as a porter for a long time," William said.

    "Yes, I can see where you came from," Alfred sighed before looking around and whispered, "see? Most of us just came from no named ns or families. We aren''t that far better than you. Only those without backing have to go through such strict tests. As for those from big ns and families, humph! Each n and big named family already selected one of their disciples to join thepetition without the need to take any test!"

    William got what he meant. And when he looked around, he noticed that the mean age of all silver spirit masters was around twenty! And those few with gold attires were at least thirty!

    That was a very high agepared to their rank! In any big n or family, such ranks would be achieved at much younger ages!

    "So¡­" William looked around and realised something. If they weremon folks, then they must have associated themselves with one of the big ns or families in the academy.

    And Alfred seemed to get what William meant by his unspoken words. "I work for the Red Falcon n. It''s not that strongpared with the likes of Long or the Bronze Lizard ns, but it''s still a decent one."

    "Having the backing of a good n is better than having none at all."

    "Hahahaha! That''s what I think as well," Alfredughed on William''s words before adding, "I like you! Let''s hang out together sometimes. But now, I have to excuse myself."

    "Senior, can I ask about something else?" William hurriedly stopped Alfred. He got a good impression of such amon spirit master, and so he wanted to ask him more.

    "You can''t get inside with us," Alfred seemed to get what William wanted to ask about, "only those who reached silver rank have a shot here. Otherwise, it will be a huge loss of spirit crystals for you."

    "Spirit crystals?" William paused, "how much exactly?"

    "A hundred per person," Alfred said in a bitter tone. William knew how hard it was for such amon spirit master to store up such a small amount, "I know it''s too much to ask, but it''s the rule set by the academy."

    "I see," William paused, turned around but he couldn''t see any forging master from the department around.

 Chapter 160 The Forging Master

    ?"In less than one hour, one of the masters will open the gates and collect the fees," Alfred got what William was thinking about, "bute on! It''s a one hundred spirit crystal! You cane tomorrow and enter here for free."

    "I don''t need that," Alfred took what William said wrongly, and thought this kid was just trying to preserve his dignity or face or something.

    "It''s your choice then," Alfred shrugged, returning to stand silent on the side as he resumed revising what he learnt before.

    As for William, he didn''t stand there idle. These disciples came from higher grades, and they were allmoners.

    But they wouldn''t survive without the backing of a strong n or family. And so, William remembered their faces, especially those who spread bad rumours about him.

    For sure they were either associated with dirty ns and families like the Bronze Lizards, or they were friends with such ns and families.

    In brief,moners or not, they were part of his enemy circle. William knew how hard it was for amoner to live in the academy. They might be slightly better than his past life as a porter, but the same rule still applied to them.

    If they wanted to survive, they got to serve others. And that was because theycked any backing, were quite poor, and had no ess to extra resources.

    William knew better. The number of themoner spirit masters in any ce was just much more than the number of spirit mastersing from big families and ns.

    But for a reason he couldn''t truly ept, nomoner tried to rally his folks around and seeded. If such a thing ever happened, then a formidable force could be formed.

    "This is interesting," William recalled how this was also the rule in the outside world. Those with wealth and power, got a name behind their backs, were always on the top of the pyramid, ahead of everyone else.

    It wasn''t just a problem of wealth and fame, many preferred to lean over something bigger than working hard to make a name for themselves.

    Beingzy or just greedy, in the end many if not most of themoners would flock around shiny ns and families.

    William knew even if he stepped up and took the lead of thosemoners, provided them many benefits, not many of them would join him.

    That wasn''t an issue of loyalty, it was just their nature. That was what they were, some were destined for greatness, and others were destined to just be nothing.

    "It''s time for the test," and just as Alfred said, in one hour the doors opened. A middle aged man came out, one that William never saw before.

    ''It seems those artisans in the academy love to show off their muscles!'' William noticed how simr the outfit of this dude was with Ellina''s. He showed his muscr abdomen from an opened shirt, and muscles of arm as this shirt was sleeveless.

    "For anyone wanting to take the test, he or she has to pay one hundred spirit crystals," that master said, took out a cauldron like pot and stood silently on the side.

    He even closed his eyes. And that told William he must be using spiritual sense to detect all moves around him.

    ''A gold spirit master like Ellina¡­'' William knew that spiritual sense wouldn''t be opened until the spirit master entered the gold realm.

    "It''s now or never," Alfred said to William, meaning it was time for him to retreat without losing anything, better than embarrassing himself and losing one hundred crystals on top of that.

    However, just when Alfred passed by the cauldron, leaving his spirit crystals into it, William followed, taking the required spirit crystals.

    "Bronze spirit master? Are you sure you want to take the test?" the master who kept his silence and eyes shut, spoke all of sudden, slowly opening his eyes and focused over William.

    "Greeting master, I just want to enter the Forging department," William cupped his hands, not feeling any pain or loss about those one hundred crystals.

    "You aren''t here for the test?" and when the master heard his words, he frowned, "today is a special day. There are no avable rooms to forge or free masters to learn from. Return back ande tomorrow."

    "Sorry master, but I already paid the crystals," William pointed towards the cauldron that was at least twice his height.

    "You can get them back," the master mistook his meaning, and waved his hand as if this wasn''t a big deal.

    "I want to meet master Ellina," William felt it was going much harder than he thought to enter that ce.

    "I just told you, no one is free today," the master frowned when he heard William''s words.

    "Just inform her that William is on the door, ready to honour the deal between the two of us."

    "Deal? What deal?" the master frown deepened, before his eyes suddenly froze on top of William as if he was seeing him for the first time, "you¡­ You are that porter!"

    He said it as if he saw a monster or something. William didn''t get what made this master act like this.

    During the time he spent in the forest, in the academy defending and clearing up his name, fighting at the Long n, reading inside the library, the entire Forging department was going through a huge storm thanks to him.

    The secrets he showed Ellina ended up opening more doors to the forging masters here. This master was one of the many who got absorbed in studying everything they learnt from William.

    William''s name was like thunder in the ears of the higher ups in the Forging department. And his name became widely known in the entire forging master circle.

    It was the first time for this master to meet William. After all, Ellina didn''t describe him and just focused on informing everyone about his novel ways in forging.

 Chapter 161 The Real Power Of The Title

    ?As for the poster incident, it didn''t reach the Forging department. If anything would be said about the artisans, then they were crazily absorbed and totally focused on forging and nothing else.

    "It''s me," William didn''t feel any hostility like he used to get when someone would mention his past as a porter. Instead, he felt a weird shocking from that master.

    "It''s an honour to meet you!" Just out of everyone''s expectations here, the master who everyone dealt with utmost respect and veneration moved and formally greeted William by cupping his hands.

    No matter how anyone saw it, they felt like this master was dealing with William as if he was a master like him, not a mere disciple like them.

    "Master, what''s wrong?!" From the side, one of those who showed their hostility to William before, spoke up. He couldn''t control his puzzlement anymore.

    "What''s wrong about what?" the master turned to that disciple, who was one of the few gold grade spirit masters here.

    Even if the two were at the same rank as gold spirit masters, there was a huge difference between the two in the forging field.

    "He is a porter, a traitor who works for the dark side!" That disciple was so focused on his hatred and enmity towards William to miss the tiny clues about how this master deeply respected William.

    "A traitor? That issue is already dealt with," the master gave that disciple a look from head to toe, "whoever told you this missed to tell you thetest development about this issue. William isn''t a traitor."

    "My friend from the Bronze Lizard n told me he is a traitor!" and even with all these ring signs that this master was on William''s side, and trying to frame William was a lost case, this disciple failed to notice this.

    "He got cleared by the headmaster himself," and when the master heard what this disciple said, his tone changed to an icy cold, "are you telling me that your friend knows better than the headmaster himself?"

    "This¡­" that disciple finally got what was going on. And that left him out of words. However, it was toote for him to realise that.

    "Just stay silent and don''t speak nonsense," the master harshly said in warning, "or else I''d expel you from the test on his behalf."

    "His behalf?"

    "What does that mean?"

    "A bronze spirit master is more highly valued than a gold spirit master?"

    "What''s going on in this world?!!"

    Many shocked exmations came when the master said his words. And William remained on the side, watching such a show in deep interest and great amusement.

    ''Ellina¡­ What the heck did you tell others exactly about me?'' William could already see the crux of the problem here. He heard things about how highly the Forging department valued him, including giving him a title and such.

    He only did one thing that could attract their attention beside the deal. After all, the deal was just an empty promise.

    If he gave Ellina anything back then to impress others, then it''d be his new ways to forge things.

    ''Tsk! It seems she found a loop in that oath of hers,'' William couldn''t ept such a thing as it already happened. And he now didn''t care about any of that.

    Even if others knew the little tricks he used in front of Ellina, it wouldn''t be a big deal. He already showed part of his real power back at the Long n.

    "You know him as a bronze spirit master," and under all the loud exmations of everyone, that master didn''t even flinch as he added, "but to us, he is our honorary disciple."

    "Honorary disciple?"

    "The one who is supposed to lead us in the uingpetition?"

    "Howe?"

    "A bronze spirit master will lead gold spirit masters? I never heard about such a thing before!"

    "Silence!" the master didn''t tolerate any more of such words, "he is your leader, that''s if you passed the test. And so, if he doesn''t want anyone to be on his team, he has the right to expel anyone. If you don''t show him the respect he deserves, I''ll take on the task of dealing with such impudence on his behalf!"

    This time the master used direct threatening words to silence everyone. The disciples around looked in conflicted gazes towards William, not knowing what they should do right now.

    They thought this porter was going to get the biggest embarrassment in his life, losing his spirit crystals, and even getting expelled entirely from the Forging department.

    And yet things ended up quite the opposite! Alfred from the side couldn''t help but look at William in a weird way, as if he was seeing him for the first time.

    William could feel all the gazes falling on him, and he ignored all of them. "Master, is master Ellina inside?" That was why he came in the first ce.

    As for this test thing and that uingpetition, he decided to keep these questions for Ellina.

    He intended to not let her off the hook this easily. She gave him an oath and ended up finding a way to break free from it. Even if he didn''t get any problem from such revtion, and even ended up getting help, he still wouldn''t let her off this easily.

    She was the one who gave him a gold grade sword on the spot without any prior preparations. If he could make her feel guilty, he dreamt about getting a good grade ive out of her thanks to that.

    "She is inside," the master pointed towards a direction before adding, "she is at the twelve test building."

    "Thanks master," William cupped his hand, and moved towards the gate before getting stopped by the master.

    "Take these," the master moves were swift as he took out the crystals William ced in the cauldron and gave them to him, "you won''t take any test and don''t need to pay anything."

 Chapter 162 Meeting Sang

    ?"Thanks master," William received back his spirit crystals, stored them inside his ring, before walking inside.

    As he walked in there, a couple of the disciples standing here retreated and walked away from the Forging department.

    They got great news to deliver and felt that delivering such news was much more important than taking the test.

    William didn''t know that a little storm wasing his way right now.

    As he followed the direction that master pointed towards, William noticed the slight difference inside the Forging department thanst time he was in here.

    Last time he came here, the ce was filled with forging noises. But right now, the entire ce looked eerie quiet, and all the buildings around hadbels on them, with random numbers. He saw fifty, twenty-three, and forty-one through his walk. The deeper he went, the more random numbers he saw.

    "Who the hell arranged things here in such a messy way?" After walking inside for ten minutes, he couldn''t help but express his puzzlement from such a random arrangement of numbers.

    "It was me," and just as he said these words, a sharp tone came from one side, startling and stopping him in his tracks.

    He turned and saw Ellina walking out from inside a building. That master told him she was inside test building number twelve. And yet she came out from a building with a number of five."

    "I was looking for you," William smiled, one that held more greedy intentions than happiness to meet her.

    "Don''t try to change the subject," she stopped a few metres away, crossed her arms, "are you not satisfied with my arrangement of disciples on the various tests?"

    "It''s¡­ Too random!" William couldn''t find any other word to describe his puzzlement but this one.

    No matter how he thought about it, the numbers arranged here didn''t follow any logic or pattern.

    "That''s to prevent cheating!" she eximed in defence, not moving her eyes off him, "you changed!"

    "In a good or bad way?"

    "You are speaking to me more daringly than before," she raised one eyebrow before adding, st time you kept telling me senior this, master that¡­ And now you are just speaking directly to me."

    "Aren''t we friends?"

    "We didn''t meet except for once, and that wasn''t too long ago!"

    "Destined friends don''t need a long time to be considered friends," William looked around, "can we talk here or what?"

    "About what?" Ellina''s face showed how much she was annoyed, "you promised to give me blueprints from your master after your return. And you came back, went to the Long n, and had lots of fun there."

    "And here I am," William spread his arms, "will we talk here?"

    "Follow me," despite showing such annoyance on her face, she moved away, leading him towards the deeper parts of this ce.

    She was indeed excited! Just the few things William showed her before inspired many masters with great ideas. So, she ced high importance on what William brought with him this time.

    When she heard he went to fight with the Long n against the scary monster tide, she got scared! She thought he''d end up throwing his life and she''d lost the promised great manuals.

    However, when she heard the story about what happened there, she couldn''t help but get inwardly shocked. The old patriarch of the Long n shared what William did back there at the forging region of the n with the Forging headmaster, ending up adding new light to their limited forging world.

    The forging masters here couldn''t help but see William as a walking treasure trove. Every single time he did anything rted to forging, they''d discover new things, techniques and tricks they never knew they even existed!

    She didn''t lead him anywhere else but towards the ce of her boss. She didn''t even inform him about William''s presence, and yet that old man was already standing in front of his mansion, waiting for the two with a clear excited look on his face.

    "Master Sang," even if Ellina was a forming master, she would still address Sang as master. It wasn''t just a title out of the position difference between the two, but that Sang was indeed an admirable figure in the world of forging.

    "You must be William," Sang ignored Ellina totally, and insteadughed as he gestured for William to enter, "let''s talk inside. I heard tons of stories about you and wanted to meet you a long time ago."

    "Thanks headmaster," William gave Ellina a silent side nce before following Sang inside his mansion.

    And it was truly a ce that belonged to a genius forging spirit master!

    There wasn''t a single table or chairs inside, and the entire ce had its walls demolished, turning the entire ce into a giant and open working ce.

    William saw a bed lying on one side, while the entire ce was filled with pots, stoves, hammers, anvils, wood, different materials, and the scent of something burning was thick in the air.

    William couldn''t believe this was the ce of the forging headmaster. Shouldn''t he live in some neat ce? A ce that could be called a home?

    William looked around and couldn''t even see a single piece of furniture aside from that bed. The entire ce was suited to be called a big forging ce, not a residence for a headmaster or any spirit master at all!

    "Sorry about that," Sang felt the weird gazes of William, and couldn''t help butugh before adding, "once I learnt about the new techniques and ways of forging you used, I didn''t stop training and testing things out¡­ However¡­"

    His face slightly changed, turned to look towards one spot. William could see arge pile of failed products, gathered up in one ce near the wall.

    William couldn''t tell what Sang wanted to do here. There were spears, swords, shields, and even helmets. All were ck in colour, with parts falling off, leaving holes in the end product.

    "I wanted to replicate the way to control your knives in all these, but failed," Sang didn''t hide his intentions from William.

 Chapter 163 Anything Is Negotiable

    ?Sang grabbed one sword, and it didn''t look any better than the other failed gears around, "no matter how I tried to control it, it ended up in such a way."

    William knew what Sang wanted to do here. If spirit masters managed to craft flying swords, the use of them in fight or even in flight would be quite impressive.

    Not to mention other gears like spears that would turn into flying deadly machines, or shields that could defend against any attack even if it came from the spirit master''s blind spot.

    Such new gears would change the entire world for sure. "Master must have thought too highly of my flying technique," William calmly said in his words, while thinking how naive it was from Sang to use such a method.

    His method worked on low weight objects. His knives were forged to be light and small, easy to be controlled by his spirit power.

    The same method could be applied of course torger objects but using different materials and steps. William knew the right way to do it, but he didn''t intend on exposing such a matter right now.

    At least not for free.

    "Oh, so you know how to fix this?" Sang could already read in between William''s lines. And thetter nodded, before hurriedly shaking off his head.

    "This¡­ What do you even mean by that?!" Sang felt like he went to the seventh heaven, to just fall the next instant towards the deepest abyss in hell.

    This thought wasn''t new to him. Imagining spirit masters using their spirit power to freely control weapons and gears around them was a very tempting idea.

    Sang knew such an idea was a dream to many spirit masters. And yet there was no breakthrough over the long course of time about such a dream.

    Yet that all changed when Sang heard what Ellina told him about William''s flying knives.

    The concept behind it was truly impressive, and he finally found a reliable lead about what he should do. Yet when he tried, no matter what material he used, no matter what he changed, he failed.

    What frustrated him was that when he tried it the same way William did, he managed to forge flying knives perfectly fine. But when he tried to forge any other gear, no matter what it was, he kept failing!

    Feeling this close to sess and yet there was no way to achieve it was something really frustrating for anyone.

    "I don''t know how to solve this problem," William slowly said before adding, "but my master knows."

    "For real?!" Sang couldn''t control himself, even jumped towards William, held him by the shoulder, "can you ask her to teach me how? I''m willing to be her disciple for life if she epts!"

    William didn''t know what he should say or do here. The proimed master was none other than himself. And that old spirit master who just showed an air of dark gold rank in this brief moment was willing to be his disciple.

    "Master, I can''t promise you anything," William knew he had to carefully select his next words, "I can just ask my master. But she has her own way of doing things, and I can''t force her to do anything."

    "Sure, sure, telling her is just fine, that''s great, hahahaha!" William couldn''t tell why this old man was acting so crazy and excited.

    William was just oblivious about how far important forging flying gears and weapons was for any forging master in this world.

    After all, flying gears were a prettymon thing in the outside world.

    "About the deal¡­" Ellina could understand why her headmaster acted in such a way, and yet she cared more about the birds in hand than those which were far away on the distant tree.

    "I got what master gave to me here," William patted on his ring, however his face turned quite serious next as he added, "but we got another deal between the two of us, one that you revoked already."

    "What deal?" Ellina acted as if she didn''t know what he was speaking about. But she knew exactly what he meant. And when William didn''t speak, didn''t move or take the blueprints he proimed he got from his master from his ring, and kept staring in silence at her, sheughed.

    "You mean my promise to not deliver your techniques to anyone? Come on! You know how many innovations your simple ideas back then brought fruit to?"

    "I don''t care," William directly responded, "I want an exnation and apensation first."

    "That''s easy," Sang took over this matter from Ellina, "I was the one who forced her to do that. After all, she got an oath to tell us everything she knew about, one that can protect her from any consequences of breaking any oath like the one she gave to you."

    William didn''t get what Sang truly meant by that. However, he didn''t care. He just wanted to get part of the fortune these masters here would get.

    He knew they''d get many things based on the things they learnt from him. And such new stuff would sell like hot cake in the market.

    Many ns and big families would fight among themselves to get their hands on such new gears. And that meant the department would reap in quite the profit.

    "No matter what, spirit crystals, part of the final products, and even forging special gears for you¡­ Anything is negotiable," Sang acted in such a magnanimous way.

    After all, William''s importance didn''t juste from the secrets they learnt from his forging attempts before but lied mostly in his connection with his master.

    William was the only person in the entire academy, even in the world, who had such a connection with that mysterious master. If they angered William or made him unsatisfied to just keep their current profit, they''d lose much moreter on.

    Sang ced more importance in keeping William by his side than losing him for something trivial like this. He was a forging master, and like any artisan, his care and great attention was ced mainly over learning new techniques and forging cool stuff.

 Chapter 164 Dark Gold Glaive

    ?"That¡­" William couldn''t believe he got what he desired from the start, "I want a ive, a good grade one, like a gold grade. Can you make one for me?"

    "A gold grade ive? This¡­" The two masters in front of him changed their looks when they heard what he said.

    "If it will cost a lot, I can pay part of the costs," William got the still valuable cores of the bears. These cores would soon lose their value, and if he''d get his ive in return for one of them, he''d dly ept the exchange.

    "No, no price is too much for us," Sang said, and yet his face still showed his struggle.

    "Then¡­ What''s the problem?" William couldn''t find anything else that might pose a problem in making his desired ive.

    Just like Sang was dying to make flying gears, William was dying to try out his new technique using a ive.

    "If it''s a problem of materials¡­" William was in the middle of his words when Sang waved his hand and interrupted him.

    "It''s a problem of the design itself," Sang bitterly said, "we only got bronze grade ive blueprint. Any higher design is kept safe in the big academies forging departments and those stingy forging guilds all over the world."

    William knew how precious special weapons were, but he never imagined even their blueprints would be this rare.

    "If this is the problem, then I can help solve it," William would never let such a chance slip by his hands, "can I get a scroll and a brush please?"

    "You¡­" Ellina''s face changed on the spot. She couldn''t believe the shocking idea that popped up in her mind when William said his words.

    "Do you know ive blueprints?" and Sang was more direct than her, asking William what he had in mind.

    "My master knew how much I admired ives," William leant again on such a backing, "and so she showed me a blueprint of dark gold ive before, and I memorised it."

    "D¡­ Dark gold¡­ Dark gold ive¡­ This¡­ This¡­" This time, Sang couldn''t control his shock, stuttering in disbelief while his entire body trembled, "did she show you any designs of other special weapons?"

    "I only asked for a ive," William showed an expression of guilt on his petite face. He knew he had to show off a little to get the best out of this deal. After all, such a ive would end up in his hands. And he wanted the best grade gears this world could offer.

    Besides, he knew how brutal and overbearing his technique was. So, it was better to aim for the highest possible grade from the start.

    "No worry," Sang felt how William felt from thetter''s face, "it''s great fortune for us to learn such a blueprint. Ellina¡­"

    "One moment," Sang didn''t need to say anything and she went outside fast. She ran towards one of the test buildings, took the entire scrolls there and the brushes, before returning back.

    They left such items there for the disciples to use in the test. But right now, all she thought about was to see such a remarkable gem and didn''t give a damn about the test anymore.

    "Here," she panted as she ran a distance that''d take her few minutes in less than twenty seconds, "are these enough?"

    "Thanks," William received the scrolls, took one out and looked around.

    "Use this," there wasn''t a single table, desk, or anything he''d use to write on. So Sang took an entire table out, pushing away one of the pots aside with a push from his hand like he never cared about that silver grade pot at all.

    William could understand this time why the two acted in such an eager way. Learning a blueprint might be like a spirit master breaking through a realm to a higher one.

    If spirit power was the life force of any spirit master, then forging blueprints and techniques were the same for artisans.

    William started to write down and draw the way to forge this ive. He selected one that wasn''t that heavy or else he wouldn''t be able to move it easily.

    At the same time, he selected one that was quite deadly and sharp. His ive would be a killer, especially if he managed to raise up his spirit power to the silver grade.

    To do something he could wield, he changed the materials used in forging it and reced them with slightly lower in rank and value materials.

    That made him pause from time to time, thinking about which materials he should use instead of the ones he decided to rece.

    The two masters stood by his side, watching every single move of his with unyielding attention.

    They mistook his frown moments to be his struggle to recall missing parts of the blueprint, which was something quite epted for such a kid.

    The more he wrote and drew, the more shocked they became. William didn''t hold himself back this time, and used few of the concepts that were only known in the outer world.

    To make such a deadly ive, he had no way but to expose such methods. However, he didn''t fully exin things out, leaving room for the forging masters here to show their value.

    "This way¡­"

    "Melting ores can be done in such a way?"

    "Wow! I never thought before to do anything to the melting pots before throwing the ores inside!"

    "Such a hammering method¡­ Such hits¡­ Damn brilliant!"

    "Controlling fire to be at a fixed temperature? Never thought about doing that before!"

    The two kept eximing after William finished writing down his ive''s blueprint. He watched their shock and amazement from the side, smiling nonstop on their childish reactions.

    It felt like they were the kids, and he was the grown up here, not the other way around!

    "I want to test this right now!" Sang felt very itchy and wanted to throw himself into forging this ive. Just by reading the blueprint William provided, he already got few ideas.

 Chapter 165 Meeting An Enemy!

    ?Sang was sure if he studied this blueprint diligently, he''d end up with much more applications than what he got in his mind.

    "I got ten blueprints here," William took out the ten scrolls he wrote before, "these are what my master gave to me. And with the ive design, there are eleven products included in our deal."

    The two masters had their eyes wide open while William added, "as I agreed with Ellina, half of the profit goes to my master."

    William mistook their reaction as their hesitation about these designs. He was ready to speak in more detail about the importance of these gears, especially the boots, but Sang smiled and his smile grew broader.

    In fact, the two masters expected just three designs at most from William''s master. They never expected that master to be generous enough to give them ten blueprints in one go!

    And if they knew that all these designs had different versions, starting from white grade up to dark gold grade, then they''d jump in fright and delight.

    "Sure," Sang instantly stored them all in his ring, "I will make sure to save your master''s share once every month. As for the ive¡­"

    William knew why Sang paused. Giving a promise about when he''d deliver this ive wasn''t easy.

    "I can wait for one month," William was dying to get his hands on such a ive. However, he also knew it wasn''t possible to get it so soon, "let''s set our next meeting in one month then."

    "Sure," Sang was pleased with the kid in front of him. He wasn''t just a treasure trove, but he also was quite easy to talk and deal with.

    Anyone else standing in William''s shoes, including Sang himself, would ask for such a scary and quite rare weapon to be delivered yesterday rather than today.

    "By the way, I heard something rted to my title and the uing spirit masterpetition," William suddenly recalled this point that greatly puzzled him.

    "You are the honorary disciple of the Forging department," Sang''s face changed to show slight seriousness, speaking clearly about how important such a matter was, "you''ll gain lots of benefits and privileges from this. And that included leading the forging disciple team the academy will send to thepetition."

    "I see," William nodded despite not getting most of what Sang said, "but what''s thatpetition anyway?" he paused and when the two masters in front of him gave him such weird gazes, he added, "I was a porter for most of my life."

    "Ah, that''s normal," Ellina nodded in realisation, "thepetition is¡­"

    "The test is going to start in a few minutes! All the masters please go and supervise over it now," and just before she''d say anything, a loud shout came from outside, stopping her in the middle of her words.

    "Sorry but we need to go," Ellina swallowed what she wanted to say while Sang added:

    "Let''s speak about thister. You cane here anytime you want, ok?"

    "Sure," William knew it was time for him to leave. So, he didn''t stay behind and moved outside.

    "Old Sang, I heard quite the troublesome news recently," and just before he''d take a single step away, a deep voice appeared and next, a familiar face appeared in front of him.

    He was the one who introduced himself as the acting patriarch of the Bronze Lizard n. This dude was an enemy and seeing him entering this ce made William''s eyes constrict right at the spot.

    "Old Guo, what winds brought you here today?" and from the look of it, William could tell these two weren''t friends, or even neutral to each other.

    Just as that old man named Guo stepped in, the face of Sang changed and a very serious expression appeared, as if he was weing an enemy.

    "I heard you appointed a porter to be the leader of our kids at thepetition, so I came to ask for a clear exnation and your word to change this."

    Old Guo moved inside, as if it was his ce not Sang''s. He gave William a nce that was filled with tons of enmity and hatred.

    If eyes could kill, then William would be burnt to dust at the spot from just this mere gaze alone!

    "This is my department, not your n," Sang snorted, and didn''t show any weakness towards Guo, "don''t tell me what I shall and shall not do in my ce!"

    "Humph! This matter doesn''t belong solely to you! If I knew such madness would happen, letting a filthy traitor lead my boys out, then I wouldn''t have sent anyone to take part in that team of yours!"

    "Then withdraw them," Sang''s answer was swift and decisive, "don''t send anyone."

    "You¡­" Guo''s face twitched as if he didn''t expect such an answer from Sang, "I won''t let you tarnish the future of our academy thanks to your foolishness! I''ll take this matter to the academy high council! I will make the academy elder council take such a decision, not you."

    "Old man, stop embarrassing yourself!" Just as the two old men were sparring with words and egos, and when Ellina took her stance of silence, watching all this, William''s loud voice came, startling all of them.

    "You¡­" Old Guo didn''t believe his ears, turned towards William and pointed his finger at him as if he was seeing a ghost or something.

    "You already went through all this before, ended up getting embarrassed back there. What? Do you have such thick skin and no shame at all and want to try this all over again? Come on, go and do it, be my guest."

    William knew there was a huge gap in power between him and that enemy of his. However, Guo came here to target him. And he wouldn''t let such an enemy get away without showering him with mean and harsh words.

    Even if words wouldn''t kill, they still gave William quite the satisfaction.

 Chapter 166 The Real Stain

    ?Besides, no matter if he stayed silent or spoke up, he knew this old man and those behind him wouldn''t leave him alone.

    So why would he stay silent?

    "You got balls, I''ll give you that!"

    "I''m just stating facts," William shrugged, didn''t care about the heavy pressureing at him from that enemy of his, "you want to embarrass yourself. And I won''t stop you. But you are going to waste my time, and I can''t let that happen."

    "You¡­ You are a cancer in the academy, a ck stain in our long history filled with pride and great deeds!"

    "Stop fooling yourself, old man," William crossed his arms, speaking in a calm and confident tone, "you and I know pretty well who the real stain is."

    "I''m going to kill you!" Guo couldn''t believe that a kid, an eight years kid, one who lived his past two years serving others and listening to orders without questions, dared to point such an usation towards him in such an obvious way!

    Even the headmaster himself, the one who knew Guo''s true colours, never dared to expose him in the public like what William here did.

    "I dare you to try," and just before Guo would release all his power, Sang shouted, and in the next instant the entire ce changed.

    Many silhouettes shed and appeared from everywhere. They didn''t care about the mansion and broke through the walls to arrive here.

    William didn''t know what the old Sang did, but it seemed that the old man activated some sort of emergency beacon, calling in all of his masters who rushed here without a speck of hesitation.

    Old Guo looked around, eyeing everyone here as a trapped beast looking at its hunters. "Good¡­ That''s good, old Sang," he heavily said, before his body started to fade in a fast way, "I want to see how you n to protect him forever!"

    "Humph, if anything happened to him, then I promise you that your entire n will be ttened with the ground at the same day," old Sang didn''t show any sign of distress or weakness and responded to such a threat with another.

    William knew he wasn''t alone here. And that was part of the reasons behind his daring actions towards that enemy of his.

    It felt great to take a bite back at enemies when they tried to bite him. "William, you provoked him greatly this time," and when Guo vanishedpletely from here, Sang''s face showed a dark look as he spoke in a caring tone towards William.

    But thetter knew even if he remained silent, Guo and others wouldn''t let him live his life in peace.

    "He is just all talk," William shrugged, showing his clear attitude of not caring about what Guo might do towards him.

    "Just be careful and don''t leave the n for now," Sang didn''t know how this kid''s mind worked, but he still added in warning, "that man is a viper! A toxic snake who lurks in the darkness and bites when you are at your lowest point."

    "Thanks headmaster," William cupped his hands, showing his gratitude towards such caring words. ''I know my enemies are strong, and the only way to survive isn''t by lying low, but to do everything to be as strong as them, or even better.''

    He thought to himself before leaving the Forging department. As for the masters who rushed here, most had puzzled expressions on their faces.

    All but the old man William met at the doors of the department didn''t recognise him. But William didn''t lurk around any longer and left all the exnation for Sang and Ellina to do.

    "It seems thatpetition is very important¡­" William got such valuable intel from the weird actions of that Guo dude.

    If suchpetition was something normal, then Guo wouldn''t havee here and tried such dirty methods of issuing threats to expel William from leading the team.

    "What''s special about thatpetition? And what''s special about that forging team?"

    William was lost in such thoughts until he returned back to his home. There he expected to see Berry''s face but for the next few hours, she didn''t appear.

    "Ah, I forgot that she went to train," William hit his forehead when he recalled this. She wouldn''te here today, and tomorrow was their promised day to go to the sses.

    "Others will return tonight. And that means Lang will attend the sses with me tomorrow. As for Kong¡­"

    William recalled how Kong tried to avoid associating himself with him before. He used the excuse of having tons of work at the Forging department to not meet William.

    William took such an excuse as a way to evade him. But after knowing how important the uingpetition would be, he realised Kong might be really busy preparing for thepetition.

    "I will pay him a visit at the Forging department in a few days then," William decided as he finished his meal, went to his room, and slept.

    Tomorrow was going to be a very important day to him. It was his first day in the academy as a true disciple, the first day ever to attend sses as a formal disciple, and the first chance to meet up with Guanin and others of his gang.

    ______________________________

    In a ce that was far away from William, a door of a vast meeting hall opened, and an eight years old kid passed through it.

    "Patriarch, you called for me?"

    The ce was dimly lit with candles. They weren''t like the green light candles William used to use, but these candles were ck in colour, emitted a light of dark bronze that added a weird touch to the entire ce.

    The walls were covered all from the ground up to the ceiling with different degrees of bronze colours. There were many old looking portraits hanging on the walls, showing the looks of fierce men and women, all old, all with eyes that were painted in bronze.

 Chapter 167 Its Still Eight!

    ?The hall was vast, and yet it only had one throne that had a long bronze carpet that extended from the door all the way to the throne.

    There was nothing else there, not a table, not a seat.

    The kid who entered knelt the moment he arrived there, looked quite terrified as his body started to tremble since the moment he heard about the order toe here.

    "Guanin¡­ Did that damn porter kid attend the sses with you yet?" The old man who sat on the throne was no one else but Guo.

    Since his thunderous meeting with Sang and William hours ago, his rage never died down even for a bit.

    He kept tapping on the arms of his throne, thinking seriously about how to turn the life of that kid into a piece of hell.

    "That William?" Guanin was the kid summoned here, "he didn''t show himself yet."

    "Didn''t appear at the sses?!" Guo was surprised to hear that. He thought William started to regrly attend sses when he saw him at the Forging department.

    ''What was he doing there then? Don''t tell me he is a forging nerd!'' Guo thought to himself, before turning his focus again to Guanin as thetter added:

    "Neither he nor any of the Long n kids appeared there yet. But news spread already that they arrived a couple of hours ago. And so they may appear tomorrow or the day after at the sses."

    "Good¡­" Guo paused before his face turned quite vicious, "I want you to pressure him, don''t let him even breathe!"

    "I nned to do that, sir," Guanin once thought about his earlier ns to keep picking at William at every corner made his trembling fade slightly than before, "I arranged with many others to keep pestering him no matter what he said or did."

    "That''s not enough," Guo could get what was running inside this kid''s mind. After all, all the nsmen and kids were raised up in the same way of teaching. "I want you to turn his life upside down, make him hate being in the academy."

    "How?" Guanin wasn''t against such evil deeds, but he never found a better way to do it than what he had in mind.

    "Just throwing mean words andments won''t do. This kid isn''t a nice flower that will grow pale with sh*t thrown at it, he is a mighty tree! He will take all these insults as fertiliser, and use them to grow stronger."

    "This¡­"

    "Challenge him," the n in Guo''s mind was more direct and far more effective than what Guanin thought about, "keep challenging him in all the sses he''ll attend."

    "Challenging him? What will that do, sir?" Guanin wanted to raise his head, look his patriarch in the eye to see what thetter really meant by such a weird order.

    But he couldn''t. He wouldn''t dare to do such a thing, like any other kids in the n.

    "You reached such power via normal means, attending the first year sses before jumping to the second year sses. You know what that porter doesn''t! Use that, use your knowledge to embarrass him. Keep embarrassing him in every ss without pause until he hates the idea ofing to the sses, or staying at the academy."

    "Sure," Guanin got what his patriarch wanted him to do. And he admitted to himself that his patriarch was a real viper, far eviler than him.

    "I''ll await your good news. The first day that bastard shows his face at the sses, make sure he''ll leave with his head lowered out of embarrassment. Make sure he won''t dare to raise his head ever again."

    "Count on me, sir," Guanin slowly stood up, and yet he kept his head lowered, "I''ll make him curse the day he left his porter life and became a spirit master."

    "That''s what I want you to do, hahahaha! Go now, go and make your preparations. I''ll await your great news."

    And like this, William''s future life at the sses was at risk of getting ruined by the Bronze Lizard kids and their allies.

    ____________________________________

    The next morning came fast. William took his shower, ate his breakfast, and was ready to attend his first ss ever in the academy.

    And just when he was about to leave, he heard knocking on the door.

    "Let''s go, I told you to wake up sote!" It was Berry, and she was wearing the same bronze uniform with a slightly short skirt that outlined her smooth long legs.

    "I believe the sses never start before nine! It''s still eight!!"

    "It''ll open at nine indeed, but I don''t want to gette."

    "Late for what exactly?" William felt puzzled. Even if she was excited, she had to be at least rational about what she said.

    "You don''t get it," she started to walk, closer to running actually than walking, "there are rumours spreading about how we, the ones who came from the Long n, are not attending sses because we are all heavily wounded!"

    "Heavily wounded?" William asked in doubt, while trying to keep up with her.

    "It''s him! That bastard! He isn''t satisfied with spreading false rumours about us, but uses even our absence as a proof for such ims."

    William got what drove her crazy like that. It seemed that Guanin intended to cause those from the Long n trouble.

    "Don''t worry about that," William smiled, "once we all appear today, all of this will be wiped clean."

    "Yes, that''s also what my grandfather told me as well."

    "The old man is here?!" William got surprised, and elerated a little to run next to her.

    "He didn''te," Berry shook her head, "he sent our butler to inform me about such rumours and what I shall do."

    "He is right," William wanted to know when that old man intended to flood the market with the cores of the bears. If he acted this soon, then William might lose many chances in the academy.

    However, what he feared didn''t happen.

 Chapter 168 Reaching The Second Year Class

    ?"Hahahaha! I just want to see the look on those jerks'' faces when they see all of the Long n appearing at the sses today, hahahaha!"

    And just as he followed her rushing steps that looked more like running than walking, sheughed all of sudden and said these words.

    William knew she didn''t intend to settle in the sses and might go and seek trouble with Guanin if thetter didn''t seek them first.

    With such racing steps, the duo finally arrived at thepound of sses dedicated to the second year in half an hour.

    There was one single grand building in the middle, with few smaller buildings around. The ce was surrounded with a small steel fence which had one guard standing there.

    "Sorry, but this area is only for the second year disciples," the guard inspected in suspicion the two new faces in front of him.

    One of the two the guard could tell with a single nce. After all, Berry was famous in the academy thanks to her special background and unique situation.

    As for the other one, he looked like he didn''t belong here.

    Even if both of them wore the uniforms of the second year, the guardian''s duty was to check over the identity of thoseing inside. And he doubted William belonged here at all.

    "Senior, we have emblems of second year," Berry showed him her emblem which had the sign of the academy engraved on one side and the number ''II'' on another.

    "We just joined the second year ss recently, and this is our first time attending it," William said, while he followed suit and showed him his emblem. After gazing for a long minute, the guard who looked to be a gold grade spirit master in his thirties cleared his throat before letting them pass.

    Berry didn''te here before, but she seemed to know everything about the academy. Of course, she knew lots of things about the ss she never seeded to take, the ss that looked like an insurmountable mountain for her.

    After William passed the guard and left him stupefied, he followed Berry inside, finding their way easily between the smaller buildings until they arrived at that big building.

    Inside, a tter of noise came from the single room inside. This huge building only had a single huge room with seats arranged in circr, different levels, surrounding a central stage where masters should stand there and speak about the content of their lectures.

    The hall had five big doors leading to it, and once William entered, a grand scene appeared in front of his eyes.

    This hall could amodate at least one thousand spirit masters. And this might seem huge, but it wasn''t enough to amodate the entire bronze spirit masters in the academy.

    The academy epted disciples from different ns and families from arge region around. Even few would travel far ande to study here.

    It wasn''t thanks to the grand reputation of the academy, but thanks to its lower rules of admissionpared to other prestigious academies.

    Besides, the admission fees of the outsider spirit masters were cheaperpared with other big academies.

    William knew the Aspire academy wasn''t the strongest one in this world, not even in the kingdom.

    So those who would get rejected by others would take the trouble and travel here. At the same time, those close by would decide to join here to save themselves lots of trouble.

    Only a few would decide to adventure and go to other and more famous academies. William knew there wasn''t aw in the kingdom to prevent these spirit masters from getting into other stronger academies.

    Even going to another hostile kingdom and learning at one of their academies was epted as long as that academy was at least on par with the ones inside the kingdom.

    And the golden rule of thumb here would be the ability of those spirit masters to afford the high fees of such widely famous academies.

    Despite it being allowed on the surface, it wasn''t encouraged by the kingdom''s hidden rules.

    The n or family that dared to do that would suffer depression from the kingdom as a sort of hidden punishment.

    But with the higher number of bronze spirit masters, the ce wasn''t filled to the brim. And William knew why.

    Many of the spirit masters didn''t ce much importance on sses. sses were only useful to learn few things, yet the true teaching grounds lied in the forest.

    Many spirit masters were venturing outside, either freely fighting monsters or doing missions from the Mercenary Department.

    And Wiliam nned to do the same after attending today''s sses.

    Once the duo arrived, they got to see lots of faces turning and looking at them. The once noisy ss turned all silent as everyone showed looks of astonishment, respect, and enmity.

    "Lang is here¡­ Hi Lang," Berry seemed to ignore such a weird atmosphere, or perhaps she wasn''t affected thanks to her overwhelming excitement and desire to p Guanin in the face by showing herself up with such a shout.

    After Berry shouted and pointed towards a direction, William recognised Lang. As Berry took the initiative to shout at him, Lang stood up in a hurry before the duo came to them and sat with the group Lang sat with.

    William looked at the group of fifty and could recognise the few faces he saw before. Back when Lang came to help in the monster outbreak, he brought all the white and bronze ranked spirit masters of the young generation.

    Those in white rank would still attend the first year ss. As William looked around, he found ten familiar faces here in addition to Lang.

    So out of the twenty who came with Lang earlier, the n had nine at the first grade and eleven at the second.

    This was something weird in William''s eyes. Shouldn''t the first ss host arger number of spirit masters than the second? Or what?

 Chapter 169 The Armoured Ants Clan

    ?Even if he was puzzled, he decided to keep such remarks only to himself. He stood on the side, all in silence, watching Lang and others weing Berry.

    "Atst, you made it," Lang said with a big chuckle before he turned to William and added, "wee brother William, I hope you like it here."

    "It''s great," Berry was the one to speak, while moving her eyes around as if she was marvelling at something miraculous.

    At the same time, William knew she was looking for her sworn enemy, and his, Guanin.

    In fact, there wasn''t that much to see here. This hall, despite being grand, was a normal hall in William''s eyes.

    There were just a bunch of curious eyes looking at them, with not a small number of gazes filled with hatred.

    "Hahahaha, Long n''s young miss is really lively," one of the disciples William didn''t know said, extending his hand as he said in greeting, "I''m Tod, a senior member of the Armoured Ants n. Nice to meet the young miss atst."

    Berry extended her hand in reflex, yet that kid who had a big body with muscles leant over and painted a kiss over her extended palm.

    This move was sudden, and Lang couldn''t help but look at William in worry.

    "Ahem," William stepped in, grabbed the hand of the all shocked Berry and freed her from that dude, "I''m William, nice to meet you."

    "Oh, you are the one who is rumoured to do miracles back there," the one called Tod said in greeting.

    Yet from his tone and attitude, William felt enmity from him. ''A love rival or something else?'' William pondered for a second while his gaze locked on his foe.

    Both of them were in the same ss. And that meant they both had power close to each other. William wasn''t that porter everyone took him for, he was a formal disciple of the academy, one of the same sses as this dude.

    Lang and others could smell gunpowder in the air. So, Lang had to interfere as he said in fake cheerful tone masked with a short and paleugh:

    "Brother William is the one who helped all of us win this battle. Brother Tod''s n was one of those who hurried to help us but got stopped by that monster gate."

    "Oh, thanks for the help, I''m sure you are on good terms with the Long n," William smiled, one that wasn''t a smile.

    At this moment, he ced Berry just slightly behind him, a signal to everyone here that she belonged to him. And Berry didn''t show any objection on her face, announcing her agreement on just a simple statement.

    Looking at this swift and trivial move made Tod frown. He thought he had a chance to get closer to Berry, especially when he was a famous womaniser.

    Yet an unknown ant stood in front of him, making him want to test this kid at the spot.

    However, when he thought about how William''s reputation was in the Long n, he controlled himself.

    What William didn''t know was that this kid here belonged to the same n in which he met their patriarch.

    It was the one who acted all aggressive towards William before when William was running from Berry''s father that morning, one of the two old spirit masters who were with Berry''s grandfather.

    William guessed back then that it was all an act. But he didn''t know that it wasn''t all an act. Part of it was true as that patriarch wasn''t really on good terms with the Long n.

    He was just pressured by the Long n''s superiority. Watching such a golden chance that could have at least dealt a strong blow to the Long n getting ruined thanks to an insignificant spirit master, the patriarch of that Armoured Ants n felt all annoyed and enraged.

    Sometimes, the frightening enemies weren''t the ones dering their enmity in your face, but those who were masking themselves as your friends while they weren''t!

    William didn''t like this Tod, and if he knew he belonged to that aggressive old man, then his bad impression would have deepened.

    "It''s thanks to the Long n''s swift response that saved the elites of our n," Tod shifted all the credit to the Long n''s elder and team who was sent to their rescue.

    Lang was about to say something when his eyes met William''s. He got that thetter didn''t bother with such fabrication of what truly happened.

    In fact, the less people who knew the truth and believed in what he did, the better.

    So, what if the glory all shifted to the Long n? At least they got the capital to pull such an impressive feat in the eyes of others.

    "I heard good things about what brother William did back at the battle," at this moment, another one from the group stepped up, and greeted William first before Berry.

    He was a youngster with a body that wasn''t that much different from William''s. He was thin, but a little taller than William. Thetter had to look in doubt towards him for a second before Lang handled the introduction.

    "He is Peter, the promising genius among the swift golden eagle n."

    "Oh, thanks for thepliment, I did nothing back there," William scratched his head while eyeing this kid in interest.

    The root of his surprise was understandable. After all, by getting stronger, one''s body was destined to grow in a good shape.

    William was an exception as he lived a life as a weak porter without enough nourishment either from food or spirit power.

    William didn''t know that this kid was different from others. In his case, his bones were condensing energy and not letting it grow like what should happen to other spirit masters.

    William had a good impression about this Peter. And just as he examined him closely, he suddenly remembered something.

    There was someone who was slightly simr to Peter that William knew.

 Chapter 170 He Got Me, He Got My Clan!

    ?William recalled that in the final battle before the world fell, that dude was one of the famous figures at the academy by then.

    He sole-handedly fought an army of monsters who were trying to get their way to chase the runners from the academy. Thanks to his efforts, people like William managed to escape from this carnage with their lives.

    William didn''t know if Peter was the same person he had in mind or was rted to him in some way. Yet William knew such courageous acts came at the price of losing that dude''s life.

    William didn''t like to owe anyone debts. Even if Peter wasn''t that dude from his memories, he was still rted to him. and that already told William a lot about what calibre this young spirit master in front of him was made of.

    So, he decided to keep Peter close, while keeping a closer eye over Tod.

    "Hahahaha, I heard otherwise," Peterughed for a second before adding, "wee to year two ss. You deserve being here."

    Unlike Tod, Peter kept his distance and cupped his hands in respect towards Berry. Thetter nodded in silence as she was still taken aback by what Tod did.

    "See who is here, it''s our little and retarded dragon girl, hahahaha!"

    Just before William would chat with Peter and others, such a despicable voice appeared all of sudden from another direction of the hall.

    William turned his head and couldn''t help but narrow his eyes. It was none other than Guanin. And he was heading towards them with arge number of spirit masters, looking for trouble.

    William couldn''t help but steal a gaze towards Berry who was next to him. And as he expected, her face told him that she nned to create a scene.

    "And do you see that thin kid over there? He was a porter not long ago and now he is in our ss acting like our colleague. Hey kid, I need someone to carry my bag for me. Why don''t youe here and do it like a loyal dog? I''ll give you enough crystals for that, hahahaha."

    "Guanin! That damn snake!"

    "He is acting all high and mighty because he is thinking the Long n got it bad this time."

    "He is the one behind the rumours circting in the academy about us."

    "Not only him, but his entire n disciples as well!"

    William listened to these whispering voices. He already was aware of that, but there was something that he didn''t get.

    Guanin seemed to go after him, not against Berry! He expected Guanin to focus solely on the Long n disciples, including Berry. However, this snake opened his fangs wide at his face.

    ''It seems this bastard and his n are trying to create trouble for me,'' William thought to himself, preparing himself for an imminent sh with Guanin and his gang.

    There were two exnations for such weird actions. First, Guanin knew the truth about what happened at the Long n, and how they emerged unscathed from such disaster.

    And that meant Guanin was afraid of the Long n''s disciples and decided to pick on the soft bone in their group, which was William.

    As for the second reason, it might be for thetest sh between William and Guanin''s patriarch.

    Even if the patriarch proved to be such a bitter loser and decided to target William for openly exposing his true colours, William didn''t regret any of what he said earlier.

    Guanin and his n were considered traitors in his eyes. Even William suspected the one to steal the techniques from Berry back then to belong to their camp.

    And that meant the instigator of all this crisis came from their n or a n affiliated to them. And that wasn''t only all!

    As traitors, the moves against any target around them would be known to these dirty folks. That simply meant that the Bronze Lizard n knew about the attack on the Long n.

    William knew this, and that made him want to take revenge even more over this bunch of dirty spirit masters.

    If Guanin came seeking trouble, then William wouldn''t hide and would wee such a challenge with courage.

    Against everyone''s expectations, William slowly stepped forward and stood in front of Berry and others, weing the all hostile Guanin with a calm look on his face.

    From the look on his face, one could see a smug smile that held mockery rather than fear or anger.

    "I was indeed a porter," William said in a loud tone beforeughing, "and that means you are on par with me now. What is it kiddo? Do you want to exercise yourzy body a little? Come, I have shoes that need attention and care. Come on, don''t be shy, they are all dirty and covered in blood of those monsters we killed back there at Long n."

    "You¡­ Do you want to die?" Guanin''s face was unsightly and not pleasant to the eye.

    "If you have the ability then show me," Williamughed, without any speck of fear or hesitation in his tone.

    "Know your limit, porter! You have no backing!"

    "Who said I need backing to sweep the floor with your face? It''s just a sport for me. Come, let me see what you got, that if you dare!"

    "..."

    Guanin''s body trembled when he saw William''s firm eyes. They were filled with bloodlust, and a threatening feeling that made Guanin unable to even speak a single word back.

    His patriarch asked him to cause trouble for William at every corner, but mainly at the sses. So even if he wanted to, he wouldn''t dare to even initiate a duel against him, fearing to let this snowball and involve others of the Long n who held a grudge against him.

    "Who said he got no backing?" Just as Guanin was trying to get a better hold on himself, what he feared happened. Berry stepped up and stood next to William, "he got me, he got my n!"

 Chapter 171 The Master Arrives

    ?"A deteriorated n like yours isn''t a backing," when she stepped up, Guanin finally regained hisposure andughed. Even if he feared those from the Long n, he wouldn''t show any sign of weakness in front of them.

    Instead, he used such a moment to extricate himself from the deep trap William dug for him. In fact, Berry''s actions here didn''t help William that much, instead they foiled the perfect trap he sat for that snake.

    But Berry couldn''t control herself anymore. She already came here with a cup totally filled to the brim towards Guanin''s actions. And seeing him targeting William like that, she couldn''t stay silent anymore.

    "All to your seats now!" Just before this situation would escte any further, a firm and deep voice appeared from one direction.

    It was the master of the ss. And he appeared out of nowhere at the stage without anyone noticing him.

    "What? Do you want points deducted from you right away?" the master frowned when the two groups of disciples back there didn''t budge or respond to his earlier gentler words.

    "Humph, looks like you got some luck on your side. Live a day longer, loser!" Guanin took this chance and threw his toxic words before taking his leave back to his ce.

    "Enjoy your life as long as you still have it, fools live longer if not faced with predators like me," William retorted back while watching Guanin move away with his group.

    As the situation didn''t escte, William returned to sit on an empty seat near Lang''s, Tod''s, and Peter''s group.

    He knew, just like anyone else, that fighting was prohibited in the academy. However, to every rule, there was a loophole, and that was in the case of the spirit master duel.

    To have a duel, at least two spirit masters should be part of it, and everyone taking part in it should ept the duel, state the rules, announce it out loud, and there should be witnesses.

    William was ready to meet up any duel challenge from his foe if thetter thought about doing it. And when William saw the back of guanin, he regretted not taking the initiative and challenged Guanin first.

    ''Next time then,'' William knew such shes would keep going on and on as long as the two were attending sses here.

    As he sat down, Berry followed and sat next to him. Lang and others did the same, returning to their seats as well.

    Guanin''s eyes were burning in fury. He never expected William to respond to his provocations word by word.

    And now it seemed to meet with his equal, someone who got a sly tongue, one that was filled with foul words, just like himself.

    ''Just wait!'' Guanin thought to himself, while his eyes gleamed with ill intentions.

    Gaunin suddenly stopped, turned around while his group gave him weird gazes filled with doubt. He went back to William and Berry direction, stopped just ten metres away, and looked around.

    His actions caught the attention of everyone, including the master of this ss.

    "Scram!" Guanin stopped his eyes over a group of disciples who weren''t part of Lang''s group and motioned with his ring eyes for them to relocate.

    No one wanted to get himself in the middle of such an explosive situation between the two mighty ns. So, this group hurriedly left, and Guanin led his group to sit in the empty seats.

    "Humph! At least few know their true ce here," Guanin harrumphed in such a sarcastic way, while William simply ignored him.

    In his previous life, he worked only for those rich disciples. They came mostly from strong ns and rich families.

    Yet that didn''t mean most of the disciples here came from big ns and families. In fact, and ording to what he recalled, themon disciples who came from normally weak and slightly poor families and ns amounted for more than seventy percent of the entire poption of the academy.

    And yet, despite getting such an advantage in numbers, they got no such advantage in status or power.

    That was for several reasons, all logical reasons actually. The most important factors were theirck of funds and support to get groomed and grow stronger.

    So even if they started on the same start with those from other ns and families, the rich were destined to climb higher faster, and they were left behind in the dust.

    Moving his eyes around, William could simply tell this from the age difference appearing between the two sides.

    The spirit masters of bronze gradeing frommon origin were at least twelve years in age. He even saw a few looking like real men, at least sixteen or seventeen years old!

    With training, everyone would sour higher and reach higher ranks.

    But with only training without support and rich resources, one would reach these stages take much longer time than others.

    Take elixirs for example. The potions that could nourish one''s spirit power and body were too many to count, and yet one had to be quite rich to purchase enough for him.

    And such pricey elixirs were like a grand thing for anymon spirit master, verymon to those who came from strong families and ns.

    Two spirit masters starting at white rank at six years old would turn differently after a few years. William knew this, and so this wasn''t just the sole problem.

    Another reason was that many sold their souls to those rich folks to gain a few resources back. In fact, most of the spirit masters doing dirty work against themon ones were actually othermon spirit masters.

    They were serving other richer ones, and in that regard, William felt it was pathetic and ironic at the same time.

    Instead of clumping together and defending each other, they decided to work against their simr folks in return for a few more crystals and a couple of potions or gears.

    But this was how the world worked. And as such, the ones who got their own ideals above anything else had it bitter and were suppressed, ending up for them to get dyed much more than others, ending up in a vicious circle.

 Chapter 172 A Class Of Alchemy

    ?William looked around again. There was another and most important factor that delivered the final blow here, which was morale!

    William knew that morale might seem a light word, yet indeed one''s confidence in himself was a very crucial factor in determining his future.

    What if I was suppressed? What if I got no support? If one had absolute confidence in himself, he''d not care about any of that and keep trying his best to get stronger.

    Yet with such suppression, most if not all of themon spirit masters suffered from weak hearts and low morale. And one had to know that without a strong heart and soul, no spirit master would be able to reach any good ranks.

    Even the speed of one''s growth would be affected.

    And theycked organisation, and capable leaders who would guide them. That was something William thought about before and knew no one would seed if he tried to rally those folks around.

    William came from a much worse start point than all of them. He was a porter, not even a spirit master. And his blooming time came toote in his past life.

    But he ended up rising up even when it was considered toote in the eyes of everyone in the outer world. And that was all thanks to having a great master!

    William knew that having a great master or capable leaders acting like one''s idols was the determining factor in changing one''s life and fate. He silently decided to see these kids first, and if he found someone worthy, he''d try to support himter on. That was the only thing he could do to support thosemoners, without getting himself in the middle of muddy waters of being the leader of allmon spirit masters in the academy or something.

    "I can see we have two new faces here," the master was a middle aged man, wearing a long white robe with a silver cape. He got such a calm face that made William even suspect he was a spirit master.

    Spirit masters had such a unique air around them, making them look like vicious beasts. The higher the rank one had, the more dangerous the air he emitted.

    For a reason, William felt peace while looking at this master''s dark and deep eyes. He knew he was a strong spirit master, two ranks higher than him at least, but he looked like a calm surface of water without a single rubble.

    This was quite unique¡­

    "We are now having the alchemy ss, and today we are going to speak about one potion that you''ll try to make back home as homework."

    "An alchemist!" William''s eyes shone lightly in realisation. He finally knew why this spirit master emitted such calm and peaceful air around him.

    Alchemists were considered docile versions of spirit masters. Unlike artisans, who used to look tough and like savage beasts, the alchemists were like kids to them.

    Those who lived by nting herbs and trying to concoct better potions and medicines for their entire lives were surely calmer and gentler than fighting or forging spirit masters.

    However, that didn''t mean they were weak, or uninfluential in any ce they''d be!

    One potion might save one''s life in any fight. So, spirit masters never looked down at them.

    Just like forging masters, who could make great gears to change spirit masters'' lives, these alchemists were also eyed at the same rank and importance, or even slightly higher.

    After all, good or bad gears were considered an aid for spirit masters without truly raising one''s spirit power. However, alchemists yed on a different note.

    They were experienced in the field of potions and elixirs. Many rich ns and families aimed to grow their kids and promising talents using unique potions that''d help in strengthening one''s foundation and help anyone grow stronger faster.

    This wasn''t an external factor like cksmiths. This was a help towards the true power of any spirit master. And that was why alchemists held a slightly higher position than artisans.

    "As usual, I''ll speak about how to concoct a potion, speak a little about the nature of different herbs used and different methods to concoct different grades. Then I''ll make one and ask for five toe and try out their luck."

    The master stopped talking for a second, touched his ring and instantly six different cauldrons appeared.

    One was bigger and much different than the other five. It wasn''t just bigger in size, but it looked heavier and much higher in grade.

    William looked and knew it was a gold grade cauldron. As for the other five, they were smaller and much lighter. It was apparent that they were all bronze grade ones, two ranks below that of the master.

    It was expected. After all these were designed to be used by disciples and not the master himself.

    "The one making a sessful potion of any grade will get ten points. Grade bronze potions will get extra ten points. Grade silver will get fifty, and grade gold¡­ If any of you can make it, then he doesn''t need me to teach him anything... Two hundred points will be given to him, and he''ll be highly regarded by me as usual¡­"

    The master paused before showing his yellow teeth, "but that never happened ever since I became a master for almost fourteen years. So, I don''t have much hope that any of you will attain that."

    William knew this master wasn''t trying to crush their confidence but gently reminding them of how impossible this feat was.

    And William didn''t disagree with him. After all, what made it impossible to ur wasn''t the fault of the disciples, but the master.

    This master could at his best concoct gold grade potions by luck. So, such a master wasn''t able to teach a single disciple who would concoct any simr grade potions.

    It was just logical. Yet William didn''t need any of his teachings. In his eyes, what he knew about alchemy was much superior to the top knowledge shared by people in this world.

 Chapter 173 A Challenge

    So, hezily sat and returned his back to rest while listening to the useless knowledge from this master.

    The potion he was making was called the spirit fire potion. It was one that could enhance one''s foundation and help spirit masters increase their absorption of spirit energy from the world and got stronger with time.

    The higher the grade the better the effects. However, in William''s eyes, this wasn''t any good potion at all. After all it was just directed to increase one''s spirit power, without any regard to spirit purity.

    William knew in the eyes of alchemy, spirit techniques weren''t their turf, yet spirit purity was. He got a way to increase the purity grade of any spirit master''s spirit using the right potions to do so.

    William listened without interest and wasn''t even bothered to watch the master while concocting the potion. It was a very retarded way of making a potion with many ws and mistakes done by this master.

    William could only inwardly sigh when he noticed this. The alchemy of this world was just as retarded as everything else.

    "Now it''s time for me to select five of you topete¡­" The end product the master produced was a silver grade potion, which was much better than what William thought it''d be at the end.

    Concocting silver grade potion aftermitting all these mistakes and ws? That was incredible in William''s eyes.

    The only factor that helped this potion reach such a degree was nothing else but the cauldron itself. Its high grade helped inplementing the ws in the master''s methods.

    "Master, I have a proposition if you may," just when William was counting seconds for this boring ss to end, he heard a voiceing from his side, "I want topete with him."

    William turned and found that familiar sound belonging to none other than Guanin. ''Are you this eager to dig your own grave?'' William inwardly snorted while seeing the finger of Guanin pointing at him.

    William didn''t know that Guanin intended to challenge him at all the uing sses today and every single day. In Guanin''s eyes, William was going to experience hell from now onwards.

    "You want topete against a neer?" The master seemed to be fair in dealing with everyone. William took a good note about this master in his heart, yet he wasn''t that benevolent to neglect Guanin''s desire to p his face.

    ''You want to p me in the face? Then watch me screw you in return!''

    Just when the master was about to find a way to release William from such trap, a good gesture indeed from a master who didn''t know him, William stood up as his voice was heard all over the hall:

    "I ept the challenge!"

    William''s wordsnded and left everyone stunned for a few seconds before they many broke out inughter.

    "A crazy dude indeed!"

    "First time in ss, and he wants to challenge Guanin!"

    "Impressive! I never thought porters were this funny!"

    "I''ll hire a couple and let them entertain meter on, hahahaha!"

    "Silence!" The master seemed displeased by this reaction. He turned his attention to William before adding in good intentions, "you should know this¡­ Guanin is an excellent disciple who always forgets bronze potions and pills in my ss. Don''t underestimate him or overestimate yourself. You have a chance to retreat."

    "Thanks master," William cupped his hands in respect in return to such good intentions and attitude, "but I made up my mind."

    "Master, let him be," Guanin could hardly keep himself fromughing, "the man is looking for his own disgrace, why shall I bother?"

    The master didn''t say anything else, yet anyone could tell he wasn''t happy about this.

    He didn''t like Gaunin''s actions or his attitude. However, he knew the man had what it got to act this cocky.

    In return for the mocking eyes, William started to descend the flight of stairs at one side, while Guanin moved through another set of stairs.

    Both kept locking gazes at each other, one was full of ridicule, and the other was full of disdain.

    "Is he mad?" Lang couldn''t interfere in time and stop William as this all happened so sudden. So, watching William walking down there with such a ridiculous look over his face made him feel quite worried.

    In his eyes, William was mysterious and was hard to understand. But this move of his looked more stupid than anything else.

    "I think he has a n," Berry softly whispered before adding to herself, "I hope he has one¡­ No, I believe he does!"

    No one knew how mysterious William was better than her. She watched her man reaching the stage, stopping in front of one of the five cauldrons while Guanin stood at another.

    "You all knew the recipe for the potion," the master had to supervise on such a challenge and started to speak, "the materials you need will be provided by me, equal in grade for fairness¡­"

    "Master, can I ask for more materials?" just before the master would speak everything he had in mind, William calmly asked as he turned to face the master.

    "This¡­ Weren''t you listening to my ss just now or what?" The master grew unsettled with William when he heard such a weird request.

    "It''s just¡­ I learned another way to do it," William didn''t exin much before adding, "it happens that I read it once at the library."

    "Library? A porter like yourself went to the library? Fascinating!" Guanin didn''t miss every single chance to mock William and make fun out of him.

    In his eyes, William was digging his own grave with his two hands. So why would he act gently with him? He should honour the man''s desire, give him all the kicks he needed to fall deeper and faster.

    William kept a ridiculous smile on his face while waiting for the answer from the master.

    "But¡­ This won''t be fair¡­" the master pondered over this point, yet William got the perfect answer for this.

 Chapter 174 Concocting Potions

    "It''s easy, master can give him the same number of materials I''ll have," William shrugged as if this was something that wasn''t rted to him.

    "This¡­" no matter how angry and baffled the master was, he wasn''t stupid.

    He got what William wanted to say here¡­ Even if Guanin had the same set of materials, what was the use if he didn''t know how to use them?

    "I ept," just when the master was feeling more puzzled and stressed by

    such a sudden twist in events, Guanin spoke out of his pure confidence and arrogance, "let''spete with whatever set of materials he wanted. I doubt a porter like him can be a match to a genius like me!"

    "A porter?!" a look of surprise surfaced over the master''s face. This was the second time for Guanin to mention such a word and William didn''t correct him.

    Being puzzled, the master felt such words being called over a spirit master should be treated as an insult. Yet for a reason, William acted all calm and epted it without any signs of being annoyed.

    And for another reason, the master felt this situation was slightly and weirdly familiar. Yet he didn''t recognise what was familiar about it.

    "Fine, tell me what I want," the man was a master at the alchemy department in the academy. So, he got tons of materials in his storage ring and didn''t need to go and look for anything.

    "I want the purple me grass, the wet liquor seeds, the¡­" William started to narrate twenty different kinds of herbs without hesitation.

    The more he spoke, the more baffled and surprised the master got.

    Thetter thought William was just trying to act cool here. But who knew thisd was all knowledgeable about herbs?

    Some herbs even were known to the ears of the disciples here, making them look at each other for a few seconds before many chuckled.

    In their eyes, William was trying to act knowledgeable. Yet what was the benefit of showing off like that? Even if you knew a thing or two that we didn''t, that didn''t mean you could concoct a potion!

    Guanin also felt the same. With a shortugh and shaking off his head, he kept his silence while the master couldn''t help but produce the set of the extra materials William asked for.

    While the master was taking out materials, William asked politely to increase the amount of a few of them.

    The master didn''t disagree, however a look of interest appeared in his eyes.

    From his experience, William wasn''t acting on impulse or trying to show off.

    From his attitude and actions, this master could guess roughly that William really got a recipe in mind for his potion.

    ''Interesting,'' per what the master knew, there wasn''t another version of this potion. And he never thought about making a different version of it before. Having the urge to learn potions and pills recipes was the main drive for alchemists in life. In addition, of course to raising one''s proficiency in making potions.

    He thought, like any master at the Alchemy department, about making better versions of more effective and useful potions. So, seeing this kid iming he knew another recipe of this potion got him more interested in learning this recipe by watching William''s actions.

    Spirit masters relied on their spirit rank as a way to be renowned worldwide, and alchemists relied on the grade of forged pills, elixirs, and potions for that.

    So, standing on the side, the master''s eyes shone while he kept watching William started making his potion.

    Every single move of William was recorded in his mind. Fearing he might miss something; he even took a recording crystal out.

    It was a hand sized crystal that was filled with blue fog. Once taken out

    and activated with one''s spirit power, it could record up to six hours straight.

    Then the owner could simply reactivate it using his spirit power and a ray of light would emanate out of it and show the recorded scenes inside.

    It was a useful tool for someone like alchemists who depended on thebination of vast knowledge andplicated fine techniques and movements to produce good results.

    William wasn''t inexperienced like Guanin and others. He instantly recognised this recording crystal with a single nce.

    Yet he refrained from saying anything or tried to stop the master. After all, his knowledge came mostly from his master in the past life, and he didn''t refuse the idea of teaching others.

    He also didn''t care if news spread about his proficiency in alchemy. His name already was quite famous, and he attracted pressure from different enemies.

    So having a little more attention wouldn''t make any difference at all in his opinion. In fact, he might even end up making new friends and allies from the Alchemy department, just the same result he got when he let Ellina hang around from before.

    If the master had such fate and good luck to witness his concoction, then it was his own luck and good fortune. William epted that and started making the potion.

    From the side, Guanin kept inwardlyughing while he started concocting as well.

    Comparing himself with a porter? Comparing a genius who already concocted many potions and pills to someone ignorant who didn''t even make a single potion or pill before?

    In his eyes, this was a guaranteed and crushing victory that belonged to him, and William would soon regret epting such a challenge.

    Time passed slowly and in less than five minutes, Guanin finished concocting his potion. This potion was a simple one that didn''t need much effort or time.

    "I''m done," Guanin said in a sense of victory and pride.

    William on the side didn''t mind him. Even when Guanin filled a small bottle of ss with the potion he made and started to circle around William on purpose of showing off, he never spared Guanin a nce.

    And if one looked closer to the scene, even the master didn''t spare Guanin a nce.

 Chapter 175 Getting Shocked!

    At first, the master had mixed feelings about this situation. In his eyes, he should be leading disciples by example, allowing them to learn more about the mysterious and wonderful world of alchemy.

    Seeing a friendlypetition that was supposed to have a positive impact over these kids turning into such bloodlust confrontation wasn''t something he desired.

    Also, the idea of letting a seasoned spirit master challenge a just neer, in his very first ss was something that made him more annoyed.

    It was like allowing a disciple to bully the other, which was something he never epted.

    However, when William agreed, the master couldn''t do anything but try to make him reconsider. Who knew this stubborn kid wouldn''t listen to his good will and instead insist onpeting?

    Then it came down to such a weird request from this kid. In fact, the master thought this kid didn''t even know a single name of any herb.

    So, it was quite expected when he got inwardly shocked. Then William dared to say he knew a new recipe to make this potion, which was something that made him curious and a little doubtful.

    He got out his recording crystal just in case the words of William turned out to be right. Even if there was a slight possibility for such a thing to be true, the master saw many things already in the world and learnt it was better to be safe than sorry.

    However, when William started to concoct, the old master couldn''t help but stare and not dare to blink while watching William''s hands move to process the herbs he got.

    The master knew that concocting potions and pills weren''t just done by throwing herbs in order into the cauldron.

    This might be considered a way, but it was a rough and crude way to do it.

    The best way was through dealing with each herb separately. What alchemists wanted wasn''t the entire herb but the effective ingredient inside each herb.

    And so, each herb would require a different way to process it, to get the useful part which held the effective ingredients and get rid of the useless parts that might lower the effect of the final potion.

    One might require squeezing, others might need crushing, and part required a knife or a sword to get rid of unused parts.

    Few herbs even required a second round of processing. It was to better extract the active ingredients from the inside of these herbs.

    For example, few might need fire, others might need getting boiled, and another part might need to get filtered by spirit power.

    Knowing all this wasn''t enough. As the seasoned master knew, each potion would require a different way of handling to give the best result out of its herbs.

    So, despite it might seem like there were few processing ways to handle herbs, one had to memorise the different ways to process herbs in each form separately to be a good alchemist master.

    And if one learnt how to further process the herbs on two steps, then he''d be a grand alchemist master.

    It wasn''t a simple task. And the more tedious task of the alchemists on top of others was to try new ways to find better processes than what was already known previously in making potions and pills.

    Knowing all this was essential for any alchemist master. Or else the future path one had to tread would be filled with wrong turns and tons of mistakes.

    However, seeing a kid doing such things was a novel experience that this master never thought it could happen!

    Under the watchful and shocked gazes of the master, William started processing one herb after another, using different ways to get the best out of each one.

    At some point, William asked for small sks to store the filtered and processed essence of some herbs aside.

    The masterplied, while he kept wondering about the logic and concept behind this.

    To his shock, William did another round of processing before finally selecting five herbs and did a third round of processing.

    ''Third round? Damn! I only heard that the legendary alchemist, Hatong, was the only grand alchemist in the current world to process the ingredients in three steps!''

    This master here wasn''t that knowledgeable ot quite talented in the academy, but he once was lucky to get trained on the hand of such a legendary figure.

    He stayed with Hatong for a few days and learnt tons of things from him.

    Yet he never saw him do any further processing as he imed that it''d ruin the essence and wouldn''t bring any better results.

    But under the watchful gazes of the master, he saw William not stopping after doing the third round of processing on the five herbs. Instead, he mixed two together and then processed them using fire. Then he mixed the remaining three together and processed them using his spirit power.

    To the master''s eyes, this was a brand new way to perform processing. And when he thought about this, he knew the general concept wasn''t wrong or impossible to grasp.

    Thinking back to the detailed answer of Hatong when one of the trainees back then asked him that question, this master seemed to get enlightened.

    ''So, this is the solution to such a dilemma¡­ But to think about trying and mixing the previously processed herbs together to be the right way to avoid damaging the already processed ingredients¡­ It has an almost infinite number of possibilities! Just how long did this kid train in alchemy? Since being in his mother''s womb or what?!!!''

    The master had all the reason to be shocked by William. William didn''t invent any of this for sure. This was the crystallisation of endless efforts of many seniors before. He just got lucky to learn about all this when he went to the outer world.

    The outer world was much bigger than this one, and it had an ancient history that spanned for millions of years.

    Such a ce was filled with endless knowledge, and William just was blessed to get his hands over them.

 Chapter 176 Dark Gold Grade Potions

    "Master¡­ I''m done with my potion," Guanin thought that the master didn''t hear him the first time as he saw no reaction from him. So, he went closer and stopped harassing William.

    "Step back, go to your cauldron and wait," the master noticed him before but decided to ignore him. In his eyes, he knew each second wasted without watching William''s performance was a huge loss.

    Guanin felt something was off when the master said these words. Yet it was the master, and he was still confident in his victory.

    His arrogance took the best of him and at this time he gave William a mocking nce with a harrumph before returning to stand in silence by his cauldron, not even sparing a nce over William or care about watching his actions.

    All this happened in front of the disciples. They didn''t have any knowledge about the techniques William was using.

    Sometimes, if one was ignorant, then a priceless treasure would pass in front of his eyes and get missed. Or even worse, he might acquire it and mistake it for useless trash and throw it away!

    They weren''t to be med. What William was doing could only be appreciated by those masters in alchemy.

    William kept working while silence enveloped the world around him. It was his first time ever since reincarnation to concoct a potion.

    He was concentrated, fearing that the difference in his body between the two lives he lived would leave some bad traces over his potion.

    Yet he worried for nothing. In fact, making this potion was something trivial for someone like him.

    "It''s done," William finally finished making the potion. Unlike the five minutes Guanin spent in making his potion, this one took almost fifteen.

    This wasn''t because William wasn''t capable, it was totally the opposite. The various techniques he used and the three processes he did took time.

    When he was done, he poured the content of the potion into one bottle, closed it before looking at the master.

    "I need ten more."

    "Ten more of what?!" The master was astonished when he heard that. However, unlike what he expected, William pointed towards the cauldron as he added, "there is enough to fill ten more potions."

    "Ten¡­ No wait¡­ It''s eleven? You made it from an amount that can at most form five potions? How? How on earth did you do it?!!!"

    "Oh¡­" William blinked for a moment, realising that he overdid it this time, so he embarrassingly scratched his head while saying, "I got a master who taught me everything."

    "A master¡­" At this moment, this master felt too much familiarity with this kid. Yet at this moment this wasn''t what was important. Instead¡­

    "Tell me, is your master epting disciples?" the master instantly jumped, grabbed and stored the recording crystal, before hurriedly asking William.

    William didn''t know what to say. Should heugh or cry? Such an esteemed master of the academy wanted to be his disciple? Of course, there was no master and he was the one having all this knowledge.

    "Ahem, my master is far away right now," William cleared his throat before adding, in case that master would devote his life waiting for the arrival of such an imaginary master, "and he doesn''t ept any disciples at the moment."

    "Oh," a sh of disappointment passed over the master''s eyes. William could only sigh while extending his hand without saying anything.

    The master took a few moments before he was jolted back when William called him, "Master¡­ The bottles¡­"

    "Ah, here¡­ Take them¡­" the master took out ten bottles as William asked and watched thetter fill the content with the potion.

    "It''s a dark gold grade potion," William suddenly said. And when he said it, all the side talks from the disciples hissed the moment William said it.

    "You¡­ Are you trying to lie or what?" the face of Guanin paled the moment he heard this.

    He didn''t understand what went wrong for the master to speak in such a way with William. Yet when William said the grade of the potion he made, he couldn''t help but get frightened.

    "Silence!" the master red at Guanin. He never had a very good impression about this arrogant spirit master from the start.

    Before Guanin would retort or say anything, the master turned to William and thetter got his intentions and delivered one potion to the master. After checking the potion, the eyes of the master shed in excitement.

    "Not only is it dark gold grade, but its effect is also five times better than usual potions of the same grade! This¡­ This¡­"

    The body of the master trembled. And before William or Guanine would say anything, he hurriedly collected the other ten potions and stored them away as if he found a treasure thrown on the side of the road.

    Even the cauldron that William used was stored away as well.

    It seemed like William did a crime, and the master was collecting all the evidence before they got ruined.

    William''s keen eyes noticed the ce that master stored the cauldron and the potions at. It wasn''t at the storage ring at his middle finger, but on a small pouch at his waist.

    ''Having a life preserving treasure? Interesting¡­'' William recognised this and instantly knew its value.

    Herbs weren''t like ores; they were all best to be used fresh and alive. If getting stored into a ring, they''d get all rotten and lose much of their value with the passage of time.

    So, there was another way to save such valuable herbs. It was a life preserving treasure like that pouch. Despite its storage space being Limitedpared to rings, it was invaluable to store precious herbs inside.

    The master feared for the remnants of the potions in the cauldron to get messed if he stored it in his ring. His intentions were clear, he wanted to return to his department and let senior masters examine this cauldron and study the concoction process of William.

 Chapter 177 Crushing Guanin Once

    William simply took a single nce before looking away. It would be anyone''s luck to learn anything from him. And he wouldn''t be bitter and hold his knowledge back from anyone.

    Especially if it was something that could help the grandmunity of the spirit masters, at least in the academy and its surrounding ns.

    Not to mention, this was also another source of ie for William. The more ie he''d get, the better resources he''d purchaseter on, the faster he''d grow stronger.

    William wasn''t stupid. He knew the response of the Alchemy department wouldn''t be much different than that of the Forging department folks.

    So, he was expecting some kind of a grand deal, the same way he did it with the Forging department.

    As for those kids here, who saw him concoct the potion, if anyone was lucky enough, then he or she would end up learning a thing or two from him.

    And if anyone interested in learning more, as long as he wasn''t a bad person and an enemy, William would consider leaving a tip or two for him.

    William wanted to support other spirit masters worthy of his teachings and knowledge.

    For example, Long and Kong. William had a good impression about them. Also, this Peter sounded like a good candidate as well.

    William wasn''t rash to support and nourish anyone. He didn''t want tomit the famous mistake of masters, epting any disciple without checking if he was loyal or just a damn opportunist, or worse, a hidden cancer.

    Many masters in his past life perished thanks to betrayal from their closest and most trusted disciples. So, it was better to observe first and make sure the ones he selected held nothing against him.

    "Master¡­ This¡­"

    "This is your loss," the master turned, and his face changed as he red at Guanin, "you brought this upon yourself. Even if there was nothing to bet on, this youngd here deserves the support of my entire department."

    These words held more weight and felt much bitter to Guanin than just losing a round with William. Guanin turned and red at the direction of William, as if he was already considering him his sworn and mortal enemy.

    William responded with a wide and very irritating smile, one that left a pale mark over Guanin''s face. It was like William spat on his face, stomped over him with his foot, and in the end kicked him away andughed as if he was enjoying the best moments in his life.

    "Kid, what''s your name again?" The master then turned his attention fully towards William. In his eyes, William was an expected gem that he found by coincidence.

    "I''m William."

    "Are you really a porter?" the master was asking before suddenly his eyes shed in realisation, "don''t tell me¡­ You are that kid who made the Forging department on their toes a few days ago!"

    "Ahem, master might be speaking in exaggeration about me," William couldn''t deny such words, while trying hard not tough.

    It was him indeed, and that reaction made the master worried about the future ns he had for William.

    "Ok, go back right now, the ss is over," the master knew this was something huge and he had to hurry back and inform the higher masters at the alchemy department.

    William nodded while he guessed bits of what this master wanted to do. As he rose up victorious, he went up with his head raised high in the air.

    It was his victory, and everyone here had to know their ces and stop mocking him. If anyone wants a piece of him, he or she must be ready to lose their faces in return.

    "Damn! I never thought a porter like you could concoct!" Once he returned up there, and just before going to meet up with Berry and others, Tod walked past him as he said in a sarcastic way.

    William gave him a calm look, without showing anything on his face. He was like a bottomless pit, a very calmke with no waves.

    This was the most dangerous reaction William ever gave to anyone. For an unknown reason, Tod felt his back shiver a little while watching this thin kid walk past him in steady steps, heading back to Berry and others.

    "Wow! You swept the floor with his face, hahahaha," Lang grabbed William by the shoulder whileughing. Anything bad happening to that sly snake was something good without doubt for him.

    "Great job!" Berry never doubted William''s ability to win. She raised a thumb up for him, feeling more relieved that such a bastard got humiliated in such a way.

    Even if she wanted to do it herself, seeing William do it felt like she was the one to p Guanin in the face.

    "He was nothing," William shrugged, breaking free from Lang, "what do we have next?"

    "Now? We have a ss in the next ten minutes," one of Lang men responded before Peter suddenly asked:

    "What''s wrong with Tod?"

    Tod''s weird reaction didn''t escape many disciples'' eyes, but no one wanted to speak about trouble in the middle of such a joyful moment.

    "Oh, he is just tired of being a friend of mine," William said as if it was something simple.

    "That''s weird," the eyes of Lang constricted as if he was thinking about something.

    "Never mind, enemies are doomed to be crushed one way or another," William changed the title of Tod andbelled him as an enemy.

    Lang didn''t like it. After all, he was one of his closest friends. But he was still puzzled by Tod''s weird attitude. He stole a gaze to Berry and then his eyes shed in realisation.

    "What''s the next ss? Oh, it''s about fighting techniques¡­" Berry took her ss schedule paper out and spoke in such a cheerful way.

    "They are themon grade fighting techniques," Peter said, not wanting Berry to get disappointed, "not anything fancy."

    "Don''t belittle any fighting technique," William warned him and others in a gentle way.

 Chapter 178 A Chance For Revenge

    He got a good impression about Peter, and so he didn''t want him to go astray.

    "But¡­ Our ns already provided fighting techniques matching our spirits."

    "But your enemies won''t have your n''s techniques, right?" William paused before adding, "in any battle, victory isn''t just about using the strongest techniques but sometimes it''s rted to how to counter the enemy''s fighting techniques."

    The eyes of Peter shone in realisation for a moment before they dimmed again. "Thanks brother William, I really got inspired by your words."

    William knew he wasn''t faking it. And he wasn''t trying to look cool by saying these words.

    In fact, the fight way in this world depended entirely on honing one''s abilities and techniques. However, in the outside world, most of the fights depended mainly on countering the opponents and suppressing them by crushing their fighting techniques.

    William was giving them a word of advice from an expert, and hoped these good spirit masters would remember his words and engrave them by heart.

    "Humph! First acting like you are a great alchemist and now a formidable spirit master? Porters are really interesting and amusing!"

    Just when the group was about to head out for fresh air, Guanin stopped them at the door with arge group of his entourage.

    William moved his eyes around and could tell simply by their age that most of this group belonged to themon spirit masters.

    And that made him inwardly sigh.

    "Says the one who got humiliated and lost face by this porter," William snorted, pointing towards himself in a proud way. Just before Guanin would say a single thing, Berry jumped in:

    "A porter is enough to sweep the floor with your n''s prodigy, hahahaha! What does that make you then? Any clue friends?"

    She was in a great mood indeed. Her rage of what Guanin did to tarnish her n''s reputation wasn''t the only thing that made her hate him.

    Guanin used to pressure and humiliate her during the past couple of years, using her inability to step further ahead as an excuse to make fun of her anywhere and anytime.

    Lang and othersughed in a mocking way, and that turned Guanin and his group''s faces ugly.

    "I dare you say that again!"

    "I dare you to challenge me again," Williamughed, e on, I''m not tired from kicking your ass yet, hahahahaha!"

    "To arms!" In the next moment, Guanin couldn''t endure this anymore and shouted in such a way. And then everyone on his side took out their weapons, seemingly ready to jump on the disciples in front of them at any given moment.

    There was no master here to stop him, not to mention there was no recording of events here whatsoever.

    The only witnesses for viting the academy rules would be the disciples of the ss. Most would stand by his side, even lie for him and fabricate a nice story about how the other side attacked him first.

    Guanin was already hurt, deeply hurt by his recent loss. He imagined he''d swipe the floor with William''s face, turning thetter''s life here in the sses into a nightmare.

    But he ended up falling in the same sh*t hole he dug for his enemy.

    He wanted revenge! And something told him challenging William in the uing ss wasn''t enough!

    Punching that porter in the face would be the right way to vent out his anger.

    He could do anything he wanted with the advantage in numbers on his side than on William''s. And then use his n''s wealth and power to suppress everyone here.

    He wouldn''t dare to touch a single hair of Berry or anyone from the big ns here. He wasn''t stupid. He ced William as his first and only target as he was the only one without backing!

    Even if Berry said it before, who would say the n would follow her words and support such a nameless spirit master?

    Guanin calcted everything in his mind before making this move. He checked, and he got almost double the number of the spirit masters than the other side had. And they were all bronze grade spirit masters. So, in such situations, numbers would make a difference.

    "Stop it! Where do you think you are? This is the academy!"

    Just as everyone on William''s side was about to draw out their weapons in response to such provocation, a thunderous shout came, and everyone turned towards the direction of the stage.

    ''Shit! The master is here already!'' Guanin''s face turned ck when he saw the strict and frightening fighting technique master of their ss. Seeing that master there told him that his surprise move failed, and he wouldn''t have the same chance again.

    "Master, they tried to attack us," Lang knew this was their chance to stomp even more over Granny''s face, "he brought his people here and wielded their weapons to attack us!"

    "Don''t listen to him, master. They are just a group of sinister spirit masters and hid their weapons the moment you arrived," Guanin knew if things escted, then it would be bad for him.

    He never cared for what would happen to people on his side. He was just that type of person, who would care solely for himself, even using others to extricate himself from any trouble without batting an eye.

    "For real? What do you take me for? An idiot?" the corner of this master''s mouth twitched before he pointed to the seats, "sit down. I''m conducting a sess or failure test about the entire year for the lot of your two groups right now!"

    The words of the masternded, and everyone showed a frightened look on their faces.

    This master¡­ He was quite angry this time!

    This master was known as the dream killer among disciples! His reputation was widely known for many years.

    He found pleasure in pushing over disciples, crushing them and making them fail their years.

    To rise into a higher ss, one had to fulfil two conditions. First, he had to not fail any year in the ss he was in, and second for his power to evolve to a higher rank.

 Chapter 179 The Righteous William

    For example, the third and fourth year sses were all silver spirit master sses.

    What separated the two wasn''t just the difference in spirit power, but also the overall performance, grades, and the sess and failure record in the previous years.

    So failing was like a ck spot on anyone''s record. And trying to wipe it would take more effort and time.

    Lang stepped forward when he realised the bad situation they were all in. "Master, these two are just freshmen and joined us just today."

    "This isn''t my problem," the master didn''t yield, "they are with you, and so they are punished as well."

    From the side, every other disciple sitting here and watching all this unfold had such a look on their faces. It was like they were celebrating

    not belonging to either of the two sides when this master entered or else they would have been doomed.

    Hearing this, William frowned. He came just soon to this life and he didn''t train in anymon fighting technique before.

    "We''ll conduct the test like usual," the master didn''t bother with the look of hate and intimidation from these kids, "with a slight modification this time. I hate wasting time, so we''ll do it this way¡­"

    He stopped, crossed his arms and had such a smug smile over his face. For a second, William felt like he was eyed by a ferocious beast.

    "You are two groups, and so I''m going to test you in one go. Each group will receive a question from me about the theories of different

    fighting techniques. The one to respond right will get one point. The one to respond wrong will receive none. If the answer is something annoying and I didn''t like it, points will be deducted from you."

    "This¡­"

    "Master, please show mercy."

    "Master, we admit we were in the wrong."

    Shouts of pleas came from both sides, but the master seemed to not bother with whatever they said. In fact, the smile over his face broadened and William couldn''t help but inwardly sigh.

    Failing a ss just on the first day in the academy? What luck was that?!

    "So we are going to answer questions while working as a group?" Yet even if the master was trying to act unreasonable, he still showed some way out for him and Berry.

    "No," yet when William felt this master was faking such a harsh attitude, the master shook his head, "each group will select a representative. He or she will be the one dealing with my questions on behalf of the ss."

    "This¡­"

    "Selecting just one?"

    "But¡­ There is no one who is well rounded in everything aboutmon fighting techniques!"

    "Can''t we revert back to the usual way? Each man on his own?"

    These words created panic in the two groups. The disciples here seemed to see a glimpse of light when the master described the group test way before.

    But now, they have lost any hope at all.

    It was expected. After all, for all the kids who came from big ns and families, they never putmon techniques in their eyes, just like how Peter showed that before.

    As for themon spirit masters following them, they might know a thing or two. But as they had to serve others for the most of their times, and focusing more on raising one''s spirit power up, they knew little as well.

    "Master," just when everyone had their hopes shattered, William suddenly stepped forward, cupped his hands as he spoke in respect, "this all happened thanks to me crushing that kid at thest ss. He challenged me at alchemy, to just get beaten without any chance of fighting back. So, after the master went out, he came for us trying to regain his lost pride by his own strength."

    William said these words in such a calm and confident way while pointing one finger towards Guanin, whose face changed colour out of his frustration, annoyance, anger, and humiliation.

    "I said I don''t care about your problems¡­" the eyes of the master gleamed in a terrifying light. In fact he didn''t need to hear any of that as he was just next to this hall during the entire alchemy ss.

    When William crushed Guanin, he couldn''t believe it. ck gold grade potion in his first attempt? And from the look of it, the alchemy master seemed to not get how William did it!

    This was unbelievable. And so the master decided to push things further and see the depths of this youngster.

    He also wanted to check on his temper. This was his way to do things. Just like Berry''s father who kept swinging his sword around and challenging everyone he met, this master loved the way of pressuring others to know the true essence of everyone.

    In his mind, one would show his true self and intentions when getting suppressed and being in a bad spot.

    So, when William tried to get away from it using such logic, the master blocked such a way out by simply stating it wasn''t his business.

    He expected William to look troubled. Yet when he noticed the calm look on this youngster, he knew something unexpected was going to happen.

    ''So you got a n? Bring it on kiddo, I want to know how you n to get yourself and others from my clutches!'' without saying anything, the face of

    that master turned more savage, giving everyone here a scare by simply looking at him.

    A maniac! That was what everyone had in their minds right now. And they all questioned themselves, why would the academy allow for such a madman to work as their master? To work as a master in the first ce?

    "I want to ask the master for this¡­" William cleared his throat before adding without changing his respectful stance and tone, "in the light of me being the one who led everyone to such fate, why not I take all the me instead?"

    "What do you mean?" even the master was taken by surprise when he heard William''s words. He never expected this youngster to have such a righteous mind, deciding to take all the me over his shoulders.

    "Let mepete alone, me against him," William pointed towards Guanin again, "whoever loses will fail this year and whoever wins will continue studying under your guidance."

 Chapter 180 The Master Agrees

    "Hmm¡­ Interesting proposal," the master nodded before he shook his head, "but not enough¡­"

    When everyone felt their fate was already sealed, the master added, "let''s do it this way, the two of you who did it wrong will have to face my trial. As you are a freshman, you have to just answer sixty percent of my questions right. As for him, he has to answer ny percent correctly. Any of you failing the test will end up dropping this year and you''ll have to repeat it."

    William knew this master was just putting out a strong front. Yet in fact he was caring about his disciples. He couldn''t read through the mind of that master yet, not to understand the logic behind his weird actions, but he got that he meant good.

    He even took note of him being a freshman and didn''t attend his ss before. And right now, others would get saved out from this trouble, and wouldn''t face dropping the year like before.

    "This¡­ Isn''t it bias?" Guanin couldn''t help but shout, yet when the master''s eyes red at him, his body trembled, and his voice faded until he returned to silence.

    "What do you say?" the master turned his eyes back to William as he added, "do you ept?"

    ''Why not," William shrugged, "I''m new here. What would make a difference if I failed a year? At least others won''t get dragged into this."

    "Good," the master showed an excited expression on his face, e then. We will have the test once everyone is here¡­"

    "Brother William, this isn''t good!" as William stood up for them, others in the group felt warm towards him. Peter was the first to walk to him as he added in grave and serious tone, "this master is insane! In his previous exams, he''ll give out many unknown things to us in order to make us fail!"

    "And you just came here today and didn''t listen to any of his lessons!" Lang also stepped up and showed a look of worry on his face.

    "Don''t worry, it''s just a simple test," before Berry would also join them, William casually said before pointing towards the nearby Guanin who had his face all red, "at least I won''t go down alone, I''ll drag this piece of sh*t down with me."

    "Screw you! Do you think you can harm me like this? Humph! Let''s see what will happen when I go back and report to the n. This arrogant bastard won''t dare to touch a single hair of mine!"

    "Let''s see about it then," William didn''t say anymore. He got a good impression of that master. He looked tough and harsh, merciless from the surface, but he was doing this for their own good.

    It seemed this master realised the importance of the general fighting techniques. Just from the short discussion William had with everyone here, he knew that they were looking down at this ss despite its great importance.

    So, the master had to pressure them like this to make sure they all got how important this ss was.

    Besides, William wasn''t acting suicidal here.

    If the test required him to execute the technique, then he wouldn''t have even thought about standing up and speaking for everyone like he did. However, this was a theoretical test, one that required one to know the knowledge and not execute anything.

    So even if he didn''t learn anymon technique yet, he knew all the theories behind almost all themon techniques. And what he knew far surpassed the scoop of this ss, even to this master.

    William was acting calm, and his provocation seeded in diverting trouble for others, gaining favour from them, and in return bringing considerable damage to his foe.

    Just from what Guanin said, it seemed this kid already lost any hope of surviving this test. It looked like this master was like a grand obstacle that no one had the guts or the ability to trespass it.

    But for William, this wasn''t even considered a hurdle at all.

    Disciples starteding in the next ten minutes. During which, William walked down to the stage once more, stood there calmly while not bothering with everything happening around him.

    On the other side, the shock these recently joined disciples had during this time was greater. They saw the same two disciples standing against each other, and soon they got to know what happened in their absence.

    Despite the chatter among them, William remained calm while Guanin already had a sour look on his face.

    "Now, it''s time to conduct my test¡­" the master spoke, and once he did, silence prevailed.

    Everyone was holding his breaths and watching the downfall of these two. In their eyes, William did great before and pulled a miracle by crushing Guanin in alchemy.

    However, this time was different. They were facing the ruthless master, the one who used to kill any spirit master''s dreams.

    So, the result was expected, and the audience here was just looking at the two as if they were at their funeral.

    "The first question goes for Guanin¡­" the tone of the master showed how excited he was.

    He asked Guanin about a random technique, and thetter failed to describe everything about it. In fact, Guanin didn''t ce any hope about getting out of this unscathed.

    He was just like everyone else here, not cing any great importance onmon techniques, not caring about even studying them diligently for the ss.

    He knew in such a test; he''d end up failing to answer a few questions perfectly. And that didn''t bother him. As he said it, once he''d return back to the n, he''d have a word with the patriarch and let him solve this problem for him.

    "Fail!" the master shook his head before turning to William while adding, "each of you will have ten questions. Failing one for that kid means he can''t fail again. You can fail four questions and still survive this. So, tell me about the scorching fist technique."

 Chapter 181 You Failed!

    "It''s a technique that aims at using one''s spirit power to channel it through one''s fist¡­" William paused, while surprisingly shaking off his head, "but thismon theory is all wrong."

    "Wrong? You were doing fine just now," the master seemed to see a disciple saying something good before ruining it the next moment. He couldn''t help but sigh when William added:

    "It''s not used to channel the spirit power at one''s fist, or even arm. In fact doing this will take much of the technique''s power. The right way to do it is by following themon way in channelling spirit power, throughout the entire body. Like this, the power will gather up more momentum and the fist will release mightier power."

    "This¡­" the master seemed to get surprised before William added: "In addition to that, this technique requires strong building for arms. But that isn''t at all. It also requires a strong base for legs as well. After all, if one isn''t firmly standing his ground, howe he''ll release a mighty punch from his hands?"

    "Wait a second¡­" the master suddenly started to take deep breaths before he stood his ground firm, bent his knees slightly, before his body started to shine in dark gold light.

    He was following the same way William described to unleash this technique, not the way he knew about how to execute this technique.

    ''He is a dark gold spirit master,'' William''s eyes shone when he spotted this. The master was using his instructions to try out the modified version of the technique.

    *Boom!*

    Just releasing a single punch created an explosion at the nearby wall. The wall cracked and suddenly fire engulfed the opening, spreading all of sudden as if it got a sudden burst of energy.

    Fire crawled on the wall like it was a tsunami wave. In the next few seconds, the entire wall got scorched hot and fire engulfed everything in mere seconds.

    "Nice," the master stopped his technique. William got the feeling that this master held back his power, and that was something expected. Even when holding back, the master ended up blowing a hole in the wall.

    This wasn''t an easy matter, but for the master it looked like it was nothing.

    The spirit masters in the hall seemed to grow scared from such deadly fire. They recalled the time when the master demonstrated this technique and it was no way scary as this one.

    William nodded in satisfaction inside. He knew this was just a simple modification he did to the technique and not the entire full and powerful version of it.

    The technique required a few more changes regarding spirit gates in one''s body. But speaking about such advanced knowledge was something William refrained from or else he''d raise more suspicion about him.

    "Your version is much better than mine," the master said in an excited tone, "great! You passed my first question."

    Just like that he ignored all the damage this technique brought and turned to Guanin to ask his second question.

    "Fail!"

    "You did great! You pass this as well!"

    "Fail!"

    "Damn! This simple modification turned this technique upside down!"

    "Fail! Don''t you have any honour or dignity? If I''m you, I''d better go away and never show my face ever again!"

    "Impressive! I like this version of yours more than the standard one."

    Just like this, the master kept moving back and forth between William and Guanin before he finally decided to let Guanin down and not ask him anymore.

    In fact he grew interested in William. Every single question he asked was answered with a little modification from William''s vast knowledge and rich fighting experience.

    This wasn''t something simple. And every single time he tested the new changes out. William''s changes were regarding the channelling of energy at most parts, something that could be exined as his own effort in testing out new ways for these ancient andmon techniques.

    Besides, he had the ultimate card of his hidden and formidable master if anyone thought to follow this matter deeper.

    Just by revealing only the tip of the iceberg, William was able to secure an easy win here and in return he ended up securing his own secrets.

    The master kept testing out his own modifications one time after another.

    In the end, the entire back of the ss showed many holes, ck leftovers and marks by thick tongues of mes and different attacks that fell over

    The poor wall. Not to mention these wide gaps at the ground from all the damage it received.

    William looked at all this and felt this wasn''t the right ce for this master to test out his changes over the techniques. Yet it seemed this master was already so eager and quite impatient to try out all this right at the spot, and didn''t even wait for the ss to be over.

    "Damn! And you call yourself a freshman? Tell me then, from where and whom did you get such knowledge?"

    The master didn''t need to ask as he knew the true identity and background of William. he knew that he started with a porter, and ended up as a bronze ranked spirit master in mere days.

    He pulled a miracle back at the Long n. William didn''t know this, but this master was part of the team who went to help the n,ing from the academy.

    "I have a master," William threw his usual answer, "and he is someone who you might not know."

    "What a regret," the master''s eyes dimmed slightly, yet from the reaction of his face William felt he was faking it. "Anyway, you passed and this useless kid failed¡­ Go out right now, don''t show me your face until next year starts."

    "Master¡­" Guanin''s face was now much darker than a piece of charcoal. William looked at him and could hardly control hisughs.

    ''You wanted to take a bite at me? You deserve what you got back!'' he inwardly snorted while watching Guanin leave after leaving behind some threatening words like waiting for his patriarch''s actions and such useless stuff.

 Chapter 182 The Classes Are Cancelled

    This Guanin seemed to rely too much on his n. The master simply snorted and ignored everything Guanin said. "Not a single year''s punishment is enough for someone like you. If I saw a shadow of one of your nsmen, then you''ll stay away from this ss for three years."

    Guanin was already near the door when he stumbled and almost fell. With eyes filled with killing intent, he turned and looked at William before leaving as if he was promising a soon to happen meeting between the two.

    "Return to your seat," the master waved, "don''t bother with him. As long as you are inside the academy, you won''t get any harm at all."

    "Thanks master," William knew that Guanin''s threats weren''t just limited to the academy, but mainly to the forest and world outside.

    William didn''t intend to stay his entire life confined inside the academy. It was much like a prison to him.

    And he didn''t mind such a challenge. He grew tired from such harmful weeds like Guanin. And if he ever met him outside, he wouldn''t hesitate to take that bastard''s life, alongside everyoneing with him.

    "Master, about this¡­" William motioned his head towards the extreme damage that happened here and didn''t know what to say.

    He wasn''t a disciple before, but he was a porter and knew the rules. If anything got damaged in the academy, a punishment would be exerted over the one who did it besides paying apensation.

    He wasn''t the one to cause such damage, but the master did such damage because of what William said.

    "Oh, don''t worry about that¡­ Don''t tell me you want to stand up for me as well?"

    The corners of William''s eyes twitched when he heard that. He wanted to say: Who was the master and who was the disciple here? But he refrained from doing that.

    He knew this master was jesting with him, and he truly wasn''t a bad person.

    He was harsh in his way of teaching; he was just caring too much for his disciples. And that was supposed to be the case for most capable masters.

    Even if the disciples here all mistook his true intentions, William knew this as he got such a kind of master before.

    "Just return back and let me start my ss," the master waved his hand and William knew nothing would happen to him in exchange for such damage.

    After all, he wasn''t the one who actually did it.

    As he returned, with each step he took, he could see the shock, fear, and veneration in the eyes of spirit masters here.

    In their eyes, someone like him should have gotten screwed in the past confrontations.

    However, William didn''t just emerge victorious, he also had done such remarkable feats that shocked everyone.

    Who was he? Was he the porter or us? Everyone asked themselves such questions while feeling dejected in their hearts.

    As he returned back to the top seat, his mates weed him with much warmer gazes.

    "You know a lot," Berry leant over him as she whispered, "it seems like you hid a lot of things from me."

    "We just met a few weeks ago," William rolled his eyes.

    "Then teach me."

    "That depends¡­" William yfully said before the two of them got a ring and warning nce from that master down below.

    The two had to remain silent to the end of the ss. Berry from the side

    was adamant at learning everything William knew.

    As for paying him back, she grew confused a long time ago about such a hard to answer question.

    It wasn''t just the issue of wealth. She knew she was indebted to him in many ways that left her unable to know what to do for him and would be considered a payback to all this.

    William from the side already could tell what this little girl was thinking. All he thought about was how silly her mind was.

    ''This girl¡­ Do you think I''m this poor, pathetic, or what?'' hemented in his heart while feeling helpless towards her.

    She didn''t need to ask, he intended to help her get stronger. She wasn''t the only exception, as he intended to slowly build up his own group and start nourishing them.

    ''All for that day,'' he silently clenched both fists as he decided to do that, hoping to meet his master one day with his formidable team that he carefully picked and trained.

    His master''s once told him that her gravest mistake was to wander this world solo for the most of her life. She just decided to form a team just a few years before meeting him.

    She regretted not doing that a bit earlier, deeply regretted it.

    And before that decisive battle back then, she told him that if he got the chance to survive, and no matter what, he should seek capable spirit masters and support their growth and guide them to the right track.

    William memorised her teachings andmitted them to the heart. William knew his master regretted that because if she had many formidable friends and disciples by her side, her chances at sess would have been greater.

    William decided to notmit the same mistake ever again. He already found a few gems during his past weeks. For example, he highly treasured Berry. Not just her unique spirit, and her outstanding spirit fusion, but also her good personality and kind heart.

    He looked at her, at Lang, at Peter, at others around them, and felt like he was blessed to know such youngsters once he returned back to life.

    Like this, he''d start his grand n of forming his own team early on. And that was at least going to help in the big war that''d erupt many years toe.

    By then, they''d grow to be much stronger than they were now. William just remained silent, drifted in his own thoughts and ns until the ss finished.

    Thanks to the immense destruction here, the rest of sses got cancelled.

 Chapter 183 The Mercenary Department

    They got another ss of forging that got cancelled. And William felt it was good enough to shock the audience for one day at the first two sses, and it was lucky for the third one to get cancelled like that.

    Or else he doubted the mastering from the Forging department would recognise him, ask him toe to the stage and forge something for them.

    "Let''s go, star spirit master," Peter stood up and led the way while everyone followed, including William and Berry.

    The group felt indebted to him. They knew they were on the verge of getting their year fail thanks to that crazy master. However, when William stepped up and the master agreed, they could heave a deep sigh of relief.

    Knowing for sure he was sacrificing himself for them, they decided to pay him back when they got the chanceter.

    Yet William''s performance dazzled them. And that made his picture in their eyes unfathomable, reaching more heights.

    However, this was just limited to Lang''s and Peter''s group, and a few other groups. As William walked with others, he could feel many hostile eyes towards him.

    Part of these came from the dark spirit master agents, while the most came from disciples who were either envious about him being this special, or jealous about not being together with him.

    This was expected. After all, the dark spirit masters already infiltrated this academy deeply, with many ns already in their grasp. And William just kicked the hell out of Guanin who was considered like a leader to them.

    William saw it with his own eyes before when he met the academy headmaster.

    It was a slight surprise, but William got at least to know how much influence his enemies here held against him, against other normal and righteous spirit masters.

    It was expected however when he gave it more thoughts. In times of turmoil, it was expected for many to abandon the right path and get tempted to the wrong side on the price of saving their lives.

    Despite it being unfair and unjust, despite it being wrong, William wasn''t a kid to not ept such reality. And even if he epted it, he didn''t intend to stay idle and not interfere to change everything.

    As for the other disciples who were just jealous and envious, few thought about ways to befriend him, befriend Land and Peter next to William, or how to find a way to even pay him a fee to teach them a few things.

    Even if the disciples here didn''t get most of what William did, they got how great and brilliant this was thanks to the two masters'' reactions.

    And it wasn''t that weird to hire someone to teach oneself a thing or two. Disciples from big ns and families always hired a high grade disciple or a master, not one who was in the same ss.

    "What are we going to do now?"

    As they got out from the damaged ss and learnt about the end of today''s and tomorrow''s lessons, few of the group asked.

    "We are free for two days," Peter shrugged, before hugging William, "it''s all thanks to our rising star, hahahaha!"

    "Yes, since the start of the year we didn''t have any days of rest."

    "Thanks star, hahahaha!"

    William took theirments as mere jokes and never thought bad about them. He simply epted theirughs and jokes, while Berry kept all silent.

    He knew she was still pondering about the price to pay to make him happy and content. ''Silly girl, don''t overthink it. Being by my side is enough,''

    William muttered to himself while all of sudden Lang said:

    "Don''t lower your guard. This Guanin is someone I have known for years. He isn''t the one to ept a p on the face and walk away."

    "And?" William simply said as if it was something normal and not worth his attention.

    "He will try to ambush you," Peter joined in, and the two gave William a very serious look on their faces.

    "I don''t mind," William shrugged, "let him try. Anyway, I heard about a ce here and never got the chance to visit it. Why won''t we try and go there now?"

    "What ce?" Berry from the side asked in curiosity. She expected it to be a ss or something, but William said something that startled everyone:

    "The Mercenary department, the one that distributes outside missions for us."

    "This¡­"

    The look of shock appeared on everyone''s face. They expected William to n to stay inside for a long time. After all, Guanin was famous for ying dirty and being sinister.

    However, the first thing William asked to do was to go, ept dangerous missions and head outside the protection of the academy.

    Why wouldn''t they get shocked then?

    "Don''t give me that look," William rolled his eyes beforeughing, "I''m not going to throw my life away."

    "It seems you n to do it this way," Lang couldn''t help but sigh, and everyone around also felt the same.

    "Excuse me brother," just before William could say anything, a fourteen old spirit master came in hesitant steps.

    William turned and looked at him. He seemed to be one of those who didn''t sell their souls to any of the rich masters here, one of the few who sat alone and without joining any group.

    William already memorised the faces of everyone here. And when he saw this face that didn''t yield under any temptation and kept enduring pressure, he had his interest piqued.

    "Yes?"

    "I want¡­ To ask brother William about a few things regarding my techniques¡­"

    This spirit master spoke in a tone that told William he was used to getting mistreated.

    His tone was weak, and his face showed his hesitation and even slight fear. William didn''t notice it, but he wasn''t, in fact, alone.

    He was surrounded by one of the most famous groups of the second year disciples. And that was why this disciple was feeling this way.

    However, William didn''t intend to turn him down.

 Chapter 184 Can You Teach Me?

    "Let''s go there then," William casually pointed at a direction inside the campus, "as for you, why not go and check the missions? Berry knows my ce; let''s all meet together there."

    "Tsk, just take this time to reconsider this," Peter said in displeasure. He didn''t like seeing such a good friend face a bad end thanks to his rash decision.

    However, William just waved his fist high in the air, led the way with this spirit master towards a corner.

    It was one of the smaller buildings here that William didn''t know any of their uses.

    "So, what do you want?" William turned and casually asked.

    "It''s like this¡­"

    The spirit master started to speak about his life in short sentences. From what he said, William confirmed his earlier guess.

    He came from amon family, no wealth, no fame, no strength or strings attached to any of the big names.

    He was like a lone wolf, and yet he faced great trouble despite joining the academy.

    He thought it was the best turn over in his life. But reality proved him wrong. Life here wasn''t that much different than life outside. And even worse, he got suppressed by many, received no help from the academy or the other spirit masters.

    He told William that he disliked serving others as their servants. He wasn''t arrogant, but he had a high regard for his life and future.

    He wanted to be a strong spirit master but didn''t like to follow those despicable ones who seemed to look at him like he was a dog or something.

    When he saw William''s performance today, he had a thought of learning things from him. He promised many things in return, like following William whenever he''d ever go to venture the vast world outside, like never betraying him and such heavy promises.

    But he never promised him to act like his servant or an eternal follower. He even limited his services and promises to just five years. William took note of this.

    In fact, he wasn''t displeased at all. In such times, meeting someone who had beliefs for himself and held tightly to them was quite rare actually.

    William never intended to build rtions with others in a master and servant fashion. He wanted a mutual rtion where both sides would act like friends and mates.

    So, he didn''t dislike this spirit master or even thought about arguing with his offer terms. To have friends, one had to show sincerity first.

    And bying here and taking the initiative, William was content about such sincerity shown to him.

    In return for that, he was going to show the other side his sincerity towards helping him.

    As for their future rtion, William doubted that with showing enough sincerity and support, sharing good and bad together, this spirit master and others of his calibre wouldn''t stick around him.

    Servants weren''t the only ones who were going tost with one forever, friends were also the same.

    And when treating friends in such a great way, one could even have ones that would be more loyal to him than any servant.

    "Fine," William nodded, "from what you said, you don''t have any unique spirit or special spirit techniques, right?"

    "That''s¡­ True¡­" that spirit master who was called John said in a dejected tone that was filled with embarrassment.

    In his eyes, William was a special spirit master with his own background and strength. Just epting a random andmon spirit master without any uniqueness wouldn''t appeal to William.

    But against his disturbed thoughts, William nodded again, "this isn''t a big problem. Let''s do it this way, I''ll help to teach you three fighting techniques, evolving these three of what you already have, and then you''lle with meter to do a mission."

    "What mission?" Even if he bbergasted with what William said, he couldn''t help but ask in return about the nature of this mission, out of his old habits to ask first and followter.

    "It''s one from the Mercenary department," William shrugged, "I still don''t know the specifics yet. Once we are done here, let''s go back and join others."

    "This¡­" John recalled William''sst words before dragging him here. He got what William meant before asking in doubt, "will this only take this little time? Won''t I need days to learn and master these techniques?"

    "I already told you; I will just adjust the ones you already know," William smiled, "you just saw the master back there. When he listened to my words, a leap in strength happened. And that is exactly what is going to happen to you as well."

    "This¡­" John was shocked, but William didn''t give him any time to even say anything else. He moved to the side of the building as he said:

    "Tell me more about the techniques you know, and I''ll tell you what to modify them."

    "We''ll do it right here?!!"

    "What? don''t tell me you are embarrassed to train in the open," Williamughed despite him knowing this wasn''t what John was worried about.

    "It''s just¡­" John moved his eyes around as if he didn''t know how to say it, "what if we damaged the buildings here just like what master did?"

    "This¡­ Don''t take yourself like that master," William didn''t know if he shouldugh or cry, "you are far weaker than him, and your mastery over your technique is far worse. Come on, stop wasting time and show me three techniques now."

    John seemed to be startled at first. He was truly afraid of causing any harm to the surrounding buildings. But when William kept looking in such a calm way towards him, he resigned to his fate and started to speak first.

    "I have a few techniques that I learnt from sses during these years. However, my favourite three are all leg rted; the muddy step, the iron hoof leg, and the long whip kick."

    "Show me them," William didn''t recognise these techniques. But he wasn''t feeling any worry.

 Chapter 185 Executing The Three Techniques

    The names might change between this world and the higher world he lived once at. However even if the names changed, the same principles still applied.

    John sighed inwardly when he heard William''s words. He hoped for William to just help him with the skills without the need to execute them. As William persisted, John couldn''t escape his expected demise from his viewpoint.

    John was indeed overthinking things. It was just as William said, his strength was far from the master and his techniques couldn''t bring any harm at all to the buildings around.

    William watched John executing his three techniques and frowned. He recognised parts of these techniques, but for a reason they seemed amiss.

    The first one which John called the muddy step was supposed to be an evasion technique. It worked by activating the spirit power starting from the torso region and down to the legs.

    By moving around in steady steps and in an irregr path, anyone looking at the spirit master performing it would mistake him for running with legs nted deep in mud.

    William was familiar with this technique as it was also a basic andmon technique in the outside world. However, the way John performed it made William feel something was indeed wrong in this technique.

    The muddy step depended entirely over the course one''s legs would take while evading. From the look of it, William could easily deduct the path John was taking to escape.

    It wasn''t irregr or unpredictable as it should be, it was all in obvious to him.

    And if that was the technique taught in the academy then it meant it was worthless. An evasion technique that depended entirely over the mysteriousness of its trajectory ended up getting read by the enemy wasn''t an evasive technique at all.

    And before William would think about why the academy would teach such a faulty technique, the next one gave him another surprise.

    And it wasn''t a pleasant one. The second technique John performed was the iron hoof leg.

    It was an offensive technique where one would turn the lower part of his leg starting from the ankle joint into a piece of sturdy iron. Waving it around and kicking enemies would end up bringing more damage than normal kicks indeed.

    But the core of this technique depended on controlling the area where spirit masters would turn into iron. The smaller the area the stronger the technique. However, that wasn''t what John was disying right now. The entire leg of John turned slightly red, while even part of his torso turned red as well.

    The real technique William was familiar with would turn one''s foot into a solidified silver white coloured iron dded foot. The one that John was executing at the moment was full of weakness and didn''t even rise up to the basic standards of such decent offensive technique.

    William knew there was a gap between this world and the world outside. But even with such a gap the difference shouldn''t be this massive.

    It didn''t look like a difference in strength or talent, not even a difference in how to execute the technique, it was a difference between what was right and what was wrong.

    Red was a sign of copper not iron, and that meant it was fragile and weak,cking enough strength and would bring the attacking spirit master harm that shouldn''t even exist!

    The execution of this technique turned it from a fairly decent one into such a miserable and failed one. If youpared the two, then one was like diamond and the other was ss.

    William looked in a weird way towards John. He couldn''t tell if thisd learnt the wrong techniques just because he was amoner and without backing or if there was really something wrong in the academy.

    Yet when he saw the third technique, William was sure something was indeed wrong in the academy. There was no way a spirit master would be taught three faulted techniques and not noticed by any master.

    The third technique was the long whip kick. It was a simple technique where one would move his leg around and kick it like it was a whip, using speed to generate more damage.

    The word long described the process where the kick would hit someone even from further away from the spirit master.

    The trick was simple. The main focus of this technique relied not only over the leg which was moving to hit, but surprisingly over the other leg standing on the ground.

    Using it as a base, the spirit master should move fast on the ground and provide support to their body and allow them to hit any target far away from them.

    And like a whip, the spirit master could repeatedly hit the target many times in a very short period, without taking a single break.

    However what William saw right now could be considered an insult to such a technique.

    John simply used his leg reach, attacking the targets only reachable by his leg length. He didn''t even depend on the other leg to do anything, making it look like he stood there and kept whipping the enemy nonstop.

    It looked perfect, but in William''s eyes it wascking a lot,cking what turned such a technique to ce pressure over the enemies, even if they weren''t close to oneself.

    William could only sigh before moving his eyes around, not knowing what he should say or from where he should start.

    He knew he said before that he''d help him get stronger fast. However, that was in case when he just used the right techniques and he just needed to modify it for a little bit.

    Unlike what he expected, there were too many mistakes in the techniques John practised. William couldn''t help butment this kid''s bad luck, or perhaps his luck was good toe and ask for his guidance at this moment.

    "What do you think? Can you help me?" John spoke in a tone that was filled with tons of expectations. He had his eyes fixed over William in such anticipation for something magical to happen.

    William inwardly sighed, not knowing how to bring the bad news over to this goodd.

 Chapter 186 Your Techniques Are Wrong!

    William wanted to tell him how terribly bad his techniques were, and he had to restart learning all of them from the rock bottom.

    "Ahem¡­ What I can say is that your luck is great¡­" William paused before adding, "In fact, all of your techniques aren''t that good. Youmitted many mistakes and, in my opinion¡­ You''ll need to restart learning all of them from the start."

    "..."

    William knew he was going hard over this goodd. But there was no other way to say it but in such a way. William knew trying to amend these techniques wasn''t going to work.

    These techniques were taught on the wrong basis. If William tried to advise him right now without breaking all these techniques apart, teach John the right techniques, then thisd wasn''t going to be taught anything at all.

    "Can you please exin in more detail?" John kept his silence for a few minutes while opening and closing his mouth repeatedly, as he didn''t know what he should say.

    William just said his luck was great and then he said that all he learnt was just useless and wrong. He learnt all this from the masters of the academy, and he was sure these techniques were also taught to other kids from big ns and names as well.

    John wanted to question William, yet when he recalled how William impressed even the master who taught him two of these techniques in this year, he swallowed what he wanted to say and changed it to ask for an exnation.

    And when William exined things in in words to him, John finally got the general picture.

    William didn''t borate from where he learnt all this. He knew if he was ever asked about anything from now on, he''d lean for the perfect answer of his mysterious master to solve things out.

    "Then teach me," unlike what William expected, John didn''t even hesitate for the slightest, "teach me everything and I''ll start learning them from scratch."

    William was surprised by his fast response and resolve. If it was someone else, if it was even him, he''d be hesitating about doing this.

    After all, once John started learning the new techniques, his old ones would be rendered powerless and useless. John couldn''t think about using the three techniques he had right now or else his progress at the new ones would be halted and even a bacsh would happen.

    "Are you sure?" William slowly asked, just to make sure thisd knew what he asked for.

    "Teach me," John said without hesitation and with firm eyes, "I want to learn the right techniques."

    "Even at the cost of losing all the effort you put in learning your current three techniques?"

    "Yes."

    "Reason?" William felt curious though. He decided to teach thisd whatever he wanted. He seemed like a good seedling that needed just enough care to bloom into a mighty and formidable tree.

    John looked firm as he exined by saying: "I don''t like the life I''m currently living. If there is a chance to be stronger, then why won''t I embrace it?"

    William looked directly into the youth''s eyes. He saw nothing but the willingness to move forward, relentlessly seeking power. He didn''t feel any ill intentionsing from this youngster, and that made him admire that youth even more.

    "Cool¡­ I''ll teach you the three basic techniques first and then you''ll go back and train on them."

    "Will we do it here?" John was still worried about breaking anything in this ce. It seemed something was bothering him about this, like an old memory or a warning or something like that.

    But for William none of this mattered. William started to perform the right way to execute these techniques. And while he acted, he kept exining.

    "The muddy steps you performedcked the right movement of spirit power. You only circted it on your lower half starting from the torso. That isn''t all. You need to connect your mind with your lower half. After all, the movements produced by the technique must be unpredictable and not follow a single pattern¡­"

    While speaking, William''s legs started to move. He didn''t train yet on anymon technique in this life. However, his past experience helped a lot.

    His body started stiff first before it flowed smoothlyter on. It seemed like someone who lost his memories in an ident was starting to regain them all at once.

    In front of John, William started to move in a path that he could never read. The movements of William showed him exactly how weak and useless his earlier learnt Muddy Steps technique was.

    William didn''t linger a lot on performing and instead focused more on exining the theory behind the techniques. The more he spoke, the more shocked John became.

    He thought at first that William was exaggerating about how his techniques were useless. However, when he saw what William was capable of, he couldn''t help but agree with such crazyments.

    William''s techniques were far more powerful and far-fetched than the ones he learnt at the academy. Gradually John started to get absorbed in listening and learning, even after William stopped his lecture and demonstration.

    "Goodd," William saw the trance status John entered after epting his teaching. William didn''t linger there anymore and left the area while John stood in his ce motionless with closed eyes.

    A state of trance was something fortuitous to any spirit master. For William to see John entering it after listening to his teachings made the former d and proud of John.

    William moved back towards his residence, not knowing that what he did here was already monitored by someone.

    After he left for a few minutes, a shadow appeareding out from one building. He was an old man, one that William met before.

    He was the academy headmaster!

    "This kid is really full of surprises¡­" The look over the old man wasn''t telling what he was really thinking about. His eyes kept looking at the spot where William demonstrated the three techniques at.

 Chapter 187 The Trouble Of Wrong Techniques

    "Three basic techniques running so deep inside our foundation and have such faults? How did this happen?"

    The old man''s gaze changed a little while his face seemed to be filled with fury. He was here the whole time and listened to what William said. What he heard made him realise how wrong these techniques were.

    The academy always paid utmost attention to the techniques taught for their spirit master disciples.

    The old man had to admit to himself that they were in the wrong. They cared more about the strong techniques and never paid any attention to the basic ones.

    All the techniques taught here hailed from old records and teachings. They should have been reviewed and studied by all the masters in the academy. But for a reason unknown to him, such wronged techniques were introduced to the academy and taught to the disciples here. The more he reviewed what William said and did, the more enraged and puzzled he became.

    He knew these three techniques, the faulty versions which were demonstrated before by John. However, when he listened and watched William''s talk and performance of the three techniques, he knew how deeply wrong these techniques were.

    "Don''t tell me the old records were yed with¡­ No way!" A sense of fear overwhelmed the old man before he took a long gaze at John. "At least this kid isn''t arrogant and selfish to keep the knowledge to himself. But I can''t let such a thing slip by. A thorough investigation must be carried out¡­"

    No one knew what the old headmaster was thinking about or decided at this moment. In a fwoosh he shed and vanished from here, in the same silent way he appeared in.

    William moved back to his ce while his mind was thinking about what just happened.

    When he was here back in his past life, he was in no position to learn anything at all. He was a porter, one thaty at the lower bottom of the food chain in this world and academy.

    So, hecked any reference of any kind about the techniques taught in the academy. His simple interaction with John had set lots of rms in his mind.

    "This can''t be right¡­" As he approached his ce, his mind couldn''t help but think repeatedly about the three basic faulty techniques that John showed him.

    If that was the general case in the academy, then it meant most if not all of the techniques taught in this world were wrong. That wasn''t a good thing for William.

    After all, William wanted to pick few disciples from here and train them till they''d leave this world with him.

    He always thought the main problems lied in theck of right training manuals,cking the knowledge about monsters, not knowing anything about how to increase one''s spirit grade, and ignoring the important roles of alchemy and forging.

    However, he realised that he underestimated how truly bad the current situation really was. Even themon techniques were wrong! And that meant the stronger techniques, the ones big ns and families treasured, would also be wrong!

    "Tsk! That''s more work to do¡­ What luck!" He knew if he wanted to truly make a formidable and worthy team, he had to start teaching them more about techniques.

    And to do so, he''d face tons of problems.

    Common techniques were avable for anyone. So, it was easy for him to get to know these, read and learn if they were right or wrong. Then he could teach others and tell them how to perform these techniques the right way.

    But the main problem lied in the techniques of the big ns and families.

    To them, these techniques were like a secret, a top secret, something that they wouldn''t tell him no matter what.

    "I''ll have to focus on the general techniques then," William knew how important suchmon techniques were. They didn''t consume much of the spirit power and had the ability to change the oue of any spirit master battle.

    "I have to go back and see that old man once more," he knew he didn''t need to attend any sses. With or without a formal leave for him, he nned to not attend the sses most of the time.

    He knew there were grades assigned to those attending sses, doing homework, and actively participating and performing quite well in sses.

    But most of the grades depended on the final tests at the end of the year. And he was confident in his ability to pass such an exam.

    Besides, he had tons of ns in his mind for what he wanted to do in the uing few months.

    "I need to go and see that old man tonight!" William nned to meet his friends, select a mission that went to a certain ce he wanted to visit outside the academy, before returning back and starting the next step in his n.

    But right now, he realised going outside with such weak and wrongly taught techniques would be quite severe. He decided to postpone all this for now, go and learn about many of themon techniques taught in sses,e back and teach the right techniques to his mates, before waiting for a few days for them to grasp part of these techniques.

    It was better to get dyed and be more prepared than rush things out and end up facing deadly situations thanks to the weakness of his team.

    And so, he decided to go to the library tonight, postpone his ns to move out today as he nned, and agree with others to meet again tomorrow or in two days at most.

    William already got a glimpse on the tip of the iceberg of the entire chaos in this world. The traitors and dark spirit masters seemed to run deeply inside this academy at least.

    He didn''t know the situation in other academies, but he was worried about the possibility of fooling all the techniques taught to humans.

 Chapter 188 I Want To Give You A Gift

    He knew techniques were the result of many generations'' effort of genius spirit masters. Most techniques came from old times and were taught to the new generations by the direct teaching of masters.

    However, this wasn''t the only source for this. After the many losses humanity suffered, they learnt that entrusting techniques only to the strong and experienced spirit masters was a risky move.

    Once the spirit master died, then all the knowledge he had would be lost with him. So, the trend of storing the techniques in records became the basic rule in this world, like it was in the outside world.

    And that opened the door for such a bad situation he just identally discovered.

    William didn''t know that his thoughts aligned with the headmaster who sneakily spied on what he did with John. William also suspected that someone must have changed the original records with other weak and faulty versions.

    That meant danger in William''s eyes. If this was true, then humans were doomed!

    Without proper techniques, fighting against monsters would turn into a torture for humans. For a second there, William suspected the demise that befell this world before in his past life was partially rted to such treacherous dirty y.

    "I have to do something¡­" as he walked past the door of his residence, he was weed with three faces inside. "Where are others?"

    William entered and greeted Berry, Lang, and Peter. The three looked at him in weird way before Berry said:

    "We went to the mercenary ce but found nothing we can do there," she

    paused before adding, "all the tasks assigned are risky and our deaths will be a sure thing if we went."

    "I see¡­" William wanted to say she was right, they were doomed. But he refrained from saying anything about what he was thinking about, "let''s meet again in two days then."

    "Two days?" The three looked at each other in doubt before Lang asked in more doubt.

    The three came here alone and talked a lot while William was away. They sensed how William was adamant in selecting a mission from the Mercenary department and went out there to execute it.

    They didn''t formally be part of his gang, but they held him in a very high position already. They spoke a lot about what they should say to stop him from going out.

    However, when he heard what they said, he didn''t even bat an eye and epted such a silly reason.

    In fact, there were lots of easy missions out there that they could pick and execute without any problems. But they cared more about Guanin. That toxic snake wasn''t going to sit idly and watch the man who ruined his future to live happily and go out to do missions.

    Once the word would spread, or if they guessed it right and Guanin selected a few of his men to keep an eye over each of them, then they''d face fierce retaliation from such a snake.

    They weren''t weak, but no one would desire to throw himself in the middle of fire and put his life under test and challenge.

    "I will give you all a present," William paused, while what he experienced with John an hour ago shed in his mind at the spot, "speaking about presents, and as you are here¡­ Why don''t I give you something as a gift?"

    "Gift?" The three exchanged nces again. This William was totally different from the William that left them back at the end of sses.

    In fact, and when Peter felt so weird about William''s attitude, the other two felt how familiar this version of William was.

    It was just like the same William who kept leading them inside the Long n, back when the monster outbreak was about to happen.

    William''s weird words, the look on his face, and that gleam that came from his eyes were all scarily simr to what he behaved and looked like back at the forging grounds of their n.

    And without realising it, these two felt loud rms ringing inside their minds like giant bells of warning.

    They weren''t to be med actually. After all, when William acted like this, it was back when their n was on the verge of destruction.

    "It''s like this, I came to know about threemon techniques," William missed what Berry and Lang felt, and mistook it to be just the same shock Peter showed.

    "Whatmon techniques? Are you going to teach us techniques now?" Peter was the only one out of the three who wasn''t aware of how dangerously unpredictable this version of William was.

    "It''s like this¡­" William started to speak about the three techniques he saw John executing. He didn''t bring John in the picture, and simply brought the familiar and faulted version the three in front of him knew andpared it against the right version he knew.

    He kept speaking, and the more he said the more shocked they became.

    When he first spoke up, the three felt a little weird. Even Berry and Lang felt William was just valuing suchmon techniques way over the real worth of them.

    Common techniques were nothingpared with the techniques their ns taught them. But when he spoke about his right versions, they couldn''t help but suck in cold air of breath when he got finished.

    "Brother William, I never thought that you''ll give us three of the treasured techniques of your family in our first meeting," Peter said in a conflicted tone, as if he got a treatment and kindness he never deserved, and never intended to receive in the first ce.

    Family and n''s special techniques were top secrets for any spirit master. And if William took the initiative to do such a great service to them, Peter knew they must repay such kindness with something simr in value and importance.

    But they would never speak anything about their n''s secret techniques without the agreement from their n''s elders at least, if not the patriarch himself should ept such exchange.

 Chapter 189 Going To The Library Again

    Peter knew that wasn''t going to happen. And so, he felt how tight the spot William threw them at without even taking their opinion on this matter.

    "What are you talking about?" William frowned, didn''t get what was going on inside Peter''s mind, "these aremon techniques I identally learnt. You all should be aware of these techniques, right?"

    "Well¡­" Berry was still seeing the same old William who pulled a miracle back at her n before in front of her eyes right now, "we know the first three you mentioned, but not the other three you taught us just now."

    "Aren''t these your family''s techniques?" Lang also felt the same as Peter, and so he felt doubtful about William''s reaction.

    "They are my version of these threemon techniques," William started to feel something was amiss here, and these kids got something wrong from what he said, "I just happened to learn a better version from my master. And so, I wanted to teach them to you."

    "But¡­"

    "My master gave me permission to teach these techniques to anyone I want," William interrupted Peter''s words, realising what they got wrong in their heads, "just memorise them and go back and try them out. In two days, I''ll run a test and see if you can truly perform them or not."

    "This¡­" Peter was still feeling confused about William''s actions and words. However, his friend, Lang, interfered, grabbed his friend by the arm as he said:

    "Thanks brother William. We will go back and train on them. Next time we meet, we''ll show you something interesting."

    "Good luck," William watched Lang dragging the stupefied Peter from all this, and Berry who gave him conflicted looks, before sighing as they left his ce.

    "They won''t get how truly strong these new versions are until they''ll try them out first," William muttered to himself, before he noticed two silhouettes, one long and the other was much shorter,ing through the door after a few minutes.

    "Where did big sister Berry go?" Tina jumped in and looked around, feeling a bit confused. At the same time, Lina stepped in, with a smile on her face that soon vanished.

    "They left this soon?" but when she found the ce void except for William, she frowned, "I went to bring food for all of us. Did we take this long?

    "They got something to do for me," William realised what happened. It seemed when Berry brought Peter and Lang here, Lina knew there wasn''t enough food for all of them.

    So, she took her little sister, went to the market, and brought food for all of them.

    "Oh¡­"

    "Come on, let''s eat together," William didn''t speak any further about this, "after that, I''ll go out and may stay all night outside."

    "Going to the forest?" Tina jumped again, forgetting about her sadness from not seeing Berry when she came back, "can Ie? Can you take me with you?"

    William silently watched her for a few moments, then moved his eyes between her and Lina. "I''m going to do something in the academy, something quite boring," he paused, while in his mind, he thought about the decision he once took to help these two sisters.

    "This¡­" Tina showed a sad expression on her face.

    "Don''t worry, when Ie back, I''ll teach you something funny," William patted on her head, while Lina gave him a weird look from behind her mask.

    "Let''s eat for now," he didn''t exin what he meant, and kept his ns for them to himself.

    Tina was lively like always. She kept speaking about many and unrted things, things she experienced in the academy, things that happened in the house, and even things from her past life in the Golden Sky academy.

    Lina kept her silence like William, as she kept thinking about what William promised just now.

    If anyone else said such words, then she''d not take them seriously at all. Yet it was William, the kid who turned her and her sister''s lives upside down.

    She knew he never joked about anything. And that made her think about what he might do to the two of them.

    After eating, William decided to leave immediately. "I don''t know how long I''m going to stay there, so better to move there early," he muttered to himself, hoping to find the old man again where he left him.

    Things at daytime weren''t that much different than at nighttime. He met less people the more he got closer to the library, even to the extent of not meeting anyone at all for ten minutes when he was just near the library.

    "What''s going on here?" Just when he got closer, he noticed something different out there. The library that he imagined to be abandoned and empty was filled with many spirit mastersing in.

    "Old man, what is happening today?" William could feel something was wrong in this ce. Yet with all such mess, William found the old elder sitting at the same spot, guarding the entrance to the library, just like he met himst night.

    "Oh, it''s William kiddo," the elder recognised William, "I never thought you''de this soon."

    When the elder saw William, his frowned face eased up, and ended to show a smile on his face.

    He looked a bit tired in William''s eyes, like someone who got stuck in something he never liked.

    "I wanted to follow your advice," William already found the perfect excuse for what he came here for, "I want to check on many fighting techniques."

    "That''s my boy, you shouldn''t waste your life learning such useless stuff."

    William swallowed what he wanted to say to retort such wrong words. First, he knew it was a lost case to try and convince this old man, and second, he came here to really learn these techniques.

    "Come,e, I don''t know what went wrong in that old man''s head today," as the elder got overjoyed with William''s decision, he jumped off his seat, and started to lead William inside.

 Chapter 190 Chaos Inside

    "Old man? Who is he?"

    "It''s our beloved headmaster," the elder rose up his head before shouting like crazy, "it doesn''t make any sense to ask everyone toe here and check on all the techniques the library has! If you want to make them stretch their brain muscles, make them go to your private library, not this one!"

    William kept his silence while following the elder inside. Many spirit masters already were getting in without even caring to say a single word.

    The most they did was to just nod in greetings towards the elder, not sparing a nce to William.

    The words that the elder said made William puzzled. ''What''s wrong in that old man''s head?'' William didn''t know that such weird actions got instigated because of him.

    From the first moment the headmaster realised what was going on, reaching the same conclusion as William, the former decided to start an all out investigation and research.

    He gathered his trusted and free elders; the ones he knew they got sharp minds and high intelligence. He told them part of the truth, that he found an old relic and saw an older version of the threemon techniques taught in the academy.

    The headmaster was a prodigy spirit master, so he didn''t take much time to learn the new techniques. Even if his proficiency in them wasn''t great yet, he could at least execute them.

    When he showed the three versions of William to his elders, the elders got interested at once. No one was a fool and would reach the dark gold stage of power. So, they realised the same thing William and the headmaster realised.

    After a short meeting, they agreed on the next course of action they should take. They first needed to collect all themon techniques in one ce, and so they sent all of their followers towards the two libraries to gather up all themon techniques they could find.

    They thought about doing the same as William, but they were many steps behind. William just needed to see a technique scroll and would get what was wrong at. And they had to research and squeeze their brain juice to make little modifications to these techniques.

    The headmaster already knew the perfect answer to all this mess. After all, doing such a task would be a very long term project, one that would take much effort from everyone, and might not give the expected results in the end.

    The shortest and easiest path to solve all this was to use the help of William. And yet when the headmaster thought about what happened between William and his granddaughter, he decided to not ask for William''s help for the time being.

    William wasn''t aware of all this, he kept following the elder inside the library until they reached the centre of it.

    "Tell me, what techniques do you have in mind? What''s your element anyway?" The elder wanted to show William everything, and yet that wasn''t quite possible or even practical.

    For any spirit master to perform a strong and formidable technique, he or she must have their spirit elements aligning with the elements of this technique.

    That was why the headmaster had to send so many spirit masters here to collect these techniques for him.

    If things could be done by few, he could simply have selected a small group of five or even fewer to do such a task.

    "I lived my life as a porter, recently reached bronze rank, so¡­" William didn''t want to answer such a question. And so, he used his true background as a porter to evade answering it.

    "This¡­" the elder frowned. He knew the ces of lots of strong and deadly techniques inside the library. However, if William didn''t have a single element to his spirit, which was somethingmon to such low grade spirit power, he wouldn''t be able to learn anything.

    "We can start withmon techniques," William knew the good intentions of this elder, "I heard they don''t require any spirit element at all."

    "That''s true, however¡­ They are trash!" the elder seemed to look down on such techniques before adding, "they won''t be a real killer in any fight, won''t give you any edge over your opponents¡­"

    "But they are the ones I can learn at such a stage," William didn''t want to enter another argument with this elder. He carefully selected his words, making sure to convince this elder with the simplest words and good logic.

    "You got a point," the elder finally fell into William''s trap, e, let me show what we got here to you. Speaking of which, that makes everyone here looking for such useless pieces of trash, what a waste!"

    This elder always looked down on things that didn''t meet his standards, and William knew that was his nature. So, thetter remained silent, while watching others around doing the same thing like him.

    ''Is it just a coincidence?'' what that elder said attracted William''s attention again towards this point. It was weird actually to see such arge number of spirit masters getting interested inmon techniques.

    And that all happened thanks to the headmaster of the academy.

    ''I must be overthinking things,'' William shook off such thoughts from his mind, and started to focus on the scrolls the elder extracted for him.

    Other spirit masters had to fight against the seals surrounding many scrolls here. Even a few got reprimanded by the elder from time to time, as they weren''t able to easily crack these seals, ending up starting a big fight against them.

    The elder showed partial treatment to William. He kept helping him in retrieving lots of scrolls without saying a singleint. As for others, he showed an iron dded face and his cold voice echoed all over the library.

    That attracted the attention of everyone inside, asking themselves about who William was. If such an elder showed such a nice side to this kid, then this kid must havee from a big n or family.

 Chapter 191 [Bonus ] Mercenary Team

    Only few who followed the trends in the academy recognised William. But they kept such knowledge to themselves, fearing to instigate the elder''s wrath even more if they spread William''s news.

    William wasn''t attentive to any of that. His mind was simply focusing on reading the techniques he got from the elder.

    ''These¡­ Damn! This is wrong, this is all wrong!'' After flipping through many scrolls during the past ten hours, William couldn''t help but inwardly curse every time he grabbed a scroll.

    He could identify the techniques described in each scroll, and yet when he read the general instructions and saw the drawings in the scrolls, he knew these were all wrong.

    Each and every single technique he read did things in the wrong way, ending up getting the strength and effects of these techniques downgraded by a huge margin.

    William couldn''t identify the names of these techniques, but he knew them regardless. Even the few he didn''t recognise after reading them, he found few ring mistakes in their way of execution.

    ''It''s like I thought, it''s quite disastrous!'' William knew if the spirit masters in this world used these techniques, they wouldn''t get anything of value out of them.

    It was like holding a grand sword but using it in fights while it was in its scabbard! It was like one was fighting with a useless and weak scabbard, not holding a mighty and deadly sword.

    What William knew was like unsheathing this sword, throwing away the scabbard, and showing the true might of this grand sword.

    ''This will take much more time than I thought¡­'' William knew if he wanted to teach others the right ways to do these techniques, then he''d take years to do so.

    He didn''t think that taking this time was a waste. He wasn''t like this elder nearby, not like most if not all the spirit masters here in the academy, or out there in the entire world.

    These techniques were all showing faulted and much weaker versions of what they could truly do. And they said a lot about why the spirit mastermunity looked down on them.

    ''It''s like forging, and it''s like alchemy¡­'' William knew this was also the case at the other formidable and quite useful secondary professions of spirit masters in this world, ''anything of value, anything that can help us be stronger is messed up!''

    This wasn''t a coincidence anymore. William could now see a grand and dirty scheme, yed out by the enemies of humankind, and thetter didn''t even realise any of it.

    ''I can''t change the world, but I can surely change the world of those by my side,'' William decided on a n, one that was formed of many stages inside.

    First thing he needed to do was to use the techniques that were quite easy to learn, and very effective when executed, to be learnt by everyone on his side.

    Doing this would turn things upside down. It might not have a magical effect like turning them into scary spirit masters in one night, but it was enough to make them reliable teammates when venturing outside.

    After all, he wanted to go to one ce that was slightly far and deep inside the forest. Going there alone would take tons of time and effort from him and might even put him in grave danger.

    Even though he got his formidable technique, William didn''t get things over his head. He knew he was limited by the little spirit power he had.

    If he met up with much higher grade monsters than him, he''d even end up dying.

    Having a strong and reliable team was a must. Even if he had to waste few days and postpone his ns, he was eager to do so.

    This was just the first step. After that, he''d start doing things on a grander scale.

    He wanted to buy a piece ofnd and a big ce, away from the eyes of everyone here, away from his allies and enemies.

    Then he''d start forming a mercenary group, doing outside missions for others. He wasn''t after getting paid, as this was nothing right now to him.

    He wanted to train his team on fighting deadly enemies and face great battles, so they''d hone their abilities and spirit. He also wanted to have a means to recruit others and expand his little team into a good force.

    Independent mercenary teams were amon thing in the vast world here, at least it was the same in the outside world. William wanted to build a good reputation for his team, and like this many would flood his way and would be eager to join him.

    Instead of walking around and looking for gems in the dirt, these gems woulde knocking on his doorsteps.

    "Thanks for the trouble," after spending all the night inside the library, William took his leave just when the early rays of sun shone on the world.

    "Try to focus more on cultivating," the elder wasn''t as satisfied as William. In his eyes, William just missed tons of great things thanks to hisck of spirit elements, "try to wake up your spirit elements. This way, you''ll learn much stronger techniques."

    "I will," William wasn''t lying, he indeed ced great importance in raising up his spirit power.

    After taking his leave, he returned back to his ce while thinking about which technique he should teach others first.

    "The essential and basic techniques for any good team shall focus on speed, defence, scout, entrapping the enemies, creating a path for retreat, and of course offence¡­"

    William thought about the essential and basic traits any good team should have.

    Defence, offence, and speed were easy to understand their value. But others weren''t grasped unless one had rich and vast fighting experience.

    William knew how it was important for any team to have good scout techniques. Without the need to cross paths with scary enemies, knowing about the deadly dangers lurking up ahead early on was a must to have ability to survive the wilderness.

 Chapter 192 Her Mother

    And like it, the ability to secure a path of retreat for the entire team wasn''t any less important than scout.

    If the team got stuck in a losing fight, it was crucial to have a few techniques that would help the team to retreat without losing too much.

    Having techniques that could entrap the enemy would help in fighting them and even in escaping deadly battles.

    As he decided the general paths for his team''s future development, he started to think much deeper into which techniques he should select to teach them.

    And above all, where he should teach them these techniques, and what reasons he should give them to ept his tutge.

    He was, after all, just in the same ss as them. Even if they respected them, many would still see themselves much better than one who just joined their ss, was living a life of a useless porter in the past two years and didn''te from any big n or family.

    William stayed awake for an hour or so, thinking about such issues, until sleep overthrew his mind, and fell into deep sleep.

    He didn''t know that he was this tired after all the things that happened in the ss and afterwards. And after such a long day, he slept for almost the entire daytime.

    When he woke up, the sky outside was already dark. He stretched his body, felt more refreshed before he went to sleep.

    "You finally woke up!" and just in the middle of his deep yawn, a weird voice appeared all of sudden from his room. He instantly got rmed, jumped off his bed, took out his sword, while trying to see clearly through the thick veil of his long sleep.

    "You know that you sleep like a baby."

    "You¡­ It''s you¡­ How are you here?!!!" William saw thest person he''d expect to see when he''d wake up.

    "What? Don''t you want to see me?"

    "It''s not that¡­" William couldn''t help but feel rmed. Thest time he met Sara, he was this close from losing his life, "how did you get in here?"

    "Through the window," she pointed at the window''s direction, and at this moment William realised why he saw the dark sky outside so clear.

    He just woke up, and his mind wasn''t fully awake. So, he missed that he could see the sky clearly as the window was wide open.

    "I didn''t want to knock on the door and get interrogated by someone," she paused, seemingly referring to two sisters.

    "Were you watching me?"

    "Don''t me me for this," she shrugged, moving freely in the room as if it was hers, before sitting on the bed, "what you saidst time we met was something I can''t let go of."

    "You could have met me in the sses," William sheathed his sword, while thinking about this bomb in his room.

    If she was here, and that old man thought about spying on him, then this time he had nothing to say to defend himself.

    Last time he got lucky to escape the headmaster''s rage. But if he got caught this time, he would have no way out. "Let''s go, let''s speak outside."

    "Don''t worry, my grandpa isn''t here," she seemed to feel William''s anxiety and easily guessed the reason behind this.

    After all, she didn''t speak with her grandpa for an entire day after this incident, and she tried her best to forget everything rted to it.

    However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn''t forget what William said to her before. At the same time, when she sneaked in and watched him sleeping like a baby, the vulgar words of her grandpa echoed in her mind, adding a tinge of redness over her lovely cheeks.

    "Ahem, I''m not afraid of your grandpa," William felt a little irritated to admit this undeniable fact and couldn''t help but blurt out such a lie.

    "That''s true indeed," she nodded, as if she knew his secret and decided to y along with his lie, "and now let''s talk business."

    "You want to know how to awaken your dormant darkness element in your spirit?" William knew why she came all the way here, to his bedroom.

    "Well¡­ You can say I came here for that as well," she seemed a bit hesitant about something. And William couldn''t tell what she had in her mind.

    "I want to do something, or to be more honest, I want to look for something¡­" and when William showed a puzzled expression on his face, she sighed, took out something off her storage ring, held it tightly, before handing it over to him, "this is something left over to me by my mother."

    "Your mother?" William heard all the stories about her father, but he never heard anything about her mother.

    "She¡­ She escaped a long time ago from the academy," Sara''s face was enough to tell William how this matter affected her.

    She looked as if a small raft in the middle of raging ocean waves, in the heart of a thunderous storm in the ocean.

    "This¡­" William saw something like a bottle of ss in her two shaky hands. The bottle was enough to be held by her two fists, and still extended a little outside her shaky grasp.

    Inside, William could see something folded, like a scroll. Yet this one was deep yellow in colour, seemingly old enough to be left for decades.

    "This is¡­ This is something my mother left over for me before vanishing from here," Sara seemed to recall something, as her rounded eyes got muddied with a thickyer of tears.

    She sniffed, wiped the tears away with her sleeve, before adding, "it''s written in an ancientnguage, one that I struggled to decipher."

    "And what tells you that I can decipher it?" William wanted to ask her about her past, about her mother, but he felt just touching such a sour spot of her would make her copse.

 Chapter 193 Are You Saying Im A Frog?!!!

    "Because¡­ There is one thing written there that I can easily read¡­" Sara''s face changed. And instead of the broken look on her face, she got a look that told William how determined she was. "It says: Dormant Spirit Element!"

    "What¡­?!!!" William got an instant shock from her words. He just stumbled identally on her, got to meet her with pure coincidence. Him discovering her dormant spirit element was something not devised or nned by anyone or anything but fate.

    And yet what he found just matched what this weird scroll said. William could only think about one exnation after getting over his shock and doubt.

    ''Don''t tell me it runs into her mother''s family spiritline?'' This was the only exnation that made sense to him. And yet he knew this wasn''t possible.

    Getting dormant spirit elements was always something rted to fate and pure luck. There was no heritage role at all in all this.

    "Can I see it?" As he had a reason that could exin everything, but it wasn''t realistic to believe, William had no other choice but to extend his little arm, asking for the bottle from her.

    Sara knew she came here looking for answers. But when she met with William''s extended hand, she hesitated.

    She didn''t even show this bottle to her grandpa, something she never thought to do with someone else in her entire life.

    She took a heavy vow on herself, swearing that she''d never stop at anything to unravel the mysterious message left by her mother.

    "If you want me to help, then you gotta trust me on this," William didn''t know much of what was going on. But he could easily see her hesitation and struggle to give him the bottle.

    She said a few shocking things about this bottle, and he got his interest piqued and wanted to read the content of the scroll inside.

    It was expected for Sara to not be able to read thenguage used in the scroll. But William had infinite confidence in his ability to do so. After all, he was familiar with all the knownnguages in the entire outer world.

    "Phew¡­" As if she released a heavy pressure off her heart, or as if she removed a giant piece of rock away from her chest, Sara heaved such a deep sigh while handing the bottle to William.

    "You have to be extra careful in dealing with¡­"

    "Don''t worry, I know how to deal with old scripts like this," William interrupted her words the moment he got the bottle, "the best way to do it is to handle the scroll while using your spirit power at the same time¡­"

    He didn''t just do what he knew about how to deal with such old scrolls, but also spoke up, instructing and teaching her in that way.

    Even if she got a way to do it, it wasn''t going to be that perfect like his.

    William did release his bronze spirit power, surrounding the bottle with his power before slowly opening the lid and getting the scroll out.

    He didn''t hurry to unfold the scroll and started to first cover the entire scroll up with his spirit power.

    "Don''t just use your spirit power blindly. Cover one hand with your spirit power, and move your fingers across it like you are gently caressing the scroll¡­"

    William kept doing this for the entire ten minutes. At first, nothing much happened. But gradually and slowly, the folded scroll that looked like a dried up leaf that was about to turn into ash started to show vibrance.

    The scroll was deep yellow in colour, with rough and eaten up edges like it got on fire before and was extinguished before destroying the entire thing.

    As William''s spirit power kept getting inside the scroll, these all changed slowly and started to shine with bronze light.

    "This is it," William''s eyes shone brightly despite feeling a little weak and exhausted from doing this, "the scroll got partially treated. Each time you do it, part of the damage inside will get repaired permanently. As for the rest of the damage, it will get negated and won''t threaten destroying the entire scroll for now."

    "This¡­" Sara didn''t get what William did exactly, but the scroll did show indeed signs of getting partially treated.

    Whenever she opened the scroll, she could hear the cracking noises of the folded pages, like it was this close from breaking apart.

    Yet when William opened the scroll, nothing of that sound appeared at all, making her shock deepen. "From where did you learn such a technique? I never read such a thing before, not any of the treasured scrolls inside my grandpa''s library."

    "Is that why you locked yourself up there all the time?!" William couldn''t help but get surprised, giving her a weird look while Sara nodded.

    "Tsk! You did make a very wrong decision back there," William couldn''t help but shake his head in disappointment, before returning to focus on the scroll that he was unfolding slowly.

    "What do you mean?" Sara didn''t get his point and didn''t even understand how by staying at the library, reading everything inside and trying to solve this mystery was a bad move from her.

    "A frog in the well will always see a small part of the sky his entire life if he kept himself confined down that well," William said, without raising his eyes off the scroll or stopping his hand movements.

    "This¡­ Are you saying that I''m a frog?!!!"

    "Cough cough! That wasn''t my point!" William felt his hand tremble when he heard what she said, to the extent of endangering to let the scroll fall off his fingers grasp.

    "Then¡­"

    "What I meant is that trying to get an answer to something that no one ever heard of before in the library is a grave mistake. It''s a dead end, and you''ll sacrifice your life without getting ahead a single step."

    "That¡­" this time, he didn''t add another word and left her to her doubt and confusion.

 Chapter 194 A Proposal

    Sara knew he got a good point indeed. The scrolls and knowledge left inside the library came from the ancient spirit masters.

    Even if they were brilliant, they weren''t enough to solve this mystery for her. She finally realised why, even after the passage of all these years, after reading tons of scrolls inside her grandpa''s private library, she couldn''t get a single clue about the content and mysteries of the scroll.

    She always thought that something was binding her and blinding her from seeing the truth of this scroll.

    It never crossed her mind that what she thought was her only hope to decipher thenguage of this scroll and read its content was the same thing that kept her away from doing that!

    William remained silent at first because he thought he said enough. But soon enough, his silence came from his deep shock.

    When he unfolded the scroll, he could finally see the content of that scroll. And to his surprise, he couldn''t read a single thing inside!

    Just like what Sara said, the entire scroll was filled with an aliennguage that he didn''t recognise. It was the first time he''d met something like this since reaching the pinnacle of power and learning most of the knowledge of the outer world.

    Seeing such a scroll written in such aliennguage even to him made him realise how far important this scroll was. The only thing that he could understand was the title of the scroll, where the Spirit Dormant Element words were there.

    Aside from this single sentence, nothing else made any sense to him. He tried to keep pouring his spirit power into the scroll, trying to see if there was something missing due to the damage that happened to the scroll.

    But after another ten minutes, he finally gave up.

    "Did you discover anything?" Sara got her hopes high when she heard what William said and saw what he did.

    William got knowledge that went beyond her abilities and knowledge, and she recalled the fact that he was the first person she ever met to speak about the dormant spirit elements.

    But when William shook his head, her face changed and got darkened.

    "Don''t lose hope yet," William slowly told her, "I know of a way to awaken your dormant element. And perhaps once you''ll do that, the secrets inside this scroll will get themselves revealed to you."

    "Are you saying that this scroll is immune to anyone without getting a dormant spirit element activated?" she got what he wanted to say here, and her depression and disappointment instantly vanished.

    His words made quite sense, and she couldn''t help but question why she never thought about this before. And soon she realised why.

    She never knew that she got a dormant spirit element until she met this kid standing in front of her.

    Sara slowly stood up her bed, looked at William in hope as she asked:

    "Are you sure you can awaken my dormant spirit element? You said it''s the darkness element, right?"

    "It indeed is the darkness element," William said, "and it happens I know of a way to do it. However¡­"

    "Whatever you ask for, you''ll get many folds of it!" she mistook his momentarily pause, and he couldn''t help but inwardly sigh.

    "I didn''t need any of what you thought about," William paused for a second before adding, "I want you!"

    If not for his damn serious tone, then she''d believe that he got lewd thoughts about her. However, seeing how damn serious he was, she couldn''t help but get over her shock and doubts, and ask: "What do you need me to do?"

    "To follow me," William paused, "from this moment onward, you''ll be part of a small team that I''ve established. You''ll follow me wherever I go out of the academy. And inside, you''ll do things I tell you to do."

    "This¡­"

    It was just like selling her soul and devoting her life to him. But William didn''t n on epting anything else but this.

    William was already on the top hit list of the dark spirit master traitors in the academy. And this bunch of traitors were led by none other than Rick, Sara''s brother.

    The old man leading this academy was doing a grave mistake in William''s eyes. He was focusing too much on Rick, forgetting all about Sara.

    William could give many reasons for such an attitude from the headmaster. And yet he also knew that Rick was going to bring this ce down the hill of hell without batting an eye.

    Rick was his grand foe inside the academy, the only one he couldn''t touch for a long time. But with Sara, things would entirely change.

    It would be like using someone else''s hands to do one''s desired things. William knew that no matter what the old headmaster of the academy decided, in front of a in difference in strength, things wouldn''t matter that much.

    Rick was stagnant for many years already. But William knew this was all bullshit. If Rick was working with the dark spirit masters, then his proimed disease would be long cured.

    And that meant he was feigning stagnation of his spirit power, faking everything!

    Learning how to control one''s spirit power to not show its true value wasn''t something that hard to learn.

    Rick was stronger than what he showed, and William had to push Sara on the same stage of power like that jerk so he''d attract the attention of the old man.

    Unlocking her dormant spirit element was enough to push her spirit power by a big margin. And to do so, William knew the best and simplest way to do so.

    He''d let Sara absorb a monster core that had a darkness element, merge with it, and like that she''d slowly start activating her darkness element.

    Just by using the darkness element, her dormant spirit element got all stirred up. And that told William a lot.

    Her spirit element wasn''t that passive and sleepy. It was close from getting activated, just waiting for the right trigger.

 Chapter 195 Two Days Test

    But William wouldn''t just grab her hand, go outside, and look for a darkness element monster for her to merge with.

    He would help her, but at the right time. He wanted first to make sure she''d agree on what he wanted her to do.

    William didn''t feel any speck of guilt out of this. He knew at the end, he was helping this little girl, her grandfather, her n, and her academy.

    "This is my sole and only condition," William said it directly in her face, "take it, or leave and don''t show me your face ever again."

    "..."

    Sara thought William would ask for anything else but for her to follow him in such a way. If she agreed, then she''d end up being the follower of him for her entire life.

    She also knew William was the first and might be the only person in the entire world to help her in breaking the mysteries of the scroll.

    William saw how deeply conflicted and hesitant Sara was, and decided to hit the iron when it was hot.

    He folded the scroll again, stored it inside the bottle, before cancelling his spirit power. "Take it," he returned the bottle to her, and she reflexively grabbed it.

    Then when she realised what he just did, she got that he was giving her a hint to leave.

    "Tsk! Why do you want to lead me around? I''m not that great or authoritative or anything! I won''t take the position of the headmaster of the academy after my grandpa, my brother will."

    "I got my reasons from doing this," William paused, before adding, "go back now and think deeply about what I said. I''ll remain here for one week, then I''ll leave. By then, the deal between us will be expired and invalid."

    William pointed towards the opened window''s direction, and Sara knew she had to leave. And yet her legs couldn''t help but faintly tremble, showing how deeply she resisted such an idea of leaving.

    "No," and like the time when she hesitated to give him the bottle, she also heaved the same deep sigh of relief, "I''ll follow you."

    "Are you sure?" William gave her a deeper look, showing that he didn''t care that much about the condition he gave to her, "once agreed, you won''t be able to move around freely or do things your way."

    "I know," she nodded, "but this scroll¡­ It''s more important to me than anything else."

    "Cool," William knew that she was part of the third year ss, meaning that she was a silver grade spirit master, just like her brother.

    Yet her brother might already be a gold grade spirit master. "I''m going to hold a grand meeting in two days. Make sure to be here by then."

    "What for? With whom?" Sara asked in curiosity.

    "I''m gathering up friends for a mission from the Mercenary department," William paused for a brief second before adding, "and they are all part of the second year as me."

    "That makes me your senior, hahahaha!"

    "Stop dreaming," William evilly grinned, "in my team, there is no one that''s suited to be called that but me."

    "Tsk! Let me fight you on that position of the leader first," she tried to joke with him, and yet part of what she said was expressing part of her desire.

    She never watched William in action before. All she got was hearing stories, and many spoke bad about this kid.

    "Keep dreaming," William shortlyughed, "you already agreed to be under me. There is no way out for you from that."

    "But¡­"

    "Besides, I got three versions of techniques for you to learn," William knew that she wanted to fight him to get a glimpse on how powerful he truly was.

    He was indeed not as powerful as her in terms of spirit power. Yet his knowledge from his past life was enough to make him face her grandfather and give him a lecture about what he should and shouldn''t do.

    Sara didn''t know of how William gave her grandpa immense waves of shock, even to the extent of doubting his origins and intentions at a time.

    If she knew, she''d never consider facing William in a fight or question his power or authority.

    "What techniques?" she asked, and when William exined things over, she couldn''t help but get surprised.

    "I know of these three techniques¡­ They aremon grade techniques that are taught for all of the disciples in the first two years sses. However¡­"

    "My versions are different," William paused before adding, "they are much stronger and more powerful than what you know. Besides, you have two days to learn how to execute them."

    "Two days are nothing to me!"

    "Don''t underestimate my techniques," William paused before throwing a little warning for her, "anyone who won''t be able to grasp the initial grade of these techniques won''t follow me."

    "Even me?!"

    "Especially you," William stressed over this, "I won''t go soft on you. After all, you are the only silver spirit master in our team. If others, bronze spirit masters, can do it and you can''t, then you have no way to join us."

    "..."

    "Go back and train," William finally kicked her out of his room for real, "I got other things to do anyway, just like you."

    "Tsk! Fine!" sheplied atst, storing her precious bottle in her storage ring, "will we join here?"

    "In two days, don''t forget about that."

    "When exactly? The entire day is too long!"

    "Let it be when the sun sets," William paused, "our meeting willst for hours. So make sure you won''t have anything urgent that night."

    "Sure," Sara jumped off the window, vanishing in the depths of darkness outside.

    When William realised that close to an hour passed, he sighed. "What''s with that scroll anyway?" he got lost in thoughts, while feeling the secrets behind all this wasn''t simple.

    He never heard of dormant spirit elements running in families before. And to add more to this, thenguage written was something he never saw before.

 Chapter 196 Control Type Spirit Masters Problem

    This scroll came to Sara''s hands from her mother. And so, William knew the real start of unravelling all this was in the hands of the missing Sara''s mother.

    Even if he deciphered the scroll, managed to read it, he wouldn''t get satisfied. He wanted to dig deeper, get to the bottom of such a weird mystery and learn howe such weirdnguage was here.

    He wanted to know everything about the origin of thisnguage, and more above anything about how it wasn''t known in the outer world.

    It was the first time for him to stumble over something in the tiny world here that wasn''t present or known in the outer world.

    He got used to the opposite kind of situation. And meeting such an anomaly stirred up his desire to know the truth.

    "I''ll have to put this aside for now," William knew thinking about this any longer wouldn''t help. Besides, he already had other matters to care about at this moment.

    He went into sleep out of his exhaustion and couldn''t get everything sorted out in his mind. As he put Sara''s issue aside, he started to focus on the techniques he saw at the grand library of the academy.

    William knew his optimal team requirements, but he also was aware that every spirit master got their own traits and likings.

    Some would like to defend, others liked to attack. He knew it was hard to find someone who would be interested in controlling the entire battlefield, setting up traps all over the ce, and even securing a way out for them.

    He got a low number of candidates right now. Only Berry, Lang, Peter, and Sara were confirmed members of his team so far.

    He still got a good chance to add more to his roster. There were many of Lang and Peter''s teams who didn''t yet meet with him.

    ? William nned to meet up with Lang, Peter, and Berry first. Then he''d move to his next step, asking them to bring the most trustable and capable kids in their teams.

    He didn''t want just numbers. Putting aside the threat of having spies in the team, he didn''t want to focus on more than twenty people right now.

    Just this number was enough to give him a headache. William knew his limit in teaching others and didn''t want to get distracted especially at such a crucial early step.

    He nned to teach twenty first, focusing more on the big four in his team. "And when I''ll help the two sisters in unlocking their spirit, they''ll be a good addition, especially Lina."

    Tina was still a little girl, and she wouldn''t be able to help much in the team. In few years toe, she would be a good member of his mercenary group, but not right now.

    Unlike Tina, William ced much importance over Lina. Thetter was older, got tons of experience, and was quite daring and courageous.

    As William decided, he started to consider how his little team would work.

    "At first, I''ll start by examining their spirit power and purity," he thought about this as the basic and foremost important step in the entire n.

    After knowing each individual''s unique spirit traits, he''d help to select the best role for them to y.

    The best candidates to y the control role in the team were the ones with darkness spirit element. But it was already quite rare.

    These folks were able to use darkness to their advantage. And if William considered that forests were filled with rich darkness element, then it could easily exin why they were quite ferocious as control sprit masters.

    They couldy down traps, arrange the entire battlefield and control its tempo using surprise attacks. They also were able to secure a path out, enabling the entire team to retreat safely at times of danger.

    In William''s eyes, the best ratio to have in his little team would be one spirit master to control the tempo of the battle, and another to help the team escaping deadly attacks and even escape the entire battlefield.

    He got darkness spirit element already, and Sara was going to have one. But aside from these two, there wasn''t anyone else.

    If William got the choice, then he''d assign himself to be the real killer in the entire team.

    For first, he was the only one with rich battle experience, enough to enable him to survive any deadly fight and select the best n to take down enemies.

    He wanted to y the role of their leader, and the main killer in the team. Like this, he''d end up having the right to absorb the gained monster cores from such battles.

    Yet if he did that role, then the role of controlling the battlefield would be vacant. And there was also the problem of Sara''s dormant spirit element, making this situation harder for him to solve.

    "Tsk! It seems I can''t start with my ideal lineup from the beginning," he thought to himself, reminding himself that he should focus more on how to use the avable assets to him, not dream about the impossible.

    "As for the scout spirit masters¡­ I need those with fast speed like those with lightning elements and such¡­"

    William was still thinking in his perfect world. When he realised that he was speaking about the lightning spirit element, one of the rarest spirit elements, he sighed.

    "I can rece those missing elements with techniques¡­" He got to do that to make up for such missing pieces in his grand scheme.

    Without having scouting and control spirit masters, his team would be vulnerable and weak.

    He didn''t want that to happen. And so, he had to make up for the missing elements by the avablemon techniques he learnt.

    That made him change many aspects of his n. He wanted to select techniques to suit the nature of his team''s spirits and spirit elements. And now he had to select techniques regardless of all this.

 Chapter 197 A Wink

    As for selecting who to do which was up to his meetingter on with the entire team.

    After thinking for long hours about this, he finally felt tired and decided to call it a day.

    The next day he woke up and went outside to be met with a weird expression on Tina''s face.

    She looked as if she got stabbed in the back or something.

    "What''s wrong with her?" William sat on the table to eat breakfast, and tried to find out what was wrong about Tina. yet thetter kept her silence, not saying anything to him.

    She kept her face on her food and didn''t say a single word for ten minutes.

    "She is sad because you let her down," Lina knew how busy William was, but Tina wasn''t like that.

    Thetter wanted to receive the gift William promised her and her sister before. And when William returned, he locked himself in his room and didn''te out until this morning.

    "Come on, since when have I ever lied to you?" William couldn''t but inwardly sigh. He had to prepare a few things before doing what he intended to do.

    So even if he wanted, he couldn''t act right now and help the two sisters. And that made him use another approach to make Tina forget about what he said.

    Tina was just like that, getting all hyped and pumped up about anything, to soon forget it when her interest would shift to another matter.

    "You once said that we''ll live in a big house, just like the ones we lived in before," Tinained, as she finally started to speak up.

    "What about taking you back to my academy? Besides, this ce isn''t half bad," William knew she wouldn''t buy such a thing, so he added, "I was going to buy it myself, but as you are desperately wanting it, I can tell you what gift it was and let you go and buy it."

    "Buy? Is it something sold at the market?" Tina''s eyes opened wide while she finally let go of this matter, and jumped on another, just like her true self, "is it a cake perhaps?"

    "Good guess," Williamughed, knowing that he yed the little girl in his fingers. And yet Lina kept ring at him in a weird way from behind the mask.

    William knew he could trick Tina, but not Lina. But dealing with Lina was far easier than dealing with Tina.

    "I''ll write down a few things to buy from the marketce," William looked at Lina, and she got her answer at this moment.

    "What things?" Lina asked.

    "More cakes?" Tina jumped, unable to control herself from drooling about this.

    "Hahahaha, no, not many cakes," William couldn''t help butugh again, "these are important items, ores, herbs, and such. I want them to do something."

    William didn''t say much, but his wink at the end of his words made it clear to Lina. he wanted such things to do something for the two sisters, and that cake thing was just a cover up.

    "We''ll head there after breakfast," Lina said, and Tina was oblivious to all this.

    After eating and chatting about the sses, letting Tina''s imagination run wild like usual, William went to a study room and wrote down the items he''d need.

    "These are enough for now," he knew taking these two through the steps of cultivating their spirit power was going to be something long and tedious.

    Not to mention every single step they had to take would require a different set of materials.

    "Take these spirit crystals," William gave Lina more than enough to buy everything, "don''t forget to buy her all the cake she wants," William winked, and Lina couldn''t help but sigh.

    "Young master is the best young master ever," and from the side, Tina jumped in the air,ughing in a cheerful way from what William did.

    As the two went out, William finally got time to do hisst and missing step for tomorrow.

    "I can''t just instruct them every single time from memory," William picked many empty scrolls from one side of the study room, sat down on his desk, and started to write down the modified versions of the techniques he selected.

    Just to be sure everyone would have different techniques to select from, he wrote down three of each main role his team should have.

    For offence, he knew using themon techniques wouldn''t pique anyone''s interest. And the same went for defence.

    Yet he wrote down not three, but five in each of these two aspects. He knew if one depended solely on his n''s formidable techniques, then they''d end up consuming most of their spirit power before killing their enemies.

    "I got to teach them this thing in real fights," he knew if he used just words to make them depend more on themon techniques rather than their ns'' techniques, then he''d fail to do so.

    After doing all this, he got out of his room to wee the two sisters outside.

    The two came back hours ago, and yet William dismissed them as he was quite busy. Tina didn''t mind that actually, as she nned to offer him a cake of the many she bought.

    "He said he doesn''t want anyone to disturb him, right?" Tina gave such a silly excuse to eat up all the cakes she bought.

    "You shouldn''t eat all of them in one go," Lina tried to stop her sister from buying all these cakes, but Tina refused to listen to her. She kept saying that the young master agreed for her to buy any cake she desired.

    And that left Lina powerless and helpless, deciding to speak up with William about such an issueter on.

    As Tina found William''s request to align with her childish greed, Lina didn''t feel the same at all. Thetter wanted to give the items she bought to William and see what he wanted to do with them.

 Chapter 198 Time To Fulfill The Promise

    "Atst," and so when he came out, she weed him with such a long sigh, "here, take this ring. Everything is stored inside¡­ Now what?"

    William already gave Lina the ring he got from Berry''s grandfather to store anything she''d buy on this trip.

    William got the ring, regained control over it and checked its content before nodding in satisfaction. "Everything is inside," he said these words before patting his stomach, "let''s eat and have a good nap of rest first. Then let''s speak tonight about what we''ll do with all these."

    "This¡­" Lina was surprised by his words. And when she intended to argue with him, question him about what he intended to do with her and her sister, William slowly added:

    "You two have to get a good rest before doing anything. Or else, the expected results won''t appear."

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" Lina got what he wanted to say but toply.

    William didn''t tell what he intended to do with the two, and just hinted that getting enough rest was crucial to his ns for them.

    The three ate their meal while Tina kept speaking nonstop about how the cakes were delicious, how nice Berry was, and how she missed her friends back at the Long n.

    William and Lina kept their silence before they all finished. William watched them retreat to their rooms, where Lina dragged Tina literally by the cor, getting her back to the room to get enough rest.

    "Time to do my preparations," William didn''t n on sleeping. He got something to do while the two girls were sleeping.

    The first thing he did was to go to one of the two study rooms. There he found one small pot on one side. It was one that was white grade, suitable to do weak potions.

    "She brought enough to make many of this potion," William started to take the herbs Lina brought from the market out, arranging them in different batches, adding a few together to form separate groups.

    He had a form in mind, one that required a potion, an oil-like substance to be made, and a suitable extract of different herbs to be used on the body during the process.

    "I hope it''s enough for Lina," William spent his next hours making different potions and oils, filling the bottles of ss that Lina bought with different coloured liquids.

    He didn''t feel time until he got done. When he looked at what he made, he felt it might be a little insufficient than he initially thought.

    Tina wasn''t the problem, Lina was. He suspected her to be on the same level of power as him, ending up being a bronze grade spirit master after getting treated properly.

    *Knock!* *Knock!*

    And just as he was considering doing it tonight using what he made or postpone it for tomorrow and wait to buy and make more of these potions, oils, and mixed extracts, he heard loud knockings on his door, while the excited voice of Tina came from behind.

    "Young master, we are ready for you. Come on, wake up, my sister says you are going to do something great for us!"

    "Tsk! Kids¡­" William couldn''t help but shake his head, store all the bottles he produced in one of his two rings, while storing the pot away as well.

    It might be a low grade pot, but it was quite useful. In the future, he nned to purchase a good grade pot, or even forge one for himself.

    "Coming," he shouted before Tina would crush the door down with her fists. Then he went out, saw the expressionless mask over Lina''s face, and the happiness dancing over Tina''s, before nodding to both.

    "Now it''s time to fulfil my promise to you¡­" when William said it, the eyes of the two girls shone brightly.

    Tina was curious to see what William prepared for her and for her bigger sister, while Lina''s mind spinned fast, and got reminded with what William promised them since he met them.

    When he first rescued them, he gave them the promise of fixing their bodies. Of course, he knew all about their race and how it was greatly mistaken in this world, but to Lina these words looked quite awkward and mysterious.

    She didn''t get what was wrong with their bodies. They might not be able to use spirit power, train like any proper spirit master, but that didn''t mean they were weak or something.

    She was one of the Selvators, and that race was world famous for their brutal physical strength.

    Selvators were known to have strong bodies and physique, yet no spirit power. This was a wrong conception as they were just like any other spirit master, but their spirit resided in their bodies. And that what William aimed to fix in their bodies, what he meant by his words from before.

    "Are we going to do it now?" Tina jumped off and held his arm, with sparkling eyes that showed her expectations.

    Despite not knowing anything, this little devil was all pumped up with excitement. Unlike her bigger sister, who was slightly aware of what William intended to do, but showed only confusion and doubt, not excitement like Tina.

    "Well, I already prepared lots of stuff for you. However, I need to test out your spirits first."

    "Spirit? We don''t have any!" Lina slowly muttered, feeling dejected as she wrongly realised that William mistook them for another race.

    William could see the look of disappointment in her eyes, and he gently stroke her head as he said, rifying such confusion:

    "Silly girl, how can there be a living without a spirit? Everyone has spirits, it''s just yours is a little special."

    "Is that true?" Tina jumped again, holding to his arm. She was a simple minded little girl, and she didn''t have all theplicated thoughts her sister had.

    "I won''t lie to you," William''s face beamed with a smile before he turned around to look for something.

 Chapter 199 Unlocking The Door For Them

    When he spotted the study room, his eyes shone as he found what he was looking for. "Follow me," he led the two girls inside, locked the door and brought the curtain to shield the windows there.

    He wanted a ce that wasn''t essible by anyone visiting their ce. He was going to meet with everyone in one day. He was sure the transformation he was going to instigate in these two girls'' bodies would take a long time to get done.

    "Now it''s time for you to squat and try to train," William casually said, but what he said rendered the two girls speechless.

    Even the younger one, Tina, knew how impossible it was for them to do that.

    "Don''t just stand there and dream about unicorns and rainbows, just do as I say. Sit there, cross your legs, close your eyes, and try to regte your breaths and feel the energy around."

    His words were a farfetched dream for them. However, under his persistence, they couldn''t reject doing what he asked.

    The two sat on the ground while listening to his instructions. They removed their top clothes, revealing their t chest, abdomen, and back.

    As they were still young, Tina and Lina didn''t have what it took for any mature woman yet. However, Lina showed little signs of developing a fiery figure by now, onlycking the proper size to be a woman though.

    Despite that, the two had grown muscles like any strong spirit master. William found it logical as this was something expected from such a mighty race.

    Their physique was something heaven defying. Even without nourishing their spirits with spirit power, they were already a force to be reckoned with.

    And William knew after opening the door for them and letting them train, they''d turn more monstrous.

    But first he needed to see what type of physical spirit the two had. After all, like spirit masters, Selvators had different types of spirits, known as physical spirits

    The process of testing such spirits was something different from the method he used before on himself, Berry, and Sara. And that was part of what he spent hours making.

    ? As the two kept sitting in their positions, feeling silly about what they were doing, William took out a bottle with an oil-like substance. He started to use his spirit power, infused it inside the bottle, and made the content inside a little hotter.

    His spirit power helped in melting the materials that made this oil substance together, turning it into a more liquid than solid form. Luckily for him, and just like the case in assessing a spirit master''s spirit, the herbs he used were allmon and cheap.

    After he finished finalising his preparation of the oil, he didn''t hurry to use it. He waited for a few minutes before the substance started to grow colder and more solid.

    It looked like mud or something. Seeing this, he knew this oil substance was now ready to use. It was better to use a fresh version of it, and that was why he left thest part of finalising the oil material to this moment.

    William then started to cover the entire upper half of the two girls with this substance.

    It was pale blue in colour, with faint green here and there like small dots. It felt a little greasy in his palms, as if he was rubbing their bodies with soft grains of sand or something.

    When he started to cover it over their bodies, it looked like these green dots were reacting to his touches and started to change from being dots to long and thin lines. But that didn''t happen to the blue element inside this oil.

    When he finished, their upper bodies looked like they were covered in faint blue colour with long green stripes.

    "Keep sensing the energy," William instructed while standing just a few metres away from them.

    At first the two girls thought how silly it was to follow what William said.

    But when he applied that weird substance over their bodies, they felt like they were submerged under cool fresh water.

    The feeling didn''t linger there and kept escting and permeating their pores. Even the skin covering their lower halves was also rejuvenating over this feeling.

    Slowly the fresh and cool feeling started to seep deeper into their muscles and organs. The longer they kept this stance and followed what William said, the more refreshed and cool they felt.

    It was an awesome feeling, one they didn''t experience before. And without knowing it, two hours passed while they kept this stance. Gradually they started to lose their control over their bodies, starting to breathe in and out the energy from the air just like any proper spirit master.

    They did out of reflex, as if they got trained to do so since they were born!

    William knew they needed a proper training manual, one that was dedicated towards nourishing their physical spirits. However, for now, he was satisfied with just opening the lock on their spirits, giving them a chance to pass through the impossible door of cultivation for Selvators in this world.

    Of course they couldn''t feel spirit power inside their bodies yet. Even after two hours, all they felt was that cool feeling.

    They wouldn''t understand that the refreshing feeling was what spirit masters felt while training. But to William, he got the answers he wanted after the passage of two hours.

    In front of him, the substance already vanished in the first hour. Then as the two girls kept training diligently, their skin started to glimmer in dim lights before the lights started to take certain shapes and increase and fade slowly in intensity.

    In front of his eyes, he saw lines formed, circles getting drawn by these lights. It was like the two girls had tattoos covering up their entire upper half bodies.

    The colour of these drawings was different from one girl to another. Lina, as the strongest and the oldest, had pale silver coloured tattoos that surprised William.

 Chapter 200 The Spar Arena

    William knew the colour appearing over their bodies rted to the level of their spirits, the shape of these tattoos with the type of their physical spirits. It was just the same as spirit masters. And from the look of it, he could tell that Lina had the spirit of silver rank.

    It was remarkable! Knowing that she never trained her spirit before and reached such a stage was indeed quite the feat. Spirit masters in this tiny world didn''t know that the awesome powers Selvators held came initially from the power of their spirits.

    As their spirits got mixed with their bodies, forming what was known as physical spirits, their physical strength was directly rted to their spirit powers.

    William suspected before that Lina''s spirit level was bronze just like him. But she was already higher than him by one grade.

    And from the shape the lines and tattoos formed, William could tell that she was a steel spirit type. And that exined why she sustained such pursuit before for a long time.

    Her enemies from the Golden Sky academy were all bronze grade spirit masters. And that meant they were weaker than her.

    If she used fighting techniques, she''d be able to kill all of them solo without the need of his help.

    ''Steel is a metal rted element, and luckily I had a potion that can work on her physical spirit,'' William thought about the potions he made before, and came to such a conclusion.

    He didn''t know what type the two girls'' physical spirits would be. So, he made general potions, ones that could work over many types of physical spirits.

    On the contrary to Lina, Tina had a stunning white colour covering all the drawings over her skin. William knew this was an expected result, and that wasn''t a bad start.

    She was still young, at the age where spirit masters would start discovering their spirit types. Starting off with white grade was amon result, and few of the kids would have spirit powers close to the one hundred threshold. And they''d still be considered white grade spirit masters.

    As for the type of her physical spirit, William was surprised to see a fire element there. He thought she''d be just like her big sister, as it was themon rule in the spirit master worlds.

    ''Interesting¡­ Two sisters, and they have two different physical spirits¡­'' William knew this was a special case but didn''t think too much about this.

    ''Luckily I got a fire potion,'' fire was one of the mostmon elements seen in spirit masters. So, he made sure to prepare a potion dedicated to such an element before.

    As he got the results he wanted, he didn''t interfere with the two girls'' training. He knew that just by using the oil substance, and letting them train like that, they wouldn''t be able to start gathering up spirit power.

    What he did was enough to slightly push open the door like a slit, and then the potions he prepared alongside a long time of training would be enough to make them climb higher and stabilise their foundations.

    But there was a catch here. What he did was to unlock the seal over their spirits, and they would take a long time before waking up from their trance state.

    He wouldn''t be able to give them the potions until they woke up.

    So even if he didn''t prepare the powerful potions to let them train, they were able to use them right now.

    Turning them from the known path of Selvators over to the path of spirit masters was going to be a slow and long process, one that would take long days, weeks, and even months!

    Seeing them in such a trance state made him smile. He knew they wouldn''t be able to train properly like spirit masters right now, but at least they were able to get a taste of what it felt like to be a spirit master.

    Watching the glowing colours covering their bodies like bright tattoos, William moved out from the study room and closed its door.

    "Now I have to wait for tomorrow to pass before meeting up with everyone," he looked around, knowing this wasn''t a suitable ce to do what he wanted.

    "I shall go out tomorrow, reserve an arena for us to train at the day after," he returned to the other study room, nning to revise the techniques he selected, review the ns he thought of about his team.

    After spending a few hours there, and when he got reassured that he didn''t miss anything, he returned to the other study room, checked on the two girls, before going to his room and slept.

    The next morning came fast, and William felt quite rxed as he got done with most of his preparations for tomorrow.

    "I should eat breakfast first," after checking on the two girls, he knew they''d take a long time before getting out from such status.

    It was impossible for them to wake up before going out to the ce he wanted. He nned to test Berry, Lang, Peter, and Sara tomorrow, then make them select a few capable and trustworthy disciples to form his twenty-man team.

    Then he''d take two more days to let them train in the techniques he prepared, before finally going out.

    That meant he had three up to four days here before going out. And the girls would take at least one week before waking up.

    William didn''t n to bring them with him even if they woke up. After unlocking the door, he''d give them potions to stabilise their foundations, then he should prepare proper training manuals for them.

    It was a process that might take one month before they''d be ready. So, before that, he''d no risk taking them out.

    After eating his breakfast, he moved out, heading towards one direction: the Spar Arena.

    It was the only ce where disciples could fight each other. Bets would be ced, and killing was prohibited even there.

 Chapter 201 We Must Get Him

    He heard many stories about spirit masters getting lucky, winning battles with high wagers, ending up bing rich over one night!

    William didn''t want to go there and try his luck. He simply wanted to use another function of the arena.

    If he wanted a ce where he could train his team without any worries, then hiring one of the grounds of the arena was the best option.

    There, no one coulde and spy on them as there was an option of sealing the ce off. Of course, if the ones spying on him were of the calibre of the headmaster and Berry''s grandfather, these seals would mean nothing in front of them.

    William didn''t care about any of these old men spying on him. He knew he attracted lots of heat before, but the two old men wouldn''t be this free to check on every action of his.

    ______________________________________

    "Are you saying that this little kid managed to make this?!!!"

    Far from William''s current location, a group of middle aged men and women were standing around one person.

    If William was here, he''d instantly recognise this person. "I already showed you the recording crystal. He did everything in front of me, used my cauldron and materials, and formed the potions that we just made."

    He was the alchemy ss master. And he gathered everyone from the elder circle of the Alchemy department, showed them what William did using the recording crystal, before they all made the potion William did.

    They couldn''t believe that a mere eight years old kid like him, one who just got his spirit power discovered, never attended a single ss before, managed to do something like this.

    "This recipe¡­ This form¡­ It''s genius!" one elder of the small group of the higher ups in the Alchemy department couldn''t help but check the potion she produced.

    She was a gold grade spirit master, and an alchemy pseudo-grandmaster just like the master William met before.

    Both were like many others in the department, the highest grade potion they ever concocted was dark grade gold and it was just a fluke and a mere coincidence.

    The usual potions any of them would make was a gold grade potion. Yet when they followed William''s steps, she and others managed to produce dark gold potions.

    It was simply miraculous, and no one ever expected that they''d learn how to do dark gold grade potions from a little kid.

    "The form is good, but there is something else that we have to thoroughly study," all of sudden, the sound of the alchemy headmaster echoed from the direction of the door.

    When everyone looked, they found their headmaster of the Alchemy department entering the room. She was a refined looking olddy, with a very calm and weirdly beautiful face without any trace left by time.

    "Sessile headmaster, what do you mean by that?" the master who watched William do this form asked.

    "The idea of refining herbs for more than two times is quite revolutional," Sessile calmly said, stepping towards the cauldron, inspecting the fluid produced there, "this idea alone can revolutionise everything we already are aware of!"

    Her blue eyes shone brightly before she seemed as if to make a decision at this point, "I heard that the Forging department already sat their eyes on this kid. We need to not fall behind."

    "But¡­"

    "We still don''t know how he managed to do such a potion."

    "And what if he just knew this potion only?"

    "No one can learn such a great secret without learning tons more of other secrets," Sessile didn''t care about their opinions, "I can simply tell by the recording alone that this kid knows more, much more than what you all might expect."

    Sessile already made up her mind. "You are his master at the ss. Make sure in the next ss, you''ll invite him here."

    "Personally?!" the master was taken aback, not expecting the headmaster herself to ask him about doing such a thing in person.

    "What? He is a capable and good kid. We shall nourish and support him, more than what those folks from the Forging department did."

    "What did they do exactly?" It was the second time Sessile brought up the issue of the Forging department.

    "They took him in, announced that he is now the honorary disciple of the Forging department."

    "This¡­"

    "Is he that good at forging?"

    "What happened to make that old and stubborn old man change his old decision and appoint a new honorary disciple?"

    "Even if he can forge, he also can concoct," Sessile directed the talk towards what really mattered, "I won''t lose such a talent to those artisans! I''ll entrust the task of recruiting him to you."

    "Do you n to¡­" William''s master spoke and stopped in the middle of his words as this was quite insane.

    He wasn''t the only one to get such wild thought. "If he got the ability, then why not?" Sessile didn''t show any shocking expression like everyone else. Instead, she simply shrugged, before turning her eyes around, added in a strict and serious tone:

    "I want all of you to start testing the endless possibilities of the three steps refinement that kid showed us. I''ll personally check on all of your progress, and hopefully you won''t let me down."

    Once said these words, Sessile moved out, leaving the bunch of her elders behind speechless.

    "Tsk¡­ We are going to have a hard life in the uing few weeks," one of them sighed, and the rest couldn''t help but nod in silence, and in agreement.

    ________________________________________

    "I need one silver grade spirit master to join my team. We arepeting at noon time, at arena five, for a grand prize of one thousand spirit crystals¡­"

    "Two spirit masters of silver grade are needed. The bet is on two thousand spirit crystals. Anyone wants to join?"

    William always heard stories about the Spar arena, but it was his first time to personally visit it.

 Chapter 202 Red Falcon Team

    The area outside the arena was like a chaotic market. He saw many spirit masters standing there, shouting about their need to recruit spirit masters to join their teams.

    "Weird¡­ Why didn''t they just form the team before applying for the contest?" William felt puzzled about this. It went by logic that one had to form his team topete in the arena before applying there.

    ? But applying first and recruitingter was a weird thing to him.

    The arena was like a grand colosseum, covering up an area of five kilometres in radius. It was slightly oval like in outer appearance, with a height that extended over one hundred metres, looking like a grand wall or something like that.

    The number of spirit masters outside the arena was indeed quiterge. William didn''t know that outsiders could enter the academy just to watch the arena fights.

    It was like a grand gathering of fighters and diators. The academy specified one day each month for a grand contest, and that was why that scene was present in front of William''s eyes.

    This was the big day of this month. And these teams who were trying to recruit silver spirit masters weren''t like what William expected.

    They already got their team roster full, but no one would say no to get a better and stronger silver grade spirit master to his team.

    If gold grade spirit masters weren''t this rare to join a team in the arena, then these shouts would be asking for gold grade spirit masters, not silver grade ones.

    William bypassed such a mess and didn''t care about any of that. He went around, looking for the ce where he could register for a private arena to hire for his team.

    But just as he walked a few steps around, he got stopped by one group of spirit masters who wore silver attires.

    "Good morning brother, how about you join our team?" out of the blue, one of the team members here asked William, making thetter feel a bit weird.

    "I''m sorry, but I don''t think I can be of help to you," William didn''t n on joining anypetition in the arena. Besides this was a team formed entirely of silver grade spirit masters, and he was one grade lower than them.

    He''d never be of help to them no matter how he thought about it. It seemed weird as well for them to go out of their way and ask him to join their team.

    "Brother seems to not know the rules of the arena," another disciple said, before adding, "the grade of ourpetition will be decided by the lowest ranked spirit master in the team, provided that he isn''t more than one grade lower than the highest one of us."

    "Oh¡­" William realised now why they came looking for him. He was wearing his bronze uniform, speaking clearly about his bronze rank.

    "Don''t worry about anything," a third disciple spoke up, "we are going to handle everything. Besides, killing isn''t allowed inside unless the two teams agree on it from the beginning."

    William wasn''t rejecting them because he was afraid of his life. He just came here to hire an arena, not looking for anything else.

    "We arepeting in the grand day main contest," a fourth disciple said, "the grand prize is ten thousand spirit crystals, and we won''t mistreat you. You''ll get one thousand spirit crystals just like all of us."

    "This¡­" William thought they''d try to negotiate on giving him less, but that wasn''t the case. This team seemed pretty nice, or much desperate to recruit a bronze spirit master to their team.

    "Don''t listen to them, my friend," just before William would say anything, another team approached as one of them said.

    And just like this team before him, the members of this team got nine silver spirit masters and one bronze grade spirit master.

    William recognised that spirit master. He was one who attended the sses with him before. ording to William''s memory, that kid was following one of the kids from a big family.

    However, when William watched the newly arrived team, he couldn''t recognise any of them. It was just like the team that stopped him earlier, all looked quite alien and couldn''t rte them to any of the big ns or families.

    That kid''s face changed the moment he saw William. But he didn''t say anything and remained silent. From such a change in his face, William knew he also recognised him.

    "Garlend, you already acquired a bronze spirit master in your team. Why meddle with my team''s business?"

    William felt the two teams knew each other from before. And it seemed they weren''t on the same page.

    "Come on! Trying to trick the little kid to join you? For one thousand crystals? Humph!" that silver spirit master who was at least five years older than William, spoke in a loud and mocking tone. He then pointed towards the kid from William''s ss before adding:

    "We gave him one thousand crystals, but also added two pieces of white grade gears to make him join us."

    "This¡­" The face of the leader of the first team changed slightly.

    "Come on! Don''t tell me your red falcon team is quite stingy or perhaps¡­ Poorer than my team, hahahaha!"

    William didn''t know what was going on, but he didn''t like that Garlend dude. He was arrogant, seemed like a very bad person in William''s eyes.

    Even if he wanted to make trouble for this team, Garlend shouldn''t embarrass that kid while saying the details of their deal in the open.

    Just the dark look on that kid''s face told William how deeply hurt he was. And yet he was amoner, one who needed any scrap of gears thrown at him, or a single spirit crystal.

    One thousand spirit crystals weren''t just a small amount of wealth. William knew that, but he still didn''t like the current situation of this kid.

 Chapter 203 The Spar Arenas Big Day

    White grade gears might be nothing in the eyes of those silver spirit masters, but to anymon spirit master, it was something good.

    "I will join your team," and when Garlend waited for the answer from the leader of the red falcon team, William suddenly spoke up.

    He didn''t like this situation, didn''t like someone getting abused thanks to his low background.

    He couldn''t help that kid right now, but he could get part of his dignity back by crushing this arrogant team led by that Garlend.

    "Hahahaha, losers did indeed stick together, hahahaha," and just like what William expected, that dude was indeed a bad guy. He showed his true colour towards William, and thetter just kept smiling calmly without showing anything on his face.

    That look¡­ That calm¡­ The kid from his ss saw it before. It was the same look William gave to Guanin before crushing him twice in front of everyone.

    Seeing William''s face like this made that kid''s heart skip a beat. And just as the team led by Garlend passed by William, thetter winked towards that kid.

    And that made that kid''s body tremble uncontrobly, a subtle move that went by without getting noticed by anyone.

    "Thanks brother," the leader of the red falcon team said after the departure of Garlend and his men, "I didn''t intend to mistreat you. But¡­"

    "Don''t worry about that, what''s the value of a white grade gear anyway," William shrugged as if this was something that didn''t bother him.

    And he was indeed worthy to not care about white grade gears. If it was silver grade and higher, then William''s interest would be instantly piqued.

    But he was sure the entire team in front of him would have at most silver grade gears and weapons, if not having bronze grade gears as most of their belongings.

    "I''m Lucas," the leader of the red falcon team properly introduced himself, "wee to the red falcon team."

    The other eight silver spirit masters greeted William as well. "Thanks, but what was all that anyway?" William returned the greeting to them, before asking about what he didn''t know.

    "It''s like this¡­" Lucas started to tell William everything that he didn''t know, leading everyone to one small building that was missed from William''s eyes thanks to therge number of spirit masters here.

    It was the building responsible for handling affairs rted to the arena, the same ce William wanted to visit.

    ''Not now,'' William decided toe hereter after the end of today''spetition.

    From Lucas'' words he learnt many things about the arena and its system.

    He realised how important today was. Many spectators came from outside the academy, cing bids on different teams.

    The red falcon team was one of many taking part in today''spetition. And from what Lucas said, they were all part of the third and fourth year in the academy, dropping all the sses and working as an individual team topete in the regr contests here.

    They lived on the gains they got from thepetitions they won in the arena.

    To William, this was the best oue suchmon spirit masters could have in the academy.

    To William, winning or losing didn''t matter. He got enough wealth to make him not even care about the one thousand spirit crystals the team kept mentioning.

    It was the grand prize, meaning they got to win every single battle to acquire such wealth. The best oue the team ever achieved was the thirty-five ce in the arena.

    It happened when the team came here for the first time a few years ago. No one knew about them or their abilities, and so it was expected for them to make their path towards the top.

    During which, they met with Garlend and his team. William knew that this team was called the blue silver scales, and they were quite famous and arrogant in the arena.

    They never missed being in the top fifty anytime, and their highest rank ever was fifteen.

    At the time when the red falcon team reached rank thirty-five, they met that team of Garlend, ending up beating them.

    And since that day, the enmity between the two kept going on. The two met many timester, and the red falcon team got crushed many times already. But such old enmity was still raging in the chest of Garlend.

    William knew his earlier guesses about Garlend were true the more he listened to Lucas'' stories. Only bad guys would keep such enmity for such a long time. And Garlend seemed to ce destroying the red falcon team and disbanding them as one of his priorities.

    As for the arena rules, they were simple. There were solopetitions and teampetitions. The solopetition wasn''t that popr unless for the top ten names in the arena ranking list. Other than this, the general audience liked to watch the team battles more.

    Not to mention the grand day contest of the arena didn''t include any solopetitions.

    As for the teampetitions, there were many forms of these. Teams could be counted starting from five up to fifty. But in the big daypetition, the official team member count was ten.

    William learnt before that the grading of any team would be decided by the lower ranking member here, provided that the difference between him and the highest ranked member didn''t exceed one grade.

    For example, if the red falcon team got him and another white ranked spirit master, then the final ranking would be silver.

    This wasn''t going by logic as William thought. But when he realised that this was some sort of a punishment from the arena to anyone trying to not follow the rules.

    If the team got members with two grades difference or more, then the team general assessment would be following the highest ranked member in the team.

    That made all the teams here formed from nine of the same grade and thest member of a grade lower.

 Chapter 204 We Are Going To Meet Them!

    William learnt that the silverpetitions contained teams with nine gold grade members and one silver grade spirit master.

    As for the bronzepetition, it was like his current team, nine silver and one bronze. The whitepetition was formed of nine bronze and one white.

    That made even the white gradepetitions filled with arge audience and lots of bids. After all, it was actually apetition between bronze grade spirit masters.

    "Don''t worry about anything. It''s an unspoken rule for all teams in the arena to not include the tenth member in any fight, or target the opposite enemy''s tenth member," Lucas said after registering William''s name and rank at that small building.

    The registration process was simple. As William was a disciple in the academy, he used his emblem to prove his current spirit power rank.

    "Outer spirit masters can join?" William was surprised to hear such a thing. And Lucas from the side nodded.

    "This is the big day! Many spirit master teams are formed of outer spirit masters," he paused before adding when he realised how William didn''t fully get what he meant, "it''s crucial for any team to have ace cards not known to others. Disciples in the academy know each other quite well, besides it''s easy to gather intel about anyone inside the academy, but not outside."

    "I got it," William finally realised how dead serious the teams taking part in this grand day were. They dealt with everything, including the tiniest details like this.

    And that made him change his opinion about thispetition.

    He just took it as a game, not a serious ce for anyone. However just from such small detail he could tell how this ce wasn''t any inferior to going outside and venturing the real world.

    "Interesting," William''s eyes shone while he started to ce high hopes on this arena.

    He wanted to go outside to amass the cores for himself. However, for his team, going out all the time wasn''t going to be feasible.

    If there was a ce where they could train and gain tons of experience without the need to waste lots of time venturing into the outside world, then it''d be great.

    At the same time, the danger level here wasn''t that high. It''d be bad if he nourished someone and ended up losing him or her in a fight against monsters.

    Going outside and fighting monsters in the forest was always quite risky. He wanted them to feel danger from time to time, but that didn''t mean he wanted to see them suffer deadly casualties all the time.

    "Damn! We are going to meet them in the fifth round¡­" just as William was busy thinking about this, one of his new team members cursed out loud, jolting him awake.

    "What?" He looked at the paper that Lucas held, and he could see how bad their faces were.

    "We will meet those bastards again in the fifth round," Lucas handed the paper to William, where he saw the entirepetition roster.

    The first thing that shocked him was therge number of spirit masters taking part in thepetition.

    He thought the highest number of teams would only be a hundred or so. Yet when he realised there were more than a thousand teams, he couldn''t help but suck a cold air of breath.

    All of these teams¡­ All of them were just the bronze grade teams. William knew the academy had lots of silver spirit masters, but not to the degree of forming a thousand teams, each was formed of ten members.

    That meant the academy had ten thousand silver spirit masters at this moment. And that was quite ridiculous!

    What made it possible was the outsider spirit mastersing here. And William knew it must be a huge number of spirit masters who came here today.

    All of them were free spirit masters, and if the academy or anyone gained control of such a force, then the academy would have a much brighter future.

    ''Something seems off here,'' William couldn''t help but think about that. If the academy got such an attraction to the grand and vast free spirit mastermunity, then howe no one ever thought about poaching the good seeds from them? Give them decent offers to join the academy?

    If he could call the shots here, he''d ce eyes all over the arena on such days, to spot the good spirit masters and make them not leave the academy at all.

    And that thought gave him another inspiration. If he could make a name for himself here, then trying to recruit any good spirit master he''s set his eyes upon wasn''t a problem.

    ''Like this¡­ I don''t need to go there or spend lots of time at that ce,'' he thought again while seriously considering modifying his ns based on what he''d experience here.

    The entirepetition was arranged in ten rounds, and as he followed the line of the team, he found that they''d sh with Garlend''s team in the fifth round.

    "Tsk, enemies are indeed destined to meet at every corner," William thought to himself, without feeling the same sadness everyone here felt.

    After all, he just joined the team on a whim, and didn''t hold anything for it. He wanted to see how thispetition worked, and check if it was suitable for his mercenary team to take part in.

    "Why every single time we''d end up meeting them," Lucas couldn''t help but speak in a tone filled with anger, "that''s not fair! That doesn''t make any sense!"

    "Every time youpete here, you end up facing them?!" Even William couldn''t believe this. If one could call this a coincidence, then it would be a very weird one.

    It made sense to meet such a team more than once during the past time this team spent here. But to meet them every single time was indeed a bit fishy.

    "Does the number of teams increase this time?" William could only think about this possibility.

 Chapter 205 Going Inside The Grand Arena

    "No, it''s not even close to the usual number of teams taking part in most of thepetitions we took part in."

    When Lucas said these words, William knew there was only one reason to exin all these coincidences¡­ Someone must have gotten a bribe and made sure the two teams would meet up at some point in thepetition.

    If they got arranged to meet early on, things would be quite suspicious. But to meet up every single time the team came to thepetition, it was indeed fishy and suspicious.

    However, even if William knew there was something wrong, even if all the team members knew that, there was nothing in their hands to do.

    Without any evidence, they couldn''t go around and use the organisers of the arena of such serious maniption ims.

    "We won''t get into the top fifty again this year," another member of the team said with a deep sigh. William looked around, and from all their faces, he saw bitterness, depression, and disappointment.

    ''Sigh! Power can''t make everything right,'' William knew this was the result of underhanded means used by Garlend and his team, ''but power can solve anything.''

    He didn''t really care about what would happen to this team. However, he didn''t like just underhanded and dirty methods to win.

    "Let''s do our best then," William said, trying to raise morale.

    "We''ll get around three thousand crystals by the fifth round," Lucas suddenly said, bringing up this matter.

    William realised even when the team was facing such a dead end, Lucas was still thinking about his wellbeing.

    "It''s ok for me," William shrugged. He knew what went through Lucas'' mind right now. Lucas recruited him on the premise of getting one tenth of the final reward. And it was a huge difference between getting one thousand and three hundred crystals.

    "This¡­"

    "I was just walking around when you stopped me," William said, ending this issue once and for all, "so getting one thousand getting three hundred it doesn''t matter. It''s free wealthing to me without even thinking about it."

    "Ok," Lucas knew that William was reassuring him by saying these words. But as the man himself said it, he didn''t say anymore.

    For William this was entirely nothing in his eyes. The little spirit crystals he''d gain even if they secured the first ce was nothing in his eyes.

    What he wanted to experience was the true heart of this arena and its contests. If it proved to be really worthy, then he''d change his entire ns and let his teampete here.

    "The good news is that the first two teams are weak," one of the team members said.

    "These two we met before and managed to win," Lucas exined, "we met the first round team two years ago and the second team at the second roundst year."

    "How can you tell which team we will face?" William felt how weird it was to specify certain teams by name. There were too many teams in the entire list to remember, not to mention many came from outside the academy and even those inside might have gained few of the outsider spirit masters.

    "The little numbers beside each team''s name," Lucas pointed again at the paper he was holding, "these are the expected odds decided by the arena experts."

    "And?" William couldn''t believe they just decided who would win and lose based on such evaluations.

    William didn''t need to ask, these numbers didn''t represent the odds of winning and losing, but the odds of bidding on these teams.

    And bidding was always an unreliable method to determine the winners and losers in any fight.

    "We follow this as the general way to assess each team round result," Lucas said, which William didn''t like to hear, "as for those teams we are familiar with already, we can determine better about their results either against their opponents or against us."

    "I see¡­"

    "Don''t bother yourself about anything," one of the team raised a thumbs up to William, "we are going to carry you all the way to the fifth round."

    William didn''t say anything. He wasn''t weak. And he knew if he took part in thepetition, he''d perform much better than many of these silver spirit masters around.

    However, he kept his silence while following them inside the arena. "The arena is divided into one grand fighting space called the Grand Arena. It''s formed of twenty small fighting grounds, five medium sized grounds, and one big and central fighting ground¡­"

    Lucas started to exin the grand design of the arena to William as the team entered it. They weren''t the only ones getting inside, a swarm of people were also flooding the ce.

    William learnt that the arena contained three general fighting arenas dedicated for anyone to use. The big day contest and everyday fights were held at these three.

    In addition to that, there were around one hundred small private arenas that could be hired for different prices.

    From Lucas'' words, William got that the difference in price was meant for certain things like the general size of the private arena, the strength of the concealment arrays used, and even hiring one gold grade or higher expert to teach anyone what he wanted for one day.

    It seemed like a ce to learn and gain experience, not just to fight and win wealth.

    "... The central stage in the Grand Arena is reserved for the final three battles in each grade. As for the other twenty-three stages, we are going topete there until we reach thest two rounds."

    By saying this, the team arrived at a grand space inside the Grand Arena. William noticed that there were many sectors here, not that private to be called a room, formed of three walls while leaving the fourth side open to the grand space here.

    "Let''s go there," one of the team pointed towards a ce, and before the team would move there, William spotted Garlend and his team moving to the same sport and took it.

 Chapter 206 The Rescue Totems

    "This¡­ Tsk! Let''s take that ce then," Lucas didn''t intend on doing anything to Garlend, instantly shifted his attention towards the opposite direction, and selected an empty space there.

    William couldn''t help but sigh. Such childish moves were suitable for kids, not for people of fifteen years old or something.

    "We are going topete in ten minutes," once William arrived there, he saw an empty ck board and a piece of ore that could be used to write on the board.

    Lucas seemed used to using this board and ore, as he started to draw an oval shaped space. The ore left a faint shining red colour, demarcating the shape Lucas drew perfectly in such a slightly dim ce. Then he ced ten dots at each side, before adding:

    "We are going to use the same tactic¡­" As he turned to his team, Lucas started to speak about the general tactic the team preferred to use.

    William got that out of the nine silver spirit masters here, three got the fire elements, two wind elements, one earth element, and thest three had water elements.

    This wasn''t a bad line up, and their use for these spirit masters wasn''t bad. In general, the red falcon team depended on the fire based spirit masters for offence, on the two wind based spirit masters for augmenting the fire attacks, for water attacks to trap the enemy, and the single earth spirit master for defence.

    It wasn''t a bad tactic, but William knew it was that perfect. The biggest mistake wasn''t in the tactic itself, but in the choice of spirit masters in the team in the first ce.

    For example, water attacks would negate the fire spirit masters, and that would be very limiting for the entire team.

    Any fight was quite unpredictable, and spirit masters wouldn''t just stand in their initial spots and keep releasing their attacks at their foes.

    The fight would be chaotic, and in the middle of this, it was the role of the enemy to limit the attacks of the team, not the team members.

    But William got no say in any of that. If he was the leader of this team, he''d change the entire tactic in an attempt to solve such obvious weakness.

    For example, he should leave the water spirit master behind, not attack until it was needed. Trapping the enemy before the fire and wind spirit masters would attack was like giving the enemy a way out and a hand to defend against such abo.

    Water element could be used to trap enemies, but it could also be used to defend. William would switch the roles of the three water spirit masters with the single Earth one.

    Even if he did all that, the overall strength of the team wouldn''t increase by much. He listened to thest words of Lucas before someone came and asked them to follow him to the stage.

    "Let''s go," Lucas paused for a moment before adding, "Dorf, you''ll keep an eye over William."

    "You know it''s forbidden for any team to target the tenth member," Dorf was a tough looking youth, with a body that was almost double the size of William''s.

    He was the spirit master with the earth element. "Just keep him safe, you know that already," Lucas looked a bit tense, just like everyone else. As for William, he just walked in a calm way, following the team outside.

    The scene that weed his eyes was a grand open ce, lined with a huge, rounded gathering of seats.

    The entire ce was filled to the brim with people, and in the vast arena, there were the twenty-three fighting grounds that Lucas spoke about before.

    Each fighting ground was around two hundred metres in length and fifty in width. It was enough to allow two teams to battle to their heart''s content, without having enough space to drag the battle for a long time by hiding and running around.

    Any teams getting in there would have to fight from the first moment, and William could imagine how brutal these fights would be.

    "Here, this is your arena," the gold grade disciple who led them here pointed towards one of the small arenas before adding, "the other team will arrive momentarily. You''ll have one minute to get ready, then the battle will start."

    As this was the first time for William to be here, he was quite alien to all this. The others instantly got into the small arena, took their position as Lucas drew before on that board, took out their weapons and got ready to fight at any moment.

    William took this to inspect the entire space around. ''So, the medium sized arenas are three times the size of the small ones, and the central one is almost five times in sizepared with the small ones,'' he thought to himself, while noticing many teams fighting already on other grounds.

    Before he''d have the time to watch any battle, the other team arrived. And just like the red falcon team, William didn''t recognise a single spirit master of them.

    ''Three outsiders¡­'' His eyes shone when he saw three of them wearing umonly seen uniforms in the academy.

    The three wore uniforms made of three different colours, white, silver, and red. That told William that they weren''t part of the academy, and his curiosity was piqued to see how good they truly were.

    "You know the rules," as the other team arrived, the gold grade spirit master who guided the red falcon team here appeared in the middle between the two, "you''ll have one minute to prepare. Take these symbols and ce them over your bodies directly, not on any uniform, gear, or weapon¡­ Got it?"

    Just as he said that twenty things got thrown out from him. William picked the item that was thrown towards him and was surprised to see a small paper with a symbol drawn over it.

    "It''s the rescue totem," Lucas realised that William was quite oblivious about what to do. As he said it, he exposed part of his chest, ced the paper on it, and it instantly merged with his flesh and vanished.

    The symbol it left behind was like a tattoo, just the same as the one drawn on the paper in William''s hands.

 Chapter 207 The First Round

    "This is the standard method in the Spar arena," the gold spirit master picked up clues from Lucas'' words, and started to exin in haste, "with this, I can teleport anyone away from danger and save your life. So, hurry up and ce them on your body."

    "Thanks," William was curious to study this little thing, but he knew he got no time to do that. Like everyone else here, he exposed his right arm and ced the totem there.

    Like what happened with Lucas, the paper vanished and merged with his flesh, leaving behind this weird symbol that William didn''t recognise.

    William tried to inspect it using his spirit power, yet he failed. There was some sort of a higher spirit power inside that symbol, strong enough to crush his spirit power on the spot.

    ''A dark gold spirit power... Interesting,'' William''s eyes shone with realisation as he recognised the grade of this spirit power.

    "Let''s begin!" and just before he''d have time to do more tests, the judge of this battle said. And the next moment, everyone started to move.

    The first to move on William''s side was that big dude named Dorf. Even when he spoke in such a harsh and mean way about protecting William, Dorf was the first to move to shield him.

    The others started to move all out, releasing their strongest techniques right from the start.

    "Tsk! They are adamant on consuming their spirit power before the second minute kicks in," William saw this and couldn''t help but shake his head in disappointment.

    Everything pointed out that the teams here were pretty much experienced and very professional. However, they still fell into such a low mistake.

    "Stop daydreaming, this isn''t your ce," and while William was watching the two sides exchanging attacks, Dorf shouted, "let''s keep moving! Staying in one ce is a death bringer."

    William didn''t hustle and kept following Dorf wherever he went. That dude might have a harsh tongue sometimes, tough attitude at other times, but he was quite dependable.

    He kept using his earth based techniques to save the other team members or stop any iing attacks towards him or William.

    The two kept moving around the battlefield, while William was feeling no pressure at all.

    If Dorf left him behind, it wasn''t going to be that bad for him. What surprised William was the fact that the enemy kept attacking him.

    ''Didn''t they say there is such an unspoken rule about not touching people like me?'' William felt much weirder when he recalled what Dorf did.

    He didn''t move out to help others, he first stepped up and protected him.

    ''It''s just an informal rule, one that can be ignored by anyone,'' William didn''t feel any bad towards the other team for targeting him.

    If that team didn''t do all their best to win, then they''d be morons!

    After the passage of one minute, and as William expected, few started to struggle to keep using their techniques.

    The other team got five water and five wind spirit masters.

    They didn''t get anyone who could be described as a defensive spirit master. And that made William know this battle was the red falcon''s win.

    The other team seemed to fear the strength of the red falcon fire spirit masters. Or perhaps they didn''t get enough members to select from.

    Having water spirit masters to stop the fire spirit masters on the red falcon side might be considered a good set up.

    However, depending too much on that, to the extent of having half of the team members do such a task, and the other half were just aiding from the side was a very bad idea.

    At the first minute, the two sides couldn''t decide who was going to win. But just when their spirit powers started to falter, the difference between the two teams'' tactics and line up started to show up.

    "It''s our win, hahahaha!" Dorf who kept acting stressful and nervous all the timeughed out loud the moment half of the other team members got pulled away using the rescue totems.

    William didn''t find anything unusual about such a result. And even when the red falcon team members kept cheering and celebrating their win while going back to their rest ce inside the Grand arena''s main building, William kept his silence all the time.

    "When is our next battle?" William used a moment when Lucas was watching his happy friends celebrating their win and asked this question.

    "In one hour, at most," Lucas looked at William, mistaking his meaning, "don''t worry. This team was known to be a bad one. They have a long record of breaking the rule of not touching the tenth member, and that''s why Dorf stepped in to defend you."

    "Oh, thanks for letting him protect me," William didn''t mean any of that. He was truly capable of defending himself in thest battle.

    "Don''t mention it. The next teams we are going to face are all good ones. Even that jerk, Garlend, didn''t reach yet to such low point."

    "Thanks," William didn''t ask this fearing for his life. But even so, Lucas stepped forward, patted on his shoulder as he added:

    "We are going to protect you, make sure of that. And you don''t need to worry about any battle, we will handle everything."

    After saying these words, Lucas moved to join his celebrating and joyful team. As for William, he just shook his head, and started to move back inside the arena again.

    He didn''t ask to hear such words from Lucas, he just wanted to go back and observe the different battles going on out there.

    The short battle he just went through didn''t tell him much about the real situation in the entirepetition. To William, this battle might be considered a low level warm up for him and his team.

    The two teamsmitted many mistakes. They might have pulled a few tricks here and there, but the entire battle was chaotic and didn''t satisfy William''s high standards.

 Chapter 208 A Special Team

    As he got one hour, he decided to take a tour around the battlegrounds and check on the ongoing fights.

    "Interesting team¡­" As he just walked for ten minutes, he finally stopped while his eyes shone brightly over a certain battleground.

    There were two teams fighting as usual, one side was acting just like how the red falcon and their foes behaved, releasing all of their strongest techniques from the start.

    But the other team acted differently this time. William saw that team members lean more on using themon techniques, evading, running, and even defending the iing attacks from their foes without risking harming themselves.

    During the past ten minutes, William witnessed at least twenty battles. He never stayed at one battleground for more than half a minute before leaving for another one.

    All the teams he saw were fighting using the same useless way, exploding early on while using their strongest techniques. But this team looked different.

    William recognised their lineup, two fire spirit masters, three earth spirit masters, two wind spirit masters, one ice spirit master, and thest two were one rock spirit master and the other was a fog spirit master.

    "They have three unique elements in their roster¡­ That''s a good line up," William saw how experienced and well prepared this team was than others he saw this far.

    After the first minute passed, the other team members started to lose out in terms of their spirit power. And that was when the team that attracted William''s eyes started to go on full offence.

    "They are doing this based on strategy and training, not just out of fluke¡­" William became much surer about this point the more he watched the team members fight and take down their enemies.

    In his eyes, they didn''t use too scary techniques, just using the right technique to take down the opponent without wasting too much spirit power.

    To William, that was an admirable spirit control ability, one he dreamt for his team to have.

    William was aware that having such good control over the battle rhythm, controlling the opposite team actions and then attacking using the right techniques, didn''te without a long time of training.

    That made William quite curious about this team. And finally, he got to learn about their name when the judge announced their victory.

    "The Overpowers win this round!"

    "Overpowers¡­ What a weird and fitting name it is¡­" William crossed his arms while watching the silver grade spirit masters descend the stage.

    "It''s just a name we picked on a whim," and when William was watching them leave the battleground, a weird voice came from his side, attracting his attention away from the team to that refined looking young girl standing near him.

    He was totally absorbed in watching this battle and didn''t feel her getting closer to him. They were in the middle of the Grand Arena, where many teams came and went, while judges and other assistants were wandering the ce all the time.

    "You are¡­?" William could tell she was a gold grade spirit master, and she wasn''t older than sixteen years old.

    "You can call me Ro, and I''m the leader of the team you kept ring at for the past couple minutes."

    William got the feeling that this wasn''t her true name. And just from such feeling, he realised how mysterious she and this team truly was.

    "I''m William," he wouldn''t lie about his name. After all, he wore the uniform of the academy, while Ro and her team didn''t wear anything that was rted to the academy.

    "Are you taking part in thepetition?" She looked quite curious about his purpose of being here, "from your looks, you are a bronze spirit master. That means you are the tenth member in one team, right?"

    "I just got admitted by coincidence to a team," William shrugged, "and I didn''t know anything about this grandpetition, so figured out toe and watch."

    "Did you like what you saw about my team then?" Just as she said that the other team members came and stood by her side.

    From the looks on their faces, William could tell they were deeply respecting her as if she was their true master or something.

    "You got a nice team there," William didn''t hide his good impression about the team, "one that got trained for a long time already."

    "We have been together for a few years, so it''s expected to be this good," she shrugged, missing the real point behind William''s words on purpose.

    "And they got a good master as well," William didn''t drop his attempts in preying over the identity of this team.

    "I''m ttered," Ro shortlyughed, "let''s meet on the stage next. What''s the name of your team?"

    "Oh, it''s a low team, one you won''t recognise," William waved his hand as if he was part of a bad team.

    "A team that has their tenth member like you isn''t a nameless team," Ro could tell how special William was, just like how thetter could read through them as well.

    "Miss Ro is overestimating my abilities," Williamughed, and refused to give in to anything rted to his team''s identity to her, "I''m just a bronze spirit master."

    "I''d like to meet you on a battleground today," Roughed, saying it as if she was just giving some face to William. But thetter could tell she was serious about such a statement.

    "We are a regr visitor to the top twenty list," and just as William was thinking about how to follow this team''s performanceter without getting busted by Ro again like this time, one of the team members spoke up, "what''s the general ranking of your team?"

    "Much lower than yours," William didn''t lie, "we are always part of the top hundred."

    "I don''t think you are going to end up this low this time," Ro gave the one who spoke from his team a stern nce, as if she was silently reprimanding him for giving William such intel for free, "I hope we meet at the sixth round or beyond."

 Chapter 209 The Top Three Teams

    "It''s a date then," William epted such a challenge with a loudugh and a joke from his side, "see you around," he waved his arm while moving away, not even caring about the ring eyes from all the team members towards his carefree attitude towards their leader.

    As he went away, he kept thinking about what he heard just now. ''Such a team ended up in the top twenty, not even in the top ten! It seems there are more interesting teams out here...''

    He felt that this trip and his on the whim decision back there was worthy of his time spent here.

    He knew if the top twenty were at least as good as this team, then he could safely assume that at least thirty teams in the entirepetition were close to such a level.

    And he got satisfied with fighting such a team. "I should continue watching before deciding anything," he knew it was too early for him to decide such a matter.

    After all, he only watched a few teams, not close to the entire grand number of a thousand or more that thispetition had.

    However, during his next free time here, he didn''t get any luck at all. The remaining fighting teams were all mediocre, and not a single team piqued his interest again.

    ''Was it just a coincidence? Or did I miss the other good teams?'' William didn''t know the answer and kept thinking about the possibility that he met the crowned champion team by mistake before.

    When he returned, he found Lucas was in the middle of exining the tactics of their next battle. In general, it was just like the past battle, except for Dorf''s role.

    In this fight, Dorf started to get more assignments other than just protecting William. That made thetter realise that Lucas was well aware of the bad attitude and habits their first opponents had.

    Just to protect him they nullified Dorf from their entire n, which made William think higher about this team.

    ''If only they can hold up for their spirit power from the start, use themon techniques instead of the strongest ones at the beginning, this team can easily reach the top twenty.''

    William could have advised them on the spot, but he refrained from doing so. It wasn''t just the issue of prioritising techniques over others, but such a way in fighting required lots of time of training.

    After all, the strongest techniques would secure lots of damage, cover uprger areas with attack, and could bring lots of trouble to the enemy and save lots of hard time for the team.

    Recing them with the weakermon techniques wasn''t just an easy move. The team needed to train on how to move, how to react to different situations, what type ofmon techniques they should use, and it''d be better if they usedmon techniques that could help each other out.

    It was a way of fighting that required more team tacit and understanding than just using brute force to win the fight.

    Not to mention the time to switch back to using the strongest techniques, and which one of these they should use, was also another headache that couldn''t be solved easily or shortly.

    "It''s time to go out, it''s good you arrived at time," Lucas smiled in a nervous way when William appeared. It seemed they thought he got scared and decided to run away.

    There wasn''t a rule stating that all the team members should be present at the arena at the time of thepetition. So even if William didn''t arrive, the team would keep fighting.

    In fact, many teams didn''t include their tenth member at theter rounds fearing a burden.

    "Let''s go," Lucas pped and encouraged his team to move out from their ce towards the outer arena. William took the chance in the middle of their walk towards there to ask:

    "What''s the team holding the grand prize each time?"

    "Do you want to leave us and join them or what?" Lucas said with a shortugh, telling William how much rxed he waspared to the first round.

    It seemed their uing opponent wasn''t someone that strong, or perhaps the team got used to the shock of facing Garlend and his team again by this time.

    "I just got curious about their identity," William smiled, "I''m part of the red falcons, and won''t join any other team today."

    "I know, I''m just joking," Lucas patted William on the back, "there are three teams who are used to exchanging the first three spots between each other. One is called The Lions, the second is called Abrasco, and the third is known as the Allure, or what others used to call them the sexydies."

    "Sexydies?!" William never heard about such a weird nickname before. And hearing it made him feel a bit weird.

    "Hahahaha, you''ll get to admit to yourself they deserve such a name when you''ll watch them fighting on the stage," Lucas couldn''t control hisughs on William''s funny expression, and the other team membersughed as well.

    "Ok, I will try and take a peek at them," William didn''t get why everyoneughed at hisment, but he decided he had to watch this team of sexydies today.

    Not only them, but the other two teams as well were added to his list of anticipated teams to watch their performance.

    "Have you heard about the Overpowers before?" As that name wasn''t part of these three, William couldn''t help but ask.

    "Overpowers? They are a good team indeed," Dorf said from the side, "they fight in a very strong way, but alwayscking what it needs to reach the top ten."

    "Oh, how so?" William''s eyes shed with interest. In his eyes, that team was quite decent and strong.

    "There are much stronger teams out there," Lucas finally got what went into William''s head, "have you watched them fight and thought they might be the strongest team out there? No, there are lots of more teams around, more than what you think."

 Chapter 210 An Idea

    "Hmm¡­" William couldn''t tell how many strong teams there were in thepetition. After all, the standards of his were quite different from the ones of the red falcon members.

    "Don''t take the general ranking to assess any team''s strength," Lucas said in a rare moment of seriousness, "there are many asions where strong teams get unlucky and fall out. Not to mention themon urrence of two hellish strong teams facing up against each other in early rounds."

    William got what Lucas meant by that. From the grand number of teams out here, such possibilities would ur indeed.

    "Let''s take down this team," Lucas rubbed his hands when he went on the fighting ground, "they aren''t that good, not like us at least."

    What Lucas said proved to be quite right. The opposite team was a mixture of fire, earth, wind, and water spirit masters. However, for a reason, their strongest techniques weren''t that strongpared with the first round team.

    William saw many of the water techniques got crushed and fell under the fire released from Lucas and others. Most of the confrontations ended up with crushing the enemies'' attacks, and only two or three members of that team were fairly decent.

    Lucas and others seemed to know this team quite well, and they targeted these decent three spirit masters from the start.

    In less than one minute, these three got removed from the stage, and then the fate of this team got sealed.

    The fight didn''tst for more than one and half minutes. After winning, the red falcons reached round three, and they were quite excited about that.

    "You go back, and I''ll keep myself here," William didn''t follow them back this time, and decided to take a trip around once more.

    He missed lots of good teams, and he wanted to see them fighting. He wasn''t interested in them, so he''d n for the future battles if the team reached higher stages.

    He was interested in knowing the current high level standard of the teams in thepetition.

    "Don''t take much longer than one hour," Lucas said in warning, "we''ll start fighting next at that battleground, number sixteen. Make sure to be here in one hour."

    "If you want, you can skip joining us for this round," Dorf suddenly said, "the team that''s going to face us next isn''t that strong anyway."

    William got that Dorf meant his presence wasn''t needed. It was an ill intentionment, but one based on facts from his and others'' opinions.

    "I will expect you," Lucas gave Dorf a ming look. ''This Lucas is indeed a good person,'' William thought to himself, while watching the team withdraw.

    William wasn''t as hopeless and powerless as they took him for. But he wouldn''t interfere until things would go south for the team.

    And he knew when that moment would be. "I will try to carry them higher, to see those stronger teams in flesh," he decided, taking this chance as a test for the overall strength of the high calibre teams.

    The round that would need his intervention would be the fifth round, when they''d meet up with Garlend and his team.

    After winning that round, William was sure the red falcons would need his help again to win the sixth round. Then he''d stop doing such miracles in the seventh round.

    "By then, I''d have seen most of the good teams," he thought to himself while starting his tour around.

    The first ten battles didn''t attract his attention. But the eleventh was a battle between two good teams.

    "Tsk! It''s just like what Lucas said¡­" William couldn''t help but sigh while watching the two good teams in front of him battle.

    The two team members knew how and when to use the right techniques to take down their enemies or escape and save themselves. The techniques used were a mixture betweenmon and strong techniques, and the two teams showed a good understanding between their members.

    "They must have trained themselves a lot," William started to take another interest in another aspect.

    This big day was a good chance for many teams to show off, ending up reaping good rewards thanks to their rankings.

    But in the end, many good teams would end up just like these two, one would win, and the other would fall and get a bad ranking.

    It was just the second round, and it meant if anyone failed here, he''d end up having a ranking around five up to seven hundred. This was quite bad actually for a good team like this.

    To William, if he brought up his team to train on this big day, then luck would y a big role in determining the teams they were going to face. He didn''t want to waste time and fight useless teams like most of the teams in the early rounds.

    "If I can, I shall find the ones leading these teams and befriend them," William looked around, deciding to get the initiative and talk to the two leaders of these two teams.

    These two weren''t just random teams. William could easily tell they belonged to some sort of strong powerhouse, either a big n, a famous family, or even a rival academy or something.

    Each of these two teams needed time, ce, resources, and good masters to make them reach such a stage. Just depending on themselves wasn''t going to work in most cases.

    He got to know Ro, and even if that wasn''t her real name, there was still some sort of friendship between the two.

    William nned to train his team first, then proactively invited these teams here to train and fight with his team.

    "As for their reward, it''s easy for me to spend a few thousand crystals from time to time¡­" William had a lot of wealth right now. Even if he didn''t yet find a way to sell his dark gold bear cores, he knew he''d eventually find the right portal to sell them at.

 Chapter 211 Meeting Good Teams

    He could guess when he''d be able to do such a thing.

    William started to speak with the two leaders of the two teams. The two were already focusing too much on the ongoing battle, and just exchanged a few words with him.

    The two were gold grade male spirit masters. William started to notice that the leaders of the bronze teams in thepetition were gold grade spirit masters, and that was the case of the good teams only.

    The normal andmon teams, be it the calibre of red falcons or Garlend''s teams, or the teams the red falcon faced, or others William watched so far, didn''t get any leaders at all.

    That told William how special these teams were. They were like informal teams of the big names in the spirit master world around the academy.

    Unlike what William expected, the two dudes were quite easy to talk to. If not only for the fight was still going on between the two teams, but he also suspected these two dudes would have invited him to a drink or something.

    William got their names, or what they just told him about, and got to establish a way tomunicate with them.

    The standard method was to use something like a paper, with one''s name and spirit power written and infused into it. Using this paper, any spirit master having it could send a short message out to the owner of this paper.

    But this sort of paper required a special group of symbols to be written on it. These symbols were behind the magic happening through using suchmunication.

    The only drawback was that if the owner of this paper was far away from the one holding it, then the magic wouldn''t happen.

    This paper was known in this world as the Message Paper, known in the outside world as the Bullet!

    William received two empty papers from the two leaders, wrote his name there and infused his spirit power inside. He also received one message paper from each, on the promise to meet upter.

    William just introduced himself as a big fan of the two teams, a general fan and supporter to any good team in thepetition. At first, the two leaders didn''t speak that much to him, and just wanted him to finish what he wanted to say and move away.

    But when William showed his sympathy towards the fate the two teams had, speaking about how unjust this situation was, the two leaders started to grow interested in William.

    They saw him as a fan to their teams, and dealing with such fans was something they wouldn''t say no to.

    After William spent a few minutes here, the battle ended. One team managed to use a tiny mistake from the other team and seized victory at the end.

    Once the fight ended, William kept his trip after saying his goodbyes to the two teams'' leaders. The two team members looked in a weird way towards William, not knowing who this dude was.

    The next round didn''t give any good result. The rest of the teams fighting here weren''t as good as the two he just saw.

    "Tsk! I should reserve a spot at the audience seats next time," William felt how silly it was to roam around, inspect each battleground, before jumping to another.

    Each stop would take at least half a minute, and getting from one battleground to another took another half up to one minute.

    If he got just a full tour around the twenty-three battlegrounds, then he''d end up wasting half an hour or more. During which, how many battles would have ended? How many teams did he miss to watch?

    "Tsk! Next time I''ll attend and watch from the audience seats," William turned his eyes towards the grand gathering of seats at the edge of this vast ce, while walking towards the sixteenth battleground.

    "You dide!" Dorf seemed to believe that William would take his past words as an excuse to miss attending the uing battles.

    William wanted to tell this dude that if he had the choice, he''d leave this arena and go towards the audience seats and watch the battles from there.

    But it was toote for him to do such a thing. The entire audience seats were all preupied with spirit masters watching the fights here.

    "I can''t let the team down," if he ended up sticking with them, William decided to add a faint touch of loyalty to his deeds, "what''s up with our next opponent?"

    "It''s just a normal team," Lucas shrugged, "the next team is also like the previous ones. Our sole hurdle will be in the fifth round."

    William felt the general atmosphere slightly shift towards nervousness again. It seemed the closer they got to face Garlend and his team, the more nervous the team would be.

    William inwardly sighed. He thought their mood would keep shifting for the better with each win they secured. But things proved him wrong.

    After crushing the third round team, which was a mediocre team evenpared to the red falcon, giving William weird thoughts about how such a team made it to this stage and one of the two good teams he witnessed before didn''t, the team went back, and William continued his search for good talents.

    This time he got lucky. He found out five of the ongoing battles during the one hour break who had interesting teams.

    In the end, he got to befriend three out of five good teams he found. Not all of the leaders were this friendly like the earlier three he met before.

    In addition to that, the same unlucky situation of good teams meeting each other got repeated in one battleground, making him inwardly sigh.

    "It''s like what Lucas said, what a misfortune," William didn''t know howe the good teams ended up meeting each other in such early stages.

    This was the third round,

    "But... I didn''t meet any of the top three yet, nor Garlend''s or Ro''s teams," William felt that the more thepetition would advance forward, the better and familiar teams he''d watch.

 Chapter 212 Getting Mocked

    He didn''t see any of these five teams yet, and that told him he had missed lots of good teams even at the third round.

    William wanted to skip attending the fourth battle and continue his tour. Yet when he saw that the teams he passed by weren''t on par with what he sought, he decided to keep heading towards the battleground of the red falcon''s next battle.

    And when he arrived there, he found the all cheering red falcon members show another look on their faces. They all looked quite gloomy, without a single one smiling or even having a calm look on his face.

    "What happened?" William knew meeting the Garlend''s team next after winning this fight here would leave a heavy pressure on them. But he never expected it to reach such a scale.

    After all, they needed to focus on the uing fight, win it first, to worryter about Garlend.

    "It''s that damn bastard!" one of the team members said in an enraged tone, referring to Garlend, "he just came a few minutes ago,ughed and mocked us, promising us a glorious sweep with the ground per his words!"

    "Damn! If not, it''s forbidden, I''d have smashed his face with my fists!" Dorf spoke in pure hatred and extreme anger, while William could only sigh.

    ''Psychic tactics¡­ Tsk,'' William knew what aim and purpose Garlend had behind such an action.

    He came here to demoralise everyone in the team, making sure he''d destabilise their confidence and might even push them to fail this round.

    Such an underhanded method was used by weaker teams or teams who weren''t that confident in their victory towards their opponents. William started to doubt the true strength of Garlend''s team, grew more interested in meeting them or watching them in a fight to better assess their strength.

    "Don''t think too much about what he said,'''' seeing them fall in the simple and yet quite deadly trap of Garlend, William slowly spoke up, "we have a fight to win first. Then we can take our time thinking about what we shall do to get that bastard back."

    "Yes, William got a point here," Lucas picked up from the end of William''s words, seemingly like a drown person who watched his team crumble without having a way to save them, and finally a straw appeared in front of his eyes, "let''s release our anger over this team, crush them fast and then go back and think about how to make that bastard suffer!"

    "Great words!"

    "Let''s do it then!"

    "Damn! I can already feel sympathy towards that team!"

    "Hahahaha! They got Garlend to me, not us, hahahaha!"

    Just like someone casted a magic spell over everyone, their attitude changed dramatically from one extreme to the other in less than a minute!

    And just as the fight started, the other team didn''t have any time to do anything before they got crushed! The red falcon victory was decisive and fast, not taking more than a minute this round.

    "It''s red falcon team victory," and with the surrender of the remaining four members of the opposite team, the judge announced such a result, "next round will be held at battlefield six. Make sure to be there in one hour."

    "We did it!"

    "We won!"

    Just as everyone was joyfully shouting and celebrating their ascension towards the next round, a group suddenly approached from far.

    "Tsk! Celebrating as if they won the entirepetition!"

    "Look, losers only act this way, hahahaha!"

    "Let them be, they''ll meet us next. They got only one hour to feel happy, hahahaha!"

    "Garlend!" Lucas gritted on his teeth while the cheerful atmosphere suddenly evaporated in thin air. William stood by the side, watching Garlend''s team members ruin the happy moments of the red falcons.

    "Come on, keep celebrating, your joy lifespan is just this short, down to one hour, hahahaha!" Garlend stepped in front of his team, pointing with two fingers to show how small their left time was.

    "I''ll make you suffer!" Lucas didn''t want to show any sign of weakness, not in front of his team.

    "Big words, big empty words, hahahaha!" Yet what he said didn''t matter, as Garlend already was an expert in trash talk, "let''s go boys. We''ll let these kids celebrate for now, and then we''ll show them how grown ups fightter on."

    Garlend led his team away while all of themughed, all but one. The kid from William''s ss kept his silence, and red all the time at William as if he was fearing a bomb would explode in his face at any second.

    William simply waved at that disciple''s direction, without saying a single word to him. That kid''s body trembled faintly when he saw William waving at him, felt like a death god just said hi to him.

    Garlend and his team were already fixed on Lucas and the red falcons. And the red falcons were already drifted away by their rage and hatred towards Garlend''s team.

    The two sides missed what happened between William and that bronze grade disciple. And even if anyone noticed, they''d not think too much about it anyway.

    "That son of b*tch¡­ I swear this time it will be our victory¡­ Let''s go, we are going to hold a meeting and discuss how to crush them once and for all!"

    Just as Garlend and his bunch of bastards moved away, Lucas exploded in the face of his team members, leading all back inside the arena.

    All but William followed. From the beginning, none ced William in their eyes at all. So when thetter stayed behind, no one even took notice of his absence or cared to invite him to join them.

    "Tsk! Knowing one''s sour spots is always a bad thing," William sighed when he watched Lucas and others moving away. He knew if he didn''t help, the red falcon''s defeat was set in stone.

    No one could win while being in such suppressive mental status. Garlend was an expert, one who could read through his foes'' weaknesses, and knew how to better exploit this to his advantage.

 Chapter 213 You Wont Participate In This!

    William knew Garlend was a jerk, but he didn''t me him for such psychological warfare. In times of war, anything was permitted to win.

    "Time to continue my tour," William threw all of this behind his back. If he was going to meet one of the good teams, one like Ro''s for example, then he''d be busy thinking about what to do to win.

    However, he got the feeling that Garlend''s team was just all talk. They weren''t even that good to make him worry about facing them.

    As William started touring the ce again, he got lucky this time. During that hour, he met ten good teams, and managed to befriend five of them.

    "Tsk! There are lots of jerks this time," he couldn''t help but curse when he left thest battleground.

    There was one good team there whom he tried to befriend. However, their leader was a vulgar outsider gold spirit master who just gave him a weird look before exploding with insults upon his face.

    If not for the judge to announce that team''s victory, William would have suspected they already lost the battle, and that leader was venting his anger over him.

    Words like: ''A mere bronze weakling trying to speak to me?'' Was amon phrase that dude used.

    William knew that his identity as a bronze spirit master was something that stopped many from befriending him. After all, most would prefer to befriend people on their level, or better be stronger than them.

    The only reason for anyone to talk nicely with him was his identity as a disciple of the academy. People didn''t know if he came from a nameless family or from a strong and formidable n or family.

    As William took the initiative to approach them, everyone took the impression that he had a big background. And only rare people like Ro got interested in himself and not his background.

    William didn''t mind any of that. Even if everyone got the wrong impression about him, in a good or a bad way, he was still happy with his gains.

    He got to befriend ten good teams, got their Bullets, and he could deal with themter after forming his team.

    As for worrying about their reaction, if any discovered his true identity, one without anyone backing him up, it wasn''t that kind of a problem to him.

    "No one will say no to crystals," he knew their weak spot. Even if he suspected that few of these teams came here to train their members, either sent by big ns, families, or even rivalling academies, most came here to gain free wealth.

    William knew after the end of thispetition; he''d start to work on two things. First, he''d start assembling his team, and then he''d venture outside, go to the ce he wanted, sell as many cores there as he could, thene back and start talking with these teams.

    With enough crystals as a reward for their cooperation, not a single team would say no to his offer. And when they''d see how unique and strong his team was, those who sought training their members would take the initiative toe without even getting paid.

    "Reputation matters¡­" William muttered to himself while walking towards the battleground specified by the judge from thest round.

    Wealth mattered to most, and reputation also mattered as well. If he managed to make a name for himself here, he''d leave a good impression and might attract the attention of those who refused to talk to him before.

    Building up a name for himself, a name for his teamter on was a must. Good reputation could solve many problems without the need to think or worry about how to solve them, without the need to spend a single spirit crystal at all.

    Thanks to his repeated tours, William got to memorise the entire ce like the back of his hand. He arrived at the battleground fast enough, to be met with something he never expected.

    "Sorry William, but we can''t risk involving you in this fight!"

    "...!"

    Just when he arrived there, he found all of the red falcon members on the stage, all but Lucas who was left behind to meet him.

    Lucas blocked his path and suddenly said that instead of greeting him like usual. From the look on his face, William knew how heavy the pressure that silver spirit master was holding on his shoulders.

    "Why?" William never expected such a decision from them at all.

    "Garlend isn''t that low to target the tenth member of our team, but¡­"

    William could see through the unspoken words of Lucas. "You got something to do to take them down?" William couldn''t help but ask, and Lucas slowly nodded.

    "It''s something we didn''t use before¡­ And after that we''ll be all weak to defend you¡­"

    William inwardly sighed. To take Garlend down, the red falcons were going to risk using something they couldn''t properly handle with their current power.

    Even if William didn''t get the details of such a fierce move, he could already tell the red falcons weren''t able to handle such a move or perfectly execute it.

    On the other hand, this move was enough to take down many of Garlend''s team, but not all.

    Garlend and others would be very enraged by this move, to the extent of wanting to take down the entire red falcon members, including the tenth member.

    Seeing how desperate they were, to pull such a move that wasn''t even enough to secure their victory, made William unable to decide if Lucas and his friends were idiots or quite brave.

    "I will take part in the fight, don''t try to stop me," the more William saw his determined face, the more he wanted to go up there and join the fight to save them.

    Killing was forbidden in the arena, but mortal wounds and severe injuries weren''t. So even if they''d get out with their heads on their shoulders after this fight, there was no guarantee for them to continue being spirit masters after that.

 Chapter 214 The Battle Starts

    William didn''t hate these kids, and he wanted to use their achievement in thispetition to make a name for himself. And he hated seeing them getting crippled in such meaningless fights.

    "William¡­" Lucas paused, as if he was struggling with how he should say his next words, "we already agreed with Garlend and his team¡­ This fight¡­ It''s a fight till death."

    "...!!!"

    This time, William''s shock and surprise went way beyond what he imagined. It seemed Lucas and his team got pressured too much to the limit of wanting to throw their lives away just to get rid of such a feud with Garlend''s team.

    It was either they''d survive and win this round, getting rid of their trouble once and for all, or the other way around.

    No matter how William saw it, he couldn''t help but see how determined this team was to get rid of the source of their troubles. And no matter how he thought how foolish and suicidal of them to do so, he still admired their bravery and decisiveness.

    "So, it''s better if you remain out of our business¡­ Wish us luck!"

    William realised that such a decision from the red falcons came from worrying about his life. Even when they decided to act insane, they still thought and worried about dragging him to their mess.

    "What are you doing?!!"

    And just as Lucas said hisst words, he moved towards the arena as the judge was about to give them the one minute period to prepare.

    Garlend and his team had already arrived on the stage. And unlike their loud mouths from before, they stood in silence, watching the red falcons without even saying greetings.

    Just when Lucas moved on the stage, he saw William jumping the few stairs and stood by his side. Lucas got instantly shocked, and quite scared.

    "Don''t you get what I said? This isn''t just a normal battle, it''s a fight to death!"

    "William... Don''t risk it, it doesn''t worth it," Dorf stepped in and said, trying to convince William to retreat.

    And in the next few seconds, almost all of the team members came and said a thing or two, doing their best to push William down off the stage.

    "Pathetic!" and just before William would speak up to stop any of their attempts, Garlend spoke first, "a bunch of idiots! What do you want to achieve here? Caring this much about the life of some worm that joined you a few hours ago? Take my advice and prepare your coffins instead of wasting your breaths and time on saving that useless trash''s life!"

    His words angered everyone, but not William. Thetter didn''t take any insult from what Garlend said. In his eyes, Garlend was already dead.

    And no matter how he insulted and cursed him, that wouldn''t change the end result of killing him.

    "Don''t listen to him," Lucas knew what Garlend wanted to achieve by his words, "don''t follow his trap and just leave, please."

    "No, I''m going to stay and fight," and just when William moved his eyes around, he spotted a familiar face approaching from the distance.

    It was Ro! And from the look on her face, he knew she wasing to watch him.

    "B¡­ But¡­"

    "Each team, please take one minute to prepare and then fight!"

    Just in the middle of Dorf''s words, the judge appeared on the battleground, interrupting and putting an end to what the red falcon wanted to say and do with William.

    "It''s decided," William shrugged, "go on with your ns, and I''ll handle my life quite well."

    "Dorf¡­"

    "Don''t," William interrupted Lucas as he knew what this dude wanted Dorf to do, "just do what you already nned. I told you; I can keep my life safe."

    "...!"

    "Don''t give me this look," William shortlyughed, "I''m not that weak, you''ll get to know that."

    No one here believed what William said, not even the judge who was overseeing such weird team members standing around the weak and tenth member, trying to convince him to leave and surrender this battle.

    Even Garlend took such words as a useless show of fake and fragile confidence, driving him tough while feeling how pathetic this team was.

    "As agreed," one minute passed fast and the judge''s wordsnded, "you are going to fight to death. The victor will be decided either by surrendering of the entire team members, getting killed, or jumping off the stage."

    The judge narrated the different conditions where any team would lose this round. The totems of rescue were still active, but they required one to actively touch them to work.

    "Start!"

    The moment the judge said it, the two teams jumped at each other''s'' throat.

    "Let''s do it!" and just before William would move a finger, Lucas'' loud voice echoed, and the nine members of the red falcon team surrounded him in a circle, ignoring all the iing attacks.

    The red falcon team nned to make something big, William already knew that. But he never imagined they nned to make abined attack!

    Doing this was indeed quite risky. If the team didn''t prepare beforehand, train quite well on doing it, then the entire attack would backfire and engulf them instead of assaulting their enemies.

    Trying to merge various techniques from different spirit masters was something that any spirit master with brain cells would think about.

    But to pull such a feat, one had to extensively research other spirit masters'' techniques, their spirit power consumption rate, and the most important thing was the amount of power released by each attack.

    Trying to merge different elemental attacks together without controlling one''s power in each attack would result in failing the entire process.

    Increasing too much power into any attack or too low spirit power would result in failure. Too much strength poured in one attack might negate and even crush the other attacks in thebo.

    William''s interest piqued the moment he saw such an arrangement. The circle line up was one of the most basic and simplest, yet famous line up ofbining any attacks of any group of spirit masters.

 Chapter 215 Doing Something No One Expected!

    Thatmon merging way worked by surrounding one of the team, acting as the main damage Outputer spirit master. Others would release energy, augmenting and helping that Outputer to release an attack that was much fiercer than his current grade and spirit power limits.

    The burden totally lied on the spirit master in the centre, not on the ones in the circle around, as anyone might mistakenly believe at first.

    William knew the maestro of thisbo attack was Lucas. Thetter was the one who could modify his attack, to either ept or crush any attack added from those in the circle around him.

    The attacksing from the circle would have many anomalies and mistakes, not to mention contradictions against each other. Itid on the shoulders of Lucas to modify the output of his spirit power, to make sure the final attack would merge with others.

    If he failed to do so, if the amount of errorsing out from the other spirit masters was too much for Lucas to handle, then the final attack would fail.

    The end result would be quite disastrous if that happened! The attacks released would explode, attacking Lucas first, before going all out and engulfing everyone in the circle around him.

    Seeing this made William realise why the red falcons proposed the death match in the first ce. After all, their lives were at grave risk if this attack failed.

    William got nothing in his power to handle such a thing. It was like a bomb that was going to either get defused or explode at the one trying to deal with it.

    No one but that person was able to interfere and make decisions to either save his life, and the lives of others, or send everything away with the wind.

    William watched with interest what was going on while the attacks that came from Garlend and his team got negated by the sudden burst of energy from the circle.

    *Bang!* *Bang!*

    Sounds of explosions erupted from their direction. As the attacks were aimed at all the members of the red falcon team, William also got his share of such attacks.

    However, facing such random attacksing from silver spirit masters didn''t ce too much pressure over him. William simply moved away from the attack zone, using simple evasive moves.

    After all, the main focus of these attacks was on the other red falcon team members, not him.

    William kept watching the red falcons increase their energy output, while Lucas started to get engulfed with a ball of different lights, as he raised his sword high in the air.

    It was clear what that dude intended to do. He was going to merge all the attacksing from his eight teammates, merge them together in one grand sword sh that was enough to take down most, if not all of Garlend''s team.

    As for thetter, they felt something was amiss, and started to unleash another volley of attacks towards that circle, totally ignoring William this time.

    The attacks ended up quite the same, getting negated by the mixture of the spirit powersing from the red falcons.

    "Will they do it?" William asked himself this question, while watching the different colours of brown, red, blue, and silver getting mixed together at a slow pace.

    One second after another slowly passed, and just after half a minute, something unexpected happened.

    "This...!!!" William''s shock was unmeasurable! He never took what Lucas hinted at before in such a way.

    Lucas tried to warn him that the method they nned to use was going to greatly enrage Garlend and his team. William thought that by taking down many if not most of Garlend''s team using this merge attack was what Lucas meant.

    But when the nine red falcons started to slowly walk towards their foes, taking unified steps while keeping the general circr lineup intact, William finally got what they intended to do.

    "Damn! They never managed to pull such an attack before! And instead of trying to make it seed, they nned to just go to their enemies, detonate the attack and take their lives alongside their foes!!!"

    It was indeed quite the shock when William realised this. These fools got pressured to the extent of deciding to risk everything to take their foes down!

    "This is going to end up quite bad," William knew this might look like a good n on paper, but in real battles, this was destined to fail.

    The enemy wouldn''t stand idle and wait for the red falcons to arrive and take them down with them. William moved his eyes over, looked at Garlend and his team.

    As he expected, at first the team was quite petrified by what the red falcons did. However, after a few seconds, they started to react.

    Merging different techniques together wasn''t that alien to anyone in this world as William suspected. The moment that team recognised what the red falcons wanted to do, they dispersed, got themselves as far from this ticking bomb as possible.

    However, Lucas and others didn''t give them much time to get away before they released their swelled up attack.

    And that was why they wasted half a minute back there, faking their struggle tobine the entire techniques together, just to finish charging up their deadly move.

    The attack started to go berserk, releasing a ball of energy that expanded all over the ce. William saw six of Garlend''s team getting swallowed inside that ball of light, before a fierce explosion erupted.

    "This is going to be bad," William got pushed by the shockwave of that explosion, had to take out his gold grade sword and insert it in the ground, leaving behind a trail before his body stabilised.

    He stopped just ten metres away from the edge of the arena, feeling pain all over his body.

    He didn''t get much damage thanks to his gold grade sword he used as a shield, but he still felt terrible.

 Chapter 216 William Finally Acts

    Looking around, he saw many bodies thrown on the ground, bleeding from many ces and wounds, while two got thrown in the air, falling off the arena.

    These two were part of Garlend''s team. They ended up rolling in the air after getting hit by the shockwave and aftermath of such an explosion. As they got out of the arena, they got disqualified by rules.

    "To think about doing such a thing to win¡­ And you dare to call yourselves spirit masters¡­ How low of you!"

    Just when William was checking over Lucas and others from his spot, checking that they were still alive, Garlend''s deep voice came as he slowly stood up.

    He wasn''t the only one to rise, three others did. Two of these three got many wounds, but not as severe as everyone else.

    "Judge¡­ We conc¡­" just before Lucas'' weak voice would continue what he wanted to say, one of the three who stood up moved fast, kicking Lucas'' abdomen, throwing him rolling on the ground for a few metres, interrupting his surrendering words.

    Seeing Lucas lying down there, with his face covered in mud and blood, seeing his eyes looking in pleading towards William, asking him to issue the surrender on their behalf, drove William''s blood way over the boiling degree.

    William clenched the handle of his sword, looked at these four standing on the stage while everyone else was lying down, unable even to issue a single sound anymore.

    Lucas gathered up what remained of his power and tried to issue a surrender back there, to end up getting kicked mercilessly in such a humiliating way. He didn''t have any remaining energy to even scream and used his eyes to ask William to surrender.

    "You bunch of pathetic fools¡­ You did all this and even dream about leaving? Surrender? If you wanted to surrender from the start, why the heck did you do all this to my team in the first ce?"

    This time, it was Garlend who kicked Lucas away in the middle of his immense rage and hatred. His eyes went all red, and his body kept trembling out of his exploding rage.

    "If you start something, then you shall be prepared to carry the consequences of it!"

    "Nicely said," just before Garlend and others would vent their anger over the all helpless and powerless red falcons on the ground, William pped from the other end of the arena, with a calm look on his face.

    If that dude from his ss was still here, not getting thrown in the air a few seconds earlier, he''d know how dead serious and quite dangerous William was at this moment.

    "You are still standing?" Garlend tilted his head, giving William a weird look, "go, chop his limbs off, but don''t kill him yet," he added, motioning to two of the three still standing on his side to go and target William.

    "If you want to concede, you can do it on behalf of others," even the judge didn''t like what was going on in the battleground. He couldn''t directly interfere per rules, but he at least could issue an honest advice to William.

    William knew what Garlend meant by his words. To activate the rescue totems, one had to actively touch it. By asking his men to chop William''s arms, it was like asking them to stop him from escaping using totems.

    Under such heavy pressureing from the entire bloody battleground, from the suffocating silence that came from the direction of the audience seats, from having the fates and lives of this nice team in his hands, William stood erect with a tall and straight back, facing the two running spirit masters towards him with a calm smile on his face.

    Anyone watching him right now would suspect he might have gone crazy, forgetting about what he should better do right now. William shouldn''t stand there idly and smiling, he should hurry to issue a surrender and save his team''s life.

    Even if he was a heartless dude and didn''t care about any of the others in his team, he should at least hurry and either touch his rescue totem or even jump off the stage to get disqualified.

    He should move fast to save, at least, his life, not stand like this in the face of death.

    The audience in the entire Grand arena got their eyes fixated over this battleground. What happened here was the bloodiest and cruellest thing that ever happened on this day and would evene at the top five most shocking events that happened in all thepetitions that happened for years in the arena.

    "Run for your life!"

    "Use the totem!"

    "Escape!"

    "Save others and surrender!"

    "Lose a battle and live to fight another day, moron!"

    "What an idiot he is!"

    And in the next few seconds, many shouts came from the direction of the audience and rang all over the ce. Many started to advise, insult, and even curse William''s weak heart and uselessness at such a decisive moment.

    However, William stood in his ce, totally ignoring all of this!

    In his eyes, it seemed like he was standing alone on the top of the world, watching others struggle to climb up to his ce. Fear? Doubt? Run away? No way! He''d never even consider such things at all!

    "I can kill them, right judge?" out of the blue, and just as the two silver grade spirit masters whom Garlend sent were less than twenty metres away from him, William slowly opened his mouth and said these weird words.

    "You can," the judge didn''t get what went wrong in that kid''s mind, but he reflexively answered out of habit of being a judge in the Grand Arena.

    "Great," William tilted the corner of his mouth, raised his sword before all of sudden, he vanished, "you deserve to die!"

    The move he used was nothing else but his lightning spirit element speeding up move. It was enough to take him for one hundred metres, crossing it in mere seconds. But this time he controlled it to just travel for forty metres in less than one second.

 Chapter 217 The Black Mamba

    Like a bolt of lightning, William vanished from the sight of the two spirit masters who were less than ten metres away from him, vanished from the sight of Garlend the other spirit master by thetter''s side, vanished from the sight of the audience, even from the judge''s keen and worried eyes!

    In William''s vision, he twisted and moved in between the two iing hostile spirit masters, simply hitting each with his sword, aiming for a neck and chest.

    When he appeared again, he was standing near the other end of the arena, with a sword which got blood dripping from its edge.

    The entire world went under a weird crashing heavy silence at this moment. Everyone, be it a foe, spirit masters fighting at other battlefields, the audience, even the judges¡­ They all stopped in their tracks, turned and focused on such a silence and awe towards William.

    William didn''t get it, but when he used his move, an ear deafening thunderous explosive voice erupted, making even the battling teams around stop in their tracks, and look towards his direction.

    Those who were already watching had their jaws drop and their saliva started to fall off their gaped open mouths! No one could tell what the heck just happened, no one could tell what William just did.

    *Thud!* *Thud!*

    And as if the scene missed the final touch to it, two thuds echoed at the next second, as the two spirit masters William attacked fell to the ground motionless.

    Two slowly growing pools of blood erupted from their bodies, telling everyone the end result of these two.

    They were silver grade spirit masters, one entire rank higher than William. And yet that bronze spirit master, who was many years younger, who looked like a candle me on the verge of dying at any moment, was able to take these two down with one move! Just a single move! And without even activating his spirit!!

    It was quite shocking, terrifying, unbelievable to all but one¡­ The same person who pulled such a miraculous feat.

    "You are going to fall next," William slowly turned, faced thest remaining member of Garlend''s team, standing just twenty metres from thetter. The moment William turned and sat his eyes on that dude, his body trembled as if he got eyed by a death god or something.

    "No¡­ I conc¡­" that dude hurried to run to the edge of the arena, tried to touch the rescue emblem at the same time, while shouting his words of surrender to save his life.

    He didn''t care how William did it, he didn''t care about his team winning or losing this battle anymore. All he cared about at this moment was his life.

    "You won''t get any different treatment than what you showed to my team," and before he''dplete any of these desperate attempts to save his life, William moved again. This time, William elerated for just thirty metres, before appearing by the side of that poor dude in a blink of an eye.

    "No!" He was a silver grade earth spirit master, and his desire to live overwhelmed his fear. Without even grasping how William did it, and before even hearing William''s words, he heard the thunderous booming sound that erupted with William''s fast move, making his heart skip a beat.

    He halted anything he nned to do, and simply used his fastest, simplest, and strongest defensive technique, the earth shield, out of reflex and his instinct to live.

    His body got enveloped in a strong lookingyer of brown energy that took the shape of an oval looking shield quite fast.

    "Nice response," William saw that oval shield appearing in front of him, "but it''s unfortunate that you met me!"

    *Rumble!*

    Another explosive sound erupted. William activated the same technique again, jumping for five metres this time, appearing just at the opposite side of that dude.

    "No!" It was Garlend this time who shouted when William did that. Garlend saw all this unfolding in front of his eyes, he saw William sh, appear at the other side of where his fellowst team member formed his shield.

    Once Garlend saw this, he knew his mate was done for if William connected this move with an attack from his deadly sword.

    Garlend did never have any emotions towards his team in the first ce. In his eyes, they were just disposable pawns. But letting thest member of his team get killed or disqualified would end quite badly for him.

    He didn''t know what went wrong with that tenth member of the red falcon team. Just when Garlend thought this battle was his guaranteed win, just when he envisioned taking the other team down, tearing them apart, and making an example out of them, tables turned around over him, in a way that he still didn''t grasp or ept!

    To add more to his shock, this all came from the only member he never ced in his eyes before.

    So, in such a moment of life and death, he instantly activated his spirit, out of fear. His body got covered up with fine scales, a long thin tail, and one horn.

    "The Grand ck Mamba n?!" This wasn''t just a shocking realisation for William, but for everyone else watching this battle.

    "You are¡­ A direct dark spirit master''s bloodline! You are part of the ck Mamba n!" The judge, who stood watching what was happening in utter disbelief, couldn''t help but mutter in another and different type of shock.

    He wasn''t the only one who felt like this. After all, the ck Mamba n was one of the strongest and most ferocious ns in the dark spirit mastermunity, and they were active around the academy.

    Many spirit masters in the academy or in ns and families around fell on the hands of the ck Mambas.

    "F*ck it!" Garlend knew he blew his cover the moment he heard the wordsing from William and the judge. "As I already got found out and reached this point, I''ll kill you first, then escape."

    "Keep dreaming!" the judge roared, yet before he''d move a single finger, another shout came from the direction of the arena, stopping the judge in his tracks.

    "He is mine! Don''t interfere in this!" William shouted while his sword and movement didn''t even halt for the slightest when Garlend activated his spirit.

 Chapter 218 A Deadly Fight

    From what William knew, there was a n in the dark spirit mastermunity in the outer world known as the Grand ck Mamba. They were indeed dangerous and deadly, thanks to their darkness spirit element.

    It seemed they got a rtive here in this tiny world, and it was known by the same name without the ''Grand'' word.

    The difference between the two n''s spirits was obvious to William. This Garlend had one horn while the weakest and youngest Grand Mambas had five!

    Not to mention the size of the scales appearing on Garlend''s body were smaller than what William used to see on the Grand ck Mambas.

    As Garlend got momentarily stopped thanks to getting his identity discovered, William''s sword didn''t stop.

    "Ahh!" The heart curdling scream that came next made the body of Garlend tremble in anger. Thest member standing on his team got stabbed by William''s deadly sword, ending up thrown in the air for tens of metres, falling down there outside the arena.

    At this moment, there was no use in clinging to the rules of thepetition. As Garlend''s identity got blown out, he knew no one would care about rules anymore.

    "Don''t bother with anyone else," William''s words came at this moment of Garlend''s hesitation, "I''m the one you shall worry about."

    "Humph! You just got lucky," Garlend''s hatred got reignited the instant he heard William''s words. "If not for hiding yourself too deep and well, we''d have killed you first before dealing with anyone else in this pathetic bunch of losers."

    In Garlend''s eyes, William was no way a bronze spirit master. Like himself, that dude must have controlled his spirit power, lowering it to the bronze level.

    If Garlend knew this beforehand, he''d ask his team to focus solely on William, taking him off first from the battle as fast as possible. If he knew and did that, none of this would have even happened!

    Garlend didn''t stop anymore. He knew he got little time in his hands before the true terrifying elites of the academy would arrive.

    If he already showed his true identity, then he should go all out. Garlend''s vibe suddenly changed, while his aura started to skyrocket.

    "You¡­ You aren''t a silver spirit master¡­ But gold!" The judge felt anxious the moment Garlend revealed his true strength. The spirit power emitted from him changed the colour from silver to pale gold in the next few seconds.

    "Hahahaha, you idiots! There is a trick in this world known to control one''s spirit power, hahahaha!" as if he scored a goal or something, Garlendughed.

    In his eyes, William was a silver grade spirit master, at most a gold grade one. Being at the same grade as William and the judge made Garlend feel more reassured about his ns to kill these two and then escapeter on from here.

    "Die!" without any warning, and in the middle of hisughs, he suddenly shed, moved in a fast fashion forward, heading towards William.

    Garlend ced his top priority over taking William down first, venting part of his anger by seeing him falling dead on his hands, before turning his attention to deal with the judge and try to escape.

    "Watch out! He is a darkness element spirit master¡­" the judge wanted to jump in, intervene and stop Garlend, but he knew he''d be toote to do so.

    So, he shouted, trying to warn William, wanting to tell him to activate the rescue totem to escape with his life intact.

    However, in the middle of his words, and before he''dpleted what he wanted to say, a mind blowing thing happened.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    Out of nowhere, five knives appeared, shing against five different spots that were all around William''s blind spots, stopping all the hidden and sneaky attacks that came asking for his life.

    *Fwoosh!* and the next instant, William vanished, shed for five metres, bypassing the iing behemoth in front of him, and hitting Garlend with his sword and flying knives.

    "You¡­" Garlend''s dash stopped abruptly while parts of his scales fell. If anyone looked closer, they''d see in the ces where these scales vanished, small and short stub-like pieces of flesh were there, bleeding profusely with red blood.

    "How did you know¡­?!!" Garlend''s face didn''t appear from the thick scales covering up his entire body and face. However, William was sure he was quite scared and shaken.

    "I know more than what you possibly imagine," William waved his sword, controlled his knives to fly in short circles, cleansing them of Galrend''s blood.

    "I will kill you!" Garlend roared, but he wasn''t like before. He was like a terribly wounded beast, one who got hacked and trapped by hunters, lost much of his flesh and strength.

    If any other spirit master faced Garlend, even if he was a dark gold grade, he might have fallen under the deadly attack Garlend just issued.

    But William was well aware of how the Grand ck Mambas fought. He fought against members of this hideous n many times before, got wounded by many of them, and killed tons of their members.

    William didn''t know how the ck Mambas in this world differ from the Grand ck Mambas he was well acquainted with. But when Garlend dashed forward in such a way, and when he heard the subtle soft noises of something cracking, William got what was going to happen.

    It was the Five ck Fangs attack. This kind of attack wasn''t that deadly actually if one knew where these fangs would attack from.

    The five fangsing at William weren''t guarded by any scales! They were just vulnerable, and in front of his knives and sword, they got chopped off quite easily!

    The sneaky part of this attack lied mainly in deception. Just like Garlend here, he dashed forward, taking all the focus and attention of William on blocking his iing body, while five long and cylindrical limbs would pop out from Garlend''s body, circle around William, and hit him from his blind spots at his back and nks.

 Chapter 219 The Lighting Spirit Element

    It was a sort of attack that would be easily countered if one knew what was going to happen. But if the spirit master didn''t, no matter how he tried to defend, he''d end up getting wounded by these fangs.

    The deadliest part of these fangsid in the venom they carried. It was a venom that had no antidote but one that could be made by the Grand ck Mamba member who initiated the attack himself.

    In brief, once got hit, it was the end story for the spirit master facing any Grand ck Mamba. And the scariest thing was that just one hit was enough, and the Grand ck Mamba member would retreat, leaving his foe to his demise awaiting him by the venom running in his body.

    William knew all this about the more terrifying rtives of Garlend at the outer world. But he assumed there wasn''t much of a difference between the two rtives and acted based on that.

    And luckily for him, he was correct about doing so!

    That was Garlend''s n. He wanted to just hit William, poison him, then activate his escaping scroll to get himself away.

    He was pretty much confident in his ability to do so. After all, he was a gold spirit master, using the darkness spirit element, and fighting at most a gold spirit master with no spirit activated, no spirit element used, nor knew anything about how the ck Mambas used to fight.

    Garlend missed little details here. William was a bronze spirit master not someone who covered up his true strength like him. But his sword was a gold grade weapon. His flying knives weren''t that bad, almost close to silver grade weapons.

    And he also missed something that was right in front of his eyes all the time¡­ William was using a lightning spirit element in the past attacks!

    Garlend didn''t have enough time to analyse anything William did, nor was he focused on him in the first ce when William started his deadly storm.

    In Garlend''s eyes, the simplest exnation was that William used a high end technique, one that wasn''t supposed to be used by bronze spirit masters.

    Garlend mistook William''s actions, feeling thetter started to reveal his true power to use that technique.

    And if William wasn''t a stronger spirit master who covered up his strength, then there was another exnation for all that¡­ William burned his spirit power to have enough power to use such a technique.

    That meant William was burning his life away to take him and his team down. In such cases, spirit masters wouldn''t have much time to use such explosive power, and they''d grow weak gradually and steadily until they''d fall down and die.

    Garlend estimated that William already was on the declining curve of his power if that was the case here. So, the idea of his foe countering his sneaky and deadly attack in such a perfect way never crossed his mind until he saw it happening in front of him.

    And that wasn''t all!

    Garlend started to feel a weird burning sensation starting from the ces of his severed fangs.

    "Have you started feeling it already?" It was like the seats got switched, and Garlend became the bronze spirit master and William was the gold grade one.

    Garlend''s body faintly trembled while a terrifying thought started to appear inside his mind, one unbelievable and scary thought that made his body tremble with shock and fear.

    "No way! No f*cking way! You¡­ You¡­"

    "Sorry, but you messed with the wrong bronze spirit master today," William was putting up a strong front, but he was indeed feeling quite exhausted.

    He tried to control his lightning technique but ended up consuming most of his spirit power.

    He knew he had one chance left to take this dude down, and so he decided to waste a bit of time for different reasons.

    He knew despite how easy it was to block the attacks of Grand ck Mambas, it was very hard tond a hit over them.

    They were quite slippery, with a darkness element supporting their movements, they could evade any iing attack no matter how fast it was.

    William was two grades lower than this dude, and that meant Garlend got a much more abundant amount of spirit power to use than William. Not to mention his strength, speed, and defences were all on the top of the chartpared with William.

    So, trying to take this dude when he was this vignt was a hopeless task.

    William ced his hopes on other things than his own technique. Even if he dared tounch his Holy Sword technique, which was quite a gamble with his currently low level of spirit power, he knew the chances of sess were slim.

    To take down such an enemy, there was one thing William could do. Taking any member of the Grand ck Mambas down needed a surprise element as a crucial set up.

    Just like how William did it before, using his flying knives to negate Garlend''s attack, chopping his five fangs off, and infusing his lightning spirit power inside Garlend''s body.

    Garlend used the darkness element, which was the nemesis of the lightning element. William wanted to waste time not only to wait for more formidable spirit masters to arrive, but to let his lightning element infiltrate deeper into Garlend''s body, cause more damage through its unique purification effect.

    "Damn you!" Garlend wasn''t stupid. He instantly read through William''s intentions. "Try to stop me from leaving!" As a precaution, Garlend always kept an escape scroll in his ring.

    It was a precious thing actually, but to someone like Garlend, it was nothing.

    And at such a critical moment, he didn''t dare to stay behind any second longer. He knew if he got time, he''d take this annoying bronze spirit master in front of him down.

    After thatst exchange with William, Garlend got that thetter didn''t hide his strength at all.

 Chapter 220 Light Spirit Element

    Garlend could already feel it, William was indeed and truly a bronze spirit master. And that meant William got little time left to use his spirit power and sneakily techniques and weapons before falling weakly on the stage.

    But there were far threatening enemies drawing closer to here with each passing second. Not to mention those scary dark gold masters in the academy who could simply teleport here in a blink of an eye.

    Risking himself by being in the face of such grave danger wasn''t in the code of the dark spirit masters. They were sneaky kind of bastards who loved to y schemes and tricks from behind the curtain and keep themselves hidden in the shadows.

    "Humph, as if I''ll let you use it!" William instantly recognised the scroll in Garlend''s hand and got what his foe intended to do. Finally, he acted, lifted his sword and shed, using his technique for thest time in this battle.

    "Hahahaha! You truly underestimate the ck Mambas! Hahahaha!" Garlend knew William was going to hit him the moment he''d take out his scroll. In fact, he expected even the judge on the side of the arena would jump in, do everything in his power to try and stop him from leaving.

    So, the moment William shed and vanished from his sight, Garlend also moved. They were standing close to the edge of the arena, and the most logical and safest path for him was to jump off the arena, blend with the masses starting to gather all over this ce, buy enough time to activate his scroll and leave this academy forever.

    *ng!*

    However¡­ Things didn''t happen the exact same way Garlend envisioned!

    Just as his body shed, headed towards the close by edge of the arena to jump off, evading the iing attack of William''s sword and five knives, five more knives suddenly appeared from his front, shing fiercely at his body, sending him back to the arena, falling down there and rolling over the ground for few metres.

    "And I have to tell you this¡­" William appeared next to the ce where Garlend''s body was rolling, raised his sword with both hands, "you truly underestimated me!"

    "Ahhh!" and before Garlend would stabilise himself, the sword got inserted fiercely into his body, pinning him to the ground, and releasing thest bits of William''s spirit power that got powered up with the lightning spirit element.

    Likeva gushed over a block of ice, Garlend felt his body scorching hot as a burning sensation starting from the stabbing point of William''s sword, spreading fast all over his body.

    As a reflex, he swayed his tail, hitting William fiercely and sending him flying in the air.

    William already spent all of his spirit power in thatst attack. He knew the true intentions of his enemy and read through what Garlend wanted to do.

    Comparing the two enemies'' spirit powers, there was a huge gulf that William was unable to cover. Butparing the rich battle experience, William came on top, with a huge gap between him and his foe.

    William just used five of his flying knives, and he could still use more if he wanted to. But he refrained from showing all his knives to the enemy, making thetter mistakenly believe that he only got these five.

    William took out five knives the moment he started to dash forward, released and controlled them to head towards the directions Garlend was mostly going to take.

    And when one of these knives hit Garlend''s hidden body, others flooded towards that direction, fiercely mming against Garlend, sending him back to the stage.

    William seeded, but he got no power to resist the attack he just suffered. The hit wasn''t that simple and didn''t end there. The tail rose high in the air, arched in midair, acting like a whip, engulfed in Garlend''s enraged darkness spirit power, prepared to follow this strike with a deadly one.

    The moment William''s body would touch the ground, he''d be gone for. William knew that, and he felt too much frustration for having no spirit power to defend the iing attack, or even evade it.

    "Got you!" Just when William was wrecking his mind, thinking about what he could do to avoid the deadly Whipping Grand ck Mamba Tail attack that wasing so damn fast towards him, he felt his body getting carried away by someone, while a familiar voice echoed in his ears.

    "Ro?!!!" William totally forgot about this gold grade expert standing all this time beside the arena. She came at the early moments of this battle to watch how William and his team would perform in this fight.

    No one, even William himself, expected that this battle would take such a sharp and shocking turn in events, revealing one of the deadliest and most hated dark spirit master n members.

    At the moment when the judge didn''t give any heed anymore to William''s previous words, deciding to take the chance that William created by weakening and severely wounding Garlend to take that dude out, Ro acted differently, moved to save William from the iing deadly tail.

    "Thanks¡­"

    "Just stay here," Ro took him all the way out of the arena,nded his body on the ground, "you already did more than enough. Let others handle this dirty despicable spirit master."

    As she said it, she vanished again, moving fast towards the arena to help the judge and others who just arrived to take down Garlend.

    William knew he already did what he could, weakening that gold grade spirit master using his lightning spirit element, knives, and sword.

    "Light spirit element¡­ Interesting," Just as Ro shed and vanished from his sight, William could recognise what type of spirit element she used in such a move.

    He was weak, but he wasn''t blind. Seeing her using that rare spirit element made William surer about his earlier guess about the true identity of this girl.

    ''She must be from another academy or a very big n or something,'' William knew it was so rare to find such a good spirit master around.

 Chapter 221 This Is Going To Be A Big Event!

    If the academy knew someone like her existed here, and still didn''t act with all their might to rope her in, meant one thing for William¡­ Her background was something even the academy feared to touch!

    *Bang!* *Boom!* *Bang!*

    Just weakening a ck Mamba''s member wasn''t enough to take him down. The battle was so fierce andsted for the entire ten minutes, yet for a reason it never crossed out the border of that stage.

    William could feel the presence of many scary figures after five minutes, and yet the battlested for five more minutes before it got concluded.

    "So¡­ The hidden dark spirit masters here decided to act to save Garlend¡­ Weird!" William could tell what was going on even when he was sitting on the ground, training and replenishing his lost spirit power.

    After ten minutes, he got enough to stand up and move freely without feeling any weakness.

    Once he stood up, he saw what he missed. An array already was there, isting the entire Grand arena from outside. At the same time, there was another smaller one surrounding the battleground he was fighting previously at.

    Lucas and others were nowhere to see, and that told him they got rescued and moved away from here just like what Ro did with him.

    Inside and outside the battleground array, there were many figures shing and fighting, turning the entire ce into a grand mess.

    William could tell there were at least a hundred gold grade spirit masters fighting each other, while many more were fighting away from his spot. He felt scary waves of powering from different directions, telling him there were dark gold spirit masters on both sides, and joined this battle already.

    "Why are you staying like this? Daydreaming in the middle of this? Come on! Move as far away as possible and leave!"

    Just as he stood in his ce, watching the results of what he already initiated by pure coincidence, Ro shed again and appeared next to him.

    "The ce is sealed," William shrugged, as if this was something he could do nothing about.

    "Take this first," she handed a small orb to him, "it''s the passcode to outside. Also take this, I collected these for you."

    When William got hit and thrown into the air by Garlend''s tail, he left behind his sword and flying knives.

    Ro was nice to go and collect these, telling William that Garlend was already dead, and this entire battle escted to reach other hidden dark spirit masters in the arena.

    William didn''t know what was special about Garlend, to the extent of forcing those dark spirit masters to join the fray. If it was him, he''d hide and watch from far, not risking revealing himself at all.

    "Thanks," William took his belongings, and was about to move towards the direction of the closest exit from the arena before Ro stopped him with what she said.

    "We will meet again."

    She said it and shed back to join the battle. William paused in his tracks, looked at the direction she vanished towards, before shouting at her, "It''s a date then."

    "Screw you!" he heard his voice from afar yet couldn''t see her figure at all.

    William wasn''t alien to such a high level and very intense kind of battle. In fact, he used to lead others in such deadly battles back at the outer world.

    He knew with his current spirit power and low strength; he''d be more like a liability than a help to any of them. Besides, he might attract unneeded attention and heat if he dared to remain in his ce any longer.

    After all, this mess all started in his hands.

    And till now he didn''t understand such intense response from the dark spirit masters.

    What he didn''t know was that Garlend wasn''t just a nobody at the dark spirit mastermunity. He was the son of an elder at the ck Mamba n, and that n was just prestigious and scary, like the Long n for example in the eyes of the academy and other ns around.

    Letting Garlend die without trying to save him was going to end up quite bad for all who were here today. So, the dark spirit masters got forced to act.

    And when Garlend fell, the ones who exposed themselves couldn''t help but continue to fight. This time they were fighting for themselves.

    William didn''t know any of that, didn''t know he attracted the attention of a scary enemy in the dark spirit masters, creating tons of enemies to this day thanks to therge number of their sleeping agents who got exposed and killed.

    As he went towards the arena''s shield, he met with many formidable masters fighting against the dark spirit masters. He didn''t even think about joining the fight, leant and hid under any stage around, shielding himself from the devastation urring all over the ce.

    Thanks to the chaotic nature of this battle, and the disarray every side was in, William finally managed to find his way to the outside.

    And once he got out of the Spar arena, he saw how big what he did inside was!

    The reach of this battle seemed to snowball, expanding outside the arena itself. Many dark spirit masters started to act, trying to crush down the annoying barrier stopping those inside from leaving.

    Their number wasn''t small, and neither was the number of the academy forces. However, both sides weren''t prepared for such a sudden and intense battle, and that exined why many were stilling towards here to help from either side.

    "Tsk! This is going to be a big event!" William couldn''t help butugh when he saw such a scene. No matter what, the dark spirit masters were never professional at direct and straightforward shes just like this one.

    Not to mention this was the homnd of the academy. No matter how the dark spirit masters tried, they were destined to lose it big today.

 Chapter 222 The Battle Escalates Beyond Imagination!

    William kept walking away, heading towards his ce. All the way there, he spotted a few familiar faces rushing over here to help.

    He saw the headmaster, the old man of the library, a few of the elders he met before in his trial, even the fourth elder of the Long n!

    Seeing them hurry to arrive towards the arena made William know the dark spirit masters back there were destined to suffer more losses.

    William didn''t know that a grand rm rang all over the academy and its affiliate ns. Many scary figures were rushing here at the fastest speed, and in the next few hours, the battle reached the climax.

    William went inside his home to find Berry waiting for him at his home''s doorsteps.

    "What''s going on? Do you know what''s happening?" once she saw him, her all tense face eased a lot. She blurted out all these questions in one breath, making him inwardly sigh.

    "Everything is fine," he was the one who brought all this mess here, "but it''s not safe to remain outside. Go inside and let''s barricade this ce."

    "No, she ising with me," just before Berry would say anything, ask more about what troubled her all this time since the start of all this chaos, a figure shed and appeared next to her.

    It was the butler William met before at the Long n''s patriarch''s ce, Lude!

    "You¡­ What are you doing here?!!" Berry was shocked to see the butler''s face here.

    "This isn''t a safe ce," Lude gave William a long nce before adding, "if you want, you can tag along with us."

    "No thanks," William knew Lude didn''t have any orders but to protect Berry. As for asking him toe with him, it was out of his appreciation for what he did to Berry.

    But William didn''t need to do any of that. First of all, the two sisters were inside, activating their physical spirits.

    He didn''t want anyone to see them in such a stage and didn''t want to interrupt them at such a crucial stage of their evolution.

    Not to mention he already had what he needed to protect this house. He nned to use the concealment array, hiding his and the other two girls'' presence from the eyes of anyone outside.

    "But¡­" Berry was confused, moving her eyes between William and Lude, without knowing what to say or do.

    "Just go," William urged her to leave, "you''ll be in safe hands with him," he said these words while giving a serious gaze towards Lude.

    And thetter didn''t react, as this was already his prime task.

    "I''ll see you tomorrow then," Berry had to leave with her n''s patriarch, while William watched them move away from this ce.

    William didn''t know where Lude was taking Berry, but he was quite sure it was somewhere safe. He threw all this behind his mind, and started to form a big concealment array, much bigger than the one he formed before at the headmaster''s garden.

    After all, the size of the house was much bigger than the garden.

    Then William entered the house, closed the doors, and sat on one of the seats in the big hall.

    He knew such a battle was chaotic and hard to predict or control. Having few of the spirit masters fighting near this ce wasn''t something weird or shocking, yet it was still quite dangerous.

    If not for the two sisters being in the house, he''d prefer to stick along Berry and Lude.

    As he expected, in just a few hours, the sounds of brutal fights rang closer to his ce. But this didn''tst for more than one hour before the voices faded and slowly vanished.

    William mistook the battle to end, lest he knew its location just got shifted outside the academy. The battle kept going on for the rest of the day until darkness spread.

    The battle already reached the deep parts of the forest, stirring lots of monsters there. The moment darkness appeared; it announced the end of this battle.

    The formidable spirit masters on the academy side didn''t want to end the battle. They finally managed to find such arge number of dark spirit masters, and it was a golden chance for them to get rid of all of these bastards.

    When darkness spread over the world, trying to find a single one of those dark spirit masters was a futile endeavour. At the same time, it''d be quite risky to try and actively seek them out.

    Tables turned around the moment the sun died down and light vanished. Dark spirit masters were sons of darkness, and trying to hunt them down in such circumstances was quite suicidal.

    However, that didn''t change the current mood of the academy spirit masters. They killed lots of the dark spirit masters this time, and they also got a more beneficial thing, clues!

    Most if not all of the dark spirit masters exposed today came from the outer teams the academy Spar arena got. Many were just randomly allocated teams, but others were known names with their ces known.

    Not to mention many of these teams got ties to various powers either inside or outside the academy.

    Just after the battle got concluded, the headmaster issued a grand meeting for all the big figures who participated in this battle. They started to study the data they knew about various teams, marking other ces they had to visit.

    The small incident William started snowballed to a terrifying degree that wouldst for weekster, result in the fall of many dark spirit master forts all over the forest surrounding the academy, and even impacting the uing ns of the dark spirit masters regarding the big spirit masterpetition.

    It was like William''s small incident was the fuse that got ignited, releasing a deadly explosion that created a storm of fire, sweeping everything in its path.

    William didn''t know any of that, and never thought that such grand esction that went beyond even the dreams of the formidable spirit masters in the academy when they started their wide hunt and search would end up helping him.

 Chapter 223 Ro Is A Problem

    After all, the small incident he did went missing in the middle of all these uing disasters. No matter how hard anyone tried, if he wasn''t standing inside the Grand Arena on that day, watching what William did, he wasn''t going to learn anything about the truth.

    However, few eyes got attracted to William in the end, especially from the ck Mamba n. After all, that elder who lost his son didn''t stop his search for what truly happened out there.

    As for others, they started to change their entire ns for the time being, even reaching to the extent of putting on hold everything rted to the grand spirit masterpetition.

    William was oblivious to all this. After the shift of the battle towards the forest, all the noisesing from the academy vanished for a few hours.

    Then he heard many shouts asking for helping hands to repair the damage and save the wounded.

    "I''m tired," he listened to such shouts, which also meant the battle was already over. He turned and went to his bed and got a long and nice sleep till the next day.

    The next morning came, and William checked over the two girls first. They were still in their trance state, not giving any sign of waking up anytime soon.

    He then went to have his breakfast, thought about everything that happened yesterday.

    He might have gone to the Spar arena for one reason, ending up getting involved in the big daypetition and exposing the dark spirit masters inside the arena.

    He got himself in a big mess, and he started to consider everything calmly.

    "At least those who saw me directly fight and cause such incident are the red falcon team, the members of Garlend''s team, the judge, and Ro¡­"

    William sat on his desk in the study room, writing down these names. He knew much of the audience saw him act, but they were too far to see things quite clearly.

    They might have missed his face or something. Even if someone saw his strikes and brilliant performance, they''d not get the same impression as the ones who were standing on or next to the stage.

    "It''s safe to assume that Garlend and his team are dead," he muttered to himself, while moving the brush in his hand and covered Garlend and his team names with many ck lines.

    "The judge isn''t a problem¡­" William knew the headmaster would intercept to keep such news hidden. He knew what he did would be delivered by the letter to the headmaster and others, speaking of his brilliant performance back there.

    Yet such a thing wasn''t going to end up quite bad for him. Actually, this might make them ce more importance in supporting him.

    William didn''t know that the judge he thought he''d tell stories and legends about what he did to the headmaster was already dead! And the sole person who saw the miracle he did from such close distance was none other than Ro!

    "Ro¡­ This girl¡­ She is the real problem¡­" William stopped too long in front of Ro''s name, thinking about everything he knew about her.

    He recalled how he first met her, how she came to watch him battle, ending up saving his life at the delicate moment when Garlend aimed at him when he got zero spirit power left.

    "She isn''t that bad," he still recalled how she went to fight the dark spirit masters who came to the stage early on after fighting Garlend. She was eager to fight the dark spirit masters, even cursing them.

    "But¡­ I still don''t know a single thing about her," this was the big issue about Ro.

    William knew this wasn''t her real name, and she used a rare spirit element as well. Which meant she came from a strong background.

    "The headmaster will know more about her team," after thinking for long, William decided to hang everything on his uing meeting with the headmaster.

    William never feared facing any questions or doubts, he just was worried to face strong enemies that he couldn''t take down with his current low power.

    "I need strength¡­ More strength¡­" he started tapping on the desk, while thinking again about this issue.

    From this battle it was clearly obvious what hecked and mostly needed. It wasn''t just his single power that mattered but having a strong and trustworthy team by his side mattered as well.

    In such big and high end battles, a single formidable spirit master wasn''t going to do miracles alone.

    "I have to train them diligently," William started to think about slightly elerating his ns.

    The perfect setting to train anyone was by going out and fighting in the forest. He thought about recing that with the arena battles, but right now it proved to be impossible as the arena and many of the ces around it got severely damaged.

    "I''ll just ask them to go and bring their trusted and capable friends here," he also got the problem of testing and training these four and their friends unsolved.

    He went to the arena in the first ce to reserve a spot there to train without bringing much attention. And that wasn''t going to work right now.

    William looked outside. He already ced a concealment array all over the ce, and so it was hard for anyone to get inside or prey on what was happening in there.

    "William, we are waiting outside! Are you in?" Just as he was in the middle of his thoughts, a loud shout came from outside.

    "Coming," he knew it was Lang''s voice. When he went out there, he saw Lang and Peter standing together without Berry.

    "Come in," he removed the ores he buried underground, just in one spot, leaving behind the rest in ce.

    "What''s that?" Peter seemed a bit curious about what William did here.

    "It''s just a little trick," William ced the ores he took on the table inside the house, st night was quite crazy y''know."

 Chapter 224 An Unexpected Newcomer

    "Tell me about it," Lang sighed, as if he lived another hard time like the one, he experienced when the n got attacked, "we kept clearing the mess all night."

    "Is it this bad?" William already knew about the shouts asking for helpst night. Yet he still acted as if he was a little surprised by this.

    "Bad? It''s disastrous!" Peter seemed to be on the end of his wits, "almost half of the academy buildings got partially destroyed. And most of the buildings around the Spar arena zone got totally ruined!"

    "They sent people asking for helpst night, didn''t you hear them?" Lang asked in doubt, and William shook his head.

    "I went to sleep the moment the noises died down," William paused before adding, "so about sses?"

    "No, it''s cancelled," Lang sighed, "all cancelled for at least one month."

    "Do you know what happened?" William sat around the table as the other two sat as well.

    "No one knew exactly what happened, but it all started at the Spar arena," Peter responded in a tired tone before his face changed and a look of rage appeared there, "I heard a bunch of those filthy bastards appeared in the arena that day."

    "Dark spirit masters?" As if he wasn''t the one who instigated all this, as if he wasn''t the one who stood in watch to everything that was prescribed at the arena, Willima asked in pure honesty.

    "That''s what I heard," Lang chimed in, and his face didn''t look any better than Peter''s. After all, Lang''s n just got attacked recently, and words spread that dark spirit masters were rted to this.

    "They appeared out of nowhere, attacked the Spar arena, seemingly wanted to kill lots of teams and audiences out there," Peter started to narrate part of the rumours spreading all over the academy.

    "If you want my opinion about this, then they just wanted to deal a strike towards the academy''s main financial route," Lang seemed to not agree with the rumour Peter mentioned and started to add his theory.

    "What financial route?" William felt a little puzzled about such rumours. He was worried that what he did back then was already spreading all over the academy.

    But it seemed no one ever knew about the truth about what happened back there, not till now at least. And that was quite weird!

    ''Don''t tell me most of those who witnessed me fight on that stage died or ran away, without telling anyone anything,'' he felt more puzzled about the judge''s stance.

    William was sure the judge was supposed to tell stories about what happened, at least to the higher ups and his friends from the arena''s judge circle.

    However, it never crossed his mind before that this judge got killed just minutes after his departure!

    "The Spar arena," Lang gave William a weird look, "just the betting interest and the fees to attend and watch thepetitions on the big day are enough to secure a good and stable ie for the academy."

    "This¡­" William admired the wild imagination of Lang at this moment.

    "You got a point indeed," Peter seemed to buy what Lang said, "this made quite sense. After all, the battle of the Long n happened not long ago, and the strength of the academy and other ns proved their worth there."

    "Indeed," Lang nodded, giving William a silent look as if he was thinking about mentioning his role in this or not.

    And William simply and silently shook his head. He didn''t want to cling on past achievements, he wanted to create more and focus on the future.

    "But¡­ It still doesn''t make any sense¡­ The scale ofst night''s battle was on arge scale, but things looked more chaotic on their side," Peter paused, as the other two in front of him knew what he wanted to say.

    "I heard from my n''s older disciples that the dark spirit masters were trying to cause as much damage as possible to the academy."

    "I know, I also get such feeling," Peter nodded in agreement to Lang''s words, "but they looked quite disorganised. I heard many rumours about this, but no one ever knew the truth so far."

    "Let''s not bother ourselves with this matter anymore," seeing them speaking about the same topic for long enough, William decided to stop the discussion about it here, "I believe the headmaster and the elders will find the truth sooner orter."

    After all he waited for more supporting from such revtion of the truth.

    "I heard they went out and didn''t return back yet," Lang paused, "I even heard the headmaster summoned all the patriarchs and elders from all the ns around, issuing a wide scale hunt for these bastards."

    "Really?!" This time, it was genuine surprise from William in response to hearing such news.

    "I also heard that," Peter nodded, "my n''s patriarch and elders were calledte at night, and I heard from a friend that they all went out to kill more of these criminals."

    "Is the battle still going on? Till now?!" William thought the fight got over when the noises ceased in the academy. Yet he never expected the determination of the spirit masters of the academy, or the resolve of the headmaster.

    "The fight is already over," at this moment, a soft voice came from outside, startling Lang and Peter.

    "You are¡­"

    "Aren''t you Sara? Rick''s sister?"

    The two stood slowly in deep shock, before a crazy thought popped in their minds. They moved their eyes at the same time between Sara and William, as if they discovered something quite unbelievable and hard to believe.

    "She is a friend of mine," William motioned his hand towards a seat on the table, e and sit here¡­ You said the battle is already over?"

    As if this was something trivial, or amon thing to happen every day, William crossed over the shock over the faces of these two and ignored the tons of questions popping out from their eyes.

 Chapter 225 The Fifth Member Joins The Party

    "It''s over since the night befell the world," Sara seemed to get used to such reaction everywhere she went, and she didn''t seem to bother with any of the doubtful eyes of Lang and Peter.

    "Then¡­" William looked at the two standing next to him, motioning to them in silence to sit down.

    And the two followed his words, keeping the tons of questions and doubt buried deep inside their hearts.

    "My grandfather got many leads on the whereabouts of the dark spirit masters who caused chaos yesterday," Sara sat, just next to William''s seat, "and so everyone is out there, looking and trying to hunt more of them."

    "Leads? Interesting," William never guessed such a small incident would bring fruit to anything this big.

    "I heard many of the teams who regrly fought in the arena for years were undercover dark spirit masters," Sara kept telling shocking news to them, before realising she said too much, "of course¡­ This news is going to stay between the four of us, right?"

    She looked at William, and William looked at the other two.

    "S¡­ Sure¡­"

    "We won''t say a word!"

    "Great," William ced both hands on the table, crossed his fingers together, and gave the three around him a deep look. "Where is Berry?"

    "Who''s Berry?"

    "I passed over her ce but found nothing there."

    "I heard my n sent someone to pick her up. She must be somewhere safe."

    William listened to three different responses, telling him that no one knew where Berry was.

    "Then let''s start without her," William couldn''t wait for her to arrive. He didn''t know if she was even in the academy or was brought back to the n by Lude.

    "Start¡­ What exactly?" Sara was the most curious person here about what William wanted to do.

    Last time she met him, he gave her three techniques to train on. She knew these three, but when she tried to perform them, she discovered to her shock that they were totally different from the ones she knew about.

    Yet she didn''t fail in learning them, the same case with the other two here.

    "I gave you three different techniques to learn, did you learn them?" William didn''t directly answer her question. Instead, he asked about the three techniques he gave them.

    The three looked at each other, as they were slightly surprised that they got the same techniques. Sara thought William did that on a whim, the same thought the other two here had.

    But realising that he also gave the techniques to others to learn gave them the weird impression as if they were sitting in front of a master, and they were his chosen disciples.

    "What? Don''t tell me they were quite difficult for you," William got what went through their minds, and yet he didn''tment on such thoughts and just said while rolling his eyes.

    "I learned them!" Sara was the first to throw all these thoughts off her mind and blurted out as she added, "they are unique, but not that hard."

    "They are like the three techniques we learnt in the academy, but something seemed different," Lang chimed in, while in his mind he kept wondering how and why Sara got to know William.

    It seemed the rtionship between these two wasn''t just shallow.

    "Ipared these three with the three I learned from the academy," Peter added, oblivious to the thoughts his friend had in his mind, "and these three are much stronger and quite special."

    "So¡­ You learned them, right?" William didn''t care about their opinions. After all, he knew the three techniques they and everyone learned here were faulty, quite weak and pretty much useless.

    "I believe we all did," Sara looked around, used to act as the leader of any group she was in. and the other two just nodded.

    "I''m sorry¡­ I gotte!"

    And before William would add anymore, a new one appeared as he hurriedly ran inside the house.

    "I was helping the academy in this disaster¡­ Did I miss anything?"

    "You are?"

    "Isn''t he¡­"

    "John, what are you doing here?!"

    Sara didn''t recognise John, but the other two did. He was in the ss for two years at least before they joined the bronze ss.

    "He is part of our team," William simply said, exposing part of his true intentions in what he said, "you didn''t miss anything," William ignored the weird looks he got from these three while motioning to John to sit.

    And like this, the early gathering of his team got formed, with the exception of Berry.

    William looked at their faces, he had high hopes for this bunch of kids. In fact, he never ced much importance on John''s help to recruit more members to the team.

    After all, the other four of the team, including Berry, were big shots in the academy. They would be the main cores of the team. As for John, it was his luck to meet William first before any of themon and normal disciples did.

    William knew it wasn''t just thanks to luck, but also to his bravery. If he didn''t take the initiative back then, actively seeking William to learn from him, he wouldn''t have been invited to sit with others here on the same table.

    "Did you learn the techniques I gave you?" and before any of the three would digest the surprise of John''s presence, and when thetter felt awkward thanks to the eyes falling on him, William added another surprise that left everyone baffled.

    "Uhn," John slowly nodded, feeling more nervous in the presence of all these big shots.

    He recognised Sara. and who wouldn''t? She was, after all, the daughter of the academy headmaster, the brother of the troublesome and infamous Rick.

    "That''s good news," William ignored what others felt, before adding, "as all of you learnt the techniques, we can proceed with the next move."

    "What move?!" it wasn''t just Sara this time, but the other two dudes as well who asked in the same breath.

 Chapter 226 Forming A Team

    "We are going to form a little team," William paused before adding, "you''ll bring a few of your trusted and capable friends and subordinates, and then head outside to do a mercenary task."

    "...!!!"

    The three changed eyes together, and without saying a single word they all saw the same doubts and shock in the eyes of others.

    "What quest?" Sara asked the question the other two had in mind, "and why forming a team for just one mission?"

    "Who said it''s just for one mission?" William''s face turned slightly serious, "you saw it yourselves, being with me has its own benefits, right?"

    He referred to the knowledge he got, and he was talking about the three techniques he gave them.

    "Do you mean¡­" Peter paused in immense shock, while Lang recalled the same William he met before, the one who pulled out a miracle in his n when everyone thought too low of him.

    "Do you have more techniques like these?" Sara asked the question that neither Peter nor Lang did.

    "Of course," Williamughed, "after all, I got a formidable master by my side."

    "Who?" Sara asked again, feeling like William was a bottomless pit.

    Every time she met him, she''d get surprised by what he''d say or do.

    "The same master who taught you the way to handle the bears?" Lang recalled what William once said before back at the time of the Long n''s disaster.

    "I got only one master," Williamughed again, "and she taught me lots of things already, things that I bet none of you, no one here in the academy will know a thing about."

    "That means¡­" Sara looked in a weird way towards William before adding, "your master isn''t part of the academy?"

    "She isn''t," William nodded in confirmation, "and she doesn''t want her identity or whereabouts to be known by others."

    He knew they got tons of questions about his proimed master. To put an end to such useless questions, he added the best excuse he kept using even in front of the scary and formidable figures of the academy.

    "So¡­" Peter got the meaning behind William''s words, "you are doing this on impulse or¡­"

    "Per my master''s orders," William leant again on his white lie, "she wants me to find good disciples in the academy, support and teach them part of the knowledge she imparted to me."

    "For what exactly?" Sara was still having doubts about this weird master of William. Others might have not known this, but William kept living in the academy for the past two years as a porter!

    He didn''t get out except to help others execute missions at the outer parts of the forest, never venturing beyond that.

    She got to learn about this from her grandfather, as thetter received such reports of his earlier request to investigate William''s past history.

    So, the story of William''s mysterious master was a story that got filled with tons of holes in her eyes. However as not all of William''s moves were recorded, she wasn''t able to negate such a possibility.

    After all, the three techniques William taught her, and the weird way he used to assess her spirit, in addition to his knowledge about the spirit dormant element issue made William not the same one appearing in the records delivered to her grandfather.

    "That''s her issue, not something I can delve into or dare to specte," William acted as if he was truly terrified of his proimed master, envisioning the image of his old master in his past life to make his words more eptable.

    "She asked you to form a team, go outside and train it?" Lang got used to such a version of William, so he was the first to ept what thetter said, "but we are just four."

    "Five," William corrected him, "don''t forget about Berry."

    Lang didn''t forget Berry, but he didn''t count John in their team. In his eyes, John was better suited to be a normal part of the team, not someone sitting on the same table as everyone else.

    William got what Lang tried to say, and got that he didn''t miss Berry, and yet he corrected him to make sure they all got his meaning.

    Even if it was amon spirit master, as long as he was determined and capable, as long as he got William''s trust, then he was eligible to sit on the same table with them.

    "Ok," he got William''s hidden message. And even if Lang didn''t like it, he still got the reasons behind such a decision by him.

    William lived as a porter for so long to develop such a weakness towards any supposedly suppressed and less respected spirit masters, or that was what Lang thought.

    "But five? It''s too low for a team," Sara spoke again, and didn''t mind the issues Lang and Peter thought and cared about.

    "I know," William nodded, "that''s why you got one day to recruit others."

    "We?!!" the four of them asked at the same time, even the all silent John finally spoke up as he added, "but¡­ All I know aremon spirit masters."

    "I don''t know many," Sara said in hesitation, for the first time since she stepped in here, "and all I know are already doing tasks outside or serving other masters in the academy."

    "I can''t guarantee anything," Peter added, "all the ones I know are from my n, but I can''t force anyone to join."

    Lang was the only one who didn''t say a single word. After all, the fame and reputation of William in the Long n was already huge.

    Since the day of that great battle, William''s name kept echoing almost in most of the discussions inside the n.

    News about what he did back then spread over the days following the battle, ending up creating a great image of William.

    Lang knew if he spread the word, many woulde and ask to join their team. Even stronger and older disciples in higher sses might even actively approach him to join William''s team.

 Chapter 227 Standing Out? Its Easy...

    After all, this team included big names from different ns, even the headmaster''s granddaughter. Yet it was still William''s team, and that was worth more than all their names and reputationsbined in the eyes of the Long n''s younger generation.

    "Easy there," William waved with his hands to calm down the anxious kids in front of him, "I''m just asking you to make this offer to those you truly trust. Even if we ended up getting five more, even if we ended up getting none at all, I''m cool with any of that."

    He was indeed telling the truth. In their eyes, they cared about numbers, and in his, he cared about the quality and calibre of those he''d train.

    After all, what he was going to do was something ground shaking and like a once in lifetime chance to change one''s future.

    And he wouldn''t do such a major favour just to anyone.

    "This¡­"

    "You don''t want us to just speak with all we know?"

    "What if the ones we truly trust aren''t avable? What if they are already following other masters?"

    "I don''t want anyone, I want those you trust, and they have to be talented as well," William had to stress over this point, "and I have to make it quite clear¡­ Them joining us isn''t permanent or set in stone or something like that. I''m going to watch their performance during our mission, and many won''t join us in the end."

    "..." his words left them all speechless, even John didn''t know what he should say. They mistook his intentions and thought like anyone in their shoes, about quantity rather than quality.

    But William didn''t just want anybody to join his team. He wanted those who would stick to his side, fight for the sake of humanity when the sky would crumble and start to fall.

    Thest thing he''d ever want to see would be the presence of a bunch of cowards or weak hearted spirit masters by his side, ones who''d prefer to work their legs and run as far away from trouble rather than using their arms to solve any crisis befalling them.

    But it was really hard to tell what the essence of anyone was, especially if William didn''t know them. So, he decided to use the uing trip as a test for all of them, see what they were truly like, and decide who was going to stay and who was going to leave.

    All of this looked like aplicated and farsighted vision, one that wouldn''t be grasped easily by the kids sitting in front of him.

    "I''ll do my best then," Sara paused before adding, "but¡­ We need something to make our team stand out."

    "What do you mean?" William asked, and she looked at others while Peter added, exining her point:

    "This idea isn''t novel. In fact, there are lots of people dreaming about forming such teams, and so there are many teams," Peter paused, before adding, "we need something to convince those we know to join. After all, anyone capable will want to stick to a strong powerhouse¡­ Join a ce which will give him more benefits and support¡­"

    The hints in his words were clear. He wanted to say that William was just nobody. Even if he managed to create a miracle before in jumping from a porter to be a bronze spirit master directly, and even if he yed a role at the Long n''sing back from death at that grand battle as rumours described, he still didn''t have a name for himself yet.

    Sara wanted to say all this, and yet she couldn''t bring herself to say such harsh words directly in his face! And that was different from the dilemma Lang was thinking about.

    Thetter knew more than others sitting here about how truly special William was. And even if he knew many of his nsmen would ask to join the team, William''sst words made the list of people he could speak to quite narrow.

    William was seeking quite capable and trustworthy dudes, ones without any speck of doubt over their names and reputations, not to mention their unquestionable talents.

    If he went on and added all the ones he knew from the n, William might end up disqualifying them in the uing test trip. And that would backfire, not only on William, but also towards him as well!

    "People tend to lean towards the towering trees," William was well aware of what they struggled to express, fearing about hurting his feelings, "be it wealth, strength, or even fame, one must have any so others will follow¡­ This is the sacred rule of the world."

    They looked at him in silence, including John. They couldn''t agree more to his words, but what he said didn''t solve anything.

    And he wasn''t finished with what he wanted to say.

    He already thought about this dilemma before. He had two options in front of him, either teach those who''ll get offered a technique to lure them in or use another method.

    He didn''t want to teach anyone anything without getting them tested first. William nned to meet them up, talk and get to know these kids first, watch how they''d react to the various and troublesome battles they''d face before he''d make up his mind.

    "I already got something that can make many drool and crave to join us," William said such mysterious words, before taking out four items, ced them on the table in front of them.

    "These¡­"

    "No way! These¡­"

    "Aren''t they the legendary scarlet bears dark gold cores?!!!"

    The one who got to correctly identify them was Lang. After all, his n got tons of these cores, and he got to see many of them before.

    Seeing such cores appearing on the table made them all feel their heart palpitate. Even Sara, who seemed to own the entire world, knew how precious such cores were.

    "One for each one," William got satisfied with their reaction.

 Chapter 228 Wealth Solves It All

    He smiled while imagining the storm such an offer would make in the entire spirit mastermunity in the academy and the surrounding ns if words spread out, "that''s my bottomline for the yearly allowance for anyone joining me."

    "Y... Yearly allowance!!!"

    "We are going to get one of these?!!!"

    "Damn! Are you telling the truth?!!!"

    "Howe you have such wealth?!!!"

    All of them got instantly scared from his words, looking at him, then at the cores, then at him again without knowing what went in his mind to make such a generous and out of this world offer.

    Thest one to speak was Sara. She got to see lots of treasures and had ess to a little wealth of her own at any time. But seeing William, an ex-porter, one who came from a nameless family, one without backing of any kind, taking such precious cores out, and dared to make such an offer, made her mind blow off!

    "Like I said," William was smiling, and added without answering any of their questions, "I''m looking for trusted elites, the ones who are worthy to join the team. And this? This is nothingpared to what they''ll get if they join us."

    His words weren''t just directed towards those they''d select, but also to them. He wasn''t referring to more wealthing their way, but to the brilliantly amazing techniques and knowledge he''d teach all of them.

    In his eyes, a single technique like one of the three he taught them already was worth tens of such cores! If not more!

    William didn''t know that paying sry to the ones inside any team was something that usually didn''t exceed one thousand crystals per year at the most famous teams.

    And now? William simply took out a dark gold core, one that would worth at least fifty thousand spirit crystals at least in the standard market price, and he offered each and every single one of them one core as a payment.

    He didn''t even show these cores to them and then retook them. Any team would pay their members at the end of the year period, after assessing their overall performance and deducting any punishment applied to them during this period.

    However, William took these cores, left one in front of each one, crossed his arms, and kept looking at them without showing any intention of taking a single core back!

    That meant he nned to pay them ahead. And that was quite shocking!

    William truly didn''t mind giving out a little of what he had in return of obtaining trustworthy and capable members in his team.

    Impressing these four and giving them upfront payment would make them work harder and their words would hold more weight. Not to mention, if anyone questioned such sick reward, they''d only take out their cores as a proof.

    As for worrying about any of them going out and never showing his face again, William wasn''t even a bit worried about that. Aside from trusting these four, he knew they tasted the benefits of being by his side. And this wasn''t limited to this core.

    He knew that after dealing with him for a little time, everyone would ce tons of importance on joining his team for what he''d offer them in terms of knowledge and experience, not for the promised cores!

    As for his cores, he got enough to arm up a one hundred team members and sustain their needs for almost ten years if he wanted to.

    But he''d never do that! He knew if he got twenty capable spirit masters in his team after the filtering and testing process, then he''d be quite lucky.

    He''d not give anyone any cores just for joining this trip. These cores would be like the promised payment if they proved their worth.

    He knew these four would gain lots of spirit masters joining the team if they spread the news. He didn''t want it to happen, but he knew it was something inevitable.

    Once one learnt about such an offer, he''d tell others, and so on. So, he expected many to try and join the team, even actively asking any of these four to take him in.

    And so, it was up to him next to filter them out.

    He''d spend at most thirty up to forty of such cores. And that wasn''t a big loss to him.

    Building up a team would take lots of his wealth, as he intended to follow the role model in the outer world when establishing his team.

    Be it purchasing a ce, providing different resources for the team to use, even securing good gears and potions would be something he had to do.

    Not to mention his bigger n about going towards the capital, which needed lots of expenditure as well.

    William didn''t n on using his own wealth in doing all that. He''d reap benefits from the missions the team would aplish. At the same time, the loot of their outside journeys and adventure would pay for many expenses.

    In addition to that, he didn''t n on limiting his recruitment n here. He already was a member of the Forging department and ced a foot in the Alchemy department.

    He wanted to recruit more disciples from these two departments, giving these spirit masters the rightful treatment they should get.

    Of course, he''d not ept anything they knew from this world and would provide tons of knowledge from his past life and impart these over to them.

    He nned to turn them into real formidable spirit masters worthy of their secondary professions, not the kind of losers they were at right now in this world.

    If he managed to find real talents, ones like the calibre of Kong, ones he could trust and nourish without any worry, then he''d secure the entire problem of providing good gears and potions to his team.

    William even thought about such issues, and already put ns to solve all of them.

 Chapter 229 The Mercenary Department

    His current wealth was enough to power up his dream team for years, but he nned to turn this into a seedling, one that would grow up and yield a grand tree of its own.

    A sessful team was one that would depend entirely on his own resources, bringing more profit on the long run than the ones he''d ce in as investment.

    If he started his team without putting the goal of profit from the start, then it''d end up quite bad for him and others in the end.

    As for those sitting in front of him, they were all petrified, not knowing what they should say or do.

    "Why are you looking like this? Come on, don''t be this shy, these are all yours," he controlled himself to notugh, while motioning his head towards them to pick their cores.

    "Are you sure?" Sara picked up her core, didn''t put it away like others, "once we spread the word, there is no going back in your promise." Instead, she waved it, using it as a warning towards the consequences they''d all face if William failed to follow his words and promise.

    "I don''t need to lie!"

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    And in the next moment, he took out fifty cores, letting them stack on top of each other, issuing a loud nging sound that looked like the most alluring noise in the world to the other four.

    "I can fulfil my words anytime I want, and I never say something I can''t do."

    His words, coupled with therge number of the cores made them believe what he said right now. He wasn''t bluffing, not showing off, nor trying to trick anyone.

    He didn''t even promise anything based on what yet toe, not on the future gains from this team. He already got what it took to pay fifty team members on the spot.

    If they knew this was just a small part of his current wealth, their shock would skyrocket and go off the roof!

    "I believe there is no room for doubt anymore," he stepped up, took the cores one by one and stored them again inside his ring like they were nothing.

    "I hope you select good and capable disciples," William took two minutes to store these cores, and during which none of the four said a word.

    He knew in this world, in any world, in any time and ce, wealth was always a good point in everyone''s eyes.

    Anyone would question joining him thanks to many things, but when they''d realise how much they''d gain from joining him, things would instantly change.

    As long as he''d pay them well, people would consider joining him. And after dealing with him for a little time, they''d get to know how immense such a chance of joining him was.

    But they got to first join him, and William depended on the allure of wealth to convince those he desired into joining his team.

    "Don''t mess things up," as everyone stored their cores away, prepared to leave, William kept stressing over this point, "joining me is just the beginning. It''s not a permanent admission in the team. They have to follow us outside in a task, then get assessed before I''ll decide to admit or chase them away."

    The four nodded in silence, not knowing how they''d express their inner shock, which didn''t fade away even when they started to move out.

    William stood at the door, watching the four silhouettes moving in different directions, vanishing from his sight. "I hope this offer will be rich enough to make enough of those special kids to join."

    He knew when the news would spread out, and they''d definitely do, many of the disciples would try to actively seek joining his team.

    But he didn''t want just anyone. Even in this experimental trip, he didn''t want to see any dead weight in the team.

    He started to consider adding a small test at first, to see who was worth getting such a chance from the start.

    Trusting the four to select the best wasn''t enough guarantee for him. So, he started to consider doing a little selection round before finally setting out.

    "I need to go and select a mission first," he knew he got the rest of the day off, without much to do. So, he decided to go and pay the Mercenary department a visit.

    He''d select a suitable task from there, before heading towards the market to gather up what he and his team would need in this adventure.

    The Mercenary department was actually a very crowded ce. William paid visits to it in his past life to help other disciples in carrying their stuff till the safe zones of the forest, or to go there and find opportunities to work.

    The life of a porter or anymon spirit master wasn''t that good nor easy. When he arrived there, he was weed with a familiar sight.

    The Mercenary department was around the central zone in the academy, just next to the headmaster''s residence. So, it was expected that this region didn''t suffer many losses, if any at all.

    As the work to clear the ruins all over the academy got done, it was normal to see such a grand gathering of spirit masters. They were either actively offering their services, trying to recruit porters and freemon spirit masters, or going in and out from that building to book missions.

    William passed by the side of all this crowdedness, not giving a single care about anyone shouting, offering their services.

    He didn''t want to hire just random guys; he wanted real good seeds to support and nourish.

    Trying to recruit any of themon spirit masters here without testing their abilities was a mistake. He''d better wait for others to select the early batch, before he''d filter them using further tests.

    The Mercenary department was a five storey grand building, with no garden or wall outside, only an open za that got paved in a special type of ore.

 Chapter 230 A Suitable Mission

    This ce was lit in the night using these ores, feeling a little warm in the winter when it got cold. William knew even if he came here at night, this sight wouldn''t greatly change.

    Many disciples kepting here to seek missions, deliver missions, or find jobs all over the day and till midnight. And when William entered there, he wasn''t surprised to see huge boards suspended around the walls, with tons of missions listed on each of them.

    He knew the Mercenary department''s elder circle arranged missions based on location. There were around one hundred boards, representing one hundred different regions around the academy.

    That meant even faraway ces, like ones that''d take weeks to arrive at, were also enlisted here.

    In each board, the highest enlisted missions, the ones written in red colour, were all dangerous missions. The ones lower, that were written in gold, were slightly difficult. The easiest were the green and white coloured missions, and they took almost more than two thirds of each board.

    William knew these boards were controlled using some sort of technique, and with the special forging of these boards, it was easy for the elders to add, modify, or erase any mission from any board ordingly.

    At the same time, there was only the names of each mission and the general requirement of it on each board. For example, there were missions asking to collect certain types of herbs from different zones in the forest, and they asked those epting this to ensure a minimum age and certain quality of the herbs to get the mission done.

    Such missions weremon to see here, and they were issued usually by the Alchemy department. Few only got issued by outsiders, and the normal payment of these wasn''t that high.

    Such missions were usually written in white, green and blue colours, giving at most one hundred crystals per mission. If a single spirit master tried to finish such tasks alone, he''d be able to do it, but would waste tons of time and effort in the meantime.

    That was why it was preferable for spirit masters to tag together. Even if this meant sharing the profit among more disciples, they''d save lots of time in return.

    Not to mention the forest wasn''t a nice ce to venture into, and one would face lots of unexpected dangers out there.

    William knew that the easy tasks of Forging and Alchemy departments were quitemon here. Actually, teams didn''t need to deal with any of the two departments at all, only needing to receive and deliver the mission requirements here.

    William didn''te to seek such easy missions. He moved his eyes, reading the words ced on the small tes on top of each board, while he found many ces he never even heard about their name before.

    "There!" He was looking for a certain ce, and he finally found it!

    "Interesting¡­ The hard missions there amount to more than half¡­" When William got closer to this board, he was surprised to see the red and gold colours filling almost half of the entire board!

    If he also added silver missions, which were considered mid difficulty missions, then more than eighty percent of this board would be covered in the three colours.

    He moved his eyes over the list of missions, trying to find something that he and his new team could do.

    The missions spoke mostly about hunting down monsters, or evil individuals who were infamous around that region for killing and robbing spirit masters and merchants.

    William didn''t need to ask for further details to know the ranking of each individual there was at least at gold grade, with many at the dark gold rank.

    "I can''t do any of these," he mulled over his and his team''s overall spirit power level. If they got a little stronger, reaching at least to silver grade as mid-level, he might consider one of these missions.

    Putting aside their level of difficulty, the amount of spirit crystals enlisted next to any of these missions would make anyone drool.

    The cheapest reward was ten thousand crystals, and the highest went up to one hundred thousand!

    William didn''t stop for a long time over such crazy missions, and soon his eyes stopped over a single one.

    "Gather intel about the dark spirit masters'' activity in the region¡­ Reward: Five thousand crystals. Additional reward is avable if the intel provided exceeds the standard set for this mission¡­ Sounds like a good mission."

    William didn''t think about the high value of this reward, but to the content of the mission itself.

    He was the real antagonist for any dark spirit master, and seeing anything rted to them instantly attracted his attention.

    Once he got interested in this mission and moved his eyes around to inspect other missions to find none other than this to attract his attention, he decided to go and seek more intel about it.

    The interior of the Mercenary department was arranged in a grand semi-circr fashion. Each board had a couple of spirit masters sitting behind two windows to deal with issues rted to the missions of each region.

    Luckily for William, the region he selected didn''t attract much attention. He only saw two spirit masters standing on each window, asking for information regarding missions and such.

    William selected one of the two little rows and stood there in wait. At the same time, he grew curious about the identities of those asking for missions in this region.

    The region he selected was at least one week''s march from here, not that popr thanks to its far away location. However, William selected it for different reasons.

    "We already delivered the materials needed in the mission over to the Mercenary department at the Scorching Lands. I''m here to just get the mission marked as done and added to my team record."

    The one in front of the window William selected said, while handing over a little token. The elder behind this window that got made out of steel like material received the token from a gap made for such things.

 Chapter 231 The Teams Record

    "It''s authentic," he checked it for a few moments, moving it in his hands before adding, "you got a normal C assessment in this mission. I''ll add this to your team''s record."

    "Thanks," that silver grade disciple moved the moment he saw the elder stamp a piece of paper. William watched him leave with a big smile on his face. William''s attention got attracted to the words this disciple said.

    "Team''s record¡­ That means his team isn''t established here¡­" William''s eyes shone brightly when he realised such a little detail.

    He once heard about the arrangement and rankings of teams from one of his past life masters.

    It was a tiny detail, one he easily missed. If not for the words of that disciple, William wouldn''t have recalled this.

    "That dude spoke about the ability to establish any team inside any Mercenary department in any academy or safe zone like Scorching Lands¡­ But there is a big difference between the two¡­"

    William got lost in thoughts. The teams established in the academy had many limitations. For example, they couldn''t ept outsiders inside the team. And their ranking was limited to the academy, without having the chance for their names to spread far and wide.

    In return for that, teams inside the academy would get benefits like monthly allowance from the academy, the chance of getting the support of a master or an elder, and the privilege of having a ce allocated for the team as a base.

    William didn''t put any of these benefits in his mind actually. He didn''t want to establish any base here for his team, nor did he care about any master support.

    To him, he was the true and sole master in the entire academy.

    In return for that, he craved for the chance of getting the name of his team spread all over the world. To do that, he had to wait until reaching the Scorching Lands area, go into the Mercenary department there and register his team.

    That would grant him a team record, one like an achievement board that was allocated for his team. The advantage of this record was that it''d allow the team to enter a worldwide ranking of teams.

    "I still don''t know how this all works, I got to ask someone about this," William looked up at the elder, to drop the idea of asking him about that the next moment.

    That elder worked for the academy, and for sure he''d speak tons of good stuff about registering the team under the academy''s name and not under any outsider force.

    "Next!"

    Just when William was lost in his thoughts, the disciple between him and the window got done with his business and moved. William was the only one standing in line, and the elder noticed he stood there motionless for a few seconds without any intention of stepping forward.

    The elder mistook William to be hesitating about taking a mission or not. So he shouted like this, trying to make this kid decide faster.

    "Ahem, senior, I want to ask about a mission," William cleared his throat, stepped forward, and spoke in his childish tone.

    "What mission? Gathering ores? Or herbs?" The elder didn''t take William seriously. He was still a kid, a bronze grade spirit master, one who wouldn''t set his eyes over any of the more difficult types of missions.

    And when the elder thought about advising this kid to select such missions at another region, one that was closer to the academy for his safety, William pointed at the board above the elder''s head and said:

    "I want the mission about gathering intel," William paused, returning his gaze over the elder before adding, "the one rted to the dark spirit masters."

    "This¡­ Kid, stop jesting! This isn''t the right ce to y tricks!" The elder''s face changed a few times when he realised what William wanted.

    "I''m not joking, I want this."

    "This isn''t a game! Tsk! The new generations are all spoiled and raised quite wrongly!" the elder didn''t take any of William''s words seriously at all, "this isn''t a trivial task! The dark spirit master issues are always dangerous! Don''t think it''s like going out there and trying to speak to people and gather news and rumours¡­ It''s not! It''s far more dangerous than even seeking to kill any ouw out there!"

    "Senior, I want this," William persisted, suiting any kid trying to get something that attracted his attention no matter what.

    "Listen¡­ This is the Scorching Lands, a ce that will take at least a week from you to travel through the forest and arrive there. Not speaking about therge number of monsters you''ll face, spirit mastersing from other academies, bandits and ouws, even dark spirit masters¡­ You are going to a ce known as the heart of trouble in this part of the kingdom! It''s not safe being there! A kid like yourself won''t survive there for half a day, if you managed to survive the trip itself!"

    William didn''t know that this region was called the heart of the trouble in the kingdom. But he could guess why. He selected this ce for a good reason.

    In the map he received from Sara, he found out that this ce was the major connecting point between different parts in the kingdom.

    It was like a big and very important economical centre that would see peopleing from different and faraway ces. And that was for a simple reason¡­ It got ess towards the capital, one that would link almost half of the entire kingdom to the capital directly through this ce!

    Such a ce would indeed be quite chaotic. William didn''t get fazed by the elder''s words and sincere warning.

    "I still want to hear more about this mission," William didn''te here asking for advice, but to hear more about the conditions of this mission to see if he could aplish it or not.

    Dealing with the dark spirit masters¡­ He was indeed the right person to do it. He considered himself as an anti-dark spirit master, or a dark spirit master elite hunter and killer.

 Chapter 232 The Mission Scroll

    In his past life, part if not most of the missions given out by his master was to track, find, and hunt any hidden dark spirit master bases or gatherings.

    He knew hecked enough strength right now, so dreaming about taking down an entire base of these filthy spirit masters was suicidal.

    But if the mission only required gathering intel, then it could be done.

    "Tsk! Ok! If you want to throw away your life, then be my guest!" the elder seemed to grow tired of William''s childish attitude, "here¡­ The details of this mission are all in here," the elder took out a scroll from his ring, and let it slip through the gap of the window, "take your time and please¡­ Consider how deadly doing this is beforeing here again."

    "Thanks senior," William cupped his hands after taking the scroll. He didn''t think the details of the mission would be easily given to him on a scroll, and without any charge.

    He went to a side of the ce where there were many seats were ced neatly around small tables. In fact, he never expected such a ce to be designed for such a purpose.

    He mistook it for a rest ce for the elders working here or something. After all, who would need to read or study anything while being here in the Mercenary department?

    The ce was void of any spirit master, and William was the first to step in sinceing here.

    "Hmm¡­ Interesting¡­" and as he opened the scroll, he felt like the requirements of this mission weren''t as simple as he initially thought.

    The first part of the scroll spoke about how it was dangerous to take such a mission. William suspected that these lines were added by the academy elders, not by the ones who issued this mission.

    Or else anyone thinking about taking this mission would instantly drop the idea and change his mind once reading these lines narrating the casualty count of those who tried to do this mission before, speaking about many dangers waiting for anyone taking the mission, and stuff like these.

    He bypassed and ignored this section, heading directly towards the words the real one behind issuing this mission wrote in the scroll.

    The mission was mainly about gathering any news about the dark spirit masters'' movement and activity in the region of the Scorching Lands and even ces juxtaposed to it.

    William saw a detailed map of the region and thends around it, showing off the famous ces, trade routes, areas suspected of dark spirit masters'' activity, and even ces doubted to have bases of the dark spirit masters there.

    Then a long list of many points took the rest of the scroll, speaking about different goals that each was enough to get the mission done.

    William read points like: Giving information of any dark spirit master presence or movement at a new ce not on the map, spotting the travel route of dark spirit master group, and even up to determining the location of a dark spirit master base were included in the list.

    "The range of this mission is quite vast, and its goals are many and show a high variety of submissions¡­ It''s like a general is nning for a war against the dark spirit masters in that region¡­ I like that!"

    William started to get curious about the identity of the one who was behind issuing this mission. When he reached the end of the scroll, he didn''t find any name of the one behind this mission.

    "Hmm¡­ Once achieved any goal of the mission, please handle the evidence and intel found to any of the Mercenary department nearest to your ce. Your performance will be assessed in one hour, and rewards will be delivered on the spot."

    William read thest lines of the scroll, which didn''t give anything about the identity of the ones behind this mission.

    "Quite secretive indeed¡­" William knew this wasn''t a minor mistake or a miss from the ones who issued this mission. They intentionally missed mentioning their names, and even didn''t give out a specific location for anyone to track their whereabouts.

    All this was a safeguard against any possible retaliation from the dark spirit masters. And that made William surer in his earlier conjuncture¡­ "These dudes n something big against the dark spirit masters¡­ I want to be in!"

    William wasn''t joking, but he knew he''d have to wait for a bit longer if he wanted to take part in such big moves.

    The missions listed here had many who would suit him and his team''s current abilities and strength. As for the evidence of anything, it was simply solved by recording crystals, the ones that were used once by the alchemist master who recorded his actions back in the ss.

    After pushing aside such thoughts, he returned again to study the scroll. "As expected, the reward of five thousand crystals is just the lowest prize¡­ There are missions with fifty thousand crystals as a reward here!"

    The first few missions he read were all about reconnaissance. It was like there was a big empty map, and any team taking these missions were asked to fill it with lots of data about the dark spirit masters'' movements and current whereabouts and activities.

    It was like the type of missions given out to any scout spirit master teams or something.

    The simple missions like giving intel about spotting dark spirit masters location or travelling routes were rewarded with the basic reward.

    Following any dark spirit master team, drawing a map of their movement in a zone, or even giving intel about their spirit elements used in their techniques during any fight were rewarded by double the basic prize.

    Then the list of rewards started to be richer¡­ And more dangerous.

    Missions like trying to kill dark spirit masters and bring their corpses and belongings back were there. Even missions asking to capture one alive and bring him back, or even killing or capturing teams in any zone were also there.

 Chapter 233 Selecting A Mission

    But in return for such dangerous quests, rich rewards were also present. In addition to that, the moment any team did any of these dangerous missions once, then this team would get a token that could help in asking for reinforcements from any surroundings and active teams working on this mission to help.

    It was as if the team would get promoted, be like the leader of the local forces in the area.

    William saw the rewards growing from ten thousand crystals to thirty, then fifty, seventy, and then the highest reward in all the missions, lying at the bottom end of this list, giving any team doing this crazy mission one hundred thousand crystals as the grand prize.

    "Locate and lead other teams to take down an entire base of the dark spirit masters¡­ Basic reward: One hundred thousand spirit crystals. More bonus rewards will be given ording to the individual merits in this battle¡­ What a damn filthy rich this dude is!"

    It was obvious that the number of rewards given after achieving such a goal was going to be in millions! Or even tens of millions of spirit crystals!

    This was a wealth that only a handful few in the entire world would have¡­ William''s thoughts drifted towards the academy''s headmasters, the Scorching Lands leader, other zones'' leaders, and even to the royal family members in the capital.

    "To do so, one had to first climb up the ranks¡­ Doing other missions before this¡­" William got the hidden hint behind what wasn''t written in the scroll.

    The ones going to do this task must have the privilege to lead other teams in the region. And without the need to think of it, the previous missions gave such privilege in their reward list.

    "It''s too early to even think about it," William shifted his eyes away from this crazy mission and returned to think about which goal he''d better select from all this.

    William wanted to achieve such a goal one day, but it wasn''t yet time for him to appear at such a higher stage.

    "I can start working on spotting the dark spirit master teams'' location, gathering intel about their activities and abilities¡­" William started to think the same way as the one who issued this mission.

    He nned to grab an empty piece of paper and start drawing his own map of the dark spirit master activities and movements in the Scorching Lands region.

    As for knowing what the dark spirit masters'' techniques and spirit power were, he knew how to achieve such a thing. He got tons of knowledge about such a thing, and he needed only to spot any dark spirit master in a fight to determine everything about him and his n.

    "Trying to spy on these hideous, and pretty much experienced at hiding, bunch of bastards isn''t going to work using the normal methods¡­" William knew that leaning towards themonly known approaches in doing this kind of missions wasn''t going to work.

    The right way to do such a thing was by actively seeking the dark spirit masters, even to the extent of luring them out, then fighting them directly, while using little tricks of his.

    Doing so would hit many birds with one stone. William would train his team over fighting those despicable traitors, better assess his newly formed team performance and test their loyalty and stance against dark spirit masters.

    At the same time, he''d end up fulfilling many missions as well, which would pay him lots of crystals and gain much reputation to his newly formed team. Not to mention raising the mission ranking of his team up.

    The more William thought about it, the more eager he wanted to do it.

    "Senior, I want to do it," William returned back to the window, standing in front of the same elder. The window was already empty, and William extended the scroll, intending to return it back to the master in front of him.

    "Keep it, tsk!" the elder didn''t like his decision, "you have to pay one hundred spirit crystals first¡­ I need the name of your team, or your name at least to register this mission under."

    "Here," William stored the scroll, took out one hundred crystals and left them in a tray that extended from the window. "Register it under my name, William."

    "Fine," the elder seemed to struggle to keep his mouth shut, but he failed to do so in the end, "did you read the scroll? Did you read what''s written at the top?"

    "I did," William nodded, realising that his early guess was correct. These lines were added by the masters working here, not by the one who issued this mission, "by the way, who is the one who issued this mission? His name isn''t mentioned in the scroll."

    "He preferred to keep his identity secret," the elder''s face didn''t look that good. He didn''t like seeing the academy kids throwing away their lives in such a meaningless way, "here, this is the token representing the mission. Once done, or if you got another thought about this entire thing, go to any Mercenary department here or anywhere else and either deliver the mission goals or return the token to drop the mission off your name. Yet remember, the one hundred spirit crystals aren''t refundable!"

    "Thanks senior," William knew this elder was just doing all this out of his pure and kind heart, "I will try my best."

    "I''ll pray for your safe return," the elder didn''t say anything about praying for his sess in doing this mission. William left the building while examining the token he got.

    It looked like a simple octagonal shaped t token that was the size of his fist. It was white in colour, with a face of a snake head getting stabbed by a sword on one side, and a weird symbol of many shooting stars on the other surface.

    Other than this, William didn''t feel anything special at all about this token.

 Chapter 234 The Academy Is On Fire!

    "So, this is the basic and lowest in rank token of this mysterious force standing behind this kind of missions," William stored it away, took a deep breath, feeling like he was stepping on the path he desired for long for the first time sinceing back in life.

    This path extended too far and was quite dangerous, and the end was still ushered under a heavy darkness veil, where a scary fox lied within.

    "Small rocks falling down the mountain can end up creating a terrifying avnche in the end," he muttered to himself, before turning towards the direction of the market.

    "It''s time," William knew his little wealth wasn''t enough to buy lots of things. However, he nned on doing something crazy out there.

    As he walked past the gathered spirit masters, heading away from this ce, he missed the storm that started to slowly take shape thanks to him.

    The news of him recruiting spirit masters spread out like wildfire in the middle of dried-up sea of leaves.

    The news about the rich and crazy rewards for joining his team made even the gold grade disciples in the academy think seriously about joining him.

    The news didn''t hide anything, and everyone knew the dude who issued such a crazy recruitment move was a bronze spirit master.

    The background of William got dug pretty much fast, and everyone knew that the porter who created a little mess before in the academy was on the move again.

    Many thoughts about the issue of how to lower themselves, work for someone as weak and young as him. That issue was something that William didn''t put into his consideration, and even if he did, he had no way to solve such a problem.

    Image, after all, was something that many spirit masters took quite seriously. Not to mention that many spirit masters were arrogant.

    Even if the payback was quite rich, many didn''t like the idea of getting bossed around by a weak, young, and nameless kid like William.

    Like William and the other four thought, William got zero reputation in the academy.

    Even if he pulled a miracle before in jumping over ranks, even if rumours linked him to the miracle that happened back at the Long n, this wasn''t enough in the eyes of many spirit masters.

    Yet other than those arrogant and realistic bunch of spirit masters, many spirit masters started to seriously consider joining his team.

    The news spread and spoke about a gathering in one day at the gates of the academy. William selected this ce as he''d start moving from there directly towards the Scorching Lands.

    The academy started to boil under such shocking news, while no one knew what type of mission William needed such a team to do.

    In a few hours, news about spotting a simr kid at the Mercenary department spread, creating more havoc among everyone.

    "Scorching Lands? Are you sure?!"

    "Is he aiming to y at a high and quite dangerous stage from the start?"

    "That exins the rich rewards he promised!"

    "I don''t believe any of this sh*t! Howe a bronze spirit master with no n or family behind his back, one who lived as a porter, serving others for two years, has such wealth?"

    "I won''t f*cking work for a porter! Not even if my life was on the line!"

    The responses to what William issued were going out of control, creating waves among a huge number of spirit masters.

    News even reached the ears of the big shots in the academy, and at night, all the big ns and families got to hear about what William wanted to do.

    Those who were in such high seats knew much more than others. They knew what William did back at the Long n, even knew about what he did towards the disciples from the Golden Sky academy.

    And when things were going crazy already, another piece of news spread out, adding more fuel to such wildfire.

    "Are you sure? Did he ask to take the mission regarding hunting dark spirit masters down?!"

    "Insane! This kid is crazy!"

    "Humph! If taking down dark spirit masters was this easy, then they wouldn''t have been the dark spirit masters!"

    "A bronze spirit master aiming to sh against the dark spirit masters? Has he lost his mind or what?!"

    Many expressed their disbelief, while many of those who considered joining him had a change of heart.

    Dealing with dark spirit masters might be the most desired goal for many, but it was also a taboo. None of those teams who went out to take them down returned without suffering heavy losses or didn''t return at all!

    Even if few seeded to kill dark spirit masters, it was indeed a matter of luck.

    Going far away from the academy, reaching to a ce that none had any backing or anyone they knew, and try to fight the dark spirit masters there was something hrious and even suicidal!

    Yet even with such news spreading, many considered joining William''s team. Even a few of those who refused to join a team led by bronze spirit master, a kid, and ex-porter, had a change of heart and decided to give it a shot.

    Those who changed their minds were either dead curious about why William was doing this or suffered losses at the hands of the dark spirit masters before and sought revenge.

    Slowly things started to shift, and part of those who got tempted by the rich and insane rewards got cold feet, and part of those who objected to joining before decided on showing off tomorrow and checking things out.

    On the other hand, another unforeseen result appeared, one that went beyond William''s wildest imagination.

    "What? That kid is forming a team? Promising rich rewards to go and hunt dark spirit masters down?"

    "Hurry, deliver the news, warn our people at the Scorching Lands of this move."

    "Humph! I''d love to see what such a pathetic kid and team will do against the mighty people on our side!"

 Chapter 235 Going To The Market

    "I got a response! The dark spirit masters there are going to prepare many teams and will exterminate them once they arrive!"

    News spread all over the academy and reached the ears of the traitors inside. Even after thest big losses of the dark spirit master side and their traitors in the academy, they still got many eyes lurking in the darkness there.

    When things got connected to the dark spirit masters, these traitors didn''t hesitate to ry the news over. And the response that they got was quite expected.

    The dark spirit masters out there at the Scorching Lands were getting all hyped up against William and his team. What William thought it''d be difficult to achieve, to lure out those snakes out of their holes underground, was simply achieved by this unexpected turn of events.

    Sometimes, hurting one''s ego was the best way to force him to do something he''d normally not do!

    The dark spirit masters took this as a direct insult in their faces and reputation. They just suffered heavy losses at the academy, and the repercussions of what happened at the Spar arena was still echoing and spreading its effects on a grander scale till now.

    The storm that they got to handle and suffer from had a small touch and little addition to it, William''s team.

    William didn''t know that the dark spirit masters decided to send out a clear message through dealing with his team¡­ Trying to mess with us would end in one way, death!

    William didn''t know any of that. Even the thought that his actions and intentions would lead to a grander move from the dark spirit mastermunity at the Scorching Lands never crossed his mind.

    And if he learnt about all that, he''d end up falling to the ground out of hisughs. After all, this was such a result he truly desired for.

    William went towards the market while having other things in his mind. "The biggest advantage of those dirty snakes is their ability to hide and sneakily attack and run away swiftly¡­ Binding all this will turn those damn bastards into sitting ducks, easily to kill and hunt¡­"

    He was busy thinking about how he''d deal with the dark spirit masters. He got tons of knowledge and rich experience about the ways these dark spirit masters used to fight from his past life.

    He knew there were many differences between the dark spirit masters in this tiny world and the outside. The ones at the outside world were more ferocious and deadlier than those here.

    But the two would share lots ofmon things regardless. And William knew that the hardest and trickiest part in dealing with these spirit masters lied first in finding them, evading their deadly attacks, and preventing them from running away.

    Doing this would ensure the victory of any team against the dark spirit masters, provided that little other things were used as well.

    The dark spirit masters used a myriad of ways to keep themselves hidden, mostly using concealment arrays simr to the one William previously used.

    They could remain hidden in a ce for days without getting spotted. William knew few techniques that would help the spirit masters in his team sense the presence of anything or anyone hidden in a certain radius.

    But he didn''t want to teach the newly formed team members any of these precious techniques. And so, it was all up to using arrays to fight arrays.

    And that was what he intended to do bying here.

    "Young master, you came again," the merchant that William used to deal with before came out from his stall, warmly weing William.

    He noticed the change in outfit of William, and that made him link the dots and know the true identity of William.

    Merchants got the strongest of news in the entire world. They work with intel as part of their profession, and so this fat dude here knew a lot about William.

    He knew he came from no n or family, but he did two miracles already. And the past two dealings with William made him gain little profit.

    As an experienced merchant, he got his hunch rming him that a big deal was going to happen this time.

    "Long time no see," the merchant led William to sit inside the stall, where few disciples were purchasing and selling things here, "how may I help you this time?"

    "Is there a private ce where we can speak?" William wanted many things, not only materials in the form of ores, and herbs. He also wanted weapons, potions, and other stuff.

    "Sure¡­" the merchant looked in a direction where a thick brown curtain was there, covering up what was inside, "there is a good concealment array around this small room. We can speak there if you want."

    "Sure," William didn''t stand there anymore, went directly towards that small area covered with this curtain.

    The curtain covered close up to an area of four metres square. "Wait, I need to do a few things first," the merchant said to stop William, hurriedly stood up, ran towards one corner, retrieved a pouch from there, before working around the curtain.

    William saw him ce powder like material in a faint and thin groove that circled the curtain. "It''s ready," after doing this, the powder vanished as if it was water and the ground sucked it dry, "take this and follow me."

    William got a small circr token, which was the key to enter the array.

    It was clear that such an array needed replenishment every time it got used. William didn''t say anything as he followed the merchant inside the curtain.

    There he found a small, rounded table, two seats, a special candle of light that showed the interior of this narrow ce with a strong and flickering silver white light, and a pot that was filled with different types of fruit.

    "We can discuss anything here without¡­"

    *Thud!* William didn''t let the merchant continue his words, took one item out from his ring, and ced it on the table.

 Chapter 236 Giving The Merchant A Scare

    "This¡­" the merchant who was about to sit on his chair abruptly stood up, in a move that was so close to letting him stumble to the ground if not for supporting himself at thest moment by holding the table.

    His big body trembled while his thick fatyers kept rising up and down, as he was finding it hard to breathe. His eyes got stuck on the item William took out, and thetter was satisfied by such a response.

    "I suppose you know the true value of this, right?" William didn''t leave the core he took on the table. Instead, he kept it moving, rolling it on the table.

    "This¡­ This is the rumoured dark gold cores of the legendary scarlet bears monsters¡­ Right?!!"

    "That''s correct," William threw the core in the air, as if he was ying with a worthless rubber ball, "do you know what the market price of this core is?"

    "Ahem¡­" and when the merchant heard William''s words, he couldn''t help but try to control his excitement. He cleared his throat a couple of times, taking his time to think about what he should say to this kid in front of him.

    "I heard a normal dark gold core is sold at market price of forty thousand crystals at least," William didn''t wait for his answer, and instead he continued speaking, "and one of such unique and rare species, hard toe by, will be sold at least by sixty thousand crystals."

    "This¡­" the merchant was shocked by how correct and precise William was by his words. It went without saying that this core valued even more than sixty thousand spirit crystals, especially if they got sold at the right outlets.

    If he sold it to an artisan, or perhaps to those rare array grandmasters, then this price would skyrocket by at least twenty thousand spirit crystals, if not more.

    And if he sold it at any big auction house, then the price would hit the one hundred thousand mark for sure.

    The merchant didn''t need to ask about the origin of this core. He already guessed how William got his hand over it.

    William''s intentions were clear by now. Thetter asked to speak inside such a secluded ce, took out this core for one purpose¡­ He was here to sell it!

    And while the merchant was thinking about how to maximise his gains out of this deal, even thinking beyond that and thought of the list of names he should seek to sell this core to to gain more, William took another core out as he slowly said:

    "I can give you these cores, for only forty thousand spirit crystals in return."

    "Only forty? And not only one, but you have more?!!!" The merchant by this point couldn''t control his expressions at all, showing a funny one that was made of shock, disbelief, and greed.

    Seeing that merchant look like this made William smile broadly. He knew he secured the first purpose ofing here without any hups.

    "That''s correct," William nodded, "so, is it a deal?"

    "Gulp!" The merchant stood in his ce for a few moments before he closed his opened agape mouth, swallowed his saliva, and sat down. He looked in a serious way towards William, opening and closing his mouth a few times, without saying a single word for an entire minute.

    "How many of these do you have?"

    "Enough to buy the things I want," William didn''t give a direct answer, and instead he hinted about his true intentions from doing this trade.

    "Buy things? What things that require tens of thousands of spirit crystals?!"

    "Well¡­ Do you have paper and a brush?" William didn''t say anything about what he wanted. He wanted a lot of things, and just saying them to this merchant wasn''t going to work.

    He knew many of these weren''t avable here at this merchant''s stall. But William intended to use this merchant''s connections and bring everything he needed without even moving a single finger.

    This was the power of wealth. "Here," the merchant hurriedly gave him a stack of paper, ink, and a brush. William started to write down lots of things, while getting focused so he wouldn''t miss anything.

    The merchant was curious to see what William wanted, so he peeked over the items William kept writing down.

    "These¡­ Weapons and such things aren''t avable at my stall¡­ You do know that."

    "I know," William nodded, "like before, find me the best quality at the best price, and you''ll get a fee for such help."

    "Good¡­" the merchant became excited as he started rubbing his hands. He wasn''t going to pay tons of spirit crystals in return for these cores.

    Even if he was going to order things from other stalls and merchants, he could postpone paying for now.

    Doing such a thing wasmon between merchants. Not to mention the prices he''d get these things for were going to be much lower than their real selling prices.

    The merchant didn''t n on giving William things by the prices he''d buy them with but would tell him the standard market prices and then give him a small discount. That would increase his profit by a good margin, and William wasn''t oblivious to such ns.

    But in return for saving him the trouble of moving around and looking for things he wanted, he decided to bat an eye over such extra wealth the merchant nned to get.

    "I want all of these," William wrote even on the back of four papers, "and don''t forget to give me a good discount for all this."

    "Sure," the merchant didn''t object to that. After all, the scale of such trade was going way beyond what he initially imagined, "but this¡­ Two cores won''t be sufficient to pay for the expenses."

    "I told you," William crossed his arms, closed his eyes as if he was a venerable master or something, "I got enough to pay for everything. Go now, gather everything up, and store them in a good ring."

 Chapter 237 Burning Down Messages

    "S¡­ Sure¡­" the merchant didn''t know if William was just acting magnanimous or he''d renege on the deal and cut lots of items he asked for when he''d hear the scary price of everything.

    But under the silence and calmness of William, the merchant decided to follow his greediness metre, go out and get done from this grand deal as fast as possible.

    The merchant feared for the news of such a fat fish to spread over other merchants here, and many might try out their luck ande seeking William out.

    As long as William didn''t leave the secured zone, none would ever find him. But the merchant was worried that they''d pressure him and ask to see William in return for giving him the things he wanted.

    So the merchant acted fast, sent all of his men to go and make deals with the owners of most of the stalls in the market.

    He didn''t go to buy everything from a few stalls, but scattered what William wanted and aimed to get everything equally from everyone.

    That might risk many suspecting the presence of such a fat catch, but as the scale of such trade was small per merchant, the chances of getting discovered were quite slim.

    The merchant was just like any merchant, trying to do everything in his power to maximise his gains and secure his trade. William knew the merchant would act fast to finish this deal, so he''d not risk losing him to someone else.

    And William didn''t want to remain here for long. After all, many of the things he''d get would need further processing to be ready to be used.

    Not to mention he needed to go back and draw the few arrays his team would use, so everyone would know what to do when they''d need to use these arrays.

    The price William gave to the merchant aimed to instigate the fierce greedy nature inside that merchant. In the near future, the Long n''s headmaster would flood the market with tons of these cores.

    The initial high price of fifty and even sixty thousand crystals would hit the rock bottom of twenty thousand spirit crystals or even less.

    Selling them for forty thousand and getting what William wanted right now wasn''t a bad deal in his eyes. Not to mention if he sought selling them directly, gathering spirit crystals beforeing here to buy what he wanted was a much harder task than anyone might think.

    There were few outlets to sell these cores, and he needed to find those with deep pockets and ready crystals to pay and buy these precious cores of his.

    Finding such buyers would take a long time to do, and securing his crystals from them would even take a longer time as well.

    William decided to barter with the merchant here, without the need to get much of crystals, ending up having what he wanted without worrying about how to sell these cores.

    And that was part of the reasons behind him lowering the price of these cores, to make the merchant more willing to do such a task and take such risk.

    Just after being inside for half an hour, the merchant sent a kid with a pot of tea, two cups, and a few desserts for William.

    However, this was a small hup and a slight mistake from the merchant''s side.

    "This¡­" William was about to drink a cup of tea when he saw a small piece of paper folded under it. When he unfolded the paper, he found out that it was a brief message, one that asked him for a meeting at another stall.

    "Hahahaha, that dude is moving a bit faster than I thought, attracting attention already," William crumbled this piece of paper and burnt it using his spirit power.

    He wasn''t seeking any profit from this deal. Or else, he''d not juste to one stall, and would instead visit many to look for a better deal than this.

    William inwardlyughed at these merchants. All they thought about was profit, and that made them mistake his real intentions here.

    He wanted his things done and wanted this to be done as fast as possible without any hups.

    Another kid arrived after ten minutes, delivering another pot of fruit, which had three more messages like the previous one.

    And like the first message, the others who came into the curtain on the hands of the working kids got all burnt down by William.

    William didn''t want to leave any traces behind, or else these poor kids would get the wrath of the merchant over doing such a crime in thetter''s eyes.

    It was expected how enraged the merchant of this stall would be when he''d know about such daring actions. Even if he knew the dudes behind this, he''d not act against any of them. Instead, he''d pour all of his wrath over the poor kids who delivered these messages.

    William could see why these kids did it. They were mistreated in general, and getting an extra ie was a chance only a fool would reject.

    William sat inside the secluded zone, ate a bit of the desserts and fruits delivered to him, calmly drinking his tea, while burning any trace of any message he got without showing any change on his face at all.

    "It''s done!" and just after three hours of sitting like this, doing nothing but thinking about his future ns, the fat merchant came inrge strides.

    His body was soaked in sweat, as if he was running all this time. William didn''t know, but when thetter didn''t respond to any message sent from the big merchants in the market, they thought the fat merchant got his hands over these messages.

    So the other merchants started to act in a hostile way towards this merchant, not giving him many of what he wanted. They wanted to buy more time until they''d manage to deliver their messages over to William in a way or another.

    And when they got to hear back from the kids they bribed, they realised it wasn''t the issue of the merchant, but William himself.

 Chapter 238 Getting The Deal Done

    Realising this made few quite enraged as they took this as an insult to their ego. Of course, they were just bleeding inside from the loss they suffered by William''s rejection. Driven by greed, they refused to deliver the promised goods to the fat merchant.

    That made that merchant exert more effort and strike more deals with other merchants to supply what hecked. Thankfully he distributed the goods before among everyone. When few refused to cooperate, he could still fulfil William''s needs from others.

    "Here," and when he sat back on his seat, he extended his hand with a ck ring. William received the ring, examined its content to find to his surprise that this dude brought back more than what he asked for.

    "Don''t give me that look," the merchant got what went inside William''s mind just from the momentary change in his face, "I had to add extra to guard against the greediness and stubbornness of others. The extra amounts are all on the house, and you don''t need to pay more than what you asked for."

    "Thanks," William wouldn''t say no to such a generous offer, "how much do I have to pay?"

    "Well¡­" when William mentioned this point, the merchant forgot all about his exhaustion, and his face brimmed with a bright smile, "the cost of everything inside is four hundred thousand, fifty-three thousand, and twelve spirit crystals."

    "And?" William didn''t immediately act and kept fiddling with the ring he received while gazing up and down at the merchant.

    "Ahem¡­ I already gave you twenty percent off as a VIP customer of my stall. Not to mention I added at least thirty percent of what you asked for¡­ So¡­"

    "Let''s round the price then," William knew the offer seemed a bit generous and fair, but he was well aware of how greedy the nature of any merchant was, "I''ll pay four hundred thousand only."

    "This¡­"

    And for the next hour, the two kept hustling back and forth about the price. In the end, William paid the price he wanted, with ten thousand spirit crystals extra.

    It might seem like a big loss to the merchant, yet with the look on that dude''s face after concluding the deal, William knew he still ended up winning a lot!

    Of course, most of the gains came from the difference in price between what William asked for his cores and what this merchant could get from behind them.

    During this entire time, the merchant wasn''t just dealing with the greedy merchants. He already fetched many messengers to the customers he had in mind, and already secured good deals for these cores.

    William paid eleven dark gold cores and got in return thirty thousand spirit crystals on the spot. At the same time, he sold five more and gained two hundred thousand spirit crystals extra.

    From just this deal, he managed to sell his cores with a low price in the eyes of the merchant, but a good price in the eyes of William.

    Such a deal would spread over the merchant circle, and it was expected for Berry''s grandfather to hear about this. The response of that old man was predicted by William, and thetter was quite sure next time he''d arrive here, the prices of these cores would fall to the rock bottom.

    So, William decided to take such a chance to liquify more of his cores and secure enough crystals for his future ns.

    After taking the ring and finishing all the deals with the merchant, thetter escorted William out from the entire market zone, under the envious and greedy eyes of his friends and colleagues.

    William could feel daggers of enmity and greed issuing at his back while he left the market. He didn''t look anyone back in the eye, leaving a backdoor for any future potential work chances with them.

    Depending on a sole merchant was a mistake. Monopoly was always the root of misuse and evilness. William returned back to his home and then checked the content of his ring.

    "The quality of this ring isn''t bad," this was the third ring William got aftering back in time. And the space inside was at least double of any of his other two rings.

    Right now, there were lots of things stored inside his ck ring, chaotically messing up the space inside. William nned to start organising the three rings'' content after returning home. And once he arrived there, he locked on himself, before sorting things out and arranging all the harvest he gained from different sources.

    And he started with his ck ring first.

    As the merchant said, and he wasn''t lying, there was at least thirty percent extra in any single item William asked for. Even in weapons and gears, William got extras than what he asked for.

    The quality he asked for was all silver grade, decent silver grade weapons and gears. These weren''t that costly to him right now, at most would cost eight thousand crystals per piece at the market price. And William was sure he got these almost at half of their selling prices.

    As for the ring itself, William doubted its price to be as high as fifty thousand crystals or even more by market rates. Running a fast calction over everything he got, he estimated that he''d have to pay at least six hundred thousand crystals if he decided to purchase these items personally, one by one.

    Of course, the merchant managed to secure low prices for him using his rtionships and ties with other merchants, and by asking for arge amount of each item. On top of that, the merchant even gave him a good discount that was close to thirty percentpared to the total market prices.

    The merchant might have lost close to two hundred thousand crystals, but that wasn''t true. The deals he reached for the sixteen cores William gave him were enough to secure more profit than such loss.

    Merchants would never strike a losing trade, even if sky would fall andnd would turn apocalyptic!

 Chapter 239 [Bonus ] Screw Him!

    The merchant managed to sell each core by double their prices at least, and that meant he gained at least two hundred and fifty thousand crystals extra as profit just from the difference in the cores'' prices alone.

    William didn''t think too much about this. The merchant got his chance, and he had all the right to make the best out of it.

    And William was sure if the merchant acted greedily, waited for much longer to get better prices, then this would backfire at him.

    The prices of these cores were destined to fall in the uing few days.

    For William, what mattered was that he gained all the items he needed. He secured lots of his spirit crystals, without the need to waste much time or effort or worry about anything.

    The first thing he did when he came back was to check on the two girls. "Still needs more time," he closed the door behind after checking on them, then made a meal for himself and ate his lunch.

    The sun was about to start its descent journey to leave this world for the night clutches, and so he decided to take a short nap first.

    After sleeping for a couple of hours, he began to examine what he gained from the market in his study room. He took out different things and started to arrange everything in his different storage rings.

    "That kid from the Golden Sky academy really loves potions," William found at least one thousand vials of different potions inside the ring he collected from that kid.

    Aside from potions, he also found lots of bronze and white grade gears and weapons, lots of materials, and the spirit crystals left by this kid.

    William added all the spirit crystals in his possession in one ring, the ring he got from that dead kid. And with them he ced the potions as well.

    As for the materials like ores and herbs, even monster materials, he ced them in one ring, the one he got from the Long n as a gift.

    He ced the monster cores he gained from the Long n with the spirit crystals.

    Thest ring, the one he got from the merchant, William ced in it all the weapons and gears he got either from the merchant or from the loot of that dead kid.

    "It''s all sorted out," William was free to work on his next step, "time to draw out arrays and¡­"

    *Knock!* *Knock!*

    It was almost close to midnight when he got done from doing all this. Most of the time he spent was to sort out the tons of materials he gained either from the market or from the Golden Sky disciple''s ring.

    Just before he''d start working on the next task, he heard a loud knocking on the door, startling him for a moment.

    "Oh, you came back!" William opened the door to be met with a familiar face.

    "How can I get any rest while you are inviting chaos and problems everywhere you go?" Berry startedining the moment she saw his face.

    "What? I didn''t do anything!" William closed the door after checking that Lude wasn''t anywhere to be seen out there.

    "Humph! Says the one who set the entire academy on fire!" Berry sat on a seat, faced William who stood all in confusion and doubt.

    "What do you mean? I didn''t set anything on fire!" William grabbed a seat and sat opposite to her, "I don''t like fire, don''t own any fire spirit element like you."

    "Funny," she stretched out her tongue, and even despite resisting it, a faint smile appeared on her face while William started to think about what she just mentioned.

    The first thing that popped into his mind was about what he did back at the Spar arena. He hoped for the news to get to the ears of the headmaster, but not to spread out like this and reach Berry.

    "Come on! The entire academy is already speaking about what you did! And you don''t know? How silly is that!"

    "..." William didn''t speak, and just put a neutral mask on his face, one that Berry couldn''t see anything through.

    "Tsk! Who told you to give out the cores my grandfather gave as rewards to the team? Do you know how enraged my grandpa is?"

    She finally said what she was referring to, and William couldn''t help but inwardly heave a sigh of relief. However, in the next moment, he realised another thing.

    "This¡­ Is he mad about that?!" William thought he''d stir that stubborn old man''s rage the moment he''d hear about his deal at the market.

    Yet it seemed that the old man got hyped up even sooner than him going to the market. And that made him heave a sigh of relief, knowing that he got lucky to act fast and secure such a deal before the prices of the cores would plummet.

    ''That poor merchant¡­ I hope he won''t keep the cores for tomorrow or else¡­''

    "Yes! He never wanted you to use these cores! I was with him when he heard the news, and I''m telling you¡­ He is very angry about this."

    ''Screw him!'' This was the answer William wanted to say on the spot, yet kept it confined in his mind chambers, "they are mine. Why is he mad about what I do with them? "That was the gentler version of his answer. And yet that made Berry more anxious than rxed.

    "He says you gave him a different reason for getting them. And that''s why he ns to flood the market with these cores in the uing days."

    "Let him do what he wants," William already got what he desired from these cores. And he was going far away from here starting from tomorrow. So, trying to soak the market with these cores wouldn''t hurt him too much.

    "You¡­ You already knew about this?!!" Berry could tell from the calm look over William''s face and his tone that he didn''t get a bit surprised by what she said.

    And that meant he already was aware of such a thing.

 Chapter 240 Tell! Hurry Up And Tell Me!

    "Let''s not waste our breaths over such useless things," William didn''t care about what that old man wanted to do, "where have you been?"

    "Told you, was with my grandpa," she paused, and her face turned a bit unsightly when she realised what he meant, "sorry¡­ But Lude insisted on taking me far from the academy, back to the n."

    "No problem," William waved his hand, "the most important thing is that you are alright."

    "What did I miss?" She wanted to say thanks for his obvious worry but was stopped by her shyness. Only her cheeks turned a bit rosy, while William ignored this and exined to her what went into the little meeting from before.

    "What? You know Sara? And she agreed to join us?!!" When she heard about this part, her reaction wasn''t any less intense than others. Yet she didn''t remain silent and kept speaking about how impossible it was to meet the headmaster''s granddaughter by any disciple.

    "... How did you do it?!" After speaking for almost ten minutes nonstop, she finally returned back to the point she started from.

    "I idently ran into her before," William gave such a vague, and yet honest answer, "and we ended up being friends."

    "Oh¡­" for a moment there, Berry felt unexined sadness that shadowed over her heart.

    "She will join our team," William missed the slight change in her face, "and right now they are trying to recruit others from the academy."

    "They¡­ Must be overdoing it," Berry sighed, while the reason behind her sigh was slightly different than what William guessed, "the entire academy now knows about our team and your offer¡­ And many are thinking about joining us."

    "Hmm¡­ I won''t ept just anyone," William crossed his arms, without showing any change on his face.

    "But¡­ I heard even gold grade disciples are seriously considering joining us. Will you turn such strong dudes down?" she gave him a weird look, as if he didn''t realise the magnitude of the storm waiting for him at the corner.

    If someone like gold grade disciples came to join and he rejected them, then they''d turn into his enemies at the spot. And that was quite bad in her eyes.

    "I don''t mind getting strong folks indeed," William nodded, before shaking off his head, "but I just don''t want anyone. Strength is something important, and gold grade spirit masters look awesome and such, but it doesn''t really matter to me."

    "How so? They are enough to raise the overall strength of the team!"

    "We are weak right now, but we''ll reach that stage one day, and even cross it. We only need time, and that means we aren''t that desperate to ept anyoneing at us."

    "..." Berry was still thinking like a kid, thinking about how precious and rare it was for gold grade disciples to join any team. But to William, he was speaking from his vast experience of his past life.

    No matter how the gap between his team and these strong disciples were, after a few years, his team would all be formed of gold grade disciples and even dark gold spirit masters would appear as well.

    So why would he ept questionable dudes in the team? Ones who might bring more trouble than help? If this was the issue of strength, then it wasn''t a problem in his eyes at all. He already had ns to raise the overall strength of the team without the need to ept any extra members.

    "I want people we can trust, not people with strength alone," William stressed over this, the same way he did with others back at the meeting, "and even after epting the first batch, I''d screen them further during the mission."

    "Mission? Did you already pick one?" Berry didn''t hear yet about what he did back at the Mercenary department.

    "We got a mission far away from here," William nodded, "and it''ll be a good test for our team."

    "What mission? Tell, hurry, tell me about it!" Berry got excited when he mentioned going far from here.

    For her entire life, she lived confined either in the n or in the academy. She didn''t get a chance at all to travel to any different ce thanks to her old special situation. And hearing about going far from here enticed such desire inside her.

    She wanted to venture the world and see ces she had never visited before.

    "Have you ever heard about Scorching Lands before?"

    "Scorching Lands? Isn''t this the big meeting point where many trade routes are met?" her eyes shone brighter, and she even jumped off her seat as she said these words amidst her excitement.

    "It is," William nodded, "we are going there."

    "Wow! I know that my father once went there in the past year, brought lots of gifts and interesting things back," Berry got excited for totally the wrong reasons, leaving William speechless behind, not knowing what he should say.

    "What are we going to do there? Huh? Tell,e on, tell me!" she even grabbed his arm, acting a bit weird from her normal self.

    "Well¡­ We are going to search for the dark spirit masters," William once said it, he noticed the instant change over her face. "What? Afraid of dealing with them?"

    "No, it''s just¡­ Have you heard of the current trend in the academy already? My grandpa told me it''s still a secret, one that''s not known by many."

    "What trend? What secret?" William got a little puzzled and interested before Berry started exining everything she knew like a good girl.

    "Oh, is that so? Hahahaha!" William couldn''t help butugh the moment he realised what was going on. The dark spirit masters were going to have it hard in the next few weeks or even months.

    From Berry, William got to know about the ns the academy and big ns prepared to uproot many of the evil roots of the dark spirit masters around.

    It seemed what he started grew to a huge thing, giving lots of leads for the big shots in the academy and various ns to see lots of the dark spirit masters'' hiding locations.

 Chapter 241 [Bonus ] Pure Coincidence

    From Berry he knew about the grand movement in the academy and big ns, looking for anything rted to the teams exposed at thest battle of the Spar Arena. From there, new leads started to show up, and a deeper and grander began to show itself in front of them.

    These dudes wouldn''t let such a golden chance slip off their hands and decided to follow the new leads and keep hitting the dark spirit masters where it truly hurt.

    Just in the past day alone, they managed to find and kill around twenty different groups of dark spirit masters around the academy and ns.

    Such a big harvest at the start of this operation made others who were reluctant to join excited to step in. And this escted the move, even to the extent that ns far away from here started to send envoys, asking to share the acquired intel with them.

    That number of casualties was going to increase during the uing days, weeks, and even months.

    William could see where this was going to end. With each group taken down, more evidence and clues would be found at their locations, exposing more hidden dark spirit masters.

    William realised now how truly big this entire battle was, even growing to the scale enough to call it a war.

    "It''s just pure coincidence," William said as he couldn''t stop the smile on his face, "I just selected such a mission without knowing any of that."

    "That''s great then," Berry seemed to not listen to his words at all, "we can go and ask for support from the academy, even from my n¡­"

    "No," but unlike what she expected, and in the middle of her excited words, William stopped her, "let them do their things, and let us do ours."

    "This¡­"

    "I''m d they are going to act against the dark spirit masters atst, and on such a huge scale. However¡­ We have another goal to achieve."

    "Testing our team? We can still do it with their help¡­"

    "No, they''ll still interfere with our business," William didn''t tell her about his true intentions from going there.

    Of course, he wanted to test his team, but that wasn''t the true reason behind him selecting going there, towards that far away location.

    He wanted to do other things, and if the academy and ns were working with him, then his actions would be closely monitored.

    He didn''t need anything from anyone, but worried about anyone interfering in his ns for any reason.

    For example, the headmaster or Kong might act if they heard about his intentions, out of fear of their granddaughters. He wanted to finish dealing with establishing his team, away from any interference of any kind, secure a path towards the capital and recruit more free spirit masters from there to expand his team.

    "Ok," Berry felt that William wasn''t telling her everything, and his stance was already clear about such a proposal, "when are we going to move? Tomorrow?"

    "That''s the n," William paused before adding, "you learnt the three techniques, right?"

    "Just the initial stage," she felt like she disappointed him, "sorry but since that attack and I didn''t get enough time to train."

    "It''s enough," William nodded, "now go back and resume training. We''ll meet here at noon."

    "Ok," William saw her out, then returned back to do his stuff.

    First, he made a meal and ate it, before finally closing the door on himself in the study room.

    There he got all of the scrolls avable in the two study rooms and started working on them till thete hour at night.

    "This will suffice, I hope," he looked at what he did and felt a little satisfaction towards it, "it''s not the best work of mine, but these arrays and scrolls will be enough to deal with any dark spirit masters, provided that they didn''t send a dark gold rank to deal with us."

    William stored everything inside the ck ring he got from the merchant, got to his room, and enjoyed eight hours of sleep.

    During the night, the disciples at the academy were all getting hyped by the news about William''s team. Even if most of them didn''t get any invitation formally from any of the four William entrusted with the job, they learnt about when and where the meeting of the team would happen.

    From the early hours in the morning, many started to go towards the main gate of the academy, waiting for William toe.

    William woke up just one hour before noon, took his time to eat his breakfast, check on the girls, and revise the content of his rings fast before Berry''s arrival.

    "Where is everyone?" Berry asked, before she suddenly thought of something, "I didn''t see Tina or Lina for days¡­ Are they alright?"

    "They are doing something for me outside," William made sure to leave behind enough materials to activate the array around the house. He left behind clear instructions on the table next to the materials, exining how the girls would use these and where to bury these materials to activate the array.

    He didn''t know for how long he''d stay away from here. And who knew what might happen. Many things started to changepared to his past life thanks to his actions, and so he wasn''t sure if the academy would remain safe or not.

    That array was just a precaution against unforeseen events. "Let''s go," after giving her a vague answer about the two sisters, he moved outside and closed the door, "others shall be waiting for us at the main gate."

    "Ah, is that where we are going to meet everyone?" Berry said in realisation, "that exins why many were heading towards there in the past few hours."

    "Many?"

    "Yes, many are going there, most probably waiting for you to arrive."

    "Hmm¡­ Did they invite that many or what?" William didn''t mind the presence of arge number of spirit masters. He''d just select from those who got invited by Sara, Lang, Peter, and John.

 Chapter 242 Tons Of Spirit Masters Want To JoinThe Team

    As for others who came trying out their luck, or just curious to watch, he''d not give them a chance. If not for any of the five on his side to vouch for anyone, speak up for any spirit master and testimony about being trustworthy, he''d not ce any in his eyes.

    "That''s not theirs to me," Berry sighed, "the news spread over the academy since yesterday. And many will try toe and watch, at least try to offer their services."

    "Let''s see about this when we''ll arrive there," William walked in a calm way towards the main gate of the academy. Once reaching there, arge gathering of spirit masters appeared in front of his eyes.

    They were wearing different attires of the academy uniforms, and he saw gold colours among therge number of disciples standing there.

    He even saw a few masters, standing in different spots, seemingly watching this weird movement in the academy.

    "I want to join!"

    "Let me in! I''m a gold grade spirit master, and I''m strong enough to serve the team!"

    "Don''t push me! I''m a silver grade spirit master, and I want a shot in the team as well!"

    Just when William came closer, many shouts like these reverberated all over the ce. It was quite messy, and he had to stop with Berry, move his eyes around, looking for the four he wanted to meet.

    "Hey, we are here," Just as he and Berry kept moving around, they finally heard such a muffled shout that came from further ahead.

    They already got out from the gates, but the number of disciples didn''t shrink as William thought. Those outside were at least five timesrger than those inside.

    The direction of the shout was directly towards the centre of all this mess. When William looked over, he saw that the gathering of spirit masters there was much denser than any other ce around.

    "Come here," William kept moving, not heading towards the direction of the four and others, "let''s meet there."

    He thought by changing location, things would grow easier for him. However, that didn''t happen. The moment he shouted, everyone here looked at him, instantly recognised him in a way or another.

    "It''s him!"

    "It''s that ex-porter!"

    "Come on, let me join the team, I''m a silver grade spirit master!"

    "I''m at your ss, so you have to let me in!"

    Just as William moved for tens of metres, he found his path blocked by spirit masters speaking at the same time. William realised that trying to sort things out wasn''t going to work in the way he wanted.

    So, he stopped, looked around the eager and anxious spirit masters around without saying a single word. One minute passed, two, five, and when ten minutes passed, they slowly started to stop speaking.

    Without saying anything, while standing like this, looking at them without saying or moving a finger, ced a hidden pressure over everyone around.

    Gradually the ruckus they were all making started to die down. Even when more disciples came out from the academy when they heard the news about his arrival, they also got infected with such weird and heavy silence and remained as such.

    After two minutes of everyone getting silenced by William, thetter started to speak up:

    "I know you all heard about me establishing a team, and I know and understand everyone''s motives and desires. However, it''s unfortunate that the number of slots in the team is already limited. If it''s up to me, I''d take everyone in, but I can''t..."

    He paused, moved his eyes around while his voice echoed all over the ce, "The only ones able to join the team will get invited by us, not the other way around. But I won''t let you take such a trip here in vain. Please, someone can take out a scroll, start writing down the names of those who are here today. I promise I''ll go through this list personally, and whoever fits the team''s conditions will get an invitationter on."

    William knew trying to handle such a messy situation using hard facts and cold rejection wouldn''t work. It might also backfire at him and others of his team.

    So instead, he left a way out for them, a slim hope, to make everyone here leave this ce today without holding any grudge towards them.

    And that hope was a sort of protection towards him, towards his team, so no one would dare to think about doing anything funny or something.

    After all, anyone daring to do any bad thing would end up losing his chance in joining the team. William knew he''d select a few of those who got their names listed in this scroll at some point, and that wasn''t a bad thing actually.

    He intended to expand the team after this trip. And instead of just epting good spirit masters from outside, he''d also select a few from the academy.

    And just as few started to take the initiative, write down their names on a few scrolls, and the names of others, many started to issue questions out loud.

    "Can you tell us a thing or two about these conditions?"

    "We need to know if there is a chance for us or not!"

    "On what basis will you select names from the list?"

    Such questions were destined to be thrown at his face. And William weed them all with a calm smile on his face and zero speck of worry or anxiety.

    Even if he looked like an eleven years old kid, his mind and spirit were on par with those formidable masters leading the academies and ns in this world.

    "I''ll give you a few hints then," instead of narrating the conditions to them or giving them direct answers, he decided to give them hints, "those who will excel in the ongoing battle with the dark spirit masters around the academy will have better chances in getting selected. Those who have good records in the academy, good reputation, and have fulfilled at least ten outside missions either solo or in teams will have a higher chance of selection."

 Chapter 243 [Bonus ] White Grade Disciples

    He didn''t promise them anything. However, with his little words here, he managed to shift the attention of many disciples towards the ongoing war between the academy and good ns on one side, and the dark spirit mastermunity.

    Doing this would give a little boost to the ongoing battle, helping the academy and ns to bring more harm to the enemy.

    William also wanted to slowly grow his authority in the academy. If a few disciples followed his words and started to help, then their achievements would always be linked to him.

    Like this, he''d not only help the academy in the current war, but also create a name for himself.

    As for adding up the other conditions, or hints, he did it to cover up his true goals. So, anyone thinking about his wordster on wouldn''t be able to guess his true aim correctly.

    Only those knowing him quite well, like the academy headmaster or the Long n''s patriarch and elders, would realise his true goal from saying these words.

    "Damn! I got a bad record in this year''s ss!"

    "I never went outside to do missions! Always attending sses!"

    "I need to start forming teams and go outside more often."

    ? "He said at least, and that means the ones with higher mission records will have a higher chance!"

    "Ongoing battle? Never heard about such a thing before!"

    "Were you hiding under a rock or something? The academy is starting a massive war against dark spirit masters around!"

    "I will go and ask the academy to issue missions at the Mercenary department to help in this fight. Like this, I''ll hit two birds with one stone!"

    "Yes, let me help as well!"

    "I''ll also go and ask them with you!"

    Just as he said these words, most of the disciples around broke in different discussions, speaking about things William never thought about before.

    Seeing all this escting in front of his eyes made him grin. ''Human''s imagination is indeed quite scary!'' he muttered to himself, while watching many started to flood back into the academy.

    The earlier crowded ce at the main gate of the academy changed in less than half an hour, as most of the disciples here vanished inside, trying to either form teams, suggest the academy to issue missions, or even asking about their records in different sses!

    "Tsk, you are indeed quite capable in dealing with masses," and after the departure of many, the space around William was cleared. Sara led others to arrive at his ce, while saying these words.

    "I just got a talent in doing so," Williamughed, "at least they left without getting disappointed."

    "And yet there are still too many left around," Lang looked around, referring to the many disciples who were still waiting around.

    They didn''te towards them or try to annoy them with questions and such. They were the ones who were here to just watch the show, not interested at all in joining.

    "Let them be," William could guess why these folks were standing here, "let''s start our business¡­ Are these the ones you invited?"

    Behind the four, there were sound forty disciples. William saw that the strongest ones were silver grade, while there were few white grade spirit masters in the mix.

    His eyes stopped over those white grade spirit masters as he slightly frowned.

    "Well, you asked for good and capable kids, ones we can trust, and with great potential, right?" Lang, who was the one who brought these kids here, spoke up to rify things and defend himself.

    "But they are all seven and eight years old!" William turned to Lang, acting as if he was ming him for bringing them here.

    "They need to see the world," Peter spoke up as well, to support his friend.

    "It''s not going to end badly for them," Berry moved her eyes between Lang, her young nsmen, and William, "this mission won''t result in anyone''s deaths, right?"

    "I don''t like going around and babysitting others," Sara''s stance was clearly against these three. As for John, he stood there without speaking at all.

    He brought a bunch of bronze disciples; all were much older than William.

    "They are spirit masters like us, and they deserve to see what the true world is like," Berry took the mission of contending against Sara, while thetter didn''t show any sign of weakness at all.

    "Humph! Then let me ask you this," Sara ignored everyone else, focused her eyes over William, "is it safe to bring these kids over? Is our task this easy?"

    William felt like Sara already got the wind of what he selected back at the Mercenary department. And he got to admit to himself, she got a good point here indeed.

    However¡­

    "In times of turmoil and chaos," he slowly spoke up, "even kids won''t get spared or shown mercy by death!"

    "This¡­" his words didn''t just startle Sara, but also the ones who brought these kids over, and the kids as well.

    "Don''t get me wrong," William moved his eyes among the white grade spirit masters, then over others as well, "I don''t n to safely escort anyone on a trip outside. Don''t take it wrongly, we aren''t going to a nice ce, nor going to have a smooth and easy mission."

    "..."

    "I won''t move to save anyone''s life, nor will I lead you away from danger. We are going to fight a scary enemy, and death wille at us for many asions. Mark my words, whoeveres with me, is going to sign his death sentence and leave his will behind before setting a single step out with me."

    His eyes looked so damn cold and merciless, as if he was the scary enemy he was referring to. William didn''t say these words just to the white grade spirit masters, but to all, even to the five he initially selected.

    "So¡­ If you deeply treasure your lives, go back, return and live in peace among your people and friends, don''te with me. Thest thing I''d like to see is the eyes of yours showing their unwillingness to leave this world in the middle of the hard battles we are going to face."

    "..."

 Chapter 244 Ibra The Killer

    His words weren''t anything rted to encouragement. In fact, it felt like he wanted to drive everyone away.

    William wasn''t bluffing, nor he was trying to scare anyone away. He was just telling the truth. For him, he epted the idea of fighting and contending against formidable foes a long time ago.

    He didn''t fear death, he feared failure! And to him, having arge number of weak hearted spirit masters around wasn''t going to help in any way.

    "Good words," the first to speak wasn''t one of this group, not one of his five selected members of the team, but someone from the outside.

    When William and everyone turned to see who he was, many got a scare.

    "Ibra¡­ It''s Ibra!"

    "What is such a mad man doing here?"

    "Wasn''t he locked up formitting a crime in the academy?"

    "Isn''t he the one who killed dozens of disciples a few years ago?"

    Many eximed in shock while William didn''t get who this dude was. However, from thements he heard, he could guess a thing or two already.

    This dude was sixteen years old, looking as mature as any grown up. He had his upper body exposed, covered in ugly scars, and fierce looking tattoos that showed the different looks of many hideous and scary monsters.

    His ck hair was long and left unattended, flying behind his back while he kept moving forward, heading directly towards William.

    Whenever he walked, it seemed like an invisible force pushed everyone aside, opening a path for him.

    He stood and stopped just a few metres away from William, giving thetter the feeling he was eyed by a ferocious wild beast.

    William looked into Ibra''s deep ck eyes, which looked as if they were about to swallow everything around.

    His face wasn''t that handsome, and yet it emitted a vibe of someone who experienced a lot in this world.

    "Ibra the killer¡­ What are you doing here?"

    Just as the entire world seemed to freeze, Sara stepped forward, standing between William and Ibra, while asking in a tone that held tons of anger and hatred.

    "I''m not here for you, sweet little princess," Ibra took out a weapon William always craved, a ive! He waved it in a full circle, expanding the gap between him and others for a few more metres.

    "Step back," William didn''t like the idea of getting protected by Sara again. He simply moved forward, while pushing her aside for a little, "I''ll handle this."

    William knew there were many looking here as if they were watching a good show. And at this moment, this show was getting more interesting by Ibra''s sudden appearance.

    "I''d say you got a good mouth, but not enough strength to back your words up," Ibra nted the ive fiercely on the ground, making it tremble faintly under such impact.

    He leant over the shaft of the ive, which extended beyond the reach of his head, and looked in more interest towards William as he added, "tell me, what power gives you the right to go and stir the ho nest? What right do you have to lead others to their demise?"

    "Who said they are going to their demise?" William knew that the news of what he did back at the Mercenary department seemed to spread out and reach the ears of this dude.

    "Going against the dark spirit masters? With a bunch of weaklings and kids? With the strongest dudes here only at silver grade? And you don''t admit you are leading them to their demise? That''s quite ballsy, dude!"

    "Humph," under such mocking tone and attitude, William felt like this dude didn''t mean any ill intentions at all.

    Or else, he''d stay back in the audience seats, watching andughing over their foolishness, not moving out and trying to speak with him right now. "Who said we are the ones who are going to die? Any dark spirit mastering in my way will die. Death will be the end for anyone blocking my path, not me, not others on my side."

    "Strong promises," Ibra slowly nodded, "but without any ability to see them fulfilled¡­ I like your spirit, and I hate to see someone like you throw away his life in vain. Why won''t you follow me around, and stop this childish y?"

    "Why won''t you stop your nonsense and foolish killing of the useless trash inside the academy and follow me?"

    In front of the provocative and arrogant words and tone of Ibra, William responded with the same kind of medicine.

    As for the part rted to killing traitors, this was something William dared to guess and reveal to make sure of his earlier doubts.

    This Ibra got locked up in the academy for years as William just heard. And that was the standard punishment for killing others inside the academy.

    If he did such a crime and was here speaking about recruiting William to follow him in killing dark spirit masters, then there was only one possible exnation for this.

    The ones Ibra killed weren''t just normal disciples but were traitors! And this dude was fighting on the right side, yet fighting on the wrong stage, while using the faulted means to do it.

    The moment William said his words, he felt Ibra''s body shine in dark light, one that was mixed with faint gold.

    ''Darkness element? And a gold grade spirit master as well? Quite interesting!'' William got to know the reason behind this dude''s arrogance. And realising this made him more interested in recruiting this youth to his side.

    Quite fierce, very daring, arrogantly strong, having a rare and very unique spirit element¡­They were all good traits in the favour of Ibra. However, this dude was like a madman, like a blindfolded bull, like a lone wolf, couldn''t be easily tamed, and wouldn''t work well in any group or team.

    William could see the good and bad points in Ibra. However, all the bad aspects of this youth could be solved if he managed to force this one to take the first step in joining him.

    And to do so, William didn''t know of any other way but one¡­

 Chapter 245 Let There Be Lightning

    "Come on! You are a bronze spirit master, a fly I can easily crush if I wanted to. Do you think you can survive the outer world? With such meagre strength?"

    "That''s what any dark spirit master will say in front of me," William locked his eyes over Ibra, and thetter''s face twitched and changed for a bit before he regained hisposure.

    "I agree," unlike what others expected, Ibra nodded as he agreed with what William just said, "but that doesn''t mean you are good enough to get out and embark on such a journey right now. Even I won''t take the step you are going to do."

    "That''s because you are a coward."

    "I dare you say this again!" Ibra bellowed out as if William just stepped on a sour spot of his.

    "Then tell me why you are targeting those useless traitors inside and didn''t even step outside to kill the real criminals?"

    "I have a mission to do, to clear the academy, not the world!"

    "That''s ame excuse, don''t you agree?"

    "Screw you! You are too damn weak to do anything¡­ If you have the ability, then show it to me right here!"

    Ibra was like an explosive grenade that got its fuse off. He got easily enraged and manipted by William to reach such a stage. And seeing that dude wave his ive in the air for a few times before pointing its tip just inches away from William''s face, didn''t make thetter even flinch.

    "A gold spirit master challenging a bronze one? Come on! Just the gap in our spirit power is enough to ensure your victory," William slowly said, while taking out his sword, moving it from one hand to another as if it was a toy or something.

    "That proves my point, you are going to deal with gold dark spirit masters if you step out from here. What? Don''t tell me you are going to ask them to lower or limit their strength while fighting you!"

    "I won''t," William shook his head, "but fighting them will be on my own terms and conditions, on my way, not just as straightforward as dealing with you right here."

    "I want to see how you are going to deal with¡­" just before Ibra would continue his words, William vanished!

    William knew it was impossible to take such a dude down or even defeat him in direct sh. But if he started to move, using the element of surprise to his side, this Ibra here wouldin about his dirty methods and such.

    He waited until that dude epted such an idea first, before he acted.

    William wanted to show him that even with his low strength, he coulde at a gold grade spirit master and even endanger his life.

    William thought about using his Holy Sword technique from the start, to finally deciding against using it.

    There were too many eyes around, and he didn''t want to expose such a tricky attack before arriving at the Scorching Lands.

    So, he used the lightning element high speed technique, controlled his body to travel for ten metres only.

    *ng!*

    "Don''t take me for those weaklings¡­"

    Just when William shed, the response of Ibra wasn''t any slower than William''s sword. The ive moved and stopped the attacking from the sword.

    And before Ibra would continue his words, thetter saw William vanish again, and again, and again. It seemed like William was teleporting between different points, while his sword kepting at Ibra every single time.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    The surrounding spirit masters had to retreat and clear a wider space around the fighting two. At the same time, no one dared to even breathe aloud, as all eyes were focused on such a high level and intense battle.

    The one who was supposed to dominate the other got pinned to his ce, defending one attack after another. From time to time, he failed to counter William''s sword, ending up suffering a few wounds on his body.

    It was indeed quite shocking! Even if William pulled some sort of unknown moveable technique, it didn''t exin why and how his sword managed to bring such wounds over the body of his foe.

    There was a huge gap between the two, but no one ever suspected that William''s sword was already high enough to cover such a gap in grades, ending up wounding Ibra.

    And that wasn''t all!

    "Dammit! You are such a motherf*cker bastard! Jumping around like a damn monkey! And what''s about that stinging sword of yours? If you are a man, fight like a real spirit master!"

    The voice of Ibra wasn''t weak, but it held tons of rage and hatred inside. It seemed the pain he suffered wasn''t like anything he expected from a mere bronze spirit master.

    The fact that William managed to wound him was enough to drive him mad. And that painful stinging pain that he felt after each sh, like fire spreading all over his body, made him more restless and annoyed.

    "I''m fighting like spirit masters should," William finally stopped a few metres away from Ibra, ceasing his attacks over him, "it''s just you are inexperienced and weak enough for me to toy like this with you."

    "Big words again¡­ I''d love to wipe the floor with that pretty mouth of yours¡­" Ibra thought William''s spirit power got emptied or something, as thetter stopped moving and didn''t even bother to attack again.

    "It''s a huge mistake for you to stop such an acrobatic show in front of someone like me¡­ Come on, take a single hit from my ive and say hi to those foolish ancestors of yours for me," Ibra waved his ive a couple times in the air, seemingly something he loved to do before attacking.

    "Let there be lightning!" and just before Ibra would stop rotating his ive in the air, and before he''d even move his ive to do what he just promised and imagined, William''s low tonended and the next moment... The entire body of Ibra got covered up with dancing and flickering lightning arcs.

 Chapter 246 Crushing A Gold Grade Spirit Master

    The battle William had before with Garlend, and his team was intense, but it didn''t start with his full strength. When William met Garlend and fought him, he got more than half of his spirit power consumed by then.

    So, he couldn''t control his spirit power quite well. But right now, he was able to calmly leave behind part of his spirit power, filled with his lightning spirit element.

    And the moment he triggered them, the lightning acted wild, and started to wreak havoc all over Ibra''s body. The ive that Ibra was fond and proud of finally lost its firm grip from his hands, fell on the ground, releasing loud nging sounds.

    As for its owner, Ibra started to twitch as if he got electrified.

    William knew the damage and pain this dude was suffering were much worse than what looked on the surface. After all, this dude was using a darkness element, something that his lightning element could purify.

    "I''m going to kill you!" Ibra took all these hits, had his body rise up thin lines of dark smoke, but he was still standing on his feet.

    He raised his eyes, ones that were shimmering in dangerous ck light, "using such tricks won''t be enough to take me down! I''m much stronger than you, even if you have what it takes to hurt me, your methods are still pathetically weak."

    "Then deal with this," William''s next actions were decisive. He already consumed one third of his spirit power. He didn''t need to travel long distances, and he just jumped for five times before stopping.

    This time, he didn''t just use his sword. A group of ten flying knives appeared and vanished alongside him.

    "Eat this punch then!" and in return for William''s move, Ibra clenched his fists, gathering up a dangerous amount of darkness element around both, before mming the two against each other, just as the point where he anticipated William to appear at, "The ck Horn Punch!"

    Ibra''s shout got masked with a loud rumbling that came from the contact between his two fists. It looked as if a small bomb got detonated and started to crush anything in a half metre radius around.

    "This is the big difference between me and you," and just when a thick cloud of dust appeared, masking Ibra''s and everyone''s appearance, William''s calm voice came from another ce, just three metres to the side of the location Ibra attacked, "you are like a blind bull. No matter how fierce a bull it, without hitting your target, you are no better than a useless chicken!"

    *sh!* *sh!* *sh!*

    Just before Ibra or anyone would move their eyes around to spot William, thetter started a barrage of teleportation like movements, jumping from one point to another, crossing just three metres in each time, while his sword and sharp knives kept hitting and wounding Ibra''s body, issuing muffled shing noises with each hit.

    Ten shes, thirty shes, fifty shes¡­ Until William left behind one hundred shes, he kept jumping and using his technique repeatedly.

    Limiting the distance to such a small scale was hard. He normally wouldn''t do it. However, William started to get familiar with his technique after using it frequently.

    After the battle with Garlend, William began to better grasp many details about this technique. And as he used it again against Ibra, he got few insights about how to solve such a problem.

    Instead of jumping over three metres directly, he jumped between three points, covering almost three metres in each. That made the total distance covered was ten metres. And William could do such a jump easily without any hups.

    It was a single jump, but he didn''t make it like running in a direct line, instead in a zigzag like line. Doing this saved his lots of spirit power, while leaving behind three attacks, not just one.

    "If you want to join me, if you want to know how to properly use your bull-like power, then follow me after waking up¡­ Snap!"

    And after doing all this, William just stopped five metres away, said these words before snapping his fingers. The next moment, the entire body of Ibra that got bathed in different shing wounds, released the lightning spirit element, making that big body twitch for a few seconds, before finally falling down to the ground.

    William knew it wasn''t enough to kill this dude using such kind of attack. In fact, he depended on the numbing effect of his lightning element, to turn Ibra''s body weak and limb, even to the extent of losing consciousness for a brief time.

    If William was one grade higher, then this kind of attack would leave behind a corpse for sure. William didn''t have any grudge against Ibra, or else he wouldn''t give his back to him and move away like he did right now.

    In the case that William wanted to kill Ibra, it''d be easy to do so while this dude was in such a state. But William simply left his words behind and started to move away.

    He just gave the ive calmly lying on the ground a long look, before finally shifting his eyes away and kept walking.

    He wanted a ive, and he had to just wait for the month period to be over to get his personal and scary one.

    "Someone go and get the papers others left and keep it with you," he said to the five friends of his, referring to the papers that held names, grades, sses, and means to contact the ones who were gathered here and just left before the battle.

    And Lang motioned his eyes to someone he brought, and he moved to collect these papers left under pieces of rocks before giving them over to him.

    "Anyone who wants to join me has the chance right now," William stopped in the middle of the spirit masters who formed a big circle around.

    Even those who stayed far, came closer to see this battle better. "Let''s go," William knew staying here wasn''t going to be a good idea.

    After all, he showed part of his strength in front of many. News would spread, and dark spirit masters and traitors mighte for him.

    Not to mention Ibra wouldn''t wake up with a mind that would ept seeing him nearby and wouldn''t aim for his neck!

    So, he decided to move out and start the next round of tests deep in the forest, away from here.

 Chapter 247 Its Time For A Test

    He emptied almost eighty percent of his spirit power, and that wasn''t enough to leave him in the same sorrow state as how he ended up back at the Spar arena.

    William leaned more on using his lightning spirit element in this fight, the same way he''d fight the dark spirit masters in.

    Ibra didn''t lose out thanks to any technique, or even spirit power¡­ He lost thanks to his inexperience in using his spirit element. Not to mention he didn''t even care to know a bit more about William before the fight, or even was attentive to notice the lightning spirit power William used.

    Ibra wasn''t fighting William seriously, and if he did, William wouldn''t have walked away in such a state or Ibra would be left unconscious on the ground.

    William moved forward, and the moment he did, Berry, Sara, Lang, Peter, and John moved after him without any hesitation or dy.

    Other spirit masters around, be it the ones who came here to watch or to join, both sides looked at the all burnt down Ibra on the ground and then moved their eyes at the distant back of William.

    "Tsk! It seems the academy won''t live in peace any longer," one of those who came to watch sighed, while others silently agreed with him.

    William''s actions here weren''t just mind goggling, but they were like a statement. The uing generation was going to create miracles and take over those higher, stronger, and older than them.

    The ones who came to watch didn''t follow William anymore, feeling like they already saw enough.

    This kid¡­ He got what it took for him to act in such an arrogant and daring way!

    The others who came here to join William didn''t hesitate any longer. Thest words William said before Ibra''s intervention managed to leave behind a shadow in their hearts.

    But when William showed off his abnormal strength and managed to beat down such a scary spirit master, all the doubts in everyone''s hearts vanquished.

    No one loved to hear about walking to their deaths. But following such a strong spirit master, one who defied logic, had a much deeper impact on themselves than fear.

    William walked for a mile inside the safe zone of the forest, taking a zigzag route, before finally stopping. Not a single one brought up by his four trusted friends was left behind.

    "Ok, at least they got the courage to follow me," William thought to himself before moving his eyes around, "now, it''s time for your admission test."

    "Admission test?"

    "What test?"

    "Is it the one that will decide who will join the team and who won''t?"

    Many eximed in doubt, while the five around William showed a tinge of confusion on their faces.

    "It''s a test to decide who is going to follow us outside, and who won''t," William moved his eyes around, stopping for a few moments over those white grade kids, "and it''s a pretty simple task¡­ I want each of you to walk around, find and kill at least ten monsters alone, and bring back their materials and cores."

    "This¡­"

    "That simple?"

    "What grade do you want? It can''t be white grade monsters, right?"

    "Any grade will do," William paused, before adding, "but you got only three hours to do so. One secondter and you''ll be disqualified!"

    "This¡­"

    "And fighting among yourselves is forbidden," William added, "go and start killing monsters. The test starts now! And don''t forget, I want you to impress me!"

    William didn''t give any of these forty kids a chance to even absorb or digest what he said. Once he said hisst piece, everyone exchanged looks in silence, before they dispersed around the forest.

    "Killing ten in three hours? That can be achieved easily," Sara pouted from the side, "you should have given them one hour! Or even less than that!"

    "There are forty of them! And that means they have to cross arge area first to secure more monsters than others," Peter said, as this dude grasped part of the trick William yed in his words.

    "Kill more?" Berry blinked, "don''t they need to kill only ten?"

    "That dude said at least, and that means he wanted more," Lang sighed, while pointing at William, "why didn''t you tell them about this point? That killing more monsters will bring more chances in joining us?"

    "Because it''s not as simple as that," William sighed, "for example, those silver grade spirit masters can easily kill ten of white grade monsters. If they did, then they wouldn''t be qualified to join the team."

    "But¡­" Berry was still unable to grasp what William wanted from this test, "didn''t you say any grade will do?"

    "Sure," William nodded, "but if the silver grade spirit masters focused on killing white grade monsters, then that will tell me a lot about their nature."

    "This¡­" Berry looked around, and it seemed she and Sara were the only ones who didn''t get the idea behind this test.

    Even John seemed to realise and guess bits of William''s real intentions.

    "I don''t want spirit masters who will go around and get satisfied in doing the lowest requirement of any task¡­ I want daring dudes, ones who aim to go higher and achieve better results than they got asked for."

    "That''s why this dude asked to get impressed at the end," Sara shook her head in realisation, "you should have stated all this from the start. Many won''t get the point behind your test this way."

    "I don''t want anyone to get my point," William showed a calm smile that wasn''t one, "I want to see their true selves. I want to see how they''ll act in normal situations, without having anything like preset conditions or achieved goals or something."

    To Sara, William should have told everyone what he wanted so they''d adapt and do as he''d expect them to do. Her point was also supported by Lang, as thetter got worried over his nsmen.

    John didn''t speak up, as he still felt it was a mistake for him to be here or might be pure luck. So, he didn''t have a say in this, and decided to keep himself neutral and didn''t take a side.

    Berry didn''t like how William acted with these kids as well, and thought the same way as Sara and Lang.

    The only one who showed support to William''s idea was Peter.

 Chapter 248 Getting Disqualified

    "It has to be done this way. Only when people lower their guard they''d show their true colour," Peter said, and William just remained silent while they kept hassling among themselves about this point.

    William was standing with the other five at the safe part of the forest. And with the activity of the other forty, it was expected that not a single monster came to test them out.

    During this time, William took it to recharge his depleted spirit power. And just before the three hours would end, few of those who went out started toe back.

    "Here, I killed twenty monsters during this period."

    "I killed thirty, ten more than you, hahahaha!"

    "I¡­ I only killed ten¡­ Is it enough?"

    One by one came, and William let his five friends handle the loot. Of course people might trick them and bring cores they already got out, so William asked for materials for this purpose.

    No matter how one came prepared, they''d miss a material or two from the loot they supposedly collected. And luckily, the ones these four gathered up were all good kids, and none tried to cheat at all.

    The white grade spirit masters stood in doubt and fear when they saw therge number of monsters other disciples killed. The highest white grade disciple record was just thirteen monsters, all were white grade.

    People who were at bronze grade killed twenty up to forty! And even many killed bronze grade monsters as well!

    As for the silver grade spirit masters, they looked like monsters in the eyes of those white grade disciples. They killed more than a hundred monsters during this period, and even most of them were bronze with one or two silver monsters in the mix.

    But that wasn''t the performance of everyone! Few leaned towards securing the minimum requirements, and those stood in the group, while feeling more pressure and quite anxious.

    Watching others take lots of monster cores and materials out in front of them made thosezy disciples realise the huge mistake theymitted.

    And after everything got checked out, everyone stood in a nervous way, looking at William while waiting for his decision.

    The initial group gathered up by the four included five silver spirit masters, seven white grade ones, and the rest were bronze spirit masters.

    Out of all of them, two white spirit masters failed to gather the required cores and materials in time, five bronze spirit masters failed to gather more than ten.

    "The ones I''m going to point at won''t join us this time," William stood in front of all of them, calmly moving his eyes around. The ones who failed to gather up enough cores, and the ones who just got satisfied with the ten monsters quota knew they were going to get expelled without the need of William to lift a finger at them.

    "You¡­ You¡­ You¡­ And you¡­" William kept pointing at these dudes who knew they failed before finally adding, "thanks foring here. But you didn''t fulfil the criterion of the test, or barely achieved the results. So¡­ I hope we meet up next time and you will be more prepared."

    William didn''t truly mean what he said, but he said it out of respect and care to those seven spirit masters'' feelings.

    As expected, every single one of them moved while having their heads lowered. They regretted not working harder, especially for the five bronze spirit masters.

    Watching others leave made those standing here cherish this chance even more. Sometimes, people wouldn''t get the value of what they got until they saw others losing it.

    "Now¡­" William turned to his newly formed team. Including the five he originally recruited, the initial roster of his team amounted to thirty-eight.

    It was a bit more than he initially expected. But it didn''t matter. He knew this was just the initial test, and further tests woulde during their journey and many would get disqualified or killed during their risky mission.

    "I first congratte you all on joining the beta version of my team. You all know me, and under me are these five¡­" William paused while pointing at the five friends of his, "they are going to be the team vice-leaders. They''ll help organise the team, leading you around, and even taking part of you to do something for us. Follow their orders to the letter, as they will get their orders from me directly."

    William established the hierarchy of his team from the start, to remove any room for doubt or suspicion.

    "Can we know where we are going now?"

    "What mission are we going to do? Is it really rted to dark spirit masters?"

    "Are we going to fight these monsters?"

    Many started to speak up, and to William''s surprise the silver grade spirit masters all kept their silence and didn''t speak up.

    "Calm down," William ushered for them to go silent, "I''m not sending you out alone. I''m going with you, and surely I''m not trying to get myself killed."

    "So¡­ Is it true?" Lang was the one to speak this time, and everyone remained silent when they saw him step up and speak for them.

    Among the initial forty brought here, twenty-seven belonged to the Long n. All the white grade spirit masters came from the Long n, alongside three of the silver grade spirit masters.

    Peter recruited one silver spirit master, and Sara recruited thest one. As for John, he only recruited three bronze grade spirit masters. As for the remaining eight bronze spirit masters, Sara invited three, and Peter invited five.

    Out of those who left the team, all belonged to the Long n, all but one bronze spirit master who got invited here by Peter. And that made Lang slightly embarrassed by such a result.

    However William didn''t dwindle around this, nor even cared about asking which belonged to who.

    "We are," William firmly nodded, admitting the thing everyone here either heard about or suspected after Ibra''s words from before.

    "It''s true then," Sara sighed, "we are going to the Scorching Lands and will seek out the dark spirit masters there."

 Chapter 249 A Scary Offer

    "You did your homework," William met her doubtful gazes with a shortugh, "that''s where we are going indeed. And we are going to do a mission rted to the dark spirit masters, but it''s not that hard actually."

    No one believed his words. After all, the reputation and infamy the dark spirit masters had was like true terror in this world.

    "We are going to set out right away," William paused before adding, "during this, we will meet lots of enemies. Be it monsters, other academies'' disciples, or even dark spirit masters¡­ I don''t care about any of that. No matter who is going to stand in our way, we have a single answer for them¡­ Death!"

    His words didn''t manage to stir up their will or raise morale. The dark shadow of facing the dark spirit masters was much heavier than the effect of his words.

    "As for the journey, I don''t want you to just walk without doing anything. So¡­ I''ll pass over copies of a few arrays. Study and memorise them by heart, as these will determine everythingter on."

    Not all of them realised what he implied, but the five friends of his knew. The kids who came from the Long n who were with him back at the forging grounds of their n, realised that William was up to something big this time as well.

    William felt lucky that he spent hisst night making enough copies for his team. He estimated that at most twenty-five disciples would show up and join his team, and much less than that would pass his test.

    However just to be sure he''d not miss anything, he took his time and made up to fifty copies of each array.

    "Here, distribute those, one copy per person," he took many scrolls, handed them over. There were five different arrays here, and each helped in doing something during the uing fight against dark spirit masters.

    "This¡­"

    "What the heck is wrong with this array?"

    "Can such an array even work?"

    "Damn! Just the number of materials needed is scary!"

    Everyone got the scrolls, and once they did, they started to examine them in a hurry. The first impressions they got were shock, disbelief, and doubt.

    The arrays William handed over were built on concepts that weren''t known in the tiny world. So, it was expected that none grasped the value and effects behind any, even failed to understand how they worked.

    "William¡­ We need lots of materials for each array¡­ And¡­" Berry found these arrays quite special and weird, but this problem red up among anything else.

    "Don''t worry about that," William waved his hand, interrupting her, "I got everything arranged beforehand. That reminds me¡­ What grade of weapons and gears do you all use?"

    He already bought enough to arm up thirty team members. The total number of his team grew beyond what he initially prepared for. But he hoped few would have good grade weapons and gears, saving a few pieces to others.

    "I don''t need any weapons or gears," Sara got what he implied, and linked the hidden dots between his words. She realised William spent his time in making lots of preparations, making him look like a very capable team leader without doubt.

    "I also don''t need any," Lang, Peter, and Berry spoke up one by one. They got good gears and weapons and didn''t need any help from William.

    "I got all bronze grade gears and a silver grade sword."

    "All my gears are bronze grade, like my weapon as well."

    "Thanks, but I got good gears and weapons that I got used to."

    One by one, the five silver spirit masters spoke up. They got all bronze grade weapons and gears, with a few pieces of silver grade weapons and gears asionally mentioned.

    "Cool," Seeing this, William knew he had only twenty-eight team members to arm up. He didn''t need to hear the responses from the bronze and white grade disciples, but he still listened.

    "Not bad," unlike what he expected, close to half of the bronze spirit masters here got pieces of bronze gears and few bronze weapons, the rest of their equipment were all white grade ones. The white spirit masters got all white grade weapons and gears as expected.

    Considering all, William knew he didn''t need to arm up all of the twenty-eight team members as well. Which was great news. If he counted everything, then at most he''d need gears and weapons to fully arm up twenty kids at most.

    William didn''t intend to just use the weapons and gears he bought. These were all decent silver grade ones. And if he wanted to arm everyone up with them, they wouldn''t suffice.

    William got another n in mind, one that included using part of the loot he gathered from the dead Golden Sky disciple''s ring, and another part that included the spirit masters here.

    "Here is what we are going to do," and when everyone expected him to deal with the white grade spirit masters first, William focused his attention over the silver grade spirit masters.

    Everyone here already got hints about what William was going to do. He mentioned that he made enough preparations before regarding materials. And so, it was safe to assume that he already secured a few gears and weapons for the team.

    Anyone would think that William secured mostly bronze grade pieces, enough to arm up a few team members. But none expected what he was going to say next.

    "I got silver grade weapons and gears, enough to arm up all five of you," William paused, while not only the five he was speaking to, but everyone looked up at him in a fright.

    "But¡­ These gears aren''t that cheap or for free. As temporary members of the team, you will get one silver piece on the price of five bronze pieces. And that deal only applies until the end of this mission. If you fail to join the final roster of the team, then you''ll return these gears and get your bronze gears back."

    "This¡­"

 Chapter 250 Taking From The Rich And Give The Poor

    "William, stop jesting!" Peter couldn''t help but swallow his saliva, "even I didn''t have more than two silver pieces! And you are telling me you got enough to arm up these five fully with silver gears and weapons?!!"

    "That''s what I can do¡­ At least," William paused as he moved his eyes over the four rich tycoons in front of him. He totally missed these four, and when Peter spoke up, William instantly recognised what he missed.

    "You four also can exchange silver gears for bronze ones on the same exchange ratio," William wanted to give them these weapons and gears for free. However, he''d miss a lot of gains in return.

    He got all silver grade pieces from the market and didn''t bother to get any bronze grade ones. And as the number of his team grew beyond what he initially expected, he had to improvise.

    He nned to take gears from those five silver spirit masters in return for the silver grade weapons and gears. Then he''d distribute what he got over the other kids, ending up having a very strong and quite formidable lineup!

    And when he noticed the four little tycoons here, he also included them in this deal.

    "What if we don''t have enough bronze gears to exchange for?" one of the five silver spirit masters couldn''t believe his ears when he heard that offer.

    Getting a single silver gear or weapon required tons of spirit crystals. The price of any decent bronze weapon or piece of gear wouldn''t exceed one thousand and half spirit crystals. But the price of any decent silver piece would reach seven or eight thousand crystals.

    If anyone got the offer to exchange five bronze pieces of gears or weapons with a single silver piece, then no one in his right set of mind would reject such an offer.

    After all, William didn''t specify the quality of the bronze gears and weapons he asked for. And from his words, it seemed that the silver pieces he got were all in good quality.

    Of course, they needed to check these silver pieces of William, and that was why that dude asked about this.

    If the quality was bad, then the deal would be a loss for all of them. Instead of wasting their good bronze pieces, it was better to exchange just the bad ones.

    "I doubt you can resist taking everything you got to exchange my gears and weapons with," William could see through what went inside that silver youth''s mind and others.

    So instead of wasting his breaths on exining things using words, he used action.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    "Damn me! These weapons¡­ These gears¡­ Don''t fight me over any of them! I''m going to take what I need and won''t take a single piece more!"

    "They are all great quality silver weapons and gears!! Howe?!!!"

    "Wow! That shield¡­ I love that shield! It''s mine!"

    William took out enough pieces to arm up not only five, but ten spirit masters fully with silver grade weapons and gears.

    The lump he left behind was enough to drive all crazy. William stood in front of these silver pieces, crossed his arms, as he calmly said, "one piece for five bronze gears. Who will get one?"

    *Gulp!* Even the other bronze and white grade kids couldn''t help but drool when seeing such a magnificent scene.

    "Impressive! Every time I meet you, you seed in giving me an awe!" Saraughed when she saw this. As the granddaughter of the academy headmaster, she got most of her weapons and gears as good silver grade, "I don''t need that much, but I can donate more bronze gears to help."

    "I''m going to donate as well!" Berry also got what Sara meant and wanted to do here. But part of the reasons behind her move and shout weren''t rted to just what Sara''s intentions were.

    It was now clear that William spent out a fortune to prepare his team for this trip. And as he suffered such loss, Sara decided to give him a hand and help, even if she didn''t need any of the gears and weapons he took out.

    Berry also volunteered, but aside from these two, the other three vice leaders didn''t speak up.

    Lang and Peter might be considered prodigies in their generation, but they weren''t as wealthy or had scary figures behind their backs like Sara and Berry.

    The two wanted to speak up and support William, the same feeling John and others had. However, none dared to speak up, as everyone knew their limits.

    "Cool!" William nodded as he got what these two girls wanted to do, "now¡­ who wants my gears? Come on, don''t be shy. One silver for five bronzes, any quality will do. But please try and give out the good pieces first."

    ? "Sure, give me this, this, and this one as well," one silver spirit master took the initiative and moved, pointing out towards three silver pieces before taking fifteen bronze grade weapons and gears, "I only got fifteen bronze pieces with me."

    "You can check in the rest of the missing pieces using white grade weapons and gears," William suddenly threw such a bomb, "but these white pieces aren''t refundable. And at the end of the trip, if you don''t end up being part of us, you''ll have to return these silver pieces, got it?"

    "For real? Then give me five more! Here, take all these rubbish white grade things off me,"

    "Can we exchange it all with the white trash?"

    "No," William looked at the greedy dude who tried to act smart here, "deliver all of your bronze pieces first. Then if youck any, you can use white."

    "Ok," that dude looked a bit depressed. He got a ring and ming look from Peter, the one who brought him here, making thetter feel quite embarrassed.

    It was clear now what William wanted to do. He''d take out from the rich and give to the poor, give the silver pieces to the silver spirit masters and his vice leaders, and give their bronze gears to everyone else.

 Chapter 251 Im In Your Debt For The Rest Of My Life!

    So trying to use such tricks here made that dude look quite bad in the eyes of everyone.

    William didn''t think much about what this dude tried to do and kept himself busy receiving bronze and white gears from everyone, giving them the silver pieces they wanted in return.

    As for the record of who paid what, he depended on Berry to do so.

    "Now, it''s your time," after doing all this, William turned towards his five vice-leaders, "select the pieces you want."

    "I told you already, I don''t want that much," Sara got most of her gears and weapons in silver grade. So she just picked two arm guards, one small vest, and threw in tons of bronze and white grade gears and weapons.

    "These are things I don''t need, and I believe they''ll help the team greatly."

    "Me too," before William would even say thanks, Berry jumped in. Unlike Sara, she got half of her gears in silver, the remaining in bronze. So she first picked up what she needed from William''s lot, and then took out tons of gears and weapons like Sara.

    "Thanks," William said to the two girls, before Lang and Peter came and picked their pieces. They donated most if not all of the gears they had, regardless of the number of silver pieces they got.

    Of course, they couldn''t bepared with the two rich tycoons who acted first, but at least they tried to help.

    "Ahem¡­ I¡­" and finally it came down to John. Thetter felt very embarrassed. He found himself standing on par with such scary folks, ones he used to always look at and envy.

    Unlike these filthy rich four, or the strong silver grade five, John was amoner. He didn''t have much bronze grade gears on his body, with most being white grade.

    So even if he wanted, he couldn''t satisfy the lowest quota of ten white grade pieces for a single silver weapon.

    "Don''t worry, just pick whatever you want andter on you can pay from the gains of the mission," William knew how troubled this dude was feeling right now, and so he spoke up to relieve any pressure or embarrassment over his shoulders.

    "This¡­ Is it okay?" John''s eyes shone brightly with hope, and yet he didn''t dare to extend a hand or touch a single gear or weapon.

    He thought beyond his embarrassment, towards such actions of William. William made everyone here pick up a gear and pay for it. If he acted partially towards him, wouldn''t that stir trouble inside the team?

    "Come on, you are a bronze spirit master after all," William could read through this youth''s mind, "go and pick any piece you want. And in the uing mission, you all will get part of the loot we''ll have. So, paying meter won''t be a problem."

    "..."

    Even when William said it, John didn''t dare to move. Instead, he shifted his eyes around, looking at the other silver grade youths, at the other four vice leaders, at everyone else.

    "You heard the boss, why wasting our time then?" and unlike what John expected, it seemed every one of those five silver spirit masters were totally absorbed in the excitement of getting armed up to the brim with silver gears and weapons.

    The one to speak up was Peter, and he said it amidst hisughs. When John saw such a reaction, he heaved an inner sigh of relief.

    He went up, looked at all these silver pieces lying in front of him, couldn''t even believe his eyes.

    He, amoner spirit master, one who struggled to have enough spirit crystals to purchase a single bad quality bronze gear or weapon, even umting wealth for months to do that, was now about to get armed up to the brim with great quality, all silver grade pieces!

    "Thanks," John didn''t move first to pick any of these pieces, instead he bent his waist and saluted William formally in such a deep bow, "I''ll be in your debt for the rest of my life!"

    "We don''t have such a thing between us," Williamughed as he got quite satisfied with the reaction of John, "we are friends after all, part of the same team, part of the same family. Come on, go and pick your pieces so others can start picking theirs."

    "Thanks again," John honestly expressed his true feelings at the moment before he started to pick up the gears he wanted.

    "I got just these few pieces on me," even when William said he could take them and payter, John still got his pride. He took out five pieces of bronze and white grade weapons and gears, left them to William before retreating.

    He only got these five on his body, the result of working for others for many years. But in just a blink of an eye, he ended up having all his body covered with great quality silver grade pieces.

    If someone told him before he''d end up having such a thing, then he''d call him crazy!

    "Now¡­" William collected the pieces he got from everyone and turned to look at the anxious bronze and white spirit masters.

    William took out before more than enough to arm up those nine spirit masters. And so, there were still many pieces left behind. Others got their eyes fixed on these, dreaming about just having a single piece of such great gears.

    "Bronze spirit masters¡­ You are going to select three pieces of silver grade each, and the rest will be all bronze gears¡­" William paused before adding, "I know you don''t have enough bronze grade gears and such. So, I won''t make it hard on you. For a single bronze gear, you can pay one bronze, or three white in return. You can pay using white grade gears once donating all the bronze gears on you. And like usual, they aren''t refundable."

    "For real?!!"

    "Is this true?!!!"

    "Wow! It was the best decision of my life toe and join the team!"

    "Long live the mighty leader!"

 Chapter 252 [Bonus ] A Scary Lineup!

    Many shouted and expressed their excitement and appreciation for Williams'' great offer. William let them pick from the remaining silver gears and took lots of bronze gears out as well to satisfy their needs.

    These disciples got many pieces on them of white grade, and not all the bronze grade gears they got came in good quality.

    So, it was expected to see them exchange many of their bronze gears and rece them with other bronze gears from the loot William got from others.

    William didn''t scan the gears he received from others, so he took arge batch, letting these bronze members search and select what was best for them.

    After doing this, and after half an hour, the white grade kids remained.

    They were five, and they looked towards the empty ground, void of any silver pieces left, feeling much regret that they weren''t stronger.

    "As for you¡­"

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    William suddenly took ten silver pieces out of his ring, giving another shock to everyone here, "each will get two silver gears from these. Then select all the bronze gears you wanted. Leave behind white gears, and the rest of the price will be paidter on from the mission''s loot."

    "..."

    Everyone, even Sara, Berry, and others, couldn''t help but suck in cold air of breath when they heard what William just said.

    It was known in the world that gears and potions were just an outside help. Many even didn''t like using them. And that was for many good reasons.

    One of which was the timing of acquiring the suitable gears and potions. For example, not a single dude here got a higher-grade gear or weapon than his spirit master rank.

    The best grade equipment any silver spirit master here got was silver. The same went for bronze and white spirit masters, the same even applied to the gold and dark gold spirit masters.

    Having a good grade of weapon or gear was something hard to achieve for anyone, and we were speaking here about getting gears at the same rank as the spirit master.

    That made the role gears yed in the life of any spirit master be quite limited. However, seeing those five white spirit masters getting armed up with bronze gears, even having two silver gears, made everyone realise how lucky these kids were!

    They got to use gears and weapons; one grade at least higher than their ranks. What did that imply? Just recalling how William fought against two gold grade spirit masters before, while he was at bronze rank, and winning the fight thanks to his gold grade sword and silver grade knives was enough evidence on how big this chance was.

    If spirit masters got higher grade gears than their ranks, then they''d get to taste the true might of gears. These gears would enable them to fight higher ranked enemies, be it monsters or spirit masters, and even win!

    Like this, they wouldn''t consider gears as useless external aid anymore, but something crucial to their survival.

    The same also applied, to a lesser extent, to the bronze spirit masters who got their hands over silver grade gears. Despite only getting three pieces each, having one was entirely life changing for them.

    That made those five silver grade spirit masters feel a little regretful of their luck. They thought they got it better when they got armed up entirely with good silver grade weapons and gears.

    However, that wasn''t something that looked that great anymore. Comparing their situation with those weaker spirit masters, they felt they got the short end of the stick.

    They looked in envy especially towards the five white grade kids who got the best out of this.

    These thoughts were slightly different in the minds of the five vice leaders of the team. Sara thought about how scary such a line up was!

    Thirty-eight team members were having bronze gears and weapons as the worst grade pieces they wore, with many silver grade pieces as well¡­ Without even asking about what level of gears William wore, this team was quite scary!

    She knew more than others about teams in the academy. There were many teams with gold grade members, with many gears even up to gold grade ones.

    However, she didn''tpare the overall amount of equipment or their grade with others. Instead, shepared the percentage of the gears'' quality and grade over the total number of the team.

    Up to her knowledge, no other team she heard about in the academy or outside got such an extravagant line up! And that was just the starting point of the team.

    ''I want to see what will happen after doing ten missions, I want to see what this team will look like by this time¡­'' she joined the team just on the premise of William helping her in solving the mystery of her mother''s scroll.

    But right now, she got slightly interested in following the team to see how far it would reach.

    Berry thought differently. She and Lang had slightly the same line of thoughts. After all, most of the team was formed of their n''s young generation spirit masters. And seeing all these spirit masters getting such gears made the two grin in pride and happiness.

    Without the need to even think about it, betting on joining and supporting William brought back benefits to the disciples from their n beyond anyone''s wildest imaginations and hopes.

    Peter thought the same, yet he felt little regret that he didn''t work harder to convince more of his n''s disciples to join. Seeing the clear disparity between the disciples of his n and Long n''s made him inwardly and bitterly sigh.

    John was the only one thinking about something else. He was deeply touched by William''s actions, care, and generosity here. And that made him link the dots, think beyond what others thought, and consider William as the long-awaited Messiah for the grandmunity ofmoners!

    After all, it was known that William jumped from a porter to a bronze spirit master rank in a few days. And that made John mistake William''s actions towards him and other weak andmon spirit masters as proof for his hidden intentions to support them and others like them.

 Chapter 253 I Want To Beat You Up!

    Reaching such a conclusion made John vow to start spreading out the great deeds of William among the hugemunity ofmoner spirit masters onceing back.

    He aimed to start building a grand image of William among others, helping thetter in achieving the goal John thought to be true.

    William didn''t know any of this, and kept watching the team after getting all their gears upgraded. This was the team he desired to lead, one who was strong enough to take on the task he selected for them.

    "It''s time to start arranging the team," William didn''t hurry to lead everyone away as all expected. Instead, he stood in front of all, while adding, "I need five to work as scouts, venture deeply and ahead of the team, search for any dangers or enemies, and use Bullets to ry news with us."

    "Scout? Is that even needed?"

    "We shall march like this and crush anything in our path!"

    "So these five won''t have to fight? Or they will act as a vanguard unit or what?"

    "What do you mean by Bullets?"

    Many exmations appeared and most spoke about their desire to go all out and test their new gears in real battles.

    However, William didn''t agree to any of this.

    "Like I said, I need five to act as scouts. They mustn''t fight, must keep themselves hidden. Their task is just to scan the areas up ahead, around the route the team will take, and notify me and other vice leaders about what they found using Message Papers."

    William this time used the nickname of these Message Papersmonly used in the outer world. So those here found it weird when he said Bullets, got his meaning when he used Message Papers.

    "But¡­" Lang tried to speak up for others, but William showed no room for negotiations here.

    "Just follow my arrangements and orders to the letter, got it?" William waved his arm, stopping what Lang wanted to say, "now¡­ Who is going to scout?"

    "Well¡­" Berry looked at Lang to silence thetter from speaking up again, before she added, "it''s better for one silver member of ours to lead this team, right?"

    "This team won''t work in a group," William corrected this misunderstanding that she and others got, "they are going to scatter in a few miles radius around, and ry anything they spot to you and me and others."

    "I''ll join," one of the three silver members brought up by Lang stepped up and volunteered. In his eyes, in everyone''s eyes, they all thought about this scout mission to be like sending out a vanguard team.

    "Ok, who else?" William knew trying to knock what he wanted into their minds wouldn''t work using words. So, he decided to let this dude volunteer, andter on he''d realise he wasted his time and effort in a mission that wouldn''t require his strength.

    "Me!"

    "I''ll join!"

    "Consider me in!"

    "I''m good at running fast, so I can do it!"

    Of course, the ones who spoke up missed the entire point of what William wanted. He didn''t want them to run or fight, but to sneakily move around and hide from the eyes of others in the area.

    "Fine," William got the team he wanted, with one silver, one white, and three bronze members in, "remember this scroll?" and unlike what anyone expected, William took a scroll and opened it in front of the team.

    "It''s one of those you handed to us," the silver member spoke up, as he and others recognised this scroll.

    "It''s a scroll aiming at concealing one''s presence from anyone around," William slowly exined, "the best part of it is that you don''t need to ce the materials in the ground, but on your gears and body. And that means wherever you went, the array will follow and keep you hidden."

    "..."

    This time, they got silenced out of their immense shock and disbelief. No one was stranger to the concept of arrays, but it was the first time any of the ones standing here heard about such a moveable array.

    "What a great toy you got here!"

    And before anyone would speak or say anything, a weird voice came from behind, startling everyone but a few.

    William, Sara, Berry, Peter, and Lang already noticed the alien presenceing towards them. However, as these four looked up at William and saw his calm look and nod, they realised he knew who wasing here.

    And when that dude appeared and spoke up, they all got why William didn''t try to act against him.

    "Ibra, my man, I thought you were going to sleep there all day long," William weed this ferocious dude whileughing and saying these words that made Ibra freeze right on the spot.

    "If not for me standing there weing your attacks and not acting like I used to, you won''t have that mouth intact to sprout such trash words!"

    "Come on! We are all friends now, right?" William didn''t take any of what Ibra said to the heart.

    He knew Ibra got a point indeed. If a gold spirit master like Ibra decided to fight seriously as if his life was on the line, then William wouldn''t have seeded toy a single finger over Ibra at all.

    But this was all in a hypothetically perfect world. In real life, what mattered was the end result, regardless of any reasons or hypothesis or ifs.

    "I''m here just to fight you back," Ibra''s fighting will got ignited, but this time William didn''t answer him in the same way as before.

    "Dude, we are going out to fight dark spirit masters. If you are this desperate to fight anyone, pick any of them and beat him till your heart''s content."

    "No, I want to beat you up," Ibra shouted, while taking out his ive, e on! Bring it on! Why are you retreating back? Stop running! Don''t you like to move that silver tongue of yours around? Show me what you really got, coward!"

 Chapter 254 A Punch On The Face!

    "I fought you once and beat you already," William already retreated back enough to make him feel little secured, putting lots of his team in between him and Ibra, "why shall I do it again? In the end, I crushed you once already, and there is no point in letting such a record slip by!"

    "Despicable! I''lle and beat you till your parents won''t recognise any of your features anymore!" Ibra got hyped up with what William said, moved fast towards him in a big circle, evading others.

    But in return, William moved opposite to his direction, keeping the distance between the two fixed.

    "Stop running! You are a spirit master for god''s sake!"

    "You owe me! You agreed to follow me out if you got beaten up by me! And I did beat you up, so pay me back!"

    "I got nothing to pay you but my ive, dammit!" the more William spoke, the more Ibra''s rage got ignited. After doing this for a few minutes, the rest of the team couldn''t help but change from being overly nervous and deeply worried, into struggling to restrain theirughs.

    "Dammit! You are quite a runner indeed! I don''t want to hurt anyone! Be a man and take responsibility for what you did!"

    "I swear if you dared to renege on your word, I''ll go all over the academy, shouting that you mistreated good spirit masters. At least those high up in the elders and masters circle know about the real reasons behind your past crimes! But now you have nothing to defend yourself with!"

    "Dammit! I want to just cut that damn tongue off and chew it right now more than anything else!" Despite issuing such a threat, Ibra finally got to stop in his tracks, "one mission, you''ll just get me to follow you for one damn mission. Then our deal is off, and I can fight you again."

    "That''s the answer I wanted to hear¡­ Come, wee you in the¡­"

    *Bang!*

    William moved while extending his arm to shake hands with Ibra, weing him in the team as friends should. Yet thetterunched a fist thatnded on William''s face, interrupting his words.

    William saw through Ibra''s intentions and yet he decided to let this punch fall. As he expected, the power behind this bunch wasn''t that much, and with it, the rage swelling inside this dude''s chest got relieved a bit.

    Or else he had to guard against any sneaky attacksunched from this dude during the journey.

    "What was that for? You are despicable!" But even if he anticipated such a hit and epted it, William stood up and bellowed in rage while touching his swollen nose.

    "I learnt this from the master!" Ibra shrugged, as if he didn''t bother anything about what he just did, "now¡­ What role will I y here? I won''t settle with nothing less than a vice leader position."

    "Vice leader my ass! Why don''t youe and rece me instead?" William retorted back, and before Ibra would add anything, William added, "if you n to stick around for a long time with us, then yes you are capable and trusted to be a vice leader. However¡­"

    "I won''t remain after this mission is done!" Ibra knew what William offered, and instantly rejected it on the spot. William didn''t take any of what he said seriously, knowing that after this mission, it''d be Ibra who would beg him to stay.

    "Then it''s settled! You''ll work as part of the team, like any member here."

    "This¡­"

    "This or you join us for a long time!"

    "Tsk! How do you deal with this kid? He is acting as stubborn as my six years younger sister!" Ibra didn''t answer William directly, instead issued hisints over everyone else.

    And at this point, not a single one could control himself anymore, smiling at least, ending upughing at what Ibra just happened.

    This dude barged his way here wanting a rematch yet ended up falling to the obvious trap William sat for him.

    And the way it all happened made everyoneugh to their heart''s content, switching Ibra''s anger on again.

    "Ahem, ahem, that''s enough folks," William cleared out his throat, to stop any unneeded punchesing from Ibra at his face again, "it''s time for us to start moving. Scout team, take these Bu¡­ Message Papers¡­ They are all linked to me."

    "Wait a second, I''ll prepare Message Papers linked to me," and the moment William spoke up, other vice leaders started to either give these papers to the scout team members or make more on the spot.

    And the five started to do the same, with only the single white grade kid asking the other four first about what he should do. Then he learnt how to make these Message Papers, as it was quite easy actually to make one.

    "What about me?" Ibra asked, while touching his ive as if he was threatening to use it against William if he got an answer he didn''t like.

    "Just keep your silence and vignce, follow us around," William didn''t even spare him a nce, turned to his team, took a scroll out, and spread it over the ground.

    It was the same map he received from Sara before, and there she found many lines and points, words andments added over the same map she once owned.

    "This is where we are right now," William pointed using his scabbard towards a point on the map. There was a little star there, and it seemed it represented the academy, "and that''s our destination, the Scorching Lands territory."

    Compared to the academy, the Scorching Lands couldn''t be represented by a star at all. The area belonging to this ce stretched to cover hundreds of thousands of miles at least.

    So, it was expected to be represented on the map by a formless shape that was a few centimetres in radius, taking the form of a deformed circle or deted ball.

    It was a very huge area, filled with tnds, mountains, hills, and even swamps! There was everything there, and in one direction in the middle of such a vast zone, the one closest to the academy, there was a little star there.

 Chapter 255 Taking The Scrolls Back

    "It''s our goal to arrive at that ce, where a big, fortified city lies," William knew from the map details and records he read in the library a little about that ce.

    It was one of the few cities belonging to the kingdom, and it was heavily fortified to rival any decent grade academy.

    At the same time, there were lots of roads ending up from different locations towards there. And from there, only one road came out, leading towards the capital.

    "This is the path we will take," William passed his scabbard to follow a line drawn by him on the map, "it''s the shortest and safest path I could find through all this mess. We are going to travel inside the forest, directly through the deeper parts of it. So, remain vignt, and follow my orders to the letter, or else I''m not responsible for your deaths."

    Thest bit of his words was said to the members of the scout team. The line they''d pass through extended for a short distance on the map, yet everyone knew how long it''d take to arrive there.

    At least one week, if not more, was needed to cross all this distance and arrive at the Scorchingnds.

    "Why didn''t you choose the formal route instead?" Ibra from the side couldn''t help but point using his ive towards an official route that wasn''t that far away from here, "we can march fast and arrive there in less than two days."

    "The official roads are more secure than going through the forest, right?" Lang asked, while looking directly at William''s eyes.

    And thetter couldn''t help but sigh.

    "Our news of going there has already spread," he paused, before slowly adding, "so trying to go through any expected path will end bad for us."

    "Are you afraid of the dark spirit masters? Then why seek trouble with them?" Ibra folded his arms, leaning on his ive, while giving William a doubtful nce.

    "I don''t mind shing with dark spirit masters out there," William motioned his head towards the map, referring to the Scorching Lands region, "at least we will fight, struggle, and suffer for the generous rewards of the mission. But wasting our strength and time on useless fights before getting there isn''t something I''d do."

    William didn''t need to attend the meetings of the many traitors in the n to know about what they did. He already tasted how organised and strongly connected the traitors were with the dark spirit masters of other regions.

    Just his incident back then with the Golden Sky disciples and the repercussions he sufferedter aftering to the academy was proof of that.

    He expected the enemy to already get notified by what he nned to do. And so he decided to avoid trouble, not taking the formal path, and use an alternative that he initially prepared as n B.

    William didn''t know that, but his simple decision that he took on the spot saved him and his team tons of trouble.

    The dark spirit masters around the region here and all the way towards the Scorching Lands were actively seeking him out. They filled the entire official routes linking the academy towards that ce, and lied in wait for his arrival so they''d take him and his team down.

    No one ever imagined that William was going to take the harder route, risking a lot by going through the deepest and most dangerous parts of the forest.

    Doing so didn''t make any sense at all!

    The news about William and his friends got to the ears of all the dark spirit masters as William suspected.

    They knew he was a bronze spirit master, and his friends were all bronze spirit masters as well. No one would suspect such a small and weak bunch of disciples to take a route that even gold grade spirit masters would fear to tread.

    "Take these," William started to take piles of materials out, arranging them in smaller groups as he added, "each will take one pack. Spread the materials over your bodies as instructed in the scroll. Each group of materials will satisfy you for two days. Before this, you have toe over and resupply, got it?"

    "Why don''t you give them all the materials needed for the entire journey instead?" Peter asked in a casual way, and William simply smiled and said nothing back.

    In fact, he could do that and give all of the five members the materials they needed for one week or more. But he wanted them toe back for different reasons.

    First, they needed to rest. Staying put and vignt for two days straight was quite stressful without doubt on anyone. Plus, William wanted to reassess their performance, rece those who acted poorly or rashly with others.

    Not to mention they might get into trouble, getting wounded and might even get killed.

    William didn''t want to lose all of his materials if one fell down and got his belongings collected. And that was why after these five got the materials, he gave everyone half an hour to memorise the scrolls he distributed before, then asked back for them and stored all of the scrolls again inside his ring.

    Even if they got killed, he safeguarded against the possibility of the enemy getting to know what they were doing. Besides, such a novel way of using arrays was something unique to his former master, and he didn''t want any of his enemies to get such knowledge no matter what!

    William knew his master took something that the normal and dark spirit masters at the outside world used and modified it to be stronger. And as he collected the scrolls, he didn''t forget to warn the five members of the scout team about something.

    "This array can shield off your presence, sight, and even spirit power... But it can''t stop sound. So, no matter what, if you suspect anything, stand still and hide, don''t make a single sound or else you''ll get spotted."

 Chapter 256 Dirt Brown Leopards

    "Don''t worry, we will be careful," the leading dude who was silver grade, the one called Smith, said in confidence, and that made William more worried.

    "They''ll be fine," Berry noticed the frown look on William''s face and couldn''t help but add, "Smith is one of the most promising silver grade spirit masters in my n."

    "I hope he really understands what his role truly is," William didn''t say more than that, waited for ten minutes in silence, before starting to speak up again.

    "Let''s reform ourselves, five will follow each vice leader, two will follow me in addition to you," he pointed at Ibra specifically, not trusting this dude to be in another team but his.

    After all, William got the lowest number of followerspared to the other five. And Ibra was arrogant and wouldn''t follow others'' orders but would indeed follow his.

    "I''m going to join you," another silver grade member volunteered to join. This dude came as well from the Long n, and he acted when Berry gave him a deeper look, urging him to step forward.

    "I will also join," a bronze spirit master, one who got invited here by John, decided to take the chance and join William''s team.

    "It''s settled then," William pped his hands when his private group and others got formed in the next five minutes.

    The two who joined him were called Liam and Brand. The former was the silver spirit master from the Long n, and thetter was themoner spirit master.

    "It''s time to move out," William started leading everyone forward while adding, "Sara''s team will be the one responsible for swift intervention. If there is any strong or fast approaching enemying here, then she will lead her team out to intercept them."

    "I can do it," Sara was a silver grade spirit master, and got the one silver grade spirit master she invited here in her team, alongside four bronze spirit masters as well.

    Her team was considered the strongest aside from William''s. And William''s team was seen as the strongest in the eyes of everyone thanks to Ibra.

    No one realised that the strongest person here was William, not Ibra, not Sara, not any team with spirit members in. After all, spirit power wasn''t the sole decisive factor in any fight. And William was going to prove such a point quite soon.

    "As for any fight we will experience, Berry, Lang, and Peter will handle it. John is responsible to secure the rear and create a retreat path at any time for our team if things went wrong."

    "What about you? What about me?" Ibra asked in doubt when he and others noticed that William missed mentioning his role.

    "We? We, my friend, are going to be the main orchestrating minds of the team, and the firefighters as well."

    "This¡­"

    "Don''t belittle such a role, it''s already quite important," William rolled his eyes, while walking forward in fixed speed, "during any fight, it''s up to us to control the tempo of the battle, order any group to retreat, advance, or even personally interfering to relieve any pressure."

    "Tsk!" Ibra seemed to hate watching others fight while he''d do nothing. And William knew he was quite wrong.

    They would have to fight, and in fact William knew the fights they''d take part in would all be quite dangerous and very intense from the start.

    William''s team would take part in any fight at the crux point, not from the beginning or something. At any given moment, the moment they''d move would be a moment of life and death for their teammates.

    William didn''t ce any of theints that dude issued and just kept focusing on the path they were treading.

    [Hey, I found something!]

    After two hours of marching, and just when the team just passed through the safe zone of the forest into the more dangerous parts, a sudden voice echoed in William''s head.

    It was the effect of the Bullet getting used, and he recognised the voice of the one who just spoke up.

    The Message Paper would allow him or anyone to hear the other side as if he was standing just half a metre away from him. But the limitation of it was quite clear, limited either by range or the number of words ryed in each message.

    "What did you find?" William spoke as if he was speaking towards Smith face to face. He held out the Bullet Smith left him, infused his spirit power inside to send this message out.

    Seeing him speak to thin air like this made everyone quite vignt and fishy.

    Only those few who got the chance to experience the magic of Bullets before knew what was happening with William. And soon everyone got to learn about this as words spread among them.

    [A group of Dirt Brown Leopards are heading towards your direction]

    "How many? What grade?" William recognised this monster and started to review all the data about it in his mind.

    The Dirt Brown Leopards were the type of monster that would have wind and earth spirit elements together. They were quite agile, very ferocious, and hard to kill thanks to their earth element.

    Their defences were already strong enough to be considered one entire rank higher than theirs. To take them down, William knew one had to use either darkness, lightning, or the same type of spirit elements these monsters used.

    [Fifty] Smith sent this high number, [They are bronze and silver grade]

    "Hmm¡­ That makes it quite difficult to deal with them¡­" William knew most of the members here used fire elements. So, it would prove quite challenging to take down this group of monsters fast and without casualties.

    "But it''s a good chance to train them," he thought to himself, while moving his eyes around.

    Facing such a strong foe right after leaving the academy and forming the team might be hard, but not that risky if they followed his orders and arrangement. He would use this chance to start making the team much closer to each other, getting to know his way of doing battles, while securing their first victory at the end.

    [Do you need me to do anything?]

 Chapter 257 A Bad Plan!

    "Just keep scouting," William paused to let his message pass through, "see if there are any other monsters or enemies lurking behind."

    [Are you sure?] Smith seemed quite eager to fight, [I can divert them away or buy you more time to prepare!]

    "Do as I say," William''s tone held his authoritative weight as the leader of the team, "and don''t engage with anything without consulting me first."

    [Tsk!] that dude didn''t like the kind of answer he got from William. He wanted to warm up, kill a few of the weak bronze leopards, make them run after him in circles, before William would bring the team over and hunt them down.

    This was the ideal fighting tactic in his mind, but he wasn''t William. Thetter didn''t want to just kill these monsters, he wanted his team to get used to his unique fighting ways, get to know each other''s abilities.

    "Is there anythinging?" Ibra was the first to speak up, raising his ive up and down as if he was warming his hand for the uing fight.

    "You won''t do anything for now," William gave him a warning nce, making thetter''s face change slightly before sighing in disappointment and helplessness.

    "Are they monsters or spirit masters?" Sara asked next, while her little team gathered around her at the same time.

    "It''s the Dirt Brown Leopards," William said, "do you know what they are?"

    "Sure," Sara, Berry, Lang, and Peter nodded, alongside the silver and part of the bronze grade spirit masters.

    "Sara, take your team and head out first," William didn''t want his team to fight something they all didn''t know about, "don''t walk more than two hundred metres ahead. Exin everything about these monsters to your team, all of you shall do it."

    "Sure!"

    "What about the battle n?"

    "How many areing?"

    "Will we fight with Sara or what?"

    The other four team leaders spoke up one by one, and William just motioned for Sara to start marching ahead of them.

    "Sara will handle the initial charge of the monsters," as Sara moved out, William moved his attention over the other main fighting three groups as he added, "around fifty of these monsters areing here, a mix of bronze and silver grade ones."

    "This¡­"

    "Will she be alright on her own?"

    "Won''t we go and help?" The three, Berry, Lang, and Peter, spoke one by one, while William looked at Sara at the distance. He ordered her to get stationed two hundred metres apart, so he''d be able to see her team all the time.

    "She will handle the initial charge," William repeated what he said earlier, "then Lang and Peter will move out to help her. You two will nk the monsters when they arrive, hit them from the sides, pressure them to keep moving forward and not surround Sara¡­"

    William leant on the ground, used his scabbard as a stick, and drew the generalyout of the battle, "then it''s up to Berry and her team to take down the iing monsters."

    "This¡­" even Ibra couldn''t help butment on the risks involved in this n.

    On paper, things looked quite good. But that was on the basis that everyone did their task quite well and killed the monsters they faced.

    But their enemies weren''t white grade monsters! They weren''t fragile like ss! And that made everyone feel this was a n that was destined to fail without even needing to try it out!

    William looked at Ibra, at the doubtful eyes of everyone and couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. He knew they all missed the most important point that would change everything in this battle, their new gears!

    "Just do as I say," William stood straight, looking at Ibra who seemed not convinced by any of that, "as for my team, we will move separately, working to help any team in distress."

    "That''s more I like," Ibra finally rxed his tense expression.

    "What about me?" John suddenly spoke up, and William didn''t know if this dude wanted to fight or missed what his team''s role was.

    "Keep your distance from this battle," William paused, "stay away from here by at least five hundred metres. Watch the ongoing battle, move all the time, and think about ways to help the team escape if I ever give you the order to."

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" John didn''t really get what he should do here. And he wasn''t the only one feeling so, everyone else felt that William was doing this to protect thismoner bronze spirit master and his team.

    But that wasn''t what William wanted. And he didn''t care to exin anything. In his eyes, they might need to retreat once in the middle of this battle, and the toll of such a move would fall over the shoulders of John and his team.

    *Roar!*

    "They areing!"

    And just before John would take a single step away, the loud roars of the iing leopards made everyone hurry to take their positions.

    "Stay put, don''t panic, we are going to just absorb their iing speed and stop their momentum, then kill them all," William stood in the centre of this grand formation, just behind Berry and her team.

    No one here noticed this, but this formation looked like a huge diamond. William knew this was the best formation used for newbies, as it had a very flexible nature.

    It could be used for defence or offence, could be edited at any given time, adapting to any situation.

    At the forefront, Sara and her team were just about to sh with the monsters. William saw many shes of light, not onlying from Sara''s direction, but from everyone else.

    Everyone activated their spirit, all but themoner spirit masters. Even the white grade members activated their spirits as well, prepared for the iing enemies.

    "Lang, Peter¡­ Move out right now!'''' The leopards were at least five metres in length, two and half in width, and two in height. They looked huge, and with that brown fur, long two curved tusks, and sharp looking teeth, they looked quite ferocious and deadly.

 Chapter 258 The Battle Starts

    William spotted them just a couple of hundreds of metres away from Sara''s team when he issued this order to these two.

    "On it!"

    "Let''s move out!"

    The two led their teams, moving in an arching path each, heading towards the front. They looked like two arrows moving slowly towards their target. And the next moment, the fifty leopards crashed against Sara and her team.

    William saw a sh of silver light before a silver wall appeared. It was ten metres in length, five in height, looking quite strong, and it managed to stop the early monsters at the front.

    The leopards didn''t like this wall. As many attacks came from behind it, the leopards moved either by trying to jump and climb that wall or move around it.

    Those who tried to climb the wall ended up failing. Sara wasn''t that nice looking girl William met a few times already. She got out a long spear, and used it to stab those climbing monsters, making them fall down the wall.

    As for those who bypassed the wall, they got a better ending than others. They just got a few hits from Sara''s team. Yet these monsters'' attempt to retaliate, using either their sharp ws, deadly teeth and tusks, all failed in front of the new gears Sara''s team wore.

    The monsters already were running fast, and so they didn''t have that much advantage here and couldn''tnd more than a few hits before bypassing Sara''s team.

    Just before any of these leopards would stop to attack Sara''s team, they spotted new humans running at them.

    Seeing new prey made these monsters drop the thought of stopping or even slowing down. And soon enough, they found themselves in the face of Berry''s team.

    "Start pushing forward," at this moment, William shouted towards Berry, "lead your team towards the wall."

    "Got it!" Berry shouted, and at the same moment, Lang and Peter''s team finally shed with the running leopards.

    The two hit thest group of leopards, forcing these monsters to stop and fight them. At the same time, the ones who went to meet Berry got pushed through as thetter led her team forward, following William''s words.

    At this moment, the members of the four teams fighting up there realised the true value of their new gears! They couldn''t just defend themselves quite well, but their weapons and attacksnded perfectly on their targets, leaving behind a deep wound, or even a severed limb!

    That was something none imagined seeing or expected to happen at least. Once they felt their ability to harm the monsters without getting harmed, their morale skyrocketed, and they started to gain confidence.

    "William!" Just when Berry prated through the iing few leopards, she finally realised what went wrong.

    She moved and created a gap between the wall and William, a gap that was now filled by none other than leopards.

    "Keep going! Don''t worry about me!" William took out his gold grade sword, his ten knives, and prepared for the uing leopards.

    "I''ming!" At this moment, Ibra realised how dangerous William''s situation was. But before he''d take a single step forward, he was surprised to watch William''s actions.

    Last time when he fought William, Ibra wasn''t paying much attention at all to the battle. He belittled the bronze spirit master who dared to fight him back, and so it was expected to miss much of what William did back there.

    But now? He finally saw it clearly in front of his eyes.

    William just shed, disappeared from the eyes of everyone, appeared just ten metres away from his initial position as if he instantly got teleported.

    "Darkness element? No, it''s not¡­" Ibra forgot all about the ongoing fight, and kept watching William''s moves in great detail and attention.

    In front of his eyes, William kept shing right and left, back and forth, with each jump not exceeding ten metres in length, going in a zigzag line, not straight one.

    That allowed William to hit three leopards in each jump using his sword. As for his knives, they kept moving in a way that looked like a tornado. The knives came and hit the leopards with a force that was enough to knock many down, leaving behind lots of ugly looking wounds on their bodies.

    The knives were on the same level of the strongest leopards. And coupled with the lightning element, the knives were much sharper and faster, swirling in the air like they were performing a dance or something.

    "This¡­ It''s a lightning spirit element! No way! Howe someone like him has such a rare and unique spirit element?!!" Ibra finally realised what type of spirit power William was using. And when he realised this, he understood why he felt such pain and numbness before.

    The lightning spirit element perfectly countered his darkness element. Not only that, but it also added a numb effect that ended up getting him unconscious.

    That was something Ibra didn''t experience before. Unlike all the mighty and formidable masters in the academy, Ibra kept himself confined inside the academy for the most of his time.

    He didn''t venture outside that much. And he never sat foot beyond the areas that belonged to the academy.

    He never met someone with a lightning element before. So, watching William use such a rare element in front of his eyes was an eye opener for him.

    "Don''t daydream like this! Move and help Sara out!" William''s voice jolted Ibra awake. At this moment, he spotted William running forward towards Berry and Sara, leaving behind many leopards on the ground or roaring out in immense pain.

    William didn''t just escape from the grand assault of leopards unscathed, but also managed to leave behind many wounded as well. He didn''t kill a single leopard this time but managed to attract the hatred of most if not all of the leopards.

    "Coming!" Ibra knew he didn''t contribute that much to the battle so far. He wanted to try and mimic what William did, to be stopped by William''s warning and silent gaze when thetter locked up his eyes on him.

    Ibra was strong indeed, but hecked much experience in using his darkness element. He just depended on using that overbearing element to augment any attack he used, nothing more than that.

 Chapter 259 [Bonus ] Kiting Monsters

    He hadn''t learnt any technique that could utilise his darkness element and help it show its true might. William didn''t need to ask Ibra about this to know the answer.

    After all, there wasn''t any master William knew of with the darkness element. And without a guidance and tutor by Ibra''s side, that dude wouldn''t learn anything useful about his darkness element.

    Ibra finally resigned to William''s orders, moved forward, and hit in the way a few leopards which tried to stop him.

    Each hit from his was enough to kill a leopard on the spot. And those who didn''t die instantly got severely wounded on the spot. Even a few lost limbs and couldn''t keep themselves standing straight.

    This was the expected result. After all, Ibra was a gold grade spirit master who was using a silver grade ive.

    "Sara, move with Lang and go to the right¡­ Berry and Peter will head left," once arrived at the gathering of the four teams, William didn''t even stop to catch his breaths and started issuing more orders.

    "What about you?" Berry and Sara shouted at the same time, as the two felt anxious about William.

    "I''m going to stop them with Ibra," William moved his eyes over the other two who were in his team, "each of you will follow one direction, and then kite the leopards down from the side."

    "Kite down? What does that even mean?" Peter hurriedly asked, while he started to move ording to William''s orders with Berry and their teams.

    William realised that his knowledge about fighting all came from the outside world. Even the simple terms like kiting monsters weren''t known in this tiny world here.

    "You move on the outer side, keep hitting the monsters to wound and not kill them. Then in the next round, you''ll try to wound more, deepen the wounds of those who are already wounded. Then at the next round, you''ll keep doing this, and see if you can kill any monster fast."

    He tried to exin this concept in haste, while others felt as if he was just asking them to toy with monsters.

    "These are monsters, not sitting dolls on the ground!" Ibra was the one closest to William right now. As he didn''t need to move like others, he got time to ask the doubts everyone got in their minds.

    "Just watch and learn," William knew trying to say anymore wouldn''t even help, "you and I will act differently."

    "How so?"

    "I will keep them busy using my movements, and you will try to heavily wound many and kill a few, while following me," William paused, holding his sword while feeling how much of his spirit power he consumed during thest fight.

    ''Twenty percent only¡­ I''m growing more ustomed to using my lightning element and technique¡­'' he realised his consumption rate was much slower than what he initially expected.

    If he kept doing this, getting more adept at using his spirit element and technique, then his consumption would grow lower in time.

    And even if that didn''t happen, he''d still end up having four more chances to use his unique style in fighting.

    "Let''s do it!" William saw the two groups of his team get in the right spot to kite monsters, forming two curved arrows, like opened brackets, around the bunch of monsters which were getting closer to him.

    To these leopards, it seemed William was their primary target, and then Ibra. As the two stood together, they ignored everyone else and tried to kill these two first.

    Amidst their roars, William started to move forward. With his sword and knives, he kept shing between the group of these leopards, without giving any chance to even touch a single hair of his.

    At the same time, Ibra followed him, waving his ive in the air a couple of times before mming it heavily on a few leopards.

    One kept the leopards busy roaring and trying to stop him, and the other acted to kill, heavily wound, and throw the leopards off their positions.

    As for the other two groups of the team, the spirit masters there finally got what William meant.

    The leopards moved towards William and Ibra, mainly trying to devour these two. Most of the monsters ran towards these two, and only a few tried to take a bite at the spirit masters on the sides.

    However, they couldn''t do any harm to any of these spirit masters thanks to the new gears the team got. They also activated their spirits, and arge wave of attacksnded on the monsters from both sides.

    The monsters got hacked from three different directions, and in less than a minute, the entire team passed by these monsters, leaving behind many wounded and few dead.

    On their side, the team members didn''t actually suffer any losses. Few got wounded, mostly those white grade spirit masters.

    They were still young and inexperienced in dealing with such scary and formidable monsters. And quite weak as well. Not to mention their attacks and defensive moves were useless against these monsters.

    Luckily not a single one of them died. And as this round was over, the monsters got more enraged by their losses, and started to act berserk.

    "Let''s do it again," William shouted before adding, "don''t move until I attract their attention, then act like before."

    The monsters looked like they weren''t going to follow their former attitude and target William and Ibra first. During this brief sh, they got hit and wounded by others as well.

    So, William stepped forward first, running towards the monsters with Ibra on his toes.

    As for the other two groups, they kept themselves in wait, watching William getting closer from the monsters.

    The moment the two sides drew closer, the monsters forgot about the enemies they couldn''t get and focused again on William and Ibra in front of them.

    "Now!" William shouted, giving the signal for the two groups to move out. And like before, Ibra followed William''s steps, waving his ive right and left without using any technique at all.

 Chapter 260 Two Killing Machines!

    William got more puzzled by this. In his eyes, Ibra was just using his brute spirit power in a crude way, depending more on his ive to kill, without augmenting it with any sort of technique whatsoever.

    Even if Ibra didn''t get any master to instruct him, William couldn''t help but wonder why this dude didn''t pay regr visits to the library, get to know and learnmon techniques from there at least!

    Or didn''t he even attend sses and learnt any basic andmon technique from there?

    This wasn''t the time to worry about such things. William kept moving using his unique technique, while leaving behind more wounds at the bodies of these leopards.

    "Aim for their limbs, cut or wound them there to limit their ability to run!" William noticed how fast these leopards were. On a few asions, his targets got out unscathed thanks to their fast reaction and swift moves.

    At the same time, they started to use their earth element, forming shields of dirt to stop the attacks of William, Ibra, and others.

    To Ibra this was futile. All the dirt walls that rose up to him got crushed by his ive or even his body. He was unstoppable! But for others, they slightly struggled to break these things.

    "Keep moving forward!" After getting out from the attack range of these leopards, William noticed that the other two teams were midway in their paths, still fighting and entangled with monsters.

    They got slightly dyed in their start than him and Ibra, and that made them not cross the monsters by now as it was supposed to happen.

    "They won''t make it!" Ibra reached the same conclusion. The two managed to get out from the main bulk of monsters, leaving the other two teams to face these leopards.

    "Tsk! We have to change our tactic then," William knew the two groups wouldn''t make it out from there in time, "listen up everyone, head directly towards the other group the moment I give you the order!"

    William addressed the members of the two teams at such a critical moment, shouting with all his might towards all.

    "This¡­" Ibra felt William was asking them to throw away their lives if they followed his orders.

    "Follow me!" However, William didn''t flinch or even exin anything. In return, he simply dashed forward, running back towards the monsters, "keep following me, and don''t try to act cool or something."

    William had more than sixty percent of his spirit power. However, he knew he''d end up exhausting more than what consumed so far in thest two fights with these leopards.

    As he went back, the leopards weren''t that focused to deal with him this time. They finally got the chance to fight spirit masters in the old and usual way they used to.

    The monsters were slowly getting the upper hand thanks to their numbers and the division in the spirit masters'' strength and numbers. The two sides were getting pressured, slowly retreating, while suffering many injuries.

    But that all changed the moment William returned.

    He didn''t aim to just move fast like before. And dreaming about attracting the attention of these monsters again was hopeless.

    "What will I do now?" Ibra followed from behind, while asking as he couldn''t see how this problem would be solved without losing many of the team.

    "Kill!" William simply gave such an answer. Before Ibra would ask further about what he meant with this simple and vague answer, he saw William changing his fighting style.

    Instead of just shing forward in a zigzag route, William aimed at five leopards which were the closest to him, and kept shing back and forth, surrounding them, starting to hit them with everything he got.

    All the knives he could control were used alongside his sword. The knives didn''t move freely this time, followed him while taking the shape of a great sword, crescent moon shape, or even a full circle in the air.

    Any ce he visited was left with a long trail of blood, severed limbs, and ferocious roars that were filled with immense and unimaginable pain.

    William was now moving to not just evade the attacks of monsters, nor to attract their attention, but to deeply wound and finally kill them.

    One leopard, three leopards, seven leopards¡­ William kept handling the monsters in this style. He isted a group of three up to five of them, kept shing in between and around them, hacking their bodies for many times until they all fell dead.

    Ibra''s scalp went numb when he recognised such a way of fighting. It was thest attack William issued at him before he lost his consciousness. And that brought back the old and terrible stingy pain with that annoying numbness from William''s attacks.

    "Tsk! What a bastard!" Ibra cursed when he realised how deep the impact William left on him. He didn''t like such a thought, and all the rage swelling inside got released over the monsters around.

    As William kept dealing with the monsters, he made sure to move not towards any of the two groups outside, but deeper into the centre of all the leopards.

    The leopards were fierce monsters, but they got few points that limited such a threatening presence of them.

    They got huge bodies, and as they grouped together like this, they got little room to show off their unique speed. At the same time, their offensive and defensive earth element couldn''t show off its might thanks to the limited space they got.

    So, William knew by delving deeper into the heart of these leopards was quite risky, yet it was also the safest route out there for him.

    As for Ibra, that dude was like a killing machine! Everywhere he went, bodies of leopards kept falling right and left, getting thrown in the air, ending up either dead or heavily wounded.

    "Now!" When William arrived in the middle, he didn''t advance anymore. Instead, he gave the signal for the two groups to step in, move towards each other''s locations,e towards his spot.

 Chapter 261 Victory!

    This might seem like a bad move actually, but right now, and thanks to the sudden attack William and Ibraunched, the leopards were distracted and quite weakened.

    The moment the two groups pushed inside and pressured the leopards, the monsters finally started to fall back, even showing gaps in between their ranks.

    They were just monsters, moving and fighting based on their monstrous instincts,cking any real intelligent being out there to lead and organise them.

    The moment the two groups managed to bypass the closest monsters to them, things started to look better.

    In the middle of all this, William kept shing around, returning to his old tactic to just wound monsters and keep them busy with him. Ibra waved his ive right and left, throwing off one leopard with each wave, clearing a wide gap in there.

    "Stop!" As the two groups finally reached the empty area between monsters created by thebined effort of William and Ibra, the former issued such an order, "group together, and follow my lead!"

    At this point, only less than twenty percent of his spirit power remained. It was an rmingly low level of his power, and so he decided to wrap things up.

    Under hismand, and illogical orders, he managed to divide the monsters into two groups, leaving behind few dead and many wounded.

    Once the four teams merged together, William led them to hit the group with more wounded monsters, aiming to clear this group out first before his spirit power would reach below ten percent.

    This was his initial n from the start. But if he gave the order for the four teams to move and meet up at the centre of the leopards, none would have believed things would end up the same way they ended like now.

    Instead of asking the impossible, he ordered them to exchange ces. Like this, none would doubt his words that much, as at the end they''d be at a safe ce.

    Ibra was the main killer and William was the main controller of this team. In the next few minutes, and even under the fierce resistance of the monsters, William and his team managed to exterminate one group of monsters.

    With such a result, they got less than fifteen leopards standing on their limbs, with more than two thirds of them suffering different wounds, and almost one fourth on thest leg away from death.

    "Kill the rest," at this point, William didn''t need to participate anymore in the battle. He left clearing the remaining monsters, chasing them around before killing all, to the rest of his team.

    Ibra fought for five minutes before finally returning to William''s side. In the middle of all this, William weirdly sat down, crossed his legs, and seemed to train or something.

    In the eyes of everyone, this was a very weird move of William. So Ibra had no other option but to return to his side and act as his bodyguard.

    He got tons of questions but refrained from asking William anything for now.

    Despite the monsters only having five remaining leopards at this point, they were far more dangerous than the fifty leopards they fought before.

    These five were apart from each other, having enough space to show off their high speed, insane agility, crazy reflexes, and use their strong earth element attacks.

    They kept using their earth-based attacks, not caring that much about defending and tried to take down as many spirit masters down with them as possible.

    Thanks to luck, only one monster here was silver grade while the rest were bronze grade. Two silver team members worked together, under the lead of Sara, and finally managed to kill that silver grade leopard at the end.

    Then dealing with the other four leopards became much easier. Reaching this far, the hastily arranged team got more courage and confidence in their ability to handle these leopards. Even the white grade spirit masters felt they could kill those four bronze rank leopards.

    However, the cost of killing the leopards down to thest one came at seventeen of the team members having different degrees of wounds.

    The severest were one of the bronze dudes and three of the white grade members. They all got gruesome looking wounds, and one of them got a deep wound that extended all the way from his left shoulder down to his belly.

    "Anyone know any healing techniques?"

    "Any healing herbs? Any healing pills or potions? Anything?"

    "Please help me! I don''t want to die!"

    Just as thest monster fell to the ground, many shouts came. None was celebrating this victory but feeling worried and terribly anxious about the bad state many ended up at.

    Even one of those white grade kids screamed, asked for help, fearing to die.

    "Lang, take these potions," in the middle of all this mess, William suddenly opened his eyes, touched his ring, and took a few things out.

    He already purchased lots of healing potions from the market. He expected such a result, and so he came prepared, "ssh half of their content on the wounds if they looked quite serious, and let them swallow the remaining half next," William instructed how to properly use such healing potions.

    He didn''t have time to concoct his own potions and pills, or else he''d have a better and much stronger version of these potions at least.

    "Got it! Thanks!" Lang cupped his hands, took the twenty vials William took out of his ring, and hurriedly went to save others in the team.

    "You even brought healing potions?" Sara came after Lang hurriedly left. Most of the team members suffering wounds came from the Long n. And it''d be quite the loss if they ended up having a few of them die just in their first battle.

    "It''s my task as a leader to worry about such things," William got to replenish a small part of his spirit power, and it was safely above twenty percent right now.

 Chapter 262 New Monsters Are Coming!

    "We really did it!" John came when he saw William stopped training, not believing they killed all these monsters without losing a single one of them.

    "We got lots of loot this time," Peter approached as well with Berry, "these leopards got lots of materials to sell at a high price."

    "We need to salvage this first," William looked over, "arrange a few who have no serious wounds to go and collect anything we can salvage from these monsters¡­ Give everything over to Berry."

    "Me?" Berry was surprised by such a sudden call.

    "From now on, you are going to be responsible for storing up any loot from our battles and missions," William randomly assigned this task over, before adding, "recuperate and rest. We will wait for ten minutes here then keep moving."

    "Ok!"

    Everyone started to go around and do their tasks, while William kept himself busy with something else.

    He killed a few leopards in this fight, and that meant he could absorb their cores.

    Finding the monsters he killed wasn''t that hard. After all, the wounds caused by his knives were all unique and hard to miss.

    "A silver grade core¡­ Good harvest indeed," it was the third silver grade core he gained from the monsters he killed. And when he finished, he found to his surprise that he killed twelve monsters, three silver and nine bronze.

    "If I absorbed these¡­ Then my stagnant spirit power will rise by fifty points at least¡­" he thought to himself in excitement.

    "Why are you acting like you found a real treasure? If you need cores, I got tons of them!" Ibra kept doing nothing but closely watching William.

    In his eyes, there was no reason to get excited about acquiring such cores for someone like William. Considering the market prices of these cores, William wasn''t going to get a good harvestpared to the investment he ced so far in the team.

    "The road to try wealth starts from umting little things like these," William knew that Ibra got the wrong idea from his actions, but he didn''t want to correct such misunderstanding. So, he found this random reason to cover up on his unexined excitement.

    And he decided to keep himself under better control next time.

    "Tsk!" Ibra felt that William got a screw loose in his head or something to think this way. And so, he dropped the thought of speaking with William about this and kept his silence.

    Others kept working diligently. Lang did as William instructed, and the healing potions kicked in and showed their true magic.

    The wounds that were shallow and superficial got almost healed in the span of a few minutes. As for those deep wounds, they got healed partially, and stopped being a burden over the lives of those affected by them.

    Others kept working over the big bodies of these leopards, gathering up lots of loot. These leopards got not only cores and fur, but also few bones, teeth, and ws as well, which all could be considered of value.

    Berry kept gathering everything inside her ring. And in ten minutes, everyone finished their tasks, stood around William, waiting for him to finish his training session.

    William didn''t take more than a few minutes to get his cores. Then he returned to replenish his spirit power.

    "Are you ready?" After five more minutes, he opened his eyes, stood up, and looked around. The ones who looked this close from getting crippled were standing like nothing happened to them. Only superficial wounds remained, with signs of these being close to healing.

    "We are waiting for you," Ibra looked in a weird way towards William, "what were you doing just now?"

    "Just recovering my spirit power," William didn''t exin anything about what he was doing, "we wasted enough time here. Let''s keep going forward."

    No one noticed, but during his training, he sneakily absorbed the silver grade cores he got.

    The process of devouring these spirit cores didn''t cause any reaction or was apanied by any abnormal phenomenon. So, he took his time and slowly absorbed these cores, feeling his spirit power increase!

    He didn''t need to test it to know what results he got. Unlike what he imagined earlier, his spirit power skyrocketed by forty-five points, closely arriving at the two hundred mark.

    He thought he had to absorb all the cores he got to gain fifty spirit power, but it seemed he''d end up having more than that.

    "Lang, check with Smith and others, see if the path is safe or not," as they took close to half an hour in the past fight, William wasn''t sure if there were more monstersing or not.

    "Things look cool," Lang said after taking out his Bullets and checking with the scout team, "they kept moving and are at least four miles away from us."

    "Should we ask them to slow down?" Peter suggested, and William shook his head.

    "Let them keep moving at their current speed," William didn''t like how fast the monsters arrived after getting warned. That was thanks to the limited distance between the two groups. And that limited the true value of the reconnaissance team led by Smith.

    Having such a big distance apart was enough to give the team time to respond and prepare for anythinging.

    [There is an abnormal movement in the north-east!]

    And just after walking in silence and without anything significant happening for three more hours, this message was ryed directly in William''s mind from Smith.

    William took his Bullet out, and started asking more about what was going on.

    "Hmm¡­ They must be the scarlet monkeys," after hearing what Smith had seen over his side, William guessed the true nature of the monstersing towards them, "Keep an eye over them," he paused for a moment, "don''t engage or stir any trouble!"

    [I believe there are hundreds of theming in your way!]

    "Just do as I say," William felt how anxious Smith was, and he got a point here. Scarlet monkeys were known to be an annoying breed of monsters, quite weak and yet very troublesome.

 Chapter 263 [Bonus ] The Slytherin Worm Land Monster

    These hundreds were nothing, but they had the ability to attract much more from the deeper parts of the forest. Not to mention if they ended up battling these monkeys, more formidable monsters would show up.

    "Let''s change our route," William knew how to better deal with these monkeys, and yet he decided against fighting them.

    During the past battle, many of his team members got exhausted and wounded. Even with using potions, they only healed most of the wounds, but didn''t replenish any spirit power.

    No one here was like him. They got their basic and rudimentary techniques to replenish their consumed spirit power. But they needed a longer time than William. And so, thetter decided to give them more time to return to their best shape before getting into another fight.

    Taking such a detour cost the team more time without actually moving forward. William didn''t care about that and kept watching and listening attentively to the world around.

    Even if he spread out five spirit masters to scout and scan the forest up ahead, they wouldn''t be able to cover up everything. It was expected to run into few monsters, especially those working and moving solo and not in groups, adept at hiding and attacking sneakily.

    During their march, the team members started to grow used to being here. Many didn''t venture this deep before into the forest, nor had such a far fetched destination.

    After walking for four more hours, the tension over them got slowly lowered. They started to speak among themselves, getting to know each other.

    Those who came from the same n, like Lang''s and Peter''s spirit masters, got to speak openly with their nsmen.

    Slowly they started to speak with others as well, while the big shots kept themselves silent at first, watching others like William did.

    Then they began to chat among themselves and with others, making friends with many of the team members here. Sara and Berry got to talk together more than before. From what William saw, the two girls were the same, victims to different unfortunate events.

    One was imprisoned for years due to her incurable disease, and the other was living inside the shadow of what happened to her family, to her mother.

    The two acted cold to each other before, but as they started to chat together, this ice got broken down slowly, as the two felt they had something inmon.

    Lang and Peter were already friends. So, it was expected how they casually spoke to each other, even threw a few jokes here and there.

    John found himself more distanced from those big names the more they spoke with each other.

    He remained all silent until the few he brought over came and talked with him. As these dudes didn''t feel the same awkwardness as John, they already befriended lots of other members, and that made John slowly mix in the team.

    The only one who truly kept his distance from others, not speaking with anyone at all, was Ibra.

    This dude acted aloof. In his eyes, he was just here for William. He only cared about William, not anyone else. The more he thought about the lightning element William used before, the more eager he wanted to unravel all of William''s mysteries.

    Unfortunately for him, William had to speak up himself or else he wouldn''t get to know what this little dude kept hidden from everyone so far.

    Ibra felt quite amused by William''s actions. He gathered up this bunch of randomly selected disciples and led them far away from the academy.

    Not the typical action of anyone he met so far, not the typical attitude of any special spirit master who wanted to gather up others around to make a name for himself in the academy or the ns around it.

    It was apparent that William got some kind of grudge towards the dark spirit masters. And yet, Ibra couldn''t guess the history behind such a thing.

    "Watch out!"

    Just as the team kept walking for close to half a day, evading many groups of monsters thanks to the warnings sent in time by the scout team, all of sudden, William''s shout came to startle everyone.

    They all stopped, got their guard risen up again, looking at him in doubt while seeing him sh forward without any speck of hesitation.

    *ng!*

    William''s sword just got to hit something less than fifty metres away from one of the bronze team members. A cloud of dust appeared, masking William and whatever he just hit.

    "Monster attack!" The next to speak up was Ibra, and that dude wasn''t any slow in his actions like William. During all their march, he kept himself quite rmed and vignt about the surroundings.

    He was the most experienced dude here among everyone, and knew it was impossible to detect all monstersing using only the five scattered up ahead.

    The distance between the two sides grew over seven miles by now. And as they went deeper into the forest, the area these five had to cover grew as well.

    Ibra noticed the monster that sneakily approached the team, but he didn''t have the same fast moving technique like William.

    "Attack!"

    "What kind of monster is that?"

    "Let''s go and kill it first before deciding anything!"

    "Don''t move a muscle or we all are going to die!"

    However, and as everyone got hyped up by this monster''s sudden appearance, William''s sound reverberated from the middle of the dust cloud, making everyone frown and freeze in their spots.

    "It''s the Slytherin Worm Land! Don''t move a muscle or else we are all going to die!" William''s next wordsnded, making many team members'' hearts clench at the spot!

    "What is that monster?"

    "Never heard of such a Slytherin thing before!"

    All the white, and few of the bronze grade members here didn''t have a clue about what William said. But the rest knew. And soon everyone knew what they were facing.

 Chapter 264 A Tough Situation

    "It''s a scary dude indeed," Ibra sighed, looking at the ground before adding, "the Slytherin Worm Land always moves solo. If they spotted a target, they first got to prate the ground, spread its body in circryers, forming a trap before the target would step into it."

    "That¡­"

    "Does this mean we are already standing on its body?!"

    "How long is that dude''s body? A twenty metre length monster or what?!"

    Shock, fear, and confusion came from the mouths and faces of those who didn''t hear about this scary monster before.

    "A youngster of these will be at least fifty metres in length," Sara''s heavy tone came slowly before adding, "as for an adult¡­ They are one hundred metres at least¡­ And they are always at the gold grade!"

    "..."

    "Tsk! William is at the centre of that trap! How can we help him get out and escape this damn ce?" Berry felt immensely worried over William, asking everyone without moving a muscle.

    "Let''s kill it then!" one of the bronze spirit masters who didn''t know a thing before about this worm spoke in anger and disdain, "we got enough numbers on our side. Don''t tell me even you can''t do it!"

    "As far as I know¡­" Ibra was the most experienced one here, and the strongest. So it was expected for that bronze dude to direct his words towards him, "without having a dark gold spirit master on our side, killing this thing is impossible!"

    "This¡­"

    "The Slytherin Worm Land monsters keep most of their bodies underground. And the weakest point lies in the tail, which won''t appear unless it went for killing," Sara exined in a rushed tone, "we are already standing on its body. A single move from us will disturb the ground, show cracks and that will end up with either falling in between the circles its body created, getting squeezed to death in a few seconds, or getting stabbed by its tail with a sharp and deadly needle at its end."

    "This¡­ How can we get away from such a thing?!!" one of the white members spoke while he, and the other four fellows of the same level of strength as his, got their faces ashen white out of fear.

    The meaning behind Sara''s words was clear¡­ Once getting trapped, no one would be able to get out with their lives intact!

    "The standard method to escape is by all of us running at the same time," Lang slowly spoke, saying the words many didn''t want to say, "few will fall into the trap, and the monster will get busy dealing with at most five of us while the rest will run."

    His words were clear, they got to sacrifice five of them to save the rest. Hearing this made everyone fall in deep and heavy silence.

    Just moments ago, they were walking and chatting, and even having fun with each other. And now? They were speaking about whom they got to sacrifice to save others'' lives.

    Who was going to get sacrificed? Who was going to get the chance to live on? At this critical conjuncture, William knew it was going to be a good test to see through the essence of everyone.

    It was expected for anyone to want to live, but would his team members ept to survive on the cost of sacrificing others?

    "You go ahead," before anyone would say anything, John was the first to speak up, "I¡­ I have an obligation to save William, save everyone."

    John was already burdened with his sense of not belonging here from the beginning. And when he was faced with such a tough situation, he didn''t hesitate to volunteer.

    "No, we should run a lottery," Ibra gave John a deep nce, "let''s decide who is going to live and who is going to die using luck and fate."

    "This¡­" one of the five white members took in a deep breath, looking at Berry, Lang, as he came from the Long n. He paused for a long moment, one that felt like an entire lifetime for him, "I''ll take part on behalf of the Long n''s members."

    "No, let''s do it like Ibra said," Berry felt immense pain when she met that kid''s eyes. She agreed with Lang''s actions, not to bring sacrifices to save her life in such situations, but to let the kids of her n see and experience the true terror of the real world.

    "We can either let the weakest members of our ns and groups sacrifice themselves for us," the silver grade spirit master brought up by Sara suddenly spoke up, "or we can determine everything using fate and luck. Let''s gather up opinions and see who is with which way to solve this crisis."

    William was holding his sword, hearing everything behind. At this moment, the bellow of dust that swallowed him got cleared up, and a fierce looking thing appeared shing with his sword.

    It couldn''t be described by a head or a tail¡­ The body was cylindrical, and it ended abruptly with a circr end that got smaller circles inside, filled with sharp and ugly looking teeth.

    William''s sword was fiercely stopping all these teeth that looked like sharp short razors issued at his face from all directions. If his sword failed, or moved a few centimetres away, then his face would get devoured by these teeth.

    William was the closest to see this thing quite clearly. There were around twelve circles with many sharp daggersing at him. And in the middle of all this, an opening appeared with circr thick muscleyering it.

    It looked like a mouth, or an anus, or both! but it wasn''t like anything these spirit masters saw before.

    William knew that if he let go of this monster, then it''d start wildly attacking him and the team, ending up quite bad for all.

    Even if he was pinned to his spot, he had to contend with the monstrous strengthing from this weird mouth part, stopping it from getting freed.

 Chapter 265 We Are Going To Die To Save The Team!

    The monster didn''t just get equipped with its fierce deadly trap, or sharp teeth, or even that needle-like tail¡­ It could also spray acid from that weird looking opening, enough to erode any gear below dark gold grade.

    Ibra''s words were quite right, without the presence of a dark gold grade spirit master here, taking down this monster was going to be risky and quite impossible.

    That was all thanks to the immunity of dark gold gears to any strength, acid, or attack used by this monster. Not to mention the quality of their gears as well.

    It was like they were facing an elite gold grade monster, one that couldn''t be taken down except by the presence of a dark gold spirit master, equipped with enough pieces of dark gold equipment for defence and offence.

    William felt both of his arms holding the sword quite numb, yet he never dared to move or lower the strength holding it.

    The monster just showed its head off the ground when William acted, giving this dude no chance in spraying any acid.

    The monster wanted to push William back, regain the freedom of its mouth thing, and start attacking the team.

    This acid was the perfect way to force anyone standing motionless, like what the team members were doing, to move. And that made dealing with such a monster much harder. Not to mention the numerical advantage wasn''t worth anything at all in this situation.

    "Twenty-three to fifteen" After a few minutes, Ibra spoke up, announcing the results of this vote, "so most of you decided to use the lottery to decide. How do you want to do it?"

    "No, let''s just sacrifice ourselves for you," one of the white members shouted, interrupting Ibra''s words.

    "The team already decided¡­"

    "We are five! And you need five to save the team," that dude kept persisting on his decision. William didn''t see it, as he was facing that deadly mouth and resisting the abnormal strength with all his might. If he turned his head slightly, he''d see that kid''s body tremble while he was speaking in such a strong tone.

    "Kid¡­ I get what you want to do here but¡­" Ibra tried to knock a little sense back into the mind of that kid, but his words never went inside that kid''s head at all.

    "Even if you decided, when we all move, I''ll make sure to throw myself to save others," the kid shouted, announcing his defiance towards what the team already decided.

    The other four looked at him before they all nodded. It seemed without the need to say anything, they all got determined to do what their fellow white grade kid said.

    "Let''s see what our leader will say about this then," Ibra knew neither he nor anyone else would be able to stop these kids if they decided to do it.

    They weren''t in a situation that would allow anyone the luxury of going to save and stop others from sacrificing themselves.

    And so, Ibra felt more headache about this and decided to throw everything back at William.

    After all, William was the leader of this team, the one who gathered them all, not him.

    "Thanks for everything you offered and gave to us," before William would say anything, that white grade kid spoke up first, in deep respect, "I truly appreciate such chance and support. I''m going to throw the gears I received back to the young miss. I don''t want to make the team suffer any more losses."

    "I will also do the same."

    "Thanks for epting us in your team."

    "Let''s do it guys!"

    "Let''s save the young miss, let''s save everyone!"

    William heard the five kids shouting one by one, and seemingly were on the verge of doing what they dered.

    "Tsk," William knew such feelings and emotions didn''t originate because of him, but thanks to Berry and Lang. And yet, he still got touched by what these kids said and wanted to do, "why are all you this impatient to throw away your lives? Who said there isn''t a way out of here without losing anyone?"

    "..."

    Just before any of the five kids would move, or remove any of their gears, William''s wordsnded and left everyone speechless.

    "Is this true?!!!" Ibra was the one to shout in immense shock, "I once heard a dark gold elder in the academy speak about his miserable experience back when he was just at silver grade. I never heard of other ways to save anyone from this monster!"

    "Stop talking nonsense, will you?" William''s words might seem harsh and filled with mockery, however his tone was quite serious, "we got little kids here. Don''t nt useless and trash ideas in their raw minds."

    "You¡­"

    "Just shut up already and listen," William was resisting with all his might against that mouth, resisting such pressure without taking a single step back.

    If he just moved, then this trap would get triggered, and everyone including himself would die!

    "This is the Slytherin Worm Land monster, one with no eyes to see anything, no ears to hear any sound. This kind of monster could detect anything around them using vibrations."

    "This¡­"

    "Are you sure you are speaking about the same monster we have here?"

    "Who told you this?"

    Many eximed in doubt and confusion, those who were already familiar with this monster''s data and heard stories about it from other elders and masters in the academy and their ns.

    In their eyes, what William was speaking about was things none ever heard about before.

    "I''m not taking your opinions about this, just shut up and listen," William gritted his teeth, finding it more difficult to resist the monstrous strengthing at his sword with his already numb arms and exhausted body.

    "This monster can only feel vibrationsing from the ground. But it needs part of it to be over the ground to get this ability activated. And that''s why it didn''t even react even when we had already stepped on this region, over the trap set by its body, and acted first to release its head, not attacking us!"

 Chapter 266 Explaining Everything About This Worm

    His words made more sense. And for a moment there, no one questioned him again.

    "To beat this monster, we can use the crude method you all spoke about. Yet saying this is the only way to handle this monster is wrong."

    "Do you mean¡­ You do know of another way to escape without sacrificing anyone? For real?!" Sara was shocked more than anyone else, even more than Ibra.

    After all, she got a personal experience in the family with this type of monster, a personal vendetta to be more specific. And she knew more, more than what anyone else here knew, about this breed of monsters.

    "Not only escape," William paused, taking in a deep breath before adding, "if you all did exactly what I''m going to say, then killing this monster here isn''t that problematic."

    "..."

    This time the silence he gotsted for an entire half a minute. No one ever thought about getting away without sacrificing a few. And now William was telling them they couldn''t just run away without losing anyone, but also they got a chance to take down this terrifying monster.

    "If you know what you are doing, then let''s do it!" The first to speak up was Sara, and her tone held weird hatred and enmity towards this monster.

    "I''m in," Ibra chimed in next, feeling more curious about William''s n to deal with this scary worm.

    "What do you want us to do?" as everyone exchanged looks, Berry expressed what others had in their minds.

    They all agreed to take on this risk, not just to escape the monster, but also to kill it!

    "This monster had to keep its body silent, not moving at all to detect the tiniest vibrations on the ground," William didn''t need to turn his head to know that everyone was eagerly looking at him, waiting for his promised miraculous n.

    "With the finest movements on the ground, that monster would detect it, and would sprung out, activating its body to attack. Once moved, the ground will copse for at least ten metres below the surface, and things will grow quite messy from there."

    William spoke about things that partially were known to others. This pattern of deadly attack was known by many in his team. Yet they never knew anything about that vibration detection ability, or how it managed to get the attack triggered by anyone moving on the trap before.

    "Then¡­ How can we deal with it?" Sara was the most eager one to kill this monster, even more than Ibra and William, more than others.

    "First we have to know where its weaknesses are," William was already beyond his limit, but he had to slowly exin things over to them.

    His face, forehead, arms, and even back were all drenched in a thickyer of sweat. He was struggling to stop that mouth, and that struggle was close to being over.

    "Which are?" Sara urged him to speak, spill out all the beans. And that was what William did next.

    "It has to bury its gigantic body under the ground and not move. And that meant even if it got us trapped here, we also did the same to it."

    "..."

    Such a simple revtion changed everything in their eyes. William didn''t stop there, didn''t wait to hear their responses, as he hurriedly added:

    "Also, it has to bury its body under the ground, and considering the huge body of it, it has to exert lots of power to do so. And that means it''s already exhausted."

    He also revealed another simple, and yet shocking piece. "As for its elements, it got the earth element alongside water. To be able to prate this easily down there with such a huge body, it had to use water to liquify the solid rocks underground, hide its body deeper down there using earth element. It''s crucial for it to do so, as it doesn''t just distribute its body in circr fashion on oneyer, but on at least fifteenyers, if not more."

    The more William spoke, the more entranced and absorbed in his words everyone else became. Even Ibra, even the all anxious and eager to act Sara, all got absorbed in what he was saying, as if they were hearing the lecture of a legendary master.

    "Someone already mentioned the weak spot at its tail. It''s indeed one of the weak spots in its immense body, but it''s not the only one! In fact, there is a very fatal weakness in this monster, one that will only appear when it stops moving¡­"

    William felt like the monster could understand his words, and it seemed to not like what it heard. He got to stop talking abruptly as the mouth part started to twist right and left, trying to push William off bnce at any cost.

    William couldn''t tell if the monster really understood what William just said, but it seemed it felt its closely drawing demise. And so, it started to violently react, trying to knock away this annoying dude.

    William clenches the handle of his sword with both hands, resisting and stopping all the monster''s attempts before slowly adding in heavy breaths:

    "To sense the vibrations on the ground, it needs to open the thick scales surrounding its body, revealing the softer and more vulnerable weaker parts hidden underneath the scales. They can sense any vibration perfectly but won''t be able to sustain any attack from bronze grade spirit masters and beyond."

    Up to here, everyone was listening attentively. And when he mentioned this weak part of the monster, their minds linked everything he revealed so far, and many jumped out for conclusions.

    "So, we have to dig the ground right now and aim at its body down there?"

    "But how can we do it without rming it?"

    "I got an earth element; I can do it!"

    "I also can help!"

    Many started to shout, expressing their desire to act.

    "Don''t get reckless or impatient, I''m not done yet," William wasn''t in the mood to listen to their words anymore.

 Chapter 267 All You Need Is To Jump!

    The monster kept fiercely trying to knock him off, and he had to focus more on handling that deadly strengthing out of it.

    "The monster has another weakness, which is the thing I''m stopping right now. Haven''t you wondered why it kept trying to push me away without even attempting to retreat this part back to the ground? Why did it keep trying with its might to push me back, knock me off, instead of simply retreating a few steps and trying to attack me again?"

    Once his wordsnded, everyone finally got to notice what they missed.

    They got distracted by the intense discussion about how to save themselves from this monster, missed that little and weirdly long battle between William and that weird mouth part of the monster.

    And when William shone the light over what they neglected, they started to question themselves the same questions William mentioned.

    "The monster can move a single part of its body at a time without the need to get triggered," William didn''t give them time to think about this more thoroughly, and kept revealing more of this monster''s hidden secrets, "this is done to scare their target, make them move and create vibrations on the ground, ending up getting the trap triggered. However¡­"

    William felt a fierce pushing forceing from that part of the monster, one that looked like it wanted to raise his body up and m him down to the ground.

    At this moment, William slowly bent his legs, stabilising himself against such sudden force and twist in movement. "In return for that, the monster wouldn''t be able to freely control that part. It could only push it forward, recall it back, only move it in one direction at any given moment."

    "Then¡­ Why didn''t it recall it back yet?" Berry couldn''t help but ask.

    "Because of me," William slowly said, "I''m pushing with all might against it, not giving it a single chance to break this move. If I got pushed back, thrown in the air, it''d regain its chance to stop this move, recall its part back to the ground, and start doing another attack."

    William resisted another fierce struggle from the monster, while everyone started to see what he was doing in a new limelight. "As long as it extended part of its body out, and as long as the ground didn''t get triggered, then dealing with it is going to be simple¡­ Anyone can form spear or needle-like things, make them float over the ground, and be sharp enough and arm them with great force, to dig deep into tens of metres under the ground?"

    This was his simple and yet effective n.

    "But¡­ Won''t this trigger the trap?" Sara felt the same doubt everyone else did.

    "That''s why the moment these things prate the ground, you all will jump in the air. Don''t move, don''t run, just jump."

    "This¡­"

    "Synchronise your jumps to be with the movement of these sharp and deadly things¡­ As long as you jump at the right moment, the monster will miss your presence, focus only on the spears and needles attacking it, and get its trap triggered over these things."

    "This¡­ Is it this simple?" Even Ibra, the most experienced dude here, felt much doubt and shock from William''s tactic.

    "It''s that simple indeed," William paused, resisting another fierce push from that monster, "the trap can be triggered once. And once that monster gets its body rolled over the wrong targets, killing it will be easy."

    "It may seem easy, but¡­" Sara moved her eyes around, "this monster got formidable defence in its scales. The moment it gets triggered, these scales will return to their ces, right?"

    "Right, and wrong," William''s face showed an exhausted look over it, drenched all in sweat, but he still had the power to show a faint little evil smile, "these spears and needles will leave behind many wounds. The more we use, the better our chances in taking it down. And once its deadly trap is dealt with, there is nothing else to worry about but its tail and mouth parts¡­"

    William narrowed his eyes, before adding, "I can handle that mouth thing, but the tail must be dealt with by someone in a fast way. I need someone with a scary offence, strong defence, and enough spirit power to chop it in a hit or two."

    "I''ll do it!" before Sara would jump in, Ibra was a half beat faster than her, "I got a good shield anyway, of gold grade. It can stop that needle. And my ive can chop it in one shot."

    "Great," William epted that dude''s volunteering action, "if we manage to deal with all this, then all that will remain is a sitting duck monster to kill. And now¡­ Who can use techniques to form spears and sharp needles?"

    Everything got cleared in the eyes of all the team members by this point and hope already zed wildly in their chests and minds.

    Minutes ago, everyone was epting the fact of sacrificing a few to let the rest survive, running away with their heads on their shoulders.

    And now they were daring to dream about ying this monster. So, it was expected how fierce their desire to start the battle and kill this monster was.

    "I can control the earth element, forming spears made out of sturdy rocks!"

    "I can control fire, form long and sharp arrows that can move and attack anything I want!"

    "I don''t have any element, but I got this sharp spear from you. It''s silver grade, and I can throw it to get this son of b*tch!"

    .

    .

    .

    "I can control the water element, make out many needles in any size I want. I can''t turn them into ice, but can infuse my spirit power inside, making them as sturdy as steel!"

    Many started to speak up, announcing their ability to do what William wanted.

    "Great! Let''s start then," William finally could heave a sigh of relief.

 Chapter 268 A Hole Filled With Snakes!

    He got truly exhausted physically this time. He didn''t spend much of his spirit power, but the tiredness he felt was enough to let him copse right on the spot.

    "On my mark," Ibra shouted, "once I say now, everyone will use their techniques and weapons. And on my mark, you''ll let them dig into the ground, and we all will jump."

    "Watch out where yound," Sara got more experience than the other five vice leaders of the team, more than most of the team members, "don''t fall over a sharp rock or lose your bnce! Make sure yound straight, ready to evade anythinging, ready to start killing this son of b*tch."

    "Leave that damn tail to me," Ibra added, "I''ll make sure it won''t hit anyone before finally chopping it."

    "Good, let''s start then," William wanted to get rid of this monster yesterday rather than today. But he had to withstand all this time to see what type of spirit masters he managed to group together under his team''s banner.

    And from just this stressful situation and their responses, he knew he got lucky to have such good spirit masters in the team.

    Even when they argued and voted on their decision, many showed their discontent to take the easy path out, sacrificing those who were weaker to let the strong survive.

    And those who were weak wanted to sacrifice themselves to save the rest.

    William was truly impressed by these white grade kids. Even if they were quite young, pretty much weak, and very inexperienced, they were very courageous and decided to sacrifice themselves for others to live.

    And that move, that decision, no matter how one looked at it, was something quite admirable.

    William knew strength wasn''t a big issue. Giving these kids enough time to grow up, they''d be strong and capable spirit masters.

    But morale couldn''t be acquired by getting older. One was born and raised to be a good person, or an evil spirited dude.

    "Now!" Ibra''s shout distracted William from his thoughts. And the next thing he heard were the sounds of many things happening behind him.

    Many techniques were used, forming tons of sharp looking spears, arrows, daggers, and even needles. There was fire, earth, water, and even wind elements used right now from many of the team members.

    Even those without any suitable technique or element started to throw off their weapons, aiming to help in a way or another.

    "Release hell and jump to heavens!" Ibra shouted with such a weird slogan, before William felt the ground underneath his legs tremble.

    "Screw you!" William got fed up with this monster a long time ago. Yet he didn''t dare to let go of his stance for the reasons he thought about before.

    Yet right now there was no need for him to suffer anymore. The moment the attacksnded, he also jumped in the air, getting pushed back by the huge powering from the monster''s mouth part, throwing his body back for tens of metres like a cannonball.

    That didn''t prevent William from retaliating. He used this brief instant when the monster had to recall its part back atst, after getting rid of William''s annoyance, took out his knives, and let them do their magic.

    Twelve knives appeared at this moment, got inserted deeply into the monster''s body, the weird looking circr mouth, and even prated in that tightly shut opening.

    As William''s body got thrown in the air, he finally got to get a glimpse of what was going around.

    The attacks allnded in the ground, and William could see small portions of the spears and long shaped knives and needles which were inserted deeply in the ground.

    The ground didn''t look the same. It was filled with many cracks, and started to fall apart into pieces as if it was copsing. And it truly was!

    In the air, he spotted all of his team members jumping in different altitudes, while each one was taking out their weapons, ready to jump at that monster down below once they''dnded.

    *Rumble!*

    Then the ground shook and rumbled, releasing many pirs of dust as the ground fell for many metres down. William passed over this region fast, before finally rolling on the ground, smashing many tugs and nts, ending up fiercely stopping by mming his back at one big tree.

    He felt immense pain at his back and body, yet that didn''t prevent him from slowly standing up, checking the result of what happened.

    The moment the ground rumbled, fell for a few metres down, and released dust pirs up, the real body of that monster appeared.

    It was just like what those who were familiar with this kind of monster knew of. The area of almost fifty metres radius caved in, forming a new hole in the ground.

    Down that hole, the ground got filled with pale yellow scales, brown fluid that gushed out from therge number of rocks and dirt that covered most of that monster''s body.

    This was its blood, and the many weapons and techniques that the teamunched managed to find their way towards that monster''s body.

    Even the ones that missed the outeryer got deeper and hit the parts that lied down below.

    "Brace yourselves!" Peter shouted as they started to fall one by one towards the bottom of this hole.

    The monster''s body was like a giant snake, cylindrical in shape, covered with scales like it was a baby dragon or something.

    Just before they''dnded, the monster started to move, and they all saw the ground swirling and changing, appearing like it was made of thousands of snakes.

    The rocks that were impeded between the monster''s parts started to shift and change, get crushed or sank down even deeper. More of the monster body started to appear, and that brown fluid kept gushing out like small fountains of water.

    The part William hit using his knives didn''t get chopped offpletely. William knew that as he didn''t get enough time to control his knives properly.

 Chapter 269 It Works!

    That was why the moment he stopped andnded, he didn''t even check his body and stood up. He focused, controlled the far away knives, calcted everything in his mind, clenched his sword tightly with both hands, before finally dashing forward again.

    He knew if given enough time, that weird looking mouth would start sshing acid all over the ones in the hole. It might not be enough to kill anyone but would end up losing many gears and having more wounds was an expected result.

    William was around seventy up to eighty metres away from that mouth part. And yet that didn''t stop him from using his lightning dash technique. He was exhausted physically, but his spirit power was still filled up to max.

    As he moved, the monster also moved. It rose up its mouth part, seemingly prepared to sprout out acid breaths over those falling inside the hall.

    *Bang!*

    Yet before it could open its wounded mouth and do it, William arrived!

    His sword was now used like a spear, prating it deeply into that slightly opened mouth. At the same time, all of his twelve knives were moving in a circr and rotational way, chipping more of this monster''s flesh, trying to cut off this annoying part.

    *Roar!*

    For the first time since the start of all this, the monster issued such an ear deafening roar. And then William felt a grand shadow looming over his body from behind.

    "I''m your opponent!" It was the deadly tail, and it seemed the monster decided to aim at William first before anyone else.

    William was the most annoying one here who kept stopping this monster from eating its prey like it used to. And so, it was understandable why it came towards him first.

    But before that tail would rise high enough, arch in the air behind William like it was a pir of the sky, Ibra shouted and jumped high in the air. Holding one oval shaped, heavy looking,rge shield in his left arm, while raising his ive with his right arm, waving it in circles beforending it over the tail.

    The hitnded just five metres away from the sharp tip, needle-like end of that tail. The hit was strong enough to issue another deafening nging sound as the ive got stopped by the fierce scales on that tail.

    But it was enough to throw off that monster''s tail away from the direction of William''s body.

    "Get your things done quickly and leave here as soon as possible!" Ibra shouted again, while using his shield to protect William''s body,nding just a few metres behind thetter.

    "Give me a minute," William''s sword twisted in the monster''s opening, before he retracted it out in an oblique way, leaving behind a much deeper and ugly looking wound.

    That brown liquid gushed out next, even covering his face, making William feel a little burning pain all over his skin. But that didn''t stop him from waving his sword again, mimicking Ibra here, moving his sword in a few circles beforending a barrage of shes over anything he could reach.

    As for his knives, they kept rotating and chopping parts of that monster''s flesh like a saw machine or something.

    *ng!*

    "Make it faster!" Ibra shouted after another ear deafening sh between his shield, ive, and that tail.

    "Aim at thest metre below that needle," William didn''t care about the urge in Ibra''s voice, "it''s the part without any scales or defences."

    "Why didn''t you tell me that a bit earlier? Tsk!" Ibra looked at the part William specified, but found it not looking any different than any other part of the monster''s body.

    Scales were still there. And for a moment, Ibra hesitated.

    "They are all fake scales, formed out of flesh, without any good defensive abilities," William could already see through Ibra''s line of thoughts, hurriedly shouting while keeping his sword and knives hacking that mouthpiece of that monster.

    The monster wasn''t as slim as any snake. It had a body that was around five metres in radius. It was quite thick, and taking any piece down would take quite the time.

    "Fine," Ibra decided to give it a go, and the next time he shed with that tail, he blocked and shielded William first, then the hit from his ive came next at that slim end part of the monster''s tail.

    "It works!" As a little kid happy about a new toy, Ibra shouted when his ive broke through the fake scales, got deeper inside the monster''s flesh, and went deep enough to reach the central bone chain of this monster.

    "Again!" feeling quite thrilled by this, Ibra got all hyped up.

    "Watch out its tail, it''s toxic and the blooding out from it is toxic and highly acidic!" William''s shout came a bit toote, as the ive''s edge got slightly touched by the dark brown liquid of that wound, issuing loud sizzling noises and thin lines of dancing white smoke.

    "Damn! Why aren''t you telling me everything at one go? See? My precious ive got a little dent in it!" Ibrained out loud, while looking at his precious ive in sorrow and anger like never before.

    "It still looks cool!" William dealt the final blow and that mouth part of the monster got severed atst, "I''m done here, what''s taking you this long? Did you grow old or what?"

    "Shut the hell up already!" Ibra wasn''t in the mood to ept any jokes from William at this moment, directed all his rage towards that tail, "I''m going to take this part back with me. It''s the least price I can ept for the loss in my ive."

    "Fine," William still got more than forty percent of his spirit power left, yet he didn''t have the power to even stand straight.

    His body got exhausted during the past and fierce sh with that monster. Even so, he didn''t try to move away from the battle. Instead, he drew closer.

 Chapter 270 William Wants The Core!

    He sat his eyes on the big prize here, the core of this monster!

    After all, this was a gold grade monster, and he got a chance in dealing thest blow to it.

    If he did, then he''d end up having a gold grade core to absorb. And that alone was enough to make him forget any fatigue or pain his body was screaming with right now.

    "Go away, don''t go there!" Ibra noticed how exhausted William was. Yet instead of retreating, he saw that kid walking towards the pit.

    It was a weird move that got no exnation but one; William was so tired to realise where he was stepping towards!

    "It''s fine," against what Ibra thought, William''s voice came stronger than before. He didn''t notice the small bottle William held, or the few drops he took from it.

    It was the spirit breath potion, the high-grade potion that could cleanse one''s body and remove any fatigue.

    He got it before from Ellina when he met her at the Forging department. And like that time, William needed it to cleanse away his exhaustion. A few drops were enough to make him feel refreshed again.

    "Keep dealing with that tail," William shouted as he started to run towards the hole in the ground, "don''t take a long time in taking it down!"

    "Tsk! Why are you acting like this when I was just caring for you? What a troublesome kid you are!" Ibra shook his head, used his annoyance from William''s attitude and released such anger towards the monster''s tail.

    William bypassed this intense battle range and found himself standing on the edge of the hole. There he spotted all of his teammates fighting the monster''s body, trying to bring more damage to it.

    The attacks thatnded before already caused considerable damage. Lots of brown fluid soaked the ground, even forming little ponds in many ces.

    In the middle of all this, the techniques that were used before vanished and only weapons that were thrown were left there. The monster kept twisting and moving its body, trying to evade the iing attacks in vain.

    Its body was already suffering heavy damage, and it attacked the wrong target. William knew killing this monster was set in stone. But the question that still remained was about who was going to deal the final blow to this beast.

    "I have to find a way to deal with these scales," William could tell the monster was going to die in the following ten minutes at this rate. So, he didn''t stay at the edge of the hole for any longer, shifted his attention back, towards the part he just severed.

    It was supposed to be the head of the monster. And Ibra was dealing with the tail right now. Which made two of the most significant and important parts of this monster exposed over the ground.

    William got to deal with these two parts or go down there and help others by harming the exposed parts of the monster at the bottom of that hole.

    Despite it seemed more practical to deal with the grand body of the monster down at the hole, William knew his chances in dealing thest blow this way were slim.

    The monster got most of its body buried under earth. Even if it got part of its body exposed down there, William knew it wouldn''t amount to more than ten percent of the overall size of the monster.

    With everyone working together down there, they''d be able to wound the monster severely at best. The monster would die out of bleeding, not from any blow dealt to it from anyone in the hole.

    The only option William had to kill this monster still relied on the two exposed parts off the ground.

    "I have to weaken its scales before it reaches the death doorsteps," William thought to himself, "then I''ll deal thest blow, giving this dude a little push over the edge."

    Once decided, William returned again to the intense battle going on between the monster''s tail and Ibra.

    Thetter once followed William''s words, he started to gain the upper hand. The topmost one metre of the monster''s tail was indeed the most vulnerable point in the entire monster''s body.

    William passed around this battle, heading directly towards the severely twisting part of the monster that he previously fought against.

    "Great! You are finally back to your senses!" Ibra noticed William''s actions, and realised this dude just went there to check on the progress of this battle, not to join it.

    "Finish here fast and then go down there and help others," William casually said, "today, we are going to kill something most of spirit masters couldn''t even touch! Let''s make this a memorable day and bring this fiend down together."

    "That''s what I intended to do," Ibra didn''t realise that he fell directly into the trap of William.

    As this dude would leave this ce soon, William would be free to act as he liked. Thetter knew how hard and sturdy these scales were, and so he decided to use his strongest attack against it.

    He decided to use his Holy Sword technique, the one that was enough to kill this beast a couple of times in William''s estimate.

    As for these scales, William wanted to see if they were able to stop his deadliest attack or what. If they endured it, they''d end up severely damaged, allowing him to issue another attack of the light technique move he learnt before.

    But William didn''t want to reveal this technique in front of others. So, he got to wait for Ibra to finish dealing with that tail, a thing that just happened five minutester.

    *Thud!*

    *Roar!*

    The tail part got severed atst, and it fell heavily on the ground by the side of Ibra. And with it, the monster faintly roared like a wounded beast for the first time ever!

    "You finally took it down," William watched that dude wave his ive a couple of times, cleansing it from the acidic brown blood of that monster.

 Chapter 271 A New Change In His Technique

    Ibra''s ive got few indentations around its edge and shaft, giving it a weird look and more ferocious appearance.

    "Stay here, and wait for the great news," Ibra didn''t even turn towards William as he ran towards the hole, jumped and vanished inside.

    "Just about time," during this, William kept himself a hundred metres away from the battle of Ibra. Right now, the two severed parts of the monster were dancing madly in the air, releasing torrents of that brown fluid, spreading it all over the ce.

    William knew if he didn''t do anything, this monster would die out of bleeding in the next five minutes at most. But this wouldn''t count as his kill anymore.

    "Time to act," William was quite eager to try out this technique in a real battle for the first time ever. Aside from the time he experimented how to do it, he never got the chance to actually use it.

    But he didn''t hurry to use it, as he didn''t want to severely exhaust himself. He still prepared for the possibility of the survival of this monster after taking his hit thanks to its scales. And by then, William would have to use the light-based move to hit it again and kill it for good.

    So, he walked back, closing the distance between him and the two dancing parts in the air, to reach almost fifty metres away from his target.

    "I hope it works," William held his sword tightly, closed his eyes, as he recalled the feeling and experience of his sessful trials.

    And as he opened his eyes, his body shed, while he started to wave his sword at the same time.

    Five arcs of lightning appeared and stacked on his sword, before he finally dashed forward, hitting the two wildly dancing parts of the monster one at a time.

    *Boom!* *Boom!*

    ? The explosion this time came on twice and not once. William just wanted to release two arcs at the monster''s head, and the remaining three at the monster''s tail.

    He decided to do so as it was widely known that the tail part of the monster was the weakest and deadliest part of it. However, when he attacked, he was bewildered by the result he got.

    "The arcs¡­ They attacked both parts, linked together as if I released ten and not five arcs here¡­ Impressive!" William stood just twenty metres away from the two parts which were now nowhere to be seen.

    A huge bellow of dust appeared, enveloping the entire zone he was in. The two explosions were too fierce, and William felt the ground underneath his legs violently tremble, then started to cave in.

    What he didn''t realise was that the attack went beyond the two parts on the surface and headed down towards the rest of the monster''s body buried underground, mercilessly and violently attacking it!

    The two explosions and what followedter were noticed by all of the spirit masters fighting in the hole. The entire ground shook and trembled, while the hole started to get deeper and wider on an rming rate.

    "Get out!"

    "Escape!"

    "Don''t stand here!"

    "Come with me!"

    As this started to happen, and with the two unexpected explosions that came from above, all the spirit masters here knew something wrong was going on.

    And all felt how bad it was to remain in this hole any longer!

    Ibra, the five vice leaders, and all the silver spirit masters shouted at the same time. The bronze spirit masters acted to leave here, and the white members got carried away by the help of the silver members, Ibra, Berry, and Sara.

    They all moved out in a fast way, jumping and crossing the distance to the surface in one second. The next thing they all saw afternding outside the hole was the ground fiercely rumbled, and bellows of thick dust kept rising up from the hole they just left.

    "What''s going on?!"

    "What happened?!"

    "Is it another monster perhaps?!"

    Many eximed in shock, confusion, and fear, looking around to spot any iing monster, or the source of threat which caused such a fierce reaction.

    However, to their surprise, they saw nothing around. Only dust kept rising up from the hole, the ground around, and from one specific ce.

    "William!" Ibra''s mind froze at the image of William standing out there when Ibra left towards the hole.

    "What about him?!"

    "What happened to William?!"

    Sara and Berry got instantly anxious when they heard Ibra''s muffled shout.

    "I left him there," Ibra pointed towards the thick cloud of dust that enveloped and masked the vision towards the region William was at, "and I can''t see him anywhere else."

    The two, alongside others, moved their eyes all over the ce, desperately looking and hoping for William to be alright.

    "I''m fine," but just as they were growing sickly worried over him, William''s calm and collected voice came from the heart of the thick dust cloud, "don''t make everyone worry for nothing."

    "Tsk! He is alive," Ibra said as if he was annoyed by this. However deep inside him, he felt a little relieved.

    The two girls ran for a few metres towards that dust cloud, to be abruptly stopped with everyone else when they saw a shadow moving out, from the depths of the dust.

    The shadow was slowly and calmly walking out from this thick dust cloud, taking one step at a time, getting closer to their vision. In the next few moments, William''s face and body finally appeared clearly, getting out from there, holding his sword, without a single wound on his body.

    "William!" Berry was the first to shout and ran towards him, not feeling herself but when she threw her body in his arms.

    As for Sara, she just crossed her arms, watched William getting out from there, while a meaningful look was over her face.

    No one saw what William did, but she could feel the darkness element William used. She felt something inside her spirit stirred up in response to an outside stimulus, a familiar feeling she experienced before.

 Chapter 272 A Treasure!

    It was just the same at that night, when she felt something getting stirred up inside her spirit, in response to what he was doing back then.

    She felt a little regretful that she wasn''t here to see by herself what William truly did. Back then, William got protected by the concealment shield, and all she could feel was weird and unexined images that popped inside her mind.

    This time, William was just tens of metres away from her, and yet she missed watching what he did.

    She got the feeling that if she saw him in action, she might get to understand something about her dormant darkness spirit element.

    William walked out to be met with Berry throwing herself into her arms. He was totally covered in dust and that brown fluid of the monster. He was in total wreck, and yet that didn''t stop Berry.

    "I''m d you are alright!" she whispered while he could feel her body tremble faintly out of her worry and concern.

    "Don''t worry, it''s all over now," William surrounded her with one arm, trying to reassure her worry.

    "Did you see what caused all this?" Ibra moved fast and appeared next to him. He looked in doubt towards William. And before thetter would say anything, Sara spoke first.

    "He is the one who did all this," she motioned with her head towards all this mess. And when Ibra gave her a weird look, she calmly smiled as she added:

    "He isn''t that simple, don''t let him trick you on that."

    "Tsk, I never knew you had such a card up your sleeve," Ibra shook his head, regretting like Sara the chance he missed to see the true depth and might of William.

    "The monster¡­ Is it still alive?" Lang and others came while he said in doubt. The entire ce was already covered in dust, and the hole they were in moments ago seemed to be masked with a thick veil of dust.

    "It''s dead for sure," one of the silver members responded, "I find it hard to believe anything can survive such a hit."

    "Let''s check on it once things settle down," William was the one whounched this deadly technique. And yet he realised he still knew nothing about his formidable creation.

    The way the arcs of light acted back then made William doubt this was the same technique he developed before.

    He was sure the monster was already dead. And that wasn''t the problem they should worry about right now.

    "Do you remember this array?" As everyone kept looking around, trying to see anything in the middle of all this dust, William suddenly took something out and raised it high enough for everyone to see.

    Despite using his technique sessfully, he still got around thirty percent of his spirit power remaining.

    "Isn''t this one of the arrays you made us memorise before?" Peter asked as he instantly recognised this array.

    "Yes," William nodded, not lowering his arm as he added, "I want ten, at least bronze grade, with one at the silver grade, to execute this array."

    "Right now?"

    "Where?"

    "Are we going to use this array?"

    "What''s special and urgent about this array?"

    Many eximed in doubt, while few gave William a meaningful gaze. Ibra, Sara, Lang, Peter, and the silver grade members could already see through the intentions behind his words.

    "We caused all this mess," William could tell that most of his team members here didn''t get what kind of danger they were all in, "and in such deep parts of the forest, it''s expected for terrifying beasts to get attracted to this ce."

    "Is it a concealment array?" Sara''s eyes shed in realisation, but William shook his head after nodding once. "What¡­ What does that even mean?!"

    "It''s a concealment array, but it''s not that effective as one," William paused for a moment before exining further, "the monsters around this area for tens of miles already got attracted to here. And so, trying to conceal this ce is a futile move."

    "This¡­"

    "We need something to defend and secure this ce," William paused, cing that scroll he held in his arm down on the ground, stabilising it using a small rock, "I''m going to call back the five scout members. It''s quite dangerous to let them out there alone. You''ll lead others to execute this array and secure this region."

    "But¡­ The materials¡­" Sara was the one William asked her to do this task. Out of the vice leaders he got, she was the only one at the silver rank.

    "Don''t worry about such trivial matters," William touched his ring, and the next moment a pile of materials appeared on the ground, releasing muffled nging noises. "Make sure to build this array over a three-mile radius. Like this, we''ll have enough space to rest, salvage this monster''s materials and treasures, and even properly fight the iing monsters."

    "Treasures?!" Peter asked in confusion, and William''s face couldn''t help but brim with a bright smile.

    "This is a gold grade, rare breed, giant monster," William gave them a few moments to absorb his words, "every single metre in that monster is a gem! The scales, the poison in its blood, the weird teeth and mouth part¡­ Even eating its flesh is something that can help our bodies get stronger."

    Once he said his words, everyone''s eyes shed in realisation and greed. They realised how big they struck this time, and they couldn''t help but turn towards the direction of all the dust around, imagining great loot from this monster.

    "Everything gained belongs to the team," William suddenly said, "Berry is responsible for storing all the gains from this monster. As members of the team, you can have up to ten percent in total gains from the monster, after paying what you owe me of course."

    William said it, and the bright looks on everyone''s face changed slightly. Yet when they recalled how generous and kind William acted towards them, and when they realised that without these gears, fighting and surviving against this monster was going to be a mere dream, they couldn''t help but feel a lot better.

 Chapter 273 A Shocking Result!

    "About the meat¡­" and when they felt they''d gain little in the end, William slowly added, "you can have it. Distribute the meat after salting it properly. Store these in your rings, as we''ll depend on this meat for a long time."

    William knew that eating monster meat wasn''t just used as a tasty and rich food in energy, it could even support one''s physique and enhance one''s spirit power to a limit.

    The knowledge about eating monster meat was quite limited in this worldpared to the outside one. Eating monster''s meat of higher grade wouldn''t just enhance one''s physique and power, but also would help in cleansing all the impurities in one''s meridians and main nodes, ending up elerating the speed of one''s training and increase in spirit power as a result.

    William didn''t expose any of that, and simply let them ept such trivial gain in their eyes.

    As for when they''d realise how precious and extremely rare this chance was, William didn''t care or even think about that.

    His thoughts drifted and focused on a single thing¡­ The monster''s core!

    He managed to deal such a deadly blow to the monster, killing any spark of life inside it, revealing his strength in front of the team, to just be able to absorb it.

    And he couldn''t help but crave to test how a gold grade core would do to him.

    ''Patience!'' he said to himself, while watching everyone spread out to work.

    He knew getting such a high-grade core was awesome, but he also feared the risk of overflowing with energy, ending up severing his body or even worse.

    The team got divided into two parts, one went after Sara, holding the materials and the scroll William left to make the array. And the other part, the major part, just stood around the hole, waiting for the dust to settle.

    They kept sneezing and coughing from time to time, not annoyed by any of that.

    Berry finally left William''s embrace with a rosy face. It was her luck that everyone was absorbed in imagining their loot and gains from this monster and didn''t spare her even a nce.

    She walked away without saying anything, moved slightly away from William, but not that far to not see him.

    "Come back at once!" William used these moments of peace, took out all the five Bullets of the five scouts, and issued them this order.

    [Why? Do you need our help?] Smith was the one who was courageous and arrogant enough to argue and question William back.

    "You are the ones in danger, not us!" William said this to all, not just Smith, "don''t get dyed," he paused before adding, e here as fast as possible."

    [You are the boss]

    [We areing!]

    [On the way!]

    "It''s cleared!"

    "The dust has cleared out!"

    And just as William received responses from everyone in the scout team, he heard such shouts from the team members around.

    He stored the Bullets and turned to see the thick dust getting pushed away using a wind technique from one of the dudes in the team.

    It seemed these folks here grew restless and didn''t want to wait for the dust to normally settle down.

    "Wow! How the heck did the boss'' attack do all this?!!"

    Just before William would draw closer and inspect the hole as they did, one of the white members eximed in immense disbelief, turned towards William and watched him in a mix of fear, awe, and admiration.

    He wasn''t the only one to turn towards William and watch him in such a way, everyone else did. Those who were bronze grade or weaker looked in more fear than awe. As for those five vice leaders of his, alongside all the silver dudes here, they gave William a look full of doubt and held tons of questions.

    William felt how weird this atmosphere was, so he continued walking forward, enough for him to see the hole clearly.

    "Holy sh*t! What the hell is that?!!"

    And just as he reached close enough, he saw what others spotted.

    The original ten metre depth hole with almost fifty metres in radius vanished and got reced with a much deeper and a lotrger hole than before.

    The hole was at least fifty metres in depth, around one hundred and fifty metres in diameter. And that wasn''t all!

    At the bottom, he could see many parts of the monster scattered around, seemingly like the monster got cut clean with a sharp and giant knife, dividing its immense body into small slices and pieces!

    It was as if a skilled chef chopped and arranged this monster, ending up with many pieces that weren''t muchrger than half a metre in length.

    That made the leftovers of this monster scatter and cover up most of the bottom down there.

    At two different locations, seemingly a bit deeper than other areas at the bottom, bright brown liquid gathered, forming two small ponds down there.

    This was an entirely different hole from what the team experienced before William released his two mysterious explosions. It was very normal for everyone to feel quite shocked, looking at William in such a way.

    After all, all this was his doing. They all struggled to keep that monster at bay, and William just needed to issue two explosive techniques, ending up getting the monster killed, the hole deepened, and forming these two weird looking pools of brown blood.

    And the scariest thing that those stronger members thought about was that William did all this without consuming much of his spirit power!

    Not many got used to thinking about spirit power consumption rate like William. But the strong ones were more experienced than others. They knew if one used such a strong and deadly move, he''d end up quite exhausted without doubt, not able to raise a finger!

    As for the one who did all this, William, he was feeling more shocked than everyone else!

 Chapter 274 The Precious Sacs

    He tested his technique before and ended up creating a deep hole in the ground. But this time the hole got much deeper and wider than what he initially experienced before.

    Not to mention he never intended to release the technique over the ground. He simply wanted to hit the monster at its weakest spots, and never imagined such an attack would spread up and cause all this.

    At the same time, he got more shocked about the fate of that monster. He was sure the technique of his was brutal and overbearing, quite explosive and deadly.

    However, seeing all these cleanly cut pieces of the monster''s body made him more doubtful than others if what happened here was brought up by his move.

    ''Did my technique cause all this? For real?!!!''

    William didn''t get it, but there was something that changed slightly from thest time he tried out his technique, the amount of his spirit power!

    It didn''t grow up too much, but it grew up by one third of the value of his previous spirit power. And that was a great increase indeed, enough to show a glimpse of the true terror of his technique.

    "Stop looking at me as if I''m the monster," William couldn''t help butugh, pointing towards the hole, "the monster lies down there."

    "No, it''s still standing in front of us!" Peter joked back. And when he said these words, everyone elseughed as well.

    The weird atmosphere got broken simply like this. The stronger ones kept a deep note in their hearts and minds about how scary and terrifying their leader was.

    Under any situation, no one would ever dare to contend against him, not wanting to experience what that poor monster saw at itsst moments.

    As for Ibra, he felt like William went easy on him before. Seeing such a scary and quite deadly technique made him question if it was one of those legendary techniques, one that could cross grades and ranks, enabling weaker spirit masters to harm and even kill stronger ones.

    He asked himself this: If he used this technique back then in our fight, could I have defended against it?

    And he didn''t know the answer to that question!

    Berry looked in pride and happiness towards William. In her eyes, William was her man. And it always felt great to have such a scary and formidable man by any girl''s side.

    Sara also felt slight and unexined happiness deep down her heart. But she didn''t expose anything over her face, not like Berry at least.

    ''I never thought he was training on such a scary technique back then¡­'' she thought to herself, while watching William look back at her.

    "Ah, I''m going back right away," she came here the moment she felt that team member using his wind technique to check things out. And as she was responsible for handling the construction of that defensive array, she felt as if William was ming her for being here.

    "Leave thest part of the array until the other five arrive," William shouted back at her hastily departing back.

    "Ok," she shouted back, while in her mind she was still thinking about that night. ''Did he not tell me anything fearing that I might expose his deadly technique''s secret? Or¡­ Was he that worried about me getting hurt if he showed it in front of me?''

    And she never knew the answer!

    William stayed on the edge of the hole, watching everyone working diligently on the huge number of the monster parts.

    No one of them had ever killed or heard about one killing such a monster before. It was expected, as the ones able to handle such brutal monsters were only at the limited circle of the dark gold rank.

    But none needed any instructions to know what was valuable and how to collect it. With a single look, the strong looking scales were all precious and they started to collect these first.

    Removing these scales wasn''t as easy a task as it appeared first. The scales got to move in two different directions, looking that easy to remove at first.

    But when they tried, they got surprised by finding a weird knuckle-like piece that kept the scales in ce. They had to exert more effort, and even at some pieces, the bronze members couldn''t handle them and threw them to the silver members to handle.

    Slowly they started to arrange themselves, getting the silver members to handle the parts hard to process by the other members of the team.

    When a few scales got removed, everyone was surprised to see weird looking pocket-like pieces down the scales.

    "What are these?" one of the white members couldn''t help but point at one of these sacs, asking while others looked at each other, seemingly at a loss.

    "They contain unique fluid, one that can be used in alchemy," William paused, before adding, "if you consider the scales to be precious for artisans, then these sacs with the fluid inside are as precious to alchemists."

    "But¡­" Lang looked at William, then at the sac, before returning to William again, "what''s the right process to take it out? Shall we open a hole and milk the fluid out?"

    "We didn''t bring enough bottles for all this!" one of the silver membersined.

    "You don''t need to do anything like milking," William couldn''t prevent his smile from showing up. These dudes all took things quite seriously and in the wrong way! "Each sac has a narrow point at its top, just plunk it out and then seal that opening and it''s done."

    "This¡­ Just this simple?!" even Ibra asked in doubt, and William nodded to confirm what he just said.

    "This is the standard way to handle such sacs."

    "Speaking like you already killed and handled tons of these dudes before," Ibra didn''t miss such a note from William. And even if William exposed too much here, he already got the perfect answer for any of such unintended mistakes.

    "My master did kill lots of these indeed," he calmly smiled before adding, "or how else do you think I knew the right way to handle this monster from?"

 Chapter 275 [Bonus ] Incoming!

    "Quite arrogant dude you are! Tsk!" Ibra waved his arm, returning to do what William instructed. And everyone also did the same.

    As William exined, when they examined these sacs closely, they found they were attached to the body of the monster in a narrow point at their tops.

    When they tried to pull it out, it came out just like pulling a potato from the ground! And soon they all became quite experienced in dealing with these things.

    William didn''t move an inch from his spot, calmly watching everyone doing their best to take out all the scales and sacs from the monster pieces.

    "Where is that core?'''' He only kept focusing on a single item, the core. He was deeply itching to get it.

    There was something that might stop him from absorbing it right now, which was the huge gulf between his own spirit power and the immense spirit power stored in the core.

    If he tried, he feared to end up swallowing what he couldn''t digest. And yet even if he had to store it away for now, the thought of getting something precious like this was driving him insane.

    "At least I can store it for the time before I''ll cross the edge between bronze and silver grades," he thought to himself, trying to console himself with such words.

    [Watch out!]

    [Iing monsters!]

    [Many scary dudes areing!]

    Just after half an hour, William received such messages almost at the same time, jolting him awake from his daze and dreams.

    "Tsk! They came quite fast," William took out the Bullets of the five scout members, "where are you now?"

    [Just less than a kilometre from your ce]

    [One and half kilometre at least]

    [Not that far! At most in five minutes, I''ll arrive at your ce!]

    "Make it faster then," William instantly stored the Bullets, turning his attention towards everyone down there as he shouted, "gather up! Monsters areing! We need to stop them before others wille here."

    "What monsters?"

    "Where are they?"

    "Let''s move, let''s go and stop them!"

    "What about the array then?"

    Many eximed, but none stopped in their ces and started to climb back to the surface. William didn''t even wait for them up there, took the lead out first while his sound reverberated as he kept getting away fast:

    "Spread out! One team will handle one of the four main directions. Berry will stay back in the centre, helping anyone in need, with Ibra, Liam, and Brand."

    "Let mee with you!" Ibra''s shout came, to be answered almost instantly by William.

    "No time to act heroic! We don''t need to kill any but buy little time for our boys out there to arrive here. Just wait for ten minutes and then move out to reinforce those in need, got it?"

    William knew this was going to be hard and quite bad if they dragged it a bit longer. If the scout team members were that far away from here, then he''d better ask them to retreat, hide away, and note back.

    But they were this close from here, and that meant asking them to retreat was much more dangerous than asking everyone here to stand their ground and defend this ce until the five would arrive.

    Not to mention not long time passed since the death of this scary monster. Not many strong monsters would dare to test this monster''s territory out. Only those weak, at silver and lower grades, would dare to follow that monster around. They might havee here at this moment, mistaking the smell of blood for a regr feast by this monster.

    That meant the onesing here wouldn''t be that strong or something threatening to his team, making this fight quite safe for now.

    But if they drew things out for too long, more formidable monsters would show up next. And that was going to be bad.

    "Why are you here?!" The moment Sara spotted him, she couldn''t help but ask in surprise. Their meeting wasn''t that coincidental, as William ran after the direction she took when she vanishedst time.

    And he selected her as she was the leader of the team responsible for the array. It went without saying that she had a swift and effective way tomunicate with everyone, warning them about the iing disaster.

    "Monsters areing."

    "This¡­ This is going to be bad!" she realised what was going to happen, having her eyes wide opened, "shall we activate the array right away? We are this close from getting it done anyway."

    "No need," William arrived by her side, and without the need to say more, she got what he intended to do.

    "This is going to be risky," she warned, "shall I call my team out?"

    "No, let them finish their tasks first then join the battleter on," William paused, "I alone am enough as a reinforcement for you."

    He added hisst piece when Sara gave him that weird look. "Damn! It''s still going to be tough," she warned, while taking out her deadly silver grade sword, "when are thosezy dudesing?"

    "In a few minutes," William paused, moving his eyes to the horizon where he noticed many trees were moving unnaturally, "stay here and keep doing your task."

    "You¡­ You n to deal with them all alone?!!"

    "This isn''t going to be that bad, right?" William stepped forward, taking out his knives and sword, while she looked at his back that grew smaller the more he walked away.

    However, in her eyes, he looked much bigger and grander than he actually appeared.

    "What a weird kid he is," she shook her mind, driving away such useless thoughts and feelings towards William. Yet she didn''t return to do her task. After all, she got almost everything done, and only few materials were left out there for her to handle.

    She only took out her team Bullets, shared this intel with them as William expected her to do. She also asked them to hurry in making the final touches for this array, waiting for William''s final call to activate it from her end.

    Then she held her sword, took out another, and stood in her ce like a fierce lioness waiting for her prey to draw closer. She preferred to watch William and see if he needed help or anything.

 Chapter 276 The Armoured LadyBug

    However¡­

    *Bang!* *Bang!* *sh!*

    Just when William moved a few hundred metres away, he spotted monstersing at him. "As expected, they are all bronze grade," William didn''t lower his guard even when he knew his earlier guess was correct.

    After all, he was standing alone, facing around twenty different kinds of monsters. They might seem weak, but they had different traits in this group.

    Few excelled at offence, others were adept at defence, and few were fast runners! William didn''t have the mind nor time to properly analyse these, and simply dashed forward for ten metres, hitting three with his sword.

    And with his knives, he took almost seven monsters out, severely wounding five more!

    In the first exchange, and just from the opening sh, William ended up removing more than half of his enemies without any trouble.

    And that simply shocked Sara while she watched him dealing with the rest as if this was a mere walk in the park for him.

    "Tsk! He doesn''t need any help at all! I doubt he''d ever need any help at all!" she shook her head while watching thest monster fall to the ground on William''s sword.

    But it seemed she jinxed him or something, as the next instant, a mighty roar appeared with a ck sh that aimed directly towards William.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!* *sh!*

    William''s response and reaction wasn''t any bit slow at all! The moment he felt something was amiss, he simply waved his sword, moved his knives to intercept the neer, and dashed directly towards it.

    He learnt through his vast experience that facing such sneaky and hidden attacks was best done by closing up the distance and fiercely shing against what wasing, not retreating away from it.

    The knives got blocked as they shed against hard shell-like shields. And for the first time ever, his sword got stopped on one of these shells, leaving behind one deep crack there.

    "The Armoured Ladybug¡­ What a troublesome dude I met this time," William instantly recognised the monster that attacked him, admitting how hard it was going to be to take it down.

    This was in the size of a small truck, with a general semi-circr shield that got formed of many smaller, oval shaped, red and ck shells.

    The monster looked like a giant turtle shell from outside, and William knew this dude got more than what was shown on the surface.

    First and foremost troublesome thing this dude got was the two folded and deeply hidden wings of it! They weren''t made out of thin membrane like flesh, or made out of feathers, but from the unbelievable control over its oval shells on its back and making them take the shape of two wings!

    They weren''t meant to allow this beast to fly, but to elerate at a terrifying speed. Not only that, but it also provided a perfect protection for it against any iing attack. Not to mention the edge of these wings were quite sharp and deadly, enough to take down any gold grade master''s defensive gears and techniques!

    This monster was at a gold grade but considered hard to deal with without any dark gold spirit master in the team.

    "Facing not only one, but two of such dudes here isn''t a coincidence¡­"

    If he tried to retreat, then he was going to be doomed. This was one of the worst monsters to try to run away from.

    William didn''t stop his moves, dashed forward again, not giving this huge dude a chance to create a distance between it and William.

    Thetter knew how hard it was to fight something like this monster, one that excelled not at speed, but sudden outburst of speed and elerating through short distances.

    If he dared to let this dude have enough distance away from him, then it''d be quite hard for William to defend against this monster without using his fast-moving technique.

    As William knew he had to deplete his spirit power against this monster using his speed technique, he decided to waste his spirit power while attacking not defending.

    At least he got a chance this way.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    And like machine guns, William kept hitting this monster on the back, while repeatedly releasing his knives against its shells.

    Even if the knives were one grade lower, they got infused with his lightning element. They left a few marks behind; all were powered up with lightning.

    "Lightning is the way," after shing and dancing around for half a minute, and consuming close to half of his spirit power, William finally ignited his leftover spirit power on the monster''s body.

    From afar, Sara watched this intense and brutal fight, while feeling quite scared and a bit worried over William. She wanted to help, but she felt this level of battle was way beyond what she could handle.

    She feared she''d go out there and turn into a liability to William, not help.

    "At least I can help in preventing other monsters from attacking him," she decided to move, intercept any monster which dared to draw near this battle between William and that LadyBug.

    Monsters were flooding this ce from every direction. But thanks to her luck, only those with one grade lower than hers appeared around, making it an easy task to handle them.

    *Sizzle!*

    And just when she killed the fifth monster, she heard such loud sizzling as arcs of lightning appeared from one direction.

    She couldn''t help but stop, turn and look in the direction of William. There she saw the lightninging out from the back of that huge LadyBug, the same type of attack William used on Ibra.

    "Is it going to sleep?" she couldn''t help but pray the same result would be repeated, but she was wrong! And she missed a tiny and far important little detail in that lightning attack.

    That LadyBug was the size of a small truck and had hard shells over its body. So, dreaming about letting it fall to sleep or even feel dizzy wasn''t realistic!

    Not to mention the already existent gap between William''s spirit power level and this monster.

 Chapter 277 A Brutal Fight

    William already knew all of that, and yet he still used and triggered this attack. What she missed was that the lightning arcs didn''te from all over this monster''s body, not in the same way Ibra got hit with.

    William kept shing around, hitting the monster three times with each dash. In each and every single time, he made sure to target the same spot over and over again.

    So, when he released his lightning, they came like exploding from a grenade or something, rising up to the air from a single point, augmenting the damage this monster took.

    *Crack!* And then his sword came in, added thest touch in the middle of such a scary attack, cracking open thisyer of shell.

    William didn''t just want to crack this shell, nor did he randomly select it.

    He knew where exactly the brain of that troublesome monster was! It wasn''t hidden inside the weird and ugly looking diamond shaped head at the forefront, but it was perfectly hidden behind the single and central shell at the middle of its back!

    Bybining his two attacks together, William was able to crack this shell open, expose the brain matter below, and let the remaining bits of his lightning force to seep deeply into it.

    "Die!" and William didn''t just stand idle and watch this dark yellow jelly like matter get hit by the lightning and did nothing. He waved his hand, released all of his knives, and came at this monster''s weak spot with everything he got.

    Since the first moment he realised this monster''s true identity, and William knew he got to finish this battle quite fast. He had no other choice but to consume his spirit power all the time while dealing with such a troublesome monster.

    And since the first move, he aimed for a kill!

    *Roar!* feeling the pain, the pressure William exerted on it, and the threat it felt by losing the single protection for its brain matter, the monster grew berserk and roared, and started retaliating.

    It controlled its shells to form two leaf-like wings, spread them wide open, prepared to push William away, harm him in the process, and then make a run for its life.

    "Not this easy!" but it underestimated William! If it was another spirit master, then the most logical response here would be by retreating, trying to defend, or at least ducking to evade the sharp edges of the wings.

    But William did neither of that. He simply dashed to the front, used his feet to push himself up, and used the momentum of his dash to throw his body on top of this close to three metres height back of that monster.

    Instead of jumping over and over, he decided to just ride this LadyBug and keep hitting its weak spot without showing mercy.

    *Stab!*

    As Williamnded on its back, he deeply inserted his sword into that brain matter, mercilessly twisting its handle and even moved it right and left to increase the magnitude of damage dealt to this monster.

    *Roar!*

    Coupled with everything William did, the monster roared in immense pain, started to run fast, hitting and smashing trees anywhere it went.

    "Go that way, stupid bug!" and as if he was riding its back around like a mount, William raised his sword out and inserted it deeply again, twisting it like before, while shouting at this enraged and crazy bug.

    The bug was going fast in an oblique path, heading outside the area of protection of the array. But when William hit it again, it roared, reflexively changing its direction, heading directly towards the centre of this zone.

    "Stay alive until I''ll return!" William knew he was going far away from Sara and had to shout to warn her if she didn''t notice any of that.

    "Don''t die!" and unlike what he thought about, she felt how threatening dealing with this monster was. She wanted to hurry up, chase after him, but got stopped by the increasing number of monsters flooding this region.

    The short and intense battle between William and that LadyBug attracted the attention of many monsters here. Gritting her teeth, she decided to keep herself defending this zone alone, praying inside that William and herself would end up quite safe and sound from this turmoil.

    In a short span of time, William spotted the caved in hole. He crossed the distance that took him a couple of minutes in less than twenty seconds!

    "Go down there and die," William knew if he kept standing up there, he''d end up in an ugly fall. So, he jumped just tens of metres away from the edge, kept his knives inside that LadyBug''s brain matter, shing and cutting anything in their paths.

    *Boom!*

    And like a rock, it fell heavily down there, releasing a terrifying sound and a huge pile of dust.

    "I hope this is enough to take you down," William wanted to remain here for a bit longer, to make sure this monster died before returning to the battle.

    However, he knew he couldn''t do that.

    The appearance of the Worm Land wasn''t that rming for him, but the appearance of two of the formidable and rare to be seen monsters in this part of the forest made him quite wary.

    He was worried that more monsters would appear as well, ones on the same calibre of these two.

    "You got one damn minute!" and as he recalled his knives after a few more seconds, he took out the Bullets of the scout team, and regretted not taking Bullets from everyone else here before that, "One more secondter and you''ll find yourselves all alone out there!"

    William was sure once he gave the order, the array would get activated. And right now, almost five minutes had passed since receiving the message from Smith and others.

    If they didn''t make it here by his return to Sara''s side, William would give the order and seal this ce. He wouldn''t risk losing the lives of more of his team members to just save these five!

    [I''m just there!]

    [Give me a few seconds and I''ll arrive!]

    [Just wait, I''ming!]

 Chapter 278 A Real Gentleman!

    William ignored the voices that echoed in his mind while running as fast as possible towards Sara''s position.

    He knew he''d take around two to three minutes to arrive there. And yet he made sure to pressure the five scout members, giving them less time avable before activating the array.

    The moment William drew closer, he could see how dangerous the situation up there was. He left Sara all alone, and she was trying to fight against one hundred monsters or even more at this moment.

    Luckily, most of them were weaker than silver grade, with few at silver grade. And that gave Sara a bit of a headache.

    She was experienced enough to keep her life intact, but her body still suffered lots of wounds.

    "Activate the array!" even before arriving there, he shouted, e inside, and don''t bother with any monster getting in the range of the array."

    "What took you so long, dammit!" she was already on her wits end here. And the moment she heard his voice, she instantly retreated, took out a few Message Papers, and ryed the order over others.

    As William drew closer to her, the ground up front started to show weird signs.

    It seemed like someone drew a line out there, extending from east to west, marking out an entire area of a few kilometres radius in bright orange and cyan lights.

    Then in the next few seconds, as that light intensified, something sprung up from the ground. It looked like a thin filmyer or coat that started to spread out to form a dome all over the entire region at a slow pace.

    It was formed out of semi-transparent orange, red, blue, and cyan colours. The monsters which got hit by this thin lookingyer got their bodies chopped into two halves without any struggle or resistance, without affecting the spreading speed of this array.

    "It''s done!" William arrived next by Sara''s side, said in relief while moving his eyes around the group of dozens of monsters which managed to get inside, "give me a minute, I''ll get rid of all of them."

    "Save a few for me," Sara''s fighting intent didn''t get shaken by all the wounds she suffered. William didn''t object, despite knowing that letting her fight would worsen these wounds at least.

    Yet they were the only ones standing here. And they had the responsibility to deal with these monsters.

    In the next ten minutes, William and Sara killed all these monsters without any surprises happening. William made sure to dissect all the monsters he killed, took their cores and stored them in the ring with gears.

    "Let''s go," he threw a healing potion over to her, "we need to circle this entire thing, make sure not a single monster escapes with its life."

    "Ok," Sara simply grabbed the bottle in midair, opened its lid and drank its content. The wounds that covered the exposed parts of her body got healed at a visible rate, and then she kept running by William''s side.

    "There are more and more of these useless monsters... What a nuisance!"

    Every few hundred metres they got to stop, fight and kill dozens of weak monsters, mostly at bronze and white ranks, with few only at silver grade.

    Sara struggled before against such monsters. But with William and his godsent shing ability, sharp knives, and deadly sword, she found it easier to kill all of them.

    She noticed that William focused first to take out the silver grade monsters before anything else. She mistook this as his desire to neutralise the threat of those dudes, leaving the much weaker monsters forter to clean up.

    So she started to do the same, making William frown.

    "Keep dealing with the weak monsters for now," William said, "leave the strong ones to me."

    "A real gentleman you are," she mistook his intentions again. He didn''t do this out of his good heart or just because he was a gentleman. He simply wanted to gather up silver cores more than bronze and white cores.

    To him, white cores were trash and useless. Bronze cores might give him little boost, but they''d note close to the silver cores.

    He estimated that each single silver core would bring up his spirit power by ten or fifteen points at least. And that made him count these cores, counting down the time he''d arrive at the silver rank if he collected enough.

    Since warning her, she kept her actions limited to the bronze and white grade monsters, leaving the silver monsters to William. And that made thetter heave an inward sigh of relief.

    William didn''t use much of his lightning technique, kept using just his sword and knives. He already consumed more than seventy percent of his spirit power just to deal with that LadyBug. And so, he refrained from using his lightning technique, giving his spirit power enough time to replenish itself.

    William could use any silver grade gear he got in his rings, but he didn''t want to. In his eyes, his body was still weak to not sustain the weight of these gears. And if he depended on his spirit power to wield them, he''d risk losing bits of his power on a regr basis.

    He wasn''t like other members here, especially those bronze and white grade ones. He already used much more formidable gears and weapons than these in his past life. And he didn''t feel the itch to obtain and use any gear without a good reason.

    Besides, he didn''t see any of these gears, even the silver ones, to be this great like others saw. He wanted to forge his own gears, forging at least gold grade or better dark gold grade gears. But he had to wait for the moment he''d get his hands over precious ores to use them in forging his desired gears.

    "There they are!" and just after five minutes of fighting, the two finally approached a group of the team members.

    They were in the middle of a hectic battle, fighting at least a couple hundred monsters. They were mostly bronze grade, with few silver ones who proved to be quite annoying.

    This group was led by one of the silver members in the team, the one brought over by Peter. He led the group he had, tried his best to evade the silver monsters and aimed specifically for the bronze ones.

    He and others adapted a different approach, trying to stall out for time, waiting for the arrival of reinforcements.

 Chapter 279 [Bonus ] Williams Weird Hobby

    "Go and help them," William shouted at Sara, while dashing towards the silver ones, "leave these to me."

    "Got it!"

    Sara didn''t try to act heroic at this point. Just the number of the bronze monsters here was enough to keep her and others busy.

    As for the silver ones, there were dozens of them. And seeing this made William grin in satisfaction.

    "One¡­ Two¡­ Five¡­ Ten¡­" William kept moving calmly around this small battlefield, killing every silver monster with a single hit from his sword and knives.

    His movements were smooth and natural, not needing to use his lightning move at all.

    By the time he finished killing all of these silver monsters, he found that the team was still in the middle of killing the bronze grade monsters.

    What brought such trouble for this group was the presence of three white grade members here. They were weak and slightly vulnerable to the attacks of these monsters.

    If not for the gears William gave them, they would have been killed a long time ago. "I''ll deal with this side," William didn''t stop after killing all the silver monsters in the region. He just took a few minutes to collect his cores, before running towards one direction and started a spree of killing there, "you handle the rest."

    "Got it!" Sara shouted without even shifting her gaze away from her enemies.

    William didn''t need to use any technique at all to kill the weaker monsters around. And with him dealing with arge number of bronze and white monsters, the other team members here could finally have a chance to breathe.

    They got suppressed for long, not able to even gather up and form their line properly. After William and Sara joined the battle, things started to calm down, and they began to suffer less wounds.

    But this was a big battle, and even William ended up suffering a few wounds from these monsters. It took roughly thirty minutes to clean up everything. And William didn''t even think about stopping.

    "Come with me," William took enough healing potions and threw them to the team members around, "there are other ces that need our help."

    "Give us a minute," the silver dude was the most exhausted one. He took the toll of dealing with any silver monster sneaky attacks, defending the team members here, protecting anyone from getting killed.

    "You''ll get three," William wasn''t in any hurry to leave. He started dissecting the monsters he killed. He did not care about their materials, taking out their cores, and storing them inside his ring.

    Sara noticed his weird actions a long time ago, but she didn''tment on any of that. In her eyes, in the eyes of all, William used to do weird things like this from time to time.

    And it started to grow as a reputation, a weird reputation for William about his thing towards cores. No matter where or when, William would spare a few minutes to collect the cores from the monsters around.

    It wasn''t that hard to link what William was doing with the monsters he personally in. After all, he didn''t collect all the cores from all monsters.

    ''Tsk! Strong folks really got some weird sh*t as habits!'' and watching him do his stuff, Sara couldn''t help but inwardlyment on such a weird hobby.

    "Let''s go," once William finished doing his stuff, collecting hundreds of cores, he started to lead others out. "We are going to face the same situation everywhere. But fret not, we are safe inside the array, and no monster can get in or out from here."

    "That means¡­ We are going to fight hundreds or thousands of these?!" one of the bronze dudes asked, and William simply nodded.

    "When we meet them, I, Sara, and Bruce will deal with any group of monsters first," William said, referring to the silver dude that Peter brought over, the one who shielded everyone before his arrival here, "then you can join in ording to the development of the fight."

    William knew these kids were stronger than they knew or felt, but they were inexperienced to realise this just now. They got gears enough to make up for the gap in strength with any monster here.

    Even fighting silver monsters shouldn''t be that hard for any of them. But thanks to their thoughts fixed on their current grade and not their overall newly gained strength from the gears, they failed to make the best use of this advantage so far.

    William didn''t want them to kill orpete with him over the silver monsters. But speaking about bronze and white monsters was a different story.

    He estimated that to raise a few spirit power points, he''d need to absorb tens of bronze cores.

    Compared to the silver cores, caring about bronze cores was going to be a waste of his time and effort.

    And white cores got no use for him at this stage.

    "There is another group ahead!" In less than five minutes, the small group finally found a gathering of less than a hundred monsters up ahead, blocking their path forward. But this time, there was no trace of any of their team members in the region.

    "I''ll handle the silver ones, you two take care of the rest and make sure to help others as well."

    "Got it!" Bruce shouted.

    "Follow close behind, don''t ck and be sure to join the fight after one-minute passes!" Sara gave an order for the members following behind, while the three of them started to pick up pace, increasing the distance between them and the team members.

    "They are a bunch of weaklings!" William realised that all the monsters they found and fought here so far were just weak andmon monsters. They got nothing special or scary about them, even the silver ones as well.

    Aside from the LadyBug he fought back then, not a single dangerous monster appeared so far.

    He led the team in a killing mission, picking up other members of the team in the meantime, and taking down lots of monsters in the process.

 Chapter 280 I Want To Rest

    He gathered everyone together in the first hour, killing lots of monsters that were all gathered up at the edge of the array.

    "What took you so long?" Thest group he met were led by Ibra. and he seemed a bit annoyed by therge number of flies he kept killing so far.

    Against a gold grade spirit master like him, any silver and bronze monster was nothing. So it was expected that the region this dude was in waspletely void of any monster.

    "I thought you got a nap back there or something."

    "Don''t consider me as old as you are," William retorted back with augh, "it''s you who needs to take a short nap from time to time."

    "Tsk! Tell me that you cleaned everywhere beforeing here," Ibra waved his ive a couple of times in the air before adding, "I killed all the monsters daring toe here."

    "It''s all clean around the edge of the array," William moved his eyes around, spotting arge number of silver monsters whichy dead all over the ce. He felt little pain from such a loss. "Let''s go back, scan and make sure no monster went missing from our hunt."

    "By the way," Ibra looked around, moving his eyes among the team members who came with Ibra, "did all those cute scout memberse back or what?"

    "We came as fast as we could," Smith didn''t like the tone of Ibra, stepped forward to speak up for his team, "we did our job, so stop speaking like this about us as if we dragged you back or something."

    "You indeed did," Ibra didn''t show any sign of appreciation for him or the scout team, "if not, we should have activated the array long before all these flies would dare toe inside."

    "Let''s stop this useless talk," William knew it was pointless to try and exin how important the role the scout team yed to someone like Ibra, "we got lots of area to scan and search, lots of monsters to kill."

    "Is this going to stand in front of all the monsters outside?" Lang said, pointed towards the direction of the array, as arge number of monsters started to gather outside.

    "It can stay active for two days straight," William moved his eyes among the monsters out there. And to his surprise, he spotted three other scary dudes like the worm and bug he fought and killed before, "don''t worry, monsters won''t stick in one ce for long."

    "I hope they''ll start killing each other then," Peter said, and othersughed while William knew this was indeed a viable possibility.

    Monsters would ce humans on the top of their food menu. But without getting ess to any, they''d turn their mouths over other monsters around.

    So, it was going to end up like this; a big battle would erupt which would kill or scare away most of the monsters here.

    Only those terrifying dudes standing out there would keep themselves in wait, watching the array and humans inside in patience and desire.

    William knew at the end; he and others would have to fight against those bunch of scary folks. It would be awesome if he ended up getting their cores, after all they were all gold grade rank. But he knew to do so, he''d endanger most of the team, and himself if luck wasn''t on their side.

    "Let''s start the cleansing operation then," William decided to let such matters forter, worry about them when time woulde.

    For now, he took the lead, andmenced a wide search for monsters lurking inside the array zone.

    They found lots of them, mostly bronze grade, with few at silver grade.

    This made William quite dejected. He thought he could get more of these cores, to end up after six hours of fighting and searching with only twenty-nine silver cores!

    He could have gotten eighty-three, but Ibra didn''t listen to any of his words, and kept attacking the silver monsters first once he spotted any.

    "I feel like abusing these bronze and white monsters if I went against them," he just gave out such an excuse, which William knew was all fake.

    But what could William do against such a shameless dude? William got limited spirit power and couldn''t just jump forward to bypass Ibra and kill these silver monsters all the time.

    Yet he tried his best and snatched a few silver monsters from Ibra, driving thetter mad! This became a sort of fun to watch to the other team members, who kept watching andughing from the side.

    "Phew! We finally got it done!" Berrymented when thest group of monsters got killed, "for a moment there I felt like all the monsters in the forest were gathered here!"

    "They just followed that dude to eat from what it left," William shrugged before adding, "and who said we are done? We still have to collect their materials, clean up the meat and salt it, prepare to sleep and rest¡­"

    "Hold on! Don''t tell me I''m going to do all this!" Berry pouted andined, making not only William but everyone elseugh.

    "Well, you are the one responsible for collecting the materials, so¡­"

    "No, I concede this task, give it to someone else¡­ Sara perhaps," Berry moved her eyes around, finally stopping over Sara.

    "Why me? I don''t want such a troublesome task."

    "Come on! Help me out, please?"

    "No way! I want to rest!"

    "And who said you are also going to rest?" William raised an eyebrow, as if he just heard something funny or something, "you are going to lead a team, go out on patrol and¡­"

    "Wait! Who said I''m going to do this? I want to rest!" Sara instantly interrupted him, and that made everyone try their best to control theirughs, trying to not make a single sound or else they''d be chosen by William.

 Chapter 281 [Bonus ] Youll Like This!

    They all were quite exhausted, needed to rest. And no one in their right mind would ask for such trouble at this moment.

    "Tsk! Let the kids rest," Ibra tried to help, not realising that he managed to attract the storm to himself.

    "Who are the kids, grandpa?" Sara and Berry crossed their arms together, and Ibra stopped in his ce motionless, lost in his own surprise from their unexpected response.

    "Ahem," William patted Ibra on the back, the ce he managed to reach, "don''t make it hard over them. They aren''t kids, but they indeed deserve a bit of rest. So¡­"

    William paused, waited for an entire minute while everyone was praying inside that they wouldn''t end up getting selected by him, "you can all have a few hours of rest."

    "Yes!"

    "That''s our boss!"

    "Let''s go, let''s sleep here then!"

    "No," William shook his head, "go back to the central hole and sleep there."

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" that meant they had to walk for ten minutes to arrive there. Dejectedly, they started to walk away, leaving behind only William and Ibra behind.

    "Won''t you sleep a little?" Ibra turned and looked at William in interest.

    "I''m not as old as you."

    "Stop it! It''s not funny!" Ibrained, but his features changed the next moment and started to look a bit serious, "I heard you fought against that annoying bug."

    "I did," William nodded, and Ibra responded with a tired sigh.

    "Something isn''t right, and I got the feeling you know this as well."

    "How so?" William shared the same line of thoughts with Ibra, yet he acted oblivious to all this.

    "Tsk! You need to work more on your bluffing skills," Ibra evilly grinned, "I can tell that you are lying from afar!"

    "It''s because you are old enough to see through me."

    "Not funny!" Ibrained again, before returning to look serious, "it''s not amon thing to face one gold grade monster in such an area of the forest. And now we met two! This isn''t normal at all!"

    "I agree," William dropped his act, and added in simr seriousness, "what do you think drove them away from the deepest parts of the forest?"

    "My best bet will be a terrifying monster," Ibra paused, "these monsters work solo, but they are quite territorial. They won''t relocate until they get forced to."

    "I can''t think of another possibility," William paused, turning his eyes over the direction of the array, "our path shall cross the deepest part of the forest. Taking a detour will dy us for two more days at least."

    "That''s not the problem," Ibra sighed, "everywhere we go from now on will be like walking in the depths of the forest. Meeting such rare and quite dangerous monsters won''t be a rare thing."

    "Let''s pray our luck is good enough to avoid facing more of them," William wasn''t quite honest in his words. Unlike what he said, he hoped to meet more of these troublesome monsters.

    Even if they were all gold grade, they were all with amon thing; they got a fatal weakness!

    He didn''t tell Ibra to not scare him. He saw three more of these scary dudes outside the array before starting the cleansing operation.

    Such monsters were the first to leave the deepest parts of the forest, and that was because they were considered the weakest out there. William agreed with Ibra''s theory, and he knew more of these weak monsters would appear from now on.

    As long as they had weaknesses he could exploit, William wouldn''t flinch back from fighting them. After all, each single monster of these would give him a gold grade core.

    "Fingers crossed," Ibra did really cross his two fingers together, praying for good luck, "what will you do now? Collect materials? Or gather cores?"

    "No, this is their task, not ours."

    "Who said I''m joining you?!" Ibra raised an eyebrow, and William smiled in a way that told Ibra what wasing next from William''s mouth wasn''t going to be nice.

    "I''m sure you''ll like this¡­ Let''s go and do the reconnaissance outside."

    "Out there?" Ibra pointed his ive towards the direction of the array, "right now? Only the two of us!!"

    "We need toy the basis for our escape," William shrugged, "you and I know quite well that we are safe inside this array. But once we get out, these monsters will devour us."

    "No, they''ll eat themselves before that."

    "But only the strongest and most troublesome dudes willy out there in wait," William rolled his eyes, "don''t tell me you didn''t notice these few dudes who are waiting out there."

    "I noticed a few," And as William suspected from this dude''s intense reaction, he noticed the monsters William noticed before. Ibra''s face changed slightly before adding, "that''s why I''m telling you, something big is happening out there!"

    "Let''s not think about things we can''t control for now," William''s face became all serious, "let''s go out there, do a little warm up, kill a few of those annoying bastards, before retreating and rest."

    "You¡­ You are a fighting maniac! A ma for trouble! Do you know that? Tsk!" Ibra shook his head before adding, "we are just two! Why the heck shall we go out there when we can wait and rest inside until these monsters will start killing each other. I vote to wait for our team to rest and get in shape, before getting out and started hunting them!"

    "Good point, but who said there is a vote here?" William nodded, before shaking off his head next, "it won''t work the way you imagined. You and I are making a hell of a team. I can keep these monsters busy, while you do the heavy lifting work for us."

    "For you!" Ibra corrected him, and William didn''t care about what he said.

    "If we wait, we will get a lot of dead weight on our back."

    "Those silver dudes aren''t half bad actually. They can help!"

 Chapter 282 Black Magic!

    "They aren''t that great," William shook his head, "and if we waited for the monsters to start killing each other, then we would have to y in their palms! This is a wrong way to fight these bunch of violent beasts. We have to take the initiative, hit them when and where they least expect, then make a run inside the array if things went bad."

    "That reminds me of something¡­" Ibra paused, looking at William from head to toe, "if we can get in and out from this array whenever we like, why the heck did you let us wait and endure all this long for the scout team to arrive?"

    "Who said anyone can get in and out this easily?!" William looked surprised.

    "This¡­"

    "I have to build something first," William got what went wrong in Ibra''s head, "without it, no one, even I, will be able to get in and out from this array whenever we like."

    "Tsk! What a troublesome arraying from such an annoying dude!"

    William didn''t give any attention to Ibra''sst mean words, took out a piece of paper, a brush, and started to write and draw weird symbols.

    "This¡­ What aliennguage is this?!" Ibra was taken aback before taking a few steps away from William.

    "Why retreat like this?" William noticed such a weird move from Ibra and couldn''t help but ask in confusion.

    "This is the damn ck magic! I don''t want to get cursed! Go and curse yourself all the way you like!" Ibra seemed to quite believe what he just said, seemingly quite scared from this, and didn''t stop retreating far away from William.

    "You¡­ You are this old and still getting scared by such things? What a big boy you are!"

    "There is no sorry in being safe," Ibra defended his stance, "I won''t get anything to help me if I got cursed. Damn you! Howe you know such sorcery?!!"

    William was speechless, couldn''t believe such scary fantasy tales. The ones that were told to kids before sleep time, went deep inside Ibra''s mind.

    "You are just overreacting! This is the code to let us get through that array. Come, let me tell you what each symbol means¡­"

    "Stay away from me!" William just stretched out his arm, in a motion to invite Ibra toe closer. Yet thetter got instantly scared, jumped in fright and moved tens of metres in haste.

    And that left William a bit speechless, before deciding to tease Ibra from now on using this soft spot of his.

    "We are going to have much fun," William inwardlyughed while watching the genuine fear over Ibra''s face. Then he returned to do what he was doing, writing the weird symbols that were considered letters of an ancientnguage in the outer world.

    Secrecy and ck magic weren''t all fantasy, William got to know that. However, meeting someone who was adept at such stuff was harder than finding precious ores in the middle of an entire continent!

    "It''s done," William said while storing away his brush, e on, it''s all safe here."

    "For real?" Ibra seemed a bit sceptical to approach William, making thetter evilly grin.

    "Yes, I got done with all the ck sorcery I was doing. And don''t worry, I only mentioned your name twice."

    "F*ck you!" Ibra got instantly scared the moment he heard William''s words. He even distanced himself away, not approaching William.

    "Dude, you got to be near me for the curse to get activated."

    "Activate it on yourself, bastard!"

    William couldn''t restrain hisughs at this moment, "Come on, I was joking with you."

    "No way I''lle close to you! Let''s stay apart, thousands of metres apart are great!"

    "Don''t make me run after you," William didn''t even give him any time to respond before dashing forward, crossing the thirty metres distance between the two in one jump.

    "Stay away! Don''te near me! Don''t or else I won''t hold back my ive," Ibra shouted, and yet his tone and body kept shaking, while his hand holding the ive seemed to struggle to hold it straight at William''s face.

    "Stop this nonsense, there is no danger here," William rolled his eyes, "don''t you have any trust in me?"

    "Zero trust, no, it''s already on the negative scale!"

    "Stop it already, you are such a big man! Don''t make me run after you!" William was struggling to keep hisughs while chasing and running after Ibra around.

    Thetter tried to run, but to his fear, his body and limbs kept shaking like he was facing the most ferocious and deadly monster out there.

    "I said it''s alright, nothing is of danger out here," after five minutes of such fun, William decided to stop joking around, "let''s stop this madness right now. We got monsters to kill. If you have the courage to follow me outside, thene or remain confined here like a chicken."

    "This¡­ You indeed got quite the tongue!" Ibra finally stopped running around, getting intrigued by what William just said.

    "Thene and stop running like a chicken," William turned his back to Ibra, and started walking towards the array''s direction, "let''s go and select our target first."

    "Tsk!" Ibra seemed to be conflicted between his fear and his ego, to finally sumb to thetter and ending up following William around.

    They arrived at the array and saw lots of monsters gathered out there.

    "This ce did attract quite a number," Ibra shook his ive, waved it for a few circles in the air, "shall we go out there and decrease their numbers?"

    "And make these scary folks focus more on us? No," William shook his head, "wasting our time and effort on these weak flies isn''t a good thing. Let''s take a tour and find a nice target first."

    "Ok," Ibra didn''t object or stick to his idea. He knew when the two would go out, they''d have to fight the lots of monsters standing outside the array to his heart content. He wanted to vent out his anger and stress from what William did just before.

 Chapter 283 The Bulgatoras Monster

    The array extended for a long distance in the heart of the forest, surrounded by lots of big trees and bushes. So, there were tons of hiding ces for the monsters to hide at.

    Yet in front of Ibra''s ability to scan the area around, finding those monsters wasn''t a problem at all.

    This was part of the reasons why William asked him toe with him. At gold grade, spirit masters would awaken their spirit sense, gaining the ability to scan the area around, sense any presence of anyone.

    Be it monsters or spirit masters, none would escape their scan unless he was a bit stronger than the spirit master himself. And that would mean bad news indeed.

    "There," Just after walking around for half an hour, Ibra stopped William as he pointed towards the depths of the forest. There was arge group of dense bushes, seemingly around what appeared like a stream of water.

    "Are you sure?" William had his own experience and knowledge to see through any hiding ce of many monsters. So, he felt quite puzzled when Ibra pointed in that direction.

    "It''s an aquatic beast," Ibra rolled his eyes, "I can feel it swimming in that stream in the middle of bushes. And I''m telling you, this dude smells trouble."

    "Hmm¡­ Can you give me more details? Like what it looks like for example?"

    "Well¡­ Unlike the normal appearance of aquatic monsters, this dude looks a bit weird."

    "In what way?" William brought Ibra to give him such valuable intel. Without the need to go out. Once William got enough data about the appearance of any monster, he was quite confident to recognise it on the spot.

    And once recognised, William would recall all the data he knew about it, including its deadliest attacks, and most vulnerable and weakest point.

    "It''s different¡­ Its body doesn''t look as symmetrical and elongated like the other aquatic monsters I heard about."

    "Hmm¡­" William couldn''t make anything out of this weird description, "can you draw it out for me?"

    "It looks like that," And when William thought Ibra''s ability to describe things was bad, he had to admit that his drawing talent was much worse!

    Ibra drew a monster that looked like a balloon, with few irregr lines here and there. Ibra ended his masterpiece while cing two dots to resemble the location of the eyes.

    "Does it have its eyes in the middle of its back?!" William couldn''t tell anything from such a weird drawing and had to ask about the weirdest thing he saw in it.

    "No, they aren''t eyes, dude! Don''t you see? They are holes, two big holes, the size of one''s head!" Ibra tried to magnify the size of these holes, moving his hand around, making William more puzzled.

    "Does it have anything special? Like a tail, a fin, a needle, or something like that?" When words and drawing failed, William tried to get a better idea about this monster using this crude method.

    And weirdly enough, this method that William never ced any hope on worked like magic!

    "Yes! It got such a whip-like thing! It''s right there," Ibra pointed towards his lousy drawing again, pointing at one weird shaped line of the few he drew as he added, "it got five of these whip-like tentacles."

    "Tentacles? Did you say tentacles?" William almost jumped off the ground when he heard that. And Ibra slowly nodded.

    "I told you, it''s an aquatic beast. So, it''s normal for it to have tentacles," Ibra tried to defend himself under the heavy ming looks of William.

    And thetter couldn''t help but inwardly sigh.

    "We got a big fish this time," William turned his head towards that hidden stream under the bushes, "we can easily kill it if we got it out of water."

    "For real? Do you know what it even is?!!" Even Ibra got shocked by William''s ability to deduct anything from all he said.

    "It''s the Bulgatoras," William slowly said, "one of the most ferocious and cunning bastards in the gold grade category of monsters."

    "This¡­ And do you expect me to feel any better by saying this?!" Ibra got scared on the spot when he heard what William said.

    "I told you dude, it''s the end for it if ites out of water," William paused before pointing towards the direction of the bushes as he added, "and you are wrong! The thing you saw isn''t its body, these bushes are."

    "..."

    Ibra looked at William before looking again at the bushes. "Are you sure?" he couldn''t help but ask in doubt, "these bushes¡­ They are huge! And I can''t find anything linking that dude with these bushes!"

    "That''s because you are looking in the wrong direction," William paused, "the entire piece of ground, including that stream you saw, is part of the monster."

    "This¡­ Then where is the water you mentioned?!"

    "It''s the stream," William rolled his eyes, "it runs in the middle of his body. To kill it, we need first to cut that stream out," William moved his eyes, pointed towards a direction before adding, "where is the streaming from?"

    "From there!" Ibra pointed towards one direction and William nodded.

    "Let''s head towards there, bury the stream first."

    "Will this be enough?!" Ibra didn''t trust the crazy n of William, "won''t it move and reach the stream beyond what we buried?"

    "That''s why we''ll keep moving along the stream, killing it under mud and rocks."

    "..."

    Ibra felt this wasn''t a n at all! It was a crazy and idiotic idea. Yet William didn''t wait for his opinion and started to continue moving forward, nning to cut the stream at a further away point from here.

    "Tell me, is that stream going through there or what?" after walking for five minutes, William asked. And he kept asking Ibra every single minute about this as the stream got masked from his vision thanks to many trees and rocks.

    "It''s running through here indeed, but will we keep following it like this? And will the two of us be enough to do it?"

 Chapter 284 Keep Running!

    "It''s enough¡­ Let''s go out right now," William held his paper in hand before adding, "keep your distance no more than ten metres from me, or else you won''t get out."

    "Wait¡­ What''s the n?" Ibra hurriedly shouted, but William already started moving.

    "What else? Move towards this stream, use your strength to throw rocks, mud, and even trees at it."

    "What about these monsters around?" Ibra just got out of the array, feeling like a hole appeared the moment William passed through.

    "We will kill them, of course," William once said, took his knives out, and started a mad spree of killing.

    The monsters in this part were all bronze and silver grade, and they were all weak and powerless against him.

    And the moment Ibra joined, the fight became one sided massacre!

    William didn''t expand the area of their activity, just killing and clearing an area of a hundred metres around. "That''s enough. Let''s go and bury this stream," he shouted at Ibra, who wasn''t that far away from him.

    ? "There are still too many of them!"

    "Let me handle thoseing at us," William decided to switch roles, being the main damage output at this moment, "you just use your ive, and bury that stream with anything you find."

    "Tsk! Alright," Ibra still didn''t see any hope or logic in what they were doing. Yet he started to do what William asked for.

    The stream was running in the middle of big trees. And Ibra just needed to wave his ive around a couple of times to chop off these trees, let them fall all the way down, towards the stream.

    The stream wasn''t that thick, only five metres in width. Compared to the thick trees around, a single tree falling on it was enough to cover it and cut its path in two halves.

    With rocks, mud, and more tree branches that Ibra made sure to cut and throw at the stream, the entire stream got blocked atst.

    "It''s done¡­ What the heck?!!!" and just as Ibra did that, he turned towards the direction of that scary monster to get instantly shocked.

    And there he saw a scene he never imagined seeing before! Arge piece of ground, a big house sized rock, was moving like it was getting pushed by someone from behind.

    It towered over the ground for at least twenty metres, making it quite easy to spot from this distance away. And from this far distance, his spirit sense couldn''t be used. Yet he could easily spot the bushes that he once saw, and he knew it was the monster William spoke about.

    "Don''t care about it!" William shouted in the middle of his intense battle with lots of monsters around, "it will keep following us at its snail-like speed. Keep moving away, burying more of this stream, cutting its life force off."

    "Are you sure this is going to work?!!" at this moment, Ibra couldn''t help but feel more terrified, "this thing¡­ It''s the biggest monster I''ve ever seen!"

    "Don''t say it like this! You already fought against that worm, and it was much bigger than this dude."

    "For real?!! No f*cking way!!!" Ibra felt the hair at his back stand to no end.

    "Just do your part and let me focus on protecting you."

    "Why won''t you switch? You are the one closer to the array, not me!"

    "Stop this childish act right now! We are going to kill it, not run away and hide inside."

    "I better be a coward and live than be a fool and die here," Ibrained, yet he didn''t stop at his ce any longer.

    He started running away from this scary monster, while doing all his best to bury the stream and cut anything in his path.

    William didn''t dy as he kept moving around him at the same pace, killing and stopping all the monsters which dared toe closer.

    As the two kept walking forward, more of the monsters around started to notice them. Soon enough, it looked like the entire forest got stirred up, and anything living in it started to head towards their direction.

    "Dude! If we don''t die from that scary monster, we are going to die in the hands of the swarm of monstersing our way!" After ten minutes of doing this, Ibra couldn''t help but feel tired and feared the worst.

    "No, we aren''t the ones who are going to die," William was keeping an eye over that colossal rock. It was trying its best to follow them from far behind, "it''s almost on itsst leg. Just hold on a bit more, and we can call it a day."

    "I want to call it a day right now, dude! Why won''t we stop and retreat? It got weakened already by what we did. Let other monsters deal with this beast instead of dealing with us!"

    "Stop whining and keep moving, we just need to hold on for ten more minutes."

    "F*ck! Didn''t you say it''s just a little bit before it''s going to fall!"

    "Oh, I was joking with you¡­ It''s just five minutes."

    "If the monsters didn''t kill you, I''m going to kill you myself!"

    "Hahahaha, we need to get out of this alive first," William seemed to be happy, which was something weird in Ibra''s eyes. That was for a single fact¡­ He was going to get tons of cores out from this battle!

    Not only he''d end up with one more gold grade core, but he''d also gain lots of silver cores. As William didn''t trust this dude by his side, he made sure he''d be busy dealing with this stream, without giving him any single second of freedom to fight monsters.

    In fact, they didn''t need to keep going on like this. The monster back there would die out of thirst soon. However, William was guarding against Ibra, not the monster actually.

    And in less than three more minutes, William shouted:

    "Watch out! It''s going to break apart!"

    "For real? Thank God for showing mercy on me," Ibra was on the verge of releasing his tears, "but wait a second¡­ Why do I have to watch against it? It''s at least a kilometre away from us¡­"

    "Boom!"

 Chapter 285 You Are Insane! You Lost It!

    And just before he''dpleted his words, a loud explosion urred back where that monster was, startling Ibra and forcing him to stop.

    "F*ck me! This monster is¡­ It''s not breaking apart; it''s breaking into many smaller monsters! And they are running fast towards us!!!"

    Ibra saw it clearly, even from such a huge distance away. He could see that colossal rock break into smaller things. And he could tell they were moving quite fast, jumping off the back of that rock and disappearing in the thick trees around.

    "Keep moving faster then," William said something that made Ibro want to go right now and punch him in the face or hit him with his ive.

    "After all this is over, I''m going to beat you up!" Ibra promised in such a threatening way.

    "If you have any strength left in you, then keep covering that stream before these parts will catch up with us."

    "What are these? What are they going to do?"

    "Nothing much, they are thest and the deadliest ability of that monster," William made it look like it was something easy and trivial, "out of its fear on its life, it will break apart into much smaller versions of monsters he killed before. Then they''lle fast at us, trying their best to kill us."

    "Yes, that''s nothing to worry about!" Ibra said in a mocking tone.

    "Hey! Where are you going?!!!"

    Ibra once said hisment, turned around, and moved as fast as he could, heading straight towards the array.

    "I''m going to leave you all alone here to your madness," Ibra shouted.

    "Stop, you won''t get in without my permission."

    "Then what do you want me to do? Let''s run away then!" Ibra got stopped atst under the threat and warning from William.

    "Running away won''t do either! We can''t outrun these things! Just do your job, don''t ck or else we are going to die."

    "We are going to die anyway! Let me stay back and fight them!"

    "Can you fight an avnche? Come on! Go back there and let''s hope they''ll die out of thirst and energy deprivation before we fall down first."

    "Tsk! What a crazy dude I decided to follow! You know, I never regretted anything in my life, but right now I''m regretting chasing after you."

    "It was your decision, don''t throw it back on me," in the middle of all this, William wasughing like crazy, as if he was watching the most amusing show ever in his entire life.

    The more Williamughed, the more Ibra wanted to leave everything, go towards him, and hit him with his ive until he''d break the annoying jaw of his.

    William wasn''t acting crazy indeed. And despite what he said so far was true, he still hid a little detail, one that would make out all the difference.

    If not for truly enjoying the funny actions and attitude of Ibra, he''d have said everything about this tiny detail over.

    "They are here!" and in less than one minute, the trees at the nearby area got shaken fiercely, announcing the arrival of the new enemies.

    "Keep working and leave them over to me and others."

    "What others? Don''t tell me you got a hit on your head or something! Damn! I knew something was wrong! I shouldn''t have followed you outside before running a check on your mental health first!"

    "Stop whining and keep working," William was already pressured by all the monsters he was dealing with. However, even in the middle of such an intense and crazy battle, while fighting and moving in the middle of hundreds of monsters, he kept his calm and didn''t even panic.

    He never used his lightning technique even once, saving up his spirit power to this moment.

    He kept Ibra working like a ve while he kept dealing with monsters. In part of it, he wanted to keep all the loot to himself. But on another hand, he got something else he needed to prepare.

    He wanted to amass a huge number of monsters around, just specifically for this moment. If he let that crazily strong dude joining the fight, then forget about the hundreds here, even having tens of monsters around was going to be a dream.

    Everything was connected and rted to the small detail he kept to himself. And soon enough Ibra would see a miracle in front of his eyes.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    *Bang!*

    Everything happened just too damn fast, but Ibra managed to get everything thanks to his spirit sense.

    The moment the trees shaking movement drew close enough, shes of brown lights passed out from the nearby trees,ing from the direction of that colossal monster, heading straight towards Ibra.

    They seemed to ce Ibra as the top target on their hit list. However, the moment they appeared, another sh came from the direction of William.

    That dude dashed forward, and for a moment there Ibra''s heart fell as he expected the worse.

    ''He¡­ He is leaving me behind!'' That was the scariest and most enraging thought Ibra got in his mind. And yet the next instant, a loud bang urred, one that released a huge amount of dust, changing even the terrain around by cutting off trees and making them fall to the ground.

    And when that dust cloud slightly settled down, Ibra got to see a scene he''d never forget for the rest of his life!

    "How¡­ How can it be possible!!!"

    When the dust settled, Ibra saw such a scene that forced him to stop what he was doing, turn around, and blink thrice to make sure he was hallucinating.

    "The monsters¡­ They are fighting for us! How can this be possible?!!!"

    He didn''t know that, but when that monster would break up, it would lose all its logic andmon sense. It would release its parts like sent bullets, and they wouldn''t stop until they''d sh with their target, or something that got the ability to stop them.

    William didn''t mention that this move was considered deadly thanks to its insane speed, and that was mainly thanks to the wind and darkness elements used by this kind of monster.

    And William aimed specifically against the darkness element.

 Chapter 286 A Dark Sorcerer!

    The moment these parts would reach the target, they''d start attacking it for a few seconds, then exploding fiercely to add more damage to the target.

    What William did just now was to simply dash forward, using his lightning element, stopping the iing parts of that monster.

    Then everything rolled the same way he expected!

    These parts were going to attack any nearby target, and that made William continue his move and not stop, returning back to the same spot he moved from.

    Standing almost fifty metres away made him sure he''d not get hit by these parts or get touched by the explosions they''d release. But it was a totally different story for the monsters around.

    William made sure to leave the area around them densely packed with monsters. So, the moment he stopped this crazy shing movement of the monster parts and retreated, they released their aura and special substance in the air, before these parts started to madly attack the monsters around.

    And after a few seconds, they started to explode!

    Such a twist ended up in such a bizarre scene! And that wasn''t the sole reason behind the weird actions of the monsters here.

    The monsters all over the ce left what they were doing, dropped their attention over William and Ibra, moved towards the iing monster parts like they were drawn towards a ma.

    It was expected, as these parts held an irresistible aura and scent, one that would attract any monster below the gold grade, forcing them to move towards the monster parts out of their will.

    And as they got drawn to these parts as if they were going to eat the most delicious thing in the world, they got attacked and were forced to fight back.

    That all added up, ending in forming such a weird scene where monsters all around kept moving towards the iing monster parts, which all got stopped at the same spot William dashed at earlier. As the two sides kept fighting each other, violent explosions kept ranging and eating up most of the monsters in the region.

    In Ibra''s eyes, the monsters moved out of their way to intercept the iing colossal monster pieces and even fought damn hard to stop them!

    They didn''t fear or hesitate even when the monster pieces started to violently explode without any reason. And in the middle of all this, William simply stood his ground, motionlessly watching everything happening, like a real magician.

    "Screw me! He is indeed a dark sorcerer! Tsk! I hope I didn''t get on his nerves, or he''ll curse me next!" Ibra got it all wrong and couldn''t help but dread William even more.

    "What are you doing?" William at this moment turned to Ibra, seemingly feeling and reading this dude''s thoughts, "continue covering that stream or we are going to die if a single part of this monster sniffed water!"

    "O¡­ Ok!" At this point, Ibra dropped his rude and harsh attitude towards William, reced it with a totally obedient one.

    He returned to cut down trees, throw rocks, branches, and even mud from the ground towards that stream, using all his might to do so.

    "Good boy," and from behind, William nodded in satisfaction. He didn''t order this dude to act like this out of their distressed situation.

    Their situation was going to be quite bad in the near future if William didn''t do what he was going to do right now.

    As he kept Ibra busy doing this useless task, William cut his hand, took out one spirit core after another. "My spirit power is almost depleted. If I don''t raise my spirit power right now, I won''t be able to hunt any more monsters."

    William knew the scent and aura of these pieces would spread fast to all the surroundings. At first, this would attract more monsters here, adding moreyers of protection for them.

    Yet that monster out there was on thest leg, half breadth away from dying. And William craved for its core. So, he had to return all the way back to it, deal thest blow and make sure he''d get its core.

    And that would end up in a very dangerous situation. The two would be separated by a long distance, filled with tons of monsters.

    Ibra wasn''t in any risk himself. He was a gold grade spirit master after all. If he was lucky, didn''t end up meeting another gold grade monster, then he''d be fine.

    But this wasn''t true for William. And thetter knew that. So before moving out to hunt down that gold grade monster, William made sure to absorb as many cores as he could.

    "I only managed to absorb twenty cores¡­ I hope it''s enough to make me sustain the uing battle," after five more minutes, William stopped what he was doing and knew he had to start moving.

    The monster partsing here started to decrease in number. And that meant that dude was close from dying on its own.

    "Listen up, I will go and kill that bastard. Make sure you kill those around, and stay alive until I''ll return," William shouted, startling the diligently working Ibra, stopping him from what he was doing.

    "This damn kid¡­ I hate him!" Ibra turned abruptly to find William already on the run. He gritted his teeth, feeling that he got outyed by William this time.

    Yet when he recalled the magical scene that William created from before, he exerted more control on himself to not curse William out loud.

    "Get the hell out of my way!" William knew he got little time left, so he didn''t care about anything and kept madly waving his knives around.

    This time, he got his spirit power to increase by at least one hundred and fifty points. He didn''t get enough time to properly check his current level of spirit power, but he safely assumed he crossed the three hundred and fifty mark.

    That allowed him to use all of his twenty flying knives, without worrying over anything else!

 Chapter 287 The Fatal And Funny Weakness

    William knew he had to bypass the direction these pieces were travelling through. And that meant he had to select one of the two directions avable for him.

    Either he''d go around the route of these pieces from outside or move closer to the array. And he indeed selected thetter.

    He and Ibra came from that direction, clearing many monsters on their path. But when William went there, he was surprised to see lots of monsters lurking there, and many were running after the flying pieces as dogs trying to catch thrown balls or something.

    If he used his sword, he''d move slowly and would take longer to kill these monsters and clear a path for him. He could have used his lightning technique, but that would exhaust his spirit power faster than he wanted.

    So, the only option he got was his knives, and his bow and arrows!

    He didn''t use these arrowstely as he depended more on his sword and knives. But as his sword was out of the picture, he decided to switch it for his bow and arrows.

    "I should have bought a good bow back then," he scanned his weapons but found no bow there. So, he had to use the same low-grade bow, regretting not buying a good one from the market.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    As he controlled his arrows perfectly, he made them allnd at the distance, cutting and blocking any path towards him from far. The explosion killed those weak bronze monsters, deeply harming the stronger bronze ones, and sending the silver ones flying away from his path.

    As for those who evaded his arrows, or were unlucky enough tond on his path, he used his knives to end their lives fast.

    William was like a killing machine, sweeping anything that came in his path. He kept running back towards that monster and took close to five minutes to arrive there.

    The monster was already moving out with its huge body. Even if it lost half of its mass thanks to the pieces it sent, it didn''t move faster thanks to his low power level.

    "I think you endured long enough," William once arrived at that monster''s ce, he finally could see the real appearance of it.

    "An adult Bulgatoras, that''s why you survived this far," William examined the monster in front of him, not rushing to attack and kill it.

    This monster had a very weird body. The upper half of it looked like a giant rock, ending up with a groove at its top, surrounded and covered up by thick andvish green bushes.

    Seeing the upper half alone would give anyone the impression this wasn''t a real living thing. But seeing the lower half, one would know how greatly mistaken.

    That other half was formed of a jelly like substance, forming a donut shaped piece that was surprisingly able to endure all the weight lying on it by the upper half.

    This lower part would merge with any terrain as long as there was a water source running here. This would let the monster merge perfectly well with the surrounding terrain, hard to get spotted, and quite deadly when it''d move to kill any prey, monsters and spirit masters alike.

    At the same time, it ended up with ten cylindrical short projections that extended for no more than five metres each. They looked as if they weren''t moving, but they left a weird brownish yellow substance on the ground, a trail for the monster''s marching path.

    William knew these projections weren''t just for show. They acted as limbs, and they moved by a weird phenomenon of secreting acid, eroding the ground, turning it into some sort of liquid that helped this monster to glide over easily, move forward in such a unique way.

    It was a process that required tons of power from this monster. And that exined why it rarely moved from one ce to another. It usually inhabited a ce, like a home orir for it.

    It always remained all silent and still, loved to trick any monster or spirit master passing by to think it was a part of the forest before devouring all as its meal.

    It was indeed a monster that didn''t belong to this part of the forest. And seeing it here made William sure of his earlier guess.

    "Something terrifying must have drawn even you out of the deep parts of the forest," William muttered to himself, while moving around this monster. He made sure to not step over any of that fluid on the ground, fearing to get hurt by the deadly acid.

    "Time to put you to rest," William knew where this monster''s fatal weakness lied. As the monster was this close from dying, William started to slowly climb his way up to the top.

    Normally he wouldn''t be able to do that! The monster had lots of tricks and deadly attacks to guard its colossal body. But it was struggling to keep itself awake, squeezing every ounce of strength it got to move towards the source of water, the source of its life.

    "Sorry, but you met the wrong opponent this time," William reached the top, where the bushes were. The fatal weakness of this monster might seem funny and hard to believe, but it lied within the all exposed bushes.

    William started unearthing these bushes from the roots using his sword. He nted the sword in the rockyyer, pushed a little and infused his lightning spirit element into his sword.

    Then it was expected to see cracks spreading all over thisyer, before he finally managed to uproot these bushes one by one.

    "What a harvest!" William''s eyes shone brightly when he saw the first bush he took out, "it''s a waste! I don''t have a lifesaving treasure like that master''s sac to save you forever. But I''ll make sure to keep you alive by taking you out from time to time."

    William knew how valuable these bushes were. They weren''t actually part of the monster, but seeds of rare and precious herb that would grow on the back of rare monsters like this one.

 Chapter 288 A Change In Plan

    They would grow on the monster''s back, exchange energy with it in exchange for giving it what the monster most needed, a water canal!

    The monster used water to survive, but weirdly enough it didn''t have the ability to absorb water itself. So, it had to use the help of this herb, in exchange for giving part of its power on a regr basis.

    It was a mutual benefit rtionship between these two. And William was happy for his luck to find such an adult monster here thanks to the herbs grown on its back.

    "These herbs are all mature, at least a thousand years old or more¡­" he examined the bushes'' leaves before storing them inside one of his rings.

    He knew keeping these inside his ring was a big and fatal mistake. But he had no other choice but to do so for now.

    Rings couldn''t help to store any living herb or nts for long durations before these would decay. But William knew keeping these inside for a week or so wasn''t going to be a problem for him.

    If he regrly took them out, made theme in contact with water, they''d replenish the lost energy and slowly would decay. And if he also helped by pouring his spirit power into them, they wouldn''t decay at all!

    As for the usage of these bushes, William knew they could do magic in the world of alchemy. Not to mention they could also be sold at a high price, no less than his dark gold grade cores.

    "I don''tck wealth at this point. It''s better to umte such treasures slowly till the time I''ll make the best use out of these," he decided while uprooting thest bush from the monster''s back.

    Doing this wasn''t enough to kill the monster for sure. But the secret lied in the holes the roots of these bushes left behind on the rocky back of this monster.

    "Time for you to die," William stopped at one hole, held his sword high before mming fiercely into the back of the monster.

    *Roar!* and for the first time ever, a muffled roar issued from this monster, while its body kept shaking violently as if it got electrified or something.

    William didn''t stop there, got his sword out, and went towards the next hole, and the next. He kept doing this to all the holes on the monster''s back until the monster finally stopped moving at all.

    "It''s done," William wiped the nonexistent sweat on his forehead, before looking at this colossal monster. "It''s a waste to let you remain here. I got to move you back¡­ But¡­" William looked again at this colossal monster and knew how impossible it was for him to do this.

    "At least I''ll get my core first," William climbed down fast, went to the jelly lower half of this monster, and started cutting a hole deep into it.

    "It''s enough," after doing this for two minutes, and without his sword facing any resistance, he made a hole enough for his arm to get inside.

    He stretched his arm, moved it around, touching jelly and weak substances all the way. He knew the core was located in the lower half, but it was hard to guess its true location.

    "Not at this part," after half a minute, he stopped what he was doing, changed his spot, and kept hitting this jelly substance with his sword.

    "Found it!" After doing this for four more times, he finally managed to touch something hard with his fingers. He stretched his body as much as possible and finally grabbed it out.

    *Roar!*

    Just as he got it out, he heard a loud roaring from his side. Without the need to even look, he controlled his knives, silenced that noisy dude which dared to try and attack him.

    "Hahahaha! This trip is like a trip to a treasure trove for me, hahahaha!" holding his second gold core in his hand, one he could absorb, William couldn''t control hisughs.

    *Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*

    Yet all great times were doomed to end fast! William got surrounded by a growing number of monsters, all eyeing his prize and wanted a piece of this monster.

    "I miss that noisy old man right now!" William started to madly attack the monsters around, using everything he got to kill them. He used his knives, his sword, and from time to time he even took out his bow and arrows, making sure to disperse any grand number of monstersing in his direction.

    "I hope he sees it!" As William didn''t want to leave this ce for now, fearing his great loot to get eaten up by the hungry monsters around, he took something out from his ring and instantly used it.

    It was the signal re, the one everyone in the academy got, one of many he already bought before from the market. He used it before to save Berry, and now he was using it to attract the attention of the faraway Ibra.

    William nned to get rid of the monster here, get its core, and then walk back to meet up with Ibra. he didn''t want to end their trip this early, especially when there was such a great harvest waiting for him.

    But things changed when he realised leaving this monster behind would be quite a loss.

    So, he wracked his brain quite fast, thinking about a way to call Ibra back here. At this moment, he regretted again not having Bullets of all the team members, and vowed to get these once this fight here got all over.

    The answer he could think about was his signal re, and he didn''t hesitate to use one on the spot. He released that signal high up, enough to be seen by Ibra. Then he returned to focus on clearing the area around from any monster.

    As he couldn''t tell if Ibra was in a situation toe here fast or not, William decided to take it quite easy, keeping his lightning technique at hold till the most needed moments.

 Chapter 289 Lets Switch Roles!

    Instead, he depended more on his arrows, releasing them far behind, to attack the iing monsters and buying himself enough time to deal with the ones nearby.

    One minute passed after another, and William kept killing monsters without pause.

    "Damn! The monkeys are here!" After twenty minutes, he finally heard something quite familiar. It wasn''t the sound of the approaching Ibra unfortunately, but the sound of the scarlet monkeys running towards here from the deep parts of the forest.

    "What is taking you this long, old dude!" William knew if the monkeys appeared here, then trying to keep this monster safe wasn''t going to work.

    Selecting between fighting and protecting this monster all alone for a long time and ditching it behind and saving himself was a decision he knew which one he''d take in the end.

    "Stop calling me old man! I''m not that old!" and just when William thought keeping this monster was a lost cause, the sound of Ibra came to bring up hope to him.

    "What took you so damn long? Didn''t you see the re in the sky or what?" William released his suppressed rage and bitterness from being this close to lose this monster.

    "I wasn''t walking in the park," Ibra waved his ive, killing a few monsters with one hit each before adding, "what''s the n genius? I''m sure you already noticed these damn monkeys gathering around."

    "Can you push this thing inside?" William pointed towards the colossal body of the monster. And all he got was a raised eyebrow from Ibra. "Ahem, if so, then why don''t you cut it into little pieces, ones you can move?"

    "Why don''t you include yourself in this? There are two of us here!" Ibra waved his ive again, killing a few more of the monsters around that tried to take a bite at him.

    "I''m going to protect you."

    "Then let''s switch sides," Ibra grew sick of the attitude he got from William. He felt like William brought him here to do his dirty work and heavy lifting and nothing else, "let me protect you while you''ll carry the monster pieces that I''ll prepare for you."

    "Oh, I really wanted to do so but¡­"

    "But what?"

    "See? I''m weak and tired. I''m a bronze spirit master, not as strong and mighty as you, a gold grade one."

    William''s shamelessness didn''t just stop on his words, but he also moved his arms, showing off his thin muscles there.

    "Tsk! You do know such little tricks won''t work on me."

    "I hoped they would," William instantly dropped the act, killing many monsters around using his knives before releasing a volley of arrows far to kill those who were yet to arrive. "See this? I can protect you better."

    "No, I''ll do the killing," Ibra spoke as if this was a decided matter, "you step aside, let me chop this monster for you."

    "..."

    William didn''t like this, but as Ibra wanted to do this task, he nned to not show any mercy to him. "Fine! Make the pieces as small as possible, and don''t ruin any material there."

    "I''m not in the mood to do any of that!" Ibra waved his arm a couple of times, beforending his ive over the colossal body of this monster, "in my eyes, this monster is formed of all rocks and awful looking jelly. There isn''t a single useful material here!"

    "Stop speaking nonsense, this is all filled with valuable materials¡­ Easy there, don''t cut the monster in straight lines! Do it obliquely, like this!"

    William had to stop what he was doing, shout back at Ibra who dealt with this monster as if he was a chef dealing with a worthless lump of meat.

    "What do you want me to do? I''m not carving out an artistic statue or making a piece of art here!"

    "Just move your ive like this, like this for god''s sake!" William tried to move his sword in an oblique way, trying his best to instruct Ibra who totally ignored what he just said.

    And that made William inwardly sigh, regret even giving such a delicate task for someone idiotic like Ibra.

    But it was toote to regret this. Ibra already messed and ruined lots of parts of that monster. That dude was just like a wrecking ball, moving his ive around and cutting everything he reached into small pieces.

    William turned his back to such a miserable scene and poured all his rage and bitterness over the poor monsters around.

    Even the monkeys which were flooding from far didn''t get away from his wrath and explosive arrows.

    His killing speed started to pick up pace until Ibra shouted from behind: "Things are ready. Come and carry these pieces inside the array."

    "I want to p you on the face, let me do it ten times and I''ll forget all about what you did!"

    "I dare you to even try!" Ibra said in a challenging tone, while William left all the fighting at once, moved towards the small cube like pieces of that monster.

    In his eyes, William saw this as a crime scene. But Ibra didn''t give a damn about what he felt, went forward and started killing monsters, already engaging with the early batches of monkeys.

    "I''m going to make you regret this," William kept telling himself while he started moving these cubes inside. And from time to time, he''d re in a fierce way towards the swarms of monkeys that didn''t show any sign of slowing down.

    Without the need to check on anything, what Ibra did was equal to damaging around one third of the monster''s materials, if not more.

    As he kept going in and out, Ibra did his role as the main killer, even started yelling as if he was in a festival or something.

    "What are you doing?!!" After ten more minutes, Ibra noticed that all the monster pieces were taken inside the array. And yet William didn''t call for him to return, nor did he stop moving in and out from the array.

 Chapter 290 What A Moron!

    At this point, Ibra was already feeling the pressureing from the seemingly endless swarms of monkeys.

    Even if he could smash any monkey by his bare fingers, there were just too many of these annoying bastards. And no matter how brutal and deadly he was, his killing speed paled inparison with William.

    He kept consoling himself that William would finish this easy and simple task then return to help him out. And yet that never happened! Instead, he saw William doing something entirely different than what he imagined!

    "What? Do you want to leave behind all this loot? No way! You keep fighting, and let me do my task properly," William shouted while he was now moving the killed monsters back inside the array.

    He even took his time to dissect the big sized monsters, separating their bodies into valuable materials and flesh that his team could cookter to eat.

    Seeing William enjoy his time to the fullest, without any shred of a hurry or pressure in his actions, drove Ibra mad!

    "I''m going back! Keep yourself doing this damn task alone!" after another ten minutes, he finally couldn''t withstand the pressure anymore. Or to be more precise, he couldn''t watch William doing this easy and carefree task while he suffered on the ws of the monkeys!

    William didn''t show any mercy to him, even moving around and changing locations towards the densest gatherings of monsters around. And as he had to follow William over the array while thetter kept dissecting monsters and moving their materials back inside the array, Ibra didn''t even get a single moment of rest!

    "Show me how you are going to do it without my help," William knew this was what Ibra would say from the first moment he decided to do this n.

    He decided to do so to punish Ibra, and at the same time increase his team''s gains from this battle.

    The duo had killed thousands of monsters sinceing out in the past couple hours. And taking all these materials back would bring little wealth for him.

    "Tsk! Let me see how you are going to get inside then without me tagging along! I already know your secret, pal! You won''t get in there without me following behind."

    Ibra harrumphed while referring to the times when William would move these monster pieces inside the array. He even started to get closer to William, prepared to jump after this dude even if William used his lightning technique to get inside.

    "That''s indeed a genius ideaing from such a moron," William didn''t show any sign of hesitation or doubt. Instead, an evil smile appeared on his face, one that startled Ibra and made him forget all about the insult William just issued about him right now.

    Ibra watched with his own eyes what William did. That made him quite speechless, not knowing how he should react to what William was doing.

    William continued to dissect the monsters scattered around, killing a few on his way which came from the forest side, without showing any care or concern on his face.

    What was different this time was that he started to dissect the monsters, separate their materials and flesh like usual, then started to store them inside one of his rings.

    "You¡­ What are you doing?!!" Feeling quite shocked, Ibra couldn''t control himself after another ten minutes had passed.

    "What? Do you think I need to move them back into the array? No genius, I got enough storage rings to store everything here without the need of anyone to help."

    "This¡­" Ibra got what an evil n William got, turning his earlier threat worthless with such a simple action. If William didn''t go back inside the array, then Ibra wouldn''t know how to get inside.

    And as Ibra stood in his ce motionless, petrified of that unexpected cunning little bastard he tagged himself with, many monkeys started to attack him.

    And in front of William''s eyes, that dude looked a bit funny. His body got covered up with lots of monkeys, trying their best to bite him with their sharp teeth, wound him using their ws.

    In the middle of all this, Ibra stood motionless, looking without blinking towards William.

    "Hahahahaha! What''s happening to you? Why aren''t you fighting? Aren''t you the one who kept screaming all over the ce and wanted to fight? Here it is your chance, take it and enjoy fighting to your heart''s content."

    Even seeing him standing in such a funny and weird situation didn''t satisfy William. He added such lines, making Ibra not know if he should fight the monsters or fight William.

    But when he recalled how William used his mysterious magic and controlled monsters to take down the scary partsing from the monster from earlier, he dropped the thought of fighting him.

    He feared nothing like dealing with anyone adept at ck magic. And till this moment, he was quite sure William was someone who knew little tricks at dark magic.

    "Tsk!" and the next moment, Ibra waved his ive in a total circle, killing and shrugging off all the monkeys on his body.

    William could read through this poor gold spirit master''s mind and could hardly resist his urge tough at him. Ibra just missed a tiny detail about that monster, and that was enough to make him jump to such a crazily wrong conclusion.

    But as Ibra acted in such a mean way before, getting on the nerve of William, then thetter didn''t find this as an over the line punishment for this dude.

    "Start working, or else I''d just find a chance, slip inside the forest, and leave you all here alone," Ibra didn''t move after killing all the monkeys around, or when William reminded him of his task. He knew this was William''s way for paying back what he did to the monster back then, for standing against him and forcing his opinion out.

    Ibra knew this but didn''t want to keep such torture anymore. So, after getting rid of these monkeys, he got to think about the right way to threaten William and force this annoying little bastard to take him back inside the array.

    And he indeed did find a good idea to pressure William with.

 Chapter 291 Totally Filling Three Rings

    During this time, William got interrupted on several asions by monstersing at him from the forest and from around, especially those annoying monkeys. It wasn''t that hard for him to kill these weak monsters, but he had to waste time and effort in doing so.

    If he was alone, he''d dly do it. But there was such a crazy fighting and killing machine next to him. "Stop spouting nonsense! The moment you''ll leave, I''ll turn around and vanish inside and you won''t be able to get in ever again!" He threatened Ibra back, and thetter finally responded and started killing again with a dark look on his face.

    Ibra knew how shameless William was. So, he didn''t want to end this up by being all alone inside the forest and decided to lower his head this time to this kid.

    Dissecting monsters and storing them inside the rings didn''t take any longer than dragging the dissected pieces and moving them into the array. William''s efficiency didn''t drop, and in fact it slightly increased.

    He didn''t need to dissect monsters to every single material he could salvage from them. He simply cut them into smaller pieces, stored all inside.

    Unlike what Ibra did, William made sure to not harm a single material in the process. And after an hour, and after Ibra exhausted himself in killing the army of monkeys that came at them, the two finally crossed the distance they passed through before, collecting all the monsters they killed before.

    And right now, William''s three rings were filled to the brim with materials.

    "Let''s go back," William decided to call it a day. He fought for so long, ended up getting one more gold core, lots of silver and bronze cores as well as materials and cores for the team.

    He made sure to not mix the cores he killed with the ones Ibra killed. As there was a big difference between the two for him.

    "Atst!" Ibra heaved a sigh of relief. He was deadly tired and exhausted. He didn''t like fighting like this while they got an entire team of spirit masters sleeping and resting inside.

    He didn''t know why William even took the initiative to go out. The monsters flooding this region showed an obvious decrease in number of course, but in the end, they didn''t manage to kill everything.

    They only dealt with one troublesome dude here, and Ibra knew more would appear at this area to feast on the gathering up monsters in this region.

    A predator was gone, so more were destined topete on this spot to rece it.

    Ibra didn''t know that William needed to kill monsters to absorb their cores. Besides, doing this made sure to distract the attention of monsters over this spot, weakening other ces around the array.

    William told Ibra this before, he wanted to pave their escape route with their actions here. But Ibra missed or didn''t fully get what he truly meant.

    *Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*

    Once the two passed through the array again using the opening William created, thetter started to evacuate the content of his rings, emptying the materials, cores, and monster flesh he gathered so far.

    "What do you n to do right now?" Ibra threw his body on the ground and watched what William did.

    That gold grade spirit master felt bad after seeing William do this. It felt like William was emptying his rings, preparing for another visit and restocking outside.

    "Let''s call it a day and sleep," William looked around. The sky was already getting dark, and the sun was nowhere to be seen.

    "You regained your senses atst, dark sorcerer!"

    "Don''t start giving names to me, or else I will do the same, old man!"

    "O... Old fart you are!" Ibra''s face twitched slightly before he stood up and started walking towards one direction, away from the central ce of this region.

    "Why are you following me?" And just after walking for a few minutes while using his ive as a walking stick, he noticed that William was tagging along, "stay away from me! I want to be alone for now."

    "Come on! Don''t tell me you never attended the academy sses about arrays and learnt the symbolguages," William rolled his eyes, clearly knowing what drove this strong spirit master over the edge.

    "I never attended such sorcery and scary sses," Ibra harrumphed, as if what he did was quite heroic of him, "I once attended one ss when I was in grade two at the academy. And believe me, the masters and kids attending these sses are all freaks!"

    "You are the freak, not them!"

    "I''d rather be a freak and not risk my life getting ruined thanks to these curses you all use," he paused, turning to face William, "why are you following me though? The entire world is vast, find somewhere else and sleep at!"

    "I took a liking to that direction," Wiliam shrugged, "and it happens that you are also going towards it."

    "Tsk! What an annoying dude you are," Ibra didn''t stand in his ce for even a second, "here, take this entire region for yourself. I''m going to another ce."

    "Then we can¡­"

    "I swear if you followed me or if I spotted the shadow of yours, I won''t hesitate to put my ive to work!"

    He didn''t even control his aura when he said such threatening words. William pulled a fake long face, as if he was depressed to not follow this dude out.

    However, this was all fake! And William was just toying with him, to make sure he wouldn''t end up getting interrupted or spied on by this dude.

    Watching Ibra leave in a determined way made William inwardly sigh. He marched towards the old direction Ibra took, while thinking about the great gains he had.

    "I should first work on the silver and bronze cores¡­ I shall start with the bronze ones. When I absorbed the white grade cores of the scarlet monkeys, they first added lots of points then stopped adding until I consumed tons of them¡­"

 Chapter 292 Raising Up His Spirit Power

    He kept thinking about this and decided that starting with silver cores would add more points fast but would render all the bronze cores worthless.

    He didn''t want to end up having no use for all the bronze cores he got aside from using them to replenish his lost spirit power. Especially when he got most of his cores in bronze grade.

    He kept walking until he arrived near the array again. There, he heard monsters roaring and violent sounds kepting from the deepest and unclear parts of the forest.

    It was a dark time, and it was the most dangerous time to venture into the forest.

    Monsters would grow stronger at night, especially those with a darkness element. William fought three special gold grade monsters so far, and two of them got the darkness element within.

    That meant most of the monsters driven out from the deep parts of the forest had an element of darkness. And that made him suspect that the scary monster which drove all of them away must have an element that scared these monsters all the way to here.

    "My best guess is lightning and light elements¡­" William knew these two elements were the most effective and scary ones against darkness.

    "I''ll rest here then," he selected a spot in between a few trees in this region. The array surrounded a part of the forest in the first ce. And that made the entire area filled with trees like any part of the forest.

    Even when he and others scanned and killed any monster they spotted, William wasn''t one hundred percent sure the area inside the array was quite safe.

    So he didn''t just sit down and start his work. He first found a space that was hidden from the eyes, a small hole in between three strong and big trees.

    They surrounded it like a triangle, and William scattered his concealment array materials around these three trees, hiding everything inside from the senses of anyone or anything.

    After doing this, William felt a little relieved. And yet he kept his vignce, waiting for half an hour for any sign of any monster lurking around.

    If a monster was eyeing him, then after escaping from its senses, it''d start searching and sniffing around, looking for its prey.

    "It''s all safe," William sat on the ground atst, taking out the lots of bronze cores he gathered. But before doing any of this, he started to examine his spirit power level at this point.

    "I got three hundred and thirty-two points so far¡­ That''s much better than I thought¡­" William tested his spirit power, and after counting the bronze dots, he knew he got much stronger than he expected.

    "Time to cross the five hundred mark!" he cut his hand and used his blood to cover up one core after another. After absorbing ten bronze cores, he assessed and found out that he only gained three spirit power points at the end.

    "Tsk! I should have started with the bronze cores when I was still at half this threshold," he shook his head in regret, while knowing that he didn''t have enough time nor the choice to do such a thing back then.

    After which, he started to madly absorb the cores, and kept assessing how much these bronze cores added to him.

    By the time he reached the four-hundred-point mark, he needed to absorb almost thirty bronze cores to get a single point.

    "It''s pointless to keep doing this," he still got hundreds of bronze cores, and yet he got the impression that all of them would only add less than twenty points in the end.

    It wasn''t worth his time. And instead of wasting them here, he should store them up and use themter when he''d need to replenish his lost spirit power without his training technique.

    And if he didn''t even end up using them all this way, he''d get to sell them at the market and gain spirit crystals back.

    Bronze cores weren''t like white grade ones. They could be sold for a better price than the white cores. He decided to keep these few hundreds stored inside his ring, use whatever he''d need, and sell the restter on, add a few thousand spirit crystals for his team''s wealth.

    Then he started to take out the silver cores.

    Before, he estimated that each core would add from ten up to fifteen spirit points each. But at this point, and after reaching such a stage in the bronze grade, he could only get ten at most from each core.

    "Four hundred and twenty¡­ Four hundred and fifty¡­ Four hundred and ny¡­" William kept absorbing the silver cores in batches, then assessed his strength again and again. He kept climbing up fast, and the moment he exceeded the five hundred mark, the amount of spirit power points he gained decreased again.

    "This time it''s eight points at most¡­ And I got less than fifty more cores of the silver grade¡­ That means I could get over seven hundred mark at most¡­"

    William started this adventure while his spirit power was stagnant around one hundred and seventy points.

    He gained all this when he ventured into the forest for one week. And since then, he couldn''t add up a single point. Even after attending such a grand scale battle at the Long n, he didn''t end up getting a single monster core he could absorb or use for his personal benefits.

    And so, seeing his spirit power starting to pick up pace again, getting increased by at least two folds by now, and was going to end up crossing the seven hundred mark, made him want to cry out of joy.

    "Seven hundred mark! Atst!" Unlike what he expected, not all the silver cores gave him lots of points. When he absorbed the remaining cores he got, he noticed that many gave him three up to five points, while few gave him ten or even twenty points.

 Chapter 293 [Bonus ] A Crisis!

    "The silver grade scales over thousands of points, and that means I had lots of low-grade silver cores, and few of the mid-range. As for those high grade¡­ I believe I got none¡­"

    He analysed this weird urrence, finding it quite eptable as a result. After all, like the bronze rank, there were three stages in the silver grade.

    He was now at the mid-stage of the bronze rank. And what awaited him was the high-stage of it after crossing one thousand- and two-hundred-point mark.

    To be a silver rank spirit master, William needed to cross the one thousand and five hundred mark. And it seemed like a long journey for him.

    "Few more of these battles, few more of such heavy harvest, and I''ll be able to do it before arriving at the Scorching Land," he consoled himself, while resisting the urge to go and absorb the two gold cores he had.

    He still had one gold grade core that he didn''t collect yet. It was the one that belonged to the LadyBug, and he wanted to get it once he''d get done from his business here.

    "Time to see if I can do it," William didn''t surround himself with such an array for just absorbing the cores. He knew there was no real threat in doing this, nor was it going to take a long time.

    But as he reached the seven hundred mark, at the mid-zone of the bronze grade, he wanted to try out something he failed at before.

    "I hope it''s enough by now," he repeatedly took deep breaths, before finally stirring up his spirit. He only tried it once, when he got much lower spirit power than now.

    His past failure taught him hecked enough strength to activate his spirit. But after going through all these intense battles, he knew he missed out something crucial.

    If he had his spirit activated like other spirit masters, he''d end up getting a reliable killing weapon by his side. And that made him quite eager to try it out right now.

    "If I seeded, I''d have a scary card up my sleeve," he encouraged himself, as failing woulde at a price to pay.

    "Ahh!" Just as he started to stir up and activate his spirit, he felt his entire body like getting tortured by endless needles. The spirit power all over his body got stirred up, rioting against his will, ending him feeling like he gotva inside his body, not spirit power.

    "It failed!" he didn''t need to wait for the end result to know that he failed. And when he said these words, it felt like someone cut out power from his body, all bing dark in front of his eyes at the next moment, before losing out his consciousness.

    William was prepared for such a result by deploying his concealment array before doing anything. But he never expected for himself to sleep for an entire day!

    His absence created amok amidst his team. Everyone searched for him far and wide, even those five silver grade members went outside under the lead of Sara and Ibra, taking charge of the entire team to look for William out there at the forest.

    They mistook him to vanish outside, killing monsters alone, like he did before.

    Ibra didn''t hide anything from them when they came looking for William. Thest time they spotted William was when he was with Ibra. And thetter told them everything he experienced with William, ending up even describing the weird symbols he used to bypass the array.

    When they mimicked the symbols, they ended up with the same authority given to William. They tried and found that they could get out ande in whenever they liked.

    Ibra feared William to write down his name and curse him for real. So, he kept watching what William did back then using his spirit sense. And even if he knew the symbols, he didn''t dare to try them out himself when he got trapped outside with William back then.

    Then a grand search started for William after half a day. And that brought lots of fights to the team, ced them under heavy pressure, ending up for many to suffer wounds and injuries.

    Everyone volunteered to take part in this search task, and they had to face many monsters out there with zero gains.

    During the night, most if not all of the weak monsters got attacked or scared by the scary gold grade monsters. This turned the entire world around the protective array to be void of weak monsters, filled with deadly folks.

    Every single time they tried to go deeper in their search, treading the parts of forest they couldn''t see or detect using Ibra''s spirit sense, they ended up fighting a scary dude.

    Gradually, they started to think about the worst. No one would dare to stand against these monsters, even in a group like their team, even with a gold grade spirit master and a group of silver spirit masters by their side.

    So, when they all thought about William''s fate, they couldn''t help but think about his demise.

    "No, he is still alive," Berry kept saying this all the time, "I can feel it! He is still alive! Let''s search further, let''s look for him again."

    "We did," Sara was also feeling the same as Berry, but she was more realistic and collected than her, "we went to the deep areas out there, ending up suffering many wounds for that. But not a single trace was left by him."

    "It''s like¡­ He simply vanished in thin air or something during the night," Lang felt more responsible about what happened to William every time he saw Berry''s ugly and dark face.

    No one here liked to think or even admit it, but there was no other possibility but this.

    "What shall we do now? That''s what we shall think about," Ibra took the lead as he was the strongest one here, "let''s make out a vote and see what we shall do next."

    "It''s obvious! Let''s keep looking for him!"

 Chapter 294 Not You Again!

    "Looking for who exactly? Everyone is gathered here already!"

    Just when Berry screamed with a thin line of tears flooding over her cheeks, a familiar voice appeared from behind, startling all of them. And then the entire team turned to see William''s silhouette appearing from behind a few thick trees.

    "You¡­ I swear to God I want nothing more than beating the hell out of you right now!"

    *Fwoosh!*

    Just as Ibra eximed in happiness, not anger, expressing what everyone here felt by William''s return, a figure shed fast like a bullet, ending up hugging the body of William with both arms.

    *Sob!* *Sob!*

    And without any warning, Berry''s thin line of tears turned into a flood that even soaked William''s clothes wet.

    "Easy there," William felt something was amiss by just Berry''s intense reaction for his appearance. He lost count and feeling of time after failing in his attempt, only waking up when the sun was on the move to its bed at west.

    He knew he slept for a long time, and this was something he couldn''t avoid. After all, failing this time came with few more severe consequences than before.

    First, he felt like his spirit power was resisting him! He could only control up to six hundred points of it, leaving behind one hundred points as if they never existed.

    At the same time, he felt like his body just got a hell beat up! Even when he drank five droplets of the magical potion he had, things didn''t end up as what he quite expected.

    He knew he had to give his body time to recuperate and heal, not rushing things out. And that gave him a clear warning to not try this out until he arrived at the silver rank doorsteps.

    "What happened?" William moved his eyes among everyone while feeling like he was responsible for this weird situation.

    "You happened!" Ibra motioned his ive towards him before adding, "let me hit him once, just once and I''ll leave him for all of you next."

    "What do you take me for? A punching bag? I''m your boss!"

    "You vanished for one whole day and didn''t leave any message behind! Even when we tried to get to you using Message Papers, all we got was nothing! What a trustable leader you are!" Ibra harrumphed, while others felt like there was something wrong between these two.

    They were all sickly worried over William, but Ibra seemed to get a bite or something of William at this moment. Which was something quite weird. Instead of being happy about his return, Ibra wanted to stir trouble with William.

    They couldn''t get it as Ibra kept the little argument he had with William and didn''t tell anyone about it.

    So even when Ibra moved his eyes around, asking for others to step in and support him, none even showed a sign of approval or support towards his words nor attitude.

    "Stop causing trouble already," William could see easily through the intentions of this troublemaker, "tell me, what happened when I was away?"

    "First tell us where you were all this time!"

    "I said drop it already," William rolled his eyes, then turned towards Berry, who was calmly lying in his embrace without issuing a single sound. The more he looked at her face, the more he knew something terrible must have happened when he wasn''t here.

    "Tell me, what happened when I was away?" so he turned his eyes towards the other vice leaders of his.

    "We just got worried, went all the way around looking for you," Sara didn''t speak up before to support Ibra as she felt there was some sort of unknown history between these two. However, that didn''t mean she totally forgave William for his sudden absence, "we went outside, fought against scary monsters and got lots of wounds."

    "Hmm¡­ You are indeed quite courageous, and loyal," William took this as a joke. And before Sara or anyone else would say anything, he touched his ring, took enough potions out, enough to heal everyone, "first take these and cure our wounds before anything else¡­ Don''t tell me you got all these wounds without killing a single monster out there."

    William noticed how many and ugly the wounds most of his team members got. Almost all of the members below silver grade got wounded, with the white ones suffering the most out of it.

    "Ahem¡­" And when he just made a joke about it, he couldn''t help but find out that everyone''s face changed and dropped. He cleared his throat, feeling like he hit the mark this time precisely without even intending to, "at least tell me you gained intel about the type of monsters waiting for us out there."

    "We met ten different monsters," Ibra took the lead of exining things for him, "let me draw them out for you."

    "Not you again!" William got instantly scared the moment he heard what Ibra said, "let anyone else do it. Come on, anyone can tell or draw me the shapes of these monsters."

    "But¡­ I already drew one for you and you recognised it right on the spot!"

    "Don''t even mention it!" William red in warning towards Ibra, recalling that dude''s close to a puzzle drawing that didn''t help at all. "Anyone else?" he moved his eyes around, looking for another person to do this task than Ibra.

    ? "Sorry dude, I''m going to do it in your stead," John cleared his throat, seemingly more terrified of angering Ibra than answering William''s request.

    "Do it then," Ibra crossed his arms, leant over his ive, "I want to see who is that genius artist to draw a better drawing of monsters than I."

    "Don''t bother with him," William didn''t know from where this dude''s confidence came from, "just draw what you can, and exin with words to make me imagine them better."

    Since hisst torturing experience with Ibra, William decided that just depending on drawing wasn''t going to work.

 Chapter 295 It Escaped!

    However¡­ He and Ibra underestimated the drawing skills of John!

    "Dammit kid! Are you a professional artist or what?!" Ibra couldn''t help but ask in shock while the drawings John did use his sword over the ground were least to be described as masterpieces!

    William didn''t find it hard at all to find out which monsters these drawings belonged to. Even he, the one who considered himself good at drawing, would fail to do something close to what John just did.

    "This is indeed quite troublesome!" And amidst everyone''s shock and surprise, William couldn''t help but mutter in deep frown.

    "Yes, we got a spirit master who can make a living by drawing! That''s indeed quite troublesome and pretty damn annoying!" Ibra didn''t get what William truly meant. And John couldn''t help but take all this as a credit for himself, feeling more embarrassed.

    "I just got good hands and memory, that''s all," he said, trying to give a reason for his insane ability to draw.

    "Don''t live like a normal spirit master from now on," Ibra felt like he found a gem hidden in the depths of the ground, covered in dirt, "if I were you, I''d go and polish my drawing skills. A single piece of worthy drawing can be sold at thousands of spirit crystals! That''s a shitload of wealth dude!"

    "This¡­"

    "Just stop it you two," William''s face didn''t even ease for a single moment since seeing these drawings, "we got a huge problem to deal with."

    "Problem? What problem?" Lang asked, feeling that William wouldn''t frown like this until things were quite bad.

    Even in the face of that worm, William never showed any anxious look on his face.

    "We got¡­ A monster that''s equal to facing dark gold monsters here," William took his sword, pointed towards one drawing in particr using its tip, "this dude¡­ It''s really a nightmare."

    "What''s about it?" Sara looked towards the drawing William pointed towards like anyone else, "we already fought it. It''s indeed quite tricky and hard to deal with, but not that hard actually to kill."

    "Yes, I remember that dude," Peter chimed in, "it was fast moving, hard to stop or target with any attack. But if we cooperated and you told us what to do, then we can take it easily. It doesn''t look like an unbeatable foe, in my opinion."

    "Yes, I agree. We can kill it, just like we did with that worm," Ibra nodded, "and that rock thing as well."

    "Tell us, what shall we do?" Berry finally got away from his embrace, using the few moments of distraction that John thankfully bought her. She looked at William directly, but when the two met with their eyes, she hurriedly shifted her gaze away in shyness.

    "We have to run," William''s answer was something none of them ever expected. William could inwardly sigh before adding, exining everything they didn''t know:

    "This¡­ This is truly a nightmare, and so it''s called the ck Nightmare. It''s one of the most cunning, most troublesome monsters to deal with in the entire gold grade category. Don''t let it fool you, this dude is just tricking you to believe you can beat it. Take it from me, it''s impossible for any of us, all of us to even bring considerable damage to it! We got to run! And we got to do it fast!"

    "This¡­"

    "Are you sure?"

    "Is there no other choice but that?"

    "Tsk! And here I thought I was going to hunt more gold grade monsters¡­"

    Many eximed in regret and doubt, as if they lost something precious. Just from the gold grade monster they killed together, they saw how immense the gains the team acquired.

    And as they''d get ten percent of all the loot, they wanted to get more of these.

    During the search for William, Ibra led them towards the area he and William fought at before, the ce where William left tons of monster materials behind.

    The team worked their best and collected everything. And they were quite sure their gains were much more than what they imagined getting in the entire journey when they first stepped outside their academy doorsteps.

    "Listen up, the thing you met isn''t the real monster," William didn''t want them to feel they lost something by deciding to run away. He knew the other nine monsters were quite easy to handle, but wasting time on killing them wasn''t worth the risk.

    "What do you mean?"

    "Is there another hidden part of it?"

    "Is it like that giant rock we fought before?"

    William listened to all theirments, and calmly asked, "Tell me first, did you gather up all the materials from the monster we killed before?"

    "We gathered everything," Berry took the lead to answer him, "even the ones you and Ibra killed when we were asleep. However¡­"

    "However¡­ what?"

    "We didn''t find that LadyBug corpse anywhere!" Berry moved her eyes around, and everyone nodded in agreement.

    "This¡­ That damn bug! It didn''t die in the end!" William felt little regretful here, to soon feel quite blessed that he used that concealment array from before.

    As he expected, the area inside the array wasn''t that safe.

    "Let''s forget about it then," despite feeling bitter about losing one gold grade core, one he thought he already secured, he decided to drop this issue right now.

    They got no time for doing a huge search and hunt operation. And that bug must have gotten pretty bad wounded, needed time to heal and recuperate.

    That meant it was going to find somewhere not seen or found by anyone and hide there until its wounds would get healed.

    "But¡­"

    "Let''s just forget about it. We are running away anyway."

    "Ok¡­"

    "Great!" William gave her, he gave everyone a firm nod, dering that they got to run away as fast as they could, without even caring about a deeply hurt and entrapped monster nearby.

    "Wait," just before William would add anymore, Peter had to interrupt him, "we didn''t collect that brown blood down there. We didn''t get enough bottles to gather it up."

 Chapter 296 The Scary Nightmare Monster

    Peter''s wordsnded, and everyone shifted their eyes over William again. They just had to drop seeking out and kill one gold grade monster. And now they got another loot they couldn''t miss, and could easily collect, if they had a way to solve the problem of these bottles.

    "Neither do I," William sighed. He knew that blood was worth its weight in gold for alchemists and artisans. It was widely used material for forging and concocting, making him feel little regret in not having more vials to collect it.

    "I got few here," Ibra suddenly spoke up, touched his ring, and took out lots of empty bottles.

    "Dammit old man! Don''t tell me you have a thing for alchemy!" even William got surprised by the grand amount of these bottles.

    "I dare you to say old man again!" Ibra got stirred up, red back at William, while thetter didn''t even put any of this dude''s threats in his eyes.

    "Hurry up then, take them and collect all the blood that you can get," William hurried the team. And under Berry''s lead, most left after her towards the hole to fill these bottles with the brown blood.

    Only Ibra, Sara, Peter, Lang, and the silver grade spirit masters got left behind. William moved his eyes among them, knowing why they got left behind and waited with him.

    "Come on, spill out all the beans about this scary dude," Ibra crossed his arms, leant over his ive, while giving William a deep nce.

    "This is something you all have to evade no matter what," William didn''t keep his knowledge about this scary monster off them, "this dude can use the darkness element quite efficiently, perhaps even one of the best monsters in our world to use such an element to such a degree."

    "How so?" Sara paused, "even more than the Boogymonster? The Silent Reaper?"

    She got to learn a few things about the scariest monsters in their world from her grandfather and his library.

    "These are considered cutepared with this dude," William didn''t find it surprising for her to learn about these two scary names. And as this one they got to face here, these two were considered on the most dangerous ten scary list of the darkness element-based monsters in this tiny world and the outer world as well.

    "For real!" The silver dude she brought seemed to know these two as well. In addition to these two, Ibra also knew about these two crazily strong monsters.

    "I never heard of any other darkness-based monster stronger than these two," Ibramented, and the other two nodded in agreement.

    "Then listen up to something that will open your eyes on the broad world that many don''t know," William paused, took a deep breath, before adding, "this scary monster can use the darkness element to the realm of creating illusions."

    "Illusions? Do you mean it can separate parts of its body like that damn rock?"

    "First, it wasn''t a rock, it was a Bulgatoras monster. And no, this dude won''t separate its body into parts like the one we fought together. This one can create illusions, like copies of itself, scatter them all over a wide stretch ofnd."

    "Then dealing with it is quite simple," Peter said, "we can just evade those copies. As they are illusions, they won''t be that strong, right?"

    "Wrong," William slowly shook his head, "this dude can fight anyone, anything, and use his illusions to copy others'' skills and abilities once he killed them. In other words, we may be facing a single monster, but in fact we are fighting against a huge army of strong spirit masters and scary monsters, with a myriad of abilities that will make us feel desperate and powerless."

    "This¡­"

    "Don''t panic, we still got a chance here," William looked around, "the sun is about to set off. Unlike other monsters, darkness-based ones in particr, this dude will growzy and weak at night. Besides, it needs a huge amount of time to spread all of its illusions over the area. And it won''t let other monsters stand inside its area."

    "A territorial monster then¡­ What a hellish nightmare it truly is!" Lang sucked in a cold air of breath. And William couldn''t help but nod in agreement.

    "So¡­ Where is the silver lining in all that?" Unlike others, Ibra was more adept and experienced at fighting strong monsters. So, he realised despite what William mentioned before that there was hope, he knew there was none!

    "These¡­" William got what Ibra was thinking about, and simply pointed with the tip of his sword towards the other nine monsters.

    "I don''t get it¡­"

    "As long as these are still alive, it means that scary monster hasn''t used up all of its strength yet¡­ It has to deal with these monsters before dealing with us."

    "That means¡­"

    "Yes, we need to use the chance and escape during this night," William seriously said, "it''s quite risky to travel in the forest at night. But in our case, this is our only hope. By tomorrow, that monster will start cleaning other monsters around, taking this entire ce for itself."

    "I got it," Sara and others finally realised why the first thing William said was to run away from here, "is there anything you need from us to do?"

    "That array," William knew that trying to escape during nighttime was going to be quite hard. Besides, aside from that scary Nightmare monster, the other nine weren''t easy to deal with, "the one the five scout members used¡­ I want all of us to use it while travelling out."

    "Are you this scared of it? Don''t you just say it will be weak andzy?!" Peter asked in doubt and puzzlement.

    "I said it''s going to bezy and weak but didn''t say it will sleep all night or not move around and chase us like hunting dogs," William paused, "we got these nine monsters to worry about as well. If we found one and dragged the battle against it for long enough, then that scary dude would arrive and take advantage of the situation. And none of us wants to see something like this happening, right?"

 Chapter 297 Planning Their Escape

    His words made quite sense, and no one got any more objections at this point. "Fine, let''s do it then¡­ Don''t tell me you don''t have enough materials for all of us!" Ibra spoke up on behalf of everyone here, and William simply smiled.

    "Let''s wait for others first," William looked at the sky, "we got around two hours before the darkness would prevail and deepen. After that, we will move away from here."

    "Ah, I forgot to tell you where that dude was when we fought him¡­" one of the silver members was about to point towards a direction, but William shook his head, stopping him in the middle of his actions.

    "No use, that dude is quite slippery, never stands at one ce for long, never sticks for a single spot forever. And it had lots of copies out there, so knowing the ces of few won''t help," William slowly said, "let''s just pray we won''t meet any of its clones when we get out."

    "And what if we did?" Sara asked, seemingly thinking about the worst.

    "Then let me solo handle it," William paused, took out his map and stretched it on the ground, "we are here. And we will move out from that direction."

    "Wait, why will we take this way?" Lang asked, interrupting William in the middle of his words.

    "Because I and Ibra caused lots of ruckus back in the opposite direction," William motioned his head towards the totally opposite direction before adding, "and that spot must have attracted many of these troublesome dudes by now. A big fight will erupt this night between them over there, and that means the opposite direction is the safest to tread through."

    "Oh¡­ So, you didn''t just wander around aimlessly back then? Good to hear that you got a n back then," Ibra spoke in mockery, referring to how scary and crazy that time was.

    "I told you about this before, but it seems you have a fish memory or something."

    "Tsk! You don''t know how much I hope to cut that tongue of yours and keep you silent forever!"

    William simply ignored this uselessment, and kept speaking, "dealing with this monster will be quite troublesome for me. It may take me a long time before finally running away. If we meet it, you''ll all lead everyone away, not stay behind, and we will meet at this point, fifty kilometres to the north¡­"

    William moved his finger around the map, showing everyone the route, they should take if they got separated.

    "Won''t you need our help? My help?" Ibra spoke, not believing that William was going to face such a scary monster alone without asking for help.

    "No offence dude, but anyone staying behind, even you, will end up being a burden and liability for me," William''s answer was direct, harsh, and decisive.

    "Tsk!" Ibra of course didn''t like such an answer, but he had nothing to say. In the entire team, only William was well aware of all the ins and outs of this monster. And so, he was the only one able to give out such judgement, no matter how Ibra didn''t like it.

    "Are you sure you won''t need any of us?" Sara felt more worried than bothered by the direct rejection William gave to Ibra.

    At least Ibra was at gold grade, the strongest one in the entire team, one of the strongest disciples in the entire academy for sure.

    "I''m going to be fine alone," William repeated his rejection in different words, "now, let''s make sure we don''t miss anything out. Have you cooked and salted the meat or what?"

    "Oh¡­ About that¡­" Lang looked at everyone around, and William didn''t need to hear anymore.

    "Don''t me them, me it all on yourself," Ibra said, making William roll his eyes in response.

    "Once you found a nice spot to hide at, just start cooking," William paused, "don''t do it at night."

    "Of course, we aren''t that stupid," Sara said as if this was something granted and known by all.

    "They seem to be finished," just as Sara said her words, Peter pointed towards the distance, where the team members were returning in haste.

    "Let''s make sure everyone is healed, well rested, and ready to move out," William spread out his orders, ordering everyone to start camping here for now.

    They still got two hours till they''d move. And William kept himself alone, thinking about the uing dilemma he had to face.

    "The odds of meeting that dude''s troublesome illusions are quite high," William knew that this monster might not be using its full strength yet, but that didn''t mean it didn''t spread enough clones to watch every corner in the region.

    He even doubted that his earlier fight was getting watched by this dude. And luckily, he and Ibra returned back before this dude would act. Or else things would have gone south back then.

    The hardest part was that annoying mimicking ability of that monster. William could face a clone that could use any technique, any element, without limitations.

    "But each clone had to use a single technique or an element at any given time," he started to think about how he should handle this troublesome foe.

    The main reason behind declining any help was that by adding more to his side, that monster would end up gaining more techniques and elements if he managed to kill anyone on his side.

    And William knew his limits. He''d be totally busy dealing with the clones and had no time to worry about protecting others.

    William would fire himself at foot if he let them apany him. So, he refused any help, despite desperately needing it.

    "The gears can''t be copied by this monster," William started to see the monster under the light of its weaknesses. If that was considered a weakness, then William could exploit it to the fullest.

    "Let''s see¡­ The arrows are a good way to deal with these copies. But alone I won''t be able to handle them properly as these copies are very fast in moving around¡­"

 Chapter 298 Its All About Arrows

    William looked into his ring, and started to see what he could use from the many silver pieces left inside.

    "This pair of boots is quite useful in increasing one''s movement speed¡­ And that armour might be thin and weak in defence, but it uses the element of ice¡­ A rare element and is quite helpful in stunning any enemy and stopping any iing attack¡­ Only if it was a shield or a weapon, not a damn useless armour¡­"

    William started to go through all the silver equipment he had. His standards were quite high to begin with. And he had a reason for that.

    He would have to consume spirit power in return for using these gears. So if these gears wouldn''t help in taking out these monster copies quite fast, he''d better not use any of them.

    He wore these boots, and a pair of gloves that helped in elerating his hand movement speed. Doing so would enhance his ability to attack faster. And then he selected that ice armour he keptining about.

    But unlike what this armour was used for, William decided to wear it as a shield, which gave him a very funny look.

    Not to mention he felt quite weird in doing so.

    In addition to that, he selected two leg guards which had the element of wind, aiding in his movement speed. And like these, he also used a simr pair for his arm guard.

    "I hope this is enough to move faster than usual¡­ Damn!" *Fwoosh!*

    Just when he tried to use his lightning technique, to see to which degree all these gears would impact his movement speed, he got shocked to see his body sh much faster than usual, ending up travelling almost triple the distance he usually crossed.

    "Wow! They aren''t that bad¡­ And the spirit power consumption only increased by one percent thanks to the gears weight¡­ Not bad, not bad at all!"

    He stood up from the ground, removing any dust or mud over his gears and body. "Raising up movement speed¡­ Check! Now how to kill that damn bastard''s clones fast?"

    William knew his sword was irreceable, but he couldn''t just depend on it. The main drawback of his sword was quite obvious, which lied in its short-range ability.

    He never thought about such weak spot of his sword as he used it with his lightning movement technique. But right now, he was thinking about fighting this monster for a long time.

    This would pressure him and just depending on his lightning technique was impractical. Like this, he''d deplete his own spirit power faster.

    "Shall I get that ive from him, or will he chase me around like a mad beast?" William thought about Ibra''s ive, to soon drop the idea.

    That ive looked quite heavy, and he''d suffer to just wield it. Besides, using this ive would allow him to use another brutal technique using his light technique. However, this woulde at the cost of increasing his spirit power consumption greatly.

    He wasn''t facing just a single monster, but one that could form an endless army. Trying to use shy and deadly moves wasn''t going to work.

    "I''ll depend on my arrows for this battle," William returned again to the first point he thought about before.

    He sighed while knowing he did not have enough arrows to keep fighting this monster for a long time. So, he returned to all the information he got about that scary monster, "if I managed to get away from its main body by five kilometres, then it''d drop attacking me."

    William put this as a goal for him, for his team. He just hoped he''d not need to do it in the end. He could already see how dangerous this uing fight was going to be.

    "Here are the Message Papers you asked for!"

    When almost two hours passed, everyone gathered again at the same spot William left them at.

    He didn''t know that, but his team members made a decision in case they faced that monster during their run. The team decided to put out a fight to save William, return and join him if he didn''t follow up in half an hour.

    They didn''t want to lose their leader, and even Ibra voted to go back and do everything in their power to save him if half an hour passed and didn''t show up.

    "Listen up quite well," William asked Ibra, Sara, and other vice leaders to bring a single Message Paper from each one of the team. Back when the monsters came invading this ce, he regretted not having such Bullets from them.

    And after taking their Bullets and handing over his, he started to draw a semi-circr line on the ground. "Here we are, and that line is ten kilometres away from us. Once crossing there, you''ll be all safe from any attack over this monster."

    "Are you sure?" Ibra just asked this, without any need to stress over how important this intel was.

    And William slowly nodded. He knew the monster would station itself in any point inside a five kilometre radius. So, he added another five just for reassurance and made out such a conclusion.

    "How about if we met a copy of that monster after leaving you?" Sara was practical as usual, didn''t flinch from taking the bad scenario into consideration, and even thought about a much worse situation.

    "Then you''ll have to either pray that won''t happen, or you''ll have to leave one of you behind."

    "Then I''ll remain behind," Ibra knew asking anyone else to do it was going to make him look quite bad.

    "No, it should be someone from the bronze grade," William paused before looking at the bunch of bronze members in the team, "the one who is going to stay behind must be someone who can use wind element, has enough movement techniques to make him run fast enough after killing the copy."

    "This¡­"

    "Isn''t this just asking for this dude to die?"

    "A bronze grade facing a gold grade monster, which is considered equal to dark gold grade ones, is simply an overkill!"

    "Hey guys, did you forget it or what? I''m also a bronze spirit master!" William waved his hand, then pointed towards himself. "What is that look you are all giving me? I swear I''m a bronze grade spirit master!"

 Chapter 299 [Bonus ] Shameless Leader!

    When he said his earlier words, everyone, even the white grade members, gave him a look that told him none bought his act.

    "Come on dude, you may be a bronze spirit master, but you act and fight in a way that''s no weaker than I do!" one of the silver members said while everyone nodded in agreement.

    "Tsk! What a shameless dude you are!" and Ibra added his touch, making William''s corners of eyes twitch uncontrobly.

    "Stop joking! It''s not the time for that!"

    "Tell that to yourself," Ibra rolled his eyes in response, while others didn''t change that weird look on their faces.

    "Alright, I''ll act as if you didn''t say anything," William waved his hand in a hopeless way, and Ibra muttered in a low tone: "Shameless leader!" making William give him a re to silence that dude up.

    "This monster may be considered an equal to the dark gold grade beasts, but its copies are at most silver grade, with most of them are bronze ones," William decided to ignore this weird talk, and added, "so it''s better to leave behind a bronze grade one to deal with it."

    "Why don''t we leave behind a silver grade member to handle it?" Peter frowned, "it''s better to assume we are going to face the hardest and copies of the higher level, right?"

    "These folks won''t appear unless that beast fought and killed a silver grade spirit master or a monster before," William paused before adding, "and under any choice I''ll select to give this scary bastard a chance to create a silver clone."

    William didn''t tell them everything, but those silver grade copies got another scary ability, which was increasing the area of activity of that monster by one kilometre.

    The initial five kilometres were calcted as the monster got itself and four other silver clones as a general rule. Of course, it might have more, but that would be worse for all of them.

    So, if he got the choice, he wouldn''t risk losing a silver member in exchange for adding more kilometres to this terrifying monster area of activity.

    And from his words, everyone got that whoever would stick behind would end up getting killed in the end.

    "You are the boss," Sara shrugged, ignoring even mentioning this sensitive point as William decided to ignore it, "let''s follow what you say. But¡­"

    "Don''t worry, killing that monster''s copies isn''t that hard," William knew what she was going to say, what everyone here got in their minds, "here, these are twenty arrows. They are deadly enough to bring down any copy once it got hit by one of these."

    "These¡­ Aren''t these the ones you used before to explode and burn out the entire forest back there?!" Ibra instantly recognised these arrows, and from his words it seemed they left quite the impression on himself.

    "Are they this good?" Sara and others'' eyes shone brighter when they heard Ibra''s words.

    "Don''t even dream about that, I already got a limited number of these," William could see the greedy looks from the eyes and faces of those around. And he couldn''t help but kill such a desire in its cradle, while rolling his eyes in return.

    "Stingy leader, cough, cough," Ibra masked his low tonement by coughing when William red again at him.

    "When are we going out?" Berry suddenly asked, and for a moment there, William didn''t like that look on her face.

    He expected her to be deadly worried about him. Yet she wasn''t! And that made his heart skip a beat there.

    "Don''t ever think about following me if I stayed behind," William said in warning before adding, "if you did, neither I nor you will be even able toe out from there alive."

    "I know, I know, I''m not that stupid," and when she calmly responded, and kept nodding her head in such an obedient way, William''s heart sank further in the deep abyss of worry.

    And without saying anything, he turned towards Ibra, Lang, and Sara. and the three silently nodded, getting what he wanted them to do.

    If she thought about staying behind or broke away from the team to go after him, these three would stop her at any cost.

    William didn''t know this, but it wasn''t just Berry who decided to go back to help him, but everyone nned to do so. And that was the reason behind such calmness on Berry''s face.

    She didn''t intend to just follow him alone, but she thought about bringing everyone back with her, going back and saving him.

    Just imagining such a scene made her face brim with excitement, one that made William worry in the first ce.

    "Before going, make sure you have one of these," William took out many healing potions and materials, left them on the ground, before turning around and started walking without saying a single word.

    "Hey! Where are you going?!!" and just when everyone realised the direction that dude selected, Lang couldn''t help but frown and ask in doubt.

    "What else? I''m going to stir some sh*t back there so we can easily escape," William said without even turning his back. And just the next moment, a figure appeared next to him.

    "Don''t think about having fun without inviting me!"

    "I knew you''d stick around," William rolled his eyes, while Ibra didn''t know if he should punch him in the face orugh.

    "Just stay put, move slowly towards the edge of the array and wait for me. Make sure to establish the array materials on your bodies to activate it. I''ll find you using B¡­ Message Papers."

    William left while saying these words.

    "This dude¡­ He never leaves something out for luck!" Smith sighed, while others nodded in agreement.

    "That''s why he is our boss," Berry was already cing William above everyone else in the team. So, herment wasn''t that weird in the eyes of others.

    "What''s your n? Cause a ruckus again?" Ibra waved his ive in excitement, one that William found quite suspicious.

    "Don''t tell me you got a grudge against those gold grade dudes out there."

 Chapter 300 [Bonus ] Fighting A Lizard

    "Of course! I hate getting my ass kicked and running away without having a punch or two back," Ibraughed, while waving his ive again in the air.

    "Then you are going to have your chance¡­ In running, more than you ever did before," and when Ibra thought William was going to agree on his words, that dude smirked and said such weird words.

    "What do you mean by that?!"

    "We aren''t going to really fight," William turned his eyes towards the distance, where that shimmering shield his team created was, "we are just going to bring those weaklings together, set a feast for that bastard, and hope it''ll fall into the trap."

    "This¡­ Tsk! Why does everything you do always be done in a troublesome way? Why not do things direct and simple? Using pure might to win battles? Trying this once won''t harm, won''t bite you in the head or something!"

    "Stop whining," William rolled his eyes, "if you have anyints, it''s not toote to return back now."

    "Tsk! No way!"

    "That reminds me¡­" And when they got closer to the array, William stopped, took out his pass scroll and looked at Ibra in a meaningful way, "you were watching attentively back then, didn''t you?"

    "Tsk! I didn''t trust you to leave my name behind or something."

    "Next time I will!"

    "I dare you to do it, and you''ll find my ive giving your neck a proper massage!"

    Williamughed on his words, as he purposefully angered Ibra. "Let''s put that anger into proper use then¡­ no matter what type of monster we face, I''ll just keep it busy, and you give it a good pat with your ive. Make it count! Then start running as fast as you can after me. Don''t ck behind, old man. I won''t even bother saving you."

    "I told you not to call me this¡­"

    "Come on! Pour all this rage over them, not on me," Williamughed again, adding more fuel to Ibra''s rage while running fast towards the nearby array.

    And without any moment of hesitation, Ibra ran after him while waving his ive in the air like a mad man!

    William already got used to Ibra and his temper. This dude looked uncaring about many things, but few little things could push this youth over the edge.

    And William knew how hard it was going to be out there. The nine other monsters weren''t a pushover. And the team didn''t roam all the regions around sessfully. The possibility of finding new monsters was still present.

    "Get ready!" William passed through the array, didn''t stop and started running towards the trees. He kept recalling the information he got about the nine gold grade monsters the team faced, and soon enough he spotted one of these.

    "The Dark Scaled Lizard is up ahead. Let me make the first hit then you follow."

    "Got it!"

    William didn''t need to exert much effort here. He simply activated his lightning technique once getting less than fifty metres from that monster.

    The monster was a true lizard, a giant one, that looked like a dinosaur and not a lizard.

    It got a very unique sizzling sounding from the free moving scales all over its body. The moment William activated his attack, he got stopped abruptly by something that came for his head.

    "Tsk! What a troublesome dude it is! Aiming directly for your head¡­ Does it want a kiss or what?"

    "Stop wasting time and just hit it!" William knew Ibra got it slightly wrong this time. The lizard released its long tongue that extended fast and came like a lightning bolt, aiming fiercely towards his head.

    But it didn''t want to hit his head, or just as Ibra joked about. It wanted to hit him in the eyes, as this was the standard opening move of this monster when getting attacked by any foe.

    William was ready for it, moved his sword slightly to intercept and stop this tongue. And the next moment, a loud banging noise came from front, as Ibra finally acted and hit that lizard with his ive.

    "Let''s make a run for our lives," William didn''t even dream about following this attack with another. Instead, he used his technique again, dashing away from that monster.

    And Ibra followed suit.

    "This dude looked quite easy to handle¡­ Why not stay behind and kill it?... Holy sh*t! What the heck is that?!!"

    "Just run and don''t even think about it!" William didn''t need to turn around and see what happened behind. He knew what made this monster a headache to anyone trying to fight it head on.

    This monster got its body covered up by scales, but these scales were different from what you could imagine. They weren''t fixed on its body like ayer of armour, nor were they fixed by knuckles like that worm monster.

    These scales were just attached by hooks to the body of that lizard. And the moment that lizard decided to act aggressive, it would release a barrage of attacks, sending tons of these scales flying fast, covering up a distance of one hundred metres around it in mere seconds.

    These scales would look like flying razors, deadly sharp, and quite hard to defend against.

    When the team fought against this lizard, it seemed they didn''t manage to stir its anger like how these two did. And this time, the lizard didn''t just watch them escape away like it did before with the team.

    "Screw me! It''s running damn fast with such a huge body!!"

    "Just forget about it for now," William kept running forward, using this chance to replenish his lost spirit power by absorbing a few of his bronze cores.

    He noticed before that even if these cores didn''t greatly help in adding any spirit point to his power, they could replenish a small part of the lost spirit power. And that made them useful in such situations.

    "Make sure to note closer than one hundred metres from it, or else you''ll end up in a very tight spot."

 Chapter 301 A Centipede!

    "I know, I noticed what that damn lizard did back there," Ibra cursed while running as fast as he could, "now what? Shall we retreat inside the array and start finding another monster from inside?"

    ? "Getting scared already? What a real strong spirit master you are!"

    "Scared my as*! Stop spouting such nonsense or else¡­"

    "Watch out! Another one is up ahead¡­" William interrupted Ibra''s threatening words when he noticed another monster at the forefront, "we''ll do it like before."

    "Don''t ck then, attack fast, fast!" Ibra didn''t care about the monster they were going to meet and kept looking behind at that enraged and crazy lizard which kept running and chasing them relentlessly.

    The lizard didn''t get stopped by anything! It wracked through trees like they were made out of thin paper! Even the few rocks scattered around got smashed into pieces under its brutal charge.

    Seeing all this was enough to drive anyone over the edge of fear. But William wasn''t showing any of that on his face.

    He knew the true terror would appear once they attracted a few more of these scary monsters and made them chase after them.

    "Damn! If I knew you are this crazy, I wouldn''t have followed you here!"

    In the next half an hour, the two managed to meet, hit, and entice the rage of six of the gold grade monsters. As William suspected, they met two new monsters that weren''t included in John''s drawings.

    But this didn''t stop William. He could recognise the type of monster from just its sound, body shape, and even from the way it hid its body in the middle of the trees.

    Each time he met a monster, he didn''t fail to mark the usual attack it used, and sessfully stopped it using his sword and dash.

    Then Ibra followed in the next second, hit the monster hard with his ive, before the two made a run for their lives.

    Looking at them right now was quite funny actually. Two spirit masters ran as fast as they could, while one was cursing and screaming in panic, and the other wasughing from the bottom of his heart.

    And after these two, six scary gold grade monsters kept running fiercely, chasing these two as fast and relentless as they could.

    "Time to call it a day," William suddenly shouted, turning his direction at a sharp angle, heading directly towards the array, "follow me!"

    "Don''t think about leaving me behind, or I''ll curse you even after I''m gone from this world!" Ibra hastily changed his direction, and such a sudden move stumbled his run, making him slightly roll on the ground, falling behind, as he shouted from the top of his lungs.

    William was adept at running fast, even got his lightning technique to use at many asions. That made Ibra, the one who was much stronger than him, struggle to keep up.

    "Don''t ck behind! That centipede monster is quite fast and will catch up with us in less than a minute."

    "What the heck are you talking about? Holy sh*t! Since when can centipedes grow to such a scale? Dammit!"

    Just before Ibra would continue hisining words, a giant centipede appeared from the trees up ahead.

    That monster was the reason behind William''s sudden decision to end their run here. He knew this monster quite well and knew they couldn''t even dream about getting away from it once they got in its attack range.

    Even for someone like him, who got his lightning fast moving technique, he would still get affected by this centipede''s deadly and unstoppable attack.

    After all, who could defend against poison scattered in the air? This would require a special type of spirit master, one who could use water or ice to help and purify the air from this deadly toxin, or one who was quite adept at dealing with toxins.

    William didn''t even hesitate for one second to take such a decision on the spot. And Ibra once spotted that giant centipede moving around trees, surrounding their trunks and swirling around them like it was a group of flexible snakes or something, he started to run faster than ever.

    He felt an rming siren going on in his mind, warning him from an impending danger approaching from that centipede.

    "Huff¡­ Huff¡­ I won''t follow you anywhere anymore¡­ Huff¡­ Huff¡­ You are a damn crazy spirit master, a demon, the craziest I ever met! Even crazier than myself!"

    "Stop whining," William looked in better shape than Ibra while the two were finally safely inside the array, "we shouldn''t stop here. Let''s go, we got a team waiting for us."

    "Gimme a minute¡­ Let me catch my breaths first¡­"

    "That centipede can erode arrays," William knew Ibra wasn''t physically exhausted. This dude didn''t deplete much of his spirit power like William. But his mental strength was pressured too much from the deadly half an hour they experienced outside the array, "if you want to end up as a dinner for that dude, then you are free to stay behind. I''m leaving!"

    "Screw You! Tsk! What did I associate myself with? A freaking psycho or what?!!"

    "Just keep moving," William''sst threats worked and Ibra didn''t stand in his ce for another second.

    He got deeply scared by that centipede as William guessed. So, it was expected for him to run despite wanting to take a few minutes of rest.

    William knew his shield was impregnable against those gold grade monsters. If it could be broken down by any of them, then things would have gotten bad a long time ago.

    But he wanted to leave fast so these monsters would lose track of the two of them. Once that happened, the monsters would shift their attention from them and focus to vent their rage over others around.

    Just before the two ran for five minutes, they started to hear loud noises of battleing from far behind. Ibra''s mind worked fast, and he knew what kind of trick he fell into.

 Chapter 302 Preparing To Leave

    But he wasn''t that angry at all. Instead, he looked at William while feeling more impressed by this dude''s way of doing things.

    Even when running away for his life, William made sure to aplish what he promised earlier.

    Ibra himself forgot all about the reason behind their trip outside after such a scary gathering of these monsters and that fervent chase he just experienced.

    But William never lost his cool, never lost sight on the purpose of doing all this. And even when he ran fast inside the array, he did that for a good reason.

    Ibra didn''t know how their run deep inside the part of the forest inside the array was linked with the brutal and deadly fight going on right now between these scary monsters.

    But he was sure there was a connection between their run and that battle.

    And above all, William delivered what he promised and dered before. He''d let these monsters fight among themselves, attract the attention of the much scarier Nightmare, giving the team a better chance at running away.

    "Where are you now?" After running for twenty minutes, William was already this close from seeing the other side of the array. He took one Bullet out, the one of Sara, and spoke after activating it using his spirit power.

    [We went straight to the east from the point you left us at!]

    "Coming!"

    William put away his Bullet, kept running while checking on his mate from time to time.

    Weirdly enough, Ibra didn''t curse or shout like usual, kept running in silence while his eyes were fixed on his back.

    "Don''t tell me he ns to hit me with his ive once we arrive there," William thought to himself, not removing such a crazy and childish possibility that this insane fellow could do.

    William kept his vignce of Ibra as thetter kept his silence all the way. In less than ten more minutes, they finally arrived at the edge of the array. And there they started looking for their team for another ten minutes until they met up together.

    "Can I rest now?" The moment the two arrived there, Ibra couldn''t help but sit on the ground, putting his ive on hisp like it was a stick or something. And that sudden move from him attracted everyone''s attention.

    "What did you do to him exactly?" Sara couldn''t help but ask, and others tried their hardest to notugh.

    "Nothing," William shrugged, putting on an honest face that broke all theughs out from everyone.

    "Ok, then we are going to wait for a bit longer, right?" Berry asked, beforeing closer as she added, "we are all ready. Only the two of you remain to put on their materials."

    "Once we are going to move, we are going to activate the array," Peter added, while everyone around just nodded in agreement.

    "Ok," William looked at Ibra. And that dude just kept himself on the ground, closed his eyes, acting as if he ignored what everyone was saying.

    "Don''t take long, or else we''ll leave you behind," William received the extra materials from Berry, before starting to put enough on his body.

    He left just one material to keep the array inactive. The moment that piece would be ced at the right spot, the entire array would get activated.

    "Not even giving me a chance to breathe, tsk," Ibra opened his eyes, stood up and went to William while stretching out his hand, "give me these things and let''s get the hell out of here."

    "What about the n of running? How will we run and fight?" Lang asked, and William rolled his eyes while pointing at Ibra''s misced materials on his body.

    "Put these here and here, not there," William sighed, before turning to Lang, "we won''t fight. We will just run, keep running in one group."

    "Won''t you need any scouting?" Smith asked, and William nodded.

    "There is no need to do that. After all, even if we know there are monsters up ahead, we have to pass through them."

    "That means we are going to fight, genius!" Ibra made another mistake which got corrected by William''s sword, "watch out! It''s quite sharp and looks dangerous!" Ibra jumped a few steps back, ending up messing up all the materials on his body.

    "Tsk! See what you have done!"

    "It''s you who should be med," William rolled his eyes, "why didn''t you keep your attention to the arrays I gave all of you before? If so, we would have saved these few minutes."

    "Stop it! It''s all thanks to your lousy drawing!"

    "My drawing is lousy? Hahahaha! That''s the funniest joke I ever heard today," William couldn''t help butugh, while recalling how Ibra''s drawing ability truly sucked!

    "Stop it you two," Saraughed, couldn''t control herself like others around, "we don''t have enough time. Let''s get moving, night is already deep enough."

    "Ah, don''t forget¡­" William stopped the team before adding, "this array can shield anything, but not sound. So¡­"

    "We won''t make a single sound," Peter said while others nodded.

    "And don''t speak," William warned again, "you can use whistles tomunicate with each other if any spotted any danger approaching. Who is going to lead the way?"

    "Let me do it!" Ibra stepped up, hardly trying his best to stabilise the materials over his body.

    "You used the materials wrongly again! For God''s sake! They have some sort of ma-like ability to stick together on your body¡­"

    "Shut up! I''m already struggling to make them stay in their ces!" Ibra gave William a warning nce, and everyone tried to resist the urge tough one more time.

    "But¡­ How can we see each other with these arrays activated?" Berry asked, and William knew this was going to be a problem.

    "We can use this," but William took one material out. It was a small dark blue orb, "infuse it with your spirit power and they will sh with a pulsating weak blue light. It won''t be easily noticed from far, but it can be seen by those standing nearby."

    "This¡­"

 Chapter 303 Going Out

    ? "We will do it this way," William knew what Lang was going to say, "let''s activate this signal once per five minutes. Like this, we will always know where everyone is. And¡­"

    William turned to Smith before adding, "you are going to lead the way. Keep ring up the material once per minute to guide us out there, ok?"

    "Got it!"

    "Why not me? Huh? You know you are missing a lot by not using my full power in the team!"

    "Shut up!" William waved his hand to shut Ibra up, "don''t forget, we are going to walk in seven rows, each is formed of a team led by one of the vice leaders in addition to my team¡­"

    William started to tell them about the generalyout he had in his mind. The five scout members were going to lead the way, then Lang''s and Peter''s groups, then his small group, then Berry and Sara. John was going to be at the forefront back, with the simple task of always thinking about ways to get the team out of any trouble and escape any disaster and desperate battles.

    William did it this way so he and his little team would have the ability to move all over the ce, freely helping any other line when needed.

    The front was the most important line up, and he entrusted everything for the five scout team members. They got more experience than others in using this array, moving around and scanning the surroundings for any sign of trouble without getting themselves exposed.

    Then they were followed by Lang and then Peter, who were going to act as the vanguard unit of the whole team.

    He selected these two as he noticed how closely rted they were to each other. They were close friends, and it seemed such friendship went back for years already.

    As for Berry, she was situated behind him so he could help in protecting her and Sara as well. He doubted that he''d need to step in and protect Sara, but Berry might be a different story.

    William knew before even stepping out that their n to run away from here was going to be quite dangerous and filled with lots of dangers.

    However, he had to do so. After all, the array he established here had a short life span. And he didn''t bring all of these disciples out of the academy to get entrapped here.

    "Let''s go," William finally led everyone to the edge of the array, "activate your arrays, and get past me in your designated groups. Activate the beacons on you once out and wait for my signal to get away."

    The moment he said these words, he stopped at the array, letting his paper open a path through it.

    "We don''t need that," Sara smirked, "we already made our own passes."

    "Oh, forgot about that," William smiled in a helpless way while giving Ibra a weird look.

    "Let''s go then," William didn''t say anything to that dude, and simply added, "one group by another¡­ Let''s move out!"

    And in the next few minutes, everyone activated their concealment array, headed out from the array zone into the vast ocean of trees outside.

    The world was ushered under heavy and suffocating darkness and silence. It was a night without any shining stars or moon at all, making going through the forest a much harder journey.

    The first hour passed without much. It seemed what William and Ibra did, what everyone did before this moment helped in clearing all the way around this spot.

    And just like William suspected, most if not all of the gold grade monsters'' attention got focused and shifted away from this spot to the totally opposite side.

    The team didn''t meet a single monster at all during the first hour. During this, they got used to the weird formation and movement using this array and blue shining orbs each held in their hands all the time.

    They wanted to chat, speak among themselves about this risky adventure. However, after a few times of doing so, ending up getting heavily med by William, Sara, and Ibra, they stopped talking and got used to walking in silence.

    At first, they were excited, but soon their excitement died down. They started walking through the forest while taking into ount that danger was lurking behind every tree and rock.

    Such suspense and rm were fun in their eyes, as many had never experienced such an intense situation before. However, by the passing of time, they slowly grew dull to everything.

    *Tuck!*

    And just as they were walking in such a dull mind state and lowered guard, a muffled sound came from one direction, stopping all right at the spot.

    Many wanted to speak, but before any could, they felt a gust of wind before a loud nging voice came.

    "Run away, you fools!" William shouted without any hesitation. It was one of the copies of the Nightmare monster, and William wasn''t the first to spot it, but Ibra.

    And yet he was the first to step up, using his lightning technique, heading and shing with that clone, stopping its approach from the team, "Go now!" he shouted again while waving his sword, shing against this monster.

    "Don''t stay behind for so long," Ibra shouted.

    "Stay alive!" Berry shouted, before William heard the sound of dried-up leaves and branches getting smashed under the rushing steps of everyone.

    *Roar!* *Bang!*

    And just as the team started to run away, the monster seemed to get enraged, hitting William''s body with a barrage of its two long whip-like tails.

    William managed to stop one tail in time, but the othernded at his body, smashing a few materials on his body, inactivating his array right on the spot.

    "Shut the hell up! Don''t you see what the hell you did? Damn! I have to replenish my lost materials, thanks to you!" William knew dealing with this copy wasn''t going to be hard. Just from the initial sh between the two, that copy of the monster used a fire element to attack William and stop his sword.

 Chapter 304 A Chase In The Middle Of The Night

    The attack that came when William got momentarily distracted to check on his team wasn''t that hard to counter actually. But just when William started to replenish his lost materials, another wave of attacks came from this monster, stopping him from doing what he wanted, forcing him to jump to the side, evading that iing attack.

    The monster controlled fire, making it form daggers in the air before fiercely moving towards William. In such darkness, the daggers were easily seen by everyone running fast away from here.

    "Is he going to be alright?" Berry couldn''t help but ask in worry. She recognised this attack, and it seemed this monster fought someone of fire-based spirit masters before.

    It was the fiery daggers technique. It was known to be very brutal and deadly, used by spirit masters in silver grade or higher.

    "Hush! We are going in the forest, and God knows what lurks inside," Ibra wanted to reprimand Berry for speaking up and breaking their silent run, but Sara was half a beat faster.

    Berry wanted to argue, but the next words of Sara made her refrain from speaking again.

    "Half an hour, if he didn''t show up, we''ll return to save him as we all agreed."

    Hearing such words made Berry run in silence, while watching the res of fireing from far behind.

    William knew he got faced with a troublesome clone of that enemy. He was prepared to fight anything, but not something that could shine in the darkness of this night.

    Under such dancing bright light, William could finally see the true shape of his foe.

    It wasn''t that huge actually, looking like a humanoid beast, but it wasn''t. It was standing on its rear legs, standing erect like a real human, but it expanded beyond four metres in height. Its face was like a tiger, a blue silver white tiger head with a thick furred neck and weird looking cubical shaped teeth.

    Looking at it from any angle and distance would make anyone think it was a harmless monster. Its two front legs were acting like two thick arms, covered with fur at the elbows, with four sharp ws.

    Comparing this with any gold grade, no, even silver grade monster would ce this monster at the end of the list. William knew this might be the reason behind it being not known in this world. After all, anyone who saw it from afar wouldn''t get interested in it, and whoever fought against it would end up dying.

    "Your fire is going to attract many eyes here," William had to finish this battle quite fast, and also help in driving the attention of the monsters seeing these fires away from the time, "show me how fast you can run then..."

    William didn''t n to fight the clone here. He decided long ago that once met, he''d have to take it away from the direction the team took.

    It was a precaution so this battle wouldn''t endanger anyone.

    He never knew such action of his would result in a big crisis so soon!

    "Wow! You are indeed all talk," Williamughed, taunting that monster as he noticed how slow this dude was, "on this rate, you will entirely miss me, you know how hard it took you to find me, hahahaha!"

    William knew it was better for him to stay silent, run as fast as he could, to evade this monster''s senses. Or he should simply turn around, and let his sword and knives do all the talk.

    However, he knew if he did any of that, then what he stepped up to do in the first ce would all crumble and end in a big failure.

    He had to keep this copy running after him for ten minutes or so. Like this, the monster would lose track of the team, and would totally be focused on him. By that point, he''d start killing this copy and run away before more clones would appear.

    William kept running while taunting this monster from time to time. He controlled his speed to not be too fast, not using his lightning technique, saving up his spirit power.

    The increase in his speed was thanks to his newly gained gears. They might ce huge pressure over his body, consuming a small portion of his spirit power constantly, but they added lots of speed to him.

    If William wanted, he could cross fifty metres in a single dash that would consume the same spirit power as before to cross ten metres. However, he wasn''t that adept yet to such an increase in speed, couldn''t make his jump pause more than once in each jump.

    He refrained from using it in a curved path, and instead, he used the limited ten metres version of his technique.

    The monster tried its best, yet it always failed to even get closer to William. William knew if he got more than five hundred metres off this monster, he''d be able to run away.

    So, he always kept himself at the four hundred mark. "Sorry pal, but I got bored of toying with you," the time was right, and William started to show his higher speed advantage at this moment.

    As William expected, just when he pulled the distance more than five hundred metres from that copy, he heard a few rustlesing from the trees around.

    "More monsters got here, either more copies of this dude, or new monsters," William thought to himself, knowing that running was the best way to survive than fighting.

    At this moment, even a white grade monster would be enough to end him up dead. He wasn''t afraid of any monster at silver grade or lower, but he feared wasting his time here, fighting useless monsters, getting dyed from his escape, and ending up getting surrounded by this monster''s deadly illusions.

    William kept running while using his hearing as his guide. Any weird sounding from any direction was enough for him to turn around, entirely change his running route to evade that spot.

 Chapter 305 Meeting Unexpected Enemies

    That made his run a bit hectic, unpredictable even to himself, and quite messy! He knew tactics and thinking about strategies to run here were all useless.

    He got to depend entirely on his quick wits, his speed, and his luck.

    But he never knew his luck was so low at this moment!

    *Bang!*

    And just when he was thinking about the best direction to escape towards, he ended up stopping abruptly as a loud explosion erupted just less than a kilometre from his ce.

    "Hahahaha! We never imagined meeting someone that high on our hit list this easily! It''s our lucky day people, we''ll get lots of rewards thanks to this little dude''s head, hahahaha!"

    "Dark spirit masters!" William''s eyes constricted while his heart fell to his knees when he turned towards the voice''s direction. In front of him, he saw many explosions happening one after another, blocking his path of going anywhere,pletely surrounding him in a big circle of one kilometre radius.

    Under the dancing lights of fire and explosions, William could see many dark silhouettes, covered up with dark cloaks, not showing anything of their faces and bodies, standing all around in different distances.

    "Oh, the little boy knows us, oh my¡­ I''m scared, hahahaha!" one of them, the one who spoke earlier, spoke up again. And this time, William managed to spot him and marked him as this group leader.

    "You got the wrong dude here," William tried to baffle his way out using words, not knowing how his luck ran dry at this moment.

    "Don''t try to act funny," the one who spoke from the beginning took a few steps forward. He got a grand sword sheathed behind his back, and weirdly enough he wielded two daggers. He pointed one of them towards William and the other towards his head: "We can see your true appearance using a unique eye technique. Even from kilometres away, we can tell what your face expresses. Even this darkness won''t veil your face from us, pretty boy."

    "So generous to tell me how you spot me," William knew he got surrounded, and escaping this using his speed wasn''t an option.

    The words of this leader were quite clear, his earlier speed wasn''t going to help at all! And yet, William didn''t show any fear in front of these folks, "but I''m telling you, I''m not the one you are looking for."

    "For real?" The leader tilted his head to the side, as if he was considering what William just said, "I swear your pretty face is exactly the same as the one in the posters distributed by my n."

    "I''m telling you, I''m not¡­"

    "Better to be safe then and kill you," that dude said as if it was something normal to him, "let''s start rolling boys, who is going to take the first bite?"

    "Let me handle him."

    William spotted twenty shadows standing all around him at this moment. One of these dudes just spoke up, raised his hand to grab a long sickle like weapon hanging on his back, "I didn''t get to kill anyone since getting out. I hate such a feeling of being docile and peaceful!"

    "Fine, Tomason is going to have the honour then," that leader said, before adding, "let''s make this quick, shall we?"

    "Let me have fun without any strings attached," the one called Tomason started to slowly walk towards William. And thetter could see him better as he kept approaching.

    He was a very big dude, with a body that looked like a barrel, not a human body at all! William even suspected if this dude had to sew four uniforms together to make that ck cape covering his body like this.

    And when he got close enough, William finally saw a mark that he was familiar with.

    "The ck Eye organisation? Damn! You are from a big background," William suddenly said these words, making even Tomason halt in his steps.

    "You¡­ How did you know about our mighty and scary name?!!" Tomason eximed in shock, and from such a tiny reaction, William could tell this dude was young and inexperienced.

    "Quite expected of the man worthy of getting his name on the blood list," the leader paused, "Tomason, don''t waste time. This dude gives me a bad feeling."

    "I''m going to kill him fast then, just for your sake¡­"

    And before Tomason would continue his words, William suddenly vanished!

    "Don''t give promises you can''t make!" William''s ice-cold tone came all of sudden from behind Tomason, rendering that dude startled.

    "Watch out! He can use darknes¡­" And before that leader wouldplete his words, the body of Tomason showed many shes that came without warning, before fountains of blood came out from his body.

    "Just a silver grade dude? And daring to act this arrogant in front of me?" William tilted his head, evading the full-strength strike of Tomason''s sickle while getting covered in a silveryer of power, "die!"

    William would never show mercy against his enemies, especially those dark spirit masters, especially when he got outnumbered like this.

    As he evaded the obvious strike that came from all wounded Tomason, William''s sword moved faster and pierced that dude''s heart.

    And with such a strike, William heard the muffled sound of metal getting crushed, knowing that his sword managed to pass through this dude''s chest armour.

    "Watch out! Use your spirits and deadly techniques from the start! Arm up with all the gears you have¡­"

    ? The leader got shocked as everyone else in his team, but he was the fastest to react to William''s threat.

    William knew he might be surrounded right now; however, the enemy made a big mistake. They didn''t surround him in a close corner, or with his back behind the wall, but from a wide distance and in such an open space.

    To him, this wasn''t even close to what surrounding an enemy should be like!

    *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Just as the words of the leadernded, William was already on the move.

 Chapter 306 [Bonus ] Lucy

    This wasn''t the first time to face such a deadly and threatening situation. So he didn''t even freak out nor panic as he calmly nned for his next moves.

    To his surprise, the leader''s intervention came to help him greatly. He didn''t only buy him little time by chatting with Tomason from before, but also gave lots of instructions to his team, preventing them from acting on impulse or on their instincts and experience.

    So as that leader started to talk, William calmly moved towards one direction, took out his bow and a few arrows, before unhesitatingly releasing a few bolts of his explosive arrows.

    The arrowsnded fast and exploded, making it impossible for anyone to stand idle anymore. Even the leader got to stop what he was saying, while watching ten arrows hitting ten different ces at the same time, unleashingrge balls of fire.

    William would hesitate to use his weapon in such circumstances at normal times. But as the enemy already ignited explosives of their own before, adding a few more wouldn''t hurt.

    He was quite sure many monsters were heading fast towards this ce. And so he didn''t ce the task of killing those dark spirit masters as top priority for now.

    He just leant over Tomason once he released his early arrows, imed his two storage rings, sickle weapon, and then continued tounch more arrows.

    His aim wasn''t to kill, but to flee! And the arrows he sent meant to stop these dark spirit masters from gathering up or attacking him, while he''d attract more monsters towards here.

    The arrows exploded and managed to push fifteen dark spirit masters back for hundreds of metres. As more arrowsnded, the fire spread over the trees all over this region. So, it was impossible for them to regroup and head for William anytime soon.

    "I''m going to f*cking killing you!" William ran directly towards one of the remaining four dark spirit masters at that side, while the leader shouted from far behind, in a storm of pure rage.

    One of these four on his side was a slim tall youth, wielding two long spears. Like others, he wore a ck cape that covered his body and half of his face except for his eyes and bridge of his nose.

    *Fwoosh!* and the next moment, this dude got covered in weird ck feathers, while a long tail extended from his back.

    "The Dark Torching monster? I never heard of such a dark n using such a spirit before," William recognised the monster that this dude used its spirit from, but he never heard about a n or a dark spirit master using it before.

    "Don''t bother thinking too much, you are going to die in my hands!"

    "Lucy, let me help!"

    "Lucy? You are a girl?!" William got surprised when he heard such a shout from another dude hundreds of metres away. He was running fast, trying to reach Lucy here and help.

    "I hate those who mock my name!" and when William said hisment, that dude seemed to take it as an insult. In the next instant, his two spears started to rotate, gathering around a fierce gale of wind.

    "Darkness element with wind? Just the typical two weak and useless elements."

    "F*ck you! You are insane to say that on mybo elements!"

    "Combo? I thought this is a name for a meal, hahaha!" William was proactively taunting and enraging this dude.

    In any fight, the one to lose his cool first was doomed to fall fast. And this small sh here wasn''t an exception for such aw.

    As William kept mocking him, one time after another, Lucy lost his cool atst, and instantly aimed for the kill instead of stalling time before his friends would arrive.

    "Die!" he moved his two spears like they were two drilling weapons or something. Each spear was weirdly rotating in a fast way, as if he was held by a rotor and not a hand.

    *Fwoosh!* but just before this attack wouldnd on William, thetter vanished again. William didn''t want to waste his spirit power only on this dude here. So, he wasted little time in talking, while the one who shouted before just got in range of his technique.

    And then William instantly and decisively acted, jumping in between these two, hitting Lucy with a single jump that he zigzagged to make sure he''d kill that dude for good. Then he jumped for fifty metres, covering up the distance between him and the iing enemy!

    "You¡­"

    "Boss, watch out¡­ He is using¡­"

    And just before Lucy would warn the leader and others about William not using a darkness element but lightning, William dashed out again and pierced his face with his sword with a straightforward jump.

    "Like Ibra would say, Tsk! You made me consume an extra jump instead of just dying out of bleeding. Three are down by now," William moved his eyes around, taking the two rings from Lucy and the other dude, "time to leave."

    He managed to clear a gap for him to run through. But just before he''d run for a hundred metres, something fiercelynded tens of metres up front, blocking his path forward.

    "Where do you think you''re going, pretty boy?" William saw another cloaked man, but this time he recognised this as the leader of the dark spirit masters'' team.

    That dude just kept speaking and not acting all this time. But when he moved, he came in such a big way that made William narrow his eyes.

    "A gold grade one? That''s quite annoying!"

    "I didn''t want to dirt my hands with someone like you," that dude was covered up with ck ape spirit, holding two sharp looking ws, with five extended and arched sharp des out from it, "but you killed three of my boys. And you have to pay back for what you did."

    "I thought you had to bring me alive," William knew this was going to be a tough battle, but he still kept his cool.

 Chapter 307 The Grave Mistake They All Commited!

    "Alive or dead, that doesn''t matter as long as I''m going to bring you back with me," that dude paused, gathering up his fierce golden power around.

    At this moment, the ape shadow seemed to grow bigger, "I don''t know how you did it, but this is going to stop. Nothing can stand against pure and irresistible might."

    "Sorry, but I have to disagree with you," William knew what that dude said was right, but he wasn''t going to ept getting defeated and stopped here.

    "I wasn''t asking for your opinion¡­ Die and me your bad luck and foolishness for crossing paths and enraging someone like me!"

    And the next moment, William felt like the entire world around got sucked and pulled by a mighty ck force. It all came from that ape, and it was acting as if it was the centre of gravity in the entire world.

    "The Torturer! What a scary spirit you got here," William recognised the monster that dude used as his spirit, and his mind instantly recalled everything he knew about this dude right on the spot.

    It was a fierce type of monster, one that could use gravity power and enhance it to suck and crush anything close by.

    "Don''t try to resist, don''t even dream about running away, it''s all futile! Embrace your death and just ept it!"

    "What a trash talker you are!" William knew the best way to deal with this dude. He got the darkness element without doubt, as the force gushing out from it was all ck colour. And that was the rule of thumb for any dark spirit master.

    But he also got the gravity element, something that was much rarer than the darkness element itself. Unlike what that dude expected, William didn''t try to resist, and even moved forward. He took a little jump in the air, letting his body fiercely get pulled towards that ape.

    "What a dumbass dude you are!" The leader got surprised for one moment before heughed. He mistook William''s actions and thought he tried to use his shing move yet ended up getting pulled faster and losing the ability to resist.

    In the leader''s eyes, the best thing William could do here was to firmly stabilise himself in the ground, not moving a muscle. If that leader was William, then he''d try to cling to the ground even with his nails, not do such a stupid thing as shing in an attempt to escape.

    Yet in the end, and no matter how long William resisted, he''d end up failing as his spirit power would get depleted and his strength would eventually fail him.

    William also knew such a thing. And so, he never put the idea of resisting in his mind at all.

    "I got to say thanks to you," And when William moved fast, like a true lightning bolt towards the leader, his voice came as his body seemed to grow blurry.

    "This¡­" The leader was about tond his raised, thick arm, ending the life of William with a single and fierce m with his deadly ws. But when he saw what William''s body looked like and heard what thetter said, something ticked in his heart.

    And sirens of rm started to ring loudly in his mind.

    "I love to fight enemies who stand in their ce motionless like idiots," William''s body vanished in thin air, while his voice echoed in the ears of the stupefied leader.

    William wasn''t using any kind of magic here. In fact he was honest in what he just said to the leader.

    The gravitational force the leader used managed to save William lots of trouble. He simply got to save his spirit power and didn''t have to use the lightning part of his technique.

    William just used the enemy''s attack to his advantage, turning tables over him simply by that. He let his body get pulled freely, feeling a much grander pulling force and insane speed that he''d never been able to experience until he''d be at the gold grade.

    And when his body got pulled, he simply started waving his sword fast, making semi arcs in the air while stacking not five, but ten arcs of light over his sword.

    As he used his light spirit element, the darkness that pulled him got negated at once. Even if the two got a huge gulf of power in between, William knew in front of his light element, that dude''s darkness element would get crushed.

    Spirit elements didn''t follow themon logic behind spirit power known in this world. And that made William see the silver lining faint hope in his sh with this scary dude here.

    It was just like when he fought Ibra before, just like when he fought against Berry''s father. The two kept standing motionless, just like this leader, giving William the chance to prepare his next attacks and link his moves without any interruption.

    It was all thanks to arrogance, thanks to taking William lightly when they shouldn''t. And right now, that leader was about to pay the real price for such a mistake.

    When the leader felt something was amiss, it was already toote for him to do anything. William''s body vanished, not thanks to magic, but thanks to the activation of his technique.

    His Holy Sword technique would allow him to travel a hundred metre distance in a sh. And even if he didn''t use his lightning element, he got its effect already activated by the help of this leader''s gravity element.

    Gravity was indeed quite scary, but in front of explosive and burst out powerful techniques like William''s, something unstoppable like gravity would take little time to exert full control over its target.

    Even if William was still feeling the pressureing from gravity, his outburst speed that exploded once he activated his technique helped in giving him little time of freedom.

    And all William needed was this little time to get things rolling to his favour, just like a real snowball!

 Chapter 308 A Deadly Fight Against A Gold Dark Spirit Master

    William didn''t use his Holy Sword technique except for when he trained on it at the academy headmaster''s ce, and when he fought against the fierce worm.

    But he learnt a few things about his technique. First and foremost was that his technique wasn''t rigid! He tried and seeded in dividing up the arcs of lights before, making themnd over the two parts of that worm.

    And he also learnt a trick from his other technique, the lightning fast moving one. He could break up the jump, making his body not move in a straight line, but in a zigzag path that could let him jump between dots with fixed distance in between.

    Right now, William put all his past experience and lessons he learnt from before and executed a version of his new technique that he never tested before!

    He controlled his body as hard as he could but couldn''t lower the distance of each jump lower than five metres each time. That made his dash just now that was supposed to take him for one hundred metres straight to end up breaking into twenty jumps!

    And with each jump, he waved his sword and his twenty knives, infused them with his light and lightning element, leaving behind many wounds over this dude''s body.

    "Ahhh! F*ck you! An ant like you dares to harm me!!!"

    The leader was furious, madly enraged by what William did. When William vanished and started to attack him, he tried to stop each attack with his ws, yet failed.

    And with each wound gained, he felt a weird excruciating pain, a hell of burning pain as if he got in touch with fire or something. He got into such a state as he never expected the worm, he thought he''d crush easily with his boots would turn this hard to deal with, and even dared to fight back and wound him!

    He underestimated William, and he realised this a bit toote actually.

    "Shut the hell up! You have nothing to do against me!" William''s icy cold voice rang again amidst his jumps, while that leader tried his best, waving his hands around, trying his best to harm William or stop him with his fierce and deadly punches.

    Yet thanks to the insane difference in the two''s speed, that leader looked like a turtle in William''s eyes. It was a deadly turtle, one that could tten mountains if one of its hits got linked with William.

    William just had to adjust his jumps each time, control his flying knives and sword, to make sure he''d not get hit by these ws, neither he nor his weapons.

    "One¡­ Two¡­ Five¡­ Ten¡­" and even in the middle of this, William got time to take out arrows from his ring, stab them in the body of this ape using his free hand. "Say bye bye to your f*cking mother!" and when his technique got thest two jumps remaining, William dashed away, while insulting this leader.

    "I''m going to reap you apart! Do you hear me¡­"

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    William''s arrows got ignited and exploded just at this moment. During all this, William made sure to take these out just in thest few seconds before his technique would stop.

    As for the gravitational power that helped him from earlier, William made sure he''d jump around in circles, making him like orbiting that leader, as a moon orbiting Earth.

    He umted enough kic energy during his jumps and using the moment of this leader''s loss of control thanks to his words and taunts, William was able to break free from it.

    Before that dude would gush a tremendous amount of power into his gravitational technique and darkness element, he got abruptly stopped by the series of explosions that happened from the arrows.

    With each explosion, the body of that giant ape seemed to suffer a mighty punch. William didn''t just use his light element in his attacks but infused his lightning element as well. And he ignited that lightning power as well, bringing numbness and dizziness to this mighty leader.

    He learnt from his fight against Ibra how brutal and overbearing his lightning element was. Even if it wasn''t enough to kill this dude, it was enough to put him down into sleep.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    All it took was thest few arrows to explode, alongside many others which William released at the leader while running away. William knew how scary it was to deal with someone at the gold grade, especially if that dude wasn''t joking around anymore.

    So he tried to add more explosions, to make sure the lightning element would take its time to numb this dude.

    At the same time, William tried his best to leave the arrows before at the giant ape''s wounds created by his sword and knives. Not only that, but William also even dared to take out the ring from that dude''s fingers just before dashing out.

    And all this made the leader enraged like never before!

    "I''m going to kill you, damn bastard!"

    "Wow! Are you this reckless to burn your own spirit power? Aren''t you afraid of getting your grade lowered and your life power decreased?" William noticed the weird ring ck and purple fire that came from the back of that ape, engulfing its body in the next few seconds.

    Unlike what he expected that dude was quite relentless to stop him no matter what the cost was! Even to the extent of burning his own spirit power to fight against the weakness and numbness all William''s attacks just caused.

    "I''m going to f*ck you up!"

    "Try to catch up with me first," William knew if he got to face that dude again, then bad things would happen to him. He already exposed all of his tricks and didn''t have any other to use against this dude.

    The only way out of here was to run fast, run away without looking behind. And that was what he was doing since he took thest two jumps of his technique and got away from the reach of that crazy dude''s gravitational force.

 Chapter 309 A Chaotic Battle

    "Anyone hearing me right now, gather up and let''s hunt him down!" and when William thought that leader would use another shy jump like before to catch up with him, he heard that dude shout in an enraged voice that looked a bit weaker than usual.

    "Oh, so the little gifts I left you did weaken you regardless of what you did... That''s great to hear, hahahaha!" William knew that his situation would go from bad to worse if others managed to catch up right now.

    He didn''t use his Holy Sword technique with all the steps needed and took a shortcut to do it. That shortcut saved him around half of the total expenditure of this brutal technique.

    Instead of consuming like sixty or seventy percent of his spirit power, he ended up just consuming thirty percent. William knew he got another chance to use his technique, or two if that dude was generous to give him a hand again.

    But that would only work on that dude, not on the remaining sixteen strong members running after him right now.

    *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Having no other choice, William kept releasing more of his arrows while running as fast as he could. On a few asions, he consumed part of his spirit power and used his lightning dash technique.

    To make up for the loss of his spirit power used in this technique, William kept absorbing bronze and even white monster cores that he had. And at the same time, he tried to scatter around his arrows, blocking any direct path heading towards him.

    "Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! This is bad!" but unlike what he expected, few seemed to have their ways to deal with his fire. Four of them even walked directly in the middle of the fierce fire, like they got nothing to do with these.

    "I''m screwed!" and when seeing all this, watching almost twelve members appearing quite fast, running using their darkness element techniques, using the aid from the darkness around to speed up and catch up to him, William knew his fate was turning to the worst.

    *Roar!*

    ? "Oh my god! Atst, you caught up with all this! What took you so long, son of b*tch?" and just when he felt he was going to die at the hands of these dark spirit masters, a fierce roar erupted all of sudden from one direction before a dark sh appeared.

    And William didn''t just spot one, but he saw as many as dozens of them. They were all moving fast, shing out of the dense trees around, heading directly towards the group of dark spirit masters getting close to him.

    It was the clones of that Nightmare monster! William knew that dude wasn''t that kind to just appear and give him a helping hand, it was here to kill them all.

    "More enemies mean more mess, I just love it!" and unlike what anyone would feel at his spot, instead of feeling desperation, all he did was tough out of his excitement.

    In such a chaotic and unpredictable and uncontroble battle, William was like a whale in the ocean!

    No, he was like a deadly white giant shark!

    "Watch out!"

    "Iing!"

    "Control monsters around, make theme to help!"

    "Stop these!"

    "Don''t let him escape, goddammit!"

    And just as the Nightmare clones announced their presence, the others behind William shouted and screamed, while a big and intense battle erupted just out of the blue and almost instantly.

    "Who said I''m going to escape?" and just when the leader was worried his fish would slip through the, William stopped running, turned around, shed like a bolt of lightning, crossing the distance between him and one of those dark spirit masters in a few jumps.

    And as William''s excited voice erupted and heard by all, William used his sword and knives, hacked through the body of that poor dude he attacked first, left behind a few arrows, before dashing out again.

    And he didn''t forget to collect his loot in the middle of doing all this!

    "It''s a perfect night for a hunt," William dashed in an unpredictable course. Sometimes he crossed ten metres and hit the closest dude to him, and other times he''d dash and cross fifty metres at one breath, hitting someone far from him.

    But with each jump, he did the same. He shed his sword, left a deep and fatal wound of his sword on his enemy, dozens of other wounds caused by the fast-rotating knives of his, before throwing out a few of his arrows behind.

    He didn''t spare the helping Nightmare monster clones from this and hit many of these at the same time.

    Tables got turned over, and the prey started to act like a hunter, and the hunters stood like petrified statues, like helpless and powerless kids watching the world all around crumble in their eyes without having any way to even defend or protect themselves.

    This kind of battle was the perfect setting William would dream of. He was very experienced in such chaotic fights. Everyone was busy trying to stop and kill the Nightmare clones around, without anyone focusing solely on him.

    Even those Nightmare monster clones looked powerless in front of him. They were all bronze clones, overall weak in strength, but got the advantage in numbers for sure.

    With his insane and unpredictable moving technique, while using his lightning element to contend against the darkness elements his enemies used, William was simply unstoppable.

    "What the hell are you? Do you have inexhaustible spirit power or what?!!!" After five minutes of the start of this mess, the leader couldn''t control himself and scream in such shock and panic.

    During these five minutes, William never ceased to use his lightning technique even for a single second. Thetter knew perfectly well, just like the leader and all foes around, that if he stopped for a single second, he''d be done for.

    So, from the start, William kept putting the useless white and bronze cores he had into good use, replenishing his lost spirit power steadily, making him able to pull such a feat.

 Chapter 310 [Bonus ] Despair!

    Of course, that wasn''t the sole reason behind this. William was able to control his dash. He could make a single jump deal with three foes at least at the same time, if not more if he spent a little more of his spirit power to deal with more enemies around.

    Even when more monsters flooded this ce from the forest around, William was able to keep up. For a second there, William lost his feelings of what he was doing and what was going on around and got himself deeply immersed in such a mncholic feeling.

    "This power¡­ This might¡­ The feeling of being like a god fighting mortals¡­ I truly miss such a feeling¡­" It was the same old feeling he got when he used to fight back when he was at the pinnacle of his power in his past life.

    And thanks to getting deeply immersed in this feeling, he kept attacking unceasingly for five more minutes straight.

    "Phew! Time to call it a night then," after ten minutes of the start of this hectic battle, the initial twenty dark spirit master team got reduced to just four standing and fighting till now against the growing horde of monsters.

    William knew he did enough, didn''t get greedy or something or thought about waiting for all of the dark spirit master team to get annihted to get all of their rings. He even stopped collecting cores from the monsters for a few minutes now.

    This battle that started between him and twenty enemies escted and managed to attract the attention of hundreds if not thousands of monsters by now. Seeing all this, he decided to flee, turned around and started to run.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    "Quite persistent dude you are!" and just as he fled the battle area, a single foe kept tracking and chasing him down relentlessly. It was ten clones of that fierce and scary Nightmare dude.

    If William wanted to describe the true terror of this monster in a few words, then he''d use human wave tactic!

    That monster was scary thanks to using a seemingly endless stream of copies. And William knew if that gold grade dude got killed, then a truly scary and formidable gold grade clone would get born!

    Not to mention there were sixteen silver grade dark spirit masters that got killed or were on the verge of getting such fate in the next few minutes. William just killed five of them, and the rest were in the hands of their creator, sorry, the Nightmare monster.

    So, William knew that stopping and fighting against these dudes running relentlessly after him wasn''t going to work! And right now, his little wealth of bronze and white cores was running low.

    "I hope your main body isn''t anywhere nearby," William knew his only hope was to run beyond the five kilometre range of this monster. And when he thought about each kilometre added by each silver copy the monster would gain from the silver dark spirit masters behind, he couldn''t help but feel a little helpless about this.

    "I hope good luck will keep sticking to me," William sighed, knowing that his fate at this moment wasn''t in his hands for the second time in this long and dark night.

    All he could do was to keep running, shing forward every now and then to outrun and widen the distance between him and the chasing clones.

    He didn''t care anymore about his direction, just kept running forward, bypassing trees, streams of water, even a few hills without sparing a single nce at them.

    Such a chase managed to attract the attention of more monsters eventually, and the number of them chasing William kept growing unceasingly the longer he kept running.

    One minute passed¡­ Five minutes passed¡­ Twenty minutes passed¡­ An hour passed¡­ After one hour, he finally hit the rock bottom of his cores inside his ring.

    "F*ck! Does fate want me dead this desperately or what? Did I do something horrible back in my past life or something? I was a good person, dammit!"

    Just a single look behind was enough to drive all the hair on his back to stand on no end! Saying that a small army of different monsters were running after him wasn''t an exaggeration.

    And no matter how he tried to see it, his death was already set in stone!

    William couldn''t find a single way for him to ovee this ordeal. He knew he could just dash forward for ten more times, crossing a few hundred metres before finally he''d get to stop.

    "Don''t stop running!" and just when he was feeling this desperate, he heard an alien voice shouting at him, "keep running, we will protect you!"

    "You¡­" and just as he turned towards the direction of this voice, he spotted a small group of ten spirit masters, all wearing bright gears. They wore a uniform that he couldn''t get many details of thanks to the deep darkness and distance.

    They were around one kilometre away from him, and they were running towards his direction as fast as they could. The ten looked not much older than him, maybe just a couple of years older or so.

    "Don''te here, there are many silver grade monsters around," William knew the best way was to not run towards him, but away from here.

    "Just keep running, we''ll deal with them," the voice owner who spoke before shouted again. And the next moment, William saw many shes of lighting from a weird direction.

    These lights didn''te from the ten spirit masters'' direction, but tens of metres from behind.

    "Damn! There are buried explosive gadgets here¡­" William wasn''t alien to what shone under the ground, and instantly recognised the familiar pattern of these grenades.

    Starting out like a single speck of golden light, as if one nted a seed there or something. Then the golden light would spread under the ground, taking circr shapes, like they were adding oneyer on top of another.

 Chapter 311 [Bonus ] Surprise!

    ? Then a gush of pure golden and orange light would sprung out from the ground, breaking even the sturdy rocks anywhere, shredding trees into nothing, while creating a rapidly expanding ball of fire towards the sky and all around.

    They were something that wasn''tmonly seen in the world of spirit masters. William got to see a few of these back in his past life, and he never expected to run into a group of spirit masters adept at these at the tiny world.

    "Keep running! Or else¡­"

    "I know, I know, the entire ce is damn besieged by grenades!" William shouted back and kept running forward with all his might and remaining spirit power.

    He couldn''t even risk slowing down or dying using his lightning technique. At this moment, he felt like jumping out of the frying pan directly into fire!

    And that fire could kill him almost instantly if he got in the middle of any of these brutal explosions!

    Grenades were explosives crafted by skilled artisans. Not all artisans could do them, but selected few who used to hail down from special lineages could.

    It was literally like walking and running in the heart of andmine, and William knew if he dyed for a single second, he''d get absorbed in the middle of the deadly explosions going on wildly behind him.

    He ran with all his might, not thinking about anything else at this moment. He kept using his technique repeatedly, shing fast while the grenades buried under the ground were detonating in session, releasing bellows of deadly balls of fire into the dark sky.

    To use these grenades, the spirit masters had to bury them in a unique way. Then they''d link them together using special spirit power threads, something unique for the artisans who could make these grenades.

    William knew all this, and also knew that these folks here did lots of work before he''d step here. For a moment there, it seemed like these spirit mastersid such a trap here out of pure coincidence, and William simply walked in the middle of all this.

    But when he realised how huge thendmine he walked into was, he dropped such an idea off his mind.

    "They were nning to help me and kill those monsters for a long time then!" William gritted his teeth, not daring to think deeply about the real intentions of this group.

    What he knew was few and yet valuable intel. At least there was one in this group who hailed from such unique artisan lineage. This group here was lying in wait for him, preparing all this beforehand. And that meant one thing¡­

    This group was tracking and following him for a long time already! Perhaps from the moment he got out with his team from the defensive array.

    It was a crazy thought, but it was the only viable one his mind provided at such stressful moments.

    William didn''t know how this team found him, or what real intentions they got towards him. All he cared about right now was to get away from this deadly spot as fast as he could.

    He kept running, while the sounds of explosions faded from all around. Only the sound of his heartbeats kept banging fiercely inside his ears.

    And just after a long minute, one that felt like an entire lifetime for him, he finally crossed the edge of thisndmine zone, and finallynded on the ground, catching his breaths in a difficult way.

    He had to push himself too much this time. If he was in top shape, then he''d have gone out without feeling such stress and fatigue.

    His body, mental strength, and spirit power were all depleted and exhausted. William''s chest kept racing up and down, fighting to catch his breaths.

    "Stay here for now," and just as heid on the ground, facing the darkness that got brightly and weirdly illuminated by the dancing red tongues of fireing from the explosions, the voice he kept hearing sounded again just metres away from him.

    William knew he stepped into the safe zone when he saw the ten spirit masters standing in a line at that spot. And as he wanted to turn around or stand up to get a better look at the face of the speaker and others, he couldn''t! He didn''t have a single speck of power inside to do it.

    "Just rest, you already did enough," and when that dude who stood by his side noticed the slight trembling of his body, a sign that William tried to stand up and failed, he simply said.

    Then William heard nine muffled shing sounds, announcing the nine other spirit masters joining the battle.

    "Who¡­ Are¡­ You?" William was struggling even to speak properly, and yet he had to ask. He wanted to know if he ended up falling in the hands of an enemy or a friend.

    "Easy there, and don''t worry¡­ We are friends. We spotted your re signal of help back when you released it a day or more ago. Since then, we kept watching that weird array thing until we saw what you did with the gold grade monsters. We followed your team until you got attacked, and watched you start such a brave and admirable fight and run."

    "This¡­" William never expected that the re signal he used before would bring the attention of such spirit masters around. Thinking about that made him realise meeting the dark spirit masters from before wasn''t that coincidental perhaps, and they might have seen the signal as well.

    "Just rest, we already anticipated your running away paths, nted many grenades under the ground to prepare for the army of monsters following you. But I want to ask, why the hell did you run away in the first ce and break apart from your team?"

    "It''s because of¡­ That damn monster appeared¡­" William felt a little better to speak more properly, but not that great to even continue a single sentence in one breath.

 Chapter 312 Ill Guard You!

    "That monster?! It looked weak to me¡­ Was it that strong? Did I miss something back there or what?!" That dude seemed to struggle to understand the reason behind William''s actions, even questioning his observation skills and senses.

    But William wasn''t thinking about any of that. He was busy thinking about something else.

    An entire team of ten spirit masters kept tracking them down and none ever noticed this! William might have missed them as they would be stronger than him, and he needed them to be close by to sense them properly if they were silver spirit masters or weaker.

    But what about Ibra? That dude was quite vignt, and he didn''t even notice them despite being at gold grade! And there was another piece of puzzlement that William couldn''t understand.

    The team moved while activating their concealment array. How could these folks see and properly follow them? William could get how they followed him after running away from that monster. After all, when he fought it, he lost a few materials in the initial sh, totally exposing him.

    And when he tried to replenish his lost materials, he ended up losing more. Then he totally forgot about this, getting lost in the hectic runs and fights that cameter.

    So, he could understand if they tracked him from then, but not from back when he and others left the array.

    "Don''t belittle that bastard¡­ It can take down an entire army¡­ Of strong spirit masters below dark gold grade!" William kept his doubts inside for now, and just warned this dude from the Nightmare monster.

    "This¡­ I never saw or heard about something like it before. It had many clones that used different abilities and techniques! Even different spirit elements as well!"

    "Just make sure to kill enough and retreat fast," William got finally better to sit down, prepared to train and replenish his spirit power.

    But first, he took a long look at the dude standing by his side.

    He wasn''t that tall, but his face looked a bit mature with that shallow moustache and beard appearing on his face.

    He had silver eyes, with few golden dots inside his iris, forming a shape of a little star in each eye. William never saw something like this before. And when he looked at his uniform, he got puzzled by the emblem of a big axe and a ive that appeared on the side of his chest.

    "Don''t think too much, we came from a faraway ce to train in the forest," that dude seemed to notice William''s inspecting gaze, "I''m Sith, the one leading my small team here."

    "I''m William," William greeted Sith back, before adding, "you came here to train? Only the ten of you?"

    "No, we got lots of others, led by a few dark gold masters," Sith waved his hand before adding, "start training and I''ll protect you."

    "Thanks," William couldn''t tell if this dude was harmless or harboured ill intentions towards him. But from the surface, if he wanted to harm him, then he got his chance before when William couldn''t even speak properly, not to mention move a muscle to defend himself, "just make sure others won''t get too far away. That monster isn''t that far from here. And we need to leave soon."

    "Give us ten minutes then," Sith paused, as he raised his head and moved his eyes around the all sparkling and dancing sea of fire up front, "we need to gather materials for our quest. If not, we will end up failing pretty damn badly."

    "Ok," William didn''t get what was this team doing, or what was the real purpose of the force they belonged to by sending these spirit masters here. But he felt there was something rted to a test or something like that, and they needed to collect materials to seed.

    Of course, seeing such a huge gathering of monsters here, including different types and grades of monsters at the same spot was quite enticing for anyone looking for materials.

    So, William decided to let them do their business, while he started training and replenishing his spirit power using his technique.

    He didn''t even think about using his cores to replenish his spirit power. He knew danger was still lurking around, and every single core would help in saving his life in the uing battle.

    From time to time, he opened his eyes, checked the situation around. The grenades released thick tongues of fire turning the entire region into a zing sea of dancing red and orange mes. But that wasn''t enough to stop and kill all the monsters here.

    Any monster with a fire or water element would find a way to survive this easily. As for the ones with earth element, they could also sustain the fire for a short time using mud and rocks.

    The worst were the ones with wind, darkness, and any other element. The worst for sure were those with wind element. After all, wind would add more fuel to fire.

    William kept training for close to half an hour. During which, many monsters got killed from fire. And those who survived got killed by the nine members scattered around thendmine zone, or by Sith who stood like a reliable guard by William''s side.

    "Thanks," William had to stop his training after half an hour passed. He didn''t like others to guard him while he did nothing, especially when he had no rtion with them.

    It was like owing someone a big deal, and he hated to not repay his debts to the fullest.

    "Are you sure you can move? Things aren''t this bad actually and you can stay a bit longer and heal," Sith gave William a weird look up and down, as if he was sizing this kid up, "you didn''t take more than half an hour."

    "Just enough to replenish one third of my power," William shrugged after standing up, got out his sword and knives, "let''s retreat. We got dyed long enough."

    "This¡­ We can''t! We need to gather up all the materials from this ce or else¡­"

 Chapter 313 Its On The Move!

    "Tell me, are you not worried about your lives?" William paused before sizing up and down this dude the same way that dude measured him up before, "what grade are you at?"

    "Gold grade!" Sith said in little pride, and William knew he was a prodigy just like Ibra.

    "I have to tell you this¡­ I also have a gold grade spirit master in my team, the one you saw before. And I also met a group of dark spirit masters, led by a gold grade dude. I''m sure you already know all of this, but in the end, one got to run away fast, and the other got strangled by the swarms of monsters. We can''t survive this, not even with you around."

    "But¡­"

    "Believe me, it''s not easy to shake off that scary monster. We can deal with anything here, but not that damn bastard. It''s a real nightmare, and we don''t have a chance if he totally surrounds us with its copies."

    "..."

    "Let''s retreat, kill monsters while we are on the run. I promise to help you kill and get tons of materials for one day. But let''s leave here first."

    William tried to see what wasing at them from time to time in the middle of his training. But all he could see were normal monsters seen in the forest.

    He didn''t see any shadow of that annoying bastard. And that meant only one thing¡­ That dude was already here with lots of its clones, trying to establish a fail proof trap that no one would be able to get out from.

    And that made William want to leave here as fast as possible. Even the attempt to flee without losing anyone was looking dim in his eyes.

    "Call your boys over," William didn''t even stand in his ce for a single second, "let''s escape and live together to fight another day."

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" when Sith saw him turn and walk away in such a decisive way, he couldn''t help but sumb to William''s will.

    "Give me a second then," Sith turned around, and started to yell at his team members to gather them up. He was away from them, so he had to use Message Papers.

    Seeing this made William recall his team members. He took a few Bullets out and tried tomunicate with everyone.

    However, and as he expected, he got zero response. "I must have gotten away from them, much more than what these papers can reach," he shook his head, and stored the papers of Berry, Sara, and Ibra away.

    At least he knew they were far away from him, and it was safe to assume they were safe right now.

    "Watch out!"

    Just before he''d turn to see what Sith and his team did, he noticed something shing and moving from the deepest parts of the forest.

    The entire forest was pitch ck at this hour, but under the fire this team caused, dancing dark red light kept illuminating things from afar.

    William couldn''t see properly through such dim conditions, but he noticed many shadows moving fast, heading directly towards here.

    They came from the direction they were supposed to take to flee. And it was clear that this monster was blocking their escape route like this.

    "It''s a group of bronze grade monsters, nothing to worry about."

    "No, it''s that damn beast," William didn''t hesitate and started to fun forward to meet the iing monsters, "make sure everyone is ready. We''ll leave here in less than one minute. That damn bastard is on the move! We can''t risk staying here anymore!"

    *Bang!* *Bang!* *Boom!*

    This time, it was the monster which started attacking first. "Wind element? Water element? Fire element? And the darkness element? Damn! These water clones are here to put down the fire, cut any source of light and protection for us. This bastard is preparing the setting to kill all of us!"

    William knew how truly cunning this monster was. If he had to select something next to the unstoppable human wave tactic this monster had, then it would be its unbelievably high level and scary intelligence.

    "It sounds like it read through my intentions and wants to dy and stop us from leaving at any cost¡­" William was under immense pressure right now. He got his techniques and weapons, his fighting style that all were focused solely on offence.

    That wasn''t weird, though. William was a scary and deadly spirit master who focused mainly on offence back in his past life. Trying to stall out for time and defend wasn''t his style.

    So when he got hit and attacked by fifteen copies of that monster, each using either dashing moves supported by wind element, surprise sudden outburst attacks of darkness element, or even explosive long-range attacks from fire and water elements, William didn''t even think about defending.

    He simply took out his shield, or the armour that he decided to use as a shield, and started to sh around, evading the iing attacks using his insane speed and inhuman reflexes, while freezing a few of them using the ice element of his armour.

    But he knew this wasn''t enough. The monster copies already got the initiative and the advantage from the start. He wasted a few seconds shouting back at Sith. And that made him quite pissed off.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    He knew he wasn''t in top shape yet. All he got was roughly thirty up to forty percent of his spirit power. So, he didn''t intend to stall this fight for long.

    Instead of doing the easier, jumping around to evade the attacks and surround them, he controlled his lightning technique, and actively approached the monsters head on.

    William passed through the iing attacks using the little gaps in between, or freezing part of these and used the chance to slip through.

    He risked it through this move. If hemitted a single mistake, dyed or hesitated in his actions, then he''d get severely hit and surrounded in the next instant.

    But he trusted his vast battle experience and his speedy technique. And like a slippery snake, he cut his path through the fifteen different attacks sessfully in less than ten seconds!

 Chapter 314 Killing Copies

    When the two sides got close enough, the monsters started to sh against him using their deadly ws, augmented by their various elements.

    "You aren''t a match for me," William knew the moment he got closer, this sh was already concluded in his favour. He was as strong as them in terms of spirit power, but his elements were all top notch. Not to mention his weapons.

    The knives rolled on and started to kill monsters one by one. As for his sword, he kept shing and chopping all the wsing his way, ending up wounding the monsters at least, without getting any harm in return.

    "Watch your back!" but just when he killed four of them, and was this close from killing another three, Sith''s warning shout came and startled him.

    *Fwoosh!*

    Without even thinking about it, William instantly dashed forward and jumped twice in a row. First, he crossed fifty metres in one breath, before using his ten metres technique to jump between three points that weren''t at the same line with each other.

    And when he did that, he heard muffled explosions happening at the spot he was just at, apanied by five roars.

    "Oh, you sent five silver grade copies to stop me?! I''m ttered!" William didn''t need to even sh with these copies to know they were different.

    Just from the vibe they gave him, he knew they were a step higher than those he dealt with before.

    "But¡­ This isn''t enough to stop me!" William knew that going bymon sense and logic, he should be trembling his pants right now.

    But that wasn''t true. Even if there were five of them, William didn''t even feel fear or panic at all. And that was all thanks to his gears and technique.

    "That''s why monsters can never be stronger than humans," William roared back, shed just one time, using his sword to sh against the fire, ice, lightning, darkness, and even weird ore-like attacks that came from these five with his sword and armour.

    He kept jumping forward, crossing the distance and crushing the iing attacks using his lightning element and gears. The monster this time gathered a bit of remarkable elements, even including his rare lightning one.

    But to William, this was all nothing. Fire was already amon element that paled greatly in front of his lightning. As for ice and ore-like elements, they might be special ones, one step ahead of themon fire element, but not that strong to even contend against his lightning.

    Darkness was already weaker against lightning. And only lightning could contend against itself, but William depended on his gold grade sword to crush the iing lightning attack of the monster, giving his element the edge it needed to crush its foe.

    That monster''s lightning attack was like a dancing bolt, zigzagging in the air as it travelled quite fast like an arrow. But when its top got to meet with William''s sword, it crumbled and cracked, before vanishing fast on the spot.

    "Thanks for sending five of your elites for me to kill this easily," the next moment, William jumped again, and this time he covered three of the monsters with his sword, aiming directly at their heads with each sh.

    As he did that, these three tried to hit him back with the help of another two. The three he attacked weren''t that threatening to him. After all, they got hit faster by his sword before their ws even could move half the distance towards William''s face.

    But the other two were indeed this close to take his head down!

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    Just when the monster thought his attack would link and hit William''s head, thetter got his knives out of nowhere, controlled them to hack through these monsters'' arms, necks, chest, and bodies, killing them right on the spot.

    "Do you take me for a fool? I already sat my eyes on all of the five of them, not just these three¡­ What an idiot!" William smirked while watching the five silver grade clones fall to the ground.

    They came fast and died fast as well. William stood in his ce while his knives did the remaining work, killing all the still standing bronze grade monsters in no time.

    These clones wouldn''t give him any cores, only materials. He didn''t n on getting anything for himself, just moved his knives to do the cutting and separate these monsters into smaller body parts.

    "Sith, more materials are waiting for you here¡­ Come and store them away," William just shouted this as the team was alreadying fast towards his direction.

    The reason he felt such happiness in killing these clones was the damage he''d deal to this monster. Killing five silver clones of it would take away five kilometres of distance this monster could keep annoying him and others within.

    "This¡­ Thanks," Sith arrived with his team just after the battle ended, looking at the many monster parts scattered around before pointing towards his team to store them.

    "Let''s go," William motioned for him and others to start following him.

    "No, we shall go this way, it''s better," but just when William was about to head towards a random direction, Sith stopped him as he pointed towards a totally different one.

    "What makes this better?"

    "We got a trapid out right there," one of the team members spoke up, "we designed an escape route for every trap weid for the monsters chasing you."

    "What a good move," William didn''t hide his admiration, "from where you guys are again?"

    He knew such a rare concept was enough evidence that this team came from a formidable ce. He struggled to make his team grasp the importance of this concept. And Sith''s team did it like it was something that their lives depended entirely on, something they always used to do.

    In his eyes, this was a very true belief, one he hoped to dig deep inside his team''s minds.

    "We came from far," Sith answered, in such a vague way that made William know this dude didn''t want to expose anything about their origins.

    "Cool!" William didn''t try to dig deeper about this, "like I said, I''m going to help you for one day then I''ll be gone."

 Chapter 315 How Can We Outrun It?!!!

    "Why are they chasing after you?"

    "What was that array you used back there? I saw many silver and few gold grade monsters stopped by it! It''s quite amazing!"

    "Where did your team go?"

    Sith''s team members spoke up one by one, dering their curiosity about William''s origins and actions here.

    "Sorry folks, but I ain''t saying a thing about any of that," but as they decided to act mysterious, William also decided to do the same.

    "Come on! We all know you came from the Aspire academy!" Another team member rolled his eyes in response to his words, "and from what I know, this academy isn''t that good to have someone like you out there."

    "Consider it like we hid our strength quite deep from outsiders," William answered with augh before adding, "you do know that we are going to have a very intense chase tonight, right?"

    "What chase? We already killed almost half of the monster army who chased you here. As for the remaining half, they had to struggle with fire back then."

    "That reminds me, why did you call all of us back this fast?" Another team member turned his attention and poured out his rage at Sith.

    And almost instantly, Sith pointed his finger towards William, "he told me so."

    "You did?!!" William could feel the weird looks these folks gave him, "why?"

    "To save your lives," William''s answer was swift and short, but decisive enough to make everyone shut up.

    "He says that there is a hellish monster around, one that''s enough to tear us into shreds," Sith exined what William didn''t, "so we need to run fast to live."

    "This¡­"

    "What type of monster is that?"

    "Dude, we got a few gold grade spirit masters here, not to mention the rest are all silver grades!"

    "Don''t look down on such a threat," William rolled his eyes, started to address everyone around, "if you don''t believe me and want to try out your chances, then go ahead, be my guest. I''m just trying to help you out."

    "You¡­"

    "I do believe him," Sith''s wordsnded and cut any path of objection and doubt the team had, "I saw him fight more than twenty monsters that looked the same to me. They looked like they were like copies of a single monster. And believe me, despite fifteen being bronze grade and five being at silver rank, each could use a different technique and element than others!"

    "..."

    William could hear the team sucking a cold air of breath in a loud, audible way. They got shocked, and seemingly a bit terrified by what Sith said. And like an instigator, William helped by adding more fuel to the fire.

    "This isn''t all! This monster can create a copy of any monster or spirit master it kills. Killing silver grade spirit masters and monsters will yield silver grade copies. While killing gold grade ones will give gold grade copies. It''s a gold grade monster, one that lived for at least tens of thousands of years. It came from the deep and untouched ces of the forest to us. So, you can run your imagination wildly and consider how scary and deadly this dude is!"

    "..."

    This time it was a heavy and suffocating silence. Even Sith, the one who heard a bit about this monster before others, and got few ideas about it, couldn''t help but feel a cold shiver down his back at this moment.

    "How¡­ How can we outrun such a thing then?!!!" Atst, one of those who argued with William before couldn''t help but speak up.

    As he got shocked by the news William and Sith exposed, he changed his words from thinking about killing that beast and looking down on it to asking about how to run away with their heads on their shoulders.

    "Just by running fast," William shrugged, "fighting it is futile endeavour for anyone, for all of us. So, let''s focus on running as fast away as possible, and not let it surround us."

    "We got a few trapsid out in the forest to facilitate a long path of retreat for us," another one said, "let''s use this!"

    "No!" William was decisive in declining this, "I said I''ll give you one day of work and help. Don''t waste my time running around the forest, moving from onendmine to another."

    William knew this might look quite appealing offer, but he got to turn it down. He had to stick with these folks for one day, help them in killing and hunting monsters as he promised.

    Then he got to break apart, leave them and return back to his team. If he epted their offer, then he''d end up far away from his team.

    Doing this would indeed endanger him, and his team. Not to mention the return journey would be a hellish nightmare for him.

    "We¡­ We don''t need any payback," Sith looked fast among his teammates, who gave him a silent nod, "we just want to survive this and return back to our people safe and sound."

    "We just need to run for ten kilometres," William paused, "can your uing trap thing secure this distance for us?"

    "Thendmine we created extends to cover around seven kilometres," one of the team said, "so it can provide such safe distance for us."

    "Great! Let''s try to consider things after going through that safe zone first. How far away is it by the way?"

    "Two kilometres at least," Sith thought for a moment, "it''s not that far."

    "Let''s prepare for the uing hard battle then," yet unlike what everyone thought, William didn''t show any signs of relief.

    "Battle?"

    "Yes, it''s a long distance, enough for that monster to approach us," William paused, "I like to y as the main controller of the team. But as I don''t know what you can do, then it''s better to assign someone who can do it and know you better."

    "Controller?"

    "What does that even mean?"

    "Consider it like the leader of the team," William rolled his eyes when he discovered they were alien to such a term. It was quite expected actually, and he mistook them knowing such a thing as they already knew the value of establishing safe escape pathways before entering any battle.

 Chapter 316 [Bonus ] The Red Tigers

    "I can do it," Sith cut the path again for his teammates to argue, "what can you do?"

    "I can hit and kill fast," William paused before adding, "but I may need to recharge."

    "Re¡­ Re what?!!" one of the team members asked in doubt and confusion. But William didn''t exin what he meant.

    "As we are going to fight that bastard anyway, let''s go around and hunt monsters first," he paused before adding, "let''s go this way. Like this, we can drive his attention away from that safe exit of yours."

    "But¡­"

    "Let''s go," Sith didn''t dwindle like others, and decided to trust William a bit more on this. After all, what William said made quite sense.

    If that monster got a ton of clones under its control, then it was safe to assume that it already scattered them around, surrounding them already.

    Anywhere they''d run to would be blocked by dense numbers of that bastard''s clones. And so it was a nice move to divert its attention towards another direction, while relieving the pressure over their real escape route.

    As for William, he knew he got to kill and store as many cores as he could. He already exhausted all of his supply of cores back in his fervent chase and fight.

    He wasn''t at his full strength right now. And even if he was, he would still consider doing this. In the middle of such a hectic battle, having more cores meant a lot to him.

    *Roar!* and just as William drove everyone in a different path, heading away from their escape route, they finally met a group of monsters roaring anding at them at a fast pace.

    "These are the Red Tigers! They use fire and wind together, mostly at silver grade, with their alpha at gold grade¡­ What a hard enemy to face right now!"

    One of the team members recognised the iing monsters using his spirit sense. He was a gold grade spirit master after all. William inwardly nodded, before asking, "does anyone here have a water element?"

    "I have!"

    "Me too!"

    "There are three of us here with a water element."

    "Cool," William felt this bunch of spirit masters was a group of weirdos. They used grenades to bring out fire, and yet they got three of their members with water element, one of which was a gold grade spirit master.

    "I''ll take charge then," Sith suddenly said.

    "No, you are the leader," but William corrected this mistake, "you have to remain slightly behind, operate the entire battle out."

    "But¡­"

    "Let me lead the charge," William wouldn''t let anyone take away his cores and kills, "I can handle them properly and you got to deal damage from behind. Don''t forget to spread out water, put down the annoying fire of these tigers."

    "Wait¡­ There are hundreds of them in a single pack! We can''t¡­" just before that team member would continue his words, William started acting.

    William knew better than all of them about this kind of monster. These tigers were indeed quite troublesome, as they moved and acted inrge numbers.

    That wasn''t just the only problem and challenge they got. The Red Tigers couldn''t actually control fire and wind elements together, but part of the pack would control fire, and the other would control wind.

    So, in other words, they used to work in little groups, each would have both elements inside. It was like fighting very organised and brutal teams. And each team would have tigers to release fire, and others that could add up wind and augment the attacks, helping each other out.

    To others, this might be one of the most troublesome enemies to fight. Red Tigers were just as deadly and scary as scarlet monkeys, but with more ferocious and intelligent nature, and much more abilities to use.

    Not to mention they got a gold grade cunning alpha to lead and orchestrate all this, like a mighty army general or something.

    But to William, this wasn''t a big problem at all. He knew the sole weakness of such a scary looking tactic.

    As the team here knew, the entire pack was led by an alpha. But what they didn''t know was that for the smaller group of these tigers, a beta would lead each.

    These betas were slightly bigger in size than others, with a single curved horning out from their head. If a beta got two, then it''d be the alpha, a gold grade ferocious monster.

    William knew more than just that. The main weakness of this type of monster didn''t lie in elements, but in their unique attack pattern.

    Before doing anybination of attacks, they got to have a few moments of pause. This was essential so the fire-based ones would release attacks first before the wind ones would kick in and help.

    To sync all this together, they got to give every monster enough time to prepare. And that was where the little time pause came from.

    If no one really knew about this, then things would be fine for these monsters. After all, they got many of these teams around, which could make the perfect cover for others pausing in action.

    During this pause, these monsters wouldn''t be able to move a muscle. They wouldn''t attack, wouldn''t defend, and wouldn''t even move to evade any iing attacks.

    In other words, they''d turn into sitting ducks, waiting for ughter, for a few seconds only.

    To William, this was a piece of cake thing. He just had to spot those groups which stopped moving and aim at them using his technique, swords, and knives. This way, he''d not be able to just kill many of these monsters easily, but he''d also evade the attacks of other groups around.

    *Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*

    "Shut the hell up! I don''t know why monsters are this freaking fixed and addicted to roaring before attacking! It''s all dumb! Dumb and stupid!" William shed fast, passing by the initial few groups that came towards him, while shouting in such carefree way at their backs.

 Chapter 317 [Bonus ] Getting Cores At Last

    He jumped twice, passing twenty metres this time, going by the group of tigers that tried to take a bite at him.

    The first to meet him up were five groups of tigers. He had to follow his earlier two jumps by jumping three times again, evading all of them.

    The tigers used fire balls that came out from their mouths. Then the wind element members would wave their ws, sending gales of wind to augment these fireballs, letting them grow in size, speed, and ferocity.

    But that didn''t matter for William as he simply evaded the monsters early on before they''d release their attacks. And when he appeared again, he was just in front of the second-row monsters.

    They seemed to prepare to attack him when he drew closer. "Sorry, but I can''t digest how you use fireballs as if you are dragons... Dudes, you aren''t! You are tigers! So, act like ones, for god''s sake!"

    William took out his knives and released them up front to deal with two groups by his side. As for the group he was in front of, he simply ran in the middle of them, and let his sword do all the talk.

    These tigers were each the size of a motorcycle. They weren''t that big actually, and that made hitting them at their vital spots quite easier for William.

    But that also meant they could move pretty damn fast. If not for the few seconds of pause before they''d prepare their attacks, William knew he''d not be able to hit any without depending too much on his lightning technique.

    "Thanks for the cores!" and as he killed this group and the other two around in the span of a few seconds, William didn''t think about leaving before getting his cores first.

    He took the lead, fought these tigers head on for this sole purpose. And as hecked a single decent core, he''d not say no to any coreing his way.

    Not to mention these were silver cores. They weren''t just enough to raise his spirit power by a few points each time, but also, they''d replenish lots of his lost spirit power.

    *Roar!*

    "I said it''s pretty damn stupid to keep roaring before attacking!" William was instantly surrounded by many groups, prepared tounch their deadly attack at him.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    He wasn''t nning to get the cores without securing his back at the same time. He left out his knives and scattered them around. When the monsters came closer, he simply released them free, attacking and hitting any monster around without showing mercy.

    But William knew this wasn''t enough. His knives could stop a few monsters, but they weren''t enough to kill or defend him against the iing fire balls.

    "I got enough," he collected half of the loot he should have, and shed away fast, retreating from the spot of danger. He knew being overly greedy sometimes would bring one''s demise faster.

    *Boom!*

    "Sorry, but you missed," William knew the tigers were going tounch another volley of attack after their failure. And so, he just appeared next to another group that were next to the ones surrounding him from before and kept working his sword over them.

    And his knives didn''t shy behind, joined the battle and killed more of these tigers.

    As he expected, the tigers didn''t care about his knives. They couldn''t even stop or touch them. So, trying to deal with them was going to be a waste.

    Instead, the betas in these groups started to issue their orders using loud roars to attack William again.

    And this was what he was waiting for.

    More groups already gathered and joined the earlier ones chasing after him. At this point, almost twenty groups were prepared to hit him, with many more standing on the side, paused in preparation for attacking himter on.

    But that wasn''t enough to stop William.

    William killed one group first, then shed back, and started a wide spree of attacks over another group.

    "Sorry, but you missed again," Williamughed at them when he shed once more, appearing in the middle of another group.

    Even if they surrounded him like this, it was worthless as long as they couldn''t even touch a single hair of him.

    William kept doing this, targeting the monsters that were all in pause and waiting to attack. He had to use a few jumps each time to reach such groups, but that didn''t matter anymore after gaining the cores at a stable rate.

    William kept jumping in the middle of one group, killing them fast using his sword, before shing away, evading a volley of attack, and ending up appearing in the middle of another group to do the same.

    And during all this, his knives were restless, moving all over the ce, hitting, shing, stabbing, and killing any monster they could reach.

    This bought him little and precious seconds for him to gather up the cores he wanted. He couldn''t get all the cores of course, but getting half or slightly more was more than enough for him.

    Despite all this, William felt the total number of monsters didn''t show a decrease at all. He felt like the number of attacksnding on him kept growing in number with each passing minute.

    "Come on! You should have started your attack by now!" William knew he grabbed the attention of many monsters in the pack. And this was the right moment for Sith and others to start their barrage of attack, jump in and alleviate the pressure over him.

    Just when he thought about this, he heard loud bangsing from behind, announcing that Sith and his team started to join this battle atst.

    "Just in time," William used a few of the silver cores he had already gained to replenish his lost spirit power.

    As Sith and others stepped in, it was time for him to roam the entire battlefield and gather up the cores he missed. He cared more about the cores he left behind and didn''t collect rather than going out there and helping Sith and others in killing these tigers.

 Chapter 318 The Alpha!

    He didn''t dare to try this until Sith, and his team, would start their attack. And when that happened, what William waited for happened.

    The tigers got into disarray the moment Sith and his team joined the fight. When William was feeling little pressure here, the tigers had to shift most of their attacks away, relieving most of the pressure away.

    "Thanks dudes," William shouted, while not hesitating anymore and shed into the middle of a group of dead monsters that he killed before.

    In the middle of all this chaos, he took the chance and started to collect the cores he missed before. He didn''t try to attack a single monster this time, leaving Sith and his team to deal with the rest of the tigers while he collected his loot.

    And this time, William couldn''t help butugh from time to time, happy about his gain.

    "One hundred silver cores¡­ Hahahaha! That''s how it should always be, hahahaha!"

    He gained around the same number of cores he gained before when he fought with his team. Not to mention he gained those in much shorter time than before. When he finished collecting his loot, he shifted his eyes around. There were still a couple hundred monsters standing on their legs, fighting Sith and his team.

    "I want more!" his eyes shone and shed in bright light, getting a little greedy here.

    The entire situation shifted as the tigers focused on Sith and his team, totally ignoring William for the time being.

    William kept shing to collect his cores, didn''t attack even once, and that helped more in making the tigers forget about him for now. But that was going to change soon enough.

    *Fwoosh!*

    William wouldn''t let such a big cake slip by his fingers. So instead of just watching on the side like before, he actively moved. He jumped towards a nearby group of tigers, while letting his knives move again.

    He didn''t need to select the ones which were preparing to attack and evade the already attacking ones. As the tigers focused over Sith''s team, he could easily sneak in the middle of any group of tigers and start his killing spree without any issue.

    And this time, he kept collecting all the cores after killing the monsters on the spot.

    With him joining the battle once more, things started to break apart for the overwhelming number of tigers here.

    Sith led his team in a very efficient way to handle the front of all these tigers. He and his team used a different method than William, showing how cooperated and well organised this team was.

    Few handled defence, few handled offence, and the three water-based spirit masters kept spreading their water all over the ce.

    Just from the previous battle against William, the tigers missed hitting him. But that also helped in spreading the explosive fireballs all over the ce.

    Sith''s team had to put down lots of the fire, creating enough space for them to step on and move around freely.

    They weren''t like William, didn''t get such fast moving techniques that could save their lives all the time.

    When William acted like a sent-out arrow, killing in the middle and rear of their ranks, Sith''s team acted like the proper task force, the main damage outputer. And with the two working together, things started to roll fast in their favour.

    Everything went quite well until a violent roar came all of sudden from William''s side. A huge tiger shed and appeared just a few metres away from him.

    He just killed a group of monsters, collected their cores, and was about to sh away from here. But the moment he wanted to, that big tiger appeared, blocking his path forward.

    "The alpha decided to select me from all others¡­ What luck!" there were still a hundred or more of these tigers around. And they were struggling to keep up against the pincer attack done by William, Sith and thetter''s team.

    The alpha could have selected Sith or any member of his team to target first. But it seemed to ce William on top of its hit list, nning to take him down first before dealing with others.

    William knew this alpha was a gold grade monster. It might seem quite strong and deadly, as it was the sole tiger here which could use both fire and wind elements at the same time.

    However, it wasn''t enough to make William feel any pressure.

    "Let''s dance," William didn''t hurry to jump, and first walked towards that tiger in slow steps. The alpha tiger was at least three metres in height, making William feel like he was standing in front of a small hill or something.

    It looked quite ferocious, and that didn''t stop William from getting closer from it.

    *Roar!*

    "Come on, stop roaring and making such useless noise and show me what you got," William watched this monster open its jaws and a bright red light appeared from there next.

    He knew it was going to release thebined fire and wind attack, but yet William didn''t consider jumping around.

    Unlike the other tigers, this dude could perfectly merge the two elements inside its body. So it got just to release a fireball infused with both fire and wind elements, the deadliest and most violent fireballs any tiger here could release.

    William knew how troublesome it was to try and escape this iing attack. This tiger got something like what William got to control his flying knives.

    As William could control his knives by his will and spirit power, that alpha tiger was also able to do the same with such an attack.

    It was like a guided missile, totally controlled by the monster in front of him. And so, the best way to handle such an annoying attack was by directly facing it.

    It was like walking on a thread to cross a deep abyss. If William failed to make the right move even once, if he failed to evade the iing fire ball, he''d end up getting hit fiercely and then more attacks would follow.

    It all needed one single mistake, and everything would be gone.

 Chapter 319 A Deadly Fight

    William was super focused this time. The moment that sh of bright light intensified, William moved to the side, evading it.

    "It''s quite annoying just like the times I killed many of your kin in the outer world," William shook his head when he saw the bright ball of mixed purple and orange lights that raced like a rocket out of the opened jaw of this tiger.

    It went like a shooting star, shing fast, sweeping even a few of the silver grade tigers nearby without any mercy.

    Then it started to arc in the air, taking a curved path, before heading back for William.

    At the same time, the tiger didn''t just depend on his tracking missile. It started to wave its ws, trying to rip William''s head to shreds.

    This was a very tough situation. William was less than three metres away from that alpha. And if he didn''t do anything, his head would be gone in the next few seconds.

    In the middle of all this, William just kept his cool. He ducked, jumped to the side, shing against the ws with his sword from time to time to stop any dangerous hits.

    He did everything to not leave the side of this monster.

    *Fwoosh!* and just as he did that, the tiger''s sent out fireball came. William simply lowered his head, letting this guided missile that was about to hit him in the back of his head pass over, and m fiercely against the right side of that monster.

    "Time to bring you some pain," William nned all this from the beginning. This tiger was different from normal gold grade monsters. It could form ayer of defensive power around its body, absorb any iing attack and stop it.

    To take it down, one either should be at gold grade at least, better to be at dark gold grade, or had a dark gold grade weapon. William was neither of these, so he had to use something else.

    He used the monster''s attack to harm itself! The monster thought it got William in its ws, but in reality, the total opposite was true.

    William kept that monster busy, not giving him any room to better control its guided attack. And when the attack came, William made sure to be on the same line as this monster.

    Of course, William couldn''t perfectly control the trajectory of such an attack, or else he''d prefer for it tond over this tiger''s head or something vital.

    As the tiger got hit on its right side, William started to seriously act. He instantly switched from defence into all out offence.

    He used his lightning technique for the first time against this alpha. His body started to move around the monster, hitting the wound that just appeared thanks to the fireball using his sword and knives.

    He knew just by this wound, that was away from any vital point, he couldn''t bring that monster down anytime soon. But he kept working over it, deepening that wound, and releasing more blood out from it.

    *Roar!*

    As it felt betrayed by getting hit by its attack, the tiger roared again, and then another ball of fire came. At the same time, that alpha tried its best to retreat, creating a space between it and William.

    At the same time, its long tail came fast, aiming to surround William''s body like a snake, and bind him as if it was some sort of a tightrope.

    William knew if he got caught, then he couldn''t evade the new fireball. When the monster retreated, William did the same, making it impossible for that tail toe at him.

    He knew if he persisted on sticking around that alpha, then he''d either get hit by the fireball, or get entrapped by the tail and end up as a punching bag for this scary dude.

    *Roar!* and as if William fell right into the trap of that monster by retreating as well, William saw a weird smirk over its face, as if it was happy about such a move.

    "Stupid big cat, thinking itself a dragon! Do you think I fell for such an obvious trap?" William responded with augh, a series of dashes, evading the iing fireball from the side while the one up front got released at this moment.

    The alpha tiger didn''t just want to hit William using a single fireball. It wanted William to retreat, so he''d be in the path of the first fireball he released before.

    Like this, William was going to get attacked from two directions. If he tried to run forward, the monster''s tail and deadly ws were waiting for him.

    The monster thought it could get William in the middle of thetter''s movement. But just when it imagined William getting hit by all this, thetter showed the fierce side of his technique.

    William used his technique one time after another, without a single moment of pause. He knew it was quite risky, but he kept jumping to evade the iing fireballs.

    Even when the alpha tried to adjust the two fireballs trajectory, William responded at the right moment and changed his path, forcing to use a new lightning technique just in the middle of the already going one.

    As he finally evaded the two attacks without getting a single hair of his harmed, he didn''t show this arrogant and idiotic tiger any mercy.

    William knew the more time he''d give this big cat, the harder it''d be for him. So, the moment the two fireballs passed past him, William jumped straight forward, hitting it where it truly hurt, at the right-side wound.

    *Roar!*

    This time the monster got truly enraged, even stomping with its four legs, as if it wanted to squash William under its ws.

    But William kept jumping around, using the time the two fire balls were getting away with their insane speed to further weaken and enrage this big cat.

    *Fwoosh!*

    The alpha tiger tried to jump over William, crushing this little human with its big body. However, William read through its intentions, jumped to the side moments before this tiger jumped, evading even the troublesome tail and the deadly ws.

    *Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*

    And as if he was the only one left in the entire area, other tigers roared and started to aim their attacks over his direction.

    "Damn! I''m not that tasty, you know that? I''m thin, wasted without a singleyer of fat!" William raised an eyebrow when he saw more than forty fireballsing in his way. And to add more to this, that damn alpha big cat sneaked the two fireballs in the middle of all of them.

 Chapter 320 A Great Harvest

    "Sorry pal, but you got to shield them for me," just a hair breadth away from him taking the entire barrage of attacks head on, William shed twice, circling around this big cat, and shielding himself by riding on its wide back.

    *Roar!* and such action seemed to make the alpha tiger roar in panic, rage, and shock. However, it was toote for it to do anything at all.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Fwoosh!*

    William knew that the fireballs of the silver tigers were all quite useless against their alpha. But the two fireballs that dude released earlier were enough to bring two more wounds on its body.

    William wasn''t that surprised by how tricky and cunning that alpha was. After all, calling everyone on its side tounch attacks to just mask the presence of the two deadly ones was quite a brilliant move.

    Yet it failed thanks to William being extra vignt, keeping an eye over the trajectory of these two balls all the time.

    William knew this dude was quite lucky as the two fireballs ended up at useless spots as well. He hoped for at least one to hit a ce that was vital. Yet that didn''t happen!

    One fire ball just scratched against its right foreleg, and the other went through its left back leg. And that made William a little disappointed.

    *Roar!*

    "Just shut the hell up! You are quite noisy for a leader of such a big pack!" William was annoyed by such luck this beast got and jumped fast to deepen the fresh wounds created by the two fire balls.

    "Oh, it hit something of value at least," but when he started attacking that wound at the right foreleg, he noticed something cracked under his sword. And with this, that monster roared again, falling to its side out of the blue.

    It looked as if that fireball hit the bone or damaged it greatly. And when William attacked with his sword, this bone finally snapped and got broken.

    William didn''t let such a chance slip by and started hitting that wound with his sword multiple times. As for his knives, he let them hit the third wound that monster got.

    One leg got broken, and William wanted to break the other one. As for what he was doing, he was just adding more pain to this monster, making it unable to breathe.

    *Crack!* *Roar!*

    And just after half a minute of doing so, and after evading lots of ws and tail hits by ducking, tilting his body to the side, or even dashing back and forth using his technique, William heard the cracking sound of a bone. And following this, that monster roared in pain and agony.

    At this moment, William knew it was all going to end well and he''d get one more gold core atst.

    *Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*

    But just before he''d celebrate this, he heard many roarsing from behind.

    "Those damn useless silver bastards! Don''t get in the way! Let me have this dude in peace!" William shouted in rage, turned around, and instantly switched his sword with the bow and arrows.

    Just five arrows were enough to sweep most of these monsters away, blocking the path for many of them using repulsive explosive force. "Take care of these flies, leave the alpha for me to handle!"

    "Let me help!" Sith''s voice came from front, making William want to go and punch him in the face.

    "Just take care of those silver ones, collect your materials, and make sure to be ready to leave once this dude is gone! Don''t forget, we are in the heart of the forest."

    "Got it!" William''s warning finally worked, and he couldn''t help but heave a sigh of relief when things turned out the way he wanted.

    He got rid of that annoying Ibra, to end up with another who wanted to steal his kill!

    The attacks that were about toe from the surrounding silver tigers were stopped by Sith and his team. Not a single silver monster dared to interrupt William again, while he took his time to take down the alpha.

    Even after suffering all these wounds, that dude was quite tough. It kept roaring, trying to stand erect, released three more fireballs, controlled the five and tried to take William down with it.

    But every single time that happened, William would shield himself by the huge body of that big cat. After three of such failed attempts, and even with its great luck that let two fireballs go missing its body in a row, it finally got hit by the five fireballs directly.

    And two of these attacks just came at the vital spots of this dude, making William evilly grin when he saw this.

    "It''s finally over," William worked for five more minutes, until that dude roared for thest time, ending up falling on the ground, twitching as if it got electrified or something.

    "Hurry!" Sith urged William as he already informed thetter about finishing killing everything at their side almost two minutes ago, "that damn beast you spoke about ising! And more monsters areing as well!"

    "Give me a second," William would never leave without taking his gold core, "hurry up! Come and collect its materials. Or do you prefer all this be wasted?"

    "Coming!" Sith would never say no to such a thing. And instead of himing alone, all of the team moved fast and joined William.

    Just in the time they took toe here, William already got his desired core. "It''s my third gold grade core," William held it in his hand for a few seconds, inwardly celebrating his huge harvest.

    He didn''t just end up having one more gold core, but also close to two hundred silver cores. He already used fifty of them during this battle, adding close to three hundred points in his worst estimate. And he still got one hundred and fifty more cores left as well.

    "Make it quick," William then stored it inside one of his rings and turned to examine the forest around.

    And what he saw made the hair on his back stand to no end!

 Chapter 321 Lets Fight Until We Fall!

    There were lots of damaged and broken trees around. And from there, he saw lots of shadows shing fast,ing towards here.

    "Give us a minute!"

    "I''ll try to buy us a few more seconds," William took out his bow and arrows, released all of them towards different directions, stopping the iing monsters using his fire, "that''s all I can do. In twenty seconds, we will leave."

    "Got it!" Sith urged his teammates to work faster. There was no need to say anything to anyone. All knew how dangerous their current situation was.

    This battle was so big, enough to attract the attention of many monsters from the forest.

    William took these few seconds to absorb three silver cores. No one was paying attention to him, and in the end, he got more points added to his spirit power, and his spirit power got replenished almost to eighty percent.

    "Let''s go folks, time to put down our greed and run for our lives," once the twenty seconds passed, William shouted, while not looking back and started running forward.

    And like him, everyone stopped what they were doing and began to madly run for their lives.

    This time, he was running with enough spirit power to make him fight while running. And that just came at the right time, as he and Sith''s team were about to get the hellish run anyone would face in this forest.

    "Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! This is bad!"

    "We are surrounded! We aren''t running away but heading directly in the middle of this big army of monsters!"

    "What shall we do now? Hey! Sith! Say something! Do something!"

    Just after running for ten minutes, everyone got to stop. They were surrounded, totally surrounded by denseyers of monsters which wereing fast at them from all directions.

    "This¡­" Even Sith didn''t know what they should do. William looked in a calm way at their faces, seeing how desperate they were to find a glimpse of hope.

    They were panicked, but not that type which was assigned to cowards. They wanted to run, but not to abandon anyone behind.

    William knew if at another time, if he wasn''t here, then this team wouldn''t have a single member running away and would all die here fighting together till theirst man.

    "We''ll do the usual," And as William began to like this bunch of spirit masters, he slowly said, "it may seem like the monsters got us cornered, but this isn''t true."

    "Dude, wake up! Open your eyes and look around! We are already surrounded! There isn''t a single path out of here without tons of monsters blocking it!"

    "If there isn''t a path, then we''ll dig it ourselves," William said as if this was something trivial or easy to do, "let''s just do it this way, let''s fight and kill until we find a way out or fall. After all, you have no other way but this way, right?"

    Everyone looked at each other, before they all looked up at Sith. He was their leader, and they trusted his judgement and call.

    "Are you confident about your n?"

    "Around seventy percent," William paused, while the monsters were getting closer, "it''s now or never."

    "Let''s do it then," Sith decided, "what do you want us to do?"

    "Just like before," William shrugged, controlling his knives to fly in a full circle on top of his head, "just let me take the lead, and you make sure to not fall behind."

    "This¡­"

    "Just follow me and kill these damn monsters, it''s not simpler than this," William didn''t even look at them when he said these words. And the next moment, he dashed forward, crossing close to fifty metres in one jump.

    "Let''s follow him," Sith had no other choice but to follow him. William didn''t give them any instructions, or even gave them any n at all.

    He simply told them to follow him, and he dashed forward like a reckless fellow. They all felt like he didn''t really have a n or a way out, and just said these words to make their end look a little glorious in their eyes.

    However, they never expected to see William fight in such a way! As William dashed forward, his knives that were flying on top of his head suddenly started to expand outwards while moving in a full circle.

    One knife after another kept rotating fast, as if they were in some sort of a race or something. And just as William met the first wave of monsters, his knives were already rotating at a terrifying speed.

    They didn''t look like a group of separate knives like before, but a big circr electric saw that was sharp enough to hack and kill anything in its path.

    "This¡­ Sith, do you recognise what kind of trick this kid is using?"

    "Trick? Hell no! It''s magic! He must be a sorcerer!"

    "Magic my as*! This kid is definitely using a high-grade technique or something."

    "No, I can''t see any spirit powering from these knives. It''s not a technique."

    "Then what is it? Howe these knives are flying this damn fast?!!"

    "It''s his spirit element," and as everyone was getting shocked and puzzled by William''s actions, Sith slowly said as he was watching the bizarre scene in front of his eyes.

    William dashed forward once, attacked monsters close by using his sword. This was a normal thing, but what his knives did wasn''t.

    They were flying at a circle of five metres radius when he dashed out. And now? They expanded and moved in a circle that was fifty metres at least in diameter.

    Such a scale was enough to cut through any monster that woulde into contact with these deadly knives. Not to mention they already went beyond the ce Sith''s team was.

    In a single move, William didn''t only start a massacre all around, but he also helped in securing himself and the team with him.

    And that wasn''t all!

 Chapter 322 A Hectic Chase And Fight

    When the knives killed monsters, they didn''t stop and waited for more to arrive. In return, they started to move up and down, expand further outward or shrink their circr area of activity inside.

    In the eyes of Sith''s team watching this spectacr performance, it looked as if these knives got a will of their own. But that wasn''t true. No one ever heard about living knives, not even in legends or fairy tales.

    "Is it a wind element?" one of his team couldn''t help but ask, "but... I never saw nor heard about someone at bronze grade who could use wind element to such proficiency!"

    "No, it''s not," Sith knew that dude didn''t even believe his words, "it''s lightning element."

    "Lightning?!!"

    "Are you sure?"

    "I never heard of any lightning element spirit masters back at the Aspire academy."

    "If this is true, then he should be someone famous out there. Why didn''t we ever hear about his name before?"

    "Guys! It''s not time for any of that," Sith knew that William was doing a marvellous job, pulling out a feat that no one ever imagined. But that also came at a hefty price, his spirit power''s crazy consumption rate.

    "He is overexerting himself to secure a head start for us. Let''s not waste his effort and let''s get in the right formation to help."

    And just half a minuteter, William shouted, saying the same thing Sith expected: "Get ready, I''m going to call back my knives. Just stick close to me and kill anything that I miss."

    "Got it!" Sith instantly answered, while he and his team were already taking an offensive formation.

    It was a seven headed star formation, one that got one of the team standing at one of its heads. At the same time, Sith, and two others stood in the centre, acting as firefighters. And these three were all gold grade spirit masters, the strongest task force the team could use right now in such an array.

    William wasn''t in any tight spot as Sith and others thought. He kept absorbing silver cores whenever he felt his spirit power was at fifty percent or lower.

    He just had to dash forward once, then he left most of the heavy work for his knives. But he didn''t want to take the full responsibility in taking down monsters. Instead, he wanted to kill monsters and im their cores at the same time.

    And so he needed Sith and his team to step in, share the pressure with him to be able to do what he wanted.

    There were lots of monsters here, ranging between white, bronze, and silver grade. Luckily, there wasn''t a single gold grade monster, or else he''d have to struggle and face tense situations a lot.

    William retracted his knives, made them just rotate in a circle of ten metre radius, almost fifty metres away from him.

    They''d take the front, and Sith''s team would handle the rear. As for William, he''d stay in the middle, hunt down and collect his cores whenever he got the chance to do so.

    That circle of knives worked as his real killing weapon right now. And as they got shrunk in size, more monsters started to slip by their reach and arrive to hit him and the team behind.

    William controlled his knives to rotate in full circle as fast as he could, and that alone was enough to consume his spirit power by two percent per minute.

    He tried to move that circle before, let it expand and shrink, move it closer and further away. And that let the consumption skyrocket to five percent per minute.

    Yet he could handle such pressure. Thus, he kept doing this, controlling his knives to move from right to left, back and forth, up and down, killing lots of monsters and even cutting their bodies into shreds.

    This bought him a little time to collect the fallen cores from these monsters, saved him lots of time needed to dissect these monsters to get their cores as well.

    With every core he got, he knew he gave himself extra minutes through replenishing his spirit power.

    But the monsters that slipped by started to cause a little headache for him.

    "If I can, I have to forge more of these knives," William was using the twenty knives he forged before.

    Back then, he was barely able to use even five of them. But right now, if he got fifty, he could use them freely and without any pressure.

    Most of the spirit power consumption was taken by his attempt to increase these knives'' speed. To do so, he had to infuse them with his lightning spirit element, just like how Sith guessed it.

    And that was to make up for their low count, make them travel faster and cover more distance. If he got more, he would have spent less amount of spirit power in return for the same result.

    Not to mention his killing speed would skyrocket as well.

    Things went on like this, William took the lead, moving his knives in a circle of death with himself at the centre. His knives didn''t just kill and hack monsters into shreds, but also, they worked their magic over trees and bushes all around.

    It looked like he was giving this part of the forest a little makeover, leaving behind a long trail of dead monsters and broken trees.

    Just one hundred metres behind him, Sith and his team were struggling to keep up. When William retracted his knives, they took care of the side and rear, dealing with tons of monsters.

    Even when there were ten of them, they struggled to keep the same killing speed as William.

    That wasn''t thanks for William being strong, but thanks mainly to William''s weapons. Also, he was efficiently using his spirit power, replenishing it without any worry as he replenished and added more cores while fighting in this way.

    As for Sith''s team, they couldn''t mimic what William was doing. Even if four of them got gold grade gears, only two got gold grade weapons out of these.

 Chapter 323 Reaching Their Destination At Last

    Not to mention this team depended entirely over thendmine strategy in their fight and escape. Theycked any speedy and shy techniques like William, couldn''t show the true might of their weapons as he did.

    For all this, the overall strength of the team in such intense and brutal head on battles was quite low actually.

    "Hey, we can''t keep up like that!" After one hour of doing so, and when the monsters didn''t show any sign of slowing down or decreasing in numbers, Sith had to shout at William''s growing smaller back, "we will fall down soon on this rate!"

    "Just keep following me!" William knew from the start the crucial dead weak spot of this team. And so, he never nned on just running around aimlessly like Sith and others thought wrongly.

    He just used the sea of monsters here to shield them from the many clones of the Nightmare monster. And his little n seeded.

    During this entire hour, William never met a single clone of this monster. There were many silver grade monsters here, a threat to any of these monster''s clones. After thest loss of this monster on the hands of William, thetter would be totally stupid to just lend more of its silver clones over to him.

    So, William guessed what this monster was going to do. Sending out bronze grade clones seemed to be the most logical approach of this monster, acting as fodders to wear him and Sith''s team down. And that was why William didn''t even flinch or hesitate to throw himself directly inside the ocean of monsters here.

    But that wasn''t the entire n of William. Even if he looked like he was just picking any direction on a whim, he wasn''t! During this hour, and without even Sith and his team realising it, William led all of them in a big, curved path, heading like an arrow towards one location.

    "I''m telling you; we can''t keep up doing this! We aren''t monsters! Not like you!" one of the team behind screamed in agony, as he just suffered a hellish wound from one of the silver monsters.

    "Just hang on, almost ten to twenty minutes."

    "Wait for what?" Sith felt like William was hinting something over to him, to all of his team.

    "Just stick around. If you have the power to talk, use it instead to fight!" William wasn''t in any mood to exin anything right now.

    He looked much better than all of them, but in fact he wasn''t! After running and fighting for all this time, he started to get mentally and physically exhausted.

    Controlling all these knives and time the attack right to take down the endlesslying monsters wasn''t a simple task to do. Not to mention he had to preserve little of his attention to grab the falling cores from the ground, absorb one every few minutes to replenish his lost spirit power, and watch out from any sneaky and deadly attacksing at him.

    Even if he could kill bronze and silver grade monsters easily right now, he ended up meeting a bunch of troublesome gold grade monsters just twenty minutes ago.

    These wouldn''t get easily stopped by his knives., nor they''d get those deep wounds from them.

    On a few asions, these gold grade monsters took their chances and jumped to im his life. During which, they managed to stop and interrupt the tempo of his knives, and he had to fight them at the right moment using his dash lightning technique and gold grade sword.

    If not for this sword, then his life would have been threatened a long time ago. He never stopped again to deal with any of them. He just blocked their deadly attacks, then left them for Sith and his team behind.

    After all, there were gold grade spirit masters in Sith''s team, enough to handle these troublesome dudes.

    Even so, many managed to slip fast and returned to harass him from time to time. William had to keep his vignce against such dudes, and hoped they''d end up reaching their destination soon enough.

    He wasn''t that familiar with any of the region here, but he got hismon sense to follow the direction he saved in his mind. And as he expected, in fifteen minutes, they finally arrived where he wanted.

    And the arrival of them towards that ce came loud and clear, even one kilometre before they''d arrived at that region, by a series of violent explosions.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    "This¡­"

    "Isn''t this¡­"

    "No way! I''m going to cry!"

    "It''s ourndmine! We arrived at ourndmine!"

    "Yes! That''s how a leader shall be!"

    "What the hell are you talking about?! I''m going to kick your as* after all this, mark my words!"

    William listened to all these excited and celebrating shouts that came from Sith''s team, with thestment said by Sith himself.

    This was William''s n from the start. He knew if he dared to lead the team directly towards thatndmine location, then it was impossible for any to survive the night.

    The Nightmare monster wouldn''t let them get closer from that location. And so, William did all this to make this monster have nothing to say or do about this.

    The Nightmare monster had to step aside, watch the swarms of monstersing at William and others, blocking its path towards them.

    And when the initial series of explosions urred, marking their arrival at thendmine, William knew his role had to end right now.

    "Sith, it''s now your task to lead us there," he shouted, while suddenly expanding the reach of his knives to cover the entire team inside, "move forward, lead us towards the safe spot in the middle of thatndmine."

    "Right away," Sith shouted, before moving with his team forward, "thanks," he said in utmost sincerity when he passed by William''s side.

    "You take the front, and I''ll handle the rear," William started to slowly retract his knives, while starting to slowly walk forward, "make sure we don''t end up stuck just a few hundred metres away!"

 Chapter 324 Bad News!

    "Like hell I''ll let such a thing happen!" Sith roared, and the next moment the entire team exploded with violent waves of attacks towards the surrounding monsters.

    William noticed this, while inwardly nodded. The team kept their deadliest and strongest techniques and attacks saved for thest moment, waiting for a chance to use these to regain hope in surviving this mess.

    And when hope appeared, they never hesitated to move and grab it firmly like they found a treasure or something.

    As they started acting with all their might, William knew the front was secured right now. All he had to care about was the rear, and they got to just cover the remaining one thousand metres safely without getting much harm.

    However¡­ William underestimated the scary monster he was running away from.

    When the explosions rang and filled the world with their echo, eating up lots of monsters that overstepped on thendmine while trying to get a bite at William and Sith''s team, William noticed something quite disturbing.

    The entire area got remodelled at the moment, with lots of trees ended up smashed down to pieces either by William''s and Sith''s team attacks or the iing monsters'' berserk actions and movement.

    The entire ce was filled with shing and dancing lights of different colours. Different techniques and attacks came with lots of ring lights, turning this part of the forest into a dimly lit ce.

    And that got a little touch with the help of the raging fire from thendmine zone, painting the entire region with a scary and gloomy red and orange background.

    And through this, William could feel something was off. He kept catching faint shadows moving at a far distance from time to time, while losing track of them whenever he tried to focus on these shadows.

    For unknown reasons, he felt unexined worry and restlessness deep inside him. It was as if he got eyed by a ferocious beast, as if that beast was standing just a few centimetres away from his face, and he was able to feel and smell its stingy breaths over his face.

    It was a suffocating and annoying feeling. Without the need to think too much about this, he knew what brought such disturbance all of sudden to him.

    "Pick up your speed, we are going to face that damn monster again if you keep moving like this!" and the moment he guessed what was happening, he didn''t hesitate and shouted at Sith and others.

    "Let ite! Ourndmine could kill thousands of such monster if it dared to follow us inside!"

    "Don''t belittle it! Don''t screw up at thest stretch!" William didn''t like the overconfident tone that dude in Sith''s team spoke with, "just kill faster, use everything you got and let''s reach that damn ce fast!"

    "On it!" Sith shouted back, while giving his teammates a silent meaningful nce.

    He didn''t need to speak or say anything. William was the one who led them through all this hell, managed to bring them this close from the safe shore.

    If he said there was a deadly threating at them right now, even if they were just less than one hundred metres away from that shore, then they would believe his warning and take it quite seriously.

    And what William feared of happened!

    The team crossed the first half of this distance quite fast. But the remaining half was a different story.

    They were crossing one hundred metres now every five minutes. As the monsters got bombarded and killed by thendmine zone, the rest of monsters learnt their lesson and started to condense themselves, blocking the path between Sith''s team and that promisednd.

    Each step taken came at the cost of a fervent killing and hellish brutal fighting between the two sides. And the team started to pick up wounds the more they walked forward.

    In ten minutes, they crossed just two hundred metres. Sith got to look around their current location, before deciding where the safe pathy.

    "We got to walk to that side for another half kilometre!"

    "Fine!" William expected such a thing. After all, he just blindly led them here, not knowing where the safe path truly existed.

    In fact, he felt reassured when he heard such a shout. He estimated they got more than one kilometre to cross, up to five actually in his worst estimates.

    And just before he''d heave a deep sigh of relief, he got to notice something looming at the far distance.

    "It''sing folks!" He clenched his sword tighter, while watching a bizarre scene he never imagined seeing at this moment.

    He knew that monsters didn''t have such an intimate rtionship that most spirit masters thought they had. Themon rule stated that whenever a human was present, monsters would focus totally on him. And if humans weren''t present, then monsters would start fight other monsters.

    There were different reasons for monsters to fight others. For example, to express their rule over a certain piece ofnd, or to remove any threatening monsters over their reign. Other reasons might be just to fill their bellies, or even to force other monsters to follow their lead or something.

    But right now, and when there were humans running in the middle of monsters, something unimaginable happened!

    "That damn bastard! Did I kill his mother or what?!!" William''s corners of the mouth twitched when he saw densely packed lines of exactly the same looking monster sweeping the sea of monsters blocking their path towards William and Sith''s team.

    If the monsters around were a sea, then the iing copies of that Nightmare monster were like a mighty tsunami! They crushed, swept clean everything they faced, not even letting a single monster survive.

    William knew amidst all these monsters, many silver ones were present. Not to mention those annoying gold grade monsters he fought against many times already.

    If that monster decided to make such a reckless and crazy move, then it wasing prepared. And that made William knew without the need to see by his eyes that this monster brought silver, even gold grade clones in this army of it.

    And that meant one thing¡­

 Chapter 325 Going Crazy!

    "So, it came here atst!" William narrowed his eyes, realising that he wasn''t just fighting an army of clones, but one which got led by the real dude.

    It was a big deal, the real deal this time!

    And that was enough to flip this entire situation upside down entirely, endangering their close by safe escape and even threatening his life.

    "Damn it! Do you think you can do whatever the hell you want because you got many dumb clones on your side? Come on! Bring it on! I''ll y with your clones to my heart''s content!"

    William got really enraged by the actions of this monster, shouted in defiance before all of sudden made a crazy move of his.

    It seemed like this monster was over fixating on him for reasons he never knew. He kept running away, travelled through lots of ces in the forest, even brought up lots of strong monsters for this dude to shift its gaze away from him.

    And yet he failed! And that made him quite crazy at this moment.

    If the monster wanted to get therge number of monsters blocking its path killed, taking such an insane move that defied logic, then William was going to do another move that defied logic as well, one that wasn''t any less crazy than what that obsessed monster did¡­

    He was going to help the monsters!

    It might seem reckless and insane, but as the monster lost it and started killing monsters while ignoring the humans, then William was going to do totally the opposite.

    In William''s eyes, this entire battle at thest stretch of this chase was hanging on a thin thread; the monsters blocking and shielding William and Sith''s team from the iing Nightmare monster.

    If the monster managed to kill its path through the monsters faster, reached them before they arrived at the safe path, then it was a game over for all of them.

    But if William managed to stall for time, saving many monsters from the clutches of this Nightmare monster, then it''d be his win.

    William never tried to do such a thing before. In his eyes, monsters were there for him to kill or run away from. But this time, he had to step in and save them!

    "Guys, keep pushing forward and find that damn safe path fast!" when he made up his mind, he shouted back at Sith''s team. And then he retracted his knives, to only circte the area only one metre around, with him being in the centre of all this.

    This made the knives look as if they merged together and became a whole circr wheel that kept spinning around him.

    William did that to minimise the losses of monsters in front of him. Then he started to scan the entire battlefield, looking for ways to help monsters.

    "Dudes, I know we started the night on the wrong foot, but let me make this clear¡­ I''m going to help and save many of you. So¡­ Don''t stab me in the back!"

    William didn''t know if his words could be heard or understood by these monsters or not. But he hoped they wouldn''t attack him like they used to.

    The sudden appearance of all these clones of the Nightmare monster and what they did at the back of the small monster army here seemed to startle all the monsters in the region. And when William moved, they all felt like this was over for all of them.

    But when William moved for a few jumps and stopped, releasing half of his knives out like sent arrows, things started to take a weird turn and twist for these monsters.

    The distance between William and the closest clones of that monster was a few hundred metres away. William knew if he jumped all the distance between him and these iing clones, then he would end up getting isted from Sith and his team, getting separated from the safe path he wanted to reach.

    He wanted to help, but not to sacrifice himself in the end. Besides, he had to safeguard against monsters, not risking anything happening from their side.

    He still didn''t know how the monsters here would react to such wild twist in events. And that was why he didn''t send all of his knives, and just used half of them.

    As the distance was already too far, William had to jump a few times, umting momentum for his knives before releasing them all out.

    Each knife headed towards a certain clone. This wasn''t an attack to kill, but to test things out.

    He never tried to throw his knives over such a distance. And he needed to see how much increase in his spirit power consumption was going to be when he''d do this.

    "Damn! They took ten percent right away! What a son of b*tch this monster is!" William saw his knives reach their targets, hack through their bodies as he controlled them to devastate everything.

    But he didn''t feel a speck of happiness because of this. Feeling the crazily increase in his spirit power consumption made him want to beat down that monster using his bare fists!

    It wasn''t like William had no way to solve this problem. He could easily use his silver and bronze cores that he gathered before.

    But he treasures these cores. Every and each single one of these took him quite the trouble to im. And just throwing them away like this was something he didn''t like to see.

    The path through thendmine might be considered a safe path out from this dilemma right now, but it wasn''t going to lead them away from the forest or the endless dangers lurking inside it.

    William was quite sure that once they passed that region, more battles woulde their way. And he was just thinking and preparing for this.

    "Screw it! Let''s live tonight and worry about tomorrow when the sun rises," William decided, "and there is no need for me to spend more spirit power for more knives. These will do for now."

 Chapter 326 Unstoppable!

    William controlled his far away ten knives, made them rise up in the air, move anywhere he wanted, attack the clones that were this close from taking down the monsters up there.

    His sudden interruption helped in decreasing the insane advancement speed of the Nightmare monster clones towards him and others.

    "Don''t stand your ground! Keep moving!" Just when he was rocking it, Sith''s sudden shout came to jolt him awake.

    He still had to keep following them, and that meant he had to not only increase the distance between him and his knives, but also, he had to go through the monsters around.

    "Hey dudes, why not let me pass through?" William turned towards the surrounding monsters, and the next thing he got was many enraged roars.

    "That''s what I thought," William helplessly shook his head, realising that the monsters were about to attack him.

    And in response, he waved his sword, prepared to stop any iing attack with the help of his knives, and pierce his way through the monsters around by force.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    The next instant, he was this close from starting a carnage here when many monsters shed and vanished from around.

    "This¡­" as if he saw heavens fall to the ground, William stood motionless in his ce, totally stupified by what just happened.

    This time, he didn''t use what Ibra thought as his magic power to control monsters. He simply asked for their cooperation after he attacked and saved a few monsters, and then the monsters acted as if he was one of them!

    This¡­ This was something that William would never dare to even dream about!

    "I must be hallucinating, right?!" he even pped his face to make sure he was awake, and the pain he felt on his face told him that.

    "What are you doing standing like this, pping yourself? Come on! This isn''t the time to lose it!"

    And from behind, all Sith and others saw was William freezing in his ce for a few seconds, then pping his face with his own hand.

    From their far spot, they couldn''t see the few monsters that moved away from William, opening a path for him to walk through without the need to do anything!

    "C¡­ Coming!" William shouted while still doubting everything. He turned towards the monsters around, and every single one he met their eyes ended up shifting theirs away.

    "Incredible!" He took a deep breath before starting to walk, heading in the path that kept expanding by more monsters moving away, joining the battle against the Nightmare monster clones.

    This kept happening for the next ten minutes. In fact, William never felt so carefree in his life, walking through such arge group of dangerous monsters without even feeling a single speck of fear.

    But to his notice, this only applied to him. The monsters kept harassing and attacking Sith and his team members, not listening to William when he tried to point towards the team and asked the monsters to f*ck off.

    "They only listened to me thanks to this monster''s danger? I see¡­" William realised something. He didn''t need to kill all the clones or save all the monsters here¡­ He just needed to keep this delicate bnce between the two sides for as long as he could.

    The moment the monsters would feel they could take down the Nightmare''s clones would be the moment this fragile truce between him and them would end.

    So, he started to control his knives, holding them a little back in attacking the clones.

    "What? I have to follow my friends and so I have to call back the knives a bit closer," and when he retracted his knives for a few tens of metres, leading to the fall of more monsters, he said this with a shrug as monsters around turned and red fiercely at him.

    *Roar!*

    Just after ten minutes from doing so, it seemed the real Nightmare monster got a wind of what William intended to do.

    And with this single mighty roar, one that was much different than all the roarsing from monsters around, William knew a new thing wasing his way.

    "Let''s see what you got for me, old bastard!" William and Sith''s team were this close from the safe path. They crossed four hundred metres atst, and only three hundred were left and they would arrive at that path.

    William knew in any other situation, crossing three hundred metres wouldn''t take a few seconds from any of them. But right now, it was a fight of life and death, with each step taken on the cost of spending lots of power and effort, even suffering lots of wounds as well.

    Crossing these metres looked more impossible than crossing a sea of fire or a series of mountains!

    "No matter what, make sure to push through and open a path towards that damn safe path!" William shouted on the top of his lungs, while clenching the hilt of his sword, prepared for the worst.

    *Bang!*

    And just when he shouted like this, a loud bang came from the front. William narrowed his eyes, as a bigger version of any Nightmare monster clones he met before appeared from the distance.

    It looked like an unstoppable wrecking ball, like an avnche, clearing and sweeping anything and everything standing in its path without any challenge at all.

    It was picking up speed, crushing anything in its path. Be it trees, rocks, monsters, or even the ground itself¡­ Nothing stopped or even dyed this damn beast.

    "Hurry up!" William urgently shouted, while calling his knives at once. "shing against such a dude? F*ck! Hell no! I rather risk everything by running fast, crossing the remaining few hundred metres before it''ll catch up with me." William cursed in his mind, while waiting for his knives to arrive by his side.

    This beast¡­ Nothing could stop it at this moment.

    *Roar!*

    "Shut the hell up! It''s better for all of you to run just like me!"

 Chapter 327 Finally Getting Into Safety

    William heard many angry roarsing from the monsters around. It seemed as if they felt betrayed by his sudden retreat. Yet he didn''t care about these roars, turned around the moment his knives came by his side, and started running towards the direction of Sith''s team.

    *Roar!*

    And as if all the monsters around got on a tacit understanding with this single roar, they all ditched stopping that scary monster, throwing everything towards William and Sith''s team.

    "I know you are not that trustworthy, damn dumb monsters!" William expected such a thing eventually, and so he wasn''t surprised at all.

    Instead, he dashed forward for fifty metres, before starting to use a few zigzag jumps to evade the iing attacks.

    At this point, trying to pause for even a second to kill or hit any monster was a waste, total waste. William decided to leave all these monsters for the iing beast, and that was enough punishment for them in his eyes.

    But that also came at a price. "Damn! That hurt!" he got attacked and hit frequently, feeling like he was jumping and passing his way through sand, not through monsters.

    If they couldn''t stop him using their roars and attacks, they used their giant bodies, stuck together, leaving behind narrow spaces for him to pass through.

    "Fine! You asked for this!" William didn''t care about anything at this moment. He controlled all his knives, letting them rotate the same way as before, forming the deadly wheel on top of his head.

    Then he controlled it tond closer to the ground before rising up again, eating and hacking away any monster they touched without showing any mercy.

    Doing this would increase the spirit power consumption rate of his, but he had no other choice but to do that.

    In return for this, he took out two silver cores at the same time, let them get covered by his running blood from different wounds, before starting to absorb them.

    If absorbing one core wasn''t enough to make up for his madly increasing spirit power consumption, then absorbing two would indeed be sufficient.

    William didn''t just use his knives, but also kept pushing his body to the limit. He repeatedly used his lightning technique without a single moment of pause, even passing through the narrow and impossible to get through gaps using brute force and his umted pushing force.

    Everything in his eyes now turned into shes of giant monster bodies. From time to time he''d see the shining des of his knives, hacking through the bodies of these monsters, following him through his dashes, and securing his life all the time.

    He didn''t get the time or the luxury to take out his sword and use it, no time even to collect a single core from the ground.

    His two hands just kept recing one silver core after another, absorbing lots of them in his fervent run.

    "Dammit! Dammit! That damn beast is stilling fast! What the heck are these useless monsters doing?!"

    William knew he was getting closer to the escape path as more monsters became densely packed. It looked as if they formed another level ofnd out of their huge bodies.

    But he still heard the continuous enraged roars of that beast drawing closer to him from behind.

    "I swear to god I won''t go and save anyone if you didn''t reach that escape path before me!" and as William crushed his path through the monsters using pure might, he noticed a shadow of someone that he just crossed.

    And that made him shout loudly, releasing all the pressure and anxiety he was feeling deep down his spirit.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Just after he said these words, he heard very loud and scary sounds of explosions, ranging and trembling the ground from close by.

    "Just a bit more¡­ Please fate, God, heavens, or anything that anyone holds dear to their spirits¡­ Please let me arrive first, don''t let that damn beast touch me¡­"

    William kept praying inside, as the sounds of these explosions became like a crescendo in his ears, adding a brutal touch to this crazy battle.

    He didn''t need to stop or look around to know what caused these explosions. It meant monsters that were stopping and chasing Sith''s team got atst into thendmine. And that also meant that part of Sith''s team arrived at the safe path atst.

    *Thud!*

    "Phew! I¡­ I¡­ I did it!"

    And just in the middle of his fervent run, he felt like he pierced through a bubble or something, ending up in the middle of thin air.

    All the pressure, all the resistance he kept feeling faded away all of sudden. He ended up feeling like a bird that got out from a frozenke that it got itself into by mistake, and finally reached the free sky.

    His body lost control and fell to the ground in a muffled thud. But William didn''t even bother about that, not even about his funnynding on his face and chest.

    All he cared about right now was that he finally broke through monsters and ended up inside that safe path.

    "Wee on board," As he took a few of his racing breaths, rolled his body toy on his back, Sith''s voice came with thetter''s face appearing just filling the entire dark night sky and world for William.

    "Are everyone in?" William wiped the thickyer of sweat on his forehead while standing erect in shaky legs and trembling body. He didn''t need to hear Sith''s answer. Only five more members of his team were standing by Sith''s side.

    And when William turned back to see the bloody battle, he spotted two remaining members almost this close from getting drawn in the thick waves of monsters around.

    As for thest missing two, there was no single shadow of them anywhere.

    "Damn! How can we lose four just like this!" One of Sith''s remaining team members said, while hisst words got choked in his throat, seemingly on the verge of crying on their big loss.

 Chapter 328 I Want To Eat You

    William knew no words couldfort them. It seemed this team got together for long enough to establish some sort of bond that wasn''t any different than blood bonds.

    William silently moved his eyes among everyone standing around. Out of the initial ten team members, only six were standing here right now.

    Out of them, Sith was the only one who showed no emotion on his face. It felt like losing these four didn''t affect him at all, but William knew this was just a fake strong front.

    "It''s a blessing that this many survived," Sith said in a heavy tone, taking a deep sigh and a long nce at the violent and bloody ending of the two of his team, "let''s go."

    "No, we shall stay here and fight!"

    "Yes! We must avenge them!"

    "Are you goddam stupid?!!" And when two of the surviving team members said these words, Sith''s fake solid face changed at once. His sadness was there, even his eyes turned all red. But instead of crying, he shouted out, screamed in pure rage, "do you want to lose your lives? They sacrificed theirs for us to live on. If you got anything to say about this, then swear to God you are going to be stronger, work hellish hard every single day to get stronger, strong enough toe back here one day and kill that motherf*cker!"

    William inwardly nodded at Sith''s explosive and correct words, but he kept his silence, and watched all this from the side.

    There was no risk anymore for the time being. The entire ce was filled to the brim with explosive grenades. And even the path they walked over and stood on top of it was guarded by some sort of an istion array.

    Nothing except for humans would be able to pass through it, or else they would get fiercely stopped with a gale of fire and wind.

    "I won''t forget about this day," one of Sith''s team members said such words, before others started to join him, dering their vows to train and be stronger,e here one day and take their revenge from the Nightmare monster.

    "Well said," Sith firmly nodded, while his face regained its solid and cold mask again, "let''s go folks. We got a distance of seven kilometres to cross before getting the hell out of this monster''s reach."

    When he said those words, he looked up at William. And thetter slowly nodded.

    William wanted to correct this little maths mistake, but he didn''t. At least he''d wait until the devastated morale and spirit of these spirit masters would amend and chill out slightly before telling them the bad news.

    They had to cross ten kilometres in total before being safe. The other three kilometres wouldn''t be that hard actually, provided that the team would gather up their shattered will.

    And with Sith''sst words, the remaining members of the team started to move away, while taking healing potions and drank them.

    William checked up on his body. He got hacked at many ces and got lots of wounds. He sighed while taking a healing potion like others and drank its content while feeling the cold and refreshing feeling overwhelming his body.

    Then he started to follow the team in silence in respect to their feelings.

    The path was twenty metres in width, surrounded by a sea of fire on both sides. The fire seemed to get stopped by some invisibleyer, a sort of a shield that isted anything happening outside from reaching in.

    [It''s my loss this time. But I promise you that next time we meet, you won''t be able to run away from me this easily, pretty little fox!]

    And just before William would cross a hundred metres following others, a weird voice came and echoed in his ears.

    The sound came all of sudden and without warning, greatly startling William and making his body freeze motionless in ce. He slowly turned around, looked through the denseyers of fire and monsters that seemed to fill the entire world out of this path, trying to see where this voice came from, and who was its owner.

    "Who are you?" But as he failed to see anything, William suddenly shouted. And his shout stopped everyone in their tracks.

    "Dude, I know this is quite a blow, but you were handling yourself quite well so far!" Sith mistook William''s actions to be losing his control on himself, seemingly getting shaken by the death of the few members in his team.

    Everyone on Sith''s side exchanged silent nces. They never expected for William to care this much about their lost friends.

    They mistook everything happening right now. And even William never got what was going on.

    [Who else? Come on! We were fighting and chasing all over this forest for more than two days so far! Don''t you recognize me, pretty fox?]

    "Nightmare¡­" William couldn''t even believe himself when he said this single word. It felt like he was speaking to a ghost or experiencing a real nightmare at the moment.

    [I hated this nickname! Why do folks like you end up having their true and awesome names stick to them while I always get such ame name?]

    "I¡­ I don''t follow you¡­ What do you want?" William paused in his words, and that was a clear sign on how immensely shocked he truly was.

    It wasn''t like he never met a monster that could speak human tongue. The nine tailed fox he fought before managed to speak like humans, alongside other monsters who were quite overbearing and terrifying.

    Yet the thought that he''d meet such a human talking monster here, in this tiny world, a gold grade monster on top of that, was something that never crossed his mind.

    [I want to eat you!] and the deep and scary voice that echoed in his mind jolted him awake.

    "Eat me? Why?!" William pointed towards himself, "you got the entire damn forest for god''s sake! Go out there, pick any monster you''d like, and eat it! Whye for someone like me?"

 Chapter 329 Pretty Little Fox

    [Dude, you can fool anyone, but not me. I already sniffed your scent from tens of kilometres away! You are the all great and legendary nine tailed fox. Eating you is nothing like eating anything else! You are my missing piece to leave this damn trash world and go to the vast world outside]

    "..."

    William''s inward shock was nothing like anything else he experienced before sinceing back in time. He always felt there was something quite amiss here. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how fast he ran, the Nightmare monster always kept tracking and trailing him.

    At first, he didn''t notice this. But eventually he could tell something was wrong! He didn''t do anything to that monster to get such an honour. He simply ran off its clutches, and even didn''t leave empty handed and delivered a bunch of strong gold grade monsters on this scary beast''s dining table.

    But this didn''t even stop that beast from following him all this time, fighting desperately as if William killed its own parents or stole away its core or something.

    And now William realised it all. This monster knew what type of spirit he got, even without the need for William to use it at all.

    That monster already sat its gaze upon William. And to thetter, that meant bad news.

    [If I knew you are going to be this slippery, hard to catch, then I''d have gone serious from the start. I should have merged all my clones into one, crushing you like an ant! But what can I say, it was my mistake, and I always learn from my mistakes]

    "Screw you!" William couldn''t help but shout in anger, while a very terrifying roar came at the same time with an explosiveugh that he only heard.

    [Don''t get this hyped up, pretty little fox! You are entrapped in the body of a useless and powerless human! That means you''ll never show up your true might anytime soon. I''m going away for now, going to raise my strength up and reach the next level. I can feel it, that next step is so damn nearby! It seems like you are my good luck charm, pretty little fox. Just don''t let anyone else kill you before I do. I want to use your power, add it all to mine, and end up taking that final leap and get out from here]

    "F*ck off! Who said you''ll get a single bite off me?!" William couldn''t take these words from such a monster. Even if the monster was already quite terrifying and going to be much stronger when it''d turn into dark gold grade, William couldn''t tolerate such words at all!

    In his eyes, that damn beast was all wrong! And that Nightmare monster just mistook everything. It thought the nine tailed fox monster took over William''s body, recing his spirit, and will, inhabited this body as a reservoir or a means of nirvana or something.

    ? This was all wrong! This was all bullshit in William''s eyes. But right now, that didn''t matter. The real intentions of that Nightmare were all that mattered.

    [Kakakaka! What a lovely little fox you are! If I met the true body of you, then I should have thought twice about what I just said. But you are a loser, dude! You made such a horrible mistake, taking over a human''s body to live like humans. What''s great about those damn weak meat bodies? They are just useless! Pretty damn weak! And I''ll soon prove this over to you]

    "F*ck off! Next time we meet, it''ll be me spitting on your dead body!"

    [Kakakaka, what a lovely little fox you are! Next time we''ll meet, pretty little fox, I won''t go easy on you. Make sure to not see my face or cross paths with me, or else¡­ You won''t have such time to even chat with me. See you soon, pretty lovely fox]

    As that sound suddenly appeared out of nowhere, it also vanished in the same fashion. At the same time, William saw many shadows retreat from the front of the deadly fire.

    It looked like this monster was retreating, ending this crazy hunt for now. William didn''t feel it until that dude left for a few minutes, but his entire forehead and body got soaked heavily with his cold sweat!

    He got scared! And he had all the right to feel so.

    "Are you alright?" Everyone around was feeling something was off with William. Yet at the same time, they also felt a suffocating presence that prevented them from saying a single word till now.

    That terrifying presence just got lifted off and vanished for a few minutes already, letting everyone heave a deep sigh of relief. Then they started to surround William, checking him up.

    "It''s nothing," William was looking a bit better than before. He might have gotten taken aback by such a sudden twist in events and unbelievable revtion, but he was also thankful for that little talk.

    It was like a cold bucket of water that got thrown at his head when he was in deep sleep. It was a brisk waking up call, one that he definitely needed.

    "That damn nine tailed fox¡­ I ended up meeting one of your damn old enemies, bastard!" William said this to himself, while his face got covered in a weird mask of determination.

    No matter how he looked at it, he ended up facing something that he shouldn''t face at this stage, not in this world at least.

    Like spirit masters, high grade monsters had friends and enemies. And from the words of that beast, William knew this Nightmare monster wasn''t anyway a friend to that damn fox.

    William now could understand everything that he lived through in the past few days. It wasn''t a coincidence as he thought. It was all linked to the nine tailed fox spirit he got.

    Even if he didn''t seed in using and activating that spirit for the time being, it didn''t prevent other formidable monsters from sniffing that scent from him.

 Chapter 330 One Tail Fox Spirit Theory

    That meant such an encounter would be repeated from time to time. And he had to be more prepared to face and handle such annoying monsters.

    "Itined about that name¡­ Which means he is famous in the outside world by another name¡­" William got lost in thought, while moving after Sith and his team.

    He wasn''t in the mood to care about what they were talking about right now. And so, he failed to notice the weird gazes they all gave him during the first half an hour.

    William tried to go through all the crazy and scary monsters he was aware of but failed to spot anything simr to that dude he just met. He was quite familiar with the Nightmare monsters and met a few of them in the outside world.

    And that made him more puzzled actually. If this monster could grow up and reach the outer world under a different name and identity, why would few still use the same name out there?

    "That son of b*tch mentioned something about merging his clones together¡­ That means it can acquire all the techniques and elements its clones got. If so¡­ Then facing this bastard again is going to be an impossible endeavour if I didn''t reach the dark gold grade before meeting it¡­"

    His thoughts suddenly drifted away from this monster''s true identity and focused on himself. "Wait a minute¡­ That damn beast can merge its clones and use different techniques and elements¡­ Does that mean I also can do that? In reverse?!"

    He didn''t have any clones to begin with. But weirdly enough, the words of that Nightmare monster stirred up quite an idea in his mind.

    "I don''t have clones, but I got tails¡­" his eyes shone brighter when he reached this point in his thoughts, "I always tried to activate my spirit with two tails. I was wrong! I should have tried just activating my spirit while limiting it to just one tail¡­"

    William''s thoughts started to grow wild from this point onward. He never thought about limiting his spirit before, and only tried to stir it up regrly, just like any spirit master would do in such a situation.

    But to activate the full version of his spirit, he had to wait till reaching silver grade. And right now, and after meeting this Nightmare monster, he realised he wasn''t that OP or even that safe in this world as he thought before.

    He might have feared the high-grade spirit masters like Berry''s family and the academy headmaster. He never thought a monster would drive such fear inside of him, one that didn''t belong to the dark gold grade.

    "I have to give it a try once I get the chance," he decided to try it out, not right now but when he got away from Sith''s teampany. He wanted many monsters around to test his new power on as well. And so, he had to wait until he''d part ways with Sith''s team, and then try out his new theory over monsters in the forest.

    But he was just quite impatient right now to leave this safe path, say goodbye to Sith and his team, and return back to the hell of the forest and test out his theory.

    After a long time of struggling back and forth and wrestling with logic and desire, he was half step away from testing out his theory.

    Then he looked up at Sith and his remaining team. "Shall I use them to guard me while I try it out? Are they trustworthy?"

    William thought about stopping the team right now and started testing his theory out. However, when he recalled how their morale was low at this moment, and they weren''t yet that safe and far away from the ce of thest battle, he dropped such an idea right now.

    He was the one that kept telling them to move forward and run as far and fast away from that beast. If he just spoke out all of sudden, telling them that they don''t need to fret or panic, then no one would believe him.

    After all, he had no logical exnation for this. And he also didn''t totally trust they''d keep what they''d see here to themselves, as he didn''t trust that beast''s words.

    What if it said all this to just trick him? What if that beast wanted him to lower his guard, instead of retreating as it said, it''d try to find a way to pass through the ocean of fire ande at him again?

    "No, I should treat such a matter with more caution," William decided to leash his desire, wait up until they''d cross more than fifteen kilometres distance, part ways with Sith''s team, before he''d start testing his theory out.

    "Are you ok?" One of Sith''s team noticed how William returned to look normal again after showing different disturbing expressions over his face during their past march.

    "I''m good," William didn''t know this, but he became a hot topic among the team during the past few hours'' walk.

    William showed signs of losing his mind after their loss, and that deeply touched their hearts. They previously dealt with him as they should deal with any foreigner they got a temporary alliance with.

    But the unexpected behaviour William showed, and the weird and deep frown look that appeared over his face frequently since they started their march, made everyone feel genuine worry over him.

    They felt much closer to him than before, as if he was part of their team or something.

    "We discussed a matter among us¡­" Sith moved his eyes in a hesitant way among his friends, "how about this¡­ We have an inside rule to only ept silver grade spirit masters in our team. And as you can see, weck members at the moment."

    "Your point is?" William was still burdened by his earlier thoughts. And so, such words and the hidden offer in what Sith said came as a surprise for him.

 Chapter 331 An Offer

    "We saw how strong and quite capable you are. In fact, you aren''t any weaker than any silver grade spirit master. Hell, you are even at the same level of strength as me and other gold grade spirit masters."

    "Oh, thanks about this but¡­"

    "Just wait and listen," Sith knew William was about to reject his offer, "you can consider the ce we came from as one of the top and strongest forces in the world. We have a great reputation, and we never limit the freedom of our members. Why not join us?"

    "Yes, you are now like a brother to us," another member spoke up, "and joining us won''t affect being part of the Aspire academy."

    "You aren''t part of an academy?!" The meaning behind these words was quite clear. They were a strong force, famous all over the world, but they weren''t actually from any academy.

    William could only think of a very exclusive short list of names in his mind when he gathered the little dots together, "tell me, where are you from? For real?" he moved his eyes among everyone, before finallynding over Sith.

    "We are from the Lockheart Impact," Sith''s words revealed the truth atst. And that identity was one of the few William guessed already.

    He didn''t know that name for specific, but he already guessed that they belonged to one of the famous impacts at least.

    Impacts were like a gathering of lots of spirit mastersing from different origins in the world. It was like an association, a guild or something, for those who shared themon goal and beliefs with others.

    In other words, they were like a cult or something simr to that.

    "Hmm¡­ To be honest with you, I never heard about such a name before," William was cruelly honest here, "but I do know of the impact word. And that makes me wonder, what high beliefs do your impact have?"

    "It''s normal for ad like yourself to not hear about our impact''s prestigious name," another member spoke, not in any arrogant way, "we are always one of the top ten list of impacts all over the world at any given time."

    "That means we are quite strong," Sith doubted that William would get what his friend meant to say, "and we have the prestigious goal of helping the spirit mastermunity in breaking through the shackles of this world as our top goal. We always tend to help the weak, save as many spirit masters as possible, and nourish those youngsters with great potential, like us, like yourself."

    "Interesting," William felt like this bunch of spirit masters and the impact behind them shared many things inmon with him, "but¡­ As one of you said, I''m a part of the Aspire academy. I got friends there, family, and lots of things that I can''t just ditch and throw away to join you."

    "Just like I told you before, our impact never attaches any strings around any of us."

    "But¡­ Here you are, travelling very far from your impact, and doing something big, right?"

    "It''s the five years assessment test," one of Sith''s members said, exining what William didn''t know about their real purpose here, "all the teams belonging to the impact will have to gather once per five years. Wepete together over a few goals. The higher one team would reach, the bigger the support it will get from the impact for the next five years."

    "And we aren''t from far from here," another member said, "we are all from ces around the Scorching Lands territory. So, one way or another, we are slightly simr to you, we are all from ces around here."

    "But you have to leave everything and do this thing, right?" William knew this dude was trying to make things look light or quite simple by what he said.

    "It''s a must to have a test, at least for selected teams," Sith looked a little troubled by something, before his features eased a bit, "you don''t need to worry about such tests for now. If you join, you''ll still have five years before the uing test anyway. And there are lots of dates to select from to have your test, not like we''ll force you on a single date or something."

    "It''s a good way to assess the value of each team using such a method," William nodded, "but¡­ To join your impact, shall I go to your impact''s headquarters or what? And what if some sort of conflict urred between the interests of the impact and my academy? What shall I do then?"

    William wanted to know more about this impact. He wasn''t that much interested in joining them for now. But if he''d gain the help of such a team here, with the possibility of letting them join his independent team in the future, then he''d consider epting their offer in a year or so.

    As long as there was nothing much that he had to do, and what he''d do for the impact wouldn''t harm his interests as well, then he didn''t have any objections to joining them.

    But before thinking about any of that, he had to know more about this impact.

    "Our impact has many bases all over the world," Sith paused, before pointing towards a direction, "the test is going on in many small bases, one of these is located at the nearby Scorching Lands. You do know it, right?"

    "What a coincidence! I heard about this ce a lot and wanted to visit it one day," William didn''t say it directly that his real aim was to go there.

    "You should then," one of Sith''s team said, "we are going to gather there in one week. When you''ll see how grand our numbers are, and how many high-grade spirit masters we got, you''ll feel lucky to join us."

    "Thanks, but till now I prefer to work alone," William knew what this dude wanted to convey, but he didn''t like his tone.

    He wasn''t someone who''d cry and plead to join a force.

 Chapter 332 Paying His Debt

    "It''s just a sign of how strong and wealthy our impact is," Sith gave his friend a ming silent look before adding, "as for the conflict of interest, I won''t lie and say it never happened before. But our impact''s higher ups always thought about such a thing and tried their best to not put any of us under tough situations."

    "This¡­"

    "Our impact has many members, all came from different ces," another member had to speak up, as the expression over William''s face told them he didn''t like such a vague answer from Sith, "and so if any conflict urred between the members inside, or between the forces behind our members, the impact would try its best to remain neutral and let everyone settle their differences away from the impact."

    "That''s not what I meant, but thanks," William slowly nodded, "I wanted to know if the impact gave out an order and that wasn''t on the same line of interest or even antagonised the interests of my academy. For example, what if a war broke out between my academy and another, and the impact asked their members to support the enemy of my academy¡­ What shall I do then? Did such a thing ever happen before?"

    And when William said it in such a way, the faces of Sith''s team members changed. "I don''t need to hear your answer," and by seeing their expressions, William waved his arm, "I already got it. Let''s just remain friends, alright?"

    "But¡­"

    "No hurry to take a decision right now," Sith knew he already failed in convincing William about joining them. And for a moment there, he questioned himself if he was speaking with an eleven-year-old kid or an adult with vast life experience, "we are going to have a grand meeting in one week out there. Why don''t you tag along then? Come and attend that meeting, get to know things about us in flesh."

    "Sorry, but as you already know, I still got a team out there, somewhere away from here. And they are waiting for me."

    "I get it," Sith paused, "then¡­"

    "I''ll considering to the Scorching Lands," William didn''t promise them anything, not even confirming his destination towards Scorching Lands, "now, let''s get ready. I believe we have crossed at least five kilometres by now. We have two kilometres left, and then we''ll get out of here."

    "Ok," Sith knew in his heart that he lost the chance of recruiting William and let him join his team. And for a moment there, he felt a weird regret for failing to do so.

    He didn''t even realise that by such an ending, he and his team already fell into William''s grasp. Yet they still didn''t know this.

    "There, we are already at the exit," after one more hour, and just when the early rays of the sun were drawing slowly and shyly over the entire world, one of Sith''s team pointed towards the distance as he said this.

    The fire stopped raging almost four kilometres behind this point. The monsters stopped following them for hours.

    The team kept speaking about that scary Nightmare monster almost all the time. Aside from speaking about it, they tried to befriend William from time to time, speaking about how good the treatment they got from their impact was almost the rest of the time.

    But after realising that William kept a fixed distance between him and them, not dealing in any close or that friendly way towards any but Sith, they started to forget about trying to impress him or recruit him for now.

    And Sith yed a major role in making them forget about William. He was experienced enough to know that trying to push over something sometimes would backfire if one wasn''t careful.

    William ignored most of their talk after he rejected their offer. He wanted to make himself look uncaring and not interested at all about joining their team.

    He didn''t refuse the idea in general, but he didn''t like joining another team and working under someone''s leadership.

    If they wanted, then they should hand over the leadership of the team over to him. In other words, they should move their team and join him, not the other way around.

    William knew if he dared to hint about anything like that from near or far, then all he got would be a mix of mockingughs and direct rejection.

    He was, after all, someone without any backing or a name for himself. And so he nned to leave a deep impression in their spirits, before parting ways for the time being.

    They''d join him, but not now. Perhaps one yearter, perhaps a few monthster than that. William knew that by the time his team and his name would be famous all over the Scorching Lands region, then they''d start thinking about joining him.

    That was William''s long-term n for Sith and his team. And after leaving thendmine, William helped Sith and others to kill many monsters, iming their materials and cores which William didn''t kill by himself.

    The team killed a few thousand monsters during that day. And William knew if they were by themselves, without him around, their killing speed would have decreased by a lot.

    "This is where we''ll part ways," but as usual, everything got to an end. William didn''t act stingy with them, used his full power and helped the team to secure tons of materials.

    He didn''t know if this was enough for this team''s test results to be high in the ranking or not, but he fulfilled his promise. And now he didn''t owe them anything.

    "Will you go to the Scorching Lands right away?" Sith tried more than once during the past day to get an answer from him, but William either rejected or evaded giving him a direct reply.

    "Let''s leave it to fate and see if we''ll meet there again or not," William didn''t give a direct answer again, "I hope all the best for your team."

    "And to you too," Sith sighed, kept shaking his head in regret while watching William''s back getting smaller as he slowly vanished in the middle of the trees.

    "What a guy!"

 Chapter 333 A Sealed Scroll

    Sith couldn''t help butment in admiration. During the past day, they all experienced how formidable William was.

    If they didn''t get much of what he did back when they fought against the Nightmare monster and other monsters, then by seeing him fight by their side for this day, they knew he was someone truly special and gifted.

    "Let''s hope he''ll change his mind in one week," one of Sith''s team, a gold grade spirit master sighed, "it''s a waste to let such a gem be buried under the mud of such a weak and useless academy."

    "Yes, I hope so as well," Sith slowly nodded, before turning around, leading his team away towards the direction of the Scorching Lands.

    "Now¡­ Where are you?" William once left Sith''s team, he started to worry about his team.

    He knew they were now tens of kilometres apart, if not even more. He tried more than once to use the Bullets and see if they were nearby but always failed.

    The range of a single Bullet would cover up no more than ten kilometre radius. And that told William he was apart from them by a long distance.

    "I have to find a ce to rest and think about where to go and how to find them," William knew it was futile to keep just wandering and roaming the forest aimlessly like that.

    It was daytime, and monsters used to grow weak by now. Most of the monsters would prefer to sleep and rest, instead of seeking trouble with other monsters or the passerby spirit masters.

    During the past day, William managed to gain a few hundred cores, mostly silver and bronze grades. He got a few white grades and two gold grades as well. And these two he acquired thanks to the help of Sith and other gold members in thetter''s team.

    William was already in the deep parts of the forest. So, meeting white grade monsters here was a rare asion. The ones he met in this grade were considered babies of much higher-grade monsters.

    Themon monsters found here were all silver grade. He met many gold monsters, but most were killed by Sith and his team''s gold grade spirit masters.

    William only managed to deal thest blow for two gold grade monsters, stealing the kill in return for gaining two more gold cores.

    "I got five gold cores¡­ But I shouldn''t grow greedy and reckless¡­ I have to wait, be patient until I''ll cross the silver grade border."

    William didn''t get lots of rest since leaving the safendmine zone. He wanted to pay his debt in full to Sith and others, kept fighting and only getting little rest in between all that.

    Soon enough, he found a little hill that had an opening in the middle of it. William used his gold sword, and managed to widen this hole, enough for him toy inside and rest for hours without much worry.

    He didn''t forget toy around a protective array, the one he used before when he was his team. He also added the concealment array, before finally getting inside the hole and rested his body.

    The moment heid his body there, he felt like all the fatigue he umted this far exploded in front of his face and body. It was like his body wanted and craved for a deep sleep and long deserved rest. Yet William didn''t hurry to close his eyes before doing something first.

    He absorbed lots of silver and bronze cores during the past day. And yet, for a reason he couldn''t get, he didn''t feel he was gaining lots of power like he should.

    "Only eight hundred and thirty-two points? Howe¡­?!!!" William expected his spirit power to increase by a little, not following what he expected before. However, this was much worse than what he even expected.

    "Damn! It must be the quality of the silver cores¡­ Those bastards! They were all in the low tier of the silver grade¡­ Dammit! What a waste!"

    William absorbed hundreds of cores and was supposed to get at least three hundred points increase. But all he got was one hundred and thirty-two points, much lower than what he expected.

    He couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. He knew to assess the grade of any monster, he got to test their bodies using special methods.

    To do so in the middle of a hectic battle was crazy! "Any point gained is a big gain no matter what," he said these words to console himself. Then he took a deep breath, stored the spirit crystal he used to test his spirit power, before deciding to go through his current loot so far.

    William''s biggest gain didn''t lie just in the cores, but in the rings and gears he acquired from the dark spirit masters he killed before.

    "Damn! These folks¡­ I never expected being an ouw would grant you such wealth!"

    William got seven more rings. Removing the seal over them was a piece of cake, as well as removing the tracking imprints left over them.

    And when he took control over these, he was bewildered by the vast amount of wealth he found there. In terms of spirit crystals alone, he found hundreds of thousands in the ringsbined.

    "There are lots of gears here¡­ The good ones are at silver grade¡­ What were they nning to do with all these exactly? Trying to arm an army or what?!"

    The number of gears he found in the rings was enough to arm up an army of three thousand spirit masters to the brim. William never thought this was a mere coincidence, and the group he met seemed to be out there to do something crucial for the dark spirit masters.

    As he guessed so far, he didn''t hesitate and ignored all the gears, spirit crystals, and monster materials in there. He started looking around, looking for something that would tell him about the real purpose of this little team.

    "Found it!" After half an hour of going through all the content of each ring, he finally found something of value. His eyes shone brightly when he took out a sealed scroll.

 Chapter 334 The Five Headed Serpent Array

    It was folded with red ribbon as if it was a gift or something of extreme value. William touched the scroll and wasn''t in any hurry to remove the red ribbon for now.

    "They were from the ck Eye organisation¡­ It''s a low tier thug group out there in the outer world. But it seems they have roots deep in this world¡­"

    William kept fiddling with the scroll without even trying to touch that red ribbon. From what he knew that simple looking ribbon tying the scroll wasn''t simple at all.

    "It''s safe to assume they used a sealingyered technique, one that will take the form of somethingmon and familiar with anyone," William threw the scroll in the air, as if he was ying with it.

    "They can''t be using the Nine Star sealing array, right?" William didn''t hurry to touch that ribbon. He knew this simple looking red ribbon was in fact a very troublesome sealing array.

    A single wrong move and the entire scroll would burn to ash, and he''d lose such valuable lead he identally acquired.

    "It''s just unfortunate for you that this fell into my hands," William ced the scroll inside one of his rings, took out his sword, and started to widen the space around.

    He needed a spacious area for what he nned to do. "I''ll assume it''s one of the high-grade sealing arrays. Let''s see if it will burn the ribbon and open the scroll or burn the entire scroll itself¡­"

    William knew this was going to be a gamble, but he didn''t hesitate to try unsealing this scroll out.

    Such a scroll he found in a weird group of dark spirit masters, one he identally met in the heart of the forest, not too far away from the academynds, with rings filled with lots of gears and war supplies of potions and even explosive arrays was indeed quite fishy.

    William was quite sure this scroll hid very valuable intel. And when he thought about the recent moves of the academy against the dark spirit masters around, he couldn''t help but want to read the scroll''s content more than ever.

    Not to mention he was going to deal with the dark spirit masters at the Scorching Lands. So, any intel would help him greatly.

    "I''m ready," to unseal such a high-grade seal, William had to use another array to do it. And he used his knowledge to go through all the materials inside each ring, until he found the materials needed for a single array he knew of.

    "So, it''s the Five Headed Serpent array," he muttered when he realised the nature of the array used to unseal the red ribbon array. All the content he needed to unseal that sealing array were all present in one ring, the same ring that contained this scroll in the first ce.

    And that made him suspect that this ring belonged to the leader of that team. Guessing all this, linking all this together, gave him more confidence in unsealing this scroll.

    "Ignite!" William ced the materials in their ces after clearing all the rocks he unearthed.

    He could have gone out and used this method outside. But he feared it might cause a scene, attract monsters here and expose his ce.

    *Sizzle!* *Sizzle!* *Sizzle!*

    Once William activated his array, the materials ced on the ground got all burnt in a bright blue light.

    "It''s good that I didn''t use it outside," by seeing such a scene, William knew if he did it outside, then monsters would find his ce in no time.

    *Sizzle!* *Sizzle!* Sizzle!*

    The materials all burnt fast, released the blue light to envelope and cover up the small scroll in the centre. It formed a thick veil of blue dome at first, then like a sponge, the scroll absorbed all the blue light slowly.

    William knew it wasn''t the scroll which did that, but the red ribbon. And as more blue light got sucked dry, the dome began to fade slowly, and the red ribbon started to show few changes.

    It looked as if it was formed of some sort of liquid before, and by absorbing this blue light, it condensed into a solid red and blue material. And then fine cracks began to show up on it.

    The scroll thatid on the ground in peace all this time started to get affected by some sort of power. It rose slowly in the air, until it reached one metre high and then stopped.

    William stood on the side, waiting in patience. Even after the entire blue light vanished and his unsealing array reached the end of its fuel, he didn''t hurry to grab or inspect the scroll.

    "Thest ten minutes are the final trapid out for those who are ignorant about this seal," William repeated the words he once heard from a friend of his in the past. And that made him heave a deep sigh that was filled with lots of memories and little emotions.

    *Crack!*

    Just when he was lost in his memories, the cracking sound of this ribbon jolted him awake. He looked and saw the scrollnding on the ground in a peaceful way, without any speck or trace of that ribbon at all.

    "It''s unsealed," William smiled, while pushing aside his needless thoughts for now.

    When he touched the scroll, it felt like he grabbed a piece of metal from fire or something. It felt quite hot, and that was just what was left from removing that red ribbon.

    If he did anything wrong, then all this heat and more would have been directed towards the scroll, starting a fire, and eating it up in a few seconds.

    William didn''t wait for it to cool down and started to unfold it in a hurry. "Wow! It''s not just a single scroll!" This was the first surprise he got.

    When he opened the scroll, he found a group of smaller scrolls folded one inside the other. William started to ce them on the ground, and ten different sized scrolls appeared in front of his eyes.

    "They are all nk¡­" But after doing all this, he found out all the scrolls were just empty pieces of paper.

 Chapter 335 The Ten Scrolls Mystery

    The ten scrolls were now on the ground, fixed there by using a few rocks from around. William scratched his head, feeling more amused and interested by this situation.

    "They must hold very important information," William became surer of his earlier guess, "I don''t know what type of encryption they used here¡­ But if there is a way to crack open these scrolls and force them to show their secrets then¡­"

    He paused, shifted his eyes away from the scrolls on the ground towards the rings he wore on his fingers.

    If there was a way to make these scrolls reveal their secrets, then it must be inside one of these rings.

    William came here to rest, but he totally forgot about that when he met such a mystery. The harder it was to read the content of these scrolls, the more he wanted to unravel their mysteries.

    He sat on the ground, started to take off one ring after another, inspecting their content. "Hmm¡­ That''s weird¡­ Howe there isn''t anything to make these scrolls show their content?!"

    After almost five hours of going through the content of every ring three times, he finally had to drop such an idea.

    "Don''t tell me they used another array to do it," William shifted his eyes again over these ten scrolls, feeling more puzzled and intrigued by them.

    But no matter how hard he thought about this mystery, he failed to see through it. "What did they write on these scrolls?!! Nothing worked at all!!!"

    After three more hours, William couldn''t help but admit it. He failed to break through the seal over these scrolls. And that made him quite frustrated.

    He was one thousand percent sure now that these scrolls contained very important information. And that made him more determined on unsealing them.

    "I''m out of ideas right now," William had to drop his attempts after two more hours. He racked his brain, and still couldn''t unbreak that seal on the papers or find a way to force them to reveal their content.

    "I''m just too exhausted," he stretched out his body after storing the scrolls inside one of his rings, "I shall spend the night here."

    He spent all the daytime in his attempts. Right now, the world outside was growing dim slowly as the sun was heading towards the ground.

    William took a few of his rations and had a proper meal. He didn''t risk lightening up fire and ate the rations he had from the academy pretty cold as he checked the world outside.

    He didn''t find any trace of any unusual activity around. After confirming that there was no hidden risk anywhere, William fell into deep sleep.

    William spent the entire night inside that hole, and his two arrays managed to conceal him from any dangers.

    He decided to look for his team when he''d wake up. But least to his knowledge that his team was already facing their own adventure, one that wasn''t any less surprising and intense than the one he just experienced.

    After William got separated from his team, they kept running away from the ce of the battle. Berry was the most eager one among others to turn around and go to find William.

    The scene of hernding at the right moment, saving William from the tough situation he was facing, danced in a tempting way in her mind since leaving him behind.

    But as the team agreed before, they had to wait for half an hour before doing such a thing.

    *Roar!*

    Just when they were close to passing the half an hour mark, they heard a fierce roaring from one side.

    "I''m going to handle this¡­ You keep going up ahead. I''ll deal with this dude quite fast and then meet you up," Ibra knew he was breaking William''s n by doing this. However, he also knew there was a slim chance for the team to meet one of the Nightmare monster''s clones.

    William was attracting that monster''s attention. And so Ibra decided to take the lead and charge fast towards the iing monster. He was the strongest, and that made him the most capable one here to deal with this new threat pretty damn fast.

    He wanted to kill this monster as soon as possible, then lead everyone back where they left William. They took half an hour to get away from him, and that meant they needed another half an hour to return back and save him. So, wasting more time here would ce William at more risk.

    "Wait! This¡­ This¡­" but the moment he approached the iing monster, and before any one of the team would issue their opinion or disapproval about what he did, his shaky voice came to make everyone stop in their tracks.

    "Sh*t! Holy sh*t! This isn''t a single monster, but an entire horde of them¡­ Run¡­ Run for your lives!" and when everyone didn''t know what was going on, Ibra''s loud shout came to jolt them awake.

    And before they''d move a single muscle, they all watched the entire forest around tremble, as many trees up there started to shake and fall to the side, exposing arge number of monsters drawing in crazy speed towards them.

    It was as if the entire forest gushed out all of its monsters all of sudden. This scene wasn''t any different than facing a monster tide attacking a n or the academy.

    "Run! Run towards there!" Ibra knew they had no time at all to even think of a n to retreat, not many options ahead of them but to blindly run towards the safest direction. He went for a hundred metres ahead, leading the way that was opposite to where he spotted the early waves of this grand monster tide.

    He saw most of the horizon''s trees shake and fall, in a way that told him how huge the iing monster tide was.

    There was no time to worry about anything or anyone right now. Ibra instantly turned around, took the charge while shouting to jolt others back to their senses.

 Chapter 336 A Hectic Run For Their Lives

    The vice leaders started to lead everyone after him. Ibra knew going forward wasn''t an option right now. The only way to survive this was by running back, going towards the direction they all came from.

    "Damn! This way is also blocked!" but just as the team ran for a few minutes, they noticed a distant disturbance in the trees up there.

    "Let''s go this way, there isn''t a single monster there," Lang pointed in panic towards a direction, where trees stood tall and not shaking or falling like it was the end of the world.

    "Don''t ck! Keep running! And look for a safe ce to hide!" Sara''s shout came as the team started to run in a direction away from where they came from or they were going towards before.

    "Please, hang in there for a little longer," as the path they got forced to follow took them away from William''s ce, Berry couldn''t help but turn her head towards William''s direction, and mutter these words in deep worry and fear.

    She felt before saving William was a piece of cake. Yet as she was totally inexperienced about the true terror of the deep parts of the forest. She took it as a safe trip inside her n or something, but she was totally wrong.

    The entire situation turned ugly, and she got no control at all on the dangerously increasing situation here.

    Instead of going back there and saving William in a heroic way like she imagined, they were now running as fast as they could, with their lives hanging by a thin thread.

    None of them got any control over the direction they were running at right now. Every now and then, the team would end up with their path blocked by new monsters. Even their running path wasn''t determined by them, but by the direction void of any monsters.

    "What the hell is going on?!"

    "Are we going to die?!!"

    "Please, I just wanted to get stronger, kill dark spirit masters, not to fall into the hands of monsters!"

    "If we have no way out from here, please, someone please kill me! I don''t want to get eaten by any monster."

    "Me too!"

    "Shut the hell up! Tsk! Why is that damn bastard missing when we need him the most?!" Ibra roared like a hurt beast, shaking his head in anger. If there were few monsters out there, then even if they were all at gold grade, he was sure he''d be able to lead everyone away.

    But they were running for almost the entire night from a tsunami of monsters. Even he lost track of their current destination or location!

    They changed their path many times to be tracked by anyone! And he didn''t know if they were close or far from William, far or close from the academy even!

    "There are shes of light! There must be spirit masters there fighting!"

    "Thanks god! I''m so close to falling dead out of running!"

    "Please, please let them be good spirit masters, not some dark twisted ones, please god!"

    Ibra, the silver members, and the five vice leaders exchanged silent gazes. They got no say in this, as this was the path they got forced towards by the swarm of monsters chasing after them relentlessly all the night.

    What others mentioned about them being part of the dark spirit masters wasn''t just their least troubles.

    What really bothered all of them was the value of joining such a group of spirit masters in their current bad situation.

    After all, what would a small group of spirit masters do against such a deadly monster tide?

    In their eyes, there was no hope for them to survive if things kept going this way.

    As these strong and more experienced members had such a headache, the team got closer from the location of all these shining lights.

    The closer they were from there, the more astonished they became.

    "This..."

    "What the heck is that?!!"

    As the team got closer from the ce of lights, they couldn''t help but get shocked.

    Instead of the spirit masters they thought they''d find fighting against monsters, they saw spirit masters standing on high hills, looking like manmade pirs or something.

    First the initial number they thought to find was wrong, totally wrong! The best estimate anyone had in their mind was just a team of twenty spirit masters.

    But what they saw right now wasn''t anything close from that! They spotted hundreds of spirit masters, standing on top of these hills, surrounding a central area of close to half a kilometre square, with bright burning fire torches ced inside this vacant space ofnd.

    These torches were the source of the lights they spotted from far. And that added more to their puzzlement.

    "Go this way!" and when everyone felt more confused by what was going on out there, a loud and thundering shout came before a thick pir of lightning fell from the sky all of sudden, "follow the lightning, don''t go into the hunting ground!"

    "...!"

    *Rumble!*

    "Just follow the damn lightning! It''s not that hard to do so!"

    *Rumble!*

    After three sessive lightning strikes, the entire team got jolted awake.

    "Let''s go there!"

    "Follow the lightning! Don''t go in there!"

    "Just follow us!"

    Ibra and the vice leaders showed their quality at this stressful moment. They led everyone into an arched path, heading away from the open ce that was situated between the circle of hills.

    They couldn''t tell what was going on right here, but they realised going towards the area that was filled with torches would be quite disastrous for them.

    "Goodds," the one who spoke earlier said as if he admired their fast response here. Ibra and others tried to see where that dude was but couldn''t until they reached where the lightning kept striking before.

    There they found some sort of a bubble waiting for them. "It''s a protective shield!" many eximed in surprise.

    *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

 Chapter 337 An Earth-Shattering Battle!

    "Get inside! Don''t stay out there!" The same voice thundered again while a thick arc of lightning fell over that bubble. Strangely enough, that bubble didn''t even show any sign of damage, instead got shined brighter, as if it absorbed the lightning energy and strengthened itself.

    By thest shout, everyone moved under this voice''s strong and irresistible charisma, and the endless fear they felt by the approach of the ocean of monsters from behind.

    If they dared to dy, then in less than two minutes, they''d get killed by these monsters.

    "Get in!"

    "Hurry!"

    "Wake up! The monsters won''t stop or vanish if you keep ring at them! Run inside! Let''s get into safety!"

    The vice leaders shouted all at the same time, urging everyone to get into that bubble thing and get away from the way of harm.

    Only Ibra and Sara stood on the side, looking at everyone, while prepared to jump in and carry anyone who''d get dyed or something.

    After all, it was a pretty hectic run for everyone. But for the white members, this was a hellish experience, as they pushed themselves over the limit a long time ago and were this close from fainting at any possible second.

    "Phew!" we are all safe!"

    *Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*

    And with the entrance of everyone inside that bubble shield, many fell to their knees, while all the white grade members fell on the ground, losing consciousness out of their fatigue.

    And before the vice leaders would do or say anything to help those deadly exhausted members, the world outside changed!

    Monsters were everywhere! It seemed like the monsters couldn''t sense the array they were inside, as if this part of the world didn''t even exist in the eyes and senses of these monsters.

    But soon enough, their surprise from this swarm of monsters and how they didn''t notice the weird array vanished, reced with another type of shock and scare!

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Just as the monsters blocked their sight, the entire world changed again. This time it was explosions, violent and earth-shattering explosions that made the entire ground tremble under their feet.

    And the next moment, the entire world shed brightly in front of their eyes, as everything turned all red, purple, orange, and white in session!

    "Dammit! Is it the end of the world or what?!"

    "Is this the might of a dark gold spirit master or what?!"

    "Come on! I witnessed lots of dark gold spirit masters fighting, but never was close to that."

    The silver grade members in the team started to say their piece one at a time. Yet that didn''t help in exining anything of what was going on out there.

    Ibra was surer than anyone else, there were at least a bunch of dark gold spirit masters out there. And when he recalled the weird scene of the tsunami of monsters that kept chasing them all the night, thend filled with torches and surrounded by the hills, he couldn''t help but feel that everything was connected.

    "It seems we got in the middle of a big force''s actions," Ibra finally muttered after ten minutes, "I don''t know if this is our good or bad luck, but at least we are all safe."

    He shifted his eyes towards others. The team members who got on the ground or already fainted got the healing potions by the help of the better-looking members.

    Everyone was looking better right now, and those white grade members were conscious again.

    "What do you even mean by that?!" one of the bronze members asked in doubt.

    "He means the entire thing wasn''t a coincidence or bad luck," Sara sighed, "we¡­ We were just in the wrong time and ce, got ourselves in the middle of a formidable force''s business without knowing it."

    "This¡­"

    "Can anyone please speak proper words? Something we can understand?!!"

    And as the weak and little experienced members in the team didn''t get what Ibra and Sara meant, one of the silver members stepped in to help.

    "What they wanted to tell you is that the monster tide didn''t happen naturally. These monsters got allured towards here by the work of these spirit masters."

    "Who is in their right mind will even try doing something like that?!!! We always run away from any monster tide, not be insane enough to work to draw it towards us!!!" This was what many had in their minds when they heard these words.

    "They are such a formidable and quite scary force," Ibra sighed, "one that will ce our academy and ns in the shadowspared with."

    "..."

    There was no more to say. Everyone kept their heavy and suffocating silence, resting and healing while watching all this madness happening from the front seats.

    They never expected to witness such a heaven defying battle once they stepped outside their academy. Even the most experienced ones, Ibra, Sara, and other silver members, got to see the world in a different light at the moment.

    All they could see and hear was the swarm of monsters that seemed quite endless. On the other hand, violent explosions kept ranging all the time without pause.

    What made them more shocked was that even by this far, with all this destruction, they couldn''t spot a single shadow of any spirit master at all.

    It seemed like the spirit masters here didn''t need to move a muscle to cause all this destruction!

    What was true might? What was a real war against monsters? This was! Even those who came from the Long n, the ones who saw a scary battle before, ended up quite shocked as well.

    This battle¡­ It was nothing like the one they experienced back at the walls of their n. And for a long time there, they got the same old feeling revived again.

    "This¡­ It''s like William is here and leading all of them in crushing those monsters!" Lang couldn''t control himself anymore, spoke the words others from his n kept in their chests.

 Chapter 338 [Bonus ] Who Is William?

    "No," Berry slowly shook her head, "it''s like we are seeing our future in front of our eyes."

    "What are you two talking about?" Ibra and a few others didn''t get what these two meant.

    "You weren''t there," Lang said in a deep sigh, "so it''s normal if you didn''t get any of what we said. But¡­ For anyone who witnessed the miracle our boss did back then at my n, then you''ll know what we are saying is true."

    Lang said these words, while moving his eyes among everyone who belonged to his n. And weirdly enough in the eyes of others, all the Long n members nodded in a firm and decisive way, strongly agreeing with what Lang said.

    "Then try to exin things out," Sara was already too curious about William, and anything rted to him, "tell us what he did back there! And what''s with the thing of seeing our future in front of our eyes? What does that even mean?"

    "Look outside," Berry pointed in a carefree way, "see all this? This is what we are going to be like in a few years from now if all of us followed William this long."

    "Bullshit!" Ibra didn''t buy any of what Berry said, "even after ten years, twenty years, even in our lifetime¡­ We won''te close to doing anything like this ever in our lives!"

    "No, you are mistaken," and when Ibra spoke to Berry, one of the bronze grade members of the Long n interfered, "I saw it with my own two eyes back then! William pulled a miracle, did something that none of us, even our leaders, even imagined! And weirdly it may sound, this battle here had the same vibe of what he did back there."

    "Take it from me," Lang stepped in, "if you followed William, then such a terrifying might won''t be a weird thing in our eyes at all! He¡­ He is quite different!"

    "...."

    Not everyone here got what the members of the Long n really meant.

    But people like Sara and Ibra could little understand how serious and truly believing these folks in their ims were. To others, especially those silver members, such talk made the Long nsmen look like they lost their minds or something.

    "Who is William you are all talking so big about? If he is your boss, then I have to say he is a fine one to get such loyalty and faith in his team!"

    And just before Berry would start exining and telling stories about the miraculous feats William did back at her n in detail, the same thunderous voice erupted out of the blue.

    This time, the voice didn''te in any thunderous or explosive way. It seemed like a normal voiceing from someone standing not too far from them.

    And when everyone turned to look at the direction of the voice, their eyesnded on the owner who was inside the bubble shield.

    He was an old looking man, one who had his white beard and hair growing to a very long extent. He stood just a few metres away from them, inside the defensive and protective array, without anyone even noticing him approaching at all!

    His face was calm, and weirdly enough it gave them the feeling as if he was listening to an amusing story or something.

    The moment Ibra saw him standing just two metres away from him, his heart couldn''t help but reflexively clench.

    "A dark gold spirit master!" one of the silver members of the team muttered in doubt and fear.

    "No, he isn''t that far away from taking that step," Ibra was the strongest, so he was the best to issue such a judgement.

    "Goodd indeed," and when that old and peaceful looking man nodded and agreed on Ibra''s words, everyone couldn''t help but take a few steps back in retreat, while most trembled out in fear.

    What did someone half a step away from the legendary rank mean? He was one of the strongest figures in the entire world! And he was just standing a few metres away from them.

    *Thud!* *Thud!* *Thud!*

    It wasn''t that surprising for the bunch of white grade kids to fall on the ground, with their bodies soaked entirely in their cold sweat.

    "Easy there, I mean no harm to any of you," that scary figure had to say these words, trying to calm the anxious kids in front of him.

    He didn''t release a speck of his spirit power to not startle nor terrify them. Yet just by revealing his current status in the world was enough to have the same impact as if he released his spirit power all out.

    "Venerable master, sorry but we got ourselves in the middle of your business," Sara was the most experienced here when it came to dealing with such a scary figure.

    After all, her grandfather wasn''t that worse than this old man. But for a reason, she felt this old man was a bit stronger than her scary grandfather.

    The same also went for Berry, who was half a breadth away from saying almost the same words to this old man.

    She was like Sara, got a scary grandfather. And like Sara, she also knew how peculiar these figures usually were.

    Anything that might look trivial and normal in the eyes of others would turn into a grave sin and insult in their eyes, even to the extent of them losing their lives for such trivial issues.

    "I''m not interested in any apology," and as the two girls expected, that old man already got a weird side of his, just like their grandfathers, "I''m more interested in that kid called William. Come on, tell me more about him."

    "R¡­ Right now?!!" Ibra was shocked by this. He had less experiencepared with Sara and Berry, but he also dealt with the academy headmaster many times already.

    "There is no need to worry, this is all quite normal."

 Chapter 339 We Wont Tell!

    The old man waved his arms around, speaking in a carefree way. He acted as if they weren''t standing in the heart of an earth-shattering legendary battle, but in a peaceful garden, drinking tea and eating desserts or something.

    ''All the strong folks are crazy!'' This was what many if not all the team members here thought about at the same time, and without any tacit understanding or prior agreement.

    "It''s fine for you to tell me stories. I want to hear more about this dude¡­ Tell me everything you know about him. Don''t leave a single detail no matter how small it is. I love to hear stories, with all the boring and useless content."

    "..."

    Meeting such a scary and formidable spirit master under such special circumstances left a deep and immense pressure over all of the team members. Yet his peculiar side was something none here ever expected.

    A mighty figure got interested in hearing stories? And in the middle of such an intense and deadly fight? What the heck was going on?!!!

    "I''m going to tell the venerable master about everything I know¡­" The first to speak up was none other than Berry. She felt like anything rted to William was rted also to her in a way or another.

    So, she started to speak, saying that dark gold spirit master stories about William. She mentioned how he changed her life by a few words, a new way to assess spirit power, and two training manuals.

    She spoke about her illness, how it was seen as hopeless and incurable. But to William, it was nothing. She then jumped over how he managed to jump from being a porter into a proper bronze spirit master in the academy in just a few days.

    Then she started to speak about the Long n disaster, how William helped in saving them all using his weird methods.

    "Interesting kid indeed¡­" and when she finished, the old man''s eyes shone brightly as his interest didn''t get any speck of satisfaction. In fact, it got more riled up, "anymore stories about this kid? Anyone else?"

    He moved his eyes among everyone, and then Sara started to speak up.

    She mentioned the weird encounter she had with William, how he exined the weird term of dormant spirit element for her. Then Ibra spoke about how he got beaten up by William, despite the huge gap in power between the two.

    Slowly everyone started to narrate stories about William. Those from the Long n spoke about that crazy battle they all witnessed, and others spoke about rumours they heard about him in the academy recently.

    Even the ones who were in his ss spoke about how he crushed Guanin despite it being his first day. John spoke about how William taught him three new techniques, seemingly old and known to anyone, but his techniques were different in everything.

    Those who didn''t get any rtion with William, didn''t hear about his name before joining the team, started to speak about his deeds in this short-term journey.

    At first, it was the pressure and fear of such a scary and entric spirit master that drove everyone to speak. But slowly, they all got to forget about this, and got absorbed in their feelings towards William.

    Without anyone knowing it, without even feeling it, William became someone that truly mattered to all of them. Those who got to deal with him before had the deepest impression than those who just met him for the first time after joining the team.

    "Weird way to assess spirit power? Curing a problem in one''s spirit that even I don''t know?! Dormant spirit power?! A way to lure the strong scarlet bears and let them kill each other?!! What the heck is all that?!!!"

    The old man seemed to be shocked from what he heard. He kept muttering such things, words briefing how unique William did things.

    "Hahahaha! I found a gem! A true gem in such a forsaken ce, hahahaha!" and all of sudden, his expression and attitude changed from being shocked intoughing out of pure joy, e on, show me this unique way of testing spirit power, the training manuals he gave to all of you¡­ Tell me everything in great detail and I''ll make sure that you''ll get handsomely rewarded."

    "Oh¡­ About that¡­" Berry felt instant hesitation and fear. Her lips trembled, while stealing nces with Sara, Ibra, and other vice leaders here.

    She knew, just like everyone else, that if she didn''t give what this scary spirit master wanted, then things would turn quite ugly for her, for everyone here.

    But with the firm shake of others'' heads, Berry sucked in a deep breath, preparing herself for the worst.

    "I''m sorry, venerable master, but if he didn''t give us permission to do so, we won''t reveal anything."

    "This¡­" for a moment there, all the happy expression over the old man''s face vanished, got reced with an ice-cold expression, "are you telling me you are ready to sacrifice your lives for someone who isn''t even here?"

    "We will keep what he taught us until hees over and gives the permission to tell you about any of these," Sara stepped forward, supporting Berry and standing by her side.

    And slowly, Ibra, John, Lang, Peter, and others started to join the two girls as well. In a single minute, everyone stood next to each other, showing their resolve and determination in epting the wrath that was about toe from that scary spirit master.

    "Admirable! Indeed, quite lovely! Hahahaha!" and just when they expected their lives to end abruptly and shortly in the next few seconds, what weed them was a much louderugh.

    "Don''t give me that look, I''m not a tyrant or someone obsessed with forcing others to speak," he said amidst hisughs, "it''s quite admirable. From what I got from your words, not all of you met this kid called William before joining this team, yet you are ready to keep all the secrets of his no matter what. By the way, why did he gather you up, take you out of your academy, deep into such dangerous ces? I can see white and bronze grade among you, making up most of your number actually, which is something quite weird."

 Chapter 340 Where Is William Now?

    "Well¡­" Ibra cleared his throat, trying to absorb such a weird atmosphere and brisk change in that old man''s attitude, "he wanted to go to the Scorching Lands, do a mission there."

    "Hmm¡­ Scorching Lands is a big ce that many want to go and visit. What mission? Gathering herbs and ores? Or something like serving others? He was a porter after all, hahahaha!"

    They all mistook his words as an insult to William, not just saying things casually and carefree without any hidden or deep intentions behind them.

    "We are going there to kill and hunt down dark spirit masters!" Berry couldn''t take such an insult, forgot all about the huge gap in power between her and that old man, shouted in pure rage as if she was a grenade that exploded.

    And as if she just let that grenade explode while she held it in her hands, her face turned ashen white the next moment. She knew she overstepped her boundaries and spoke in such an improper way to such a scary figure.

    "Oh, what a high and great target this is," the old man didn''t explode in rage as she and others expected. He simply and calmly smiled, not showing anything on his face, "but tell me, howe a bunch of weak spirit masters n on doing something even I would hesitate to do?"

    "..."

    When he said it this way, by adding himself in such a way, everyone didn''t know how to answer him.

    They got such a thought before when they heard about the mission for the first time. But after going through a lot with William, it seemed that they started to grow a kind of trust in William, enough to wipe away any earlier doubts about their mission.

    But when that scary spirit master said hisst piece, that old doubt got revived, shocking even themselves about not thinking about such an issue. And they got more shocked to realise this was all thanks to William''s effect on all of them.

    "Never mind, I''ll ask the man himself when I''ll meet him," the old man got that none here knew what William''s true n was, "by the way, where is he right now? Why isn''t he with you?"

    "This¡­" and when Berry recalled where William was, fighting that scary monster all by himself for all this time, she couldn''t help but tremble in panic and worry.

    "He¡­ He broke free from us back there," Sara gave Berry a deep nce before adding, "we met this monster, one that he recognised and identified as a deadly threat to all of us. So, he stayed behind, to keep that monster busy while we''ll all run away."

    "And you just ran away, leaving such a brave kid back alone facing that monster?" the old man raised an eyebrow, while his words held some sort of disapproval towards their actions for the first time since meeting them.

    "It wasn''t up to us to do this!" Berry couldn''t control herself anymore, exploded this time with tears, "he gave us the order to retreat, and made sure that we''ll all listen to his arrangements. We nned to return and save him half an hourter but got strangled and threatened by the stupid monster swarm that appeared out of nowhere!"

    "Oh, these are all my doing," the old man focused his eyes and froze them over Berry, "tell me young girl, what was the name of that monster? Did he tell you about its name?"

    "Why?" Berry didn''t get what the old man wanted to do, missed all the hidden intentions of that dark gold spirit master. She got her own doubts before, and when the old man confirmed he was the one who caused all this, she couldn''t help but bite her hands with her nails, controlling herself to not explode again on his face.

    "He called it the Nightmare monster," but Ibra and others didn''t miss what that old man truly meant. He said that all this happened because of his actions. And if such a formidable spirit master admitted a mistake or responsibility towards something, then it meant he nned to correct this by himself.

    In other words, that old man decided to go out there, either on the head of a team or by himself, to find and rescue William. And no matter how anyone looked at this, it was indeed great news.

    "The Nightmare monster? What the hell is that?" but it was more shocking to hear that such a formidable and experienced spirit master being ignorant about such a monster, "tell me everything you know about this monster, tell me everything that kid told you about it."

    Per his request, Ibra started to tell him about what William said about this monster. And once he finished, that old spirit master didn''t say a single word, kept moving his fingers across his long white beard, as he was lost in deep thought.

    "A monster that I never heard of, one that''s active just nearby and I never noticed it. And yet, that kid knew such valuable intel about it¡­ You mentioned that he got a master who taught him everything. Is that master part of your academy? What''s her name again?"

    "Well¡­" Ibra paused and looked back at Sara and Berry. He just met William at the doorsteps of the academy and got to learn about William''s mysterious master from the dude himself. But he didn''t know more than that.

    "She isn''t part of the academy," Sara was the one who spoke first, as she knew more than everyone about this topic, "even my grandfather, the Aspire academy''s headmaster, tried to know her identity and failed."

    "You are that stupid''s granddaughter? And he did let you get out of there with that kid? That''s totally not his style at all!"

    "You know my grandfather?!" Sara was surprised by this.

    "Of course! Your old man is quite strong, not as strong as me for sure. But he got a name for himself in the region."

 Chapter 341 Im Going To Bring Him Back

    The old man paused before adding, "no matter where or when, the name of the Aspire academy once mentioned will get rted to the two strong folks out there. One is your grandfather, and the other is that stupid dragon n''s patriarch."

    "My grandpa isn''t stupid!" Berry bellowed out, and the next second her face showed how much did she regret saying such words.

    "Wow! Two granddaughters of the two renowned names in your academy are here? This is¡­ Weird¡­" the old man started to see Berry and Sara under new light after knowing their background, "but¡­ I met your old men before. They are obsessed with over protection for those rted to them. Howe they let the two of you go out on such a risky adventure? Don''t tell me they are watching from far away!"

    The next instant that old man doubted his senses, released his spirit sense and let it run wild, "show yourselves! It''s not nice to be in my presence and use such underhanded methods!"

    "Venerable master¡­ They aren''t here," Berry and Sara exchanged weird gazes before thetter added, "we¡­ We just left the academy in a hurry and didn''t tell them anything."

    "Oh, is that true?" the old man moved his eyes between the two girls, before finally breaking out inughter, "these two jerks! I want to see their faces the moment they learn about your little rebellion, hahahaha!"

    Berry and Sara looked at each other again. And unlike what this old man felt, the two suddenly felt like theymitted a grave crime all of sudden.

    Their hearts clenched tightly and for a reason they both felt how bad and terrible their future would be after returning back from this adventure.

    "Hahahaha! You two¡­ Hahahahaha! I bet these two jerks never expected this at all, hahahaha!" and as their faces showed how much shocked and scared they were, that old man keptughing and pointing at the two, "tell me then, do you regret it? Regret leaving your grandfathers and venture outside with that kid?"

    "No!"

    "Not a chance!"

    But as he threw such a question casually like his habit, the two instantly responded, while all the fear and doubt vanished from their faces.

    "Good girls," he nodded in acknowledgment, "a true spirit master won''t be one if he stays by his parents'' and loved ones'' side. You have to go out, venture the world, get a taste of how cruel life truly is. And yet¡­ Hahaha!"

    That old man seemed to enjoy what these two girls did.

    "Venerable master, may I ask who you are, and what are you doing here exactly?" Ibra knew that they did score many good points at this scary spirit master. And so, he gathered up his courage and asked what he desperately wanted to know.

    "Well, my name is famous to those who are close to my power," the old man vaguely answered, "and knowing it won''t help you at all. As for what I''m doing here, it''s obvious, hunting down monsters."

    "..."

    Ibra wasn''t the only one who wanted to get such answers, nor the one who had the corner of his eyes twitch after hearing what that old man said.

    He didn''t give them any clue or useful intel about who he was or what he was doing here.

    But what could they do? That was what true power would give to anyone, the privilege to act and do whatever they''d like, without the need to worry about anything or anyone.

    "You are still kids, so don''t bother with issues of old men like me," the old manughed on their expressions, "I''m just doing my part to help in stopping ourmon enemy. In fact, you are also doing the same."

    "How so?" Ibra was annoyed by theck of information in any of that old man''s words. But he didn''t dare to show such dissatisfaction on his face, or else he''d risk enraging such a monster in front of him.

    "You are going to fight and kill dark spirit masters," the old man simply shrugged, as if what he said made all sense, "and that makes the two of us work for the same cause. Anyway, I''m more interested in that genius you all spoke high about. Stay in here and don''t leave. The hunt willst for seven days straight. I''ll go and find that dude for you, bring him here."

    "T¡­ Thanks venerable master."

    "Sorry about troubling the venerable master."

    Sara and Berry led others to express their gratitude towards what this old man intended to do.

    "Don''t thank me, I''m doing this for my own sake, not yours," the old man waved his hand, and in the next instant, he vanished from his ce.

    "Is William going to be safe?" and the moment he teleported away, everyone could finally heave a deep sigh of relief. Berry looked at others, especially Ibra and Sara, "is he going to find and rescue him?"

    "He is a dark gold grade spirit master! And a scary one on top of that! Of course, he is going to find him," Ibra said as if what Berry asked about was quite naive.

    "Just rest assured, you know pretty well how capable and resourceful these folks are," Sara winked at her. And what she referred to made Berry''s endless worry quell a lot.

    "Let''s rest then," Peter looked at the rest of the team, before looking outside. The world out there was least described as an apocalypse happening in front of their eyes.

    Everywhere around them, bright explosions and violent shaking of the ground happened. Endless stream of monsters kept flooding here, making everyone question how many monsters the forest had in the first ce to gush out such insane hordes of monsters towards here.

    "We got nothing to do anyway," Ibra shrugged, "let''s sit down, eat and rest. I don''t know how long it will take that master to bring William back. But when he does, I''m sure that crazy boss of ours wille up with a scary idea, work us to deathter on."

    "Hahahaha! Yes, that''s our boss indeed."

    "You nailed it! Let''s rest and enjoy these days while he isn''t here."

 Chapter 342 Giving Him A Hand Without Meaning It

    Everyoneughed when they heard Ibra''s words. And starting from there, they started to enjoy a peaceful life inside the protective array, without any worry about anything for now.

    William was far away from here and didn''t know anything about what just happened between his team and that scary spirit master.

    That old man started to roam a huge stretch of the forest, looking for William. And when he did, he found him with Sith and others, while he helped them to hunt down monsters as he promised.

    "Oh, that kid is surprisingly with people on my side¡­ It seems like fate drove you towards my path kid, one way or another, hahahaha!" when he saw Sith and his team, that dark gold grade spirit master couldn''t help but have his eyes shine brightly.

    Berry, Sara, Ibra, and others didn''t even imagine that William ended up with people from the same force that formidable spirit master belonged to.

    And when the old man thought about how William and his team ended up meeting people from his impact, he couldn''t help but admire the brilliant and unexpected machinations of fate.

    But he didn''t try to expose himself, just kept himself on the side, watching what this kid was doing with his people.

    "Hmm¡­ So, they met that monster I heard about already and ended up losing four of their team. If I recall things right, this team is one among many who are under thest chance test, a chance to prove their worth and resume their presence inside the impact¡­"

    The old man knew more than what Sith told William about. In reality, Sith''s team wasn''t just having a normal test right now. They were under the threat of getting expelled from the impact if they failed such a test, like many other teams who were suffering from bad records in recent years.

    The old man suddenly lost interest in watching what William was doing for now. He left something to track over the body of William, without thetter even realising it.

    And then the gold grade spirit master started to move back towards the direction Sith and others kept referring to during their talk about the monster.

    He wanted to go and test that mysterious monster''s true strength himself. He didn''t trust Sith''s team abilities to be enough to test that monster''s true might.

    Even in the case of losing four of their silver and gold grade members, that old man didn''t find it enough. This team, after all, was one of those who got bad records and failed lots of mission for the impact. And that meant their overall strength was under question.

    When someone would reach such a stage, he''d get little and rare things to attract his attention and pick up his interest.

    Just in this single night, he got two things that seeded in stirring up his attention and curiosity.

    This came as great news for William despite not knowing it. What that dark gold spirit master decided on the spot saved William lots of trouble.

    In fact, what thetter feared was true. That cunning Nightmare monster didn''t drop its interest to kill William. It just tried to trick him into lowering his guard, while it''d find a way through all the sea of fire and chase after William.

    However, and just when that monster finally managed to bypass thendmine zone, and was about to give chase after William, it got terrible newsing towards it.

    The dark gold spirit master found that monster in a few hours. When that scary spirit master did, he didn''t hold back anymore, started to hit that monster with everything he got.

    The Nightmare monster couldn''t believe its bad luck. It craved killing and eating the nine tailed fox spirit, dreaming about jumping up in ranks, even to be this close from breaking free from the shackles of this world. And yet when it finally managed to bypass the annoyingndmine, it got to meet that scary dude.

    Out of options, that monster had to retreat, run for its life, while the scary human kept hunting it down relentlessly.

    And like this, the unexpected guest who nned to spy on William got himself busy hunting that monster for days. At the same time, that unexpected guest helped William and Sith''s team a lot, forcing that scary monster far away from their path and destination.

    William slept for long hours, enjoying a long and deserved rest. As he sat inside his hide spot, stretching his arms in azy manner, he was oblivious to any of the deadly battle that was going on between two scary figures, never imagined he''d be the trigger for all this, and much bigger events yet to unfold.

    "I now have a mystery that I can''t solve¡­ And a team to find¡­" William started to mutter after having his breakfast, checking the world around, then sitting back inside his hole and deeply considered his next move.

    He knew his earlier ns went astray. He nned to go towards Scorching Lands directly, to end up wasting a few days in dealing with the monsters he and his team met.

    "The top priority right now is to go and find my team," he decided to put on hold the mystery of the ten scrolls for now. He didn''t know where his team was, nor did he know if they were a few tens of kilometres away or much more distance away than that.

    William got a map, but he didn''t know where he was currently at. Not to mention even if he did, he''d not know his team whereabouts nor direction.

    "It was quite a hectic run¡­ I can''t even point in any direction at all!" William spread the map on the ground, crouched next to it, and kept looking in a serious way towards it for a long half an hour.

    No matter how he tried, he couldn''t point to his current location, couldn''t recall the directions he went into after getting separated from his team.

 Chapter 343 Where The Hell Did All The Monsters Go?

    "I have to find andmark, one thing that''s present on the map," William knew this map was showing just the bigndmarks. It was a map of the grand forest, and there were many unmistakablendmarks all over it.

    Things like huge mountains, a series of hills, massive rivers, bigkes, and even huge swamps were present all over the map.

    William tried to recall anything remarkable from his past hectic run in the past days, yet he failed to spot any.

    All he could recall were an endless ocean of trees, insignificant hills and rivers. And that made him inwardly sigh.

    During all this time, he was totally focused on fighting against the monsters and keeping his life intact. "I have to roam around then, try to find something that can help¡­"

    He went out there, gathered the materials he scattered and buriedst night and cancelled the two arrays. He was prepared to leave this ce, and so leaving behind these materials was a waste.

    Then he looked around, picked a gigantic tree that was almost half a kilometre away, and started walking towards it.

    "It''s weirdly quiet!" The first thing he noticed was the strange silence that prevailed all around the forest. It looked as if the forest was preparing for something big, and that made him quite vignt.

    He didn''t spot a single monster since entering into his hiding spotst night. He thought it was all thanks to his arrays'' magic, but now he felt like the entire forest was void of monsters.

    "I must be overthinking things," he shook his head, mistaking all this for his deep thoughts about his team and the ten scrolls.

    He reached the tree without meeting a single monster at all. He climbed the tree in extreme care, fearing the presence of any hidden monster inside the thick branches of this gigantic canopy.

    But until he reached the very top, he never met anything at all. He stood over a thick branch that was enough to make up five of his body, looking at the world around. The sun was still high in the sky, illuminating the world. And with the high altitude of this tree that exceeded fifty metres, he could see for a far distance.

    "A big white mountain, with a red peak, and long and irregr green lines on its body¡­ It''s that mountain drawn on the map."

    His eyes shone the moment he noticed this mountain. It was at least fifty kilometres away, as he just spotted its peak shrouded in the middle of a thinyer of clouds, with a faint shadow of its massive body at the far horizon.

    "It may be further away than that," he tried to estimate how far that mountain was. Then he used the sun to determine the direction of that mountain. "It''s in the southwest¡­ Ok!"

    Once he spotted the right direction and distance of that mountain, William took out the map again and started to examine it.

    "Wow! I crossed close to three hundred kilometres in the past few days!" When William ced his current location on the map, he was surprised to see how far away he drifted from his initial and intended course.

    Before leaving the defensive array back then, he made sure to mark out their next line of travel. And right now, he was at least one hundred and sixty kilometres away from the meeting area he decided before with his team.

    In front of his eyes, he imagined the path he treaded during the past hectic nights.

    "I went directly to the heart of the deep parts of the forest¡­" He initially nned to avoid that area, take a long detour around. But seeing himself on the other side of such a dangerous region made him find no other exnation for all this.

    "Even if I tried to go all this distance back, it''s not going to work," he was lost in deep thoughts, looking at the map in a frown, "there is another one hundred kilometres left before arriving at the Scorching Lands area. I have two options now¡­"

    William thought about these two options for the next three hours. The first option he got was to go back, cross the distance between him and the ce where he should meet up with his team, and hope they''d stick at that ce all this time without moving around.

    He knew the chance of his team standing their ce motionless for days was close to none. They got Ibra, a few silver members, in addition to the leader quality gifted spirit masters like Sara, Berry, Lang, and Peter.

    William didn''t think the team wouldmit such a newbie mistake and stick around, waiting for him for all these days.

    Not to mention he had to go directly through the dangerous deep part of the forest, or else he''d waste more days to circle away from it.

    And so, he got the other option that he decided to take.

    "I will go directly towards the Scorching Lands then," he decided to go to their destination, and wait for his team out there.

    At first, he was sickly worried over his team, questioning the decision. But after walking in the forest for roughly a day, crossing lots of zones during the night, he couldn''t help but drop all this worry and focus on something else.

    "Where the heck did all the monsters go?!!" He was shocked when he noticed that monsters were absent from the ces he passed through all day long.

    At first, he thought it was out of his imagination. And then when he walked for a few hours without meeting a single monster, his thoughts about this drifted towards a side effect of the huge battles he and Sith''s team experienced before. But soon enough he started to have his own doubts.

    No matter how he looked at it, the absence of the monsters from the forest wasn''t a normal sign at all.

    "These annoying dudes won''t go missing for no reason," William muttered to himself, "it must be something big, something rted perhaps to what drove the scary monsters away from the heart of the forest in the first ce."

 Chapter 344 Its Weird!

    He couldn''t help but let his thoughts drift wildly towards that direction. He never expected that the main reason for such absence of monsters was thanks to what therge team of Lockheart impact''s spirit masters, led by the dark gold one, did.

    Instead of using this chance and speeding up, he started to carefully walk through the forest. He feared he''d find himself in the middle of something big, something he had no power to face.

    It was normal that during the next day, he crossed almost half the distance he was supposed to traverse, only crossing no more than twenty kilometres.

    He crossed so far close to forty kilometres. And he knew if he kept walking at this rate, he''d arrive at the Scorching Lands in four more days at most if nothing happened.

    As he felt something was amiss, he started to shift his routine. He found safe hideouts to stay the night at, consumed a hundred silver cores during his rest, while leaving the rest for the harsh timesing ahead.

    After consuming the one hundred cores, his spirit power exceeded the nine hundred mark. It wasn''t going as he hoped for, but it was still an increase in his overall power.

    "Six more hundred spirit powers, six more hundred points and I''ll smash the doors of the silver grade," he kept telling himself this, with much excitement and impatience.

    He knew the remaining six hundred points would take much longer time and much harder effort from him than the nine hundred points he gained so far.

    It wasn''t just the issue of the little points gained out ofte from the silver cores he had, but it was also thanks to the weird situation he was now facing.

    Travelling in the deep parts of the forest without meeting a single monster for days? That might be a dream that any spirit master would hope to happen, even scream out in a cheerful way and celebrate by dancing all over the ce, but not William.

    He wanted monsters, wanted to kill more and absorb as many cores as he could to grow stronger fast. So, in such a situation where any spirit master would be celebrating in joy, he was feeling down and gloomy.

    "Three days passed, and still there is no sign of a single monster out there¡­ What the heck just happened to all the monsters? Don''t tell me they got a festival or some sort of sacred ritual or something like that!"

    He didn''t even buy anything of what he just murmured. But facts were right in front of his eyes. The forest, the scary deep parts of the forest, were very quiet and awkwardly empty of a single monster.

    But on the fourth day, all this changed.

    "Atst! I met a monster, atst! Come, let me hug and kiss you, my dear precious little rabbit."

    The first monster he met was a weak andmon bronze grade rabbit. It was half a metre in length, with four sharp fangs extending from its jaws.

    It wasn''t that deadly or dangerous, not to him. William broke out in tears the moment he spotted this rabbit. And instead of doing what he jokingly and mockingly said, he instantly in this rabbit using all of his knives.

    It was a long time indeed since hest used his weapons. He felt a longing for using his sword as well, didn''t keep his hands, took a dash forward, activating his lightning technique after days of letting it rot, andnded his sword while clenching its hilt with both hands.

    It was indeed a needless move, but he felt alive again after doing this. "Damn! Living in peace¡­ That''s a shitty life for me!" he sucked in a deep breath, while holding the first core he ever gained for days.

    It felt like a shark that got deprived of water for many days, to finally return back again to his yground ocean.

    And starting from this moment, William started to meet more monsters the further he moved forward.

    He met single monsters, groups of monsters, and even monsters inrge numbers as packs. He killed white, bronze, and silver grade. He met a few of the scary gold grade monsters, ending up running away from them.

    William kept moving while checking his current location all the time on the map. He wanted to make sure he didn''t go astray anymore and kept looking for his team from time to time by climbing the canopies of huge trees or using his Bullets.

    But no matter how many times he tried, he failed to spot a shadow of them. And he knew most of the reasons behind this was thanks to theck of monsters at thest seventy kilometres zone.

    How could he find his team without facing monsters and fighting with them? Without causing enough ruckus for him to spot them from afar?

    But soon enough he started to spot not only one team, but dozens of them. "It seems I came so close from the Scorching Lands main fort, and from now on I''ll meet lots of teams," he muttered to himself, deciding to totally abandon his earlier search action.

    As there were lots of teams out there, William decided to evade meeting with any for the time being. He didn''t know if there were any dark spirit master teams out there or not, and he leant towards being cautious until he''d arrive at the Scorching Lands main fort and meet up with his team once again.

    But just as he killed his way towards the Scorching Lands main fort, he ended up facing a team of spirit masters.

    "Yoho, who are you, mate?" It was a team of twenty spirit masters, and luckily for him none wore any dark cloak or anything like that.

    "I''m a traveller from far," William didn''t give any clue about his identity nor his origins, "may I ask, my friend, what exactly happened here in the forest? I haven''t seen monsters for a couple of days already."

 Chapter 345 Oho Mate!

    "Oho, you must be new here, mate," another one spoke up. And from their appearances, the gears on their bodies, William could tell they were all silver grade spirit masters, roughly at the early twentieth in age or something.

    "That mean?" William felt like he missed something themon folks here already were aware of.

    "It''s the hunting festival, mate," another dude said, "it''s a traditional activity that the crazy dudes of the Lockheart impact do every few years."

    "Lockheart impact?!" William couldn''t believe that he heard the name of the impact Sith tried to recruit him into at the first moment he stepped into the territory of the Scorching Lands.

    "Yes mate, they are a force that can do anything," another said, "take my advice and keep your eyes away from them. They are crazy, nuts! Do you know that they use a sort of luring array to gather up the monsters from a huge area of the forest, and let their newly joined teams to fight and prove themselves against these hordes? This is crazy mate! Totally insane!"

    "..."

    "They let their newly joined teams out there, facing hordes after hordes of scary and crazy monsters. It''s just your luck to find a safe way away from their craziness! Many unfortunate teams will end up strangled in the middle of the monsters they lure, ending up either getting killed or falling into the hands of those crazy folks!"

    "This¡­" just when William was thinking he''d throw away all the burden and worry he felt towards his team the moment he''d arrive at the Scorching Lands and find them, his heart couldn''t help but clench upon hearing all this.

    "Are you saying that many teams will fall into their grasp?!" William knew that the chances of his team falling into the area of activity of this impact was very high.

    "If they got some luck, mate," one of the team said with a long whistle, "or else, if they got the short part of the stick, then goodbye for all of them."

    "They won''t be that lucky, dude!" another one argued, "they still have to pay a price to get freed."

    "That''s correct, no one would get lucky if he met the monsters or those crazy dudes," another silver spirit master said, while nodding his head, "and that price isn''t fixed. It totally depends on the mood and nature of the dark gold leader of those crazy dudes."

    "Dark gold? Price?!" William slowly muttered, while feeling more restless the more he thought about this.

    In his heart, he was sure for unknown reasons that his team faced swarms of monsters lured by this array. He didn''t need to ask to know how ferocious such an array was. It managed to clear up a great stretch of the deepnds of the forest as he saw it himself.

    "Do you know where this test is?"

    "Tests mate, not just a single one," one rolled his eyes, as if what William said was some sort of a naive thought. Everyone smirked and even a fewughed, "there are at least twenty testing zones out there, scattered all across one hundred kilometre radius around."

    "This¡­" William knew it was impossible for him to go and look for his team right now. If it was just a single test zone, then he''d try his luck to arrive there alone.

    But twenty zones? Scattered in one hundred kilometre radius? That was a vast area that he''d never be able to cover up alone in a few weeks'' time.

    And when he realised this, he felt d he didn''t settle on the other option back then and didn''t go to actively seek out his team back then.

    "Mate, do you lose it here or what?" another member pointed towards his head as he added, "didn''t you hear what we said? Stay away from trouble! This is for your own good! Even a silver team like us won''t dare toe closer to those maniacs."

    "Thanks," William knew they only meant good for him, "may I ask for directions towards the main fort? It''s my first time getting here."

    "Oho, you are lucky," who seemed to be the leader of this group of spirit mastersughed, "we just finished our task and were about to head back. You can stick around, mate. Ah, by the way, in case you didn''t hear it yet, the forest is now quite a dangerous ce around the main fort."

    ? "Dangerous? Thanks to that impact?" William was now linking everything to the Lockheart impact.

    "No, no mate, they are crazy, but only towards their own people," the leader shook his head, as if he just heard something quite unbelievable, "it''s all thanks to those f*cking homies, the bastards!"

    "Bastards?" William paused for a few seconds, "do you mean the dark spirit masters or what?"

    "Who else, mate? They are going all over the ce, killing any team who is venturing alone out there."

    "This¡­" William suddenly recalled the dark spirit master team he idently met before. From them, he knew a drawing of his face was already distributed among many dark forces. And it seemed there was some sort of a bounty on his head.

    "They are acting like hos stirred from their nests, pussies out of their brothel," another dude said, "they are acting arrogant, actively seeking trouble. They never acted this way, never!"

    "I told you already, it''s all the fault of the Lockheart folks," another one said, while nodding as if he was all knowing about everything happening in the world, "they are acting like this to kill their new recruits. Take it from me, in a few days, we''ll see the entire forest tremble under the brutal and bloody fights of these two crazy forces."

    "As long as it''s away from my rooftop, let them do whatever they like," the leader harrumphed, "I hate meddling into other mates'' business. If they want blood, let them kill each other and stay away from me."

    William didn''t agree on such an idea, but he remained his lips tightly shut. He wasn''t responsible for what others thought. Just like this dude said, as long as they were away from his path, he wouldn''t care about them.

 Chapter 346 [Bonus ] Parting Ways

    For a moment there, William couldn''t think about a reason for all this but thanks to the actions of the Aspire academy back there.

    It was clear to him that the actions of the spirit masters of the Aspire academy were taken quite seriously by the dark spirit mastermunity. "I won''t be surprised if this was the root for all this," he thought to himself.

    He never thought it was all thanks to him. It was partially rted to the actions of the Aspire academy indeed. But the dark spirit masters decided to make an example of him and his team for others, so no one would follow suit of the Aspire academy''s hostile and aggressive actions.

    It was like a deterrent action, by taking him and his team out, others would get scared from following the Aspire academy''s example.

    William knew the moment he''d arrive at the main fort of the Scorching Lands; he''d part ways with this group of spirit masters. The more they talked and expressed their ideals, the more he despised them.

    But he learnt tons of valuable information about the current situation inside the main fort.

    It wasn''t governed by a single force, but a coboration of many forces. They weren''t rted to any academy, nor even rted to the kingdom as well.

    They were a weird mixture of few impacts,rge associations, and few extremely wealthy merchants as well as ancient strong families in the fort. William knew getting in the middle of all this was going to be a headache for anyone, for him. The entire power situation here was simply described as a total mess.

    He learnt that the main fort was indeed an impregnable fortress. Just the number of silver and gold spirit masters here was in the hundreds of thousands, no less than the total number of the spirit masters in his academy, even much more than what the academy and all the nsbined could gather.

    There were even more dark gold spirit masters here, reaching a terrifying figure of a few hundreds.

    That was the true backbone of this fort, the scary deterrent force that kept this ce running and safe for all this time.

    William also learnt that there was no realw governing the fort. As long as fights happened fast, without getting noticed, and without affecting the trade business or the interests of any scary powers in the fort, then no one would really care about anything.

    It was a harsh and cruel ce, one that suited a ce of ouws not a ce under the g of the kingdom.

    Aside from all this, William got to hear good news atst. He learnt about the presence of the Big Seven, the wealthiest merchant guilds in the fort. From the mouth of the team members, he listened to crazy stories about many items getting sold at skyrocketing prices of tens of millions of spirit crystals, even hundreds of millions as well.

    This happened in the auctions that were regrly arranged here. And from the insane prices he kept hearing from these dudes, he knew that deep pocket spirit masters were regrly attending these auctions, even living here.

    "As for living, you can just rent a room at any hotel," the leader said as he felt how neutral, or even a little cold, William acted towards him and his team, "mate, go towards that direction, cross ten kilometres and you''ll find the main fort."

    "Aren''t youing?!" William looked in surprise towards the leader. And that dude just shrugged as he said the first reason that popped in his mind:

    "We forgot something important and have to turn around to get it. Good luck mate, it''s all safe from here towards the fort."

    "The patrol guards are usually moving in a fifteen kilometre radius around the fort, so don''t worry about meeting any dark spirit masters or strong monsters here."

    "Thanks," William got what this team wanted to do. They didn''t like hispany and decided to part ways with him right now.

    And he just felt the same as them and didn''t mind getting away from those unworthy dudes.

    As for the patrol story, he didn''t buy it. They walked for five kilometres in the assumed safe area and didn''t see a shadow of a single patrol team at all.

    That told him they were either lying, or the patrol teams were just acting careless.

    "See you in the fortter on, mates," William cupped his hand and thanked them. Even if he didn''t like their vision about life, they still helped him in the end and got him towards the main fort.

    Not to mention the lots of valuable information they told him about, which was going to save him lots of trouble in the fort.

    "Good luck mate," the leader cupped his hands and left with everyone else. They selected a direction randomly and went away from William.

    During their walk together, they met a few groups of monsters and more teams of spirit masters. It seemed that the closer William became towards the main fort, the less monsters and the more people he''d face.

    "Time to go and visit that fort," William finally was about to arrive at his destination. The journey that he started close to ten days ago was about toe to an end. And a new adventure was waiting for him there.

    He initially nned, before setting out from the academy, to first get here, find the Mercenary department and register his team out there as an independent one. Then he''d start collecting intel about the entire area, before deciding what his next move would be against the dark spirit masters.

    However, this all changed by what he and his team experienced. Instead of going towards the Mercenary department, he nned to first look for the Lockheart impact main headquarter, go and ask about his team.

    *Boom!* *Bang!* *Boom!*

    However, just before he''d crossed one hundred metres, he heard loud bangs and explosionsing from a certain direction, sounds of a harsh battle going on. And it felt like this battle was getting bigger at a fast pace, getting closer to him.

 Chapter 347 You Fools!

    "Dark spirit masters!"

    "Watch out everyone!"

    "They brought lots of monsters!"

    "Run for your lives!"

    William heard lots of faint shouts,ing from the same direction the team he was just with a few minutes ago moved towards.

    "What a bunch of bad luck fools," William shook his head, without knowing if he shouldugh or cry over their bad luck.

    That team kept walking with him for long hours without anything happening to them. And just after leaving his side for a few minutes, they ended up getting in the middle of such a big move from the dark spirit masters.

    "Time to see what these folks here are made of," William didn''t respond like anyone in his ce should, didn''t turn around or retreat.

    Instead, he took out his knives, held his sword in one hand, and his bow in the other. He was ready and prepared to go all out the moment the dark spirit masters would appear.

    He wanted to use this chance and test everyone out, be it the normal spirit masters here or the dark ones.

    William was still in the heart of the forest, surrounded by many trees. If he was alone, then he''d never dare to face the iing attack of the dark spirit masters like now.

    But as there were lots of teams out there, then it was a good chance for him to use the chaos and try to hunt in the middle of such dirty waters.

    The first thing he did wasn''t to go forward, but to go up. He selected the thickest tree here, climbed it fast without any care for anything. He used his lightning dash technique, crossing fifty metres towards the top directly in one jump, without fearing to meet any monster up there.

    He already scanned the area around. William was sure that not a single monster was present in the radius of a few hundred metres around.

    But that soon was about to change.

    "Run!"

    "These damn freaks! What they got against me to target me thrice in a day!"

    "What are the patrols doing? F*ck! Isn''t it supposed to be safe around here?"

    "Run first, ask questionster! Run for your lives, idiots!"

    As William took his ce on top of the tree, he heard more distressful shoutsing from the teams running towards here. As he was at such a high altitude, he could see many trees trembling from far, as if there were lots of teams running here.

    And from these shouts, he could tell that the team he was just with didn''t lie to him. There were indeed many patrol teams, holding the security of this region.

    But they ended up missing when people needed them the most. William felt something was amiss right here, but he didn''t care about any of that.

    His attention shifted towards the early faces of the teams running towards here. And all of them were scared of who was chasing after them.

    For five minutes, many teams ran while shouting. William felt a little weird about that. Just the number of these teams was enough to stop any enemy no matter who it was.

    But no one dared to think even about that. Fear controlled everyone''s thoughts and it seemed like every man was running for himself. And that showed just the true quality of these teams.

    "Theyck a leader," William muttered to himself, while wondering in his mind about the identity of the iing enemies.

    ? Were they this scary? William couldn''t tell until the first batches of the enemy arrived.

    As he saw it, many dark cloaked spirit masters were running through trees, using the darkness element and showing its terrifying advantage here.

    They moved fast, like fish swimming in water. Their speed was high, and their movement was agile and nimble, enough to take them amidst the thickyers of trees and arrive at the madly running spirit masters.

    "Something isn''t right," William just saw the battles that happened not far from his tree. And no matter how he looked at it, there was no proper reason for all these teams to run in such fear.

    "Stand your ground, fools!" and when he felt more disturbed by the weird battles going on around the trees, William couldn''t help but suck in a deep breath and shout at the top of his lungs.

    His shout came in the middle of all the chaos going on down there. So not many heard him. But when he moved, everyone stopped.

    No matter who, be it part of the scaredy cats like teams running down there or the dark spirit masters, all stopped and watched someone moving from high above, dashing towards the ground pretty damn fast, ending upnding over a bunch of dark spirit masters.

    William''snding came by using a straightforward dash of his technique. And even before he''d hit the ground, he linked it with a few other dashes.

    The ce where hended got covered in a thick bellow of dust and loud screams. Anyone would notice from far the shining des of his knives, twisting around, hacking and killing the entire seven dark spirit masters William just hit first.

    And before their shock would settle down, they watched something explode from the middle of the thick dust cloud, jumping fast between many points, hitting anyone and anything standing in his way using a sharp sword.

    "Don''t run you fools! There aren''t that many of them right now! Stand your ground! Stand up and fight!"

    William''s voice this time was heard perfectly fine by everyone. And this time, the impact of his shout was much different than before.

    When the running teams heard such a shout before, none ever ced it in their minds and kept running. But when they saw how a single spirit master dared to step up, came in such a shocking way,nding over the enemy and starting a spree of killing everywhere, they started to slowly stop.

 Chapter 348 Traitors Are Caught

    One by one they stopped running, turned around and started to head back. During all this, the dark spirit masters tried to stop the one who instigated all this. But they failed! William was like a hard to catch bird, small yet agile, fast moving and quite deadly.

    William didn''t know that, but before everything even started, the dark spirit masters slipped a few groups of their side into the side of the spirit masters here.

    They worked as the instigators, the ones to drive all of the spirit masters here away and kill any attempt for any fightback.

    It was exactly as William felt, there was something wrong going on here. He never expected that the ones who kept shouting and screaming all this time were the agents of the dark spirit masters.

    And just by his shout and actions here, he ruined all these preparations and schemes.

    Despite not knowing what scheme the enemy yed here, William knew this battle wasn''t that hard to win or even that close from being desperate.

    So, he moved, started to shout and rally everyone around. He didn''t imagine his way in fighting would inspire almost everyone watching him, making them stop running and start fighting.

    Seeing that a few groups started to answer his call, William stopped shouting anymore and returned to focus on the iing enemies.

    He knew how the dark spirit masters worked. They''d never start a battle they didn''t get one hundred percent confidence in winning.

    If they showed such weakness now, being vulnerable to get hit and crushed, this was all false and fake.

    William wanted to just bnce this battle, not to act like the real big shot in it. However, he didn''t know that among the teams rallied to his call, few dark spirit masters were present.

    And those already fixed their eyes over him.

    What William thought was true. These dark spirit masters came quite prepared. And even if he managed to rally others around, encouraging them to fight back, this effort wasn''t going to change the fate of this battle that much actually.

    And that was for a proper reason¡­ Monsters!

    *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

    Just when William started to withdraw from the frontline, leaving the entire battlefield for the increasing number of returning spirit masters, William heard like others these loud bangs.

    It was loud noisesing from the depth of the forest. And the root of all this wasing towards here quite fast.

    "It''s from the same direction," William already saw many shaking trees far away from here when he was on top of that tree. And for a moment there, he felt like something big wasing.

    "Monsters!"

    "Monsters areing in big numbers!"

    "Run! Run for your lives!"

    Again, shouts started toe from many spirit masters around, exposing the nature of the iing threat.

    "This¡­" As William wasn''t fighting, he grasped the little dirty trick the dark spirit masters here did, "so you scattered a few of your members amidst others? Nice move, but not enough!"

    William clenched the hilt of his sword, and without saying anything he dashed multiple times, ending up killing all those who spoke up first.

    He didn''t just kill these individuals, but also massacred their teams around. If a single fruit was rotten, then others in the same basket were.

    Luckily for him, the strongest out there were gold grade spirit masters. And it seemed they never expected such a move from him, from anyone against them, not at such a moment at least.

    He couldn''t kill these gold grade spirit masters, but he wounded them at their legs and hands, rendering them unable to run away or fight back properly.

    "They are traitors!" William noticed the weird looks many gave him. And so he stood in his ce with his sword and knives circling around him like he was a demon, "Don''t stand like this. Start expanding our formation, prepare for the iing monsters."

    And when he said this, he finally raised the bow he kept holding all this time. Many arrows appeared out of thin air next, and he simply started shooting them all towards the trees in a certain direction.

    Everyone got fixed on killing or looking at the weird actions of his, but none ever noticed when he sheathed away his sword. His movements were fast and the next thing everyone saw were for these arrows to vanish in a certain direction.

    And then gates of hell opened widely at this part of the forest.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    "I''m buying you enough time to regroup and organise!" William noticed that all stopped what they were doing and looked at him in a weirder way.

    In their eyes, William was quite unfathomable! He used a sword, weirdly flying knives, and fast technique to move around. And yet he also got such explosive arrows, which weren''tmon outside any artisan group or any rich dudes from strong and wealthy backgrounds.

    Yet from his weak physique and poor gears, they couldn''t help but notice the weirdness in all this.

    From the first moment William appeared in their eyes, he kept giving them surprises and did things that were outside theirprehension and logic.

    "You heard the man, let''s move out!"

    "Tiger Head formation! Who ising with me to form it?"

    "The Sitting Turtle is better in defence! Who ising with me to do it?"

    "Screw defence! I''m going to form the Arrowhead formation. Anyone with me?"

    In just the span of the next few minutes, the entire ce looked chaotic and strange with such shouts that came from the more experienced spirit masters. However, the spirit masters here were actually getting more organised and looked quite deadly than ever.

    "We''ll capture them forter investigation," one gold grade spirit master came and used a binding technique to seal the movements of the ones William hurt before, "if what you said is true, then your contribution in this battle is quite massive."

 Chapter 349 Hunting For Trophies

    "Thanks," William didn''t get what this dude was talking about, nor did he care about any reward for now. Then he returned to focus on what was going on around.

    The spirit masters didn''t lose their focus as the dark spirit masters expected. Instead of getting panicked and running in amock and chaos like was expected, they found a firm ground in the middle of all that and started to even orchestrate a counterattack.

    The dark spirit masters might look courageous and strong, but William knew better than anyone what kind of cowards they were.

    They were like bullies, loved to gang up over weaklings, and would fear and coward away from any direct confrontations with equally strong foes, or even enemies who weren''t that far off from their powers.

    They would give their enemies the impression of being overly confident and strong. But deep down their hearts and spirits, they''d tremble in fear and doubt, thinking about retreat all the time instead of pushing forward for victory.

    When William managed to foil their ns for the second time, even using his arrows to hinder the advancing monsters here, the dark spirit masters all around started to ce him on top of their hit list here.

    They hated this thin looking kid from the depths of their hearts. William single handedly ruined their ns, and they wanted to see him dead more than anything else.

    But the first thing they started to do was to retreat slightly to the back while doing the same as the spirit masters here; reorganising their dissarrayed forces and gathering them up inrge groups.

    "Don''t give them any time to regroup! Keep attacking! Keep killing them!"

    "Who the hell is this kid?!!"

    And just when they started to retreat, William''s shout came to jolt the spirit masters awake and rm them on the moves of the dark spirit masters.

    With a simple shout, William helped to shift the tide of the entire battle against the dark spirit masters again. The spirit masters around started to fiercely hit the retreating enemies, turning the entire battle around, turning it into a totally opposite image of what happened at the start.

    The battle started by the dark spirit masters were the ones chasing and killing the normal spirit masters. But now they were the ones who were running and killing the dark spirit masters.

    That was a simple flip in the entire situation of this big battle. And the spirit masters didn''t let go of such a chance. They held tons of hatred towards the dark spirit ones. And many even lost a few of their friends during thest fervent run, or before at other old battles.

    As they got a chance, they never stopped until the monsters started to appear atst. Thanks to William''s few arrows, the monsters came in prettyte, not in their designed and prenned big formation.

    They came scattered in many groups, even many came running alone from the depth of the forest. William watched the spirit masters on his side use big battle formations, either defend and stop the iing monsters, or attack and kill them fiercely and swiftly.

    "Time to reap a few rewards," William sat his gaze upon a certain goal. And that wasn''t to get more cores. Monsters were anywhere around the forest, easy to find and kill. But dark spirit masters weren''t.

    William was still having a headache about the ten mysterious scrolls he got before. He didn''t even hesitate or think twice, moving at once towards the bodies of either the dead or bound dark spirit masters, starting a spree of collecting their rings.

    "Hey you!"

    "Stop it! Are you a thief?"

    "He is a thief! He belongs to the dark spirit masters!"

    Many shouted, even pointing the usation towards William for being a member of the dark spirit masters. But that didn''t even stop William at all, not even made him slow down or say a single word to justify his actions.

    He calmly kept moving around, collecting all the rings he could get, using the current chaos happening here, acting as if he was doing something normal, as if these rings were his rightful im and trophy.

    Everyone''s attention was already focused over the monsters and dark spirit masters leading them. And so, these few shouts got lost in the middle of all this mess.

    Even those who were close by and noticed his weird actions, they didn''t move a muscle or even say anything. William''s image was already imprinted in their minds with weird things. Not to mention it wasmon to grab loot from enemies.

    "Not enough!" and when he collected many rings, he didn''t feel any satisfaction. He knew the thing he was looking for, the way to unseal the scrolls, wasn''t going to be easily found in any ring belonging to the normal member of the dark spirit masters'' little army here.

    He shifted his eyes around, looking at all the dark spirit masters around. Many got killed during the past minutes, especially when they were running to regroup. And William just fixed his eyes over these, dashed towards them without any hesitation.

    Few of these bodies were already in the area under the normal spirit masters'' control, but most weren''t. William started first with those around the spirit masters on his side, then started to dash towards those lying in the middle of the heat.

    William knew the moment he''d step into that mess; it''d be hard to keep himself safe. He was still a bronze grade spirit master. And if not for the lot of spirit masters here to answer his rally shout fast, he''d have run away in the end.

    So, he didn''t just dash forward blindly, and instead kept looking and examining the ce around, selecting the best ces for his uing move.

    "There!" and a few minutester, he spotted a weakness in the middle of the monsters and dark spirit masters lines. He didn''t hesitate as he knew such a vacant spot would be filled soon enough.

 Chapter 350 Leaving

    Like an experienced hunter, he kept dashing forward into the weak ces in the entire battle, gathering up all the rings and gears he could, before returning back again into the safe area at the back, before he''d get surrounded by his enraged enemies.

    He used his straightforward lightning dash technique to make such sudden moves, aided by a few short dashes to change his trajectory, evading any iing attack, or hitting an already dying target.

    He didn''t take any risk at all, kept doing things while putting his safety on top of anything else. He didn''t know that by being overly cautious, he deprived his enemies from any chance to hit him hard.

    And that drove many crazy, ending up with few trying their luck and following him deep into the strong spirit masters'' formations.

    These ended up quite bad, dying just a few moments after following him. Seeing what happened to them, other dark spirit masters learnt their lessons, never trying to do it again.

    Even so, William never dropped his guard. Instead, he became more focused and rmed. When he dashed forward next, he kept doing this randomly and without any prior warning. He didn''t even move closer to the spot he''d jump at next and used his techniques to take him wherever he wanted.

    He decided to spend a little more of his spirit power in return for securing his life more. And in the middle of all this, he kept absorbing a few silver cores to replenish his lost spirit power, keeping himself always in top shape, prepared for any sudden and unexpected ambush.

    The battle that started with a small ambush by the dark spirit masters started to escte and expand on an rming rate. William could hear various shoutsing from distant parts of the forest, not knowing that the long-awaited patrols were already on the move.

    The early arrows heunched already lost their effect by now. The monsters kepting inrge numbers, taking the most attention from the spirit masters fighting here.

    And just in half an hour, and by the joining of the patrol teams and other spirit mastersing from different areas, the dark spirit masters knew they already lost this fight. Group by group started to withdraw, using monsters as the perfect cover for their organised retreat.

    William knew he could follow them if he wanted to, try out his luck and hunt down more of them. But he didn''t. He was alone, pretty exhausted physically and mentally after such a fervent battle. Not to mention he gained a lot from here already.

    "Time to replenish my cores," by the retreat of the dark spirit masters from this battle, it turned into a regr and normal fight against monsters.

    As there were lots of different types and grades of monsters here, and with the presence of a growing number of spirit masters, William felt all safe and carefree in hunting down cores.

    He didn''t want to just get bronze grade cores, but mostly the silver and far important gold cores.

    But to find a dying gold grade monster and deal thest blow at it was a fantasy! The ones who were able to take down such monsters were gold grade spirit masters. And they were quite brutal and excessive in fighting and killing monsters.

    They would never leave behind a single gold grade monster''s corpse intact without looting its precious materials and cores after killing them. And that left William in front of a tough situation.

    William tried, looked around for a few more hours, even moved through various regions of this big battle, yet failed to get a single gold core he could personally use.

    But he did acquire a good harvest of silver cores, exceeding one hundred and fifty cores at the end of this battle.

    As for the bronze cores, he got hundreds of them, close to five hundred. He didn''t care about any white grade monsters at all, even didn''t spare them any nce in case he ended up killing a bunch of them by mistake.

    The battle formally ended when a team of dark gold spirit masters arrived. And when they did, they announced their presence by unleashing scary and terrifying waves of attacks that made everyone stop what they were doing for a few seconds... Then they all cheered in happiness.

    "Is it over this fast? I shall leave and head back towards the main fort then," William didn''t want to keep fighting aimlessly like others. He knew the morale of everyone here skyrocketed, and these dark gold spirit masters didn''te empty handed.

    They brought lots of gold and silver spirit master teams, experienced and quite strong teams to help in this battle.

    In the eyes of William, staying here anymore would be a waste. He got at least forty rings to check, and he was quite exhausted after fighting for so long.

    So, he didn''t stay here any longer, selected the direction the flying dark gold spirit masters came from, and started to run towards there.

    William knew that from this day onward, what he did here would be known by many, going viral even. But he didn''t care even in the slightest about what others would think about him.

    He knew he was going to attract attention sooner orter, so why would he try to keep his identity and powers hidden? The sooner he''d make a name for himself the better.

    He decided to leave to avoid any unneeded dy and disturbance from the curious strong spirit masters who arrivedte. He still got to find his team, and to do that he had to go to the fort and visit a ce there.

    As he started to walk further away, he noticed more spirit masters running towards here from every corner of the world. It seemed the news already spread over the entire fort, and many spirit masters wereing here to take part in the battle.

 Chapter 351 [Bonus ] The Great Fort

    William ignored all of that and took note of how immensely huge the number of spirit masters were in the Scorching Lands. He saw enough to rival the army gathered up by the Long n by many folds actually.

    And that was only a small part of the real force this ce really had.

    William hadn''t met a single monster since leaving that battlefield. He crossed a distance that should be crossed in two hours but in five thanks to all the iing spirit masters from the fort direction, blocking his path forward.

    But that told him he was heading in the right direction at least.

    It was like a dam fell and the entire world was filled with racing and widely running waters. The moment William got closer to the fort, he couldn''t help but stop, looking in admiration towards the piece of wonder in front of him.

    He always thought that the fort was just like the academy, the Long n, a ce that got surrounded by walls and defences, filled with lots of people and various buildings.

    But what he saw right in front of his eyes made him smile in satisfaction.

    In front of him, nine huge hills appeared, rising from the ground, looking like small mountains.

    What made these not mountains were simply their low peaks. Their peaks just ended abruptly after rising up for five hundred metres in the air. It seemed like someone or something quite formidable cleaved these peaks in the past, ttened the tops, and prepared the ce for building the fort on top of them.

    The hills were closely situated from each other, with narrow and limited space in between each other. On the cleanly cut tops, there was a grand structure that spanned over these hills, covering up the entire valleys and gaps in between, extending for a few thousand metres outwards in all directions.

    The fort took the shape of a nine headed star, one that gave awe in the eyes of anyone looking at it from far or near.

    It was built out of special ore, one that looked quite shiny like steel. It looked solid, strong enough to carry such grand weight on top of it.

    The hills acted as the foundation for such a grand fort, nine grand pirs that were enough to carry the sky even if they needed to. The entire fort''s surface area was at least two hundred kilometres square, or even more.

    William felt real admiration for the grand work done here. It looked like a lot of thought and much effort was put intoing up with such a grand fort. And from seeing it from afar and down there, William couldn''t help but feel more awe.

    He knew being in that ce was considered one of the safest ces in the entire area, in the kingdom, even in the world perhaps. Not a single monster would dare toe here. Not a single army would be able to touch that fort no matter how huge and strong it was.

    The path towards the top of the fort was quite ugly and hard. Not to mention the fort had grand walls that lined that fort edge from outside. Many strong and mighty looking towers appeared in William''s vision, and all this together would keep this ce safe no matter what.

    This fort was the perfect example of using the terrain perfectly for one''s advantage in defending this ce, in addition to using normal defensive structures and weapons like towers and walls.

    Even the monster tide that threatened Long n residence before wouldn''t even pose a single threat to this ce.

    And just from seeing such a strong fort, William couldn''t help but wonder how in the world such a ce fell when the apocalypse fell.

    "Something must have happened here," William knew if monsters'' and dark spirit masters'' powers wouldn''t be able to do it, then human treason would.

    He started to walk again towards that fort. The fort was already on high ground, enough to let anyone inside to spot anything moving in a ten kilometres radius, or even more.

    However, they didn''t act like how the Long n did, and didn''t care about cleaning any trees or removing the part of the forest around. And that was quite interesting for William.

    It seemed the owners and residents here were quite confident in their strength or something, even letting the forest run normally under the fort, as if they were inviting trouble toe, if trouble even dared.

    The moment William got closer, he noticed there was a grand and broad road, one that came from behind one big hill, curved around it as if it was hugging it or something, before passing directly underneath a big hole in the middle of the seven hills.

    William didn''t notice that space before until he followed the path of that road. It was just like the road he walked over before to head from the academy to the Long n, but a bit bigger, much wider actually.

    The road was well protected by arrays and many spirit masters who looked like they were patrolling it. Not to mention any cargo passing through this road was heavily protected by mercenaries hired by the merchants owning it.

    Even when everything here pointed towards a huge battle going on nearby, the movement on this road didn''t even slow down for a little bit.

    The convoys down below kept marching towards the fort in a very thick line, steadily advancing with lots of spirit masters guarding them.

    ? The caravans were all carts drawn by monsters, tamed monsters. They got covered by thick curtains of opaque mattress, or even made entirely out of special ores, looking like big prison cells.

    William couldn''t believe that all these merchants and spirit masters were walking normally while a brutal battle was going on not far from them. This was a clear sign on how they got used to such situations, and how confident they were in their safety.

 Chapter 352 Let The Kid Pass!

    To ess the fort, there were smaller paths divided from the main route, each heading towards one of each of the nine hills. William could tell how hard it was to climb upwards towards the fort using these hills. But for a reason, the chariots down there didn''t face any trouble, kept marching up as if they were walking on tnd.

    "They must have used some sort of an array on these hills, or else these huge caravans won''t be able to make it!" William developed more admiration towards all the thoughts given by the leaders of this fort, even to this small detail.

    As long as there was no gate to knock down, no clear and easy path towards top, it was safe to consider this fort impregnable.

    The only way to take such a fort would be from inside, or from air. William knew finding aerial monsters in this tiny world would be rare.

    So, this ce was going to be safe as long as the ones ruling it didn''t lose their grasp over the entire ce. And that made him question again how the dark spirit masters did it back then when the world came down and fell.

    This was just a single fort in this world. Thinking about other big ces, like capitals of the kingdoms and empires in this world, William could tell how big and hard the dark spirit masters thought and worked for long years to cause such an apocalypse back in his past life.

    "The dark spirit masters must have a grand all over this world," William was quite sure of this. And for a reason, he felt all the dark spirit powers in this tiny world were connected, led by a single figure or a tiny circle of scary individuals.

    The situation wasn''t like this in the outer world. There, dark spirit masters always tend to be aloof and not work together unless in special situations. There was no real top goal for them to unify, nor was there someone quite scary to lead them using force.

    Even that damn fox, it was considered the enemy for everyone, monsters and dark spirit masters included.

    William felt like this tiny world, despite all the many negative points it hadpared to the outer world, got something new that the vast outer world didn''t.

    "It seems I''m going to have more fun here than I expected," William thought to himself, evilly grinning, while walking towards the fort.

    "Halt your steps. Identify yourself, your origins, your purpose from visiting the fort!"

    Just at the foot of one of the hills, William got stopped by one team of guards there.

    He was stepping towards the small road that branched from the main route, heading directly towards the fort.

    But around that road, many spirit masters working as guards scattered, blocking the path of many like William who wereing from the forest outside.

    "Good security," Williammended in his mind, "I''m William, bronze grade disciple of the Aspire academy."

    "Aspire academy? We rarely get anyone from your ce, kid. And what makes a kid like you travel all alone, for all this distance, ande here?"

    William felt heavy pressureing from the direction of this dude. And such pressure instantly attracted the attention of many around, including the rest of his team members.

    "A gold grade spirit master? You are trying to pressure a bronze kid using your power? Just relieve the pressure and let''s hear what the kid has to say!"

    "He is just a kid! Stop dealing with him like he is a criminal or one of those despicable bastards!"

    "Fine!" The next moment, the pressure William suffered got relieved by that dude, "now can you exin yourself? A big battle is going on around, and lots of dark spirit masters are on the run. So, it''s normal to inspect any suspicious individuals."

    He said hisst pieces not to William, but for everyone else who gave him ming looks. William cleared up his throat, didn''t really care that much about what this dude said or thought about as he slowly and calmly said his next words.

    "I came here with a team of mine to do a mission for the Mercenary department here. But my team got in the middle of a big incident in the forest, something rted to the Lockheart impact. And I''m here now to visit this impact''s ce, ask about my friends'' fate."

    "This..."

    "Not these maniacs again!"

    "Poor kid! He lost his friends, and he is here to look for them."

    "Let him enter. I''m supporting this dude! Let him get inside!"

    William''s words got lots of support from those around. And from manyments, William could tell such incidents weren''t that rare to happen actually. Not to mention the public opinion was against what Lockheart impact used to do.

    "Fine, but don''t cause trouble in there, or else I''lle and find you personally."

    "I will adhere and respect thew," William knew he got his pass just from the support he got from the people around. He didn''t think much about this and went towards the path leading towards the fort.

    The moment he stepped onto it, he felt some sort of power that controlled his body and altered his orientation of directions and gravity.

    It was just like he guessed, some sort of array that manipted gravity and let anyone and anything walking over this path feel no disturbance or face any problems at all to walk almost vertically upward.

    William was in the middle of arge number of spirit masters and caravans, all heading like a pilgrimage towards the top.

    He heard many discussions going on around, mostly speaking about the expected gains the merchants would get from the precious cargo here. He also heard little information about the situation up there, and how things were quite chaotic in the upper echelon circle these days.

    ording to the discussions, William learnt that the new generation of many big families up there weren''t that great at all.

 Chapter 353 Go Back!

    Most of the new generation here got raised in very luxurious andfortable situations. And that made them not even understand what true danger and hardships the spirit master world was facing at the moment.

    The old folks up there were still holding everything tight and strictly ruling the ce. But everyone was whispering in fear and doubt about the future of this ce once this round of leaders would get reced by the new ones.

    No one had any confidence at all about the new generation. William started to slowly see the reasons behind the fall of such a ce. He felt a bit weird about how the sons and grandsons of such formidable and well-respected spirit masters would end up getting such a bad reputation.

    He didn''t know what reasons these people had to release such bold usations. But when he recalled Rick, the headmaster''s grandson, the one who he identified as a traitor and an enemy, he couldn''t help but sigh.

    "It seems rotten apples are everywhere," he thought to himself, while not caring that much about such a situation.

    He still got a long path ahead of him, and he never intended to be the hero to save this tiny world here. In his eyes, this tiny world was one of many others, tons of others, and these tiny worlds would never be like the vast outer world at all.

    He wanted to get stronger, build up his personal force here. And then he''d migrate to the outer world with everyone he fostered.

    If he got a chance and a way to save this tiny world, then he''d dly do it. But he''d never drop his ns, step aside his path, to help those living in this world, on the cost of foiling and ruining his future ns.

    Especially when the disaster that would befall this world came originally from the people living in it. Who told these kids to go astray, follow the dark path, and not do like their parents and grandparents? Not doing like their mighty ancestors?

    William kept walking in silence, listening to different tales and talks that made the journey towards the top quite enjoyable.

    And just in half an hour, he felt something was amiss. "Excuse me, why does it feel like we are taking forever to arrive at the top?" And when he found it weird enough, he turned towards one of the caravans'' guards and asked him about this.

    To the guards, the moment they stepped on this path, heading towards the fort high up there, they knew things were almost over for the tasks they got hired for. The ce here was quite safe, and their service in protecting the caravans was close from being over.

    They acted carefree and looked quite easy to approach. And that appeared clearly by the wide smile over that spirit master, who was at least in his early thirtieth, and perhaps was a gold or even one step away from the dark gold grade rank.

    "It seems this is your first timeing here, kid," he paused beforeughing, even patting on William''s petit shoulders, "don''t panic. It''s all normal. It''s thanks to the arrays established in this path. Whoever walks here will feel like walking on tnd, but that will take more time to cross this distance."

    "That''s a really nice array," William recognised the general concept of this array. It was using gravity to affect anyone or anything moving over this road. And that would negatively affect the speed of those passing on it.

    The marvellous part about this array was that no one noticed the change in gravity, nor the effort they''d spend in crossing this path would increase or anything.

    "You are still a kid, what brought you over this insane ce?" that dude looked at William up and down, sizing him while feeling weird of his presence here, "did youe with your family or n?"

    "No sir, I''m here to do a mission."

    "Alone? A mission here? Don''t tell me you are one of those unlucky kids who got born here, tsk!"

    "No sir, I came here from far to do a mission."

    "You¡­ You aren''t pulling a prank on me or something, right?" that dude raised an eyebrow before adding when William shook his head firmly, "tell me, what mission brought a kid like you here?"

    "I''m going to fight the dark spirit masters!" William said it, while clenching his fist as if he was having a game or a fun time.

    "Hahahahaha! Did you hear that, folks? We got someone who wants to see his dreams fulfilled, hahahaha!" One of the friends of that guard couldn''t help butugh when he heard William''s words.

    "Let the kid have his dreams," another said, with a big smile on his face, "I remember I was like him when I was his age. It''s still remarkable that he managed toe here all alone, without getting hurt or scared by what he saw."

    "You should get back," that guard who spoke with William first said in a serious tone, "you shouldn''t be here."

    "But I want to kill viins!" William knew if he acted serious, out of his age, then no one would ever take him seriously anyway. So, he decided to have little fun while getting to know more of those going into the fort.

    As they wereughing at his words and pure and naive ideals, he also wasughing at them in his heart.

    "Don''t be stubborn, kid," another guard couldn''t stand William''s words, "I don''t know what your parents said or how they raised you all this time, but real world isn''t anything like what you have in there," he pointed towards his head before adding, "just take the advice of those older than you, old enough to see the world and know better than you."

    "Sir¡­ My parents¡­ They already died¡­" William pulled a long and sad face, added a touch of one tear falling from his eye, the only tear he managed to bring out in such a situation.

    It was either his tears orughs anyway, and he chose the former.

 Chapter 354 The Crazy Life In The Fort

    Deep inside him, he wanted to cry, out ofughing at these guards. They were old, and yet they got outyed well with a kid who was close to half of their age.

    "This¡­" and like what William expected, all of the guards, alongside anyone else listening to his words, all had a sudden change in their faces.

    "They got killed by the dark spirit masters. And so, I came here to avenge them!"

    "Kid¡­ This is truly admirable¡­ Tell me, what''s your name again?" the first guard who spoke with William asked, while his face showed no sign of ridicule, only respect.

    "I''m William."

    "Listen up William, I''m Jack, and I''m much older than you, right?"

    "Yes sir."

    "Then tell me, is it better to go out there, y the role of hero and make yourself get killed? Tell me, is that how you want to avenge your parents?"

    ? "But sir¡­"

    "Just listen to my words, look into my eyes, and tell me, do you think I''m fooling or tricking you?"

    "No sir!"

    "Then please don''t do what you want, go back, train, grow a little older, be much stronger, and thene back here again and get all the revenge you want."

    William started all this as a y to know the calibre of these people around him, to waste his time and enjoy this walk to the fort. But to his surprise, he didn''t imagine his act would yield such a strong response in everyone.

    It wasn''t just Jack, but everyone around, be it guards or merchants, all nodded in acknowledgment, and even tried to persuade him to return back and drop such desire of revenge.

    "Thanks everyone, I''m going to think about what you said and consider returning home," as William saw things grew out of control, he used the chance of arriving at a huge gate at the end of this path and said his farewell piece.

    And as he took his leave in haste, he didn''t notice the weird gazes of Jack and other guards in his team towards William''s growing distance back.

    William wanted to befriend them and get directions towards his target, but he ended up causing such a mess back there.

    So, he ran fast, walked through the huge gate and into the big main road that appeared next.

    The ce inside wasn''t anything like what this fort looked from outside. From outside, William imagined this ce to be like a true war fort, filled with barracks, training grounds, academies, war supplies shops, and things like this.

    But the moment he got inside, he found a normal looking town. Lots of buildings rose up for tens of metres, with wide streets separating in between, and many caravans were passing through.

    Many people were walking down on the streets, chatting andughing, in a mood that made him feel a bit weird.

    "This ce¡­ It seems it grew ill as they used to be safe¡­ They lowered their guard to such an extent¡­ What a regret¡­ What a shame¡­"

    He shook his head as he kept walking in the main street. He knew such a big road would lead to the centre of this fort, or lead towards the big and important ces in here.

    He spotted many hotels, where he could stay per the words of the team he met outside the fort before. But he wasn''t in any hurry to do so. His top priority now was to find out the main ce of the Lockheart impact.

    He thought he had to ask around to find that impact''s main base. However, just by walking in the street for a few minutes, he realised he didn''t need to.

    The entire street was filled with heated discussions between the passing groups of people, all speaking about how crazy that impact was.

    "I can''t believe the same sh*t is happening now! Come on! What makes any spirit master go through such tough and brutal tests on these days?"

    "Even the impact had a base here for centuries, and they never saw the fort get attacked! Not even once! What makes them crazy about training and putting their people in such deadly situations?"

    "I heard that out of the teams taking part in the test, more than thirty percent will die, and another thirty will fail the test, losing their membership in this crazy impact."

    "If I''m one of the leaders here, I''d go back down this street, fire those crazy folks out of here! I can''t stand such brutality! We are living in a decent ce and a civilised time!"

    William couldn''t help but raise his eyebrows when he heard more of such weird discussions. Not all those passing by had the same weird viewpoint, but many had.

    And those who spoke about these didn''t wear gears, but weird uniforms made out of fancy looking fabrics. Thedies held fans in their hands, and the men all wore different coloured scarfs around their necks.

    In William''s eyes, they looked like clowns and dancers, not spirit masters!

    "Damn! It''s much worse than I thought!" He could tell lots of things without the need to ask anything about who these people were and what made them have such twisted views about the world.

    He could tell why this fort fell in his past life. Damn! He was quite sure if any rebellion or chaos ran out inside right now, this fort would be done for!

    This world was safe and peaceful? They were living in a civilised age and era? William had to struggle hard, exert one hundred percent control over himself, so he wouldn''t go to each one of those crazy folks and show them how truly civilised this world was.

    He heard that the life inside the fort was peculiar and weird, filled with fights and kills. But right now, he felt like he entered into a fantasy parallel world, a world where the monsters got crushed and vanquished a long time ago, and there was no threat of dark spirit masters at all.

 Chapter 355 A Mysterious Man

    "What a bunch of delusional crazy dudes they are, right?"

    While William was feeling more irritated the more suchments and discussions reached his ears, and as he was walking through the main street of the fort, he heard an alien voice that appeared just next to him out of the blue.

    In reflex, William jumped to the side, evading any supposedly iing attack, took out his knives and sword, and was ready to fight that stranger if he was an enemy.

    "Easy kid, I mean no harm for you."

    "Who are you?" William saw an old looking man, with white long hair and beard. From his bright eyes alone, William felt he was so unfathomable, giving him the same dangerous vibe as Berry''s and Sara''s grandfathers.

    "I was just passing by and noticed how you felt," that old man kept his identity hidden, "and couldn''t help but get to know you."

    "What for?" William put on a puzzled childish expression on his face, "I''m just nobody."

    "The one who did all this to the dark spirit masters out there isn''t just a nobody."

    "..."

    William''s face changed as a serious look that befitted an adult and experienced person appeared on his face.

    "Who are you again?" William was now sure of his earlier guess. This old man wasn''t just a normal person, not a normal spirit master.

    He never felt anyoneing close to him, and that dude seemed to watch what he did back at the forest without even interfering or announcing his presence.

    "Just a passerby," that old man shrugged, before pointing towards the distance, "you are heading this way, right? Let''s go there together."

    "What do you know about my destination?" William crossed his arms, not moving a single step forward, "I''m just aimlessly wandering this ce, trying to get to know it better."

    "Your first time, right?" The old man sized William up and down again. That kid was so smart to notice his high-grade power, and yet he didn''t show any nervousness at all on his face.

    In fact, such a calm expression seemed pretty annoying to the old man, managing to pick his interest even more towards William.

    Thetter tried to act cold and slightly rejective to this old man, trying to make him move away. But he didn''t know that by what he showed and did, by his attitude and calmness, he ended up making this old man more interested in him.

    "Then let me apany you around," the old man said before he motioned with his hand towards the distance, "I came here many times to count. So let me be your guide."

    "My guide? A dark gold spirit master be a guide for a bronze grade one?" William decided to put down his act and expose this old man''s true power right in front of his face.

    "Oh, so you do know," the old man raised an eyebrow, faking his surprise about what William said, "and still you aren''t afraid of me?"

    "I prefer to die while fighting than live a life of a ve," William''s voice didn''t hold any speck of anger or fear. He calmly spoke to the old man as if he was speaking to one of his peers or something.

    "At least your master taught you how to have a strong will and spirit in front of dangers."

    "My master?! How do you know about that?!!'''' This time, William''s shock was genuine and true. He looked at this old man again, trying to remember where he saw him before, but failed.

    "Come, I believe you and I have lots to speak about while we are walking."

    "Speaking about what?" William''s vignce grew up to an unprecedented level. He never feared fighting stronger enemies, but feared those he couldn''t read or see through.

    "Don''t let me force you to follow me," the old manughed, as if William didn''t have any choice to begin with.

    "I heard there are rules here," William didn''t budge at all, "so how do you n to take me by force?"

    "Kid, you are acting way beyond your age," the old man didn''t even wipe the smile on his face at all, "do you think rules apply to someone like me? In this chaotic and unjust ce? Hahahaha! If you do believe so, then let me show you how gravely mistaken you are!"

    "No need," William just tried to scare this dude off. But it seemed he really had no choice, "what bad luck I had in the recent days!"

    "What bad luck? Soon enough, you''ll be the one begging to follow me around."

    "No way!"

    "Hahahaha, why not make a little bet here? Do you dare?" The old man gave William a look that was like a wolf eyeing a fat sheep.

    William was pretty confident that he never met this dude before, and yet he knew lots of things about him. He knew even about his master, and only few knew or heard about such a white lie. And all of them belonged to the academy.

    William wanted to ept such a bet, try to extort anything from such a wealthy and authoritative figure. But his sense of danger warned him against it.

    "No thanks, I prefer to keep my opinion limited to myself."

    "Oh, you really aren''t normal," the old man was surprised by this. He knew William was special, either from the stories he heard about from Berry and others, or from what he witnessed this kid doing before at the forest.

    So, heid out such a trap, aiming to force this troublesome kid to spill out more of the juice about his secrets.

    But he never expected that perfect trap to not work, never expected William to show such vignce and caution.

    "Let''s go then," The old man got over his surprise fast, and started moving towards the direction William was heading towards.

    William frowned for a moment, before he started to follow this mysterious dude. His curiosity grew and he decided to try and see if he could get useful information out of him.

 Chapter 356 Berry? Sara? Ibra? Lang?

    "May I know what''s the name of the venerable master?" William hurried his steps to follow this old man. And the first thing he tried to know was his name.

    "I heard your master wanted her name to remain hidden, so as I," and unlike what William expected, that dude seemed to know more about his little lie.

    "Well¡­ My master got her reasons for doing so¡­"

    "I also have mine!"

    "Which are?"

    "None of a kid like yours'' business."

    William''s eyes twitched when he heard that. He felt more like walking in thepany of someone who saw him naked, knew all about himself, while he knew nothing about this dude.

    And he hated such a feeling.

    "I know that all dark gold spirit masters like venerable master here are busy¡­"

    "No, I have nothing to do but to guide you."

    "..."

    William tried many times to prey on this dude''s secrets, yet he always evaded answering him either by directly refusing or pointing towards anything around and spoke about it.

    "Look there, this is the ancient haunted building, the one rumoured to have ghosts and such weird stuff¡­ Tell me, do you want to go in there and have a little fun?"

    "I don''t fear ghosts, besides they don''t exist in the first ce!"

    "Oh, do you see that? It''s one of the oldest buildings that was constructed in this fort. Do you know that a few decades ago it got sold, and guess what? Almost a war was this close to break out, hahahaha! What a bunch of crazy folks they were."

    "Don''t tell me you didn''t take part in this!" William rolled his eyes for the millionth time, already dropping any attempt or hope to get the bottom of this dude.

    "Of course, I was just a gold grade spirit master back then. I was working with someone else, and¡­" as he was about to finally reveal part of his identity and history, he suddenly stopped, looked at William while an evil smile appeared on his face.

    "What?" William didn''t like that look or smile.

    "You thought I was going to tell you my life story, hahahaha! No kiddo, I''m the one here who is going to listen to stories, not you."

    "..." William wanted to loudly curse but feared for his life.

    "Cursing inwardly isn''t a polite thing to do, hahahaha!"

    "..."

    William hated this old man the more he spoke andughed at him. In William''s eyes, that old man was enjoying this situation to the fullest, enjoying teasing and toying with him.

    He just faked that he was going to slip up and speak a little about his history. But this was some sort of a joke for him, one that William didn''t find funny at all.

    "Why are you silent? Don''t tell me you gave up already!'''' After a few minutes of silence, the old man looked at William in pure amusement. And that made thetter sigh in an exaggerated way.

    "What''s the point? You are keeping your lips sealed tightly like they were forged of lead or steel!"

    "And you do know about forging as well? What a gem thatdy found, hahahaha!"

    "I''m going to shut up from now on!" William''s corner of the mouth trembled when he heard that old man''s words.

    "Not going to say anything?" And as if that old man found a new source of his amusement, his eyes shone brighter, e on! You don''t n to stick to silence like this! Ok, ok, let me see if you''ll keep your lips shut about this or you will speak up¡­"

    "..."

    William intended to really keep his silence until he''d reach the residence of the Lockheart impact. Least to his knowledge, he was actually walking side by side with the dude he wanted to find there.

    "Berry!"

    "What?!" Just as if a cold bucket of water fell on top of his head, William''s body jolted as he jumped in the air, taking out his weapons again. Even his bow appeared with a few arrows flying in the air, readily to getunched.

    "Oh, you didn''t stick to your silence after all, I won! I won! Hahahahaha!" William looked at this old man, not knowing who the kid was and who was the adult among the two of them.

    "Stop fooling around," William''s tone became icy cold, "tell me where and how did you know this name?"

    "Just this name? How about Sara? Ibra? Lang? Come on! You are so smart to guess things by now."

    "You¡­ You got them?!!" William''s mind already reached such a point the moment this dude brought Berry''s name up. But he wanted to hear the answer directly from that old man.

    "Let''s go inside and talk," the old man suddenly turned around and headed right. And right there, William found a grand building, with a huge wall and a signboard hanging over the gates: The Lockheart Impact.

    It was the ce he wanted to reach sinceing here. And he arrived without even realising it.

    "Come inside, don''t be shy," the old man just touched the shut gates, didn''t even spare a nce back at William and his weapons, "and take these toys away. We don''t need to frighten the kids inside."

    "..."

    "What are you doing standing like an idiot back there?" The old man''s voice came while his body vanished through the slowly opening gates, "you already wanted toe here to find your friends, right? And I got them! So why are you not following me inside?"

    William couldn''t help but sigh, take back everything he got out, and followed that old man through the gates.

    He wanted toe here and find a way to get his team back. Least to his expectations that the one who had them actively sought him out first.

    "What the heck did they tell him exactly?" William passed through the gates, which turned to close up the moment he passed through, as if they were waiting for him to pass.

 Chapter 357 I Want Fifty!

    Inside the tightly shut gates, William saw lots of buildings there. Few were two stories high, and many were three up to five. He spotted narrow gaps between these buildings, acting like narrow streets or something.

    They looked more like corridors than streets in his eyes.

    "Follow me," and just as he stood in his ce motionless, checking the ce and trying to see where this old man was, thetter''s voice came from a certain direction.

    "Coming!" William was feeling more annoyed by all this. Yet he controlled himself, for getting his team freed.

    He already got little and crucial intel about how peculiar and weird the strong figures at this impact were. And just from his exchange with this old man, he knew this was all indeed true.

    And then his thoughts drifted towards the price anyone had to pay to get back his friends or folks falling in this impact''s grasp. It was something he heard from the group when he walked with them inside the forest. And that made him quite curious and vignt.

    William finally caught up with that old man, while his mind was burdened by what price such weirdo would ask for.

    "He won''t ask to meet my master, right? Damn! If he did, what shall I do? He has already met that fantasy master!" William knew this was the worst-case scenario out there for him.

    He wasn''t afraid to tell this dude that he was the one who knew all this. But he knew if he swore on his spirit, took such a heavy oath, this old man would never buy his words!

    "Sit, I won''t kill you, not yet hahahaha!" William followed that old man inside one of the big buildings, walked after him through twisted corridors that took them deep down the ground.

    William could already feel how heavy the air here was, how moist and slightly cold it was.

    Then the old man pushed a door with his feet, and surprisingly that wooden door, that got cracks and moths at many spots there, didn''t fall into pieces and just opened with loud and quite irritating creaking noises.

    William followed the old man inside, to get met with a simple looking desk, few seats, and an oldmp that kept flickering with pale red light.

    And that made the entire room like it was a bloodbath!

    William stood there in the middle of the small room, waited for a few seconds till his eyes got used to the weird light. Then he looked at the scrolls that were neatly arranged behind the old man''s back, shifted his eyes around, falling on the dense spiderwebs that were more than anything else in this ce.

    "You don''te here often, aren''t you?" As William knew who this old man was, he didn''t keep his respectful attitude with him anymore.

    What he wanted was in the hands of this old man. And from what he learnt about this dude so far, he got to know how entric this dude was.

    Trying to get to his good side was a futile attempt. Instead, William decided to act carefree, dealing as if this dude was his old friend or something.

    "That''s more I like," The old manughed when he noticed the change in William''s attitude, "I hate any routine! F*ck routine! I wish I knew who the mad dude was who got bored enough to create a regime and system, getting us all tortured by this bullshit!"

    "..."

    William knew trying to speak logically with such a dude was going to fail. So, he just let the old man say whatever he wanted, sat on a seat, crossed his arms, and kept looking at him without saying anything.

    "Anyway, I know that you are quite anxious and worried about your friends¡­ Don''t worry, they are all quite alright and safe."

    William raised an eyebrow when that old man acted normally for the first time since meeting him.

    "However¡­"

    "I know, I know¡­ Why won''t we save each other''s time here, and tell me what price you want to release them?"

    "Oh, you already are aware of having to pay a price? Cool! This saves lots of time for me¡­ Then let me go easy on you, just fifty!"

    The old man raised his hand, fanned his five fingers in front of William''s face.

    "Fifty of what exactly? Spirit crystals?"

    "Dear boy, I only deal with years here!"

    "Oh f*cking lord! Are you one of those time obsessed dudes, time vampires? Will you suck away fifty years of my lifespan? What a shitty and low spirit master you are!"

    "Watch your tongue kid! I don''t go easy on insults!" The old man gave William a serious and threatening look, while his face finally tensed up for the first time.

    "I''m just kidding!" Williamughed, while finally feeling little satisfaction in giving back a little of the anger and frustration he hid inside his chest all this time.

    "But I''m not, hahahaha!" The old manughed as well, and the two of them keptughing like two crazy fellows.

    "So¡­ I guess you agree?" Then two remained silent for a long minute, before the old man asked.

    "I still don''t get what you want?" William was perfectly clear on the price this old man wanted. And he was trying to waste little time so he could find a way out of here.

    "Come on! I know you already guessed it. So why act like a kid when you aren''t?"

    "What do you mean?" William raised his right arm high as he pointed with his left hand towards it, "look? I''m weak and fragile! I''m still an eleven years old kid!"

    "In theory, you are, but in reality, you are no lesser than an old fox like me!"

    "Don''t be this excessive, I''m just eleven!" Williamughed, but the old man kept ring up at him. William felt like this old fox suspected something, and yet that never bothered him at all.

 Chapter 358 You Can Have My Team

    What if people learnt he was someone who came from the future? Someone who held his memories from all his past life? Aside from the struggle they''d feel to believe such a thing, William felt he''d not lose anything if others knew.

    So, he stopped worrying about such a thing a long time ago. He already decided to act normally and take full advantage of what he knew, without caring too much about what others knew or felt.

    "Do I look this pretty or what?" After staying silent like this for the entire five minutes, William couldn''t help butugh while throwing a joke.

    "I''m just trying to guess how such a kid,ing from a weak academy, one without any n or a big family behind his back, can reach such a level of intelligence."

    "Call it luck."

    "I don''t believe in luck."

    "Then call it luck for someone like me meeting my master when I was young."

    "I''m too curious about meeting that master of yours," the old man kept his serious re fixed at William before suddenlyughing, "but why settling for a half assed solution when I got the entire package in front of me?"

    "What do you mean?"

    "If I got you, then it''s like getting not only a rare talent like yourself, but also the master behind your back."

    "I beg to differ."

    "No, you won''t, hahahaha!" the old manughed as if he didn''t care about what William thought, "you are going to serve me for fifty years. In return for that, your team will be freed to go wherever they want. And as you are going to be by my side for all this time, you are going to meet up with your master frequently. And I''ll end up meeting that awesomedy anyway. What do you think? Quite brilliant idea, right? Hahahaha!"

    "Quite brilliant indeed," unlike what the old man expected, William was sitting calmly without a single speck of worry or anxiety on his face.

    "Why do I feel like you are joking here?"

    "No, seriously it''s a genius n," William waved both arms in the air, as if he was helpless towards this n of the old man. And when the old man kept ring at him, he pped his hands as if he was apuding the effort this man ced ining up with such an idea.

    "But?"

    "Who said I''m going to say but?"

    "Damn! Howe you are growing more annoying than before?" the old man narrowed his eyes, e on! Tell me your piece, what surprising twist you are going to use to get out of such a trap?"

    "It''s indeed a trap, but¡­" William couldn''t control himself andughed again, "you missed a tiny detail here."

    "I''m deadly curious to know what it is!"

    "I won''t need my team anymore," William suddenly stood up, moved his hands around as if he was removing dust off his uniform and gears, "you can have and do whatever you wish with them. I don''t need any deadweight on my shoulders."

    "You¡­" the old man couldn''t control himself, stood abruptly up, leading to his seat to fall on the ground in a loud thud, "I swear I''ll torture them, make them regret getting even born in this era!"

    "That''s their problem, not mine," William turned around, waving his hand as he started to walk away, "and good luck in dealing with my two ex-girlfriend''s enraged grandfathers."

    "I don''t fear anyone! I fear none!"

    "I''m just wishing you good luck here," William stood at the door, pushing it to open as he added, "after all, the circle of those especially strong spirit masters is quite narrow. Your friends are theirs as well. And no matter what, a mountain can''t stand alone against the constant rain falling down on it."

    "Screw you!"

    *Bang!*

    And just like a bomb exploded in front of his face, that wooden and old looking door suddenly mmed shut in William''s face, hitting him hard, sending his body flying, crossing the small room like a deted balloon, before finally hitting the opposite wall and making all the scrolls and thick spiderwebs there fall to the ground.

    "Who said you are free to leave? Your fate is in my hands!"

    "Then f*cking kill me!" William got instantly enraged, no lesser than this old man. He knew this was the only possible way to get himself and his team freed from the clutches of this old man.

    He got to fight! And he had to risk his life on the line to get out from here alive, with everything he had, without losing anything.

    The fierce reaction of that old man came as expected by him. So, the moment his bodynded on the ground, he hurriedly stood up, took everything he got out once more, and was ready for a deadly fight.

    "Killing you? Hmm¡­ This is an interesting move indeed¡­"

    And when William expected the explosion of that old man''s wrath in front of him, all he got was a soft chuckle.

    In front of William''s eyes, that old man forced his fallen seat to rise up in its ce again using his power, before seating on it calmly as if nothing ever happened.

    "I admire your courage and genuinity, however you are taking me too lightly. It''s quite boring and idiotic if you thought I''d fall for such a trick."

    "It was worth trying though," William realised that his real intentions here got seen through. What he wanted to do was to create a big fuss, too big for this old man to not be able to contain it inside this room, not even inside the walls of this impact.

    William wanted to attract more eyes towards here and use this chance to find anyone who could save him and his team from such a desperate situation.

    But the old man didn''t fall for such a trick, and calmly foiled everything by sitting on his seat with such an annoying calm smile on his face.

 Chapter 359 Do You Have A Death Wish?

    "That move of ditching your team was good. Unluckily for you, I already got to hear lots of your care about your team from the mouths of the team themselves."

    "I have to teach them how to keep their mouths shut!"

    "Of course not! They were the reason behind my interest in you."

    "That''s specifically why they should be taught a lesson."

    William returned to his seat, while touching his soured nose, "don''t you have a healing potion with you? Come on! Toss me one."

    "Says the man who helped his team with many healing potions already," the old manughed, but he didn''t act stingy and took a potion and threw it to William.

    "Now, can we speak a little more seriously please?" William opened the lid of the potion, sniffed its content before adding, "nice stuff you got here."

    "It''s a dark gold grade potion, so it''s good."

    "Do you have more? Extras perhaps?"

    "What? Do you think I''m opening a charity or something? Brace your luck for having just this vial."

    "I know people like you treat such things like grains of sand found on the side of the street," William drank another drop before closing the lid again.

    He did feel great when he took this potion, much better than the one he got from Ellina back then.

    "You do know lots of stuff about people like me."

    "It''s because of my master."

    "Then let me meet her," the old man winked, "I''m single and need such a gooddy to take care of me."

    "Stop fooling around," William couldn''t believe this old man wanted to mate with his master from his past life.

    "I''m not!"

    "Then stop having suicidal wishes, you don''t want to die early, do you?"

    "Speaking as if I''m going to meet a fierce tigress, not a human," the old manughed, making William roll his eyes in return.

    "Just tell me what you really want?"

    "What do you want?" the old man returned the question back to William, "why are you here?"

    "I believe my team must have told you the answer," William sighed, "they didn''t keep anything hidden from you it seems. What did you do to force them to speak? Did you torture them?"

    "I just exposed my true rank in this world," the old manughed, "power has its privileges kid, something you won''t know for a long time."

    "Yes, tell me about it," William knew exactly what the old man meant.

    "They told me a lot, but kept crucial things away from me," the old man sighed, "I tried to torture them, but they kept their lips tightly shut."

    "I hardly believe so!" William pulled a long face, one that made the old manugh in amusement.

    "You don''t believe they kept their mouths shut?"

    "I don''t believe you tortured them."

    "Fair enough," the old man nodded, "now tell me, why are you here again?"

    The old man already knew the answer to this question, yet he still wanted to hear William''s answer. To him, all this was a funny and amusing game, one that someone like him would rarely rumble upon.

    "You saw what I did back there, right?" William motioned towards the outside, referring to the battle that happened out in the forest.

    "The fight with the dark spirit masters? What''s about it?" The old man faked that he didn''t get what William meant.

    "We came here for them."

    "You¡­ Stop fooling around! We are talking seriously now!"

    "I''m honestly answering you," William shrugged, "we are here to hunt dark spirit masters down."

    "Is the grudge between you and them this deep?"

    "No, it''s just I don''t like them."

    "Don''t like them? Hahahaha! That''s the silliest and funniest reason I even heard about fighting these jerks, hahahaha!"

    "It''s great you share the same view about them as me, hahahaha!"

    "You dare to make me second to you?" The next moment, that old man released his dark gold grade power at full cylinders, making William fall from his seat with a trembling body and ashen face.

    "Anyway," and then the old man retreated his spirit power, feeling more amused and satisfied by the suffering William just got.

    For a reason there, he felt a little desire to teach William a lesson. Thetter kept talking to him like they were equal or something.

    "You do know that this is child abuse?"

    "So what? What can you do about that? Humph!" The old man acted all shameless while watching William sitting again on his seat.

    "How did you find me?"

    "Oh, and here I thought you were going to ask me again about the price for releasing your team."

    "You already got my answer¡­ If you asked for anything extravagant, then you can have this team for yourself," William waved both hands while shrugging, as if this was something already set in stone or something.

    "Not this useless trick again," the old man rolled his eyes, and William couldn''t help but scoff in return.

    "I''m not kidding this time," he paused, before putting a serious look on his face, "if you desperately want my team, then have it! I can rece this team with ten others without feeling any pain or loss."

    "Is that what your master taught you?"

    "She isn''t here, and you don''t know her, so stop speaking as if you do!"

    "Oh, it seems that I hit a soft spot of yours, hahahahaha!"

    William kept his silence, while the old manughed for as long as he desired.

    "Fine, I will speak about what I want from you¡­"

    "Why not tell me how you found me in the first ce?" William crossed his arms and interrupted the old man.

    "And why will I expose such a thing to you, kiddo?" the old man evilly smiled, a smile that looked quite creepy with all the white hair that covered his face.

    "Whatever! I will go back and tell my master. She will find the tracking thing you left on me and then reverse it, find you, and beat the hell out of you."

    "You¡­ What an evil kid you are!"

 Chapter 360 Selling The Nightmare Monster Out

    The old man was taken aback by what William said. He never thought such a kid would be familiar or all knowing about tracking marks left by high end spirit masters.

    "Don''t put it on me," William put an honest expression on his face, "my master always warned me from dealing with creepy old men. And she once promised that if anytime I met with anyone who used such cheap methods on me, then she''ll go all out and teach that dude a lesson."

    "..."

    The old man''s corner of eyes twitched, before he finally waved his arm as he used his spirit power, "it''s gone! Are you satisfied now?"

    "Hehehehe," Williamughed while rubbing his nasal bridge in an irritating way.

    "Dammit! You are a hellish monster, not a kid! Who raised you to be like this?"

    "My master, do you want to say anything wrong about her? I''ll ry all the wordsing out from your mouth by the letter, I promise."

    William raised his right arm in the air, as if he was taking an oath or something.

    "Damn! Alright, here is what I want to know from you¡­ What''s that weird way to assess one''s spirit power?"

    "What way?" William could tell part of what his team told this dude here. "It seemed they just told him bits of everything, not many details," he thought to himself, thanking God his team had little brain cells remaining and working in their heads.

    "The way you used to find out about the twin spirits and the Dormant spirit element. And what does any of that even mean?"

    ? "Old man, what use will it be for you to know something without knowing how to properly assess and analyse it?" William rolled his eyes, and the old man had to clench both fists to not punch him in the face.

    "That''s my business, I want to see the technique myself."

    "Then you''ll release my team?"

    "No, there is an additional thing," the old man paused, thinking about the weird battle he got against the Nightmare monster, "what the hell is that monster?"

    "What monster?" This time, William got totally puzzled by what the old man said, not getting his point.

    "That damn bastard! The one with lots of clones, spirit elements, and techniques!"

    "The Nightmare monster?!" William asked in surprise, and when the old man kept silent, he knew the two already met, "howe you met with it? It was chasing after me and then ran away."

    "Ran away? No way! That bastard was tracking you and it happened for me to meet it¡­"

    The old man briefly narrated what happened in an annoyed tone. When he spoke about his long and hard battle against it, William knew it was just his luck that fate sent this old man in his way.

    The old man suffered a lot under the hand of the weird merging move of that monster. Per his words, the monster was able to merge many clones together, forming a little bigger version of itself, with lots of techniques and elements that shouldn''t belong to a certain being!

    In his eyes, this monster wasn''t any less dangerous than the dark spirit masters. Not to mention it caused such problems to a dark gold spirit master like himself, ending up running away from his clutches. And just thinking about the presence of such scary and heaven defying being nearby without even knowing about it made the old man quite enraged.

    "... I want to know everything you know about it, everything!" he finally roared, as his rage couldn''t be controlled anymore.

    William thought for a moment there to not tell the old man anything. But when he recalled the hidden threat this monster posed to him, and that promise to find and devour him, he decided to deliver everything he knew about it.

    It was better to use the hands of others to deal with such a headache for now.

    "Don''t take it on me, you are the one who sat its eyes on me," William thought to himself, evilly smirking inwardly, while telling everything he knew about this monster to the old man.

    He didn''t hide anything, even told him about this monster''s weird habits, the things known that it liked, and even where it liked to rest from time to time.

    "Moist caves underground, with extremely low temperature are considered the most favoured ce for this monster to sleep," William paused, before finally adding hisst piece, "to know it''s the real body and not a clone, you''ll find a core deep inside its back."

    "Looks like you already killed one of these," the old man gave William a weird nce. William spoke for almost half an hour straight, telling lots of things that made him like a stalker for this monster.

    "It''s not me," William waved his arm, as if what the old man said was something crazy, "it''s my master."

    "Pretty good master, is she as pretty as her skills and knowledge?"

    "If you got a death wish, then just tell me so I can give you a hand," William winked, and the old man coughed twice before saying:

    "Forget it then. Now, show me your weird method to assess spirit power."

    "Not before I got to meet my team first," William knew he gave enough to the old man. In fact, it felt like he was misusing this old man for his benefits.

    But he didn''t feel any shame nor guilt at all. The old man was the one who sought him and that monster out. And he just took advantage of the situation here.

    "You are now asking for conditions?"

    "I just offered a big piece of information to you," William shrugged, "the technique can be shown to you anytime, anywhere. But my team had to travel a long distance to arrive here. So¡­"

    "Who tells you they aren''t here?"

    "I can feel it," William paused, "they are far away from me."

    "Oh, Message Papers indeed," the old man said in realisation, and it was really part of William''s confidence.

 Chapter 361 [Bonus ] A Stele

    But the remaining part was just William''s feeling. He didn''t feel his team was in this fort at all. And they were far, very far away from here.

    "Fine, but don''t stir trouble when we are waiting for them."

    "I''m not a troublemaker."

    "Says the one who caused a huge battle the early minutes he sets his foot in here."

    "You didn''t want me to lead them to crush the enemy?" William smiled, "it was still annoying watching a lot of spirit master teams running and giving their back to the few of the dark spirit masters back there."

    The old man looked at William for a long minute, "for your knowledge, the leader of the dark spirit masters in the region isn''t weaker than me. And he got lots of dark gold spirit masters than what we got here in the entire fort."

    "Then why didn''t he attack the fort already?" William raised his eyebrows when he heard this.

    He knew the dark spirit master leader here must be strong not only because he was at the same stage of this old man and other fellows like him, but thanks to his darkness element.

    And that what made a difference between any normal spirit master and dark ones at such higher stages. When one would reach such a pinnacle of power, only little things could make any difference between two spirit masters.

    And that was when the holy triad of the spirit masters would appear in the picture. They''d make all the difference between any two spirit masters in the same stage, like the old man and the leader of the dark spirit master forces in the region.

    "I''m just warning you," the old man didn''t divulge anything about William''s doubts. And that made thetter doubt that there were many hidden things going on here.

    For a reason, William felt that most if not all of these secrets were dirty ones.

    "Thanks, but I already epted the task."

    "Tsk! Alright then, go and take a rest here."

    "Here?!" William was surprised by the old man''s offer.

    "Sure, did you expect me to let you stay at another ce or something? You are like a guest, a valuable one," the old manughed, took something out from one of his many earrings, and tossed it towards William''s direction.

    "This is¡­"

    "It''s the token of mine," the old man waved his arm, as if he got tired of William''s presence, "you can ess a certain building using this. And no one will dare to hinder your path at all. It''s themon building used for outsiders and guests to stay at. However¡­"

    "I know, I know," William stood up while ying with this token as if it was a coin or something, "I will keep my head low and stay out of trouble."

    "I hope you do¡­" the old man muttered while watching William''s back vanish from the room, "tsk! I and these folks never expected that the mission we issued a long time ago would manage to attract such useless and weak kids. What a waste! We should have limited the age and the spirit power of those epting it back then¡­"

    The old man shook his head, while feeling how regretful it was for the mission, he and his friends left back then, attracted good kids like William and his team.

    He didn''t ce any hope on William''s team. But it was a totally different story while speaking about William.

    In his eyes, William was a gem, a true gem, one that he dreamt about finding before for himself, and yet failed.

    William left the old man, who he didn''t yet know his name, and decided to take a stroll here first.

    "I met members of such an impact more than once, and that''s not coincidence," he muttered while slowly walking outside the door. And when he went outside, he was surprised to find himselfing out from a different building, not the one he entered with the old man before.

    "That old man¡­ Was his hideout situated in between two buildings or what?" William shook his head when he saw a different area than the one he entered from.

    He appeared just in front of a long corridor, one that looked like a narrow street going between different buildings. He started to slowly walk, and slowly he found the corridor getting a bit wider, ending up opening in a wide diamond shaped za.

    He came from a path that opened at one angle of this ce. And there were three more paths leading to three different angles out there.

    This za was close to a kilometre square, with nothing in it except for a centralrge ck stone stele.

    William didn''t find himself alone anymore. The entire za was filled with many spirit masters in different grades, wearing various collection of attires and gears, all standing in silence while looking up at a single direction, the direction of that stele.

    "What''s special about this stele anyway?" William could tell that something big was happening, and yet he was away from the stele to read the little letters written on its surface.

    The words were in silver, gold, white, and dark red colours. He couldn''t read anything from this distance and needed to get closer to see better.

    "Dude, are you new here or what?" Just when he muttered these words, many turned towards his direction, giving him weird gazes, sizing him up and down.

    "You can say that," William didn''t give a definite answer.

    "If you are new, then you shouldn''t be here," another dude stepped up, and William could vaguely sense his spirit power to be one rank higher than himself.

    "All the new dudes are out there, fighting to join us," another stepped up, while the little space around William started to gather more attention.

    "If you are an old member, then you''d have known the value and importance of this stele," a third one approached, and his voice was loud enough to attract more eyes towards him, "not to mention I never recall seeing such a pretty young face here before. And that means you aren''t a member of our impact."

    "Who are you?"

 Chapter 362 Tu Wants Him!

    ? "What are you doing here?"

    "Is he a spy? Perhaps from other impacts?"

    "I won''t find it surprising to be one of those despicable dark spirit pieces of sh*t!"

    "Let''s beat him first, then capture and lock him up!"

    "Well said! Who is going to help me? Anyone?"

    William suddenly became the hot focus of everyone in the za. And soon enough, everyone looked at him in a hostile and vicious way. More spirit masters started toe from nearby corridors, attracted by the ruckus and shouts spreading all over the za.

    William was about to take out the token thing he got from the old man, praying inside that this token would be recognised by few, or held any value at all.

    Or else, he knew he''d suffer a hellish beating just for nothing wrong he did!

    However¡­

    "Hey! Stop this nonsense! All of you retreat! All of you get away!"

    William''s hand paused in their ce while a weird look appeared on his face. He turned, just like everyone else, towards the direction of the iing voice, while many parted ways for a familiar face to appear in William''s eyes.

    "You¡­" William was instantly taken aback. He looked up and down at his saviour, while thetter approached slowly, with a team following suit.

    "He is an old friend of mine," a refined looking youngdy stopped just ten metres away from William, turned to face others of the impact, while crossing her arms in a challenging way.

    "Ro, are you sure you do know him?"

    "It would be bad if he turned out to be an agent of the other side."

    "Stop this bullshit! He isn''t anyway rted to any dark spirit master group," Ro''s voice echoed strongly in the ce, while William didn''t know how to react to this weird surprise.

    He previously met Ro when he attended the Spar arena''s big day back at the academy. And right there, he executed one of his most brilliant battles since returning back to this world. And she was there, witnessed everything that he did, even saving his life once.

    He always felt that she had a mysterious background, least to his knowledge that he''d find her here.

    "This impact¡­ It''s no coincidence at all!" William was much surer now of his earlier hunch. This impact and him seemed to share many ties, and that was the machination of nothing else but fate.

    That got him curious about what fate prepared for him, to link him to such a big impact, one that wasn''t supposed to meet or cross paths with ever.

    "Are you sure?"

    "Why not double check?"

    "You do know how those bastards act, how their weird methods in shapeshifting work."

    "Stop this circus," Ro didn''t get fazed by the many shoutsing at her. And that told William she was a famous figure here.

    "How about him being a spy of other impacts? Coming here to check on the test results?"

    "Ahem," before Ro would speak up again, William did what he wanted to do in the first ce. He took out the token, raised it high in the air, as he slowly added in a calm tone, "I''m not any of what you thought. I came here invited by a senior, and he left this for me to prove my words."

    "This¡­"

    "No way! Howe this thing is with him?!"

    "Holy sh*t!"

    The moment William took the token out and said these words, the expression on everyone''s faces changed dramatically.

    William prayed that they''d recognise this token, few of them actually. But their current reaction didn''t give any peace of mind. Instead, they made him feel weirder and more worried.

    It was like looking at someone infected with a deadly disease or got cursed by bad luck or something. And in the next few minutes, everyone stepped away, moved far from William, leaving a distance of tens of metres between them and him.

    Seeing all that made his eyes twitch. "What''s wrong with this thing? Am I in any danger or what?" as hecked any intel, he turned instantly towards Ro and her group.

    Ro was a beauty, but she was now surrounded with other stunning and more beautiful young girls. They were at the same age as herself, and it seemed like she was the leader of this team.

    Their faces weren''t any better than the faces of others. And that made him feel much worse than ever.

    "I shouldn''t have taken this damn thing out and let her defend me instead," he inwardly sighed, ming his earlier rash move and his desire to silence everyone here.

    "This¡­ Sigh! Why is it always this troublesome every time I meet you? Huh? Are you a ma for trouble or what?" she didn''t just say these words from her spot, but even moved closed and knocked on his head like she was knocking on a door or something.

    "Ouch! Ouch! It hurts! Stop it! Ouch! Ouch!" he tried to escape her reach, but she kept tagging along, knocking on his head while her friendsughed.

    "Ro, is he really one of your friends?"

    "He is a bit funny."

    "I like him Ro, let me knock him as well."

    "Yes, I too want that, Tu wants that!"

    "Hey hey! Ladies! I''m not a damn punching bag for you!" William had to use his technique to get away from the clutches of Ro. and when he did, theughs of the twenty girls of Ro''s team choked in their throats.

    "Don''t let him mislead you," Ro aimed for such a result from the start, "he is a very dangerous dude, here and here!"

    She pointed at her head and waist, a move that made William''s face change at once.

    "Hey! Who said I''m dangerous here?!! Huh?!" William pointed at his little brother, while shouting in disbelief.

    "I''m just protecting my sisters from the evilness of someone like you," Ro put an honest expression on her face, one that William didn''t buy.

    "Ro, please, lend him to me. Tu wants to y with him at night, please lend him to me."

 Chapter 363 A Team Of Weirdos

    "Stop it girls!" Ro looked at her friends while rolling her eyes, "he isn''t any less dangerous than any monster! Don''t let this dude near your pants, or else¡­"

    "What the heck is wrong with you? With all of you?!!" William shouted while moving away again to escape the iing closed knuckles of Ro who kept chasing him.

    And when he shed again, he noticed many shaking their heads towards him from those around. It made him get the impression that they truly felt sorry for him.

    "If you don''t stop it right now, then I''ll go all out!"

    "Dude, you are a bronze spirit master," one girl of Ro''s team cracked her knuckles, as if she was prepared to give him a beating or something, "and we are all gold grade."

    "Let me see if you can stop me from leaving then!" William harrumphed and was on the verge of shing away, intending to use his fifty metres straight dashes, when Ro stopped him with a shout.

    "Wait, we were just teasing and ying with you."

    "Do you think I can''t tell that?!" William blinked twice, while giving Ro a weird look.

    "Come,e here little annoying brother," she moved fast. And before William could do anything, he found his head under her armpit, his neck was surrounded with her right arm, while something soft kept rubbing against his face.

    "Let me go! Or I swear I''ll bite you!" and when he got captured in such a weird way, she kept rubbing his head with her knuckles, and soon enough he felt more knuckles running at his head as well.

    "I dare you to do it!" His threats finally worked. She pushed him away as if she was terrified of what he promised to do.

    "Why did you set me free?" William slowly touched the side of his face, the one that was against that soft lump of hers, "I was enjoying this, truly."

    "You¡­ Do you have a death wish?" Ro roared, and the other girls all stood by her side, acting as if they were hungry lionesses on the verge of jumping over a deer to tear it apart.

    "Who said you can touch the lion without paying a price?" William evilly smirked, "let''s stop this madness and someone can exin what the heck all this was for?"

    "It''s their tradition," and when Ro and other girls nned to keep teasing and toying with him, someone stepped up to help the poor William, "they always do it towards any male friend of any of them. Don''t let their beauty cloud your eyes, they are fierce and damn hard to deal with. And that''s why they are all going to remain single for the rest of their lives."

    "I can tell," William nodded, silently thanking that gold grade dude who stepped up and helped him. At the same time, the entire team of girls red at the one who just spoke, and even a few tugged their tongues out. "But I didn''t do anything at all to any of them! Not to her at least!"

    "You liar! What about this¡­ huh?" Ro pointed towards her bulging chest, as if she was marking the site of a crime or something.

    "I mean¡­ Before, before all this," William''s face showed how much he was puzzled about her shameful and daring action. Yet that didn''t stop Ro from pointing again and again at her chest.

    "Don''t mind them, being a friend to any of them is the fault youmitted," the dude who came to help him stepped up and stood by his side. He patted on William''s shoulders, "they won''t stop until you fall to your knees and plead for mercy."

    "Humph! As if they can do it!"

    "Do you want to see if we can or not?" Ro crossed her arms, giving William an evil look.

    "I''m not as strong as you," William nodded, "but that doesn''t mean I''m out of options here."

    "Don''t think too highly of yourself," Ro shortlyughed, "it''s a good thing for someoneing from a retarded academy like yours to kill a team of dark spirit masters. But don''t forget, if not for me, you''d have been dead long time ago."

    "Then stop acting like a b*tch and let''s talk properly like old friends."

    "B.. B¡­ What did you just say?!!" When William said it, it wasn''t just Ro, but all the other girls got their faces changed.

    "Dude¡­ Don''t tell me I''ll regret stepping up to save you," the one who came to help him said with a long sigh.

    "No, they are just fooling around," Williamughed, "now let''s speak as friends. And stop this weird attitude of yours."

    "It''s better if you left them," that man left while waving his hand in the air, "not a single male here didn''t try to approach them, and none seeded. Don''t repeat our mistakes, and keep yourself away, get it?"

    "Come on Steph! We aren''t this bad!" one of Ro''s team shouted, and Steph just raised his middle finger in response, without even turning towards her at all.

    "Steph¡­ You''ll regret itter," another girl shouted, while holding her chest with both hands, leading her two bulging lumps there to look curvier, and her body to look more alluring.

    William looked at these girls and didn''t know why but they reminded him of a group of girls who he met before in his past life. These girls were famous for being so sexy and damn deadly. Not a single man met them and survived their clutches.

    But he wasn''t a normal man after all.

    "I thought the little cub would run away, but he seems quite terrified to move out, hahahaha!" When these girls got done from Steph, they turned towards William''s direction.

    "Enough," William gave them a calm nce, "your little tricks won''t do anything to me. Besides, we are already friends."

    "What''s the use of friends without benefits? Huh?" another girl said inint, faking her sadness from William''s words.

    But thetter just ignored her, turned towards Ro as he got tons of questions for her.

    "So¡­"

 Chapter 364 An Impact Filled With Maniacs!

    "That''s clear, genius!" she raised one eyebrow, "I''m part of the impact."

    "And this team?"

    "It''s my team," Ro waved her long hair off her shoulders, making her look more tempting, "can you imagine that? Having me means having the entire team for free."

    "Sorry, but free means trouble," Williamughed, "did this team also participate in thepetition?"

    "Whatpetition?"

    "You didn''t tell us his name yet!"

    "How did you meet such a handsome and hot dude? Come on, spill out the beans!"

    William raised both arms in the air, showing off how thin and wasted they were, "You think I''m hot? Thanks for that!"

    The girls gave him a warning nce, as his tone was filled with mockery, with no honesty.

    "He is that dude that I told you about," Ro ignored him as she added, "the one that started the current mess back at the Aspire academy."

    "F*ck! You are the one who caused all this?!!!"

    This wasn''t a single shout, and it didn''te just from the direction of Ro''s team, but from many others. William gave Ro a ming look, and thetter just raised both arms in the air, as if things weren''t rted to her at all.

    "I always knew my death wille at the hands of a sexydy one day," William inwardly sighed, while recalling his previous worries of Ro.

    She was there, the only living person out there to witness what he did close by, the only person who could link him to all this mess.

    "Do you even take her words seriously?" and as she hit him in such a way, he retorted back in his own way, "you do know her and her team more than I do, and can tell how they love to make things worse for any male and toy around with them, right?"

    "Oh, that''s¡­ Quite expected!" Many around moved their eyes at Ro and her friends and couldn''t help but recall her infamous and cruel reputation.

    "Don''t let him trick you! He was the one who caused all this!" Ro felt more enraged and kept shouting at everyone, while William remained silent.

    The more she shouted and tried desperately to convince others while he remained silent and calm, the more everyone didn''t buy any of what she said.

    And after a few minutes, she knew she already lost it. "I swear I''ll make you pay for that!" she turned towards William, squeezing her fist in the air in threatening promise.

    "And I won''t let this useless attempt to frame me pass by this easily," and William responded with his own threat.

    "Ro, is it true then?" If others couldn''t tell if she was fooling around or speaking the truth, her teammates wouldn''t struggle at all to tell the difference.

    "This jerk! Don''t let his innocent face trick you! I saw him with my two eyes! He mercilessly killed a team led by one of the ck Mamba, ending up creating that ruckus back at his academy."

    "So¡­ This little weak looking dude, a bronze spirit master, is the mastermind behind such a storm thundering out there?"

    "I can''t believe it!"

    "Lend him to me! Tu wants to y with him tonight!"

    "I''m leaving!" William didn''t take it anymore, turned around and was about to move away when twenty gusts of wind passed by his body, as the twenty girls surrounded him inside a circle.

    "Big sis, did you let him go?"

    "Come on! You won''t bully a kid, aren''t you?" William rolled his eyes, and thediesughed.

    "Why not?"

    "Because¡­" William didn''t add anymore, and simply touched the same spot that touched Ro''s sensitive area before, "I can endure getting bullied if I''ll feel such awesome touch again."

    "Hell! I will torture you to death!" Ro roared but William raised his token in the air. And like before, it managed to stop and change every singledy''s face again.

    "Don''t think I''m not without a backing," William didn''t yet know what this token refers to or what it signified. But to his knowledge, it worked as a good deterrent for everyone here.

    "Tsk! You are a doomed person! That madman sat his gaze upon you already and you dare to fool around andugh?"

    "If I were you, I''d run, run away from here, run like I got nothing else to do in my life but to do so!"

    William heard many of such exmations from the girls, but he didn''t ce any inside his mind.

    After all, he didn''t join that old man''s side, nor he nned to. He just was here waiting for his team to arrive, finish the deal with that madman, and then leave this crazy impact.

    As for what fate nned for him and this impact, he decided to let fate work its magicter on and not worry about any of this for now.

    It was just like how that team he met in the forest before told him, this impact was indeed filled with crazy folks. Be it masters or normal members, all were insane.

    "So¡­ He is famous here," William carefully approached this topic, the one about him not knowing the identity of that old man.

    "Ben? Of course, he is quite famous, or infamous to be more exact," one girl scoffed, "he is one of the few, one in a very short list who can rival all of us together ande on top of our infamy!"

    "Oh, I''m satisfied right now," William now was more confident in severing all ties with such a crazy impact more than before. There was a list of crazy folks, like these annoying girls? And the old man was just one of them?

    "Damn!" he shook his head for the third time, before pointing towards the stele, "what''s all this about? Everyone here is still looking at this dumb looking stone."

    "It''s not a stone!"

    "It''s the judgement stele!"

    "It''s the one judging all the tests going on all over the region," Ro motioned her head towards there, "we are here to just check on the names of the ones we tested before."

 Chapter 365 Leaving The Impact

    "Tested before?"

    "Sure, what did you think we were doing at your shitty academy?" Ro rolled her eyes, and William just gave her a long look that she didn''t even ce in her mind at all, "each led a team there, to see if they are capable of joining this qualification test or not. You can consider your academy''s and others'' spar arena''s big days as our filtering method to see who is capable and who isn''t."

    "But for a reason," another girl said, giving William a ming look, "thanks to a certain person, the big day at the Aspire academy got ruined and they went insane against the dark spirit masters."

    "What does that have to do with me?" William faked his innocence, gave that girl a childish look.

    "We got severely med for this failure," Ro gave William a deep gaze, "so it''s expected for you to make up for all of us."

    "I won''t dare to flinch away then," William sighed in a helpless way, "lead the way towards the nearest bed and let me make up for all of you all night long."

    "I will kill you!" Ro wasn''t the one who roared, but many girls of her team shouted.

    But none even moved a single finger, and William just stayed calm while realising how these girls did enjoy their time.

    They loved to use psychological methods to torment others, but they never meant to do any of what they imed. And as William realised this, he decided to just keep teasing them, and not worry about anything.

    "What are you doing here anyway?" Ro got that William wasn''t going to give them anymore satisfaction as he read through them already.

    "Just enjoying sightseeing."

    "For real! What are you doing here?"

    "Ahem, you got me! I just missed you and decided toe and give you the thing I promised you before."

    "Which is?"

    "Our date baby, did you forget? Oh wait, I will stop fooling around, don''t hit my head again, ouch!"

    The moment he tried to y around, she moved fast, grabbed his head and started rubbing her knuckles at it again.

    She kept using the difference in height between the two of them, the advantage she got over him.

    "Just tell the truth and I''ll let you go!"

    "Ouch! It hurts! Ouch! I''m here with my team, goddammit!"

    "Was it this hard?" she let him go after rubbing his head for a few more times, "is it the same team you were with? They are losers!"

    "No, I got another team of mine."

    "That makes it the two of us," she winked, referring to the fact that the two met each other with teams that weren''t their real ones, "are you nning to join us? Work under that madman?"

    "No, I would never do that!"

    "Oh! And why is that?" Ro crossed her arms, exposing more of her full chest.

    William touched his head, without saying anything. It was clear what he wanted to say. This impact¡­ It was a ce filled with crazy folks.

    "I got it!" one girl suddenly shouted in realisation, "his team must have fallen in the."

    "The?! What the hell is that name?!!"

    "Yes, they must have," Roughed, finding this a bit amusing, "you got a bunch of losers again, tsk! Why not leave them and work with us? Right girls? We need someone to carry our bags and massage us after battles and missions¡­"

    "Oil our bodies, get us into the right mood again¡­"

    "And bring smiles over our faces all the time¡­"

    "Yes sis, you are the best! Tu wants him to massage me. Tu wants him to oil my body."

    "Screw it!" William decisively turned around, decided to go out from this mad ce, find himself a hotel to stay at instead of here.

    "Where are you going? Won''t you join the team of twenty hotdies like us?" but as he moved, they didn''t leave his side and kept tagging with him.

    "Stay away! I''ll have something wrong in my mind if I''ve ever considered it!"

    "Come on! You already enjoyed doing that!" Ro winked, while pointing at her chest with her hand. And William gulped as he knew this sexy chick was a deadly trap indeed.

    "Ok, ok, fine, I won''t chase after you and beg for you to join us," after a few minutes, and as they reached the doors of this impact, Ro stopped with her team, "but if you left, I can''t guarantee the safety of your team."

    "Screw my team! They gave me hellish trouble already! Letting them rot in your forever is better than staying with you for another second!"

    William left the impact in a hurry. He wasn''t in fact that attached to stay here. After all, he wanted to venture into the fort and see its wonders.

    He knew where his team was, and they wereing here. So, waiting here or at a hotel wasn''t going to change that.

    As one task got done, he needed to do much more.

    "What are you doing here?" And just after walking for a few minutes, he noticed Ro was tagging from behind.

    He stopped, turned to face her while crossing his arms.

    "What? It''s my home, and I''m free to go anywhere I want."

    "Damn!" William shook his head, e girl, if you want to y, let me apany you."

    "Who is your girl?! Do you want a beating again?"

    William rolled his eyes. Despite how aggressively she responded to him, she still walked and stood by his side.

    And that made William evilly grin. He wasn''t bluffing when he said he wouldn''t forget what she did to his head, how she dealt with him back there. And as she was here with him, he felt his chance in getting his revenge was drawing close.

    "What? Aren''t you going to reserve a room at a hotel here? Come, I know a perfect hotel for your taste."

 Chapter 366 Yin And Yang Spirit Element

    "How so?" William started walking by her side, while she started to do the role of a guide, a real guide this time, not like what that old scary man, Ben, did before.

    "They got strippers there! Isn''t that awesome!"

    "..."

    "Hahahaha! Just look at your face, it''s quite hrious, hahahaha!"

    "Can you stop this?"

    "But it''s funny!"

    "Not for me!"

    "And who said your opinion matters?" sheughed again, while William couldn''t tell if he should run away from such an explosive beauty or just join her in her amusement.

    "Forget about the hotel," he suddenly said, "tell me why that old man is that infamous in the impact."

    "You don''t know?" she gave him a weird look, and he honestly nodded.

    "Sigh! It''s weird though¡­ I thought¡­ Everyone thought that you do know as long as you are carrying his mark."

    "He just gave it to me to let me get ess to the outsider building in the impact," William repeated what Ben told him before. And that made Ro stop walking, look at him deeply, beforeughing.

    "That jerk! Hahaha! He tricked you. That''s typical of him, hahahaha!"

    "Then¡­" William didn''t mind her reaction as he waited patiently for her to uncover what he didn''t know.

    "He¡­ Is quite different."

    "In what way?"

    "You know¡­ Every spirit master has an element, and that''s crucial to let us improve and get stronger, right?"

    This was indeed something basic and didn''t need her to ask about.

    "And you do know that with techniques, training techniques, we can upgrade our spirit power."

    And he again nodded.

    "This man¡­ He got such a weird mix of spirit element and technique that matches it. He has to be with girls, sleep with many, to get his element stirred up and stimted. He is using a weird technique that can let him get stronger during any rtionship with any girl."

    "A yin-yang spirit element?!!!" William''s body slowly trembled when he heard what she said about Ben.

    "What¡­ What is that? No, it''s not that thing you mentioned," she didn''t get what he said. And he understood why she acted in such a way, "he is calling it the godsend blessing for any man! He has gotten more than a thousand girls to his bed since he was a kid! And he announced before he won''t give his token to anyone but his sessor."

    "That¡­" William suddenly got why she warned her team from him, even pointing out towards their panties in a direct and daring way.

    That was all thanks to the old man, and the misunderstanding he got thanks to the token he got from Ben. "You¡­ Great! That''s just great! You tried to screw me? Fine! I won''t let you go easily from this!" William muttered to himself, feeling that Ben tried to mess with him, wanting him to end up having more trouble than help in the impact.

    "Sorry about that," Ro felt a little bad about this misunderstanding, "but¡­ You were the one who took that token out."

    "Forget it," William decided to drop this matter for now, "tell me, I heard there are the Big Seven here, right?"

    "The Big Seven? The big seven merchant groups? Oh, you came prepared," she gave him a weird look.

    "What?"

    "I wanted to see if you are one poor kid from the countryside or some rich and handsome young man by going towards the most expensive hotel in the fort. But asking directly about the Big Seven? Damn! You are damn rich!"

    "What about the handsome thing?"

    "It''s debatable!"

    "Just like your beauty."

    "What? Is it debatable?" she stopped, cing both arms against her hips, giving her a very alluring look.

    "It''s indeed debatable," William gave her a long and deep nce, sizing her up and down before returning to walk again, "it''s debatable if such beauty will kill a man with a look or with a kiss."

    "Oh, you can try and see for yourself then," she shed fast and caught up with him, winking while saying this. He gave her a side look and then shifted his eyes away.

    "No thanks, I prefer my head to remain intact and safe on my shoulders."

    "I won''t bite!"

    "I beg to differ," William paused, "where is the nearest and biggest one here?"

    "What exactly do you want to buy?" she dropped her childish act, and started to speak seriously atst, "for each of the seven, each excels at one thing. For example, the Rodes are famous for offensive gears, the Terrants are known for their arrays, and etc."

    "I want auctions, one that can sell great stuff on a regr basis."

    "You are looking for treasures! Fantastic!" for a reason he didn''t get, she jumped out in delight, even hanging her arms with his, "let''s go to the Refos then. They are the most renowned here for their precious vault and insane treasures they got."

    "Do they have wealthy customers?"

    "Don''t tell me you are afraid ofpetition," she mistook his meaning, putting her hand on her slightly opened mouth as she chuckled.

    "I don''t want to get things with higher prices than usual," William decided to y along, not correcting her wrong guess. If she took him for being wealthy, then there was no reason for him to let her believe otherwise.

    "Don''t worry, dear," she moved her body closer, even to the extent of him feeling her hot breaths on his neck, "I''m taking you to a ce with many fierce buyers, to prove how capable you are."

    "Why do I smell trouble out of this?" William was on the verge of screaming in delight. He got lots of dark gold cores of the Scarlet Bears. And he wanted a ce where people with deep pockets were.

    He nned to sell most of his gains here, reaping all the benefits he could get in one grand deal. Doing this would need a ce with lots of wealthy customers.

    After all, auctions needed many wealthy customers to sell things at extravagant prices.

 Chapter 367 A Chance For Revenge

    Speaking about his dark gold grade cores, he knew they weren''t that rare. This was the fort in the heart of many trading routes, and many merchants would flood here.

    But who would have the same amount of such cores at one time? And they belonged to such a hard monster to find and kill to begin with. And this was what he depended upon to reap more benefits this time.

    "Well¡­ There was a ne, one that could boost one''s strength, heal, and also bring out a formidable defensive array," her eyes sparkled like stars in the middle of a clear night sky, "it was quite expensive for me to buy. So darling, can you gift it to me?"

    "Gift? In exchange for what exactly?"

    "Don''t you like me?" She approached him slowly, and he slowly retreated and broke free from her clutches.

    She was overall excited about this ne, and that made him quite excited as well. He saw in this the chance he was looking for, the one to give back double of what she did before to him.

    "Girl, don''t take me wrong, I''m a decent spirit master, one who won''t take advantage of any girl," he said in his defence, while holding back what he really wanted to say.

    He wanted to say that such a fierce girl was better to stay away from her than getting close to.

    And as he said this, she gave him a ming look.

    "Says the one who works for a crazy man with one hundred known girls on his side," she puffed her cheeks. And such words made William think about dirty ideas, imagining that old man with white hair jumping around, in between a tide of sexy girls, ying and having his fun time to the fullest.

    "Ahem, ahem, I''m not like him," he cleared his throat, trying to kick these disgraceful images out of his mind.

    "Then¡­ What do you want?"

    "For it? Nothing much," William paused, while an evil smile finally showed up on his face.

    "What? I don''t like that look of yours!" she got a bad feeling from his gaze. It wasn''t one filled with lust or something, but like a hungry lion who spotted a deer.

    "I promise you, you will enjoy it," William winked, and then kept walking again, with faster steps this time, "where is that auction house?"

    "Won''t tell until you tell me what you want in exchange for that ne?"

    "Then don''t tell," William already got the name of that ce from her mouth. And soon enough, he got directions by asking people around. Seeing him keeping a tight mouth about his thoughts made Ro slightly freak out.

    "Come on! I''m going to do anything for you, even stay away from you forever, but just tell me what you want in exchange for that ne."

    "Please, can you tell me what you have in your mind?"

    "You are bluffing! What a courageous and daring little kid you are! And here I thought you were going to buy it! A pumpkin from a retarded academy can''t even handle the price of a room in any hotel here, not such a pricey ne! Yes, that''s right, I blew up your act, hahahaha!"

    She kept alternating between seducing him, speaking with logic, promising things, and even doubting and belittling him. Yet all of this failed, and he slowly kept walking in firm steps towards one direction.

    The closer they got, the more anxious she became. What he nned to do was crystal clear in her eyes. She told him about how much she wanted this ne, but she didn''t get the money to buy it.

    And so, he nned to buy it, keep it with him, and use it to pressure her and get what he wanted. Just thinking about this made her mind blow up, ming her recklessness back then and rashness to get this ne before understanding the nature of this kid better.

    Without knowing it, she felt like she was the one who fell deep into his. And thinking about forgetting all this and heading back to the impact didn''t work.

    Just from that confident look on his face, she knew he wouldn''t let her enjoy a single moment of freedom and rest once he got the ne.

    And that was precisely what William nned to do. He''d go and buy that ne, then use it to get what he wanted from her.

    As for what he wanted, he decided to keep it a secret until he''d buy that ne. As for the crystals needed to buy it, if the stack he got didn''t suffice, then he''d wait until his cores would get sold before buying it.

    After all, she didn''t have the ability to buy such a ne, not anyone she knew did actually have such ability except for him.

    Such a good ne with good bonuses meant it was at least gold grade, or even better, a dark gold grade.

    A dark gold piece of gear that was forged to look like jewellery? Even in the outer world, such a piece would be considered a treasure sold for lots of wealth.

    And in the case she resisted his attempts, he wouldn''t lose that much. Having such a ne that could generate a shield to protect him? If it was a dark gold grade, then the quality of this shield would be enough to stop any dark gold spirit master or monster.

    It was a lifesaving toy for William, one that his current weak self really needed.

    So, it was a good trade in his eyes. And that was why he kept walking with such a calm and domineering vibeing out from him, one that left Ro screaming in panic inside herself.

    In less than one hour, William and Ro arrived at the Refos ce. And just from seeing it from far, William could tell what one of the Big Seven here meant.

    The Lockheart impact left a good impression inside him already. They were quite authoritative and wealthy to have a big space ofnd here.

    In a ce that was so tight in space, not naturally built, and without any room for further expansion, every single metre here would be worth its weight in gold.

 Chapter 368 Trevor

    If the Lockheart impact left such an impression, then seeing the Refos merchant group''s base here made him change his vision about that impact.

    Thend covered by the big walls of this merchant group was at least a few thousand metres square. And William couldn''t see the end of it!

    The ce was filled with grand looking, five storey height buildings, each seemed like the size of the entire Lockheart impact.

    And that wasn''t all¡­ There were many defensive towers there. And from this far away distance, he could see a huge crowd gathered up around the five big gates in this building.

    "They are the fifth superpower in the merchant world here," Ro said in a dejected tone. Since she saw the grand buildings of the Refos merchant group, she knew she was doomed. And it was pointless to try and dissuade William anymore.

    "They got five big gates as a symbol for their rank and prestige... Nice touch!" William smiled, nodded in agreement about this little and effective touch from those Refos folks.

    "Why don''t we turn around then? It''s a waste to spend lots of wealth on your first day here."

    "What? Are you trying to buy yourself time, find another dude to buy it before me?" William already saw through her intentions. And his words made her innocent looking face drop and change to show the fierce side of her.

    "I swear if you don''t retreat right now, drop this idea entirely, then I won''t hesitate to kill you!"

    "Hahahaha! You said it yourself! This ne can shield and protect oneself. So, I''m buying it for myself."

    "F¡­ For yourself! But¡­ But you aren''t a girl!"

    "These things don''t matter to me," he shrugged, "and with it around my neck, you won''t be able to touch a single hair of me ever again."

    "Bullshit!" She tried to sound confident, but her voice came quite shaky, "ahem, this ne can''t generate a strong shield, not strong enough to stop me."

    "I''ll take my chances," the two already got close enough from the dense crowd of people in front of the five gates. And unlike what William expected, there wasn''t any sign of chaos there.

    Everyone stood in calmness in one of the many rows, waiting for their turn to enter the Refos ce without even making a ruckus about it.

    And just like them, William randomly selected a line and stood at the end of it.

    "Hey bro, wassup?"

    Just as he stood there, listening to the futile attempts from Ro during the past half an hour, one spirit master came and approached him, saying in a confident tone as if they were friends or something.

    "You are?" William looked up and down at this dude. He was twenty-three years old, looking slightly poor with low grade gears despite giving William the vibe of being a gold grade spirit master.

    "I''m here to help you," that dude said in weird confidence, pointing at himself as he added, "I''m Trevor, and I''m here to let you go over there. You can enjoy your time there, while I''ll stand in your ce."

    "Stand instead of me?!" William felt a little puzzled, before following where that dude''s finger pointed towards. There he found a group of stalls and shops in different sizes, lots of seats, even many with huge tents to cover up those sitting there from the hot rays of the sun.

    "This is¡­" William ignored this weirdo called Trevor, turned to Ro who sighed.

    "It''s amon thing here," she paused, "as you can see, we waited for half an hour and this line didn''t move a metre!"

    "I''m here to help you, sir," Trevor kept speaking in his weird confidence, "in return for my services, I''ll need one thousand spirit crystals from you."

    "This¡­" William was surprised by such an extravagant price. One thousand spirit crystals? Just for doing nothing but stand in a line? That was entirely the yearly ie of a gold grade spirit master in any team back at the academy!

    "This is the standard price here," Ro decided to take this chance to see how deep William''s pockets truly were. She still had doubts about the ability of someoneing from a weak academy like the Aspire academy to have a huge wealth.

    "Sure," William liked the idea, "here, this is two hundred spirit crystals as an advance payment. When you are done, I''ll pay the rest."

    "Sure sir," Trevor took a piece of paper out and handed it over to William, "here, it''s my Message Paper. If you need anything just speak directly to me through it."

    "Here is mine," William already made a few extra copies of his Bullets since thest time he was with his team, "when you are close from the front, just inform me."

    "You are really rich," Ro rolled her eyes, but William ignored her uselessment and went towards the group of stalls at the side.

    "It''s nothing," William wasn''t bluffing. He got hundreds of thousands of spirit crystals in his rings. And he didn''t yet check the forty something rings he gottely from the dark spirit masters he looted before.

    But he knew, going by logic, if these followed the same trend as the other dark spirit masters he killed and looted before, then his gains would be enormous.

    Being a millionaire would be real. And that without even the need to sell any of his cores.

    This was indeed nothing for him, for anyone here. Two hundred spirit crystals were nothing, but the way he took them out made Ro''s heart clench.

    "He is really rich," she inwardlymented while silently walking behind him towards the stall zone, "he really is troublesome!"

    "Sir, ma''am, are you looking for a good meal?" and just before the two would arrive at this area, a group of salesmen appeared, surrounding the two, offering their services.

    "Our stall is better, and the food tastes more delicious than others!"

    "Stop fooling them! Ours are better and cheaper than others!"

    "No, ours is better!"

    And all of sudden, this simple advertising activity turned into a word battle and an argument between the salesmen, leaving William and Ro a bit speechless.

 Chapter 369 The Golden Fork Restaurant

    "Don''t make a ruckus here, these two esteemed guests seem like ones who appreciates quality no price," a refined middle-aged man suddenly approached from the direction of one stall, calmly walking towards here with three strong looking spirit masters as his guard, "please, let me apany you to the finest and most luxurious ce here in the entire fort."

    "The Golden Fork restaurant?!" Ro''s exmation of surprise told William how famous this restaurant was.

    "That''s indeed true, miss," the old man slightly bowed, before turning to William, "sir, do you want to try out our humble food and delicacies?"

    "Sure, why not?" William shrugged. He didn''t care that much about great food and drinks, but he kept eating dried up rations for many days already.

    Treating himself to a nice meal wasn''t something he''d say no to, especially if it was going to leave the girl next to him in a deeper mess.

    Ro instantly grasped the carefree attitude of William on the spot. If she had one in the millionth doubt before about his financial power, this doubt was now crushed to shreds.

    "I can''t afford it here," she whispered softly as the two followed that middle-aged man towards a vacant space that was covered with an elegant looking ck tent.

    "It''s all on me," William even winked and sent a flying kiss in the air towards her. And in return for that, her face darkened while she followed William and that middle-aged man in silence, under the envious gazes of other restaurant spokesmen.

    The others who came here first and surrounded the two couldn''t help but look in regret and envy towards their backs. They saw two fat sheeps heading voluntarily to the ughterhouse.

    And they didn''t feel as such out of their pure and kind hearts. They just regretted theirck of imagination and creativity, leading such two rich folks to slip away from their grasp, and let their spirit crystals fall in the pockets of others.

    "Sir, our stall is the most expensive one in the entire fort! Please follow me!" and just a few minutester, another group of customers approached, and one decided to take the risk and lure them into his stall, learning from what the Golden Fork salesman did before.

    "F*ck off! What is all great about being the most expensive? Why note and kick our asses instead?!!" and without any warning, one of the group exploded in the face of the poor salesman. He didn''t stop there, even hitting him in the face, sending him flying in the air as he cried inside, questioning what he did wrongpared to that middle-aged man.

    William and Ro were already seated inside that huge tent. It was all ck in colour, with many small golden fork drawings appearing everywhere around the ckness with the name of the restaurant written in an elegant way.

    "This restaurant is this expensive and yet it''s quite crowded," William muttered while noticing that almost seventy percent of the tables were filled with people.

    "It has a very good reputation," Ro said with a dark face, "I''m warning you again, a single meal here could cost a million spirit crystals!"

    "Don''t tell me you are this poor, hahahaha!" William knew this was the soft spot of this chick in front of him. And yet he couldn''t believe that such a gold grade girl didn''t have that much money on her.

    "I have little more than a million," she rolled her eyes, "but it''s not worth wasting all my wealth over a single meal! That''s insane!"

    "Wee to our restaurant, here is the wee drink for the first time attending our ce."

    And before he''d respond and make her life much worse, a waiter appeared, dded in golden and ck armour from neck to toe.

    "Thanks," William said before asking, "how did you know it''s our first time here?"

    "We got a spirit master with a memory saving technique," the waiter ced two cups and poured a pink liquid in it, "please enjoy."

    "I like it here," William drank his cup, feeling an instant refreshing feeling that seeped deep inside his body, "awesome! They are serving such high-quality healing potion as a wee drink? Damn! I want to live rich and not strong for the rest of my life!"

    "Add me too," Ro''s face, which was all dark, changed and became rosy and happy after taking a sip of her cup, "they aren''t the best for nothing."

    "I can''t agree more," William nodded, before picking the menu and his eyes instantly froze.

    "What''s wrong? Did you realise how poor you are? Hahahaha!" seeing his sudden frown made Rough. She was ecstatic that William got shocked by the prices.

    William was indeed shocked, not from the prices but the quality of the meals provided here. Be it the meat, the herbs, even the potions used to cook all the meals, all were at dark gold grade.

    He read the names of many famous monsters in the world, all served in this ce. William''s frown changed in a few seconds to be reced with a big smile, one that made the loudugh of Ro choke in her throat and her face turn a little purple.

    "Cough! Cough! What''s wrong with you? Cough! Cough!"

    "I''m just excited, that''s all," William knew if he kept eating such extravagant meals for a few months, he''d make up for all theck of nourishment his body suffered since the first day of his birth!

    And if he kept eating here for a long time, his body would be much more robust and stronger, much taller and broader, with muscles all over it.

    "Waiter, please," William just nced at the prices for a single second, before saying something that made Ro, who was drinking another sip of her cup, to swallow her disappointment instead, and ssh the potion on the waiter''s face opposite to her.

    "I want to ask about this, is there a membership here? Like something that will allow me toe here and eat whatever I want for a month? For a few months? For even a year?"

 Chapter 370 Meeting The Manager

    "Ahem," the waiter was as shocked as Ro by what William said. However, Ro''s reaction was quite different, ending up his face getting wet by pink fluid.

    He was more experienced at dealing with the entric customersing here. He didn''t show any anger on his face, took out a white tissue, and wiped clean the pink droplet of the drink off his face.

    "Sure sir, but it''s an exclusive membership that will cost ten million crystals per month."

    "And I cane anytime, order anything I want?" Just hearing such a crazy price made Ro''s face turn dark at the spot. And when she heard William''s weirder and casual response, her face became totally ck like a moonless clouded night.

    "Sure sir, that''s what the membership includes," the waiter nodded in a way that was void of any excitement. It wasn''t the first time for him to meet such situations, and most if not all of those asking such questions were just dreaming about the impossible.

    "In addition to that," but as a professional waiter, he kept doing his job without looking at the end result, "the membership will cover any number of meals ordered during the period of month. And that means sir can order meals for his friends as well. Also, sir can leave his residence ce, get a special Message Paper from us. And then you can order anything you want at home anytime you want, and it will get delivered to your ce as hot as possible."

    "Fantastic!" Williamughed, "then can you call the manager?"

    "T¡­ The manager?!!" It wasn''t just the waiter who said this, but also Ro.

    William intended to take this ce as a base for the next few months. The task of gathering intel and killing dark spirit masters wasn''t an easy or fast one.

    And he liked it here! No matter how he looked at it, it was the perfect bunker one could ever dream of at the end of the world.

    So, he nned to start expanding his reign here. And if he got such a chance to support his body and properly build it better, then he''d not flinch from doing this.

    As for the insane price, he had a way to handle this.

    "Hey, this isn''t a joke," After the waiter left in a hurry and shock, Ro couldn''t help but move her seat closer to his, whispered while looking around, as if she was afraid someone else would listen to their talk, "the manager is one of the strongest and scariest folks in the fort! Don''t mess things up here! It''s not just about face or showing off, I already gave up and you won. Let''s move now before it''ll be toote."

    She even took the initiative, crossed his arm with hers, and tried to pull him away from his seat, intending to drag him all the way out of here.

    "Hey, stop it," William shrugged his arm free from her clutches, "who said I''m fooling around? I''m here to do business!"

    "And I like those who are straightforward and honest like you!"

    Before Ro would try saying more to dissuade him, a weird voice appeared from their backs, startling both of them.

    "Sorry, I didn''t mean to scare you¡­" the owner of this voice was a refined looking old man, looking strangely simr to the one who led them here in the first ce, but a bit older.

    He moved and sat in front of them, showing a faint smile on his face, one that told William he didn''t buy what William intended to do here.

    "It''s nothing," William waved his hand casually, while Ro sat upright, a move that didn''t escape William''s eyes.

    "I heard from my man that someone wants to speak with me about the Red membership of our ce," he paused, assessing William up and down before adding, "but I have to admit, I never expected kids the age of my daughter to be the ones asking for me."

    "Sorry to trouble you esteemed sir, we were leaving¡­" Ro even cupped her hands and bowed, in a clear signal to William about how dangerous and powerful this humble looking man was.

    "I''m the one who asked for you," but against all her warning signals, William spoke in a strong tone.

    "And here I am," the man waved both arms as his smile broadened a little bit, "but I have to tell you this, if you want to bargain about the price, or speak about paying in instalments, then sorry to disappoint you. This isn''t allowed in our ce."

    "Who said I want this?" William rolled his eyes, before taking his most pricey item from his ring, "I want to ask if you ept trading in such items. If not, then I''m going to that ce anyway, selling these in a big auction, collecting my money, anding back here to take this membership home."

    William motioned his head towards the direction of the Refos merchant group base.

    The man didn''t ce any importance at all about meeting William and Ro. When the waiter came to him, informing him about two kids asking about the Red membership and asking for him, he took it as a childish joke.

    He might be a person that was hard to deal with, but that was the case in other ces but this one.

    The Golden Fork restaurant belonged to his family for many generations, and he dealt in extra care with everything rted to it.

    He already saw lots of weird things over the years from the customers of his ce. And so, he didn''t ce any of this in his mind, until he heard William''s calm words, until he spotted the item William got in his hands.

    "A dark gold core? Scarlet monster it is, right?" the eyes of this middle-aged man shone brightly for a brief second, while a storm of emotions raged inside his chest.

    He lost his brother and family at the hands of one of these ferocious beasts.

 Chapter 371 Thomas

    He just saw lots of scarlet monster cores before, and this core looked a bit simr. So, he asked William, wanting to make sure of his guess.

    "It''s a dark gold core of a scarlet monster indeed, belonging to a Scarlet Bear," William nodded.

    "Just one? Won''t do," The middle-aged man mistook William''s actions here. It wasn''t a secret to anyone in the high circle of power at the fort that he despised and hated any scary scarlet monster to the bone.

    He guessed that William must have heard the news from someone, paid a price to get such an extremely rare core and came here to trade it with him for this membership.

    Despite admiring the effort and thinking put into all this, he knew the true price of this single core was nowhere near what this kid had to pay to get the membership home as he just imed.

    "I have enough," but William''s next confident and calm answer gave Ro a fright and made that man frown.

    "How many exactly?" the man paused, before adding, "the regr price of the dark gold cores in the market aren''t that much actually. A rare one like yours can be sold for a couple hundred thousand spirit crystals. And if they came from such a rare breed, they could reach even three hundred thousand! And for me, each is worth half a million¡­"

    "Half¡­ Half a million¡­" Ro moved her eyes between this man and the core in William''s hand, "he said¡­ He said he got enough¡­ How many¡­ Don''t tell me¡­ Damn! Is he going there to sell them?!!!"

    Ro''s shock was endless, and she kept muttering these words softly like going crazy. Not William nor that man bothered with her, while William said:

    "Why is it selling more if it''s given to you?"

    "Come on kid! Stop ying such useless tricks with me," the man sighed in a tired way, taking for granted that William already was aware of his past ties with the scarlet beast, "let''s not waste our time here. Everyone knows that I pay lots of money to such cores, and much more if you are the one who killed them!"

    "I''m the one who killed them."

    "Pft! Did you hear that? He ims he is the one who killed the bears, hahahaha!" out of the blue, a young girl approached the table andughed, pointing towards William as if she was seeing a clown or something.

    From the first nce, William could point out many simrities between this girl and the man sitting in front of him. "It''s indeed a family business," William took this note into his heart, while watching the girl, who wasn''t any much older than Ro, dragged a seat from a nearby empty table and sat beside the man.

    "My pretty Rose, please mind yourself in front of our esteemed guests," the man gave his daughter a strict look before turning with the same look andnded it on William, "kid, don''t take it as an insult or something. But iming the impossible won''t impress girls as you may think."

    "I''m not iming," William slowly shook his head.

    "Then exin to me how a bronze spirit master killed a single dark gold monster? Ah, not just any monster, but one of all scary and mighty, the terrifying and brutal, one of the Scarlet Bears!" The girl named Rose couldn''t control herughs and kept speaking while cing her hand over her widely opened mouth to control herself.

    But she failed.

    "Never mind my daughter," the man gave his daughter a threatening and promising look this time, as if he promised in silence to punish herter, "but excuse my rudeness, what she said holds more credibility than your words."

    "Sure," William nodded," I can understand how impossible it is for the two of you, for anyone. However¡­ I''m not lying!"

    "..."

    His confidence, the calm and casual way he said hisst words in, made even Rose stopughing, gazing up at him in silence, like the other two sitting around the table.

    "Fine then," the man snapped his fingers while sighing in a helpless way, "if you want to continue this useless act, then it''s fine. But I have to warn you, we got someone here with a technique that can see through the history of anything, including the cores."

    "And?" William got interested in such a rare and pretty useful ability. He didn''t notice the silent pause in the man''s actions, before he continued to wave towards someone at the back toe here.

    "He is going to see if this core is killed by you or not," the man paused for a long moment, until a youth approached their table, "Thomas here is the expert at such things. And his services will be paid by you if you are proven to be wrong."

    "Fine by me," William didn''t take any of the hidden warnings in the man''s words, and only got curious about the real price paid for a single core of his.

    If the price this man would pay for any core brought over was half a million, then what was the price of a core one got by killing the scarlet bears himself?

    The man said it himself; he''d pay more in such cases. And that made William slightly regret selling a few of his cores before to that merchant back at the academy.

    A single core was enough to pay for his entire order back then! But he didn''t regret it too much. He needed to do that back then, and every situation had its unique circumstances.

    Thomas was a tall and robust looking young man, looking at twenty-two years old. He looked calm, with a face that showed zero speck of any emotion.

    He approached the table in silence, walking in steady steps as if he was a king walking in his own throne hall. Despite that, William felt like this youth got no interest in anything at all, looking like a dead man.

 Chapter 372 Giving Everyone A Scare!

    "Let me see," after the final nod from William, Thomas said in a cold and monotonic tone, extending his hand to take the core.

    By now, almost everyone in the restaurant got their eyes fixed over this table, waiting to see the end of this, like they were watching an interesting show or something.

    Then William noticed that the ck eyes and hair of that dude turned all purple in colour. William was astonished to see such a thing, as he''d never miss detecting such an extremely rare element in the world of spirit masters, even in the outer vast world.

    "Karma spirit element?!!! No f*cking way!" Everyone got their eyes focused on Thomas at this point. And so, they all missed the faint trembling that William''s body suffered for a few seconds when he saw Thomas in action.

    All missed this tiny reaction, all but one; Ro. she was sitting just next to him, and without even intending to, his trembling body was felt by hers.

    She gave him a weird look, but all this vanished a few secondster and William returned normal again.

    "I''m going to get you, add you to my team!" William pledged in his heart. As such a gem was thrown in the mud if he was left here in such a ce.

    Using the karma spirit element to just see if one killed a monster or not? That was the rudest insult William would think of towards such one in lifetime talent.

    But when his eyesnded over the man who seemed to own the ce with his family, William knew the task of recruiting this youth wasn''t going to be an easy or safe one.

    And yet, even if he knew the risks, he epted the stakes.

    "It''s true," and a few secondster, all the purple colour vanished and Thomas'' eyes and hair returned to be pitch ck again, "he is the one who killed the monster of this core."

    He handed the core back to his master, but the old man''s body was now trembling fiercely in disbelief and didn''t extend his hand to grab the core in time.

    "I''ll take it back, thanks," William moved fast and took the core back in his hand, "now? Do you believe me?"

    "This¡­ But just how? How?!!" The man was now totally shocked, even questioning himself that he didn''t know the world anymore.

    He kept sizing William up and down, before finally asking the obvious:

    "How old are you?"

    "Eleven years old."

    "Is this your true age? Or do you use some sort of camouge technique or something to hide your true appearance and age?! Perhaps you used a technique to lower your age and give you eternal youth or something!"

    "Come on, this is the most hrious joke I ever heard sinceing here," William responded to the taken aback man in front of him with a loudugh, "now¡­ Are we going to make a deal or not?"

    He threw the core in the air, ying with it as if he was ying with a rock.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ahem," the man wanted nothing more in the world right now but to grab Thomas to a secluded room, interrogate him and listen in detail about what his man saw using his technique.

    But he had to get over this weird meeting first before doing any of that.

    "As I said earlier," he cleared his throat again, trying to regain his calm, "one core isn''t enough! If you are the one killing it, then two hundred and fifty thousand more crystals will be added to the price of this core. And if you want the Red membership, then this single core won''t suffice, won''t at all! You need at least thirteen more of these cores, and the remaining five hundred thousand crystals will be paid back of course on the spot. However¡­"

    The man wanted to tell William he didn''t need to get disappointed by this and just sell him this core or the little few he got with him.

    But the next instant, the man couldn''t help but have his eyes narrow in seriousness, while his daughter and Ro stood slowly off their seats. As for the customers listening to their talk and watching this table attentively, they all sucked a cold air of breath, and many gasped in a loud and audible way.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    "Here, there are twenty of them," William rubbed his hands as if he was clearing nonexistent dust or dirt or something, "I want this Red membership registered under my name, William. As for the extra cores, just pay using crystals in exchange for them."

    "This¡­" the man didn''t hurriedly answer William, turned to his man standing behind him like a statue, and Thomas slowly nodded.

    After all, William took twenty simr cores as the one he took out first. And that was just the right price needed for the membership if he got these cores from someone else by any means other than killing the monsters himself.

    And so, Thomas returned to inspect these cores, turning his eyes and hair all purple as he used his karma element in doing so.

    "This one is killed by him¡­"

    "This one as well¡­"

    "This is too like the rest¡­"

    But against what the owner of this restaurant guessed, Thomas kept saying things like this over and over again, using different words each time, while cing one core down and picking another up.

    This came as a total shock to everyone, even the ones sitting in the ce eating their meals.

    It was indeed famous all over the fort, even at many nearby ces as well, how anything rted to scarlet monsters was a sensitive issue for this old man. Anything rted to any scarlet monster, as long as these monsters were gold grade at least, then this man would always act differently than usual and do something crazy.

    And right now, William just took twenty cores, adding the one in his hand, he got out twenty-one cores, all came from monsters he killed himself.

    It became the hot topic in this ce, and soon would be the hottest topic everywhere in the upper circle of the fort.

 Chapter 373 I Want To Listen

    An eleven years old, bronze grade kid killed twenty-one dark gold Scarlet Bears alone? The scary and terrifying Scarlet Bears? That was a piece of news equal to its weight in gold for gossip meetings and such.

    "What the hell is going on here?!!!" After a few minutes, the old man in front of William couldn''t control himself anymore. He stood abruptly up, pointed at William as if he was pointing at a monster, "who are you?"

    "I''m just nobody," William shrugged, "do you want to close this deal or what?"

    "This¡­"

    "Dad, let''s buy these from him," Rose spoke up, rapidly absorbing this shock faster than her father.

    "But¡­ I''m more interested in knowing how you did it! How the hell did you do it?!!!"

    "Well¡­" William didn''t know why this man was this hyped against the Scarlet Bears, but it was all good news for him, "knowledge is quite pricey. If you want to know, I can surely satisfy your needs. But¡­ I want to first know why you are interested in knowing."

    "Kid, stop fooling with me," the man returned to his seat, seemingly ageing a little more years than what he looked before, "everyone knows, and you do know."

    "I''m not," William slowly shook his head, "I really don''t!" and when he shook his head, that man red fiercely at him.

    "Kid, my patience got limits! You aren''t a simple dudeing from a pumpkin country ce! You must be part of those high and mighty names in our fort! Someone like yourself can''t kill these bears alone, not to mention you came looking specifically for me out of all people in the entire fort! That''s not a coincidence at all!"

    "Will you believe me if I told you it is the case here?" William felt a little helpless here. He didn''t know why this man acted like this, but he had nothing else to say.

    "Bullshit! I don''t buy it!"

    "Mister, he is really telling the truth," And when things reached such a point, Ro had to intervene, "he came from an academy called the Aspire academy."

    "I know that ce, it''s a little retarded, one that can''t give birth to such a scary talent."

    "Believe me sir, I already met him there," Ro felt the same helplessness as William, "he is a disciple there, and this is his uniform."

    "This¡­" the man looked again at William''s bronze attire, and soon he noticed the slightly covered Aspire academy emblem under the armour William was wearing.

    "I''m from that ce," William sighed, "and so I don''t know what problems sir had with these bears. I just came here, invited by one of your men, and met you by pure ident."

    "..."

    This time the facts were in front of the man''s eyes. He looked around, and his eyes fell over the middle-aged salesman who brought William and Ro here.

    And as everyone in the restaurant were already listening to their talk, that man knew what they were talking about, ending up nodding and confirming what William just said.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "So¡­ You''re telling me you came from the Aspire academy, managed to kill twenty-one Scarlet Bears, and ended up here to meet me? Me?!" The man kept pointing to himself as he couldn''t believe any of this.

    And William simply nodded.

    "Ok, fine, I''m going to believe you then," he didn''t have any other option but to do so, "tell me then, how in the world did you manage to do it?"

    "I already told sir, knowledge isn''t cheap," William acted as a sly merchant. He knew telling such knowledge wasn''t going to be an issue.

    First, he already exposed it for free to the Long n. Sooner orter, news would spread from that ce and arrive to distant ces in the world like here. Besides, such knowledge was crucial for anyone to fight against the yet to happen disaster.

    But there wasn''t a big war going on for him to give such knowledge for free. And for a reason, he felt like he was going to have something huge in exchange for such info.

    "I can give you anything you want," the man waved his arms as if wealth didn''t mean anything to him, "but first, I need to ask if this method can be used by me."

    "It can be used by anyone," William said at once, "and I need to hear your story first."

    "Why? To raise the price? You can do it right away and I''ll be happy to fulfil your desires."

    "My demands aren''t that much," William paused for a long moment, thinking about how to get the best out of this unexpected deal, "I just need a piece ofnd with a building, enough for a big team to live in. and I don''t want to know your story to raise the price or something."

    "Really? A piece ofnd here for a team base? That''s a hellish price if you ask for my opinion."

    "And I''m not," William smiled, "I''m just stating the price up ahead, so you won''t get any wrong ideas."

    "This¡­"

    "I want to listen to your story for my reasons," William wanted to raise the price for sure. But if this dude was quite confident in his financial power, then it was meaningless to ask for another price, but the one William desperately wanted.

    He came here and nned to do everything to secure money, enough to buy a piece ofnd for his team. But if someone delivered himself to him, then William wouldn''t flinch in using the chance.

    As for this man''s story, it ended up right now to be William''s pure curiosity.

    "But his price is a little too much!"

    "You are the one who said price won''t matter, and I can ask for anything, right?" William didn''t feel any shame while throwing back the man''s words directly on his face.

    "Tsk," the old man shook his head, seemingly regretting his previous show up attitude with William, "so you are interested in listening to this man''s old tragedy? Fine!"

 Chapter 374 The Gem I Want Is Gone

    The old man took a deep breath, calming his emotions before adding, "it''s not a big secret anyway. It all started twenty years ago¡­"

    William listened to an old andmon tale from this man. He lost his entire family, parents, sisters and brothers at the hands of a monster outbreak led by the scarlet monsters.

    He didn''t face bears back then. Scarlet Leopards, Scarlet Lions, and Scarlet Tigers were there, in addition to other weaker scarlet monsters like the monkeys.

    So, he held a deep grudge against any scarlet monster, paying lots of crystals in return for killing more of them.

    William could only inwardly sigh. Despite how tragic this might look like; it was just normal at any ce outside this fort.

    Yet this man was wealthy and inherited his family''s thriving business from a young age. So, he had the choice to exert his revenge in such an extravagant way.

    He didn''t need to dirt his hands, didn''t even need to ce himself in any risk at all. He only instigated others using his wealth to kill more of these monsters.

    This was a choice not many people actually had in this world. And despite that, William still felt respectful towards him.

    At least he decided to act, used what he excelled at to have his revenge. It was lucky that the monsters he held grudge against were one of the most troublesome dudes in the monster world. And that made this old man, who acted a bit childish in William''s eyes, served a great deal to the greater good of humanity.

    "I understand you now," like he wasn''t a kid and an adult, William said such words in a heavy tone. But as he was the one who gave everyone here quite the shock, his words didn''t look any weird at all, "I''m going to give you the way to kill these bears, in return for what I asked for¡­ And her."

    Out of the blue, William pointed towards the daughter, Rose, who was sitting next to the man.

    "This¡­"

    "No, I''m not for sale!"

    His sudden request came out of the blue, out of what this man even expected. And against what William had in his mind, the man took the wrong idea about his question, totally the wrong impression about this.

    "Kid, I admit you are truly something. And even if you came from such a backyard academy, you have what makes it clear to anyone about your potential and uniqueness. However¡­ My daughter isn''t part of any deal I make, never will be."

    "I don''t want her to be with me as you thought," William smiled, in a way that didn''t suit the current situation, "I want her to be part of my team."

    "No! I don''t like joining anyone! I always lead others, not to be led around by¡­ You!" Rose was quite decisive in this, instantly rejecting William''s offer again, even after what he exined.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And as if he didn''t hear her at all, William kept talking, "my team is one that I will personally lead and guide. As you can tell, I''m not just a normal spirit master. In fact, I got a scary and formidable master behind me. She asked me to go out, venture the world, form a team of capable and worthy to nourish spirit masters¡­"

    "No! I won''t join your damn team!"

    William ignored the all enraged and slightly panicking Rose as he added:

    "In addition to that, my team is going to do the most troublesome missions here. For example, we will handle any scary group of monsters, the likes of Scarlet Bears. And also we will handle the dark spirit masters. In fact, you can go around and ask, ask about who changed the outer grand battle that happened not a long time ago outside the fort. And you''ll hear descriptions of me as the one who led everyone back there to crush those despicable enemies."

    "Still no! No way I''m going to join you! You are crazy! I''d prefer to kill myself and not join you!"

    "Rose!" The old man panicked the moment his daughter used this soft spot of his against him. As the man got such trauma from losing his family, he would never tolerate such threatening actions from his daughter and would eventually listen to her.

    "Without Rose¡­ There is no deal," but unlike what the man expected when he looked at William in plea, expecting him to stand by his side and help, William grabbed a tank of gasoline and poured it over his daughter''s head with his firm words.

    "Dad! Kick him out of here! I don''t want to see his face or hear his damn name again!" Rose acted like she got stung by a snake or something, jolted up, and screamed in such panic and anger.

    "Kid¡­ Can''t we discuss other terms?"

    "Sorry sir, but I only set my eyes over gems," William knew he got the man exactly where he wanted him to be, "and your daughter is just a fine one."

    "Damn you! Trying to coat your filthy desires and greed with such high ideals and words! Aren''t you ashamed of yourself? I''m leaving!"

    Rose didn''t even wait for her father to say anything, turned around and started walking, or actually running, vanishing from everyone''s sights in a few seconds.

    "You said you want gems?" And when his daughter left, the man couldn''t help but turn back towards William.

    He wanted such knowledge from this kid to help in killing more scarlet monsters. But that would nevere at the cost of losing another member of his family.

    But in the middle of William''s words, this sharp witted man spotted a glimpse of hope. In fact, it wasn''t hope, it was a well hidden trapid by William. And that smart and experienced man just fell directly into it.

    "The gem I wanted is gone," William waved his arms as if things went out of his control.

 Chapter 375 A Trap!

    "I got another gem."

    "Where?" William paused, before adding, "and please, ask her first before giving me any promises you can''t fulfil."

    "Who said it''s a girl?" The man went speechless for a second there, recalling what he initially thought about William''s intentions when thetter expressed his weird demand, "it''s him! And he has no say in this. I own him, and he will go with you."

    The man pointed towards Thomas, who was standing with a hard face that showed nothing of his true emotions or thoughts at the moment.

    William looked at Thomas, while controlling his excitement to not appear on his face. He didn''t want to ruin the perfect set up that man just fell into.

    William didn''t want that girl named Rose, never even spared her a nce. From the first moment he saw her, and he could tell how badly spoiled she was. She wasn''t weak, almost at the high stage silver grade or even might be half a step away from the gold grade. But strength wasn''t everything in this world.

    William could tell how bad she was as a spirit master. She was one of the types that would stand in front of danger, not preparing herself to fight, and instead would crawl on the ground and cry.

    She reminded him of the earlier weird situation he met back at the forest outside. The spirit masters there were quite numerous, very strong, and yet they were running scared from the bunch of much fewer dark spirit masters hunting them.

    William thought this was thanks to the spies the dark spirit masters infiltrated before. But he now realised this wasn''t the root of the problem, the people living here were.

    They got used to such safety andfort to even forget about sharpening the des of their weapons. They were strong, had lots of things that other spirit masters didn''t, and yet they were quite fragile and weak.

    William sat his eyes from the start over Thomas. He could tell this talented youth was in the grasp of this man. And trying to take him out from here was going to be problematic.

    But when William listened out of his curiosity to the life story of this man, a sh of an idea appeared in his mind. And he started to work on this idea, until he finally managed to get what he wanted.

    He didn''t just get thend he wanted as a base for his team, but also, he got Thomas. And the most important thing was that he didn''t steal him away but drove that man to take the initiative and offer Thomas over willingly.

    He even made that man quite appreciative for William to ept Thomas instead of his daughter, even close to owing him a favour!

    "Hmm¡­" Despite wanting to jump out and raise his fist in the air celebrating his sess, he still controlled himself quite well and feigned his struggle to ept this.

    "He is quite capable, a true gem," The man started to speak about the good points about Thomas, trying to make William agree.

    At the end of his talk, the one that William didn''t need at all, this man was quite close to pleading with William to ept Thomas.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ok, I''ll ept this one¡­ With four more others," William suddenly raised his hand, fanned his fingers apart, "five gems in exchange for the one I sat my eyes on before and ran away."

    It wasn''t William''s fault to act greedy here. The man acted in a very pathetic way, making William feel more greed to get more followers than just Thomas.

    "This¡­ I will need a week or so to prepare the other four but¡­ Deal!" the man hesitated for a second, and William responded with a change in his face showing his satisfaction.

    "Great," William just tried to extort this man for more, an idea that just shed in his mind on the spot. He never thought that this man was quite resourceful, having lots of gems on his side, "once you are ready, just let me know. I''m going to stay at a hotel here for the time being."

    William took out one of his Bullets, handed it over, and received one from the man as well.

    "I''m called Alfonso, and you can use this to tell me any urgent thing you need," the man paused, "but I have to tell you this, if your knowledge didn''t prove to be worthy, then all this¡­"

    "I know what I''m doing," William acted like an adult, firmly cutting the man in the middle of his words with a confident tone, "just prepare thend and the building as I asked and let me know. The other four gems will wait for one week, but I''ll fulfil my promise and tell you the way after getting the papers of thend and building. As for these¡­ Do you still need them?"

    William motioned his head towards the pile of cores he took out before.

    "Sure, give me a minute," the man excused himself, leaving the table while everyone''s eyes were fixated over a single one over it, William.

    "Damn! Did this really happen?!!!" from the side, Ro who kept holding her breath out of disbelief, couldn''t help but take a deep breath, before shouting in such a loud way.

    "You were just watching everything from the first seat," William rolled his eyes, "do you now suspect my ability to get that ne for you?"

    "Not in the slightest," unlike her usual behaviour, this time her face didn''t change or got darker or something.

    "What happened to you?" William was puzzled about her weird and sudden calmness.

    "Tell me, have you set your eyes on my girls?"

    "Ahem!" her answer came out of William''s expectations, to perfectly nail his real intentions from toying with her.

    "I knew it!" and just from the abrupt changes over his face, she knew she guessed it right, "you¡­ You have a great appetite; do you know that?"

 Chapter 376 [Bonus ] Teasing Ro

    "I''m just looking for gems," William shrugged, "it''s not my fault that my luck is awesome."

    "Stop it! Who said we agree on your greedy dreams?" she scoffed, "even with ten of such nes, I and my girls won''t join your team! We already have a very sessful career in the impact. And there isn''t a single reason that will force any of us to join you!"

    She kept speaking, yet her tone was loud, and she kept waving her fists everywhere, not like how she usually acted.

    That told William how nervous and insecure she felt. "It''s alright, I''m just someone who can do miracles. Just look around, I''m going to have a privatend and residence for my team, lots of spirit crystals, and a membership in such an awesome restaurant. If you said no to free delicious and expensive food on your tables for every single meal after joining me, then forget it. I won''t even bother offering you anything and will look for other teams."

    "L¡­ Look for others?!!!" she blinked, and William could already hear her running saliva as she gulped after hearing his words.

    She didn''t get it, but when she spoke about this ce, she spoke like a dreamer speaking of his life goal or something. This wasn''t just a nice ce to eat at, it was a symbol for prestige and position in the fort as William guessed.

    And like any girl, she just adored feeling privileged and special. William was just toying with her, as he knew he got her and her team in his pocket the moment she exposed his real intentions.

    Or else, if she really refused to join him, then she wouldn''t have said anything. She would have, instead, kept everything inside her chest, and worked from the shadows to foil William''s ns.

    She could have waited until he bought that ne and exposed his real intentions, then she''d drop his offer and leave.

    This was what William would do if he was in her ce. And that told him she already agreed on his offer.

    "I will look for other teams, whether you joined us or not," William crossed his arms, enjoying the look on her face, "you and your team are quite special, but don''t take it wrong¡­ You aren''t the only special team out there."

    "To recruit others, you''ll need¡­" she was about to attack, exposing how it was quite difficult to recruit teams here. Spirit masters offering their services here were quite pricey. She wanted to tell him that someone from a weak academy wouldn''t be able to handle these teams'' demands.

    But she instantly realised that amidst her momentarily scare, she missed what he just did and got. He gainednd, a base for the team, and enough money to pay not only for a single team, but for ten!

    Not to mention he got that allure of the membership of this restaurant here, something that many would see as a very tempting point to join his side.

    "Need what exactly?" William could clearly see through her thoughts, and couldn''t help butugh, e on! Just admit it and join me."

    "No!" she still acted stubborn, "we won''t!"

    "The offer is open till tomorrow then," William shrugged, as if he didn''t care at all about her rejection. And his attitude made her feel like he knew he already got her and her team in his pocket.

    She really wanted to join him. But seeing that smug look and smile over his face made her want to say no over and over again.

    "Excuse me sir," and just before she''d say anymore, a servant came with a tray filled with food, "this is a humble gift from our master."

    William looked around, on the top of this dude''s shoulder, but couldn''t see Alfonso anywhere. It seemed he arranged this meal before leaving to arrange things at his end.

    "Tell my thanks over to your master," William epted the gift, turned to the all stupefied Ro, e, let''s eat together. Sigh! I wanted to say this won''t be ourst amazing meal together but the first, and yet I can''t. Sorry, but only dudes in my team will enjoy such privilege. Let''s eat and enjoy ourselves for now, worry about tomorrow when ites."

    William didn''t wait for her and started eating from the dishes that got served to him. He didn''t even stop there and kept expressing how delicious and great the taste was, raining all praises over the chefs and this ce.

    He didn''t need to lie, as this food was indeed quite delicious. Not to mention the great benefits his body was enjoying right now.

    Ro kept eating in silence, with mixed emotions. It was her first time visiting and eating here. So, it was expected how much impressed she was about these meals.

    p¨¤§ád¨¢-¨¾?¦Í¨º¦É.§ã¨®§® She heard legends about this ce, and it seemed stories never gave this ce the credit it deserved. And with William''s on the spotments, she couldn''t help but crave to enjoy such an extravagant meal every single day.

    "Do you know what''s the best thing about all this?" As they finished eating, and while they were wiping their hands and mouths clean using white and wet tissues, William said.

    "What?" Ro already got used to William''s annoyingments and praise.

    "We ate, enjoyed our time, and won''t pay for any of this."

    "No way!" her eyes went all round, "you are going to exchange your cores for crystals, so it''s like you already paid for this meal."

    "No, it''s not," William firmly shook his head, "you heard him, it''s on the house. And that means it''s a free meal regardless of our deal, hahahaha! A free meal in the most luxurious ce in the forte, hahahaha! Isn''t it awesome? Isn''t being with me awesome? Hahahaha!"

    Her face kept getting darker the more heughed. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn''t find a single word or logic to respond with back at him.

 Chapter 377 The Fox Place

    William was right. They ate, enjoyed their time in the most expensive ce in the fort, and wouldn''t pay anything in the end!

    And that was all thanks to William and his deal with Alfonso.

    p¨£§ád¨£ §«?¦Í¨º1,§ã¨°§® "Sorry for making you stay all this time here," and in less than ten more minutes, Alfonso returned, with a ring he held in his hand.

    He extended it to William, "please inspect things inside, they are all yours, like the ring."

    "Thanks," William started to feel he got something with rings. Sinceing back in time, he started gathering rings like he was gathering rocks from the ground.

    He found the ring without any spirit imprint, and that made him take ownership of the ring fast. When he inspected its content, he found spirit crystals lying there, the size of one''s head.

    "Spirit gems? Interesting," William muttered when he noticed these weird looking crystals.

    "There are ten of them," Alfonso said, "I know we agreed on the price before, but the extras are a token of my appreciation for telling me the intel."

    William raised his head when he heard what Alfonso said. They indeed agreed on the price before, but it was much cheaper than what this ring contained.

    And it wasn''t because Alfonso here felt appreciative for William to tell him about the secret of killing Scarlet Bears, but for letting go of his daughter and epting Thomas and four others in return.

    "And this is¡­" William then took out a scroll, the only thing inside that didn''t belong to the spirit gem world inside.

    "It''s the official licence of owning the piece ofnd and the building on it," Alfonso cleared his throat before adding, "I had to pull a few strings to secure thisnd for you."

    "It''s not yours?!"

    "It''s mine, well in theory it is. But it belongs to the family, and few others as well. So, I had to make a few deals, to make sure thisnd belongs solely to me, and thus to you."

    "Thanks, I appreciate this¡­"

    "Holy sh*t! It''s located at the central district!!!" and before William would continue what he was saying, Ro from the side stood up straight, as if she got bitten by a snake or something.

    William was casually opening the scroll at this moment, and there were lots of words and a mini map there, pointing towards the location of thend.

    "Keen eyes indeed," Alfonso nodded, feeling more satisfied with Ro''s reaction that William''s. But for a reason, he got little beads of sweat over his forehead, "it''s and in the size of ten acres, surrounded by a wall and with five subsidiary buildings inside with a main central and huge one."

    "That¡­" William saw the description in the scroll matching what Alfonso said.

    "This location¡­ This street¡­ No way! Don''t tell me¡­ It''s the ce of that dude?!!!" But Ro recognised this ce at the spot. And her body couldn''t help but tremble while saying her words, taking a few steps to the back, almost this close from falling down.

    "Easy there," William had to support her back to not fall down, while Alfonsoughed again. And the beads of sweat started to grow in number amidst hisughs.

    "He has been gone from here for a few centuries already. He had no heir, no family. And so, the ownership of this ce went to many owners before, ending up getting sold to selected people, including myself."

    "B¡­ But¡­"

    "What''s all about this ce?" William felt he was missing something important here. Just from the intense reaction of Ro and the weird smile andughs of Alfonso, he knew this building had a hidden history.

    Not to mention the weird beads of sweat that started to cover up Alfonso''s forehead like he just came from running outside or something.

    As William was going to own this ce, he wanted to know everything about it.

    "It''s nothing much," Alfonso shrugged as if this was really nothing. Yet Ro jumped, breaking free from William''s supporting hand, returned to her seat, and she spoke in a loud and enraged tone:

    "It''s nothing?! Come on! It''s The Cursed Building! It''s the old building of that madman, The Fox!"

    "Fox?!" William''s interest instantly got piqued the moment he heard this title.

    "It''s just an old tale, a childish tale, a fairy tale even," Alfonso said in defence, but William couldn''t help but notice the shaking in his voice and the uncertainty he felt from it.

    "It''s a true tale!" Ro was acting weird, not like how she acted during all this time.

    "What tale?" William was in the middle between these two, feeling much weirder about all this.

    "It''s an ancient building," Alfonso started to exin what William didn''t know, "it belonged to one who was once at the pinnacle of power, a dark gold grade spirit master. At his time, he was one of the leaders of this fort, someone truly admirable and strong."

    "And?" Ro gave Alfonso a firm and usative look, and thetter remained silent for few seconds before sighing as he added:

    "Fine! He was known to go slightly¡­ Weird in thest years of his life."

    "Weird? The dude kept screaming and shouting back then about a huge disastering, a terrible cmity that won''t spare anyone! He even went to the extent of fortifying his ce with deadly traps! This isn''t a bit weird; this is f*cking insanity!"

    "What disaster? What traps?" William asked, and the two in front of him got his meaning totally wrong.

    They thought he got cold feet here, and seemingly scared to own such a ce thanks to what he just heard.

    Unlike what they felt and guessed; he was truly curious about that old dude''s tale.

    "The traps are all gone¡­ Well, almost all of them," Alfonso cleared his throat in the middle of his talk when Ro red again at him, "and that disaster is nothing but fairytales."

 Chapter 378 This Is Madness!

    "It''s something that dude kept speaking about, how our world is going to end soon. He kept saying how monsters will appear like an endless flood, attacking and killing everyone, leaving this world in ruins. He called it: The day that no other day wille after!"

    "This¡­" for a second there, William couldn''t help but recall the bloody and shocking scenes of his past life when this world fell.

    "It seems there are lots of stories about this dude," And for a reason, William suddenly recalled the entric old man of the Lockheart impact, the one who loved to hear stories, Ben, "I want to hear everything about him."

    "It''s not that bad actually," Alfonso got the feeling that William was looking down on this ce now. And he frankly should. After all, this ce was always attached to weird stories and lots of feared and scary idents.

    "You want to hear stories? Then let me give you one," Ro adjusted her seat in a nervous way, "that building once got owned two hundred years ago, and the owner fell into one of the supposedly dealt with traps and got killed! Another story? Bloody one perhaps? Then hear this out¡­ One hundred years ago, a team of dark gold masters owned this ce, ending up dead in one day without having anything of their bodies left but their heads! The entire ce inside was dyed red with their blood! As if someone squeezed their blood off their bodies and painted the interior of one building with it! Are you satisfied now?"

    "This¡­" William paused, "I always heard about spirit masters killing others, but never heard of a dead man killing anyone before."

    "It''s a cursed ce! Forget it! I won''t dare to go in there, not even if you offered me all the wealth and riches in the world!" Ro''s stance shifted for one hundred and eighty degrees, turning from trying to think about how to join William to how she''d go as far away from him right now.

    "Take this then," she stood up, seemingly nning to run away from him as far as possible. So, he took out a Bullet, threw it right on her face so she''d be forced to receive it, "use this to contact me if you changed your mind."

    She stood speechless for a moment there before taking the Bullet and stored it in her ring. "Don''t count on me, don''t count on anyone to join you if you are going to ept such a crazy deal."

    She said these words while leaving, and William knew she meant no harm for him.

    In her eyes, he got a perfect chance to get a piece ofnd and a building, something that would make any team seriously consider joining him. And yet if he epted this building from Alfonso, then he''d be ruining all this with a simple and idiotic move.

    But that was her thoughts, not William''s. Thetter was too confident in his abilities to handle anything, deal with any trap. And even if dark gold masters ended up dead at the hands of the traps in that ce, he wasn''t even fazed by this.

    He wasn''t even afraid or worried in the first ce. For someone like him, one who touched the ceiling of power in the outer vast world, dealing with such traps set by a meagre dark gold master of the tiny world was something trivial.

    But William was really interested in something entirely different. The words said by Ro and Alfonso made William suspect that the old owner of that building didn''t go insane or something. He might have got a vision at one night, a vision that was so true for him to believe it without any doubts.

    And what he saw was about the impending fall of this world, something that William would raise his voice to support and confirm.

    And there was another thing that attracted his attention, the name of that dude. The fox? The name was weirdly simr to his spirit, to his deadliest enemies, in a way that left him with many doubts.

    "Don''t take her words seriously, please," Alfonso seemed to see a rich customer getting scared to deal with him, and that got him worried, "this building isn''t that bad. Just look at its location, I dare to bet you won''t find an empty area in this privileged region nowadays."

    "It''s fine," against what Alfonso expected, William slowly nodded, "please give me the licence of ownership of this ce."

    "Are you going to ept it?!!" Alfonso was this close from getting up from his seat and shouting in triumph, yet he controlled himself at thest moment so he wouldn''t expose what he truly felt.

    He indeed knew such a building was problematic. He didn''t actually have any partners. He got this building from a bet with someone, ending up having such a nightmarish ce for himself.

    He was totally scared about getting inside or even living there. And all his attempts before to get rid of this cursed ce ended with a big failure. No one ever wanted to own such a ce, and so he ended up with a perfectnd without any way to get any benefit out of it.

    He even tried once to demolish it, to end up having few hired workers killed, many got insane, and the rest dropped working there. Since then, no one ever epted such a job again.

    He paid lots of money to control such news, so no one would ever hear about this. He did exactly like many previous owners did, trying to save as much as possible of this ce''s shattered reputation, hoping that a fool would one day appear and purchase this.

    So, when William asked for a piece ofnd and a building for his team, Alfonso couldn''t help but think about this cursed ce. He took this time to contact the higher ups in the fort, to prepare everything for this deal, leaving only William''s signature missing on the papers and then he''d wake up from such a nightmare.

 Chapter 379 Showing Him The Way

    When William expressed his eptance to such a crazy deal, Alfonso didn''t hesitate to get out the papers thatcked William''s signature on them. He pointed to where William should sign, and exined in rushed words what William shall do. And then everything about this cursed ce would belong to William.

    "You came quite prepared," even if a kid was sitting in front of Alfonso right now, even if an idiot sat there, they''d suspect something was wrong from Alfonso''s rash actions.

    "It''s just to save your time and mine, hahahaha! You are quite busy indeed, right?" Alfonso tried to find an excuse to give to William to cover up his clearly suspicious actions.

    "It''s alright," William took the papers, the brush and the pot of ink, and left his name there, "it''s mine now, right?"

    "Sure, here is the key through the protective array," Alfonso knew even without this orb and that array, no one would ever dare to set foot over there, "this array was established by the first owner of that ce. He made something that even an army of dark gold spirit masters, hundreds or even thousands of them, wouldn''t be able to barge inside the ce no matter how strong they were."

    "Nice dude indeed," William epted the orb, with a mysterious smile on his face. To him, he got such a greatnd and building, in the heart of the most bustling ce here, and one that was filled with lots of mysteries.

    William wanted to move away from here as fast as he could, go there and start exploring that mysterious ce. However, he still had a few things to do before that.

    "Do you want me to do it right here?"

    "Hold on, let''s go out there," Alfonso couldn''t believe he ended up fooling this kid. He wanted to get the deal done, so William wouldn''t run back and cry,ining about the scheme he just fell into.

    Butpleting the deal here was going to be a bad thing. The ce was already filled with customers, and their eyes and ears, their spirit senses were already focused on their table for a long time already.

    So, Alonso motioned with his head towards a direction. It was back behind the door of the worker zone here, the same ce he vanished inside while arranging things before for William.

    William simply followed him. He already gained a lot out of this trip. He got lots of spirit crystals, and and a building in it that was in the best spot in the fort.

    p¨¤§ád¨¢-¨¾?¦Í¨º¦É.§ã¨®§® Not to mention Thomas and four more gems like him yet to be delivered.

    William just had to tell Alfonso his way to control and kill Scarlet Bears. As for Thomas, thetter was still standing back at the table like a statue, not moving an inch, not showing a single expression over his face. It seemed to William that this dude got used to being sold from one master to another, as if he was a piece of wood or something.

    Behind that door was a wide ce that didn''tck in sizepared to the ce William and other customers sat in. yet it wasn''t all opened, as it got many room-sized parts lined partially with pieces of wood. Alfonso led the way towards a room like this, which got no one inside.

    Other rooms seemed to be the ces where the chiefs cooked the food, or ces designed to store the materials there. As for this one, it was empty of anyone or anything, just had a table and little seats around.

    The room wasn''t that spacious nor narrow, just enough to be used as a study room or something.

    "It''s safe here... There are more arrays here than what you ever saw before in your life," Alfonso''s eyes froze over William, "you can show me your technique, tell me how you did kill those bears."

    Alfonso took a stack of papers per William''s request, and thetter started to write and exin how to make the spears, how to use the guiding underground yellow river to control the bears. He even included a few tricks and tactics anyone could use to make sure he''d get the best out of this genius idea.

    He was generous in his exnation, hoping such information would find its way towards the ears of many formidable and capable spirit masters, not only here but at the entire world.

    He already left such intel back at the Long n. And now this knowledge had reached such a fort. This fort was on the path of many important and major trade routes. It was the perfect ce to spread such intel over.

    William wanted to arm humans up with this intel, enough to save lots of lives and bring tons of problems for the enemiester on.

    "And to test things out, here is a stack of a hundred spears," William already got himself lots of extra arrows and spears from the Long n battle.

    These were the ones that the spirit masters back there didn''t have time to use. William made sure to soak them with the aura of the yellow river and stored them inside his ring for all this time.

    And now he gave a few spears for Alfonso to test things out. After all, it wasn''t a rule to find the Scarlet Bears with the underground river. This only happened in case of big monster tides, something that wasn''t thatmon yet in this world.

    "Thanks," Alfonso epted the gift, "I''ll make sure to test things out. I heard of a ce filled with Scarlet Bears a few thousand kilometres from here. I''ll prepare a capable team and let them use these spears and test your theory out."

    "Fine," William didn''t even feel a speck of worry or pressure from his words. Alfonso made sure to say these words in a threatening way, as if all this proved to be out of William''s fantasy, then William was going to be in big trouble.

 Chapter 380 Giving Alfonso A Scare

    But William didn''t show any sign of getting worried or anything.

    "Here," Alfonso took out five old looking scrolls, handed them over to William, "this is the ownership of Thomas and the other four. These four are out to do a mission for me. Once they''ll return, I''ll send them over to your ce. By now, our deal isplete."

    "Still missing my membership," William chuckled, and Alfonso patted his forehead.

    "Forgive my rashness, I got totally absorbed in the Scarlet Bears issue and our deal. Well¡­ I''ll need a day or so to get the membership badge ready. I''ll make sure to deliver it to your ce once done."

    "Thanks."

    William knew out of all what he acquired from Alfonso, the five old scrolls he just stored in his ring were the most important gain from this deal. Even the piece ofnd and the vast buildings inside it wasn''t even close to the value of Thomas alone in his eyes.

    Thomas got a rare spirit element, one that was going to be quite handy if used right. William didn''t meet anyone with such an element before in his past life. And that was enough to speak about how rare this element was.

    But he already read lots of scrolls about techniques that people like Thomas could use. At the same time, he heard other stuff from his master on various asions, making him the best mentor for this youth.

    "Tell me, you said you came here for the Refos merchant group, for what?" and as everyone here got what they desired, Alfonso said while leading William back to his table and Thomas.

    "I''m going to sell more of these cores out there."

    "M¡­ More! You killed more of them?!!!" This answer was quite unexpected to Alfonso. He thought that the twenty-one cores William got weren''t everything he had. But he never expected William to get enough to go to one of the Big Seven and seek selling them there.

    p¨¤§ád¨¢-¨¾?¦Í¨º¦É.§ã¨®§® That meant what William got was way more than what Alfonso guessed before. "How many cores do you have?!"

    "I n to sell five hundred cores at one go," William casually said, turning to Alfonso as the two arrived at their table, "thanks for your generosity. Please let someone deliver the badge once it''s done."

    "S¡­ Sure¡­" Alfonso stood by the side, watching the back of William getting smaller while his heart kept thumbing in his chest like a drummer was immersed in his performance.

    The answer William gave to him meant only one thing; this kid killed at least more than five hundred Scarlet Bear monsters alone. This was something out of his wildest imagination, something he truly never imagined before.

    Even at the few great monster tides he read intel about before, the ones that were led by these terrifying Scarlet Bears, the highest number of bears to die in any battle was less than a hundred! And these records were speaking about armies of spirit masters led by dark gold masters! Lots of them!

    And here William was, a bronze spirit master, a kid that wasn''t any older than eleven years old, and he managed to kill hundreds of them alone!

    The way William spoke in told Alfonso that he had more of these cores! And these few hundreds were just the tip of the iceberg.

    At this moment, Alfonso decided to go back and do two things. First, he''d take the technique to kill the Scarlet Bears William gave him and start dealing with it in a more serious way.

    He decided to hire a team, a strong and capable team, the strongest he could ever find in the mercenary department, send them towards the nearestir of these bears, and try these spears out as soon as possible.

    And the most important thing he decided was to hire teams to go back to the Aspire academy and try to gather information about what the hell happened back there.

    For William to kill this number, it meant it happened at a huge monster tide. And even if such news didn''t arrive here yet, he decided to actively seek it out.

    He wanted to know how William did it, and how many Scarlet Bears fell that day on his hands.

    Without knowing it, he was destined to get shocked when the news about the grand battle at the Long n would arrive in his ears a few weekster.

    William wasn''t aware of any of this. He just walked out of the restaurant, feeling proud and happy about his recent gains.

    William entered the Golden Fork ce with Ro and got out with Thomas.

    Thomas walked by his side like a silent statue. He didn''t say a single word.

    And that made William feel the ironic disparity between Thomas and Ro. One was quite talkative and the other was all silent.

    William took out a Bullet and called Trevor, that dude who reserved his ce all this time and never called back.

    [Sir, your turn will arrive in less than half an hour]

    "I''ming then," William knew half an hour wasn''t that much to wait. So, he decided to go there, stand in the line, and start talking with Thomas to get to know him a little better.

    "I noticed that you are quite calm, aren''t you even worried or something?" William started leading the way towards the Refos ce as he began speaking with Thomas.

    "I was like this since I was six years old," Thomas'' tone was cold and monotonic, looking like a machine in William''s ears, not a human.

    "I can''t guess what terrors you passed through," William''s eyes were fixed over this dude''s face. And even when trying to provoke the worst memories inside this dude''s mind, Thomas didn''t even twitch a muscle.

    "You do know who your new master is?" William tried to find a topic where he and this dude could talk about to get to know him better.

    "I don''t care, masters change, and my tasks are always the same."

 Chapter 381 [Bonus ] Gaining A Servant

    Unlike what William expected, Thomas gave him such a weird answer.

    But he wasn''t ready yet to give up.

    "How so?"

    "You''ll ask me to see through the past of anything, its rtionship with anyone or anything. You''ll ask me to carry stuff, serve you and deliver things and orders around, even fighting by your side," Thomas said as if this was his normal life since he was born, "it''s all the same to me, and I''m ready to do any of that."

    "Sure, I''m going to ask you to do things for me, fight for me," William nodded, "but first we''ll have a long talk between the two of us."

    "As the master wishes."

    "Not even curious to know about what?" William tried to push this youth to show any sign of curiosity or interest, any sign at all except for his cold and statue-like expression on his face.

    But Thomas shrugged, not even caring about speaking a single word.

    "Quite troublesome dude you are," William shifted his eyes towards the direction of the Refos merchant group, "sooner orter I''ll change you to be a better dude, one who smiles more often than frowns."

    Thomas didn''t ce any importance on William''s words, and just kept walking by his new master''s side. The two made a very funny scene, with a thin and wasted looking short kid walking by the side of a muscr and tall person, one that looked like a real man, a real spirit master.

    It felt like a father was walking by the side of his son, or a big brother taking care of his younger one. No one would ever imagine the two were master and servant, with the wasted kid being the former.

    "Sir, our turn is about toe after these five dudes finish their business," and when William walked to the front of the line, he found that dude from before, the one who asked to stand in his ce, Trevor, standing like an obedient kid in the forefront of the long line.

    "Good job," William took out the promised remaining price, eight hundred spirit crystals, "take these and leave."

    "Anything else?" That dude''s eyes shone brightly, "I can do anything for you, carrying stuff, arranging the house, buying materials, anything for the master."

    "Hmm¡­" William paused as he already needed someone to do such troublesome things for him. He lived as a porter before, and he didn''t want to experience such life again.

    "How much will that cost me?" William knew he needed such a helping hand, but he wasn''t ready to get extorted for lots of spirit crystals.

    "Well¡­ The standard price¡­ One hundred thousand spirit crystals per month¡­"

    "Bullshit!" William wasn''t the one to speak, but Thomas, "that''s a daylight steal!"

    "Ouch! Sorry I got things mixed and messed up in my mind," Trevor coughed before hurriedly adding, "it''s f¡­ No, ten thousand spirit crystals per month."

    William didn''t answer the dude right away but turned to look at Thomas. He didn''t belong here, and so he didn''t know what was known to be the right price and what was a scam.

    "It''s a fair price," Thomas just said these little words and returned to his silence.

    "Cool," William lightly epted the offer of this youth, epting a new member to his team, "from now on, you''ll follow me wherever I go and do everything I say."

    "Thanks, master, for your kindness," Trevor was excited, "I will always follow your orders and won''t let you be disappointed¡­"

    "Next!"

    Just before this dude would continue his long speech about his loyalty and useful actions, a loud shout came from the front as it was already their turn.

    "Please state your purpose ofing to our ce," William stepped up with the other two standing by his side. He saw a middle-aged man, wearing a bright uniform that was made out of gold and silver threads.

    On his chest, a mark of three coins floating in the middle of many ck and yellow specks were there. It was a unique pattern, one that William had never seen before.

    "I''m here to sell something in the next auction."

    "You do know that we take twenty percent of the total price?"

    "Twenty?!" William was shocked by this. It seemed this group of merchants was a greedy one.

    "And we don''t ept just any goods," the man slowly added, "if you still want to do this, please go there, head right and then left, follow the corridor until you''ll meet the one responsible for appraising your goods and finalising the deal."

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" William was still baffled by this twenty percent thing, even turning to his two followers as he muttered in low voice, "twenty percent? That''s a steal!"

    "No master, this is the norm here," Trevor said, "any auction arranged by the Refos group will attract many eyes, wealthy and rich folks will flood here. Anything that''s sold outside will be sold at least five times its initial price here. And that''s why they are asking for such fees for their services."

    "It''s true," William turned to the statue walking by that servant, and Thomas simply said these little words to confirm what Trevor said.

    "What can I do for you?" William could only believe what these two said. If he''d get five times the original price, even if he got just three times the initial price of these cores, then he''d get a fortune. Taking such arge cut wasn''t going to be bad in the end.

    And as William followed the instructions of the one he met behind, he found himself standing in front of a big za, one that was empty of any living soul but one.

    The path he followed was all built by brown bricks andmon ores. And weirdly enough, the ces he walked through were all void of anyone. But here, things started to change.

    Things of high value were ced inside opened chests, all over the entire za! William could even feel lots of powering from different items there.

 Chapter 382 The Clavourance Eagle Spirit

    "Artefacts?!" William doubted himself, but that fat and short man in front of him didn''t give any time to feel things again, or check anything.

    "Kid, if you are here to waste my time, then scram!" That dude was a hot tempered one.

    "I''m here to sell these," William took out a single core for the man to shut up and examine it.

    And that was what this man did.

    He might be rude, hard to deal with, but he was quite professional. The moment he got this core, he started to examine it using his spirit power and spirit.

    "You got the vourance Eagle spirit?!" William recognised the troublesome monster that dude used its spirit.

    "You do have a keen eye, kiddo," the fat merchant said, but he never moved his eyes away from this core or even paused in his actions.

    His spirit was a hard to fight monster, one that wasn''t found easily in this world as it was a flying one. It wasmonly found in the outer world, and it had a very sharp intuition, one that would save its life for many times.

    This eagle could feel the danger approaching like it got the ability to see the future or something. So, it was hard to kill this bird not thanks to its strength but the hardships in finding it in the first ce.

    William roughly guessed what this spirit master here was doing. If he got that eagle''s spirit, its ability to see the future, then this dude wasn''t assessing the value of these goods at all.

    He was seeing the future of this core, seeing for how much it was going to be sold. And that new and unique way made William inwardly smile in admiration.

    This group didn''t reach its current stage of fame and power thanks to luck or their efforts alone, but over the shoulders of this man here and others like him if there were such a thing.

    "Seeing how much each item would sell in the future if they auctioned it? Damn! That''s like a cheat way to not sell anything of low value!" William thought to himself before that fat dude raised his head and looked at William in a weird way.

    "I believe this isn''t the single core you want to sell, right?" and just like what William expected, this dude was able to see glimpses of the future of the auction where this core would be sold at, and knew William was going to sell arge batch of them.

    "That''s correct."

    "Show me," the man demanded, "I have to examine them all together, or else my ability won''t be sufficient."

    "Fine," William was about to take out his cores, yet to get stopped by the man.

    "Wait," the man hurriedly ran to one corner where there were lots of empty boxes lying there. Unlike what William expected, he didn''t grab the firstrge box he found, but kept fiddling there, moving boxes around, as if he was looking for something.

    "Don''t tell me he even saw the shape of the box my cores will be sold in and is looking for it to have a more perfect vision," William thought again in his mind, feeling a little surprised by this man''s actions.

    And for a moment there, he felt such ability was godsent, if it was coupled with the right training manuals and techniques.

    And if that dude got the time spirit element, William knew he''d be a gem. But the spirit element that dude used was wind. It wasn''t an element that would negatively impact this dude''s spirit, but it wasn''t also that helpful as well.

    "I found it!" and after a few minutes of looking, this dude finally found a box. It was a rectangr shaped box, reaching five metres in length and two in width and height.

    It was bronze in colour, without any remarkable features on it except for a sun like symbol that was engraved on its sides and cover.

    "Do you need any help?"

    "No need," that merchant just used his power and thatrge and heavy box looked as if it was a toy to him.

    "A dark gold spirit master?!" Trevor didn''t get this dude''s strength before and now just realised it.

    "Kid, leave the cores here," the merchant said, wiping the nonexistent sweat droplets off his forehead, "the box will fit them all."

    "Ok," William started to fill the box with his cores. In just one minute, the empty box was filled with all the cores William took out.

    And like that merchant said, the box fit them all.

    "There is one thing missing," the merchant kept looking at the box for a few minutes, with a deep frown on his face, "ah! Thest core," he suddenly said in realisation, throwing the core that he kept holding all this time, "now it''s perfect."

    "Perfect for what?" Trevor didn''t get what this merchant was doing or even meant by his words.

    "Shush," William ced his finger on his lips to silence Trevor. And the merchant ignored Trevor''s words. He didn''t ce the cover over the box, and started to move his hands over it as if he was feeling the cores.

    His spirit ignited again, and he even closed his eyes. William knew this dude was now seeing much clearer scenes of the future, where his cores would be fought upon by many clients, ended up sold by a certain price.

    William didn''t know if this man''s visions were trustworthy or urate or what. But seeing him having such an important job, doing this all alone, made William feel he was dependable.

    The merchant kept his eyes closed for ten straight minutes. William thought this man was going to hurry up this time, but he took his time, moving his hands all over the cores, even touching the sides of the box sometimes.

    "It''s a good trade," the merchant suddenly opened his eyes, while his face changed to show a bright smile for the first time ever, "let me guess... You killed all the monsters these cores came from personally, right?"

 Chapter 383 Signing A Contract

    William nodded, and the man kept speaking, "and you killed them during a big monster outbreak, using an unorthodox method in doing that, right?"

    And William nodded again while Trevor moved his eyes between the two as if he was seeing a crazy scene in front of his eyes or something.

    "Fantastic!" the man pped his hands, "I see Thomas here, that means you already visited and made a deal with that man, right?"

    And William nodded again, while Thomas showed a slight frown on his face. It seemed what this merchant said piqued the interest of this stone-cold youth.

    "Brilliant," the merchant pped his hands again, "let''s sign a contract then. By this, you''ll authorise your five hundred cores and the information rted to them to us. We will handle the auction, selling them at the highest possible price, in exchange for twenty percent of the final price, ok?"

    "Sure," William nodded, and that merchant took out two pieces of paper that had lots of words. It seemed like a ready copy of the contracts, and he just added little details before handing two contracts for William to read.

    "It''s good," William read and found all the conditions they agreed on written there in great detail, "where shall I sign?"

    "Use your spirit power," the merchant waved his arm, showing William the right way to sign and finalise this deal.

    He just activated his spirit power, releasing a dark gold wave of energy around while holding one contract in his hands. The moment he did that, the paper started to develop a fire, a dark gold one, that started at the edges, then passed through the entire paper and finally died down.

    It looked as if the fire was eating the paper, but in the end, nothing actually happened, except for a remnant of this fire left on the paper as a stamp or a signature.

    "Cool," William recognised this way in signing deals. The contract would absorb one''s spirit power. Then by using another method, the contract could reveal a sample of the spirit powers used in its signing process, and pointing towards its owner if he was present in the area around.

    William stirred up his power, and then the two contracts showed the same signs. Bronze fire appeared, signifying William''s spirit master grade.

    "A bronze spirit master? Wow! I didn''t see thating," William knew the real meaning behind this man''s words were quite different from what the other two here got from them.

    If he was a bronze spirit master, then the expected price of selling these cores would be higher.

    "When will the auction be held?" William got one copy of the contract and that merchant took the other.

    "There''s one happening tomorrow," Trevor said, while feeling weird about this deal and meeting.

    "No," unlike what Trevor expected, the merchant shook his head slowly, "they will be sold in a week."

    "A week?!" William moved his eyes between Trevor, Thomas, and the merchant.

    "It''s for the better," the merchant seemed to struggle to exin what he wanted to say. And William got his meaning without the need to say anymore.

    That man saw the time where these cores got sold at. And from William''s understanding of this man''s actions and words, William felt like this man saw different versions of the future, and he picked the most profitable scenario out of them.

    "Let''s wish for the better then," William took one of his Bullets, handed it to the merchant, "inform me of the right date when it''s settled. I''ll try to show up and attend the auction."

    "Sure, I''ll prepare VIP tickets for you by then," the merchant took the Bullet, "I will inform you one day prior."

    Wim took his leave, while the merchant''s look changed when he vanished. He looked as if someone just found a gem, and he hurriedly took Bullets out and started to ry orders to others.

    To get the best possible price out of this deal, he needed the help of others. After all, even with their name as a backing, they needed proof for everything said in the introduction of these cores at the auction.

    "Do you know of a nearby hotel?" William got rid of all the matters that burdened him when he first arrived here. And now it was time for him to find a nice room at a hotel, check on the rings he gained from the dark spirit masters, and also to test out his theory.

    "The fort got nothing more than hotels," Trevor said, before adding, as he couldn''t control his curiosity anymore, "master, may I ask what just happened?"

    "We went to sell cores at the Refos big auction day."

    "But¡­ There were many weird things that happened back there¡­"

    "Don''t ask about things you won''t understand," William already got what this dude wanted to ask about from the start. And yet he didn''t want to waste his breaths in exining things this youth wouldn''t get.

    "I get it," Trevor nodded, as if he realised something, and he frankly didn''t, "about hotels¡­ What conditions does the master have for it? I mean, there are different categories for hotels, each with different prices and such¡­"

    "I don''t care about the price," William paused, thinking about his needs, "I want a ce that has strong istion and defensive arrays, a training ground that''s provided with the room if possible."

    "This¡­" Trevor moved his eyes towards the silent Thomas, and thetter didn''t show any change on his face at all.

    "Is this a hard to fulfil condition or what?"

    "No master, but¡­" Trevor paused, looking a bit hesitating about something, "the prices of such hotels are quite high."

    "I told you money isn''t a problem." William rolled his eyes, "but finding a suitable ce is."

    "Let''s go to the Royals then," Trevor seemed to summon his courage when he said the name of this hotel. And that told William how famous that hotel was.

    "Is it good?" William needed to ask, "does it have what I need?"

 Chapter 384 The Royals Hotel

    "Master, it''s the Royals! If there is anything missing there, then I guarantee that you won''t find it anywhere else in the fort or even in the regions around."

    "Cool, lead the way then," the confidence in Trevor''s words reassured William. He wanted to test out his spirit theory. And for a reason, he felt like doing this would create such a scene.

    He thought about going to his newly acquired building and testing things there. But he didn''t trust the ce there would be safe. And it was better for him to be more prepared before setting a single foot in such dangerous territory.

    Trevor led the way and changed their direction a couple of times. Against William''s thoughts, they went away from the main street, heading through different small streets, before finally ending at another big street.

    "Ah, the fort has nine hills, each with a separate big path and gate. It makes sense to have nine main roads inside," William realised what he missed when they arrived at a bustling wide street, not any lesser than the one he already passed over before.

    It was filled with lots of people walking, lots of shops, big buildings, and fancy looking hotels.

    This might be the only little different detail here than the other street. Hotels here were more extravagant and eye-catching than those present at the other street.

    Each hotel tried to look like a bride on her wedding day, using different designs, colourful ores, and even lights and such. And one hotel far away kept releasing short distance fireworks in the air, releasing a different colour each time.

    "Over there," and just as William got attracted by these fireworks that looked interesting, Trevor pointed towards the direction of another hotel, "that''s the Royals. Huh, what do you think?"

    "Looks interesting," William nodded in his heart. This hotel looked really unique and special from outside.

    It wasn''t like any other hotel he saw in the fort so far. First of all, it had a ten storey height main building, one that extended to cover up the space of ten buildings would take side by side. It had a metallic fence outside, one that was made out of golden ores, with small statues of different monster heads at the tips of each rod.

    The hotel had more buildings behind this one, and William could see lots of guards, wearing unified gears, with ck swords releasing silver lightning arcs at their chest as the emblem of that ce.

    "Wee sir, how may I help you today?" And just as the three arrived at the front gate, where a bunch of scary looking spirit masters stood as mere guards, a youth appeared from the stairs behind, wearing a ck suit, without a single piece of gear on his body.

    He wore a one eye ss, linked to his chest with a golden chain. He looked dignified even with his age not exceeding twenty-five.

    And he came down to wee the three of them.

    "Who said we were going in there?" William didn''t respond with courtesy, and instead showed a weird expression on his face.

    He got a point though. After all, they were standing a few metres away from the scary guards and didn''t even move a step inside the hotel perimeters or talked to any of the guards.

    "The spirit master who managed to create a scene at the Golden Fork restaurant isn''t just nobody," and the answer this dude gave made William raise one eyebrow in response. He never expected what he had with Alfonso to be widely spread this fast, reaching even the ears of the ones in this grand hotel, "I''m Mark, and I''m delighted to serve you today."

    "Lead the way then," William knew his intentions were seen through. He was someone who managed to make a striking deal with Alfonso. And the news must have reached the ears of those with great details.

    So many knew William was rich, filthy rich, enough to secure his stay in such an expensive hotel.

    "What did you do exactly back there?" Thomas kept his silence while following William inside the hotel, but Trevor wasn''t. He wasn''t there when William made the deal, never heard about what happened except for now.

    "It''s nothing," William shrugged, ignoring him while walking over the stairs and getting inside the main lobby of the hotel.

    Saying that the hotel was keen to impress its residence was an understatement. Everything inside that lobby was filled with luxury and gave William a feeling of how being rich truly was.

    First of all there were a group of human sized statues, describing either strong spirit masters releasing deadly techniques, or battles between spirit masters and deadly monsters.

    William couldn''t believe the mastery of the craftsman who did all this. The statues in front of him looked alive. He felt like the sparkles of the attacks, the roars of the monsters, as if the fierce battles would envelop him and this lobby at any moment.

    This was a wonderful experience to him, but he wasn''t that much interested in such worldly matters. All he cared about was to find a safe room, one that would stop any preying senses of any strong spirit master, and a training ground prepared to endure deadly techniques.

    The lobby got a front desk, one that was semicircr in shape. There were chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling, alongside many candles and ores that emitted a dark blue and green light.

    It gave the ce here a weird touch, as if William was going to a serious ce, not just a hotel. William didn''t mind any of that, but it seemed such things left a deep impression on Trevor, even making his body slightly tremble in awe and fear.

    "How may I serve sir?" Mark moved behind that desk, relieved the one who was standing there, and started to take out a pile of scrolls, "we got all the rooms that suit everyone''s needs..."

 Chapter 385 Space Affinity Spirit

    "I need room that has strong defence and istion arrays, ones that can stop the spirit sense of any dark gold spirit masters," William knew this youth was adept at dealing with customers, looking much experienced as any veteran merchant or salesman.

    But he didn''t want to hear useless things about rooms he wouldn''t get interested in. He wanted a room with special conditions, and he wanted to know if the hotel got it or not, and how much it would cost.

    "We got such rooms indeed¡­"

    "And a training ground apanied it," William interrupted Mark again, acting as a seasoned and hard to satisfy customer.

    "Sir, feel no worry," Mark responded to William''s direct attitude with a calm smile on his face, "we got all you need here. But the price¡­ It might be a bit high."

    "How much exactly?" William asked without beating around the bush. And Mark didn''t answer directly, instead he moved his eyes around, looking at the other two beside William.

    "Are they going to have the same kind of room or¡­"

    "I want two normal rooms for them," William didn''t ce any hope over these two for now. One was his servant, and the other was a future asset. But for now, Thomas had no real value to him.

    "Sure, we can even arrange their rooms to be beside yours," Mark said as if this was something easy to do.

    "You got a world shifting spirit master here?!" Just from Mark''s words, William''s mind jumped to such a crazy conclusion.

    "This¡­ It''s indeed impressive for sir to guess all this with just the little words of mine," Mark''s face showed a shocked expression at first, before he calmly smiled, "we got such a venerable senior here, and he is the one responsible for managing our hotel."

    "Say hi to him for me," William''s eyes shone brightly. This dude, the one who got the world shifting ability, was a very unique and extremely rare spirit master.

    He had a normal Earth spirit element, but deep down his spirit there was something that rarely was seen¡­ A space affinity!

    It wasn''t a kind of spirit element, but something that was like a bonus to his spirit element. By his space affinity, this dude here could controlrge blocks of ground, rocks, buildings, and even in the cases of extremely strong spirit masters, they could control entire towns and cities!

    With a simple thought of this man, the entire terrain would change. Hills and mountains could be ttened or rise from the ground as if this was magic.

    He could do miracles, things that could change the course of any big battle. Such spirit masters were considered by his master as a member of a very short list, exclusive list, the list of spirit masters who could ruin the world single handedly if they got enough power to do so.

    "Sure thing, he will be delighted to receive your greetings, and will be very excited for your stay here," Mark missed William''s real intentions. And thetter just let Mark get the wrong impression.

    William knew how rare it was to find such a talent even in the outer world. And as Mark was fiddling in the scrolls, looking for the vacant rooms that would satisfy William''s needs and conditions, thetter turned his eyes and stole a gaze at Thomas.

    "This world¡­ It has many interesting talents indeed¡­" he found spirit masters with twin souls and a soul merge, a dormant spirit element, and karma spirit element. And now he just found a spirit master with space affinity.

    He didn''t even wander the entire world to find all these rare and extremely valuable talents. He simply found them without even looking.

    And that drove a crazy thought in his mind¡­ What if he started exploring the talents in this world actively? What would he find? More scary and rare talents?

    Just thinking about finding more gems here made his heart palpitate fiercely in his chest.

    And then his thoughts drifted towards one question¡­ "Why the heck there is such a gathering of rare and scary talents in such an insignificant world?!"

    This was an interesting question; indeed, one he knew he''d not get the answer to until he''d reach the pinnacle of power in this tiny world.

    "Quality matters, but also loyalty matters as well," he calmed himself down, while thinking more rationally about this, "what''s the use of a great talent with a shitty personality? With an evil mind? I have to approach this carefully," he decided to drop such an issue for now and focus on improving his power first.

    "There are five different rooms vacant at the moment," Mark took out five scrolls and ced them on the desk, storing the rest away.

    "They are¡­"

    "They all got what sir needs," Mark said to reassure William, "this room is one of our best, five hundred metres square, has two levels, with a training ground attached to it, looking like the top of a mountain¡­"

    Mark started to take one scroll at a time, singing praise about its great points and such, describing its surface area, decorations, design, and the attached training ground.

    But he missed one little thing in speaking about them all¡­

    "They all look great, but what''s the price of renting them?" William knew any room here would satisfy his needs. He wasn''t seeking any fancy room with lots of furniture, decorations, or anything like that. He just wanted a warm bed, a strong protective array, and a suitable training ground.

    "Well¡­ This room costs one million spirit crystals per week, and this one cost one hundred thousand extra¡­ As for these three, each cost one and half million per week¡­"

    Mark said the prices while carefully watching William''s reactions. But William disappointed him and never showed any sign of getting awed or scared by these prices.

    William saw these prices a little extravagant. If the rooms could protect him fully, then he wouldn''t mind hiring any of them.

    "I''ll take this one then," he selected the one that cost the lowest among the five, "and two other normal rooms next to it. I got a membership at the Golden Fork restaurant. So, make sure to deliver someone there to inform them and make them bring food for three in time."

 Chapter 386 I Want His Job

    "Sure," Mark''s smile didn''t change, but he felt a little disappointed. He thought William would drop taking any of these rooms.

    In fact, he and other higher ups here got to hear about what he did back with Alfonso at the Golden Fork restaurant, and also at the Refos merchant group. They investigated fast and learnt about his true origins.

    He came from the Aspire academy, one that anyone here would look down upon. The masters of this hotel wanted to lure William here, make him stay in a normal room, so they could spy on what he was doing.

    But that kid came here prepared, asking directly for the most secure rooms in the hotel. Mark would never try to scheme him for a faulted room, one with a broken array or something. Or else the reputation of the hotel would be the price for that.

    He decided something else, to raise the prices of renting these rooms by double. And still William epted the offer and booked one room even with such price.

    "Will you pay in advance or¡­"

    "Here," William took one of the big crystals he got from Alfonso, "I heard this is worth one million each, right?"

    "Holy sh*t!" from the side, Trevor got his eyes wide open when he saw what William took out, "you¡­ You weren''t joking or bluffing just now!"

    "Surely not!" William gave Trevor a ming look, one that told Trevor to not question or doubt his master''s words or actions ever again.

    "I wish he was," and Mark inwardly sighed while thinking to himself, "here is something nice¡­ As sir is going to pay in advance, then the price will be lowered by half."

    "Is there something like that here?! For real?!!!" Trevor''s shock escted when he heard what Mark just said. He thought this was the magical effect of his master, least to his knowledge this was Mark''s way to correct his earlier fault.

    He raised the price to scare William away from these troublesome rooms. But he never expected this kid to ept such a price. So, he had to find a way and lower it to its real value. Or else if news spread, things would be bad for their reputation.

    Scamming customers? That was one of the worst usations for any ce like this hotel.

    "Sure, why would I lie to you?" and as Mark answered Trevor, the slight change in his tone and expressions didn''t miss William''s keen eyes.

    He felt this was intentionally done by Mark, and that meant this youth already increased the price in the first ce.

    "Was he trying to force me to take a normal room? For what?" William became a little vignt here, decided to fortify the room and training ground there with his own arrays.

    "Wee to our hotel," Mark took three coloured stones, each with a chain that could allow anyone to wear them around their necks. But unlike what Mark expected, William simply epted his, and stored it inside his ring.

    He decided to act in great caution to anything rted to this hotel, even to the key needed to ess his room.

    His stone was bloody red in colour, with faint shimmering that came from the core of that stone. William didn''t even spare it another nce as he stored it away, leaving the task of thoroughly studying it forter.

    "Ahem, you can rest there for half an hour. I''ll make sure your rooms are ready and will send someone to take you there," Mark knew he showed a weird reaction that he shouldn''t have.

    The stone he gave to William was special, one that could store inside the things one would do for a period of time. By using special methods and techniques, the higher ups here could retrieve these images and see what William did inside the room and training ground.

    But it needed to be held on one''s body to do that. And William just put it away, rendering such a move useless.

    "Thanks," Seeing the momentarily weird expression over Mark''s face made William confident in his early guess. They wanted to spy on him, and that stone had something inside to help them in doing that.

    William decided to keep that key inside his ring all the time, not take it out inside his room or training ground to examine it.

    "I never imagined you are this rich," and as the three went to sit in a room sized rest ce in the lobby, Trevor couldn''t help but shake his head in regret.

    "Don''t me me, I just followed the normal prices here," William knew this dude was regretting not asking for more for his services. And so, he reminded him that each profession got a preset price for it. And he got to me himself for doing such a cheap job.

    "How much is he earning then? I want to do the same thing as him!" Trevor seemed not satisfied with his sry, not epting getting scraps from such a wealthy master.

    So, he sat his eyes over Thomas, mistaking that this silent dude was getting much more than himself.

    "Hahahaha! You want to be like him? That''s hrious!" And when William heard what Trevor said, he couldn''t help but break out inughter.

    "What? He isn''t that much stronger than me anyway. I''m prepared to do whatever he does, as long as I''m getting more!"

    "Trevor, oh dear Trevor¡­ Thomas gets nothing at all. Do you want to be like him?" William winked, and Trevor''s face turned a bit ugly. He instantly turned to Thomas who simply nodded without showing even the faintest smile or bitterness or anything at all on his face.

    "No, no thanks, I''m good like this," Trevor knew he dug a grave and threw himself in with his greed.

    "That''s better," Williamughed, patting Trevor''s shoulders, "it''s better to be humble and ept what you can get with your abilities. Don''t dream to get more unless you have the ability to do so."

 Chapter 387 Getting Looked Down Uopn

    "Tsk," Trevor was still thinking about how low he got from this deal. And just by looking at his face made Williamugh.

    "Don''t forget," William suddenly added, "you are staying in the Royals! I bet you won''t be able to set foot here ever in your life, not even to rent a normal room, right? Not to mention the extravagant meals you are going to get on my side. All this costs lots of money, you do know that, right?"

    William''s words left Trevor speechless for a few seconds before he lowered his head.

    "Sorry boss, I won''t make this mistake again."

    Despite saying this, William knew he wasn''t really honest in what he said and was stillmenting his bad luck in not getting more from serving William.

    As for Thomas, he kept his stone-cold face from the beginning to end. William smiled in amusement at the dark look over Trevor''s face and moved his eyes around the guests in this lobby.

    The ce wasn''t that crowded as the Golden Fork restaurant, but there were few seats filled here. William was sure most if not all were wealthy people with strong backgrounds in the fort or areas around.

    They were all families, with old, middle aged, and young men and women sitting together. Each family had a group of dangerous looking guards, all giving William a dangerous vibe as ferocious beasts.

    William looked at these few groups around and then at his little group of three and couldn''t help but feel the clear disparity between the two sides.

    "Wearing fancy clothes, even making out their hair! What the hell is wrong with everyone here?" William muttered to himself, while feeling a bit angry about all this.

    This wasn''t the proper life any spirit master should live. This was the life of spoiled brats and losers. Spirit masters had to be always prepared for the worst. And these folks here, despite being so strong, wealthy enough to hire strong folks guarding them, acted like paradise was going tond on this world andst forever.

    William shifted his eyes away after reading through all these people. And as he examined them, they also checked him up.

    They couldn''t help but look at him in disdain and annoyance.

    It seemed like they were questioning the real purpose of William''s presence here. He didn''t look like someone who belonged to their extremely narrow circle, the elites, the selected exclusive rich and authoritative people in this fort.

    Under their watchful gazes, whispering about the purpose of his presence here, the young manager who met William before came with a big smile on his face.

    "Look, Mark is going to kick them out!"

    "That''s just right. Howe the guards out there let such beggars get in here?"

    "I can''t believe how low the security here gets! And they dared to im they are the safest ce in the entire fort!"

    "That''s why we have our own entourage."

    William could hear the mocking tones and harsh wordsing from different directions. But he didn''t ce any of that in his mind and stepped to wee the iing Mark.

    "Everything is ready, sir," Mark suddenly bowed, acting in extreme respect towards William, "here, it''s the extra crystals of your advance payment. The ring is a humble gift from us."

    William epted the ring, to suddenly take out the entire crystals from inside, touch them and store them into one of his rings.

    "Take this, it''s a gift for following me," and as if he was tossing garbage on the side of the street, William threw that ring to Trevor. And thetter jumped literally to grab it.

    "Thanks... Thanks master," Trevor was honest in his thanks this time. And that little scene attracted everyone''s attention and curiosity.

    "He didn''t fall even for this! What the heck is wrong with this kid?!!"

    Just as Mark failed in his earlier attempts to spy on William, he decided to use a different method. If he got anything else to spy on William, then thetter would ce it inside his ring and seal it.

    So Mark thought about giving William a ring, one with a tracking and spying inscription over it. It was something that no one would detect or remove. Not to mention that the ring could bypass the fierce restrictionsid on William''s room. And that was what made this idea brilliant in his eyes.

    Who would throw away a ring? Rings were made to be worn. But against what he expected, William took the crystals out of the ring on the spot and tossed that ring to his servant.

    That was totally unexpected! And for a second there, the manager stood his ce motionless without knowing what to say or do.

    He didn''t get that the servant William tossed the ring towards was someone who knew literally nothing about him and was quite noisy and talkative. In William''s eyes, this was the right punishment for Mark and anyone standing behind them.

    "Let them suffer, hear this dude''s bullshit all the time until they''d get a headache," William inwardly and evillyughed while thinking to himself.

    "Ahem," Mark cleared his throat, before motioning his head towards one direction, "please follow my man to your rooms, they are ready."

    "Thanks," William smiled, a smile that wasn''t one. He already knew something was wrong with this manager here, and he was trying everything to spy on him.

    And that made William more vignt about the room he was going to stay in. He decided to build arrays to iste his actions inside, and also sever any connection of any spying tricks inside with the outside world.

    This way, no matter how this dude or the ones behind him tried, they were going to end up with a big disappointment in the end.

    William moved with the other two after the servant who appeared after Mark''s words. And just as William vanished from the lobby, the manager got surrounded by many of those sitting here, getting asked about what the heck just happened.

 Chapter 388 A Red Ball

    As he got nothing to prohibit him from doing so, besides being filled with rage towards William, Mark willingly told them everything he knew about William. He even epted generous gifts from everyone while he added more about the background and little details about what William did back at the forest against the dark spirit masters.

    "Acho! Who is speaking about me?" William sneezed as he arrived at the floor of his room. The hotel got a teleportation circle inside, one that would move anyone anywhere he wanted as long as he got ess to that area.

    The servant led the three in a wide corridor, with little doors on each side. It seemed this floor was an exclusive one. And in a few minutes, the servant stopped at three doors situated next to each other.

    "The master''s room is in the middle, the other two are normal ones," the servant said, pointing at the central room as he added, "I don''t get any ess to open this room. But I can open the other two."

    "Thanks," William didn''t believe this sh*t, and still gave the fifteen years old, silver grade spirit master, one hundred spirit crystals on the spot as a tip, "make sure our meals arrive at the right time. Just leave them in this room."

    He pointed towards one of the normal rooms, and the servant dly epted the tip and nodded, "I''m going to make sure to deliver everything in time to this room. Thanks sir, and if you need anything, just ask for Jo."

    "Ok," William nodded while the servant called Jo left with a big smile on his face after opening the doors of the two normal rooms.

    "You are aware that this is equal to his monthly allowance here, right?" Trevor bitterly said, and William shrugged as if this was something not worthy of his attention.

    "You will get this room, and you''ll get this," William took the two stones of the normal rooms and handed one each to his two fellows.

    "Why won''t I take this room? The food is going to be delivered there!" Trevorined, to just shut up under the serious warning look of William.

    "I''ll be in my room and rest, don''t let anyone disturb me under any circumstances, ok?" William said hisst piece before getting inside his room.

    He already got out his red stone ne and used it to open the restrictions over his room. After saying hisst piece to Trevor and Thomas, especially giving Trevor a warning nce, he stored the troublesome ne again in his ring, entered the room and closed the door behind.

    And when he did, a majestic scene of luxury weed his eyes. The room wasn''t a room, but like an entire apartment.

    It was filled with lots of furniture, decorations in shining lights, and even chandeliers and statues were there.

    William just gave all this a single, short nce before shifting his eyes away. He didn''t like such extravagant ways of living. In his eyes, the wooden shack he once lived in as a porter was way better than all this.

    To him, worldly matters were distracting, and had a bad and negative effect over him, over any spirit master.

    He started to look for the training ground that the manager promised to be here. William thought the room would open at the training ground and was surprised to see a ball floating in the middle of his room.

    It was red in colour, having the appearance of any rubber ball. It was floating in the middle of the room, almost two metres away from the ground, without any power holding it in ce.

    "A pocket world? That''s something I never expected to see here," William''s eyes shone brightly, moving slowly towards this ball as if he was seeing the most alluring and tasty delicacy in the world.

    He arrived there and resisted the urge to touch and go into that sealed world. He thought the training ground promised by the hotel was an extra piece ofnd made up by the general manager of the hotel.

    But this wasn''t true. He underestimated the wealth and power of this hotel. They got a pocket world, one that was exclusive for himself.

    "Important things first," William muttered to himself, slowly walking away from this ball, and starting to take different materials out.

    He knew that inside that pocket world, no one would be able to spy on him. One had to enter the world and track him down to do so. Even in the outer vast world, trying to spy on a pocket world was something unfeasible.

    But seeing this ball here made William wonder about its origin. Were such balls being sold here? If so, he wanted to buy one!

    Just having his own pocket world, one that could be taken around anywhere he''d go to be a great thing. It was like carrying one''s training ground in his pocket all the time.

    But he was sure such a thing would cost a fortune! It went without saying what such balls meant to any spirit master, especially the formidable ones.

    It wasn''t just like carrying one''s training ground around, but it was a world! No matter how small it was, it was a separate world. And that meant people could live there, even build settlements and ces to live.

    Anyone could bring an army with him, take them out anytime anywhere. This was a privilege that no one would crave to get.

    In addition to that, and as it was a true world, there were ores and herbs inside. So, it wasn''t just a ce to store one''s strength at, but also a source to strengthen one''s wealth as well.

    William kept thinking about this in great excitement, feeling the urge to rob this hotel of their holdings of these pocket worlds.

    But he knew this was a crazy idea. The ce was heavily fortified and had lots of scary dudes out there.

 Chapter 389 A Secluded Pocket World

    William ced his materials around, forming an istion array, a sealing array, and even a defensive one. He didn''t want any funny dude toe in here and try to get into the pocket world and spy on him.

    William wasn''t that much afraid of the gold grade spirit masters, but the dark gold ones was a totally different story. These were hard to detect and had many ways to keep spying on him without him realising anything.

    "I''m ready," William nned to have a bit of rest before training. But now he couldn''t do any of that. Howe he''d sleep before exploring the pocket world he got in his room?

    As he was done from setting his arrays, he went directly towards the ball. Without any hesitation, he touched it, feeling an old and familiar sucking power that overtook his body, taking him inside the world.

    The next thing William saw was a brightly lit world, with a clear sky, a big orange rounded sun in the middle of the sky. The ground expanded in all directions, while he stood in the middle of an open and seemingly endless tnd.

    He spotted a forest far at the east, a series ofrge mountains at the north, with clouds shimmering the peaks, covering up most of the mountain bodies.

    "This world... It''s great!" William wanted to go and venture around, explore this world, but he resisted such urge.

    Doing so would take lots of time, and this world just seemed a big one. If he dared to do so, then he''d end up wasting lots of time for nothing.

    Instead, he regretted not having his team with him, not bringing Trevor or Thomas here.

    Any of these were supposed to help him explore this world.

    "I have to train, test my theory out, instead of thinking about such useless things," William took in a deep breath, feeling more desire to get such a pocket world at any costter on.

    Even if the cost of such a pocket world was scary, he was sure of his ability to get one. After the uing auction of his cores, he''d have lots of wealth on himself to buy anything he''d dream about.

    He nned to use the money first to buy a piece ofnd, build a base for the team there, and recruit more members, before doing anything else.

    However, he already got a perfect piece ofnd, with not only one building, but many. It had many problems, but he nned to deal with these after he''d dealt with his spirit issue first.

    As for teams, he already nted a seed in the Lockheart impact. Ro''s team wasn''t just the only team out there he wanted to recruit. And without knowing it, he used her to spread out the news, telling everyone how wealthy and authoritative he was.

    He might be weak, weaker than most of the good teams here, but he got many things that most didn''t.

    "It''s indeed a secluded world," William knew there were different types of pocket worlds. Even the tiny world he was living in currently could be considered a pocket world in the eyes of those at the outer one.

    There were many types of these worlds, and this one belonged to the secluded type. They weren''t huge pocket worlds, but they got a very important advantage. This pocket world belonged totally to someone, and that person was the one who ced that ball in the hotel rooms.

    The ownership of any pocket world was something crucial. In many pocket worlds, one could gain ess towards it, but couldn''t control or rule it.

    Without ruling a pocket world, one wouldn''t be able to gain its heart core. And via that core, one could take and carry the pocket world around.

    It was something like the red ball floating in his room. And without it, one could just mark the location of the main gate towards that pocket world, without being able to carry it around.

    And that meant anyone knowing about the entrance location could get inside that pocket world without any problem.

    In addition to that, the secluded pocket worlds got the exit gate just at the point of one''s entry. Unlike the other pocket worlds which had no owners or real rulers, where one had to search actively for the well-hidden exit portals inside.

    Of course, any pocket world could turn into a secluded one as long as one got enough time and patience, power and followers, to crush any resisting forces inside and dominate it.

    But just like the tiny world William was living in, the strong powerhouses here weren''t just humans, but also monsters and dark spirit masters.

    That made the task of unifying and taking control over the entire world nearly an impossible feat.

    The prices of such secluded worlds were always sky high. This wasn''t only thanks to their benefits, but thanks to their rarity. Not to mention the hardships anyone would face to control any pocket world in the first ce.

    "It''s hard to tell if this ce is safe or not," William knew such a pocket world could have many people inside without him even knowing it. So, he decided to be more cautious, and deployed lots of arrays first before doing anything else.

    And then he stood in the middle of all this, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and started to test out his theory.

    To activate one''s spirit, any spirit master had to circte his spirit power inside his body in a certain way. The idea was to move the spirit power to the belly region, where the spirit was mainly situated.

    William knew how to do so, but he had to use something else.

    If he followed the same route, then his spirit would get activated fully, and he''d end up at the same pathetic state he always ended up at each time he tried this.

    The other way he thought about it was to mimic the actions of that Nightmare monster. The monster could make clones, each with different spirit elements and techniques, then it''d merge them together.

 Chapter 390 Activating His Spirit

    William got his three spirit elements from the silver monster he killed and absorbed its soul before.

    "I can''t form clones, and I don''t have any time to train over techniques that will generate clones. In theory I can''t do it like that damn monster, but I have another way¡­ I hope it works¡­"

    William''s idea was simple. Instead of making clones, he decided to use his spirit elements separately, leaving behind the one he wanted to activate in his spirit.

    Of course, darkness was brutal and useful, but it was also used by his enemies. So it was foolish to use the same weapon his foes had, and it was better to use one that would negate the enemy''s strength instead.

    So, he got to select between light and lightning. The former was brutal and explosive, and thetter was deadly and got a purifying effect in it.

    William knew if he used the light element quite well, then there would be no one to rival him even one grade higher. But he wasn''t adept at all in using that element.

    During his past life, his sole weaknessy in hisck of good spirit elements. And in this life, he kept depending more on the lightning element.

    So, he decided to stir up his spirit using the lightning element first. Of course, he could activate his spirit using the other two elements, but he had first to get himself familiar with the right way to do it.

    And before anything else, he had to know if this theory would work in the first ce or not. He had no other idea but this.

    To make use of his darkness and light elements, he got to use two techniques at the same time. The darkness element was already stirred up in the final version of the Holy Sword strike. But if he used that move, he''d also use the lightning element as well.

    "I will start with the darkness technique, moving fast, then use the light move with my sword. This way it will be like starting the Holy Sword strike of mine but with a darkness element in the ce of the lightning one¡­"

    He knew in theory, this would work. But actually, there was no guarantee it would. After all, he was going to use two antagonising elements at the same time, and it''d make perfect sense to expect them to sh and fight, not merge peacefully together.

    William didn''t need this strike to work. He just wanted a single moment, a chance to stir up his spirit at the time his other two spirit elements were busy by his technique.

    *Boom!*

    Just as he expected, the first attempt ended up with a big failure. The two elements went berserk, but that wasn''t the thing that made him jump in the air,nd in agony and twitch his body over the ground like he was having a seizure or something.

    "Sh*t! Trying to stir that spirit ended up with stirring that damn darkness element!"

    Everything just went exactly as he envisioned it. The two elements got busy in executing the technique, and even that little fight that started between them helped in making things easier for his lightning element to get stirred up.

    But the moment he was this close from sess, the darkness element kicked in. it was like a sleeping beast inside his spirit. And just before his spirit would get activated atst, the darkness gushed out and crushed the lightning element.

    That darkness crushed everything, leaving his body weak and numb. To add more to his miserable state, the fight between the two elements exploded and his body ended up twitching for long seconds before everything got settled down.

    It was indeed a hellish experience, but he learnt a lot from it.

    "The theory is correct, in general concept at least," William sat with utmost difficulty on the ground, took out the potion he extorted from Ben, and drank two drops at this moment.

    He felt his body as if it got washed clean by a refreshing cold water. It felt great, and William''s fatigue and pain started to vanish fast.

    "That darkness element¡­ Even trying all this in the daytime didn''t help at all! It''s unstoppable!"

    William knew by this failed attempt that if he tried to stir up his spirit using the darkness element alone, then he''d seed. However, that wasn''t good news at all.

    He didn''t want to use any darkness element in activating his spirit. He wanted to use the lightning or even light element instead.

    "Worrying about which element I shall use isn''t going to work¡­ I shall first try and see the end result of using this method. Then I''ll worry about which element to use¡­"

    He muttered while giving his body enough time to recuperate and heal. He decided to let go of all the deep worries about the right element to use and focus instead on activating his spirit first.

    He was fighting all this time without the biggest asset any spirit master with a unique spirit would use. Having a darkness spirit wasn''t going to be this bad, at least he got another weapon to use.

    Even if his enemies were adept at using darkness spirits, it didn''t mean it''d end up that bad for him. He fought all this time and won, crushed all the enemies he faced, and that was without even using his spirit even once.

    So, he started to change his mindset and began to ept the idea of activating his spirit with the darkness element as a gain and not a loss.

    He didn''t hurry to stand up. Aside from the pain he felt and the exhaustion his body suffered during the past failed attempt; his spirit power got depleted by more than seventy percent.

    It was mainly thanks to the fierce shes that happened between his three spirit elements. And so, he spent one hour replenishing his lost spirit power before doing anything else.

 Chapter 391 One Tail Fox Spirit Body

    "Time to test things out again," William stood up, took a deep breath, and started to execute thebined technique of light and lightning elements.

    He didn''t want to activate his darkness element. And so the moment he activated his technique, he hurriedly activated his spirit.

    *Rumble!*

    This time it worked. The first thing he felt wasn''t the expected sh between his elements, but an ear deafening rumble that echoed in his ears.

    He felt like something got broken inside his body, or a locked gate that got opened with a loud bang.

    The next thing he felt was a weird heat feeling, a very warm and yet very hot wave appeared out from the core of his body and started to gush out like a roaring tide.

    William didn''t get to see what was happening to his body as he was busy feeling what was going on inside.

    On the outside, his body started to grow and change. Instead of the thin looking, wasted body of the eleven years old boy body he always had, his body started to swell and increase in size.

    He kept growing like his body was formed of a liquid that got to the boiling degree and started to release bubbles and expand. He didn''t keep his human shape, and instead he turned fast into a ten metres height orange fox body with one tail.

    He got two elliptical red eyes, thick orange fur that looked as if it was formed of fire. When his body finished transforming, the things he felt inside his body started to slow down.

    "This¡­ Roar!" and at this point, he finally saw his new body, his spirit body. He raised his head, and shouted in delight, a shout that came out as a mighty and thundering roar.

    "Hahahaha! It worked! It really worked! Hahahaha!" Williamughed, and hisughs turned into scary roars, "damn! This fox spirit is indeed special!"

    William raised both hands in front of his face, to end up seeing ws instead. He inspected his new body and was excited to find out it wasn''t just a fake body like usual.

    The spirit masters in the tiny world would get their spirit activated as a holographic image surrounding their real bodies.

    This was the case for all the spirit masters here, and the case in a fair number of spirit masters in the outer vast world. But the body William got just from activating a single tail of his spirit wasn''t imaginary, but real!

    This was known as the Solid Spirit Form, a thing that was unique to special spirits and high-grade spirit masters in the outer world.

    But William just got this solid form at his first try, and that told him a lot about how special the fox spirit was.

    "Time to test important things first¡­" he was truly excited. By this body, by activating his spirit, he got a scary weapon up his sleeve.

    The first thing he cared about right now was his spirit power consumption rate. He got such an awesome spirit transformation, and that meant he''d expect a high spirit power consumption rate.

    However¡­

    "Hmm¡­ I have to deplete my spirit power by ten percent per minute¡­ That means without any other factors, I can maintain this form for ten minutes at most¡­"

    He was lost in thoughts. This was indeed much better than what he initially expected. But giving himself just ten minutes wasn''t enough.

    If he was fighting a single foe, or a small group of enemies, then this was more than enough. However, if he was fighting in a big battlefield, fighting against lots of enemies, then these ten minutes weren''t enough.

    "I got to see what this fox got to offer me," he shifted his attention from his spirit solid form consumption rate over to what abilities he got with this body.

    In addition to that, he also wanted to see if by using this spirit''s abilities, would the consumption rate increase or what.

    He knew he had three elements in his spirit, but he partially activated this fox spirit for now. So he tried to activate the darkness element inside his body, trying to see what it was going to do.

    "Fwoosh!"

    Just as he did so, he felt the world around got darker. In fact, and if he was standing away from his body, watching the changes happening from afar, he''d see another weird thing happening to him.

    It wasn''t that the world got dark, but his body did. The bright orange changed fast into ck, and then it vanished!

    It simply vanished from any sight or spirit sense, like he never existed there in the first ce.

    "Boring! What the heck happened to the mighty darkness element? Just turning the world darker? What ame ability this is!"

    As he didn''t have any spirit sense to watch himself right now, and as he couldn''t feel the changes the darkness element brought for him, he thought things wrongly.

    All he could feel was the world turning darker. He thought this was the sole effect of the darkness element, an effect he didn''t like at all.

    His most ferocious enemies were all using darkness. And by letting the world grow darker, it was like giving them a hand, helping them execute their attacks and moves better.

    This was indeed thest thing he''d ever want. So, he decided to drop using this element for now.

    "Going by logic," he was frustrated by the useless effect his darkness element had, "I can''t activate any of the other two elements right now. But I have to try¡­ That darkness element thing is just a piece of sh*t!"

    Despite feeling it was pointless, he still tried. And to his surprise, it worked!

    *Fwoosh!* as he used the lightning element, his grand fox body shed and moved like it got instantly teleported.

    Before this, whenever he used his lightning element technique, he''d be able to cross one hundred metres straight. But right now, he managed to cross more than that, and he spent just twenty percent of his spirit power to do so.

    And that wasn''t all!

 Chapter 392 Testing His Fox Spirit Body

    *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Just as hended, his frontal ws released two storms of lightning, ending up exploding everything on the ground, leaving behind two deep marks of a much bigger ws than his.

    "This¡­ This¡­ Hahahahaha! See this? This is how an element shall be like! Not as useless as you!"

    William was ecstatic, and he couldn''t help but speak to his darkness element as if he was reprimanding a little boy for something wrong he did.

    p¦Á§ád¦Á §«?¦Í¨º|,§ã¨°§® The lightning-based move increased his speed, and not just that. It also added a lightning factor to his ws, ending up forming a fierce attack at the end of his dash.

    This made him able to move around, evade any iing attack, and also retaliate at the same time. This was simply the best way he''d love to fight with.

    "Twenty percent reduction in my spirit power¡­ Not that big, not that small either¡­" he didn''t hurry to examine his light element and started to think about the consumption rate of his lightning element move.

    This wasn''t a high consumption rate indeed, but it meant he could at most use this move two up to four times in any fight before his spirit power would hit a dangerously low level.

    It wasn''t that bad actually. And if he tried to use his Holy Sword technique in this form, it would yield a far scarier effect. On another hand, it would need more spirit power than what he had in his body right now.

    The more he increased his spirit power, the less percentage his techniques and elements consumed upon activating them. This became clear when hepared the consumption rate of his technique when his spirit power was less than two hundred and right now, at nine hundred mark.

    The former rate was close to seventy percent, and now it decreased to only forty percent. It didn''t decrease actually, but just the amount consumed by the technique became smallerpared to his overall spirit power.

    Not to mention the lethality and the speed effect of his techniques got all boosted by his current spirit powerpared to before.

    William then activated his light element and was puzzled if he should take out his sword or use his ws to make it work.

    But against what he expected, he got something totally different than this.

    *Zing!* *Boom!*

    He felt like his body got a bomb exploded inside when he activated the light element. Just before he''d wave any w to see if it''d work with his ws or not, he couldn''t handle the intense umtion of power inside his body, opened his mouth and roared.

    But this wasn''t just a simple roar like before. From his mouth, a ray of orange light was released, travelled for hundreds of metres in a single second, before finally hitting a tree and exploding.

    The explosion started with a bright sh of bright orange light, before it started to grow and form a growing in size ball of white, yellow, red, and orange lights. The ball kept expanding until it covered up fifty metres in radius, then it burst open, releasing a mighty shockwave.

    "Wow! I can breathe light! Does this make me a dragon or what?" Williamughed out of his excitement, issuing sessive scary roars during this. He was standing just close to the explosion ce, and yet thanks to his new fox body, he managed to stand his ce firm without getting blown away by fierce wind.

    The light breath heunched ended up creating a crater that was hundreds of metres in radius, more than fifty metres in depth.

    This was just the single effect of his light element, not the effect of using more than one spirit element at the same time.

    "Damn fierce! It took fifty percent of my spirit power in one go! Holy sh*t!" he never expected that such breath would consume all of this. But when he saw the magnitude of destruction again, he couldn''t help but suck in a cold air of breath.

    He imagined himself when he was running from the clones of that damn Nightmare monster. If he had such a spirit body back then, then he could easily have killed lots of these clones and didn''t have to struggle that much.

    "This attack alone can instantly kill any silver grade monster, and can endanger the life of any gold grade monster, or at least heavily wounding it¡­"

    He moved closer to the crater he created by his attack, cancelled his spirit body, and started to examine the effect of his deadly attack.

    He always knew that the light element wasn''t that useless. In fact, out of his three elements, the light element technique was the brutalest from the start.

    And so he wasn''t that much surprised about the scale of destruction his light element brought. And after examining the crater for half an hour, he reached the conclusion above.

    He got an attack that could take down silver monsters without the need to use his sword. As for gold grade monsters, the ones who kept giving him a hard time anywhere, anytime he met them, he finally got a thing to stop them.

    "I have to refill my exhausted spirit power, then try activating my spirit once again," he was excited about all this. But there was still a catch.

    He had to get adapted to how he''d activate his spirit form. And to do so, he had to repeatedly activate and cancel his spirit form.

    Like this, William spent the next day trying and training, getting more adept at the right way to activate his spirit.

    "Hmm¡­ So, activating my spirit form with one tail has this limitation¡­" During all this, he kept testing and analysing his new spirit form.

    He discovered that he could activate any element inside his spirit once his solid spirit body got formed. But he couldn''t activate more than one spirit element at the any given time.

    When he tried to activate two elements together, the light and lightning ones in specific, he ended up feeling his body getting tormented, like thousands of hos were flying inside his body, tearing it apart.

 Chapter 393 [Bonus ] Wake Up!

    He got to stop his attempt and even cancelled his spirit form. As he recuperated, he was shocked to discover that he even suffered wounds at his real body from this failed attempt.

    Not to mention his spirit power got exhausted by more than eighty percent.

    Everything pointed towards this as a limitation of his current form. "To use more elements, I have to activate two tails then, or even more tailster on. And to do so, I have to increase my spirit power, evolve my spirit, and absorb more monster spirits¡­ My spirit power shall pass the silver grade boundaries first before trying the two tailed form¡­"

    He started to have a roadmap in his mind. He knew by this form alone, his fighting abilities got a huge boost, at least got doubled. But that wasn''t enough. If hepared his current strength with a proper gold grade spirit master like Ibra or Ro, then he wasn''t that bad, but he wasn''t strong enough to easily take them down.

    Aside from all this, there was a good thing here. He could keep his life safe in any fight against gold grade foes at least. But he wouldn''t be able to kill them, only deeply wound them without using his sword.

    He tried before, and failed to grasp his sword properly in his fox form. But he got an idea, and when he executed it, his sword finally could be used by his body.

    "Using my tail to hold the sword isn''t that bad, but it''s quite distracting¡­" he analysed the new way he thought about and tried to hold his sword. The tail acted like his hand, firmly holding the sword, moving it around like he was holding it with his hand.

    But this came on the expense of distracting him. He needed to exert more attention and focus, or else he''d lose the grip over that sword.

    Luckily for him, he could control his flying knives perfectly fine. And that made him think about something.

    "If I made gauntlets and ws, big enough to be wielded by me in the spirit form, then my strength would increase as well¡­"

    He didn''t just think only about that, he started to consider forging a full body armour, arm guards, shoulder guards, and even protective piece for his tail and a special helmet for his fox head.

    He didn''t know how strong exactly his new fox spirit body was. But he didn''t want to take any risks. If he could add more strength, speed, and defence to his spirit body, then why wouldn''t he do that?

    It was just the problem of what materials he should use, where he''d find these, how much would that cost him, and when he should start forging these personally customised gears.

    He knew not any material could be used here. Only the materials with spirit power conduction ability could be used in forging these special gears.

    Normal gears wouldn''t work over this solid spirit body. Even if he used a higher-grade gears, even dark gold grade ones, without a spirit power conduction ability in the materials used in making these gears, they wouldn''t give any bonus to his fox body.

    Even the materials getting processed using other materials like the candle of light weren''t going to work. And such high spirit affinity would make the price of these materials sky high, and it was rare and hard to find such materials in the first ce.

    Not to mention William was still weak and couldn''t make really strong gears right now.

    p¦Á§ád¦Á §«?¦Í¨º|,§ã¨°§® "I shall wait, look around, and make the best use of any chance," he muttered to himself while deciding to postpone such ns forter.

    He then returned to continue activating his spirit and getting more adept at doing it. After the day passed, he felt exhausted and hungry.

    "I shall call it a day," he looked around. The entire ce covered inside his arrays really got a total makeover!

    Lots of deep holes, craters, and even thick tongues of smoke kept rising from many ces. This ce was now much closer to any ce hit by an apocalypse or suffered a deadly battle between scary spirit masters and monsters.

    William already built his arrays to cover up a few thousands of metres around and let the exit from this world in the centre of all this.

    So, he didn''t need to leave his arrays, and just had to walk towards the exit and leave this world.

    William was busy training and testing his new fox form, but he never dropped his guard. He always kept an eye over the outside, trying to see if there was anyone out there trying to bark inside.

    But even till he left, there was none. And yet, he never dropped his guard.

    The young manager he met already set the sirens of rm loud in his mind. It was clear that he wanted to know more about him, spy on his actions, and he wasn''t alone. He tried more than once, and William could tell there were people helping him from the shadows.

    William didn''t need to stay here forever. He just wanted to test his theory, and he just did. His way to activate his spirit became much easier and faster than the first time he did it.

    He knew how to do it and was ready to start his next move.

    William moved back to his room, to find everything there looking the same. He checked and found that the arrays heid before didn''t get a single damage.

    "They are this patient, or did they fear on their name or what?" William knew it was the best chance to enter his room and ce anything to spy on him when he was away. But to his surprise, none even tried anything.

    William went out of his room to find Trevor standing out there, seemingly waiting for him for a long time already.

    "Wake up! It''s embarrassing for you to sleep while standing like this!" William knocked this dude awake using a kick. Trevor was standing, with his back towards the wall of William''s room, but he also closed his eyes.

    And he was snoring, loudly snoring.

 Chapter 394 Eating Like Never Before

    "Hey! Watch out! I''m serving the almighty maste¡­ Ouch! Why did you hit my head?!" And just as he got abruptly woken up from his deep sleep, this dude seemed to be in the middle of his dream or something.

    He jumped up, shouting like a crazy fellow, while speaking nonsense. And that made William close his fist andnd it over this dude''s head to make him shut up.

    "Shut up! Did no one ever tell you before that you snore when you sleep? It''s embarrassing! You are now representing me, so stop doing such things ever again!"

    William didn''t go lightly on this dude and shouted while walking towards the door of Thomas'' room.

    "Master," and before he''d reached there, Thomas opened the door and greeted him in his usual cold and monotonous tone.

    "Did they bring the food over?" William already got used to this dude''s cold attitude. He went inside the room, to find a much simpler one in front of his eyes.

    It was around one hundred metres square, divided into a sleeping room and a hall. William liked how it was simple out here but didn''t like how insecure this ce was.

    On the table in the middle of the hall, he found lots of food trays. It seemed the restaurant delivered the food three times at least so far. And he spotted many trays already opened as a sign that these two already got their meals.

    William didn''t say anything about this and went towards these and inspected their content.

    "Did they send anything else? Like a token or something?" William stood in front of the trays, inspecting their content, while asking Thomas and Trevor about that.

    "Oh, I almost forgot it," Trevor got jolted awake, moved to one corner and there he grabbed a box, "they said there is something here for the master."

    William got the box, while giving the two a silent look. They should have told him about this without the need for him to ask.

    As he expected, the content of this box was a token, something that could be worn using a chain.

    "What''s with chains!" This wasn''t the first time to see a token with a chain like this. And like before, he tossed it inside his ring, not caring about checking it for now.

    Instead, he returned to check the food.

    "Master, this food is really out of this world! Are we going to eat such awesome meals every day?" And just as he was inspecting the contents of each tray, Trevor said in a loud and noisy tone.

    "That''s in case I decided to let you live with me for any longer," William gave him a warning nce, and that dude got the warning and kept his mouth shut.

    "Then master¡­ What are we going to do now?"

    "Nothing," William sat down and started to eat a tendon piece of a dark gold bull monster. It was juicy, filled with fat, and grilled in a very professional way. The moment he took a single bite, he could even feel his abdomen screaming out in delight.

    But that didn''t prevent William from being overly cautious. He wouldn''t dare to speak about any of his intentions in this ce, when many ears and eyes were fixed over every single move of his.

    William kept eating, while Trevor and Thomas stood on his side, watching in silence as their master kept devouring one tray after another.

    William didn''t realise how hungry he was. And this wasn''t just simply a hunger of his body, but also the hunger of his spirit.

    After stirring his spirit up, it needed lots of nutrition. Spirit power was one thing, and the meals delivered here were also helping his spirit in another way.

    So, William didn''t feel himself until he finished all the meals here, taking close to three hours in doing this.

    "Damn master! I never thought you''d have such a bottomless belly!" as he finished, Trevor couldn''t help but mutter in immense shock. And William realised by thisment what he just did.

    "I''m going to rest," William patted on his bulged belly like a fat bear who ate a ton of honey, "stay out of trouble, and don''t wander outside."

    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á §«?¦Í¨º|(§ã¨°m) "Sure master, don''t even doubt that," Trevor shouted like usual, while Thomas simply nodded.

    William wanted to test this dude''s spirit, test what type of spirit and elements he got. He also wanted to impart a few techniques to Thomas. But right now, he was really sleepy, and he couldn''t resist sleep anymore.

    So, he went to his room like a drunk, supporting himself while walking by leaning on the walls, before finally closing the door behind and throwing his body on the bed.

    The moment he touched the soft mattress there, he lost himself in deep sleep.

    ¡ª------------------------------------

    Away from the Scorching Lands main fort, and in a ce that was so dark and deep inside the forest, a series of hills were there.

    This ce was known in the entire region for being the home of scary monsters, led by the all scary Scarlet Bears.

    The ce was void of any humans in general. But right now, a group of people, around fifty, were walking in the middle of this dangerous and deadly ce.

    It was a bit weird, but what was weirder was that any monster here got to clear the way in front of this little group of spirit masters.

    They were all wearing ck cloaks, covering up their bodies and faces. They walked in steady steps, going in a path that seemed they already were familiar with.

    "Sir, what a pleasant surprise to meet you here," and as the group walked through the gathering of hills and monsters, they ended up in front of a special hill.

    It was in the middle of all the hills clustered here. But that wasn''t all. This hill got a red muddy look on the outside, like it was a volcano and released brightva out.

 Chapter 395 A Scary Guest

    What this hill truly missed was the thick tongues of smoke that used toe out fromva. Aside from this, everything pointed towards this hill to be covered entirely byva.

    Yet that wasn''t what made this hill special, what itid beneath it was. No one knew that this ce, the scary and terrifyingir of Scarlet Bears and other terrifyingly strong monsters, was in fact one of the main dark spirit master bases in this part of the world.

    "Stop this useless attitude and tell me where those five are!" the one who led this group, the one who got weed by the dark spirit master who just came out of this hill, said in a very cold and arrogant tone.

    Just from his tone alone, anyone could tell he was someone who got used to ordering people around, never to follow others'' words or something.

    "S¡­ Sure, sure sir¡­ Please follow me, we got the surviving ones inside."

    "Surviving?!" That man just had his eyes appearing from all the dark clothes he was wearing. And despite his old age, his eyes were shining in a terrifying and sharp bright blue light.

    "Well¡­ Not all survived," the man who was leading the way trembled, cursing inside the day he became the temporary leader of this base.

    He was supposed to be a temporary leader of this base when the real leader was out. And out of his bad luck, this scary dude didn''te except for now, when the base''s leader was gone hunting outside.

    That made him the one who got to deal with this scary dude. And out of everything this dude would ask for, he sent an envoy asking for a specific group of dark spirit masters.

    This group was quite unlucky. They just got ambushed a few days ago. In the eyes of the leader of this base, he saw only failure and disgrace in their defeat. And so before leaving, the leader gave instructions to never care for them, or even give them any healing potions.

    So out of the initial five, only two remained alive and the other died.

    "I don''t know what that jerk is doing here in this base," the scary spirit master said in disdain, while only moving his eyes around this ce, seemingly unsatisfied with the level of security and defensive measures of this base.

    And the one leading this scary dude here just swallowed what he wanted to say in defence for his missing leader.

    He knew how tense the rtionship between these two scary folks was. It wasn''t a secret in the dark spirit master society about these two''s old rivalry and enmity.

    It wasn''t for girls, it wasn''t for wealth, it was just a simple and childish rival about who was stronger and more capable than the other. It was meaningless in many dark spirit masters'' eyes, and this temporary leader here adopted the same vision, but kept it to himself.

    p¦Á§ád¦Á §«?¦Í¨º|,§ã¨°§® Theva looking hill got a small door that opened into a long descending path underneath it. The group walked for almost ten minutes, crossing a distance of a few kilometres under the ground. Then the path opened up to the vast space underground, one that looked like a natural cave or something.

    There was a grandke there, lots of buildings, and rocky walls that hid behind other segments here. This ce was massive, well hidden, and greatly protected by nature, monsters, and legions of dark spirit masters.

    The temporary leader led the alien group in the middle of this base, managing to attract lots of eyes over, but none ever said anything.

    It wasn''t thanks to the presence of the temporary leader. After all, this youth was just a weak gold grade spirit master, favoured by luck and fate to be the only son of one of the big families in this base.

    Other than this, he was nothing in the eyes of everyone here. If not for the backing he got, this dude would have been killed a long time ago in the hands of others.

    The dark spirit masters'' world was cruel, cold, and merciless. If one was weak, then he''d better know his ce and serve others, not raise his voice or head, or else he''d be killed.

    So, seeing someone this weak and pathetic stand on such a mighty throne made many angered. But feeling and thinking about this was something, and trying to do anything to this lucky dude was another.

    No one of the big families in this base or at any other ce of the dark spirit master world would get a single hair touched without the ones who did this would pay a hefty price.

    And that was why this scary dark gold spirit master was here. He was here to look for the one who murdered his son.

    Just from the scary aura this dude emitted, everyone here couldn''t help but feel true fear deep down their spirits, shifting away their gazes the moment theynded over this group.

    "Here," the temporary leader didn''t get anything about the real purpose of this sudden and weird visit. After all, this scary guest was the sworn enemy of this base''s leader. He came without any warning, came looking for a trivial and insignificant bunch of losers.

    "Are they the only ones?" The group passed through many rocky halls and rooms, ending up at a narrow, dirty looking room, looking more like a prison than a normal living ce.

    There everyone spotted two young males, lying on the ground, with bodies filled with deep wounds and scars.

    They looked on the verge of dying at any moment. From the look of their wounds, it seemed they got it from monsters not humans.

    "Yes sir, these are the two surviving ones out of the initial team."

    "Bring them," the old scary dude just gave the order, turned around and never spared a second nce at the severely wounded youths or the temporary leader and his small entourage.

 Chapter 396 The Black Mamba

    During their walk here, few recognised the true identity of this scary old man. Just looking at his chest, at that ugly looking emblem of a snake, then anyone informative in this world would tell who this dude was, or at least could tell from which scary dark spirit master family he came from.

    "S¡­ Sir¡­ This¡­" The group of fifty move out, grab these two and even give them healing potions without asking for permission. Seeing all this happening in front of his eyes left this temporary leader quite shocked and enraged.

    These two were left out here to die as an example to everyone in the base. There were destined to be a warning from failing any mission or getting ambushed or else they''d face the same terrible fate.

    Dying was nothing, but dying slowly was something no one would ever dream about.

    The temporary leader was in a tight spot here. Just epting this scary dark gold monster and leading him inside was a risky decision he had to make on the spot.

    He tried to contact his leader, but to his bad luck he couldn''t reach him. So he got to improvise, deciding to invite the snake into the base, and hoping for his leader to get the news fast.

    And now this dude wanted to not only heal these two, but to take them away from here. That was clearly a vition against what this base''s dark gold spirit master leader instructed before leaving.

    The temporary leader instantly panicked when he recalled what magnitude of his true leader''s rage would be.

    On top of that, by the time the true leader would return back, this scary old dude would be gone, and this temporary leader would be the only person here who''d shoulder such a storm.

    If he had to struggle and suffer, then he''d better do it here and now. At least he got the entire base on his side. Even if he knew there wasn''t anyone here who would stop this insanely strong dark spirit master, he''d at least show to his leader that he tried and failed. And this would all fall on the shoulders of this scary old enemy of his leader.

    "I need a ce, secluded, without anyone around," as if this scary dark gold spirit master didn''t hear anything of that dude''s words, he simply ordered while walking leisurely forward.

    "A ce¡­ For what?!"

    "For what? That''s my business," the scary old dude stopped, but didn''t turn around at all, "just find me the damn ce, and make sure I won''t get disturbed. Even if that damn old lizard came back from his fancy trips, don''t let hime near me. Or else¡­"

    *Rumble!* *Boom!*

    p¦Á§ád¦Á-¨¾?¦Í¨º|¡¤§ã¨®§® The old man didn''t even turn a single time to the temporary leader when saying all these words. But when he paused, he finally released the suppressed berserk spirit power inside his body. And at the next moment a shockingly immense and brutal ck shockwave erupted, sweeping not only people but also rocks away.

    A single release of his spirit power was enough to remove all the rocky walls around, alongside the ones who were unfortunate to be behind them, in an area of thousands of metres!

    This part of the base got a grand remodelling process that didn''tst more than a brief moment. And when the temporary leader got back to his senses, he was terrified to see deep cracks all over the thick, rocky walls and ceiling nearby.

    He was left intact, but the others who came with him weren''t as lucky as him. And that wasn''t just luck, it was the act of that scary guest, leaving him alive for now to let him do what he wanted.

    He wiped the sweat beads off his forehead, taking repetitive breaths while cursing again his bad luck in being the temporary leader when this scary dude arrived here.

    "I can''t believe that bastard went out when such a cmity befell us! I believe this is enough, enough to let me defend myself if that bastard tried to question meter on, or shift responsibility to me or something!"

    That temporary leader thought to himself before his body trembled like it got hit by lightning. The scary old man kept walking forward all this time, not caring about any of that, as if he did nothing at all.

    But when that temporary leader took his time back there, that old man paused in his walk. Just this single pause made the temporary leader this close from pissing himself.

    "T¡­ That way, that way sir," he instantly wrecked his mind fast, thinking about the best ce to lead this ticking bomb at, preferably somewhere far, far away from him, "it''s a nice ce, one that will suit your taste."

    "I''m not in a hotel!" The old man''s eyes red in a dangerous light.

    "N.. No, that''s not¡­ That''s not what I meant," The temporary leader was just half breadth away from getting a heart attack, "I''m just trying to fulfil your demands, sir. This ce really suits what you need."

    The old man didn''t respond, simply turned his face away, while one of hisckeys nudged this useless temporary leader by the shoulder as he harshly said:

    "Lead the way then, why are you standing still like a damn pussy?"

    "It''s because of your scary master, what else?!!!" The temporary leader wanted to scream these words in the face of this dude, but he swallowed everything alongside his rage and pride, hurried to lead the way.

    "The ck Mamba old monster is indeed scary, much scarier than the legends tell¡­" And as he led the way, he kept cursing inside, while not knowing who was scarier than the other, his master or this monster here.

    _____________________________________

    William wasn''t aware of the storm that was heading his way. He slept for half a day like a baby, walking up in the middle of the night.

    "I believe I''m ready," he went again inside the pocket world, training for a few hours on his new spirit form, before finally feeling he was ready for the next trip.

 Chapter 397 Uninvited Guests

    "Shall I bring them¡­" William thought about Trevor and Thomas. He intended to go and pay his new property a visit. And he was considering taking any of the two with him.

    He knew it was going to be dangerous out there, and that made him hesitate about bringing anyone with him.

    Trevor was just all talk, and Thomas seemed strong and capable, but William still didn''t know how really strong this dude was.

    "Trevor is a dead weight¡­ But Thomas¡­ This dude can see karma, and that might help¡­" William thought about this single decision for an entire hour in his room.

    He didn''t want to bring someone he''d be forced to protect. And yet, knowing the unique ability of Thomas made him want to bring this kid over.

    The ce was filled with traps. And even if many got disarmed already, much more were hidden and undetected.

    William knew he''d be able to break apart any trap once he spotted it. But that was the main issue, he got to spot it first. And that was where Thomas'' role came into y.

    It was his karma spirit element what would make all the difference here. These traps were all connected to the old owner of this house, connected with each other by that man''s karma.

    So Thomas was the only person in the fort, and perhaps in the world, who was able to stand outside, point towards all the traps hidden anywhere in that ce without the need to go in and test his luck.

    "I''m going to take him," William didn''t take this one hour just to only think about this decision. He used papers there and wrote down a few techniques, the ones he got out of his memory, techniques about using the karma spirit element professionally.

    He knew enough of such techniques. But he got to first select which of these was suitable to use, and which parts he needed to remodel and change. So, Thomas wouldn''t find it hard to master any of that, wouldn''t waste lots of time in learning any of them.

    After doing all of this, William knew Thomas would take quite some time to master these new techniques. That was in case William decided to give him all of them. He didn''t know what techniques Thomas had, but he guessed this kid was simply using his spirit element purely with a rudimentary technique.

    As for which techniques he should give Thomas first, he had one in mind that was easy to learn, and very useful in the uing trip.

    "The master is here!"

    And just as William got out of his room, he was surprised to see the supposed to be empty corridor filled with many.

    William saw lots of new faces and heard the voice of Trevoring from the middle of all this mess.

    There were at least twenty spirit masters here, all with cold faces, rough features, and many had scars over their faces and neck.

    They looked ferocious, not the type who''d joke about anything. William''s face changed as he instantly took out his gold sword and silver knives.

    He couldn''t tell what grade these folks were, and that made them at least at the pinnacle of gold grade, or dark gold grade even.

    "What''s going on here? Who are you?" William didn''t show any sign of weakness even when he was outnumbered and overthrown by the powers of any of these dudes.

    "Master! They are people sent by the other members of the Big Seven!"

    p¦Á§ád¦Á-¨¾?¦Í¨º|¡¤§ã¨®§® "Big Seven?" William was surprised by this, never expecting the other members of the Big Seven to send such people over, "what business do you have with me?"

    As he knew their identity, he already guessed the purpose of their visit. It seemed the news spread over, and what he did back at the Refos merchant group reached the ears of the other members of the Big Seven.

    William knew how the minds of these people work. They only cared about profit, and sending such strong folks over wasn''t just to negotiate with him.

    The message they wanted to deliver was clear to him, you had no option but to work with us like you did with the Refos.

    "My master wants to see you."

    "My master wants to see him first."

    "Let''s hear him then, see which one of us he''ll select to follow."

    "As if he got the choice in the first ce, humph!"

    "Let''s decide this on his behalf then."

    "Fight or gamble?"

    Just as William and Trevor spoke with each other, the scary dudes from the Big Seven spoke next. And as William expected, they were here to drag him away, even if they had to do it by force.

    "Sorry, but if anyone wants to meet me, he has to show more sincerity first," William acted against what any of these folks here expected, not trembling out in fear, not shaking out of pressure, not showing any sign of weakness.

    Instead, he took something out, a token, and raised it high in the air so everyone would be able to see it clearly, "I''m not alone, not an outsider like you all expects. This is a token representing my status here. If your masters want to stand against the Lockheart impact, then I''m d to pour gasoline over fire and speed up such a sh."

    William''s words and actions greatly startled all the spirit masters filling this corridor. William knew he''d be powerless against dark gold spirit masters, but not against gold grade ones.

    If this group got such scary folks, then they won''t be more than five at most. And if they dared to cause a sh in the hotel, then the scary folks of the Royals will be forced to take action and start fighting back, defending their hotel and reputation.

    These folks seemed to take William lightly, dealing with him as if they were dealing with a normal eleven years old kid.

    They thought he''d get scared, get his mind blocked by fear, wouldn''t even realise the great advantage he had; being a formal resident in this hotel.

 Chapter 398 A Message

    Even if the Big Seven got such a glorious name and title, they were merchants at the end of the day. And to any merchant, the risk of starting out a fight and risking damaging their rtionship with their big customers was the most foolish thing any would do.

    And on top of that, what William took out was the token the old man, Ben, gave before to him. He still held lots of grudges against this old man, never forgot that silly prank he tried to pull on him by giving him this token.

    And so, William decided to use this chance and bring little trouble to that old man, venting some of his frustration as he''d also add more pressure to the Big Seven.

    "Well¡­" seeing that the kid who everyone thought would plead for mercy and cry like anyone else in his position, standing erect like a tall mountain, and showing such unexpected token, made everyone here not know what to do or say.

    "Go back to your masters," William waved the hand holding the token as if it was nothing to him, "tell them if they wanted to do business with me, they got to show sincerity. And next time, if any of them wants to do such a thing, a price for this insult must be paid upfront. Or else¡­"

    William waved the token again, making sure everyone here remembered its shape and design quite perfectly.

    "Scram!" and just at this moment, Thomas appeared out of his room. This dude seemed to be either sleeping or was aware of what was going on here and decided to wait until William would show up.

    This told William a lot about how trickery this dude''s mind worked. He wasn''t that cold or uncaring about any of what was happening around him. He was like a deadly fox, feigning ignorance and weakness, while not a single thing missed his senses.

    William took note of this, and something told him if this youth was guided right, his potential would be limitless, on the condition that he wasn''t evil.

    "I must bring him on that trip," William was feeling a little bad to bring someone like Thomas and throw him in the middle of danger. But now he realised without throwing this youth in front of danger, he''d not be able to tell his true essence, not see through him.

    "We will being back."

    "You''ll be seeing us a lot!"

    From the looks over these brutal spirit masters, William could tell this wasn''t over yet. But he didn''t care about any of that.

    Inside the fort, he was untouchable. But he knew they weren''t referring to just here, but the areas outside the fort.

    He now wanted to purchase that ne, the one Ro wanted to obtain, more than ever. Even if it was meant for girls to use, he''d not flinch and not use this useful gear thanks to such a silly reason.

    If he got a shield that''d protect him from the dark gold spirit masters, then he''d not face any doubt when dealing with these folks again. And with his uing and expected to be huge wealth, it''d be easy to purchase dark gold weapons.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>

    Or better¡­ He could start recruiting artisans and let them forge awesome weapons for him and his yet to be recruited teams.

    Thinking about that made him miss the ive he was promised to have from the academy''s Forging Department. But the trip there was risky and long, and he had to stay here for a bit longer than he initially expected.

    This ce was now looking more interesting to him than what he initially thought.

    Thinking about establishing his own forging department in his team made him think about his recruitment n.

    He initially intended to take things gradually, let his team expand slowly. But now, and after seeing how greedy people sat their eyes on him, he felt it was better to do things faster.

    "All would start after that auction," William thought to himself, while watching the invaders move away, retreating after leaving promising and threatening looks.

    "Master¡­ I was going to kick them out but¡­" Trevor came, tried to act cool. But one look from William made this dude drop his useless act and swallow what he wanted to say next.

    "You,e with me," William pointed towards Thomas, before turning to Trevor, "go and meet Mark. Tell him everything that happened. And make sure to deliver this message from me over to him."

    "The dude we met before? Sure, what message?" Trevor felt much better to go and do something for William, truly missing what Thomas got from the cold vibeing out from William.

    "Tell him that if I didn''t get an exnation about how people not living in the hotel, not living on my floor, managed to find the location of my room and threatened me, then this will look bad on the hotel''s reputation and name very soon."

    "S¡­ Sure," even if Trevor was a slow-witted youth, he felt that something bad was going to happen. He didn''t get what William meant or even hinted as a threat towards the owners and managers of this hotel, but Thomas did.

    William already saw the guards outside the hotel, saw how special the guests of this hotel were. It wasn''t easy to get in here, not to mention go all the way up and find his room.

    He got from Jo that no one was able toe to this floor unless he lived in it. And that meant one thing¡­

    "Those damn owners of this ce¡­ They wanted to cause me trouble when I''m generously giving them my spirit crystals¡­" William wasn''t soothing with rage inside as Thomas expected, he was totally calm and collected.

    In his eyes, this was all nothing. He was going to live in his own turf soon enough. But he''d not let anyone try to touch a hair of his without paying the price for it.

 Chapter 399 Your Spirit Element Is Karma

    If the owners of this hotel, or even managers or cheap people got to sell him out like this, then he''d expect a payback.

    If they didn''tply, then William would use the uing auction at the Refos merchant group and tarnish this hotel''s great reputation.

    Sometimes being on the very top wasn''t a good thing. Many wanted this ce to go down, and William would perfectly use these folks to make things worse for this hotel.

    If it was another ce, then William wouldn''t have done anything at all. But as he sat his eyes over two gems here, he wouldn''t show these folks any mercy.

    They were the ones who came at him, presented such a chance over, and he''d not say no to such a thing.

    The more he''d pressure them, the better his chances at getting what he wanted would be.

    Even if he had to demolish this entire ce and bankrupt it, he''d not hesitate to do so if he''d get what he''d want in the end.

    William''s thought was truly evil against this hotel, as he already marked them as his enemies. Leaving such gems in this ce was a waste, just exactly like how Thomas was when he was with Alfonso.

    William already hated this ce here. It was a perfect fort for the end of the world but ruled with a bunch of clowns and useless folks.

    If he was strong enough, he''d not hesitate to set his eyes over seizing this ce over and rule it! But these were ns for the distant future. For now, he''d try his best to get all the gems and assets he could, as long as it was in the reach of his power.

    "Come," William entered the room and motioned to Thomas to follow him inside the ball. He didn''t speak or say anything until they arrived at the pocket world.

    "Tell me, you do know which spirit element you do have, right?" William looked at this stone cold and all silent youth, putting on a fake face that would trick anyone.

    He wasn''t that uncaring about what was happening around him. In fact, he was keenly watching, keeping notes about everything.

    "I have the time element."

    "Wrong!" William couldn''t believe this dude got such a gift and he didn''t even know what it was!

    "But¡­" William thought this dude was ying a trick on him, but from one of the rare moments to show any emotion on his face, and from the puzzled expression he showed in a brief moment, William could tell he wasn''t joking.

    "You can see parts and pieces of the past of anything and anyone, visions if I wanted to be specific, right?"

    "Yes master, and that''s why everyone told me I got a time element¡­"

    He paused, looked into William''s eyes for a long minute. Thetter didn''t speak or say anything and let this dude''s mind spin uncontrobly on its own, jumping to conclusions without giving him any lead.

    "If I don''t get a time element, then what element do I have?"<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>

    "Make a guess," William started to enjoy this meeting. This dude showed a second reaction over his face, the most he ever showed since William ever met him.

    He looked more puzzled and startled by William''s words. And then he showed a deep frown as he started to seriously think about this.

    "Aside from time¡­ What else can tell me the past of anything?" and after a few minutes, and showing different emotions, he finally couldn''t help but turn to William and admit in an indirect way his failure to guess anything.

    "Time is indeed a nice element," William didn''t hurriedly tell him what he wanted to hear. Instead, he kept walking around and slowly speaking, "if you got such an element, then you''ll be a much scarier spirit master than what you can be right now."

    "..."

    He didn''t speak but felt how William was amused by all of this. "Master, can you tell me which element I have? Please guide me!"

    Out of William''s expectations, this youth knelt on one knee, expressing his utmost desire to know the answer.

    "Fine,e here and do as I tell you," William took out a spirit crystal and a candle of light. And like he used to do; he taught this youth how to inspect his spirit power.

    The spirit crystal shone in pale gold light, expressing his rank as a gold grade spirit master. William didn''t need to count the dots, as Thomas'' current ce in the gold rank didn''t matter that much to him.

    Instead, he inspected the shape these golden dots took. He didn''t have a formal spirit, still in the mud phase spirit. "What a loss," William was anticipating what kind of spirit this youth had. But to his disappointment, he found out he got none.

    "Master, is it bad?" Thomas didn''t get a clue about what his master was doing or seeing through this shining crystal.

    But he knew his master was doing something, something new, something different than what wasmonly seen in this world.

    And that made Thomas highly anticipate whatever William was going to say.

    "It''s nothing," William knew that trying to exin theplicated concept of spirit grades would be a nightmare for him and Thomas. Besides, he didn''t decide if Thomas was worth investing in or not.

    And that made the next trip to his territory more important. As this would be a test for Thomas, to show how dependable this youth was.

    As he ced such thoughts aside, William started to inspect this dude''s spirit dots. And there he noticed the special colour of the karma element.

    It was silver white in colour, slightly rotating around, forming a small wheel in the heart of this dude''s spirit dots. If one didn''t look closer, he would miss that part easily.

    "See?" William acted like an all-knowing grandmaster or something, pointing towards the crystal before adding, "your spirit element is karma."

 Chapter 400 Going Through The Rings

    "Karma?!! Is there such a spirit element?!!!" Thomas was shocked, and he showed another expression over his face.

    He had never heard of such an element before. And that made him more doubtful towards what William just said.

    "There are time and space elements, so why won''t there be karma?" William examined the crystal once more, trying to find anything special there, but found none.

    So, he stored the crystal in his ring, in a move that left Thomas disappointed. He wanted to see what William saw. He wanted to find answers in that crystal for the tons of questions about what his master just imed.

    But his habit overwhelmed his curiosity and desire and returned to being silent.

    "I believe you don''t have any formal technique, right?" Thomas didn''t know even what element his spirit had, and that made William''s earlier guess get confirmed.

    "I got something that one of my masters bought for me at a hefty price," Thomas paused, "it''s a time-based technique, to enable me to see clearer and use my ability better. However¡­"

    "You are smart enough to know it wasn''t helping you, but limiting your abilities," Thomas nodded on what William just said.

    "My spirit element is something I never heard about before. So, trying to find a suitable technique for it¡­"

    "Don''t mind that, I got one here that perfectly suits you," William decided to use just one technique for this kid at the moment. It was a technique that would let him see any karma rtionship between different things and items, the technique William needed Thomas to master before going towards his territory.

    William took out this technique and handed it over to the stupefied Thomas.

    "This¡­ This isn''t some sort of joke, right?" Thomas felt like everything was too good to be true. William told him about a spirit element he never heard about before. And now his master had developed a technique suitable for this element.

    "Do you take me for such a master?" William raised one eyebrow and didn''t say anymore. He just handed the scroll over to Thomas, and thetter didn''t have any option but to read it.

    And just from the incantation at its beginning, Thomas felt like something was sleeping inside his spirit, like some sort of a beast, and it got unleashed.

    "This¡­" he showed a true awed expression on his face, and Williamughed from the side, feeling more satisfaction by this.

    "Just start training," William waved his hand, "we will leave once you master it."

    "Leave? To where?"

    "To where but to my new territory?"

    "This¡­ Master¡­ This ce¡­ It''s cursed!" Thomas was acting as if he never cared about anything in the world, but for his life he''d care for sure about everything.

    So when he heard what William intended to do, his stone-cold face broke and showed tons of emotions.

    Fear, doubt, confusion, hesitation¡­ He showed these and more.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>

    "Don''t worry," William pointed towards the scroll in his hands, "or why would I take the trouble to test your spirit element and give you such a suitable technique?"

    "This¡­"

    "You''ll see things by yourselfter on," William interrupted this youth, "just start training, and leave the future for when it''ll happen."

    Thomas was more hesitant than any time ever in his entire life. Even when he moved from the hands of one master to another, he never felt such uncertainty or insecurity.

    But from the look of things, his new master was dauntless in front of that scary cursed ce. And he felt that if he stayed all day trying, he wouldn''t be able to budge William an inch away from his decision.

    So he reluctantly started to train on this technique, trying to guess what it had with that scary ce.

    The technique was simple, and it was just allowing Thomas to use his spirit element in the right path it should take.

    Thomas got the karma spirit element, so it made perfect sense for a technique to make him see the rtionship between different things using karma.

    And that was what this technique was all about. William knew this technique was simple, only needed to repeat the incantation a few times, move one''s hands in different sets of movement, before it''d get activated.

    As Thomas was busy training and learning his new technique, William took one side, used an istion array, before he started to take the forty something dark spirit master rings he imed before.

    He was quite busy dealing with activating his spirit and ended up having that unexpected trouble from thoseckies and henchmen of the Big Seven. And now he got the chance to go slowly through everything inside these rings.

    "These dudes¡­ Are they preparing for a big war or what?" Just like what he found at the other rings he got before, these rings were filled with tons of gears.

    The gear sets wererge in number, mainly bronze and silver in grade. This time, he found few gold grade sets of gears, enough to make him crave to use any of these.

    But he didn''t! Just using the silver grade gears ced lots of pressure over his spirit power. He knew he had to wait until he''d reach silver grade before thinking about using such a high-grade gears.

    There were also many war consumables, and potions. He also found lots of spirit crystals, enough to be close to one hundred thousand in each ring.

    That was a huge amount of wealth at his academy. Butparing such wealth to this fort, he realised it wasn''t that much.

    "At least I gained close to four million spirit crystals from them," William started to move everything in these rings to the ones he usually used. He left the gear sets he acquired to be stored with other gear sets he gained before. And that made him have enough gears to arm up at least ten thousand spirit masters from head to toe.

    This wasn''t bad. At least he didn''t need to buy any gears for his future teams.

    "Now¡­ What we have here¡­"

 Chapter 401 Facing Mark

    Just as William did that, he cleared the rings from their content. And now he could see through the leftovers there.

    Most of the rings got nothing else except for monster cores and various materials. William didn''t care about these cores, as he didn''t kill any of these monsters himself. And so, he wouldn''t be able to absorb any of them.

    Aside from these cores, he found what he was looking for. He got out five scrolls, the same as the one he got before. "So¡­ There isn''t just one copy of these scrolls¡­" he recalled the materials and herbs he found in these five rings specifically, thought about the gold grade sets of gears he found before in them. Linking all together, and it wasn''t that hard to guess the identities of the owners of these rings.

    They were leaders of their teams. William looked at these five sealed scrolls and felt that he''d not get anything out of them.

    "Without the right way to unlock the final seal, without having a way to make these scrolls release their mysteries, then it''ll be pointless¡­"

    He sighed, stored these five scrolls aside, putting them beside the one he failed to break its final seal before.

    Then he checked the rings again, found nothing else but ores and herbs, before finally storing everything and turned to Thomas.

    As William expected, Thomas didn''t disappoint him and learnt this simple technique in less than one hour.

    Just one hour was all it took for Thomas to execute this technique properly. And the first thing he noticed was how the world around changed in his eyes.

    It became all grey, with sparkling dots at ces where William trained and executed his attacks before. He saw sparkling silver white dots, like little stars or something, and also spotted the thin silver white threads that extended from them.

    And when he followed these threads, he found them all converging and gathering at William.

    "You¡­ You are the one who caused all this?!!" Thomas was shocked and couldn''t help but mutter while his body trembled in fear.

    He didn''t know why, but he didn''t just see the links between William and these holes, the leftovers of a brutal fight in the area. He could feel how scary the attacks who caused all of this were.

    And that made him reflexively see William as if he was a deadly beast, not the bronze grade spirit master who looked too weak to do anything harmful or threatening.

    "That means you already mastered it!" William''s eyes shone beforeughing, "I knew you were a good spirit master, hahaha!"

    "Is this the effect of the technique?!" Thomas didn''t get any of what was going on. To him, he was just experiencing a weird time with his new and bizarre master.

    "It''s the Karma Leading technique," William slowly exined, "using this, you can link any rtionship between anything and anyone."

    "Is this useful?!" Thomas didn''t see any use in such a weird and simple technique.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>

    What was the use of knowing the link between things people caused and the people who caused them.

    To him, it was a pretty damn useless technique and ability. But in William''s eyes, this was a godsend ability.

    It was just Thomas didn''t know or experience anything like his master. "Come, let''s go and see how this technique will fare against that cursed ce." William could see how Thomas belittled this technique. So, heughed as he started to walk towards the exit of this world.

    Thomas watched William''s back vanish through the ball hanging in midair in the heart of this ce. After a long minute, he couldn''t help but shake his head, muttering to himself, "it seems I got myself a crazy master."

    And without dying any further, he went outside to find William already standing on the open door of this room. And in front of him were two folks, Trevor and Mark.

    "Sir, I''m terribly sorry about that. But just like I said, it was an unintended mistake of our security team. We made sure such mistakes won''t happen again."

    Mark was inwardly cursing his bad luck. He already knew about the intentions of the other members in the Big Seven, and he was the one who proposed this idea over his superiors.

    He wanted to let William face trouble, feel the pressure, and so he''de running to him, asking for more security and guards.

    Like this, William would be in their pockets, and they''d enforce any condition they wanted, learn about anything they desired.

    Who knew such a genius idea, one that got the total support from his higher ups and the leaders of the six members of the Big Seven, to get foiled thanks to William.

    What William dide out of what anyone expected. William acted out of his age, showing a firm character and personality that never suited a kid like him.

    He flipped the table around, putting the higher ups of the hotel in a very tough situation.

    He saw directly through their scheme. And not only that, but he also made a single counterattack, enough to hit this scheme in its fatal weakness.

    "I don''t buy any of that," and as William showed a behaviour that never suited his age before, he also showed the same attitude now in front of Mark as well, "just words won''t do things just. I want a payback for all the losses I suffered."

    "Holy sh*t! You never suffered a thing in all this!!" Mark inwardly cursed, but he kept his thoughts only to himself. "Ahem, what can we do to please you?"

    "What can you offer me?" William wouldn''t make this newbie mistake and give out his price. To people, things of value differed greatly. And to him, he might just ask for a high-stake price, to end up realisingter on it was just nothing to these folks.

    He didn''t want to just get something out of them, he wanted one of the two things he sat his eyes already upon.

 Chapter 402 I Want Gems

    "Ahem, how about this¡­ You can stay in our hotel for the entire week, and get another fifty percent discount¡­"

    Just as he was speaking, William''s eyes shone in cold light, making this dude stop talking.

    "This is a beggar''s price for you, and I''m not a beggar," William''s words added an icieryer to this entire situation.

    "Then¡­ Total discount perhaps? Stay here for free?" Mark was now feeling a real pressure. After what happened, and as Trevor came to him delivering the hidden threatening message, Mark''s higher ups made him responsible for all this.

    He was the one who was going to pay for anything William wanted, and that was why he tried to solve everything out using diplomacy, empty words and promises.

    But it was clear to him now that William was after his head!

    "It seems I have to speak to my friends and everyone I''ll meet about what happened here," William didn''t even stop there, but turned towards Trevor, who was looking awed with what his master was doing, "you got everything recorded on the crystal, right?"

    Trevor was startled for a moment, but luckily, he reflexively nodded without saying anything.

    "See? I got everything that happened by these thugs stored in a crystal. I''m sure such a crystal will be sold for a sky-high price at any auction, right?"

    "This¡­" When Mark heard and saw this cheap performance happening in front of his eyes, he couldn''t help but grit his teeth in silence.

    He could tell William was making all this up just to make things worse for him. "What is the rightful price you want then?" But what was the point in knowing this? If William imed such a thing, then just the rumours of these news were enough to drive this hotel down. Not to mention the rivals of the hotel would go crazy.

    They''d agree on whatever price William would ask for, even if they knew for sure he was bluffing and didn''t record anything. Just asking him to record his experience and narrate it was enough for them.

    And Mark would never let the hotel''s enemies sniff anything about this. Or else, he might pay the price with his life.

    "I only ept gems," William''s face changed. A sly expression appeared on his face, one that Mark was quite familiar with when dealing with any big name in the Big Seven merchant groups.

    "Gems?" but what William said left him puzzled, "do you mean ores? High price ores? Rare ores?"

    Just speaking about this made Mark inwardly heave a deep sigh of relief. But it seemed he was a bit rash in feeling so.

    "No dude, I want gems. Just look at my Thomas here," William turned and pointed towards Thomas, making thetter feel his heart clench.

    Just from the mere exchange that just happened between him and William, Thomas started to get restless and uneasy from this weird master.

    "What about him?!" Mark was more puzzled right now, but something told him he''d not like what William was going to say next.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>

    "He is a rare gem, a talent like no equal," Williamughed, seemingly enjoying this situation to the fullest, "he is someone who has a very rare time spirit element. And that makes him a rare gem. Do you now get my meaning?"

    William gave Thomas a warning silent nce, one that stopped thetter from correcting William''s intentional mistake.

    As Thomas was quite famous here, then everyone was aware of his time spirit element. And that was what William used to exin his meaning of gems.

    "This¡­" and when Mark realised what William was after, he couldn''t help but freeze right on the spot. His mind even lost its function to think, not knowing what to say or do, only feeling pure puzzlement over this weird kid.

    Looking for rare talents? And who wasn''t!

    "Ahem, I can''t say I know of any gems here¡­"

    "Come on, stop lying," William interrupted his words with a loudugh, "I didn''t live here for more than one day and I just found lots of gems."

    "L¡­ Like what?" Mark knew he''d never like what William was going to tell him next. Right now, he finally realised he got yed, he and his superiors got all yed by this kid in front of him.

    How old was William? Mark couldn''t help but question himself at this moment. And William didn''t even show a speck of mercy over this poor manager, as he ruthlessly said his next piece:

    "I want five hidden pocket world balls. Bring me these, and we''ll be even."

    "This¡­ No way! No f*cking way!"

    "Then this thing between the two of us won''t be forgotten," William didn''t even show any sign of rage or disappointment on his face, didn''t even give a way out for Mark, despite he already had one.

    But William was well aware that any of the two gems he sat his eyes upon were priceless and essential for this hotel. Even so, William already sat his eyes over one of the two big trophies, intending to leave here with one of them, if not both.

    "Do you even know how much a single pocket world cost? Are you insane?!!"

    "It won''t be more important than the bright and glorious name of the hotel," William moved his eyes slowly around, taking a deep and long look at this ce, as if he was seeing something that was about to get demolished or removed, "go and tell your leaders about this. If they didn''t respond in one day, then I''ll make sure everyone in the fort will see this recording."

    William didn''t even stand in his ce for another second, closed the door of his room, while motioning with his eyes for Thomas and Trevor to follow him.

    "Ah," and just as he walked with his two followers for a few metres, he stopped, turned around and gave Mark a deep look, "I''m already part of the Lockheart impact. And I got a deal with the Refos merchant group. Any funny move and I swear even if you offered this hotel over to me, I won''t get satisfied."

 Chapter 403 You Wont Follow Us

    His words, apanied by the token he just took and flipped it in the air like he was ying with a coin or something, alongside his yful expression and cold looking eyes, made Mark''s body slightly tremble.

    William, the kid who wasn''t any older than eleven years old, just dared to threaten the entire Royals hotel. And for a reason, Mark couldn''t help but take such direct warning seriously.

    William saw directly through this troublesome youth''s intentions. He was the type to use dirty methods to solve the big problems he got, just like how he did before by inviting theckeys of the six big merchant groups here.

    William knew this dude would think and n an assassination attempt for him. As he was sure about this, William decided to strike first, using two scary names with evidence backing his ims up.

    Even if what he imed was false, he had what it took to make them look real. And that made Mark hesitate about doing what he intended to do.

    As William left the hotel in steady steps, Mark finally reacted. "Tsk! What did I lead myself into this time? A kid? A kid my as*!"

    He decided to go and throw all this mess in thep of his superiors. He was just following their initial order about getting to know what this kid was about to do here. Everything he did, even if these were his faults, were aimed to fulfil such order and demand.

    So, he decided to go back, let those who put him in such an explosive situation in the first ce take full responsibility for this entire mess.

    "Master, I never saw someone kick one''s as* the way you just did!"

    And as the three of them walked through the main street, Trevor couldn''t help but express how much he was shocked and excited about what William just did.

    And as William heard what he said, heughed like never before.

    "He deserved this," Williamughed, before stopping.

    "What?" he was looking at Trevor in a serious way, making thetter stop and even examine himself up, as if he got something wrong on his body.

    "You won''t follow us to where we are going," William said in a way that made Trevor want to ask about where they were going without him, "and don''t ask. Just stroll around, go and check on the news of the other Big Seven, see if there''s anything we shall worry about."

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" as he got a task to do, Trevor didn''t feel that bad to be left behind.

    "I never imagined you are this caring about your people," and as the only two of them walked towards the direction of William''s cursed property, Thomas asked.

    "I just don''t want any dead weight with us," William shrugged, "and we got enough hands to do the job."

    "I''d love to say more hands are needed to make things safer¡­ But no matter who we brought, we won''t."<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>

    "Don''t be this pessimistic! We got you!" William patted on this dude''s back, the only ce his hand could reach.

    And against how cheerful and hopeful William acted, Thomas was indeed feeling very pessimistic inside.

    He didn''t know what William wanted to do there, or what was his role in any of that. He was familiar with the scary stories about this ce, and he could already imagine his death out there. Not to mention the old incident he got in that ce before.

    However, he was already a property for William, and as his master gave the order, he had to follow.

    William used this chance to check on this dude. He knew there was a contract between the two of them, but others in Thomas'' shoes would prefer to be called rogue servants than walking to their death willingly like this.

    "At least he got some conscience inside," William ced a good point in Thomas'' favour, waiting for them to arrive at his ce to further test this youth.

    To William, a spirit master with a karma spirit element might not be this strong in any direct confrontation. But in a long battle like the one he suffered before with his team at the forest, Thomas'' presence would have made a great difference.

    He had the ability to see through anything, link things together. And that meant he could easily spot traps, and even had the ability to point towards the locations of the Nightmare monster''srge number of clones from far.

    If William had Thomas by his side back then, he didn''t have to run blindly like before, never had to meet up the dark spirit masters he faced before.

    In addition to that, William already had a scary technique that Thomas could use. It was some sort of karma maniption technique, one that would enable Thomas to control any target''s karma, and even control the bad karma and let it befall his foe.

    Be it monsters or humans, any living spirit was governed by few world rules, including karma. And using this heavenw, Thomas would be able to turn any battle upside down, as long as he got the time and resources he''d need.

    Another thing William noticed. Since he taught Thomas about his karma spirit element and technique, this youth kept talking more than before.

    He felt like he broke through a barrier in this youth''s heart or something. And he hoped he''d not turn out to have a shitty personality in the end, one that would force William to kick him away.

    "We are getting closer," as the two kept walking forward, Thomas suddenly said. William looked around, finding this a bit weird.

    "People seem to avoid walking through this section of the street¡­"

    "That''s out of fear from your ce."

    Thomas wanted to smile. But unlike what he wanted; his face turned a bit tense. He then looked around, and as his master said it, the number of people walking here got a sharp decline in number.

 Chapter 404 A Sad Story

    Before arriving here, the two of them had to watch out where they were stepping, or else they might end up hitting someone by mistake. And now? There were at least tens of metres between them and the nearest walking pedestrian in the street.

    William raised his head, and as long as his eyes could reach, he found no more than ten people walking. They seemed running not walking, as if they were in a hurry, or fearing something to catch them.

    "I can''t believe I''m walking towards the same ce I always had nightmares from when I was a little kid," Thomas suddenly said, while he and William finally arrived at a grand ce that was lined with a thick and tall metallic fence.

    "Are they using this ce to scare the kids before they go to sleep or what?" William didn''t know what to say in response to that, and Thomas only sighed.

    "You are aware of the history of this ce, right?" Thomas paused, and William shook his head, "I mean the one rted to Alfonso, my previous master."

    "Ah, he told me he sent people to try and demolish the ce¡­ Why?" William got a bad hunch, but he wasn''t sure of his guess.

    "My father, uncle¡­ My entire family were the ones who worked here," Thomas seemed to be lost in thoughts, "and by this time, I was six years old, enough toe and help as well."

    "Ouch!" William''s guess wasn''t as bad as this reality. Thomas took a deep breath, seemingly not caring about William''sment or reaction.

    "I saw bits and pieces of what happened¡­ But I can''t truly grasp what happened here¡­ It''s like a floating memory of the past, one that I can''t recall until I''m sleeping. It''s as if my mind didn''t want to recall any of this unless it''s a situation designed for me to forget everything after¡­"

    William couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. Losing family members wasn''t a rare asion in this world. In fact, it was the normal thing. But losing family members thanks to the traps of an already dead, long dead man was something unbelievable.

    "The best way to conquer one''s demons is by facing them," William took out his sword, pointed towards the gate that was closed, "let''s go inside. And in there, I promise to keep you safe."

    William didn''t intend to do this in the first ce. But asking someone who saw such terror in his early age to do it, face the same horrors again, was simply too much.

    Deep inside, he nned to let Thomas deal with his demons in the right way. But he''d also keep watching from the side and would intervene if this youth''s death was fixed and certain.

    This ce was indeed huge! William wanted to own a piece ofnd with a single building on top of it. But this ce was at least as massive as the Refos merchant group, or even bigger.

    It looked more spacious, with thend extending deep behind the iron fence, like it''d reach the end of the fort and beyond.

    William noticed that he could see bits and pieces of thend inside, but not that clear to see everything in detail. He could see shadows of six different buildings, scattered inside, with kilometres in between.

    It was a huge ce, one that he could truly build more buildings there, and still would look spacious.<novelsnext>please visit </novelsnext>

    William took out the key, the token he got from Alfonso, and extended it forward when he arrived at the gate. Just walking from the edge of this territory towards the gate at the middle took him ten minutes. And that was enough evidence on how huge this ce truly was!

    William was ecstatic like never before. He didn''t see an empty ce, filled with wildly grown nts and trees, old looking grey buildings with lots of ck spots as if they suffered from deadly fire, but a ce filled with life, bustling with activity.

    This ce was going to change, totally transform, to be filled with many spirit masters, living and training, with at least one pocket world attached to it as the main training ground.

    *ng!*

    The moment he pointed his token towards the gate, the two huge halves of this gate slowly opened with nging sounds. It seemed as if rust extended and ate the knuckles of the gate.

    How long did this building stand for? Two hundred years? Three hundred years? And it was left unattended all this time, left for the time to leave all the scars and marks upon.

    William was quite satisfied that even after all this time, this ce was still standing erect, not falling, not having any gaps or cracks even at the buildings inside.

    *Fwoosh!*

    Just when he opened the gate, a gust of cold and wet wind came out from the inside, as if he just deted a balloon or something.

    "This¡­"

    "It''s the Fox Breath¡­" William was puzzled and didn''t get what it was. But when Thomas muttered these words in a shaky tone, William got what made him puzzled.

    There, in the middle of this wind, he heard a low-pitched roar, one that was so low to be easily missed, yet it could be felt with his spirit.

    "A Fox Breath¡­ Interesting¡­" William just came out from testing his new spirit body. And there he experienced a weirdly simr Fox Breath as well.

    Seeing that just by opening the gate he could point another simrity between him, and that old spirit master made William want to dominate this ce even more. His desire to go in there, explore and uncover all the secrets, know what happened with that ancient spirit master and why the two of them looked connected, grew intense.

    "Let''s go," After the early gush of wind, nothing else happened. And then he started to walk towards the inside with steady steps.

    Thomas looked around, and the breath that just came out from the territory attracted many eyes already. He couldn''t help but sigh, turn towards the back of his new master, and walked after him inside.

 Chapter 405 [Bonus ] The Ancient Ones

    Not too far away from here, and inside a dimly lit corridor, a single man walked in a slow, and yet steady pace. He straightened his back, while preparing himself for what yet toe.

    The corridor felt like it was going downwards on a fixed and dangerous angle. And yet this dude didn''t feel any change at all, not even feeling like he was descending on such a sharp angle.

    If someone looked at him from far, he''d see him walking down a very slope edge, one that looked like he was walking over an almost perfect vertical wall.

    And just in less than half an hour, he finally stopped. The path ended abruptly in front of a closed gate. It looked ancient, like it was built thousands of years ago.

    The pathnded directly on the top of this gate, as if the gate was the bottom of a well or something. This dude tidied up his uniform, cleared his throat, took a deep breath despite the air here being too thin.

    And then he extended his hand, holding a token in it, before the gate suddenly trembled. Like he fell into the surface of ake, the gate absorbed this dude, letting him vanish into it, like he was never there.

    But that wasn''t what happened. This dude was one of the few, selected few, who knew there was a hidden secret in the fort.

    If William was here, he''d instantly recognise this dude as Mark, the same manager he just threatened before leaving.

    Mark already visited the owners of the hotel, and they refused to help or share any responsibility with him. And then he got summoned here, to where these mysterious and ancient beings were.

    They were the ones who issued the order to watch and gather any intell possible about William in the first ce.

    Mark passed through the gate and appeared standing in the middle of a huge stone hall. The ce was lit by giant torches at the walls. But thanks to the grand design of this ce, the dancing blue and green lights danced and barely were able to push away any of the darkness here.

    Mark stood in the centre, appearing just on top of a star diagram on the ground. He moved his eyes over and could see faint shadows of big seats with giant stone statues sitting on top of them.

    These weren''t statues¡­ Not normal ones at least. These were the real owners of this hotel, the ancient ones as he got to know their names.

    "Honourable ancient ones¡­ I''m here to deliver my report¡­"

    "No need," Just before he''d start telling what happened with William, one statue spoke up. That led to the torches at its side flickering and re up for a single moment, showing a scary stone face of a man with sharp saw-like teeth.

    Mark came here many times already, and yet each time he felt like he never got used to any of that. Every time one of those ancient ones spoke, such a weird phenomenon would happen. The torches would react, intensify in their burning, while releasing a weird touch of light over the face of the speaking statues.

    And each time he saw this scene, he couldn''t help but feel his heart clench as if his life being sucked dry from his body. He never imagined before there were such scary humans out there in the world. And when he learnt about their presence, he couldn''t help but question if they were really humans or monsters.

    "We already heard and saw what this kid said and did¡­" another statue spoke, releasing another thunderous boom with the weird change in the torches around it.

    "I did what you asked me to do¡­" Mark was preparing himself for the long torture and punishment from these scary folks. But unlike what he expected, another one stopped him as he said:<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "No need. That kid sought his own death."

    "We watched him walking towards that sphemous old dude''s ce."

    "He is going to die there, so no need to speak about him anymore."

    "What a waste! I wanted to know how he did all these weird things."

    "His death isn''t settled in stone yet. Who knows, he mighte out unscathed and be lucky to evade all the traps that jerk ced there."

    "It''s not likely to happen. But if that did happen, then we should offer him a great honour."

    "Let hime and meet us?"

    "I believe this is the only way to make such a troublesome kid kneel and know his ce, offer us everything he knows without ying any tricks."

    "Well said."

    Mark heard all these discussions as if thunder was echoing in his ears all the time. And with the sessive shes of light over the statue faces, he exerted total control and summoned all his courage to not pie himself on the spot.

    "Listen, if the kid survived that ce,e and bring him with you. Leave the matter of dealing with him to us."

    "Really?!!" Even if he was scared, he couldn''t help but feel ecstatic to escape punishment or even reprimanding, "sorry¡­ I¡­ I will do as you said."

    "Scram!" Mark knew that in the middle of being joyful, he mistook his ce and spoke in a way that he shouldn''t. But luckily for him, the statues didn''t even ce him in the eye.

    He always felt like he was an ant in front of gods whenever he was here. And in the next instant, a gush of power came, enveloped and carried him away in a sh.

    The next moment he found himself standing on the beginning of the descending path. He closed the top of this hole using the thick cover, took a long nce at this ce before sighing.

    "They mentioned he went to the ce of the old sphemous dude¡­ What''s that ce? And who is that dude?" As he went back to his office, he started to think more about this.

    He called for someone toe and look for where William went after leaving the hotel. And soon enough, news would reach his ears, like all the ears of everyone who mattered in this fort.

 Chapter 406 Something Wrong Happened

    "What are we going to do here?"

    Inside the Fox territory, William stood just ten metres after passing from the gate. And Thomas followed with a dark look on his face.

    William didn''t stop just to wait for him. He knew that in any territory filled with traps, the twenty metres area around the entrance gate was considered safe.

    It was a tradition to leave behind a space for those who belonged truly here to execute their special ways to deactivate the different traps. And as William didn''t trust this crazy old dude, he decided to half this distance, just to be sure.

    "I want you to do what you trained on," William didn''t even turn to Thomas, as his eyes were attracted by the space inside.

    He got the impression before that this ce was huge, but not as big as it showed from outside. He thought there was some sort of optical illusion thanks to the sealing array. And this area wasn''t that huge.

    But he was wrong! When he went inside, the buildings that looked far looked even a bit further away. It seemed as if the entire space he imagined about this territory got doubled, or even tripled.

    And that was all great news for him.

    "Do¡­ What exactly?" Thomas was still confused, and William couldn''t help but roll his eyes in response.

    "What else? Just use the technique I just taught you."

    "And?"

    William felt like he was an adult and Thomas was the kid here. He turned to face this youth, and slowly exined while pointing towards the ce around:

    "I want you to use your technique over all this, check the ground, check the buildings, even check the f*cking air. Check everything and see if you can spot any shining stars, threads connecting these stars with each other, and point towards them for me."

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" Thomas wasn''t faking it, he indeed didn''t know what he was supposed to do here. He got what William wanted him to do, but didn''t get what was special about all this, how would any of that help in solving the problems in this cursed ce.

    He wanted to ask what the value was of using his technique in such a scary ce. But as William was strict and firm, didn''t exin anything and just wanted him to use his technique, he didn''t have a choice but to follow his master''s words.

    William stood by the side, watching Thomas change his appearance as he used his spirit element. His hair and eyes turned silver white, and he looked like a totally different person.

    And when he used his technique, he looked as if he was a god overlooking the world of mortals. William knew in the eyes of Thomas, the world now looked much different. And he was supposed to see spots and marks of the things rted to the ancient spirit master who owned this ce long years ago.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And as he expected, Thomas indeed saw such a thing. But unlike what William thought, Thomas didn''t see the world the same way he saw it when he used his technique for the first time inside the pocket world.

    "Master¡­ This¡­ This¡­" he stuttered, and even his body trembled.

    "Get back! Cancel that technique now!" William shouted the moment he saw signs of spirit power depletion. It was quite scary and unbelievable for such a thing to happen. But William was too experienced to not miss the early signs of such a thing.

    Thomas'' body was trembling, his faint gold spirit power kept flickering, and even his eyes started to release a thin line of blood.

    It was clear what was going on. And without even thinking about why this happened, William hurriedly shouted to not lose this gem of his.

    If Thomas didn''t hurry to cancel this technique, he''d end up getting all of his spirit power depleted. He''d lose consciousness, and who knew what would happen to himter on.

    This wasn''t just a simple depletion of spirit power while using normal technique. This was a technique that was centered around a unique spirit element. And if Thomas didn''t cancel his technique fast, he''d might end up losing part of his spirit power and even would get lowered a grade or something.

    "Agh!" Thomas instantly followed his orders, yet to end up staggering backwards, gushing a full mouth of blood, before falling on the ground like a broken kite.

    "What''s wrong¡­ What''s wrong¡­ With me?!!" Thomas was racing to catch his breaths while he didn''t even get what just happened to him.

    "Here, take a few drops first," William took out the potion he got from Ben, the highest-grade potion he ever had, opened its lid, and let a few drops fall into the mouth of Thomas.

    Thomas was lying on his back, with his body twitching as if he was getting a seizure or something. William knew this kid just dyed cancelling his technique for a few seconds, ending up for him to suffer such a great deal of damage.

    As Thomas started to look a bit better, his ashen face started to show more vitality, with his twitching body getting stopped, William stood by his side while thinking about what happened.

    Thomas was a gold grade spirit master, one who used to live his life in a hard way, serving others, not enjoying the pleasures of life in the fort.

    He wasn''t weak, not weak willed at least. And yet just by activating his technique for less than half a minute, he got almost all of his spirit power depleted.

    This came as a shocking surprise for William. There was only one thing that could exin what Thomas went through, and that was rted to this ce.

    "Don''t tell me this damn fox left tons of things here, guarding against the possibility of someoneing with a karma or time element¡­" William muttered in deep frown, while his eyes were moving across the seemingly normalnd in front of him.

 Chapter 407 From The Old Fox To The New Fox

    William was sure this wasn''t a normalnd at all, but a hellishndmine, one that was filled withyers uponyers of traps.

    "Who the f*ck said they deactivated most of traps here? Those unreliable liars!" William was feeling enraged about such a lie. If the ce was filled with traps in such way, then howe Alfonso said such words back then in such confidence?

    And then he recalled how people used to die here. And right now, he realised this was expected and made perfect sense.

    "Master¡­ What happened¡­ I just used the technique and felt like¡­ Felt like my spirit was going away from my body¡­"

    Thomas looked a bit better in the next few minutes. But William knew the trauma of this event was still lingering around his spirit and mind. William looked at him and sighed.

    "It seems you saw lots of things that are connected together, and that depleted your spirit power on an rming rate," William didn''t keep the exnation he got in his mind from this youth.

    And when he said these words, Thomas seemed to recall something. His eyes shone brightly for a brief second, before he slowly said:

    "I saw¡­ I saw the world shining in many little dots, looking like a grand sky filled with stars¡­ I saw¡­ I saw a grand of lights connected from the surface down to the deep bottom of the ground¡­"

    "That''s expected," William sighed, feeling that he was a bit rash in hoping to clear this damn ce of all traps in just one visit, "that''s what caused your spirit power to get depleted. Just get a little rest, and we''ll head back¡­"

    "Master¡­ Master¡­ Your name is William, right?"

    Out of the blue, Thomas suddenly sat straight, holding William''s arms as if he was pleading for something. William blinked twice, not knowing what went wrong in this dude''s mind.

    "Yes, I''m called William," he nodded. And before he''d knock this dude on the head with his fist, hoping this might repair anything that got broken inside, what Thomas said next took William by surprise.

    "Master¡­ Your name¡­ You¡­ You got a message deep down all this¡­ A message left for William, a message from the old fox to the new fox¡­"

    "What are you talking about?!!!" William turned his full attention towards Thomas. And just from looking in his eyes, he could tell this youth wasn''t lying.

    "Master, I only took a short nce at the entire thing, but I''m sure of what I saw. Your name was there, and there was a message left out for you."

    "What message? What does it say?" William already had his own thoughts about this ce and its ancient owner. Everyone kept calling the ancient owner of this ce crazy. But William felt he just got a vision about the future and wanted to warn everyone from it.

    Yet all his attempts ended in a big failure as no one ever believed his tales and warnings. On top of that, he selected a name that was kind of rted to William, the fox!

    "I¡­ I didn''t read the entirety of it¡­ Only noticed it before you shouted¡­" Thomas paused, showed a struggle as he attempted to recall what he saw back there. And William just stood on the side, waiting in silence.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "It says¡­ From the old Fox to the new Fox, From Sanchez to William¡­"

    "And?" William waited for an entire minute, but Thomas only stopped there.

    "That''s it," Thomas shrugged, and when William gave him a weird look, he added, "the message got more, but things were quite blurry, and I didn''t have time to read it fully. I need to try it again but¡­"

    Thomas looked at himself, and William knew what he wanted to say.

    "We need to find a solution for this little problem¡­" William was lost in thoughts. He was weighing between teaching this youth his own technique in replenishing spirit power or teaching him a weaker version of such technique.

    Butter on, his eyes shone brighter as he got another better idea.

    "You do have alchemy stores here, right?" William asked, and Thomas nodded.

    "We got lots of useless alchemy groups, calling themselves the Big Ten or something. But they are no way close to the Big Seven. And they aren''t that great. They sell useless stuff at high prices¡­"

    "I want to go to one of those Big Ten then," William didn''t know why in this fort, the different professions tended to gather up, call themselves such catchy names like the Big Seven and the Big Ten.

    What was the point? It was better for anyone to get known solely by his name and brand.

    "The biggest one is just a few blocks away¡­ But master, they are thieves!"

    "Let me go there and judge by myself," William learnt to not trust any sayings of others, had to see and check things by himself and see if the rumours were true or false.

    He wanted something, a potion or an elixir, one that could solve this entire problem for him. He knew how tiring dealing with these traps was. If it was up to him, he''d just move away and not care about these traps for the time being.

    But now everything changed. He wanted to clear this ce fast, and that was why he thought about going to such a store. Thomas was going to get his spirit power depleted each time they tried to inspect this ce. Not to mention the number of traps here was indeed quite a mess and a headache.

    But when Thomas mentioned this message, one that got his name and even the spirit that no one else in the world knew about, William decided to read the entire message at any cost.

    if he got to break apart this entire ce down block by block, he''d do it!

    "Let''s go," William helped Thomas to stand up. And that youth just staggered when he stood upright for a few seconds, before finally stabilising himself.

 Chapter 408 His Unique Way Of Taking Revenge

    "I''m good," he said when he noticed the serious look from William, "I can walk these few blocks at least without falling."

    "Cool," William didn''t know why, but he felt if Ibra was here, he''d ask this annoying dude to lend this youth his ive, to use it as a walking stick.

    It''d be funny to tease Ibra a little. And as he recalled him, William couldn''t help but sigh over the fate of his team.

    He missed them. Even if he decided deep down in his mind to teach them a proper lesson, teaching them how to properly keep their mouths shut in front of strangers, he still missed theirpany.

    "What the hell is that?!!"

    And just as the two of them walked out from the ce, and even before the gate would close behind, William stopped as he was weed with a grand scene.

    Lots of people were standing there. They were close from the prosperity of his. They formed an arc, surrounding the territory, filling the street with tens of metres of distance between them and the gate.

    They were standing there, not walking, not passing by, just standing and watching, as if they were waiting for something grand to happen.

    "This¡­ It seems the news just spread," Thomas was more informative than William regarding anything rted to the fort and its people.

    "And?" William raised an eyebrow while not knowing what that was supposed to mean.

    When he came here in the first ce, the entire street was looking like a desert! It was clear to him that this ce was cursed, and everyone was trying their best to not get their clothes stained by walking here.

    And now? The entire street was blocked in every direction, like a festival or something grand was going to happen here.

    "They got out!"

    "They didn''t clear it!"

    "Damn! And here I expected to see something bloody atst!"

    "Come on! Go in there, clear the traps as we heard, do it!"

    "Yes! Do it! Do it!"

    Out of the blue, and just before Thomas would exin things to William, many started to chatter before many started to shout like this.

    And that made William frown.

    "Someone must have leaked the news on purpose¡­" William moved his eyes around, without feeling any pressure at all from all these shouts. Instead, his mind was calmly thinking about who that rat was who told everyone about his business here.

    He heard it before from Alfonso. It seemed that all the owners of this ce tried to do something about it and yet failed. But they all covered up their tracks, didn''t let a single soul hear about any of what they suffered.

    And now? Seeing this grand gathering of people here made William slightly enraged.

    As he became angry, he decided to take out his anger over the folks here.

    "I want to clear it, but without anything encouraging, howe I do it?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William suddenly raised his voice; spoke like he was the overlord of this fort or something.

    And when his wordsnded, everyone else got silenced. They all looked at each other, before someone asked whileughing:

    "What do you want then? A dancingdy? Or a cheer?"

    "Let''s apud to him folks, least he''ll give us the proper show we wanted!"

    Just as one spoke, many joined in adding their pieces of mocking William. Thetter stood in his ce, seemingly unfazed by any of that.

    "I want you to go at once to the Refos group and ask them to send a group of people experienced at betting."

    Out of anyone''s expectations, William didn''t even say a single word to them, didn''t respond to any of the taunts many issued at him. William simply took out a piece of paper, a Bullet, and spoke these words calmly and without a speck of rage in his voice.

    [I''m not that far away actually from there. Give me ten minutes, and I''ll return with their answer]

    The Bullet belonged to Trevor, and William got it when he hired this dude before to stand in the line. And now William just asked him to do something for him, something that would be his retaliation against such trap and scheme.

    "Tell them that out of the overall profit, they''ll get thirty-five percent," William knew how the minds of these folks worked. And so, he made sure to give them an offer they wouldn''t refuse.

    To him, he''d get sixty-five percent out of the profit, not to mention the overall profit he''d im out of this y.

    [Well¡­ I''ll deliver this to them. But where do you want these dudes?]

    "At the fox ce, where else?" William put away the Bullet after stressing over Trevor to haste in his actions.

    And then William turned to face the endless faces here. "As you heard, I''ve already called over for experienced and trusted folks from the Refos group. They''lle, start and supervise a huge betting event over this¡­"

    William just waved his hands over the ce behind, making everyone here had an instant change in face.

    "What do you mean by that?"

    "We don''t want any of this cursed ce!"

    "Keep it for yourself, I''m leaving!"

    "Yes, I came here to watch something fun, not to end up getting part of this damn ce. Keep it, I''m leaving!"

    "The bet isn''t over this ce," William''s smile got broader as he simply touched one of his rings, and then lots of crystals appeared.

    They were the ones he got inside his ring, the one he got from the dark spirit masters. He got around one million before, and just gained four extra millions. And that meant he had five million in his possession.

    "These are five million spirit crystals," William waved his hands, pointed towards the small hill of spirit crystals that appeared in front of him, "I also got five spirit gems, and that made the wager of this bet is ten million spirit crystals."

    William''s words, coupled with his extravagant actions, made all of spirit masters around fix their eyes over the hill of spirit crystals he just got out.

 Chapter 409 A Crazy Bet

    Even those who threatened to leave, ended up halting in their steps. And they weren''t to be med, even in this fort, such a number of spirit crystals was considered a decent wealth for many.

    The eyes of those around turned from mocking William into firing up in pure greed. William noticed this and his smile turned into a grin, while he started to store his spirit crystals slowly, in a slower pace than how he took them out in the first ce.

    "Holy sh*t!"

    "T¡­ Ten million spirit crystals as a bet?"

    "For what exactly?"

    "Yes, tell us the conditions!"

    "Tell us everything!"

    "I want to join, regardless of what, I want to join!"

    As William took his time in taking the crystals back, many started to exim in shock and excitement. And soon enough, the entire ce was blown out, turned literally into a circus.

    What William did was to take more time in storing the crystals, letting the fire fester and the excitement to spread and even explode.

    "Now¡­" after a few minutes, he finally took thest spirit crystal. Then he turned to all of the eager faces, waved his hands around, as if he wanted to calm them, "the bet is simple. You came here to watch me clear the traps. And so let''s bet on this. Either I''d win and clear all the traps, or I''d lose and die in the process."

    "..."

    "The bet will start in five hours. Make sure to prepare whatever you have, think carefully about which side you''ll bet on. I''ll see you in five hours."

    William gave this time not to the people here, but for the news to spread over and reach even the ones adventuring the world around the fort.

    He even wanted the wealthy merchants who were eithering or moving away from here to also hear the news. He wanted everyone to hear such news, and thene to bet.

    As for the bet itself, he knew if anyone got a sane mind, he''d not bet on his sess. There wasn''t a precedent event about someone seeding in taming this cursed ce. In fact, the old and bloody history of failure rted to this ce was the strongest asset William got.

    With such infamy and reputation, no one in their sane minds would bet their wealth over his sess. Only those crazy folks, those who loved to go against the tide, those extremely rare folks would bet on him.

    What did that mean? It meant when he''d clear this ce out of traps, then he''d end up not just having a treasured spot as a team base, but a scary amount of wealth that he never imagined getting this fast.

    Paying ten million spirit crystals and getting a couple hundred million in return? Or even more? That was a dream to him, to anyone.

    He just decided to clear this ce at any cost. And now he had more reasons to do so.

    "Where are you going?!"

    "Yes, don''t throw such a grand event and n to leave!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Surround him! Don''t let him leave!"

    "Yes! Don''t let him leave!"

    Just as William took a few steps forward, many shouted and many others moved fast to surround and stop him.

    "Who said I''m going to escape?" William showed a puzzled expression on his face, "I''m going to buy a few things. If you want to tag along then it''s fine. I won''t get away. If you aren''t confident, then how about this?"

    William took out the token of Ben again, waved it in the air so everyone here would be able to see it clearly, "I''m part of the Lockheart impact. And I live in the Royals hotel. If I ever escaped, didn''t show myself here in five hours, then go and get your revenge from me at any of these two ces."

    He hated the Royals already and wanted to bring more trouble to Ben''s way. And so he made sure to give these mobs the names of these two well-known entities.

    "Damn! He is one of those maniacs!"

    "And here I was wondering how a sane person would do it! He is one of those crazy dudes!"

    "One of the Lockheart impact? That exins it then."

    "Ok, go, we will wait for your return."

    "If you dared to not show up, we''ll go and burn that damn crazy ce."

    "Yes, that''s something we should have done a long time ago."

    "Good," William nodded in satisfaction to their response, e," he motioned to Thomas to follow, and then the two passed through the lots of people here.

    Thomas was stupefied all this time, pretty deeply shocked about all this. He watched how William dealt with all this pressure without any speck of hesitation or weakness.

    When he saw people here, he easily guessed what William did as well. But when William spoke about this bet event, and even made Trevor go to the Refos group to make it happen, he couldn''t help but have the image of William change in his eyes.

    This kid¡­ He might look as weak and little as any eleven year old kids he knew of, even looked more wasted and weaker than most. But William was different. He wasn''t acting like a kid, even acting in a more mature way than Thomas himself.

    Thomas knew he got such a viewpoint about life thanks to his vast and various experiences. And that made him wonder, what exactly did such a kid live through to have such a sophisticated andplicated mind?

    "Master, can I participate as well?" and just as the two of them went out of the big gathering around William''s ce, Thomas suddenly said.

    "What? Do you want to bet on my loss?" William rolled his eyes, while showing a faint smile on his face.

    Thomas already thought about this. He didn''t know why, but against all logic and sense, he felt like William was toying with everyone here.

 Chapter 410 A Guild!

    William wasn''t someone who''d do something without having a total faith in his victory. Since the first time he saw him, at the Golden Fork restaurant, he knew this kid wasn''t simple.

    And the more he interacted with him, the more he became sure of this feeling.

    "No, I will bet on your win," Thomas took a moment of pause before saying his response. And without feeling it, he said it in a firm way, a way that made William''s smile broader and even nodded in satisfaction from this dude''s swift response.

    William knew if Thomas thought by logic in his mind, then he''d just bet against him. Yet he made his decision based on his heart, and he seemed to slowly understand William''s mind.

    "Good boy," William said, "sure you can join. Bet everything you have, as in the end, you''ll walk away with wealth you''d never ever have in your life."

    "I''m sure of this," Thomasughed, "but master¡­ May I ask something?"

    "Anything."

    "What are you trying to do here exactly?" Thomas'' face changed and showed a serious look, "I mean¡­ You came from such a faraway ce, ended up owning such a troublesome ce here. And now you are trying to get lots of money in return for clearing this ce from traps. What''s the point in doing all this?"

    William took a deep breath, thinking about the first moment he got such an idea before when he was at the academy. He wanted toe here, get his newly recruited team to train, make a name for himself and his team.

    Then things went out of his hand, ending up with him losing his entire team, getting chased by a crazy monster, ending up without anything at all when he arrived here.

    In William''s eyes, this was the worst start he''d ever think about. But unlike what anyone''d expected in his ce, he ended up getting more chances, better ones in fact, ended up having more than what he asked for.

    And now? He wanted to use this chance to not only get lots of spirit crystals, but also to make a name for himself.

    If things went out the way he wanted, then he''d be famous in the entire fort and around as the wealthy master with tons of spirit crystals, a spirit master who owned a very privileged and secured base, one with a strong and unique mindset.

    He''d be known far and wide after this incident. And that was why he dared to think about doing this bet in the first ce.

    It wasn''t just for wealth, but also for fame. And to him, fame was worth more than any wealth in the world.

    "I want to make a name for myself here," William paused, "after this, I''ll establish a team for myself¡­ No, teams¡­ I''d better start up a guild."

    "A guild? What does this even mean?!" Thomas was puzzled and looked at William for more exnation.

    Guilds were a term known and famous in the outer world. In fact, his master was a leader of one guild, one of the most famous and secretive in the entire world.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Establishing one team was one thing, and setting up a guild was another. William never dreamt about doing this before as hecked lots of things.

    For example, the impacts in this tiny world might be considered as some sort of guilds. But true guilds didn''t just have many members, or have strong ones inside, but they had to adopt a cause.

    And in William''s case, he knew what cause his guild would adapt.

    "It''s like an impact," William just used what Thomas would understand. Unlike impacts, which were used to just amass spirit masters and do things like any big mercenary group would do, guilds would take things a bit far and do their own missions.

    Guilds would rarely ept external missions in general, only assign their own missions ording to their agenda.

    And they were famous for being overly proactive and aggressive, something that impacts in both tiny and vast worldsck.

    And William wanted his team to express his viewpoint, expressing how aggressive he was.

    As for the cause, it was simple. Be it crushing the monsters or dark spirit masters, prepare a fine team to apany him to the outer world, any or all of this could be considered a decent cause for any guild.

    "Are we close?" William asked after walking for almost thirty minutes away from the madness at his ce. He passed by lots of important ces, like hotels and many shops. But he didn''t know where the ce they were supposed to get to was.

    "It''s less than five minutes away," Thomas recalled where they were heading, turned to his master as he added, "by the way, what are we going to do out there?"

    "Nothing much," William shrugged, "I just want to find things that will help you."

    "Help me?!" Thomas didn''t get at once what William meant. But when he thought a little about what he just experienced, he couldn''t believe what William wanted to do, "no way! Are you going to buy me elixirs?!!"

    Thomas was smart enough to know the solution of his problem lied in elixirs. Elixirs were the only alchemy product that could replenish his lost spirit power at a fast pace, even to refill his entire spirit power by consuming a single drop of them.

    "Are they this expensive?"

    "They are! I went to buy elixirs before with my previous master, and each elixir was sold in tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of spirit crystals! And there weren''t many elixirs sold there to begin with!"

    "It''s alright," William knew he had many options to pay for such an extravagant price of the elixirs. The worst he''d take these on Ben''s name, and let that old man pay for all this on his behalf.

    "We are here," unlike what William expected, he found himself standing in front of a mediocre looking building.

 Chapter 411 Empty Words!

    It wasn''t even one tenth of the size of the Lockheart impact, and the building was only three storey high. William looked at Thomas in doubt, and thetter felt what his master wanted to say.

    "I told you; they aren''t that bigpared to the Big Seven," Thomas said in his defence, "this ce¡­ It''s the best ce here in the entire fort."

    "You got to be kidding me," William returned to look at the building which had a sign with a name: The Seven Heaven.

    "It''s indeed the best ce to buy potions and pills in the entire Scorching Lands!"

    Just as William was a bit hesitant, a middle-aged man approached from within. He was slim, with a head that had almost no hair at all. He moved out from the building, while wearing a white coat with a stigma on his right chest.

    William saw a big silver cloud, with the number seven in the middle of it, made with golden threads.

    "Is that so?" William felt more unsure about this, "how about elixirs? Do you have lots of it?"

    "Well¡­" When William said his piece, the face of this dude changed slightly, "we got enough to supply the needs of a hundred men if that''s what you are after."

    "A hundred? Only a hundred?" William was taken aback by this.

    "We sell them at a high price," the middle-aged man sighed, "and there isn''t that much demand for them. So, it''s a waste to just overproduce them. However, if you sir needs any pills or potions, we got as many as you want."

    "Hmm¡­" William looked at the ce, as if he was weighing it again, before returning to the middle-aged man, "is it just this ce? Or you got other branches around?"

    "No, this is the only branch we got."

    "I see¡­" William started to have a certain idea in his mind. "I never thought alchemy was this ill-treated in this ce¡­"

    William got a point here. After all, this ce wasn''t the academy, but the main fort of the Scorching Lands. Lots of merchants passed through here, and lots of forces took this ce as their base.

    So William couldn''t get why alchemy here looked this bad. But this wasn''t a bad thing to him. In fact, he even hoped the same situation would be the same for artisans.

    But he doubted this would be the case.

    "Sigh! People here¡­ They eithere from distant ces with their own supplies, or they just look down on our craftsmanship. That''s why our business sucks, and we can''t even hire more talents or keep the ones we have from leaving."

    William''s eyes shone when he heard that, a sign that Thomas noticed and couldn''t help but roll his eyes in response to it. He felt like a fox just got invited into the farm of sheep.

    And that made Thomas give that middle-aged man a look filled with empathy.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William entered the shop of this ce, and there he found many items offered on five different counters, with only three customers there.

    Just seeing this told him how bad the alchemy in this ce was.

    "How can I help sir?" the middle-aged man stopped by William''s side, while feeling little pride in the collection inside this ce, "as sir can tell, we got lots of potions and pills¡­"

    "I only want elixirs," William repeated his request again, "tell me, what elixirs do you have?"

    "Well¡­" the man seemed a bit hesitant, before he went to one counter, got a scroll from it, and returned to William, "everything we got is listed in here, with the amount we can deliver."

    "This¡­ Only this?!!" William knew it was bad, but not that bad. When he opened the scroll, he got to see just seven names, with two digits beside each name.

    "Ahem, aren''t they enough?" the man in front of William felt weird. If not for him catching the news that spread like wildfire, the news about an eleven years old kid and what he did back at the nearby fox cursed residence, then this dude wouldn''t have taken the initiative and went to meet William up.

    "Well¡­ I want one of the elixirs in the list, however¡­" William wanted to say that these elixirs, despite covering up all the essential needs of any spirit masters, were a disgrace for the reputation of elixirs.

    Elixirs were supposed to be a higher-grade form of alchemy, one step higher than potions and pills. They weren''t the best out there in the outer world, but they got their reputation regardless.

    Elixirs were famous to cover up areas where human strengthcked. For example, there were elixirs that would grant anyone powers that he''d never be able to get by normal means.

    Be it spirit elements, spirit affinities, and even spirit power¡­ Elixirs were just the first magical product alchemists managed to produce in the spirit masters'' long history.

    And this¡­ Whenever he saw the list, and no matter how hard he tried to give reasons for the alchemists here, he couldn''t help but feel pathetic and disdainful.

    Even he could do much better than this, if he got enough time and resources indeed.

    "Then why are you speaking like this listcks a lot?" That dude didn''t want to kick such a fat customer away. But at the same time, he didn''t like the attitude William showed.

    "Because it''scking a lot," William''s eyes turned fierce.

    "Speaking as someone who knows alchemy," the man scoffed, "this is the fort, a ce where people love to train and learn fighting techniques, but no alchemy! Do you know how hard it is to nourish just a few disciples? Just to hire a few masters? If we got the ability, then we''d have done more than this!"

    "I agree," William knew all these reasons made sense, "but that isn''t enough as an excuse," he paused, looked around, as the little customers here got attracted by the discussion that was going on here, "if it was me, I''d have turned this ce into a truly formidable and wealthy ce, one that can rival any of the Big Seven."

    "Empty words!"

 Chapter 412 Going On A Hunt

    "Wanna bet?" William didn''t just explode and act in this way out of consideration or impulse. He simply wanted to do something here. And as he said it, that middle aged man didn''t notice the weird look over William''s face, not got what it meant at least like how Thomas did.

    "Sure, why not?" the manughed, "what do you want to bet on?"

    "I believe you already know who I am, right?" William felt it the moment he followed this man inside, he was the owner of this ce. The way other workers here looked at this man was enough to make William jump to this conclusion.

    And if such a man went out of his ce to wee him, that meant one thing. What he did back at his territory must have reached this dude''s ears.

    It wasn''t surprising at all. After all, William got used to how fast news travelled in this fort.

    "Sure, you are the kid who started such a fierce bet out there," the man crossed his arms, "it''s not polite to know your identity and not introduce myself. I''m Alfred, the owner of this ce."

    "I guessed that." William didn''t act humble or hide his thoughts.

    "So, what''s this bet all about?" Alfred gave William a deep look, "is it like the one you just issued back there?"

    "It''s rted to that, somehow¡­ But it''s something slightly different," William looked around before adding, "how about this¡­ If I lived and won the bet at my ce, then why won''t you give me the management of this ce for one year?"

    "One year? Lend you the management? For what?" Alfred felt there were much deeper meanings behind William''s words than what William said.

    "I''ll turn your ce from just a single building with such a bad state into something that''s on par with the Big Seven."

    "..."

    "But that won''t be for free," William turned fully towards Alfred, before adding with a calm expression on his face, "if that happened, then we will be partners, with me having fifty-one percent in total."

    "This¡­ You are after owning and even deciding matters in my ce?" Alfred''s tone showed how much discontent and slightly enraged he was. To him, a kid was hinting that he led this ce in a bad way, in a way that even a kid like this one was able to do much better than himself.

    "That''s just the right price of me putting this ce on the right track," William wasn''t content with his implications, and decided to speak more openly and directly with this dude, "to me, you really suck in managing this ce."

    "Great, just great," Alfred was fuming with rage, "and what if you failed? What will I get in return?"

    "My ce out there," William pointed towards the direction of his territory. And before Alfred would say anything, William added, "by then, this ce won''t be the cursed fox residence everyone feared. It''ll be all cleared, and it''ll turn into one of the most iconic ces in the entire fort."

    Alfred was about to mock William for giving out such a cursed ce in return for losing the bet. However, when he heard William''s words, he realised something.

    William proposed such a deal after his sess in dealing with the bet about his ce. And that meant if he seeded and survived, he''d clear that ce from all traps and deadly things inside.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    That meant one thing¡­ That ce would turn from being the most abandoned and feared ce in the entire fort to the hottest cake in the eyes of everyone.

    "We shall sign a contract now," Alfred knew more than that. He was a merchant after all, and he could tell how huge William''s gains would be in case he won that bet.

    What prevented him and others in his profession from rising up? It was indeed the reasons he stated before, but on top of that came theck of wealth and money. If such a rich tycoon decided to support his ce, then even if he failed, he''d give him a much better ce than what it was at right now.

    In Alfred''s eyes, this was just a hot offer than only a damn fool would say no to. And that was precisely the crux of William''s trap for him.

    "I have no issue about that," William paused before pointing towards the scroll in his hands, "but bring me first the life water elixir, all the bottles you have."

    "Sure," Alfred paused, "we got thirty bottles, each is sold at market price of one hundred thousand spirit crystals. But for you, as a token of my good will, you can get it for half price."

    "Deal," William calcted and found out that he had to pay just two of his spirit gems, and he''d still get five hundred thousand spirit crystals, "prepare them and the contract. Let''s finalise everything as soon as possible."

    "Give me an hour," Alfred pointed towards a ce that had a curtain covering it, "you can rest there. I''ll make sure to get things done fast."

    "Well¡­" William knew there was a chance for him to do more business in this fort, "I have other things to do. Give me an hour before Ie here again."

    "Ok," Alfred wanted to ask about what William wanted to do, but he refrained from asking. When he watched William vanish out of his ce, a crazy thought popped up in his mind.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ He is going to other ces like mine¡­" Alfred got scared by such a thought. And so he fetched one of his workers to go and follow William, providing him with intel about his next moves.

    "Master, someone from there is trailing us."

    And just as the two of them walked out of the Seven Heaven ce, Thomas noticed the worker Alfred sent after them.

    "Let him be," William could already guess what was going on.

    "But master¡­"

    "It''s harmless to let him tag along."

    "I didn''t mean that," Thomas knew his master got his intentions wrong, "I was asking about our next destination."

    "We are going on a hunt."

 Chapter 413 A Weird Situation

    William''s eyes shone brightly, and his face showed how excited he was about what was going to happen.

    And seeing this look made Thomas feel quite bad and restless.

    "Tell me, there are those alchemists here, then how about artisans? Is there any gathering of them?"

    "Well¡­" Thomas didn''t get William''s intentions, "artisans aren''t in a better way than alchemists. And that''s because of what Alfred said before."

    William got what Thomas wanted to say. Peopleing here already had their own supplies from the ces they came from. Not to mention those who were rich enough got higher grade stuff from ces that were much better than here.

    Comparing a fort with the capital of a kingdom? That was indeed quite unfair. And that was why people here didn''t get much from this fort. And that was why William decided to act fast.

    William noticed something from his meeting with Alfred, the news about his bet already got spread all over the fort. And that made Alfred quite anxious to close this deal fast, even to the extent of sending someone to track William.

    William was excited that he secured such a gem. A ce filled with experienced alchemists? That''d save him lots of time and trouble. Not to mention he wouldn''t pay a single penny to get this ce.

    All he''d do was toe up with new forms and give them to the alchemists of this ce. The most he''d do would be teaching a few tricks and new techniques to the selected few, to let them make better elixirs, potions, and pills.

    He''d suffer little loss at first, to purchase lots of materials. But coupled with the great fame he''d acquire after winning the bet, and with the new potions, pills, and elixirs produced by his alchemy branch, then business was destined to boom.

    Being equal to one of the Big Seven in one year? William was positive that in less than one month, this ce would reach such a stage and even much higher.

    He didn''t set his eyes over the ce of the shop here. He got a much better ce. And so, he nned to invite all the alchemists from Alfred''s shop and let them go and work at his ce. As for this shop, he''d remodel it entirely, turning it into a selling outlet for their final products.

    Good publicity with great fame and new products that everyone would need made William quite confident in this move. And made him even a little greedy, aiming for securing another gem, artisans.

    In the eyes of spirit masters in this tiny world, artisans and alchemists were simply weak and pretty useless. But William would teach these spirit masters how scary alchemists and artisans could be.

    "Is there any artisan shop nearby? One as good as the Seven Heaven?" William asked while walking calmly forward.

    "There is also something simr to the gathering of the alchemists in this fort, but they aren''t here," Thomas paused, looking to the west before adding, "we need to go to another street."

    "Lead the way then," William was ecstatic about this. He didn''t know if the artisan shop owner would be easy to deal with like Alfred or not. But he wanted to try. And if he seeded, then all he needed to do was to crush the traps in that fox residence, win the bet, and start a mega business n.

    Yet things didn''t turn out the same way he expected.

    "Sorry, we won''t ept any customers today!"

    "No, we are closing!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Leave, we don''t need any cursed people toe in here."

    William followed Thomas around, passing through side streets until reaching another big one.

    There were too many shops there, few were selling gears, many were selling herbs and ores. But no matter which Forging shop he visited, he ended up being literally kicked out.

    And that made William frown after facing such treatment in five stalls.

    "What''s going on?" Even Thomas couldn''t help but mutter in doubt, "something is wrong. Something is very wrong."

    "Yes, and I know what it is," William turned around, to look at the one that Alfred sent after him, "let''s go back."

    William already guessed what happened. And despite that, he didn''t show any sign of anger or frustration.

    If someone wanted to dig a hole for himself, then William wouldn''t have a say in that. He simply returned back to the Seven Heaven shop, where he saw Alfred waiting for him outside with a broad smile on his face.

    "You are smiling as if what you did is funny or something," William didn''t go easy on that dude and just said this in a cold way.

    "What? Don''t me me for worrying about my business!" Alfred was indeed the one behind the weird situation William and Thomas just faced at the artisan shops.

    It was just like how William guessed it. The worker Alfred sent after him informed Alfred about their change in direction and heading towards another big street.

    William didn''t need to ask to know that there were other rivalling alchemy shops there. And that made Alfred wreck his mind,e up with a perfect lie to scare others away from William.

    But in the middle of his panic of letting such a deal escape his clutches, he overdid it and let this lie spread over other professional circles.

    "What exactly did you tell everyone?" William went inside the shop, to find out no one else was there, "where are the customers? Where are the workers?"

    "Ahem¡­"

    "You sent everyone to spread rumours about me?!" William turned to face Alfred, and that dude seemed like a thief caught in the middle of his crime or something.

    "Don''t me me¡­"

    "I''m not," William shrugged, and his face turned to show a vicious smile, one that didn''t suit a kid like him at all, "you are just going to take responsibility for what you did."

    "I was preventing you from dealing with other alchemists, why would I take responsibility then?"

 Chapter 414 You Have To Fix This!

    "That''s because¡­" William paused, knowing that this dude wasn''t aware of what he just did wrong, "I wasn''t looking for alchemists, but artisans."

    "What?!!!"

    Itnded over Alfred''s ears like thunder and lightning. Williamughed, taking amusement from the funny expression over that dude''s face.

    Alfred got what bad he did just out of his fear. In the middle of his panic, he didn''t make sure about William''s next target. And when he spread the rumours, he didn''t even try to control and limit it to his circle of profession.

    He never thought that William was after artisans or something, only feared his deal would be stolen and got deadly worried over his shop''s future.

    He didn''t believe that William would win this bet, but he was sure of William''s ability to transform his shop and even give him a free golden piece ofnd on top of that.

    Of course, that was on the condition that William would pass through the uing bet around his territory. He did all this because he wasn''t the type who''d take risks in his career and business.

    But this time¡­ He f*cked up! And just from the look on his face, even Thomas felt sorry for him.

    "I''m¡­"

    "I don''t need to hear your apologies," William rolled his eyes, "I want you to fix what you did."

    "This¡­"

    "See¡­" William''s smile turned into a grin, "I wanted to go around and meet up with one artisan group, asking them to join my side and have the same kind of deal like what you got. But someone messed things for me, and that dude has to fix things up."

    "..." Alfred wasn''t an idiot or stupid, he got what William wanted from him, "give me a day, I''ll see what I can do."

    "You got one hour," William raised his finger in the air, "if you didn''t do it by then, if you failed to convince one big group of artisans to work with me on the same conditions as yours, then forget about my visit here and our little deal."

    "Wait¡­"

    Once William said his piece, he instantly turned around and started to walk away. Alfred panicked more than ever, had his face turn all red out of frustration and rage.

    He wasn''t mad at William, but at his worker and himself. He was quite rash and missed William''s real intentions, ending up for him to risk losing everything.

    "I''ve a friend, one who owns a big artisan group. I can convince him to join."

    "What''s the name of this group?" William paused in his tracks when Alfred appeared and blocked his path forward. This was just all an act from him, wanting to pressure Alfred and let him solve this mess as soon as possible.

    "It''s the Blue Hammer group," Alfred said, and William didn''t just answer him as he turned towards Thomas.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And thetter nodded. "They are a good artisan group, one with a good reputation," Thomas said, confirming Alfred''s choice.

    "Cool," William sped his hands together, "go and convince him then. Ah, before I''d forget, where are my elixirs?"

    "Here," Alfred already got everything ready and prepared in a ring. And when William saw the ring, he couldn''t help but sigh.

    "I should open a stall to sell all these rings one day," he thought to himself, knowing that he got around fifty rings or even more by now.

    He epted the ring, took two spirit gems out, and handed them to Alfred, "prepare the rest in terms of healing potions."

    "All of them?!" This was indeed quite the number of potions.

    "I want the best grade possible," William didn''t want just normal healing potions, but the ones like what he got before from Ellina and Ben. such potions were just life and time saving for him. And he wanted more of these.

    "Well¡­ If we are speaking about gold grade potions, then they can be sold to you at a price of five thousand crystals each. If we are talking about dark gold ones, then the cheapest price I can offer is fifteen thousand."

    "Get me a mix of these two then," William didn''t have any special requirements about his healing potions aside from these two grades, "I''ll be at the territory arranging my bet. If you got things done, thene and meet me up with that dude of yours in one hour. If you got dyed, then don''t me me for dropping everything we agreed upon."

    "No, I''ll go and drag that dude over here at once!" Alfred shouted, and even left fast. He vanished from his shop and didn''t care about anything inside getting stolen or something.

    "This¡­" and when William saw this, he couldn''t help but frown. In his eyes, all this, all the potions and pills here were his.

    "Master, don''t worry, shops are guarded by long distance arrays," Thomas noticed how William reacted to what Alfred did, "so he can shut down any ess here even if he was far away."

    "Ah, that makes sense then," William nodded, "let''s go. It''s time for those from the Refos group to be there."

    William walked out of the Seven Heaven shop and went back towards the direction of his property. Just in a couple minutes, he had to stop as the path forward was all blocked.

    "This¡­" William looked around. Up to the end of his sight, people were standing there, seemingly blocking any path forward.

    "Thomas," William didn''t need to ask to get what happened. News just spread, and as he desired, many flooded here.

    The more appeared, the better it''d be for him. The more peopleing to watch the bet, the more people who''d actually be enticed and grew greedy to take part in the bet. And that''d end up for him to gain much more than what he initially expected.

    But he had first to pass through all these people and arrive at his property''s gate.

    "Make way! The owner of this ce, the one who issued the bet, the all famous master William is here!"

 Chapter 415 Remy

    Thomas got what his master wanted and shouted on the top of his lungs at the surrounding people.

    "William?! So, his name is William?"

    "He is here!"

    "Open path! Let him pass, let''s get this starting!"

    "I''m dying to see what''s going to happen, how he''s going to die!"

    "Yes, me too, hahahaha! It''ll be fun!"

    Thomas was slightly enraged, but a single warning nce from William made this dude control himself. The people started to part ways, creating a space for him and Thomas to pass through.

    As the two passed, they heard many whispers and loudments like the ones they heard before. And when William arrived at his territory''s gate, he lost count of how many insults and rudements he heard, and most were hoping to see him die.

    After all, most if not all of those here came to bet against his sess.

    "Master! You are here!" and when he arrived there, he saw Trevor standing with a group of twenty-five men and women. And as Trevor shouted like this, everyone turned to look at William.

    "Wee," William looked at them as he slowly added, "I believe you got what I want you all to do here, right?"

    William didn''t inform Trevor about what he wanted to do here in detail. But news already spread over the fort. And it''d be quite surprising if these people didn''t get wind of what he intended to do.

    "Hi sir William, my name is Remy," one of the people sent by the Refos stepped up, a refined looking, youngdy. William estimated her by the looks to be in her mid-twentieth, but he felt like she was in her fortieth or something.

    "Hi Remy," William nodded in greeting, "do you know why you are all here?"

    "Sure," Remy took out a scroll, with lots of words written there, "we also prepared the contract based on the terms your man here proposed."

    William admired how fast the Refos group worked. News spread just at the same time he sent Trevor over, and yet they were ready with a contract.

    William took the scroll, read through it, and made sure everything was ok.

    They ced the conditions and terms of this deal right. Be it his own or the ones who''d bet over his death and failure would win, the Refos group were going to get thirty-five percent of the totalmission.

    And themission was decided to be ten percent of the overall wealth ced in this deal. When William looked around, imagined the final number of spirit crystals involved in this bet to be in the hundreds of millions, or even might reach a staggering one billion mark, he couldn''t help but admire the machinations of the Refos group.

    They made sure no matter who''d win or lose, they''d end up being one of the winners. And that wasn''t all. If the total number of spirit crystals here reached one billion, then themission alone would be one hundred million crystals, with the Refos group taking thirty-five million and he''d take the rest.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And it wasn''t only that. If William died, and as he didn''t have any sessors in the fort, then the rest would be kept in the Refos group as ownerless wealth, with permission for them to take over them.

    In other terms, in case William lost and died, they''d end up having one hundred million spirit crystals on the spot without the need to even break a single sweat or suffer anything.

    That was why merchants were so scary.

    But William knew they were at least putting some effort in return for such an expected high return.

    They didn''t just bring twenty-five experienced merchants here to supervise and rule over this huge event, but they also brought hundreds of strong and fierce looking guards.

    When William passed through the people gathered here, he had to go through lines of guards who blocked the way for anyone to reach the gate or the merchants of the Refos group.

    They thought about everything and prepared the stage for such an event. And that would save William lots of headaches.

    The only thing that stopped them from starting to ept bids and such was the contract. And William simply used his spirit power to sign it on the spot, making it valid.

    "We are good to go," Remy chuckled in happiness when William signed the contract, "good luck. In fact, we at the Refos group hope you''d win this."

    She even winked at him, before she started to work with her teammates.

    William stood on the side, watching what was going on around. These people were pros in their career and knew what to do.

    The first thing they did was to divide themselves into smaller teams. One team stayed behind, holding lots of scrolls and even took a few desks and seats out.

    They were the ones supposed to take note of all the bets and record them. Not only that, one of them took out a grand board, one that was made entirely of special ore.

    William recognised this board, as it was simr to the ones he saw before at the Mercenary department at the academy. Yet this one looked a bit advanced, made out of much higher-grade ores than the ones at the academy.

    William saw the ck board starting to show golden numbers and words, with two sides on it. One side expressed the bidding odds on his win, and the other showed the odds of his loss.

    Right now both were the same, at one to one. William knew this was going to change in the uing few hours. And he didn''t care about how much the final odds would be.

    He already got the solution for the big dilemma regarding Thomas'' technique. And he was quite confident in his ability to decipher and crush all the traps left by the ancient fox.

    The fact that this dude left a message for him, mentioning William by name, meant that William got the ability to crack all the traps and purify this entire ce, ending up obtaining the message left by the ancient fox.

 Chapter 416 [Bonus ] The Fox Guild

    What he cared about was the final cut he''d get from this bet. He hoped not many crazy folks would be here, bidding on his win, taking big chunks of his share.

    "Master, what shall we do now?" Trevor asked while watching other teams go forward, meet up the people gathered here, and started to take bids.

    The team responsible for storing up all the crystals were heavily guarded by a team of dark gold guards. This was the strongest force anyone would ever dream to have as guards. And that told William how serious these folks from the Refos group were.

    "We will do nothing," William looked at the densely packed people, and he knew there were much more about to flood here. "By the way, I might need some help from you."

    And just as he was looking at such a grand gathering of people, William knew this was a perfect chance for propaganda.

    "Anything master," the poor Trevor didn''t know what he asked for. And in the next ten minutes, he was walking in between the densely gathered folks here, shouting one slogan:

    "The new Fox Guild is going to open slots to join after the bet is over. Our home is there, and our master is the one who arranged such a grand bet. Join the future, join the dream team, be part of the guild before you won''t get such a chance again¡­"

    Trevor kept repeating the words William made sure he''d memorise by heart. And from far, Thomas just thanked his luck he had another task to do, or else he''d be doing such an embarrassing task like Trevor.

    Thetter didn''t feel that ashamed actually, especially when William promised him one hundred thousand crystals if he managed to lure in a hundred spirit masters of gold grade after the end of the bet event.

    William knew no one would even consider joining him at this point. Butter on, and when he''d win everything, this propaganda would prove its worth and value, bringing new spirit masters to join his guild.

    He didn''t struggle to think about a good name for his guild. He got the fox spirit, and this ce was famous by the fox name as well. William just wanted to use the infamy of this ce and turn it to his favour.

    But he got to admit to himself that seeing Trevor doing this, walking in the middle of all the many people around, shouting such slogans and words was a bit funny.

    "Sir William, our guards have met people at the outer zone of here," and just in half an hour, Remy came and added, "one of them called Alfred. He says he is a friend of yours, and you are expecting him."

    William got that the Refos group didn''t just spread people from this side, but they also worked at the outer area of the grand gathering here and kept order there.

    He didn''t know if they started taking bids from there as well or not. "He is a friend of mine indeed, and I''m waiting for him," William paused, "please let hime here with whoever is with him."

    "Ok," Remy was professional. And after getting what she wanted to know from William, she returned to supervise everything happening around.

    William admired her management ability, and hoped he''d find someone in the uing wave of talents who could be on her par and level.

    "Master, can I bet?" And as William waited for the arrival of Alfred and his friend, Thomas suddenly asked.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Sure," Thomas already got William''s permission to do that, "go to Remy directly and let her arrange your bid. And tell her to add my own bid as well."

    "Ten million, right?" Thomas asked, and William nodded. William watched Thomas speaking with Remy and dealing with his bid, before he noticed Alfred and two new faces walking by his side.

    They were one man and a woman, both had tough expressions and looked quite serious.

    William could already sniff the smell of the burning ores and fire from them, not to mention their stained uniform with ck stains which must havee from dealing with fire and melted ores all day and night.

    "I see you are creating a big ruckus here," Alfred came with a big smile on his face, "I brought two of my dearest friends here as I promised."

    "Sorry for the trouble," William cupped his hands in greetings towards the two new masters in front of him. And the male cupped his hands back, while the female kept watching him up and down.

    "An eleven years old kid you are," the female master paused, before crossing her arms, showing off her muscles there, "you seem like how Alfred told us about¡­ Looking weak and innocent from the surface, but a vicious wolf from the inside."

    "A fox," William corrected her, "I''m a fox not a wolf."

    "Both are the same in my eyes," thedy scoffed, "William you are, right? I''m Landy, and I''m here to see through the scheme you tricked my dear Alfred here to fall in."

    "Scheme? What scheme?" William knew that thisdy suspected something. But he still acted all innocent.

    "I heard you offered something that looked too good to be true," Landy didn''t change the look over her face, kept looking in doubt towards William, "and I learnt through my life that nothing like that is true or without a trap."

    "I''m not ying with Alfred or you," William added the two artisans in his talk about his deal, "the terms are clear, and the conditions are simple. What''s there to be doubtful about?"

    "You," Landy was more direct as she pointed at William, "you don''t give me a good impression."

    "Because I''m a kid?"

    "Because you are a kid acting like an old man!" Landy raised one eyebrow, "and I hate those acting out of their character."

    "Hahahaha!" Williamughed, ignored Landy for now and turned to Alfred, "are we going to sign the deal or not?"

 Chapter 417 Mining Groups

    "Sure, I brought my two good friends, Landy and Andy, to meet you."

    "Siblings?" William muttered, but Landy scoffed as she corrected him.

    "A husband and wife!"

    "Then prepare a contract the same as the one between the two of us," William paused, moving his eyes over the husband and wife, "one that involves their shop."

    "Who said we are going to work with you?" Landy kept acting aggressive, but William already saw through their little game here.

    One kept his silence, observing and analysing, while the other kept teasing and taunting. "If you don''t want to sign, then you are free to go. I hate wasting my time more than anything¡­"

    William didn''t stop there, turned towards Alfred as he added, "and you are still obliged to bring me other artisan shop owners to sign the deal."

    "I already¡­" Alfred was about to defend himself, but William simply gazed at him and crossed his arms, in a move that made thetter pause and swallow what he wanted to say.

    "Alfred, why are you acting this nicely with such a kid? He is a kid!" Landy seemed to be absorbed in her role to look like the bad one.

    "That''s because he spread ill rumours about me, right Alfred?" William kept his stance firm as he looked at Landy, "and if not for what he did, you two wouldn''t have been informed wrongly about me."

    "We heard the truth, and we only care about facts!" Landy argued, and William snorted.

    "Per facts, I''m offering you a golden chance to raise your business without paying a single penny in return for it."

    "I told you, it''s too good to be true!"

    "But it is!" William rolled his eyes, turned to Andy, who kept his silence all this time and added, "what''s your final decision? If you don''t want to, I''m pretty damn sure lots of others are willing!"

    "..."

    Andy looked at his wife, and Landy scoffed and didn''t speak. William knew he didn''t give any of these two a reason to be suspicious about this deal. Even if they felt something was off, they couldn''t pinpoint what it was.

    And frankly there wasn''t! William was just aiming towards absorbing their business alongside Alfred and starting something huge.

    He didn''t just aim for wealth. He knew after this betting event, and coupled with the uing auction of his cores, he wouldn''t think about spirit crystals for a long time.

    He wanted nothing right now more than to have a strong foundation for his guild and teams. He didn''t want his teams to just have normal gears and potions. He wanted them to have the strongest gears and most useful potions in the entire world.

    Not to mention using these two shops, he''d start slowly pulling the higher ups in this fort towards his side. William knew dreaming about luring this fort under his arms was going to be impossible for now. But that wouldn''t prevent him fromying out the foundations for his future ns.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "We will sign the contract," as Landy kept her silence, despite showing her discontent, Andy knew she agreed on closing the deal.

    They thought they could pressure William using such an attitude. But when they dealt with William, they knew how futile such an idea was.

    "Provided that it''s the same conditions as Alfred!" Andy added, as if she wanted to add her touch on everything.

    "It''s the same kind of deal," William rolled his eyes, "but first¡­ Tell me how big your ce is? How many artisans do you have? And what''s the mainstream products you got? And the strongest?"

    William asked about the general information about their ce. And as he heard what Landy said next, he got to learn about how bad their situation here was.

    It wasn''t any better than the situation of Alfred''s ce, and it was just the overall bad state of the entire forging situation in the fort.

    By logic, being in the heart of such a great trading route, it was a great chance for evolution. However, facts and reality proved otherwise.

    As they always gotpared with other grand ces, they sucked in securing any great deals for generations! The strongest gears they could make were dark gold, but they were allmon weapons and gears.

    They didn''t have blueprints of any great gears, not to mention the boosts given by these gears and weapons weren''t that greatpared with others made by outsiders.

    That made the general sales plummet and not be enough to keep many artisans in their ce. Not to mention the struggle to get materials with good prices, and that made them establish their own mining groups.

    "... We hire lots of people to go out and excavate mines. We buy the entire mountain and risk paying a high price without knowing what reallyid in there in the first ce," Landy ended her long talk by saying this.

    And hearing this point made William''s eyes shine.

    "So you have many mining groups? How many exactly?" The three didn''t get what was special about that look on William''s face. But to Thomas who just returned from cing his bid, he realised his master found another great chance. And he nned to not let it slip by his hands.

    And that was what William intended to do right now.

    "We have enough," Landy didn''t get why William was asking about this point, showing interest in such useless groups, "but they are useless! Out of all of the mountains we bought, we only gained ores from less than ten percent of them. And these ores were all low-grade ones to begin with."

    William didn''t ce any of what Landy said in his mind, "so it''s safe to assume that you got enough to work on several mountains at the same time?"

    "That''s what we do," Landy shrugged, "that''s what all of the artisan groups here do. But it''s not a good thing, I''m telling you, it''s a bottomless pit for money."

    "Cool," William made ns for such groups in the future but kept such ns and thoughts in his mind. Only his shining eyes exposed his intentions over to Thomas, as thetter inwardly sighed.

    "My master is like a treasure hunter, anywhere he goes he''d find a way to extort people and gain profit¡­ Does he hail from a merchant family or what?!"

 Chapter 418 Well Bet On Your Success

    Thomas was feeling more surprised by William. "Let''s sign the contracts then," William noticed how Thomas kept gazing up at him, and decided to ignore that dude for now, "but we''ll add a little extra use for the mining teams."

    "This¡­" William''s request came as a source of puzzlement for everyone standing around, including Thomas, "you do know they are already a property of our brand, right?" Andy stepped in, trying to get what William wanted to do here.

    "I want to separate them," William paused, "they aren''t in essence part of yours. They are just groups hired and working under your name."

    "But they work on the ces we buy from the fort," Andy kept pushing for exnation, "what''s the point in separating them? Besides, they are already a waste! We were discussing how to end such spirit crystals bleeding from their useless role in our business."

    "I want them to be separated," William didn''t exin much, "they won''t be hired on a monthly basis, but they''ll be asked to join part of a team that''ll operate under me."

    "This¡­"

    "At the end of the day, they''ll still get hired by you," William shrugged, "and if things went as I nned, and luck was by my side, then I''d end up being partner with you two, right? So you won''t lose anything in the end."

    What he said didn''t reveal anything about his intentions towards them.

    "I find no issue in doing that," Alfred acted like a middleman here, speaking to his two friends, "you already wanted to cut their part in your business."

    "And he shall do the same!" Landy argued, "they are quite useless."

    "I''ll handle things for one year," William knew these two were still not fully aware about the implications of this deal, "and during this time, everything rted to your business will be handed over and ruled by me."

    "But¡­"

    "It''s my spirit crystals I''m spending here. If I wanted, I could throw them in the river or even burn them," William added this to make it clear about things between him and these two. He wanted to show them who was the boss after signing this contract, and how he''d run things.

    He''d do things his way, without cing any of their opinions high or take them into consideration or anything.

    And when he stated his intentions in such a clear way, some sort of heavy pressure and silence appeared in the area.

    "Ahem, let''s sign the contracts then," Alfred cleared his throat, took out four copies of contracts, and added, "we have everything ready here. But we''ll add the new use to these two."

    The moment William saw the ready copies of the contracts, he confirmed his early doubts about these two.

    They just acted as if they didn''t buy any of what he said before. Yet they were already agreeing on working with him. And who wouldn''t?<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Fine," Andy decided, and Landy couldn''t help but scoff and said nothing.

    Alfred took the charge of adding this use, while the other two kept their silence, watching what Alfred wrote.

    "It''s ready," Alfred handed one copy of each contract to William to read, while the other copies were with him, Andy, and Landy.

    "It''s all good," William signed the contracts after revising them, "now you can stay here and bid if you like."

    "That''s what we nned to do," Landy said, beforeughing, "we''ll bet on your sess."

    "This¡­ Aren''t you the one who kept speaking bad on me and didn''t trust me? Why would you do that? Bet against me, don''t ce your bids on me!" William didn''t know what to do or say, felt more shocked about what thisdy just said.

    "Hahahaha! We''ll bet on your sess, as by that we''ll have the most out of this deal," sheughed, even pointing at him as if she was enjoying the reaction on his face, "what? Did you think you were the only one enjoying this hot cake alone? Come on! Just from the number of people gathered here, I''m sure this event will have billions of spirit crystals on stake! Don''t be greedy, and don''t think you''ll get all of this alone."

    "..." William got that what he thought about was already grasped by few intelligent people here. But when he thought about the ratio of such people, he knew they wouldn''t lose much of his cut.

    There was indeed too much for everyone here. And he just had to ept his share getting slightly lowered than what he initially imagined.

    "Sir William, are you going to ce your bids now or¡­" Remy came after three hours and asked this first.

    As the three went to ce their bids, William stood with Thomas, watching in silence the circus that was going on around.

    During the past three hours, more people came and joined the party. The guards from the Refos group seemed pretty experienced at handling such situations. They started to push people who ced their bids back in organised fashion, while allowing others to step forward and join the fun.

    p¦Ánd¦Á`no¦Í?1~§ão§® William lost count on how many people actually came. And just at thest hour alone, he saw hundreds of huge caravansing from far away. They seemed like the merchants who heard about what was going on here and decided to return to the fort and take part in such a big event.

    William was now sure that his and others'' initial assessment of having billions of spirit crystals here wasn''t going to happen. He saw one merchant just a few minutes ago ce a huge bid of five hundred million spirit crystals over his loss. And that was just a bid from one person!

    During this, and while William waited with Thomas, the Golden Fork restaurant delivered a meal to him and his twopanions. William ate and enjoyed watching this festival while Trevor just ate fast, and hurriedly returned to shout and spread the name of the guild over the ears of everyone here.

    And Thomas stood on the side, all silent, praying his luck inside about not getting the same torturing task as Trevor.

 Chapter 419 Accidently Triggering The Traps

    "Here," William got one ring of the many he got, "there are ten million spirit crystals there."

    "Thanks," Remy received the ring, and handed it over to one of the people responsible for gathering the bids. As the number of people gathered here grew, the Refos group sent reinforcements to help.

    The total number of working merchants here exceeded one hundred already, yet they still were led by Remy. As for guards, hundreds more were added, and that told William the number of spirit crystals involved here reached an unimaginable scale.

    "When are you going to start?" This was the main goal of Remy''sing here in the first ce.

    "Hmm¡­ I''m going to start in a few minutes," William knew he already reached the five hours deadline he decided before, "but keep the bidding going. The process of clearing this ce will take long hours, even days!"

    "Ok!" Remy''s face beamed with a bright smile, "make us proud and clear the traps safely."

    "That''s what I n to do," William smiled in return, before turning to Thomas and added, "I''m going inside, use an attack, and then you''ll follow after ten minutes. Notice if anything happening inside would appear to those outside."

    "Got it!"

    This was one of the main concerns of William since he started this circus. He didn''t want anyone to know about his fox spirit, or his abilities and way of fighting.

    If things inside would appear to those out there, then William would think of a way to seal his actions off the prying eyes.

    But he didn''t think the old fox would leave his ce open for anyone. William just wanted to be sure, and then he started to walk into his ce.

    William stopped just ten metres away from the gate, got out his bow and one of his arrows.

    "I need to find time and make more of these," he knew he had little arrows left, not enough for him to enter a battle. And that was expected. He was using the arrows he made back at the Forging department of the academy all this time.

    And that made him realise he got more chances in making better arrows. He was going to get enough wealth after all this, not to mention the strategic ce of this fort.

    Finding any ore here wasn''t a problem. And if things went smooth, he''d also gain capable and experienced artisans on his side to make whatever he wanted.

    *Boom!*

    He simply released the arrow, let it fly and fell at a spot hundreds of metres away. It was void of anything, so it wasn''t supposed to leave behind much damage.

    But to his surprise, another thing happened.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Rumble!*

    Just as his arrownded, the entire spot itnded at trembled and quaked, looking like it was made out of soft jelly or something.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The arrow released a ball of fire in the air, but the traps it activated released pirs of fire, so high enough to reach one hundred metre distance.

    It was scary! And the scariest thing was that the spot itnded at got caved in, before andslide started to appear there.

    The earth didn''t look like a normal piece ofnd. It kept twitching and trembling, while releasing different explosions, ranging in ferocity, all were quite deadly, all got triggered with just one arrow.

    "Damn me! That old fox was indeed crazy!" William thanked his luck that he released this arrow far from his spot. And thanks to that, he didn''t suffer any damage.

    But that wasn''t the case for the area that the arrow hit. In a radius of a hundred metres, the entire ground changed, filled with gaps like deep scars.

    Not to mention the myriad of explosions that gotunched from there, enough to take down any dark gold spirit master for sure.

    William now realised why this ce got such infamy. Without the right way to deactivate all this, who''d ever try and purge this ce out of traps? No, who''d be courageous enough, dare to set foot here, knowing that at any second a deadly attack would kick in and kill him?

    "I need to test it again," William just released that arrow to see if people outside saw anything happening here or not. But now, his thoughts drifted away and started to focus over something else.

    He took another arrow, ced it in his bow, and aimed again at the same spot.

    He wanted to see if after triggering a group of traps, danger would get cleared or not. And soon enough he got the answer.

    "Damn that fox! He indeed made sure no one woulde here and take over his ce!" The next wave of explosions wasn''t any weaker than the first. And the ground showed more cracks and devastation than before.

    That proved to William that triggering these traps wouldn''t affect them at all. In fact, he felt like the second wave was a bit stronger than the first.

    "So, I had to find another way than just triggering these traps from far," William had this idea before. Yet from his idental experiment here, he got valuable intel about such idea.

    "If triggering them won''t do, then I have to analyse the entire structure of these traps¡­" he turned around and started to walk back to the outside.

    And when he passed through the gate, another world of excitement and chaos appeared in front of his eyes.

    Everywhere his eyes fell, he heard lots of cheers and shouts, saw lots of people celebrating, seemingly happy about what just happened.

    "These people are crazy," William shook his head, before turning around, looking for someone.

    "Master, what happened inside got felt and heard by everyone here, but nothing appeared at all. No one saw what you did," Thomas approached William, thinking that he was looking for him.

    "Great," William just nodded to him, before finally his eyesnded on the person he wanted to meet, "go and tell Remy toe and meet me."

 Chapter 420 Drawing Is The Way

    "Ok," Thomas realised that his master wasn''t looking for him, but for Remy. and soon, that refined lookingdy appeared in front of William.

    "You really know how to entice the audience," she chuckled as she approached with Thomas, motioning her head towards the crazy folks around, "minutes ago they wereining, and now they are shouting in excitement. That''s a great skill if you asked me."

    "I didn''t intend for any of this to happen," William shrugged, before finally adding what he wanted her to do, "I want a desk, lots of scrolls, in different sizes, and enough ink pots and brushes."

    "This¡­" the expression over Remy''s face was priceless. She thought he''d ask for anything else, but never thought about any of this, "what for?"

    "It''s my business,"

    "Ok," Remy wanted to know, but something told her she wouldn''t get an answer from William. And so, she simply retreated and started to arrange what William demanded.

    "Are we going to use these in there?" Thomas was different from Remy. After all, he was going in there with William and was going to help in deactivating the traps.

    "You''ll see inside," William nodded, moving his eyes around, feeling more excited about this betting event.

    The show he didn''t intend to do left behind a deep impression over everyone standing here. It was just like how Remy said, a good teaser that made people here all excited and thrilled.

    The ones who were standing at the rear, those who already ced their bids, were feeling bored. But now? They started to get hyped up after what William did.

    William saw many people flooding here from the horizon, and it seemed this ce was going to be crowded for a long time.

    "Here," Remy was indeed a pro. In less than ten minutes, she returned with a ring, the same ring William gave to her before, "everything you asked for is in here. And it''s on the house."

    "Enjoy the show," William got the ring, inspected its contents to find tons of scrolls inside, with many ink bottles, and few desks and seats.

    He just asked for one desk and got ten of them. He didn''t even ask for any seat, but Remy was attentive towards this point.

    "Let''s go," as William got what he wanted, it was time to start the big event. He went in there under the cheering chorus of all the people outside.

    Without the need to say anything, all of the people here got what was going to happen.

    William entered his territory to notice that not a single voice of what thundered out there appeared inside. And that told him a lot about how great the arrays here were.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "We are going to do it this way," William took out a desk, arge stack of scrolls, a brush and one ink bottle. He ced everything on the desk, before pointing towards the distance, "you''ll use your technique for a minute, cancel it, and then draw what you saw."

    "This¡­" Thomas never expected this was the n of his master, "the world when I saw it before was like a gigantic gxy of stars! How can I do it?"

    "It''s easy," William looked at the vast area of his territory before adding, "start with the first stars closest to here. Don''t look at the generalyout in a whole but focus only over the first ten lines and their stars. Take your time in doing this."

    "But¡­"

    *Thud!* William took one bottle of elixirs out, "you are going to deplete your spirit power once every half a minute. Drink one droplet of this elixir before starting your technique."

    "Is it enough?!" Thomas didn''t want to suffer anything like what happened to him before.

    p¦Ánd¦Á`no¦Í?1~§ão§® "This is an elixir not some useless potion," William rolled his eyes, knowing that this youth here didn''t even taste a single elixir ever before in his life, "a single drop of this canst for hours! That''s why you can take your time slowly. Make sure to memorise stars and threads linking them, then draw all this over these scrolls. It''s just simple like this."

    "Got it!" Thomas felt more confident when heard what Wiliam just said. He didn''t experience any elixirs before as William suspected. After all, for someone like him, affording the price was out of his league.

    "Let''s start then," William didn''t know if this method would work or not. But if trying to detonate the traps failed, then the only option he got was to analyse the generalyout of the entire trap system here.

    Something told him that dude of ancient times knew lots about him. And if so, then this dude would leave behind a way to crack these traps, a way that only William would be able to understand.

    Thomas started to activate his technique after taking a single droplet of the elixir. As William said, the moment he took this drop, he felt like he got a furnace inside his spirit.

    He felt like he got ess to an endless supply of spirit power, one that could satisfy his needs not only for hours, but for days.

    As he got such a feeling, his worries vanished in thin air. He started to focus more on checking the world around, seeing the shing stars and threads not as scary as before.

    "Good boy," William stood by the side and watched Thomas start drawing on the scrolls. Thomas kept his eyes over the world around, before turning to the scroll and started drawing.

    In Thomas'' eyes, everything was connected by karma. And that made the scroll and desk, the ink bottle and brush, only linked to William, looking different in his eyes than the world around.

    He didn''t need to shut down his technique and kept doing this for hours! William knew this could be done, but he also knew his boy''s mindset. And so, he advised Thomas to take his time slowly to build up his confidence and wash away his fear of the technique.

 Chapter 421 The Sweepers Way

    Thomas acted in a better way than what William thought. And as thetter kept finishing one scroll after another, William started to take these scrolls, put new ones in front of Thomas, and marked the finished ones down in numbers.

    He knew this ce was too big to be drawn over just one scroll. And so he nned to rearrange the scrolls once Thomas got the effect of the elixir worn out.

    After marking the scrolls, he checked them for a few minutes before storing them in one of his rings. Gradually things kept looking peaceful without any problems or hups, while Thomas and William kept doing their tasks without pause.

    Out there, people were growing restless. At first, everyone expected violent explosions, the same way it happened before. But gradually things started to look boring and dull.

    "What the hell is he doing in there?" Landy was one of those who lost their patience fast. She loved to hear explosive sounds rather than all this stillness.

    "Who knows?" Alfred rolled his eyes, "this kid has been a mystery since the first moment I saw him."

    "I thought you were close friends with him or something," Andy gave Alfred a deep nce, and thetter couldn''t help but wrylyugh.

    He used the excuse of having a good friendship with William to convince the two friends alongside him. This might be the first reason for the husband and wife to ept working with William, but soon enough they got convinced when they heard the conditions of this deal.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Just as the three of them were speaking, the same thing everyone here was doing, a series of loud and violent explosions erupted from the territory.

    The sealing arrays worked their best to hide what was going on inside. But the violent ground shaking and explosive noises that came from within was enough to tell everyone what was going on.

    "Yes!"

    "Atst!"

    "Hahahahaha! That kid is roasted! Hahahaha!"

    And just like the series of explosions that urred out of the blue, lots of people cheered and shouted in weird happiness, as if they knew everything that was happening inside.

    p¦Á§ád¦Á`no¦Í?1`§ão§® Inside the territory, William was standing in his ce motionless, while his flying knives were dancing in the air.

    "I can''t believe this dude used such a way to arm up this entire ce!"

    Thomas didn''t finish yet, not even getting close from mapping ten percent of the entire ce.

    William didn''t need to wait anymore. After long hours of collecting scrolls and marking them down, inspecting their content for a few minutes, he started to have an idea inside his mind.

    As he expected, the drawings Thomas did were something he recognised. He didn''t believe it at first, as this sort of ground array was used in the outer world by a certain and specific group of spirit masters.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They were known as the Sweepers! As no matter who their opponent was, no matter how many enemies they fought, they usually ended up killing everyone, sweeping the entire ce with explosions and deadly traps like these.

    The magnitude and lethality of the bombs used here in these traps suckedpared with the ones Sweepers used in the outer world. However, the mainyout of these bombs and traps was weirdly the same.

    These folks dealt with the ground as if it was a grand structure of rocks and dirt. As they got a special Earth spirit element, allowing them to separate ground intoyers, creating bubbles in different depths, they could ce any bombs in these bubbles, apanied by triggering arrays.

    When William noticed the shocking simrities between the two designs, he started to recall how to deactivate these bombs and traps.

    There was indeed a way to conquer Sweepers. If not, these folks would have ruled the outer world a long time ago.

    The way was simple, using many weapons at the same time, attacking different spots simultaneously, while triggering the traps and bombs at ces that wouldn''t let these deadly stuff regenerate or reform.

    He just got the right method to deal with this entire thing out and started at once to try doing it.

    To do it, he had to use and control various weapons at the same time, controlling them to attack the traps at specific spots.

    And that was where his flying knives came into the picture.

    If another person was here, he''d have to use the help of a team of spirit masters, timing their attacks and weapons right tond over the traps at the same time, or else everything would be for naught.

    "Hmm¡­ I used just ten of them and still these traps didn''t get deactivated," William knew if the traps got deactivated, then they would burn in green fire. And that didn''t happen.

    He looked again at the few scrolls that he ced on the ground in front of him. "Don''t tell me¡­" After a few minutes of thinking, William couldn''t help but have a weird idea.

    If that dude already saw the future, learnt about him and many of his secrets, then wouldn''t he ce these traps for his twenty knives to unlock?

    "I have to try," William controlled his twenty knives, and targeted double the number of traps he targeted before.

    *Rumble!*

    And this time, in addition to the violent explosions that happened, the ces he hit with his flying knives caved in, rumbled, and released thick bellows of green gas and fire.

    "It worked! Hahahaha! I knew it! Hahahaha!" William felt ecstatic at this moment when he saw the signs of deactivating these traps.

    William didn''t need to hit every single bubble deep down the ground to deactivate them. In fact, just knowing the ce of the traps at the surface, hitting the ces there at the right spots was all he needed to do.

    These traps were all connected together in some sort of a mechanism, one that''d make the bomb all detonate if touched wrongly or get deactivated if they got hit at the right spots.

 Chapter 422 Lets Rest

    "Master¡­ This¡­" thanks to the violent explosions and rumbles, Thomas had to stop what he was doing. He turned to William, and thetter just motioned for him to continue.

    "It''s alright," William paused, "just keep doing your part, and leave the rest to me."

    "Ok," Thomas didn''t know what was going on here, but as long as William said it was alright, then it was.

    He returned to using his technique, drawing what he was seeing, while William started a wide spree attack over the traps around.

    From this moment onward, it was all deadly explosions and rumblings. And that made the entire audience outside excited, with few getting gloomy looks on their faces.

    "He is still alive!" one of those standing outside couldn''t help but murmur in low tone.

    "It seems he knows what he is doing," another one next to him said, and three more nodded their heads.

    "If that is true, then we shall kiss goodbye to all of our money," a nearbydy said in a slightly enraged tone.

    "Who told you to bid on the wrong choice? Hahaha! You should have listened to me and ced your bids over this kid."

    "Ben¡­ You are just as despicable as this kid!" the six of them turned and looked at one old looking man, one with white hair and beard, the same dude William met before at the Lockheart impact.

    "I just met him," Ben keptughing, "and you didn''t. So you should have listened to me."

    p¦Á§ád¦Á`no¦Í?1`§ão§® "At least it''s not all lost money," one of this group from the Lockheart impact said, "you will get more gains than all our losses, hahaha!"

    "Who said I''m going to give you anything?" Ben''s face changed at this moment. He didn''t fear anyone else at the Lockheart impact, except for this dude who just spoke.

    "If I said it''s the impact''s gains, then it is," that dude''s eyes shone fiercely in bright purple light, making even Ben''s body faintly tremble.

    "Aside from that," that dude shifted his eyes away from Ben, returning to look at the distant territory that kept shaking and issuing such scary explosive sounds, "it seems you got a fine gem atst."

    "Tsk! That kid is as sly as a real fox!"

    "What does that even mean?" thedy in the group asked, while others looked at Ben in a weird way.

    "Don''t tell me you didn''t rope him in!" that dude of purple eyes turned at Ben, and this time he looked much scarier than before.

    "It''s not my fault! That kid has a master on his back, a hellish mysteriousdy that made him have such weird abilities."

    "Interesting," the purple eyed leader of the impact shifted his eyes away from Ben after sizing him up and down twice, "at least he is free to get recruited."

    "Don''t¡­"

    "What?" That dude didn''t even turn to Ben anymore, while on his face a vicious smile appeared, "if you got the ability, try and fight me on him."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "..."

    Ben wanted to argue and fight back, but this dude was someone he''d never try to even arouse his rage or something.

    "And¡­" just when Ben sighed inwardly, epting the fact that he lost William, and deciding to drop the ns he got to use William''s team again to rope this kid, that leader added in an icy tone, "I want everything you know about this dude provided to me at once. Or else¡­"

    "Fine," and when Ben heard this tone and felt the scary aura of this dude, he knew his chances were now blown in the wind.

    William was busy dealing with the traps inside his territory. Even if he got what it took to deactivate and ruin every single trap there, it still cost him lots of spirit power.

    After all, there were tons of traps here, and this territory was vast to begin with. So it was normal that after ten hours of diligent work, he and Thomas didn''t clear more than fifteen percent of the entire territory!

    "Let''s take a break," William already got a droplet of elixir to replenish his spirit power. He wasn''tcking in spirit power, neither did Thomas. But the two were already hungry and exhausted.

    Thomas was mentally exhausted more than William. He kept working and drawing, memorising the stars and design he spotted, while not taking a single moment of rest.

    "I can keep doing this for a little more."

    "It''s not a life and death fight," William rolled his eyes, "besides, it''ll look bad if we cleared all this in a single day! Let''s go, we deserve to eat, and even have a nice nap."

    "..."

    Thomas felt William was joking with him. But when they went out there, and watched his master speak with Remy and others from the Refos group about going to sleep a little and take a rest, he knew William wasn''t.

    "I''m getting more impressed by your mindset," Remy chuckled as she realised what William tried to do. She even winked to him, before assigning a group of dark gold guards to apany him and Thomas.

    Since the two exitted the territory, they saw how crazy the situation outside was. People were fighting among each other to stand up front, as if they feared missing a great chance or something.

    William saw all this and couldn''t help but inwardly grin. The situation here just needed more fuel and it''d literally explode!

    "Hahahaha, more people areing, hahahaha!" and just as they passed through the denseyers of people around the territory, William couldn''t help butugh while watching the main and wide street being crowded as well.

    He walked for close to half an hour, and yet people were still flooding the direction of his territory.

    "Are we going to rest? For real?!" Thomas was still unable to absorb what his master was nning to do. Even till now, he thought at any moment, William would just turn around and ask for him to return back to the territory and continue working.

    "Why not?" William shrugged, "we worked hard and deserve a bit of rest."

    "But¡­ We didn''t bring Trevor with us!"

    "That dude has to work for his living," Williamughed, as he intentionally left Trevor to do the propaganda work.

 Chapter 423 The Transformers!!!

    People kepting and walking past them until they reached the Royals hotel. The big street was now filled with many huge caravans, of those merchants who were now racing time and were trying to join the fun.

    William made sure to leave his instructions behind for Remy and her team of merchants. He wanted them to spread rumours about him getting wounded and badly hurt, and his need to go back and rest to heal his wounds.

    Such a little twist in facts was something that was enough to stir more people to bet over his loss. He might be cheating, but he didn''t feel any bad about doing this.

    He wanted to get the most out of this event. And he wouldn''t flinch at doing such a thing in return for more profit and less people to get parts of his gains.

    "Oh, master was looking for you," and just as the two passed through the guards waiting outside, they entered the weirdly lit lobby of this hotel.

    The moment William appeared there, a young worker jumped in front of his path, blocking it.

    This dude wasn''t any older than Thomas and was this close from getting his life expired on the hands of the dark gold guards.

    The guards kept following William inside the hotel, refusing to return back as these were the orders of Remy.

    "Who? Mark?" William was busy thinking about how to maximise his profit and forgot about what he had before he left the hotel.

    "Yes sir, he is waiting for you at his office," that dude paused, seemingly feeling troubled by the presence of such scary dudes with William, "he¡­ He asks that youe there alone."

    "Fine," William didn''t believe Mark would try anything funny inside the hotel. Besides, William was now a big shot in the fort. And trying to touch him was a very bad move.

    "Take our guests and let them guard our rooms," William paused before adding, "and send someone to the Golden Fork people. They have to add more meals."

    "Ok¡­ But how long are we going to stay here?" Thomas was still not believing what William was doing. If he was the one who caused all this ruckus at the fort, he''d be at least deadly worried about his current situation.

    But Thomas didn''t know that William already found the right method to crack the traps. Given time, cracking the entire ce out of traps was going to be a reality.

    "We are going to stay the night here," William said as if this was something simple to guess, "tell those guys from the Golden Fork to make arrangements, let them deliver breakfast here as well. Ah, don''t forget to send meals over to Trevor."

    "Ok."

    William left Thomas and the group of the dark gold guards after reassuring them that things were going to be ok. As he followed that worker, he noticed that they moved through many portals.

    He never thought this hotel was this big to begin with. But they passed through six different portals, which was enough to take them outside the fort by William''s rough estimates.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "We are here," the worker stopped, and he was just in front of a single door at the end of a short corridor, "I''m sorry but I''m not privileged to step into here."

    "Thanks," William didn''t get what this dude meant, but he waved his arm and moved towards the corridor.

    The moment he stepped there; he felt some sort of hidden power pressuring his body. "Interesting," William felt this power was a bit familiar, but he couldn''t get where or when he felt it.

    "Come in!" William didn''t even knock the door, but he heard the voice of Mark from behind inviting him in.

    "Oh, where is this ce?" Just as he passed through the door, William felt like he got sucked into some sort of a portal or a hole. When he opened his eyes next, he found himself standing in the middle of a huge stone hall, one that was better suited to a cave and not a hall in a hotel.

    He appeared just at the ce where Mark met with the ancient ones. The ce didn''t change at all, with its dimly lit environment and statues looking like pirs in the distance.

    "You are invited here to meet us," one of the statues said. And when he spoke, the torches next to it shone and flickered light over its face.

    "You¡­" the moment William saw this stoney face, saw this vicious face, he suddenly felt like a cold hand grasped his heart and squeezed it, "The Transformers!!!" he muttered to himself, while his face showed nothing but a serious expression there.

    "Don''t panic, we mean no harm to you," another statue spoke up, "you are here to discuss what you asked our little man for."

    "What man?" William was trying to buy himself quite time to think about how he''d get himself out of this mess.

    "I never expected to run into one of those damn bastards here¡­" he thought to himself while recalling everything he knew about these Transformers.

    He never met one actually, only heard about their infamy from his master. And from what he knew, these Transformers were one of the hardest foes one would dream to face.

    After all, they were once monsters, reaching the pinnacle of power in the world, before finding themselves unable to go any further. And so, they got the choice to burn everything they got, turn from being monsters into humans!

    They would be granted long lifespanspared to humans, but nothing like the immensely huge lifespan of the monsters. At the same time, they''d also get lots of benefits, just the same as William did.

    And that would alle on a single and trivial price to pay, turning themselves into some form of spirits! And as spirits lived in bodies, these Transformers had to find themselves a host, one without any life, to live in.

    It was usually rocks, as rocks would stand against time itself. And using the skills of sculptures, these rocks could be carved into humanoid shapes, just like the statues appearing in this hall.

    And that wasn''t all!

 Chapter 424 I Know Nothing About Hotels!

    Each Transformer was originally a monster. And so, when any of them would transform, they''d end up retaining features of their monsters.

    And that would add some ferocious nature to their spirit power. Not to mention when they''d ask humans to sculpt statues for them, these statues would usually have features of their original monstrous nature.

    That was why William recognised them on the spot. The statue that appeared got a face that was simr to a wolf, with weird protruding jaw and canines of wolves instead of human teeth.

    As for why they were scary despite being just spirits entrapped and imprisoned inside statues and rocks, William already knew the reason behind this.

    They''d keep their memories and knowledge and would use these to climb over thedder of power in the human world. And that made them the most annoying type of enemies anyone would have.

    They weren''t dangerous in themselves, but they were hard to deal with thanks to armies of humans following them.

    ording to his master''s words, these Transformers would do everything in their power to gather lots of humans around, manipte them, and let humans do the dirty stuff for them.

    Only a rare breed in these Transformers would focus on climbing up in the powerdder again, trying to break through the shackles of the world.

    Comparing humans with monsters, the life span of both had lots of differences. But in terms of talent and abilities, humans got the upper hand for sure.

    Monsters would spend thousands, even tens of thousands of years to just ascend from one rank to another. Unlike them, humans could do this in mere years or decades!

    But as William learnt from his master, most of these Transformers got their spirits twisted when they transformed. Fueled up with anger and hatred against humans, these folks wouldn''t let humans live in peace.

    "You know him as Mark," a third statue spoke up. And just from the size of this ce, and the arrangement of the statues, William estimated that there were at least thirty of them here.

    And that was a considerable number, one that wouldn''t just appear out of pure coincidence.

    "What''s going on here?" William asked, not only to them, but also to himself. He felt that there was some sort of a deep secret lying under this fort.

    Facts were clear to him. These folks said that their man was Mark, and thetter was the general manager of the Royals hotel.

    Were they inside the fort? Or were they outside it? Were they controlling the fort from shadows? Were there more of them? Or did they just control other big shots in the fort like the Big Seven and such?

    Questions like these and others kept popping up inside William''s head. But he had to get the answer to the most important one right now¡­ Were they enemies or neutral to him?

    He knew by logic, they''d end up being his enemies sooner orter. But that was a problem for another day. He just wanted to know their stance towards him at the moment.

    If they didn''t ce him as an enemy, then he''d y along and try to keep them neutral as long as he could.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But if they were already considering him an enemy, then bad things were destined to happen. "Damn! and here I thought I was going to live as a king in this fort. Who knows there were already kings here?" he inwardly sighed whilementing his bad luck.

    This ce¡­ He now realised what brought down such a highly defended ce in the past apocalypse.

    "We want to speak to you about your request," a fourth statue spoke up, before adding, "you asked for a gem to be paid in return for what happened to you. And we are here to discuss that with you."

    "Just that?" William raised an eyebrow. To him, this was something trivial that didn''t require such introduction and meeting with such scary folks.

    They could have sent their response or requests with Mark, not reveal themselves to him like this.

    "Wait¡­ They must be confident that a kid like me won''t be able to recognise them¡­" When William thought about this, he finally heaved an inner sigh of relief.

    "Don''t tell me you don''t want to pay me back," William started to stealth himself, speaking in a more confident and firm tone, "you do know that you are the ones who made that wrong step, right?"

    "We wanted to know more about you," the first statue said, "and we are very interested in dealing with you."

    "In which way?" William''s thoughts drifted over the business of hotels, "I know nothing about managing a hotel or running such business."

    "Says the one who did all this ruckus back there by his betting event."

    "I''m just trying to get more profit, that''s all," William shrugged, speaking to the first statue that had many simrities with wolves, "I''m not a businessman or a merchant, just a normal spirit master who is trying to survive and gain little profit in the process."

    "Humph," it seems what he said didn''t appeal to that statute, "we aren''t here to discuss business with you in the field of hotels."

    "Then¡­" William paused, acted as if he was puzzled, and he truly was. He knew such scary folks wouldn''t set their gazes on anything without a proper reason and benefit for them.

    And when he moved aside his mysterious identity, he didn''t find anything worthy for these folks to set their eyes upon.

    He was curious to listen about what these folks wanted from him.

    "It''s about that territory of yours," another statue seemed to grow bored of how William and that wolf-like statue were talking to each other, "we want to share the ownership of that ce with you, that old fox''s ce."

    "This¡­" William never expected this, "what''s special about this ce? It''s a cursed one and I''m struggling to clear it."

    William knew he was well protected there from any prying eyes and senses. So, he used the infamy of this ce to better understand these folks'' intentions.

 Chapter 425 Their Real Goal

    "We believe you got a chance in clearing the traps there," the first statue paused, "and if you died, then our deal won''t happen. But if you survive, then you''ll get anything you dream of."

    "Anything?" William faked his uncontrolled desire and greed. And yet that wasn''t truly what he was thinking about.

    "F*ck! They seem to set their eyes over mynd," he thought to himself, while trying to find a way out of this dilemma.

    "Sure, be it wealth, women, men, gems, even a position at this fort¡­ We can guarantee anything for you," the wolf shaped statue said, and William couldn''t help but find something that would prove hard for those folks to ept.

    "Then I got to ask for gems," he paused before he showed a serious look on his face, "and the lives of all the dark spirit masters in the region."

    "What is that nonsense?!!!"

    It wasn''t just the wolf-like statue who shouted like this, but many others. Almost all of them shouted as if they heard the most sphemousment.

    "I got a grudge against them," William took in a deep breath, "and I''m doing all this just to crush them."

    "Then we are going to stop you! Do you want to be our enemy?" the first statue said in a threatening cold tone. For a second there, William wanted to sh directly against them.

    But he had not enough power to crush these Transformers, not yet. Any of them was at least at gold grade, if not at the pinnacle of that scary grade.

    If he was a dark gold spirit master, and if he was equipped with enough gears and weapons, he''d not flinch to face them head on. If he got all this and a good team on his side, he''d be confident in his victory. But that was for another time, not now.

    "I''m not asking to be your opponent," William shrugged, "I''m just stating what I need for you to own part of my ce."

    "That ce was nothing before, sold at a cheap price!"

    "You even got it for free!"

    "Don''t try to bite what you can''t chew! Drop that useless thing against the dark spirit masters. They are our friends and most trusted allies!"

    "Indeed, they are," William thought to himself. After all, the two sides had deep rtions before, and they hadmon goals and agendas as well.

    But he kept all his thoughts to himself, slowly shaking his head, "I can''t promise you this. If they dared to kill my family, then they got to pay the price! I''m not speaking nonsense here, and just is by my side."

    "Nonsense!"

    "Silence!"

    Just before this situation would escte any further, the wolf-like statue said in a deep tone. It seemed this dude realised how impossible it was to make William drop his interest for the dark spirit masters.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But that wasn''t their intention from the start. "How about this¡­ We want something from your ce, some sort of ancient relic. If you bring this up to us, then you''ll get all the gems you desire."

    "Nonsense!" William shouted in his mind, but still kept his thoughts under control. If he sat his eyes over any gem in that hotel, then after this shocking meeting he dropped all the interests he got.

    He didn''t want to get gems to turn out to be spies for these scary folks. Till the time he''d grow in strength, enough to rival and kill them, he wouldn''t risk exposing too much to such folks.

    He also realised what these Transformers here wanted. It seemed they had deep ties with the ancient fox dude. And they wanted something stored deeply within that ce.

    "I''ll try to survive first," William didn''t promise anything, "but until I find that relic, you''ll get to prepare yourselves for a hefty price."

    "Anything is nothing in our eyes," one statue said, and William knew he wasn''t lying. These folkscked anything in the world but resources and wealth.

    "Ok," William paused, "what''s that relic looks like by the way? And do you know where it''s out there? The entire territory is vast, and I can''t find anything blindly out there."

    "It''s not something you''ll miss," the wolf statue paused, "that relic is like a fox, a grand statue, just like ours."

    "Oh," William tried to control his immense shock when he heard what this dude said. A statue of a fox? That meant only one thing¡­ That dude wasn''t a simple human, but a Transformer as well.

    A Transformer who would get killed meant he''d get his spirit shattered. What''d remain though wouldn''t just be a huge statue of him.

    If it was just a normal statue, then no one of these folks would ever try to get it. But it wasn''t, and William knew why.

    Any Transformer getting killed would end up leaving behind not just a statue, but all the spirit power and knowledge he gained throughout his entire life as a Transformer.

    Using special methods, such spirit power could be channelled to specific groups of people. First, they should share something with that dude, be it spirit type, spirit element, or even the nature of spirit itself.

    For example, if that dude had an Earth spirit element, then any spirit master with Earth spirit elements would be able to get lots of benefits from this statue.

    William was now sure this dude got a fox spirit, just like himself. And that made him able to get tons of benefits from this dude.

    It wasn''t just limited to absorbing spirit power, but it also extended to his fox spirit itself.

    If William''s guess was correct, then he''d end up having one more tail at least from absorbing the spirit power from that statue.

    As for these Transformers, it was clear what they wanted. They shared the same nature with that dude. And they could get benefits from absorbing spirit power from it.

    However¡­ There was a catch!

 Chapter 426 Scram!

    To get such benefits, one had to be at least one rank lower than the rank of that Transformer.

    Going by logic, all the ones here were at least dark gold grade. And that meant none of them would benefit from this statue.

    "It''s either they suspect me of having a fox spirit, which is something that doesn''t make sense. Or¡­ They got newly joined Transformers, weak enough to get the benefits from this statue¡­"

    William didn''t show it on his face, but deep inside his heart, he decided to kill any damn Transformer he''d find. And he already had a guess about the ce where these new Transformers were, the dark spirit masterirs.

    That exined everything to him, exined why these statues acted in such an intense way towards his earlier words.

    They weren''t just defending their interests with dark spirit masters, but they were also defending their newly joined Transformers.

    It wasn''t easy to find a Transformer in this world, or even in the outer world. Even William didn''t meet any of them back when he was in the outer world.

    Seeing all these Transformers gathered in one ce meant another thing to William¡­ There was a method to let scary monsters turn into Transformers. And this fort held the secret for all this.

    "I have to uncover all the secrets of this ce," William vowed in his heart. To him, this fort became like a long-term goal of his, one that he''d try to achieve on the long course of months and even years.

    "Noted," William wanted nothing more but to leave this ce and return to his ce. Staying in the Royals hotel was a risky move that he didn''t want anymore.

    "Good, we''ll keep an eye on you," one of the statues said, "and don''t think about doing anything funny. Those little flies you have on your side won''t stand a chance at all against us."

    "..."

    William knew this was a direct and real threat, one that he''d not take any lightly. He knew these flies that dude mentioned were the dark gold grade guards.

    Even at the same dark gold rank, spirit masters would differ greatly in power. Not to mention these dudes didn''t need to move a finger. They could easily order their scary army of followers to tear anything they didn''t like down.

    Not to mention they got the scary and mysterious dark spirit masters on their side, and lots of monsters as well.

    "Scram!" William felt the same weird power surrounding and enveloping him. Then before he''d know it, he found himself standing again in front of that closed door.

    "Sigh! It seems I have to do my best," William sighed, muttering this while moving back through the series of portals he used before toe here.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    By these portals, he wouldn''t be able to locate the true ce of these Transformers. And even if he knew, he''d not be able to do anything against them for now.

    Even if he got the support of one of the Big Seven, even if he got the support of a great impact like the Lockheart impact, things wouldn''t look any better.

    Taking these Transformers down was a must, but it was a long-time n, one that needed lots of nning and arranging from him.

    He needed to do another thing first, one that he could do easily with his current level of power. He had to start gathering intel, gathering information about these folks, about their ties with people here and at the outer world.

    He needed to know more about Transformers in this tiny world. And he had to do all this in a discrete way, without arousing any suspicions about him.

    "Master, you returned," just as he passed through thest portal, he found himself standing in a side room from the lobby, the same one he went inside before taking the series of portals.

    And there he found the same worker who led him here in the first ce. Seeing this dude again made William recall what he said and done since meeting him. And that made this dude a big suspect in William''s eyes.

    "Lead me towards my room," William didn''t say anything, kept his thoughts to himself. He regretted not having enough strength to use a tracking totem, the same method Ben used on him before to track his whereabouts.

    If so, then tracking this dude would be easy. That dude wasn''t the only suspect William wanted to heavily investigate, but there was another one as well, Mark.

    He was mentioned clearly by these statues as their man in the hotel. And that meant Mark already met and knew them. That meant Mark knew lots about these Transformers secrets.

    William was sure the truth Mark and others learnt about these folks was totally different from what he knew. But he never thought about trying to correct such a misunderstanding in the first ce.

    All the evidence was there in front of everyone''s eyes. A blind man would only take these statues as normal beings. So, the ones working with them were either extorted and threatened to do so or lured out by greed of wealth and power. It was just like how these statues tried to rope William to their side.

    They first used temptations. And when greed failed, they used threats. But William was special and wouldn''t fall for their cheap tricks. As for others, they must have suspected something, and yet they chose to close an eye over this matter.

    That meant even if William exposed the true identity of these Transformers to those who dealt with them, nothing would change. These folks were rotten to the depths of their spirits, and there was no way to salvage them.

    In fact, if William tried to take these statues down, he was sure the fiercest resistance woulde from these spirit masters dealing with them.

    And that made him eye all of them not as victims, but enemies. Or to be precise, the hardest shell standing between him and ruining these statues, the strongest shield and weapons these bastards had on their side.

 Chapter 427 His Hopes Got Shattered!

    "This ce is rottener than I ever expected," William thought to himself while he followed that worker back to his room. There he found people from Golden Fork restaurant just arrived, delivering food to Thomas.

    "Just in time," William paused, stealing a brief nce at the worker before adding, "wrap everything. We are leaving."

    "This¡­" such a decision didn''t just startle Thomas, but also the worker standing next to William.

    "I''m free to do whatever I want," William gave that worker an icy look. He might behave himself when dealing with the Transformers. But he wouldn''t restrain himself when dealing with such a lowly human being.

    William was wary of the Transformers, but he also knew their weak spot against someone like him. They couldn''t force him to teleport to their ce. And that appeared when they invited him to pass through portals and arrive there.

    If William''s guess was correct, then the mainir of these Transformers wasn''t in the fort at all. And that added anotheryer of confidence to him.

    "No¡­ Not at all, but¡­"

    "I got a mission to do," William didn''t want to arouse more suspicion, and so he already readied an exnation, "a mission that I have to do as soon as possible."

    "I got it," just from the nodding and expression over this dude''s face, William was sure now of his deep ties with the Transformers.

    It seemed Mark wasn''t the only close confidant to these folks. And that made William engrave that worker''s face in his mind, forter time.

    William''s hidden meaning was clear, he got a task from these statues, and he got to do it as fast as possible. So, staying here would dy him from doing so.

    William then turned to Thomas. From a single look, Thomas knew how dead serious William was.

    "Let''s go then," Thomas turned to the workers of the Golden Fork restaurant, "move them back to the fox ce. Sorry to trouble you about that."

    William didn''t even stand there for a single moment. He moved and returned back towards the lobby with his entourage, before leaving this hotel entirely.

    He had two gems here that he wanted to acquire, but he now dropped any ideas about these. To him, staying away from here was the most important thing to do.

    He knew the next time he''de here; he''d be wielding his sword and gathering up lots of arms to his side. Next time he''d be here, he''d be here for blood and war.

    He walked out of this ce while Thomas was deeply puzzled. He couldn''t get what happened except for one exnation he had in mind, his master got in a fierce quarrel with Mark. Or else William wouldn''t have changed his mind so soon like this.

    It wasn''t just a change in mind. William kept his silence and even emitted a scary aura from his body while heading back to his territory.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    In fact, William''s mind was full of many spections and thoughts. He didn''t know if this fort was an exception, or this was just the tip of the iceberg in this world.

    If so, then it would be easy to exin the swift fall of this world and the grand destruction it suffered before. And if that was true, then dreaming about getting out of here in one piece would be his highest hope in this life.

    "Sigh! Even after returning back in time and having all these perks and advantages, I''ll still end up putting a tail in between my teeth and running like I did before," he thought to himself, shaking his head before he finally arrived at his territory.

    He didn''t like such reality, but he wasn''t also a delusional one. He''d only do things ording to his limits. And right now, be pleased by it or not, he could best dream about running away without losing his life in the uing apocalypse.

    He didn''t notice what happened amidst his deep thoughts, but Thomas did. When they left this ce, they had to use the help of the dark gold guards to secure a path for them in the middle of the people gathered here.

    But now? It seemed that everyone here got to learn about their faces. And so the moment they appeared close to this dense gathering, everyone started to part ways and clear a path for them out of their volition.

    "You came earlier than I expected!" and just as William noticed his arrival at the frontal area of his territory, Remy came in with a group of other merchants, "I thought you won''te here in a week or so, hahahaha!"

    "I won''t start working so soon anyway," William shrugged, "by the way, are there any numbers ready for me or what?"

    "Oh, you do mean¡­ The odds of the betting event so far?" she winked, before adding while pointing towards the big board, "your odds are the lowest in our group history of long betting events."

    "That''s good," William didn''t even spare that board a second nce, "but I meant other numbers."

    "I know," sheughed, before raising out one finger.

    "What? Only one billion?" William was surprised by such a low number. He thought they had crossed it a long time ago.

    "No, ten folds of that," she winked again, beforeughing, "and we estimate the ceiling of this bet to reach fifty if not more."

    "That''s great," William knew he had to spend more spirit crystals to do lots of things after discovering the presence of Transformers in this fort, "let''s go. I will slow down the pace from now on."

    He indeed nned to do so to help in prolonging the betting event as long as he could. But on another hand, he wanted to take his time, search for that statue, and think about a good reason to give to those scary dudes and their dirty agents if they came knocking on his doors one day.

    The easiest way to get out from such a problem would be by saying that he didn''t find any statue at all in this ce.

 Chapter 428 I Lost My Appetite

    The statues seemed to not be quite sure about the ce of the fox statue. And that seemed to be a good lie.

    But it wasn''t a perfect one. These Transformers couldn''te here, but they could send their dogs barking and asking to check the entire ce.

    If William stopped them and refused to let them in, then he''d ce a great question mark on him. And if he let them in, they''d find that statue one way or another.

    "I have to think of a way to hide it¡­" William entered his ce while letting Thomas carry the food inside, "but first I have to see where that statue is, and how big exactly it is."

    "Master, are we going to start working or rest?" Thomas was now more curious and puzzled about what was in his master''s mind.

    "We will do it this way," William took in a deep breath before adding, "you keep drawing the entireyout of this ce. As for me, I''ll take a nap."

    "A nap?!!!" Thomas felt his master was joking. But when Williamid himself on the ground, even closed his eyes, he knew his master wasn''t joking at all.

    "What about food?" Thomas looked at the food he brought here, "won''t you eat?"

    "You can have these," William said without even opening his eyes, "I lost my appetite since visiting that damn ce."

    Thomas sighed when he heard this. His earlier guess got confirmed, "it seemed my master got into a bloody fight against Mark. Or else, such a glutinous master won''t even refuse to eat!"

    William wasn''t in the mind of eating right now. He kept thinking about ways, unique sealing and istion arrays that he could use with this world''s materials.

    He didn''t intend to deliver that fox statue over, nned to get all the benefits only for himself. And to do so, he had to first find the statue, then look for a way to hide it well.

    He got lots of sealing and istion arrays, arrays that could conceal anything off anyone. But if arge group of dark gold spirit masters came here, or many groups of them, and put the support of the scary Transformers in one''s mind, then his confidence wasn''t that solid.

    He left Thomas to do his task as this was the most important thing to do right now. He wanted a general map of this ce, so he could identify where this statue was. And he also had to find the right ce to hide that statue over, even to the extent of leaving part of the traps intact to secure this statueter on.

    "Screw that old fox! He only gave me trouble and worries¡­" William inwardly cursed, while feeling more pissed at the ancient owner of this ce, "he didn''t even show me any professional courtesy! Aren''t we both foxes? Aren''t we considered family or what?"

    "Speaking of which, and if he was a Transformer, that means¡­" he suddenly recalled something he experienced before and didn''t thoroughly understand at that time.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The Nightmare monster was very adamant at getting him. That dude kept speaking about how cheap William was, by selecting to shift to be a human and take over this body.

    "Hmm¡­ So, there might be mutants here as well?" William didn''t know if these crazier folks would be found in this world or not. But at least he could tell that the fox who turned into a Transformer and owned this ce had deep rtions with that Nightmare monster.

    "There is also one thing that doesn''t add up¡­ The old tales speaking about the owner of this ce spoke about a human, not a statue¡­"

    The more William thought about this, the more headache he got. He thought about this and got two different exnations for such a mess.

    Either that old fox monster wasn''t part of the Transformers, and was one of a much scarier group, the mutants. Or it might have been one of the Transformers, and the human dude everyone knew was just ackey of this Transformer.

    He leant towards the second idea. He already got enough headache with the presence of Transformers. If Mutants were also here, then he got to kiss all dreams about saving anyone in this world a big goodbye kiss.

    Even running away with his life intact was going to be seriously threatened as well!

    Mutants were much scarier and more formidable than Transformers. They couldn''t transform into humans but could take over any human spirit on certain conditions. It was like obsessing one''s body, controlling this body and dealing with it as a reservoir.

    They were like Transformers, but they could move around and act like normal humans. They were much harder to deal with, and their main specialtyy in assassinating top shots in the spirit master world.

    "But it seems not all the Transformers here are on the same line," William thought about the fox monster that lived in this ce before. From the words of the statues, he got that they held deep grudge and hatred against that dude.

    If that dude was one of them, then why in the first ce did he die? Only Transformers were able to kill other Transformers, in addition to dark gold grade spirit masters and monsters.

    Monsters were on the same page as Transformers, and so only dark gold spirit masters remained as the prime suspect. And yet William didn''t even believe anyone here was well informed enough about the truth of these statues and their methods, or else these statues wouldn''t have simply invited him to theirir in such carefree way.

    So there was only one answer to all this, the owner of this ce wasn''t on the same line as these Transformers. And that meant he was on the side of humans, at least not an enemy.

    When William thought back about the stories he heard of the ancient owner of this ce, he couldn''t help but link the dots here and see the entire picture.

 Chapter 429 [Bonus ] The Weird Building

    "It seems that Fox Transformer got his hands over great secrets and learnt about the big ns regarding the fall of this world. This exins why these Transformers are after his legacy. But that doesn''t exin how he learnt about my presence and secrets¡­"

    William felt like he got answers to his questions but ended up with nothing in the end. And such a feeling and situation was quite frustrating to him.

    "Time to vent all this," William couldn''t tolerate all this and stood up, then started to use his knives to detonate more of the traps here.

    He could keep doing this if he wanted, all day long if he desired. But he controlled himself, to give more time to Thomas and people outside.

    Sounds of explosions kept ranging widely from time to time. Each single explosion that happened brought forth a storm of cheers and celebration from everyone. And that never grew old for the audience out there.

    Remy yed a little trick, spreading out that William got badly hurt and couldn''t keep his performance like before. That helped in exining why his efficiency dropped, and also added more bait for more to bet over his loss.

    More people kept flooding here as news spread far and wide. Even dark spirit masters found in such activity a chance to win more crystals, sent their people to bet over William''s loss.

    William kept taking breaks every now and then, sitting on the ground, examining the newly drawn scrolls that Thomas did.

    At first, things didn''t look any different than before. It wasn''t until they finally reached the level of the first building that Thomas'' drawings started to change.

    "Master, there is something weird in that building," Thomas paused in his actions, pointing towards the first building, "I can see lots of stars and threads inside that building, like some sort of or structure of lights. It''s as if that building is made out entirely of light."

    "At the building? Or underneath it?" William was examining all the papers Thomas drew when thetter came and interrupted him.

    "It''s in the building," Thomas scratched his head, as he was a bit lost about how to describe what he saw, "the building seemed to be formed entirely out of light dots and threads, not bricks and ores."

    "Hmm¡­ Then draw it! What are you waiting for?"

    "It''s just¡­ With all these lights all over that building, I can''t draw everything¡­" Thomas paused, looking again at the direction of the building before adding, "I need to approach and circle it so I can perfectly draw everything."

    "I see¡­" They were at least two kilometres away from that building. And that made it hard and confusing for Thomas to draw anything.

    In Thomas'' eyes, that building was shining brightly with dots and lines, all ovepping with each other. And that made it hard for him to draw that weird structure right, at least not from his current spot.

    "Step back then," William knew it was time for him to clear all the traps from here till the building, "keep drawing the areas around that building, and leave it forter."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ok," Thomas retreated, but didn''t hurriedly start drawing. Previously, he kept focusing on drawing, and missed what William was doing all this time.

    And now he finally got a chance to see it clearly. And as he didn''t cancel his technique, he was able to see what William was doing crystal clear.

    "Hmm¡­ He is using his twenty knives, hitting the traps at specific locations each time¡­" After watching for half an hour, Thomas started noticing what William was doing, "but¡­ Howe he knew where to hit, and what to hit?"

    In Thomas'' eyes, William grew more mysterious. He was the one who could see this world, the one who drew all the scrolls. And yet he never got a clue, not even a single guess about what he should do to take down these traps.

    He tried before to closely examine the little shining stars, aiming to understand their structure, see through them and spot any pattern or point of weakness.

    Yet after trying for so long, he failed! He never saw anything beyond just balls of light, connected to each other by threads of lights. These balls were perfect, shining without showing any inner structure or anything.

    But his master simply figured out what to do. And as shocking as it might seem, William''s method was quite correct and effective.

    In Thomas'' special field of vision, he could clearly see all the traps hit by William explode, releasing bright bellows of light, before they all died down and turned into nothing.

    It was as if William was hitting them at the right ces, ending up for the energy stored in these traps to get depleted and vanish from this world.

    And that wasn''t all! When he looked closer for the next hour, he was sure that the traps hidden deep down the ground were also affected by what William was doing.

    It wasn''t just the aftermath of the traps exploding at the surface affecting the ones lying underneath as Thomas thought. When he closely watched, he noticed that the moment William''s knives hit their targets, the deep away traps also got triggered and exploded at the same time.

    That meant one thing¡­ William didn''t just guess the right way to deactivate all the traps at the surface, but he also found the way to affect the ones buried deep underground as well.

    "Brilliant!"

    "Stop standing there doing nothing! Start working!"

    Thomas couldn''t help but mutter after two hours of watching. And when he did say that he got a shout from William, urging him to continue his work.

    William was already attentive to what this dude was doing. And he didn''t mind exposing a little to Thomas. So far, this youth proved he was someone capable and dependable. And it was time for William to see if he was trustworthy or not.

 Chapter 430 The Leaders Decision

    Thomas got jolted awake from his amazement and returned to draw. This time, he worked double harder, fueled up with the mere thought of following someone great and genius like William.

    He never felt anything towards any of his previous masters. In his eyes, they were just rich folks and nothing more, ones who mostly inherited their current wealth from their families.

    But William was different. He came from a weak academy as Thomas heard. And he got nothing at all when he came here.

    In front of Thomas'' eyes, William was climbing thedder of wealth and fame like a rocket. And that wasn''t all. He still didn''t know how strong his master was.

    Just thinking about all the things William did made Thomas believe his master was much stronger than what he looked like.

    When he moved his eyes towards William, who kept releasing his knives around, detonating traps in a fixed rhythm, while taking firm steps forward on the clearednds, he knew his guess was correct.

    "I''m lucky to have met him when he isn''t that famous yet," he muttered to himself, thinking about how lucky he was to get such a chance.

    Once William started acting seriously, the sounds of explosions never died down for hours. The entire world around was filled with cheers and shouts of excitement at first, but soon enough such celebrative signs died down.

    In the eyes of everyone out there, they knew these explosions came from triggering the cursed traps in that ce. But seeing how William kept detonating traps at a constant rate for five hours straight without pause made them think about a scary and crazy scenario.

    "Hahahahaha! That gem boy is killing it! Hahahaha!" in the group of the Lockheart impact, the scary leader with purple eyes keptughing while moving his eyes around.

    The looks over everyone''s faces here were quite priceless. They weren''t just the only strong and formidable folks who came here. That dude already recognised many from other impacts, even many from other Big Seven groups.

    Even the royal families, the ones who hailed from ancient families that established this fort, sent people here to join the fun.

    From the weird and heavy silence, the gloomy atmosphere here, this dude could tell that they betted over William''s loss.

    "Don''t mock them when you also betted against that kid," Ben rolled his eyes, not believing how shameless his leader was.

    "But we got you, the lucky lottery ticket that will win us much more than we lost, hahahaha!" the leader even winked to Ben, making thetter want to vomit.

    "Anyway," that leader calmed down, took a deep breath before adding, "your old n about using that kid''s team to lure him in won''t work. That kid is indeed special. And someone like him won''t lower his head for the few members he gathered when he was weaker and without a name."

    Ben looked at his leader and recalled how he got forced to spill out everything he knew about William. He even spoke about his former n to use William''s team against him. "How so?" Ben still didn''t drop this n. In his mind, it was a feasible one, one that held good chances of sess.

    "I don''t need to speak about how famous this kid will be after all this," the leader paused, moving his eyes around as if he was looking for something, "not to mention the grand wealth he''d gain from this event. But didn''t you all notice that youth over there?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    That leader pointed towards the far distance, towards the direction of Trevor. As he did that, everyone on his side turned and looked over Trevor as well.

    "He kept shouting about recruiting for that kid''s guild. I don''t know what guilds even mean, but it seems like that kid is after forming new teams."

    "And?" Ben got what this dude wanted to say, and yet wasn''t convinced, "this team is different! It came from his homnd, from his academy."

    "That''s not a guaranteed thing," that leader shrugged, "if he can get ten times the number of teams just from this event, and I''m sure he''ll get more than that, then he won''t need such a team anymore."

    "But¡­"

    "I''m not speaking just about numbers," the leader paused, "this kid¡­ He can rope in lots of the rogue spirit masters roaming around the world, lots of gold and even dark gold masters if he wanted. Tell me, will anyone in their right mind listen to any threatening demands when he has much stronger teams on his side?"

    "We are the Lockheart impact!" thedy in this little gathering said in arrogance, "anyone will fight to just be part of us!"

    "Anyone, but not him," that leader shook his head, "if he wanted, he could simply establish something on par with ours. So, thinking from this perspective is wrong, totally wrong."

    The hidden intentions in this leader''s tone were clear, and they startled everyone here.

    "Are you referring perhaps¡­ That we will deal with him like our equal?!!" another dude said in disbelief. And that leader slowly nodded.

    "Provided that this kid managed to clear this cursed ce, then he is destined to soar higher than any of you here can imagine. It''s better to make good friendship ties with him, instead of starting all this with unforgivable grievances and enmity."

    "..."

    The leader''s words left everyone here baffled, lost for words. But they didn''t dare to question his words again. They all knew who he was, and no one here was courageous enough to argue for a long time against him.

    If he said they should do this, then it was decided.

    "So¡­" Ben took a deep breath, "are we going to give him his boys back?"

    "Not only that," that leader shifted his eyes again towards the direction of the fox territory, listened to the scary explosive noisesing from inside for a long minute, "we will also donate part of our people over to him."

    "This¡­"

 Chapter 431 A Hunch!

    "It''s a must," the leader sighed, moving his eyes towards Ben, "it''s something we have to do to clear any previous misunderstandings with him."

    "He is just a bronze spirit master!" Ben shouted in discontent, but his leader kept ring at him.

    "What?"

    "Are you sure he is a bronze spirit master?" the words of the leadernded and made everyone here freeze in their thoughts, "do you think a bronze spirit master is able to do something not even dark gold spirit masters can?"

    "..."

    "Just listen to what I say," that leader sighed, "even if this kid is a bronze spirit master, he has the abilities that can rival higher spirit masters than him. In the future¡­ In the near future, I''m sure this kid will lead a grand storm here. And you all will thank me then for my current irrational decision."

    The leader put an end to the problem of William''s team and mapped out their impact''s future rtionship with William in these words. Thetter didn''t know that he wouldn''t just get his team back, but he''d also get more.

    And if Ro was here at this moment, she''d curse out loud at her bad luck. After all, the leader intended to give William the right to select the teams he''d get from the impact.

    He''d only limit the ceiling of strength in the teams he''d select from to be lower than dark gold grade. And that made Ro and her team of girlse under William''s mercy.

    The devastational noises kepting unceasingly for six hours before everything settled down. People outside didn''t know if William already cleared everything, or if something bad happened to him.

    And frankly, they all hoped for thetter to be the case.

    "Now you can draw as you like," William was standing inside his territory, just less than a hundred metres away from that building.

    Thomas already drew maps of traps around the building, and William cleared all of them. But not a single trap did anything to this building at all. And that was enough evidence that this building and the trapsid inside were separate from the ground around.

    "Will you keep destroying the traps around?" Thomas grew used to how effective William was. In his eyes, he acted like a machine, killing all the traps here without taking a single moment of rest.

    "No, I''m going to eat and have a little rest," during all this, Thomas went once outside to bring out food, "but before this¡­ I want you to do something for me."

    "Anything."

    "Go out there and ask Remy to spread the word¡­ I need a healing elixir, one that can heal terrible wounds and bring one back from death."

    "..."

    "Just go," William rolled his eyes, "or else our fat sheep will run away scared from what I just did."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Tsk!" Thomas couldn''t help but shake his head off and went out there to inform Remy about William''s weird demand.

    Remy was a pro, and she instantly got what William wanted to do. She spread the word over, and unlike what any of the three expected, few approached Remy''s men and provided healing elixirs to be delivered to William.

    "This¡­" When Thomas returned after one hour, William was surprised to see him taking out dozens of elixirs.

    "Hahahaha! The ones who betted on your sess got frightened and hurriedly brought these elixirs out, hahahaha!" Thomas himself didn''t believe any of this.

    He knew William was perfectly fine and only aimed to trick the ones who were still hesitant out there. But no one ever imagined such a lie would bring forth such awesome gifts.

    "Hahahaha, if I knew this would happen then I should have thought about other lies to get more elixirs, hahahaha!" William got the elixirs, opened their lids, and sniffed their scent.

    "Great stuff!" They were indeed quite different from the elixirs sold at the Seven Heaven store. William realised why peopleing here didn''t even think about purchasing anything from the fort.

    With such a big disparity in quality between things sold here and at other ces out there in the world, it was logical for no one to think about buying anything from here.

    William decided to keep these in his ring and inspect themter. He''d use these as a general standard to measure up the quality of elixirs in this world. And from there, he''d make much better ones and sell them.

    "Go and draw that building," William motioned towards the building, while Thomas couldn''t help but notice therge number of scrolls ced on the ground at some corner.

    "You are¡­" he didn''t get what William was doing, neither did William get an answer. William just got a hunch about what he should do, took out all the scrolls Thomas drew before, and spread them on the ground.

    "Just start working," as William didn''t know why he was doing any of this, he rolled his eyes and responded in such a way towards Thomas.

    And thetter went to do his task, leaving William behind pretty puzzled about these scrolls.

    "Something is wrong¡­" Just as William ced all the scrolls on the ground in order, even the ones he already cleared the traps at, he noticed something amiss.

    Each scroll showed a part of the ground with its stars and threads. But when he ced them next to each other, he couldn''t help but notice a part of a grand drawing taking shape.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ I need to collect all the drawings first before understanding what''s going on here¡­" he muttered to himself, while not finding any clue about what the end grand drawing would be like.

    He raised his head and looked at the entire grand territory here. "I have to sleep," he felt like he was looking at a grand puzzle map, one that would reveal more secrets when he would finish it up.

    As this was going to take long, he slept and cleared his mind of any deep thoughts.

 Chapter 432 The Face Of A Fox

    He went through a lot since stepping out from the academy main gate. And frankly, he didn''t imagine one tenth of all these adventures and battles at that moment.

    Yet he wasn''t feeling any stress or pressure. In fact, such a kind of life suited him perfectly well, much better than the peaceful life back at the academy.

    He slept like a baby for ten hours straight and didn''t wake up on his own. Thomas kept shaking him off, until William opened his eyes in azy manner.

    "What time is it?" he yawned, asking while rubbing his eyes. On the opposite, Thomas was like someone who saw a nightmare or some freakishly scary monster.

    "There¡­ There is something inside that building!" and what Thomas said kicked away all sleep from William''s eyes.

    He abruptly stood up, while his mind returned to work on full cylinders. He grabbed Thomas and asked in a loud tone:

    "What did you find? A statue?"

    "Statue? No, not like that¡­" Thomas felt puzzled for a second. And as he looked like this, all the hype William got plummeted at once.

    "Then what?" William rxed his arms, looked at the direction of the building, "what''s in there?"

    "An eye!" The words Thomas said didn''t make any sense at first, before he added, "the design of all the stars there is like an eye."

    "You just scared me for a second there, you do know that?" William took a deep breath, before adding, "show me the drawing you made, let me see by myself¡­"

    Just before he''d continue what he''d say, he spotted many scrolls gathered up at a spot not far from here. It was like what he did with the scrolls Thomas drew before. But they were much smaller in number, and they were in a different ce than what William ced his scrolls at.

    William moved his eyes around, and as he guessed, these scrolls were new. "Did you copy me?" William asked in curiosity, and Thomas nodded.

    "I just¡­ I wanted to help and save you time¡­ Plus I felt like the entire building was special in a way¡­ In a mysterious way¡­"

    William got what Thomas meant. This dude seemed to get the same hunch as him. "For me to feel something is normal, but for Thomas as well? That''s absurd!" William didn''t miss this point, while following Thomas back to the scrolls.

    And there he got what Thomas meant before. The scrolls thetter drew were looking normal at first. But when they were ced next to each other, a grand picture of an eye appeared there.

    And that made William move his eyes around, back to where he arranged the scrolls at. "An eye¡­ An eye with elliptical iris¡­ Just like the eye of a wolf or¡­ A fox!" His eyes shone brightly when he guessed this simple, yet shocking, thing.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Come, help me move these scrolls there," William knew he got a clue about what he was looking for atst. He knew a statue of a fox, one that was as grand as the ones he saw before when he met the Transformers, wouldn''t be hidden just simply in the open.

    And when he moved the scrolls with the help of Thomas, he finally got to see something new.

    "This¡­ Is it part of a face or I''m imagining things?" Thomas stood by William''s side, scratching his head as he didn''t totally believe his eyes.

    The scrolls didn''t look like anything at first. But when the two ced the building''s scrolls in the right spot, a new thing appeared.

    It was as if one was drawing an image, and just finished part of a face. In front of their eyes, part of the forehead, alongside the nasal bridge, and an eye appeared, in addition to part of the oval shaped face appeared.

    "This building¡­" and as William saw this part of a face in front of him, he hurriedly turned around and checked the entire territory, "seven buildings¡­ two for the eyes, two for the nostrils, one for the chin, one for the mouth¡­ That leaves the final one as a mystery¡­"

    He realised now what this entire territory and its traps were¡­ All of this was a grand drawing of a face! And he didn''t need toplete it to know what it depicted; it was indeed the face of that old fox Transformer.

    But that wasn''t what piqued his interest, the mysterious seventh building was. "I''m sure the central one is the key to all this," he muttered before turning to Thomas and added, "draw everything around the central big building. Leave it forter."

    "Ok," Thomas didn''t get what went inside William''s mind, but he already started to fully trust him. And so, he returned to continue working, leaving behind William, who kept looking and studying the entire grand collection of scrolls.

    Things went out in such a pattern for days! William didn''t hold himself back from damaging the traps. He learnt from his previous lesson. And so, he deactivated the traps on a regr pace, making sure to not have lots of traps around any building anymore.

    Like this, Thomas would map out the entire area around any building, while William worked from behind and deactivated these traps. Then as they arrived at a building, Thomas would take hours to fully draw a single building.

    "Another eye¡­ One nostril¡­ Another nostril¡­" after doing this for five days, William finally stood in front of the scrolls scattered on the ground.

    Right now, more scrolls were added, and more parts of the drawing appeared. As he expected, it showed the face of a humanoid fox, the face of that dude.

    "We mapped out six buildings¡­ The one in the centre is the only one remaining¡­"

    After one more day, Thomas finished drawing scrolls rted to the sixth building. And with it, the entire picture of this face waspleted.

    The mouth was slightly opened, with an elliptical space left between the nose and mouth.

 Chapter 433 Predicting The Future Technique

    "Go and map out the traps around the building," William paused before adding, "don''t try the building until you get every single trap mapped out, got it?"

    "Sure, but¡­ What do you thinky in there?" Thomas pointed towards the emptied part in the grand picture.

    "I can''t tell," William was already thinking about all this. In his eyes, the best thing that dude would leave behind wouldn''t be a map, but words.

    He''d leave a message, describing where he buried that statue and such. Thinking about this made William think back about the message Thomas spoke about before, the one that started all this in the first ce.

    "It''s ced under that building," and when William asked, Thomas sighed, "I tried to see it, but couldn''t! All I can read is the few words I told you about before."

    "Even after clearing all this?!" William was surprised by this, and Thomas nodded. "We''ll leave it forter then."

    "But¡­" Thomas turned around, "you didn''t unlock the traps in any building yet!"

    William removed any trap all over the ce but didn''t touch a single trap in any building. He had a good reason not to do so. If things turned out for all the buildings to be connected together in some way, then it was best to wait until he''d map out everything.

    He wanted to first see what that central building got. Would it be the statue? He didn''t think so. Would it have a message? He leant more towards such an option. After all, that building hid the message that was directed to him.

    "I''m going to leave them forter," William didn''t say any of his reasons, "go and make sure to not draw anything about that building."

    "Got it," Thomas realised something when he went to work this time. This scary ce, the one everyone considered as cursed and deadly, was this close from getting purified off traps.

    It was an unimaginable feat, not only to him, but to everyone living in this fort.

    The spooky ce was going to turn into a normal one, and that was something not even he could imagine its effects over the entire fort!

    For example, what would his previous master feel? What would Alfonso feel? This ce, the one he threw away as if it was garbage, was about to turn into the goldennd in the entire fort.

    It wasn''t just huge, surrounded by impregnable arrays, its location was what made most of its value. Thomas was sure if William desired, then selling this ce for tens of billions of spirit crystals wasn''t going to be an exaggeration.

    Pumped up by being this close frompleting this task and clearing the entire ce, Thomas started to work double more than before without even realising it.

    As for William, he kept waiting in anticipation until the remaining scrolls of thend would be delivered. With each scroll getting done, William wasn''t patient anymore and started to deactivate the traps right away.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    By now, and after all these days, people out there already ced their bids. The ones who kept hesitating about which side to choose ended up regretting their hesitation.

    Remy wasn''t stupid. She knew after four days; everyone would already be able to guess what the result would be. So, by the end of the fourth day, she stopped cing any bid, announcing the closure of cing any bids in this event.

    The ones who thought they were smart ended upmenting their hesitation and weak will. And the ones who already ced their wealth against William ended up regretting it as well.

    It was now clear that William was going to do the impossible, do the thing that many spirit masters, much stronger spirit masters, failed to do along the course of centuries.

    The ones who were over the roof were the ones who ced their bids over William''s sess. They were now celebrating, cheering, and even dancing! And soon enough, a game of calcting how much wealth each one of them would get started, bringing many envious eyes towards those lucky few.

    Many went to ask Remy about the total amount of wealth involved in this event. But thetter refrained from revealing anything. She feared if she just shared the scary figure, all of the spirit masters here woulde for their blood.

    They could fend off against many, but not against such a crazy gathering of people. And so, no matter who came asking, she kept her lips tightly shut.

    "I believe the big show is about to begin!"

    At the Lockheart impact high up people, the leader suddenly said while his eyes shining in purple light.

    "What show? I bet it''s almost close to clear that damn ce for this kid," Ben sighed, inwardly cursing his bad luck to invite his leader and other elders in the impact to witness this show. If he didn''t do it, he''d have ended up with tons of wealth.

    "I don''t mean him," the leader''s eyes paused over a group of spirit masters who were slowly walking their path towards the front, "it''s them."

    "Who?" the others felt weird about that. But it was expected. After all, this leader had a unique spirit element, one that made him quite special in the eyes of the entire impact''s higher ups, either here or in the rest of the world.

    He got the time element! A very rare and special element indeed. And on top of that, he once found an ancient technique regarding his element when he was venturing in the world.

    He stumbled upon an ancient site, one that got lots of riches and techniques. It wasn''t rare for anyone to find such ruins, but for him this discovery changed his life.

    The time technique he found there was like a prediction type divination technique. He could think about anything, or anyone, and then he''d be able to divinate the answers to questions regarding them.

    He just spotted this group of people, moving in arge group of a few hundreds, moving like they belonged to a big team or something.

 Chapter 434 Trouble Came Knocking On The Gate

    When that purple eyed leader tried to divinate their origins, he found out that they weren''t merchants nor spirit masters living in this fort.

    And when he thought about who they were, a sh of an idea popped in his mind. When he tested this thought, he was surprised to see it was true.

    "Who are they?" Ben couldn''t help but ask his leader directly. There was nothing out of normal in these folks, aside from having arge gathering of gold and dark gold spirit masters in their ranks.

    "Dark spirit masters!" the leader said in an icy cold tone, before turning to face his trusted elders, "gather up everyone, notify the guards, notify other impacts, even notify the Refos group and the royalties in this damn ce¡­ We are going to have a big battle soon."

    "This¡­" thedy in the group was about to say her doubts, but Ben stopped her with a re from his eyes.

    To her, to anyone here, even if these people were dark spirit masters, that didn''t mean they were here for blood like usual.

    In such a gathering and huge event, it was expected that dark spirit masters would appear here. But that didn''t mean they came here for trouble.

    That was what thisdy wanted to say, but she got stopped by Ben. Who was their leader? He was someone who was blessed by the time element, could see through the thick shackles of time and knew answers to things that didn''t yet happen.

    If he wanted to summon such a grand gathering of spirit masters, even informing the ancient families in the fort, then it meant one thing¡­ Things here were going to end up quite ugly, one way or another.

    At this moment, William was already standing in deep silence, watching the seven buildings as if they were some sort of a grand mystery.

    Thomas was now working over the seventh building, deciphering it. When he drew the scrolls of traps around the building, William inspected them for an hour or so, but didn''t get any clue at all.

    They all looked like normal traps drawn before. And these new scrolls didn''t add much to the entire drawing.

    Right now, the entire face was there, only missing the part in between the lips and nose. William resigned atst and let Thomas start drawing thest building, while he kept his silence, thinking about his next move.

    "Shall I deactivate the buildings one by one? Or should I start attacking them all at once?" William was puzzled about this. He got twenty knives, and so he could arrange three of them to each building.

    Yet he wasn''t sure if this was going to work. Plus, deactivating these traps always ended up with detonation and a fierce wave of explosions.

    If that happened to any building here, then these buildings would be long gone before getting anything from them.

    William wanted to clear the traps, then go inside the buildings and search them thoroughly. He felt like some sort of huge secret wasid in these buildings. And so, damaging these old buildings was out of the question.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He thought about using some sort of protective array to defend these buildings, but that wasn''t feasible. He needed lots of materials to do so.

    Putting materials aside, he needed toy down such arrays from within the buildings. And that was something he couldn''t do right now.

    He was sure the old tales he heard before were all lies. No one cleared a single trap here. The best they did was to trigger and detonate traps, ending up suffering heavy losses without achieving anything.

    With such a dense of traps, no one would be able to set foot inside this ce without getting bombarded with deadly explosions. And as this ce was heavily sealed by arrays, it was easy to fabricate anything.

    William stood in front of the seven buildings, lost in what to do. And when he was standing there, he suddenly heard weird noisesing from one direction.

    "This¡­" William was startled by such noises. And when he turned, he saw they came from the direction of the gate of this ce. "Is someone knocking perhaps on the closed gate or what?" he muttered, while Thomas stopped what he was doing and looked at his master in puzzlement.

    "No, keep working," as the noises of hitting or attacking the gate kepting, William motioned with his hand towards Thomas to keep drawing.

    Then he went towards the gate, wondering about what was going on out there.

    No one would dare toe in here without his permission. That was something he was sure of. And hearing such soundsing from the gate made him guess that it was Remy''s doing.

    "What? Did she finish the bet and wanted to tell me the total count of wealth? Or did she calcte my share and wants to inform me about it?"

    He was puzzled until he finally went outside his territory. And there he found Remy standing in front of the gate, hitting it with her hammer like weapon.

    That wasn''t what attracted William''s attention, but the people around her did. Remy wasn''t alone, as she was guarded by many dark gold spirit masters of her group.

    From the look on their faces, these folks seemed to grow vignt against something. And William didn''t need to ask to know the answer.

    Opposite to Remy was another group of spirit masters, one that didn''t pale inparison, even were much bigger in number.

    William didn''t recognise a single one of these, but he could tell they were hellish strong and brutal. From the look over Remy and her guards, William was sure these folks meant trouble. And yet he didn''t know what made such scary dudese here.

    "What''s happening here?" William''s best guess was that a feud started because Remy prevented epting any more bids. Thomas already informed him of her decision when he went outside to bring food as usual.

 Chapter 435 The Fox Appears!

    That was why William didn''t even bother to cover up his perfect condition or try to fake being severely wounded or something.

    William''s best guess was that this group of scary folks arrived herete and wanted to take part in the betting event or something. And that was indeed enough to stir trouble here, forcing Remy to call almost half of the guards sent by the Refos group to gather up around her in such a way.

    "They say they know you," Remy said in an aggressive tone, "and they wanted toe inside."

    "Come where?" William got more puzzled, turned to look at the group standing in front of him with more vignce than before.

    "We are here by the orders of ourmon friends," one of them said, as he pointed towards the territory, "we are going there whether you like it or not."

    "What are you talking about?" William''s aura changed, and he started to enter battle mode. He looked at the serious faces of this bunch of spirit masters and couldn''t recognise a single one of them.

    "You promised to give something from there to ourmon friends, a token of your friendship with us."

    The more this dude spoke, the more William got puzzled. And from the look on his face, it was clear to anyone watching that William didn''t get anything from these words.

    "They said they''lle inside with or without your permission," Remy said, while gazing at William in a serious way, "one word from you and we will kick them out."

    "Humph, as if you got the ability to do so," that dude said in an arrogant way. And before William would even take a single weapon out or say a single word, that dude acted faster. He took out a scroll before unfolding it, "did you think that old bastard built this ce on his own? Our masters helped him, and they got a way to let us enter! Let''s go! Kill anyone standing in your way!"

    Just as this dude shouted like this, he suddenly activated his spirit. Something like a huge white snake appeared in front of everyone''s eyes, and the scroll then shone brightly and turned into a bright ball of light.

    "Sh*t!" William realised everything when that dude said hisst words. And without any dy, he started to act, "stop them! They are dark spirit masters! Kill them all!"

    "Let us go inside with you!" Remy shouted, but she was half a beatte. William knew the moment these folks revealed their true colours and real intentions, it was going to be a bloodbath.

    If he dyed for a single second, if he hesitated for a brief moment, then his path forward would get blocked by these dark spirit masters.

    And so the moment that ball of light appeared, and before it''d even epass a group of fifty spirit masters around, engulfing and taking them into the territory, William instantly activated his dash technique, moving for fifty metres directly, passing through the gate of his ce.

    As he arrived in his territory, and at the same moment, the ball of light that he saw before appeared just hundreds of metres away, releasing a group of fifty spirit masters.

    William stood in his ce while icily gazing at this group of invaders. Without the need to ask, they belonged to the side of those damn Transformers.

    "They never nned to give me a choice in the first ce!" William was a little surprised by this sudden twist in events. He thought he got everything under his control. But he was wrong!

    It seemed those folks weren''t used to getting a no for an answer. And they weren''t that cornered in the first ce about his opinion and decision about this matter.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They got a way to let such a group of folks arrive here. And that meant they didn''t need William from the beginning.

    "Oh, the little kid came in as well."

    "We got clear orders to kill anyone, even him."

    "Fine, let me y a little with him. The gate our masters gave to us can only let gold grade spirit masters in. If we just got a single dark gold spirit master¡­"

    "No need, our intel says that he is just at bronze grade."

    "Don''t forget he got a gold grade servant in there."

    "He isn''t a problem. Let''s divide up, ten will deal with this ant, ten will go to deal with that useless servant, and the rest will spread up and look for the statue¡­"

    William looked at all of them, listening to their words. He now realised what happened, and it seemed those statues just wanted to not burn away such a method as it looked like it was one time usage.

    "Only gold grade? Fine¡­" William let them speak and chat among themselves, while taking something out. It was one of the elixirs he bought before with Thomas at the Seven Heaven store.

    "Just chat as long as you can. In a few minutes, I promise you all will die in my ws" And without any hesitation, he gulped the entire content of this elixir, feeling like he drank a fountain of water or something.

    A wild gush of spirit power came out from his belly the next moment, but this didn''t startle him. In the next moment, he started to act.

    "Humph! What an arrogant and delusional kid you are!"

    "Do you take us for those useless spirit masters? We are dark spirit masters!"

    "We will kill him together, cut his corpse into little pieces, and leave them as a token for people in this fort to get reminded of our name and brutality."

    *Roar!*

    Just as they all spoke in between each other, evenughing and mocking William, thetter started to change.

    The first thing he did was to summon up his spirit, his one tailed fox spirit. A single roar was all it took to shut up everyone. And the next moment, a real nightmarended on all of them.

 Chapter 436 The Scary One Tailed Fox

    "Sh*t!"

    "What the heck is that?!"

    "Is he a spirit master or a fox?!!"

    "Isn''t the old fox dead?!!!"

    *Fwoosh!*

    William didn''t even show a single moment of mercy towards them. He was already outnumbered, overpowered by the huge gulf in power between the two of them.

    He knew his spirit form gave him enough boost to rival those gold grade enemies. But he wasn''t sure to what extent such a boost would back him up. He used to fight against gold grade monsters, ending up struggling against them. But now, everything had changed!

    He got his solid one tailed fox spirit form activated, got his body erged, and he became truly deadly!

    William didn''t even think twice, moved at once, using his deadliest attack right from the start.

    What was hindering him before got already dealt with by the elixir he used before moving a muscle. His Holy Sword technique, his deadliest technique, was scary when it came to spirit power consumption.

    His gold grade sword was enough to deal damage to any gold grade foe. And now, coupled with the scary boostsing from his one tailed fox spirit, his sword technique reached a totally new level.

    "Watch out!"

    "Scatter!"

    "Activate your spirits¡­ Agh!"

    Just before these folks would jolt awake from their shock, William vanished from their sights,nded in the middle of them, while his sword held by his tail waved right and left, releasing the stacked attacks over anyone it could reach.

    The initial distance between the two was already hundreds of metres, but that didn''t stop William. As he got enough spirit power, he didn''t even think about spirit power consumption, and fought for the first time ever sinceing back without worrying about anything.

    He shed and used his technique one time over another, stacking more attacks over his sword while his spirit consumption rate skyrocketed to unprecedented scale.

    He knew if he tried such a way without the elixir, he''d end up dead before even shing for the third time. But as he got enough, he shed for six times, crossing one hundred metre distance in each dash, while stacking lots of arcs of lightning over his sword.

    *Rumble!*

    It wasn''t surprising for the attack heunched to release a mighty explosion. It wasn''t even weaker than the ones released from the traps he kept triggering all this time in this ce, even going beyond that!

    Such traps were enough to im the lives of dark gold spirit masters. So, it was expected how things turned out for that one rank weaker dark spirit masters.

    "Cough! Cough!"

    "I''m going to kill you! Agh!"

    Just as the aftermath cleared, at least fifteen of this group died right on the spot. As for the rest, they were lucky to be slightly away from the focus of this attack.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But they didn''t escape unscathed. All of them suffered different wounds depending on how fast they reacted and activated their spirits.

    "Spread out!"

    "Don''t stack together!"

    William was now standing in the middle of the initial position their group were in. Around him, bodies were scattered, and blood flooded like rivers.

    William wasn''t William, wasn''t a human, but a real fox with one tail. He stood there motionless, embraced in the amazing feeling of being overwhelmingly strong and mighty.

    William felt like he returned back in time, to when he was at the pinnacle of his power. He never feared any foe except for that damn fox. And he always felt like a real god whenever he faced any enemy.

    As for his enemies here, they were scared and shocked at the same time. They never expected the dude they never ced in their eyes beforeing here would turn out to be such a ferocious fox, a deadly beast.

    "Did you say you are going to send ten to kill me? Come on! I just killed fifteen in one attack! Hahahahaha!" William''s words andughs appeared like wordsing from a death god to all of the dark spirit masters around.

    And without knowing it, everyone started to feel a cold shiver down their spines, especially when Williamughed, and hisughs came as mighty and violent roars.

    "Don''t give him a chance!"

    "Use anything, use everything, let''s bring him down!"

    "We are still stronger and have more on our side¡­ He is alone, and his spirit power can''t sustain him for long!"

    "Sorry pal, but it will," William roared again, shed this time to hit a group of five dark spirit masters.

    "Stop him and we wille¡­"

    *Boom!*

    The attack this time wasn''t as violent as before, as William just dashed through a gap of fifty metres or so. But on the cost of lowering the damage of his attack, he managed to perfectly control the jumping of his attack, letting his sword hit all five of them with extreme precision.

    "... To help you¡­ Dammit! Let''s all attack together!"

    The one who was speaking didn''t have any chance at all. William''s attack was violent and brutal, came swiftly as lightning, and imed the lives of these five in just one hit.

    And when he turned to look at the remaining thirty dark spirit masters around, he found them already activating their spirits, taking out their weapons, and wereing at him from all directions.

    In front of his eyes, he saw lots of spirits that he previously met before in the form of monsters, but not humans. This wasn''t the first time for him to face such a situation. And that didn''t slip past his notice.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    "Catch me if you can! Hahahaha!" even if he got such an advantage over them, he''d never underestimate his opponents. They were all using strong monster spirits, all with an element of darkness. And that made them move quite fast.

    But they weren''t even close to his speed. The first thing he did was to widen the distance between him and them, dashing forward for one hundred metres, while stacking one Holy Sword technique. Like this, he escaped their impending trap, and even prepared for a very violent attack.

 Chapter 437 The Dangerous Ball

    William loved how it felt when he stacked more than one attack together. His sword would feel heavier, and a little rebellious. Yet it didn''t manage to slip off his tail''s grip. At the same time, it felt just cool to subdue such a rebellious and strong sword.

    And so, he dashed for three more times, taking a wide detour around these thirty foes, before finally heading back,ing straight towards them.

    He came from their rear, attacking them after dashing for three more times, waving his sword with his tail, without even checking on his spirit power for even one second.

    "Watch out!"

    "He ising from behind!"

    "Attack! Don''t defend, attack!"

    It was like a wildfire spread in the middle of all of them. They were all scared, unorganised, and didn''t even get a single leader or one tactic.

    In their eyes, they were supposed to be the strongest spirit masters in the same grade. But in front of William, in front of a bronze spirit master, a weakling they would never ce in their eyes, they looked like turtles and snails, weak like fragile eggshells.

    Aside from strength, their speed indeedckedpared with William. Even when activating their darkness element, they felt like they were the ones using normal elements, and William was the one using the darkness one.

    In their eyes, William was moving too damn fast, as if he was teleporting or something. If not for the series of afterimages William left behind while moving fast, they''d mistake him for having a space element and using teleportation technique.

    But thanks to these afterimages, they could at least guess where William was heading towards. And that made it easy for them tounch their next attack.

    "Got him!"

    "Me too!"

    "Hahahaha, you are dead! Do you hear me, bastard? You are dead!"

    Just as William arrived at their rear, he got faced with a myriad of attacksing from those thirty. Their attacknded on William''s grand body, exploded and released a thick bellow of dust.

    "Wrong! You got my afterimage only, hahahaha!"

    And when they were this close from celebrating killing William, thetter''s calm voice came just from their side.

    William knew he was facing extremely experienced spirit masters. And as they were dark spirit masters, they used to lure enemies out and hit them when they''d least expect it.

    So he didn''t n to just hit them directly at their rear. And when he arrived there, he used a short dash to the side, so damn fast they missed him.

    *Rumble!*

    Before any of them would react, William moved his tail and let his swordnd in the middle of this group, releasing all the stacked attacks he had umted so far.

    And with this hit, a second violent explosion erupted, one that wasn''t any weaker than the first one.

    "Agh!"

    "I will kill you! Will kill you!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Dammit! My arm is gone! Is gone! Agh!"

    As the second attacknded, another wave of losses appeared in the middle of their ranks. This time, William controlled his technique more perfectly, killing twenty of them in one go.

    "Without dark gold masters, we are doomed!"

    The surviving ten jumped fast, using their darkness element and moved as far away from William as possible.

    "Let''s then use it!"

    "Yes, we are done for anyway. Bringing this damn bastard with me is enough!"

    As they scattered, William heard them shout like this and he felt like they still got something up their sleeve.

    They had a way to invite one dark gold dark spirit master here. And if that happened, William would be in great trouble.

    "Time to end this fun," despite not liking this, he had to get rid of all of them fast and stop ying around.

    As they scattered, there was a few hundred metres between them and him. In addition to that, every man was on his own, standing alone and away from each other by almost the same distance.

    It meant he''d take much longer to kill them, but that also meant he''d ensure killing one of them even if he shed directly against their spirits, techniques, and weapons.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Rumble!*

    William didn''t hold his tail at all, kept stacking attacks while jumping towards one enemy after another. No matter how hard they tried, no matter how they attacked, they all were going to fall on his hands in the end.

    William wasn''t thinking of anything at this moment, only taking care of these first was his top priority. He knew his spirit body was enough to make him deal with gold spirit masters as if they were white grade ones. But that didn''t mean he got enough confidence to fight against one dark gold spirit master.

    But as he took some time to cross the distance between him and five enemies, and even when he took them out, he noticed that one of the remaining five took out a ball, raised it high in the air, before pushing his spirit power into it.

    It was like a crystal the size of one''s head. That dude raised his right hand high, without even caring about anything, not even about his life.

    "I''m going to kill you first!" William didn''t like the vibe that came from this ball when that dude injected his spirit power into it. And so he dropped all his ns about others, turned around, and started dashing towards that dude.

    The dark spirit masters were already running for their lives since the second big attack of William. And so, the distance between him and that dude now was close to one kilometre at least.

    "Hurry up! He ising for you!" one shouted while William kept leaving a series of afterimages behind, dashing like crazy towards that dude.

    "Die!"

    "I won''t make it! Catch!"

    And just before William wouldnd his stacked-up attack, the fiercest he ever formed since the start of this battle, that dude knew he was done for.

    Out of William''s expectations, that dude arched his back, and threw that ball to the opposite direction with all his might.

 Chapter 438 Thomas

    A gold spirit master wasn''t a weakling in reality. It was that William grew much stronger than any of them that made them look this weak.

    So when the attacknded, leaving behind a scary rumbling noise, William could only see that ball moving like a lightning bolt, heading fast, away from him.

    "Come here!" William didn''t know what this ball could do, but he was sure it was able to bring a dark gold spirit master here. So even before his sword would release all the stacked power stored inside it, he activated his lightning technique, chasing after this ball.

    "I won''t let you get it!"

    "I''m closer! I''m getting it first!"

    "It''s mine!"

    "I''m going to stop him!"

    And just as William dashed after this ball, all the remaining four moved at the same time. The ball was moving like a rocket, and the distance between it and William kept increasing fast.

    As if that wasn''t enough, one of those four moved and used a grand darkness shield, one that exploded and released a terrifying force towards William.

    "F*ck off!" William was already on the edge here. As he didn''t release all the stacked attacks before, he waved his tail and released the remaining stacked attacks there, aided with another technique he just activated.

    He dashed directly towards the exploding mighty walling at him and prated through it from the centre like an arrow.

    Another huge and scary explosionnded, taking away the life of that gold grade foe. However, and even with all that, that wall managed to dy him for a few seconds, and all the enemies needed were just these.

    The ball already reached a far distance from William, not enough for him to reach it first. At the same time, one of those dark spirit masters was already this close from getting it. He jumped, reached out with his hand to grab it.

    "It''s mine, hahaha!"

    "You heard my master, f*ck off!"

    Just before the ball would fall in the hands of one of the enemies, a sh appeared. A shadow showed up at this crucial moment, one that extended his hand, grabbed the ball, andnded just tens of metres away.

    "Master, catch!"

    It was Thomas. And William swore he never felt such happiness to see someone aftering back to this life before like he felt right now. Thomas came out of the blue, appeared out of nowhere, caught the ball, and threw it like a pro rugby yer towards William while being midair.

    "Who the f*ck are you?!!!" The one who was just centimetres away from this ball couldn''t help but shout in distress and panic, turned around to see Thomas standing up from his fall, not far from him. And at this moment, everything in that dude''s mind vanished, turned into an unstoppable tsunami of rage.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Die!" he shouted, used his deadliest techniques, and came like a viper towards Thomas.

    "Sorry master¡­ I wanted to serve you longer¡­"

    "Shut the hell up! You won''t die as long as I don''t give you permission!"

    Just when Thomas felt like death doors weren''t this close to him, the icy cold voice of William rang in his ears.

    It wasn''t just him who heard what William said, but that dude who wasn''t a few metres away from his target, also heard William perfectly well.

    "F*ck! What are you? A monkey or what?!!!" Just when that dude heard that voice, he couldn''t believe his ears and turned to make sure of what he just heard.

    William was already hundreds of metres away when he moved and was in the middle of catching that ball. William never showed any signs or ability to travel such distance before in a fraction of a second just like he did this time. And that exined why this dude felt such shock.

    "Sorry, but you picked the wrong fox to y with this time," William was indeed next to that dude, waving his one tail, andnding his sword over that dude''s head.

    A mighty rumble urred, sending Thomas flying backwards for hundreds of metres. William didn''t feel anything at all, stood in his ce motionless, holding that ball in one w, while looking at Thomas.

    "You did prove your worth to me," William said in an honest way towards Thomas, "from now on, you are one of my closest people. And you won''t regret it."

    If such words were said by another bronze spirit master, anyone but William, then Thomas, who was flying in the air, wouldn''t have even taken any of them seriously.

    But after such an insane battle, after what Thomas experienced with his master for all this long, ending up watching such a mind-blowing battle happening in front of his eyes, he couldn''t help but feel like he won the lottery.

    Thomas was dead busy dealing with the task of drawing thest building when he heard the first explosive noisesing from the direction of the gate. Without any hesitation, and without even thinking about any reason or scenarios about what was going on, he ran fast, ran towards the gate direction.

    He already was feeling uneasy after that weird knocking on the gate from before. And so, when he heard such explosions, one thought popped in his mind: intruders!

    And when he arrived there, the second violent attack erupted. He saw his master standing alone, tall and mighty like a mountain, while gold grade spirit masters were standing around him, feeling deep fear and immense shock.

    They looked like the ones at bronze grade, and his master looked as if he was the one at the gold grade. Thomas released his spirit sense a long time before arriving here, and he absorbed all what his master did.

    The brilliant second devastational attack, with the attack that happened before it, opened Thomas'' eyes over his master''s real abilities and strength.

    He kept wondering about how strong such a mysterious and resourceful master was. And right now, he got the answer crystal clear in front of his eyes.

 Chapter 439 You Wont Die Until I Permit It!

    At first, all he saw was an alien group of spirit masters fighting against a scary fox. He mistook everything at first, thought the owner of this ce was still alive, and came to take the lives of those intruders.

    Butter on, he realised it was his master. He previously watched William taking out his sword and flying knives, when the folks from the other Big Seven groups came knocking on their doorsteps.

    Seeing that sword, listening to the way William spoke in, made it clear in his eyes. This monster, this grand and scary fox, was in fact his mysterious master.

    And as he was absorbed in his shock, watching everything that happened here, he saw how his master was going to face a tough situation thanks to this ball.

    Thomas was indeed a gold grade spirit master, one who climbed ranks thanks to his effort and hard work. His life wasn''t that peaceful or calm, and his ride to his current stage of power wasn''t by any means a smooth sailing.

    He could see the huge importance of this ball to his master. And using his spirit sense, using the distraction of everyone here thanks to the scary master of his, Thomas slowly approached a spot close to the one who got the ball thrown at in the end.

    Thomas had a much clearer mind than everyone, even than his master. And for a reason, the idea of that dude to throw the ball to another popped in his mind. And from there, he selected the one with the highest probability and approached him in stealth and silence.

    As the ball got thrown as he expected, Thomas kept himself ready to move out. He still had the effect of that magical elixir droplet in his body. And so, he used his fastest technique to move and jump like a sent arrow, getting the ball from the opened mouth of the deadly beast itself.

    But when he grabbed that ball, he suddenly realised how weak and vulnerable he was. He saw how these dudes fought and was sure he wasn''t an opponent to any of them.

    He was totally absorbed in his feeling and shock from his master, driven by the desire to help William at any cost. And that made him miss such small and yet crucial detail.

    At this moment of realisation, which came when he intercepted the ball, many thoughts shed through his mind, ending up with a single conclusion.

    He might have pulled his greatest move he had ever done ever in his life. But he was also sure this was going to be thest move he''d ever pull in this world.

    He saw his death as a fact fixed in stone. And without a single speck of hesitation, he threw the ball back towards his master.

    For a reason, he felt weird loyalty, admiration, and pride towards William. And for unknown reason, he wanted such a mysterious kid, such a unique spirit master, to continue walking forward and not fall here.

    His greatest regret was that he''d die and fall down here, would miss the amazing journey and ascension of such a spirit master. But thinking about how he aided in such a journey, how he helped his master to his fullest abilities, he felt a weird calmness and peacefully epted his fate.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Even when that crazy dude turned towards him, unleashing everything he got like a flood, Thomas didn''t even think about resisting.

    He came with a consent with death, epted his fate with peace andfort.

    He even closed his eyes, waiting for the unimaginable pain to befall him. But who knew at such a crucial moment of life and death, his valiant master would show up,e for his rescue!

    William''s appearance here didn''te as a shock just to that dark spirit master, but also to Thomas himself. Anyone watching this battle would know the limits of William.

    He could jump a hundred metres in one go but wouldn''t jump hundreds of metres in one go. William needed a moment before he''d start his amazing technique again.

    Yet no one here knew that William was already using his technique with shackles all over it! When William saw the unexpected and courageous move of Thomas, he got deeply touched by this youth.

    And just as the ball was sent flying into his direction, William got what Thomas realised. He knew Thomas was going to die. And it even looked as if he knew he''d end up with such fate and got prepared by throwing this ball towards William.

    If Thomas knew all this and embraced his death to just help him, then William wouldn''t stand back or hold his technique anymore.

    If Thomas took such a bold move even when he knew he was going to die, epting sacrificing himself to help William, then it would be a stain in William''s name to let this youth die under his watch.

    Just as the ball was midair, and even before that enraged dude would turn towards him and release his deadly attack, William unleashed the true power of his technique. He finally used it without any restraints, moving towards the direction of Thomas like a bolt of lightning.

    And so the attack released by such technique was expected to be on a totally new level than anything William released so far.

    "Stay back for now," William issued this order to his man, turned around and saw what remained of the dude he just killed.

    Nothing! Only a giant spot of blood that stained a deep crater that went for tens of metres. William didn''t notice it before, yet all of his deadly attacks left smaller craters behind. And seeing this small crater around, he couldn''t help but admire how sturdy thend here was.

    "That dude really made it sure that no one but me would deal with his traps," William knew this was done on purpose, to prevent anyone from digging and dealing with the deep below hidden traps.

 Chapter 440 The Fox Is Going Out

    As he saw that what was left of that dude was just this giant spot of blood and severed hands and legs, he turned towards the remaining three. And just by meeting up his gaze, they pissed themselves on the spot.

    "You are next," his wordsnded as he ced the ball in one of his storage rings, then dashed like before, unleashing the full potential of his technique, iming the lives of thest three like they were nothing.

    What was true might? Thomas at this moment saw what true might was!

    "Phew! It ended," William stood in the middle of all this mess, watching the killed enemies all around the ce. This attack came out of the blue, and made him realise he wasn''t that safe anymore, not even here.

    He tried his best to keep those damn Transformers on the neutral side and tried to trick them. But he ended up getting tricked. "At least I managed to kill all of them¡­"

    William suddenly paused, feeling weirdly weak. He hurriedly cancelled his spirit form, checked on his spirit power. And shockingly enough, it was as low as five percent only.

    "Damn! The full version of my technique is indeed brutal," he muttered to himself, looking at all the scars and leftovers of this scary battle, before turning his eyes towards the outside.

    "Should I go? Or should I remain in here?" he didn''t need to take a peek out there to know that a deadly fight had already erupted.

    The moment these dark spirit masters announced their presence, made their move, and the entire situation turned into a bloody battle.

    It was like a grenade that got its fuse removed. The dark spirit masters didn''t just bring only hundreds with them. In fact, in the middle of the entire gathering here, there were thousands of their folks, scattered in the middle of all the people out there.

    The moment the ones at the front acted and sent the group of fifty gold grade spirit masters inside the territory, they started a big battle against the folks from the Refos group. And so, the entire ce was lit entirely on fire.

    The ce out there turned from the peaceful gathering of the event into a true oven. Battles erupted everywhere, and people started to fall at a fast and rming rate.

    But unlike what everyone expected, floods of reinforcements arrived in the next few minutes.

    Thanks to the timely warning of the leader of the Lockheart impact, tons of forces appeared from every direction. And without anyone nning to, the battle that started just at this street, at the front gate of the foxnd, started to escte and grow in size, reaching other ces.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    However, it was still the toughest and deadliest at the gates of the fox territory. Dark spirit masters there got three missions to do. First, they needed to buy their group inside enough time to find that statue. Second, they had to stop any strong foes from blocking the path of retreat of that group once they discovered the statue. And third they wanted to take the rings that got the riches that all the people here betted.

    It was a staggering amount of wealth, one that even the mightiest organisation of the dark spirit masters in the region couldn''t close an eye towards.

    And so, the folks from the Refos group took it harder than anyone else. Lots of their formidable guards kept falling like they were made out of thin paper.

    "Screw it! Why would I flinch or get terrified?" inside the territory, William didn''t take more than a minute to make up his mind, "I''m special, and I''m destined to reach greater heights. Why shall I fear anyone and not show off my powers? The ones that gave me a scare already ced my head at the top of their bounty hunting list. I will go out there and will make sure to im as many rings from these dark spirit masters as possible."

    William didn''t like the idea of hiding and covering up his power. He knew for someone like him, no matter how hard he tried, he''d always fail at hiding everything.

    If so, then why would he care about this in the first ce? In his eyes, any enemy that wanted a piece of him could try, and he''d show them how bitter his meat was.

    "Gather up the rings, stay inside, and wait for me to return," William took out another elixir bottle, emptied its content inside his throat, turned around and started to take step by step towards the gate of his ce.

    His enemies thought they could corner him¡­ Thought they coulde anytime they wanted, attack him, and leave without paying the price? No way!

    William kept walking, and in Thomas'' eyes, he looked like a god of death walking to im lives of the mortals in this world. When William became less than a hundred metres away from the gate, he activated his spirit, and took the form of a fox once more.

    He knew he''d find lots of dark gold enemies out there. But at least he wouldn''t be alone. Out there, this fort was filled with tons of dark gold spirit masters. And all he needed to do was to evade the scary dudes before the arrival of the reinforcements.

    Not to mention there was the group of spirit masters Remy brought over from the Refos group. There were lots of dark gold spirit masters there in their ranks. And William nned to use them as his mighty shield against any formidable foe.

    At the same time, he was curious about the might of his technique. He calcted, and he found out he could use his scary technique to its fullest extent at least four times per elixir.

    As he got tens of them, he got nothing to fear. He''d try and see, see if he could bring down any dark gold enemy with his technique.

 Chapter 441 Targetting Dark Gold Enemies

    If so, then William would have a weapon, a sharp and deadly one, to use against those deadly foes. He''d not fear anyone, fear anything, and would instantly put his grand ns on motion.

    What prevented him all this time from doing what he wanted? It was the huge gap in power between him and the high grades spirit masters.

    From this battle, if he just came out by the effectiveness of his fox spirit form with his technique and elixirs to take down gold grade masters, then it was enough.

    And now it was time to see if his full powered technique would be enough to rival and perhaps threaten the dark gold foes or not.

    *Roar!*

    The situation out there was much worse than what William thought. When he got out, what weed his eyes was total chaos and brutal fights.

    Everywhere around, spirit masters were fighting against others, with tons of spirits getting activated and endless streams of attacksnding on both sides.

    It wasn''t the kind of battle where each side would take one ce and fight the enemies at the opposing side. It was totally chaotic. And everywhere around, William saw many spirit masters fighting among themselves.

    But the next moment, William roared, issuing his presence in the most shocking and rming way possible.

    His roar came and then it felt like the entire world froze. Everyone, be it the normal or dark spirit masters, both stopped what they were doing, turned all towards William and gazed up at him in immense shock.

    And before William would start his dreamt spree of attacks and killing, a single shout changed everything.

    "The fox... The fox isn''t dead!"

    William didn''t know who said it, or howe that dude got such an insane idea. But the moment that dude said it, the entire ce turned into a different path of chaos.

    "Run!"

    "Run for your lives!"

    "That crazy bastard tricked us all!"

    "Run for your lives!"

    When William expected a fierce and deadly war, what he got was just scared shouts, and many people running.

    It was all from the side of the dark spirit masters. And for a reason, they felt like they got shitless scared from seeing his fox spirit body.

    *Roar!*

    But even if they wanted to run, William wouldn''t let them be.

    The dark spirit masters here already were on the run. And that made them quite vulnerable.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Don''t stand like this! Let''s aid the fox and kill them!" Remy got jolted awake from her shock quite fast, turned to her guards and shouted.

    At the same time, many capable spirit masters did the same. And soon enough, the entire ce turned into a bloodbath for the running dark spirit masters.

    *Roar!* *Boom!*

    William didn''t hold back at all. He already saw lots of dark spirit masters within his reach. He moved, aimed to take the weak looking ones using a few of his dashes each time.

    These dashes weren''t enough to show the terrifying might of his technique. But all the enemies he hit got killed, leaving behind a crater and violent explosion.

    In a few minutes, the entire battle changed. The dark spirit masters started to fall inrge numbers, and the reinforcementing here kept the situation under much control.

    Yet that was just the case for the gold grade spirit masters. For the dark gold ones, taking any of them out was a long and tough path, a hurdle like never before.

    Soon enough, many individuals appeared in William''s vision as the top candidates for testing his technique on them. William didn''t know if his technique would be enough to kill or even heavily wound anyone of them. And so he nned something else in his mind.

    "Time to use different variations together," William was setting his gaze upon a group of seven dark gold dark spirit masters not too far away from his ce.

    They weren''t together to begin with, separated hundreds of metres apart. They were surrounded with many gold grade dark gold spirit masters and were all buried under a tsunami of iing spirit masters of this fort.

    Yet with a single nce, there was a clear disparity in the overall number of dark gold spirit masters on both sides. Not to mention the onesing from this fort weren''t used to each other''s way of fighting, not like the dark spirit masters who knew each other at least.

    So even if there was a crushing advantage in terms of gold grade spirit masters, it wasn''t that effective considering the presence of enough dark gold spirit masters on the enemy side.

    *Roar!*

    Just as everyone was absorbed in their deadly battles, William started to act. He dashed forward, moved fast while creating a path behind, one that was filled with a long series of afterimages.

    *Rumble!*

    He stacked seven attacks together, and finally came from a blind spot to that dark gold dark spirit master. He made sure to cross hundreds of metres in thest dash, activating the scary might of his full powered technique. The attack came fast andnded, aiming to im that dude''s head.

    William wasn''t sure that the full powered attack of his would be enough to im that dude''s life, or even leave a wound behind. And so, he started to stack seven attacks first, before ending this with his grand move.

    "Stay away from me!" but William underestimated how brutal and strong dark gold spirit masters were. That dude wasn''t just idly standing here, but was vigntly fighting, with his guard raised all the time.

    So, it wasn''t a surprise for him to spot William at thest moment. He moved his huge hammer a little higher to defend the iing deadly attack.

    But even so, the aftermath of such a shocking attack swept away all the enemies and allies alike, pushing them away from the ce of the attack as if a true bomb just exploded there.

    Bodies flew in the air, forming weird arcs before falling violently and crashing against the ground for tens of metres.

 Chapter 442 He Can Fight Dark Gold Spirit Masters

    Many died, and much morended with severe and heavy wounds. The attack that William unleashed was lethal to any gold grade spirit master, even when he didn''t aim this attack primarily against them.

    "Another!" William wanted nothing more than to stick around and see what happened to the dude he hit. But he didn''t n his attack in such a way from the start.

    The moment his sword released all the stored lightning attacks in it, releasing a lightning element at this dude''s body, he instantly shed and dashed to another direction, targeting another dude.

    And he made sure to follow the same pattern, stacking seven attacks first, before ending them up with a devastating full powered attack of his technique.

    "Watch out! The fox is after all of us!" It was clear what William wanted to do. And so, one of these dark gold dudes shouted in fear, warning everyone else about William''s intentions.

    William knew before starting his attack that the first target had the highest chances of being hit without knowing what wasing at him. But starting from there onwards, it''d be a direct and brutal sh, his sword and technique against their weapons and techniques.

    But that didn''t stop him from dashing forward towards the next target. He shed for seven times, stacking seven attacks together, before finally appearing in front of that dude''s face after crossing hundreds of metres, activating thest lethal attack of his.

    "F*ck off! Find another one to aim at, goddammit!"

    That dude held a giant greatsword, one that had to be held by both arms. That dude already was prepared for William, raising that dangerous looking sword high in the air, waiting for William to draw closer beforending it at his face.

    William didn''t even flinch. And just as that dude''s swordnded, he shouted fiercely as if he scored something big. But unlike what he expected, a grand shadow appeared next to him, just a few metres away, and then a rumbling attack fell.

    William already used such a tricky move before, and it proved its worth. William wasn''t just like any normal spirit master here, not limited by his technique.

    In fact, his strongest point wasn''t in the brutality and explosive nature of his technique, but his agility. He got three variations of his technique, ones that would turn him into a nimble bird.

    And just like that, the true nightmare of the dark gold dark spirit masters here began.

    William kept jumping from one foe to another, not limited by any distance or any technique. Even when many gold dark spirit masters gathered up, trying to cut his path forward, they ended up getting blown to pieces without seeding at all in stopping him.

    The best they did was to force him to waste his stacked attacks over them. And whenever that happened, William would simply change targets, selecting someone far away from him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Before starting any of that, he used one elixir. A single one was supposed to suffice four of his brutal attacks. However, as he kept pushing himself beyond the limit, stacking ten and even fifteen attacks at some point, he found out that one elixir was enough to power up three attacks only.

    And so he kept consuming one elixir bottle after another, feeling like he was using them as running water.

    "It worked!" but against all this crazy consumption of his spirit power and expensive elixirs, he finally shouted the moment he saw the effect of his attack on the first foe he hit.

    That dude was still engulfed in the deadly explosion of William''s attack for a few minutes. When the dust settled, that dude stood there, with a severed arm, an ugly deep wound on his chest, and bleeding from all over his body.

    The arm that got severed was the one who held that hammer before, the one who weed the scary attack of William. As for the initial target of head, that dude managed to shift William''s sword at thest second, letting it hit his chest instead.

    William knew this was an amazing result, but he also knew this dude wasn''t a strong dark gold spirit master. So, he didn''t let such a result get into his head. And soon enough he saw different results over the dudes around.

    The wounds he left over their bodies varied from being superficial to severe. And that told William how big the difference was between these folks in the same grade.

    However, that also meant William wasn''t without an option against dark gold spirit masters anymore. When he''d buy that ne from the Refos group, he''d end up having a shield and a weapon against such scary folks.

    He wouldn''t dream about killing any of them for now. But at least he was sure he''d be able to escape with his life intact if he ever got ambushed by such scary dudes.

    "I have to rush things up, I have to reach silver grade as soon as possible," William knew that most of the power shown here was simply limited by his low-grade spirit power.

    Even if he used an elixir to supplement the waste, it was still limited by the grade of his spirit power. At silver grade, attacking weak dark gold grade spirit masters would leave behind deadly wounds for sure.

    And if he managed to reach the pinnacle of the silver grade, then he might be able to kill these folks! Not to mention if he upgraded his weapon, brought a dark gold grade weapon like his promised ive, then no one would ever stand against him.

    William used six elixirs from those he bought before. And that meant he attacked eighteen different targets here.

    "It''s enough," he didn''t aim to keep attacking the rest of the dark gold dark spirit masters here. Wounding them was more than enough for him and others. As he got done with his little experiment here, he shifted his focus towards something totally different, collecting rings.

 Chapter 443 A Different Type Of Battles Breaks Out!

    He had scrolls that showed nothing thanks to their brilliant seals. William wanted to get the right recipe to decipher and open these seals. And right now, he was standing in front of a huge treasure trove.

    As he attacked and showed his ferocity like this, the entire situation burnt into a new height. William showed how strong and deadly he was, showed how he was nimble and how it was hard to defend against him.

    The already scared dark spirit masters got more scared at this moment. William''s performance made every one of these enemies dream about having space spirit elements and teleport away towards safety, away from this fox.

    "One¡­ Five¡­ Twenty¡­ One hundred¡­ Hahahaha!" William stopped attacking and started to jump around, collecting rings. From time to time, he''dnd a few attacks here and there, killing any group of gold dark spirit masters whenever he got the chance to do so.

    At the same time, he sat his eyes over the grand prize, the rings of the dark gold dark spirit masters. He already wounded eighteen, and there were tens more immersed in hellish battles against their foes.

    What William did here wasn''t just to wound those less than twenty scary enemies, but also to add more chaos to the ranks of the dark spirit masters. And that helped in buying more time for the iing reinforcements and scary folks living in the fort.

    The battle kept expanding as the dark spirit masters never found a ce without tons of forces running towards them, blocking any path for retreat. Any gained metres came at the expense of lots of casualties on both sides, with more falling in the ranks of the dark spirit masters.

    William kept himself away from any serious trouble, acted like a tiger fishing in the darkness, taking any chance without hesitation and grabbing more rings.

    He managed to im tens of rings that belonged to dark gold dark spirit masters. And his actions didn''t escape the keen eyes and senses of many formidable masters here.

    They shouted in their minds: Despicable! But got nothing else to do against him but to curse out loud like this.

    They already had their hands tied behind their backs, fighting tons of enemies in battles of life and death.

    In such a battle, distracting one''s thoughts was thest thing anyone would dream of. So even if they noticed what William was doing, they got nothing to stop him.

    And William didn''t feel any shame even when he got shouted at from many to stop what he was doing.

    He was collecting tons of rings, from the living, from the dead, from the wounded, from the entrapped, and from even the running away dark spirit masters.

    He spared none! And he did that primarily to solve the mystery of the scrolls he had before. Yet these rings didn''t just contain the answers to such mystery, but also tons of riches.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Be it gears, materials, monster cores, crystals, and even rare treasures¡­ These rings were like a treasure chest opened for everyone. But they all saw a single man was looting everything from them without any pause or shame.

    Even if William was in his fox status right now, he acted shamelessly like any greedy spirit master. And soon enough, the different forces fighting here brought more people over, ordered them to start sweeping and scavenging for the loot of rings.

    The battle started to shift towards a weird direction. The initial brutal shes between the two sides got another and different battle happening between William and people from different forces.

    It was like a race, all were racing and trying to get more rings than others. "Damn! Can''t they just focus on the ongoing battle and leave these rings over to me?" William cursed inwardly when he saw suchpetition appearing out of nowhere.

    From time to time, he even had to roar in the face of many of those folks, startling and stopping them in their tracks.

    Even if they got greedy, they still look at him as the former and legendary owner of this ce, the long-gone scary fox spirit master.

    The battle kept going on for half a day! It didn''t even stop when the dark spirit masters managed to get away from the fort, expanding to reach far away areas of the forest around this fort.

    As for William, the battle already ended when he swept the loot in the main street, and a few other side streets as well. He spent close to ten hours straight doing so, spending five more elixirs to win many races with others and secure more rings.

    It wasn''t smooth sailing for him. On many asions, he had to fight even the ones from different forces in the fort over the possession of any dead dark gold spirit masters'' rings.

    William realised it fast, realised that he shouldn''t just blink an eye over the greater loot scattered around. He was focused at first to im the rings from dark spirit masters. But soon enough, he started to gather rings from all!

    He learnt this from the other folks who were doing this. William didn''t hold himself back anymore, not even feeling shame or guilt, and kept looting anything and everything he could find.

    "I''m going to teach you all a lesson!" as he was returning back towards his territory, he was fuming inwardly with rage, "those despicable spirit masters! They left the battle and stood in my path to collect more rings! Damn them! If I didn''t find the answer to that mystery inside any of these rings, then I swear I''d make them pay! No, I''ll make them pay a hefty price right now!"

    William was already at his ce when a sh of an evil idea popped in his mind. He evilly grinned, before moving towards the front of his gate.

    The ce there was quite different than before. Instead of the swarms of people gathered around, cheering and celebrating,ughing and even crying, the entire ce was now surrounded with dead bodies everywhere!

 Chapter 444 An Evil Idea

    It didn''t look like a main street in such a prestigious fort, but like a graveyard, and a huge one as well.

    However, that wasn''t what inspired William with this idea, Remy was.

    "You¡­ Who are you?! What are you doing?!!!" As William appeared again, the remaining group of the Refos group turned to look at him. To William''s surprise, and despite that the heart of this grand war started just with this bunch of people, their remaining number was much bigger than what he thought!

    There were hundreds of merchants, with thousands of guards initially in their group. William expected to only see a dozen or so out of all of them standing here. But now? He saw hundreds of them standing there. And putting aside the many wounds everyone suffered, the fact that they survived in such numbers told William a lot about how capable and strong the guards these merchants brought with them.

    Merchants¡­ They were never fooling around!

    *Roar!* William wasn''t going to spill his secret in front of all of these people. And so, and without any waiting for anything, he roared, shed forward, grabbed Remy by the shoulder, and dashed alongside her, bringing her with him towards his territory.

    "Let me go! I''m not free to touch!" she screamed out of her panic the moment she realised what was going on here. But she realised what happened a bit toote.

    For her, the moment she got what was going on, she was standing already inside the territory.

    *Roar!* William roared, silencing her from saying any more nonsense. Then he moved away, setting her free, and stood just tens of metres away.

    As Remy got shocked and petrified by such a roar, she stood in her ce for a few seconds that felt like an entire lifetime to her. And then as William didn''t move, she started to gather up her courage, looking around.

    There were signs of a deadly battle that happened here. Lots of bodies were scattered all over the ce, with craters, and many were filled with deep red blood stains.

    She didn''t need to ask to know what happened here. She was there when all of this madness happened.

    It went without saying that these bodies and signs of brutal battle were a miniature thing of what happened out there. Remy got shocked and terrified when she imagined what happened here¡­ A total massacre and one-sided wipe out!

    "Master, you finally came back!" Amidst her shock and fear, she jumped in the air out of fright when Thomas spoke.

    "You¡­" she raised a shaky finger in the face of Thomas, startling thetter and making him stop, "you said master¡­ Master¡­ Who is your master?!!!"

    "He is!" Thomas was taken aback for a moment there, before pointing towards William''s direction. Remy couldn''t control herself, turned slowly to see that the scary fox monster from before turned into the same innocent and peaceful looking face of William.

    The grand body William had before in his spirit mode got changed into the weak looking body of the eleven years old William.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Follow me, we got something to talk about," William said, moving past her. And at this brief moment, she didn''t see him as the weak bronze grade kid anymore. In her eyes, a grand shadow of a deadly fox appeared and ovepped over William''s silhouette.

    Without even thinking about anything, she followed him while Thomas gave the two a weird look.

    William kept walking, silently without saying anything. He knew bringing Remy in here and let her know his secret was a risky move, but it was a must to do one if he wanted to get the deal he thought about.

    "As you can tell, I''ve already cleared all the traps here," William took her deep enough in the middle of his territory, walking for two kilometres before stopping. He wasn''t that far from the first building, "and that means¡­"

    "You won the bet, I can already tell that," She said, while trying to control the storm inside her mind.

    She knew going by logic, a gold grade spirit master like her shouldn''t be afraid of William. But she saw it with her own eyes, she saw how he easily yed with gold spirit masters, even those much stronger and more experienced in battles than her. Not to mention that scary attacks he dealt to the dark gold spirit masters, leaving many with ugly looking wounds and even missing limbs!

    "I believe you don''t need me to remind you¡­" William then turned, looking straight at Remy''s eyes. And thetter didn''t see William''s face at all. All she saw was just two scary huge elliptical and red eyes, the eyes of that fox.

    "I¡­ I won''t dare¡­ I won''t tell anyone."

    "Cool," William smiled, as if this matter was trivial to begin with, "there are only two people in the world knowing about this. If the news spreads, then I''ll know who did it."

    "No, no, I swear to the heavens, I won''t tell anyone anything."

    "I stopped trusting oaths a long time ago," William sighed, recalling how he got tricked before by the oath Ellina once took, "I''m just stating facts. If I was afraid of others to know in the first ce, I wouldn''t have gotten out."

    William was telling the truth. Of course, if this secret was kept hidden for a longer time, he''d end up living his life in more peace. But he knew sooner orter, his little secret would be unveiled.

    "Anyway, I didn''t bring you in just for that," William returned to look at the grand territory he got. And for a moment there, he felt pride in what he achieved in this ce, "I''m here to ask you to do something for me."

    "Anything¡­" she paused as William just tilted his head and red at her in a way that made her feel instantly panicked.

    "Anything you say?" he fiendishly asked, while gazing her up and down.

 Chapter 445 An Outrageous Demand

    "Y¡­ Yes, anything," she stuttered, couldn''t handle his fiery and daring eyes, and lowered her head at the end of her words.

    "Well, I''m not free anyway, so don''t worry," he tilted up his lips before adding, "what I want from you to do is to¡­ Lie!"

    "Lie? About what? About you?" she didn''t get what he was referring to. But soon enough, she knew what he wanted, and couldn''t help but get more terrified of him.

    "Lie about having most of the bids from before," William finally said what he wanted to do, "it happened in front of everyone''s eyes¡­ Those despicable dark spirit masters came at you and your group first. And they seemed to take interest in having your rings."

    "Rings? But¡­ But we still got them! We saved all of them!" Remy couldn''t believe what William was asking her to do here. Out of all things, merchants were ready to do anything to maximise their profits, except for one; tricking and lying to their customers!

    Doing this was like shooting at one''s foot. So, she had to buy herself a little time, think about the right way to handle this disaster.

    "Don''t worry, we aren''t going to take much anyway," William grinned, as if this was indeed something not worthy to be scared from, "just half, half is enough."

    "But¡­"

    "Listen, in such a grand battle, everything went into total chaos. You got nearly half of your people wiped out in that battle. All you need to do is to go back there, collect their rings, which is something I''m sure you already did, and then give me these rings."

    "G¡­ Give them to you?!!!" she didn''t imagine her bewilderment from what William just asked before would have another boost just momentster.

    William didn''t just set his eyes over half of the loot, but he also wanted to get all the rings of her people. He was indeed right, at least half of whom she brought over got killed already. And she collected their rings, in addition to other rings with wealth to safeguard them.

    But there were merchants in the middle of the dead ones. And their rings were like treasure troves! Giving such wealth over to someone like William, an outsider, was a new level of greed she never thought about before.

    He wasn''t nning to just take half the bids, but half of the rings with everything they got!

    "Do I seem like I''m negotiating or something?" William''s face turned all serious, with his faint smile disappearing. His single gaze made her body tremble, even taking a few steps to the back.

    "What the hell did I get myself into?" she couldn''t help but scream in her mind like crazy. When the Refos group got Trevor''s words, a small battle happened internally. And she made sure to secure such a huge event to her side.

    She never expected that what she fiercely battled before to get was going to turn into something toxic and vtile, very deadly like this.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "You are going to take out half the rings right now and give them to me," William paused before adding, "and from these, I want at least fifty merchant rings."

    "This¡­"

    "I don''t care, even if you got to give me rings belonging to other merchants from out there, I really don''t care," William shrugged, "this is a problem you have to solve on your own. In addition to that, half of the entire bids will be divided between you and me, fifty-fifty. Huh? What do you think? Pretty impressive, right?"

    Heughed, and for a second there all she heard was violent and scary roars, notughs, "I''m really just. Even if I''m doing evil, I''m still doing it in a style."

    "But¡­" she gulped, trying to find anything to use to threaten William, to stop him from going on into this madness, "lots of people, no, all of the people saw you take lots of rings out there. Aren''t you afraid they''ll target you?"

    "Target me? Hahahaha! As if I was the only one doing this," William''s face was coated with a vicious expression, "it''s all thanks to their little greed out there, sending out people to take part of the loot that they''d end up in such predicament," William paused, before extending his hand, "just do as I say, and leave such trivial matters for me to do."

    "..."

    Remy tried, tried her best to find a reason she''d use to scare William off. But from thetter''s words, it seemed he was dead fixated on doing this madness.

    William indeed was adamant at doing this, seeing in all this a just retaliation against all the forces who stood in his path before.

    As for the amount he gave to the Refos group, it was simply a price he had to pay to silence them forever. He knew the overall amount involved here was enough to add riches over what a mighty group like the Big Seven already had.

    They''d be crazy to refuse such a thing. And when they''d ept it, they''d turn into his crime aplices. This was just going to be the first of their long-term rtionship, as by this he''d be roping them to his side. And that perfectly served William''s interest.

    "Hurry up, I don''t have the entire day to waste here," William shouted at her, making her body tremble again. As she had no other choice, she decided to follow what William asked for.

    After all, if they managed to escape the enraged mobs after knowing about such lies, the entire group would get a scary amount of wealth!

    Just as William predicted, the moment she started to think about her share of all this, her group''s share of this trade, she instantly dropped any worries and hesitation she previously got.

    "We got¡­ Sixty billion spirit crystals¡­ And we did lose a bit, but no more than five billion¡­" she paused, and the look she got from William was enough to make her gulp, "we tried our best before, but ended up losing a bit of our rings."

 Chapter 446 Finalising The Deal

    "Ok," William couldn''t tell if she was ying some sort of trick on him or what. And he didn''t care about that, "so we will distribute thirty billion, fifteen for me, and fifteen for you."

    "Didn''t you say¡­"

    "I said almost half, not precisely half," he rolled his eyes, "if things went out to be too perfect, then people will start doubting us."

    "..."

    She was a straight merchant before, always looking down on people who used to trick and cheat others. And right now, she couldn''t help but feel that being with William was the worst thing ever she''d dreamt to happen.

    But who knew what William would say next made her body tremble again, even more than what she experienced when knowing about his identity as the fox monster.

    "And¡­ I want you to leave that group ande to work for me."

    "..."

    "I love collecting gems, and to me you are one," William said this to clear any ill thoughts in her mind. He never expected that at the moment he gave her such an order, she was thinking about finding the farthest ce away from here and leaving this fort for good.

    "But¡­"

    "I don''t care how much they pay you, or how much you owe them," William said, expressing his new identity as a hegemon in this fort, "as you can tell, Ick nothing more than spirit crystals."

    "..."

    "Hurry up, give me my rightful loot. I''ll expect you tomorrow to arrive here and start working for me."

    "Sigh!" as she got no way out of here, she couldn''t help but sigh, expressing how much she was depressed and hopeless at this moment, "here," she knew he''d not change his mind even if she stalled out for more time.

    So, she took out two hundred rings, plus five more who she pointed at in specific, "each have three billion spirit crystals. And by this, our deal here is over," she paused before adding, "but¡­ How do you n to deal with those outside? They are going to ask for your blood if we spread the news."

    "Just tell the story I told you," William stored all the rings and wealth, while feeling like he was at the seventh heaven right now, "and leave the trouble those folks over there will do for me to handle."

    He didn''t intend to do this out of his good will, or because he was afraid of anyone out there.

    He was indeed weak, but he got such an awesome ce that was well defended. Coupled with the wealth he just gained; he''d end up being able to purchase literally anything he''d want in this fort.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But he wanted to go out there to settle a debt, another debt, a totally different one that the one he got with the forces that tried to steal rings back there.

    If he dealt in such brutality against those forces, then it was expected how he nned to deal with the ones who started all this.

    William already intended to deal with the dark spirit mastermunity here since he left his academy. But right now, and even if his intentions remained the same, they were for totally different reasons.

    He already made a name for himself. And with this territory and grand wealth, he was confident in building up the guild he wanted.

    The reward of that old mission? No way he''d ce such a thing in his mind anymore. William was quite sure his old team would get freaked out by all these developments and achievements.

    But he still nned to target the dark spirit masters here at all costs! As a start, he had to do this to unroot any leverage the scary Transformers had in this fort.

    He didn''t want to sh with them so soon, but who knew they''d end up seeking him out instead. And as they fired the first bullet, it was fair for him to respond.

    In addition to that, he wanted to go and kill the weaker Transformers. Such a hit would be enough as a start for his retaliation n, a long-term n that would end up with this entire fort falling under his clutches at the end, one that would end by the death of those Transformers.

    And he also wanted to pay back double or even triple what the dark spirit masters put him through. He gained a lot from this attack, even much better than he already expected, but he wouldn''t forgive anyone trespassing their limits anding at him.

    He''d make an example here, at this fort, an example that would spread far and wide all over the world in the next few years, speaking about the legend of a single fox taking down all the dark spirit masters'' fortresses in this region.

    Of course, he never nned to do it solo, but with the grand guild he''d build. The guild wasn''t only going to give him lots of teams and capable spirit masters, or even gems. It''d give him something else, something extremely precious and priceless¡­ Rtionships with lots of forces here.

    William knew if the fort got such a number of dark gold spirit masters, then it was expected for the dark spirit masters to have such an amount, or even more.

    To get rid of all of the dark spirit masters here, William knew he had to borrow the strength of many other formidable spirit masters. And to do so, he had to depend on some sort of backing. And that was where his guild would appear in the picture.

    "Let''s go," William was satisfied with all he got so far, "let''s meet those folks outside."

    "Did the battle end?" Remy didn''t believe so.

    "We will go there and wait for them, so no one would say or doubt anything," William just wanted to get done with this task as soon as possible. He still got the seven building traps to solve, a statue to look for, and also a recruiting grand move that he nned to start after settling things here.

 Chapter 447 The Weird Fox

    "Master! Master! You are alive! Hahahaha! I knew it! Hahaha!"

    "Trevor you damn lucky bastard, you survived all this?!!" William was taken aback when he saw Trevor running from far towards him.

    That dude looked totally fine, as if he wasn''t here in the first ce! William didn''t know how he pulled such a feat out, but he was d to not find Trevor''s corpse.

    "Master, I spoke with lots of people, and they promised to consider joining us," Trevor kept jumping around William as if he was jumping around a celebrity, "and not only that¡­ Did you see what happened here? A fox, a giant and scary fox monster appeared after you went inside. Did you see that?"

    Remy couldn''t help but move her eyes towards William, and thetter did his utmost effort to notugh at this moment.

    Poor Trevor, he''d never think he was speaking with the same scary and terrifying fox at this moment in such a carefree way.

    "That''s good," William nodded before a vicious look appeared on his face, "don''t think your task here is done. Our deal still remains, give me the promised one hundred spirit masters at least and you''ll get one hundred thousand spirit crystals."

    "Sure, sure master, your loyal Trevor will do it," Trevor kept nodding and nodding. And as William reminded him of such a promise, he instantly got hyped up, went to do his task, running away as he shouted, "I won''t return back until I''d bring those one hundred folks over. Trust me on this, master."

    "He is indeed quite energetic," Remy couldn''t control herughs at the moment, looking at William as she added, "he wants to meet that fox as soon as possible."

    "Hahahaha, let him be at peace for now," Williamughed atst, before turning around, "it seems people are still fighting out there. Stay here then and notify me when everyone returns."

    "What about you?"

    "I''m going to rest," William lied. In fact, he wasn''t a bit tired, not in the slightest. That elixir was indeed quite magical, but sadly he exhausted most of his elixirs in just this battle.

    "I have to put more focus in making and buying more elixirs," right now he didn''tck money or alchemists, but hecked elixirs.

    He knew he could get at least one hundred bottles from the entire fort from this elixir. And yet that didn''t make him feel any good. Just a single battle and he had to exhaust all this amount to win. Not to mention he didn''t really fight everyone solo.

    If not for the presence and timely help of the spirit masters in this fort, then he was sure his elixirs would run dry before killing a portion of the enemies here.

    He nned to go outside and attack the dark spirit masters. And that meant he needed to find a solution for this elixir problem.

    But now he returned back, and headed towards where Thomas was working.

    Before leaving, he made sure to give Thomas a meaningful gaze, one that made thetter get what he wanted. So, when William and Remy went outside, he returned to continue drawing.

    Yet his mind wasn''t the same as before all this started. He couldn''t push away the shocking scenes of William''s battle with those spirit masters. And he even doubted that he''d get used to this even after more time would pass.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I''m done!" as he got distracted, he took almost five hours until he finished drawing thest part of this building.

    "Bring thest scrolls over here," William already ced the old scrolls in their location and was very curious about the end of all this.

    Thomas came and ced thest bit of scrolls at their rightful ce. Then he retreated and looked at the grand drawing. As he did that, he felt deep shock, turned towards William, and couldn''t say a single word.

    William wasn''t feeling any better than Thomas right now. As he expected, thest drawings of the central seventh building was the key to all this.

    But unlike what he and Thomas expected, the moment thest scroll was ced, the entire drawing changed.

    It showed the face of a fox. And for a reason, the moment the entire drawing gotpleted, the scrolls started to show signs of melting.

    "What''s going on?!!!" Thomas looked at his master, and thetter kept his silence. William noticed that the scrolls weren''t actually melting, but they looked as if they were slowly merging together, blinding to form a face, a real fox face.

    "So, you made it as I was told!"

    After ten minutes of waiting, the weird melting process ended, and that face started to speak.

    "You¡­ Are you alive or dead?!" even William felt threatened and shocked at this moment, the same that everyone else out there felt when William came out in the fox shape.

    "I''m dead, at least physically," that face said, not giving an answer but more puzzles for William, "don''t try to think about this. Even I don''t really get what happened to me."

    "Then¡­"

    "I believe you already know who I am. And if the old prophecy is correct, then you must have also met them."

    "I did¡­" William didn''t know how to speak with this fox. He said he wasn''t dead, nor alive. And that was something that William never heard about before.

    "The story started a long time ago. I was indeed one of the group you met, but I wasn''t that epting of all of what they were doing. In fact, I tried to resist and fight back, but I was alone and wasn''t the strongest. And one day, a weird statue appeared miraculously in the middle of my territory."

    "A statue? Another one of your kin perhaps?!" William was puzzled, "does that mean there are two statues here?"

    "No, there is only one," that face drawn on the ground said, "and it''s not my statue if that is what you are asking about."

    "But¡­"

 Chapter 448 The Nine Lives Ability

    "I don''t have much time, so listen and don''t ask any needless questions," that old fox seemed to be on a short time here, "that statue introduced himself as one like me, one like everyone else, but he came from another world, a much bigger and far stronger one."

    "The vast world!" William''s shock wasn''t receding, but growing, with every single word this old fox was saying.

    "He said something like that indeed¡­ Strange¡­ I thought such knowledge wasn''t known in this world. Anyway, he told me he has the element of time, one that can see through the future and past, one that can be called a foresight. And he came here by paying a hefty price per a prophecy of his."

    "About you? Or about this fort? Or about this world?"

    "Neither," the face took a long moment this time before sighing, "I can''t hide it. Since I learnt about this prophecy, and I held extreme envy towards you."

    "Me? Why?"

    "Because it''s all about you," that face paused, sighed again, "that dude said that you are the key to this world''s destruction or survival, to all the worlds'' fate actually. And so, he came here, looking for you. But it seems he travelled back in time for so long to miss your time. And so he came directly to me as he knew you''d own this piece ofnd after my departure."

    "..." William didn''t know why but he realised that the one who came from the outer world didn''t just cross the barriers between the two worlds, but also travelled through time itself.

    "He let me use some sort of a forbidden technique, sacrificing myself and let me get bound into that statue of his."

    "Statue? So, it''s a fox statue?" William was still trying to grasp what this old fox was saying.

    "Well, it was the statue of something like a dragon I believe. But now it turned into something different after I merged with it."

    "But¡­ What is in it for you?" William felt puzzled about this point. Everything seemed like a mysterious figure decided toe here and help him. But in return for that, he didn''t promise this old fox anything back.

    "He said that with you, I''ll gain immortality."

    "And you believed him?" William knew such temptation was something that all the spirit masters, monsters, and even the scary nine tailed fox, Transformers, and Mutants were dreaming of. But per his knowledge, there was nothing like that at all.

    "He showed me lots of things, actually it was like he opened a screen and showed many events," that face paused, before adding, "I know you won''t believe me if I told you this, but I saw our meeting here ying back then in front of my eyes as if I was attending it. I heard everything that we said, saw what you did, and also saw pieces of your future."

    "Is it good then?" William didn''t know why, but he felt like this dude got tricked back then or something.

    "No, in fact your grand pursuit will fail!" the face paused, and William didn''t know if this face knew even what he was speaking about or not, "I know you''ll have many doubts, but I saw it with my own eyes. That fox you are after isn''t simple, isn''t like what you think it is. In the end, I saw you fall."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Damn!" William''s face changed the moment this face said his piece.

    "I saw lots of bad things you made, like one you already did."

    "Which is?" William was curious about this. After all, all he heard was just bullshit about the future, things that didn''t yet happen and there was no guarantee they would.

    "That Nightmare monster¡­" But what the face said made William tense up, "it''s not what it looks like."

    "What is it? Do you know?" William already had his rough guesses about this dude before. He was sure this monster wasn''t just a simple or ordinary Nightmare monster.

    "It''s the same enemy you are after," and what that dude said made William not understand anything, "that fox¡­ It doesn''t just have nine tails; it also has the nine lives ability. And that means it can break its spirit up, send every seed to different worlds, before merging them togetherter on."

    "This¡­" William''s mind raced up. Just listening to such a scary possibility made it clear that his ns were going to fail.

    He nned to train up, gather lots of trusted subordinates, and then face that damn fox in the end. Who knew this fox wasn''t just a cheater in raising up its spirit power using the devour ability, but it also got something close to being immortal.

    "That''s why you''ll fail if you keep walking down the path you selected," the face paused. And for a second there, the scrolls trembled all together, like some sort of miniature earthquake happened just now, "I got little time left. So, listen up, I left my spirit inside that statue, my knowledge and spirit power. Also, that dude did the same. And that''s solely for you to use."

    "This¡­" William had tons of questions that needed answers.

    "Later on, when you arrive in that mysterious world, you''ll be able to summon me again using that statue. Till then, make sure to find that Nightmare monster, don''t kill it. Keep it entrapped by any means you can use, and that will be usefulter¡­"

    Just in the middle of this face''s words, his voice suddenly vanished. And then the scrolls started to burn on their own ord.

    "Don''t focus on the darkness element only, that dude can use all elements, including time and space¡­"

    And just as the scrolls kept burning fast, that dude moved his mouth and said these words without a voice before all the scrolls burnt away.

    William could only learn about this, and what he learnt at the end was a mind blowing for him.

    "That bastard¡­" William realised now that he knew almost nothing about his greatest foe''s abilities.

 Chapter 449 [Bonus ] Fire Spreads Out!

    He studied that nine tailed fox for a long time, trying to get to the bottom of its power. And he thought he knew enough, but it seemed he didn''t know a thing.

    It had the Devour ability that William never knew anything about. And now he learnt about the presence of another scary ability, the Nine Lives ability. In addition to that, that fox wasn''t just focused and adept at the darkness element as he thought. It knew more elements, including time and space ones.

    Adding everything together, William suddenly saw the face of that old bastard smirking back at him. He didn''t need a foresight technique or ability to know that he''d fail if he continued down this path.

    "He said that this bastard scattered many of his spirit seeds into lots of worlds. That means¡­ I have to take down these copies first before fighting that damn bastard¡­"

    William''s mind started to shift from thinking negatively into proactively considering what to do. "And¡­ He asked to trap that fox copy and not kill it. Did it want to use a tracking method perhaps, one that can locate any simr spirit in other worlds? I never heard about such a thing before. But in this world, nothing is impossible¡­"

    William started to formte a n, a new grand n in his mind. And as he kept thinking about this, he remained silent for hours without moving a muscle.

    He missed what happened to the seven buildings in his territory. The moment the scrolls burnt down; fire started to appear all over these buildings.

    Thomas was present and listened to all the talk of the old fox with his master. Thomas learnt that his master had a very mysterious background, and also got a bright future in front of him.

    Even the scary old fox, the one who terrified the entire fort, wanted to just apany him in the form of a statue. But when the buildings started to catch fire, Thomas panicked.

    These were all old buildings, ones that were fragile and built out of lots of wood to begin with. So, he expected only ruins to be left after the end of this dense and rogue fire.

    However, when he turned to William, he noticed that he wasn''t moving a muscle. He didn''t need to check to know that his master was in a moment of epiphany, the legendary moment all the spirit masters dreamt to experience even once in their lives. And most of them failed to even try it for a brief second.

    "Damn! What shall I do?" Thomas got more panicked when he realised the current status of William, "will he get mad at me when he sees the aftermath?"

    Thomas got terrified from such a thought, and then tried his best to put down the fire. He wasn''t a water-based spirit master to begin with, and so it was expected that he''d fail.

    All he could do was to grab dirt from ces around and try to throw these on the buildings to put down fire. Yet he wasn''t doing it in enough speed or magnitude, ending up giving up after one hour or so.

    "At least¡­ I tried," he muttered while returning to stand by William''s side. Even he felt quite the pain from such destruction of all buildings.

    But unlike what he expected, when the fire went down after three more hours, the buildings didn''t fall or even crack.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "This¡­" Thomas moved to inspect all the buildings, to find out to his surprise that all of them were intact. It felt like nothing touched any building, not fire, not anything.

    Thomas didn''t get it, but what happened was for all the traps to burn and vanish on their own ord. It was just like how William expected it before. He had to finish mapping all the buildings, see the mystery of the grand drawing first, and the traps would be solved easilyter on.

    But William never imagined that all the traps would be removed spontaneously, without the need for him to do anything at all.

    William broke free atst after five hours from being in such a status. He already had a rough n in his mind, one that didn''t differ that much actually from his initial one.

    "So, I got to just target other clones of that damn fox before doing anything else. And that means I''ll need lots of capable spirit masters on my side¡­ Why are you looking at me like this?"

    When he got jolted awake, he didn''t feel the passage of time at all. And to him, he was just continuing his train of thoughts next to Thomas, with only a few minutes passing. But right now, Thomas was looking in a weird way towards him.

    "Well¡­ Something happened when you were¡­ Were in that status¡­"

    Thomas didn''t know how to deliver the news, so he started from the moment the scrolls got burnt down.

    "Oh, is that what happened?" William was a little surprised by that. He never thought he''d stay in his ce for such a long time, "tell me, did Remy knock on the gate or not?"

    Unlike what Thomas expected, his master didn''t care about that fire or what happened to the buildings. To William, he knew the things that burnt away were the remaining traps. And now everything was quite safe inside his vast territory.

    But to him, he cared more about Remy and the deal he got with her. He wanted to get done of that, so he''d be free to start his grand n.

    "Well¡­ No, she didn''t knock or do anything," Thomas was still unable to get over this. He felt extreme panic and care for what happened here, ending up getting all disappointed by William''s cold response.

    "What? Did you think the buildings were all going to burn? Hahahaha! Even if that happened, we could build much more if we wanted," William found it a bit amusing, especially that look over Thomas'' face when he said his words, "don''t worry. I already nned to build more ces here for those who are about to join us."

    "Join us?!!"

 Chapter 450 Controlling The Explosive Situation

    Thomas asked in a in tone, while William looked around and added:

    "We are going to recruit lots of people here. So, we''ll need lots of buildings to serve their tasks. Come on, let''s go outside, let''s see if that grand battle is over or what."

    This time, the entire world out there was different. It looked closer to what it looked at before the grand war started.

    And there William noticed lots of angry faces. That told him a lot about what was going on here.

    "You already started? Without waiting for me?!" William came to stand by Remy''s side while expressing his surprise. This time, she wasn''t alone, and got surrounded with lots of old faces, ones that William didn''t recognise, "who are they?"

    "They are my group''s main leaders and grand managers," Remy didn''t know how she should tell him that, but she had to admit it in the end, "they agreed on your move. And decided toe here and help."

    "Oh," William expected that the Refos group wouldn''t refuse such a grand deal. But he never expected them to go to such an extent, trying to solve things on their own, "and?" William moved his eyes around, "what''s the result so far?"

    "Not good," Remy''s tone and expression told William how bad the situation here was, "news already spread, and that was enough to put an end to the growing battle outside. Everyone is flooding here and asking for a refund."

    "I told you to let me handle this," William rolled his eyes, "why didn''t you listen to my words?"

    "We thought¡­" she sighed, turned for the other folks around to help.

    "Sir William, it''s a great pleasure meeting you," one of them indeed did take the initiative, stepped up, and cupped his hands in greeting, "I''m Tony, the general manager of the Refos group. And we came to help."

    "I know," William knew these folks meant well, "but I''m the only person who can handle this situation, not you," he didn''t stand there anymore, stepped up towards the angry mob.

    "We want a refund!"

    "What is all this? And do you dare to call yourselves one of the Big Seven?"

    "That''s an outrageous im! A daylight steal!"

    William got closer from the angry mob, moved until only the many rows of guards stood in between him and them.

    "Oh, isn''t he the one who issued all this from the start?"

    "Let''s grab him! Let''s get him to empty out all of his rings! I saw him take lots of rings back then!"

    "Yes, I also saw that too!"

    "What are you waiting for, let''s all do it!"

    "Silence!" William heard such daring and threateningments, but no one even dared to move a single finger towards him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They all kept shouting and pointing at him, and William could sniff the scent of the other forces in the fort behind such a move.

    And yet he never got fazed by any of that. He calmly stood in front of all of these angry faces, and added in a loud and clear tone, "I came here delivering a message from my master, the Fox master you all saw before."

    When he said these words, everyone instantly got silenced. If a needle fell to the ground right now, then everyone would hear its ranging sound pretty clear.

    "He asked me toe and deliver a message to all of you," William cleared his throat, before adding, "first of all, my Fox master wants to thank all of you. If not for your timely arrival and help, many of those despicable dark spirit masters would have run away. So, he sends out his gratitude and promises a thirty percent discount of everything sold from his ce."

    "Sold from his ce?"

    "What does that mean?!"

    Just as William''s wordsnded, everyone around started to whisper among themselves. William didn''t hurry to speak, took a minute before clearing up his throat and added:

    "As you all know, my Fox master was already a formidable spirit master before. But he went into seclusion, tried an ancient technique so he can reach the furthest point in our strength. And he did seed! But from this battle, he learnt that a single man''s strength won''t change the entire world. And so, he decides to use all of his vast and priceless knowledge, form an alchemy and a Forging section here in his territory. He will personally lead everything, and he promises you great stuff, things that aren''t even found at any ce in the world. And for all these, he''ll grant you a thirty percent discount for life."

    William didn''t even mention anything about the incidence of losing more than half of the bids here. He just used this chance to make propaganda for what was yet to be. And even the ones who he already dealt with, the three masters from before, got bewildered by such news.

    "But¡­"

    "We heard that most of the bids got stolen!"

    "Yes! Who is going to take responsibility for that?"

    "Deliver all the rings you collected, that''s the least thing to do right now!"

    William was now sure those who were still speaking about his earlier move to collect rings to be part of the forces he raced against before.

    "If you have anything toin about, then I dare you toe and ask such outrageous demands from my Fox master!"

    "..."

    His wordsnded, and all of those who were adding fuel to the fire got silenced. And they weren''t alone, everyone here didn''t even dare to say a singlement anymore.

    "I gave everything I collected before to my master," William stressed over this point, "and he checked everything. There is nothing in these rings that contain what you all dream about. And if you don''t believe me, you are wee toe inside and meet my master with your doubts."

    William knew using this card would silence everyone out of fear. Even if all of them suspected what he truly did, knew for sure that he got all the wealth for himself, what could they do in the end?

 Chapter 451 Panther

    That was why he said to Remy to let him deal with this trouble. As he was the only one who got a scary backing that will stop all of these doubts and greed.

    "As for such unfortunate events, my master already decided to donate half of his gains towards all of you, as a form of supporting you in these losses."

    William didn''t just leave them with the threatening face of his proimed Fox master. He used this way to silence any of those who belonged to the various forces in this fort.

    In the end, he wasn''t going to lose anything. Paying half of what he should gain wouldn''t even count more than two or three billion spirit crystals. But it was enough to clear any doubts inside many.

    "But as you all spoke about rings, I recall many forces also gathered rings," William didn''t n to let those bastards go free simply like this, "if you want to check on anyone''s rings, then start with those you can handle first."

    William showed a face that would remain forever inside these folks'' memories. Many were already sure that William and his proimed master got most if not all of the wealth the Refos group lost.

    But who''d dare to speak and argue? It was something that no one was willing to do. And like this, the entire gathering here got dispersed after Remy distributed the remaining wealth over them.

    And like this, William got himself an extra three billion spirit crystals like he expected.

    "You¡­ You are indeed good," the old man who already spoke with William stepped up and said to him. And that made William evilly grin.

    "They deserved what they got," William didn''t feel a single speck of guilt or shame, "they dared to steal from my master. And those were the words of his when he learnt about what happened."

    William looked at Remy, and thetter got her face changed for a brief moment. But such brief interaction between the two was missed by many.

    "So, what are you nning to do now?" Tony paused, "how about this, you tell us what ns your master wants to execute, and we are more than happy to help him do these."

    "In exchange for what?" William knew such an offer wouldn''te for free of course. Even if he was using the scary name of that old fox, he was sure these merchants wouldn''t feel any pressure from this.

    They only thought about profit, and how to maximise it. And that perfectly suited William''s ns.

    "Well¡­ Of course, we want to help Sir Fox, but we are going to use lots of our people and lots of our resources to make what he wants done," that Tony was following the same script in William''s mind.

    "Just cut the chase and tell me how much this will cost my master," he didn''t like to use such flowery words to cover up on their real intentions.

    "Well¡­ We already got a fee for such a service," that dude cleared his throat, before adding, "if we are just doing management, then our fee is ten million crystals per day. If we are going to do logistics as well, ensure supply sources and such, then we take one hundred million. In return for that, your master will get a thirty percent discount of any item''s price, no matter what it was."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Oh¡­" William paused, giving the bad impression for this dude.

    "Our service is excellent, and our reputation is known to all. You can ask¡­"

    "No need," William waved his hand, "I''m sure my master won''t reject such help. So let''s go with the one hundred million service. However¡­"

    William didn''t speak and just red at Tony. And thetter got what he meant by this look, "Don''t worry, we guarantee that anything your master wants will be secured no matter how precious or rare it is."

    "Cool," William sped his hands, before turning to Remy and added, "starting from tomorrow, you''ll give me Remy. My master got extremely interested in her. And she will be the one making the deals with you."

    "Cool," that old man gave Remy a meaningful look. It seemed like he and others around got the wrong idea about why William asked for Remy.

    They thought his master was interested in Remy in an intimate way. And when they thought about it, they realised that such a dude kept himself locked up for so long. And it made sense for him to want to vent out little energy with a sexydy, one like Remy.

    "Now I''ll go inside mynd and get some rest," William stretched his arms, before turning towards Remy and added, "don''t forget, tomorrow morning at ten, be here or else¡­"

    "I know, I know," she resigned to her fate. But William wasn''t going to get the deserved rest he dreamt of.

    Just before he''d turn around and walk into hisnd, he noticed a group of spirit masters approaching. There was a face among them that he instantly recognised. And seeing this familiar figure made William''s face twist and show an evil smile.

    "Hi Ben, did you bring my team here?" William recognised that old and sly man from far away. And seeing him made him recall the silly joke that dude pulled at him before using the token, "do you remember this? I believe it''s time for you to have it back."

    William took the token out, raised it high in the air, before tossing it towards that dude. And Ben caught it with a conflicted look over his face.

    "You already showed it to many," he grumbled, showing his discontent. And still William felt he was a bit nervous for something.

    Ben didn''t feel so because of the little trick he did at William. It was because during his earlier talk with his leader, he missed speaking about this.

    And that gained him a silent look from his leader before turning to William and introduced himself:

    "I''m Panther, the leader of the Lockheart impact here," he paused, while nodding slightly to William, "and I want to speak about little business in private."

 Chapter 452 You Arent Enough!

    William didn''t recognise this purple eyed middle-aged man, but Remy and others around did. And when he said these words, Remy and others took their leave without even making a fuss about it.

    "It seems you got a reputation for yourself," William smiled when he saw this. He knew in the circle of high power; it wasn''t easy to force anyone to do anything like this.

    "I just got lucky and was blessed with a good name inside the fort," Pantherughed, not taking William''s carefree attitude in any ill way. In fact, he was feeling more satisfied with this, "I want to speak about further cooperation between the two of us."

    "Oh, that suits my master," William paused, "but what do you have in mind exactly?"

    William was tired after such a hectic battle and intense situations. He kept working on clearing the traps in his territory for a long time. And he got that little trick that made him one of the wealthiest people in the entire fort.

    So, he wanted to have a long and deserved rest, before starting out his next move.

    "Well¡­ Let''s say that I don''t buy that master''s story," Panther started his words by such grand revtion. William gazed deeply at him, and for a reason he felt like this man really saw through his perfect act here.

    "But that won''t change anything. Dealing with you or with that imaginary master of yours is the same to me, is the same to you," Panther said his words in a meaningful way. While William couldn''t help but look around.

    Luckily, they were standing alone, and that wasn''t all. William noticed that some sort of shield appeared, surrounding the group of seven people here with him before he''d even realise it.

    "You came prepared," William finally saw who did this shield. It was the singledy in this small group of the Lockheart impact. She held some sort of a small stone, one that was filled with lots of inscriptions all over it.

    And for a reason, that stone was shining in bright blue light. That told him that she was gushing out her spirit power inside that stone, activating its power to form this shield.

    William could easily tell that this was a portable array, one that could be activated by one''s spirit power. It was simr to the one he taught his team before to do, but a much higher grade one. And it didn''t need many materials like his team had to use. It was a handy trick, one that could be used in times like these.

    "I just don''t want anyone to eavesdrop on what we are going to say," Panther paused, and his face turned all serious, "I won''t say how I got this tip from, but I do know that this attack came specifically for something you got."

    "..." William got more surprised when he heard what Panther said. And his surprise just escted when thetter added, "and it''s safe to say that you are well aware of the ones who did that. They aren''t dark spirit masters, neither are they masters in the fort. So do you mind telling me who they are?"

    William was feeling more puzzled before he suddenly noticed the unique coloured eyes of that dude. He never doubted it at first, but now he had to find an answer to how this dude knew all this.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "A rare time element, right? With a slight variation, isn''t it?" William linked those purple eyes with the elements he knew so far. And he got a guess, "not only time element, but one that can see through the future, give answers to things you shouldn''t know."

    "What a great guess you made here," Panther didn''t show any sign of panic on his face, neither did he confirm or negate William''s hypothesis. But deep inside him, he felt impressed by William''s correct guess.

    "Then let me tell you this, this enemy isn''t something you can fight right now."

    "Are you speaking about yourself here or about us as well?" one of the higher ups with Panther couldn''t control himself when he heard William''s words. But with one look from Panther, that old man got silenced up.

    "We aren''t that weak," Panther returned to William, "and I''m not bragging or anything, but there aren''t many figures here who can even stand equal to us."

    "But you aren''t enough," William wasn''t trying to belittle them. He knew how strong and resourceful his enemies were. And taking them down wouldn''t start by directly confronting them as Panther here had in mind, "and trying to find and sh directly with them won''t do."

    "Then¡­ What shall we do then?" Panther didn''t show any sign of rage, acted all humble in a way that made everyone around question their ears.

    This was Panther, the mighty and scary leader of their impact. He never tolerated anyone speaking back to him or arguing with anything he''d say.

    But he also was the one blessed with that element and technique. That meant he wasn''t doing this out of impulse or weakness, but from knowledge.

    He knew what William was talking about, got the perfect viewpoint about this, even more than William himself.

    "We need to uproot a few dirty weeds first," William''s tone was icy cold, "starting up with the dark spirit masters in the region."

    "Oh, I like that," Ben couldn''t control himself. After all, William didn''t know that Ben and many of those standing around him at this moment were the ones who issued that mission which brought him here in the first ce, "let''s work together then and take them down."

    "We need intel first," William paused, "give me a week or so. I got lots of things that needed my attention first. Then we can all work towards that goal."

    "I believe they aren''t the only ones we shall target, correct?" William didn''t feel any surprises anymore from what Panther was saying. He once got a friend with such a scary element, and he knew how pretty damn annoying speaking with such people was.

 Chapter 453 A Weird Call

    They could see through the shackles of time, see the future itself. Howe anyone would lie or even trick such folks? No way!

    "Well, there are lots of hidden enemies here," William didn''t know how to get these evil roots exposed, didn''t even get a single clue about a single identity of them. So, he just said this in such an obscure way.

    "Do you have anything that might help in identifying them? Like a pattern? Something inmon? Or an action or a task they had to do for their masters perhaps?" Panther tried to give William options that he could select from. But that didn''t help at all.

    "Well¡­ I hope when we raid those dark spirit masterirs, we''ll find useful intel about that," this was William''s n from the start. And that was why he aimed to hit the dark spirit master camps at first.

    Not to mention he got many rings to go through, with the mysterious scrolls from before. He felt that if he managed to decipher all of these, then he''d end up knowing lots of information about his true enemies'' movements and actions.

    "Ok, I will try to rally others to our cause then," Panther got what he wanted from this talk with William, "ah, regarding your team, they are already on the way here. And¡­"

    He paused, turned towards one middle aged man who got arge belly in front of him. This dude sighed, took out arge scroll that was folded with a red stripe, before handing it over to William.

    "This is¡­" William felt a little puzzled.

    "It''s a scroll with team names in our impact," Panther paused, before adding, "consider it as a gift. You are free to select ten teams from there."

    "Any dark gold ones perhaps?" William''s eyes shone with greed. But unlike what he expected, he got a soft chuckle from thatdy, a shortugh from Panther.

    "Don''t be this greedy," Panther said amidst hisugh, "the best out there are gold grade teams. And there are many good silver grade teams there, including the ones who passed our test."

    Hearing these words reminded William of two faces in particr. One of them made him feel greed to have, and the other made him feel evil inside, "I want two teams at first," William paused before adding, "one is already a gold grade team. The other team is a one that has a few gold spirit masters within, and the rest is silver."

    "Sure."

    "But the second team was having a test to continue being in your impact. And frankly speaking, they met me in the middle of their test," William stopped speaking. He just waved the scroll he just got, and Panther got what he meant.

    "Do you know this team''s name? Or perhaps the name of the ones inside that team?" Panther knew the team William was speaking about didn''t have a good chance to pass through their assessment test. And that meant their name wasn''t in the scroll that William started to open right now and check its content.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I know them," Ben spoke at this moment. After all, he once saw them when he looked for William back then in the forest.

    "Oh, that solves it then," Panther didn''t know what he was giving away to William. Thetter sat his eyes over the unique grenade technology these artisans in that team had.

    Once he got his hands on them, he''d secure another card for himself.

    "Cool," William nodded in satisfaction, before turning again towards the scroll.

    Just like Panther and that middle-aged man said, this scroll contained names of many teams. There wasn''t any useful information in this scroll, only the names of each team, the number of their people, and their overall score.

    "Is there any information about their abilities? Techniques? Spirit elements? Anything special about them perhaps?" When William failed to get any of these from the scroll, he had to raise his head and ask.

    "Hahahaha, you have to rely on fate sometimes," Panther didn''t say anything to help him. Instead, heughed, found such a situation amusing.

    "The higher the score, the better the team," but Ben had to speak to help. And that got him a nodding motion from William, a weird look from others in his impact. Not to mention Panther red in a fierce way towards him, as he got what this dude was trying to do. He didn''t drop his attempts and dreams to get William to his side, not even after Panther warned him about not to do this.

    "Cool," William returned to the scroll. To him, any team was like the other. He didn''t trust the scores written beside each team''s name. To him, these meant nothing.

    Talents and special spirit masters were usually looked down upon by others. Just thinking about Thomas, about the team who got the amazing and unique grenade abilities and yet failed to get enough recognition was enough to prove his point.

    "Let''s do it this way then¡­" To make sure he didn''t miss any gem from here, he had to do a random guess, "I''ll take the top three, middle two, and lowest three teams. Like this, I''ll get eight in addition to the two I previously asked for."

    "Oh, you won''t get into the top eight teams?!" even Panther felt surprised by William''s weird decision. But to William, he was like fishing in mud water in the middle of darkness. He just hoped to find a good seedling in all of these teams.

    If he followed logic, selected the top eight names, then he had a higher chance in missing the true hidden gems in this list. By doing this random selection, he hoped to not miss many gems in this list. Or else he''d regret itter on.

    "I''ll go with that," William nodded, before stretching out his arms, "I''m going to rest now. Send these teams once you gather them and let''s meet in one week."

 Chapter 454 The Black Mamba

    "It''s your decision," Panther shrugged despite feeling awkward about such a weird call from William, "let''s meet in one week then. I''ll send your old and new teams once they are gathered here."

    William nodded before starting to walk away. Thedy removed the shield, allowing him to walk freely and without any obstacles. As for the Lockheart impact people, they dispersed as if they got some sort of missions they agreed on before to do.

    This time no one stopped him. Trevor was already out there, recruiting teams to join William. Thetter knew since the end of this betting event, and with the little help of his enemies, his name would reach unprecedented fame.

    That meant in the uing week, even weeks, many woulde to join here. William didn''t n to directly govern or rule over things here. He nned to leave this ce over to someone capable. And that was when Remy would show up her value.

    William sat his eyes over this fort, but the entire world was vast. He still wanted to go to the capital and see things there, visit other kingdoms and even empires in this tiny world. And so, he didn''t want to not limit himself with anything.

    He nned to justy out the grand foundation here, then start adventuring outside with his selected team.

    He already got a team from the academy, but that wasn''t enough. Not all the disciples there deserved to be under his direct teaching, not special enough to apany him in all his adventures all over the world.

    He''d start searching for good talents he could nourish and support. For example, someone like Thomas deserved his attention. And those unique artisans were as well.

    So he returned back into his territory, feeling more confidence in what he was going to do. Least to his knowledge that a grand storm was approaching towards him from far.

    ______________________________________________

    "Hmm¡­ That''s quite interesting¡­"

    Far away from the fort, and in one of the dark spirit masters'' mainirs in the region, an old man stood in the middle of a big underground space.

    In front of him, a team of fifty strong looking spirit masters stood. While two of them held two severed heads.

    "Lord, just give us the order and we''ll bring that bastard''s head to you," one of the two holding the heads said in a vicious tone, throwing the head he held to roll on the ground as if it was nothing.

    "No, this kid isn''t simple," that old man paused, "go and find out intel about him in that fort first. And you, go and see where that old jerk who owns this ce is. I want to meet him."

    "I will go to find him," one of his trusted subordinates said and moved to execute the order. In the middle of all those vicious and brutal looking group of dark gold spirit masters, this old man looked like the real monster here.

    "Lord, how about this¡­" one of them cleared up his throat, before adding, "we heard that there was a team with that bastard when he met that trash team. How about we go and look for them."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Hmm¡­ That will drive him toe looking for us unprepared, I like that!" that old man''s eyes shone in a fierce and dangerous light, "ok, take ten of us and go and bring them to me."

    "I also heard from folks around this ce that there is some sort of a deal going between them and authoritative people in that fort," seeing that the one who spoke earlier got such blessing and recognition from their lord, another one got encouraged to speak up and express his thoughts.

    "I don''t need the help of anyone that I don''t know," that old man waved his arm, rejecting his subordinate idea, "we are the ck Mamba, and we have to get our revenge with our fangs."

    "Yes lord, I was in the wrong," that dude wanted to tell his lord about the Transformers, but he refrained from doing so.

    This old man wasn''t the type that would listen to logic or hear for a long time to anyone''s opinion. Once he said no, then it was a no.

    "Lord, I heard interesting news just now," the one that old man sent to find the owner of this base came back in a hurry just ten minutester. The old man already took a liking to this ce here, deciding to continue staying here until he''d do his task.

    "What is it?" that old man paused before suddenlyughing out, "don''t tell me that jerk got his demise out there, hahahaha! That would be nice! I''ll rope in his base this time without anyints, hahahahaha!"

    "No lord, it''s not that¡­" that subordinate felt a bit hesitant before adding, "I heard news about a great battle that just happened hours ago."

    "From those bastards at that rotten ce? Humph! If just the supreme council gave me permission, I''d have crushed their resistance a long time ago!"

    "No lord, not from the Aspire academy."

    "Then what?" That old man was already impatient to begin with.

    "It happened in that fort," that subordinate paused before adding, "and I heard that a kid with the same descriptions of our target is the one behind this."

    "Oh really? And?" The eyes of that old man shone brightly when he heard that. And then he heard what his man here heard about.

    "Hahahahaha! He dealt such a grand blow to that jerk''s forces? I always said this jerk is better to leave our world, resign and live the rest of his life somewhere safe, hahaha!"

    "Didn''t you stop the bad habit of speaking about me from my back?" and just when that old man wasughing, a very deep voice appeared all of sudden. And with it, a group of dangerous looking spirit masters appeared, dded in ck cloaks with silver wings emblems over their chest. They were around fifty in number and following the steps of another old and dangerous looking old man.

 Chapter 455 Its Going To Be Fun!

    For the first time sinceing here, this terrifying old man showed a disturbed expression over his face, even choking in the middle of hisughs.

    "So, you finally came," the old man, the elder from the ck Mamba group said in weing his nemesis. While the leader of this base just arrived with another group of strong looking spirit masters.

    The two sides stood in front of each other, not palling at all inparison. Yet the eyes of everyone showed how much deep hatred everybody got for the other.

    "I was wondering why it smells bad here, and now I got the answer," the leader of this ce spoke first.

    "I see that you missed tidying up your base. I even heard that lots of your forces got wiped out in that fort, on the hands of a kid, hahahaha!"

    "That kid is the same who took away your son''s life," the leader of this base didn''t show any sign of getting insulted. In return, he simply smirked, "if it was me, I''d find a hole and dig myself a grave at."

    "Tsk, says the one who is losing in the hands of the same kid."

    The two didn''t show any sign of weakness, and they already had a long history of hatred between each other.

    "What are you doing here, bastard?" After a few minutes of utter silence, the leader spoke with a snort.

    "Just heard you are growing old and tired, so figured out toe and lead this ce in respect for our old friendship."

    "Humph!" The two didn''t say anything useful, kept trying to bite each other using words, "cut the chase already. You won''t travel all this distance just to say such useless words."

    "Why say the obvious? You already know why I''m here," the elder from the ck Mamba folks said.

    "Will it hurt you so bad to say that you need help?" The leader''s words seemed a bit gentle and nice. But coupled with his evil eyes and smile, it was clear he was belittling this old man in front of him.

    "Tsk! You are indeed getting old," that old man sighed, "I will take the lead of a big army to take down that boy, help you in taking back little of your lost face. How about that?"

    "You won''t even ask for my help directly, and you expect me to step in and aid you? No way!" the leader of this base harrumphed, turned around as he was prepared to leave, "enjoy your stay here as long as you like, but keep your dirty fangs off my people."

    "We''ll see about that," the old man didn''t get fazed by this leader''s words. He knew the situation here wasn''t going to get any better anytime soon. All he needed to do was to lean back and watch the interesting show.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And sooner orter, things would be ugly and hard for his rival, ending up calling for his aid. Everywhere William went, chaos followed. Even when that kid went into the forest, he ended up facing and dealing damage to the dark spirit masters. Even when he came here, to this fort, he ended up causing great harm to the dark spirit masters.

    That old man knew William wasn''t going to sit around and would do something huge soon. But that didn''t mean he''d have toy back and wait for long for such a thing to happen. That old man''s eyes shone brightly in an evil way, while a truly evil idea popped in his mind.

    "Moore, I want you to do something," as that leader did really leave without agreeing on his terms, that old man didn''t intend to let things be like this.

    "Anything, lord," a giant looking dark spirit master stepped up, dded all in strong looking armour. He was at least three metres in height, looking a bit strong and special.

    "Use your gift, and deliver a message over to that kid," that old man''s eyes shone in fierce light, "inform him about the ces of this jerk''s bases."

    "This¡­" the one called Moore found it insane to do this. If news spread, then his lord would be in deep trouble, considered as a traitor in the eyes of the grand and scary dark spirit mastermunity.

    But a single firm nce from his lord made him swallow what he wanted to say. "Sure, sure lord, I''ll do it. Give me a day and I''ll deliver that message over."

    "Good boy," the old man smiled, a smile that wasn''t even close to one. In his eyes, he wanted to get revenge, and just wanted to get rid of an old and stubborn rival of his.

    That old man knew how terribly bad this action of his would backfire if others learnt about this. But Moore was special, and his gift was something that''d allow him to do such a task undetected.

    It was impossible for anyone to intercept and spy on Moore''s ability. And that was what made this old man feel more at ease and confidence.

    By doing this simple move, he''d use another''s sword to hit that jerk where it''d hurt. And he''d elerate things a little bit. Even if William didn''t intend to move out right away against the dark spirit masters in the region, when he''d get such a tip, he''d surely move out at once to not miss his chance.

    And like this, this old man would end up hitting two birds with one stone. If things went right and William acted the same way this old man anticipated, then both of his enemies would end up suffering great losses. When they''d be at their weakest points, he''d start to move, fishing in the darkness like what any proper dark spirit master should do in his ce.

    In the end, he''d im the two enemies'' lives without the need to spend much of his force and effort. And to him, this was just the most brilliant idea he ever had in a long time.

    "It''s going to be fun, hahahaha!" He sat on his seat and keptughing while envisioning the brutal and bloody times awaiting the leader of this base and William thanks to his little push.

    _________________________________________

 Chapter 456 Double It?!!!

    William returned back into his territory to not do anything else but have a long nap. He was indeed exhausted mentally and needed rest more than anything at this moment.

    He let Thomas stay at any building except the seventh and central one. And yet, William slept in the open. He refrained Thomas from trying out the central building, as he expected the statue he wanted to be hidden in there.

    Before he''d sleep, he made sure to make a rough copy of the entire arrays here for Thomas to use. It wasn''t that hard to do this when he got the key to this ce. And all he had to do was to spend little of his time studying this stone before copying the same writings over this key over another stone.

    He could already grant anyone the ability toe in and out from this ce. He did that before with Thomas when he let him go out and bring food over during the past days. But Remy wasn''t here to grant her ess, and he didn''t want to waste his time giving others ess when they''d join him.

    "Use it to let Remy and others in," William gave the new copy to Thomas.

    "Shall I test it?" Thomas was feeling a bit doubtful towards this key. He saw his master spend close to one hour looking at his key, before taking out a stone and starting to use his gold grade sword''s sharp tip to write such symbols over it.

    "Go and test it," William yawned, "do it fast before I''d go to sleep."

    Thomas went out there before returning back. Seeing this, William yawned again beforezily lying to the ground and started to sleep.

    William slept the entire night. And when he woke up, he found that Thomas brought breakfast and was waiting on the side patiently for him.

    And he wasn''t alone.

    "You came on time, nice," William saw Remy who was standing by Thomas'' side.

    "Having a territory that everyone in the fort and outside are envying you for, to just end up sleeping in the open¡­ What a kid you are!"

    "Hahahaha, I like it here," William then motioned his eyes towards the many trays brought here, "let''s eat and talk. Tell me, how are things out there?"

    "Explosive, crazy, hectic¡­ Name it as you want," she rolled her eyes, feeling that William was enjoying such an insane situation out there.

    "I hope this continues for a long time," William winked, before having a bite from the delicious meat.

    "They are cing their hatred and anger over the supposed master of yours. And they also ce this ce at high standards in their minds, linking it to your master not you," she said, trying to make him feel a bit guilty here.

    "I don''t mind that," but William simply shrugged and didn''t care, "as long as they are seeing this ce as something special, it''s ok for me."

    "Then¡­ What do you n to do next?" she started eating when she saw Thomas do the same.

    "Nothing much, do you see the entire ce here?" William motioned his eyes around before adding, "I want you to put a n to construct more buildings here."

    "How many buildings are we talking about exactly?" She knew this entire ce was vast, enough to build tens of grand buildings without getting crowded.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "The more you can do the better," William shrugged again, "besides¡­" he pointed with a piece of meat he held, took a bite from it before adding, "I want to recruit lots of spirit masters from here. This fort lies in the middle of lots of main merchant routes. And so, it''s possible for us to recruit lots of rogue spirit masters from faraway ces."

    "Hmm¡­ You n to build an army?" She sized him up and down. And he didn''t speak for the next five minutes.

    "Let''s say I want to form a guild, a force that isn''t less than any impact in this world."

    "Then why use a weird name? Let''s call it an impact!"

    "No, it will be called The Fox Guild. It''s already decided, and I won''t change my mind about that."

    "Tsk!" she rolled her eyes, not seeing any value in using a name that no one recognised. "Any specific requirements or conditions about them?"

    "No, just ept anyone as long as he is a silver grade spirit master or higher," William paused, "don''t limit the recruitment towards normal spirit masters. I also want secondary professions, especially artisans and alchemists."

    "I heard about your deal with the Seven Heaven and the Blue Hammer groups¡­ So this move is for them?"

    "Sure," William nodded, before adding, "I want to expand their businesses, and make lots of products."

    "But¡­"

    "Just leave the blueprints and forms for me, I''ll take care of that," Williamughed, "and if anyone ever asked about the source, you know the perfect answer for this."

    "Sure," she didn''t know how to respond to him, "but that lie is for them. How about an answer for me?"

    "I got a master, a real one," Williamughed, and she never bought any of what he said.

    "Fine. Anything else? A massage perhaps?"

    "I won''t say no to such a thing," William winked, and Remy didn''t realise that her face showed a faint tinge of redness there.

    Thomas kept eating in silence from the side, attentively listening to such talk without even showing a single expression on his face. He returned to the old and all cold and careless looking Thomas, the one who didn''t show a single expression on his face.

    "How about the treatment of these recruiters?" They finished eating fast. Remy stood by William''s side while Thomas was dealing with the leftovers of their meal.

    "Nothing much," William paused before adding, "see what''s the standard treatment for such folks and double it."

    "D¡­ Double it?!! Do you know how much you are going to pay annually like this?!!!"

 Chapter 457 A Weird Hole

    Remy was shocked. Even if she knew William was a rich tycoon, she never met someone who was willing to spend lots of his wealth over others.

    "Isn''t it enough?" William''s line of thoughts was a bit different than hers.

    "No, no, it''s indeed quite enough," she feared that if she said no, he''d raise the price again, "but like this¡­ We will wee lots of people here."

    "That''s why we need more buildings," William shrugged, "and make sure to add in any contract this use¡­ For those working for me, they''ll have a twenty percent deduction from the prices of gears, potions, and other products my guild will make."

    "..." As if giving double the treatment here wasn''t enough, William added another scary privilege.

    Remy was from the fort and knew how bad the reputation of things produced here was. But for a reason, she felt like William was going to revolutionise everything.

    "You take this," William took one of the five rings she once gave to him, "make sure to pay half of the promised payment in advance. Then let everyone just sign the contract and stay put."

    "Waiting for what exactly?"

    "For you to finish up the buildings here of course," William rolled his eyes as if what she asked was something funny, "no matter what you''ll do, make sure the central building remains untouched."

    "That one? It looks a bit old like others¡­"

    "Just consider it as the symbol of our mighty and scary fox master," William winked before adding, "aside from people with permission, it''s forbidden to get in there. And it''s going to be the main headquarter for our guild."

    "Ok," she knew he was the boss. And she had nothing to say about any of his orders.

    "As for materials, you can have them from your former group," William waved his hand, "go and sign that contract on my behalf. Later on, I''ll provide a long list of supplies, and they need to prepare these in the next week. Got it?"

    "Sure, but how about my sry?" she paused before adding, "will it also be double?"

    "No," what William said made her face drop for a moment, "you''ll get five times that amount."

    "..." she didn''t know what to say and the only response she showed was to blink twice while staring at him.

    "Don''t give me this look," heughed, "you are now working as a normal manager, you are the manager! It''s normal for you to have this much. Now go, go and show me you worth every single crystal paid for you."

    His words made her realise her new status and rank. She got used to working under others, not in the high circle of power. So, she never imagined getting such a crazy amount as a sry. Even taking a double was considered a crazy dream.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Thank you," she honestly said, cupping her hands, giving William a slight bow. Then she turned around, taking her leave while Thomas was feeling inwardly excited.

    He knew more than what Remy knew, knew that his master was able to do miracles. And so, he stood by the side, watching in silence such historical moments for him.

    The next hours, news spread far and wide. The name of the Fox Guild was now the most mentioned name on the tongues of people. They spoke about the scary owner of it, the one who got resurrected from death, the presumed strongest spirit master in the entire region.

    And that wasn''t all. The special and rich treatment proposed by such a respectful master came as a shock to all of them. Not to mention the promise to pay half of the promised sry upfront, which made anyone doubting the value to join this guild shut up.

    As for the one who was behind the storm that erupted in the fort and outside, William was now standing in front of the gate of the central building.

    Remy was right. This one looked a bit old and seemingly about to copse at any given moment. It was around five storey high but made mostly of wood and weird ores.

    By the passage of time, there were lots of effects over this building. There weren''t big cracks there, but many small ones existed.

    "Master, isn''t it better to demolish this and build a new one?" Thomas stood by the side, watching how his master kept gazing at this building without moving or saying anything for the past ten minutes.

    "No, let it be," William felt like this building had a grand secret. After all, it was the one which held the mysterious message from that old fox. "Did you check other buildings?" he asked without turning to Thomas. And thetter nodded.

    "I found nothing of value," he said in a bitter tone, as if he was regretting this, "I thought¡­"

    "You thought you''d find treasure chests waiting for you to open or what? Hahahaha! Our biggest treasure is this ce, not anything else."

    William found the line of thoughts of his man quite amusing, "stay here. I''m going to see what lies inside."

    William moved and for the first time ever, he went inside that building. And the first thing he saw made him freeze in his ce.

    "What the heck is that?!!" The building was enough to amodate a thousand people standing together without any problem. But instead of having a hall or an entrance or something, William saw just an empty building inside.

    It was literally empty! The sides of this building rose high up in the air, forming something like walls, surrounding nothing but thin air and a huge hole in the ground.

    It was so big that it took up most of the entire space of the ground. And that wasn''t all, that hole released weird cold air from time to time, as if it was breathing.

    All William could see was a pitch-ck bottom of this hole, which meant he couldn''t see its bottom at all.

 Chapter 458 Do You Want To Kill Me Or Something?

    "Are you asking me to jump in there or what?" William rolled his eyes, before starting to take a tour around this grand hole. He walked around it a few times but didn''t find anything that could help at all.

    It was just as simple as a rabbit hole. And it looked like the old fox just found it here and built this grand building around as a shell or something.

    "So... I have to get in there to get all the answers I want?" William didn''t find any other way but to do so. He looked in doubt towards that weird hole, seemingly worried about hisnding and his way back here.

    "I have to tell him that I will remain there for a long time," he didn''t want to just go missing at such a critical time. So, he went out there, found Thomas and told him about his expected absence.

    He entrusted dealing with Remy and the new recruits over to him. And to make things go smooth even if he went absent, he decided to spend lots of hours writing many blueprints and forms.

    He also wrote a long list of materials that his guild would need to make all of these. He selected the most important blueprints that could be made and sold at high prices. And even wrote a few techniques and tricks for thoseing here who would need to make all of these.

    He knew he was dealing with people who got ess to far away and advanced ces like the capital of this kingdom. And so, he didn''t select any useless item and made sure to include even the rare and unique weapons like ives, knives, and even a few grenades that he knew their blueprints.

    But he didn''t select the best blueprints he knew. In fact, he only selected these from what could be considered mid-tier blueprints.

    As for alchemy, he made sure to leave behind lots of elixir forms. He didn''t want the useless potions and such. He wanted elixirs, high grade ones that wouldn''t even be found anywhere in this world. And he specified that all the elixirs made would be delivered to him.

    Once he stepped outside, he''d be faced with lots of enemies and harsh battles. Elixirs were a must, and he wanted to monopolise the entire production of the guild for the time being.

    As for everyone else, he just selected the basic potions like healing, strengthening one''s body, speed up potions, and such.

    He didn''t know for how long he''d be gone. But something told him that he''d go for a long time and that hole wasn''t that simple. After doing all this, he left clear instructions for Remy and Thomas to make anyone joining the guild sign a harsh and strict contract.

    Like this, he got done with the early and needed foundation of his guild. All he needed to do was to wait for his guild to grow in number, while watching from the side and select the rare gems that he could find.

    He spent close to ten hours doing all this, finishing lots of scrolls. He then trusted them to Thomas. He exined a little about each scroll and what it got, before stressing over the need to start producing all these once people joined the guild, and Remy finished remodelling the entire area.

    He made sure to let Thomas know that in his absence; Remy was like the general manager of this ce. As for him, he''d be his eyes to supervise and watch everyone, help him in spotting any troublemakers and gems.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    For gems, William nned to rope them closer and personally supervise their progress and work. As for troublemakers, there was just one end for them: death on his hands.

    Even if part of them were dark gold spirit masters, William would kill them all. He knew going by logic, any force in this fort would make sure to send lots of eyes inside his guild. And he wouldn''t have a way to stop them.

    All he could do was to spot any troublemaker, and then dealing with him wasn''t going to be an issue.

    "I need to fortify this ce first," William left instructions for Thomas and Remy to prevent anyone from getting close to this central building. But as he knew there would be lots of spies here, it was better to surround this ce with a strong defensive array.

    He started to take out materials from his rings, go through them and see what he could make use of. He didn''t go through his loot from that battle yet, and his gains were estimated to be astronomical.

    He wanted to first see whaty in that hole before he''d go through all his loot. Just the number of rings was in hundreds. And if he gained a thousand or more, he''d not be surprised at all.

    "It''s enough," he ced not only one array, but ten. Any of them would be enough to stop any prying senses of even dark gold spirit masters. As for their defensive abilities, the best could stop the gold grade spirit masters.

    But as he used ten, he was confident it was enough to stop any attempts from dark gold spirit masters. All he needed to do was to stop these viins for a few minutes, and that was enough to stir up everyone in the ce and rile them up against them.

    "Time to see what that old fox had for me down there," as he finished doing this, he entered the building and stood in front of this hole. He took a deep breath, before jumping.

    "Ahhh! Damn you bastard!"

    Unlike what he expected, the moment he jumped, he was weed with a fierce gale of wind. It looked like someone was standing at this hole, blowing a fierce gale of wind towards him, sending his weak body flying in the air like a deted balloon.

    *Thud!*

    "Do you want to kill me or something?"

 Chapter 459 [Bonus ] Finding The Statue At Last!

    William shouted when he stood up, feeling deep pain all over his body.

    That hole returned to look all normal, and the fierce gale of wind disappeared. William stood in his ce for a few minutes, before deciding to go all out.. He activated his spirit, and even prepared one elixir bottle in one hand, nning to use it anytime he smelled danger.

    This time, the fierce gale of wind didn''te. William''s fox spirit body fell down like a dead rock in the middle of this hole. William could only see pitch ck darkness around, with wind shing fast against his face.

    He didn''t know for how long he kept falling, but after some time he became sure that this wind howling at his face wasn''t just for show.

    "So, this wind is decreasing my falling speed and controlling it¡­ Interesting!" he just said it before he finally did notice something new. A small dot of bright light appeared deep down below, announcing the approach of the bottom atst.

    William readied himself for a harshnding. But against what he expected, and as the light dot grew fast into a big hole, hended slowly and with smoothness like he never expected.

    It felt like he jumped just ten metres or so, not falling down from such height.

    "Interesting," Williamnded and found himself standing in the middle of a huge cave or something. The opening he came from was high up there, while hended over a ce that was shining in bright silver and red lights.

    They were writings from this world, and it seemed to harness the air from around and gush them out there like he experienced. Around him, he found nothing much, just a few tables, lots of closed chests, and a statue.

    "Found you atst!" William''s eyes shone brightly before moving towards that statue. It was located just at the outer area of this cave. But when he took a single step out from the ce hended at, getting out from the reign of writings on the ground, he felt a change in the air.

    "What''s going on?!" William was vignt, and even took out his flying knives and sword. He clenched the elixir bottle in his hand, waiting for what wasing.

    Yet against what he expected, what happened wasn''t just for the air around to change, even the ground as well.

    More writings appeared, shone in bright red and orange lights, before they started to reflect over the air, showing lots of words there.

    "This is¡­" just as he stood in his ce motionless, lots of words started to appear, sh for a few minutes, before new words reced them.

    He looked like he was standing inside a dome shaped ce, where words shed all over him, taking the shape of a half bubble with him being in the centre.

    "This is¡­ It''s the message Thomas noticed before," William slowly muttered, while his eyes were tracking the floating words, reading them fast and understanding their meaning.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    It was a leftover message from that old fox. And its content was mind blowing for him.

    The message kept flickering in front of his eyes for three times in a row, taking an hour each to reveal the content of the entire message each time.

    "This is the true secret of this ce then¡­" William said when the message stopped ying atst.

    From what he read, he got to know the ancient history of this fort. It wasn''t built by any spirit master as William thought, as everyone here believed. It was built on the hands of Transformers!

    It was initially a ten-pir fort, with ten hills not nine holding it in ce. But for a reason, some sort of a huge battle erupted in ancient times, ending up damaging that tenth pir.

    It was located at the centre. ording to the old fox''s words, it had the ability to open a path towards the outer world.

    William didn''t know this before, didn''t know that monsters and dark spirit masters here, alongside their scary allies like Transformers, got a way to connect themselves with the outer vast world.

    He knew there were gates, where anyone from the vast world outside could connect with folks inside. But these gates were controlled by those out there, and connection couldn''t be initiated normally from within. But reading the words of the old fox added a new insight and realisation to William.

    It seemed like the ancient spirit masters in this region rallied themselves and took this central pir down. In return for that, they took over the fort, acting as the old ancestors of the ones living here right now.

    But that didn''t mean Transformers got totally expelled from this fort. They moved their bases outside the fort, taking the many hills around as their homes. They also kept slowly infiltrating through the spirit masters living here, roping many to their sides, while killing others who seemed a bit dangerous.

    The Transformers seemed to retreat a bit, but they didn''t stop what they were doing. They kept controlling this fort from shadows, nourishing even a huge number of dark spirit masters to their side.

    The message spoke about a few ces the old fox learnt about. ording to him, these were where many dark spirit masters lived. William stored all this information in his mind, knowing that he got enough to start his crusade against the dark spirit masters and the Transformers behind them.

    "As I expected, to take down those damn bastards, I have to start with the dark spirit masters first. But to think that such a path was here, it means there might be other ces like these in this world."

    If there were paths connecting worlds together, that meant dark folks here would get constant support from the outer world.

    "That doesn''t seem right¡­ I never heard of such a tactic used by the dark spirit masters or any of their allies out there¡­" This was indeed quite new intel for William. And it changed lots of things.

 Chapter 460 A Trap!

    The old fox told him that the supreme goal of the Transformers here was to revive the tenth pir. And they were close from doing this.

    They were nning to wipe out the spirit masters in this fort using forces on their side from the inside and outside the fort at the same time. What this messagecked was any intel about the ones from the inside who worked for these despicable Transformers. And that told William it wasn''t easy to find them.

    "At least I got information about dark spirit masters in the region," William took a deep breath, organising everything he learnt about, before turning his attention around.

    There were lots of things here, lots of closed chests. He didn''t know what these chests included, but the first thing he did was to check the statue.

    The statue wasn''t huge as he expected. It was just enough to be held on his back, almost close to his height. William tried, and he couldn''t take it into any of his rings.

    The statue was made out of green material, looking like some sort of gem or something. When he touched it, he felt like he was touching a real person''s face. And that told him the spirit of that old fox was residing inside this one.

    "It''s a regret that I can''t get this thing moving," William even tried to move the statue from its ce, trying to see if he could carry it around. But it didn''t even budge an inch. It wasn''t that heavy, but it looked as if it got glued to the ground.

    That meant he''d not be able to move far from here for a long time, or else he''d risk missing the benefits from this statue. "This dude¡­ Why did he have to do it this way?!" William resigned to such fate. He didn''t try to absorb anything from this statue as he needed to do something first.

    He got to select a suitable training manual for himself. He never thought about doing such a thing before as he already had his heaven defying devour ability.

    But to start receiving the spirit power and knowledge stored in this statue, he had to use a training technique first. His devour ability was only useful towards monster cores, not anything else.

    He already had tons of training manuals in his memory, with lots of suitable ones for him. But he decided to postpone this for now and check these closed chests first.

    "They are sealed¡­" he checked and found out that each chest was sealed by an array, "even if he let the one who came from the vast world seal them, it won''t stop me."

    William started to examine these arrays, to finally find out their true nature by pure ident. When he ingested his spirit power into one of them, testing to see if special symbols or marks would appear there, he noticed the flickering of many symbols that he recognised. But when he did recognise this array, he hurriedly threw the box away, "Sh*t! That damn jerk¡­ Are you trying to kill me or what?!!"

    *Boom!*

    The chest he tried to inspect using his spirit power just shone in bright red light, before that light expanded, releasing a torrent of wildfire all over the ce.

    William didn''t take such fire lightly, turned instantly into a fox and endured the iing burning heat.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    This array was something that was used as a decoy, trying to kill anyone getting greedy while being here. "Cough cough! That damn bastard! It''s lucky for him to be dead right now. Or else I''d have choked him to death myself! Cough cough!"

    The fire kept raging wild for ten minutes straight, before finally dying down. William had to use his bottle of elixir, saving his life by replenishing his lost spirit power.

    He didn''t know why this old fox ced such traps here. But he was now quite sure that all the chests here were booby traps. "And here I thought I was going to have something nice¡­ What a waste!"

    William eyed that statue and thought about absorbing part of its spirit power. But when he thought about the need to select a good training manual for him, he hesitated.

    He had to find a training manual that could support different spirit elements. There were lots of training manuals for each spirit element, even for those extremely rare ones like time, space, karma, and luck spirit elements.

    As he nned to merge more monster spirits with his, adding more spirit elements to his arsenal, he knew he had to carefully select his training manual.

    "I can train many manuals at the same time, however that will be time consuming and not that effective in the end¡­ No, I shall think about it more thoroughly¡­"

    He knew that he had no such legendary training manual to cover all the spirit elements in the world. So, the only way to do this was toe up with a new training manual, a totally new one.

    Or he should simply ditch the idea of absorbing anything from this statue and focus on absorbing monster cores instead.

    There was a negative side of his devouring ability that he already was aware of. For example, he was now at bronze grade, but even silver cores wouldn''t give him lots of points anymore.

    That was indeed solvable at this point. But when he''d reach the dark gold grade, he knew he''d face a great problem.

    "Hmm¡­ I need to go back first," he knew deciding on this dilemma wasn''t something he should do out of impulse. He needed to thoroughly think about all this, trying to find the right path for his future.

    But right now, he had to find a way back to the surface. He didn''t know for how long he descended here, and so it wasn''t practical to try and climb his way up.

    He took a tour around the ce. Aside from being just like the cave he met the Transformers at before, nothing else was out of the ordinary or of significance to him.

 Chapter 461 A Weird Visit

    "I hope you got a way to bring me back," William returned back to the first spot hended at when he came here. He stood over the spot surrounded with lots of symbols and writings and waited.

    "Hmm¡­ Shall I give it a boost or what?" but nothing happened at first, at least until he activated his spirit power and tried to connect to the circle on the ground with both palms ced there.

    *Boom!*

    And just like what happened at the surface, his body got blown away by a fierce gale of wind, sending his body flying and crashing to the ground.

    "Ouch! That old fox is really crazy!" William stood up, cleared the dust off his clothes, before going back to the circle.

    Like before, the gale of wind appeared fast and disappeared faster. It was as if this wind only waited for him.

    William knew what to do. It seemed that the old fox made everything here depending on his fox spirit body. When William activated his spirit body and stepped over that circle, air started to appear and carry him upwards.

    He didn''t need to do anything else, not even use his spirit power at all. He kept rising up through the long tunnel, and finally he returned back to the surface.

    "Even if I didn''t seal this ce, this old fox made sure that no one but me would step into that hole down below," William recalled the Transformers who sat their eyes over this fox''s statue. And he couldn''t help butugh at them.

    It seemed they knew part of the truth, not the right way of how to enter here. If William didn''t stop those bunch of gold spirit masters, then he was sure they would have failed to find their way to the statue down below.

    Even if that ball worked before, it wouldn''t make any difference at all. "That ball¡­ I need to check lots of things¡­" William felt a little tired. Unlike what he nned, he simply decided to remain the night in here.

    He spent lots of time in his travels to and from that underground cave. William was curious about the ces of these caves he kept visiting out ofte. And he got a crazy guess.

    He thought it''d make lots of sense if these caves were actually deep down the nine hills themselves. It might look crazy for the Transformers to hide inside these hills, just so close from the fort, but it was a thought that he couldn''t remove from his mind.

    And just when he thought he''d enjoy a nice sleep, something new happened.

    "What is this?!" William used to have dreams from time to time, but right now he felt like he wasn''t actually dreaming. He just closed his eyes and his mind drifted to the world of dreams. And there he found himself standing in the middle of arge open space, filled with lots of ck fog, with less than one hundred metres of clear space of white ground around.

    "Don''t fret, I''m here as a friend."

    Just as he felt weird about being here, he heard a stranger''s voiceing from the depths of the ck fog here.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Show yourself!" William shouted, not knowing from where this voice came from, "and who are you?"

    "I can''t reveal myself for my reasons," the one who spoke kept his mysterious act, before adding, "and I''m here to help you in your quest."

    "Oh, what quest?" William felt a little interested and got amused by this weird situation, "is this a dream or what?"

    "It''s indeed a dream," that intruder admitted. And that made William''s eyes shine. "Dream spirit element¡­ What a nice spirit element you have here."

    "This¡­" it seemed the one who forced himself into William''s dreams got startled by his words.

    "So, it''s true, hahahaha!" Williamughed, "I guessed it''s either that or the annoying illusion spirit element. But luckily for me, it''s the dream element."

    "It seems you know more about me than I initially thought," that spirit master wasn''t able to get over his surprise from William''s words, "but I never recall meeting you before."

    "It''s not important," of course William never met him. And now he really wanted to meet him in real life, not in the dream world.

    He couldn''t believe he found another gem just by sleeping! And on top of that, he was the one who sought him out!

    "Tell me, what do you want?" William knew such a spirit master didn''te here to just introduce and deliver himself over. And for a reason, William couldn''t help but feel that he was an enemy.

    He didn''t ask about his identity, as it was clear this spirit master didn''t want to expose anything rted to his identity.

    William wasn''t worried. After all such dudes were quite powerless in reality. There were rare techniques that would turn their spirit element into a deadly weapon, but it required lots of conditions to be met.

    William didn''t see any value in this spirit master regarding actual fight prowess without any of these rare techniques. And that was why he felt instantlyforted when he learnt about his spirit element.

    The real value behind such a spirit element wasn''t in any battle abilities, but in the ability tomunicate with anyone as long as this spirit master had his photo. William knew his face was well known to many by now. And so, it wasn''t a surprise for such a spirit master to get his face poster.

    If he worked for William, then no matter how far his close-up people were, he could simply organise and orchestrate their movements from far away.

    "I''m here to deliver a message," that dark spirit master was feeling more unease by being around William. He didn''t like anyone to see through him, not to mention a stranger that knew his secret, his spirit element. And for a reason, it felt like the youngster he visited in his dreams wasn''t a bit startled or scared of him.

 Chapter 462 Dream Spirit Master

    He used to receive a reaction of fear, doubt, and shock when he ever met anyone, but not William. And he didn''t like such a kid and this awkward situation at all.

    "I came to tell you about the most important dark spirit master bases in the region. I believe such information is something you need, right?"

    This dark spirit master came here while knowing that William was oblivious to any of this. But least to his knowledge, William already got tipped off such bases before from the old fox''s message.

    Instead of showing any eagerness or excitement on his face, William kept his calm. He already had information about many enemy bases, yet such knowledge came from a long time ago.

    Who knew, it might happen for many of these bases to not be there right now. And so, William decided to listen to him, and also to test out his real intentions.

    If he came here to just deliver fake information over, then he was an enemy. If he delivered true information, then he''d still be an enemy.

    No one, not any normal spirit masters at least, would be able to have such knowledge. If any normal spirit masters force had such intel, they''d note to William and tell. Instead, they''d work over these bases themselves. The only ones who knew such information and woulde to inform him like this were folks from the enemy. And ording to the level of truth in his words, William could guess further beyond that.

    "The enemy won''t try to help me out unless there is some sort of big dispute in the middle of their ranks," William thought to himself. If the news this dark spirit master wanted to say were fake, then it might be exined as a move from the enemy to lure William to a trap.

    But if the news were correct, then there was only one exnation for this, internal conflict. And that would mean huge news for William. So, it was all down to his next words.

    Aside from that, Williambelled him, the gem he found, as an enemy, one that he had to face and fight against one day. But that didn''t mean William would drop his aim to get such a gem to his side.

    If he was part of the enemy, then William would work slowly and take his time to kill this dark spirit master''s leaders until he''d be a rogue spirit master. If by then he''d still be resistant to join him, then William would kill him. He''d prefer for no one to have such a scary talent as long as he''d not get it.

    "Tell me then," William crossed his arms, "I''m all ears."

    For a reason, that dark spirit master felt like he failed in impressing this kid. And for another reason, it felt like William knew a portion of what he was talking about. And that was something that Moore and his master never expected.

    "There is a base in the hills in the northern east, fifty kilometres away from the fort¡­" But he came here to deliver such intel. And so he started to do his task, without beating around the bushes anymore, aiming to get done from here as fast as he could.

    William attentively listened to what this gem came to say. And as expected, this gem provided true intel for him, mostly things he knew about.

    Yet there was still more new intel that he didn''t know. In total, he learnt about thirty enemy bases all over the region. And William felt that this dark spirit master didn''t tell him everything.

    That meant there were still more enemy bases than this actual number. But to William, it wasn''t a big deal. After crushing a few of these bases, getting lots of prisoners from them, he''d get to know lots of information about other bases and enemy moves that he didn''t know yet.

    "That''s it?" After Moore said everything he came for, the fog started to swirl. William knew it was a sign that this dream spirit master was cancelling his technique, releasing him from this dream world.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "What else? I told you the things I came here to say," Moore paused in his tracks, feeling more unease by William''s yet toe words.

    And he was right, as William made an offer that took him totally by surprise.

    "I like you," William paused before suddenly adding, "what it takes to make someone like you work for me?"

    "This¡­!!!" Moore was shocked beyond belief. He came here to try and trick William. And yet the poor sheep he sought out turned out to be a ferocious beast.

    "I want you to work for me," William said what he wanted from this gem, "take the offer and think about it carefully. You got the way to contact me anyway, not the other way around. So, there is no harm in listening to what I''m going to say, right?"

    Moore was feeling more surprised inside his mind. He even felt his spirit shake fiercely by William''s words.

    Recognising his spirit element was something, and knowing all the ins and outs about it was another. Seeing this dark spirit master remain silent, without even continuing to cancel the technique and go away, made William continue speaking.

    "I won''t promise you riches, as you can get whatever you want from your current master," William knew tempting this dark spirit master with riches wouldn''t work, "but¡­ As you can tell, I already know about your spirit element."

    "Your point is?"

    "I can guide you to experience things that you never imagined before¡­"

    "No thanks, I''m good where I''m currently at!"

    "Just let me continue what I wanted to say," William wasn''t fazed when Moore interrupted him, "don''t tell me I can''t satisfy your long-awaited dream."

    William even winked when he said that. And despite not saying anything, the one he was speaking with went into deep silence.

    "What do you mean?"

    "Don''t tell me you didn''t dream of feeling that excitement," William got Moore just exactly at the spot he wanted, "to feel the ecstasy of spilling your enemies'' blood on your hands."

    "..."

 Chapter 463 Meeting Old Faces Again

    William knew how useful this dark spirit master''s ability was. And he wasn''t the only one with such an element that was useful in logistics and useless at real fights. All the folks who got such abilities dreamt about one thing, about going to the frontlines, having the ability to fight their foes and kill them like any proper spirit master.

    That was the Achilles heel of such folks, the one thing that William knew would keep haunting him even if he stood by his current master''s side, swearing his oath and allegiance to him.

    "No way! There is nothing like that!"

    "The world is big enough for you to know there must be a way," Williamughed, "just think about it. In exchange for working for me, you''ll get your dreams fulfilled."

    "Aren''t you afraid I will turn over you? Trick you to tell me this proimed technique then sell you out?"

    William didn''t show any change on his face, not even his smile paled. Instead, it grew wider, "who said I''m going to give it before having enough evidence to frame you? Don''t worry, I know what I''m doing. And before you''ll sniff anything about this technique, you''ll betray your current master and the entire dark spirit mastermunity in a path without return."

    "You think I''ll fall for just empty words like this? Hahahaha! You are indeed still a greenhorn in this world, hahahaha!"

    William knew this dark spirit master was trying to show off that he didn''t care, but in fact he was. Greed and thinking too much about one''s dream was really scary. And William knew trying to get a positive answer right now from him wasn''t going to work. Time was William''s greatest ally, and Moore''s fiercest enemy.

    "Just keep my words in your mind for now," William raised his head before adding, "I''m just going to show you a new trick, one that I bet you never knew about before."

    "Which is¡­"

    Just before that dark spirit master would say anymore, William clenched his fest andnded a deadly blow over his heart. This strike was enough to make him cough up blood, falling to the ground, feeling as if he was literally dying. But the next moment, he found himself sleeping on the ground next to the big hole.

    "I bet his face is now quite priceless, hahahaha!" William did something that Moore wouldn''t think possible. He ejected himself voluntarily out of his dream, getting freed from that dark spirit master''s ability.

    Of course, what William expected happened. Moore opened his eyes, looked around his ce inside the underground cave, with a face that showed a rare expression of disbelief.

    "He¡­ He managed to break my technique?! Howe¡­ No way!! He must be bluffing!!!" Moore didn''t take what happened for real and returned to sleep again using his technique. He held a poster in his right hand, raised it to see the details of William''s face clearly in front of his eyes before falling asleep.

    But against what he expected, he never found William as thetter decided to remain awake. "I bet he is trying his best toe into my dreams again, hahahaha!" Williamughed while getting out of this building. And there he found a scene that he was happy to witness.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The world was already shining bright. In his territory, the emptiness that was before got changed. There were lots of new faces there, alongside many old faces as well.

    "William!" Just before he''d look around and grasp the entire situation, he heard a girly voice before someone threw herself over him.

    Without the need to look over, he knew it was Berry with her long hair. And when she jumped into his embrace, she couldn''t feel herself anymore, and started to weep.

    "Easy girl, I''m already fine," William patted her head and back, trying to reassure her.

    "I''m¡­ I''m d you are ok," she stuttered and choked amidst her cries and tears. William couldn''t help but keep her like this until she''d get over this situation.

    But she was the only one to show such intense emotions for seeing him. He moved his eyes around his former team. Everyone was there, and from the look on their faces, he knew the Lockheart impact treated them quite well.

    All they showed right now was a broad smile on their faces. Even Ibra showed a faint one, which was a rare one.

    "No hug for me?" William looked at Ibra. Thetter got his faint smile wiped out, before he scoffed and said:

    "Tsk! You are still as annoying as when we left the academy, there is no hope for you!" he rolled his eyes, before looking a bit serious, "do you know that we got ambushed on our way back? If not for the sudden appearance of reinforcements and strong folks, we won''t have arrived here in one piece."

    "This¡­" William never expected such a thing to happen. He didn''t know that if not for the fast actions of the Lockheart impact''s higher ups, calling them back before those from the ck Mamba would rally enough forces up, then they''d have not been here right now.

    "For a reason, lots of dark spirit masters popped out of nowhere," Sara sighed, "we tried to fight them back, but in the end we failed. They got two dark gold grade masters and lots of gold grade ones as well. It wasn''t something we can handle or face."

    "Hmm¡­ Did they track you from the ce you were held at?" William paused before sitting on the ground, "tell me everything that has happened since we parted ways."

    William sat down, and Berry didn''t even leave his side for a single second. He had to carry her with his arms, holding her like he was about to give her a soft kiss on her lips or something.

    She kept clinging to her chest, holding his uniform, while everyone started to tell the horrors they faced and the weird things that happened to them since parting ways with William.

 Chapter 464 Forming A New Team

    He felt a little touched when he heard about their arrangement from that time. They decided to return and find him after half an hour of their departure. Then their tale started to shift towards the hectic run from the tsunami of monsters, before finally they fell into the trap of the Lockheart impact.

    From there onward, things looked quite calm and peaceful. The people there made sure their stay was good and protected them until they got the order to return back.

    And there they got ambushed just less than thirty kilometres away from the fort. And from what they said, William knew a lot about the identity and intentions of the dark spirit masters who attacked them.

    "So¡­ You are trying to give me intel, and at the same time trying to chop an arm off me? Interesting¡­" William thought to himself while listening to the description of the enemies they met.

    He didn''t need to think too much to link the same mysterious dark spirit master force that attacked his team with the mysterious spirit master who appeared in his dream.

    And just from hearing about the attacks they witnessed, he couldn''t help but recall something.

    "Damn! Don''t tell me it''s someone rted to that jerk!!!" William''s thoughts drifted back, way back towards the incident that he caused at the academy Spar Arena.

    There he killed a team of dark spirit masters, with one from the ck Mamba n. And from their words, he couldn''t help but link the two together.

    "I hope it''s not his father or grandfather or something," William inwardly sighed. He knew such grievances would be hard to deal with. And so, he started to take this matter quite seriously.

    "What shall we do now?" as everyone said their pieces, Lang suddenly asked. And with his question, everyone focused over William, waiting in anticipation for his next words.

    "What else?" William shrugged, "we''ll do exactly what we came here for."

    "But¡­" Sara looked at everyone before adding, "we heard¡­"

    "That I got this ce and lots of wealth?" William knew what got into their minds, "that''s indeed true. But everything is for one goal, to keep our initial task rolling."

    "..."

    They thought he''d drop this task and retreat back to the academy, or best to remain here for a long time before heading back. However, they never expected that William would still be adamant over taking down the dark spirit masters in the region.

    "Just take the next few days as a deserved rest. Take a tour around the fort, get to know others here. And in five days, gather up as we''ll be moving."

    "Ok," his words put an end to this meeting. In the middle of their talk, Berry found a chance to slip past his embrace and arms, standing with all red cheeks by his side, without saying anything at all. And when he motioned with his hand for all to disperse, she was the first to move out. Yet her arm got grabbed by his, ending up for her entire body freezing on the spot.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Not you," William said to her, before turning and looking at a few others. William stopped his five vice leaders, in addition to Ibra, "we have something to talk about."

    The five of them stopped in their tracks, looking a bit puzzled. As for Berry, her mind and heart were already in the middle of a storm of emotions and didn''t know what to say except for her to nod. She didn''t return to normal for a long time, even when William let go of her hand and watched everyone else moving away.

    "Don''t tell me you really missed us!" Ibra rolled his eyes, while Sara gave Berry a ring look.

    "I''m not that free," William calmly smiled, before turning around, "as you can tell, lots of teams are going to join us."

    "That''s clear," Peter nodded, "what about them?"

    "I want all of you to go and scan them, find those who are worthy to join our team," William finally revealed his real intentions.

    "This¡­" John was the first to panic. He already knew he didn''t deserve a ce among these high and special spirit masters. And from William''s words, it seemed he nned to reshuffle the entire team, add more while removing many.

    "Thomas, Remy,e here for a second," but before William would respond to John''s inferiorityplex worries, he noticed the newest two members of his trusted circle walking not far away from them.

    As the two approached, William introduced the eight spirit masters to each other. "I don''t like to swap people who followed me here, but we got white grade spirit masters for heaven''s sake! They need lots of time to train. And as we got many gold grade spirit masters, it''s time to form a new team, a stronger team¡­"

    William paused, moved his eyes around his eight trusted subordinates and friends before adding, "but that doesn''t mean anyone with gold grade is a good candidate. You know how I do things, and so pick me gems and trusted people from all this lot. And as usual, the final saying would be left for me."

    "Don''t tell me you n for another test," Ibra seemed to panic a little, and everyone from the old team got their faces changed, looking a bit depressed and worried.

    They got all the right to feel so. Thest time they went on a test ended up in a grave disaster. "Don''t give me that face! It''s not that bad to hang out with me, hahahaha!" Williamughed, turning to Remy before adding, "you are going to stay behind, rule over the ce and arrange everything. As for you¡­"

    He turned to Thomas and added, "you are going to follow me."

    "Ok," the two nodded at the same time. And before William would say anything, Remy''s eyes shone brightly for a brief second as she recalled something.

    "There is a team of twenty¡­ Twenty good looking girls¡­" her face changed for a bit when she recalled them.

 Chapter 465 Meeting Ro Again

    Without the need for her to say anymore, William knew whom she was speaking about. "What about them?"

    "They¡­ They are quite noisy!" she sighed, "they seem to not like it here."

    "Bring me their leader," William evilly grinned, "it''s a girl named Ro. just let here to see me, and I''ll put her and her team under my leash."

    "Got it," William didn''t know what these fiery girls did to make even Remy feel so terrible about them. But to him, he knew this was going to be a very interesting meeting.

    "By the way," Mentioning Ro made him recall something else, "I heard there is a ne at the Refos group, one that can form a protective shield around oneself."

    "Oh, the Red Scale ne? Sure, what about it?" It seemed this ne was very famous in that group, even to the extent that Remy would recognise it without the need for William to describe anything.

    "I want it," William paused, "you got enough wealth to do it, right?"

    "Sure, it''s a piece of cake," she nodded. But for a moment there she paused before her face changed the next moment.

    "What?" William didn''t get why she looked like this.

    "It''s a love ne," she hesitated for a bit before adding, "do you have someone¡­ I mean to give the ne to her¡­"

    "No, no at all," her words didn''t just bring misunderstanding in the little circle of his entrusted people, but he even got a fierce re from Berry and even Sara, "I want it for myself."

    "For¡­ For you?!!" Remy didn''t even imagine this. But William didn''t mind wearing anything as long as it was useful.

    "Just handle this issue, ok?" William rolled his eyes, deciding to miss hearing anything rted to this item''s history or value, "how are the building ns going?"

    He shifted the topic towards something that he truly was interested in talking about. In the next hour, he heard and saw the ns Remy had for this ce. And then the talk drifted towards the number of teams joining here.

    ording to Remy, there were twelve different teams who applied and joined them. More were also asking permission to join, but she got busy dealing with the construction ns of this ce.

    She hired a famous group to do such a task. And in the end, she asked William''s approval to recruit other trusted and capable spirit masters in the management field, to help her in her duties. In addition to that, she asked for another key to help her and Thomas do many things around.

    William agreed on her demands, made one key on the spot while everyone dispersed and moved to do their different tasks. And just as he finished making the key, not taking more than twenty minutes this time, he spotted Remying alongside someone else.

    It was Ro! And just seeing her face and the disturbed look over hers made William uncontroblyugh.

    "I bet you are enjoying this!" Ro stood in front of him, wearing a very fiery red dress that got a very high cut, revealing most of her amazing thigh. On top of that, and with that cupped shaped top, she looked really tempting even to William.

    But when she stood there, crossing her arms, and saying such words, he couldn''t help butugh again. He recalled thest time he saw her, and how she literally ran away from him without even looking back.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And now? He already cleared the scary ce off all the traps, turning this spot ofnd from being a curse into a gold mine. Not only that, he also managed to pull her to his side.

    "Stopughing!" she got more nervous by his attitude. And shouting at him like this didn''t help at all, except it increased hisughing at her.

    "Come on, you have to admit it! Fate indeed got a crazy way to do things, right? Hahahahaha!"

    "Tsk! I knew you were going to be this hard to deal with since I got informed toe here¡­ Why do you want me? Huh? You already have a nicedy by your side!"

    She pointed at Remy, making thetter''s face flush a bit without even realising it.

    "I want to ask, what''s your spirit form?" William tried to control himself but failed to wipe out that wide grin over his face.

    "Tsk! It''s the Red Subus spirit," she said while giving him a deep look.

    "Oh, you got such a nice spirit on your side," William started to act a bit serious, "that exins it then¡­ Don''t tell me you got the fire and water spirit elements."

    "No, I got something useless that no one knows anything about," she paused, while her face showed a bit bitterness for a brief moment, "if not for having the fire element, I''d have been much weaker and useless."

    "Oh, a spirit element that no one knows about? Come here, show it to me," William didn''t say these words alone, but took out a crystal and a candle, "here, do it like this."

    "This¡­ Are you trying to seduce me or what?" She listened to what he said and couldn''t help but think evil about his real intentions.

    "And here I''m trying to help you, ending up getting doubted," William sighed, as if he got hurt by what she said, "just use it. I''m a man, and I''m trying to help you."

    "You are a demon!"

    "That''s debatable," Remy from the side couldn''t help but chuckle, and William simply coughed.

    "This¡­" Ro wasn''t the only one feeling surprised, but Remy as well. Thetter heard what William said, and thought he was trying to pull a trick over Ro.

    But who knew the words he said really brought out a result. Ro was already a gold grade spirit master, and her crystal shone in bright golden red light.

    "It''s indeed a fire element, and it''s quite hell in there," William took the crystal and started to slowly examine it under the watchful eyes of the two girls.

    "Wow! You got it in you, girl, thumbs up!"

 Chapter 466 Finding Another Gem

    William even raised his hand and gave Ro a thumb up. And thetter couldn''t help but feel more awkward from his reaction.

    If not for knowing him, falling for his traps one time after another, she''d believe he was telling the truth and she got something interesting in her.

    "Stop fooling around, I already know the other element is just trash."

    "You are trash if you think like this! And anyone saying this about such a legendary spirit element is also trash!" William retorted back. And from his intense reaction, the two girls knew that he wasn''t joking or something.

    "Do you really know what her second element is?" Remy also got curious, even moved closer to get a better look.

    "It''s the legendary illusion element," William raised the crystal for the two to see it perfectly clear, "do you see the little silver red dots? That kept shing brightly in one second, then changed in the next? It''s a waste that she never trained her element right, or else this element won''t be represented by just these little dots here."

    "This¡­" the two girls noticed these dots, before turning to look at each other. By now, everything William said made perfect sense, despite it being the first time for them to hear such a thing, "does that mean¡­ Do I have something good?"

    "It''s great, not good," William stored the crystal away, turned to Remy before adding, "you saw me do this trick. Repeat the same and make it a standard test for anyone joining us."

    "But¡­"

    "Don''t worry, if you found something familiar then don''t bother to notify me," William calmly smiled, "Fire is red, Water is blue, Earth is brown, Wind is green and etc. things are quite basic and known to all, so it won''t be hard to spot familiar things in these crystals."

    "And those who have weird things?"

    "Inform me of them of course," William rolled his eyes as if this was something easy to guess, "I love digging for gems from the deepest muddy holes, got it?"

    "You didn''t get me from a hole!" Remy shouted, turned around and walked in angry steps. While Roughed, and William didn''t get why she got fired up like this.

    What he missed here was that she got envious of Ro. William didn''t perform such a test as well on her. And that made her a little resentful towards him.

    "So¡­ What''s this element anyway? And¡­ Can you help me?" Ro stood in her ce and didn''t leave. And from the look on her face, it seemed she was struggling to ask for his help.

    "I already told you," He evilly grinned before adding, "you want me to help you? Be your mentor and master? In exchange for what? Huh?" William winked, and she knew why she was feeling such unease.

    "What? Do you want a massage or a warm bath perhaps?" she retorted back in her usual way. And William just smiled back.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "You are the one who wants my help," he shrugged, "if you don''t show sincerity, then why should I help you?"

    "..." she stood in her ce motionless, not knowing what to do. William now understood everything about this fiery girl. Thanks to her spirit, she got such seducing power and habit to her side. And as she neglected the more important illusion element, her spirit could be considered unstable.

    She and Remy didn''t notice this, but the shape of the subus the dots in the crystal took kept shaking violently as if an earthquake was happening there. And that was a clear sign of her spirit instability.

    William knew this was expected. She was just suffering something close to what Berry once suffered from. And if he didn''t help her, then she''d stagnate for the rest of her life in the gold grade. And if she tried to forcibly force her way up to the dark gold grade, she''d end up suffering a great setback, ending up getting crippled!

    "What do you want?" She knew he wasn''t after her body. He wasn''t that type of lustful guy, who''d chase her all over the ce.

    "Join my team," William finally said his demand, "join it formally, and you alone. Then I promise to help you."

    "This¡­" she was the one who established her team, gathered the girls in it, and made great friendships with all of them. William could already guess all of this, and so he raised his hand, spreading all of his fingers apart.

    "You got five days," he paused before seriously adding, "by then if you don''t sort out your things and show up here, then forget anything about what I just said."

    "Tsk! Why is it always hard and troublesome when dealing with you? Huh?" she stomped her feet on the ground, before leaving in a hurry.

    "Don''t stir up trouble anymore, or else¡­" he shouted back when he recalled the reason behind summoning her here in the first ce. And in response to his shout, she raised a middle finger in the air while walking away.

    "This world¡­ It''s really filled with gems," William didn''t take any of that to his mind or heart, and only focused on what he identally discovered here.

    He just ran a random test and found another gem. He couldn''t believe howmon gems and talents were in this tiny world.

    In the outer world, the chances of meeting someone with such abilities was close to nil. And yet he met lots of interesting gems without even looking. It made him feel like he wasn''t in a tiny world, but in a treasure trove of talents and gems!

    "I got good vibes about this guild," he turned his eyes around, watching the few teams who joined his guild. "That reminds me¡­ Those bastards on my team need a lesson. I''m going to enjoy the next adventure for sure, hahahaha!"

    He missed what his team did as a grave mistake before when they met Ben. they spilled out everything they knew about him, ending up with him suffering a little on that evil old man.

 Chapter 467 Training

    He got lots of things in a short time, and his name spread far and wide. He forgot about what his team did, but now he recalled it and decided to teach them a proper lesson in the next adventure.

    William then took a stroll around the guild, inspecting the other six buildings in his territory. They were all normal looking buildings, without anything special about them as Thomas already said.

    Then he got to meet up with folks from Blue Hammer and Seven Heaven groups. He just left Remy and Thomas to deal with them, giving them the things he already prepared before.

    William didn''t need to do anything at all for now. Remy and Thomas were handling the applying requests from different teams and spirit masters, handling the supply routes of materials, while his vice leaders and Ibra were scanning the new recruits, looking for real talents.

    As he saw there was nothing for him to do here, he decided to retreat inside the hole. He left a word behind that he''d be quite busy for the rest of the uing five days. And then he reached the rocky ce down below.

    "It''s time to find a suitable technique for my spirit and spirit purity," William sat on the ground cross legged, and started to go through everything he knew so far about the suitable techniques for him.

    He had three elements right now, but he''d aim to gain more in the next adventures. So he had to make sure he''d select the most suitable techniques to learn. Or else he''d waste lots of time without moving much forward.

    "For my spirit purity, I can go with The Heavenly tinum Cleansing technique¡­" he got done with selecting such a technique fast. And that was thanks to the limited list of the initial techniques to begin with.

    If he trained over this technique, then his spirit purity level would keep rising up till the highest grade. Not to mention this method required not much of materials to be used, not too much of requirements actually.

    It just required lots of monster cores to be used and absorbed by the user. And for William, he found this condition a bit easy to satisfy.

    This time he didn''t need to kill any monster personally to get the cores. He simply would purchase tons of cores when needed and use them when he reaches the transition periods between stages in his spirit purity.

    Not to mention he was going to adventure outside, ending up gathering lots of cores for sure. He previously wasn''t interested in collecting these cores. But now things had changed.

    "First the incantation¡­" he recalled everything about this technique before finally muttering the long incantation. When he got done with it, he felt like a warm heat enveloped his body from deep within, as if his spirit itself was rejuvenating about this technique.

    Then he took out a small part of the cores that he gained from the rings he checked their content before. All the rings he acquired beforeing to the fort contained lots of cores, and that made things quite easy for him right now.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    That reminded him that he didn''t yet check over the newly acquired rings. And when he saw how grand his collection was, he decided to do it after trying out this technique and thinking about his training manual problem.

    "Quite fierce!" he sucked in a deep breath after a few hours of training over this technique, "if I kept training on it for a few hours every day, then getting to the next stage won''t take a few months¡­"

    He was lost in thoughts before shifting his attention towards the most annoying issue, his training technique.

    William thought deeply for hours about this but didn''t get anything useful except for one crazy idea.

    "It''s better to try ande up with new techniques¡­" He decided to do this based on element affinity. For example, light and lightning would work better with fire and wind spirit elements. As for his darkness, it''d be good to mix it with Earth, metal, and even time elements. Special elements like space and illusion were better to mix together.

    "Like this¡­ I''d end up with just three up to five grand techniques to train in all the elements that I''ll get¡­" he knew the most he could harness was nine elements only. He wasn''t the real fox, and so he wasn''t able to train in more than this.

    He nned to add only special elements into his spirit, and that meant he''d consume three more slots at least for the space, time, and illusion spirit elements. The rest of the slots would be left for fire, wind, Earth, and metal.

    He didn''t know that his current line of thoughts was wrong! Andter on, he''d discover this the hard way.

    "I can merge these techniques ande up with a new one¡­ I hope this works out in the first attempt," he muttered to himself, while recalling lots of training manuals in his mind.

    All the manuals he knew were enough to take any spirit master to stages beyond those known in this tiny world. But to William, he only selected those who could take him all the way to the highest grade out there.

    Even when he thought in this way, the list he got was crumbled with lots of training manuals. William was more eptable to using the old method in raising up his strength.

    After all, even if the Devour ability of that fox monster was scary, it had its own limitations. William was sure his rise in power would always stagnate at theter stages of any grade. Not to mention when arriving at the top of the gold grade, he''d hit a damn wall.

    Finding dark gold monsters was a hurdle in itself. Not to mention their overall number wasn''t that huge to begin with. William would be lucky if he stumbled across a gathering of those like when a tsunami of scarlet monsters targeted the Long n. Yet he knew dreaming about such a thing to happen wasn''t going to make it actually happen.

 Chapter 468 [Bonus ] Just Like A Mafia Boss!

    That made him quite envious of the Long n. They got their hands over tons of dark gold cores. If he was just stronger, he''d have gathered lots of these cores from that time.

    So instead of regretting the past or praying for fate and heavens to do the impossible for him, he saw in his training techniques a way out. Even if it was much slower than his current rising speed using the Devour ability, it was better than nothing.

    Starting out from the high stage of gold grade, he''d depend entirely on his training technique, not Devour ability.

    His luck wasn''t that good actually. He didn''t seed in his first attempts, in his first one hundredth attempts. With every fail, he learnt something, modified and edited his new training manual, before trying it out again.

    At many times, his failure didn''te with any price at all, but at most times, he suffered different degrees of bacshes.

    Be it physical wounds, spirit power exhaustion, even feeling so numb, tired, and sleepy, he suffered it all. In the end, he had to use his potions from time to time, to cleanse his exhaustion and mental weariness, healing all the physical wounds he suffered. As for his spirit power depletion problem, he solved it using elixir drops.

    "I didn''t check the rings yet¡­" After spending three days in that hole, he decided to give a scan to all the grand loot he had, "I should really open a stall and sell rings!"

    When he saw how big his current wealth of rings was, he couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. "There was a time when I dreamt to just have one ring¡­" he smiled, not knowing if he should feel happy or bad about this memory.

    Then it came down to opening the rings and checking all their content. And to William, it felt like Christmas eve!

    He found tons of spirit crystals filling all the rings. No matter which ring came from, be it normal spirit master or dark one, they all got filled with lots of spirit crystals.

    William grew tired from taking out and counting these crystals when he already exceeded five hundred million count. And so, he stopped counting, started to take them out, store them away, without stoppingughing.

    "The business of collecting rings is indeed profitable, hahahaha!" William keptughing and muttering such words from time to time. It was indeed profitable. Even if he didn''t trick these spirit masters back at the betting event, he''d still end up with a huge wealth right now.

    He suspected he got billions from these rings alone. And that was just the amount of spirit crystals they got, not including any other stuff like gears or potions!

    When he finished collecting the spirit crystals, he moved next to collect gears. And weirdly enough, he found gears in all the rings like it was a must to have in any ring!

    "The rings with lots of sets of gears must havee from the dark spirit masters¡­" yet there was a major disparity in the number of gears in these rings.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Many rings just contained up to ten sets of gears, while others contained enough to arm up an army of a thousand spirit masters. Seeing this made William start to organise his rings first, a batch with low count gears and another with a high number of gears inside.

    After doing this, he found out that he indeed collected more rings from the dark spirit masters than normal ones. He started first with the ringsing from normal spirit masters. And he didn''t just take gears out, but everything they got.

    Be it materials, monster cores, even potions, arrays and scrolls, he took all out and started to arrange them in different groups.

    When he finished, he was surrounded with lots of heaps of loot. Coupled with the special rocky cave he was in, it made him look like a mafia leader standing in the middle of his top-secret vault.

    Each ring didn''t contain much gear, but it contained lots of potions, scrolls, materials and monster cores.

    Before this, William wasn''t that caring about monster cores. But as he nned to train his spirit purity, he needed lots of these cores. And so, seeing all these heaps of different grade monster cores made him grin. He started to organise his rings, assigning few for every single item here.

    In the end, he had to use five rings at least per each item. As for gears, he already used fifteen rings to contain all the gears he got so far.

    And that count was mostly going to be doubled or tripled after going through the rings of the dark spirit masters.

    "Hmm¡­ Most of these scrolls are speaking about training manuals¡­" he started to casually open scrolls that he found in these rings, to find lots of training manuals and fighting techniques.

    He didn''t care about any training manual, but the story was different if it was regarding fighting techniques. He already gained a lot of insights when he went into that library of the academy. And now he had a great harvest of fighting techniques in his possession.

    All he needed to do was to simply read and study them, find out how he''d enhance these, and even might try and learn a few that were especially strong.

    He gained his rings from many spirit masters, with many at gold and dark gold grades. And that meant many of these fighting techniques were quite strong, dedicated for the high-grade spirit masters. And that was alone enough to speak about their overall value.

    "For another time," he wasn''t in any hurry to do this task for now. He got a really scary fighting technique for himself. And his current spirit power wasn''t enough to sustain using more of such formidable and strong techniques.

    As for the use of these fighting techniques to his team, it was still something in the near future. He had to first assemble all the good seeds his vice leaders would find, test them thoroughly, before selecting those good to be nourished.

 Chapter 469 Finally Reading The Scrolls

    By then William would have plenty of time to go through all these techniques and modify them. So, he simply stored all of these scrolls in one separate ring, then turned to inspect the rings of the dark spirit masters.

    Seeing all these scrolls made him recall the scrolls he previously got without any way to read. He hoped to find a way in any of these rings, a right way to read through all of the scrolls he had and would gain from these rings.

    As he examined the rings of the dark spirit masters, he never found a single ring with gear sets less than one thousand. And in a few, he found much more, reaching even to enough to arm ten thousand spirit masters!

    To William, this meant one thing. "They are arming up a grand army indeed¡­ But as the gears are all here, that means they are still preparing and didn''t form that grand army yet. But such numbers¡­"

    He was puzzled by the total number of gear sets he got. All of them were in bronze and silver grades, with few at gold grade. But the overall number of all the gears he gathered made it clear how insanely huge the army the dark spirit masters were preparing in this region.

    He got enough to arm up more than two hundred thousand spirit masters from head to toe. And that was indeed quite a scary figure.

    "I just got to see the tip of the iceberg¡­ Such a huge army is enough to crush my academy and tten it to the ground. And I just got to see the loot inside the ones I faced. There were lots of others who ran away, not to mention the rings other forces here gained. And that wasn''t even one tenth of the entire dark spirit master forces in the region¡­"

    His mind kept racing and thinking about this issue. Without doubt, the dark spirit masters here were nning something huge.

    He knew that normal dark spirit masters wouldn''t walk around carrying such a big number of gear sets. But he was also positive that the gold and dark gold grade dark spirit masters sent to the fort wasn''t enough to amount to one tenth of the overall high forces of these in the region.

    If he was them, he wouldn''t send more than ten percent here to keep the fort under watchful gazes. Sending more wouldn''t make any sense. That made him feel the total army these folks were preparing was a million-man army.

    What puzzled him the most was that no news about such grand moves before were heard by him in his past life. And that meant either the dark spirit master target was far away from his academy, or it happened just prior to theunch of the apocalypse back then. So, he didn''t get to hear anything at all.

    "I''m sure the answer lies within these scrolls¡­" William muttered while taking the gear sets out, plus lots of other things.

    Like he expected, he found tons of potions, arrays, materials and cores, and lots of scrolls as well. They were all sealed the same way the other scrolls he got before had. But unlike what he hoped for, he found nothing at all to help him in reading all these.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Something is wrong¡­" William stood in front of the hundreds of scrolls he found. He already stored everything else in his rings, and unsealed the scrolls without any avail, "if it''s something special, then only these scrolls will be found in a few rings. But¡­ I found them literally in all the rings. Which means they are orders about movement and ns for everyone. Then howe I''m not able to read any?!"

    William now realised that he was thinking wrongly all this time. There wasn''t a secret way to unlock and read all these scrolls. Instead, it was somethingmon, something easy for any dark spirit master to do. And that changed his entire line of thoughts.

    He stood for half an hour thinking about this before he finally found out the answer. "What''s special about dark spirit masters? The thing they got and none others have?" he finally found the right spot that would unveil this mystery for him, "it''s the darkness element! I got it! That might be the reason why I couldn''t read anything using normal unsealing methods¡­"

    He moved his eyes around, grabbed one scroll and muttered, "I was doing it all wrong from the beginning. It didn''t need materials and arrays to show up their content. They just needed a bit of the darkness element, and these scrolls will show all their secrets¡­"

    *Fwoosh!*

    The moment he stirred up his darkness element and moved his spirit power through his hand towards the scroll, the entire scroll shed in bright light.

    The scroll was yellow in colour. But it turned all silver when he did that. At the same time, ck lines and dots started to form in front of his eyes, taking the shape of letters and words. In the span of the next few breaths, the entire scroll finally showed readable words.

    "It works!" he shouted in happiness whilementing his short sight before. Atst, he managed to see through this mystery. "This¡­"

    Just as he started to read the content of this scroll, his face changed. The words he read were speaking about a direct order for a team of the dark spirit masters.

    This order was speaking about a future n of movement, one that seemed to aim at this fort and the region around it.

    The n spoke about the role of this team, alongside others, about an area that wasn''t that far from the fort. It aimed to control one of the main trading routes that connected this fort with the capital of the kingdom.

    William knew he got a glimpse and really valuable intel about the ns of the enemy. But doing it this way wasn''t going to bring any result.

 Chapter 470 Planning A Grand Counter War!

    And so William took out his map and started to read one scroll after another. At the same time, he started to ce dots and marks over the map, trying to see the grandyout of this scary war n.

    And as he found the right method to read these scrolls, he started to go on a wide spree of reading them.

    He spent close to an entire day doing this. The number of scrolls were in the hundreds, and he had to filter them and try to find the locations mentioned in these scrolls over the map.

    Slowly the map started to get filled with lots of red dots and marks, even lines for the movements of the forces mentioned in these scrolls.

    When he got finished, and as he stood by the side of his big map, he couldn''t help but suck in a cold air of breath.

    "This¡­ It''s not a secret that nothing reached the ears of these folks in the academy back then¡­" William saw that around one hundred miles around the academy and its ns, a huge red stain was filling most of the map!

    The activities of these teams even reached the areas of the kingdom''s capital. And their goal was one, to take over the forts, academies, settlements, and bases of any normal spirit masters in this region and kill everyone there!

    Such a grand scale war should have shocked the entire world. However, as William saw it, and when he recalled all the delicate and meticulous nning in these scrolls, he knew having anyone escaping alive from all this was impossible.

    All the routes were blocked, and all the safe spots in tens of thousands of miles were under attack. All the ways around each n, fort, base, or even a main route was filled with lots of enemy teams.

    Trying to run away was a futile attempt. And as the war avoided the Aspire academy, none ever heard or felt anything about it.

    When William recalled things back, he was shocked to realise another thing. "The date¡­ The date of this grand move just matches the date of that big spirit master tournament¡­ Wait a minute¡­ Back then, I recall a grand missing incident in many of the academy''s spirit masters. It was rumoured that anyone adventuring far away never returned again, never heard from¡­ Don''t tell me it''s all rted to this¡­"

    William didn''t have all the scrolls of the entire dark spirit mastermunity. But with the grand number he got, he had a clear view about the ongoing war and its arrangement.

    There were even a few scrolls that spoke about ces far away from here, not included in that big map he had. And that meant such a move wasn''t just limited to here and was also covering up many ces in the world.

    "Is it just the kingdom or is it targeted against everyone in this world?" William didn''t know the answer to this. But he felt like the dark spirit mastermunity wasn''t acting without higher orders and arrangement.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And that meant there was some sort of leadership, leaders who were taking control over all the bad deeds going on in this tiny world.

    In addition to that, this move seemed to be connected with the uing spirit master grand contest. To William, he never cared about such contests before, not now even. But after knowing all this, he started to feel he had to act.

    Doing things here would ensure safety for the people in this part of the world. But how about the rest of the world?

    No matter how he looked at it, the map that was now dyed red gave him the impression that this was a huge movement. If he wasn''t sure this wasn''t the time of the true apocalypse, he''d mistake it for being that scary event.

    "It''s like¡­ They are preparing the set for what yet to happen¡­" He could tell the true goal behind all this. The dark spirit masters were just trying to cut the power of normal ones by a big chunk, killing all the strong spirit masters they could target, weakening this side before the grand apocalypse would befall.

    "I believe when taking down the dark spirit masters'' forts and hidden bases, I''ll find lots more of these scrolls¡­ And by then, I can see the grander picture perhaps¡­"

    He sighed, before turning his eyes towards his academy. "I read that they wanted to kill the resisting movement starting from the academy. But they never spoke about invading or attacking it¡­ Weird¡­"

    He read in the scrolls many ns about invading and attacking this fort, other strong ces away from here. But he never found a single scroll speaking about his academy.

    "Don''t tell me they already consider it in their pockets¡­" William got shocked when he recalled a single person, Rick! "It seems they are moving in both directions, using strength and underhanded methods to take over the strong ces in this world¡­ If that''s true, then¡­"

    His eyes shifted around the map, looking at rare other ces that this grand n missed. "It''s either there are scrolls speaking about attacking these ces, and I didn''t yet find them. Or these folks already got these ces in their pockets, never nning to touch them at all for now¡­"

    The entire scheme of the dark spirit masters in this tiny world started to unveil in front of William''s eyes. He also knew the dark spirit masters weren''t moving alone. They got scary folks like Transformers on their back, not to mention monsters.

    If he added all this up, with the estimated million-man strong army the dark spirit masters were preparing, he knew this world was indeed doomed.

    "Trying to secure a ce in such darkness is a must¡­" William knew he had no power to change and save everyone. But at least he could foil the enemy ns in this region, turning it from a dark spot into a sliver ray of light, a safe haven for himself and his guild in the middle of all this night.

 Chapter 471 The Legendary Storming Sun Training Manual

    Reaching this point made him see this entire map a bit differently. He didn''t just have intel about the enemy''s future ns, but the map showed the main ces they took as the crucial knuckles in such a grand n.

    Taking these knuckles out, and the entire n would fall on its own. William didn''t know that by what he decided today, a grand wave of tsunami would ovep the entire world, with many spirit masters mimicking his actions here.

    He also didn''t know that there was a grand move going on towards the Aspire academy folks. Indeed, the dark spirit mastermunity didn''t initially n to target the academy as he expected. But thanks to the incident he created, and the swarm of fire that erupted from the academyter on, the dark spirit master leaders decided to add this academy to their ns.

    William''s decision at this moment, in the underground cave in the unknown spot in the fort, would change everything. And he, the one who made it, wouldn''t know about that.

    "I have to go and start hunting the scattered dark spirit masters teams," he looked at the map, "and then when I''d add more dots to the map, I''ll use the help of the Lockheart impact and their allies to start a huge counter war. But now¡­ I have to raise my spirit power at all costs¡­"

    William then returned to do his trials about his technique. This time he tried a totally different approach.

    For any spirit master, he''d use training manuals to harness spirit power in the world around. And that was what William was trying to do all this time.

    As spirit masters got different spirit elements, and all the elements were spreading all over the world, then by using training manuals they were gaining ess to such an insane amount of power and absorbing parts of it.

    However, that didn''t mean the level of ess for each element was the same! Spirit elements were just arranged asmon, rare, and precious ones based on their value or percentage of urrence. They also got divided in such a way based on their overall grade in the world.

    That meant there was a huge difference between different spirit elements. And that was something William didn''t realise except for now.

    William decided to take another approach. Instead of doing the normal, struggling to match keys together to gain ess to different spirit elements, he decided to do another thing.

    "Rare elements can''t be found easily in any monster¡­ Butmon elements are¡­" William decided to not only use the help of the world rich spirit power to train, but also depend over the cores of monsters.

    Like spirit masters, every monster got an element inside their spirits. And that was how William gained his three elements before. He was trying to find the right method to train light, lightning, wind and fire spirit elements together.

    He was struggling as the keys for such high andmon grade elements weren''t going well along each other. He seeded before in merging the keys of the light and lightning elements, forming part of his new training manual. After all, both were considered matching elements, and ones of the highest-grade spirit elements in the world.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But when he tried to merge fire and wind with these two, he always failed. And now he realised that the main reason behind this lied in the difference in quality between spirit elements.

    But now he changed all of this. Instead of struggling to do the impossible, he started to do something else. He left the part he seeded before untouched and started to take care of the part rted to fire and wind elements.

    He made a form to absorb monster cores with such elements, make the best use of their element stored in each core, to elevate his spirit power.

    This might look a bitplicated to do, especially when he had to match all this together. But to William, it was much easier to do than to match the keys of all the four elements in one manual.

    "I''ve seeded!" In just less than ten hours, he finally managed to make a new training manual from scratch. Half of it was directed towards absorbing light and lightning elements from the world around, while the other half would enable him to consume cores with fire and wind elements.

    "But I have to use both at the same time, or else I won''t be able to train in it¡­ I have to test it, yet before that¡­ I have to give it a name¡­" he knew he made something cool. And so, he decided to find a good name for it.

    "Lightes from the sun, lightninges from the storm, firees when lightning strikes the ground, and wind will get affected by the sun¡­ So let me call it the Legendary Storming Sun manual!"

    He didn''t miss to n steps for it to make him reach the pinnacle of power in the outer world. And so it got the privilege to be named legendary.

    As he decided on this name, he started to give it a test. And just by muttering the incantation, he felt like a door got unlocked in his spirit and body, with torrents of power swarming him.

    He already selected the cores that got fire and wind elements inside. He got lots of cores to select from and didn''t care about the grade of these.

    He wasn''t going to directly devour these cores and add their inner spirit power to him. Instead, he was going to absorb their elements, deplete them from all the cores, and then turn all this into pure spirit power by the help of his training manual.

    No matter how he looked at it, he knew the amount of spirit power he''d gain wasn''t going to be like directly devouring these cores.

    So he surrounded himself with hundreds of these cores, made sure to divide them equally between fire and wind elements. But the thing he missed in all this was that his fox spirit didn''t have any fire or wind element at all!

 Chapter 472 Weird Things Happening During Training

    He was too absorbed in solving this problem, and when he did he became truly excited to try it out. Missing such a trivial point was expected, and yet this little detail wouldn''t cause any problem at all.

    So when he started training, two weak seeds of these elements started to form into his spirit. As he didn''t absorb a monster spirit directly, he didn''t add any more tails to his two. And so these two elements ovepped over the other three, coating the two tails with two externalyers, one red and one green.

    William was already absorbed in training, sitting cross legged, regting his breaths, and muttering the incantations once in a while. He kept moving his spirit power inside his body ording to the diagram he created, while his spirit kept absorbing light and lightning spirit elements from the world around, fire and wind elements from the cores surrounding him.

    William was closing his eyes. But if he was opening them and watching himself right now, he''d get totally shocked.

    As he sat there, the hundreds of cores he surrounded himself with started to shine brightly in a slow fashion. It looked as if fire was slowly spreading, while torrents of wind were howling from within these cores.

    After two hours of doing so, a faint shadow of a fox with two tails appeared behind him. It appeared gigantic like when he used his spirit, even looking a bit bigger and fiercer.

    Just when it appeared, a swarm of energy enveloped William, rose slowly up and expanded outwards until it covered the entire cave inside with different colours.

    As this happened, William felt more ease at training. But least to his knowledge that the statue that he failed to move before started to slowly shine.

    Its eyes started to slowly open, showing two elliptical crimson red eyes that slowly started to shine brighter with every passing hour. At the same time, the statue started to produce its shadow behind it, a scary fox with five tails, covered up with scales, and had huge wings!

    William was already immersed in his first training session. His senses were locked up and he couldn''t feel anything of what was happening around.

    Weird stuff like these kept happening, even the old message that he read before shed and appeared once more. He kept himself like this for two days straight, before finally all the weird phenomena started to grow fainter, eventually disappeared.

    "Phew! I really made something cool!" William opened his eyes after less than one hour from his and the statue''s fox shadows disappeared. When he exhaled, a long bronze fog emanated from him, like he was breathing air vapour or something.

    He looked around and didn''t see anything unusual. "These cores¡­ They still remained the same but¡­" he didn''t know why his training abruptly ended. But he knew the reason when he examined these cores.

    They looked the same, but they had zero spirit element at all. Their spirit power was the same, and that meant he could do this with monsters he''d killter on.

    "It''s the first time for me to see cores without any element at all¡­" he muttered while closely examining the cores around. "I''ll first use them in training before devouring them," his eyes shed with excitement. Like this, he''d make sure to get the most of any monster core he''d gain from now on with his own des.

    He didn''t know if by doing this he''d gain more spirit power or the same considering that his devour ability turned any core into ash after use. But he''d know after trying thister on.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Time to see how much I gained¡­" After training for all this time, consuming all these cores, he held high hopes to get a decent amount of spirit power.

    "Fifty-two points¡­ Not that much¡­" he tilted his lips, feeling a bit disappointed at first. "But¡­ Such an amount would havee from hundreds of bronze grade cores, or a hundred silver cores¡­ Not bad!"

    This wasn''t the only thing to measure such progress, but the time he spent in gaining such an amount. For any spirit master, training for two days wouldn''t add more than five points at most. And that exined why spirit masters spent months and even years to jump between high ranks.

    William didn''t know how long he kept training, but he was sure he got more than any normal spirit master would. First, he got such a legendary technique that no one here knew about. And second, it was his first-time training in it, and the first time in anything always held the best results.

    That was why he felt little angry when the training ended. He wanted to remain training for as long as it needed, to get the most out of his first training session.

    "It''s time to return¡­" William collected the cores, took a long gaze around, before going towards the circle on the ground.

    He activated his spirit body, and let the wind carry him up there to the surface.

    "What took you so long?!!" Just when he came out from the building, he found his team members standing around the building. He spotted new faces among them, but the one who yelled at him was none other than Sara.

    "Oh, how long did I take in there?" William didn''t know how long he spent there exactly.

    "Two days past due, tsk!" Ibra seemed to be annoyed, "I''ve been standing here, waiting for you, like I''m waiting for the patriarch or something!"

    "I''m more handsome than any patriarch," William winked, and hisment made manyugh while others just smiled, "who are they by the way?"

    William motioned towards the new faces. The ones who arrived here were around sixty, with only six of them belonging to his initial team.

    "We found good spirit masters as you requested," Sara crossed her arms before adding, "they are part of the new recruits. You never told us you are going this big, recruiting thousands of spirit masters under your g!"

    "Thousands?!" even William was taken aback by this number. But when he moved his eyes around, his once empty ce was now filled with lots of new people.

 Chapter 473 Punishment

    "Interesting," William smiled before looking at these six trusted subordinates of his, "did you notice anyone making trouble?"

    "Not yet," Ibraughed, "but from my experience, anywhere you go is going to be filled with lots of trouble sooner orter."

    "Master! Master! Atst, I found you, hahahahaha!"

    Just before William would retort back over such words of Ibra, he heard loud shouts and screamsing from a direction.

    And when he turned to see who wasing, he saw Trevor running like mad from the far distance, waving his arms like he found a straw while drowning or something.

    "Do you know him?" John asked, and William nodded.

    "Just someone who I sent to do something," William paused before a broad smile appeared on his face, "and it seems he really did it."

    "Was it this hard to do?" The ones standing around felt more puzzled but soon enough Trevor appeared. He stopped just a single metre away from William, racing his breaths while panting.

    "Master¡­ Master¡­ I did it! Hahahaha! You asked for a hundred and I brought hundreds! Hahahaha! Trevor is a good boy, right? Trevor deserves a reward, right?"

    "Just stop it right there," Williamughed, taking one spirit gem from his rings and giving it to the stupefied Trevor, "take this as a reward for what you did and what you''ll do."

    "This¡­" Trevor got silenced and petrified in his ce for a moment before jumping literally to grab the spirit gem, "thanks, thanks master. I''ll do anything, anything you ask me."

    "Cool," William grinned when he saw how enthusiastic Trevor was. To him, paying one million spirit crystals was like giving tips, "I want you to do the same, recruit as many as you can."

    "I will recruit until this ce is crowded, hahahaha!" Trevor jumped in the air whileughing, running away to do what William asked for. As for everyone else, they kept looking at themselves, feeling the shock everyone had inside from such extravagant pay William just did.

    "So¡­" William turned finally to those new faces, "what''s special about all of you then?"

    Saying this made these spirit masters feel like they were in an auction, and someone was measuring their value or something.

    "Ahem, they are all silver and gold grade," Sara coughed before adding, "but they are indeed special. All of their elements are rare and unique ones. For example, there areva based, ice based, metal based, and even darkness, light, and lightning-based spirit elements in them."

    "Oh, really?" William''s eyes shone brightly before adding, "Come, let them test their spirits using the crystal way."

    "We already tested them," Berry interfered, "but if you want to do it again then it''s ok."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "That saves me lots of time then," William was d that his unique way in assessing spirit power became a standard in his team. Like this, he didn''t have to exin anything to anyone, "take out your crystals and candles, stand in one line, and start assessing your spirits one by one and let me examine the balls when you are done."

    The fifty something spirit masters stood in one line in the next few minutes, and then a round of assessment started. Just as Sara and Berry said, they all got rare spirit elements.

    But William didn''t find any extremely rare elements like time, space, karma, luck, curse, illusion, dream, and such. That didn''t baffle him, as he already knew it was an exception to find people with such elements in the first ce here in this tiny world, like it was the case at the outer world.

    Even in the outer and vast world, finding such elements was a big hurdle in itself. Entire generations might pass without having a single spirit master with any of these elements.

    "Great," William was satisfied in general by such results, "let''s prepare then. You have ten hours before we''ll go out on an adventure."

    "Are we going to fight?" Sara asked in doubt.

    "You¡­ You never like to stay indoors, right?" Ibra sighed, "let''s go, from my knowledge of you, you are going to do something crazy."

    "Come on! You already made a grave mistake and need little discipline," William rolled his eyes. And when everyone looked at him in a weird way, he exined what they did wrong when they met Ben.

    "Come on! Don''t put it on us like this!" Sara said in annoying tone, "he is a f*cking dark gold spirit master, one at the pinnacle as well! How do you expect us to hide anything off him?"

    "You should have kept your mouth sealed tight," William didn''t see in her argument anything worthy of note, "you told him everything about me!"

    "We¡­ We just said things in general," Ibra paused, "we tried to glorify your image and name, and spoke out of our pure admiration and respect for you. Don''t take it on the kids, they just did it for your sake."

    "That''s why I won''t punish any of you," William already guessed this part before, "but that doesn''t mean you are off the hook! You are going to slightly suffer in the uing adventure and take it as a form of a lesson to not do such a thing again."

    "Tsk! Let''s go guys, he is just a hard boss to deal with," Ibra sighed, while Sara led everyone away while saying these words in disapproval of William''s decision.

    But as he decided, they didn''t have any say at all in any of this. And partially inside everyone''s minds, they knew they really did it bad by spilling out a lot.

    They agreed on what William said, but hoped he''d go easy on them and not simply throw them in front of a monster or dark spirit master army or something.

    William simply smiled and watched them move towards the direction of the gate. He already decided to go out, start killing monsters, assess the new team he got, and test the few sites he learnt about.

 Chapter 474 Checking The Territory

    As for their punishment, thinking about the harsh battles they were going to face was enough to let them not forget this lesson.

    But just before they''d walk for a hundred metres, one of them paused, turned to William and shouted: "What about the old ones?"

    It was Peter who suddenly asked, attracting the attention of the other old five in his team, stopping everyone else in their tracks.

    "Well¡­ All of the silver grade ones will join us¡­" William thought for a moment before adding, "as for the bronze grade ones and lower, let them rest here for now."

    "Ok," Peter moved his eyes towards John, and thetter couldn''t help but show a weird expression on his face.

    Till this moment, John thought that he was going to be taken out from William''s team. After all, he was bronze grade, came from amon background, and didn''t have anything special about him. He didn''t even get a spirit form to begin with!

    But William trusted him. And so, he got this chance of apanying such a scary team out.

    Just as his team finally moved towards the gate, William started to take a tour around his territory, he couldn''t help but admire the effectiveness of the people Remy hired.

    The entire territory was now best described as a ce filled with heaps of dirt and rock. William doubted that anyone would find it easy to dig here. But it seemed the ones Remy hired knew their stuff quite well.

    William didn''t vanish from this ce for seven days. And now he could see lots of buildings starting to take shape, rising slowly from the ground.

    Seeing this made him smile. The number of buildings here wasn''t less than fifty. And just from their initial shape that appeared on top of the ground, William could tell they were going to be massive looking buildings.

    "I see you came out from your shell atst," just as he was walking around, he met Remy and Thomas. The two were supervising over the delivery of a batch of materials and items needed here. And they stood by the side of huge caravans, ten in number, with lots of people moving stuff from inside all of them.

    "I see you started changing my ce," William smiled in response to her words. While Thomas walked to his side in silence. Willima turned to Thomas and added: "Be ready, we are moving out in ten hours at most."

    "Ok," Thomas didn''t say anything, didn''t even ask about what they were going to do. But Remy was different.

    "Where are you going? Don''t you know you are now a celebrity out there?"

    "Who said I can''t walk outside?" William rolled his eyes before recalling something, "send a word to the Lockheart impact. Tell that Panther that he has to give me a week before I''ll go and meet him."

    "Panther? The same scary spirit master from that crazy ce?!" She instantly recognised Panther. And William simply nodded.

    It seemed Panther got a great fame, one that he felt little envious towards. It was better to be called strong and feared for your strength than to be known for being wealthy and rich.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ok," Remy paused, "the Seven Heaven and Blue Hammer folks are already working here. Do you want to check on their progress?"

    "Just bring me the elixirs they made," William paused before taking out batches of gears that startled Remy, "use these to arm up our people. There are ten thousand sets of bronze gears, and another ten thousand silver grade sets."

    "Damn! Are you nning to go to war or something?!!!" Remy couldn''t help but mutter in deep shock. And William simply smiled and said nothing.

    If she considered these to be enough to form an army, then how about the rest of stuff he gained idently and luckily from those dark spirit masters'' rings?

    He decided to spread these gears over his guild members. Like this, he''d use things he got from the dark spirit masters to strengthen his forces without the need for him to pay anything.

    "Just take them," William smiled, "and as you can tell, we are open to recruit tens of thousands of people. So, no matter who applied, just scan them and if they are good, ept them."

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" Remy knew the main problem of having lots of people in any force wasn''t just limited to the scary amount of spirit crystals needed per year. The main problem lied in their supplements, a scary figure of gears, potions, etc. but seeing this made her change her viewpoint of William.

    She thought he hired these two second profession groups to make up for this greatck in gears and supplies. Who knew William just waved an arm, and took out enough gears to arm up twenty thousand spirit master army from head to toe?

    "Do you need any help in the uing war you are going out right now to start?" She asked after storing away all these gears.

    "Who said I''m going to war?"

    "Come on! If you don''t stir up trouble everywhere you go, you won''t be William!" she rolled his eyes, and William couldn''t believe how bad his image was in the eyes of his closest subordinates.

    "Just make everyone stay inside," he paused, "let them train, get to know each other, and form smaller teams. Speaking about teams¡­ Let Roe to the gate in ten hours. Also send someone to buy all the elixirs in the fort."

    "Elixirs? You don''t mean those insanely precious and pricey elixirs, right?"

    "Sure, what else?" Williamughed, "you got enough spirit crystals to do this, right? Also make sure the Refos group will find ways to buy more elixirs from outside the fort."

    "Damn rich folks!" Remy couldn''t help but sigh, while William onlyughed.

    "Also, any elixir made from the Seven Heaven group will be stored aside for me, got it?"

    "I know, I know," she kept shaking off her head before suddenly asking, "what are you going to do now?"

 Chapter 475 [Bonus ] Being A Celebrity Sucks

    "Now? I''m going to take a tour around, eat my lunch, chill out, and do nothing," William raised his arm in the air as he started walking around, "keep up the good work."

    "Damn you! You won''t even step in and help?!!" she shouted from behind, and all she got was longughs before he shouted back:

    "What for? I got you to handle everything! Hahahaha!"

    William moved while doing what he exactly said. He kept watching the new faces that filled up his territory and examined the building sites all over the ce. And then he went to eat his luxury meal before asking the folks from the Golden Fork restaurant to prepare dried up rations to be taken out while adventuring, delivering them to Berry at the gate during the next five hours.

    Then heid on the ground, seemingly enjoying such peace. He was sure this was the peace before a storm, but he never expected the storm to be this grand.

    "So¡­ This is the ne I kept hearing stories about?" As ten hours passed fast, William moved to the gate where he found his new team waiting there.

    In addition to the old six vice leaders, and the five silver grade folks, there were the newly joined fifty-something spirit masters, plus Ro.

    The entire roster exceeded sixty, and they looked ready for the adventure.

    Thomas was there as well, in addition to Remy who gave William the ne and a ring just now. "I got it as well as all the elixirs in the entire fort. You got to know that all the alchemists are dancing wildly in joy, promising to make more elixirs if you want."

    "Make them work for me then."

    "No, they refused!"

    "What a waste of talent!" William sighed. He already went to the ces where folks from Seven Heaven and Blue Hammer groups took as their temporary bases.

    They were excited and enthralled by all the new forms and blueprints William provided for them. Not to mention the tricks he included in all this. William just said some encouraging words and took all the high-grade potions, elixirs, and any gear of gold and silver grades they made.

    As they didn''t work for long, the total amount William got wasn''t much to begin with. Not to mention they failed to produce a single dark gold piece of gear yet. But there was also another factor that brought forth such a result, theck of enough working hands.

    So William thought about roping others from the fort. Yet it seemed this wasn''t going to do.

    "Just try to recruit anyone of these talents, and let them make elixirs for me for now," William said, before turning again towards the ne he held in his right hand.

    It went without saying that this ne was made for women to wear, not men. It was really shining and sparkling with all the little gems it got. It was formed of a very thin thread that was made out of special green ore, with little sparkling gems of crimson red colour.

    Wearing it made William feel awkward at first. But when he hid it under his uniform, directly over his skin, he felt a little better.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "To activate its shield, you have to use your spirit power," Remy added, "and then a shield that surrounds an area of twenty metres will appear."

    "Twenty metres? That''s good," William thought it was just something made just for him.

    "Well, that''s the rough estimate when I asked about someone of your grade using it. If a gold grade or higher one used it, this shield would cover more than one hundred metres!"

    "Give it to me then," Ro was still dreaming about having this ne, stretching her hands out in a shameless way.

    "No way! Stop dreaming!" William rolled his eyes and touched the ce of the ne around his neck and chest, "you won''t even sniff it at all!"

    "Tsk! What a stingy kid you are!" she harrumphed, and William justughed at her insane level of shamelessness.

    "I''m leaving this ce in your hands," William waved his arm to Remy while moving out, "make sure youplete everything by my return."

    "Go out, have fun, and let me rot in here!" she shouted back at him, and he simply smiled and said nothing.

    As they got out of the territory, William finally experienced what being a celebrity meant!

    The moment he got out, he witnessed lots of people already gathering around the territory. They didn''t intend on joining his guild for now it seemed, and yet they were there waiting for anything interesting to happen.

    Then as he walked past them, many started to run and gather around, making it literally impossible to walk in calmness and peace.

    "Ibra, lead a team of ten gold grade spirit masters and keep a clear distance around," William got tired of dealing with all of these curious and excited folks about him. They kept asking weird questions like: Are you single? Is this your girl? Are you really the direct disciple for the legendary fox? And such weird questions which made William not know what to say or do.

    He never heard a question regarding joining his guild or something. The most he heard rted to his force was questions about what even a guild meant.

    William refrained from answering all of these useless questions, and simply let Ibra and others handle the current situation. As the ten of them moved under the leadership of Ibra, things started to cool down a little bit.

    And yet people never stopped gathering around as he walked in the main street. If not for the main gates of this fort lying at the end of these main streets, William would prefer to walk in less crowded and popr streets instead.

    "You are really something now, hahahaha!" Ibra kept saying this from time to time, taking amusement in what William was suffering from.

    "I bet you are enjoying this," from the side, Ro winked while evilly grinning, finding it like a fair price for William to pay in exchange for everything he put her through.

 Chapter 476 Make A Guess!

    As for the one who caused such a storm, William never felt anything at all. If anything, he felt annoyed and not interested in any of this.

    Fame to him was nothing but a way to gather more capable folks around, getting more formidable friends on his side, and getting ess to materials and stuff that normal people wouldn''t easily get.

    So, he walked in the middle of all this circus without showing anything on his face but stern and in look. As they walked like this for hours, they finally managed to arrive at the gate.

    Starting from there, things didn''t improve at all! As they passed from the gate and headed towards the main route down the hill, all the merchants and spirit masters around started to gather like bears surrounding honey.

    Yet this time, the round of questions improved a lot.

    "Are you the one who works for the legendary fox? I also want to join that force of his!"

    "I heard the esteemed fox master promised to open stalls for business. I want to do business with everything and anything produced there!"

    "Please let me join the force of the mighty fox master. I''m a gold grade spirit master and have lots of experience in the business of war!"

    William heard such enthusiastic fruitful questions since he stepped out from the main gate of the fort. And unlike how he dealt with the crazy folks inside the fort, he stopped Ibra and his team from blocking these and stood there for hours answering questions.

    After five more hours, he grew tired from doing this. He kept answering everything and anything thrown at his face. And yet the number of people gathered around and asking the same questions never receded. If anything, they had increased gradually over these hours.

    "Trevor, where the hell are you?" As William saw this wasn''t going to end, he decided to use the help of Trevor and more folks from the guild.

    [I''m at one of the main streets, trying to recruit more to join. Why?]

    "Just throw what you are doing right away. Go back now to my ce, ask Remy to give you a couple hundred people. Make sure they do know everything about my guild and that ce, distribute them to nine teams, and let them stay on the main paths over the hills."

    [This¡­ But that''s outside the fort!]

    "Just do as I say and you''ll thank meter," William rolled his eyes, putting away the Bullet of Trevor after stressing over hurrying up.

    "Let''s go," As he dealt with this troublesome situation, William started picking up speed. During the past five hours, all the distance they crossed in that road wasn''t more than half a kilometre! It was as if they never moved from their spot for the past five hours at all!

    But once William stopped caring about the questions he received, they started to pick up pace fast. In less than one hour, they finally managed to get out from all this craziness.

    "Damn! Remind me to not be famous or something!" one of the new guys said in an annoying and tired tone. While othersughed and chatted with each other about the hectic situation they just faced.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Aside from these, the six oldest members and vice leaders of William''s team gathered around him, with a questioning look over their faces.

    "Just say it, what do you want to know?" William didn''t like their attitude. Comparing this with Thomas, who stood by his side silent and without showing anything at all on his face, made them look a bit annoying. William would pick up Thomas over them at any given time just for this!

    "Well, where are we going?" Ro came fast when she heard William''s words, "and what are we going to do?"

    "Well¡­ Before meeting you here, what did you see me do before?"

    "Fighting¡­ Fighting at the Spar Arena¡­ Is that it?!" She was puzzled, and the look on her face made everyoneugh. "But the Spar Arena is in the fort, not outside!"

    It took even William a second to get over this surprising news. He never expected the fort to have an arena of its own. But then he went over this and startedughing.

    "We are going to y a little with dark spirit masters," William said amidst hisughs, "that''s what you saw me before doing, right?"

    "Damn! You are after trouble then!" she sighed, and that made othersugh again.

    "Any specific direction then?" Ibra rubbed his hands, before taking out his ive, "I want to stretch out my muscles."

    "First let''s arrange things," William paused before adding, "each will lead a team of seven. As before, one team will go and scout, while we''ll march with Ibra and Sara being the main attack teams, Berry will be in the middle, John will handle the retreat route, Lang and Peter will be ready to support any team in trouble¡­"

    "What about you?" William spoke for a few more minutes, took potions, materials for the different arrays plus the array scrolls, and gears. All the gears he got out were gold grade, all were enough to supplement everyone''s needs in the team, enough to give his old and new members a scare on the spot.

    However, William simply got over their shocking reaction, and motioned for them to arm up and distribute these, before continuing his talk about what were they going to do.

    As he said and exined everything, and as everyone started to rece their old gears with the new awesome ones, took part of the potions, and started to study the different arrays William prepared before for the initial team who left with him the academy, Ibra asked.

    "What else?" William scoffed, "I''m going to cover you up, dealing with all the mess you are going to cause."

    "Mean leader," Ibra rolled his eyes, while others shared his viewpoint.

    "Let''s stop fooling around," after giving his team ten minutes to get ready, William took out the map.

    "What the hell did you do with my map?!" Sara got shocked when she saw all these red dots that covered the map.

 Chapter 477 [Bonus ] The Earthen Brown Salamanders

    "Was bored so started to y with it," Williamughed, "now¡­ We are going there. And through the way, we''ll meet lots of dark spirit masters. Our main goal is to capture the rings of anyone we meet."

    "We don''t need to kill them?!" Everyone was surprised when they heard what William said.

    "No, we need first to gather rings, try to capture anyone alive from them. Then we can kill those struggling hard if we get the chance to."

    "What if¡­" Berry paused, recalling her scary grandpa. And William got what she had in mind.

    "At any sign of facing such troublesome folks, we will retreat," William said in a firm way, "we won''t risk fighting anyone that we can''t kill, got it?"

    Everyone didn''t need his firm gaze to not. After all, they got the highest grade to be in gold grade. And that was expected. Even with the lots of spirit masters joining the guild in the past days, those aloof dark gold spirit masters didn''te from their own to join them.

    They might dream about fighting dark gold spirit masters and monsters, but none here wanted to do this right now. They knew they were done for if they faced such a scary foe.

    Seeing their faces struggle and became a little darker made him quite satisfied. This was the proper lesson he wanted to teach them, the punishment for those six to not share his secrets again.

    William was the only one who didn''t feel like that. He got a ne that was enough to protect him and few others from any scary dark gold enemies'' attacks. At the same time, his spirit form and his full powered technique was enough to make him y with any low-grade dark gold spirit enemies, even wounding them before retreating away.

    But he knew if he ever did this, then he''d expose the fact that he was the same scary fox master everyone was speaking and spreading rumours about in the fort. He knew he wouldn''t be able to hide such a fact for long but hoped at least he wouldn''t reveal it just on the first adventure outside.

    By his arrangement, there would be eight different teams, each had eight members each. He made the scout team be led by the same silver member of his old team, Smith. Once everyone got arranged and prepared, William started leading them towards the ce he selected.

    As for Thomas, he joined his team for now.

    William got different intel about the dark spirit masters. He learnt about dark spirit master bases from the fox message and the mysterious dark spirit master who visited him in his dreams.

    On top of that, he also got more detailed intel about the future moves of the dark spirit masters in the region. As he got all these, he selected a spot that wasn''t that close from any main enemy base.

    He wouldn''t go over his head and directly sh with these scary folks at first. Even if he got a way to handle dark gold spirit masters, he wouldn''t seek them out before getting support from the various forces in the fort.

    So, he selected a ce that was around two hundred kilometres away from the fort. It was slightly to the North-West, slightly away from the main trade routes in the area.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He selected this ce for different reasons. It was one of the most bustling areas with red dots on his map. And that meant the enemy had to scatter lots of their forces there, even a few months prior to the uing movements.

    Also, he selected it as it was quite far from the fort. If he selected something close to be safe, he''d end up getting trapped, left with little space to run if things went wrong.

    But like this, even if the enemy had some scary folksing at him, he''d be able to run away with his team in the middle of that vast space around.

    [I found a group of Earth based monsters. They look like this¡­]

    Just in five minutes, Sith sent a message over using the Bullet. And through this Sith started to describe the group of monsters he met.

    "Silver and gold grade Earthen Brown Smanders¡­ Not bad¡­" William recognised the breed of monsters Sith and his team located. "Listen up, just circle around them, and leave them to us."

    [Ok!] Sith already got used to his role as a scout. He kept moving forward in stealth, without asking again to join the battle like before.

    "How many are they?" Everyone heard what William said. And as all knew about Bullets, they didn''t find it weird.

    "Arge group of thousands¡­" William moved his eyes around his team. They were just sixty something, and the first battle they were going to have was against thousands of monsters. "Are you afraid?" he had to ask.

    The ones who apanied him during thest adventure smiled as they knew this was really nothing. As for the new ones, their faces showed how they felt, showed doubt and worry.

    "Just listen to my earlier arrangement. Let''s go, we are going to take these monsters down."

    William was the most excited one among them. He already exhausted all the cores he had before. And now he got lots of gold grade monsters, which was very good news to him.

    He wasing close to the high stage of the bronze grade. His spirit power was now nearing one thousand mark, only five hundred points remaining before bing an official silver grade spirit master.

    Once he stepped into that realm, the value of silver cores would greatly diminish, while the bronze and white cores would lose most of their values by then. All they could do was to replenish his lost spirit power, and that wasn''t a bad thing in his eyes.

    And that wasn''t all! When he''d arrive to the silver grade, he''d be able to use the two-tail form of his fox spirit. And that meant his battling prowess would escte and reach a new height.

 Chapter 478 Fighting Monsters

    William was itching to try out his fox spirit, but he knew he wouldn''t have this chance right now. All he could dream of was for things to go south, and he''d separate from everyone, before fighting freely with all his might.

    Without knowing it, fate decided to guarantee his wish soon enough.

    "Let me take the lead!'''' In less than five minutes, they finally spotted therge group of monsters. They were huge smanders, with each reaching at least two metres in length. They got short limbs, long tails, and brown small scales and protrusions that made them look more like crocodiles than smanders.

    Unlike their weak appearance, they were quite agile, fast, and strong. They could spread toxins as well, not all of them but those special gold grade and higher ranks would do that. They also had the ability to use rock attacks, even form deadly thorns of rocks. So, in brief, they weren''t that easy to handle.

    But as Ibra was impatient and quite itchy to fight, William let him move forward. With a look of his eyes, Sara followed from behind, ready to support him.

    The appearance of their team in front of all these smanders was quite unique. The monsters noticed them already and seemed to not care that much about sending everything towards them. They just sent a little group out, to meet up these crazy humans.

    Two teams moved out, each with eight in their roster, went out to meet with close to a hundred smanders.

    "Get ready," William didn''t even wait till the two sides met, "things are going to get nasty at any moment."

    *Rumble!*

    Just when he said it, the entire ground shook and vibrated, trembling like an earthquake was happening here or something. The next moment, lots of sharp looking thorns of rocks appeared from many ces, even attacking the teams away from Ibra''s and Sara''s.

    William already knew how hard it was to handle the Earth element in these folks. But he didn''t step in to warn the team about the iing attacks in detail. He wanted to see how they''d react when they''d get attacked and hit hard. He also wanted them to struggle a bit, as a form of their punishment.

    And what he saw made him quite satisfied.

    "It''s always great to work with people with a high level of power and rich experience in battles," William muttered as he kept shing around, evading the deadly thorns while taking his sword and knives out.

    Seeing his knives made him crave to craft better versions of these. When he''d reach silver grade, it''d be the time to start using flying swords instead of these small knives. Or perhaps he''d mix the two together, make lots of knives alongside twenty or so flying swords.

    When he thought about this, he got excited! But that didn''t prevent him from starting to work out, smash any rocky thorns that appeared in front of his face, while closely watching the battles that erupted at the forefront.

    "Lang, move out," William saw that Sara and Ibra were struggling a little against the one hundred monsters. The initial attack of thorns disturbed their line up, and that made them unable to fight properly like they nned to.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    So, William didn''t hesitate and ordered Lang to step in. Saying this made Peter move his eyes towards him, asking in silence if it was time for him to join or not. But William just ignored him for now and watched how Lang and his team helped with their techniques to stabilise the situation.

    They came in while getting used to the thorns appearing all over the ce. The smanders didn''t just use these attacks and stopped to watch, they started to press hard over the suicidal spirit masters who came to attack them.

    But the timely arrival of Lang and his team stopped their dangerous attempt to iste Ibra, Sara, and their spirit masters. And at this moment, the value of having higher grade spirit masters in the team showed its value.

    The techniques they used, coupled with the enhanced gold and silver grade weapons and gears, leaving behind a great devastation all over the ce.

    "Scatter in a half kilometre radius," William suddenly shouted, "Peter, move with Berry and draw deeper into these monsters."

    "But¡­" the two turned towards him, seemingly thinking the same thing together. William knew without the need to hear more what they wanted to say.

    They were struggling to handle the one hundred group of monsters. And now William was asking them to go deeper and attract more monsters.

    "Don''t worry, you got me," William smiled, before giving John a slight nod. John had to always stay behind, thinking of the right way to retreat if things went wrong.

    William knew this battle was intense, but it was still doable. He wanted to keep pressuring his team to see what their true abilities were.

    As the two moved with their teams, while Ibra, Lang, and Sara started to spread their formation over, the one hundred monsters started to spread thin over the entire ce.

    Once that happened, the entire tense situation turned magically to be smoother. Everyone didn''t believe that by just adjusting their standing ces, spreading themselves over a wider area, the scary and strong looking smanders turned to be docile and weak.

    Just as they started to kill the monsters at a fast pace, Berry and Peter finally arrived at the smanders at the front, breaking through a few of the one hundred smanders.

    They started to attack, acting each as an edge of a sword. William kept himself away from them by fifty metres, enough distance for him to intercept if things went wrong. And they did!

    Just the initial sh came out of the blue for the monsters. The spirit masters they were easily toying with suddenly spread out, and then two new groups of them appeared, fiercely hitting the main bulk of the monsters.

 Chapter 479 A Shocking Performance

    The first shes resulted in tens of deaths on the monster side. But then things started to shift fast when more monsters moved out to help, with more thorns appearing all over the ce.

    "Retreat for a few hundred metres, drag as many monsters as possible with you towards the centre!" William suddenly shouted, while he started to move to the side.

    Hearing his orders came as a saving straw for those at the forefront.

    As he shouted, they started to run fast behind, while attacking the monsters around to lure away as many as possible.

    Just with this simple shuffle in the lineup, around three hundred monsters ran after Berry and Peter''s teams. And that just came at the time when the other three teams finished what they were doing, killing most of the monsters they were struggling against so far.

    "We are in, what now?" Peter shouted the moment he exceeded three hundred metres. Hundreds of monsters were scarily chasing them, and their current situation didn''t look that great.

    "Keep moving deeper," William shouted, "move for five hundred more metres, then close the circle and kill! All of the teams, even John''s, attack and kill!"

    William shouted while his voice kept getting away from the team. Everyone knew he was pulling away from them. And many of the new ones wrongly got what he was doing here.

    But under the leadership of his trusted vice leaders, everyone started to do as William said. It happened just as William hinted in his words. As Berry and Peter lured the hundreds of monsters away, the entire team members here started to surround them, and began a real massacre.

    "What about other monsters¡­ Forget it!" Just before Sara would continue her rming shout, she saw what was happening out there.

    As she shouted and said such weirdment, everyone got attracted to what was going on back there.

    "Holy sh*t! Is that the true might of our leader?!!"

    "I heard he is just at bronze grade¡­ But damn! Even I, a gold grade spirit master, wouldn''t be able to do one tenth of what he is doing!"

    "He is truly worthy to be the direct disciple of the legendary Master Fox! Let''s go, let''s show him we aren''t weak as well!"

    Just as everyone turned to see what was happening back at the main smander monster big army, they got their scalp numb and eyes popping out from their sockets of what was William doing.

    As they saw it, their leader, the one who the new members mistook for taking safety before anything, sent them over to do the hard task while he leant towards pulling safe distance away, was now fighting like mad demon against the entire army of smanders.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William was just using tactics against these monsters, and also assessing his new team as well. In his eyes, they weren''t half bad, but theycked lots of understanding and solid teamwork. That was expected, as they had just assembled, and this was their first battle.

    So, as he ordered them to lure away part of the monsters and kill them, he took the trouble of stopping the main monster army.

    He got what Sara got, but he realised this from the start. He knew the moment they''d lure such big numbers of monsters away; other monsters wouldn''t stand idle and would draw closer and attack his team.

    The moment he gave the order to Berry and Peter to draw back, he started to move to the side. And when they lured away the monsters, encircled them, and started the killing, he started his task as well.

    He let free of his twenty knives, attacking all the silver grade smanders around without showing mercy. As for the gold grade ones, he drank a few drops of an elixir bottle, and started using his technique in full power.

    He wasn''t in the fox spirit body mode, and so his overall strength wasn''t even close from what he wielded back then. However, it was more than enough to take down the gold monsters, as he got his gold grade sword.

    And that wasn''t all! He always tended to use his shy technique to move around, paying lots of time, effort, attention, and spirit power to evade the deadly attacksing from any gold grade foe before.

    But now? He got his new ne. And just by pushing his spirit power into it, a shield appeared over his body. He found out that by controlling the amount of his spirit power ingested in it, he could control the area of its coverage. He limited it to just a ten-meter radius around himself, spending one percent of his spirit power like this per minute.

    Yet that didn''t matter to him at all. Putting aside the defensive problem that he solved by this ne; he always had a spirit power consumption problem.

    It was always a headache for him to keep his spirit power replenished while bncing the use of his techniques before. But now? He got elixirs on his side. It wasn''t a permanent solution in the long run, but it was just the perfect solution in this battle.

    As he got all his worries and limitations removed, William finally showed a glimpse of his true power to all of his team members. In their eyes, he was like a deadly asura, fighting without any care to anything, killing without even looking back.

    William really had nothing to worry about. Even if he stood still, and let the monsters attack freely, he was out of danger. But he felt it was right to do it this way, to leave a deep impression inside all of his new team members'' spirits.

    And that was truly what happened! Seeing their bronze grade leader show such outstanding performance, everyone started to change their viewpoint about him.

    His old team members just inwardly sigh, feeling like they missed the presence of their mighty leader by their side since they parted ways together. As for the new ones, they felt lucky to get selected and join such a scary team.

 Chapter 480 I Want To Lead A Team!

    "Hurry up there!" William waited for a few minutes for his performance to leave the desired impact, "we are going to kite down these monsters in such a way."

    It wasn''t the first time for him to use such an alien term to his old team members. But for the new ones, they were puzzled until old ones started to exin things over, feeling the power to be a veteran in the team.

    "Ready!" Sara shouted a few minutester. William wasn''t feeling any pressure at all. But he just wanted them to take part in this grand victory.

    Plus, the way he did it made the rest of the monsters here unsettled. They were more focused to rescue their entrapped mates than fighting against him. William didn''t just kill them like a grinding machine, but also kept collecting cores.

    He got lots of silver and gold cores just in the past few minutes. And when Sara shouted, he slowly retreated, "like before, Ibra, Sara, and Lang will handle the monsters and spread out. Berry and Peter will wait for a few minutes before attacking the main bulk of monsters. Then retreat and do the same."

    "Got it!" This shout came from everyone around, as they got pumped up by this smooth and easy to execute tactic. William didn''t really retreat like everyone thought, just went to one side, and kept killing the monsters non-stop.

    This kept repeating for over ten times. With each batch of new monsters getting entrapped, few hundreds would be killed. After close to three hours, they finally managed to kill thest monster here.

    "Phew! I feel like I have never fought before ever in my life!"

    "Fighting like this is fun, not a struggle at all! I can keep up doing this for days even!"

    "Thousands of monsters? Hmph! I never imagined that I''ll attack such grand number and end up winning!"

    As the battle concluded, the new team members started to speak among themselves. They just saw how scary William was, and many couldn''t even believe they pulled such a feat thanks to his simple and yet magically effective tactic.

    Most if not all of them thought that they were going to just try out their luck and then run for their lives. Who knew they''d win in the end, and the monsters would be all killed.

    "Gather the loot, and let''s move out," during all this time, the scout team kept advancing, pulling some distance between them and the main team. William received various intel about other groups of monsters. And he nned to go all out and start killing them all.

    He gathered close to seven hundred cores alone from this battle. As for the materials and other cores, he left them for Berry to handle.

    "Don''t forget you still have lots of materials on you," William said with a wink. And she couldn''t help but shake his head in a helpless way.

    "Being this rich and care about having trivial materials and cores? Tsk!" It was Ro who said this. During all this time, she followed Sara''s team, and frankly put, she got shocked like never before.

    She never expected the kid she once stepped in to rescue would wield and show off such power. Not to mention she could easily tell the difference in his growing strength from back then and now. In her eyes, William wasn''t any lesser than any proper gold grade spirit master, or even stronger.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And that was quite shocking indeed.

    What really took her by surprise was his tactics. She fought in many battles before, like many others in the team. But she never thought highly of any fighting tactic. To her and other spirit masters, such methods were considered pretty damn useless, a cheap way to win.

    But right now, she saw how by adjusting one''s position, shuffling the fighting teams, luring the monsters and encircling them, they ended up killing thousands of monsters without losing a single member of them.

    The most they got was a few wounds here and there, mostly superficial and not serious.

    "When are you going to give me a team?" she said her next piece, "I want to lead one!"

    She used to lead others, not to follow someone else. And seeing the vice leaders leading their teams over the ce, fighting and killing while having fun, made her crave to be one of them.

    "Soon enough," William paused, "when we get more members, I''ll let a few of you be team leaders, ok?"

    "Tsk!" she didn''t like this answer, despite it made perfect sense. The current team was still small,cking in numbers. And so, William couldn''t even appoint her or Thomas as team leaders.

    "But you already appointed a silver master, even bronze ones as a team leader!" she didn''t drop her dream and argued, using Sith, Berry, John, Lang, and Peter as her argument.

    "Girl, if you moved faster and joined me back then, then you might have secured a chance," William rolled his eyes, reminding her of how she dealt with him back then, "besides, do you want to go out there, doing nothing but scout and not fight?"

    "Tsk! I want to lead and fight like them!" she showed a discontent expression over her face, as she motioned towards others.

    "Positions in my team are decided by how much I trust you, not how strong you are."

    "That means¡­ You don''t trust me? Trust any of us?" she waved her arm and seemed to n for trouble.

    "Just as we are fighting out here doesn''t mean we are this close," William simply shrugged, "I don''t trust you, any of you. And this adventure isn''t to do something for me, but to test you, all of you, and see who will continue be with us and who won''t."

    He took a moment there before evilly grinning, "don''t forget thest time we met, you said you don''t want to follow me at all. Why are youining now of not leading a team?"

 Chapter 481 Thomas Is The Cornerstone

    Ro''s face slightly changed, and everyone noticed this. William''s words might have been harsh, a little rude, but he intended for them to be direct and clear. And now everyone got the message. This wasn''t a mission for him and his master, this was a test for them.

    As for Ro, she wanted to blurt back and argue, yet she said nothing in the end.

    "Let''s heal, collect the loot, and move out. There are lots of monsters waiting for us."

    "Like these?" John asked, and William nodded.

    In the next twenty minutes, the entire team dissected and collected cores and various materials from all the monsters killed. During which, they all used healing potions to cure themselves.

    "Let''s move out!" William already contacted Sith, asking him and his team to slow down their advance. He also stressed over for them to spot any dark spirit masters around.

    These folks were usually hard to detect, but William already gave them an array they could use. It''d help anyone to detect any hidden enemies in a fixed area.

    William knew using such an array would be great. However due to the low grade of materials in this world, the arrays wouldn''t show their true prowess thanks to their limited range.

    The most they could cover was just half a kilometre area around anyone. But it was enough for now.

    William didn''t depend entirely on his scout team to spot these dark spirit masters. He depended more on the dark spirit masters to show up once they spotted him.

    His face was known, and he already caused lots of problems for the dark spirit masters. So once getting spotted thanks to all the ruckus of killing monsters here, William was sure these dark spirit masters would spurt out ande for him.

    So, in the next day, and as he took his team around, killing lots of monsters, he kept his vignce high all the time.

    Even with the use of that array, the scout team failed to spot anything unusual. William even made his entire team scatter, cover up a distance of a few kilometres from time to time, scan for the presence of these dark spirit masters as they marched forward.

    And soon enough, and just by the start of the second day, they finally spotted something.

    "There is something out there," William already stressed over his team that once they found anything unusual, they wouldn''t show anything ande to speak in low tone with him.

    Just now, Berry approached him as she added in soft voice, "I felt something flickering out there in the middle of that array."

    "Cool," William knew how his detection array worked. It''d cover up a certain area, then anything hidden inside would show a weird shimmering and change in the air around. It''d appear as if a bubble was there or something.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "What are we going to do?" She and others looked at William in wait and anticipation.

    "Nothing," but unlike what everyone expected, William chose to let those hidden dark spirit masters tag along, "to catch a fish, one has to be patient¡­" he paused, turned around before shouting, "let''s go! There are more monsters out there to kill!"

    He didn''t do anything to this group of dark spirit masters. He wanted them to invite more of their kin. And as he expected, over the course of the next two days, and as they crossed the distance of one hundred kilometres, killing monsters all this time, the number of those weird bubbles kept increasing.

    Instead of one, there were now over fifty of them. William started to act cautious and didn''t let his team scatter around except once every two hours. He wanted to catch more fish but didn''t want to lose anyone on his side.

    During these days, he didn''t just keep killing monsters. He started to absorb any silver cores he got to raise up his spirit power. After three days, and with the help of close to six thousand silver cores, he was so close to breaching the doors of silver rank.

    William didn''t care about the insane number of cores he consumed to get such a rise. As long as he was getting stronger, it meant nothing.

    But the final one-hundred-point stretch was indeed a nightmare! If the silver cores came from low and mid-tier silver monsters, then he''d gain one point for hundreds of cores. Only the high tier silver grade cores would give him one point every dozens of cores devoured.

    Part of William''s desire to postpone the fight with the dark spirit masters was to raise his grade towards the silver rank. And when he felt the increase in the bubble number, he even started madly absorbing thousands of bronze cores.

    Even if they ended up giving him few points, it was helping him to get closer to his goal. However¡­

    "Sigh! I thought I could pull it before this battle, but it seems I can''t¡­"

    The presence of over fifty bubbles meant there were hundreds of dark spirit masters lurking around. And that number was enough to put them under lots of pressure.

    And so, he decided to give them a try, killing anyone he and his team could, and run away if they met any dangerous foe.

    "Listen up," to not arouse any suspicion in these folks, William gathered his vice leaders, Thomas and Ro, "we are going to hit those bastards next. But we are going to use a different tactic¡­"

    William moved his eyes around his trusted circle, while his voice was already low to be a soft whispering, "Thomas is going to be the cornerstone of our entire operation."

    "Me?!!" Thomas was surprised by this. He didn''t do much during the past battles, only worked under William''s lead, attacking and killing monsters with other teams.

    Butpared to Ibra or Sara, or even to Berry, Lang, and Peter, he didn''t do anything that was worthy of note to be appointed highly like this.

 Chapter 482 The Battle Starts With Knives

    Even when William left the leadership of his team over to Thomas. And frankly speaking, their overall help wasn''t that much to begin withpared with other teams.

    But right now, William stated it clear that he''d be the one leading the yet toe battle.

    "You are going to use your thing," William didn''t say much, "and with it, you can see if these groups have others behind that we didn''t discover."

    Thomas got what William wanted him to do, "after that, you''ll keep using your thing all the time, discovering the current whereabouts of other dark spirit masters hiding behind."

    That was part of the reasons behind William''s patience. He wanted more vanguard teams to be here so Thomas would detect much more. William knew if he just depended on his array, then things would be difficult. And if heid in wait for the dark spirit masters to finalise their trap, then things would be more difficult.

    Thomas got what he wanted to do. William wanted him to keep scanning the world around, looking for the hidden dark spirit masters tagging from behind, chasing them in the shadows.

    Once the battle would start, he''d be the one to tell others where to go, and which ces to avoid.

    "But¡­ How are we going to hit them?" Sara paused, "are we going to directly sh with them?"

    "Directly sh? Girl, do you want to see all of us dead or what?!" William rolled his eyes before adding, "we are going to do it in the most ssic way, hit and run."

    "Hit and run?!!" she wasn''t the only one surprised by his words.

    "To be more specific, hit while running," William paused, before adding, "the lineup will change. Ibra and Sara will handle the sides, Peter and Berry will handle our back, stopping these bastards from infiltrating us from the middle. John will be running up front with my team and Thomas. From there, we''ll hear to the orders of Thomas, all of us, as if they areing from me."

    "What about me?" Lang suddenly asked.

    "You are going to be in the middle, helping anyone in need."

    "And you?" Ro raised an eyebrow, "I noticed that you always assign roles for anyone, for everyone except yourself."

    "Leave my role for myself," William paused before stressing over this point again, "no matter what happens, just keep running. Follow the instructions of Thomas all the time."

    "Why do I feel you n to leave us behind again?" Berry could already feel that, like many around.

    "Well¡­ ording to what will happen, we''ll have to adapt, right?" William didn''t give a firm answer, which made Berry more worried.

    "Are we going to head back once separated?" But Ibra took this as a given fact. If William already thought about this possibility, then it was more practical to consider it happening.

    "No," but unlike what everyone here expected, William firmly shook his head, "you''ll keep moving forward. This time, we won''t separate for long. Our target is to bring trouble to those despicable traitors. Running away won''t help in anything but make us look like fools."

    His words meant one thing, William didn''t intend to actually separate and run away from them. He just nned to get separated enough, so he''d use his fox spirit. Then he''d rejoin them and keep harassing the dark spirit masters in the region.

    Like he said it, they didn''te here to hunt monsters, but dark spirit masters. And running away from the first battle was going to make all their ns fail.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William wasn''t worried. Even if he ended up facing a dark gold dark spirit master, he was confident in his ability to survive and run. But that was the most hated scenario he ever wanted to see.

    He just hoped that all the scary dark gold masters would be quite busy, far away from here, or have lots of missions and things on their own to handle.

    Without William knowing it, his wish was going to be granted! And that was for a very good reason, Alfonso!

    "Ready?" William waited for half an hour, as they met a group of monsters. He''d not risk fighting the dark spirit masters with monsters around.

    Once they killed the monsters, imed their loot, and absorbed the cores like usual, William moved his eyes around.

    With everyone nodding, William was the first to pull the fuse of this grand battle. And as he memorised the ces of bubbles scanned and detected by his team during collecting the loot from thest batch of monsters, he started to attack them mercilessly and decisively.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    "Attack!"

    As he controlled his knives, he made the move in a grand circle, cutting through many of the gathered-up clusters of dark spirit masters here. His attack came sudden and fierce, killing lots of spirit masters hidden inside these bubbles and many more started to scream out in pain and agony.

    "Sh*t! They discovered us!"

    "Watch out! These knives can take any silver grade spirit master!"

    "Stop them! Gold masters move out now!"

    "How the hell did he spot us?"

    "No time for this¡­ Attack!"

    Just with William attacking with his knives, lots of bewildered shouts came from many spots around. Before his knives wouldplete the first tour around, his team spurted and attacked, releasing lots of technique towards the hidden dark spirit masters.

    The enemy was indeed taken by surprise. William kept them tagging along for quite long time, enough for them to lower their guards.

    They needed a minute or two to organise themselves. The first to move out were the gold grade masters. And William and his gold grade members in the team were ready to intercept them.

    These gold grade enemies were trying to stop the circling knives. From this, William was sure many of the spirit masters here were at gold grade.

    This meant the enemy already scanned his team''s overall strength, knew there were few gold grade ones there. And that was a fact.

 Chapter 483 Getting Separated

    Out of all the members in the team, the gold members didn''t ount for more than twenty members. The rest were all silver grade. And that made the enemy bring more silver grade masters here.

    "We need to run!" Just as the team was doing great, taking the full advantage of hitting the enemy first, Thomas'' shout came to startle all of them.

    Without any speck of hesitation, William shouted back: "Lead the way! Let''s go!"

    Many held deep regret about leaving such an easy battle and walking away. They got the upper hand, and just killed lots of dark spirit masters in the past couple of minutes.

    But they didn''t see what Thomas saw. In thetter''s eyes, the world around was filled with many silver dots and lines.

    It was just as William guessed, Thomas could see the links between the dark spirit masters around and the ones hiding far away.

    In his eyes, the entire world was dyed silver out of the immense and densely packed enemy forces out there. He even spotted many ring stars, meaning the number of dark spirit masters groups out there was in hundreds at least!

    So he never hesitated to shout at the rest of the team, selected a direction where the least gathering of silver dots was, and ran towards it.

    "Follow him!" William shouted, "run in tight formation!"

    "Attack!"

    "Don''t let them run away!"

    Just as William and his team started to run after Thomas, the shouts of the surrounding dark spirit masters came in viciousness and hatred.

    William didn''t just leave without collecting the rings from the ones who showed themselves. Be dead or wounded, he didn''t spare any, kept shing all over the ce using his technique.

    "Tell me, how is it?" and then he shed back to where Thomas was, and asked. At the same time, and as the team was running after Thomas, they had to fight the increasingly showing up dark spirit masters.

    Sounds of fierce techniques and attacks came alongside heart curdling screams. All of this merged together to form the perfect music behind this battle, while the voice of Thomas came in deep tone: "It''s quite bad!"

    "Did you spot any ring dots out there?" William knew it was bad even before he started this fight. The enemies took their time to surround them, had enough time to call for reinforcements. But William didn''t feel any worry at all. If he felt anything at this moment, then it would be pure excitement.

    "There, there, there¡­" Thomas already got used to his master''s way of doing things. Besides, he was the only person here who knew about William''s secret.

    Without the need to ask, he knew William nned to take out the strong strongholds of the enemy around using his spirit form.

    So he kept pointing out towards different directions, counting at least fifty, using his special talent to help William identify his next targets.

    "Great," William paused, "take them down this path, then turn right after crossing five kilometres."

    "This¡­" Thomas was surprised by this, "there are at least five strong stars there, meaning that¡­"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I know," William knew what Thomas was worried about. But from his master''s calm look, he knew the fate of these enemies was already sealed, "just buy me at least two hours, if not more."

    "I''ll buy you ten!"

    "No, don''t stall for that long," William rolled his eyes, "I''m not a turtle!"

    Thomas didn''t know how William could be in such a situation, surrounded by tons of enemies, and still had the cool to even joke around like this.

    "Keep following Thomas," William then dashed, moving towards a certain direction, away from his team, "we''ll meet up in a few hours¡­ Don''t stray out of my arrangements and orders, got it?"

    "William!" Berry screamed on the top of her lungs, as she saw her man throw himself towards a dense group of a hundred spirit masters or so.

    The attacksnded like fireworks, blocking the entire ground and sky in front of him. And when she feared the worst, William walked through all these without having any problems at all.

    "Don''t worry about him," Ro from the side sighed, "he got that ne¡­ He will be fine even if a dark gold enemy attacked him."

    She was right. William was already pushing his spirit power into his ne. At the same time, he held a bottle of elixir, and started gulping its content in one go.

    The moment he went into the middle of the enemies at that side, a true massacre urred!

    William already showed his prowess against monsters. But watching him repeat the same unimaginable feat against dark spirit masters had a different taste.

    He released his knives to work their way through any enemy around. As for those gold grade ones, they were able to stop these knives. And that just announced to William their locations.

    Without even hesitating, the moment any gold grade master announced his presence, William shed and dashed towards him, using his sword to take him down.

    One hit, and one enemy would fall. Alongside the swirling and floating knives, and when William turned them to move in a big circle around him, a true grinding machine appeared in this ce.

    "Get him!"

    "Don''t get close! Stay away from these damn knives!"

    "Gold masters, move forward and stop him!"

    Different shouts came in torrents, but no matter how they tried, William never stopped, neither his killing spree did decrease at all.

    Slowly, he kept moving towards the closest ce densely packed with dark spirit masters. He already stored the data Thomas told him about in his mind. And all he hoped was for these spots tock any dark gold spirit masters.

    At the same time, his team kept moving forward, increasing the distance between him and them. When he took a look back after ten minutes, he felt relieved to see them away from his sight, not seen anywhere at all.

 Chapter 484 The Fox Is Here!

    All William could see was densely packed trees, with lots of silhouettes shing through them, trying to attack him.

    His situation wasn''t that great actually. He was already walking in the middle of thick waves of dark spirit masters. Every now and then, more enemies would flood there, recing the ones he already killed.

    He didn''t miss his chance to grab any ring from all the enemies he crossed paths with so far. But now he had to really struggle to march a single metre forward!

    "Time to up the game then," William knew if this kept up, he''d end up being entrapped in such a dense sea of enemies. So, he had to start using his biggest weapon, his fox spirit.

    *Roar!*

    Just in a sh, his body swelled up, erged to reach ten metres in height. His one tail kept flickering right and left, while white air got out from his slightly opened mouth.

    And with his sudden appearance, a low roar came to stop all the enemies around. No, they didn''t stop, they got instantly petrified.

    "Thanks for standing there and waiting for ughter!" William wasn''t that merciful to let them have this moment without interruption. The next moment he threw his sword high, grabbed it with his tail, gulped the rest of the elixir he held in hand, before starting the real massacre here.

    Before showing his fox form, William simply had to use his knives to take down silver masters and his sword to take down gold masters one by one.

    But now? He simply waved his tail, dashed for a hundred metres, and then a hundred metre crater appeared with a fierce explosion.

    A single attack was all it took, and he killed close to a hundred enemies. Be it silver or gold grade dark spirit masters, nothing really mattered in front of him.

    "This¡­"

    "What the hell is going on here?!!!"

    "This fox¡­ This might¡­ It''s¡­"

    "Damn me! What the hell made that scary mastere here?!!!"

    "Is this a joke? Tell me it''s a joke!"

    "No, it''s a dream! No, it''s a nightmare!!"

    Just as William dashed for a few times spreading death like it was Christmas, the dark spirit masters around started to break free of this spell. Yet they couldn''t believe what was going on here.

    "That old fox¡­ He really got a great reputation, hahahaha!" William heard all of this and couldn''t help butugh uncontrobly.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    In this form, he felt invincible, truly unstoppable! And without even waiting for his enemies to wake fully up, he kept dashing and releasing part of his technique''s scary destructive power.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Just before the enemies would break free from this spell, they ended up getting killed! And the newly arrived ones got the same kind of shock when they arrived in front of William.

    Thetter didn''t keep his tail or sword, didn''t stop even his knives at all. In this form, even his knives got a boost, became able to take down gold grade masters, the ones they struggled against before.

    William finally noticed the newyers that formed around the knives. Before this, the knives would just sh, leaving behind a silver trail. But now? They left a red and green trail. And for a reason, William felt they didn''t just get stronger but also faster.

    He didn''t have time to check over such a weird phenomenon, which was rted to his newly acquired fire and wind elements. He got tons of enemies flooding here, lots of rings to collect, and big gatherings of the enemies to clear.

    Once he started to crush the enemies in such ease, he ditched anything else and focused mainly on heading towards the first big gathering of dark spirit masters.

    His path was easy, filled with lots of screams and agonising cries, tons of dead bodies, and lots of craters and deep holes.

    He kept using his technique without any hindrance, noticing that by his rise in spirit power all this time, he could now sustain doing more of these attacks per one elixir bottle.

    "If I keep going this way, then I can release hundreds of partially strong techniques of mine against the grand enemies¡­ As for the full-strength technique, I hope it can satisfy four per bottle."

    He knew using the elixirs to supplement his lost spirit power was brilliant for his normal technique attacks. But for the full powered one, he''d have to struggle sooner orter with the problem ofcking elixirs.

    He got tons of potions, from the rings, but no elixirs at all. The only source he had for his elixirs was by either making or buying them.

    Each full powered attack of his technique was enough to handle a low up to mid tiered dark gold masters. And that meant he got a limited quota in his hand, one that kept decreasing with more bottles of elixirs he consumed.

    "I have to try the normal potions," he decided to stop wasting his elixirs over his normal technique attacks, "I got a shitload of potions that can help in recovering part of my spirit power. Of course, it''s not like using elixirs, it will always keep me checking my spirit power, but it''s better than throwing away the precious elixirs like this¡­"

    He started to test using potions instead of elixirs. And just like he expected, each potion was enough to sustain his normal technique consumption rate. But they weren''t enough to sustain more than five times replenishing his spirit power fully.

    He gulped one potion as a whole and checked his spirit power. He felt it constantly increasing for ten attacks, then nothing would happen.

    "Hmm¡­ At least I can use these potions," he sighed while trying to console himself. Just ten attacks were nothing much, didn''t take even a minute for him to do. And that made his left hand always working, throwing potions one after another in his mouth.

    "I''m finally here," it didn''t take him more than twenty minutes to finally arrive at the first enemy gathering.

 Chapter 485 His First Dark Gold Kill

    During this time, the enemy seemed to sniff what was going on here and stopped sending more sheep for him to ughter.

    But that didn''t mean he didn''t meet any enemy at all. "This is really interesting!" just as he arrived there, he found at least a thousand dark spirit masters gathered up, waiting for him, "they didn''t send more fodders and gathered them in one ce¡­ It''s indeed effective¡­ But not against me."

    William knew his ne was like his most valuable asset right now. He was fighting this carefree thanks to the perfect protective shield he got. If not for it, he''d have spent ten times more the effort to just do half of what he just did.

    But this also came on a premise¡­ The more attacks the ne shielded, the more spirit power it consumed. He didn''t have time to check it thoroughly, but he estimated this when he was fighting the enemies crazily. When he activated his spirit body and fought the enemies, almost half of his spirit power consumption came from this ne alone.

    As he saw just a grand gathering here, he knew the consumption rate was going to skyrocket!

    But he didn''t care. He stopped using potions, took one elixir out and emptied its content in his mouth. Then he started to use his technique freely without any worry.

    "I''m going to kill you!" Just as hended a few devastational hits at the grand gathering here, leaving behind many craters and holes, killing and wounding lots of them, one single shout came to startle him.

    In the middle of all this, it was clear that any spirit master of gold grade and below wasn''t an enemy for William. So, when that dude shouted and moved towards him, and without the need to even check the true power of the iing enemy, William knew he was going to fight a dark gold master.

    As he knew that, he started to charge up his technique in full cylinders. He started jumping hundreds of metres in session, without releasing any stacked attack on his sword.

    He just kept jumping from one point to another, buying himself little time while that dude was already tracking and chasing him like crazy.

    At the same time, all of the enemies around were attacking him nonstop. The moment William switched gears and went to charge up his full powered technique, he didn''t attack a single time using his deadly technique. He only limited his attacks to his knives, and those could be easily countered by any of the many gold dark masters here. And that made everyone around try to take a bite off him.

    Yet his ne proved that it was worth more than its weight in gold at this moment. No matter who attacked, even the one crazily chasing after him, his ne kept him safe, without even suffering a single harm.

    That came of course on the cost of raising his spirit power consumption. But as he was using an entire elixir bottle right now, it meant nothing at all.

    "Enough," William just shed for fifteen times, stacking fifteen attacks on his sword. He never tried to go to such a limit before, but this wasn''t the fort, this was the forest, this was the open world.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He was alone, and he had to do all that he could to take that annoying enemy down. Just during the past minutes, he jumped around this ce, and just this dude kept shouting and running after him.

    That told William that in each grand gathering of the enemy forces, at least here, there was just a single dark gold dark spirit master leading everyone.

    If that was the case, then William had to just attack that dude and severely wound him. Or better, if he managed to stack such attacks more than once, then these scary folks would be done for.

    "I hope you are ready to meet your maker!" that dark gold master didn''t realise how bad his current situation was.

    "I hope the same to you," William suddenly changed his direction abruptly, moving towards the iing dude for the first time since this fervent chase.

    The two raised their swords high in the air, and then released their deadly attacks over one another. A grand ball of energy appeared, expanding fast to cover up arge number of dark spirit masters around in no time.

    It was bright white and red in colour, and then it exploded. A fierce explosion erupted, releasing tons of dirt and rocks in the air. At the same time, loud heart curdling screams echoed,ing from the lots of dark spirit masters who got engulfed in the middle of this explosion aftermath.

    The explosion was so fierce that it forced almost half of the masters here to the ground, pushing them back, even sending many flying in the air.

    In the middle of all this, a very deep hole appeared. People had to go to the edge to see what was inside. And in there, William stood like a statue, tall and looking quite scary with all the blood that covered up his majestic fox body.

    He wasn''t the one who bled, but this blood all came from the one who just shed with him. On the ground, just ten metres away or so, a weak silhouette of that dark gold master was there, kneeling on the ground, with one arm and leg missing, a deep wound over the side of his belly and chest.

    William knew that shing the two techniques against each other was going to take lots of his scary technique''s power. So, he had to ce lots of trust in his ne to stop this dude''s attack, dying his sword for a few seconds, before releasing death over his foe.

    The end conclusion was something that he always hoped for. "Like how Ibra would say in such a situation, tsk! You are just at the early stage of the dark gold grade, and you dare toe at me? Humph! What a lousy loser you are."

 Chapter 486 Changing Tactics

    "You¡­ You won''t have a single moment of rest¡­ My people will avenge me¡­"

    "Shut up!" William waved his tail, and this time he didn''t need to arm his technique up or anything. He simply used the power of his technique while dashing for ten metres only.

    His enemy got such gruesome wounds and wasn''t even able to raise his head or lift a weapon. So, it was expected for William''s sword to hit his mark, cleave that enemy''s body in half horizontally, starting the hit from the deep wound on his chest.

    "I hate those talkative losers! You lose and that''s the end of it! Why make a scene out of such a trivial matter?" William tilted his lips upwards, showing a broad smile and happy expression over his face despite his words.

    This¡­ This was his first kill of a dark gold spirit master ever sinceing back in time. And when he just thought back, he realised that he didn''t stay here in this world for a couple of months, and he managed to reach such a scary stage in such a short time.

    It was indeed a remarkable feat. But William didn''t let it get into his head. He knew a great part of his insane aplishment came from his gears and elixirs. He didn''t get to such a stage purely depending on his spirit power and technique.

    "At least I touched the scary stage at such an early time¡­ And it''s something amazing regardless¡­" William thought back towards the elder he once met at the library, the one who kept speaking with him about how useless gears and potions were.

    If he listened to that master''s words before, then he''d have not reached such a stage at this point. That was the difference between him and other spirit masters, the value of experience that he brought with him from his past life.

    "Time to end it here," William jumped up the hole after clearing and collecting all the loot from this dude. He was a dark gold grade spirit master, and William expected nothing less than a grand harvest from his rings.

    He didn''t get just one ring, but five. Not to mention the sword, the gears he got. So, William was in a very great mood right now.

    "Oh, this explosion did help me a lot," William reached the surface to get weed with a scary scene waiting for him. The devastation that happened was less to be described as great. Almost half of the dark spirit masters here got killed, while the other half got severely wounded.

    William didn''t show any mercy towards them. He still got lots of power inside, with the help of what remained from his elixir.

    He didn''t hold back anymore and started to sh and hit all the enemies around, killing the rest of them.

    He didn''t take more than ten minutes to do so. Then he cleared the ce, collected tons of rings and gears, before starting to move towards the next target.

    "They didn''t send anyone, despite those gold and higher-grade enemies having the spirit sense on their side¡­ That means they saw what I did, and I shall expect little change in their tactics¡­"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William knew thisck of finding new enemies flooding here had a good reason behind it. If it was him, he''d change the overall tactic and arrangement of the enemy forces. And that made him more prepared for what yet toe.

    "But this battle told me that I was doing it wrong," William thought back towards that sh he got with the scary dark gold master, "I should aim to fight against these strong folks early on¡­ If so, then¡­"

    William knew the enemy changed their tactics to deal with him, and so he decided to do the same. He saw it was pointless to waste lots of time killing the flies while there was a better way to do it.

    Just recalling the scary aftermath of that sh made him crave to start with such a sh from the start. And to do so, he had to change a little thing first.

    William didn''t hurry to do what he intended. He first went towards the next spot where he was supposed to meet up with new enemies.

    "It''s as I expected, fantastic!" but against what he had to find, he found nothing there. And that just came to confirm his earlier guesses, "the leaders of this grand army here are really smart."

    He didn''t feel any worry or disappointment, simply went towards the next ces he got in his mind. He found no one there at the next five ces, and until he went to the sixth ce, he didn''t even meet a single monster or dark spirit master at all.

    "Finally found you!" William''s eyes shone brightly when he spotted the grand gathering of enemies waiting for him.

    "You won''t leave here alive!" Just before he''de closer, seven shadows appeared, flickering in the darkness spreading all over the forest, heading towards him.

    "Three snakes, two worms, one scorpion, and one little damn wolf¡­ What a nice collection of rare spirits this is¡­" William didn''t get startled at all by seeing the seven of them.

    He knew they were dark gold masters, and they came here for him. If he was in the enemy''s shoes, he''d simply shuffle and group the scattered forces around. If a single dark gold master wasn''t enough to take him down, then using five or more would be enough.

    That was why William didn''t intend to attack the fodders and weak flies scattered all over the ce from the start. If he did that, he''d give his enemies enough time to surround and attack him.

    He had one simple task, to take down the leaders of this grand army of dark spirit masters. As for the mere flies and fodders, he''d find lots of timeter to clear them.

    Not to mention the loot in any of these leaders'' rings was enough to rival the loot from tons of ringsing from mere fodders.

 Chapter 487 The Special Black Scorpion Spirit

    That was why William stuck to searching for the grand gatherings of his enemies, even when he didn''t find anyone at the previous six spots.

    He stood in his ce watching the iing seven dark gold dark masters with a calm look over his face. He wasn''t feeling overconfident in killing them, but he was considering how to do it in the least losses possible.

    His ne was indeed working against dark spirit masters, especially those at the weak early stage of this grade. However, that would also deplete his spirit power like crazy.

    If he let them do what they wanted, they''d end up wasting more than three elixirs just to take these foes down. The thought of losing this battle didn''t even sh in his mind at all, and all he thought about was how to better control his spirit power consumption, limit the use of his elixirs to the lowest minimum.

    That was why he also did like what the enemies here did, altered his fighting way, not directly heading towards his enemies, not wasting his time or spirit power over the weak flies.

    He ignored the seven, and just kept shing for hundreds of metres around, stacking his attacks, until he finally stored twenty-five of them.

    "If you are a man, I dare you to stop and face us directly!"

    "Running like a pussy once you saw us? And you dare to call yourself a spirit master? Hahahaha! What a great man you are!"

    As he kept shing around, storing up attacks over his sword, the seven chasing after him didn''t stop their attempts to taunt him like this. But no matter what they said, he didn''t retort back at all.

    In his eyes, he found it pointless to exchange even a single word with dead men. Once he charged up his technique to such a scary stage, William turned around. And without saying a single word, he moved directly towards them.

    "Let''s take him down!"

    "Lockas, we are depending on you!"

    "Leave him to me!"

    The one who called Lockas moved further ahead, seemingly the one who was going to stop William''s iing charge. He was the one with a scorpion spirit, and William got a glimpse of what they nned to do.

    Scorpions were very fierce spirits, hard to fight against. People might think they were hard to deal with thanks to their tail, or poison. But the truth was they were this deadly and hard to deal with thanks to the darkness element they got.

    Using their tails, they could release thick bellows of darkness fog that could either bind one''s movements or seal one''s senses.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William knew his ne would protect him from any physical damage. But against such a special form of damage, he doubted it could really work.

    And yet he never paused for a single moment at all. He knew what his enemy''s n was, knew what kind of weapon they were going to use, and he also knew how to counter it.

    That scorpion was going to release a ck fountain of fog, and the only way to counter it was to directly face it with the right element. And it happened that William got not only one, but two elements which could hit this darkness fog at the deadly spot.

    "I can''t waste my stored-up attacks..." Just when the two got closer from each other, William noticed the rest of the dark gold enemies started to disperse and pull a distance from him. They seemed to see through what wasing, as they saw what happened to that dead dude from before.

    So they made sure to pull a safe distance of a few hundred metres between them and William. That meant if William released his stacked attack, he wouldn''t be able to take more than one foe down. And he didn''t want to see that happen.

    He could deal with this scorpion dark master, dealing a heavy blow to him. But he was sure the other six were ready to release torrents of deadly attack towards him the instant he''d deplete his stored attacks.

    He wasn''t worried to get wounded, but he knew his ne wouldn''t negate the physical pushing force of their attacks. And that meant he''d end up getting thrown in the air, getting separated from that scorpion dude, not able to finish him off.

    If he didn''t follow his attack with another to finish up this dude, he''d end up losing what he umted. Not to mention that dude would heal himself using potions or perhaps elixirs.

    And so he had to do it the right way, or else he''d end up in a closed loop fight where he''d end up being the big loser. After all, he was exhausting his spirit power from his limited elixirs, not like these freaks who were having a huge amount of spirit power to begin with.

    Getting himself trapped in a battle of spirit power attrition was the end for him. And so he aimed towards breaking all this from the start, aiming to take not only this dude down, but all the seven enemies here in one big move.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    "Who said I got just my sword to use elements with?" William evilly grinned when that scorpion arched its tail and sprayed the ck fountain fog he expected.

    At the same moment, he brought out his knives, infused his lightning and light elements inside, and controlled them to fly in a vertical circle just ten metres ahead of him.

    At the same time, he also made sure to expand the shield of the ne to cover him inside a dome of fifty metres at least. He increased the amount of spirit power consumed this way, but he made sure he was going to not get backstabbed by any of those scary folks in the middle of dealing with this troublesome scorpion.

    "Die!" As William expected, the moment the ck fountain appeared and enveloped him, the other six shouted and shed like crazy towards him.

 Chapter 488 The Wrong Move From Lockas

    William was already covered up with that fog. And in their eyes, he was suffering from a slowdown effect from it. Plus, his vision started to get affected, and gradually he started to see nothing at all of the outside world.

    Darkness might be considered their strongest ally, but at this moment it turned to be their deadly foe. The dark fog blocked their vision totally, and also senses. So they didn''t get what was happening to William, and only could imagine it.

    And what they imagined was wrong! William simply let his knives rotate around him when he got engulfed with all the ck fog, to prevent a single speck of it from falling down on him.

    And so he got rid of all the negative effects he suffered, restoring his fast speed and reflexes. As for his vision, it didn''t enhance anything as the fog was pitch ck, masking anything and everything outside.

    It was indeed quite hard to do so, and he had to let his knives fly closer to him, just one metre away. Not only that, but he also had to control them to fly up and down, forming a little silver dome that kept flickering with white and silver lights from time to time, stopping and detoxifying the darkness fog around.

    Like this, he kept himself safe for now from getting impacted by this fog.

    The only one who could see through all this was the man who released this fog. As he watched using his connection with his technique, he got scared and petrified by what William was doing.

    He was a veteran dark spirit master, one who fought in hundreds, even thousands of battles before. Even against the strongest folks in the base he came from, no one ever managed to stop his fountain of fog once they got enveloped inside.

    The only way to evade this attack was by running away and not getting hit by it. So, when William got covered up with that fog, it was expected how everyone else thought about his end.

    "No! Run! Run away!"

    *Rumble!*

    William had to struggle to contain his stacked-up attacks, waiting enough for the enemies around to gather up. Hecked any spirit sense, any vision through this dense fog to tell if they came closer or not.

    But the moment the one who had the scorpion spirit shouted in such distress, William knew he got seen through. And without any more hesitation, he pointed his tail holding the sword towards the direction the voice came from, before dashing forward, and released his attack blindly without even waiting to see anything.

    With his hit, the entire world rumbled, while a shockingly bright ball of light emanated next, destroying all darkness around.

    The shout from that master came a bitte. His fellowrades were all dark gold grade, and they got insane speed to begin with.

    So just when he shouted, they were already up to William''s spot, waving their different weapons and nning to take him down. They decided to strike all the area covered in this fog from all angles. But when that shout came, they paused, and didn''t even release any attack.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He wanted to warn them that William wasn''t affected in the slightest, but ended up stumbling in their actions, and guiding William to release his attack.

    "Sh*t! Agh!"

    "You are an abomination... Ah!"

    "I''ll see you in hell, bastard! Ah!"

    Just a single moment separated between their life and death. If that fellow master of them didn''t shout in warning at thest minute, they''d have released their attacks fully. And that would have helped them in absorbing part of the scary power in William''s attack.

    Even if William didn''t get affected, and was using his full power at the moment, they would stillnd a few hits on him. Even if he got that ne, he''d end up with nothing else but getting thrown in the air while his attack would fail.

    They''d have to restart all this again, reform the trap once more. But at least they''d have kept their heads over their shoulders, not going to die like how it was going to happen in the next minute!

    Thanks to that scorpion dark master''s messing things up, none of that happened. And in the end, a much fiercer attacknded, engulfing all of them. Even trying to run away, use any defensive technique, or even throwing away gears to support them didn''t work. The ball of light kept expanding fast, before finally exploding.

    This time, it took a few minutes for the entire world around William to cool down. When he looked, he found a much deeper and a lot bigger hole there, with him and seven other bodies in the heart of it.

    These seven were all having severe wounds, lying on the ground, with one even having half of his body inserted in the ground as if someone dug a grave for him there and didn''t finish the task.

    "Thanks for your contribution," William evilly grinned. And without waiting for any of them to say anything else, he shed and kept hitting those at the severe wounds they got.

    Heads rolled in the sky, halves of their bodies also followed as well. William didn''t show a single mercy to any of them, didn''t risk for anyone to have anything to protect and save their lives at thest moments of death. And so he moved, hit them where it''d be deadly.

    Then he collected the rings, gears, and shed out there to the surface. "It''s indeed quite better to hit these hard nuts first," William evilly grinned when he saw the aftermath caused by his technique.

    It just killed one third, wounding another third, clearing a huge area here off trees and enemies. It might seem like it got a weaker impact than the previous attack heunched before. But when putting into mind that this gathering was made by joint forces of seven big groups, it was indeed amazing.

 Chapter 489 Lets Run!

    William didn''t even give them a minute to breath, started to sh around, while killing those who were still standing. Few tried to rally others up, and many tried to fight back, and all failed.

    Nothing could stop William now. And all they could hope for was to run and outrun this scary enemy.  However, that didn''t end up quite well for any of them. With William having such scary moving technique, a very capable ne, and many elixirs on his side, none could ever run away from him.

    "I have to put a stall for all the rings I have," William had thousands of rings by now. And he knew having all of them like this wasn''t to help him at all.

    He nned to really sell them once he got everything out of them. "Time to close the," William took his time ying with other gatherings of dark spirit masters, fighting and killing all the dark gold ones of them in the process.

    He killed thousands of the dark spirit masters, mostly getting caught in the middle of the scary explosions of his stacked-up technique. He was now consuming one elixir for two of such scary attacks, and he had consumed three elixir bottles so far.

    The highest gathering of dark gold masters he ever met was formed of ten of them. For a reason, he found at least one scorpion spirit in the middle of any gathering of them. And in that ten gathering of dark gold masters, he even found two.

    Taking this group down took him two entire elixirs, wasting four of his deadly attacks and close to one hour to deal with them.

    "Where are you?" When he killed enough to forty something of these dark gold spirit masters, he took out his Bullet and spoke with Sara.

    [We are near the spot you marked before]

    "Hang in there, I''ming," William knew he got two or three more of such gatherings before he''d end from all of the enemies here. But he knew he wasted a lot of time dealing with them. So, he decided to go and take over the rest with the help of his team.

    He cancelled his spirit form and returned to his normal and weak looking form. William met a few scattered and weak enemies on the way to the spot of the gathering with his team. And those who met ended up quite bad.

    "You are finally here¡­ The entire forest was rumbling with explosions¡­" Sara said, while many in the team gave William a weird look.

    The team got gold grade masters, and they were using their senses all the time. When the explosions fell, they all saw what happened. And like the enemy, the amount of shock and fear in their spirits was limitless.

    William noticed such a change in their looks to him, and never cared for a second about what they saw.

    "Don''t mind these," William simply said, making the rest of the team a bit startled, "let''s go, there are few of the enemies gathered around right now."

    "Yes, I saw their numbers decreasing fast," Thomas paused, "but¡­"

    "But what?"

    "The enemies that we were supposed to fight here all moved," Thomas paused, "they seem to fear something, or someone. And so they are regrouping."

    Thomas'' tone and eyes told William that this youth already knew what happened. He didn''t need to use his spirit sense to know what William did. And as he was always busy using his special technique to help the team, he didn''t have the power to divert his attention and watch.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But he saw William''s bright star moving among the forest, visiting the enemies'' dense stars, before these stars would die down.

    "They are grouped in two or three spots, right?" William already expected this. But what Thomas said came as a surprise for him.

    "No, they are grouped in one big spot," Thomas sighed, "I estimate they have thousands, even ten thousand there."

    "This¡­"

    Even the ones who saw the scary miracle William did got feared by such a grand gathering here. William didn''t expect less than that gathering actually. After all, he spent much time dealing with other dark master forces in the area.

    It was enough for the remaining leaders to regroup, gather all they could salvage from the scattered forces around, forming a huge army like this. And he knew alone, he wasn''t going to take down all of them without paying lots of his elixirs.

    "Let''s go to another ce then," William suddenly decided.

    "To the fort?" Ro was also scared by what she saw. And that made her regret getting on the bad records of William.

    Even if many of the members here learnt about his secret, none dared to speak up or say anything. They saw him taking down all the dark gold spirit masters he fought against. Not to mention they easily linked what William did here and what happened back there at the front gate of the Fox territory.

    And that made them fear William truly for the first time ever! They just joined the guild, came with William out, for a chance to impress that proimed legendary Fox master of the guild.

    Who knew the same master they all feared and respected was the same weak looking, bronze grade kid.

    "No, we are going to keep bringing trouble to them," William didn''t want to retreat, not yet. He just started the big war, and he wouldn''t flinch back from taking down more of these dark spirit masters.

    "Let''s go," he looked at Thomas, "lead the way, take us to a ce with lots of monsters."

    "How can¡­"

    "Just select a ce with lots of scattered stars," William interrupted Thomas, "not standing in groups, but scattered all over the ce. Got it?"

    "..."

    Thomas just nodded, while starting to lead everyone away. Their current moves didn''t escape unnoticed from the senses of the gold and dark gold masters near here.

 Chapter 490 We Are Surrounded!

    As William expected, not a single one ever dared to follow him. William was able to take them down, but he saw that the cost of doing this wasn''t profit worthy.

    The same number of elixirs he''d consume to do so was enough to shake a grand gathering of the enemy just like here. Besides, that grand gathering of the enemy was enough to secure lots of them out if they wanted to run away. But they didn''t. And that told William that much scarier force was heading towards here.

    If they wanted to take him down, then he''d prefer to keep them running and chasing like crazy around them, taking them all over this part of the forest, running in circles, while taking down lots of monsters and spirit masters in the process.

    It was much better than just standing still and waiting for the scary force to arrive. Not to mention doing it this way would bring him closer to upgrading to the silver grade. And once he arrived at such a stage, he''d be able to finally use his two tailed fox form, a much stronger form without doubt.

    The team didn''t get any of this. The ones who learnt about William''s true identity couldn''t help but take a gaze every now and then at him.

    "Why do I feel the atmosphere here is quite tense?" Against what anyone thought, William was the one to speak about this, "don''t make it like you saw the impossible."

    "What did they see?" Others weren''t idiots, and they noticed how tense and weird it was here. So Sara took advantage of William opening such a topic, and asked, while moving her eyes around the gold grade members in the team.

    "The weirdest thing is that all the gold grade ones are acting this weird," Lang paused, beforending his eyes atst over one in specific, "even Ibra is acting weird. What''s going on here?"

    Williamughed, feeling it was quite amusing, "Let it go, just overthinking about it won''t help," heughed, especially when others turned to him, using him of holding back something, "sooner orter, everyone is going to know. And so don''t make a fuss about such a thing."

    William''s hidden message was clearly grasped by everyone who learnt about his secret. And his stance from this took them by surprise.

    They thought he''d ask them to keep this secret hidden, not share it with anyone or something. They thought he''d even threaten them to use his scary identity and fox body, but that didn''t even happen, not even close to it.

    Instead of asking them to hide anything, he said it was something destined to circle around. So it meant he didn''t even care if they kept their mouths shut in the first ce or not.

    "So¡­ Is it ok to say it?" Even Ibra felt really hesitant about exposing such a big secret.

    "Of course," William paused, beforeughing, "but without seeing it with their own eyes, who is going to believe you? Hahahaha! Don''t spoil the amusing moments, don''t act like party crushers, and let others enjoy their moments as well."

    He even was carefree to wink, leaving behind a much heavier silence that soon got broken by Thomas.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Monsters up ahead! Thousands of them in different groups¡­"

    "Cool," William rubbed his hands, "let''s roll! Like before, we''ll kill them using the same tactic. And¡­"

    He paused, moved his eyes around the gold grade members of his team before adding in a light tone that looked really terrifying, "don''t disappoint me this time, got it?"

    His smile, the calm look over his face was perceived in the totally opposite meaning for all the gold grade masters here. Even their bodies trembled faintly when the image of that scary fox ovepped with William''s weak silhouette in their eyes.

    It seemed like knowing how scary he was helped in pulling out the grand performance of his team. The team didn''t struggle like before when dealing with this grand gathering of monsters, and the waves that followed!

    They kept moving towards the East, killing a group of monsters one after another. William in the middle of all this kept absorbing his cores, counting the remaining spirit points before arriving at the silver grade.

    "They are closing up!" but thest stretch, the remaining twenty points, proved to be a headache for him. And just before he''d absorb enough to cover this gap, Thomas shouted all of sudden, referring to the dark spirit masters.

    "Damn!" William just needed five more points and he''d be officially a silver grade spirit master. During the past few hours, he absorbed thousands of silver cores, tens of thousands of bronze cores, ending up without having enough to reach silver grade.

    He slightly experienced this problem before, when he moved from the white grade to the bronze one. But that time, he didn''t face such a stubborn situation. He just had to shift from absorbing the monkeys'' cores towards absorbing bronze monster cores. And that helped him a lot to not face the same tough situation as now.

    He was absorbing cores like mad, and yet he didn''t get many points in the end. At thest twenty points gap, he had to absorb a thousand silver cores, or ten thousand bronze cores, to just raise up one single point.

    Realising this made him quite mad! He was this close from stepping into the silver rank, able to use his full power two tail fox spirit form, but he couldn''t. After spending close to six hours running and killing, the dark spirit masters seemed to pick up the pace,ing close enough to make Thomas this worried.

    "How far away are they?" William needed just five more points and he''d be done. He was sure if he spent three more hours doing this, he''d be able to cross this little and annoying gap.

    "Not far," Thomas paused, trying to assess the distance between them and their iing enemies, "but we are surrounded! They are at most one hour away from us."

 Chapter 491 Risking Everything To Rise Up

    "They surrounded us?"

    "Are you sure?"

    Many eximed, and William just raised one hand to silence them all.

    "Can you see any weak points there?"

    "No," Thomas paused, "it seems they took their time to rearrange themselves and totally surround us. I''d say we''d meet up with ten thousand masters in any direction we''d pick."

    "Screw this," William was fed up with this, took something out before adding, "surround me, don''t let a single monster or enemy stop me at all. And don''t get startled if anything weirdes out from me, got it?"

    His words made many puzzled. But those who knew his secret didn''t have anything else to think about but that scary fox they saw before.

    Who knew they were going to get more shocked when they''d see what was going to happen next!

    William didn''t just take anything out of his rings. As he was cornered like this, dreaming about crossing this small gap with killing monsters was a dream that wouldn''te true.

    Instead of dreaming about the impossible, he took one gold grade core, and decided to devour it.

    "I hope I got enough to absorb all of you without getting a fierce bacsh," he inwardly prayed, before letting his blood cover up this core and start devouring it.

    The moment he did that, he felt like an intense heat was bathing his body in mere seconds. He felt intense pain, and that was enough to make him expect the worst.

    However¡­ Just in the next ten seconds or so, something seemed to crack open inside him. The intense heat that felt likeva changed, and warm feeling bathed his body next, washing away any pain he felt.

    He felt like some sort of a door got opened, a closed thing that cracked open at this moment. And without the need to check anything, he knew he already passed through the milestone of the silver grade.

    Once he became an official silver grade spirit master, the gold grade core spirit power became something his body could handle. And that wasn''t all!

    As he suspected, taking such a leap would bring forth something new. But he never expected such a new change to be ground shaking at all. His body shone in bright silver light, astonishing everyone around. All they saw was for him to take one core out, stain it with his blood, and then it turned into ash.

    The next few seconds, he showed an intense expression over his face, as if he was struggling or something. And then all this vanished, a bright smile appeared on his face as if he crushed and won over something, before the bright silver light appeared.

    And then weird things started to happen!

    A huge shadow of a fox appeared, but it was a little different this time. It wasn''t the same as when he activated his fox spirit before, not taking a solid form but a sort of illusion or something. And yet it felt like William was in total control of the fox. As he closed his eyes, the fox also closed its.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    That wasn''t all, what changed from what the gold grade members saw before was that this fox didn''t have one tail, but two! And these tails weren''t just looking normal. As they pped and moved, they left behind afterimages of different colours, as if it got formed of more than oneyer or form of energy or something.

    There were white, silver, ck, green, and red coloured trails left behind each tail in an amazing way. These were the colours of William''s spirit elements that got stirred up with his evolution process.

    And then¡­ Monsters started to flood this ce like crazy!

    *Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*

    "Watch out! Monsters areing here like a flood!"

    Thomas was the first to shout, discerning the true nature of the iing tsunami of monsters.

    They expected dark spirit masters to arrive here, not monsters. But for a reason none knew, something attracted the monsters'' attention from a huge area around.

    "Sh*t! Scatter around, don''t let anythinge close to him," Berry was the first to react, cursed out loud while feeling more shocked inwardly.

    She wasn''t alone, all of the silver and lower spirit masters in the team got the same kind of shock. They now realised the true nature of William, linked it to the scary fox everyone was speaking about back at the fort.

    Just linking the two together made their minds blow up! The veteran spirit masters who apanied William from the academy got used to different situations where William truly shocked them. But this time it was different.

    William didn''t shock them using his gears, his special methods and arrays, or even by his outstanding and unique way of thinking and ns¡­ He did it using his pure strength this time, and this was perhaps the first time they felt such a shock from him thanks to that.

    Even when he was devastating the monsters and enemies they faced so far, it wasn''t that shocking. But now? They realised that all the legendary stories they heard, all the previous explosions and scary roars came from none other than him.

    Then they moved their eyes over the gold grade members in the team. And from the look on their faces, they all realised these folks got what William did earlier.

    The weird and tense atmosphere from before got exined. But right now none got the luxury to deal with any of this. The monsters just got attracted to William''s spirit form, and they came in such a sudden and crazy way.

    "Stay alert! The dark spirit masters are following these¡­" Thomas shouted again. Even before the monsters would sh with the team, the dark spirit masters decided to take advantage of this and move as well.

    Like this, the entire situation hyped up and reached an unprecedented level out of nowhere.

    Yet luckily for them, monsters had few minutes to arrive, giving them enough time to react and rearrange their lineup and formation.

    "Just hang in there," Ibra shouted, while waving his ive a couple of times in the air, "my team, get ready to move out!"

 Chapter 492 A Weird World

    "My team¡­ Get ready as well, we''ll move out!" Sara didn''t ck behind. The moment Ibra decided to move out, do the same as what William assigned him and his team to do, Sara also followed.

    Then a big and bloody battle erupted in the next ten minutes, one that was very intense from the early moments.

    What helped them endure the early waves was that the fastest monsters to arrive there were the closest to them in the first ce. And as they cleared lots of monsters during the past hours, there wasn''t that much to begin with to threaten them.

    But Thomas was the only one seeing further away. Everyone could only see as far as the tree line existed. In Thomas'' eyes, everything would change once half an hour would pass. With the distant densely packed monsters arriving here, things would turn ugly. Not to mention the dark spirit masters who tagged along as well.

    "Please hurry," he couldn''t help but turn towards his master, the one who caused all this in the first ce. William was sitting cross legged, closing his eyes, while his body was shining in bright silver light. As for his fox form, it was still there, with the two tails moving like they were prepared to kill at any given second.

    William already expected something big to happen, but not close to this. He was now feeling quite surprised by what he was going through.

    He managed to climb up thedder of strength before in his past life, starting out from the low level of being white grade all the way to the top.

    But out there, in the outer vast world, power level there didn''t take into consideration any of this tiny world''s grades. So, he kept raising up his spirit power before without passing through any of the lower tiered ranks.

    This time, it felt all different. And that wasn''t just thanks to him climbing thedder of strength step by step, following the tiny world rules. This time, he got a spirit of his own. And for a reason, something seemed to stir up a new change thanks to something that happened to him before, his reincarnation!

    He found himself standing on the side of a road, somewhere where all the world around was ushered under darkness.

    When he extended his hands around, he found out all this darkness was simply fog. And when he tried to step up, move forward in this path, and take a tour around to check where he was, he was surprised to find out that he couldn''t.

    He felt like his body was pinned to wherever this ce was. "Weird¡­" just when that happened, he also felt the fog around to swirl, change, like it responded to his earlier moves, "does it want me to stay here forever? Not a chance!"

    William didn''t know if this was real or dream, but he linked everything to his upgrade process ongoing right now. For some reason, he felt an unexined urge to hurry and return back to the real world. And so he kept trying, summoning up all his power to move forward.

    "Screw this! Come forth! Come out now!" but as he failed to even budge an inch no matter how hard he tried during the past twenty minutes, he decided to use his greatest weapon, his spirit form.

    *Roar!*

    Just as he did that in such a weird ce, his body outside swelled and changed, taking the shape of a real and solid fox monster with two tails. William still closed his eyes, but he wasn''t sitting anymore.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The moment his fox form took shape, he stood up, shed like he was a lightning bolt, passed by his team members who were fighting like crazy, beforending in the middle of the iing monsters.

    He didn''t see anything, didn''t feel what his body was doing in the outer world. But deep inside that weird world of his, his body also changed to take the form of the fox.

    And then things started to change abruptly all around. The fog kept swirling like mad, turning to take different shapes and forms.

    "These¡­ Are these monsters?!" William couldn''t see the shapes of these weird things clearly. All he could see was the general look of them, as they were all formed of fog.

    *Roar!*

    And without even giving him a chance to process what the heck was going on here, these newly formed shapes started to roar like any proper monsters before jumping at him.

    "Screw off!" William was already feeling more unease about all of this, more worried about what was happening in the real world. And without even understanding what was going on, he took out his sword out of habit, and weirdly enough it appeared, but in a different form.

    It was in the form of a fog, like it turned to be made of fog and not ores. The real sword was already appearing in the real world, getting grabbed by one of his tails. William didn''t think about why this happened, took out his knives as well, to find out they were turned into such weird status of his sword.

    "F*ck it! If you want me to fight my way through this weird path, then I''m up to the task! Die!"

    William didn''t hesitate anymore. When he tried to inspect his body, check over his spirit power, he got puzzled by his inability to do any of this.

    It was like this wasn''t his real body. And when he saw how his knives and sword turned into foggy things, a crazy thought shed up his mind. "Even my body turned into a fog¡­ Weird!" this was the only thing that''d exin all this.

    And yet that didn''t prevent him from starting out a grand massacre over the growing number of monsters here.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    "I can move!" to his surprise, he finally felt his body moving. He used his technique out of habit, and his body shed, from one point to another, hitting the different enemies and taking them down.

 Chapter 493 Green And Red Shadows

    Each time his sword hit something, that body of fog would dissipate slowly in front of his eyes. And yet, things were literally different in the real world.

    "This¡­"

    "Is he back?!!"

    "Damn! He even grew stronger, fighting such a crazy number of enemies with eyes closed!!!"

    The timing of William''s move was really brilliant! He just started moving around, shing and hitting the iing monsters just when the number of monsters started to rapidly grow.

    Almost half an hour passed, the same time Thomas expected for the main bulk of monsters to arrive here and threaten them.

    Many eximed in disbelief while watching their valiant leader shing like crazy, fighting in between the growing number of monsters, taking anything he met down.

    "Follow the boss!" Without even thinking twice about it, Ibra knew if they were left behind, it''d be the end of them. He was like everyone else here, didn''t get what was going on with William. But to him, the path to surviving this was totally clear in his eyes.

    Against all these enemies, William was the only one able to destabilise their formation, kill many of them, while clearing out a safe path for the team to follow.

    As he shouted, the entire team got jolted awake and moved in one big group, running after William. Thetter kept killing monsters without a moment of pause, not even stopping for a second there to catch his breaths.

    He kept shing right and left, back and forth, killing everything he could reach. And soon enough, his team caught up with him.

    In that weird world, William was feeling more puzzled. As he moved forward, he found out that he returned back to the same spot he arrived at before. It felt like he was walking in circles. "Wait¡­ There is a new path out there¡­"

    But just when he was puzzled, he noticed when he shed to hit another group of shadows that the path up ahead bifurcated up into two paths and not just one.

    He didn''t get what was going on here, but he got a theory to work on. "Let me first clear the two paths and see if this is true or not¡­" he got the idea that this was like a trial for him.

    Clearing the enemies in one path would let him return to point zero. But a new path would appear, and more enemies would pop up. And so the way out of here began to re in his mind. If he managed to clear all the shadows he met, then he''d end up getting more paths opened, ending up with one that''d take him out of here.

    Of course, all this was just a theory, and soon enough he tested and proved it was correct. He kept shing, feeling that he wasn''t limited by his spirit power anymore.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He even tried to use the full power of his technique, hitting the enemies after dashing around for several times, charging up his technique before releasing a deadly explosion around.

    He seeded in doing so like usual, but never felt any weakness or exhaustion at all, didn''t feel like he exhausted any of his spirit power. It felt like he tapped into a limitless source of spirit power at this moment. And so, he started to freely fight without any worries.

    "This¡­" but soon enough two new things happened here. He was in the middle of fighting in one path, and right now he had five paths to clear.

    Just as he passed by a point, he found a different form of shadows. "This¡­ They look more like humans¡­" he noticed that the shapes the fog took weren''t like monsters, but like humans. And that wasn''t all. Even the colour of the fog changed. "A green colour? What does it even mean? Friendly perhaps?"

    William didn''t get any time to think as more ck shadows appeared, taking the form of different monsters. And just as he killed these, he found out that the green shadows were trying to follow him, helping him in taking down more shadows as well.

    "I guess it''s safe to assume they are on my side," William nodded, but then a new change appeared.

    Just as he kept these green folks running after him, helping him to clear the hostile ck shadows around, a new form appeared there.

    "What''s this? Red human shadows? Are they friends or enemies?" William waited for a few more seconds, before he finally got what these red silhouettes meant.

    They came at him and the green human shadows around, attacking both it seemed. William didn''t feel anything, but he could tell the green shadows were struggling, getting pushed away back into the fog around.

    "No way!" William didn''t get what the hell was going on here, but he wouldn''t be fool enough to let his supporters get back into the shadows.

    There were around sixty of them, and that number was weirdly matching his team members. If not for him to know it was impossible for his team toe here, where this supposedly test of his levelling up was going on, then he''d be sure of the identity of those green folks.

    His best guess was that whatever universal force was behind this test, the one he never heard about or experienced before, then it was trying to help him and give him shadows resembling his team.

    Least to his knowledge that his earlier hypothesis, the crazy one that he ditched away, was true! This was indeed his team, and these red figures marked the arrival of the dark spirit masters to this crazy battle.

    Out there in the real world, things were indeed quite scary and crazy. William was now taking the form of a grand fox, ughtering all the monsters standing in his path.

    From behind, his team was struggling to keep up. Every time he dashed and shed, a scary explosion urred, leaving behind a deep crater and a scary shockwave that killed and wounded a lot.

 Chapter 494 Fighting Dark Gold Enemies

    "Use your potions! Don''t get left behind! Keep pushing forward! Follow William!" Ibra, Ro, and Sara kept shouting like this all the time. While their voices kept fading away in the middle of the battle happening around, and the explosive noises that kept ranging all the time.

    "Sh*t! What the hell does he want to do?!"

    "No, this isn''t the right question, but howe he can do all this without even feeling tired?!!"

    "Speaking about this, I''m already panting and all I''m doing is just running around and chasing after him!!!"

    Morements like these kepting from his team while William kept fighting like a f*cking asura lord. The battle didn''t start for more than an hour, and yet they felt like they were in it for days!

    "Watch out! Dark spirit masters are here!" out of the blue, Thomas'' voice suddenly came to startle everyone.

    "Prepare for the impact!" just as Thomas shouted, the tree line shook and many dark shadows appeared.

    As if they were missing these dark spirit masters in such a hectic battle. And the moment these scary folks arrived; William suddenly stopped moving.

    It came as if he got scared of them or something. However, none got that at this moment, and deep inside that weird world of his, William was feeling puzzled.

    Soon enough the dark spirit masters started to attack. All the hits that came towards William got negated by his ne. But that didn''t help any of his team members at all.

    They got hit badly, and many even got wounded. They tried to resist, but it seemed the frontline got scary dark gold grade ones in their roster!

    "Retreat!" Without even waiting for a single more second, Ibra''s shout came to make everyone retreat.

    And just at this moment, William acted!

    *Rumble!*

    The hit he delivered to the newly arrived dark spirit masters was enough to cause the entire ground to tremble fiercely. Then a violent explosion urred, and a very deep crater appeared, alongside many heart curdling agonising screams.

    "This¡­"

    "He is fighting again!"

    "The fox is back! Hahahaha! We are saved!"

    His team was shouting in triumph before the vice leaders rallied them around, returned to fight again. With William dealing with the scary dark gold enemies, there was nothing to worry about.

    "Gather rings!" Just when the battle stretched to cover a vast space here, Berry suddenly shouted.

    "This isn''t the time to go greedy!"

    "It''s better to keep fighting!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Others in the team questioned and even argued back with her weird shout.

    "Did you forget it or what? Didn''t he tell us the most important thing to do is to gather up rings in this adventure? Let''s do it! He seems to not notice any rings or anything at all!"

    Berry''s words made them all recall the few words William said to them before they started this crazy hunt. He indeed stressed over this point. And he was truly not noticing the grand number of rings his dead and fallen enemies had.

    "F*ck it! Fine, let''s do it!" Ibra cursed before adding, "at the end of my glorious life, I''m now working as a battlefield scavenger for a mere bronze grade spirit master!"

    "He isn''t bronze grade anymore! Don''t you see that silver light that surrounded him from before?!" Sara retorted back. And Ibra waved his ive around for a couple of times, beforending it heavily over the heads of a few monsters and weak dark spirit masters around.

    "He will remain that bronze grade kid in my eyes even if he reaches the pinnacle!"

    Everyone around suddenlyughed, feeling like the great pressure they faced up till now got removed by Ibra''s words. It went without saying that he was envious towards William, everyone here was.

    He just stood there in his ce, before he turned into a silver grade spirit master. In their eyes, it was the smoothest way to jump through ranks ever spoken or heard about before.

    Back in the weird world of shadows, William was now struggling to take down a few enemies around. He found out that few of them wouldn''t fall after hitting them with his technique, even if he stacked five or seven of his attacks together.

    "Don''t tell me these are dark gold grade calibre foes! Dammit! What kind of test this crazy one is?!!"

    William guessed most of what he was passing through right now. When he passed through silver grade, some form of test was formted by the universe for him.

    He had to fight the enemiesing for him in that world. And without knowing if it was unlucky for him or to his foes, he got a shitload of enemies right now to deal with!

    Everything he was doing in this weird fog world was reflected on the real one. In return for this, he got tapped into the limitless and boundless spirit power reserve of the entire world. He could freely use up his power without any restraints. And that was the biggest advantage William had right now.

    As there were such scary shadow enemies here, William tested it and found out that his body wouldn''t suffer anything if he let them freely attack. He mistook things over and thought this was some sort of a setting of the test, not the effect of his ne affected by his endless supply of spirit power.

    "So, in here, I''m immortal! Hahahaha! F*ck you all then. Do you think being a dark gold grade is enough to stop me? Watch me then!"

    This time, he started to store up his attacks to reach a scary figure of fifty times or something. And when hended his attack atst, the real world shook violently while a gigantic ball of light came with a very violent explosion.

    "Damn! Take cover!"

    "Use your potions!"

    "Spare none to survive this!"

    The team was already close to William when that explosionnded. And without the need for anyone to shout, they all tried to run and use all the methods they got to survive.

 Chapter 495 Turning From A Battle Into A War!!!

    "Halt! Don''t move at all!" but against their expectations, Ibra''s weird shout came to stop all of them.

    And before any would ask, as if any got the time to, they felt something expand and cover all of them. It was William''s ne, and it seemed it went on full cylinders at this moment, to protect all of them.

    "The ne¡­ Damn! I want it!" Ro felt more bitter when she felt how awesome this ne was. Herment alongside others vanished in the middle of the fierce explosion that enveloped them the next second and expanded to take down lots of enemies.

    To William nothing of this appeared in his fog world. His attacks never left anything but slight swirling of the fog around and smashing of the fog shadows, dissipating them in thin wisps of ck fog.

    William was standing in the middle of a great battlefield, surrounded with enough enemies to exceed thousands. And yet he kept moving around, shing and hitting any enemies he found, while making sure to walk forward.

    Right now, he had twenty paths to cover. He didn''t know when all of this would end. And yet he never felt tired at all, a thing that made him feel like a shark in water.

    The battle kept raging on for hours! And just from the fierce explosions that happened there, more eyes started to shift towards here.

    Without William nning for it, the big forces in the fort got startled by this. They sent strong forces out, and the biggest of all belonged to the alliance formed and led by the Lockheart impact.

    The distance between the fort and this crazy battle wasn''t that much to begin with. In just three hours, more forces appeared and witnessed this crazy battle.

    "Panther¡­ This¡­ Isn''t this the scary Fox master? Or is this the kid I heard about from you?!!" One of the big shots in the fort stood by Panther''s side, looking at him in weirdness.

    "I¡­ I don''t know¡­ That kid¡­ I got the news earlier, he wanted to wait for a week or so¡­ But this¡­" Even Panther was feeling lost when he witnessed all of this.

    He was now standing in the middle of a big group of a hundred spirit masters. They weren''t just a hundred, but a hundred of dark gold spirit masters, with all at the mid-tier or higher of this scary grade.

    This force was enough to drive terror in the hearts of any force or enemy. Even if they were the ones fighting here, they''d have ended up doing something close to the miracle William was doing it right now.

    "But¡­ Didn''t you tell us that you suspect this kid to be the real fox? Is this true? Can he do something like this?!" a young lookingdy asked, while her green eyes kept blinking in shock.

    She looked very young, but everyone here wouldn''t take her lightly at all. They knew she wasn''t any younger than any of them considering age. But she used some sort of hidden method to keep her youth forever.

    Speaking about her grade, she wasn''t any weaker than Panther, standing at the pinnacle of the scary dark gold grade.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    All of them didn''t need to approach William to truly see what he was doing. They used their spirit sense, and extended it to cover tens of kilometres, even hundreds of kilometres distance. And there they spotted what William was doing; besides the true might of the enemies he was fighting against him.

    "I¡­ I don''t have anything to say about this," Panther sighed, "what I can say is that this is just my hunch."

    "That doesn''t matter now," an old looking short man said. He was leaning over a thick and short wooden stick, looking as if he was too feeble to even walk freely around, "let''s join them. I hate to see such grand fun without getting invited!"

    "Sure, let''s take all of them out," another said, cracking his neck muscles before taking out a grand looking scythe, "I looted this from the previous leader of the dark spirit master forces here. I wonder what the current leader''s weapon would be like."

    "Let''s go and figure it out then," another oneughed, while others started arming up themselves.

    Even if William was doing something miraculous out there, attracting the full attention of the enemies towards him, these ones wouldn''t lower their guards and would move out in full power.

    "I''m going to go east."

    "West is mine!"

    "I''ll secure the rear then," Panther paused, "let''s not give these despicable creatures a chance to run away from this."

    Everyone got his meaning. They weren''t weak to begin with and were craving for the dark spirit masters'' blood. But the irritating thing was that it was damn hard to locate a single fort of these traitors.

    Even if they wanted to, they never found such a gathering of their enemies anywhere. When they saw how massive the dark spirit masters were gathered here, all they thought about was how to kill them all, not let a single one go away.

    And with what Panther and others said, everyone agreed in a few seconds over their biggest goal here. They already took lots of Bullets out, spreading out their orders to gather up their grand forces here.

    They didn''t n to personally kill these enemies, but using the grand forces that were behind them. As for them, their target was simple, to prevent these enemies from running away. And like that, this battle just grew further, grew bigger, without even William or any of his team realising this.

    But soon enough, Thomas started to see new dots in his vision. He could see for kilometres around, and at the far points where his eyesight could reach, he witnessed new forms of stars and dots, new lines that appeared to get far away from here.

    "This¡­" he was too far away to see anything clearly.

 Chapter 496 Reinforcements Arrived

    For a reason, Thomas felt like these threads and stars weren''t the same as the ones he kept seeing for hours. He felt their true identity was different from the densely packed and seemingly endless enemies here.

    They weren''t monsters, nor dark spirit masters. His thoughts got fixed over one thing, unbelievable thought that he decided to keep to himself until he''d get sure of his spection.

    He indeed guessed it right, but he knew how bad it was to spread rumours and give false hope in the middle of such a deadly situation.

    He remained silent, only moving and chasing after William, fighting the monsters and dark spirit masters he could kill all the time.

    The battle was indeed hectic and crowded with different enemies. So, finding a suitable target wasn''t a problem. And with the ne help, they got no worry at all whiles fighting these enemies.

    The enemies were the ones in a tight spot. They thought William and his team were walking corpses the moment they surrounded them. Who would ever think that these few and weak masters were really survivors? They kept struggling for hours, and soon enough the news of the arrival of reinforcements from the fort arrived to the leaders of this grand army of dark spirit masters.

    But when they tried to run away, they were shocked to notice they were surrounded. There weren''t that many spirit masters blocking their paths, but each and every single one of them was enough to give them a headache.

    They were pressured from outside, getting brutally massacred from inside. And soon enough the grand army of spirit masters would arrive from the fort. They knew if that happened, then they''d kiss goodbyes to their lives.

    Losing a few dark spirit masters and monsters wasn''t a problem. But thanks to William''s earlier movements, they had to gather up all the forces from the closest bases in the area. Even the nearby forts and hidden ces got emptied out from their people, sent all here to kill this fly.

    None ever understood why their supreme leader gave such a weird order. But as they saw how the situation grew worse by each passing hour, they felt like their leader was anticipating something like this to happen.

    But that wasn''t the problem right now, their blocked paths out from here were. They gathered tons of forces to kill mere flies, surrounded them, to end up getting surrounded and ready to get butchered.

    That meant one thing; if at the end of all this they lost, the blow the dark spirit power in the region would take would be quite severe. And without any hesitation, the leaders decided to send distress calls for help.

    "It''s happening!"

    Far away from all this, and deep inside a huge underground space, a group of fifty strong and vicious looking spirit masters stood, dded all in ck cloaks, standing in silence and respect around a single figure, their lord from the ck Mamba n.

    "Oh, tell me everything," that old man raised his head, opened his eyes, and a very cruel smile appeared on his face. He looked at his subordinate who just ran here shouting in such excitement.

    And then that dark master started to tell him what he just heard about in the base. News was already spreading, delivering the recent intel and development about such a crazy battle.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Hahahaha! Moore, my good boy, you really did it! Hahahahaha!" the old man turned to a single figure, and even stood up and patted on his shoulder, "when this is all over, I''ll handsomely reward you, hahahahaha!"

    "Thanks lord," Moore only said that, while he was still conflicted about his meeting with William from before.

    "Lord, shall we move out now?" The one who came running with the good news said, "I heard the jerk of this region is amassing a grand army as we speak."

    "And the fort?" The old man didn''t hurry to make any decision right away and asked for more intel.

    "I heard they are sending a grand army as well," his subordinates paused, "it seems it''s going to be a grand war. Or else that jerk wouldn''t have panicked in such a way."

    "Good," the old man sped his hands, "let''s do it this way. Find a way and infiltrate the army of this bastard. Keep me updated all the time."

    "But lord¡­ Isn''t it a great chance to get rid of both?"

    "No," the old man wasn''t as excited as his subordinates, "even if it looks like a huge thing is going to happen, we have to make sure both sides are going to suffer first. Last thing I want to do is to be the weapon in someone else''s hands in this war. Now go, do as told, and keep yourself hidden well."

    That subordinate nodded before taking a leave. And just as he vanished from here, another approached the old man.

    "Lord, how about this¡­ Why don''t we use the doomsday weapon?"

    "This¡­" the old man''s face changed the moment he heard his subordinates'' words. The two kept looking at each other for a few seconds, before the old man evilly grinned.

    "I already got a strict warning to not use this unless it''s time to take down this world. But who said I''m the only one here with such a weapon? That dude will get all the me in the end, hahahahaha!"

    "But lord¡­ We are going to lose our weapon this way¡­ Isn''t it a bit bad?" Another subordinate, one who waspeting with the one who suggested this in the first ce over getting higher rank in this force, spoke while giving his rival a deep look.

    "Who said we won''t get another weapon in the end? Hahahaha! Yes, I like this! Even that bastard won''t believe what''sing at him, hahahaha!"

    The old manughed for a minute before his face turned all serious, "go and take out your positions. You do know such an array of summoning needs lots of time and power to operate and activate. Don''t activate it until we get good news from Regence."

 Chapter 497 Black Mambas Elders Decision

    That Regence was the one he sent to infiltrate his nemesis'' forces. And like this, others nodded and started to move away, while that old man kept himself with two others.

    They were the two who suggested and argued against using such weapon. The two were considered this old man''s vices. And aside from these two, Moore also stayed behind.

    "Prepare an escape route," out of the blue, the old man suddenly said, "the final escape route, do you get it?"

    "This¡­" The two exchanged looks together, while Moore couldn''t believe his ears, "but lord¡­ Things are going as nned."

    "That''s why we need to worry," the old man didn''t look the same confident and excited one from minutes ago, "the more things looked perfect, the more they''d end up quite messy in the end. I didn''t survive all this time thanks to my strength, but thanks to thinking about the worst when things looked great. Go, prepare the safe exit from this cursed ce. If things go south, we''ll drag all we can with us and leave towards the other continent."

    The two couldn''t believe what their lord said. But in the end, they got nothing to say or do but to nod and walk away. As for the third person here, the one who heard such shocking words, Moore, he got a storm inside his mind.

    William dared him that he''d help him to achieve the impossible. And yet from William''s words, he felt another thing.

    It was as if William could read the future and was sure about his sess and victory over his current lord. Such a feeling was quite annoying, especially when everything pointed towards the grand sess of his lord''s n.

    But when his lord suddenly spoke about retreat, not only retreating away from here but running away to another continent, Moore couldn''t help but get inwardly shaken.

    In his mind, things seemed to go the wrong way, a way without a return ticket. And that made all his faith in his current lord tremble, and for a moment there the face of William kept lingering in his mind.

    "Damn! Don''t tell me he expected all this to happen!!!" he thought to himself while watching his supposedly mighty and fearless lord sit down, looking much older than he usually looked like.

    Away from here, William was deeply immersed in his weird test. He kept fighting, releasing torrents of deadly attacks while killing anything and everything he met.

    From behind, his team kept following through all this. Unlike him, they already noticed the grand movement that happened here when grand armies joined this battle, turning it into a true war!

    It was already five hours after Thomas noticed the early signs of the new force in the region. By now, he wasn''t the only one who noticed them, but everyone else as well. When the armies from the fort arrived, they announced their presence in the most shocking way.

    One army after another joined this battle, attacking the monsters and dark spirit masters without any mercy or dy. They used deadly attacks inrge numbers, enough to shake the ground all over the world.

    In the team''s eyes, the edge of these grand hostile forces stood other grinding grounds, ces where deadly fights started to happen all the time.

    At the same time, William''s team was collecting cores, monster materials, and above all loot from the fallen dark spirit masters, or what was left out of them.

    William didn''t realise it, but he was like a grinding machine. No matter who met him, they ended up either dead, thrown in the air with lots of wounds, or even missing limbs. The only ones who managed to stand against him were just five, and they were five in the mid ranks of the dark gold grade.

    They suffered little injuries, but not enough to immobilise them. They tried to get at his team members on many asions, but William always kept an eye over these in his weird world.

    They tried to get William down, but they failed. The ne William had was really doing a great job in protecting him. The five instantly shifted target and aimed at his teammates. However, William kept an eye on them all the time.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The moment he spotted them, and no matter what he was doing, he''d simply change his target andnd over these five. He stopped them one time after another, reaching such a stalemate where no side could take down the other.

    "This isn''t going to work!" One of these five finally decided to speak up, "we have to think about ourselves."

    "This kid¡­ he has such annoying gear that protects him! I bet it''s that damn annoying ne from that fort!"

    "I tried to convince others to go and steal it. See what this little piece of sh*t caused to all of us here!"

    "It''s not the right time for any of that, we need to put into consideration the grander battle."

    "The distress message was sent, and I''m sure reinforcements are on the way here."

    "What if¡­ That boss of ours didn''te?"

    "No way! You know him, he can''t ept having any stain on his face at all!"

    "I know, that''s why I''m fearing his punishment more than anything here!"

    "That''s¡­ You indeed have a point here¡­"

    "Then¡­ What do you think we shall do?"

    "To survive of course! Let''s run away, find any chance and break away from here, the furthest the better."

    "I''m with you then."

    "Me too! I don''t want to be held ountable for such a defeat!"

    "That boss of us¡­ He is much scarier than any other dark gold enemy in that fort."

    "It''s settled then! Let''s wait until reinforcements arrive, feign a counterattack before running away from here."

    "Well said! How about this annoying fox then? What shall we do about him?"

    "If we are already running away, why care about any of that? Let''s spare our strength, retreat and heal, scan the area around, looking for any possible weak points."

 Chapter 498 Lets Wake Him Up!

    "Good¡­ Let''s retreat then¡­"

    William was struggling for hours to handle these five, but all of sudden he stopped seeing them anywhere around. He didn''t lower his guard, and even after ten more hours, he kept his vignce raised high against these five.

    Anyone else he met ended up either dead or severely wounded. The team members recalled his previous instructions down to the letter and decided to take prisoners with them. They selected the toughest guys who couldn''t move and asked a team of ten gold grade members to seal their moves, before dragging them around like sheep or cattle.

    It was humiliating to watch, seeing the grand and mighty gold and even dark goldrades getting dragged like this by the normal spirit master team they were fighting.

    They would never expect that things wouldn''t turn for the betterter on but for the worst, and they''d be forced to ditch these cattle they just collected.

    But for the time being, seeing theirrades in arms being led like this drove the blood of all the dark spirit master forces here to boil. And yet that didn''t change much. Things kept happening the same, and William was massacring everything and everyone without a single moment of pause.

    "Damn! It''s my fifty bottle of potions! I''m almost running out of these potions and the boss is still fighting like it was the start of the battle!"

    "I got extras, here, take these¡­"

    "How can the boss keep doing this? Any clue?"

    "Stop talking and wasting time over something trivial like this! Keep running and fighting! If our boss is doing this miracle now, then let''s not fall that much behind or let him be disappointed in us!" Ibra rolled his eyes, spoke in such a harsh way thanks to his exhaustion.

    Potions could cleanse away fatigue and heal wounds, replenish lost spirit power, but there were no potions for mental stress and exhaustion. Even if they all consumed potions like water during the past night, they felt truly worn out thanks to the umted mental pressure all this time.

    They jumped straight into a deadly fight, but that was their only way out from here. If they got strangled behind, they''d end up suffering a ton, ending up dead long hours ago.

    And yet this decision that was made on the spot didn''te without a price to pay. They didn''t need to face all the deadly and scary folks of dark gold calibre as William handled this part. But they had tons of gold grade or weaker enemies and monsters to worry about.

    They kept their vignce high, over the charts, all the time, without a single moment of rest or pause. William didn''t rest in his legendary spree of fighting, and they never enjoyed a single moment of pause during their hectic chase after him.

    Anywhere William went towards, lots of enemies appeared. And even if the ne provided little help, it wasn''t the same when it covered William himself.

    There was a limit to how much protection it could provide to them. And even in the case when William kept getting spirit power out of God knew where, the ne always dropped short in protecting all of them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They learnt about this lesson the hard way when they lost three of their members at one point, suffering tons of injuries when they got hit by a bacsh from the five dark gold masters earlier when they fought against William.

    That was why these five triedter to take them down. And if not for William''s swift reaction to stop them, the team would have lost too many, or even most of them by now.

    And so, since that moment, they started to not rely blindly over the ne protection. As much as possible, they fought and evaded, blocked and defended all the iing attacks as hard as they could.

    In the end, they suffered lots of wounds, but not that severe. The most they suffered right now was that inhuman headache that made them dream about the end of all this.

    But they got to admit that after the arrival of the mysterious armies of spirit masters from outside, things started to slightly roll towards their favour. The enemies here had to spare lots of their numbers and attention towards the iing reinforcements. And that helped in lowering the pressure they felt from the enemies around. But that soon changed.

    Just before the sun rose in the middle of the sky, and after ten more hours of the arrival of the armies from the fort, new armies arrived.

    "Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! This is bad! Truly bad!!" Thomas, who kept his silence for hours, suddenly said in a trembling and tired voice.

    "What? Don''t tell me more enemies are here!!" Lang was already sweating profusely like others, panting to catch his breaths while running after William.

    "That''s indeed what happened," Thomas gulped, "it''s not just one army¡­ It''s like¡­ It''s like¡­"

    "What?!! Just spill it out already! We have seen lots of things to get used to anything bad!" Ro shouted in impatience and frustration. She wasn''t feeling any better at all than others.

    "The entire world¡­ It seems that the entire world in that direction is filled with endless enemies¡­" he pointed towards a direction, and weirdly enough, it was the same way William was taking them towards.

    "Holy cow! Can''t we wake him up? Make him change his path or something?" one of the team members cursed, and others felt the need to do so, despite not knowing how.

    "Let me try¡­ Damn! Agh!" Ibra got the courage to get closer to that scary and bloody looking fox. After all this time, William''s fox spirit body was now dyed all red with blood of his enemies, monsters and dark spirit masters alike.

    The moment Ibra touched him, trying to knock some sense back in his mind, he felt a gush of weird power that sent him flying in the air,nding on the ground, rolling for tens of metres, even hitting many enemies in the process.

 Chapter 499 A Shocking Discovery!

    "Dammit! Are we going to die?" another one said in distress. And Berry couldn''t help but move.

    She stood in front of William and without repeating what Ibra did, she kept waving her arms around. She pointed towards the direction the hellish enemy armies wereing from, and then crossed her arms in a wrong sign. Then she pointed in the totally opposite direction and raised a thumb in the face of that fox.

    Everyone looked at her like she lost it or something. "Come back! It''s dangerous to be near him right now!" Lang was the first to shout in distress, getting worried over his n''s princess.

    But what none expected was for what she decided to do on the spot, out of an impulse to help and save everyone, really did work!

    William was in his weird test world when he saw a green shadow draw near him. The next moment, that shadow ced his hand over him, and there William managed to see a glimpse of his face.

    "Ibra?!!!" William muttered in deep shock before watching Ibra''s body fly in the air and go away from him in a long arc.

    Seeing this took William by surprise. All this time he thought these shadows were the act of whatever force was behind his test. And right now, he got mmed with the real truth.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ All these shadows¡­ All of these enemies¡­ These green shadows¡­ This¡­ All of this is real!!!" William couldn''t help but jump towards the crazy conclusion that he thought about before.

    And when he was in the middle of all this, he watched another green shadow moving closer from him. But this time, it didn''t try to touch him or something. Instead, he saw all the signs Berry made clearly, and got the message behind them.

    He moved his head around. The direction she pointed towards as a dangerous ce was the ce where his paths were heading towards. He knew if he retreated now, he''d lose everything, he''d not even be able to get out of here.

    As everyone out there was trying to urge Berry to retreat, the fox suddenly moved one tail, the free one, and pointed towards one direction.

    Then that tail made the motion to urge them to go that way. Then it pointed towards himself and then towards the dangerous path.

    Everyone got petrified right on the spot. They tried tomunicate with William all this time, shouting out loud on the top of their lungs, and failed to get a single response from him.

    And right now, he just showed the first human sign since all this started. On top of that, he showed such a response towards the insane thing Berry just did. They looked at Berry, then to William, then back to Berry again.

    "Sigh! It seems you two have something deep running, cough! Cough!" Ibra came while fighting his way back towards here, coughing out blood as he got severely wounded from the fall he suffered, "don''t worry, I''m fine. And so is he!"

    "What do you mean?!" as if the shock of what Berry just did wasn''t enough, everyone turned towards him and waited for him to exin.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I saw him¡­ I can''t really describe it, but I saw him standing in the middle of a grand world, filled with dark shadows, and they were trying to get a bite off him. They looked¡­ They looked as if they were the shadows of everyone here. Call me crazy, but he is aware about everything happening right now, or at least part of it."

    "This¡­"

    "Then that means¡­"

    "Will we run away then?"

    Everyone looked at Ibra as if they were looking at a real vice leader. And feeling this made thetter sigh.

    "We can''t!" but the one to speak and solve this dilemma was none other than Sara. She felt weird frustration from what just happened between Berry and William. For a reason, she didn''t like it, and for another reason, she hoped that she was the one who got William''s attention, not Berry, and be the one to have such a deep connection with him, not Berry.

    "Your point is?" Peter asked, while killing a few monsters who tried to attack him just now.

    "We won''t survive if we do that!" Sara sighed, trying to push all the envious thoughts away from her mind, "we aren''t in top form, or even close from it. And in case we were, we wouldn''t even survive such a huge number of enemies surrounding us, blocking that path ahead."

    Her wordsnded, and with the echoing explosions that fiercely kepting from everywhere around thanks to William''s brutal attacks, they realised what she said was true.

    It felt like someone threw a bucket of cold water over their heads. And without any of them saying anything, they all moved towards William, before following him towards the direction of the scary number of enemies.

    "Let''s pray we''ll survive till the end," Ibra muttered while moving with everyone after William. And like this, the entire team followed their mighty leader, hoping for a miracle to happen and they''d all get saved in the end.

    And without knowing it, the miracle came, not just from one direction, but from two!

    The first and closest source of this miracle came from the scattered dark gold spirit masters gathered here by Panther. Those who sat at the high throne of spirit master power in this world had insane coverage using their spirit sense.

    Long before the grand hostile army had arrived here, they already noticed it. And without wasting a single moment, they arranged themselves, gathered lots of other dark gold spirit masters who came from the fort, and made a terrifying force of close to five hundred dark gold spirit masters plus tens of thousands of gold grade masters.

    This was by far the strongest force that could be assembled in such a hurry. It wasn''t even ten percent of the total fort''s overall strength.

 Chapter 500 The Two Miracles

    That made those with power and leverage at the fort, folks like Panther, send messengers to call out for the entire fort''s fighting power to get summoned here.

    The despicable and hard to find dark spirit masters finally showed themselves here in full force. It was a chance that wouldn''t evene once in a century. No matter what the reasons were, no matter what troubles any of the masters here had with the ones back at fort, everyone sent messages to anyone and everyone they knew over there.

    And this was the first miracle that William''s team prayed for. As for the second one, it was a bit weird to tell.

    It all started way back when William met Alfonso and made that deal with him. Alfonso was too excited to try this method out, and at once he hired a pro team.

    In fact, he didn''t just hire one team. When he thought about the possibility of William''s theory to be true, he decided to go all out. He hired lots of mercenary teams, with lots of dark gold masters in them. As for the lowest grade, he didn''t entrust such a task except to those at silver grade or higher.

    He met with these teams'' leaders and exined everything to them. He marked a spot on the map, one that was hundreds of kilometres away at least from here. This ce was filled with hills and was the only spot around the fort that got tons of Scarlet Bears and other scarlet and different type monsters there.

    As he instructed them, he wanted them to first test this method using the ready spears and arrows William gave to him. Then if that proved right, then they had to start working on this theory and start making out lots of spears and arrows like William''s.

    He also instructed them to rally more spirit masters to their cause, and even liquified lots of his assets in the next few days before finally going out with them.

    He wouldn''t trust stories from these masters. He wanted to see everything by himself. And like that, a moderate size army started marching from the fort, attracting more rogue teams in the forest, adding up to their ranks much more masters. That ended up slowing down their marching speed, taking more time arriving at their destination than nned.

    Alfonso was too excited about this attack. And so, he spread lots of masters around, recruiting masters even from the marching caravans, and rogue masters in the forest. He spent lots of wealth on this, and all he thought about was how to end up killing the Scarlet Bears.

    He kept marching for ten days before finally arriving at his destination. During the march, he was faced with lots of resisting dark spirit master forces. And he didn''t show any mercy to them.

    Especially when lots of monsters appeared supporting these dark masters. Alfonso wasn''t a good general, but he had lots of capable dark gold masters on his side.

    And so, no matter how hard the battles Alfonso faced were, he ended up winning all of them. But at a point, he felt like the number of dark masters and monsters kept decreasing the more he advanced.

    "Weird¡­ But it''s a good thing, hahahaha! Heaven is on my side atst! Hahahaha!" He didn''t think much about this and kept marching forward.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    It never crossed his mind that most of the dark spirit master forces in the entire region were riled up and headed towards the same kid who brought him here in the first ce.

    "Send out a team to test things first," As the grand army approached the hills region, Alfonso stopped just one hundred kilometres away. He sent a team formed of a hundred dark gold masters with a thousand gold masters. And he tagged along with it.

    He wanted to see if the method William told him about was true or not. "Attack! Use these spears and arrows now!" Once they came inside the area of hills, they met up with fierce resistance from the defending dark spirit masters.

    Alfonso didn''t know this, but the ce he selected to target was the biggest base of the entire dark forces in the region. In normal days, getting close to here was an impossible feat, one that would be filled with endless dead bodies and bloody battles against scary dark master forces.

    But right now, most of the forces were already out of the base. And that made Alfonso''s small army manage to break through and enter the deeper areas.

    Part of Alfonso''s army moved to stop the little defending dark masters, while the rest moved with Alfonso deeper. The few defending dark masters here got shocked when they saw Alfonso''s army, mistaking them toe for them.

    And without any hesitation, they issued the rm sirens to ring loud in the deep underground base, rallying up the resting dark masters there, preparing for a grand battle with Alfonso''s forces.

    As for Alfonso, he never expected that things would escte and reach such a dangerous stage. He just kept marching with hundreds of his force. Once they spotted the first grand gathering of the terrifying Scarlet Bears, Alfonso shouted at the top of his lungs.

    And then a miracle happened in front of his eyes, in front of everyone''s eyes. He saw the monsters hit by the spears and arrows turn to be the most attractive spots here to other bears.

    Alfonso''s little army was already imagining a very brutal and desperate battle against these bears. Yet instead of facing the deadly swarms of Scarlet Bears, they all stood in petrification, watching these horrible monsters fight among each other.

    "That kid¡­ He wasn''t lying¡­ This¡­ Hahahahaha!" Alfonso was shocked as others, but he was already prepared beforehand for such shock. So he was the first to break free from this spell and started to give orders around tounch more arrows and spears.

    And just when that happened, more dark masters started to appear from many hills in the region.

 Chapter 501 [Bonus ] William Wasnt Lying!

    This made the masters on Alfonso''s side jolt awake from their freeze and started to prepare for a harsh battle.

    Just like how William did it before, the veteran dark gold spirit masters around Alfonso started to give him suggestions, to make the best use of such ground shaking discovery.

    Alfonso was busy thinking about something else. As William''s weapons proved this effective, he craved to make much more of these. And so he gave his orders for the grand army stationed far behind to step forward. He put the target of taking this ce down as his top priority.

    Things started to roll fast in this ce. The hidden dark spirit masters started to flood the area,ing out with distress and panic over their faces.

    News spread over the entire underground base here¡­ A big army of normal spirit masters appeared. And yet when they came out to fight these daring and suicidal folks, they got stupified to see their most formidable allies, the Scarlet Bears, turning their ws against them.

    The entire situation took a sharp turn for the better to Alfonso and his army, especially when they managed to dig the ground all over the ce and found the rumoured underground yellow river.

    "It''s true¡­ Hahahaha! That kid¡­ He wasn''t bluffing or making things up, hahahaha!" Alfonso left long before William started clearing the Fox ce. And seeing how William was sincere with him made this man feel more guilt and regret.

    He decided that once returning back, he''d seek William and handsomelypensate him for all this. But now he started to shift his attention towards following William''s instructions, taking out a shitload of arrows, spears, and even daggers, swords, and knives.

    He bought enough to empty almost half of the entire fort''s stocks of these weapons. He didn''t care about the grade, as William told him it wasn''t going to make any difference at all.

    So he bought tons of white, bronze, and silver grade weapons. Those cheap little toys were bought in heaps, filling lots of spirit rings.

    And now Alfonso took all of them out, and made special teams surrounding the well he dug, before teaching them how to soak these with the yellow aura from that river.

    Doing so wasn''t hard actually, and soon enough everyone learnt the simplest way to deal with these Scarlet Bears.

    As William intended, this simple and yet effective method would spread all over the world, leaving a grand impact over the entire course of wars between normal and dark spirit masters anywhere in this tiny world.

    But that was forter. For now, Alfonso returned to take care of the growing battle all over this ce. For a reason, he felt like this wasn''t just a normal enemy base at all!

    The number of dark spirit mastersing out wasn''t normal. Not to mention many started to flood here from many directions after a few hours. As he got the upper hand using the unstoppable Scarlet Bears to his side, manipting such weapons of destruction in his fingers, his ambition grew bigger.

    "Let''s control them and take down the ces these bastards areing from," all of sudden, he shouted at the generals leading this grand army, fighting this legendary battle, "separate the Scarlet Bears into different teams, and let''s take more of them down!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    If at any other time Alfonso shouted these words at others around, none would have even spared him a nce. But now? They were crushing a grand army of dark spirit masters, killing tons of them. And on top of that, they were doing all this without losing much on their side.

    If at another time such a battle urred, then for a hundred dark spirit masters at any given grade would be killed, at least the normal spirit masters would have paid the lives of one thousand from their side.

    However, this wasn''t happening right now. In fact, in exchange for killing one hundred dark masters, less than ten of the normal ones would fall.

    This left a deep impact on everyone''s spirits. And once Alfonso shouted like this, they got the same idea and started to grow greedy.

    Not hitting the enemy when he was down was called stupidity. And so, the entire battlefield started to grow wider, while tons of Scarlet Bears started to move from their turfs, killing and devastating tons of dark master forces in the area.

    Alfonso didn''t know that, but by doing this he was already going to give William and others fighting far away from here a big helping hand.

    This base wasn''t indeed normal, it was the base of the main leader of the dark master forces in the region around the fort. And right now, it had another scary figure inside, the elder from the ck Mamba.

    "Lord¡­ Bad news! Very bad news!"

    In the middle of all this, one of the cloaked subordinates of this lord came running fast, seemingly distressed by what was happening at the surface.

    "I know, I don''t need you to tell me anything when this cmity is happening on top of our heads!" the old man shouted in anger, in a rare moment of losing his cool.

    He used his spirit sense a long time ago, when the first small army led by Alfonso approached these hills. The massacre he and other formidable dark masters here dreamt to have urred, but in a totally reverse way.

    It was shocking seeing all this happening here. And for a second there, this old man couldn''t help but recall a scary story he heard beforeing here.

    It was about a move another rival n did, where they attacked the Long n at the Aspire academy region, ending up getting massacred in return.

    In his eyes, this was a very silly story that he never bought. And that was for a proper reason, that army was armed up with almost half of the dark forces'' stocks around the Aspire academy and its ns of the Scarlet Bears.

 Chapter 502 Is It Loyalty? Or Fear?

    There wasn''t a single force in the region that could stand against these freaking monsters. But when he saw what Alfonso did up there, he couldn''t help but admit the impossible.

    And that wasn''t the main issue here, running away was!

    "How about the underground tunnels?" That old man gathered what was present of his forces in this base and started an urgent meeting on how to run away. He wasn''t the only one doing such a thing, as many other formidable dark masters in the base were also having the same meeting right now.

    "No lord, bad choice," one of his subordinates sighed in a tired tone, "I already went there. And these tunnels¡­ They all led to areas in the middle of the ongoing ughter up there."

    "Why not hide in here?" another subordinate said, "it''s a very huge ce. And I doubt the army up there will have the time to check every corner here."

    "And then what? Keep hiding like rats, hoping for a miracle to happen?" the lord shouted in anger, "no, we have to run¡­"

    He turned towards his two most trusted subordinates. And with that look, the two slowly nodded.

    "Let''s go, we are going to leave this damn ce," that old man was feeling bitter, so bitter about taking such a decision. However, if he stayed behind, he''d end up getting ughtered!

    He felt happy about his earlier arrangements, preparing that escape route long before this scary battle started.

    The Scarlet Bears weren''t just scary for the normal spirit masters. Even for people of his calibre, dealing with a few of them was already a headache. And right now, he watched how by using weird sorcery these normal spirit masters managed to manipte these bears like they were giving them honey or something.

    Trying to fight all this was impossible. It was a doomed fate for any of them to try and break their path out of here. This wasn''t just limited to this region. With his insanely strong sense, he could clearly see how those normal spirit masters up there were expanding the reign of this battle.

    Without the need for him to think deeply about this, and without the need to watch for more, he knew this battle would escte to reach very far ces.

    If this was at another time, then he''d decide to go up there and fight. But right now, another grander army, much bigger and far scarier than this one, was already butchering most of the dark spirit master forces in the region.

    In his eyes, all paths of retreat were blocked. And for a reason, he couldn''t help but think back about the mission he asked Moore to handle.

    He shifted his gaze uncontrobly to fall over Moore, thinking about the intel he decided to let Moore leak. It never urred to him, never crossed his mind even in his wildest imagination, that doing such a thing would be like digging a grave for himself by his own hands!<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And when his eyesnded on Moore, thetter couldn''t help but see a weak and powerless old man. It was now clear to Moore that staying by this lord''s side was going to end bad for him.

    Masked by greed and desire for revenge against two of his enemies, this old man didn''t feel the fire he lit up with his own hands on his clothes. And now, continuing to stay by this old man was going to end up with certain death, or a hellish type of fugitive life that Moore didn''t want to.

    "Don''t tell me he foresaw all this!!!" this shocking thought shed past Moore''s mind. And no matter how crazy it looked like, and coupled with everything that was happening right now, Moore couldn''t help but admit it was true.

    His fate was sealed the moment William sat his gaze upon him. And without knowing it, Moore embraced the idea of working for William, more ever than any time before.

    "Great! Let''s wait then¡­" unlike what the three, who knew about their lord''s grand escape ns, thought about, the old man didn''t give the order to retreat right away.

    "This¡­" One of the two most entrusted subordinates of his got puzzled, "waiting for what, lord?"

    Right now, even if they felt great veneration for this lord before, right now all they saw was the same thing as what Moore did¡­ A very tired and old man standing in the middle of few entrusted men of his.

    "For a miracle to happen," the old man sighed, "if not then¡­ We''ll retreat."

    His wordsnded and all the ones who didn''t grasp anything before knew what their mighty lord was thinking about. And that added more filth to his weak image, making him feel more like a bitter loser in their eyes.

    But the miracle that the old man hoped for didn''te. And in the end, this ce, and many other ces, were overrun by the Scarlet Bears and lots of spirit masters as well.

    Far from here, William was too absorbed in his own weird test world. He had nothing else to do right now but to speed up the pace. Even if he loved how it felt to have endless spirit power, he was now sure his team was facing a great disaster up there and needed his help.

    When he kept fighting and heading towards the grander army of dark spirit masters, he noticed the green shadows around never left his side. He realised what his team decided. And couldn''t help but inwardly sigh.

    "Is it loyalty?" he muttered, before throwing off such an idea. Even if they were loyal, he already gave them the order to walk away. And if they didn''t listen to his words, that meant only one thing, "they can''t escape here without following me¡­ What the hell is going on out there exactly?"

    William was more puzzled by what was happening in the real world.

 Chapter 503 Another Legendary Battle

    To William, he entered this state while he was trying to fight lots of dark spirit masters that surrounded him and his team. And even after all these hours and hectic battles, he was sure he killed lots of them, enough to let his team run away safely.

    If they didn''t do it, that meant there was a new variable out there, or even variables. William tried to think of many scenarios but failed to guess the right thing.

    How could he guess that his little adventure here attracted the attention of both his allies and enemies alike? And out of his expectations, the scale of this battle grew bigger, much bigger than he''d even hope to.

    But even if he knew, he wouldn''t feel anything but getting extremely thrilled by this. This wasn''t something he didn''t want to see happening. And if things kept rolling down this path, the end result would be for most if not all of the dark forces here to get killed or routed away from here.

    Not to mention what Alfonso started away from here. Like this, the two wars were getting bigger, while slowly drawing close from each other.

    Out there, things were indeed crazy. William kept dashing forward, using his technique in its fullest might without a single moment of pause. Once he learnt about the truth of this situation, his killing speed rose to a new level.

    Every time he dashed, he''d umte lots of attacks first, before finally releasing them in a very deadly explosion. This kept happening one time after another. And from behind, his team followed.

    At first, they were worried and anxious about getting themselves out of here unscathed and safe. But soon enough they realised they were over worrying about the entire thing.

    In the next few minutes, William wasn''t the only one attacking the grander army of dark spirit masters. Lots of scary folks appeared, killing the enemies like they were some sort of weed.

    Lots of shy and destructive attacks keptnding all over the ce. And soon enough, William wasn''t the main source of killing.

    The addition of those masters came just in time, relieving lots of pressure over William and his team. The number of enemies they had to deal with got lowered. The hostile forces in the area got distracted, stretching out over a wider area of the forest, trying to stop the newly arriving formidable force.

    But against what anyone thought, this force wasn''t doing any less amazing performance than William. William came from the heart of this grand war, and these masters came from the side.

    In the next ten hours, the deadly explosions never stopped or even slowed down. No one of William''s team could get what was truly going on. Even those gold grade members got limited by the range of their spirit sense.

    However, if any got a grander spirit sense, he''d be truly shocked. The scale of this war, the battle that they started in this ce, escted to cover up tens or even hundreds of kilometres around. And soon enough, the forces fighting here would magically merge with another force fighting far from them, the one led by Alfonso.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The most truly shocked ones about this situation were the dark spirit masters themselves, and the strongest in the roster of the normal spirit masters.

    These leaders, famous figures, and even exclusive masters all were fighting here when they got the news. It seemed like another army was fighting the dark spirit masters hundreds of kilometres away. And that wasn''t what was shocking about this news.

    Even if they never expected or heard about such a force getting formed and moving to do such a thing, they''d still not find any surprise in that. Hatred and enmity towards the dark spirit masters ran deep into any proper spirit master''s blood and spirit.

    But what truly took them by surprise was the details they got to hear next. They learnt about how Scarlet Bears were fighting on the side of this army, how they were tearing down the scary dark spirit master forces in the entire region like they were nothing, moving out from one base to another, killing tons in the process.

    Such news was like a dream to any of these formidable masters. And they had to double check, even send lots of their trusted subordinates to bring the truth over to them.

    And in the next hours, all they could hear about was confirmation stories about such a legendary battle.

    "Find out who is in the world leading such a force!" Panther was acting as the leader of the entire forces in this war, "let them move their forces near us, let''s merge together first before doing anything else."

    "What do you have in mind?" as messengers were sent to find the leader of such a weird army, another spirit master at the pinnacle of the dark gold grade asked Panther.

    "What else?" Panther was trying to act normal, trying to control himself, but eventually he failed, "hahahaha! Atst! Atst, we are getting our long-awaited chance! Atst, we can exert our rightful revenge over these despicable traitors!"

    He just said it, and all the strong spirit masters around got what he intended to do. This wasn''t indeed a dream, or some sort of delusional thinking.

    Per the news, the entire region for hundreds of kilometres around was getting riled up by intense battles between their side and the enemies. On top of that, the enemy was losing, badly losing everywhere!

    "Let''s first focus here," Panther returned to put on his serious looking face, "I already foresaw the future. We have to save this kid as he got something to do with dealing thest blow to the dark spirit masters here."

    "Ok..." Even if what he said seemed crazy, they never questioned him. He was the only one here with such a gift, the only one who could say such crazy stuff and get believed by all.

 Chapter 504 The Million Dollar Question

    William wasn''t aware of any of this. But in the next twelve hours, he and his team finally merged with the unstoppable force of dark gold spirit masters.

    They weren''t fighting alone anymore. More troops came from the fort and moved to support all the frontlines.

    "What are you still doing here?" seeing how terribly looking these kids were, Panther couldn''t help but sigh, "go back, retreat and take William away. You¡­ He already did enough!"

    Seeing the fox form William was in didn''t fool Panther. He simply used his time technique and knew for sure that William was this grand and scary fox fighting all this time here.

    "Sorry but¡­" Ibra handled speaking with such a scary figure on behalf of the team. He paused, exchanged looks with Thomas, Sara, and Berry before adding, "we still have a task to do."

    "Don''t be stubborn! You indeed did great so far¡­ William, stop this and retreat. There are enough forces here to take down all the dark spirit masters in the region."

    Panther spoke with William, to get shocked the next moment. William just hit a group of dark spirit masters when they arrived. And then he stopped.

    He and everyone on Panther''s side mistook William''s actions here. They thought he recognised them and so he stopped, feeling no need to continue fighting.

    However, the truth was that the moment they arrived, William was taken aback. He already got used to the sixty something green shadows following him around. Yet the moment Panther and his people arrived here, more green shadows appeared in William''s weird world.

    William wasn''t prepared for this and couldn''t get what was going on out there. "Weird¡­Who are they?" he paused before sighing, "as long as they are green, they are my allies. No matter who they are, they are here to help. Let''s go then, show me how capable you are."

    William moved his free tail in a motion to invite the new ones to follow. And then he returned to fight again.

    This came as a total shock to Panther and his friends. They exchanged looks in doubt, before turning towards Ibra and others as Panther asked the million-dor question: "What''s going on with him?!"

    "We¡­ We know nothing," Ibra recalled hisst lesson that he and others got thanks to spilling out William''s secrets to Ben, "all we know is that he never responds to anything, just moves around and fights like crazy."

    "This¡­" everyone exchanged looks again, "don''t tell me he kept fighting like this all the time!! Did he lose his mind or what?!!!"

    He was another scary figure in the Panther''s team who said these words. More wanted to speak, but with a single raise of hand, Panther silenced them all.

    "Tell me, is he nning to fight until killing everyone here?!" Panther was already surprised by William''s current situation, especially when news came from the other army led by Alfonso.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Alfonso got their message. And instead ofplying anding to meet them, he sent a detailed message, telling them everything, telling them what was going on, before finally asking them to keep pressuring the enemy alongside his forces.

    He feared if the army here withdrew, more dark masters would flood his little army. And so, things would turn bad for him and others.

    Even if they got the Scarlet Bears to their side, they had to keep supplementing different fronts with gears stained with the yellow river aura. And that made Alfonso station himself back at the first base he attacked, while his army grew thin, spreading all over the region.

    He knew they got some sort of magical solution to control the scary bears, but that was provided that the number of spirit masters on their side was enough to control all of these bears.

    And that was the current dilemma Alfonso was facing when he got Panther''s message.

    The two knew each other from the fort. And so, it went without saying how many deals the two had together. Alfonso added in the end a request. He asked Panther to dispatch part of his army ande to his aid.

    That wasn''t shocking, but William''s role in all this was. Alfonso never ceased singing praises about William in that message, even to the extent that made Panther suspect this man would offer his daughter over to William in the end.

    Panther got the message and responded to it using actions not words. He sent a great number of masters from here all the way to Alfonso. At the same time, he sent another message back to the fort, summoning all the remaining forces there under a single banner: It''s the final war against all the dark forces in the region.

    It all started by William and his team adventuring outside, to end up with a grand crusade against all the dark spirit master forces in the entire region.

    The scale of this fight extended for hundreds, and soon enough to thousands of kilometres around the fort. Everywhere masters were fighting dark forces and monsters, everywhere the dark masters were getting crushed and routed. Everywhere the monsters were butchered and massacred like they were little kids standing in front of an unstoppable grand tsunami wave.

    They already lost their chain ofmand, their top fighters, and all that remained behind were weak and scattered forces of theirs.

    There wasn''t a single safe base here to hide at, not a single formidable force of dark gold spirit masters to shield themselves with. So, it was expected how weak and fragile they felt, how grand and thrilled the normal masters felt.

    On this day, all the suppressed rage and hatred that normal masters kept inside their spirits, all the deep running grudges and vengeance they umted over long years, finally got a chance to be released over the right targets.

    The normal spirit masters didn''t let this chance slip by their hands. And that wasn''t just limited for the ones who lived in the fort.

 Chapter 505 Fighting Walking Corpses

    Any normal spirit master in the entire world, be it a merchant, a guard, a mercenary, or even a rogue spirit master; all had limitless hatred and enmity with the dark spirit mastermunity. Even the normal people, ones without any spirit power to begin with, shared the same emotions as well.

    So it wasn''t a surprise to see even the merchants who came from far, alongside their strong guards, joining this crazy crusade. News started to spread around, and forces from outside the region of the fort started a grand march towards here, turning the entire situation to be like a sacred pilgrimage.

    It was a very shocking scene, an event that would shock not only the areas close to the fort, but the entire world. Later on, normal spirit masters all over the world would thoroughly study what happened, how the people of the Scorching Lands fort managed to pull such a legendary feat.

    Not only that, but they''d also even dispatch lots of teams toe here, speak with those high in power, the ones who witnessed it all and knew all the ins and outs of this war. They''d carry tons of questions, eventually getting them all answered. They''d learn lots of things about how to crush the dark spirit masters in any area, then return back and convey what they learnt to others.

    The greatest benefit these folks would get was to recognise the pattern of dark masters in general. Search for any ce crowded with terrifying dark gold monsters, filled with hills, valleys, and even mountains, and you''ll find dark spirit master bases there.

    All they needed to do was to roll the dice, give things a little push, and everything would just fall over like it was a domino game.

    That and more happened in the next few years, but that was another tale to be told for another time.

    Right now, William kept fighting like hell, while Panther and others couldn''t help but tag along. At some point, it felt like William was leading them around, not as they initially imagined.

    But they didn''t mind that. News from different battlefields kepting, and they were all great. Everywhere the normal spirit masters were kicking as*es, killing all the dark masters and monsters they could find.

    On this side of war, things were quite under control. Even with the grand army of dark spirit masters here, things didn''t go south as William''s team expected.

    For a reason, it felt like dark spirit masters already gave up all the resistance, lost all hope, and looked like they were walking corpses waiting for their ughter.

    William was leading them all over the ce, killing anyone they met. As for the ones he couldn''t handle, either being much stronger for him to deal with, or just came with lots of forces that he couldn''t clear, were dealt with effectively by Panther and his group.

    "Do take care of the flies," Panther said when the first batch of such scary folks appeared, "leave the strong ones for the old fogies like us to handle."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He didn''t need to say anything like this. Things were clear to William''s team. William was taking the lead, Panther and his group were dealing with the hard to crack dark masters, and their team got nothing else to do but to tag around, collect rings, gears, and kill the weak ones they could handle.

    Things started to go nicely and smoothly after the first hour. And as the enemy came in such a huge lineup, they stayed here fighting for hours, until the sun started to slowly rise in the sky, announcing the arrival of the new day.

    They kept fighting like this for a long time that seemed like ages passed already over them. Even the strongest spirit masters here started to feel a bit tired and exhausted, both mentally and physically.

    They were releasing deadly attacks all over their enemies for a long time without a single moment of pause. In any normal battle or war, people would take little time to rest between a wave and another, taking turns between battles, healing and recuperating before facing what wasing next.

    But that wasn''t what happened here. William didn''t even pause for a single moment. And even if one of them tried to take a single moment of breath, he''d find out that they were left behind by this kid.

    And that made them always on their guard. Not to mention the enemy army was filled with lots of scary folks appearing out of the blue.

    To these formidable dark masters, they were trying to break free from this grand war, trying to find a way to survive through all this. However, things never ended the same way they envisioned.

    The entire grand army of the dark spirit master was already surrounded by tons of normal spirit ones. And thanks to the expansion of this war, the call for the crusade, in addition to the elongation of this war tost for long hours, even days, many forces started to join the fun.

    In these forces, lots of strong folks were present. These kinds of brutal fights against strong dark masters weren''t just happening solely and exclusively at William''s spot, but rather happening all over the entire battlefield here.

    These elite dark spirit masters were trying their best to find a weak spot, a way out from this ughterhouse. But in the end, all of their attempts got blocked and they failed.

    This wasn''t expected when any of them woke up on the morning of this war. It never crossed their minds, not even a single thought about what the hell they were living through ever crossed their minds in their worst imagination when they responded to the war calling from their leaders.

    But right now, it seemed that the chain of theirmand got crushed, and every man was for himself. If that was the case, then it wasn''t a surprise to see all of them trying their best to run, run away from here, even throwing away responding to any screams of help any friend ofrade in arms would shout at such stressful moments.

 Chapter 506 The Team Learnt The Lesson

    In William''s vision, he was fighting any ck shadow appearing in his world. He kept wondering what the heck was going on in the outer world for all these shadows to appear here nonstop like this.

    He was sure every single one of these was an enemy. Be it a dark spirit master or a monster, be it red or ck shadows, all appeared in endless numbers all the time.

    William was killing more than he ever did even back at any war in his past life. He fought lots of hellish battles and wars, none were like this crazy one here.

    It never crossed his mind that he was fighting against the lots of dark forces in the entire region right now. And such battle wasn''t just limited to this ce, for his weird test world, but also expanded to cover lots of ces as well.

    As he didn''t get a clue. He knew he''d get all the answers he wanted when all this would be over. And so, he kept focusing on fighting the enemies appearing all over the ce without a single moment of pause.

    He never felt tired, never felt exhausted, and his spirit power never ran dry. He was fighting to his fullest for the first time ever since returning back to this life. And that made him feel a very unique feeling, one that he hoped to experience again and again, experience it all the time.

    At the outer world, and after many days had passed, Panther and his team were truly shaken right now.

    They first came here, thinking they could send William and his team back, take charge of this grand war. But things turned out to be against what they expected.

    After all this time, they started to slow down. The number of strong enemies they needed to clear also dwindled by much. And that gave them finally a window to breathe.

    "Damn! What is this kid made of exactly? Is he a machine or what?" one of Panther''s team couldn''t hold it inside anymore. He looked at William like everyone else here did, like they never knew kids ever in their lives before.

    It wasn''t enough to shock them to know about William''s secret. Any one of these figures already saw enough weird stuff in their lives. Not to mention Panther already warned them before about William''s secret identity. But seeing how William kept fighting without pause in such a way, releasing high end attacks all the time without a single moment of pause, shing all over the ce, spreading death all around the ce like he was a true death god, was an eye opener for all of them.

    They never expected to get rivalled by someone in the silver grade, a kid to begin with, even to the extent to feel such puzzlement and surprise from the hellish way of his fights.

    But that was indeed good news. If it was them handling the situation, then they''d end up having to take long naps of rest from time to time. And that would give the enemy the chance to breathe, think about ways to counter all this, even turn tables around.

    But with what William was doing here, the enemy didn''t get a single moment of rest as well. Even themselves, the ones fighting on his side, kept getting pressured all the time.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    When they thought about the grand picture, how by taking down this grand army of the enemy would help taking at least one third of the entire dark forces in the region, they started to push themselves over the limits.

    They started using elixirs and potions like running water. And with this, they kept up with William. They started to help William by taking more enemies, the ones who he could have handled himself but would take lots of time and effort to do so.

    Doing so really helped in elerating the pace of this onught. William was now feeling more at ease while seeing the green shadows working like crazy and helping him out.

    And by the fifth day, thest of these dark spirit masters got finally killed.

    "No way I''d join such a battle ever again! Don''t call me if another battle like this one erupts, got it Panther?" One of the Panther group couldn''t control himself anymore and evennded on the ground, panting while his face didn''t look that well.

    It wasn''t just him, but everyone else also were looking the same. If such formidable spirit masters felt like this, then it was expected how William''s team was feeling right now.

    Panther and his team already started exhausting their resources since day three of this battle. And by day five, each spent enough to be described as a fortune.

    But the gains of this war were indeed quite shocking and worthy of all this.

    Just the number of gears and rings collected from their people was enough to replenish all these losses for a hundred-fold at least.

    But they couldn''t help but feel a little bitter about something. The real winners in this entire war were none other than William''s team, and William who stood behind them of course. They kept collecting rings and loot from the fallen dark spirit masters all the time. And just imagining the big disparity between the quality of dark masters these kids got the rings from and the ones their people got rings from made them crave to get part of the great loot William gained from this war.

    They even asked Ibra and others at some point about this, and all they got was a simple answer: "It''s our leader who asked us to do it. If you have anything to say, then speak with him after the end of all this."

    This was the direct answer they got from William''s team, from Ibra in specific. Thetter didn''t want to say anything else, didn''t want to promise them anything even if he was indebted to them about saving his and the team''s lives, fearing that William would get mad at him or something.

 Chapter 507 [Bonus ] The Black Fox

    Just from this battle, William''s team, and especially the vice leaders, learnt a proper lesson about how to keep their mouths shut, not saying anything without returning to William first and getting his blessings.

    The entire team felt bad about not sharing anything with Panther and others. After all they''d have not survived all this time partially thanks to their help and contribution.

    The old and strong spirit masters got already pressured to such an extent, so it was expected for William''s team to run short on their oil starting from day two of this war.

    Even when they were dealing with weak enemies, just the sheer number of them made them already tired. That was what Ibra and others feared to face. And thanks to the mercy shown by the heavens upon them, they got Panther and his group to guard them while they were recovering. They even offered them recovery and healing potions from time to time, helping them more in surviving till now.

    As they started to recover, they didn''t miss to run after William and others, and also gather all the rings and loot they could get.

    That made them take much longer to recover. They had no other choice but to do so. On top of that, their collection of rings kept increasing fast without getting affected by anything.

    "But¡­" Panther was also sitting on the ground, watching one direction without shifting his eyes away, "the enemies got killed and we won the war. Why is he still standing like this?"

    All werending on the ground, extremely tired, all but one. William kept standing in his ce motionless, not even moving a single tail or opening his eyes.

    Even if the war ended, and there was not a single enemy around, William was standing right now while facing something new inside the test world.

    In that weird world, he saw all the ck fog getting thickened again when thest enemy fell. There were no more enemies to fight, but for a reason he didn''t feel like everything was over.

    And soon enough his hunch would be proven right.

    In less than ten minutes, and while everyone outside was puzzled by William''s sudden pause, the ck fog inside started to change and formed something new.

    "This¡­ Is this a fox?" William was puzzled at first. The fog kept umting, taking the shape of something grand. And soon enough he could see something simr to his fox body form, but much bigger, more dangerous, and far stronger than his current fox form.

    This fox was all ck, pitch ck in colour, with fire like ck fog forming its body. It had two tails, just like William''s. But seeing this and his grand form, made William not know why his fox spirit form was weaker and smaller than this one.

    "Don''t tell me I have to crush you to get out of here!" This ck fox stood around half a kilometre away from William, didn''t move a muscle, and kept just ring at him with its shining ck eyes.

    William''s body was bronze in colour before, and now it became silver. But seeing this ck fox made him crave to have a ck body.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He knew what ck meant. It was equal to the legendary rank, the one that would take anyone away from this tiny world and let him join the outer world. But out there, William knew he''d start all from the ck white grade all again. So having this ck form was just temporary and was limited to this tiny world.

    "I heard from my master that reaching thest and legendary rank in the outer world will give anyone the ck coloured spirit power. Don''t tell me I''ve to reach there to get such ck fox body!"

    He didn''t dwindle over this matter for long. Soon enough, he started to think about the foe in front of him. "Going by colour alone, I''d say it''s at the legendary rank¡­ But that''s not real, right?"

    He knew trying to deal with a legendary grade enemy was something that he couldn''t even dream of doing at his current stage of power. If dark gold grade was seen as the ceiling power of this tiny world, then the legendary grade was seen as the unreachable peak beyond that ceiling.

    William didn''t hurry to believe such crazy thoughts. He knew for a reason, he had to pass through this weird test in such an alien world to get out of here. And that meant there must be a way to do it.

    Everything that happened so far was peculiar, but it was doable. If this ck fox proved to be a legendary grade enemy, then things would reach a dead end.

    "I don''t have to think like this¡­" he started to calm his anxiety down, "first of all¡­ Since I''ve got myself entrapped here and nothing could hurt me. Not to mention the endless supply of spirit power¡­ If things kept going like usual, then this battle wasn''t a hopeless one¡­"

    He knew if things went out like they used to be here, then he''d be at least safe. And that made him slightly ept the general idea of fighting such a scary enemy right now.

    However, things turned out unlike what he expected.

    "Weak! You are damn weak!"

    Just when William started to attack the ck fox, and just as the first attacknded on it, the fox sighed while his eyes started to show signs of life.

    "You¡­ You are alive!!!" William was shocked. This was the first time for him to meet something that was alive in this ce. And so it was easy to imagine how surprised he was.

    "What do you take me for? A dead doll or something? Screw humans! They are really useless!"

    "..."

    William didn''t know why but he felt this ck fox was looking down on him. And the next words that came from this fox proved this point.

 Chapter 508 Screw Humans!

    "Comparing him to you, he is indeed more capable¡­ That damn fox! If not for me hating him, I''d have supported and cheered from the bottom of my heart for his sess."

    "The fox?! What fox?!!"

    "The one who you fought before! Screw humans! Don''t tell me you don''t remember your nemesis the moment you returned back in time!"

    "..."

    This time William''s shock reached a level that never reached before.

    "Don''t give me that look, I already know everything about you, kekekeke," the ck foxughed, and then the entire world around shook with hisughs, "but to be honest with you, it''s a bit unfair topare the two of you together. One lived for a million years, and you¡­ You are just going through your first recycle¡­ But that didn''t mean you should act like a moron! Screw humans!"

    "Easy there! It''s the first time for me to meet you!" William didn''t know why this ck fox was acting like this against him, "but¡­ You do know many things about that bastard."

    "For the first time you said something right," the ck fox smiled, "that''s indeed true. That bastard and you share the same spirit, and I''m that spirit."

    "..."

    Again, William got shocked by such revtion. "No way!" he couldn''t help but blurt out. And the ck fox justughed on his words and the funny expression on William''s face.

    "Why not? Do you think spirits you guys have don''t live as well? That''s how short-sighted you morons called humans are! Screw humans!"

    "..." William tried to ignore all the insults in everything that ck fox said, "tell me then¡­ What is this ce? Why am I here?"

    "That''s my home," the ck fox paused, "as you got such a high-level spirit, one that''s considered legendary, then you have toe here every step you take and experience a little test of mine."

    "This¡­ Don''t tell me you are the one who devised this weird test!"

    "Who else?" the ck fox rolled his eyes in a very humanish way, "if not for me, this ce, this test wouldn''t have urred."

    "Then¡­"

    "You came here for me to take a good look at you. I thought you could be someone special but turned out to be just someonemon and weak."

    "Of course I''m weak! I''m still eleven years old, and at a silver grade on top of that!"

    "Don''t give me this bullshit! Screw humans! All your race thinks about is the limitations of age and spirit power in the form of grades. No kiddo, you are weak not because of your limited power, but because your spirit is weak."

    "You are saying you are weak?! Didn''t you say your spirit grade is legendary? Hahahaha!"

    William found a chance to return part of the insult and frustration he got from this ck fox. And yet the silence he got, and the calm look over the fox face didn''t satisfy his desire for revenge.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I''m not the strongest spirit out there, but that''s not the issue, you are!"

    "Me? How so?"

    "You aren''t training your spirit. That''s why no matter how hard you try, you''ll always end up with spirit form at the same level of your pathetic power system."

    William went into deep silence, as this was the first time in his life to hear about such training techniques. He looked at this fox and felt like there was something biging from this ck one.

    "I can''t see that damn bastard get through what he wants. Listen kiddo, I''ll leave a very good training technique in your possession. Just train diligently on it and try to not fail me the next time we meet."

    "Are you going to teach me? Why?" William already expected this move from the ck fox. And yet he didn''t get why this spirit was trying to help him.

    "It''s a spiritish thing, you don''t need to bother yourself about such matters."

    "Still, I want to know," William would be crazy if he didn''t make the best use of this chance to learn more about this unknown world of spirits.

    He never imagined before that spirits that all the spirit masters and monsters used were real beings just like this ck fox here.

    "Why being stubborn? Screw humans and their curiosity! Fine! I''ll let you know, as if this is going to help you in any way," the ck fox paused before adding, "spirits you all usee from real beings. Consider us like your gods or something, but we don''t have such control over you like how gods should. We just lend you bits of power, our powers. It''s like naturalws that we need to follow, but not strictly to lend you our full support."

    "So¡­" William didn''t get what the ck fox meant at the end of his words.

    "Part of us is on the side of monsters, another is on your side. While there is a third party like me, standing in the middle, waiting to see who is going to seed in taking thatst legendary step and we''ll support him."

    "Legendary step? You mean to break into the untouched legendary realm of the outer world?!"

    "That''s not untouchable! Few managed to reach there already, taking their spirit with them."

    "Oh, I see now¡­ So you are all doing this for your own benefit, right?"

    "What else?" the ck fox rolled his eyes again, "if not for getting something out of it, do you think beings like me will be free to y this silly game with any of you?"

    William got what this ck fox meant. And yet he couldn''t help but sigh. This ck fox and others in his party were just opportunistics, not wanting to risk gambling on one side and losing. They seemed a bit greedy and cautious, not taking any risks in doing this.

    "But you said you don''t like that fox, right?"

    "I hate him! He is something that you can''t possibly imagine! Leave him for now, and let''s focus on you. Here, memorise this incantation properly, and then I''ll exin things over¡­"

 Chapter 509 Going To The Base

    "Wait¡­ How about telling me what this technique really does first?"

    "What else? It will help you level up your pathetic low levelled spirit. Instead of having that useless silver, gold, and other poor colours, you''ll have the mighty ck colour, better control your spirit form and tails."

    "Will that make me stronger?" This was the crux of all this. If doing this wouldn''t help him getting stronger, then it was worthless to waste his time on training over such technique.

    "Kiddo, stop insulting me like this! Who do you think I am? If not for the horned dragons, winged scaled elephants, the bony Valkyries and others to have good candidates, I''d have not imparted this technique over and would have preferred to wait for a good human to rise."

    "..."

    William hated how low this ck fox saw him. And yet he kept his silence this time, while listening to all the words this ck fox said next.

    He didn''t know about any of these spirits before, never heard or met anyone using any of these proimed spirit form training techniques ever in his past life.

    "This world¡­ It''s really too big and tooplicated for anyone to grasp!" he muttered to himself while the ck fox finished what he wanted to say.

    "Did you memorise it well?" the ck fox asked, and without waiting for answers he added, "anyway you got no time left right now. You''ll return back to your world, and hopefully next time we meet, you''ll be someone different, someone stronger. Scram!"

    Before William would say anything, even his thanks to this fox, the world around him changed. ck fog appeared again, surrounding him, blocking his vision, and then bright light appeared.

    He found himself standing in the middle of an open ce, filled with fallen trees, endless dead bodies, ground stained with rivers of blood, and many faces waiting and looking at him like they were waiting for a miracle or something.

    "You came back!" Just before he''d take everything in, someone jumped into his embrace with red hair. It was Berry, and she cried in his arms.

    "Easy girl, I''m not hurt or anything," William patted on her back, sighing while moving his eyes around.

    He saw his team, Panther, and many new faces that he never saw before.

    "You made us all worry about you," Panther took the mission of speaking with him, "you¡­ You did indeed bring us a big surprise and did a great service for all of us this time."

    "This¡­" William didn''t get what happened. But Panther raised his hand to stop him from asking.

    "You can get to know everything that happened here from your team. But for now, we need to go. War is still ongoing all over the ce. See youter back at the fort and try to not do anything else without consulting with me first."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Panther even winked. And that felt a bit weird in Wiim''s eyes. Then he left with all the new faces he had with him. They greeted and saluted William with a silent nod, leaving thetter unable to tell what was going on here.

    All he could get from Panther was one word: war. And so, he turned to Ibra, Sara, and Thomas, turned to his team and waited for them to exin things over.

    Last time he was in the real world, he was waiting for a grand army of dark masters to arrive. Things here didn''t look that much different than what he expected, except for the presence of new faces, Panther, and his talk about war.

    But in the next hour, William got to know everything. He already guessed much of what happened here. He guessed that the shadows he kept fighting against in that weird foggy world were real, and his actions there reflected somehow here.

    He knew more than what his team and other spirit masters knew. He knew all this happened thanks to the machination of the ck fox, a trial for him.

    As he ended up with such secrets and a mysterious training technique, he knew he passed this test. Against how that ck fox acted, William got the feeling that he didn''t fail in that test. In fact, he was sure he did an outstanding performance in it.

    But what really took him by surprise was how things turned out to be. He never expected this small adventure, one that he started to bring trouble for the dark forces in the area, would turn this huge and be a crusade against the dark forces in the entire region.

    His team didn''t know lots of things, but they told him everything they knew about. They overheard lots of discussions between the big shots who apanied them for days. And so, it was easy for them to know the tale of Alfonso.

    "Hahahaha! That man¡­ He really did something great this time, hahahaha!" hearing about what Alfonso did make Williamugh. He knew even Alfonso wouldn''t expect something huge like this to happen.

    After one hour of narrating everything they knew about, they all turned to their leader, to William, while Ibra asked:

    "What are we going to do now boss?"

    "First time to call me that," William smiled, "what else? In such a grand war, we have to gain the maximum benefits out of it."

    "We already gathered tons of rings for you! Isn''t it enough?!" Ro rolled her eyes while Sara gave her a deep look before saying:

    "Like what exactly?"

    "Like raiding one of the main bases of the enemy of course," William paused before asking, "did you hear anything about the direction and location of the base Alfonso attacked? I got a feeling that it''s an important ce to the enemy."

    William got such a feeling when they spoke about how grand the battle that erupted there was. ording to them, Alfonso''s attack came just little time after they caused a huge apocalypse for the dark masters here. And that meant if not for being extremely precious, the enemy wouldn''t even bat an eye to go and rescue that ce at all.

 Chapter 510 The Black Mamba Elder

    "Well¡­" Sara moved her eyes around, and John suddenly spoke up:

    "I heard them mentioning northwest, almost four hundred kilometres away."

    "This¡­" it was indeed too far from here, "let''s go then. We''ll travel light and fast; we won''t fight except if it''s absolutely necessary."

    Crossing such a distance would take at least a week in normal times. But almost one third of this time was wasted in fighting one''s way through the forest or resting between travel times.

    This time, William and his team managed to pass without facing much trouble. The entire region was already boiling for a long time, and most of the dark forces and monsters were getting ughtered by the normal masters from the fort.

    They didn''t meet any trouble worthy of mentioning. Any enemy they met was either trying to run away with his life or was desperate to take anyone down with him before dying. So, the fights they got were scarce andcked any danger at all.

    They marched literally in an ocean of normal forces, with endless teams running everywhere, calling on each other, killing and chasing dark masters and monsters.

    During their travel that took close to five days, William started examining their spirits using his crystal method. He also started to think about the best training manuals and fighting techniques for every one of his team, suiting their different elements and spirits.

    William wanted to start the path of evolving his team, and then his guild. He saw this as a grand chance to rise. The entire dark forces in the region were routed and the ce would be safe and quiet for a long time in the future.

    Not to mention his fame and name would rise to new heights after this war would end. He''d try to use this chance to recruit more forces, and hopefully he''d find more gems, the ones he always aspired to get.

    As he walked with his team and thinking about the future, the situation back at the base, the same base William and his team were marching towards, was hectic!

    The dark master forces in the region already were losing the war. And bad news kepting like a flood. The elder of the ck Mamba n didn''t have any hope anymore. And all he was doing right now was trying to regroup all the remaining forces in the base, trying his best to subdue them and let them follow him away.

    The big shots in the base already got divided into two big groups. One of them tried to escape, go out through different ways, but all failed. The outer world was already filled with tons of spirit masters, not to mention the scary Scarlet Bears.

    After many failed, the rest decided to wait in here and hope. Even if hope seemed so weak in their eyes, almost nonexistent, they got nothing else but it.

    And then the old elder from the ck Mamba n showed up, inviting everyone to join him. He imed to have a way out, getting them far away from here.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    When everyone suspected his ims, doubting they''d even be saved if they followed him out of here, the old man showed the big shots something.

    It was the same weapon he thought before to use, the one which could summon portals and invited deadly forces to his aid.

    Seeing this weapon made all of these big names get convinced. It was a hopeless way to use such a weapon right now. After all, it had many limitations, and many knew about this.

    But if they got such weapon, that meant they''d have a chance in joining any great dark forces out from here. And if they faced trouble in the new ce they were heading towards, using this weapon was enough to save their lives.

    The old man hated the idea of leaving here without using such a weapon. But he knew if he did that, he''d gain nothing. This war was heading towards uprooting all the dark force strongholds in the entire zone. And that meant if they used this weapon to clear a path out, they wouldn''t find anywhere safe to hide at.

    The old man tried to not think about this, tried not to think about any of this disaster that befell the entire zone. He failed miserably in exerting revenge over his sworn enemies, ending up losing everything, and had to run away like a coward rat to save his life.

    So, he returned to focus on inviting and recruiting more dark masters. The big shots agreed to join him, and now all it remained was to convince the normal dark masters to join as well.

    Dark masters never knew what loyalty meant except in rare situations. They were only looking for their benefits. And right now, in the middle of all these disasters, the offer from that old man was really tempting.

    The entrance to the base already got sealed from the brutal fights between Alfonso''s men and the big shots of dark masters which tried toe out from the base. There was no way out, except for the way of the old man.

    The surface was already under the control of Alfonso and his people for a long time now. Even if most of the scary Scarlet Bears went away to hit other bases and kill more dark masters, Alfonso gathered tons of forces up there, trying to open any entrance to the underground base.

    The forces sent from Panther and others were indeed enough to let him keep part to guard this base. For a reason, Alfonso felt this ce was quite special with all the enemies he killed and the sudden closure of all the entrances to the underground base.

    When news came to his ears from various frontlines, where his forces managed to secure lots of bases and invaded them, he knew this ce was really special.

    But the main thing that made him believe so was that yellow river.

 Chapter 511 Moores Decision

    He asked his forces to keep digging at any base they''d find, seeking yellow rivers like the one here. Alfonso was afraid that this yellow river would run dry, and so he asked his men to do so.

    He grew a little worried when his men didn''t find such a river at any other base except here. Alfonso realised now how important and special this base was. If only for the presence of the yellow river and Scarlet Bears only here, then it was enough to speak about how unique this base was to the enemy.

    Least to his knowledge that this river would run for a long time here. And soon enough, and when news about this grand war would spread all over the world, this yellow river would turn into a hot product, a ce where many gears would be charged up with its aura before getting sold at high prices.

    William''s intel would turn to be the cornerstone of a grand war against Scarlet Bears, one that would produce many ces like the one here. And the end of all this would be the extinction of such a scary breed of monsters, alongside an endless number of dark masters and other monsters as well.

    Yet all this was for the near future. As for now, the old man of the ck Mamba n was already walking towards the portal, with a grand number of dark forces from those who remained in the base.

    All of the ones who got trapped here agreed to join him. Even if they were going far, far away from here, they didn''t think twice before epting the offer of the old man.

    But only one person didn''t follow, Moore. Moore kept recalling what William said to him before. William''s words kept hammering on his mind like they were made of thunder or something.

    Luckily for him it was easy to make a decision right now. Between two masters, one who looked too old and weak, too cowardly and soft boned, and another who was too young but ambitious and resourceful, Moore was easy to pick a side.

    Luckily again, his old lord was too busy marching with his newly recruited dark masters at the moment. There were thousands here, and in the middle of all this, it was easy to miss a few.

    Moore knew what he was doing was dangerous, but he had to risk it. He risked that whoever was up there, and were this close from breaking through here, were familiar with William. And on top of that, they respected William to the extent of deciding to keep his head on top of his shoulders.

    He actually had no other choice. It was either this or running like a rat, jumping off the ship, going to a new continent and starting there from the low bottom.

    So, he ran fast, ran all the way back to the middle of this entire base. The ce that was once bustling with life and activity was now void of any sign of life. If there was anything, then it''d be a thick stench of deadly suffocating silence the entire base was bathed in without mercy.

    On the surface, Alfonso was busy trying to make as many weapons with the yellow river aura as possible. In the middle of all this, his forces were busy as well, trying to break their path inside that base.

    In the middle of all this, William and his team arrived. When they appeared from far, they attracted the attention of all thanks to William''s fox spirit form.

    William didn''t undo his spirit form. He was moving much faster this way. Not to mention it was his way to safeguard against any unforeseen enemies ambushing them. As for his team, he lent them potions to cleanse one''s body, in addition to tons of the potions he used before to replenish one''s spirit power.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He was willing to share the potions, not the elixirs. And thanks to such help, his team managed to keep up running for five days before finally arriving at the base.

    When they reached there, a grand scene weed their eyes. There were at least fifty grand hills filling the entire region, and the ce was filled with lots of spirit masters.

    In the middle of all this, William spotted a group at the middle of all this, working on something at the ground, where a huge and deep hole was presented there.

    "The fox?!"

    "Master¡­ Master fox¡­ It''s an honour to finally meet you!"

    "Thanks foring, but we already killed all the enemies except those rats hiding in the base."

    Just as William arrived there, he was weed like a venerable master. William looked at his team and saw how they struggled to hold theirughs.

    "Lead the way to your master," William said, and his voice in the fox form was indeed scary. The next instant, all the spirit masters here parted ways, clearing a wide path for William and his team to path through.

    "It really brings good memories walking like this, right?" Lang turned to Berry andughed, while thetter could only nod. She was exhausted like everyone else, but she always showed her concern over William.

    She even asked him to sleep and rest every now and then, to be met with firm rejection all the time. William didn''t need any rest, as he didn''t feel any exhaustion at all in that weird test world.

    "You are¡­" Alfonso wasn''t aware of the grand storm William caused back in the fort. So, seeing this grand foxing towards him, alongside the weird reaction from the people he hired and came to fight for him, made him quite puzzled.

    "I''m the master of the kid who taught you this," William didn''t dere his identity to Alfonso, not in front of such a grand gathering of spirit masters at least.

    William was sure that Alfonso would learn about his secret sooner orter. In fact, all the ones in the higher up circle in the fort would know, alongside many formidable masters at the regions around.

 Chapter 512 Williams Conditions

    "William''s master?!" Alfonso paused, took a long minute before his mind jumped to the simple and crazy conclusion that was evident in front of his eyes, "holy sh*t! You¡­ You¡­ You are alive?!!!"

    "What do you think?" Williamughed, and hisughs turned into scary roars, "now¡­ I want something in return for the great help my disciple did for you."

    "This¡­" Alfonso''s mind instantly jumped towards the yellow river. However, before his thoughts would run wild and take him all the way down the wrong abyss, William exined in calm tone:

    "I know you are busy making weapons to deal with the Scarlet Bears. That''s great news indeed. But I''m not that interested in any of this, I just want this base."

    "Want the base? Just the base?!" Alfonso didn''t directly buy William''s words. But when thetter kept his calm and didn''t say anything, Alfonso''s tense face eased up as he added in a cheerful tone, "sure, you can have it! There are tons of other bases around anyway. But¡­"

    "But what?"

    "This base seems a bit different," Alfonso knew this was the same legendary old fox he kept hearing about in old tales. And right now, he just felt more lucky and grateful that he let William handle that problem for him, "it''s filled with tons of forces, and of course it''ll be filled with deadly traps."

    "Don''t worry about this," William said, whilending his eyes over Thomas. Thetter cleared his throat, knowing what William wanted from him.

    "Cool," Alfonso then turned to a few of the strong masters around him, "go and spread the word. This base belongs to the Fox master. If he wants help, then everyone here is going to help him on my behalf."

    He indeed didn''t need to add thest part. But as any businessman, he''d not let such a chance to get to the good side of this scary fox master, even if others didn''t need him to say such a thing.

    Least to his knowledge that he was standing in front of William, not the old Fox master. And when he''d realise this, he''d p his forehead whileughing on how William''s luck was great.

    Things then turned out quite smooth for William. Everyone stopped their attempts to get into the base, clearing a huge area for William and his team to work at.

    Thomas was indeed a valuable piece for William. Using his karma spirit element, Thomas kept pointing out towards the right spots they needed to check, allowing them to deactivate all the blockages that stopped the spirit master army for a long time.

    Not only that. When they started walking down a long path leading to the bottom of this ce, Thomas kept pointing out towards different spots where many deadly traps and arrays were stealthily hidden.

    Like this the journey of William and his team inside the base was really smooth. These traps were nothing like the ones that were in the fox territory. And William could easily identify their points of weakness and exploit them.

    His vast knowledge astonished the newly joined members again. They all were high grade spirit masters, veterans who witnessed lots of things including traps and deadly arrays.

    They knew walking through such a path would be like walking down andmine. It was a dangerous work to deactivate all the traps and arrays here. And eventually someone had to miss and do something wrong, ending up detonating the deadly traps.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But William never made such a mistake. In their eyes, Thomas turned his eyes and hair all purple, pointed towards various ces, while William just started to examine these for a minute or two, before doing the right thing to deactivate them.

    In their eyes, it was like childish puzzles that kept getting deciphered easily by an adult.

    "Who are you?"

    And just as they crossed that path in an hour or so, they finally arrived towards a huge underground space. There they found nothing, but a single person dded in ck coat, waiting for them, "show your face!" William said in an arrogant tone. While the other partyplied and lowered their cape, showing a face of a young man who wasn''t any older than twenty-five years old.

    William looked into that man''s eyes directly, not recognising him. But he felt like he had already met him before, "Who are you?" as he failed to identify him, he had to ask again.

    "You once promised me of something insane, promised to help me stand at the frontlines and fight like any proper spirit master. Will you keep your words now?"

    "This¡­" in everyone''s eyes, this dark master was indeed saying bullshit. But unlike them, his words were like a symphony in William''s ears.

    "You are that dream master, hahahaha! You decided to join me then?" Williamughed, cancelled his form before adding, "how can you tell it was me?"

    "I can smell the same arrogance I felt before when I met you there," Moore said the truth. Once William arrived here, Moore didn''t recognise him from his fox form, yet he knew for sure he was William.

    "Interesting," William knew this wasn''t just based on a hunch and felt this dark spirit master had more than what an eye could tell, "what''s your name?"

    "Moore."

    "Ok Moore, I''ll tell you my conditions first. If you don''t like them, then you are free to go."

    "William!" "Boss!" Many eximed in surprise and doubt, while William kept his calm and confident smile on his face, "but¡­ You''ll have to try out your luck in surviving the lots of spirit masters waiting outside."

    "No need to threaten me," Moore waved his arm in a tired way, "I''m already aware of how dangerous my current situation is. No matter what conditions you have, I''ll fulfil them honestly."

    "A dark spirit master speaking about honesty? That''s a first!" Ibra harrumphed, while giving William a long look.

    If it was up to Ibra, if it was up to anyone here, they''d prefer to kill this dark spirit master and get rid of all the trouble. But to William, he was ready to risk it to get such a gem, a very rare and unique gem.

 Chapter 513 Panther Was Right!

    "Great then," William sped his hands, acting carefree about all this, "first you''ll have to let a totem on your chest. If you tried to remove it by force, it''ll detonate your heart. If you tried to resist a direct order from me, you''d get killed right on the spot. How about that?"

    William looked at Moore, and like seeing a man who lost everything and was willing to risk it all to survive, Moore nodded without any speck of hesitation.

    "Killing without my permission isn''t allowed," after William drew lots of small symbols over Moore''s chest, he finally said, "you aren''t allowed to speak with any of the dark spirit masters, including your former lord, without my permission. You aren''t allowed to betray me, disclose any secrets or intel about me, my team, my guild, and any of my business to anyone. Is that clear?"

    William stated his conditions down, and with every and each one of them, Moore obediently nodded.

    "Great! Now, tell me everything you know about your past lord, the dark forces you belonged to, and this base," William moved his eyes towards Thomas and other team members, and they nodded in understanding.

    Then they took their leave, led by Thomas who started to thoroughly scan this base and look for any hidden traps or treasure chests. At the same time, William stood his ce motionless for hours, listening to lots of words that Moore was saying without pause.

    From this moment onward, Moore kissed a goodbye kiss to his past life as a dark spirit master. He warmly embraced his new identity as a proper spirit master, a man who was working for this eleven years old kid in front of him.

    William listened for hours without getting bored. Moore belonged to one of the main dark forces in the entire region, part of the ck Mamba n.

    On top of that, his old master was treating him quite special, keeping him by his side most of the time. So, it made sense how deep and vast the amount of knowledge this youth knew.

    His intel was crucial for William andter on would y a great role in the second crusade the spirit masters here wouldunch against the other dark forces in the area. The region around the Scorching Lands fort was cleared off the dark forces. But there were still lots of other ces that didn''t get affected by any of that.

    And without knowing it, William was doing exactly what Panther previously foresaw. Panther said before to his friends and allies that they needed to save William and follow him, and that was why.

    William made sure to memorise everything, ask about any doubt he got, and even took out his map and started to draw more circles, dots, and lines there.

    Moore was shocked when he saw this map. Many of the dark forces'' grand ns and movements were recorded correctly and in great detail there. And Moore was sure he didn''t share with William most of this intel before now.

    He wanted to ask William about how he got his hands on such intel. But a single nce from William, a warning one, silenced him and made him stand there motionless, answering everything that William asked, and exining what this map missed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    During this, William''s team was doing a great job. The dark forces lived here for a long time. They left in a hurry and in a very sudden way. So, they left most of their treasured belongings hidden here, and Thomas found all of these.

    Most of the forces here left in a hurry to aid their entrapped folks facing William, Panther, and others. A good deal also moved to stop Alfonso back when he first arrived here. It was expected they''d not take away most of their treasured stuff. As for the ones who got trapped here till the end, they took anything they knew about, but missed tons of stuff.

    The dark spirit master world was built on the concept of treachery. No one entrusted anything to anyone else, even if he was their brother or part of their family. So just in the first few hours, it wasn''t a surprise for the team to find rings equal to the total amount they gathered so far from the hectic fights earlier.

    This was just the start. As they kept searching around, they kept finding hidden rings like the entire ce was constructed from rings and not rocks.

    "Is that all?" William raised his head and looked at Moore. After half a day, this man stopped speaking as he said everything he knew.

    "That''s everything I know about the dark forces in my entire life," Moore said, "I bet with all this, you can uproot the entire dark forces in the region."

    "Do you regret it or something?"

    "No," Moore wasn''t lying. He never felt any real attachment to such a darkmunity before, like anyone else working for them, "but..."

    "Don''t be hasty, we are going to clear this entire ce first before returning back," William knew what Moore wanted to say, "then a grand training program will be designed, not only for you but for all those who I personally selected."

    "I shall consider myself lucky then," Moore bitterly smiled, and Williamughed.

    "That''s indeed true," William said before storing away this valuable map. He decided to give it to his trusted teammates, letting them copy this map in detail. Then he''d distribute all these over Panther and his trusted folks.

    William could already imagine how grand the impact of this simple map would bring to the entire region. But he never imagined that dark forces all over the world copied the same formation and lineup. And that would make many dark forces suffer tons of damage when this map would leak and spread all over the worldter on.

    William then returned to his team, received a shitload of rings. Seeing this made him inwardly sigh. "I must open a ring stall when I''ll return," this was a must. After all, the number of rings in his possession was now in tens of thousands!

 Chapter 514 Gaining Tons Of Rings

    "Great work everyone," William stood in front of his team, with a big smile on his face. During the past week, they toured the entire base twice, collected everything they found, and made sure they didn''t miss anything.

    They didn''t just find rings, they also found stored materials, cores, scrolls, training manuals, fighting techniques, even lots of food in there. William wasn''t a generous one, took everything he found and stored them away.

    The number of rings alone reached a staggering number above one hundred thousand. Just from these rings, he knew he wouldn''t suffer at all for an entire decade, or even a century.

    But that was in case he lived a normal life. He intended once getting back to the fort to start expanding his guild. With such wealth and assets, materials and gears, he could easily expand without any worries.

    He didn''t n to just expand his guild in terms of spirit master numbers. He sat his eyes over the grand prize of alchemy and forging.

    William didn''t want to expand before as this was going to ce lots of pressure on his pockets. But right now, he could easily do things he nned for years in just mere months. And that was why he knew even with such scary wealth and resources; he''d end up exhausting most of these by the end of this year at most.

    "What are we going to do now?" Ibra asked while everyone started following William outside. They remained here for an entire week. They slept for an entire day after William joined them with Moore. And right now, they felt like they didn''t live through such a hectic war a week ago.

    "One week has already passed, so it''s safe to assume the war outside is over," William said while walking inside the same tunnel they came from, "we''ll go back to the fort. A big training program is waiting for all of you."

    William got to know all the team members during this adventure. They all proved their worth and value, proved how capable and trustworthy they were.

    So, William decided to go on full cylinders, training them like his master once did. He already scanned all of them, saw through their spirit power, spirit elements, and had lots of ns for all of them in his mind.

    He didn''t n to just devise a general training n for all of them. He''d give every single one of them a separate training system that he''d design ording to everyone''s unique abilities.

    "Oh, Alfonso is still staying here," William returned to the surface, finding Alfonso still standing beside the deep hole leading to the yellow river. He got the impression that Alfonso wouldn''t leave this ce for a long time. And his hunch was indeed right.

    "By the way, when do you n to give my disciple the other gems you promised before?" After exchanging little words with Alfonso, William realised this man decided to wait here for a long time.

    He nned to establish a camp here, to make use of the underground base. He just waited for William to finish what he was doing there before starting renovating the entire base.

    And so, William recalled the old promise Alfonso made to him and didn''t yet fulfil.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Oh, I got absorbed in testing what you told me and forgot about that," Alfonso scratched his head in embarrassment, "I''ll send for them to join William at your ce."

    William was standing in front of Alfonso in his fox form. The moment he left the base, he activated this form.

    "Cool then," William turned around before adding, "by the way, from my experience and from what William told me before, finding one yellow river means there are others around."

    "For real?" Alfonso was nearly this close from grabbing William''s shoulders. But as he was in fox state right now, it felt impossible for him to do so, "is there a chance you do know where I can find them?"

    Alfonso kept trying to find more yellow springs at other bases, but he failed. And soon enough, he lost hope and dropped such thought, stopping his men from doing this.

    "It''s simple," William smiled, motioned with one of his two tails towards one direction as he added, "just keep digging the river until you''ll find its origin. There you''ll find a grand spring, one that gives birth usually to around five up to seven rivers in total."

    Alfonso realised why his force didn''t find other yellow rivers at other bases. It seemed like he was looking at the wrong ces for what he desired. And when he thought for a moment about what William told him, he couldn''t help but feel blessed.

    "Five rivers? Hahahaha! That great!" Alfonso already got the idea of monopolising this ce and turning it into a profitable business, "tell William greetings and thanks for me. And tell him that he will get all the meals he likes for entire ten years for free, hahahaha!"

    William wouldn''t reject such a generous offer. He said his goodbyes with Alfonso after hearing thetest updates about the entire war. Then he started walking with his team back to the fort.

    Unlike what William expected, this war didn''t end by this week. It seemed the entiremunity of spirit masters here got riled up and excited, chasing the fleeing dark spirit masters all the way down to the main roads to the capital of the kingdom.

    William didn''t know if this would escte any further or not. If the dark spirit masters lost it, then they''d point towards the ces of other dark forces far away from here during their retreat without intending to do so.

    If that happened, then more battles would ur, and this war would be far from over by the passage of another week, or perhaps a month.

    As things here cooled down a little, William decided it was time to mind his own business. He led the way back to the fort while sending messages to Panther and other leaders of this grand army whenever he met any spirit master groups in his path.

 Chapter 515 The Forts Bright Future

    Soon enough William got to meet Panther. And there he handed to him the new map, asked him to copy and follow its marked routes and spots. Panther was excited when he learnt about the true value of this map, and instantly ordered lots of his subordinates to copy it not only on one map, but on arge stack of them.

    Panther intended to widely distribute this map all over the other figures on his side. As for William, and how he got such grand and secret intel, Panther didn''t ask. He didn''t care about the methods William used, only cared about the results.

    As William dealt with this task, he left after exchanging a few words with Panther. Thetter spoke in great excitement about the bright future of the entire region after the heat of this war would settle down.

    He was expecting that this area would turn to be the safe haven to many spirit masters living in the world. He even anticipated some grand migration move that was like a pilgrimage. And William couldn''t see anything weird about this.

    Even if this was a world filled with spirit masters, there were still more people who didn''t have any spirit power at all. They always were seen as the inescapable ck sacrifices of any conflict in this world. Such people never found a single ce safe enough to live in without much worry.

    And that would all change after this war. That was why Panther and other smart masters were embracing the crazy expansion of this war. The wider this war stretched, the more free and safends they''d end to have.

    That was also part of the reasons behind Panther''s great mood after seeing William''s map. It''d serve his goal greatly.

    "What do you think?" As the team followed William back to the fort, they kept discussing what Panther said.

    "It''s possible that will happen," William nodded in agreement.

    "Do you think the fort will expand? Turn into a grand city or something? Like the kingdom''s capital of some sort?!" Even Berry showed great interest in Panther''s words.

    Panther didn''t just stop at his futuristic and highly optimistic vision about the migration of tons of people here. By his words, the fort was too small to amodate all of these immigrants. So, there would be a grand building project around, turning this fort and thends around into some sort of a huge and bustling city.

    That wasn''t all, he even expected many huge towns to rise up in the entire zone. "It''s all up to the uing months to decide that. But that isn''t the right issue for us to worry about. The main issue lies in the academy and the ns there."

    "The academy?! What about it?"

    "What about the ns?!"

    "Why are you saying this?"

    The ones who apanied him all the way from the academy got worried when William said these words. And thetter could only sigh before exining what they all missed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Don''t you see? It''s not just a massacre to the entire dark forces in the region, but also to the monsters. I bet there won''t be a single monster seen for hundreds, even thousands of kilometres away from here. Tell me, how can any n or the academy survive such a peaceful ce?"

    "..."

    William''s wordsnded and everyone got silenced from them. They never saw this situation from such an angle before. Even Panther failed to do so as well.

    "Tsk! I bet an arm that you already have an idea about what''s going to happen!" Ibra shook his head, waved his ive in the air as if he was going to fight or something.

    "It''s not that hard to guess," William paused before adding, "all the ns and the academies getting affected by this weird situation will have to relocate."

    "Relocate?!!!" it wasn''t just the ones from the academy who eximed in such shock, but many others as well. After all, even if many masters here came from the fort, they still had origins and ties with other ns and academies as well.

    "Will we move with them?" Sara asked, and William looked at their eyes, stopped moving and they followed suit.

    It seemed he was going to say something important, and indeed it was.

    "I know you all came from different ces, but I have to tell you this¡­ Once you are part of my team, ept my training sessions and other things from me, then forget about going after anyone or chasing for a n or an academy¡­"

    William paused, and he knew not all of the masters he gathered here would continue in his team. But he didn''t care about any of that. He''d not waste his time and effort, giving them such precious things in return to see any of them leaving at any notice from a n or an academy.

    "I won''t ept anyone joining my top guild''s training program and see him leaveter on. So, take this time to deeply reflect about this issue. The moment you make up your mind about staying or leaving, juste and inform me about this."

    William gave his team a period of one week to think about things before taking any decision. For him, he wasn''t in a hurry to start training them anytime soon.

    He knew that once he''d return back to the guild, lots of things would be waiting for him to do. For example, he had to go through the tons of rings and loot he gathered from the base and dark spirit masters in this war.

    To him, this wasn''t a torture. Who''d ever be tortured to check such endless wealth in front of him? But that was just one issue in a long list of his.

    He had to regte the guild and reform it, changing it into two general departments. One department would be dedicated to epting spirit masters, training them, doing missions, and such. As for the other department, it''d handle the supply of gears, potions, and other important supplies for any spirit master.

 Chapter 516 Plans For Five Years

    William wanted also to take a grand tour in the fort, buy lots of ces inside and outside. He believed in the Panther''s viewpoint about the future. And the earlier they move the better they''d gain lots of great spots in thends outside the fort.

    There was also the problem of Transformers and their allies in the fort. William knew the Scorching Lands entire zone got cleansed off all the dark spirit masters and monsters, but there still existed the dirty Transformers and their allies who didn''t join this war.

    William wanted to go through everything he acquired, especially from the base. He hoped to find a lead or something to help him identify the traitors inside the fort, and better if he found any clue about the true ces of the Transformers.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    However, just before he''d arrived at the fort, a loud and violent series of explosions rang out there, shocking the entire fort andrge space ofnd around it.

    William and his team paused in their tracks, looked towards the fort while not knowing what was happening out there.

    "Don''t tell me the war extended to the fort as well!" one of the team members muttered in a low tone. And for a reason, William felt this was indeed something that could happen.

    But when they entered the fort, they were surprised to see it was quite empty. They imagined seeing lots of spirit masters here, fighting traitors in the fort. But all they found were scarcely few groups of masters running in panic, trying to put down the grand fire that appeared from these sudden explosions.

    "Excuse me, what''s happening here?" William had to stop one of these scarcely seen groups and asked one of them.

    "No time for that! Lots of ces suddenly exploded, and we need to hurry and put down the fire, save these ces and people who were inside."

    "This¡­" even William got shocked by what he heard. But when he took a tour around the fort, he finally got it.

    He got what happened when he saw the hotel he once stayed at and saw the Transformers inside explode as well.

    It went without saying what truly happened here. It seemed the Transformers got anxious from all the ongoing war outside, and decided to cut all the loose ends that might point towards them.

    This was indeed a smart and quite decisive and bold move from them. William got this hotel, Mark and the other worker who led him to see the Transformers before, as the only links towards those beings.

    And now? By this hotel exploding like this, with many ces that also suffered from the same fate, William was sure all the leads he hoped to find were gone!

    There were no links left to guide him towards those Transformers. And that made him quite wary and a bit worried.

    "Shall we help?" Berry asked out of her pure heart.

    "Not our problem anymore," Williamnded ast gaze over this hotel bathed in wildly raging mes, "I''m sure no masters were here when these explosions happened. Let''s go, we have lots of other things to do."

    William led them back to the guild, where he found it quite empty. He sighed when he saw this and knew from the few who were left there to continue constructing the various buildings inside that his guild members got summoned by the grand masters in the fort.

    They all moved out under the lead of Remy, went to fight and kill the dark spirit masters and monsters.

    William wanted to send his guild members out to look for any running away masters, start a big hunt before they''d vanish at the hectic war going on outside. The explosions just happened not long ago, and those traitors who owned these ces weren''t that far away.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He was new here, so he didn''t know who owned what. But for the ones who joined his guild and were living in the fort for enough time, finding these folks wasn''t a problem.

    William turned to his team, to entirely drop the idea of sending them out the next moment. Hecked the needed numbers to go over such a wild hunt right away. And like this, he knew these Transformers already secured their secrets from his reach.

    "Good one, good move indeed," William sighed, while turning to others before adding, "you got one week. After this, whoever will stay here will enter a long period of training under my direct supervision. The ones who will leave won''t get anything but wishes of good luck from me."

    "Hmm¡­ How long do you n to keep us confined here?" Sara knew it was a hard call to make. She wanted to be with William, not only for his promised teachings, not because she got feelings for him, but mainly because he was the only person who could help her unveil her mother''s mystery.

    But that woulde at the cost of not seeing her grandfather and brother for a long time. Berry also thought the same, but to her she was leaning more to be with William than returning to the n.

    "I''d say five years at least," William paused for a long minute, "give or take a few months. I won''t call it over until you reach that high grade in power. And then you can go out and visit your ns and academies but won''t dream about staying there for long time. At most, you can go away for a few months before returning back."

    "That means¡­ We won''t join the academies and ns again!"

    "Dark gold grade?! Jumping from gold grade to dark gold grade in five years?!!!"

    "Damn! I''m still at silver grade! Can I make it?"

    "Hey, you are all stronger than me," John rolled his eyes, "I''m at bronze grade. Can I really make it?"

    William looked at his team''s stupefied faces before a wide smile appeared on his, "of course! If you follow my teachings to the letter, then getting there won''t be a problem. The worst any of you will get will be just rising up to gold grade, and I''m speaking about those in bronze grade."

    "..."

    "Now go, rest and heal. Think about this deep enough and give me an answer in one week."

    "No need to wait for a week! I''m in!" John was the first to agree, followed by Ibra, Berry, and Sara.

    Seeing Berry and Sara agree made Lang, Peter, and the silver ones who came from the academy agree as well. Moore didn''t need to decide anything, his fate was already sealed with William since the moment he walked away from hisst lord.

    Thomas also expressed his willingness to join. As for the rest, they hesitated, asked for time to think about things over. And William didn''t show any emotion at all towards their decision.

    "Time to rise up like a rocket then," William was excited about this training period. It wasn''t only dedicated to his team and selected unique members with rare talents, it was also meant for himself.

    He knew he''d face lots of trouble with the absence of monsters around, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t without any solutions to solve this. He had his training manual, the technique he got from the ck fox, and his spirit purity technique as well.

    Not to mention he also got the fox statue, which he nned to start absorbing its power madly from now on.

    And like this, five years passed¡­

 Chapter 517 After Five Years

    After five years¡­

    "Are we going to find him here?"

    "Who knows, but at least we will try and convince him to represent us!"

    "This ce truly changed! I recalling here ten years ago, and it was just a little spot in the corner of the world. See it now, all these grand buildings, wide streets, huge space that spans to cover hundreds of kilometres¡­ What a miraculous change it is!"

    "Don''t belittle their turning moment, the alpha battle started all from here. I see they deserve everything they are enjoying now, turning the Scorching Lands fort into the Scorching Land big city!"

    A group of spirit masters, dded in golden white coats and cloaks, were walking in the middle of the Scorching Lands huge city''s streets, speaking among themselves.

    They were walking in the middle of a wide street, filled with lots of people and caravans. This was the new city of the Scorching Lands, the crown jewel of the entire region, a ce people living here felt pride and admiration towards.

    Like these spirit masters said, this ce started from being a little fort all the way to the huge city it was now. They travelled from areas beyond the Scorching Lands, travelled for months, all to get here and met a single person in particr.

    "Wow! Stories weren''t over exaggerating then," as the team of one hundred spirit masters arrived at a certain ce, one of them said in pure admiration,menting over the bustling scene in front of him.

    This team was made entirely of eitherte-stage gold grade or early-stage dark gold grade, led by one who was in the mid rank of dark gold grade.

    In front of them, the wide street kept getting wider, opening up to some sort of a vast za. That wasn''t all, the za was filled to the brim with many people, merchants who came here from faraway ces, travelling for a long time, just to get the wonders of this ce they all gathered on front of its doorsteps.

    "Tsk! I recall my time when I was here ten years ago. It wasn''t like this, not even close!"

    "What do you mean?"

    "This fortcked any decent gear or potion, not to mention elixirs. And now look at this¡­ Lines upon lines are standing in front of the many stalls outside this ce, waiting for their turn to buy the well-known ck Fox gears, potions, and elixirs¡­ Tsk!"

    "I heard it all started with him," the leader of this team said in a deep voice, "I read many records about him. Rumours say he started out as a mere porter, not even a proper spirit master. And now? He ended up creating all this¡­ What a feat!"

    "I heard he did all this, and yet his power isn''t that much! Truly admirable!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The team members looked at the girl who said these words. She was at twenty-two years old, a refined and hot looking youngdy with such a tight outfit in contrast to what everyone else here wore.

    She was at gold grade, hailed from a prestigious family at the ce the team came from. "Don''t look at me like this, I did my research as all of you," she rolled her eyes, cleared her throat before adding, "I heard he has a team which started from silver and even bronze grades, ending up in mere five years to be at gold and even dark gold grade. As for him, the mastermind behind all this, he is still at the silver grade."

    "No way! I heard he is already a gold grade!" another member said, a young man who seemed to blurt out like this out of his envy and not pure facts, "it''s impossible for a silver spirit master to do any of this. He must be lying about his power; stories must be lying as well¡­"

    "They aren''t lying!" thedy argued back, speaking in a high and arrogant tone.

    "We''ll see when we meet him."

    "See what exactly?"

    Just when the two red at each other, an alien voice came from the side, startling most if not all of them.

    They turned and saw a tall and strong looking youth, who was around sixteen years old. He had dark blue hair, with few strands of silver white ones scattered across his head.

    He had dark eyes, shimmering with life and confidence. With a deep indentation at his chin, and a faint scar at his forehead, he looked quite ferocious and not easy to deal with.

    He wore a ck attire, with silver belt surrounding his waist, holding a strong looking ive in his right hand, and a heavy looking broadsword sheathed at his back.

    On the side of his chest, there was an emblem there, one that had a golden head of a fox stitched in brilliant handmade design.

    "You are¡­" the leader of this team asked, while all of his team already guessed the identity of this youth. Just from the emblem at his chest, they could tell he belonged to the Fox guild, the famous name that spread all over the world and shook it five years ago.

    And from the golden threads making out this emblem and the ck attire he wore, they knew the owner belonged to the closest confidants of the leader and founder of this guild. Ranks in the guild started from white, bronze, silver, and gold. The highest grade there was the ck grade, which was something a bit weird in the eyes of the rest of the world. Daring to use the legendary rank colour wasn''t amonly seen thing in this world.

    People admired and aspired for the ck coloured spirit power, the legendary grade. But few dared to use such symbol and express their true intentions like how William and his elite guild team did.

    But it wasn''t the only weird thing about this guild, everything actually about it was weird. Be it the name, the way the guild worked, even the business it ran¡­ Nothing rted to this Fox guild looked normal in the eyes of any spirit master.

 Chapter 518 Lawrence

    People took the guild as a form of grand impact. But it wasn''t true. The guild only epted tasks rted to dark spirit masters, clearing monsterirs, and defending any ce against monster outbreak only.

    Impacts epted many tasks actually, varying between escorting merchants in their travel, up to even building cities or work as mercenaries. To the Fox guild, they only cared about dark spirit masters and monsters, nothing else.

    As for the items they produced, they were well known all over the world. They were new, different from any other item sold anywhere else. On top of that, they had their strengths, in a way or another.

    "It''s me who should ask this question to you," that young man smiled, and for a reason it felt like they were eyed by a ferocious beast.

    "We might be merchantsing here to purchase the products of the guild, why suspect us then?" the leader didn''t directly answer the question, and instead tried to see through this young man he identally met.

    "Well, if you are like what you im, then you should be travelling with caravans, lots of guards."

    "Our carriages are our rings," the leader didn''t give up, feeling a bit amused by this talk, "and these aren''t enough to be called guards?"

    "No, they don''t look like any guard in my eyes," the young man paused, moving his eyes around the one hundred faces in front of him, "they look more like disciples, and you are their master."

    "Good eyes," the leader of this team didn''t hide it anymore,ughed shortly before adding, "we came from far away, travelled a long distance just to meet with your guild''s founder and leader."

    "Is that so?" the young man didn''t seem surprised by this, "let''s go then. I''ll take you inside."

    The young man didn''t halt his tracks and walked towards the front. Unlike the general situation here, he didn''t go directly towards the huge gate that was shut, headed instead towards a side street.

    "This¡­" one of the team members said in doubt.

    "Believe me, it''s easier and much calmer to go through this way," the young man smiled, as if he was also getting amused from meeting them, "if we went through the front gate, things would grow a bit hectic there."

    "Sounds like you are someone known in this ce," the girl who argued before about William''s spirit power grade said. And others couldn''t help but wait in anticipation for this youth''s response.

    "Everyone in the ck Tails team is someone famous," he reached towards a side alley, where things were quiet and calm, "follow me, and make sure to not touch anything that I didn''t. Or else¡­ Don''t put it on me if you lose anyone on your team."

    His tone was calm, and his voice looked normal, but to the ones who heard him, it seemed quite scary for an unknown reason. They looked at each other while that youth touched the grand wall of the Fox guild. And with his touch, muffled sounds came, announcing the movements of many gears inside.

    "A metal engineering spirit element¡­ The one who made this hidden path is really special!" the leader instantly recognised this mechanism of entry and spotted the one behind it.

    *Crack!*<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    A door that didn''t seem to exist there slid down to the ground, opening a hole enough for five people to walk side by side through.

    "Anyone from the ck Tails team of our guild is quite special," the youth paused, waiting for the door to finally fall to the ground, revealing a dimly lit tunnel behind, "follow me. And don''t forget, don''t touch anything."

    "No need to keep telling this to us, we aren''t kids!" the young man who argued with the hot girl before said. For a reason, he didn''t like the youth whom they identally met. And without knowing it, a will to fight andpare himself with this youth erupted in his heart, erupted fiercely that he couldn''t control it.

    "You say you are a strong spirit master then," driven by his desire to impress the hot girl in the team, that young man said in an arrogant way.

    "And?" the youth who kept walking forward through such a deep tunnel said without even sparing this young man a nce.

    "I want to test how strong you are."

    "For real!" the youth rolled his eyes, "have you travelled all the way here only to have such a death wish?"

    "You¡­" the young man never expected such a response from that youth, "don''t be full of yourself! I''m a dark gold grade spirit master, one who is stronger than you for sure."

    "And?" the youth seemed to not take any of what this reckless young man was saying to heart, "who said spirit power is the sole factor in determining who is stronger than the other? How childish of you!"

    "I challenge you to fight me then, do you dare?!" that young man got hyped up, bringing himself a fierce re from the leader of his team, and many others in the team as well.

    "Ahem, sorry about that but our Lawrence here is a bit tired," the leader cleared his throat, trying to save this situation from getting any worse.

    "Master! He is nothing! No one in his age can possibly get to dark gold grade! Let me fight him, let me show everyone here how strong and capable we are!"

    "Shut the hell up!" the leader got fed up with this reckless and short-tempered young man. Anything that was rted to Sofia, the youngdy in the team, would drive Lawrence mad!

    "But¡­"

    "I said shut up!" the leader shouted in impatience, while the look on his face promised Lawrence a severe punishmentter on.

    Thest thing this master would want was for a conflict of some sort to start up between his group and the Fox guild. If Lawrence failed, then it''d look pretty badter on, and might even affect the decision of William about the request they came here for.

 Chapter 519 Its Him!!!

    If Lawrence won¡­ It''d be much worse actually. Who knew how William would react to such an incident. They should curry favour with William and his guild, not to stir up trouble at the first moments of their interaction with them.

    "We have arrived," the situation grew a bit tense from that moment onward. The youth from the ck Tails team of the Fox guild didn''t respond to Lawrence rude words. He kept his silence until they passed through the tunnel. And after walking through, descending and going up for almost ten minutes, they finally saw a bright lighting from the end of it.

    "Thanks for the trouble," the master said while moving his eyes around. The least word that could describe this ce was outstanding!

    The ce was too vast, filled with lots of grand looking buildings. All over the ce, many spirit masters stood there, either training, exchanging knowledge between each other, or inviting others to form a team, to do a mission for the guild.

    In the eyes of this master, this guild was like a decent academy. It was on a much smaller scale, but it was still a good ce without doubt.

    "I can''t leave you walking around, or else bad things will happen," the youth said, while giving Lawrence a light look, "our guild members don''t tolerate any outsiders without proper badges on their chests."

    "Then go and bring us these badges," Lawrence was still lost in his haughty attitude, not knowing that he was standing in the face of a true monster.

    "Silence!'''' The master grew tired from Lawrance''s attitude. He red again in warning towards that young man, before turning to the youth and cupped his hands in respect.

    "I''m sorry to trouble you again," his respect wasn''t thanks to this youth''s power or status, but thanks to the big name of the guild he belonged to and William who stood behind it.

    "No problem," the youth paused, turning to Lawrence before adding, "didn''t you want a spar before? How about this, I just got out from a long and dull training. Why won''t you help me stretch my muscles a little bit?"

    "You¡­ Great! Just great! Let''s fight till death then!" Lawrence was fuming with rage. He came asking to challenge this youth, ending up getting ignored and heavily reprimanded by his master. And when he wanted to stay silent, mind his own business, that youth came for him.

    So Lawrence got riled up again, and even brought this supposedly friendly spar to be a death match between the two.

    "Sir¡­ Why stirring up trouble?" The master feared the worst might happen and tried to meddle in between the two. But that move of his waste, toote actually as this youth already sat his eyes over Lawrence.

    "Don''t worry," the youth cracked a calm smile that looked a bit scary, "I guarantee my guild''s leader won''t hold it against you. Just make sure to deliver the news correctly when you return to the ce you came from. Your man here asked for his own death on his own volition. I did nothing wrong, ok?"

    "..." The master didn''t know what to say at this moment. Actually, all of this did indeed start thanks to the foolishness of Lawrence. But for a reason, he felt like this youth''s words held strange credibility and weight to them.

    "Let''s fight to death!" Lawrence took out two long spears, nted them in the ground before taking two more, "I won''t go easy on you. Use your full strength, kiddo, or else don''t me anyone but yourself in the end."

    "I don''t need to," the youth smirked, "you don''t deserve for me to go all out."

    "F*ck you!" Lawrence screamed in anger, activating his spirit before his body released torrents of ck gold bubbles that soon started to take a form.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "A horned horse with rudimentary feathers? What a nice spirit you got there," the youth didn''t change the look on his face while examining Lawrence''s spirit.

    "Use your spirit, I won''t hold back my hands until you are dead!" Lawrence shouted and his voice changed a little and became deeper. The next moment, the spears he held in his hands were shot out like bolts of lightning, heading towards nowhere else but this youth''s head.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    Unlike what Lawrence envisioned, unlike what many expected, that youth nimbly moved around, evading all the iing spears. Lawrence felt like he got an endless supply of spears, kept throwing them as if he was throwing daggers.

    But this youth knew this wasn''t true. The thing was that Lawrence got metal element and affinity, enabling him to control the thrown-out spears, to make them return back to his hands in a sh like they were drawn to a ma or something.

    From the start Lawrence didn''t use more than the four spears he took out.

    "Is this all you got?" After a couple of minutes, that youth suddenly said, "I expected more than this. Anyway, let me finish this fast. I''m hungry."

    "Shut the hell up and fight me!"

    "Fine, you asked for your death anyway¡­"

    The next minute, something truly terrifying happened here. The moment the youth said his words, he stopped moving. When everyone thought he gave up or something, as Lawrence imagined his spears prating through this arrogant youth''s chest, and when the master was about to sh and save this youth at thest second, something came out from this youth''s body.

    It was ck fog at first, not the kind of being pitch ck or something. It was slightly pale, looking like a grey fog more than being ck.

    And then one tail appeared, while that youth started to develop two small fox ears.

    "This¡­"

    "No way!!!"

    "It''s¡­ It''s him!!!"

    "It''s William!!!"

    Without the need to ask, and without even knowing his face image, they all guessed it right. It was William, and he just came back from a long training session over his techniques. It was easy to recognise him, after all he was the only spirit master with fox spirit in the entire world!

 Chapter 520 [Bonus ] I Dont Toy With My Enemies Anymore

    William kept training like crazy during the past five years. The ck fox spirit he met before wasn''t lying, the technique he learnt from it was indeed great and marvellous.

    It didn''t just change the colour of his spirit body into ck instead of silver, but it also gave him more control over his spirit form. Right now, William didn''t need to change all the way to the scary form of his fox spirit and could easily control his spirit form and develop any number of tails he wanted.

    After five years, and through lots of adventures, he added two more tails to his spirit. Not to mention gaining five more spirit elements. He now had ten spirit elements, with four special ones and six normal elements.

    William wasn''t lying before; he didn''t need to use his full strength to take down Lawrence. In fact, he didn''t intend to kill this young spirit master in the beginning, nned to just give this rogue spirit master a little discipline. But when Lawrence started insulting and cursing him, he decided to kill him.

    William controlled his spirit form, taking just one tail out. In such a form, he developed little features of a real fox, including his ears and eyes. He looked at Lawrence, and thetter got what others here realised.

    But it was a bit toote for him to realise that.

    "You¡­"

    "I''m the one who you kept mocking sinceing here," William waved his ive in the air twice, a bad habit that he got from his long stay with Ibra, "don''t try to apologise, I won''t ept that."

    "Sir William, please be merciful," the master jolted awake from his shock and shouted at once, "he is just a reckless kid."

    "I''m not a kid!" Before William would say anything back to the master, Lawrence shouted in a fierce way, "if he is William, then he is just at silver grade as rumours tell. He isn''t that strong, not someone a dark gold spirit master like me should fear!"

    "What can I say?" William shook his head in a hopeless way, "five years ago, I could easily kill any dark gold spirit master like yourself. Do you think it''ll be troublesome for me to do it again after all this time?"

    William''s tone was calm, but his eyes and demeanour were quite savage. But he wasn''t lying, he was just stating the truth. Five years ago, William could deal with any dark spirit masters at early and even mid grades.

    The thing that changed all this time, and thanks to his hard work and training, was that he could do it now without the need to overexert himself.

    He didn''t need to swallow any elixir bottles or use his full powered technique to take Lawrence down. He could now do it by just using one tail, and even without the need to activate his spirit body in full form, or even use the full power of his technique.

    William right now was different than William five years ago. He was strong, and he had different ways to take down this young man easily without breaking a sweat.

    "Don''t try to bluff your way out of this," but Lawrence didn''t recall any of his reckless attitude back, "I heard the stories about that old battle. You have to use your spirit full form and full power; you have to struggle to fight someone like me. I bet if you keep that one tail wiggling behind you, you''ll die!"

    "Cool," William tilted his head, giving the old man who was Lawrence''s master a cold look, "don''t intervene. Or I swear I''ll deal with you, all of you, seriously if you did that."

    William''s words held a terrifying level of threat in them. And everyone here was sure William was able to see such a threat through if he wanted to. The master couldn''t help but inwardly sigh, looking in a bitter way towards Lawrence.

    "Why always stirring the ho nest? What a troublesome kid you are!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Listen up," William then turned towards the fool in front of him, "I won''t use any more tails than this one, and you''ll still die in the end."

    "Empty wor¡­" *Fwoosh!* *Boom!*

    Before Lawrence would continue his arrogant words, William moved. The two were less than fifty metres away at this point, and William just dashed directly towards him.

    He didn''t even charge up his old technique, and yet the ive he held by one arm shone in a dangerous fire light.

    The moment the ivended, a fierce explosion urred, releasing tons of dust in the air.

    "Trying to use a fire element against me? I''ve the ice element, idiot!" Lawrence''s voice came from the middle of the thick dust cloud, seemingly not affected by such a hit. William was close from Lawrence and could see a shimmering white shield that surrounded his target fully.

    "Say my greetings to all the enemies I killed before," but against what Lawrence or anyone here expected, William didn''t follow his technique with another. Instead, he lowered his ive, turned around, and started walking towards a single direction.

    Lawrence was about to curse out loud, shout at William''s back, and was ready to start attacking again using his spears. But before he''d move a muscle, he felt something igniting inside his body.

    William didn''t just evolve his spirit form, spirit purity level, or even his spirit power. William made lots of modifications to his self-invented technique of his, developing more variations to it.

    The one tail form of his spirit allowed him to select a single spirit element to use. And for each element he got, he developed a variation of his initial technique. Right now, William chose his fire element to use, and that was for a good reason.

    He simply used the fire spirit element in his attack. The trick wasn''t inunching a deadly brutal attack like he used to do before. Instead, and by using the new ck form of his spirit, he could let his fire element seep deeply into the body of any target once got hit by his technique.

    Lawrence didn''t know it, but the moment that attacknded, his life already ended. And that was one of the scariest things about William''s newly devised techniques.

    He didn''t know how to toy with any enemy. As long as he or she or it was at the early grade of dark gold grade or lower, their fate would be sealed by just one hit!

    "Agh!" Even before the dust would settle, Lawrence screamed in an agonising tone. Before his master moved, Lawrence''s body fell heavily on the ground, before breaking apart like it was made out of ss.

    Instead of shattering into little pieces, his body turned into red ash that withered in the air quite fast. There was no wind, yet to those watching this battle, it felt like a breeze of air was flowing right now, carrying away Lawrence''s ash. Not even a single drop of blood remained. The only things that were left behind were his rings, gears, and outfit, nothing more!

    "This¡­"

    "Quite scary!!"

    Members of Lawrence''s team got scared by seeing this. No one imagined a dark gold spirit master would fall by just a single hit, and from someone who was at silver grade on top of that.

 Chapter 521 Rejecting Their Offer

    "Wee to my world," William said with a calm smile over his face. He turned and looked at them, not sparing the ce where the dead Lawrence was, a single nce, e, follow me or else I won''t guarantee your safety."

    The master sent one of his group to collect Lawrence belongings. He felt bitter about the entire situation, feeling that bad luck was already on their side.

    He feared to cause problems with William through this, never expecting that youth to be William himself. He looked at where Lawrence died, shook his head, then they followed William.

    Everywhere they went, they saw how everyone around greeted William with respect and veneration. They even felt little fear in a few of them, as if William was some sort of a ferocious beast.

    William calmly led them all the way towards a big building in the centre. Since he started expanding his guild, purchasing this huge space outside the fort five years ago, and he decided to build a central building there.

    It was a symbol of the building in the centre of the Fox territory at the fort. Right now, that old fox territory garnished extreme fame, and was known now as the Lair of the fox guild by many.

    William nned with Remy and others the expansion of the guild, ending up limiting ess to the Lair of the fox in the fort to the selected members whom he personally picked and trained.

    "So¡­ What are you doing here? And where did youe from?"

    Inside the grand building of ten storey high, William sat over a big seat that was elevated from the ground by two metres. He designed it to be like the throne he used to sit upon in the outer world.

    The team of ny-nine members stood in front of him, with different emotions expressed over their faces.

    The master who led them here stood at the forefront, not knowing how to describe the current situation.

    He came here, aiming to recruit William to their team. But things started all on the wrong foot by Lawrence''s foolish actions. His best chances now were gone, and hopefully William would stick to the words he said before shing with Lawrence.

    "Ahem¡­ We came from the ck Scale academy," the master cleared his throat, pushing away all the worries inside, "and we came to speak with you about a matter."

    "The ck Scale academy?!" William frowned for a moment, "isn''t it situated far to the north? You surely have some stressing matters to cross all this distance ande here."

    The old man could only smile, a pale and faint one. He indeed came here travelling for almost a month. "We came to give you an invitation," the old man paused, st time we checked, you didn''t join any academy, correct?"

    "Oh, so it''s about that stupid spirit masterpetition after all," William sighed. In fact, this wasn''t the first time he''d get such a kind of visit.

    Before this master from the ck Scale academy, many others tried and yet they all failed. "I''m sorry, but it seems you wasted your time."

    "Sorry to be rude but isn''t it true you don''t belong to any academy?" the master didn''t give up, just the same as many others.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Well, formally speaking, I don''t belong to anything¡­ However¡­" William paused, recalling the old promise he gave to Kong and the former Aspire academy''s headmaster, "I do have an academy that I belong to."

    "Who?" the master seemed a bit startled, "I never heard of you joining anyone."

    "It''s the one I hailed from actually," William calmly smiled, snapped his fingers before a servant appeared from the door, "please follow him. You''ll rest for a day at a private hotel the guild runs. Then you are free to go back to your academy."

    "But¡­"

    "Just drop it," William didn''t feel any rage or insult from this old man, "I already said I belong to an academy."

    "I have to say you don''t stand a chance with them!" One of the ck Scale team couldn''t control himself anymore, "the Stardust academy isn''t that famous!"

    "At least you heard about its name," William''s smile grew bigger, "and with me and others on my side joining them, things will be different. Believe me, we are more than enough to crush fliesing from anywhere in the continent."

    "How dare you¡­?!!"

    "Silence!" Thest thing the master would love to see was for another member of his team to get ughtered on this cruel fox''s hands, "thanks sir William for your generosity. We''ll leave right away."

    William didn''t say anything to stop them from leaving. However just as the team moved away, a group entered from the door.

    They were ten in number, wearing the same uniform and emblem as William. "Another desperate academy to recruit us?" a tall young girl said with a mocking tone while giving the team from the ck Scale academy a cold gaze.

    The team of that academy didn''t retort back, under the strict orders from their master.

    "They want to recruit all of us without even bothering to ask about where we came from! Tsk! What a bunch of bold spirit masters they are!"

    William looked at the strong looking, tall and muscr man who said these words. He held a heavy ive in one hand, and a rod of metal like a short stick in his other hand.

    "Ibra, stop seeking trouble with anyoneing here!" William rolled his eyes, before checking the ten who came here.

    They were part of his ck Tails elite team, the most trusted ones in them actually. They were the ones who apanied him from the Aspire academy all the way to here, members of his old team, plus a couple of new faces as well.

    Berry grew to be a fine girl indeed. She didn''t keep her red hair long and loose like before, cut it short and banded it to form a ponytail.

 Chapter 522 Looking For His Enemies

    Berry matured fast during the past five years, supported by her twin spirit. And yet, her merging final spirit didn''t take form yet, not even when she reached the gold grade.

    William started to believe that she''d show her final spirit at the pinnacle of dark gold grade, or perhaps when she''d travel with him to the outer world. For a reason, the newly formed spirit didn''t show itself yet, not even showing a shape or giving William any clue about its identity.

    Berry showed an exquisite shaped female body that was enough to stir storms in any heart. And Sara also didn''t fail behind. When William looked at the two, he couldn''t help but recall the fiercepetition that kept happening between these two girls over currying his favour in the past few years.

    Sara was always a fierce girl, but Berry seemed to grow wild when she grew older. In these five years, Berry wasn''t the same crybaby she always was, never showing a single moment of shyness or hesitation when it came down to William.

    Aside from these two, Lang, Peter, Thomas, Moore, and John were present from the old team.

    William started expanding the guild and found lots of gems. He didn''t stop there, and selected two of the most capable ones, added them to his trusted circle of friends.

    These two were one male and one female. He found them not in the fort, not in the newly constructed city, but when he was adventuring outside.

    The male was twenty years old, with green hair, green eyes, and the rare spirit element of life. He could heal and even replenish the lost spirit power of any team member using various techniques that William taught him. And his name was Jax.

    The girl was eighteen years old, brown hair and crimson red eyes. She was Alex, and she got a very rare spirit element as well, the rage spirit element.

    She could use various techniques and release different sized aura fields, enough to augment any team member around in strength and add more to their lethality.

    In William''s eyes, the two were true gems that he only heard about in old tales and legends before.

    "I can''t do it while you can?" Ibra motioned towards William before adding, "I heard you already fought one from them, ending up killing him!"

    "Ahem, he deserved that," William cleared his throat while calmly smiling. Ibra grew to be more ferocious, especially when he learnt lots of techniques suiting his darkness spirit element from William, "let''s talk about your mission¡­ Did you do it?"

    "We tried to locate it, but failed again," Sara sighed, "can you at least exin why we are looking for that specific monster all the time?"

    "I want to settle scores with it, so I''m ok with going after it from time to time!" Ibra waved his ive in the air, while everyone sighed and rolled their eyes.

    Ibra was like this, a battle maniac! He loved nothing in the world more than fighting. Be it sparring with team members, fighting at the Spar Arena in the city, or even killing monsters.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William looked at her and didn''t help but recall many things. The monster Sara spoke about was the Nightmare monster.

    Since that epic battle, the situation in the fort grew to be much calmer than before. But to William, there were few little things that kept annoying him.

    One of them was the Nightmare monster. The scale of the dark master crusade war that urred five years ago stretched out to cover thousands of kilometres in the end. And yet, William never heard from anyone about meeting such a monster before.

    He kept trying to look for it, trying to find and capture that copy of his archenemy. However, all his attempts failed, just like his attempts to locate the Transformers.

    When the war ended, William met with Panther and lots of other formidable masters. Everyone was puzzled by the damage that touched the fort during the war. And yet William didn''t exin anything to any of them.

    He knew this was a tactical retreat from those scary and ancient beings. And he wasn''t sure they called back all of their eyes and spies in the fort.

    He kept looking for their hideout, using any means possible, and yet failed. And that made him not feel at ease at all.

    Two of his strongest enemies were missing for a long time. Finding no trace of them at all kept him on his guard all the time.

    So, he kept collecting old records about that war and the fort, trying to see anything that others missed. From time to time, he''d find a clue that could help, send a team with his trusted friends to check the location just like now.

    "You don''t need to worry about that," William kept his reasons for himself, "go back and rest. Then I''ll check on all of your training."

    "Not again!" a new voice came from the door, and it was Ro. Ro was already a hot looking girl when William met her. But now? She became sexier, and her lewd and shameless attitude grew to a new level as well.

    She never stopped ying tricks and jokes with everyone, especially William.

    Ro never dropped her attempts to make William fall for her. And eventually William started to grow closer to his selected girls, including her.

    Nothing real happened between him and the girls, but the sight of him sitting with one of them alone, chatting andughing, got repeated many times, especially during the past years.

    In the eyes of everyone in the guild, in the fort, these girls were seen as his. The old spirit masters like Panther and others knew given time, these youths would be much closer, ending up being real lovers. As for Ben, he never stopped trying to convince William to man up, try the delights of being a man surrounded with hot fruits. Yet thetter always turned those lewd thoughts away for now.

 Chapter 523 The Mysterious Master

    William wasn''t a saint, but he got his time upied with tons of things actually. Not to mention most of the girls here were still young, except for Ro who were considered a youngdy now.

    He always dealt with Ro in caution. After all, she loved to y tricks on him, even when the two sat together,ughed and talked about different things and old times.

    "What? Don''t tell me keeping track of your training is bad!" William rolled his eyes when he saw Ro. But everyone else seemed to share with her the same opinion about William''s harsh methods.

    The way William tested them was simple, and brutal. He''d spar with them one on one, with things ending up quite bad for them each and every single time.

    No matter how they tried, no one was able to even keep up with William, especially when William kept growing stronger.

    They all trained starting from the end of the big war. And yet, when theypared themselves with William, all they could think about was how monstrous William was.

    It wasn''t the issue of spirit power. As they experienced it with William, they got to know how spirit power and their overall grade didn''t matter!

    During the past five years, William didn''t grow much stronger in terms of spirit power. In fact, he was the slowest out of all of them in that regard.

    Even the two Selvators, Lina and Tina, went all the way from being without any spirit power towards reaching gold and silver grade ordingly.

    That was indeed quite an amazing feat, crossing at least two stages in terms of spirit power. As for William, he didn''t even pass the silver grade he was in five years ago.

    And this was for a very good reason.

    William didn''t struggle just because of theck of monsters in the areas around the fort and its city. In fact, theck of monsters came as a blessing and a curse to many spirit masters in the fort region.

    The ones who didn''t like the life of fight and danger embraced such opportunity with wide arms. This wasn''t just exclusive for the people of the fort, not limited just to spirit masters, but extended beyond. Normal people and spirit masters from the continent or even the other continent came all the way and lived here. It was as William, Panther, and others expected. And with such a grand move, the entire region became bustling with activity, very crowded to be honest.

    On the other hand, the ones who knew there was no true peace in the world didn''t like it here. Without monsters, spirit masters wouldck enough training and their sense of danger would grow dull. Not to mention tons of spirit masters depended entirely on collecting monster cores and materials, selling them to gain their daily living expenses.

    And so at the same time, a reverse migration began. It all started with the ns and big academies in the region affected by such a phenomenon. And that made this entire zone change drastically.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    People called it the miraculous migratory move, where a shitload of people left and many more came in. And William agreed to such a name. Only few spirit masters, including his guild, Panther''s people, many impacts, who remained behind, struggled to find a decent ce to train and kill monsters at.

    But soon enough, someone appeared here from another continent. He was a mysterious spirit master, at the pinnacle of power in this tiny world actually. However, that wasn''t what made him mysterious in William''s eyes, his love and greed for wealth was.

    William considered getting addicted to wealth and fame was something contradictory for any spirit master aspiring to reach the very top in the world. But against such a theory of his, this old man was the exception for this.

    He came here, with lots of pocket worlds that no one knew from where he got them. That wasn''t the only weird thing, but all of these pocket worlds were filled to the brim with tons of monsters.

    William even suspected that this master belonged once to a dark force, or perhaps he emptied the treasury of a big dark master force in the world.

    Pocket worlds filled with monsters were amon weapon in the hands of dark spirit masters in the outer world. It was like moveable fortresses, able to contain an endless number of monsters, ready to get deployed at any time, any ce.

    Pocket worlds were easy to hold and carry in anyone''s rings. And that made such pocket worlds quite scary. However, it was solely a privilege for strong and formidable dark master forces to obtain such a weapon.

    The issue wasn''t in obtaining pocket worlds, but to how to fill these with monsters. If a normal master wanted to create such a weapon, he had to travel far and long, enter hellish and endless battles, struggling to capture monsters alive and store them inside the pocket worlds.

    But to any dark spirit master, he could easily control the monsters and led them into these pocket worlds. For this reason, William kept his vignce against this master for long months until he witnessed an incident that proved this master unguilty of such usation.

    Removing his suspicions off this man didn''t prevent William from envying him. This master alone was winning as much as William''s entire guild, or even more!

    But this master came to save what remained of spirit forces in the fort and newly constructed city. The masters who still wanted to train and form their forces here found a way to train and kill monsters.

    It was a magical solution for the direst problem many masters faced. On top of that, it became much weirder after a long time.

    The man appeared just one year after the end of that great war, just a few months after the building of the grand city here. Since then, tons of spirit masters entered his pocket worlds on a daily basis. But after all these years, there wasn''t even a single incident of one pocket world getting dry of monsters.

 Chapter 524 [Bonus ] You Go, But I Wont!

    This puzzled William a lot, knew he had to go to the man himself and force him to spill out his secrets to get answers. But William didn''t even think about this. It wasn''t because he was weak, but because spirit masters used to have their secrets, a rule that William respected.

    And yet that wasn''t the crux of William''s problem, the technique he acquired from that ck fox was!

    William didn''t expect such technique to run over his umted spirit power. It required him to sacrifice part of his spirit power to elevate his mastery of this technique. And like this, even with the presence of that mysterious master''s pocket worlds and tons of monsters, even with William''s Devour ability, thetter couldn''t help but feel frustrated every single time he sacrificed part of his hard gained spirit power.

    The only reason that stopped him from throwing away this technique or halt his training in it was the grand benefits he gained.

    This technique didn''t just change his fox form but gave him the ability to control his transformation as well. He now had four tails, and in normal situations he could at most summon a fox body with two tails.

    But thanks to this technique, William could transform into a fox body of three tails. That wasn''t all, even the size and strength of his fox body was something much higher than what it should be.

    On top of that, he could control his transformation, limiting it to be with one tail or two tails. Doing this greatly decreased the pressure over his spirit power and gave him lots of options.

    If he changed into one tail version, the element he''d select for his tail would be in its purest and strongest form. Just like when he did it with Lawrence. Comparing this with his full version, then William could tell how big the difference was.

    And so, even if all the ones under his tutor crossed one grade at least during the past five years, with few crossing even three grades, William didn''t cross a single grade yet.

    If not for his Devour ability and legendary training techniques that he created, then his spirit power would have stagnated as well. But luckily for him, he kept replenishing the amount of spirit power he kept sacrificing and adding even more to it.

    Another thing actually helped him a lot in reaching the top stage of the silver grade right now. And that was the fox statue left in the Fox Lair back at the fort.

    William kept absorbing spirit power madly from that statue. And it also gave him lots of information about the outer world, information that William didn''t actually need.

    And so going by logic, William should be the weakest one in the entire elite ck Tails team of his. However, reality proved otherwise.

    Putting aside the low spirit power he had, he learnt many different fighting techniques that suited his different spirit elements. Not to mention his annoying ability to switch his fox form in the middle of the battle, cancelling the slight fox changes he''d experience, and switching tails with different spirit elements.

    So, dealing with him in any direct confrontation was literally a nightmare for anyone in the team. And when they went out with him towards any of the pocket worlds, they realised he was really going easy on them when testing them out.

    If they considered William to be a monster when he checked on their training progress, then seeing him fight monsters reminded them of the scary battles they experienced with him back at the war five years ago.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Can''t we talk about something else?" Berry suddenly moved, climbed the little stairs to his throne.

    "Hey! Don''t you see I''m also here?" but before she''d move halfway there, the other two girls moved and stopped in front of her.

    "What? I was going to ask him about the uingpetition," Berry rolled her eyes, while the other two girls scoffed in response.

    "There is nothing to say about that," William said in a tired tone, "we already discussed this issue many times. You will participate in that sillypetition, not me."

    "But¡­" Berry and Sara turned to him at the same time and said in the same breath. William knew what they wanted to say, and he silenced them with a simple wave of his hand.

    "I already told you, my promise with your grandfathers was limited for you to join. As for me, I''ll cheer for your sess from the audience seats. That''s final!"

    "Tsk! Why do you like to make trouble out of anything?" Ibra shook his head, leant over his ive while feeling amused by this recurrent situation William found himself facing thanks to his stubbornness, "if you just lowered that damn ego of yours for a single time, then you can live a nice and happy life."

    "Thanks, my life is great as it is," William rolled his eyes, knowing what Ibra was feeling at the moment, "I hate taking part in useless activities. What''s the point in fighting other academies and big families'' teams? It won''t prove anything when I crush them, right?"

    "But we would like for you to lead us like the old days!" Berry didn''t step back like how she''d act five years ago. Instead, she crossed her arms, while giving him a defiant look, "I swear if you didn''t participate with us, then I''ll simply won''t go!"

    "Me neither!" In a rare moment, the two girls agreed on something, "let''s see how you''ll deal with our old men then."

    "As if they could do anything to me before," William smirked. And the two girls went speechless for a moment there.

    "Shameless!" Berry blurted out.

    "Your skin is the only thing that grew in the past five years! It''s thicker than the skies and thends!" Sara also joined her,ining in the same breath.

    "Come on!" William watched the two girls step down at the same time, and seemingly others joined them as they moved out from here, "what a troublesome situation you two ced me in¡­"

 Chapter 525 Going To The Fox Lair

    "Tsk! Just lower your head this time and agree to join," Ibra waved his ive in the air a couple of times, "just think about it. What''s the point in refusing to stretch out your muscles and fight bunches of weaklings for a change?"

    "..."

    William watched Ibra walk away, leaving him all alone.

    "I hate you two¡­" William recalled the fierce and explosive meeting he had with these two girls'' grandparents.

    First of all, the two girls walked out of the academy without telling anyone about their move. The two grandfathers of theirs were busy dealing with the dark spirit masters around the academy back at that time. It was expected how deeply shocked they got when they received the news about the grand war that happened at the Scorching Lands fort, with their beloved granddaughters being in the heart of all this.

    On top of that, they got to mobilise the entire academy and its affiliated ns away from here. They didn''t just migrate, but also merged with three other academies, forming the brand-new Golden Stardust academy.

    The two came in a ferocious storm, no lesser than the grand war William experienced before. Thetter had to face the two old men''s rage, alongside Berry''s father''s wrath as well.

    In the end, and after a long and heated discussion, one that even Panther and many of the grand figures in the fort took part in to control the situation, William promised to send the two girls and everyone in his team to take part in the uing contest.

    But he never promised to take part in such a useless thing. He was trying to use every single second and train, using every chance he got to get stronger.

    "I went to train for a few months¡­ Time to check over the entire guild then," William pushed away such thoughts, and started to walk outside.

    This headquarter of the guild was divided internally into two different and separate giant spaces. One was allocated for the various spirit masters who joined the guild to train and do various missions, and the other was for the secondary professions.

    William started the secondary profession department by the deal he did with The Blue Hammer and the Seven Heaven groups. And now he expanded this, absorbing not only these two groups, but more than twenty more groups like them.

    And that wasn''t all. He even started other subsections like the miners and chefs. Right now, the secondary department was filled with lots of spirit masters, producing tons of products on a daily basis.

    Large portion of these products weren''t for sale. William kept storing special items since he started up this department. He was preparing for a grand battle where he''d have to use such products in it.

    Even if he did that, hiding and storing the most valuable items away from any outsider, the othermonly produced products were getting the hype from different ces in the kingdom and even the entire continent.

    Many merchants came here and purchased these products, believing they were the strongest ever produced from the guild.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And they got a point in believing so. Many of these products were new products and didn''t have an equal in the entire world.

    That wasn''t all. Even when these merchants returned back and tried to reverse engineer these items, in an attempt to save themselves time and wealth, they failed.

    Be it gears, potions, elixirs¡­ Down even to the food produced by the chefs in the guild, nothing could be copied and produced away from the guild.

    As William started his grand tour here, he got satisfied with the development of the entire guild.

    The good progress wasn''t just limited to the secondary profession department. William already supplied the other department with lots of training manuals and fighting techniques, many of which he gained from the grand loot from the grand war.

    He modified all of them of course and took nearly a couple of weeks to do so. But it wasn''t the same as the time he took to go through all the rings he acquired from that battle.

    Back then, he spent nearly two months getting everything out and organising his loot. To him, he got enough wealth to live like a king for the rest of his life, for many lives actually. But the first thing he did was to go out, purchase a few pieces ofnd, spending a fortune in the process.

    He didn''t only stop there and started ordering tons of materials from the Refos group. Right now, the Big Seven conglomerate was gone, and only the Big three existed, with Refos, his guild, and another merchant group ruling over the entire city.

    William wasn''t interested in taking over the city. He was considering this ce as the safe haven for him, his friends, his guild, and many spirit masters at the time of the uing apocalypse.

    "If just I can find those Transformers¡­ Things would have been a lot nicer!" William sighed while heading to the fort. Right now, the old fort turned to be exclusive for various forces and rich folks, alongside the old families who hailed from the humans who took over this fort aeons of years ago.

    William headed to the fort using one of the nine hills it got. Before, he had to struggle to reach the top, walking in the middle of crowded lines that were heading up or moving down from the fort. But that all changed. And getting to the fort now required even a key to pass through the shield that Panther established around it.

    "I see you decided toe out from your prehistoric cave atst!"

    Just before he''d walk in the empty and quiet streets up there, he heard such a familiar voiceing from his side.

    "Hi Ben, long time no see, old man," William saw Ben standing over the grand wall surrounding the fort. He looked a bit younger thanks to having new wives in recent years.

 Chapter 526 A Small Distance That Will Take A Long Time To Cross

    Ben was just like how Ro once said, a crazy womaniser. As the fort built the city and prospered, he found lots of chances to release his steam. With that, he looked much younger than what he looked like five years ago.

    "It''s you who is hiding all the time," Ben shook his head, before pointing at his thing as he added with an evilugh, "if you listened to my offer and let me teach you my godly technique, you''d have only kept your little brother busy and enjoyed it on top of that."

    "Thanks, but I like to keep my little brother in his coffin for now," William rolled his eyes. Every single time he met Ben, thetter would try to lure William to his side, "where is Panther now?"

    "The usual," Ben paused, "don''t tell me you didn''t drop that crazy idea of yours yet!"

    "I just like to collect gems," Williamughed. As Ben kept trying to recruit him, William also kept trying to recruit Panther. Just like how William always refused Ben''s offers, Panther also did the same.

    But thetter was more shameless and didn''t say no directly. William approached Panther on the premise of teaching him lots of things he didn''t know about his spirit element. But Panther didn''t say no, and instead asked William to teach him a few techniques and tricks to prove he wasn''t lying.

    Of course, William didn''t buy any of that, refusing to say a single word about what he knew. Panther kept ying this silly game every time he met him, even joking about it on many asions as well.

    In William''s eyes, Panther was indeed special. Putting aside his age and spirit grade or power, he was quite special by his ability to see the future.

    Wouldn''t it be great if he joined William and helped him foresee the future? Wouldn''t that help in solving lots of problems about the Transformers and the Nightmare monster?

    "See you around then," as Panther was busy supervising over the entire city, the new hobby he found in the recent years, William walked away.

    "Hi Mr. Fox," as William reached the secretive underground space where the fox statue was, he greeted the statue like usual, "how have your recent days been? I hope they were great."

    William started to speak to the statue as if thetter was able to hear and understand him. He did that to relieve the boredom of being here all alone, without anyone to speak with for long days, even weeks and months at some point.

    William didn''t yet notice the changes he caused to the statue every time he trained and absorbed the spirit power and knowledge stored inside. After all, he did that while closing his eyes, immersed in his task.

    If he got a spirit sense, he''d be able to notice such changes. But that ability would be gained when he''d reach the gold grade.

    "Hmm¡­ I onlycked a few hundred points before reaching the five thousand mark¡­" William held the crystal in his hand and counted every single speck of silver light inside, "I shouldn''t waste any more time or spirit power over that fox technique. It''s better to reach the gold stage fast and meet with that fox again."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The ck fox told him that every single time he''d level up his grade, he''d get tested, eventually meeting him at the end of each test. William trained diligently on that technique for years, and now his understanding of the way spirits worked and lived was different thanst time.

    William got tons of questions to ask, and he had many doubts in himself. Only that ck fox was the one able to clear such doubts and answer his questions.

    "These few hundred points might seem easy to get¡­ But it''d take me at least half a year to get them¡­ And they want me to stop all this and take part in a silly contest¡­"

    William started using his training technique while cing one palm over the head of the statue. This was the way to absorb power and knowledge from within. And this time, he spent two entire weeks in his training.

    "Seventy points¡­ Not enough¡­" William held his crystal and muttered while counting the number of silver dots he got there.

    In the middle of the crystal, a miniature form of a fox with four tails shimmering in different light was calmly lying there.

    "I spent two weeks this time, and only got this far¡­ It seems staying indoors and training isn''t the ideal way for me¡­ I need dark gold cores, around a hundred or so¡­"

    Of course, he wouldn''t do that unless it was a dire situation or so. He didn''t justck tens of spirit power points; hecked hundreds of them. If he tried to absorb a dark gold core at his current stage, a great chance of his body exploding was there. And yet that didn''t prevent him from thinking about obtaining these dark gold cores. Even if he couldn''t use them right away, he could store them just like how he did with the gold cores before.

    He sighed, while shaking his head in regret. If it was another time, then it''d be just an easy task to go around, looking for Scarlet Bears.

    But during the past five years, a fervent hunt for these bears erupted all over the world using his method. And that led to the close extinction of that type of monster.

    Of course, that came with lots of monsters getting ughtered, and tons of dark masters killed.

    "Hmm¡­ I shall take a look outside. Perhaps I''ll be lucky and meet a dark gold grade monster swarm that I can solve¡­"

    William didn''t feel that bitter about that. After all, monsters were there to get ughtered and killed. And these Scarlet Bears yed a great role in the apocalypse that befell this world before.

    Thanks to eliminating such a threat, he was sure the scale of the uing apocalypse wouldn''t be as severe as what happened in his past life.

 Chapter 527 Meeting Two Old Men

    William wasn''t that delusional to think the enemy would be powerless. Even if the Scarlet Bears were gone, the world was filled with lots of deadly monsters the dark forces could use.

    That was mainly why William didn''t feel such deep regret about this. He knew he''d find other dark gold monsters out there. But he needed to go out first if he wanted to get any dark gold cores.

    "Time to gather the team up," he walked out from the central building, to be met with two faces who didn''t belong to the guild.

    "What brought you here?" William frowned for a moment, moved his eyes among Sara, Berry, Lang, and other vice leaders of his. This time, Lina and Tina were there as well.

    Lina was already taller than him when he met her the first time. And even after William reinforced his body with high grade monster meat, grew taller, she still was taller than him.

    This wasn''t weird, after all she was from a race blessed with outstanding physique. She still wore her mask, but she reced it with something more appealing to the eye. It got roses there, engraved over a special type of wood that could resist any physical damage and absorb it.

    As for her sister, she grew to be as tall as William, despite being five years younger than him.

    "What? Aren''t we allowed to be here?" Kong harrumphed, while Sara''s grandfather, named Lucas, smiled and said nothing.

    "This isn''t your academy, old man," William crossed his arms, "tell me, what brought you here?"

    "Like this? Without even inviting us for dinner?" Kong was about to retort in an angry way like usual, but Lucas interfered to meddle between these two.

    He already knew how explosive any meeting between William and Kong was. Just that meeting from five years ago was a great example of how weirdly tense the rtionship between these two was.

    "Sorry, but you came without informing me first," William didn''t change his attitude for a bit, didn''t even move his eyes away from Kong, "I''m busy. So sum it up and tell me what brought you here away from your academy."

    "Kiddo, even if you made a name for yourself, you are still weak!" Kong didn''t stay silent this time, "you should know how to deal with your masters."

    "Sorry, but none of you are masters to me," William didn''t show Kong any courtesy, "just cut the chase already and tell me what you want."

    "Hmph! I should have brought along that kid of mine to teach you a proper lesson," Kong said, while looking at Lucas as if he was ming him for this.

    "We aren''t here to cause trouble," Lucas got fed up with how stubborn his friend was. From the day Berry selected William over the Long family, overstaying on the side of her beloved grandfather, and that old man held a deep grudge against William deep inside.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    In Lucas'' eyes, this was a foolish act from his friend. He knew all this stemmed from the love of this old man to his granddaughter. Lucas was the same, but he was much smarter to know that these kids had their lives to live, their choices to make.

    If they loved these girls, then they shouldn''t stand on the path of their happiness. It wasn''t as if they selected a bad man. William made a name for himself and was seen as a prodigy that was rarely seen in the entire world.

    "So, what are you here for?" William took out his ive, used it as a stick to lean on, a move that he picked from Ibra.

    "We are here to talk about formal business," Lucas didn''t like how William decided to speak with him like this in the open, without even inviting them to stay or to sit and rest a little bit. But he also knew this was all the result from that explosive meeting that happened five years ago, "we want you to represent our academy. We are here as elders of the Golden Stardust academy, representing it to invite you and your team to join our formal team in the uing contest."

    "Sorry, but I don''t have any interest in wasting my time."

    "No way! How shameless of you!" Kong exploded when he heard these words, "didn''t you promise us before that you''ll go?"

    "I promised to send the ones belonging to the Aspire academy to help, not me. I never said that I''d go," William evilly grinned. And seeing such a smile on his face made the already boiling blood of Kong boil more.

    "You¡­" Kong pointed a finger at William, but Lucas interfered again like before.

    "It''s a grand contest with lots of prizes and honour to the ones winning it."

    "No thanks, I already got my shoulder burdened with all the glory I aplished before," William shrugged. He even moved his free hand to caress his shoulders, as if he was really carrying something heavy there that bothered him.

    "Lucas, show him the scroll," Kong waved his arm as if he grew tired of what William was doing here, "show him why we are really here."

    "Sigh!" Lucas took out a scroll and hesitated before opening it, "we got the official list of teams and spirit masters taking part so far in thepetition."

    "Why does it matter to me?" William had a better impression about Lucas than Kong. Before that explosive meeting, he felt much better towards Kong than Lucas. Yet things had changed since that meeting and the brief meetings that happenedter, on rare asions in the past years.

    "When you read it, you''ll understand," Lucas gave Kong a serious warning gaze, before handing the scroll over to William. Thetter found a long list, one that spanned over ten papers. It wasn''t just a single scroll. When he checked these, he couldn''t get what the two men wanted.

    "I don''t get it, what''s in these papers exactly that you want me to read?"

 Chapter 528 An Imposter

    Chapter 528 An Imposter

    "Just look at the fifth paper," Lucas motioned his head towards the scrolls, "in mid-section you''ll find the name of the Long Feather academy."

    "And?" William asked while fiddling with the papers in his hand, until he found what Lucas was speaking about.

    "Read the names there," Lucas said to William, as thetter started reading. And when he did, his eyes narrowed as a serious look appeared on his face.

    "Did you find your name there? And you dare to im you won''t join, hmph!" Kong said in impatience and slight anger, "if you are going to take part in the contest, why join another academy other than ours? Huh?"

    "It''s not me," William paused for a long minute before raising his head towards the two old men, "I didn''t join this team at all."

    "Then how do you exin your name mentioned clearly in the official record? Huh? You do know that this contest is being held and arranged by the kingdom. And that means to join, one has to send an official letter with his name, spirit power, signature, and all this!"

    "I said it''s not me," William returned the scrolls back to Lucas, "someone is impersonating me this time."

    "What a daring youth he is," Kong said in mockery, while Lucas cleared his throat.

    "So you didn''t promise anyone from this academy anything, right?"

    "I didn''t even meet anyone from them, never heard about such a name before," William said, while his mind kept recalling the names of the academies that came to recruit him in the past few months.

    He met many academies'' elders and masters, but there was no such a name like the Long Feather academy. However, and for a reason, William felt like this name did ring bells in his mind. Yet he couldn''t tell why.

    "Do you have any news about this academy?" William was bothered by this feeling. And so he turned to the two old men in front of him and asked.

    "Well¡­" the two looked at each other in a loss, before Lucas added, "we hoped you will tell us everything about it."

    "What does this mean?"

    "We never heard about such an academy before," Kong said in an annoying tone, "and we thought¡­"

    "You thought that as I joined them then I''m rted to this somehow¡­ I get it now!" These two men didn''te here just to speak about him joining this academy, but also to get information about it, "are you telling me that an academy appeared in our continent out of thin air? Come on! Don''t tell me even the kingdom doesn''t know!"

    "Well¡­" from the look on their surfaces, William got the answer to his question already. And that made his weird feeling grow to a higher level of alertness.

    Academies weren''t like ns; they couldn''t exist without anyone knowing it. Academies needed arge ce of ground, lots of ns to join, and much more spirit masters to study there. Any academy would have strong ties with any force around. Be it merchants, mercenaries, and even dark masters and monsters¡­ Not to mention academies had to affiliate themselves with one of the kingdoms or empires in the world.

    So the thought that an academy appeared out of thin air without anyone knowing anything about it was weird and suspicious.

    "Perhaps it''s a new academy or something," Sara spoke for the first time since William''s came out from the central building.

    "That''s not possible," her grandfather said, "if such an academy got established, even in another continent, someone must have heard anything about it. But so far, none of the academy headmasters and elders in the entire continent ever heard about this name before."

    "Perhaps it''s someone from another continent," Berry intervened as well.

    "Not possible," it was her grandfather who rejected her theory, "we already thought about everything. The kingdom responded that they heavily investigated and asked for proof for any small and not famous academies to be listed there."

    "And that means this academy is inside the continent," Lucas added, "but we can''t get to know anything about it."

    "Didn''t the kingdom ask for proof of existence from them?" William paused, "didn''t they provide their whereabouts?"

    "They proved they are inside the continent, provided a ce that''s just adjacent to the kingdom''s borders," Lucas paused, "we sent people there, many did actually, and they did find that academy at that spot."

    "Then it''s solved," Ibra shrugged, waving his ive in the air for a few seconds, "you can send spirit masters disguised as merchants to infiltrate this ce¡­"

    "Not going to do," Lucas tiredly sighed, "we tried everything, everyone actually tried to collect information about this academy. But none ever seeded."

    When everyone gave him a weird look, he added, "they closed their doors in the face of others, saying the academy is under a lockdown for now."

    "A lockdown?" William knew the reason behind other academies intense interest was that his name was on that weird academy''s roster.

    In the scrolls, he found one hundred names stated there, including one with the title of the Fox master.

    There was one single Fox master in the entire world, and that''d make anyone interested and curious about this ce.

    William didn''t meet anyone from this academy before, never said yes to join anyone''s roster. "Something seems off here," he muttered, before deciding, "bring out the maps, and please mark that academy''s location for me."

    He said these words to Lina, Lucas, and Kong. "What do you n to do?" Kong asked, feeling that William nned to do something crazy.

    "What else? Someone dared to fake my identity and created all this mess. So it''s just right to pay them a visit and knock on their doors."

    "Don''t tell me you n to fight them head on!" Lucas'' face slightly changed. And Kong did as well. In fact, all of the team here had a change in their faces as well.

    "I won''t do such nonsense for sure," William casually said, but no one here believed him, "prepare my ck Tails team, we are going out for a long adventure."

 Chapter 529 Going Out In An Adventure

    529 Going Out In An Adventure

    "All of us?" Ibra asked while being the only one here excited about this.

    "Prepare everyone, only Remy and Trevor will stay behind," William moved his eyes among others, beforending them over the two old men, "and don''t ask, you aren''t wee to tag along."

    "This¡­" Kong was about to ask the same thing, yet William was half a step ahead and rejected his thoughts.

    "Don''t worry, I kept your granddaughters safe for all this time," William knew they were just caring about Sara and Berry, "and on top of that¡­ They aren''t that weak anymore."

    Like this, William''s intentions to go out were fulfilled. And without realising it, he was heading to meet someone he wanted to meet for a long time, an enemy of his!

    William''s selected team wasn''t in the city all the time. So, it took roughly three days to prepare. William took this time and brought a small part of the stocked war supplies with him. Be it elixirs, high grade weapons, and even grenades¡­ He brought everything.

    "Last chance¡­ We are here anyway so we won''t miss anything by apanying you," Lucas stood in front of a huge gate of this city, alongside Kong and Panther as well.

    Panther knew these two from before, but never got to befriend them until William appeared in the picture.

    "No thanks, we can handle this," William paused before adding, "the world belongs to the new generations, not the old ones. Always keep that in mind."

    William''s words held deep meaning behind. Then he left after saying these words alongside a team of two hundred, handpicked spirit masters from the guild.

    They might look few, but William wasn''t that interested in quantity but quality. He got his guild to deal with having huge numbers on his side in times of great wars. But to him, he always saw in these two hundred what it was worth investing his time and effort.

    He paid extreme care for gems, and he found lots of them in the huge masses that joined him. After five years, his guild got more than one hundred thousand spirit masters in it, not including those working for the secondary profession department.

    "This time, I won''t let you separate from me again," as they marched in the big road leading out from the Scorching Lands, Berry said.

    She was referring of course to the two times they went out for adventure five years ago. At that time, she was struggling to raise her power up, and was indeed a liability over William.

    But in the past years, her spirit grade rose up and she reached the gold grade. Like her, Sara also was at gold grade, but at a higher stage than Berry.

    "Don''t worry, this time I won''t need to run away or something like before," William kept hearing this reminder every single time they went out for adventure in the past years.

    "Tsk! I hate walking like this without stretching out every now and then," Ibra waved his ive again, and the team members got the lesson pretty hard before to let enough space around this mad spirit master.

    Mad or not, he was one of the strongest spirit masters in the entire team right now. He joined William when he was at gold grade. So, it wasn''t a surprise for him to reach the dark gold grade after all these years.

    But he wasn''t the only dark gold master in the team, there were nine others. Of these, the old five silver members who joined William beforeing to the Scorching Lands were part of them. In addition to that, Sith and two of his old team also reached such a stage.

    Like this, one hundred spirit masters moved out from the Scorching Lands city. They were all d in ck cloaked coats, with an emblem of golden fox on their chests. As they walked along the main road, they attracted the attention of many almost instantly.

    It wasn''t a secret how the elite team of the Fox guild looked like. The ck Tails team always held its own fame among the locals in this region. And seeing such a number of spirit masters of the team walking together made many specte this was the entire force of the elite team.

    Even if they attracted such attention, none tried to approach or speak to them. The Fox guild got a huge fame, in addition to a fearsome impression in the spirits and hearts of all living in the region. Many admired them from far, not risking getting close to them.

    William walked in the middle of his elite team, while many kept gossiping about him. His face was already known to many, and he was known to live a secluded life.

    People might have seen Sara, Ibra, Berry, Lang, Peter, Sith, and many others of the famous vice leaders and top names in the ck Tails team a lot, but not William. William was known as a hermit spirit master, rarely going out, rarely seen walking down the streets of the city.

    The entire guild was run by many, not him. He was just the mastermind behind all this, not appearing in many asions, and even hiding from any public sights for months.

    In the eyes of those around, this was a grand gathering of celebrities of the Scorching Lands city.

    The team had to travel for almost two weeks before spotting monsters. All this region was safe and void of monsters and danger, also void from excitement.

    Once they spotted monsters, Ibra couldn''t control himself and ran directly towards them.

    "Hahahahaha! Old times are the best, hahahahaha!" he keptughing while killing the group of a hundred monsters he just spotted.

    "Don''tugh this way," William rolled his eyes, "they are just weak bronze rabbits."

    "But they are still monsters!"

    "It''s like seeing an adult bullying a kid," William bitterly smiled, and Ibra simply ignored him and kept killing the rest of these rabbits. He even kept his power and didn''t use much strength, hoping for this amazing feeling tost forever.

    Join my IG, Threads, Tiktok

 Chapter 530 A Weird Place

    ?

    "Don''t dwindle, or else you''ll be left behind," John shouted back at him, and Ibra got to kill the rabbits faster before joining them.

    "Tsk! What a party destroyer you are!"

    "Don''t worry," Williamughed, "we got the rest of the world to satisfy your desire to fight."

    However, after few days of doing this, the entire team grew bored.

    "It''s no fun anymore," Ibra sighed while they were resting inside a small cave, "all we met are f*cking bronze and silver monsters! Weak! All are weak!"

    "I know," William sighed. Even he was disappointed. He wanted toe out so he could find monsters and get their cores. But all they met were weak ones just like Ibrained about.

    "Why not ask around then?" Sara suggested, "we can look for locals and see if there are ces with high grade monsters there."

    "Hmm¡­ Ok," William paused, turned to Moore before adding, "you''ll handle this part then."

    "Got it!" Moore wasn''t the same Moore he was when William first met him. In five years, he learnt techniques from William that changed his viewpoint about his spirit element.

    He always took his spirit element as some sort of a messenger or something. But as William taught him, he started to discover new ways to use his power in. One of these were the one William wanted him to use.

    Heid on the ground, closed his eyes, before delving deep into the dream world. This technique he was using was called the Mind Dream technique, which was something like mind reading.

    Moore had to have a poster or an image of the person he was about to meet in his dreams. But by using this technique, he was able to delve into the dream worlds of many people at the same time without the need for him to know them. Like this he could read their minds partially towards a certain topic or a point.

    For example, just now, William and his team wanted to know if there were any spots around with high grade monsters. Moore could get intel about such topics using his technique. And so he entered his dream world and stayed there for two hours before waking up.

    "Rise and shine dark lord," Ibra said, using the same nickname everyone in the team was using for Moore.

    "It''s not only me who have darkness element," Moore bitterly smiled. Since joining William''s side, and everyone kept a slight distance from him. And he could understand their point of view.

    Even when he spoke with them about his past life, how he got abducted by the dark masters after discovering he got the darkness element, this didn''t change much.

    "Any good news?" William closed an eye over how his team dealt with Moore. Even if thetter didn''t have a choice in joining the dark side, he was still branded by this. And he had to deal with this for the rest of his life.

    "There is a ce not far from here," Moore paused, and looked at Ibra.

    "What''s there, dark lord? Do you want breakfast after waking up to speak properly or what?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Sigh!" Moore turned to William, ignoring Ibra, "that ce is weird. It''s rumoured that no one entered there and managed to survive."

    "Interesting," William liked such news, "anything dangerous is fine for us. Where is it? Did you get any news about that?"

    "It''s around one hundred kilometres northwest," Moore pointed towards a direction.

    "Take out a map," William turned to Lina, who was now acting as his secretary in the team. She wasn''t weak, but she had a temper that made her look a bit cold in the eyes of everyone.

    Aside from William, her sister, and the girls in the team, she didn''t interact that much with the rest.

    "Hmm¡­ That''s not bad," William looked at the detailed big map of the continent, "it''s on our path towards our destination. Let''s go then."

    They were heading outside of the kingdom, towards the ce Lucas and Kong marked for him. They had to cross tens of thousands of kilometres on foot to reach there. But William didn''t want to spend such long time in doing this.

    The other, and more viable option was to head towards one of the few ces that got a long-distance teleport portals. Using these portals would help in saving lots of time for the team. And so, they were marching not towards that n directly, but were going to take a little detour first.

    And luckily for them, the spot Moore found was located on their general direction.

    "Let''s go then," Ibra was impatient like everyone else, "let''s go and explore that ce."

    "Yes, let''s go there," Lang said, while everyone else nodded in agreement.

    "Ok," William was also feeling like them. If that ce was dangerous as Moore said, then there was a high chance for it to have dark gold monsters.

    Like this, the team started moving towards their destination. On their way, they met with couple of teams travelling and hunting monsters in the forest. And when they spoke with them, they got to confirm what Moore heard before. And also learnt more.

    That ce was indeed filled with fierce monsters. But what made anyone going there die was rted to some weird phenomenon out there.

    Monsters were in silver and gold grade. And William got the good news of the presence of few dark gold ones as well. But the most dangerous thing inside was a weird grey fog that was roaming the entire ce inside.

    When William and others asked, no one really knew anything about such fog. All they know was that anyone entering there would vanish and not return ever again.

    "So¡­ Shall we go or not?" Peter said after meeting the sixth team. Any team they met was warmly speaking with them, sharing the news about that ce, and also gave William''s team a strict warning to not go there.

 Chapter 531 The Moving Fortress Tactic

    ?

    "Why won''t we?" William didn''t care about any fog. In fact, he grew curious about this phenomenon, "let''s go and check it. If it''s really dangerous, we will retreat."

    "Got it," everyone said, and William then took them towards that ce.

    Crossing this distance took them roughly six days. During which, they met many monsters, all were weak, all faced the same fate under the team''s overwhelming strength.

    What they noticed was that the closer they got to that ce, the fewer teams they met.

    "We are here," William and his team didn''t listen to any warnings from those who they met. They trusted William, and thetter trusted his knowledge.

    Even if it was dangerous, he''d better see what it was. This ce wasn''t that far from the borders of the Scorching Lands. And as such, he wanted to see what kind of threat this ce really held.

    "We are here," William stopped at the border of this region. ording to the news he got from the local teams he met, this ce was a grand hexagonal shaped territory that spanned for hundreds of kilometres or even more.

    William asked more than once, and everyone confirmed out this point. One of these teams was generous and even helped William by drawing the shape of this ce at its location on the map.

    It was indeed hexagonal in shape, perfect hexagon, and that made William feel that something was off in this ce.

    "Listen up, we''ll do it on the moving fortress way."

    "Moving Fortress? Does we need to do it?!" John was surprised by this. After five years, he grew stronger, and his weak self-issues got partially solved. He wasn''t the same youth William picked from his ss.

    His role in the team didn''t actually change, still responsible for the escape route of the team. However, in this tactic, the Moving Fortress, he''d not be able to do his role.

    This tactic was devised by William, as he thought back at the time of the big war five years ago. When he reflected on the entire situation there, he couldn''t help but consider a possibility. What if he was unable to help the team back then, what if they faced an enemy, one that they were unable to fight?

    And so, he started to think about ways to fortify the team''s overall defences. This led for him to create such tactic where the entire team would scatter around a grand stretch ofnd, but they''d be able to shrink their formation at any sign of danger, group together, and move like a single coherent unit.

    "We have to be extra careful," William paused, "I don''t like how it''s perfectly hexagonal in shape. It''s like someone drew it or built it or something¡­"

    "Fine," John shrugged, "get into positions then and let me handle the entire situation."

    "Take Thomas with you," William said, and he didn''t need to borate for anyone to get what he wanted to do.

    "My team, let''s move out!"

    "Mine too!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Five years passed, and still the same vice leaders were the same. What changed was for Ro to have her own team atst, a move that happened just a year ago. In addition to her, smith finally got his own team, formally getting appointed as the scout team leader and one of the vice leaders.

    Currently the vice leaders were Ibra, Sara, Berry, John, Lang, Peter, Smith, and Ro. As for Lina, Tina, Moore and Thomas, the four were following William anywhere he went.

    Like this, every vice leader''s team got ten members, and William''s team got twelve members in it.

    As John was the main controller of this formation, he moved with his team, alongside Thomas, to the centre. Everyone else followed their leaders towards the outside, spreading over an overall distance of three kilometres.

    William kept himself in between, acting as the firefighter. "Let''s start exploring this ce¡­ Murphy, make sure to draw a very detailed map this time."

    "Got it!"

    Murphy was one of the five gems whom Alfonso gave to William. Out of the gems he got from Alfonso, only this one was pretty unique, in addition to Thomas of course.

    He got the space element, with an affinity to high altitude. Using the right technique, this gold grade spirit master was able to see the world from high vintage point, drawing maps of the regions they''d pass over, and even scout the general terrain of any region.

    William tried to give him a technique to increase his sharp eyesight, and it worked. Like this, Murphy could do the same job as Thomas, scanning the entire area and see if there were enemies on the ground or not.

    But unlike Thomas, Murphy couldn''t see any hidden enemies. Not to mention the high spirit power consumption rate such a technique ced over this gold grade master, which made him unfavourable choice for William do scout for enemies.

    As William felt bad about this ce, he decided to use Murphy to draw a detailed map of this ce just in case. And soon enough he''d realise this was a very good decision.

    The team started moving inside that area. Just as they walked for few minutes, they started to spotrge number of gold and silver grade monstersing at them.

    "Hahahahaha! This is how hunting monsters shall be like! Hahahaha!"

    After long hours, William and his team met lots of monsters and killed too many to count. William gained lots of cores from this, didn''t hold his power back and transformed to his three tailed version.

    They met lots of gold grade monsters, giving William a breath. But he wasn''t the only one happy about this situation, Ibra and others were.

    "I bet you don''t want to even take a moment of rest," Tina looked at Ibra and her eyes held a hidden affection towards him. She grew to be eleven years old, but her body was like a girl at fifteen or something.

    Selvators were just blessed by their physique. The little girl who kept fooling around and causing trouble grew to be like William when she first met him.

 Chapter 532 Meeting The Storm

    ?

    Among the team, the ones closest to William, Tina saw in Ibra someone worthy of admiration and respect.

    Ibra was the closest of the entire team towards the Selvators, very aggressive, very brutal, and quite daring. He also got a harsh tongue that never ceased to speak to William without any restraints.

    As for her big sister, she was now like a princess of fairy tales. She was still taller than William, looking more beautiful than even Sara and Berrybined. Not to mention her unravelled self-confidence, which made her not care about the ongoingpetition between Sara and Berry.

    In Lina''s eyes, like in any Selvators eyes, any problem that couldn''t be solved with words better be solved with fists. As if such race even considered speaking first before fighting.

    "Something ising!"

    Just as the team was having fun, enjoying such heated-up battles one after another, Thomas suddenly spoke up.

    This spirit master became like bad news beacon, never said anything unless something bad was about to happen. That made his image look a bit bad in the eyes of others, even calling him the Trouble Lord.

    "What''s up?" William turned almost instantly towards Thomas, who was few tens of metres away from him. The team just cleared a grand gathering of gold and silver grade ck Shielded Hyenas. And were now collecting their loot.

    William never cared about getting anything but the cores of the monsters he personally in. After all, and even if his training techniques consumed cores like running water, he got tons of cores bought by his grand and rapidly growing wealth.

    "The storm¡­ It''sing¡­ But¡­"

    Thomas seemed to struggle to exin what he saw, which was a much worse sign in William''s eyes. "Tell me what you saw," William demanded, and Thomas sighed.

    "It''s better if I drew it then," Thomas took out a scroll, an ink bottle, and brush, started to draw something over the yellow paper. Everyone else of the team came closer to see what he was drawing. And soon enough a weird symbol appeared in front of William''s and everyone''s eyes.

    It was like a head of a bear or something. Instead of having eyes, it got two eleven headed stars there. William took just a single second to get what this symbol meant. And when he did, he felt instant panic.

    "Take out your crystals out, examine your spirit power¡­ Hurry up!" William didn''t say anything for a few seconds, but the change on his face told everyone that this was bad news.

    William then took out a spirit crystal and a candle, started to examine his spirit power.

    "Damn! What happened to my spirit power?"

    "I''m¡­ I''m missing one hundred points!"

    "Me too!"

    "Damn! How have this happened?!!"

    "I never heard of anything like this before!!!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Shock, fear, and confusion were all that happened to the team. William also lost one hundred spirit points, and that made him feel quite excited.

    Yes, you read it right, he wasn''t worried or panicked like everyone else. Instead, he raised his head, looked at the direction where Thomas pointed towards, the direction where this storm wasing at them, with eyes shimmering in pure excitement.

    "That''s¡­ That''s just great!" William''s expression was against what everyone else here had. And when he said these words, they felt more confusion about this.

    "Boss why are you happy about this?" one of the team asked. Aside from the vice leaders who got the privilege and used to call William by his name directly, others preferred a much safer approach, calling him their boss.

    It was also a sign for their respect towards him.

    "Yes, why are you happy about this?" everyone was puzzled, including his vice leaders, "we lost one hundred points each! It''s not something worthy of celebration like this!"

    "In fact, it is," William''s eyes started to shine in dangerous white light. Since he started training over the ck fox technique, and his hair and eyes started to change to white.

    William didn''t get it, but it felt like this was the way of the universe to bnce things out for him. He got his spirit power and spirit body change from the normal andmon colours into ck. And with it, his eyes and hair started to change.

    Pushing the colour aside, seeing this look made everyone who knew him for long enough to feel a subtle tremble in their hearts. This look¡­ This shimmering eyes with greed and desire¡­ It was a well-known look for William whenever he met some sort of a gem or treasure that he desperately wanted.

    And that told them they weren''t cursed, instead they were blessed by a great chance here, at least it was the case in the eyes of their boss.

    "It''s something great, hahahaha! Let''s go, let''s go and inspect this storm first," William didn''t exin anything at first, and chose to act. The old team members already got used to how he used to do things. And seeing him act in this way just confirmed their earlier doubts.

    Their boss would never be this impatient to not speak up and act in such rashness unless something great wasing their way.

    And like this, the entire team picked up pace, killed many monsters for three more hours, before they finally saw it.

    It was much grandiose that what they imagined before. From the words of everyone they met, they got few ideas about how this storm was like.

    They thought it would be formed of dark clouds and filled with fog all over the ce. But when they saw the storm, they realised they got it wrong.

    There weren''t any clouds seen, in fact they couldn''t see any sky above that colossal ball of ck fog. It looked as if it was formed of liquid, like a gigantic ball made out of mercury, but in ck and not silver!

    It didn''t give anyone the impression it was made out of gas or fog, and it felt like anyone getting in there would get drowned and wouldn''t survive.

    "What the hell is this?!"

 Chapter 533 This Is All Made By Something

    ?

    "It spans¡­ It spans over tens of kilometres!"

    "And it''s moving quite fast considering its grand surface area!!"

    Everyone started to chat and express their doubts and surprise about this storm. None ever imagined seeing such a thing, except for one; William.

    "Where is that bear head thing then? Trouble lord, did you mistake it with something else or what?" Ibra turned to Thomas and said, attracting everyone''s attention towards thetter.

    "Ahem¡­ I didn''t see it in such way before," even Thomas got taken aback by this weird storm appearance, "but the thing I drew was the thing I saw using my power."

    "Are you telling me this mountain sized ck drop is actually a bear head? No way!" Lang retorted back. And before Thomas would say anything to defend himself, William suddenly said:

    "He isn''t lying, there is indeed such a thing in that storm."

    "How so?" everyone turned to him, and William pointed towards that storm before adding:

    "This isn''t a natural phenomenon, but the making of something."

    "Something made this?!!!" Sara blurted out what everyone was thinking, "who is it? A god?!!!"

    "No, it''s a monster," William seriously said, while his eyes were fixed over this grand ck ball heading towards them, "the entire ce is designed by that monster. Be it the hexagonal zone, the insane number of monsters here, and this ck thing¡­ All are made from a single monster to achieve one result¡­"

    "Which is?"

    "Let''s talk while moving," William didn''t hurry to answer. He turned around, gave that ck ball a long nce, before starting to run at the totally opposite direction.

    "Are we leaving now?!" the entire team was taken aback by William''s weird and contradictory actions. But the old members in the team felt how familiar this was.

    This was how William used to behave every single time he was about to do something crazy. And that made them feel lots of anticipation in their hearts.

    Unlike what they all guessed, William didn''t do anything and kept running away from here.

    "This ce is designed to absorb the spirit power of those getting in here. Once inside, it was either getting killed by the swarms of monsters or dying out of spirit power depletion."

    "That means we are in danger!" Lina turned back again to look at the ck ball which was now looking much smaller from far distance, "then why are you happy about this?"

    "That ce is desinged by such crazy monster, and that means it''s close from getting to shatter this world''s shackles," William didn''t hurry to answer her and everyone''s doubts per habit and started to speak about something else.

    "Do you know that to break from the world''s shackles, getting into the legendary rank isn''t sufficient?"

    "Not again!" Lang couldn''t help but roll his eyes when he heard William''s words. And Berry from the sideughed on his expression.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The two knew how familiar this was. It was just the same when William acted to save their n way back in the past.

    "I heard rumours about the legendary rank, but never heard about something like this," Murphy said, and William expected such answer.

    "The legendary rank is one of the conditions to get out from this world. But the biggest obstacle lies in something else¡­ A gate!"

    "A gate?!"

    "A gate linking this world to outside," William paused, turned towards the direction of that storm before adding, "and our little friend here is a bit greedy, wanting to do both steps at the same time using such a grand formation."

    "That means¡­"

    "That storm is working to suck dry anyone''s spirit power toplete the two conditions at the same time¡­ That monster is trying to reach the legendary rank, and also open a portal out of here using such immense spirit power this grand formation here absorbed for years."

    "..." the team kept their silence for few minutes while William led them away from that storm. "But¡­ Why are you happy about that?" Berry couldn''t help but ask the question that others had in mind as well.

    "Because this is a great chance for us, hahahaha!" Williamughed, "let''s talk about itter. For now, we need to get away and go on our way."

    "..."

    William didn''t exin things over as they wouldn''t get it. This monster seemed to stumble upon some ancient site or a relic that came from the outer world.

    This method was known in the outer world, as many monsters already came from tiny worlds to there using it. It was called the Heaven Cheater by spirit masters, as whoever using this method would bypass many obstacles in a single move.

    Using this formation and grand array, the monster would stay put and do nothing, waiting for others to be lured inside. The monster wouldn''t show mercy to any and would let tons of monsters surround this ce and fill it as form of protection and also a grand source for spirit power.

    However, this formation loved to suck spirit power from masters more than monsters. So, a single spirit master was much worth than tens of thousands of monsters inside that array. And like this, it was also seen as one of the deadliest weapons the monsters got against spirit masters.

    Not to mention using such method would cut short lots of time, save tons of trouble for any monster.

    Despite all this, William wasn''t even worried or startled by any of this. In fact, he saw this storm and the scary monster lying inside as a fortunate encounter.

    That monster might be just half a step away from the legendary rank, but he wasn''t that awake to begin with. For the formation to work, the monster had to sit inside, go into deep slumber, act like a sitting duck.

    The shape that Thomas saw was the spirit of this monster drifting inside that storm where its body lied. So it wasn''t that hard to kill this monster, but William had to put such ns on pause for now.

    To make the best use of this formation and the spirit power stored inside, one had to be at least at gold grade, better to be at dark gold grade.

 Chapter 534 Getting Out

    ?

    Trying to suck the colossal spirit power stored inside by any lower grade would end up by detonating one''s body out of overload.

    In addition to that, the amount of spirit power in that storm was enough to let a thousand gold spirit masters step into the dark gold grade in just a few days! Not to mention many of them would end up at the mid ranks as well.

    So, William had to wait, wait until he''d reach the gold grade at least. The higher his initial stage was, the better he''d end up at the end.

    He also wanted to bring many of his guild''s trusted and capable masters here to get the benefits as well. So, he decided to hold back his ns for now and retreat. After all, this process would take decades or even a century for that bear monster to achieve its goal.

    Besides, everyone in the area feared this ce, there was no harm in letting it and go away for now.

    As for the type of monster inside that storm, William couldn''t help but feel little ironic about it. "It seems I''m truly the nemesis of those Scarlet Bears," he inwardlyughed, while realising the monster behind all this was one of the Scarlet Bears.

    William knew if he exined all this to everyone, they''de up with more questions. And then things would turn troublesome for him, exining tons of things, without them getting most of what he''d say. And so, like usual, he decided to use actions to express what he wanted to say, not words.

    As for the team, the new ones felt more puzzled by his actions. But with the help of the old members, they realised how big this opportunity was.

    William would never act in such way except if things were great, if he was in front of a truly rare opportunity.

    "They seem like they are pissed to see us walking away," John turned back towards that hexagonal territory they just walked out from and could only sigh.

    Since they started to walk away from that storm, it felt like they stirred up the ho nest. Tons of monsters started flooding their way, trying their best to stop them, but failed.

    With William here, nothing could stop them. And in the end, William got enough cores to absorb, making him recover the spirit power he lost, and add another hundred as well.

    That made himck less than three hundred points. Just looking back at that ce made him miss being there. If not for the danger it posed over him and others by losing the spirit power the more they stayed in there, he''d preferred to stay there hunting down these monsters for weeks!

    "Let''s go," William received the map Murphy drew, and asked him to keep drawing maps of their path towards that ce out of his memory. Then he led everyone back on the right track, heading towards a huge city almost three thousand kilometres away.

    During their travel, they met monsters, but none was like the same they faced back at that hexagonal ce.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They rarely met gold grade monsters, and the most they faced were silver and bronze grades again. Even William started to long for that hexagonal ce after the passage of two weeks in their travel.

    "We are here, atst!" in their third week, they managed to arrive to their destination.

    "I''m really desperate for a hot bath right now," Ro stretched her arms, exposing more of her fiery figure. William gazed at her, knowing that she did that on purpose, the same thought that shed in other girls'' minds.

    In front of them, something a little simr to the Scorching Lands city was there. It got high walls, stretched to cover an area of tens of kilometres at least. It wasn''t as grand as the city they came from, but it wasn''t any less bustling with people like it.

    As they walked towards the main gate, William paid the fees to enter the ce. ording to what he heard from people around, to enter this ce one had to pay one hundred spirit crystals per person.

    William liked this idea, but he knew trying to apply this to the city of Scorching Lands was futile endeavor. Most of the residence in the Scorching Lands area right now weremon and normal people, ones without deep pockets or the means to acquire lots of spirit crystals.

    Only merchants and spirit masters would be able to afford paying such price. And yet when he noticed how densely crowded the inside of this ce was, he couldn''t help but inwardly sigh.

    "At least millions are inside, and that means¡­ Damn! They are earning lots of crystals per day without the need to do anything!" William grew a bit envious from this ce and started to think about expanding his guild and build his own city somewhere outside the Scorching Lands.

    Of course, that hexagonal area was a perfect spot. After he''d clear that storm, deal with the monster, he could control that region for himself.

    "What are we going to do now?" Peter asked as they were walking in a huge street right now.

    "We are going to rest for a day," William paused, turning to Smith before adding, "scatter around, gather all the intel you can get."

    "Got it!" Smith was the head of the scout team, and he was also responsible for gathering intel if the team went outside. This rarely happened in the past five years. But that didn''t mean Smith wasn''t capable of doing this task, neither was his team.

    "Let''s walk around before Smith will find a nice ce for us," William didn''t bother even to ask around for decent hotels. In fact, he''d prefer to not stay at one. Thest time he stayed at a hotel, he met with deadly foes and enemies that he couldn''t handle at that time.

    Speaking about them, and away from William''s current location, in a well-hidden ce under the Scorching Lands old fort, a grand underground cave was located safely there wasn''t anyone knowing about it.

 Chapter 535 Enemies Are Meeting

    It was a grand and spacious cave, one that was empty except from giant statues. It was the same ce William visited before, the same ce he kept desperately looking for during the past five years.

    "Show yourself! Such cheap tricks won''t work on us!" a deep voice suddenly erupted, with torches flickering and lightening up a face of a statue. The next moment a figure appeared in the middle of this ce.

    He seemed to be here for quite some time, and just exposed himself when he got spotted.

    "Sorry but it''s quite rare to meet legendary people like you in this world¡­" the man who appeared was cloaked in ck clothes. And his voice came to be more human than monstrous.

    "You aren''t a human¡­ State your business then and leave," another deep voice came, instantly recognising the true origin of the man standing in front of him.

    "What exposed me? If you may let me ask."

    "Acting in such way won''t fool us," a third deep voice came from the statues. And with it, torches flickered and lit its face, "we know who exactly you are. So, stop this bullshit, and just state your business. our kins aren''t friends to begin with."

    "I''m here to speak about amon enemy," that cloaked person paused. His features weren''t apparent from beneath his cloak, but he knew they recognised him thanks to his aura, "one that kept pressuring you for long time."

    "That bastard you mean?"

    "I want to see him dead! Is he also an enemy of yours? Fantastic!"

    "What do you want us to do then? We can''t go out and crush him as you can tell."

    Many voiced erupted, and the entire cave was slightly lit up from many statues speaking at the same time.

    "I also suffered on his hands; despite I was this close from taking that damn fox''s life. If not for him and what he did, I wouldn''t have turned to this. But now it''s time for revenge."

    That person spoke in a tone filled with tons of hatred. And he really wasn''t exaggerating anything. He held deep enmity with William, and he came here today to settle the score with him.

    "Something tells me you have some sort of a n in mind," the one who spoke this time was the wolf statue, the leader of all these Transformers here.

    "I know that you suffered a lot," that cloaked person didn''t hurry to say anything about his n, instead he kept speaking, "I gathered intel by my own means. I know how you were forced to hide and cut all the ties with the outside world for five years. I also know that you moved your breedingir towards a ce far from here."

    "We all know that, why are you mentioning this?"

    "Because I don''t buy any of that," that personughed, "I''m sure you still have connections with people up there, right?"

    "..." the statues never responded, and the cloaked person wasn''t waiting for their response to begin with.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I have a n, but to do it, you have to rope in more of the strong ones up there. You have to gather as many as you can to your side and be ready for my signal."

    "Hmm¡­ How can we do it while that damn fox is up there?" the wolf statue hated William and the old fox deep down his bones.

    "I have a way, one that will keep him away from here for a very long time," that man paused, before taking something out.

    "That¡­"

    "No way! Howe you have it?!!!"

    "Only few dark masters are allowed to have these!!!"

    The moment he took that thing out, everyone here eximed in surprise and doubt.

    "This is just a proof that I''m not fooling around," the cloaked person stored that thing away, "now you can tell I have the means to do it, to bring that damn fox down. And when that bastard will fall in my trap, you''ll have around a year to finish your business here."

    "Well¡­ Speaking about this is great but¡­" One statue said, paused as if he hesitated about something.

    "We want to see him dead," the wolf statue said what the other one hesitated to say, "we don''t tolerate how he and that damn ancestor of his dealt with us. So, if not his head is offered on the table, this deal won''t do."

    "Hmm¡­ How about this then¡­" that person started to speak about much crazier n. And as he finished, the statues agreed on joining his side.

    William didn''t know that schemes were nned for him and his team right now. He was inside one of the biggest hotels in this city, a hotel that wasn''t much different than the one he stayed at before.

    That made him feel quite tense for some reason. "I feel like something bad is going to happen, or is it just me overreacting for being here?"

    He was in his room, where a pocket world ball was there. He reserved the best suits for him and his team, letting the managers of this hotel book all the rooms in his section.

    This hotel didn''t have a master who could change itsyout like the lost one in the fort. And yet there was someone who could shrink things into secluded space. William made sure his section entirely got isted and booked by him, not allowing a single person toe here. He even stressed that not a single room service workers would trespass this ce, or else he''d deal with anyone as an enemy and kill him.

    William grew more ruthless not thanks to growing old, but thanks to growing in power. He had to ept many unfavourable situations before as he was overall weak and didn''t get lots of options before him.

    However right now he didn''tck any technique, weapon, even war supplies on his side. Spirit crystals were like useless numbers for him, and he had tons of these to do such extravagant move.

    As he settled there, he tried to rest. But that annoying feeling of danger kept assaulting him. "I better go in there and train¡­ Wow! This ce is filled with monsters! Gold grade even! What a great ce it is!"

 Chapter 536 The Pocket Worlds Little Competition

    ?

    William just passed into the pocket world, nning to keep himself busy with training. But when he entered there, a grand scene weed him. Tons of different breeds of monsters appeared in his eyes.

    He spotted lions, tigers, crocodiles, and even scarlet monsters as well. There were also ice based monsters, wind based monsters, and Earth based monsters.

    To him, this world was small,pared to the one he experienced before either at the Royals hotel or the pocket worlds owned by that mysterious master at the Scorching Lands city. But to him, this world was much better than a thousand of the grand Royals hotel back at fort, better than tens of that mysterious master''s pocket worlds.

    Williamcked cores, and as he spotted many gold grade monsters down there, he didn''t hold back anymore.

    "It''s small space¡­ But it''s enough¡­ Let me go back first¡­"

    He knew taking all the cores from here wouldn''t be enough for him to cross the needed gap to reach gold grade. So, he decided to go back, took Bullets out, and informed his team with the same message.

    "Don''t enter the pocket world, keep it for me, got it?"

    If one pocket world wasn''t enough, then a hundred, a couple of hundreds would do. Right now, he felt blessed to be a tycoon. As he reserved the entire section filled with hundreds of rooms, then he got himself hundreds of these pocket worlds, got himself lots of gold and silver cores without the need to go out.

    Bronze and white cores already lost their value to him. Even for replenishing part of his exhausted spirit power. After all, his spirit power increased by more than eight times than it was before when he used this method.

    And yet he didn''t mind having lots of them from time to time. If these cores didn''t help in replenishing his spirit power, they could be used for his training.

    Many responded, but there were others who didn''t. William sighed when he counted those who didn''t. "I got myself twenty-two impatient and troublemaker spirit masters in my team. What did I do wrong in my life to have such greedy folks?"

    William knew it was toote to stop them. Anyone entering into that pocket world would end up not receiving his message.

    And for a reason, he felt like few did that on purpose. Folks like Ibra, Tina, and Murphy would hear his message and not respond. They were sure there was something valuable inside the pocket world, and they''d want to acquire it for themselves.

    Strong spirit masters were greedy, and William knew that. But that wasn''t a big loss for him. Just these twenty-two pocket worlds with their gold and silver grade monsters would be missing, while hundreds would be avable to him.

    "I need to kill them fast, or else who knows? These greedy ones willpete me over them," William left few of the keys of these rooms to his vices. And so, he knew people like Ibra would be shameless and enter few more pocket worlds.

    As if they''d grow stronger by fighting. Yet Ibra, Tina, and Ro especially thetter, grew used to annoy him from time to time, seeing in this some sort of fun or something.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William tried to discipline them before but failed in doing so. That was their nature, and so he started to respond from the same bowl of rice they gave to him.

    "If they thought they can outpace me, then they are mistaken," William appeared in the pocket world of his room. And without any hesitation, he went all out.

    First, he summoned his fox spirit. The fox spirit body he got right now was slightly simr to the ck fox he once met before. It was grandiose, much bigger than his initial form.

    That wasn''t all, it got three tails, shining in different lights as the ten different spirit elements coated them. Then William unsheathed his sword from his back, threw it alongside his ive, a big knife, and a huge hammer, letting them allnd in his tails perfectly fine as if he held them with his own hands.

    The ive he had was the same dark gold grade one he previously asked the Forging department at the old Aspire academy to make. As for other weapons, they were also dark gold grade as well, but made by his guild.

    Then things started to flow out of his ring.

    William had a ton of rings before, but he selected the best ten to suite his fingers. As he touched one of them, many things shed out.

    Five years ago, William was limited to the twenty flying knives he made when he was just weak. As he got time, wealth, connections, resources, and manpower to make whatever he wanted, it was expected what he brought out right now.

    One hundred different shaped weapons appeared around him. There were knives, swords, spears, and even his early shaped knives. But these knives were at least five times bigger in size, looking deadlier than their former version.

    This might have been a slight increase in his overall fighting power, but each one of these was at dark gold grade. And these one hundred were the most he could take out without negatively affecting his ability to fight or cing much pressure over his spirit power.

    Previously, twenty silver grade flying knives caused lots of damage and brought immense amount of trouble for his foes. And now he got one hundred of dark gold flying weapons, enough to tear apart any dark gold master at early stage without the need for him to even move a muscle.

    William didn''t just do this, he made sure to increase the bond between him and these weapons. He had the power to purchase lots of rare ores and materials, much better than what he found before at the Aspire academy''s Forging department. As he became a tycoon and celebrity in the Scorching Lands zone, William didn''t hold back at all when making these weapons.

    His power wasn''t enough to allow him to forge these weapons. So, he used the help of those experts in the guild, making these weapons and much more.

    William learnt his lesson quite well. He didn''t have total control over his adventures. And he just was preparing if his power surged for any reason or met any great opportunity to rise his power up.

    As he took everything out, he turned towards the armies of monsters around. This pocket world was close to one hundred kilometres square in size. And so, he didn''t hesitate for a moment and started shing around.

 Chapter 537 So Close From Gold Grade

    ?

    William''s dashing technique, the oldest technique he ever learnt, experienced lots of improvements. His spirit power increased, and he also modified it a bit. And now he could cross hundreds of metres without an issue, even dashing for six hundred metres straight if he used his technique in full power.

    He didn''t show mercy to these monsters. And to save time, he let his flying weapons move in one direction while he started dealing with another. Like this, a carnage started, one that monsters here never imagined when seeing the silver spirit mastering inside their turf.

    William started moving around and killing monsters here, and even took out his elixirs and kept consuming them. Each time he released an attack, a deadly explosion ured. William didn''t just use his normal technique, but the full version of it.

    He didn''t keep his hands or tails, kept shing from a point to another few hundred metres apart. His strongest technique didn''t just need him tond his weapon on the target to leave behind tons of damage like before. Instead, everywhere he shed through would be bathed under a brutal wave of attacksing from his weapons, augmented by his spirit elements.

    If anyone saw it from far, then it''d appear like he was jumping in between two points while spreading out death and fierce explosions on the way.

    "Phew! I bet no one can even clear a pocket world in such short time like I did!" William managed to cover up the ce that''d take few days for anyone in less than twenty hours. That was thanks to his techniques, flying weapons, and tails. He collected thousands of gold cores, and tens of thousands of silver ones, plus too much to count of the other useless cores for him.

    Then he didn''t hesitate to go out, move to another room, then start this all over again.

    He didn''t select any suite of his team. He already gave them the order to not go in there.

    So, he went to the empty rooms first and started cleaning them day by day. When he finished clearing seven rooms in total, he got that this wouldn''t work. The time spent in clearing each pocket world wasn''t long. But considering the hundreds of rooms and pocket worlds he had, he knew this was going to take long months!

    "Come along, we got to do something together," as he reached such conclusion, he decided to move with his team. From one point, he''d be able to clear these worlds faster. And even if his overall pick from each world would decrease, this was worth it considering the total gains he''d get.

    If things went right, then the team would handle the weak and useless monsters, even the gold grade ones who were running fast and took him quite the time and effort to catch. And so, if he used close to one day to clear a pocket world before, with his team alongside him, he cleared each pocket world in mere hours!

    "Tsk! I should have known you are asking us to work as ves for you!" at first everyone was excited and thrilled. But gradually their minds changed.

    Fighting for hours wasn''t a problem, but fighting for seven straight days was something that ced lots of pressure over them. William didn''t want to leave here before clearing everything. After all, he kept regretting walking away from the hexagonal ce and didn''t want to regret leaving these pocket worlds treasure.

    As such, he went out to book this ce for one more month. He already booked the ce for a two-week period. And during his absence, his team could finally have a rare moment of rest.

    "You let us clear tens of these worlds, killing tons of monsters¡­ We need to rest!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Yes boss, let us rest for a day or so¡­"

    After William returned back, the team started to speak. "You seem to agree on this while I was away¡­ Fine!" William rolled his eyes, "just one day, not a single hour more."

    "Yes boss, you are the best!"

    "We won''t take longer than this."

    "Tsk! What a stingy master you are! Can''t you just let us rest for few days or so?"

    "Ibra!" William red at Ibra, and thetter kept shaking his head before he and others went out.

    It wasn''t just them who were tired, William was as well. They spent a week doing this and managed to clear forty pocket worlds so far. With the seven William cleared already, he was close to clear around one fifth of the entire pocket worlds he had ess to.

    "Time to absorb them first," but before resting as others, William decided to absorb these cores in one go. He was too busy killing monsters before, didn''t really have time to absorb these cores.

    As he sat on the ground, taking lots of cores out, soaking them with his blood, before devouring them all, he spent roughly five hours before finishing.

    "Hmm¡­ Just seventy points¡­ The silver cores are pretty damn useless now!" William sighed when he inspected his spirit power. His gain of the gold grade was decent, but most of the cores were lower than the gold grade.

    He had to devour thousands of silver cores, even up to ten thousand at one point, to raise just a single point. Comparing this to the gold cores, he would devour a hundred or two to get a single point.

    But he got no other option. He stagnated for so long at this silver grade. And it was time for him to catch up with others.

    "I hope taking down monsters here would be enough to reach such stage," William hoped for this miracle to happen, but eventually it didn''t.

    As the team kept this rhythm, killing monsters for a week or so, then rest for a day, then return to fight again, they managed to clear around two hundred pocket worlds in the end. And William got two hundred points more, just missing fifty points.

 Chapter 538 Williams Team

    ?

    "Thest stretch is bing harder to cross¡­" his rising speed was low to begin with. But now it was like a snail. If he had to devour couple hundred gold cores before to get a single spirit power point, right now he had to devour a thousand, or few thousands even to get that point! As for the silver cores, they became really useless, doing nothing at all!

    "I need dark gold monsters," William knew if he kept doing this, he''d need tons of gold grade monsters, at least fifty thousand of them, if not more. The best option he got right now was to find dark gold monsters and consume their cores. But finding such scary folks wasn''t that easy to begin with. Not to mention the scale of power of this grade was really scary!

    To reach bronze grade, any spirit master had to break through the one-hundred-point mark. To be a silver master, he had to break through the one thousand and half mark. To be a gold master, this threshold would rise up to five thousand points. And to enter dark gold realm, one had to exceed twelve thousand points.

    But that wasn''t the problem, the scale of thisst stage of power was. It spanned all the way from twelve thousand up to fifty thousand mark!

    That wasn''t all! Even those who were known as the ones at the pinnacle of power in this world wasn''t really at the top of powerdder. The scale of this pinnacle stage ranged from fifty thousand up to one hundred thousand! Beyond that, one would reach the legendary realm, being able to leave this world if he found the right portal to do so.

    And that what made meeting monsters quite scary. In spirit world, those in high stages of power were appointed to known spots, very famous in their regions. But monsters were randomly allocated everywhere. And that made it like a gamble for William, one that he didn''t like to take for now.

    "If only I can find a monster tide attacking any ce," he sighed, dreaming about something that wouldn''t happen that often. And he knew it.

    "Did you say there is a ce where we can purchase intel from anywhere in the world here?"

    As he had no way to solve this problem, already exhausted lots of wealth to get his hands on these pocket worlds and spent the time allocated for him, William turned to Smith and asked.

    "There is this impact, specialised mainly in gathering intel from the entire world," Smith nodded in agreement, while the team was resting on the ground right now, "they im that they got even the intel of monsters and dark masters. But the price they ask for is quite high for such intel."

    "Hmm¡­ Let''s go and pay it a visit then," William turned to Berry before tossing her a ring, "there is enough spirit gems inside to book another week here. Let''s rest and chill out. Then we''ll leave."

    "Don''t forget we got the contest in less than three months," Sara said, "we don''t want to miss it."

    "We won''t," William nodded, "just rest and don''t worry about this. Using portals here, we can go near that academy. And then we can return back using the same method, then take a portal directly to the capital. So, we won''t lose that much time."

    "I''lle with you," Ibra got used to follow William, alongside Lina who tagged along as well.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William didn''t say no to these two. He knew trying to convince them otherwise wouldn''t help. Ibra grew this habit since the time they spent back at the forest, when they first walked out of the academy.

    Every single time he followed William, both interesting and scary things happened.

    As for Lina, since the moment she and her sister woke up inside William''s residence at the academy, and she felt enraged and regret. She knewter on and heard about what William and his team did. And she deeply and truly regretted not following along.

    Since that moment, she never left William whenever he went outside to adventure or kill monsters. She feared he''d end up in a great adventure, would need her help and she wouldn''t be there for him.

    In her eyes, William wasn''t just a boss or a master. He was like the world for her, the one she owned her life, her sister''s life, and everything they reached so far to.

    If anyone told her before that she was going to be like any proper spirit master, then she''d say he was crazy. Selvators were never like spirit masters. But William proved this was wrong by actions, allowing for both herself and her sister to start absorbing spirit power, train and rise up in grades like any proper spirit master.

    That wasn''t all. William was like walking encyclopedia. He kept bringing up training manuals and fighting techniques for Lina and Tina, the same thing he did for everyone in the ck Tails team.

    Lina was exactly feeling like Moore. Thetter always dreamt about going to the frontlines and fighting like any proper spirit master. But his role was always in the backlines, acting like an envoy or a ry point of orders and intel.

    But since joining William, and his life changed upside down. William didn''t let him down, honoured his promise and taught him few techniques that made him able to fight properly at any battle.

    In fact, Moore was seen as the cold-hearted killer in the eyes of the team. If he wanted, he could kill anyone during sleep, kill or at least heavily wound anyone during a spar or a fight, in a way that they failed to counter every single time they fought against him in training.

    He didn''t attack them physically, but mentally. And to them, that turf was just unexplored area, the same for most masters actually.

    The only one who could stand his own and even crush him was William. That was because William knew all the ins and outs of him, had tons of experience in dealing with the extremely dangerous mind-based spirit masters like Moore. But thanks to such reputation, Moore''s infamy just grew thicker, and the team kept more distance away from him.

    They feared and despised him, not even epting the excuses William brought to them whenever such topic was opened. To William, as long as Moore didn''t really kill anyone ever in his life, and thanks to his old history of getting abducted due his darkness element, then he wasn''t that kind of a viin.

 Chapter 539 The Weird Impact

    ?

    That was his own view, especially when he cared more about his great value, not like others.

    "This city is really filled with many peopleing from different ces," as they walked around, they kept hearing lots ofments from the passersby.

    They didn''t just see different emblems and attires, they also noticed differences in the tone and way of speaking in many groups walking around them.

    As many spoke in high voices, they could hear lots of what they were saying. To William''s surprise, most of the talks were about the uing spirit master contest.

    "Did you hear? That fox is going to take part in thatpetition!"

    "No way! I heard he hates going out or showing his face around."

    "I bet he just wanted to add more fame and glory to himself."

    "He is such an arrogant youth then."

    "I have a team from my academy taking part in that contest. But when the news spread over, many teams also wanted to take part."

    "For real? If it was me, then I''d select to go away from thispetition."

    "Afraid of him? Hahahaha!"

    "Don''t say such words! It''s not bad to feel fear and live longer. He is indeed someone scary! Did you forget? He was able to kill dark gold masters five years ago. Just imagine what he can do right now."

    "That''s just what rumours say, not the necessarily the truth anyway."

    "I heard he struggled to kill the early-stage dark gold masters back then. If that''s true, then there is no fear on facing him as long as the team has capable dark gold masters."

    "Did you forget? There is an age limit in this contest! Only those at twenty-five or younger can take part."

    "What about this? I was in dark gold grade already when I was twenty-three."

    "Hahahaha! And you dare to consider yourself a prodigy? I was dark gold master at twenty-two."

    "Shut up you two! I reached that stage when I reached twenty!"

    "That''s fantastic then. I heard many auction houses are cing bids already over this contest."

    "That''s old news! The Novistic kingdom already issued an order to stop all this."

    "No way! I was going to ce my bids in one of these auction houses in one month!"

    "No need to panic! The kingdom issued this order to regte things, or to get the best out of this rich cake."

    "What do you mean? Can we bet or not?"

    "We can, but only at the official auction house of the kingdom."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Phew! I''m relieved then¡­ I''ll bet on the fox to win."

    "Me too."

    "Come on! If all betted on him, we won''t get anything in return. I''ll bet against him; may heavens screw this fox for wealth."

    William heard all this alongside Ibra, Lina, and Smith.

    "You indeed are a pro in making trouble anywhere you go, tsk!" Ibra shook his head, and William just gave him a warning gaze to silene him up.

    That group of spirit masters kept walking by their side for few minutes before they finally vanished in a side street. And then William started to speak to Ibra, in a low tone.

    "You do know this isn''t true."

    "What if that became true?" Ibra paused, "what if you took part in that contest?"

    "No way! It''s a waste of time," William shook his head, "we are just going to pay that weird academy a visit, see who is that daring youth to impersonate me."

    "It won''t be this bad to fight in that contest," Lina also shared the same opinion as Ibra, as everyone else in the ck Tails actually except for William. Yet William didn''t embrace the idea at all. He was the one knowing how hard it was to rise up and train, how every second really counted.

    Even this adventure, if not for his stuck in thatst stage of the silver grade, he''d not take the risk and go out like this.

    "We are here," as the four of them kept walking in the streets of this ce, they finally arrived at a building that no one would take seriously.

    First it was small in size, not exceeding the size of two normal buildingsbined. And then it came down to its shape, which looked quite old. Its colour was grey, with a faint and paleyer covering its four storey high building. Thisyer even got many spots where it cracked and fell, exposing the red coloured ores behind, giving the entire building a weird look.

    It didn''t have a name on it!

    On top of that, this ce looked like it got abandoned or something. There was a small group of spirit mastersing out from it, without any crowd around, without anyoneing to it except for William and the other three.

    When William looked at the faces of these mastersing out from this building, he noticed the look of dissatisfaction over. And what one of them said to William and his little group confirmed this feeling.

    "Don''t go in there and waste your time¡­ Those folks¡­ They are thieves disguised in the form of an impact. Screw them!"

    William frowned when he heard these words, turned to Smith who simply sighed.

    "I told you already, this ce has high prices."

    "Let''s go then," William didn''t mind paying lots of spirit crystals in exchange for reliable news. What he wanted to know was rted to many things, starting with that fake fox.

    But that wasn''t all. He also wanted to know any news about Transformers and the Nightmare monster. But he doubted such a ce would truly hold secrets like these, things that no one knew as they imed.

    Yet as they were here, it was better to go in and take a look first before jumping to conclusions. As they passed through the old iron fence and rusty gate, they found a cracked set of stairs waiting for them. Inside, they found a single desk, with an old looking spirit master sitting there.

 Chapter 540 The Cosmic Butterfly

    ?

    The hall they entered wasn''t that spacious to begin with. There was dust everywhere, and even spider webs appeared at the corners. The desk was dark brown in colour, with its outeryer getting pale spots in lots of ces.

    William cleared his throat to attract the attention of this spirit master sitting there, reading many scrolls in a serious way. He knew this master must have noticed their presence long time ago, as he gave William the feeling of being strong,

    In William''s estimate, he was in dark gold grade, at least at the mid stage if not higher. And he was right about his guess.

    "How may I help you?" the old man said, without even lifting his eyes off his scrolls.

    He looked as if he didn''t care about new customers, which felt a bit weird to William. The ce was empty, as it was intentionally trying to kick customers away from here.

    What were they doing by establishing a business and hoping that no one would appear there? That was just crazy!

    "Ahem, I want to ask if this is the right ce I heard about," William was having more doubts now about the intel of Smith, "I heard you sell news and secrets, even things about monsters and dark masters¡­ Is that true?"

    "Sure, but you have to know that our services are very costy. So it''s better if you return and send your elders or masters to deal with this if you really are ready to pay."

    "I''m the master you need to deal with," William didn''t like this old man the more he spoke.

    And when William said these words, that old man lifted his eyes off the scrolls he was reading and looked at William in a serious way for the first time.

    When William looked back at this old man''s eyes, he was startled as well. "Two ck eyes, with few shimmering stars floating inside. I heard the more stars in your eyes, the stronger your ability bes. Is that true?"

    "Oh, you indeed have keen eyes," the old man smiled, hiding his shock from what William just said, before adding, "my spirit is rare¡­ So how can you just tell from my eyes?"

    "Consider me someone who knows lots of things," William shrugged. He already recognised the spirit of this master in front of him. And now he realised why this impact dared to say they could get any news anyone wanted, even from monsters and dark masters.

    It was the spirit of the Cosmic Butterfly. It was rumoured that outside of all the worlds, there was an endless space there. And this was called cosmos. The cosmos was a mysterious ce that no one knew anything about. But there were many spections about this ce, including a theory about being the memory of events happening anywhere in any world.

    It was like a grand library, one that got the imprints of anything happening in any world. It happened that this spirit could tap into any memory once they got anything rted to it.

    For example, this old man could give William answers about the Nightmare monster one William spoke a little about this enemy of his. But there was a catch. Such spirit used a ton of spirit power to operate, usually way beyond what any spirit master could have. And that was why the services of this impact were pricey.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Yet that didn''t matter in William''s eyes. What he truly cared about was just one thing; the reliability of the news he''d get from this ce. As he recognised this man''s spirit, he was sure such news was quite reliable.

    "So, young master from unknown ce¡­ How may I help you?"

    "Let''s start first with the fees," William knew that this man would need to consume elixirs to replenish his lost spirit power in return for using his spirit, "how much will this cost me?"

    "Will¡­ If you are going to ask about things in this world, then it will cost the price of ten million spirit crystals per question. If you seek answers about well hidden secrets, then the price will be double. If this news is rted to other worlds, even pocket worlds included, then you have to pay one hundred million per question¡­"

    "I see¡­" William wasn''t surprised by the mention of other worlds in this man''s words. He knew much about this spirit thanks to a personally experience. He also estimated such a cost was partially depending on the number of elixirs used by this man.

    "But there is something I need to tell you first¡­ I can''t guarantee that answers will be detailed enough to satisfy your needs. From my experience, the normal questions will yield short answers. If you want more, you have to either think carefully about your questions, be ready to pay for more questions being asked, or use the ultimate service from the start."

    William got what this old man meant. After all, this was the tiny world. Even if this master was dark gold grade, he was still limited by his low power considering the grand outer world.

    "What''s this ultimate service?"

    "You''ll ask a question, and I''ll try to take a look about anything I can reach with my spirit and technique, getting answers for you. In return for that, you''ll get mostly the answer you seek. However¡­"

    The old man paused, looked at William in hesitation as if he didn''t believe William could afford such service.

    "How much will this cost me?" William cut the chase and asked directly about what this man wanted to speak about.

    "One hundred million spirit crystal per question," the old man raised on finger in the air, "but I guarantee the quality of the service and the answers will satisfy you for sure."

    "Fine," William decided to give it a try, "here¡­ This is one hundred spirit gems inside."

    William took one of the tons of rings he had and handed it over to that old man. The man got the ring and his eyes shone in bright light.

    "You are indeed special¡­ Ok, what''s the question you need to ask?"

 Chapter 541 Seeking Answers At The Cosmos Grand Library

    ?

    "A group of Transformers," William paused, not knowing if this man really knew what Transformers even meant, "they are monsters which elongated their lives using special methods. They live in the bodies of statues, a group of thirty or something, used to live for thousands of years at the Scorching Lands fort. They are led by a wolf like statue Transformer. They got the ability to make more Transformers, like they are breeding or transforming them using special method."

    "Interesting¡­" the old man paused before adding, "it seems you know how my ability works, quite interesting¡­ However, you didn''t give me any question to answer."

    "My first question is about their current whereabouts," William paused, thinking deeply about this before adding, "I want to know their specific location right now, and how to reach there."

    "A direct and simple question¡­ Don''t you want to know what they are doing right now? Or what they are nning to do in the future?"

    "Well, if you can add all this up in the same deal then it''s ok," William calmly smiled, "and if you can get me the way they make new Transformers, and their current locations then it''ll be great."

    "I''ll see what I can do," the old man didn''t promise anything. Instead, he started to take things out. Many bottles appeared on his desk, and William knew all of these were elixirs.

    There were around twenty different coloured elixir bottles on that desk. And then the old man started to open their lids one by one. "Cheers," he said before gulping all of their content in session, "give me half an hour. Hopefully I can get more than what you desire."

    "Fingers crossed," William waited, and then the old man closed his eyes for a couple of minutes.

    "You better retreat for a bit," the old man said, and William simply motioned for his people to retreat for a little. They stood just at the entrance of this ce, and then the old man started to work.

    The first thing that happened was for the dark gold spirit power to gush out from his body. There was a dense wave of dark gold power that surged out from that man''s body, enveloping the entire ce around.

    If William and his little group were still inside, they''d have been engulfed inside this surge. Then the old man opened his eyes, and all William could see were two brightly shining blue stars.

    The entire ce inside started to change. The dark gold spirit power that filled the entire ce started to swirl, form circles inside, all looked like little gxies or something.

    William knew this was the connection between this man and the cosmos. This kept going, while the old man kept sitting in his ce, like this was all he needed to do.

    But William knew he was now tapping through the cosmos grand library, getting ess to anything rted to the Transformers William spoke about.

    Half an hour had already passed, and yet the old man didn''t show any sign of stopping what he was doing. Seeing this made the other three with William frown.

    "Didn''t he say he''d take half an hour?" Lina from the sideined. And William just shook his head.

    "His spirit ability is really hard to predict and control. Hopefully he won''t die inside or meet something that he shouldn''t stir."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Can that happen!!" The other three turned to William as if they just heard something bizarre. And William simply nodded.

    "That''s the risk this old man has to endure every single time he uses his spirit," William was well aware of this spirit, as this was the spirit of his master, "and at many asions, returning back with answers will have much bitter cost to pay if the question is about something aligned with fate and greater universe powers."

    "Tsk! You kept speaking about weird things, just like those monsters you mentioned in there. You even said our Scorching Lands fort. Do they really exist there?"

    "They were living there once," William didn''t give Ibra any confirmative answer, "and that''s why we need to know if they were still there or not."

    "And if they were?" Smith asked, "will we fight them?"

    "We have to," William wanted to fight them for many times during the past five years. He got his guild, his ck Tails team, Panther, and lots of scary spirit masters on his side.

    Five years ago, they got scared of him, burnt down all bridges within the fort. They lost most if not all of their dirty followers there, all the monsters and dark masters on their side.

    And that meant they were all alone.

    He got an army on his side, and they got nothing. And that was the perfect moment to hit any enemy like them. Giving them time to recuperate and amend the things William broke would be a grave mistake. And that was the main reason behind William''s obsession and urge to find them.

    "Cough! Cough!"

    Just as the four of them were speaking, the old man suddenly coughed blood twice. Then he cancelled his spirit, forcibly cancelling it, while his face was looking white like a paper.

    He was luckily sitting on his seat. And so, he didn''t fall to the ground when that happened. Seeing the scary spirit power receding fast and that old man suffering an injury, everyone looked at William who simply motioned for them to step in.

    He tagged along, with a dark look over his face. He guessed something, and that was bad news actually. When he arrived there, he saw a symbol shining on the forehead of this old man, something that wasn''t there before.

    It was like a little star, a sun mark that appeared on his forehead. And seeing this mark brought many memories back to William, even to the extent of making him pause momentarily in his tracks. He knew what he guessed before was true.

    But others went to help the old man, even offering him healing potions that he refused by the wave of his hand.

 Chapter 542 Getting Valuable Intel

    ?

    "These won''t help," William paused, taking in a deep breath before adding, "this is the price that he has to suffer¡­ It seems fate really is on the side of those Transformers."

    "What the hell¡­ Did you make me tap into?" In the next few minutes, the shining sun star started to slowly fade away. But it still left a deep burning mark over the man''s forehead. He kept panting and sweating profusely for the next ten minutes, before finally bing able to say these words.

    "I didn''t know they were supported by fate," William sighed, said in an apologising tone, "I''llpensate you."

    "No need," the old man waved his hand again. He rested for a little bit before adding, "it''s not their fate that stopped me, but a fate of something scary that made me suffer all this."

    "Something else''s fate? Who?" William felt puzzled and curious about this. He just asked this old man to take a peek on these Transformers'' secrets. It never crossed his mind, even for one second, that these Transformers were rted to something scarier.

    "I couldn''t get much of it, but some sort of a meeting and an alliance happened between them and that scary one," the old man sighed, "all I can tell you is that they were speaking about amon enemy of theirs. If my guesses are right, then you are the one they were speaking about¡­ What did you do exactly? What kind of trouble did you bring on yourself?!"

    "Nothing," William shrugged, while his mind wasn''t that calm as how his face looked. His mind raced and linked all the dots together.

    A scary figure, an enemy of his, went to meet up with those Transformers. The only other grand enemy of his that was scary enough to drive such bacsh from fate was none other than that damn fox. But the fox was in the outer world, and that made him just think back about what he learnt about this enemy five years ago.

    "So¡­ That Nightmare monster didn''t die or run away as I suspected¡­ He is still sticking around, sniffing about my news, and trying to bring me trouble as I''m trying to do the same to it¡­ Interesting foe indeed¡­"

    William guessed everything without the need to know much of what happened. Just thinking about his two most troublesome enemies, the ones he struggled for five years to find, getting together and uniting their forces to face him, made him feel how ironic this was.

    He was looking for them, and it seemed they were the ones who were taking the initiative toe out of their deep holes to meet him. But at this point, he was mistaken. As they didn''t intend to meet him head on. They nned something entirely different, something he didn''t get yet.

    As he looked at the old man, he ditched the idea of asking him to prey over that Nightmare monster. Just spying over something that was rted to him was enough to bring this old man such a bacsh. And William knew how grand the price this fellow here paid for this.

    It was like his master. Every time she went to peek over the fox''s secrets, she ended up losing part of her senses, her control over her body, and above all, part of her spirit power. That was the reason she wasn''t considered a scary master in battles. She was in fact pretty weak.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But thanks to her spirit, she could get tons of knowledge about anything she wanted, aside from those scary figures who had a grand role to y in the destiny of the entire world.

    The universe didn''t care about good or bad, it only cared about the flow of things and fate. From William''s experience, he could easily tell that for any grand event in the world to happen, two opposing forces must be present, good and evil.

    As for the final winner in between the two, the universe wouldn''t be bothered by this. It was like a silent spectator, with its top priority for things to keep running forward ording to the grand n.

    So the universe would protect the evil ones the same it''d protect the good ones. "Anything else?" William put aside the issue of delving into the Nightmare secrets for now. But he was sure this old man got more than what he just said.

    He spent close to an hour using his spirit and technique. That meant he must have seen other things before getting the bacsh.

    "I saw where they are, and they are still in the Scorching Lands fort," the old man paused, taking a minute in an attempt to organise his thoughts, "their ce is deep underground, with a single entrance that''s surrounded by nine grand hills. To enter there, you have to find the ruins of a destroyed hill, and there you''ll find a tunnel."

    "Oh, is that so?" William recognised what the old man said. And thetter smiled for the first time since suffering from the bacsh.

    "I''m d what I saw made sense to you," he paused for a second, "ah, I also saw shes of other ces, where smaller statues are. I believe these are ces where the new statues are getting born and raised up. However¡­"

    "They aren''t in the fort, right?" William already thought about this point. If the Transformers held a deep grudge against him to not leave the fort, they''d not be this foolish and stubborn to let their breeding ces stick around.

    "I''m sorry, but I didn''t see any familiar ce except¡­" the old man paused again, while his eyes shimmered in dark gold light, "I recognised one ce though. I''m not sure, but it felt like it''s around the capital of the Novistcic kingdom, near a ce that''s filled with trenches and deep holes¡­ But it weirdly seemed t, like it wasn''t real¡­ Weird!"

    "Trenches and deep holes¡­ With a t surface? What puzzle is that?"

 Chapter 543 S Grade Fate Sacred Matter

    William muttered these words, feeling that fate and luck were on his side this time. He was going to visit the Novistic kingdom capital at the end of his journey. It''d be just great to find one breeding ce and kill everything inside while he was there.

    Who knew, he might also stumble across the mystery of how these Transformers could breed new generations of theirs.

    "That''s what I saw¡­ For a reason, I feel like this ce is familiar. But I can''t grasp where I previously saw it¡­"

    "No problem, I''ll dig that ce out myself," William said in a decisive tone, "can you do something else for me?"

    "Another scary question? Please, I got enough to stop answering anything for an entire month at least."

    "Oh, I see¡­ Thanks for the trouble again, and sorry about that bacsh."

    "It''s not your fault, partially," the old manughed, "but I''m curious about you¡­ Who are you?"

    "Don''t try to take a peek," Williamughed, waved his arm while turning to leave, "if you do, you''ll end up having a much worse bacsh than what you just suffered."

    William wasn''t joking. He knew he got a high role to y in the future. And so he was as well protected as this fox.

    As the old man feared to use his spirit again, William had to drop asking him to collect news of that weird Long Feather academy, or the one impersonating his identity. He left with his little team, heading out after giving a few elixirs to the old man in the form of an apology, and for the sake of his master.

    "Are the Scorching Lands city and our guild in danger?" This was the first thing Smith asked, while the other two looked at William in wait.

    "I frankly don''t know the answer to that," William wasn''t lying, "but it''s better to send them a warning. Is there a ce where we can send long distance Bullets or something?"

    After staying with William for a long time, his team got used to his frequent use of this term instead of Message Papers. "There is indeed a ce like this¡­ Follow me," sending Smith out to scout and gather intel proved its worth at this moment.

    William started to walk away, not realising that he attracted a hidden power''s attention towards himself without even knowing anything about this.

    "Are you telling me he recognised your spirit from a nce?" Ten minutes after William and his little team left, that old man went deep inside that building. He kept walking in long corridors, heading deep underground, before ending up at a ce. There, a portal was ced in the middle of a big hall, without anything else aside from it.

    The old man passed through the portal, appearing in a ce that was hundreds of thousands of kilometres away from that city.

    When he appeared, he arrived at another building. Yet this one was made entirely out of ores. It didn''t have windows and was literally carved in the heart of a big mountain, with rocks surrounding and pressuring it from all directions.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Thanks to the brilliant masters who built this ce, and many formidable arrays ced around, this building couldy there, without getting crushed under the brutal weight and might of the mountain.

    There was no way out or into here except through portals that filled the ce. From a nce, anyone could tell it was a hidden base of a hidden, and formidable power.

    The old man came out from the portal inside a small room. He exited it, headed through a long corridor where he ended up in a vast hall. It wasn''t empty, but filled with lots of desks and spirit masters, all working on scrolls. They looked the same as this old man when William first met him.

    He went without the need to ask or look for any directions and headed towards one desk in particr. There he sat, greeted the man opposite to him, and narrated what happened with William minutes ago.

    "That''s why I came here¡­ Not only that, but the question he asked seemed to be rted to a Fate Sacred Matter."

    "Fate Sacred Matter? Are you sure? What grade?" The man didn''t show any change on his face. After all, this wasn''t the first time to hear such an intel, and it wasn''t that rare actually to receive such news.

    "I''d say¡­ At least grade S," the old man William met paused, "or perhaps higher."

    "..."

    Just when the man sitting on the desk heard that, he slowly stood up, with his eyes widening in immense disbelief.

    "Are¡­ Are you sure?!!!" he had to ask. After all, the purpose of this hidden force was to search for any S grade Fate Sacred Matters from all over the world.

    This was just a local headquarter, one that was connected and followed a much grander headquarter in the capital of an empire on another continent. This ce was given the task to supervise the entire Novistic kingdom. And it was the first time in the entire history of this branch to find an S grade Fate Sacred Matter.

    "I''m sure," the old man paused, looked at the much younger spirit master sitting in front of him, "this is what happened¡­"

    He started to narrate in more detail what happened, what he experienced, speaking about things that he never told William. Most of his talk was rted to the bacsh that he suffered, how it felt, and things he saw when he tapped into the world of cosmos. After he finished, the young man knew this was a big deal. He also knew it was something beyond his payment grade.

    "Come with me," the middle-aged man grabbed a scroll that he wrote something there in a hurry, turned around and started walking towards a different corridor.

    The old man tagged along, and they ended up in a room where there was another portal inside. But this one was a bit different.

 Chapter 544 Wrong Guesses About His Intentions

    ?

    The portal the old man used before toe here was silver in colour, the type that would work on limited distances.

    The portal they arrived at was dark gold in colour, much bigger than the one the old man used. "An intercontinental portal level¡­ Where are you taking me?!!" The old man''s face changed when he recognised the grade and use of this portal.

    "To the central department of course, where else?" the middle-aged man started to take lots of spirit stars. A single one of these was worth a thousand of spirit gems, worth a billion spirit crystals. He didn''t just take one or two, he took batches of them out of his ring, like they were trash andmon things to find.

    The old man was knowledgeable about how these grand portals worked. So, he didn''t speak and watched the middle-aged fellow scatter the spirit stars around, enough to fuel the activation of this portal.

    Then the two men went into a journey that took them far away from here. Starting from here, a hidden force sat their eyes over William without thetter knowing anything about it.

    As this was going on, William was walking in the bustling city streets, following Smith, heading towards a grand building with lots of spirit masters inside and around.

    Seeing this made William sigh. The ce he visited before was looking like a real desert or something. But this was like an oasispared to that ce.

    "It''s done," William had to go inside and send the warning. He was the only one with Panther''s Bullet. And to send a long-distance message, people working in this ce needed such a Bullet and the one who owned it.

    William didn''t exin much, only warned Panther about a huge disaster that might befall the fort and the city in the uing period of weeks, months, mostly one year. He knew speaking about the Transformers with Panther might backfire instead of doing any help.

    The crux of those dirty folks'' work depended entirely on the presence of traitors in any ce. And William knew Panther quite well after all these years. He hated nothing more than traitors from the human side.

    If he got wind of such a thing, then he''d end up creating more trouble in the entire city. So William limited the amount of information he needed to know. He also did that also to prevent the leak of such intel to the ears of the Transformers.

    William thought about what the old man said to him while walking through the city streets. Two of his deadliest enemies, two who didn''t know each other before, met up and were speaking about him.

    Without the need to think much, he knew they were scheming something big against him. His thoughts drifted towards his current adventure here, mistaking their ns and intentions to target him while he was away.

    He thought the chances of them conspiring to hit the Scorching Lands city were minimal, or even close to null. Yet he didn''t n to leave anything for luck, sent this message for Panther to start preparing for a grand war, just in case.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He knew Panther wouldn''t take such warning lightly. Thetter would start amassing lots of forces, even recruiting mercenaries, folks from ces outside the Scorching Lands area, and even rogue masters roaming the world freely.

    "Now let''s go and check over the portal zone," William got out from this grand building, turned to Smith as he added, "you know where that ce is, right?"

    "Sure," Smith didn''t add anymore, led them towards another street where it took them all the way to the centre of the city.

    As they walked, Ibra and Lina kept speaking with William about what thetter and the old man spoke about. They grew curious about these Transformers, and how William got to know them.

    William satisfied their curiosity by telling them part of the truth. He revealed that these Transformers were behind the grand attack thatnded over the Lair of the Fox before the start of the grand war. He even went to the extent to im that they yed a role in that grand war.

    William wasn''t lying, after all these Transformers really yed a role there. The devastation that urred in the fort, the one that took a month to remove its marks from the fort, was done by them. When these two heard such stories, they got satisfied and kept chatting among themselves about what William just revealed, totally forgetting about their other question regarding how William knew all this.

    Then they grew interested in knowing about the identity of the other enemy the old man spoke about. As this enemy got the power to cause such a severe bacsh to a dark gold master, something that the Transformers couldn''t do, that meant it was something terrifying.

    William didn''t hide the truth, told them bits and pieces of it. In fact, he found in telling them the right answer a way to solve their growing doubts about their old missions, the ones he kept sending them out to do from time to time.

    "Holy sh*t! Are you sure it''s the same damn bastard which we ran away from before, the same one you sent us looking for in the past years?!!" Ibra got stirred up the moment he heard what William said.

    "That''s why I kept trying to locate it, wanting to deal with this monster once and for all. It''s a threat, a real danger like you saw."

    "Tsk! I now can understand why you did all this before¡­ And here I thought you were trying to torture us or something¡­ I thought you grew dull and bored from living inside the guild, doing nothing but training, and wanted to find a source of amusement by sending us out¡­ Tsk!"

    William went speechless, even blinked twice while looking at Ibra in a weird way. He never thought such an insane conclusion jumped into the mind of that fellow. And when he turned to Lina and she nodded, he realised this wasn''t just exclusive to Ibra.

 Chapter 545 News About The Long Feather Academy

    ?

    "It seems you have lots of free time to let your imagination run wild like this," he shook his head, before adding in form of revenge, "next time, when we get back, I''ll relieve your minds from such a burden of overthinking and give you more tasks."

    "William!" "Boss!" "Bastard!" the three of them turned to him and shouted at the same time.

    "What? Don''t give me that look, I''m just trying to help you all with a clear conscience and kind heart¡­"

    William even winked, making the hearts of the three of them tremble. And they weren''t the only ones who would feel like that. The rest of the team would also feel the same when they''d hear about such grave news.

    Of course, Ibra knew he''d take the toll of this, ending up getting med for speaking nonsense to William. Against his arrogance and high self-esteem, he decided to apologise to all of them for the miserable future they''d all face thanks to his slip of a tongue.

    The walk inside the city made them hear lots of news about the uing spirit master contest. Many came here to reach the kingdom''s capital, just to attend it, and news about this contest seemed to know no bottom at all.

    "Tsk! I recall the spirit contest that happened before this one, it was ten years ago, just when I was a bronze grade master¡­ I swear it didn''t get such attention like this one!"

    "Oh, you were a bronze spirit master before? That''s refreshing to hear," Williamughed, teasing his friend a little.

    "What? Do you think I got born with a golden spoon and grade in my spirit? I started all the way up from having zero spirit power to now! I''m not like you, a crazy one who can evolve during a fight or something!"

    "Come on, I''m not even close to your grade now, dark gold master," William even cupped his hands, making Ibra''s scalp go numb.

    He didn''t know why, but seeing William do this greeting drove goosebumps in his body. Every single time he fought with William; he ended up losing in the hands of his terrifying spirit body.

    "Did you hear? A team from that academy is here!"

    "What? The one with the fox master in their roster? Is he here as well?"

    Just as they arrived at the portal location, they overheard such excited talk between a group of spirit masters who just appeared out from these portals.

    "No, I don''t know that¡­ But I heard they are crushing the teams out there in the Spar arena. I just ran here to witness their next match!"

    "For real? Let me go as well!"

    "..."

    William and the other three turned to exchange look among each other. "What the hell is going on here?" Lina couldn''t help but move, heading towards the same group who just said this news. But the next instant, William stopped her with his ive, blocking her path towards this group.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "What? I was going to ask them nicely!" she said in defence, and little annoyance as well.

    "No need, we got Smith to do this for us anyway," William moved his eyes to fall over Smith, and thetter got what William wanted him to do.

    "I''ll get to the bottom of this," Smith turned all serious and went after the group who just came out. William tracked them for a while with his eyes, the same like the other two did.

    "Why didn''t you let us go and get the intel directly from them? Tsk! You love troubling people with your stuff all the time!"

    "Don''t start it," William rolled his eyes, "these folks know nothing. It''s just a member of them who ims such a thing, not actually attending any game of that team. We need to get more reliable intel, not just any intel or rumours¡­ Let''s go."

    As that team vanished from his sight, William entrusted this task over to Smith and turned towards the direction of the portal zone.

    The ce was like an airport or something, a very vast open space with only a low levelled wooden wall that didn''t help in hiding much of the inside.

    There were many gates where tons of people came in and out every minute.

    "Are you here to book a ticket to a ce?" as the three reached the man responsible for handling stuff here, he simply asked in a dull tone.

    "We want to reserve a ticket for two hundred people, one week from now, heading towards the Blue Hills," William said, mentioning all the needed information for that man without the need for thetter to ask anything.

    "Hmm¡­ Let me see¡­ The price of a single ticket is one hundred thousand spirit crystals, no discussion allowed."

    "Fine," William handed the worker the needed number of crystals in one ring of his, "keep it."

    "Thanks mate," that fellow seemed ecstatic about having this ring. After all, even if he was dealing with tons of wealth every day, he was still working for someone and didn''t take anything for himself.

    William then received two hundred tickets and went to confirm the location of the portal they were going to board in one week.

    The ce inside was filled with lots of different sized portals in different shapes and colours. Each portal had a group of men standing around, organising things, preparing the needed spirit crystals to operate these, checking the tickets of the people around, and making sure nothing wrong would happen.

    "What''s the meaning of these colours?" Lina grew curious as Ibra, asking William about this. It was the first time for these two to see something like this actually. For a reason, they felt like William would know the answer like always, and surely, he did know.

    "It''s graded like spirit master grade system colours," William paused before adding, "based on the distance any portal could cover, the colour is corrted to that. And with higher colours and grades, the portals will consume more spirit crystals. There are even portals that can transport anyone from a continent to another in mere seconds. They are dark gold in colour, and they require billions of spirit crystals to get activated."

 Chapter 546 The Monster Magnet Phenomenon

    ?

    "Billions! Damn! How much will they get from these?!!" Lina got tempted, the same as Ibra and William as well.

    "It''s not that easy to build a portal," William sighed, "aside from the need of many space element spirit masters, lots of masters with engineer elements, there is a scary cost for these portals. This ce must have spent hundreds of billions before starting to work."

    "..."

    The other two sucked in a cold air of breath, while William found their reaction a bit funny.

    "What? Did you two mistake that doing such a business is cheap? If so, then why would I not try to do it? Why not every single academy would aim to build such portals there?"

    "Well¡­ If we get a portal zone back at the city, and aside from getting lots of wealth from it, we can gain ess to locations away from the Scorching Lands zone. Like this, we don''t need to struggle or fight the same kind of monsters inside that old man''s worlds¡­ Tsk! We need to do such a thingter, ok boss?"

    "Why do you always call me boss whenever you want something insane from me?" William rolled his eyes, without expressing his thoughts.

    Of course, what Ibra said was true. Having such a ce back in the city would help in solving most of the current problems people living there faced. Not to mention it''d be a great source of ie as well. And it would attract lots of spirit masters to move and live there as well.

    Yet William also knew it was a headache to run, a bottomless pit for wealth if one wasn''t careful.

    After all, sending people to any location wasn''t the main problem, getting them back was. If the Scorching Lands city focused only on sending people out to adventure and do missions without securing a way back, things would be impossible for any spirit master.

    No one would ept such an offer even if the region of the Scorching Lands was safe. To secure such return points, William had to secure lots of ces outside the Scorching Lands area, build lots of fortified points there, working as settlements that could defend against any grand monster tide or something.

    After all, with the presence of such space cracking portals in any ce, it''d create a weird phenomenon called the Monster Ma!

    Monsters were sensitive to such spatial changes, and seemingly they''d assault such ces in grand numbers from time to time. So William knew establishing secure spots in the forests around the Scorching Lands was something impossible for him, for his guild, or even for the entire forces in the city.

    But that didn''t mean William didn''t ce that move in his mind. Yet it was for ater time, a time when he''d have at least ten times the size of the current power the guild got.

    Even if this would take longer, William didn''t like the idea of sharing such a hot cake with anyone else. Especially when he''d make most of the hard and dirty work himself to begin with.

    "Smith took much longer this time," the three of them kept walking inside that grand space filled with portals for hours, and yet they didn''t hear a single word back from Smith.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They already checked on the portal they''d board, got familiar with things there, before turning around and toured the entire area.

    "Where are you?" William took out a Bullet, sent this message over to Smith. Usually, Smith would answer in a few seconds, but this time a few minutes passed without sending back anything.

    "Something is off," even Ibra felt the same, "he never dyed answering his Message Paper, not even once!"

    "Yes, something must have happened¡­" William tried for more times, without getting any response at all, "let''s go and check on that Spar Arena."

    "With the three of us?!" Ibra was surprised by this, "won''t we call the team? He might be in danger or something."

    "If he was, he''d have run towards us," Williamughed, "besides we got you. Don''t tell me you are afraid to face danger! I''m sure the three of us can handle anything together, right? As for finding him in the middle of such a grand ce, then your spirit sense can cover the entire arena and find him for us."

    "Tsk! Always asking me to do little stuff like this, why not let me wash yourundry as well?"

    "You wish," Williamughed, not taking Smith''s absence anyway seriously. But soon enough, he''d learn that he''d underestimated what truly happened.

    The three of them went towards the direction of the Spar Arena, to find an expected heated up scene around it.

    The arena was muchrger, at least twenty timesrger than the Spar Arena of the Aspire academy. In fact, there wasn''t just one arena, but ten grand ones, with tall walls that made each look like a stadium or something.

    From inside, the three could hear loud cheers and awesing from many directions. The audience inside seemed to be more excited about these battles, more than what William experienced back at the Aspire academy.

    The arena was situated in the middle of a grand za, an open space that wasn''t any lesser in size than the portal area they just came from. The ce wasn''t empty, but overcrowded with many masters who were trying to get inside, forming lots of long lines that filled the entire za.

    "Locate him," William removed the thought of Smith getting entrapped in one of these lines. It wasn''t a logical exnation to how he didn''t pick up his Bullet and answer him. Not to mention the speed of these lines moved with was fast enough to let anyone at the end of the line get inside in less than an hour.

    "Hmm¡­ Weird¡­" After ten minutes of waiting, Ibra only muttered this. Lina also started using her spirit sense when Ibra took more than five minutes without saying anything.

 Chapter 547 Book Me Three VIP Tickets

    ?

    "What? Didn''t find him?" William asked in doubt, and Ibra bitterly smiled.

    "The ce inside is grandiose, but for a reason one of the arenas is sealed."

    "Sealed? You mean they prevented your senses from getting in?"

    "I could get in, but can''t see anything in detail," Ibra sighed, "we need to get into that arena first, check things over from inside."

    "Hmm¡­ It''s great then that we already stood in a line," William didn''t want to waste time here. Besides he wanted to get in as well to see his hypothetical team members that he never met before.

    He was sure Smith was inside. And when he heard what Ibra said, he got the reason behind thetter not answering back. The organisers and owners of this arena were smart and made sure to seal any high-grade spirit masters'' spirit senses. Like this, no one would be able to know what was going on inside until attending by himself.

    As for why this seal was only applied for one arena and not others, it was clear to William. It must be the arena that got most attention from everyone, the one that got that proimed team with him in their roster.

    Nothing stirred up his suspicion, not yet. And so, William and the other two stood in the line for half an hour, before their turn came.

    "The prices of the tickets are listed here," as the three approached the front, a few men were standing around, shouting and pointing in a single direction.

    There the three saw a grand board, one with ck background and golden letters shining all over it.

    The prices weren''t that extravagant. The normal prices went from one thousand per ticket for themon seat, all the way towards one million for the VIP seats.

    "Give me three VIP tickets for the arena number three," William got the number of the arena from the men standing out there shouting to organise the lines.

    Their task was to facilitate the passage of those iing audiences into the arena, guiding anyone and answering all the questions for them. And that was the main reason why lines kept moving fast.

    "Ok," they knew that themon seats were all reserved. The proimed team from the Long Feather academy was fighting there for hours. And that attracted much attention. So, William went all out and bought the VIP tickets.

    In his mind, this arena was another golden goose. Just by counting the amount of wealth this ce gained just from a single day of work, only counting themon seats, was really scary!

    "Sigh! I was toote before and let Panther be half a step ahead of me in doing this," William sighed, while recalling the much smaller Spar arena Panther constructed back at the city.

    Unlike here, that arena wasn''t as popr. That was thanks to the low number of spirit masters who loved fighting and such in the city.

    A ce where most of its residents came running away from violence and fighting was the worst ce to construct such an arena. "I shall try and take it from him¡­ Yes, I must do it before starting that portal project¡­" And in William''s mind, he started to consider how to maximise his profit when he''d start building the portal zone.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "This way sir," the tickets they got were just golden scrolls, thick as if it was formed from ten scrolls on top of each other or something. It was sealed with ck ribbon, with the word VIP written over that ck ribbon in golden letters.

    One of the workers here approached the three and started to guide them towards their VIP seats. When they arrived there, it was like a suite in the hotel, with around twenty seats inside.

    Each seat got a magnified ss that the owner could use to see through therge distance and inspect the fight closer.

    Spirit masters could use their spirit senses to inspect the ongoing battles at the stage. But using this ss method made them feel like they were standing on the stage, fighting with the teams down there.

    "Ouch! That suits you, liar!"

    "He deserved this! iming the prestigious Long Feather team is fake and doesn''t have the real fox master¡­ What a jerk he is!"

    "Yes, that''s what a real team shall do with such idiots!"

    The moment William and the other two entered the suite, they heard such loud shoutsing from everyone inside. The ce was filled with fifteen spirit masters. Weirdly enough they were stirred up for something happening on the stage down below.

    "Ibra¡­" But hearing these words made William''s heart clench. He instantly turned to Ibra, said in a serious tone and scary face.

    "It''s¡­" Ibra also felt the same, like William, like Lina, when he heard these shouts. They knew more than anyone else, knew that this team of that academy was fake and lying. As people here spoke about this, the three couldn''t help but think about one person: Smith.

    "Sh*t! Master, you need to look, hurry up!"

    Lina also used her spirit sense, ending up seeing what Ibra saw and couldn''t believe. She turned to William, urging him to go towards one of the sses and see.

    "Stay here," William said in an ice cold tone towards the worker who led them here, went to an empty seat, and saw through the piece of ss there.

    The ss was in the size of one metre in diameter, made in the form of a big circle. One just needed to get closer to see what was appearing on its surface.

    And there William saw something that made his body freeze right on the spot. The next second, his blood started to boil with pure and endless rage.

    The stage had arge group of spirit masters, all wearing dark blue outfits, with an emblem of ck feathers on their chest. They were close to one thousand in number.

 Chapter 548 The Golden Arena Is Back!

    That wasn''t the issue, but what one of them held.

    That master raised his hand high in the air, holding a severed head, a head that had a face that William instantly recognised.

    "Great¡­ Just great¡­" William said in a low and calm tone, yet for a reason it drove fear in the hearts of the two around him, "don''t follow me, don''t call anyone. This grudge¡­ I will settle it personally¡­"

    William turned without even looking at Ibra or Lina. Yet the two got their eyes met with William for a brief second. And one thought shed in their minds when they saw him like this¡­ Massacre!

    William was going to kill those who did this to Smith, kill every single one of them per his hands.

    "Hey, how can I get down there?" William then approached the worker who felt insane pressureing from William and the other two alongside him.

    He was just a mere bronze grade spirit master. Despite not knowing anyone of these three, he felt like something bad was going to happen.

    "Hey, are you deaf? How can I get down there?" William shouted at the poor worker, jolting the bronze spirit master awake from his fear and momentarily freezing.

    "Ahem, sir¡­ The arena is only for the teamspeting against¡­"

    "Just cut the crap and tell me how I can get down there¡­ You know what, lead the way!"

    "But¡­"

    "I said lead the way!" William''s eyes shone in fierce white light, two ears appeared on his head, while one tail wiggled behind him.

    The scene of William and his twopanions entering here attracted the attention of everyone already. They didn''t get what went into these three''s minds. But when they saw that tail and ears, one thought shed through their minds at the same time.

    "O¡­ Ok¡­" the poor worker didn''t know anything about things happening in the world. And so, he didn''t recognise William on the spot like others did.

    But as William spoke in such a tone, and when William took out his ive, waved it in the air for a couple of times, in a very domineering way, that poor bronze master started to move.

    He actually didn''t get what he was doing, as his mind went out of service at this moment. He was only driven by fear, walking with a trembling body, leading William towards the ce he wanted.

    "Damn me! It''s him! It''s him!"

    "Didn''t they im he is one of them? Howe he got this enraged by what happened to that youth?"

    "It seems that the poor one was telling the truth, and this team¡­ It''s only filled with lies."

    "I know! Let''s spread the news, this¡­ This is going to be huge!"

    "Hurry, spread the word¡­ Dammit! I can''t believe I got myself fooled by a bunch of liars and cheaters!<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Shut up and hurry, contact everyone you know¡­ Let''s hurry and let manye and watch¡­"

    Just as the worker led William towards the stage, and as the world around William was rocking with cheers and mighty shouts, the VIP suite William just left was filled with different shouts.

    The fifteen spirit masters back there instantly recognised William on the spot. Even if there wasn''t a real poster of William''s face, many heard news about what he looked like.

    One of the most famous words were about his single tail form, his fox-like ears, and the deadly ive that he used to wield.

    And soon enough, all started to take their Bullets, spread the word to the ones they knew. They also asked those friends of theirs to spread the word and hurry their as*es all the way here, or else they''d miss something grand, something they''d regret not seeing for the rest of their lives.

    Away from here, at a ce filled withrger ss circles, hung on many stands, with lots of spirit masters standing around, the scene of William changing into his famous fox shape appeared in one of these sses.

    "Hurry boss, hurry¡­ Come and take a look at this," one of the workers there hurriedly shouted after getting jolted awake.

    "What?" A refined lookingdy appeared, wearing nothing but a short ck dress that was made out of feathers. She walked in with long legs, looking as if she had nothing equal in her eyes.

    "Hurry, look¡­ This¡­ This¡­"

    "Isn''t this the fox master I heard about?!" The worker was shocked beyond recognition and couldn''t even formte a single sentence to speak about what his boss just said.

    And with her words, other figures were jolted awake, and even few dared toe and have a look at this ss.

    This was the brain of this Spar Arena, the control centre of it. There they kept tracking everything that happened, and they were under the leadership of thisdy.

    Thedy then controlled the ss, led it to show the scenes that happened before. This ss was only recording the corridor leading to a section of VIP suites. And then she moved fast, literally dashed towards another ss where she did the same. And there she saw and heard what happened inside that suite.

    "Isn''t there a team already fighting in arena three iming to be the team of the fox?!!"

    "Howe¡­ What''s exactly going on here?!!!"

    "A chance! A golden chance! Hahahaha!" Unlike the shock and confusion everyone here felt, their boss didn''t care about any reasons or exnation for such a bizarre situation.

    Her mind worked fast, and in a sh of a second, she made up her mind, "hurry up, inform our people out there. Let them spread the word about the appearance of the real Fox master inside arena three."

    "But¡­"

    "All the seats are taken!"

    "Not anymore," her eyes shone brightly in fierce brown light, "I''ll make changes now. Cancel all the fights at other arenas, make a grand announcement that we are going to remodel the entire ce. The Golden Arena is back, hahahaha!"

 Chapter 549 A Deal!

    ?

    Her eyes shone and then her body released torrents of gold power. She might be just at gold grade, but she was one that was blessed with many things.

    Her spirit was one matching perfectly her spirit element, the same unique spirit element William once spotted at the Royals hotel in the fort before. She could perfectly control the entire arena, reshape it, merge or separate all of the arenas, and even add more seats by absorbing the grand za outside.

    This za was owned by the arena after all. As she knew how grand the uing fight was going to be, she decided to go all out.

    "Send more people out there, let all the reserve teams work as well¡­ Stop everyone from doing anything aside from this, send any free ones out there, send them all! Let them work fast and sell tickets to everyone in the entire za, no, in the entire city¡­"

    "But¡­ Mydy, that fox is about to arrive¡­" one of the workers said when he saw William''s face pass through the section he was watching on his ss.

    "Sh*t! Why is he this impatient?!" their boss cursed, before her focus returned to the technique she was using, "I got no time to go and speak with him. It''s better he''d not hold this against me in the end."

    She started changing the entireyout of this ce. At the same moment, William stopped in his tracks as the entire path he was walking in changed all of sudden.

    "Who is this? Show yourself!" William said in a low tone, yet it carried a very threatening aura.

    "Sigh! If I could, then why would I do this in the first ce?" back in the control room, thatdy sighed, shook her head when she heard what William said.

    "If you don''t show yourself, exin all this, then I swear no matter who you are, you''ll be my enemy!"

    "What a fierce youth he is, hahahaha!" What he said made thedy in the control centre chuckle in amusement, "if you were just a few years older, then you''d have a chance to be my man."

    She could tell William was around fifteen, sixteen years old at most. As for her, she was around twenty-five.

    William waited for a few seconds, but no one appeared. Just before he''d go serious, transform and go all out, he shouted again in warning:

    "This is yourst chance, eithere and exin yourself or I swear I''ll tear my way through this path and head directly towards the arena, do my business there, beforeing to you!"

    "F*ck! Why is he acting like a ticking cmity?" she instantly panicked. Even if she was controlling the entire ce using her abilities, she knew the ce was made of normal ores to begin with.

    Against such a brutal and scary master, these ores didn''t have a chance at all. In the end, she''d get a damaged ce with lots of enmity from him on top of it.

    As for worrying about her life, someone like her wouldn''t even think about such a thing. She got lots of formidable guards, waiting for a single signal from her to show up.

    "Hurry, give me the Message Paper of that worker¡­ Hurry up!" she instantly turned towards the people around, shouted in distress while William''s voice came loud from the ss in front of one of these workers.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ten¡­ Nine¡­ Eight¡­"

    "F*ck! Is he counting down?! What a crazy man I got myself into this time?!!!" she blinked, even lost control of her ability for a brief second, resulting in an earthquake happening only here.

    William mistook this as a threatening move from the one behind all this. "Screw this! I''m going to find my way out of here myself!" he said in a boiling rage.

    "Wait! Hold on! I got a message for you!"

    But just one second before he''d turn into his full fox form, the poor worker next to him said in a shaky tone. He was this close from pissing off himself right now when he heard William''s threatening shouts and words, felt his domineering aura.

    But then the voice of the boss rang in his mind, making him regain a bit of relief. As long as someone stronger was overlooking things here, he became less worried.

    "What?" William turned to that worker. And from just a brief meeting of his gaze with William, he dropped his earlier and naive thoughts about being safe.

    One look was all it took to make the heart of this bronze master shudder. He even imagined himself standing in front of a death god. And that was indeed what William was at this moment.

    "Speak up!" William shouted, jolting this youth awake.

    "It''s¡­ It''s my boss¡­ She¡­"

    "What about her?"

    "She¡­ She asks you to wait for a little time¡­ Because¡­"

    "She wants to make a profit out of this? Fine," William already got what this scared young man couldn''t say properly, "tell her that half of the entire profit goes for me. And if she tries to do anything funny, then forget about anything and she''ll be my next target."

    "Ruthless¡­ I like you¡­ It''s a deal then!" The poor bronze master didn''t have his mind working right at this moment. So, when he heard what his boss muttered to herself, as she was still holding his Message Paper in her hand, he repeated what he heard without even considering anything.

    That made William raised one eyebrow, not knowing what he should respond to this. "Hurry up then," William knew she was able to hear him, "I''ll give you half an hour. But I swear if I went out there and found that team was gone then¡­"

    "I know, I know¡­" that worker kept rying what his boss said down to the letter, "I will entrap them and prevent them from leaving if they tried."

    "Ok," William then sat on the ground, trying to calm himself down.

 Chapter 550 Millions Are Here To Watch

    ?

    Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the scene of Smith''s severed head, held high by that master, with blood streaks dropping from it.

    William''s blood kept boiling, exploding inside with a fierce power and irresistible desire for revenge. An hour passed fast, and during which thatdy did indeed do a miracle here.

    She renovated the entire arena, forming a grand single arena with tons of seats. She didn''t just stop there, added up the entire za, and even many streets around as well.

    "I hope the lord of the city won''t get mad in the end," she was doing this for the sole profit of the arena. She was, after all, the sole owner of the arena, inheriting it from herte mother.

    She also added people directly from the za and streets inside the arena and scattered her people to collect and check on tickets.

    The initial number estimated attending this epic battle was at least a few millions! And that was indeed quite a scary gathering of spirit masters in one ce, almost emptying half if not more of the entire city''s citizens.

    She didn''t stop there. As William asked for half the profit, she went all out and raised the price of amon ticket by ten folds! The same also went for other seat tickets. But the VIP ones increased by thirty folds.

    Unlike what anymon sense would dictate, and even with such scary prizes, the fame of William''s fox name got its weight. No one moved away from their seats, and many more masters kept flooding this ce.

    Even the lord of the city came hurrying up here in a grand gathering of high officials and formidable masters.

    If this happened anywhere else in the continent, anywhere away from the Novistic kingdom territory, then this scene would be hard to repeat. But here, William''s name was always coupled with miracles, ringing lots of admiration and awe-inspiring bells in the heads and spirits of everyone hearing it.

    It wasn''t a wonder to see tons of people trying to get inside, and that led to the entire grand arena getting entirely booked.

    "Damn¡­ We need a solution fast," thedy paused, lost in thoughts, before one of the workers stood up, and said:

    "Let''s take sses outside the vault, sell them for those outside to see through."

    "Yes, great idea!" thedyughed, "but make the prices the same as the normal seats inside. One ss is enough for a hundred spirit masters, and all must pay their seat fees separately."

    "Got it!"

    "You, what are you all waiting here for? Half of you go with him, and make sure to do it fast. I''ll open a path directly towards the vault, then towards the outside."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    She got hyped up by such an idea, and instantly started working again. Along the rich and long history of her family owning this ce, there were tons of sses left to dust inside the vault of the arena. The sses were distributed outside, with the selling prices of normal seats as if they were sitting inside the arena.

    But as everyone out there saw these sses, they got what it meant. People here were used to these sses anyway. Driven by their desire to witness such a once in a lifetime battle, they decided to purchase tickets even at such high prices.

    Without any more hesitation, they started to even fight to get a chance to buy a ce around one.

    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom Her people were really professional. They brought enough sses to satisfy the needs of millions of people outside, earning the Spar Arena more wealth in this way, no lesser than the amount gained from those inside the arena.

    These sses were always used in big events, distributed mainly in normal days at VIP suites. But anyone could rent one on the price of ten thousand spirit crystals. So many knew how to use these and knew their true value.

    At the same time, the arena got tons of these crystals stored already.

    "We are ready," the boss returned to speak with William before adding, "the team you desire is still waiting for you. They got the news that someone who belonged to the same master they ughtered ising for revenge. And so they are waiting there obediently, ready to fight you."

    The worker repeated such words like a machine. Even after the passage of one hour, he didn''t get freed from the fear spell he was under.

    "How did you do it? I can even hear the loud and heated up discussions going on out there between the audience about my identity."

    "It''s easy, I prepared a special room for them to seal any sound off," she used a room that was already prepared with sealing arrays and modified part of the arena that the team stood at and merged it with that room, "now I''ll open a path for you, for both of you... Good luck."

    "You can go back now," William said to the lifeless looking bronze master, patted on his shoulder as he passed him, "you did great, both of you."

    William was itching to get his revenge, to get the answers he long waited for from that Long Feather team. It was either the entire academy was filled with brainless fools, and a nameless master tricked them all. Or¡­ This academy was part of a grander scheme against him.

    That made him want to know the truth of this matter. If these folks out there refused to say anything, then he''d kill and butcher them in the most brutal way before heading towards their academy.

    He promised before to not stir up trouble with the academy right from the start. But this all changed. He was going to pay them a visit, and he only saw blood flooding the grounds of that academy after that.

    The poor bronze worker didn''t even move an inch, giving the feeling that he already lost it or something.

 Chapter 551 Ill Show You What A Real Fox Looks Like

    ?

    William just pointed at the poor worker, before turning to look at the path that showed up the next moment.

    In front of William, a path that was enough for three people appeared. It was like a tunnel, ending up with a bright light at the end.

    "You first dared to impersonate me, iming that you got someone with fox spirit among that filthy rat hole you call academy¡­ And now you dared to kill one of my people¡­ Terrific, just terrific!"

    William came out from the long path, finding therge group of spirit masters waiting for him.

    The arena changed, turned all grandiose now. The space that was previously enough to amodate hundreds of thousands of audiences got millions watching, filling all the seats. As for the stage itself, it grew much bigger by the merging of all the ten stages together.

    Before, each arena was enough for five thousand masters to stand on it without a problem. And now, it was enough for tens of thousands to stand there, a small army in other words.

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® But William didn''t even care about any of this. Since the moment he came out from the tunnel, he only saw those bunch of murderers filling the entire world. His eyes shifted andnded over the one who was still holding Smith''s head in his hand.

    Even after one hour, that bastard didn''t free Smith''s head from his hand!

    "Is this trash one of yours?" The one who held the head threw it high in the air, letting it cross the distance between him and William. Smith''s head rolled on the ground, headed towards William. In thetter''s eyes, he saw Smith''s head rolling in slow motion, and saw a glimpse of anger over Smith''s face.

    At hisst moment, Smith was feeling unsettled with any of this, wanting to drink the blood of his enemies before dying. William didn''t know why Smith even appeared here, why he acted on impulse before informing him about what he intended to do. But that wasn''t a thing that William bothered to think about. He only red at the rolling heading at him. And just seeing this look for a brief moment there made William''s body shudder.

    If his team was here, and they were actually there, then they''d get to know how terrible William was feeling right now, and how truly scary William was going to act next.

    His team already arrived here, but they got no ess to the inside. They received the summoning call from Ibra and Lina, hurried all the way from the hotel towards here. But as they camete, blocked by tons of people flooding towards the same direction they were heading, they ended up standing outside, watching the fight through two sses next to each other.

    The team looked at one another, seeing the same look of anger and hatred in their eyes. William stopped the rolling head of Smith using his ive, taking a better look at his dead man.

    shes of memories passed fast in his mind. The first time he saw Smith was when he gathered up the new recruits from the academy. He was impulsive, a fighting maniac like Ibra. William even recalled how Smith argued with him before about fighting monsters while scouting, before he embraced all the responsibilities and limitations of that roleter on.

    Since he epted his new role as a scout, he kept doing great. William even appointed him as one of his vices, entrusting him with this important task.

    William raised his head towards the one who rolled Smith''s head at him before ruthlessly saying:

    "Once I''m done, I''ll cut your heads and kick it all the way to thends outside. Then I''ll find the dirtiest hole out there, a trench, and throw your heads to rot there forever."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Hmph! Empty words suiting a weakling like yourself," that master wasn''t delusional, or didn''t notice William''s true identity. The thing was that when William got out from that path, he appeared like a normal youth, without his tail or fox ears.

    "Bring his head to me boys, today we are inventing a new game, kicking heads like balls, hahahaha!"

    With his savageugh, othersughed as well. But in the next second, theirughs choked in their throats when the youth in front of him activated his spirit.

    *Roar!*

    William''s body swelled up, showing the grand and intimidating physique of his fox spirit. His ck body grew and escted to reach ten metres high, with three long and majestic looking tails wiggling behind.

    He looked at his enemies with eyes that didn''t show anything but fierceness and brutality. "You said you got a fox in your academy, then I''ll show you what a real fox looks like." *Fwoosh!*

    With what he said, William took out everything he had. He took out his ive, his hammer, and his sword. He took all of his flying weapons, and even gulped a bottle of elixir.

    William was now in his full battle mode, the strongest and scariest mode ever that he could control.

    "Retreat!"

    "Scatter! Don''t stick together!"

    "Activate your spirits, take everything you got out¡­ We need to avenge ourrades right now and take this sphemous monster down!"

    Just as William shed, a fierce explosion urred, mixed up with lots of shouts. A huge dust cloud appeared, and the entire arena ushered under a suffocating heavy silence.

    Everyone heard stories about the grand war that happened five years ago. No one sitting here actually attended it, but all dreamt of taking part or having the honour and privilege of witnessing it.

    The most desired dream of all was to be by that legendary fox''s side, fighting with him, and watching him ughter his enemies in an unstoppable brutality.

    Right now, all of the masters attending this sh got their dreams fulfilled. Not only that, but thedy boss also secretly distributed lots of recording crystals, recording every single aspect and detail of this grand battle from all possible angles.

 Chapter 552 The Poisonous Black Armoured Turtles

    ?

    Later on, such crystals would be copied and sold out like fire, even reaching distant ces that only heard little about William and his fox spirit.

    William shed andnded in the middle of thisrge group of spirit masters. He didn''t charge it up or anything, just used this opening attack as a test. He used his strongest technique from the start, but for a reason, these masters weren''t startled or froze out of fear from seeing him.

    It felt like they were waiting for him, or they expected him to appear here or something. And that was enough evidence to tell William a lot about their hidden intentions and schemes.

    "So, you indeed knew that man was an imposter, and you still imed to have the real fox master in your academy? What trash that ce you came from is!"

    William muttered these words before the dust slowly settled down. He wasn''t in any hurry to exert his revenge. They got no way out from here, and they got nothing up their sleeves to threaten him.

    Even if they got many dark gold grade masters in their ranks, it wasn''t an issue for William. As long as no one was at the high stage or the pinnacle of that grade, he''d kill any foe in the end.

    But when the dust settled, he was surprised to see lots of them still standing on their feet. They got lots of wounds actually, but almost eighty percent of their initial number kept their heads intact on their shoulders.

    He didn''t charge up his attack, so he expected the dark gold masters would survive this attack one way or another. But this team got most of their members in gold grade, who were supposed to die from just this single attack. And when he looked closer, he got to see why.

    "The Poisonous ck Armoured Turtle spirit? You are indeed a dark spirit master group then¡­" William recognised the giant ck turtles that appeared all over the ce. Almost half of the enemy numbers here got this spirit. And that was enough to exin why his earlier attack didn''t work.

    "We waited for you for a very long time," one of these turtle spirit masters said in deep hatred and pure enmity, simr to the voice of the one who held Smith''s head before, "thanks to you, we got our lives ruined, our homes burnt down, and ourrades killed!"

    "Stop this bullshit, I won''t fall for your lousy and cheap act!" Williamughed in a savage way, while hisugh turned into scary roars.

    "Dark spirit masters have nothing likeradeship or friendship among themselves. You are just bitter to get chased all over the world, losing the nice and cosy life you enjoyed by your dirty crimes. Come on, you me me for destroying your pathetic criminal lives? You ruined these from the moment you worked for the wrong side, acted like criminals, killing and threatening the peaceful world of humans¡­ And on top of all, you worked with the enemy to take down our world! You are traitors!"

    William didn''t stop there and started to sh around. Since that war ended, he never got a chance to try out charging his technique with his silver power. He tried to do it before, inside one of the pocket worlds, ending up killing tons of monsters, without feeling any challenge.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Yet this time he knew this was a challenge. The Poisonous ck Armoured Turtles were dark spirits known for their insane level of defence. It was rumoured that at any simr grade, a thousand normal spirit masters had to coborate together to bring just one using such a dark spirit down.

    "Drop the towel already, you can''t even crush a single shell of ours, and we got hundreds of my n here," the one who kept talking to William, the same one who held Smith''s head and threw it rolling on the ground, said in mockery.

    In his eyes, William was doing something useless right now. He knew that William stepped in here dreaming about killing them all, avenging his dead friend. But in that dark master''s eyes, it was William who fell into the meticulously nned scheme of their scary master.

    In his eyes, William''s fate was sealed the moment he stepped onto this stage. But he was greatly mistaken! And his greatest mistake lied in underestimating William.

    What William didn''t know was that this wasn''t the only team sent out to entrap him. There were many other teams sent to different ces around the Scorching Lands city. Any single ce with a portal zone got a team waiting for William, spreading the for him to fall in any of them.

    And he indeed fell into this trap. But even if he learnt about that, it wouldn''t matter to him. He was William, and right now he held a fresh grudge against these despicable dark masters.

    "Let''s see who will scream for mercy at the end," William''s tone was like a true death god in the ears of those who heard him. It wasn''t loud but carried some sort of magic and weight of its own.

    Then he started to sh again. Yet this time, he was going to use one of the new variations of his technique.

    "Close in the formation," the leader of this group of dark spirit masters shouted, "let''s bring this abomination down together! On me!"

    He shouted and started to move and with this, all other turtles started to move as well. Unlike William, everyone else got their spirit activated in the holographic version, the same version that all masters in this world used, all but William.

    It was like an illusion of turtles surrounding these masters. But that didn''t mean they were weak. As they closed in, William got little space to jump at. And yet he kept dashing from one point to another, charging up his technique.

    If there was a slow-motion mode right now activated, then everyone would see the changes happening to William.

 Chapter 553 The New Spirit Elements Brutal Attack

    ?

    Weird grey colour appeared on his three tails, surrounding themyer uponyer with each dash. It wasn''t like the charge he used to do with his light element, and that was thanks to him using a different element. It was a new element, one that wasn''t lesser in grade and quality with light, lightning, and darkness elements of his.

    "Those at the rear, bring him down!" that despicable dark spirit master wasn''t satisfied in cornering William like this, shouted at the remaining dark masters behind to join them.

    They already trained for a long time, trained on how to bring William down. The prize over William''s head was astronomical, and that greed was the main reason behind such hatred and enmity this fellow showed.

    The next second, long thorns and darts kept thrown at William, limiting more of his ability to dash and charge his technique. Weapons started to fly in the air, lots of techniques got activated, but all missed William thanks to his insane shing speed.

    William wasn''t ready yet to counter and defend against all these attacks. He had to first deal with those turtles, bring them down, or at least break a hole in their tight formation so he could breathe.

    These turtles weren''t just used in defence, but also in attack. Yet theycked the deadly strength known for the dark masters, only having the poison factor to use in their attacks. That didn''t mean anyone could underestimate them. They could poison their enemy, numb his senses and slow down his reactions. If William got hit with that poison, then he''d start moving slower until he''d be unable to either attack or defend.

    Alone, the turtles wouldn''t be able to bring him down. But using the other dark masters on the rear, they could indeed kill him. That on the premise they could really entrap and seal his shy movements, before attacking him with their poisonous ws.

    "Time to show you the same fear your fellow deadrades felt in front of me five years ago," William suddenly stopped, looking like he was unable to sh anymore.

    He stacked more than fifty times on his tails, a very high number that previously ced lots of pressure on him to control. But after all these years, having these fifty stacked on his tails didn''t feel that burdensome at all. If he had time and space, he''d prefer to push himself all the way to his new limits.

    "Just drop the act¡­ You have no way to repeat the same¡­"

    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom *Roar!*

    Before that dark leader continued his words, William raised his head and roared. He then tilted his head, moved it around, as if he was breathing out fire at all of the turtles around. He didn''t roar using a light element, but the new one. And when he did that, it felt like the world around him got frozen, as if someone hit the pause button at this moment.

    The nearby turtle dark masters halted in their tracks, totally getting petrified by this roar. The roar was short, but loud and majestic, leaving behind a continuous echo that kept ranging in the ears of everyone who heard it.

    The audience, who were sitting far from the arena, felt a shudder deep down their spirits. The weak ones, those at silver and lower grades, ended up even suffering the same freeze effect of this roar.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    As for the higher-grade ones, they were able to withstand that roar, yet they still felt genuine fear from it.

    That was what the faraway folks felt. And it was easy to imagine what the nearby ones, the ones surrounding William now, truly experienced.

    William used a new element, the Sound spirit element. This one might seem useless, but when used right, it was enough to flip the tide of any battle.

    Weirdly enough, the two elements that could be used in his roars were seen as useless by many masters in the world.

    The sound element William stacked through his dashes earlier was different from the three oldest spirit elements he used before. The sound element got stacked over his body, not his weapons. And when he roared, he released all the stacked sound attacks, channelled them through his body towards his throat, before releasing this terrifying attack.

    The main weak spot of the sound element was distance. Sound could travel fast, but not that fast like light, not crossing long distances without losing most of its might. Attacking enemies at long distance wasn''t the true turf of this element actually. But luckily, the enemies here were impatient to seal William''s actions, and got too close to him.

    Even the ones standing already at the back were moving closer towards him thanks to thest order that their leader issued.

    "Release the roar, turn everyone into sitting ducks, sheep waiting for ughter," William said these words in a calm tone. Yet it was enough to jolt awake all the frozen people in the audience seats. And the next moment, they sucked a cold air of breath when they saw what William''s roar did.

    William''s attack was enough to turn any nearby enemy into a living statue. The dark masters around couldn''t move a muscle. Be it turtles or other dark spirits, they all got stupefied and petrified by his attack.

    That wasn''t all! Sound had a devastating ability within. And like the fire element attack William used against Lawrence, his sound attack also got deep into the enemies'' bodies, exploding organs inside.

    He selected this element, this new variation of his original technique, thanks to these two effects. Using this element would render the formidable defensive shields powerless in front of it.

    They looked fine on the surface, looking silent and calm like sleeping babies. But William knew each and every single one of them was now getting tormented heavily by his sound element. It was enough to take away the lives of those who were too close to him, including the ones at the early stage of the dark gold grade.

 Chapter 554 A Massacre!

    ?

    As for those who were slightly away from him, they''d end up having severe damage inside their bodies. The same fate any mid stage dark gold master would experience as well.

    That wasn''t enough for William, wasn''t enough to satisfy the boiling rage running inside his veins. The moment his enemies turned into living statues, he started to sh, switching gears, and started to elerate again.

    This time he didn''t limit his dashes in the narrow empty area he got but moved beyond the blockade of the turtles.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    He didn''t need to charge up his technique to take them down. He just dashed forward, used his technique one time after another, releasing torrents of attacks.

    At the same time, his flying weapons started to sh around, cleaving more lives, adding more wounds to those who didn''t suffer much from this sound attack.

    With each hit, he released part of his anger with it. With hacking the bodies of his enemies, he felt he was avenging Smith properly.

    One turtle after another started to fall on the ground, with the real dark masters'' bodies appearing next. They got hit badly, and lost control over their spirits. And once that happened, they always found the flying weapons of Williaming mercilessly towards them, cleaving their heads, hacking their bodies in several spots.

    They were petrified to scream or plea for mercy. Yet the look on their faces was enough to tell the audience the true magnitude of horror they each felt.

    In the audience''s eyes, this wasn''t a battle anymore, but a one-sided massacre, where a single fox was butchering one thousand strong dark masters.

    William focused mainly on taking down these turtles first but hit a few of the close by dark masters behind if he got the chance as well. Without these turtles, the entire formation of the enemy would get ruined, and they wouldn''t pose any threat to him.

    So, he started a spree of killing among these turtles, hitting one by one using his Holy Sword technique, killing everyone either by his sword, or by his flying weapons that followed his sword the next moment.

    This might seem to take long to happen, but in fact William didn''t waste a single moment without moving around and killing. So in less than five minutes, he already killed all the turtles, all except for one.

    "I''ll leave you forter," William passed by this leader, even patting his head as if he was reassuring him or something. William intended to make this fellow feel terror before ending up his life in the same way he did to Smith.

    "Your turn!" By this time passing, the ones at the back started to jolt free from the sound spell he casted on them. One by one broke free, coughed several times, coughing up blood from the damage their inner organs suffered. Even many of them couldn''t keep themselves standing anymore, had to lean on the ground, supporting themselves on four, and even several fell on the ground, lying powerlessly there.

    But there were still a hundred or so who were at the far back, and they looked a bit better than their friends. William gave these better-looking ones a nce, before waving his arm and his flying weapons acted.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They came for them, giving them a scare. The weapons chased after these dark masters, who activated their darkness element, started to nimbly evade these weapons to the best of their abilities.

    No matter how hard they tried, they ended up suffering lots of wounds. And at the same time, lots of explosions erupted around as William kept killing the sitting ducks one by one, taking his time, doing it slowly, while turning to look at that turtle leader from time to time.

    William was slowly tormenting that dark master, letting him see how he killed his team without showing any mercy, without struggling, without even suffering a single wound or scratch!

    After he got done with the sitting ducks, he turned his attention towards the scared dark masters at the rear. They already knew they were going to die and tried their best to run away from the arena at any cost.

    Yet the boss of the arena cut all the paths leading out, left not even a hole for them to crawl through. At the end, William killed all of them, and only that fellow remained.

    "Come on! I know you are in the mid rank of dark gold grade," William nted his ive on the ground, leant over it, and kept looking at that dark master in a vicious way.

    William had to wait for five more minutes before that dark leader coughed up blood, broke free from the spell casted on him, and then his bodynded on the ground.

    It was easy to handle and counter anything as long as it was known. The sound element was so rare that it was a mystery to most of the spirit masters in the world. So, it wasn''t a surprise for any of the dark ones here to fail in breaking fast from its freezing effect.

    "You¡­ You¡­ You are going to die horribly¡­"

    "Shut up!" William snorted, coldly looking at this dark leader before adding, "I didn''t let you live this long to just say such nonsense. Tell me, who is the one behind all this? Who is your master?"

    "Cough! Cough! I prefer to die to tell you¡­ Cough! This way, I''m sure he''ll tear your body apart, kill you with a snap of his fingers¡­ Cough! Cough!"

    That dark master didn''t look well. He was standing close to William when thetter released his sound attack. And like that, he got hurt badly, with lots of organs damaged right now.

    If not for him being at mid stage of dark gold grade, he''d have already been dead like the rest.

    "Hmm¡­ It''s not like I''m without an option here," William shrugged, "die then, and go to serve my Smith in the afterlife."

 Chapter 555 Chatting With The Young Lady

    ?

    William realised that all this was a grand scheme targeting him. It all started with impersonating his identity to lure him out, and then this team was waiting for him here.

    He wanted to know who the mastermind behind all this was. His thoughts mainly focused over the dark masters, thinking that someone must have been badly hurt by the aftermath of the grand war. And that made William the first target on his revenge list.

    William wanted to get the answer directly from this dark master. But as this fellow didn''t want to speak, William simply waved his ive, severed his head, before kicking it, sending it rolling on the ground.

    He got another way to get answers, by visiting that academy headquarter. William wanted to go there and see who this daring master was to impersonate his identity. He took it previously as a silly joke that wasn''t funny at all. Yet now things had changed.

    He was going there to fight, for death and ruins. And in the middle of all this, he''d gain all the answers he wanted to know.

    Since the start of this battle, since William appeared till he killed thest dark master, the entire audience were deadly silent. It was like there was no one there despite millions watching this fight.

    William looked around and didn''t spare any of the audience a nce. He looked at the rings of the dead dark masters. "And like this I got myself one thousand more rings¡­ Sigh!"

    He collected the rings, hopefully he''d find more intel inside. But he couldn''t help but recall the grand number of rings he currently had, making him feel a bit nostalgic.

    He took a long nce at Smith''s severed head and headless body before approaching them. He stored the dead body and head in one ring, nning to give him a proper funeralter on.

    As for the threat he issued before, about kicking the enemy heads to a trench, he wasn''t that free to begin with to do it. But he still collected the heads of them, nning to let one of his team to do it, setting a scary example for his enemies.

    And like this he left the entire arena. After a few minutes, it seemed like a bomb exploded here. The entire arena trembled under the mighty waves of cheers.

    William heard this while walking through a path that appeared in front of him. "Let us meet," he said to thin air while keeping his fox spirit fully activated.

    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom Even by killing that jerk and his one thousand team, he didn''t get the satisfaction he wanted.

    He wouldn''t feel so until he''d wreak havoc at the Long Feather academy, killing everyone there. In case this nameless academy got a high stage dark gold grade master, then he''d retreat and call for reinforcements from the Scorching Lands city.

    He was adamant at getting his revenge, fixed on bringing that ce down to the ground no matter what. Part of this was also thanks to his desire to kill the enemy who did all this to him. And for a reason, he felt like he knew him, and he had to kill him fast before he''d cause more troubleter on.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Without the need to say anything, and as the bossdy didn''t have the means to speak directly to him, she simply responded with mere actions.

    The path he was in trembled, before an opening appeared on the walls, leading to another path. This one was much longer, going directly deep under the ground.

    "What a nice ce you got here," as he arrived after long minutes to the end of this tunnel, he found a spacious space waiting for him. It was the control room of the entire arena, and there he found lots of faces looking in fear more than awe towards him.

    It wasn''t hard to spot the boss among this bunch of terrified workers. He turned to that youngdy, said in greeting while honestly admiring the ce.

    "You surely are the true fox I heard about," the boss chuckled, pointing to the direction of a table made out of ruby like ore, with two throne-like seats, and added, "let''s sit and talk."

    "No need," William wasn''t in the mood to make new friends, "I''m here to collect my interest."

    "That will take some time," she chuckled again, took out a bottle filled with a liquor, two sses, and sat on one seat, "my teams are working to collect and organise things. Once numbers are out, you can get your share and leave in peace. Sit, I promise you I won''t bite."

    "That''s reassuring," William didn''t ce that youngdy in his eyes at all. His mind was too busy thinking about that weird academy, the mastermind behind it, and his next move against him.

    It wasn''t a surprise for him to see an academy built up by dark forces. It wasmon in the outer world. But here, it might be the first.

    That little detail made him feel quite uneasy about all this. He felt like he was heading down a rabbit hole, following his enemies'' scheme to the letter. He hated such a feeling deep to the bones.

    If it was up to him, then he''d prefer to directly foil his enemies'' ns. Yet he first had to learn about these schemes before nning the counterattack measures.

    He hoped to find a clue in the rings of the dead dark masters. But if his enemies already studied him thoroughly, then it''d be easy to notice his affection for rings. Like that, it''d be weird if he found anything, despite hoping so.

    "May I ask what honour brought you here, away from your city?" The youngdy poured a crimson red liquid in the two sses, grabbed one and handed the other over, "it''s a long journey from the famous haven, the Scorching Lands."

    "I wanted to see the world," William received the ss, ced it on the table, without taking a single sip from it.

 Chapter 556 The Story Of This City

    ?

    "I don''t buy that," sheughed for brief seconds, "excuse me for this, but just sitting by your side drives excitement in my body and heart."

    "Do you want an autograph as well?" William joked back, as he knew this youngdy was fooling around, wasting time until the numbers would be ready.

    "Hahahaha, if you are willing, then please¡­"

    He just lightly joked about it, yet she took out a scroll, an ink bottle, and handed a brush over for him.

    "Sorry, but I can''t do it," William saw many weird things in the world.

    "May I ask why?" she didn''t feel irritated or any insult. Instead, she grew curious.

    "Did you hear about the Banshee spirit? It''s a very dark and nasty spirit, one that can curse anyone from little things that belong to him. For example, any spirit master''s signature is amon way to do it."

    "Oh¡­ That''s the first time for me to know about such despicable creatures," the youngdy seemed to joke, but her face and eyes showed how serious she was, "sounds like you speak out of experience in dealing with such scary foes."

    "You can say so," William didn''t give a definite answer, shifting the topic away from him, "you got such a nice ce here. Do you run or own it?"

    "Both," the youngdy paused, "I''m Lara Vancouf, the heir of the Vancouf family and the owner of many things like this arena here and the portal area out there."

    "The portal zone is also owned by you?! What a rich tycoon you are!" This time William''s surprise was genuine. He never took this youngdy seriously before. Yet if she owned such golden gooses and managed to keep them running sessfully like this, without having any trouble orpetition, then she must be someone capable.

    "What? Got any interest in me perhaps?" she suddenlyughed, "it won''t be the first. After all, I''m a singledy who owns lots of great stuff."

    "Thanks, but wealth isn''t the thing that attracts me to anyone," William wasn''t really in the mood to ept such hidden temptation or tter with such a hot youngdy. He wanted to get his things, return back to the hotel, meet with his team, and tell them the grave news if they already didn''t catch wind of it.

    He learnt from his master that he could have armies beyond imagination, send them to their demise in brutal battles without batting an eye. But those lying in his close and trusted circle must be treated differently.

    To any capable master, this little circle was the most valuable asset one could dream about. If anyone tried to harm any from this circle, an example must be made, in the most brutal and savage possible way. And William intended to follow this lesson literally and do so.

    "Oh, first time to get rejected like that¡­" her face suddenly changed when she heard William''s answer. She frowned, feeling a bit weird, "is it how others felt when I rejected them? It feels¡­ Awful!"

    "You should learn the lesson then and go easy over others," William rolled his eyes, "getting rejected isn''t something nice."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Yes, I can already tell," she sadly sighed, "so¡­ Are you going to stay here or leave after this?"

    "It''s my business, so I won''t tell," William even tugged his tongue out, teasing her more.

    "A big bully you are."

    "You are the big boss here, not me," Williamughed, and she got her face changed for a second.

    She had never met such a man before. Be it for her explosive figure, amazing looks, or her insane wealth and famous family; men always tried to curry favour with her all the time.

    This was her first time meeting someone who didn''t even spare her a nce. She even felt that William was munching a lemon right now to sit with her. If not for his promised gains, he''d not stay here for even one second.

    "Tell me about this city," William knew he teased her enough, so he started to slowly break the ice, "this is my first time visiting here so¡­"

    "I see, first you reject me and then you ask me to be your tour guide? What a cold-hearted man you are!"

    "This is just me," William shrugged, and she sighed before speaking for a long hour about this city.

    William knew that every ce in the world got a history of its own, and this ce wasn''t an exception. It was founded thousands of years ago on the hands of twenty strong families, known now as the Twenty Royals among the locals. The ce didn''t have the portal zone at first, only nning to be an academy or something. But soon enough, their attempts failed, and people started to walk away from this ce.

    ording to Lara, her great grandfather was tired of this ce, decided to leave. But fate had other ns for him. He stumbled across an ancient ruin site, a ce where he found lots of treasures. And there, he also found lots of portal cores.

    "What a lucky bastard!" William could only inwardly curse in envy when he heard that. Portal cores were like seeds that were waiting to get nted. It didn''t need much wealth to begin with to establish such grand portal zones. And that was just walking in a desert to find a gold mine or something.

    William already guessed what happened next. Lara''s great grandfather returned back, established the portals here and linked this ce to many others. Starting from there, things started to thrive, and the twenty families started to shift their initial attention away from building an academy into building a city.

    As the Vancouf family started running the portal business, the other neen families started business in other fields like Forging, Alchemy, trade, and even mercenary business.

    The ce started from this point to rise up and get famous all over the continent. Lara''s ancestors weren''tzy or dumb.

 Chapter 557 Meeting The Team

    ?

    The Vancouf family didn''t just settle with what they gained so far. Instead, they started to expand their business, linking more ces to here, even spending lots of wealth to build up gold grade and even dark gold grade portals.

    William didn''t find any surprise in that. Once the ball rolled, things would be much easierter on. And yet he still admired her ancestors. Anyone else would justy back, enjoy the cosy life they got, and not tire themselves about doing anything else.

    When he asked about the reason behind all this, she exined that her great grandfather found in the ruins a very useful system to run sessful families and grand businesses. Any Vancouf family''s new generations had topete among each other. The winner would take everything, control the vast and excessively massive conglomerate of that family. As for losers, they''d return and lock themselves inside their homes, getting their share of the wealth without the need to do anything else.

    Against logic, people who lost weren''t feeling good about it. Per Lara''s words, there were lots of rebellious incidents that happened thanks to such a system.

    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom William sighed. There was nothing perfect in this world, nothing that could be called the perfect ruling system or anything. Everything had its pros and cons, its advantages and side effects.

    "I got the numbers¡­" she paused for a long minute, while seemingly hearing a report from someone using a Bullet to speak with her, "ok¡­ We sold ten million normal tickets, ten thousand VIP tickets¡­ So, your share is¡­"

    She didn''t dwindle about the number, giving William a ring, "everything is stored in there."

    "Thanks," William hated rings! But once he checked the content, he couldn''t help but bitterly smile.

    His share was half of the total profit. And in the ring, he found thousands of spirit stars, each was worth one billion spirit crystals.

    What made him feel a little bitter was that such profit just came in a few hours, from just one source for this family. He couldn''t help but wonder what the true wealth of this family truly was. It was ironic topare his guild''s profit with this family. They gained in few hours what his guild would struggle to gain in an entire year!

    "I''m d we did this deal," William changed his features the next moment,ughed as he stood up, cupped his hands, "let''s meet when fate decides."

    "Can''t I speak with you aside from fate machinations?" She stood up as well, seemingly feeling weird sadness, as if she lost something valuable.

    "Here, this is my B¡­ Message Paper," William handed her his Bullet, "But don''t try to reach me without a proper reason. I''m not that free and have lots of girls on my side."

    "I don''t mind heating up thepetition a little bit," she chuckled, feeling a little better when she got his Bullet. And in return for that, she handed him hers.

    "Don''t dream about it," he smiled, "my girls were by my side for long years. It''s a lostpetition for you in my opinion."

    "I like hard challenges," she shouted at his back, which grew smaller until he finally vanished through the same path he came from. He knew she''d control his path and led him outside without the need to ask for it.

    "What a very unique man! One day, he''ll be mine."

    William left the Spar Arena, returning to be the normal looking youth that no one knew but his team. Once he went out there, he spotted his team gathered up, seemingly looking for him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    As he saw them from far, he knew they got the news already. And that saved him the trouble of bringing the bad news to them.

    "Why didn''t you answer your Bullet?" The moment he got spotted by the team, Berry ran and shouted in distress and worry at him.

    She stopped throwing herself at him every time they got separated. That wasn''t because she grew mature. It was because thest time she did that she ended up fighting Sara and Ro, ending up losing quite badly against these two.

    She just bided her time, till the moment she''d grow strong enough to beat these two, before she''d return to feel William''s warm embrace again.

    "You did?" William felt a little puzzled by this. Lara spoke with that worker before and received news about the total sum of wealth the arena got from this battle. And yet his Bullets weren''t working.

    "It seems only theirs are working¡­ Nice trick indeed!"

    "What do you mean by that?" Sara drew closer as well, giving Berry a silent nce of warning.

    "Nothing," William spoke to himself in a bit loud tone, "did you get the news already? Did you see anything?"

    "We received the news from Ibra and Lina," John paused, looking at everyone around before adding, "we wanted to go in and help but¡­"

    "I strictly gave the order to note and do that," William sighed, "let''s go. This vengeance isn''t over, and you''ll all get a proper chanceter to avenge our dead friend."

    "Is it really them? That damn academy?" Peter asked, and William simply nodded.

    "Screw those bastards! I never heard of dark masters establishing an academy before!" Lang cursed, while closing his fist, "we''llnd on them and crush them all, right?"

    "Death to traitors!"

    The entire team shouted in unison, in a way that attracted many eyes to them.

    "Let''s go, we need to rest for a day, before leaving," William paused, turning to the scout team members who followed Smith for a long time.

    If the team was feeling rage, the ones who followed Smith for years felt shocked and sorrow on top of rage. Their faces looked as if a lightning bolt justnded over their heads, not even realising what happened to their leader.

    William shook his head when he saw this. William turned to Lina, "Go to that portal area, and make sure to adjust our leaving tickets to be in two days."

 Chapter 558 Meeting With His Vices

    ?

    "Got it," Lina moved fast, and went towards the portal area to adjust the dates of their tickets. Tina also tagged along with her, seemingly running away from such a heavy and suffocating atmosphere in the team.

    It reminded her of the old incident, the one that happened to her family and n. She was young when that happened, and it was expected how deep the trauma left behind was.

    "I want a team of five to go out, find the dirtiest ces around here, and throw these heads there," William took five different rings, filled with the severed heads of his enemies.

    "I''ll do it!"

    "Let me take part as well!"

    "I''ll go!"

    Unlike what William expected, the ones who volunteered to do it were Smith''s scout team. He thought they''d need more time to return to normal or take any role in the team. But their fierce and instant reaction made him realise they were here since the start of the battle, heard his words, and knew what they meant.

    They wanted to exert revenge in such a way, even if it wasn''t that satisfying, it was enough to help them get slightly over this severe blow.

    "Ok, you all go together," William tossed the five rings over to them, "make sure to do it together."

    "Ok boss," the members in the team nodded, before leaving fast towards one of the main gates here.

    William watched them disappear before taking a deep breath, "let''s go," he turned towards the direction of the hotel. while the rest followed him in deadly silence.

    The first thing William did was to send all of the team to rest, all except his vices.

    They all gathered up at his room, with gloomy looks over their faces. "We need to select someone to lead the scout team instead of Smith."

    "This¡­" everyone thought they were gathered here to listen to reassuring words from him. But unlike what they expected, William didn''t even mention the matter and jumped straight to business.

    "We will avenge him, badly fight and kill those son of b*tches who did this. Then we''ll return back to our city, invite his family over and hold a burial ceremony, suiting a good friend of ours. But that''s forter. For now, we need to gather our sh*t together, man up, and prepare for what''s waiting for us out there."

    "What else but a bunch of cowards and trash? We killed them five years ago, and we will kill them now!" Ibra harrumphed, and William slowly shook his head.

    "Don''t get it wrong¡­ We despise and hate our enemies, curse and call names on them, but never underestimate their power and might," William paused, moving his eyes around every one of his vices before adding, "so we are here now to do what our team expected from us. Organise ourselves, set a n, and be ready for what lies ahead."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "..."

    His team wasn''t prepared for any of that. All this time, they tasted how to be invincible, crushing and killing any foe they met, without truly suffering something in return.

    The only loss the team had was back at that epic war. The team lost three of their members. But they were just formed, and members were temporarily joining the team.

    This was truly the first time for the ck Tails team to suffer such a blow. William knew this. And that was why he wanted his team to deeply immerse themselves in this feeling and know how they should respond in case such unfortunate events happened again.

    William wasn''t delusional, he knew how cruel this world truly was. In his eyes, losses were inevitable. The more they''d grow stronger, the harder enemies they''d have to fight, the more of them would fall along that long path.

    And the first thing William wanted them to train out of this experience was their mindset. And to do this to the team, he had to start with his vices first. Then they''d move this over to others in their teams.

    As for the vices in front of him, they were still under the shock of losing Smith, and the grand battle William had with those dark masters. They thought about going to that dark academy, exerting revenge over them, without truly thinking seriously about this.

    It never crossed any of their minds to think about how powerful or well prepared their enemies were. And that wasn''t totally their fault. The shock they just suffered clouded their senses, made them forget about what they heard on the stage.

    They attended the fight from the beginning, and so they must have heard the words of that despicable dark leader. That was thanks to their poor mindset.

    "If you thought for a second that all of this was coincidental, then I have to say you are wrong. Those dark masters knew exactly what they were doing, even their leader bragged about me falling in the trap they sat for me. You heard what they said, right? And that meant they intended everything they did, and we aren''t just facing bad luck but a scheme from our enemies."

    "Who are they? Any clue?" Sara asked, and William sighed.

    "I don''t have any, unfortunately," William took a deep breath, "all the answersy at that academy. And putting that in mind, it''s easy to guess what is awaiting us out there."

    "Aside from high end dark gold masters, we won''t fear anyone," Peter blurted out, and everyone nodded in agreement.

    "Don''t just depend entirely on me," William rolled his eyes, knowing that the reason behind such words came because of him, "if my guesses are correct, then the enemies already have extensive intel about us, all of us. Consider that they know our grades, our spirits, our techniques, our tactics, and even our strengths and weaknesses¡­ Consider that they know everything about us as your best buddy or mate."

    William''s words left a deep impression on everyone. They never expected the situation to be this bad when they came to meet him.

 Chapter 559 The Countermeasures

    ?

    "Taking Smith down is a message, a warning and wake up call for all of us¡­ Don''t forget, Smith wasn''t weak. He was a dark gold master who I personally trained. So taking him out like this isn''t an easy feat."

    "What do you have in mind, boss?" Ibra asked, and William didn''t joke with him this time. In such a dark moment, William was the only one who could guide them through all the traps and schemes they''d face.

    "If they knew us this well, then they had to prepare three things¡­" William raised three fingers in the air before adding, "a grand army of dark masters, all with spirits, elements, and techniques that counter and negate all of our strong points¡­ But that alone isn''t enough. You saw what happened to these turtles when they thought they got the upper hand."

    William winked, returning to his carefree attitude, "so they''ll prepare a swarm of monsters to drown us with, and keep us busy dealing with them. These monsters are going to act like fodders, distractions for us, while the grand army of dark masters will hunt us one by one in the middle of all this chaos."

    "This¡­"

    "We fear no monsters!"

    William raised his hand to stop everyone before adding, "it''s not just monsters that we have to worry about. In fact, the enemies who are lurking in darkness, lying in wait for us, are the main problem."

    "We can scatter detection arrays around," Berry said, before turning to Thomas as everyone else did, "and¡­ We got our trouble lord to deal with this problem, right?"

    "Not enough," William shook his head, "we need to use tactics to deal with this situation. After all, there is another factor that they have to prepare to take us down."

    "Which is?" They returned to look at his three fingers raised in the air. He spoke about two things, missing the third one out.

    "They have to set up a sealing array, one that will prevent us from leaving by any means possible¡­" William had seen this deep into the enemies'' grand scheme. It was expected, per his vast and rich battle experience, he could think of different scenarios about any situation.

    William was sure such a grand scheme wouldn''t appear out of thin air. They must have prepared and nned for this for a long time, even from the end of that grand war.

    And that meant they spent tons of time, effort, and wealth to set such trap. Thest thing anyone in their shoes would love to see was for their targets to walk freely away from all this, escape to a safe ce, away from the ce they sat their deadly trap at.

    So they needed to fill that area with sealing arrays. William even expected them to go all out and use such rare and extremely powerful formations that would render any spirit master with a space element useless.

    Of course, none of his vices realised all this. They just got what he told them, and he didn''t bother with that. They were still young and apanying him in such a long journey would let them mature up quite fast.

    "If they are going to do that¡­ Can''t we use a countermeasure or something? Prepare an array to negate this trap."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "It''s not that easy," William looked at Lang, before adding, "we need first to know the nature of this array before thinking about how to counter it."

    "This¡­" Everyone exchanged silent gazes with each other. William''s words were clear, they got to fall first for this trap before they''d think about doing anything else.

    But if they already fell into that trap, getting affected by the sealing arrays there, then didn''t it mean they were gambling with everything here? "What if¡­ What if we didn''t have a way to crack this array?" Ibra said what everyone else had in mind and didn''t dare to say it out loud.

    "Well¡­ We''ll die," William said as if this was something easy or trivial.

    "But¡­ You surely have a n, right?" Sara looked at William as if she was seeing him for the first time, "or else you won''t gather us to speak about any of this!"

    "Of course," William smiled, an evil grin actually appeared on his face, "but to do it, we need to start organising ourselves, preparing lots of things right now."

    "Like what?" John asked, "you just say the word and we''ll execute it."

    "The first and foremost important thing is the grenades. Inform Sith, let him prepare Oliver and his friends, be ready to deploy the grenades at any given notice."

    The first thing William asked them to do was to notify Sith and his old team, or who remained of them. William got Sith''s team just as he desired. Panther didn''t even realise how big such a loss was by throwing away such a capable team.

    William didn''t just stop there. Sith got only one spirit master with the ability and knowledge to make grenades and build mines. The rest fell in the old hectic run from the Nightmare monster.

    And so, William asked this fellow to go and recruit more people like him. He didn''t just promise them a huge amount of wealth, but also lots of techniques and tricks they could use in building much fiercer and deadlier grenades andndmine traps.

    Like this, five joined his team formally, while around five hundred joined the second profession department. After all, most of them saw in themselves just tools to build such deadly war supplies, not seeing in themselves what it took to do it themselves at the various battlefields.

    William didn''t care about that. He only cared about their grenades. So he let those who wanted to live in peace to join his secondary profession department, taking in just five.

    They volunteered to join his Dark Tails team. In fact, they came to join his guild normal teams. But William wouldn''tmit the same mistake as Panther.

 Chapter 560 No Clue Is Found

    ?

    Four were bronze grade, and one was only gold grade. This one was Oliver. He was the same fellow in Sith''s old team. As William experienced how capable Oliver was, he appointed him as the leader of all the grenade making spirit masters in the guild and his team.

    That was of course five years ago. Right now, Oliver was so close from getting to the dark gold grade. While the four others climbed from bronze all the way up to early stages of gold grade.

    What dyed Oliver was the same thing that made lots of spirit masters despise and get discouraged about learning a second profession. He wasted his time on learning new stuff from William, ending up stuck in that gold grade for years. But he didn''t mind that. In fact, he and others like him were very grateful and feeling blessed to join William.

    Not to mention the entire grenade department spirit masters managed to make new grenades thanks to William''s teachings and care for them. William would act stingy towards anyone, not towards his precious gems.

    "Are we going to buildndmines?" Everyone got what William wanted to do. And thetter nodded.

    "Sara, take Berry and go around the city. Try to find any detailed map of the region of Blue Hills," he turned then towards John as he added, "you''ll handle what Sith, and his little team want. Here, this is a ring with enough crystals to purchase anything they need."

    "Anything they want? Any amount?" John asked in doubt.

    "Buy everything they need and double it!" William acted decisive, before pointing out towards Lang and Peter to go and help him.

    "What about me?" Ibra asked, "what shall I do?"

    "You and others, including Lina and Tina, will handle the issue of low morale in the team," William ced a serious look on his face, "we can''t win against an enemy when we are feeling down like this, got it?"

    "Tsk! What a troublesome task you handed over to me," Ibra shook his head, "I hate babysitting others."

    "I know how terrible it is, I kept babysitting you all these years," William rolled his eyes, returning to his old self again. He couldn''t ask them to help others to improve and get better while they were also feeling such sadness and depression.

    "Screw you!" Just exactly as he wanted, Ibra got stirred up by habit, and blurted back at him.

    "Just go," William smiled, waving for them to leave. They left one by one, while giving him a meaningful gaze. They felt like he didn''t say everything in his mind. After all, thisndmine n would help defend themselves against monsters and dark masters alike, but it wouldn''t solve anything rted to the sealing problem.

    They knew William long enough to guess this far. He wouldn''t get satisfied with just one n. And he used to have the second n only known to him.

    They were right in their doubts, William prepared another n, kept it only to himself. In fact, it wasn''t just a backup n. It was actually part of his initial n. He didn''t just tell them anything about this n as he didn''t have the final decision about it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He told them that they had to experience the sealing arrays first to know what the enemy prepared. But as they already guessed, it''d be fatal to just gamble their lives like this without any guarantee.

    And that part he thought about was this guarantee. Without it, he''d depend entirely on luck to break through the entrapping arrays.

    If he didn''t get a way to break free from these arrays, or whatever trap the enemies prepared, then it was better to postpone this grand move for another time.

    William hated even thinking about retreating, not when his friend''s blood was still warm. But the one who got the answer to this problem wasn''t actually him, it was someone else.

    "Sigh! Fate really has its own ways," William sighed, took something out from his ring, inspected it for long minutes before storing it back, "it''s better to go personally and ask."

    As he returned that thing back, he started to go through his newly acquired rings. It felt like ages since thest time he did such a thing. And indeed, he had changed a lot since then.

    "Seeing such a grand gathering of spirit crystals, gears, cores, and materials stopped to impress me already," he sighed while emptying all of these items into one of his old rings, before going through the rings again.

    He wasn''t interested in any of these items, only cared about one thing. He kept looking, but not a single scroll could be found there. He couldn''t find any intel or clue about his enemies or their ns, not even anything rted to that dark academy.

    "As I expected¡­ They came prepared even for the worst," William spent an hour doing so, before finally storing everything away. "Time to go out and pay that person a visit."

    Like this he exited the hotel, while feeling that being in one held a bad omen for him. It was the second time he was in a hotel and ended up facing some sort of disaster.

    William''s mind was filled with lots of questions without answers. He knew the uing battle was going to be grand and hard to win, but he didn''t want to flinch away from it.

    What frustrated him a bit was that many factors didn''t lie in his power to control. First, hecked any intel about the entire region, knew nothing about his enemies. Be it their numbers, their preparations, their strongest forces¡­ He was kept in the dark and had to discover everything on his own.

    This meant more losses were destined to happen. William didn''t want to lose more members to avenge one. But wars got their own way to toy with men.

    He had to go there and fight as his goal wasn''t just to avenge Smith, but to stop that enemy or at least deal a severe blow to him, dying whatever that enemy had in mind for him and his guild.

 Chapter 561 The Grand Plan

    ?

    At the same time, William wanted to unveil the mystery about such an enemy and know what was really going on.

    He shifted his thoughts towards the things he could control. For example, thatndmine n was a must to do. Once he got his hands over maps of the Blue Hills, he''d start selecting spots where they''d spend some time preparing their killing zones and escape routes.

    William always kept an eye for an escape route since day one of him returning back in time. As for the killing zones, he had to prepare ces filled withndmines, lots of grenades distributed to kill any single enemy trespassing it.

    Oliver and the other four learnt a lot from William. One of these was how to n out grenades in a way that wouldn''t be as rudimentary as William experienced before.

    William taught them tricks toy out a grand design, to let them lead any enemy into a sophisticated design. Doing this would safeguard against the chances of the enemy reading through their overall design and trap.

    It would also lure lots of enemies towards such traps. He even taught them how to make triggered grenades, to not detonate at first, butter due to either passage of time, increase the amount of pressure stacked over them, or even remotely getting triggered using one''s spirit power.

    He didn''t only think about that, and also extended out his thoughts to the long battle that''d erupt after they''d escaped from that trap.

    He didn''t just n everything on taking down the enemies around the academy. He knew such a battle would expand to reach areas beyond that region.

    So, he intended to also cendmines outside to surround that area. That was why he asked for double the number of supplies Oliver and his team would ask for. He didn''t do it out of generosity, but thanks to hisplicated viewpoint about the uing battle.

    But all of that would be for nothing if that person refused his bold request. William knew he had no power to force this person to listen to his words, but he had no other choice but to go and try his luck.

    The main weak spot of any sealing array lied in the space element. Using a spirit master with a space element wasn''t going to work. If that array was strong, if there were more than one array of different types out there, then even an entire team made of spirit masters of spirit element wouldn''t be able to do anything.

    William knew to do it, he had to use something that he didn''t have. But luckily for him, he knew someone who did.

    "I''m here to meet up with you, urgently please," William took out a Bullet, the same thing he took out before inside his suite.

    [Oh, didn''t know you''ll miss me this fast, hahahaha!] the sound of Lara rang in his ears crystal clear. He was now standing outside the Spar Arena, holding the Bullet he got from her.

    To conquer any sealing array, no matter what type or strength it got, William had to use a portal to do so. It was the only guaranteed method to negate such a seal.

    He didn''t have any portals, but Lara did. Previously when she spoke with him about the history of this city, she mentioned that there were still many portal cores left in the vault of her family.

    William wanted to purchase a few of these portals using the grand wealth he just gained. He knew the issue didn''t lie in the expected scary prices of these portals, but in the strict regtions Lara''s family would enforce on such kinds of deals.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    If she agreed to help, then taking down any sealing array wouldn''t be hard at all. He just needed to do little arrangements before setting out. Yet this matter wasn''t in his power to control. All depended over what Lara would say, over her requests if she agreed on doing that deal with him.

    And that was why William decided to go and meet her in person, not speaking from far using a Bullet about such a crucial matter.

    "I''m outside your arena," William paused, "can we meet in private?"

    [Oh, on our first date? That''s quite daring, hahahaha!] she totally mistook his intentions. And he had to exert full control on himself to not say something to displease her. Right now, he had to babysit Lara, to get her approval in the end.

    "I''m here for business," this was the best thing he could say after filtering lots of unsuitable words.

    [Ok,e in then. I''ll open a path for you]

    "Did you spot me already?"

    [Don''t forget I own the entire ce, and za, hahahaha! Come, the path is ready for you. I''ll be waiting for you]

    In the next moment, a hole appeared just tens of metres away from him. It appeared like it was always there, and once he entered it, the opening closed on itself.

    William walked for half an hour, ending up inside a small room that had a desk, lots of scrolls stacked there, and Lara sat on the other side of this desk.

    "Wee to my humble office," she waved her arm as if she was showing off a marvel or something.

    "It''s nice," William tried to not say what he really thought, not speaking about how dull and gloomy this ce looked.

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® "Hahahaha, don''t try to lie. If it was up to me, then I''d better control things over from my pce, not this shithole."

    "Then¡­" William sat on a seat in front of her, and she bitterly smiled.

    "It''s the rules of my family. The one who got to rule over everything had to work in such a coffin¡­ Anyway, what brought you back so fast? I''m sure you didn''t miss me, right?"

    She winked, trying to look sexier with a tempting soft smile. She even lowered her head a bit, lowered her eyelids, and gave William a look that could entrance the heart of any man.

 Chapter 562 On One Condition

    ?

    "Ahem," William cleared his throat, and she mistook that this method really worked on him. In fact, he was trying to control himself to not truly say what he was thinking about.

    "So¡­ What brought you to my humble office, handsome man?" she kept using the same posture, the same tone, as a perfect actress or something.

    "I want something from you¡­"

    "Anything, my dear," her tone went softer, and her mind went wild with imagination at this moment.

    "I want something truly precious from you," William didn''t know how to say this. He wasn''t this close from her to begin with, and he knew how truly valuable these portals were.

    Money could buy anything; this was true formon things. But for truly special stuff like portals, money couldn''t buy them.

    But his hesitation made Lara think a bit wilder, ending up for her tough in a lewd way.

    "Sorry, sorry but this is the first time for me to meet such a wonder like you," sheughed, "two hours ago, you refused to even sit with me for a few minutes. And now you are asking to get me into your bed? What a weird man you are!"

    "No, no, not like this," he lost control over himself for a brief moment, telling what he truly thought about, in a loud tone.

    "Oh¡­ Is that so?" she gave him a weird nce, and William felt like she was growing cold towards him.

    "I want to buy something from you, that''s it."

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® "Hmm¡­ I believe this isn''t me, right?" she winked again, and this time he controlled himself to not shout back at her face.

    "No, you are more valuable to be sold," he tried to correct his earlier mistake.

    "Now we are talking," she grinned, "alright¡­ I can already tell you are struggling to sit with me. Cut the chase and tell me what exactly you want."

    "A portal," William sighed, and his tensed face eased up. He didn''t notice it, but since he came here, his face was enough to expose what he had in mind.

    "This¡­" When Lara heard it, she paused and red at William. The most she thought about was for him to ask for more cut of therge profit the two just got. Or perhaps he came here to speak about reserving a VIP ticket pass through her family''s portals.

    Yet it never crossed her mind that he came here asking for such a thing.

    "I know how precious this is for you, to your family, but I really need it."

    "For what? Don''t tell me you n to ce a few portals back at the Scorching Lands¡­ No, I don''t buy it¡­" She started tapping on the desk, expressing how nervous she truly was, "I can''t even decide without knowing what''s on the stakes here at least, right?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Of course¡­" but before he''d continue what he was going to say, she raised her hand that kept tapping on the desk, interrupting him as she added in a businesswoman''s tone:

    "But I need the truth, the full truth. Hiding anything off me won''t help you. So let me give you a warning¡­ I have a spirit that can tell me if the one in front of me is speaking the truth or lying."

    "Ouch!"

    "Yes, I know," she gave him a look that told him she was enjoying the current look on his face, "so¡­ Are you going to be honest with me, or what?"

    "On one condition," William seriously thought about her request for a few minutes before adding, "in return for that, you''ll agree to give me what I need."

    "No champ, I''ll listen first and see if what pushed you to do this is worth my precious family''s heritage or not."

    William went into a long period of silence this time. But in the end, he knew he had no other choice. If he wanted to exert revenge over those bastards, expose that new enemy hidden in the darkness, and foil any ns that enemy had against him and his forces, then he had to use her help.

    So, he agreed to her will and started speaking. After all, he was going to speak about an enemy who he knew almost nothing about.

    "Ok, I''ll tell you what happened to make mee here¡­" During the next half an hour, he kept speaking about what he knew. He didn''t hide anything; said the scarcely little information he knew about his enemies waiting at the Blue Hills.

    "So¡­ You''re telling me you know of the presence of a deadly trap out there, one that''s designed specifically for you and your team¡­ On top of that, you know literally nothing about your enemies, except for them lying in wait for you, and you still want to go?" she gave him a weird look after he was done telling her everything.

    In fact, telling Lara such info wasn''t going to backfire at him. He was going to smash the doors of the first dark academy in this tiny world. And no one would stand on their side, of course those in their right minds and didn''t have any ties with them.

    "I won''t flinch away from killing my enemies no matter what," William shrugged, as if taking such a decision didn''t take him a single moment to take.

    "Impressive¡­" her eyes gleamed with admiration, "you are truly a man. Why do you keep rejecting me then?"

    "I''m not here for you," William paused, raising a warning finger in front of her face, "and don''t try to force yourself upon me using my need for portals."

    "As if you got a choice in the first ce," she chuckled, enjoying how terrified he was from not letting her into his life, "let me think about it for a moment¡­"

    "Sure," he mistook her intentions here. And soon enough, he''d learn about this mistake of his.

    She kept tapping over the desk, putting on a very serious look on her face. William was sure she was deeply thinking about his request, hoping that she''d agree in the end.

 Chapter 563 As If You Got A Choice In The First Place

    ?

    "You are a true man, one who likes to settle scores even against any odds. You n to march towards a very hostile territory, filled with tons of forces, monsters, and even scary preparations to take you and your team down. And yet, you hate the idea of letting go of your enemies, even under such insane circumstances¡­"

    William listened in silence, while waiting for her to make up her mind and stop toying with him like this.

    But it never crossed his mind that she was toying with him from the start.

    "Such a man won''t let just anyone enter his life¡­ I get it now! You need to know me better to let me into your heart, right?"

    "..."

    William frowned for almost an entire minute. Then his mind grasped what was going on here. She wasn''t thinking about his request, not even in the slightest! And that made his eyebrows twitch, not knowing what he should respond with.

    "Hahahaha!" and before he''d get a better control on himself, Laraughed in a very carefree way, "just look at your face, hahahaha! That look¡­ That look¡­ It''s priceless! Hahahaha!"

    William''s brows twitched more when sheughed and pointed at him in such a way. And the more he frowned and reacted like this, the more sheughed.

    "Ok, stop fooling around and let''s speak seriously for a minute, ok?" William couldn''t find any proper words, other than these, to respond politely to her madness.

    If it was up to him, he''d respond harshly against her weird attitude.

    "You still don''t get it, don''t you? Hahahaha! I already gave you my answer."

    "..."

    William recalled what she said and tried to see it in a different light. But eventually he failed. He was just struggling like any man trying to understand the mind and line of thoughts of any woman. She didn''t say anything worthy, anything that could hold a meaning regarding his earlier request.

    "Fine, you aren''t fun by the way," she pouted, putting on a face that looked a bit childish, looked like a duck or something, "my answer is¡­ Yes, you can have all the portals you need¡­But as you got one condition for me, I also got one condition for you."

    "How much will that cost me exactly?" William inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. At least she agreed to his request. But when dealing with such a chick, he had to be on his guard all the time. She reminded him of Ro, but on a more mature and far dangerous level than thetter.

    Compared to her, Ro was like a cub and Lara was a fierce lioness!

    "You still don''t get it, don''t you?" she rolled her eyes in an amusing way. She was enjoying every single moment she spent with William right now, and didn''t want this meeting to end, "in my family, selling portals to outsiders is considered a crime sentenced by death. Do you hate me to such an extent or what?"

    "This¡­" William frowned more than ever, "didn''t you just say you agree to my request?"

    "I said I agreed to give you the portals, not sell them," she smiled, one that wasn''t one. For a second there, William felt like being a deer, and she was eyeing him for dinner or something.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "What''s the difference?"

    "It''s big actually. I''ll lend you the portals on my behalf, under my name and responsibility, not selling them to you."

    "This means¡­ You won''t take much from me? I don''t buy that! What''s the catch?" his face changed and became all serious once again. He knew such an offer was too good to be real.

    Lending him the portals would mean he''d have to pay little fees for hiring them. Andpared to the astronomical price he had in his mind; he was sure this was a trap. And indeed, it was!

    "I''m lending you the portals but giving the portals to an outsider is a crime as well. So¡­"

    She stretched out her hands, acting as if this was out of her power to control. Seeing her acting like this, recalling what she earlier said, made William jump towards a crazy conclusion.

    "You want toe with us?!!" he blurted it out, not even believing himself when he said it. But with her nod, he knew he guessed it right.

    "I never got the chance to live such a life before," she acted miserable, as if her life was a hellish one or something.

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® "Cut the crap already! You want to get closer to me!" William saw atst through her real intentions and ns. And that made herugh again.

    "As if you got the choice in the first ce, hahahaha!"

    "..."

    William finally saw what this girl wanted from him. He expected something worse actually. "I have to warn you, the ces we are going to aren''t that nice or easy to survive at. We''ll face tons of dangers along the way."

    "But I got you," she was still taking this matter quite lightly.

    "No you don''t! I need to take care of many things. And on various asions, I usually break up with my team, go on adventure solo. So don''t count on me for that."

    "Hmm¡­ What a cruel and cold-hearted man you are," she didn''t take anything seriously it seemed. He meant well, warning her that bying with him it was like throwing her life away. But she didn''t ce his words in her mind or even slightly considered them.

    "Don''t worry, I know how harsh and cruel the world out there is," she finally said in a serious tone atst. But for a reason, William grew the feeling of not taking her seriously at all, "and so¡­ Can I bring my bodyguards on this trip?"

    "As long as they''ll follow the orders, not cause problems, and you''ll be responsible for them¡­ Then yes," William paused for a second before adding, "and on top of that, they need to be trustworthy, capable, and not weak. Thest thing I want is to babysit a group of weak and useless guards!"

 Chapter 564 [Bonus ] A Backup Plan

    ?

    "Sure, I won''t entrust my life just to anyone."

    "I agree," William ignored the hidden remark she sent to him through herment, "by the way, what spirit and spirit element do you have? What''s your spirit power grade? And those guards, how strong are they?"

    "Don''t take me as a weakling," she returned to her yful attitude again, "I may look like a spoiled girl, but I''m not! I kept training and honing my techniques, reaching thete stage of gold grade. I only need a few more months to reach the dark gold grade. As for my guards, they are all at the mid, top, and pinnacle stages of that grade."

    "Cool," William wouldn''t say no to such a help, "I believe this won''te for free, right?"

    "Well, the issue of the portals won''t cost you anything. After all I''ll keep them in my possession, help you in that quest of yours, before collecting them back. However¡­"

    William knew there was a catch. A merchant had greed running down their veins since they were born. And she wasn''t just a simple merchant after all.

    "How much will it cost me?" William rolled his eyes for the zillion times, asking the same question he kept repeating in the past minutes.

    "Well¡­ I''ll bring one hundred of my entrusted guards with me¡­ Don''t give me that look, I''m all but a weak and powerless girl."

    "..."

    William didn''t speak again, just kept ring at her.

    "Fine! I''ll need half of what you gained today from me."

    "No way! That''s enough for me to buy a few portals on my own!"

    "Then pay one billion crystals and it''s done," she paused, raising a hand to stop him from arguing again, "I will bring one thousand, not a hundred. And their fees, war supplies, and anything they need is on me."

    "What''s their power grade then?" William didn''t hurry to agree. Who knew what this crazy girl would bring with her to fill in the missed quota that she expanded just now.

    "Like I said, all are dark gold grade. I just cleared that point already¡­ Don''t look at me like this, I''m not a tycoon, not like you for example."

    "I''m not like you, not even half close!"

    "That''s a lie, I can tell, hahahaha!"

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® "No, it''s the truth! The harsh and naked truth."

    "Naked, what a word that I love, hahahaha!" she returned to fool again with him. And William stood abruptly up when he knew there was no stopping to her yful behaviour.

    He intended to assess her spirit using his unique way. But seeing her like this made him drop such an idea. He was interested in knowing what kind of spirit would differentiate between truth and lies.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He never heard of such a thing, except for the legendary spirits which were rted to fate and cosmos. If she was like that old man he met before, he''d start growing interest in her. But like that old man, she was hard to recruit.

    Any sane person wouldn''t ept leaving such wealth, fame, and power behind, go outside to venture the world and fight deadly and bloody battles and wars.

    But at least he could satisfy his curiosity. And right now he decided to postpone doing such a thing.

    "We''ll meet in two days at the northern gate of the city. Bring twenty portals of silver grade at least, with one gold grade portal as well. Make sure that five of these portals are half installed and connected to here just in case."

    "This¡­" her face changed when he spoke about the number he had in mind. And that wasn''t all.

    "Prepare everything before leaving. If we fail, then it''s the end for us, all of us."

    "I''m sure¡­"

    "I''m just stating our odds," William interrupted her, acting like his true self for the first time ever since he came in here asking for her help, "and get used to this. I usually speak with my team in such a way all the time."

    His words left her speechless for a few seconds, before she jolted awake when William already left.

    He walked through the same path that took him here. And when she returned back to her senses, she shook her head powerlessly and sighed.

    "What a hard man to tame! He didn''t even say his goodbyes!" she muttered to herself. She then controlled the path he was walking through, to lead him outside. As she watched him walk away, a broad smile appeared on her face, "as if I''m buying that you don''t have another way to deal with everything. Anyway, let''s see how you''ll keep avoiding me, hahahaha!"

    She was excited about all this. In her eyes, this was all worth it. But in William''s eyes, this was just a silly and shitty game that a spoiled rich girl wanted to y out of boredom.

    "At least I got what I wanted," he shrugged when he got away from the reach of her senses, "time to go on shopping."

    William didn''t just intend to ce all the balls inside these two bowls. From the start, he had a backup n that he was going to prepare for right away.

    It was just as Lara suspected, he got different solutions for the problems waiting for them in this adventure.

    He walked around the city streets for half an hour, asking the people around for directions. He kept hearing the same topic repeated over and over again anywhere he went.

    Everyone was too excited about the battle that he fought a few hours ago. Everyone spoke as if they attended the fight and watched it from the front seats or something.

    He heard lots of debates about his origins, even to the extent of being rted to a god bloodline or something as scary as gods. William wanted tough at some point when some even linked him with the ancient legend of the ones who established this world, the Sacred Seven families.

 Chapter 565 Going To The Market

    ?

    William controlled himself to notugh. Among the discussions he overheard, many started to ce theories about the reason for the entire fight. People also talked about the rumours they heard before; the ones rted to him joining the same academy he just killed all their members in the arena.

    They saw and recognised the true identity of that team, and knew they were dark spirit masters. That made many masters confused.

    None ever heard about an academy epting dark masters. Dark masters infiltrating academies and big forces and ns was a well-known fact. But it was also known that they''d try their best to hide their true identities.

    It was indeed the first time in this world to see dark masters revealing their identities in the open, without even fearing any repercussions about their daring actions.

    As William walked towards the market, he missed the little storm that started to brew in the city. Hatred and enmity against dark masters were something like a rule of thumb in this world. And so, it was expected how many masters got truly enraged by all this, deciding to rally others and start heading towards that Long Feather academy.

    They nned to seek an exnation from that academy. If the answers they got didn''t appeal to them, they intended to burn down the entire academy, raise it to the ground and kill everyone out there.

    Such intentions didn''t just start in a few masters, but many actually started to act based on such an idea. Soon enough, a grand move would start, while lots of masters would move towards the direction of the academy during the uing few days.

    William was now walking through the big market in the city. He didn''t even think about the impact brought by his battle in the Spar Arena. At this moment, he was taking a walk, looking for something.

    He had an idea in mind, but he didn''t know if he could make it in this tiny world or not.

    "How may I help you?" William didn''t hurry to enter any stall or a shop at first. He toured this market twice, looked at the contents of each stall and shop with extra care and attention, until he finally found three suitable shops.

    These shops sold different materials and goods, different from other shops and stalls in the market.

    "Well¡­ I''m looking for many materials, but the issue is that I don''t know their names. I only know their looks. Can you help me with that?"

    William stood inside of the first ce he had in mind. He selected these three shops based on one simple criteria: the huge variety of goods in them.

    This city reminded him of the old Scorching Lands fort. It was filled with tons of masters who came from different ces, not only from the kingdom but from the entire continent.

    This city had connections even with the other continent. So, it was expected to see lots of materials, cores, and even weird stuff that came from many ces.

    Yet William noticed that most of the shops and stalls here worked per specialty. They each selected a field, a product, and sold it in batches. That was great if anyone just wanted to purchase a specific thing. But to William, this wouldn''t help at all.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He knew the names of materials he needed, the names of them in the outer vast world. Yet names were usually different between the two worlds, making him unable to find what he wanted if he went to such shops and stalls. Not to mention these materials were famous to be mainly in the outer world, rarely seen elsewhere.

    He took his time in checking the entire market, spending hours in doing so. Then he found three shops where different goods were on disy.

    The first shop he selected was the biggest out of these three, one of the biggest shops actually in the entire marketce.

    It was the size of several buildingsbined, upying arge area ofnd. It was seven storey high, and William just arrived at the entrance where lots of masters were walking inside, buying or selling stuff.

    He was inside a big hall, filled with lots of desks.

    In front of him, a young man was there, surrounded by lots of scrolls. He had bronze hair and eyes, seemingly excited about doing this job or something.

    "Sure, you can draw or tell the description in words, or use both," the young man took a batch of scrolls, ced them on the desk he was sitting at before adding, "to get the best results, you need to draw and speak at the same time."

    "Ok¡­" William paused, before asking in doubt, "will that really be enough? Can you find these materials just by these?"

    "Don''t worry," the young man patted his chest as if he was showing off, "I got a spirit that can memorise anything in the world. Like this, I''ll take a look at your drawing, listen to your words, before trying to match these with the materials I know."

    "Cool," William found this young man quite easy to deal with. Another merchant would ce tons of excuses in front of him before offering his services, not doing it in a straightforward manner like this young man did.

    Of course, merchants would do that to ask for much higher prices for these materials, a thing that told William this young man was totally inexperienced in his career.

    But that didn''t matter to him. He simply grabbed the scrolls, started to draw and speak for almost half an hour. After he was done, the young man was now standing instead of sitting, looking in puzzlement towards William.

    "Sigh! I should have expected this," William guessed the reason behind that young man''s weird attitude. These materials were already rare in the outer world. So William got the feeling that it was impossible to find them here.

    "Oh, sorry about that but¡­ Can you follow me please?"

 Chapter 566 The Lost City

    ?

    The young merchant suddenly stood up, invited William to follow him in a move that looked weird in thetter''s eyes. He even stuffed the scrolls William just drew before walking away.

    As this young man was kind and naive, William didn''t find anything bad in following him around. Unlike what William expected, that young merchant didn''t take him upstairs. Instead, he took William downstairs.

    The two walked for ten minutes in a path that was lit with torches and candles, before arriving at a narrow hall.

    William was sure he went for hundreds of metres under the ground, something that he never expected such a shop to have in the first ce. But when he arrived there, he noticed how different this hall was.

    The walls weren''t made out of rocks, but carefully polished ores that got dark blue and green colours alternating with each other. In the middle of one wall, William saw a big golden wheel and three old men sitting around a golden round table, just in front of this wheel.

    There were words over this part of the wall, telling William he was in the main vault of this shop. This startled William, made him turn to look at that young man, the same way the three men turned and looked at that young merchant when they noticed these two.

    "Ond, exin yourself!" one of the three stood up, with a serious look over his face. He moved his eyes between the young merchant called Ond and William, "why bring a customer down here?"

    "Don''t you know our rules or what? You aren''t that newbie anymore tomit such a grave mistake!" another old man said in a harsh tone. And that told William how bad this young merchant''s reputation in the shop was.

    It was expected, a kindhearted merchant wasn''t really suited to work as a merchant at all.

    "Sir, I know the rules but¡­" Oand looked at William before adding, "this customer came and asked for these¡­"

    He got the scrolls that William drew before. The moment the old merchant received the scrolls and looked at them, his face instantly changed.

    He handed the scrolls over to his other two fellows, and William noticed the same reaction. That made him feel a bit puzzled about all this.

    He thought Ond was taking him to another level to check possible goods there. But when he saw the three old men, he thought thetter came here asking for advice or help.

    "Are you the one who drew these?" the old merchant who stood up first said to William. Right now, all three of them were standing, holding the scrolls he drew as if they were holding some sort of valuable treasure or something.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William didn''t know what all this was about. But he nodded, "I don''t know the names of these materials to be honest. It just happens for me to see them before, and I want to purchase a good amount of each item if the shop sells them."

    "Well¡­ We have to admit that we share the same situation as yours," the old merchant paused for a moment there, seemingly thinking about what he should say next, "let''s talk inside. Ond, you did such great service to the shop this time, so you''ll tag along as well."

    William was about to ask what all this was about when the old merchant moved to the side, grabbed this wheel, and started rolling it.

    Without the need to ask, William knew they were going to take him inside the vault. He still didn''t know why they were acting in such a way. But he still followed them inside the vault.

    The vault was different from what William expected. He thought it''d be a big room, filled with shelves from ceiling to ground, filled with wealth and rare items stored inside. But when he got in, he found himself standing in the middle of a wide corridor, looking more like a grand street or something.

    "Wee to the Lost City," the old merchant moved his arms around, pointing towards the big corridor and the lots of doors appearing on its side.

    "What''s this ce exactly?" William didn''t move a muscle, didn''t try to approach any door or touch anything. He felt like this ce held its own secrets. And he couldn''t guess what these old merchants would react if he did anything they didn''t permit or like.

    "It''s something that only few in the city knows about," the old merchant kept moving forward, e along, our destination is far from here."

    "Far? How long does this ce extend exactly?!" William was taken aback by what the old merchant said. Yet before he''d get an answer for this, he saw the corridor widen up, ending with a huge tform and a long set of stairs that ended down below at a grand scene.

    "I told you, it''s the Lost City," the old merchant stopped moving just when they reached the long stairs. And there, William saw what could be described as ancient ruins of a once thriving city.

    They were standing at what William could take as the top of a small mountain. The stairs were carved in the body of this mountain, attached to it like they were glued there or something.

    Down below, he could see lots of buildings stretched to reach the end of his eyesight. William was standing almost a few hundred metres away from the level of the tallest building, or what was left of it anyway. So, he could see a huge part of this city, and that told him this ce wasn''t any lesser in size than the city on the ground.

    The buildings he could see lost almost half of their initial structure. The streets were filled with tons of rocks, and everything was covered in a weird greyyer of dust that looked like ash or something. It felt like volcanic ash just spread and covered this city, while a deadly storm hit this ce tens of thousands of years ago.

 Chapter 567 Dont Make A Sound!

    ?

    "I see it''s an ancient city that got ruined, but¡­"

    "You are asking why we brought you here, right?" the old merchant smiled, e on, follow us around and you''ll get to know the answer."

    William didn''t like such an attitude. However, being in such an ancient ce made him ovee his doubts.

    Any ancient ruins would be filled with treasures and lost knowledge from the past. The weird thing was that such a grand ancient site was situated just under the bustling and lively city on the ground.

    William couldn''t tell if this city was the origin of the one above, or if the ones who built the city up there found this ce by ident. Not to mention the one who gained ess here was a group of merchants.

    They looked wealthy, not any lesser than any merchant group of the Big Seven back at the fort before the time of the great war. However, they weren''t that wealthy or powerful enough to make the best use of this site, or even protect it.

    "There are other people here¡­" just as William followed the group downstairs, and midway, he noticed several shadows moving at different spots down at the Lost City.

    "Oh, do you think we own this ce? That''s not true," the old merchant bitterly smiled, "this ce was discovered actually in the old times, back when our city was just small. It was at the time when it was more like a small vige, without the fame and glory it has today."

    "Oh, how so?" William had an idea about this Lost City. and the words of the old merchant proved it right.

    "There is a big family up there called the Vancouf family. One of their ancestors stumbled across this ce out of luck. He found lots of treasures, but he knew this city was too big for him or his descendants to own alone. The entire area of this ce is at least three times the size of the current grand city of ours. You can imagine how huge this Lost City is. And so he shared this ce with other neen big families, big figures, strong forces, and wealthy merchants like us."

    William now realised that he mistook the words of Lara, or perhaps Lara herself didn''t know everything about the old tale of this Lost City.

    From her previous words, William guessed that this city was far away from here, not lying directly below the city on the ground, It seemed even after all these years, the city high circle didn''t totally explore everything here. The shadows he saw before told him that exploration attempts were still ongoing.

    And that was a bit weird actually.

    "Then¡­ Where are we going now? And why am I here?" William understood many things, except for why this group of merchants brought him all the way down to this ce.

    If they acted like this thanks to his Fox master identity, then he''d understand their reasons. But they just did that because he drew the shapes of materials he wanted to buy from them.

    "You''ll know in half an hour," yet that old merchant refused to tell William anything, kept walking forward once they ended the stairs.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The ce was indeed old. The air itself was a bit heavy and suffocating. William could feel his feet get nted with each step taken, deeply inserted into a thickyer of ash, as if he was walking on ice. It felt weird, but this wasn''t his first time to walk inside an ancient site.

    The merchant group moved as if they knew where they were going. They kept taking turns right and left without any moment of hesitation. And as they didn''t say a single word, William kept following them in silence.

    Then they arrived at a block of smashed buildings that didn''t look any different than others around. However, once they got there, the group stopped, and the old merchant gave others a silent nod.

    The other two old merchants moved in unison, without the need to speak or ask anything. They each moved to a direction, took materials, and started to ce them on the ground.

    "Concealment arrays?" William asked in doubt.

    "Shush!" but when he muttered this, the old merchant turned to him and red in a warning, while cing one finger on his lips and shushing him.

    William didn''t get why they acted in such a way. But if you were in Rome, act like what Romans did.

    William kept his silence, and soon enough the two old merchants finished what they were doing.

    During all this, Oand was having a wide smile on his face, one that told William how much excited this young merchant was. It seemed being here was some sort of privilege or an honour of some sort. But that also told William that this Lost City wasn''t seen as a grand secret or anything.

    Once the arrays got deployed, defensive and concealment ones, the old merchant motioned towards William and Ond to follow him and others inside.

    "Sorry about that, but this ce isn''t safe¡­" Once they got inside, the old merchant finally broke the heavy nket of silence. He turned towards William as he said in a stressed way.

    And that told William the reasons behind why this entire city wasn''t totally explored even after all these years.

    "Are there monsters here?!" William was surprised by this. Ancient ruins were considered dangerous thanks only to the hidden old traps. As these traps were built mainly on lost knowledge, no one would guarantee to detect, defuse, or even guard against them. But monsters? That was the first time he heard such a thing. And he didn''t believe it.

    Any ancient ruin would be totally sealed, situated deep below the ground. It had a harsh environment, a ce that was totally against any sort of life, just like how it was here. So, thinking about the presence of monsters was something unrealistic.

 Chapter 568 The Weird Phenomenon

    ?

    "Oh no, not monsters," just as William expected, the old merchant waved his arm, denying this hypothesis, "there is¡­ Something much scarier lives here. We don''t know what it is. But people used to say these are the vengeful spirits of the old residents of this city before its demise."

    "Vengeful spirits? For real?!" William didn''t buy any of this.

    "No one ever saw these creatures and lived to tell the tale. What we know is that they are drawn by any sound, and we learnt such a lesson after lots of bitter losses."

    "Drawn by sound?" William paused, lost in thoughts for a few moments before dropping such an idea. Trying to guess the identity of these mysterious creatures just from this useless intel was impossible.

    "That''s not important now," the old merchant grinned, "see this? This is the block which belongs to our group. Isn''t it amazing?"

    William turned to look at the block that was covered under the protection of the arrays. There were around forty different destroyed buildings, with six streets covered under the array as well.

    William just nodded; didn''t get yet why he was here in the first ce.

    "Now it''s time to show you something," the old merchant raised the scrolls William drew, took a look at the drawings before walking towards one street. The group walked for a minute, bypassing several rocks that blocked their path, before finally stopping at a building in the heart of this block.

    William was sure this building was grandiose and belonged to someone wealthy and authoritative in the past. The size of this building was enough to take almost half of this block''s area. Not to mention it was in the heart of this spot, with other buildings seemingly built to surround it.

    "Let''s go inside," the old merchant pushed what was left of a big door, went inside the building. The situation inside wasn''t any different than what it was outside. Tons of ash and dust filled the ce, with lots of rocks appearing everywhere.

    The old merchant kept walking as he knew where he was heading. William kept his silence, knowing that asking wouldn''t give him any answers.

    But soon enough, William realised why he was here. Just as the group passed from one room to another, they ended up at a set of stairs that weren''tplete. It seemed the merchant group spent little effort here to rebuild these stairs, making it feasible for anyone to climb up and down.

    The stairs weren''t that long and ended up in less than a couple of minutes of walking. When they arrived down below, William found an open space there, one that looked like a cer or something.

    There he found lots of chests, all were opened, all contained materials like the ones he just drew, and even more.

    "So you have them? Nice!" William smiled in relief. But before he''d move a muscle, the old merchant stopped him with a wave of his hand.

    "They aren''t for sale, at least not before we''d learn about their nature and uses."

    "Learn about their nature and uses? Not for sale? What does this even mean?!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Well¡­ To be honest with you, this ce has something interesting happening, some sort of a weird phenomenon. It''s not just limited to here, not a secret anyway. In the entire Lost City, such a central building lies."

    "And?" The old merchant said many things but didn''t even exin or answer a single question of William.

    "A weird ball of light appeared at regr intervals. These balls only appear in the area around the central building of each block. Theyst for ten minutes at most, doing nothing but leave behind lots of such weird materials and items."

    "You do mean¡­ You didn''t find these materials here but that weird ball of light brought them to this ce?!" William''s eyes shone in a familiar light of excitement.

    If any one of his team was here right now, they''d realise how great this chance was, how greedy William became to seize this opportunity for himself.

    "Well¡­ We came here and found chests like this, filled with materials. It seems like other people were here before us, gathered these materials in chests and left without a trace."

    "Then¡­ How much materials and items do these balls of light leave behind each time?" William wanted to go there and examine these materials by himself, to confirm his doubts. But he knew if he moved again, that old merchant would stop him.

    So he had to think of a way to let the old merchant let him inspect these items on his own volition. But first, William wanted to know how big exactly this chance was.

    "Well¡­ It''s hard to tell¡­" the old man paused, seemingly struggling to answer such a question, "as you can see, all of this is just equal to two times our gains from this weird phenomenon. And as it happened once per week since we came here, and after all these years without discovering anything valuable about these materials, not knowing how to use them¡­ So¡­"

    "I get it!" William could already imagine how grandiose the collection of this merchant group alone was from such materials, "and as I drew them from memory, you want me to unveil this mystery for you, right?"

    "Yes, and in exchange for this help, we''ll sell a batch of a hundred pieces of each material and item we have¡­"

    "No thanks, I prefer to keep such knowledge to myself," William decisively turned down such ame offer, didn''t even stay there for a single second and started walking back, heading towards the stairs.

    "Hey, hey you! Stop right there! We aren''t done speaking yet!!" the old merchant and the other two felt instant panic, hurriedly moved to block William''s path.

    They moved fast, fast enough to tell William they were all at dark gold grade. From the look on their faces, William knew they were ready to use force to stop him if needed.

    "You have to know that I''m not that weak to begin with," William rolled his eyes, before taking something out of his ring the next second, "besides¡­ I already work under Lara Vancouf, and this is her B¡­ Message Paper. If you don''t let me go, if you try anything funny, I promise you the destruction of your entire group!"

 Chapter 569 Jumping From The Pan Into Fire!

    ?

    William didn''t even flinch, even when the three old merchants gave him a threatening look. He knew they wouldn''t let him go away from here without telling them everything about these materials.

    But he wouldn''t even do it, not without gaining the most, extorting these stingy and greedy merchants and others of the most gains he could get.

    "This¡­" the faces of these three changed, while William stored the Bullet away.

    "Why shall I do it with you when I can gain all the materials and items I need from Lara? Hell, I''ll even get rewarded handsomely by her, without the need to pay anything!"

    His words held a much deeper meaning. The three merchants couldn''t help but exchange looks with each other. "Ok, let''s consult with others and respond to you," the one who kept dealing with William said, before adding, "you won''t move an inch from here, or else¡­"

    "Try to stop me, I dare you!" William wasn''t afraid of the three merchants. They might be at dark gold grade, but theycked a lot in terms of fighting experience. Not to mention such merchants would focus totally on improving their trading techniques and abilities, neglect anything rted to fighting and such.

    So, William wasn''t worried about them, but he was worried about the ones they''d bring with themter if he let them leave. He wasn''t a fool to buy what they said. They needed to consult with others? What others? From the way Ond dealt with them, from how they were stationed just outside the most important ce in their group, it told William they were big shots here. He''d not be surprised if they were owners as well.

    And even if they didn''t have the power to make such a call, they could have used their Bullets in front of him. Why the need to leave then except for going out, call all the guards they could get, ande here to surround him?

    Using Lara''s card was enough to scare these three. But if William got surrounded, if his life was on the line, he''d not be able to use Lara to get out from here.

    "What do you mean by that?"

    "Do you want to be the enemy of our group?"

    "Enough!" the one who kept speaking with William shouted, "you do know you are tarnishing our reputation by what you imply, right?"

    "Hmph! I didn''t say a single word and you guessed it all! That''s enough evidence of your evil intentions. Besides, trusting a merchant when my life is on the line? I''d better entrust my life to my deadliest enemy rather than to someone like you."

    William''s tongue was direct and harsh, didn''t shy or back off and said everything he was thinking about. In the meantime, William took out his flying weapons, all of them, "if you didn''t make up your mind or a way for me to go out, then I''ll consider this as an act of hostility."

    "Hey! Kid! We are your seniors¡­" before one of the three merchants would continue his words, William''s weapons moved. He didn''t hit a single one of them. But moving his weapons in the air was enough to force them back, even the one who just got interrupted stumbled and fell on the ground.

    The look over their faces was priceless. They were terrified and afraid of William. And that made thetter more confident in his ability to get out of here unscathed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Don''t try to follow me," William found atst a gap and hurriedly climbed the stairs to the surface. The three merchants followed suit, while Ond was left behind, totally feeling shocked and terrified of how things turned and escted towards the worst.

    William shouted back at the three merchants when he noticed they were following him. The three paused in their actions, exchanged looks of hesitation. William took this chance to move fast, move away from here, getting out from the arrays area.

    Once he got out, he couldn''t help but heave a sigh of relief. Yet when he turned to look back at the three merchants, he was startled by what they were doing.

    The one, who was like their leader, was outside the array by a few steps. He held some sort of a drum, a big drum. He had a big wooden stick in his other hand, and the look on his face was filled with enmity and dark intentions.

    Without the need for William to ask, he could already imagine what was going to happen next.

    The two merchants behind were inside the array. And with a smug look over their faces, they waved at William, as if they were saying their goodbye to him.

    One look, one second was all it took William to grasp and realise what they wanted to do. "Sh*t!" He didn''t even wait for the cmity to happen, turned around, and ran like crazy towards the direction of the big stairs.

    *Gong!*

    But he was too far away from the stairs to race that drum and its loud sound. When he looked back, he saw that merchant return inside the protection of the arrays, with an evil look over his face.

    It was as if he saw this as just revenge against William. Thetter couldn''t help but inwardly curse, while praying that this loud sound would attract the scary creatures towards the direction of the arrays, not towards him.

    He didn''t want to use his technique, fearing to cause any noise, leading these creatures towards his spot. But the next few seconds, he could feel like something scary was setting its eyes over him, driving cold sweat over his back.

    He didn''t hesitate anymore. He didn''t know how these creatures located him, but if so then there was no point in holding back.

    *Roar!*

    If the drum caused a loud noise in the middle of this deadly silent Lost City, then William''s roar turned all the eyes towards here with fright.

    William turned into his full fox form, took out a bottle of elixir, and gulped its content fully. He let his flying weapons move freely around, took out all of his three weapons, and started to use his dash technique madly.

 Chapter 570 The Floating Bubble Monsters

    ?

    William''s top priority right now was to reach the set of long stairs, climb them fast, and arrive at the safe zone at the top. He recalled how that despicable merchant spoke freely up there, only shushing him when they were walking in the city. That meant till reaching the stairs, every other ce here was dangerous.

    *Screech!* *Screech!* *Screech!*

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® Just before he''d use his technique fully for five times, William had to abruptly stop. In front of him, and next to the stairs that weren''t far away from him, he saw weird shadows taking shape there.

    "F*ck it!  It''s the Floating Bubble monsters!!!"

    William instantly recognised the enemies that kept appearing in increasing numbers up front, blocking his path towards the stairs. These weren''t spirits as everyone thought, they were just monsters.

    However, they were a scary breed of monsters. In front of the set of stairs, a group of a hundred foggy bubbles appeared there. In the eyes of William, it looked as if some sort of steam or gas was gathering midair, just a few metres on top of the ground, taking the shape of a perfect circle, with a transparent body that showed everything behind in a blurry way.

    William could tell this was the Floating Bubble monster from the blur he spotted through these monsters'' translucent parts, in addition to something else.

    Of course, these bubbles alone weren''t enough to expose such monsters. What everyone would miss at this terrifying moment wasn''t these weird shaped monsters, but the ground beneath them.

    When William looked, he saw fine thread-like elevations on the ground below these floating balls, giving the impression that little snakes were crawling under the dirt. The monsters'' real bodies weren''t even these threads but were around tens of metres below the ground.

    These monsters were like an onion in shape, moving under the ground like fish would move in water. They had a stalk-like part that ended up with something like tree crowns, forming the thread-like elevations on the surface. As for these floating balls, they were like the monsters'' eyes and ears.

    These balls were the sensory organs of the monsters. They were able to detect many things, starting from vibrations, temperature changes, sound, and even see. William now realised that trying to move silently before wasn''t going to work, he knew how he got spotted earlier.

    The most sensitive thing these monsters would respond to was sound, then vibrations. So, trying to run away from these monsters after issuing a noise was a futile endeavour.

    William looked in a serious way towards these one hundred or so group of scary monsters. The scariest part in them wasn''t in their attacks, but the inability to harm them.

    These monsters would use their sensory organs to locate their targets, then move fast, hidden underground, before reaching their prey. Then they''d release a torrent of tentacles that would surround anyone and anything, grab them all the way down to the underground. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    If the target was lucky enough and got himself an Earth element, then he''d be able to resist a little and not instantly die. But against such giant and ferocious beasts, and being isted in a totally hostile environment, no one would ever survive down there longer than a few minutes. Even if dark gold masters, even the ones at the pinnacle of power, got entrapped and dragged, they''d end up dying!

    Their bodies were situated underground. To harm them, masters needed to use earth-based attacks, lots of them actually. That was to make sure their attacks would reach to such depths and harm these monsters.

    William didn''t have such an element yet, but he got something even better. Another way to take down these monsters was by digging the ground, revealing their bodies, and letting normal attacks hit them. And that was what William intended to do right now.

    "If you think you can kill me, then I beg to differ," William didn''t stop after recognising the true nature of his enemy. He started to dash around, moving too fast to get caught by these monsters.

    The Floating Bubble monsters were nimble in their movement as well, yet their speed wasn''t even close to William. Dreaming about outrun them and hide wasn''t going to work. They ruled the entire city and there wasn''t a single ce safe except for those covered with arrays.

    William didn''t know how such monsters survived in such a deadly environment. But he didn''t get any time to think about such an issue. He also realised why these despicable merchants took their time, establishing many arrays in their region.

    They didn''t just cover the area around the block, but also let these arrays protect the ground as well. Doing so would ensure total safety for anyone inside the block.

    As William didn''t have any ess to any secured spots, he decided to do a crazy thing; to fight and kill any monstering at him!

    If another spirit master was here, he''d definitely die without even realising what hit him. In the eyes of any ignorant spirit master, these monsters were just floating bubbles of air, looking more like spirits than real monsters.

    "Time to start the party," William dashed twenty times, moving slightly away from the stairs. If he dreamt about killing all these monsters living in this grand city, then he''d be asking for his own death.

    The number of these monsters was indeed quite scary. Even an army of tens of thousands of Earth based masters wouldn''t be able to purge the entire city. So, his only hope lied in distracting these monsters, luring them away from the stairs, before using his technique to reach towards the safe zone of stairs and the teau at the top faster than them.

    As for these merchants, he promised he''d exert revenge on all of them once he found the right chance.

    Without knowing it, fate decided to grant him his wish fast, faster than what he''d even hope for or dream about.

 Chapter 571 Finding Something Weird

    ?

    So William kept dashing in semi-circr paths, luring the monsters gradually away from the stairs. Then when he stacked his attacks for twenty times, he moved his sword, dashed fast towards the group of hundreds of these monsters, beforending a hit fiercely on the ground.

    *Rumble!*

    The ground shook violently while a deep crater appeared. This was always something that came as a default with his technique. As he stacked lots of attacks together, the crater was tens of metres deep, not exceeding fifty metres at most.

    In the middle of this loud rumble, William could hear loud screeching noisesing from all around. Dust was already flying all over the ce, blocking his eyes from seeing through.

    But he was sure these monsters got hit, and it was his chance now to run away.

    He didn''t hold back his technique, dashed for hundreds of metres in each second. He was around one and half kilometre away from the stairs, a distance that he could cross in just twenty seconds or so.

    William shed fast, not caring about anything else but to reach the top. During this, the sounds of this battle attracted the attention of anyone inside the Lost City.

    Those who were inside were all dark gold grade masters. So, they released their spirit sense and started to see something they never dreamt about before.

    They saw a grand fox with three tails running and dared to fight the scary hidden creatures they all feared. Without the need to think much about it, they knew this was the rumoured Fox master who was living in the Scorching Lands city far from here.

    Few also heard about what William did back at the Spar Arena, informing others using spirit telepathy about this. Learning about William''s identity made them sigh in regret. The fate of William was already guessed by everyone watching. Even few were this close from cancelling their spirit senses, consider this one unlucky master who got a bad day.

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® In their eyes, such a capable and talented young master was going to fall here, and there wasn''t anything in anyone''s power to intervene and save him.

    Then Williamnded his brutal attack, releasing a mighty explosion that enveloped hundreds of metres around. As the dust cloud appeared, it masked their senses for a little. But they could clearly see lots of giant bodies getting screwed and burnt, while William stood in the middle of a deep crater.

    This came as a shocking discovery for all of them. No one ever managed tond a hit over these scary creatures, or even get this close from unveiling the mystery behind them.

    And right now, this sixteen-year-old youth just hit, wounded, and even killed those scary creatures. On top of that, he also revealed the real shape of them for the first time ever.

    They were giant monsters hidden deep underground. Seeing this made many ideas run wild in their minds. However, what happened next came out of their craziest expectations.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William oncended his attack, wanted to retreat, run away towards the safe zone of the stairs. It was a logical move in the eyes of everyone. But William got surrounded faster than his expectations.

    "Sh*t! I can''t even get closer!" Just when he climbed out of the deep crater he created, he noticed arge number of floating bubblesing at him from all directions.

    He thought such an attack would clear lots of obstacles for him, enough to reach the stairs. But he wouldn''t be able to make it. "Screw this!" as he saw this, he didn''t hesitate to start dashing around, stacking more attacks again.

    If one hit wasn''t enough, then two would do. If two weren''t enough, then ten would do. He decided to keep going like this until he''d clear enough of monsters, then make a run for his life.

    He stacked attacks under the watchful gazes of the master in the city. During which, more monsters kepting, limiting his movement by a lot.

    He wanted tond a hit just a hundred metres away from this crater. He wanted to crawl his way towards the stairs using his technique. But as he got dyed for a few seconds when he climbed the crater up, he couldn''t stack enough attack without getting totally surrounded.

    "I''ll hit it here again, then will make a run while stacking my attacks," he didn''t fret, simply jumped back into the crater, before releasing his second deadly attack.

    When everyone watching expected him to move fast again, the thing that William nned to do, thetter didn''t move a muscle.

    In that deep crater, William stood while the dust blocked his eyes. He didn''t get the spirit sense to see through such a thick bellow of dust. But he was sure lots of monsters got killed and severely wounded.

    Per n, William would follow such an attack with the preparation of another. In another time, he''d at least sh around, kill all the wounded monsters that survived the previous hit, collect their cores, before starting to prepare for another attack.

    Yet he didn''t do either what he nned or what he used to do. He even didn''t try to move out and make a run for the stairs again. In fact, he stood in his ce while his eyes were fixed on something just below his feet.

    "Thisnd is specially enforced by something¡­" this was the first thing he muttered. From his attacks, from stacking twenty attacks together, he knew a hole that would be around one hundred and fifty metres at least would be formed. But this one here barely reached one hundred metres in depth, or even less than that. And that was the effect of two attacks hitting the same spot.

    That wasn''t the thing that made him freeze in his ce, that weird bright brown leaf did. It was a long leaf, one that was formed of a thick branch, with lots of small branches and heart shaped leavesing out from it.

 Chapter 572 The Scaled World Tree

    ?

    The main branch was green in colour, while the smaller branches were faint blue. As for the leaves, they were shining with brown light, easy to notice, not hard to guess its origin for William.

    Yet thetter couldn''t even believe himself when he spotted and recognised this leaf. "No way!" he turned around, moved his eyes all over the dust cloud that surrounded him, and couldn''t help but ce the entire ruined city and what he saw in his mind.

    When William reached a conclusion about the origin of this leaf, he didn''t stand in his ce for another second. In fact, what he had in mind was something grand, something that he had to make sure of before jumping to any more conclusions.

    So, he started to dash around, stacking attacks one on top of another. The previous idea of trying to make a run out of here as soon as he could vanished. And right now, all he wanted to do was to keep attacking, keep expanding this hole, until he''d reach the deep bottom.

    He kept circling around the hole he created, going slowly upwards, before finally reaching the surface.

    Once he arrived there, he stacked around thirty attacks on his sword. As he expected, tons of monsters wereing at him from all directions. But that didn''t worry him. He didn''t even ce these monsters in his eyes anymore.

    The next moment, he jumped high in the air, and let his body take a grand turn there, beforending fiercely and decisively back towards the deepest point in that crater.

    He didn''t aim towards the lots of monsters that got attracted to here, not even sparing them a single look. He simply targeted the deepest point in that hole, and then another deadly explosion urred.

    It was on a higher scale and fiercer might than thest one. And then that crater got deeper and got another one hundred metres of depth.

    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom This time, the ground around William was filled with such weird leaves now. That wasn''t all, William also spotted a thicker branch, something that looked like a trunk of a tree or something.

    Only a small part of it appeared, taking an area of twenty metres and only showing a small circr surface of its contour. William didn''t even care about the screaming monsters around, or the increasing number of monsters heading towards here thanks to all these noises.

    He just walked closer to that thick branch, looking at it closer. "ck brown trunk, with deep blue veins. It got green scales, around twenty in the part that appeared here¡­ If I really don''t hit my head, then this is a Scaled World Tree! Damn! If a Scaled World Tree is here, then¡­ Then¡­" William''s heart thumped fiercely when his mind reached this far.

    The Scaled World Tree wasn''t the thing that made William feel like this. It was indeed a very rare and unique tree, but that wasn''t all. What made him feel like that was the thing these trees used to grow around.

    The Scaled World Tree could do lots of things that people would consider impossible. For example, if he used parts of its wood in forging a weapon, then this weapon would have one grade upgraded directly. Even if he made a dark gold grade weapon using its wood and crystal glue excretion in the process, its grade would rise up and reach the quasi-legendary grade!<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Of course, trying to do this required sacrificing lots of these trees. Not to mention the process of using their wood and crystal glue in the forging wasplicated and risky. On top of that, anyone harming these trees would suffer from a punishment, a curse as his master once told him.

    But it was really tempting to use these trees to make scary weapons. The nine tailed fox used to have a body armour that was formed from ten thousand trees.

    Finding such trees was indeed a hard process for any spirit master, but not for monsters or dark masters. In fact, monsters could easily get attracted to these trees thanks to their spatial powers.

    William now realised why these scary monsters were here, living in such an environment without dying. The ground here was rich in energy. And for such earth-based monsters, this was like heaven!

    Not to mention if these monsters ate the leaves and fruits from these trees, they''d keep living for thousands of years, even getting insanely strong fast.

    This was all great, but to William it wasn''t enough to make him lose his cool like this. To grow such trees, one needed a high source of spatial spirit power, one that wasn''t enough to be found under normal circumstances.

    The only thing that such trees could grow upon was one thing: a portal! William knew this wasn''t a simple portal, not like the ones that Lara''s grandfather found, not like the ones that any spirit master could make, not here in the tiny world, not out there in the vast world.

    These portals were unique, the ones that everyone was searching for, the grand interworld portals, the ones that could connect any smaller worlds to the outer and vast one!

    Interworld portals were just a marvellous creation of nature, found on its own, formed by no interference of anyone. No one knew why they got formed or how, but once one appeared, bloody wars followed.

    It was the gates towards the outer world, the ones that would allow any monster, spirit master, or dark masters to pass through and reach the outer vast world.

    Of course, one had to satisfy other conditions, at least reaching the legendary grade first. But now everything made sense to William.

    The presence of such scary monsters, the treasures that kept flooding here from time to time through spatial cracks, the portal cores Lara''s grandfather found¡­ They were all connected to the presence of this interworld portal.

    It seemed the previous inhabitants of the Lost City found this gate here and built a grand city on top of it.

 Chapter 573 You Got Half An Hour To Leave

    ?

    They tried to conceal its presence from the eyes of monsters and dark masters, eventually failing in doing so. Monsters flooded their city, killed everyone, and ruined the entire ce. And that was pretty normal.

    Monsters could sniff the location of any interworld portal from hundreds of kilometres away. The spatial spirit power these portals would emanate would look like candies in the eyes of any kid.

    That solved the mystery of the huge ruins up there. And it seemed the monster race that controlled this region was the scary Floating Bubble monsters. They lived here to control this portal, protect it from the hands of anyone, and used its spirit power to survive and grow their numbers.

    They were terrifyingly strong enough to scare most monsters away from here. They weren''t just individually strong, but they were one of the rare high-grade monsters that lived inrge numbers together. They were just like Scarlet Bears.

    As for the portal cores Lara''s grandfather found, they must be the final products of the ancient dwellers of the Lost City. They must have researched this interworld portal and used its rich spatial energy to make tons of portal cores.

    William now got it. And like these terrifying monsters, he also wanted to seize this ce for himself.

    "This is a problem¡­ Everyone here must have seen what I did. And it wouldn''t be weird for them to start making ns to conquer this ce¡­ I have to move fast!"

    William once confirmed the presence of both the Scaled World Tree and the interworld portal underneath, he didn''t stand idle and started to sh around, stacking his attacks again.

    At the same time, his hands didn''t stop for even one second. He took lots of materials out and started scattering them around this hole.

    He knew trying to use defensive or concealment arrays wouldn''t do. Be it monsters here, or the strong masters scattered all over the Lost City, they were strong enough to crush anything he''d make.

    That wouldn''t help him at all in achieving his goal. He wanted to monopolise this ce, take it for his own. And to do that, he knew the right method to do it!

    He nned to use the most abundant source in this city and block the path towards here for anyone else but him.

    So he kept shing around, releasing lots of materials, scattering them all over the hole and around. At the same time, he stacked around fifty attacks, before dashing for six hundred metres straight, and released another attack.

    Then he started to sh and scatter materials. This kept happening for twelve times. In the end, he got himself thirteen deep holes, filled with lots of materials that he seemed to throw out of panic in the eyes of others watching here.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But to him, he knew what he was doing. He was scattering materials following a certain pattern in his mind. And once he was done, he took a tour around, releasing his blood at the heart of each hole.

    As he started doing this, others became suspicious of him. At first, he looked as if he was struggling to survive the monstersing here. After all, with each explosion, a dense number of monsters were attracted towards his location.

    But when he started to visit the holes without releasing any attack, leaving behind his blood, everyone knew something wrong was going on. And when they tried to imagine the generalyout of the thirteen holes William made, they found them totally surrounding the stairs zone from all directions!

    "I know you are watching," and when their minds kept releasing rms, warning them that something bad was going to happen, William suddenly spoke, "I''m going to release an infinite sound loop, a nice trick that will release continuous noises all the time through my formation. You do realise I was making one. If you don''t move away in the next half an hour, then you''ll get entrapped here for the rest of your lives."

    William said these words in a calm tone, didn''t even shout or raise his voice or anything. He was sure his words rang like thunder in the minds of everyone in this city. He was sure this would turn him into public enemy number one, but he never cared.

    This ce¡­ This interworld portal was something extremely precious that he was willing to fight the whole world to secure it. And he wasn''t just overreacting or overdoing things here, anyone else in his ce would do just the same as him.

    Right now, even if the masters here got the right method to clear monsters, they didn''t yet have the means to do it.

    If he waited, gave them time to prepare, if he tried to use another method to secure this ce, then the chances of anyone finding about the interworld portal hidden underneath all this were quite high.

    He''d not risk this, not when he got a way to control and seize everything using such a method. Of course, this formation ran on spirit power, which was already rich in the city thanks to that portal.

    So, he was sure the formation would run for as long as he desired. Using the blood he left behind, he''d also secure his total control over this formation.

    As for the possibility of the city masters up there to rally their forces and try toe here and clear the monsters surrounding the stairs, he knew they''d fail. Without the need for him to check, he knew the number of monsters here was way above any master''s abilities.

    It wouldn''t be weird if they were in millions. And that made this ce like a grand monster tide attacking a city. With his formation, he''d lure many of these monsters here, letting them work as his watch dogs.

    William didn''t wait for their answer. He was willing to leave whoever dared to stay behind and ignore his words to rot in here. William rarely acted this decisively, but if he got such a ticket to the outer world in front of him, he''d not hesitate to take it.

 Chapter 574 I Want Fifty

    ?

    William knew such actions here would have severe repercussions when he''d go out from here. But he wasn''t that worried.

    After all, he got a card that would convince Lara and her family to support his actions here. William wasn''t strong enough to start his ns in this city alone, not yet. The first thing he had to do was to start expanding his guild out, purchase a piece ofnd at the city above and establish a branch of his guild there.

    This city was like the Scorching Lands fort before the big war. And William nned to madly absorb masters from everywhere, expanding the sheer size of his guild fighting force in a short time, to secure his foothold here.

    But all this was left when he''d go out. For now, he started walking around, stacking attacks and releasing them in torrents.

    Thest touch for his formation to getpletedcked one simple touch. If he did it, then the entire ce would be filled with deafening noises. As for the power needed to run such a formation, he used the same concept like what he did back in his concealment array. But it was a much advanced one thanks to the difference in the material quality used and the overall size of the entire formation.

    All he needed to do was to wait for those inside to leave, for the half an hour he gave to them before to pass, before finalising the formation.

    If it was up to him, he''d better leave everyone here to die to control what they saw here. But he knew most if not all would ry what happened here to those up there using Bullets. It was enough of a feud to take this city away from many forces. So he refrained from killing them by leaving them behind.

    In addition to that, he''d use this move as a good card in the uing explosive talk with other forces in the city up there. William was trying to take the higher moral ground, to be equal with his enemies at least without the intervention of Lara.

    [What the hell are you doing back at the Lost City? How in the world did you get there in the first ce?!!!]

    Just less than five minutester, Lara''s angry voice came ranging in his ears. "They are fast," William evilly smirked, took her Bullet out, and started speaking with her.

    "What''s up? Long time no see!"

    [Stop this madness right away! The entire city is rallying forces against you as we speak! What the hell are you doing down there? Huh? Weren''t you supposed to go and prepare for theing up adventure or what?!!]

    William couldn''t help butugh when he heard her words. In fact, when he recalled what happened, he couldn''t believe how this all happened.

    He came looking for a specific set of materials, ending up stirring up a grand storm up there in the city. "Well, if I told you a grand chance is waiting for you and your family, one that''s not any less than your great grandfather finding the portal cores back then, will you believe me?"

    [No way! I know how trickery you are! Stop all this, stop the damn formation you are setting right now ande up. Let me try and meddle in this disaster. Hopefully the ones up there are going easy on you and will ept spirit crystal payment in the form of an apology!]

    "Hell no! Listen, I know you got tons of materials that are seen as useless as trash¡­"

    [How¡­ How did you know about that? It''s our family secret! Who the hell told you such a thing?!!]<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Stop interrupting me and listen¡­"

    William started telling her a simple way to use one of these materials. In fact, it was a blue herb, one that wasn''t any bigger than one''s thumb. But when it was used in a certain way in alchemy, a new product would appear.

    This world knew potions, elixirs, and pills. Yet they never experienced ointments! This herb would allow any product to turn into an ointment. Of course that wasn''t suitable to use in many things, but in products that''d be used to cure burn marks, scars, and even return beauty and youth back, it got a heaven shaking effect.

    William told her about a simple ointment recipe, one which she could use that herb and make something the entire world had never seen before.

    [Are you out of your mind? Is this the time to y such tricks?]

    "Just try it out¡­ You got ten minutes to test things out. If by then nothing happened, if what I said didn''t bring out something you never saw before, then leave me to face those scary folks up there alone. But if my words proved to be right, then you have to help me."

    [Damn you! Just one product won''t be enough to make me shield you from such a storm! My family won''t ept this and will pressure me¡­]

    "Who said I got just this form? I got tons of others, enough to shock the entire world with new products, enough to turn all the useless stack you got into a treasure trove. However¡­"

    [I know, I know, you want part of the gains¡­ First you need to convince me and my family, then you need to survive this before we talk]

    "I want fifty percent, the same as usual."

    [Why won''t youe and steal my family vault instead? We are the ones who''ll carry all the expenses, provide materials and people working on them. Not to mention we are the ones who are going to protect you right now! And you just want half out of the blue?]

    "Then sell me these materials and I''ll deal with them."

    [They aren''t for sale! It''s a strict family policy!]

    "Then I''ll get fifty percent!"

    [How about the fees of shielding you? Won''t that count as well?]

 Chapter 575 Uncle... You Look Old!

    ?

    "No, this is just temporary for the time I''m here. And I won''t stay for long anyway. So, it''s not enough to take a higher piece thanks to that."

    [Let''s talk after I see that recipe of yours first] she hesitated. She knew giving him fifty percent wouldn''t be a loss at all. After all, the materials they gathered for generations came out of thin air, and they were left to rot inside their family''s vault for tens of thousands of years now.

    If William truly got a way to turn all this trash into something valuable, then the sheer gains from this would be mind blowing.

    She hurriedly summoned her servants and entrusted people, sent them to bring the list of materials William asked for. She also sent for one of the family members, an alchemist, a skilled one on top of that.

    In the next ten minutes, she waited and watched her uncle follow the steps William said. And in the end, something new did indeede out from the pot.

    "This¡­ What the hell is this?!!!" her uncle turned to her, with a face that held shock and doubt.

    "Wait a second," she held William''s Bullet, "we got something sticky in the end. It''s not a liquid, not solid¡­ Is that right?"

    Her uncle didn''t know what went into her nephew''s head. He just heard the grave news, about someone trespassing over the Lost City, and even kicking everyone away from it.

    Before he''d listen to everything people were speaking about, he got summoned urgently to meet up with Lara. Then he found her preparing different materials, including one of the trash items found usually in the Lost City.

    He shared the same thoughts as others, knowing that items found in that city were useless. If it was up to him, he''d simply throw them away. But the words that came from their ancestors were clear orders to keep them hidden and safe, storing and gathering them as if they were some sort of treasure.

    As she exined to him that she had a way to use such trash materials in forging, he didn''t buy it. But he kept following her words under her persistence. In the end, something weird appeared. And when he expected her to exin things over, she held a Bullet and kept talking with someone else about this.

    The uncle was just a skilled alchemist. So, he never doubted his ability in concocting this form, but suspected the form itself. He believed this entire form was wrong, ending up with a failure not a sess.

    Back in the Lost City, William saw lots of people shing and moving fast during the past thirty minutes. Just by the end of the period he gave to others, they all escaped from here, but they didn''t actually leave.

    He saw lots of faces watching what was going on here from the teau at the very top. It was clear what everyone was thinking, lying in wait for him to go out, waiting for their reinforcements toe and breach his formation to reim the lost city.

    In fact William wasn''t struggling at all. He kept dashing around, attacking and killing lots of monsters, while leaving behind lots of gaps in the ground. He kept consuming his elixirs, replenishing what he lost all the time without feeling any struggle.

    Anyone seeing this from the top would see lots of wounds and scars spreading all over the Lost City, seeing a fox shing all the time without anything able to halt his steps or give him any challenge.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The ones up there imagined William''s death countless times during the past minutes. But unlike what they expected that daring youth was able to stand his ground amidst the crazy assault of all these monsters.

    This was something nothing ever managed to do. Since the discovery of this ce, everyoneing here had to walk on their toe tips, fearing to even breathe aloud.

    Yet William down there was just running around, freelyunching explosions one after another without worrying about anything. And this was just like seeing a living miracle happening in front of them.

    They already spoke with their superiors many times in the past half an hour. Everyone got what they could gather about William''s identity, abilities, and what he did back at the Scorching Lands or here.

    So, it was clear that William wasn''t the type to fool around. He was dangerous, and everyone knew they had to deal with this matter quite seriously.

    "Just bring someone with a scar, or someone old enough to show wrinkles on his face. Apply this product over the ce you want and wait for a minute."

    [And?]

    "Just it, try and you''ll get everything," William hated exining everything in detail for anyone. To him, it was better to try things out and see the results with one''s eyes, better than trying to describe anything using words.

    Laranded the Bullet, showed an expression of doubt and hesitation on her face.

    "What''s wrong?" her uncle mistook what she was feeling right now, "don''t be depressed by this failure. I once read in the family''s ancient records that lots of our ancestors tried and failed¡­"

    "Uncle, you look a little old, right?" Out of the blue, his nephew raised her eyes, and looked in a weird way to him. The look she gave him made his heart shudder in worry and fear, made him even feel goosebumps.

    She looked at him like she was looking at a gem or something. He knew her nephew quite well and knew how yful and naughty she was. It was something that slowly turned into a stain to her image in the eyes of everyone in the family.

    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom "Your face¡­ Your face is full of wrinkles¡­" and when he paused in fear and doubt for a second, she used this and approached him.

    With one hand, she reached into the pot and took the ointment out, and with the other she touched her uncle''s face, examining the wrinkles there with weird interest.

 Chapter 576 I Want The Entire City

    ?

    "Lara¡­ Stop fooling around¡­ What the hell are you going!"

    Like any naughty little girl, she raised her other hand, and covered his face entirely with this sticky blue material. It felt like she just covered his face with mud or ice or something. And that made him instantly retreat back.

    "Sh*t! I knew you were up to something useless like usual!" the uncle cursed, while trying to remove that ointment off his face. Yet it was a bit sticky, and it took him a couple minutes to remove just a small part of it.

    The rest vanished on its own, as his face absorbed everything. "What? Why are you looking at me in such a way? It''s not the first time for me to yell at your face for something bad you did!"

    He harrumphed when he noticed the shocked gaze Lara gave him. "No, uncle, wait!" he was about to move away, but she hurriedly ran after him.

    "What? Aren''t you ashamed of yourself? Getting this big and still having the mind of a child in here? What did we do wrong in raising you? Grow up, goddammit!"

    He even poked her head in an angry way. "Uncle, just look¡­ Look at your face¡­"

    "What''s wrong with my face? F*ck! What kind of sorcery is this?!!!"

    She took out a mirror and ced it in front of him. The moment he saw his face, he froze on the spot for long seconds, before cursing out loud.

    He grabbed her mirror, wiped it clean various times using his sleeves. And yet he saw a much younger face in front of him. It was like he went back in time for three decades at least, looking just when he was eighteen.

    "Damn! It''s the effect of that material¡­" he didn''t need to hear what William said to Lara before to realise this. He looked at her, and she just smiled and nodded, not knowing what to say.

    "It''s called an ointment," she repeated the same name William used to call this product, "and it''s a new product made out of alchemy. It''s made using the trash items we kept storing all these years."

    "This¡­ This¡­ Are you certain? This isn''t just a failed product or anything?!!"

    "Hahahaha, just look at your face, uncle, and you''ll know this is all real," sheughed, feeling like she stumbled on a treasure trove or something.

    Just from this recipe alone, this ointment product, she could already imagine scary uses for it. The current potions and elixirs healing one''s scars or returning one''s youth weren''t even one tenth the effect of this ointment.

    "Uncle¡­ If we mass produced this, what potential would this product have?"

    "This?" her uncle pointed at his face like he was pointing at a miracle or something, "let''s not mention letting old fogies like me look younger, just focusing such a product and sell it todies will make our wealth double in less than one year. And these are my conservative estimates!"

    "..." Lara blinked, recalling what William once said to her. He said that she and her family were in front of a chance, one that wasn''t any less than what her great grandfather once did!

    And from her short talk with William, she could tell that he got lots of other useful and unbelievable forms, recipes, and even blueprints for all the materials that she and other big forces stored for all these years. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ok, I''m going to make this deal with you¡­ Just hang in there and wait for my forces to arrive, ok?"

    Inside the Lost City, William wasn''t that pressured at all. He was just moving around like he was a flying dragon or a shark in the ocean.

    There was not a single monster that coulde closer to him. He killed tons of monsters using his technique and used four elixir bottles just during the past half an hour.

    But that was all worth it. He wanted to make not only the deal of trading materials with Lara, but he also wanted something grander. So he had to wait for her response, and also put on such a grand show of power to let her and her family realise he wasn''t that kind of a weakling at all.

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® "Sorry, but that wouldn''t do¡­"

    [What the hell do you mean by that?!]

    "I mean that old deal won''t do. I want other things."

    [Anything you want will be agreed on, you do know who I am, right?]

    "No, this is different," William smirked before adding, "I want a piece ofnd in the city up above, a permission to build a new branch of my guild up there."

    [Hmm¡­ Quite ambitious and a little troublesome but¡­ I can make it for you. But why do I feel you need something else? Something more¡­ More troublesome?]

    "Because I really do have such a thing in mind, hahahaha!" Williamughed, "I want total control over the Lost City, what do you think about that?"

    [...]

    Back in her family''s Spar Arena''s control centre, Lara stood in shock and disbelief. The first impression she got was that William tricked her. But then she realised in the next instant that he was just joking with her. She took a long minute to control her racing emotions before responding with a loud shout.

    "You can''t believe I can make such a promise to you, not even as a joke!"

    [Then how about this, you and I will share this ce together, fifty fifty, what do you say?]

    "Not a chance! Do you want all the other families to fight us? All the forces in the city as well as others from areas around? No way! This is madness! We shall let things be as they are, with everyone sharing ess to the city."

    [That won''t do¡­ Then how about this¡­ The entrance to this ce is sealed by me. If anyone has the ability to break such entrapment, then I do invite them to try!]

 Chapter 577 The Elders Weird Decision

    ?

    "You are insane! Do you think this is just limited to the Lost City? Lots of people have many interests in the Lost City! Lots of forces already found tons of treasures there. Do you think they''lly low and obediently ept this as a fact? No way! They are going to fight you, chase and even kill you at the end."

    [That''s why I got you, right?]

    "Even if we got half of the city, or even most of it, we won''t be able to keep it!"

    [Don''t think of it this way. Just let everyone try, and whoever has the ability can have what he can get. This is fair, right?]

    "Fair? Are you trying to get me killed or what? This isn''t fair, this is madness!"

    [Well, this is my offer, take it or leave it]

    William was inside the Lost City fighting, killing monsters all over the ce. Right now, tons of monsters were already flooding his ce thanks to the explosions he created so far.

    But that wasn''t a problem for him. All the monsters he killed were at gold or lower grades, with the highest ones at an early stage of golden grade.

    From thetter, he had collected thirty cores so far. And that made him quite excited. He didn''t know why only low grade and weak monsters were here, but he loved this.

    Like this, he''d get dark gold cores like he wanted. And so, he wasn''t in any rush to get out or leave here.

    He knew asking Lara to do this out of the blue was something she''d not instantly agree upon. But he had to do it this way.

    In fact, if he had a foothold in the city, with enough time to deepen his roots here, he''d not even ept to share anything with anyone, not even with her. But that wasn''t what reality was. And he knew he needed her help, for now at least.

    ¦Ñ¦Á§ád¦Á---n?¦Ía| §ãom "Just take your time, give me your answer in an hour or so."

    [Do you believe they are going to wait for one hour? I''m getting endless reports about them amassingrge armies and heading towards the Lost City right now! And above all, you framed me! Few of those who were at your ce said that you imed to be working for me! Is this true?"

    "Well¡­ I believe the reception here sucks! Sorry, what again?"

    [Stop this right now! You must have said something crazy like this! Since when did I ever tell you to go down there and create trouble? Do you know how terribly bad the current situation you ced my family in is?]

    "Easy there! I was just trying to scare people away, nothing more," William rolled his eyes, acting shameless here, "for now let any armiese. Just give them a warning, as a form of good intentions."

    [You¡­ You are really something!]

    "Just tell them to not send anyone, or else everyone they''ll send will die."

    [Are you nning to kill them?!!]

    "Me? No, no way I''ll do such a hideous act," William evillyughed, looking around before adding, "just warn them that the entire ce is filled with monsters, monsters they can''t deal with."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William stored away the Bullet, knowing that Lara was now in the middle of a tough situation. But she got to make a choice here, and ording to her decision, William would decide how to act with her.

    As he expected, just in the next ten minutes, she received lots of angry messages from lots of forces in the city.

    She was in a tight spot, one that she didn''t dream about when she met William for the first time. But soon enough, her family elders came and spoke with her.

    "That''s madness¡­ But why won''t we try it then?"

    Just when she thought her family elders would shout in anger and order her to cut all the ties with William, they suddenly said something crazy.

    "Don''t give us that look¡­ That city already belongs to us. Our great grandfather was the one to discover it. If not for him, if not for all the portal cores he brought back with him, nothing of the current glory would have happened!"

    "But¡­" Lara realised why her family elders agreed on such a crazy act. In fact, this opinion wasn''t new inside the family. It was amon opinion that ran for long generations.

    The Vancouf family saw in themselves the true leaders of this ce. But unlike what they should gain, they were just part of the ruling parties here. William''s sudden actions came to give the opportunity these elders dreamt about on a golden te.

    "Just agree to that youth''s request, inform other forces in the city about this decision. And just how he said it, if they have the ability, let them try. But I''m curious, if he is this confident about no one passing through the monsters around, howe he''d get in and out? How will he allow us to go in and out?"

    "Well¡­" Lara was busy thinking about this disaster, and totally missed this point.

    "Don''t tell me you don''t know how he intends to do it!"

    "One second¡­" Lara hurriedly took William''s Bullet out, "tell me, how do you n to let my family in and out?"

    [Oh, just wait a few minutes. The other parties are sending out their forces right now, and it''s quite interesting here, hahahaha!]

    William wasn''t joking or lying. Just minutes ago, he noticed arge number of mastersing from the teau high above. Lots of masters ran down the stairs, seemingly excited to meet up with these monsters.

    William was a few kilometres away right now from the stairs area. But that didn''t stop him from activating his formation.

    He already linked it with his blood, so with a whim he could activate and deactivate it.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    He already left the final touch before moving around, fighting the monsters freely. When Lara warned him about the iing armies, he finalised the formations, leaving behind a single explosive attack.

    The formations stored the noises caused by such explosions and were ready to release them with a whim. And just when he activated his formation, the ear deafening sounds of explosions rang and filled the entire world.

 Chapter 578 Gathering Dark Gold Cores

    ?

    It was just a copy of his attacks, repeating the deafening noises they caused. But it was enough to attract most of the monsters in the area towards the stairs region. And then different types of noises appeared as these masters started attacking as well, the type that came from real fighting.

    William was far away from the stairs area when all this happened. He didn''t want to be there when dark gold masters were leading such an attack against monsters.

    He got lots of ruined buildings standing between him and these bloody battles. But just when half an hour passed and the noises didn''t approach him, he knew his trap worked.

    The monsters might be weak, but there was no end to them. Not all the masters had the same crazy mind of spending elixirs to replenish their lost spirit power. So it was expected that after one hour, the noises of fight vanished while he saw shadows climbing back towards the teau area.

    "They failed," Williamughed while holding Lara''s Bullet in his hand, "they are retreating."

    [For real? I heard they sent almost fifty percent of the strongest forces in the entire city!]

    "They couldn''t break through my formation, hahahaha!" William was in a good mood right now, "listen up, it''s time to strike hard when they are down. Let them know this city belongs to you and me, not to anyone else."

    Lara was now sitting in the middle of her family elders gathering. They all looked at her, waiting to get the answer to the most important question.

    [Speaking about that¡­ I want to know how you n to let our people in and out? This formation, the entire thing seems strong enough to stop even the strongest forces in the city. And frankly speaking, I got no confidence in passing through these monsters without your help]

    William knew they were down to real business. And for a reason he felt she wasn''t alone right now. "Ok, listen up¡­" he was ready to tell her the right way without beating around the bush. He knew he left her and her family members on the wait for long enough.

    He started to speak about his arrangement in the Lost City. He said that he made other formations that her family could control using blood bonds. But his sole condition for her to be the one controlling all this.

    Of course, he didn''t just make one formation, or few. In fact, all these attacks were to make lots of such formations.

    He''d give the Vancouf family just a few of them to control. If they tried to backstab him or something, grew greedy and tried to control the entire city for their own, then he''d simply activate other formations, preventing anyone froming here.

    This would be the perfect solution, but he was too weak to enforce such a thing over others. "... Using this method will ensure total control for your family over this city entrance and exit paths. I won''t activate my formations as long as it''s not needed."

    [I got it] Lara was experienced enough to get what he meant. And other elders also got the hidden warning he issued towards them. They dreamt of course to control the entire city, but with William''s warning, they knew their long dream wouldn''te true, for now at least.

    At this moment, William didn''t know that he gave an excuse for a faction inside the Vancouf family. And soon enough, this faction would start moving against him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But in the eyes of others in the family, controlling half of the city was much better than sharing it with more than fifty forces in the city. So they agreed on William''s offer, and Lara asked him to wait before they''d send their forces over.

    The other city forces failed to break through the formation around the stairs. They reported this back to their forces. And when pure might failed to get them what they wanted, they started to use diplomacy and threats.

    Yet the Vancouf family was a giant behemoth in the city. They didn''t respond to any threats, and only promised to think about offers given through diplomatic routes.

    From the promise of Lara to send forces until the Vancouf forces really appeared, almost half a day passed. William consumed lots of elixirs during this time, ending up gaining close to two hundred early-stage dark gold cores.

    At first he gained lots of these cores as many of the monsters he faced were at this grade. But soon enough, and after he activated his formation, he rarely spotted any of these monsters.

    William didn''t dare to cancel his formation, fearing the densely packed forces at the teau to get this chance to infiltrate the city again.

    In fact he didn''t mind them sending troops to get massacred. But he didn''t want to make his already bad situation worse.

    During this time, he contacted Ibra and Sara, asked them to go and seek refuge at Lara''s ce. They asked about the reason for that, but he didn''t tell them anything.

    He even asked them to wait for him at the portal area, waiting for him until he''d arrive there. He nned to leave this city once he got everything done, or if things went south or something.

    If he got forced too much, he''d prefer to activate all the formations here and cease any ess to the city for him and others. And when he''d be stronger, had more forces, he''de here and im everything.

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® But this was hisst resort. For now, he focused on killing monsters, getting cores, and spreading more formations all over the city.

    The most he got from all this fight was gold grade cores, then silver grade. He also got bronze and white grades, but not that much.

    "Phew, you are finally here," William noticed the big ruckus that happened up at the teau, and knew Lara sent forces over. But when he went there, he was surprised to see her on the head of everyone else, waiting for him over the stairs.

    "You wanted me to control the formations," she rolled her eyes, expressing how annoyed she was with what he did, "do you know what kind of disasters you threw at me? Huh? Think of a way topensate me then!"

 Chapter 579 Letting Lara Handle The Messy Situation

    ?

    "Half of this grand city isn''t enough? Come on! You have a big appetite!" Williamughed when he stepped atst over the stairs.

    Like this, the hellish experience he went through ended atst. He didn''t just find that portal, but also secured such a ce for himself forter uses.

    William didn''t take long in letting Lara bind the formations with her blood. During the process, she and her team of guards were on the edge. After all, they were walking in the ce that took the lives of lots of masters, mostly not much weaker than them.

    William didn''t find a single corpse of any force left behind. He thought he could extort these forces more, collect rings and gain more loot. But they were a half step ahead of him.

    "See? This is just a small part of what I had to deal with!"

    Just after they left the entrance of the Lost City, through the same long corridor William walked through when he came here, he found lots of forces waiting for him outside.

    ording to what Lara said, this corridor was the single entrance that all forces used. Every force got a door for it, and for a reason new door kept popping up after the passage of five hundred years.

    William counted fifty doors or so while walking back. And when they walked out, they appeared at the portal area. It was the ce where her great grandfather linked the entrance to the Lost City with, the first thing that belonged to the Vancouf family in the city.

    As this was a verymon ce, where lots of spirit masters could enter and leave without many restrictions, it was expected to see such a grand number of masters lying in wait around the main building.

    "So what? Your family is enough to deal with them, right?" William didn''t ce any of this at all in his eyes. He let Lara and her family share the city with him just to shoulder such trouble.

    "Sigh! It will take forever to control all this mess," she tiredly sighed before adding, "what are you going to do now?"

    "Me? Nothing," William shrugged, "I''m just going to rest here. I believe you have a ce for me and my team to rest at, right?"

    "Come on! Do you think we got a hotel here or what?"

    "It''ll be a nice thing if you got one," heughed, and she red back at him, "just deal with this mess, and let someone handle my new territory papers and such."

    "At least let me handle this disaster first," she waved her hand, "go back, go and rest inside the main building for now. When I''m done, I''lle and find you¡­"

    She paused for a moment, seemingly recalling something, before adding, "next time I won''t be alone. The family elders will attend that meeting. So it''s better if you think carefully about what you are going to say."

    "Don''t worry, I got everything under control," William pointed at his head while giving her a confident smile. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He then gathered up his team. They weren''t that far from the main building, but had to wait until Lara led the angry mob away to join him. William led them without exining anything while the entire ce was looking like a bomb that was this close from exploding.

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® He knew Lara and her family would handle everything. And that was why he didn''t care about anything happening around.

    The team asked lots of questions, especially his vices. Thest time they saw him, he was going out to do something and would return to lead them towards the Long Feather academy.

    But he vanished for long hours. And without any warning, he ordered them to evacuate the hotel ande here. They saw how tense the entire situation was, with a big internal war on the verge of happening at any moment.

    What puzzled them was that William''s fox identity was mentioned a lot. It wasn''t a secret that he was the fox master, but they didn''t get why everyone was speaking in such hostility about him.

    William just exined what his team didn''t know. He talked about how he ended up in an underground grand city, and now half of this city belonged to the guild.

    He also told them about the deal he made with Lara, about purchasing a piece ofnd here and expanding the guild.

    Of course, he kept the biggest secret about the interworld portal presence hidden from them.

    "Tsk! Why is it anywhere you go, trouble must happen? Huh?" Ibra rolled his eyes and said in a tired tone.

    "Don''t say it as if this was something bad. Everything is under control now, and we ended up with expansion of our guild and half of a grand city as well," William shook his head, "go and rest for now. We''ll live here for now."

    William was already led by Lara''s people towards the top floor. The entire ce looked ready to wee guests, with lots of rooms and even workers who were ready to serve their needs.

    William let his team retreat to rest, while he didn''t sleep. It was already night, but he got something to think about.

    "I wanted to solve this problem using these materials¡­ But now it seems it will be hard to secure them anytime soon," he was lost in thought. He knew dealing with Lara wasn''t enough to secure his needed materials.

    She told him that she''d prepare materials once per week per his request. And that meant he had to waste an entire week here if he wanted to get the materials he needed.

    He wanted to prepare something before leaving, some sort of a grand and deadly weapon. Yet he felt like he wouldn''t be able to secure enough materials right away. And that wasn''t all. Even if he epted such a one-week period, he knew this wasn''t even a sure thing.

 Chapter 580 Two Options

    ?

    From Lara''s words, the final word in such a deal wasn''t in her hands, but elders. So, he had to wait for the uing meeting with them, before he''d finalise his ns about this weapon.

    To not let himself get stuck with this, he decided to adapt another solution. It wasn''t a strong weapon like what he intended to make, but it was enough to cause trouble to the enemies they were going to faceter on.

    William didn''t stay up for long. He already had another idea that didn''t require lots of special materials. All the materials could be found in this tiny world, but he had to add little touches to make sure things wouldn''t go astray.

    The next day he fetched one of the team to purchase the materials he needed. He didn''t risk going out himself or send his vices whose faces were known by now to the forces in the city.

    The mess he created took five entire days from Lara to settle. In the end, Lara and her family had to use lots of assets in return to silence the enraged shouts of other forces.

    But that was just for the weak forces. For the other families, Lara''s family faced a tough situation. It wasn''t until William contacted her on the fourth day and got to know about her current dilemma.

    "Why overthink too much when you can make a fortune out of it?" heughed before telling her an idea that solved everything.

    As her family got ess to the Lost City, why wouldn''t they specify quotas and sell these to the other families? Like this, other families would have to pay extra fees to get ess again to the Lost City. besides such ess would be just temporary, for limited time. And the Vancouf family would just absorb such heat for now, before cutting all ess towards the Lost Cityter on.

    William didn''t fear for anyone to get ess to the interworld portal for now. He already left lots of formations around, and he''d just leave something behind for the one who''d take charge of his guild''s branch here.

    William knew he had to leave someone of his ck Tails team to lead and organise things here. And William prepared a special item for him. Using this item, the one leading the branch would gain total control over the formations in the Lost City.

    He nned to select just a normal member of his elite team. Any member in the team was enough to be a leader of this branch. But before he''d leave, he had to be sure that the member knew how to use this item.

    He also nned to leave behind lots of instructions, ns, resources, and above all forms, designs, and even tons of spirit crystals to make this branch skyrocket in no time.

    As for the Lost City, he would leave behind a schedule and ns for his team member left behind to activate the formations on them. Doing it this way would train everyone getting ess to the Lost City to just avoid the ces that could lead to the interworld portal. And if anyone grew curious, they''d end up dead in the end.

    William then spent an entire day and night preparing everything for his man. He already left the task of selecting him over to his vices and focused on taking care of the most urgent things.

    By the end of the fifth day, Lara finally sent him the good news. She and her family elders managed to settle things out with other forces. Of course, this cost them a lot, but it was still worth it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    ording to her, the elders and many high figures in the family were already thrilled by such changes. William learnt from her about that old dream. Many high figures dreamt about taking full control over the Lost City, something that he identally did.

    [So, are you ready now to meet us or what?] she ended her talk with him through the Bullets by asking this.

    "Oh, not now," he looked at all the scrolls he prepared, "let''s meet tomorrow at night. You go and rest, you deserve it."

    [Ok] she thought he was just worried about her, not knowing that he also was tired.

    "At least everything went as nned," William stretched his arms, knowing this was just a temporary solution for what yet toe. He wanted to not share this city with anyone. So, he got two choices in front of him, both were hard to achieve, both needed lots of time and preparations from him.

    He''d either end up fighting the Vancouf family, a choice that seemed the most logical one to happen. But he also knew how hard this ending would be.

    The Vancouf family was already strong in the city. After these changes, they''d grow far stronger, and would end up strengthening their hold on the city.

    So fighting with them meant fighting against the entire forces here. And that meant William had to strengthen his guild forces, bid his time for as long as it took, before shing with them.

    Or¡­ He could just add Lara into his team and guild, ending up absorbing the Vancouf family and make it the first subsidiary family to join his guild.

    Having such an end would be just perfect. He''d not just save himself and his guild a war that he didn''t want to start, save tons of lives and even the entire city from death and ruins, but he''d also gain a strong family to his guild.

    p¦Ánd¦Á---no¦Í?1,§ão§® Yet to do so, he had to n tons of things ahead. And on top of all, he had to see first how this family ran.

    He wasn''t the only smart one in the world. He expected that some sneaky elders and higher ups would have the same thoughts as him. And that meant their stance would appear in that meeting.

    He nned to use the uing meeting with those elders to get a glimpse on the current situation of Lara in the family.

 Chapter 581 The Meeting

    ?

    If William found a way to do it, he''d not hesitate to add the Vancouf family to his guild. But if he found them hot headed and filled with useless pride and arrogance of the past glories and such, then he''d have to lean towards the other option.

    Before meeting up with Lara and her family elders, William spent the past days preparing some sort of substance.

    "The world only knows potions, pills, and elixirs¡­ I introduced ointment, and now it''s time for the world to know about powder¡­"

    William was in his room, while a pot was in front of him. He already received the materials he asked for, ending up producing a substance using alchemy, one that looked like pink powder.

    He stored these powder in small ss bottles, sealed them quite well, while storing them inside his ring. "Using these with a wind-based master is going to leave a scary impact at the uing adventure," he evilly grinned, before he heard Lara''s voice.

    [We are heading to the floor lower than yours. Head down there in half an hour, and hopefully you have what it takes to convince everyone]

    "Don''t worry, I''ll be there in half an hour."

    William looked around. He just finished hisst concoction. He cleaned the entire ce, leaving not a single trace behind. Then he left his room and found someone waiting for him, a worker.

    "This way, sir," the worker said in utmost respect, seemingly the orders of Lara. William moved behind him, while his mind kept thinking about what he just passed through in the past days.

    It was a bit hectic actually. He came here just to pass through the portals and reach his destination. But he ended up meeting a team from that academy, learnt about the presence of a grand scheme against him, and ending up with the scary events he caused back at the Lost City.

    In William''s eyes, fate and good luck were on his side. He acquired dark gold cores atst. And that meant he could just pass through the shackles of silver grade and be a gold grade master.

    But he refrained from doing so right now. He knew when that''d happen, some sort of a test would befall him. As he was already causing enough havoc here, he didn''t want to turn this into some sort of a war or something.

    As he knew what he was going to experience, it just felt right to select the stage where he''d undergo his test. To him, it was better to take thatst step when assaulting that academy. It was just right to kill and spread havoc in the heart of hostile territory, not in such a ce where he wanted to control and ruleter on.

    "So¡­ You are the one who caused all these troubles for us in the past week?"

    William entered into a big hall, one that looked like it was designed for grand meetings or something. He expected to see at most thirty elders, but he saw a hundred or so. It was weird though, as this seemed more than any family could gather.

    The one who spoke was an old man, reminding William of Ben with his thick and long white hair. He had pure silver eyes and looked a bit serious.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I''m William, it''s an honour to meet you," William cupped his hands, acting as respectful as any youth in his age would do.

    "Stop it! We already heard tons of stories about you," the old elder suddenlyughed, acting more carefree than what William expected.

    "He is my grand uncle," Lara spoke up at this moment, pointing to a seat beside her before adding, "and he is one of your biggest fans."

    "My biggest fan?!" William never expected such a thing at all. He looked at the elder, and thetter responded with augh.

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "Of course, I am! A youth like you managed to flip the entire situation in this city simply like this. You are someone worthy of admiration and support. You don''t know how hard we tried, how many times we attempted to change everything, but failed. Who knows someone like you,ing from a faraway ce, will have the solution to all this, hahahaha! Isn''t it fantastic? Hahahaha!"

    William could tell this elder was honest and sincere in his words. And that made him have a better impression about this meeting.

    "Ahem, elder Stark, we need to first speak about what we are going to do with the Lost City," and when William felt he was going to have a good deal today, someone else spoke up, shattering such a feeling.

    He was another elder. From the tone and the look on his face, William felt he wasn''t that supportive of what he did.

    "Elder Larry, we already spoke about how to run the city," Stark scoffed, and that told William his earlier guesses about Larry were true, "we will divide the city into two halves, with one belonging to us and the other belongs to him."

    "That''s not true," Larry waved his arm, as if he wasn''t epting any of this, "we just spoke, but didn''t reach an agreement, right?"

    From the look over Stark''s face, William could tell he didn''t expect such a thing. But when William moved his eyes among the one hundred attending here, he noticed many nodding, agreeing on what Larry just said.

    "This¡­" even Lara felt weird and puzzled about this, "we already agreed¡­"

    "No," this time the voice who spoke wasn''t old like others. In fact, it was just as young as Lara''s, "our family elders just spoke and discussed the various possibilities, yet a final decision wasn''t made."

    "Richard¡­" Lara''s face changed slightly when she saw the face of this youth. He looked a bit simr to Lara, with lots of features shared between the two of them in William''s eyes.

    That told William that Richard must be a cousin or something to Lara. As things reached such a point, William decided to stand and watch in silence, enjoying this amusing show.

 Chapter 582 An Explosive Meeting

    ?

    "What does this even mean?" Lara returned to put a serious look on her face, "and why are you here in the first ce?"

    "I invited him," Larry said, "after all, you are going to leave the family and city in the uing days. We need someone capable, someone we all trust, so he can lead us when you are absent."

    "..." Lara didn''t speak, turned at once towards Stark. Thetter seemed a bit startled by what was going on here. And without the need to ask anything, it seemed a grand scheme was going on here.

    "It''s not against the family''s rules," Larry evilly smirked, "the elder council alongside the consultants can appoint a temporary leader when the leader is absent for any reason."

    "That''s why you invited the consultant members as well?!" Lara moved her eyes around, looking at all the faces who were attending this meeting as if they were just traitors.

    "Well¡­ If you decided to stay behind, not travel out while having lots of our portal cores, then none of this will continue," Richard said in a way that made William feel like he meant ill towards him.

    William gazed up and down at this young man. He didn''t recall meeting him before.

    "No, I''m going out," Lara looked at Richard in a challenging way, "and don''t get used to my seat. Once I''m back, you''ll crawl back to the hole you came from."

    "Hmph, good luck on that trip then," Richard said as if he was wishing bad luck to befall her or something. William from the side noticed something else.

    The way this young man spoke, the way he looked confident, gave William the impression that he knew something, something rted to a scheme or something.

    "Now, as we are all here, let''s speak about our top priority issue," Larry was on the side of Richard of course. And it seemed this elder arranged everything for Richard to rece Lara in her absence.

    William didn''t know why Lara didn''t speak or object to any of that. If it was him, then he''d not let the matter go without doing little problems. For example, she could look for another figure from the family, and make himpete with Richard. But Lara simply epted this trap without fighting back.

    Lara didn''t see any value in wasting her effort and time over this. She knew the rules of the family quite well. And once she''d return from this adventure, she''d reim her position as the head of the family.

    Unlike what William expected, she decided to bid her time and wait until she''d return back from that trip. Then she''d turn Richard''s future life into hell, paying back what he did here to her in many folds.

    "We already discussed this before," Lara might have closed an eye over Richard''s issue, as this followed the family''s rules after all. But against the persistent attempts of Larry to speak again about William''s offer and deal, she was ready to start a war even.

    "I already said¡­"

    "You got no power here, elder Larry," Lara crossed her arms, while the ones on her side from the elder''s circle gave Larry a ring look, "this issue is already decided in the elder''s council."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "But many elders¡­"

    "Many elders can suck it and close their mouths," elder Stark who kept silent all this time finally spoke up, "this isn''t an elder council, but a mix of elders and consultants. The decision was taken, and there is no way for anyone to argue about it."

    "Elder Stark this¡­"

    "I said suck it up! If anyone had an issue, why didn''t they speak up back then?" Elder Stark seemed to grow tired and sick of Larry''s hideous and underhanded methods. He was sure most of the elders agreed with excitement over William''s proposal before. But Larry must have done something to make them change their stance.

    Larry yed by the book in pushing Richard on such a stage before, but he wasn''t doing the same in the matter regarding William. Stark also yed by the book here and cut the path over Larry to have what he desired.

    "You have to listen to logic¡­ If the elders aren''t satisfied, then¡­"

    "Then they should only me themselves," Lara didn''t hide away and joined this heated debate between elders, "my family elders are strong and courageous. If they got an opinion before, they''d have said it out loud. Leaning to such methods only tarnishes our image, elder."

    "..."

    The entire ce started to get filled with lots of discussions. And before anyone would say another word, Lara turned to her grand uncle.

    "Here, we already signed this contract," Stark got what she meant by that look, took two scrolls out, handed them over to William.

    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om "You''ll get half of the city like us, share total control over it with us. At the same time, you have the privilege to purchase any number of materials we umted from that ce. You just need to file a request, and we''ll agree on it in one week. As for the products we''ll make by your forms and blueprints, you''ll get half of the entire profit. Profit will be calcted once per month, and the money will be delivered to you or to anyone you specify¡­"

    The elder kept speaking about the terms of this contract, while William read through its content. This was like the final blow prepared by Lara and elder Stark towards everyone on Larry''s and Richard''s side. Like this, there was no point in arguing anymore. And he now understood why these two acted this tough and confident before when facing the ims of Larry.

    William took his time in reading the contract, while taking a look from time to time towards Richard and Larry.

    It was clear that the elder council didn''t just agree on his demands, but they also formted everything in the form of this contract. This meeting was just a show to finalise everything, a show that showed much to the keen eyes of William.

    He was now sure this family wasn''t going to keep good ties with him as long as Lara wasn''t here. And for a reason, he felt like something bad was about to happen to her on this trip.

 Chapter 583 I Have Another Candidate, My Son!

    ?

    William''s thoughts drifted towards two sources of danger. It was either her enemies were confident in the ability of the dark masters at the Long Feather academy and the mysterious enemy behind them to take down him and her. Or perhaps there were some sort of assassins in the entourage she''d bring with her in this journey.

    William took his time checking the contract, even rereading it five times! He spent around half an hour, while in reality he was taking a better look at Larry and Richard.

    As he took much longer than expected, the two kept exchanging nces together. This confirmed lots of his doubts, as the look over their faces told him they dreamt about him raising issues about this contract.

    If that happened, then they could use the excuse of this to restart the entire elder council again. And even worse, if William left without signing a contract, then things would turn ugly for his side.

    The contract was indeed filled with all the terms he agreed before with Lara, even the use regarding purchasing a piece ofnd and establishing a guild branch was mentioned as well.

    "It''s all looking good," William got eyed weirdly by Lara and many elders who were on her side when he took a long time inspecting the contract, "and here is my signature and my spirit power stamp."

    As he did that, he handed one contract over to elder Stark. He didn''t hand it to Lara, but to Stark in particr. And that made thetter issue a deep look towards William, getting the hidden meaning behind his subtle move.

    "I''ll keep it safe," Stark said, "and in one day, I''ll make sure for this contract to be registered in the city''s general affair department."

    "Great," William sped his hands before adding, "I''m d this issue got resolved nicely. In fact, I hate to see other good masters fall into the hands of monsters thanks to my formations."

    "As if you''ll stick around all the time to guard this ce or something," Richard snorted, and that was exactly what William wanted him to say.

    "Oh, don''t worry about that," William evilly grinned, "I''m going to leave a control key for my guild branch leader. Using it, he''ll gain total control over the formations I left there. And just to not miss such a trivial point, I left tons of formations around the Lost City. So, if any danger appeared or someone tried to act funny, just notify my man and he''ll handle everything."

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel William''s words were clear, he was directly threatening Richard and those standing behind him. He didn''t expose such a card to them just to scare them off. He also wanted to show this family that even with their grand numbers and long heritage in this ce, it meant nothing against him.

    The smart ones realised this point and couldn''t help but exchange worried looks. William could easily tell how these folks had dirty ns towards his guild branch and his right in that city. And now they realised their dreams of getting total control over the city when he''d be away got shattered like fragile ss.

    William even suspected that Richard and those behind him had ns to dispose of him when he was out in that adventure. In their eyes, he was the one controlling the scary formations down at the Lost City. And killing him would free them from such a headache, providing total control over the Lost City to them.

    If William left a control key to someone here, then they had to take this person down first. Yet even if they did that, there was no guarantee that William wouldn''t make other keys, entrusting them with other members in his guild.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    For a second there, William noticed how depressed and surprised Richard was. Then in the next second, the look over this young man''s face changed to be filled with evilness and viciousness.

    It all happened in a sh, but William noticed this. He could tell how deep this young man''s enmity was towards him and his guild. And that was something weird in William''s eyes. He never interacted with Richard before, never saw him before this moment.

    Yet it felt like he was looking at an old enemy of his. In response to such enmity, William simply raised one arm, as if he was hitting a fly or something, yet it was like he was inviting Richard to do his best and try to take him down.

    "It''s settled then," Lara chuckled, while not putting anything Richard showed in her mind, "now it''s time to select the temporary leader of our family. Is it going to be Richard?"

    She stressed over the temporary word. Before anyone would say anything, Stark suddenly said:

    "I got another candidate, my son, Dorfis."

    "..."

    Just before Richard and others would celebrate this small sess in their ns, Stark poured a bucket of cold water over their heads.

    "Ahem¡­" elder Larry cleared up his throat, trying to buy his side time to prepare counter moves towards Stark''s sudden words, "at first, William has to leave. This matter is strictly limited to the higher ups in our family."

    "This¡­" Lara was about to object, but with a simple wave from William''s hand she swallowed what she wanted to say.

    "Send me the licence of that piece ofnd and information about impacts specified in construction business when you are done," William left while saying these words to Lara. and thetter nodded.

    William walked back towards his team''s ce. In his mind, he knew the future couple of months would be quite stressful to him and his guild.

    He thought by having Lara''s support, things would roll nicely for his newly established branch. But it seemed lots of greedy folks were inside the Vancouf family.

    He nned to move the next day after this meeting was done. He already prepared everything for his uing adventure, onlycking finalising this deal and then moving out.

 Chapter 584 Tough Times

    ?

    But now things had changed. He gathered up his vices, informed them about the change in ns. He briefed them about what happened in the meeting, and his viewpoint about the uing future of the guild branch here.

    "So, we are going to wait here for another week?" Ibra looked at everyone and could see surprise covering up their faces as well, "we thought¡­"

    "We have to stay behind," William also imagined himself going out tomorrow with everyone. But he had to stay behind and arrange the new branch of his guild.

    The task that he took as being easy and simple just gotplicated. "We are going to do this¡­ First go out and make a survey. See what other impacts and forces here offer to their members. Also take a tour around the ces with secondary professions, check on their wages and proficiency. Purchase few of their products as well¡­"

    William started to spread his orders. If he got the ability to move around, he''d do many of these himself. But he was now a wanted figure in the entire city by many forces. And he had toy low for now.

    So he entrusted everything to his vices and ck Tails team. Everyone went around to start doing their tasks, while William remained in his room thinking about the next step he had to take.

    Back at the Scorching Lands fort, he used the high pay offer to lure many masters to his guild. Not to mention he made a brilliant performance back at the Fox Lair andter on in the big war.

    But here he started on the wrong foot. He stirred up the enmity of everyone in the city, except for the Vancouf family, against him. Even inside that family, not all of their members were on his side.

    "Using just wealth won''t do¡­ I need to think of a way to lure many masters here¡­" William stayed for hours contemting this problem. But he knew hecked lots of knowledge about this ce to find a good idea.

    "I have to wait for Lara to finish that meeting," he decided to wait. And just as he waited, he kept making more of the substance he nned to use in the next adventure of his.

    Lara didn''t show up until the next morning. It seemed the meeting went crazy by the sh between the two elders.

    "Hmm¡­ So that elder Larry managed to pass Richard as the temporary leader in the end," William was in his room, with Lara sitting in front of him. Just from the look over her face, it was clear how deeply exhausted she was.

    "We tried everything, but for a reason that elder was adamant in making that jerk the temporary leader," she didn''t need to hold back her emotions and thoughts anymore and spoke in a tone that was filled with lots of hatred.

    "What type of a man this Richard is?" William could tell how dirty Larry was. But he felt like the real threat wasing from Richard, not Larry.

    Richard gave everyone the impression that he was peaceful and weak, just a puppet in the hands of others. Such people were usually the most toxic and dangerous out there in the world, the hardest to deal with. And something told William that this master was going to be a tough enemy to crush.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Well¡­ He wasn''t in the top list of names whopeted with me at the end for the position of the leader," she paused, before sighing, "in fact, he didn''t show any remarkable features or anything special in the past. I can''t believe Larry selected him to be the temporary leader."

    "Hmm¡­" William knew he didn''t get much about this young man from what she said. In his eyes, this snake hid himself quite deep, even tricking those who should have known him the best, "did you interact with him before? He is part of your family, right?"

    "He was an easy-going kid, one who can befriend everyone and not have any conflicts with any," she sighed, "just selecting him is something weird. Larry is someone who kept standing against me since I started to run for the leadership of the family. Yet there are other names who can rival or threaten me, not Richard."

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "The most dangerous person is always the one you least expect to be," William paused, "so in brief, you only have a good impression about him¡­ That''s weird, right?"

    "Or Larry made a grave mistake in selecting him."

    "I believe he is more capable, far more dangerous, than what you take him for. Watch out for him anyway. As for Larry¡­ I believe he is just a fake front," William didn''t share her point of view about Richard, "I want to ask you about this city, I need to know lots of information about it."

    "What do you need to know? Ah, before I forget, here is the licence of your ce," she handed a scroll over, and William saw a ce that was ten kilometres in space, "you have to pay ten billion crystals for it."

    "Sure," William wasn''tcking anything regarding wealth. He paid her the fees, before listening to what she had to say about this city.

    After speaking with her for three hours, he learned nothing special about this ce than what he already knew. This city was just like the Scorching Lands fort, mainly providing services for those passing by masters.

    The most important feature about this ce was the portal zone. Aside from this, nothing stood out.

    "It seems it will grow slowly," after he said goodbye to Lara, he sat in his room while recalling everything she mentioned before.

    This ce didn''tck in terms of wealth, connections, resources, and even products. Be it potions, elixirs, and gears¡­ They were avable inrge quantities and high grades.

    William knew his special products were able to cause a stir here. But that would take a long time.

 Chapter 585 A Brilliant Idea

    ?

    From his experience with his guild, it took at least one year for the name of the Fox guild and its products to be renown far and wide.

    William felt like he didn''t get such a long time to waste here. From what Lara said, he learnt how grand the wealth Larry paid for other elders and consultants to select Richard.

    And that told him this move from Larry and Richard wasn''t just to appoint a temporary leader. It felt like they were buying the permanent seat of the leader of the family.

    "I''ll leave this forter then," as he had no viable solution, he decided to wait and let things go in their natural way. He ryed the intel he got about the impacts working in construction business over to his vices, asking to start recruiting lots of them.

    He wanted to get done with the building process in less than a week. As for the generalyout of his guild, he decided to do it like what he did back at the guild ce at the Scorching Lands city.

    William stayed in the Vancouf family ce for the next five days. During which, his newly acquired territory was being remodelled, with a grand construction project happening there.

    At the same time, William got a lot of news about the hostile movement of many forces inside the city against him. It happened as he expected. The moment news spread about him establishing a branch of his guild and the negative propaganda and fierce oppression started.

    These forces didn''t just stop at spreading false rumours about him. They even appointed many of their people to surround his guild branch, stopping anyone from entering the new guild branchnd without harassing them.

    Inside the city, rules applied and prevented anyone from fighting among themselves. William had no other way to handle this situation as the other forces yed by the rules, only harassed thoseing in and out from his guild branch with words.

    But it was enough to create lots of pressure over anyone working for him. If this continued, William knew the chances of him recruiting lots of masters would be quite low.

    William got nothing in his power to do anything against all this but to wait until the entire process of construction would end. He already got examples of the treatment other forces offered to their people. But that didn''t help that much.

    As he already foresaw it, once the word spread about his guild branch getting established, the terms these forces offered to their people got tripled. Many forces even raised these terms by five folds, making it quite hard topete with them in terms of wealth.

    William knew if he entered into a battle of deep pockets with them, he''d suffer a lot in the end. Besides, not many would try toe and join him.

    "It shall be ready by tomorrow," William was now standing on a balcony at the highest floor in this building. Lara made sure to evacuate the entire floor for him, and he appreciated such a move.

    It was the fifth day, and the construction process was already on the verge ofpletion. William spent another ten billion crystals to make things that would take a month to end in mere five days or so.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "My name is like shining gold in any ce but here¡­ What a bunch of bastards they are!" William was growing enraged by the daring actions the different forces of the city did in the past days.

    They didn''t limit their actions at trying to stop anyone from joining the guild, they even started to spread rumours about an affair between him and Lara. he didn''t know if such rumours originated from the various forces or from inside the Vancouf family itself. But such rumours left a shadow over Lara.

    She wasn''t acting herself in the past couple of days. She didn''t speak about any of these rumours, and William got to hear about them just yesterday from his team.

    He didn''t have anything to say about this matter. He just decided to do the same like Lara, ignoring speaking about all this.

    As he stood on that balcony, he overlooked the lots of portals around. The ce was like an airport, with many masters shing either in or out,ing into this ce or leaving it.

    "Wait a minute¡­ I was thinking wrongly about all this from the start¡­" Just as he was lost in thoughts, watching the portals around and the peopleing and going, his mind suddenly shone with a brilliant idea.

    William couldn''t believe how he missed such a simple and yet brilliantly effective idea. "I want to ask you about something¡­ You have a thing like a VIP membership for using these portals, right?"

    Any ce in the world, any business ce, got something like that offered to his privileged customers. William held Lara''s Bullet tightly with both hands, as if he was waiting for the most important response in his life.

    [Oh sure, we got different memberships for individuals and forces. But why?] she seemed to be in the middle of a meeting or something, seemingly not getting what he really wanted to do by asking this.

    "Well, how much will it cost for my guild then? And how much privilege can we get?"

    [That¡­ There are lots of systems to satisfy different needs. Tell me what you have in mind, and I can tell you what''s suitable for you]

    "I want something that will grant my guild members free ess through your portals, no strings attached, no limits enforced¡­ Is there anything like this?" This was William''s brilliant idea.

    William''s name was famous at many ces in the continent. All this time he struggled to try and think of a way to recruit masters from this city. Yet he was greatly limiting his options by thinking this way.

    This city might seem like the Scorching Lands fort in many ways, but it had one single and grand difference than the fort. And that difference was these portals!

 Chapter 586 The VIP Membership

    ?

    Even if the fort was in the way of many trading routes, masters and merchants needed lots of time to travel there.

    But here? This city was connected by these portals to lots of ces. Be it far or near, any ce connected to here would be considered as the backyard of this city.

    William already knew how expensive the tickets of using portals were. He bought a set of tickets for his two hundred team members, changed the date once, and then Lara decided to put his tickets on hold until he''d make up his mind about the date of moving out.

    Putting all this together would make everything possible. As his name was known at many ces but here, then why would he just limit recruiting masters to just this city?

    The main issue of not belonging here would be easily solved by the membership he was looking for. Not to mention this would serve as a grand tempting part for anyone hearing about the recruitment news.

    As for wages, he could easilypete with any force anywhere else but not here. And so, with such a solution, all his problems would be solved, onlycking one thing: Lara''s answer.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® [Well¡­ There is indeed something like that. But¡­] she paused, and seemingly there was a catch for such an offer.

    "Just tell me how much this will cost me," William knew only the extremely high price would be the thing to stop her from telling him everything.

    [You have to pay five hundred billion crystals per a year] she sent such scary figure, [There isn''t a monthly payment]

    "That''s¡­ Indeed quite a scary price," William sighed. He got hundreds of billions from hisst deal with her at the Spar Arena. But he already spent a lot in the past days to purchase thend and build it.

    [I know, that''s why in our entire history, only five times such membership was issued]

    "Hmm¡­ Tell me, if I paid for it, I can allow any number of my guild to use your portals and move towards any ce? Without any limitations?"

    [What? Don''t tell me you are willing to pay for this! You do know you don''t have enough crystals to pay for such membership, right? Don''t tell me you are nning to use the uing profit to pay for this¡­ I''m sorry but I have no power in epting this. You have to pay the entire fees in advance, fully and without any instalment. If anyone can pay on several times, then many would have already taken advantage of this offer]

    William got what she was thinking about. But who said he only got wealth from the deal he made with her? He got a guild running for years, with a very sessful business that flooded tons of crystals to his pockets.

    He didn''t spend much during the past years, only spending on his guild needs. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I will pay the price in advance," and against what she expected, William added, e here now and you''ll get the entire payment for it. Prepare the membership right away, I''m going to start using it from today."

    [This¡­ Are you sure? Once done, you can''t ask for a refund!]

    "Refund? No way! I won''t even speak with you about this at all!" Williamughed, before putting away her Bullet. He turned his eyes towards the portal zone around, before issuing a loudugh out of his excitement.

    He was deeply cornered with this problem during the past few days. And it was just right to feel such excitement when he got a way out.

    "There is a task you have to do for me¡­" and as he dealt with Lara''s issue, he started to spread out his new orders to his team.

    When his vices heard what he wanted them to do, they couldn''t believe themselves at first. The team already stayed in this city for long, long enough to know how much it''d cost anyone to repeatedly use the portals.

    And now their leader just ordered them to prepare and get ready to leave, use the portals to go to any ce they could reach. William decided to set the wage system based on the highest paid wages here. Thest thing he''d want to see was for his newly recruited masters to leave him and join other ces thanks to their better treatment.

    William reassured them, told them to be ready at the portal area in two hours. He also spoke with his vices about how they''d start luring masters to their side.

    First, they''d use the slightly famous name of his guild. Then they''d use the high wage rates of his guild. And thest piece would be the privilege to use the portals any number of times, go anywhere, as long as the masters doing this won''t stay much longer than one week away from the guild.

    William ced the general rules about how things were going to be in this branch. He also stressed that they should attract many secondary profession masters as well. He wanted to repeat the same system he followed back at the first guild branch at the Scorching Lands city.

    When they asked about the difference in treatment between this branch and the one back at the Scorching Lands city, William simply said he''d raise the wages once they''d finished this adventure.

    He wouldn''t let such a discrepancy between the guild''s branches happen. At this moment, William just felt lucky to have such deep pockets, or else such a solution wouldn''t be possible.

    He didn''t see this as a lost investment. In his eyes, he was going to reap lots of benefits in theter years. Not to mention he''d gain tons of masters, enough to help him seize the Lost Cityter on, and even take full control over this city on the surface as well.

    "You really n to do it!" In less than twenty minutes, Lara arrived at his room.

 Chapter 587 Preparing The Promised Blueprints And Formulas

    ?

    The first thing Lara asked for was to see the crystals he''d pay to get this membership. And when she received the rings, inspected their contents, she couldn''t help but feel surprised by this.

    Till the moment she inspected the rings, she was thinking he was making up all of this.

    "I''m not that poor," William calmly said, "where is my membership?"

    "Here," she gave him a big red crystal, one that looked like a gem or something.

    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om "This is¡­" William was puzzled by this crystal. It was enough to be the size of a human''s head. And when he held it, he felt how heavy it was. Not only that, he also felt vibrations that came from something deep within this crystal.

    "This is the source crystal," Lara pointed at the crystal, "using this, you can charge any normal spirit crystal and let it hold its aura. Like this, anyone holding this crystal will be able to pass through the portal area without paying anything. However¡­ I have to tell you this, my workers will take these crystals away so¡­"

    "I get it," William took out one spirit crystal and tested what she said. As she said, the crystal turned red after touching the source crystal. The entire process didn''t take one second, and that made him more reassured to prepare the needed crystals for his team before they''d arrive. "Like this, anyone has to get two crystals for a trip, right?"

    "That''s the theory," she nodded, "now you are the sixth power in our entire history to have this privilege. Tell me, what do you want to do with this? What do you have in mind?"

    "You''ll see," William evilly grinned, "I promise that you''ll be surprised."

    William didn''t dy in his actions. After he saw Lara away, without giving her any satisfying answer, he weed his vices after an hour and half.

    They were all excited by this n. When William spoke with them first, they didn''t totally get everything about what he wanted to do. But when they discussed things among themselves, they got to see the limitless potential of this n.

    After William revised what they were going to do, he sent them out after charging up tons of crystals using the source crystal.

    Charging up many crystals at once wasn''t an issue. Just burying the source crystal with lots of normal crystals, letting them touch it for one second was enough to charge hundreds of them in one go.

    William knew how extremely valuable this source crystal was. So he didn''t intend to leave it behind, didn''t intend to entrust it with any of his vices but himself.

    As for the millions of crystals he made and distributed among his vices, they were for the ones they''d invite to join the guild. Once anyone signed the standard guild contract, he''d instantly enjoy such privilege right on the spot. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William''s orders weren''t to just send his vices, but the entire team out. Every single one picked a portal and went to a ce there. Their task was to spread the word over these regions, stay there for a week, before finally returning with everyone who epted to join.

    He also stressed to let them spread the word. Once per month, he''d send out his envoys to these ces to recruit. So whoever didn''t catch this chance now, could wait for the next visit of his envoys.

    If anyone grew anxious and wanted to join them right away, they could simply buy a ticket ande here to join the guild at this city''s branch.

    William watched his team walk away, while he imagined the shocking scene that would happen in one week or so. William knew after this; his guild would have a strong ce in this city.

    "Time to maximise my profit," William knew his expenses wouldn''t decrease or stop at all by the establishment of his guild branch. Once tons of masters joined, they''d need lots of things and supplies.

    It was still too early for his secondary profession department to start covering up the guild''s needs. As he spent too much already, it was time for him to secure lots of crystals in the near future.

    That was by providing Lara and her family with lots of forms and blueprints, letting them start working on them. These were the promised products using the materials the family got from the Lost City. And it was supposed to get sold at high prices.

    On the other hand, he also decided to take this one-week period and start building the thing he wanted before and couldn''t. He got ess to purchase any materials he needed from the Vancouf family, in any quantity he wanted.

    "This one-week dy before delivering the materials is something annoying," William knew he got limited by this condition. But rules were meant to be broken, right?

    The first thing William did was to sit inside his room and start writing and drawing lots of things. He had two options to get the materials he needed fast. And both ways needed to deliver these product designs to Lara first.

    It took him three days to finish preparing everything. During which, he already sent a request to Lara with all the materials he needed. He didn''t know their names, neither did she. So, he just had to draw these materials out, and ask for specific amounts per each material.

    She promised him to try and prepare these materials much earlier than the one-week period. But he got the feeling she wouldn''t make such a thing. He felt like she was losing control over the family.

    Just from the reactions and attitude of the workers in the family who he asionally met was enough to make him feel so. It was like they were cheering for the new king, and many got the impression that Richard wasn''t going to leave this seat easily.

    William avoided mentioning such a topic when he spoke with Lara. But he was sure she must have noticed something.

 Chapter 588 Showing Her Weak Side

    ?

    "I''m ready," once hepleted preparing all the needed scrolls, he went to eat while waiting for Lara to arrive.

    "Did you make them?" As she arrived here, she seemed more impatient than what William even thought. He already told her toe to get the scrolls of the promised products.

    "What? Did you think I''ll take forever to prepare these scrolls or what?" William rolled his eyes before looking at her eyes for a moment, "what''s up? Why do you look like you are this desperate?"

    "Sigh!" in one rare moment she showed a moment of weakness. William saw not the strong looking young woman, the one who used to rule everyone in the family before. In front of him, an image of a weak and normal young girl appeared.

    "What''s there? Just speak and I''ll support you," William couldn''t help but move closer, look deeper into her eyes. Just from such close distance, and seeing his serious and deep eyes, made all her struggle and resistance fall apart.

    Without feeling it, a tear finally found its way towards her cheeks, then lots more appeared like a dam got broken or something.

    William saw a shattered image of her, something that he never expected to see before or even thought she''d show in front of him.

    "Come here," at this moment, William didn''t care about any rumour going on about the two, moved his arms and held her closer, embracing her within his arms, and hugged her deeply.

    The moment that happened, the moment she felt his masculine warmth, she couldn''t help herself anymore. Instead of just silently releasing a few tears, she started to weep and cry, like any normal girl in her current position.

    In a stuttered tone, she started to tell him about what went on in the family in the past few days. To her, it felt like she was living in a different ce than the one she grew up at. It felt like she was at a hostile ce, at a ce that looked at her like she was already dead.

    She even had part of her supporters abandon her, joining the camp of Larry and Richard. William kept his silence while listening in attention to her words, not feeling a single speck of surprise or shock or anything.

    He already expected such a result a long time ago, since the moment he spotted Richard and Larry in that meeting. But least to his knowledge that this matter was much moreplicated than that. He didn''t know that there was someone else interfering in all this mess, someone he already had history with.

    "Don''t worry yourself about any of them," William paused, knowing there was a perfect solution for all this, "why not keep yourself here, protect the fort, while I''ll go on my own way?"

    "No way!" she pushed her head away from him, looked in defiance and challenge towards him. At this moment, William saw the old fierce image of that lioness in front of him.

    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om She wanted to keep her ce as the leader of the family while taking the hardest route ever. She wanted to go out and adventure the world with Wiim like she nned before. And then she''d return safely and take back what belonged initially to her.

    The idea of changing her ns and sumbing to the will and schemes of her enemies was just too irritating to her. She would prefer to face such a challenge head on rather than lower her head and let the storm pass.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William could only sigh in front of such eyes and determination. He felt how stubborn she was in front of such a problem. "Fine, but during that adventure, you have to listen to everything I''ll say."

    "Sure, count on me," she said lightly, not grasping the hidden meaning behind his words.

    "I mean if at some point I gave you the order to retreat, you''ll have to execute it, ok?"

    "This¡­" she would agree if he intended to run away with her. Without her knowing it, she grew used to being by his side, grew used to the miracles and disasters he kept causing one after another.

    In fact part of this attachment subconsciously came from her tight and delicate situation. She got the feeling that she needed a miracle to see everything she wanted through. And by his side, she felt she could see such a miracle happen.

    "You have to listen to my orders to the letter, no matter what, got it?" William kept his serious look over his face, gazing at her eyes without even blinking.

    And after a few seconds, she sighed. "Fine! But in return for this, promise me you won''t die, ok?"

    "I didn''t go through all this to just die early," William meant something entirely different than what she got. But in the end, she nodded in satisfaction, while a faint smile appeared on her face.

    "Now down to business," she wiped her tears, and couldn''t help but embarrassedly chuckle, "don''t get used to this¡­ I''m usually strong."

    "I know," he nodded, "but who said crying is a sign of weakness? It''s sometimes the precursor for something grand and majestic, right?"

    "Yes," she nodded while she felt more warmth inside her heart. At this moment, if any of the girls around William were here, they''d have recognised that look on her face.

    It was the same look of admiration, the look that each and every girl on his side experienced once before, when they decided to get closer to him at all costs.

    "You do know that these things just came in time?" she said while examining therge number of scrolls William prepared for her. He kept taking one batch after another, and the faint smile over her face just grew wider.

    "For real?" He looked at her and she nodded.

    "A big part of the resistance I''m facing back at the family is rted partially to you," she shrugged, "that jerk¡­ He is rallying everyone using the excuse that you managed to fool me or something. But using these¡­ Showing them all these marvellous products, they''ll all shut up!"

 Chapter 589 Lets Attack Him

    ?

    "Speaking about that¡­" William suddenly thought of something, "I believe it''s not just right to leave all these behind, right? You are going out, and the entire family is turning against you."

    "What do you mean?" She looked at him in puzzlement, while she felt he was about to say something unexpected.

    "You should link all this to you, not to the family," William paused, before an evil smile appeared on his face, "they believed the circting rumours, or perhaps they were the ones behind them¡­ Anyway, you shall link these innovations with you, take them with you when you go out. Don''t leave them to that bastard when you leave, got it?"

    "This¡­"

    "Like this, you''ll show to everyone who is the boss, right?" he winked, and she got what he meant.

    "Ok," she nodded after a long minute of contemtion, "let this jerk dream about having all of these products when I''m away."

    "Speaking about that," William finally returned to the goal he did all this for in the first ce, "I know we got a contract and such, but can''t you make an exception and give me the materials I need right away?"

    "This¡­ You do know how everyone is focusing on me and you right now. If I tried to do it, the entire thing would backfire at us."

    "What if I said I got a way to solve this?" William didn''t feel disheartened or something about such subtle rejection from her. He already knew about the pressure she was experiencing, and expected she wasn''t going to simply agree on this proposal.

    "Like what?"

    "I own half of the city, that Lost City, right?" William winked, and for a moment there she didn''t get his meaning. It wasn''t until he made a motion with his hands, like he was holding a box or something.

    "Oh, that¡­ That''s nice! I can do it!" she finally got what he meant, and her eyes shone in excitement before nodding, "give me till the night. And then all the materials you need will be delivered to you and even more."

    "No need to bring me other materials," William knew what she meant, "just rece any extras from your storage and bring me more of the materials I need."

    "Ok," she paused, "but may I ask what you need them for?"

    "You''llter see," William didn''t like exining himself, not when the one asking was going to experience the true might of the weaponter on, "anyway, return back and make arrangements. Don''t let these scrolls fall in the hands of any of those belonging to that bastard''s faction, to avoid copying them."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "He will copy part, that''s something I can''t prevent," she sighed, "but don''t worry, I''ll try to limit the amount of the copied scrolls, ok?"

    "Good luck then," William saw her away, then returned to his room while thinking about everything he learnt about.

    "Why does this ce smell the same as the old academy of mine?" he had a weird feeling, like there was something inmon between this ce and the Aspire academy. In fact, his hunch was correct. There was indeed some sort of connection between the two, yet he didn''t realise it yet.

    William''s answer to the problem of the delivery date of his materials was quite simple. He''d not take materials from the Vancouf family directly. In that city, materials would appear out of thin air from time to time. As hecked manpower to spread down there for now, William decided to let Lara collect the materials for him. After all, her men were filling the entire city inrge numbers.

    In return for half of the gains, he''d take all the materials he needed in any quantity she could provide. If there were other materials, she''d just switch them with the same set of materials he needed.

    "I can at most control three of them right now with my current power¡­ But it''s not bad to have more, right?" William learnt his lesson quite well, the lesson of having little flying knives before while his power kept rising up.

    So he decided to make more copies of this weapon, just in case his power would grow in this adventure. And that was something he knew he''d achieve.

    As he knew Lara wouldn''t fail him, he knew the worst that''d happen was for the other faction to secure part of the materials from their people in that city. Yet that wouldn''t greatly affect anything at all. In the end, Lara could just get materials from the family vault and give them to him on the premise that he got his share that the other faction got.

    So, he''d end up with his set materials, one way or another. The most important thing about this was that he wouldn''t need to pay a single crystal for these and wouldn''t wait for a week as mentioned in the contract.

    As he secured his set of materials, he started to think seriously about how to make the weapon. "I need other materials and stuff¡­" he was lost in thought, before deciding to go out personally this time.

    The things he wanted were allmon and cheap, but he didn''t have anyone right now from his team in the city to buy them for him. Everyone was sent out there to recruit new members to join the new branch. He didn''t want to wait for them to return and didn''t want to waste more time like this.

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel Just as he went out of the main building here, he vanished fast inside the ocean of people who flooded this ce. But as he felt like no one would notice him, three people were keenly following his moves.

    "He is out of his hole atst," Richard muttered, "it''s time to try and take him down."

    "Isn''t it a bit rash?" Larry seemed a bit hesitant, "he is going to meet his end out of here. Why should we risk such a move now?"

 Chapter 590 A Big Move Against William

    ?

    "I believe giving his head to our friend here is going to be nice, right?" Richard turned to the third man standing behind him. He was a young man, around twenty years old or something.

    If William was here, he''d get shocked to recognise this man on the spot. It was Rick, the Aspire academy''s headmaster''s grandson, Sara''s brother, the one who William marked as a traitor.

    "I''m sure my master will be pleased with such a gift," unlike what Larry expected, Rick just agreed with Richard''s idea.

    "See? Let''s proceed then," Richard showed a vicious expression on his face, "I want to see her face when her biggest support is gone."

    "This kid is nothing," Larry was still not feeling like Richard. And that brought him a deep look from thetter.

    Anyone watching these two right now would see how truly their rtionship was. Richard wasn''t the puppet Larry brought on stage to control as everyone guessed. In fact, the puppet was Larry.

    "Don''t underestimate him," Rick suddenly said, "I saw how he can make the impossible happen. Don''t lower your guard, and don''t send weaklings to take him down. Make sure he''ll be killed once and for all."

    The tone and attitude Rick spoke with proved how deep his hatred ran towards William. And he got the right to feel so. After all, and after he betrayed his family, his grandfather, and the academy, he ended up losing everything five years ago.

    The big war that William started ended up engulfing everything rted to dark forces in that region. Rick lost his future, and with it he had to find another dark force to follow.

    Luckily for him, and in the middle of all this chaos and nk future, Rick found a dark master rallying everyone to him. He joined the new dark master. Many also joined this dark master, like lots of scattered dark forces who managed to survive the purge, in addition to the lots of traitors, the same as Rick.

    Thetter came here with one single mission, to turn William''s life into hell. This was the desire of his new master, the same desire of Rick as well.

    William didn''t get that he was eyed by an old enemy, one that he never thought he''de looking for him now. Since that great war, Rick vanished from the academy, didn''t show his face again to his grandfather.

    Lucas thought his grandson died in this war, and that made him a bit depressed. This was also part of his increasing demands for Sara toe and follow him to the new academy. He wasn''t the headmaster there anymore, but Sara was the sole heir to his family right now.

    William walked in the streets of the city without realising anything about the storming at him. He walked towards the market while thinking about the time he went there before.

    His past visit there ended up with him stumbling across the Lost City. And without knowing it, he was also going to experience something grand in the market soon enough.

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "I want ck Bamboo wood sticks, half a ton if you can get me that."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I need the Silver Green Antical liquid, around one hundred barrels if you have them."

    "I need Tigsten Brown Thorn ores, formed on the shape of rods¡­"

    William didn''t need to look for any special shop or stall like the previous time. He just walked around and kept ordering what he needed in big amounts. The weapon he wanted to make was something strong, but it needed lots of materials andplicated steps to make.

    William didn''t make any of such weapons himself before but watched a friend making these before. He still recalled what his friend did, and he was confident in his ability to mimic such a process perfectly fine.

    In the outer world, such weapons might not be considered strong. However in this tiny world, and when using materials that came from the outer world, then it''d be deadly.

    William was sure that all the materials appearing in the Lost City came from the outer world. It wasn''t just because he saw them before, but also because of the presence of the interworld portal underneath the city.

    These materials came from spatial cracks, ones that connected this tiny world with the outer one. That was why William was sure any of the recipes or blueprints he gave to Lara would yield amazing and shocking results.

    To him, he knew the weapons he was going to make would all be quite scary and formidable.

    William kept walking in the market, purchasing tons of materials. Soon news spread about someone who looked exactly like the one rumoured to be behind the current disaster affecting the city.

    The merchants didn''t care about any of that. They only cared about crystals, and William got tons of them. As for other forces and families, they started to rally their formidable masters, aiming to break thews of the city and try to take William down.

    It wasn''t just Richard''s assassins who wereing to hit William, but at least the forces of forty something forces in the entire city were heading towards him as well.

    Such a grand movement was indeed easy to attract attention. And soon news spread to Lara, who was having her best day in a long time.

    The scrolls William gave to her worked like magic. She insisted that only people from her faction would read these scrolls in detail and make everything mentioned there.

    When othersined, she just told them to wait for the final products, and then they could purchase them at a big discount. Like this, they could examine the results of these scrolls, not the scrolls themselves. As for getting a glimpse at the scrolls, they''d better reach the seven heavens easier than doing that.

    Of course, she knew part of her faction would sell the content in the scrolls they read. Yet it was also a good chance for her to filter her side, learn about where the allegiance of those surrounding her trulyid.

 Chapter 591 Run!

    ?

    Making such products didn''t take long, and the end result was indeed quite shocking. No one, be it in her faction or in the opposing faction, no one couldn''t prevent expressing their admiration towards these marvellous products.

    She felt like she was getting control over the entire family back. And just before she''d celebrate such an important victory, she got the news about the movements of most of the forces in the city against William.

    [Don''t tell me you are in the market!] The first thing she did was to take out William''s Message Paper and send this urgent message over.

    "I''m there right now. Why? Do you need something from here?" not realising that a disaster was approaching him, William responded in such a carefree way.

    [Run!] but the next thing that he heard was for her urgent and scared scream, [Lots of dark gold masters, even at the pinnacle, are heading towards you right now! Run! Run for your life!]

    "Sh*t! Where are they now?"

    "Consider them at your doorsteps! No time for that, just run!"

    William realised atst how bad his situation was. He could fight early-stage dark gold masters, but not those at high stage and at the pinnacle.

    He didn''t even think about asking for help from her. From the sheer number of forces moving against him, he knew this was a sizable force that no one could stop.

    And listening to her advice wasn''t going to help at all. If they were on the move, then they were already surrounding this ce. Running away wouldn''t help, and that was why he thought about something different.

    "There is just one way to save the day," William didn''t hesitate for one second. He grabbed the goods he just bought. Stored them in his rings, paid lots of crystals without even counting any, turned towards one direction, and started to run towards it. He was running like his life depended entirely on this. And it truly was.

    Just less than a minute, he spotted many shadows moving fast in the far distance. They seemed to have mistaken his intentions, seemingly moving to surround the entire market exits, fearing he might run away from here. But that wasn''t what he really intended to do.

    In fact, he went directly towards the depths of this ce. As he ran there, these shadows started to close in the, getting closer to him, before they finally reached the heart of the market.

    "What are you talking about? He simply vanished in thin air?!!" away from here, and in a balcony of the main building of the Vancouf family at the portal area, Richard stood by Rick''s side, while watching the face of Larry getting red out of rage.

    "What happened?" Richard calmly asked, acting more as a seasoned leader than a puppet.

    "They surrounded the entire market, and he went to the heart of it. But when they went there, looked for him, they found no trace of that kid anywhere at all!" Larry was more enraged than surprised by this. He seemed to think that the teams he sent were simply ipetent.

    "Hmm¡­" Richard looked at Rick, and thetter shrugged as if he was saying: I warned you.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "If not for those forces to send their teams¡­ Like this we couldn''t control many ces¡­ He must have made a run through one of the areas they guarded," Larry was now throwing the me over the other forces who rushed to the market to get a bite at William.

    "No, he didn''t run away using this way," Richard''s eyes shone brightly before turning towards Larry, "the centre of the market has that merchant group''s ce, the one that William used before to ess the Lost City, right?"

    "No way! Do you mean¡­" Larry looked in disbelief towards Richard, and thetter simply nodded.

    "If it was me, then this would be the safest ce I''ll select to hide at," Richard smiled, "we got ourselves an interesting foe indeed. He is now inside the Lost City, without any way to run. Just send the teams to the Lost City and inform our people there to go and catch him."

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "What if¡­"

    "No, he needs ess to leave the city. The doors at the corridor won''t open from inside. He has no way to get out of there now. And about our side, to open that door for him, he has to wait for Lara to do it."

    "Deal with her then," Rick finally said, "make sure she won''t intervene."

    "Leave her to me," Richard evilly smirked, while Larry started to ry orders. From the side, Rick watched all this while feeling more excited about getting his revenge over William.

    In fact, his master didn''t ask him to kill William here. His orders were strictly the opposite. His master wanted to grab William and torture him a little, to vent his deep hatred out first.

    Rick wanted to impress his new master. But in front of the enemy who made him suffer all this, he couldn''t control himself. Aas for the me, if his master wanted to me anyone, then Rick got Richard as the perfect scapegoat for him. So, he remained silently watching.

    Larry ryed the orders, not only to the family''s teams, but also to other forces teams. He wanted to organise their efforts this time, to not end up antagonising and hindering each other, giving William a chance to escape again.

    As for Richard, he went out, looking for Lara to keep her busy.

    "Just hang in there, I''ming right now to get you out!"

    Inside her room, Lara received the distressing news from William. She was surprised by his sharp wits and the brilliant solution he thought about.

    Instead of shing head on with all the scary forcesing at him, William instead selected a very unexpected route of escape. When she heard about where he went, she couldn''t help but get overwhelmed with excitement. She evenughed for a minute or so, imagining the despicable faces of different forces'' leaders when they''d get the news.

 Chapter 592 [Bonus ] A Toxic Potion Vapour

    ?

    Lara knew like William that danger wasn''t over. He was inside the corridor leading to the Lost City, entrapped there, unable to get out through any door.

    William tried to open all the doors here, not knowing which one led to Lara''s ce. But he was willing to take the risk. Appearing out of nowhere, even in the middle of hostilends, was something that''d take his enemies by surprise.

    He nned that during themotion of his sudden appearance, he''d slip through and make a run for his life towards Lara''s portal area. However, he was depressed to find out that he was unable to open a single door.

    He guessed that these doors must be opened by something like a key or something. He managed to slip here as he already saw how the merchants did it before. As he got entrapped, he got two options, either to go into the Lost City and hide himself there, or to ask help from Lara.

    As he was sure his enemies included many of the Vancouf family, also wanting him dead, he decided to not risk going into a ce filled with tons of Vancouf masters.

    If he did, he might survive after fighting a little, but the consequences would be severe. He''d have to fight for his life, activating all the formations, and ending up with a huge massacre.

    Lots of the Vancouf family members would fall in this attack. And even if he''d keep his head intact, he''d turn the Vancouf family against him. Like this, he''d lose everything he struggled to build so far in the city.

    It was a tough choice, and he made up his mind to wait for Lara in the corridor. If things went south, and they indeed did, then he''d have no other choice but to go to the Lost City.

    [Issue an order, make all the masters of the Vancouf family hide inside defensive arrays. Make sure you state it clear that all Vancouf members will stay away from this sh, or else whoever dies has no one to me but themselves]

    "Sure¡­ Just hang in¡­"

    "Hi cousin, how are you doing today?"

    Just before she''d continued speaking with William, even before she''d continued her words, she froze in her ce motionless when she opened the door.

    In front of her, the distasteful face of Richard appeared with a smug and very irritating smile on his face.

    "You¡­ What are you doing here?" she said in a tone that was filled with tons of enmity.

    "What else? I have lots of things to ask you about, I''m going to take the lead after you leave. And frankly, I don''t get most of the things going on in the family and city," heughed, shamelessly acting as if he didn''t know anything about what was going on out there with William or being the mastermind behind all this.

    "Not now," she didn''t change the hostile look on her face, not even when Richard showed a very innocent expression on his, "go and ask Stark for anything you want, I''m busy."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    She was about to get out and pass him, yet he stopped her by cing his arm firmly over, blocking her path forward.

    "This¡­" she looked at him with more aggression, and he didn''t change that smug look and smile on his face.

    "Sorry cousin, but Stark hates me."

    "And whose fault is this?" she rolled her eyes, "if Stark won''t help, then ask you master, Larry. Aren''t you his dog or something?"

    "Cousin,e on! Don''t be this harsh on me," he said, but this act of innocence wouldn''t trick her.

    "Then I have to ask you to leave," she moved to close the door, deciding to wait until he''d leave before going to rescue William. But the door got blocked by Richard''s foot.

    "Cousin, please¡­ Don''t make this any harder for me," he said and meant something entirely different. And she got what he wanted to really say, got what he wanted to do by being here.

    "Screw you!" she instantly held a Message Paper in her hands, "This is an order from your leader¡­ Agh!"

    Just before she''d continued rying the order, and in such a brief moment of rashness, she lowered her guard. And then she felt something hitting her belly hard.

    "Agh!" Richard kicked her fiercely, showing a strength that never matched what was known about him.

    Her body flew in the air,nded on the ground in the middle of her room. Richard stepped inside, took something out while shaking off his head.

    "Oh cousin, you don''t know how truly I admire and like you. Why did you have to stand on that outsider''s side? Don''t worry, I won''t kill you, not yet. You are going to have a long and nice nap. And when you are awake, you''ll suffer tons of pain. I heard this potion vapour can make one scratch out his skin with his nails out of immense pain, and even dig his muscles and organs out. Of course, I got the antidote, so it''s fine for me but not for you, hahahaha!"

    At this moment, Richard showed the real face of his. He took a bottle out. And as he spoke, he smashed it on the ground, releasing tons of ck smoke that started to fade fast in the ce.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "When you wake up,e and look for me. I won''t say no to another obedient hot girl in my bed, hahahaha! Ah, that kid you liked this much, that damn outsider¡­ He is going to die by the time you will regain your consciousness. Right now, the entire city is looking for him. And even our forces inside the city will attack him. So, drop any idea of resistance, you are already doomed the moment you stood against me."

    Richard went outside whileughing and closed the door. Once he got out, he returned to put the same innocent mask over his face. He gave her a long look before he closed the door and went on his way in a great mood.

 Chapter 593 Crawling To Help Him

    ?

    [Don''t panic! Just describe in two words what the shape of that vapour is] all this time, she held the Bullet of William in her hands. Thetter heard everything that happened between the two siblings, and he didn''t feel any surprise at all.

    He already saw through the fake act of Richard, yet Lara didn''t. William always felt from her words that she never ced Richard in her eyes, always considering all this as the grand scheme of the evil elder.

    "ck¡­ Snake¡­" she muttered these two words with much difficulty. She could already feel power fading away, failing her in speaking normally at this moment.

    She tried to stand up from this hit, yet she couldn''t. For a reason, that vapour worked like magic, instantly weakening her. All she could do now was to slightly move her arms, raise and lower them. And she felt she wouldn''t be able to say another word soon.

    "Don''t speak then, this is the Vermont ck Viper Vapour¡­ It''s a very toxic, very fast acting toxin. It has a numbing effect, like a paralysing potion or something. You''ll feel your body failing you, your head goes silent, and your eyelids be heavy¡­"

    He started to speak about the effects of this vapour just from the two little words that Lara said. This wasn''t weird, the weirdest thing was that such poison didn''t belong to here!

    William already introduced new forms of materials to the Vancouf family, not vapour. Vapour was a product that wasn''t known in this world. On top of that, the vapour was made using the materials that came from the outer world.

    And that meant those who made this toxin already knew about the uses of the materials appearing all the time inside the Lost City.

    Lara on the other hand was feeling more frustrated at this moment. If she could speak, she''d scream at his face, asking him to stop this nonsense and speak about what she should do.

    William didn''t speak about how to antagonise this toxin but spoke about it as if he was in the middle of a lecture or something. She didn''t get it. If he could understand all this about such a weird product, one that she never saw before, then why the hell was he wasting time speaking like this?

    [To undo it, you have to do two things¡­" After just a couple of minutes of speaking, and when she felt her eyelids grew heavier as he already warned her, he finally reached the point she wanted to hear, "it might seem crazy, but you need first to not panic. This toxin works faster on those with uncontrolled emotions. Don''t panic, don''t feel anger, don''t feel anything. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and take a long and deep breath. Free your mind and spirit of all the burdens you have, got it?]

    That was why he made sure to speak for a long time about this toxin and its effects. People feared the unknown, feared what they couldn''t get or understand.

    If William started his talk with just asking her to clear her mind and be void of any fear or anger, then she''d not be able to do it.

    He had to slowly walk her through the ins and outs of this toxin, making her familiarise herself with it. Then when he''d ask her to clear all doubts and fears like now, she''d be able to do it.

    Lara wanted to blurt out that this was just bullshit. But when William repeated his request again, telling her to not worry, adding the magical words at the end: "Trust me on this!" she couldn''t help but follow this mad youth and do as he say.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    She took a deep breath, tried to clear all her emotions right now. She failed at first. But when she closed her eyes, it suddenly seemed as if everything she held inside was pushed away like magic.

    Lara couldn''t help but hurriedly open her eyes, and then she felt like her vanishing strength returned. It wasn''t the same as her prime condition, but it wasn''t that bad like before.

    "It¡­ It worked!" she couldn''t believe the simple and seemingly useless trick William told her to do really did its magic.

    [Don''t get excited, not yet. You will get a severe hit of that toxin if you get excited. Control yourself, and keep regting your breathing]

    "Ok¡­ But¡­"

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® [Don''t worry about me, I know what I have to do] William knew she was worried about him, [Now let''s move to phase two. This toxin is still in the air, and it''s already spreading inside your body. And so, we need to purify it]

    "How?" she wanted nothing more but to do it.

    [First, I need you to send the order to stop your family members from intervening. You heard him, he already gave the order for your family members to attack me. I don''t want to be held responsible about any of that]

    "Sure¡­" she was feeling a lot better now once she got a better control over her emotions. She turned around, and the Message Paper she held before when she got hit was now a few metres away from her.

    Richard was so confident in his toxin that he never cared about sparring that Message Paper a single nce or even took it away. She tried to stand up to get it but failed.

    "Screw it!" she crawled, moved slowly on her belly while struggling to get to it. Once she grabbed it, sheid on her back, panting as if she ran for a few kilometres or something.

    She took repeated breaths, before slowly sitting straight, raising the Message Paper she just grabbed. "This is an order from me, your leader¡­" she had to pause, while feeling tired again, "don''t intervene in the ongoing fight in the city and Lost City. I repeat, don''t interfere¡­" she paused again before adding, "if you did, your death isn''t on the family ount. I repeat, your death won''t be med on anyone but yourselves."

    [Good girl!]

 Chapter 594 The Blue Fiery Angel Herb

    ?

    William''s voice came while he seemed to be running or something. Despite her desire to ask about why he was panting, she didn''t. And for a reason, his words made Lara heave a deep sigh of relief.

    She managed to do it, and it seemed she did it just in time.

    [Now it''s time for the second step] William''s voice came a bit rash, [There is a herb, one that''smonly found in the world. It''s called the Blue Fiery Angel herb; do you know it?]

    "Well¡­" she paused for a moment, "isn''t it the same weed that''smonly found around any fire spring? Is it useful? It''s useless!"

    [Just send someone to bring a batch for you. You just need to chew, don''t swallow or do anything with it. Just chew on it and suck its fluid. Keep doing so for ten hours or so and you''ll be fine]

    "This¡­" she hesitated before asking, "is this going to work?"

    [It will! I have to go now, bye!]

    "Wait!" She wanted to scream at him again, but she heard loud noises of explosions next mixed with deafening roars and heart curdling screams.

    "Sh*t! At least I have ess to that fun vault in my room," she looked at the door again, before a sh of an idea passed in her mind. She couldn''t control her spirit power that much, but at least she had enough control to seal that door for now.

    She knew the order she just gave would be heard and received by Richard and Larry. That would tell Richard that his scheme didn''t seed. And who knew what he''d try to do to her next.

    So she exerted little effort and activated the grand protective arrays around her room. Even if an army of dark gold masters were at her doorsteps, they wouldn''t be able to make it through for long hours!

    As she secured her ce, she started to crawl again. This time she went towards her bed, where she found a hidden little door there. She simply punched it, leaving behind a print of her blood, and then that small door slid, and she could see lots of items there.

    "It''s good that I have this here, I never used this silly toy before," she muttered to herself, while moving her hand in the middle of all these materials. This was just a ce of connection with the main vault of the family, invented by a leader in the past as some sort of a fun game to spend time with. To get more items, she had to take the ones there out first.

    She kept taking out lots of materials without care. Then more materials would randomly appear in a few seconds.

    There were lots of rare and precious materials, products that were bought by scary figures of crystals. But right now, all of these were worth nothing in her eyes.

    "Found it!" the useless weed she never ced in her eyes before appeared in front of her, looking like the most valuable thing in her eyes right now.

    She took them out, ced a few in her mouth and started chewing it. "Damn! It tastes bitter!" She even coughed a few times, but never took the materials out of her mouth.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The moment that liquid appeared, she felt a bit better. It was enough to tell her that William''s words were right. And that made her take more materials out, waiting for her luck to be good and have more of these herbs again.

    This was called the lucky box, the fun vault in the higher up circle of the family. It was done as a form of a funny y, a toy that looked more fun than useful.

    It was like a lottery, and leaders over the long history of the family always enjoyed such y. Even if she never tried it out before, this y turned out to be her life saving straw right now.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® As she was having her own struggle and adventure to survive, William was already having his own struggle as well.

    Once he heard what Richard said, what happened to Lara, William knew he got no oneing to save him.

    Without even batting an eye, he turned around and walked, headed towards the end of this corridor. It was clear to him what he should do.

    If the enemies decided to chase and corner him here, then he''d simply use everything in his power to take them down.

    William reached the teau area and stopped there. The entire city was filled now with forces belonging to the Vancouf family mainly, with other scattered forces sending few of their members here per thest arrangement.

    Knowing this, William was sure that the forces of the city woulde mainly from the corridor. As for those inside the city, he could create havoc among them using Lara.

    So he didn''t hurry to move towards the city and kept speaking with Lara and guiding her along the right way to counter this toxin. As he heard her orders towards her family, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.

    The next moment he heard lots of noisesing from the direction of the corridor, announcing the arrival of the enemies here.

    William didn''t hold himself back anymore and started to make a run towards the stairs. Right now, the forces of the Vancouf family were running through the city ruins, drawing closer to him with each passing minute.

    William could have activated the formations he filled the city with, but he didn''t do it. He wanted Lara''s orders to spread first, to hold the higher moral ground in this fight.

    The different forces of the city already broke the rules, but that was on the condition that the Vancouf family stood by his side. If the entire city was his enemies, then he''d have no way to do anything but leave.

    He wouldn''t fall in his enemies'' trap like this. And so, he waited, biding his time until Lara finally spread the orders. Then he started to move.

 Chapter 595 The Start Of The Lost City Grand Battle

    ?

    William didn''t hurry to activate any trap at first. He just ran down the stairs while lots of shadows came out from the corridor. He heard lots of enraged shouts, all speaking about spotting him.

    *Roar!*

    Once his feet touched the ground, William turned into his fox mode. Three tails rose from his body, wiggling behind him, while hended with a scary roar.

    With such a roar, he announced his presence to all of the masters here. William could already see the hesitation over the faces of the forces belonging to the Vancouf family. As they hesitated like this, he used this chance to shout:

    "If you worry about your lives, then run! Go into a safe spot and activate your protective arrays."

    His shout came just at the right moment. Many of the Vancouf masters here didn''t belong to either faction fighting right now for the leadership of the family. When they heard William''s loud shout, coupled with the appearance of the monsters from all over the city, they started to run.

    The monster got attracted here by William''s roar, and he did that specifically for such a result. Not only that, the masters who belonged to Lara''s faction also ran away, even before his shout.

    He watched most of the masters running away, leaving behind only few and scattered ones behind. William didn''t need to give them more time to decide, didn''t even ask, as he marked all of them as his enemies.

    As they dared toe at him, it was only fair for him to kill them first.

    They were blocking his path in the city. And even if he had the ability to spare their lives, he''d end up wasting lots of precious time in doing so. Not to mention they weren''t worth saving in his eyes.

    Without even waiting for the rest of Vancouf family neutral masters to retreat far enough, William started his barrage of attacks over the ones who were still running towards him.

    In fact, he didn''t need to do anything towards them. He just lured the monsters from around and led them towards these scattered masters.

    If they were together, banded and worked as a team, then they might have a chance in surviving this. But as William''s shout came out of their expectations, and they didn''t n for such arge number of masters to run and abandon them, Richard''s masters didn''t know how to respond to such a sudden change.

    When William came, bringing with him many of the scary Bubble monsters, these masters couldn''t hold a candle against them. Even if there were many earth-based masters in their roster, they ended up dead in mere minutes.

    William shed, passed among them, while stacking up his technique. He already took out all the flying weapons he could control and kept luring the monsters all over the ce.

    In the next ten minutes, most of the forces on the ground got killed. By then tons of forces started to swarm the city from the stairs.

    "Watch out!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "He ising¡­ Agh!"

    William just led the monsters around in an area that wasn''t more than two kilometres away from the stairs. That led to a few of Richard''s masters to evade the iing ughter, but that didn''t matter.

    He already sat his eyes over another target, a bigger one actually. Just as everyone thought William would start fleeing for his life, he didn''t.

    He took out something and wore it. It was the ne that he bought long years ago from the Scorching Lands fort. This ne was something that he didn''t like to hold around for too long, fearing to grow used to its protection.

    So, he kept storing it inside his ring for many years now. But in such a hectic battle, he knew that his life was hung with a thin thread. And that made him reuse it again.

    As he wore it, he stored around fifty something attacks over his sword, shed and went towards the direction that no one expected; the stairs!

    Right now, hundreds of masters were jumping the stairs andnding on the ground with each passing minute. When William appeared, he didn''tnd his sword over the ground, but directly on the stairs.

    *Boom!*

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® A fierce explosion urred, with an ear deafening booming sound that attracted more monsters over. William''s hit didn''t harm much of the stairs as he expected. Instead, only a shallow dent appeared there, as if he was toying with his sword and didn''t hit it using his full power.

    "Impressive solid defence indeed," William muttered in admiration before shing again. He took the lives of those who were lucky enough to survive the hit, but not him.

    The group of hundreds who just appeared ended up either severely wounded, killed by the explosion, or fell on the hands of William. Only those who were at high grade or at the pinnacle survived either of these attacks. And those who were fast in their response, moved fast away from William, managed to survive as well.

    Yet William knew this was just the teaser opening of this grand battle. The number of forces showing up from the teau area was still growing in size. William knew he''d be screwed if he stopped for a single moment here. Once he killed all the ones he could reach in the next half minute, he started to make a run for his life.

    He didn''t forget to sh and kill those of the Vancouf family who were blocking his path. Those idiots thought William made the greatest mistake ever when he turned to attack and kill the iing masters. And so, they stopped running, and tried to surround and block any path of retreat for him.

    Yet they all were met with a scary fox, aided by lots of much scarier monsters. Even if there were few in the high stage of the dark gold grade, they ended up dying under the hands of the monsters.

    William was already experienced with this city and its lurking dangers. He knew how terrifying these monsters were when they''d attack in swarms like this. And that gave him an advantage over everyone else here.

 Chapter 596 The High End Masters Arrive

    ?

    William just needed to sh around any master for a few times. Then this master would fall under the ferocity of these monsters.

    He kept in mind the iing masters from the stairs. He stuck not far from the stairs, watching what they were going to do. When their number grew slightly over one thousand, they started to spread around in weird confidence.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "They must have brought lots of earth-based masters," William could tell from the look over their faces how confident they were about taking him down and dealing with monsters around.

    It was expected after learning about the truth of these monsters. But they totally underestimated both him and these monsters.

    William knew he could counter all of this if he activated his formations. But he refrained from doing so. He wanted to lure in the greatest number of masters before taking them down.

    He kept shing around, slowly attacking the masters and slowing their advance. They attacked back, released torrents of attacks towards him, but William didn''t care about most of them.

    He knew his ne was enough to shield any attack from mid and low tiered dark gold grade calibre. Against any high stage or from those at the pinnacle, he knew it wouldn''t greatly help.

    He could tell from the severity of attacks and their nature that most of the early waves of masters were earth-based masters. And that made them work more on stopping the assault of monstersing towards them, instead of focusing over William.

    Realising this made William change his strategy for a bit. Trying to stop masters head on wasn''t going to work. So he started to target the earth-based masters, invoking fear and panic in the hearts of others.

    To anyone stepping here, they knew the earth-based masters were theirst line of defence, their straw of survival. If they let them die in batches, then they were doomed.

    The moment William started targeting these earth-based masters, taking many hits in the process, the other masters around realised how futile it was to try and scare him using strong techniques.

    No matter what they used, William either totally ignored their attacks or shed fast to avoid them.

    William got an impregnable shield to protect him against these attacks. And that made him dash forward, not caring about anything, ending up taking the lives of many masters, earth based mainly, while inviting many monsters to the middle of their ranks.

    William did this more than twenty times, ending up messing the entire grand and previously tight formation of the enemy. It was now more like looses, riddled with holes rather than being a solid grand.

    Soon enough he had to stop what he was doing. The enemies realised how futile it was to try and stop him using the current weak forces they got. And so, they sent for the high-end masters toe. And those appeared with heaven shaking attacks that truly scared William.

    "Aren''t you ashamed of yourselves? Ganging up against a silver grade master? Even bringing the pinnacle grade masters here? Come on!" William might seem like he was enraged, but in fact he was just teasing them.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Even if pinnacle grade masters appeared here, he wasn''t feeling that much threatened, not yet. He got the rest of this grand city to run at, tons of monsters to lure towards these enemies, not to mention his silent formations that he didn''t stir up.

    As these scary figures appeared, William had to throw away any idea of assassinating the earth based or other masters around. He simply turned around and started running with everything he got.

    He thanked his luck that he brought lots of elixirs on this adventure. Right now, he was consuming elixirs like he was drinking water.

    As William started running into the deep parts of the city, he started scattering his attacks again. He didn''t have that much time to fill the entire city with his formations. Every time he spread one formation over, he was scared away by the torrents of attacksing towards him.

    The moment the high-end calibre forces joined this battle, deadly explosions started to fill the entire city. At this moment, William couldn''t even be bothered by the problem of revealing the underground interworld portal. He had to keep running to live.

    The attacks that came were deadly, but they didn''t cause the same devastation to the ground like William''s. And so, and even with the high-end stage masters issuing these unstoppable attacks, the monsters didn''t suffer much.

    In fact, all they did managed to attract an unprecedented number of monsters towards them. William couldn''t see buildings anymore, just bubbles stacked on top of each other, blocking every single path around.

    "Time to add a little appetiser," William didn''t feel much pressure. After all, each time he attacked, he did it after stacking his technique for tens of times. He left behind deep holes, lots of dead monsters, and explosive sounds that attracted more monsters here.

    But William knew this wasn''t enough. A single end stage master was a scary force on his own. And even with all the monsters gathered here, William could see these masters pass through monsters, not caring about them that much.

    That made him take something out, something he got from his guild and kept it hidden for all this time.

    *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

    This time, the advancing scary masters, marching like they got nothing in the world to stop them, finally stopped. The explosions William released this time weren''t like before. In fact, he didn''t cause any of this, but the things he threw did.

    "Hahahaha! The Doomsday Grenades are really great! Hahahaha!" Just as he threw ten of them, releasing ten pirs of ck red fire that rose high in the air, reaching even to the rocky ceiling of this ce, he startedughing amidst saying these words.

    These were the new and enhanced version of the grenades he once saw Sith and his team use. He provided his guild with blueprints to make such scary grenades, only limited by this world''s weak grade materials.

 Chapter 597 Once Things Goes Down, Cowards Always Try To Run

    ?

    William knew if he made such grenades at the outer world, then their might would be something entirely different. But he was satisfied with what these grenades could do right now. Each one of them was enough to release a thick pir of dark red fire, rising for tens of metres in the air, enveloping an area of hundreds of metres around.

    That wasn''t just what was scary about these grenades, but the fact that each one couldst for a few minutes was. William knew such an attack was new, and these high-grade masters had to stop to defend others against such scary and deadly fire.

    To them, this fire wasn''t enough to leave a scratch over their naked skin. But for any mid and lower tier dark gold grade masters, this kind of attack was quite deadly.

    The forces wanted to see William dead, but thest thing they''d want to see was to lose most of their strongest masters. William knew how their minds worked and used this against them.

    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om If the pinnacle masters kept chasing him around, then it''d be just an easy task to crush him. But that would leave their forces behind under the threat of getting eradicated by William''s scary grenades.

    Against what they wanted to do, they had to select the most logical choice, stay behind and shield their forces from the pirs of fire.

    This brought William finally a window to breathe.

    William didn''t use this chance just to spread out more formations, or pull the distance between him and them away, but also to do something else.

    William didn''t throw more of his precious grenades. He left the different forces back there to deal with his pirs of fire and kept only releasing more whenever he got caught.

    Like this, the entire battle started to look like a desperate chase. The high-end masters tried different things, tried to circle and corner him, tried to move fast to outrun him, and even tried to release deadly long-range attacks.

    Yet William was always vignt towards any of these attempts. Every single time they tried, he shed towards a direction that took him away from danger. In return for that, he used his tails to throw grenades towards far away distances, giving those high-end masters a scare and quite the headache.

    William got zero chance if he ended up fighting these scary figures head on. So, his main aim wasn''t just to run around aimlessly like that. In fact, he was running ording to a n.

    There was a goal in his mind, one that he was slowly biding his time here with all this to reach it. His enemies didn''t know that, and that made William''s effort not to be wasted.

    At the same time, the three snakes behind such a grand attack were now sitting in the main building of the Vancouf family. Richard just returned after he tried to break the ce of Lara down yet failed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Richard was already on his way back when he received the same general order as everyone else in the family. He stopped, feeling more shocked about her resilience and tenacity. He thought she struggled this far to release such an order. And that made him quite enraged.

    He decided to use this chance and kill her. After all, he was already appointed as her substitute. Not to mention that most of the family higher ups were in his pocket. He returned back to find her ce heavily fortified, making him feel real worry at this moment. His desire to kill her intensified.

    He summoned all his capable masters toe and help him take down the protective arrays. But the defensive arrays that wereid over the rich history of the family weren''t that easy to tear down. After an hour or so, he decided to go back and check with his other two aplices.

    When he got there, he saw how dark their faces were. He thought their task of getting rid of William would go smoothly and easily, the same thing they also thought about his mission to handle Lara.

    Both underestimated each other''s tasks and targets, and both failed in aplishing what they dreamt about.

    "This looks bad," Larry was the one who felt cold feet first. He might look like the one orchestrating everything happening right now inside the Vancouf family. Yet he was just a powerless puppet.

    The real masterminds of this entire grand scheme were Richard and Rick. The two exchanged silent gaze between each other when Larry showed such a dangerous sign. And without the need to say anything, the two returned to look at Larry, in a different way than before.

    "Don''t give me that look! Our ns are going down, and I''m the one who everyone will target and demand his head, not any of you!" Larry grew more anxious while the reports of the brutal battle back at the Lost City kept ranging in his ears.

    The easy task of getting rid of a silver grade youth ended up with failure. The fightsted for more than an hour, where William proved to be a very sneaky bastard.

    Every single force in the city was now experiencing the same rage. They sent all of their avable high-end power, ending up losing too much on the hands of monsters or the weird grenades William used.

    Every single time they thought they got him; he''d surprise everyone and manage to escape. Everyone was envisioning William dead the moment he got entrapped inside the Lost City. none ever expected that such a prison they were happy about was in fact a ughterhouse for their forces.

    The different forces in the city just sent theirst decision over to these three, the one that made Larry lose his cool atst. They decided to give this battle another hour. If by then William remained alive, or their losses kept skyrocketing, then they''d put an end to such a pointless hunt.

    This meant William would survive this. And with Lara''s unknown situation, no one could guess what was going to happen.

 Chapter 598 Im Ready!

    ?

    Only Larry already saw his doom drawing near. "Look, if you don''t find me a way out of here, if you don''t help me run to a ce far away from here, then I''ll tell them everything¡­ I won''t hold back, won''t fall down alone¡­"

    Larry was panicking at this moment, to the extent of digging his own grave without even realising it. The other two exchanged looks again, and this time, Richard sighed.

    "Oh Larry, I liked you! Why do you have to force my hands?" Richard shook his head in a way that told Larry that he was a hopeless case or something.

    "W¡­ What do you¡­ Mean¡­ Stay away! Stay the damn away from me!"

    Just when Richard said these words in such a way, Larry''s mind snapped out of his panic and realised how deep the hole he dug for himself was. Richard wasn''t stronger than him, but when Rick acted, Larry instantly panicked, fearing for his life.

    Rick just snapped his fingers, and two ck shadows suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They were cloaked, not showing anything of their faces. Each held a grand scythe, looking like the real embodiment of the god of death.

    "I won''t go down without a fight!" Larry took out his grand sword, held it with both hands, and was ready to fight till death.

    "Larry¡­ Do you take me for a fool or something?" Rick evillyughed, "these two are just decoys. The real one to take you down is behind you."

    "No!" Larry was already on the verge of copsing. He instantly bought what Rick said, turned around and waved his sword with his strongest might, releasing his deadliest technique.

    "Agh!" but he found nothing but thin air, and his sword and technique hit nothing at all. At the same time, two scythe des prated through his body, each at one shoulder. He lost control over his body, turned his head slowly towards the two who just hit him.

    "You¡­ Are going to die a horrible death¡­ Cough!" and before continuing hisst words said in deep hatred and resentment, he coughed and gushed out copious amounts of blood. His body stiffened and his spirit left his body, without even having the chance to die an honourable death.

    "Tsk! What a loser he was," Richard tilted his head and looked at Rick, "you do know we have to clean this mess up."

    Richard didn''t mean the bloody scene left by Larry''s death but referred to the entire messy situation.

    "Don''t worry," Rick snapped his fingers again, and the two he called before started using different techniques to dispose of Larry''s body and any trace of violence here, "even if these two survived, they got nothing to frame you with."

    "But they knew," Rick stressed over this, "and that means they have to go out and nevere back."

    "Leave this task to us," Rick evilly grinned, "my master¡­ He is something that a thousand of that kid can''t match. You just have to handle the pressure, throw everything back at Larry."

    "I already got a ticket reserved under his name," Richard took something out, "and I have many masters witnessing him leave just minutes ago."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Perfect," Rick liked dealing with Richard when he realised this brilliant move, "like this you can throw all the me over him. Hahahaha! You can even let everyone pour their rage upon him, start chasing that poor spirit all over the world, hahahaha!"

    Rick didn''t feel any loss at all by what happened here. Larry was just a useless pawn, someone who could be thrown away without feeling any regret.

    As for the current situation, the two of them didn''t need to wait for one more hour. They already knew the end of this sh would be by William''s win.

    It ended indeed as they expected, but in a totally different way than what they imagined.

    The forces in the city already got their hopes lowered after the passage of the first hour. William didn''t just run all over the city, but he also managed to take down lots of their masters using his grenades and monsters.

    The forces hunting William grew from feeling how just this was to kill him with their own hands all the way through feeling puzzled, down to being worried and impressed.

    William was alone, fighting and running in the middle of a very hostile environment. He was chased by a huge number of masters, the weakest of them was much stronger than him. And yet he never slipped, never made a single mistake, never suffered any harm from them.

    He ran all the way for an hour and half, while the forces here already epted the idea of failing their task.

    They thought this weird battle would be over in half an hour or so. Least to their knowledge that the real nightmare hadn''t started yet!

    [I''m ready!] Just after one and half hours, William was already running at the edge of the city. He was now trying to lure everyone in a big circle, letting them chase him in a huge area, preventing them from thinking about nking him or something.

    They tried to do that actually, ended up with lots of these scary grenades and lots of their forces dying. Since then, they never tried to do so, and betted on William to run low on ammo or fuel, yet neither happened.

    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om As he was doing great, he heard Lara''s voice. "Atst!" he evilly grinned, couldn''t help but take a good look at therge number of masters running after him, "but to your knowledge, all of their rings and belongings will be mine. No bargain is allowed!"

    [Come on! I lost a lot as well!]

    "Not like how much I lost," Williamughed. And at this moment, anyone hearing their talk would consider them crazy!

    The two of them were discussing and arguing about distributing the spoils of this war before it even ended! On top of that, they were the losing side, the most logical conclusion given everything else happening so far!

 Chapter 599 Its Like A Monster Tide!

    ?

    But soon enough, the entire battle would experience a heaven shaking change, one that would take every single enemy of William by shock.

    [I''m ready here] Lara said before adding, [When are you going to be ready?]

    "Give me a moment¡­" William moved his eyes around. And without any hesitation, he took around a hundred of his scary grenades, threw them like candies at the armying towards him.

    Seeing these grenades thrown at them and in such a scary number made everyone halt in their advance. They all tasted how dangerous these grenades were. And when they paused, prepared to deal with thergest attack of grenades William ever used so far, William elerated in a certain direction without even looking back.

    "I''m going to start now. You have around ten minutes or so."

    [Got it!]

    Not too far from William''s current location, thebined forces of the city were struggling to survive the attacksnding at them from the grenades.

    "What just happened?!" Just as those at the pinnacle of power were shielding others, one of them suddenly eximed out in surprise and doubt.

    "I got him in a ce then he simply vanished!" another said, while the rest started to search actively for William.

    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om "No need to panic. We all got where he wasst. I bet he is using some sort of an array to hide his presence."

    "That''s indeed possible¡­ That kid¡­ He gives me terribly bad vibes!"

    "Me too¡­"

    "It''s almost over. We need to waste half an hour and then we''ll all get away from here¡­"

    When William finished talking with Lara, he suddenly vanished off their senses. They were keeping a close eye over him, tracking every single move and action of his.

    Yet after all this time, and in the middle of such a hectic battle, it was easy for them to miss what William did from time to time. He kept throwing around materials, forming lots of concealment arrays, just missing thest touch of adding a few materials to get activated.

    William did this frequently, and even he forgot many spots where he scattered his materials. But he still recalled enough to secure his presence against what yet toe.

    Just as the group of the strongest figures in the entire army was chatting among themselves about what happened to William, something new happened.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    All of sudden, it looked as if the entire world was getting bombarded with nukes or something. Their faces changed when they realised what was going on.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Sh*t!"

    "All the earth-based masters spread around, protect everyone!"

    "Let''s go, run, run towards the stairs!"

    Just as everyone got their senses spread out, they all saw what was going on. William first hid himself. And when they were about to get over hisst crazy attack of grenades, all the formations in the city got activated, all at the same time.

    It felt like the entire city was getting destroyed again, yet it was just the sound effects of these attacks. Even if it was just sounds, it was enough to drive fear into the hearts of everyone.

    From the scale of it, it didn''t need a genius to realise what was going to happen. All this time, the explosions William and the army caused attracted lots of monsters. To William, this wasn''t even a challenge at all. But to them, it was really troublesome.

    The strongest masters here couldn''t repeat what William was able to do. Their attacks were much stronger than him, but they didn''t leave behind such deep scars at the ground, not in the same way he did.

    Only a few of them could do more than what William did thanks to their earth spirit elements. But their number was already little. And right now, it was expected how grave their situation was going to be.

    Without thinking too much about it, they all started to move away, running towards the direction of the stairs. Yet the more they ran, the louder the noisesing from the formations was. After all, the densest collection of formationsid in the heart of the city, not at the periphery.

    "Damn! Stick together! Don''t leave the group!"

    "Attack, don''t let these bastards kill too many of us!"

    "I will kill you; do you hear me kid? I will kill you regardless of any rules or anything!"

    Just in the next thirty minutes, the distance thisrge group of masters crossed wasn''t enough to take them past the centre of the city. At the same time, they felt like they were getting overwhelmed with monsters. The monsters first appeared in reasonable numbers. But after ten minutes, things started to change.

    "Sh*t! It feels like we are fighting a monster tide!" After an hour, one of them finally got what was going on. They killed many monsters, and yet it felt like they killed nothing. Monsters kept flooding their direction nonstop, acting as if they got endless supply or something, giving the impression they were fighting against a monster tide, not simple monsters.

    William couldn''t watch all this from his current location. He was just hidden safely inside a ruined building, while the world all around kept trembling fiercely. It was either the effect of the continuous explosive noisesing from formations, or the effect of the growing numbers of monsters swarming the city.

    He knew it''d be a fantasy to kill all of these masters here. Just those at the pinnacle would take long hours, even days, to get a single one of them down. The monsters weren''t that strong to begin withpared with those scary masters. As William didn''t get a way to invite the scarier monsters here, those at the high grade or at the pinnacle of dark gold grade, he knew the losses in those scary masters'' ranks would be minimum, close to zero.

    His main goal was everyone else but them. The main bulk of this small army was made out of the mid and early ranks of the dark gold grade. Taking them out of the picture was enough blow to destabilise the current power bnce in the city. Not to mention it was his own way to get revenge.

 Chapter 600 A Rare Generous Offer From William

    ?

    William didn''t just want to survive through this assault, he wanted revenge as well. In addition to that, he wanted to use this chance to flip tables over and prepare the stage for his newly established guild branch to rise.

    In fact, he was appreciative of such an attack. If these forces didn''t target him like this, he''d have no way to weaken them. Without such a blow, then it was expected that his guild branch would live through very hard times, struggling for so long against the various forces and their deep roots and dirty schemes.

    But now? They presented their top fighters on a golden te for him. And he wasn''t that merciful to let them through without a proper punishment.

    As hecked spirit sense, he had to use a helping hand.

    [Wow! I got the reports, and it happened just as you described before, hahahaha!] Lara finally returned to him after half an hour from the start of all this.

    "I told you," Williamughed shortly before adding, "tell me, how good it is? Where are they now?"

    [They are entrapped in the heart of the city] she seemed to take her time to speak, as she wasn''t actually the one examining the current scary battle in the Lost City, [They are overwhelmed with tons of monsters. But those pinnacle figures are leading them forward in steady steps]

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "Good," William''s face turned cold, "I''ll wait until they arrive near the stairs, then I''ll deactivate the formations. It''s up to you from there."

    [Got it! But why didn''t you ask for part of them? Huh? It''s not like you. You won''t generously give me anything without asking for anything in return. Are you sick or something?]

    "They are going to surrender out of desperation," William rolled his eyes, "you are the Vancouf family, you have a good name to scare them. But me? I''m just nobody. If I ept any of them, then it''ll be like inviting a bomb into the house. No thanks, keep all of them, I won''t none."

    [As you see fit. I won''t say no to more helping hands, hahahaha!]

    This was William''s n. He didn''t just want to kill as many as possible from the masters gathered here, but he also wanted to deprive the forces in the city from their sharpest sword, the pinnacle tiered masters.

    If it was up to him, he''d not let a single one of them fall into anyone''s hands. But he knew his current limits. He had no power to control them in the first ce. If he risked this and allowed few to join his guild, then they''d work as spies and assassins, causing him severe losses, more than what they could help his guild with.

    So, he decided from the start to let Lara and her family absorb them. Like this, the Vancouf family would grow stronger, but they''d also have lots of problems with other forces.

    Like this, they''d shoulder lots of pressure off him without even knowing this. As for the current problems at that family, William knew it was going to get worse not better after this battle.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Lara already saw through the real face of Richard. After this battle, everyone in the family regardless of their stance and loyalty would see everything crystal clear.

    Instead of leaning to schemes and underhanded tactics, William was sure the family would get through lots of hard times. Even ending up divided into two families wasn''t going to be a weird result in his eyes.

    But he didn''t care. William wanted more chaos to erupt here among all the forces so his guild would have a golden chance in rising up. Besides, with the internal conflict of the Vancouf family getting intense, Lara would lean more on him.

    Like this, the crazy idea he thought about before regarding absorbing the Vancouf family would be feasible. All he needed to do was to just keep supporting her, intervening from time to time, and let his guild stand by her side all the time.

    William knew if such events happened separately, if Lara saw through Richard''s act without having such a grand gain from this battle, then things would be much harder for her. But right now, she was going tounch a war over her enemies in the family, at the time when she just added lots of pinnacle masters to her side.

    This would strengthen her position in the family. Not to mention with his support from behind, using the new products he provided her, in addition to the ess to the Lost City, things were supposed to turn towards her favour.

    But William felt like her enemies weren''t that easy to handle. He felt a dangerous vibeing from Richard. Thetter looked like a tiger disguised in the skin of amp. And William knew such foes were the hardest to fight against.

    In William''s eyes, Richard would sacrifice Larry and use it as an escape goat. Only Lara and him saw his true colours. And the two of them weren''t enough to take Richard down.

    William didn''t care about any of that, and he hoped for all the forces to fight among each other and get busy with their business and internal strifes. Like this, his newly established guild branch would find a golden time to thrive.

    "I just hope Lara won''t lose her grip at the end, or mess things out," he sighed while waiting inside the arrays. He just stopped his formations, and the world didn''t get much quieter actually.

    He got the word from her about the current location of the enemies. As they got closer to the stairs area, he halted his formations as promised.

    The pinnacle masters were taking the lead, killing tons of monsters during their march towards the stairs. But that didn''t lift the burden off their shoulders at all.

    Lots of monsters were roaming around the city before any of this happened. They were looking for any humans to kill, and through the activation of these formations, they gathered in much bigger numbers and attacked the masters walking in the city.

 Chapter 601 Things Are Getting Complicated

    ?

    It was expected that after all this killing, lots of monsters were still alive. So the battles kept going on, while the pinnacle masters urged the weaker and wounded ones to rush up to the stairs.

    As for the masters surviving all this were about to get closer from the stairs, they abruptly stopped. They were shocked to see an army standing at the upper teau, waiting for them.

    They didn''t get a choice in the first ce. The army Lara gathered here was led by elder Stark. He made sure to gather all the pinnacle grade masters in the family, in addition to lots more dark gold masters as well.

    Seeing such a grand gathering of strong masters, a fresh army who had the advantage of higher ground, the surviving masters knew their fate was set in stone.

    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om It went without the need to ask that if they refused, then they''d be pincered from both sides. The formations here were under the control of William, and thetter looked as if he was truly working under the Vancouf family''s banner.

    [They all surrendered and joined my family, hahahaha!] As expected, those masters had no other choice but to lower their heads and let the storm pass, [Are you sure you don''t want anyone from them? We got lots of nice people here]

    "No thanks, just start preparing for the uing hard clean up."

    [I know. By the way, when are you going toe back? I heard the entire city is under siege from endless monsters! Do you need help?]

    "Just take care of things on your part. I''ll stay here for a couple of days thene out."

    [You just want to escape the uing heat! What a coward, hahahaha!] he knew she meant no bad things by what she just said. But she also nailed it right. He didn''t want to show up his face to let all the heat fall over the Vancouf family.

    He also didn''t have anyone by his side at this moment. His ck Tails team was out there, gathering fresh blood for his guild branch here. So he got really had nothing to do but to remain here. Besides, there was another reason.

    "I didn''t imagine I''ll be here when the space cracks will appear," he looked around, and inside this building he was hiding in, lots of materials were on the ground.

    It happened just when he activated the formations. It seemed like what he did stirred something up, or he was just lucky to be here when the spatial cracks happened.

    He knew these cracks were now filling the entire city. He already asked Lara to provide materials for him. But right now, he knew she''d be too busy dealing with this messy situation.

    Instead of waiting, why wouldn''t he go around and gather everything here? He nned to stay behind, gather up the materials from all over the city, before trying to make one weapon as a test.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    It''d be great toe out while having such a scary weapon by his side. Like this, he''d not be afraid of anything or anyone.

    So, he remained inside that ruined building, hiding from the senses of the berserk monsters filling the entire city. During which, a grand storm was happening at the city on the surface.

    As William expected, the various families and forces who imagined they''d get their justified revenge ended up getting a severe blow. They didn''t just lose almost all of their high-end forces, but a decent part of them joined the Vancouf family.

    In a blink of an eye, the Vancouf family turned to be the real behemoth in the entire city. No other force was enough to challenge them, not even if all the forcesbined together.

    But when the other forces felt they already hit their backs against a tough wall full of deadly thorns, an unbelievable piece of news spread all over the city in the next hours.

    An internal conflict happened inside the Vancouf family! The news came as the lifesaving raft in the middle of such a raging storm to all the forces in the city.

    Soon enough, they got the details of what happened. It seemed like the current leader, Lara, and her substitute, Richard, went into an all-out war against each other.

    The different forces couldn''t believe how lucky they were! Just when the Vancouf family got the chance to rise up, control the entire city, be the overall lord ruling everyone and everything here, they ended up fighting among themselves.

    The different forces knew this was their chance, their only chance, if they wanted to survive any of this. So, they started to organise their forces, speak among each other, before finally cing their full support over Richard.

    It was clear during the past day intel that Richard was losing this war. It wasn''t a surprise. After all, Lara did lots of big deeds in the recent days. She secured half of the Lost City, more than what her family ever controlled throughout their long history. At the same time, she just added lots of high-end masters to the family, all were now serving her faction.

    On the other hand, Richard got nothing. He was seen as a useless master in the eyes of many in the family. The support he got before was thanks to the elder who was now marked as a traitor, Larry.

    The entire family was too busy fighting among themselves, while Richard was struggling to keep up with Lara. Thetter didn''t hesitate to crush many of Richard''s big shots supporting him, either by bribing, threatening, or even killing them.

    Rick was watching all this from the shadows. He never cared about Richard nor the entire Vancouf family, or even this city. His sole focus was only over William. And thetter was nowhere to be found in the city.

    It was clear that William was now inside the Lost City, the only ce that Rick couldn''t reach yet. He didn''t care about such ancient ruins, but he wanted to hit William when he least expected it.

 Chapter 602 A Blessing Turning Into A Curse

    ?

    Rick tried to gain ess towards the Lost City using Richard, but thetter was too busy handling the pressure exerted over him from Lara. When things looked dire and hopeless for him, the great news of the offer from the various forces in the city came to save his neck.

    He didn''t even hesitate to ept what they offered. They provided him with lots of forces, funds, and even products andnds to support his stand in the Vancouf family.

    The internal sh that was about to get over just got hyped up. It was like a fire that was this close to dying, before someone poured an entire bucket of gasoline over it, letting it ignite fiercer and re up.

    The effects of this sh extended to cover the entire city. The portal zone was the only thing that kept working normally, while any other ce was filled with fights, shouts, and runners for their lives.

    Seeing this city from above would make anyone inwardly sigh in regret. The ferocity of battles reached a stage where no one cared anymore about preserving the city. All started to develop such a dangerous mindset; if I''m going to lose, I''ll take everyone and everything down with me.

    William was inside the Lost City, receiving updates about the ongoing battles happening up above. Lara didn''t hide anything off him, and even asked for his opinion all the time.

    She got shocked when Richard got revived at thest moments instead of getting crushed. But to William, this was expected, this was going ording to his ns.

    The different forces in the city would be total morons in his eyes if they didn''t take this chance to support Richard. That was why he advised her to keep her top force hidden and well rested, not showing off all of her might.

    She agreed to do that, not because she got what he guessed. She failed to read the entire situation like always. But she agreed to his suggestion because she felt like crushing Richard didn''t need to use her full might.

    Yet when Richard made aeback, her stored elite force proved to be useful. The first thing Richard tried was an attempt to assassinate her. She was already lowering her guard, but thanks to William''s early suggestion, she had trustable force by her side, enough to protect her life.

    The attack failed, but it exposed one shocking secret, not only to Lara and her entrusted circle, also to William.

    "Using dark masters to kill Lara? There was no time for him to ask for such help¡­ And even if he got the mind and resources to hire assassins, they''d need lots of time to arrive here¡­ That means he got ties with the dark side a long time ago¡­"

    William was now roaming the entire city, collecting materials. The task that he thought it''d be easy and wouldn''t take much time proved to be a bit challenging.

    Monsters didn''t fully retreat from the Lost City. Lots of monsters kept walking around, trying to locate any hidden masters or something.

    William would prefer to wait for things to cool down, but he saw lots of materials appearing the next day, mostly on the streets outside.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    When he heard about how intense the fights up there were, he decided it wasn''t time to wait or rest. So he risked it and started running around the city, starting a new round of fight against these monsters.

    But he didn''t hate such battles. He gained more dark gold cores in the process. And when he roamed the city, he managed to spot lots of dead monsters, the ones which died at the hands of the army that chased him before.

    He couldn''t absorb these cores for sure, but he could use them in his training. Besides, to make the desired weapon, he needed to use dark gold cores. He nned to use the Scarlet Bears cores, the couple hundred left cores he had for years now.

    Yet limiting the construction of this weapon solely over one type of monster cores wasn''t favourable. It was better to include two different cores, with two different elements at least in the process of making this weapon.

    So, William didn''t hesitate to fight the roaming monsters while walking around the city. He kept gathering up all the materials and monster cores he could find.

    e¦Áglesnovel`c,om The only downside for this was his continuous depletion of his elixir stores, in addition to the time he wasted in doing this. He estimated before to take up to seven hours to visit the entire city and gather all the materials in it. But in fact, such a process took him one and half days straight.

    During which, the intensity of fights at the surface city didn''t get any weaker. In fact, Lara was facing a hard time, especially when the entire city turned on her.

    The elders close to her saw a dark future ahead of them. Even if she managed to control everything at the end, things would end up ruined to a degree beyond saving.

    Elder Stark was having lots of headaches. Many ces in the city already got destroyed, and it was clear by the end of this war, there would be no city at all.

    "Tsk! I couldn''t believe when we got the chance to rule over everything, we are going to lose the city, literally all of it¡­" he was now sitting on a balcony on a suite where Richard used to stay.

    He came here in the past day, crushed all the resistance that youth had, to end up finding only emptiness waiting for him. He knew Richard escaped, and soon he heard the news of the different forces'' movements to support Richard.

    It was clear since that moment that this entire war was going out of control. Lara was feeling down as well, having the same thoughts as him.

    Everyone in their faction were having the same kind of dark thoughts. A blessing that they all waited for happened, to reveal its true face as a deadly curse.

 Chapter 603 Making A Weapon

    ?

    "I don''t know if we are going to save anything in the end or not," Stark squeezed his temples, while not finding any way to get out from this disaster unscathed.

    "At least we got the portal zone safe," Lara''s voice came from behind, startling him for a moment there.

    "What''s the use? We have a way to bring and send people, but we have no city to make use of any of this."

    "At least we have this ce intact, well secured," Lara stood by his side, overlooking the entire portal region, "we can rebuild anything, anything but this."

    "I know," Stark sighed in a tired way, "but wouldn''t it have been great if we ended up ruling everything without losing a single building?"

    "I also have the same wish," she sighed in return, paused for a moment there before adding in weird bitterness and regret, "you do know that William warned me before from all this?"

    "Really? That youth did?! What did he say?"

    "He warned me that Richard was the head of the snake, and Larry was just fake," Lara paused, recalling how William tried to warn her against Richard, "he told me that aiming to achieve great things alwayse with severe challenges and bad consequences if one wasn''t prepared."

    "A wise youth indeed," Stark paused, seemingly having a better impression of William, "speaking about him, where is he now? I haven''t seen him anywhere in the past few days."

    "He is still hiding inside the Lost City," she chuckled, one that looked so pale in the eyes of Stark, "he refused toe out, saying that it''s not his moment to show himself."

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "Tsk! I bet he doesn''t want to be part of any of this," Stark read through William''s intentions. And Lara could only nod.

    "I heard he sent away his team, days before all this started¡­ Don''t tell me he expected such a disaster to happen to the city!" Stark didn''t stop there and started to think aboutplicated stuff like this.

    Before Lara would say anything, something big suddenly happened here.

    "Acho!" away from the portal region, and inside the underground space of the Lost City, William sneezed a couple of times. "I bet she is gossiping about me again, hehehehe," heughed when he sneezed for the tenth time today, a thing that kept happening frequently in the past three days.

    Right now, the war that started by trying to assassinate himsted for five days straight. William kept himself inside the Lost City, took a ce there and heavily fortified it. Then he started preparing his different materials.

    In front of him two big cauldrons, lots of special wood, many ores, tons of materials that he collected, dark gold grade cores, and also a few elixirs were all ced inside that ruined building.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    It was one of the central buildings in each block in the entire city. It had enough space for him to do what he wanted. He stationed himself just as the furthest point from the stairs, as a precaution against anything bad and unexpected to happen.

    In case anyone got curious or had free time to spend here, they''d not disturb him or even notice his current whereabouts.

    William was now ready to start making his weapon. The first thing he did was to start preparing his different and vast set of materials.

    "To build this weapon, I need tobine Alchemy and Forging together with the field of arrays, inscriptions, and even the art of implementing training and fighting techniques with cores¡­ It''s quite aplicated process, and hopefully I''ll seed from the first time¡­"

    William started first by refining the herbs he got. As he walked around the Lost City, he gathered up lots of materials, more than what he needed actually.

    As he closely examined these materials, he confirmed his early guess. They all came from the outer world. And that was good and bad news at the same time.

    First of all, these materials all came from a higher realm, with a pure level of spirit power that far exceeded the limits of the tiny world here.

    That meant once he managed to make his weapon, its strength would put it directly at the top scale of power in this world. He''d not be surprised if it became a quasi-legendary grade. But that was the only good news he had.

    Aside from this silverlining point, everything else was a hell of a problem. First, as these materials came from a higher realm, then trying to mix them together in such a tiny world, a ce where the level of spirit power was much lower than the usual outer world, then there was a great risk in causing a fierce explosion.

    Not only that, but even the process of properly purifying these materials was a headache. If William wanted to follow the steps he learnt before from his friend, then he had to solve the problem of spirit powercking first.

    This wasn''t something that could be easily done, not by someone at the current low grade as him. It wasn''t just a problem of spirit power grade, but also the quality of spirit power in itself. He could umte much spirit power, using arrays or elixirs, or better both. But he wouldn''t be able to raise the quality of the spirit power using any of this.

    William already knew this beforehand. And so, he thought about something new, something that was out of the ordinary.

    William started first with gathering the needed set of materials. Be it herbs, ores, or even special liquid, he took enough to do his first experiment.

    Then he took another batch of materials, one that came from this world. "I hope it works," he muttered while looking at both collections, while imagining the steps he thought about before.

    He had an idea, one that he never heard or tried before. Why bother about increasing the quality of spirit power quality and quantity when he could start working to lower the grade of the materialsing from the outer world?

 Chapter 604 The Soft Hard Golden Alloy

    ?

    His idea was to mix materials from this world with the ones he acquired from the higher world, diluting and weakening the quality of the outer world materials, reaching a stage like quasi-legendary or even lower.

    If this seeded, then William would sacrifice the high-end grade of the weapon. But in such a way, he''d solve lots of problems that he couldn''t solve by normal means.

    In theory this should work, but William knew how hard it was to achieve it. If not for himing from the future, if not for him being experienced in the outer world''s materials, he''d face lots of problems while trying to do this.

    He already went to the market and bought all the materials that could be used in such an experiment. And luckily the attack happened after he grabbed almost everything.

    "Time to see if this is going to work," William started with the things he knew they''d be much easier to handle, herbs.

    The first herb he selected was a fire based one. He selected one from the outer world and decided tobine it with ten from this world. Of course, to do that, he had first to use a concentrated level of spirit power, enough to affect the herbing from the outer world. To do so, he established a spirit power gathering array, left it for an entire day to gather up enough spirit power inside a bubble shaped space.

    William was now standing inside that array, while feeling nothing much but little pressure over him. Concentrating spirit power like this wasn''t going to affect anyone. But when any process was done inside, that concentrated spirit power would start interfering, greatly impacting the oue.

    William started to use his spirit power to control this herb. The herb proved to be quite resilient at first, yet it slowly started to change and melt when he transformed into his ck fox version.

    When he changed into the fox form, something seemed to change at the surrounding spirit power. Previously he didn''t feel that much pressure. But now? He felt like he was carrying the entire world on his back or something.

    Yet he focused on the herb in front of him. In that pot, the herb started to shine, pieces of it started to turn fluid. This herb was special, it couldn''t be squeezed or distilled to get its essence. It could only get exposed to higher concentration of spirit power, melt like ice meeting fire, turning entirely into fire essence.

    As he saw the herb changing, he didn''t care about any pressure. He kept enduring, until the entire herb got liquified. And then it was time to mix it with ten other herbs.

    The other herbs only needed little pressure to release their essence. William started to squeeze one herb after another, add everything into the same pot, before he finally started fire.

    "Please work," as his ck fox version worked like magic here, he didn''t cancel it. He endured the pressure for another ten minutes before the final liquid appeared in front of him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Time to see if it works or not," William knew this wasn''t enough to tell if the experiment seeded or not. This was a special ce where spirit power wasn''t acting normally at all.

    So, he had to take the final liquid outside, praying inside himself that it''d seed.

    "Phew! It lost at least eighty percent of its original power, but it can be used in producing the weapon now," William heaved the first sigh of relief when the fluid didn''t explode after stepping outside the array. When he tried to touch this fluid with his spirit power, he felt how stable and inert it was.

    The only and expected downside of this process was for the herb original grade to lose a lot of its quality and strength. Yet that wasn''t a big problem, it was the goal he wanted.

    "Time to elerate things then," as the first test worked, William got encouraged to widespread doing it. He spent the next two days experimenting and processing most of the materials he needed.

    Not all the tests he conducted seeded. In general, out of ten experiments, one had to fail. He suffered one explosion after another. And with each explosion, many monsters got attracted towards him, ending up wasting an hour or so dealing with these monsters.

    For the wounds and exhaustion, he swallowed healing potions, and for spirit power consumption, he consumed elixirs. After two days, everything he prepared before got diluted and processed, all except for a single material.

    "This Soft Hard Golden Alloy is going to be a problem," he stood in front of a pile of a special type of ores. It was one which was in a form that could be used directly without any processing.

    It wasn''t usedmonly in forging, as it was very hard to melt and cleanse. It was better used to build stuff directly, impeded in weapons and gears. If forging in the tiny world depended over melting ores and pouring the finally cleansed alloy into a mould, then this process had lots of changes in the outer world. And that included this special alloy.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® To make better weapons, Artisans in the outer world didn''t depend on moulds. Instead, they''d use such ready alloys to form the core of any gear or weapon, then make the mould in the form of a container around this core. Then they''d pour the final mix into it and let it cool down.

    The highest-grade artisans would use their hands directly to form the shape of the product, something that looked majestic. Like this, the final gear and weapons would have an extra level of sturdiness and strength, something that all the top weapons and gears here in the tiny worldcked.

    As it couldn''t be melted or processed, William had no way to deal with this special alloy. And without it, he knew the final weapon of his wouldn''t beplete, wouldn''t even get done!

 Chapter 605 You Jinxed Us!

    ?

    "I have to try it out first," William knew the only chance he got was that this alloy wouldn''t get easily affected by anything. As it appeared in this world and didn''t explode, there was a good chance it''d sustain what he''d pour over itter on.

    He started to change the shape of this alloy, forming something with six legs and three heads and tails. As he started shaping it, he impeded lots of the cores he prepared into it. When he was done, the final shape was giving the impression it was filled with bubbles or something.

    He already worked on the cores, processed it by writing inscriptions and infusing them with different techniques of his. As for the alloy itself, he started gushing his different spirit elements into it, letting it absorb everything without showing any change on the surface.

    "If I have enough, I''d have added wings to it," William stood in front of the special alloy he just worked on, and felt satisfied, "let''s hope it''ll work."

    It was finally time toplete this weapon. The process of finalising it wasn''t as simple as just adding everything over this alloy.

    He went first to the herbs he processed and purified. As he left them to cool down, they started to form a substance like wax or something. William was now in the ck fox form and used his ws to spread this wax over the Soft Hard Golden Alloy.

    The more wax he ced, the harder that alloy became. It felt like the alloy rejected the substances ced over it.

    When he felt worried, as this was a very crucial step, he recalled the effect his fox form had and then started to touch the alloy slowly, as if he was caressing it or something, while releasing his spirit power.

    When he did that, the alloy started to finally shine in a faint golden light. It was the signal William waited for, and that meant that alloy started to absorb the herbs'' essences atst.

    As he made progress in this troublesome part, William started to also ce part of the melted ores over the alloy. He didn''t form any mould before, and decided to do it the same way his friend once did, using his own hands!

    If he did it directly after melting the ores, then it''d be suicidal. William wasn''t crazy to do so, and thus he waited for the melted ores to cool down a little, form a substance that was semi-liquid, semi-solid, and started to shape it using his ws.

    This was indeed his first time doing so. And thus, the final shape of these melted ores didn''te as he perfectly imagined in his mind.

    But he didn''t feel any discontent or discouraged at all. In fact, he was more satisfied by such a result.

    He kept adding melted ores inyers uponyers, adding the herbs'' essence in between like waxing the entire thing. He spent almost ten hours in doing so, without taking a single moment of rest, totally focusing over what he was doing, totally losing himself in that.

    During all this, something entirely different was happening at the city on the surface.

    As William was busy dealing with his weapon making, Lara and Stark were trying their best to crush Richard.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    After a few days of such intense fighting inside the family and inside the city, the two of them were standing on the balcony of their main headquarters inside the portal area.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® The two were just speaking about the current development of the ongoing sh, ending up with Lara mentioning how fortunate they were to keep this portal area under their control.

    And just as she said it, a very violent explosion erupted at one corner of this ce. It happened all of sudden, without any warning, leaving behind a grand bellow of smoke and fire, apanied by a suffocating silence in that balcony.

    "Sh*t! You jinxed us!" Stark couldn''t help but curse, took out many Message Papers, and started rying his orders at once. He was acting as the general leader of the forces fighting on the ground.

    As for Lara, she looked at the direction of the explosion in shock and disbelief at first, before noticing something.

    "It didn''t affect any portals¡­ It just exploded in the area between two groups of portals¡­"

    "That doesn''t matter¡­ As long as an explosion urs, others will follow," Stark was really anxious at the moment. And just as he said his words, another explosion urred at another spot. "Dammit! Stay here, I need to go down there and see what''s happening."

    Stark was a dark gold master, one at the high stage of it. He could use his spirit sense, but the number of masters in the portal area was too much to follow.

    He wanted to wait until the special team he had in the surrounding areas would move to help control the situation, looking for the culprits. But it was toote to wait for them. If he did, then nothing would be left in the entire region.

    He moved and Lara kept herself up there, watching the ongoing chaos and explosions that kept ranging like wildfire spreading all over the ce.

    "What''s going on?!" after just half an hour and lots of explosions, she noticed the same thing she noticed before, "they never hit a single portal¡­ What''s wrong?"

    It seemed like explosions were happening everywhere. But when looking closer, she could see that not a single portal got affected.

    It was like the ones who orchestrated such an attack made sure to keep the portals safe. And that told her that this attack wasn''t just as simple as it seemed from the surface.

    [Something weird is happening here] and when shecked any good ideas, she turned to the man she started to grow used to leaning on his shoulder in the past hectic days, William.

    William was now in the final process of amassing his weapon. Looking at it now would tell anyone how grand this weapon was!

 Chapter 606 The Purple Winged Rabbit

    ?

    It spanned for twenty metres in length, five in height, looking like a true behemoth. If not for William''s fox form to be grand to begin with, William would find it quite hard to work on this behemoth.

    He was just in thest touches, where he had to let all the melted ores heyered with wax materials to cool down. It was a process that''d take at least two hours or so, then he''d start doing little things and then the weapon would be ready for testing.

    But just as he was taking his breaths, preparing a meal he brought from Lara''s ce, he heard Lara''s words that stopped him in his tracks.

    "How weird exactly?" William knew that things up there were a bit hectic. And so he couldn''t tell what Lara really meant.

    His thoughts shed through different matters, but he never guessed what truly happened.

    [It''s like this¡­] Lara started to speak about what happened since the first explosion urred. After she finished, William went into long silence before suddenly asking:

    "If you got a scroll and a brush, can you draw these explosion sites in your mind right now? Tell me what shape it takes."

    [This¡­ This isn''t time to y¡­]

    "Trust me and do it!" William had few ideas in his mind, but for a reason he jumped directly towards the worst possibility out of all.

    Lara didn''t believe such a way was going to solve anything. In other times, she''d take any of this as a mere joke or something. But as William stressed over the importance of this, she had no other choice but to follow his instructions.

    [I did as you asked me for and weirdly enough, these explosions indeed took the shape of something¡­]

    "Oh, what shape of animal it is then?" William was in the middle of eating when she returned back to him. He waited in anticipation for her to say the magical word.

    [The shape of a rabbit, one with wings¡­ Is there something like that?!]

    "Yes, there is," William took in a deep breath before adding up, "it''s the Purple Winged Rabbit."

    [Never heard of it before]

    "And you shouldn''t have heard of this name for long years," William sighed.

    [Why does it feel like you aren''t¡­ You? Sometimes you give me the impression that you don''t belong to this world¡­]

    "Consider this true then, but this isn''t the time to speak about any of this," William knew even if he admitted it, no one would ever believe any of his words, and would take his answer as a sort of joke or something. And surely she did, "you told me that elder Stark already summoned all the masters to control the situation, right?"

    [Yes, he is already down there, leading lots of my elite team to control the fire and prevent it from spreading towards portals]

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "And you are on the balcony right now, correct?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Yes, I already told you that. I''m standing two floors below your balcony. Don''t tell me you are going toe now?]

    "No, you are the oneing to me."

    [This¡­ Right now?!] she was taken aback by what he just said. And yet what he added next made her body freeze.

    "See that balcony? Activate your spirit and jump, don''t hesitate, don''t look behind, jump and reach the ground. Prepare a healing potion or elixir first then jump. Once your feet touch the ground, run¡­ Run like you never ran before, run all the way towards the other headquarter you got, the one in the arena¡­"

    Her body trembled out of his sudden and heavy words. After a few seconds, and as he was speaking, she couldn''t help but interrupt him.

    [William¡­ I''m inside my family''s safest ce. It''s like a fort here¡­]

    "Don''t stand in your ce right now or else you''ll die! Fort? Fort my as*! This fort is now breached, and this building will explode by lots of explosive arrays. Don''t ask, don''t even think about it, just do it and jump!"

    [But¡­]

    "Jump and thinkter. Come on, activate your spirit and jump! There is no time! The building is going to explode and you are going to die! Jump! Do it now!"

    William''sst shout made her mind freeze. Without even realising it, she subconsciously decided to trust him. Her spirit showed up, the spirit of a creature with two heads and one long tail like a whip.

    If William was here, he''d recognise her spirit to be the legendary Vancoura, a spirit that had wings in the outer world. But it seemed in this world, it was a bit weakened or something,cking wings and lots of scales that turned into rudimentary feathers.

    Once she activated her spirit, took out a bottle of elixir for healing, she did as he told her, and jumped over the balcony.

    *Rumble!*

    She was on the fifth floor, a height that was too much for her current spirit power. Even if she was a gold grade master, she wasn''t that experienced in fightingpared to management.

    Just as she was in midair, the entire building she was in exploded. The explosion was much fiercer than what she imagined when William told her. It wasn''t the kind that was targeting the building to destroy it, but the type that would turn everything and anything into ash!

    If she hesitated any longer, if she stayed on that balcony for a few more seconds, she was sure that nothing would have shielded her from such a hit.

    "Agh!" and with it, fierce repulsion force erupted, pushing her body in the air for hundreds of metres, before finally falling on the ground.

    [Stand up! Empty that potion in your mouth¡­ I hope you took it out and didn''t forget!] Luckily for her, she held the Message Paper of William tightly in her hand. Even with such hit and fall, she didn''t let go of that scroll.

    And with his voice echoing in her mind, she didn''t surrender to the torrents of pain that flooded her body and was this close from paralysing her.

 Chapter 607 Go To The Spar Arena

    ?

    Instead, she moved her arm weakly, emptied all the content of the elixir inside her mouth, before letting her body rest on the ground.

    At this moment, she didn''t even care a single bit about the family or the ongoing sh. All she cared about was to survive, survive this and then she''d face the entire worldter.

    [Don''t remain in your ce, the entire area is filled to the brim with assassins!] William already recognised this unique pattern of attack, one that belonged to the dark forces in the outer world.

    It was something that could be best described as a foolproof n of assassination. If the target didn''t know such a tactic beforehand, then its sess rate would be one hundred percent.

    It worked simply like this, the enemy would select a point of weakness in the target, a ce that mattered too much for him, some family members perhaps, or even the hidden wealth of someone.

    Then by attacking that, the target would lose all the reason he had, send everything he got to protect the most precious thing he had. And when he''d do that, the ce he was at would explode fiercely, in a way that''d take his life or at least severely wound him.

    If the target survived, many assassins woulde for him. So it was important to leave the ce one was staying at the moment he''d realise this tactic. And then he''d better make a run towards another fort of his.

    If that didn''t happen, then death only awaited anyone experiencing such a scheme.

    Lara wasn''t in any condition to let her take any decision right now. So William kept shouting at her until she finally stood up. It wasn''t just thanks to his repeated shouts, but also to the healing elixir she just took.

    When the elixir started to work, a great deal of exhaustion was pushed away from her. She got the strength atst to stand up and start running.

    In fact, she didn''t run but limb. She kept limping like this for a few minutes, while the entire world around was filled with chaos. When she began to walk normally, she saw that more explosions urred at the same time destroying her building. And with that, most if not all of her forces in the region were preupied or trapped within ruins.

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel When she saw all this, she realised how grave such a hit was, how lucky she was to have William by her side. She didn''t know how to express her gratitude and thanks to him, but decided that no matter how crazy he spouted, she''d take every single letter seriously as long as he was the one to say it.

    Slowly she started to feel the effect of that elixir. It was a high grade one that worked fast. Her body suffered tons of wounds, she lost a great deal of blood, and that made the elixir need more time to do its magic.

    William kept following her until she went into the bustling streets around this ce. Even if there were ongoing battles everywhere in the city, the portal area was the only spot that kept the old crowded and prosperous image of this city intact.

    And with all these fierce explosions, many more people gathered to watch this show. Lara was lucky to find such a grand gathering here, and soon enough she found her way in the middle of all the masses, heading towards the direction of her Spar Arena.

    "Good girl! Once you arrive there, get into the Lost City at once. Here I can properly protect you," William was already standing in front of his semi-finished weapon, while feeling much relieved about her escape.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Well¡­ About that¡­] her voice came shaky. That made her doubt that she was about to say something bad next. And surely, she did, [I don''t have ess to the Lost City from my Spar Arena]

    "What? Howe¡­ Don''t tell me the only entrance lies in that portal area!" William was surprised when he heard that. In his mind, he never even imagined such a possibility at all.

    [I told you before, my great grandfather linked the door we have with the portal area main building]

    "I thought that was just the beginning¡­"

    [No, we only had one ess, and now it''s gone] she sighed, [That''s why many of the elders and higher ups in my family along its history dreamt about controlling more of the city]

    "Hmm¡­ Can you find an ess in another ce perhaps?"

    [Did you forget? We are fighting against the entire city right now! It''s lucky for me to slip past everyone without getting marked and targeted already]

    William got lost in thoughts. His entire n depended on sending her away, towards another ce with a door leading to here. Once she got here, he could easily protect her using formations.

    He couldn''t leave this ce now as he lost his only ess to the outer world. And at the same time, even if he got a choice, he wouldn''t leave his semi-finished weapon behind.

    The weapon was semi-done. And if he tried to leave, then everything he did would be ruined. He had to continue his work here for the next six hours at least. And so, he hoped she''d be safe at her Spar Arena.

    [I will ask Stark to lead the survivors ande to defend me] she started to take William as her advisor or something. She wasn''t just informing him but taking his opinion as well.

    "No, don''t do that," and as she expected, he got a different opinion than hers, "they are filling the portal area with their assassins. It''s the right time to strike and hunt them down. Once these forces get routed, most of the danger will be removed out of the picture."

    [This¡­ There aren''t enough forces at the Spar Arena to begin with!]

    "You have to deal with what you have," William looked at the weapon in front of him, "try to buy me ten hours, and find a way to open a door for me to go out. Then leave everything to me."

 Chapter 608 Working On The Weapon Again

    ?

    [You? You do know there are lots of pinnacle masters after me, right?]

    "Just trust me on this," William knew his weapon wouldn''t be scary enough to kill such formidable masters. But it''d be at least strong enough to fend them off and stall for time.

    Time was her greatest enemy right now. If she managed to buy herself enough time, then the forces scattered all over the city would gather and protect her. However, she had to survive at least for a day or so.

    As the enemies went to such an extent, William was sure they took into consideration the scattered forces of Lara. He didn''t even mention summoning any of them.

    William wasn''t that worried about her. He knew someone born and raised in this city wouldn''t struggle to keep himself alive.

    "I hope she knows what to do," he knew he did enough, and now it was all up to her. If she wasn''t capable, or half bad, she''d end up dead. And as he didn''t know what type of a master she truly was, he started to think of the worst.

    "If she dies, then that jerk will take control over the entire family, and the city¡­" William stood in front of his half-finished weapon and kept thinking about all this.

    He depended on his future ns over the contribution of Lara and her support. If she was killed, or she got out of the picture by greatly weakening her forces, then everything would be lost.

    He wasn''t afraid of the safety of the portal area like Lara did. After all, the one behind all this was Richard, and he''d be a total moron if he destroyed a single portal in the middle of all this.

    And that meant Richard if killed Lara, he''d gain not only the family, but its golden goose as well. And that made him quite dangerous in William''s eyes.

    "Sigh! Why is trying to get an interworld portal always thisplicated? Is it fate tricks perhaps or what?" William shook his head, couldn''t help but look at the ground while imagining the portal lying deep down the ground.

    If not for this portal and its immense valueter on, he''d prefer to take everyone and leave this wretched ce.

    "I have to think of a way to pressure him¡­" William knew that filling the entire city with formations wasn''t going to work. After all, hecked even an ownership of a single door leading to here. And even his ally, Lara, didn''t have any ess to any door right now.

    Thinking about that made William feel like this hit from Richard was closest ever to a checkmate. William got nothing in his power to stop Richard''s actions if thetter killed Lara in the end.

    "And I can''t go out to protect her personally, as if I can do it for long enough¡­" William sighed again, feeling the entire situation was chaotic enough to give him headache, "I''ll leave things to fate then," after a while, William decided to drop his thoughts about this matter as it was useless.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He turned his attention towards his weapon and started to prepare thest needed touches. To finalise this weapon, he had to forge something like a shield, something strong enough to sustain the pressure and damage in brutal fights.

    And to do that, William already had mixed different ores and cleansed them partially. As he got enough time without anything else to do, and with all these disturbing thoughts, he decided to keep himself busy and start finishing the cleansing process.

    He held the hammer he had since he was in the Scorching Lands city, a dark gold grade one, and started to hit that melted mix with all his might.

    He wasn''t the same weak master he was before when he tried forging in the academy. He wasn''t just higher in spirit power grade, but also, he was using his ck fox form as well.

    That made each hit made by his hammer count. William kept cleansing this mix, actually not feeling that great while doing this. He was cleansing a mix of melted ores that came from the higher realm. Even if he diluted their power using other ores, he wasn''t that satisfied with the level of cleansing he was doing.

    That appeared clearly when two hours passed and yet with each strike with the hammer, a shower of ring fires appeared thanks to burn the impurities.

    That was something out of control as well. And all he could do was to hope his cleansing for all these hours would leave behind a half good alloy, not something bad and would fail when getting tested.

    "It''s time to wrap it up," William didn''t just prepare this melted mix, he also prepared herbs'' essence and few materials that he needed to finalise this process.

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel Like what he did before, he kept covering up the entire weapon''s body with the alloy inyers, while adding herbs'' essence and wax material in the middle. From time to time, he''d ce certain hardened ck rods that weren''t longer than half a metre and looked like spears or big thorns.

    He did that by following what his friend once did. These rods were quite special, actually one of the most important pieces in making this weapon. They got his blood and spirit power signature in them, even using his normal spirit power and his power while being in fox mode.

    In addition to these rods, he also poured some sort of jelly-like substance that he made with extra care.

    This substance was the rarest of all the things he made so far. And he carefully ced it around each rod, acting as if he was using glue or something. But this substance wasn''t used to fix these rods in ce, it was used for other big and far more important roles.

    As he kept doing this, he had to wait for eachyer to harden. That took him three hours at least to get everything done.

 Chapter 609 Lets Take Lara Down

    ?

    "Thestyer is the most important," he paused, looking at the final shape of his weapon while feeling little satisfaction and lots of anticipation towards it, "any great weapon must have a scary appearance, or else it won''t be strong enough to intimidate the enemy with its mere appearance¡­"

    William took this point quite seriously, even recalling all the scary shapes of different weapons he saw before in the outer world.

    In the end, he decided to go with the ck and gold colours, with long red lines and dots that would add more awe and fear to anyone seeing it.

    William spent two hours alone in this process alone. He took utmost care and paid full attention towards this task, even forgetting about the hectic and crazy situation of Lara right now.

    She listened to his advice and didn''t call back any of her forces at the portal area. And as he expected, the enemy ced their full attention and focus over this region.

    She thought William misjudged this time. If it was her, then she''d aim to follow her enemy and take him down first. But unlike what she expected, lots of Richard''s faction masters started to flood towards the portal area, aiming to take full control over it.

    When she thought about the possibility of her losing this ce, she realised how grave the mistake she fell in was. She was naive, thinking like any normal army general or something, fighting with honour and dignity. But her enemy wasn''t.

    Richard''s main goal was to have a strong stand for himself first. He got nothing to promise anyone with, nothing to back his ims for the position of the leader of the family. But if he managed to control the portal area, then he''d solve all this.

    Not only that, as this woulde as the greatest boost to him, it''d also be the worst blow she''d suffer aside from her death.

    When she realised all this, she stressed over her grand uncle to not leave her ce or send anyone to her support. Elder Stark was deeply worried over her, wanted to send lots of masters and lead them even to her side.

    The entire portal area was filled with chaos, battles, and ruins. But weirdly enough, and per his words, not a single portal got hit or damaged at all. Yet all the travels to and from there got suspended thanks to this unsettled situation.

    Lara went to the Spar Arena main building and gathered up all the masters she found there. As this was a ce that wasn''t as important as the portal area, the number of forces stationed here was already low. Not to mention itcked enough high-end masters to fend off any attack.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® Knowing that and putting William''sst and strict words in her mind, she started to consider this entire ce as a fortress. And she started fortifying it with all the means she got.

    Be it arrays, traps, and even digging the ground and forming a trench around the arena; she did everything she could until enemies started to appear.

    Richard and Rick were imagining the best version of all this, the version that didn''t happen at the end. Bad reports kept flooding them as if they were cursed or something.

    "You told me this n will seed!" Richard''s face grew dark when he received thetest report of losses. He turned towards Rick, and thetter didn''t know what to say.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He learnt such tactics from his mysterious dark master. And per that master''s words, this tactic was a foolproof n, one that had zero chance of failure.

    If Lara managed to survive the st for any reason, then the scattered assassins would take her down. If she managed to get shielded by her forces, then she''d try to make a run for her life, abandoning the ship and leaving behind an unguarded portal area, waiting for anyone toe and im it.

    That was what the two of them nned and envisioned to happen before. And yet none of that happened! Lara didn''t die, and she ran away without taking a single master off that area. That turned the situation from just sending masters to control the portal zone into a brutal battlefield, one that his side was losing badly at.

    With each passing hour, more reinforcements came to support Lara and her side. Richard tried everything and did exactly as William imagined. He made sure to lure Lara''s masters away from the city and keep them busy with bloody battles.

    To do so, he also had to spend lots of his already limited forces, with much limited numbers to spare for the acquisition process of the portal zone.

    So, when the entire n failed for no specific reason, except for the crazy and unbelievable one that Lara managed to see through everything, his forces lost badly without having any fresh blood to gush into that part of the war.

    Losing there meant losing everything. And that was what made Richard lose his calm at this moment.

    "Don''t fret like this," Rick rolled his eyes, "if we can''t do it the way we nned, then why not shift our targets then?"

    "What do you mean?" Richard got his anxiety slightly under control when he saw how calm and collected Rick was.

    "Let''s take Lara down."

    "This¡­ You do know we don''t have any other masters! We even sent all the masters we got from other forces to lure Lara''s masters away from the city!"

    "We still have the ones fighting at the portal area," Rick didn''t lose his cool against such a loud and nervous tone from Richard."

    "But¡­ They will get chased by that damn elder. And in the end, we''ll lose them!"

    "And we''ll get Lara''s head," Rick evilly smiled, "don''t worry about these masters. We can get much moreter on. As for the bnce of power, once Lara died, the entire situation will flip to our side. There isn''t any other candidate for the leader position."

 Chapter 610 She Is Still A Child

    ?

    "Your meaning¡­ Don''t tell me¡­ You killed everyone?!!!" This time, Rick was baffled by what Rick said. And with thetter''s absence, he knew this was true, "how¡­ You didn''t consult me on this!"

    "This is something I saw unfitting to tell you about," Rick didn''t feel a shred of guilt or shame when he said this. In fact, his tone was cold like a cier, "I took advantage of the current chaos, and disposed of any opposing name that may stand in your way."

    "..."

    "We don''t fool around," Rick said thest words his dark master told him before sending him here, "once we appear at any ce, then it''ll fall under our control, one way or another."

    "..."

    Richard wasn''t feeling the same. He wasn''t the type to get attached to anyone of his age, but he had three brothers and sisters, those who he knew now were dead.

    He looked at Rick, and seemingly thetter knew what was running in his mind. And yet, Rick never showed a single change on his face. Instead, he kept ring back at Richard, as if he was telling him to suck it and ept the fact.

    "Sigh! You should have told me," Richard finally realised that there was no point in arguing or regret, "anyway¡­ Did you collect their rings and belongings? These are all rich folks for your knowledge."

    "Don''t worry, everything is taken care of," Rick nodded, "now let''s focus on thest hurdle that we need to ovee. Send everyone towards Lara, let her die and then we''ll celebrate our hard-earned victory."

    Richard listened to Rick''s words, while seeing this youth now as the real embodiment of a devil.

    Lara was inside her Spar Arena supervising over the various efforts to fortify the ce. She didn''t hold back and took everything she got in her rings, and even emptied the entire vault of this arena. And soon enough, she spotted the early signs of iing enemies.

    [Watch out! They areing for you!] And just as she was about to give the order to dispatch a small team to crush the iing enemies, Stark''s voice rang in her mind, stopping her from doing anything.

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "Damn! Fine! You lead everyone ande here, and I''ll hold them until you arrive."

    [On my way! How about the portal area? It''s filled with tons of fire¡­]

    Lara recalled what she got from herst talk with William, "leave half of the forces there to control the situation, lead others to me."

    [Half? That''s not enough, not even close from crushing them]

    "We have to work with what we have," Lara acted at this moment as a true leader, knowing what was on the stake, what mattered most, and epted all the shorings she suffered, "just lead half here and let''s pray we''ll get reinforcements soon."

    Lara put away Stark''s Message Paper, then took William''s out. She spoke there but got no response in the end.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    At this moment, William was totally absorbed inying thest touches over his weapon. When he didn''t respond, Lara feared the worst. "Screw it! Can you find a way into the Lost City?"

    [Now?! Do you want to escape there?]

    "No, I want to save someone from there."

    [You¡­ You do know how hard it is to get ess to that ce. Doing so means we''ll hit a force base, and that¡­] Elder Stark wanted to tell her this was impossible. They got short hands right now. And trying to open a new front was a grave mistake.

    "Just do it! Or else we''ll all die!" Lara didn''t know why, but she got such conviction that her survival was rted to William moving out from that underground city.

    Stark tried to dissuade her but failed. In the end, he had to dispatch half of his forces running to save her, ending up losing much more of their numbers without a good reason in his mind.

    He made sure to send a strict and clear message with the leader of this force to William. He asked him to tell this youth about what Lara risked getting him freed.

    In Stark''s opinion, this was the most foolish move Lara ever did since taking the position of the leader of the family. But there was no time to dissuade her to not do it. And their position was already bad to begin with.

    Even if he led all the forces he got towards Lara, he wasn''t that confident in saving her.

    He could already guess the enemy''s real purpose from doing this. And unluckily for them, the masters who rushed here were all tired and wounded and got most of their spirit powers depleted.

    They weren''t fresh forces,ing from hectic battles outside the city. At the same time, the enemy troops weren''t that much better. Yet that wasn''t going to bnce things out.

    One side just had to seed in every single defensive attempt, and the other side had to just seed once to kill Lara. it was clear how bad this entire situation was, and that was why Stark started to pray for a miracle.

    The news of such sudden development, especially when the news of part of the Lara''s faction forces attacking a merchant group all of sudden, reached Rick and Richard''s ears fast. And when they realised the sudden development of the entire war, the two couldn''t help butugh.

    "This idiotic girl¡­ Hahahaha! I never thought I overestimated her!" Richard was this close from falling on the ground out of joy. He was deeply worried about the end result of such a risky move. And when he heard the recent news, he couldn''t help but get shocked by how dumb she was.

    "She is indeed a child," Rick could already see through Lara''s n, "she wants to risk everything just to save one useless master¡­ What a lousy move it is."

    The two keptughing at such a terrible decision, while their masters arrived atst at Lara''s ce. And there everyone got shocked by what they saw.

 Chapter 611 Finishing The Weapon

    ?

    Even elder Stark felt the same immense shock when he arrived there. The entire Spar Arena was now surrounded by deep trenches, lots of traps and defensive arrays that turned the entire ce into a fortress.

    Richard''s side tried their best to infiltrate through such fortifications, ending up losing many masters just to im little space. When elder Stark arrived, and after he passed his shock, he realised why Lara dared to do that crazy move.

    She wasn''t idly waiting here to get surrounded and attacked. When he saw such a defensive measure filling the entire ce around, he knew this war wasn''t lost, not yet.

    Anyone on Lara''s side seeing this got their moral skyrocket again. Everyone thought about the dark future of their family, thought about the inescapable fate of losing their leader. But when they saw this scene, they all knew there was still hope.

    And feeling such a thing was indeed quite dangerous to both sides. Richard and Rick got the news, and that made all their happiness andughs choke in their throats.

    They imagined the remaining part of this war was going to end quite smoothly. Lara was on herst feet, and her forces were thinned out, stretched and exhausted, and were even sent to save William.

    But when they got the reports about the strong defences there, they felt real danger. Stalling for time seemed to be Lara''s n. Buying time until the outside forces of her would return would be quite disastrous.

    From the start, the bnce of this war was flipped in regard for the total master numbers of both sides.

    "We need to do something¡­ Didn''t you tell me you have a weapon that your master gave you before? Why not use it now?" Richard felt like rising up to the seventh heaven to just fall deep down to the lowest hell. He turned to Rick, and thought about the craziest idea ever.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® "You do know that once I use this, there is no turning back," Rick seriously looked at Richard, "you''ll lose everything. This city, the family, your precious portal area, literally everything! Are you sure you want to do that?"

    The words said by Rick managed to knock little sense into Richard''s mind. Thetter paused, lost in thought for a few minutes before making up his mind, "let''s wait then. If it bes impossible to win this war, then it''s better to burn everything before leaving."

    "Ok," Rick wasn''t really attached to this city, never ced it in his eyes at all. He came here to just cause trouble to William, try to take him down. But if he failed in doing so, it''d be great to bring such cmity upon William and others.

    Rick already tasted how scary William would be when he''d receive support. It was better to crush this ce, get rid of any possible allies for him, rather than giving William more masters he could useter on.

    As the two decided, they kept listening to the iing reports. Gradually, their side started to make their way through all the defensive measures Lara sat back there.

    Even if she used everything she got, it wasn''t enough to heavily secure this arena. She kept fighting with the little number of masters she got, trying to fend off any enemiesing through the defensive of hers. As for Stark, he fought crazily with his force, killing lots of the enemies, and tried to scatter them around.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Yet as Lara''s side got a glimpse of hope ignited in their spirits, the enemies also got their source of inspiration, the fear of death.

    As they knew they got cornered like this, without any way of retreat or running away without getting killed, they turned their full attention towards taking Lara down.

    Their only hope was to reach Lara, kill her, and issue a deadly blow to the morals of her forces. Using the depression and sadness that''d follow after her death, they''d find many chances to run away.

    So, the intensity of this battle grew to a new level. And soon enough, things started to look bad to Lara and her side.

    [Retreat now! There is no way to stop all of them before they''ll reach you!] Stark kept trying to persuade her to leave this ce and make a run for her life. But he failed in doing so.

    "Just hang on, I''m sure when he''ll arrive, things will be better. Besides, there is no way for me to run from here, there is no other safe ce in the entire city for me. It''s all dead ends now!"

    Her words held tons of logic and weird heaviness to them. Stark knew she was right, and yet he couldn''t help himself to watch her fall in front of his eyes, not when he was this close by.

    Things were going hectic here. At the same time, the forces Stark sent by Lara''s orders finally managed to crush their way through the merchant group.

    They selected this as their first target as it was the weakest in the entire forces in the city that had ess to the underground city. Merchants were weak in themselves, but they always were strong thanks to hiring the services of mercenaries and guards.

    As the forces in the city lost much of their forces before at the battle inside the Lost City, and the rest were sent to keep Lara''s forces away from the city, it was expected to find little masters defending that merchant base.

    Once the forces arrived at the Lost City, they started to look for William in a fervent way. They also ryed the news over to Stark and Lara, while thetter tried to contact William without any sess.

    William was now about toy thest touches over his weapon. In the next half an hour, he finally finished what he was doing.

    "Phew! Atst, I did it! But¡­ I need to test it¡­ Shall I do it here or¡­"

 Chapter 612 [Bonus ] The Spar Arena Battle

    ?

    [Hey hey! You do know not answering me for hours is driving me crazy! Especially when I''m this close from dying! Please answer me, please¡­]

    Just when he was asking himself this, he heard the terribly anxious and insanely worried voice of Lara. The moment he heard her voice, his mind froze while many bad scenarios popped up in his mind.

    "Sorry about that, I''m here now. Brief me with everything¡­"

    [Atst! Damn you! I swear¡­ I swear I''ll punch you until my arms grow tired!]

    "Ok, ok, let''s save the day first then speak about thister¡­ Tell me what is going on out there¡­"

    [No time for that! I already secured a door for you to go out and my people are in the city looking for your right now. Where the hell are you?]

    "Oh, just in time," William looked at his weapon, before releasing his spirit power like a flood. It enveloped the entire weapon, and then a magical thing started to happen.

    The entire weapon started to break apart on its own, shrink in size, then moved to form a nice-looking chest piece. It covered up William''s chest, starting from his shoulders, down to the middle of his belly.

    It was ck, red, and gold in colour, while taking the shape of a butterfly or something. Despite it having a feminine design, it didn''t give off any feminine vibe. It looked strong, scarily dangerous to anyone looking at it.

    [What do you mean by that?!!!]

    "You''ll see for yourself," William evilly grinned, turned around, changed into his fox form, before starting to run with all his might, "tell them to wait for me at the stairs. Give me half an hour, and I''ll be there."

    [Make it ten! I doubt I canst for half an hour!]

    "Just hang on there, I''ming," William didn''t know what to tell her at this moment. It felt like her situation was really bad, "tell me what happened when I was away."

    [Sh*t happened! Since we spoke¡­]

    She first cursed, then started to speak about what happened. [... And so I need you to arrive here yesterday rather than now!]

    He got how terribly bad her current situation was. She listened to his advice, did everything to fortify the Spar Arena. But even with such efforts, even with the presence of Stark and his masters, her defences were breached at many spots.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    As he was speaking right now to her, the za around the Spar Arena was now breached from twenty directions at least. She was situated deep within the arena, but she knew she got less time than the half an hour he told her about.

    William could only shake off his head in bitterness, realising that his little lie here held grave consequences. He hid himself just at the opposite point from the stairs. And that would take him to cross the entire city across, while fighting tons of monsters in the process.

    Just running straight in his fox form would take this half an hour, not to mention the added time wasted to fight lots of monsters as well. So, he knew if he managed to reach the stairs in one hour, it''d be a miracle.

    The city wasn''t like before, where monsters were dormant and sleeping. They were now stirred up, actively patrolling the city, looking for him or any hidden humans.

    "The hidden masters¡­" Just when he thought there was no hope, he recalled a little detail that he forgot about. [Listen up¡­] he didn''t hesitate and said this piece of news to Lara. And thetter didn''t hesitate to spread the order.

    What he missed was what happened when he first came here. He was chased by lots of various force masters. As he arrived here, he made sure that Lara would spread the order for her forces in the city to retreat and not engage with him.

    He totally missed that. Their number was already high enough to be in the thousands! And there were strong figures there. Not to mention many of them were earth-based masters. And so, William asked Lara to mobilise such a dormant and sizable force, giving them the order to step out and help him.

    Their task wasn''t just to help him escape from here faster, but also to follow him out as well. Such a force, and in such critical timing, was quite valuable and might even be a game changer.

    William also asked her to spread the word around, any master belonging to her faction should move at once towards the Spar Arena. Even if the chances of the presence of any missed forces in the city were negligible, William learnt from his mistake and didn''t want to repeat it.

    Least to his knowledge that such a suggestion he gave on a whim would change the entire course of the war. And when he''d realise thatter on, he''dugh out of how his luck was great.

    Lara listened to his advice. Even if she knew there was no hope in finding any force aside from the one protecting the portal zone right now, she still clinging to hope. Even Stark, the one who thought their situation was fluctuating between stable and severely bad in quite disturbing speed, didn''t object this time and agreed to spread the order.

    Lara was standing on the top floor of the grand arena. She watched hundreds upon hundreds of enemies flood inside the Spar Arena from the gaps in their defences.

    She knew how terribly bad this was. "If you think the master of the arena got no power to stop you, then you are mistaken!" Lara showed a fierce expression over her face, before she started to show her dominance as the leader of the Vancouf family.

    She used this authority before to remodel the entire grand structure of the Spar Arena, merging arenas together, building paths out of thin air, and blocking others.

    Right now she did the same. She started with merging everything under one grand ceiling, forming something like a grand colosseum or something.

 Chapter 613 Finally Getting Out

    ?

    Then she started to create paths that led to nowhere else but in circles. She turned the entire arena into a colossalbyrinth, one that''d suck not only these hundreds, but thousands, even hundreds of thousands inside without getting a way out.

    Richard''s forces who got inside found themselves lost. Any path they ran through ended up leading to nothing. At first, they thought they were taking this long to reach her thanks to the grand structure of this arena. But soon enough the smart and strong ones realised the trick Lara used.

    They spread out their senses, to get blocked by the arena''s ability. That didn''t stop them, and they started to memorise the ces they passed through, leaving spirit blueprints and such. In the end, they noticed they were running in circles, going nowhere.

    "Interesting," Richard muttered when he got the news.

    "She isn''t a pushover or a weakling after all," Rick shook his head, "but any fierce monster will put its fiercest struggle just at itsst legs. Tell them to use their strongest techniques and crush their paths using brute force. I doubt that the ce had enough power to support repairing the arena if much damage is applied."

    "Nice idea," Richard agreed on such an ingenious idea, then ryed the orders over to his men.

    Lara was the most perfect one to know the ins and outs of her arena. She knew its shorings, and that was specifically why she knew she wouldn''t evenst for half an hour.

    The moment Richard gave the order, his forces started to attack everything around them. She tried to retaliate and let lots of rocks fall over them. But that was indeed not going to do anything at all.

    eaglesnov?1,§ão§® The strong masters used their defensive techniques, enough to sustain an entire mountain falling over their heads. As for the ones with earth spirit elements, they yed a great role in pushing aside much of these rocks away from their path.

    Seeing such a swift response from them didn''t surprise her. She already expected all this. "Tsk! It seems I have to recall everyone back¡­ And then¡­ Then it''s the final showdown¡­"

    She knew her chances in survival now were as low as ever. Her forces around the arena were already engaged in bloody battles against the enemies. And Stark''s forces were just too far from reaching her.

    The moment she''d recall her forces back, she''d be totally isted from the outside. Her forces fighting right now around the arena didn''t have the role to stop the enemies from arriving at the arena. They already failed miserably in such a task.

    Their current role was to try and open any gaps through the enemy ranks, allowing part of Stark''s masters toe to her rescue. Yet even with the coordination of Stark''s masters from outside, the enemies stood their ground firmly, preventing even a single gap to open.

    And when she''d recall back all of her forces, then such hope of opening paths for Stark and others would shatter. It''d only fall on Stark''s exhausted and limited force to try and do the impossible, do it fast, do it in the next twenty minutes or so.

    Lara sighed, took out the Message Paper linking her with her forces around the arena. With deep resentment, she sent the order for them to retreat. Then she told Stark about this, rying how the end was getting near her without saying that directly with words.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Stark got what she didn''t say in words, turned to his men and shouted, urging them to fight like hell, break through their enemies and arrive at their entrapped leader.

    Lara watched the entire situation fall apart like pieces of dominoes. Her little number of masters retreated, and she opened paths for them to arrive here faster than their enemies.

    "Get ready," she said on the floor of the entire arena. And as she led her remaining masters here, she also started to change theyout of the entire floor.

    Walls appeared, and lots of tight spaces were left for the enemies to appear in. At the same time, she also made high level tforms, acting like towers or stages for her masters to attack freely from, hitting the enemies from such higher points.

    Yet she knew all this was futile. The enemy already outnumbered them by five times at least. Their morale was at the lowest point right now, while their enemies had nothing to lose.

    She waited, while looking at the grand structure of the arena using her authority as the ruler of the arena.

    Everything went as worse as she expected. The moment Richard''s masters attacked the entire arena structure, they started to pass through the grand arena in a short time.

    It didn''t take them more than ten minutes to climb up their way towards the rooftop of the arena. The moment they appeared there, lots of techniques rained back and forth over the two sides.

    Lara didn''t stand idle, started to help her side using her control over the arena. "Please hurry up, they are already here," she sent this to William, without knowing that thetter was just about to arrive at the stairs.

    William got the help he needed from the hidden masters in the city. The moment they appeared, he started to force his way through the densely packed monsters, not even regarding anything for the ancient building, passing through them, leaving behind a long trail of ruins and destruction.

    His top goal right now was to arrive at the stairs as fast as possible. But he knew even if he went there in a time shorter than he initially expected, taking twenty minutes to cross the entire city, things weren''t going to look great in the end.

    After all, when he arrived at the stairs, he learnt that the door Lara''s masters came from was situated inside the market, far away from the arena.

    That meant they needed to cross another half an hour or even more to arrive there.

 Chapter 614 A Weird Army

    ?

    William''s heart clenched tightly when he heard such a piece of news, didn''t say a single word, and led everyone out from the Lost City.

    After many days, he finally got away from this ce. And even if he managed to build up a scary weapon, even when he was travelling across thousands of masters, even close to ten thousand, he knew it was already toote.

    "Keep fighting, I''m already in the city¡­" William said, but the weak breaths of Lara startled him, alongside a fierce explosion that seemed to happen just next to her location.

    [Sorry about that, I wanted to apany you in adventuring outside¡­]

    She coughed, and stopped what she was saying. And hearing that, hearing herst words, made William''s body tremble.

    He was already in the surface city. Yet what he expected happened. The streets were filled with lots of hostile masters, blocking their path forward for many blocks.

    The masters on his side were fighting against others blocking their route. And so he knew no matter how he wished for, he wouldn''t have the ability to save her.

    "It''s over¡­ Sorry about that¡­" William could only resign and ept such bitter defeat. And before he''d think about what his choices were, something totally unexpected happened!

    Lara was standing on the rooftop when she suffered a strong blow from a dark gold master. She rolled high in the air, fell on the ground, before hitting the side of the walls she created before.

    The next thing she did was to try and stand up. She was in the middle of speaking to William when that hitnded. She lost William''s Message Paper, lost almost her strength and control over her power.

    Yet she''d never ept falling down without putting up a fight, even if all she could muster right now was a useless and weak punch.

    She struggled to stand up, while ten different masters were walking towards her. From the look on their faces, she knew she was doomed, and they were celebrating her death already.

    She turned her face around, tried to take a better andst look over the entire city, about her remaining forces led by Stark, struggling down there to do the impossible.

    But when she did that, when she turned and looked around, she didn''t see the ground, didn''t see the trench, didn''t see anything but an endless tsunami of masters marching and surrounding the arena.

    "This¡­ Who the hell are they?!!!" Lara spoke in a tone that forced the ten masters approaching her to stop. They exchanged looks, before they sent one of them to check over the situation.

    And as Lara screamed in panic and shock, that master also reacted the same. Soon enough, every single one on the rooftop, be it an enemy or an ally, all stopped fighting and turned to look at the grand scene down below.

    It was quite scary, seeing all these masters surrounding them made their scalps grow numb.

    No one ever expected seeing such a scene, and no one ever heard or received an intel regarding the sudden appearance of such terrifying force.

    If it was before, if it was when the city was in its prime status, with all the families and forces inside intact, then facing such an army was nothing.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But right now, everything was ruined. And the only exnation that came into anyone''s mind was for such force toe here from the outside.

    Yet out there lots of forces were fighting. And it was impossible for such a sizable force toe here, slip their way in the middle of all these hectic battles without getting noticed.

    Everyone exchanged nces, and at this moment killing Lara or keeping Lara''s position as the family leader didn''t matter¡­ There was a new boss in the city, and this boss owned such a grand army.

    [Boss, we finally arrived at the Spar Arena]

    [We heard about the distressful message Lara sent to her men at the portal zone]

    [We moved at once to help her, and right now we are surrounding the Spar Arena. But everything there is chaotic]

    [We don''t know who belonged to whom, and we can''t see Lara anywhere]

    [Give us your orders ore here to lead us. Tsk! You have the habit to vanish whenever it''s a crucial moment, one that needs your presence, tsk!]

    William was standing in front of the masters who blocked his path while receiving such voices directly in his head. He was stupefied, looking like he got struck by lightning or something.

    The voices he heard were the voices of his vices. They came back, and William couldn''t believe they just arrived at such a moment.

    "Lara, Lara, are you there? Just look outside, hurry! My team just arrived there to help. They aren''t that much, around two hundred, but they are strong. Can you see them? Can you reach them?"

    William was like a man who lost everything, to find out that there was still hope. Regaining hope again after despair was something that could give anyone the power to topple mountains and cross oceans.

    William hurriedly grabbed the Bullet of Lara and spoke there. But to his bewilderment, he got nothing back. And his mind drifted back towards the worst.

    [William, are you there?] Berry''s voice came and jolted him awake.

    "Listen up, there is a great possibility that Lara died. If she is alive, then you''ll find her at the top. Look for someone called Stark, let him try to reach her."

    [What if she is¡­ You know¡­] Sara paused, as she realised how their situation would be worse if Lara died right now.

    They went each towards one region in the continent, and there they experienced how grand the Fox Guild name was. Once they mentioned their true identities, and they hear two things frequently, the grand purge war that happened five years ago, and the Fox guild brilliant products.

    That helped them greatly in their tasks and managed to recruit hundreds of thousands of masters from various ces of the continent.

 Chapter 615 Unexpected Turn Of Events

    ?

    At the same time, many promised toe and join once they settled their things.

    At their respective regions they found ces to send long term messages through Message Papers. They used this method to contact each other, ending up arranging things to appear at the same time, dreaming about bringing a big surprise to William.

    It was Ro''s idea actually, and others agreed on it. Yet the moment they came here, they were baffled by the scenes of war and destruction spread all over the ce.

    And when they didn''t get what was going on, they heard the shouts of the various masters who remained back there to protect the portal zone. After little intense time, the team vices managed to clear the doubts and control the situation using their VIP membership. Few masters here also recognised the ck Tails vices'' faces, and that helped a lot to settle things.

    The team listened to a brief summary of what happened so far, getting totally shocked by this. When they heard Lara''s distressing order that just came moments before their arrival, their minds jumped to the worst scenario.

    They all thought William was entrapped there. So they left part of their new guild members back to secure the portal zone, while leading others towards the Spar Arena.

    As they arrived there, they heard more intel about what happened. They felt relieved that William wasn''t inside this hellish war and didn''t take part in it yet.

    But they were already in front of the Spar Arena. Ibra decided to lead them there, surround that ce, save Lara, and contact William and wait for their instructions.

    As William gave them the order, the vices started to shout and look for elder Stark. And while doing this, Lara was on the rooftop, feeling shocked.

    She lost William''s Message Paper, so she couldn''t say anything back to him. Yet she heard every single word he said as he got her Message Paper.

    Her body trembled, even her heart as well when she heard what he just said. She moved her eyes around, while one single word kept repeating in her mind¡­ Scary!

    Seeing how William started all the way from being a leader of two hundred teams into a leader of such a sizable force made her realise something.

    "Common sense doesn''t apply to someone like you¡­ You¡­ You are a true prodigy!" she mumbled this to herself, while she started to slowly go over her shock. Then pure excitement started to overflow her, followed by the will to fight again.

    Without waiting for anything, and using this moment of distraction and rare ceasefire, she took an elixir of healing out and gulped its content in her mouth.

    "You¡­ You¡­" and just as she did that, one of her ten enemies who were this close from killing her before noticed what she did. He was scared like others by this mysterious force. So, he couldn''t warn others about what she did. But his sudden shout made others turn towards Lara. and it wasn''t that hard to see that she was getting better.

    "Stop right there!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Kill her!"

    Seeing her getting better made the ten masters recall their task. They threw all the fear and confusion behind their backs now, wanting toplete their task and try to escape the hell out of here.

    But who knew the weak looking youngdy they were this close from killing before got a revival kiss just now? Lara standing in front of them right now wasn''t the same Lara whom they kept fighting and pressuring all this time.

    Just before any of them would move a muscle, Lara showed an evil expression over her face. "Let''s go down there and say hi to my army," she just blurted out these words, before the entire world around all the ten masters changed.

    It wasn''t just thanks to the shocking words of her, it wasn''t just limited to this group of ten. Every single one on the rooftop felt the ground shake fiercely under their feet, before a rapid descent urred.

    It was like an earthquake just hit this part of the world, or the entire grand arena couldn''t take the pressure of the army surrounding it and started to copse.

    None of this was correct, it was all Lara''s doing. As she spotted hope again, she didn''t even hesitate and threw herself at it.

    She controlled the entire grand arena, led the rooftop to fall all the way towards the bottom. She did this out of the blue, and at the same time she made sure that the entire grand structure of the arena would change, totally getting reformed and changed into what could be described as a colossal stage.

    This stage rose on the ground by tens of metres, with what best described as sloppy edges that ended up at the edge where the zaid.

    There was where the newly arrived forces were, the ce where Stark was with his men, fighting against Richard''s masters.

    Such sudden changes came as shocking to everyone like the sudden appearance of the grand army of William here. Lara appeared, standing on top of a tower that was made out of rocks. She stood there, all alone, overlooking the entire world around like nothing would fit her eyes.

    Looking at her right now baffled not only her enemies, but also her own masters. Lara was supposed to be like a defeated leader, without any hope, without any shred of smile or happiness over her face.

    But whoever looked at her could feel how confident and happy she was. In fact, she wasn''t just emitting such a vibe, but she also looked as if she already won this war.

    The look she gave, the tower she made, and the stage she prepared all left everyone on her side stupefied, lost for words. As for her enemies, they started to feel fear for the first time since cornering her up there at the rooftop.

 Chapter 616 Laras Tower

    ?

    "All of my forces, I know we passed through hard times, however¡­ It''s my honour to tell you that the worst has already passed. The army that you see here belongs to us, belongs to William. To all of my forces hearing my words right now¡­ Attack¡­ Kill the enemies, kill everyone, kill Richard and bring me his head! To victory!"

    Well, if anyone told them that a miracle happened here at this moment, they wouldn''t believe him. But it was Lara, and the air she emitted was the air suited for a queen, a victorious and all mighty queen, not someone who was this close from losing everything.

    The first to be jolted awake from this was Stark. He instantly ordered the masters on his side to do one simple thing, to retreat, run towards the grand army of masters surrounding the entire ce.

    This wasn''t an act of cowardice, but an order to regte things here. If he didn''t do it, then it was destined for chaos to befall, where no one of the new army would recognise a friend from a foe.

    So, it was the most crucial thing to move everyone first towards William''s masters, separate themselves from the enemies, and make it clear who the enemy and ally was.

    Shouting like this made his masters jolt awake as well, before they started to move towards the same direction Stark moved towards.

    And what happened next was expected. A one-sided massacre urred. And Lara kept herself standing on that tower, overlooking all this with cold eyes and trembling spirit.

    She managed to revive, get back from the depths of the doors of death. And all this, such a miracle did happen because of one person; William.

    Thetter was now racing towards the location of the grand arena. He kept receiving reports from his vices, and finally got relieved when they confirmed that Lara was alive.

    Unlike what he felt, Rick and Richard felt the total opposite than him. The two were just waiting for the confirmation of Lara''s death, to receive the shocking news about the sudden appearance of a grand army.

    Then news started to flood them, crushing any doubt they had about the origin and identity of this army.

    "This¡­" Richard turned to Rick, to see the same look of disbelief over his ally''s face.

    "I never thought¡­ Howe he brought his guild''s members all the way here?! No way!" Rick shook his head, jolting himself awake before adding, "the distance from that ce to here will take weeks to cross. And such a grand army won''t pass without getting noticed by our eyes¡­ Weird¡­ This is weird¡­"

    Rick was baffled with such news, and his mind was this close to exploding. He couldn''t believe that the second time he got in touch with William ended in the same disastrous defeat, the same way William did it before, without any logic or reason behind any of this.

    "Great¡­ Just great¡­" If he lost this war by normal means, without such a weird and unexinedrge army''s presence, then Rick wouldn''t be even half this shocked or enraged.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    If he lost by normal means, then he''d leave behind a torn apart city, with lots of ruins and little forces to gather. But now? With such an army, everything was going to get under control soon enough.

    Not long time passed over the grand battles outside the city. If this army news spread over, then it would mean the end of any resistance. Resisting what exactly? Anyone in their right mind would lower their heads and ept the new sheriff in town!

    "Are we going to leave? Like this?!!!" Richard was feeling no less bitterness inside than Rick. He already saw the dream of ruling over this city finally happening. And yet everything shattered.

    It felt like a mirage, like it was so close and yet so damn far away from his reach. Richard didn''t know if he made the wrong decision a few years ago, deciding to join hands with the dark forces in the area.

    First, that big war that happened at the Scorching Lands five years ago dealt a big blow to all the dark forces around the world. Many righteous masters fought against the dark forces using the same tactics and methods William and others used before.

    And when he thought things went from being bad to great by the appearance of a new dark lord, meeting up Rick, and hearing the brilliant n about letting Lara sh with other forces by using William as the fuse, he thought he was blessed.

    Yet he ended up realising it was a curse, a deadly and ck curse that took everything, literally everything, away from him. He worked for long years, endured and faked his weakness and uselessness to just have everything he built getting smashed and turned into nothing.

    "We are going to leave," Rick slowly nodded, taking something out of his ring, "but we won''t leave empty handed, not like this."

    e¦Áglesn?¦Íel "The weapon¡­" Richard''s eyes shone brightly when he spotted what Rick held in his hands, "are you going to use it now?"

    "I won''t let him have such a grand ce with such power," Rick hated William deep from the bones and spirit, "let''s go. We need to prepare things out for this weapon to get activated¡­"

    Rick stored that weapon again, before he took a ball out. He smashed it on the ground, and then green gas appeared, enveloping the two of them, before they vanished from here like they never existed.

    It was a gift from Rick''s dark master, one that could teleport Rick and a group of a hundred around towards any ce randomly allocated one hundred kilometres away from the city.

    Crossing such distance meant they didn''t just get away from the city, but also bypassed all the ongoing shes between the two sides. The two appeared on top of a small hill, and that made Rick recall the dark forces'' bases he used to visit before William ruined everything for him.

 Chapter 617 Its Weird

    ?

    That made Rick more enraged, more determined to ruin what William built here before giving fruition to something big.

    Back to the city, William was standing by his vices, overlooking the grand miracle that happened here. He didn''t get what was going on here until he reached close to the arena, getting blocked by the tons of masters surrounding it.

    It didn''t take him long to know what happened here. And that simply blew up his mind. He was now standing by the side of Lara, over the grand tower that she didn''t n to demolish.

    "You want to leave it here, acting like a reminder or something? I like that!" William said in agreement, and she smiled faintly while feeling much warmth deep inside her heart.

    But this time, she wasn''t alone with him. The entire team vices were present. And thedies there sniffed trouble out of her.

    They red at her, and that made Lara notice their presence, smelling challenge as well, before ring back.

    "How about your family? The different forces in the city? How about the city itself?" William asked, interrupting the ongoing silent battle between girls around him without even realising this.

    "The city is damaged indeed, but we got more than sixty percent of the initial poption and master count preserved. I sent orders out there to stop the ongoing useless battles. Richard lost, and I won."

    "Speaking about this jerk, where is he now?" William recalled this matter. He asked Lara to send people and capture that jerk. But yet no news came from the teams who went to look for him.

    "I sent teams to his residence, to his ces, and towards lots of other ces he used to stay at. And yet, I couldn''t find him."

    "That''s weird¡­" William paused, before shaking his head, "if he isn''t at any ce he used to be, then it means he already ran away."

    "This fast?!" Lara didn''t buy it.

    "He isn''t that simple, I warned you about him before," William rolled his eyes when he heard what she just said. She still looked down on Rick, seemingly like she didn''t see him as her rival anymore.

    "He had nowhere else to go, no forces to use, and not even enough wealth! He lost, bitterly and utterly lost everything he had. So why shall I worry about him?"

    Lara indeed got a point here. But William could only sigh in response to her words.

    "An enemy who managed to push your back against the wall this hard is worthy worrying from," he paused before adding, "he is like a serpent, and when facing one you have to make sure you cut his head or else your head will be the one rolling next."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ok," despite not buying what he said, she decided to follow his advice again. Since that war, since the weird orders he gave her and ended up all in great gains, she decided to take what he''d say seriously. Even if his words didn''t make sense, looked crazy, she decided to follow his instructions as if he was her mentor or something.

    "Lara, the entire city is now under our control," after an hour or so, elder Stark returned with the good news, "the forces fighting out there stopped the shes. They are all returning back. However¡­"

    "I know, I know, the same bullshit about their regret and desire to amend everything, right?" Lara guessed what Stark was going to say. The forces in the city decided to swallow such huge losses, epting the presence of the sole power controlling everything; the Vancouf family.

    Of course if William wanted, he couldpete against her, especially when she and her family were in such dire conditions. But William didn''t want to do that. He wanted to let her take the lead, deal with the rest of the forces, and then he''d work slowly to absorb her entire family and add everyone to his guild.

    His previous worries were gone by this victory. And even if Richard was nowhere to be seen, he got no threatening presence by being alive just like Lara said.

    "They want peace," Stark paused, before adding, "and we do really need them to rebuild the city. One family, and¡­ One guild can''t do everything like fifty powers gathered together, right?"

    Stark paused, fixed a short gaze over William before continuing to talk a bit with Lara. His reason for pausing was that he was truly shocked by this youngster.

    He was previously one of his fans, and now he was one of his biggest supporters and admirers. He held the same amount of appreciation and admiration towards him like Lara did.

    "Mydy, there is something I just heard of¡­" And just before everyone would heave a sigh of relief and think about celebration, and before Stark would lead Lara away from here to meet the leaders of other forces back at Lara''s Tower area, a dark gold master came fast and interrupted all this.

    Just from the look on his face, anyone could tell he held grave news.

    "M¡­ My son¡­" the news was about the death of all the young generation, all except for Lara and the running Richard, "that Richard¡­ I swear I''ll kill him with both hands!"

    Stark was indeed feeling enraged like never before, feeling more of sadness and bitterness when he heard the grave news. His body kept trembling, while his face alternated from showing anger to extreme sadness.

    William watched this from the side, feeling a bit surprised actually. He took Richard to be dangerous, but he never took him to be this toxic. Besides, it seemed such events happened in the middle of the big battles going on all over the city.

    If few got killed, then it would be exined by crossfire or coteral damage from this war. But all of them meant someone must have sent assassins to do it.

    That reminded William of the tactic Richard used before, that rabbit one. William didn''t have the time nor the mind to think deeply about such a bizarre thing. But now he finally found how truly weird it was.

 Chapter 618 Investigating Things

    ?

    "Can you show me the ces they died at?" William suddenly spoke up, and everyone looked at him with different emotions.

    "What do you have in mind?" Stark was already on the verge of losing himself when William said his piece. He knew this youngster would never do something out of boredom or curiosity. If William asked for such a weird request, then it was just safe to assume he got a clue about something.

    "I frankly don''t know, but¡­" William paused, looked at Lara before adding, "she got attacked by a formation that can''t be known by Richard. Don''t ask me how I know, but I''m sure the attack that happened at the portal area, detonated the entire building, and sealed the door towards the Lost city, wasn''t done by Richard."

    "Then by whom?! Is he also the one who killed my son?" Stark was really desperate, like any father hearing the news about the loss of his son.

    "Let me check first," William said in absolute seriousness, "then I''ll let you know if I reached anything."

    "Thanks," Stark took out a Message Paper, handed it to William. Thetter gave him and Lara his Bullets, so they could speak with him all the time about any development.

    And then William left with Lina, Sara, Ro, Ibra, and Thomas, following people from the Vancouf family. After this day, there weren''t anymore factions inside the Vancouf family, it was united, with deep wounds and heavy losses, yet ended up united and not destroyed.

    "Do you believe now that you are a disaster ma? Tsk! I have never heard of someone with such ability like yours!"

    "Shut up!"

    William walked in the middle of his five vices and friends, while Ibra kept pestering him like this. William knew what Ibra said might be true, but he didn''t feel any regret about having such luck.

    After all, if not for the presence of the interworld portal under this city, he''d never have thought about fighting back or causing any trouble here.

    "By the way, I see that youngdy of the Vancouf family quite interesting, right?" Ro turned towards William, acting as the fire starter.

    William could already sniff the gunpowder from her words. He knew this was going to be a little issue among his girls, and he knew how to best deal with all this; ignoring what they say!

    Sometimes being silent was the best answer to a few solutions.

    "Thomas, you need to use your technique all the time," William ignored that troublemaker, turned to Thomas and said.

    "Starting from now?" Thomas used to act a bit cold and silent when he was with anyone but William. After all, the other vices always called him the Trouble Lord behind his back all the time.

    "Yes," William paused, "I want to see if there are traces of people other than those belonging to the city."

    "I got it," Thomas nodded, activated his technique, while Sara couldn''t help but ask:<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "What do you suspect?"

    "I sniff the dirty smell of dark masters," what William said made their faces change a little bit.

    "Aren''t these rats hiding since that war five years ago?" Lina asked what everyone was thinking about.

    "That happened five years ago," William didn''t agree with what they thought about, "and we aren''t in the Scorching Lands. Dark masters might be cowards, but they are quite resilient. I''m sure part of what happened is connected in a way or another with dark masters."

    "Hmm¡­ If there are any courageous and ambitious rats here, then it''s our duty to eradicate them, right?" Ibra looked at others, and they all nodded in firm and decisive ways.

    The ck Tails team lived and interacted with William the most during the past five years. And without knowing it, they got infected by his deep hatred and enmity towards such traitors.

    In fact the entire Fox guild was famous in the nearby areas as the Anti-Dark Master folks. They always epted any work and tasks rted to dark masters. Not to mention their glorious rise five years ago in the ashes of many dark masters.

    "Let''s just hope they are still here," William knew that getting a clue about the presence of the dark masters in the city was something, and finding these despicable traitors was another thing.

    He didn''t want to just confirm his guesses and doubts, he wanted to find and kill most of them, capture a few, and gain any possible intel about their true identities and missions.

    The small team went towards the ce where Stark''s son was killed. It was a nice two storey mansion, surrounded by what once was a thriving and grand green garden.

    But now it was all ruined. There were deep holes everywhere, lots of dead bodies, and even smoke tongues were still rising from different ces of the destroyed mansion.

    "What do you see?" William entered the mansion, to see more dead bodies. He turned to Thomas, and didn''t care about anything else.

    "There are indeed quite interesting traces here," Thomas moved his eyes around, seemingly seeing different coloured threads that were heading towards the horizon, "this one, this, and this are all connected with the alien forces."

    Thomas could see traces and connections of karma, but he had no way to identify the identities of anyone. William knew of a technique that could help Thomas identify the rtion of anyone to him using his karma element. Yet it was a very advanced technique, one that he had to wait to arrive to the higher realm to teach it to this youth.

    But now it was enough to identify the identities of the mysterious figures in all this mess. Thomas pointed towards a group of twenty or something just in this grand and destroyed hall.

    "Gather me everything on them, and follow me around," William said to others, while patting on Thomas'' shoulder. Thetter kept moving around the mansion, pointing towards anyone who got weird connections in his vision.

 Chapter 619 Finding A Secret

    ?

    The more they walked, the more Thomas pointed towards dead bodies. In the end, William was surprised that Thomas pointed towards a couple of thousand of masters.

    He thought there would be tens of them or something. But it seemed the mission of taking down Stark''s son held special importance to that mysterious force who sent these masters over.

    William didn''t hurry to leave. He finished touring the ce, taking an hour or so in doing that, before he returned to the hall and received everything his friends got.

    "Move around the ce, scan everything here using the detection arrays," William didn''t like how this situation looked like. If his doubts were true and all of these dead masters belonged to the dark side, then that meant their total number here was much more than he initially thought.

    It''d be more like a small army appeared and infiltrated the city. That wasn''t just a casual visit or n towards this ce. And that also meant there were still lots of rats hidden in different ces in this city.

    "Don''t miss the streets and buildings around, scan everything and be vignt."

    "Don''t worry, if we find anything, we''ll inform you," Ibra waved his ive a couple of times in the air, "but first, what''s about that weird thing on your chest? New fashion perhaps?"

    "Consider it like that," Williamughed and didn''t say anything about his friend''sment.

    "Tsk!" Ibra knew he''d not get anything out of William if thetter decided not to speak. He led everyone out, while William stood alone in the middle of that ruined hall.

    He felt a little mncholic when he went through all the rings of these folks. The first thing he noticed was the presence of a seal over the ring, something that was filled with darkness energy.

    "This is a promising start," William found lots of scrolls in the first couple of rings he opened. But then, he found nothing! Literally nothing as if these scrolls were just at the first few rings and only that.

    "Let''s see what''s all this about then," William opened the scrolls. He expected to find empty papers, but he was surprised to find few words left in all the scrolls he opened.

    It was the same words, exactly the same. And they all held one simple message: I dare you toe and fight me.

    "Hmm¡­ He seems to be too anxious to fight me¡­" William was feeling sceptical about all this. Finding the same message all over the scrolls, finding nothing else about the identity of these folks or the one who left behind this repeated message made him quite vignt.

    It was apparent that these people were his enemies. And he got a small list of enemies actually in this world. So his earlier doubts deepened. Not to mention the one standing behind all this seemed to know a lot about him.

    He guessed that William would suspect something, and woulde to look for clues. And that was why he left all these messages over to him. William knew if he went all over the city, visiting other crime scenes, then he''d also find the same kind of messages in all the rings he''d collected. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He already thought about doing such a thing, going all over the city, visiting all the ces where the young generation of the Vancouf family got killed. But now he dropped any idea rted to this. Instead, he got somewhere else to visit.

    "Did you find anything useful?" as he went through the rest of the rings, finding nothing worthy, he spoke to Ibra.

    [Nothing yet]

    "Let''s go then, we won''t find anything here," William moved outside the mansion, "meet me at the mansion gate."

    [Tsk! Always this impatient, fine!] Ibra didn''t dy and came with others, "Where are we going now? Acting like crime scene investigators or something?"

    "No, it''s all prearranged and nned by our enemy," William paused, "let''s go and visit where all this started in the first ce, let''s go towards Richard''s mansion."

    William didn''t know where this bastard lived, but he was quite sure if he was destined to find clues then they''d be there.

    Everyone in his little team was curious about what was going on, kept asking questions without getting any satisfying answers. It wasn''t that William didn''t want to tell them anything, but because he alsocked any knowledge about what they were asking about.

    William got the help he needed from the masters Stark sent with him. He spoke with Stark directly about his intentions, and shared with him what he found in brief.

    He said that they found weird masters who didn''t belong to the city in the scene. And that made Stark more enraged, demanding for more answers, more specifically the identity of the bastard who killed his son for revenge.

    William only promised to share news he''d find with him. He knew if that enemy was strong as he expected, then he''d need all the help he''d could get. And having the aid of a furious father wanting to avenge his son wasn''t that bad.

    William reached where Richard used to live. It wasn''t any lesser than the mansion he visited before, yet it was a lot different. There were no signs of any fight, nothing destroyed, and everything looked just normal.

    "If not walking through death and ruins all day here, I''d have doubted that brutal war even happened," Sara said, and others nodded.

    "Thomas," William didn''t even sit a single foot in here before letting his man start using his magic. Thomas didn''t find anything abnormal at first. After all there was no sign of any fight in this ce. But when they went deeper inside that mansion, Thomas found something new.

    There was some sort of a hidden door behind a grand wall. William let Ibra handle the remodelling of this ce in his style, using his ive to forcely open the door, taking down lots of the wall as well.

 Chapter 620 Digging The Ground

    ?

    "Interesting," William found a set of stairs lying ahead. When everyone descended, and they kept doing this for long minutes, they finally arrived at what could be described as an underground hall.

    William didn''t know why, but it seemed that anyone trying to do anything dirty had a thing to have their secret bases hidden deep underground. "Lead us," William knew such a ce must be filled with tons of traps and defensive arrays to stop any invaders. And when Thomas just took a random look around, he spotted lots of these traps indeed.

    He kept pointing towards their ces, describing to William how they looked. At the same time, William identified every single one of them, letting his friends help in deactivating everything, purifying this hall from all the traps.

    Doing this wasn''t actually difficult, especially with William''s presence, especially when most if not all of the traps needed brutal force to get deactivated.

    Ibra and Sara had their fun, while Ro keptughing from time to time. Lina kept herself by William''s side, not doing anything until she was told to. Thomas was the leading and orchestrating mastermind behind them. And in less than two hours, they purged the entire hall.

    "Time to see what that bastard kept hidden from everyone," William moved his eyes around, "start searching carefully, don''t leave a speck without getting checked."

    He stood in the middle of this hall. There were too many scrolls on two sides of the wall, while a big desk was in another corner.

    Aside from that, there was a big table made of a ck ore, one that was surrounded with twenty wooden seats, telling William that there were lots of meetings that happened in this ce.

    "Go and check if there are any hidden paths here," William could tell the visitors Richard met didn''te from the hidden door they walked through.

    If weird folks kepting and going from this mansion, then many would have noticed this. So it was expected to find a hidden path, and Thomas found three not just one.

    As for his friends, they found lots of scrolls speaking about different matters. Be it the general situation in the city, dirty secrets regarding many members in these forces, ending up with detailedyout of the entire ce¡­ Everything was pointing out towards a grand scheming mind that worked on this n for years.

    And William didn''t find anything weird about any of this. He already suspected Richard from the first moment he met him, and knew he was by any means a normal young man.

    William stood on the head of the table, looking at the many scrolls his team gathered for him. "They are all speaking about local matters¡­ Weird¡­" William expected to find something that could link Richard with any dark force. But it seemed he ced too much hope on nothing.

    The scrolls the team found were just speaking about things happening or rted to the city.

    "Perhaps we can find more by going through these tunnels," Ibra was eager to go through these tunnels, imagining finding himself at one of the dark forces bases in the area.

    "Don''t think too much," William rolled his eyes, "the best we can find is tunnels filled to the brim with deadly traps. Then at the end, we will find ourselves standing a few kilometres away from the city, appearing just in the middle of nowhere."

    William''s guesses were true. These tunnels were indeed filled with tons of deadly traps. And at the end, they opened at nowhere, just kilometres away from the city.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Then¡­" Sara felt how depressed and disappointed William was by finding nothing.

    "Did you see nothing else?" William turned to Thomas again, clinging to thest hope in finding anything.

    "Let me check everything again," Thomas paused before an idea appeared in his mind, "this ce looks like a shining gxy in my eyes. Everywhere here has connections with Richard or with lots of people who met with him."

    "Then?" William didn''t get what Thomas wanted to convey here, so he asked.

    "Why not move everything aside, let me see the entire hall clean from anything?" Thomas said what he wanted, and William didn''t say anything. He simply turned to look at Ibra and Sara, and the two started to deal with this.

    Ibra didn''t like tidying anything, never did anything like this actually in his life. So he simply waved his ive loose, cleaving anything and turning them into shreds. As for Sara, she worked with others in moving everything towards the hidden tunnels, activating the traps there, ending up destroying them as well.

    "Now?" This didn''t take more than ten minutes. And now the entire hall looked empty except for them. Even the table and desk were dealt with.

    Thomas didn''t speak, started to walk around, seemingly seeing things better now.

    "There," and in a few minutes, he pointed towards a spot, "there is something hidden ten metres under this spot¡­ It''s like a tiny room, one that won''t exceed two in one metres at most¡­"

    "Great," William was excited to have something at the end, "keep looking around, try to see if there is anything else hidden here."

    "Tsk! Why does this ce give me the vibe of a snake hole?" Ibrained, "since we got here, and I was destroying things¡­"

    "As if you aren''t happy about waving your ive around," William rolled his eyes, motioned towards the spot Thomas pointed towards, "crack it open, and pray we''ll find something interesting there."

    "Tsk! If that bastard didn''t hide anything useful in such a forsaken hole then I''ll kill him myself!"

    Ibra raised his ive, and used a scary technique beforending it with all his might over that spot. The entire building rumbled and the ground trembled, before a hole appeared there.

    William stood on the edge of it, looking at the five metres gap, "do it again, and try to control your power this time."

    "I''ll increase it then."

 Chapter 621 Drawing An Eye

    ?

    "No genius, make it weaker! You don''t want to ruin what lies down there, right?" William rolled his eyes, and Ibra showed an amusing smile on his face as if he was just teasing William.

    The next two hits were enough to show up the space down below. It was just as Thomas described, a tiny space that looked more like a coffin than a hidden room.

    "Stay here," William climbed down towards that hidden room. The first thing he thought about was how weird it was for Richard to have such a hidden ce without any entry or exit.

    As he arrived down below, he found that hidden ce much smaller than he initially thought. Aside from ck metallic box, there was nothing there at all.

    "This¡­" William was shocked when he touched this ck box, "It''s¡­ No way! It''s a Legacy!!!"

    William couldn''t believe his eyes and senses. The moment he touched that ck box, he felt like his hand touched a ck hole or something.

    His spirit power gushed in torrents towards that ck box. If he didn''t act fast, stored it inside his ring, then he''d get depleted of his spirit power in mere ten seconds!

    "Did you find anything?" Ibra''s shout from above jolted William awake. He turned towards his anticipated team, and couldn''t help but smile.

    "Let''s go," he climbed his way up, looked at his team with his big smile before adding, "we already got what we came for."

    "Which is?" Sara felt like William wasn''t going to tell them anything. Yet unlike what she and others expected, Williamughed before adding:

    "We''ll talk when we go to our guild branch."

    "It''s safe, right?" Thomas suddenly asked, making William pause in his tracks.

    All this time, he was busy dealing with what was going on around to forget about checking on his guild branch.

    "Let''s go and check it then," William didn''t say anything more than that. And Thomas'' words silenced everyone, crushed the good vibes William got from this box.

    William led everyone out of this mansion. He might have not found a clue about any dark forces connected to Richard, but he found something else far interesting.

    If not for being too dangerous, he''d take that box out and caress it.

    "Phew! You do know you scared me for a second there," when they arrived at the guild branch, they found it quite normal and intact.

    They walked through dense ces filled with ruins. Almost half of the city was raised to the ground. But luckily no one ced the Fox guild branch in their eyes as a target.

    Thomas looked at Sara and couldn''t help but sigh. He just casually asked, didn''t realise he hit a sour spot by what he said.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Don''t say any random stuff like this again," William also felt panicked when Thomas asked that question. So he turned to the Trouble Lord and asked him to stop jinxing them like this.

    "Now¡­" Ibra rubbed his hands, feeling like they found a treasure out there in that deep hole or something, "what did you find there? I saw ck box that shone for a brief moment before vanishing. What was that?"

    "Yes boss, what was that?" Thomas asked, trying to make them forget about what he identally caused them.

    "It''s something¡­ Great!" William just said this, turned around and added, "gather everyone of our close circle. I''ll exin everything in the central building. Also bring everyone on our side here¡­"

    Just before he''d continue his words, his smile suddenly froze. He wasn''t the only one having such a change, all of them also had the same thing.

    "Thomas¡­" William turned to Thomas, and without the need to say anything, thetter started activating his technique.

    The look over their faces showed how serious they felt right now. Just when William was speaking, they all felt a weird tremble of the ground.

    If it wasn''t like an explosion or an earthquake, it was like the effect monsters would cause when running.

    They didn''t hear anything, couldn''t feel the aura of any monster. And as they were in a city, they all jumped towards the same conclusion at the same time; a monster tide!

    "What the hell¡­ Is that?!!!" Thomas'' body trembled faintly, and everyone knew he was about to bring very bad news this time.

    "What do you see?" William didn''t jump to conclusions like others. He knew Thomas for years now. And this was the second time he saw him act like this.

    The first time happened when they were at the Fox Lair, clearing the traps. Thomas acted like this when he couldn''t get what he saw meant. And that look on his face was just identical to the one from back then.

    "Well¡­" and as he expected, Thomas seemed to struggle to exin what he was seeing, "the entire world¡­ It''s like it''s filled with lights¡­"

    As William nodded to him, Thomas started to speak. But William knew he didn''t just see that. "What else?" he demanded, and Thomas organised his thoughts before exining what he couldn''t get:

    "There is some sort of a circle in the sky¡­ Or is it an eye? I can''t tell¡­ It''s shining the brightest, and it has a thick piring down from it, with endless threads branching out¡­"

    Thomas tried to exin to the best of his abilities, and yet he felt like he didn''t exin that much. Unlike what he expected, William nodded as he got what he meant.

    "Is it like this?" William even leant to the ground, and started drawing something over there. William drew a full rounded eye, with something like a roding out from it. Then he branched lots of lines, like it was sun rays or something.

    "Yes, yes, it''s like this indeed¡­ How did you¡­" Thomas turned to William, asked in doubt and shock. He struggled to evenprehend what was going on, and felt like he failed to describe everything right.

 Chapter 622 Is It This Bad?

    ?

    To his surprise, William didn''t just get what he meant, but even drew it right.

    "This is¡­ Very bad¡­" William sighed, moved his eyes among the ones around, "gather up everyone, we are going for war."

    "Is it a monster tide?" Ibra waved his ive, "will it be likest time?"

    "It''s worse," William didn''t exin more, "just gather up everyone. And go to the market, or what''s left in it. Bring me all the Scarlet Vibrant ores¡­ You know what, bring any ores with the name vibrant in it, no matter what quantity, bring me everything you can find¡­ Even forcibly open the stalls and shops, open vaults, bring me everything!"

    William''s words seemed quite serious, and they didn''t hesitate to move out the moment they heard him. When Sara and Lang heard about this, the two recalled how William acted before at their n. And that told them this monster tide wasn''t going to be simple.

    It wasn''t indeed simple. The eye that William drew and Thomas saw was a famous mark of the Doors of Hell eye. It was a fearsome weapon in the hands of dark masters.

    Dark masters could fill any pocket worlds with monsters. But the extremely expert ones would turn these pocket worlds into summonable orbs.

    The difference might seem trivial, as both could be carried around. But when a pocket world would turn into a summonable orb, it''d gain an additional ability, blood evolution!

    All the monsters inside wouldn''t juste as a tsunami against anything and anyone, but they''d also grow stronger the more they fought, the more they killed and ate the bodies of their targets.

    This was a scary feature, one that would turn any summonable orb monster tide into something of S grade at least regardless of anything else.

    William knew such orbs weren''tmon even in the outer world. They needed lots of preparation, lots  of materials, and quite a scary amount of spirit power and knowledge.

    Seeing such a thing that wasn''t supposed to belong to this world for the second time in a row made William quite serious and vignt. "One item may be exined by being extremely lucky and stumbling across an ancient ruin, but two? That''s not luck¡­" William was lost in thoughts while he sent the bad news over to Lara, asking her to organise everyone and start preparing for a brutal battle.

    She was confused and didn''t get why at this moment a monster tide woulde. But William told her that there was no point in worrying about the inevitable, and it was better to start preparing everyone for this battle.

    William knew the reason now. He was having his own theories about Richard working with dark masters. And now he was positive of that.

    The timing looked weird, and the nature of this monster tide matched also the same thing that was once used against Lara, both came from outer worlds not here.

    Both served Richard''s goals perfectly. This monster tide was like a revenge move from him, one that was aiming to destroy everything as long as he didn''t get it.

    The timing of it was just perfect! The war over the throne of the Vancouf family just ended, and the war over who''d rule the city also concluded.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The entire city with its full forces, including the Vancouf family, were all suffering heavy losses.

    It was the worst time for this city and its people and forces to fight such a monster tide. Not to mention it was verymon for such tides to happen here.

    William thought for a second that what he did back at the Lost City led to the diffusion of little aura of the interworld portal. But when Lara told him that they had to face one monster tide every ten years, he realised that this wasn''t his fault.

    [What do you n to do?] she asked at the end, and he could only think about the current status of the city defences.

    "Are the walls and traps intact?" This was the most important thing he had to ask about right now.

    [Of course not! The battles extended outside the city, but I don''t know if we can prepare everything or not¡­ Don''t even know how long we have. I''m going to arrange scout teams. For a reason, our spirit senses are blocked]

    "Don''t," when William heard thest piece of what she said, he knew this was the effect of a grand array or something, "just take care of the defences here, prepare anything you can, and deploy more traps. Consider this as a deadly threat level, and don''t hesitate to use even the rarest treasures to strengthen the defences."

    [This¡­ But we need to do some reconnaissance¡­]

    William recalled Smith at this moment. He bitterly sighed before replying to her.

    "I''m going to do it personally. And no, don''t think about sending anyone with me. I alone is more than enough to do it. Just take care of anything. And I''ll leave my new guild members here to help. Also send messengers out to all the ces the portals can reach, bring all the help you can get. If you have a life debt with anyone, it''s time to cash such tickets now¡­"

    William started to rain down his orders and instructions for her, and she attentively listened. The more he spoke, the more she felt how grave this monster tide was.

    [Is it this bad?] After he finished, she couldn''t help but ask.

    "It''s much worse than what you can possibly imagine," William sighed, "just do everything in your power, and pray."

    William then turned to his team, spread the words over for everyone to help Lara and the city. He also asked them to keep gathering any vibrant ores from the market and stack them inside the city until his return. But he asked for all the amounts they got to be delivered to him first.

    "Don''t dream about leaving without me," Ibra was the one to deliver the ores everyone gathered so far. And when he arrived at the city gates, he instantly waved his ive, seemingly prepared to hit something with it.

 Chapter 623 Sending Ibra On A Secret Mission

    ?

    "No, not this time," William knew how battle maniac Ibra could get when he was in front of such a big battle.

    "I want to go!" like a child, Ibra shouted and even hit the ground with his ive.

    "I want you to do something else for me," William rolled his eyes, seemingly used to how his friend acted, "it''s a very important task."

    William then told Ibra about a job that would suit him. As he expected, Ibra didn''t object and his interest piqued the moment he heard about this task.

    "... And above anything, you need to keep yourself hidden all the time. You do know you won''t get any help from us, so don''t act unless you are absolutely sure."

    "Got it," Ibra grinned, "but that doesn''t mean after that I can do whatever I want, right?"

    "No problem," William shrugged, "just make sure to do it right. You do know the consequences of failure."

    "I won''t fail," Ibra then turned around, going in a different direction than what William headed towards.

    William didn''t hurry to change into his fox form, not yet. The area around the city was emptied for kilometres around from trees. It wasn''t a protective measure from the city, but it was the aftermath of the brutal fights that urred recently.

    William got how bad the general situation of the walls and other defences of the city when he got to the outer region. There he saw gaps taking the whole height of the walls, with lots of holes that filled the ground outside.

    Once he entered the forest, he didn''t keep running forward. He took out a few of the vibrant ores he received from Ibra, used his sword to dig holes and buried lots of ores there.

    He knew it''d be difficult to memorise the ces of these ores, so he used something else to locate these orester on. Every one kilometre he ran, he stopped, distributed the ores over a hundred metres area. He took an ore from his ring, one that could shine at darkness with faint blue light.

    He inserted these over the trees around, to be easily seen from far.

    He kept moving forward, and every five kilometres, he stopped and moved diagonally, spreading more vibrant ores.

    He didn''t care about the type of these ores. Any ore with the word vibrant in its name shared the same general characteristics as the Scarlet Vibrant ores.

    William knew the monstersing towards the city were at least hundreds of kilometres away from here. This wasn''t a secret about this kind of summoning pocket worlds. They just needed enough space for monsters to spread over and gather in enough numbers, beforending at their targets like locusts.

    He knew he had enough time and arge area to cover with the vibrant ores. After covering up fifty kilometres, he shifted his activity, starting to move diagonally, spreading the ores over a broader area.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    *Roar!*

    William kept doing this for almost five hours before the first signs of the monster tide appeared with faint roars at first.

    "They are here," William didn''t stop what he was doing, didn''t even turn around and took shelter at the areas he fortified using ores. Instead, he continued to run forward, spreading the vibrant ores.

    In less than half an hour, the faint and distant heard roars of the monsters started to grow fiercer, louder, and closer. And yet William didn''t slow down his actions.

    If anything happened, then he threw away all his organised arrangement of the ores, worked to just scatter ores anywhere, anyce he went, without any order at all.

    At this moment, William didn''t care about organising anything. He knew it was pointless, and instead he focused on spreading more ores.

    "Here theye¡­" In less than ten minutes, the early lines of the monster tide appeared in front of him. First the treeline shook, the ground trembled violently, before lots of trees fell down. Many monsters were exposed in his eyes, and he recognised the true nature of these monsters.

    "The dark white grade Brown Leopards? No f*cking way! What are monsters from the outer world doing here?!!!"

    William was shocked when he spotted these monsters. Out there in the vast world, these monsters were considered pretty much weak. They were one type of monster lying at the lowest pyramid of power in the monster world in the outer world. But to William, to this tiny world, he knew this was very bad news.

    "They can''te here with their full power, but that doesn''t mean they are that weak," William knew it was impossible for anyone from the outer worlding down here to keep his scary level of power.

    Even if these monsters were one of the weakest in the outer world, being here would ce them easily as the strongest of all monsters in this tiny world.

    "Time to check them out," William didn''t like this. He got that these monsters came from a pocket world that was turned into a summoning orb. But that didn''t exin the presence of such scary monsters here.

    These leopards got their rtives here in the tiny world, mostly seen at bronze and silver grade. It was rare to find a gold grade one of these in the tiny world. And they were much smaller in body sizepared to these Brown Leopards.

    William was familiar with the leopards in the outer world, and so he knew he didn''t mistake them with their weaker rtives here. And that made him think of a much crazier thought that''d exin all this.

    The only thing he could think of was that this summoning orb came from the outer world, passed to here by any means, ending up in the hands of Richard.

    William knew if Richard was really on the side of the dark masters, then this would exin all this. However, it was his first time to hear about the existence of such a weapon in the hands of the dark masters.

 Chapter 624 The Berserk Toxin

    ?

    "It seems the apocalypse that happened before got lots of aspects that I never heard about," William clenched his fists, before sheathing his sword and storing away his ive. He knew before seeing these leopards that this battle was going to be hard and long. And now he knew it was going to be at a hellish level of difficulty.

    He never intended to transform into his fox form, never intended to use his ive or sword, nor his techniques. Instead, he took out something that he didn''t use for a long time; his bow and arrows!

    After five years, William already got himself a nice dark gold bow. It could augment the speed and ferocity of the arrows thrown by it, and was long enough to satisfy theunch of dozens of arrows at the same time.

    That wasn''t all, as William focused on making lots of high grade arrows as well. His power and resources experienced a great boom since the time he made such arrows in the academy. So it wasn''t a surprise that he made different sets of arrows, each with a unique effect.

    He got explosive arrows, blinding arrows, sealing arrows, and even berserk arrows. Thetter would explode, release some sort of gas in the air, enough to turn monsters and enemies enraged and act berserk.

    They''d attack anything and everyone standing nearby. No matter who they were, enemies or allies, they''d all attack them in a crazy way.

    As for the sealing arrows, they were empowered with arrays that could entrap arge number of enemies inside a hard to crush prison. The blinding arrows would release pulses of bright lights, enough to blind any target for a minute or little more. The explosive arrows weren''t like the ones he made back at the academy.

    Those got much fiercer explosive damage, could cover up much more enemies, and their shockwaves were quite brutal. The goal of these arrows wasn''t just to kill the enemies, but also to meddle with the enemy lineup and formation, messing all this up. Besides, they would leave behind lots of wounded enemies as well.

    William nned from the start to use his bow and arrows. First he got an seemingly endless supply of arrows to use. And by using the bow, he could hit monsters far away without and keep kiting them slowly down while marching back to the city.

    This was the best strategy he could think of to slow down such a monster tide. He didn''t need to use his techniques, spirit elements, or his weapons because they would slow his killing speed down.

    As he took the bow out, he threw tons of arrows in the air. He then used his technique to dash for ten metres, each dash had five points he''d jump at, which he''d grab arrows and release them.

    In a sh, he turned into a deadly arrow releasing machine, throwing endless explosive arrows towards different directions without a single moment of pause.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Each arrow exploded and released a giant ball of fire that enveloped monsters in a one hundred metres radius. The fierce explosions rocked the entire forest, but William was attentively watching something else.

    "Damn! I know my arrows can take down a group of early stage dark gold masters and monsters, but this¡­ These monsters only suffered wounds!" William kept his eyes fixated over the areas he hit first with his arrows.

    And there he spotted the leopards getting out without losing much of their numbers. He knew the strength and limitations of his arrows. They might not be enough to kill middle stage dark gold masters and monsters solely, but if they got released in torrents, then theirbined and stacked damage would make up for theirck of deadly might.

    And yet in front of these leopards, they mostly left behind superficial wounds. This came as bad news to William. "It''s lucky that I prepared the vibrant ores beforeing here," he shook his head while knowing that he got to use his ores much earlier than he intended to.

    He wanted to first draw monsters slowly towards the city, killing as many as he could. Then around the city, he''d start a round of attacks targeting these ores. Like this, he could kill many more of these monsters, even to the extent of prating deeper into their lines and killing more as well.

    Yet when he saw how useless his arrows were, he decided to start using the ores soon enough. "But first I need to give my berserk arrows a try," he knew this was a new type of arrows, one that wasn''t evenmonly found in the outer world.

    So he reced the arrows he was using by simply switching the rings on his fingers. As he grew wealthy, had tons of war supplies and other stuff, he decided to arrange them into different rings. Like this, and just as he was stuck in such a fervent battle, he could easily switch gears without the need to worry about anything.

    The arrows he used now didn''t release the same explosions like before. Instead, they hit the ground and released a thick bellow of green gas, before  it spread fast and thinned out at arge area.

    William knew the toxin he used wasn''t on par with the level of monsters in front of him. But when he stacked the effect of hundreds of arrows togethers, it was expected to affect the monsters atst.

    *Roar!*

    The green cloud started to expand and get thicker with more arrows he released. He concentrated his efforts at a spot first, to check things out. "They are eating up each other, reminding me of those bears, hahahaha!" Williamughed when thousands of leopards stopped running at him, turned around and attacked each other using their deadliest ws and fangs.

    Seeing this scene made William recall the previous battle at the walls of the Long n. He was dying to repeat the same amusing experience, and now he got the chance to do it with these arrows.

 Chapter 625 Time To Use The Weapon

    ?

    The most important thing was that he didn''t need to find monsters with certain weaknesses to do it. He could affect any monsters using his arrows. And even if the monsters were at much higher grade than him, at a level that was quite threatening for the masters in this world, he could still make them turn against each other.

    And that was the brilliant thing about this weapon.

    *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

    He managed to affect thousands of monsters in one spot, but many more were hunting him down. As he needed to buy himself time, he took out his flying weapons, and let them hack the bodies of the nearby leopards.

    William was sure that his flying weapons needed lots of rounds of attacks to take just tens of these monsters. In that time, many more monsters would appear and surround him. So he didn''t remain in his ce for even one second and kept releasing more arrows at other ces.

    The toxin he produced and impeded in these arrows was enough to remain in the air for ten minutes at least. And with the dense number of arrows released at one spot, it was expected tost more.

    He started to slowly retreat while spreading his arrows around. He didn''t stop there and kept alternating toxic arrows with the explosive ones, greatly affecting the movement of the leopards forward to get him.

    He knew he was just lucky this far thanks to the scarce number of monsters in this region. He was at the outer border of the growing number of monstersing out from the portal. And that told him things would turn south for him and others the moment this army started to seriously move towards the city.

    So William focused more at scattering lots of his toxic arrows at many spots, aiming to create stress points that could help in alleviating lots of pressureter on. After all, the toxin would affect any monsters sniffing it. Eventually monsters would turn against each other, expanding the area of shes among them, while more monsters would rece the fallen ones.

    The only downside of this was the short time avable for his toxin to work. Ten minutes or even tens of minutes were nothing in the long-term war that wasing soon. Not to mention he was just one person, unable to handle everything alone.

    "I want you to gather all the alchemists and artisans in the city¡­" once he realised his serious this situation was, he decided to lend the form of making this berserk type arrows to Lara. he estimated that they got no more than a day before the tsunami of leopards would hit the city.

    So, it was better for the city to unify their efforts and start mass producing this toxin. As he was facing such a grand monster tide, and his toxin needed arge amount to work, he decided to not limit the toxin in the form of arrows.

    Instead, he thought about filling barrels with the toxin, nting them in the area surrounding the city for tens of kilometres. In addition to that, he thought about using a war weapon he already prepared during the past five years, the catapult!

    It wasn''t a very effective weapon in normal conditions. But when faced with such an army of monsters, and when he needed to release tons of toxin barrels from far away, this weapon came as a brilliant solution.

    [So¡­ You want me to take all the artisans and alchemists, make them stop producing potions, elixirs, and weapons to make this weird thing?] Lara was surprised when she heard what William wanted her to do.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "This isn''t just a normal thing, it''s the weapon that will change the tide of this war," William rolled his eyes, shifted around using his technique, escaping the tight circle of leopards that just surrounded him, "make sure to take this matter quite seriously. And make sure no one will try and test or release this substance in the city. Or else, we will lose, and everyone will die."

    [Got it! Leave this matter to me¡­ By the way, did you get any useful intel about this monster tide?]

    "Just expect the worst, that''s all I can say for now," William paused for a second there, considering telling her about the truth of this monster tide.

    Yet he refrained from doing so. He knew this was going to end up with one result: panic!

    Instead of causing a great problem now, he decided to let masters experience how deadly these leopards were when they''d arrive at the city.

    "I have to keep them busy here as long as possible," William took a swift look at the piece covering up his chest. He nned to use his recently made weapon back at the battle to defend the city. Yet as other intentions he got before facing these leopards, he knew he had to use this weapon now.

    "You brought monsters that don''t belong to this world here, and it''s time for me to match your move with another, using a weapon that doesn''t belong to this world¡­" William''s gaze turned all serious, scratched his skin with his sword, before covering the entire chest piece with his blood.

    Then a miracle started to happen next.

    The first thing to happen was for this piece to issue lots of cracking and clicking noises. Then it broke free from his chest, expanding fast, growing in size, like a dried-up sponge that contacted water.

    The small chest piece started to grow fast, with more pieces expanding and appearing from within it. William kept shing around, protecting this ce from any monster drawing near.

    *ng!*

    The chest piece transformed and changed into such a behemoth standing by his side. He looked at it in pride, with its shining ck, red, and golden outeryer that gave it a very intimidating vibe.

    "Time to activate you," William grinned with excitement. He took a deep breath, and then stirred up his spirit power.

 Chapter 626 Activating The Weapon

    ?

    The moment he did so, the weapon in front of him that looked dead and dull got its eyes ignited with a dangerous silver sh of light. The moment it got activated, it roared in a way that made William''s fox roar pale inparison.

    The leopards around froze in their ces stiff, looking hesitant towards the new behemoth that appeared here. William made out something like a bull, with horns, six legs, and a very thick tail that was like a group of spears stacked together.

    The weapon William made was a human made form of monster, one that would follow the wills of the master to the letter, one that was quite scary and formidable.

    It had a grand physique, immense strength, formidable defence, and on top of that it could control the same spirit elements and use the same techniques of the master.

    it got three pairs of thick legs, looking like pirs or something. it got three tails that looking like whips made out of steel, not flesh.

    William looked at his creation in pride, before turning his eyes around. "It''s time to show you how strong the spirit masters are," William just thought, and the bull shed and moved towards the nearest group of monsters like a falling meteor.

    The monster didn''t have any weapon to use, but it didn''t need any. Its body was the mightiest weapon William could think of.

    The moment it shed, and even with its giant body, it moved at the same speed as William, ending upnding in the middle of thousands of leopards, taking them all down.

    William tried to use his explosive arrows many times, without seeding in taking any monster down from the first hit. Yet with his new weapon being in y, the monsters kept falling like they were made out of ss or something.

    That was expected. After all, the entire weapon''s body was made out of materialsing from the outer world. William knew if his weapon got an endless supply of spirit power, it could massacre the entire monster tide solo without any help.

    Yet this was the fatal weakness of this monster weapon. It could get spirit power either from William or using elixirs by cing them inside its body. William''s spirit power wasn''t enough to run this weapon for more than ten minutes straight. As for elixirs, the monster would deplete a bottle once per half an hour.

    This meant William had to be close to this weapon, and he had to ready himself for the great expenditure of elixirs during this war.

    That was why William nned to use this weapon when the war would arrive at the city gates. There he got to stick around and defend the city itself, wouldn''t be too far from his weapon. Not to mention the limited time he''d be able to run this weapon without feeling any pressure or big loss would be enough to shift the tide of the entire war.

    Yet he got forced to use this weapon early on, and that meant his estimated loss of elixirs would be tenfold at least by the end of this war.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "As I''m spending too much on this war, it''s time to get the most out of it," William knew this might be a big blow to his elixir reserves. And so, he shifted his eyes towards something else, towards the monsters here.

    These monsters came from the outer world. Even if they got their grade forcibly lowered by the limitations of the tiny world, even if their strength and might got lowered as well, their cores would be all dark gold grade, all at the highest stages of this grade.

    Aside from cores, these monster materials were another treasure trove. William knew he''d gain tons of materials that belonged all to the higher realm, looking like he was getting materials from the spatial cracks in the Lost City.

    As he decided to collect everything, he let his monster weapon fight around, while he kept collecting his loot. At the same time, he released torrents of berserk and explosive arrows from time to time, to relieve the pressure over any point.

    Like this, the entire situation changed. William kept emptying elixirs into special ces at the body of his bull monster, letting it kill tons of monsters while he tagged along and imed the loot.

    Starting from the appearance of this human made monster and the entire battle tide shifted towards William''s favour. The bull monster wasn''t just using his elements and techniques, but also it released lots of deadly spears out of his body from time to time.

    It could break apart into tons of spears, killing and hacking any monster in hundreds of metres radius, before rposing itself again. William stood behind, watching all this with a wide grin over his face.

    "This is how I should fight from now on, hahahaha!" He was happy about such a massacre happening in front of his eyes. And yet the pain of throwing out lots of elixirs every half an hour was enough to make him feel bitter inside.

    "Hopefully this war won''tst for more than one day," he prayed inside, while feeling this war might get stretched out for days.

    He tried to use potions, but his monster didn''t move an inch. "I have to use elixirs only¡­ Extravagant indeed," he shook his head before returning to add elixirs to his monster weapon.

    For hours, he kept attacking and fighting like this. He let his monster weapon be the sharpest sword of his, while helping him from behind using his arrows. He kept collecting materials, dissecting monsters and even their teeth. He didn''t leave behind a single item that could be used even in the most trivial processes. At the same time, his stock of cores kept increasing fast, which was the most delightful thing about all this.

    For long hours he kept fighting and collecting his loot. During which, he managed to break deeply inside the ranks of the monster army. Right now, it was really crazy, with lots of monsters around it was impossible for him to control the situation.

 Chapter 627 Fighting Monsters

    ?

    If not for his monster weapon, he''d not be able to evene near such a point. Monsters kepting at him like a flood,ing from everywhere. And even his arrows started to lose their effect to some point.

    "I tested what the entire war would be like when this monster army arrived at the city gates¡­ It will be really hard to control¡­"

    William didn''t delve this deep inside the monster army to try and take them down. He wasn''t this delusional tomit such a mistake. He just came here to test how hard it''d be when things would be heated up.

    From the look of it, he could tell how bad the future war would be. It wasn''t just the issue of the difference between the two sides'' overall grades, but how these monsters fought.

    They were using tactics in the middle of their attack. If one didn''t look closer, he''d not notice such subtle moves and changes in formations these monsters used.

    Any monster tide in the tiny world depended solely on the human wave tactic. But monstersing from the higher realm got their level of intelligence, were able to change their targets and even their lineup in the middle of the ongoing war.

    As William tested, when he went deeper, they started to dispatchrge numbers to keep his weapon busy. Then they nked him, and tried toe at him from the totally opposite point of his weapon.

    When he tried to move his weapon using fast dashes towards the iingrge group of monsters, this group shifted its role, and took the task of upying the weapon and keeping it busy. Then another group appeared from the totally opposite direction.

    This made William''s experience here a bit hard. Yet he didn''t struggle as he knew the best way to counter such moves from the enemy. He stuck closer to his weapon, and headed anywhere the monster went towards.

    This wasn''t a hard thing to pull as William was the one giving orders to the monster weapon. Yet this also limited his ability to collect loot. After staying there for one hour, he decided to end this experiment and retreat.

    Monsters didn''t leave him alone for five more hours, even when he retreated for tens of kilometres. Yet at the end, they either dropped the idea of chasing him, or got killed by thebined effort of his weapon and arrows.

    "Shall I prepare for losing that city or what?" William could already see the fall of the city under such unstoppable monster tide. They were relentless, smart, and hellish strong. Putting into consideration the currently terrible status of the city and its forces, William knew their chances in surviving this and keeping the city were very low.

    He had no choice here. If the city was in its prime condition, then there might be a good chance of fending off these monsters.

    The number of high end masters in the city got shrunk by a lot. Many got wounded and killed during thest civil war. Not to mention those who ran away. William could only sigh and ept such a result, promising toeter and reim the city if it fell.

    But he''d not even think about running away without killing lots of monsters. This wasn''t just to weaken the defending monsters after the end of this war, but it was also for the loot he was collecting right now.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    As he finally got rid of the scary numbers of monsters chasing him, William continued his activity like before. Things weren''t as hectic as they were when he went deeply into the army of monsters. And that made him collect tons of loot.

    Time passed fast, and back in the city things were quite depressing. William didn''t tell Lara or anyone about the nature of this monster tide, but many forces already dispatched their scouts and examined the current situations using their spirit sense.

    They soon delivered the grave news over, speaking about the endless ocean of leopards. They also described how these leopards looked different, looked much stronger than any leopards seen in the world.

    Then when few of them witnessed what William was doing, and noticed how hard it was to take down these leopards, they realised how different these leopards were.

    They weren''t just bigger, but they were much advanced than any leopard in this world. In their rough estimate, the entire monster tide was formed of dark gold grade monsters only. And that was quite scary.

    Many forces started to experience cold feet, thinking about dropping the task of defending the city and running away for their lives. They''d lose a ton if they did that. But in the end, they''d keep their lives, and that was more important than anything else.

    William didn''t know this, but after close to twenty hours from the arrival of the monster tide in this world, a grand meeting urred, an explosive one.

    The different forces just got out from a deadly and bloody conflict with the Vancouf family. So it was expected how things went south in that meeting.

    "Are you telling me we lost most of the forces? They decided to retreat?!" William was in the middle of doing the usual, killing monsters and collecting the loot, when he received such news from Lara. he couldn''t help but curse at these cowards, knowing they must have learnt about the true nature of the iing monster tide.

    That was the reason why William didn''t tell Lara, didn''t tell anyone about this. Yet the response from these forces exceeded his worst estimates.

    [We¡­ We are alone now] Lara tiredly sighed, [I tried to corner them, pressure them with threats, even tempt them, and yet all failed]

    "You can''t ask a deserter to be in the frontlines and put his life on the line," William knew trying to convince the forces now was a futile attempt. And by this, all the hope about saving the city was gone, "but there is still little hope. Spread out your people, let''s recruit any master from these forces if possible."

    [Will this work?]

 Chapter 628 Abandoning Ship!

    ?

    "Better than nothing," William didn''t ce much hope on such a solution, "how about those forces from outside the city? Are theying for our aid?"

    [We sent lots of people over, and yet not a single one responded or showed up]

    "Hmm¡­ Let''s prepare for the worst then," William paused, not needing to speak up his mind for Lara to get what he meant.

    [I can''t believe I''m going to run and leave the city my ancestors built and lived in for tens of thousands of years¡­] She was truly depressed, and William knew she got the right to feel so.

    The city didn''t just contain her family, but neen other families besides various forces. Even if they suffered lots of losses during the recent internal strife, things weren''t out of salvation if they united their efforts together.

    But it seemed the hatred and enmity from thatst war were still fresh, running quite deep in their hearts and spirits. Without the need to investigate it, William was sure part of the reasons behind such a cowardly decision was rted to the Vancouf family.

    After thest internal war, the Vancouf family emerged the sole victorious. They were now going to be the true lords of the city, and that seemed to get on the nerves of others.

    They decided to abandon ship, walk away and watch how the Vancouf family would defend the city alone. Of course, this was their way to get back at that family, but it was also a very evil move in William''s eyes.

    Yet he had nothing in his power to change any of that. "Just make sure to save as most as you can," William paused, "start packing, don''t leave anything behind. Also, other forces will hurriedly leave the city. And that means their bases will be filled with treasures."

    [This¡­ Is this the right time to speak about plundering others?!]

    "This is the most appropriate moment to do so," William showed a fierce expression on his face, "they dared to backstab you, backstab everyone in the city just to feel a little good and get their proimed revenge from us. So it''s just to take back their riches. Damn! If this happened at other times, then I''d even ask you to reignite the old internal war again and crush all of their leaders, absorb everything to your side."

    [Well, I can''t say I don''t dream about doing this right now] She paused, [Ok, let me try and see if I can get any of their masters. Not everyone is this evil or twisted in heart and spirit. I hope we''ll end up with enough force to fend off the monster army]

    "Tell me, how is the project of making that stuff going?" William knew the best they could dream about right now was to safely retreat through the portal area with all the riches and gains they could salvage from the city and the monster tide.

    A big role to y in doing thisid over the shoulders of the toxic material of his. If they managed to mass produce it, then things would turn slightly for the better, buying themselves lots of precious time.

    [We are producing tons of this substance so far] and finally she said a piece of good news, [We have lots of barrels filled with it. When do you want to spread them?]<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Do it now!" William knew enough time passed since the appearance of that portal. And by now, he was also pushed back by twenty kilometres, only less than fifty kilometres away from the city, "filling the entire area around the city in tens of kilometres. Make sure to use everyone in such a process and warn them against trying to release the substance now."

    [How about the right way to release them? These barrels will be buried under the ground]

    "You got masters who can make explosive arrays, right? Make them ry such arrays next to these barrels, connect them with their spirit power, and be ready to activate them on order."

    [Got it! When are youing back?]

    "I''ll return when the monsters will attack the city," William was doing a solo killing mission out there. Even if he was alone, he was killing lots of monsters with each passing hour.

    On the other hand, he was collecting lots of loot for his future. As for the guild, he made sure to ry his orders to his vices, spreading the current facts to everyone, and preparing their minds and hearts for the idea of mobilising from here.

    William hated it, but he also knew he had no power at all to change this ck future. All he could do now was to take the most out of this city and pray for a miracle to happen.

    Yet that didn''t prevent him from thinking about exerting revenge against the ones who did all this. As he expected, Richard was already working with the dark masters through Rick. Even if William didn''t guess Rick''s true identity, he knew he was part of the dark masters.

    Away from all this, the two of them sat over a hill, drinking tasty potions and enjoying what was happening right now.

    "Contacting the forces in the city and nting the seed of taking revenge against the Vancouf family was a good move," Rickughed, "I bet that bastard didn''t see thising. Damn! I want to see his face when he hears the news, hahahaha!"

    "These forces don''t like the Vancouf family," Richard evilly grinned, "and with little help, they won''t stay behind and help the Vancouf family when there is a good chance for the family to lose everything."

    "Hmm, how about these forces? Where do they n to move?" Rick''s interest shifted towards these forces, "they got no ce to run to, right?"

    "I already offered them help," Richard got what Rick really meant, "but they didn''t respond yet."

    "Let them take their time," Rickughed, "I bet they are enjoying this battle just like the two of us. Keep tracking them, and when this is all over, we''ll lure them to our side next."

 Chapter 629 Overstepping The Red Line

    ?

    "That will be good, but¡­"

    "Don''t dream about reiming the city," Rick shook his head, "even if my dark master is here, he wouldn''t be able to control these monsters."

    "I thought dark masters can control monsters," Richard looked in doubt towards Rick, and thetter bitterly smiled.

    "It''s indeed true, but with certain conditions. These monsters are much stronger than any of us. So they won''t listen to any of what we''d say. It''s better to drop the idea of reiming the city after this."

    "Tsk! I wanted to get my hands over the portal area again, in that underground city¡­"

    "Don''t fret, we have the rest of the world open for us," Rickughed, "and on top of that, I know that bastard won''t fall there. He will retreat, lose everything he built so far, and willeter for my master seeking revenge."

    "I want to be there," Richard said in pure enmity and hatred, "I want to see that damn youth getting crushed, captured, tortured, before he''d die."

    "Don''t worry," Rick also shared the same level of enmity and hatred towards William as Richard showed, "we''ll get to see such a fantastic scene. I want to see the look over my sister when that jerk will die, hahahaha! She selected him over the family, and I selected the dark side over the family. I bet my dear grandfather will be totally furious if he heard all this, hahaha!"

    "What are you talking about?" Richard didn''t get anything from what Rick just said. And thetter waved his arm before adding amidst hisughs, "let''s prepare for the final showdown. Keep in touch with other forces in the city. Once they empty the ce, we''ll start rolling the dice."

    "Got it!"

    Like this, the hour of the final showdown got decided. And without William realising it, the casual idea he told Lara about was going to save them lots of time.

    As Lara ended speaking with him, she started to act. The first thing she did was to spread lots of her family masters among the city, recruiting openly to defend the city.

    The various forces'' higher ups might hold deep grudges against the Vancouf family, but not the normal masters. Just hearing the order to retreat, abandon the ce everyone called home for long generations was enough to make many felt rage against such a situation.

    Many already started speaking among themselves about this weird situation. The idea of acting rebellious against such clear treason and cowardice decision was fermenting and brimming silently under the calm water surface.

    The fuse that ignited everything into a zing fire of rebellion came when the Vancouf family members spread the news over. The open recruitment movement was enough to lure many to join their side.

    At the same time, William''s guild also started to act at the same time. William''s guild name became known and famous in the city after thest war. And so it wasn''t a surprise for many to seriously consider joining the guild.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Right now, wealth and payment didn''t matter, values were all that mattered. In the eyes of many, their leaders betrayed them, while the Vancouf family and Fox guild were doing the right thing morally.

    William didn''t know that, but the leaders of the various forces and families in the city panicked while watching many of their forces leave their side, voluntarily join their enemies.

    This came out of the blue, out of their nning and scheming. They misjudged the entire situation, ending up losing close to half of their remaining forces in mere hours!

    That forced them to dy the departing ns, try to focus on the remaining half, trying to make them stay and not leave their side.

    Instead of leaving in an hour or two as nned, they had to wait for at least twelve hours, trying their best to control the remaining half they got, promising them lots of things to keep themselves in their forces.

    This wasn''t just to prevent the Vancouf family from getting the help of these masters. It was also for their future. These forces knew they''d end up in a more miserable fate if they went out of here with just little forces on their side. This would end up for them having much worse offers from any ce they''d walk towards.

    And after all this time, they failed to keep many of their masters. They ended up with less than twenty percent of what they initially had. And like this, they started to hate the Vancouf family and Fox guild even more. On top of that, the offer of Richard seemed to be more tempting right now.

    No one was a fool. They already guessed that Richard was working for the dark side. And that offer was simply asking them to join the dark masters and betray the cause of the humans.

    Yet as they already started walking down the road of betrayal, they didn''t see it weird or hard to join the dark masters'' side.

    But they underestimated the resolve and forgot for a moment the hatred and enmity of the general spirit mastermunity against dark ones. The moment the news spread out, about the nning of the remaining forces and families to join the dark camp, most of the remaining masters on their side left.

    Even families broke apart on their own! Brothers left and cousins fought each other. It was crazy, and none of the leaders of these forces and families ever imagined such a fierce response.

    They simply overlooked something that was considered as the generalw in the entire world. And thanks to that, they got a fierce bacsh, one that made them ruin the little things left for them.

    They wasted nearly twenty hours trying to salvage what they ended up destroying with their own hands. When Lara got the news, she couldn''t help but fall off her seat out ofughter.

    William was busy fighting with the monsters for all this time.

 Chapter 630 A Fierce Backlash

    ?

    William first estimated that the monster tide would march towards the city in one day. But after the passage of a day and half, he felt that something weird was going on here for sure.

    Yet hecked enough intel or data toe to any viable conclusions. In addition to that, he wasn''t that free to begin with to think about any possibility or seek answers.

    He was over pressured by the tons of monstersing towards him. Even if he wasn''t now working as the main killer, the edge weapon he created was needing his attention from time to time.

    He also needed to collect loot left behind by this scary weapon. He decided to call Charley, feeling like it was going to be famous.

    And when he''d make more of these weapons, control them in wars, they''d gain more fame. Yet he didn''t believe this war was going to make his Charley famous. It was going to end with their defeat, utter and crushing defeat.

    After the passage of two days, he received the news from Lara. she had been off radio for more than one day now. And William didn''t bother with her as both of them were extremely busy.

    Yet what she said made him finally pause, beforeughing out hard. He couldn''t believe the enemies who created such trouble in the first ce managed to correct their mistakes with their greed and foolishness.

    He wasn''t that surprised to hear about their intentions to coborate and work for the dark masters. He was sure about Richard working for some hidden force of dark masters. Yet he never linked it with the dark academy that appeared all of sudden in the kingdom, or targetted him multiple times already.

    William was now sure about one thing, the reason behind the dy of the entire monster swarm. It seemed the ones behind such a tide were waiting for their new dogs to move out of the city with their promised forces.

    "I can''t believe they thought it''s too easy to switch seats like this," Williamughed again, before turning around, "it seems I got more hours before they''lle in full power¡­ It''s time to start nting more ores then¡­"

    William spent most of his time here fighting and collecting loot, didn''t get the time to spread much of his ores like he intended to do before.

    He changed his ns the moment he felt how bad the situation was. Since starting to use his weapon, he didn''t get time to spread the ores.

    But now? He was sure the enemies once got the wind of this news; they''d start their ns right away. They''d realise the hot cake they dreamt to get turned out to be a flop, and they''d get nothing after waiting for all this long.

    William''s guess was correct. The moment the news arrived at Richard from his little ears left in the family, Rick decided to start the onught right away.

    The monster army already got deployed out of the pocket world. They were ready to march, waiting just for his order. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Those bunch of useless trash! They cost us more than one day of waiting for nothing in the end! Screw them!" Richard was more furious than Rick. he depended on gathering up the different forces and families in the city, even dreaming about reiming the city after getting rid of Lara and William.

    But his dreams shattered as they were just as foolish and childish as him. Rick didn''t care about such loss actually. He might have even felt little better for Richard to lose everything he hoped for, the same thing he experienced before on the hands of William.

    "Let''s stop whining over this," Rick faked his sadness, "I''ve given the order for the monster tide to move out. Do you want to stay behind and watch or leave?"

    "Let''s wait," Richard was feeling more enraged now towards William and Lara, "I want to see the city getting smashed like a god pressed over it with his finger."

    "You''ll get your wish granted," Rick evilly grinned. And like this, the bloody war started officially.

    William was around forty kilometres away from the city when he felt something was off. The forest seemed a bit calm, such heavy silence that would suffocate anyone, not make them rx.

    William didn''t need to think much before he realised everything. "It''s happening¡­ Atst!" William got tired from worrying too much about this battle. He did everything he could, killed close to a hundred thousand monsters alone. He collected lots of loot during the past two days and spent tons of his elixirs.

    He knew without Charley, trying to kill even one tenth of such a number would have been impossible. Yet he knew such arge figure didn''t mean anything to the real force of the monster tide.

    In the next hour, things turned out just like William guessed them. The forest started to rumble and tremble, with lots of trees shaking and falling even long before the arrival of the main bulk of the monsters'' army.

    Anyone inside the city could clearly see a grand dust cloud rising up from the horizon, appearing in all directions. William was already retreating back, while distributing hisst orders to Lara and his team vices.

    Thest hour before the war would start drew near. And so he checked on the situation of the berserk toxin, also asked about the current condition of the walls and other defences in the city.

    ording to Lara, the actions of various forces and families infuriated everyone. So, the big shots in the Vancouf family stepped up, took charge of the entire situation.

    They formed teams under them, arranging the medium sized master army under their lead. William knew even with the decisive move of the masters of various forces, the total number of masters in the city paled with the number of monsters, paled with the number of masters before all this mess happened.

    Sometimes greed and arrogance would cost anyone a big price, one that wouldn''t be felt until it was already toote.

 Chapter 631 You Wont Take My Share!

    ?

    William knew this battle was going to be a lost one for the side of normal masters in the city. But before they''d leave through portals, he''d prefer to do like others, to stand up and fight with all their might.

    As the most experienced and formidable masters stepped up, William knew things would be little better than he expected. It''d still be their loss, but the casualties would decrease a lot, and the monsters would get hit pretty bad.

    As for the barrels of his toxin, they were already covering up thirty kilometres around the city.

    "Wait for me in the next couple hours, I''ll try to take down as much as I can before returning. Ah, do you have elixirs?"

    [Sure, it''s a must to have in such times. Why? Do youck any?]

    "Ick a lot," heughed.

    [Well, I can promise to supply two types of elixirs, not all of them. But I can provide lots of them aspensation]

    "Going all out this time, I like that!"

    [There is no point in carrying extra weight on our rings, right?] sheughed, [So I decided to take everything from the family vault and distribute them. Not to mention I already plundered the rest of forces here from their riches]

    "Wow! You did that? And your elders agreed?"

    [Hahahaha! I got to thank the idiots who led these forces about that! They announced to the public their intentions clearly, turning them all the way into public enemy number one. My elders? Not only them, but even the ones who used to be part of these forces cheered for my decision back then, even helped me to look for the hidden riches and secret vaults, hahahaha!]

    "I want my share; I was the one who told you to do so in the first ce."

    [And where do you think these elixirse from? It''s your share honey, so ask what you want, and you''ll get more than you dream of]

    "No, that won''t count!" William rolled his eyes, "I just want one type of elixirs for now, the spirit power regeneration elixir. Bring me all the elixirs you can find."

    [Sure, do you want potions as well? I got tons of these¡­]

    "No thanks," William knew she wasn''t just offering this out of good will. She wanted to frame him with these war supplies that he desperately needed, to not give him any shareter from the grand wealth she and the family gained.

    [You don''t need to be shy, you know that, right?]

    "I''m acting cautious," Williamughed, "you won''t take away my share, you hear me? Stop dreaming! Now go back and take care of things. Never stop making the stuff your people are making."

    [Alchemists can continue doing it, but artisans¡­ We''ll need their help to repair our damaged weapons, replenish our exhausted war consumables, amend the broken defences and such]<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I don''t want them, I want alchemists for now," William paused, "also made sure to arrange a good escape n."

    [It''s already set. Don''t worry, my elders and the big names of the city are helping in various aspects]

    "Good. any news from the various ces in the world? Anyoneing?" This was thest straw William got attached to. But Lara''s answer disappointed him greatly.

    Not even a single ce sent a single master or even a message over. William thought for a moment, before asking her to ry what happened here to the world.

    She didn''t like spreading the dirty news about the city to outsiders, but she listened to William''s advice at the end.

    William''s aim was to get back at the forces and families'' leaders who ran away from the city, but he''d end up getting something entirely different.

    No one would take such a great risk without enough benefits in return. And by spreading such news around, everyone realised a simple fact, one that Lara and William missed in the middle of all this hectic and crazy situation.

    This city¡­ If it got saved, then it got lots of opening slots for new powers to rise within. That was enough temptation for any outside force to seriously consider joining the war.

    William just tried this move out of his anger towards the various forces'' leaders in the city, but never imagined it''d work like magic. Once he ended speaking with Lara, he also checked with his vices, asking about the current condition of the guild preparations.

    It went without saying that the newly joined members were feeling quite depressed. They came here to join a prestigious guild, join a ce that had a future. And when they came here, they found out that the entire city was about to be lost, and there was no future at all for the guild branch here.

    Yet William didn''t feel any worry about that. He knew the moment his newly joined members witnessed how he and others fought, especially him, then things would totally change in their eyes.

    Spirit masters might be cold and cruel, might look for their benefits, but all the time they''d respect a single and simple fact, strength!

    Once they''d see him in action, William was sure the seeds of admiration, respect, veneration, and loyalty would be ced deeply inside their spirits.

    If a miracle happened, and by some unknown method they won this battle and saved the city, then things would be much better.

    Yet under the persistence of his vices, William decided to give them a promise. If the city was lost, he''d go towards another big city and establish a guild branch there. No matter how this would cost him, he''d do it.

    "They got all the right toin, but will that be the same after the end of this battle?" William stored away the Bullets of his vices, all except for one.

    "Any news for me?" he asked, and then he heard the brief of what hisst vice found out. After listening to his words for ten minutes straight, William nodded in satisfaction, "I knew I can depend on you. Alright then, keep yourself hidden, and keep me updated."

    William stored the Bullet while turning towards the growing number of leopards around. "I hate that someone takes a bite off me, and I won''t chop his head off. Let''s see how this will end then¡­"

 Chapter 632 The Turtles Are Here

    ?

    William was now ready to act all serious. He took out a bottle of elixir, emptied it inside his mouth, before activating his spirit form.

    The ck fox appeared. Not only that, but he also took out lots of gears that were controlled by his spirit power. He wore these dark gold grade pieces, surrounding his fox body with a shining ck and red armour.

    He looked quite scary, even his three tails got covered in thick scales that ovepped over each other. He looked quite ferocious, and this was the strongest form of his fox spirit body.

    He made up these armour pieces with the help of the artisans of his guild. As he set a high standard for these gear pieces, he had to spend lots of fortune to gather lots of rare and precious materials from all over the continent.

    Yet it was really worth it. In addition to giving him a strong defensive ability, one that was higher than what his ne would do, without the need to spend even one third of the spirit power his ne would, they also added to his speed and strength.

    In this form, William was able to fight mid-tier dark gold grade foes and crush them like they were melons. As for the high tier ones, he never got the chance to try this scary form out with anyone before.

    As he took his gears out, he also took all of his flying weapons and the strongest three weapons out as well. Then he turned around, controlled Charley, and started to advance.

    He didn''t retreat, he simply advanced forward. William shed forward, crossed hundreds of metres, leaving behind a trail of shocking explosions that took lots of monsters by surprise.

    Then he jumped high in the air, rotated with his giant body and fell down like a grand meteor. The moment his bodynded, itnded on his three tails, releasing a shocking wave around, covered up with a thick bellow of ck dust.

    The name of his team might be thanks to the legendary grade they all aspired to reach, but it came mainly when William invented such a move at first. It wasn''t actually a technique, but as Lang said, a way to impress others and show off.

    Such a hit depended just on a single dash, but it used the jump and heavy weight effects, plus the weapons the three tails held.

    It wasn''t a surprise for a deep hole to appear on the ground. William didn''t stop there and jumped a couple of times like this.

    In his eyes, it was the same when Ibra waved his ive a couple of times in the air before fighting. To William, he''d roll his fox body in the air and fall like a cannonball or something.

    And then he started his real attack.

    He started first by releasing Charley over the monsters around. He used their distraction with Charley and started stacking his technique over his sword. The moment he stacked fifty attacks, he''d release them over the densest pack of leopards.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Then Charley would change tactic, attacking those who didn''t fall under such attack, and they were quite the number. As for William, he''d start climbing the hole fast, stacking new attacks on his tail, before finally releasing them again.

    He didn''t retreat, only kept moving forward until he was met with monsters that he couldn''t bypass. "They brought not only leopards, but also the Scaled Turtles¡­ This is going to be a bit problematic then¡­"

    He got stopped when he was met with truck sized turtles. Their shells weren''t just smooth, but covered with scales that negated any attack falling on them.

    They were like heavy armoured tanks, with the sole weakness lying at their bellies. Yet their legs were thick and short, leaving almost little space from the ground.

    To take these monsters down, one had to use earth-based masters and techniques, dig a tunnel or a hole underneath their bellies, before wind-based masters would release techniques to carry lots of weapons and attacks there.

    The weakest effect would be for these turtles to get wounded. If the wind-based masters used enough spirit power, then these monsters would flip on their backs, ending up being sitting ducks for ughter.

    William knew he couldn''t do anything against these turtles. He was already having lots of trouble dealing with the leopards. Even with Charley on his side, he knew it''d take lots of time and tons of effort to take a few of these turtles down.

    He wasn''t in much danger thanks to his thick armour. It proved worthy to spend all this wealth to forge them.

    From the look of it, the turtles were in tens of thousands. And that was just what he saw in this zone. If they were at other ces, then their number would be in hundreds of thousands. That was a very scary force to fight against.

    "It''s going to be bad," William knew the only hope they got now was his toxin. But the berserk toxin needed a great amount to affect the much smaller leopards. So, when dealing with turtles, it was expected for such an effect to take longer to appear and wouldst shorter.

    William didn''t continue his marching forward. He just did that to see how scary the true monster tide was, and how far it was before it''d arrive in the city. "Make preparations, the monster tide will hit us in less than six hours," William made a rough estimate about the time of the monster tide''s arrival. Then he sent such intel back to Lara and his vices.

    He didn''t hurry to return back, took his time to kill as many monsters as he could. He toyed with these monsters using Charley and the full powered version of his fox spirit. He didn''t forget to collect the materials and cores in the meantime.

    At some point, he lost his sense of time or location, and didn''t jolt awake until he arrived at the city doorsteps. The thing that jolted him awake wasn''t the city walls, but therge number of techniques released from the walls towards the monsters around.

    "Damn! I missed the beginning of the battle!"

 Chapter 633 The Battle At The City Gates

    ?

    William cursed when he saw that the leopards had already arrived here. He got totally absorbed in fighting and didn''t notice that eight hours had already passed.

    [Can you at least respond to me?] Lara''s voice came next to let him know how many times she tried to contact him and failed. William took her Bullet out, and didn''t bother to exin anything, "What was the question again?"

    [Wow! If I didn''t end up dead by monsters, then I''ll fall under your attitude!]

    "Just say what bothers you," William held back hisughs to not enrage her more. He could imagine her and others of his team vices trying to reach him in the past hours without getting a single response.

    It must have drawn her crazy. As for his team''s vices, they already experienced such ckout moments five years ago.

    [When will we do it? I''m talking about that weird stuff you made my people make and distribute all over the city¡­ When will we release it?]

    William looked around and felt that even after the passage of two hours, things weren''t that bad. The masters on the city walls seemed to be organised, enough to take down lots of leopards before they''d arrive at the walls. He saw holes and cracks at the walls but felt like they were the left scars of the internal strife that happened before all this started, not caused by these leopards.

    "We''ll wait for now," William knew releasing such a weapon right now wasn''t going to greatly impact the ongoing war. He was confident about his toxin effect, but timing was very important to get the best results out of it.

    He noticed that Lara was acting a bit impatient. It was quite unusual for the general of an army to consider using his deadliest weapon right from the very start of the battle. This wasn''t overconfidence, this was rashness andck of experience.

    [The monsters areing in huge numbers! We need to act and stop them!] At this moment, Lara''s words and tone proved herck of battle experience. She made the wrong decision at such a crucial moment. "No, it''s not yet the right time to make such a move. Just stay put and don''t activate anything yet."

    William knew she wouldn''t get the point behind it. Trying to convince someone with something he never experienced enough before was impossible. Yet he hoped she''d listen to him, or else they''d waste a lethal weapon by using it at the wrong time.

    [Fine! Just let me know when you need them activated] She seemed quite depressed by his firm rejection. And William could only sigh.

    He then turned towards the area around. The monsters wereing inrge numbers indeed, but thebined efforts of the arrays and the masters defending the city made it impossible for them to touch the city walls.

    William knew this was going to change soon enough. The moment the turtles found their way here, things would turn south for sure.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I need to arrange a few teams out¡­ Lara isn''t in the right mood to do anything; shall I ask Stark then?" William thought for a few seconds before deciding to use the help from both his guild and Stark.

    [Are you asking for a group of a hundred high stage dark gold grade masters? With at least three at the pinnacle leading them? With earth and wind elements? What for?!!!] Stark''s voice came much calmer than Lara''s, and yet he was still greatly startled by what William just asked.

    This was a very stressful time, where every master counted. Not to mention they didn''t have enough masters to begin with. William knew Stark got the right to be surprised and doubtful, but he really needed these masters.

    "I saw different types of monstersing here," William paused before adding, "don''t tell Lara about it. She¡­ She is handling the situation hard enough already."

    [I understand. So, this team is needed to stop them? Just a hundred of them? Will this be enough? I can dispatch others if you need to]

    "No need, I''ll fill the gaps with my guild members," William knew Stark meant it. But the monster tide wasn''t just formed of turtles and leopards.

    He didn''t see any other breed of monsters, but that didn''t mean there weren''t others at the back. So, William decided to y it safe, let the high-end masters of the city handle any new monster appearing while he''d take the most troublesome turtles down.

    William already sent his orders to his guild, arranging them into different teams based on their spirit elements and techniques. The ones with earth and wind-based elements were asked to be grouped together and be sent to get stationed near the walls.

    As for others, he asked them to be arranged based on the level of destruction and might in their techniques. He didn''t care what type of elements they got, and he knew his vices didn''t get enough time to test everyone like usual. So, the best method to know who was dependable and useful and who was a burden was by assessing the strength of their techniques.

    And so he onlycked one thing, an edge team that would be like the sharpest edge amidst all this. He was sure his guild members were enough to dig the holes and flip the turtles on their backs. But the task of taking them down was something they couldn''t do.

    As for the leopards, he already prepared his strongest masters in his guild, armed up with the deadliest techniques to keep these leopards busy. At the same time, if things went south, there were the masters of the city, not to mention the toxin spread all over the ce.

    If not for their hard scaled shells, William would prefer to just use the berserk toxin and turn these monsters against each other. But that wouldn''t work. Even if a group of turtles turned against each other, they''d take ages to kill one another. As for using the leopards to take them down, it was just mere fantasy and pointless dreams.

 Chapter 634 The Weird Thing About Monsters

    ?

    Stark listened to William''s request and started preparing such special forces for him. William told him to send them at the gate where he was near it. There they''d meet up with other mastersing from his guild. And they''d listen to the orders of his vices.

    Stark asked William about the weird behemoth that was fighting the monsters, and William simply said it was his without delving into any details.

    As things were going as he nned, William returned to focus on the leopards around. He kept killing and collecting their cores and materials, didn''t even hold back his hands and collected materials from monsters killed by city masters.

    This wasn''t the time for anyone to spare an eye over materials, but William was different. He wouldn''t let a single item be lost when he got the choice to seize it.

    An hour passed, four hours passed, and eventually ten hours passed. William knew the greatest challenge wasn''t in just stopping these monsters, but also from the spirit power expenditure, the mental and physical exhaustion the masters here would suffer from. Yet it seemed he was worried over nothing.

    Even after ten straight hours of fighting, none showed a single sign of fatigue. "It seems she really meant it when she spoke about opening the vaults for the masters in the city," William knew the reason behind such a weird phenomenon was rted to Lara''s decisive actions.

    If this only happened to the high-grade masters, then it''d be thanks to their scary level of spirit power and wealth. But such a thing was also happening to the much weaker masters, those at silver and even bronze grade.

    Those were considered the weakest and the ones with the lowest status in all the masters in the city. William saw many of them working as servants and workers at different ces in the city.

    In any academy these masters would be considered second and third year disciples. In any n, they would be considered mid-tier members with roles to do there. And here in the city they were just working as servants, as what porters in other ces would do.

    They kept fighting with all their might, without showing a single sign of exhaustion or something. And that was definitely rted to potions cleansing any fatigue and regenerating depleted spirit power.

    "That reminds me of the elixirs I asked for," William didn''t hesitate to send the word to Lara, asking her to send someone with all the elixirs she gained and give them to Berry.

    William didn''t intend to go into the city for now. He was confident in their ability to fend the iing attacks of turtles alongside leopards for at least a couple of days.

    Then if a miracle didn''t happen, or if by any chance a scary breed of monsters appeared, then he''d start retreating alongside other masters, leaving the city empty and ready for the monsters to do whatever they wanted.

    Time flew fast. William expected turtles to arrive in less than six hours. But after fifteen hours, nothing appeared.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    It was already deeply dark as the sky wasn''t with any stars. William knew they wouldn''t be able to see from far without the use of spirit sense. And so, he asked Stark to handle this problem for him, using the high-end masters.

    Over this time, the overall moral of the city masters kept growing. Even the guild masters also felt the same. And yet, William and his vices never felt like this.

    His vices already experienced battles and hectic wars with William enough to know his habits. If things were calm and great, if the situation was under control, then he''d not even bother himself to remain outside, fighting on the frontline crazily like this.

    William never got a single moment of rest. He kept exhausting his stock of elixirs and potions without any care. At first, he was worried and felt little guilt about doing this. But when he heard from Berry about how grand the collection of elixirs she received from Lara, he never thought again about such a problem.

    All his focus was over killing more leopards and collecting more loot. Yet the most frustrating thing for the city masters was that, even with all this killing to form hills outside the city walls, the number of leopards never showed any decrease.

    Instead, they became much denser, and that was quite expected in William''s eyes.

    "I believe the turtles got dyed, waiting for the main bulk of the monsters to arrive first," William could already guess what the monster tide strategy was, "but¡­ What are they waiting for? I don''t buy they needed all this time to mobilise the main army here!"

    William already went towards the area dense with monsters, where the main bulk of the monster army was. He didn''t believe they''d take such long hours to cross just one hundred kilometres or so to arrive here.

    He kept thinking about this, believing he must have missed something. His mind led him to two possibilities, it was the monster army got far scarier monsters which had slow travelling speed. Or the monster army already met something they never expected, neither did he.

    "I hope it''s the second possibility," William knew if anything stopped the monster tide, then it must be something grand. No dark masters would intervene or block the path of monsters. As for other monsters in the area, it wasn''t even a possibility.

    The scary auraing off from these monsters was enough to scare away any monsters in the region or rally them to the side of this army. So, there was only one possibility left, a grand master army appeared out of nowhere and interfered.

    As William knew there was no other strong fort of normal masters in the entire area aside from this city, and this was the only city with portals in the entire region, then he had to put this possibility on hold for now.

 Chapter 635 I Didnt Mean It!

    ?

    William didn''t know that this possibility was right. Something did indeed intervene in such a monster tide''s advance. And that was something he''d never expect or imagine.

    It was another monster, one that craved for upgrading itself to the higher realm. The moment the monster tide appeared, this monster woke up from its deep slumber, and started marching fast towards here with its fastest speed.

    This monster came, but not from any area adjacent to the city. It was originally situated on the opposite side of it, in between the city and the Scorching Lands, hundreds of kilometres away from here.

    It was the same scary bear monster which William stumbled across before. William never expected that and wouldn''t know until a long timeter.

    Yet such appearance of this monster dyed the grand movement of the monster army. They had to fight against it. As that monster entered into deep slumber again, madly sucking these monsters'' spirit power once they stepped close to him, they had to struggle to take it down.

    The grand monster army rallied itself to take down this uninvited rude guest. Yet this monster proved to be something scarier than what they thought.

    The battlested for two days straight between the two sides. And during which, Rick couldn''t believe what was going on. Richard tried to ask him to intervene, control the monsters to ditch fighting that weird storm thing, and focus on attacking the city. Yet Rick didn''t have any control over the situation.

    The two had to powerlessly stand on the side, watching what was going on between the two sides. It wasn''t a real battle at first, with monsters drawing closer to this storm, before they''d vanish inside, nevering back again.

    Until the second day passed, the monsters kept surrounding this storm, failing to do anything to it. The storm didn''t move. It just appeared out of nowhere,ing in fast speed, before stopping like it ran out of gas or something.

    Then the turtles came. And with them, another scary type of monster appeared. The entire army was made of ranks, with leopards being the fodders, turtles responsible for the defences, and that new monster handling orders and the deadliest attacks in the entire army.

    Once the turtles appeared, they defended the monsters that came from behind. Then scary attacksnded at this storm for fifteen hours straight, ending up for the sleeping bear to get awakened.

    He suffered lots of wounds and damage, ending up for it to run for its life. The monster army kept chasing after it for another ten hours, before finally stopping after this bear monster left the entire region.

    This cost the entire army more than three days. They even took half a day to organise their messed-up ranks and lines, before marching again towards the city.

    This time, it was the real deal.

    William didn''t know any of that. At this moment, he was feeling truly puzzled. Others were already cheering, with their morals skyrocketing, reaching off charts.

    The city was getting attacked for days, but nothing happened. Not a single monster managed to breach the city walls, never touched the walls even.

    The shouts of victory were already spreading for more than a day, with all the masters shouting with each wave of leopards getting crushed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William knew this was great indeed, but he also knew this was all wrong. He saw with his own eyes the turtles and saw how densely packed the monster army was. And yet not a single turtle was seen, and the main bulk of the monster army was nowhere to be seen.

    Everyone was feeling excited, all but him. Even Lara and Stark kept pestering him about the high-end team of masters he asked for from before, asking him to send them back to the frontline.

    In their eyes, in everyone''s eyes, this war was going to end with their crushing victory against all odds. And against all their high expectations, William didn''t feel so.

    Even when he was asked directly to send the team he took back, he didn''t hesitate or flinch, directly refusing. He didn''t know what dyed the grand army of monsters to arrive here. But he was pretty sure the main army would arrive sooner orter.

    Once that happened, the entire situation would grow to an unprecedented level of danger. Yet with such high morale, and the return of the once lost feeling of supremacy and confidence, William started to hold more hope than ever.

    [Why won''t you listen? These masters are left to do nothing! Do you know how terrible they''ll feel by seeing their friends and even rivals enjoying such glorious moments, while they just stood back and did nothing but watch?] Lara spoke to him again, and William rolled his eyes.

    During all this time, he didn''t even rest for a single moment. He spent tons of elixirs during the past four days. Be it for his personal use, or for Charley, he spent close to hundreds of elixir bottles already. In return for that, he got lots of cores and materials that he lost count for.

    And yet he wasn''t that happy about any of that. He kept his vignce. And the more time passed, the more he grew unsettled.

    At some point, he even wanted to go out again and scout what was going on at the monster army. But he wasn''t sure if he should leave the city at these stressful and dangerous moments. After all, Lara had zero experience in dealing with such grand wars. And the entire masters here were intoxicated in their feeling of victory.

    "I told you, I need them¡­"

    [Come on! You have been holding them back for days! Don''t you see? Nothing bad will happen¡­]

    *Rumble!*

    Even before she''d continued her words, a loud rumble urred, with a much fierce trembling of the ground.

    William turned towards the city, seeing even the walls tremble faintly under the heavy steps of the iing grand number of monsters.

    [I¡­ I didn''t mean it¡­]

 Chapter 636 The Real Deal

    ?

    Lara felt like she jinxed everyone by what she said. But William wasn''t feeling anything but pure excitement¡­ And a relief! "Atst things happened as they should have," he muttered to himself, while Lara, like everyone else here, was busy watching the iing disaster.

    Even before the real monster army would appear, the shocking scene of the trembling ground and shaking trees at the horizon made it clear how scary the uing monster wave was.

    William turned around and looked at the distance like everyone else. But against what others did, he didn''t stand alone there. Instead, he started to move forward.

    The shocking scene took everyone by silence. They were just cheering for a long time already, feeling that this monster tide wasn''t as scary as they initially imagined.

    But now? They felt real fear, the same kind of terror any veteran felt by seeing this scene. This was how monster tides should be like.

    "Don''t stand idle like this, prepare for the uing sh," William shouted when he noticed that nothing came from the walls of the city for a few seconds, "let those with deadly techniques and formidable defensive abilities to hold back, be ready to intervene the moment that monster wave appeared."

    William didn''t speak to Lara. He knew thetter wasn''t capable of getting over her shock and taking hold of things at such a crucial moment. He didn''t risk it and spoke these words over to Stark.

    Thetter got jolted awake and started to spread orders at once. The masters in the city got freed from such a fear spell and returned to attack again.

    Seeing this made William feel more at ease. The masters in the city had to hold back the initial charge, as it was usually the fiercest and most dangerous move in any monster tide.

    [I''m seeing you getting away from the walls. What are you doing?!] As everyone got jolted awake, William heard Ro''a voice in his head. [ Why the hell do you like to move alone, do scary and crazy stuff all the time?!]

    "You just spoke in time," William didn''t answer what his friend asked, "start preparing the teams I asked before. We need to act when the time is right."

    [To do what exactly?]

    "To do what you always wanted to do," Williamughed, "don''t you want to go down there and fight the monsters while waving your swords around? This is your chance."

    [Don''t tell me¡­ Are we finally going down? All of us? I can''t believe you!]

    "Only you," William stressed over this whileughing.

    [I knew you meant ill towards me! Do you want to kill me this badly or what?]

    "You are going down with other teams," Williamughed again, "I admit you are this despicable and hard to deal with, had an ugly face to stick around oneself, but not to the degree of killing you. Listen¡­"

    [Who the f*ck have ugly face? You have the ugly face, not me!] Ro roared in anger, and William simplyughed back.

    "Just listen¡­ You are going down with the teams of wind and earth-based elements. Then¡­"

    William started to tell her everything about what they were going to do. After he finished speaking, she remained silent for a few seconds.

    [You do indeed hold grudges too deep and for too long] She sighed, [I can''t believe you still didn''t forget about back then]<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "It''s not about that¡­"

    [It''s always about that, sigh! Ok, I''ll go down but will take the other girls with me]

    "No, leave them behind, I need them."

    [For what? I won''t risk my life alone then¡­ Send someone else!]

    William realised that his simple prank, the joke he just said on a whim, had toe to an end. "Ok, you can stay behind, send Lang and Peter then," William stopped fooling around when he spotted the early waves of monstersing from the far distance.

    He saw the turtles he spotted before, appearing atst. "Make sure the teams are on the ground in the next twenty minutes."

    [But¡­]

    "Just do it," William knew she was going to doubt what he just said. The monsters weren''t that far to begin with, and anyone could tell they''d arrive here in five minutes at most.

    But William wasn''t joking. He stored away Ro''s Bullet, turned towards the iing monsters before evilly grinning.

    "It''s time to light the entire forest on fire!" William didn''t just depend entirely on the toxin Lara and the city alchemists made. He had another scheme in y, the vibrant ores he spread before.

    He took out his bow, stored his weapons, and let his tails hold the bow and pull the bowstring.

    *Fwoosh!*

    William already spread the ores over the forest, but that only happened in a limited zone, the areas he previously visited. It was enough to cause disturbance in the middle of the iing army, stopping them for half an hour at most.

    William''s arrows went far andnded just in the middle of the marching turtles. The ones that fell over the turtles'' shells, ended up exploding and doing nothing. But the few that managed to find their ways among these shells, ended up exploding fast.

    These explosions weren''t enough to leave any mark over the turtles. The moment fire spread over, spirit power got stirred, and the ores scattered around got ignited like fireworks.

    The initial strong explosions got fiercer, and fire spread out in pirs, moving and forming gigantic waves that spread over and covered lots of monsters in no time.

    William already expected that, but those masters back in the city froze on the spot, feeling like they never saw enough in the world yet.

    The fire wave rose up like it was going to touch the sky. And the moment it rose to such a scary level, William shouted while holding Stark''s Bullet.

    "Let all the wind-based masters release their strongest long-range techniques now! Let this ocean of fire spread away. Don''t let ite at us or we''ll all die!"

 Chapter 637 [Bonus ] Attacking The Turtles

    ?

    [Dammit!] Stark cursed before in the next few seconds, lots of masters acted. Those who were strong enough even used their pseudo flying techniques and flew in the air for a few hundred metres, to get closer from such scary fire.

    Theirbined effort didn''t affect the leopards and the turtles much, but to fire they worked like magic. The wind that bellowed gave William the feeling as if a violent storm erupted in this part of the world.

    Wind didn''t just push the fire away from the city, but it also fiercely nourished and raged wildly. The fire spread over, touching more ores.

    And like that the fire ocean and pirs that looked scary at first, started to grow wilder and fiercer, ending up spreading till the end of the horizon.

    Not only that, with the help of wind, it also spread horizontally, burning more monsters as a result.

    William didn''t expect this, but he was happy when seeing lots of monstersing to burn. Yet the only drawback and regret he had was that he didn''t cover the entire area around the city with such ores.

    If he did, then things would have been much easier to handle the uing charge.

    This fire took around one tenth of the iing monsters with fire and stopped them. It didn''t just do that, it also reignited the same feel of confidence and dominance inside the city masters.

    The iing monster tide made them feel fear and doubt their ability to stop the uing monster tide.

    As the monsters approached, the city masters tried to deal with the new turtle monsters. Yet they failed.

    [Please tell me you got something to do with these weird turtles!] Lara and Stark spoke at the same time, making William smile in satisfaction.

    "Do you remember the team of masters I took from you and you keptining about them? It''s time for them to save the day," William said while holding their Bullets in his hands, "just make sure to take leopards out. And if you saw a turtle flipped on its back, kill it!"

    [This¡­] Lara didn''t get what he said, but Stark didn''t care about understanding what he meant.

    [Once a chance appears, we''ll seize it!]

    "Good," William then reced their Bullets with Peter and Lang''s, "Please tell me you are already on the ground."

    [We are!]

    [We know what to do, boss!]

    "Great," William paused, "move first in a circle around the city. Don''t delve deeper. You know your top priority is, so just focus on flipping more turtles and leave the rest to the city masters."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Ok boss!] the two said at the same time, before the final showdown of this war started.

    At this moment, William stopped what he was doing. He was just behind the raging fire, and that made him quite safe for at least the next half an hour.

    He watched the monstersing from other directions arrive close to the city walls. In return for that, torrents of attacksnded over them, all got blocked sessfully by the giant scaled turtles.

    Then a small team of masters could be spotted in the middle of all this. They got seen not because they were strong, but because they were moving in the middle of monsters, and then turtles started rolling on their backs, even sent to fly at various asions.

    It was a really shocking and pleasant scene to behold. This group of masters were in thousands, yet they looked so tinypared to the giant monsters around. Despite that, these tiny humans managed to be the attracting point in all this war.

    Everyone focused on them, even monsters. The moment they started to affect the turtles, more leopards started to run towards them.

    "Time to see how good you really are," William didn''t just depend on Stark to take care of this team. He sent Charley back after the initiation of the sea of fire from before.

    If things went wrong, then with Charley, these leopards wouldn''t do much damage.

    But William''s worries were groundless. The moment his selected team moved and acted, the city masters responded with their own move. Under the direct orders of Stark, a team of high end masters got formed and moved at once to save the team at the ground.

    The leopards acted to stop Peter and Lang''s teams, and the city masters moved to protect them. In such a dire and critical moment, things finally got saved by the masters of the city.

    The city masters kept fighting leopards for days, and they got used to how they fought, what their weaknesses were, and how to get rid of them in the simplest and fastest ways.

    So it wasn''t a surprise for the iing sea of leopards to get stopped and even lose much of their numbers. At the same time, Stark made the city masters on the wall cover up the area around Peter''s and Lang''s team, to cut any route for the leopards to gather up.

    Seeing this made William nod in satisfaction. As no leopard managed toe close from his team, more turtles got flipped on their backs.

    The way to do it was quite simple actually. The earth based masters had to dig tunnels under the ground, reaching to the soft spots underneath each turtle. Then the wind based masters would simply release their storm like techniques, forcing these turtles to flip on their backs, or even fly in the air for hundreds of metres.

    It looked simple, but it was indeed quite tricky to control. William knew if the wind-based masters dyed their actions for a few seconds, then the turtles would pass over the tunnels dug by other masters. And if the wind based masters didn''t release enough powerful wind, then the giant and extremely heavy turtles wouldn''t budge an inch.

    William expected them to fail at first, but luckily, they didn''t fail that much. Not to mention most of this was thanks to the overestimation of these masters to the right number of masters working together to flip a single turtle.

 Chapter 638 The Rugged Terrain Tactic

    ?

    It was something they''d learnter on by experience and trials, and that would help to elerate their mission and widen the number of affected turtles by theirbined attacks.

    As things turned out to be this good, William controlled Charley to kill the turtles at their softest and weakest spots, their bellies.

    He didn''t want to speak about how to kill these turtles. Showing everyone the right way to do it was enough. As he expected, the moment Charley took down dozens of turtles, Stark sent more masters down there. And like this, a wide spree of killing happened.

    Yet there was a single point that didn''t match all these great things; the speed of doing all this and the magnitude of such actions.

    The masters William''s team gathered were in thousands, but they had to work together to either dig tunnels or flip these turtles. And so this limited greatly their speed of action, limited the scale of the entire process.

    It was effective, but it wasn''t enough to be a game changer. So when Stark asked William about the right way to do this tactic, William didn''t hesitate to exin things over.

    [Ok, I''ll gather all the wind and earth based masters, send them down there and see what they will do] Stark seemed excited about doing this.

    During the next ten minutes, the city masters started to flood the ground outside the walls. They didn''t perform well at first. It wasn''t only because they messed up timing thebined attacks on many asions, but also it was thanks to the overwhelming number of monstersing at the walls.

    The turtles worked at impregnable shields, stopping most of the iing attacks from the city walls. This helped in saving lots of leopards, and together they marched towards the walls.

    Seeing this made William seriously consider using his berserk toxin. But when Stark suggested copying his tactic, he decided to wait.

    Even if these mastersmitted lots of mistakes, theirbined effort managed to put a hold over the scarily advancing army of monsters. The walls got lots of damage during the past ten minutes, showing cracks at many ces. If this continued, then in less than a couple of hours, the walls would turn into a beehive, filled with lots of holes and gaps, before finally falling down.

    "Good," William knew these masters weren''t to me for such lousy performance. They were summoned atst notice and didn''t have any time to prepare even mentally for the uing task.

    If not for William''s guild''s team to act for hours in front of their eyes, they wouldn''t have even managed to seed.

    William then turned his attention towards the horizon. The initial charge was getting dealt with, either by his fire, or by thebined efforts of different masters. Yet that didn''t mean danger was over.

    The sea of fire spread in the middle of the forest like a deep burning wound. Fire kept spreading to nearby trees, but it wasn''t enough to kill monsters around.

    This spreading fire was a normal fire,cking enough heat or destructive power. "I hope they''ll give us time to push the monster slightly back beforeing again," William knew this was just a desperate hope.

    And in the next few hours, monsters kept increasing in numbers without showing any sign of decrease at all.

    In the past few hours, William kept moving all over the battlefield with Charley. The two kept killing any leopard monster they could find, evading all the turtles they faced. As for the battle at the city walls, it was growing hectic and harder after these hours.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The main issuey in the growing obstacles for the masters outside the city, stopping them from going directly towards their next targets.

    All the turtles had giant bodies, and with the dead leopards, they started to form lots of hills that blocked the paths for masters on the ground.

    That wasn''t all, the masters on the city walls started to experience lots of difficulties to aim right and let their techniques hit their targets.

    On many asions, their techniquesnded wrongly over the dead bodies of monsters, especially turtles. Seeing this made everyone frustrated.

    If they got enough numbers on their side, then they could have sent a clearing team, the Scavengers. They roamed the battlefield, cutting any dead monster into pieces, collecting materials and cores, and even storing away the flesh.

    If they got such teams on the ground, then nothing of this would have happened. On the other side, monsters never found it hard to pass directly through the dead bodies of their kin.

    Even many turtles pushed away lots of dead carcasses, increasing their size in a scary way, while adding more defensiveyers to them.

    "I believe it''s time to use that toxin," the struggle at the city walls was destined to grow in difficulty as more monsters showed up. William was now feeling the same pressure as when he went deeply into the enemy lines.

    It was clear that the main bulk of the monster army arrived in the city atst. And that made William worry over the current situation of the defensive battles at the walls.

    "It''s time," as there was no other option left, and while the fire he caused started to die down after all these hours, William said to Lara.

    [Atst! Do you want me to activate all of the hidden barrels?]

    "Just give the order for everyone to retreat first," William paused, "let the earth-based masters form a rugged terrain."

    [What''s that rugged terrain?!]

    "It''s like lines of small hills separated by lines of grooves," William knew this tactic wasn''t known in this world, "let them circle the walls, do this for hundreds of metres or even beyond."

    [But¡­]

    "Don''t worry, I''m going to stop the advancing army on my own," William wasn''t speaking nonsense, "but you''ll get half an hour at most. Make sure they''ll make the best out of it. I''ll handle monsters five kilometres away from the city. As for those within this distance, let the city masters handle them."

 Chapter 639 One Man Army

    ?

    [Ok¡­] She wanted to argue with him, but the current situation was indeed severe. She didn''t need to have much experience in big wars to know how dire their general stance was.

    The monsters wereing like there was no end to them. And with the lots of the big dead bodies of the monsters killed so far, it was hard to stop the uing charge of monsters.

    [I will arrange Scavenger teams]

    "Do as you wish," William turned around, estimated his current location to be just three kilometres away from the city, "I need to pull a little distance forward then."

    Once he decided, he started to run and fight, evading any annoying turtle monster while making sure he''d kill all the leopards on his way.

    Even if the turtles were currently the strongest force in the enemy lines, the ranks of monsters were mainly formed out of leopards. And that made William''s mission a little easier.

    At the same time, the city walls started to show a grand move. Lara ryed what she agreed with William about to Stark. And thetter was waiting for such a moment. He already prepared lots of Scavenger teams, waiting for the right time to send them out.

    In addition to them, he also prepared lots of deadly force teams, ones that wereposed of gold masters as their lowest ranks.

    The Scavenger teams didn''t have such an extravagant lineup, mostly formed of bronze and silver masters. Their task wasn''t that hard to begin with. And just by watching how William dissected monsters outside for hours taught everyone the right way to do it.

    As William gave them the green light, Stark didn''t hesitate anymore. He even formed more teams to aid the strongest teams he gathered already, sent everyone towards the ground outside, and a true bloody battle erupted next.

    William asked for half an hour, and they felt like every passing minute held a life challenging sh with these monsters. As William crossed atst the area he wanted, reaching the ten kilometre mark, he started to act.

    What he did was to take out lots of grenades, different types of them. The ones that he used before at the Lost City exploded first, engulfing lots of ces, while leaving tiny passes for monsters to pass through.

    At the same time, his tails shone with brown light, as he used his earth spirit element. He already had five normal elements, including fire, wind, and earth.

    He refrained from using his earth element before as he didn''t see any value in doing so. Even if he started to use it against the turtles, his spirit power wasn''t enough to do anything to them.

    But now he had to use it to bury lots of normal grenades underground. It was the same type as the ones Sith, and others used five years ago with him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Yet these grenades were much higher in grade and ferocity than their ancestors. Not only that, but William also found an interesting material before, one that could make these grenades partially self-repair after detonating.

    And that meant a single grenade would detonate for around twenty times before turning into useless scrap of metal.

    William told Lara that he''d secure an area with a five kilometres radius around the city. And yet he went too deep to reach ten kilometres away. As he suffered tons of pressure, faced many life-threatening situations, he finally released all his grenades, stabilising the situation greatly.

    "Time to work fast then," William had another tail shine in green light, as he used his wind element. He coupled this with using a fast movement technique, one that''d let his steps be swift and his legs cross lots of distance in no time.

    He started to circle around the city, taking almost ten minutes in doing so. During which, loud noises of explosions kept ranging all the time, announcing monsters passing over these grenades.

    They might not be able to kill these monsters'' solo, but they could leave lots of wounds over them. And as these grenades attacked from the ground upwards, the turtles started to suffer heavy casualties.

    As hepleted the first round, he walked a few hundred metres inward, before repeating the same process again. It was likeying downyers uponyers around the city, all formed out of his grenades, leaving behind tons of wounded and dead monsters, with heaven shaking explosions ranging all the time.

    The forces at the city were all shocked by this. Only those with long ranged spirit senses managed to spot what William was doing from the start. They reassured everyone that things were fine, and exined in detail what William was doing.

    And when William got closer to the city, the other gold grade masters started to see what he was doing. They were impressed by his bravery and rich ways to handle monsters. And without even intending for it, his image started to deepen inside their minds and hearts.

    William took two hours to do so, much longer than what he expected initially. The main issue for that was that he found just rying the underground grenades at a few spots wasn''t enough. So, he started to fill most of the ground with his underground grenades. When he arrived near the city, he finallyyered it with underground grenades only.

    He sole handedly turned the entire area around the city into a hard to pass throughndmine. As he took two hours in doing so, stopping the influx of new monsters since starting all this, the masters at the city finally got enough time to breathe.

    That peaceful period didn''t end by William''s arrival to the five kilometres mark he specified before. He continued toy down his grenades, throwing out the deadly grenades from time to time, stopping the monster army from getting closer to the city.

    [You¡­ Sigh! You are truly a one-man army!] even Stark got touched by his performance, couldn''t help but sigh in admiration.

 Chapter 640 The Ice Hellhounds

    ?

    "It''s the destiny of any powerful figure, right?" William was shameless enough to brag about it like this. He was quite exhausted, feeling like he''d need a week of sleep to regain hisposure again.

    [I hope to see you one day stand on the pinnacle stage] Stark didn''t get any ill meaning behind William''s words, [Now¡­ You can go back and rest for a little bit. The things youid on the ground will be enough to fend off the monsters for few hours]

    "Don''t lower your guard yet, old man," William didn''t feel the same as Stark, as most if not all of the masters in the city, "the real challenge will start anytime soon."

    [What do you mean¡­ Don''t tell me these monsters aren''t the real scary ones out there!!!] Stark was a seasoned master, and he saw lots in this world already.

    So he could get what William meant. Thetter managed to stop the monsters by thendmines and grenades, but that didn''t mean the monster tide would stop here.

    Once such an obstacle would rise, then the scariest forces of the monsters would appear soon enough to handle the situation. William knew the time of peace they got was short, really short to rest or something.

    "Let''s focus on the far more important things then," William''s eyes narrowed, looking at the city and the ground around it, "I see you cleared the monster carcass¡­ But we need to replenish the damaged arrays, repair the ruined walls, and try to add moreyers of defence even inside the city."

    [Do you believe we will lose the battle at the walls?!!]

    "I''m just thinking of the worst case scenario," William rolled his eyes. Stark seemed to grow excited from all the great times that happened at the early three days of this war to even forget how terribly bad their initial situation was.

    They decided to fight this war with a very slim chance of sess. And William was still cing such a realistic assessment in front of him, "thest thing we both want to see is for our brave masters to get hunted down and killed while retreating towards the portals, right?"

    [...]

    William''s words seemed a bit harsh and cold, like a cold bucket of water was poured on his head or something. He wanted to refute what William said but couldn''t.

    The harsh and straightforward words of William pulled Stark out of his delusions and dreams, returning back to the stressful times before this entire war happened.

    And as thetter was feeling so, the entire situation of the war started to change fast.

    As William expected, lots of new monsters appeared from the distance. Just from watching them walk through the fire and explosions without getting affected made William know they were the strongest monsters in this monster tide, the most difficult obstacle they had to get over if they wanted to win this entire thing.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But when these monsters came closer, William couldn''t help but suck in a cold air of breath. "The Ice Hellhounds? What a damn breed of monsters they brought with them¡­" William couldn''t help but shake off his head when he saw these monsters. He knew how scary these monsters were in the outer world. And even if they got lots of limitations by being here, this wasn''t enough to make him feel any hope.

    "Start activating the toxin, recall everyone inside the city right away!" William didn''t stand idle and instantly said to Lara. Then he turned around and started running fast towards the city.

    The Ice Hellhounds were a weird mix between ice andva elements. The two were supposed to be severely antagonising to each other. But on rare asions, masters and monsters would develop the two, ending up with a truly scary mixture.

    They could deal with fire, water, wind, ice, and even earth-based attacks. They had strong defences, lots of immunity against normal spirit elements, and a very scary level of strength.

    They weren''t just fast, but they had such abnormal ability to track anyone anywhere they were. It wasn''t that easy to get rid of them, not even with using normal arrays.

    To take any down, one had to use a much higher level of attacks, use abination of elements together, or to do like William intended to do here, turning them against each other.

    If leopards would get affected by stacking much toxin together, turtles would take longer time to get affected and would suffer of this toxin for lesser amount of time, then these Hellhounds would take much denser amount of spirit power, long time to get affected, and would end up affected for a short period of time.

    William was d now he asked Lara to mass produce this toxin. Like this, he was sure lots of toxins would spread, and the chances of affecting these Hellhounds were great.

    But he also knew this wasn''t going to solve the problem entirely. Their numbers were in tens of thousands, and they wouldn''t get affected long enough to tear each other down.

    The best oue he dreamt about was for these Hellhounds to take tons of other monsters in this tide and wound many of the hounds. The best he wanted to see was for these Hellhounds to interrupt the advance of the entire army. And like this, many masters would find a chance to retreat.

    William never ced the idea of taking down these monsters at all in his mind. It was just something crazy to think about, considering how low the masters on his side were, considering how everyone was exhausted and tired from all these hectic fighting.

    If he gave the order now for the masters to retreat, lots if not most of them would fall under the hands of the terrifying Hellhounds. So, he had first to keep these monsters busy, killing each other, before he''d tell Lara and Stark to lead everyone away.

    *Rumble!*

    Just as he started to retreat as well, the entire world rumbled.

 Chapter 641 Using Grenades

    ?

    It just rumbled once, before a suffocating silence prevailed, giving the feeling like the entire world wasing to an end or something.

    William turned around and what he saw made him freeze in his ce. "Tell me exactly how you made this stuff," William stopped, looking at a growing weird cloud of green dust that rose up from the ground at this moment.

    He held Lara''s Bullet and asked her in immense disbelief. This wasn''t his toxin, at least not just the simple toxin he gave its form to Lara.

    He got the impression that some sort of mistake was done, something that got mixed with his form at least.

    [What? Don''t tell me it''s not what you gave us!!!]

    "It''s¡­ It looks the same but¡­ It''s also different. What did these alchemists make exactly?!"

    William wasn''t exaggerating things here. The toxin was indeed present in that weird thick cloud rising up. But it wasn''t alone, something else was mixed with it, something that looked quite dangerous and deadly.

    William didn''t know what happened. [Let me ask my uncle, he was the one responsible for all this] she was puzzled, fearing that something bad happened thanks to traitors or ipetence in the family and other alchemists she used.

    As William asked to mass produce this substance, she had to ask all the alchemists present in the city to take part in the entire thing. She was too busy to handle different things to keep check over the performance of these alchemists.

    "Bring me the form they used in making this stuff," William paused, "also fetch someone with a sample of it. I want to check what it is."

    [Are we screwed?] This was the most troublesome matter she had to think about right now. She got the impression this mistake was something bad, mistaking what William was thinking about.

    "It''s great actually," but what William said made her heave a deep sigh of relief, "this new substance¡­ It not only has the same effect of the toxin I gave you, but also has an explosive effect as a bonus."

    William wasn''t making things up. As the cloud started to appear, he noticed a few unique features there. [What explosions? Nothing exploded out there!] but Lara didn''t get what he noticed. And that was expected.

    William sniffed something that was rted to the outer world. This cloud wasn''t simple, and what he meant by being explosive wasn''t the same as Lara guessed.

    "Just bring me the form used, and see what exactly happened," William watched the different monsters inhale such substances while a grin appeared on his face, "and make sure our masters will stay on the walls. If they spot any chance, let them use their long-ranged techniques only."

    [Long ranged techniques only? We won''t send anyone down?]

    "No," William firmly responded, "and make sure lots of wind-based masters are on the walls as well. If that cloud gets closer, they''ll push it slightly away. Not too much to make it vanish or go away from here, just enough for us to not get in touch with it."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Ok] she didn''t get why he was acting like this. In a moment he was like the end of the world came, and in the other he seemed like a miracle happened and their lives got saved or something.

    William wasn''t losing it, but he knew much more than she and other masters here did. The explosive thing he spoke about was rted to the effect of the substance forming this cloud over anyone inhaling it.

    Once getting into anyone''s body, this substance would get ignited, exploding internally, releasing tons of damage. William could tell that from the general look of this cloud, and more importantly from the response it caused to the world.

    That weird silence wasn''t actually normal, it was caused because the area surrounding this cloud got crushed, turned into a piece of vacuum without even air in it. This made a sound not able to move and spread to anyone''s ears.

    William knew the effects of this substance would take a long time to appear over the monsters. But he was sure if anyone could see through these monsters'' bodies, they''d see lots of ring up points that were leaving traces of damage everywhere inside.

    William was surprised by such a substance, especially when such an effect didn''t belong to this world. Such surprise just came in time, when he already lost any hope in saving the day.

    But now? If this substance acted as he expected, then the worst effect would be for these Hellhounds to suffer heavy wounds, wouldn''t be able to move around or fight like normal.

    As the toxin form of his got changed and modified like this, he didn''t remove the possibility of this substance to have a new surprise for him.

    And so he started to pay more attention towards what was going on out there, stopping his retreat, and even drew closer.

    He didn''t fear such substances. He got a wind element ready to intervene and protect himself against any danger.

    As for the surrounding monsters, the moment this cloud appeared, it felt like they were exposed to a slowing down spell. They started to run slowly, then walk, and finally stopped.

    The area around the city was filled with grenades that Williamid before. And as he saw the monsters show suchzy actions, he decided to keepying out his grenades.

    He didn''t dare toe so close from the frontline of this grand battlefield, not daring to get closer from any Hellhound monster.

    And so, he started to ry grenades in circles around the city, leaving only narrow paths that weren''t enough for any monster to pass through. Even leopards wouldn''t be able to do it.

    Just before he''dy down an entire circle, monsters started to roar. One after another started to fall on the ground motionless, showing weird changes on their faces.

    This was limited only to the leopards. But it was a good sign that what William expected before started to show up its value.

 Chapter 642 A Weird Toxin

    ?

    Turtles didn''t show such a reaction, not even the strongest out of the leopards. But soon enough, all of the still standing leopards started to grow berserk.

    Their eyes turned all red, while their bodies showed a weird green light. They turned around, seemingly looking at the monsters nearby as if they were their deadliest and sworn enemies.

    "It''s working! Both of these effects are working at the same time, hahaha!" William knew at least like this the leopards would be gone. That might not greatly affect the hounds or turtles, but this was going to take out the main bulk of the monster army at least.

    What made him hold such grand hopes was for the cloud to stick around and not move away. It acted differently, not the same way he envisioned before.

    The toxin he provided its form to Lara before would only stick in the air for twenty minutes or half an hour at most. But this cloud seemed like it wasn''t formed of air, felt like it was formed of some sort of semi-solid substance.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ It''s foam!" William suddenly had such inspiration after the passage of one hour. Lara didn''t yet return to him, and nothing much happened rather than for more explosions to ur thanks to the monsters overstepping over thendmine.

    Even if the toxin appeared and spread in a grand area around the city, and even if the leopards started to attack anything moving around them, the turtles and Hellhounds kept advancing.

    Their speed got greatly impacted negatively, dropped and looked as if they were walking not running like before, but they still were advancing forward towards the city.

    The grenades William buried under the ground worked like magic at these moments. The advancing monsters got bombarded with tons of fierce attacks one after another. And the turtles got it the worst in the end.

    William wasughing when he ever saw turtles falling on the ground motionless. He knew how annoying they were. And by taking them down, it''d be much easier to handle the rest of monsters.

    As turtles were getting killed and heavily wounded like this, he started to focus more over the hounds. "Those damn hounds¡­ They are indeed a pain!" William sighed when he saw the hounds still resisting everything and marching forward.

    Even if their speed got lowered, they were still advancing without even trembling. The attacksing from the city managed to stop the turtles, but not the hounds. If not for that cloud and thendmines, these hounds would have already taken the city.

    [These weird giant three headed dog monsters are a pain! They areing here, and they are immune to everything!] Stark was already feeling crazy, jumping from the lowest abyss up to the highest heaven, then falling down again.

    The hounds were quite scary. Even after one hour, they were getting steadily closer to the city walls, not losing that much.

    Thendmines that William ced during the past hour managed to slow them down a bit. With each series of explosions, they''d retreat back thanks to the pushing shockwave. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "We need just to stall for time before they''ll fall down," William knew all they needed to do now was to hold on for as long as possible. Then the toxin these hounds inhaled would work like magic, damaging enough organs inside, ending up severely wounding them at worst.

    But that was on the premise of holding on for a long time.

    [What do you want us to do? If we let them invade the city, we are done for!]

    William knew Stark was telling the truth here. The masters standing on the city walls just got little rest during the past days. Most of them were exhausted and wounded, not in any condition to fight properly.

    This wasn''t just exclusive to the city masters, but also to his guild members as well. William recalled how the city looked from inside, recalled all the destruction and damage he saw before. And that made him sigh.

    "Will we lose here or what?" he asked Stark to keep defending with everything they got, use anything they had. As long as a thing could bring forth an explosion, then it was enough to stop these hounds even for a few moments.

    Yet that didn''t help much. The leopards were already fighting and killing each other. As for the turtles, they lost tons of their numbers thanks to thendmines. And now they started to show signs of getting affected by the berserk side of the toxin.

    It wasn''t enough. Even by the fall of many leopards and turtles with blood oozing from their orifices, it wasn''t enough. The scary hounds were already at the city walls!

    They didn''t show any sign of getting affected by anything. William kept retreating while spreading hisndmines, even using his grenades openly and without reservations. But that didn''t help.

    All the masters inside the city kept releasing torrents of techniques, explosive attacks, and yet the hounds still arrived at the city walls.

    "Will this be the end?" William already climbed his way alongside Charley towards the top of the walls. He was currently standing by Lara''s side, with his vices. All had dark faces, all seeing the end of this city clear in their eyes.

    "At least we did what we could, took as many of these bastards down as possible," William had a serious look on his face, "it''s time to issue a general retreat order."

    "Didn''t you say this substance is enough to take down these hounds?" Lara didn''t ept such a result, not epting it at all, "I looked into what happened to the form you gave and didn''t find that person who modified it! But you assured me that this substance is enough to take down these monsters, right?"

    Lara already looked into what happened to the form William provided to her. To his surprise, she told him that one master came out of the blue, saying that he was just passing by, and he modified the form.

 Chapter 643 We Have To Run Away

    ?

    Lara''s uncle didn''t know why he listened to his words or let him do it. The final form was delivered to William, and with a single nce he knew how revolutionary it was!

    William was aware of the explosive substances, the ones that could be inhaled and enter the target''s body, ending up exploding everything within. But he never heard of a form that could mix the berserk effect of his toxin with the explosive nature of this substance.

    The mixture seemed out of this world, and indeed it was. William wanted nothing more but to find that master and have a long talk with him.

    In his eyes, this master was someone who came from the outer world just like him. Or else such a thing that didn''t even exist in the outer world wouldn''t be present here.

    William thought of many exnations, an exiled master perhaps? Or someone who got drifted in a spatial storm, ending up passing through cracks and ending up here. Or perhaps he was someone who came here for a mission, to do something, and passed identally by this ce.

    William guessed lots of things, but he felt like he never came close to the truth. And he was right in his hunch. What really happened was something else than what he thought about.

    And yet there was no time to waste on thinking like this. Even with such a mysterious master''s help, William was sure they weren''t going to win this war.

    "I told you, this substance is indeed scary, but it needs time," William sighed, didn''t like the fact of being this close and ending up losing this bad, "if we can dy them for a bit longer, then it''s our win. But¡­ Just look around you, all of our masters are heavily wounded. Not to mention we lost lots of them thanks to the long-range attacks of these hounds! They bark and some of the masters on the walls get their bodies exploded!"

    "Is it¡­ Hopeless then?" she hated it when she said these words. And from the silent look over William''s face, she knew they already lost, "fine! I''ll issue the order to retreat¡­"

    "Let Stark handle this," William knew Lara was a good and capable family leader, good businesswoman, but not that great as a war general. So leading everyone away from here wasn''t going to end nice if she handled the matter.

    Stark was indeed a capable candidate to do such a task. And Lara didn''t feel anything at this moment aside from endless bitterness and regret.

    If the city was in its prime condition, then it was possible to fend off such scary monster tides. However, the tide came at a very bad moment for the city. And she had to me herself for such a fate.

    Even if she assisted in such a situation partially thanks to underestimating her enemies, she still med herself. If she listened to William''s warning back then, dealt with Richard as if he was a toxic viper, got rid of him even, then nothing of this would have happened.

    She didn''t know that even if she did that, nothing much would have changed. Rick would just look for another puppet to use, and the city would have met the same miserable fate.

    This was what made fighting against the dark master side quite difficult. They were very determined to achieve their dirty goals, and they knew how to find and manipte masters with twisted minds and spirits.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Are we going to retreat now?" When Stark heard about such an order from Lara, he couldn''t help but run all the way towards them, "we didn''t lose yet! Those hounds are moving like turtles! We can still fight!"

    Against what William expected, this old master didn''t want to retreat as well. This was quite expected. After all, this city was a home to many of the masters fighting here.

    Many would prefer to die standing and fighting rather than leave the city and abandon their homes.

    William understood all this, and that what gave any normal spirit master group hope to crush the dark side. "Fine! But you need to know this is a lost battle! The hounds are going to breach the walls soon enough. And then it''ll be a massacre."

    "You told me we need to buy time, right?" Stark''s face showed a rare look of determination and stubbornness, "let me lead all the masters willing to put their lives on the line for the city, let us go down there and fight."

    "This¡­" Even Lara couldn''t believe her ears. She was about to convince Stark to drop such a crazy idea when thetter raised his hand and stopped her.

    "We won''t stand idle and watch our home getting destroyed! It''s our fate as the old ones to protect the young generations like yours," Stark showed an air of a true elder in William''s eyes.

    What Stark said was true. The old ones had such heavy responsibility towards their younger generations and their homes.

    As Stark decided, he left and gathered up thousands of masters. It was a formidable force, where all the high-end masters were gathered.

    "Are we going to watch them die like this?" Lara was already panicking, wanting nothing more but to go down there and help them. Stark led the elite team of masters, jumped off the walls, flew in the air, and started bombarding the hounds with their deadliest attacks.

    "We have no other choice," William shrugged, "if we got five times such force then we could live through the day, if we got ten fold the size of normal masters here then we got a chance. However, we don''t, and no matter how we hoped or prayed, nothing will change."

    "..."

    William''s words were harsh, but they spoke the truth. He turned around, looked at the eyes of his vices and Lara. "It seems I shall give him the order to retreat," William didn''t like any of this. And above everything else, he didn''t like running away and cancelling Ibra''s mission.

 Chapter 644 Surprising News

    ?

    But Ibra was all alone right now. If they retreated and teleported away, then he got to also run for his life. Thinking about calling him back wasn''t going to work. The entire city was totally surrounded by a tight circle of scary monsters. If he came here, he''d be asking for his own death.

    "Send someone to check on the portals, we need everything ready before retreating," William said to Lara, and thetter took a few seconds before doing what he said.

    She sent many teams to the portal area. They were the ones who used to work there and knew what they should do to make the portals work.

    William knew leading everyone to the open area of the portal zone without preparing everything beforehand was an act of suicide. So, he waited until Lara sent the experienced teams out, and that also attracted the attention of everyone in the city.

    Slowly shouts demanding the death of the monsters and asking to stand their ground and fight started to rise and spread all over the ce. William looked at such stubborn spirits, knowing that these masters were the best, were the most any city, academy, impact, guild, or master would dream to have.

    Seeing this, knowing that once they stayed behind, they''d die, William sighed in pain. He didn''t want to let such good masters die, and yet he had no power to do anything to save them.

    "What will we do?" Berry couldn''t help but ask while feeling inwardly shaken by such a growing atmosphere around. It reminded her of her n, reminded her of what her n''s masters did before when their home got attacked.

    "What else?" William shrugged, "we have to retreat," even if he hated leaving such capable masters behind to die, there was no other choice for him but to do that.

    "But¡­"

    "No way! Are you sure of what you are saying?!!!"

    And before Sara would issue her opinion and try to convince William to stick around and fight, Lara''s loud shout came to startle all of them.

    "What happened?" William felt like the entire world got shaken underneath his feet the moment he heard her shout. There was only one thing that could make her act like this, and that was the damage of the portal area or anything close to that.

    The portals were their only way out from here, the only ce William thought about to run safely with everyone. He nned everything based on these portals, never thinking about the possibility of losing them or something.

    So, it was expected how much he panicked the moment he heard her shout, thinking of the worse.

    But against what he feared, none of that happened. In fact, it was something great.

    "The portal¡­ There¡­ There are masters flooding out from them!!!"

    "..."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William took a couple of moments before he got what she just said. "For real? Hahahaha! Atst! Reinforcements arrived!"

    "Yes¡­ But¡­" the look of excitement over her face slowly faded away, making William look at her in a questioning way. "There is a group of masters who want to speak with me before sending their forces here."

    "I see¡­" William''s mind worked fast, and he instantly guessed what was going on here, "let me go and speak with them then. You can''t leave the battlefield, or else everyone will get the wrong idea."

    "Do you know why they are asking to meet?" Lara didn''t bother about what he just said, and instead she felt worried about such a weird request at such a critical time.

    All she thought about was something that originated from her life as a businesswoman and a leader of a big family. She thought they came here to extort her and her family and city, asking for extravagant prices to help, taking advantage of such low points in their fate.

    Even if she hated getting extorted like this, in return to save everyone and everything she was willing to agree on anything.

    But William knew better. He could already guess what these forces want in return for helping save the city. "Don''t worry, I know they came with good intentions."

    "Good or bad, do we have a choice in the first ce?" she took what William said as a way to reassure her, "go there then, and speak on my behalf. I ept any conditions and prices they''ll ask for, no matter what. Our city¡­ Our home¡­ Our people¡­ All of this must be saved!"

    William liked how she acted at such a moment. Even if she over thought about everything, he still liked how she was determined to save everything and everyone.

    "Leave it to me," William turned to his friends and vices, "stay here, and make sure everyone is ready for a big counterattack."

    "Do you want us toe with you?" Lang asked, and William simply shook his head. He called back Charley, letting it cover his chest for now. He was now in his human form and didn''t n to change into a fox form yet.

    He knew those waiting for them at the portal area were either the leaders of big forces all over the continent, or their representatives.

    William recalled asking Lara to spread out the word of what the forces here did. The simple move he didn''t think about except for a form of retaliation towards such despicable traitors ended up saving their lives, saving this city, and helping them to rebuild everything.

    These folks arrived here to speak about one thing, about recing the vacancy left by the various forces in the city.

    Of course, they''d ask for lots of things, like the right to be part in deciding matters in the city, allocating pieces ofnd to their forces to use as bases, the right to use the portals, the freedom to recruit any master and bring any sizeable forces here, doing business freely and such things.

    William knew Lara wouldn''t object on anything, no one in the city would actually reject any condition no matter how harsh it was.

 Chapter 645 One Hundred Forces

    ?

    William didn''t want to let the city suffer for generations toe thanks to the treason of the old powers, and the ipetence of this generation.

    So he ran towards the portal zone with a single thought in mind. If they dared to ask for anything excessive, then he''d harshly reject it right on the spot.

    It took him roughly half an hour to reach there. And once he arrived, he found lots of masters as Lara said, all arranged in different groups, led by a single group of masters.

    "Almost one hundred forces¡­ It seems times of war are really the right moment to do great business," William smiled when he noticed therge number of groups standing apart. And then he moved towards the single group that stood at the forefront.

    The entire ce that was empty before was now filled with masters. Tens of thousands stood here, and William knew this was just the tip of the iceberg.

    "Are you the leader of the Vancouf family?"

    "I heard the current leader is a youngdy."

    "I met her before, met with a few of their upper circle. So, who are you?"

    As William drew closer, he got suchments from the masters in this group. There were around a hundred masters standing here, with the youngest being at mid-forties.

    "I''m William," William cupped his hands in greeting, "the leader of the Fox guild."

    "The Fox guild?!"

    "Isn''t it¡­"

    "You are that rumoured fox spirit master, right?"

    William noticed that he got a reputation already, and that made him smile regardless of anything else.

    "I''m here on behalf of Lara, the leader of the Vancouf family," he paused, moving his eyes among everyone before adding, "how may I be of service?"

    "Well¡­" the group exchanged looks before an old man started to walk a few steps up front. He looked so old, so old that his back even arched and couldn''t walk without leaning on a short and thick stick.

    "You will do fine," that old man spoke, and it seemed he got a greater reputation among this group than William. The moment he spoke up, William noticed how everyone looked at him in respect, as if he was their leader or something.

    "I''m d I can help," William paused, "I believe you are aware of what''s going on here, right?"

    "We were here for an hour or so," the old man seemed like he got a leg away from the grave or something, "you are really doing great with such odds, against such scary monster tide."

    "I''m honoured," William spoke in a neutral tone, and remained silent ever since.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "You should be," the old man didn''t let William wait for long, added after a few seconds of pause as if this was his habit, "we came here believing the ce is ruined and forsaken, lost beyond any means of repair or saving. But we saw something that can be least described as admirable. I''m d I came here on the head of my Loran family, asking to join the city upper echelon."

    "That''s what we also came for."

    "Yes, we want to join the city."

    Others spoke up, expressing their intentions that William already guessed. Thetter wasn''t paying attention to them. Instead, he focused more on the ones who didn''t speak or express their intentions.

    Out of the one hundred leaders here, around twenty didn''t speak up.

    "I''m authorised to wee all of you in the city," William didn''t beat around the bush, "but¡­ We first need to have a city to share together, right?"

    "Don''t worry," the old man paused again, and with his simple sentence he silenced others, "we came here just as the representatives. All the masters here are our guards, not the real army waiting for our mark."

    "Then what are you waiting for? Send the signal and let theme," William acted the same way others imagined him to act in, "or¡­ Was this what you expected as an answer from me?"

    "What do you mean?" The moment William said his words, many whispered among each other. Once the old man spoke, everyone got silenced, "do you think we came here to fool around?"

    The old man was indeed someone scary in the entire continent, even in the world. He lived for long enough to see lots of things. And the fixed gazes of William over the small group of twenty masters and leaders who didn''t express their real intentions yet didn''t escape his keen eyes.

    He knew William didn''t mean anything bad towards them, at least towards the ones who came here with honest intentions of help and get their forces and families to join the city.

    "I mean¡­ We are in a desperate situation indeed, ready to wee any helping hand for sure, but aren''t that willing to sell ourselves to anyone," William didn''t shift his eyes away from the little group of suspicious masters, "let''s do it this way¡­ We wee anyone wanting to join the city, be part of the grand council of it, granting you the right to share in the decision making of the urgent matters of the city, providing you withnd, support, all the help you need to rise up and recruit masters even from those inside the city. Whoever agrees on these terms, please tell me your names, your forces and families names, and let''s go and protect our city together¡­"

    William''s words were clear. He straightforwardly drew a line between those who came here to really help, and those who came to fish in the muddy waters.

    "It''s fine for me¡­"

    "What about the pay for our help? You don''t believe we will risk our lives for just a useless piece ofnd and nothing but empty words and promises!" and before the old man of the Loran family would continue his words, others stepped in and interrupted him.

    "Yes, we want a good share of this portal area."

    "We want a big cut in the Spar Arena."

    "We want to rule over the marketce."

 Chapter 646 Zin

    ?

    Soon enough, those twenty masters started to issue such extravagant demands. Seeing this, the masters and leaders who didn''t get why William acted this way and why the venerable and scary old man epted such a rude attitude from this youth understood everything now.

    "Please," William rolled his eyes, "anyone not epting our terms, go back from where you came from. We don''t wee you!"

    "You¡­"

    "Do you want to die?"

    *Roar!* *Roar!*

    The next moment, William changed. He knew using words with such despicable masters wasn''t going to work. The city got lucky to purge itself from the deeply rooted dirty seeds, and thest thing the city and its masters would need was for another batch of such low calibre forces to rise up in the city.

    He didn''t even flinch, activated his fox spirit and released his Charley. The sudden appearance of the two of them, coupled with the two terrifying roars took everyone here by surprise.

    "Amazing indeed! I heard many rumours about you, never thought you are more awesome than all of what I heard," the old man''s eyes shone in bright purple light, seemingly feeling excited about William and Charley.

    His eyes stopped for a long minute over Charley, seemingly puzzled by the true nature of this behemoth.

    "We¡­"

    "You are going to leave now," William spoke in a very cold tone, with a voice that was so deep and scary to anyone hearing him, "we are facing a disaster, but that doesn''t mean we are pushovers! We are fighting monsters that can let you piss your pants! Scram! You aren''t weed here."

    His words and attitude were all hostile, but that jolted others awake. Without the need to say anything, all of the masters and leaders who came here to help and join the city turned around, stood by William''s and Charley''s side, and red in fierce ways towards the twenty despicable masters.

    Such a situation came out of this group of masters'' expectations. They thought by saying these words, they''d manage to stir up the greedy nature inside any master''s spirit.

    But they mistook and underestimated the current situation. The old man from the Loran family said it himself. They were here for an hour or so and watched how the masters of this city fought against the scary monsters. They also watched how Stark, and the high-end masters acted, listened to the ground shaking cheers from many masters there, asking to die fighting rather than live as cowards and run away.

    Such little time was enough to shock everyone watching this, at least the ones who came to join the city with honest intentions. The image of the city and its masters rose high in their hearts, and they really admired such masters and the ce which gave birth to them.

    Greed? These despicable masters seemed to live in a world filled with tons of dirty equals, making them mistakenly believe the entire world was as rotten and filthy like them.

    So, their pathetic attempt failed. Instead, it stirred up the fighting will inside these masters and leaders.

    "O¡­ Ok¡­"

    "You¡­ You are going to regret this!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Many retreated in silence, but few issued little threats that William never ced in his eyes. The city was indeed broken and deeply hurt, but with all these leaders and masters, with their forces stationed behind, the city was going to rise up again.

    So, what about threatening the city and its masters? Threatening him and others? William knew these were just empty threats, without any real backing behind them.

    William watched them leave with their guards, before turning to the old man, "may I know the master''s name?"

    "I''m Zin," the old man never moved his eyes away from Charley, "won''t you introduce your pet?"

    William knew this old man kept squeezing his mind for any exnation about Charley''s identity and origins, ending up with such a weird hypothesis.

    Taking monsters as pets was indeed a fairy tale in this world. Many dreamt about this, taming the ferocious beasts and making them one''s strongest ally.

    William knew such a fairy tale was indeed true. In the outer world, there were masters who hailed from Taming families and bloodlines.

    They could tame monsters under certain conditions. They could even teach others how to do it. But without their spirits and unique bloodline, the sess rate dropped greatly without doubt.

    "You can say that," William kept the identity of Charley to himself, "you can go and bring your armies now. You do know the current situation, and we''ll hold the line until youe back," William was about to turn around and leave. But Zin stopped him with his stick.

    "Our armies are already waiting at the other side of the portals. We''ll send envoys and they''ll arrive here in no time."

    "Great, then please follow me," William got what this old man wanted. And just by understanding him like that, Zin knew William wasn''t a simple youth at all.

    Zin moved after William alongside other leaders and their guards. Just before they''d walk out of the portal area, William saw lots of mastersing from the portals.

    Seeing this made him inwardly heave a sigh of relief. Saving this city was now a possible task.

    He led everyone towards the direction of Lara. When Lara heard the brief of what happened from him, she couldn''t help but look at him in an appreciative gaze.

    If she was the one handling the discussion, then she''d have agreed on what these greedy folks demanded. But William seemed to see thating and was ready beforehand about what he should say.

    Lara then started to handle her responsibility as the leader of the Vancouf family, the current leader of the city. William stood by the side, leaving her to do what she wanted, and was more focused on the iing armies of masters.

    Floods of masters came out from the portals, filled the streets of the city, went in all directions, boarded the walls and started to help in fighting off the hounds.

 Chapter 647 Lets Make A Trench

    ?

    During the time William was away meeting the leaders of different forces, Stark was fighting desperately and bravely with thousands of high-end masters.

    They were doing a great job actually. Any one of these masters was enough to shake an entire city or battlefield. The only problem was that their foes weren''t that easy to handle and weren''t normal at all.

    Monsters received all the attacks and didn''t flinch. The most they showed was for them to retreat a few steps back with every violent explosion. Stark and others weren''t trying to kill these hounds but buying time for the masters in the city to run safely away.

    But when they heard the loud cheers and shoutsing from the walls, heard the defying words and tone of the masters there, refusing to leave and run away, they felt their blood boil.

    They didn''t feel themselves when they jumped at the hounds, fighting fiercely while doing their best to push them away. At these moments, they didn''t care about anything else, only wanted to take down as many hounds as they could.

    Amidst all this, Lara got the news about the agreement between William and the new forces joining the city. She saw the floods of mastersing to their aid, and instantly she delivered the news over to Stark.

    Thetter took a few minutes to jolt awake, understanding what she was trying to tell him.

    "Are you telling me we got reinforcements? Few forces areing here? When?"

    [No, they are already here! And they aren''t few, they arerge armies of mastersing here¡­ Pull back, withdraw and return to the walls now!]

    Stark didn''t believe his ears at first. He then spread out his spirit sense, covered the entire city and soon enough he knew Lara was telling the truth.

    Swarms of masters came in waves from the direction of the portals. They looked like they were formed of different forces, but they looked as if they were ready to fight and put their lives on the line.

    Seeing this made all the overwhelming suicidal feelings to wash away. He hurriedly shouted at the masters around, urged them to use their spirit sense and examine the city.

    The masters mistook his words at first, thinking that enemies invaded the city. But when they looked closer, thought clearer, they realised that these masters were here to help.

    "Let''s go back, let''s start defending the city from the walls," Stark didn''t need but to tell a few words, briefing what happened before leading them away.

    They broke away from the monsters and ran back to the city walls. Despite failing to kill a single hound, they managed to push them for hundreds of metres away from the city. And there they got bombarded again by thendmines William nted.

    The leaders of forces who came here didn''t notice who did thendmines, and their forces never knew of anything like this. Watching how the monsters stepped on the ground, ending up for fierce waves of explosions to erupt, fierce enough to push away these scary hounds back for hundreds of metres was something they never imagined.

    William didn''t care about any of that. The moment the new masters arrived at the walls, he turned to Lara and asked her to handle things.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The city''s original masters fought for a long time without having a chance to rest. And with the presence of such fresh forces, much more in numbers and had much higher-grade masters in their ranks, it was time to let the original city masters rest.

    Lara was more busy dealing with the new leaders than the current war. In her eyes, things were going to end quite well, and the war didn''t need her full attention like before.

    Yet William didn''t feel like that. He knew their odds just grew better, but it wasn''t enough to make him feel absolute confidence in their victory.

    The hounds were poisoned, but there was no telling when that toxin would take effect and kill them. Until that''d happen, they weren''t safe yet.

    "Sure," Lara got his meaning, and instantly she ryed the orders.

    William took such a chance and started to speak with Zin about something else.

    "You want us to use earth-based masters, turn the ground into some sort of a big trench to trap these hounds? But you can see they are very agile, able to jump out from any holes."

    William just asked him to move all the earth-based masters and work together to form a deep trench around the city.

    "Alone it won''t do," William agreed on Zin''s words, "but we are going to use something else¡­" he turned to Lara before adding, "you made lots of that substance, right?"

    "What?" Lara was already feeling like she crushed the monsters and won the entire war. She wasn''t concentrating on anything right now, only thinking how blessed she was about all of this, "you told me before to let all the alchemists work even in the middle of the war. So, I let them work, and they are inside the Spar Arena, or what''s left of it."

    "At the tower? Great," William turned towards the direction of the Spar Arena, "send people there, let them bring all the barrels they made so far."

    "Barrels? Are these the ones that exploded just minutes ago?" Zin mistook William''s meaning. And thetter simply exined what this substance was supposed to do, including the efforts of the mysterious master.

    "Hmm¡­ I heard legends before about such folks," Zin said something out of the blue when he heard what William said, "old legends speak about angels walking among us, intervening at the direst situations, helping masters to do things beyond our imagination or knowledge."

    "Angels?" Lara said in doubt, and William didn''t hear about such a name before.

    "That''s what I heard," Zin didn''t add anything, but William felt he knew little more than what he just said, "anyway, what will we do anyway with these barrels?"

 Chapter 648 A Deadly Trench

    ?

    "We''ll fill the trench with it," William''s face turned cold, "the earth-based masters will dig the trench, water-based masters will fill it with water, then wind-based masters will move the barrels over and drop them in the water."

    "Just like this?" Zin felt like this was as simple as William made it look like.

    "We''ll need a special master," William looked at Zin before adding, "one that can turn fluid to smoke."

    "Hmm¡­ I can''t say we have someone like this, but¡­"

    "You can ask around," William shrugged, "if you didn''t find any, then masters with ice elements and techniques can do fine."

    William wanted to poison water, before turning this water into smoke, to easily let the substance infiltrate the hounds'' bodies. Yet if that failed, then turning it into ice was the next best option.

    Water would dilute the toxin, making it more soluble and easily absorbed. But ice would concentrate it and let it stick over the bodies of the monsters. Not to mention once turned into ice, the substance would turn into its cloud status, yet it''d be buried underneath the ice. Entrapping both the substance and the monsters within.

    "Ice masters¡­ This I can do," Zin then looked at others. Without the need to say anything, few started to take Bullets out, speak little words there before saying they are waiting for the answer.

    Lara didn''t get any of this. She was in her own world right now. She knew she got saved, the city got saved, and all she had to do now was to let the pros do their task.

    Stark returned already with other masters, but they suffered heavy losses and wounds. Almost one tenth of them died. And the rest didn''te back without lots of severe wounds.

    Yet Stark refused to go and rest, gulped a healing elixir on the spot, the same thing the other master did. Other masters went to help others at the walls, arranging things, and helping the new ones to understand how to deal with these hounds.

    Stark only remained behind. And when he heard William''s n, he couldn''t help but get excited about all this.

    "Are we going down again?" That feeling from before, the one where he was defending his city and people, standing in the frontline while fighting was priceless.

    "We will," William knew if things went right, then they''d be able to hunt down these monsters without much trouble. What was the main problem he faced with these hounds? It was the low concentration of the toxin these hounds inhaled and let get into their bodies.

    William''s top priority right now was to make the best use of all the assets he got, try to increase the amount of toxin inside the bodies of these hounds.

    "We got alchemists," one of the newly joined leaders said, "do you want any extra hand?"

    Lara turned to William, and thetter nodded, "any help is appreciated. We want to make as much of this substance as possible, ok?"

    "Count on our alchemists on that," the one who spoke hit his chest, "I''m an alchemist myself, and my family is famous for having the best alchemist in the western side of the continent."

    "Great," William wasn''t aware of any of what this old master said. But if he got the power to call lots of alchemists here, then it''d be great.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Stark got worried about something entirely different. He looked at William, and thetter simply winked at him. William got what made Stark worried, and it was for such a form to spread among other ces than here.

    William was the one who provided the core of this form to begin with. So Stark asked him with such a gaze about his opinion of this. William didn''t object on such a matter, didn''t see anything wrong in letting a new weapon spread among masters in this world.

    Like this, facing any monster tide or dark masters. In addition to that, this form wasn''t totally his. Almost half of it belonged to another master.

    If that master was just roaming the world, helping masters in need, then William didn''t see anything wrong about spreading such a form over the entire world.

    As William didn''t object, Stark didn''t say anything and kept silent. The master who just spoke and proposed to help spoke through many Bullets, seemingly calling forth all the avable alchemists over to help.

    William let them handle the entire n. Lara''s men were going to bring the barrels here, while earth-based masters were called upon, getting gathered all over the front of the walls. As for the alchemist master''s forces, they sent people back to their homebase to bring everyone avable here.

    Lara arranged few of her men to lead those alchemists towards the Spar Arena

    "How deep exactly do you want this trench?" After half an hour, Zin got the word that all the masters William asked for were ready, "we didn''t find such master who can turn fluid into smoke, but we got many ice-based masters. So, we can start anytime you want."

    "Good," William looked at the outer area. The hounds recovered from the initial fierce attacks that came once the new masters arrived. Even if the number of masters on the walls increased by many folds, it wasn''t enough to take these monsters down or even stop them from advancing.

    If not for the toxin, they''d have already overrun the entire city hours ago!

    The hounds were now close to the walls, only a few hundred metres away. If not for the fierce and continuous release of attacks from the walls, the hounds would have reached the walls by now.

    "Do you need us to move out again?" Stark seemed to read through William''s thoughts, said in weird excitement.

    "Sure," William looked at Zin, and thetter smiled.

    "I''ll send my elite teams."

    "Me too."

    "I''ll send everyone and will join them as well!"

    Others started to speak after Zin said the first piece.

 Chapter 649 Its His Habit!

    ?

    It seemed they came well prepared, and that made the initial number of high masters increase by many folds.

    Zin and others watched before what Stark and others did. So, they didn''t need to ask about anything, knew what William and Stark just spoke about.

    "Good luck then," William knew by these high-end masters, stopping the advancing hounds was going to be easier.

    The hounds already slowed down to an extent of crossing just one hundred metres every half an hour. That appeared as if the hounds were moving in a slow-motion speed or something.

    William turned his attention next towards the earth and water-based masters. The elite master teams sprung outside the city walls and started to push the hounds back, clearing a grand area of two kilometres around the city.

    In the next hour, the masters Lara sent for returned with tons of barrels filled with the toxin. In addition to that, the masters of earth and water elements were standing in wait.

    William didn''t hesitate anymore, giving the green light for the entire process to start. Masters were already aware of what they should do, and soon enough a deep groove appeared, circling the entire city.

    Lara got an experience from before when she made a trench around the Spar Arena. So she led others in digging and filling the groove with water, arrays, and various deadly traps. William provided grenades as well, leading to transforming this zone into a truly death trap.

    Doing this takes a few hours. During which, the hounds received tons of attacks, with few dead and little wounded. This came as a shocking surprise to all the newly joined masters.

    Even if they watched from afar how strong these hounds were, they mistook everything to the exhaustion of the masters defending the city for long hours. And yet when they experienced this first handed, they couldn''t believe how sturdy and hard to deal with these hounds were.

    They all knew if not for the weird slowdown effect these hounds suffered from, then dealing with them was going to be a pain. The cloud of toxin was still floating in the air, surrounding the entire zone around the city for tens of kilometres now. Not a single monstering here didn''t suffer from this toxin.

    But after the passage of all these hours, the toxin concentration faded slowly. The turtles and leopards still suffered from the toxin, but the newly arrived hounds showed weaker effects of this toxin.

    In the past hour, all the high-end masters fighting outside the city felt immense pressure. Casualties started to appear and rise up fast, making everyone worried about the fate of this battle.

    Even Lara who looked as if she finished the battle and won it already, started to show worried signs over her face.

    "It''s time to spread the toxin," William didn''t feel anything at all. He knew the toxin used got limited time to protect them. And that was why he asked Lara to never stop making the new toxin in the first ce.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    His words jolted her awake. She spread her orders and then many masters emptied the toxin substance in the one and half kilometres wide trench.

    The moment the toxin entered water; it created a series of bubbles that made anyone looking at it feel danger. It seemed as if the entire water there was boiling, and that kept happening for the next half an hour.

    During which, the masters outside couldn''t handle the pressure anymore, and started to slowly retreat. As they did their task brilliantly well, and the trench was already in ce, they started to retreat.

    "I''ll entrust this battle for you from now on," out of the blue, and as everyone was waiting for the masters outside to cross the trench and return to the city walls, William suddenly turned to Lara and said such weird words.

    "What do you mean by that?!" She was standing alongside Sara, Berry, and Lang. Other vices were now leading the guild members to either finalise the preparations of the death trap, or hastily make repair to the damaged parts of the wall and the surrounding defences.

    "Don''t tell me¡­" Sara gave William a weird look, while Berry and Lang exchanged gazes together. This weirdly enough was quite familiar to these three of his team.

    "I have something to do," William didn''t exin further, "just make sure to hold the monsters for as long as you can. That trap is enough to make the toxin show its deadly effects. Once they are down, try to pull them out of the trench, dissect and collect their materials. Give my guild''s share to Berry to keep. After this battle concludes, start repairing the city and make new forces settle¡­"

    William started to say lots of words and orders without giving any exnation at all. From his words alone, anyone hearing them could tell he nned to be away for a long time.

    "But¡­" Berry was about to ask toe, but William cut that path on her, turned into his fox spirit form, jumped off the walls alongside Charley, "don''t take that long! We got to visit that academy before going to the contest¡­"

    She shouted from the top of the walls, while her shouts went astray in the middle of the hectic shoutsing from everywhere.

    "Do you know where he is going?!" Lara was stupefied by such a twist in events, turned to the three vices of the Fox guild and asked in confusion.

    "It''s his habit," Lang sighed.

    "Every time we face a grand enemy he loves to adventure alone," Sara added, while shaking off his head.

    "But every single time he did that, he''d do something heaven defying in the end. What are you up to this time, William?" Berry tried to follow William in the middle of all the lots of masters at the one kilometre distance outside the city walls, while feeling powerless in front of his weird habit.

 Chapter 650 Keep Dreaming!

    ?

    From the first moment she spotted him, and William always loved to leave everyone behind and move towards the outside, adventuring alone.

    William was already running fast towards the trench. He didn''t move until the masters started using their ice elements, turning the entire trench into a frozenke or something.

    William was fast, and Charley was just tagging along. As he arrived there, he didn''t hesitate to use a wind technique, letting Charley also use it.

    The two passed over the frozen water surface like they were gliding on it. At the same time, the high-end masters were also passing over the frozen zone. It was weird seeing William and Charley move towards the totally opposite direction than them.

    Before anyone would say anything, Williamnded in the middle of a group of hounds, took grenades out, and released them as if he was distributing Christmas gifts.

    *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

    William only needed to make a path for him and Charley to pass through. Trying to fight these monsters was a suicidal attempt in everyone''s eyes.

    "This youth¡­ He is indeed quite explosive and resourceful," Zin couldn''t help but admire William more, turned towards Stark who was moving next to him, "do you know why he is taking such a risk?"

    "I¡­ I can''t say I do really understand this kid," Stark sighed, "since the first time I met him, and he kept using unorthodox methods to pull miraculous feats."

    "Interesting," Zin returned to watch what William was doing, like everyone else in the city. William kept releasing his grenades while pushing the hounds and any other monster away from his path. With each wave of explosions, he was able to cross a distance of a kilometre or so without getting stopped.

    Everyone thought William was trying to pass the deadly zone of hounds before heading towards other monsters to take them down. They thought William wanted to halt the advance of other monsters, giving them the chance to kill the hounds first.

    Of course, this looked like an absurd n in their eyes, especially when William just moved solo when he could bring an army with him to do so. And soon enough they realised they mistook William''s intentions.

    Thetter didn''t stop after passing through the hound tight circle. The only thing that changed was for him to stop using his precious grenades and switched this with his techniques. He and Charley kept shing at high speed, hitting monsters while advancing steadily towards the horizon.

    "This youth¡­ He must have a purpose in doing so," after an hour or so, William finally got away from the spirit sense coverage of Zin and other high-end masters. William crossed tens of kilometres distance by now and was constantly consuming elixirs to replenish his spirit power or keep Charley working.

    He never paused or changed route, kept running towards a certain direction. "Do you know if there is any significant ce that lies in that direction?" as they were all new here, the masters turned to Stark and other city masters.

    "Well¡­ I can''t think of anything else but the Sky Pirs," Stark paused for a moment before adding, "but it''s just arge piece ofnd filled with huge mountains and tough terrain. Aside from that, there is nothing else¡­"

    Stark was feeling puzzled, the same as everyone else. But that made Zin''s eyes shine brightly in weird excitement. "Let me go and see what this youth wants to do."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Right now?!!!" Even Lara couldn''t help but feel shocked by what Zin said.

    "Don''t worry, I can see our beloved city rising up from the ash and surviving this," Zin said what others here felt, "and as William decided to leave, it means he is very confident in that toxin ability. Let''s believe in him, and I know missing an old man like me won''t make a big difference."

    Just like William, Zin also moved fast. Yet unlike William, he didn''t need to walk through the hounds, and simply floated on top of their heads using his scary level of spirit power.

    As for William, he was now running as fast as he could with Charley. The moment he passed through the hounds, he felt the pressure over him greatly lessened.

    As he ran forward, he kept killing any monster he''d find. Soon enough he started to meet up with monsters that didn''t get affected with his toxin. And that made him focus on the leopards, evading all the annoying turtles.

    [Go west, at least for two hundred kilometres. You''ll find a gathering of towering mountain peaks there, head towards them¡­]

    As he started running and fighting, the voice of Ibra rang in his mind for the third time in a row.

    "Come on! Who told you before I''m that lousy and always get lost?!!" William couldn''t take it anymore, blurted back at Ibra.

    [Hahahaha! Don''t imagine I''d leave such a chance to slip by, hahahaha!] Ibra was having fun, but William returned to stressing over him to keep an eye over the area around.

    [Don''t worry, I got everything under control]

    "I''m just saying that the fate of this monster tide will be decided in the next ten hours. So, make sure you won''t lose any of them."

    [I won''t! Just hurry up and bring your fat butt over here]

    "Remind me to punch you on the face once we are done from all this."

    [Who is the madman to remind a fox of something like this? No way! I''ll keep moving away from you for days until you forget about all of this!]

    "Keep dreaming," Williamughed, returning to his hectic run and fight. From far behind, Zin already caught up fast and kept a close eye over William. He noticed what thetter did, speaking through a Message Paper. And that made Zin more confident in his earlier guess.

    He got the impression that William was acting like a seasoned master. And such a figure wouldn''t go and leave a crucial war like this without a good reason.

 Chapter 651 He Is Here!

    ?

    Zin didn''t know what William was after, but he grew curious about it. And so he kept following William with a distance of ten kilometres away from thetter.

    He knew William was a silver master, one without any spirit sense. And so it was safe to track William from such a distance without getting detected.

    William kept running and fighting leopards while Ibra kept joking with him from time to time. As William got far from the city, the vices and Lara couldn''t reach him using Bullets.

    The battle at the city walls was going as William expected, quite smoothly actually. When the hounds walked on the ice, they broke it and fell deep into the trench. Their bodies started to madly absorb the toxin, ending up showing signs of getting affected like other monsters.

    They bled from their orifices, and many started to die on their own. At the same time, as they fell into the trench, they activated the traps and arrays nted there. In addition to the fierce grenades, and the torrents of attacks that came from the direction of the city, these hounds started to die atst.

    William''s only regret was to leave behind such a great harvest. He wanted to collect the cores of these hounds, using the moments of their weakness and kill as many as he could. But he had a bigger trophy to get.

    That didn''t prevent him from leaving clear instructions for his guild members to focus on collecting as many materials from these hounds as they could. These hounds were the strongest and highest-grade monsters in the entire monster army. And they didn''t belong to this world in the first ce.

    William consoled himself by having such high-end materials. As such, he elerated, even using his wind techniques to run faster than normal.

    After six hours, he managed to see the glimpse of many mountain peaks in the distance. They prated through a thickyer of white clouds, giving them a majestic feeling.

    William knew this was his destination. He didn''t need a spirit sense to know this. But Zin saw more than that when he got closer from these mountains.

    "There are three people there¡­" Zin noticed Ibra and another two standing with each other. He noticed that one person was hiding, while watching the other two in stealth. He was activating his darkness element all the time, using even arrays to conceal his presence. But he wasn''t that strong to begin with, and the arrays he used weren''t at the pinnacle. Zin managed to spot him and link that person with William.

    "It seems these two must be something good," Zin got the feeling that these two masters weren''t strong to begin with, one being at the gold grade and the other was at the early stage of dark gold grade. Yet William paid all this effort to just get close to them. And that meant they were worth more than what they looked.

    As Zin knew these three got spirit senses, he made sure to conceal his presence a bit more. He slowed down, watching William getting closer from the mountainous area.

    Inside this zone, Rick and Richard were waiting for the good news. All this time they got to see lots of what was happening thanks to a weird orb that Rick''s dark master gave to him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    It could emit pieces of images once per hour. Luckily, they had zero control over the feedback images, only seeing a glimpse of what was happening at different areas during the city''s grand war.

    What they did was something great. They watched how the city masters struggled against the monsters. And when they noticed the disturbing arrival of many masters there, they got a bit worried.

    Yet Rick said in confidence that against such a grand monster tide, no power here could stop it. Soon enough the imagesing from that orb confirmed his earlier statement.

    Luck and fate yed a role here by not showing the moment when Wiim dashed away from the city. Until William came closer from the mountains, they never saw anything rted to him.

    They kept watching his face frequently in the past. And when they didn''t, they mistook that by his retreat to rest and recuperate.

    "Someone ising!" Rick was stronger than Richard, and so his spirit sense covered a much wider area. The two kept their vignce and activated their spirit sense all the time. If not for Ibra to use his darkness element to hide his presence, using many concealment arrays on top of that, they''d have spotted him a long time ago.

    But William didn''t use any of these methods. He knew the two of his enemies had a spirit sense, and he never cared about any of that.

    He wanted to kill these two, but first he got an immense amount of rage within to vent over them. So, he decided to y a little game of hide and seek, while Ibra would work as his pincer and hidden dagger.

    He had already sent Ibra since the start of all this to track the ones responsible for all this. Ibra kept tracking these two down, until he finally arrived here.

    When he saw Richard, Ibra knew he had reached his target. Rick was wearing a dark cloak, covering up his face and not showing anything from it. But as William told him there was a connection between Richard and the dark masters, Ibra didn''t doubt anything.

    "It''s him!" Rick muttered in immense shock and disbelief, turned to look at the orb in his hand as if he was using it of betraying him.

    "Who?" Richard didn''t get to see William yet.

    "That damn bastard, who else?" Rick was feeling quite annoyed before a sh of an idea passed his mind, "he thinks he can take me down? Hahahaha! He is really naive! Did he think I''lle here unprepared? Not armed with scary means to protect me? Hahahaha! I never expected him to deliver himself to me like this, hahahaha!"

 Chapter 652 They Are Doing Something...

    ?

    As Richard started to guess the true identity of the person Rick was speaking about, thetter started tough crazily like this.

    Just five hundred metres away, Ibra was holding William''s Message Paper and let thetter hear what these two said.

    During the past few days, he heard them speak about lots of things. But what piqued Ibra''s interest was Rick''s boundless hatred that ran so deep about William.

    Without the need to ask or know the true identity of Rick, he knew these two had a long history between each other.

    "What will we do?"

    "Leave him to me," Rick couldn''t believe his sworn enemy delivered himself over like this, "I''ll make you pay for what you made me suffer all this time."

    Richard looked at the growing distant back of Rick without knowing what he should feel. Since the first time he met Rick, he could tell how severe the hatred he held against William was.

    Richard even suspected that Rick''s arrival here and everything he did was to take William down. "At least he came alone."

    Richard couldn''t detect William yet, but he could follow Rick. and Ibra could also do the same.

    [He is visiting the nearby mountain peaks, leaving behind something like a hexagonal shaped ball or something¡­]

    Ibra kept following Rick and told William what thetter was doing. "Do these balls have any writings on the surface? What colour do they have? Anything special aside from being hexagonal?"

    William tried to guess the nature of what the dark master was doing. He already heard about this dark master from Ibra, and knew he was acting like the leader and Richard like the follower.

    [I can see writing there but didn''t get any of them. They are like nails ced in weird designs. As for the colour, two sides are blue, two are red, and thest two are green. Other than this, there is a small hole in the middle of each face of this orb¡­ Is this helpful?]

    "Hmm¡­ I believe it''s some sort of explosive orb or something¡­" William recognised the nail pattern writings on this orb. It was something that wasmon in the outer world, a gathering array.

    This array would keep gathering spirit power from the world around. Unlike the spirit power concentrating array William once used, this array would concentrate and press spirit power inside the orb. That would turn it into a sort of a grenade or a bomb.

    Aside from this, he couldn''t get much without seeing the thing himself. At such moments, he missed having the spirit sense to see such things.

    "Soon enough," he knew he was going out after arranging things at the city and matters rted to the guild branch there. Then at the expected battle at that academy, he''d level up and pass into the gold grade realm.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Is he trying to detonate the entire ce? But that doesn''t make any sense¡­ He doesn''t look like he ns to retreat¡­]

    "I know, that''s why he must have something else to do with these orbs¡­" William agreed with what Ibra said, "keep a close eye on him, and tell me everything he is doing. I''m picking up pace and will arrive at your location soon enough."

    William didn''t know what this dark master nned to do, but he was ready to wee anything he''d throw at his face and crush it.

    William was sure that the dark master saw him and Charley, saw the two of them fighting monsters in the region and guessed their strength. William also knew about the weird orb that could ry images about the ongoing battle at the city to these two.

    That meant the dark master was quite resourceful, not that easy to deal with. William wanted nothing more but to sh with that master. The thought that this dark master didn''t get scared and run away, instead he was scheming something to take him down, stirred up William''s will to fight.

    William might be determined to take down monsters, but in case of dark masters he''d grow excited. He hated dark masters much more than monsters. In his eyes, these masters were dirty traitors, ones who were the lowest scum in the entire world.

    William kept running forward with Charley. Around a couple of hours ago, the monsters they met became scarce in number. Besides, he didn''t meet any turtles, only leopards.

    Ibra already informed him about such a situation. And that meant most of the monsters were fighting at the city walls.

    William kept running for another two hours. Even if he could see the peaks of these mountains, there was still arge distance between him and that region. In one hour, Ibra and Richard could already see him.

    [... And now he is digging something in the peaks he left the orbs at, nting some sort of a bead there, before soaking it with his blood¡­]

    During this time, Ibra kept William posted about the updates of Rick''s actions. The more William learnt about what Rick was doing, the more puzzled he was.

    "This¡­ It looks like multiple formations stacked together¡­ But howe one from the tiny world knows about such aplicated thing? I can''t even say I can do it!"

    William was truly puzzled. If Rick just used formations from the outer world while building them using materials from this tiny world, then William wouldn''t have been surprised like this.

    But from the look of it, Rick was using things that didn''t belong to this world at all. He gave William the impression that he stumbled across an ancient site, filled with lots of treasures and itemsing from the outer world.

    William didn''t know if the portals the dark masters and monsters used tomunicate with the outer world would allow things to pass through or just information. If these portals could let gears, items, and even special weapons to pass through, then it''d be a total cheat in his eyes!

 Chapter 653 Fifty Rumbles

    ?

    "At least I know part of what he wants to do¡­" William returned to the dense and detailed information he got from Ibra. From these, he could easily tell that Rick was using a sort of summoning array, in addition to a spirit power concentrating array, plus offensive and defensive arrays.

    The orbs he scattered before were used mainly for defence, or perhaps triggering something needed for these formations to work. As for what these formations would summon, William got no idea.

    Yet he could guess that monsters were the most probable targets to get summoned here. And from the spirit power concentrating arrays, he could tell these monsters were bad news.

    William guessed it partially right. Rick indeed was trying to summon monsters, but not what he thought about. These monsters were special, and William was destined to get shocked and would face lots of trouble to handle them.

    William needed two hours to arrive at the base of the mountain where Rick, Richard, and Ibra were. Richard already spotted him and saw how he fought against the few monsters in the area, and spotted Charley.

    Thetter came as a surprise to him, making Richard even go directly to Rick and ask him about that.

    "I don''t know, but it seems some sort of a monster or a weird thing rted to that bastard," Rick seemed to not care at all about Charley. And when he noticed how worried Richard was, he paused for a second, turned to Rick and said in a firm tone:

    "Don''t think he is going away from here with his life. I can assure you this, William won''t be able to survive this no matter what he gets on his side."

    "I hope you know what you are doing," if Richard heard such words before, then he''d totally believe in Rick. But he already suffered few setbacks and failures in the things Rick confirmed they were a one hundred percent sess.

    Even if he felt sceptical about his words, Richard kept his doubts buried deep inside his chest and didn''t expose anything.

    "Don''t worry," Rick could already see the doubts issuing out from Richard''s eyes, "I know what I''m doing. If I screw up this chance, then I won''t deserve to live anymore!"

    The resoluteness in his tone made Richard experience goosebumps. He could only watch Rick finalise thest touches before turning finally towards his target.

    William was now less than five kilometres away from the grand series of mountains, including the one which got the three on top of it.

    [I think they are going to do something] and before William would start closing in, he got this message from Ibra.

    "What are they doing exactly? Tell me everything!" William couldn''t see, but he got eyes up there to make up for this.

    [I can tell that the dark master arranged everything in a twelve headed grand star diagram. He used the different peaks as the axis of this star. And now he is standing on top of a peak that''s located at the heart of this grand formation¡­]

    Ibra started to tell William everything the two targets were doing. William got that Rick was going to activate and control these arrays himself.

    "Listen up¡­" and as he knew this, William started to tell Ibra what he was going to do.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Are you sure this will happen? It never happened even once during the past days I was here]

    "Just trust me on this," William''s eyes were icy cold, "I can sniff a coward from kilometres away. Just hang tight and wait for it¡­"

    Before William would continue his words, a deafening rumble urred. The loud sound came from the direction of a single peak, and that told William where the heart of the entire formationy.

    "It''sing," William waved his three tails, letting his flying weapons take a full circle around himself, "let me see what you are capable of."

    William''s wish didn''t take long to happen. The next moment, lots of clouds started to appear out of nowhere, covering the entire bright sky, shielding the sun in many spots, turning the entire world into a weird painting.

    Each cloud started with a few tens of metres in diameter, before expanding fast, as if it merged with other clouds. The clouds grew from a few tens of metres to cover up a kilometre or two.

    William saw the entire sky that was bright moments ago turn ugly dark. Only spots appeared free of any clouds, letting the sun rays fall through them, looking like giant pirs that kept expanding the more they fell closer to the ground.

    The clouds started up with white, turned slowly into ck, then ended up being dark purple. Seeing these clouds made William''s face change at the spot.

    "The ck Purple Reign of Darkness? No way! Howe he¡­ No way a mere dark gold master can handle such a grand summoning array!!!"

    William''s heart clenched when he spotted these clouds. He once experienced the true terror of such a summoning array on the hands of one of the strongest dark masters in the outer world.

    William would never forget such experience, would never mistake such unique change that was just the first sign of the scary formation.

    "No¡­ This can''t be the true ck Purple Reign of Darkness formation¡­ That array was strong enough to leave cracks in the outer world for months and years to follow¡­"

    William calmed himself down, started to think more rationally about all this, "not to mention¡­ Activating this formation needs a very capable master, one who can''t be just at the pinnacle of power in this world¡­"

    *Rumbl!*

    Before William would continue his line of thoughts, fifty rumbles suddenly echoed from various directions at the tops of the mountains.

    "Tell me what''s going on!" William couldn''t see what was happening up there. And yet he knew something grand was indeed urring up there, and only Ibra could answer his doubts.

 Chapter 654 The Black Purple Reign Of Darkness Formation

    ?

    [There¡­ There are fifty swirl pools of ck fog appearing on top of fifty peaks¡­ This¡­] Ibra paused, getting shocked by what he was seeing.

    "Just say what''sing out from these swirl pools," William could guess part of what was going to happen. And what Ibra said next made him confirm his worst guesses.

    [They are humans¡­ But they got something weird¡­ It''s like a crystal, a diamond shaped crystal on their foreheads¡­ What the hell is this?]

    "Let''s cut down all of the talk until I contact you," William''s tone turned dead serious, "don''t move, don''t release a single speck of spirit power. Even if you are using arrays and your darkness element, it won''t help. Just stop your concealing technique andy low like you are dead."

    [You are scaring me¡­]

    "I told you to stop talking, do as I say, and wait for my signal when the time is right. Don''t move no matter what happens, got it? Go now and do as I say if you want to live¡­"

    William stored away Ibra''s Bullet, turned his eyes up to the peaks of these mountains. Each mountain was grand as if it was an entire ind on its own. And their peaks were so towering to prate the cloudyer and hide behind it.

    "Mutants¡­ I never expected to meet any of you here¡­" William''s tone was low, but it held tons of hatred and enmity towards those beings.

    William already met the Transformers before back at the Scorching Lands fort. He still couldn''t find them after their disappearance, but he knew they weren''t as scary as Mutants.

    Transformers could get the blessing of being a spirit master, a human, but just in the form of spirit and spirit power grade and training. Their biggest weaknessy in their inability to move, as they were linked and imprisoned towards statues.

    But that wasn''t the case of Mutants. They could overtake a spirit master''s spirit, infusing themselves with it, kill the consciousness of that master, and end up controlling their bodies.

    In return for that, they could gain both the benefits of being a spirit master, with a much smoother path to rise in grades and ranks, besides the benefits of being a scary monster before.

    Monsters got to know tons of things that humans didn''t. They knew how to rise up in power, how to train, where the most precious ores and treasures were, even knowing the ces that could get them out of this world.

    They got good rtions with monsters and dark masters, not to mention they could infiltrate the spirit master world like they were one of them.

    The only difference to tell if one was a Mutant or not was that crystal at the forehead. At normal times, these crystals wouldn''t appear shining like how Ibra saw them just now.

    Normally these crystals would look like part of skin, as if someone got an ugly scar or something. But under certain conditions, these Mutants would activate their crystals, exposing their weirdness to others.

    One of these situations was when they''d rise up from one grade to another. Another situation was when they were using their monstrous spirit form. And that was what William suspected them doing right now.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Fifty Mutants, getting summoned here, just in the middle of such a scary formation, was for one purpose in his eyes; to fuel up and help that dark master to control the entire formation.

    "A dark master who is just at the early stage of the dark gold grade is able to call up fifty Mutants isn''t a normal master at all¡­"

    William knew more than anyone else about how truly scary this current situation was. First of all, these Mutants were different from normal spirit masters.

    As they got a unique spirit from merging theirs with spirit master''s, ending up controlling the spirit masters and not vice versa, their new spirit got a scary ability to it, spirit power sensitivity.

    Such ability was enough to make tons of trouble for anyone hiding and spying on their actions like Ibra. That was why William didn''t even hesitate to cut all connections with Ibra, stressing on thetter to even cancel his technique.

    These Mutants could merge their spirit power sensitivity with their spirit sense, able to scan a grand area and see if there are any hidden masters around or anything.

    In addition to that, they could work as spirit power mas, concentrating tons of spirit power in a small area around them. But to do so, they had to use their monstrous spirit, showing their true colours to the world.

    William knew the purpose of their sudden call. As they came prepared, he also got that they were informed previously about the usage of this grand formation.

    "That means¡­ These Mutants are connected in some way with this formation¡­ It means they are the true master of this dark master¡­ Damn! Don''t tell me they got wind of the interworld portal and did all this to secure it!"

    William was shocked the more he thought about all this and jumped to conclusions. And then the world rumbled again before the dark purple clouds started to change.

    "The Wheel of Fate and Destiny¡­ It''s truly getting activated¡­" William''s face got darkened the moment he spotted the faint shimmering purple lights at these clouds.

    This formation was indeed quite scary. The ck Purple Reign of Darkness formation worked by affecting fate, destiny, and time powers all together. It was a scary formation, one that could affect the current reality and heavily impact it.

    The first thing to appear in this formation is the cloud appearance. Then it came down to the Wheels of Fate and Destiny to appear next.

    This formation worked simply like this; all the areas covered up by the clouds would get affected by the Wheels appearing up there.

    These wheels would affect time, fate, and destiny. The ones controlling them would rewind time to a certain moment in the past, based on how much spirit power they got and infused in the formation.

 Chapter 655 There Is Hope!

    ?

    Then the formation would create a copy of that moment, moving anything and anyone to the current moment of time.

    William knew what they were trying to do. This was where the portal initially opened, the ce where the monster tide that the city suffered for days on their ws appeared in this world.

    If they got enough spirit power, they could return to that moment of time and replicate all the monsters appearing back then, forming another copy of it here.

    In other words, they were going to replicate the same scary monster tide, letting another copy of it appear here,ing from the past, and without even suffering anything or any damage at all!

    "Dammit! That means¡­ I''m standing just in the heart of such a scary monster army when it''ll arrive here¡­" William''s scalp grew numb the moment he jumped to such a scary conclusion.

    If they seeded, then he was doomed, everyone back at the city was doomed.

    "I have to stop them¡­ But how?" William''s first choice that popped in his mind was Ibra. yet he dropped such crazy thoughts almost the next instant.

    Ibra wasn''t weak, but he was just one master. And there were fifty scary figures up there, at least at the mid-tier dark gold grade.

    "I need to see how much they can activate it in the first ce," William calmed down himself, thinking about this while looking high in the sky again.

    He knew to stop such a formation, he had to go up there and either ruin the foundations of the grand formation or kill the ones who were activating it. He was far away from the peak right now, and he couldn''t fly yet.

    This meant if not for Ibra to move and take down a few with him or ruin part of the grand formation foundations, then things were going to end up quite bad.

    But there was a silver lining in all this¡­ The scary amount of spirit power needed to activate such formation.

    Even if fifty Mutants were here, that meant nothing at all. This formation was considered one of the pinnacle formations in the outer world. And the amount of spirit power needed to activate it was quite scary to begin with.

    As it was used in this tiny world, then there was a good chance that these Mutants would fail to bring forth the full terrifying effect of this formation.

    William turned his head up and looked at the clouds, waiting for the disaster that was about tond. As he was doing this, something unexpected happened.

    [Tell me, what''s going on here?]

    "Who are you?!!!" William was totally focused on observing the sky. And yet he heard a voice that startled him. It felt weirdly familiar, yet William was shocked to even recognise it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [I''m Zin] the old man was using spirit telepathy at this moment tomunicate with William. Thetter didn''t yet develop such useful ability, but the old man could hear his words using spirit sense, [I can tell something terrible is about to happen. Tell me everything]

    "You are near?" William''s shattered hopes suddenly got revived. At this moment, he felt like a phoenix, rising up from death, rising from ashes to the highest clouds, "no time for that! Can you take me up there?"

    William hurriedly pointed towards the peaks of mountains hiding behind the clouds.

    [Sure, do you want to go up there now?]

    "Come, let''s speak on the way," William was this close from exploding out inughter. When he felt there was no hope, fate decided to lend him a hand at this moment.

    He never expected to get followed, and from someone like Zin. it went without saying how strong Zin was. William estimated him to be at the pinnacle of power in this world. But he was wrong.

    Zin wasn''t just in the pinnacle tier, but he was one of the few who were really close from leaving this world. If not for his life span to run short, he''d have worked his as* to break free from the shackles of this world.

    William didn''t wait for long. In the next few minutes, he felt a gale of wind, so fierce that he had to insert his ws deeply in the ground to not fly away. As for Charley, it seemed this giant weapon wasn''t able to sustain the wind. So, William called it back.

    "What do you want to do up there, kiddo?" The next minute, the voice of Zin appeared just a few metres away from William, "and cancelled that fox form. I can just carry you if you are in human form. Extra weight is dead weight for me."

    "Ok," William cancelled his fox spirit, "take me up there, and prepare to fight."

    "For what exactly? What''s going on here?"

    "To save everyone," William''s answer was short, yet decisive. Zin could tell William knew everything that was happening now, something that made such a veteran old master feel shocked inside.

    The best he could get was how severe the current situation was. Even that came mainly from the change on William''s face, the words he exchanged with Ibra in a loud tone before.

    A youth who wasn''t older than sixteen years old knew something that this few hundred years old master didn''t was indeed quite unbelievable. And when William started to speak briefly about what was going on, the scalp of this old man grew numb, something that hadn''t happened for a long time already.

    Once someone reached the highest stage of power in the world, then there would be rare things that would scare them. Zin never felt fear for at least a century. And now he felt true terror, reminding him of the first time he faced a monster when he was a white grade master.

    "Are you sure?" Zin was now surrounding William with a tornado, taking him up at a fast speed, "is this even possible?"

 Chapter 656 A Crazy Plan

    ?

    "Nothing is impossible," William simply shrugged, realising that this old man got the wind element mixed together with the space element in a fearsome and admirable technique, "you lived long enough to see lots of weird things in the world, right?"

    "..."

    Zin couldn''t refute William''s words. All he could do was to think again about what William said. A formation that was able to rewind time, make a copy of a certain point of it, and bring forth another scary wave of monsters¡­ That was indeed the scariest thing he could think about, especially now.

    Even if he and others came at thete stages of this grand war, he knew winning this war was quite hard. The city masters exhausted tons of resources to take down this monster tide and weaken it. Even if they came here with fresh and grand forces, he was sure it was impossible to repeat the same feat again.

    Not to mention they''d not get the time to prepare to face the uing monster tide. If that formation waspleted, then they were doomed.

    When he got there, he realised how truly dire their situation was. He now understood why William acted in such a way before, in such a desperate way.

    "We need to take down the ones controlling this thing? Let''s crush them then!"

    "Don''t underestimate them," William didn''t exin much about Mutants to Zin. After all, their presence in the world was always considered a huge secret that rare few knew about, "they are quite troublesome."

    "You said there are fifty of them, and we are three¡­ No, we are four," Zin paused before adding, "I can already see these fifty figures up there. They got some sort of a gem or crystal shining in their forehead. Shall we smash that thing to weaken them or what?"

    "I got a better idea," William evilly smirked, "let''s increase the pressure over them."

    "Increase the pressure? By fighting them?" Zin didn''t get what William meant, and thetter didn''t find it surprising.

    Zin saw these Mutants using his spirit power and didn''t recognise them. That meant he knew literally nothing about such scary figures.

    "We won''t fight them directly but will do something else¡­" William exined in short words what he had in mind.

    "Will that work? This method¡­ Isn''t it going to help them instead?!" Zin doubted what William said would work.

    "Don''t worry, I know what I''m doing," William was already passing through the shackles of clouds. Thest thing he saw about clouds was for the wheels to start taking shape and be a bit solid. Each wheel was just twenty metres in radius, and that meant the ones up there couldn''t fully activate the scary power of this formation.

    And that was another great piece of news to William. It didn''t just mean the uing disaster wouldn''t be that severe as it should be, it also meant these fifty Mutants were struggling to activate just a tiny piece of this formation''s strength.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And that meant William''s idea could work if Zin cooperated with him.

    If Zin wasn''t here, then William wouldn''t even consider doing it. Even if William found another way to bring him all the way up, he wouldn''t be able to do it.

    Zin was the missing piece that was essential for this n to work. "We are here," Zin said the moment they arrived at the mountain peak level, "what shall we do now?"

    "It''s a formation focused on peaks," William took a few moments to scan the entire area, confirming the words of Ibra, "they used the outer peaks as star heads of this formation, and the inside peaks as the generator of spirit power to run it. Let''s do it this way then¡­ You go around, do as I said, and leave me here to deal with any intervention."

    "Are you sure?" The two of them stood at a peak that was a few peaks away from the entire formation. But that didn''t mean they were close by. The distance between them and that formation was in the thousands of metres at least.

    Zin gave William a doubtful nce, and thetter shrugged, "do we have another choice? Let''s do it this way, at least we have more hope in surviving this in the end."

    "Ok," Zin knew what William said was true. They got little options in the first ce. It was expected to suffer a lot in this battle, "where do you want me tond you?"

    "Move me to the heart of this damn formation," William knew that once the Mutants got to y their role, they got little time and mind to care about anything else. But that didn''t mean that ce was safe.

    There were still two strong masters inside that formation. And William got Ibra on his side, and also Charley. So, the odds were quite bnced.

    If William had to intervene against these Mutants directly, then he''d not even think about doing this or going there. But he had to deal with weakened versions of these Mutants, in addition to two masters.

    "Let''s do it then," Zin didn''t argue with William about this n anymore. He knew the youth in front of him was risking his life to save the world. Not to mention such a scary n already got devised by him in the first ce.

    That meant William already was aware of all the ins and outs, all the risks involved in such a n. Zin didn''t need to personally move, just used his technique to send William towards the location he desired.

    Since the two appeared at the bottom of the mountain together, and the two enemies at the very top noticed them, in addition to Ibra.

    Thetter didn''t use William''s Message Paper fearing to do more harm than good. Just before any of the three would think of something, William started to rise in the air thanks to Zin''s technique.

    Their goal was clear, and that made the three have different reactions.

 Chapter 657 Fighting Over The Clouds

    ?

    Ibra knew a big battle was about to happen here. And so, he prepared himself for taking part in it. He was excited and couldn''t help but look for it.

    As for Richard, he turned to Rick. Without the need to ask anything, Rick nodded to him, and then the two went from one peak to another, heading towards William and Zin''s location.

    Before they''d arrived there, they saw William get surrounded again by that tornado, taking him all the way towards the heart of the entire formation.

    "I can''t believe you are this eager to die!" Rick couldn''t control himself andughed the moment William appeared just a few peaks away from him. He stood on one peak with Richard, while William stood on the peak the two took as their base for a long time during the monster tide assault on the city.

    "Who are you?" William felt weird when he met with Rick. he felt like meeting someone he knew already, someone who wasn''t that alien to him.

    "There''s no need to chat with a dead corpse¡­ Let me show you how foolish you are bying here alone¡­"

    The next moment, Rick took something out and threw it towards William. The two were a few peaks apart, but that thing flew like a bolt of lightning, crossing the distance towards William in mere seconds.

    *Roar!* *Roar!*

    William didn''t dare to deal with such a thing lightly, instantly activating his spirit form and releasing Charley. The two roared, and the one William issued got his light element inside.

    It was the roar that heunched a long time ago when he first activated and used his fox spirit. The light dissipated in the roar, mming fiercely with the iing object.

    "Hahahaha! How naive of you! Hahahaha! This is the Death of Gravity orb, one that can absorb and negate any attack, hahahaha!" Rick from behind was feeling excited about this. Yet he didn''t need to say anything to make William realise what was wrong in that orb.

    It wasn''t a ball shaped, instead it was like a big triangle. The moment the roar touched it, the triangle shone brightly in ck light, before it ate away the entire roar.

    That was what literally happened. The roar touched the triangle and vanished like it never existed. William jumped to a conclusion that got confirmed with what Rick just said.

    "It''s quite troublesome indeed," such an orb was able to absorb any iing attack and store it. Then it''d release everything at the target it''d sh with. Such a thing was really sinister, using one''s strength against it.

    Going by logic, it shouldn''t be able to harm William as he was the one whounched such an attack. But when this orb stored more attacks, it''d be crazily strong and deadly.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William knew the trick behind such an orb, and without any hesitation he didn''t use any form of attack, not even a shield to defend himself. Instead, he threw himself at the iing triangle, embracing it like he was hugging a long-lost friend or something.

    "You¡­" Such a bizarre move left Rick stupefied on the spot. He got all the right to feel so as his scary dark master used such a weapon before to take down a pinnacle tiered master in front of Rick''s eyes.

    The first thing anyone would think about was to pull distance from this weird thing. The second thing anyone would do was to release more attacks to tear it down. Thest thing anyone would do was to use all the defensive techniques, gears, and even arrays to stop this triangle from hitting the person.

    This orb was made by a gravity element, an insane level of gravity element was used to make it. So, it didn''t just do this to any iing attack, but it also stuck around and followed the target anywhere he went.

    That was quite annoying, getting chased by something that couldn''t be destroyed or stopped. If William did like anyone in his shoes would, then things would have ended badly for him.

    Yet William didn''t make any of these instinctive decisions, did something out of the ordinary. And weirdly enough, it was the only possible way to handle this deadly triangle.

    Weing it directly meant William was going to suffer just one attack stored inside. Not to mention he didn''t use any spirit power, technique, or even defensive method to protect himself. He simply opened his arms wide and embraced this triangle into his chest.

    "It really tingles, hehehehe," William touched the spot that got touched by the triangle, the spot that suffered from his roaring attacks stored inside the triangle, "if you have moved, I''ll prefer to enjoy a proper message from them, hehehehe."

    William was teasing Rick at this moment by his words. The attack that Rick thought it''d take William down failed. On top of that, he also lost another treasure of his dark master.

    "Damn you!" Rick got instantly enraged, and couldn''t control himself anymore, "I swear on my spirit that I''ll take you down today, you despicable bastard!"

    "Stop spouting nonsense and show me what you really got," William returned to activate his spirit power, releasing torrents of pale ck fog out of his body.

    "Let''s see how you''ll deal with this," Rick''s face changed and showed a vicious expression. He took out a spear, one that was six metres in length, and couldn''t be held by one hand. Rick held the spear with both hands, while the sharp tip alone was around a half metre in length.

    William''s eyes constricted the moment he spotted this spear. The spear had ck de, with a red shaft, and a white ending that was the same as a weird creature mouth.

    It looked like a dragon, one with four long thin moustaches that came out from its head. Its mouth got two curved sharp looking fangs, emitting a weird dark green gas from it as if this head was alive or something.

 Chapter 658 The Arbatros Snake Headed Spear

    "The Arbatros Snake headed spear? Wow! You got yourself lots of cool things that don''t belong to this world¡­ Who the hell are you?" William didn''t move a muscle, looking in fixation towards the spear, not even sparing Rick a nce.

    "I''m the one who is going to take you down," Rick sinisterlyughed, "I can''t believe you are familiar with things my dark master gave me. Per his words, only people who don''t belong to this world will recognise any of these¡­ So let me ask you back, who the hell are you?"

    "The one who is going to kill you," William returned the spoon from the same bowl to Rick, "don''t think using such toys will make you invincible. Let me show you how reality really sucks¡­" *Fwoosh!*

    The next moment, William shed and moved to a direction, while Charley moved at the same moment towards the opposite one. Rick didn''t care about Charley and used his full power to throw this heavy spear out.

    The spear was releasing dark green gas since it was taken out. And when it got thrown, it felt like the air itself got rotten from it.

    Fine cracks appeared anywhere it went, while the dark green gas started to change, forming a denseyer of fog, spreading fast all over the ce.

    "Damn! Do you want to kill me or what?" Richard from the side panicked the moment he saw the fog drawing close to him. He didn''t get what was going on here, but he could feel the terror his spirit felt from this green fog.

    "Just stay put, don''t move a muscle," Rick''s deep voice came as if he got the solution to such a disaster. And before Richard would retort back, he noticed something that Rick took out.

    It was a small white bead, one that shimmered in faint white light. The moment he took it out, Rick threw it on the ground underneath his feet, releasing a weirdly copious and rich white fog next.

    The white fog was so dense that it enveloped the two of them in the next instant. And then it met against the dark green fog, issuing loud sizzling sounds.

    "This¡­" Richard was taken aback, seemingly imagining the worst.

    "Don''t fret, this is going to protect us no matter what happens," Rick''s voice held a ton of confidence that left Richard unable to say anything back, "but that isn''t the case for him, hahahaha!"

    William was indeed facing a new threatening danger. This spear wasn''t simple. It held the wrathful spirit of one of the ancient and extinct monsters.

    It experienced the same thing the Scarlet Bears suffered in this world, ending up getting ughtered in ancient times in the outer world. And from their spirits back then, few spears like these were made.

    William never faced one of them before, only got to hear about their deadly and scary effect on ancient scrolls. This spear could release dark green gas, a sign of the wrathful spirit of the Arbatros Snake monster. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Once thrown, this move would activate the dormant wrathful spirit within the spear, releasing tons of gas that would turn into dark green fog.

    This fog had an unbelievable corroding ability, able to even tear down the entire world with it. William knew trying to handle this one like the previous orb was a grave mistake.

    This time, he had to keep his distance away from this spear and fog and use something that he had.

    To take this fog down one had to use a rare mixture of elements, light, lightning, fire, and wind. William got all of these. But that wasn''t enough to get rid of this spear.

    As long as the spear remained intact, it''d keep releasing torrents of the dark green fog nonstop for long years! The only way to handle that spirit was surprisingly by doing something totally insane.

    William knew it might be terribly bad luck to face such a spear here, but he couldn''t argue that this was also a great chance for him.

    "Charley!" William shouted the moment the spear and that deadly fog drew closer from him. He separated from Charley to let thetter act as the purifying tool against fog. As for William, he''d handle the spear.

    William knew the moment Rick released the spear, he and Richard would be endangered as well. That was why this spear was called the Vengeful Spear, thanks to the inability to control its fog or deadly effect the moment it got thrown out.

    There were other ways to handle that fog, and William was sure Rick got something up his sleeve to handle it. And as he expected, Rick got the Purifying Beads on him, ending up smashing and releasing its holy fog out.

    Once that was done, neither Rick nor Richard would be able to move a muscle away from their spots. Or else they''d end up both dead with William.

    Thetter knew none of these two masters were as lucky as him and didn''t have the right elements needed to purify this fog. This was a tiny world, and the concept of adding more elements to one''s spirit was still unknown here.

    The moment Rick took that spear out, William already saw through all this and acted upon it. The moment he shouted at Charley, his monstrous weapon acted and released torrents of attacks filled with the four elements.

    The dark green fog started to issue loud sizzling noises from such attacks. If anyone was watching right now, not using his spirit sense as spirit sense would end up getting corroded as well from this fog, he''d see that the spear got thrown away and left behind a long trail of dark green fog.

    The fog kept expanding, growing in size to cover up arge area in every direction. But at two points, where it wasunched from, and where it ended at, there were loud sizzling noisesing alongside ring shes of different lights that kept eating away the dark green fog.

 Chapter 659 Augmenting Arrays

    ?

    At one side, white fog was eating the dark green fog. And at another side, torrents of attacks released from Charley took away the dark green fog.

    William stood just in front of that spear, moving all of the three tails at the same time to sh with its sharp tip.

    William repeated his opening showy move, yet he didn''t just jump in the air like he used to. He dashed forward to meet up with the iing spear.

    Such a move left a very heavy feeling of pain and repercussions at his body and bones. Yet William never cared. He was just worried that Charley''s attacks weren''t enough to tear down the dark green fog, ending up corroding his precious weapons and losing them.

    As he feared, part of the weapons started to melt away, turn into ash and fly in the air. But the remaining parts managed to sh with the spear and finally stop it.

    "Keep circling me, make sure not a single speck of foges near," William''s heavy voice came next, feeling immense pain at losing these weapons in such a sh.

    He made these weapons painstakingly, spent tons of wealth, effort, and time in making them. And now he just had to watch them corrode away and get rotten in front of his eyes without being able to do anything.

    Feeling this terrible, William''s desire to turn this curse into a blessing intensified. The next thing happened was for Charley to use wind technique and flew all over the ce, surrounding William and acting as his shield.

    "I got half an hour at most¡­ I hope it''s going to be enough¡­" William knew the moment he''d start his move; he''d not be able to move a muscle just like Rick and Richard.

    But he wasn''t worried about these two, he was instead worrying that Charley would run out of gas in the middle of all this.

    If Charley lost his power, then there was nothing to stop the dark green fog from corroding away his body and killing him.

    William already reced Charley''s stock of elixirs with new ones before he started all this. Knowing he got little time left, William didn''t hesitate anymore.

    *Agh!*

    William felt immense pain the moment he cut his arm with his sword. His blood flooded like a torrent, covering up the entire edge of the spear.

    "Come in here, damn you!" William didn''t stop there, grabbed the de with both hands while activating his absorption technique.

    The right way to handle this spear, the only way actually, was by absorbing the wrathful spirit lying inside it. It was indeed quite risky, as one had to fight against the dark green fog and had to have the right elements to do this. Not to mention while doing this, any master would be motionless for a long time.

    Without having a strong aid on one''s side, it was an act of suicide to try such a thing out. William got Charley, and his enemies were pinned down to their ce, unable even to see beyond that thick white cloud that came from the Purifying Bead.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    So, William dared to do it, and he craved to do such a thing. Absorbing such a legendary and extinct ancient spirit was something any master would dream to have.

    What was the main problem in absorbing any monster spirit? It was its grade, uniqueness, and features. Absorbing monster spirits that got the same elements as the master doing it was a mistake, just like absorbing useless and weak spirits as well.

    But this one? It was like finding a treasure, one that was rare and unique, one that couldn''t be found except once in a lifetime if one was extremely lucky.

    William was this close from drooling the moment he recognised this spear. He knew how grand this chance was, and he nned everything to make him be able to absorb that spirit.

    He didn''t know what the final version of his fox spirit would be when he''d do that. But he didn''t care. This spirit¡­ It wasn''t any lesser than the legendary nine-tail fox spirit at all!

    Yet there was a catch¡­ This spirit wasn''t normal, it came from a very wrathful and vengeful monster. And as that snake monster was high grade in the first ce, William was well aware of how difficult it was to tame itter on.

    Yet that was for ater time to worry about such a problem. Right now, William covered up the entire spear de with his blood and started to absorb this spirit.

    He wasn''t just in the middle of a crazy battle, but he also was in the heart of a deadly situation. A single mistake was enough to im his life.

    As he started to absorb the Arbatros Snake wrathful spirit, Zin was having his own problems at the same time.

    Zin got a task from William, to roam the peaks around the formation and do something there. William asked Zin to spread out more formations around the initial one.

    Zin didn''t know from where William got to know all this. The formation William provided to Zin was a novel one to him. And when he thought it was the same one used here, William told him it wasn''t.

    In fact it was a supporting formation that would augment any existing one and make it stronger. In Zin''s eyes, this was crazy. It was like they were aiding the enemies, not trying to take them down.

    But William knew better. He met before such a scary formation, but he didn''t know the exact details of how to make it. So instead of trying to think of a way to counter this formation and risk everything, William thought of something crazy.

    He decided to use the ring main issue about this formation against it, which was the spirit power expenditure.

    He knew the Mutants were already struggling to keep this formation activated. And by using such an augmenting formation, surrounding the entire grand formation withyers of it, then this pressure would increase over the Mutants.

 Chapter 660 Fighting Clones

    ?

    William knew by using few of these formations'' things would go south, and he might even end up helping those enemies. But if Zin managed toy around just enough to crush their endurance and resilience, then things would be great.

    Zin didn''t get any of that as William didn''t have time to exin anything about this. Yet as he didn''t get any other option but William''s crazy suggestion, he decided to listen to what this youth just said.

    At first, things went smoothly for him. Zin wasn''t a normal master, and the formation William asked him to make didn''t need many materials to begin with.

    He used his stock of materials and spread out an array after another, surrounding the grand formation with twenty in no time.

    And then things started to change.

    The fifty Mutants controlling this formation felt the pressure atst. They were able to notice what was going on around them. And when they saw Zin''s arrays helping their formation, they didn''t get what was really happening here.

    If someone came here on the premise to help them, then why would they distract themselves at such critical moments and stop them? They were already activating the grand formation and managed to link this moment and ce with the past.

    Right now, they were doing the simplest and yet hardest part of all this, trying to locate the exact moment which they wanted to replicate.

    This formation was a heaven defying one, but it got just the ability to mimic a single moment in the past. So they had to carefully select the right moment, pass through lots of time and patiently look for the right spot to replicate.

    Their target was to find the deadliest and the scariest gathering moment of the monster army. As the army started to spread out soon after the arrival of the early waves of it, finding such a moment wasn''t that easy.

    Would they replicate the weaker leopards? Or should they replicate the few leopards with many turtles? Or should they select the moment when the Hellhounds appeared, where not many leopards and turtles were there?

    Answering this question was the most difficult thing they had to decide right now. And that just happened when Zin started toy down the supporting arrays. So they decided to leave him alone.

    The Mutants weren''t aware of what was going on in this part of the world before getting summoned here. Rick briefly exined things over but didn''t get enough time thanks to the interruption of William and Zin.

    But they heard enough to grasp the general situation here. They knew the general types of monsters in this monster tide and knew the general course of events.

    As they were talking amidst themselves about which moment they should replicate, and how much of the total numbers copied would really appear here thanks to their limited spirit power, they started to feel weird pressure.

    Without thinking much, they got what was going on. The arrays they didn''t ce in their eyes before were behind this situation, adding more pressure as they turned the entire grand formation stronger.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    So, they started to intervene. It started with five Mutants creating weaker copies of themselves, sending them to stop Zin and ruin the arrays he already made.

    These clones were something William already was aware of, something that was unique to the Mutants. They originated from the fact that these Mutants got two spirits inside their bodies. And by using one as the dominant spirit, the other one could be summoned as a clone.

    Right now, these Mutants were using their monstrous spirits to handle the formation. So, it was expected the clones they''d summon would use the human masters'' spirits. And these were much weaker and easy to counter.

    Yet to make a single Mutant, masters had to be at the dark gold grade. These five might be weakpared to the monstrous spirits residing inside the Mutants bodies, but they weren''t that weak at all.

    Zin noticed the fiveing towards him. And when he did, he recalled William''s words from earlier. William warned him that the enemies would send waves of enemies to take him and the arrays he made down. And when that''d happen, he should do one thing; brutally crush them in the shortest time.

    William didn''t want to risk losing any array Zin established. Not to mention these clones had the ability to self-detonate if given enough time. So, by mercilessly killing them, Zin would save himself lots of troubleter on.

    "That youth¡­ He really does know lots of stuff that I don''t," seeing the five clones moving fast towards him, Zin shook his head before taking out arge scythe.

    It was a weapon that he personally crafted decades ago. It was one at the high tier dark gold grade, quite ferocious, and very deadly. Zin took William''s warning quite seriously, and then shed, used his full power to take down these five.

    Zin wouldn''t struggle to take down high end masters, especially if they were weak to begin with. In mere seconds, he disposed of the five, returned to do his task, cing more pressure over the Mutants.

    The next thing happened was for the Mutants to go all out, creating forty-five clones this time and releasing them towards Zin.

    "Using the same useless stones to crush a mountain? Impressive!" Zin didn''t ce any of them in his eyes as he already got a taste of how powerful these clones truly were.

    If not for William''s strict warning to not elongate the sh with them, he''d prefer to toy with them while doing his task. He didn''t get why William warned him against them after crushing the second wave sessfully.

    Just as he returned toy more arrays, more clones appeared. And this time, these ones were quite different. They were only ten, but they got the same weird crystal thing over their forehead shining.

    When he saw this, Zin knew these clones were different.

 Chapter 661 Dealing With A Wrathful And Vengeful Spirit

    ?

    What William didn''t expect was for these Mutants to act decisively, let ten of their members break free from the grand formation, only using the human spirits to help control the formation.

    This indeed ced lots of pressure over everyone but allowed these ten to make clones out of their monstrous spirits. And this time, Zin had to face a great deal of trouble.

    These Mutants didn''t just release ten out of desperation. They calcted and got how strong Zin was. They estimated that seven would be enough to take him down, and sending three extra was just a form of precaution.

    The pressure exerted over them was enough to make them suffer a lot. But they knew once Zin got taken down, then the annoying arrays he spread would be left without any guarding.

    William was already fighting against Rick and Richard, away from here. And even if he managed by any means to ovee these two masters, he was weak to even handle the clones made out of their human spirits.

    Once these ten appeared, Zin faced immense pressure. He already used part of his formidable strength and abilities to take down the clones before. But that didn''t mean this was the full scoop of his strength.

    A heaven defying battle erupted between these eleven, one that was enough to crush many mountain peaks, and parts of their great bodies.

    As this battle erupted and intensified, William was in his own world right now. Absorbing this wrathful spirit wasn''t an easy task, especially when he was running short on time right now.

    The spirit was indeed hard to control. William gave it a try to see if he could tame this spirit while absorbing it, as this was considered the weakest moment for any spirit, but he failed.

    The Arbatros Snake spirit was indeed quite fierce. If not for William to have a special spirit of his own, he''d have faced great bacsh and severe consequences from just this failure.

    All he suffered in the end was a total pain in his body, and the decrease of his spirit power by fifty points. He knew after seeding in taming and merging that spirit with his, he''d be able to regain this little amount of lost spirit power and even many more folds. So, he didn''t feel any pain in suffering such a little hup.

    The absorption process went great when he stopped trying to tame that spirit. The spirit merged with his fox one, but it didn''t show any change at all. And that was normal.

    "A dormant spirit¡­ What a nuisance!" William knew his fox spirit absorbed the Arbatros Snake spirit but didn''t merge with it. And that made that new spirit useless and didn''t add anything to him.

    But that was just for now. Later on, he''d find a way to handle this spirit. And he just knew when and where he should do that.

    Dormant spirits weren''t like dormant spirit elements. These dormant spirits were quite a headache. Every once in a while, these spirits would revolt and try to control the host''s body and spirit. That was like carrying a bomb with you all the time.

    The mostmon time for these spirits to run rogue was when the spirit master would be in weak or exhausted status. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "What''s going on here?!!!" just when he came out from his sleep like status, William got shocked to see Zin at the distance getting his as* kicked.

    He wasn''t severely wounded, but his body showed lots of ces with injuries there. The armour he once wore was now torn apart, and even his wooden stick was crushed in two halves, each held by one hand.

    He didn''t look fine against ten ferocious enemies. When William saw them, he realised at once what happened.

    "So you decided to handle the pressure for now to take down Zin? That''s a decisive move I never sawing¡­" William''s face changed to show his seriousness. He didn''t even check his surroundings for now, instead he shouted on the top of his lungs: "Hit the crystals!"

    "As if I''m not trying to do that already!" Zin heard William''s shout and couldn''t help but shout in anger and impatience. He was indeed pressured by these ten enemies, enforcing him to use his full strength for the first time in thest century.

    "Don''t use techniques or spirit power, just pure physical power will do!" William shouted again, before turning around and hurriedly checking his situation.

    He started absorbing the Arbatros Snake spirit and left Charley to handle the dark green toxin. He was alive so far, not feeling any pain anywhere or missing a limb or anything. And that meant Charley was still defending him.

    William spotted Charley shing around, trying his best to stop the dark green fog. This meant less than half an hour passed.

    As he already deprived the spear from its main source of energy, this dark green fog was going to lessen with time. But till then, he had to lean on Charley.

    William just finished a grand training milestone, and his body and spirit were greatly exhausted. But it wasn''t time to rest. "Come here!" he first called for Charley, hurriedly recharged it with elixirs, before setting it loose again.

    Then William started taking elixir bottles one after another, emptying them in his body, trying to repair what he could as fast as he could.

    "Screw this! I need to train," William found the speed of healing and recuperating his body and spirit was too slow for the impending dangerous battle. And so he stood on the ground cross legged, started to regte his breathing and train.

    He knew he had a short time to train and recover. And so he threw away any worries for now, and focused solely on training.

    Zin heard what William shouted, before he saw him take lots of elixirs out. Zin didn''t know what William was doing, and he didn''t get any mind to think about any of that right now.

 Chapter 662 Clearing The Deadly Fog

    ?

    "I shall try it out then," Zin focused on what William told him, turned to the closest clone, defended against the brutal iing attack while feeling few bones in his body break.

    These clones weren''t a joke. It was shocking enough to know that each one of them wasn''t that far off him in terms of spirit power. Only thanks to the limitations of techniques and elements, being clones with slightly slowed down reflexes, he''d not survive for all this time.

    Once he epted such a hit, he clenched his fist and endured the pain. He already broke his right arm before and didn''t have time to heal anything.

    "F*ck off!" he shouted in rage, whilending a pure physical punch over that crystal. The clone was too close to him and didn''t have enough reflexive speed to evade or defend his strike.

    *Crack!*

    It felt like he hit a thing made out of pure ss or something. The crystals he struggled all this time to even leave a dent or a scratch over it before cracked with his punch.

    Spider Web-like cracks spread fast before the entire crystal shattered. With this, the clone faded away as if it was made out of fog or something.

    "It works!" Zin didn''t care about the pain he felt from this punch, turned around while gazing at the other nine clones in an evil way, "your turn, and thanks for the trouble you caused me so far!"

    Zin didn''t hesitate and threw himself over these nine, starting a brutal wave of fighting against them. With each punch of his, he smashed one clone after another, slowly reducing the pressure over him.

    As there were only three left, he took one elixir out and gulped its content. He didn''t suffer from spirit power depletion problems like William, but he was wounded internally more than what appeared on the surface.

    He felt like this battle was way too heated up than what he thought. So he didn''t lower his guard or take things lightly anymore. As his body started to slowly heal, he took care of the remaining three, suffering little wounds in return.

    Then it was time for him to gulp more elixirs, while weeping the thinyer of sweat that appeared on his forehead. "It feels like I really grew old," heughed on how miserable he was currently, before turning towards William.

    "This youth¡­ He is indeed something¡­" Zin then changed the calm look on his face, turned all serious, "I swear such kindness will be repaid double¡­ Just watch, you bastards."

    Zin was now sure the useless method William told him about before was working. Or else these enemies wouldn''t be this adamant at stopping him.

    He knew he couldn''t touch them per William''s previous words. So he focused more onying down more formations, adding more pressure over them.

    During the past battle, lots of formations heid before got ruined. So he worked harder, taking such tasks quite seriously, using his full spirit power, going full out.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He used wind techniques to make his speed faster, shing around like he was teleporting around. In the next five minutes, he reced the formations that got damaged, and started adding more.

    The pressure that lessened over the Mutants returned again. And this time, it seemed their enemy started to work harder thanks to what they did.

    They knew like William that once they stepped into this formation, they got to finish it first before doing anything else. That meant they got their hands tied behind their backs here. And soon enough more pressure started to umte thanks to the newly added formations.

    Out of desperation, they had no other choice but to finish this formation fast or else they''d get killed. William knew the least thing they''d suffer right now would be a great deal of weakening thanks to all the pressure ced over them.

    And that was his goal from the start. He wanted them to get squeezed and cornered, before deciding to put an early and haste end to the formation.

    As this was happening, the dark green fog around William got cleared fast. The spear didn''t release more fog, and with Charley''s help things started to look better.

    Charley worked from one end, and the Purifying Bead also worked from another to tear down this fog fast. William didn''t have spirit sense, so his only way to know if the fog got cleared or not was by assessing this using the sizzling sounds.

    He was already training, so he paused from time to time to check over things. He got used to days and weeks of training, so he had to make sure to voluntarily pause the training and check the sounds around for a few seconds.

    It took around half an hour to clear most of the fog. This didn''t give him enough time to heal himself, barely enough to let him fight onest battle.

    Yet against what he expected, Zin''s actions enraged the Mutants and ced much pressure on them faster than William thought.

    So, this battle wasn''t going to be just against the two masters surrounded by the purifying white fog, it was going to be a grand one against all of the enemies here.

    "The fog cleared fast¡­ Does that mean he is dead?" Richard was standing by Rick''s side, feeling extremely scared.

    Just in the middle of all this, he took out a weapon and tried to touch the dark green fog assaulting the white one around. He took out a long spear, and when he retracted it, he found a great part of it showing holes and gaps, even missing the final de piece.

    He didn''t let his spear get in contact with that fog for more than a few seconds, yet the spear ended up in such a poor state.

    That totally scared him. He heard from Rick about how deadly this fog was. But he never thought it was this lethal.

 Chapter 663 Killing One And Chasing After The Other

    ?

    When Richard saw the white fog expand and the sounds of sizzling grew fainter, he knew the dark green fog was finally receding. Unlike his excitement, Rick didn''t feel the same.

    "Something seems off here¡­" Rick''s next words made Richard drop all the excitement he had. Instead, he turned to Rick, and thetter added in a heavy tone, "this fog shouldst for days¡­ There is nothing in this world able to eat it away, not even my master''s beads¡­"

    Rick was truly shocked. He knew more about this weapon than Richard, knew how scary this weapon was.

    So seeing the white fog spread over and expand like this made Rick unsettled. He tried to use his spirit sense, and as he feared it worked! And the scene he saw made his scalp grow numb for a moment there.

    "This¡­ How¡­ Just how¡­" he trembled and couldn''t even formte a single sentence to express what he was feeling.

    He wasn''t the only one to use his spirit sense, Richard also did the same. The two saw William standing totally fine, with the spear that scared the two being held in William''s hands.

    "Thanks for giving me this interesting toy," William smirked evilly before storing the spear away in one of his rings, "I''m going to take it as a small payback to what I lost. And now¡­ It''s time for you to die!"

    The entire ce was now void of the dark green fog except for a few spots. William stopped Charley from taking the remaining pieces of fog down. Instead, he threw bottles over, and asked Charley to start collecting this fog.

    Seeing this made the two standing not that far from him freeze on the spot. William didn''t just survive this deadly attack; he even seized the weapon and was collecting the scary fog as if he was collecting trophies!

    "You¡­ You¡­" Rick''s body trembled when he saw this. He used two of his master''s precious cards, all got negated and lost in the hands of William.

    The orb got destroyed, and the spear got stolen away. And William stood on top of that looking just fine.

    "Sorry, but even if I wanted to know your identity, I don''t need you to tell me anything," William took out a dark gold hammer, one that wasn''t on par with the one that got crushed before, "after killing you, I''ll make someone paint a poster of your face, then distribute it all over the world. I''ll even ce a nice bounty for such intel, hahahaha!"

    "Screw you!" Rick knew he was about to die. William was simply too scary and far more resourceful than what he took him for, "you need to catch me first¡­"

    "Wait for me!" From the side, Richard instantly panicked. Just as he grabbed Rick''s cloak, thetter vanished in thin air, appearing just a few peaks away.

    Rick didn''t even look back and kept shing forward towards one direction. He knew his only hope to survive this was by joining the ce of the fifty scary Mutants. There he''d be totally safe.

    Yet he underestimated William greatly.

    *Snap!* William snapped his fingers casually, before adding, "get me his head, attached to his body or not won''t matter."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    *Roar!*

    Charley roared before it used the dashing technique of William. Thetter couldn''t fly, but he could use his technique in session, shing past six hundred metres with each direct dash.

    With every couple dashes, he managed to move from one peak to another. If anyone watched this from far, he''d find a dark cloaked person running using the darkness element and special movement techniques, and a giant monster looking like a bull with six legs and three tails chasing after him.

    "You know how much trouble you caused to your family and city," As William entrusted Rick to Charley, he moved slowly, step by step, towards Richard.

    Thetter had an ashen white face, trembling fiercely out of immense panic. He retreated with each step William took until he arrived at the edge of the peak.

    Behind him was nothing else but empty air and strong wind howling, promising him a brutal and cruel death.

    "I deserved to be the leader of the family, I''m the only one able to lead them to glory!" as he got his back pushed against the wall, Richard turned towards William, bellowed like this while taking out his grand sword.

    He held the sword with both hands, activating his spirit atst.

    "Such a good spirit and still you are this evil from the inside¡­ You say you are destined to lead them to greatness? Buddy, you were this close to lead them to destruction¡­ Die!"

    William recognised the unique spirit Richard had. And that meant Lara and the rest of her family members also had it. He didn''t speak again with Richard and felt more disgust towards this spoiled brat.

    Richard wasn''t a good kid, but he was someone who got pampered and raised in the very wrong way. He ended up deluded with dreams of greatness, thought of himself high enough to be above all the regtions and customs of his family.

    He decided to not go through the normal means to seize the seat of the leader, decided to turn south and be an evil master.

    "You won''t take me down¡­ I''m the one destined to lead the Vancouf family¡­ Agh!"

    Just as that young man was screaming in such panic, trying to summon up his courage, he failed. His spirit faded even before Williamnded over him with his grand fox body. And with a hit of a single tail, Richard flew in the air for tens of metres before falling deep down the abyss.

    His heart curdling screams vanished in the thickyer of clouds down below. William stood at the edge, mulling over all this.

    "Sometimes, being born in a great ce isn''t a good thing," he turned his eyes towards the other enemy running away, the dark master who instigated all this. And then his eyes turned all icy cold. "It''s your turn, it''s time to clean the house from all the rodents."

 Chapter 664 Its Not My Fault!

    ?

    The next moment William shed forward, chasing after Rick.

    As things turned down in such an unexpected way for thetter, Rick kept cursing William in his mind and heart. "That son of b*tch! If I knew he''d grow to be such a troublesome enemy, one who kept ruining my life one time after another, then I''d have killed him back when I met him with that damn old man¡­"

    Rick wasmenting not being decisive back then, not sniffing the great danger that rose up from William when he met him before at the academy. Back then, William was just a weak bronze master, powerless and didn''t have any of his current famous guild or vast resources.

    But he never expected such a thin and wasted looking kid to be the kryptonite for him and many of the dark forces. Rick threw away such thoughts for now and focused on getting away fast.

    He was chased by two ferocious enemies, and his only helper here got killed already. He was alone, and his only hope was to go towards the Mutants side, seeking refuge there.

    The Mutants weren''t that far off to begin with. Yet he knew from his dark master that they''d be too busy to take care of him. Recalling such a warning, Rick took out a scroll, and started to ignite it fiercely with his spirit power.

    "This power¡­ It seems weirdly familiar," from behind, William was keeping a close eye over Rick. he was running and jumping from one peak to another. And as he couldn''t literally fly, he had to exert most of his attention over synchronising his techniques to not face the same fate as Richard.

    He alternatively used his dashing lightning technique coupled with wind hovering technique. That technique would enable his body to stay in midair for a few seconds. And all he needed was these seconds to reactivate his lightning technique again.

    When Rick fiercely ignited his spirit power, William started to feel more doubt. He felt like he met Rick before but couldn''t pinpoint when or where. And when he saw the spirit power he used, William couldn''t help but feel more familiarity with it.

    "No time to fool around anymore," William knew what Rick wanted to do from the very beginning. He thought Charley would be enough to stall this dark master and stop him from reaching the Mutants. Yet it seemed Rick left behind many arrays that got activated, slowing down his pursuers, and enhancing his running away speed.

    In the next ten minutes, it was clear to William that Rick was going to seed. So, he took something out and shouted the next instant: "Stop him! Stop him now!"

    [Atst!] Ibra''s impatient voicended, and then a sh of ck light appeared next. Ibra was already hiding at a peak around the one Rick and Richard took as a base, a peak thatid inside the grand formation.

    William didn''t know where Ibra exactly was. And luckily that fierce friend wasn''t far away from Rick. The moment Ibra said his words, he activated his fastest moving technique, shing directly towards Rick like a bolt of ck lightning.

    Thetter was shocked when he saw this. He considered facing William and Zin all the time, never expecting that a third enemy was lying in wait, hiding from his senses, biding his time to just arrive at such a crucial moment.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "F*ck off!" Rick was just less than a dozen peaks away from the closest Mutant. But it felt like he wouldn''t make it. He had to divert his attention from that scroll, take out a grand hammer, and waved it with all his might towards Ibra.

    "Hahahaha! Do you think training with William was this nice? That kid is really harsh and cruel, never went easy on me, not even once!" the moment that fierce weapon came towards Ibra, thetterughed while changing his path in a smooth way.

    It felt like he was used to doing this, and that was true. When dealing with William, one had to always be prepared for thetter''s unbelievable agile way in changing directions and scary dashing movement.

    *Boom!* Ibra waved his ive andnded its shaft over the waist of Rick, ending up throwing thetter for hundreds of metres back. Luckily, hended over a peak, and unluckily he justnded a few peaks away from another Mutant.

    "I told you to train on controlling your power, dammit!" William grew instantly furious at Ibra when that happened. And thetter felt how bad he performed this time.

    "It''s not my fault! I wanted to make himnd safely. Besides, I had to ovee his hammer or any technique he''d use. It''s not my fault!" Ibra bellowed back in his defence, knowing that no words would be enough to make up for this mistake.

    "Shut up!" William was really furious at this moment. Instead of helping out, Ibra ended upplicating things.

    Just as this was happening, the Mutants were making their move.

    Zin was watching everything using his spirit sense. He saw how William managed to turn the tables around, taking down Richard and was chasing Rick around.

    During this, he never stopped spreading out more arrays, cing more pressure over the Mutants. He didn''t know for how long this was going to take for the enemies to fall apart. And he didn''t even know to how much extent these arrays were pressuring the Mutants.

    The pressure exerted over thetter was quite severe, growing with each passing minute. As they knew they were going to lose, they decided to cut short their losses and put a rough and swift end over all this.

    The anger deep within their hearts was immense. They wanted to rip apart that dark gold master who managed to foil their ns and make them suffer. And they decided to make him suffer a ton in return for this before killing him.

 Chapter 665 Fighting A Mutant

    ?

    As they did not have enough time to waste, they hastily selected a moment in time and started to activate the formation''s unique ability. The moment the formation started to work; things started to change all over the ce.

    The mountain peaks shook like a violent earthquake was hitting the world. The air itself started to change colour, felt like it was so heavy and suffocating to anyone present here.

    This happened just the moment Richard stood with extreme difficulty from the roughnding he suffered. The hit he received from Ibra might look weak, but thetter used his darkness element fiercely, ending up injuring many internal organs for Rick.

    But when he realised where hended, he didn''t care about any of that. He stood up and was about to resume running again. But then the ground shook, the peak he was standing upon started to show fierce cracks, while the air looked so heavy and difficult to breathe.

    Rick couldn''t believe this. He was this close from getting away, this close from being saved. And then something unexpected like this happened.

    Ibra also paused in his tracks, unable to follow or pursue after Rick. he felt like the world was about to end.

    Zin also felt the same. And it was a very weird feeling especially for someone standing at the pinnacle of power in this world like him.

    Only William knew what was going on, and he didn''t care. In fact, when the world changed and the ground trembled, he started to push himself beyond limits, wanting to get rid of Rick before any of the Mutants would interfere.

    William knew what was going on as he already experienced this before. The Mutants seemed to get insanely pressured with what Zin kept doing for all this time. And so, they got forced to abruptly end the formation. And this was just the normal signs of activating such a heaven defying thing.

    Trying to break thews of nature, time, fate, and destiny wasn''t a simple thing. But that meant the Mutants would be freed with a very weakened state. And that was great news to William.

    Yet there were fifty of them and there were only three. William wanted to take this chance to get rid of the variable in all this, Rick. he knew Rick kept using weird stuff from the outer world one time after another. And thest thing William wanted to see was for him to use something new that would change everything.

    So, he gulped another elixir bottle, shed forward, not caring about any of the destruction that was going on all over the world.

    Cracks started to appear at the mountain peaks, giving anyone seeing them a scare. These cracks weren''t just at the peaks, but they also ran all down, towards the base of all mountains. It was a very terrifying sight, one that would leave anyone watching this in deep awe and shock.

    William didn''t care about any of that. He just watched one target, and only Rick was present in his eyes, mind, and spirit.

    "I''ll start with you!" but William was already too far away from Rick from the start. Even if he pushed his limits, even if he pushed Charley to burn much of its spirit power than usual, the two failed to touch a single hair of Rick.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    A body shed andnded in front of Rick, stopping the flying weapons Wiliam sent towards Rick. Thetter was in midair at this moment, shing towards the peak Rick was standing at.

    William knew if his flying weaponsnded and hit their target, Rick was done for. But a shadow shed,nding in front of Rick, shielding thetter from all the flying weapons with a ball of brown light.

    Loud nging sounds erupted, and yet the weapons got all deflected and flew away from Rick. Seeing this made William inwardly sigh. He tried, but thanks to Ibra''s foolish move back then, he failed.

    "As if you have the power to do so," William knew other Mutants were about to move and attack him next. Yet he didn''t fret. Even if he was about to face fifty Mutants, scary beings who were all much stronger than him, he didn''t feel panic.

    They weren''t in their top or even decent form, and he wasn''t alone. William got Ibra close by, a dark gold master who didn''t join any battle for a long time already. Not to mention Zin was heading towards here.

    All he needed to do was to buy enough time for Zin to arrive, and then things would be easily under control.

    "A silver grade master is speaking back to me? Do you think by weakening me I won''t be able to crush an ant like you?" that mutant was a thirty-year-old looking man, with long brown hair and honey coloured eyes.

    He held a short thick rod in both hands, and that shield that stopped William''s weapons came from these rods.

    "We''ll see about that," William knew he wasn''t in his top form as well. He already got his top weapons destroyed. Not to mention he kept fighting constantly for days without a single moment of rest.

    Even with the use of spirit power regeneration and exhaustion washing elixirs, William still felt tired and exhausted. But he knew he got to push himself for a little bit, and then this entire grand war would be over. And he''d win this.

    William knew this Mutant was trying to act tough, but he was weak. He just got a severe bacsh from that formation, and every minute passed counted.

    Not to mention he was waiting for others to arrive and help.

    William didn''t waste his breaths anymore, dashed forward towards that enemy. The Mutant waved his two rods, while the crystal in his forehead shone brightly. And then the two rods shone as well.

    The Mutants already used their human spirit before in forming clones. And ten of them already wasted their monstrous spirits to form clones that Zin shattered.

 Chapter 666 A Crazy, Intense Battle

    ?

    The Mutant in front of William didn''t exhaust his monstrous spirit. The moment William moved; he activated his spirit. And then a solid form appeared in front of William.

    It was a lizard with a few long spikes that appeared from its joints. It wasn''t as grand as William''s fox, but it was big in the eyes of anyone else. It spanned to cover five metres long, and two metres in height.

    "The Spiky Brown Lizard¡­ What a nice monster you were," William recognised Mutant''s monstrous spirit at the spot, "but to stop a fox with a lizard like you isn''t enough¡­ Roar!"

    William channelled his light spirit element, releasing a deadly explosive st towards that lizard.

    The Spiky Brown Lizard was a fierce monster in the forest. It was considered a king in any area it lived in. With rock, darkness, and wind elements, it reigned over many other monsters who couldn''t face him.

    But to William, this was just a walk in the park. William used his light element from the start, releasing a deadly attack towards that foe, followed by charging up his technique as usual.

    He didn''t just attack solo, and let Charley alsoplete his actions by using his sealing supporting technique. In addition to that, William controlled his one hundred flying weapons, letting them hover around that target, waiting for a window to take him down.

    The Mutant was indeed acting tough, but he never expected a silver grade master to pose a threat to him. Yet when he saw how William attacked, he felt unexined fear.

    He started to use everything he got to stop all the iing attacks. Even if he was weak, he was a dark gold grade Mutant. Most of William''s attacks got negated and stopped, and that foe was this close from stopping him.

    But when the Mutant felt great, William threw a grenade in the middle of all these torrents of attacks. The grenade exploded, and that was the crack that brought everything down.

    The next attack came from the one hundred flying weapons, then William''s stacked attacknded and exploded loudly. The Mutant got bombarded by one attack after another, ending up thrown in the air and falling on the edge of the peak.

    "You¡­"

    "Just die already," William could see many shes heading towards him. So he didn''t hesitate and controlled Charley to use a single attack, and that was all it took to kill that Mutant.

    "Throw me his ring!" William knew how scary Mutants were, and their wealth was all stored in the safest ce in the world in their eyes, in a ring they wore.

    Charley tossed the ring to his maker, before the two turned toward Rick. "That bastard¡­" During this intense and fast sh, Rick took the chance and slipped by William''s clutches. He was now standing a few peaks away and was running like he got nothing to cry about.

    "Make sure to bring me his head," William ordered Ibra, "no mistakes are allowed this time, got it?"

    [Tsk! Just one slightly wrong move and you already call it a mistake!]<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Just go!" William roared, and Ibra shed from his ce and started chasing Rick. as he saw this, William turned his full attention towards the iing enemies.

    And without even hesitating about it, he recharged Charley''s stock of elixirs, turned around, and started running in the opposite direction.

    "Make sure to make it in time!" William shouted towards Zin, and thetter didn''t respond except by elerating his moves.

    Zin already saw how William took one enemy down, one who was two grades above him, one who was considered a strong powerhouse.

    Zin saw William fighting monsters before, and even if he got impressed by that, it wasn''t like this time. Fighting monsters wasn''t like fighting masters. Monsters got their strongest fort in numbers, while masters at the dark gold grade pinnacle were a single man army.

    Zin didn''t know that these Mutants were now weakened and weren''t in their perfect shape or even close to it. So, he just mistook things happening and decided to do everything in his power to save William.

    Yet thetter was already surrounded from the start. He was in the heart of the grand formation, and all the Mutants were standing at various peaks around, totally surrounding him.

    William moved towards a ce he saw perfect for his escape. Yet when he just dashed for a minute or so, he abruptly stopped.

    "Dammit! They are indeed fast," he saw the gap he aimed for was already covered up by two Mutants. Not only that, but the entire forty-nine Mutants were closing the over him.

    He had little room to manoeuvre right now. And without even thinking about it, he took many grenades and threw them away using his tail like they were mere rocks.

    *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

    A fierce wave of explosions urred, one that was enough to shake the entire ce again. "Damn! Watch out where you are throwing these, or else you''ll kill an old man like me!" Zin''s shout came next when he got this close from being hit with one grenade.

    William tried to control his aim, but he failed to do so for all grenades. He was already exhausted, running for his life, and he focused the grenades over a certain spot.

    "Got you! Hahahaha!" William threw around fifty grenades at one area, then dashed twice towards it. Anyone watching would mistake his intentions, and even Zin thought he was going to make a run towards that spot.

    Yet when everyone shifted their attention towards that spot, trying to fortify it and help the deeply injured Mutants there, William and Charley suddenly shifted their direction, turning around and running towards the totally opposite spot.

    The Mutants already moved fast to intercept his feign move, ending up messing their tight formation around him. William didn''t hesitate and headed towards the widest gap there, jumping over a peak after another, ending up finally getting away from such tight encirclement with a hairbreadth.

 Chapter 667 Fighting Over Rings

    ?

    That wasn''t really good news to him. When he got out, he found that he appeared just on the opposite side of Zin.

    "Old man, try to meet me before they do," William didn''t stop there and started to take a longer curved path, heading towards Zin. Thetter got what this sneaky youth wanted to do, and instantly shifted his direction, heading towards him.

    He got tricked with William''s act, just like everyone else. William didn''t feel safe, not yet. He already got away from the trap he found himself in and ended up facing a group of enraged and scary Mutants.

    *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

    "Take candies, they are really spicy, hahahaha!"

    *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

    The next thing he did was to throw lots of his grenades towards the group of Mutants. He thanked his early preparations, thanked his meticulous nning before to widespread produce such deadly grenades and other war consumables when he got time to do so.

    Even if he was now throwing grenades away like he was throwing useless stuff, he didn''t care about that. He got lots of grenades anyway.

    He knew these grenades wouldn''t be enough to kill a single Mutant chasing him, but they could stop or at least slow their advancement speed.

    In addition to that, he was adding more wounds and depleting more of their spirit power in the meantime.

    William wanted to weaken and dy these Mutants before meeting up with Zin. he knew the moment he''d join Zin''s side; things would be totally over for the Mutants.

    But just as he was going to do this, the Mutants seemed to grow really enraged to the extent of going all out. The thirty-nine Mutants who didn''t make clones of their monstrous spirits acted and formed clones before sending them fast to intercept William.

    "Sh*t! Do you think this is fair? Going all out against a mere silver master? Aren''t you ashamed of yourselves? Go to Zin, he is a dark gold master, one equal to you!"

    William shouted back when he spotted the grand copiesing at him. He knew going towards that direction was now an impossible feat. and so he instantly turned around and moved towards the totally opposite direction.

    He just needed to run for almost ten minutes or so to meet with Zin. but as he changed route, he knew it''d take much longer than that.

    "Damn! You are really blessed with bad luck, kiddo!" Zin shouted from behind, and William couldn''t help but shout back:

    "Try to do something, you are the higher master among the two of us!"

    "No," Zinughed, "I nned to pick you and that young man up, then leave this cursed ce."

    "They are weak! Don''t take them like when you fought back with them. They got severe bacsh and can''t even exert ten percent of their initial strength!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "For real?" Just hearing this made the eyes of the old man brighter, "let me test things out then."

    All this time Zin refrained from directly shing against any of these Mutants. He knew how scarily strong they were, and it wasn''t wise to sh with forty-nine of them without any backing.

    Zin meant what he said earlier, intended to leave this ce the moment he met William. Yet when he heard what William said, he couldn''t help but grow excited.

    And in the next few minutes he knew William wasn''t lying. "Hahahaha! They are crushed down like they are made of fragile ss, hahahaha!" he just attacked three of them and managed to swiftly kill these three.

    "Don''t ck then, it''s easy to get rid of them," William was feeling a little pain when he saw Zin taking the rings over the three he just killed. And such a reaction didn''t escape Zin''s senses.

    "What? Do you think I''ll leave these rich spoils to you? Damn! These masters are really rich!"

    "Give me a share, give me a share¡­" William was on the verge of crying here, and pleaded with Zin to share part of the loot with him.

    William knew how rich these rings were, as these Mutants were world famous for being overly rich. But Zin refused to share a single item with him.

    Instead, he turned his full attention towards these Mutants, seeing them like how a lion would see a flock of deer.

    "Leave a few for me to kill, you are a stingy old man," William instantly panicked when he saw Zin killing these Mutants in such an easy way. His goal was clear as he never left a corpse without cleaning everyone off it.

    Seeing this drove William''s blood to boil. He didn''t care anymore about those clones chasing him down, risked it and moved fast to bypass them. He ended up getting totally surrounded, but he didn''t mind that.

    He worked everything he got to kill Mutants, but he wouldn''t be as fast as Zin. a dark gold master, one at the pinnacle on top of that, was much fiercer and a lot deadlier than a silver master.

    The thing that helped William to kill and loot seven Mutants at the end was Charley and his grenades. William wasted hundreds of grenades to im the loot of these seven Mutants, ending up having eight Mutant rings.

    But just with a single nce he knew this was worth the trade. Even when he added all the grenades he used since the start of this war, all the elixirs he exhausted since then, he knew it was worth it!

    Just one ring''s content of these twenty-five rings was enough to make up for his losses. But realising that Zin collected the remaining rings left a deep bitterness in William''s heart.

    During all this, Ibra was chasing after Rick with everything he got. He wasn''t as wealthy as William, but he got as other vices enough resources to keep him able to run after Rick like this.

    He kept using his darkness techniques without reservations. Yet he wasn''t William. So, he had to struggle for almost an hour before finally catching up with Rick.

 Chapter 668 The Shocking Truth Is Revealed!

    ?

    Thetter didn''t head directly away from here. He still had high hope that these Mutants would take down William. And he wanted to be there when that''d happen.

    Yet when he saw how Zin and William started to massacre the Mutants, he knew things were going to end quite bad for him. "Screw it!" he was igniting his spirit power all this into the scroll, and that greatly affected his ability to run away.

    If he didn''t spare part of his spirit power and attention to activate the scroll he held, he would have increased the distance between him and Ibra, not ending up getting caught up like this.

    "Got you!" Just as thest Mutants fell, Ibra was this close to Rick. he moved, hit him with his ive, ending up sending Rick flying in the air again. "You¡­"

    At this brief exchange, Rick''s cloak finally fell off his head, exposing his face. The moment Ibra spotted him, he got overwhelmed with shock, unable to react at the time to follow his hit with another.

    He recognised Rick. in fact, anyone from the old Aspire academy would have recognised such troublemaker and arrogant master. Rick slowly stood up, while the scroll he held in his hand was shining in ck light, releasing torrents of ck gas.

    "Screw you, screw all of you!" Rick was already despising anyoneing from the Aspire academy. He knew Ibra, as thetter was famous back in those days.

    "You¡­ Why you¡­ A dark master?!!!" Ibra was deeply shaken by such unexpected revtion. And during his freeze, Rick ced the cloak back on his head, ending up covering his face again.

    He didn''t stop there, threw the scroll on the ground, turned around, waved at Ibra, before taking the deadly leap towards the endless air.

    "See you in the afterlife, idiots!" He left with these words, while Zin and William were running towards here.

    "What happened?" William asked Ibra when he arrived there, while Zin just looked around, looking a little troubled by that scroll.

    "Oh, so my dear disciple failed at getting your head for me¡­ That''s interesting¡­"

    Just before Ibra would respond to William, the scroll''s ck fog erged, and a face appeared there. It wasn''t clear, but it gave William a familiar feeling.

    "You¡­ You are that damn monster¡­" William instantly recognised his sworn enemy, the monster he kept trying to track all this time and failed, the Nightmare monster.

    "Kekekeke, I told you; I wille again and eat up your spirit, pretty little fox!"

    The face that appeared was of a human, one with a crystal on his forehead. Without the need to ask, William got this monster turned into a Mutant. And that was game changer news for him.

    He now realised why after spending all this time and effort in tracking down this monster''s trails he failed. The Nightmare monster changed its skin and gender, turned into a master not a monster.

    "I wished to see such a look on your face when we met up. Fate has its mysterious ways to protect you, don''t you agree with me?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "It also has its own ways to protect you from me as well," William didn''t like this situation, not in the slightest. His mind already connected the missing dots, "you are the one who established the Long Feather academy, to lure me there, right?"

    "You have to admit it was a feasible n, kekekeke."

    "And you impersonated me, telling everyone that you are the fox master¡­" William started to see the grand scheme he was going to fall into.

    "I can assure you, the doors of my academy will always be opened for you," the monster paused beforeughing, "but I have to disappoint you. I won''t be there waiting for you. Yet I can give you a couple of tips¡­ The academy is filled to the brim with dark forces, and I know how much you love to fight them, right?"

    "And the other tip?" William knew his enemy wasn''t this nice to give him such a tip for free. It meant the academy was filled with deadly traps, and that Nightmare monster wanted William to go there.

    Yet it sounded as if its confidence was shaken. He knew William was going to n and prepare, even bring a hellish and scary army with him when going there.

    So, he decided to leave the academy before William would arrive.

    "I''m going to wait for you at the uing stupid master tournament," the monsterughed, "there I''ll get the chance to kill you. Won''t it be nice? A monster like me killing a prodigy master like you while ying ording to the stupid rules of the human world? Kekekeke, it sounds fun!"

    The fog dispersed slowly while William had a serious look on his face. He knew his enemy told him that, so he''d go and take part in the uing contest.

    It was just like what this monster said. Even if William knew he was a monster covered in human skin, he didn''t have any means to touch a single hair of him.

    The contest was going to be held at the capital of the kingdom, a ce where extreme fierce rules applied there. He wouldn''t be able to attack this bastard, and he got nothing to prove his ims about him being a monster not a human.

    "Do you know him?" Zin pointed at the dispersing fog. Yet in the next second, William''s face instantly changed.

    "Run! It''s going to explode!"

    The face disappeared, but it didn''t disperse like any of the three expected. Instead, it gathered to form a weird symbol, one that William recognised.

    It was the word: Explode! And it was in an ancient and extremely fiercenguage.

    William didn''t even look back when he shouted, he turned around and started running like mad. He controlled Charley and tried to save it by calling it back. Yet the fierce explosion came faster than Charley, ending up engulfing most of the bull and damaging pieces of it.

 Chapter 669 The War Is Over

    ?

    "Agh! That damn bastard!'''' The explosion released a mushroom shaped fire and smoke that rose high in the air for hundreds of metres. It looked as if a nuke just exploded here, and then a fierce wind howled and came for all of the three.

    The fire appeared ck at first, mixed perfectly with the smoke. Then it expanded outwards, growing fast in size, turning from ck to blue, then orange, and finally red.

    William didn''t end up any better than the other two. Zin cursed when he stood up tens of peaks away. This explosion sent all of the three in different directions, but luckily didn''t im their lives or send them in midair or something.

    "What the hell just happened?" Ibra stood up, putting down fire that caught up his armour and uniform, "just a fog and weird symbol is enough to bring forth such destruction power? Who the hell is that man?"

    "It''s the same enemy I kept searching for long years and couldn''t find," William put down the fire that got attached to his uniform slowly and calmly. Yet his tone told Ibra how deeply enraged he was.

    "I never got thrown in the air like this for a century! This battle¡­ It''s something I haven''t experienced for a long time!" Zinined, while putting down fire using mere water techniques.

    William looked at Zin, feeling that this master had more elements he didn''t use in the previous battle.

    "I hope you are satisfied with our service," William said, and Zin blinked for a second there before he broke out inughter.

    "Anyway, we shall return back," Ibra was surprised by what happened in this war. And his greatest surprise was rted to Rick''s identity.

    He couldn''t believe that the former Aspire academy''s headmaster''s grandson, Sara''s brother, was now a fierce and deadly dark spirit master.

    He didn''t know if he should share this news with William, with Sara, with anyone. "What happened to that dark master? He was this close to you and yet¡­" William gave Ibra a weird gaze. And thetter decided to keep this matter a secret only for himself.

    After all, it was unlikely for Rick to survive such a deadly fall. Least to his knowledge that Rick jumped and used something to keep his life safe from such a fate.

    "He is just quite slippery, and damn lucky, tsk!" Ibra tried to act normal, but William felt he was hiding something.

    *Roar!*

    Before he''d start interrogating Ibra, a muffled roar came to startle the three of them.

    "This¡­" Ibra instantly used his spirit sense, just like what Zin did. As for William, he ran towards the edge of his peak, and looked down there.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "There are lots of Hellhound, leopard, and turtle monsters trying to climb their way here," Zin got a muchrger scale thanks to his stronger spirit sense, ending up seeing things that Ibra didn''t.

    "It''s the effect of that formation," William didn''t find this surprising, "let''s hunt down the hounds first. We are on a high ground and can use this to our advantage."

    "I want to kill something in this damn war!" Ibra waved his ive, feeling pissed off. He got all the right to feel so, as since the start he didn''t get the chance to kill anything.

    "Let''s do it then!" Zin nodded, agreeing on William''s n. The leopards and hounds were able to climb the mountains to the top, but the turtles couldn''t. Not to mention the hounds were much faster than the leopards.

    The three met up first, used lots of arrays around the peaks to detonate and release deadly rocks over the iing monsters. Falling from such heights wasn''t just deadly to masters, but to monsters as well.

    It was just as William expected. The formation that these Mutants hurriedly activated released lots of monsters from a point back in time. Yet in the middle of their rashness, they did copy something else, something that shouldn''t be present here.

    William would get to know about thister on. And when he''d realise this mistake from the Mutants, he''dugh till crying over their weirdly fated mistake.

    The small battle between the three of them and tens of thousands of monsters wasn''t that exciting. Once they''d hit a monster, it''d fall down, prating the thick cloudyer close by, ending up falling down to the bottom and dying.

    Ibra didn''t like this battle at all. He wanted to fight these hounds directly. But when William told him how scarily strong these hounds were, he dropped such an idea almost instantly.

    The fight kept going for an entire day. Then they started to climb down after resting for another day. They wanted to make sure they didn''t miss a single monster, In the end, they started their descent and fought the turtles and the rest of the monsters down on the ground.

    Luckily for them, the hounds were quite impatient and climbed the mountains in all of their forces. That made their fight a bit easier, only having to deal with turtles using grenades andndmines from time to time.

    Meanwhile, the city was having a crushing victory against the monster tide. The trench William asked everyone to make was indeed a meat grinder for those hounds. They bled profusely after falling there, ending up dying on the hands of the teams roaming the battlefield.

    Once the hounds got removed out of the picture after two days, taking down the rest of the monster army was a breeze. When William returned back to the city after three more days, he found signs of celebration everywhere.

    The areas adjacent to the city were filled with tons of dead bodies. The war seemed to end about one day prior to their arrival. And most of the masters were more busy celebrating than clearing the battlefield.

    Once arrived at the city, William met up with Lara and others from his guild and other forces and families who joined the city. They held a big meeting, discussed lots of things, before they started spreading orders to their forces.

 Chapter 670 After Two Weeks...

    ?

    Even if they ended up winning this battle, the city was ruined. There were tons of work left for everyone to do. And to make the city shine again, it needed the help of everyone.

    William estimated that the rebuilding project of this city would take long days, even weeks, before the city would return like it used to be. Yet he knew they didn''t lose that much.

    The city just got cleaned from its useless masters and dirty weeds. As long as the main pirs of the city remained intact, which were most of the city walls, part of the defences, the entirety of the portal zone, and the Lost City, then things were going to be fine.

    He even expected that the city would look much better than it was before this war. And his guesses proved to be right after two weeks from this war.

    Grand building projects started in the city. And during which, lots of meetings happened between the new higher ups of it.

    William felt real headache during the first week after the end of this war. He didn''t suffer the same back at the Scorching Lands fort five years ago. It was all thanks to Panther who made him freed from such headache.

    But this time he didn''t have Panther, or anyone like him. When William got really tired from such long discussions and nning, he tried to throw everything over Lara''s shoulders. Yet thetter was smarter than Lucas and read through his intentions.

    She decisively refused such a thing, letting him join all the meetings. She justified that by his highly valued opinions in these meetings, which was something true.

    When the different forces were discussing how to arrange themselves in the city, William proposed expanding it. The forces residing in the city before were just half the current total forces. Not to mention the citycked lots of space for any new force toe and expand here.

    So, he suggested increasing the city''s initial space by tripling it. His suggestions didn''t stop there, and he even asked for many auction houses and sparring arenas to be built.

    In addition to that, he suggested that the Lost City would be left as a general ownership between different forces, managed by Lara''s family, his guild, and Zin''s force.

    The ess towards that ce would be granted for certain fees. And like that he turned the Lost City into some sort of instant dungeon or something.

    Such a trick was used by many forces in the outer world once there was a chance to do it. As for the underlying interworld portal, William asked for his guild to repair the damaged buildings down below so the Lost City could be also used for sightseeing.

    As different forces epted his suggestion, William left the task of filling the holes and repairing the buildings for his guild. His guild members were very puzzled by such a weird task, a thing they''d feel appreciative in the future for doing.

    Then William suggested that recruitment notice would be left at all the ces the portals led to. In addition to that, he asked a crusade calling against the dark forces living in the Long Feather academy.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    As the Nightmare monster guessed it, William nned to amass a huge army and head directly towards the academy to destroy it. Lots of masters and forces answered and they were gathering right now in the city.

    William took this chance to let these forces and others know about the future purpose of the city and his guild. He wanted to turn this city into a centre for any anti-dark master opposition force, a thing that this worldcked.

    Like this, this city would always be filled with tons of masters, gathered up here to moveter on towards a dark force fort or base. As for how he''d find out these forces, William was confident to find lots of clues in the possession of the dark masters at the academy.

    After going through tons of stuff, and after one week passed, William was finally freed to do what he wanted. The first thing he did was to visit his guild''s ce.

    He managed to gain lots ofnds surrounding his guild, and also gained another spot ofnd at the newnds added to the city. The walls surrounding the city were nned to be left intact, and another grand wall would be built surrounding the new city.

    As he checked on the progress of the guild, made sure his vices knew what to do to recruit more masters, he went towards the Lost City and examined it.

    All the holes were now covered, not to be seen anywhere in that city. The buildings that once were damaged and ruins were now rebuilt, totally renovated and looked brand new.

    As for monsters, they got restless thanks to all these movements and processes. Yet the masters of his guild were experienced now on how to deal with these monsters thanks to the lectures given by the vices.

    William then found a building and fortified it and started to examine his spirit. He tried to absorb the Arbatros Snake spirit, yet he failed again. And this time he lost around one hundred spirit points.

    He spent roughly ten thousand gold cores to replenish the one hundred and fifty points he lost so far. And he onlycked a little bit to jump over thest hurdle and be an official gold master.

    He didn''t do it as he wanted to do it when he''d attack that academy. As for the annoying spirit residing within him, he nned to absorb itter as well.

    As he got nothing else to do, William started to train in his spirit purification technique after sleeping for an entire day. He kept training, receiving reports about the current progress of the different projects in the city and the Lost City, while another week passed fast.

    His vices kept pestering him about the date of the uing tournament.

 Chapter 671 Lets Hit That Dark Academy

    ?

    Ibra already informed everyone about what happened at the mountain peak area, ending up getting all of them excited as William was going to join them.

    But as two more weeks passed, there was less than two months left for the date of the contest. William knew how impatient his vices were, but he got no choice in that.

    His casual visit here ended up from being just a ce they''d pass in a few days into an adventure that took roughly a month. And now he had to go to the academy and see what that bastard prepared for him out there before heading to the kingdom''s capital.

    The only reassuring thing was that the capital got a direct connection at the portal area. And that meant they could juste back here and take a portal directly towards the capital.

    When others learnt about this, their anxiety got lowered. But William knew he had to move after these two weeks.

    "That bastard must have prepared a trap for me there¡­" William didn''t just spend his time training and resting. His Charley got damaged in thest fight, and he had to rebuild it.

    This time he built not only one weapon but two. ording to his current spirit power, he could control up to three weapons at the same time. And when he''d be a gold master, he''d control four.

    He took inspiration from the Hellhounds he just fought against, and made a weapon like them. He considered making a tank weapon, like the turtles he struggled against before. Yet he wasn''t the type to lean towards defence or something.

    He rebuilt Charley again and added to it Lucas. He missed that master and decided to name the second weapon in his honour. Charley was the same collected over his body as a chest piece. As for Lucas, he made it divide into two shoulder guards.

    The look of William now changed to be like ferocious masters in the outer world. He knew this wasn''t enough, and he needed to cover up his body with three more weapons at least.

    As for his damaged weapons, he had no time or manpower to make new weapons. So, he asked Lara to purchase these weapons for him.

    He already got extra dark gold weapons, but they weren''t like the ones he lost before.

    "You are finally out," after staying in the Lost City for one week, he finally returned back to the surface.

    Right now, there was a door specifically for his guild. He used it and appeared in the main branch of the guild in the inner city.

    The current city was divided into inner and outer city, while the scenes of damage were already cleared. Anyone walking in the city would get shocked to see the extravagant buildings and nice-looking bases and different facilities of the city.

    Especially those who used toe here and utilise the portals, they got shocked by the grand change this city experienced. The city changed and not only got bigger, but it also had many facilities and services that masters here could use.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The auction houses started business by selling lots of special and unique cores of the Hellhounds and other monsters killed at the city walls. Such news spread over, and a fever was a normal result.

    There was no other ce who got such cores and materials, and that made the city bustling with activity, getting overcrowded while business started to flourish.

    As Lara said it, the disaster that befell the city turned into such a blessing. The city was now earning what it was earning in a month before in just a single day! Or even less than that! It was indeed quite shocking, but everyone was excited by such news.

    All the forces here got their own businesses starting to give different services to masters. Not to mention Lara and others decided before to take ten percent of all the profit everyone would gain every month and distribute it equally over the forces controlling the city.

    Lara did that move to help the newly established forces to bypass the expected early stages of financially suffering. Yet none expected such a reaction in just two weeks after the grand war.

    William now was outside the central building inside the main branch of his guild. It was the same as the central building back at the Fox Lair. in front of him, all of his vices were lying in wait for him to end his closed training session.

    Trying to get him using Bullets didn''t work as he surrounded himself with arrays to seal any outsidemunication. And when they sent masters down there to find him, they failed as he used good concealment arrays.

    "I told you to wait for me for a week," William rolled his eyes while Ibra waved his ive in the air a couple of times.

    "I can''t believe you went there to make these shiny pieces of metal! If you wanted, we could have asked any artisan in the city to do it for you, tsk!"

    "Let''s speak while walking," William decided to ignore Ibra whenever thetter said something out of context like he used to joke all the time, "summon everyone, and inform all the forces about the hour of our movement¡­ We''ll move out in ten hours."

    "Atst!"

    "Let''s get rid of this dark academy fast then head towards the capital."

    Everyone expressed their happiness either by words or by theirughs and cheers. William smiled and added as he led them out of the guild branch:

    "Make sure everyone is ready, this isn''t a simple adventure. I''m going to meet up with Lara, so you need to finish all the preparations and meet me up at the portal area in less than ten hours from now."

    William was now standing in front of the main gate leading to his guild branch. This ce was now different from when William visited it before.

 Chapter 672 Laras New Grand Office

    ?

    Instead of all the emptiness here, the entire ce was crowded with masters.

    William intended to replicate the same thing he did before at the Scorching Lands city. He wanted to make the internal branch into something exclusive to a few selected members, like how the Fox Lair was.

    As for the rest of the guild members, they could just be at the outer guild branch. However, this was something he nor his vices could do.

    The sheer number of the masters who joined the guild was too much to control. This war was different, it didn''t happen back at a nameless ce in the world, but in a ce which was considered the crown jewel in this part of the world.

    News spread far and wide about how William and his guild performed in this war, especially William''s deed. Zin wasn''t stingy in his praise and described till the tiniest details what happened.

    The fact that there were monsters changing their skin and bing masters was a heaven defying new concept for most of those who heard such news. Only a few who got to learn about the existence of Mutants by different means didn''t get surprised by this. In fact, they heaved a deep sigh of relief.

    Who would have believed them if they came out and shouted at a few masters as being monsters? But now, and after such shocking tales spreading from this city to the rest of the continent, masters started to learn little information about these weird creatures.

    William also asked Zin to focus on their main traits, and the thing that could differentiate them from anyone else, the crystals in their foreheads.

    William didn''t mind sharing such facts with everyone in the world. After all, he was going to have his own headache while dealing with the Nightmare monster. And if such knowledge were widespread, then his task would grow easier. But William knew this issue wasn''t like how news spread about dark masters or the Scarlet Bears.

    It''d take longer time and much effort before themunity of spirit masters would pay full attention to such threatening folks. But for now, William threw all this behind his mind, and started walking in the bustling streets of the city.

    The city did indeed change. The inner city didn''t change that much in terms of the size or the space of the streets. But just looking at the grand new buildings lining the streets, the ones that towered for ten floors or more, seeing the crowded masters walking and chatting among themselves, forming something close to a sea of people out there, made William nod in satisfaction.

    This was just the initial effect after two weeks of rebuilding the city. After waiting for a bit longer, he was sure the city would grow more, not only in the activities and the number of masters visiting it, but also in size.

    William already sent a message over to Lara. And when William arrived at her ce, he couldn''t help but smile.

    "She really liked this tower¡­" William stood in front of what was before the grand Spar Arena. Right now, the arena was gone, and only a grand tower remained there, with a big, rounded wall and lots of buildings filling the inner ce.

    William was warmly weed and led to the inside of the Vancouf Tower zone. There he found Lara waiting for him at the top of the tower, where she surrounded the ce with a dome of ss, and lots of extravagant furniture.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The view from here was indeed something else. But that wasn''t what attracted William''s attention.

    "Last time I met you, you were living in a hole underground calling it a family heritage or something, hahahaha!" heughed the moment he noticed how greatly different this ce was from the rotten office she used to take as a base.

    "My ancestors made their legacy, and it''s just right for me to do the same, right?" she chuckled, didn''t take hisment in any ill way, "please sit. I already heard the news. Your people seem a lot excited about this adventure."

    "They already spread the news to reach you? Wow! I left them less than an hour ago," William faintly smiled, realising he underestimated the eagerness in his vices about finishing this adventure and heading towards the kingdom''s capital.

    "You can''t me them," sheughed, sitting in front of him with a dress that didn''t suit any spirit master at all. She seemed to take a bit care of what she wore, exposing both of her shoulders and most of her back. Not to mention the high cut in that dress, which revealed big parts of her smooth skin and legs when she ced one leg over another.

    She didn''t sit opposite to him to get shielded by the big desk made out of brown ores. She sat just next to him, to let him feast over her beauty for a little longer.

    "You do know you have to wear armour and gears all the time, just for your safety," hemented, while looking at her body with curiosity.

    "I prefer to wear like this around trusted friends, and that list includes only you," she was satisfied with his reaction, seemingly enjoying his daring eyes.

    "Tell me then, how is the family?" But William wasn''t a youth who''d get controlled by his desire or lust. He controlled and behaved himself, knowing exactly what she wanted to do with him by wearing and sitting like this.

    He already got girls fighting on him, but to be honest, he admitted that they all paledpared to her alluring and mature figure.

    "It''s ok," she chuckled, "I got total control over the family now. As for those traitors who stood on Richard''s side, they got properly punished."

    "Nice," William paused, "how about the city? I saw lots of changes there."

    "The grand project of rebuilding the city attracted many forces'' attention. Right now we have tens of forces wanting to have a base here, applying to join the upper echelon."

 Chapter 673 The Spirit Conflict Phenomenon

    ?

    "This¡­" William knew this was destined to happen. Birds used to stick to any towering tree, but that didn''t mean the tree had to wee any bird on its branches.

    "Don''t worry, I left Stark to handle them," she waved her hand casually, "He and Zin are dealing with these forces. If they came when we mostly needed them, they''d have easily joined us. Buting after the danger is gone? And expecting us to just wee them without paying a hefty price in return? They are just idiots!"

    William could guess a lot from her words. As she said it, Stark and Zin were going to give them a beating and crush all of their hopes it seemed.

    "Now let''s talk about us," she said in a way that gave him a scare, "hahahaha! Just look at your face! I won''t bite you or anything, hahahaha!"

    "You still want toe with us?" William ignored her remark and added, "you know you can trust me now. And I bet no one in the family will object to lending me a few portal cores."

    "It''s not about the family," she paused before adding in an honest tone, "it was never rted to them."

    "Fine," William knew she was interested in him more than anything else, "how about this¡­ Make sure to bring all the trusted masters from your family."

    "Do you expect a big battle or what?"

    "I expect a war," William paused, before seriously adding as a warning, "I know the news of what happened back there reached your ears. This isn''t just a normal raid against a dark force base. Our enemy invited us to go there, and that means a lot."

    "He is quite daring," she chuckled, seemingly taking all of this in a light way, "I don''t know why you attract such scary folks over you. Are you cursed or something?"

    "It''s the curse of greatness, what can I say about it?" William shrugged, and she couldn''t help but blink twice in front of his shameless attitude beforeughing.

    "Ok Mr. Big Shot, let me arrange my side and will join you in ten hours."

    "Got it," William was about to leave when she abruptly stood up, totally startling him, "is there anything wrong?" he suspected something grand had reached her ears, never expecting what she''d say next.

    "I always watch that girl called Berry hug you at any asion¡­ Can''t I treat you the same?"

    He blinked and couldn''t get over his surprise until she was already surrounding him with her arms, "stay safe and always crush your enemies."

    "That''s what I n to do," he broke free from her in a gentle way, not knowing what he should do but leave, "it''s going to be a headache soon enough," he shook his head while leaving the tower, imagining what would happen between the girls on his side when seeing her hug him like Berry.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Should I turn it into a custom to satisfy all or what?" he envisioned himself hugging every girl by his side before walking to do something. And soon enough he decided to drop such a crazy idea.

    As he notified her and dealt with the portal problem, he started to walk towards the marketce.

    The market was nned to get moved outside the walls lining the inner city. Like this, it totally changed. It became much bigger, with many shops than before. Simple stalls were prohibited, and only merchants with enough funds were able to purchase a spot there.

    This wasn''t an act of arrogance or something, but thanks to the crazy list they got for applications. Tons of merchants lined up to get a spot in the market, and that forced their hands to do it this way.

    But it got its perks as well. As he walked in the middle of the new market, he saw lots of items getting sold from different ces in the continent.

    To make up for the immense wealth they paid, the merchants and merchant groups had to take out lots of their treasures and precious items and products to sell here. That greatly raised the overall value of the market, making it look really worthy to shop here.

    William already asked Lara to make tons of the modified toxin and store them for any future needs. The higher council back then agreed to turn this toxin into a strategic weapon, alongside all the tactics and grenades used in that war.

    William didn''t object to this. But in case of the grenades, they needed special artisans to make them. He was shocked to see these forces bring forth lots of those artisans, even Zin brought out an entire family of them.

    Seeing this made William jealous of them. They had deep pockets and lots of resources. Not to mention a great of rtions and ties with different forces, families, and academies all over the continent.

    As they agreed to turn all of these war weapons into the backing of the city, William could now exchange his contribution points for these grenades.

    He didn''t mind that. After all, he gained tons of contribution points after the assessment done by the city''s new upper echelon. As for these points, it was a new system that he introduced, to make the bond between the newly joined forces tighter with the city.

    William already sent a request to exchange lots of contribution points for these grenades after the war ended. He exhausted tons of his grenades back then. And he had to wait for a longer time to make new ones.

    As he walked through the market, he kept recalling the information he had about Mutants. Even if he could consider himself as an encyclopaedia of the world of spirit masters, he didn''t know a lot about these Mutants.

    But he got to know about a single andmon weakness they all got. As Mutants got formed by forcing their monstrous spirits over the human spirit, they got some rare phenomenon called the Spirit Conflict.

 Chapter 674 Many Are Joining The Crusade

    ?

    It was so rare to have such a thing, and it was kind of like what Berry suffered from when William first met her. Yet unlike Berry, there was no future hope for any of the Mutants.

    Their spirits shed against each other for the rest of their lives. Yet as there was a grand difference between the two spirits in terms of quality and grade, it was easy to ovee and control such shes.

    William wanted to aim towards this. And to do so, he got to find something that could stir up the spirits within oneself.

    Such an item wasn''t rare actually, but that was the case in the outer world. As masters there needed a stimulus sometimes to grow their spirits stronger and fiercer, to ovee any stagnation in rising one''s spirit power up, they used such methods to deal with these problems.

    William started to visit one shop after another, looking for an item that could stir up one''s spirit. At first he got nothing at all. But in less than five hours, he finally met someone who knew what William was speaking about.

    "You are looking for a cursed item? Youth, I don''t know from which family or powerhouse you came from, but I have to advise you against having any of these wretched and evil things."

    "Why mister?" William was standing in front of a middle aged man who looked strangely simr to the merchant he used to deal with back at the Aspire academy.

    "These things are really wicked! Once getting affected by it, one can lose his control over himself. I once saw a venerable master jumping over a bunch of girls aftering in touch with that item¡­ I can''t really me him for that. These girls were really sweet and hard to resist, however that''s not the point¡­"

    William didn''t know how the talk drifted to speak about hot girls and such. But he decided to switch the topic back to its original route, "does mister know where I can get one of these cursed items? Do you have one perhaps?"

    "Me? No way! I''m not that insane to keep one in my shop¡­ However¡­" the merchant seemed to get a bit cautious, looked right and left beforeing closer to William, "I heard that the head of that great family here has few of these items. It''s rumoured that the strongest master there has a liking towards them."

    "The Vancouf family?!" William was surprised by such news. But the merchant shook his head before adding in the same whispering tone:

    "It''s that scary master, the one called Zin."

    "Oh, I know him," William meant something entirely different from what this merchant understood, "thanks¡­ Here is a token of my appreciation," William tossed a ring over to the merchant, one of the many he got.

    During the past two weeks, William went through the rich content of the rings of the Mutants he got. He didn''t just im eight more rings, but tons of wealth and resources, gears and weapons, and even weird stuff.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The most valuable things he found there were the things that came from the outer world. William didn''t know how these Mutants got their hands over such items, but he was d he got them. At the same time, and when he recalled Zin and the many rings he collected, he couldn''t help but feel a little bitter.

    He tried before to make a trade with Zin, ending up with thetter asking him to teach him about the uses of these items. Zin wasn''t stupid, he knew he took part in a battle that didn''t follow the rules of this tiny world.

    And for a reason he felt like William was more informative about all of this stuff. But William didn''t agree to that offer, and turned it down.

    Since then Zin never stopped trying every means possible to make William agree. He kept speaking to him at many asions, speaking randomly about the description of various items.

    That was why William decided to seal himself back in the Lost City and used an array to seal anymunications with the outside. This was done to save William the headache of this mad man.

    And now he had to go and find Zin, ask him about the cursed items. William knew Zin wouldn''t let him go off the hook, and was mentally prepared to exin the use of a single item in exchange for getting his hands over a cursed gear.

    [Come to me at the main gate, I''m going to join that crusade of yours] When William contacted him, Zin exposed such surprising news.

    "Are youing?" William already exchanged Bullets with every single leader and big name in all the families and forces joining the city.

    Zin learnt a lot from thest war with William, and got the feeling that things were never meant to be normal when that youth was around. So when he heard the news spread by William''s guild vices, he instantly arranged a sizable force of his family and nned to join this adventure.

    Many of his family masters were already nning to join this crusade. The hatred and enmity against the dark masters were running too deep in all the normal master''smunity.

    So, it was expected how grand the response his sudden notice received. [I want to help, and you aren''t appreciative! Do you know how much I get paid to just be part of any force? Thank your luck that many of my friends and close masters are going and so I decided to join them]

    William didn''t buy a single word of what Zin just said. "Tell me the truth, do you want toe to get more treasures? Aren''t you ashamed of yourself? Such a formidable master and still caring for worldly things like these¡­"

    [Stop spreading rumours about me! It''s not my fault you are stubborn like a solid rocky mountain! If you just let me through what I gained, then I''d have left you all alone]

 Chapter 675 Yo, Dont Dream About Touching My Toys!

    ?

    "Says the one who refused to share a few of what he gained," William rolled his eyes. This was the usual conversation between the two after that war ended.

    [Just don''t keep me and others waiting for long. It''s already a circus out there at the front gate]

    "For real? Then let anyone you trust start arranging things¡­" William never expected the response to his call to be this swift. Around six hours passed, and it was already crowded over there.

    [No need, all the forcesing here have their leaders and formidable masters leading them. Juste and don''t dy us]

    "By the way, I need something from you¡­"

    [Don''t worry, I got all the big guns with me] Zin mistook William''s intentions, thinking he was asking about the deadly weapons, gears, war supplies, and such.

    "I don''t mean that, it''s something that you normally won''t hold around."

    [Like what?]

    "Something called a cursed item."

    [Yo, don''t dream about touching my toys!] In a weird change in attitude, Zin changed from all the venerable master he was into a stubborn youngster or something.

    "Come on! I just want one of these, and I heard you got a lot," William rolled his eyes, but Zin didn''t change his attitude.

    [I''m famed for a few things, this included. No way to get any of these from me. Just drop this idea, got it?]

    "I can''t, I truly need one of these."

    [No way, just find anything else or anyone else to get these from]

    "Hmm¡­ How about this¡­ I''ll tell you the use of one item in exchange for one."

    [No, this won''t be a fair trade] William guessed why Zin acted like this right. He was after exchanging this item which he got a lot of with the knowledge of the outer world items, [How about this¡­ You tell me everything about all the items I got and don''t know a single thing about, then I''ll give you one cursed item in return]

    "No deal, I''ll just find another master to exchange with."

    [Don''t try, there is no one sane enough to gather such toys but me, hahahaha!]

    "The world is too big, old man. Don''t say such dangerous stuff or else you may choke or something."

    [O¡­ Old man you fart disrespectful youth to your seniors!]

    "Just ept it, one item for another, that''s my bottom," William said, "if not then let''s forget about this."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Tsk! What a troublesome youth you are! Fine! Let''s do it then. I need to go back and bring this stuff over. By the way, who pays for my trouble then?]

    "It''s part of the bargain, don''tin too much about it," William stored away the Buller before drawing near to the front gate.

    And when arrived half an hourter, he was surprised by the scene waiting for him. Just the number of masters waiting for him was enough to reach the horizon and continue beyond! William stood at the walls and watched such a grand gathering, feeling more confidence at the uing adventure.

    "I want to see how that dark academy can hold us," Zin appeared in an hour or so. William already sent for his vices, Lara, and a few of the leaders of the forces stationed in the city.

    Zin wasn''t the only exception here. Few also decided to join this crusade, in addition to many outsider forces as well.

    "Did you bring it, old man?" William decided to tease Zin with such a nickname. And that got him a ring look from thetter.

    "I dare you to say it again if you don''t fear for your life."

    "Then give it to me," William extended his hand, not caring about the empty threats of Zin.

    "No, you first tell me the use of one item," Zin acted stubborn, and William didn''t want to hassle with such an old man.

    "Let''s do it this way then, you give Lara here the item you brought with you in a ring, in addition to an item you select from the grand gathering you got from that war. Then I''ll tell you how to use it, then get the item from her, cool?"

    "No trust in me at all, tsk! That hurts!"

    "I don''t trust old men," Williamughed shortly before adding when Zin released his spirit power, "this is the teaching of my master. If you have anything to say, go and speak to her then."

    "Tsk! What a twisted master she is to raise such a youth to be like this," Zin retracted his spirit power before tossing one ring over to Lara, "this ring contains the thing he wanted. As for the thing I want, why not select the most suitable item from the ones I described before to you?"

    "I got a fish memory, can''t remember anything," William knew Zin was acting smart here. He let him select an item, so he''d not be responsible for the true value of it. There were many useful items in that lot, alongside lots of useless items as well.

    But the old man leaning on the short thick staff he boughtter on and was made out of special ores and materials from the Turtles from before was smart to see through William''s intentions.

    So he decided to let William select the item he''d exin its value over, to make sure this youth wouldn''t just scam him.

    "You want a beating or what?" Zin released his spirit power again, making William face change.

    "Ok, ok, I got it now¡­" William hurriedly changed his attitude. Zin wasn''t simply a dark gold master but was someone who was at the very top of the pinnacle stage.

    So, it was expected for his spirit power to be suffocating and hard to struggle against.

    William described an item for Zin. it was something small, not like what thetter expected. Zin got a long list of different materials, with few at a huge size like the size of a boulder or something.

 Chapter 676 The Dream Flute Magical Effect

    ?

    What William asked for was a small flute. Zin tried to blow air into it, tried to inject his spirit power inside, but all failed.

    "This is the Dream Flute, one that''s truly a scary item," William paused before adding, "to activate it, you need to use two antagonising elements you have, pour them inside, and let them explode inside and fuel it."

    "I don''t buy any of that," Zin had few spirit elements by birth right, but they weren''t antagonising at all.

    "Let me try it then," William simply extended his hand, and Zin looked at him in doubt, "what? Do you think I dare steal something from you?"

    "You are shameless enough to do it!" Zin didn''t hide what he was thinking about. And that brought out chuckles and smiles all over everyone watching this interesting talk between an old man and a youngster.

    "Don''t act like this, as if I can beat you or overrun you or something," William rolled his eyes and Zin finallyplied.

    "Watch!" William held the flute''s small opening near his mouth. Instead of blowing wind, he blew silver and ck threads into it.

    "You got the lightning and darkness elements¡­ I knew it!" Zin watched William fight before, and he already had his guesses about William''s elements.

    But he wasn''t that rude to ask William about this. To any master, such things were taboo to ask about.

    The moment William blew into that flute, it didn''t release sound, didn''t release anything actually. After a minute or so, nothing happened. And that made Zin scoff.

    "I told you! You were lying to me just no¡­"

    Before he''d continue his words, a faint rumbling urred as if an explosion urred inside the flute. Next the flute shook slightly before it started to shine all in ck and silver lights.

    The flute needed what William just told him, but William''s level of spirit power was stillcking to activate this flute on a whim. As anything else getting into this world, it got its grade and strength lowered. Yet it was still at the top quality of gears in this world.

    If Zin was the one doing it, he could have activated it in mere seconds! But William needed a minute or two to let it show a change.

    Then a weird bellow of smoke rose from this flute, covering up lots of masters standing there in a few breaths. Before anyone would say anything, they all experienced what could least be described as a miracle.

    The smoke expanded and covered lots of masters in a thinyer of fog. To those who didn''t get affected by it, it appeared like nothing happened to them. But to those inside, things looked much different, a lot different.

    The world in front of their eyes changed, turned into a piece of heaven or something. Each found themselves standing in the middle of an open green space, filled with roses and refreshing breeze. At the same time, many trees appeared in the distance, and lots of nice-looking monsters.

    This was an illusion, one that didn''tst for more than a few seconds. This was what William could do with his weak spirit power.

    "This¡­"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "What just happened?"

    "Where was I?"

    "I felt like my spirit calmed down, as if someone patted on my shoulder or something¡­"

    The moment the fog vanished, and the flute stopped releasing more, many masters eximed in doubt and shock. Others just stood silent, with a weird look on their faces, as if they just experienced something ground shaking or something.

    "This is just a small and nice version of what this flute can do," William looked very tired and exhausted, and had to empty an entire bottle of elixir to replenish his lost spirit power, "take it and make the best use of it."

    "How can I use it?" Zin was inwardly shaken like everyone else. The ce he just experienced wasn''t a green field, but his family''s house.

    He saw his long dead parents. He was too shocked to say a single word, but he recognised the old house of his family, the one he used to live in when he was just six years old.

    It was a memory of the past, a very cherished one to him.

    "You just think of the general feeling you want the masters affected by this flute to experience. Be it calmness, rage, and even death¡­ You just think of a feeling and the flute will do the trick for you."

    "I see¡­" Zin received the flute before adding, "I can''t believe such an item exists. It''s on par with the mightiest artefacts in the world, it''s indeed an artefact!"

    William nodded without saying too much. This flute might look omniscient, but it wasn''t. In the outer world, there were too many ways to handle such illusions. But here it might be difficult to counter that.

    Even if the grade and might of this flute got lowered thanks to the limitations of the tiny world, it was still one of the best items existing in the world. That meant considering it as an artefact wasn''t an exaggeration.

    "Tsk! Can''t you just take a look at what I have and tell me what the uses of these items are?" Zin grew greedy, and that was what William previously feared.

    Thetter knew if Zin got to hear about the use of a single useful item of his, then he''d renege on his earlier promise and wouldn''t hand him the cursed item he wanted.

    But as Lara got the item already, there was no need for him to worry about that.

    "Let''s repeat such tradeter on," William casually said something to extricate himself from such a tight situation.

    "I can exchange more cursed items with you. Look, I got twenty different items in this ring¡­"

    "Sorry, but thanks," William was taken aback with what Zin just said. He thought such items were rare, but that old man just took twenty out on a whim.

 Chapter 677 [Bonus ] Cluster Settlement Number Three

    ?

    What William didn''t know was that Zin highly valued William''s words and ns. As William expressed how much he wanted these items, he knew this item would y a great role in the uing battle.

    So, he didn''t flinch or hesitate, bringing twenty more of such items with him just in case he and others needed them to survive or win the uing sh.

    Yet William didn''t ept his offer. He just wanted a single item to help himter on. Then the use of this item would be over. It was pointless to use such a chance to get something useless back from Zin.

    "Then¡­"

    "Let''s just wait for the right time," William could tell how anxious Zin was, "once I have something I want from you, I''lle and make a deal with you."

    "Ok¡­" Zin didn''t have any option here. William then turned to everyone around and started speaking about their next movement n.

    "We are going to march towards that dark academy. Until we arrive there, we''ll move and act as you see fit. But once we got close to that ce, everyone had to listen to my words. If you don''t, then I''m not responsible for any of your losses, got it?"

    William''s sudden words made everyone''s face change. He then exchanged Bullets with everyone, before he turned to Lara.

    "Lead us towards the closest portal to that ce."

    "Follow me," Lara simply said before starting to lead everyone towards the portal area. They gathered here as there was no space in the city to amodate all of them.

    Everyone followed Lara and their leaders inside the city. And once they arrived at the portal area, William noticed that Lara cleared arge section.

    "I made arrangements," she said with a chuckle when she noticed the gaze over William''s face, "all of these portals are redirected and led to the same spot. Like this we can save lots of time and move everyone fast to the same spot."

    "Nice," William simply responded, but his single word made Sara, Berry, and Ro exchange silent gazes among themselves.

    Without the need of saying anything, they all thought of the same thing, danger!

    William moved in the first batch alongside his team vices. The portal was like a hole that sucked him inside, took him away while the world around changed into a world of dark blue.

    It didn''t take longer than one minute for William and others to arrive at the other side of the portal. There they found a grand settlement, where the portal they came out from was there.

    William was about to look around and see where the other portals were when Lara''s voice echoed in his mind.

    [This ce is filled with lots of settlements. I made sure to establish portals here. We are distributed inside an area of twenty kilometres. We''ll march to the north and meet there]<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Got it," William felt like Lara prepared things beforehand, a long time before he came and told her about the date of their move.

    "Wee to the Cluster settlement number three," a young man approached with a group of fifty others, all wearing bright red uniforms, "we are the ones responsible for this ce. We got orders to help you in anything you need."

    "Thanks, I just need a map of the area, and any news about anything dangerous around," William didn''t want to waste much time here. So he simply refused anything but these two pieces of valuable intel.

    The young master didn''t dy or ask anything, and handed William two scrolls as if he expected such a question from him.

    "Lead our people out, arrange them outside this ce and wait for me," William paused before turning to Thomas, Ibra, and Sara "follow me."

    Thetter didn''t object and simply followed William. As for the rest, they started to do what he asked them to do.

    The portal was already fast in delivering William''s masters here. As for thetter, he led the three of his vices towards a side area in this ce.

    This settlement was like a grand camp that got low levelled walls, made entirely out of ores with good defensive abilities. There were many simple houses there, with few people living in this ce.

    It looked too simple to be a fort, but too fortified to be a vige. William didn''t get the history of this ce and didn''t care about it for now.

    "Let''s see these scrolls first," William highly appreciated the opinions of Sara and Ibra. The two were special masters, one was raised by a formidable master and was always trying to seek truth about hidden secrets of her family, while the other got to cause trouble from a young age and antagonised the academy rules.

    The two always gave William good opinions about many things. As for Thomas, William got used to bringing him around whenever he was about to do something grand.

    William stretched the two scrolls on the ground and started to read and check them like everyone else. The first thing he noticed was that the entire region was filled with hills.

    "I hate hills," Thomas muttered, and everyone got what he meant by that. Hills around the academy and Scorching Lands were the bases of the dark forces. And seeing these hills made them all recall the dark masters.

    But when they read the second scroll, they got to know that there wasn''t a single dark master in the entire area. The area that was filled with hills got lots of settlements like this one built in the valleys in between the hills, making it look just like a city but got scattered by these hills or something.

    The sole danger in the region came from monsters. For a reason, monsters seemed to love swarming this area, acting like a monster tide of category four or five.

    "Hmm¡­ Monsters were dispersed and distributed over the entire area, attacking settlements separately and at the same time¡­ Weird¡­" William knew this wasn''t how monsters should behave in normal situations.

 Chapter 678 The Blue Hills

    ?

    "Shall we investigate it?" Sara asked, and William thought for a few seconds before shaking off his head.

    "We are here to get to that dark academy, not for anything else," he paused before adding, "butter on, make sure to dispatch many of our guild members here to investigate."

    "Is a treasure?" Sara asked in excitement.

    "Are we going to have a grand fight?" Ibra seemed excited too, but for a totally different reason.

    "Do you want me to use my technique?" Thomas asked, and William simply looked at them in a weird way.

    "Let''s speak about that after finishing our current adventure," William then returned to examine the map. The map was detailed and focused mainly on the area of hills and the adjacent regions to it. It covered up an area of a thousand kilometres, and one of them was the Blue Hills.

    William never thought that the reason behind such a name came from the hills filling that region. ording to the map, this ce was around a few hundred kilometres in space, looking like a square, with three of its sides lined up by blue coloured hills.

    The blue colour came from a certain ore that shone faintly in darkness and emitted blue light. William thought of a list of ores that could do such a thing, but the map already gave a name for this ore.

    It was the Blue Dying ores. The name looked a bit gloomy, but William knew it wasn''t true. This ore was a rare one, usually used to channel spirit power and help in making high grade gears.

    It looked like the perfect ce to make a trap. And William felt more unease when looking at the overall terrain of that region.

    Aside from the empty side that was facing the region they were currently in, there was no way out from there. It was either by going through a denseyer of hills that were filled with tons of monsters or go from that opened side.

    Seeing such abnormally perfect natural terrain made William surer about his earlier doubts. It was totally perfect for a deadly trap, one that wouldn''t just seal them from exiting, but also a trap suited to take down lots of their forces.

    Inside that prison-like ce, there wasn''t much to mention. The ce was totally open and t, without even forests or any hills or anything.

    "There is no mention of any academy in this map," Ibra noticed what William noted from the first nce, "does this mean this academy truly appeared recently or what?"

    "It seems this map isn''t updated," Sara said about what William thought about, "it''s not safe to take everything mentioned here as everything about that ce¡­"

    "As there are hills and dark masters, then it''s better to assume all of these hills are bases for those bastards," Thomas added, and everything they said William already thought about.

    "We need to take down these hills first," William looked at the grand surface area of these hills, "we need lots of earth-based masters to destroy all of these hills."

    "I can go around and scan them first," Thomas suggested out of good will. Yet his words made everyone turn to him in a weird way, "what? Did I say something wrong?" The young master was startled by such an intense reaction from everyone.

    "If we did that, then we''ll take a longer time to scan all these hills," Sara rolled her eyes, "it''s faster to let the earth-based masters dig these hills out."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "And that will also help to deactivate the expected traps," Ibra already was thinking like William, "but that ce gives me a bad feeling."

    "We''ll go there, crush anything waiting for us there, and thene back here¡­" William paused, took Lara''s Bullet out, "we need to establish part of the portals in a well defended settlement."

    [Got it! I have twenty portal cores ready and will spread them while waiting for the various forces to arrive. When are we going to move?]

    "First gather up all the earth-based masters," William looked at the map again, "we need them to remove all the hills surrounding that ce."

    [All the blue hills? Ok, I''ll gather and send them with decent forces just in case. We''ll hit the academy from the main entrance. Will we gather there?]

    William was about to agree to her words but for a reason, he felt uneasy.

    "No, let''s change the n¡­" William paused, "we''ll go directly from the three sides other than the main entrance."

    [But¡­ These sides¡­ Don''t tell me we''ll wait for the hills to get removed! They expand for more than a hundred kilometres and even more. We can''t waste such time while alerting the enemy]

    "They are already alerted, so it''s fine," William felt more settled with such a decision, "gathering up another force to act as a decoy. Once we attract their attention, this force will move to hit the academy directly¡­ Wait, let me lead this force!"

    [Ok! But you do realise if you led it, then things will turn bad!]

    "Stop spreading rumours on me please," William shortlyughed, "I''m not cursed with bad luck."

    [Ok, I''ll keep you posted]

    William stored the Bullet away, returned to check the details of the map and the information on the other scroll regarding danger.

    He felt like he was missing something out. And indeed he was. It was just in front of his eyes, but he couldn''t spot it.

    And that was because the map wasn''t updated as he and all of the other three once mentioned. There was something on the outskirts of the Blue Hills, something that would turn things upside down.

    For now, William kept thinking about what he missed, yet found no clue. His sense of unease grew weaker, but it was still there.

    "Gather up the guild''s force," William paused, "you are going to handle one side for me."

    "Won''t wee with you?" Thomas blinked twice, as he started to notice such weird attitudes from William every time they met a hurdle or something.

 Chapter 679 Lets Remove The Hills!

    ?

    "Not again," Sara and Ibra rolled their eyes while William simply smiled.

    "I will go inside and check things out. If needed, then I''ll let youe to my aid."

    "Won''t you need my help?" Thomas paused, "I can help save you a lot of trouble."

    "You will be in danger," William paused, "and also will be a liability that I can''t afford. Focus on reading the entire ce, and help others dig the dark bases hidden under the hills."

    "Ok," Thomas wanted to object, but from the silent gazed of the other two he knew it was a lost case.

    "Let''s prepare then," William sent them away, and kept himself studying this map. He knew everything was going as nned. He got Lara to handle the part rted to the portals, and the different forces were flooding this region.

    The war supplies he asked the city masters to make were brought as well. Tons of barrels of that modified toxin were in the rings of many masters, besides lots of grenades that were made in the past two weeks.

    This might seem all great, but William knew they weren''t enough. If that Nightmare monster was so confident to even lure them here, it meant there was much more behind all this.

    William kept studying the map for the next ten hours. During which, lots of forces already got here.

    [We got enough to start moving] Lara suddenly spoke again, [This area won''t amodate all of us]

    "Let''s roll then," William picked up the two scrolls before adding, "start dividing the forces into four big armies. Start with the hills first and keep me updated."

    William walked out of this settlement with lots of his guild members. Every one of his vices already knew about what he intended to do.

    Berry and Ro tried to change his mind, tried to join him but he refused. William knew he''d use this battle and jump over the gold grade border, activating the trial of the ck fox. So, he didn''t need others to be around him, or else he''d be burdened by keeping them safe.

    Last time he experienced what it meant to be invincible. Fighting enemies while not caring about oneself or defending was just a cool feeling.

    He didn''t know about that until it was toote back then. Yet this time he''d start fighting while cing this point in mind.

    So having others from the guild vices by his side would distract him. In addition to that, the key to win this expedition was by taking down the hills and killing the hidden dark master forces beneath them.

    William and others guessed it right. All these hills were filled with tons of dark master forces. The Nightmare monster appeared just in the right time, collecting and rallying all the disarrayed dark forces not only in the Scorching Lands region, but in the entire continent as well.

    This took him lots of time to do, but he managed to gather up a scary force. And as everyone guessed it, he hid these dark forces under all the hills in the region.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But that wasn''t everything! In addition to the sealing grand formation established there, and all these dark forces, there were other scary things nted there as well.

    William didn''t hurry to enter this trap. He waited for the other forces to arrive at their ces, a task that took roughly three days to aplish.

    The moment the masters arrived there; they started hitting the hills directly. The earliest news he got was one dayter, and they spoke about the presence of lots of dark forces in these hills.

    Any hill the earth-based masters unearthed and ttened with the ground revealed a grand space underneath. It looked as if these dark masters lived here for a long time, not just a few years.

    The fight started hot and continued for four more days. During which, William did nothing but listen to the news and follow the development of the ongoing battles.

    The armies of the spirit masters weren''t having any trouble at first. Theynded on seemingly unprepared enemies. William was slightly surprised by this. He thought that monster would at least warn the dark masters, so they''d be prepared for him.

    But from the look of things, this wasn''t the case. These dark masters were backstabbed by this monster. Or perhaps he never cared about them in the first ce.

    William didn''t mind this. But soon enough, things changed.

    The city forces started to face lots of ready dark masters, with tons of traps and deadly fights. This slowed down their initial swift advance from earlier. Yet with the earth-based masters working at the forefront, things didn''t look that bad in the end.

    As things progressed smoothly, William started to feel weird. He thought that the Nightmare monster spread the sealing formations all over the hill zone. And now that zone was getting swept clean by the city masters.

    William expected a fiercer resistance from the dark masters, or even an early activation of the formations. But it seemed the Nightmare monster thought about such a move and didn''t mind what he was doing right now.

    William didn''t intervene to stop the ongoing n. He knew taking down these hills mattered a lot in the uing hard times.

    Things didn''t change for the worse unless on the sixth day. By then, the hills were mostly removed, and one side got totally cleared from all the hills.

    This was the side led by his guild masters. Thomas seemed to do magic wonders out there. And William expected such a result.

    Yet he never led his forces into the middle of that region. On top of all, he didn''t know where this academy lied so far.

    So, after taking down one side, he asked his vices to send any dark gold grade masters to scan the entire area, drawing detailed maps about it. And when these masters started to work, weird things started to happen.

 Chapter 680 Auditory Hallucinations

    ?

    First of all, a few masters started to vanish without any warning. It happened sporadically at first, and everyone thought they just got to a ce away from the reach of the Message Paper coverage, or perhaps they stumbled upon sealing arrays or something.

    But soon enough, more masters started to send distressing messages, speaking about weird stuff before losing contact with them.

    Once William got the news, he instantly called off all the scout activities. He then shared the news with every one of the various forces, and they all agreed to wait before all the sides got cleared.

    Then they''d all move together, closing the, and exploring what was going on inside that area.

    William waited for another day for the hills to get removed. The moment thest hill fell, and even before the dark master armies would be pushed back deep into the region, something grand happened.

    It first started with the change in the sky colour. Instead of being pure and cloudless, it started to grow pink in colour. That wasn''t all, as with such changes in the sky, a weird buzzing sound erupted, one that was at a low volume at first before turning loud over time.

    "This colour¡­ This buzzing noise¡­ Don''t tell me it''s an auditory illusion!" William sniffed something out of these two clues. But before he''d warn anyone, he found himself standing alone in the middle of a weird ce.

    "It''s indeed an auditory illusion¡­ What a troublesome trap this is!" William realised that the real trap wasn''tid on the hills, but on the regions outside them.

    It seemed like the trigger for this grand formation was in the hills. Once taken down, everything would go down with them.

    *Roar!*

    Before he''d thought about anything, about the grade and type of this illusion, or how he''d crush it and get freed, he heard a very loud noise filled with tons of roarsing from all over the ce.

    The world he was in was filled with ck fog. But once these roars appeared, the fog dissipated fast, revealing more of the terrain around.

    He was standing on top of a ck hill, with an open vastnd around, barren looking one, with churned ground that was filled with holes, bones, and even thin tongues of grey gas rising up from many spots in the region.

    It looked like he appeared in an ancient battlefield, one that wasn''t weing any life. But what puzzled him was the weird roars he heard and kept hearing.

    "This¡­ This isn''t an illusion, it''s a hallucination!" William suddenly jumped to such a scary conclusion, realising that this was more severe than what he initially thought.

    Illusions might seem like hallucinations, but there was a big difference between the two. Illusions would leave anyone entrapped motionless inside, without getting any connection with the outer world. He''d be living in a dream world, one that would try to manipte and affect his will and spirit, trying to kill him by pushing him into despair.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But hallucinations were much crueller than that. Once falling under one, the person wouldn''t get separated from the outer world. These roars weren''t real, but William knew he''d feel attacksnding on his body, triggering his desire to defend his life.

    So, he''d subconsciously react, fighting and releasing his deadliest attacks. Then shadows would appear like the ones he once experienced in the ck fox trial.

    These shadows were real, but they wouldn''t be monsters. Instead, they''d be the masters he was walking with in such a grand army.

    Hallucinations were really brutal. They''d use any enemy''s strength and numbers against themselves, letting them fight each other, kill one another, without even the need to lift a finger or do anything for the one who casted such a formation.

    "There is still time¡­" William knew if he fell into a small formation with few masters, then the hallucinations would appear in a short time. But such a grand formation was something that worked on the entire lot of city masters, covering an area of hundreds of kilometres or even more.

    So, it was expected it''d take longer to show its full terror.

    "Auditory hallucinations are really hard to defend against, but they have a singlemon weakness¡­ All hallucinations share that weakness¡­ It seems it''s time for me to take that leap¡­"

    William knew the sole weakness in any hallucination formation was that it worked over the current level of power of the targets it affected.

    It might seem weird and funny, but the right method to break free from such scary formation wasn''t by fighting or running away, wasn''t by using any treasure or anything, but by simply training.

    Rising one''s spirit power by just one point was enough to negate the effects of this formation. However, to any spirit master this was something that''d take long hours, days, even weeks or months for the much stronger masters.

    People like Zin might even spend an entire year to raise a single spirit power point. And that was why getting to the very top, exceeding the limit of this tiny world, was always a hard task to do.

    This wasn''t just the limitations of the tiny world, but also thanks to the Holy Triad effects of any master. Once reaching such a high stage, if one didn''t have enough spirit purity level, the right technique to get him through the shackles of the dark gold grade, then no one would be able to get past that point.

    It was all connected. And the most tricking part about it was that it would never appear as a problem before hitting the high stages of the dark gold grade.

    Not to mention suchmon knowledge wasn''t known in this world yet.

    Unlike other masters, William could do it simply on the spot. He took out one of the many dark gold cores he gained before, stained it with his blood, before starting to devour it.

 Chapter 681 Its Not The Same Trial!!!

    ?

    William knew just absorbing one core was enough to take him through the silver grade, getting him towards the gold grade atst. But it wouldn''te alone, as he''d experience another round of trials, one that he was waiting for.

    Yet unlike his expectations, he was going to suffer a different set of trials than the one he experienced before. And that was the first great variable that would change the entire game.

    "Agh! That hurts like hell!"

    Once the core turned into dust, the spirit power stored inside gushed into his body. He knew he''d suffer from this, but it felt weirdly more hellish than before.

    But like before, such a violent torture didn''tst for more than couple minutes. Then he felt like he was taken out from fire and got thrown into a deep pool of cold water.

    He felt his body getting soothed and cleaned, getting cooled down and refreshed. William took in a deep breath, knowing that he finally stepped into the gold grade realm.

    This realm was special for the activation of spirit sense. It was such a great tool to scan everything around, scout for enemies and monsters, see far beyond one''s eyes could reach.

    But before he''d absorb the entire spirit power from this core, he saw the world around rumbled. Long and scary looking cracks appeared, before he finally saw the entire world shatter in front of his eyes.

    He knew he overcame the hallucination effect of that grand formation. But he was going to wee the trial of the ck fox.

    Yet unlike what he expected, he found himself returning back to the real world, not that foggy weird world of the ck fox.

    "What''s going on? Hey ck fox, aren''t you supposed to give me a trial or something? Aren''t we supposed to meet?"

    William returned to the real world, finding himself standing at the same spot he was at before entering into the hallucination. When he looked around, he found everyone standing still, with weird ck clouds surrounding their heads, masking their faces.

    "It''s indeed the hallucination formation¡­" He confirmed his earlier doubts. But before he''d move a muscle, a ck fog appeared with the grand body of the ck fox showing up in the next minute.

    "Yo, long time no see," the ck fox said in greetings, seemingly a bit amused by something.

    "Why didn''t you take me into your trial world? Will I skip the trial this time or what?" William got more unsettled by seeing the ck fox appearing in front of him in the real world.

    The two were supposed to meet, but not before taking the trial and winning it, not inside the real world but in the ck fox trial world.

    Everything pointed out that something was off. But William kept little hope that he didn''t need to go through any trials this time.

    "What? Do you expect to get the grand power of me without getting tested? No little one, I''m here to tell you about your uing trial."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Won''t it be like before?!!!" William got the hidden meaning behind the words of the ck fox. And couldn''t help but ask in worry and doubts.

    "I won''t test you the same all the time," the ck fox rolled his eyes. And William couldn''t help but notice something different.

    "Why do you look happy?" This was obvious the more the ck fox spoke. He greeted him in a friendly way, and evenughed once in the middle of his talk.

    This wasn''t like thest time he met with the ck fox. Thetter keptining about how useless humans were, how weak he was, and kept talking to him in such an arrogant tone that left William speechless for many times.

    William didn''t think just by rising up one grade was enough to let the ck fox change its attitude. And that meant there was something else that made this fox a bit excited.

    "Isn''t it obvious? Two of you who have my spirit are fighting right now¡­ Hahahahaha! I''m too excited to see who is going to win."

    "It''s me of course," William said as if this was something granted and set in stone.

    "Nothing is guaranteed," the ck fox seemed to know something that William didn''t, "anyway, let''s speak about your trial. In this entire war, you need to keep the master forces you brought with you intact."

    "This¡­" William paused, not believing what the ck fox just said, "this is a war! You don''t expect me to babysit and take care of everyone! How can a war be one without fierce casualties?"

    "Oh, you got it wrong," the ck fox was indeed in a good mood to evenugh again, "I said intact, not without losses, got it?"

    "..." William didn''t understand what the ck fox wanted. And so he kept looking at the fox, while the foxughed for the third time.

    "You need to win this war, while having at least one of the four forces alive by the end. I''ll see how many are out there in each force, and just having ten percent in the end is enough."

    "Ten percent? Do you expect me to lose ny percent of them? No way!" William didn''t believe what the ck fox said, and thetter didn''t exin anything.

    "You''ll understandter on. Anyway, it''s time for you to start working hard. Your foe already finished his preparations a long time ago. And now you have to prove to me that you are worthy of my support. See you at the finish line, human boy."

    Before William would get what was really going on, the ck fox vanished the same way it appeared first. William stood in the middle of the grand army of masters, feeling like he was totally alone.

    "This¡­ It''s really going to be hard," William took in a deep breath. He got ideas before about how hard this adventure was going to be. Yet he never expected it to turn into such a weird situation.

 Chapter 682 The Hidden Warning

    ?

    The ck fox spoke little, acted totally different than the first time he met it. "I feel like going through andmine with my eyes blindfolded!" he muttered to himself, before thinking more seriously about this bizarre meeting.

    "No¡­ He gave me hints¡­" William realised that even if it was trivial, he got warnings and hints from the ck fox.

    It told him that the Nightmare monster prepared for so long for this battle. And ording to what the ck fox knew, the expected result of this war was the total annihtion of everyone.

    William didn''t even think that the ck fox might have missed counting lots of his forces. So that meant whatever the Nightmare monster prepared, they all aimed towards killing lots of masters inside that region.

    This hallucination grand formation was able to cut lots of masters down. William thought before that this was the deadliest trap the enemy prepared here. But now he changed his mind, this might be the slightest trial they were going to face.

    "He mentioned intact, didn''t use surviving or saving for example¡­ That unique selection of words that it stressed over and didn''t change when I asked about means this is also a hint¡­"

    William started to guess what the ck fox wanted him to do. "But¡­ He mentioned just one side, and that''s not a coincidence¡­"

    William started to feel howplicated the brief meeting he had with the ck fox was. The ck fox said casual words, even masked everything by its weird attitude.

    William recalled how the ck fox spoke about his sworn enemy. It mentioned clearly that it hated that fox monster and didn''t want to see it seed.

    So, the thought of getting excited about having a sh between the two of them wasn''t a good thing actually. It didn''t make any sense at all.

    "It just did that to mask what he wanted to convey to me¡­ It seems it''s attached with tough strings after all¡­" William paused for a long minute, before knowing what he should do.

    It might seem crazy, especially when he brought all these forces with himself. But if he risked them to fight by his side, he''d lose badly in the end.

    The only way out of here was to remove the variable that controlled everything. If he sent everyone away from this area, then by any means this would end up in his big victory.

    "I shall find Lara first," William looked around before sighing, "and I have to deal with this hallucination fast. I guess the entire area can be covered in a couple of days. But do I have such time in the first ce?"

    William knew this was going to be hard if he did it by normal means. Even if he changed and activated his spirit form, he wouldn''t do it.

    "To fight formations, one needs to use formations as well¡­ It''s indeed a wise man who said these words," William muttered to himself, while knowing this was going to be a bit tricky.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Yet he wasn''t just thinking about how to free everyone from such hallucination. There was another dilemma he needed to fix if things didn''t work out with Lara.

    For a reason, he felt like all the portal cores Lara brought with weren''t going to work. And if that happened, then the forces had to leave this region on foot.

    When he reached this point, he couldn''t help but recognise the hint the ck fox gave to him. He told him that one side of the four forces had to survive this. And that meant one out of four sides was safe to pass through.

    The other sides would be totally dangerous and might even be filled with tons of deadly traps. William took out the map he had from the settlement and looked at the generaly out of the entire terrain.

    "I''m standing at the only open path leading to the inside¡­ Lara is just opposite to me, while my guild is on my right, and Zin is on the left¡­ One out of these four sides are safe¡­ But which one is it?"

    This was another dilemma he had to solve. For a reason, this adventure which he considered slightly safe and easy to handle turned out of his expectations, became like a deadly trap.

    He was prepared for lots of traps and tricks of the enemy, yet he nned everything truly on the fact that the trial this time was like thest one.

    Changing the nature of the trial meant changing everything for him. And right now, and at the early steps of this grand war, and before even stepping inside that region or seeing the walls and gs of that dark academy, William''s back was pushed against a hard wall.

    "I have to wake everyone up first, then I''ll think about where to send them if the portal n fails¡­" William shifted his full attention towards freeing everyone from this hallucination.

    He didn''t know how long he got, but he was going all out this time. To make such a grand formation to cover up such an area, one had to use a formidable source of spirit power to fuel it.

    Normally, one would use spirit crystals to do it. But this would require tons of crystals, and also spreading them over arge area.

    William didn''t have that time to waste on doing that. So, he decided to look into his rings, see if he got something worthy to use.

    "Don''t tell me I have to use these¡­" After going through lots of stuff, William stood in front of arge pile of the same item. He took these out, and hoped to find something else but couldn''t.

    These were the grenades he had from the city and his guild branch. He got enough to turn any desperate war to be his win. Yet he didn''t like spending these grenades here like this.

    "I had no other choice," William knew these grenades might not look like a good source of spirit power, but in fact they were.

 Chapter 683 Something Impacted The Fate And Destiney Wheel

    ?

    Once detonated, they''d release torrents of spirit power, fierce enough to take away anything standing in their path.

    That was the trick behind making these. The artisans had to use something to absorb spirit power madly from the world around,pressing it in small, rounded grenades.

    "I got the source of the spirit power problem solved¡­ And now it''s down to how to wake them up from the hallucination¡­"

    William knew the simplest way to do it was by letting these masters gain one single spirit power point. But to do so, he had to think of many things at the same time.

    If he wanted to free them using the same method, then he had to force them into a state like training, try to find a way to make things happen faster, and he had to think about the scarily strong folks who fell into this hallucination.

    "I need to make an environment rich with spirit power¡­ And I need something to stir their spirits to absorb this rich spirit power in the air¡­"

    William started to think deeper about moreplicated stuff. And in the next few hours, he took lots of things out.

    The way he thought about it might seem crazy, but it was the only feasible solution he got to solve all this. He took out all the modified toxin barrels he got from Lara, and next to them he also took tons of materials and ores.

    William nned to run the formation using the grenades, use these ores and materials to control and gather up the explosive spirit power into the formation tightly without leaking it.

    This was the base of his grand formation theory, and he intended to make two and not one. One formation would fuel the insane amount of the spirit power, use it to spread the modified toxin in the air, spreading it all over the entire region.

    Like this, all the spirit masters here would get stirred up and enter into berserk mode. It wasn''t the most favourable situation, but William knew their spirits would grow restless and would be open to absorb spirit power from the air.

    And then the second formation woulde into the picture. By using the grand amount of spirit power, the formation would spread it all over the region. William didn''t have any ess towards the distant regions, but he already had an idea in his mind.

    This ce was called Blue Hills thanks to the special ores it got. These ores made the entirety of the hills, and they were able to channel spirit power in a great way.

    If so, then William would try to make a third formation, one that he''d personally control. It didn''t need any spirit power to run, as it''d work to control the spirit power in the area around.

    William would stand in the middle of this formation and use the blue ores to his advantage. The forces on the three sides worked to demolish the hills but got no time to remove or store them away.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He nned to use these ores to create a sealing ring. But as he''d do this from just a single formation, he expected his control over the entire situation would be weak. Yet he''d still have a way to help storing the spirit power and entrapping it as much as possible in this region.

    The sole weakness he knew before even starting this n was the side he was in. it didn''t have any blue ores or hills, was totally open and void of anything.

    He didn''t have the means toy more formations here. With more hours passing, the risk of the activation of the entire hallucinating formation grew as well.

    As he finished setting up his ns, he didn''t hesitate anymore. He started toy out the formations, digging the ground using the earth element he had, and even pushed aside many masters to clear enough space for the three formations.

    He arranged the three formations fast. The core of the first two formations depended on the grenades he had. And to make sure they wouldn''t hurt anyone, he pushed the masters further away, and evenid simple protective arrays around them.

    Doing this didn''t take more than a couple of hours. And as he was doing all this, something else was going on far away from here.

    In a ce that was inside a grand series of mountains, inside a ce that looked as if it got nted in there and the mountain then grew all over it.

    It was filled with many halls, spanning over seven levels, with long stairs and corridors linking everything together. In the biggest hall in this ce, a group of one hundred masters sat around a grand rounded table, all looking at the same thing.

    In the middle of this table, something floated in the air. It looked like a star or something, made out of fog that came out of nowhere. The star was pure white colour, except for a spot that looked oddly ck.

    "Someone interfered greatly with fate and destiny''s great wheel¡­" one of the masters spoke in a heavy tone, "this is something serious, something that didn''t happen for a long time."

    "We need to see who did that, and kill him," another said, "it''s always someone growing greedy enough to ask for more than what he should get. And by death, all problems will be solved."

    "Any intel about him?" the one who spoke first turned around, moved his eyes among the other masters sitting here. They all wore a long pure white cloak, one that had a pointy end over their heads, with a sign of a golden wheel over their chests.

    "We tried to pry into it, got severe bacsh from doing this," another spoke in a bitter tone before adding, "all we know is a general location where all this started."

    "Nothing else?" the one who seemed like their leader frowned, "this is of utmost importance. Interfering with the fate and destiny ns is like throwing our world into hell! We need to see more than that¡­"

 Chapter 684 Linking It With S Grade Alert

    ?

    "I got another intel¡­" one cleared up his throat, "but this one might not be rted to the disaster we have now."

    "What do you mean?" others turned to look at the one who just spoke up, and that master cleared his throat again.

    "Not long ago, I received a notification about finding S grade Fate Sacred alert or even higher grade one¡­" the master started to speak about the incident back then with William. He said what he learnt about, and everyone here didn''t get anything from what he said.

    "How is that rted to our case here?" the leader got puzzled. He knew that master and knew he wasn''t the type to fool around or say any random stuff.

    "ording to what I learnt; the area specified by others is the same ce as that alert came from."

    But when he said this piece, the entire hall ushered under heavy silence. What he meant was clear, they got a general location of the origin of this disaster, and that location was rted to one of their highest-ranking alerts.

    "This isn''t a coincidence, right?" one of the masters said, "whom do we get near that ce? We need to go there and investigate."

    "We have a detached legion who wasing from a mission," the leader paused, "it''s the Scarlet Eye legion."

    "Him? No way! Are you sure you want to send him?!!" This time, it wasn''t just one or few masters to speak up, but almost most of the masters eximed in doubt and shock. Without the need to ask, the reputation of that legion was really bad in their eyes.

    It was all thanks to the leading star of this legion.

    "We only got him near that ce," the leader seemed to expect such a response, "as we need to move fast, we have no other choice but to send him."

    "Tsk!" many showed their discontent before another spoke up, "make sure to stress over him¡­ Killing normal people and master isn''t allowed. This time we won''t tolerate another massacre."

    "At least he''s going to work in another continent than the one he did a scene at," another master spoke, and these two''s words seemed to get lots of support and agreement from many.

    "Alright¡­ I''ll dispatch the news to him. Is there any more information about all this?" the leader moved his eyes around. And as no one spoke up, he added, "let''s gather once per day then. This matter is of the highest importance to us. And keep trying to divinate things about the one who caused all this and the person who instigated an S grade alert."

    Like this, the meeting got concluded while the leader went to a special hall to give the order for the legion and its leader.

    Away from all this, and back to the Blue Hills, William finally finishedying out his formations. And once he did, he started activating them without any further dy.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The first array he activated was the one to stir up the spirit power and increase its level in the region. This formation would take time to add enough spirit power and needed to be activated first.

    William just needed to drop his blood over the heart of this formation. And when he did, the entire ground trembled, as the grenades lying down below got detonated.

    William wasn''t worried from any attacking from the grenades or for the formation to fail in controlling the fierce explosions. But what he was concerned about was the transformation of such an insane amount of spirit power into an easy form of spirit power, enough to be naturally absorbed from the air.

    Just as he stood there, and in less than a few minutes, he could already feel his body rejuvenate from the rich spirit power in the air. Spirit power started to rise up in the air, changing it and dying it with pale gold light.

    "Gold grade spirit power at the very start? That''s a good sign¡­" William knew this might be a good thing if he had many of these formations around. But he only got one, and that meant the spirit power released from this formation would fade and grow thin while expanding over the entire area.

    If the final grade of spirit powering out from this formation reached the early stage of gold grade, then William expected it to lose a single grade while expanding in the entire area.

    "To be able to raise most of the masters'' spirit power, early-stage dark gold grade spirit power is enough. But that won''t help people like Zin¡­"

    William knew this formation would yield mid stage, at most high stage dark gold spirit power in the end. And that meant the level wouldn''t grow to reach the pinnacle stage or even high stage in the entire region.

    He looked into his rings again, finding no grenades at all. "I should pray that this hallucination will take much longer for me to meet others and take their grenades¡­"

    William had no other choice but to do it this way. He got a limited number of grenades in the first ce. But other leaders of the city forces got their share as well.

    In the army he led, there were four more leaders marching by his side. Three belonged to the high stage dark gold grade while one was at mid stage. This master was his only hope to make another formation like this.

    Yet that wouldn''t be enough to wake people like Zin up. So, William had to wake others, ask them to build the same type of formations at their ces.

    It was a solid n, with only shoringid in the unknown time limit he had. As he settled on doing this, he left this formation to do its magic, and headed towards the second formation.

    This formation was the most important of all. He needed to activate the grenades, let the formation channel the torrents of spirit power released, and direct them towards the barrels of toxins buried underground.

 Chapter 685 Fighting Hallucinations With Formations

    ?

    It was a much moreplicated formation than the one William just activated. And he knew just a single mistake was enough to ruin everything.

    So he took his time to double check everything, reviewed everything in his mind, before starting to activate the formation.

    The first step was to activate the grenades and then channel the resulting spirit power towards the other subsidiary formation. This was a step he did before, and so he didn''t take much time in doing it.

    Then it came down to the most important part. William guided the insane amount of spirit power and channelled it into spiral shaped paths. He made sure to do it this way so the gush of the spirit power wouldn''t explode the toxin and ruin it.

    Once the spirit power touched the barrels, a second wave of explosion urred. This time it was much fiercer, and William already felt the pressure.

    But he controlled the entire formation fast. Right now, there was enough spirit power to detonate at least an area of tens of kilometres, killing everything and everyone in it.

    William was doing his best to channel the new energy into other sets of spiral shaped smaller formations. These directed the spirit power outwards, releasing with it the modified berserk toxin and spreading it in the air.

    As this happened, the first formation already intensified, releasing a mid-stage spirit power in the air. Spirit power rose in torrents and got mixed with the other wave of spirit power and toxining out from the second formation.

    William took a few hours to control the grand formation and stabilise it. And once he got freed from doing this, he found out that he miscalcted a tiny detail.

    "The spirit power rose in the air, forming pirs¡­ This won''t do¡­" William thought about everything but forgot about the driving force for this spirit power and toxin.

    He thought that nature would handle everything for him, a thing that didn''t happen. Or to be more precise, it happened but at a much slower rate than needed.

    So, before he''d start activating the third formation, he started to make simple arrays. They were able to gather up fierce gales of wind, directing these towards three different directions.

    William made enough to take the spirit power and the toxin into the other three sides of this zone. As he did that, he finally saw the dense spirit power and toxin moving inside, heading towards the right destination.

    "Acho!" "Acho!" Acho!"

    He was about to go and control the third formation when he heard sneezing soundsing from different directions. The toxin worked fast, and with the thick and dense spirit power that stagnated for a long time here, the masters around started to break free from the hallucination.

    "That''s great¡­ But¡­" They got freed, but they went into a frenzy the next moment. It was weird, as they started fighting each other like they were dealing with their deadliest enemies.

    "At least they aren''t using anything but weapons and not activating their spirit power¡­" William was about toe up with a calming formation or something when he noticed this strange note.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The masters were crazily fighting each other, but they weren''t actually fighting with all their might. They only used the weapons they held in their hands, didn''t even stir up their spirit power or used any techniques at all.

    That made the entire situation much safer than what he feared the most. And as things turned out this way, he turned to thest formation.

    Once stood in the middle of this formation, he took lots of elixir bottles, even took out a wooden table and ced all of these over it.

    He removed the lids, and then gulped one bottle.

    This formation worked by spreading his newly developed spirit sense to cover up the entire region. Then using it, he''d try to form a grand wall using the blue ores surrounding this region.

    But to do it, he had to exhaust tons of spirit power in the early stages, besides using his full concentration to do it. So he prepared enough elixirs, even removed their lid covers to make it easier and faster to drink.

    "Let''s do it!" as he kept hearing sneezing sounds increasing nonstop, he activated the third formation and released his spirit sense.

    This was the first time for him to use such a god sent ability. The spirit sense felt like he released part of his spirit and awareness to roam around a fixed area of space.

    He could focus on anything he wanted, see and hear everything clearly like he was standing right there. It was a marvellous feeling, one that he enjoyed before in his past life.

    As he was experienced and used to this ability, he didn''t waste any time appreciating it. He started to link the formation with his senses, before releasing his spirit power into the formation.

    The formation worked like a generator, working to magnify and amplify his spirit sense. Once the formation got activated, his spirit sense started to expand and cover further distances.

    But this onlysted for a few minutes. Then he experienced weird weakness and dizziness. Without even asking about it, he moved his hand and emptied another elixir bottle content into his mouth.

    Once the fluid ran into his throat, he felt much better. Then the spirit sense that stopped expanding before returned to expand again.

    William experienced this in repeated cycles with few minutes as intervals in between them. After two hours, and after consuming tens of elixirs, he finally arrived at the edges of this area.

    Once he reached there, he felt like his spirit sense got absorbed madly like a water touching sponge. He didn''t hesitate and gulped ten elixir bottles next, but it didn''t suffice the insane amount of consumption he suffered.

    "Damn! It took me fifty bottles to barely resist it!" William was shocked when he realised this. He thought it''d be enough to consume just ten up to twenty bottles of elixirs. But in the end, it took him much more than that.

 Chapter 686 What The Hell Is That Thing Doing Here?!!!

    ?

    The end result was quite satisfying. He finally spread his sense over the entire region, connected it with the blue ores lining three sides.

    "Time to establish the connection," William then did something simple. He linked the far away blue ores with the formation here, before regting things over. He made sure not a single spirit power would pass through, and then he was about to withdraw his spirit sense when he noticed something.

    "I can scan the entire region and look for that damn ce first," he was too focused on the task to notice anything else. But as he got freed from this, he finally got the time to check over the entire region.

    It was a simple task actually, as his spirit sense was covering up everything. But soon enough, he couldn''t help but freeze in his spot.

    "What the hell is that?!!!"

    He expected to see that academy, and yet what he found was something different. "Isn''t it¡­ What the hell is it doing here?!!!" William had to recheck this weird thing over and over until he made sure it wasn''t a hallucination or something.

    William checked that thing for over an hour, and in the end, he couldn''t help but link it to something he met before.

    "I can''t believe we are fated to meet here again¡­ This time I''m in the gold grade and I can make use of you¡­ But¡­" William was hesitant about his desire. He knew it was a good chance, if used at the right time.

    "I better leave you alone for now," he finally shifted his attention away, turning to look for the academy. And he found it!

    "Hmm¡­ Surrounding it with a diamond shaped array, not only one, but twelve in total¡­ That''s aplicated pattern, enough to be equal to a grand formation¡­ But what''s its use then?"

    William saw the academy. It wasn''t that hard to spot actually. It was surrounded with a big dome of some sort of material, shielding anything lying within.

    This was quite different from all the reports that came about the academy. And William knew that monster must have activated this defensive thing once it met up with him.

    But that wasn''t the issue, theplicated pattern of formations surrounding it was. They were diamond shaped, surrounding the academy, and interacting with each other.

    Twelve diamond shaped huge arrays, formed of different ores and materials, were there waiting for Wiliam toe closer or step into it.

    He knew these must be some sort of offensive and deadly arrays, working together to form a grand formation or something.

    William was sure that the Nightmare monster wouldn''t lean towards defence. It didn''t care at all about any of the buildings or anything here. So, losing them wouldn''t matter.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "If I guessed it right, then this academy is worth nothing. Even tearing it down and destroying it down to thest brick won''t help at all. This grand formation is a different story¡­"

    William then took a wide gaze around, confirming everyone''s location of the leaders of the grand army and his friends. Once he did all this, he stopped using his spirit sense and looked around.

    He was gone for hours, and during which the masters finally finished fighting among each other. Many stood around William''s formations, seemingly curious about what he was doing here. Others stood with each other, chatting among themselves, speaking about what just happened.

    Thetter looked more puzzled about what they just experienced, while the former seemed to go over their shock. And that was expected, after all the ones who were curious about William''s formations were high grade masters.

    Once William broke free from what he was doing, and he spotted the four leaders he came here with, alongside many of their trusted and capable subordinates.

    Seeing this scene made William''s hope rise to a new level. Each one of these four got grenades in his rings enough to power up a single grand array. With their collection, adding more spirit power generating formations was feasible.

    William spoke with these leaders for half an hour, exining everything they didn''t get. After exining everything for them, they handed over their grenades, with lots of materials and ores as well to be used in the formations.

    Not only that, but they also asked to join him in the uing crusade. But William refused. He told them about the tight dangerous looking grand formation waiting for them around the academy. Not to mention he believed this wasn''t everything rted to this ce.

    He urged them to withdraw, but then it came down to the problem of which path was safe. William didn''t exin how he knew about all this, didn''t even respond to any question regarding the presence of just one safe path out of here.

    The leaders suggested sending masters in different directions, following them using their spirit senses. William didn''t object on that, and as they started doing this n, William tried to contact everyone else.

    "It seemed the toxin hadn''t reached them yet," he got no answer from them. Thest time he checked using his spirit sense, they were standing like living statues, frozen in ce. He then turned over making up more formations, while the four masters did their task.

    William waited patiently for four more hours, while checking over everything and everyone using Bullets and his expanded spirit sense using that formation.

    Things were looking good, all except for the fact that no one else got freed yet from this curse. At the same time, more news started toe from the four leaders.

    They sent hundreds of masters to test the paths to the outside. And weirdly enough, these masters kept running normally until they reached the edge of this region. Then out of the blue they stopped moving, fell to the ground with twitching bodies like having seizures, ending up dead.

    It was scary indeed, especially when what took the lives of these masters wasn''t known or noticed by these four masters or others. William listened to what they said, and didn''t say a thing.

 Chapter 687 Getting Entrapped With Deadly Toxin

    ?

    William knew not everything in the world could be detected using spirit sense. And from the look of it, it seemed like there was a toxin spreading in the air, lining up the region here and preventing anyone from escaping.

    "If that''s the case¡­ Then where will be the right path out?" William got more puzzled when he thought about all of this.

    If it was some sort of nasty toxin, then it was safe to assume that it spread all over the region, tightly surrounding it, suffocating all the masters inside.

    William stood in his ce for hours, checking the entire region using his spirit sense. Aside from the domed academy, the weird thing he found before, the city and his guild forces who stood motionless all this time, there was nothing worthy of mention except for tons of dark masters.

    The Nightmare monster was cruel and didn''t spare a single one of them from this hallucination. They stood the same as the normal masters, not moving a muscle for a long time.

    William knew that his way to wake up his people wasn''t going to differentiate between a dark or a normal master. But he didn''t care about any of that.

    Right now, he was trying to see what he missed. The ck fox spoke about a single way out, and right now William couldn''t see any way out from here.

    Thinking about it didn''t help at all. William decided to spread the puzzlement over others when they got awakened.

    For now, he just needed to wait for them to wake up. And during this time, he kept making new formations using high sources of spirit power treasures given to him by the four leaders.

    The leader of any seasoned and old force or family wasn''t someone to be underestimated. William got to see this fact when he saw the lots of treasures brought up by these four.

    Using these things, he managed to make twenty more formations. He didn''t just make spirit power generation ones, and also made five more of the toxin spreading formations.

    These four also got their share from the toxin, and that helped in adding more resources for William to use.

    After ten more hours, and with the help of all these formations, effects started to appear atst.

    William saw using his spirit sense the early signs of masters waking up. It first happened to the close by forces at the two sides near here. Then it spread over to cover the spread-out dark masters in the entire area, before finally arriving at thest border zone.

    The masters, be it normal or dark ones, once awakened started to attack each other in frenzy. William gave them five hours before he finally heard voices he missed for a long time.

    "Just calm down," William held many Bullets right now in both hands, speaking directly towards many leaders and his friends, "this is what happened¡­"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He started to tell them the details of what happened and didn''t forget to add the puzzlement at the end of his long speech, "... Like this we are entrapped here, can''t advance, and can''t retreat. We need to first test the use of the portals. If it works, then we''ll risk crossing the area and distribute more portals to the other sides. But if it fails, then we have to solve this problem¡­"

    [Why do I feel like you don''t trust my family''s portals will work?] Lara said in doubt, before adding, [Let me try. I can''t believe anything can stop my portals!]

    She guessed it right, William had little hope in her portals to work. But he still held a faint glimmer of hope that it might work.

    But if the enemy took all this time and trouble to make sure they wouldn''t leave, and with the hidden hints from the ck fox, William didn''t believe that would happen.

    And soon enough, Lara returned with bad news.

    [The moment I sat a portal core on the ground, something stirred up and the sky dimmed and changed. Then a thick bolt of lightning descended and fried that core into nothing! How the hell did that happen?]

    "I frankly don''t know," William knew she needed a good hug right now rather than reasonable discussion andplicated exnation.

    He knew what caused such an effect, another formation that came from the outer world. It was meant to not seal space but keep it tight and intact. Once anything tried to stir space up or affect it, then this formation would move and work to fry it down using lightning.

    Nothing could stop it but a group of formations that William knew about but couldn''t do right now. It was the issue ofcking materials, besides there was no point in doing this. William was sure once they solved this mystery, another one would pop up and foil their attempts to leave using portals.

    "Let''s think then about how to get out from here," William directed their attention towards solving this problem, "we tried sending people out at our side and failed. So, try the same at your side and let''s share the results."

    [How about we dig tunnels underground?] Stark paused, [We got lots of bases that we cleared, and all of them are built underground]

    "Ok, let''s try this as well, let''s try everything¡­" William paused before asking, "by the way, how is Zin doing? I didn''t receive anything from him."

    [He and a few of the pinnacle grade masters are still in that weird status] one of the leaders said, and that made William sigh.

    "Surround them with defensive and entrapping arrays then," thest thing he''d want to see was for these scary folks to go berserk and kill everyone around, "and make sure to pull enough and safe distance from them."

    This was what William could do for now. As for the formations he made here, he already told others about the right way to make them.

 Chapter 688 Lets Hope To Grow Wings And Fly!

    ?

    The entire grand army sprung to do different missions at the same time. Few started to build many formations, many tried to dig tunnels, while few went out there to test out their luck.

    William didn''t wait for long to get the same news he expected. All of the people who went outside suffered the same ugly fate as the ones sent from his side. Not a single one of them survived, not a single one of them passed a single step beyond the same point.

    [So we are trapped inside? Why won''t we go deeper and attack the academy then?] Lara was feeling furious and impatient. She came here while feeling supreme by her family''s portal cores. And yet these cores proved to be worthless for unknown reasons to her.

    The sight of lightning falling over the portal core and ruining it was still lingering in her mind. She didn''t like it here and wanted to get done from this dark academy as soon as possible.

    "We can''t risk doing this," William listened to more supportive opinions to Lara''sing from many leaders, and yet he refused to listen to them, "this is just a clear sign that inside this ce is far more dangerous than that trap. We shall focus on finding a way to get out of here."

    [We are now digging tunnels] Stark said, [But we found a weirdyer that proved challenging to our masters]

    "For real? Tell me more about it¡­"

    [It''s like a solid thickyer of ck substance, extending all down there. I got reports from other sides of the presence of the same substance. The problem isn''t just about it being sturdy and hard to crack, but the weird phenomenon it showed when met with any spirit power]

    "What happened?" William got his interest piqued by such news.

    [It sounds like the substance can repel spirit power, as if it''s antagonising it or something¡­]

    "Oh, let me try and see it first," William didn''t hurry to jump to conclusions before seeing this thing by himself. So, he looked for the digging teams on his side, and looked for the holes they dug.

    The teams didn''t dig just small tunnels, they unearthedrge parts of the ground, enough to exceed a half kilometre in diameter. William could see lots of lights spread all over the deep holes there.

    These lights came from many candles and ores that emitted light. They were thrown down there by the digging teams. And under such light, he could see a ck thing at the bottom, one that looked like it could absorb and kill any light touching it.

    It looked gloomy and ugly, quite threatening actually. William looked in a serious way towards this ckness, tried to see things clearly using his spirit sense.

    "Ouch!" the moment he tried to do that, he felt a stabbing pain in his head, like he just got hit with a sword or something. He staggered a few steps to the back. And when he regained control of his body, he found himself lying on the ground, vomiting weird ck blood.

    If he had a mirror right now, then he''d see his face turning ashen white. "Damn! This is the ck Death Vapour! Howe such a nasty thing exists here?!!!" William wasn''t that surprised to see something from the outer world like when he recognised this substance.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He knew such evil substances. It wasn''t immune to spirit power; it was in fact hungry for it. It acted like a ck hole, a ma that would suck any spirit powering in contact with it dry.

    When William spread his spirit sense over, touching this vapour, he ended up suffering a bacsh out of his spirit power depletion.

    He hurriedly took a potion and gulped lots of drops from it. When he got done with the third potion, he felt much better. "If this substance got released out, like a volcano erupting itsva, then we are doomed!"

    William now realised this ce was indeed a deadly trap, going inside was suicidal. He also got why the ck fox warned him in a hidden way against keeping the grand army here.

    Keeping ten percent alive? If he was lucky, he''d escape with little of this immense force if they followed their initial n.

    "To make this substance, one had to use a thick power of death¡­ How many innocent souls did that bastard kill to get this thing to appear here?"

    William knew many things about this vapour, including how to make it. He also knew its deadly effects, how to counter it.

    "I have to ry the news to others," William knew that trying to dig tunnels now to get out wouldn''t work. Walking outside wasn''t an option, and digging the ground was now impossible. He felt helpless, the same way others felt.

    [So¡­ We have no other option then but to wait here?] one of the leaders asked. And William couldn''t help but sigh and said nothing.

    [Let''s hope to grow wings and fly then, that will be a greater way to die rather than rotting here] another one joked, but his simplement turned on something in William''s mind.

    "Berry, do we still have those big war gears? The catapults?" William suddenly asked out of the blue, and no one guessed what he was truly thinking about.

    [I collected them after thest war] Berry responded in hesitance, [They didn''t suffer any damage, but why? Do you want to bombard that dark academy from afar?]

    [That would be a nice touch] Lara and other leaders mistook what William wanted to do. But his guild vices knew he wasn''t the type to crack jokes in such hard times.

    In fact, he got a glimpse of a crazy idea, one that could save them.

    "That damn fox¡­ He said there is one side out from here, and it was right in what it said. But¡­ Won''t it have been nicer if he just added a little extra hint here or what?" William shook his head while thinking about the ck fox.

 Chapter 689 Lets Fly Then!

    ?

    "Are there any artisans with us?" William didn''t answer her or anyone and asked another question out of the blue.

    Others might get confused, but his guild vices weren''t. These old friends of his knew exactly what this was like, how acting this weird meant.

    It was something that William constantly showed when he ever got a crazy idea to do. And that made them have hope reignited inside their hearts.

    [We didn''t bring anyone, but we have lots of masters who know a thing or two about forging] Stark paused, [But why? Do you want to build something?]

    "I want to make catapults, the more the merrier," William didn''t exin much, "spread the word, anyone who knows how to forge must be gathered around. Also gather all of the flexible natured ores, and lots of special wood as well."

    [Are we going to hit that academy from far away? That won''t do!] one of the leaders said, and hisment got the approval of many, [the maximum reach of any catapult is ten kilometre at most. And that academy lies tens of kilometres away from any side. We can''t do it from here!]

    "We won''t throw hits at the academy," William smiled, "we are going to fly."

    [...]

    Weird silence prevailed, as no one could understand how William''s mind worked. Thetter didn''t mind that, as he knew this idea was crazy, but it was also feasible.

    There was a certain risk in doing it, but that didn''t matter. "Gather up all the wind-based masters, provide them with enough potions to replenish their spirit power for ten times at least. And let me know when you gather everyone."

    William left everyone to do what he asked for. Despite being puzzled with what he asked them to do, they had no other choice in front of themselves but to do it.

    [Are we really going to fly?!!] as the leaders went to do what he asked for, Lara couldn''t help but ask in doubt.

    [Don''t try to understand him] Sara sighed, [He is always like this,ing up with all the crazy ideas]

    "Yet I always execute them, right?" Williamughed when he heard what Sara said.

    [That''s what makes it worthy to follow you] Lang said it as if it was something bad to follow William on normal days or something.

    "Let''s just hope it will work," William paused before adding, "while everyone is going their part, I need you to send people to test the outside again."

    [Again?!] this time, most of his friends eximed in bewilderment.

    "I didn''t finish my words," Williamughed, "I want to test how far exactly that toxin lies. Send people over and keep tracking them carefully. Make them stop before the ces others fell dead at and try to assume how far it is from your ces."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Ok¡­] they got what William wanted to do. He wanted to assess the distance between them and danger. William couldn''t tell how truly thick this toxicyer was. But at least he''d give it a breadth of a couple kilometres or something.

    Knowing the distance roughly would help in deciding what he should do next. He nned to modify the current design of catapults, add more strings here and there, and add more to its throwing range.

    The leaders were right before, the maximum range of catapults was at ten kilometres at best. But with a few tweaks here and there, modifying the general design, these war machines wouldn''t just throw things further away, they''d also send a muchrger cargo as well.

    "I need to think of a way to throw more people with each round¡­" William wanted to send the army outside as fast as possible. He didn''t like being here with all of them, didn''t like having such dead weight on his shoulders.

    The moment he''d send them all away, he''d be finally freed.

    William stood on the ground, held his sword and started drawing on the ground. No one came near him, but many watched him using their spirit sense.

    William was drawingplicated blueprints of different designs of the catapults, in addition to something else.

    Watching him didn''t help any of them to get what he was doing. William was drawing things over, then covered the drawings again with dirt before redrawing again.

    He kept going on like this for hours. During which, he contacted Ibra, Sara, Berry, and Lara from time to time to check on the progress of different tasks.

    The ones the guild vices sent managed to assess the distance towards the toxin area. The distance was from six up to eighth kilometres from all sides. And that meant he had to make catapults able to throw people for distances beyond twelve kilometres just to be safe.

    William didn''t believe the monster thought about such a way out when it nned everything here. Masters flying in the air wasn''t something that anyone could do. It was something only existing in the outer world, not here.

    They gathered up lots of masters who knew a thing or two about forging. William didn''t reach the final design of his catapults, so he had to put them on hold while thinking about the right way to do it.

    "Just depending on the expulsive power of the catapults won''t be safe¡­ It''s better to add something else to ensure more masters will get out safely from here¡­"

    He wiped out what he was drawing and started to make something that looked like a cloak or something. He took roughly one hour to refine his idea into something easy to be done, without the need of lots of materials, experienced artisans, or lots of time.

    "Here is what you are going to do. First gather up all the cloaks anyone had, enough to cover the needs of everyone here. Then¡­"

    William started to ry his orders and stressed over the need to do this task fast during the next few hours. He then returned to modify the designs of the catapults, while others started working on his idea.

 Chapter 690 The Wrathers!!!

    ?

    William got lots of questions regarding the first design he made yet ended up not answering any. His mind was busy thinking about the right design to make the catapults show something beyond their abilities.

    "If I have enough materials from the outer world, then doing this won''t have been a headache¡­ But at least this is better than nothing¡­"

    William knew he did his best in the past five hours, thinking about a new design and finally made it. He then took a few scrolls out and copied the content there before starting to walk everyone through the designs and how to draw and make them.

    He made three different designs, one for a catapult, one for a grand boat, and thest was something looking like an explosive gear or something.

    William didn''t have any other means but to describe everything to his friends and the leaders of different forces. Luckily, there were few who had interest in forging, and that helped a lot in saving lots of trouble for him.

    [I have to admit, it''s quiteplicated] one of the leaders who was interested in forging said, [Are you sure we can make it?]

    "Let''s hope so," William paused before stressing over this point, "it''s our only way out from here."

    [We need to first test things out] Stark said what others thought about, [Why not use the current catapults and see? We can push one towards the safe zone and try things out]

    The safe zone was a term that appeared to talk about the area before the border of the toxic zone.

    "We can try it out, but something told me something bad will happen if we did that," William already thought of such a possibility. And if that monster depended entirely on the toxic area to stop them, it was possible that heid more traps at the safe area, "don''t get too near there, and just try throwing out a single person to the outside. Follow him using spirit sense, and let''s hope for the best."

    William and others knew if this could be done, then it''d save them lots of effort. Without the need to ask, the explosive thing was done to add more power to expel masters for a longer distance.

    If they managed to cross even half of this distance and establish catapults there, then things would end up fine. But that was something that William didn''t believe it''d happen.

    Soon enough his worries proved right. The side which got the catapults was the one with his guild members. They sent a group of masters to guard the catapult, and a master with the wind element was supposed to try this out.

    Yet just as they went halfway, something seemed to get triggered.

    [Monsters!]

    News spread fast among everyone in the higher up circle. William listened to the reportsing from his guild vices at first.

    Then things started to grow worse when other sides also spoke about the appearance of such monsters.

    ording to their words, these monsters were quite weird. They looked like deformed versions of monsters, with pale skin, no eyes, huge, elongated mouths, and lots of sharp saw-like teeth. They were walking on four, with limbs that looked thin and twisted, not looking normal at all.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William heard such a description and couldn''t help but have his heart skip a beat.

    "Use fire! Surround the entire area with fire," William instantly shouted, "all the fire-based masters will move out, keep the fire raging and don''t even let these monsterse near anyone."

    [Do you know what these weird things are?] Stark was puzzled like everyone else, and William did indeed know these monsters.

    "They are the Wrathers, very hard to deal with, very brutal in fighting. And more importantly, they got the ability to turn anyone they hurt into a puppet working under them for a fixed period of time. No one is immune to them, not even those at the pinnacle of power."

    [This¡­]

    "Just line our forces up, let the weakest masters be at the forefront. If the worst happens and they get controlled, we can handle them with ease at least."

    William doubted before that the Nightmare monster killed tons of lives to establish that unbreakable vapouryer down below. And now he was sure of this.

    These Wrathers were something that would appear at the deadliest battlefields, where tons of lives were exhausted. When using the right method, and by applying some sort of dark formations, the darkness would collect all the spirits dying in a spot, gathering them to form such deformed creatures.

    They weren''t living things to begin with, so they couldn''t be killed. They were just a weird manifestation of the abnormality of nature, working on something that wasn''t clearly understood by masters even in the outer world, even by the ones executing these weird methods.

    How could anyone fight anything that couldn''t be killed, wasn''t alive? The only way to handle these things was by using purification methods. Fire andva were the best, light and lightning also worked better.

    As thest two elements were quite rare, and the Lava element was considered quite special as well, William asked for fire-based masters to intervene there.

    [I''ll lead such a force on my side] Berry was a fire-based master, a special one on top of that. In such stressful moments, and when his vices recognised the anxiety in William''s actions, she decided to step in and help.

    [Me too!]

    [I''ll lead my side!]

    [I''ll also do the same!]

    Others started to speak up their minds, and William didn''t object to such grand help. But he had to make things clear first. "It''s ok to help in stopping them, but we need to focus on producing the gears I told you about as fast as possible. Again, this is our only way out from here."

    Everyone now believed what he said earlier. Of course, if they tested things out, then it''d have been better. But now they had to ce their faith in the sess of this n.

 Chapter 691 It Works!

    ?

    William''s side also got attacked by these monsters. Fire based masters were now working like crazy, while wind-based masters also stepped up to help.

    Things were growing serious now. William knew how ferocious these Wrathers were. And it was expected how fierce they even handled fire.

    William spread further instructions to add depth to the sea of fire, even using the leftover grenades to add more to it.

    His sidecked such extravagant strategic weapons. So, he simply had to look for any light, lightning, andva masters and send them to help as well.

    It was rare indeed to find such masters, but he still found a few who formed two hundred master team and went out there to help.

    After struggling for a few hours, and with the retreat of a few kilometres to the inside, things finally started to look much better.

    Masters here got to see how scary these Wrathers were when they managed to break through theyer of fire at the early hour. They lost thousands of good masters thanks to that, as those who got wounded were controlled, moving out like puppets and attacking everyone around.

    In the end stronger masters had to step in and kill everyone. This resulted in such losses, which was quite good in William''s eyes.

    If they didn''t see how savage these monsters were, how truly dangerous they were, then they''d not take these monsters seriously at all.

    Right now, all the four sides were lined up with ayer of deadly toxin, and then ayer of deadly fire. In between the Wrathers stood and tried to get to the masters.

    At the same time, artisans were trying to make the things William designed. Thetter knew they''d take time before seeding, but he wanted just one advanced catapult with other gears to test this n out.

    His waitsted for twelve more hours. During which those Wrathers never stoppeding as if they got no end to them. Masters didn''t like such a situation, where they had to stand idle and watch fire and other elements eat away these weird creatures.

    But when they recalled the bitter experience they witnessed, they knew how lucky they were to have such a way to handle these things without the need to directly sh with them.

    William rested for a while, and then he kept following the progress of everything. The first catapult to be made was one at his guild''s side. After all, there were around a few hundred ready catapults there, and they just needed to modify parts using William''s guidance.

    "Let''s start testing it out then," William was eager to know the result of all his novel ideas more than anyone else. So once one catapult was made, he gave the green light to his guild members to start testing things out.

    The other two designs were executed perfectly fine. They were quite simple and didn''t need much work or anything.

    [How many are we going to send?] Ibra asked, [I''d say a hundred]<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [We need to send many out there, but in different directions] Stark said, [We need to test how safe it is at different ces, not just one]

    "I agree," William paused, "make sure to send wind-based masters, and let them use hovering tornado techniques when they are in midair. If they have any technique to add more speed to them, then they should also use them."

    [Then we should send dark gold masters] a leader said, [They are the most capable ones to handle things in difficult situations like¡­ Flying]

    "Do we have such masters there?" William knew finding such masters in any side other than the one with his guild members would be easy. And against what he expected, there were enough masters to try this way out.

    "Let''s do it," William gave the signal, and then his vices and the few leaders with them started to test things out.

    The new catapult had a weird, shaped boat instead of the normal like piece to throw things away. It wasn''t made entirely out of wood; it had an outeryer of ores that made it hard to crack whennding.

    The inner part of it had a soft cushion piece, one that was enough to absorb any hard impact without harming anyone inside.

    As for the cloak, it was filled with long and thin pieces of ores. They got knuckle-like pieces, able to be bent and not break. William devised this to act as crude wings, something to help masters thrown in the air to hover for longer distances and fly without exerting much effort.

    He just gathered up ideas, innovations, and even rumours from the outer world toe up with all this. And now it was the truth time.

    William anxiously waited for the good news. His wait didn''tst longer than half an hour before news was sent back to him.

    [It works!] It was Ibra who said it. William already asked dark gold masters to spread their senses and try to follow the ones flying outside, [We tried at ten different directions so far, one already seeded innding safely. There are no dangers out there, and everything looked fine]

    "Yes!" William was excited about such great news, "how about others? Keep tracking them and return back to me," William then held the many Bullets of this grand army leaders and spread the news.

    Their response wasn''t any less than his. And eventually they got all hyped about making these catapults. Even many asked to try out their luck, see if they got the talent of forging or not.

    William didn''t stop anyone. At these moments, it was better to let everyone''s excitement soar and thrive, instead of killing it using logic and reason.

    In the next hour, more news came. All of the ten attempts seeded, and right now they were trying to test different directions with limited distance, to see what distance they got in the end to cover.

 Chapter 692 Making Catapults

    ?

    At the same time, William asked them to try sending more masters, ones without wind element, weaker grade ones, and such things. He wanted to test all the variables about this way out, so others would be ready to face any unexpected situation.

    The distance they tested made it clear that the toxicyer expanded over five kilometres only. This was a bit bigger than what William thought before, but it was still doable using the new catapult.

    During the next day, everyone was working with hope zing in their chests. As long as there was hope, then masters were able to do anything to see it through.

    William kept hearing more reports about the sess of making catapults at different sides. And since then, things started to head for the better.

    They all tested it, and all sides were able to get over the toxin region safely. The only issue now was in the limited capacity of these catapults.

    When the guild members tried to send hundreds of masters before, the ability to throw them over the toxin region seemed impossible. But then the explosive device William used showed its worth.

    The core of these things were the scarlet ores. They were explosive enough to be used instead of grenades. Not to mention they didn''t need any processing orplicated preparations or something.

    Using such a help aided in making them pass through. But it was clear the limitation of these catapults to everyone. The number of masters here was in the hundreds of thousands. And trying to get them out like this seemed to take ages.

    William then asked for masters to try out his modified cloak creation. When they tried it out, they found to their surprise that they could cross a distance of an entire five up to ten kilometres if they used wind techniques to help.

    This came as great news, but thending was quite rough and few who tested this way ended up getting injured. Yet it wasn''t a big problem.

    [... So, it''s better if we made much bigger boats, sending thousands in one batch. Then midway, they will use the cloaks to make up for the distance¡­] Stark briefed what everyone kept discussing for an hour or so, [As for the injuries, they can use healing potions just beforending to help in minimising the risks]

    "How many catapults have we made so far?" William knew this was going to work, provided that there were enough catapults out there, "and don''t forget, we can''t just throw people over at the same spot. If we did, then things would turn ugly, and many willnd over each other."

    [We got around a hundred so far] Lara paused, [And we calcted and tested. We can move the catapults in their ces, slightly changing thending point of everyone. We got long distance to cover, and that will turn few metres adjustment at our ce end up in a kilometre or so at the other end]

    "Cool," William took in a deep breath, "let''s start getting our people out."

    [But¡­] Lara paused and didn''t know how to express what she was thinking about.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [How about you?] But if she was acting this hesitant, Ro wasn''t. Soon enough, all of the vices expressed their desire to remain behind with him, especially Berry.

    "Easy there, who said I''m going alone in such cursed ce?" Williamughed, "first of all I had no mind to deal with all these Wrathers here. And I''m sure more deadly traps will appearter on. So, give me few hours, and I''ll select those who can help me in the next battle, and they''ll remain behind."

    William''s wordsnded and everyone in his vices hoped to remain with him. Alongside them, Lara also wanted to remain behind.

    William was quite busy thinking about everything to get out of here, and so he didn''t have enough time nor mind to think about the uing sh against the dark academy.

    As things ended up quite fine, he started to think about what that monster was preparing for him out there.

    The first and foremost most dangerous threat was that vapour. If unleashed, things would grow quite ugly. And then it came down to the Wrathers which would flood the entire region once the masters retreated from here.

    William thought before to let the masters keep lots of their forces behind to help in containing these creatures. But when he thought about how the entire ce was arranged, he knew the possibility of Wrathers appearing in the middle of the region was quite high.

    "This monster killed tons of lives to secure a good spot for such monsters to get formed. In addition to that, it also formed that vapour using the same way. That means it''s safe to assume the rest of the traps waiting for me inside are rted to such an unknown area¡­"

    William started to get a headache about that. He knew this was a good idea, but that also meant there were ways he''d not be familiar with, techniques he knew little about that this monster could use.

    The exnation for how this monster knew all this was simple¡­ It was part of the nine-tailed fox spirit, and it seemed it got ess to the old memories of that scary monster.

    As for why it selected such a way to handle William, it was for different reasons. Such a turf was indeed unknown to most if not all masters, and William would have little chance in antagonising these traps.

    The second reason was theck of the necessary materials if that monster decided to use other ways and traps. Even if it looked cruel, William knew that monster wouldn''t flinch to do it.

    "I have to think about the entire ce and see if there are clues here and there¡­" William returned to one of the first three grand formations he created.

    Once he stood in the middle of a formation, he spread out his spirit sense and started to see the entire area as if he was a god or something.

 Chapter 693 We Need To Send More Masters

    ?

    This time the entire ce changed. It didn''t look as empty as before. There was the Wrather, lots of masters working to finalise the catapults and make them ready to use, and then there were the dark masters.

    William totally forgot about them during all this. Actually, all of the masters forgot about them.

    William''s method to wake up everyone affected those dark masters as well. They got awakened like other masters, and then they started to regroup and meet up around the academy.

    They didn''t try to attack the grand master army, didn''t try to do anything else but retreat towards the academy and get stationed there. William thought they''d have ess to the inside of the academy, but they didn''t.

    They just gathered there and started arranging their lines. They were expecting a grand battle, and that was what William intended to give them.

    "But they have lots of masters on their side, assumingly they have lots of dark gold masters as well¡­ I have to ask for a few of the dark gold masters to join me¡­"

    William then shifted his eyes around, trying to see anything unusual or unique.

    As he knew what his enemy built this ce upon, he had a better time looking for clues. And he indeed found a few scattered and hidden carefully all over the area.

    Aside from the weird thing he noticed before, there were many engravings on the ground, things that were hard to notice at first. But as he got a clue about what the general n of that monster was, he could easily find lots of marks.

    He saw lots of spiral shaped faint grooves on the ground. From the first look, anyone would mistake these to be part of the general terrain in the area. But that wasn''t true.

    The terrain around it was t without any sign of having any grooves or valleys around. At the same time, he could see the slight difference in colour between these shapes and the area around.

    It looked as if these shapes were darker in colour. When William looked closer, he could see the ckness mixed with the brown of the ground, which gave the dark impression of this area.

    "Spiral loops of death¡­ It''s a nasty technique indeed¡­" William wouldn''t link these spiral shapes easily like that if not for knowing what that monster did to the entire region.

    This technique was quite deadly and hard to counter against if no one got what it was. Aside from these shapes, William also found other shapes that were hidden under piles of dirt.

    It didn''t look like hills, but like heaps of dirt. When William searched for anything weird, he found this ce standing out among others.

    These little hills didn''t look weird at first, but when he noticed how they had sharp and clear edges, lining up and forming diamond shapes, he knew these weren''t normal.

    "The Diamond Spark of Death¡­ Another nasty technique¡­" William started to notice fine details that he missed easily before and recognised the techniques behind these. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    With each technique noted, a way to counter it appeared in his mind. A long list of things he needed to do started to pile up, and soon enough he finished scanning the entire area more than ten times.

    He took around eight hours while doing this. And once done, he got out from the formation and then stood alone for another few hours.

    He knew dealing with these techniques and traps wasn''t hard if he was in the outer world, but he wasn''t. Theck of many materials made him unable to execute many of the easy countermeasures. But that didn''t stop him.

    He started to think about suitable substitutes of materials in this world for the ones hecked. The main way to counter these traps was by using arrays and formations. And that made things quite easier for him.

    To make an array or a formation only the needed material and the general design was the only things that would stop any master. When the two things were fulfilled, then it''d be easy to make any array and let it run.

    "As for those who are going to remain behind¡­ I need versatile masters with different techniques and elements to counter different situations¡­"

    The first names that popped in his mind were Thomas, Moore, Berry, Sara, and Ibra. Then his thoughts drifted towards Sith and hisndmine team. He also thought about Lara and would ask her to bring a team of capable guards with her.

    Hecked high end masters, and Lara got tons of these. Instead of just asking anyone from other forces, it was better for him to ask Lara instead.

    As he started to finalise the list of his team taking part in the assault against this academy, he started to think about this entire situation as a whole.

    It all started with the rumour spreading about a false fox master. Yet he now realised this wasn''t totally wrong information. That Nightmare monster had part of the nine tailed fox spirit. And that meant it must have a fox spirit.

    Yet William didn''t know if this spirit got tails or not. When he thought about the lots of preparations this monster did in the area, William couldn''t help but feel lucky.

    If things went normally per what this monster devised, then William would have been entrapped here with the little team of his. If that happened, then things would have grown ugly for him.

    If not for all the weird and unexpected things to happen back at the city, meeting Lara and getting into that internal conflict, finding the interworld portal and cing more attention upon that ce, he''d have been in a spot he couldn''t extricate himself out from.

    "Have you prepared everything?" William gave them half a day to finish making any catapult and arrange themselves.

    [We tested things and it worked!] Lara said with augh, [Right now we can send up to five thousand every time we use the catapults]

 Chapter 694 Evacuating Everyone

    ?

    "That''s good to hear," William paused, "now let''s start evacuating. As for the ones staying with me, I''ll need Ibra, Sara, Berry¡­"

    William started to tell the names he had in mind. The leaders of different forces had just a quota of a hundred members each if they wanted to, and all expressed their desire to help.

    William didn''t want to do things by himself. He decided to divide the remaining masters into two general teams, one led by himself, and the other was led by a force leader called Nonoa.

    The team led by William was formed of his guild vices, Lara, and her personal guards. She selected one hundred masters like others, and the other force got thousands of masters.

    William stressed that masters had to volunteer in this mission, so no one would be forced to stay behind against his will. He warned them of the dangers awaiting them in this region. And frankly he didn''t need to.

    Everyone knew about how dangerous it was to be here. As William ended the meeting by giving them permission to start the grand evacuation, he turned his full attention towards the interior of this region.

    He already agreed with others to form the two teams, but they weren''t together to begin with. He needed to move and join others first, and that meant he needed to cross tens of kilometres like others.

    Not to mention the two teams formed wouldn''t be together. His team would take the west direction while the other team woulde from the east.

    "I hope to not activate any trap before meeting up," William kept revising the ns he had in mind, recalling everything rted to the traps he found signs of. Then he started to speak about the different traps in the region and how to counter them.

    "... As I said, these are just the things I noticed and the traps with obvious marks on the ground. The formations I told you about can work a little against these traps, but I''m not that sure they can stop these traps fully¡­"

    William ended his words while saying these warnings. [Then if the formations you provided failed to stop everything, what shall we do?] a leader expressed his worries, [You said all these traps can''t be stopped or defended against, working directly at the spirit level. So does this mean we have no chance in defending against them?]

    "As my master used to say, if a single hammer didn''t work, then hammer it a ten," William paused before adding, "if one formation didn''t work, then use more. But you have to be quick witted and prepared for anything that might appear out of the things I said. Also remember the locations I mentioned before, and if you found anything unusual, just tell me about it."

    [Don''t worry about us, old bones won''t get easily crushed] Stark said amidst hisughs, [Just make sure to not slow down, or else you won''t get to the academy at the time we crush it]

    "Ok old man let''s see who is going to beat who to that ce," William didn''t reject such a little challenge, evenughed when saying his words.

    He knew thest few days were quite stressful for anyone. Be it intentional or not, it was good to have such a light thing in the middle of all this.

    [Old man? Fine! Let''s see who is going to beat who!]<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Stark was on a different side than Lara. and it seemed he decided to go with the other team.

    William ended the call before turning to check his rings. He already found substitutes for all the materials needed to build up these formations. He matched the most effects between the two worlds'' materials. And the missing effects he tried topensate by adding more materials in the mix.

    He knew by doing this the entire formation might grow unstable or be weaker. Yet it was better than leaving the array with missing effects, as this would ruin the entire array and set of materials without doing anything.

    William started to arrange things in his rings, take out piles of materials and ores, arrange them into different rings. He ended up having six different rings filled with materials needed to make six countermeasure arrays.

    He wore the six of them, so he''d be able to act fast in the situation needed.

    During all this, the world around was filled with lots of ruckus. William took roughly seven hours to go through part of his current possession, arrange the materials in different rings, before stopping what he was doing and checking the area around.

    Masters were already getting reformed into teams of five thousand. At the same time, thirteen catapults started to roar and throw people like crazy.

    It appeared like these catapults were giant hands tossing people to the far distance. When William watched, even with the rise of the number of masters using these machines, they managed to fly fast, fast enough to get out of his spirit sense coverage zone in a few minutes.

    Seeing how the masters were epting such weird ways out, even looking excited, made William smile.

    "It''s indeed our destiny to fly," he chuckled, looking around at the happy faces before adding, "we have craved flying since being in these little worlds¡­"

    He then took a few Bullets out and started to check on the development of the evacuation process at other sides.

    Everything was going ording to n. And to make things even smoother and safer, the leaders sent people with high spirit sense coverage, and kept speaking and arranging things over with them all the time.

    Like this, no risk of getting a batch of masters falling over another or something. And with the healing potions, and the spread of soft mattress and even turning the rocks into ayer of mud by the earth-based masters, the master losses were quite minimal.

    William was satisfied with all this.

 Chapter 695 Going Deep Into The Blue Hill Zone

    ?

    Then William checked over the formation of the two teams.

    Each leader spread the word, and lots of masters wanted to join the fray. Yet they waited for William to get thest word from him about this.

    "Having too many is going to be bad, let''s stick with one hundred masters per leader," unlike what they expected, William refused raising such a number.

    Thetter didn''t limit the number thanks to his worry over the masters'' rejection or something. William knew how masters were courageous and loved to defy any odds. And that wasn''t why he set the number to one hundred per leader.

    He did so as there was something that he didn''t find a trace of yet, a nasty formation that could divide an army into groups of a hundred or so. If there was a single master in the group who didn''t have any loyalty with the group, then things would grow bad for everyone.

    So he didn''t only stress over limiting the number of each leader group to one hundred, he even stressed that they''d move and work separately, without meddling with other leaders'' groups.

    Even William didn''t bring more than this number from all the guild members he had. He didn''t exin this to any of them, as this formation was quite nasty and also quite easy to counter.

    If the formation found no outsider in the group, it would pop in thin air, releasing a refreshing breeze that would make anyone feel cool and refreshed.

    As the countermeasure for this formation was already set, and there was no real sign of such formation being here, William decided against making thingsplicated for them.

    Yet he couldn''t help but sigh when he thought about all these mysterious techniques and formations used in y. He heard many theories about these things. Many suspected they worked on karma level, others thought they worked on a farplicated world force that no one knew yet.

    William didn''t have an opinion about any of that. He just hated dealing with things that couldn''t be understood like these. Luckily for him, and throughout the long course of the spirit masters in the outer world, countermeasures were set against most of these things.

    As everything was going as nned, William decided to rest and wait. Time passed fast, and soon enough the world around him got empty the more time passed.

    After a day, most of the masters here and on other sides were evacuated. Only fire and wind-based masters were left behind. They were going to leave at thest minute.

    The various leaders tried to persuade William to leave these masters behind, yet thetter didn''t agree. There was no point in keeping them behind. Not to mention there wasn''t enough force to protect their backs against any iing enemies.

    Thest argument was on the timing of sending them back. William wanted to send them right now, then move out and everyone would meet ording to the movement n devised by a group of leaders. But most of the leaders didn''t like this.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They wanted to leave the fire and wind masters back, advance and meet up first, then head towards the academy while they''d retreat on their own.

    William didn''t like this for different reasons. First of all, the risk was quite high. The masters had to evacuate at the same time, and that would risk for many Wrathers toe and kill them.

    Not to mention the catapults would all be lost. And William didn''t like this. Yet after a vote was done, the decision was made. This risky n got the green light.

    But it had a little modification. Half of the entire fire and wind masters were going to evacuate first. Then half of the catapults would be stored. After that the masters would march to meet each other before giving the signal for the remaining fire and wind masters to withdraw.

    William also asked that these masters had to volunteer to remain behind. After all, the risk of dying was too high. And he was surprised when he heard that most of the masters wanted to stay behind.

    It seemed thest stressful days reignited the deep hatred and rage towards the dark masters. Everyone didn''t know that this was the machinations of a single enemy, a monster wearing human skin. So, they all thought about dark masters, and got their hatred reach unprecedented levels.

    William got to shake his head. Even if their hatred and anger were directed to the wrong target, it was still quite good as it was against an enemy not a friend.

    William was now standing in front of a general map, the one he acquired before. There he marked paths which everyone agreed on to follow until they''d meet together.

    He had to get to the formation and revise the paths suggested by dark gold masters to make sure they were safe. Yet even without any sign of danger at all appearing at their long course, he wasn''t that sure they were safe.

    "Let''s do this," as all of the masters got evacuated, and half of the fire and wind-based masters walked away, it was time for them to move out.

    William got no one from his side to move out with him. He made sure this would happen as he didn''t want a dead weight on his shoulders.

    Since the start, he never nned to join his team in the beginning. In fact, he nned to roam the ce and try to identify the traps, see what other hidden dangers were there and try to deal with these.

    As for the task of destroying the dark academy and killing the dark masters, it was left for the team formed by different leaders. As for his guild team, they''d work as his support team.

    There were four leaders in this side, and they already moved to join the side of the leaders. William waited for an hour before he started to walk towards the depths of this region.

 Chapter 696 Acting Solo Again

    ?

    "Let''s see what you prepared for me out there," he muttered to himself while changing into his fox spirit form. William wouldn''t take this quietness lightly, never underestimate such a scary foe.

    The moment he stepped deeper into thisnd; William started to scan everything using his spirit sense. His spirit sense currently could cover up ten kilometre radius at most.

    This was expected, as he just arrived at the gold grade. The more his spirit power progressed, the wider his spirit sense coverage would be.

    He didn''t run quite fast, didn''t even stick to the initial route marked out by everyone. He first headed to see something, headed to a ce where something that shouldn''t be here was.

    From the first moment he spotted it and William got puzzled. This thing should be thousands of kilometres away from here. And the thought of having more than one of these things in such a narrow space was quite unlucky.

    Besides, that thing gave him the same vibe he felt before. In addition to that, William got a spiral area that appeared in his path. And he wanted to test the effectiveness of his modified arrays.

    William already visited the spirit power augmenting formation frequently before leaving, memorising literally every single detail about the entire region.

    He knew where to go and how much he''d take to arrive there.

    [Are you telling me you are going on a detour on your own? Without us?!!] Berry''s insane shout came to make William feel like his eardrums ruptured or something.

    "Just stay on course, I''m just going out there to test a few things," William touched his ears, feeling deep pain in them.

    [For God''s sake! Can you stop this annoying habit of yours? Even for once as a change?] This time it was Sara, and she wasn''t any less furious nor loud than Berry.

    "It''s just for the greater good," William chuckled, touching his ears again, "anyway, I''m close to one of the ces I wanted to check out. Keep on course and keep me posted if youe up with something new."

    William then stored the Bullets away and turned towards the horizon. He wasn''t trying to get himself out from this intense talk with his vices. He was this close from the spiral shaped region.

    He took roughly six hours to arrive close to it. And before he''de closer to a five kilometre distance from it, he stopped, took out different sets of materials, and startedying out many arrays.

    He didn''t lie before when he spoke about the expected weakness of these counter arrays. And so, he decided to use seven grand arrays to counter this thing, hopefully it''d be enough to damage it.

    As he finishedying down the arrays, he distanced himself even further away. He knew his spirit sense wouldn''t cover up what was happening out there, and so he took out one grand catapult, climbed it to the very top, to get a better view over the distance.

    The new modified catapults were around twenty metres in height, pretty high actually and looking grand. Standing on top of them made him see things better, and he could see the spiral shape at a far distance.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Time to see what this nasty formation is all about," William already guessed the nature of each formationid down by the Nightmare monster, but he wasn''t one hundred percent sure about this. He felt like the enemy was acting too cautious, being too meticulous in its nning so far. So, it didn''t feel just right to depend on a single trap in any spot here.

    *Rumble!*

    Once William activated the seven formations, the entire area trembled. The air began to shift in colour, showing grey colour in it. It wasn''t only that, but William could see thin tongues of grey smoke rising from the ground at the same time.

    "This¡­ That damn bastard! It didn''t just build up a single formation, but two as I expected¡­" even if William expected such a result, it still felt quite terrible to have such a result. It meant with every formation he detected; more were buried underground.

    Yet William couldn''t tell what the true nature of the formation until mighty roars appeared. Without the need to check by himself, he recognised these roars¡­ "Wrathers!" he said it in a distasteful tone, while taking out something.

    It wasn''t a weapon, instead it was Bullets. He started to spread the new discovery he got, warning others from the formations spread all over the ce.

    The news he spread was enough to drive everyone silent. They all suspected things to be bad, but never believed him when he said they were going to meet more Wrathers inside the region.

    But now it was clear he was right, and it was also clear he got a point when he warned them against leaving anyone behind to take care of the Wrathers at the periphery. After all, it wouldn''t matter in the end as more of them would appear from the territory itself.

    Then William stored the Bullets and started to run.

    He didn''t run forward, but outwards, driving these monsters towards a long arc, taking a detour around the entire spiral shape and his arrays.

    William knew he could handle these monsters perfectly. He got the fire element, but his confidence didn''t just stem from this.

    Every single attack of his was like a bomb of its own. So, he didn''t fear dealing with these Wrathers. But he wanted to see if that ce had another hideous method hidden from his eyes and senses or not.

    As his enemy acted cautious, he also acted the same. William led the Wrather around in circles, but they didn''t follow what he intended to do.

    This wasn''t because they were smart, but because they got their numbers increasing at an rming rate.

    In just ten minutes, these monsters flooded out from the spiral shaped area towards him from all directions.

 Chapter 697 Using The Bear

    ?

    William couldn''t lure them around like he initially intended and had to abruptly change course and ns.

    Without even second guessing it, he went directly towards one direction. He kept running without even releasing a single attack back. As for the catapult, he took it back already.

    In the next hour, Wrathers kept chasing him like crazy. William kept running with all his might for half an hour first, before they caught up.

    Their speed was quite abnormal! And so, he didn''t hesitate to dash, jump in the air, roll on himself, beforending on his three tails.

    He might have upgraded his spirit power grade, but he didn''t upgrade it enough to show up four tails. Hended and released a fierce explosion before starting a barrage of attacks, removing many of these monsters out of this world before returning to run again.

    And like this he kept running for the next half an hour, until he finally saw it.

    "Let''s see if you are the same thing or not," in front of Williamid a grand storm, one that looked quite ugly. William knew it, as he already met it before while walking from the Scorching Lands towards here.

    It was that Bear monster, the one who was trying to scheme its way to the outer world and fulfilling two conditions at the same time. Seeing it here was weird, as William never expected that Scarlet Bear monster to be a friend of the Nightmare one.

    But that didn''t matter for now. William intended to let this uninvited monster do its trick and deal with the Wrathers chasing him up.

    William didn''t intend to go into that thing for now. He simply ran around, letting the mindless Wrathers chase after him, and eventually they passed directly through that storm. Once that happened, none came out from there.

    William just kept leading the Wrathers around while he confirmed his early guess. That storm was marching at the same speed, acting the same, and even looked the same as the one he saw before.

    "So¡­ By some sort of a miracle, that thing appeared here, crossing thousands of kilometres without getting spotted? This damn fox! It''s always surrounded with weird things happening everywhere it goes¡­"

    William didn''t believe such a scary bear monster would roam out from itsir without getting spotted. Its storm wasn''t like anything seen before, not to mention it was quite brutal, not letting anyone getting into it to go out.

    William didn''t feel his spirit power decreasing likest time he met this storm thing. And that meant this monster didn''t have time to do its magic and tricks, didn''t have time toy down the foundation of its fort, and couldn''t absorb spirit power from outside.

    That was both good and bad news at the same time. It was good so no one would lose any spirit power at all. And it was bad as that meant this bear was now quite hungry, and would roam this region unceasingly, eating up lots of monsters and masters without any mercy.

    Not to mention as long as this bear got a liking to this spot, it''d startying down the foundation to absorb spirit power from outside.

    "Time to ry more bad news," William didn''t know why, but out ofte he started to bring tons of bad news to others. But this thing was bad news, and everyone had to learn about it, learn how to correctly deal with it.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    As William finished dealing with this wave of Wrathers using the help of this storm and bear, he left and returned back to check on the spiral area.

    He was at least thirty kilometres away from it. As he got closer, he felt like something was wrong.

    The air from far away looked dark, ck like darkness was there. This was still daytime, with light prevailing all over the world.

    When he checked closer, he found out that such darkness didn''te from anything rising up from the ground as he expected, but from such ck clouds filling the sky above that ce.

    It looked weird, as there were no such clouds before. And these clouds seemed to be not moving an inch, as if thews of this world didn''t apply to them.

    "Hmm¡­ I never saw such a thing before," William stopped just less than two kilometres away from this area, while feeling totally unsettled by this.

    It was expected for him to not recognise these clouds. If anyone from the Fate Sacred Cult was here, they''d have instantly recognised these clouds.

    They weren''t harmful to anyone, at least not by a single cluster of these clouds. If William moved underneath them, he''d find nothing happening at all.

    The real danger would appear when all this region would be covered by these clouds. But for now, William just scanned the area using his spirit sense. And he found no trace of the spiral shape around.

    "At least it''s gone," William wanted to take out one of his two weapons and test the area under the clouds. But when he thought about the possibility of losing one weapon to just test a single area made him refrain from doing so.

    "More news¡­" William rolled his eyes when he took the Bullets out and started to ry more news to everyone.

    They started to grow used to his new habit of his. Besides everything he warned them against were quite novel to them.

    ck clouds that didn''t move an inch and seemed unrted to the world around? Not getting affected by wind or anything? A storm that anyone getting inside wouldn''t get out from? These were all new things that they never heard about before.

    William then moved away from this ce, and this time he decided to roam the ces he marked before and test things out.

    The next day, he kept visiting ces with evidence of formations beingid there. Each time he did that, he ended with destroying these formations, releasing the same ck clouds, and also tons of Wrathers.

 Chapter 698 The Triple Maze Of Death!

    ?

    William was frustrated for a reason. These Wrathers came out like a dam got broken and a flood was released. They didn''t give him any chance to wait beside this region and watch what was happening for these clouds to appear here.

    He wanted to see how they got formed, so he might find a clue or something about them. But as he had to always retreat, even when he decided to stand his ground and fight using everything he got, but ended up getting pushed back, he decided to leave such a task over to the more formidable masters.

    He spread the word, and everyone got what he wanted to do and the value of this task. After one day, the two teams already got formed, while the other half of masters left to stop the Wrathersing from outside were asked to evacuate in ten more hours.

    The masters evaded all the areas gged by William. And luckily, they didn''t meet anything out of norm so far.

    This was considered the first task the two teams got. But William stopped his guild team from doing such a task. Instead, he gave them another one.

    "Let Thomas go around the areas between the red gged zones. Let''s see if there are any hidden things we didn''t yet get to uncover."

    William walked through lots of normal ces without triggering anything. Yet he didn''t feel that calm about any of this.

    He was sure the enemy wasn''t that merciful or kindhearted to leave these areas void of any trap. At the same time, the presence of these ck clouds kept nagging him.

    So, he preferred to start scanning the leftovers of that monster using Thomas'' Karma techniques. If things turn out to be fine, then he''d just send his team to do another task, scouting the dark academy.

    And in the next few hours, he started to get lots of news from Thomas. Thetter agreed to do the task, but asked William to keep talking with him, especially at the beginning. Thomas got used to having weird things when he''d examine anything out for William. And this time it wasn''t an exception.

    [The world around looks in differentyers] the first thing Thomas said made William suddenly halt in his tracks.

    "What do you mean?" William didn''t jump over conclusions, but what he doubted came true.

    [The world looks as if it''s formed of threeyers¡­ I can''t really exin it right, but I can dive into anyyer and see different things there¡­]

    Thomas started to speak for a long time, almost three hours straight without William interrupting him even for once. Thomas was walking around, describing what he was seeingyer byyer, which took a long time to do.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Not to mention this was the first time for him to see such a thing. The world in front of him had three differentyers with new colours appearing in his Karma vision. Thomas used to see silver colour all the time, but this time he saw ck, red, and blue colours for the first time ever.

    He felt like he got the ability to navigate through anyyer once he fixed his attention over it. And whenever he did, all the colours would disappear, and the silver world woulde in his eyes again.

    He started to delve into ayer, exin everything in it, before changing it over anotheryer. In eachyer, things were quite different than whatid at the other two. And soon enough, Thomas lost his focus and couldn''t help but feel the entire thing was like a grand maze or something.

    And when he told William that, William couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. "It''s truly a maze, in fact it''s one of the hardest tricks to pull in the entire world¡­ The Triple Maze of Death!"

    William had his own thoughts and doubts when Thomas spoke first about the presence of threeyers in his vision. The more Thomas spoke about what he saw in everyyer, William''s heart couldn''t help but clenched tighter. And by hisstment, he was sure of his earlier guess.

    [Do you know what the heck is this?] Sara asked what everyone on her side was thinking about. His friends heard what Thomas said and couldn''t help but feel more puzzled the more he spoke about it. When he finally said it felt like a true maze, everyone couldn''t help but agree with him.

    Yet their confusion turned all into a shock when William stated what he just said. It meant one thing; their leader knew what exactly this was all about. And that reminded the old ones in the team and guild about lots of things William managed to do so far.

    It all stemmed from his weird and unexined understanding of things they never learnt or heard about before. Even if they grew puzzled and curious towards his source of deep and weird knowledge, they felt also appreciative and lucky to be on his side, not against it.

    "I do," William took in a deep breath, knowing that he made a grave mistake here. He thought about everything about that mysterious side of the world techniques, never thought about this specific one in particr.

    He got his reasons actually, as to make such a grand formation, one had to reestablish the entire area. It was quite unexpected for the monster to remove the ground, down to thevayer, and rebuild this entire ce without anyone smelling anything about it.

    This was quite impossible! And so, William thought aboutying a grand sealing formation here, one that could conceal anything and everything from the senses of the masters passing by this spot.

    But that was also an impossible scenario. To do such a task, this monster had to purchase tons of materials and bring them all the way here. Wouldn''t the merchants who worked with him suspect anything? Wouldn''t they have spirit senses spread all over the ce to see how weird it was? Weren''t they moving with a formidable entourage of masters as guards?

 Chapter 699 Life, Heaven, And Hell Layers

    "Things didn''t look quite right¡­ It can''t have done all this without getting immense help from something, or someone¡­" William muttered to himself, while knowing that such a grand project couldn''t have been done by that monster alone.

    When he thought about the dark forces''munity, it would have made quite sense before the brutal blow these masters suffered five years ago. So, it made more sense to think about another power in y, one that was hiding behind the shadows, one that got full interest in supporting such evil deeds of that monster.

    Such a force must have immense power and resources, different supply routes to get what they desired of materials and such. William thought about the city and its forces, yet he declined such an idea almost instantly.

    If something like this happened, then it''d be impossible to hide the tracks of it from the Vancouf family, from everyone.

    [What do you mean by that?] Ibra scoffed, [Can''t you say anything we can understand? We want to know what all this means, and what to do about it! Tsk! Why is it you always know about everything and not someone else?]

    "Someone like you? Hahahaha! Ok, let me tell you this¡­ This ce got demolished, deep down to the core of the world, and then it got rebuilt."

    [Stop saying something crazy like this, ok?] one of the leaders got startled when he heard William''s words. After all, William took out the other Bullets of the second team leaders and started rying things over to everyone.

    "This is what we are having here, and please don''t say it''s impossible. This monster did it. How it did it, or how it managed to do it without anyone noticing isn''t important now. But what this grand thing means and how it impacts us is¡­"

    William didn''t just say these words to them, but also to himself. It didn''t matter how this monster did it, or how it went away with it without getting detected. What it mattered now was how to deal with such a situation, and frankly speaking their situation didn''t look that good anymore.

    "This formation works by rebuilding the entire region into threeyers, reality, hell, and heavenyers. I don''t know many specifics about this, but right now we are walking inside the realityyer. And it''s not filled with many traps. But when the hellyer merges with reality, we end up facing deadly dangers. Take Wrathers for example, they are part of the hellyer. And their sudden appearance here wasn''t out of the blue¡­"

    William kept talking about a few examples he heard legends about in his past life. For example, he mentioned the tornadoes of screams, one that would attack them using sound waves. They had already been hit by something like that, and that attack could range from being slightly harmful, into being quite deadly, covering up traumas hitting spirit, body, and one''s mind.

    The more he talked, the gloomier everyone became. No one said anything or tried to interrupt him. In fact, they were quite depressed to even say a single word.

    [You mentioned threeyers, how about the heavenyer then?] One of the leaders suddenly said, trying to find a glimpse of hope in the middle of all this darkness.

    "That''s the way out from here, the only way out," right now William started to believe he truly underestimated the ck fox''s previous words. That fox didn''t just warn him about the toxin trap, but also tried to warn him about such a deadly thing.

    [I never heard of any formation like this¡­] another leader said, expressing what everyone thought about.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Well, to be honest this can''t be described as a formation anymore. A formation works by using materials set on certain designs over a big stretch ofnd, using many arrays to do it. But this one¡­ It uses the entire ce starting from thevayers deep down towards the surface, which will make it more like a world ss Framework."

    [What does¡­ World ss Framework even means?!!!] William''s words didn''t help in making the people hearing him understand but threw them in deeper puzzlement and confusion.

    "Let''s¡­ Not speak about this for now," William knew trying to exin suchplicated terms would make them more puzzled instead of understanding things over.

    [Ok, but how can we reach that heavenyer? How to get the hell out of here after destroying that dark academy?] Stark asked the most important question right now.

    "You just said it yourself," William paused, "we have to destroy the core of this grand formation. And in the entire ce, only this academy stands out the most."

    William''s words were true, and he really guessed it right.

    [Then what are we waiting for? Let''s head directly there¡­]

    "No, that will be directly asking for our death," William interrupted the words of that leader, "to reach heaven, we must march over hell first."

    [What does that even mean?] Lara who kept her silence all this time finally spoke up.

    "We need to pass all the test and trials waiting for us at the hellyer, then we could get to heaven after crushing that core of this wretched ce," William sighed before adding, "if we went directly towards that academy, then we''ll trigger all the stored-up traps and won''t get any chance at surviving this."

    [Does that mean we have a chance if we do it like what you say?] another leader asked, and everyone waited for William''s answer.

    "We have a certain chance if we did it right," William paused, "so we are going to do a reconnaissance mission first. We already triggered the hallucination trap, the Wrather trap, and those weird ck cloud things. We need to know what lies other than these."

    [And those weird shapes? The ones you told us how to counter them, won''t they count as well?!] Stark asked, and William could only sigh.

    "Life is full of hardships, right?"

 Chapter 700 To Go To Heaven, One Has To Pass Through Hell First

    ?

    William knew these masters got high hopes about what Stark said. As they got to know more of the awaiting deadly traps for them, and as they got ways to counter these, then it was just right to wish these were part of the hellyer.

    [Life is full of surprises as well!] a leader said, [Why can''t we consider them part of the hellyer?]

    "Because they areying here without any trigger or for us to do something for them to appear," William got tired of exining tons of stuff for them, "but be certain that with each trap of them getting dealt with, another one from the hellyer will appear. And we need now to tear these traps one by one and discover what we didn''t know yet."

    As he crushed any hope they got, William added, "let''s start acting then. Keep me posted."

    [What are you going to do then?] Lara suddenly asked. The leaders team got to move and work to scan the entire ce of any traps and tell him about them. And the guild team was following Thomas around, as William kept them doing their task with little modifications.

    "Me? I''m going to scan the area around you of course," Lara already joined his guild team with her one hundred elite guards, "just keep doing the same task you are doing."

    [I know I should scan the rest of the world, but looking for what exactly?] Thomas paused, [I already scanned other ces while we were talking, there is nothing new out there]

    "Just keep looking for anything abnormal," William paused, looking at the ck clouds before adding, "try to find out any clue about these clouds. And we need a few high-end masters to know how these clouds are formed."

    Even after all this time, no one managed to get to know how these clouds got formed in the first ce. The leaders team tried everything, but failed to find out what caused these ck clouds to appear.

    When William spoke about his theory of the role of the grey fog to form these ck clouds, they didn''t agree with him. The ones who managed to get to see everything said that the grey tongues of smoke only had a role to y in making the Wrathers appear, nothing else.

    This made William more vignt towards these ck clouds. If they got low grade masters, they''d have sent someone from their side to test these ck clouds over as the various leaders said.

    But they had no way to do that. They had to remain away from these ck clouds, and hopefully they might find something useful about themter on.

    Once William ended this meeting, he shifted his full attention around. "So far, I only managed to trigger Wrathers. I didn''t tell them about that vapour, and I hope it won''t get released anytime soon¡­"

    William was feeling more pressure about all of this. But he continued to do his tasks diligently, while thinking back about what other traps he might find here.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The hellyer gained such a cursed title thanks to the lots of traps scattered across it. Thomas already saw five different patterns there, but he couldn''t tell exactly what these traps looked like. And William wouldn''t be able to tell just from the shape of the silveryout there.

    But there was a single valuable intel that Thomas could provide him with, a thing that made William keep him doing this task even if he wouldn''t be able to add much.

    Thomas noticed that these silver designs got some sort of a repetition pattern. And William wanted to know this pattern. He already could tell that the mostmon trap here was the Wrathers. And by that he could start deciphering the entireyout of the hellyer.

    Once done, he could start drawing a detailed map of this ce, one that would specify where each trap was, what its nature was, and how to counter them.

    William then kept attacking the spiral shapes around. After a few hours, he had to feel puzzled.

    All the traps released only Wrathers, as if there were only these cursed creatures out there. If not for Thomas to keep sending updates about theyout pattern of these traps, William would have doubted there was only Wrathers out there.

    "Something seems off here¡­ I''m missing something¡­" William stopped what he was doing after getting rid of thest batch of Wrathers. He stood in his ce and started thinking again about everything.

    "If these traps need to be triggered, then it''s possible that the bastardid such traps with different triggers¡­" William paused and started to think about what these triggers could be¡­

    "The hallucination trap got triggered when we removed all the hills. The Wrathers appeared when we messed with the formations in the realityyer or tried to get close to the border of this ce. That toxin trap appeared when we tried to get out¡­ Then what about other traps? How can they get activated?"

    William''s thoughts kept drifting right and left, thinking about tons of things at the same time. He always put the detailed map of this region in his mind, trying to see what he could link with the other hidden traps.

    "There are those dark masters¡­ And so far, we haven''t fought them inside this ce yet. They can be a candidate for another trap¡­ And then there is that thing roaming around¡­ Did that fox bring this bear here for such a thing or what?"

    William didn''t think the two were rted. After all, there was the same kind of hostility between high grade monsters as there was one between high grade masters. And it was even worse in the case of monsters.

    William had the impression that this bear came here out of this fox''s ns. And that meant there were other things to get the traps triggered. William could tell the academy at the middle had the way to activate the other hidden traps. But that would be suicidal like he told others.

 Chapter 701 Throwing One Stone To Hit Three Birds

    ?

    "At least I can let them clear all the Wrathers first," William looked again as the ck clouds appeared in the sky, "and these clouds¡­ They look bad news¡­"

    William reviewed the generalyout of the ce in his mind over and over again, but couldn''t find anything that could trigger the traps. "Don''t tell me he nned everything to be triggered by that damn academy¡­ Oh wait, I missed something¡­"

    William suddenly froze in ce. In fact, he missed two things which could trigger more traps.

    The first was that vapour. It wasn''t the vapour itself, but what the vapouryer hid behind it. "That damn bastard¡­ It left such ayer down below to stop us from getting to the deeperyer of the ground¡­"

    William didn''t know whatid down there, but he was sure they''d discover lots of things. As for the next trigger thing he missed, it was the hills, or the blue ores of these.

    His team removed the hills, but didn''t have the time to deal with the ores. The moment they unearthed the hills, the dark masters appeared and a huge battle erupted. Before they''d deal with the dark masters, the hallucination toxin appeared.

    William started to see the grand scheme of that Nightmare monster. It didn''t do anything without an ulterior motive to it. And it was clear that the addition of the dark masters at the hill zone was directed to keep them busy from dealing with the blue ores. And then the hallucination toxin appeared to deal the final blow, distracting them totally from these ores.

    This was a multi-staged scheme, one that aimed towards one single goal. "And when we got freed from this hallucination, the deadly toxin stopped us from getting outside. So¡­ All the blue ores areid outside the toxinyer¡­ Wait¡­ These oresy in the toxinyer itself¡­"

    William''s thoughts rashed when he thought about this. He already used these blue ores to establish an entrapment formation, one to seal the high spirit power he released before to undo the hallucination effect.

    When William thought about all this, he couldn''t help but sigh in admiration for such meticulous nning. "It can''t even be done in five years¡­ Executing this n would take five years¡­ It seems that the bastard had the entire idea from the nine-tailed fox memories¡­"

    William found this more logical. After all, everything rted to this came from the outer world, not here. And for a monster that lived all its life in this world, it was impossible to link all this on itself.

    William pushed all this aside and returned to think about the new things he discovered. "The way towards that toxinyer is blocked by tons of Wrathers. That exins why there are endless stream of Wrathers out there¡­"

    William knew it was impossible to link everything just to one spot. Even if that monster had a way to make the academy the heart of everything, it still needed other things to link the traps with, or else the entire thing would fail on its own.

    William realised he had to deal now with that toxinyer. And to do so, he had to think differently than dealing with other traps in the area. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I know literally nothing about this toxin, except for one thing¡­ It has a strong dependance over these ores. So dealing with the ores will hit that toxinyer hard and destroy it. In addition to that, it will trigger something¡­ Will it appear here, or will it appear out there? Or both? I can''t tell¡­"

    William started to ry orders to other leaders, asking them to send the high end masters to ry messages using spirit telepathy towards those out there.

    They needed to reform their lines, be prepared to wee anything deadly once the toxinyer got taken care of.

    [So we can then send them here to help, right?] a leader asked, but William still refused such a suggestion. He didn''t give any reasons except for their need for their help to get them away from here if things went wrong.

    Few leaders got Message Papers with their people out there, and others started to move closer to the border region to ry the news.

    Wrathers already started flooding the ce. So trying to go there would make it hard for anyone to survive this. In the end, the entire leader team had to move as a whole unit, and William didn''t object to such a thing.

    Once he got done with this, he started to think about how to deal with the toxin and ores at the same time.

    "I won''t just deal with these two alone, but also will deal with that nastyyer of vapour¡­ It will be a good blow to all this¡­" William already had an idea in mind, one that needed the help of a certain being, the only being that Nightmare monster never predicted its presence here; the bear monster.

    "We need to meet up, where are you now from the meeting ce?" William had a rough idea about what he should do. But as things were gettingplicated by the iing Wrathers from outside, William had to use the help of his team.

    He was going to be busy preparing formations. He got his two weapons ready to release, but alone they weren''t enough. Not to mention he had to focus part of his attention over to control them.

    William didn''t want toy the formations down then got forced to leave them. So he learnt about his team''s current location, and headed straight towards there.

    During his way, he kept fighting Wrathers in an increasing rming rate. It felt like these things were going to grow to be equal to a small scale monster tide or something. But William knew they''d be almost exterminated after what he nned to do.

    "Atst, you decided to join us!" the distance that could be crossed in five hours got crossed in twelve.

 Chapter 702 Digging A Weird Hole

    ?

    William and his team were fighting these Wrathers in thest few hours as if they were really fighting a monster tide.

    "No time to waste," William ignored Ibra''sment, and looked towards everyone. His vices brought a total of one hundred members of the guild with them, the same as Lara.

    That meant they got two hundred masters here, not even close to filling the gaps in these Wrathers'' sharp teeth.

    "Listen up¡­ We''ll do it this way¡­" William already got his grenades exhausted. But that wasn''t an issue anymore. He got Lara and she got enough extra grenades to use in the uing battle.

    Yet he didn''t n everything over these grenades only. He taught them simple arrays that could suck spirit power from the world around and turn it into a sea of fire. The only drawback for such arrays were their high spirit power consumption rate, but that wasn''t an issue with such a tycoon like Lara being here.

    "So, we are going to surround and protect you? Is that it?" Ibra didn''t like such a way of fighting, the same as the two sisters, Lina and Tina.

    "I want to go out and y!" Lina kept her silence like she used to, but her younger sister didn''t. She was still acting a bit childish, growing big and strong but still acting like a little kid.

    "Let''s send a small team to hunt those Wrathers then," Lara suggested, "they can be armed with few grenades, and can have the two deadly weapons of yours on their side."

    "This¡­" William got a bit hesitant, "you do know these aren''t living monsters, but spiritless creations. Only elements that can purify their cores can truly get rid of them¡­"

    "I want to y!" Tina was still acting stubborn, "and I can y them with my fire!"

    "I got the wind element as well," Ibra shrugged, "and with Berry on our side, who can stop us?"

    "That''s indeed true," William turned to Berry, and thetter agreed to join this little team.

    "I''ll join too," Lang wouldn''t let Berry go out there alone and sit here doing nothing but enjoy safety. Even if Berry grew stronger, even if they were far from the n, Lang grew used to protecting the n head and prominent figures since he was very young.

    "Fine," William had to stop this before it''d turn into apetition in joining this team, "only twenty members can be sent out there, and they''ll be led by Ibra. All must have fire and wind elements, better to be more fire than wind, got it?"

    "Yes! I''m going to y, hahahaha!" Tinaughed, as if she scored a big victory or something.

    "As for others, let''s start preparing for the uing hard battle," William also shared the same arrays with the masters in the leader team. But they didn''t actually need these. They got the weakest member there at the early dark gold grade.

    Once he arranged everything, he started to work. His team surrounded an area of five kilometres in radius, enough to let him make the arrays he wanted.

    The first thing he did was to dig the ground using violent explosions. He did it just outside the area he marked for his team to protect. And once he arrived at the deep vapouryer, he started expanding the hole.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The end result was a hole that spanned for another five kilometres in radius. The notable thing here was that not a single Wrather dared toe near this hole, as if they feared whaty deep within.

    "Are we going to use this as a defensiveyer?" Sara remained behind and couldn''t help but ask when she noticed such a thing everyone else noticed.

    "It has a different purpose," William motioned his head before adding, "we are ten kilometres away from it, just enough."

    "Enough for what?" Peter asked, as he also remained behind.

    "You''ll see," William chuckled, and that made every one of his vices here roll their eyes. Yet they felt more satisfaction by his attitude. As long as he kept doing this, it meant he was preparing something huge.

    The hole did indeed help in reducing the number and pressure of Wrathers over them from that side. If not for having more holes would bring bad results and backfire at them, William would have surrounded this area with more holes.

    Yet he also spread the knowledge to the leaders'' team, just in case.

    Things went on smoothly like this for long hours. William keptying down an array after another, forming in the end two grand formations and few scattered arrays.

    No one ever knew what he was doing, but it was clear he knew his stuff, so no one asked. They didn''t ask as they knew the answer they''d get from him: You''ll get to see by yourselvester on!

    William worked on the formations and arrays, while the masters around him were having a real bloody battle.

    The number of Wrathers made it feel they were endless or something. Even when they used the fire arrays William taught them, they felt real pressure out there.

    The main pressure came from the scary and intense spirit power consumption rate. It was simply monstrous enough for every master to consume a potion once per few minutes.

    Even Lara felt pressure while taking out tons of these potions. She considered using elixirs, just to stop when she realised she didn''t have enough to sustain them for a long time like potions.

    Besides it was much easier to make potions, unlike elixirs which would take lots of time and would cost a lot.

    But they managed to stop the Wrathers from breaking through their line of defence. Part of this was thanks to the roaming small team led by Ibra. The least word to describe what they were doing out there was crazy!

    They were fighting like maniacs, releasing torrents of fire and wind to augment it. At some point, they got totally surrounded, for Ibra to step in and do a marvellous solo show, killing lots of these Wrathers, opening a path for others out.

 Chapter 703 Come Here, You Big, Fatty Bear!

    ?

    Part of this was thanks to the presence of Tina in that little team. Even if the two tried to deny it, they got some sort of spark going on between each other. And in the end Ibra always pushed himself over the limit, even when he was training with William whenever Tina was present watching the show.

    William didn''t have any intention to watch them, but he already released his two weapons and let them fight with them. Yet at some asions, he lost focus and couldn''t track what was going on, just like the time when they got totally surrounded.

    He was busy making these formations and arrays. But once he got done, he turned around and made sure his two deadly monstrous weapons would kill lots of these Wrathers for an entire hour.

    During thest fight, he entrusted recharging his two weapons using elixirs to Ibra and Berry. The two learnt how to do it, and that saved William lots of trouble.

    "Listen up, we are going to expand the defensiveyer towards that direction," William was killing Wrathers like crazy, but he focused over one side for thest half an hour. No one got why he wanted to do this, deforming such a perfect circr defensiveyer. Yet they executed the order and started to mobilise the fire arrays and add more to surround the new area he cleared.

    "Stay there, don''te near me no matter what appeared," William''s words were weird, yet soon enough everyone realised why he said it.

    "This¡­"

    "Isn''t it¡­"

    "Howe that terrifying monster is here?!!"

    "Don''t tell me¡­ We are going to kill it as well!!!"

    The moment that grand and gloomy shaped storm appeared, everyone instantly panicked. Then the vices turned to each other, and one by one they looked back at William.

    "It''s the doing of our boss! Tsk!" Ibra waved his ive while he was at the forefront, fighting Wrathers with his little team.

    "He is always doing things differently," Berry paused, couldn''t help but recall all the scary words and warnings William kept saying about this thing, "at least he knows what to do, and everything would end up just fine in the end."

    Everyone couldn''t help but nod in agreement. "Let''s keep killing these weird things then," Ibra moved, leading everyone alongside the two formidable weapons of William.

    If this team of twenty members were showing their fiercest side and taking down Wrathers in great numbers, then they were just close to bepared to just one William''s two weapons'' might.

    When William finishedying down the arrays and formations, he spared more attention to control these two. And by then, things started to grow wild at these two weapons'' sides.

    Each weapon gave any member of the team an impression of William''s shocking performance every time he went all out. But when that giant stormy ball approached, they knew how being unstoppable truly meant.

    They saw that storm moving forward, heading towards them, without the need to slow down or do anything to stop the Wrathers. In fact, it allowed the Wrathers to get inside the storm, and not a single one of them came out ever again.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The storm kept moving forward, and when it became close enough from them, they knew how unbelievably huge it was. It felt like this ball extended from the ground all the way up to the highest point in the sky, they felt like it was the ground, the sky, and the world itself.

    Seeing this from such close distance made everyone here freeze in their tracks and actions, all but one.

    "Come here, you big fat bear,e and get all the honey you want," William even shouted amidst hisughs. Unlike everyone else, he was very excited about this.

    He was now standing on top of one of the two grand formations he made earlier, watching that gigantic ball drawing fast towards the hole he created before.

    The hole wasn''t just a way leading towards the underground vapouryer, but it was also surrounded by one grand formation, one that could give tasty honey to this sleeping bear.

    What this bearcked in this piece of the world? What would drive it crazy and lead it voluntarily to move all the way here? Following William''s trap and machinations?

    It was spirit power! And that grand formation surrounding that hole was doing exactly this, gathering up spirit power and condensing it so densely inside an imaginary dome that surrounded that hole.

    Part of this spirit power got depleted the moment it touched that ck vapour deep down at the bottom of this hole. But that didn''t matter.

    William made sure to leave behind many grenades and lots of toxin barrels at the edge of this hole. His aim was clear in his mind, and he knew what was going to happen.

    "Make sure everyone outside is ready, I''m going to start tearing that damn toxin apart..."

    Before he''d even started doing anything, and just a couple of minutes before that stormy ball would step into his trap, William took out the Bullets, informed every one of the leaders about what was going to happen.

    [What about us? What shall we do?] Nonoa asked, and William simply said while storing away the Bullets, "just stay put and keep yourselves alive. Let''s speakter."

    William turned his full attention towards that storm, even to the extent that his two weapons started to behave weirdly out there. If not for Ibra and others, they might have taken a few hits from these Wrathers.

    William already reassured them, even if they got bitten by thousands of these Wrathers, nothing would happen to these two weapons.

    He wasn''t just confident about their overall defensive capabilities, but he also knew theycked any spirit to get affected by the weird ability of the Wrathers.

    "Got you!" the moment that gigantic storm entered fully inside the dome shaped grand formation of his, William clenched both fists out of excitement. Then without any further dy, he started to do various things at the same time.

 Chapter 704 Activating The Arrays And Formations

    ?

    The first thing he did was to activate the grand formation he was sitting on top of. This one acted the same as how the formation that boosted his spirit sense previously worked.

    Yet this one was a little different. The moment that formation got activated, William''s spirit sense started to expand, going towards the periphery, aiming to cover the entire region fast.

    As William got recent experience on how this formation worked, he did things better this time. And when his sense touched the area of the blue ores, he evilly grinned.

    "Time to do the second step then," William then snapped his fingers, and the next thing happened was for the many grenades to explode. Fire appeared fiercely at first, then thick pirs of fire followed.

    These came from the many barrels of the modified toxin that he ced next to the grenades. The two waves of explosions didn''t do anything to the gigantic storm, but it did a lot of damage to the ground underneath.

    Normally, nothing big would happen. The most cracks and deep grooves would appear on the ground like scars. But as there was a gigantic behemothying over its chest, that part of the ground couldn''t take the pressure and weight and copsed!

    The scene was indeed quite shocking to everyone watching here. It wasn''t just the guild''s team who was watching, all the formidable masters close by also watched such a mind goggling scene using their spirit sense.

    The terrifying grand ball of storm that expanded to cover at least twelve kilometres in radius started to sink deeply in the ground, giving everyone seeing this the feeling it was falling deep into the ocean or something.

    The violent sounds of explosions vanished under the terrifying noises of the ground cracking and that ball falling deeper. It felt like it was the end of the world with all the fierce trembling and quaking that happened in the entire region.

    All were stupefied, even the Wrathers, all stopped to watch the grand miracle happening here, all but one.

    Once he triggered the grenades, William didn''t stop at all in his actions. He already anticipated what was going to happen. And so he finished doing something with this grand formation, before running fast towards the other one.

    Once he arrived at the second formation, he started to madly consume elixirs while gushing out tons of spirit power to fuel up this formation. If he got enough grenades perhaps, then he''d use them to fuel this formation without the need to spend a single speck of spirit power.

    Yet he knew if he didn''t have these spirit power rich materials and items the various leaders lent him before, then it''d have been impossible for him to do this array.

    "Come back!" and as he was doing this, he simply muttered these words like he was a god or something. The next minute, the two grand monstrous weapons appeared just by his side, "it''s your turn to shine!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William was sweating profusely, and his face even looked a little pale from all the pressure and insane spirit power suction that he was suffering from right now. But that didn''t prevent him from evilly grinning, eventuallyughing.

    The moment he said these words, the two weapons went each to one direction. Each of them stood in the middle of many arrays, and then started to activate the deadliest technique of William, the full powered Holy Sword technique.

    William controlled them to sh in circles, stacking out one attack after another. As they were doing this, the ball was already deep down to half of its initial height. And then it stopped.

    It meant it hit the rock bottom. When everyone thought everything was over, and before they''d start examining what William and his two weird giant weapons were doing, a series of violent shaking and trembling hit the world again. But this time it was so massive and severe, affecting every single spot in the entire Blue Hills region as if the entire ground was going to get destroyed or something.

    It was quite scary, yet no one panicked. The guild vices, William''s friends, already knew their mighty boss was in the middle of pulling something impossible. But for others, they started to develop the same kind of belief, feeling like William intended to do all this for a reason, a good reason.

    And all they needed to do was to listen to thest words he told them before he started doing all this, to just stay alive at the end.

    William did indeed expect such a fierce response to the contact between that ball and the vapouryer at the bottom. The two forces were just hellishly strong in sucking dry any spirit power.

    The two didn''t let the spirit power loose or get wasted, instead they stored it in high concentration inside their grand bodies.

    It was a sh between two behemoths, and the winner wasn''t going to get decided anytime soon. Even if the two brought down the destruction of the world at this moment, none of the two ever intended to walk away.

    In each other''s eyes, this was such a rare chance to suck dry tons of spirit power from one source. And so, the next thing to happen was for all these violent quakes to hit the entire region.

    William didn''t mind weakening the bear monster or getting it weakened, but he didn''t want to see the other side winning. He did all this to clear the underground vapouryer and crush it.

    So just as the two behemoths started their sh, William controlled Charley and let it release all the stacked attacks over the group of arrays at its side. The moment the attacknded; William also activated the grand formation he was fueling madly all this time.

    All happened at the same time. The scary power of Charley''s attack started to get augmented by the various arrays around it. And as the might of this hit started to grow off charts, William''s grand formation sucked it toward him.

 Chapter 705 He Is Feeding The Monster With Milk!

    ?

    It looked like Charley released the attack, then the arrays around it started to brightly shine. Instead of what everyone thought about, instead of this attack getting stored within the arrays or controlled, it grew wilder and started to grow.

    It didn''t damage the ground but started to form a growing ball of dangerous looking pale gold light. It was the colour of William''s spirit power, and soon enough that colour kept condensing, bing darker, heading to look like dark gold.

    And then William''s grand formation shone brightly at this moment. The scarily looking dark gold ball of light started to get affected by some sort of pulling force, before it moved like a bolt of lightning, heading towards none other than William.

    Just when everyone thought William was going crazy, losing himself under such pressure or something, letting himself get hit by such a dangerous strike that his Charleyunched, William suddenly vanished.

    In fact, he didn''t do anything at all, but the formation underneath him shrunk in size in a blink of an eye, shifted its ce to another spot, and then the attacknded on it.

    Then a river of flowing dark gold spirit power appeared, like it came out of a grand fountain or something.

    "It''s working, hahahaha!" William knew he didn''t lose the grand formation heid before. Instead, he got it activated into a final form, one that could be used to suck more of such deadly attacks.

    "Again! Let''s do it together!"

    William went towards the third set of arrays and started to gather up and stack attacks. Like crazy, the three of them started tounch one deadly Holy Sword strike one after another, all fueled with light and lightning elements, all went towards the grand fountain and added more power to the rivering out from it.

    Soon enough, the single rivering out from this fountain turned into two, then three, and kept growing with more attacks released towards the fountain.

    All of these rivers headed towards a single direction, that storm! Anyone seeing this would think William was trying to support the bear monster inside with spirit power. But that wasn''t the case.

    William was sending this river towards the storm as everyone saw. But the moment it went inside it, it vanished. It didn''t get absorbed, didn''t explode, but simply vanished.

    The first grand formation William activated was behind such a weird thing. What happened was for this rich spirit power to get the stamp of the bear monster, before it''d get pulled away using the first grand formation, heading towards the blue ores outside.

    What William was doing here was to link this grand storm with the blue ores, while detonating them at the same time using all these attacks. Yet his gathered up and amplified Holy Swords didn''t reach the enough threshold yet to cause a response.

    In the eyes of everyone watching, in the eyes of those strong masters, William was feeding the monster with spirit power, like he was feeding it or something with a bottle of milk.

    William knew it''d take more time for what he was doing to take effect. He didn''t care about anything and kept releasing one attack after another, controlling the two weapons and releasing more attacks as well.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    More rivers appeared, until five hours passed, and the number exceeded thirty. Each river was tens of metres in breadth, and they roared with dense dark gold spirit power.

    During this time, the Wrathers never stopped attacking the team, and they were doing great by stopping them. As for the sh between the bear and that vapour, it kept exploding wildly without any sign of stopping.

    The ground kept shaking until everyone thought it''d never stop. The shakings were so violent that cracks started to appear and spread, giving everyone seeing this a scare.

    Many Wrathers were unfortunate enough and fell into lots of these expanding cracks, ending up either crushed under the weight of rocks, or having a much worse fate by directly touching the vapour and evaporating with it.

    William kept releasing his attacks until all of sudden, a weird sh ignited at the horizon. It appeared faintly at first, looking blue-red, like the sun was going down.

    At this point, many ck clouds already covered up the skies, and the sun was gone long hours ago. So, in the middle of such darkness, seeing a sh of light lining the horizon was something eye catchy.

    Then that sh started to grow intensively, ending up forming a hue like effect around the entire horizon circle all around the world.

    The masters with insane spirit sense saw what exactly happened. And those who couldn''t jumped to many conclusions before news spread like wildfire.

    The blue ores were exploding in torrents, like someone sat a long trail of grenades or dynamite or something. The explosions were happening at the same time everywhere and were spreading fast and heading to cover all the ores in the uing few hours.

    The weird thing was that there was no sound to such fierce and violent explosions. The reason behind this weird phenomenon was just one word in the minds of everyone watching this: William!

    The second weirdest thing was the intensity of the red blue colour rising up from these exploding ores. The colours rose up fast and intensified, yet soon started to die on its own.

    They didn''t get what was happening, but William and Thomas knew everything. The former was the one who devised all this, knew how the explosive powers of these ores released tons of spirit power stored within, ending up for them to move fast and get absorbed by that bear monster inside the storm.

    As for Thomas, he saw torrents of thick arms of bright silver lights passing from the distance anding fast to end up into the bear shaped thing in the middle of that storm.

    For some reason, he felt like that bear looked much smaller than what he saw before. Yet he wasn''t too sure about this and thought he might have forgotten the real shape of it after the passage of time.

 Chapter 706 Im Back!

    ?

    Yet when these torrents of silver lights got in touch with the bear, thetter started to grow in size exponentially. The bear kept increasing in size and power, while the storm surrounding it kept erging as well.

    And with all this, the shakings of the ground started to grow even fiercer and more violent. Yet William was sure by the end of this, the vapouryer would be gone, alongside the blue ores and toxin lining the entire region.

    In addition to that, he was eager to see what would happen after taking away all the ores in the region. "Pay attention, something new will appear, either here or outside. Make sure to inform me as soon as this thing appears so I can help you all."

    William didn''t hesitate to remind everyone about this point. He expected how everyone reacted just by taking a short nce over the faces of his friends around. They were the ones knowing him the best, and they were deeply shocked by all this.

    It was easy to expect how others were feeling right now.

    William was keeping an eye over the work of the formations right now, continuing to release more attacks with the help of his two monstrous weapons.

    Having these weapons made him feel like he grew two more arms or something. The rivers kept flooding towards the storm, and with it more ores kept detonating and releasing tons of spirit power.

    In less than three more hours, all the ores got depleted atst. The moment this happened, Wiliam stopped what he was doing, and waited for what yet toe.

    He knew this would trigger something if his theory was correct. And indeed, he was.

    The moment the ores got depleted, William could see deep cracks at the ground. They extended around the entire zone, like they were forming a grand circle. But for a reason, he didn''t feel like these cracks were connected or something.

    It felt like a kid tried to draw a circle with many brush strokes, ending up messing the entire thing if one looked closely.

    Slowly things started toe out from these cracks. It wasn''t clear what they were at first, as they came up with tons ofva and smoke.

    Then when things cooled down out there, William could see the shapes of things that appeared. "Eggs?!" He was taken aback when he saw all these dark golden eggs appearing in batches,ing out from the depths of the ground.

    William didn''t get what these eggs were until their shells started to shine and show a specific pattern. It felt like kids were ying with red mud and left many imprints all over these eggs.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ It''s those damned winged monsters!!!" The moment he spotted such a design, William couldn''t help but jump to a single conclusion. His body trembled faintly before he turned again and took a good look around the entire region.

    "It seems the flying monsters are going to show their faces for the first time ever in this world¡­ What the hell did that bastard do exactly out here?!"

    William knew if these flying monsters appeared in the outer world, it wouldn''t be a big problem at all. But this was a tiny world, and here there were no flying monsters at all, nor flying masters except for a little few.

    The ones at the mid stage dark gold grade and higher could float for a certain time. They couldn''t literally fly for real, just using many tricks and consuming tons of their spirit power to do so.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Not to mention the masterscked any experience at avian battles. William could feel the pressureing from these monsters even before he''d know what type they were, even before they''d get birthed into this world.

    "Tell me, how many masters do we have at mid stage and higher of gold grade?" But even if he was shocked like this, he didn''t let such shock freeze his mind nor slow down his reaction.

    He instantly took out all the Bullets he had and sent these words back to the various leaders.

    [Here? Or out there?] Nonoa seemed to read that something was amiss by Wiliam''s out of the blue question. Especially when it came just a few hours after he issued the warning towards them about something new wasing.

    "Both," William kept looking at these eggs, while the patterns they had kept flickering brighter as if they were going to detonate or something, "how many do we have?"

    [We got around five hundred here] Nonoa responded after few minutes of pause, [And out there, we got around seven hundred]

    "Hmm¡­ Spread the word then, something new ising towards the masters here and outside, something that no one experienced before."

    [Like what exactly? A new cursed toxin or formation?] Stark asked, while others waited for William to respond.

    "It''s not, it''s flying monsters this time," William paused, "do you see these eggs? They''ll release winged monsters soon enough. So, we need to prepare for them."

    [Winged what? Never heard of monsters flying before!]

    [I heard rumours and legends about these flying monsters, seemingly the harshest and brutalist out of all monsters known to man!]

    [Are we able to take them down? Just with our little force?]

    William got his hopes slightly elevated when he heard all thesements. At least they heard of such flying monsters.

    But before he''d say anything, he heard a voice ranging in his mind, one that he didn''t hear and missed for a long time, [I''m back!]

    "Wow! You are finally out of your coffin old man!" William''s excitement was clear in his tone despite his words. And that made Zinugh.

    [I never thought I''d sleep under such a silly effect. And in the end, I woke up when such a big thing was happening! Is it true? Flying monsters areing?]

    Zin and the few who were still under the effect of the toxin were already moved with everyone else, evacuated the ce towards the outside.

 Chapter 707 The Simple Way To Handle The Flying Monsters

    ?

    Hearing his voice made William have higher hope. As Zin woke up, it meant other high-end masters also woke up as well. And that was just great news.

    "We have unknown flying monstersing out from these eggs," William paused, "can you handle this?"

    [I don''t know how you get to know about any of this] Zinughed, [But this is your lucky day! I once was adventuring and met a scary group of flying monsters. I have experience in dealing with them]

    William was surprised to hear such news. From what he knew, the flying monsters weren''t something that should exist here except at the most dangerous ces. And no one was strong or daring enough to venture their way towards such ces and survive.

    "Did you manage to kill them?"

    [No way!] Just like what William expected, Zin just was lucky enough to get away from there with his life intact, [But I believe you know how to deal with these monsters, right?]

    "Well¡­ It''s not that hard to do it actually, provided that everyone worked together," William knew tons of ways to fight flying monsters. And the simplest of all was what he was going to tell others to do.

    But he knew the moment these monsters appeared, they wouldn''t give any master time to do or prepare anything.

    The only thing they''d be doing was to run and keep running away for their lives. But that was going to change with Zin and other high-end mastersing back just in time to save the day.

    [Just let me know what I and others shall do, and leave everythingter for me]

    "Good¡­ The idea to deal with these is simple¡­"

    William started to tell Zin, tell everyone listening right now to the right and simplest way to handle the flying monsters.

    The easiest way was to use the most advantageous aspect of them and turn it around, making it a liability and their point of weakness.

    [Doing it this way isn''t hard, but you are sure there aren''t any ground monsters as well? If these nasty things came towards us, then things will look bad]

    William got what Zin wanted to say here. The main idea to stop these flying monsters was byying down dense high gravity arrays and leading these monsters towards them.

    Like this, the monsters would lose their ability to fly. And it''d turn the impossible aerial battles into a total ground war. This was something that all masters here could handle. But that required lots of preparations before luring the monsters over.

    Zin knew his role alongside the other high-end masters. They''d try their best to keep these flying monsters busy running after them. But that also meant the ground masters were open to any kind of attack.

    If the Wrathers or any other unknown monsters appeared, this would end quite bad for everyone. Not to mention there was something else that Zin didn''t speak about, the side of masters inside the Blue Hills region.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Others outside were already having most of the masters, and much more high-end masters. But the masters inside the region were little in number, and they got fewer high-end masters.

    Not to mention they were already fighting desperately against the endless swarm of Wrathers. The Wrathers were focusing mainly on the masters inside the region, with little attacks towards the outer masters.

    "I''ll keep the Wrathers busy," William knew Zin''s deepest worries were rted to the sudden onught of Wrathers towards the outside. If that happened, then they''d lose everything.

    [You don''t have enough manpower to do it, how do you n to execute such a promise?]

    Zin was trying to understand what William had in mind. And others also had the same kind of thoughts.

    "As if I didn''t do lots of things so far without you getting to know anything about it," William rolled his eyes, "I''m nning something big. All I''m going to do is to elerate my ns a little."

    [Will that be hard? I bet it is!] Zinughed, as if he was amused to see what William intended to do.

    "As long as you deal with those flying monsters, then things will end up quite fine for both of us," William alsoughed. And like this, the two reached such a stage of understanding what each would do in the uing sh.

    [Tell me the materials needed, and how to make each array] Zin paused, [Do you need a hand here? We got lots of masters on our side]

    "The toxinyer is still active," William knew he detonated the ores, released those weird eggs, but that toxin didn''t yet have time to dissipate, "let''s join forces after dealing with these monsters."

    William then stored away the Bullets of other leaders, after stressing over the need to keep the Wrathers busy and killing them with everything they got.

    He didn''t forget to ask them to make defensive arrays ready to use when he''d give them the signal. Then he turned to the area around, knowing that there were lots of things he needed to do now.

    He nned to let the two scary foes fight against each other until the bear would crush the vapour. Once that happened, the ground entirely would copse, and lots of grooves and holes would appear.

    But William now had to do this fast, elerate things. At the same time, he needed to prepare for the sudden fall of the ground.

    elerating things wasn''t the issue, but what woulde after the fall of the vapouryer was. William expected a massivendslide, a violent falling of the entire region down for hundreds of metres. That would be a deadly fall for anyone.

    He nned to select two spots in general, each would be fortified with lots of earth based and gravity arrays to hold the ground. But doing these arrays would take a long time. Not to mention the two teams now had to work harder to keep the Wrathers busy, at least until the outer masters got rid of the flying monsters.

 Chapter 708 The Winged Green Crocs

    ?

    "I need to time it right," William checked the current status of the ongoing harsh battle underground, besides the current status of the eggs.

    The eggs kept shining at a faster rate with each passing minute. Right now, the marks and engravings over its surface were shining once per ten seconds, instead of shining once per couple minutes when they first appeared.

    "Like this¡­ They will hatch in less than an hour. Will they release fully mature monsters? That doesn''t make any sense¡­" William kept thinking about the monsters and eggs, while releasing more attacks towards the spirit power fountain.

    The fountain turned spirit power directly towards the outer border. The blue ores were gone, so there was nothing to absorb the insane amount of power released there.

    William wanted to see if he could affect the newly born monsters negatively. If things went like he envisioned them, then the torrents of spirit powernding over these monsters would be enough to deeply hurt them.

    This wasn''t enough to im their lives, but at least would leave behind lots of crippled monsters.

    He didn''t need to say anything to Zin and others. He knew they were closely monitoring the situation. The moment they''d spot any moment of weakness, they''d jump instantly to exploit it.

    [What shall we do now?] as he was totally absorbed in thinking about all this, Ro''s voice rang in his ears, [Will we continue killing these Wrathers or what?]

    "We''ll continue doing this until the flying monsters are this close from getting exterminated," William paused before adding, "I want you to clear a spot ofnd, one that shows no cracks or holes. Keep the Wrathers away from it all the time."

    [For what? Tsk! Don''t tell me more scary things are going to happen!] Ibra scoffed,ined when William knew how excited he truly was.

    "Just keep fighting and waving your big ive around."

    [You should lend us these two, they are really something!] Berry demanded, but William couldn''t give her his approval.

    "Just keep fighting, we are soon going to get rid of all of them in one full sweep," William knew the uing grandndslide was going to be brutal. So these Wrathers were going to get buried under heavy rocks.

    Even if they weren''t alive, they would end up crushed in the end. So after this, almost all of the deadly traps here would be cleared.

    Be it the vapour, the lining toxin, the Wrathers, and even the newly arrived flying monsters; all would be dealt with in the next hours.

    The only thing that kept him uneasy was these ck clouds hovering fixedly in the sky. They looked like bad news, and William didn''t have any clue about how to deal with them, or what they were supposed to do.

    Yet he didn''t know this, help was already on the way towards here! And by meeting them, a new world would open in front of William''s eyes.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William focused on the task on hand. And soon enough, he spotted the hatching of the eggs at the outer zone.

    "Winged Green Crocs? At least they are one of the weakest monsters out there," when he spotted the baby monstersing out from the eggs, William heaved a triple sigh of relief.

    These monsters looked small, around one metre in length only. Even if they appeared in huge numbers, they were still small and weak. That meant William could help in weakening them further, or even get lucky to kill a few of them.

    That also meant they wouldn''t be able to put up a good fight against Zin and others. Like this, the high-end master force would be able to fly around, leading them in circles, without having lots of danger.

    On top of that, even if by some means they grew stronger, or they managed to keep most of their numbers intact, then the end battle wouldn''t be a threat to anyone out there.

    As William saw them hatching, he didn''t act stingy and released his attacks in torrents. The attacks got transformed into brutal waves of spirit power thatnded over these weaklings.

    The moment they got hit, many screeched and fell on the ground. Seeing this made William have another idea, the same one that popped in the minds of Zin and others.

    They were already roaming around the egg zone. The moment they saw how weak these monsters looked; they grew greedy to get them early on. But then they got to wait as the overall number of these monsters was just scary. And when they were about to drop such an idea, they saw a weird phenomenon happening in front of their eyes.

    The monsters flew in the air for tens of metres, before they suddenly fell to the ground. It felt like they hit some sort of a hidden ceiling or something, and they fell hard even to hurt themselves.

    On top of that, they kept lying on the ground for a minute or so. Seeing this, seeing such weird phenomena happening all over the ce made everyone evilly grin.

    "I bet an arm it''s the doing of that youth, hahahaha!" Zin didn''t hesitate for a second, like everyone else, and moved fast to im the lives of those monsters pinned to the ground. In their eyes, they were like stock waiting for ughter.

    As William saw how effective this was, he continued releasing his attacks towards the winged monsters.

    The two sides were far apart yet were working together like they got some sort of tacit understanding or something. They were too absorbed in such a once in lifetime opportunity, William could see the overall development of these monsters.

    As he expected, they got some sort of means to grow stronger. And weirdly enough, the more of them fell down, the faster they grew stronger.

    "Warn Zin out! The monsters are growing bigger and stronger," after a couple of hours or so, William couldn''t help but take a Bullet out and shouted at once.

 Chapter 709 The World Is Falling Apart

    ?

    The monsters were still pinned to the area of the border. Yet with such huge numbers, they managed to keep most of their forces intact even with the crazy killing from the high-end masters.

    William knew soon enough these masters would find themselves surrounded the moment these monsters managed to break free from his trap. He hurriedly warned Stark, and thetter knew what to do.

    [Any news about these monsters? Their traits? Abilities? Strength points and weaknesses?] Nonoa asked, and William narrated in great detail everything he knew about these monsters.

    Out there in the outer world, these monsters would have been nothing but mere fodders and weaklings. They got nothing special about them. But here, everything changed.

    William was sure they got suppressed thanks to the limitations of this world. But they were still strong. So, if they surrounded the high-end power on his side, things would go south.

    Not to mention William also knew the moment these monsters would break free, they wouldn''t just attack the high-end masters or those out there, they''d also start flooding this region as well.

    "It''s time to end this," William had a way to make the bear win the current brutal war against the vapour in a short time. He decided to wait a bit longer when he saw how these crocs were getting smashed and killed thanks to the spirit power flood.

    But as they were going out of control, it was time for him to do something different. And that was why he warned Zin and others first.

    The moment he spotted them moving fast, heading away from these crocs, William started to add more arrays around the one generating the fountain of spirit power.

    He just needed toy down ten different arrays before he was done. The two weapons were releasing tons of attacks, and that made him see the result of what he did almost instantly.

    What he did was simple, he made the concentrated and rich spirit power monster friendly. That meant everything he was producing right now was heading towards the Scarlet Bear monster in the storm, enabling it to absorb this power and grow stronger fast.

    This didn''t worry William. After all, most of this power was going to be lost in the ongoing fierce sh with the vapour. Not to mention the moment the sh was over; the ground was going to fall, and the fate of that bear monster would be in question.

    The moment William made his modifications, things started to change. The rocking and shaking of the world started to grow fiercer, and more cracks appeared.

    "Start fortifying the grounds you selected, make sure toy down as many arrays as you can, don''t stop," William took the Bullets of everyone and ryed his orders.

    He didn''t know when that bear would win, or when the ground would fall. So it was better to act safe and do it right now, instead of waiting till thest moment.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William''s worries proved to be true. Just in less than half an hour, the shaking intensified to the extent of making pieces of ground fall.

    It happened everywhere, and soon enoughrge parts of the region were gone. William kept releasing his attacks, didn''t slow them down, didn''t even make any of his two weapons stop.

    The next hour was really something else. The Winged Crocs started to flood the world, heading everywhere, and tried to kill masters everywhere.

    The masters used the gravity impairing arrays, yet many monsters didn''t fall down like expected. At many spots, not enough arrays were there to stop the flood of monsters for different reasons. And aside from any reason, things ended up quite bad for those masters.

    At the same time, and as if something rallied them, the Wrathers tried to run towards the outside as well. If not for all this effort to draw them deeper into the region, they''d have created tons of trouble for these masters.

    Just before the falling of ground started, many Wrathers found their way towards the masters outside. Zin and other high-end masters were now trying to kill any Winged Crocs the moment they got the chance. But when these wrathers appeared, they got to focus more on them.

    The situation was going out of control until pieces of ground started to fall, taking down lots of Wrathers with them deep down to the deadly vapouryer. At the same time, the newly appearing holes acted like buffer zones, forcing these Wrathers to take long detours around.

    This bought more time for the masters at the outside to start organising their ranks and form more defensive measures against the ground Wrathers. At the same time, Zin and other high-end masters started to crazilyy more arrays everywhere they went.

    This was the most crucial and important task they agreed to do right now. The flying monsters kept growing stronger fast, without any clear reason. And that made the task of controlling them using these arrays quite challenging.

    So, they got to stop this deadly threat and leave the ground Wrathers to the masters to deal with. At the same time, William was well aware of all this, and yet he didn''t interfere or felt anything at all.

    He knew at any war; casualties were doomed to happen. As for his test, he got a very low requirement, one that he was sure he was going to secure.

    The masters out there were struggling hard, but they were doing just fine. Even if many Winged Crocs managed to bypass the limitations of the array, they still got wiped out inrge quantities everywhere.

    As for the Wrathers, the sudden falling of the ground just came to stop their deadly intervention. William knew if not for that, things would have grown bad for these masters.

    As for the two teams inside the region, they were doing much better. The moment the Wrathers shifted their attention away from here, the two teams finally found time to breathe.

 Chapter 710 Only Black Clouds

    ?

    During the past hours they kept fighting like hell, never got the chance to rest or even take potions to heal themselves. After healing the most serious wounds, replenishing the almost depleted spirit power of many, they started to focus on strengthening the ground with lots of arrays.

    Right now, the two pieces ofnd they secured didn''t experience any deep or serious looking cracks, not to mention having pieces of the ground fall or something. But there were still many small cracks appearing from time to time. And so, they started to strengthen the ground again.

    As things kept growing intense like this, no one really minded the fall of the world at this point. To them, they just wanted to get rid of all these monsters, get rid of such deadly situations once and for all.

    In less than one more hour, the entire world suddenly shook like it was going to end. And with it, thick tongues of dust rose high in the air with the fall of the ground.

    The entire zone fell, and that wasn''t something trivial. It was a shocking scene to behold. Against what William thought, such falling started to expand outwards, without any stopping.

    The ground around this zone seemed to get negatively affected by all the shaking and trembling that happened for long hours. And with the fall of the entire zone, it seemed like the ground around it got more weakened and started to fall.

    Seeing this made all the masters drop what they were doing and started to retreat fast. At many points, masters ran like their lives depended on this, and that was a true statement.

    The ground fell down like something was eating it from deep within and kept racing after the masters and monsters for long stressful minutes.

    With the fall of morends, the nearby ones started to crack and fall as well. It felt like the entire region was built over a thinyer of eggshell or something.

    After an hour or so, the entire thing started to calm down, while lots of masters and monsters got killed. Even the Winged Crocs didn''t escape the aftermath of such grand events, got hit severely by the rising tongues of dust and fell to the ground.

    Once fell, they vanished into the deep looking abyss that appeared instead off the ground. When everything got settled, only three thick pirs stood high and tall in the middle of all this, looking really weird.

    "Only mynd, the other team''snd, and the academy survived this¡­" William scanned the entire zone, seeing a grand and deep hole that looked as if a meteorite just hit this area or something.

    Deep below, the vapouryer vanished. And with it, all of the Wrathers and almost all of the Winged Crocs got removed from the picture as well.

    This was all great, and it happened just as William envisioned it. But he wasn''t happy, not even close. By the time everything settled, weird gloomy darkness prevailed over the world. It was more suffocating and pressuring than the silence that dominated everything.

    This came from the thickyer of ck clouds that appeared over the entire region. William was too busy watching and following the development of everything, yet he couldn''t get how these clouds appeared in the first ce.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The scattered ck spots now got unified and thickened as more ck clouds appeared up there. The cloudyer expanded and covered a colossal circryer, one that demarcated the borders of this region.

    Even if the ground outside fell and expanded the hole even further, the ck cloudyer didn''t follow suit. And that made William sure that these clouds weren''t normal and came by the making of that monster, and they gotid in this region only.

    As for the purpose of it, William couldn''t tell. Yet he felt bad warning bells ringing inside his head like loud police sirens.

    William had no other option but to forget about these ck clouds and started to scan the entire area, looking for new traps that would appear from the hellyer.

    He didn''t find anything out of normal. And that meant the trap that got released from the fall of the ground was these ck clouds.

    "For a reason, I feel like the way to activate the deadly effect of these cloudsy in that damn ce," William couldn''t help but focus his eyes over the dark academy.

    It was still covered with that dome shaped thing all this time. Even with the falling of the ground everywhere, the academy stood erect and tall, without showing a single crack or anything at this dome.

    At the same time, the ground around the academy was intact for several tens of kilometres. And that made the dark masters who sought asylum there still alive.

    Seeing the new look of this ce and the areas around made William realise how hard it was going to be to assault this ce now. The ground was now deeper than the level of the academy for hundreds of metres, even thousands of metres. It''d make attacking this ce like trying to hit a fort on top of a grand mountain peak.

    The task wasn''t going to be easy. Not to mention he and others had to think of a way to mobilise the grand army of masters they got towards the academy, how to prepare the assault n, and on top of all, how to deal with the mysterious ck clouds.

    While he was looking around, he didn''t find a single trace of that Scarlet Bear monster. It wasn''t in the area nearby, wasn''t in any area around actually.

    In William''s eyes, it simply vanished or perhaps got buried under tons of rocks. It was something expected, but at least he believed to find any trace of it anywhere.

    As he didn''t get anything new aside from these clouds, he turned his attention towards the masters outside.

 Chapter 711 Testing The Bottom

    ?

    Many fell down either on the ws and jaws of monsters, or deep into deadly fall towards the lowest abyss. But most of the masters survived in the end.

    Most of the Winged Crocs were taken down in the middle of all this, but the remaining few were now fighting it hard against Zin and other high-end masters, while trying to buy enough time for masters to reform their lines and defences.

    For a reason, the remaining Crocs looked quite strong, actually hurting Zin and others during the next half an hour. But the moment the mastersid lots of arrays on the ground, these monsters began to fall like flies.

    Even if they were strong, they were few. And with the cooperation of everyone, they managed to take down the rest of these monsters in the next ten hours.

    During which, William gave his team and the other one a rest period, giving them time to recuperate and heal, catch their breaths and such. William didn''t have any clear idea about what to do next. As he had to wait for others to get rid of the monsters, he decided to give everyone a moment of peace and enjoy rare moments of rest in the middle of all this.

    The other team leaders also agreed to do the same. In fact, there was a new terrain out there, new circumstances that they had to thoroughly study and talk about before deciding what to do next.

    William kept studying the entire terrain. After one hour, the leaders of the other team started to speak with William about what they thought about.

    They gave a viable solution to this new development. They''d wait for the masters outside to get rid of the monsters and recuperate, then they''d gather all the earth-based masters and let them build a road for them towards the academy.

    Around that academy they''d start changing the terrain and form a grander tform for their army to stand upon and manoeuvre freely. William liked that, but there was a catch to all this.

    The ground down below wasn''t stable. It wasn''t that solid to take all the heavy weight of rocks, sustain damage and hit during the uing battle. Thest thing William or others would love to see was for the ground to fall in the middle of the hectic battle.

    "Let me go down there and test it first," William knew they had to wait for hours before the masters outside to get rid of the monsters.

    [But¡­ Do you have a way toe back or what?] one of the leaders asked in doubt.

    "I got earth elements, but who said I have to go down there in the flesh to run these tests? Just give me a few hours and I''ll keep you posted."

    William didn''t intend to go down there in person. He didn''t know what the current situation below that ragged, rocky surface down below was.

    So, he intended to send Charley. And if it got destroyed, it wouldn''t be the first time to suffer that fate. "Sorry pal, you are going down there and getting sacrificed for us," William patted on Charley''s broad shoulders before controlling it to go down below.

    In fact, William could bring it back if it was close by. Yet William nned to go all out, and let it scan lots of areas around.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    If the ground was stable, if there were no more traps hidden there, then it''d be great. But if there was any of that, then it was better to know it beforehand.

    The path to the bottom wasn''t smooth, but Charley used earth techniques under William''s control to step down without an issue even with its huge body.

    The moment it arrived down below, William didn''t hold it back anymore. Just like when he attacked freely to detonate the blue ores, he let Charley go all out.

    The only drawback was for it to need recharging once every half an hour like this. William decided to scan an area first, then call it back, recharge, and send it again to check another area.

    Yet that would greatly limit its area of activity. William didn''t mind that. He estimated that Charley could check an area of around thirty up to fifty kilometres around this pir. And if things proved safe, he''d think about using his earth techniques to build a path forward, to scan further areas.

    The moment Charley started to attack; the ground that was filled with tons of rocks started to change again. Deep holes appeared, and lots of noises started to appear from down below.

    Most of it came from the damage Charley was doing and the technique it was releasing, but there was a different sounding from below.

    It looked as if something metallic was shing against Charley''s attacks. William reassured his team when they got startled by these noises, before returning to scan the areas Charley attacked.

    "From my experience, the ground down there looks a bit sturdier than usual¡­" William had lots of experience when assessing the leftover damage by his techniques.

    The usual findings would be deep holes and craters. Yet what he saw right now were shallow holes and depressions in the ground.

    That rarely happened, and always happened at ces with fortified grounds.

    "It made sure the ground was supported with arrays or perhaps a grand formation¡­ But why?" William realised this was intentionally done by that monster. And that made him quite vignt.

    He tried to spy using his spirit sense but couldn''t get a clue. The holes that Charley did weren''t deep enough to expose anything. Besides, any formation or array would follow a pattern where materials would be ced in certain order.

    He wanted to get any clue about this grand formation or many arrays. But when he considered the grand space of the Blue Hills, he couldn''t help but sigh. He knew there was little chance in him finding out about anything of value out there.

 Chapter 712 The Sponged Golden Eggshell Layer

    ?

    Yet he didn''t stop Charley from attacking, but modified what it was doing a little bit. He made Charley target the same spot over and over again, like it was digging the ground.

    After half an hour, Charley managed to dig a hole of just a couple hundred metres depth. And yet the ground down there didn''t show any signs of getting weaker. Instead, William felt thest few attacks left much shallower indentations on the ground.

    "Come back," William didn''t hesitate to call Charley and let it appear and cover up his chest. After that he took it out again, recharged the exhausted elixirs, before releasing it to continue digging.

    After doing this for five more times, William was sure without using such a method like his techniques, leaving a mark at the ground wasn''t going to happen. Using normal earth-based techniques wouldn''t have done anything at all. Except if a high-end master personally intervened, then no one would have been able to dig the ground.

    Instead of leaving behind a hole of a hundred metre or so, his techniques released by Charley left only tens of metres at first. And after a few hours, the most Charley could do was to deepen the hole by a few metres with each attack.

    William was now thinking differently. Such strengthening effects of the ground didn''t follow the normal logic behind formations or arrays. If not for his luck to be great and he found a main node of materialsid just at that spot, then this was all weird.

    Digging the ground should be easier the deeper the hole became, not harder. And that made him expect to find something at the lowest point of all this.

    William kept sending Charley to dig the ground until he heard a loud nging sound at some point. It was clear Charley''s attack finally hit something. William already was attentive to the weird soundsing from down below with each hit. Yet he couldn''t tell what it was.

    "What do we have here," as that nging noise kept ranging for the next hour, it was clear this hole wasn''t going to get through what stopped Charley.

    So, William controlled Charley and let it widen the hole. After a few more hours, a hole a few hundred metres wide was created. And deep below, William could spot a weird golden lustre.

    "I have to go down there and check things out," William already spread the word about how strong and sturdy the ground was. But when he saw that weird golden thing down below, he couldn''t help but have other thoughts.

    He went down below while riding over Charley''s back. And when he arrived there, he couldn''t help but feel amazed at the sturdiness of the ground.

    Even with all these hits, the ground never showed a single crack around. It felt like Charley was digging directly in the heart of a mountain, and that mountain was made out of steel.

    William saw at the end of this couple thousand metres depth hole the golden lustre that stopped Charley. William then used his earth technique and formed a flight of stairs, attached to the side of this hole from one end, and heading down towards the bottom in a spiral way.

    "Go down there," he couldn''t tell what it was until hended down there. And the moment he touched the surface of this goldenyer, he started to examine that thing.

    He tried to kick it first, but nothing happened. When he touched it, he felt an intense cold that spread over from there. Unlike what he expected, it was pretty cold and not hot.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Weird¡­" He felt like he had seen such a thing before, but he didn''t recall where or when or anything rted to it. "Let me try something¡­"

    He retreated a bit and let Charley release another volley of its attacks. When the attacksnded, William saw something that drove a cold shiver down his spine.

    In front of his eyes, the barrage of attacks that were enough to take the lives of hundreds of monsters, leave behind deep holes and deadly marks, vanished like it never existed.

    At the same time, the golden ground shone brightly as if it got ignited with some sort of fire. The two things were rted, as the fierce power in the attack vanished and got absorbed into that goldenyer.

    The attacks that were enough to destroy a huge part of this ce left nothing behind, and were totally absorbed by this golden material, ending up without stirring anything at all.

    Seeing such a scene made William''s body tremble, before he controlled Charley, jumped on its back, and hurriedly galloped the stone stairs, heading towards the surface.

    "A change of n! We can''t send any army here¡­ The entire ground is built over a sponged golden eggshellyer!"

    William instantly shouted at everyone using the Bullets he took out even before reaching the surface.

    [What are you talking about?]

    [What''s that sponging golden thing?]

    [If we don''t send an army, how can we take this damn academy down then?!]

    Many leaders and even a few of his friends and vices eximed in doubt and confusion.

    "It''s something that can work to nullify any damage," William got that what he knew about this thing was unknown to everyone here, "it doesn''t just negate all damage, but also store all the attacks that it nullifies. Imagine it as a sponge, absorbing all the damage like how a sponge stores water. The damage won''t fade away, just stored inside the sponge, until it''s released. And by then, the entireyer would crack, release deadly waves of spirit power that no one literally can survive from¡­"

    William started to tell them what they didn''t know. The more he exined, the more they felt fear from theplicated set of traps in this area.

    [Who is the sick bastard who did all this?! I can''t tell how long it''d take for all these traps to beid!] Zin said what everyone thought about.

 Chapter 713 We Are Coming With You!

    ?

    "It''s not important how long it took to do it, what matters now is that being here is deadly! The fall this time won''t be just for hundreds of metres. And we have to guard against all the damage stored within thatyer on top of that!"

    [But¡­ We didn''t attack thatyer yet] Ibra said, [Doesn''t that mean we are safe?]

    "I hardly believe that," William sighed, "that thing must have stored tons of damage the moment it built up thatyer. For your own good, we shouldn''t send anyone deep into the region."

    [Why does it feel like you n to stay behind?] Zin read what William''s friends also got from his words. And as they didn''t find it weird thanks to the long time they spent together with him, Zin and other leaders found it a bit weird.

    "We came here to destroy this ce, right?"

    [But¡­ Alone? No, that''s impossible!] Nonoa said, [We have to also take part in this]

    "You do know the risks, and you are all grown up masters, so¡­" William''s words meant one simple thing, if they wanted toe, then he''d not refuse such help.

    Of course, what they all thought about was true. Taking down the entire dark academy was a headache, not to mention William was going to fight solo against tens of thousands of dark masters.

    Perhaps such a number wouldn''t pose a great threat to William, especially when all of the high-end power on the dark masters'' side got removed before by the leaders of the grand master army. Yet the main threat still was at the academy itself.

    William knew if that bastard did all this, then the academy held the deadliest and scariest trap of all. At least it would work as the final trigger that would detonate the entire ce and let that golden eggshell crack and fall.

    The more William thought about this the more he recalled the ck fox warning. "It said there is one way out of this¡­ So where is the way?" William kept thinking about this until he finally found what he was looking for.

    It took him roughly a few hours to arrive at this idea. And then he started to arrange things with Zin.

    [You do know you are quite crazy for such a young youth you are] when Zin heard about what William said, he couldn''t help but exim in admiration and respect.

    "I hope it''s not a bad thing," William took it as apliment, "can you do it old man?"

    [Tsk! You are really annoying! Sure, why not? Let me try and see if we can handle a few of these¡­]

    William then got the good news a few hourster. The idea of his seeded. Despite being innovative, he knew it was going to work.

    And as Zin was preparing at his side, William was now having a meeting with his team.

    The leaders team already started to evacuate. Any master below high-grade stage ones were asked to leave. Out of the masters inside the region, most were going to leave. And that also meant William''s team had to leave as well.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Of course, his vices didn''t take things lightly as William doubted. They kept asking to fight, asking to join him and others in thisst stretch in their adventure.

    "You aren''t a pinnacle master, and you are still nning to go!" Sara was standing side by side with Lara, Berry, Ibra, and others on this argument.

    "Come on! You do know I can keep myself alive," William knew it was going to be a bit of a headache to convince them, but he had to, "I can''t get distressed to save you when the entire world copses! Just stay outside and let me handle this academy and the traps around."

    But his efforts went in vain, and all was thanks to Lara!

    "I''m not part of your guild, and I have my own guards here," she shrugged, taking this as lightly as she shouldn''t, "if you want you can also join my side. Leave him to work alone, and let''s work as a team."

    Her sudden invitation made everyone excited. Just before William was this close from driving them away, Lara stepped in and ruined everything for him.

    "Don''t give me this look, we are masters, and you can''t go around protecting all of them all the time," she rolled her eyes when he gave her a deep and stern look, "just deal with the things you have, and let us fight to our fullest. At least we''ll make this fight end faster, right?"

    "Sigh!" William knew he had no way to convince everyone now. What Lara said was also true. They weren''t kids anymore, weren''t the same weak masters William once recruited them five years ago.

    They grew stronger, and they all learnt formidable techniques from him. "Fine, but let''s do it this way then," as they were going to tag along, William decided to use them to the fullest.

    In fact, what he wanted them to do wasn''t that hard. They were going to join the side of mastersing from the other team or from the outside under Zin leadership.

    Their task was simple, they had to help in killing the dark masters, and also to secure a precious cargo. When they learnt about the nature of this cargo, and how it was going to change everything in the end, everyone couldn''t help but give William a ming look.

    "You got a way to deal with this, and you still want to drive us away? Tsk! What a selfish leader you are!"

    Ibra expressed what everyone else was thinking about.

    "I don''t guarantee that this will suffice everyone, however¡­" William paused, "if we are lucky, then Zin will prepare enough."

    "I''m sure he will," Lara chuckled, "I''m going to contact him and let him know about the risks on stakes here."

    "..." William didn''t say anything and kept his silence. Lara did as she said, and Zin indeed promised her to prepare enough cargo for all of them.

 Chapter 714 The Scarlet Eye Legion

    ?

    As William''s team decided to stay, the leaders team also decided the same. William didn''t say anything, after all he already exined the risks involved in this mission.

    After an entire day, and as everyone rested enough, William finally got the word from Zin.

    [We are ready!]

    "Let''s roll out then," William knew the ongoing status of everyone from his formation. He rested and even slept for half a day straight. He knew there wouldn''t be anything dangerousing towards them before they''d attack tha academy.

    The n to move forward was simple. The first group to head towards the academy was Zin''s. As they got lots of things with them, they were going to move slower.

    As the news of the two teams'' decision to stay spread, many also asked to join. To organise things, Zin ced the lowest limit to join to be at the early stage dark gold grade. And that alone was enough to let thousands to join.

    William didn''t mind that. After all, his quota to seed in this trial was quite low.

    Zin would move out with his team, walking directly on the bottom of this grand hole zone. The ground was currently so solid that even running a battle at it wasn''t going to leave nothing much behind.

    As Zin led his team over, William kept tracking them. The general n was to start moving when they got close enough. They brought enough earth based masters with them, enough to build up a grand stage for the uing battle with the dark masters.

    "It''s time, let''s move out," Zin''s team took two days to cover up the distance they could have crossed in just one. And that was quite expected as they were dragging many things along the way.

    As they got close enough, and judging by their marching speed during the past couple of days, William selected the best time to make others move out.

    During all this time, he kept resting, checking any update at the entire area and at the academy. He also kept talking with Zin and other masters about how they were going to handle this.

    They got less than ten thousand masters, and they got to fight almost one hundred thousand masters around that academy. If nothing surprising happened, then this fight wasn''t going to be bad.

    William got a much higher number of high end masters than the enemy. Not to mention he also got his modified catapults.

    They were made to throw away masters, but they also could throw away lots of deadly and explosive stuff. During the past few days, the masters inside the region were working and preparing lots of things that could be used by these catapults.

    They were also preparing lots of defensive and offensive arrays, just preparing for any unexpected turn of events.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William wasn''t sure if the trigger the final traps in the entire region were going to get triggered when they''d attack the dark master or they''d have to hit the academy itself. So he let everyone prepare, and he just kept himself busy thinking and nning for the uing assault.

    Zin was going to lead the main army, while William decided to act solo. As for the precious cargo they dragged with them, they agreed to let them back, a few kilometres away from the main battlefield.

    And to make sure nothing bad would happen to them, they assigned a couple of hundreds of masters to stay on guard there. William assigned part of his team and friends to be stationed there, but most decided to join the main army.

    "Atst! I thought I was going to rot here, hahahaha!" Ibra was excited like everyone else. He waved his ive while walking down the stairs the earth based masters here prepared for all of them.

    Once William left this grand pir, he lost any ability to observe anything. But that wasn''t an issue. Zin and other leaders were there to scan for anything abnormal appearing in the region. So William didn''t worry about this.

    The two teams were a long distance away from the academy to begin with. And the ground wasn''t smooth as many rocks blocked their paths forward.

    To make things faster and much easier, they had to use the help of earth based masters to tten the tough terrain. At the same time, many water and even ice based masters started to intervene, covering the entire ground with ice, to make everyone walk faster.

    Like this, the army of masters started marching towards the dark academy from three different directions. Everyone thought they''d face lots of trouble and problems, or the dark masters would show movement to counter them. But that never happened, and William expected that.

    "What''s the point in making any more traps when there are two formidable traps set on board?" William muttered to himself when he heard the manyments from everyone about this.

    The entire ground was going to fall, and the sky was covered with a thick ckyer of clouds. The ground and sky made William feel like he was walking into the opened jaw of a colossal beast. And at any moment, that beast was going to close its jaw, killing him and everyone else.

    He managed to read through the trap of the goldenyer underground, but he couldn''t yet unveil anything about the ck trap in the sky.

    As the three armies of masters were heading towards their destination, another army was getting closer from this region. And this army was quite special.

    This army had one thousand masters, but none of them would be underestimated. It''s about their spirit power grade, as they all were at dark gold grade. But none of them exceeded mid grade, and that didn''t mean they were weak.

    This team knew lots about mysterious things of the world, the same field that William and other masterscked. They got weird ways to fight and used to deal with abnormal situations and things happening in the world.

 Chapter 715 The Scarlet Eye Legion

    ?

    "Leo, I got intel about that region," one master suddenly approached a young man, one who just looked twenty years old.

    He was Leo, the leader of the Scarlet Eye legion. And they got this unique name thanks to this young man.

    Even if he was young, even if he was just at the early stage of dark gold grade, he wasn''t someone to be taken lightly. In the entire Fate Sacred Cult, he got a name for himself; the Deadly Asura!

    "And?" Leo passed his fingers through his long silver hair, a habit that he used to have when excited. And he got the reason for it.

    He just ended a mission which went all wrong. He faced a stubborn enemy and had to massacre everyone living around hundreds of kilometres to get rid of a nasty infestation curse.

    The higher ups didn''t like how he did things back there. As he had a long track of bad records in dealing with his missions, he expected a severe punishment this time. Last time he went off with a strict warning and light punishment. But this time he expected to get demoted or something.

    Yet least to his expectations that he got another assignment just when he expected the worst. This one was a highly valued mission, one that got the full attention of the Cardinal Council back at the cult.

    He heard the brief about this mission. And he got to know there were lots of gaps in the information provided by the cult. So, he sent his scouts to see if they could gather up intel before arriving in that region.

    "That ce suffered lots of turmoil in the past month. It started when a young master came from the Scorching Lands, one who is famous as the Fox master¡­"

    His right-hand master started to speak about the intel gathered by the scouts they sent. The more he spoke, the more Leo understood the general situation out there.

    "... And now there is a huge war going on at that dark academy side. It''s the Blue Hills, not too far from our current location."

    "Luckily," Leo smiled, and that smile meant he was ready for another massacre, "any clue about the one who rang the bells back home?"

    "So far all the intel we got speaks about the Cursed ck Clouds," the master who was a few years older than Leo paused, and thetter got his face changed the moment he heard such news.

    "Don''t tell me they covered the entire region already!"

    "Well¡­ That indeed happened," the master paused, "and on top of that, we didn''t sniff the whereabouts of the one who caused all this."

    "Hoyo, that''s quite bad!" a tough looking master approached, looked at Leo before adding, st time we ended up killing a million masters to get rid of such nasty things. Boss, are you cursed or what?!"

    "Hahahaha, stop it Jeremy, our boss is indeed blessed with bad luck and the wrath of heavens, hahahaha!" the right-handed masterughed, and Leo ignored the two of them.

    "You told me they brought an army of hundreds of thousands? Not to mention the dark ones inside that damn ce¡­ It''s hopeless¡­"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Boss, we should inform home about this," Jeremy cracked his knuckles, "I don''t mind doing my job, but hated it when we got all the me with zero thanks or appreciation for it."

    "Yes boss," the right-handed master, named Rockos, nodded as he chimed in with his friend''s words, "we need to get their full support on this."

    Leo looked at the two before taking something out. Yet before he''d do anything, Rockos received a new intel that made his face slightly change.

    "Wait boss, there''s an update," he hurriedly stopped Leo from activating the secret method to contact home, "not all the monsters are inside that region."

    "What do you mean?" Leo was holding some sort of a seashell, big enough to fit in his hand, made out of azure green pure and semi-transparent ore.

    "Most of them are standing outside, surrounding the entire ce," Rockos was also puzzled like Leo, "they just sent three teams of thousands, at most ten, towards that dark academy."

    "Just ten thousand? Did they already kill all the dark masters?"

    "The dark masters are still alive," Rockos kept listening to more intel from the eyes they sent towards the Blue Hills, "they are around one hundred thousand, if not more."

    "That¡­ What do they think of? Are they crazy?" Jeremy eximed in doubt, but Leo answered such news with a loudugh.

    "At least we are going to escape this without any penalty. Saving hundreds of thousands on the cost of just ten thousand? That''s not a big deal."

    There was a certain system to assess any team''s performance at the cult. One of the parameters was about the percentage of survivors on the cost of the ones getting killed.

    "I want to hear everything about what happened there," Leo led everyone in his team and went towards the Blue Hills, "I want to understand why they didn''t send everyone out."

    "Working on it!" Rockos spoke with the scout team members and let them know about their new assignment.

    And soon enough, Leo and others got to know about what happened back at this war, and why things ended up in such a way. It was easy to get such news from the huge number of masters who surrounded the area. And among all their talk, one name kept repeated all the time: William.

    "What an interesting youngster he is," Leo''s interest got piqued by what he heard, "try to find a way tomunicate directly with him."

    "For what?" Jeremy rolled his eyes, "don''t tell me you are going to break another sacred rule of ours!"

    "Come on, rules are meant to be broken, right?" Leo intended to speak with William, a thing that was forbidden in their cult, "he is rted to that alert from before. And I''m sure he got something to do with the one who did all this."

 Chapter 716 Attacking The Dark Academy

    ?

    "But¡­" Rockos tried to stop his leader from doing something crazy. Yet from the look on Leo''s face, everyone in the team knew it was pointless to try and reason with him.

    Once he got excited and hyped up about something, he''d not stop at anything and do it. And he got just excited about William and wanted to know him more.

    "Don''t forget, our mission is to stop what''s happening, find the culprit, and bring him back with us," Leoughed, "to do so, we need to break that little rule, right? It''s not a big deal."

    "For us? It''s a disaster!" Rockos sighed, shook his head in regret for telling too much about William to Leo.

    Thetter was quitepetitive, loved to know strong and promising prodigies all over the world. On many asions, such introductions and simple meetings ended up with big fights!

    At the same time, William was heading towards the dark academy with the other two teams. Nothing new happened, and it seemed like the end battle was waiting for them at the doorsteps of that academy.

    The leaders agreed already on the general n of this assault. They might have the fewer numbers in the equation, but they were confident they''d crush the enemy with their overall might.

    [We are getting close and there isn''t any sign of anything abnormal] Zin sent to William, [We are going to arrive at the X point in less than one hour. The earth team will start his work, so how about your team?]

    William and others already arranged each team''s role in the army. Part of the masters, the earth-based ones, would start modifying the entire region around the dark academy and form the grand stage for the uing battle.

    To make sure they''d not get pushed against the wall, they nned to form a grand sloppy area, one that would end with a long tapering edge towards the bottom, merging the grand stage they were going to form with the grand bottom around.

    Like this, and even if they got something unexpected happening, they''d end up without finding themselves standing at a very high edge or something. At the same time, this would add more space for their forces to manoeuvre and change tactics when needed.

    William was hopeful about the hidden traps in the academy. The worst things were already discovered, and the most that could happen was for the ground to fall and the sky to crash down on them.

    As he got a way to solve the problem of the falling ground, all William had to care about was the ck clouds in the sky. And after speaking with everyone for long hours, he got they had no clue about what these clouds might be.

    So he decided to wait until the final trap would get triggered, hopefully he''d find some way to solve all this.

    What Zin asked for was for the team William promised to take care of the precious cargo. "Don''t worry, once you arrive, my team is ready."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And that was what happened. The moment they arrived there; every team got to do their task. The earth-based masters were the busiest for the next ten hours. They spread around the dark academy for around thirty kilometres, raised the ground and added more rocks to build a grand circr stage, one that looked like a colossal disc.

    As this happened, the dark masters around the academy seemed to start rallying themselves up.

    The two sides were preparing for thest war, and yet not a single sign appeared from the academy. The bubble kept surrounding it, and William recalled the words of the Nightmare monster every time he saw that bubble.

    That monster told him that the doors of the academy would be open for him. And that meant there was some sort of a deadly trap inside that academy. But William didn''t n to get near it, at least that was what the initial n was.

    [Let''s roll!] Zin was appointed as the general leader of the masters assaulting the dark master forces. The moment the entire grand disc got built, he didn''t hesitate to give the order.

    And with it, the doors of hell opened.

    The masters on both sides ran towards each other. The disparity in numbers was clear to anyone watching this battle from far. And yet the main thing that stole the spotlight were the catapults.

    They got arranged in groups, at the edge of this grand rocky structure, all were roaring and releasing tons of attacks towards one direction, the academy.

    The attacks came like fire rain towards the academy, hitting fiercely the bubble surrounding it, spreading out fierce explosions and rumbling noises.

    Each bolt moved out from the catapults with a long trail of smoke, heading in a big, curved path towards the bubble, hitting it violently before exploding.

    From far, all the masters saw that bubble shine with bright red light with each explosionnding over the bubble. Yet it felt like the bubble was able to stand its ground, sustaining all the damagending on it.

    Each boltnded left behind a small rounded red area that soon expanded outwards, expanding to cover more of the bubble. Soon enough, lots of explosions merged together, giving the impression that this bubble was going down soon.

    But that didn''t happen! And even with all these attacks, nothing came out from that academy. "This is new," William never met such a sturdy shield before, not something that could span to cover such a huge area without getting weakened. At the same time, theck of any response from the academy side puzzled him further.

    If there were an elite force hidden inside the academy, then this was the right time to attack. The dark masters were getting massacred in batches thanks to the great difference in the grade and strengths of both sides. And that meant even if they got the upper hand in terms of numbers, soon enough they''d lose out such advantage.

 Chapter 717 Who Are You?

    ?

    William expected this battle tost for at most half a day. After that, the dark masters would be all gone and only the academy was left behind. At the same time, it seemed attacking the academy didn''t trigger anything. And that meant they got to enter the academy to trigger the traps.

    William didn''t want to go in there, but it also was clear they got nothing to do about this bubble thing. After half a day, the battle with the dark masters ended. And now everyone was trying everything in their power to take down the bubble.

    William was now standing side by side with the leaders of the army. They were feeling a bit helpless against this bubble. No matter what they used, no matter how strong the techniques they used, nothing worked.

    "This is really disappointing¡­" One of the leaders said, expressing what everyone else felt.

    "We tried everything¡­ Shall we try offensive arrays as well?" another suggested, but Zin shook his head.

    "I tried it with a few of my friends here and failed."

    "This¡­" the rest of the leaders who didn''t know about this got their faces dropped. It seemed they ced high hopes over the work of arrays over such defensive shields.

    "There is a way," as there was no other option, William decided to take the risk. And when he said such words, everyone turned to look at him with anticipation, "but¡­ I can''t guarantee what will happen next."

    "We are ready if the ground falls, but these clouds are something that we know nothing about," Zin got what William wanted to say. What William meant was that once he got inside, he might not be able to help them at all. In addition to that, the traps would be all activated.

    "Can''t wee with you?" Lara paused, looked at Stark, Zin, Nonoa, and others, "there might be a grand army inside."

    "If there is one, then it should have appeared a long time ago," William shook his head, "besides I got no guarantee that I can take anyone inside with me. So let''s just do it as we nned."

    "Thest resort? Fine," Zin knew what William wanted to say, others also knew, "give us two hours to prepare, then you can go."

    "Won''t we help?" Lara still wanted to go with William, all of his friends were.

    "It''s not an option," Stark cleared up his throat, "we got to trust him."

    "But¡­"

    "Just make sure you all would escape if things went bad," William smiled a calm one, a smile that told everyone here he wasn''t that worried as his friends or Lara, as the leaders of the army, like anyone in his spot, "you got two hours. Once done, just notify me and I''ll start."

    "Got it," Zin ended this discussion for now. And as every one of the leaders went to do their part, William''s friends all gathered around him, trying to convince him to take a few inside that academy.

    But no matter how they tried, he still turned them down.

    William was now standing alone, in front of the grand bubble that surrounded the academy. He was around half a kilometre away from it, yet he felt impressed by the grand defensive structure in front of him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "If we got to know how to do it, then all the big cities and forts in the world can be well protected against that disaster¡­"

    William wasn''t thinking about any of the current traps here, or the uing challenge waiting for him inside the academy. He was impressed by this defensive bubble the most and thought about how to use it for the grand benefit of the mastermunity.

    One hour just passed when something unexpected happened. William heard an alien voice echoing in his mind out of the blue, greatly startling him.

    [You are William, the Fox Master, correct?]

    "Who are you?" William knew that the one who spoke to him used spirit telepathy to do it. And that meant he was at dark gold grade.

    [A friend]

    "You aren''t part of our army, then you are one of the enemies?" William was vignt against the voice owner, vignt about anything rted to this ce.

    [Told you I''m a friend] the speaker paused for a second, [I came from a long ce to help you. Can we meet up?]

    "Came from where? Help me exactly in what?" William didn''t respond to this stranger''s request, asked his questions and waited for the answer. He looked around, but he knew he wouldn''t be able to spot that stranger in the middle of all this mess, "where are you?"

    [I''m on my way towards this region. As for the help, it''s rted to those ck clouds. I bet you know nothing about them, right?]

    William instantly froze the moment he heard what this stranger said. This was indeed true. "Sounds like someone who knows his stuff," William paused, "tell me then what are these clouds?"

    [A destiny changing curse, one that''s able to turn any victor to a loser, any king to a mere ve]

    "This¡­" William never heard of such a thing before. Something that could change the course of fate and destiny? But when he thought back towards how that Nightmare monster seemed confident about this sh, he started to believe such insane words.

    [I know you won''t believe me, but I hope you do. I came from a ce that''s specialised in dealing with such weird things. And I''m sent here to help]

    "Hmm¡­ So, tell me how I can stop these clouds from affecting destiny, and I owe you one."

    [It doesn''t work this way] the strangerughed, [My name is Leo, and I''m the leader of an entire force specialised in dealing with such matters. You have to entrust us with such task]

    "Entrust a stranger who says things I never heard before? Sure! Why not?" Williamughed, "give me a reason to do so then."

    [How about this, you met one of our people before, at that city, one who read through your destiny and answered a question for you]

 Chapter 718 Wanting Answers? Then Let Me In!

    ?

    Leo knew he got no capital to support his ims but this, [He got a severe bacsh, and you asked him to spy on one of your enemies. But things went wrong, and he ended up touching the fate of something scary, the one you are currently fighting against, correct?]

    "So, you two are rted?" William knew such an event wasn''t known to anyone but to himself and the few who were with him back then. And they were all his friends. There was no way for a stranger that he never met or heard about before to know such details without a source. And that left him with the old man he met before.

    [That''s correct. And starting from there, we got interested in you]

    "Why?"

    [That''s our business, we are very much interested in such things]

    "What a bunch of weirdos you are!" Williamughed, and despite what he showed on the surface, he was curious about Leo and what he said.

    [You can call us that, won''t be the first, won''t be thest] and against what William expected, Leo handled thisment pretty lightly, [So, can we meet up?]

    "Well, as you can see, I''m preparing to get inside that academy," William knew that Leo was watching him right now using his spirit sense, "by the way, are you a pinnacle master? Your voice tells me you are very young to be so!"

    [I''m at the early stage]

    "No way! You are tens of kilometres away from me! How can you do it?"

    [Who said I''m normal? Who said my team is? The ce I came from is?] Leoughed, finding William''sment a bit amusing, [And about what you are going to do, you know once entering that ce, the clouds will start working, right?]

    "I know that already," William rolled his eyes, "so be nice and tell me the way to undo this."

    [I told you already, you can''t! You need people with special abilities, people like us to do it. If not, then you won''t be able to stop the uing disaster]

    "Sounds like bragging," Williamughed, "so I have to wait for you to arrive before doing it?"

    [We need to meet to arrange things]

    "Why do I feel like you want something else?" William saw through the intentions of Leo, "just drop the idea of fighting with me. I''m not free to begin with, and you won''t win."

    [Oh, you got some balls! You do know that for a gold master like yourself, you can''t bear someone like me, right?]

    "That''s what you believe, not what will happen though," William got the same vibe from Leo like the one he got from his past life peers and rivals. They were eager to test themselves against him, to win him in friendly spars. And that was why he guessed the real intentions of Leo.

    But William didn''t want to. He was sure whatever the ce Leo came from, it was something that he knew nothing about. And that in itself was enough reason to let him drop any idea of fighting Leo.

    [I won''t help without meeting you first]

    "Let''s postpone our meeting then after this is over," William evilly grinned, "after all, I''m very interested in that ce you came from, in the business you are doing."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    [Hmm¡­ I can''t say any details without the agreement of my bosses, or else¡­]

    "Then take me to meet themter on," William expected such an answer from Leo, "I won''t meet you up without getting at least this promise from you."

    Away from the Blue Hills, Leo was running alongside his team. They heard what he and William said as they were all strong masters like Leo, and special as him.

    "Boss¡­ You do know the rules¡­" Jeremy tried to dissuade Leo from agreeing. He knew his boss, and knew he was a bit rash, actually very rash in doing things and making decisions that would backfireter on, not only on himself, but on everyone else in his team.

    [You know such a thing is nearly impossible]

    "Just try," William paused, "after all, with me and that enemy around, we''ll meet each other quite a lot."

    [Hahahaha, I like you] Leo got the hint behind William''s words. [That reminds me, where is that enemy? We want to deal with it!]

    "That makes two of us then," William bitterly smiled, shaking his head before adding, "that bastard isn''t here, not even close from here."

    [This¡­ We need to deal with it so we can prevent such things from happening again]

    "Told you, we are going to see each other quite a lot," Williamughed, "I know where this bastard is going to be. And I bet it is nning to do something insane like what it did here."

    [I''m interested in knowing such intel¡­]

    "In exchange for letting me in your side," William interrupted Leo''s words, making thetter pause again, "this is a fair trade. Like this, no one will object at your side, right?"

    [It''s not up to me to decide this] Leo controlled himself thanks to the intervention of his friends.

    "You got until this is over," William didn''t find such an answer weird.

    [You have to wait for me to arrive first] Leo saw William talking to other leaders and heard what he exchanged with them. They were ready, and that meant he was about to walk into the academy.

    "You can undo this once arriving here, no need to waste time in meeting up and such," William shrugged, "I''m sure you aren''t that far off, right?"

    [Give me five hours or so]

    "I''ll give you half an hour at most," William knew what this master was thinking about, "then I''m going in."

    Leo did indeed have less than half an hour to arrive at the Blue Hills. Yet he wanted to meet up with William before doing anything.

    He still wanted to spar with him. And William didn''t want to do such a thing without getting to know more about the mysterious origin of Leo. not to mention, he got no reason to spar with Leo.

 Chapter 719 The Mythical Soap Hummingbird Bubble

    ?

    If Leo wanted to spar with anyone, then he could select Ibra or Tina. Both were crazy about battling others andparing themselves with everyone. In fact, Leo gave William the same impression about Ibra and Tina.

    [Fine!] Leo knew he got caught in his attempt, [But you owe me one]

    "If you let me in, then yes we can speak about this," William knew having such a person hunting him down was a headache. But in exchange for letting him into such a mysterious force, he was ready to do what Leo wanted.

    After Leo went off the radio, William started to think about what he learnt. From the first moment he spotted these clouds, he knew they were bad news.

    He got part of what Leo truly meant. Something that could change destiny meant that he was destined to win this sh. And such a tool meant his enemy could already spy on fate and destiny.

    "That bastard¡­ It knew it''s my win and so nned all this to turn the tables over¡­" William knew thinking about fate and destiny matters was quite a headache.

    For example, that monster told him it was going to wait for him back at the kingdom''s capital. And that meant that monster knew this was going to be William''s win despite what it did.

    Yet it tried to change fate, and that made Willim''s mind spin. "Did he change fate for me to lose, or was doing such a thing out of desperation or what?"

    William already got a headache thinking this far. In the end, half an hour passed, and he didn''t share what he learnt with anyone.

    He knew it was pointless to do so. Instead, it might backfire and bring chaos and unneeded depression or loss of hope for others.

    Fighting against destiny and fate was just an impossible task for anyone. But Leo imed he got a way to undo what that monster did.

    If the monster got a way to affect destiny, then it made sense there was a way to correct such a thing.

    "I know you can hear me, I''m going in. I''m leaving the fate of the people here and myself up to you," William said, while walking decisively towards that bubble.

    Without clearing this ce, without taking down this academy, then his trial would be a failure. Not to mention he felt like something inside was controlling everything here. If he managed to go inside and find it, then he''d be able to win all this.

    As for Leo, William didn''t know anything about this young master, nor his power and abilities. Yet he hoped Leo was half of what he imed, and then things would end up better in the end.

    The entire academy was covered up with a thick white bubble that stood mighty against all the attacksnding over it. There was no door, no entrance, nothing at all in that bubble that would suggest a way for William inside. And yet he walked steadily towards there.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He already informed his vices and the leaders about his movement, asking them to be prepared for the worst. As for Leo, he knew that mysterious master was watching him while he walked towards the academy.

    The moment he got closer, he felt like some sort of vibration appeared in front of him. And with it, a weird humming sound erupted.

    "This hum¡­ This vibration¡­ Is it the mythical Soap Hummingbird Bubble?!!!" just before he''d continue his words, the white bubble in front of him expanded all of sudden, enveloping him and taking him away.

    It happened in a sh, in a blink of an eye he vanished from the front of the academy, appearing inside a hazy world that was filled with white fog.

    "Sh*t! It''s that damn thing I heard legends about¡­" William raised his hands and saw how his body was looking as if it was going to fade away.

    This was something that didn''t mean he was in the middle of getting teleported or something. It was the nature of this ce, a corroding space for spirits.

    This ce was a myth, a legendary space where any living creature, be it a man or monster, once entering inside would get their spirits corroded like acids meeting flesh.

    It wasn''t something that William was prepared to face right now. And to add more to his current crisis, he knew he didn''t get much time.

    "Come out!" yet he knew he wasn''t powerless. The next moment he recognised this weird space, he took out his two weapons, "circle around me, use all the spirit power you have and make sure to not use any technique."

    William didn''t need to tell them his orders. Just a mere thought of his and they could execute what he wanted. He just said it out loud so he''d encourage himself.

    The only way to survive this was by isting his presence. And luckily for him he got two spiritless monstrous weapons next to him.

    The trick was to make them move around him, release tons of spirit power without using any technique. If they used any technique, they''d end up wasting their spirit power. And William wanted the spirit power to confuse this set up.

    This mythical space used spirit power concentration to detect any presence inside. As William let the two weapons circling around him, he''d get isted soon enough from this space. And in the next few minutes, his body started to grow corporeal again.

    Once he stopped such corroding effect, William could finally heave a sigh of relief. "I''m now inside, and even if this space looks huge, I know it isn''t," William recalled how this bubble surrounded the area of the academy. So, he just had to find a way to reach the academy. And once there, he''d start looking for the source of this space.

    Many legends spoke about different things, but they all agreed on the origin of this space. It was supposedly a skull of an ancient and extinct monster, one that used to roam the outer world millions of years ago.

 Chapter 720 The Weird Academy

    ?

    William didn''t know anything about the shape of this skull. "Time to scout this ce," he started to slowly walk around, controlling his two weapons to move alongside him as well.

    Doing it this way made him move slowly, but he was safe in the end. As he was doing this, he wasted ten hours roaming around. And when he arrived at the walls of the academy, William saw it shimmering in a weird green light.

    "This¡­ It''s a sealing formation¡­ Damn!" William marched along the walls until he finally found the main gate. And there he found himself unable to pass through.

    Something stopped him and his two weapons from touching the gate. And that meant there was some sort of a formation sealing the entire academy.

    "Screw it! I''m going to enter using brute force then," William left the two weapons to protect him before he started to charge up his technique.

    He didn''t dare to change to a fox form. Who knew what that monster did here, might attract the wrath and attention of that formation in the end.

    He just kept himself in human form and stacked up to a hundred attacks together. He didn''t fear to stir up anything as he was using his spirit power into his Holy Sword technique.

    He never stacked such arge number at the same time. And so the moment he gathered such a number up, he felt immense pressure exerted over him.

    "Let''s see if you can defend against this!" *Rumble!*

    The attacknded and the entire walls around the academy shook. Even the ground trembled and the entire milky white space showed a change as well. Small storms started to appear, forming tornado-like gatherings.

    William didn''t care about this space, focused mainly over the academy gate and walls. A small crack appeared there, one that didn''t look much. "At least there is a crack," he muttered to himself before starting to store up his attacks again.

    One attack after anothernded over the academy gate, all hitting the same spot. This ended up deepening the crack, spreading it around, until the entire gate and parts of the walls nearby were covered up with spider web-like cracks.

    William kept releasing his attacks nonstop. To make up for the lost spirit power, he consumed elixirs. And soon enough, the cracks he caused ended up deepening, and a shattering sound erupted, and the gate fell down alongside parts of the walls.

    Once that happened, William didn''t dy or hesitate, ran with all his might towards that gap. He knew such a scary thing wouldn''t leave such a hole intact for a long time. And his doubts were correct.

    Just as he ran fast, he saw the gap he created getting filled fast with white fog. It appeared as if the fog was falling down like a rock or something, rapidly closing that gap. But William was already moving with everything he got and managed to slip through the gap alongside his two weapons.

    "Phew! That was a close call," Williamnded on the ground, catching his breaths fast. He exerted too much to just create this hole. It took him a few minutes to slowly stand up, look around, and he found himself standing inside the academy.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    It was abandoned, just as he thought before. He was standing in front of a shut down gate, and the outer world looked quite normal and usual as if it wasn''t surrounded with any fog or a deadly trap or anything.

    In front of him, a wide space that looked like a broad street was there, lined with few buildings. Dust covered everything, as if this ce wasn''t touched for years.

    Even the buildings showed few fallen pieces and the nts were grown wildly and without any care or attention. William started to walk deeper, even opened many doors and checked what was within.

    Nothing much was there. Anything inside was covered with a thickyer of dust, and there wasn''t anything of value.

    Even the nts William found around were all wild and didn''t have any use at all. In William''s eyes, this ce just missed ruined buildings and holes in the ground, corpses and skeletons lying all over the ce, and then the picture would be perfect.

    William didn''t just check the buildings to look for anyone left there, but he wanted to see if he could sniff any clue about the source of that deadly trap outside.

    He tried to check on the progress of things outside, but for a reason, his attempts all failed. Even his spirit sense failed to see anything outside the walls of the academy.

    William knew the outer trap was sealing anything and everything. And yet he felt bizarre when he stood on top of the walls, seeing the grand and rich life outside.

    "If I didn''te from a deadly ce before getting here, I''d take all this for real¡­ Wait a second¡­ This¡­ Can this be an illusion?"

    This thought never crossed his mind before. Yet when he saw such an unrealistic world out there, even spotting a few monsters roaming and running in the distance, he couldn''t help but feel how deeply wrong this all was.

    The only exnation he could think of was this, he fell into a grand formation of illusion the moment he passed into here. He was exhausted and was d to get rid of such a deadly threat. And that made him perhaps miss him entering into some sort of a new trap.

    "To detect if there is an illusion or not, I need to use a breaking array¡­ If the entire ce is a grand formation, then it will just bring little changes, nothing much¡­"

    William started to take this matter seriously the more he looked at the outer world. And so, he started to take materials out andid out two formations.

    He could use his spirit sense, but for a reason he felt like he couldn''t see everything through. And that was also matching the theory of being inside an illusion.

 Chapter 721 Meeting With The Cardinals

    ?

    Inside an illusion, everything wasn''t real. And so even if he tried to use his spirit sense to see through everything, he wasn''t actually using his spirit sense in full power, or even half of it.

    If he managed to use his spirit sense in full power, then the entire illusion would be broken. And so, he built another array, one that could augment his spirit sense to some extent.

    He knew his breaking array would cause a change, subtle and minute that could easily be missed, happening somewhere away from him and he''d not notice it.

    He built the second array to make sure he''d miss a single thing. He stood in the middle of that array and activated both.

    *Sizzle!*

    "As expected¡­" he saw a little change, some sort of a me that appeared just one kilometre to his northwest. The fire spark just appeared and vanished in a blink of an eye, yet he managed to capture it.

    That single moment was enough to confirm his early doubts. And so he started to think about how big the formation he''d make to tear this entire illusion down.

    As he thought about this, there was another thing that he had to think about¡­ "Any illusion would either aim to kill someone, or entrap the person inside an endless loop¡­ From the nature of this ce, I can tell that the monster aimed for thetter. And that''s very weird¡­"

    William knew that monster wouldn''t do something wrong, wouldn''tmit a mistake. This illusion was meant to entrap him inside, and that meant something bad was going on out there.

    He was right. The moment he vanished into that bubble thing, and the world started to tremble and crack. The clouds in the sky started to shine in dangerous grey lights, showing many weird looking symbols there, ready to get activated.

    The moment William stepped inside the academy and the two deadly traps got activated simultaneously. The monster left the entrapping illusion there just in case William managed to find his way out from that deadly fog.

    The monster wanted to entrap William inside for long, long enough for the two traps to get fully activated. The ground trap wasn''t that deadly with the measurements William and others took. But the sky trap was indeed lethal.

    The monster had a way to see through fate and destiny machinations just like how William suspected. But as it was weak, its abilities were limited, and it had to pay a hefty price for doing this.

    He saw that William would get a way to survive the falling of the ground, but not the sky trap. The monster ced all of its hopes over the sky trap, and wanted to let William get sealed inside the illusion until the grand trap of the sky would be activated.

    Yet the monster didn''t even consider the possibility of its actions to attract the attention of another force, one that was experienced in dealing with the sky trap, the deadly curse itid for William.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Leo, look! It''s happening!"

    Leo was standing on the edge of this region, never stepping a single foot inside. He knew how this curse worked and wouldn''t risk himself or anyone on his side to get in the middle of such a deadly curse.

    Yet he already scattered his men all over the region, cing them in the right ces to counter such a curse. Jeremy was by his side, and thetter just punched Leo''s shoulder, extricating him from a long and harsh meeting with the higher ups.

    Leo started to speak with the Cardinal Council after ending his talk with William. He knew what William wanted was against the rules, but thetter got a chip to bargain with.

    Yet things didn''t go easy as Leo expected. The council mistook what happened and med him for all this. He tried to convince them that William was special, but the only special folks in the cardinals'' eyes were those blessed with the fate and destiny spirits.

    But the main issue still remained unsolved. William knew the identity of the one who caused all this, and he hinted that this person or thing was going to cause more troubleter on.

    The code of their work dictated that they had to find the source of any trouble and seal it. This fate wasn''t like killing, as they had to purify the troublemaker spirit and fix all the wrongdoings it did to the entire fate and destiny world.

    This was always an easy task, as anyone daring to touch the realm of fate and destiny would be stuck beside the disaster they caused. But on a few asions, the ones causing such disasters weren''t found easily. And in each and every single case like this, they''d end up suffering a lot to capture that troublemaker.

    William didn''t know that the chip he randomly thought of was something quite valuable in the eyes of that cult.

    And that was the reason behind all the intense discussion that happened in that meeting. Leo didn''t say much, as he knew these old geezers would first hammer him down before finally epting what William requested.

    After all, the value of having such a troublemaker outweighed the risks of letting a single master learn more about their methods and world. Besides, William already knew about their world thanks to this incident.

    So, letting him in and telling him more wasn''t going to hurt. Leo knew as long as the master didn''t have any spirit rted to fate and destiny, learning about such information wasn''t going to help or change anything.

    Yet in the middle of all this, Jeremy disturbed the meeting by what he said. Leo was too focused in speaking with the higher ups and didn''t notice what was going on in the world around.

    The clouds were indeed changing. The ck clouds started to shine brightly with ck light, giving the impression that the world wasing to an end. Many mysterious symbols shed up there, giving anyone seeing them an eerie feeling.

 Chapter 722 The World Is Ending!

    ?

    "This¡­" It wasn''t just the sky, but also the ground was showing signs of being over. The ground started to tremble fiercely, while gaps and cracks appeared everywhere.

    Yet this wasn''t what made Leo and others'' faces change, the ck clouds were.

    "It''s starting!" Jeremy looked at Leo, "we need to act, we need to act now!"

    "Damn!" Leo knew he wouldn''t get the answer from the cardinals in time. So, he simply ryed what happened over, and then turned to Jeremy and gave him a firm nod.

    Jeremy spread the order to act over, while Leo stood in his ce, taking out an old looking fan, one that suiteddies more than men. He didn''t wave it, simply opened and raised it towards the clouds as if he was going to fight this disaster using this useless fan.

    But it wasn''t useless! It was something that got forged after sacrificing tons of lives. It was ironic though, as the way to fight such darkness was by using things created from the middle of darkness itself.

    Taking down these clouds was something that would take lots of preparations, tons of effort, and a long time.

    Leo and his team might be troublemakers, but they were pros. They came prepared to deal with this curse since the moment they learnt about its existence.

    As Leo and his team were dealing with this curse, things were more hectic at the side of the city masters army. The ones outside were petrified by what was going on. They wanted to step in and help, yet the falling of the ground stopped them.

    Not to mention their leaders made it clear before leaving, even if the ground shook and the skies fell, they wouldn''t move a finger towards this ce. It never crossed their minds that such a warning woulde true, literally happening in front of their eyes.

    As for their leaders and the high-end masters with them, things weren''t as the masters outside thought. Before they stepped in here, they already knew what to do. Zin brought a way to solve the impending problem of the fall of the ground, and that was something crazy in the eyes of many, and also pretty much exciting as well.

    The solution was proposed by William, garnishing lots of awe and confusion when he mentioned it. William proposed for the masters to catch and seal the flying monsters that attacked them earlier, catching enough for the entrapped force inside this region to board its backs and fly away.

    Of course, William knew like others that trying to tame these monsters was futile endeavour. And he knew more. In the outer world, such a step could be done but limited to certain masters with specific spirits. But in this world, it was impossible to do so.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William told them they had to prepare for a brutal fight and struggle against these flying monsters once boarding their backs. Monsters would try to kill the masters, and it was the duty of the masters to keep these monsters flying and rising on top of the ground using various methods.

    This was just a new field, one that no one ever tread or thought about before. Yet they got to try out their chances. William didn''t have any word of advice to them, only asked them to make sure to control their might and not kill the monsters by the end.

    They got to lean over these monsters'' backs and let them carry everyone away from here. Using this method would save them from the hell appearing after the fall of the ground, and the curse awaiting them from the ck clouds in the sky.

    The moment William entered the bubble and the two traps got activated. Without any hesitation, everyone ran towards the direction of the entrapped monsters. And they boarded these in teams of a hundred per monster.

    Zin could have brought more monsters to satisfy the needs of everyone, even to let a group of ten or even five masters to board the back of each monster. But he and others feared the final oue if they followed this setting.

    People like Zin didn''t need to rely that much on these monsters. They just would need them to cross half of the distance, and the rest could be crossed by their own abilities. Yet others didn''t have such privilege.

    The main threat in all this was the no guarantee fact about the directions of flight these monsters would take. If the monsters kept roaming around, then by a few hours the masters on their backs would run dry of spirit power, or even worse, sustain heavy wounds and end up unable to do anything.

    So, it was better to gather up teams of masters with different abilities and powers. Like this, few would take care of handling and guiding the monsters around, and others would be free to stabilise everyone on the monsters'' backs, use even protective arrays to defend others, and even share their potions and elixirs to replenish the lost spirit power or heal major wounds.

    Like this they arranged the small army of masters here in different teams, and all boarded the monsters and then removed the seals on them.

    The moment the monsters regained their freedom, they started to fly high, trying to knock off the annoying masters on their backs. But after half an hour of fierce and brutal flying experience, the monsters started to try something different.

    By this time, the ground was already gone at many spots, showing the running deadlyva at the rock bottom. Anyone seeing thisva knew this was much different than theva released by anyva-based masters.

    Thisva was concentrated and very corrosive, not just made out of heat and fire, but also with toxins and acids. Falling there would have a single end, even if ava-based masternded there, even if masters with earth elements tried to intervene, they''d all die.

 Chapter 723 A Weird Way To Solve The Current Crisis

    ?

    Seeing this made everyone try everything to force the monsters from their sudden descent towards the bottom. They used various techniques, releasing torrents of attacks, and finally they found a weak spot.

    [Hit their eyes! Their eyes are the main weakness they have to force them change their direction!] The leader who first noticed this hurriedly shared this news to everyone.

    Zin made sure to leave one of the leaders or one of the high-end masters on the head of every team. Even William''s guild teams also ended with two leading them. And these figures already shared their Message Papers together. Not to mention they could speak with each other at any time using spirit telepathy.

    It was a hellish experience, but with more information shared among each other, they managed to pull things through. After many hours they finally started to have a general grasp of the right way to lead these monsters around. And gradually, they started to even enjoy it!

    [We need to keep these things by our side, hahahaha! I love it! Hahahaha!]

    Thisment was now bingmon among everyone, not only the high-end masters and leaders. Everyone was having their fun, and all had a role to y in all this.

    During this time, the fall of the ground was already done with, and the entire ce was now like a living hell. From now on, this region wouldn''t be known for being the Blue Hills, but the Lava Ocean, a highly forbidden zone for any master.

    As for the curse in the sky, the clouds that started to shine ck before started to grow fainter. Many white lights appeared obscurely first, missed by most masters during the early five hours of riding the monsters'' backs.

    Gradually everyone started to notice these white lights. This wasn''t only thanks to them getting used to how to ride and guide these monsters, but also thanks to the spread and intensity of the lights themselves.

    During the past hours, Leo and his team managed to purify and deactivate much of this curse. This might be something hard to pull in such a short time, but they already dealt with something like this before. Armed up with their experience, they managed to stop the deadly part of this curse. And all it remained now was to force this curse to fade away and vanish from this world.

    This might take long hours and even days, but Leo''s Scarlet Eye legion knew what to do. During all this, the masters standing outside couldn''t help but notice these weird masters.

    They used weird methods to deal with the clouds. And even if no one got what they were doing, it was easy to link the dots and know these people had something to do with the curse getting weaker and under control.

    As they were here to help, everyone started to offer their services. To Leo and his team, this was one of the rarest moments to face such a situation.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    After all, Leo and his legion always ended up with people infected by curses, and they got to kill all of them. As Leo saw this, he decided to make the best use of them.

    He instructed them to start forming supporting arrays. They might not know anything about the mystical ways Leo''s legion was using, but with these supporting arrays things were going much easier for them.

    Things at the outer world were getting slowly under control, yet this wasn''t the case for William. Thetter already knew he was in an illusion grand formation, and so he started to break it apart.

    Breaking any illusion formation or array wasn''t that hard as long as the caster wasn''t around to modify and strengthen it. The hardest part actually in taking down any illusion was to first realise the world around was illusion, not reality. Then the second most hurdle would be to locate the one controlling the formation, trying to take him down or push him away from the formation.

    William already got these two problems solved. And now he just had to crack this formation open using another formation. Doing the breaking formation wasn''t that hard, and he simply did it without having many problems.

    "This¡­" Yet when he finished his formation and activated it, he found the world around shatter. And then a world made ofva, fiery monsters, and even falling burning meteorites appeared next in front of his eyes.

    "This damn bastard!" William had to struggle to evade and survive the falling attacks. He was pretty sure this was an illusion, one that yed on the current possibilities of the changes happening in the outer world.

    The sky and ground out there were covered with two deadly traps. One of these two was enough to letva gush out, and the other one was unknown to William.

    Yet when he saw these weird monsters, the ones which would never be here in this tiny world as they were with wings, William realised fast this was also an illusion. And this illusion wasn''t meant to entrap him, it was meant to shatter his spirit and kill him.

    William used his two weapons and spirit body to evade everything falling anding at him. He didn''t bother to waste his spirit power on killing these illusions. Be it monsters,va, or burning meteorites, they weren''t real to begin with.

    As he started to roam around, he kept scattering materials to form another grand formation. Yet this time it was much harder than before. Many materials burnt once they got in touch withva or the falling burning rocks. And that made him spare more time to make defensive arrays around the materials, wasting much time in doing this.

    Breaking the first illusion took him roughly one hour, but breaking this one took him twenty. When William broke it, he found himself standing inside a big yard, made out of stone, filled with nts that grew without order. And there he found someone waiting for him.

 Chapter 724 A Clone!

    ?

    With a single look, William saw the face of his enemy, the Nightmare monster in its human form.

    "So¡­ You did indeed make it¡­ What a lucky bastard you are!" The first thing that monstrous human said was these words. He shook his head, as if he was regretting what happened. And William stood just tens of metres away from him, watching this human in interest.

    "You used a spirit division technique to leave an image of you here¡­ Impressive for a monster like you," William calmly smiled, while eyeing his enemy as if he was looking at nothing that was worth his attention.

    "Do you know about this? That''s indeed something¡­ You know I''m growing curious out ofte about something. Many things you did never belonged to this world. I have a reason to know such knowledge, but you¡­ Howe you know all this?"

    "As you said it yourself¡­" William started to slowly walk around, seemingly looking for something, "I''m just a lucky bastard."

    "Don''t try, you won''t find it," the Nightmare monsterughed, "I took it away."

    "You didn''t," Williamughed back, "to make it effective, you need to keep it here."

    "And you think I just made this clone because I missed you? I already sent it towards my real body. Sorry but you came a half a beatte."

    "We''ll see about that," William didn''t take any of this to his heart. He knew this monster ced this clone here to waste more time, and also to make William miss the chance to get his hands over such a rare treasure.

    "Speaking of which, why don''t you step aside and let me scan the ground there?" William suddenly stopped after circling the ce for a few minutes. This yard was all it was in this world, and around it was all fog and nothing else.

    William knew this was the real world just from the sounds of explosions and rumblingsing from all around. Not to mention that white fog was the one that surrounded the academy. William tried to spread his spirit sense, but it didn''t manage to step a single foot into this fog.

    "I told you¡­"

    *Boom!*

    William didn''t say anything, and simply dashed forward, andnded a fierce kick over the monster''s chest, sending it flying. The monster hit the fog area like a bullet, bouncing to the ground before rolling for tens of metres.

    "I wasn''t asking nicely, sorry," William shrugged, and the next moment he dashed again, jumped to the air, andnded on his three tails. The ground shook again, and this time a hole appeared there.

    It wasn''t that deep, but it was deep enough to show something shining down below. Once William saw it, he couldn''t help but evilly grin, pointing at that thing as heughed. "Found it, you sneaky liar, hahahaha!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I''ll kill you!" The monstrous human form stood slowly up, touching his chest while a long trail of blood appeared from the corner of his mouth.

    "You are a pathetic clone, made out of something that doesn''t belong to this world. You have no power nor means to make a scary clone, so drop the act and just watch from the side. I won''t kill your clone for now, don''t worry you''ll watch everything before dying in my hands."

    William didn''t intend to kill this clone for now. He wanted to instigate more wrath and hatred into him, driving him crazier, to make sure he''d slip and make a mistake or more.

    William started to dig the ground, even taking his time in doing it. He didn''t use his full strength, and from time to time, he''d end up throwing a kick or two at that clone, humiliating it even with various means.

    The clone kept releasing threats right and left, but William didn''t respond to any except with a more annoying smile andugh. And slowly that clone started to show true signs of rage.

    The first thing he tried to do was to kill himself. But William was attentive towards that and let his two weapons toss that clone around as if they were throwing a ball or something. In the end they tied it up, sealed its movement, and let it focus on William and what he was doing.

    Then that clone tried to take a lot of stuff, letting them fall around as if it was trying to make an array or something. It was a pathetic act that made Williamugh for a few minutes, and let his weapons collect these materials and foil this move.

    Then the clone tried to stir up different elements, trying to break itself free. Yet it got another round of beating, ending up getting sealed again.

    William didn''t leave any single failed and miserable attempt without teasing that clone with augh or a smile. From time to time, he even threw a few meanments, making that clone''s blood boil.

    William knew this clone was here to waste his time until the final traps would get activated. And from the look of it, this monster did not know what was going on outside. But William wasn''t worried.

    He knew the two traps got measures set in motion to deal with them. So he wasn''t a bit worried at all. He kept himself digging the ground slowly, revealing what was buried underneath.

    To his surprise, the entire yard was the burying ground of that monster''s skull. When he finished unearthing it, he couldn''t help but feel awed and surprised by what he found there.

    First of all saying it was a skull was an understatement. This was a piece of art, something that was carved with extreme craftsmanship out of many amazing jades and ores.

    The skull looked as something pricey or precious, and it wasrge. The length of it was tens of metres, it took the shape of a grand dog skull, something that got three hornsing out from there. The horns weren''t there, but thick stumps were present, announcing the presence of horns one day at this skull.

 Chapter 725 I Got You!

    ?

    The weirdest thing was the presence of eyes. They looked like two ruby gems, shining with faint red light, giving William an eerie feeling.

    In his eyes, it felt like this skull was alive or something, only missing flesh and it''d be all good.

    William unearthed the ground around the skull, digging with care to not harm the precious gem he found. Even if he was impressed with it, there was something that kept bothering him.

    "This skull is so huge¡­ How can I use it?" He knew storing it wasn''t an issue as he could use a ring to do it. But when he thought about taking it out and using it, he couldn''t help but feel weird.

    "I''ll store it first," William took an empty ring, enough to contain such a big skull. And then he touched the skull and thought about moving it towards the ring. Yet what happened next came out of his expectations.

    "Hahahaha! You fell for it atst, hahahaha!" Just when William touched the skull, instead of the skull vanishing inside the ring, a series of things happened.

    First of all, the ring that William tried to store the skull in got crushed. Out of the blue it shone brightly in white light, before turning into white dust in mere seconds. At the same time, the entire skull shone brightly in white light, before it vanished.

    Yet William didn''t feel any good. The ring that was supposed to store the skull got crushed. And that meant the skull got stored in another ce, and he knew where it was even before that clone mocked him.

    William felt like he got a severe bacsh when the skull vanished. His spirit shook, and even his spirit body that he was activating faded and broke apart into thin white smoke.

    That was weird, as William''s fox body was grey in colour, more like a faded ck. But before it vanished, William saw it turn a bit white. Then he felt a weird weakness assaulting him, before coughing up blood.

    "Hahahaha! You got that damn beast''s spirit, hahahaha! Now you have a spirit that will suck dry your spirit power all the time. Let''s see how you''ll even properly fight, not to mention being able to raise your spirit power, hahahahaha!"

    "F*ck you!" William roared and in the middle of his rage, he let Charley kill that clone. He got fed up with his useless taunts and mockery and wasn''t in the mood to listen to anything at this moment.

    Right now, he got what this monster was really after. It did something and let the spirit of that ancient and extinct scary monster to force its way inside his spirit despite not willing to.

    William started to examine his spirit and body. His current condition was least to be described as being messy. "Hmm¡­ So, it just exploded and sucked most of my spirit power when it entered my spirit. Then it went into slumber, the same way the other spirit did. The question still remains, is it safe or what?"

    William knew this monster''s spirit had the ability to suck spirit power. He didn''t know anything else about the true abilities of this ancient spirit, but he got the feeling that he''d suffer from regr bacshes from time to time. Or else that monster wouldn''t take such trouble to force this spirit upon him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William didn''t get the answer to that question, but he knew the one who''d got it. "I need to go out first," he gulped a few drops of an elixir, replenishing his spirit power and healing the damage his body took.

    The aftermath of this fierce spirit wasn''t just limited to the depletion of spirit power, but also extended to hit his body and damage it.

    After recuperation, William turned around and found nothing else in this ce. "I''m sure that bastard dreamt of killing me using all this set up. Yet if he failed, he nned to leave me with such a curse to let me suffer."

    William didn''t think too much about this. He knew soon enough he''d get all the answers and information about this spirit. Then he''d start thinking about what he should do.

    He knew of certain ways to get rid of spirits dormant inside any master, but they were quite risky and hard to perform. His alternate option was to fully integrate this spirit into his. Yet that also carried tons of dangers.

    William threw all this behind his back for now and started toy down a breaking formation. This formation was much smaller than the ones he used to break the illusions before. But it was enough to take him out from here.

    As he was doing this, the situation outside was getting under control. The flying monsters carried all the masters over, and finally they managed to reach the safe outer area.

    Only Zin and a few others of pinnacle grade masters remained behind. They stuck there to wait for William to emerge from the academy.

    "It''s copsing!" Just as they were flying around on the backs of the monsters, everyone saw the sudden cracks that appeared all over the ground carrying the academy.

    It felt like someone dealt a hidden blow or devastating attack at that grand pir of rocks. The piece ofnd that stood erect and withstood the trembling and shaking of the world around started to shake fiercely and show deep cracks.

    Large pieces of rocks like boulders started to separate and fall all the way down to theva world at the rock bottom. Seeing this made all of the masters staying behind to feel instant panic and worry.

    "What shall we do?" one of them asked, "I tried, but my earth techniques can''t help at all!"

    "We¡­ Have nothing to do to save him," Zin bitterly smiled, "he needs to get out before the total fall of this damn ce."

    Zin was right, the entire academy was crashing on its own, without anyone interfering or doing anything.

 Chapter 726 Getting Saved

    ?

    The moment the clone got destroyed, the moment the entire structure started to fall. Yet the scariest thing was that William himself standing in the heart of all this didn''t feel a single tremble or change at all.

    He was in a world that was totally isted from anything happening outside. And that was the scheme of the Nightmare monster, hoping for William to waste his time inside, and dy his exit.

    Yet William didn''t fall for such a trap and started to break through the shackles of this ce using everything he got.

    In less than five minutes, the formation was ready, and he activated it. "I know this may be considered your win, but it''s not the case if I can turn things around," he muttered to himself, while thinking about the crazy idea of merging this spirit with his.

    He didn''t just have this dangerous spirit, but two of such calibre. He held high hopes that by merging the two together with his fox spirit, new things would pop up, something that his enemy never expected.

    As the world around him shattered, William was preparing himself for a fierce battle for his life. Yet the battle he expected became more impossible the moment he came out.

    He knew the world around would be a total wreck. Without the need to check, he knew the ground and sky were falling apart, and he had to find a ce for himself and survive all this before finding a way out.

    Yet least to his expectations that the firm ground around the academy, the one he nned to stand erect and take shelter at during the first few hours after appearing, was already gone!

    The moment he appeared out from the academy, he didn''t find the academy nor the ground around. All he found was pure emptiness, with lots of rocks falling apart and falling down towards the bottom.

    The grand academy and the vast area of ground around were gone, and all that remained now was just a narrow pir, one that wasn''t enough to cover up half a kilometre radius.

    "Damn! What that bastard did exactly!" William found himself in midair, while tons of rocks were falling, and the world was roaring all around. He was in the middle of all this, without any firm ground tond at or hold.

    William was already in his fox spirit form. And when he appeared, the world around didn''t show him any mercy. His body started to fall fast, and soon enough he vanished in the middle of tons of falling rocks.

    William didn''t hesitate to work his tails around, grabbing a few rocks, pulling them over or throwing them afar. He tried to adjust his body, find any ce that he couldnd at firmly and adjust his position for now.

    Yet all his attempts failed to stabilise his body or decrease his fall. The most it did was to clear most of the rocks around, making him clear and visible to others around.

    "Hang on, we areing!" Zin shouted first, before moving his monster towards William. Thetter turned to see Zin and ten others, riding on the backs of grand monsters, alongside many masters as well.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "They did it!" William wanted tough, but he knew his situation didn''t look any good at all. He was still falling hard towards a fate that he knew he''d not be able to escape from.

    Yet in the next few minutes, he got saved. These flying monsters were indeed fast, and they managed to reach and rescue him hundreds of metres before hitting theva ground.

    William returned to his human form so he could stand easily on the back of Zin''s monster. "Youd, you are a pro in giving old people like me a scare, hahahahaha!"

    Despite saying these words while poking William''s chest with his stick, thetter knew Zin was extremely happy.

    "Is it over?" William finally got the time to check the world around. He saw the ground all over this zone was gone, reced by a very deep abyss, shimmering in dangerous red and orange lights thanks to the running streams ofva down there.

    Thick bellows of white smoke rose up from time to time. And William was sure anyone getting caught in this would end up with a great suffering and a horrible fate.

    Without the need to see the future, William knew this zone would be a forbidden area for masters and monsters alike. Only scary monsters would find this ce pleasant and might take it as their homes. Only if they were crazy enough to do so.

    As for the sky, the main threatening variable William was worried about for a long time, he saw it crystal clear by now. Sun was about to rise, and normal clouds appeared there, without a trace of the terrifying ck clouds from before.

    "He did it!" William mumbled to himself the moment he spotted no sign of the ck clouds. He didn''t know Leo or the force he represented, so he didn''t fully trust him in doing what he promised. But he was now sure that a mysterious side of the world, one that was hidden from him and most of the formidable masters before, was going to be revealed to him soon enough.

    He felt quite lucky that he struck such a deal with Leo before. Right now, he was the only one with clue about how to find the Nightmare monster, even the only one who could recognise it as he already met that clone.

    "Everything is great! We managed to save everyone using these monsters. By the way, we want to keep them, and n to form an aerial force for the city."

    Zin wasughing amidst his talk, seemingly quite excited about the future possibilities of such a grand project.

    "That''s indeed helpful, but you do know you can''t tame them, right?" William paused, thinking about something, "I can also help in something rted to these monsters."

 Chapter 727 The Weird Stars In The Fox World

    ?

    "What? I know you have a way to let us better control these beasts, hahahaha!"

    "I didn''t mean that," William rolled his eyes, "I meant to say¡­ I can help in reproducing these monsters, ending up having more."

    "M¡­ More?!!! For real?!!!" Zin got instantly excited, yet just by a single look at William''s face and current evil and greedy expression, all his excitement faded away, "what''s the catch? What do you want out of this deal?"

    "Nothing much," William calmly shrugged, and that made the heart of this old man sink further, "I just want half of the entire produced monsters, given to my guild. What do you think about this?"

    "Half? Damn! You have such a big appetite!" Zin was speechless for a few seconds before adding, "let me see others before giving you the answer¡­"

    "If so then let them know doing such a thing will require tons of materials, many of which are rare and quite pricey. And you''ll shoulder all the costs equally among the forces in the city, including my guild of course."

    "..." Zin knew the earlier offer from William seemed too nice nowpared to what he just said. What William implied was that the forces would take care of most of the expenses, and only would gain a small cut from half of what was going to be produced.

    "Let''s speak about thister," Zin could only put an end to the discussion here, "ah, I heard there is a mysterious force that appeared out of nowhere. They were the ones who dealt with the sky problem, and they were led by someone called¡­"

    "Leo," Williampleted Zin''s words, nodded to him before adding, "they are my friends and allies, came here to help. Make sure they are warmly treated."

    "That''s something we don''t need to discuss about," Zin felt like William still kept tons of secrets that no one knew. This force wasn''t just useful and mysterious, but from the tales he heard from other leaders who arrived there for many hours, they used novel methods to deal with the ck cloud issue.

    These ck clouds kept Zin on his toes, knowing nothing about them. And when he saw a group of people not only identifying the true nature of these clouds, but also having a way to deal with them made him more perplexed.

    On top of that, William introduced them as his friends and allies. And that meant they were on his side. William was just a sixteen-year-old youth, one who defied all logic andmon knowledge about youngsters of his age.

    Zin inwardly sighed, realising that the future did indeed favour those new generations than the old ones.

    Just as they flew towards the safe zone outside, William suddenly turned to Zin and said in a serious tone and expression on his face: "I got severely wounded from what I met inside that dark academy. I''ll train and heal, so please don''t disturb me."

    "..."

    Zin didn''t know what was going on. In his eyes, William was totally fine. But if the man said it himself, William didn''t have anything else to respond with but nod.

    William did indeed look fine, and he didn''t want to train or recuperate or anything. Just as they were flying, he heard the voice of the ck fox, asking him to get ready to enter his world and meet up with him in a minute.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William didn''t dy, sat on the ground and closed his eyes, mimicking the stance where he''d train in. He didn''t know if he''d vanish or show any change, so he came up with this idea of training to make sure nothing would attract anyone''s suspicions.

    Not to mention thest thing he''d want for others to interrupt him.

    As he expected, the moment he went inside the ck fox world, his body changed, and his spirit got activated. Yet against what he expected, this time there were two weird looking spirits residing on his back, closing their eyes, seemingly sleeping or something.

    One looked like a snake and the other looked like a dog. They were small, covered with halos of white light that made it hard for anyone to depict their features clearly.

    Seeing this made Zin feel more curious about what William was doing. He tried to spy on William using spirit sense, to find out that his spirit sense got smashed and crushed the moment it touched William''s body.

    "Damn! What''s wrong with this youngster?!!!" Zin even got a bacsh and coughed up blood. He looked at William as if he was looking at a monster.

    William didn''t have the power to do such a thing, and Zin was at the very top stage in this world. So just thinking about the presence of some sort of power that could outweigh his spirit sense and power, ending up for him to have such severe bacsh, was impossible.

    As Zin was left to his puzzlement, William entered into the ck fox world. This time he found himself standing in front of the ck fox, appearing in his spirit form, with the two sleeping and annoying spirits on his back.

    William didn''t feel surprised by seeing this. Instead, he turned to the ck fox and sighed. "Couldn''t have you been more detailed about your previous warnings?"

    "What warnings?" The ck fox pulled a face that showed a puzzled expression. And that told William it wasn''t wise to speak about this matter.

    "Ahem, I wanted to speak with you about these two. As you can see, I got two uninvited guests in my spirit zone."

    "They look cute," the ck fox seemed to joke, yet his face and tone were quite serious, "don''t you like puppies?"

    "P¡­ Puppies? This one is a beast! It can devour my spirit power without showing any bottom!!"

    "Just deal with it as a side effect, just mere flies that would annoy you from time to time."

    "..."

    William felt there was something wrong here.

 Chapter 728 I Have To Repay My Debts

    ?

    The ck fox was using mocking words, void of any mocking tone or attitude at all. This was quite bizarre, and William couldn''t help but inspect the world he was in again.

    And this time he managed to spot new stuff, small dots that shone faintly like they were distant stars or something. They weren''t here before, and William felt dangering from them.

    "You won this trial, and you are worthy to have my next gift to you," the ck fox noticed William''s gazes, and yet he didn''tment over this. It seemed that the fox was more reassured when William noticed these distant stars and started to speak in more detail.

    "I''ll teach you a technique, one that''s considered a sacred one in my family. Don''t give me that look, I don''t need to hear any of your thanks or gratitude. You won it huge this time, crushed that monster entirely, and gained my respect and admiration."

    In fact, William didn''t look in any way towards the fox. His attention was focused over these stars, feeling like he was being watched by them. He didn''t know who they were, but he knew they were quite formidable enough, even to make the ck fox spirit act in such a weird attitude.

    The fox spoke lightly, yet his face didn''t even show the faintest shadow of a smile. His tone kept being serious, and that made William return to look at him and focus more on what it was going to say.

    After all, this was his trophy from this trial. And he hoped it''d have something to do with the current tight situation.

    "This technique is called Spirit Evolution technique. Using it, one can evolve his spirit and even jump over grades if he got the rightponents and materials needed for it. Keep training on it diligently, and you''ll¡­"

    "Preposterous!" Just before the fox would continue his words, a thunderous and mighty shout came from nowhere else by the distant stars. William turned to see the stars shining brighter, and weird pirs of light felt like they were attacking this ce.

    "Go now, you got everything engraved on your back," the ck fox waved its tails, ending up summoning its full form of nine tails and even horns. William saw the world around change, while his back itched as some sort of an insect was moving on it or something.

    He didn''t get time before he was ejected out of the ck fox world. Thest moments were indeed shocking, making him feel real terror that assaulted his spirit. When he came out from there, he didn''t feel just itchy at his back, but also felt cold sweat soaking his entire body.

    "Are you alright?" The moment William returned back, his spirit form got cancelled and his body appeared again. Yet from the pale look and such profuse sweating that covered his face, Zin knew something was terribly wrong.

    "I''m¡­ Fine¡­" William tried to stand up yet he found difficulty in doing so. He felt like he was in a severe state of weakness, as if he suffered from a bacsh or something.

    As his body trembled just to stand up, William took another elixir bottle and sucked it dry. When he felt better, he couldn''t help but extend his hand and touch his back.

    "It managed to draw something there," William found that his armour was still intact, but underneath he felt itchier. It felt like he just got a tattoo done on his entire back. And the worst thing was that he didn''t have a way to see through it directly.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "We are getting close to the safe border," Zin suddenly said, while his eyes kept scanning William up and down, "are you feeling better now?"

    "I just got a severe wound, one that can''t be healed directly using training," William lied.

    "I can help," Zin said, "if you want to."

    "Thanks, but I prefer to let it heal on its own," William paused, turning to the far away ground that was covered literally with lots of people, "what''s the n next?"

    "We won this battle, so it''s time to go back and celebrate," Zinughed, "many are already celebrating when the dark academy fell."

    "Well, I have to let go of such a chance then," William''s face changed to show a serious look on his face, "I need to do something first."

    "Those mysterious friends and allies?" Zin already guessed part of what William intended to do. Those folks were a real puzzlement not only to him but to many.

    "I have to pay what I owe, right?" William faintly smiled, as if he had to do something big to repay the big help of Leo and others.

    "I want toe and get to know them better."

    "I''m afraid that won''t happen," William knew that Zin wasn''t stupid. He and other high-end masters already guessed Leo and his legion weren''t just normal masters.

    But William had his chance to get to know more about this mysterious side of the world, and he wouldn''t let Zin or others ruin his chance. He could tell even without asking that Leo and others wouldn''t agree if he asked them to bring anyone with him.

    He still didn''t get the final answer to his offer, despite feeling confident in Leo''s superiors'' approval of his request.

    In less than half an hour, they finally arrived at the ground. William could see lots of people shouting and singing, joking andughing about this grand victory. He couldn''t help but smile in the middle of such an atmosphere, and his guild members weren''t an exception to any of that.

    William talked to his vices and friends, the leaders of various forces, and told them about his intention to go and repay his debt. The leaders were curious about Leo and his legion and asked to join. As for his vices and friends, they all felt he was lying, and wanted toe to see what was all this about.

 Chapter 729 [Bonus ] The Fate And Destiny Cult

    ?

    Those who were with William since the days of the Aspire academy felt how wrong this was. They never saw Leo before, nor heard about William having such allies and friends.

    Yet under William''s stubborn stance, they all got rejected and didn''t manage toe with him.

    As for the flying monsters, the moment they delivered masters to the safe zone, they returned to get sealed again. Zin and others were now considering them their most precious asset, even guarding them personally and not allowing anyone toe near them.

    "What about the contest?" Sara looked at others before adding, "if you took a long time with them, we would miss it."

    "Let''s do it this way then," William knew he got no definite time for his return date, "you go there first, enlist our names there and see things. Don''t stir up trouble and try to collect as much intel as possible."

    "I want to see those dirty masters from this shitty academy," Ibra waved his ive twice in the air, "I want to kill these dark masters first."

    "No," William firmly rejected what Ibra just said, and what others thought about, "first gather intel and don''t do anything. This isn''t the forest, not the open world, it''s the kingdom''s capital. Many rules are applied there, and without a solid proof, you are going to end up facing trouble instead."

    "But¡­" even Berry wanted to take a bite at those dark masters.

    "This is non-negotiable," William strictly warned them against doing so. By his warning and direct words, everyone couldn''t help but feel much disappointment.

    "Don''t worry," Zin suddenly approached, "I''m going to be with them and make sure they won''t do anything on impulse."

    "This¡­" William knew this old master didn''t volunteer to go without something in return. And the next words of Zin rified what he was really after.

    "After that, you can repay my kindness as you are repaying your debts."

    Zin even winked, and William knew this old master wanted to know more about Leo and his mysterious legion and force.

    "Let''s talk about thister," William didn''t want to directly reject such a request. He wasn''t sure what he''d know would need others'' help or not. If he found great secrets, ones that would affect the entire world, then he''d need the help of those formidable masters to do things he couldn''t.

    But if he found secrets that got nothing to do with the current fate of the world, then he''d just keep what he learnt to himself and wouldn''t share any with others.

    Just as everyone was celebrating and preparing to head back towards the city, William went towards Leo and his legion.

    He expected to see a couple of hundreds, not a force of thousands in front of him. Leo was as young as he expected. The fact that he was the leader over such arge number of masters, with many old ones, meant how special and powerful this young man was.

    "I see you managed to survive in the end," the first thing Leo said was such a weird statement.

    "As if you expected me to perish or something," William rolled his eyes, before adding, "so¡­ What''s the final answer from your side?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Well¡­ They are still negotiating about it," Leo said something that William never expected at all, "let''s give them enough time. From my knowledge of the Cardinals, they will eventually ept."

    "Cardinals?!" This word was alien to William. And that told him that no matter how he considered himself knowledgeable, he was destined to end up learning about something brand new.

    "You''ll know everything when time is right," Jeremy suddenly said, attracting William''s attention.

    "And you are?"

    "He is my right-hand man," Leo cleared his throat, "you''ll walk with us until we get the final answer. Let''s go, we have to cross arge distance anyway if we want to visit my home."

    "Fine," William intended to leave with them anyway, "lead the way then. Can you tell me what''s the name of your force?"

    "Well, even saying such intel isn''t allowed," Leo sighed, "let''s go. Once I get permission to speak, I''ll tell you enough."

    William sighed, realising that this trip would be quite boring. Yet as he kept his silence and marched with everyone, he started to hear soft discussions going on between the members of Leo''s legion.

    Leo didn''t leave William to wander around, but that didn''t stop him from noticing everything using his spirit sense.

    First of all, William knew the name of the force this legion belonged to. It wasn''t an impact or guild like what William thought, it was a Cult. It was a weird and new name in William''s ears, one that made no sense to him at first.

    But soon enough he learnt more about these people. They were especially talented masters, ones who were born with spirits that got an affinity with fate and destiny. Such masters were sought out by the Cult, and the Cult got branches at many worlds, including the vast and outer one.

    William never heard anything about such Cult before. And so, anything he eavesdropped was brand new to him.

    Leo and his trusted subordinates weren''t fools. They knew their people were going to speak, nheless. Yet none tried to warn them, stop them from saying anything, and kept a tight mouth while watching William listening to everything.

    Gradually, and as time passed slowly while they were walking through the dense forest area, William started to grasp more information about this Cult and the people belonging to it.

    The Cardinals Leo mentioned before were acting like the general leaders of the Cult. they were the strongest, the most authoritative, and the ones with all the power in the Cult branch in the entire world.

    William got shocked when he learnt that they existed everywhere, taking bases at the deep hearts of any grand mountain, overlooking and watching in silence the world.

    The Cult and its people were responsible for watching the fate and destiny wheels. They got to make sure that no one would interfere and do anything bad to these wheels, a thing that just William experienced.

 Chapter 730 Learning About The Cult

    ?

    ording to Leo''s legion, for anyone to do such a big thing, he had to obtain a spirit that was both evil and had affinity with fate and destiny. William knew that the Nightmare monster originated from the nine tailed fox. And thetter got tons of abilities and powers.

    He never expected that his nemesis would seize such a scary power. And what made him quite disappointed was the fact that no one without such affinity would be able to make any use of the knowledge of the Cult.

    That simply meant he couldn''t make any use at all with the knowledge he was going to learn. This was something that made him feel quite frustrated. Howe his sworn enemy had such an edge advantage at him, while he got nothing at all to fight back?

    William didn''t get much information about the mysterious ways this Cult used, only learnt about themon name everyone used to refer to, The Mystic Arts!

    It was another new term that William didn''t know. Aside from this, the members of Leo''s legion were speaking about a few of their missions, their bad circumstances, and how they were living through hard times thanks to Leo''s frequent bad decisions.

    William learnt a lot about Leo and how he used to perform tasks. He wasn''t the type to settle with half assed solutions, always moving out to solve problems starting out from the roots. He was bold and never feared to use the deadliest methods to deal with the impending crisis.

    This ended up bringing tons of trouble to him, and William could understand the reasons behind the harsh attitude of the Cardinals of the Cult.

    For example, they killed a million souls to purge a curse. And that was just part of the pile of problems Leo brought with his legion to the Cult.

    Such problems were all thanks to the inner code of the Cult. For example, speaking about the Cult''s secrets to anyone from outside was a grave sin. And that exined why he acted this way with William.

    But William also learnt a little useful information. For example, he learnt that any attempt to mess with fate and destiny was something known as a curse. And all curses had bad effects on the people and monsters living in the area affected by it.

    William got that when they spoke about the recent curse they just purged, the one of the ck clouds. They spoke about how nasty such a curse was, and how lucky they were as the masters affected by it weren''t inrge numbers to begin with.

    That made the strength of this curse much weaker, a thing that William knew it happened out of luck, or thanks to the ck fox''s earlier warning.

    William didn''t know if the ck fox was aware of these Mystic Arts and curses, or it was just a matter of coincidence. On top of that, he learnt something else that made him unable to wipe that wide smile off his face.

    "So, they have to find the culprit behind it, or else their mission won''t be over¡­ Interesting," William muttered to himself, realising that his earlier request was going to get approved by the Cardinals in the end.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He just thought of using a chip to bargain with Leo and the force behind him. William never knew that what he said to Leo was something extremely important to them. And when he thought about it, he knew this made sense.

    After all the ones who were able to interfere and affect the fate and destiny wheels were able to repeat this again. And that would add more work and problems to the Cult.

    William initially thought this legion was one of the few in the Cult. Yet from what he heard, he learnt that there were hundreds of such legions, and they spread all over the world.

    It just happened for them to be the closest to this region, and that gave them hope to evade the expected heavy punishment of theirst messed up task.

    William heard lots of things that he didn''t understand. They were speaking about items they used, calling them the ck artefacts. They were supposed to be things used to stop any curse, helpful in dealing with the troublesome folks who stood behind these dirty acts.

    William initially thought the ones doing this were all dark masters or monsters. But he eventually realised that the ones who were doing this weren''t branded like this. Instead, they were seen as Cursers, a name that seemed to have a huge infamy among people from the Cult.

    William kept listening to different stories, which he didn''t understand most of. During which, Leo and his legion leaders were silently watching all this without interfering or stopping their people.

    In fact, Leo instructed others, in a subtle way, to speak about such things and teach William little about their way of living. To him, this would save lots of troubleter on, and would help to make William more familiar with all this.

    The march took five days before reaching their destination. The legion members didn''t rest in the middle, kept walking, fighting monsters whenever they met them, and chatted among each other all the time.

    William helped a little in fighting monsters, not as a token of good will of his, but to learn more about their ways in fighting. Yet to his disappointment, they fought like any normal master, usingmon spirit elements and techniques.

    "Don''t be surprised, we are masters before all this, hahahaha!" The impression Leo and others got from William''s face was a bit funny.

    They were strong indeed, not to mention they got lots of dark gold masters, and the rest were all gold grade. They were adept at working and fighting together, and that added more to their overall strength.

    William took such little details to heart. It seemed these masters were a strong force, unknown and hidden from the eyes of most masters and monsters. Only those who would stir up trouble with fate and destiny wheels would get to know them.

 Chapter 731 It All Started Out Wrongly!

    ?

    William didn''t feel intimidated by them. In fact, he was seriously considering deepening his ties with these folks, just an early preparatory move against the fall of the world in the future.

    If such a strong force existed, spread all over the world, then why wouldn''t he use them when the world woulde to an end? In fact, he started to think that part of what happened to the tiny world in his past life was rted somehow to some sort of a curse, negatively impacting the fate and destiny of the entire world.

    "We are here," after two days, they finally arrived at a grand mountain. It was so huge that it stood up among other peaks and mountains in the region.

    "Is this where your Cult base lies?" William asked as if he didn''t know where the main base was.

    From the words he listened to, the main base wasn''t here to begin with, not in this continent. It was in a ce unknown even to the legion members. But at least they knew it wasn''t here.

    "We are going to rest in this temporary base," Leo didn''t give any confirmative answer, "the Cardinals are going to end their meeting in a few days or so. During which, you are a weed guest of ours."

    "Thanks," William followed them towards the base of the mountain. Instead of what he expected, instead of finding an entrance of a hidden door or something, Leo stepped up over an area, took something out from his ring, and then the entire area shone brightly in white light.

    It was a portal, a short distance one. And in a blink of an eye, William found himself standing in the middle of a big stoney hall. It was filled with nothing else but seats and tables, as if it was a dining hall or something.

    "Jeremy will be your guard," Leo turned to his right-handed man. And thetter got what Leo wanted without the need to ask. Leo wanted William to stay here, but his stay was limited and under many restrictions.

    By entrusting Jeremy as his guard, it meant he was also his watcher. William also got the subtle warning in Leo''s words, that he didn''t have much freedom to walk around or explore the area. He was a guest, but he had to be careful while staying here.

    "This way," Jeremy led William through a long rocky corridor, ending up with arge gathering of rooms. William was led to one of them, and Jeremy told him that they''d notify him of the final decision once made.

    He didn''t act like Leo, and directly warned William against going out and exploring the ce. He also told him that spirit sense wouldn''t work here, as the entire structure was filled with tons of arrays.

    William found himself inside a simple room that was around a few hundred metres square. There wasn''t much out there, only a bed, a desk, a drawer, and a few old looking scrolls.

    William felt curious about these scrolls and started to examine them after removing the dust away. They were just ten in number, and all were speaking about the general concept of Mystic Arts.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William already knew little about the way of the Cult. So it was expected that most of these scrolls'' content was just repeated and old news to him.

    But there was also new information there. William read the scrolls and memorised everything to the heart, before finally starting to think about what happened with the ck fox.

    During the march, he was busy listening to what the legion members were speaking about. And now he finally got time to think about the weird situation he faced with the ck fox.

    "Everything started out wrongly¡­" William muttered after recalling what happened from the very beginning. The ck fox was supposed to take him inside its world, start a trial that was simr to the first one he experienced.

    Yet the ck fox seemed to be forced by something to change all this. The ck fox''s attitude from the start was peculiar. And it kept getting weirder by the intense meeting at the end.

    These stars were just a mystery to him. The fact that the ck fox was scared of them puzzled William. He thought there was nothing to threaten such a high-grade spirit. Yet it seemed like he still knew nothing about these spirits and their realm.

    "It left something on my back, some sort of a technique to evolve the spirit¡­ Did it want me to merge with the other two spirits and evolve the fox spirit in the end? Is this the right way to handle these two troublesome spirits?" William was lost in thoughts, while thinking about his current options.

    He removed his clothes to reveal his back, tried to read the drawings and words left there using his spirit sense. The moment he did so, he felt like there was a hidden power in these writings, ending up crushing his spirit sense in no time.

    William frowned when that happened. He thought he could easily read what that ck fox left using his spirit sense. But it seemed there were some sort of limitations and restrictions enforced on these writings.

    "This can''t be the doing of the ck fox¡­ Whoever these stars are, it seems like they don''t want me to deal with the two spirits I acquired¡­ Or is their aim something else? Something I don''t know of?"

    William tried again and he got the same result. He looked around and the ce was void of any mirrors. "Don''t tell me I need the help of others to read this!"

    He had nothing in his hands to do about this. He had to push this aside, and started to inspect his new power and grade.

    The spirit crystal shone in pale gold light, filled with lots of specks that kept swirling around and forming the shape of a fox with four tails. In the middle of this, he could see two miniature spirits lying in slumber, a snake and a dog.

 Chapter 732 Well Establish An Academy

    ?

    William held high hopes for his meeting with the ck fox, a thing that ended up with literally nothing in the end. He was left alone to handle the two spirits dormant in his fox spirit, with nothing but weird writings on his back that he couldn''t yet read.

    "At least I''m in the gold grade now," William pushed aside all these worries and troubles, focused mainly on the big milestone he crossed.

    As he got nothing else to do, he started to absorb the gold and dark gold cores he had. They were enough, but not that much to add many points to begin with. They were barely enough to add a few hundred points to his spirit power.

    To enter the dark gold realm, he had to raise his spirit power by seven thousand points, a big gap that would take a long time to cross.

    "As I expected, the effect of the Devour ability grows weaker the higher I climb¡­" William saw that absorbing a single gold core only gave him five points at max. As for the dark gold cores, they gave him twenty up to thirty points. And that was when he was still at the early stage of this grade.

    The higher his spirit power became, the lower the points he''d gain.

    "I need to focus more on training," he already had various techniques he devised, but they would require lots of time to show real effectspared to the Devour ability.

    William nned to try and gather all the cores he could, absorb them first, and raise his spirit power to the furthest he could reach. As the higher he''d climb the more useless the cores would be, he decided to focus first on devouring cores.

    In the next three days, he did nothing but train. He levelled up his spirit power, but not his spirit purity grade. He depended on absorbing the snake spirit at least to add one more tail and raise the grade of his spirit purity.

    But now he had to wait until he''d be with his entrusted vices, select one of them to read the writings on his back.

    During this time, the Cardinals meeting was still going with lots of objections about William''s request. Those formidable figures didn''t believe there wasn''t a single trace of evidence pointing towards the culprit behind such an incident.

    So they asked Leo to return back and check the entire area, looking for any evidence or clue about the culprit. Leo executed the order using the help of most of his legion.

    If William went out during the past few days, he''d find out that the entire ce was empty. But he was too much absorbed in training, not that much interested in spying on anything here when he got a direct way to obtain what he needed.

    As Leo and his legion returned back to the destroyed Blue Hills zone, the city masters returned to the city while celebrating their crushing victory.

    The normal masters were very happy by such victory, and the high-end masters knew the city just started its new era by hitting on all the right notes.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    They didn''t just crush a very scary monster tide, but they also defeated a strong dark force. This added not only confidence, but also made them look more righteous and invincible.

    The future of the city changed dramatically from being bleak a few weeks ago into being glorious.

    The first thing the higher ups decided was to spread out the news all over the continent. Like this, the name of the city would be spread far and wide, get to be known by many, sought out by more masters than before.

    Then the leaders of various forces started to expand the city in expectation for the grand wave of mastersing here. As things were heading for the better for the city, William''s friends started to make the best use of this chance.

    They spread out stories about how their mighty leader managed to bring one miracle after another. William''s name already had its own weight from before. And with the miraculous victory over the monster tide and against the dark academy, his name became more vibrant in the ears of many masters.

    Offers to join the guild were now more weed by masters than ever. As the team got the final instructions before leaving William''s side, they appointed a group of capable members of the elite ck Tails team to lead the branch here.

    William already left instructions about how to make the best use of this chance. He already read through what was going to happen and expected much more influx of masters to the city than anyone else.

    The ck Tails team took two days before they were ready to depart. And when they arrived at the portal region, they met with an unexpected surprise.

    "You want toe with us?!!!" Sara and others stood in front of Lara, while thetter appeared there beside few of her guards.

    "Why not?" Lara chuckled, "I already arranged things here. My family got back on the right track, the same for the city. My role here is going to be quite boring. I''ming with you and having a little fun."

    "But¡­" even Ibra was taken aback by what she said, "did you inform William about this? And your family, are they ok with this?"

    "William vanished before telling him my decision," Lara paused before adding in a confident tone, "and I doubt he''ll say no. I''ming not only to help, but also for the grand project of the city that''ll happen in the near future."

    "What project?" Berry didn''t feel settled or at ease with Lara''s sudden decision. She and other girls in the team felt like she wanted to be closer to William. And that smelled like trouble.

    "An academy," but what Lara said took everyone by surprise, "we are going to be a very huge city. And one like ours needs certain things to flourish and add more to its glory and name. One of these is the academy. My adventure with you will aid our goal greatly."

 Chapter 733 Leos Bad Luck

    ?

    "..."

    Berry, Ro, and Sara were ready to fight against Lara''s proposal, using the excuse that she wasn''t part of an academy to join the contest. They nned to join the side of their old academy and join the contest under the name of the new academy.

    But what she said made the three realise debating about this was a futile matter.

    "Besides you lost a few of your members as I can tell," she didn''t stop there, moving her eyes around the less than two hundred team members before adding, "and with me and my guards, everything shall be fine, right?"

    "You do know there is an age limit for anyone taking part there, right?" Berry was still acting a bit hostile against Lara. and other girls also red back at thetter. Yet Lara didn''t show any concern or pressure from their attitude.

    "I made sure to select guards to match this condition," Lara evilly grinned, as if she was telling them one way or another, they were going to wee her on board, "even if you said no, I''ll find my way to the capital and wait for William to return."

    "This¡­" everyone exchanged silent nces as they got what she wanted to say. She was telling them she was going to join their team, either by their approval right now or not.

    "Fine, but you won''t be a formal part of our roster until boss returns," Ibra didn''t want William to explode at himter on, especially when what Lara said made quite sense. Besides, he was smart enough to smell gunpowder between her and the other girls in the team.

    "Thanks," Lara didn''t care about what the girls thought about, and showed a sweet smile on her face, "let''s go. I already prepared a portal to move all of us towards the capital."

    William''s team moved alongside Lara and her guards going to the kingdom''s capital. At the same time, William was still training inside his room. Usually when he trained, he''d summon a shadow of his fox with four tails without realising it.

    This started when he was absorbing spirit power from the statue of the old fox transformer. But now when he was training, things started to slowly change.

    Two more shadows ovepped with the fox, as if they were forcing themselves over it. There was a shadow of a fierce looking giant dog, and a gigantic snake.

    The dog ovepped with the fox, alternating its shape with it. The two got the same body size and had many things simr. But this dog had two curved horns, rudimentary protrusions at the side, a sign of developing wingster on.

    It had just one tail, but it looked like a whip. As for the snake, it curled its long body in circles, hiding itself inside the body of the fox, only raising its head from the back of the fox, showing its deadly fangs.

    William was absorbed in training, didn''t realise what was going on with his body like usual. He didn''t notice the changes that started to develop to the fox, as if it got suppressed by these two new spirits.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The two spirits were brutal, and they seemed to fight the fox without fighting each other. The fox was the dominant spirit, and that turned it to be theirmon enemy.

    During this, and after an entire week, the Cardinal council finally made its decision. Leo and his legion failed to find anything remarkable back at the devastated Blue Hills zone. And that was something that many already expected.

    The sheer size of damage the entire area suffered was enough to wipe out any remaining evidence of the main culprit behind it. So, when Leo returned empty handed, the Cardinals didn''t take it on him.

    As he returned back, he received the final call of the council. The first thing he did was to go towards William''s room. Per habit when he dealt with his legion members, he didn''t knock and simply opened the door. When he did that, he was weed with a scene he never expected.

    He saw what William didn''t, saw the three spirits interfering and ovepping with each other. The first thing he felt was immense shock and unexined fear. The surprise was exined as it wasn''t normal for anyone to have more than one spirit, not to mention showing their spirits during training like how it was with William.

    But fear came from the depths of his spirit. It felt like his spirit trembled, fearing the three fierce spirits enveloping William in between. And just before he''d move a muscle, the snake and the dog turned towards him as if they sniffed his presence.

    The fox spirit had its eyes closed, just like these two. But when the dog and the snake turned to Leo, they opened their eyes slowly, and red at him as if they were ferocious beasts looking at amp.

    This moment felt like an entire lifetime for Leo. he couldn''t feel nor control his body. And one second was enough to make his body get soaked in profuse cold sweat, as if he just jumped into a frozenke just now.

    And then he fell victim to the scary effects of these two formidable spirits.

    *Tick!*

    William was absorbed in his training when he heard such a muffle sound. It was like something got broken, and the next instant he got out from his training world.

    "Leo?!" William was astonished when he saw Leo. Thetter''s presence wasn''t the main reason behind such shock, but the look on his face, that weird stickyyer of sweat that covered his body, in addition to the weird status of his eyes, "are you alright?"

    William felt something was wrong the moment he spotted Leo. Thetter had his eyes widely opened, while the ckness in them vanished. His eyes weren''t even white, they were covered with a thinyer of green fog.

    Leo didn''t respond to William''s calling. Even when thetter approached Leo and shook his body, no response came.

 Chapter 734 The Shocking Discovery

    "Damn! What just happened to him?!" William was puzzled by this. He tried to knock Leo back to his senses, yet nothing happened. William was in the middle of his training and didn''t sense what was happening around him. He didn''t feel Leo''s presence and didn''t know what happened for him to end up in such a state.

    "Jeremy, hurry!" The only thing William could think of was to look for help. He tried to spread out his spirit sense, ending up suffering the great limitations exerted from the ce over him. So, he went out, looking for anyone from Leo''s legion. And luckily the first person he met was Jeremy.

    "This¡­ What happened? Tell me everything!" Jeremy wasn''t any less shocked by what happened to his boss and friend than William. Thetter simply exined everything, honestly telling the truth.

    "This can''t be right¡­" Jeremy was lost in thoughts for a few seconds, "he came to notify you of the Cardinal decision. They agreed on inviting you to one of the main bases of our Cult, letting you check our grand library in this continent. But this¡­"

    "Is this a side effect of your¡­ Ways?" William didn''t know much about the Cult or how these people train. He thought this might be a side effect for their special training methods, or an exhaustion Leo suffered from overusing his power when dealing with the Nightmare monster''s curse perhaps. Yet from the reaction of Jeremy, he could tell this wasn''t the case.

    "No, I never heard of such a thing before¡­" Jeremy firmly shook his head, "this is serious! Let me contact the Cardinals, let them know what just happened."

    Jeremy didn''t do this here. Before leaving, he asked William to keep an eye over Leo until he''d return. He also asked him to not spread news, so others wouldn''t feel worried over their boss.

    Jeremy held high hopes like William that this weird status was something temporary, something that would easily be solved by the Cardinals. Jeremy didn''t think this was the effect of their training or techniques, but he got his ideas about the possibility of this being the result of a curse or something.

    That was why he decided to go directly and inform the Cardinals about this weird situation. Before he''d left, he recorded Leo using a recording crystal, to show this to the Cardinals.

    As he left, William started to take this matter quite seriously. "Leo came here perfectly fine. They went outside to check for that damn Nightmare monster and returned without any result or clue. Jeremy was with him moments before he arrived here. And he was perfectly fine by then¡­ That means whatever happened to him originated from here¡­"

    William''s thoughts paused here. If that was true, then whatever caused such weird status to Leo was indeed with him in the room when he was training.

    The first thing William did was to inspect his body and spirit. When he checked, he didn''t notice anything unusual at first.

    "That''s weird¡­" as he didn''t get a clue after carefully searching the room, he decided to give it a try and train again, "I''ll use a recording crystal this time and see what''s wrong¡­"

    William sat cross legged, trained in the same technique he was training in before. He didn''t just use one recording crystal, but seven, arranging them all around him and Leo, to see if anything unusual would appear when he''d start training.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He didn''t train much this time, just spent five minutes before cancelling his training. When he went to examine the recording crystals, he got the shock of his life.

    "This¡­" his body even trembled when he saw the three gigantic shadows appearing out of nowhere the moment he started training. This was the first time he saw such a thing. And what made him more shocked was the fact that the other two spirits, the supposedly dormant spirits, were in fact active!

    He closely watched the seven recordings one by one and saw clearly the three gigantic shadows appearing just moments after he started training.

    "I used to train alone, so no one ever saw this¡­ But Leo did¡­" William now realised what happened to Leo. and he also got an idea about what caused such a weird effect on him.

    It wasn''t his fox spirit, but the other two. When he trained just now, the dog and the snake red again at Leo, a move that told William a lot about what really happened.

    "One spirit can corrode the entire world if it got the power to, and the other could suck dry spirit power from any living creature¡­ What troublesome bastards you are!"

    William knew the crux of the problem, yet he knew he couldn''t tell anyone about this. This was his secret, his fault if others learnt about what happened to Leo. And so he decided to keep this for himself, and even destroyed the seven crystals after watching their content once more.

    "It looks like my spirit is struggling against these two¡­ What are they trying to do exactly? Crush my spirit and control my body or what?"

    William felt more headache the more he thought about this. He didn''t hurry things out before as he considered these two spirits in deep slumber and quite harmless.

    The worst he thought about was that these two spirits would re up from time to time, negatively affecting his body and spirit. Yet from the recording he could tell these two spirits were active all the time and were already starting to rebel and fight against his spirit.

    "I need to assess the damage more thoroughly," he took out another crystal, a candle, and checked his spirit and spirit power again. This time, he closely inspected everything, taking almost an hour in doing so.

    "This is weird¡­" At first, he didn''t see anything unusual. His spirit power didn''t decrease as he expected, and the dog and the snake spirits were lying in peace, sleeping deeply within the fox''s body like two sly and sinister monsters.

 Chapter 735 You Have To Come With Us

    When he watched the crystal for ten minutes, he noticed a sudden change in the movement of the spirit power. Spirit power was in pale gold colour, looking like lots of tiny sand dots swirling inside the crystal, taking the shape of the fox.

    Yet after ten minutes, he saw these dots change their movement, disturbing the fox form, and showing a weird shape of something he never saw before.

    It just happened for a brief second before everything returned back to normal. After another ten minutes, the same thing happened again, confirming what he saw before.

    "This¡­ These two damn spirits¡­ They are trying to do something with my fox!!!" When it happened for the third time, William was sure the two new spirits weren''t dormant or sleepy at all.

    They were slowly doing something, something that he didn''t recognise. He tried to grasp the thing they changed his spirit power into but couldn''t.

    It got no known shape of anything he saw before, nothing that could be described as a spirit or anything. If he wanted to better describe it, it''d look like something exploding, releasing shockwaves all over the ce.

    "Don''t tell me they want to kill me¡­" William felt a cold shiver back at his spine when he jumped to such a conclusion. Right now, he realised that this issue wasn''t simple, and he needed to urgently find a solution.

    He already got one, the technique the ck fox left for him. He now realised the severity of the situation, knew why that fox risked everything to leave such a technique over to him, even with the risk of stirring up the wrath of these mysterious stars.

    "I have to find a way to see these marks over my back¡­" He started to seriously consider leaving this ce and returning back to his team, asking the help of Lina, Berry, or Sara. he''d ask them to draw what was on his back over scrolls, and then he''d start training in this technique.

    Just when he decided to do that, the door to his room opened and Jeremy appeared. From the look on his face, William knew something bad was going on.

    "You are asked toe with us towards the main headquarter," Jeremy''s tone and attitude told William that he wasn''t joking or simply inviting him over. And with the appearance of a group of twenty dark gold members of the legion, William knew this wasn''t just a nice invitation to visit their base.

    "What for?" Even when he was surrounded like this, William didn''t show any sign of fear or panic on his face.

    "The Cardinals asked me to bring you over," Jeremy paused, seemingly a bit hesitant before adding, "they think¡­ You have a curse that affected Leo."

    "A curse?!" William was surprised by how quick the Cardinals linked this to him, "how so? I''m totally fine as you can tell!"

    "Well, I can''t say I know everything. But they told me this thing is a new curse that they never saw before. They wanted to see you, check your body and see if you have a curse without knowing it."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "This¡­" William was thinking about leaving and returning back to the city and meeting his team. Yet right now it felt like he wouldn''t be able to do it.

    When he thought about this, he felt it was ironic. He kept asking to go and meet those folks, get to know them better. And when he didn''t want to go, they wanted to force him to.

    "I have no other option, right?" William sighed, and Jeremy bitterly smiled.

    "Leo is in danger, that''s the only thing the Cardinals could think of, the only hope we have to save him."

    "How so?" William felt curious about this, and Jeremy told him that they spied on Leo''s fate, to find it gloomy and dark.

    What the Cardinals didn''t tell Jeremy about was that when they tried to see Leo''s fate and destiny, they ended up facing two scary beings. The ones who tried to do it got severe bacsh, a thing that was indeed quite terrifying as the ones who performed this task were all Cardinals.

    But before the connection would get severed, they identified one face of the two. It was William''s, and they didn''t need to know the other face to realise it was the one who did the curse back at the Blue Hills.

    So, they asked Jeremy to bring William back to the main headquarters, to check him thoroughly and know more about him. They knew the mysterious face belonged to the Curser who did all this mess in the first ce, and that meant he was their enemy. But William wasn''t.

    So the answer to all these mysteriesid in William''s hands, and that was why they asked Jeremy to bring him over even if he had to use force.

    "Fine, lead the way then," William thought about resisting them, ending up giving up this idea entirely. They didn''t mean harm to him, only were worried about their leader. Besides, even if he tried, he wouldn''t be able to get away from here without their help. And he wasn''t strong enough to force them to let him go.

    Not to mention he didn''t want to enter intense battles without getting a way to solve the problem of the two rogue spirits in his body. Who knew what these two spirits might stir up if he fought freely and unleashed his spirit power, causing trouble to him in the end.

    "Follow me," Jeremy turned to a few of his legion members, "take care of our boss and follow us as well."

    William followed the legion elite members through different corridors before arriving at a wide hall. There he found a portal, one that was big and seemed to be different from the ones he saw at Lara''s portal zone.

    "We nned to take you to the main headquarter in the continent, but now ns have changed," Jeremy pointed towards the portal before adding, "this baby will take us towards the headquarter. And from there we''ll board another portal, one that can take us towards the other continent."

 Chapter 736 The One Hundred Dragon Headed Formation

    ?

    "Nice babies you have in the Cult," William and others didn''t speak a word until they arrived here. He wanted to know where they were going, any intel about the methods of interrogation waiting for him, "did the Cardinals inform the other side about our visit, or we''ll have to stay there for a while?"

    "Everything is arranged for us," unlike what William hoped for, the Cult higher ups seemed to take this matter quite seriously, "the portal is ready on the other side. All we need to do is to pass through a few corridors and we''ll arrive at the next portal."

    William wanted to take more time to think about his options and current situation. Yet it felt like fate was acting against him, not giving him even enough time to think deeper about all this.

    Yet he wasn''t afraid. Even if they got a way to reveal the truth, he had nothing in his power to control these spirits. If they wanted to help their man, they had to find a way to solve such a crisis for himself as well. So, he calmly walked after Jeremy, passing through a portal, and appearing at another giant stony hall.

    This one wasn''t empty like the one they came from but was filled with lots of portals and tons of peopleing and going from these portals. From the first nce, William could tell how special this ce was.

    Before William would take a proper look at this wide ce, a group of masters approached them. They looked different as they wore some sort of a pointed red hat over their heads, making it easier to spot them from far.

    The group was around a hundred, and everywhere they walked, all the masters parted ways for them to pass through. It went without saying how well known they were, and how deeply respected they were.

    "Wee to the Buried Castle," one of them spoke the moment they arrived near William, Jeremy, and others. The one who spoke was a middle-aged man, with a serious face that told William he never smiled ever in his life, "follow me."

    Jeremy simply nodded to William to follow, while everyone of their legion marched without saying a single word. The entire group passed through different corridors, just like what Jeremy previously said. But they ended up in a spacious ce, one that was without any portals.

    "This¡­" William wasn''t the only puzzled one here, even Jeremy and his legion members were. Jeremy turned towards the group of the hundred pointy hat masters and asked, "where is the intercontinental portal?"

    "Don''t worry, we''ll lead you there once we get to know what happened to your Bishop," that middle aged man paused, turning to check the entire legion. When he said he wanted to check on what caused Leo''s condition, he didn''t remove his eyes for long minutes off William.

    "Ahem, how can I help you?" William didn''t like how this man looked at him. It felt like he was trying to get through him, open his brain and see what secrets were there.

    What William didn''t know was that he caused a stir not long ago. This was the ce where the old man William once met back at Lara''s city came to report what he found.

    And since then, the leaders of this branch kept researching and trying to spy over William''s fate and destiny. Lots of people got a bacsh, a very long list actually. And that was why this group of leaders of this branch came here and did something against what the Cardinals instructed.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    In fact, none of these hundred leaders cared about what happened to Leo, but they cared about William. They took advantage of him being part of this and decided to investigate his background.

    They already gathered all the intel about William. It wasn''t that hard actually, especially when William had quite the name and reputation for himself.

    "I heard lots of stories about the fox master, and am curious about you," the middle-aged man paused, before adding, "how about this, why won''t you let me check your destiny?"

    "Are you sure?" William didn''t like this middle-aged man, but he didn''t want to stir up trouble in his turf, "my destiny isn''t that easy to read."

    "I know," unlike what William expected, the middle-aged man didn''t show any surprise nor fear on his face. Instead, he gave William the impression that he knew lots of things about him, "why don''t you let us try? We n to use some sort of a grand formation, the One Hundred Dragon Headed formation. It''s one of the strongest formations in the entire world, and it will be safe to see through anyone''s fate and destiny, someone like you."

    "..."

    William didn''t know anything about what that man said. But when he turned to Jeremy, thetter''s expression told him a lot about what this man just spoke about.

    It seemed like that formation was something quite famous and dangerous, something grand that even Jeremy paused more than once, unable to speak or express what he was thinking about for a few minutes.

    "Are you sure?" After opening his mouth and closing it for a few times, Jeremy finally said, "this formation has serious side effects if things went wrong."

    "I know what I''m doing, kid," the middle-aged man seemed to deal with Jeremy in a totally different attitude than what he showed to William, "so, how about it? Do you ept it?"

    "I can''t decide on something that I know nothing about or the purpose behind it," William shrugged, didn''t care how the members of this Cult treated each other, "you need to tell me everything about this formation, how it works, what are theplications regarding it, and what purpose do you have to spy on my fate."

    "Sure," the middle-aged man looked quite open to discuss such matters, a thing that garnished him a weird look from Jeremy, "I''m not like you, I''m the leader of this headquarter, the leader of all branches in the entire continent. Things that are forbidden to someone in a legion aren''t the same for a cardinal candidate."

 Chapter 737 Arthur

    William could tell how arrogant and full of himself this man was. And yet he didn''t act like this with him. Instead, he turned to William and started to exin things over.

    From what he said, and he spoke in great detail, this formation was something devised a long time ago to ovee the troublesome fate and destiny protected figures.

    Using this formation would lessen the severe bacsh expected from spying over the fate and destiny of people like William by folks like this man. At the same time, there were few limitations, and little risk here and there.

    For example, for the formation to work, the person in question had to be present and fully cooperative. Without the consent and cooperation of William, this formation wouldn''t work.

    At the same time, the one hundred masters taking part in the formation had to suffer any severe bacsh that might happen at any moment. Not to mention if someone like William had ties with other scary figures, then it was going to be a rough ride for these one hundred masters if they identally triggered the fate and destiny of that scary monster.

    And from the words of that man, William knew they did indeed n to target that monster.

    To William, there wasn''t a single risk at all. In fact, he got the chance to take part in such a formation, see how the fate and destiny world looked like. Not to mention he was going to take a look over the fate and destiny of his enemy as well.

    "In brief, you are taking all the risk and I won''t suffer anything¡­ So let me ask you this, why?"

    "I just told you¡­"

    "That doesn''t add up," William tried to act as polite as possible, holding back most of what he wanted to say, "why not cut the chase and tell me directly everything?"

    "..." the middle-aged master didn''t expect William to be this straightforward. He hesitated for a moment before telling William the real story.

    William never thought all this started by his idental visit to that old man. "I understand, fine¡­ Let''s do it then," he already made up his mind, even before he heard that story.

    The moment he announced his agreement, the expression of the man in front of him eased up and even a happy expression appeared there.

    The next few minutes the entire ce went hectic. The first thing that man did was to properly introduce himself. "I''m Arthur, the leader of the entire Western Continent branch."

    "I''m honoured to meet you," William nodded as he cupped his hands in greeting, "what do you want me to do?"

    "Nothing much," Arthur paused, turning to his group before adding, "just a few drops of your blood¡­ We''ll make the formation now, and at certain spots we''ll need your blood."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Sure," William could already guess why they needed his blood. It was like the consent of his towards the entire operation.

    He wasn''t concerned about giving them his blood, but more interested in the formation itself. He wanted to see what this entire Cult used to do, how they used their powers. The only chance he got to watch them in action was when the old man back at the city read through the fate and destiny of the Transformers.

    Back then he didn''t ce that much interest in what the old man did. And now he finally got the chance to witness the high circle of the Cult in action.

    The first thing they did was to draw something on the ground. From the first nce, it was a bit simr to how the normal mastersid down the formations. But when William closely watched, he could spot many differences here and there.

    The first thing he spotted was the material they used for drawing the lines. It was something like a white powder, something that woulde out from crushing the bones of a monster or something.

    William tried to take a bit of this powder, but Arthur stopped him. "We only have enough to make one formation."

    William didn''t have any option but to nod, while his eyes fell over that powder in great interest. He wanted to take this powder and study it. "I can wait until the formation is over," he consoled himself. After all, this powder seemed to work as a power channel, not the main source of energy to fuel this formation.

    The second most ring difference William spotted was the shape of the formation these masters were drawing on the ground. Normal masters used to make formations in the shape of headed stars or aplete circle. Yet this one didn''t look like this.

    It had a weird and vague shape that looked like random lines drawn on the ground. There was nothing to unite this shape except for all the lines to intercept with each other. Aside from this weird shape, there were many dots that looked like diamonds. And when William counted them, he realised they were the spots where the one hundred masters were going to stand at.

    Their number was one hundred and one, and that was the total number of Arthur''s group and himself. After drawing this shape, the masters started to take out materials.

    The materials used were the main source of power. And from the first nce, William couldn''t help but recognise them on the spot.

    "You seem to know what these materials are," As William was keeping a close eye on the Cult members'' actions, Arthur also was keenly watching him. And he couldn''t help but notice the slight change on William''s face when they took out the materials.

    "They don''t like they belong to this world," William didn''t admit his knowledge about these materials, and yet he didn''t admit it. He simply gave such a random excuse, which was also quite logical.

    After all, these materials came from the outer world, and he knew all of them, "I saw many of these back in the city."

 Chapter 738 Activating The Formation

    ?

    "The space cracks there aren''t the only cracks in the world," Arthur didn''t buy what William just said. Even if thetter recognised the materials by linking them to the materials he saw at Lara''s city, it wasn''t enough to exin the look over his face when he spotted these materials.

    It was the same kind of look that''d appear when someone would recognise something. Besides, Arthur was sure the materialsing out from the space cracks in the world weren''t the same.

    Each area would gush out different and unique sets of materials that wouldn''t be found anywhere else in the world.

    "First time for me to know that."

    "First time for me as well to meet someone who''d recognise these materials on the spot," Arthur hinted to William that he was sure of his recognition of these materials, "all the ones protected heavily by fate and destiny aren''t normal people, hahahaha!"

    Arthur wanted to squeeze William to know his secrets, but he knew this wouldn''t work by directly asking. He decided to wait till the formation would be activated. And if he didn''t know much, he''d still keep the friendship of William, keep watching this youngster.

    Arthur was sure William would grow and pull many miracles in the future. And from all this, he''d get many of this youngster''s secrets.

    William didn''tment again and kept his silence while watching what everyone was doing. He memorised everything and took note of every tiny detail they did.

    He couldn''t use his spirit sense as it was already limited like the case in the base Leo took him in before. Even if William knew it would be impossible for him to do such a formation in the tiny world thanks to the limitations of the materials, he still would do it when he''d ascend to the higher realm.

    Laying down the formation wasn''t a simple process. After the mastersid down the powder, they started to dig holes with different depths,y many materials inyers, before covering the holes with dirt again.

    They also kept writing weird symbols that even William couldn''t understand the meaning behind. All that added more work for him and made him totally absorbed in watching what they were doing.

    From time to time, Arthur would ask him to donate blood at certain ces. Williamplied. And in a few hours, the formation was ready.

    "Step outside," Arthur didn''t treat Jeremy and others the same way as William, "please step in the middle of the formation."

    William went into the heart of the formation while Jeremy and Leo''s legion members went outside the hall. In a few minutes, the entire hall that was previously bustling with crowds got emptied.

    Only Arthur with his one hundred branch members were there alongside William. "What shall I do?" William turned to Arthur.

    "Nothing, just close your eyes and wait for the formation to get activated," Arthur didn''t remain in his spot and went to stand in a ce near William, "the formation will be controlled by us at first. But after entering into the fate and destiny world, you will take control to help us see through your fate and destiny."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ok," William paused, "what exactly do you want me to look for?"

    He knew he came from the future and had tons of secrets that others didn''t know. It''d be bad if he just let his life sh in front of everyone.

    "We need to see what that enemy of yours, the other one with the fate and destiny protection, is doing. To do it, you have to recall anything rted to him, and then the fate and destiny world will do the rest."

    "That''s it?" William was surprised about how easy it sounded.

    "Of course not," Arthur shook his head, "we are going to take the toll from you. The entire formation will be activated and operated by our powers at first. The moment we are inside the fate and destiny world, the formation will protect you and us. We''ll fuel it with our powers, while you do your part without any interference."

    William knew that what he saw from the preparations of the formation wasn''t enough to mimic it at another time. Without the special powers of these folks, without knowing what to do exactly, then what he gathered so far was worthless.

    That was why they noticed what he was doing and let it pass without ament or objection. They knew he wouldn''t be able to get anything by just knowing how to establish the formation.

    He wasn''t that dejected. After all he intended to find a way to find talents with spirits affinity towards fate and destiny from now on. It might be a long process, but he''d eventually form his own Cult in the end.

    "Let''s start," as everyone stood in their ces, Arthur took a deep breath before the real magic happened.

    William thought the moment the grand formation would get activated, a bellow of fog would surround him and others. Yet that didn''t happen. What truly happened was for bolts of ck lightning to fall down the entire area, appearing out of nowhere.

    The weirdest thing wasn''t that he didn''t get any harm or felt any difort. What truly puzzled him was that this lightning came without any cloud appearing. They just popped out of thin air,nded over their heads, and formed endless pirs as if the world wasing to an end.

    William noticed the world starting to change and blend with this lightning, and it wasn''t just an illusion. The lightning falling down kept increasing until they merged together, forming a world of their own.

    The world around him started to grow ck, and nothing could be heard or seen at all. He stayed in such a weird world for long minutes, even tried to shout at Arthur with no response.

    Gradually shining stars started to appear. At first, they were sporadic, shing shyly before they''d vanish fast. With time passing, these stars became brighter and bigger, ending up forming swirls together like gxies or something.

 Chapter 739 The Weird Fate And Destiny World

    ?

    William didn''t recognise the universe showing itself slowly up to him, and that made him realise this was the mysterious fate and destiny world.

    "Don''t tell me all these stars are the gathering of fate and destiny of people and monsters living in all the worlds¡­" He couldn''t help but think like this when he noticed this universe of stars looked endless.

    The more time passed, the more stars that appeared even at a far distance. He was right in his guesses, except that each gathering of stars was rted to the fate and destiny of a separate world.

    As the world of fate and destiny was showing itself up to him, white fog started to appear around. At first, he didn''t know what was going on. But when the fog cleared up and showed different forms, human forms, he got that these were the masters who were controlling the array.

    [We are all here now] And in the next few minutes, the fog shapes started to be clearer to him. Yet they didn''t show any feature at all, as if all the one hundred masters got turned into white ghosts or something. [We''ll transfer the lead to you. Once done, you need to not distract yourself, only focus on the enemy we came here for]

    Arthur''s voice echoed in William''s mind, and thetter knew this was spirit telepathy. This was something that was linked to the unique abilities of these people. After all, Willian couldn''t use his spirit sense here.

    He didn''t know what taking control even meant. Yet before he''d say anything, the world changed again in front of his eyes.

    This time the darkness vanished; the entire universe got reced with a world that was formed entirely out of pure white fog. It was the same as the white fog of the one hundred shapes that appeared around him before, as if he got absorbed entirely into it.

    William partially guessed what Arthur meant by taking control. This white foggy world seemed to be the one provided by the formation to spy over others'' fate and destiny.

    And yet he didn''t know what he should do. [Just think of the enemy, and then the world will take care of everything]

    William didn''t have any clue about what to do except to follow Arthur''s instructions. Ha already met the Nightmare monster before, saw how its clones looked like. He also met it when it became a Mutant. So, it was easy for him to recall the two shapes of that monster.

    The moment he did that, things started to change for the third time. This time the world started to shrink, as if it was converging over him. William was all alone there, without any of Arthur''s masters.

    The world kept getting smaller, while the fog started to get thickened and showing simr shapes. When William looked closer, he could see wheels, different sized wheels, with lots of vague, tiny silver words appeared at their outer circles.

    The wheels seemed to fill out the entire world now, slowly spinning, with few elerating than others. William thought the wheels would keep condensing and rifying until they''d be real wheels. But soon enough he realised that wasn''t the case.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The wheels just appeared in a vague manner, looking like they were formed out of fog or something. After long minutes, William thought nothing else would happen and the formation ended up with a failure. Yet a single wheel started to change.

    The size of each wheel ranged from ten metres up to a hundred, with different teeth-like protrusions appearing at the outer border, varied in size from one wheel to another. The wheel that changed was around ten metres at first, but started to grow in size, exceeding one hundred metres. Yet that wasn''t what attracted his attention.

    All the wheels were white in colour, with faint silver writings that he couldn''t read. This one started to get slightly darker in colour, turning grey. And the writings changed and became golden in colour.

    As this happened, the wheel expanded and pushed other wheels away, as if it was the boss or something. The wheel also started to slowlye closer to him, all the way until it became directly under his feet.

    William had zero control over any of this. He recalled the words of Arthur, where he mentioned that he''d have total control over everything. And yet there was no sign that he could control any of this.

    The moment the wheel touched his feet, Arthur''s voice rang in his mind. [This is your fate and destiny''s primary wheel. You are the only one who can control it. Think again about that enemy, and your wheel will attract his over, and so we can check everything about him]

    William didn''t need to hear these words to realise this. When the wheel touched his feet, he got the feeling that he was connected to something bigger, something grander, to the entire world.

    If he wanted to, he could not only review what happened in his past life, but also see pieces and bits of his future. And that wasn''t all.

    If he wanted, he could draw any wheel over as long as he got a connection with their owners. As for how he''d draw them, or how he''d see through their past, present, and future, he didn''t have a clue about that.

    William now realised how important it was to have an affinity with fate and destiny. He was sure without that formation, he''d not be able to even sniff anything about this world, least of all to see anything inside it.

    As Arthur told him, the moment he thought about his enemy and a certain wheel at the distance shone in brighter light. It didn''t expand, didn''t show any golden colour, but started to get closer from him.

    At the same time, he noticed some words at his wheel started to shine. He still couldn''t see these writings or symbols clearly, couldn''t see the entire wheel in great detail. But the moment the other wheel came closer, connected to his by the teeth ovepping together, he finally could see his wheel in detail.

 Chapter 740 The Life Story Of The Nightmare Monster

    ?

    The wheel got rified and condensed, showing its general shape. It wasn''t just one wheel as he thought before but looked like different discs lying on top of each other.

    He could only see the upper disc clearly, which was formed of ten circles, connected together with short and thick rods. The central disc was around ten metres in radius, and it got no writing there.

    As for the writings, they were now much clearer to him. And yet he still couldn''t get what they meant. He felt like thenguage used here was something entirely new to him, something unique to this special world.

    His wheel kept rotating slowly like others, but now he could tell the discs weren''t rotating at the same speed. He also noticed the discs weren''t all in the same size, with few muchrger than others.

    Aside from his wheel, the other one that got attached to him didn''t show the same changes as his. The only thing that he could see was the clear drawing at the central disc of something, a drawing of that monster.

    [We are going to start showing the enemy''s fate and destiny. If you can recall any encounters with him, then it''ll greatly help]

    The voice of Arthur rang again in his head, making William anticipate lots of secrets regarding his enemy. He knew few things about that monster, even its mysterious origin as part of the nine tailed fox spirit.

    But William didn''t know much actually. Aside from the little information he identally gained, he got literally nothing.

    This was a great chance to pry over his enemy''s abilities, including his arch enemy, the damn fox.

    He met the Nightmare monster two times, and so he started to recall the events that happened back then. His interaction with that monster were brief, and nothing much could be recalled except for a hectic run and a useless confrontation with its clone.

    Yet when he recalled these events in great detail, the other wheel started to suddenly spin faster. As it was connected to his, his wheel started to pick up speed as well.

    At first, it felt like his wheel was struggling or something, resisting the speed of spinning. Yet slowly it started to match the other wheel''s rotating speed, and that created some sort of fog that started to envelop the two wheels together.

    It looked like a dome that was formed out of golden dust or something, appearing as if sun rays shone on this part of the world. It started slowly, and soon it covered up everything.

    Slowly the dust particles started to change, gather up and form different shapes. In front of William''s eyes, it appeared as if he was standing in front of a theatre, and a y was going on without a single word being said.

    His seat was situated over his wheel, and the stage showing the scenes was over the monster''s wheel. It was an amazing experience, one that he never met before.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The first scene that appeared in front of him was something he instantly recognised. The golden dust gathered up and took the shape of something with nine tails, a miniature version of the fox enemy he fought once before.

    Yet this fox got some sort of a halo around his head, like a crown or something, with nine shining stars there.

    The scene showed a fox moving its tails in a fixed rhythm, and then a speck of dust came out from it. This speck moved away, floating in the air, and the nine tailed fox dust particles crashed on its own, spreading all over the ce in an irregr pattern, without taking any form.

    The only thing that kept its shape was the speck of golden dust. And gradually it started to grow in size, before taking shape of the Nightmare monster.

    It was a miniature form of it. Then William started to see scenes about it, scattered to form a broken, long story of this monster. William saw it growing stronger, fighting other monsters, even the scenes that described his meeting with it.

    There was no sound at all, and that added a gloomy touch over the entire y. After that monster met him, it met a spirit master and started to suffer under him. William knew who this master was, and he knew a big secret about this monster would reveal itself now.

    William knew this monster turned into a Mutant but didn''t know how. He watched closely while the monster floated in the golden space, with a long trail of golden dust that seemed like its blood.

    As William expected, something new did happen. All the things that showed up so far didn''t interest him. He knew the origin of this monster and wasn''t concerned by its life story before meeting him.

    A speck of dust appeared when the monster was at its low moments. It looked weirdly simr to the one that came out from the nine tailed fox before, and it stopped just in front of the monster.

    The speck of dust changed and took the form of a human. William couldn''t see any detail over this human''s face, and yet he felt it was kind of familiar.

    As the human appeared in front of the monster, he cut his own wrists and thenid down on the ground, profusely bleeding. William watched how this monster acquired the body of the dying human master and changed to be a Mutant.

    This was something totally unexpected. William knew for the Mutant formation process to seed, it required different conditions, lots of limitations actually. One of these was that the master should be dying. And another condition for the willingness of the master to ept the merge with the monster.

    Many might consider this crazy, but William knew at thest moments before death, anyone could do anything to survive. Besides he could expect the monsters to use tempting words to let any master ept their offer to save their lives and let them live on.

 Chapter 741 A Severe Backlash

    ?

    Of course, this was a total lie. After the merge, the spirit of the master would wither away and only the monster''s spirit would dominate the body. This was like living a life inside a prison, a life much worse even than that.

    Another hard to meet condition was for the master and monster to have the exact same spirit power. That wasn''t limited just to the general grade, but also the total number of spirit power the master and monster had.

    Little margin of difference was allowed in the process, and that made it hard for any monster to change into a Mutant. Yet that Nightmare monster seemed to hit the jackpot, meeting a human that got formed out of a speck of dust, one who fulfilled all these conditions.

    The interesting scenes didn''t stop there. Once the monster changed and became human, a process that William knew happened five years ago, it started to roam the world.

    William saw how this monster moved around and met with lots of human shaped figures. He could tell they were all dark masters, as they all followed that monster around until arriving at the dark academy of the Blue Hills.

    William watched lots of these scenes, while knowing why these dark masters were scattered all over the world like this. This happened after the huge war, the crusade against the dark masters.

    Then William watched that monster arriving at a ce filled with hills. He knew this was the Blue Hills region. But starting from here, things started to grow hectic.

    It didn''t happen thanks to the actions of that monster, but happened to the small golden world William was in. Just as the scenes disyed the monster''s work at the Blue Hills area, and the world of golden dust started to get restless.

    The dust started to swirl and move in a fierce way, as if it was going to form a storm. And soon enough it did.

    "Don''t tell me something is wrong!" William noticed that aside from the bizarre movement of the free golden dust, the particles that were telling the monster''s story were still acting normally.

    [Something is interfering with the formation] Arthur''s voice came to confirm William''s doubts, [Don''t worry, we are handling the pressure. Keep focusing and don''t lose track of this]

    "It''s great to have such a backing," William smiled, feeling good about not having to suffer anything from that interference. As for what was happening, or who was interfering, he didn''t care if it was the monster''s doing or a bacsh from this world.

    As Arthur and his team were handling everything, William continued to calmly watch, not caring about the golden storm that swirled now all around him. The dust kept moving fast, hitting him but he felt nothing, not even the touch of wind.

    William ignored all this and focused over the events urring in front of him. The golden dust showed the monster working over the entire Blue Hills region, digging the ground and doing lots of things.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    But soon enough, the scenes disyed started to get interrupted and distanced, missing lots of details over time. The scenes started to skip parts, and ended up in less than half an hour to show something, and then the dust would crash and form another scene withoutpleting the story of what happened.

    [We are getting severe bacsh coupled with the interference of something scary¡­ We won''t be able to hold much longer¡­ Try to think of something important, something crucial you want to know about this enemy. We can hold at most for five more minutes, so make it count]

    William knew this was some sort of a reward from Arthur for him. So he took a deep breath, thought about the most important thing he wanted to know about this monster.

    "Show me the fatal weakness of my enemy," William didn''t want to learn about what that monster was doing right now, or where it was. The first and foremost important thing about this monster was about how to kill it.

    This wasn''t just a crucial thing to deal with the Nightmare monster, but also something he needed to deal with the nine tailed foxter on. The two were the same, and their weaknesses must be the same as well.

    "Agh!" Yet when he said these words, and for the first time ever, William felt immense pain assaulting him. He felt like the swirling golden dust particles that looked harmless before were now raging wild, acting out of control, and starting to fiercely impact him.

    William was sure the reason behind not getting any harm before was thanks to Arthur and his group. But now he seemed to ask about something that garnished a scary bacsh from the entire world here, ending up for the failure of Arthur and others to shield him from any damage.

    Yet he withstood and endured, waiting while getting hit severely by the golden dust as a shape of the Nightmare monster in its human form appeared again.

    This time it kept forming slowly, taking minutes to take shape. These minutes passed over William like an entire lifetime. He got nothing to defend against all the golden dust, nor knew any technique to do to even heal himself.

    He was here in a fog form, without having his rings or belongings, not even his gears. He had to endure, while waiting for the monster to take shape. As he was suffering like this, he was sure Arthur and others were also struggling as well.

    Yet Arthur didn''t say anything, as he and others knew this scene was worth such suffering. Slowly the final shape of the human form of the monster appeared. And this time it was a bit bigger than what it appeared before.

    William didn''t know what should happen. That shape appeared alone and stood there for an entire minute without showing anything else. William thought a scene would appear where he''d be able to see the weakness of this monster, perhaps watching it get severely wounded or something, but that didn''t happen.

 Chapter 742 A Deal

    ?

    "What the hell is that? Why isn''t it showing its fatal weakness? Don''t tell me it doesn''t have one!" William was under heavy pressure right now, starting to lose his feeling with his left arm. He couldn''t see his real body, but he was sure if he did, it''d be filled with deep wounds.

    That didn''t matter as long as he finally reached his goal and learnt this very important secret. Yet the figure in front of him stood silent, not showing any change or doing anything at all. And when William started to lose hope, prepared himself to tell Arthur to cancel the formation, something started to change.

    The body of the monster was made out of golden dust particles, so it looked like a golden statue. And now William could see a faint white dot that appeared just in a spot in the middle of the chest.

    "This¡­ Is this its fatal weakness?" Before he''d continue his words, the rming shout from Arthur came to startle him.

    [We can''t hold any longer! Prepare yourself to get out of there in five, four¡­]

    As Arthur started counting down, another white dot appeared at a spot at the belly. Then another one appeared, and another, making William want to curse.

    The world waited until they couldn''t hold anymore and started to show him the answer he sought. He didn''t know if this was on purpose or it was something idental, but he still hated it no matter what.

    When the count reached zero, the world started to blur. William focused entirely over the body of the humanoid monster in front of him, trying to not miss a single detail even when he was leaving.

    And in just a few breaths, the entire world vanished, and he returned back to the world of darkness.

    "Damn!" the first thing he said was this shout, and then he had to stop speaking as he felt weird weakness and inhuman pain assaulting him.

    When he looked at his body, he found himself suffering wounds that were no less than the time he met that nine tailed fox back at the end of his past life.

    William expected a severe bacsh, but when he saw his body littered with wounds, filled with holes as if he just came out from a brutal fight, he couldn''t help but get shocked by this.

    He didn''t care about his falling body, or when it hit the ground. He hurriedly took out lots of healing potions and elixirs, didn''t care about how many he gulped, and kept opening them in batches, emptying their content in his mouth without pause.

    He knew he was in a very bad situation, and he didn''t have time to even check on others. He cared mostly about himself at this moment, and it proved rightter on what he did.

    The wounds caused by such bacsh weren''t normal at all. Even after an hour of gulping elixirs and potions, he still felt immense pain and weakness.

    "Don''t just use healing elixirs, use spirit power replenishment elixirs and potions," the weak and shaky voice of Arthur came while a weak silhouette of his appeared in front of William. He was leaning on a long stick, as if he was used to have such weird bacsh, "this hit is at your body and spirit."

    "..."

    William was so weak to even say a single word or issue a sound. He instantly took spirit power replenishing elixirs. When he used these, he felt a lot better.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Thanks," William could speak and even slowly stood up just after a few minutes, "are everyone alright?"

    "We didn''t lose anyone, luckily," William asked out of courtesy, yet he never expected that part of the team to die. He knew these were the strongest one hundred masters in the entire branch, and this branch was supposed to be the leading branch in this continent.

    Realising this made William bitterly sigh. It felt like he was standing in front of the death''s doorsteps without even realising it. "Don''t think too much about it, we are lucky to return back alive."

    "I see," William paused, "that world is totally dangerous. Why are you doing this?"

    "Believe it or not, this is our destiny," Arthur bitterly smiled, "it''s something that a youth like you wouldn''t understand. Anyway, we got to see all that you saw¡­ That enemy of yours¡­ He isn''t human, isn''t he?"

    "It''s a monster," William knew they shared lots of pressure and torture with him and they deserved to learn part of the truth. Besides, they already saw all that he saw.

    Even if the final shape of that enemy didn''t appear, it was clear it was a monster before. William didn''t know they had their own means to interpret things, including understanding things that didn''t appear clearly in that world.

    Arthur and others already guessed many things, including the fact that this enemy was a monster, and it got born out of another, much scarier, monster.

    "We have tons of questions, if you may," Arthur knew a lot, but he also missed a ton in the entire picture. And so, he wanted to speak with William about these doubts, hoping this youth could rify things over.

    "I''m sorry, but I''m tired and exhausted as you can see," William pointed towards himself before adding, "and Ick understanding of lots of what happened. So why won''t you give me scrolls about this mysterious world and your ways?"

    "This¡­ It''s against thew," Arthur momentarily hesitated, and William couldn''t help but evilly grin.

    "Laws that bind low level masters in your Cult like Leo and Jeremy don''t apply over a Cardinal candidate, right?"

    "..."

    Arthur didn''t know that what he once bragged about before in front of Jeremy would backfire at him like this. "But we''ll need something in return."

    "Then I''ll answer one question for you, and you''ll provide me with enough scrolls to know the basics of your way."

    "Fair enough," as William expected, speaking about the basics wouldn''t limit Arthur. In return for answering one question, he''d gain ess to lots of things.

 Chapter 743 Thinking About What Happened

    ?

    William wanted to know the basics, so he''d not end up getting screwed at the end by the Cardinals. He was, after all, someone who knew nothing about their world. And if they wanted to mess with him, they''d provide only the useless basic info.

    So if William managed to get his hands over scrolls speaking about the basics, he''d be able to discern the value of information exchanged with the Cardinals. As for Leo, he could tell from the way Arthur dealt with Jeremy that the Cult higher ups didn''t care that much about those lower than them.

    He got that the way the Cardinals asked for him to be brought over to their main base was done to scare him off. Perhaps they wanted to get the identity of the enemy without the need to expose too much of their world. And William wouldn''t settle with such a thing.

    "If so¡­ Then let me think about that question then," Arthur seemed to take this matter quite seriously. And that was expected. After all he didn''t just learn that the origins of the enemy the Cult was after was quiteplicated, but he also learnt that it came from another monster, a far scarier one.

    And that meant whatever this monster was able to do, the parent monster could do much worse than that. So, he wanted to find a question, one that could answer many of the most urgent questions for him.

    William was left to heal in that stony room, while Arthur took his people and left. "These wounds¡­ They indeed are cursed or something¡­"

    William used lots of elixirs, be it healing or spirit power regeneration. And yet these wounds looked as if they were stubborn, with many still showing parts and pieces of his flesh.

    He knew such wounds would take time to heal, and he just had to wait for a day or two at most to get his flesh grew up again.

    As he had nothing to do, he sat down and started to think about everything that he lived through in that mysterious world.

    The entire experience was unique and brand new for him. Even with all these wounds and such severe bacsh, he didn''t even feel a single regret or remorse.

    He focused on recalling all the events that he lived through, thought about every single detail, tried to relive the entire experience again.

    He didn''t understand a lot of things, but he could understand a few. For example, he knew gaining ess to this world required a spirit with an affinity towards fate and destiny. And from this point, he started to think about something.

    "I have a way to add more elements into my spirit. If I find an element with such affinity, then by absorbing it I''ll have the ability to ess this world¡­"

    He wasn''t limited by knowledge like people living in this tiny world. He knew that the ability to ess that world wasn''t limited to humans only. That Nightmare monster, and the nine tailed one behind it, had ess to such a world.

    When William thought about the infinite potential of gaining ess to such a world, he couldn''t help but crave to have ess as well.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "An enemy who knows the future won''t lose no matter what¡­ That''s how that damn beast survived all the fierce assaults that came at him for aeons of years¡­"

    William knew he, his master, and his friends, weren''t the only ones to try and kill that monster. And yet none seeded at all.

    He now understood lots of things that he never got before. Such realisation drove him to think more about finding a monster suitable with such affinity and try to absorb it.

    Yet he didn''t know what exactly would be considered a suitable monster, and hoped the information he''d get from Arthur, or the Cardinals would help him understand this point.

    Then his thoughts drifted towards that mysterious world and its effects. He knew he could tap into anyone he got ever in contact with, try to spy on its past and future like he did with that monster.

    Aside from the risks such a task implied, he knew this was a heaven-sent gift. He didn''t need to deal with anyone or investigate them. He could simply go into that world and try to seek everything he could get from.

    As for the risks involved in such a thing, he was prepared for them. Even if using the simple techniques would pose great risk over his life, he could repeat the formation he just learnt and safeguard his life against such devastating side effects.

    He didn''t stop thinking this far. He knew if he got enough data and knowledge, he could start modifying this technique, enabling just lesser people to use it, even himself alone.

    As for the people he wanted to use such technique over, his thoughts weren''t just limited to the sworn enemy of his. He got a long list of enemies he needed to deal with in the outer world. As for the tiny world, he got the Transformers and Mutants, and perhaps a new enemy he''d findter on.

    He kept thinking about the world and the experience he got back then. Time passed fast, and he never cared about what was happening to his body.

    His main thoughts were now linked towards the issue he had, the two rogue and dangerous spirits lying within his body. He knew if he used this technique and world, he could spy over these spirits'' pasts and learn tons of things about them.

    Yet he was sure such dangerous spirits would be protected by fate and destiny. So trying to see through them held tons of danger. Not to mention he got the technique left by the ck fox for him.

    "I need to see the technique left at my back first. If it proves to be worthless, then I''ll try to solve all the problems using this mysterious world¡­"

 Chapter 744 The Two Questions

    ?

    William felt more reassured this way. He didn''t like having just one solution, making him feel he had his back against a cold rocky wall.

    During the time he spent recuperating and thinking things over, Arthur had a long discussion with his group.

    He and others already saw what William experienced inside that world. They started to discuss what just happened, trying to reach a single question that would answer all of their dilemmas.

    They kept talking for three days. During this, Jeremy was dying out of worry about his friend and boss. He knew there wasn''t any risk in waiting for longer, but he wanted to see Leo getting freed from such status anytime soon.

    So he kept pestering Arthur and interrupted the meeting more than once. He even tried to sneak himself towards William''s ce, to find it locked and the entrance was heavily protected by many guards.

    In the end, he had to wait outside Arthur''s meeting ce, until thetter finally got out.

    "What are you doing here?" Arthur frowned when he saw Jeremy waiting at the doorsteps of the meeting hall, "I told you, once we are done, we''ll send you all away."

    "I know," Jeremy knew he was overstepping his boundaries by what he kept doing, "but¡­ May Ie with you to meet William? I heard he is severely injured¡­"

    "Do you think you can help more than I?" The attitude of Arthur wasn''t that good towards Jeremy and people of his standard, "just return back and wait for the good news. We won''t take long anyway, and William is going with you soon enough."

    "..."

    Jeremy couldn''t help but sigh, and Arthur didn''t wait for his response. Thetter was already burdened by lots of things.

    The long discussion was still lingering in his head. He kept revising all of the key information until he arrived at the ce where William was locked in.

    "I see you are getting better, "Arthur said the moment he saw William. He wasn''t lying, William did indeed look quite fine now.

    "So, you are ready to ask your question now?" William slowly stood up from the ground, "and did you bring the scrolls with the basic knowledge?"

    "Sure," Arthur tossed a ring towards William, "these are all the basic manuscripts about our Cult. these are useless stuff actually to someone like you, someone without an affinity towards fate and destiny."

    "It''s better to know a thing or two about such a mysterious side of the world rather than staying in the dark, right?" William didn''t want to expose any of his ns, and even controlled himself to not reveal any of his excitement.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Ok, let''s start doing business then," Arthur''s face turned all serious before adding, "I want to know the answer to this question¡­ Who was that monster which released the speck of golden dust before and gave birth to this monster we are hunting? And what''s its rtion to you?"

    "That''s two questions, not one," William rolled his eyes, knowing that Arthur selected the most crucial and hard to answer question about the entire experience in that world.

    He thought about the possible questions they might ask him about, and even prepared a list of these. On top of the list, this question was the one he didn''t want to hear. And yet he prepared an answer to such a tricky question.

    "I prepared all the basic scrolls for you to read," Arthur shrugged, "considering it as a payment for these two questions. You are free to check the content of the ring if you don''t believe me."

    William didn''t act polite and checked the ring. As Arthur said, there were tons of scrolls there. He took a few out and opened them, finding that they were speaking about different things about the fate and destiny world and the Cult ways.

    "Cool," unlike what Arthur and his group thought, William casually shrugged as if he didn''t care about any of this, "that monster is something that lives mainly in the outer world. It''s the fiercest monster ever existed, one that lived for tons of years. And my rtionship with it lies with the monster it brought birth to. I met that monster before, and it seemed it grew interested in me for a reason I still don''t know."

    William coated the truth with tons of lies and managed to hide the crux of the problem away by such words.

    "Hmm¡­ That exins your rtionship with both of them, but¡­ Howe you know this monster''s true identity and might? It''s the first time for me to meet someone outside the Cult who knows anything about the outer world in such detail and confidence."

    Arthur knew such an answer exined William''s rtionship with that scary monster. But he still was puzzled more than satisfied with such an answer.

    "I have a master, one who has the ability tomunicate with the outer world," William paused, before adding, "don''t try to ask me about how she can do it. Even I, her direct disciple, don''t know such an answer."

    "I see," Arthur was still unsatisfied with such an answer, "then you are just connected to that monster through the other monster it gave birth to? No other rtion?"

    "I have no clue about anything yet," William stuck to his little lie, "when I''ll meet the monster residing in our world, I''ll get to know the answer to many questions as well. As you can tell, I wanted to know lots about that monster, including how to kill it."

    "Hmm¡­ Ok," Arthur felt more unsettled by William''s answers. But he knew William was going to meet the Cardinals, and a much thorough investigation would be conducted there.

    He decided on the spot to share what he discovered here with the Cardinals. He didn''t intend to do it before, but he got out of this deal with nothing of value actually.

    He got the feeling that William was lying. And if not for the fact that trying to spy over William was a dangerous thing, he''d rather prefer to know the answer himself.

 Chapter 745 Going To The Main Base

    ?

    If not for William''s previous cooperation with them, they''d have suffered more severe bacsh. Returning with even one tenth of the overall masters who activated the formation with their lives intact would be a blessing.

    He now hoped for the Cardinals to uncover more of William''s secrets, and then share these with him. Even if he didn''t get anything in return, he knew he was about to get selected as one of the Cardinals soon enough. And when he''d be one of them, he''d get to learn the things he wanted to know.

    "I believe you can get to the main base now," Arthur wanted now to send William away as fast as he could, "that young man is giving me a headache about his cursed friend. He is waiting back with his legion members. Let''s go, I''ll take you all towards the portal."

    William wasn''t dejected by such a change of attitude. He knew he got the better end of the stick out of this deal.

    If it was up to him, he''d prefer to stay here for a longer time. But he knew Arthur already changed heart towards him, and he might even force him to leave. So it was better to keep thest string of friendship between the two rather than turning this into some sort of enmity.

    As the two walked outside, William noticed therge number of masters stationed outside the rocky hall. This came as a little surprise to him, and hended a questioning look over Arthur, one that thetter ignored and didn''t bother to exin.

    William kept his thoughts to himself. He walked for an hour inside many corridors, descending stairs, realising how huge this ce was.

    He met lots of masters in the long walk, and they all cupped their hands and respectively greeted Arthur. William got the impression after some time that Arthur was showing off on him. And he didn''t know why he wanted to do so.

    Arthur did indeed want to convey such an impression. He knew his meeting with this youngster was just the mere beginning of a long series of future meetings, and he wanted to establish his hierarchy in front of this youngster.

    Arthur had the feeling that every single time he''d meet Williamter on wouldn''t be less shocking than this one. Not to mention with each meeting, William would grow stronger and more authoritative.

    So, it was better to show off when William was weak, in an attempt to make this youngster feel awed towards him. He didn''t know that William wasn''t a bit affected by any of that.

    "Atst," the moment Jeremy saw William, he couldn''t help but heave a long sigh of relief. He then turned towards Arthur, "can we go on our way now?"

    "Follow me," Arthur didn''t show anything on his face, and simply turned around and took them into a short tour this time. In less than five minutes, the entire legion found themselves standing in front of a gigantic portal, one that stretched for tens of metres in height and width.

    William knew such a portal would require tons of power to operate, and he didn''t care about that. He knew the branch here would shoulder such expenditure, and he simply waited on the side for a few hours until Arthur''s men operated the portal.

    The moment it got activated, a torrent of golden light appeared, twirling in a gigantic circle with pitch ckness in the centre.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "The portal is ready," Arthur stood in the front of the portal, looking at William and not anyone else, "let''s hope our next meeting will be far more interesting than this one."

    "I hope to not touch that world of yours again," William lied, before walking alongside Leo''s legion, passing through the portal.

    "You''ll have to pass through my base next time to return home," Arthur said these words when William passed by his side. And thetter didn''t care about such words and kept walking steadily to the front.

    The portal felt like it was ake of frozen water. The moment William passed through it, his body sank slowly, while getting extremely cold.

    He knew this was the effect of a high concentrated spirit power used to operate this portal. And soon enough, the ckness around got cleared up, reced by bright dots of light that kept erging, increasing in number, and merging together.

    *Thud!*

    Williamnded on the ground, while feeling like his body was close to freezing to death. He didn''t panic, took a spirit power regenerating potion out, and gulped its content without any hesitation.

    This was the sign of his spirit power getting pressured by the portal''s, and to fix this he needed to replenish his spirit power using potions or elixirs.

    "What took you so long?" Just as William recuperated and felt better, he heard this loud shouting from far. When he looked around, he found himself standing in a much gigantic hall, one that made him feel dwarfed by staying in it.

    The entire ce was made out of rocks, but the ceiling and walls were hundreds of metres away from him. The entire ce had five colossal portals, with a muchrger one in the centre of them.

    The moment William spotted this one, his eyes shone brightly as he softly muttered: "The interworld portal!!!"

    This portal was the one that led the owners and founder of this ce to make it this big. The portal was at least two hundred metres in height and width, looking like a small mountain on its own.

    Just standing far from it made William feel as if he was an ant standing in front of a giant. And he knew if he stood much closer, he''d feel like a speck of dustpared to it.

    The portal looked ck, as if it was cold dead. It wasn''t activated yet, and William knew to activate it, an insane amount of power was needed.

 Chapter 746 The Grand Cardinal

    ?

    Yet the fact that this headquarter of this Cult had such a portal was mind blowing to him. Weeks ago, he had never heard about such a Cult before. And now he realised this Cult wasn''t as simple as it might look.

    They got a way to connect themselves with the outer world. That meant they knew lots of things about the outer world, and the unique methods of that world were used here by the Cult folks.

    What made William more shocked was the fact that this Cult was unknown to him, to his master, to all the masters he met before in his past life. Such a special force was kept hidden deeply, away from the eyes of everyone. And that made him realise this Cult got more secrets he didn''t yet know about.

    The one who spoke was someone who got some sort of a golden metallic ring over his head. He wore a red cloak and held a weird sword in his right hand.

    The sword looked like a broadsword, with curved three sharp edges at the end. In the middle, there was a small ball that looked like nothing much. He wasn''t alone, was followed by arge group of masters who wore yellow cloaks, armed with swords with scabbards crossing their backs, walking all around him.

    Yet in the middle of such hundreds of fierce looking masters, that red cloaked man was the centre of attention. William knew his identity without the need to ask, one of the Cardinals of the Cult.

    As the man came from the far end of this grand ce, Jeremy and others got time to stand up, bowed deeply to that man, while greeting him in unison: "We salute the Grand Cardinal."

    William didn''t know if this man was the leader of the entire Cult and the Cardinal council, or if this grand word was just a title added to the name of any cardinal. He didn''t bow, and simply cupped his hands in greeting. He wasn''t part of the Cult and wasn''t limited by their weird regtions.

    The Cardinal walked slowly, yet he arrived fast with his people. He red at the bowing legion members, stopped for a long moment over Leo, then hended his eyes over William.

    William could feel the pressureing from this man. He wasn''t old, but he wasn''t young either. He got some kind of aura that made his face hard to grasp. ''Dark gold master, one at the pinnacle as well,'' William muttered to himself as he guessed the true power of this Cardinal.

    "So¡­ You are William," the Cardinal paused, as if he was waiting for William to respond, to identify or perhaps prostrate himself or something. Yet nothing like that happened. And William kept his calm, looking towards that Cardinal as if he didn''t care at all by his presence.

    "Interesting," the Cardinal didn''t show any sign of getting enraged or something by William''s attitude, "follow me. As for you, just bring Leo over and the rest is going to get debriefed by the Judges."

    "J¡­"

    "Sir Great Cardinal¡­"

    "We didn''t do anything wrong!"

    The legion members exploded in shock and fear, as if the Judges that Cardinal mentioned was some sort of disciplinary action or a trial of some sort.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Silence," one of the masters following the Cardinal shouted, and his shout silenced them all, "you aren''t used of anything, it''s just a standard procedure. Follow us and don''t make a ruckus out of nothing."

    Even William didn''t believe him, and he also was sure this wasn''t rted to the old crimes the legionmitted. It seemed the Cardinals wanted to learn everything that happened back at the Blue Hills, and perhaps hold them ountable for not finding a trace of the one who caused all this.

    William didn''t say anything, and simply watched everyone getting dragged except for Jeremy and two others who stayed behind to carry Leo.

    "Let''s go," the Cardinal said, turned around and started walking.

    The entire ce was giant enough to make the group of hundreds walking in the middle of it look like they were nothing. William didn''t miss the chance to examine the interworld portal when they passed closer to it.

    From his experience, he could tell this portal was constructed thousands of years ago with knowledgeing from the outer world. The writings on its rail were filled with words and symbols that were only known to the outer world.

    He didn''t know how or why the masters at the outer world built this portal, didn''t know if they just did this one here or built more in the entire world. But he knew whoever built this portal here did it when they established the branch of the Cult in this world.

    In his eyes, the Cult was like a giant spider web, and he felt like a den of ferocious spiders were waiting at him in the heart of all this.

    After getting out from this special ce, it went all normal again. The ce looked exactly like the branch William just came from, filled with corridors, rooms, and halls carved in the heart of a grand mountain.

    William didn''t know where this ce was, but he was sure the size of this mountain was huge enough to make it stand out in the entire world.

    He decided to study the world mapter on and try to locate this ce. As for now, he simply followed the grand entourage led by the Cardinal, until they reached another gigantic hall.

    This one didn''t have any portal, only a huge table made out of stone, with lots of seats, and people dressed up like the Cardinal led him here.

    "Leave him here, and take them back to the Judges," the Cardinal who led them here said to his men, "empty the room next, and leave us alone."

    "Yes, Grand Cardinal," William watched Jeremy leave Leo''s body on the ground and left in a dejected way.

 Chapter 747 Who Told You This?!

    ?

    Before leaving, his eyes met with William''s, and thetter nodded to him, to reassure that Leo was going to get saved.

    William didn''t have a good impression of the Cardinals or the leaders of this Cult. He could tell they had immense power and numbers, branches scattered all over the world, and yet they never helped in stopping the crisis that befell this world in his past life.

    He didn''t know why, and if the reason was some sort of bullshit like the Cultws and such, he''d despise them even more.

    Once the entire ce got emptied from everyone except for William and the unconscious Leo, the Cardinals stood in their ces around the table, looking in silence towards William.

    Thetter could feel the pressure. A group of hundreds of dark gold grade masters, at the high grade at least, and most were at the pinnacle, wasn''t something easy for a recent gold grade master like him to handle.

    Yet William wasn''t a normal master, not someone who could get affected by any of this. So he calmly stood in his ce, meeting their eyes with his.

    "Sit down if you want," the Cardinal who led him here spoke, and it seemed like he was the leader of the entire Cardinal Council.

    "I''m fine standing like this," but William refused the invitation, "you called for me toe, and here I''m. what do you want?"

    "We want to save our brave legion leader."

    "As if I''m buying that," Williamughed, before adding, "I saw how you truly treasure your legion. So why don''t we save time and speak about what you want?"

    The Cardinals looked at each other in doubt. They thought by bringing William over, he''d be scared to meet them. And yet, the interrogation they envisioned turned upside down, and William was taking the wheel and leading the entire meeting.

    "You know nothing about our ways, and you want to learn all this knowledge. In return for that, we got the result of your continent''s branch leader''s investigation. So, why won''t we make a deal here? You tell us everything you know about the two enemies, the one who caused all this and the one who gave birth to it, and then we can share with you part of our ways."

    "Won''t do," William shook his head, "don''t try to ask about something you can''t even handle."

    "Kiddo, don''t take us lightly," another Cardinal spoke up, seemingly a little amused by William''s attitude, "we aren''t weak, not that powerless."

    "I do know that," William was sure of this, "but let me ask you first, what''s your agenda?"

    "Agenda?"

    "Your main goal, the one you want to achieve no matter what," William wanted to know the answer to this troubling question.

    He knew these folks were strong, and they got connections with the outer world. People like them should be at the core of the main events in the world. So howe this world perished in his past life without them trying to save it?<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William couldn''t even guess any answer without understanding their mindset. "We are here to maintain the bnce of the world," the Great Cardinal didn''t see anything wrong in sharing such intel with him, "we are here to make sure no one is tempering with the fate and destiny wheels."

    "How about the world then?"

    "We are protecting it, aren''t my words clear?"

    William looked directly into the eyes of that Cardinal, and he got that he wasn''t lying. He didn''t need to, if they didn''t care at all about this world, then they would easily say it.

    "That means you are willing to do anything to save and protect this world, right? Protect it from destruction and ruin, correct?" William wanted to triple check over their stance.

    "I don''t know why you are speaking about the same topic again and again, but if this world perishes, we''ll die with it," another Cardinal said, seemingly taking what William said as a usual talk of the youngsters, fitting his young age.

    "I see," William''s thoughts spinned fast. If what they said was true, then that meant the fall of this world in his past life wasn''t just as simple as the release of swarms of monsters.

    Many schemes were in y, and he now realised he got to know something grand without intending to.

    It seemed that before the fall of the world, the ones standing behind it took this Cult down first. William couldn''t believe such a grand force, with such immensely powerful and numerous masters would fall without causing a storm in the world.

    Just the Cardinal force in front of him would take a huge army to take them down. And such a battle would have left a great impact on the entire world.

    Yet he never heard of such a thing before. "Now, can you tell us all the news about these two enemies? We need to preserve the world and protect it from any harm."

    "But you''ll fail," William sighed, sighed as if what he said was something already set in stone, "and from the look on your faces, I believe you already are aware of this."

    When he said hisment casually, he noticed the slight change in their faces. It felt like his words hit the right notes, as if they knew exactly what he was speaking about.

    He was first startled by such an unexpected reaction. Yet when he recalled the nature of this ce, of these people, he knew this made sense. They were able to spy over others'' fates and destiny, see the past, present, and future. And that meant they must have spotted something grand about this world.

    Even if they couldn''t tell what was exactly going to happen, they knew this world was going to experience a great crisis. And it seemed they were trying all their best to change such fate or stop this disaster before it''d happen.

    "Who told you about this?!"

 Chapter 748 We Have A Common Goal

    The Grand Cardinal slowly stood up from his seat, ring at William as if he was seeing a ghost, "you don''t have any affinity towards fate and destiny. We already spied on you, and got to learn lots of things, none rted to our business and world."

    "Let''s see I have a master who is quite proficient in such things."

    "We don''t buy that," another Cardinal stood up, "we know you have a master, but she isn''t here."

    "..."

    This was the first time William ever got busted in his lie. This lie kept working perfectly fine in front of any master, in any situation, except for now.

    "Let''s say I''m gifted with a thing you know nothing about," William knew they could at most spy on little things rted to him. If they were so powerful, then they''d have seen through everything and wouldn''t stand here trying to get more answers to their endless questions.

    "You¡­"

    "And let''s agree on another point, I''m on your side," William interrupted another Cardinal, looking at the eyes of the Grand Cardinal directly as he added, "I also want to save this world from the uing disaster. I don''t know how much you know about the uing disaster, but I can assure you, this disaster is one that can''t be solved by a single force no matter how strong and resourceful it was."

    His words expressed the true age and experience of his, not just wordsing out from the mouth of a sixteen years old youth. William stopped talking about saying these words, waiting for them to absorb and fully understand what he just dered.

    The Cardinals were indeed shocked. What William said was rted to an old prophecy, one that took the lives of an entire council of Cardinals thousands of years ago.

    These Cardinals met something that wanted to bring the destruction of this world. They managed to stop it, and fighting it didn''t cost them their lives, spying on its fate and destiny.

    They found out that it came from the outer world, a seed that came from a far scarier monster. And when they spied on its future, they were shocked to see that the future was rted to a huge storm that would cover up the entire world and take it down.

    Such a spying mission ended up with a deadly bacsh, one that took the lives of every single one of them. Yet the Grand Cardinal back then managed to return and stay alive for a few minutes. During which, he wrote down a prophecy, a warning for the future generations, speaking about the uing disaster in general words, while describing the marking point of its date.

    And that point was rted to the appearance of a simr seed, a seed that''de from the same scary monster in the outer world.

    When the Cardinals first heard about William, they were at most interested in knowing why the fate and destiny world wanted to protect him. They investigated his background as a standard procedure in the Cult, and knew that he didn''te from a fancy background or had any strong traits.

    Yet almost five years ago, everything changed. This youth started to pull out one miracle after another, ending up showing to the world the scary fox spirit that made him quite famous.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Yet they didn''t feel any suspicion or anything, not until their branch on the other continent sent the report about what they found out about him.

    The mention of a monster that got birthed from a speck of dust that came out from another monster made these Cardinals think of the prophecy.

    Like anything dangerous and important, this prophecy was locked up and not shared with anyone except for those in the Cardinal Council. And that was why the Cardinal candidate William met before didn''t link anything before.

    "Let''s say we''ll ept your knowledge about such a secret without delving into any detail," the Grand Cardinal paused, looking around to silence everyone talking, "and we agree that you are our ally, so will you share what you know about these enemies with us?"

    "You are thinking wrongly about this," William sighed, "the true enemy isn''t in this world to begin with. What will you do about it? Even if you know its identity, you can''t touch a single hair of it at all."

    "We can share the news with our superiors in the outer world," the Grand Cardinal said as if this was something trivial. And William knew he wasn''t lying, "they can handle it, while we can handle the enemy in our world."

    "But that won''t change much," William sighed again, "that enemy is just a small wheel in the entire grand machine working to destroy our world."

    "This¡­" What William said was something none of the Cardinals here, none of the Cardinals over the years, even knew or realised.

    To them, the prophecy was everything they had. They took it like it was a sacred thing and nned everything based on it.

    Yet from William''s little words, they realised how deeply mistaken they were. To take down an entire world, just a single enemy wasn''t enough. Even if that enemy could tamper with fate and destiny, its role wouldn''t have been big enough to impact the entire world.

    "Are you saying that this enemy is worthless?!!!" The Grand Cardinal didn''t like what he just heard. He got what William tried to convey, and yet he didn''t believe their entire lives were built over a misconception.

    "It''s indeed worthy," William said in a firm way, "but it''s not the only enemy we have to take care of or worry ourselves about."

    What he wanted to say was clear, they had all the right to worry of this enemy, of this monster. But the problem wouldn''t get solved if that enemy got crushed and killed.

    That meant they had to remove that enemy, and then take care of other enemies to make sure this world would be saved.

 Chapter 749 An Offer

    ?

    "And you expect us to believe such wordsing from someone we just met?" the Grand Cardinal asked, and William crossed his arms as he calmly smiled.

    "You know I''m not just a normal person, right?" He bragged about this. After all, if he was normal, they wouldn''t have shown any interest in him at all.

    "That''s not enough," the Grand Cardinal slowly shook his head, "we need proof, something that we can believe."

    "Then spy on my fate," William extended his arms wide open.

    "You know we can''t," the Grand Cardinal sighed, "we tried, and failed. Your fate is one of the most dangerous ones we have ever seen in the past hundreds of years."

    "And I''m not the only one with such fate," Williamughed, as if he was amused by this.

    "You have to tell us anything," the Grand Cardinal paused, "anything that we can use to spy on others than you and that monster. Not to mention you have to help us to take it down. As for the one in the outer world¡­"

    "That one can''t be touched now, believe me, it''s beyond your abilities, anyone''s abilities," William was clear about saying anything regarding the nine tailed fox. He was willing to help, but not with anything rted to that fox.

    "Yet we need anything about that enemy, at least we can warn the outer world department and let them make preparations for it."

    The Grand Cardinal still wanted to know anything about that fox. And that made William inwardly sigh. He knew they wouldn''t be able to hold a candle against it, and yet he didn''t know the full abilities of these people.

    So, he thought about a middle ground solution and decided to go for it.

    "I can do this for you," he paused, looking in a serious way towards that Cardinal, "I''ll share part of what I know when I''m up there."

    "You have high hopes to go there? Pft!"

    "That''s funny! If it''s that easy, then we were able to do it, hahahaha!"

    Many Cardinalsughed, and yet William didn''t even show any sign of getting distressed or something. In fact, he looked as calm as ever, as serious as before. And that made the Cardinals stop what they were saying, take what he just said far seriously.

    "You are dead serious about this," the Grand Cardinal sized William up and down before adding, "so¡­ You want to keep anything rted to that monster until you arrive at the outer world? What guarantees that this monster won''t cause any trouble there?"

    "None," William shrugged, "but I guess it''s not that foolish to attract your attention."

    "If it tries to do anything, we''ll directly spot it," the Grand Cardinal paused, "so you want to exchange intel about the monster in this world with us, in return for knowing everything about our ways, right?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "That was the old deal," William crossed his arms, "now you and I are linked together to the same ship."

    "You want us to help you against other enemies? For what?"

    "We aren''t your followers, kiddo!"

    The Cardinals seemed to get stirred up by what William said. Yet he simply shrugged as he responded to all thesements with a few simple words, "if you want to save the world like you im, then you have to help me. After all, my goal is also to save the world from the uing crisis, and I can''t do it alone."

    "Give us time to discuss this thoroughly first," the Grand Cardinal just said what William wanted to hear. He knew proposing such an alliance out of the blue wouldn''t get approved at right on the spot. And he aimed to get some time for himself, to do various things.

    First, he needed to check the scrolls he gained from the other branch. He wanted to learn about all the basics, before he''d start negotiating about the knowledge he''d get from the Cult Cardinals.

    He didn''t know if the branch told them about the scrolls they exchanged with him or not. And he didn''t care. "Where can I stay then?" He knew it''d be bad if he had to remain here. And he didn''t believe they''d let him remain when they were about to discuss his offer.

    "We have ces for our visitors," the Grand Cardinal paused. Before he''d say anything else, he closed the door opened, and a group of twenty masters appeared.

    They all wore silver outfits, with tight cloaks that showed their body shapes. As a surprise, William realised they were alldies, and they all had perfect bodies and curves.

    He didn''t know what they were doing in the Cult, but it''d be extremely weird if they were the special guards of the Cardinals. And as he expected, they actually were!

    When the Grand Cardinal exined things over, William couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. What was the point in making hotdies like these join an exclusive force to guard the Cardinals. Were they there to guard or entertain them?

    But William had no say in any of this, and simply followed the steps of the twentydies out of the giant hall of the Cardinals. When he went outside, the door closed, and thest thing he saw was the ring eyes of the Grand Cardinal.

    "I hope they take my suggestion quite seriously," William wanted to hit many birds with one stone. If he secured the alliance with them, then he''d secure a mighty weapon on his side.

    They didn''t just have strong forces and masters, not just their unique ways in seeing the future, but they also had branches all over the world.

    They were organised, highly connected and ruled by a regime. And to him, this was the perfect ally he''d dream to have when the world woulde to an end.

    He didn''t know what exactly brought the end of the world. Monster swarms seemed the logical answer before, yet he now greatly doubted it.

 Chapter 750 We Need To Fortify Our Mountains

    ?

    "If those nning the downfall of the world wanted to seed, then they have to take down such a force before attacking the world," William muttered to himself, while sitting in a room that was just enough to be called a small house at any other ce.

    It was all made out of stone, and even the fine touches of carpets and paintings on the walls failed to remove the cold touch of the stones making the entire ce.

    To him, it felt like a grand prison. And what he didn''t know was that the Cardinals were watching and hearing everything he was doing and saying since getting into this room.

    They didn''t want time to just make up their minds about his offer, they also wanted time to closely watch him. And what he said next made their minds freeze.

    "If so, then I have to help these folks in surviving the hit they don''t realiseing¡­ I have to prepare them to first defend their lives and preserve their order and Cult, before even saving the entire worldter on¡­"

    William''s words weren''t casual, and he looked dead serious when he said it. Back in the grand meeting hall he just left, and on top of the huge stoney table that the Cardinals were sitting around, a giant silver ball floated as if it was some sort of a screen.

    It conveyed everything William did and said since leaving this ce. And when William''s wordsnded, everyone couldn''t help but look at each other in doubt and disbelief.

    "He can''t be serious, right?" one of the Cardinals asked what others had in their minds, "he can''t be thinking we are this weak or something, right?"

    "I can tell he isn''t lying about his words," another Cardinal said, while his eyes shone brightly in purple light. He got the same gift as Panther, the ability to see bits and pieces of the future.

    "I can tell he believes what he just said, totally believing it down to the bones," another said while his body shone in cyan light. He got the gift to tell if someone''s emotions and feelings were when speaking about something, a way to tell if someone was telling the truth or lying.

    "If he believes what he said, and he isn''t lying, then we have to take these insane words quite seriously," the Grand Cardinal had a better impression about William more than any other Cardinal here.

    "Are you suggesting we are going to get attacked? That''s not what the prophecy says¡­"

    "The prophecy came from a long time ago," the Grand Cardinal rolled his eyes, "and the Grand Cardinal who said it died before continuing his words. Not to mention what guarantee any of us has that the old Cardinals saw everything rted to that crisis? You all know how hard it is to get the bottom of anything in the middle of any bacsh."

    The words of the Grand Cardinalnded, and everyone went into silence. What he said was true, and they started to think differently, different from what the prophecy kept controlling the minds and thoughts of everyone for long time already.

    "But we aren''t weak!" another Cardinal argued, "no one in this world can handle us if we wanted to act."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "That''s right, we have power, knowledge, resources, and our branches are everywhere! We can do anything we want without worrying of anyone or anything."

    The Grand Cardinal let them all speak and express their thoughts. He knew they got the right to feel so, as all this was true. There wasn''t a single known force in this world that could threaten them. And that made what William said seemed crazy.

    "Let''s not take any risks then," the Grand Cardinal waited until everyone said their piece and returned to silence, "we won''t lose anything if we fortified our bases and armed up our forces for any uing war."

    "Our bases are already fortified inside grand mountains," a Cardinal said, "it''s impossible for anyone to attack us!"

    "We are well secured indeed," the Grand Cardinal seemed to notice something in the attitude of everyone here, an attitude he once used to have, arrogance, "but there are many masters out there who can crush mountains. We aren''t that safe actually. And when I thought about it just now, if we lost the outer shells of mountains, we are powerless and defenceless against any enemy."

    "We won''t let anyone touch the mountains without a fight!"

    "Yes! We got enough forces to protect the mountains!"

    "But we have zero traps or defences around the mountains," the Grand Cardinal didn''t buy any of what his friends said, "and without this, without heavily fortifying the entire region around each base, we aren''t safe. We don''t even have detection traps around! How can we fend off any enemy if they knew about our bases?"

    "Your point is?"

    "We need to start fortifying our bases," the Grand Cardinal said it as if he took the decision on his own, "we need to study the areas around our bases extensively, start to prepare ns to fortify everything. Even if we have to go beyond our regions toy down defences, we''ll do! No matter what, we have to secure our homes."

    This was just the beginning of a long and tiring discussion thatsted for few days. At the same time, William was sitting in his room, checking the scrolls he got, reading through their content.

    At first, he nned to go through the scrolls fast. But after reading through few scrolls, he couldn''t help but get lost and totally absorbed in their content.

    The scrolls spoke about a new world that wasn''t known to him. The Mystic Arts used by the Cult members weren''t just aimed to see through anyone''s fate and destiny. To William''s surprise, these arts would help anyone to uncover the past, present, and the future of anyone, besides a far terrifying side of affecting someone, and making him make a certain decision.

 Chapter 751 The Seven Paths Of Mystic Arts

    ?

    In addition to that, these arts could be used to create curses, or undo them.

    William thought these arts were used to counter the curses, never imagined they were the same methods used toy down these curses in the first ce.

    "It''s like a sword, can be used to defend a nation or take the life of its monarch," William muttered, while reading his way through the basics of these arts.

    In general, there were seven different paths of these arts, all depended on the type of spirit affinity of the master. William already had his own spections about the right spirit affinities to use such arts. And now he got the answer in much detail.

    The affinities included time, fate, and destiny. These three were ones of the rarest and most unique affinities in the world. William met Panther, a master with spirit that could see through time and pry over the future.

    He knew it wasn''t impossible to find monsters with spirits rted to time, fate, and destiny, but it was much harder to find spirits with affinities towards these.

    The scrolls were clear on this, having just spirits rted to these wouldn''t do. The spirit must have an affinity element towards one of these, and that was what made William have a headache.

    He even doubted that Panther would be able to train on these arts with his spirit. And in addition to Panther, he also knew someone who had potential to train in these arts if he got the affinity as well.

    The other four affinities were Karma, Divination, Luck, and Cosmos. William knew the first three, but never heard of someone having a Cosmos spirit or even an affinity.

    "Weird¡­ The scrolls don''t have any in depth information about any of these," William tried to get a better understanding of these affinities and why the arts only worked on them and not on the spirits. Yet he found no data about such an exnation, and that made him realise this was considered as a higher level of information, not just basics.

    "At least I know what I''m going to ask about," After five entire days, William managed to go through all the basic scrolls he got before. The information he gained was simply too much for him to handle in just one session. Yet he learnt all the basic facts about the Cult and the Mystic Arts.

    From the scrolls, the Cult was established close to fifty thousand years ago. It might seem like a very long time, but William knewpared to the real age of this world, this was nothing.

    The Cult came from the outer world''s main headquarters as he expected. And the ones who came here used a crack in space fabric to arrive here, establishing the interworld portal he once saw here, and left enough masters to run the ce.

    The Cult branch here was connected to the main headquarters in the outer world, but there was no mention about where this Cult was situated out there or any reference about their activities or anything.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William wanted to guess where that Cult was in his past life, and why they didn''t take actions against the nine-tailed fox before. In his estimation, the fox attacked them first, getting rid of an annoying enemy like the Cult.

    Putting such a thing aside, William knew a little and a much disturbing fact about the Cult. to be able to perform the Mystic Arts, one had to be young, less than twenty-five years old. And that meant Panther was now out of his options.

    William wanted to test Panther and see if he had an affinity towards time or not. If so, then he''d do anything in his power to lure this master on his side and let him start learning and executing the Mystic Arts.

    His only option nowid in Thomas, that if he got an affinity towards Karma. William recalled the moment that he tested this youth five years ago, and he couldn''t tell if he got an affinity or not.

    "Now I have to wait for them to call me, and then I''ll shower them with all the questions I have in mind¡­" William decided to rest and train until the Cardinals would make up their minds.

    During his stay here, the Cardinals were having very productive discussions. They started off by just simply discussing the decision of the Grand Cardinal, going all the way towards taking all the detailed maps of their branches in the entire world and started to discuss how to fortify them.

    When they took the maps out and studied them, they were shocked to see how vulnerable and weak their bases were. This was something that never crossed their minds, a fatal mistake anyone descending from a mighty and powerful force would easily fall into.

    The arrogance and overconfidence in their power and might were inherited by the moment they joined the Cult. The teachings they provided to their offspring never spoke about the possibility of getting attacked.

    In their eyes, they were the true kings and rulers of this world. And it wasn''t that easy to convince a king that he grew old and was so weak to get attacked and killed at the hands of peasants.

    At first, they thought the task was easy and wouldn''t need lots of their time and effort. But when they studied the maps, they discovered how hard and tiring this task would be.

    The first challenge they had to solve was the way to find resources and workers to build the defences. This wasn''t an easy task, especially when they lived their entire lives doing nothing but fighting and dealing with curses all over the world.

    They might have met tons of riches before, yet they never cared to carry them back. Not to mention most of their tasks ended up in total devastation, one that wasn''t any lesser than what happened back at the Blue Hills for example.

 Chapter 752 Unexpected Situation

    ?

    So, they needed to find a solution to theck of funds problem, and how to lure capable workers to work for them without exposing anything about their identities.

    That wasn''t a small problem to solve as well. They needed to do all this without showing any sign over their Cult or anything. Or else they''d bring lots of heat over their paths, ones that would involve lots of normal and neutral masters.

    It was expected for them to take a long time discussing something they had zero experience about. And during all this, William''s team was having their own challenge as well.

    The ck Tails team went through the portal with Lara and her small group of guards and reached the capital of the kingdom.

    The capital was nothing like any academy or big city. In terms of size alone, it was even bigger than ten cities like Lara''s.

    The ce they appeared at was simr to Lara''s portal area, filled with tons of portals and lots of peopleing in and out from them.

    The sheer number of portals was much bigger than what Lara and her family had, including the portals they never used yet.

    The moment they stepped into the capitalnds, they found a team dressed up in a unified armour set, shining with gold and red capes floating behind their backs.

    They were a hundred in number, yet the look on their faces was enough to tell anyone they were veterans, weren''t the type to mess with easily.

    "Please follow us," the leader of this team said as his members surrounded the entire team, "you need to go through formal meetings first before getting enlisted in the contest."

    "How do you know we are here for the contest?" Sara was surprised, as they never announced theiring before.

    Yet soon enough she and everyone else learnt about the way the capital royal guards learnt about their presence. There was an entire team dedicated to foreseeing the future. And this team pinpointed each and every single teaming here to join the contest.

    ording to the team leader, they were going to introduce themselves, get tested, and then they''d get allocated to their living quarters. And yet from the expression on his face, on his team''s face, the ck Tails team knew something was wrong.

    And soon enough they got to realise their feelings were right.

    The capital was indeed huge, yet they didn''t end up inside any part of it. They were taken outside, walking through the bustling streets, and getting to see lots of marvels.

    Nice, decorated buildings, fountains that spilled tons of spirit power in the air, and even small hills that were filled with healing stones, able to introduce peace and tranquillity into the spirits of anyone inside the capital.

    Yet when they were guided outside the capital, passing through densely packed and veryplicated sets of walls, passing through the massive gates and gigantic defensive towers, they knew something was indeed quite off.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Where are you taking us?" Lara didn''t like this and had to ask after introducing herself first.

    "You are going to meet someone important," the leader of the team seemed to ce Lara''s position as the leader of a rising city in the kingdom in his eyes, "someone who wants to meet you away from all the eyes in the capital."

    The words of this leader were vague, yet they were enough to tell the team that they were going to meet someone of high standard. And soon enough they arrived at a ce filled with trenches and holes, a ce that still held the deep scars of a brutal battle.

    As they arrived there, they were weed by a simr team wearing the same outfit. Yet this team was in thousands, and they were scattered all over the ce, seemingly watching and protecting it from any outsider.

    "This way, she is waiting inside," once the new guards appeared and the leader guiding them here took aside and didn''t speak, leaving everything in the hand of a much older guard.

    He looked old to be at his fiftieth or something, yet he never looked weak or anything. He got a few wrinkles on his face, and he kept his healthy body shape even at such an advanced age.

    "Who is inside?" Lara didn''t like this situation even more. Such secrecy and tense atmosphere were enough to tell her something grand was going to happen.

    She wanted to know what she was getting herself into before stepping inside that ce. And yet from the serious look of the new guard leader, she knew he wouldn''t let them off without meeting that mysterious figure.

    "She is someone who is high in status," the leader paused, "in normal times, you won''t have a chance to meet her. But for a reason, she wants to meet you."

    "And who is she?" Ibra asked, trying to get more intel from this leader.

    "You''ll know in a few seconds, don''t be impatient," yet the leader didn''t give any hint about the identity of that person. At the same time, the guards already surrounded their team members in circles, with only one path left empty, the one leading towards a ck hole in the ground.

    "This way, please," it wasn''t an invitation, more like an order. The team members exchanged silent nces and waited for the call of their leaders.

    William''s entrusted vices and friends knew if they refused, a fight would erupt here. The tension in the air was rising up fast, and soon enough they made up their minds without the need to exchange a single word.

    "Let''s go," Ibra was the one to speak up. In the entire team, he was seen as the leader when William was absent like now, "let''s see who is this anxious to meet us the moment we arrived here."

    The team had no option to begin with, and so they followed the leader into the depths of that hole.

 Chapter 753 Anjie

    ?

    It was huge enough to amodate the entire team walking in one group without any hindrance. And when they entered it, they were weed with a cold breath of air that was fierce enough to draw them back for a few steps.

    "Watch out, the cold wind wille once every few minutes. Make sure to hand tightly to the ground to not get blown away," the leader casually warned, as if this wasn''t something worthy to speak about.

    The wind came as the leader said, once per five minutes. It was fierce enough to make them stop and struggle to keep their stance on the ground.

    The deeper they walked, the fiercer the wind became, as if they were approaching the nostrils of the scary monster releasing such wind.

    The hole led to a long underground tunnel, and it was lit up with many bright candles, acting as torches on the damp walls.

    The deeper they went, the more humid it felt. Not to mention the weird foul smell that started to fill the air inside the tunnel after walking for an hour.

    The team kept looking at each other in silence. They tried to ask more questions after walking for half an hour in the tunnel and gained no response in the end.

    The leader kept ignoring giving them any real answers, only speaking about how they''d learn everything the moment they''d arrive at the bottom. Even when they asked how long this tunnel went, they got only "we are close," as an answer.

    So, they walked and resisted the weird wind and didn''t ask any further questions. They arrived at the bottom after two more hours of walking, and thest stretch of twenty minutes was really hard.

    Each time the wind blew, they couldn''t stand in their ce and retreated for a few steps. If not for the earth-based masters to intervene and fix everyone to the ground, without the additional help from the wind-based masters, they wouldn''t have reached their destination at all.

    When they arrived at the bottom, they were surprised to see a narrow room there. It wasn''t even big enough to amodate more than a hundred, and it had many small holes at the wall opposite to the tunnel''s opening, filled with tons of small holes.

    It looked like a huge beehive, and some sort of white vapour was oozing out from these as if it was fluid or something. Yet after getting out from the holes, this substance would slowly swirl in the air, forming many thin pirs of fog, rising up and merging to form a unified white cloud at the ceiling of this room.

    The room wasn''t empty, as there were ten cloaked masters waiting inside, sitting around a small wooden table.

    "Please," the leader of the guard stood by the side of the tunnel exit, motioned inside with his arm in respect, "select at most ten of yours toe inside and meet up with her excellency."

    "Her excellency?!!" many eximed in doubt and surprise, and yet the leader didn''t say anything at all. He simply looked at them, waiting for their answer.

    "We have leaders for our team, vices actually," Ibra paused, turning to Lara before adding, "all of them will join, plus Lara and one of her trusted guards."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Is this ten?"

    "I don''t care how many they are," a voice came from inside the room, soft and filled with a breathtaking melody of its own. It felt like the owner of this voice was someone who used to do things their way, not caring about hearing anyone out, only giving out words as orders, "let the ones they select step in."

    "Yes, your majesty," the leader seemed to not agree with such words, but he got nothing in his power but toply.

    The team vices alongside Lara and a single guard were allowed to join the meeting. Ibra didn''t just select the team vices, but also selected Lina, Tina, and others of William''s friends.

    The leader of the guards didn''t leave them and entered alongside an entourage of thirty tough looking guards. They seemed ready to enterbat mode at any moment, with hands clutched over the handles of their swords.

    "I suppose you don''t know who I am," the first thing that cloakeddy who the leader called excellency said was these words. Then she slowly removed the hood over her head, exposing her long brown hair, with a small semi-circr crown that was ced over her head.

    The crown looked simple and yet elegant, made out of ruby like gems, thin to not exceed the thickness of half a finger.

    She looked young, as the age of Ro and Ibra at most. Yet her deep blue eyes gave anyone looking at them the impression of being in the presence of someone powerful, someone with boundless experience in life.

    "I''m Anjie, the crown princess of the kingdom," she introduced herself. And even when she said these words in a simple way, she still caused immense shock to everyone on William''s team hearing them.

    They never expected to be in the presence of the princess who was going to be the queen. And when they realised her high status, they couldn''t help but get more puzzled and baffled by such realisation.

    "Ahem, it''s an honour to meet the crown princess," Sara cleared up her throat, seemingly trying to wake up everyone from the middle of their shock, "but we are humble masters who came from far away. We have nothing much to offer, nor powerful to help in any service of the crown princess."

    Sara didn''t just wake up everyone, but she also conveyed a message over to Anjie. The princess looked calm, as if she expected such a response from her and others.

    "I know everything about you, former Aspire academy headmaster''s granddaughter. I didn''t bring you here and wasted my time and safety to just speak about something you can''t do."

    "Then¡­" Ibra hesitated and didn''t know how to properly speak with a crown princess like Anjie.

 Chapter 754 A Fox With Tails In The Fog

    ?

    "Can big sis say what she wants from us? If we can help, we won''t hesitate," out of the blue, Tina spoke up, attracting everyone''s attention.

    "Young girl, please mind your words carefully," one of the cloaked guards who was with Anjie when the team arrived said in a harsh tone. Yet with a single wave from Anjie, she silenced her followers, and stopped the fierce response that was about toe from Ibra.

    "I never had a sister before, so I can''t say I''m offended," Anjie softly smiled, looked at Tina then at Lina up and down, as if she was sizing the two, "I heard that William saved two sisters five years ago, two of the rarest and most mysterious Selvators. You are these two, right?"

    Tina might give an impression of being at twenty years or something, with such a mature and tall body that didn''t match her real age at all. And yet Anjie didn''t fall for such a trick and seemed to know a lot about William and William''s team.

    Her little remark didn''t pass unnoticed by all, and Lina, Sara, Ibra, Berry, and Lang gave her a serious look, one that was filled with doubt and suspicion.

    "I''ve my ways to know anything going on in my kingdom," Anjie said as if it was something trivial or easy to do. Yet they all had more doubts when she said it this way.

    In their eyes, they weren''t that big to begin with to be the centre of attention of the kingdom''s upper echelon. And it felt like Anjie knew everything they and William did since he was a porter in the academy.

    All this seemed a bit weird until Anjie said her next words¡­

    "Anyway, it''s time to tell you about the reason we are meeting here. I''m sure you already felt the fierce wind blowing from time to time and smelled the bad odouring out with it. As you can see, the wall behind us is filled with tons of holes, and this is the source of that wind. We want you to go beyond that wall, investigate everything in there, and kill any enemy you might face."

    Her wordsnded, and no one even breathed or said a single word. William''s friends looked at each other and they could see the shock over their faces.

    "I apologise for being rude," Lara was the first to speak up, "but¡­ The kingdom has much scarier forces than our humble team. We are young, inexperienced, and didn''t have any pinnacle spirit master or even a high stage one."

    "Yes, we don''t even have a high stage dark gold master, or even mid stage one," Ibra hurriedly chimed in. and before anyone else would say anything else, Anjie raised her hand again in an elegant and calm way, stopping all of them.

    "I know you all have your doubts, but in a few seconds, you''ll see why I brought you here," she paused, and for the first time since they came here, she turned towards the wall and focused on it as if she was waiting for something to happen.

    The moment she did that, everyone realised what was going on. They arrived just after the end of one fierce blow of the wind. And they stayed here for almost five minutes.

    That meant the next wind blow was going to happen any second now. And for a reason, she wanted them to witness it, as if it was going to exin her illogical request.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Soon enough the walls started to change. The white substance oozing out from the holes started to get restless, swirling around as if they were forming a tornado. At the same time, more white substance started toe out, and it didn''t just float to the ceiling like before.

    This time the substance got pushed towards everyone inside the room, filling it entirely as if it was dawn time or something. Before any of William''s friends would get what was happening, wind came.

    The wind was fierce and carried a foul smell. When everyone expected to get thrown away by the wind, they felt nothing!

    The wind seemed to evade the white substance, or the white fog was like a coat that protected them. They watched the wind howling around, pressuring the white fog and forming a thickeryer around them.

    "Don''t look around, look at the ceiling," when everyone''s attention was drawn towards the wind and fog around, Anjie''s calm voice came to attract them towards another direction.

    The ceiling already got a thickyer of the white substance since the first moment they stepped in. It was forming ayer like a cloud before, but now thisyer had all changed.

    Theyer was thicker, and that was expected with all the white substance that gushed out from the holes before the blowing wind hit. But that wasn''t all. The fog up there started to show weird shapes, indentations and risings, lines and dots, circles and irregr lines, forming some sort of a very detailed drawing.

    It was a weird thing to see, but the weirdest of all was the identity of this drawing.

    "A fox with tails?!!!" Berry couldn''t help but mutter in immense shock, "why is William''s spirit drawn in such a ce?!!!"

    "That''s why I called you all here," Anjie was right in what she said and did. Just by watching the wind blowing and inspecting the changes that happened here, William''s friends got everything.

    The picture drawn in great detail up there at the ceiling depicted a fox with tails, with the fog swirling and changing around it as if a formidable power was emitted from the fox.

    "But¡­ William never came here before," Sara looked at the drawing in more shock. She was right in what she said, and Anjie knew it.

    "I don''t know why his image is drawn here by this weird fog, or what''s his rtionship with this ce. But we have masters experienced in seeing the future, and they told me this ce''s mystery is connected to William."

    "..."

 Chapter 755 You Have No Choice

    ?

    William''s friends kept watching the image until it slowly faded away. The winding from the holes took one minute to calm down. And when it did vanish, the white substance started to slowly move to the ceiling, and the image went nk and vanished in a few seconds.

    "But¡­ We don''t have him with us," Ibra was the first to speak up, "he didn''t yete."

    "I heard," Anjie nodded, and in her tone, there was some sort of reluctance or sadness, "but you are his team, the one he personally selected and trained. So, you can help both of us if you just scout what lies behind these walls."

    Anjie''s request made little sense to everyone, and yet they also felt something else. "May I ask the crown princess about waiting for him to return?" Lara was the first to speak up, cing light over this little issue, "there isn''t a reason for us to rush, right?"

    This was what all felt from her words, rashness and anxiety. She felt like a desperate person, one who was drowning and finally found a straw to stick to and survive.

    If this ce was connected to William, then they should have waited for him toe. Yet even when she knew he wasn''t with them, she insisted on bringing them here. And that meant she was trying to race time to fix, stop, or save something.

    They were right indeed, and there was a very important reason behind her rashing actions. And yet she never intended to share such news with them. After all, this was something rted not only to the royal family of the kingdom, but also to the fate of all the lives living within.

    "This is something highly ssified," she instantly rejected exining anything about her reasons, "all you need to know is that your help will be greatly appreciated by the kingdom, and you''ll get heavily rewarded. But we have no time, and you need to start now!"

    "This¡­" everyone on William''s team knew this looked much worse by the words she just said. From her tone and attitude, they got that some sort of huge disaster hit the kingdom, or at least was threatening the capital. And that danger was rted to this ce, to this weird wind, to the drawing on the ceiling.

    Even if they thought about investigating things out before William would arrive out of curiosity, they dropped any idea of doing this after hearing what Anjie said.

    No one on Anjie''s side needed to ask to guess about how William''s friends intended to reject. And before any of them would say anything, one of the cloaked masters standing by Anjie''s side said in a cold and vicious tone:

    "Don''t mistake our intentions, but you have no choice at all in this matter. All of your team members are now held captive and waiting for death if you don''tply."

    "You¡­"

    "How dare you?"

    "Are you insane?!"

    Few shouted, and yet the response they got was silence. It was clear how Anjie was desperate to solve this mystery, even going off limits and crossing all lines like this.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "In normal times, we won''t have pushed you to such an extent. But we have lots of things that forced our hands," Anjie spoke, calmly as if she was speaking about casual daily stuff or something, "but as my mentor said, you have no choice here. You either agree to do what we want, or you and everyone on your side will die. Not to mention when William wille here, we''ll also kill him."

    "I dare you say it again!" Berry on impulse shouted, and yet Anjie didn''t care about her threatening words or attitude. She and others on her side simply stayed silent, watching William''s friends suffer and struggle to take a decision.

    It was clear now that going beyond these walls was a risky endeavour, one that held more death chances than hope.

    "Can we have our team with us?" as everyone was looking at each other, questioning in silence about what they should do, Lara suddenly said, making everyone''s eyes fall on her, from both sides.

    "No," Anjie''s mentor who spoke coldly before instantly responded, "if you died, we need them to make sure William will listen to us."

    "..."

    This time the mentor said it clearly, they were going to face imminent deadly situations once they passed these walls. And that made them hesitate more in epting such a task.

    But as it was already said, what choice did they have? If they refused, then their entire team would die with them. "At least we''ll make sure most of our team will survive this," Lina suddenly said, shaking her head as if she was regretting something. And she did indeed regret not having William by her side now.

    If William was here, then nothing of this would matter. Even if they knew they were stepping through the death doors.

    "Tsk," Ibra waved his ive, feeling more frustrated by this. If they were in the middle of a battle, then things would look much better and easier for him to ept. Yet getting threatened like this made him hate hisck of power and strength.

    Without even realising it, he envied William for the first time ever. Even if William was weaker than him, he was enough to change the entire situation. He wasn''t just strong, but also cunning and resourceful.

    Ibra wasn''t the only one thinking like this, others also thought the same. They always leant on William and considered him as their immovable pir and backing. And yet here they were, surrounded in a remote ce, far away from William, and were this close from losing their lives without having any chances of winning.

    Such a feeling was crushing and mind blowing, a decisive moment that would change their futures forever.

    "Don''t feel that bad, we won''t send you like this without telling you everything we know about this ce," Anjie wanted to raise their morale a little bit, a hopeless effort that didn''t yield any results at all.

 Chapter 756 [Bonus ] Im Going With Them!

    ?

    As she started to speak, with others around taking scrolls out and handing them over to William''s friends to examine and read their content, everyone realised lots of things.

    This wind¡­ It wasn''t normal at all! It wasn''t just something naturally happening here, or something limited to this ce.

    ording to what they read, the wind carried a smell, a substance that released foul odour. Yet at first, any one newly arriving to the capital area wouldn''t smell anything at all.

    By the passage of time, and with the longer exposure to this substance, anyone would start to smell the bad odour. And that means bad, terribly bad!

    Smelling that odour was the first sign of a progressive disease that would take the lives of anyone in years. The source of this que stemmed from here, and all the efforts of the kingdom to seal it failed.

    No one knew why it happened, but they knew everything started just five years ago. For no reason, trenches and holes appeared here, with winding out from many tunnels and rooms like the ones the team passed through.

    In addition to that, the scrolls spoke about lots of data about the space beyond the walls. It wasn''t like how William''s friends imagined, the kingdom did indeed exert their utmost efforts to solve this, even sending their pinnacle masters to check the areas beyond the walls.

    Yet none managed to survive, and only the ones who were at the high stage or at the pinnacle managed to return with half a leg away from the grave. And from them, they got valuable intel about the world thatid beyond the walls.

    It was indeed a world, a pocket world if the guesses of the kingdom masters were true. That world looked gloomy and deadly, filled with tons of the same substance that was poisoning the capital''s residence for years.

    The world wasn''t empty though, and it was filled with tons of monsters and even weird creatures.

    "Here, this is the product we made out of our studies and research over this substance," Anjie said, and yet she didn''t take anything out. She simply motioned with her head, and someone on her side took ten rings out, "we only prepared enough for ten of you to go into this mission. So¡­"

    Her words were clear, and now they realised why the guard asked them to bring only ten members to meet up with her. It seemed like the leader learnt about this n from the start, and that was quite expected.

    "We''ll manage," the attitude of everyone slightly changed after hearing Anjie''s out and checking the content of the scrolls. It felt indeed much better to realise they were pushed to their demise out of the simple connection between the drawing at the ceiling and William.

    The kingdom did indeed try endless times to solve this crisis, even sending their top masters and failed. And for a reason, everyone thought about someone in their minds at the same time, the great monarch of the kingdom, the king.

    For all of these masters to act this way, for even the crown princess to step up and lead such force, it meant that someone she held dear was going to die.

    This was the conclusion they all jumped to after learning about everything rted to this ce. And they were right, the king was indeed dangerously ill, so close to dying if no solution was found to stop this toxic wind.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And when Anjie''s men delivered the ten rings filled with detoxifying elixirs, specified for that toxin, William''s friends knew Anjie didn''t want to see them dead.

    But that didn''t mean they were going to survive any of this. And from the look of things, it seemed the king was about to die soon enough. So, waiting for William to return, which was something that wasn''t known when would happen yet, wasn''t going to work.

    "We''ll try our best," Lara sighed, looking at others before adding, "if we¡­ If we didn''te back, please tell William to not avenge us."

    "..."

    The words she said touched the spirit and heart of Anjie and all the masters of the academy present here. They thought they''d leave farewell messages for William, but the thing Lara said gained nodding from everyone on thetter''s side.

    "I truly admire William for having such awesome friends by his side, he is truly blessed," these words didn''te from Anjie, but from her mentor, the one who kept acting cold and harsh from the start.

    And before Anjie or any of William''s friends would say anything, that formidable master, one at the pinnacle stage, turned towards Anjie and looked at her in a warm way.

    "I know this request won''t be epted by you, but I hope you can grant me this wish¡­" he didn''t just cup his hands, but also knelt on one knee, "please let me apany them."

    "No!" Anjie''s tone wasn''t firm or decisive, in fact it was filled with emotions and endless sadness. If not for being with masters of her kingdom, being with William''s friends, strangers, she''d have spilled out tears.

    She knew her mentor very well, knew once he spoke, he truly meant what he said. If he expressed his willingness to go, that meant he already decided to leave. And no matter what, he''d see what he intended through.

    "You do know they got no chance without anyone experienced and strong enough to lead them," the mentor paused, "I''ll try to buy us enough time, enough for him toe back here."

    "But¡­"

    "I know he went missing, but let''s hope and pray for the best," the mentor even ced his hand over her head, looked at her like a father looking at his beloved daughter, "I want you to know that you made this old man proud, and please keep me feeling this way even if I didn''te back."

    "..."

    Her eyes failed at this moment and couldn''t hold back her tears anymore. The wind already blew several times while they were speaking with William''s friends.

 Chapter 757 The Cardinals Shocking Decision

    ?

    At this moment, another wind blew, distracting everyone away from her glimmering beads of tears that masked her eyes.

    Yet the mentor smiled when he saw her tears, patted on her head twice before turning towards William''s friends, "let''s go! Our window lies when the wind blows. Let''s go, keep your distance close from me, and follow my orders to the letter. In my spirit, I vow to protect all of you to the best of my abilities. Let''s go!"

    Without even realising it, William''s friends'' impression about that mentor totally changed from south to north!

    The mentor acted in this crucial moment as their leader, and his presence and actions, his words and attitude, all gave them hope and weird confidence in their ability to survive, survive long enough until William would return.

    Without hesitating anymore, they all walked after the mentor, following his footsteps until they passed outside the protectiveyer of the white fog. The moment they went there, they vanished from the sights of everyone.

    Anjie kept following them with her eyes until they vanished. And the moment they did, her body trembled, and she looked as if she got jolted awake from a spell or something.

    She didn''t realise she kept in her weird status for much longer than she thought. And when she got jolted awake, she noticed the looks of everyone remaining here over her.

    They looked deeply worried about her. It wasn''t a secret how she considered the mentor as her godfather. And against what everyone expected, she showed the demeanour of being a daughter of a great monarch, the sole heir to the throne of her kingdom.

    "Summon all of our strongest masters, the ones who are free and don''t have anything to do right now. Let them go all towards thest ce William was spotted at, search for him, and if they can''t find him, let them stay there until they find him."

    "Yes, mydy," everyone knew why she gave such an order. Even if many had their own doubts and opinions, they kept them all to themselves.

    Anjie was barely hanging up with a thread to hope, hoping that they''d find William and bring him here before her mentor would perish at the other side of the wall.

    Least to her expectations that William wasn''t even in this continent anymore. And now all that was left for her, for her mentor, for William''s friends, was the mercy of fate and destiny.

    Away from all this, William was in his room thinking about everything he learnt so far from the scrolls. He gained tons of knowledge that he didn''t know before about the Mystic Arts and the Cult. And yet he had a lot more questions than before.

    As he was in his dilemma, he got summoned atst by the Cardinals. Thetter finalised their ns to fortify their bases and better defend it. Yet they had one little problem that they couldn''t solve. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Ironically enough, the solution they came up withid in William''s hands. And more ironically, the solution they thought of wouldn''t only satisfy William''s needs and previous request, but would also open a grand door for him, one that he never dared to think about before.

    When William returned to the big meeting hall, he didn''t see anything different there. The Cardinals stored away all the maps and scrolls they used in the past days, and were sitting in their ces, waiting for William.

    Yet thetter could sniff the change in atmosphere in the hall. It felt like there was some sort of weird tension and anxiety, as if the Cardinals were eager to close the deal with him.

    Yet he never expected they wanted to give him a new offer. "Are you telling me that you don''t just want to make a deal with me about fighting the enemies who want to take down this world, but also want to start a long-term alliance with my guild?!"

    William couldn''t help but blurt out loud the moment he heard what the Grand Cardinal just said. Thetter told him that the Cult wanted to not only work together to bring down the enemies threatening the world, but also construct a long-term alliance with him.

    To William, this news was like music to his ears. And yet he knew there weren''t any free goods in this world. So, he waited for the answer of the Grand Cardinal to make up his mind about such an unexpected offer.

    "Not only that," and when William thought the surprises the Grand Cardinal had for him was over, he added another shocking piece of news, "we decided to make a historical decision and make an exception for your guild. We extend our hand towards you, giving the guild the chance to be part of our grand Cult."

    "Are you telling me you want to let my guild join your cult? But I work for no one," Wiliam knew this was a grand chance, one that he didn''t intend to throw away. And yet he had to make out the clear line between him and the leaders of the Cult. if they wanted to control him and his guild, order him and others around, then they had to keep dreaming about that.

    "We don''t have such idea in our minds," the Grand Cardinal paused, before waving his arms around, "it''s indeed true all of the ones joining the Cult must be assigned to a task to do, answer any call from the Cardinal Council, but I have another proposal for you and your guild."

    "Which is?"

    "We want to establish a new division," the Grand Cardinal looked around, as if he was looking for something, "there, that empty seat will belong to you if you ept our offer."

    "...!!!" William''s shock was boundless when he heard such words. He thought it would be hard to convince these Cardinals to work with him, never imagined they wouldn''t just agree, but would also extend such a generous offer to him.

 Chapter 758 The Prodigy Under Heaven Title

    ?

    Letting his guild join the Cult? This would serve perfectly well towards his goal to find and nourish many masters with Mystic Arts powers in his guild. Not to mention he wouldn''t just join the Cult, he''d also form an alliance with them, would join the Cardinal Council as a formal member, enjoying the endless benefits from doing so.

    To him, this was just a dream. And he didn''t get why the Cardinals'' stance changed one hundred and eighty degrees, changing from seeing him as a tool into one worthy to join them.

    "What''s the catch?" After thinking about this for a few minutes, which the Grand Cardinal and others kept their silence during, William realised there must be something they were desperate for, something they needed him to do.

    And from such a generous offer, he expected such a task would be quite dangerous. After all the Grand Cardinal said it, they nned to establish a new division, "you do know I have zero experience or power in terms of Mystic Arts."

    William expected to see signs of surprise over the faces of everyone here, yet all he got was weird calmness and silence. He didn''t know that he was watching, and they heard and saw everything he was doing.

    Even when the Cardinals were studying and discussing how to fortify their bases, they still kept a small number of them to watch closely what William was doing.

    They wanted to not miss any chance at all to get more information from him. And yet all he did was to read through the scrolls and do nothing else.

    "It''s easy," the Grand Cardinal could tell how vignt William was towards him, "we just want you to establish and handle the external affairs division in our Cult."

    "External affairs? What do you want me to do exactly? Aren''t you a secretive Cult or what?" William was puzzled by this and didn''t know what the Grand Cardinal even meant by his words.

    And soon enough he learnt everything. The Cardinals wanted to revolutionise the entire defensive infrastructure of the entire bases. And yet they knew this would bring attention no matter how hard they tried to act secretive.

    Even if they selected to do it on a very long and slow timely process, a thing that wouldn''t actually serve their real intentions, they''d still attract the limelight over them.

    And the magical solution for all this was William and his guild. The owner of this idea was a Cardinal who went through everything Leo''s legion collected about William.

    The casual suggestion was warmly weed by everyone, especially when the Grand Cardinal showed his total support for that.

    Using William''s guild to do this business, handle the dealings with any construction impacts, purchase resources, and fortify the bases was just perfect.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    And William could understand all the reasons behind their decision, could now get why they acted this urgent and wanted to let him be part of the Cult, even having a seat for himself.

    They wanted to use this as a form of a reward and payment. They also wanted to secure any threat he''d pose to them in the future, threatening to expose them to the public if anything went wrong at some point.

    "But there is a little problem you all missed," William wouldn''t refuse such an offer indeed, "how am I going to justify my sudden need to build condensed forts and defences, not only in my continent, but also at the other one?"

    William got their need for his guild to take the front, act as their shield and absorb any troubleing from doing such a grand project. But there was this point which he couldn''t find any solution towards.

    "We already thought about this," the Grand Cardinal paused, "we heard that your team went towards the capital, aiming to join the about to start contest, right?"

    William didn''t find it strange for them to know such intel. After all, Leo and his legion were there when he parted ways with his friends and team. So he simply nodded, waited for what the Grand Cardinal wanted to convey.

    "We''ll aid you in this contest, helping you to win the first ce¡­" the Grand Cardinal kept speaking about a grand n, one that would stem from the uing contest on the continent William came from.

    The n started simply by winning the contest. William didn''t know that the winner was granted a chance to enter a grander context in a few monthster, one that would enrol the best ten teams from each continent in a prestigious contest to determine the best team in the entire world.

    The Cult would help William to secure the first spot in both contests. They wouldn''t be able to interfere or affect the results, but they could simply add fresh blood to his roster, making his odds outweigh anyone else.

    When William asked about the total point of taking such trouble, entering into useless contests for him, he got to hear the main reason behind this, and a shocking reward that made him drool.

    "... The winner of the final contest will be granted a title, the Prodigy Under Heaves. Such a title isn''t just for show, as you can purchase any piece ofnd anywhere in the world and no one will stop you. The title gives its owner lots of privilege, one that includes an ess to the sacred city on the top of the Giant World Axis, the ancient and mysterious ce which lies in the heart of our world."

    William didn''t care about other privileges but this one. If he knew nothing about the pocket worlds in general, he knew one thing as a fact.

    When anyone reached the pinnacle stage, he would find it hard to train. But in every world, there was a ce blessed with unnatural concentrations of spirit power, one that would let anyone have their chance to reach the end of the dark gold grade limits and be ready to jump over to the higher world.

 Chapter 759 The Grand Library

    ?

    As he already secured the interworld portal back at Lara''s city, he had to focus on raising up his power. Yet he knew by reaching the dark gold grade, even at the early stages there, his Devour ability would lose most of its magical effects.

    And so he had to lean totally over training, a thing that might take a century to just reach the pinnacle stage. But with ess to that magical ce, he could shorten such duration by tens of folds.

    "I''m in," William didn''t need to listen to any further words from the Grand Cardinal, "I''m going to do it!"

    "Great," the Grand Cardinal and other Cardinals took the wrong impression about William''s swift decision.

    They knew trying to make someone shoulder the heat and troubleing from doing such a grand project wasn''t easy. Even trying to bribe him with the prestigious position of a Cardinal in their Cult wasn''t enough.

    If William was someone who rose up in the Cult, then they would be sure giving such a position out would be a great honour for him. And yet William wasn''t, and he didn''t even know how hard it was to be one of the Cardinals, how impossible it was for many to be one of this tightly narrow circle.

    "So we can start right away then?" The Grand Cardinal wanted to get done from this quite fast, yet what William said next startled him.

    "First, let''s handle Leo''s problem," William suddenly turned towards a far corner in this colossal hall. He was summoned here to deal with Leo''s problem, which was mainly his problem. And yet the Cardinals were just using Leo as an excuse to get to know more about him, ending up having this deal.

    And yet Leo looked as if all of the Cardinals forgot about him, as if he didn''t matter in the first ce to any of them. To William, this wasn''t the best ending he''d want to see here.

    He might have gained a lot from this trip, but his main goal wasn''t achieved yet. He still didn''t get any clue about how to deal with his weird situation. With all of these formidable figures gathered here, wanting to curry his favour, he''d not let such a chance slip by.

    The Grand Cardinal was feeling the same as others around, a bit surprised yet no shame was there. In their eyes, low position folks like Leo didn''t need their attention or care.

    "We''ll cure him, don''t worry about that," the Grand Cardinal didn''t want to mess things  up or waste their time in dealing with Leo. Even if they knew what caused this to him, they still had absolute confidence in their abilities to cure him.

    "But I''m interested in seeing him cured," William paused, and before any of the Cardinals would issue their objections, he added, "I gave out my word to his friends, and I care too much about the value of my words."

    William was indeed twisting the truth and covering it up with a thinyer of lies. Yet what he said wasn''t false, as he truly cared about his promises and words.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    In front of his firm stance, the Cardinals couldn''t help but buy what he said. "Fine, let''s dig into what caused this to our brave legion leader," even when he described Leo like this, William felt this Grand Cardinal was furious at Leo.

    If not for what he was now suffering from, they''d have ended fast with this deal with William and started moving towards executing what they promised.

    William knew exactly what caused this to Leo. But he kept his silence and didn''t say anything, simply watched from the side as one Cardinal went and brought the unconscious Leo back. Then he started single handedly to inspect his fate and destiny.

    William knew from the scrolls he went through that the Mystic Arts didn''t just grant power to see the future, but also the past. In fact, and ording to the information he read in the scrolls, he knew the Cult folks considered the ability to read through the past as far more important than reading the future.

    To them, they highly valued the ability to know everything about your enemy rather than trying to depict what he''d do next.

    William could get the idea behind such a belief. Fighting an enemy one knew everything about was much easier than trying to fight him while knowing little about his abilities and only knowing a few moves he''d execute in the battle.

    Watching a single Cardinal arrogantly trying to see what happened to Leo made William inwardly sigh. What caused this to Leo was rted to him, and that meant the Cardinal would get a bacsh from it.

    Yet unlike what he thought and expected to see, nothing like that happened. The Cardinal kept looking normal for almost an hour, and then he slowly opened his eyes and a look of puzzlement appeared there.

    "What did you see?" The Grand Cardinal was sitting next to William, as the two kept speaking about the scrolls and information William was going to get after joining the Cardinal Council formally.

    ording to the Grand Cardinal, William was going to get the basic one grade of the council, enabling him to visit the first section in the grand library.

    The grand library was something exclusive only to Cardinals, and it got lots of knowledge about many things rted to the Cult. Be it basics, advanced knowledge, many Mystic Arts, and even a long trail of many missions the Cult members did since its establishment would be avable there.

    The high secretive knowledge was kept off reach for him, including many advanced Mystic Arts and lots of highly ssified missions and intel from the outer world.

    William didn''t care about any news from the outer world, and he knew he''d take a long time to go through all the content of the grand library first section ording to the words of the Grand Cardinal.

 Chapter 760 A Battle Between Stars

    ?

    "I''ve seen lots of weird stuff¡­ Let me show you," the Cardinal took in a deep breath before taking out an orb.

    William instantly recognised the orb in that Cardinal''s hands. It was big like the size of a human''s head, glistening with red lustre. It was the mind exposition orb, one that could ry what anyone had in their minds and project these to the outer world.

    William didn''t see anything useful about such orbs, after all who would want anyone to see what they were thinking about? Yet in such a situation, it was the perfect solution to show off what the Cardinal saw in the fate and destiny world.

    William was eager to see, but most of the Cardinals weren''t. It wasn''t until that Cardinal let down a drop of his blood over, and the orb shone brightly and released a red beam, one that turned into a screen made out of red fog and started to show off scenes there.

    The moment the scenes appeared; all the Cardinals focused entirely onto them.

    "y them again," the show didn''tst for more than ten minutes, and yet most of the Cardinals didn''t truly get everything. The Grand Cardinal said to the one who did the task, and thetterplied.

    William kept his silence all this time, even when the Cardinal kept repeating the scenes for ten times! He knew the scenes shown were quite bizarre and unrealistic, unrted to Leo at all.

    What appeared were three stars, weirdly interacting with each other and affecting themselves. To the Cardinals, they didn''t get anything from these scenes, even after reying them for ten times straight. But to William, he could tell what was going on just from the first time he saw this.

    The first thing that jumped into his mind was the bizarre experience he had when he met the ck fox thest time. The stars that appeared there, how they negatively affected his trial and pushed him and the ck fox against the wall made him understand more than anyone else watching these scenes.

    To William, he could tell the identity of these three stars, identifying them as the three spirits he got in his body. The three were indeed fighting against each other, or to be more precise, two stars were trying to crush the third.

    One star was trying to meet the other, while the third one was using illusions and such. William couldn''t tell the identity of these stars thanks to the attacks used as the scenes didn''t show much of the details about the battle happening between the three stairs.

    He could tell from the faint symbols on each star, symbols that were written in ancientnguage, one that was only used in ancient times in the outer world.

    A fox, a dog, and a snake! William didn''t need any more clues to know the identities of these spirits.

    From these scenes, which he didn''t know how they got formed and got rted to Leo''s fate and destiny wheels, he could tell this battle was raging much wilder at his fate and destiny wheel.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    If that kept going on, he knew his fox spirit would get overwhelmed eventually. He never expected the two spirits he added to be so ferocious and bloody, strong enough to pressure his legendary grade fox spirit and cause immense damage to it.

    William didn''t know lots of things about the spirit world, knew nothing actually about such a mysterious ce. Yet it didn''t require a genius to expect what would happen if the fox spirit got crushed and died.

    His main spirit was now built on the ck fox spirit. If that spirit was gone, then he''d lost his spirit forever, ending up with a bacsh that he couldn''t imagine its scale of damage.

    "But that means also that damn fox will get hit by this as well¡­" William thought about his archenemy and got tempted to do nothing and let the battle end naturally with the defeat and death of the ck fox spirit.

    But he soon deleted such thought off his mind. He didn''t know anything about the spirit world and spirits. What if the spirit that was getting such a poor ending was only a tiny portion of the ck fox spirit? What if he was going to suffer alone, while his archenemy wouldn''t suffer anything?

    He thought about lots of things and couldn''t help but decide to do everything in his power to put an end to such a battle.

    As he was lost in his own thoughts, the Cardinals were having their share of the headache of these scenes. They got nothing, literally nothing from what was shown. And even when they tried to see Leo''s fate and destiny again, they got only the same scene repeated over and over.

    Even the Grand Cardinal himself went there to inspect what was going on, and yet he couldn''t decipher these scenes or see anything different.

    "What shall we do about this?" after wasting more hours in doing this, one of the Cardinals asked, while moving his eyes among William, Leo, and the Grand Cardinal.

    "What else? We shall use formations to see more," the Grand Cardinal then turned to William, "this issue will take longer time than we expected. Why don''t we finish the needed steps to join us and send you on your way first?"

    "Sure," William wanted to reject, but for a reason he felt sudden worry over something. He got his friends leading the ck tails team and went to the capital. More than a week had already passed, and out of the blue he felt weird worrying about them.

    Besides he got that his problem came from a battle that was going on without his knowledge. He had the solution drawn on his back, only needing one of his friends to help.

    Waiting here wasn''t going to help, and so he agreed to finish his deals here and leave towards the capital, "What shall I do?"

 Chapter 761 The Cardinal William

    ?

    "Nothing much," the Grand Cardinal turned to one of the Cardinals, and thetter started to move fast, even running at some point, "we''ll bring the needed scrolls, and you''ll sign them. You''ll get a uniform, and your name will be written and announced to the entire Cult. As for other things and the business we have together, we''ll speak about these after you win the contest."

    "Ok," William waited while the Cardinal returned. And he didn''te back alone. He got a small team of twenty masters following him, all looking young.

    William signed few scrolls with his blood and name and get one scroll that had his name with the new title on it, The Cardinal William.

    "Here," the Cardinal tossed a ring towards the Grand Cardinal, and thetter gave it to William as if he was handing him a valuable thing or something, "this is a ring that expresses your prestige and position in the Cult. anyone who belongs to us will recognise it with a single nce."

    The words of the Grand Cardinal looked light, but with the intense change in the young masters who came with the Cardinal, William took these words a bit seriously.

    The only regret he had was that this prestige was only limited and known only to the people of the Cult. "It would have been better if the entire world could recognise this," he thought to himself while checking the contents of the ring.

    And when he did, he found a huge space inside, one that wasn''t any less than a few hundred metres in length and width. Inside he found tons of resources, many scrolls, and lots of materials that he knew came from the outside world.

    "These are the essential supplies for any Cardinal," the Grand Cardinal said, before waving his hand, "it''s indeed a yearly allowance. But as you will be quite busy in the next months, I decided to give you all of this in advance."

    "Thanks," William didn''t act polite and wore the ring on his left index finger. Then he turned towards the twenty young faces and without saying anything, the Grand Cardinal introduced them over.

    As William expected, they were the ones who were going to join his team from now on. The twenty masters seemed a bit startled by all this, and their surprise told William how they were drawn here without getting informed by anything.

    Yet most of their surprise came from him being a Cardinal. To them, being a Cardinal was the highest honour anyone in the Cult could dream of. And just seeing an outsider, one they never saw before, be one made them question themselves.

    From what William knew, the leader of this team was called Alfred. This team was considered a collection of prodigies in the Cult, with masters expert in the Mystic Arts. As for normal techniques, they weren''t half bad ording to the Grand Cardinal words.

    "By this, you are now part of us," the Grand Cardinal motioned towards the ck ring William got from them with the red emblem of a space filled with stars, "if you ever faced any problem, or needed to ry any message to us, just leave a drop of your blood over it, and say what you need when the ring shines."

    "Won''t forget this," William was feeling great about having such a way tomunicate with the people of the Cult. This way, he didn''t need to move every time he wanted something ande here. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The Grand Cardinal apanied William and the twenty others personally towards the grand portal area in this ce. During which, William saw lots of people from the Cult, and all looked at him with puzzlement, admiration, respect, and envy.

    He didn''t care about them and kept following the Grand Cardinal. As William became part of them, the Grand Cardinal seemed more open to speak with William about the Cult and their ways.

    During the one-hour walk, which the Grand Cardinal elongated by taking many detours to show off lots of ces to William, thetter knew more about the Cult and its current status.

    It was a bit surprising to know about the presence of a hostile organisation that belonged to the monsters. ording to the Grand Cardinal, this organisation originated like them, from the outer world. And by what he said, the organisation arrived here first.

    Yet like them, this organisation kept an air of secrecy about them. Even after all these years, they couldn''t find bases that belonged to them more than what one could count on his fingers.

    "Don''t forget, these folks are really dangerous. Anywhere they go, they are followed with an air of ck death. You can''t see it, but Alfred and his team can. The moment you spot them, don''t hesitate to spread the word using your ring, turn around, and run with all your might."

    "Will remember that," William nodded while he and others were standing in front of a gigantic portal, the same one he used toe here before, "let''s go."

    William simply waved to the Grand Cardinal and reminded him to send any news about Leo''s weird situation before leaving with Alfred and others. During this walk, Alfred and his team didn''t say a single word, keeping their silence and distance from both William and the Grand Cardinal.

    To them, the Grand Cardinal was the highest authoritative figure in the entire Cult. and William belonged to the highest gathering of power here. So, to them, they felt like they didn''t deserve to be by these two''s side in the first ce.

    The moment William arrived at the next side, they were received by a group of masters whose job was to stay around the portal and investigate anyoneing from the other side.

    And yet when William simply raised his index finger, letting them see the ck ring with the red symbol, they got shocked first, then they parted ways and let William pass.

    "I want to go to the Novistic Kingdom''s capital," William didn''t walk in the path created by these masters. Instead, he directly stated his request, one that felt like sacred orders to these masters.

 Chapter 762 Going To The Capital

    ?

    "This way, esteemed Cardinal," one of them, their leader, moved fast and pointed towards one portal. As William guessed it, there was a portal leading to the capital. And that meant he''d not waste a single second going back and forth towards Lara''s city.

    And yet as he followed that master and his team, William didn''t feel any relief as he expected. Instead, the worry inside his spirit kept stirring up the closer he got to the portal.

    "What''s going on exactly?!" William didn''t like this feeling, and he never doubted his rming senses. This feeling was like an annoying bustling police whistle, a siren that kept ringing in his mind, as if he was heading towards a grand disaster.

    And he was indeed walking towards one right now.

    The moment William came out from the portal, he found himself inside another base of the Cult. this one didn''t look much different, carved inside a mountain, but had one portal only there.

    Unlike the base that controlled the entire continent, this one had only one master standing on guard. And when William, Alfred, and others appeared, hezily walked towards them as he asked: "Please state your purpose foring here."

    "I want to go to the capital," William raised his ring. And the moment that master saw it, his face instantly changed. He was a middle-aged man, seemingly at dark gold grade. Yet he showed utmost respect towards William when he recognised that ring.

    "Sure, this base is near the capital, esteemed Cardinal," the man paused before asking in caution, "I never saw your face before at the Cardinal Council list. May I ask if you joined them recently?"

    "He just joined them minutes ago," Alfred responded on behalf of William, and thetter didn''t find any problem letting Alfred handle such a situation. As the man was hearing the bits of news Alfred was aware of, he led everyone inside that base.

    The base was really small, not like the main base William came originally from. The base just had five levels, and they appeared at the second one.

    The middle-aged man exined that this base was temporarily used by the Cult legions if they had any missions to do in the area. Aside from him, there were five more who were out right now, doing reconnaissance tasks for the Cult.

    His name was Liam, and ording to him, this base expected the arrival of an entire legion just when the contest would start. Their task was to ensure that nothing wrong would happen, and William liked how the Cult ced importance over the contest.

    Yet he knew no legion or legions were able to stop what wasing. He knew that Nightmare monster loved to do things in great detail, letting no room for any chance to happen.

    William just listened to the talk between Alfred and Liam, before ending up at a long tunnel that led outside.

    "This is the farthest I can lead you to," Liam stopped just at the entrance of this tunnel, "keep following this tunnel, and you''ll end up at the ground just twenty kilometres away from the capital. Head east, and you''ll arrive there in no time and without any problems."

    "Monsters? Dark masters?" Alfred asked as if he was used to such situations, while William remained silent.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "The entire area is cleared regrly," Liam said in reassurance, "just head directly in full speed and don''t worry about anything."

    "Thanks," William waved while moving towards the tunnel. Just as Liam said, they walked for ten minutes or so, ending up on the surface through a well-hidden opening that was covered with a thickyer of bushes.

    They appeared just from the middle of the bushes, and William could tell it was an array that would change the shape of the terrain here.

    "Let''s go," William located east easily thanks to the direction of the sun in the middle of the sky, "when we are moving, keep a distance of less than one hundred metres from me, from each other."

    "This¡­" Alfred could tell this was a formation used while moving, fearing any attempt for decoy or something, "but the entire area is safe."

    "I trust no one but myself," William knew once he arrived here, and danger lurked anywhere he went towards. And yet he never expected that the main danger was waiting for him at the capital.

    In front of William''s strict orders, Alfred and his team didn''t find any room for negotiations. They followed his instructions to the letter, admitting his high status as a Cardinal and their future boss in the uing months.

    After all the Grand Cardinal was clear on this, they were going to follow William for an entire year. So they moved, and as Liam said before, there was no danger anywhere till they arrived at the capital.

    But when they approached the colossal andplicated walls of the capital, arge number of masters moved out from the nearby gates, running directly towards them.

    William didn''t feel anything unusual until he and Alfred''s team got surrounded by dense numbers of masters. It felt weird, and he silently warned Alfred against doing or saying anything, letting him handle everything.

    William waited for the masters to settle a bit, and someone eventually showed up. The masters parted ways and an old looking man, with long white hair appeared, walking slowly and yet he arrived in no time in front of William.

    "A pinnacle master? What an honour!" William was calmly speaking, and yet his eyes showed how serious he was.

    If they wanted to take him down or anything, he would fight and find a way to get out. But he felt they weren''t that hostile to him, or else they''d have attacked the moment they got closer from them.

    "I assume you are William, the leader of the Fox Guild, correct?"

    The master spoke in a tone that showed no room for warm wee or anything. But William felt it was his nature to speak this way, which made him doubt he was a normal pinnacle master in the capital.

 Chapter 763 [Bonus ] A Weird Situation

    ?

    From his way of speaking, he used to order others. And that meant he was someone with real power and authority here. That didn''t make any sense to William, as he didn''t see anything remarkable about his guild and achievements.

    He did indeed do something big, but it was a long time ago. If the kingdom wanted to reward him or something, they should have moved much earlier than today.

    "May I ask for the reason?"

    "Perhaps when you meet our excellency, you''ll understand," these words were enough to change the calmness inside William''s mind.

    His thoughts drifted towards one man, the king of the entire kingdom. He was wrong, slightly mistaking the person who he was going to meet.

    "Lead the way then," William wanted to ask further questions, but he knew beforehand he wouldn''t get any answer. And as he tried to speak with that master, he did indeed get nothing useful.

    Unlike what he expected, the master and his grand number of a force led them not towards the capital, but away from it.

    They came from the west, and now they were heading north. William thought they were going towards a secret path towards the capital. After all, it wasn''t easy to walk inside such a grand ce with such arge number of masters without causing a stir.

    Yet after half an hour, William started to doubt this. "We are heading away from the capital," William asked in such an indirect way, and this time the old man answered with something of value.

    "We are going to a secret ce, a ce away from the eyes of themon people."

    William knew such a reason did indeed make sense, but he felt this wasn''t true. He didn''t buy it, and yet he kept his silence, and vignce.

    He slowly started to switch his rings with others filled with elixirs and war supplies. In any given moment of danger, he''d use his full might to get away from here.

    They walked through the forest, heading further away from the capital. After taking lots of turns, William lost track of where he was right now. Yet he was sure he was getting further away from the capital.

    "We are here," after long hours they finally arrived at a ce filled with trenches and holes, "let''s go, her excellency is waiting for you inside."

    "Her?" William was surprised by the way the old master addressed the monarch he was going to meet. Yet even when he asked directly about the identity of this person, the old master stayed silent about it.

    William had no other choice but to follow that old man inside one of the holes which led to a tunnel. He noticed that only little of the masters he brought with him followed, and the rest just stayed outside, protecting the entrance towards that tunnel.

    The tunnel was leading everyone towards the depths of the ground. And after a few minutes of walking inside, William noticed the weird blow of wind.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    When he was outside, he noticed the wind, but it wasn''t that fierce. He thought it was a natural phenomenon, something that was happening thanks to the presence of all these trenches and holes in the region.

    But when he walked inside the tunnel, he couldn''t help but notice the winding from the hole, and it grew stronger the deeper they walked into it.

    When he asked, the old man answered with nothing much, saying that he''d get everything when he''d meet her excellency.

    William grew more curious than vignt from meeting this person. He didn''t know much about the kingdom or its royal family, and yet he knew the current ruler was a king not a queen.

    "From the way he addresses her, it''s safe to assume she is the daughter of the king, or someone who has a high chance in ruling over," William thought to himself, while resisting the fierce blows of the wind.

    "What''s that bad smell?" less than ten minutester, Alfred suddenly spoke up, stirring William''s puzzlement.

    "What smell?" he turned to Alfred, and thetter just pointed to the air around.

    "It''s natural to sniff it by now," before Alfred would speak and exin things over to William, the old master spoke up first, "just endure it and keep walking forward."

    "I don''t smell anything," William spoke again after a couple more blows of the wind. By now, the expression over Alfred and his team was clear about how bad this smell was. And yet no matter how he tried, William couldn''t sniff anything.

    "You''ll smell it soon enough, don''t worry," the old master wasn''t surprised by this. After all, different people had various resistance to such a smell.

    Yet even after arriving at the end of this tunnel, where a small room appeared, one that was simr to the ones he spotted before at the Cult branches he visited, he didn''t sniff anything abnormal.

    William didn''t know that the reason behind such a thing was the spirits he had. They were strong enough to resist any toxin, especially that snake.

    When he arrived in that room, he noticed the presence of a gathering of formidable masters. None was weaker than dark gold grade, and William felt from their aura and pressure that almost half were at the high stage, or even at the pinnacle.

    There were around fifty people inside, all surrounding someone young in the middle, seemingly showing respect towards her. The moment his eyesnded at her; he could tell she was the person he was supposed to meet.

    She was elegant, yet she didn''t show any air of weakness around her. Instead, he could see the pride and prestige of someone who came from a great background, someone who used to order scary figures around without batting an eye.

    "You are finally here," the moment she spotted him, a weird anxious expression appeared on her face, before a deep and long sigh of relief was released from her, "where did you find him? You are stationed around the capital¡­"

 Chapter 764 Ill Grant You One Wish

    ?

    She seemed puzzled, and yet she wasn''t any less puzzled than William.

    "May I ask what''s going on here? And who are you?" William wasn''t acting impolite, but he hated to be in a situation that he didn''t understand while everyone else seemed to know the ins and outs of it.

    "We found him outside the capital," as if he wasn''t here, or as if no one heard what he said, the old master who brought William here responded, "he just came out of the blue, without using any of our formal routes."

    "Interesting," the ongoing discussion was something that told William that all the paths leading towards the capital were closely watched by this youngdy''s masters.

    And that made him hurriedly change the topic, avoiding any unneeded curious questions and doubts, "can you tell me what''s going on here?"

    "We need your help,'' Anjie ced aside the news the old master just shared with her for now. She didn''t have time to investigate this, and nned to do this after resolving the current crisis, "your team also needs your help¡­"

    "My team?!!!" William''s face changed abruptly when she mentioned his team. He already had a bad feeling about them. And hearing what she said made this feeling grow to a higher scale of worry, "tell me everything."

    She started telling him everything in great detail, didn''t hide anything, not even the fact that she forced his team toe here like what happened to him.

    She didn''t like lies, as they always end up discovered in the end, causing more problems than solving any. The more she spoke, the more William got puzzled and enraged.

    "So you''re telling me that some sort of a drawing appears up there and that''s why you drew my team into this mess? Without even knowing what they were going into?!" he was feeling very enraged at her, and that made her sigh before exining the current situation of the king.

    She didn''t hide the king''s identity this time. She didn''t feel that much guilt about using William''s team, but she needed thetter to get motivated to help, not get enraged and hold grudges towards her.

    "Weird¡­ And the king is the only one affected to such an extent?" William was puzzled by this. It was understandable if others suffered from such side effects of this wind, but only the king made it more like an assassination attempt or something, "can I see him?"

    *Vroom!*

    Just before she''d say anything, the wind blew and the scenes of that fog appearing at the ceiling with the drawing showed up again. He went into silence when he saw this drawing, feeling more shocked than anyone else at their first time seeing it.

    He recognised this drawing right on the spot. It was indeed a nine tailed fox drawing, but not his. This was the drawing of his sworn enemy, the fox of the outer world.

    The drawing was clear, and there was no room for error in identifying his nemesis. Yet he couldn''t help but think about why his enemy appeared here, out of all ces, trying to kill the king of an insignificant kingdom.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The Novistic kingdom might be strong, but it wasn''t the strongest in this world. There were far stronger kingdoms in both continents, and that made him doubt this was in fact a move against him.

    And when he gave this idea little thought, he realised it wasn''t practical. He had no rtion with the royal family in the kingdom and taking them down wouldn''t greatly impact him.

    "Something feels off here¡­ I feel like I know the answer to this puzzle but can''t get it¡­ What am I missing exactly?" he thought to himself, while closely watching everything in this ce.

    He wanted to find any clue that might guide and help him in solving this mystery, but he couldn''t. The wind didn''t ring any bells in his mind, and he didn''t smell any bad odour so far.

    As for the fog, he couldn''t tell anything remarkable about it from his spot. He knew he had to go and touch it, examine that weird fog and even go towards the world thatid behind it.

    "You said there is a pocket world lying behind these walls," after the wind calmed down, William suddenly said, "and this windes from all the holes in the entire region, right?"

    "What do you want to ask exactly?" Anjie was slightly relieved that William was open for cooperation and showed interest in dealing with this mess. She didn''t know if he got anything from the nine tailed fox image that appeared on the ceiling, or perhaps seeing this drawing made him believe what she just said.

    "I want to know if you can ess this world from any hole, or it''s just exclusive to here," William paused, and she simply responded and exined that they could get ess to the same world from any hole.

    "... But we can''t determine if we appear at the same spot or not," she ended her answer with this. And he kept nodding in silence, didn''t say anything even after the urrence of two more rounds of winds.

    "How to ess that world then?" William had no other option but to go into that world and investigate things himself, "and don''t get me wrong, I refuse to do things for free. Besides, you owe me big by sending my team without my presence like this."

    "I didn''t send them alone, my mentor went with them!" she blurted back, feeling more bitter than William about what happened.

    "It doesn''t justify what you did," William calmly said, "I want to know what I''ll get from doing this."

    "Saving your team isn''t enough?!"

    "If so then you''ll be my enemy, not my friend," William said something that got an instant hostile reaction from everyone standing on Anjie''s side. But she stopped all by simply raising her hand.

    "I will grant you one thing that I can do," she paused, "if it''s in my power, I''ll do it."

 Chapter 765 Walking Through The Wind

    ?

    "A service it is then," William paused, thinking about the value of such a word.

    "I''m not bragging or something, but you aren''t just speaking to anyone. I''m the crown princess of the kingdom, the one who is destined to rule it in the future."

    "I see," William thought about this for a few minutes before deciding, "I''ll help you this time, and you owe me a service one day¡­ Plus a privilege to get one piece ofnd here as a gift, and the permission to purchasends at the capital and all the cities and big towns that belong to it."

    Anjie''s face changed a little, wanting to ask why he wanted such a thing. And when she recalled his identity, the leader of a guild, something that was like an impact in her eyes, she knew why he asked for this.

    "Got it," she waited for the next wind to blow before adding while giving him a ring, "this is your call, walk out when the wind blows. Make sure to use the things inside the ring to protect yourself and your team."

    "They aren''t going toe with me," William suddenly turned to Alfred, "you''ll wait here."

    "But we can help¡­"

    "I need you to scan other ces," William moved his eyes around, and Alfred got what he wanted to convey. He wanted to investigate not only the tunnels and fog, not the weird pocket world lying behind the walls, not even the toxin and wind.

    William still felt how bizarre the entire situation was. And so he wanted them to see the fate and destiny of everyone here. He felt like there were dirty fingerprints behind what happened to the kingdom''s king, and whoever did this wouldn''t let Anjiee and seek to solve this crisis without sending his people here to watch over her.

    Alfred didn''t get all this of course, but he knew what William wanted from them. He looked at the masters surrounding Anjie and felt this task was going to be a bit challenging, "I''ll make sure to use formations to support you and open a path for you to return back."

    "You can do this?!!" Anjie was surprised to hear this. Alfred was a real prodigy, and he thought about the best excuse he could provide to mask any intervention or unwanted questions from anyone here.

    "He has a space spirit and element, plus unique technique that can do what he just said," William chimed in,pleting the lie Alfred came up with.

    "I see¡­ So why won''t he open a crack there and let us get everyone out?" Anjie was anxious and worried about her mentor, and that made her slip by and act in such impatience.

    This didn''t escape William''s keen eyes, and he linked this with the mentor she spoke about. "He can''t do it unless I''m there," William rolled his eyes before adding, "don''t rush things up. Wait until I send you a signal and then act."

    "Can he connect with you while being inside a pocket world?!" This time one of the old masters surrounding Anjie spoke in surprise. And when William and Alfred both nodded in agreement, he and other masters felt more admiration towards Alfred.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I see," Anjie paused, "check the content of the ring. We made potions and elixirs to counter any toxic effect you''ll face inside that world."

    "Ok," William gave Alfred ast nce, before turning to Anjie and added, "he has to work and activate the formation all the time. Please make a space for him to work, and don''t disturb him."

    "Sure," she nodded, while she and other masters decided to watch Alfred and track what he was going to do.

    William then waited for another wind to blow, then he stepped towards the outside. The fog was protecting those inside from the wind, and the moment he walked through, he felt like his body was sucked by irresistible force.

    At this moment, he didn''t hesitate to activate his spirit. He was covered with a fierce gale of wind and couldn''t see his shape right now. His spirit sense once released got instantly crushed, and he even felt pain from this, so he stopped using it.

    He didn''t see that he activated not only one spirit, but two. The toxin in the wind seemed to stir the acting dormant snake spirit, ending up waking it up and forcing it to show up.

    William was feeling a bit weird. The wind wasn''t just fierce, but it had some sort of numbing and illusional effects that he tried to resist using his spirit power.

    He didn''t know how long he kept dragging like this, but he knew this wasn''t a normal way to enter a pocket world. "This world must be on the verge of copsing," he reached this realisation just before all the suction force vanished and he felt a solid thing under his feet.

    When he looked around, he still found the fierce wind surrounding himself. Just as he used his spirit sense, he saw the weird shape of his spirit body.

    His body was made of the fox, but his neck was long as if it was a snake. His tails had a fourth one, one that looked like a spear, ending sharply with some sort of solid and dangerous looking needle made out of white bones.

    "This¡­" he was startled the moment he saw this, yet he didn''t have time to think about anything. The moment he released his spirit sense, he felt like it hit a wall surrounding him.

    "There are other masters here," William knew the walls his spirit sense hit wasn''t real. Spirit sense was a formless form of power, one that couldn''t be blocked except with far stronger and more hostile spirit senses.

    *Roar!*

    Yet before he''d find anything useful about the owners of these spirit senses, he heard many roarsing from multiple directions. "This¡­" he was startled by this as the directions these roars came from matched the origins of the spirit senses he just detected, "don''t tell me they are monsters and not masters!!"

 Chapter 766 Battling Against Wind

    ?

    This was a grand realisation for him. Monsters in this tiny world were unable to use spirit senses unless they were quite special. Spirit sense was something unique for any intelligent being, and that was why it was alwaysmon for masters to have it.

    Even masters had to rise up their level of power to reach a stage enough to activate this ability. William knew if a monster got this spirit sense, then it''d be at the pinnacle stage, no lesser than this.

    Without any moment of hesitation, he took out his weapons, held them with the three fox tails, leaving the fourth new tail free without depending on it.

    He didn''t get why the snake spirit appeared now, or why it merged with his fox spirit. He also had zero guarantee that this manifestation wouldst, or he''d be able to even control it.

    He kept his vignce, while hearing the roarsing from different directions. The world around him was still filled with wind, and it felt like nothing got affected by these roars.

    "Weird¡­ They kept roaring and didn''te¡­ Why is that?" William was still standing on the ground without moving around. He didn''t want to risk fighting in a terrain he didn''t know. But the monsters didn''t move, and that pinned him down.

    William couldn''t north from west, and so he selected a direction and went towards it.

    The first thing he expected was for the monsters roaring the past few minutes to jump and cut him to pieces. Yet nothing of that happened, not in the first few steps, not in the first few minutes, and not in the next five hours.

    "This world¡­ It''s not an illusion or a hallucination. I already tested and nothing looked like this. And this wind¡­ It kepting without showing any sign of weakening or getting rest¡­"

    William wasn''t just blindly walking around, he kept testing and seeing what was going on in this world. The first thing he excluded was for this to be an illusion or a hallucination. Then he tried to see if he could affect the surrounding wind using his spirit powers, or even his deadly attacks.

    He tried to use different spirit elements, and yet he couldn''t get any response at all. "I have to get out from the wind area first, try to see anything outside from here¡­"

    William tried to dash forward to get away from the prison of wind he was in. yet he didn''t manage to even sniff the outside world.

    "The only exnation is that this wind isn''t just surrounding a fixed area, but surrounding me," after many failed attempts, he reached such a conclusion. And then he started to search for the way this wind kept following him.

    The first ce he looked at was his body. He searched everything and took almost an hour to make sure there wasn''t anything attached to his body without knowing it.

    He then started to examine the ground around. All this time he was busy dealing with the wind and this weird situation, so he never touched the ground to feel how weird it was.

    "This¡­ This isn''t a rock¡­ It''s soft as a jelly¡­" William muttered to himself, feeling a bit shocked by this.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He never felt anything abnormal when hended, or when he ran all over the ce for the past few hours. "What is it exactly?" William was puzzled. He kept thinking about how to get out from this wind entrapment but didn''t notice anything abnormal about the ground except for now.

    The moment he realised this, he started to inspect the ground closely. He tried to prate the groundyer using his weapons, his techniques, and yet nothing managed to pass through or even leave a scratch behind.

    "It''s not working¡­ Maybe I shall use my cannonball attack," William thought about this and started to dash forward. Then he jumped high in the air, aimed his tails towards the ground and simplynded without stacking anything.

    *Boom!*

    Unlike what logic dictated, the attack that usually didn''t leave much behind caused a storming explosion. It wasn''t just the hole that dly surprised William, but the shockwave that managed to finally push the thickyer of wind away.

    "What caused this¡­ Is it the way of doing this attack or the weapons? Or is it something else?"

    William finally found a glimpse of hope in dealing with this. Yet he didn''t hurry to test it again before thinking about his options.

    The next attempt he tried to infuse his spirit power and use his dash technique while falling down. Yet it didn''t even stir a single speck of dust.

    "It''s not the power of impact, is it the weapons then?" he held his weapons and kept dashing right and left, yet nothing happened.

    "Shall I use my hands?" he thought that it might be his weird fox and snake mixed body that caused such weird phenomenon. Yet the moment he cancelled his spirit body, the wind all around got suddenly stirred up and howled towards him.

    "Sh*t! What''s wrong with this wind?!" William instantly reactivated his spirit body. And yet again the snake parts appeared like before, "don''t tell me there is something in the wind that stirred up the snake spirit¡­"

    He thought about this fierce spirit and its abilities, the ones he heard about. And yet he didn''t find anything of value with the wind. He didn''t know what this wind got within. Even the words of Anjie didn''t help in letting him guess anything.

    As his spirit power didn''t help, and his weapons failed alongside his techniques, he didn''t have any other way but to repeatedly use his opening move over and over again.

    The more he used it, the more the hole in the ground deepened. At the same time, the wind kept getting pushed away, yet it wasn''t enough to show any sign of the outer world.

    "This won''t do¡­"

 Chapter 767 Many Windstorms

    ?

    William stopped after almost an hour of doing all this, "I need to spread over my attacks, I have to use my dash technique more efficiently than this¡­"

    William looked around. He was now standing on the edge of the deep hole he created. And after doing all this, the wind cleared over an area of a few hundred metres. Yet this wasn''t enough. The moment he stopped attacking, and the wind stopped getting pushed back, and even started to recede again.

    William took this as an intense battlefield right now. The moment he decided to broaden his area of activity and he started to dash right and left, going everywhere with his technique.

    He didn''t hold back, took even an elixir bottle out and emptied its content in his throat. He kept pushing himself to the limits, crossing hundreds of metres with each dash, jumping in an oblique course instead of just jumping straight towards the sky.

    There was no sky right now, instead a ceiling made out of wind raging wildly without any moment of pause. To William, it felt like he was fighting against forces of nature, and yet this force was getting crushed against what he was doing.

    As he expanded his attack range, things started to improve for the better. With each group of attacks he unleashed, the wind got pushed back further and further.

    He didn''t aim to dig the ground and reach a deep level. This wouldn''t help at all. Instead, the ground started to show more holes, shallower than the one he initially created, spreading all over a huge area of a few kilometres.

    "I found you!" After half an hour of doing so, and after clearing the wind entrapment for almost ten kilometres in radius, he finally spotted the outside world. The moment he saw a gap, he shed towards it without any speck of hesitation.

    The gap was just thin and narrow, not enough to let him pass through. And yet he stacked multiple dashes before hended on the ground with his tails.

    The shockwave was strong enough to expand the wind further backwards, widening this gap and creating a big hole out of a previously tight one.

    "Phew, I got out atst," the moment hended outside, he couldn''t help but heave a deep sigh of relief. He got stressed for the past few hours trying to get out of this windy prison, and he got slightly exhausted from doing so.

    Yet he didn''t have time to rest or recuperate. The moment he got out, he finally spotted what was making all this. "Damn! This isn''t a ground, but a back of a colossal flying beast!!!"

    That was what he found when he came out from the wind. What he saw was a gigantic back of some sort of a whale-like monster, and the wind that entrapped him inside wasing from one opening that seemed like its nostrils or something.

    That wasn''[t the only shocking discovery he had. This wind prison, which was now some sort of a breathing cloud of this monster, wasn''t just single. There were lot more of these, as half of the entire monster''s back was covered with these nostrils and wind.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    The nostrils weren''t small. Each one was at least one kilometre in width. Each sprouted out a cloud of wind, that enveloped a huge area of tens of kilometres, rising for hundreds of metres in the sky.

    When William got freed from his surprise, he found that the sky of this world was dark blue, with few dots shining all over the ce like they were little and far distance away stars or something.

    There was no moon, and yet the world was lit by things flying in the air, things like this monster. Big part of the back was covered in these windstorms, while the edges were releasing sparks of lights, looking as if bolts of lightning was shing against each other.

    The lights were pale blue and red, giving the sky a very serene look. William didn''t appreciate the sight, despite how beautiful it was, as he got attracted with something else.

    "The wind blows, but these noises can''t be from the wind¡­" William didn''t get why the ones who came here before, the ones who belonged to the Novistic kingdom, didn''t report about the presence of such flying monsters.

    The only exnation was that the ones who came here never managed to get out from the wind entrapment. As for how they got killed fast when they stepped in here and he didn''t suffer a thing, he guessed the answer to that.

    It was all thanks to his snake spirit, the one that got stirred up and seemed like it protected him from great danger.

    Putting all these thoughts aside, he heard weird, muffled noises, things like screams and agonising cries,ing from many wind bubbles around.

    Linking all this together, he couldn''t help but imagine the worse happening to his team. "Where are they then?" even if he wanted to help, even if he got a way to force his way through this wind, he knew it''d take long time to scan everything.

    "The Bullets!" the moment he thought how useless it was to check all these wind prisons one by one, the idea of using Bullet jumped into his mind, "please work¡­ Where are you? Can you hear me?"

    William already tried to use his spirit sense inside the wind prison and failed. And now he also tried to spread his sense around. It worked at any area outside the wind bubbles, outside of the monster''s immense body.

    He saw other monsters, different in shapes and size, flying slowly in the air. They looked as if they were floating over the surface of a calmke, spreading both terror and light to the world.

    Yet he didn''t have the choice to scan everything in great detail and just got satisfied with a random overall scan. Then he turned his full attention towards his Bullet.

 Chapter 768 A Discovery

    ?

    Silencested for almost half a minute, and he tried to listen to anything echoing in his mind but couldn''t get any. And all of sudden, it felt like a bad signal reached him, ending up hearing the intermittent voice of someone he recognised on the spot.

    [Bo¡­ Boss¡­ Is¡­ I¡­ Is that¡­ Yo¡­ You?!!!]

    The voice of Ibra came shaky, weak, and covered up with lots of noises like wind. William almost squeezed the Bullet of everyone he was holding in both hands, close from ruining them.

    "I can''t clearly hear you, so let''s get it short. I''m here, and there are lots of ces around. Can you use anything to let me know where you are? Any light techniques or attacks with extremely shing lights or something?"

    William wanted anything to identify their whereabouts. [W¡­ We c¡­ We can try¡­] Ibra''s voice became weaker and weaker, and that made William a bit restless.

    "This damn wind! It''s not enough to stop the spirit sense but also interferes with the Bullets!"

    William started to focus his spirit sense around, trying to locate the wind bubble with the res. Yet after a few minutes, nothing happened. "Are you doing it or what?" he asked again, holding all the Bullets in his hands.

    For a reason, only Ibra''s Bullet was the one working.

    [W¡­ We¡­ We are¡­ doi¡­ n it!]

    Ibra''s voice came unclear at first, then after a few more attempts, he heard bits and pieces of it. William shook his hands as if he was trying to instigate these Bullets to work better.

    [We are trying¡­ A¡­ Are tr¡­ har¡­]

    "Wait a minute¡­ This¡­" William paused as he was walking around while speaking with Ibra. During this time, he was focusing his spirit sense to detect any change at the entire back of this monster. And that made him miss the tiny detail that he just noticed.

    "The soundes clearer at some spots, and gets interrupted when I walk away from these¡­ Don''t tell me the closer I am to their ce the clearer the sound is¡­"

    Just when he realised this, he started to run a few tests. And soon enough, he found his theory to be correct. "Just keep speaking, don''t stop until I find you," he dly said, while moving around in different directions.

    As he told him, Ibra kept speaking and his voice was now thepass guiding William towards their location.

    The first thing he did was to locate the general spot to search at. It took him roughly two hours to do so, then he started to narrow down this area. He spent five more hours doing so until he finally pinpointed seven possible windstorms where his team would be entrapped.

    "I have seven possible locations, and nothing you did inside appeared from the wind surrounding you. So wait for me and I''ll check one windstorm after another¡­"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William had no other option but to do so. As he narrowed down his options to just seven, he randomly selected one and started using his cannonball move one time after another.

    Before he started doing this, he marked these seven using arrays that would issue faint lights. He used these to not mess with the seven windstorms. And armed with his past experience in getting out, he started getting in.

    "What the hell is that?!!!"

    The moment he walked through one prison, he stood stupefied in front of a scene he never expected to meet, "This¡­ This is a graveyard!!!"

    In front of William, another space appeared which was surrounded with fierce wind gales. Yet from the bones that filled the ground instead of the soft back of the monster, he could tell how many masters and monsters fell here on the hands of this wind.

    "She wasn''t lying¡­" William muttered after moving his eyes around for a few minutes, "this wind is really toxic and deadly¡­"

    William never took the words of Anjie to heart; not like how she described the wind to be quite deadly and poisonous. He still thought that someone must have interfered and added toxin to the king''s meals, ending up showing these symptoms and falling ill.

    The evidence in front of him was solid, and he couldn''t help but move and check these bones and the entire region out.

    "This¡­ These bones are filled with a weird amount of spirit power¡­ Weird¡­" William just touched one of the thick bones near him, and the moment he did so he felt like he touched a hot metal rod or something.

    "It''s better to take everything with me, instead of leaving them to rot here like this," William once noticed how special these bones were and didn''t hold himself back.

    He tried to cut down these bones using his sword, and yet he failed. The only result he got was for his dark gold grade sword, armed up with his gold grade spirit power and infused with his mixed fox and snake body spirit form to end up with many indentations on the sharp edge.

    If he continued trying, he''d end up ruining this sword. He lost his top-grade weapons recently, and these were only recements. If he lost any, he''d end up having much worse gears and weapons.

    So, he simply touched the bones, endured the excruciating pain, and stored them inside the lots of rings he got.

    He kept releasing his cannonball move all the time, but he didn''t aim to push the wind further away like he did before. Instead, he kept walking around, collecting more bones, until he finally cleared this area.

    He spent hours doing so, and yet he wasn''t feeling any impulse or anything. He collected lots of bones, enough to fill up the content of four rings totally to the brim and part of the fifth.

    "Time to visit other ces," William then spent another hour to get out of this prison. Then he went towards another windstorm and started clearing its content.

 Chapter 769 Meeting Masters At Last

    ?

    William kept jumping from one windstorm to another, until he found something new at the third one.

    "This¡­ It''s a ring¡­ A spirit ring¡­ One thates from the outer world!"

    William stopped what he was doing the moment he found something shiny at the ground. When he inspected it, he found it was a ring, one that suited a giant race, one of those monster and human hybrid races who got intelligent enough to be considered a different race.

    He didn''t hesitate to store it away. Just from the size of it he knew it never came from any ce other than the outer world.

    Such discovery made William pay more attention to the ground. And soon enough, he found more rings buried under theyers of dust and bones. He collected all from this windstorm, and the next one he found normal spirit master''s rings, which he collected as well.

    He didn''t check anything yet, and he knew he might find nothing much inside these. Ores wouldn''t get affected by the passage of time, also gears and weapons. But herbs and alchemical products would be ruined if a long time passed.

    He didn''t know how long these remains were entrapped in this world, but any gain was something worthy of celebration in his eyes.

    "Found you!" Just as he arrived at the sixth windstorm, he found a group of people gathered there.

    "Who are you?!!!"

    "Monster! Monster is attacking us!"

    "Stand up and fight! Fight for your lives!"

    Just before he''d draw closer, many shouts like these came out, startling even himself.

    "Wait! Hold on! I''m a human¡­" Just before he''dplete his words, lots of attacks came out from therge group of people he spotted just now.

    He didn''t hesitate to wave his weapons, sh around, evading and blocking lots of attacks. He had to retreat for a few tens of metres, and soon enough he realised that no attack using pure spirit power managed to leave a trace over the wind or even on himself.

    When he got relieved from such a sudden esction of the situation, he started to slowly examine these people. They were living inside some sort of shining ring of light, one that kept shing with different colours fast like it was about to explode or something.

    When he looked closer, he noticed that the wind was getting pushed away by a dome of lights, one that emerged from this grand formation. It was grand when he got close enough, he spotted how massive it was.

    "I''m a human," William said, but his words got nothing except fierce waves of attacks and many fearful cries and rallies for deadly battles.

    "Tsk! Ok, watch and see by yourselves," William didn''t risk doing this close from these scared masters. So he withdrew first for hundreds of metres, then he started to spread his cannonball attacks like he was going to exit this ce.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He still didn''t get who these people were or where they came from. But as they were normal spirit masters, and he found them, it wasn''t a problem to save them and then talkter.

    After ten minutes he pushed the wind away to enough distance. Then he cancelled his spirit body and returned to look like a teenager at sixteen years old.

    "See? I''m human, a spirit master just like you. And what you saw was my spirit body, something any master can use."

    William didn''t risk staying like this for long. He pushed the wind away but the moment he cancelled his form, it seemed like the wind got stirred up as if they were hungry wolves spotting a fat sheep or something.

    Outside the wind bubbles, he could return to his human form without any issues. But here, it was safer to always remain in his mixed fox and snake spirit body.

    Once he showed himself and the attacks suddenly ceased. He heaved a sigh of relief. He didn''t want to end up fighting or leaving these people behind if they kept their hostile activity against him.

    "We never heard of masters doing something like this," as they stopped attacking, he approached that gigantic bubble. As he got closer, a youth stepped up as everyone else retreated a few tens of metres away, as if they were dering in such a move that this twenty year old youth was their leader or spokesman.

    "What do you mean? Masters can activate their spirit bodies and transform like what I just did!" William was surprised by what this youth said. If not for the tone of doubt William heard, he''d have thought this youth was toying with him.

    "Only monsters can take such form, no human can," the youth seemed pretty confident in what he was saying, adding more puzzlement to William.

    Thetter stopped just ten metres away from this youth, and a crazy thought shed in his mind.

    "Where did youe from? Tell me about that world¡­ Do you have two continents there? North and south? From which continent did youe from?"

    "Two continents?!!! What the hell¡­" just from the shocking expression over this youth''s face William could confirm his unbelievable thought.

    "You came from a world other than mine¡­" he muttered these words while looking at the youth and other people standing inside that protective bubble, "that''s¡­ That''s amazing!"

    "What do you even mean by that?!!!" the youth was already feeling like he was knowing the world for the first time, "there is only one world, our world!"

    "Then how can you exin the presence of this world here?" William calmly said, "how do you exin what I just did? You said it yourself, there is no human in your world who can use their spirit body. From the world I came from, this little trick can be done by almost everyone out there."

    "..."

    William''s words were convincing. And that made not only this youth but everyone behind him get a shock they never imagined feeling ever in their lives.

 Chapter 770 Masters From Another World

    ?

    Heavy silence ruled over the entire ce for long minutes. William knew epting such a fact wasn''t going to be easy for them, for anyone. So he simply kept pushing the wind away using his cannonball move, while giving them enough time to absorb and ept this truth.

    As they were taking their share to ept this, William took this time to think about what they just exposed.

    "A tiny world with masters not able to activate their spirit bodies? What the heck is that world exactly? Howe masters survive against monsters without such deadly weapons?"

    His mind was drifting through various ideas, and yet when he returned to spot them, he couldn''t help but focus his eyes over the shimmering bubble of lights that kept them safe.

    "Humans are real survivors indeed," he couldn''t help but think about this point. Even if some tiny world masters didn''t learn the little trick of activating their spirit bodies, they must have developed themselves in another direction.

    With what they did here, he could guess they focused more on arrays and formations. And from how they managed to deal with the deadly threat of the wind and toxin spreading alongside it, he knew they crossed a long part of the road in that direction.

    That wasn''t what he thought about. When he thought about this, he couldn''t help but imagine other worlds with different handicaps, worlds without having dark gold grade for example, worlds without any spirit elements, spirit techniques, and such.

    Imagining worlds like these made him question what humans would do in these circumstances. He knew the outer world was immense and vast, advanced in its knowledge and ways. But he now got a feeling that real power wasn''t limited to the outer world.

    "Tiny worlds aren''t just kindergarten for humans¡­ There are special worlds out there, and I can learn a ton of things from them¡­"

    This was the first time for William to see the tiny worlds as not useless ces. He always considered them as factories providing the outer world with new blood, either be monsters or masters alike.

    "I have little time here. I came to save my friends who are entrapped like you. Do you want to go out with me or remain here for the rest of your lives?" as he already thought through all this, he decided to bring these masters along.

    Once they got out from the area of danger, he''d have enough time to interrogate them and get to know more about their unique world.

    "What guarantee that you won''t kill us?" one of the much older masters said, "and what tells us you can get us out from here in the first ce?"

    "As you can tell," William extended his arms around, "I came into here from outside. I came in, and I can take all of you out. But you have to follow my words to the letter, got it?"

    "..."

    The masters inside that bubble were in thousands. William left them to discuss in between each other what he just proposed. At the same time, he kept using his cannonball move.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    To make them believe him, he expanded the area of activity to cover up the entire grand formation. He spent two elixirs and managed to push the wind for hundreds of metres away from their shiny bubble.

    This was the first time for them to see someone able to push the wind away. As William guessed, they came from a world where they crossed miles in the field of arrays and formations.

    They happened toe here identally, and yet they had a grand formation that could protect their lives. Unlike what William expected, these people were entrapped here for long years. And the only thing that kept them alive was potions and elixirs.

    They stopped eating for a long time, as they ran short of rations. Instead, they used formations to supplement their bodies with spirit power, stopping them from dying out of hunger and thirst.

    Instead of food, they lived on spirit power, and they reced water with potion and elixir''s fluids. But they only had the ability to survive, struggle against the deadly wind using these methods. To go out from here was a totally different story.

    They didn''t resign to such desperate fate out of nothing. They already sacrificed a lot of great men and women trying to find a way out from here. And yet none ever managed to walk out and return, no one even managed to do something like what William was currently doing.

    "We want to send a small team with you first," the youth who spoke with William before stepped up and added, "take them out, then bring one back to tell us the truth."

    "No problem," William paused for a moment, "but make it quick. I have others to save."

    "Sure, I''m going toe out now with a group of us," the youth didn''t even turn back and started walking out. Like the formation wasn''t there, he simply passed through it, alongside a few hundred as well.

    "You did indeed bring quite a lot for the first try," William was surprised to see such arge number of mastersing out. He thought this youth would bring at most twenty with him or something.

    "I''m Park," the youth cupped his hands, "I''m in your care."

    "Call me William," William turned around and added, "follow me. Keep yourselves inside the area of protection I''m creating. If you stepped outside, then don''t ce it on me."

    "Got it," Park led his people and started following William. Thetter was already adept at how to get out of here. So, the moment he pressured the wind prison enough, a gap appeared.

    "The gap can only allow for at most ten people to pass, then I''m going to reopen it again," Williamnded thest hit, expanding the gap before shouting out, "now! Go, go, pass and wait for us out there."

 Chapter 771 Rescuing The Team

    ?

    "Let''s go!" Park said, but he never moved. He let ten others of the group pass, and that made William take a note about him in his heart.

    One hit after another, one gap appeared after another. And with each gap, more people passed.

    "It''s our turn now," William turned to Park and five more with him, "let''s go," hended another hit and the gap that just closed reopened again. Once he passed through it, he and others got out atst.

    "This¡­" the shock over Park''s and other''s faces was no less than what William had when he first appeared here.

    "Told you, I can take you out safely," William shrugged, "stay here. You wille with me, I suppose," he said this to Park and thetter couldn''t help but gulp, swallowing his immense shock inside.

    "Where are we? Do you have any clue what''s happening?" as William led Park back, thetter kept asking, and William only answered with denial.

    "I just came here a few hours ago," William sighed, "I came to save my friends. And won''t explore the world until I do what I came here for."

    "Ok¡­" Park was a bit depressed about theck of answers, but he did what he promised to do before. He told his people about what he saw out there and stressed over William''s ability to save all of them.

    Then things went smoothly after that. The masters inside the grand formation started toe out in batches, and William handled extracting them outside.

    He didn''t find any problem in doing so. After all, he was going to repeat the same to save his friends. Their location was confirmed, lying inside thest windstorm. And like this, he was gaining enough experience to execute the rescue mission more efficiently.

    This took roughly three hours to take everyone out. And when William joined them outside, he couldn''t help but notice how thinned and physically drained they were.

    Spirit power kept them alive, but it wasn''t enough to maintain their physiques. So, it was expected how miserable they looked, reminding William of the first time he saw his body when he came back in time.

    "You can stay here," they were all looking at the world around like they were looking at something out of this world, "I''m going to save my friends ande back. Don''t walk around, or else you may end up getting inside these deadly winds again."

    William left without adding another word. He already informed Ibra that he wasing to their rescue. And during all this time, he got to listen to their current status and overall story.

    They came here around two weeks ago. The moment they arrived here, they found themselves entrapped inside the deadly and ferocious windstorm.

    They got the mentor of Anjie on their side, armed up with the potions and elixirs they got from her. Using all this, they managed to survive all this time without much damage suffered.

    They were exhausted, feeling tired and weak. ording to Ibra, the mentor was suffering the most, as he already got exposed to this wind much longer than anyone else.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    ording to the mentor, he had less than one week, and he''d die. As for them, he estimated they could survive for one more month. They tried everything and nothing worked. And their formations didn''t help at all.

    William didn''t get what was the type of toxin spread in the windstorms, but he was sure it got something to negate any spirit power used. Unlike spirit power, pure physical attacks and moves were enough to crush the wind.

    He already asked Ibra to use pure physical strength to destroy the wind. And yet this didn''t help. It seemed like William got something, something that antagonised the wind and its toxin, something that others didn''t.

    "I bet it''s that damn snake," he muttered to himself while working his way towards the depths of the seventh andst windstorm, the one where his friends were.

    He knew this spirit and the other dog were a curse, but at this moment the snake proved its worth as a blessing. Without it, he wouldn''t have survived or did any of what he did so far.

    "Got you!" Once he passed through the outer thickyer of wind, he found the inside filled literally with wind. It wasn''t as hostile or ferocious as the outer shell, and soon enough he pushed it away.

    "I knew you woulde to save us!"

    The moment he cleared the air, he heard Berry''s voice and saw her hair flying in the air. But she wasn''t the one who ended up in his embrace, crying as if she was rescued from the mouth of a deadly beast.

    "Lara¡­ You b¡­"

    "No time for that," William interrupted Berry''s furious shout and curses, "let''s go out. It''s quite safe out of here. Follow me," Williamnded a long look over the old man who was looking as if he was at hisst dying breaths or something.

    From the first moment he stepped in here and pushed the wind away, and that man kept ring at him in disbelief. He was one at the pinnacle of power, one who saw a lot in this world.

    He heard about William long before he''d met the ck Tails team. And yet he never thought his life would be rescued by this youngster one day.

    He always took William as someone who was lucky, having good traits, and might be considered a prodigy. But to someone like this mentor, one who worked for a royal family, he was used to seeing prodigies.

    Yet he always looked down on them. He wasn''t arrogant, but he knew life was long and the journey was hard. So being a prodigy was just barely enough to let him ce anyone in his eyes, nothing more.

    As William came in, solved the crisis that none ever managed to clear, it made this mentor start taking William more seriously.

 Chapter 772 Sloth

    ?

    Unlike Park''s group, William''s team was much worsepared to them. They looked more emaciated and paler, looked as if they had been sick for a long time already.

    That was why William didn''t want to dy their stay here. He knew Park''s people remained in the windstorm for many years. And yet they looked much better than his team who just stayed here for less than two weeks.

    William led them all outside after he freed himself from Lara. when he went outside, his team showed the same reaction as everyone else.

    "There is no danger here right now, so you can heal and recuperate," William turned to everyone, including his team, "I''m going to investigate the world around me. Stay here and don''t move away from the back of this monster."

    "Do you n to leave here?!!!" This wasn''t just the shocking words that came from Berry, Sara, Lara, and Lina, but from many around. They didn''t even celebrate joining him and he wanted to leave.

    William calmly smiled and didn''t exin anything as his reasons were obvious.

    They were too depleted and couldn''t help in any way right now. They needed to recuperate and heal, and he needed to look for an exit from this cursed ce as soon as possible.

    He didn''t care about the reason Anjie sent him and his team out here to do. This world wasn''t something he or others coulde here at the current stage of power.

    He didn''t know much about this world, but with Park and his people here, with the graves that stood witness to how scary this ce was, William gathered few intel.

    This world, if his guesses were right, would be a pocket world acting like a link between many others. He didn''t know how far the scale of connections this pocket world had, but he was sure this ce was connected with the outer world and many other tiny worlds as well.

    As for the source of the toxin affecting the king, he could tell it came from this weird whale-like flying monster. William didn''t n to risk his life either by going deep inside this colossal beast''s body or even try the impossible and kill it.

    "Just wait here and I''ll find a way to keep in touch with you," William was about to move away, but the mentor suddenly stopped him.

    "I''m The Novistic Kingdom''s biggest mentor, called Sloth. Did you meet Anjie? Did she tell you about the current status of the kingdom?"

    William paused, gave this old man a deep look. He had a good impression of Sloth. And yet he wasn''t ready to sacrifice his life for something he didn''t believe in, or someone he didn''t even meet before.

    "I know that the king is severely ill, but¡­ Sorry old man, but if you want to throw away your life then go ahead, be my guest. A word of advice though, having one man dead is enough, don''t add more grave losses or grievances to the ones back at the capital."

    "..."

    The words of William came out of Sloth''s expectations. They weren''t the words of a youngster, not even a young man. He acted like a veteran, like an old man, like someone as wise and strong as him.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Without even realising it, he stood in his ce while William walked away. Thetter already ran through many ces on the back of this flying beast. So he knew his way and kept walking towards the edge of this monster.

    He passed by many windstorms, tempted to go in and im everything inside. But he knew he''d waste lots of hours doing so, and just visited ten ces and looted everything from there.

    In his eyes, this monster was like a flying treasure trove. And when he reached the edge of this monster, he couldn''t help but notice simr windstorm bubbles on the backs of different shaped monsters.

    "It''s like I expected, the entire sky of this world is filled with such scary monsters¡­" William thanked his luck that he was so tinypared to such colossal beasts. Even in the outer world, such monsters wouldn''t be threatened by anyone but at the top of power there.

    Just as he was standing there, he spread his spirit sense to cover a few kilometres around. As he was standing there, he noticed someone approaching.

    "You do know you can''t leave and expect to find us easilyter on," Sloth was the one who came here, and he seemed to sort out his thoughts, "we need to go down there with you. If there is an exit, it must be on the far distanced ground."

    "I can''t see the ground from here," William didn''t even turn to look at Sloth, "how can you be so sure the ground is safer than here?"

    "I can see further than your sense can," Slothughed, "and I can tell you the ground down there is void of any monster."

    "Are you sure?" William turned to Sloth and thetter simply nodded, "if so, then you cane down with me."

    "As if you can fly down there without my and others'' help," Slothughed again. And yet William just smiled as if he got this in his pockets or something.

    "I nned to jump to the ground," he said, and that made Sloth raise one eyebrow, looking in doubt towards William, "what? I''m not lying!"

    "Show me then," Sloth shrugged, "I can take everyone down with me. You know, people in my level of power can temporarily fly."

    "Who don''t you save me the trouble then?" William crossed his arms, and Sloth shook his head in rejection.

    "I want to see how you nned to get down there without our help."

    "Then watch," William didn''t hesitate, turned around, and ran towards the edge. In a few steps he reached there, then jumped as he just said and fell from such a high altitude towards the ground.

 Chapter 773 Gathering Loot

    ?

    "This kid¡­ He is indeed crazy!" Sloth stood on the edge while watching what William was doing using his spirit sense.

    William simply jumped, but he wasn''t that insane to expect to cross such a grand distance andnd safely without losing his life. Instead, he jumped off the back of this monster, andnded over another monster''s back that was just a few hundred metres away.

    Of course, this jump wouldn''t pass without a price to pay. William used wind techniques to try and control hisnding yet ended up with lots of wounds.

    "Damn! That old man shall have helped instead of staying up there and watching," William took a healing elixir when he was in midair. And the moment he suffered those wounds, the elixir healed him right on the spot. But the pain he suffered was still quite annoying.

    "I know you can hear me, old man," William shouted in discontent, "I''m going to enjoy my time while resting. So you can heal for a few days while I''ll go down to the ground."

    [Don''t waste lots of time. You do know you have a contest uing in a few days!]

    The voice of Sloth appeared in his mind using spirit telepathy. But William shrugged, "I never wanted to take part in that contest anyway."

    He did indeed n to use his time in checking more windstorms. As Sloth nned to take everyone down, and they were going to wait there for him, it was better for him to use this time to collect more loot.

    And who knew, he might even find more masters from other worlds like how he got lucky with Park.

    Yet his luck seemed to run short this time. He visited lots of windstorms, actually getting proficient at doing this.

    He learnt the right way to use his cannonball move in the least possible numbers and let him get inside and out from each wind prison without wasting much time. At the same time, when he got inside any windstorm, he''d find tons of bones, dense with spirit power, and many rings of different sizes.

    He gained a lot, spending days in doing so, jumping from the back of one monster to another. Yet he never found anyone living in any windstorm. All he found was simply graveyards, evidence of therge number of masters and monsters who got dragged here, to their deaths.

    William didn''t just collect loot, but also tried to find any clues about the origin of this world.

    William knew all those who died here came from many worlds, and yet he didn''t get any evidence on the portals that led them here.

    He even used detection arrays, space stabilising arrays, and nothing managed to spot anything. "They can''t just havee here out of thin air, I and others didn''t¡­" he stood at thest monster, the one who was less than a hundred metres away from the ground and thought about this.

    He recalled how he came here, the wind was the thing that brought him here. He looked at the many windstorms at the back of this turtle like flying monster, looked at the grand number of monsters flying around and filling the sky, before he thought about something.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "This wind¡­ These windstorms¡­ Don''t tell me the portals aren''t inside these storms, but they are the windstorms themselves!!"

    William paused when he thought about this. He looked at the sky and couldn''t help but sigh. "Even if this is true, I don''t have any way to crack these portals. The exit doesn''t lie here, this is just a doorway towards this ce¡­"

    William threw behind his back everything rted to these flying monsters. He gained enough loot to fill hundreds of his rings. And even if he didn''t know what these bones were used for, at least he gained lots of rings.

    "Time to go down and scan this world," William already spread his sense over the ground, waiting on the back of this monster for many hours. The monster was flying slowly, but it crossed lots of areas fast.

    The world down below was just like how Sloth told him, void of any sign of life. William saw hills, open ins filled with lots of grass and nts, and even a distant forest that was silver in colour.

    Yet he never spotted a single monster or a human. William jumped down, used his wind techniques to slow down his descent, beforending on the ground safely thanks to the help of a healing elixir.

    "You cane down now, old man," William shouted when hended, knowing that Sloth was paying attention to all of his actions in the past days.

    Sloth didn''t say anything to him for days, and even when William shouted at him now, he didn''t say anything in response. Instead, and after a few minutes, William saw something like a small cloud appear from the far reaches of the sky.

    He didn''t need to use his spirit sense to see them to know who they were. He waited patiently for almost half an hour before Sloth brought everyone down.

    "You look a lot better," William noticed that not only his team, but also Park and his people improved a little.

    "Without that deadly toxin in the wind, they''ll grow better," Sloth said, as he was the most experienced one here about this toxin, "but¡­ Who are they?"

    He pointed towards Park and others. And William knew he spoke already with them and got to learn a few things from their mouths. "I idently found them when I was trying to save you," William said, but didn''t add more.

    "They don''t belong to our world, right?" Sloth was satisfied with this answer and starting from here a long discussion happened between him, William, and an old man from Park''s group.

    The fact that these masters came from another world was already known by all. Yet Sloth was more curious about where this world was, and how they came here.

 Chapter 774 Exploring The New World

    ?

    ording to Park''s old master, they were moving to help in fending off a grand monster tide. The monsters used some sort of a portal to move lots of monsters to intercept their army. William, Sloth, and others from their world knew this was the monster gate.

    From their words, they realised this monster gate wasn''t known in Park''s world. And so, they didn''t try to destroy it, instead Park''s army leader decided to dispatch a team to get into the gate and stop the influx of monsters from inside.

    They passed through the gate, ending up getting here. William and others were surprised by how crazy and courageous these masters were. And yet that also shone the light over something else.

    "If what you are saying is true, then monsters can gain ess to this world," Sloth said what William had in mind, "yet we never saw a single monster here."

    "What about those? Aren''t they considered monsters as well?" Park''s old master motioned his head towards the sky, and Sloth just smiled and said nothing.

    Both were strong, at the pinnacle of dark gold grade, and their spirit senses were at the maximum threshold. So they both saw the world and knew there wasn''t a single living soul on the ground, at least for tens of kilometres.

    William checked on his team and friends after ending this discussion. As Sloth said, they were improving as long as they didn''t contract any toxic wind anytime soon.

    "I''m going out," William spent hours with his friends and team, then turned around and said his goodbye to everyone else. Sloth offered, like Ibra and many of his friends, toe with him, yet William rejected all this.

    Among everyone, he was the only one healthy enough to do this. As for the contest, he already told his team that they mostly wouldn''t appear in time to join it.

    He said it so they''d be prepared. And then he started to move out.

    There was a problem of where he should go first. The entire world looked vast and boundless, and yet there was no sign of the right path he should head to.

    "You know how to find this exit?" As William selected a direction randomly, he walked, and Sloth apanied him for a few kilometres.

    "I have my hunch."

    "It''s enough," Sloth already highly valued William, not seeing him ording to the limitations of age, "take this, it''s a special Message Paper, one that can cover up thousands of kilometres."

    "Oh, that''s a nice toy," William didn''t reject this offer and epted this scroll. The moment he held it, he felt like he was holding something made out of iron or something, so much heavier than the usual scrolls.

    "It''s a special one, and it''s connected with me," Sloth took out an identical copy of the scroll he gave to William, "to use it, you need to inject lots of spirit power inside. Usually masters in dark gold grade will be the only ones able to use it. But I believe you have your ways to do it."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I do," William nodded, "thanks for that, it''ll solve the problem of how to find you after finding the exit."

    "Don''t overdo it," Sloth stopped after crossing five kilometres with William, "we are entrapped here, but we are safe¡­ For now, at least," he raised his head and looked at the close by colossal monsters.

    The scenes of them flying less than hundred metres on top of their heads, with all the sparkles shining from their edges, was enough to make anyone feel quite unsettled.

    But William wasn''t worried about them. He knew if they were hostile, they''d attack the moment theynded on the ground. Yet it was either these monsters were vegetarians, or they didn''t ce these tiny humans in their eyes at all. And William considered thetter to be the case here.

    He walked away, while the sight of Sloth and others got smaller the more he advanced. After an hour or so, he couldn''t even detect them using his spirit sense.

    William was moving slowly, taking the utmost care and caution at first. He didn''t cancel his spirit form and kept it running all the time.

    At first, he was curious about this world and inspected everything around. But slowly he lost interest in doing this. Aside from the abnormally high spirit power concentration in everything around, he didn''t find anything else that would pique his interest.

    The grass, the ground, even the tree roots¡­ Everything had a high concentration of spirit power that looked abnormal and different from the world he came from. And yet he knew this wasn''t even close to how it was like in the outer world.

    He ran a few tests and knew the spirit power looked as low grade as it was in the tiny world he came from, not like the high-grade spirit power in the outer world.

    He kept walking slowly for almost a day, then he started to elerate his pace. If there was any danger lurking in the shadows, waiting for him at any corner, it''d have appeared by now.

    The moment he started running fast, he crossed the distance he crossed in the past day in mere six hours! He kept running like this for days, eating dried up rations that he had from his chefs back at the guild base.

    When the seventh day kicked in, he finally saw something new. He first spotted this using his spread-out spirit sense, then he slowly approached where this weird thing started.

    "This¡­ So, these monsters are flying inside a confined area, not covering the entire world?!!"

    In front of him, the sky seemed to have an imaginary line, an invisible wall that separated it into two parts.

    In one part, densely packed monsters appeared and filled the entire sky. At the outer part, the sky looked clear, void of any monster, and bright sun rays appeared and covered the rest of the world.

 Chapter 775 Finding Someone At Last

    ?

    Seeing this made William realise what they appeared at was just a small part of this world. And for a reason he felt like the rest of the world appearing in front of him was going to hold more secrets and shocking things.

    Yet he never thought about turning around and returning. He simply walked towards the new part, enjoying the sun bath that he missed for a long time already.

    The sky was blue, but the sun was silver in colour. William didn''t just see one sun out there, but also three different size spherical shadows that didn''t send off any lights. He guessed they might be moons of this world, and he had never heard of a world like this before.

    Seeing the sun and the three moons made him know this wasn''t a pocket world as he guessed before. Pocket worlds were ones without such celestial objects. They were worlds entrapped inside objects, and they were illuminated using spirit power diffusing itself in the entire skyyer.

    Realising this was a real world came to change everything to William. His initial n was to look for the well hidden exit in this world as he considered this ce as a pocket world.

    But now he had to not look for an exit, but for something that could crack space and let them out. "If I was part of the dwellers in this world, then I''d consider this area filled with flying monsters as a deadly ce. And that means I won''t live or even risking near it¡­"

    William changed his mindset and started to think in different ways about all this. He now was confident this world had monsters and masters, but none would dare to approach this area.

    Reaching this far in his thoughts made him walk forward with caution again. He was also quite vignt, quite ready to enter any battle at any moment. And soon enough, he did indeed meet a situation like this.

    He came out from the deadly monster area and found an area that was filled with scattered trees. He tried to eat their fruits, but they were quite bitter and not edible.

    Just as he was walking around, he arrived at an area of hills. They were pale green in colour, without any nts covering them. The colour came from some sort of green liquid that oozed out from between the rocks forming these hills.

    "It''s warm and sticky¡­" William examined the liquid, but couldn''t recognise it. As he kept examining the liquid, he climbed one hill during which. And when he reached the top, he found a zigzag shaped narrow valley in the middle of these hills.

    The ground was covered with a thinyer of this weird green liquid. And right now he could see lots of liquid sshing all over the ce as a fierce battle was going on between two groups of people and arge number of monsters.

    One group was wearing faint red uniforms, looking like coats that had a hoodie. The other group was wearing ck clothes, and had their features covered up with some sort of a technique or something.

    William didn''t like anyone wearing ck clothes, reminding him of the dark masters at once. The two groups weren''t simr in numbers, with the ones with red coats and hoodies had less numbers than the ck ones.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Both were fighting against each other, and against monsters at the same time. The monsters were all from the same breed, giant wolves with two thornsing out from their two forelegs, curved to the side, acting like scythes or something.

    They looked quite sharp and deadly. Their bodies were covered in silk like hair, acting like fur or something, in different grades of purple colour.

    William didn''t know these monsters, but he could tell from viewing the ongoing brutal battles between them and the humans that the monsters were using wind and metal spirit elements, alongside few techniques that suited these.

    They were quite ferocious and daring, as if the humans trespassed over their turfs or something. As for the two groups of masters, William noticed something strange about them.

    "They aren''t using techniques, but simply materialising spirit power and reshaping it ording to their elements¡­" William noticed this after watching for ten minutes.

    The two sides were using hand movements first, gathering up spirit power in the form of balls, like balls of water or something. Then they change their hand moves, reshaping the spirit power balls into different shapes and releasing them over their foes.

    The red coated masters were using water and earth elements in attacks, and the ck masters were using darkness elements in their attacks.

    Darkness was an overbearing spirit element, and couldn''t be countered by water or earth. So it was expected how the ck side was winning, severely wounding and even killing lots of the other side.

    William now realised he came just at thest moments of this battle, and it seemed like the red coated masters had much bigger numbers than what they had right now. They showed lots of ws in their formations and attacks, showing how inexperienced in fighting together they were.

    If they were a small team from the start, then they should have more tacit understanding on how they fight. But that wasn''t the case. And that told William most of the red coated masters fell on the hands of the ck masters.

    Yet he didn''t n to move out or help anytime soon. It was his first time watching masters fighting in such a weird way, materialising spirit power and using it in such a genuinely brilliant way.

    He also didn''t know what caused such a feud, and if the ck masters were like the dark masters he knew, or if they were just normal masters fighting against others.

    So, he stayed more in his spot, leant on his belly and spread out his spirit sense. He focused and started to listen to the words exchanged between the two sides.

 Chapter 776 A Battle

    ?

    The two groups of masters were deeply absorbed in fighting each other and didn''t actually speak much. He kept listening, hoping to learn something about their origins, or what caused this sh to begin with.

    He had to wait for another fifteen minutes until half of the red masters fell and the other half wasn''t looking any better. During his watch, he learnt their approximate level of power.

    "They look to be at silver and gold grades only," William knew he could take them down without a problem. As for the monsters, they were at most gold grade as well.

    Yet he didn''t hurry to move until he''d make sure of which side these humans belonged to.

    "Stop it, Angelica, you won''t be able to survive this."

    And just when close to twenty red masters remained, the ck ones surrounded them with half of their numbers, while the other half went to stop the monsters. One of these ck coated ones slowly approached the red masters, seemingly speaking to ady with long and thick orange hair.

    "Stop bullshitting me, Edward! You know quite well that I prefer to kill myself than end up with someone like you!"

    "So, it''s a cliche marriage conflict, tsk," William hoped for me, yet what he heard made him quite disappointed. He could tell that Edward was a ruthless man, wanting to force Angelica to marry him even to the extent of chasing her all the way there.

    But he wasn''t a man who was responsible to spread justice and order in the world. He simply remained in his ce, and considered if he should interact with Edward or leave and look for a better person to deal with.

    "What''s wrong with me? You do know that tons of girls are lining up to get my blessing!"

    "Stop this bullshit! I won''t marry someone belonging to the dark side!"

    "We rule the world, what''s the point in continuing the resistance? As if you have any hidden ally or someone strong enough to stop us! This world, with everything inside, belongs to us!"

    "She got me!"

    Just when Edward was bbering and showing off, William suddenly perked up, activated his fox spirit again, and didn''t stay at his ce for a single second.

    The moment he heard what Edward boasted about, dering his identity as part of the dark masters, William didn''t need to hear anymore.

    "You¡­ What the hell are you?!!"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William already saw all of their tricks and techniques and knew the scope of their strength and abilities. They didn''t activate their spirit bodies at all, which was something a bit weird, something that weakened them in William''s eyes.

    So, when William spoke and appeared like this, he didn''t just startle everyone, but gave them a scare. Their reaction wasn''t any less than what Park and his people showed when they saw William for the first time.

    William didn''t care about any of that. He was mentally prepared for such a reaction and aimed for it to be honest. The moment he said these words and announced his presence, he dashed downwards, crossing the hill in a few jumps, before arriving at the enemies.

    William would be considered rational with anyone, anyone except those filthy dark masters. When he reached them, he didn''t hold back and used his technique at once.

    The weapons held by his three tails worked and killed the dark masters on Edward''s side. William decided to leave Edward alive for now, to let thisdy and his friends have their revenge against him.

    "Gather up! A weird enemy is attacking us! Damn! He must havee from the dead zone area¡­ Attack!" As William started his killing spree, Edward shouted on the top of his lungs while starting to run for his life. But William would never allow him to have it his way.

    Thetter dashed forward, stacking up his attacks one on top of another, crossing hundreds of metres with each move, until he finally arrived in front of Edward, blocking his way forward.

    "Scram!" Edward shouted in rage, but William could see clearly the fear in his eyes. Edward was holding two long and curved swords, with serrated edges that made them look like saws and not swords. He gathered up spirit power in one big ball, ck in colour, and moved the two swords through it, ending up coating the two with dangerous looking ck gas.

    William saw him use such an attack before, one that was strong enough to take down lots of monsters and masters alike. Yet when the two swordsnded over William, thetter vanished, circling around that dark master for three times, beforending a kick on his belly.

    The kick wasn''t infused with much spirit power, but it was violent enough to send Edward back flying, crossing the same distance he just ran and even more. Hended and rolled on the ground, coughing up blood while stopping just a few metres away from Angelica.

    "He is all yours," William casually said, as if he was a death god spreading out his sentence and edict, "as for the rest, they are mine."

    He didn''t stop even when he kicked Edward, as hended that hit while taking a pause between two dashes. He stacked around twenty attacks when he arrived at the group of dark mastersing from the direction of monsters. And with his hit, a grand explosion appeared.

    A big hole came as a result, alongside a massive ball of fire that spread for tens of metres in the air, spreading to cover hundreds of metres around.

    Most of the dark masters fell to this single and scary attack, alongside lots of monsters chasing after them. All of sudden, the entire battlefield froze, even monsters paused in their tracks, all looking at one spot: William''s direction.

    Thetter didn''t stop like them and kept moving around, storing more attacks. He looked as an asura, a deadly fighter who was born in the heat of ferocious battlefields.

 Chapter 777 The Explosive Pearls

    ?

    Just watching William move around was entrancing to Angelica and her twenty surviving masters, quite terrifying to both the dark masters and monsters.

    The first to turn around and run with their tails in their jaws were monsters. They weren''t intelligent as humans, but they were ruled by their instincts. And right now, they felt they were standing in front of a predator, one who wasn''t on their scale topete with.

    William didn''t care about these monsters. His main target was the dark masters. He kept shing right and left, attacking everyone around without leaving none alive but Edward.

    The battle since he joined ended quite fast. He didn''t forget to collect the loot, rings and gears, before turning towards the stupefied Angelica and other masters on her side.

    "What are you waiting for? Take him down, exert your vengeance and clear a little of rage swelling in your hearts."

    William motioned his head towards Edward, and thetter wasn''t in any shape to run away. He tried to run a few times but ended up getting kicked and sent back by William.

    "Who are you? What are you?" Angelica asked the same question Edward asked, the same everyone else had in their minds.

    "I''m a human master," William cancelled his transformation, returning to look like a harmless teenager again, "kill him and then let''s talk."

    "Take him down," Angelica seemed to lose any interest in Edward, and just let one of her entourage do the task, "let''s speak while walking. This valley is filled with ferocious monsters, and we need to run fast before we get surrounded."

    William wanted to tell her that even if a dark gold monster came, he''d be able to stop it. Yet he wanted to learn more about this world from her, so he let her lead him and others away, getting out from the valley through a different point than what he came from initially.

    William could tell Angelica and others were adept at the region. They led him through a maze of passageways through many hills, ending up at an open ce, filled with nothing but weird glistering pearl-like stones.

    "What is this ce?" William already exined in simple words his origins to her. He didn''t need to lie about this, as it was pointless. He used his spirit here, and from her words and reactions, he could tell people of this world couldn''t use their spirits, the same as Park and his people.

    She didn''t show the same reaction and surprise he expected to see. From her, he knew the ce that he came from was famous in this world.

    This ce wasn''t the only one in the world, but there were five other ces, lying in between six grand continents. ording to her, he learnt that this world wasn''t as he guessed before, not one that would get linked with others.

    By her words, this world was carnivorous for other worlds. And that meant it was eating up worlds, swallowing the ones who got destroyed, adding what remained here.

    This was a new thing for William to know. And as she exined further, he learnt that all of the masters and monsters here already came from tons of destroyed tiny worlds.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    This world would link itself not only to many worlds, but all the worlds that existed in the universe. This meant it was just lying dormant, waiting for any world to reach its apocalyptic moment, and then it''d swallow what remained and add it here.

    But there was a catch. Whoever arrived here would start over from scratch, without any spirit power at all. In addition to that, many limitations existed, just like how they were unable to activate their spirit bodies or use techniques and such.

    All this was new and quite surprising to William. He thought this world was like a transitional stage before arriving to the outer world. The idea of this world being a trashcan for the destroyed worlds never crossed his mind.

    As he heard more stories from her, he learnt the current situation of the world. Edward was lying, the dark masters weren''t controlling anything in the world but a single continent, the one William was in right now.

    ording to Angelica, the dark masters weren''t any less in numbers or forces in the entire world. And they kept doing the same shitty stuff as they used to in the destroyed worlds beforeing here.

    Their main target was to take down this world as well, something that seemed a bit impossible to achieve.

    "In this world, spirit power is quite high and that ends up with many things happening like this ce," she motioned around before gathering another ball of spirit power, and then released it without adding anything else.

    The ball moved fast andnded on the ground. The moment it touched the pearls there, it vanished. And then a scary explosion erupted, one that wasn''t any weaker than a full out attack from William''s technique.

    "These pearls¡­ They are filled with explosive power," William''s eyes shone, and Angelica got what he wanted to do.

    "Don''t," she shook her head, in a firm way, "just any touch and they''ll explode."

    "Let me try," William didn''t want to leave behind such a useful tool without trying. Yet what happened next was quite expected.

    "I wasn''t lying," despite trying to notugh, she still did. William touched one pearl and ended up detonating lots of pearls as a result.

    He did so while being in his mixed fox and snake form. It seemed like in his spirit body form; he released lots of spirit power that stimted many pearls. He got thrown in the air,nding on his back, while his body was covered in mes.

    He didn''t suffer much harm actually, not just for his spirit body, but also thanks to a healing elixir.

    "I know," William stood up, put down the fire before adding, "it''s just regrettable not being able to take these babies home."

 Chapter 778 Learning About This World

    ?

    "As if you can leave here," she sighed, "this is a dream everyone wanted."

    "Speaking like there is no exit from here," William said in much doubt, "as this world is linked to others, it must have an exit as well."

    "That''s the theory," she sighed, "the only proven way out from here lies in the same ce you came from."

    "I checked but didn''t find any way out from here out there," William shook his head, and she simply sighed.

    "The exit lies in the monsters themselves," she paused, knowing how impossible it was to do this task, "to open the exit, you have to kill the monsters. And not only any monster, but the same one you already came from."

    "Damn!" William now regretted listening to Sloth''s advice from before. And without any hesitation, he took out a spirit power replenishing elixir, consumed it, before gushing out tons of spirit power to ignite the golden scroll he took from Sloth.

    He saw the scroll absorbing his power and shone brighter and brighter, giving Angelica standing on his side a scare. She distanced herself as the scroll released torrents of air, before it finally surrounded William inside a bubble of golden fog.

    The moment the bubble got formed, William knew the scroll was activated. He didn''t risk wasting any moment and said in a hurry what he wanted. And as he expected, the scroll didn''tst more than thirty seconds before dimming out, and the bubble vanished.

    William told Sloth to search for the monster they came from its windstorm and keep themselves on top of it. He didn''t have time to exin anything else, so just added the word urgent to his words, hoping that Sloth would get the message and listen to his advice.

    "What''s that?"

    "It''s a toy of mine," William stored the scroll away, "is your home near?"

    "Not that far from here," she got that William hated anyone spying on his things, "let''s evade this ce. Next, we''ll arrive at the Grand ins where most of the people live in this part of the continent."

    William followed her around, while asking more questions about this world. ording to her, there wasn''t a single academy here. On the road, he asked for a map and luckily, she got one.

    "This world is indeed massive," William could tell this just by looking at the map. She pointed out towards two small dots on it, resembling the ce William came from and the ce of her home.

    The two dots were closely located, despite them having tons of distance apart. Comparing this towards the rest of the world made William realise how massive this world was. And ording to her, this world expanded on a regr basis, once every three years.

    This map was one that described the world before two of such expansion processes. Yet she didn''t think much would change from this old map.

    "How do you draw maps then?" William was interested in knowing the way.

    "We have masters who are blessed with space powers. They can scan the world and draw maps of it."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "For real?!" William wanted one of those to try out some sort of space cracking techniques.

    "Don''t bother, they can only use their powers limited to this world," she seemed to get what he wanted, "trying something like breaking the shackles of the world using their space elements is a futile endeavour."

    "Won''t harm to try, right?" he kept his hopes high, and she could only sigh in return.

    "Let''s forget about how weak and limited their powers are, to find one of these is much harder than finding a needle in a haystack. Not to mention if you want to hire someone known by these powers, you have to pay a scary amount of wealth, something I hardly believe you can afford."

    "This hard?" William didn''t like what he heard.

    "They live in the big empires," she pointed towards the map, "the closest one from here will take you around half a year to arrive at. Not to mention all of the especially talented masters are closely rted to the royal families. It''s impossible to try and find them on your own."

    "..."

    William didn''t intend to take part in the contest back at the Novistic kingdom, but that didn''t mean he wanted to spend years in this world.

    He tried to train before and failed. The spirit power in this world was quite berserk, hard to contain. He didn''t try to devour any cores yet, as he didn''t get any so far.

    The monsters he killed before got thrown far away from him. And he left with Angelica in a hurry. So, he wanted to meet monsters again to test their cores.

    If the cores proved to be useful, then he''d consider staying here until he''d raise up his power. But if not, then it was better to return back and continue training by the old school.

    He didn''t spot a single monster for days! The entire area that was filled with the explosive pearls was simply gigantic. And he and others had to take long routes to bypass them safely.

    It seemed these pearls weren''t just deadly to humans, but also to monsters as well. William kept chatting with Angelica about lots of things, and he learnt that alchemy and forging were quite advanced in this world.

    This was thanks to the high concentration of spirit power in the nts and ores. The overall might of any product was determined initially by the amount of spirit power stored within the raw materials used.

    William could get that, as he could get how hard it was to make something on high grade. Artisans and alchemists got a much higher standard here than in the world he came from. They were well respected and sought out by many powers in the world.

    Angelica spoke a lot about her people, and William knew the overall structure of powers in this world depended entirely over ns.

 Chapter 779 Intelligent Monsters

    ?

    There were no academies in this world, only towns and cities ruled over by different ns.

    Her n lived in a big town, alongside five more other ns. Her n was called the Red Horn n. ording to her, the Red Horn n was the biggest n in the town, ruling it and that was why the town was named after her n.

    William didn''t care about the n or the town, but he was more interested in the spirit masters and resources of this world.

    He knew this world wasn''t going to end, at least not anytime soon. And it got a link with their world. If he could build a base here, he could prepare a safe haven, an escape from the impending crisis if he couldn''t stop it.

    Besides, this world had a high concentration of spirit power. Not to mention when he and others came here through the portals on the backs of the flying monsters, they didn''t suffer any bacsh or anything.

    They kept their current spirit power grade intact, and only suffered from their inability to absorb the spirit power. That meant if he managed to establish a stable portal here, using an interworld portal or something simr, he''d be able to move his guild and allies here without an issue.

    After days they finally reached the Grand ins, where he found himself in front of an endless open space, with lots of trees and grass, nts of different colours, shapes, and sizes. In addition to that, he finally spotted monsters.

    "I want to stretch out a little bit," he wanted to test this world''s monsters'' cores. And so, he threw such a random excuse, activated his spirit body, and ran towards the thickest number of monsters.

    They were like bulls with horns, fur that was made out of fine ck needles, and three tails. They weren''t that huge, but the smallest one was at least two metres in length, and the biggest was close to six.

    William ran without even waiting for Angelica''s response, using his dash technique to distance himself from her. At the same time, he took out his weapons, and headed like a sent bullet towards these monsters.

    They were resting under arge number of trees, shielding them from the heat and sun. there were at least hundreds of them when William started to move out. But when he got closer after crossing five kilometres, he realised this was just the tip of the iceberg.

    A grand number of the same monsters spread over the horizon, taking shields of the densely packed trees. As the trees weren''t close to each other, William got tricked by their grand number.

    "If the cores have an effect on me, then I won''t hesitate to massacre all of them," William knew the monsters had a scary number, but they weren''t gathered together.

    The distance between each group of monsters ranged between a few hundreds of metres up to even kilometres! And each group was formed of a few hundreds, one thousand at most.

    William knew by his appearance, few groups might get attracted to here, but not all of the grand army of monsters. And so, he approached with confidence, not stacking his attacks like he used to do.

    He didn''t want to attract many monsters at first, not until he''d tasted their cores.

    *Roar!*<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Against what he used to, when he approached, the monsters lying under the thick bunch of trees turned to him and roared in warning. This was quite new, as he used to have monsters leaving anything behind ande to take a bit off him.

    As he was puzzled by this weird behaviour, he heard the scared shouts from Angelica from far behind.

    "Don''t attack them, they are quite intelligent and at least at the silver grade. They aren''t easy to handle, and can use arrays and formations to attac¡­"

    *Boom!*

    Just before she''d continue her words, William dashed with all his might after gulping an elixir bottle. When hended, his sword hit one of these monsters, releasing fierce sparks of res that looked like a fountain of fire.

    "... And they have extreme defences¡­ Dammit!" he heard Angelica''s cursing from behind, and yet that was the least of his worries.

    The monsters once hended over them started to stand up. They acted in slow motion, as if they were quite toozy to handle him or something, as if they didn''t ce him in their eyes.

    Not all of them stood up, only a group of fifty did. And as they stood up, he distanced himself away, starting to act more serious.

    "Retreat! They won''t chase you if you leave their terrain."

    "I won''t," William bellowed back, while taking even his one hundred flying weapons, "I wasn''t fighting with my full strength before. But now, let''s see how their defences can stop me!"

    William started to store up his attacks up to twenty-five. He wanted to stack them to fifty, but he was forced to unleash them thanks to thebined attack of the monsters.

    It was like what Angelica said. These monsters could use some sort of an array or a small formation. They were intelligent indeed, and once the fifty monsters stood up, they started to stand each in a specific location as if they grew used to this for a long time.

    William saw them take spots to form five curves interacting with each other. It was a simple and yet brand-new formation to him. And once they stood there, they started to control spirit power from the air.

    William saw Angelica, her masters, and Edward''s fight before and knew how they gathered up spirit power in small balls and reshaped them. Yet the monsters gathered a huge amount of spirit power, pale gold and red in colour, surrounding them and taking the shape of the small formation.

    Once the spirit power gathered up in such a way, it floated over their heads and started to grow berserk. They released sparks of golden and red fire, soon turning into short tongues of lightning like fire.

 Chapter 780 The Valuable Monster Cores

    ?

    Then they started to grow, giving William the impression that they were about to elongate enough to reach and surround him.

    He knew if he kept wasting time stacking more attacks, he''d get screwed. He couldn''t tell how strong these monsters were exactly until he''d fight them. But from his initial testing attack, he knew they wouldn''t get easily hurt by anything.

    As hended his attack, a fierce explosion urred, ending up with a big crater in the ground. Just from the sound of the explosion alone, many monsters stood up and looked at William as if they were looking at a worthy enemy.

    "Hmm¡­ They did indeed have strong defences," when the dust settled, William could see that most of the monsters still remained on their feet. Yet many got ugly looking wounds, with their strongly defencive fur stripped off like someone used a w to do it.

    "At least I got a few killed," William spotted three motionless bodies, "let''s see how you''ll execute this formation then."

    Just as he said this, the monsters remaining on the ground started to move. They didn''t go directly for him, instead they changed their stance, making another little formation.

    When William saw this, he didn''t hesitate and dashed towards the closest motionless body. Without any hesitation he released his one hundred flying weapons to hack that dead monster''s body through the ces of the deep wounds even before he arrived there.

    And when he got there, he found a glistering pale gold ball, one that was at least five times bigger than the monster cores he used to get before from his tiny world.

    "This is almost like the cores of the outer world, onlycking in a little bit," he muttered to himself before holding the ball and dashed a few times, getting away from the area of danger.

    He held high hopes for the world''s monsters now. If this core was one tenth of the might of the outer world''s cores, then he''d scored it big.

    He didn''t dare to use this core when the monsters were about tounch another attack. At the same time, monsters away from here started to send more groups to help their friends.

    William moved fast, didn''t head towards where Angelica and her team was. He went to another direction, and when he was safely away from danger, he started to cover up this orb with his blood.

    *Sizzle!*

    The moment he did this, he felt like he was thrown into an oven or something, surrounded byva and not air. He felt every cell in his body ache as if he was experiencing the most inhuman torture ever in the world.

    Yet this feeling soon faded away, and a magnificent feeling happened. Itsted for two minutes, before he returned to feel normal again.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Damn! A single core added almost one hundred spirit points¡­ That''s insane!" William suddenly turned towards the close by monsters. And right now, he didn''t hateing here.

    He felt like a fish thrown into the ocean, and he wanted nothing more than fighting and killing all the monsters in the world right now.

    "Time to add thousands of points to my spirit power," William knew the more he consumed these cores, the less the spirit power points he''d gain. And yet he didn''t think after killing tens of thousands of monsters here and absorbing their cores, he''d not gain thousands of spirit power in return.

    As he aimed to do it, he started to act more seriously than before. He continued to circle around the monsters, dashing for tens of times, stacking fifty, sixty, and even one hundred attacks each time. And with each hit, he''d retreat, redo it again and again.

    Monsters started to act more aggressive with him. Instead of just watching from afar or sending a few of their numbers, they started to work in teams of hundreds, each forming a grand formation, releasing torrents of deadly attacks one time after another.

    Their attacks weren''t any less dangerous than William''s, and many were even far stronger than his. William used his fast-moving technique to get away from the way of harm. Yet eventually he had to retreat from time to time to escape the encirclement enforced on him by these monsters.

    "Fighting intelligent monsters is indeed a pain¡­" he gulped his thirteenth elixir bottle. He was now consuming elixirs like running water. And yet he never regretted it even in the slightest.

    He didn''t let a single dead monster without cleaving its corpse and taking out his precious cores. He didn''t care that much about materials, despite knowing how truly valuable they were.

    He focused solely over the cores, and the monsters around didn''t give him enough time to collect anything else. He kept advancing and retreating, doing this for an entire day, before the monsters started to group in a fierce colossal formation that was formed out of tens of thousands of them.

    During this day, William killed and obtained hundreds of cores. It might seem a little, but he knew he''d gain thousands of spirit points by consuming them.

    Yet when he saw what these monsters were doing, he didn''t hesitate to turn around and started running. Angelica and her team were already on their toes, watching such a miraculous battle unfolding in front of their eyes with gaped open mouths out of their disbelief.

    They were the dwellers of this world and knew how fierce such monsters were. They watched many masters fight and hunt down these monsters, and yet they never saw something like this.

    In this world, masters who went to hunt down monsters were called Hunters. And they had to work inrge teams, using various methods like formations, potions, elixirs, weapons, and even explosive substances and deadly attacks. And yet they''d always be considered lucky if their gain was in two figures.

    Right now, and in front of Angelica and her people, they watched a single teenager fighting hordes of monsters alone, killing them without any restrain, ending up killing monsters in three figures.

 Chapter 781 Arriving At The Town

    On top of that he didn''t suffer a single wound, not even a scratch! To them, this was what real legend should look like.

    Yet when the monsters gathered up and made such colossal formation, they all felt a cold shiver down their backs. They heard rumours about a deadly attack that these monsters used to perform when they''d be pushed against a hard wall. Of course, Hunters or masters weren''t able to pull such a feat before, and they only saw such a thing in the grand and epic monster wars.

    Without a single moment of hesitation, they all started to run, just like how William did. At the same time, Angelica shouted to warn him, something that she didn''t need to do.

    *Rumble!*

    William and others had only five minutes to run, not enough to cross a few kilometres before the world suddenly rumbled from behind. They felt like a massive thunderstorm just hit this part of the world, and then a fierce gale of wind hit them hard, taking them in the air, flying for hundreds of metres away.

    "Hahahaha! It feels like old times, hahahaha!" Unlike the agonising Angelica and her team, William rolled on his back and startedughing in a weird way.

    In the outer world, many battles against fierce monsters would end up like this. And that made William quite excited. He already gulped a healing elixir just when the explosive rumbling noise erupted. That was why he looked much better than everyone else.

    Yet he was still feeling pain all over his body. He slowly stood up, looked around to see these monsters marching in unison, trying to close the gap with him and others.

    "Run! Don''ty down on the ground or you''ll die!" He repaid the kindness of Angelica by such a shout. As for himself, he didn''t stand on the ground for a single moment and started to run using his technique.

    He knew the monstersnded a fierce hit, but they also helped them all by throwing them away for hundreds of metres. Unlike fighting against small groups of monsters, the grand army of monsters had to slowly march forward to maintain their grand formation.

    It was expected for the humans to expand the distance between them and the monsters by the time passing. After two hours, the sight of these monsters vanished from the horizon, making everyone heave a sigh of relief.

    "You¡­ You are quite crazy; do you know that?!" When William joined Angelica and her team, she couldn''t help but point towards him with a finger and say this.

    "I just wanted to test monsters in this world," William shrugged, "and they are so-so."

    "So-so?!!! Did you hit your head or something?!!!" One of her team couldn''t control himself and shouted at William, and thetter simplyughed and ignored such remarks.

    "Are all monsters in this world like this?" William got what he needed, but he met with great danger when the monsters acted together as an army. It''d be bad for him if the monsters in this world were like this.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    From her he knew this wasn''t the normal case, but there were lots of such monsters in the world. As they grew up here, they knew which type of monsters they could hunt, and which they should evade.

    "Let''s go, my home is close by," after walking for two more days, meeting lots of monsters and evading them, they finally approached Angelica''s hometown.

    Angelica made sure that William wouldn''t do anything reckless like what he did before. Every time they met a group of monsters, William tried to go and fight them, to get stopped by the entire team.

    They gave him many reasons and information about these monsters, making him inwardly sigh and resign to their will. These monsters weren''t that dangerous if he dealt with them in small groups. Yet all the monsters he met were in tens of thousands, and they were all quite intelligent.

    They didn''t just use grand formations, but few could also change the terrain and bring hell over the world if they wanted to. William knew this was something unique for monsters in the outer world, strong and special ones. And that made him quite eager to kill more of them.

    "I have lots of cores already," he thought to himself while following Angelica and her team, "I''ll settle in that town and start devouring these cores first. Then I''ll find an excuse to head out and go to venture the world."

    William knew he had to find a way to deal with the most stressing and urgent problem he got now. It wasn''t to just go out from this world, but also to find a way to establish a portal to his tiny world.

    He wanted to establish not any portal, but one that he could totally control. He heard from Angelica about a grand library, one that wasn''t in their town but in a huge city that was thousands of kilometres away.

    William nned to go to Angelica''s town and rest there for a bit, gather more information, then he''d start heading towards that city. A library in such a unique world was a suitable ce to find answers and perhaps secrets as well.

    The town was indeed quite nearby. They walked for five more hours before William spotted twenty grand towers from far, looking like twenty spears rising up to the sky.

    It was already dusk time, and white fog was filling the entire world now. Seeing these towers made William change his viewpoints of the masters in this world.

    He took the wrong impression out of Angelica''s fear and doubt towards fighting monsters. He mistook them to be soft boned masters, ones who didn''t love to fight or seek power.

    Yet when he saw the town, got close to it and examined the grand and thick walls, therge number of masters walking around it in patrol, he knew they weren''t thatzy or weak.

 Chapter 782 Raising Spirit Power

    ?

    The town wasn''t as small as he imagined it to be. Instead, it spanned to cover up an area of tens of kilometres, even a hundred kilometres. He couldn''t see its end from his spot. And when he passed through the massive gates, he couldn''t help but ask what he had in mind.

    "We have to strengthen ourselves as the monster tides aren''t that easy to handle," Angelica said, pointed towards the twenty towers before adding, "thanks to these, we don''t only have a scary offensive might, but they can also spread out a thick shield to protect us from any attacks."

    "Hmm¡­ They look nice indeed," William wasn''t close to any of these towers, so he couldn''t get what tricks they got to do this. But he could tell they were connected torge formations built underneath the town, ones that could release a thick shield to protect this ce.

    When he passed the series of gates and walls, he found himself standing in front of a wide street, filled with tons of people, walking and chatting like nothing could endanger them.

    He didn''t like such an atmosphere and could already sniff how peaceful these people lived their lives. He sniffed the same vibe he found at Lara''s city, something that seemedmon at any grand and old ce like here.

    William followed Angelica into the town, where she led him towards a grandplex with lots of buildings and medium sized walls surrounding them.

    He learnt from her that all the ns inside the town had such aplex, acting like their home base. As for the rest of the town, it was filled withmon people, ones who didn''t belong to any n of the six.

    She wanted to let him meet her father, one of the elders at the n. But it seemed like all the big shots were out, seeking to save her from the ambush from the dark masters led by Edward.

    William learnt that the ce where Edward came from was a huge city, situated tens of thousands of kilometres away from here. ording to her, he was very adamant at marrying her without a proper reason except for falling in love.

    But William knew better. He knew the dark masters were never ones who''d let their hearts rule, but their interest and greed. As he sat his eyes over her, then he must have a good reason for doing this.

    As the big names in the n weren''t here, she led him to a big house where he''d live there until her father and uncles would return. William slept for an entire day and night, resting from all the exhaustion he suffered from in the past period.

    "Enjoying such a great meal from time to time won''t harm, right?" When he woke up, he found the table in the entrance hall filled with lots of delicious food. William ate and enjoyed himself to the brim, feeling how long it passed since he ate a proper meal like this.

    Beside the meal he found a note left by Angelica, notifying him that her n''s big names were still out and wouldn''t return until a week or soter.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William didn''t n to stay here for long. The first thing he had to do was to devour his cores, then he''d find himself out and head towards the nearby big city.

    He already memorised the map Angelica showed him before. The map wasn''t that detailed, but he made sure to memorise everything rted to the area he was going to travel towards.

    "Hmm¡­ The cores didn''t give me the same spirit points as I imagined¡­" After a few hours, he devoured the hundreds of cores he got. He expected to gain thousands of points, at least three thousand. But he ended up with only one thousand, a thing that he didn''t get the reason behind.

    He didn''t know that the cores in this world were like anything else and would lose spirit power the more they got stored away. Even ores would suffer from such fate, and that was why people in this world wouldn''t just store away materials they didn''t need forter.

    They''d just start looking for materials they needed the moment they needed them. The cores William collected ended up losing a huge part of spirit power stored within, ending up giving him little spirit power points in the end.

    If he used these cores the moment he gained them, then he''d have gained thousands of points like he expected. But now he ended up having one thousand only.

    "Better than nothing," even if he gained less than what he expected, William wasn''t that dejected. He knew if he had to gain such an amount of spirit power in the tiny world, he''d have to consume hundreds of dark gold cores, a thing that was literally impossible under normal circumstances.

    "Time to go out," William knew Angelica wanted him to meet her father and uncles so they could reward him. In his eyes, no reward could satisfy him, at least what they could offer.

    Instead of wasting time here, he went out during the night and started to sneak into the town''s streets. The town wasn''t as bustling and lively as when he saw it when he came here. But the streets were still filled with lots of people.

    William passed silently between the people, listening to discussion about various topics. Most of the discussions were speaking about the Hunterstest mission, gains, and sacrifices they had to offer to get the meat and materials needed for the town.

    William didn''t care about any of that. He knew from Angelica that Hunters of this world were having lots of difficulties securing tasks issued to them by customers. It was usually Artisans, Alchemists, or even merchants who''d issue such tasks for them in return for spirit crystals and other products like gears, potions, and arrays.

    In William''s eyes, this was like a mercenary group working to execute tasks in return for rewards.

 Chapter 783 The Gates Are Shut!

    ?

    William found his way easily towards the main gate he came from in the past day. Yet when he arrived there, he found it tightly closed.

    That wasn''t all, but the number of patrols over the walls grew exponentially, as if there was some sort of a big monster tideing or something.

    "What are you doing here?" and just as William stood in front of the tightly shut gates, a group of masters approached with weapons raised up, seemingly ready for battle at any given moment.

    "I want to go out," William answered casually, as if he didn''t notice the tension in the air or the more groups of masters looking in his direction, "but the gates are shut, and I can''t do it."

    "Howe you don''t know the rules of our world? At night, no one is allowed to go out, and the gates are shut! Who are you? Give me your name, the name of your n or family, the ce where you live in."

    "He is with me," and before William would respond to such a heavy interrogation, a voice came to startle everyone.

    "Angelica? Is he one of your n?" The leader of the group of guards turned to Angelica, and he seemed to feel a bit awkward.

    "He is a special guest to my n," Angelica walked calmly until she reached them. She didn''t spare the guards another nce, turned toward William and simply crossed her arms without saying a single word.

    "What?" William looked in an honest and innocent way towards her, "am I a prisoner or something?"

    "You are a special guest," she responded, in a tone that seemed to carry lots of usations towards William, "you need to wait until my n leaders are back."

    "For what?" William rolled his eyes, turned all of sudden towards the shut gates, pointed at them as he added, "masters shall not live inside shells like these. The world is our stage, our life, and the ce where we shall go out and adventure at all times."

    "..."

    His words came out of her expectations. She thought he''d find anyme excuse to justify what he was doing. "I want to go out, I have things to do. Without being impolite, meeting your family and n leaders won''t help me in anything."

    "You¡­" She and other guards seemed to be taken aback by what he said. And he didn''t wait for their response, turned around and headed towards the nearby stairs.

    "Keep your town''s gates shut, I''ll jump from the walls and walk away from here. Nice to meet you all, and hopefully we''ll meet again in better circumstances."

    William climbed the stairs without even looking back. All the eyes were focused on him, and soon enough he arrived at the top of the walls.

    There were a series of walls built around each other, with bridges connecting them, crossing the narrow gaps left in between each group of walls.

    When he arrived at the top, he found many more masters standing on patrol over there. He thought there were thousands, but he found tens of thousands. And that was a bit weird in his eyes.

    Yet he never stopped for a single moment, walked towards the closest bridge and crossed it. <novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Don''t dream about walking away without having me by your side," when he was just about to arrive at thest and outermost wall, he heard soft steps before the voice of Angelica came next.

    "It''s a free world," William shrugged, standing at the very edge of the walls, "but the ce I''m going to visit is far, too far away from here."

    "Let me guess, you n to visit the Blue Star city, right?"

    This was the name of the city William nned to visit. He looked at her as if he was looking at her for the first time.

    "You showed a special interest towards this city out of anything else I told you about," she smiled as if she was satisfied with exposing his intentions.

    "If you know, then whye?" William paused, "we are going far from home, and you seem pretty attached to this ce."

    "It''s my home, and I''m supposed to be attached to it," she harrumphed before adding, "but I never adventure this far away before. I know you are strong, even if you look young, you are quite strong."

    "Don''t expect me to be your bodyguard."

    "I''m sure I won''t need any," sheughed, took a stick out before she touched it on the side, released a circr stretch of silk, turning it into some sort of a weird umbre, "let''s go, I''ll race you down below."

    "Nothing can beat gravity," Williamughed before he simply jumped off the walls. She floated slowly using her umbre as if she was flying. As for him, he went directly towards the ground in an elerated manner. Midway though, he used his wind techniques, and gulped a healing elixir as well.

    The walls were at least two hundred metres in height. And that made such jump quite suicidal in Angelica''s eyes, in all the masters watching this weird show from the walls.

    But when Williamnded on the ground, stood up as if he got no harm or wound at all from such a jump, they all questioned what they saw, and many even rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

    "You sure are full of surprises," Angelica took a couple more minutes tond, yet she didn''t need to consume anything.

    "You have a nice toy," William motioned towards the umbre, "is it sold in the city?"

    "Anything is sold there," she looked around, seemingly a bit nervous about being out at night.

    "Don''t give me the impression this is your first time being out in the night," William rolled his eyes, "we travelled for days and walked during nighttime."

    "This is different," she seemed truly scared of something, "the areas around the towns and cities at night are far more dangerous than anywhere else in the world."

 Chapter 784 A Hellish Fight In The Night

    ?

    "I don''t get it," William felt puzzled by what she said. And soon enough he learnt about the things he didn''t know before.

    This world was indeed quite weird. The intelligent monsters here seemed to ce their interest over the towns and cities. It was a weird attitude, but William didn''t think much about it.

    If the monsters sat their gazes on something, they''d attack it relentlessly. Even if they were led by intelligent monsters, they''d end up forming a grand monster tide.

    But soon enough, William would realise how he greatly underestimated these monsters.

    "Damn! There is no end to them," once they walked away from the town for a few kilometres and things started to turn south for the two of them. William didn''t have an issue fighting monsters, but feeling like he was fighting against a monster tide was something else.

    He didn''t have much time to collect cores. The moment he''dunch one of his deadly attacks and more monsters would appear ande to ferociously attack him.

    He kept releasing one attack after another endlessly for long hours. He consumed lots of elixirs to keep doing this. And when the sun rays appeared, announcing the arrival of the morning, he finally could heave a sigh of relief.

    "You are indeed strong," from the side, Angelica just kept tagging along and did nothing but watch and run after him. She didn''t fight a lot, as William didn''t give any chance for her to do so. Not to mention she doubted if she attacked, she''d do any help at all.

    "Give me the damn cores and materials," but as William was doing the dirty work, he gave her the task of collecting cores and materials if possible.

    "There aren''t that many, just few hundreds," she tossed a ring to him, "I didn''t have much time to im more cores or materials."

    "It''s enough," William was sitting on the ground, in the middle of a grand forest. He didn''t know when they got here, and right now he was gasping for breaths, dying to sleep.

    "I warned you before, it''s quite dangerous to go out at night," she seemed to care about him, but she said these words while smiling as if she was finding his current situation a bit amusing.

    "I never expected things to turn out this way," he sighed, "monsters standing outside towns and cities, trying to hunt down anyone going in and out from these are weird."

    "This is just normal," she shrugged, "and don''t take it wrong, with such grand numbers around our town, a monster tide was expected to arrive in a few days."

    "And now?"

    "Thanks to you, it will take weeks for them to gather more monsters," sheughed, "you shall expect a handsome reward from my n and others."

    "I just want to rest," William took an exhaustion cleansing potion out and gulped its content, "don''t tell me it''s like this every night."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Only around towns and cities," she looked around, "we are inside the deste forest, a ce that''s known for many mysterious things happening at its core. Let''s evade that ce and circle around it."

    "What things?" William seemed a bit interested to hear more. And yet what she knew were bits and pieces of rumours and nothing much.

    She spoke about people going there and nevering back, rumours about hearing loud thunder explosions, rising of weird re of rays in the heart of starless nights, and even trembling of the ground around the core.

    She knew nothing concrete about that region. And William wanted to go and see what was in there, but he knew his current power wasn''t sufficient to do something like this.

    "Are we going to rest here till the night?" she looked at his exhausted state, and he shook his head while slowly standing up.

    "Let''s go," he already took a potion to cleanse his fatigue, and it started to work right away. It was enough to cleanse his physical exhaustion, but the mental stress was still there.

    As she said, monsters didn''t appear in the same way he suffered fromst night. They walked for hours, meeting a few groups of monsters, but William didn''t have the will or mind to kill or hunt any down.

    During their walk, he kept devouring a few cores from time to time. The devoured cores helped not only in increasing his spirit power, but to also relieve the mental stress he suffered.

    The forest was something that looked familiar to him. And that made him walk in a much better mood. The two rested every five hours for a half or so and kept walking like this even during the night.

    William made sure to review the map from time to time, making sure he wasn''t walking towards or close from any town or city.

    The forest expanded to cover a big area in the map, and that meant it was indeed vast. If he wanted to cross it from one end to another, he''d take at least a few months in doing so.

    But unlike what it was in the tiny world, the forest had few towns scattered along its vast course. William tried to evade any town, but in the end, he couldn''t evade everything.

    "These hills give me bad vibes," William was standing in front of a grand series of hills, one that reminded him of the dark masterirs in the tiny world he came from.

    He knew dark masters in this world, especially in this continent, didn''t need to hide or anything. But seeing the hills in front of him made him recall bad memories.

    "These are normal hills found in the forest," Angelica didn''t get why he got stirred by these hills, "they are just normal."

    She didn''t get why he acted like this, but she could already feel how vignt he was. And even with her words, she didn''t feel he got better or anything. Instead, he seemed to raise his vignce quite a bit.

 Chapter 785 Dark Masters Lair!

    ?

    William got his reasons. While she was trying to convince him that everything was alright, he spread his spirit sense and noticed the presence of monsters in the heart of these hills.

    "This reminds me of the Scarlet Bears," he didn''t recognise the type of the monsters in the heart of this ce. They looked like cats, big in size, with thick fur like foxes. He didn''t know what was with furs, but he cared more about how these monsters acted as if they were entrapped inside that ce.

    "Wait here," he didn''t want to carry a dead weight over his shoulders when he expected a big battle, "don''te forward, no matter what," he didn''t wait for her to say anything, and changed directly into his spirit form.

    Since he stepped into this world, and something seemed to stir up his dormant snake spirit. He didn''t know if this was a good or bad thing, but at least his fox spirit was now merging with the snake with each time he transformed.

    She watched him run forward, heading towards the hills without even adding another word or exining anything. He didn''t bother to exin anything and just went towards the hills.

    "The entrance is always well covered, but¡­" William already invaded lots of hills during the past five years with his guild, uprooting what remained hidden from the dark forces around the Scorching Lands area.

    He knew the right way to do it. Trying to look for the entrance by searching the hills wouldn''t do. It was much harder than finding a needle in a haystack. The right way to do it was by removing the ground and digging the entrance out.

    He had an earth element, but he didn''t n to waste his spirit power in doing it this way. It was better by using his attacks, and that would also add more damage to the hills and the bases hidden underneath them if there was any.

    William ran around one hill, stacking fifty attacks before releasing them. A fierce explosion urred, and with it lots of rubbles flew in the air, exposing a deep hole and with it a gap that appeared down there.

    "I found you," William mumbled when he saw the hole on the ground. It wasn''t big, but it was enough evidence to tell him this was air of dark masters.

    By habit he waited on the side, waited for the dark masters toe out and flood the world outside of their bases. Every single time he raided any of these dark bases, dark masters woulde out not only from the base he attacked but from all other bases as well.

    He prepared everything he got, his grenades, his flying weapons, and even prepared the ring filled with deadly offensive arrays. Yet in the end nothing happened.

    "What''s wrong here?!" William was puzzled by this. Not a single soul came out from the hole in front of him, not from any other hills around, "perhaps this is just an empty base¡­ Let me try other hills then."

    As he started to run deeper, he attacked and uncovered lots of bases. And yet he didn''t sniff a trace of a single dark master.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I need to go inside and see by myself," William didn''t question himself, knew he found a grandir of dark masters. But theck of his enemies made him quite unsettled. So, he didn''t hesitate and went inside thest base he just uncovered.

    The entrance was narrow at first, headed towards the bottom of the ground, before it slowly started to grow wider. After walking for almost half an hour, the tunnel started to expand exponentially, exposing a grand space underneath the hill.

    "This is indeed a base¡­ But why is it abandoned?" William could see lots of stuff at the ground, thrown out as if the people who lived here left in a hurry or something.

    When he examined these, the first thing he found was the thickyer of dust covering everything. There were lots of things thrown on the ground, covered with ayer of dust and rocks that covered most of their shapes.

    William could tell this ce wasn''t just abandoned in a hurry, but it seemed like it was copsing on those who used to live here. And that was something that added more puzzlement to him, instead of answers.

    "Wow! You discovered an ancient site, what luck!"

    Just when he was lost in solving this mystery, he heard Angelica''s voiceing from behind. He turned and gave her a stern look. "Didn''t I tell you to wait?"

    "There is no danger here," she seemed more interested and excited about this base. From the look on her face, jumping around and inspecting everything with such a big smile on her face, Wiliam got the impression of her finding a treasure trove.

    "Do you know what this ce is?" as hecked any intel, he had to ask.

    "Of course! You aren''t from here, so it''s expected you won''t know about this," she spoke without even looking at him, continuing to meddle with the thrown-out stuff everywhere.

    "And?" William waited for her to speak, but for a few minutes she kept picking things and cleaning them up as if she was looking for a gem or something.

    "Few hundred years ago, something big happened in our continent," she finally said, yet she didn''t stop what she was doing, "ording to records, a violent earthquake happened, not only one but a series of them. No one knew what caused the ground to shake, or what made it tremble for days. The result was for many hidden bases of the dark masters to get abandoned. And that marked the beginning of their crisis back then, the start of theirter uprising in our continent until ruling over it today."

    "Hmm¡­" William got what happened here atst. The entrances of the bases were tightly sealed and didn''t show any signs of breaking through or anything. In return, the ce inside looked like a mess.

 Chapter 786 The Black Scrolls

    ?Proxy Connection Failed!

    "So why are you acting this way?" William didn''t get this point yet, "I''m sure before leaving they took anything worthy. Besides, hundreds of years have passed, and that''s enough to ruin the most valuable things."

    "I''m looking for the ck Scrolls," she said as if she was speaking about something quite precious.

    William kept asking many questions until she finally responded and exined everything. The ck Scrolls were some sort of a legendary item, arge group of scrolls that held a great secret.

    ording to her, no one really knew what these scrolls had within their pages, or how many scrolls were out there. But any ck Scroll was worth a fortune in any auction house. And that exined why she acted like this.

    These scrolls were hidden inside the abandoned bases of the dark masters. When William doubted such a story, as ck masters should already be aware of any hidden base of theirs and wouldn''t let such valuable treasure to be left in the dust, she didn''t agree with him.

    "The ones who knew the entire map of the dark masters'' bases are gone a long time ago. Most of them died either when the ground came down over their heads, or when other masters hunted them down. The only few old ones who knew such information already purged the bases they knew about."

    "So¡­ That means it''s a gamble," William got what she meant. Many bases were already cleared from these scrolls, but others still got them. And she nodded in agreement, showing the same excitation over her face despite that.

    "A single scroll is worth the price of buying an entire city, can you believe that? Let''s look, let''s hope we''ll find one here."

    "Give me a clue at least," William didn''t like the idea of going around and looking for these scrolls in such a way, randomly.

    "They are always well hidden, releasing ck light from time to time like a beacon. Just looked around and examined every single piece here. Let''s hope luck is on our side, hahahaha!"

    In his eyes, she lost it! He watched her jump around like a monkey, picking things, cleaning them, examining them for a few seconds before throwing them away.

    He didn''t like how she was doing it. "Can''t we just use our spirit sense?" he finally spoke after ten minutes of watching such funny actions of her.

    "Tsk! Can''t you tell? I''m in the silver grade and can''t use it yet¡­ Wait a moment, you can use it, right?"

    When she realised this, she threw the cup she held and ran towards him, "please use your spirit sense, look for anything shining ck, please."

    "..."

    William didn''t care about any wealth, not in this world anyway. But as he was already here, he didn''t find it problematic to look for these scrolls.

    He spread his sense out, scanned kilometres of this base, looking for anything like what she described. The base was huge, spanning not only horizontally, but also vertically.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Any dark master base was built over arge stretch of tens of kilometres, constructed on different levels, and had many entrances on the ground, ones that were masked by these hills.

    Yet all the entrances led to the same ce, or cave. William spanned his spirit sense and looked around, carefully looking for anything shining ck for a few minutes.

    "It''s not here," he said while starting to move forward.

    "You didn''t take minutes to look for it, take more time, please," she looked at him as if he neglected his duties or anything.

    "It''s not me," he rolled his eyes, "the range of my spirit sense is quite limited. Let''s go, we need to move to other spots. This base is huge."

    "Cool," she hurried after him, while humming from time to time out of her excitement. He ignored her and focused on looking for these scrolls.

    For hours the two kept moving in this grand base, looking for these scrolls at all levels. But they didn''t get any result at all.

    "Let''s do it again," she persisted, "I''m sure a scroll is here."

    "What tells you so?" William rolled his eyes, "as you said it, many bases already got cleared from the scrolls. Not to mention not all the bases had such scrolls."

    "I can tell it, believe me, I have a good hunch about such things," her eyes sparkled with dreams of finding these scrolls, a thing that made William lose any trust in what she just said.

    "Fine! I''m going to ransack the entire ce until I find it!" she stomped the ground with her feet, acting like any naughty girl, before turning around and did exactly what she said.

    William watched her for an hour or so, before he decided to use this time and rest. "If such a valuable item is here, then it won''t be exposed to the public," he thought while resting, and then he started to recall the entire design of this base in his head.

    "The most likely ce to hide such an item is the ces where the leaders lived," William already had a ce in mind, one that was well secured with old traps that were ruined by time.

    Other than this ce, there were few others, but with less security than this one. William looked around using his spirit sense, and found Angelica still doing the futile, looking for the scrolls by picking piece by piece off the ground.

    "If this continues, she will remain here forever," he slowly stood up, and decided to examine the ce he had in mind first. If he found nothing there, he''d go to the other few ces with little security, then tell her he''d leave, and she''d be left alone here if she didn''te with him.

    As he walked towards that ce, he kept thinking about these scrolls, wondering about what type of secret they held, enough to let them get sold at such a scary price.

    A single scroll was worth the price of an entire city? That was crazy!

 Chapter 787 The Weird Ceiling

    ?

    William knew the buyers weren''t insane to throw away such wealth without having tons of gains in return.

    As he reached that ce, he decided to do everything he could to find such scrolls. He was curious about what kind of secrets they held and didn''t n to share his finding with Angelica and keep anything he''d find to himself.

    The ce he ended at was a secluded hall, one that spanned for hundreds of metres with only one entrance towards it. It was a tunnel, twisting right and left, up and down, filled with lots of useless traps.

    When he arrived, he found stones in the walls releasing faint light all over the ce. He didn''t care about any of this and focused over the ceiling and walls.

    "Long of time passed, and there are still unhealed cracks all over the ce," William examined everything using his spirit sense. And that was why he didn''t need light in the first ce.

    "If I was them, the first ce I''d hide such a thing in would be the ground," he shifted his eyes towards the dirty ground, "but if I used my devastating technique, things would go messy."

    He was worried about the stability of this ce. So he didn''t use his technique, and instead used his earth element techniques to dig the ground.

    It was indeed much slower, but it was safer. He kept digging probing holes, going down for tens of metres, yet didn''t find anything.

    When he finished, the ground that was filled with rocks and dust before turned to look like a beehive. William didn''t feel dejected and started to look at the walls and ceiling.

    "Walls can be a perfect ce to hide such an item, but I have to be extra careful when doing this¡­"

    He started to move around the walls, digging shallow holes there. He knew if anything was hidden there, it wouldn''t be that deep. He just needed to dig narrow holes, and if the scrolls were there, a ck light would emerge like what Angelica said.

    "Not here¡­" William worked for an hour or so but he didn''t get any result. He stopped in the middle of this ce, looked at the only spot that he didn''t yet look at, the ceiling.

    "This is going to be tricky," the ceiling was at least twenty metres high. In normal situations, any spirit master wouldn''t be able to reach there on his own. But with his spirit body, he could reach there if he jumped and dashed around.

    But that wasn''t what made him stand there motionless for a few minutes. He didn''t know if the ceiling was strong enough to endure his attacks and moves or not.

    "Screw it! I''ll use my flying weapons and stand away," he decided to not use his body to dig the ceiling and decided to bring it down using his weapons.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He expected a grand copse of the ceiling, so he retreated first and stood in the middle of the tunnel. He was ready to dash outside at any given sign of danger. As for digging the ce again, he intended to use his Holy Sword technique to do it if he needed to.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    Unlike what he expected, the moment his weapons hit the ceiling, he heard loud clunking noises. He didn''t hear any rocks falling, didn''t even see the copse that he expected.

    "I''ll infuse my earth element there," William cancelled his transformation before transforming into one tailed fox version. In this version, he could use a single element proficiently, and he decided to use the earth element to dig the ceiling.

    The moment he transformed, one tail appeared and wiggled behind him while two fox ears appeared on his head. In addition to that, his neck looked a bit elongated, and his waist grew thinner and taller like it was tubr in shape.

    William knew this was the result of the snake spirit getting activated as well. And he didn''t care about that for now. He used his earth element, infused it into his flying weapons, and heard the muffled bangs that erupted after doing this.

    His weapons now could tear down the ground on par with his deadly technique. And yet he didn''t feel the ceiling was getting damaged as he expected. In fact, it felt like something was resisting the strong earth element in his weapons, ending up with nothing much happening to the ceiling.

    He spread his spirit sense and watched what his weapons were doing. As he guessed, the ceiling looked intact with scratches here and there, but nothing deep appeared.

    "That ceiling is fortified with arrays," William''s eyes shone brightly when he realised this. If he decided to use his flying weapons, he did so, fearing the fall of the ceiling over his head. But now he recalled his weapons back, went inside and transformed into his three tailed version.

    He was big enough to touch the ceiling using his tails. It felt weirdly hot, as if some sort of power was running all the time inside that giant rock forming the sky over his head.

    "It''s supposed to handle the pressure of my attacks," William looked around, and knew it''d be quite challenging considering the tight space left for him to stack his attacks, "let me test you with a single and direct hit then¡­" *Boom!*

    As he expected, the hit hended using a single short dash towards the ceiling left a shallow indentation up there. Yet he could see fine cracks spreading, and the weird thing was that they only spread in all directions except one.

    "Going by logic, this spot shall be the one holding the great safe of this base," William repeated his weakened attacks, and with each hit more cracks spread until a circr gap appeared around a solid rock.

    When William used his tails to clear this rock, he found out it was formed out of a hot ore, one that emitted ck light not red.

 Chapter 788 Cracking The Ceiling

    ?

    William saw fine symbols scattered all over its surface, and that made him realise this was a heavily fortified safe. "I don''t recognise these symbols, but I can tell they are following a pattern that I''m familiar with¡­"

    William cancelled his transformation, stood in his ce motionless for a few minutes. He thought deeply about the pattern the symbols took, and eventually he recognised it.

    "It''s the Surging Ocean Wave Tidal formation¡­ Such a high sealing formation found in this world, in such a ce¡­ I''m sure there is something precious stored inside¡­"

    William knew this sealing formation and knew how to unseal it. "Oceanes, thend trembles, and blood flows¡­" he muttered these words before he took a sword out, cut his hand, and squeezed the blood out, "death follows, and life flourishes in the end¡­ Oceanes¡­"

    William kept repeating these words like they were some sort of praying or something. This was essential to activate the formation up there. And when he muttered these words five times, his blood that was dripping on the ground started to fly, moving against gravity, heading towards the ceiling in slow motion.

    This didn''t startle William as he knew that was going to happen if his guess was true. His blood rose up like rain falling upside down and headed towards that piece of ck rock up there.

    The moment the blood touched the rock, the symbols started to shine in faint red light. He knew the symbols were absorbing his blood, and then the seal would be unlocked.

    It might look simple, but he knew the challenge was in the amount of blood needed to do so. As he muttered and repeated the words over and over for the next hour, he had to reach a stage close to death before life would bloom again.

    He kept releasing his blood, refrained from using his spirit power or any potion or elixir to heal himself. He knew the trick was in getting exhausted, being drained out of blood, before finally unlocking the seal.

    As for his weakness, it''d be cured by the symbols sealing this rock once shattered. If he stopped midway, if he used a healing potion or elixir or even his spirit power, he''d end up getting a scary bacsh, one he doubted he''d be able to emerge unscathed from.

    One hour passed, and he felt like he drained all the blood he got in his body down to his bones. His body was now shaking violently, and yet he never stopped the wound on his hand.

    *Crack!*

    As if ss was getting shattered, he heard this muffled voice atst before it grew intense and louder. Then like a thick iceyer over a frozenke got shattered, he heard such a sound and felt like a flood of hot water fell on top of his head.

    It was hot, but it was quite refreshing. And it wasn''t water, but a weird liquid that was formed of his blood and other things that started to cure his body.

    He absorbed this liquid like a dried-up sponge, taking away anything falling over him and leaving not even a single drop behind.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He spent one hour cracking the seal, depleting his body during the period. But he regained hisposure and healed himself in the span of a few breaths. The moment he felt better, he opened his eyes, and a weird ck light shed inside them.

    "It didn''t just heal my body, but also helped in cleansing any impurities in my spirit power¡­ Fantastic!" he muttered when he felt how better he felt, how stronger he became after such experience.

    Then he raised his head to the ceiling, looking at what he paid such trouble to get. The ck rock was now gone, and instead a space was there, leading to something behind that didn''t appear from his point.

    "My spirit sense doesn''t work there? What''s hidden there exactly?" William tried to spread his spirit sense and get a glimpse of what was stored up there. Yet the moment his spirit sense reached the hole, it got crushed like it met its nemesis or something.

    William was feeling great, but he didn''t risk anything at the moment. He simply changed to his fox and snake form, used his flying weapons and sent them through this hole.

    "Let''s see if there is any trap inside," he softly muttered, while controlling his weapons to hit anything up there.

    He didn''t infuse them with any spirit power, didn''t arm them with any element or technique. He didn''t want to ruin anything of value stored up there, and only wanted to trigger any hidden trapid for intruders.

    But he was overreacting this time. After a few minutes, he didn''t feel like his weapons triggered anything. In return he heard many nging noisesing from up there, an indication of the presence of lots of treasure chests.

    "Time to check it then," the hole wasn''t enough for him to pass through in his current form. So, he controlled his tails, grabbed his body upwards, held the edges of the hole with his ws, before cancelling his transformation.

    Then he simply climbed the hole and arrived at a space that was a bit wider than what he imagined.

    "It''s the same size as the ce down below, or even slightly bigger," William went up there, took out shining bright ores and started to examine the ce he ended up at.

    It was indeed wider and more spacious than the space down below. And yet it felt crowded and narrow thanks to the lots of chests that were left on the ground.

    The ceiling was just five metres away from his head, almost two metres on top of each chest. The chests looked huge, heavy, and covered with thickyers of dust.

    Unlike anywhere else in the base, there weren''t any falling rocks or cracks, no sign of getting damaged or affected by the disaster that happened a long time ago.

 Chapter 789 The Origin Boxes

    ?

    "Time to see what all this is about," William turned towards the chests and started to open the first one. He wiped the dust off the cover of his chest, and what he found made him pause.

    There was a symbol on the lid, something engraved there, some sort of a flower, like a lotus or something.

    Even with all the dust and time passing, the symbol shone in bright silver light. The light emitted out from the symbol rose up and turned slowly ck until it turned into a pitch-ck thinyer of fog.

    He recognised this symbol. It was something that he once saw on an ancient scroll, speaking about some sort of a myth.

    "No f*cking way! It wasn''t a myth after all!!!" He stood in front of this box, moving his eyes from it towards other boxes around. In the next few minutes, he started to jump from one box to another, clearing the dust away, revealing the same symbol over the lids.

    "The Origin Boxes¡­ And there are an entire batch of them here¡­ Howe they are here? Howe they are real?!!"

    William instantly recalled what he read before in that scroll. It was one that was left by a formidable ancient spirit master, speaking about a time when the world was in a different state.

    ording to that man, the ancient world got berserk spirit power. Masters and monsters couldn''t train normally back then, and had to use a medium to absorb, store, and tame the spirit power from the world. Then masters and monsters could use these to train.

    These were orbs, in the size of one''s head. They were stored within heavy and specially made boxes, with a symbol that was identical to the one on top of these chests. The scroll didn''t speak a lot about these boxes, but the little description mentioned there matched what William found here.

    The scroll spoke more about how to use the orbs inside these boxes to train. Unlike whatmon sense would depict, one had to leave these chests intact and not open them. Or else fierce and deadly explosions would happen.

    "Don''t tell me what caused that disaster back then was for one of these dark masters to open such a box¡­" William got such a wild idea, one that was partially true.

    He didn''t know that these weren''t normal Origin Boxes, but ones that were connected together with some sort of a link. They used to belong to an ancient powerhouse, one who was afraid for his precious treasure to get stolen.

    So he made something and engraved some sort of a grand formation over the entire batch he had. What William found here was just the tip of the iceberg, and the rest of these boxes were scattered all over many dark master bases.

    As for how they ended up here, this was another story to tell for another time. William knew the right way to handle these boxes was by taking them away for now. To absorb their stored-up spirit power, one had to be in a safe and secluded ce.

    It was a long process that''d take time and effort to be done. Any interruption was quite deadly. It was just simr to how he handled the fox statue before. And unlike that statue, these boxes could be moved around inside rings.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William tried to store them inside a few of his rings, ending up for his rings to explode and get ruined. "So, one box per ring¡­ It''s my luck that I have tons of useless rings to use," William stored each box inside one ring, and that didn''t bring any damage to the rings.

    Then he stored these rings inside one, and kept it on his middle finger. He''d treat this ring quite specially from now on. And when he got done, he looked around, making sure he didn''t miss anything else.

    "I came here for the weird scrolls Angelica spoke about¡­ So where are they?" William knew he was now in the safest and most secretive ce in the entire base. If these scrolls were in this base, then they''d be here for sure.

    William looked around, but all he could find was just emptiness and dust, nothing else. "Don''t tell me there is another hidden safe here," this thought appeared all of sudden in his mind, and he couldn''t remove it easily from there.

    He started to inspect the ground first, looking for anything abnormal there. Yet he found nothing, and then he turned to the walls.

    He looked and found nothing as well. He used a detection array to help him locate anything hidden, and another array to detect abnormally high concentration of spirit power.

    "The ceiling is left again," as he found this hidden ce at the ceiling, he felt like the ceiling had another secretive space up there. And so he used his flying weapons, and this time the ceiling wasn''t that fortified.

    *Boom!*

    "Cough! Cough!" The moment he released his weapons, the ceiling shook and lots of rubbles and dust fell. Many rocks turned into dust, and that all fell over his head like torrents of rain.

    He ended up coughing and sneezing for a few minutes. The moment this happened, he stopped and recalled his flying weapons. But it was a bit toote.

    The ceiling didn''t show a hidden room or space, just fell on top of his head with tons of dust and crushed rocks. A thick bellow of dust cloud appeared and prevailed the entire space, taking longer time to slowly settle.

    Yet after he got adapted to the dust, stopped coughing and sneezing, his eyes stopped over something just a few metres away from him.

    It was something shining ck light, mixed with the flying fine dust particles that filled the entire ce. William couldn''t help but move towards it, feeling like his legs were walking in a shallowke that was formed out of dust and not water. He grabbed that item, and when he examined it, he found it was a scroll.

 Chapter 790 Running From Monsters

    ?

    The scroll was heavy, much heavier than the one he got from Sloth. It was also a bit bigger, looking as if it was made of metal and not paper.

    The scroll was at least the length of his arm, with a thickness of half a metre. The outer surface was covered with lots of fine drawings and writings, looking like they were engravings on it.

    William couldn''t tell what these drawings were, and he couldn''t open it. He tried to unfold it normally but failed, tried to forcibly crack it open and it didn''t work.

    *Knock!* *Knock!*

    He even held it as a stick and hit the ground with it, but it didn''t work as well. "How can it be opened?" William was eager to read its content, but he got no clue about how to do so.

    He felt Angelica knew the right way to open it, but he never nned to share this discovery with her. He knew this was the ck Scroll she was speaking about. And as he found one, he had high hopes to find more.

    He looked around but didn''t find another. "It seems only one scroll is saved in one base," he muttered to himself, before damaging more of the ceiling, hoping he''d find another hidden ce with another scroll or a different treasure.

    "Cough! Cough! That was a bad and worthless move, cough! Cough!" he coughed and sneezed while getting out from that hidden ce and returned to the ground.

    He damaged arge part of the rocks forming the ceiling and ended up with nothing except for tons of fine dust filling his nose and chest.

    It felt horrible, but he didn''t regret it too much. He knew he''d regret it more if there was another scroll or treasure and he missed it fearing harmless dust.

    William returned to the tunnel he came through, sealed it using his attacks, before thinking about his next move.

    He walked away, not towards Angelica, but towards the other little ces he spotted traps at. He wanted to ransack everything, loot whatever treasures here, before joining with the innocent girl.

    He did indeed find stuff there, but they were just formations and rare materials, rings and life storage items. He found tons of spirit crystals, gears which were now considered pretty much useless, besides scrolls speaking about lots of ancient stuff.

    There was lots of data about different things. William read randomly through these scrolls, found lots of old and worthless information there. Yet he found something that lit up his eyes.

    "There are detailed records of other dark master bases at that time," William''s eyes were shining with greed, as he knew how valuable this intel was.

    The scrolls speaking about these dark bases were mentioning dealings and transactions happening between this base and others. Not to mention other intel that was provided by spies belonging to this base.

    William never took the dark side to be thispetitive, always thinking they were a coherent force and united. But from these scrolls, he could already imagine how fierce the rivalry between dark forces were.

    William stored such valuable intel alongside other stuff before finally starting to look for Angelica. He already sealed any ce he ransacked and shut down any ess towards these.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    If she even grew suspicious and asked, and he greatly doubted this, he''d simplyy the me over the old and damaged base.

    "I''m fine, I''m fine, just let me continue looking¡­" When he arrived where he left her, he found her not too far away from that spot. She was still looking for the scroll, yet her face was covered with a thickyer of dust, one that looked as if her face got burnt or something.

    She looked miserable and seeing her like this made William try harder to convince her to drop such a task. Eventually, and after another day, she finally resigned to his words.

    Her zing will and excitement died down after a day. And she knew she''d take forever to look into this base and might even get nothing in the end.

    William let her rest for a few hours, taking a shower from a nearby pod of water he found in the base, before the two returned to the surface.

    "It''s nighttime again," William started to hate nights in this world.

    "We aren''t close to any town or city, so it''s impossible to meet lots of monsters¡­"

    *Roar!*

    Just before she''d continue her words, a loud roar came, followed by many others. "Damn! You jinxed us!" William turned towards the direction of these roars, spreading his spirit sense, "they are the monsters we found before, the ones lying in the middle of these hills. They areing for us! Run!"

    William didn''t find this coincidental at all. These monsters were already there for a long time, and they didn''t act when he dug the entrances of these bases out.

    They showed the first reaction, and one in such fierceness and aggressiveness, when he came out. His thoughts drifted towards the ck Scroll or the Origin Boxes he looted from the base.

    No matter what the reason was, he didn''t want to waste more time or effort on fighting these monsters. He was sure they were strong, something as scary as the Scarlet Bears in his world or close to them. So he ran, ran without a single moment of hesitation, and Angelica struggled to keep up.

    She was weaker than him, and he was running while being in his spirit body form.

    As he expected, these monsters were stirred up thanks to him. They didn''t move slowly like the intelligent monsters he fought against before, not trying to form an offensive grand formation or anything.

    Instead they looked like they were in a hectic race to reach him. That made him grab the breathless Angelica by one tail, and continue running using his dash technique.

    Angelica thought monsters would drop hunting them once they bypassed the hills zone. But William knew better.

 Chapter 791 The Hot Snow Area

    ?

    "Phew! This was indeed quite crazy!" The chasested for two nights and days straight. Monsters didn''t drop hunting until William jumped off a high edge cliff towards another one that was a few hundreds of metres apart.

    There was a river running deep down, and monsters couldn''t mimic what he just did. They had to take a longer route, going down the high cliff and finding a way to cross the river to the other side.

    This took long hours, during which William kept running away with Angelica until they were at a far and safe distance from their pursuers.

    "But they looked quite weird¡­ Monsters won''t act this stubborn until for a reason¡­" she gave William a look full of doubt and question, yet thetter acted innocent, as if he knew nothing about this.

    "Let''s rest here for the night," William found a cave inside a small hill in the forest, ending up clearing it and blocking its entrance and the area around with lots of arrays, "tomorrow we will continue travelling."

    "Sure, I''m deeply exhausted," she even yawned, and William didn''t know how he should respond to her words. He was the one who did all the work, the one who kept running and carrying her across all this distance.

    He didn''t sleep well as he kept worrying about these monsters catching up to them. He didn''t know if the Scroll or the boxes he had would spread a scent or anything for a vast distance, enough to lead the monsters to them or not.

    But eventually the morning came, and he spotted not a trace of these monsters anywhere around. They ate and then moved, travelling fast and swift towards their destination.

    They took two weeks to pass through the forest alone. Most of the time they spent was thanks to them evading the towns and cities in or around the forest.

    During which, the two of them grew closer to each other, learning more about their lives and pasts. William kept lots of things secret, but Angelica didn''t stop talking about her life, dreams, and everything she knew.

    As they got out from the forest, William was weed with a snowy white world.

    "It''s not cold, but ice is everywhere¡­" William stopped at the edge of this zone, feeling a bit weird from this bizarre scene.

    Behind him, avish green world of trees expanded. And in front, a white world of ice was there. Yet he didn''t feel any cold, and even he felt a bit warm.

    "This is the Hot Snow area," Angelica seemed to be surprised as him, and that made him feel a bit suspicious.

    "What''s wrong?" he asked, and she started to speak about this area. ording to her, this wasn''t a fixed area in the world, a zone that wasn''t normally here.

    The Hot Snow zone was a wandering area in this world, a phenomenon that appeared and disappeared without anyone realising why. "... This part should belong to a grand swarm area, with lots of rain and monsters hiding here. But this¡­"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    She spoke about how special this Hot Snow area was, how extremely dangerous it was.

    "We should evade it then," William didn''t want to waste his effort or time in such an area. But before he''d continued his words, he froze as the forest that spanned behind him vanished and got reced with a world of ice.

    "Sigh! Once the area appears in a ce, it will expand and engulf any living spirit within," Angelica sighed, "let''s go, we have no other choice but to find the exit and walk away from here."

    "Anything remarkable about this exit?" William asked, and just before he''d hear the answer, he spotted a group of monsters appearing from far away.

    They looked quite small with the naked eye, yet as he spread his spirit sense around, he could clearly see them.

    They were monkeys, like Scarlet Monkeys he used to kill before. Yet they were much bigger, with brown fur covering up their bodies, and one horning out from a few of their members'' heads.

    When they appeared, William focused on them as there was something weird happening there. They were in thousands, and they seemed to run around in panic, fearing what ce they got sucked into.

    Yet that wasn''t what attracted William''s attention, but the ground underneath their legs. He spotted many fine cracks spreading there, and soon enough the ground fell, and the entire group of monkeys fell into water.

    The moment the ground cracked, and the monkeys fell, William saw the water get turbulent as if something huge and fierce was moving down there. Then ayer of ice started to form out of thin air, covering up the water which got filled with lots of red colour.

    "You saw it, right?" Angelica didn''t have the spirit sense to see what happened to these monkeys, but she seemed to guess what they went through.

    "They just walked, cracked the ice underneath them, and ended up getting eaten by something¡­" William couldn''t see anything below the surface of that water, as if there was some sort of a thick curtain that blocked his senses there.

    "That''s the Nachies," she said in a tone that held lots of fear, "they live in the water under our feet, quite deadly and ferocious¡­ Once the ice cracks, we have to find a way to evade the hole that will follow, or else¡­"

    "I got it," William knew what she wanted to say. If they ended up cracking the ice and falling into the water, they''d suffer from the same fate as these monkeys.

    He looked back at the monkeys'' spot, and all that remained now was a thickyer of ice, looking a bit normal like any other ce, except for a faint redness that spread like spots here and there.

    William then spread his spirit sense around, scanning the ice surrounding him. There wasn''t a single signal on what was thin and what was safe ice.

 Chapter 792 Unveiling The Secret Of The Area

    ?

    "Don''t bother," Angelica from the side guessed what William was trying to do, "ording to the rumours spread about this area, no one can tell which ice would break next moment and which wouldn''t."

    "Then¡­"

    "We have to pray to be lucky," she paused, "and if¡­ If cracks appear, we have to move fast, getting away from the deadly hole that will follow."

    William didn''t like cing his life in the hands of luck, "then how can we look for this exit? Don''t tell me we have to be lucky to find it!"

    "Well¡­ The area with the densest redness, the ce with most of these Nachies is where the exit lies."

    "..." William looked again towards the area where these monkeys died, "do you know how we can kill any of these Nachies?"

    "You are the miracle making person," she bitterly smiled, "if you managed to kill one, then you''ll be the first to ever do such a thing."

    William didn''t dream about doing something like this. If these Nachies were on the surface, then he''d try his luck with them. But fighting underwater? He''d not grow insane and aim to do something like this.

    The first hour they started to walk slowly and with utmost care. They feared they''d break the ice with their weight, yet nothing happened.

    William then changed into his spirit form, giving Angelica a scare. He knew if anything went south, then he''d get forced to change into his heavy body shape. And so, he wanted to see if doing this would break the ice or what.

    But nothing happened, except for Angelica to run fast away from him. Yet when she did that, William noticed fine cracks spreading at the ice under her feet.

    "Watch out!" he instantly dashed forward, grabbed her by one tail and dragged her away from the area of danger. It was just fine cracks, not spreading over arge area or anything. And yet a hole appeared in the span of a few seconds, and the terrifying turbulent water appeared again.

    "Phew! That was close!" sheid herself on the ground, soaked entirely with cold sweat, "howe the ice broke under my feet and not under you?"

    "That''s indeed a bit weird," William paused, while watching the hole getting closed again by ice. Going by logic, his body was the heavier one and so cracks should appear where he was, not at where Angelica was.

    Yet when he was thinking about this weird happening, another hole appeared, then another, and another. He looked in weirdness before something strange appeared in his mind.

    "Let''s walk away slowly," he grabbed her using one tail, "don''t try to run, just walk normally."

    "This¡­"

    "Just do it!" his shout told her that something was wrong, and it was indeed. The holes that appeared hundreds of metres away from them weren''t random, they appeared and formed a long line from the ce where they moved from.

    William knew if he waited long enough, then the area he crossed would get filled with holes, including the spot they were lying on right now. Angelica didn''t get this, and kept walking like he told her, slowly, heading away for tens of metres from the area they were in.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "This¡­" after a few minutes, the series of holes reached the area they were at before. There were no cracks appearing at all, and holes just opened up without any warning. "What''s going on here?!!"

    She didn''t have the spirit sense to see the far away holes, but she noticed theck of cracks for the nearby holes. Yet she didn''t notice anything else, not like how William saw how this all happened.

    "So, it''s not rted to weight, but to the number of creatures walking on top of the ice¡­" William muttered to himself, while realising that he cracked the mechanism behind this.

    "If so¡­" as he learnt the secret behind the appearance of the deadly holes, he grew more courageous and daring, wanting to test something else.

    Without even hesitating, he took out a few grenades and threw them towards the series of holes that were tens of metres away from him.

    He wanted to see if he could kill or wound these Nachies, wanted to see the true nature of these creatures.

    "Walk away slowly," as he threw the grenades towards the holes, he said, "don''t run!"

    "We can try¡­"

    "Don''t run, ok?" William stressed again, and she got the message without realising the point behind doing so.

    As they started to walk away, the grenades exploded once they touched the water surface. William was watching everything using his spirit sense, and he noticed the water surface didn''t let the grenades fall inside like he expected.

    He felt like the surface of the water wasn''t made out of fluid but from a solid substance. The moment the explosion happened, pirs of fire erupted and expanded, engulfing the water zones that appeared from the holes, in addition to other areas covered with ice.

    "Is that¡­"

    "Just keep walking," William was totally focused on watching what was going to happen and didn''t want to disturb himself by exining things to Angelica right now.

    He felt like he was going to see something unbelievable, and that was indeed the case.

    The grenades exploded and released thick pirs of fire. William thought that ice would melt down, and most of the pir''s devastational effect would be lost in the water. Yet none of this happened.

    The ice didn''t melt, instead it showed many cracks. What was weird though was that these cracks seemed to appear from deep, not from the surface touching the fire.

    "What''s going on?" he muttered, and before he''d even continue his words, a terrifying rumble echoed from the direction of his grenades. Angelica stopped and looked at the direction of the pirs of fire, watching the scary rise of the water surface, cracking more ice around, showing something that didn''t resemble any water at all.

    "This isn''t water¡­ It''s a monster!" William got what was going on the moment water rose high in the air, taking a stable form, acting against what water should be.

 Chapter 793 Killing Water Monsters

    ?

    "That''s impossible! It''s water, can''t you see it?!!" from the side, Angelica couldn''t help but disagree with him.

    "Keep walking," William knew that trying to exin the obvious to her was futile. She said it herself; no one knew the true secrets of this ce.

    It did indeed look like water, but how this water acted was something that got no other exnation but being a monster.

    "A monster who has part of its body take the form of normal water is quite cunning¡­" he muttered while watching that bulk of water rising up to form some sort of a mushroom shaped solid creature. This creature shed fiercely against the fire pirs, and even with its surface looking like water, it couldn''t stop the fire and instead got lots of damage.

    William saw globules of water break apart from this creature and fall to the ground, ending up sshing on the ice and turning into a small lump of ice.

    He didn''t know if ice in the entire region came from dead creatures like these or not. But he was sure of one thing, this monster wasn''t immune to fire, could be damaged. And that meant it could be killed.

    "Keep walking, and don''t stop or turn to help me," William suddenly stopped walking forward, turned around and started to dash towards that creature.

    "Wait¡­" Angelica instantly panicked when she saw him do this. She imagined the worst and didn''t get what William could see using his spirit sense.

    This monster''s deadliest weapon was the ice and water trick. They weren''t walking over ake, but on the back of this monster, or an army of them.

    The moment he dashed forward using his technique, stacking attacks over his weapons and tails, the ice he passed over started to crack. He didn''t care, as he got the right way to handle these monsters.

    "I''ll use my grenades to lure it out, even using my explosive arrows as well¡­ As for taking these monsters down, it''s up to me and my techniques¡­"

    William could already see that creature or monster getting harmed by his pirs of fire, but it wasn''t enough to take it down. So, he decided to just use his grenades and explosive arrows to force these creatures out of the ice, then he''d deal with them using his technique.

    He did so as he didn''t know if this lump of water-like substance was the entire monster or just a piece of it. The worst-case scenario would be if the entire region was on the back of a single and colossal monster.

    If so, then he''d have to throw away the idea of fighting against this monster, change his strategy, and look directly for a way out.

    *Boom!*<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    He kept all these thoughts aside, dashed and stacked his attacks beforending fiercely over the monster. During which, he already released lots of explosive arrows, ending up exploding lots of the holes that appeared along the paths he crossed using his dashing technique.

    In Angelica''s eyes, he was doing something insane! He shed and kept moving fast, despite his giant body. Anywhere he passed over, holes appeared in the next few seconds without any warning.

    This happened all the time, without any cracks appearing, without him stepping on the ice except when he ended a dash and started another one.

    As he kept shing around, his tails started to shine, alongside the weapons held by the three tails. He also got a bow and lots of arrows out, threw them tond and explode over the holes he left behind.

    The world shook and trembled with lots of fierce chorus of explosions that seemed to go on for a long time. And when his arrows exploded, the water surface that appeared below the cracked ice started to tremble and then rise, forming a lump that wasn''t different from the one that appeared before.

    Right now, the world behind William was filled with lots of explosions, fire, and weird water shaped extensions that rose high in the air.

    From far, she thought as if she was watching seeds sprouting out and growing stumps, blue and not green. In the middle of all this, William was acting as if he was dancing, and then hended at the first lump that appeared before.

    The pirs of fireing out from his grenades were much fiercer andsted longer than the fire clouds that came out from the explosive arrows. But both were weak against the water lumps.

    Yet that all changed the moment Williamnded his sixty something stacked attacks over the first water lump. His attacknded and released a fierce gale of wind, followed by a massive explosion and a loud rumbling noise.

    That wasn''t on par with the fierce shaking that happened after the hit, alongside a clear deformation of the water lump. The attack William released was enough to leave behind tens of metres, even up to a hundred metres depth hole on the ground. But against this water lump, it felt like it caused fierce waves that messed with the water body.

    "Again!" William saw lots ofrge globules falling off and turning to ice. But the monster still had more than half of its body intact. It was suffering, showing waves and turbulence along its surface, not enough to break it apart as William desired.

    So he had to move again, sh around, before finally releasing another hit. During which he kept releasing more explosive arrows towards other water lumps, which were now in hundreds!

    It was something unbelievable for Angelica, yet she saw how William managed to tear down the water lump with his second attack. The moment itnded, the water shaped monster body crashed down and turned into a pile of ice.

    "This¡­ Is it a core?!" William noticed something shiny in the middle of the ice pile that was left behind from that water lump. When he grabbed it, he saw it wasn''t a regr shaped monster core, not in the shape of a perfect sphere like how monster cores looked like.

 Chapter 794 The Spiky Cores

    ?

    Instead, this one looked as if it was a star, with many needle-like extensionsing out from a diamond shaped central body. It was blue and white, with faint red spiky needlesing out from it. William looked in puzzlement towards this, before storing it away and turning towards the hole that was left behind by this monster.

    "At least every single water body is a separate monster," William knew this was something good, despite not knowing what this thing he got was. He examined the hole left behind, and this time it didn''t turn into ice as usual.

    "Fire in the hole," he shouted as he threw a grenade towards the hole, before starting to dash again and store more attacks over his tails and weapons.

    During the next few hours, he kept turning more water bodies into ice, amassing lots of spiky cores as he decided to call them. They all looked the same, with slightly different sizes and fine changes in the intensity of their colours.

    He didn''t have time to check what these things were as more water bodies came and appeared. The holes left behind by the dead monsters were like open gateways, letting lots of water bodies appear through them without the need for him to use any explosive arrows or grenades.

    The grenade he threw at the first hole exploded but did nothing. It passed through the water surface and sank deeply there before exploding, causing just more cracks to appear, expanding the hole to look like a small shore or something.

    He didn''t repeat what he did before as through that big hole, tens of water bodies kept rising from time to time. The more he killed these monsters, the more that appeared next.

    He noticed that monsters needed a few minutes at first to appear, then they started to take longer, ending up taking half an hour to appear.

    That meant it was either the number of monsters in this area were getting smaller, and he didn''t believe that. Or the monsters took longer to move from distant regions toe here.

    Angelica was shocked by what William was doing. She didn''t get what these spiky items left behind by the monsters meant. Yet it was obvious what was happening. She knew William was killing these monsters, doing the impossible again.

    Even when she saw him take down lots of monsters like this, she knew she couldn''t replicate any of what he was doing. She kept herself away from all this, only watching and cheering from the side.

    William was consuming spirit power like crazy, yet he didn''t care. He felt these spiky cores to be something quite special and valuable, something that he never saw before, not even in the outer world.

    He was confident that these monsters were in different grades of power, and he was just lucky so far to not meet something that he couldn''t handle, something strong enough to threaten his life.

    If he continued down this way, he''d end up meeting such scary folks at one point. Even if he knew this, he didn''t stop or slow down what he was doing. He wanted to kill as many monsters as he could, collect more spiky cores, before the big shots would pop up.

    As he expected, the scary monsters appeared after close to twelve hours. He already killed tons of monsters, ending up leaving lots of holes behind, and hills of ice that were left behind by the dead monsters.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "This is new," when the fiercest monsters appeared, they didn''t appear solo or in the same way other water body monsters did. First, they appeared in groups,ing out fromrge holes that each were at least ten times the normal holes.

    It felt like they broke directly through the ice, forming wider holes with lots of other normal and weaker monsters appearing with them as if they brought an army with them, or some sort of their royal guards.

    The size of each strong monster was many times the size of normal water monsters. And the colour of their bodies wasn''t blue, but pure red.

    William even saw thin silver lines running all over their bodies, giving them a scary look and formidable appearance.

    These ones got eyes, and a slit like mouths. They looked a bit humanoid, roaring the moment they appeared on the surface.

    "Time to leave," William knew he wouldn''t be a match to all these monsters. If there were few of them, then he''d try out his luck and get much higher-grade spiky cores. But there were tens of them, surrounding him from all directions.

    He knew if he dyed his leave, he''d get strangled here and would suffer a lot. So, the moment they appeared, he turned around, stopped what he was doing, even leaving behind a half away from the dead water monster, and made a run for his life.

    "Run!" William shouted at Angelica, and thetter felt his intense the current situation was.

    "Shouldn''t we walk?"

    "No time for that! The big shots are already here, and they''ll hunt us down no matter what!"

    As William expected, the moment he started running, these scary monsters began to chase after him. The ice didn''t look as if it was holding them down, and they simply crashed their way through ice as if they were swimming in water or something.

    They kept chasing William around, and thetter tried to run away from Angelica, yet they also chased her. So, he had to carry her using one of his tails, while he used his bow and arrows to release torrent of explosions behind.

    Unlike the normal monsters, it felt like fire wasn''t enough to cause any harm at all to these stronger monsters. William didn''t stop his arrows, aiming to slow down the army of normal monsters at least using fire.

    After a few hours of this hectic chase, William noticed othernd monsters being hunted and killed by new stronger monsters.

 Chapter 795 Stirring The Hornet Nest

    ?

    "I seem to stir the ho nest this time, hahahaha!" seeing the far distanced battles and new stronger monsters didn''t let him down. Instead, he felt more amused by such a situation, hoping to draw more monsters here.

    He knew the exit was where most of the monsters were. He also didn''t believe such an exit was movable and would follow monsters wherever they went.

    In return, the exit was fixed, like a portal or something. And the reason why the exit was where most of the monsters were, was thanks to their duty to protect it, nothing more, nothing less.

    So by drawing more monsters here, he''d leave the exit region here undefended. All he needed to do now was to look for this portal, and he got an idea about where it was.

    "The monsters took roughly twelve hours to arrive here, and they came mainly from one direction¡­ So, if I run towards that direction for hours, I''ll end up at this portal¡­" he muttered to himself, while his hands never stopped releasing arrows towards therge number of water shaped creatures hunting him down.

    His theory was right, but he had to spend more hours as more monsters blocked his path towards that direction the more distance he crossed. The pink spots sight was now getting old as he started to see it all over the ce.

    He knew if he listened to what Angelica mentioned, go towards the area of the portal leading out from here at first, then he''d end up suffering a lot under the hands of the monsters protecting it.

    That was why he tried to take monsters down, to learn of the right way to handle these beforeing here. And luckily for him, he didn''t just kill a lot, but also dragged the attention of far scarier and stronger monsters.

    Even with wasting more time in evading the blockage of monsters, William wasn''t stressed or pressured by any of this, not like Angelica. Thetter felt like her life was as a feather, getting pushed around by fierce wind in the middle of a thunderstorm.

    She kept screaming every time new monsters appeared and blocked their path, cried out and pleaded fate to show mercy on them. William grew used to this eventually, evenughing out from time to time over her shouts and pleas.

    The chase took more than twenty hours. During which William didn''t just dash around without killing more normal monsters that appeared in front of him. As long as these monsters weren''t the high-grade ones, he''d release the stacked attacks over them.

    He kept running and storing attacks, waiting for the right moment to release them. So, he added hundreds of spiky cores to his collection, and now he had thousands of them.

    "Here you are," when he arrived at his destination, he spotted a portal that appeared like a circle of wind in the middle of the ice. It was just big enough to let thousands of people pass through without getting crowded.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Damn! There are more monsters there!" Angelica shouted the moment she saw the hordes of water shaped monsters blocking their path towards the portal. The portal was less than three kilometres away, but the path towards there was already a deadly challenge.

    "At least they are all normal monsters," William spotted a few big ones in the middle of all this, yet they weren''t enough to threaten him, "hand tight, we are going to barge our way through them one way or another."

    "Wait¡­ There are thousands of them¡­" before she''d continue her screams, he already dashed forward. She got used to how speedy his movements were, yet she couldn''t help but feel bad the moment he moved towards the bulk of monsters holding the line and blocking their path forward.

    William didn''t have any other option but to break through such a blockade using pure might. He took out grenades and threw them at the front, while releasing lots of arrows as well to cover up his advance.

    At the same time, he kept his hand over his stored attacks and focused on evading the monsters using his dashs. The path he walked through was now filled with a raging sea of fire and loud rumbling explosions. And after dashing for a few times, he ended up releasing the attacks over the monsters, creating a massive fireball and a violent shockwave.

    He kept dashing and releasing his attacks without stacking any from this point onward. He wanted to reach the portal fast, faster than the arrival of the stronger monsters chasing him relentlessly from behind.

    He kept dashing, moving his tails right and left, throwing everything he had towards the densely packed monsters. And yet his advance speed seemed to get slowed down gradually, as his attackscked the devastative power of his stacked-up technique.

    The only thing that safeguarded him was the many explosions caused by his arrows and grenades. They weren''t enough to tear down the ice, but they were enough to stop the monsters and let them suffer.

    He had to walk at the end like he was pushing against a mountain or something. He took out his protective gears, and even so he started to get hurt. Even Angelica also suffered from a few wounds, alongside lots of screams that came out of fear rather than pain.

    "We are here," William struggled and persisted until he finally reached the portal. By then, he could see the fiercer monstersing closer from his location,ing in arge number of normal monsters, forming a grand and scary army.

    Yet this didn''t matter anymore. The moment he arrived at the portal, he dashed directly towards it, taking alongside him a few monsters using his free tails.

    He barged into the portal, feeling like he crashed into hotva. He saw the surface of the portal crack as if it was formed of ss or ice, shattered under his body, leading him into a clear world that felt like water.

 Chapter 796 A Problem With His Spirit

    ?

    Yet it was hot! Angelica kept screaming in panic, shouting out loud how hot this was.

    Before William would figure out what he''d do next, ignoring the screams of Angelica, he felt some sort of hidden force dragging his body down.

    "Is this normal?" William felt like light was getting dimmer the more he sank down. He tried to resist that force, but with no avail. He was like sinking in the depth of an ocean, without knowing how to swim, without oxygen to breath.

    He felt powerless, but as this was a portal, then there must be an end for it. William felt the pulling force getting fiercer the more he sank down, ending up seeing nothing at all but pitch darkness.

    Even Angelica whom he carried with his tail got eaten with the darkness.

    *Flop!*

    He felt like he fell from a pool into an ocean. Yet when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the ground, his spirit body form deactivated on its own, while Angelica was a few metres away from him, losing her consciousness.

    "What the heck was that?!" he stood up, to feel like his head mmed against a wall or something. He felt weirdly dizzy and had to take a spear out and use it as a stick to lean on.

    When he looked around, he found a forest, not thick and dense like usual, but with trees spread out in far distance.

    The ground was filled withvish green grass, and a small river ran just next to them. The ce looked perfect for a resting spot, one where he could have lunch, enjoy the sightseeing, without fearing anything.

    He spread his spirit sense, to see that he was indeed in a new and different forest than the one he was walking at before entering the Hot Snow world. The good news was that he didn''t see any monsters around. But the bad news was that he noticed the presence of a sentry tower, something that was unique for any big town or city.

    "It''s still midday," the moment he noticed this tower, he raised his head and looked at the sky. He wanted to make sure that there was enough time for him and Angelica to get as far away from here, before night would fall and monsters would flock to this area.

    He tried to start transforming into his fox-snake mixed body, ending up with nothing. A severe pain hit him, with something shining like a tattoo over his chest.

    It appeared even from underneath his cloak and armour. He hurriedly checked his chest, to find a weird shaped tattoo there, one that wasn''t there before.

    It was in the shape of water droplets, gathered together to form an arc, like a wave sshing out of the ocean. But there was no ocean, and it was hitting against his chest.

    The moment he used his spirit body, this tattoo shone again. This time William endured the pain, to examine what he got out of that ce.

    "What a nasty sealing technique this is¡­" he recognised parts of the seal he suffered from, "I don''t recall anythinging near my body, except¡­"<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    His mind froze when he thought about this. He turned his eyes towards the unconscious Angelica, with a crazy idea popping up in his mind.

    People in this world managed to get out of this ce before, yet no one seemed to suffer from such a seal. And that wasn''t because he was a special case, or things went worse for him, but because people in this world weren''t able to activate their spirit power to begin with.

    That made him think about something, about everyone in this world suffering from such a seal since the day of their birth. William wanted to examine her chest, but he stopped when he saw her moving her body a little.

    He decided to wait forter, asking her directly if she got such a seal or something. And for a reason, he felt like people of this world weren''t aware of such a thing.

    The tattoo seemed a bit vague when he didn''t activate his spirit body. When he did, the seal got activated, shining in bright light. He was thinking that such a seal wouldn''t appear without the master trying to activate his spirit body, a thing that none of the masters in this world learnt or knew how to do.

    "I need to go to that city''s grand library, perhaps I''ll find something that can help me¡­" he tried to break this seal, but he ended up suffering more thanks to that.

    Unlike what he decided before, he didn''t walk away from that sentry tower. Instead, he walked directly towards them. As long as he couldn''t use his spirit body, his fighting prowess got decreased by arge chunk.

    He wouldn''t risk fighting against mysterious enemies, monsters, wouldn''t risk adventuring the forest, without fixing this issue first.

    As for Angelica, he carried her on his back, acting as if the two were humans running for their lives, away from monsters.

    "What happened?"

    As William expected, the moment he drew closer from them, and they mistook him for a surviving master of fierce and hellish travel inside the forest.

    "We ran into monsters, hordes of them," William put a panicked face before adding, "my entire group, all of them died. This is my cousin; I couldn''t leave her behind¡­"

    William even shed a tear, adding more to his miserable looking state. And without any suspense, the safeguarding team bought what he just said, and started to escort him and Angelica towards a well secured road.

    During the few hours of travel, he learnt from the masters leading him about many things. And when he heard what they said, he couldn''t help but get genuinely shocked.

    He appeared at the outskirts of the same city he wanted to visit. ording to them, the Hot Snownd appeared here a few days ago, ending up vanishing just a few hours before he appeared.

 Chapter 797 Becoming Powerful For No Reason!

    ?

    This shocked William for many reasons. First, he crossed lots of distance until arriving here. Then it was the time issue.

    He didn''t know what date today was, what month or year. But from the words of these masters, he knew they spent more than what they felt.

    They spoke as if the Hot Snow areasted for days here. And that meant it moved from the ce they entered from to here, taking days, even weeks in doing so.

    He knew the reason behind its sudden disappearance was for him to pass through the exit. However, the process that seemed to take a few minutes took long hours in the real world.

    William knew they noticed the shock on his face, and he exined this by saying he was scared to end up in that terrifying ce. They bought his words, especially with his younger appearance and look.

    William knew this sentry tower was a warning systemid out by the city. It wasn''t the only one, and they all worked on watching the area for tens of kilometres, rming the city of any gathering of monsters nearby.

    They didn''t escort him just to make sure he wouldn''t lose his way, but to also ry the news about the presence of newly gathered monsters nearby. He knew his lie would be exposed by then, and yet he never showed any nervousness on his face.

    He knew it would look suspicious when the city''s strong masters would find nothing at the ce he''d point towards. And yet monsters were famous for their continuous movement.

    By the time the masters wouldn''t find anything in a grand area around the city, and that was unlikely as monsters used to roam around cities and towns, then he''d be gone from here.

    He came here to visit the grand library, then he''d return back from where he came from. He crossed lots of distance, ending up luckily at the ce he wanted to be. And yet he felt like he wasted more time than what it was supposed to take if he came here normally.

    "Time to see what''s wrong with everything," William finally got into a room inside the city. It was indeed a big and bustling city, not anyway smaller than the Novistic kingdom''s capital.

    The masters who apanied him left him in this building, which was three storey one, with a small garden around. They left to notify the higher ups about the news of monsters lurking around the city, and that gave him time to check on various things.

    The first thing he did was to examine Angelica. She was fine, only losing his consciousness, nothing serious in his eyes.

    Then he started to examine his spirit. "Wow! I gained one more thousand spirit power point out of nowhere!!!" he was shocked to discover this, and that wasn''t the only surprise he got from the spirit crystal he held in his hand.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    His spirit power was pale gold in colour, looking like fine gold dust scattered inside the crystal. Yet now it changed, with weird ck particles appearing in there.

    He counted every single speck inside using his spirit sense, and he realised that the additional one thousand spirit points came from these ck particles.

    "Where did theye from?" This was the main question he had in mind. He knew they weren''t part of his spirit power, and yet they merged perfectly with his spirit, taking the shape of a fox.

    It wasn''t a perfect fox now, as there were lots of signs of a snake as well. William got an answer for one of his questions, the one rted to the fate of the snake spirit after it woke up and merged with his fox.

    It seemed the merge was going on smoothly without much issue. He didn''t do anything at all, didn''t even find anyone to read the message left over his back for him by the ck fox. And yet seeing this happening was good news, the only one he got.

    When he saw the ck dots at first, he linked it to the seal that he suffered from. Yet when he looked closer, he found fine shackles appearing around the spirit power dots, seemingly limiting them or something.

    That meant whatever these ck dots were, they didn''t originate from the seal. Not to mention his spirit power got a boost, something that such a seal wouldn''t provide.

    One thousand spirit power wasn''t a small amount, and he knew that. He''d consume hundreds, even thousands of this world''s monster cores to get such an increase. And yet it happened without the need to do or devour anything.

    He didn''t know that the source of these ck spirit particles came from the portal he passed through. When he struggled back there, he ended up absorbing lots of spirit power in that portal.

    That portal was made entirely out of pure ck spirit power, so high and dense that just staying there for a few minutes was enough to raise up his spirit power by an entire thousand points.

    So even after spending hours in examining, running many tests, he ended up with nothing. This power seemed to merge fully with his and wasn''t doing anything bad so far. Yet he couldn''t help but wait for the moment when he''d remove this seal and see if it''d impact his spirit body or not.

    He then turned his attention towards the seal he had. He tried before to break it, but that was when he was in the middle of the forest. He didn''t have much time to test everything. And so, he started to use the entire house he was in,id out formations to break the seal.

    Yet the seal proved to be really stubborn. The most he did was to lessen its effects, enabling him to summon just one tail. Even with doing this, he had to exert lots of spirit power, almost two thirds of his, and the transformation wouldn''tst for more than one minute.

 Chapter 798 Gaining Few Spirit Points In The End

    ?

    "It''s better than nothing," William finally gave in, breaking the seal using his knowledge and formations. He tried almost everything he could form using materials he had. He even used few of the outer world materials, the ones he acquired from Lara''s city over years, remained after all his expenditure for all this time.

    "It''s time to see what these are for," William looked at the spiky cores he got out, spread over the ground, filling the entire living room inside the house.

    He knew one simple way to know what was special about these cores. They came from the special Hot Snow world. And so he had lots of expectations towards them.

    He sshed his blood over one core. Normally he''d find the core turning into dust, feeling the spirit power entering his body. Yet none of this happened. His blood just spread over the spikes, making him try this method again.

    "Weird¡­ This is the first time for the fox''s Devour ability to fail me," he muttered to himself while waiting for a few minutes on the side, without anything happening.

    "Do you need something else?" he asked, as if he was speaking with a sane person or something. He held the spiky core in his hand, tried to shake it, hoping something different would happen.

    As he was trying different things with this core, even to the extent of throwing it down to the ground, his hand got injured identally with the spikes. The spikes got inserted deeply in his hand, and then magic happened.

    The moment his hand got pierced with the spikes, lots of blood came out from him. This blood was different, as it was in the colour of his spirit power. It was pale gold with faint ckness within. And by this gush, he felt instantly weaker, almost falling to the ground, if not for supporting his body using his other hand.

    The one pierced with the spikes seemed like it didn''t listen to him anymore, didn''t belong to him. He tried to move it but failed. And as hended on his knees, leaning on the ground with one hand, he felt like he was this close from dying out.

    He caught his breath after a few stressful minutes, ones that seemed like an entire lifetime to him. When he got that breath in his lungs, he felt like all the weakness vanished.

    He didn''t see himself at these stressful moments. The spikes didn''t absorb his weird blood, but got melted down by it, turning with the blood into a thick veil of fog.

    The fog was pale gold and ck, totally covering him within. When he took a breath in, he sucked all this fog, something that was quite unbelievable, yet it happened.

    "This¡­" When he did that, he felt like his strength returned to him. It wasn''t the same, as he felt far stronger, a lot better than minutes ago.

    "It didn''t add anything to my spirit power tally," he tested his power again, ending up with no increase as he expected. He didn''t even gain a single spirit power point,

    "But I feel stronger¡­ Somehow¡­" he tested himself again after an hour, and yet nothing changed. His spirit power points were the same, not showing a single increase or anything. As for his spirit, or spirits, they looked the same.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Yet when he left the crystal for a longer time than usual, he noticed something shimmering deep down his spirits. "What is that?!" he had a wild guess in his mind but had to better inspect that weird ck sh of light that appeared for a few seconds in the heart of his spirits.

    When it happened for the tenth time, he was sure of it. "A spirit fusion¡­ these cores instigated a spirit fusion of my spirits¡­ Wow!"

    He now realised why he felt stronger. It wasn''t a quantitative leap, instead it was a qualitative one.

    His spirit changed and got purified, climbing a grand step towards perfection. He didn''t know what the end spirit would be, would it be a fox? A snake? Or a dog? Or a mixture of them?

    "I hope it''ll end up being a dragon," he recalled Berry and couldn''t help butugh at this ironic twist in fate.

    He always envied her for her spirit fusion gift. It was something that wouldn''t show much effect at lower grades. But the higher she''d climb, the stronger she''d be.

    He looked at his ring, and there he found thousands of these cores lying there. "I wonder what will happen after consuming all of them¡­"

    He started to devour one core after another. With each time the spikes pierced his hand, he ended up having the same weird situation, where he''d lose control over his hand, and feel weak as hell for a minute or two.

    The more he used these cores, the longer this periodsted. "Damn! I can''t go on like this¡­" after devouring the one hundredth core, he had to stop, panting for breaths, "thest one took almost an hour¡­ This is insane!"

    Thest few cores were really challenging to devour. He tried to consume healing and spirit power regeneration elixirs, with no avail.

    It seemed like this weakness was something that he had to pass through without any way to deal with it. He had to endure, and after spending thest hour suffering like this, he knew the next time he might lose his life if he continued to do it.

    "I''ll devour the cores I have then train," William started to absorb the cores he umted so far from adventuring this world, and yet the result was quite disappointing.

    He stored these cores for a long time already. And most of the power stored within these cores is already gone. So, it was expected that he got a couple hundred points at the end.

    "At least I''m at seven thousand and half points now¡­" he felt like fate was toying with him. At a point, he''d gain a hundred points per a single core. And at other times, he''d gain just one hundred out of hundreds of cores.

 Chapter 799 Tara!

    ?

    As William got such a disappointing result, he started to train over his different techniques. He spent an entire day training before Angelica finally woke up.

    "What? You want to see my body?!!!" As she woke up, William first checked her up and made sure nothing was wrong with her. Then he spoke with her about his desire.

    "Don''t take me wrong," he rolled his eyes. A weird thought shed in his mind when he saw her retreat away from him as if he was a monster or something.

    He imagined his girls, Berry, Sara, Ro, and others, watching him at this moment. The look he imagined seeing on their faces made himugh against his will.

    "Look, I got this thing after we got out," he started to strip off and remove his cloak and then armour around his chest.

    "Stop it you monster!" she blushed, couldn''t help but turn her face away, covering it with both hands.

    "Just look, I got this thing, and it prevents me from using my spirit body," he felt a bit helpless here. And yet he needed to check if she and others also had such a thing on their bodies.

    "For real?" she slightly turned around, pushed a finger slightly away, letting a thin slit of a hole for her eyes to see through.

    "Just watch¡­" William knew that tattoo was faint and hard to see without stirring up his spirit. He didn''t change into one tail form but tried to turn into three tails form.

    When he tried this, the tattoo shone brighter, and he felt pain. "This¡­" and yet that was enough to make her understand what he was trying to tell her.

    She finally got the courage to turn around, and even came closer and inspected that tattoo.

    "See? I just tried to transform into my fox spirit body, and this is the result I got, nothing but pain and this tattoo shining¡­ What the hell are you doing?!! That tinkle¡­"

    While he was speaking, trying to exin the situation over, she stretched out one hand, and started to touch his chest with her fingers.

    Under her soft touch, he couldn''t help but feel the urge tough. "These muscles¡­ I never thought you have such a sturdy body underneath such an innocent look of yours¡­" and as if she was under a spell or something, she softly muttered while her fingers never stopped touching his chest.

    "Stop it! We aren''t fooling arou¡­"

    "Oh, I might havee at the wrong time¡­"

    Just while he was midway in his words, a new face appeared from the direction of the door. She was a youngdy, very beautiful, especially with such redness that appeared on her face the moment she saw the scene in front of her.

    William and Angelica froze in their ce, exchanged silent nces for a few seconds, before Angelica hurriedly moved away, turned around, and buried her face in her hands again.

    "Who are you?" William didn''t feel the same embarrassment as Angelica, turned to face the newdy and asked, while crossing his arms.

    "Ahem¡­ Can you at least¡­ You know¡­" thedy seemed to struggle to say the proper sentence, and she got the right for that.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    As William crossed his arms, his masculine chest and arms got enhanced by an entire level. He looked at her, then at himself, before dressing up again.

    "You didn''t say who you are," he said after wearing his armour and cloak, "and what are you doing here? How did youe here in the first ce?"

    Thedy had a long purple ponytail, with amazing pure faint blue eyes and nice features. She looked young, and yet she exuded an aura of being someone who used to lead others.

    William got the impression that she was a real fighter, one who didn''t distance herself away from the bloody battlefields even with her nice looks.

    "I''m Tara, the leading general of the scout forces of the city," she introduced herself, and she came from the same background as William expected.

    "I see why you are here," William knew he took long enough for the higher ups of this city to make up their minds about him, "but¡­"

    "I have ess to any ce inside the city," she waved her long ponytail using her left hand, "so don''t take it personal, it''s somethingmon here."

    ¡¤?¦Èm "I don''t like my ce to be essed by others without my permission," William knew she came at the wrong moment, but it would be much worse if she came while he was training or devouring cores.

    "As I said, it''smon here," she didn''t feel any guilt or anything, simply looked back in a calm way towards William, "anyway, you won''t stay here for long. So don''t get used to this."

    "Why?"

    "You wille with me," she turned around, as if she used to spread orders and not wait for any answer butpliance.

    "Who said I''ll follow you?" William crossed his arms, knowing what she wanted him to do. And yet he feigned ignorance as he added, "and what do you need me to do?"

    "You provided valuable intel about monsters gathering up near here," she paused, and before she''d continued, Angelica finally got over her embarrassment.

    "Where is here?"

    Angelica was unconscious when they arrived here. And so she didn''t know that they arrived in the same city they wanted to reach out of pure coincidence.

    William just gave her a warning nce, before he''d exined the story he provided before. He said everything while keeping a focused eye over her, so she wouldn''t expose his lie in front of Tara.

    Thetter took his actions and attitude as care towards his cousin. And so she remained silent, didn''t care about how he kept speaking and repeating the same story she already heard from the guards who apanied him here.

    Angelica on the other side was feeling puzzled. She knew most of what William said was false, and for a reason he warned her against saying anything to expose this.

 Chapter 800 You Need Contribution Points

    ?

    So, Angelica simply nodded, and Tara took her expression as a form of surprise from such a twist in fate. Angelica was quite surprised, by how they ended here out of the blue, and by William''s lies.

    "See? She needs time to rest," William used this awkward moment and turned it to his favour, "we can''t leave, as if we can help in the first ce. We don''t know the city, don''t know the areas around."

    "Don''t worry about that, I already amassed arge team, one which is experienced in the entire region¡­"

    "That won''t do," William waved his arm, as if she was saying something insane, "we travelled during night, and I had to run for a long time without knowing anything about the terrain or the areas I passed through. I only cared about saving my life and hers, I didn''t care about anything else to be honest."

    "This¡­"

    "I can describe areas that I passed through," he paused, "if you give me a detailed map, I can try to recall anything useful and mark things out for you. Other than this, I can''t help."

    "..."

    Tara never expected such a response from William. She always spread orders, and everyone else would follow what she said down to the letter.

    "So, will you take out a map and give me time to study it or what?" William knew he countered what she nned and gave her no other option.

    "Tsk! And you look like a good youth moments ago," she shook her head, as if she got disappointed in him or something, "here, try to recall as long as you want. I will stick by your side and won''t leave it from now on."

    "This¡­" William gave her a weird look, "don''t you have anything else to do? Like leading your forces, looking for monsters?"

    "No," she took out a big scroll, went towards the nearest chair and sat on it, "the city forces can be led by anyone else. I have no interest in going out today."

    "..."

    William watched her unfold the scroll with a big smile of victory on her face.

    "You know that I can kick you out."

    "I can get in here anytime I want; nothing can stop me from doing this," she winked, and he put on a long face.

    "I can force you to stay away from here¡­"

    "No need to threaten me," sheughed, "I don''t know how strong you are, but you can''t be at dark gold grade like me. And even if you have any tricks, I can simply call on my guards, and you won''t stand a chance against them."

    "..."

    "Just ept it, I will stick to your side for a long time," William didn''t know if he was a ma for troublesome girls or not. But at least they were all hot. "Come and check this out, this is the region you came from¡­ Ring any bells?"

    She acted with him as if she was dealing with a kid. William didn''t move a muscle, simply spread his spirit sense around and examined the map.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "There is a blue mountain there, and arge area of swarms¡­ I recall passing over the two."

    "Hmm¡­ At least a gold grade, nice achievement considering your age," she chuckled, withoutmenting on what he just said, "how about you? Do you recall seeing anything? Want to check the map?" she turned to Angelica, and thetter felt instant panic.

    She uncontrobly turned to William, a move that made Tara a bit suspicious. Yet William''s calm smile made all doubts vanish.

    "She was unconscious, and as you can see, she feels lost. Don''t expect anything from someone who recalls brutal scenes and bloody memories before cking out."

    "I see," his reasons were quite convincing, and she didn''t hold any doubt anymore.

    "Don''t you need to go and ry such news?" William wanted to kick Tara away, have little time with Angelica so he''d exin things over and let her know what was going on.

    "No need," yet Tara seemed to be vexed on staying by his side, took a Message Paper out, and started rying the little intel he provided to her team, "I''m sure you''ll recall more information the more you studied this map. So it''s better to remain by your side."

    William didn''t have any choice but to ept her annoying presence by his side. As she decided to stick around, he didn''t hide his desire and announced it after a few hours and a nice meal.

    ¡¤?¦Èm "I heard about a grand library in the city," he and the other two girls were now sitting on the second floor, enjoying the sightseeing of the city at night in a big balcony there.

    "There is indeed one," Tara paused, "in fact there are more than one. There is one for the public, one for the high officials and generals, and one for the royal families owning and ruling the city."

    "It''d be great if you let me in all of them."

    "Oh, for what?" she seemed interested in what he wanted to do, "these ces are dull and boring."

    "I love reading," he put on the air of a schr, despite he never looked like one, "and any ce I go in the world I visit the libraries there."

    "Hmm¡­ Themon library is easy to ess. As for the generals and high officials'' library, you''ll need to make contributions first and then I''ll take you there myself."

    "Contributions? I just gave you viable intel," William faked his ignorance about what she really meant.

    "This intel? It''s not considered a contribution," she rolled her eyes, and he knew she was also faking this.

    She wanted to know more from him, and he wouldn''t say anything about how he ended up here. As for Angelica, she kept her silence, watching the hidden sh between these two from the side without intending to take part in any of that.

    "What''s considered contribution then?"

    "Giving more intel¡­"

    "Don''t ask me the impossible."

 Chapter 801 The Common Library

    ?

    William instantly interrupted her words, "Tell me what else I can do, things that any master can do."

    "There are lots of things, but they will give little to none at the end," she tried to convince him to expose more of his origins and the knowledge he knew about monsters around the city, and yet she failed.

    The two were like cunning foxes, knowing what each other wanted, and didn''t let the other have what he wanted.

    Yet in the end, she had to sumb to his wish, and finally told him about other ways to gain contribution points.

    "Add any new knowledge to the city? Prove one''s worth in Alchemy and Forging? Easy peasy¡­" The look on William''s face told Tara that he wouldn''t suffer from this challenge.

    "Do you know of things we don''t? I can hardly believe it!!"

    "Let me in themon library first," William didn''t exin anything, "and then I''ll start amassing contribution points like dropping rain, hahahaha!"

    "..."

    Tara didn''t say much and led William and Angelica towards themon library. The library was big in size, making the one he visited before at the academy greatly pale inparison.

    The library was divided into five main buildings, each was at least five times the size of the Aspire academy''s library, or even more. Each building had scrolls about one field of knowledge, including Training manuals, techniques, forms, blueprints, and arrays.

    "There is nothing rted to the world''s history and knowledge?" William stood in front of the main five buildings, feeling a bit disappointed.

    "You have to go to the higher library to read such scrolls," Tara gave William a look of interest, "here is everything any master will dream about. What do you need the scrolls speaking about the known history of the world for?"

    "Just an addiction of mine," William didn''t give any information about his real intentions. Instead, he turned to the five buildings, showed azy look, "after going through all this, what shall I do to get contribution points?"

    "You need to apply for an audition," Tara paused, "the strongest and deeply resourceful masters will listen to what you have to say. But I have to warn you, these people aren''t that free to allow for anyone to waste their time. So¡­"

    "Don''t worry, I''m not fooling around or have any suicidal wishes," William knew what she wanted to warn him about. Even if she acted a bit hostile to him, sceptical about what he said and hid from her and others, she still had a good heart.

    He then stayed inside the library for an entire week. He ate and slept there, making everyone visiting the library feeling a bit admiration towards him.

    The library here was much different than the one he visited before at his academy. It wasn''t deserted, filled with a crowd of people who came here to study and learn, and get stronger by the vast knowledge stored here.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    Unlike what William expected, the library didn''t have any mysteries at all. The scrolls were all easily understood, written inmonnguage, one that he could read. The scrolls spoke aboutmon things, either training manuals and techniques, or forging and concocting methods.

    William noticed that the level of knowledge in these scrolls wasn''t half bad. This world was like a middle stage between any tiny world and the outer one. It felt like lots of knowledge passed from the outer world to here.

    ¡¤?¦Èm "But theyck a lot of fine details¡­ It sounds like parts of the initial scrolls arrived here, and the masters of this world tried to make up for what the scrolls missed¡­"

    He found lots of gaps, areas where he could modify and upgrade the level of these scrolls without much effort. Yet he didn''t intend to do much, just enough to let him check the other library.

    He wanted to find scrolls speaking about secrets rted to this world, find hidden and unknown ways to get out from here and go back to his world.

    He was sure there must be a way, as any connection between worlds was built in a two-way direction. Thest thing he wanted to do was to go back to the ce he arrived at first, face such scary monsters to find a way out of here.

    "I''m ready," after one week, and as Angelica and Tara kept tagging along without saying much to him, he finally stopped checking scrolls like crazy and turned to them, exposing his desire for getting through that audition thing.

    The two girls were interested about what William wanted to do first. They kept watching him in interest and focus during the first day, butter on they started to lose such interest.

    William was doing the same thing over and over like a machine. He took out one scroll after another, read through its content for a few seconds, before dropping it and picking another one.

    He didn''t say a single word, didn''t show any expression on his face but pure focus and weird calmness.

    Tara knew how vast the knowledge stored within this library was. She never heard of someone who was able to go through all the content of this ce like this.

    At first, she thought William was trying to put on a show, acting as any arrogant teenager would do, refusing to acknowledge hiscking and wanting to get what he wanted despite being unable or unworthy of it.

    Yet William''s persistence and confidence made her feel puzzled at first, then very curious about what he was going to do.

    "Are you sure? Once applying, you can''t go back on this¡­"

    "Just apply for it for me," William was exhausted, wanting a few hours of rest. But he also wanted to get rid of this. He wasted lots of time in the library, wasted unknown time in that Hot Snow weird world.

    He didn''t know if his friends and team were ok or not. But as he didn''t receive anything from Sloth for all this time, he knew there wasn''t anything wrong so far.

 Chapter 802 The Challening Audition

    ?

    William didn''t get any chance to send messages over as Tara never left his side. Thisdy was indeed persistent and didn''t even leave to check over the ongoing mission of her team.

    William wanted to ask if they found anything, but he refrained from doing so. He knew he made things up, and if he was lucky, then the team sent out would find traces of monsters in one of the two regions he pointed at before.

    He selected these two ces as they were the farthest away from the city. If the city forces were this vignt and looking for monsters all the time, then the areas around it would be all empty and void of monsters.

    As for the end result of this search mission, he didn''t care about any. He was going to amass lots of contribution points, enough to let him into the next higher-level library.

    "I''ll send the message then," she didn''t leave as he expected, took a Message Paper out, and ryed the request for an audition under William''s name to whoever was on the other side.

    She remained silent for a few minutes before her face slightly changed. "What''s wrong?" Angelica befriended Tara during the past week, and the two exchanged lots of talks and shared lots of their life events.

    William heard all of what the two were speaking about, and he didn''t try to stop Angelica from telling Tara lots of things about her origins.

    Angelica was from this world, and so it''d add anotheryer of credibility for him in Tara''s eyes.

    "Well¡­ It seems your luck is running thin," Tara gave William a serious look, "there are groups of elders designed for each audition, all formed out of seven members. They are well versed about the five aspects of knowledge in the library."

    "Then?" William didn''t find any surprise about this. He was going to exin his theories, and there must be well knowledgeable people who''d test these out.

    "Out of all these groups, there is one who is very infamous in the entire city," Tara paused, while her face showed a conflicted expression, "each audition group is known for the number of people they gave them credit and epted their contribution. It''s a percentage, and the standard one is around twenty percent."

    "And this group? What''s their overall eptance ratio?"

    "Zero!"

    William already expected this group of elders'' ratio to be low, yet it was indeed the lowest percentage anyone could have.

    "They never let anyone pass? Not even one?!" William was surprised by this. Even if it was hard to add new knowledge, one that was unknown for these elders, it was still impossible for no one to add something new.

    "They¡­ They have high standards for their assessment," she sighed, "any other group will just ask you to add something new. No matter how trivial it was, you''ll end up getting contribution points in the end. Yet this group¡­ They are called Demons for a reason, right?"

    "You know them, not me," William shrugged, and she sighed again, in a tiring tone this time.

    "They''ll ask you to add something that wasn''t just new, but it''ll help to introduce an entire method to their knowledge. Just trying to improve something existing doesn''t qualify in their eyes as something worthy of rewarding."

    "Oh, they are interesting¡­"

    "They are demons," Tara paused, seemingly hesitating about something, "I once tried to apply for a promotion, ending up falling in their roster. I suffered a lot, didn''t score anything and had to remain where I am."<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "I see you aren''t living a bad life though," Angelica felt her new friend''s pain, and tried to console her by saying such supportive words.

    "All my friends at my age and current level of power got promoted, all but me thanks to them¡­ They are demons!"

    "..." Angelica didn''t find any suitable word to support her friend.

    "Don''t worry, I''m going to give them a punch in the face," William joked, while taking the entire situation as a joke.

    "They are all dark gold grade masters, ones at the high and pinnacle of it!" Tara didn''t get the joke he cracked, and that made him simply smile.

    "When is it starting?" he jumped over this point, as he never cared about who his testers were.

    He was ready to face anyone. As for the strict conditions of these elders, he knew he was able to impress them.

    "In an hour," she looked at him, "if you want, you don''t have to show up there."

    "You said it yourself; I can''t retreat once applying, right?"

    "Yes, but as failure is guaranteed, why add embarrassment as well?"

    "Don''t say such bad omen words in front of my face like this," William rolled his eyes, "let''s go. I''m going to settle your score with them."

    "..."

    Tara didn''t know what William was thinking about. She led him and Angelica out of the library, leading them towards the ce where auditions underwent.

    She tried to dissuade William from putting himself in a tight spot. She spoke a lot about how these elders were harsh, always saying mean words that would end up most people devastated and dejected.

    Yet no matter how hard she tried, William just calmly smiled and said nothing. He walked after her, while Angelica was the person who got affected by Tara''s warnings.

    She looked very troubled about this uing audition, and agreed with Tara that it was pointless to go there. She tried to walk William away from this, but thetter just responded with the same calm smile, without saying anything else.

    ¡¤?¦Èm William knew they cared about him, didn''t mean anything ill or something. So he just let them speak as they wanted, until they ended up in a big circr building with a grand dome and four short spear-like towers that extended from four different angles around the building.

    "We are here," Tara stopped at the entrance, "there is still a chance to avoid this¡­"

 Chapter 803 Shocking Everyone

    ?

    "No need... let''s do it," William already selected twenty different techniques, training manuals, and other stuff to modify and change in front of these elders.

    As he persisted, Tara could do nothing but to let him enter the building. There they were weed by a master standing at the reception hall, one that was empty and void of anyone.

    The process to enter the ce of his audition was simple. Tara just mentioned his name and the name of the group of elders and that master instantly led them towards the stairs to the bottom.

    They walked down spiral shaped stairs, ending up crossing close to fifty metres downwards, before arriving at a singlerge, oval shaped hall.

    The hall was carved in stone as William expected, but most of the walls were covered with ayer of thick wood, one that looked quite special to endure whatever happened here.

    The size of this ce was enough to amodate hundreds of people, with a semi-circr stage and a curved, multiyered, rows of seats.

    The ce seemed to be dedicated for teaching or something, not a ce that would be used to run tests and such. The ce was empty except for seven old looking masters, the elders who were supposed to test him.

    "Oh, you came with little Tara?" one of the elders noticed Tara and said in an annoying tone.

    "That tells us a lot about what''s going to happen then," another one sighed, shaking his head as if he was going to get disappointed or something.

    "It seems the day when we are going to give contribution points isn''t today," another said, and William felt like he was a little sad about this.

    "Ahem," William cleared his throat when he arrived at the stage, advanced a little towards the masters, cupped his hands, "I''m William, and I''m here to introduce the theories I have invented."

    "Yes, yes, go on and speak," an elder waved his arm in a bored way, "we don''t have much time to waste. Just show us the most incredible thing you discovered."

    "But if you fail, and I believe you will, then you''ll get punished for wasting our precious time."

    "I won''t fail," William didn''t care about the air of arrogance brimming in the ce. He calmly faced all of this mockery and didn''t even get shaken for a single bit.

    As for the two other girls who sat on the empty seats, they were feeling totally the opposite. The moment the elder greeted her and she felt like her stomach got riled up and about to throw out everything in there.

    Angelica had a pale white face as she felt how scary those elders were. She knew William was special, but she felt like he was doomed to fail. And when the elder threatened him if he failed, she felt instant panic.

    From Tara, Angelica learnt that the punishment for a failure ranged from just doing public service for the city for a specified period of time, ending up with getting locked up in prison for a long time.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    William already heard this scary part from Tara when she was trying to dissuade him. But as he never ced the thought of failing in his mind, he never considered the harsh punishment for failing.

    "I read through themon library in the city, and I found twenty things that were done wrongly," William started his audition and test by these words. And then he followed them with lots of words.

    He kept speaking, speaking for close to ten hours straight. At first, the elders never took him seriously, thought he was just another country pumpkin who came here to fool around, overestimating his abilities and knowledge.

    But soon enough they started to get more focused with him the more he spoke. And slowly they turned from listening with attention to what he was saying into experiencing mixed feelings.

    Shock, doubt, disbelief, and even fear stormed inside their spirits. One by one they lost themselves as if they were entranced by what William was saying, ending up forgetting all about the test here and started to listen attentively like they were in a lecture or something.

    William spoke about the changes he had in mind about twenty different aspects of knowledge. At first the masters asked a few questions here and there, randomly trying to expose his fake attitude in their minds.

    But after the first hour, they went all silent. And starting from there, they never spoke again. Even when he ended, they kept sitting in their seats in silence, without saying anything for a long hour.

    William knew they were in a deep state of mind and spirit, so he didn''t interrupt them anymore, grabbed a seat and leisurely waited for them.

    As for the two girls, they were feeling more awed than everyone else. The two belonged to this world. And even if Angelica didn''t know as much knowledge as Tara, she knew what William said was quite revolutionary.

    William spoke about lots of modifications and new techniques. They were subtle, yet very genuine and effective. ording to his words, if any master did these twenty techniques, forms, and blueprints the way he said, then totally new products and results would be produced.

    William didn''t just add a few modifications here and there, he totally renovated the entire process of each and every thing he spoke about.

    Tara knew more about this better than Angelica. And without knowing it, she looked up towards the elders, waiting for their final decision about William''s performance.

    "This¡­" after an entire hour passed without anyone saying a single word, the elders finally broke awake from their trance state.

    "We need time¡­ More time to test these theories out¡­" Another said, and his words gained the approving nodding of other elders.

    "I''m fine with that," William knew they wanted to test everything he said, try out the new ways to see the results themselves, "I''m going back then. If you need me, contact Tara and she''ll find me easily."

 Chapter 804 A Day Of Rest

    ?

    William didn''t stay behind any longer, moved out as he was confident and without any worry. As he passed towards the exit, he gave the two girls a silent look, inviting them to follow his suit and leave with him.

    Angelica hurriedly chased after him. As for Tara, she turned to the elders, as if she was waiting for their decision.

    "Go, we''ll contact you when we are done," one of the elders said, before adding, "this kid is special. Make sure he won''t leave the city until we are done."

    "He wants to visit the advanced library," Tara knew they wanted to learn more from William. And so she decided to give him a hand, asking the elders for a direct permission to visit the advanced library, "he spent an entire week in themon library, so¡­"

    "Fine, let him visit it," another elder waved his arms in impatience, "just make sure he won''t leave."

    "I will," Tara nodded, cupping her hands before following William out, "you got the permission to visit the higher library," she said this the moment she caught up with him.

    "I need to rest for a day," William yawned, acting as if he already guessed such a thing, "if they didn''t end testing what I told them, then they''ll have to wait for me to finish my visit to the second library."

    "This¡­" Tara was shocked by what he said. The elders were terrifying masters, earning their respect and veneration for what they stood up for. She never heard of someone speaking about them in such a way before, and yet William totally ignored her expression as he waved his arm.

    "I need to not get interrupted when I visit that library. Besides, once I''m done, I''m sure I''ll ask for another audition and test the new theories I''lle up with."

    "..."

    It was enough of a surprise for William toe up with twenty theories in Tara''s mind. And yet he dared to im he woulde up with more theories.

    As he acted this confident, she had nothing to say except to follow him. They returned to the house, ate and slept for half a day.

    William didn''t want to rest to juste up with new theories. He was sure he''de up with tons of modifications to the existing ways in this world.

    ¡¤?¦Èm He grasped the main ws in the world''s ways from his visit to themon library. But he wanted to rest and clear his mind, be ready as he expected to find lots of unresolved and mysterious secrets at the second library. And he was right, he was about to find things none ever understood before, things that would blow his mind even.

    William woke up in the morning, ate his breakfast, and then left for the advanced library. ording to Tara, the elders were still busy studying and testing his theories out.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    What he didn''t know though was that she already ryed what he told her over to them. And they got the same kind of shock as her, asking her to let him stay there for as long as he wanted to.

    They even went to the extent to promise her that they''d try their best and secure an entry privilege for him to the royal library before he''d finish visiting the advanced one.

    Tara was indeed quite shocked, but she got what they had in mind. They didn''t share any of their results with her. Yet from their excitement she could tell that whatever they tested was right.

    And that made her want to listen more to William''s ideas and thoughts, learn more from him. Without realising it, she started to see William from being a lucky teenager who got his life saved by a miracle, into someone who she highly valued, like a master or a mentor or something.

    She led William towards the advanced library alongside Angelica. Thetter didn''t do anything during past night except for recalling the words William said in front of the elders. She was inwardly shaken, realising that she got to meet someone quite special.

    She already watched him change into a monstrous body, yet she thought he was just an anomaly, all muscles and no brains. Who knew he got such vast knowledge and experience, enough to make the formidable elders of the city to even admire him.

    She then started to recall everything he said since the first moment they met. William wasn''t fond of speaking about lots of stuff, and the only asion he spoke too much about something was when they got out from the Hot Snow world.

    He asked her to show her chest to him, to inspect the presence of a weird tattoo. ording to him, this was a sealing tattoo, one that''d seal off one''s spirit. It was the reason why no one could change into such monstrous form, something that she truly envied him for.

    Back at their adventure towards here, he was the main reason, the sole reason behind their survival. She knew he was lying to Tara about how they arrived here, but he was true about one thing; he truly saved her life!

    And that was all thanks to his monstrous form. With it, she also could be this strong and mighty, not fearing to venture out alone like many others in this world.

    Yet she examined herself thoroughly and found nothing. William already showed her his tattoo, and she couldn''t find a single scratch over her skin.

    In the morning, she wanted nothing more than to strip off in front of him and ask him to look and see if there was any tattoo there. But when she met with his eyes, her embarrassment took over and couldn''t say a single word.

    The advanced academy was something smaller in size than themon library. William already expected something like this. After all, themon library got all the basic information about anything in this world. And that left only high-end techniques, manuals, and other stuff to be stored here in this library.

 Chapter 805 The Unbelievable Content In The Scrolls

    ?

    As for the royal one, William was sure it was filled with mysterious scrolls and unidentified items that he wanted to see.

    He knew his pass towards there was by further impressing the elders. Least to his knowledge that his wish was about toe true soon enough.

    "This library has only three sections," as they arrived at the front of this library, Tara started to exin everything rted to this ce.

    As William expected, two sections were rted to high end knowledge of things known in this world. The third section was specified for things that were unknown to masters in this world.

    "... There are only scrolls with unknownnguages and writings there. No one really understands them, and they are left there for us to research and try to figure out what they mean¡­"

    "I see," William paused, "I want to be sure of something¡­ If I got lucky and figured out the content of any of these scrolls, will this be considered a high contribution or what?"

    He knew he would recognise part of these scrolls at worst. After all, this content came from the outer world, a ce he was familiar with everything rted to it.

    "For sure," Tara would take hisment before as a way to boost or show off or something. But after what he did back at the audition, she knew he meant what he just said.

    "But I have to warn you, alongside our long history, no one ever managed to decipher an entire scroll. The best any did was to just get inspiration by linking the drawings on the scrolls with things we know in our world¡­"

    "Don''t worry," William knew she meant well by such a warning, "let''s go towards that section first."

    "As you wish," she walked inside as she was quite familiar with this ce. When they arrived at the third section, they found arge building, taking the shape of an octagonal star, with a low dome in the middle.

    "You and your domes," William couldn''t help but sigh when he spotted that dome. This was the second time for him to see a dome on top of one building.

    "They look nice, right?" Tara turned to Angelica to ask for her support. And thetter just nodded, without saying anything. In Angelica''s mind, she was quite excited about what William was going to do next.

    It was as if she was invited to a magic show, and the magician just boarded the stage to perform.

    "It''s nice but, it''s weird," William said, while giving Angelica a weird look, "anyway, let''s go in."

    The third section was a ce that was much wider than what it looked like from outside. William found himself standing in the middle of an empty ce, with walls all filled with shelves and scrolls stored there.

    From his spot he could see lots of dust covering almost all of the scrolls. "No onees here anymore or what?" he couldn''t help but turn to Angelica with questioning gazes. Unlike what he saw at themon library, this ce was deserted.

    He didn''t see a single soul here. And with all this dust, he jumped to the conclusion that visiting here was quite rare, or none.<novelsnext></novelsnext>

    "Well¡­ We onlye here before any upgrade in our positions," Angelica seemed a bit embarrassed, "anyone wanting to jump the ranks to a higher one has to stay for an entire day here, trying to study and decipher the contents of these scrolls. However¡­"

    "Don''t tell me youe here to sleep?!" William was surprised by this, "not even interested in trying these scrolls? Understanding what they got?"

    "Ahem," Tara''s face turned a bit rosy out of her embarrassment, "we know it''s futile anyway. Endless masters tried, and none seeded. Why will we try then?"

    "..."

    William was speechless, red at her in silence for an entire minute, making her feel quite weird. Then he shifted his eyes away, feeling that masters of this world were quite soft boned.

    They weren''t even curious to check these scrolls out. William started to take a tour around, and all he could see was a thickyer of dust that covered up all the scrolls he sat eyes on.

    After taking a full round, he started to pick scrolls and check them out. He just picked five scrolls at the same time, used a weakened version of a wind technique to blow dust off them.

    Yet his technique expanded and covered lots of scrolls, ending up creating a bellow of dust all over the ce. As the dust settled with all of them sneezing and coughing, he finally opened these five on the ground, stood by, and started to examine them.

    "This¡­ It''s the Arkan tongue!!!"

    The moment William saw the five scrolls, his eyes couldn''t help but wide in bewilderment. He muttered softly, and yet as the ce was empty, the other two girls managed to hear what he said.

    "Do you recognise these symbols?!!!" Tara couldn''t help but blink thrice before she gulped and said these words.

    William didn''t say anything, and just started to focus over these scrolls. The first few words he read were enough to make his eyes bulge. He leant forward, picked that scroll up, and started to read its content with disbelief.

    "So, what does it say? Huh?" Tara asked in impatience and curiosity, while she and Angelica literally jumped to stand by his side, as if they were able to get anything from the scroll by gazing at it.

    "It''s¡­ Complicated to exin¡­" William sucked in a deep breath, while trying to control his anxiety and shock.

    The scroll he picked was speaking about something he was partially familiar with. It was speaking about Mystic Arts, the same as the ones he previously read in the scrolls of the Cult in his world.

    He never expected that the first scroll he''d pick would speak about such a secretive matter. And when he moved his eyes around the other four scrolls, he found them speaking about the same topic.

 Chapter 806 Going To The Royal Zone

    This was indeed shocking. William started to read the content of these scrolls, before jumping over and picking more.

    All of the scrolls here spoke about Mystic Arts, how to perform them, and the idea of Cults and their unique ways.

    The level of these scrolls was totally a higher one than what he read before at the Cult. These scrolls weren''t linked together, and many had the rest of their content missing.

    "The other parts must be at that library," he thought to himself, referring to the Royal library.

    He knew these scrolls were randomly picked without an order or care. No one could read thisnguage, and so they must have picked parts of scrolls, leaving the other parts at the Royal library.

    He first took a random tour around, picking scrolls and checking their content. With time passing, he didn''t care about the dust anymore and got even his armour and uniform stained with dust and his sweat.

    He lost himself while doing this, taking close to two days in just this random tour. Then he started to thoroughly read through them again, taking more than two weeks in doing so.

    What made him take this long was the presence of many scrolls speaking about the conditions for anyone to train on the Mystic Arts. Unlike what he read back at the Cult, there were ways to let anyone without the right spirit affinity to train over these arts.

    To do so, one had to use special techniques, hunt down special monsters, collect special parts of their bodies around. The idea was to use a technique to connect a master''s spirit with the killed monster''s, ending up crossing the gap that''d prevent someone like William from executing these arts.

    William wanted to perform these arts when he saw how useful they were. His visit to the fate and destiny world wasn''t simple and left a deep touch in his heart.

    Yet, and weirdly enough, it seemed like all the scrolls speaking about these special techniques missed parts. That made William unable to grasp the general idea behind such techniques, not able to even try them out any time he wanted.

    In addition to that, many scrolls spoke about high and advanced Mystic Arts, ones that were close to the grand formation used before by the Cardinals.

    In these scrolls, Cardinals seemed to have another name, Bishops. Few scrolls spoke about an ancient history of the Cult, speaking about the idea of hailing from a special ce.

    "That ce isn''t mentioned in any scroll here," William thought to himself in regret. He wanted nothing more than to go to the remaining library and start working from there onpleting the missing information he gained.

    Yet he gained a lot ofplete arts. And that made him quite satisfied by all this. "Yet there is a problem¡­" When he finished, he realised he spent lots of time checking and memorising these scrolls by heart and forgot to think of ways to gain more contribution points.

    It was unquestionable that what he read in these scrolls would stick to his heart, wouldn''t get known by anyone. Even if he was going to gain tons of contribution points, he wasn''t willing to do this exchange.

    What he didn''t know was that when Tara ryed the news of his ability to read such weird scrolls, the elders, and those who were higher than them, agreed at once to let William into the Royal library.

    "Are you sure?!!" And when William heard such news, he couldn''t help but jump in delight, "I''m allowed to go there?"

    "Yes," she nodded, "after all, you are the first to im his knowledge and ability to read these weird scribbles."

    She tried more than once to know what these scrolls were speaking about, and yet William kept a tightly shut mouth about this. When she told the elders about this, they weren''t that dejected as her.

    They nned to reward William handsomely in return for sharing what he read with them. The more William resisted to say anything, the more surer they became about the true value of these scrolls.

    In fact, and throughout the long history of this city, and at other ces in the world, a big conflict was there about these scrolls and weird items found in the world.

    Many saw nothing of value in these items, and many things were lost at many times in history when the opposing party was ruling at few ces in the world.

    Luckily this city had rulers who thought highly of these scrolls, carefully saved them, and even ced high rewards for anyone able to decipher and share their content with them.

    Such rewards were generous enough to even make the elders confident about William''s decision to share what he learnt with them. And in one of these rewards, there was indeed something that William would need to acquireter on.

    "Let''s go then," William was so excited to even think about having any rest, "let''s visit that library right away!"

    Tara didn''t dy and led William towards that library. William noticed they were heading towards the heart of the city and had to pass through a highly secured massive area, surrounded with thick walls and many defensive towers.

    "You really love domes," Williammented when he spotted many domes inside that region. There were lots of pces and grand buildings here, many with different dome shapes and sizes.

    "They look beautiful!" Angelica couldn''t help but express her admiration towards the sight in front of her. And herment made Tara quite satisfied, giving William a ming look for not seeing the beauty in this ce.

    "Why are there many guards here?" William noticed the presence of many guards, walking in groups of a hundred each, wearing the same uniform, a purple cloak with fine white lines that stretched from their shoulders all the way down to their knees.

    "They are the royal army," Tara exined, "they are the ones responsible for handling the security of this ce. No other master is allowed to work here aside from them."

 Chapter 807 The Royal Library

    ?

    "They look strong!" Angelicamented, and William couldn''t help but nod. He doubted that there was a single gold grade master in the many patrolling groups he met so far. And that made such a force something that could rule an entire kingdom back at his tiny world.

    Thousands of dark gold masters? And he just saw a small piece of the entire image, making him admire this city, and wonder about how strong the big forces in this world were like.

    Aside from these guards, William and Angelica didn''t see a single person who belonged to the royal family. After walking inside for half an hour, Angelica couldn''t help but express her doubts about this matter.

    "They are busy in training grounds, or at managing the affairs of the city," Tara simply exined. As she said these words, they arrived at the royal library.

    Unlike the previous two, this one was indeed small. It was just the size of a single big building, with a small diamond shaped dome. The ce looked empty, without any patrolling guards there.

    Yet the moment they walked through the door, they found a group of five youths waiting for them. Just from a single look and William could feel the air surrounding them, a royal one.

    "You are William, right?" before William or any of the two girls apanying him would say any word, one of the five youths said in a warm weing tone. And when William nodded, the five cupped their hands in unison, greeted him and introduced themselves.

    "We are here to help you around the ce," the one called Jack, the oldest of these five, and seemingly the leader of them, spoke before motioning towards a corridor, "please, follow me."

    "The ce looks small to trouble you for this," William said, hinting that he didn''t want any outsider to be with him while checking the content of the library.

    "I believe you are mistaken," Jack chuckled, before adding as he pointed to the ground, "this library is just a fake front. The real one is deep down the ground. And believe me, it''s very huge, and you''ll need our help for sure."

    William didn''t question his words and decided to let them stick by his side. He knew he had no option but to ept this, or else head to start a quarrel with them, one he''d definitely lose.

    Yet forty minutester, he realised that Jack wasn''t lying or exaggerating. Thetter and his four friends led William and the other two girls down a long spiral rocky stair, one that extended in a narrow space, with candles and ores emitting lights like mes in faint blue colour.

    During their walk, the five youths of the royal family seemed pretty much excited about being here, about meeting William. They spoke all the time about how this was a historical moment, not only to their city, but to the entire world.

    The presence of such mysterious scrolls wasmon in the world. ording to them, every single strong city had such a massive gathering of these items. And yet, no one ever managed to decipher any of them.

    They tried, and ording to Larry, one of Jack''s royal family, it was a rule for the royal family members in the city to check over these scrolls and items all the time, trying to get anything out of them.

    It seemed like a sacred mission to this city''s royals. And yet it wasn''t amon rule in the world. Many royal families in different cities and grand cities already dropped the towel, acknowledging their inability to do anything about these things.

    As for their presence here, it wasn''t random. ording to Jack, they got selected with care, even had to undergo a test or something toe here and meet William.

    Thetter didn''t help but smile and nod in silence, without issuing any of his thoughts. He liked how the city rulers acted towards this, taking this matter quite seriously to such an extent.

    And yet he knew he had to keep any of what he''d learn there only to himself. Knowledge about Mystic Arts should and always be secretive, known by a limited number of people who''d know what to do with such grand intel.

    William read scrolls about arts that could tamper with fate and destiny. If such knowledge fell in the wrong hands, then a disaster would fall over this world, or many actually.

    Lest to his knowledge that the true library he was heading towards didn''t just include secrets about the Mystic Arts. and There he''d find lots of things that would blow up his mind, change his vision about the entire world entirely.

    As the group reached the end of the long stairs, they found themselves standing in the middle of a grand open space. The ground extended endlessly in every direction, while the ceiling rose for tens of metres above their heads.

    They appeared from a hole in the ceiling. Unlike whatmon sense would depict, they didn''t appear from one end of this space, and simply came out from the middle of it.

    The stairs took them from the hole in the ceiling all the way down to the ground, spiralling over a central rocky axis that looked like a thick pir.

    It was a fascinating scene, yet what was more fascinating was the space they ended at.

    "Is this the royal library?" Angelica was the first to speak up, turning towards Jack who simply smiled in satisfaction.

    He turned to William, and thetter was also surprised. "It seems like this library extends below the entire city, right?" he asked, and Jack nodded.

    "I can''t tell the real age of this ce, but it had been here since the old days of establishing our city," Jack proudly said, "our ancestors gathered up lots of weird stuff and stored them here all over the years. This ce expands under our city, and even extends beyond it."

 Chapter 808 A Shocking Discovery

    ?

    "Interesting," William was truly expressing his admiration, not towards the vastness of this space, but towards the endless collection of items and scrolls that he could read and learn from.

    "I''ll start," as he arrived here, and found such a pleasant surprise, he didn''t hesitate and moved towards the nearest wooden wall. The space was massive in size, but it was filled with lots of crescentic shaped wooden walls, acting like scroll shelves, holding lots of scrolls or items there.

    "Wait," but before he''d move a few steps away, Jack hurriedly shouted to stop him, "everything here is protected by a seal, something that prevents ess except for us."

    "Then¡­" William turned to Jack in an inviting way, "can you take these scrolls and items out? Then you can do the same for the other shelves."

    "This¡­" Jack and his family members exchanged gazes before adding, "we can''t do this. To return the items and scrolls back, we need time and effort. And there are only a few of us here, so¡­"

    "Fine," William rolled his eyes, "I''ll start with one shelf, finish it, then wait for you until you reseal things and repeat the same process again."

    "Great," the royal youths'' faces gleamed in delight before they started to work. They went to the shelf William was heading towards, took everything out under the watchful eyes of William and the other two girls.

    William didn''t know that by his casual suggestion he''d give himself a big hand soon enough.

    The shelf they started working on was around twenty metres in length, ten in height, with thickness of two metres at the periphery and four at the centre. It was the standard design for these shelves, with around one hundred metres distance from one shelf and others around.

    They weren''t arranged in neat rows or something, but William felt like they were following a circr pattern. That told him that there was a centre of all these shelves, and the more they walked away from it, the more shelves they''d see.

    ¡¤?¦Èm William and the other two girls thought that the royal family members would simply stretch their hands, pick up things inside the beehive like ces on the shelf, and ce them on the ground.

    But things didn''t happen this way. Every one of them took out materials, established an array that enveloped the entire shelf. Then they sat on the ground, closed their eyes, and started to release their spirit power.

    "The seal is marked with our family''s spirit power," Jack exined without opening his eyes, "without our spirit power, the items stored here would fly on their own and return to the shelves. So don''t mind us and start working."

    William looked at them and didn''t say anything. He wasn''t a kid to get fooled with such words. Of course, the seal was branded with their family''s spirit power, and they were the only ones able to get the items out, but that didn''t mean they were going to sit there without watching him.

    They''d use their spirit sense and see everything he was going to do. But he didn''t mind that. Watching him examining the scrolls wouldn''t give anyone any inspiration to solve the riddles behind thenguage written there or let them understand their meaning.

    As they activated the array, scrolls and weird items started toe out from the shelves, flying in the air, before slowly falling around. "You can start now; we can maintain this array for two hours at most."

    "Then?" William saw almost a hundred scroll and less than ten items on the ground. And more was stilling from the shelf. So doing this in just two hours was impossible.

    "We''ll need to rest for five hours, before returning to activate the array again."

    "..."

    William was speechless. Like this they''d take forever to do it. "Don''t you have elixirs? Potions even?"

    "Just start your work, don''t waste a single second, please."

    William sighed before picking up one scroll and opened it. "It''s the samenguage," he recognised the writing there. Yet when he read the content of this scroll, his body faintly trembled and his mind froze.

    This scroll was just speaking about something, like there was a book telling a tale of something, and he just picked a random page from it. He didn''t get what the scroll was speaking about from the first lines, not until he reached the middle of this scroll.

    [... And the world where the big creatures live, the ones who blessed us with their powers, giving us the ability to use their strength and take their forms, is linked to a ce that works as a midzone between all worlds, connected to all worlds without exception, including these creatures'' worlds¡­]

    "Damn me!!!" William''s shock was unparalleled when he realised what this scroll was speaking about. In his mind, a single creature appeared that matched such little information mentioned here, his ck fox spirit!

    "Don''t tell me¡­ There are scrolls here speaking about the mysterious spirit world¡­" William thought to himself, moving his eyes around, checking up the entire ce under new light.

    He came here in the first ce to learn more about Mystic Arts and their unique ways. He was curious to learn a way to let him use these arts. And yet he never expected his visit here to end up putting the light over the mysterious world of spirits.

    He just learnt about these spirits and their secretive world when he first met up his ck fox spirit at the first trial. From then, he never stopped trying to learn more about them, never managed to get anything of value.

    He tried to recall anything he might havee across before in the outer world in his past life, anything that could give him any information about this mysterious side of the world. And yet he never recalled anything, nothing at all.

    So, when he realised what this scroll meant, recalled how he read parts of scrolls speaking about Mystic Arts, with their other parts stored here, he couldn''t help but get overly excited about this.

 Chapter 809 Going Back To Rest

    ?

    William didn''t stop any more and started to pick up scrolls like he was picking candies. He read through the scrolls, working his mind hard enough to memorise their content from just a few reads. And yet things didn''t go as he nned.

    Out of the slightly over one hundred scrolls, he found less than five speaking about the spirits world. To add more to this, these scrolls weren''t rted, speaking about different topics about this secret.

    It was a total mess in his eyes. And to solve this, he either had to work harder, rearrange the scary number of scrolls in this grand library before reading through them again, or he''d better do it using his mind.

    Both were tedious tasks, but memorising the content of all the scrolls, returning home, writing them down, and starting to arrange them was much better than asking the help of the royal family and wasting tons of time here.

    If he dared to ask for their help, they''d ask for a price to be paid in return. And he knew the only thing they''d ept would be sharing the content of these scrolls with them, something he didn''t want to do.

    So, he started to take this matter quite seriously. He had to use the help of Jack and his rtives five times before he finally memorised all the scrolls'' content in this shelf.

    During the five-hour break, he distanced himself from others and started to organise what he learnt. In general, the scrolls in this shelf spoke about three main things: the Mystic Arts, the outer world things, and the mysterious spirit world.

    Things rted to the outer world were all useless to him. He knew much more, in depth intel and facts about the outer world more than anyone else.

    Reading scrolls speaking about the outer world, which made up most of the scrolls he read so far, didn''t help at all. So he started to ignore these scrolls starting from the fifth shelf, to save lots of time and effort.

    That truly helped. Instead of spending five to seven times to memorise the content of one shelf, he just needed two visits to do it. And that made others question what was going on.

    "I don''t understand more scrolls, so I''m just skipping them," when Jack asked, William came up with such an excuse to satisfy his curiosity.

    In fact, Jack and others from the royal family didn''t let William rest in peace at first. After ending their first few attempts, they started to gather around him, ask him tons of questions, making William think they didn''t need these five hours to rest and just wanted to use this time to learn from him anything useful.

    Yet he kept his mouth tightly shut, didn''t even give casual answers. The only thing he said was that he needed more time to process what he read, needed to examine more scrolls to grasp the entire picture.

    He wasn''t lying, and yet they took what he said as a way to get out from them. Gradually they decided to leave him alone for now, and every single day passing they''de and try out their luck with him.

    William kept reading more scrolls about unrted stuff of the spirit world. And that made his mind seem as if he was going to explode if this continued.

    As for the Mystic Arts scrolls, he could link the dots and knew what they were speaking about. He was aware of the basics already, and that greatly helped in understanding the general context of these scrolls.

    "I need to rest," after the third day passed, he finally couldn''t handle it anymore, "I need to return back and sleep."

    "That''s expected," despite Jack and others not getting a single useful word from him, they didn''t show any discontent at all when William asked for a break.

    In fact, they were thinking about a way to stop William from what he was doing. They were exhausted indeed, but they needed to consult their family elders about this situation,e up with another strategy to force William to speak.

    Or else, they''d end up suffering a ton when they''d return back empty handed. So when William expressed his desire to take a break, leave here and go back home to sleep, they warmly weed this.

    "It seems you are going to face a great deal of trouble next time," when they exited the entire royal, highly fortified block, Tara couldn''t help but sigh, "you do know that, right?"

    "I have to rest," William already noticed the weird response from Jack and his group. And so, he knew what they had in mind and could tell next time wouldn''t be the same walk in the park visit for him.

    But that didn''t matter. His mind couldn''t handle the tons of information he stored there. And thest thing he wanted was for such information to be lost when he added new ones there. So, he had to go back, take out scrolls, start writing down what he memorised, then try to sort them out.

    As for how to handle the issue of the royal family''s desire, he decided to wait forter and not worry about this for now.

    He didn''t speak much during their trip home. When he arrived there, he asked them to not disturb his sleep, no matter how long he slept. Then he closed the door with sealing arrays, making sure that he''d not get disturbed by anyone. He even fortified the room using defensive and concealment arrays, turning it into a small fortress that wouldn''t be easily broken using brute force or spied upon using spirit senses.

    Once he finished doing this, he moved everything in the room to a corner, leaving only one oval shaped table there and a single chair. Then he took out tons of scrolls, a brush and an ink. Then he started writing down what he had in mind, trying to not forget anything.

 Chapter 810 Going To Meet The Royal Family

    ?

    William kept writing for long hours, and after an entire day he finished writing hundreds of scrolls. These were the copies of the scrolls he read at the library.

    "Hmm¡­ Nothing is rted to each other¡­ Damn!"After doing all this, he ended up with scrolls that weren''t speaking about the same topic. He hoped he''d find a few scrolls connected to each other but didn''t.

    "At least I stored what I read¡­" he stored away all the scrolls inside one ring, sealed it with a few little arrays that he engraved their symbols on it using spirit power encrypting techniques. Then he stretched his arms, feeling deadly tired, went to the bed and had a long nap.

    He slept for half a day. During this time, the two girls were discussing lots of things outside. They were curious about what William read, what he was doing inside his room.

    They didn''t buy his lie about his need to sleep. The two watched him stay for days and even weeks withoutining about this. So, when he asked to retreat and rest, they knew he was up to something.

    Their thoughts went all over the ce, but never guessed that he was copying the contents of scrolls he read so he wouldn''t forget them.

    As they were busy thinking and waiting for him toe out, there was another debate far away from here. The royal family powerhouses didn''t like how things ended up with William.

    They interrogated the five youths they sent over and over again and didn''t get anything from this. What William didn''t know was that these youths were equipped with recording items, things like recording crystals, but with more advanced abilities.

    They wouldn''t just record what was happening around the owner, but they also could analyse the use of spirit power in the air. The royal family''s formidable masters thought that William was using some sort of a secretive technique, one that would allow him to grasp the meaning behind these weird writings.

    Yet they found no disturbance in the spirit power in the area. The only disturbance came from their family''s youths, not from William. And that made them truly puzzled.

    The only exnation they got was the one they got from Tara before, William could read thisnguage perfectly fine.

    That made them more unsettled and curious to learn thisnguage. Whoever would learn this tongue would be able to read through any scroll in the world.

    William didn''t know this, but the entire mysterious loot the various cities and strong forces in this world had been all written by these weird symbols. Even if masters in this world couldn''t read or understand what these writings meant, they could at least realise they all belong to the samenguage.

    Reaching this conclusion about William made them think about ways to force this teenager to spill out everything he knew and share with them what he had learnt so far at least.

    Few grew greedy to control such power as William. Whoever would read thisnguage would enjoy a special privilege in the entire world, not to mention the ability to learn tons of secrets and grow stronger.

    Yet others were focused more on how to make a deal with William. The first ideas proposed by them got negated when they contacted Tara using one of the elders who knew her.

    She said that William never showed any interest in wealth or anything. The only thing he cared about since the first moments she met him was to get to the library and read its content.

    That made them pretty puzzled. They asked her to learn more about him from his cousin, Angelica. And thetter just added more puzzles to the entire picture.

    Angelica met William and travelled with him for a long time. She also agreed with Tara''s words, exining that William never showed any interest towards wealth or fame.

    She kept the part rted to William''s true identity and origin hidden and spoke as if she knew him for her entire life. Yet she added a small part that made the royal family elders heave a sigh of relief, which was William''s desire to grow stronger.

    "If he wants to grow stronger, we can just give him the chance to learn from our strongest masters," as they discussed this, they finally reached such a conclusion.

    They thought they found a middle ground, one which would let William work with them. They didn''t know that William wouldn''t agree, as he didn''t need a master or anything.

    In the middle of their meeting, news came to their ears. William came out from his room and was ready to head towards the royal library again.

    Tara delivered such news. The leaders of the royal family decided to meet up with William first. If such a deal didn''t pass, then they''d use their right to prevent him from essing the library unless he''d share part of what he learnt with them.

    "They want to meet me? Fine, lead the way then," William wasn''t surprised by such news. He just finished eating a delicious meal, then followed Tara towards the royal area again.

    This time they didn''t just walk there alone. Once they arrived at the gate, they found a group of royal family members waiting for them, led by a middle-aged woman.

    "I''m Jack''s mother, Fonda," thedy introduced herself the moment she met William, e, the elders are waiting for you inside."

    William didn''t say anything except replying to the greeting with another. There were other youths here, not Jack or any of the other four rtives who were with him before.

    William didn''t care about any of that, and simply followed in silence after Fonda and her entourage. They passed through a different route than the one they took when they came for the library, ending up in the heart of the royal area.

    There, buildings were grand and majestic, with lots of domes in all of them.

 Chapter 811 Williams Demands

    ?

    William kept hisment about domes to himself, and simply walked into a grand ce, one that looked like a huge pce, with ten different domes alone in it, a mid-level wall, and a big garden.

    It was all white, making it as if someone used a grand brush and left a white stain there. William saw many statues describing masters, either training, releasing their techniques, or fighting monsters.

    "This way," Fonda led them inside the massive pce, ending up into a huge hall where around thirty other royal members waited for them.

    "You don''t want to be a direct disciple of any of us?!!!" This came as a shock, not only to the royal members here, but also to Tara and even Angelica.

    Having someone from the royal family as a master to anyone was a huge honour. People ruling cities were famous for their strength, wealth, and resources. Anyone ending up being under them would be like winning the lottery.

    And yet William simply rejected such an offer right on the spot, without even batting an eye. "Then¡­ What do you want to share what you learnt with us?" Fonda cleared up her throat, feeling more admiration towards William.

    She sized him up and down, the same thing everyone else here did when they heard William''s direct and straightforward rejection.

    In their eyes, this young master was showing more air around him like he was a veteran master or something.

    "Hmm¡­" William knew that sticking to his rejection would end up in a bad situation. He already got his focus and interest over that royal library, wanting to delve into its secrets at any cost.

    And yet if he rejected anything from their side, they''d end up cutting his ess to their ce. So, he had to think about a middle ground, one that''d solve both sides'' needs, without ending up for him to lose a lot.

    He already had a way to do it. The scrolls he found there spoke about three different things, one of them was nothing that worth anything in his eyes: the outer world''s news.

    He decided beforeing here to share such intel with them. Even if they knew what was going on in the outer world, and knew lots of its knowledge, they wouldn''t be able to use these efficiently as they didn''t live there.

    As for what he wanted in return for this, he had three things in mind.

    "First I want ess to more scrolls like these," William raised a finger in their faces, making them more puzzled.

    "What do you mean?" one of the leaders of the royal family asked, "everything we have is in the library you visited. We''ll grant you ess to everything, as you can tell we didn''t limit your ess to any."

    "I know," William nodded, before shaking his head, "yet that wasn''t what I meant. I want more scrolls, more from other ces, not from this city."

    "This¡­" his wordsnded, and many masters eximed in surprise, looking at each other in doubt.

    "Don''t worry, you''ll get to know part of what I''ll learn from these scrolls as well," William knew such a task would be indeed hard, time and effort consuming to them. He had to throw in a bait, something these formidable masters would crave for.

    "For example," he cleared up his throat, boarded the stage as he added as if he was lecturing them, "if you managed to make a deal with ten other cities, in exchange for me to decipher part of these scrolls and let them know their content, then you will learn knowledge from ten more ces. Like this¡­"

    He didn''t need to add more. If this happened, then in the end of all this, this city would be the one with the most knowledge in the entire world. Knowledge was power, and even if William intended to tell useless stuff for them, they''d end up having their prestige rise up in the world.

    William knew if they agreed, they''d try to test things out first at their library. And so, he nned to find useful intel from these scrolls, things speaking about high end techniques or methods, so they''d see the overall value in doing this.

    Even if the scrolls didn''t have such a thing, he didn''t care. He would add things from his mind, ending up dazzling them and instigating their greed for more.

    "And that is not everything, that''s just the first condition," William reminded them of that. And when they asked, he added his other two conditions.

    He wanted two different things, one was a portable pocket world, one for each city asking him to do this task. If they ended up inviting a hundred cities to join this deal, then he''d end up with a hundred pocket worlds.

    William had craved such pocket worlds for long years already, since the moment he stepped inside the hotel back at the Scorching Lands fort. Yet, and even after looking for these years, he failed to find any pocket world to obtain.

    Even when he asked the auction houses to sell him a few, even one, he failed. There weren''t any of these precious items sold at any auction. And when he tried to make a deal with the old man who came with lots of pocket worlds at the Scorching Lands city, the man directly refused, even refused to share intel about where he got such lots of pocket worlds.

    "And the third?" Fonda asked, feeling like William was greedy, but not for wealth and just for different pricey things.

    Portable pocket worlds weren''t rare, but they weren''t thatmon. Anyone having these would consider having a great treasure, a deadly weapon that he''d not easily ept to even share ess with anyone outside his area of influence.

    "I want a portal that can lead me to other worlds," William finally dropped the bomb, saying the main goal of his, the one that made him travel and adventure this world in the first ce.

 Chapter 812 Striking Out A Grand Deal

    ?

    "What do you mean?" many whispered in doubt, while one asked what others had in mind.

    "There is some sort of portals," William didn''t find their ignorance about these portals surprising. If they knew, then this world would have changed drastically than the current state it was in.

    They''d gain ess to more worlds, learn about the spirit body summoning ability, and they''d find a way to cure such curse over them, "they are called the interworld portals. They are massive, very huge, emitting a dense amount of spirit power, one that will attract the attention of scary monsters, and bring forth deadly natural disasters in the region they are in¡­"

    William described in general the main features of these portals. He gave them general intel, yet to anyone who belonged to this world, these information would greatly help.

    "Well¡­ If you say you are looking for such dangerous ces, then we can point towards many of them," Fonda looked at others of her family leaders, and they nodded, giving her permission to add more, "there are three ces nearby, all of them are famous for being quite deadly. No one ever entered there and managed toe out before. So¡­"

    "Don''t worry, I just need you to locate these ces for me and I''ll go there personally," William said as if they were fearing for their lives, not his.

    "Oh, I didn''t mean that¡­"

    "It''s ok, it''s my destiny to try out dangerous ces and seek deadly adventures," William raised a hand to stop her from adding more, "just after ending up our deal, can you bring me a map and give me directions towards these three ces?"

    "Well¡­" Fonda turned to look at others, and after a long minute of silence and hesitation, they slowly nodded to her one by one, "fine¡­ But please consider this again. You can live like one of us here if you want¡­"

    "Thanks, but this isn''t my destiny," William wanted to return back to his world, continue what he was doing there. He had a fierce enemy to deal with, and he wanted to expand his fox guild. Not to mention his new identity as one of the Cult''s cardinals, a force he needed to add to his army before heading towards the outer world.

    As for this world, he didn''t n to leave without returning. From the scrolls he got that this world was a link to all other worlds, including the one of the spirits. Not to mention he nned to bring his guild and friends over, letting them find shelter here if he couldn''t stop the impending disaster in his tiny world.

    "We can speak for ourselves," after a few elders and leaders tried to dissuade William with no avail, one of them said, "we will honour such a deal with you. Give us a moment, we''ll finalise a contract now. Give us one hour then."

    "Great, I''ll wait outside," William knew they''d ept his conditions. Even the one regarding the pocket world. After all, they had to just pay a single pocket world for their city. As for other city owners and royal families, they would decide this for themselves.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William waited outside for less than an hour before the contract was done. The leaders didn''t need all this time to write down the contract, and simply wanted to discuss more about this deal.

    All of them agreed without doubt. What William didn''t know was that everything that happened here was watched by the spirit sense of many others.

    In fact, the group of masters he met wasn''t the true leaders of the family but considered as their vices. As for the true leaders, they kept themselves in the dark, watched in silence what was going on between William and their trusted masters.

    These leaders agreed on what William proposed. In fact, they grew interested and greedy for gaining the privilege he spoke about, learning lots of knowledge and secrets from other ces.

    As things were all sorted, they sent messages to all the cities who they got good rtions with. As for other cities, even the ones they got bad ties with, they sent messengers to ry and spread the word.

    They knew such a deal would be considered ideal in the eyes of many. These scrolls were left for a long time to rot in their vaults without any use. So, if someone imed to know how to read them, in return for such a small price to pay, then they''d ept for sure.

    William didn''t know that, but the city owners asked for a simr price for their services as well. They didn''t ask just for pocket worlds, but also for lots of resources and treasures. Any city could select from a short list and pay these to the city owners here.

    William didn''t know that, and even if he knew, he''dment with nothing. He didn''t care about anything else but his gains, and as long as the city owners wouldn''t touch his things, he''d stay silent about anything else.

    He signed the contract, and then was led towards the royal library again. This time, there weren''t just five of the youths waiting for him there. Arge number of royal family members were present, and they all helped to get lots of items out of the sealed shelves.

    William already asked the royal family elders and leaders about this point. He was going to read much more scrolls this time, and the routine of working for two hours and resting for five wasn''t going to work with him.

    As everything was settled perfectly fine, he started to work and read tons of scrolls. Days passed in a sh, and weeks went by like they were hours.

    William stayed inside the library for almost two months straight. He didn''t take a single moment of rest outside. Just from time to time, he''d ask them to distance himself, surround an area there with lots of arrays, before he''d start writing down what he learnt.

 Chapter 813 The Cities Masters Are Here

    ?

    This attracted the curious senses of the masters at first. Butter on, they started to drop their attempts to break through William''s arrays and see what he was doing.

    Every single time William went inside, he''de out with many scrolls, having lots of useful information. "This is your share ording to the contract," he said these words every single time he came out and handed these scrolls over.

    He didn''t need to make the use of any of his knowledge about the outer world. There was lots of useful intel inside the scrolls rted to the outer world, alongside much bullshit as well.

    William even stopped reading scrolls rted to the outer world issues after the first week passed. He got enough scrolls and data to satisfy the needs of the city owners for months.

    Starting from here, he only focused on reading and writing down scrolls rted to the spirit world and the Mystic Arts. he didn''t have time to sort things out, but eventually he started to grasp a general image about these two mysterious worlds.

    The scrolls spoke about various things about these two worlds, including the history and current situations at the time of writing these scrolls down. William read through tons of scrolls speaking about unrted things and events, reading iplete scrolls most of the time.

    But gradually he started to see a long and connected line, describing the long and rich history of both worlds. What shocked him was that the Mystic Arts didn''t originate from humans, not monsters, and definitely not by spirits.

    One scroll mentioned higher beings, ones who lived in an ancient and higher realm, one that he never heard about before: the God Realm.

    "Do gods exist?" he had to question himself from the moment he read these scrolls. As he didn''t have any clue about what this scroll spoke about, he hoped to find other scrolls speaking about the same beings. And yet, after going through everything stored inside the library, he didn''t find another scroll mentioning this matter.

    As for the spirit world, he also found a scroll speaking about such a thing. Yet it was a more detailed one, which spoke about how spirits were beings who didn''t originate from this world and came from a much higher one.

    William could partially understand this scroll better thanks to his old talk with the ck fox. Thetter mentioned the desire of spirits to break through the shackles of this world and go to another one.

    William knew that there was another higher realm, one that no one ever managed to sniff the gate towards it. His old and archenemy, the nine-tailed fox, did all this just to level up and go to that realm. And William''s task was to stop and kill it.

    Yet he never took the matter of going towards a higher realm seriously before until now. Two different scrolls, speaking about two different and mysterious worlds, and the two mentioned the higher realm.

    "It seems there is a way to level up," William never thought such a thing was possible. He even considered his archenemy as being a fool to chase such an impossible dream, "impossible is there for us to break it, right?"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He didn''t think too much about this, not until he''d gained lots of other scrolls and hoped he''d stumble upon others speaking about the same matter.

    Aside from this weird matter, he got to learn lots of stuff about these two worlds. The spirit world was indeed quite messy. The spirits acted the same as humans and monsters, with factions and powers fighting against each other, with different ideologies and viewpoints.

    The scrolls didn''t mention clearly what the sh and difference in points of view there were. Yet William already had an idea about this from the ck fox.

    It was all rted to humans and monsters, about giving their support to whom. As for the Mystic Arts world, William learnt that there were two sides of the same coin as well.

    The side he met and learnt about before was the good one. The scrolls spoke about masters gathering up and learning how to stabilise the world, protect the sacred world of fate and destiny from any intervention or maniption.

    ording to these scrolls, such a thing was a mission given to these humans by gods. As for the other side, they were like dark masters.

    William already suspected the presence of dark Cults, and these scrolls just proved their existence. The scrolls didn''te from one source, and so he met with many speaking about dark ways to manipte fate and destiny.

    In fact, the ways he read before about how to allow anyone without the right affinity to use these arts belonged initially to the dark side. Yet William didn''t care about that. As long as he''d get the benefits he wanted, he was willing to learn these.

    Yet when he read through the scrolls and finished the entire library, he didn''t find aplete guide for these ways. "Perhaps I forgot lots of information during my stay here¡­ I need time to rest and organise all this harvest¡­"

    He thought to himself while walking out from the library for the first time for two months ago. And as he went outside, he found Fonda waiting for him.

    She was the one dealing mainly with him from the leader circle of the royal family. In the first week, she came and told him that they already prepared the pocket world for him. And by the first month, she came and delivered more great news.

    "Up till now, twenty-three cities already epted your condition and are sending their secretive scrolls towards here," she said with a big smile, one that made William question the reason behind her happiness.

    The return for such help wasn''t that great for the city, at least they''d gain lots of knowledge and privilege in the world, something that was going to happen far in the future.

 Chapter 814 A Single Grand World

    ?

    But her wide smile and happy face told him there must be something behind such happiness. And yet he didn''t care about the reason, "as long as they areing here with a pocket world for each city, then I''m willing to help."

    "Cool," Fonda was flying in sky seven right now, and William decided to ignore her. He went directly home, enjoyed a long sleep of three days straight without even waking up once.

    He exhausted himself beyond his limits during this time, acting as if he was in the middle of a war. After he woke up, he ate a big and delicious meal, before going inside again and locked the door on himself.

    He left the same strict instructions to not be disturbed and surrounded the entire room with arrays to prevent anyone spying or interrupting him.

    "Time to arrange everything¡­" He copied tons of scrolls during the past months, and yet he never got the chance to work over them. He had to be quick, not only to avoid attention, but also to shorten the time needed to read through everything.

    As he finally secured the ce, he pushed aside everything once again, then started to take scrolls out inrge batches.

    He started by ssifying the scrolls first by their content. He didn''t copy anything rted to the outer world and kept them to himself. All the scrolls he had were about the spirit world and the Mystic Arts.

    Just going through everything he got and ssifying them took days! He arranged the scrolls in different rings, with red colour for the Mystic Arts scrolls, and the purple ones for the spirit world''s.

    He ate and slept in the room for an entire month. During which, he got interrupted three times, each was just Fondaing to tell him more good news.

    News spread fast, and it seemed more and more cities were weing his gesture, epting his offer, and sent lots of envoys over to the city.

    William didn''t say anything about all this, just stressed over his share of all this, his desired pocket worlds. On the third visit, Fonda told him that six cities'' masters were already here, waiting for him to finish his things ande to do what he promised.

    William gave her a two-week period as a time limit. He already arranged scrolls and started reading through them, further arranging the scrolls into groups speaking about the same topic.

    Unluckily he never found aplete group of scrolls speaking about the same thing. And that left him with an iplete set of scrolls, speaking about random stuff, without a single story beingpleted.

    Yet he learnt tons of information about the two mysterious worlds, their habits, their way of life, their current situations at the time of writing these scrolls, and also their rtion to the grand number of worlds.

    "Hmm¡­ I get the impression that all the worlds, outer and tiny ones, were once a single grand world that got shattered for a mysterious reason¡­" he muttered to himself after spending one more week after thest visit of Fonda.

    There were few scrolls speaking about a world which was boundless, endless, growing continuously and expanding without any sign of stopping.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    At first, he thought this was some kind of a joke, or perhaps it was a myth that one scroll was speaking about.

    Yet when he found more scrolls speaking about such a weird era, he realised this wasn''t a myth. He justcked enough intel to see the grander picture, especially about something he never heard about before like this.

    "It makes sense actually¡­ All these worlds are connected to the outer one in some way, and there is other higher world above it¡­ I recall that my master once told me about a theory, that all the shackles surrounding these worlds are all just sealing colossal formations, locking these worlds, imprisoning them and creatures living within¡­"

    William started to recall different things he heard or read before, about myths rted to the tiny worlds. And yet he stillcked tons of information to even make a wild random guess or something.

    "Time to collect more scrolls then," William finally got out from his locked-up room. During the past month, he contacted Sloth twice, made sure they were ok, telling him that he was getting close to finding the exit from this world.

    He just sent these messages and didn''t receive any from Sloth. He didn''t know if his team was ok or not, but as long as the scroll worked, he got a glimpse of hope about their wellbeing.

    As for the mysterious ck Scroll he gained before, he tried to open it with no avail. Nothing worked, not even pure strength or many unsealing arrays stacking on top of each other.

    He considered before adding these scrolls to the price tag of helping other cities. But as he didn''t know the true value of these scrolls, he refrained from doing so, fearing he might lose out a lot by exchanging something like the pocket worlds with something useless like these ck scrolls.

    "Atst, you came out," when he came out from the house, he found Fonda on her way in, "I wasing to get you out myself! There are sixteen city masters here, and more areing soon enough."

    "Don''t worry, I''m going to work over these scrolls right away," he paused for a second before adding, "I believe they brought as much scrolls as you have in that library of yours, right?"

    "There are even more than that!" she rolled her eyes, "there are sixteen cities! Each at least has as much as us, if not more!"

    "Then we need a huge space to work in," William looked at the distant central royal region, "that ce is nice, well protected and all, but it''s narrow."

    "Don''t worry," Fonda seemed to have a solution already for this, "we agreed with them to use the library space underground. Not to mention we already spoke about how to do it."

    "Like what?"

 Chapter 815 Six Months Passed

    ?

    "You''ll deal with one ring at a time, and that will make you just deal with around a few thousand scrolls. Then you''ll get some rest, do your stuff, and returnter to continue your work."

    William got what she wanted from him. She was referring to copying the content of the scrolls and giving one copy to them and the other to the owners of these scrolls.

    He didn''t mind that. Actually, by them being around, he was going to work in peace of mind, away from any trouble or interruption.

    William was led to the same ce where he went before to meet with the royal family elders. There he found much more audience than before, enough to make the entire vast hall crowded, filled with many masters wearing different outfits.

    The moment William appeared there; the entire hall ushered under heavy silence. William scanned the ce, to find out that each group was wearing the same outfit, standing together.

    "Ahem," an old man, one that William never met or saw before, moved at the same time of his appearance from another side of the hall. His voice was calm, yet it was loud enough to be heard by all, "I''m proud to announce to you William, the one who can read and decipher the mysterious scrolls we all had for endless years without any use."

    He didn''t need to say such words, but his presence and the way he spoke made William doubt he was one of the top leaders of the family ruling this city, or even the supreme leader.

    William exchanged a few words with everyone, but it seemed he didn''t need to try and convince him of anything. They were sure of his ability to do what was rumoured, and that told him the royal family of this city already shared part of the scrolls he deciphered with them.

    Soon enough, Fonda and others led William back towards the royal library. Alongside them, the first group of masters followed, all wearing the same uniform, as they all came from the same city.

    William didn''t speak much down there and started to work at once. He knew he''d take a long time to finish just the ones at the meeting hall, and much more was stilling.

    He didn''t know how many cities would ept his offer and answer his call, but he raised his earlier estimation to be over one hundred cities at the end.

    The size of each city''s treasury of scrolls wasn''t any less than what he saw before in this city.

    He had to go through tons of scrolls, mostly speaking about the outer world issues. He decided to read these scrolls for one week, copy all of them, then he''d be free to read only what mattered to him.

    There was no seal this time, and so he simply worked as if he was studying or something. Every six hours, he''d spend a couple more in seclusion, copying the scrolls he read, prepare two copies for the city''s leaders, then return back and continue working.

    The first batch whom he dealt with spread out the news, it was true! He could indeed read through these scrolls and decipher their content. That made the ones he didn''t yet interact with quite hopeful to get this secret solved.

    No one ever suspected that he was keeping most of the valuable knowledge to himself. And how would they''d know that when William was the only person in the entire world''s history to be able to read these scrolls.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    This kept going for a long time, days passed fast, and weeks as well. William didn''t know that by the time he stayed here, more people came from far away cities. Soon enough, six months passed.

    During which, he asked for leave once per month. He slept for a day, worked on arranging his new loot of scrolls for two more days. He didn''t forget to send messages over to Sloth, without getting any answer.

    After the passage of all this time, William started to worry over his friends and team. He spent lots of time here, and he didn''t get any answer from Sloth, not even once.

    Yet he knew he couldn''t just ask to leave. If he did, then all of the big shots here would stick to his side, and he didn''t want that.

    "I have to trust their abilities," he muttered to himself, while returning to focus on his task.

    What he didn''t know was that his team was having their own adventure. When William arrived here, he felt like this world was on the verge of copsing. He totally forgot about this. But his team was now facing a great challenge.

    The first few months passed without any issue at all. Sloth was indeed a fearsome master, and he led them around to hunt any weak monsters around. There wasn''t that much to begin with, but eventually they found random monsters which dared to traverse this ce.

    They were strong indeed, and even with Sloth around, they had to exert lots of effort to take down these monsters.

    Yet every single one of them was huge enough to satisfy their food needs for weeks. At the same time, Sloth was receiving the messages William sent, yet failed to send back anything.

    "Weird¡­ What''s interfering with my special Message Paper?!" After trying many things and failing, Sloth started to wonder about this matter.

    His puzzlement was soon solved. After staying in this ce for six months, they got used to everything in it. The scary monsters up there were now looking like passing clouds and didn''t stir any trouble or fear in their hearts and spirits.

    Even if a single monster was able to tten the entire ground with a simple wave of their ws or tails, they didn''t even give anything happening at the ground any care.

    The group of masters feared at their first few battles that the loudness and fierceness of these shes would attract the attention of the terrifying monsters high above. And yet none of this happened, not until six months passed.

    *Rumble!*

 Chapter 816 The Black Tails Teams Disaster

    ?

    It started first with a weird rumble that looked as if some sort of an explosion happened deep down the ground. Yet when they looked at the sky, everyone noticed the presence of weird ck threads spreading over the sky.

    They looked quite unique, especially alongside the shes of different lights that danced around these ck threads. Yet soon enough, that rumble started to happen again, and again, with each time getting fiercer in power and might.

    In less than a week, the threads started to issue an ear deafening thunder roar. The masters at the ground knew their honeymoon in this ce was over. Even if they didn''t know what was going on, just watching the acting peaceful and calm scary monsters up there turn to bite each other in a crazy way made them know they had to leave.

    What Sloth didn''t know was that these cracks were the signs of the world approaching its demise. And as they were running like crazy, the entire world started to rain down torrents of hot blood.

    Monsters up there were acting hostile to each other, something that they never saw happening even once in the past six months. Least to their knowledge that such a phenomenon would require a decade to happen once. And they were just unlucky enough to appear here around the time of its urrence.

    As they started running, Sloth and other formidable masters from the group William saved started to show the value of their strength. Any master at the pinnacle of power was arrogant, confident in their abilities to tten mountains and stand against any disaster alone.

    Yet at these stressing moments, Sloth thanked his good luck. Since he stepped through that fog back at his kingdom''s capital, and he started to be in debt for William. If not for the group of masters he saved before, Sloth doubted his ability to even save his own life!

    As they ran like this, William''s friends and team didn''t forget the old habit they acquired from sticking by his side. They left the life and death battles against the falling deadly blood to the formidable masters, and started to focus on collecting any loot they could reach.

    Be it parts of the scary monsters which were fighting to death in the sky, or the deadly blood falling down and forming grandkes all over the ce, turning the entire ground into a colossal gathering of deadly swarms, they collected all.

    Their actions attracted the weird gazes from everyone else, but none had the time or leisure to ask about what they were doing. They kept running like this, fighting against such impossible odds, praying to the heavens they''d enjoy mercy and get saved in the end.

    To add more to their worse situation, monsters that were already hiding in this world started to run for their lives. If they ran just to save themselves, then nothing bad would happen. But these monsters were intelligent, and they thought that these humans got some sort of treasure that could save their lives in the middle of all this.

    So instead of trying to join them, most of the monsters started toe and attack these humans with unparalleled ferocity.

    "Leave them to us¡­ Tsk! I hate the bad scavenger habit that the damn boss of ours engraved deeply in our spirits!"

    Ibra was frustrated by such actions of the ck Tails team. Even if he moved to collect such grand and one of the kind loot, he still hated doing this instead of fighting.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Yet he was realistic, knowing the limit of his strength. He never thought about stepping up and helping the formidable masters who protected all of them.

    Those who had such wild dreams, or were driven by fear, got killed in the end. Yet when these monsters appeared, a task he and other weak masters could do presented itself. And from then, most of the weak masters worked together to stop and kill these monsters, leaving just a few of William''s team who kept collecting loot like nothing happened.

    Yet the appearance of these monsters greatly disturbed their speedy advance. The formidable masters had to keep an eye over the entire situation, interfering even from time to time if things needed their help.

    The good thing in all that was that they knew where they were going. During all the time they spent here, they didn''t lower their guard or rx.

    Sloth made sure to spread out everyone in teams, led by dark gold grade masters. They drew huge maps about this zone, and even after six months of work they neverpleted even one tenth of the entire ce.

    The direction they selected without any hesitation was towards the ce they drewpletely. So, they knew where they were heading, knew its terrain well enough to survive all this.

    They used anything and everything they could to shield themselves against the falling scorching hot blood. Their goal actually wasn''t to leave this zone, but to go towards an area of hills and mountains, a ce they thought to be quite safe and would provide enough protection for them.

    Going out from this zone was possible, as they already found the edge before. The world beyond this zone looked different, without a single monster there. Yet they were doubting their ability to survive till reaching there if they kept running like this, especially with the flocks of monsters chasing after them.

    While everyone was suffering and struggling against such odds, William didn''t know anything about that. Such changes only happened inside such deadly zones, where no one was watching or monitoring.

    He was locking up himself during all this, arranging the scrolls he managed to decipher and copy during the past six months.

    "So¡­ The Arkannguage was one of the ancientnguages used in the original world before the fall? Interesting¡­"

    William now found lots of intel about the most mysterious single world that had all the tiny and outer worlds together in the past.

 Chapter 817 The Origin World And The Fall!

    ?

    ording to these scrolls, something big happened, an event that was called: The Fall.

    He didn''t find any reference for this world''s name, so he decided to call it The Origin. As for what exactly happened back then, the scrolls didn''t give any useful intel.

    Yet he was surprised to learn that the Mystic Arts original world, the one he called before The God Realm, was connected to the Origin world alongside the Spirit world as well.

    ording to these scrolls, there was a fixed and known path for contacting and getting in touch with these two worlds, not to mention a well-known method to rise up and ascend to higher realms. Yet all this seemed to get lost when the Origin world got damaged, broken into such a messy collection of tiny and outer worlds.

    That wasn''t all. William knew the right way to go up from one tiny world to the outer world was already missed and lost for those living in these worlds.

    If not for himing from the future, knowing that the trick was in training in the rightful techniques. And yet he also knew that such techniques were all missing in the tiny worlds.

    "Something is wrong¡­ Why do I smell something like a grand scheme here?" He stood in his room, looking at the scrolls he gathered at the ground, the ones speaking about the Origin world.

    They weren''t that much to begin with, just few tens of them out of the hundreds of thousands of scrolls he read and copied during the past six months. "I need to collect more¡­" he muttered to himself, but there were no more city ownersing to ept his offer, giving him the scrolls he needed.

    At the same time, he knew he wasted lots of time here. His main goal was to find a way out of this world, take his people out. As for this world, he''de backter on, and then he''d spend more time exploring more cities and visiting other ces.

    Aside from the scrolls speaking about the Origin world, there were too many speaking about the Mystic Arts and the Spirit world. He learnt tons of stuff about these two worlds and became more experienced about them.

    The ways to use Mystic Arts for someone like him, someone without affinity, were alreadypleted after going through all these scrolls. He knew the right way to do it, and it was all centred around taking the help from monsters with the right affinity.

    Killing monsters and keeping their organs inside storage items that could save any living thing inside without rotting was something essential. Then he had to scatter these organs in a fixed pattern, something like establishing an array but without ores and materials, but with monster organs.

    Learning this method made him able to start training and using the Mystic Arts different techniques anytime he wanted. He just needed to look for monsters with the right affinity with fate and destiny, and then problems would be solved.

    As for techniques, he learnt tons of them already from the scrolls. There were crazy arts that could change the fate and destiny of people, monsters, and even ces in the ground. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He knew by following such a route, there must be a scary art to change and manipte the fate and destiny of an entire world even. Yet the scrollscked any reference about such a thing.

    The scrolls came from two different factions using Mystic Arts, one who were acting like the viins, and the other who were like guardians.

    William didn''t care about the ongoing fierce sh between the two sides. He knew he wouldn''t use the methods he learnt to change the fate and destiny of anyone for bad or evil doings. But if he got the chance and ability to change the fate and destiny of his evil enemies, he''d not hesitate to do it.

    Aside from this, he learnt lots of ways to preserve and even repair any damage done to the fate and destiny world. William felt that the Cult he recently joined was just aware of ways to preserve and protect the fate and destiny world, not how to repair it.

    "It''s aplicated process to repair any damage up there, but I got lots of useful arts to spy on anyone''s fate and destiny¡­"

    This was one of the most valuable things he gained from reading through all these scrolls. Having the power to spy on anyone''s fate and destiny, learning about their past, present, and even the future, was a god ability.

    William wanted to know what his archenemy was doing, what it nned to do. He wanted to know tons of stuff about the Nightmare monster and other enemies he had like the Transformers and the Mutants.

    He got ways to not just randomly try out and see what his luck would be, but there were arts specialised in seeing through one''s past, present, or future. As for any bacsh like what happened to anyone who tried to spy on his fate and destiny, there were arts that would protect him from that to such an extent.

    As for the Spirit world, there was where his biggest gains were.

    William knew nothing before about such a mysterious world or beings, literally nothing. But when he started reading scrolls, he learnt more about them, enough to make him grasp a general view about such a world.

    First of all, he was shocked to realise that spirits were beings who came from a higher realm, got some sort of a sentence and got demoted to this realm.

    He read this in just one scroll, but he didn''t question it. The scroll spoke in great detail about the life story of one of the spirits, speaking about how it was once a mighty master in a higher realm,mitted a grave sin against heavens, and ended up descending to this lower realm.

    This mighty master changed his form and became a spirit, one that could lend his power to others, but not use it to rise up again to the higher realm.

 Chapter 818 Its Time To Leave

    ?

    To rise up, this master had to give his support to either monsters or masters, ending up with any of them to rise up in power, enough to break the shackles of this realm and go to the higher realm.

    Once that happened, this master would leave the Spirit world for good, rise up from this low realm and go up to the higher one, iming his past life.

    That exined to William why spirits were this adamant at helping masters and monsters, and he also realised why such an issue was something very important to spirits.

    As for why there was a conflict and difference in view between the spirits, it was exined in other series of scrolls. William learnt that not all spirits shared the same viewpoint about what happened to them. Many held grievances and bloody vengeance towards the higher power that punished them.

    As they couldn''t touch this power anymore, they had to vent their rage over the masters and monsters of this world. This formed a faction that wasn''t small, not weak, and they were behind most if not all of the bad things happening to the worlds, people, and monsters living within them.

    William didn''t exclude the possibility of them being behind what happened to the Origin world in the first ce, being responsible for the Fall.

    There was another faction who wanted to return to live in the higher world, enjoy their freedom, seeing this as a prison and they were just spending their sentence period here.

    Yet this faction wasn''t united. ording to what William guessed from the scrolls, masters weren''t the only beings getting punished and suffered from such fate, monsters did.

    "I think spirits which came from masters are supportive to humans, and those who came from monsters support their kin¡­" William muttered while thinking about this issue.

    Aside from these two sub-factions, there was another which didn''t care about anything else but to get their goal done. They didn''t care about which or whom they''d support and cared only about their potential and chances in breaking through the shackles of this world.

    "That ck fox¡­ I bet he belongs to this opportunistic faction," William recalled his first meeting with the fox, and what it said back then, "but that doesn''t exin what those shining stars were¡­"

    He still didn''t get a firm clue about the true identity of these stars that interfered in hisst meeting with the ck fox. His current best guess was that they belonged to the Chaos faction, the name he decided to call over these hostile spirits to this realm.

    What puzzled him was that this didn''t follow what other scrolls said. ording to other scrolls, the two factions, Chaos and Order, were fighting against each other, ending up with lots of deadly shes and conflicts.

    Yet no faction had an upper hand or control over the other. Yet from what he felt back then, William was sure these stars got some sort of authority and power over spirits, over his ck fox spirit at least. And the ck fox seemed to be afraid of them, had nothing to do against their power, and it also didn''t agree on what they wanted.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "I learnt a lot, but still can''t find an answer to this question," he sighed, while gathering up the scrolls on the ground, "I know this world acts as a grand portal, linking all the worlds together. It''s like a remnant of the Origin world, stitching everything scattered around and keeping the worlds safe¡­"

    William read this in one scroll, reading about how important this middle world was. It didn''t just work as a portal linking other worlds together, but also as a keeper for the integrity of the entire messy structure of tiny and outer worlds.

    ording to that scroll, if this world ended up destroyed, then bad things would follow for other worlds. Perhaps the outer world was well protected, yet the tiny worlds wouldn''t survive this.

    "I recall feeling the power of this world going berserk, something that''smon to see in pocket worlds on the verge of copsing¡­"

    William recalled this vague feeling when he first came to this world. He felt like this world''s spirit power was acting hostile, acting the same as powering from worlds on the verge of copsing.

    But when he arrived here, he found the world intact and nothing was wrong. So he forgot about this feeling, and never thought about it again.

    "If so¡­ Then those spirits belonging to the Chaos faction are working on this world for a long time already¡­ Don''t tell me the seal I got before had something to do with this¡­ The inability of masters here to use their spirits is linked to this¡­"

    William knew that the link between masters and their spirits was linked to the ess of spirits to the world. If masters couldn''t summon their spirits, that meant this link was severed. And that was bad news indeed.

    Without the Order faction, no one was there to stop the insane spirits from destroying this world. And if this world went down, lots of horrifying events and tragedies.

    But he also knew that to take down such a world, things weren''t that easy. As this world acted like the axis which held everything together, it was backed up by powering from all the worlds around.

    To take such a world down, it''d require more than just severing the connection between spirits and masters here. In addition to that, they needed lots of time and effort to do so.

    William didn''t know what the current progress of the Chaos faction was in destroying this world. But from the current situation of the world, the stable spirit power and calmness that prevailed over most of the regions here, he guessed it was still early for this world to go down.

    "I have to go to check the three ces now," After resting for a few days, William decided to put an end to his adventure in this world. He already got all the pocket worlds he wanted, the scrolls he copied, and got nothing else to do here.

 Chapter 819 Going To The Swamp Zone

    ?

    There were already three dangerous ces, ones that satisfied his criteria. He agreed with Fonda before to lead him towards these regions once getting things done.

    "Are you leaving now? So soon?!" Just when he came out from his room, he found Fonda sitting there with Tara and Angelica. They were eating lunch, and he joined them while telling them about his decision.

    Fonda was so surprised about that. She thought after seeing how his name rose in this world, at least in the wide areas and regions around this city, William would think again about leaving here and going towards the deadly zones like before.

    Yet when he said it, and from the firm look on his face when she eximed in shock, she knew she got it all wrong, her royal family''s leaders got it all wrong.

    William seemed to have something that drove him to go there, something far more important than any wealth, fame, or power. And she was totally right this time about her guess.

    "Are you sure you don''t want me toe with you?"

    William didn''t wait for Fonda''s response on what he just said. He didn''t inform her asking for permission, but gently notified her of the deal. He already got the maps with detailed exnation for how to reach there, with lots of data rted to these three dangerous ces.

    And when he moved away, under the shocking and doubtful gazes of Fonda, Angelica followed him per habit. And yet he stopped her from following him in this journey.

    "This ce is really nice, and I''m going to ces that I can''t guarantee even my safety there."

    "But¡­"

    "Just stay behind, I''m going out alone," William cut the path on her to argue, continued to walk away while raising his fist in the air, "let''s meet again in the future, and may our next meeting be more peaceful and calmer than this time."

    "..."

    Without knowing why, Angelica felt real bitter, damn bitter deep down her heart. As for Fonda, William''sst words jolted her awake from her daze.

    "So he ising back in the future? That''s indeed good news," she mistook his meaning. She thought he was going to just try out his luck there, finish touring and visiting these ces then return back and take a home here.

    In her eyes, this was quite expected. After all, who was the mad master to refuse living such a life, a life of kings and queens? She hurriedly ryed the news over, telling her leaders about what she got totally wrong.

    The leaders were now sitting with the different cities'' envoys when they got the news. At first, they felt the same disbelief as Fonda. But when she added herst remark, everyone felt this made quite sense.

    And yet the leaders and others from different cities decided to send formidable masters, tag along William and keep an eye over him. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William walked outside the city without looking back. He took out the three maps describing the route towards the different dangerous ces and examined them again.

    The three ces were thousands of kilometres away from this city. A normal journey towards there would take a week or two, and that by just running continuously without even taking a single moment of rest.

    Yet he wasn''t that confident in his ability to just run directly towards there. He couldn''t yet use his spirit in its full form, at most could use one tail.

    He tried many times to undo the seal with lots of arrays but failed. He thought he''d find anything useful about this seal in the tons of scrolls he read, but he didn''t find any clue.

    William thought the seal would grow weaker the more he resisted it, but that wasn''t the case. The tattoo on his chest wasn''t getting weaker, not after trying to change to one tail form.

    Every single time he took a rest to copy the scrolls, he''d change into one tailed form. From all these attempts, he learnt that he could still use his various spirit elements sessfully, but one at a time.

    Such a limitation greatly lowered his fighting prowess. And that was why he nned to not risk going out and fighting freely against any monsters or dark masters.

    The bad news was that two out of these three dangerous ces were situated near dark masters'' cities.

    As Angelica said before, this continent was entirely controlled by the dark masters. Yet these masters didn''t have such control over everything, and there were many spots where normal masters were living and fighting them.

    The cities that sent their masters epting his offer all came from these cities. And as they were scattered along vast ces, they needed months to travel towards that city, trying to evade the authority of the dark masters in the continent.

    Only one dangerous ce was in an area that didn''t fall under the control of dark masters. And William decided to start with this one first, try out his luck.

    This ce was like a colossal ce filled with swamps. ording to the intel provided by the city leaders, the ce was covered up with toxic green fog, thick enough to block the sight of anything deeper than one hundred metres.

    The swamp region had two known zones, the outer and inner ones. The outer zone was dangerous, stretched out for tens of kilometres, but it wasn''t life threatening, not like the inner zone.

    Masters could go into the outer swamp and adventure through it, kill monsters living within, collect their cores and materials, before returning back.

    The main threat didn''te from the fog itself. ording to the intel written on the map, this fog caused faint numbness and a bit of weakness, one that wasn''t deadly and could be countered easily by healing potions.

    Monsters were the main deadly threat in the outer zone. They could vanish using the dirty toxic water of the swamps, the hard to see through fog, and the difficult terrain there.

 Chapter 820 A Scary Journey

    ?

    ording to the history of the region, this was once a site of an ancient battle. A grand war happened here, but there was no single record about it except for these rumours and mythic tales.

    William didn''t know if these stories were true or not, but he knew the main problem still was the inner zone. Not a single master who went there ever managed toe back, not even those at the pinnacle of power.

    There wasn''t a single useful intel about this zone except the description of it. The inner zone was marked by a gigantic toxic green cloud that covered a grand area of almost a hundred kilometres in radius, with thick tongues of thunder hammering through the green fog all the time.

    William knew such a scene would be a marvel to behold and witness. As for what was inside this cloud, he knew it would be a very toxic and eroding atmosphere, one that wasn''t any different than the one he came through towards this world in the first ce.

    One reason for his selection of starting with this dangerous zone was because it wasn''t under the control of the dark forces. Another reason was for this deadly fog in the inner zone. He felt its resemnce with the toxic fog that appeared before at the Novistic kingdom''s capital.

    Back then, touching this toxic fog stirred up his dormant snake spirit, instigating a merge between his two spirits back then. He wanted to see if by going there, his sealed spirits would go berserk and break the seal or not.

    His chances were even as hecked lots of intel about that ce. And yet he was willing to take the risk. Just walking around with one tail and one element at a time was really quite dangerous for him.

    William wasn''t concerned just about this world, but when he''d return back to his tiny world. The Nightmare monster was already strong, and he had to struggle using all his might before to take his clone down.

    If he went back with such power, he''d be screwed. So, William moved towards his destination with a single idea in his mind, to solve the problem of this annoying seal once and for all.

    *Roar!*

    "Get away from my sight, damn monsters!"

    But the journey he thought of as a walk in the park before started to take a rough turn. His fighting ability and pattern changed drastically, and he had to struggle to take monsters down.

    He kept using his dash technique all the time, but without the support of his spirit, he was like a turtlepared to before.

    Not to mention his fighting strength shrank by a great margin. The main element he used in fighting was fire, letting monsters burn from inside out, die with a single hit. Yet he had first to break their defences before doing that.

    He kept alternating between his elements, using different techniques, to wear monsters'' thick defences down. The moment an opening showed up, a deep wound or something, he''d not hesitate and unleash all his might through it, melting the inner organs down and killing the monster.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    If he tried to use his fire element attack on the full and intact monster, the might of the attack would go weak. Not to mention many monsters he faced were quite intelligent, using techniques instead ofing straight at him using brute force and their giant bodies.

    He had to suffer under their ws, suffering lots of wounds while steadily walking forward. He crossed lots of distance towards his destination, leaving behind a long trail of dead bodies and scars of fierce battles.

    "At least I''m gaining progress at my spirit power," this was the only good piece of news he got since starting his adventure. The cores he got didn''t wait for a day or two before he absorbed them. And made him gain lots of spirit points, not like how he got before after waiting for weeks.

    He spent two weeks just to cross half of the distance he was supposed to cross. Monsters didn''t appear for the first couple tens of kilometres, but after that it was like fighting bees and not monsters.

    William had at many asions to ditch lots of cores away, not collect them, or else he''d lose his life.

    Being weak wasn''t the only problem he faced, but therge number of monsters that flooded his path every single time he started fighting a group of them. He didn''t know why, but monsters in this area seemed to have strong senses, detecting his presence so damn fast, and gathered up to attack him.

    So, he had to run away with his life, running from lots of monsters whenever he found the situation grew intense for him. In the end, and after fighting for two weeks, he gained just a couple of hundred cores, adding three more thousand points to his spirit power.

    "I onlyck two thousand and then I''ll enter the dark gold realm," William knew the task that he thought to take longer time didn''t take that long actually. And that was all thanks to this world''s monsters.

    Yet in thest few days, he noticed that the amount of spirit power points gained by devouring each core decreased greatly. He didn''t find it surprising. After all, the higher his power rose, the less his Devour ability''s effect became.

    He was resting inside a cave in a big mountain. Thest battle and runsted for three days straight, and he just ended up devouring the rest of his cores by now.

    He ate his dried-up meals, drank water, and looked outside to check if monsters followed him here or not.

    Thinking about sleeping or getting a few hours of rest was something dangerous for him. He had to keep travelling all the time, even at night.

    When he first left the city, he thought that the journey towards the Swamp zone would be quite smooth.

 Chapter 821 Its Revenge Time!

    ?

    There wasn''t a single city around the path he selected. But that didn''t help him in the end.

    William didn''t know that the seal he had wasn''t that simple. It carried the scent of the Hot Snownds, and it''d grow thicker the more he resisted it.

    If he let the seal work its effect and didn''t partially break it using his arrays, then he wouldn''t have faced such a weird situation against monsters.

    It wasn''t the problem of monsters having strong senses to his battles or humans, but it was because of him acting like a ma for trouble. Anywhere he went, his scent would start to spread out fast, covering up an area of tens of kilometres around, turning monsters crazy and drawing them all towards him.

    This was all rted to the true origin of this seal. The ones who were behind such a thing in the first ce made sure that no one with the ability to break this curse would survive long enough in this world, fearing to teach another master the right way to undo the seal or something.

    William was fighting against a big scheme, one that was much bigger than what he initially thought.

    William continued his adventure forward, while what he was doing was all spotted and closely watched by the masters sent out by various cities.

    If they didn''t see him change into a form of a monster, with one tail and fox ears, they''d have doubted such tales and would have mistaken him for a monster.

    Yet it happened right before their eyes. And then more shocking things happened. William kept fighting densely packed monsters all the time, and didn''t enjoy long minutes of rest. For a reason they didn''t get, monsters ran from various regions towards here,ing at him and trying to take him down.

    And yet they all failed, either by dying on his hands or by him running quite fast. As they watched this happening for many days, they started to notice something more bizarre than that.

    "His power¡­ Is it rising up or is it just me?" one of them asked using spirit telepathy, and others responded with the same doubts.

    There wasn''t a single incident before, when one master would grow strong by simply fighting. They kept watching, and such doubt was confirmed after the passage of two weeks.

    When they ryed such news back to their friends and leaders at the city, the ones there questioned such intel. But as all of them confirmed it, there was no room for doubt.

    "He must be a special master, one who can rise up in power with more fights," one of the formidable masters leading one city''s envoy said, and many nodded in agreement.

    "I believe that''s the reason behind his decision back then," another said, referring to William''s unexined and illogical decision about going out and adventure at dangerous ces.

    "Shall we give him a helping hand or what?" This question kept repeating during the past two weeks. At first, masters didn''t want to help to see what William was capable of. And when they heard about his ability to change into a monstrous form, something they confirmedter on from Angelica, they decided to keep watching, to learn how he did it, and what abilities he had, different from other masters in the world.

    "Let''s watch from the shadows," one master said, "if those despicable dark masters appeared, then we''ll let our masters deal with them."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "I want to see him fight!"

    "Me too!"

    "Then let them record what they are seeing using dark gold recording orbs," another said, "they have the ability to record anything one''s spirit sense is seeing."

    "Good point."

    Like this William''s fight and struggle turned into a way of amusement for all of the masters, either following him or back in the city.

    The hero of this tale was fighting like crazy without a single moment of rest. He consumed elixirs like running water, and he started to use lots of healing potions and elixirs as well.

    "I never had to use a single healing elixir in normal battles for a long time already," he sighed after the passage of ten more days. By this point, he could already see the outer grandyer of the swarm zone from far away.

    He was still far away from this zone, but it felt like that ce emitted a special aura of itself, pushing away all the monsters despite their desire to eat William.

    William was now standing in his ce, looking at the grand collection of monsters that kept gathering up. They marked the ce around, forming a circr line that not a single monster dared to cross.

    He was now standing less than five kilometres away from that line, watching them while eating and drinking. After standing in his ce for a long hour, he decided to sit down and rest.

    "If you don''t dare to step in, then let me show you part of what you made me taste," after resting on the ground for ten hours straight, William decided to go and kill a few monsters.

    The monsters never dared to step in that line, yet they never stoppeding towards here. After all these hours, the sight in front of him was one that was filled with tons of monsters, filling the world to the horizon without an end.

    He knew trying to kill all of them was a futile dream. But he just wanted to vent out part of his frustration swelling inside him after getting chased and hurt for all these days.

    If he got his spirit body, he''d not hesitate to try and kill all of them. After all, all of these were cores that could help him advance. But he knew trying to bypass that protective line, going out there to grab these cores was like a death wish for him at this moment.

    He went towards that line, and started to use his long-distanced attacks, killing lots of monsters for hours.

 Chapter 822 Making Grenades

    ?

    After doing this for an entire day, he stopped, looked at the thick and densely packed monsters that seemed to not show any decrease at all, shook his head, and then left.

    All this was watched and recorded by many masters that William didn''t know of their existence. No one knew why these monsters didn''t dare to step forward, and yet they all acknowledged and appreciated what William did.

    Thetter walked towards the fog zone. The closer he got, the more he felt how familiar it was. The shape of fog, its distribution and thickness, all were like the fog that bellowed from the holes back at that underground space at the Novistic capital.

    Yet this fog seemed a bit thinner. "I believe it''s because this is the outer zone," William muttered to himself, before standing in front of the swamp area.

    The world looked a bit simr to how it was when he stood at the edge of the portal zone. When he travelled across the area filled with scary and colossal flying monsters, he arrived at the edge of it, looking at the world out there as if he was looking at a totally different world.

    The world inside that fog was without a sky, only green colour prevailed. The fog moved in torrents, like wind bellowing a thick gathering of dust or something.

    The lighting into that ce was all green, in different grades and intensity, giving the ce a very ominous feeling. As for the ground, it was indeed filled with giant swamps, filled with dirty ck waters, bushes that lined thend around them with dark green, red, purple, and ck colours.

    William didn''t go directly inside, started to walk around the edge of this zone while trying to get as much intel as possible before going inside.

    From the city leaders, he got a lot of information about the monsters waiting for him inside the swamp zone. The deadliest were the armoured crocodiles, the feathered snakes, and the blue furred scorpions.

    William didn''t recognise these monsters, but there was enough data for him to know their main deadly features. The main most dangerous aspect was for these monsters'' ability to hide from one''s sight and even senses.

    William tried to spread out his spirit sense, see through that swamp zone for kilometres, yet failed. The moment his spirit sense passed through the edge of this zone, and it felt like it met with burning fire, eating it away.

    William knew this was the effect of this fog. So, masters going inside had to be extremely vignt all the time, watching every angle, and be ready to fight all the time.

    That was also why anyone going in there had to do it in the form ofrge teams, not just solo. Going there alone was a suicidal mission, one that no sane master would do.

    William knew his limits quite well, especially when there were lots of dark gold monsters in that swamp zone. He didn''t depend on the intel provided to him by the city leaders, and kept watching the swamp area, looking for monsters for long hours.

    He remained patient, didn''t hurry to go in and kept walking around this zone. As he did that, he started to notice different monsters swimming inside the dirty water or moving from one swamp into another.

    He had to be extremely focused to see these monsters. After all, their colours weren''t that much different than the gloomy colours inside that zone.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "This is going to be tricky if I just walked inside and waited for them toe for me," William kept thinking about the right way to go inside the swarm zone. And as he took his time like this, other masters tagging along were also feeling curious about what he nned to do.

    They all knew about this infamous region, like other ominous and dangerous areas in the continent. No one was brave enough to step inside all by himself. And from William''s actions so far, they got the impression that he was up to something.

    As they kept watching, William sat on the ground after walking around for one day straight. They mistook his intentions as if he wanted to rest. Yet when they watched him taking out lots of stuff, ovens, anvil, hammer, and lots of ores and materials, they were surprised.

    "Don''t tell me he wants to forge something¡­"

    "Right now?! No way!!"

    "What went wrong in his head?"

    Just as they were curious to see what he wanted to do, William started to melt down ores in various ovens, held his hammer, and began to cleanse them.

    He wasn''t the same weak white grade spirit master he was when he first did that back at the Aspire academy, nor was he the same bronze master who did it back at the Long n.

    He held the hammer after activating his one tail form, held it with his tail, and used the lightning element to add speed to his moves.

    William wanted to make something simr to his grenades. He already exhausted tons of them before, and had few left over, not enough to secure his path towards the inner zone of this area.

    He didn''t have the same skills as his talented Artisans, but he knew few tricks to make up for this. In return for not having the right affinity and skills, he would use runes written on the surface of the finished products, adding more explosive nature to them, turning them into real grenades.

    He knew the overall explosive might of these weren''t even close to the real grenades he got from his guild. So he nned to produce tons of these, to make up for theck of quality with quantity.

    He didn''t n to make anything sophisticated this time, just stuck to the basics and kept cleansing the ores he just melted.

    He knew even if he used advanced hammering and forging techniques and skills, the end result wouldn''t differ that much.

 Chapter 823 Finalising His Preparations

    ?

    In return for that, William would waste lots of time in return, and would produce a smaller number of grenades in the end.

    Yet he used a few tricks and skills of hammering the melted ores, using all his might and boosting his speed with his lightning element. The task that''d usually take an hour or more to do was done in mere minutes.

    He already expected that. So, he took out more ovens at first, and started melting down lots of ores, making use of all ovens all the time.

    His spirit power was much higher than thest time he forged, and that was why he didn''t feel tired as fast as before. At the same time, he wasn''t that poor master, one without resources, potions, or elixirs. Whenever he felt his spirit power decreasing to a low level, he''d use a potion to raise it up.

    As he got absorbed in doing this, two days passed. In the end, he made up tens of thousands of ball shaped items, each one was the size of one''s closed fist.

    They were silver-white in colour, with circr and irregr ck lines covering its surface. William knew he just finished half of the task. "If I use simply ancient letters, the explosive nature will be around one tenth of the standard grenades I have. But if I used something extra, then¡­"

    His thoughts drifted towards something different. What made Sith and his friends unique wasn''t just their ability to forge strong and deadly grenades, but their ability to remotely control them.

    This made it possible toy down a minefield. He knew this was mainly thanks to their ability to do something simr to what he did with his flying weapons. And yet there was a difference between the two.

    "They need to be close to the minefield to activate it, literally next to it. As for me, I can control my weapons for hundreds of metres, up to one thousand metres now. If I integrate this into my grenades, then I can throw them away like candies and detonate them when needed¡­"

    He knew he made a lot of grenades, but taking into ount therge area he was going to travel through, and the mysterious inner zone that no one knew anything about, he decided to take more time and make more grenades.

    As he was making grenades for an entire week, he got a sudden inspiration on the third day. He had opposing spirit elements. If he managed to infuse them inside the grenades, then things would be much better.

    He tried to infuse the elements in the middle of the forging process, but he failed. He knew he needed to spend more time and care in making every grenade, not just producing them in batches like he was doing in the past days.

    "Let me try to infuse them at the end," he had to ept such failure and not try to pursue full mark sess this time. He kept mass producing his grenades without pause for an entire week, surprising all the watching masters from far.

    They already guessed what he was trying to make. Grenades were present in this world as well and got an infamous reputation thanks to their weak effects. That made grenades pretty useless in the eyes of masters of this world.

    "He is wasting his time¡­"

    "Shall we step in and help?"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Poor kid¡­ I want to go and help him now¡­"

    Masters watching what was going on felt more sympathy towards William. More wanted to go out there and stand by his side, but their leaders refused such a thing.

    The leaders couldn''t see what William was doing, but they didn''t buy that such a special master would lean to such useless measures. In their eyes, William was up to something. And they wanted to see what it was.

    So they prevented their people from showing up. At the same time, they asked them to be ready to go inside that fog after William, to try to see what he was doing.

    The intel William got about the limitations of the fog to spirit sense was real, but the limitation range provided was for gold grade masters like him. As for dark gold grade, and ones at the pinnacle on top of that, the range would rise up to reach thousands of metres.

    That might look helpful, but it wasn''t. The spirit sense could only scan things over the surface of the dirty waters and swamps and couldn''t see anything deep inside these ces.

    That meant they had more range of visibility, without being that much useful. The only use would be for detecting the locations of monsters when attacking members in their team, and that would let them go to these spots and kill these monsters.

    Yet that great range of vision was enough to let them track William inside that fog without thetter even noticing their presence.

    As for William, the moment he finished forging his grenades, he tried to infuse two opposing elements inside. But after many failed attempts, he knew this wasn''t going to work.

    "At least I can add to friendly elements together, adding a little more destructive power," he decided to infuse his light and lightning elements inside the grenades, not knowing how much difference this would end up with.

    As he used two friendly elements, nothing happened, and each grenade epted the infusion. To make things easier and swift for him, he decided to use a spirit power concentrating array, infuse his elements within, and let lots of grenades absorb them.

    Doing so didn''t just add these two elements, but high amounts of spirit power without him realising it. He spent three days doing this, before spending an entire week to write down the rune letters over these grenades.

    He settled on using the letters with the most destructive nature, like Explode, Disintegrate, and Destroy.

    "He is going inside!" After one more week passed, William gathered everything he made in his rings, switched the rings on his fingers to include the ones with these grenades, weapons, potions and elixirs.

 Chapter 824 The Terrifying Grenades

    ?

    These were his essential and most needed war supplies for what he was going to face.

    And then he started to walk steadily towards the fog, not fearing anything inside.

    The moment he started to walk through the fog, he felt like he touched something made out of thin ice. Cracking noises kepting all the time, while hearing sizzling sounds from time to time.

    He felt like he was moving on eggshells, passing throughyers of semi-solid water, cracking under his feet and body.

    "This is new," as he walked inside the fog for a few minutes, he got ustomed to such weird happenings. And once he did, he started to feel something different in his chest. He exposed it, and there he found the seal shining for a few seconds before fading away, then shining out again.

    "This fog does really stir up this seal, fantastic," William was d that what he expected before happened. This fog was indeed simr to the one he passed through before toe to this world, having the same corrosive and deadly nature.

    Just by walking in the outer region, the seal got stirred up and seemed like it was beating or something. William could tell this wasn''t enough to break it, and he didn''t get dejected for that.

    "This is just the outermostyer of the outer zone. I''m sure the deeper I went, the weaker this seal would be¡­" he clung to such hope and depended on the innermost zone of this area to cleanse his body from this annoying seal.

    Even if the fog in thatyer didn''t manage to break the seal, he nned to use the same breaking arrays he once used, the ones that ended up breaking part of this seal and let him use one tail form.

    What was happening to him was just perceived only by him. For other masters watching and tagging along from far behind, they saw nothing unusual, not until William got attacked by the first monster.

    William was walking around, absorbed in checking the seal and seeing if anything changed in his body. Just less than ten minutes after he went inside, he heard a muffled sounding from his right, followed by a low ssh noise as if something was getting out of water towards him.

    *ng!*

    William was spreading his spirit sense to cover just one hundred metres around. So, the moment that crocodile exitted the swamp water, William responded timely with his ive.

    He didn''t dare to use his sword, as this crocodile was around five metres in length. Letting such a big monstere closer to him thanks to the short length of his sword was a mistake.

    Yet when the ive met the monster, William felt like he was hit by a falling rock or something. His arms trembled, and his muscles went numb for a few seconds.

    "Damn! It''s more ferocious and sturdier than the reports say," he hurriedly distanced himself away from this monster, to be weed with other attacksing from different directions.

    More crocodiles jumped off the swamps around, and he got to see the full picture of them. They got the heads of crocodiles, with bodies that were covered with thickyers of scaled skin, each taking different shapes and sizes. Looking at them made William feel like they stacked many armours on top of each other without an order, giving them an ugly appearance.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Yet the reports were right, they were all dark green in colour, easily missed in the special terrain around. The crocodiles came out of the water and moved at an abnormal high speed, as if they were jumping and dashing towards him.

    "They give me the impression of being just at silver grade, mostly at the early stages of the gold grade¡­ But f*ck! They have a very thick defence, enough to rival dark gold monsters in the tiny world¡­"

    William kept dashing right and left, evading the iing attacks from these crocodiles. They threw darts fast towards him, and he didn''t want to test what these darts would do if he got hit.

    He didn''t head deep into the swamps and just kept dashing in circles near the border. He wanted to have a safe way out if he ever got cornered.

    As he was moving fast and trying to crack the hard shells of these crocs, the masters who were watching him from inside the fog couldn''t help but feel a bit worried.

    "He is struggling¡­"

    "We have to intervene and rescue his life¡­"

    "That''s what happens when someonees here alone, tsk!"

    Just as they were speaking like this, William suddenly took out a few grenades from what he just made. He threw them around, covering up the tens of crocodiles chasing after him.

    Once he did that, he turned around, didn''t hesitate to dash directly towards the outer world. The masters thought he was giving up, yet they underestimated him, belittled his grenades.

    William knew his grenades weren''t as strong or deadly as the ones he got from Sith and others in the guild. But he was sure they would release deadly explosions.

    As he didn''t know the full scoop of these grenades, and without his full spirit body, he decided to throw them, dash away from this fog, and watch what his grenades would do.

    "As expected, these monsters won''t dare toe out¡­" *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Just when he went outside, not a single crocodile dared to follow. And before he''d continue his words, the grenades started to explode.

    He activated the grenades the moment he dashed outside, even before he''d stand firm on the ground. "Hmm¡­ There is a few secondsg before these grenades would explode¡­" he muttered to himself, taking note of such a point, while watching the fireballs rising up inside that green fog.

    The moment explosions happened, and the fog started to get restless. William could only see one hundred metres through the fog before.

 Chapter 825 The Safe Zones

    ?

    Yet with the fierce and loud explosions, the thick and bright fireballsing out, he could now see for hundreds of metres inside.

    He threw a hundred grenades around as a test, distanced them to test his ability to control their detonation. The closest ones to him took a few seconds to detonate, while the furthest ones took close to half a minute.

    This made the explosive noises happening continuously for a few minutes as if the world was going to end. And just after the first minute, he could see lots of fog getting purified and eaten away, clearing the areas affected by his grenades'' fire and turning them into normalnd.

    This looked as if a rodent was eating a cookie piece by piece. William watched all this with surprise. He never expected that by using light and lightning elements together, they''d produce such marvellous effects.

    It wasn''t just limited to the devastative power of this attack, but also the purifying nature apanying each explosion. As for monsters, be it crocodiles or other monsters, they ended up getting killed under such fierce attacks.

    The grenades exploded and released massive balls of fire at first, then they started to expand outwards, spreading fire over arge area of the swamp.

    The fire that expanded wasn''t able to repeat the same purifying effect of the initial explosion of the grenades, yet they were domineering enough to threaten the lives of any living creature within the swamp.

    "Damn this kid! What the heck did he make?!"

    "Is there a grudge between him and us or what? Is he trying to kill us?!!"

    "These grenades¡­ They aren''t like anything I''ve ever seen before. It''s great I recorded it!"

    Just as the grenades exploded, the watching masters were all shocked, but didn''t stop themselves from running away. When the fire spread, it covered up areas of many kilometres, enveloping them if they didn''t move out a bit earlier.

    Watching the infamous grenades for their uselessness releasing such mighty explosions was an eyeopener for all of them. They were already recording what William was doing, and that meant the process to produce these grenades were already recorded as well.

    Yet they didn''t get the main trick that turned such weak grenades to be like this. After all this would be over, they''d return back with these recordings and start showing them to Artisans. They''d try to mimic what William did, producing much stronger grenades than what they used to know, but nothing close to what William did.

    As for thetter, he kept standing on the edge watching fire spreading into the foggy area. One hundred circr areas were cleared totally of fog, monsters, and swamps, showing a rugged terrain with lots of holes, ridges, and charcoal ck coloured soil.

    William went to examine these areas where the fire receded and died down. The fog didn''t return to cover these regions, as if it feared touching them or something. As for the swamp areas touched by the scorching fire inside the fog, they still were covered with fog, much thinner than before, yet it was still there.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He couldn''t tell how much his grenades explosions affected and changed the world inside the fog from his spot, but he could tell things were looking much better than before.

    "Hmm¡­ These regions look normal as any other spot in the world," he examined the cleansed areas thoroughly, trying to get the full scoop of his grenades, "that means the centre of my grenades'' explosions will change to normal. And that will be a forbidden area for monsters in the fog¡­"

    He started to think deeper about how to use this to his advantage. He couldn''t tell if such an effect would happen at the innermost zones of the fog or not. But at least he secured a safe and resting spot for himself during his march in the swamp outer areas.

    The moment he realised this; William didn''t hurry to continue his advance. Instead, he retreated, started to make more grenades.

    At first, he thought of them as a means to kill his way towards the inner zone. But now, he took it as a way to further protect himself. So, he spent one more week making more grenades, ending up doubling the amount he already had.

    "I''m ready now," William walked towards the fog area again. This time, he knew what he had to do. The moment he stepped inside, he didn''t fight back any monster and just jumped around, gathering as many of them as possible.

    At the same time, he kept getting deeper, not moving in circles in the outer zone. After gathering up enough monsters, enough to the extent he couldn''t handle anymore, he started to throw out his grenades and then detonate them.

    He made sure to dash multiple times before activating them. Then he used the timeg before their detonation to further expand his distance from monsters.

    The masters following him learnt their lesson quite well, keeping themselves away from the reach of these explosions. When William moved away, they started to run as well, getting as far away from him as possible.

    "Hmm¡­ I didn''t get many cores¡­ My grenades are that fierce to evaporate even cores," after doing this for hours, William muttered to himself while collecting the few cores after thest explosion.

    He was now standing in a wide space that his grenades created inside the fog. Since he learnt about his grenades'' unique ability, he started to throw these grenades together at the same spot, ending up creating a spacious area void of fog.

    He was now resting there after long hours of running and fighting. At first, he was able to outrun these monsters without the need to fight back. Yetter on, faster monsters appeared, and they increased in number, enough to block any possible retreat way for him.

    William had to fight for his life from time to time, to escape the tight encirclement imposed over him by the monsters.

 Chapter 826 Flying Hornets

    ?

    As William only had one tail form, he kept using his fire element, alternating it with lightning as well.

    Fire was domineering, but lightning had a strong purifying effect against fog and monsters. Both became his sharp sword against the monsters and fog, killing his path deeper without any hindrance.

    During all this, he kept feeling more heat and pain from his chest. The seal seemed to get more stirred up the deeper he marched in the fog. As he guessed, the fog at the outer zone was fainter and thinner than what was in the deeper areas.

    He used the ce created by his grenades to rest and keep weakening that seal. He used arrays, trying to crack another chain in this seal and enable him to use two tails at least.

    Yet after all these hours he didn''t seed, not until now.

    "Phew! I finally broke another part of this damn seal," he stood up, taking the form of two tails, enabling him to use two elements at the same time.

    He examined himself. His body didn''t change much, but he grew slightly taller, and his muscles bulged than before. He was now stronger and faster than before, especially with the ability to use two tails.

    Even if he leant to use one element in this form, then he could use the other tail to hold a weapon. He kept using his ive and missed the time of using his sword.

    As he armed one tail with a sword, the masters watching him felt more puzzlement.

    "Can he grow another tail?!!"

    "What the heck?!!! Is he a descendant of a monster or what?!!!"

    "We have to report this back. I believe this will shock everyone back there."

    The various masters sent this news back to others in the city. And as they expected, such news surprised everyone there.

    William didn''t know he stirred up a storm back at the city. He started walking deeper, while feeling the pressure exerted over him decreased by arge margin.

    In this form, his strength increased by a big chunk, and his attacks became deadlier, harming more monsters and causing deeper wounds. And yet he was still unable to take down monsters like he used to before getting his spirit body sealed.

    He walked towards the deeper zones following the attack strategy he used from the start, with a slight change. He used the safe zones before to rest, yet after a few days of walking and fighting, he started to use them as a shelter from monsters.

    After these days, the number of monstersing out from the swamps was simply hard to control. He had to create safe zones using his grenades anywhere he went, took shelter there and killed monsters using long distance techniques.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    This was slightly like how he vented his rage over monsters when arriving in the region. And doing so helped to decrease lots of pressure over him.

    He started to use healing potions more than before, as he kept getting hit multiple times in every battle. The more he got hurt, the more he missed the time when he used his full spirit body.

    "If I have my spirit body, not a single bastard of you can touch a hair of mine!" he shouted back in rage while attending to a gruesome looking wound appearing on his left knee. He got hit by a scorpion, and he had to use both purifying elements and healing potions to contain the toxin and heal that wound.

    He rested inside one of the safe zones, inspecting things around. He kept fighting and running for days now, close to a week. And after all this time, it was clear that the deeper he went, the smaller the safe zone would be.

    "I hope inside that inner zone, my safe zone won''t be smaller than ten metres in diameter," he was now resting in a zone that wasn''trger than fifty metres.

    The safe zone started from expanding for hundreds of metres all the way to be formed of few tens of metres now. He knew this was thanks to the increase in the fog intensity the deeper he went.

    The only solution he got was to use more grenades each time to create this safe zone. He used one hundred grenades to create these zones before. But he had to repeatedly use them in the past couple of days, ending up spending lots of his stored grenades.

    As a precaution for running low on grenades, he started to use his rest times to make a few grenades. And every day he spent up to five hours making grenades alone.

    This helped to slightly replenish the lost grenades, but slowly his expenditure skyrocketed when a new breed of monsters appeared.

    "Flying toxic hos? What is this luck?!!"

    William first saw these nasty monsters after walking for two weeks inside this zone. He was already slowly advancing thanks to the densely packed monsters in the region. In the middle of one hectic run and battle, he heard a weird noise,ing from high above, making the hair on his back to stand to no end.

    He recognised this sound as the wind fluttering on the bodies of flying beasts. He turned towards its direction to see flying hos, with four pairs of transparent and fast pping wingsing towards him.

    Each monster was around one metre in length, not that big actually. Yet they came in suchrge numbers to make him feel even the gloomy dark green colour that prevailed the world of fog vanished and turned to pitch ckness of these monsters.

    The moment he saw them, he didn''t hesitate to take hundreds of grenades, throwing them towards these monsters, and activating them while running towards one safe zone.

    He was thousands of metres away. He managed to get inside thanks to his repeated dashes alongside the aftershock of the fierce explosions happening from his grenades.

    As he slowly cleared the mud and dust he suffered from such a rough fall, he turned towards the outside, thinking about how unlucky he was.

 Chapter 827 Planning To Hunt Down Flies

    ?

    William knew this world had flying monsters. The first sight he saw when he came to this world was a grand gathering of flying colossal beasts. Yet he didn''t think he''d face flying monsters in this zone, not after travelling for so long in this world and never meeting such flying monsters again.

    "My grenades can hit the monsters on the ground, partially hitting those flying using the shockwavesing out from them¡­ But they aren''t specialised enough to take down such flying beasts¡­"

    William sat in his safe zone, feeling no pressure at all. As long as he was in this area, nothing could touch him.

    He started to think about his techniques, spirit elements, and weapons. "My bow and arrows can handle them quite well¡­ I can use my wind techniques coupled with my dash move to get closer to them andnd a fierce hit. But the ground monsters had to be dealt with¡­"

    William started to select the techniques he''d use to hit the flying monsters. The first technique he selected was the Floating Tornado. It was mainly used to knock back enemies, weak ones, away from oneself by a tornado that floated around the master. But William modified it and made it carry him to rise for around ten metres over the ground.

    The tornado would stay for ten minutes. William could also control it to move around, yet its moving speed was low, not enough to evade any monster or aid in intense battles.

    The second technique he decided to use was the Sent Wind Arrow. It was one that would turn any weapon to be thrown out like an arrow, traversing hundreds of metres, hitting the target, then retracting back in mere seconds.

    William also modified this technique and made it able to turn himself into an arrow, send him for hundreds of metres, before returning him back to the ground.

    He just made it up for fun, modified the initial technique on a whim back when he was in the Scorching Lands city. But right now, this technique was going to be the cornerstone of his next battle strategy.

    The next technique he selected was the Short Explosive Shot Air technique. It was used mainly to distract enemies close by, throwing bolts of air in explosive way from one''s palms, crossing short distances of a few metres only.

    They weren''t that effective in battles, especially with someone like William who had a much better dash technique.

    "If I used the Sent Wind Arrow technique first, propelling me towards the distant flying hos, then followed it with the Floating Tornado technique, then I can hover in the air for a few minutes. As to change my position and move, or jump from one spot to another, the Short Explosive Shot Air technique will help¡­"

    William was finalising his fighting strategy with these hos. He didn''t fear the toxic fog, but he had to worry about something else.

    "I can''t just trap myself up there, without moving forward," he knew using his grenades lost most of their value right now. And if he did it the way he thought about, he''d end up entrapped up there without even slowly advancing forward.

    "I can use my dash technique up there, moving horizontally for hundreds of metres, storing up my attacks while stabilising my body using the Short Explosive Shot Air and Floating Tornado techniques¡­"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He thought about how to move towards the inner zones of this area. If he did that, then he''d slowly lose altitude and fall. Not to mention he was fighting against flying beasts, ones who could fly in the air as if they were running on the ground.

    He had vast experience in fighting against flying monsters. And that made him not that confident in his ability to take down lots of hos without taking lots of hits back.

    "They are living in the inner zones of this area, most probablying from the most inner zones there¡­ That means they are highly toxic, and might also release corrosive attacks as well¡­"

    He looked at the flying swarms of hos far in the distant sky. Just looking at them wasn''t enough to talk much about their nature.

    He had to fight them first and see what they were able to do. But before that, he released his two giant weapons, letting them handle the ground monsters first.

    He had to control them to attack, and that increased the pressure over himself. To maintain perfect control, he used an elixir bottle that could enhance one''s mind sharpness to a higher degree.

    He released his two monstrous weapons first, armed them up with grenades. He didn''t have the mind to further control how they''d spread these grenades around, and hoped his luck would be good and many grenades would be scattered near each other.

    A single grenade wouldn''t create a safe zone wider than a few tens of centimetres in diameter. That made just using them sporadically wasn''t effective, not helpful at all.

    As he stood inside the safe zone, he watched his two behemoths sprint out and fight the monstersing out from the swamps. If he exerted full control over them, he''d be able to replicate the same performance of his, or even better.

    But just a few minutester, swarms of hos came down to take a bite off his weapons. Luckily, they got strong defences, not made out of flesh but from sturdy ores.

    The flying hos weren''t that weak either. Each got two sharp curved ws that extended from their mouths, munching small pieces of his two precious weapons without much problem.

    William knew if this continued, his two monstrous weapons would be eaten away. The two already suffered damage before at the grand battle back at Lara''s city and at the Blue Hills. He repaired them, but he knew they weren''t in their perfect form yet.

    "Time to test out these hos," it was a perfect chance as the hos were flying low.

 Chapter 828 The Magic Show Begins

    ?

    So, William didn''t hesitate and used his Sent Wind Arrow technique, propelling himself like a rocket towards the hos out there.

    The moment he arrived, he let his ive and sword work over these monsters. Coupled with the lightning element, he was able to tear apart lots of these hos'' wings in no time.

    He aimed precisely for the wings as they were the only advantage these monsters had. Cutting their wings down would turn them into helpless ground monsters, easier to handle than other ground ones.

    His first impact left behind tens of hos dead and hundreds of them falling on the ground. Yet the flying hos didn''t give him the chance to follow up with more attacks as they started to fly higher, pulling the distance between them and the ground even longer.

    He didn''t intend to follow through. He picked up many wingless hos, kicked them all the way towards the nearest safe zone.

    Then he started to test various techniques and elements against them, using these hos as his test subjects.

    "Hmm¡­ Fire doesn''t work against them like how it used to be¡­" the first thing he noticed was for his fire element to not bring the same damage to these hos. He didn''t know why, but only lightning, light, and water elements worked fine against them.

    His other elements didn''t seed to cause enough damage to these hos. As for his weapons, he found out that his sword was much deadlier and sharper than anything else, even his ive.

    "That exins why my grenades failed before to kill lots of them¡­" he was slightly puzzled by this. Yet he now knew the answer. Even if his grenades had light and lightning elements, they depended mainly on fire elements to bring forth their usual destruction.

    As he realised this point, he waited patiently for another swarm of hos to fall down and attack his two monstrous weapons. When that happened, he didn''te out like before, took out a bow and started raining these hos using his arrows.

    "It''s as expected, not that much effective¡­" he watched how many hos flew away safely from the depths of the fireballs created by his explosive arrows, "this is by far my first time to see my flying arrows fail me¡­"

    He muttered to himself in slight bitterness, knowing that he had to modify these arrows if he wanted them to cause enough destruction and damage. To do so, he had different options, all were time consuming, and he knew the end result wasn''t going to be that satisfying.

    "It''s a waste," after thinking about this for a few minutes, he decided against doing this. He tried something different, releasing many arrows at the same time, while binding his grenades with their cylindrical wooden bodies.

    They flew a little slower than before, covered a smaller distance, but the end result was much better. At least half of the number of hos that used to fly away from fire didn''te out, and the onesing out were showing lots of different wounds.

    Many fell to the ground as their wings got broken or filled with many holes and gaps, enough to interfere with them flying away. Seeing such a result was quite satisfying to him, especially when lots of surviving hos escaped after he released dozens of such arrows towards them.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    When he released his arrows before, these hos seemed to not smell any trouble from them. So, they never moved away or anything.

    William didn''t intend to follow them again. He started to take out tons of his arrows, bind his grenades to them, spending hours in doing so.

    During which, he let his two monstrous weapons cleanse the entire area around his safe zone. They got lucky and managed to establish four more safe zones in different distances, with lots of narrow and useless safe areas.

    He didn''t move until he finished preparing enough arrows for his next battle. And then he mobilised to the furthest away safe area, after scaring the swarms of hos away using his arrows and grenades.

    After that, he started to execute his n. He released the two monstrous weapons on the ground, propelled himself using his wind technique, arriving at the densely packed swarms of hos in the sky, before stabilising himself using his Floating Tornado technique.

    He already reced his ive with his bow, releasing arrows the moment he arrived high up there. Being in such high altitude brought back memories, as he used to have a flying pet in the outer world.

    Flying gave any master weird confidence and superior strength in facing off monsters and enemies. And at this moment, William recalled that feeling, and forgot about all his worries and concerns.

    He started to fight using everything he got for hours, moving around using his dash technique, releasing tons of arrows and grenades, exploding together and bringing forth scary balls of deadly fire, lightening up the entire dimmed sky.

    This type of battle was an eye opener for the watching masters from far. Right now, William was already inside the deeper parts of this area, in a zone that wasn''t that much far away from the deadliest innermost zone.

    William wasn''t the only one suffering from the pressure of monsters, those masters were as well. But the flying ho monsters didn''te for them, only focused over William alone.

    Flying monsters weren''t that rare in this world, but dealing with them was a headache actually. Even if there was arge group of masters fighting and working together, it''d be a tough battle and risky gamble.

    No one ever saw flying hos or monsters in this area before. As they thought William was going to retreat, drop his interest in advancing, he pulled another miracle in front of their senses.

    They watched William take out two monstrous weapons and release them to fight the ground monsters. The moment these two appeared, the following masters had to question everything they knew about this world.

 Chapter 829 Things Are Harder Than What He Guessed

    ?

    "They aren''t living monsters¡­ I can tell they are man-made," one of them muttered, and many agreed with him.

    "Is he controlling them? Did he make them or what?!!"

    "Don''t tell me he is controlling them like a puppeteer! Like this, he has the fighting prowess of dark gold masters even before stepping into that realm!!!"

    They kept speaking among themselves while fighting monstersing out from the swamps around. When William dashed outwards and killed many hos, cleaving lots of their wings, they allmended and praised him.

    "Unluckily he can''t repeat such a method at the flying monsters far away from the ground, tsk!"

    This was their belief until William started releasing his explosive arrows. The result that didn''t satisfy William was quite good in their eyes.

    "He can shoot arrows quite well, that''s a surprise!"

    "These arrows are quite special¡­ They are exploding much fiercer than any known grenade in our world¡­"

    "I want to have fewer of these arrows, the more the better¡­"

    Just as they were discussing how to get a few of these arrows, William then released another volley, totally different this time.

    "This kid¡­ Damn!"

    "He used both his arrows and grenades, releasing much fiercer explosions and killing more of these hos."

    "He should stick inside the safe zones, depend on his arrows to secure himself while advancing¡­"

    Their thoughts drifted around thestment, thinking that William was going to advance slowly on the ground, hitting flying hos every time they came down to attack him.

    Yet when William moved, used his wind technique and rose high in the air, things became much more shocking to them.

    "He¡­"

    "No way! Is he going up there to fight them?"

    "Won''t he die if he fell from such height?!"

    "Don''t tell me he can fly!!!"

    Masters kept watching in shock while William went high up in the sky and started to light up the dimness there. William kept moving forward, not caring about anything else. As for these masters, they tried to follow, faced tons of difficulties, ending up using the same safe zones William left behind to rest and save their lives even on many asions.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The entire group of masters were hundreds in number, working previously in twenty separate groups. But right now, they all merged together, moving and fighting monsters in unison.

    "We can''t advance anymore," after a day and half, they finally reached their limit.

    "What is he? A monster? A machine?!!"

    "He is fighting monsters without a single moment of pause, using lots of elixirs to do so. It''s truly a blessing to be rich¡­"

    "Let''s stick here and watch. He is releasing bright explosions in the sky, and like this we can track what he is doing, to some extent at least."

    "Good point, let''s stay and rest."

    Just like this, the group of masters following him was pinned in their ce, taking shelter in few of William''s safe zones.

    As they decided to stay and not fight nor advance, they returned to scatter again into twenty groups. After travelling and fighting in the swamps for a long time, they lost many members, and many more were hurt and poisoned.

    William noticed their presence when they started to take shelter in his safe spots. He was fighting at high altitude, dealing with lots of monsters when he noticed the sudden appearance of arge group of masters, entering one of his safe zones.

    It wasn''t that difficult to spot them, especially with their high number and their presence in such a clear area. William was surprised at first, then decided to ignore their presence as if he didn''t notice anything.

    He guessed their origin, and knew they tagged along and watched him fight and do lots of things for a long time already. It wasn''t a problem if they kept tagging along, as there was no point in keeping his fighting style secretive anymore.

    William used his wind techniques coupled with his dashes to raise high in the air, fight monsters up there, and move forward at the same time. He thought he''d be able to stay up there for ten minutes at least, half an hour at most. But that didn''t happen.

    The longest he spent was just five minutes, and he struggled so hard to stay for that long. The moment he appeared high above, he''d have the upper hand against these hos. Yet he''d start losing such advantage with more time passing.

    More hos would flock him,e fast from all directions, and hit him hard. Even when he tried to move around using his dash technique, the hos were agile enough to keep track of him.

    He had to abandon his fighting adventure after a few minutes. The only thing that prevented these hos from swallowing him with their dense numbers was his explosive arrows and grenades.

    The first few times he had to run after staying up there for just one minute. He let his body fly freely, before using a mixture of his wind and dash techniques to change his route, evade lots of hos, and kill more at the same time.

    This made his fighting tactics change from focusing on killing these hos at the sky, to mainly hitting them while descending to the ground. And luckily, every single time he fell to the ground, tons of hos followed him like crazy, ending up losing many of their numbers under his arrows and grenades, sword and techniques.

    The main problem he faced was hisck of strong backing up there. If he got a flying pet, or even a flying monstrous weapon, then he''d be able to tear through all of these hos, the same way he did at the ground monsters.

    As for the ground battle, he entrusted everything to his two monstrous weapons. The grenades they released didn''t explode in the same area most of the time. Yet a new safe zone was created from time to time, providing him with safending spots.

 Chapter 830 Vanishing Into The Green Thunderstorm!

    ?

    After a few hours, he noticed that the grenades thrown out by the two monstrous weapons weren''t creating any safer spots. So, he started to rain down the ground with his explosive arrows and grenades every time he got time to.

    He made sure to create a fewnding spots, as he wasn''t sure of where he''dnd under the fierce pursuit of the flying monsters. Yet what he did greatly decreased the pressure over his two monstrous weapons, letting them fight more freely and kill more monsters than before.

    William was feeling the pressure since the moment he started doing this. He was fighting a hectic battle in the air, while controlling his two monstrous weapons to kill monsters on the ground. Not to mention he had to timely detonate the grenades, to not let any of them be missed, or he''d move away from their detection range.

    Jumping to the air, fighting flying Hos, ending upnding on the ground at a safe zone, William kept doing this for long hours, even days!

    The distance that separated him from the innermost region wasn''t that vast to begin with. He could have crossed it in less than half a day. But he had to spend more than three days thanks to all the pressure and challenges he faced.

    The greatest challenge he met was the grenades. They ran low when he started to see the inner zone shadow.

    That zone was exactly as described in the maps. There was a seemingly endless gathering of thick and opaque dark green fog, taking the form of a colossal ball, stretching out for tens of kilometres, linking the ground with the sky.

    Just seeing it from afar made William feel an awe. There were thick tongues of lightning dancing all over it, making it look like a grand green thunderstorm.

    As he started to see it from far, William ran a rough check over his grenades and arrows. Luckily, he amassed tons of arrows during the past five years. Yet the grenades were a big problem for him.

    "I used more than expected in both frontiers," he muttered to himself, while knowing this was a situation that couldn''t be evaded.

    He knew deep within that mysterious zone, everything was possible. So, he had to enter there fully prepared, armed up with enough grenades to fight a war for a month or more.

    He didn''t hurry to make more grenades and kept pushing forward for twelve hours. After which he stopped just next to the edge of the inner zone, safeguarding himself inside a wide safe area.

    Then he started to madly produce grenades, without caring about how much time he spent in doing this.

    The masters following him already lost track of his sight a long time ago. They kept watching him rise high in the air, descend while lightening up the sky with lots of explosions like fireworks on Christmas eve.

    "Where did he go?"

    "Is he¡­"

    "No way! He is so mysterious and surprising to die this young!"

    "You know the saying; early bloomers explode early."

    Just as William went off radar for a day, the masters who were now resting inside the safe zones of his started to grow worried about him.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They grew attached to him without realising it, without even directly interacting with him. Just following him throughout this journey,ing this far, watching what he did, was truly a deep experience for all of them.

    "Let''s gather up and advance then," as they waited for two more days without seeing even a shadow of William, they decided to take the risk and go forward.

    Yet it wasn''t that easy to go forward. If not for the many safe zones William spread randomly all over the ce with the help of his two monstrous weapons, they''d have lost more of their members without advancing too much forward.

    They spent five days crossing the remaining distance towards the inner zone. It was expected to take this long, and yet they didn''t see a glimpse of William.

    "This kid¡­"

    "Damn! How can he be so calm in such a situation? Surrounded by all these enemies?"

    Many eximed in surprise and doubt the moment their senses picked up William''s trail. They found him working like crazy, filling up hundreds of ovens with tons of ores, before starting to madly hammer the melted ores down.

    "He is making grenades?!!!"

    "Didn''t you make lots of them already? Why make them again?!!!"

    Seeing him work like this revived the old scenes they witnessed when he worked to make grenades. Yet this time was a bit different, totally different, as William was working using his full might, using his two tails and even galloping potions like water.

    William was too focused to notice their approach. And even if he did, he wouldn''t even care. He was now focusing totally on producing as much of these grenades as possible.

    He got the feeling that the moment he''d go into that gigantic dark green thunderstorm cloud, he''d not have the time to even scratch the back of his head.

    After spending two weeks in preparations, William finally stopped what he was doing. He didn''t just make grenades, but also tried to break the seal on his spirit many times without seeding.

    "At least I''m feeling it getting weaker with every time I use these arrays," he muttered to himself, while checking that brightly shining seal on his chest.

    It wasn''t pulsating like before, but constantly shining like a little star. Before he used his breaking arrays, the light kept pulsating once every few seconds. It gave him a bad feeling, as if he was a bomb, and he was about to explode.

    In addition to this, he also prepared the two monstrous weapons he got, making thembat ready.

    "I want to see what lies beyond all this," William started to walk under the watching gazes of masters, while thetter feeling conflicted about watching him go.

 Chapter 831 The Crazy Lightning

    ?

    "We should stop him!" One tried to rile others up, but William didn''t give him the chance to do so. He didn''t just walk, but dashed all of sudden forward, crossing the little distance between him and that green thunderstorm in mere breaths.

    "He¡­ Is gone!"

    "I hope he''ll be the first toe back."

    "Me too!"

    They had no other option but to wait at the edge of the inner zone and wait for William toe out. As they were inside the depths of such a dangerous zone, they got fierce attacks from monsters on the ground.

    As for the flying hos, they moved away the moment William vanished inside the inner zone. It was clear they came from the inner area, and they came out just for William.

    The masters felt how weird this was, and yet they didn''t have a say in that. In fact, many of them felt relieved when the swarms of these flying monsters turned around, and vanished inside the thunderstorm, following William. And such a sight was enough to make all of them worry to a further extent.

    It was clear that the inner zone was filled with flying monsters, and that was truly bad news. Alongside the scary thunderstorm, the toxic fog, and the ground monsters in there, these masters could only imagine hell inside.

    And the truth wasn''t that far off their worst expectations.

    The moment William passed into the thunderstorm; he was weed by a shower of lightning. He didn''t expect such a thing, but there he felt like he was a ckhole, sucking all the dancing lightning from a huge area.

    The lightning fell without any warning. All he saw was a bright sh of green light, so bright that it was this close from blinding him.

    "Damn!" He was expecting oceans of monsters and huge swamps inside, not lightning. Yet the moment he saw the green sh of light, he didn''t hesitate and started to dash forward.

    He thought by changing his location, the lightning would mistake its target and fall on the empty ground. Yet this didn''t happen. The lightning just curved and changed its trajectory, pursuing him in weird persistence.

    "What''s wrong with that damn lightning?!!" William dashed once, and the light still was blinding his eyes. He kept dashing forward, without having any time even to see what was going on around using his spirit sense.

    He was in his two tails form, gulped an entire bottle of elixirs when the first dash failed. He knew that trying to fight back this kind of disaster was impossible, so he started to focus solely on running.

    As the elixir supplied him with enough spirit power, he didn''t care anymore and kept propelling himself forward in insane speed. He knew the lightning didn''t catch up to him as he didn''t feel any pain yet.

    He leapt from one point to another a few hundred metres away, then jumped again and again. If anyone was watching this entire chase, then he''d be bewildered and petrified out of fear from the crazy scene that was happening right now.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    At first, William attracted lightning from a huge area. But as he kept pushing himself forward at such insane speed, he started to attract lightning from faraway ces.

    The entire thunderstorm was looking like a bomb of lightning that was about to explode on top of William''s head. Lightning started with thin arcs, joined togetherter on and became like scary pirs.

    The chase continued on for hours, and William never paused. The moment he felt his spirit power was running low, he didn''t hesitate to open another elixir bottle and emptied its content in his throat.

    Right now, his spirit power was slightly above ten thousand points. This made the effect of elixirs much weaker than before. Gradually William lost his sense with time, with anything else, and kept just focusing on running as fast as he could.

    He didn''t notice the weird re up of the seal on his chest, nor the weird chains that appeared all around his body after running for two hours straight.

    He was right, there was something in the green fog he was running inside, something that stirred up his snake spirit, letting it start to go rampant.

    As it wasn''t the primary spirit of his, it started to affect the fox spirit. Thebination effort of the two spirits ended up with tearing down the seal chains one by one, slowly breaking the seal.

    The chains kept breaking until only one chain remained. William was absorbed in his hectic run, without noticing that this chain was surrounding his body like a belt, like it was holding his power back.

    No matter how his two spirits worked together to bring thisst chain down, they failed. Something was missing, and William never realised that what he was missing was the same thing he was running away from, the lightning!

    *Roar!*

    In the middle of all this, and just at the tenth hour, William heard a sound that made his heart clench. It was a very loud roar, one that would nevere from a single monster but a huge group of them.

    Hearing such a roar made his mind jolt awake. The moment he did, he noticed at once the strange chain that surrounded his body. And seeing this made him stumble in his actions for a second.

    A single moment was all the lightning needed to catch up to him. William was about to curse when the entire world turned blindly green.

    "Sh*t!" he didn''t hesitate to push himself forward again, yet this time he wasn''t able to get away from lightning. And just before he''d panic, he felt something weird.

    "I don''t feel any pain at all," he suddenly stopped running, stopped in his ce and looked around. All he could see was shining bright green, nothing else. He couldn''t see his body, but he felt nothing bad was happening to him from this lightning.

 Chapter 832 Helloâ€¦ Where Are You, Monsters?

    ?

    William was right, the lightning wasn''t affecting his body in any negative way. However, there was something else that was suffering from such lightning, which was that seal.

    William didn''t know that his body was emitting an irresistible aura, one that was able to stir the swarms of flying hos, forcing them out from the inner zone to the outer one. And it was also the one that affected the lightning inside this ce.

    This came all from his snake spirit. As he started to experience a spirit fusion, he started to gain traits from this spirit. One of them was this weird aura, one that''d stir up any toxic or corrosive element inside living creatures or even inside the world itself.

    Just like this ce, where lightning started to flock towards him without any sign of stopping.

    As for why he didn''t feel any pain or experienced any hurt when the lightning bathed over his head, that was because of a simple fact¡­ This wasn''t true lightning!

    This was a very high concentration, a insanely condensed amount of corrosive and toxic spirit power. Usually only the monsters born inside such hellish ce would be the only beings capable of withstanding such lightning.

    If anything else tried to pass from outside through this thunderstorm, then they''d get hit severely by lightning, ending up getting fried and killed in mere breaths.

    Only William was able to withstand so far thanks to his snake spirit. The moment the lightning fell over his head, they didn''t just stir up the snake spirit, but started to nourish this spirt, and the other two as well.

    William didn''t feel it at the moment, but his overall power was growing. It wasn''t an increase in spirit power amount, or rising in grade, it was an increase in his spirit purity, plus pushing the ongoing fusion forward for long shot.

    As the lightning fell over his body, it started to fight hard against the resisting chain of the seal. The corrosive nature of this lightning, in addition to the nourishment it caused for William''s spirit, all stirred up the seal.

    A fierce battle that William wasn''t aware of right now started, with the seal being pressured hard from the very start. The seal, no matter how strong it was, was facing up a world power, one that got the backing of the entire inner zone.

    The sh didn''tst more than one hour. During which, William continued to dash forward. He couldn''t see anything, wasn''t feeling any harm, and yet he didn''t like any of this. He didn''t want to end up getting another bad thing from here, like how it happened to him back at the Hot Snow world.

    No matter how he tried to run away, he failed to get rid of the green lightning until two hours passed. In the first hour, his seal broke atst, and his body changed. He was now back to the giant form of his spirit, with a little surprise that awaited him.

    As for the second hour, the lightning kept giving nutrition and support to William''s spirit until he finally reached a point he couldn''t take anymore.

    His snake spirit seemed like an intelligent being. The moment William''s three spirits got oversaturated; it stopped releasing such alluring aura.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The moment this happened, lightning receded fast, and the world started to show visible shapes in front of his eyes.

    "Atst, it''s going away," William knew this wasn''t thanks to his continuous dashes. But he wouldn''t say no to such change. Instead, he prepared himself for a big fight waiting for him. The lightning came with hostile intentions. Even if nothing bad happened to him, he knew this didn''t mean the lightning went away for no reason.

    The only possible reason William thought of was the lightning guided him towards a very dangerous situation. He expected to see himself entrapped within endless swarms of ground and flying beasts. Yet the moment the world turned clear, he realised how gravely mistaken he was.

    There wasn''t a single monster around. In fact, even the gloomy dark green fog wasn''t there. Instead, a weird milky whiteter was present, one that seemed more like the early hours at morning mist.

    "This¡­" he was really surprised by this, yet when he noticed his body, he was more surprised, "hahahaha! It worked! Hahahaha!" heughed like he scored it big or something.

    He struggled and suffered during the past weeks thanks to that seal. He knew the value of his spirit body more than ever after this hellish experience.

    Seeing his body with the fox and snake spirits merging together made him chuckle. And yet there was a little surprise there.

    "I have four tails?!!! Since when I jumped a rank in spirit purity grade?!!!" he was totally shocked and wanted nothing more but to test his spirit at this moment.

    And yet he wasn''t in a situation to allow him to do such a thing. He turned around and started to look at this white mist in a different way. He regained his former power back and wasn''t afraid of facing any monster or lightning at the moment.

    The mist filled the entire world, with anotheryer of it covering up the ground. There were no swamps there, no monsters, nothing at all. All he could see was just a whitend, rising up and down, without anything else.

    "Hello¡­ Where are you, monsters?" he shouted, but got no response except for the echo of his voice. The sky was gone like before, as the white mist thickened at high altitudes. Yet it wasn''t like how gloomy it was when the dark green fog was filling everything.

    He tried to spread his spirit sense and got nothing back except for a little pain. The white mist ate away his spirit sense like how the dark green fog did.

    "I can only see up to fifty metres around, half the distance I could cover before¡­" he said to himself, before deciding to walk around and check the ce.

 Chapter 833 The White World!

    ?

    As William walked, he found out that theyer of mist covering up the ground wasn''t solid or attached fixedly there. When he walked, he felt like he was stirring the fog around, ending up creating whirlpools of white mist around his feet, creating a weird looking trail behind, one that extended for long kilometres behind.

    William started to grow used to how calm and serene this ce looked like. When he walked for an entire day, he couldn''t help but start examining his spirit.

    "I got no increase in my spirit power, but the spirit fusion¡­ It seems like it progressed smoothly than before¡­"

    Before, the snake spirit was less than five percent merging with his fox. But right now, the merge went close up to twenty percent.

    This appeared clearly on his spirit body shape. The snake parts weren''t just limited to his long neck and few changes at his back. His body showed a weird lustre that looked like it was a coat or something. Not to mention there were two weird fangsing out from his shoulders, moving around as if they were going to devour anything they touch and crush it using brute force, kill it using corrosive power.

    This was new. In addition to this, the snake tail that was present before was gone, reced with a short thick tail, ending up with something globr that had small needlesing out from it.

    He didn''t know what the use of this thing was, and yet he didn''t have any target around to test his new body on.

    William didn''t intend to rest, not until he''d figure out where he was. His best guess was that the thunderstorm with lightning was the outer coat, ayer that enveloped this heaven like ce, protecting it from any outsider.

    "Hello¡­ Anybody there?" William kept shouting from time to time. He first did it just to check if there were any sleeping monsters or enemies around. Butter on, he loved how his voice echo looked, and kept repeatedly shouting to hear it.

    "Who are you? Howe you are here?"

    Just in the middle of doing his new habit, an alien voice came like a soft ether was ying nearby or something.

    "Who are you? Show yourself!" William turned around, but he couldn''t see anything at all. The voice he heard was so soft, echoing in a beautiful and mesmerising way, as if it came from far away.

    "Why are you shouting? I''m trying to have a nice nap here."

    "A nice nap?!" William was surprised by what thisdy said. He didn''t see her yet, but he was sure she was indeed a beauty.

    "Yes, that''s what happens to someone like me."

    "Who are you?" William was now feeling more interested in meeting the owner of this voice.

    "Hush, lower your voice, I said I want to sleep."

    "I''m not shouting anymore!" William was speaking like he was whispering to himself. And yet thedy keptining about his loud voice regardless.

    "Ok, ok, I won''t speak anymore. But where are you? I want toe and sleep with you."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Bad human! Who told you monsters are the type of free goods?!!"

    "..."

    William didn''t know why she got such an impression from his words, but as he jumped over his surprise, he realised something.

    "You¡­ You are a monster?" he wanted to confirm what she just exposed right now.

    "Yes! Don''t tell me you are one of those vulgar racist, the ones called masters," and when thedy monster said these words, he couldn''t help but blink twice.

    He looked at himself, and then he knew why she acted in this way towards him. She mistook him as a monster, just one of her kin.

    "I''m just curious to see the beauty of mydy," he instantly changed his attitude and spoke as if he was a monster, "mydy seems to be something grand and mighty, something I aspire to reach one day."

    "Keep dreaming, humph! I took a million years to reach this stage, not like the few tens of years someone like you lived!"

    The tone of thisdy showed how haughty and arrogant she was. She did indeed think that William was a monster, and she gouged his age from the sheer size and shape of his.

    "Forgive my rudeness, but I want to take a peek at you, and maybe get a glimpse of what my distant future will be like. I came all the way here thanks to mydy''s fine reputation."

    He thought of anything that would convince her to let him meet her. He was curious, what type of monster who''d stay in such a highly dangerous ce, ending up speaking so perfectly fine like a human?

    "Hmm¡­ You managed to pass through my outer shell, and that means you have something unique in you¡­" she paused, as if she was really going to get convinced with the bullshit he just made up, "but there is no need for you to beg to see me. You are already inside me."

    "W¡­ What does that mean?!" William tried to not think dirty but couldn''t find any exnation to her weird words.

    "Oh, you don''t know what I''m experiencing then? That''s expected¡­ Someone like you is considered pretty low to know such sacred stuff. Let me tell you then,e, move forward and I''ll take you to my private opening."

    "..."

    "Just walk forward, I''ll guide you with my fluid¡­"

    "Stop it, I''ll move forward now!" William interrupted her and started to walk. He didn''t know why but this monsterdy was acting horny in her words without even intending to, "tell me, where is all the lightning and the thunderstorm? Where is all the fog?"

    As he started walking, he saw a faint streak of white fog that gathered together, forming a path that was like a running white river. He didn''t dare to walk over it, and simply walked by its side.

 Chapter 834 The Mysterious Lady Monster

    ?

    "Oh, that''s just my outer shell, I told you before, right?"

    "Don''t tell me she also forgets things easily!" William got the feeling that she was asking herself if she said it or not, a thing that made him think in his mind about her mental status.

    "Don''t worry about your safety, my body is safe."

    "..."

    William refrained from asking anything, to not get a weird answer again. He kept walking for hours, following the stream of white fog around. He didn''t see anything different, not until he ended up at a ce where he could see beyond fifty metres.

    The white fog seemed to recede from this ce, showing something that was no better described as an opening. He knew her words from earlier had something to do with the real thing, but he didn''t think she really meant it.

    "Couldn''t she have said a portal or a gate, other than opening," he thought to himself, feeling like he was dealing with a six years old kid or something.

    "Come inside, I''m waiting for you there," her voice came, and this time it felt like she was standing just next to him.

    He passed through this opening, to find out a huge space that stretched for thousands of metres around.

    In this space, not a speck of white or green fog was there. The ce was like a giant dome, instead of walls, thickyers of white fog was there.

    The ce was filled with lots ofvish green vegetation, thick to the extent that the ground was gone. William looked around, and there was no shadow of thatdy. As for the hole he came through, it closed the moment he passed it without making a single sound.

    "I''m right here, where are you then?" he looked around while saying this, before suddenly freezing. His vision was reced from pure green to a pure pink pair of eyes, looking extremely alluring and beautiful, making this ce pale inparison.

    The pair of big pink eyes blinked; jolting William awake. He retreated for a couple of steps, only to find that these two pairs of eyes were appearing out of nowhere, floating in midair, in the middle of two clouds of white and green smoke.

    "You¡­" he pointed towards the pair of eyes, only linking these with thedy monster he was speaking with for the past hours.

    "What? It''s just a projection of the real me."

    "Why won''t youe here by the real you? I''m too weak to do anything to you," William mistook everything, took what she did as a way for her to protect herself from him.

    "That''s funny, hahahaha!" His words invoked a pure heartedugh, one that wasn''t that simple. The moment sheughed, William saw the entire space tremble, as if an earthquake was happening thanks to herughter.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    At the same time, the fog stirred up, giving him the impression it was going to copse or something.

    "Then¡­"

    "I told you, you know nothing about what I''m doing," she paused, before adding in her usual cheerful tone, "this¡­ This is my grave."

    "G¡­ Grave?!!" William looked at her eyes in doubt, and the eyes blinked again as if they were real before her voice came again:

    "Grave, the ce where we die, don''t you know that?" she snorted, and William froze for a second there as this wasn''t what he meant. "I''ve reached the end of my life power, ending up either choosing to level up or select another path."

    "Mon¡­ Can we select another path?" amidst his momentarily daze, he was about to say something that''d expose his identity. Luckily thedy monster wasn''t that focused on him right now, was lost in her own thoughts and that critical decision she took many thousands of years ago.

    "There aren''t just two paths actually," she sighed, shoving away such disturbing thoughts, "I never taught anyone before anything, so let me try the feeling of being one''s mentor. Listen up, monsters have a fixed time span, just like those barbaric humans. But our life span¡­"

    She started to speak, spoke for almost an entire day. William thought this was going to be a simple lecture, which wouldn''tst more than twenty up to thirty minutes. But he was totally wrong.

    Thisdy monster was indeed honest in what she said, and wanted to try to teach someone something she knew. She started to speak, jumped from one mysterious topic to another, topics that William never heard of before.

    He was sure such knowledge wasn''t even known by any master, or else this would rock the entire world, the entire worlds of masters.

    She started speaking about the different paths any monster had at the end of its life. ording to her, the life span of monsters was like the spirit purity stages of masters, had ten grades where they jump from one to another after the passage of one hundred thousand years.

    Thest stage was the one that the nine tailed fox was stuck at. Any monster arriving at such a stage had two main options in front of them, either select the path of ascension, the same path the nine tailed fox selected, or to select the one as what thisdy monster here did.

    The other path was for the monster to select to end its life in peace, entering into a super long hibernation period, sleeping for too long, living inside a grand space like the one here.

    The entire swamp region was considered her entire body and spirit entering deep slumber. The area of green fog and swamps was her body, and the white fog area was her spirit. As for the area of lightning, it was the separation zone between the two, a ce that was forbidden for any human to pass.

    That might be the main reason she never took William for a human, considering him as a special breed of monsters or something.

    Yet that wasn''t all! ording to what she said and exined in great detail and utmost care, this path included two other paths inside.

 Chapter 835 Mind Blowing Ancient Myths

    ?

    "So, if you wake up, you''ll be human?!!!" This was quite shocking for William. And what she saidter on made this shock skyrocket and reach another level.

    "You don''t know of the old myth? All humans originated from monsters who turned into this form after walking down this path¡­" she started to speak more about this ancient myth, and he couldn''t help but feel more shocked the more he heard her words.

    The scariest part of all this was the fact that it made perfect sense. ording to this myth, monsters were created by higher beings. And from there, they turned into humans. Humans just needed two to start their fast productivity, and the myth spoke about two intelligent monsters who were in a crazy love story, refusing to just die without staying together for a bit longer.

    So the two created this route, ending up condensing everything they had, turning their insane spirit power into human body flesh.

    Two started everything, and from there more humans appeared as their descendants. "But¡­ We are always in a constant fight with those despicable humans¡­" he learnt how to describe humans, including himself, in words that appealed to her and let her lower her guard even further while speaking with him.

    "That''s because of the other path," she sighed, "one of our ancient ancestors wanted to take the crazy step. Yet he knew he alone won''t be able to do it. So he devised a new path, one that started all this feud."

    "Speaking as if we used to live in harmony with humans!!!"

    "That was indeed true, perhaps thousands of millions of years ago," she paused, "I know this is quite hard to believe, but humans were once our most trusted friends and allies. Yet all this changed thanks to this ancient monster."

    "What did he do exactly?" William grew more curious to hear more about this story. And she didn''t disappoint him and said everything in great detail.

    That monster found another way to take this step. ording to another myth, it found chains holding up the entire world together, and it aimed at sucking dry the spirit power of these chains.

    That monster was indeed greedy and selfish and didn''t think even about the use of these chains or anything. It simply wanted to take such a step, even at the cost of all the living creatures in the world to perish!

    These chains were really rich in spirit power, with quite a different quality of spirit power than what was present in the ancient world. ording to the myth, this spirit power was something that was like a midstage between the spirit power in the ancient world and the higher realm.

    But there were grave consequences for what it did.

    "... These chains were the thing that held the ancient world together. Weakening it ended up in a great catastrophe, one that was about to end all the lives of everything. So everyone, both humans and monsters, agreed on joining forces together to stop it."

    "This doesn''t sound like a story that started all this hatred to me," William expressed his thoughts, and she simply sighed in response, lost in thoughts for long minutes before adding:

    "To be honest, I believe humans have all the right to hate us like this. They are despicable, but still, they have a right in such deep enmity and hatred."

    "What happened?" William was sure something bad happened, something bad that ancient monsters of that time did. Or else by the current course of the tale, nothing would have happened to bring forth such enmity.

    "That monster tricked the monster leaders, telling them that this wasn''t just for himself, but also for them and other monsters. So, you can expect the rest¡­"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Don''t tell me¡­ We betrayed humans?!" William knew this was the only possible scenario for this twist.

    "That was indeed what happened, and that started a huge war back then between the two sides."

    "Hmm¡­ What happened then? What happened to this monster? What happened to everyone? Did they perish?"

    "No, no, if they did, we wouldn''t have been alive today. Humans are blessed with the gift of rapid progress in their training. That''s indeed the case thanks to being the descendants of two formidable monsters in the first ce."

    "And?" William didn''t want to argue with her about this insane possibility, even if he felt it was true, he didn''t want to admit it.

    "The humans seeded to kill that monster, after a long and tiring war with monsters. They didn''t do it fast enough, and so a huge disaster happened, one that changed the entire world into something else."

    "Which is?"

    "The myth I identally found in one of the ancient relic sites isn''tplete," she sighed, telling him indirectly that she didn''t know what happened to the world back then. But William knew the answer for that.

    The world faced The Fall, the event that turned the single and endless world into how it was today, a gathering of countless tiny worlds and one grand outer world.

    William linked everything she told him about this myth with what the scrolls he read beforeing here said. And without intending it, he felt like everything was connected, falling in ce like pieces of a puzzle, forming a concrete picture of the ugly truth.

    "The myth records only stopped at what that monster promised everyone back then," she suddenly said, jolting William awake from his momentarily dazed and deep thoughts.

    "What did he say?"

    "He wille back," she paused, "he promised he''d send his spirit into reincarnation, the legendary ce that no one heard about before. Then he''ll take whatever time he needs toe back andplete his task."

    "Oh, he is quite determined," William felt this monster was a bitter loser, "any mention of what type of monster he was?"

    He casually asked, just to know everything about the far distant past.

    "The myth didn''t just mention his nature, but also described him in great detail."

 Chapter 836 Why Not Turn Into Human?

    ?

    She sucked in a deep breath loudly before adding, "the scrolls I found said that he was a gigantic fox, with nine tails, with the ability to separate his spirit into many minions. He could send them far away from him, live their lives, before devouring them back and nourishing his spirit power and knowledge with what they learnt. He was a scary and terrifying monster, one in the kind, having no one like him appearing ever in the entire endless history of our world."

    "..."

    When William heard what she said, he couldn''t help but experience a very cold shiver all over his body, apanied by a fierce trembling out of his control.

    This monster¡­ It was the same one he faced and failed to kill before, the one he came back in time to kill, his archenemy, his deadliest nemesis, the nine tailed fox!

    "Damn! Don''t tell me this is the root for everything¡­" and as he realised that the one the myth spoke about was real, and he faced it before, he couldn''t help but think about something entirely different.

    The way he came back from the future to the past was still a mystery for him. He never heard of such a heaven defying ability like this before, especially when it happened when he was on the verge of dying.

    "It seems that I died, truly died back then¡­ But thanks to that damn fox''s connection with the reincarnation world, and as I gained part of its abilities and spirit, it seems I ended up getting touched by that world¡­"

    That was something that never crossed his mind before and wouldn''t have except for his meeting with thisdy monster. He returned back in time not only thanks to fate, but also thanks to his archenemy.

    "That damn motherf*cker¡­ It seems it gained lots of bad karma from its previous life, ending up with the entire fate and destiny world to work against it, even letting it send the one who''d kill it once and for all back in time to prepare, sending me to do it¡­"

    William was thinking about all this in his mind, with his voice echoing like bolts of thunder in his head. His body kept trembling fiercely without realising it, and his emotions turned from shock, to fear, ending up with rage and determination.

    He finally revealed the mystery of his bizarre return, knowing he was sent here to do a mission, a mission that was deeply engraved in his mind since the first moment he opened his eyes back at the Aspire academy.

    And even after knowing all this, uncovering the facts about this grand mystery, his determination to kill that fox never faded away, not even in the slightest.

    Instead, he felt like he had another reason to kill that monster, which was to save everyone, do the task that ancient humans failed to do. Not to mention his confidence in taking down this monster skyrocketed when he realised he was backed up by fate and destiny.

    "Are you ok?!!!"

    Just as he was lost in all these thoughts, the monsterdy suddenly said, jolting him awake. When he raised his head, he found her big eyes no more than half a metre away from him.

    "I''m fine," he returned to look like before, calm and collected.

    "It''s ok to be scared of such stories, after all you are still a baby."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "..."

    "Don''t be scared, cute little monster, these stories are all myths and legends. And even if they were true, that monster died and won''t return back again."

    "Hmm¡­ Tell me, don''t you want to turn into a human?" William suddenly asked. He realised how really terrifying his enemy was. A monster that was strong enough to stand against the entire ancient world, against monsters and masters alike? That was a level of power he never imagined to even exist.

    So he started to think differently about this idental chance. He came here looking for a portal to go back to his tiny world, ending up meeting such a terrifying monster in herst moments before dying.

    A thought, a wild one, popped up in his mind right on the spot. And he started to think boldly about how to aplish it.

    "Turning into a human? Come on! It''s not that I didn''t think about doing such a thing, but¡­ Can you even imagine turning into the being you hate and fight for your entire life? This can''t be possible right?"

    "It''s as you said, the fault began from our end to begin with," William paused, thinking about what he should say to convince this monsterdy to take such a leap, "if you did that, you would change into a human, hunt down monsters, and be part of the same despicable beings you hate. But you''ll live on, live much longer, right? That still counts."

    "Hmm¡­ Living much longer is tempting indeed, but the issue is¡­"

    "What? Don''t tell me you want to die, and you saw everything in the entire world!" William rolled his eyes, "I bet you never made it out of this world, headed to other worlds, didn''t even go to the outer world, right?"

    "How do you know all this? These things¡­ I never got the chance to go out from this world! All the big portals are guarded by things that only humans can decipher and deal with!"

    "See? Told you," William controlled his own excitement, didn''t want to expose the fact he was very much hyped up by what she just said.

    She didn''t just know where these portals were, but it seemed like she also knew how to activate them.

    "But¡­ To be a human, I''ll turn every thousand years I slept to just one year of their little lifespan. That means¡­"

    "How long did you stay here? Five thousand years?"

    "No, around twenty, twenty-one thousand years¡­" she gave him such a scary number, and he couldn''t help but wonder if she was bluffing or anything.

 Chapter 837 Information About An Interworld Portal

    ?

    "From my knowledge about humans, being at twenty years is something great," William was about to continue luring her towards that decision, but she hurriedly interrupted him.

    "Don''t forget, I''ll start from the low bottom, will start without even a single spirit power¡­"

    "Oh, about that¡­ Let me be your guard then."

    "Hahahaha, you? No way, hahahaha!"

    She seemed to find this quite funny or hrious or something. But William didn''t feel any offence from that. He simply looked back at her, before adding after she finishedughing:

    "I know I''m weaker than you¡­"

    "Much, much, much weaker than me, you are a baby, hahahaha!"

    "I know that, but I''m not that weak. I''m at gold grade, close to getting to the dark gold grade¡­"

    "Kiddo, don''t take it as an insult or something, but being at the dark gold grade is the thing that will let you be an adult in my world. Don''t dream too high, you can''t even protect yourself¡­"

    "I managed toe here, pass through everything out there and reach you. Doesn''t that count?" William knew trying to convince her using his current spirit power was a futile attempt. So, he shifted the gears and started to talk about something else.

    "You are indeed special¡­"

    "And strong."

    "No, you are a weakling, hahahaha!"

    She seemed to find something funny in all this discussion, but William continued to speak about how special he was. She keptughing for most of the time, ending up finally stopping this attitude, and started to think seriously about his offer.

    He spoke about tons of stuff, described even scenes and interesting ces in the outer world to convince her.

    "Fine, fine¡­ I''m going to change into a human then," after a few hours, she finally gave in and embraced the wild thought of his. She might be reckless in taking such a decision on a whim, but William thought in this weird process of dying, she lost most of her sanity and wisdom.

    Yet he was wrong. She wasn''t reckless or anything. In fact, she kept thinking about this point over the long years she remained here. No one would like to die, especially if he was a monster who reached and touched the ceiling of power of this world.

    She was already hesitating about such a matter, and all she needed was thest push that William gave to take down such a path.

    William watched her eyes fade away, while the world of fog circting around this ce began to get disturbed. He knew she was simr to the nine tailed fox in most things, except for two. She wasn''t that hostile to humans.

    Even if she kept cursing humans, she still believed in the old myth about the root of everything. William was sure of her spirit, she believed monsters were at fault, and they deserved such treatment since then.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    As for the second aspect, she reached the pinnacle of power in this world, a midstage world between the tiny worlds and the outer one. Unlike the nine tailed fox which reached the pinnacle of power in the outer world.

    William knew if anyone managed to touch the ceiling before, he was able to do it again. Besides, she got him.

    He nned to take her by his side, heavily focusing on supporting and nourishing her. She didn''t need any guidance on training but would require lots of resources and help from him and his guild to rise fast in the ranks.

    As her eyes started to fade away, William was curious to see how she''d turn into a human. This was something never heard before even in the outer world, something that was like a legendary moment, one in the kind.

    Yet he was destined to get disappointed.

    "Sorry but you need to leave," without any warning, a bellow of white and green wind suddenly erupted out of nowhere, carrying him alongside it, gently taking him across all the distance he crossed inside this region.

    "Wait¡­ I want to¡­"

    "Don''t worry, I need just one month to finish my evolution process," her voice rang in his ears as he was getting moved fast, fast as if he was teleporting or something, "after one month, you cane anytime and check on me. I''ll wait for you."

    William knew this was a final rejection to any attempt of his to stay and watch. If he was going to be expelled out of the entire region, he knew he wouldn''t be able to see anything.

    Using spirit sense? That was pointless. He knew the fog of her could break down any spirit sense when she was in slumber. And now as she was waking up and turning to a human, she wouldn''t allow anyone to spy over her, not even him.

    "Tell me fast, tell me where I can find the nearest portal, and how to activate it."

    "You need a human to do so¡­"

    "Just tell me, before I''m out of here!" William''s thoughts swiftly drifted towards one thing, the portal leading away from this world. He came here to look for it, and he wouldn''t let such a chance slip by.

    She knew everything about these portals, where they were, how to ess them. And as she was going to be away for a month, he knew this was hisst chance in knowing the answer to such a dilemma.

    "Oh, the nearest one¡­ It''s at¡­"

    She started to speak, but her voice came slow and weak, as if it wasing from far away or something.

    "Slow down this wind, tell me in detail about how to find and activate it."

    "Ok, but don''t get depressed if you can''t activate it. When I turn into a human, I''ll need to reach a silver grade at least to keep this portal running¡­"

    She started to speak first about herself, before her words turned to speak about the portal, its ce, how to activate it and such things.

 Chapter 838 The Secret Behind Portals

    ?

    William was excited to know that one of the remaining two dangerous ces had this portal. Yet this wasn''t also great news. These two ces were controlled by the forces of dark masters, which meant a huge and stressful time was waiting for him.

    But he also knew about the right way to activate this portal. And frankly speaking, no one could activate this aside from humans.

    That region was known as the Lost ck Hole region. It was an area that was ten times in size bigger than this one, and it was no less deadly than the swarm area.

    This region was filled with tons of holes, covered up by balls of ck clouds. There was no lightning there, only a scary amount of gravity. Anyone trying to walk by this region for ten kilometres would be dragged like an iron dust drawn to a strong ma.

    It was a very scary region, one that didn''t have any outer or inner zones, but everything about it was scary like the outer shell of thisdy monster.

    The scariest thing was that no one ever got pulled and returned. Everyone in the world thought these people or monsters were killed, crushed by such irresistible intense gravity. Yet William now knew the secret behind this region.

    "The terrifying gravity is just a side effect of the gathering of many interworld portals under the ground¡­ Each hole leads to one portal, with a way to determine where one will go¡­"

    Thedy monster exposed everything about this region. Lots of interworld portals were buried underneath the ground and could only be essed through the holes found on the ground. The gravity would pull anyone towards the heart of this zone, then it would vanish like it wasn''t there.

    ording to the intel he just heard, there was some sort of isted space in the heart of that region, one that wasn''t any lesser than a pocket world in size and richness in resources, people, and monsters.

    Anything dragged towards that space would be safe from any gravity or danger. But if they tried to go out, they''d either have to pass through one of the portals'' ck balls, enter the holes, reach towards one portal and manage to activate it.

    Or else the corrosive nature of air in that ce would tear down their bodies fast, killing even the mightiest monsters like thatdy monster in less than a few days.

    She got to learn about all that thanks to one risky trip she made a couple tens of thousands before. She got curious about the mysterious regions in the world once she hit the ceiling of this world power, decided to go and see if there was any valuable secret lying within any of these.

    She was strong enough to not get scared easily from anything. And there she didn''t just get in and out without dying, she also made further trips to unravel the truth about that area.

    She saw the portals, knew how to get to them, and even how to activate them. ording to her, one had to let a droplet of his blood, filled with spirit essence, fall over any portal to activate it.

    Monsters were like masters and had such spirit essence. But her attempts failed as there were few other conditions. She saw humans falling into the holes, ending up identally activating the portals using their blood.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    After testing and observing this for a long time, even to the extent of abducting humans and throwing them into these holes, she realised what was missing.

    "The portals don''t only need spirit essence, they also need spirits embedded within masters¡­ Monsters don''t have spirits within themselves, as they are considered as a spirit of their own ord¡­"

    William got the trick behind activating these portals. Humans could only do it, as long as they had a spirit activated inside them. In addition to this, one had to be at silver grade, or else the portal wouldn''t budge an inch.

    William knew everything about these portals, very valuable data actually. He didn''t even need to go there to check things out and decided to first go back and bring everyone here.

    Just before he nned to take the scroll he took from Sloth out and send him the good news, he noticed something. Lots of shadows were moving fast, even flying at low altitude,ing towards him pretty fast.

    "Monsters¡­" he paused, spreading out his spirit sense to cover a few kilometres atst, "no, they are these masters¡­"

    He spotted lots of fast moving, shing like thunderbolts, masters heading towards him. He didn''t know that, but these masters were deadly worried about him.

    They waited outside, not knowing even if he''de out. Their leaders didn''t have the same attachment to William like them. And so, it was expected to receive orders to retreat, go back to the city and then leave back to their homes.

    But these masters didn''tply. They knew no one ever managed to enter the inner zone and got out. Yet all of sudden, and after days of waiting, the entire region rumbled, and they were thrown away from there.

    They saw something unbelievable, the entire swamp region changed, and got engulfed into a colossalyer of white and green fog. Nothing could be seen through this new fog, and they started to feel bad for William.

    Those who clung to the faint hope of him returning safely back lost any hope at the end. And in the middle of such a dejected atmosphere, something shed and came out a few minutester, moving like a sent out arrow, heading from the heart of this region towards the far distance.

    The moment they spotted him, they spread out their spirit sense to the limit, detecting who he was. They couldn''t believe their eyes, as William came out, not just alive but totally safe and sound as well.

    They had to wait for a few minutes to just absorb their shock, then started to run towards him with their fastest speed.

 Chapter 839 The Black Hole Region

    ?

    The fact that William came out without even a single scratch was mind blowing to them. Even when he was travelling in the outer zone, William suffered lots of wounds and was deeply hurt on many asions.

    And yet the most shocking thing they noticed after they started flying and got closer to him. They missed a simple difference in William''s body¡­ He was a giant fox, with weird features of a snake, with five tails, four long and one short.

    The moment they noticed this, they exchanged messages of doubt and confusion, shock and delight. No one knew how William managed to change into this, and it seemed like he was growing stronger the more he entered battles.

    They mistook this as a natural born ability to grow temporarily stronger in the middle of battles. It was expected, as masters in this world didn''t know how to use their spirit bodies.

    That was quite weird to William, especially when he heard the intel from the monsterdy. He thought at first that masters here didn''t have spirits. But when he got cursed, he started to think about them being sealed and their spirits were shackled.

    ording to Angelica, there was no such sealing tattoo on her chest, not anywhere on her body. Yet ording to the monsterdy, she used masters of this world, activated the portal using their spirit essence with spirits within their bodies.

    "I need to think about how to help masters here when I''lle next time," he thought to himself while moving alongside the grand entourage of formidable masters.

    When they arrived, they surprised him by how deeply and truly worried they were about him. Their honesty and care, happiness and even pride of him getting out from the depths of that zone touched his heart.

    He never thought that masters he never dealt with before, never befriended or spoke with even, would be this honest and caring towards him.

    At first, he was vignt, but when they all spoke up, and from the looks on their faces, he knew they weren''t lying. They asked to apany him on his journey back, defend him against any monster or dangers. He''d never say no to such an offer. Even if he wasn''t hurt, he was mentally and physically drained.

    As they travelled back to the city, William kept trying to know these formidable masters better. In fact, he didn''t need to exert much effort to do that. They were all excited about speaking with him, feeling like they got another son or grandson to be proud of.

    William got tons of questions about what happened inside, to end up most of the answers with the same sentence: "I don''t recall things clearly, I felt like something wiped out my memories or something."

    Such answers added more mystery to that zone. As for what was going on to the entire swamps, he also responded by his ignorance and negligence.

    The group moved fast and didn''t need to rest in the middle as not a single monster could get close to them. William kept leaning over them at first, butter on he started to join the battles as he grew itchy to try out his new spirit body.

    He was now a four tailed spirit fox, and with each tail he held a different weapon. In addition to this, he noticed that his speed, strength, and reflexes were all enhanced alongside defence.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The Holy Sword technique he used for a long time was now forming double the damage it did with three tails. He assessed that by the magnitude of explosions happening with each attack, and the size of the leftover deep hole.

    In addition to that, he discovered a new ability that he never had before, spirit element fusion!

    Before this, he could use his spirit elements separately. If he wanted to mix them together, he had to put a lot of thought into that, try many times, before ending up with a result that didn''t satisfy him.

    But now he could simply add two elements together at his four tails, merging them forcibly even if they were antagonising each other. He tried it identally and was delighted to notice such a great result.

    He used a darkness element alongside lightning, ending up with a scary merging lightning-darkness new element that made him dash not just for a thousand metres, but for thousands of metres in one go. And the best news was that his spirit power consumption rate was still reasonable and didn''t increase that much.

    The changes didn''t just happen for his crossed distance, but also in the ferocity of his attacks. The merge further doubled the damage dealt by his technique, making him heave a sigh of relief.

    As he grew stronger, he started to get in contact with more formidable enemies, masters and monsters alike. He was nning to go towards the ck Hole area, sh with the dark masters ruling the area there.

    He was concerned about the high-end master power these dark masters had. But now he got a strong boost to his strength, not to mention he gained new friends and allies.

    "You n to go to the ck Hole dangerous area next?!!!"

    "Are you out of your mind? That ce¡­ It''s not just as scary as the swamps, but it''s controlled by those dirty masters!"

    "Come on, don''t tell me you n to go there alone again!!"

    Many eximed in surprise, but more in worry and concern. William didn''t expose this until they got closer to the city, just less than one day away from it.

    "I have to go there," William paused, turning to these masters before adding, "I don''t have the power nor the right to tell you any of this, but if you want toe and apany me, I promise you to see something you never expected to see before."

    "Like what?" one asked in curiosity, while others went silent, thinking about William''s offer.

 Chapter 840 I Know A Way Out

    ?

    "A way out from here," William knew by telling them this, the secret wouldn''t be kept within this group and would spread. Yet he didn''t care about any of that.

    This world had tons of formidable masters. But without knowing of a certain method to go out, no one would keep aiming to get stronger anymore, nor they''d be concerned by the issues of this world.

    The delight of crushing obstacles and jumping from one grade of power to another was indeed priceless. Yet if the end result was for no one to go out from here, just live a little longer, a dull form of life that didn''t suit a true master, then depression was the sole result of such a scenario.

    William wanted to help the masters of this world, telling them that there was a way out from here. Not to mention his desire to lure this group of formidable masters toe and follow him back to his tiny world, follow himter on to the outer world.

    William already gathered up lots of masters using his guild, but none were at the pinnacle of power, nor even at the high stage of dark gold grade. Such masters were always arrogant, aloof, or decided to distance themselves from anything that was rted to the world''s matters.

    "You aren''t bluffing, right?"

    "No way this is true!!"

    "I kept looking for a way out, but the facts are set in stone¡­ There is not a single way out from here¡­"

    "There are indeed many ways to go out from here," William interrupted their words, "but these ways are all hidden within the dangerous zones in the world."

    "That''s why you went to the swamps zone?" by what he said, everyone realised why he was this adamant at getting towards that zone, taking such risk despite it seemed futile and deadly.

    And when they realised this, they couldn''t me him anymore. If they knew about this beforehand, they''d have alsoe with him, without any care about their lives or the dangers awaiting them.

    "I can''t guarantee anything, but¡­" he paused, before putting a serious look on his face, "I belong to a secretive group of masters, all working for the same grandmaster who is teaching us. He is one who isn''t that strong actually, but in terms of knowledge, he is the best!"

    William decided to use the old trick again, but this time he didn''t have to make up a fairytale master. He would push Sloth on the stage, to act like that mysterious master of his.

    As he started exposing Sloth as his mysterious master, he even said more. He said that this master came from another realm, passed through one of the gates in this world and was entrapped here. He was quite knowledgeable to detect the ces of portals leading people out from here. And so, he sent him and many others to search for these portals.

    William said that he read in one of the scrolls he found at an ancient site about the presence of one passage in one of the dangerous zones around this ce.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The more he spoke, the more puzzlements became exined in front of these masters'' eyes. Of course, they ryed the news back to their leaders, and such news created a stir back there.

    William''s words exined everything, why he came here in the first ce, why he looked for scrolls to read, and why he asked for dangerous ces around to visit as a form of a reward to his services.

    All of sudden, everything he did so far seemed logical and made sense. But the news he revealed shook the high-end masters in the city, andter on would shake the entire world.

    William didn''t know that by his words that he casually said today, a hectic move would brim in the lines and ranks of normal masters all over the world. The dangerous ces wouldn''t be avoided anymore, and tons of expeditions would set sail towards these zones.

    Many would die, tons of them actually. Yet lots of zones would uncover their secrets to the world. From then, a stable and fixed path leading people outside this world would get known, and those high end and pinnacle stage masters would regain hope, work even harder than before, and aim to touch the ceiling power of this world to go out.

    Such a move would take long decades until it''d produce such results. During that time, William would return back here, but that story would be left for another time to tell.

    William followed them towards the city, where he found lots of masters, leaders of the city, Angelica and Fonda, waiting for him at the main gate.

    They came at nighttime, where they found lots of monsters surrounding the city. They fought for long hours until they passed through, and the city masters joined them, turning this into a grand massacre for the monsters.

    William fought for hours, testing more about his new spirit body. He tested his cannonball move, which ascended to a whole new level by now.

    He had inspiration about a new technique that could make use of this cannonball move in a different way. He tested it, using both darkness and lightning elements together, ending up seeding.

    He shed forward, rolling on himself at the same time. This decreased his advance speed and the distance crossed by him greatly, only letting him pass through eight hundred metres. But at the same time, any monster or enemy he met during his charge was hit with his tails and weapons, seemingly gotten hit by a wrecking ball.

    Monsters hit didn''t just get hurt, but they were thrown away like they wereunched by rockets. They hit other monsters behind, spreading damage and clearing a grand space around him.

    The trail he left behind was a deep and long groove, one that was littered by explosions as the two antagonising elements shed against each other, releasing a series of fierce and deadly explosions.

 Chapter 841 Getting Support Is Always Great

    ?

    When others saw this, they couldn''t help but recall the deadly techniques of the high stage dark gold masters. Every single one of them was considered an army on his own, able to go within such swarms of monsters and kill their way through without any hindrance or danger.

    As for William, he was delighted by such a result. He knew such technique was augmented by the newly acquired merge ability of his spirit elements. Thanks to using two fiercely hostile elements together, such a scary move was feasible and possible.

    This technique wasn''t as scary as his Holy Sword in terms of attacking a single or a small group of targets. But if he was in the middle of a huge army, the same situation he faced multiple times already, then this technique would be his killer move.

    "You are full of surprises, Mr. William," when he got weed by all of these masters, he was led back towards the central royal area. They led him towards the same grand pce he visited before. But this time, he was meeting with the real leaders of the city, the highest-ranking big shots in the royal family.

    One old man, with very scarce and coarse short white hair on his wrinkled head, sat on a big throne in the middle of a huge hall. William didn''t visit this hall before when he came here, and it was filled with lots of golden statues, depicting features of masters, seemingly the past rulers of this city over ages.

    On both sides of this old man, two middle aged masters sat on halfway height seats, one male and one female. They looked identical, as if they were identical twins or something.

    The three of them looked at William in a conflicted way, the same thing that others who filled the grand hall did. William came here with no name nor reputation, yet he managed to bring earthquakes to their world.

    He first managed to read through the secretive scrolls stored inside their vaults for aeons of years, almost about to rot from the dense amount of dust covering them. Then he imed about knowing the way out of this world, something not even the craziest masters would dare to say.

    He was just a kid in their eyes, didn''t give any air of being special or anything. This harmless looking teenager was something else on the battlefield, turning to something monstrous, giving anyone seeing him a scare.

    They received detailed intel about him from masters tracking him, but this wasn''t anything like when they watched him fight in the flesh. The battles William had in front of their city''s walls were an eye opener for everyone.

    He was just a mere gold grade master, yet he showed the prowess of someone at the high stage dark gold grade. Such difference in might was something any master would crave for. And his ims about having a master who came from another world was like a spicy vour to all this.

    "I''m just trying to fulfil the task of my master," William humbly replied, waiting to see what this authoritative master wanted from him.

    "We want to meet that master of yours, if possible," the leader said, and this came just as what William wanted.

    "He is away from here, sir," William said this first, as if he was about to decline the offer, "I have to travel and bring him back, yet alone I''m not sure I can do it."

    William suffered a lot in his adventure journey towards here. It was true he was weaker than now, with his powers being sealed and such. But if he could go back and bring everyone here with less trouble and worries then it''d be great.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He knew masters in this hall were all willing to help if he just asked. And he''d not say no to such an opportunity.

    "If you are willing to bring him here, we are more willing to help," the leader didn''t just say this to him, but moved his eyes while speaking, as if he was telling them to take part in this task.

    The leader wasn''t doing this out of his city''sck of strong masters. If he wanted, he could just take this task and throw it to his guards and army to handle.

    Yet he wanted to use this chance to strengthen his rtions with other cities in the continent. He was looking far ahead, towards the distant future. He knew his city gained tons of knowledge about the outer world, and with the additional knowledge that William provided about the interworld portals, the value of such knowledge just skyrocketed.

    As the dark masters were quite united and strong, the leader of this city was wise to aspire to achieve the same. And so, his gesture here to invite others onboard was going to be the steppingstone in building long timed and deep ties with other cities.

    "I''m willing to join!"

    "Me too!"

    "Count me in!"

    Per the leader''s invitation, many expressed their willingness to go. "Just give me a day to rest, or two," William stopped them before adding, "after that, let''s gather up at the main gate."

    "You deserve a rest indeed," the leader acknowledged William''s request, "go and rest then. I''ll handle the arrangements for the force going with you."

    "Thanks," William cupped his hands, not only to the leader, but also to everyone here before leaving. As he walked away, Angelica and Tara joined him. Angelica didn''t say anything, but Tara kept trying to get more information from William without any result.

    Angelica told her and others already everything that matched William''s little lie from before. Yet she was surprised when William exposed the truth abouting from another world.

    At first, she didn''t get why he did that, but when she learnt about the entire matter, William said that his master just came from the outer world, not him, she got what he wanted to do.

 Chapter 842 Despair

    ?

    William just kept his silence, only saying that he was tired of saying anything and wanted to rest. He wasn''t lying, but he wanted more to contact Sloth, telling him the news, so thetter would be ready for what wasing.

    William went back to the house allocated to him, closed on his room''s door, strengthened the security of it with tons of arrays, before taking the scroll out.

    He knew lots of pinnacle masters were watching his every move now. So, he just wanted to keep them busy dealing with these arrays while he''d send the message over. Then by the time they''d crush their way through them, he''d be finished and would be lying on his bed, sleeping like a baby.

    William sent the message, and like usual he got nothing in return. As he slept like a baby, releasing all the stress he had swelled up inside for a long time, his team and others led by Sloth were having tons of trouble and challenges.

    They were running away from the disaster that befell the entire flying monster zone, running towards the safe area they thought it was going to be safe.

    At first, they arrived and stayed there for a week or more without much problems. Butter on, the fierce changes that happened to this part of the world started to follow them, especially when cracks joined together and started to form gigantic holes in the sky.

    Monsters were still killing each other in the sky, but the moment these holes appeared, the monsters started to get sucked towards them.

    If William was here, he''d realise all these holes were actually holes, ones that weren''t anything like even the interworld portals. They weren''t just different in size and shape, but also in ferocity.

    To be able to drag the colossal flying monsters towards them without giving these monsters any chance to struggle was indeed a testimony to their overbearing strength.

    Such an effect didn''t just impact the flying monsters, but also the ground itself. Large sized rocks started to fly out, heading like sent arrows towards these holes. Nothing passed these holes and managed to return, or even was able to resist the irresistible pulling strength of gravitational forces there to escape.

    Mountains weren''t spared as well. And that made Sloth and others feel the world was falling over their heads,ing to an end. The moment the fierce shakes appeared, and cracks spread all over the colossal body of the mountain they were living inside, and they knew their rest period was over.

    "Let''s go," Sloth was able to see the ck holes in the sky using his spirit sense. He didn''t see much, as every time he tried to spread his sense up there, it got crushed by the intense gravity of these holes.

    "Any earth element masters here?" Sloth knew just trying to walk away from here wouldn''t do. Anything that dared to get out was pulled towards these holes without any exception.

    The only way out was by creating tunnels underground, taking shelter in the heart of earth, letting it shield them from the holes up there.

    There were enough earth-based masters who started to dig deep and big tunnels under the ground. As there were few with metal elements, he also asked them to fortify the tunnel using their techniques, hoping this would help.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    But soon enough he learnt that nothing was enough, nothing could stand against the force that was about to tear this part of the world apart and suck it away.

    It started with the parts they left behind. They didn''t have time to lighten up the tunnel, so it was dark except for a few candles they held in their hands. They were running, going towards the direction Sloth directed them towards.

    But soon enough, and after a few hours, the darkness started to get brightened up. The tunnel parts they left behind started to rise up and get sucked by these ck holes, giving them all a scare.

    "Dig deeper!" Sloth knew the world up there was getting a reshape, as if a colossal shovel was working over the surface, creating deep holes there. The only way out was to dig deeper, hoping this disaster was time limited and would end soon.

    But as they kept doing this for days, they started to lose any kind of hope. There was no way out from this hell, and the end result was clear to everyone. If they got exposed to the light, they''d get sucked almost instantly.

    This happened to a few of them who were slow or were curious to see what was going on up there. Seeing these few getting sucked and dragged away made everyone''s hearts fall to the ground.

    They kept running, running without taking a single moment of rest. And yet their fate was already set in stone. Not until something came that changed everything.

    "Listen up, William sent me a message just now¡­" as he received William''s message, Sloth couldn''t help but heave a deep sigh of relief and gratitude.

    Again, his life, and others here, would be saved thanks to the same teenager he never ced in his eyes before.

    William just sent the message and slept, not knowing that such casual action of his would change the entire drastic situation of his team, friends, and others led by Sloth.

    The moment everyone heard what Sloth said, that William found a way out and wasing to them in ten days, their crushed morales revived and skyrocketed.

    As long as there was hope, they wouldn''t sumb to despair like before. Even if they didn''t know how William would be able to face such a situation and save them, they still ced high hopes over him.

    Especially his team and friends, they were the ones who knew William better. The moment they heard what William said, and they already considered themselves rescued.

    "Listen to me, our boss is a mysterious person," Ibra led his friends and team, spoke in a loud tone while running with everyone else, "he may look weak, but trust me¡­ If we have a shot to go out from here, then it''d be only in his hands."

 Chapter 843 A Scary Sight

    ?

    His words, and the lots of words William''s friends and team said made everyone here believe more in their chances to survive.

    "Let''s buy him enough time then. He said he''ll take ten days toe here, and that''s not including the time for him to travel inside the entire grand zone to find us, not including finding a way to stop this natural disaster and save us," Sloth paused, took a deep breath before adding, "anyone who can help in digging this damn tunnel deeper, strengthen it as much as we can, please help. We need to fight for every damn second until his arrival, fight for our lives, do you hear me?"

    His words invoked fire over the fuel that soaked them after hearing about William''s promise toe. They started to work together, all using different methods to deepen and strengthen this tunnel.

    Anyone with any fierce technique started to go forward, attacking the ground as if they were hitting their deadliest and most hated enemy. As for those who couldn''t do this, they started to take out tons of materials,y down arrays to strengthen and fortify the tunnel, buying them more time in their hectic run.

    As they fought for their lives desperately against forces of nature and disasters, William embarked on his return journey. He wasn''t walking alone, not with a small force like he expected.

    Every single city''s masters who arrived here sent the news back. And the result was as this city''s leader''s guesses. They didn''t say no to such an offer and chance, sent almost half to their forces in this city with William.

    The city sent an army of thousands of masters alone, all were in top grade of power in the city. The force alone was enough to enter a war against any monster tide and win without suffering lots of damage.

    William moved with everyone, heading back towards the direction he left his friends at. His return journey wasn''t as stressful nor hard as he experienced with Angelica when he came here. And when five days passed, he realised how vast distance the Hot Snow world carried him through, saving him tons of time and trouble.

    Angelica decided to stay behind in the city, as William refused to bring her with him. He was going toe back and intended to bring her towards his tiny world.

    At the same time, he asked her to do something for him, a simple task that she willingly agreed to do. It was to go around the city, look for any masters without support, masters without backing of a big family, or even wandering lonely masters, and recruit them!

    He didn''t yet decide to take them with him back to the tiny world or leave them here and establish a branch for his guild. If he wanted to establish a branch, he had to leave a few of his friends and ck Tails team behind to rule over things.

    William knew he''d establish a guild branch here sooner orter, but the idea of leaving few behind didn''t appeal to him. He didn''t want to force anyone, so he decided after thinking for days about this matter to just speak with his team and friendster on and let them decide.

    As he got such a sizable force, a grand army of formidable masters, they passed through any ce without hindrance. No monster seeded in even slowing them down. And if there were lots of monsters detected up front, they sent detachments to deal with them, weaken their numbers before the main army arrived and dealt thest blow.

    William admired how this grand army performed. And the most impressive thing was the fact that it wasn''t led by just one person, but many.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "It seems the essence and knowledge of advanced warfare ismon in this world¡­ Impressive!" He liked how they acted, reminding him of how the grand armies and forces in the outer world behaved.

    The ten days period he told Sloth about was just a rough estimate based on what he learnt. He asked Angelica about her estimate of the time if they walked fast, and she gave a casual answer.

    They took less than four days to reach that zone. William was surprised by such speed and couldn''t help but inwardly sigh by hiscking power and speed.

    Yet the moment he arrived there, a scary and gruesome scene of the world ending weed his and others'' eyes.

    "What the heck is going on here?!!!"

    "Is that¡­ Part of our world?!!!"

    "Is our world ending?!!!"

    The responses of everyone weren''t any different than what William had. In fact, the moment he saw this out of this world scene ying in front of his eyes, he recalled something he totally forgot.

    "This world¡­ Damn! It''s really copsing on itself!!!" He already felt this in a glimpse when he was dragged here. And seeing all this made him realise such hunch wasn''t false, and this world was crushing on itself.

    Masters here seemed to not experience such a thing before, but William did, and on multiple asions as well. The situation in the outer world was so intense that any force would try anything in their power to weaken their enemies. And one of the most famous and deadliest ways was to crush down any pocket world the other force had.

    The sight of destruction happening all over the entire zone told William this world was going on the route of destruction. And his thoughts focused over a single figure who would be behind all this; the nine tailed fox!

    "Screw that motherf*cker! I promise it won''t have it as it dreamed¡­" William knew this wasn''t the end of the world, not yet. The destruction was just limited to this zone, without affecting the world around.

    They were standing just outside the area of damage, where the world was peaceful and flourishing with life and activity. Just a thin line separated this lively world from the deadly one inside that zone.

 Chapter 844 Things Are Getting Ugly

    ?

    William knew of ways to destroy pocket worlds, and others to save them. As this world was experiencing the early signs of destruction, he knew it could be saved.

    The main problem was that this wasn''t a small pocket world, but a gigantic world that was even bigger than his tiny world. He knew trying to repair such a world and save it wasn''t going to be easy. But if he used the help of many forces here, then things would be much easier.

    As everyone was shocked and terrified, baffled by what was going on in front of them, William started to grow worried about his friends and team.

    "Where are you? I''m here!" William knew the Bullets he held had limited distance of reach. He didn''t dare to take the scroll he received from Sloth in front of everyone here. So, he just took out his friends'' Bullets and kept speaking for a few minutes without getting an answer.

    "I''m going to circle the ce, looking for my master," William didn''t even wait for their response, moving fast to circle around the grand zone.

    He knew how colossal this area was. On the map, it was described by a circle of ck dot, one that was around ten centimetres in radius. This might be something small, but that wasn''t true.

    Compared to other areas and ces presented on the map, this one was indeed vast and gigantic in size. William had no other option but to do so, hoping and praying inside that his team received his messages from earlier, and started to move towards the outer border of this area.

    "We areing with you," just when he tried to create a distance between him and other masters, enough for him to use his special scrolls, all masters started to run and follow him. And soon enough, he became appreciative of their presence with him.

    The area was experiencing a ground shaking change. And yet there were tons of monsters starting to flood here, gathered up in certain ces, starting to form a grand monster army.

    William and others didn''t know what was going on here, or why these monsters were doing in these ces. But as long as there were monsters, no master would keep their hands idle.

    A big war erupted, one that William ignored and kept moving around this region. He didn''t know why monsters were gathered here in such grand numbers, nor why they acted in such a stubborn way, fighting desperately against the grand masters army, but he cared only for his team and friends.

    He felt that something bad was going to happen to them when he got nothing back from Sloth. But he trusted his team and friends, trusted Sloth and other masters with them.

    So using the distraction caused by the epic war happening everywhere, he took out Sloth''s scroll and sent a message over. It was brief, only formed of two words: I''m here!

    After sending this short message, he returned to focus on running and speaking to them using Bullets. As for monsters, anything that stood on his path was killed either by him, his flying weapons, or in the hands of his two mighty weapons.

    The situation grew intense without warning as more monsters kept flooding here. William left the task of fighting these to the masters who apanied him and didn''t forget to collect his loot from the monsters he killed. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The run continued for days, as long as for the ongoing battle. At some point, the different masters leading the grand army felt they weren''t able to stop these monsters if this continued. If monsters were asking for reinforcements, they also did the same.

    All the masters used different means to send back messages to their friends back at the city. When these messages arrived, a grand call for an epic war spread, not only in this city, but all over the entire zone.

    Without intending it, this simple journey to pick up his friends escted and grew to be a war against monsters, one that never happened even once for thousands of years.

    Masters in this world grew used to monstersing towards them, attacking their homes, and they got to just hunt them down whenever they approached the towns and cities.

    Forming an army of masters, going out to hunt down monsters, wasn''t a race thing. But forming such an army, travelling for long distances, spending days just to kill a colossal gathering of monsters, was something that had never happened for a long time already.

    Masters in this world grew used to hate and despise anything rted to monsters, but such grand wars weremon only against dark masters, not monsters.

    So, it was expected how excited masters who heard such calling were. They all travelled and gathered, formed lots of gathering ces all over this part of the world.

    Leaders of the city and the various cities forces who were there thought they''d barely have enough master army to fend off the growing number of monsters at the flying monsters'' deadly zone. Yet when news spread, hearing about how endless masters responded, even taking the initiative to form gathering spots at different areas around, they were truly excited and delighted about that.

    And without realising it, the same idea started to be birthed inside each and every formidable master in the city. If they managed to copy such a thing again, then they could start hunting down the impregnable strongholds of monsters, cutting downrge chunks of them, securing theirnds for long decades in the worst case.

    As things started to heat up like this, William''s friends and team, alongside other masters led by Sloth, were having the scariest moments in their entire lives.

    They were struggling for days. Every single second passed looked like they were stealing their lives from the mouth of the death god himself. Everything around was trying to kill them. As if the unstoppable gravitational force wasn''t enough, they met with weird monsters in these tunnels!

    "Monsters!"

    "Watch out! Agh!"

 Chapter 845 Going In!

    ?

    "They are entering the ground like they are fish swimming in water!"

    Shouts rose, and many started to get hurt. The monsters weren''t big, not the normal type anyone would meet in the world. These were small, very small, actually not exceeding one''s closed fist''s size. And yet they were quite nimble, fast, unpredictable, and lethal!

    The moment these monsters appeared and their already desperate situation turned much worse. It felt like everything around wanted them to fail, wanted them dead. But in the middle of all this, fate decided to y ast gamble to save their lives.

    "Keep fighting! William is here!" the voice of Sloth rang across the entire tunnel as if a grenade just exploded there. The entire group of masters, being alive, being wounded, being exhausted, or those who sumbed to despair, all looked in silence towards Sloth, freezing as if they were statues made out of human flesh.

    "What are you waiting for? He is here, and he is going to save us!" Berry was the first to shout, then others followed. The first to react were William''s friends, followed by his team, then others.

    They shouted, screamed, their faces which were filled with despair and loss of hope changed, showing vicious expressions, a will that ignited like a zing hurricane of fire, erupting in each and every person of them.

    The humans who were just this close from dying, letting monsterse and eat them, or let the disastrous natural forces im their lives, changed and turned to the real beasts.

    The entire tunnel suddenly was filled with ring techniques. Fire erupted like an endless ocean, and explosions kept ranging and booming all over the ce.

    "Advance! Don''t stop where you are!" Sloth led such mighty human charge as he shouted, releasing all of his scariest techniques without caring about anything.

    The tunnel they dug before was getting deeper and wider, and yet monsters which appeared out of nowhere, feeling they were about to have a rich meal, started to fall down like flies.

    As they were advancing with their lives on the line, doing everything in their power to seed, squeezing every ounce of strength they got to move over the bodies of monsters and the irresistible forces of nature, William was doing everything he could to find them.

    An urge was hunting him, driving him insane. It felt like he was about to lose, lose something precious to him, something big, something that would leave him regretting not putting more effort at this moment.

    "F*ck it!" As this sense kept increasing at an rming rate, he decided to ditch this unproductive way to solve the problem and headed directly towards the depths of the hellish period.

    The moment he turned his direction and went there, his two weapons instantly followed, alongside his flying weapons. He was like an unstoppable asura, moving fast, killing everything that stood on his path, leaving behind a long trail of dead bodies and blood, severed organs and limbs.

    Yet the moment he turned to head towards that thin separate line between heaven and hell, monsters stopped getting in his way, and masters following him froze.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The entire world seemed to pause at this moment, as if someone pressed the stop button. Everything petrified, all but one, William.

    "I want to see how you are going to stop me!" William wasn''t just looking for his friends all this time, but he was also observing what was going on inside.

    The gravitational force, the monsters getting killed either by it or by fighting among themselves, the destroyed ground, the flying rocks¡­ He saw everything for long hours until he got sick of it.

    He knew he wasn''t strong enough to rival such a thing, didn''t have the power of a god or anything. And yet he knew he wasn''t going to die.

    "Charley! Dig the ground with your younger brother," the moment he and his two weapons passed through the edge, he felt how truly scary this suction force was. But he was ready.

    He kept increasing his power in the past few months, rising up from the silver grade all the way up to the high stage of the gold grade. And yet he never got the time to test how truly scary his new power was, never knew what his limit was.

    So the moment he decided to go inside that zone, he started to madly store up his technique. Even after rising up all this way, he was still putting all his trust in his Holy Sword technique. And in such a moment of life and death, of his and his friends and team, of everyone he knew and were entrapped inside that hellish world, he still trusted himself and the technique he came up with to save the day.

    And¡­ He was right!

    William knew everything depended on the moment of his entry inside that hellish world. He stored up everything he could, reaching an unprecedented number of stored attacks, reaching one hundred and twenty-four attacks stacked over his tails.

    He didn''t know if he could go any higher or not, but he dashed for one hundred and twenty-four times before prating through the imaginary line between heaven and hell.

    And the moment he entered hell, he raised his sword high, pointed it towards the densely packed holes in the sky, as if he was an aesthetic fighting against gods. Then he released his attacks,unching a mighty force that was the first time to experience using his technique.

    His technique worked by hitting the enemies or targets, causing massive destructive force in a single spot. It wasn''t one that would release a long shot or something. And yet the moment he released his stored attacks, a miraculous thing happened.

    "I know that gravity is power, and any power will react fiercely to another," William muttered these words while watching his released attack explode, just a few tens of metres on top of his head. It started with a single speck of fire, so brightly white thanks to all the destructive force it got.

 Chapter 846 A Tough Situation

    ?

    Then it started to spread, and it felt like fire was working its way around a thick and solid shield, circr in shape, expanding for tens of kilometres.

    William knew he had no power to crush such a natural and mighty power, but he just wanted these few seconds of collision between his technique and the gravitational power. The moment the two shed, the irresistible suction force got relieved off his body.

    His body was already on his way towards the sky, so he fell, crossing tens of metres towards the ground.

    "Dig the ground, let''s do it together, let''s use my cannonball!" William was like a crazy master right now, but he never lost his cool. He just was carried out by this unbelievable moment, ordering his two weapons to fall on the ground, using the same move of his.

    The three of them were already falling fast, but the moment they activated their dash, they rose slightly high in the air, before falling once again, much faster this time.

    *Boom!*

    The collision sound seemed like a symphony in William''s ears. The ground got depressed, and a hole appeared. "Keep digging!" he never thought about resting, not even for a single second. He gulped elixir bottles, healing and spirit power regeneration ones, while his two weapons started to dig a tunnel underground.

    The same method his friends, team, and masters led by Sloth used was also used by him. He got the same idea as Sloth and others and knew the only safe and possible ce for him to use without dying was underground.

    He knew alone he wouldn''t be able to do it. It wasn''t the problem ofcking power, but because primarily he knew he got little time left to do anything. And he was right.

    The technique he painstakingly stored up and released atst couldn''t buy him more than twenty seconds. During which, he worked hard with his two weapons, his flying weapons, and even using his technique to dig a tunnel that was still newbie and short, but it was quite deep in the ground.

    That helped in saving him lots of trouble. The moment the monstrous suction force returned, and he felt the entire ground he was digging trembling fiercely like it was made out of ss not solid rocks.

    "Keep digging!"

    This shout didn''t juste from William, but from Sloth as well. Both were trying to dig the ground, go deeper and advance forward at the same.

    William''s stressful moments didn''t end by going deeper underground. Just a few minutes after he started with his two monstrous weapons to dig the ground, the same weird monsters appeared and came at him.

    "Damn! The Earth Flies? What the heck are these nasty and opportunistic monsters doing here?!!" he instantly recognised the breed of these monsters. But he didn''t have any time to even think about the answer.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He knew how annoying these monsters were. They weren''t strong, didn''t have that much strength even if most of them were gold and dark gold grade. But they''d never attack until they were their targets were in very disadvantageous situations, close to death, or suffering mortal injuries.

    Their appearance was always a sign of a bad omen. William didn''t care about any of that, and only started to use his fiery techniques, returning to be one tailed fox, while releasing fire to cover up the entire tunnel.

    Fire was the nemesis of these little monsters. And so, he started to deal with these monsters, while his two monstrous weapons kept digging.

    As for his flying weapons, he added another hundred to the original one, controlling two hundred right now. He didn''t have the choice from the start and used his weapons to form a shield around him and his two monstrous weapons.

    He kept advancing forward, fighting, while holding his friends Bullets and spoke to them all the time.

    His top priority was to first enter safely into this area. Then he had to find his friends. Trying to go deeper wasn''t going to work, so he started to move in zigzag underground through the tunnel. And in less than one hour, he finally received something for the first time ever.

    [Hey¡­ Hey¡­ Will¡­ Willia¡­ There?] as he was fighting and running into the tunnel, he received such a bad and interrupted voice from Sara.

    "Keep speaking, don''t stop and I''ll find you," William shouted the moment he heard her voice. Even if he couldn''t tell what exactly she was saying, he knew he was getting closer to them. As for how he was going to find them, he decided to use the same method he previously found them when they arrived here. And that was why he asked her to keep speaking.

    "Turn right!" The moment he sent this message, Sara kept speaking non-stop. Using her voice and his reception of it as a guidance, he started to twist the tunnel right and left, back and forth, until he finally started to get closer in a few hours.

    As he was busy doing this, the situation was totally different at his friends and team''s end. As they were digging and fighting for their lives, Sara kept holding her Message Paper tightly, as if she was waiting for a boyfriend who left for too long to call.

    Her move wasn''t needed in many eyes, as William was always speaking with Sloth using that mysterious scroll. But it happened! In the middle of all these hectic battles and running, in the middle of all this agony and pain, his voice came like a soft breeze in the hottest days of summer, making her stop breathing even for a few seconds.

    "Are you ok?" Ro said as Sara suddenly froze. She was the closest one to Sara, and she instantly knew something was wrong.

    "It''s¡­ It''s him¡­" as if the two of them were standing in the middle of their home backyard''s garden, speaking and chatting leisurely, Sara turned to her and said, with disbelief, with eyes forming total circles out of her immense shock.

 Chapter 847 Looking For Them

    ?

    "Who?" Ro didn''t know what went wrong with Sara, and at such a moment, she''d never guess what she was talking about. Not until Sara raised William''s Message Paper in her hand, raised it quite high, as if she just won a marathon, as if she was showing off with her hard-earned personal trophy.

    "Hey! Hey! William, William, are you there? Can you hear me?"

    The moment she shouted these words, and the entire world froze again. Everyone turned to her, looking at her as if they were looking at a legending true, a dream turning real.

    "He just spoke to me, just now¡­" she tried to get any response from William, but his voice was interrupted and messy, his tone was low, and she hardly got anything from it.

    "Keep speaking!" Just when she was about to get depressed and frustrated, Ibra suddenly shouted, "he can locate us as long as you speak. Keep speaking, and let''s work together and protect her."

    The other girls in the team looked in envy towards Sara. They all got William''s Message Papers, but none ever thought to use the same method to speak with him. Even if they could replicate what she did, they didn''t do it. They knew one speaking with William was enough, and they had to keep her safe until he''d find them.

    The entire group of masters pushed themselves against their limits. And as they did, Sara kept moving in the middle, totally safe and protected from any harm.

    William kept hearing her voice, going weak at some point, getting clearer at another. Yet there was something that puzzled him. Whenever he found the right direction to head towards, he ended up hearing her voice shaky and weak again.

    "Damn! They are moving!" he jumped to such a conclusion after a few minutes of deep thinking, "I can''t tell them to stop¡­" he moved his eyes around, watching how he was in a very bad situation, one that they must be facing as well.

    "This won''t do¡­ I need to pick up speed, going faster than them¡­" he was busy trying to locate where they were, while fighting off monsters using his fiery techniques. Yet this wasn''t the time to waste his effort on doing this.

    He knew this was going to end up bad, but he had no other choice but to do it. He took out one of his arrows, ced one of his modified grenades there, then threw the two towards the rear of the tunnel his two monstrous weapons were digging.

    Before doing this, he stacked lots of his attacks before releasing them after sending the arrow away. His techniquended and created a deeper hole, one that exploded with lots of fire spreading all around.

    He left the fire to deal with the monsters while shielding himself and the other two weapons on his side with his flying weapons. He got little hurt, but he knew more hurt woulde the moment the arrow and grenade would detonate.

    And he was right! Just a few secondster, and as he started to join forces with his two monstrous weapons, using his earth techniques to dig the tunnel faster, a mighty explosion urred, lightening up the entire tunnel, turning it bright.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William knew this was just the beginning. The explosion erupted, and a copious amount of fire got released, filling the entire tunnel, moving like an unstoppable flood towards him and monsters.

    "Not this easy!" William waited until the tsunami of fire got closer, before releasing the few stacked attacks of his at the fire. The two forces collided, ending up with a much fiercer wave of explosion.

    This one was violent enough to show up long cracks at the walls and sides of this tunnel. Yet as he left the two monstrous weapons to do their digging, there was another space for him to take shields at. William kept retreating, while releasing his attacks every ten seconds. The fire waves kepting at him every time they crushed his technique''s might.

    He wasn''t hoping to kill the fire, but to control its advance. In addition to that, he was using the heat produced by all this fire to melt the rocks up ahead, making it easier for his two monstrous weapons to do their task.

    The heat did indeed affect the normal rocks, making his advancing speed much faster. And yet he felt like the entire tunnel was on the verge of copsing. So, he started to form pirs of thick rocks to support the tunnel, something that kept the tunnel standing erect long enough.

    These tunnels wouldn''t survive that long in the middle of the sea of fire assaulting him. Yet as long as he was moving faster than before, he was quite satisfied.

    Soon enough the results of his gambling move started to show up. Sara''s voice started to grow clearer the more he advanced. Her voice kept growing weaker from time to time, but that didn''t happen frequently like before.

    One hour passed, three hours passed, ten hours passed¡­ He kept moving underground following this tactic and pattern. Every time the fire was about to die, he took out another arrow and grenade, releasing both towards the distant end of the tunnel.

    From time to time, he''d hear rumbling noisesing from far behind. It was a sign that the tunnel was crushing down. Yet as long as this didn''t happen over his head, he didn''t care.

    He kept advancing for hours, while his team and others kept fighting for their lives, buying themselves every single second with great effort, pain, and struggle.

    William kept hearing Sara''s voice clearly, and she also heard him perfectly fine. He kept sending good news one after another, telling her that he was drawing closer.

    She also heard the violent and loud explosive sounds that erupted all over the ce around him. She could tell without the need to witness what he was doing that he was suffering from the same pressure, all alone, all by himself.

 Chapter 848 Reunion!

    ?

    The work thousands of masters were coborating together to do was done by him. Realising this made her eyes turn sour, with red veins appearing there as she resisted the urge to cry.

    She was happy, but she was feeling bad for him at the same time. Her tears would have flown if she was just with him, if she was alone, not surrounded by all these people around.

    As he kept reassuring her by his voice, she ryed part of what he said to others. The thought that he was drawing closer to them pumped more adrenaline in their bodies, making them exert more effort, showing a performance none of them ever thought they could do before.

    Everyone was fighting for their lives, fighting hard including William, including the masters at the outside. The army of masters were having tough times as well. They weren''t fighting against natural forces and monsters, but they were struggling under the insane number of monsters that suddenly appeared in the past few hours.

    It happened the moment William moved towards that hellish zone. It felt like this was a trigger, one that opened the gates of hell over the masters'' faces.

    The number of monsters they were fighting before was quite huge at first. But now, it has turned scary. The masters out there started to feel the same despair as the ones inside, praying that reinforcements would arrive sooner thanter, before they''d all lose their lives and fall here.

    As things grew to such an extent, the leaders of this grand army instantly responded. They rearranged their army lines, gathering up everyone into a colossal circr gathering. They left the strong ones at the outside, helped by lots of weaker masters. They did that to let part of the army rest in the middle, protected by those outside, replenish their lost spirit power and recuperate, before joining the massacre again.

    This helped in reducing lots of pressure over them. Even if they were facing endless monsters, they were just dealing with the onesing at them in batches. Using this tactic, they turned the absolute advantage of monsters into nothing of much use, buying themselves lots of time in doing so.

    A really colossal army was marching fast towards them from different directions and distances. Yet the closest one would take roughly a day to arrive. The leaders were already in touch with others far away and learnt about the time of the army''s arrival.

    This helped in reducing more pressure off everyone''s shoulders when those masters spread the news. As things were getting heated up and then stabilised out there, William finally barged his way into the other tunnel his team and other masters were digging.

    "William!"

    This shout didn''te just from Berry, not only from Lara, not just from other girls in his team, but from everyone, literally everyone.

    The moment he forced his way into their tunnel, they all stopped what they were doing, before William''s friends all jumped towards him.

    The girls finally released all the stress and agony they felt all this time and cried. William was literally buried underneath his girls, getting surrounded by everyone.

    "No time for this, let''s speakter," William instantly reacted, controlling his flying weapons and monstrous ones to go and intercept the monstersing from the ground.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    These monsters wouldn''t give them any moment to celebrate their union. The moment he spoke and acted, everyone returned to their norm, acting with more courage and defiance, looking at the monsters around as if they were nothing.

    "Any idea about how to go out?" Sloth asked, and William simply shrugged.

    "I came here from outside, why won''t we dig a tunnel there?"

    "We tried, but it didn''t work," Sloth sighed. He knew William was a kid full of surprises, but he wasn''t a god to change their oue this easily. Sloth was sure William came here as fast as he could, without having any time to think about how to get out of here safely.

    "If so, then we should head back, head towards the centre of this ce," William never thought going out from here would be a problem. ording to Sloth, they tried everything, even trying to go at the edge, send a few out, trying to cross the separation zone.

    But it seemed like something was blocking them from going out. And that only meant that this disaster wasn''t as simple as it might seem.

    "Go back¡­ Where?!!" Sloth got what William meant but couldn''t believe his ears. So, he asked to double check, and with William''s next words, the old man couldn''t help but sigh.

    "We struggled all this time toe here, and you want us to go back there?" another master asked, one who got rescued once by William from the entrapped bubble over the back of a floating monster.

    "If there is no way out, then no way will appear until we solve this mystery first," William rolled his eyes, knowing that he wouldn''t be able to exin such a thing to them as it stemmed out from his vast experience and instincts.

    "Let''s do as he says," in such a stressful moment, Sloth stood by William''s side, he came all the way here, risked his life to save us. He came from outside, ending up entrapped in this forsaken ce, putting his life on the line for our sake¡­"

    His wordsnded, and everyone didn''t object anymore. He got a point indeed, not to mention part of this group belonged to William''s guild, and the others were the ones he previously saved.

    "Do you know where the heart of this ce is?" William looked around, and all he could see was a long tunnel with lots of dead bodies, zing mes, and nothing else.

    "Wait a minute," Sloth expanded his spirit sense outwards, ending up getting damaged and crushed in a few seconds. He coughed twice, bringing out a few droplets of his blood on his palm every time he did that.

 Chapter 849 A Scary Thing He Kept Hidden

    ?

    "This way," he looked a bit weaker thanks to the damage his spirit power suffered. This wasn''t like how he experienced before, and that was mainly thanks to the increasing might of the gravitational spirit power out there.

    "Thanks," William could guess what this old man suffered, he patted on his shoulder before turning to everyone, "let''s go. We''ll stick together, live and fight, or fall together, let''s go!"

    William didn''t stand his ce anymore, leading everyone towards the direction Sloth pointed towards. Thetter used elixirs to heal himself, before scanning the world up there again from time to time, just to make sure they were heading in the right direction.

    He kept guiding them across their hectic and crazy travel back towards the heart of this ce. The more they advanced deeper, the more trembling that came from the ground.

    After travelling like this for many hours, two things happened. First the monsters that kept assaulting and harassing them decreased in number, ending up not showing up after they passed a day in their travel.

    That was indeed good news, but the bad one was that the ground started to shock cracks everywhere. They had to dig deeper, but slowly they started to feel they were going to hit the core of the world, without finding any safe ce.

    "Keep moving," William knew the pressure over everyone reduced a lot when the monsters stopped showing up. But that didn''t mean the stress and fear vanished, "anyone with strengthening arrays use them! Anyone with techniques able to support this ce, even building pirs, use them!"

    ording to Sloth, they were heading towards a ce filled with endless flying masses of rocks and dust, rubbles filling the entire world with no sign of ending. Yet there was no trace of anything remarking the central spot of this entire zone.

    William knew Sloth was using his spirit sense to take a glimpse out there, but he trusted his hunch. They were getting closer to the heart of this zone, and he could feel it!

    The intensity of the gravitational force was increasing to an unprecedented degree. Even the very deepyers of earth were shaking and trembling, showing lots of cracks over there.

    William kept pushing them forward, but eventually they started to walk and run in the middle of theva world. Hell truly descended upon them, and death was eyeing them from every corner.

    Yet William never thought about turning back. Sloth and other formidable masters started to spread their orders and techniques, letting those with ice and water elements to intervene and deal withva.

    Evenva-based masters, who were few, started to control theva and help as far as they could. Everyone was running and pressured for a long time before William even reached them. And after all this time, they started to show obvious signs of fatigue and exhaustion.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William was looking for something, something to tell him what the root of all this was. Such a colossal natural phenomenon might have appeared when the world was going to fall. But there were two unexined things that happened.

    The first was their inability to leave here. William knew if such a thing happened, then it was a sign that something was happening in the middle of all this, something that the entire natural disaster was resonating with, wouldn''t end until it would be finished.

    And then there was the weird attitude of monsters outside. William knew such actions from monsters weren''t exined, didn''t make any sense.

    Adding the two together, William was positive that whatever was taking shape in the heart of all this was something grand, something unique, something so precious to even stir up all the monsters to flood here and wait on the edge of such a dangerous ce, even risking fighting this bad and brutal against humans out there.

    Even if he knew there was something great happening here, he didn''t get any clue about it. It might be a naturally born treasure, an artefact even¡­ It could be the seed of disaster, a weapon left over by that nine tailed fox to take down this world once and for all.

    It might be good, might be bad, but William was sure it was epic and special. On top of that, he had to intervene and either steal this treasure for himself or ruin it. That was because if that thing wasn''t of any use to him, he was sure it was going to be a scary weapon in the hands of others, or perhaps start out a huge trouble.

    Not to mention he kept a tiny little detail off everyone here, worrying they might grow panicked or something. And that was indeed quite scary.

    There was something getting formed or born in the heart of this zone, but there was no guarantee that this thing was going to bepleted without killing every single living spirit within this zone.

    That might exin why the filtering membrane separating this world from outside prevented anyone leaving but allowed anyone to get inside. That also exined why the moment William turned to head towards this ce, all monsters looked away and didn''t try to stop him, even clearing a path for him as if they thought of him as a dead human.

    William decided to keep such scary news to himself the moment he saw the intense reactions of everyone towards his appearance. He felt how desperate they were, and crushing the weakly zing hope wasn''t going to do anyone any good.

    That was why the first thing he did after realising that there was no exit was to lead everyone ande here. They had to either control that yet to be born thing or kill it!

    Wiim kept looking for such clues, spreading his spirit sense carefully and limiting it just inside the tunnel. At first, he didn''t see anything unusual at all. Then after two days of travelling and fighting, he started to grow a weird hunch.

 Chapter 850 Going Up

    ?

    "The ground¡­ If the ck portals up there are sucking them to pass through the portals, then why are there lots of rubbles flying in this region?"

    William was sure the gravitational force wasn''t any weaker than other ces. If it changed, then it''d be much fiercer.

    William was sure there was something wrong up there. If not for his inability to secure his life, he''d prefer to go up there and inspect things on his own.

    He had no other option but to look for any clue at the ground, inside the tunnel they were digging and running through. As he kept looking, he finally found things that didn''t add up.

    He knew they were digging hard and fast, and they were going deeper. But for a reason, things didn''t look as if they were getting away from the surface, closer to the core of this world.

    He knew the distance between the surface and the core was very huge, but at least they''d feel more heat the deeper they dug. Lava was gushing out in copious amounts, and yet he felt like the temperature in the tunnel wasn''t affected by thisva. If anything, he could feel the cold breeze of fresh air from time to time. And that was quite bizarre.

    The second weird thing wasn''t rted to the tunnel itself, but things that appeared from the holes created by the falling of parts of the tunnel.

    As they crossed ces, the tunnel parts would lose lots of support. It was expected for these to fall, yet William noticed a weird light, silver blue in colour, shing from the world above.

    He asked Sloth about this, and thetter shook his head in negligence. He even scouted the outer world many times to make sure there wasn''t such a thing there.

    The third thing William noticed was a weird hum. It wasn''t like a heart beating, not like pulsating veins, but like someone humming a song, or saying a prayer or something.

    He tried toe up with any of these little clues but failed. Not until Sloth said something casually, cursing after getting his spirit sense crushed again.

    "Damn that gravity! It presses over my spirit sense like a mountain is falling over me or something!"

    "Pressing!" William instantly picked the valuable clue Sloth mentioned without even realising its worth. And thetter nodded, lost in cursing and healing his recently acquired wounds.

    "Every time I spread my sense outside, and something pressured me like it carries the weight of the world there!"

    "This happen every time? Didn''t you say gravity sucks your sense and crushes it?" William''s face kept turning serious, giving Sloth a hint that he was saying something truly important without realising it.

    "Well¡­ That was at first, but many hours before, it changed," he paused, feeling like what he was saying was indeed something important, "yes, it changed all of sudden, just after we crossed that damn groove."

    "What groove?" The more Sloth spoke, the more valuable intel he said, making William want to squeeze his dry out of what he knew.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "That groove, the one that expanded in a semi-circr way¡­" Sloth paused, as William''s eyes shone in realisation. "What did you get? Hurry up, tell me!"

    "Why? You kept such valuable information hidden all this time, leaving me puzzled for no reason!" William rolled his eyes, but his mind was roaring on full cylinders.

    The ground didn''t feel what it should be, there were weird lightsing from the holes, not to mention the rubbles and rocks that filled the entire ce¡­ And now there was this groove thing and the pressing not suction force that prevailed up there.

    All of this pointed towards one thing; this was a grand formation. And from the few evidence he had, he knew this was something meant to absorb spirit power from the entire zone, pressing it over the central ce, to nourish something.

    "Wait for me here," if it was pressing force, then it wasn''t that big of a problem to William. Before any would say anything to stop him, he already dashed away, heading towards one of the far away holes that got created after that part of the tunnel fell.

    "William!" Ibra and Berry shouted, before many others followed. Ibra wanted to go out there and join him, while Berry was deadly worried already over him.

    Yet William didn''t stop despite hearing them. He went towards the nearest hole, storing all the attacks he could, before dashing straight upwards.

    The moment he went through the hole, he saw the shes of light he saw before. Yet this time he saw where exactly it came from.

    "A tform?!" This was something that seemed a bit solid, taking the form of a ground, formed out of a special type of ore, one that emanated such lights on the ground.

    When he passed through this hole, he ended up on the surface. There the lights vanished, and a crushing force that wanted to tear down his body, force him to kneel, exerted over him.

    "F*ck off!" he shouted in defiance, while releasing his stacked attacks. He didn''t stack that much as the distance wasn''t that long. But it was enough to negate and counter the crushing force.

    As the pressure over him got relieved, he started to dash again, then releasing his attacks the moment the pressure returned. Fighting against such oppressive force was much easier than trying to fight against a gravitational one.

    During all this, he started to take a better look at this part of the world. "It''s indeed a tform, one with a grand tower in the middle¡­ Damn! This is the ck Tower!!!"

    In front of William, the entire ground got reformed. He expected to see the same scene of devastation and destruction, the same scenes he saw when he was out of this ce.

    The ground was littered with holes and ruins before, but now it was weirdly smooth, as if it was the surface of a mirror or something.

 Chapter 851 The Black Tower

    ?

    The ground was pitch ck before, filled with lots of redness that came fromva that came from underground. But now it was white in colour, with a very distinctive ck tower, one long and huge tower at the end of his sight.

    He didn''t need to go there to guess what it was. Just from all the clues he gathered so far, he could easily tell it was a ck Tower.

    "ck Towers only appear when a world is going to end, and another is on the verge of getting birth in its ce¡­ What''s going on here?!!" William was deeply puzzled by this.

    The ck Towers were something that wasn''t done by man, not by monsters as well. It was a natural phenomenon, one that many described as the attempts of the universe to fix something big, bnce what got ruined in a certain world.

    It wasn''t something rted to pocket worlds, but to real big worlds. Many tiny worlds suffered from such fate. Any ce the ck Tower appeared, many would appear as well at different parts of the world, ending up engulfing the entire world under a colossal formation, ending all lives there, destroying the world before reforming it again.

    It wasn''t the end of life, but new life would appear next out of nowhere. It was one of the biggest mysteries in the universe, and William knew this wasn''t a good sign at all.

    He was entrapped already inside one of the ck Towers'' areas of effect. As long as a tower is formed, no life is allowed to continue in a certain zone around.

    "We need to stop it!" He knew this was the only hope they got. Luckily for him, he found out about this quite early, before this tower gotpletely formed. Or else, there was no way to stop it, no way to save his and others'' lives.

    He instantly dropped what he was doing, returned back to the tunnel through an opening. There he found everyone were heading towards his direction, as if they intended to join him up above.

    "Don''t scare me again like this," the moment he returned back, Lara jumped and hugged him, crying in his arms. Next it was Berry, then other girls except for Lina and Sara. These two got better control over their emotions and didn''t show the same reaction as others.

    "What did you find out there?" Sloth appeared next, alongside many other strong masters who got saved by William before.

    "We need to pick up our pace," William didn''t exin things in detail, "or else, we are going to die."

    "Is it this bad?!!!" The words of William didn''t exin anything, but they were enough to scare and silence everyone. Even the girls in his embrace distanced themselves for a few steps, looking at him in doubt and disbelief.

    William wasn''t the type to say random stuff, not the type to exaggerate anything. So, if he said this was bad, then it was much worse than what he tried to convey.

    Sloth spoke on behalf of everyone, and William nodded.

    "I estimate we have less than one week here," William paused, "we need to disperse, form five teams, each will head towards a certain direction¡­"

    William didn''t just tell them it was bad and hopeless, but he started to instantly ry his orders. He had a n, and from his words, tone, and attitude, everyone got that they had a chance if they followed what he was saying to the letter.

    His n was simple. He wanted them to go to five different directions, each led by one group of high-end masters of what they got. Luckily many survived, and thousands were here right now.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William told them about the directions they were heading towards, took out scrolls and started writing and drawing certain arrays.

    "Once you are done, don''t wait for anything, sit on the ground, and start training on this technique¡­" he even wrote down a certain technique, one that was responsible for activating the arrays, the grand formation once everyone finished their tasks.

    "This technique¡­"

    "Is it one that will destroy this ce?!!"

    The old and experienced masters recognised the general effect of this technique, couldn''t help but turn to William and as in doubt and confusion.

    "We need to do something, not to destroy the world, but to destroy something that''s appearing right now on the top of our heads," William paused, thinking about telling them everything but deciding against it, "you just need to trust me on this. Our lives, all of our lives, including mine, depend on this."

    "..."

    His words carried their own weight over their spirits and minds. They decided without the need to chat among themselves to follow what he said to the letter.

    "What about you?" As the teams were getting formed, everyone noticed that William stood away, distanced himself from any team, "what are you going to do?"

    William looked at Sloth, while his closest friends sighed.

    "He is going away," Ibra shook his head, "alone like always."

    "This is growing to be a habit," Berry crossed her arms, "a bad one if you asked for my opinion."

    "I''ve to do something, only I can do it," William didn''t delve into any details, kept them in the dark for now, "just do your part, and leave the rest to me."

    "If you want help, not a burden, then let mee with you," Sloth offered his help, ending up getting rejected.

    "I have to do it alone, only I can do it," William acted stubbornly in their eyes, "I need all of you to stick and work together. Don''t think this is going to be an easy job. The moment you startying down the array, the entire world wille for your heads."

    "As if it didn''t already happen," Sara scoffed, "don''t worry, leave this to us to handle. Just make sure you will return safely."

    The discussion ended here. Everyone got that their tasks weren''t as easy as William made them look like.

 Chapter 852 The Plan To Take The Tower Down

    ?

    William''sst warning made them recall how hectic their lives were since the world started to fall apart. And it seemed they were going to suffer the same fate. Yet this time they had to stand their ground, defend the arrays they built, and protect the masters who were going to train.

    ording to William''s instructions, at least one hundred masters should train to activate the array. That meant in each group, a few hundred would be left to guard this group of a hundred, protecting them like they were protecting their own lives and close family members.

    Everyone got what they had to do, yet they didn''t get what this would do to make them survive. The strongest masters tried to spread out their senses, trying to see what was going on up there but failed.

    Every single time they tried, they ended up getting their senses crushed by brute force, ending up with a bacsh. After many attempts, they dropped the idea of trying to see what was going on up there and trusted what William nned.

    As they all started to move away, only William remained behind. He sent them to five different directions called: The Axis points. These five axis points were the main pirs of any ck Tower, the only chance they got to take it down.

    But alone it wasn''t sufficient. After all, the ck Tower was already in the process of getting formed. If he didn''t do his part, this ck Tower would keep growing, slowly, but eventually it''d bepleted.

    This attempt would buy them a year or two at most but wouldn''t save their lives in the end. They wouldn''t be able to get out of here, no matter how hard they tried.

    Without what he was going to do, there was no hope. So as they moved away, he also started travelling, heading towards the core of the tower.

    Every ck Tower was a massive building of ck rocks, formed by the force of nature. Insane gravity was the start, to reform the entire zone and reshape it, make the tower and its associated tform.

    The five teams'' task was to handle the tform, as for his task, it was to handle the tower itself.

    These towers were built over cores, something like the beating hearts of any human or a monster. Unlike the beating hearts of flesh, this one was formed of the hardest ores, formed either in globr or ster shapes.

    William knew ording to the shape of the core; the grade of the tower was decided. After rebuilding the new world and destroying the old one, these cores would be left behind, as monuments of the presence and work of the ck Towers. Then more rocks would gather up, and a grand series of mountains would be formed.

    The strongest and deadliest trait of these cores was a single element, gravity! This was the first thing to get formed in this world, the first sign that appeared before the tower got in shape and the tform was built.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William knew the amount of gravity he was going to face was insane, yet it wasn''t that impossible to ovee. Thinking about using spirit power to directly sh against it was futile and hopeless. And William knew of the right way to do it.

    "These little monsters can detect when any living being is going to die, and that means they have part of fate rted elements in their spirits¡­"

    He muttered while heading towards the direction of the core. He knew there weren''t any monsters around for long kilometres. Previously he thought this was thanks for their approach from the scary and terrifying being that scared them away. But now he realised this wasn''t the case.

    The gravitational core of the ck Tower must have dragged all of the monsters in the region close to it, ending up killing them. William didn''t need to kill these monsters directly, and so the core helped and saved him a great deal of trouble this time.

    As he advanced forward, he had to only resist the natural forcesing from outside. He knew this wasn''t a gravitational force, but a domineering crushing one. So he simply used his technique from time to time, evading the falling rocks andva that kept erupting from the ground.

    He left the task to dig the tunnel to his two monstrous weapons, while leaving any task to defend himself from any falling rocks to his flying weapons.

    As for him, he kept thinking about his next move. He was going to face a scary force of nature. This wasn''t a trick used by any master or monster, but it was the source that everyone took a glimpse from and used for their sake.

    He knew how hard it was to fight nature, as nature was usually unstoppable. It was like a tyrant, a god who ruled over everyone, and he was just a mere mortal trying to resist and fight against it.

    If he was going to do so, he had to use another mighty force of nature to his aid. And he just had the right force to change everything rted to this ck Tower.

    "I''m drawing near," just after running for half a day, he finally reached a ce where he noticed weird fluctuations in the air. The dancing specks of dust that kept swirling around without any stir or interference of anything or anyone.

    Seeing this told William that gravity was starting to get affected. The gravity of this world was getting affected, and that was thanks to the core. "Let me hope to find these carcasses away from the core, enough to start what I want to do."

    He kept moving forward for a few hours. The more he advanced, the more weird things he spotted. The dust that started to swirl in the air turned to rocks the size of one''s hand. And walking began to look like fighting a brutal war, one against the entire world!

 Chapter 853 Fate And Destiny World

    ?

    At this point, just walking a kilometre took close to half an hour, with William spending lots of his spirit power and using his technique frequently to crush these rocks.

    He felt like he was digging a path against an entire ocean. The more he removed these rocks, the more that appeared thanks to the explosions that happened from his attacks.

    Everything was pointing towards him getting closer to the core. But that wasn''t what he wanted right now. "I need to take a tour around, heading directly towards the monsters without excalibur won''t do me any good¡­"

    He started to change his direction. Instead of walking towards the origin of this gravity, he started to take circr routes, moving around himself for hours, without finding a single corpse of these monsters.

    "Hmm¡­ They aren''t anywhere I can find, at least in such depth¡­" he finally noticed something different, something he missed amidst everything he thought about.

    These monsters were known to be sneaky and opportunistic, but they lived mainly underground. They''d only appear when their target would be in their weakest moments. And that meant if he wanted to find any carcase of them, he needed to dig deeper.

    "Stop, dig deeper, dig a grand hole here!" William suddenly called off the ongoing digging process horizontally, turning it into a vertical operation. As his two monstrous weapons were busy doing this, he had to shift turns and start to defend them against everything else.

    Be it the falling rocks, the crazy amount ofva gushing out from the ground, or the rocks that would suddenly appear out of nowhere,ing towards him without warning, he started to shield these by himself.

    He used his flying weapons, his techniques, his elements, everything he got to protect his two weapons. At the same time, a grand hole appeared in the ce they were digging, as a bottomless pit.

    William couldn''t join them to check what they found. So he spread his spirit sense to watch and detect any carcass they might stumble across. And soon enough, this n worked!

    In less than two hours of digging, the hole reached hundreds of metres in depth. And there at the bottom, William finally saw something that he craved for.

    Many carcases of the monsters he killed were scattered across the bottom of this pit. Seeing this made him feel like he saw water after walking in the desert for long days.

    "Come here, stop these and don''t move away," William called for his two weapons, even recalling them back to form two amazing pieces of gears before releasing them again. He entrusted defending him to his two monstrous weapons, didn''t look back and jumped directly towards his pit.

    He used his tails and weapons to jump down like an agile monkey. He kept descending down fast, until he finallynded on the ground. The moment he arrived there, he started to crazily dig the ground, getting out the dead bodies of these monsters.

    Each monster was now lying peacefully on the ground, motionless, without any sign of life. He was vignt at first, in case any remaining living monsters tried to take a bite of him or anything. But with time passing, he knew he was just over worrying as nothing happened.

    After digging for an hour or so, he finally got out lots of carcases, enough to start his n.

    "Time to put an end to this," William decided to fight this natural gravitational tyrannical force with a much fiercer force of nature, fate and destiny!

    He already learnt the right way to use the Mystic Arts, got to learn tons of these arts, enough to give him confidence in starting this battle and winning it.

    "Let''s see what the fate and destiny of this world is like¡­" he cut open the carcasses of endless monsters, taking many viable organs that didn''t rot or get ruined yet, scattering them around him in some sort of an array. He followed the instructions he read before literally, didn''t add or modify anything.

    Then he sat in the middle, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, feeling weirdly excited in such a situation. This was his first time ever to perform such Mystic Art, something that he craved to do since the first moment he learnt about the presence of such mysterious arts in the first ce.

    William was truly excited about this, despite not knowing what this would end up with, nor where he''d get led towards. ording to what he read, every person had his own realm of fate and destiny. And he didn''t know if the world he visited before was his, or just a coboration of others who helped him ess that mysterious realm in the first ce.

    He closed his eyes and started to activate the array using his spirit power. He had to cancel his spirit body for the process to seed, or else nothing would happen.

    The moment he released his spirit power, activating the array, he felt like the entire world around started to change. He was sucked towards a new ce, a world that looked like a piece of cosmos.

    "It''s the same ce¡­" he recognised the world he appeared in as it was the same as the one he appeared in before. There were lots of wheels around, moving and rotating, in different shapes and sizes.

    William didn''t waste any time, as he didn''t know for how long his spirit power would permit him to remain here. So he instantly thought about the thing he wanted to see: its fate and destiny, the world he was currently in.

    He knew trying to spy over something or something backed up by fate and destiny was going to issue a severe bacsh against anyone. But he felt like this world''s fate and destiny had already gotten tempered and altered. And that meant there wouldn''t be such severe bacsh like how it should normally be.

    As he thought about this world, a scene that made him freeze in ce happened.

 Chapter 854 The Mystic Art That Repairs Fate And Destiny

    ?

    Previously when William came here in the past, he thought about someone and a wheel corresponding to him appeared. But when he thought about this world, a world of wheels appeared and drew closer to him.

    His wheel was around ten metres in diameter, and it started growing. But against all the iing wheels, an endless number of him to fill the entire world around, his seemed to be minute and insignificant.

    William tried to control his anxiety and thoughts, waited for the grand scene of wheels toe closer. They started to get connected with his wheel, one by one, then in groups and batches.

    The scene was indeed breathtaking, with his wheel starting to grow, form other copies of it that started to make levels upon levels underneath his feet. The speed of his wheel rotation decreased drastically, but it never stopped.

    William didn''t know that if his wheel stopped rotating, he''d die! The proof he was alive was for his wheel to move, even if it moved at such snail-like speed.

    The attachment process of wheels with him seemed to take forever, but in less than a few minutes they all got connected with him. And with that, he felt like a closed door opened, releasing tons of data, images, and even sounds to his mind.

    He felt an instant headache, pressure like never before. He was prepared for anything, but not such a mental strike that came out of the blue.

    "Damn!" He tried to disconnect with these wheels, but nothing worked. "If so, then let''s get it done fast," he gritted his teeth, recalling the words in one of the scrolls he read before.

    Mystic Arts were very diverse and rich, including lots of arts to interfere with the fate and destiny of others. One art of these piqued his interest, and he decided to use it right here.

    It was a Mystic Art to fix any damaged fate and destiny, one that could repair anything others did in this world. It worked by first detecting any alterations, before asking for the support of the fate and destiny world to start a process of auto repairing.

    The beauty of this art was that it didn''t require much spirit power from him, as he was just acting as a medium between this realm and the repair process. But its great limitation was that it could only be used to repair any alterations caused by any outsider force, not able to fix any alteration caused by the fate and destiny realm itself.

    And that also meant it couldn''t be used to alter or improve any fate and destiny of anyone or anything.

    William betted everything on the intervention of the nine tailed fox in the fate and destiny of this world. This was indeed a gamble, as he was risking everything based on an ancient myth.

    The moment he muttered the sequence of words and phrases he memorised by heart, apanied by different hand seals and stances, the wheel under his feet started to slowly vibrate.

    He wasn''t just standing on top of one wheel at the moment, but on a group of tens of them. And all of them started to shine, turning the area below his feet to look like a shining star.

    This happened in mere breaths, and then the endless number of wheels attached to him started to shine as well. The world''s wheels were attached to each other, then to his wheels, forming tons of levels of wheels that formed ground of their own.

    The sight was marvellous! Different lights shone from the tons of wheels gathered here, and soon enough they lit the entire world.

    "They formed light enough to be seen from far as a star¡­" without realising it, he couldn''t help but raise his head towards the distant shining stars, "are these like this? Are they not being stars, but the gathering of the world''s wheels, with people trying to affect their fate and destiny?"

    Such thought was deep, yet he didn''t linger around it for too long. He returned to examine the world of wheels around, waiting for any sign to tell him his method seeded.

    ording to the scroll he read, this art would light up candles over the wheels, and only ck candles were ones with serious issues. William didn''t get it right before; thought he was going to lit real candles over each and every wheel of the world. But now he realised this wasn''t the case.

    The candles were a reference to the lighting from these wheels. And with different coloursing out from them, he was now looking for any ck ones.

    "There are none?!!" It was indeed shocking, but he didn''t see any ck lighting from any wheel. That meant everything he did so far was pointless, and this method failed.

    Just before he''d think about leaving here, he felt a soft tremble, then followed by a series of tremblester on. It felt as if the entire world of wheels were shaking, and he didn''t know why.

    He looked around, but everything was in their normal ce. Nothing weird was there, and yet these shakings kept happening.

    "The art if sessful will release a shockwave, originating from the entire world, supported and augmented by fate and destiny everywhere, ending up washing away any fault and repairing all damage¡­ This¡­" William recalled what he read back at that scroll, hoping what he guessed would be true.

    And that was indeed right. These faint trembling were just the beginning. Then much fiercer shakings happened, followed by many wheels trembling in their ces, until they broke apart from the entire chain.

    When that happened, these wheels changed the lights they were emitted, shining all pitch ck. "Damn! They were tricking me!!" William blinked twice when he saw this, couldn''t help but curse that nine tailed fox again.

    "That bastard¡­ It''s so cunning and ying dirty all the time!" He knew this was the act of that fox,

 Chapter 855 A Backlash!

    ?

    It was an attempt to trick anyone trying to fix what it did. And that told William that he wasn''t just able to use Mystic Arts, but also knew tons about it!

    The wheels that started to pop out were first few, then lots started to pop out all of sudden like popcorn! William was surprised to see such a huge number of wheels got altered and damaged, making him recall something.

    "That world¡­ It lost its ability to use their spirit bodies¡­" he realised this was the effect of a curse, a seal over their spirits. But now he started to realise that such a thing came originally from the nine tailed fox, not just a mere coincidence or an act of nature or something.

    As he realised this, he felt how important what he was doing here. He was positive that lots of things were going to change after all this got repaired. But there was a tiny detail that he overlooked or didn''t put in his mind, something that changed everything.

    *Rumble!*

    "Agh!"

    Without any warning, he felt like the entire world got shaken and trembled, ending up getting expelled from there while feeling immense pain like never before.

    It was a bacsh! And it was very painful. He found himself lying on the ground of the deep pit, with his body twitching out of immense pain.

    "Damn! It seems my spirit power isn''t even enough to repair a single error there¡­" he gritted his teeth, recalled what other members of the Cardinal council did to avoid the bacsh, "they missed to tell me how scary the amount of spirit power such arts consume¡­"

    He didn''t hesitate to take out the healing elixir and consumed it. At the same time, he took out an elixir potion, while thinking about how to solve this problem.

    "A single elixir won''tst me long enough¡­ my spirit power grew, and the time a single bottle willst is decreased¡­"

    He sat on the ground, thinking about all this. The main obstacle he faced was inside that world, he wasn''t there with his real body. He didn''t know if this was a simple projection or was like a spirit form of his or something else. But he couldn''t ess his rings, couldn''t use any potions or elixirs.

    That made him realise how hard it was to solve this. He got to see the problems that fox caused to this world. Yet it seemed his spirit power was barely enough to reveal these errors, not enough to fix even a single one of them.

    He had to find another way to replenish his body with elixirs while he was there. The first thing he thought about was to bring one weapon here, let it feed him elixir bottles one after another.

    "That means I''ll leave one of the two up there alone. It''s not that effective, not to mention they need to replenish their elixir bottles once per few hours¡­"

    William knew they weren''t using their full power while defending him up there. But if he left just one, then the risk of running low on power was growing high.

    He didn''t want to risk this, and so he left this solution to the end. William didn''t want to die in the middle of his adventure there, as he didn''t know how long this repair process would take.

    After thinking about this for a few minutes, he decided to risk it and start consuming elixir bottles in one go before entering that world. It was a risky move, but he hoped his body wouldn''t explode before arriving there. As for dealing with that overflow of power, he had to depend on that world to solve this issue, or else something bad would definitely happen to him.

    "If I found out I can''t deal with such power, I''ll return here and overexert myself using my techniques¡­" he decided to take such a risk as he had a way to get out of this if things went south.

    Yet he hoped nothing bad would happen in the end. He didn''t know how much power he needed, so he took ten elixirs out, opened their lids, and left the bottles on the ground in front of him.

    He took a deep breath, started to scatter the organs again. The ones he took from these monsters were already ruined by the failed attempts. They were either depleted after activating the Mystic Art or they got ruined by the bacsh. He couldn''t tell, and he didn''t care. As long as these organs were enough to activate the art, he didn''t care about what would happen next.

    In the middle of distributing the new organs over the ground, he thought about how lucky he was to find monsters suiting his Mystic Arts here. As he didn''t get such confidence to find others fast enough, he thought about storing away all the viable organs forter.

    He had a life storage gear, one that could store any organ and prevent them from rotting. Yet he didn''t have enough to store too much of these organs, and he wanted to collect everything he could before leaving this world.

    "I may need the help of the city and other masters on my side," he knew this was where the true power of friendshipy. As he got everything ready, he sat again on the ground, took another deep breath, before gulping the content of everything in front of him.

    He felt like there were ovens of fire exploding inside his belly after he consumed the tenth bottle. He endured the pain, resisted the urge to release such energy, and hurriedly activated his Mystic Art.

    "Please work¡­" he prayed while entering into the world of fate and destiny. Just as his body appeared there, he noticed the new changes that came up to his body.

    Before this, his body looked ethereal, white in colour. But now, it was pitch ck, exuding lots of ck rays of light. He also felt like his body was swelling, growing in size then shrinking back again.

 Chapter 856 The Wheels Of The World

    ?

    "At least this world is trying to control my overflow of power," William muttered to himself, before turning towards the horizon, "let''s fix what that bastard did."

    As he felt better after entering this world, he didn''t risk losing control over his power again. So, he started to summon these wheels, repeating what he did before.

    This time things went much faster than before. He didn''t know if this was thanks to the insane amount of spirit power he had or because this world learnt from its past experience and detected the faulty wheels faster.

    William didn''t care about the reason. The moment the damaged wheels appeared, exuded ck light, and he started to say the words that''d repair them.

    The moment he said this set of words, and the world around changed. The stars vanished, and if felt like a higher power was descending on top of his head.

    Copious number of clouds began to aggregate all over the world. These were pure white clouds, but he felt they weren''t normal clouds. When he thought a thunderstorm would erupt, these clouds showed lots of big holes, each releasing thick rays of golden lights.

    The lights fell over him, over his wheel, over the normal world''s wheel, and covered also the faulted ones. As this happened, and amidst his surprise, these lights started to gather as if they were dragged by a ma, all shining over the damaged wheels.

    When that happened, these wheels started to shake. William didn''t want these wheels to get destroyed, or else lots of things in that world would be lost. Not to mention the fox would have its way in another method, and on his own hands on top of that.

    Yet he didn''t know how to stop the light rays from damaging these wheels. While he was in the middle of such a dilemma, the wheels started to show cracks.

    They were fine at first, but they were still cracks. "Damn! I want you to fix them, not to do what that bastard failed to do and destroy everything!!" William couldn''t control himself anymore, raised his head high and shouted, shouted towards whatever higher power was interfering in this process.

    He knew he had no power to do anything, except for cancelling the entire process and then restarting all over again. However, he didn''t even consider doing this, as after all redoing it wouldn''t prevent this world''s higher power from trying the same thing again.

    He hoped his words would kick some sense in that higher power''s logic or mind or something. Yet even with his repeated shouting and cursings, nothing changed.

    The rays of golden lights kept hammering the defaulted wheels, creating more cracks, spreading deeper the already existing ones.

    At some point, William lost all hope to change what that higher power was adamant to do. He started to seriously consider retreating, looking for other ways to save his life and others, save the world from the curse it was suffering from.

    Yet when he tried to leave, he was startled to notice that he couldn''t. It looked as if this Mystic Art started out something, something that was far beyond anyone''s living in the lower realm''s abilities to control.

    It was like someone opened the summoning gate, bringing forth a scarily terrifying monster, one that he couldn''t control. Even if he tried to cancel the gate, he wouldn''t seed as it already fell in the control of this monster.

    And now it was up to that higher power to decide what was going to happen. Would itplete what that fox started, ruining everything, and letting a new world start over after killing all lives within, or would it let things pass without any harm or deaths.

    William couldn''t tell, but from the many cracks spreading all over the ck wheels, he knew things were heading for the worst indeed.

    "Screw you!" William got nothing but curse out loud, curse at whatever higher power resided above this realm and controlled this miraculous world. He was going to lose his life anyway, so what was the risk in enraging that higher power? Perhaps he''d shift its attention away from the wheels over to him.

    Yet that higher power felt like it was only interested in these wheels. William couldn''t tell if there was something wrong in the scrolls he read before, something that he got wrong and wasn''t meant in the way he understood.

    Or else how could this Mystic Art that should have helped him repair the world ended up in bringing forth a force that''d destroy it?

    He got nothing in his power but to stand idle and watch what was happening. He didn''t know if these wheels'' damage would elerate the destruction of that world or not. But he could tell the end result would be quite bad in either way, in any possible scenario.

    The assault of the golden rayssted for a few hours. At first, William saw the dense cracks spreading, and he already imagined the shattering of each wheel.

    It happened as he thought and envisioned, but the end result was a bit different. The cracks spread, then after five hours, the first few wheels that got hit first, with smaller diameter than others, shattered under the number of cracks on their surface.

    Just before they crushed into nothing, the cracks spread all over it, making William feel like there wasn''t a single piece intact out there. As the shattering process urred as he expected, a sh of bright golden light erupted from the hearts of these wheels.

    There were no wheels anymore, and all of sudden a re of golden fire appeared in the centre of the ces these wheels just took minutes ago. These fires released rays of light, taking the form of chains, each headed towards every single shard of these wheels. And then they started dragging them slowly, taking them back to where they initially were.

    "What''s going on?!!!" William saw this and knew something new was happening.

 Chapter 857 The Higher Power

    ?

    Yet William couldn''t tell what it was. In the next few minutes, he saw a miracle happening in front of his eyes.

    These chains of golden light started to surround all the shards. As these shards were already minute in size, they got soaked entirely with pure golden light in no time.

    William looked around, and all the shards started to shine in golden lights after being grabbed by these chains. He watched as these chains started to pull these golden shards back, looking as if they belonged to the same power releasing the golden rays of light.

    This process urred over a long course of time, taking almost a few more hours to happen. During which, more wheels got shattered, and the same thing happened to every single one of these wheels.

    After three hours, the wheels that got destroyed first returned to look like wheels again. They were still filled with cracks, lots of cracks, while the lighting out from them was pure gold.

    He looked at all this, at the wheels that shattered then returned to form wheels again, to all these cracks, to the other wheels that got shattered and were in the middle of the repair process.

    Yes, this was indeed a repair process. But William felt that something was amiss here.

    "The cracks aren''t healing¡­" After long hours, he noticed that the cracks appearing over the repaired wheels weren''t showing any sign of healing. They were in the right ce, releasing golden lights, and finally the rays of golden lights left them, headed towards other wheels to support theirrades.

    That meant their role was over. And that meant these cracks would be left there forever. "Do you need me to do something else? Please teach me, I just got such knowledge, with no other arts to use¡­"

    As this kept happening on an increasing pace, thanks to the joining of more rays together, he started to feel the entirety of faulted wheels would be left without a cure.

    This was indeed better than being faulted, but this wasn''t enough. This was like trying to cure a patient out of cancer, curing the cancer, but leaving the patient on the verge of dying, without giving him any nutrients or life support.

    William felt more hopeless towards such a situation. He had no power to intervene, no knowledge to tell him what he should do next.

    The half repair process elerated by the passage of more time. The almost seven hours needed to shatter and then reform a single wheel got shortened to be less than half an hour, or even less.

    In a few days, the faulted wheels got reformed, all shining gold, with tons of cracks on their surface.

    "Thanks for half assed solutions," as he saw thest rays of golden light retreat back beyond the dense white clouds, he couldn''t prevent himself from shouting like this in an enraged tone.

    He knew by thest of these golden rays of light''s departure, everything here would be over. The world got freed from the curse it suffered for aeons of years, but it wasn''t the perfect situation either.

    [This isn''t the task of the Fate and Destiny world to repair things that humans and monsters shall] as he was about to lower his head, epting such bitter victory and achievement, he heard such a majestic voice echoing in his mind.

    The moment that voice appeared, and he felt like every cell of his body froze out of awe and veneration. He even felt the need to prostrate himself to such power, yet refrained from doing so using pure will.

    [You did something great, despitecking anything to use such power. You deserve a reward. Your position in the Fate and Destiny world increases by two grades. Keep doing the good deeds, and always remember that Karma is the absolute ruler of the universe]

    The voice didn''t give William any time to regain hisposure or control his thoughts. The moment he regained his freedom to speak and move again, the rays of lights vanished, alongside all the densely packed clouds and the owner of that voice.

    "What the heck was that?!!!" He felt like he was an ant in the presence of a mighty king or a god. Yet he couldn''t get what that voice said, "it''s up to the world''s living creatures to repair these cracks?" William was more puzzled the more he thought about this, "what should they do? What does this higher power expect from them?"

    There was no clue, only these mysterious words and the weird praise he got from that higher power. He wasn''t surprised for such power to know about how this being learnt about how he essed here. It felt like this higher being was in control of everything here, and that meant it was easy for it to know about such things.

    But when William saw these cracked wheels, he couldn''t help but shake his head. "This is going to be tough," he knew he was betting everything on the words of that mysterious being. He hoped nothing bad would happen to the people in that world, to the world itself.

    He cancelled the art and this time it worked. The moment he returned; he saw something new in front of him.

    When he went into the fate and destiny world, he was in the depth of a deep pit. But right now, he was standing on the top of a grand mountain.

    He looked around, and the world he saw wasn''t any way simr to the world of destruction that he saw before leaving.

    This world was filled with lots of vegetations, green trees, even to the extent of calling it a promising project of being a great forest in the future decades.

    William didn''t recognise this ce, and his earliest thoughts drifted towards being teleported away from the entire area of the flying beasts.

    "Sh*t! I got out but didn''t solve anything!" He knew that the tower wasn''t going to be destroyed without his intervention.

 Chapter 858 The World Is Different!

    William was so close to the heart of that tower, but he was now far, far away from it. Or that was what he thought about.

    "Where are you?"

    Just before he''d found any clue about where he was, even before he''d taken the map he had before out, suddenly something shed in front of him. A pillow of smoke appeared, with a vague face of someone, someone he instantly recognised the moment he saw it.

    "Sloth! Where are you? Is everyone fine?" William instantly bombarded him with tons of questions, and the answers he got blew up his mind.

    "We are still in that zone, or what it was before it transformed into such avish thriving ce, full of life and brimming with beauty and hope¡­"

    Sloth spoke, spoke in session, with each phrase he said came with a new smoke rising up a few metres away from William. Thetter heard a story that was so hard to believe it was true.

    ording to Sloth, they moved in separate ways to do their task. At first things were going like usual, with monsters even trying to take a bite of them as William expected.

    The moment they startedying down that array and everything around tried to kill them, even air. Fierce gales of wind erupted, and tried to carry them away, taking them out from the safe tunnels, throwing them into the open outer and deadly world.

    As things went south for days, they lost many of their members. This happened not only for the ones William rescued, but also to Wiim''s team. Luckily his friends were experienced enough, saw lots of depressive moments, and ended up adapting to the risky situation and surviving this.

    Then all of sudden, and without any warning, a colossal explosion urred. ording to Sloth, it came from the direction William headed towards from the ce of that tower.

    William listened to a story that he found it hard to believe. A sh of bright light enveloped everyone, making them believe they were about to lose their lives.

    Yet when the light vanished, they found themselves standing in a new world. It was one that was filled with trees, lots of green, very beautiful, very peaceful. They thought they went to heaven or something, but soon enough they started to contact each other using Message Papers, ending up realising they were all seeing the same thing, and they were in the same spots they were supposed to be before that bizarre explosion urred.

    "What''s going on?!!!" William couldn''t find any suitable answer to exin any of this. He and anyone who witnessed such a miracle, be it from this world or not, would find it hard to exin what exactly happened here.

    The disbelief William and others felt was nothingpared to the grand storm that erupted in the entire world. Almost ny percent of the dangerous and deadly zones in the entire world got cleared out of the blue and got reced withvish green pieces of heaven.

    There was no exnation of this. And even when the news of what William and other masters from various cities did, none would be able to find a suitable reason for any of that.

    Only William got a clue about what happened, linking this to the mysterious words said by that higher being. If he could do such a thing, then he was indeed quite mighty, considered to be a god or something.

    William knew from the scrolls that gods did truly exist, and a higher realm was there. So he partially guessed the identity of that being, had a reasonable exnation for all what happened here even if it was just by linking this to the one who created all this.

    William learnt about the ces of others and knew the mountain he was standing on top of wasn''t the only mountain in the region. They also found themselves standing over five more mountains. And this region would be known from now on as the Land Of Six Mountains, the origin of the miracle that happened to this world.

    William walked for a few hours before he finally met with everyone. It seemed he got dyed by twelve hours after the start of this miracle, the time he didn''t know where he spent or how it went this fast.

    As he met his friends, made sure that no one was missing them, he turned his attention towards others. The few thousands who were entrapped here got diminished to just a few hundreds. That was expected after thest stressful hours everyone lived through.

    William then led everyone out. They asked if he got a way out of here, and he nodded in reassurance.

    As they went outside, they were weed with the stupefied army of masters. What happened inside this zone was perceived by all, yet what they truly experienced was indeed surprising as well.

    Monsters that swarmed this ce, attacked everyone and tried to kill them vanished out of thin air. Unlike the area that was hellish and turned to heaven, the entire area around that was filled with monsters and battles changed into part of hell.

    Lava streams were running everywhere, with brokennds and burning trees. There wasn''t anything that looked normal in the entire region, not even close from what everyone knew about this part of the continent.

    As few joked about it, saying that the entire maps had to change, and they were indeed right. After all such changes didn''t just appear in this region, but also at other ces in the continent, at many ces in the entire world.

    Maps of this world had to be ditched away and redrawn, as the world everyone knew didn''t look the same as before.

    The hellish area wasn''t that deadly as everyone feared. They traversed it for a few days, before ending up in areas in the world they were familiar with.

    During this walk, they didn''t face a single monster, not even when they walked for long days towards the nearest towns and cities.

 Chapter 859 Meeting With The Black Tails Team

    ?

    When they arrived there, they found everyone confused, feeling like there were lots of changes in their world¡­ And in themselves.

    William wasn''t attentive to their feelings or thoughts. He already met with his friends and team. His team got a big hit, but at least he didn''t suffer any losses at the main pirs of them.

    His thoughts now were fixed over the next step, how to get out from here. He already got the way out, but he wouldn''t do it without going to pick up thedy monster.

    He saw her as a future investment. She told him to wait for a month, but things went hectic during this adventure, and he wasn''t sure if she meant what she said, or he''d have to wait for more.

    The journey back took much longer than what he initially expected. The army was exhausted at first, confusedter on, then the leaders started to order other masters to spread over, take testimonies from people of different towns and cities.

    This wasn''t an act out of their boredom, but because they started to notice something weird. The memories of the people living in different ces were different!

    Many spoke about things that no one heard about before, events that weren''t even real. The leaders at first thought this was some sort of a prank, or perhaps a side effect of the shocking events. But as they heard more and more of this weird stuff, they decided to start gathering everyone''s recall on various events, history of ces, and other stuff.

    William heard about this, and he was sure this was all connected. What happened to the dangerous zone of the flying beasts, what happened to the monsters and the area around, andstly the alteration of people''s memories.

    Yet as they approached the city he sat off from, he started to develop another theory.

    "Don''t tell me this is what he truly meant¡­" Others didn''t get what was going on here, but William did. After hearing tons of side talks from everyone walking around for many days, William started to pick up lots of things that he recognised.

    Be it arrays, training techniques, and even ways to forge and concoct pills, potions, and elixirs¡­ These were all knowledge that stemmed up from the outer world, things that weren''t known before here in this world.

    Many didn''t have such a change in memories, or how William saw it as a recalling of what was truly theirs. The curses that shackled this world for endless years were now removed. But it seemed not all got relieved from this curse.

    William recalled the mysterious words of that higher being. He said that the fate of this world was in the hands of people and monsters living in it. And he now was able to see that.

    There were two big factions now in this world as far as he could tell, one who regained part of their knowledge, and others who didn''t. And now it was up to the people of this world to decide their fate, embrace the new knowledge and ept them, or fight against them.

    William knew that such a decision was up to the ones living in this world. Not everyone was the same, and the end result would be for many to fight among each other.

    Yet as the higher being said, this was in the hands of the ones living in this world. William hoped masters would be reasonable, curious to test out the knowledge others had, and try out the new stuff they were speaking about.

    The main obstacle still was in the other knowledge of the weird events these people narrated. William didn''t know if these were true or not. If what they were saying was true, then it meant these events happened long, long time ago. He grew curious to listen to these stories, but he had no intention of staying here.

    "Do you want to establish a branch of our guild here?!!!"

    As they returned atst to the city, William made a grand meeting with everyone remaining of his team. He spoke a lot and spoke about how proud he was of all of them. He wasn''t lying or trying to curry their favour before speaking about his future ns for this world. He really did mean every word of praise he said. And that touched their hearts.

    But when he spoke about his desire to build a branch of the guild here, leaving few to lead and recruit others, everyone went into deep silence.

    They were people who apanied William for many years. As for his friends, they were ones who joined him long before the establishment of his guild.

    William knew this was something hard to ask, hard to ept, and that was why he decided to let the decision fall in their hands. He waited for long minutes, while his team was discussing this among themselves.

    "Can I stay here then?" out of the blue, thest person William would consider applying for this task stepped forward and spoke up.

    "Tina! What are you doing?!!!" The first to speak wasn''t William, but Lina. she looked at her younger sister, the one she took care of for long years, suffering tons of hell for her.

    Yet Tina didn''t feel any guilt or hesitation. She looked in firm way towards one direction, towards William, "this is my life, and I''m free to do whatever I want with it, right?"

    "No! You have me by your side, and I won''t allow you to do it!" Lina was on the verge of copsing. Anyone watching these two grow up would notice how Tina grew to be a bit rebellious, not sumbing to her older sister''s wishes.

    She wanted to feel independent and didn''t like how tight her sister kept her life. William watched all this unfolding and decided to stay away from this.

    He knew Lina was sincere and honest, truly caring for her sister.

 Chapter 860 Ibras And Tinas Decision

    ?

    Tina grew up now, wasn''t the same Tina five years ago, wasn''t that weak and useless six years old girl.

    "Tsk! If you want to go, then I''m going with you," just as everyone watched the two sisters quarrel like any stubborn family members in any conflict for ten minutes, Ibra suddenly spoke up.

    And this time, the shock everyone felt wasn''t like when Tina spoke up.

    "Are you sure?" This time William spoke first. He knew Ibra for many years, and shared lots of desperate moments with him. He might be a bit edgy, a bit salty, and a very annoying master, but he was a kindhearted, very great friend as well.

    William looked at Ibra, and thetter showed a look that told him this wasn''t up to him. William sighed, realising that this brutal master seemed to fall for the little girl who acted out of her age.

    "This is madness!" Line wasn''t believing any of this, "you two are crazy!"

    "Don''t worry," Ibra said, trying tofort her, "I''m going to keep her safe."

    "I don''t want anyone to keep me safe," Tina was still carried out by her conflict with her bigger sister moments ago. But her words didn''t manage to shake Ibra''s firm stance.

    "I promise she won''t get any hurt," Ibra said what he could to convince Lina, and thetter finally turned to William as she crossed her arms and asked in a threatening tone:

    "Are you going to allow this?"

    "Ahem," William didn''t know why all this heat turned and fell on his head. He simply left the decision in their hands to avoid such tricky situations, yet he ended up in the middle of the most difficult situation ever, "it''s not like this world is bad¡­"

    "You are unbelievable!" Lina didn''t continue to stay here, turned around and ran. Anyone seeing her face right now would see lots of tears rolling down her face. And anyone seeing Tina''s face right now would see a bright smile of victory, like she just won a big battle or something.

    "I''m going to be with her," Sara and Berry moved first, giving William a ming look. Thetter didn''t know why they were ming him. Tina and Ibra chose their future by their own will, without his interference or anything.

    "You do know you shall expect a hard timeter on, right?" Ro said before leaving with Lara as well. William stood in his ce motionless, moving his eyes around as if he was asking: What the hell did I do wrong?

    "If one of our vices is going to stay behind, then I''d stay as well."

    "Count me in!"

    "I like this world, it''s not that different from our world, but it feels better."

    More other members of the team joined Ibra and Tina, ending up with twenty members joining them. William looked at this roster, and felt it was enough to support the guild.

    "I''ll make lots of scrolls for you," William said, "many techniques, forms, and blueprints. I''ll also leave enough cores and crystals, enough materials and products to let you have a nice start."

    "What about the ce of our guild branch?" Tina mimicked her younger sister, crossing her arms and looking in an adult way towards William.

    "I''m going to solve that as well," William paused, "I will try to securends in various cities as well. But be aware, this world may seem nice and all, but there are monsters and dark masters here."

    "We killed lots of them before," Ibra scoffed, taking this matter a bit lightly, "what''s the difference then back in our world then?"

    "The dark masters control this continent," William rolled his eyes, knowing that his team and friendscked lots of intel. He started to tell them more about the general situation of this world. And unlike what he expected, this made Tina''s and Ibra''s blood and desire to battle rumble in their bodies and spirits.

    "I love it! This world is awesome!" Tina shouted, acting like the teenager she was supposed to be. As for Ibra, he simply responded by taking out his ive, nting it on the ground, in a motion that told anyone he was willing to fight.

    William knew if these two weremon in something, then it was in their never-ending love for battle and facing new challenges. After he ended this weird meeting, he returned to his room and started to write down lots of techniques, forms, blueprints, things that would be enough to make a good start for the guild branch here.

    Aside from this, he wrote down something that he named as: The Secret Agenda. He instructed and entrusted Ibra with many tasks, many that would look a bit weird in the eyes of thetter.

    William asked him to focus on the new changes of this world. In addition to the logical step of trying to expand the guild branch as far as he could, he also asked him to try his best and collect everything new in this world.

    Be it stories about things that never happened before or information rted to techniques and other stuff, William wanted him to lead the guild branch here to collect all.

    William wanted to collect everything, so he''d have a grand library of secretive stuff. He knew the knowledge about techniques and other masters'' stuff wasn''t that important to someone like him. But stories about ancient battles and events that no one knew a thing about was something that interested him.

    He didn''t have time to waste and be here for long, so he entrusted this to Ibra, hoping he''d take this task seriously.

    William took almost five days to finalise everything. During these days, the entire world was on the edge of the storm. The people who recalled things that didn''t happen were now facing lots of opposition and troublesing from others.

    William even heard talk about war in the streets after he finished what he was doing.

 Chapter 861 Meeting With Cities Big Shots

    ?

    William was heading to meet with the leader of this city, to meet the representatives of other cities, to facilitate the ownership of manynds in this continent.

    The talk he heard along his path towards the royal area and mansion didn''t appeal to him. It was all negative words, all speaking about how a big war would erupt thanks to the fear, doubt, and hatred towards what was different.

    "You are considered our hero, so anything you want is granted," the leader of this city met with him over his throne. He was with the other two identical twin masters, sitting on both of his sides.

    This time the hall wasn''t filled with tons of masters, only a group of a hundred or so. They included the big shots in the city, and other big shots from other cities.

    William arrived here, asked directly for something in return for what he did. And as the leader epted, he spoke about owning pieces ofnd here and in other cities. He didn''t hide his real intentions, speaking about his guild.

    "I have to be honest with you, I never heard of a guild before¡­" the king was confused by William''s words, "what does that mean?"

    "It''s like an impact, but one with grand goals¡­"

    "I never heard of impacts before," the leader of the city seemed to grow a bit sceptical towards William, mistaking him for someone who got their memories changed, like many in the world.

    "Let me exin then," but William was quick witted and instantly recognised such a suspicion. He started to thoroughly exin everything, saying this was the idea of his master, Sloth.

    Thetter had a very hard time in the past thanks to William. Everyone wanted to meet and speak with him, wanted to know lots of stuff, wanted to hear his opinion about the current weird situation in the world.

    Sloth was having fun at first until he was thrown in the middle of such a tricky situation. He found himself responsible for deciding the fate of millions, even hundreds of millions of people without knowing a thing about what was truly going on here.

    He tried to contact William, but thetter closed his room on himself and didn''t ept or respond to anything. Things kept going south especially when the formidable masters all agreed to listen to his words, his opinion about this matter. They asked him to investigate this situation, provide them with exnation, or else a war of existence would start.

    People didn''t like the unknown, actually hated and feared it. People never liked who was different from them, and they took this matter totally in the wrong way.

    "I get the general idea¡­" the leader of the city felt more interested in such a new way of using masters, the same feeling many also felt in this hall, "I agree. And this is a promise to you, I''ll support your guild and your people, hopefully this will lead to helping our humans in these hard times."

    "Speaking about hard times, I have something to say," William was waiting for a window to speak about the troubling issues he heard in the streets whileing here.

    "Are you saying that this is a great opportunity?!!" The leader was surprised by these words, as everyone else. If anyone else said such words, no one would take them even seriously. But this was William, the one who created miracles in their world one after another.

    "These people had different memories, but lots of what they know is true," William used the value and weight of the name he built over his stay in this world to try to save the situation, "just try and collect this information, try to use these new techniques, forms, blueprints, arrays, and other stuff. And I promise you''ll get a surprise from them."

    "..."

    "We tried to speak with your master, but he kept his silence about this matter," one of the masters who came from other cities suddenly spoke up.

    "My master¡­ He is a bit shy when dealing with others," William apologised in his heart for speaking in such a way about Sloth, "he doesn''t feelfortable with others around who he doesn''t know. Not to mention you must have asked him to decide the fate of tons of people, and such a thing is something he won''t dare to do."

    William already guessed what happened, linked all the messages and attempts formunication Sloth did in the past days with the words of that master.

    He inwardly sighed. He already told Sloth to act like a mysterious and formidable master, one who knew tons of stuff that others didn''t. But he never thought he''d be cornered like this, asked to handle a situation that even William wouldn''t willingly step in.

    "Did he send you here to speak about that?" the king asked with shining eyes. If William had a very good reputation, then his master had a much higher stance in their hearts.

    "Yes," William knew this was the moment he was waiting for to convince them, "he recognised lots of the knowledge he heard from others. These are all authentic ways in other worlds, ording to him of course."

    "I see¡­" the king went into long silence, and the hall kept its silence for long minutes without anyone saying anything, "let me and others think thoroughly about this. But be assured, we will take your master''s valuable advice and try out these ways. If what he said is true, then this is a great opportunity indeed."

    "He also advises you of something," William paused, not continuing his words while winking to the leader of the city.

    "Oh, I get it," the king didn''t get it at first, not until William took a scroll out, reminding him of what that leader did in the matter of the mysterious scrolls.

    And then the king got what William meant. He got that he wanted him to start amassing such knowledge. After all, this was something that could be least described as a golden chance, one that this city shouldn''t miss.

 Chapter 862 A Crazy Idea

    ?

    William didn''t advise the leader of this city out of his pure will or kind heart. He wanted to save lots of trouble for his guild branch here and his people. If this city started to act openly to gather all the new intel and information, memories and things that no one knew before, then it''d save his branch a great deal of time.

    As the leader got what he wanted, William was sure such a greedy leader wouldn''t let such a chance slip by. But first, he had to test out the true value of this information and knowledge. And the moment he''d do that, he''d start madly gathering up all the information he could from not only this continent, but from the entire world.

    William knew such a move would definitely attract tons of attentionter on, starting many cities and forces to copy this city''s move. He didn''t care about that, as he was sure by the time others would move, this city would collect enough to let it rise up for many stages over the heads of others.

    He then told the leader and other masters around about Ibra and Tina, telling them that these two would be left here to handle the issues rted to his guild branch.

    "Are you leaving?" As he said all this, he ended his words by saying that he was going to leave. He stayed here for long enough, to leave lots of assets for his guild branch to thrive in this world.

    "I have nothing else to do," William shrugged, "my master is anxious to return to his world. He also wants to roam other ces."

    "Oh¡­ Can we send a few of our people with him?" the leader moved his eyes around, as if he was inviting others to join him on this.

    If it was up to them, they''d speak and negotiate directly with Sloth. But it felt like thetter was acting a bit cold towards them, distancing himself from any attempt to chat or negotiate. Not to mention William left the impression that he was the spokesman for his master, the one who could make decisions on Sloth''s behalf.

    "Well¡­ My master can''t guarantee their return anytime soon," William already wanted to rope in many masters from this world. They were strong, experienced, and grew up in a harsh environment, one without the backing of using one''s spirit body or anything.

    William knew the curses affecting this world were gone, and that included the shackles ced over the spirit bodies. Yet for a reason, not a single master mentioned anything about the spirit body, or anything rted to it.

    William didn''t know why, didn''t get that there was something all masters herecked; the knowledge of how to activate their spirit bodies!

    It might look trivial and natural for William to use one''s spirit body. But without knowing how to do it, no one would ever seed in activating their spirit body.

    "That means¡­ Your master ns to return here again?" One of the masters attending this meeting picked the hidden hints behind William''s words. And thetter nodded.

    "My master grew fond of this world, and decided toe here at the end of his trips¡­ But he couldn''t give a definite answer about how long that will take."

    "I see¡­" the leader of the city paused, lost in thoughts for a long moment, "how about this¡­ I will send a group of a hundred masters with you, including all the prodigies in our family."

    The leader said something that surprised William. But when others spoke up, William knew they were all thinking the same way.

    They all mentioned sending out their prodigies and strong masters with a bright future ahead. For a reason, William felt like they realised how grand the chance of letting their offspring and prodigies take such a path.

    As they were going to end up here, then it was a long-time investment. And as every city decided to follow this city''s leader approach, sending each a hundred of their prodigies and promising masters to join William''s master.

    William knew they all would get shocked when they''d realise the truth, but it wouldn''t affect anything. They took part in this expedition to learn great things from the master, and it wouldn''t make any difference if the master was an old man or a youngster like himself.

    They agreed to meet up after one month, at the border of the zone William specified.

    "This¡­ It''s a ce ruled by the dark masters!"

    "The ck Holes? Are you sure?!!"

    Many eximed in surprise and doubt, while William calmly smiled. "Don''t forget, all the dangerous zones changed and became safe, right?"

    "Not that ce," the leader shook head, sighed before adding, "that ce is still filled with dangers like nothing affected it."

    "And the dark masters'' threat is still there. They didn''t lose anything, didn''t grow weak or something," another master said, and William could understand why they were all worried.

    "If you are this concerned about this, then why won''t we conduct a massive army and clear that area from dark masters?" William knew this continent was ruled by dark masters. These cities'' masters were just one of the few who still had their independence, yet they still had hard times as well.

    "This¡­"

    "My master promises to take part personally, and he guarantees your win," William seriously said, saying something grand like this, "on the premise that you provide him with all knowledge you have about that region, the nature of monsters and dark masters in that part of the world. He also wants your support of resources, without any limitations."

    William wouldn''t take such a step if he just left with everyone in his team. But as things turned out in different ways than what he initially expected, with a branch of his guild being established here, he had to put much more effort to help his guild branch and his friends ruling it.

 Chapter 863 Things Are Growing Hectic

    ?

    The guild whose leader managed to uproot all the dark masters in the area near it would grow to fame like never before. Not to mention he''d secure his guild branch in the region, protecting it from many dangers at the early phase of expansion.

    "This¡­ Is your master confident about this?!" The leader of the city was a bit sceptical about this. After all, all the masters sitting here faced these dark masters for a long time and suffered tons of losses on their hands.

    "As long as you provide him with intel and resources, my master can do miracles," William hinted in his words to the miracle that happened already in their world thanks to his proimed master. And as he hinted about this, everyone in the hall went into deep silence.

    "What are we going to lose?" a master of another city suddenly stepped up, "the worst will be for us to lose this battle but end up sending our boys away. Let''s do it!"

    "That''s true," another stood up, "we lost a lot against them. One more loss won''t make a difference. In the end, we''ll deliver them into that ck Holes area, and then leave."

    "It will be considered our win in the end," the leader nodded, agreeing on what these two said. He wasn''t the only one agreeing on these words, but everyone else did.

    William could only watch this and inwardly sigh. It felt like masters in this continent lived a life of suffering and loss against these dark masters.

    He knew his abilities. As long as he got deep intel about these masters and monsters in the region, he''d devise the perfect counter n to take them down.

    "Prepare arge army," William stressed over this, "let''s hit them hard and crush them once and for all."

    "The intel will be delivered to your master in one day," the leader paused, "about your departure¡­"

    "We''ll stay here for one more month¡­ But I need to go out a few times," William knew he had to stay here and do more things, yet that didn''t mean he''d stay all the time inside the city.

    He wanted to go to the Swamps region, to check over thedy monster. She was his biggest trophy in this adventure, and he wouldn''t let anything happen to her.

    "You can do whatever you want," the female sitting on the side of the leader said for the first time ever, "you aren''t our prisoner or anything."

    "Thanks," William cupped his hands, taking his leave after arranging more tiny details with them. As he went back, he delivered the good news to everyone.

    "You need to stop using me as your master," Sloth felt much bitter when he heard William''s words, "you already gave me a hard time. Do you know how many people tried to curry favours with me? Do you know how many questions I got? I''m not a god!"

    "You are a formidable master, right?" William winked, "besides, it''s not that bad to have such a great reputation here."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "One that I don''t deserve," Sloth couldn''t bring himself to admit it out loud. But deep inside him, he knew such a reputation should belong to William.

    "Let''s stay here for one more month then," William ignored hisints, turned to his team and friends, to see thetter unable to hold theirughs back.

    They already fell for William''s trick and lie before when they were part of the Aspire academy. And after interacting with William for this long, they all were sure such a mysterious master didn''t exist in the first ce.

    Everything stemmed up from William. And that made them recall such old times when they heard Sloth''sints.

    As the leader promised, lots of scrolls were delivered to his house. Sloth was staying here now, so they delivered everything there.

    William locked up on himself and started to go through these scrolls alone. He didn''t even bring Sloth with him, as he knew no one was able to help him in this.

    "Hmm¡­ These dark masters can use their spirit bodies¡­ Strange!" William read through lots of scrolls, which mostly described intel about old battles against these dirty masters.

    From these, he could easily tell the big difference between masters in this world and the dark onesid in the ability to use one''s spirit body. Not to mention dark masters always used the darkness element to hide themselves in any ce, and they were able to control and summon armies of monsters.

    William could handle monsters, could deal with the darkness element and their ability to stealth themselves, attack when no one ever expected.

    But the problem of using the spirit body was something that started to give him lots of headaches.

    "I can''t just let masters in this world learn how to activate their spirit bodies¡­" William didn''t agree on such a solution. First, it would take a long time for masters in this world to adapt on how to summon and use their spirit bodies. And second, he wanted such an advantage to be limited only to his guild branch.

    He decided to let Ibra and Tina teach everyone joining the guild branch here about how to do it. Like this, the name and fame of the guild would skyrocket in the world.

    Not to mention the overall strength of the guild would be on another level than everyone else. Like this, he''d not only add a great tempting factor, but also would be reassured about his guild''s and his friends'' safety in this world.

    "If I can''t counter this¡­ Then I shall find another way to arm up and enhance this world''s master''s fighting prowess¡­" William knew he reached a dead end after considering this matter for long hours.

    As he couldn''t solve this problem using a counter measure, he decided to use brute force against it. If dark masters had such an advantage thanks to this point, then William would find another aspect and arm up the masters of the cities with.

 Chapter 864 Making Grenades

    ?

    William didn''t need to think too much about it. The first and foremost effective weapon he thought about was his grenades, the new ones that he created before.

    These grenades were deadly, much more than what any force in this world could contend against. He used it to fight against the deadly fog before, fighting against the natural forces of the world.

    He had high hopes for his grenades. And so, he started to send a long list of materials back to the city leader, asking the royal family to provide tons of these, the more the better.

    The city royal family started to work over providing these materials. At the same time, lots of other cities were also working to prepare for the uing battle.

    Lots of masters started to gather up. Words spread fast, and news reached far and distant ces.

    Through portals, people started toe and join this daring move. The confidence in taking down the dirty dark masters in such a giant battle was something that tempted many to join.

    At the same time, news also spread and reached the ears of the dark masters in the region. Their first reaction was to mockinglyugh over such a futile attempt. And then they started to gather up their forces, readying themselves for a grand festival.

    Their leaders even decided to march towards these cities and crush them after killing most of the masters. These cities long stood against their total reign over this continent. And they saw a great chance in this big war to clear many obstacles standing in their path.

    Even when news reached their ears about how grand the number of masters flooding to these cities, they didn''t flinch or doubt their win. They knew they got the advantage of spirit bodies, monsters, and the home terrain as well.

    The situation escted on both sides. The cities'' masters learnt about how the dark masters were preparing for this grand war, but seeing the endless number of masters flooding their way gave them confidence.

    Even if this all started with William''s promise, they were now sure with such a colossal number of masters, they could achieve victory. Even if it was going to be a bitter win, it was still going to be a win.

    The ones who were pessimistic among them saw that in case they lost, the dark masters would have to pay an astronomical price to secure this win. In all cases, this would deal a great blow to the dark forces in the entire region, something that was worth aiming and taking the shot.

    William closed on himself for one week, madly making his grenades. He consumed lots of elixirs. Thanks to his good rtionship with the city royal family, he received a new batch of elixirs that made him replenish lots of what he already consumed before.

    At the end of this week, he came out and delivered a small batch of his grenades. He asked the royal family masters to test these at distant ces and be sure to distance themselves from the spots of explosions.

    The masters who apanied him before recognised these grenades right on the spot. And soon enough, news about these deadly grenades spread among arge number of people.

    This drove many to feel they were this close from winning this sh, raising their already high expectations and hope.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They didn''t know how many of these grenades William had, or how many his master made. But if he got enough, then nothing would stop them.

    William already made hundreds of thousands of these grenades. What he gave them was just the tip of the iceberg. He wanted them to test how to use these, so they wouldn''t end up killing many of their masters by mistake.

    As the city and others were brimming with excitement from having these grenades, William walked towards his destination. He didn''t meet lots of monsters along the way, and he spent most of his time making more of these grenades.

    The journey took him almost one week to arrive there. And when he reached the Swarms outskirts, he couldn''t help but stop. "It''s really not like how it looked before!"

    The area was filled with dense areas of green, filled with trees and other vegetation and nts. Yet around it, there was a world of ruins and hell, filled with running rivers ofva.

    This scene was something he already saw before. But what made him surprised was the disappearance of the entire ball of fog.

    This wasn''t a natural disaster or an anomaly in the world but was the manifestation of thatdy monster''s body.

    William''s worst fears that what happened to the entire world affected thedy monster. If that happened, then he''d regret repairing this world.

    The only good exnation for this was for thatdy monster to get whatever she was doingplete, ending up with being a human.

    He spread his spirit sense around, looked for any trace for any twenty year old human young girl, walking around, feeling lost or something.

    But as he could see, there wasn''t a single trace of her. The world was filled with hell, without any presence of a single life form for tens of kilometres.

    "She may be inside that heaven," as he ran around in his spirit fox''s form, the one that she''d recognised, the form that would protect him from any dangers, he couldn''t see any shadow of her for long hours.

    As he didn''t see her, he decided to take a look at the heaven world inside. He ran into a thick gathering of trees and grass, different nts that he couldn''t tell what they''d grow up to be. As he entered the heaven world, he started to look for thedy monster.

    He kept running around, but this heaven area was quite massive in size. He spent many days looking for her, and during which he didn''t neglect making more grenades.

    Luckily for him, making these grenades didn''t take long.

 Chapter 865 The Lady Monster

    ?

    William just needed to melt down the ores, cleanse them using his hammers, before starting to put the final touches over the final form of these explosive balls.

    "What are you doing?"

    In the middle of all this, and as he was hammering one melted ore lump to cleanse it using all his might, he got suddenly startled by a soft voice, one that made his eyes open widely and he stopped in his actions.

    "You¡­" he turned to see a youngdy, one that had a beauty like never seen before. Her face was so white that it was shining like an angel, with long thick white hair that extended over her shoulders.

    She was wearing a ck dress, with lots of sparkling gems that were fixed around her body. She was about the same height as him, with a deep ck pair of eyes that made him think he could drown in them.

    "Oh, you must have forgotten about me," she waved her hair off her shoulders before adding, "I''m the monster you met inside that ce, before all this happened¡­"

    She waved her hands and motioned towards the entire world. "You are her?! How did you get here?!!" he asked, while doubting his senses. He was busy forging his grenades, but he never rxed his spirit sense even once.

    She appeared out of the blue, without seeing hering. Even if she was the fastest being in the entire world, he still could see something shing towards him like a ray of light or something.

    "Don''t worry, even if I''m human, I still have my memories and won''t hurt you. Besides, don''t try to judge me with your knowledge. Even if I''m still with low spirit power, almost close to being a bronze grade master by human''s standards, I have tons of knowledge about lots of things."

    "I see," he knew she must have used something to boost her speed or even teleport here, "you are close to a bronze grade? That''s good."

    "I know, right?" she didn''t get his point, but the next instant, she froze in her ce.

    "You¡­ How can you change into human form?!!!" she was shocked, scared, moved many steps to the back, as if she was about to get devoured or something.

    "I''m human to begin with," William shrugged, changing back to his monster form before adding, "I came into your ce, and you mistook me for being a monster."

    "This¡­ No way! This must be an illusion, right? My ce¡­ No human can survive the outeryer of it! How could you get inside? Into me?!!"

    The more she spoke, the more William''s scalp went numb. "I was here looking for a way out of this world¡­" William exined in great detail about everything that happened back then. He didn''t lie to her, not even hide the fact that he came from another world, not the fact that he once was living in the outer world.

    He just twisted facts and hid the thing about his death back then, and let it be like the work of a scary monster.

    "You¡­ You tricked me?!!!" she looked at him as if he was her boyfriend who cheated on her or something, "I¡­ I trusted you! Listened to your advice back then¡­ And for what? To bring me out and¡­ And¡­ Kill me?!!!"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "No, you got it all wrong¡­" William knew his biggest chip was in mentioning his archenemy. That was why he mentioned his identity as one of the outer world''s citizens, not hiding this off her.

    "... That means the legend you spoke about is true," William''s face was wielding his serious look, "I already went to repair the errors and faults in this world and seeded in doing it."

    "You¡­ You are the one who caused all this?!!!"

    "That''s true," he slowly nodded, "after I heard about that myth from you, from the moment you told me about the shape and nature of that hideous old monster, and I knew that bastard managed to find a way back here, in our time. So I went to repair what I can in this world, hoping that you''ll join my side in stopping him."

    "This¡­" he kept shocking her with one fact after another. He kept talking, speaking about his battle against that fox. He wasn''t lying, as the two monsters were weirdly the same.

    He even spoke about the clones that monster spread all over the tiny worlds, spoke about its appearance and abilities. He kept speaking and stressing about this point, to make her forget about the lie he told her.

    He wasn''t feeling any guilt or remorse. He didn''t say it directly that he was a monster and not a human. She took it wrong from the start, and he just yed along without correcting anything to her.

    As he hoped for, she started to forget about her rage for what he did, and focused over the intel he kept showering her with.

    "That monster¡­ It can''t be true, right?!!!"

    "Just look around you, why all of sudden this ce turned like this? Not only this ce, but such changes also happened all over the world as well."

    "..."

    "I want your help," he finally said. "I know I acted a bit selfish back then, but the moment you spoke about that monster and the myth about it, I couldn''t help but want your help to fight and stop this brutal and bloody monster with me."

    "But¡­ I already lost almost all of my powers¡­"

    "That''s not a problem," William realised she started to embrace the idea of helping him, "I promise to support you until you regain your former power. On top of that, I promise to take you with me, back to the outer world."

    "For real?!!!" she blinked, and he slowly nodded. Like a naive little girl, she epted everything he said. After all, he wasn''t lying about anything he mentioned to her.

    "I want your help against this monster," he sincerely said, "so I''m going to use everything in my power to support you."

 Chapter 866 Karoline

    ?

    "Deal," she raised her hand to y with her hair, "you said you don''t belong here. So, you came from another tiny world? Do you n to go back?"

    "I''m going to," he paused, "but I have to do something before going there."

    "Don''t tell me you are going to kill monsters!" she seemed to still be attached to her previous identity as a monster.

    "I''m going to kill monsters and humans alike."

    "You hold grudges against both? Wow! You are very twisted in here," she pointed at her slightly bulging chests, before she realised the two lumps which weren''t there before. For a reason she didn''t get, she felt embarrassed, a weird heat that hit her body and blushed her face.

    "That''s normal," William noticed the change she struggled to understand, "you are a human now, a very good-lookingdy on top of that. So¡­ You need to understand that certain parts of your body are quite¡­ Special¡­"

    He couldn''t believe he was teaching such matters to a monster who turned to a human. But he promised to take good care of her, and he nned to stick to his words.

    "Humans are really weird," she kept muttering while they started to walk back to the city, "what are you doing by the way? Is this man''s famous cooking?"

    "Famous cooking?!" William turned to her and blinked in confusion. She nodded, while her eyes were fixed over the grenades he was making.

    "Monsters just eat fresh meat and nothing else," she exined, "but humans¡­ You do make lots of changes to any meat and other ingredients. Human food is a legend among high end monsters."

    "Then try these," William took out some dried-out food, ones he still had from his time back at the guild, "these aren''t the best, but they have good taste."

    "For real?" she even drooled when she got the dried rations, making William believe she was sincere in what she just said.

    He watched how she ate these rations, crying at some point, moaning in satisfaction and pleasure at other times. He couldn''t bring himself to watch such a scene and turned to focus again on making his grenades.

    She was indeed feeling something that William or other humans wouldn''t appreciate or understand. It was like she said, monsters never enjoyed meals like humans did.

    Tasting this food, even if it was just dried up andcking lots of good taste, she was still feeling like she was in heaven seven.

    William totally ignored her, ignored her repeated requests to eat more. He told her that eating too much isn''t good for a human, for a fine-lookingdy like herself with such an explosive figure.

    She was stubborn, and he just promised her a much better meal when they''d return home. As for now, she''d stick to his eating routine, three times a day, the normal routine of any human.

    They kept walking back to the city, while she never stoppedining about his stinginess. At the same time, each time she ate a dried up meal, she''d show the same intense reactions, never getting used to this.

    William felt irritated at first, but started to get amused by what she was doing. Slowly he got used to her by his side and decided to give her a name.

    "You don''t have a name?" This was something that was a bit surprising to him.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Monsters don''t need names, we are only famous by our bodies and abilities," she waved her hair, in a motion that told William she was trying to show off or something.

    "Then I''ll call you Karoline," he randomly picked her this name. And he never expected the weird response she gave to him.

    "Wow! I like it! Karoline? Is that my name now? Human world is really weird and interesting, I love it!"

    "..."

    William gave her a weird look before deciding to continue forging his grenades. She was curious about everything he was doing, had unexpected reactions to even the simplest of things.

    For example, when they walked for long, for two days straight, she suddenly started to yawn repeatedly. When she slept, she woke up, saying that she had a weird experience during her sleep, and saw things that didn''t look real. She was fearing she got under an illusion or something, but William reassured her and told her these were dreams.

    To his surprise, she told him that monsters didn''t dream. She kept pestering him for the next day about dreams, how they happened, and what made only humans experience them.

    Then she started to ask William to sleep, sleeping every night for long hours. William was speechless about this, and tried more than once to dissuade her from doing this, but he failed.

    "I''ll just forge more grenades then," as their advance speed got greatly decreased by her actions, he decided to make the best use of this time to make more grenades.

    And when she asked him to sleep in the day as well, he threatened to leave her behind and go back to his world alone if she kept doing such weird stuff!

    She resigned to his wishes, but wasn''t totally agreeing with him. In her opinion, humans had to sleep more often, to experience the marvels of the dream world.

    She kept fixed on this point for three days until William thought of a random excuse to let her drop talking about this. He told her that humans only gained ess to that marvellous world once per day. So, no matter how many times they slept, they''d just dream only once.

    "Then we shall sleep more hours then!" when he thought he already fixed this headache, her eyes shone brightly as if she realised something big, "let''s sleep half of the day, or the entire night! Yes, sleeping the entire night is better!"

    "You are already sleeping the entire night!"

    "Then I''ll sleep half of the day alongside the night then¡­"

    "..."

    "Yes, that''s a good n!"

    "That''s a terrible idea!"

 Chapter 867 Party!

    ?

    William''s face changed to show his serious look, "Listen, we are running low on our time here. I don''t want to stick forever in this world. There is a huge war going to happen, and I''m the one responsible for handling the main weapons in it."

    "Oh, what a big and mighty man you are, hahahaha!"

    "Stop fooling around! From now on, we''ll sleep just half the night, then keep walking¡­"

    "That''s not fair!"

    She kept screaming like this for the next hours, for the next day, until her shouts brought the attention of many monsters.

    "Watch how they''ll get scared away by my presence," when the first batch of monsters appeared, a group of thorny tailed lions, she waved her long hair and stepped up for tens of metres ahead of William while saying this.

    "Stop¡­"

    "Don''t worry, monsters always get scared when they see me, prostrate themselves even to gain my blessings¡­ What the heck are you doing? Stay back! Dammit! I said stay back, wild cats!! William¡­ Help me William, please save me from them!!!"

    "..."

    William was stupefied in his ce for a few seconds by her foolishness and naiveness. She thought monsters would recognise her, but in their eyes she was a tasty snack!

    As she stepped up and walked for a hundred metres ahead of him, these lions didn''t care about her, and came for her neck! She ran, tried to outrun and evade them, but she was a mere white grade master, a very weak being in front of these silver grade monsters.

    "Scarm!" William took out his flying weapons, waved his hand and then a massacrended. He didn''t need to move a muscle to get all of them killed. And when the monsters chasing after her got killed, she was finally able to run towards William, grab him from behind, and use him as a shield.

    William nned to shower her with mocking and harshments and words. But when she touched his body, he felt how fiercely shaking his body was.

    He felt sorry for her. She was, after all, a monster who stood on the pinnacle of power in this world, one which didn''t need to even worry about any other monster or master in the world for a long time already.

    He took a deep breath, sighed, and removed all the words he intended to say from his brain. He killed all the monsters in a few minutes, turned to her and looked at her pale face, eyes filled with honest tears of fear, and felt deeply sorry for her.

    For the first time ever, he felt responsible for what he did to her. Even if she was a monster before, she was now a human being. And he had to really care more about her, until she''d get used to the new life she just started living.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    As the couple drew closer from the city, weird things started to appear in front of them. Many masters were walking, or even running, towards the same direction they were heading towards. Slowly they started to walk in the middle of a sea of masters. And this was heaven to Karoline.

    She was an open person to talk and get to know others. So in mere hours, she became famous among the many masters here. Even if she looked weak, and many could tell she was just a white grade master, her good nature and easy to approach personality, not to mention her sweetughs, made everyone fall for her.

    William just watched such a circus from the side and didn''t take part in any of this. As far as he got from the words said by many, these masters came here thanks to the news of the grand and expected to be an epic battle that soon would erupt.

    Seeing them made William feel many emotions. Humans were really pressured for a long time in this world. They suffered from monsters, suffered at the hands of dark masters.

    So when a chance appeared, even if it had a very low chance of sess, a chance for revenge, they couldn''t help but volunteer.

    William was shocked to hear more stories and rumours, all speaking about how many masters came from different parts of the continent, how they came from ces even from other continents.

    "Why do I feel like I''m a ma for epic stuff?" William couldn''t help but shake his head helplessly. Every single time he tried to do something, things would escte and grow out of his control. He didn''t know why, but it seemed his fate was to do great stuff, even if he didn''t intend to do anything like this in the first ce.

    Their marching speed decreased, and this time he didn''t have any way to handle such a situation. Even if he tried to get away from the masters around, there were still an endless stream of them blocking any path forward.

    It felt like masters were growing happy and proud of such gathering, and started to celebrate. Lots of different food and cuisine was made every now and then, like parties. And for Karoline, this was a real festival, something she wanted to never end.

    "Humans are really something!" she said,ughing while holding a big chunk of well cooked and grailed meat in her left hand, "I don''t want to see this end!"

    "It has to," William rolled his eyes. He didn''t mind taking a longer time to go to the city, but he was annoyed that he couldn''t forge more grenades in the middle of all this madness.

    "Come on, let''s have fun!" she suddenly jumped and held his arm with hers, "let''s go there, I heard they are going to have a dancing party tonight. Yes, the human world is so fun, hahahaha!"

    "..."

    William was dragged by her towards arge group of masters whom he didn''t know or met before. Yet she seemed to know all of them already.

    He had to stick by her side, watching her dancing and enjoying her time as if this was something normal, something she did every day.

 Chapter 868 A Fishy Situation

    William knew she was curious about the human world, but this was a bit too much. He didn''t take part in any of this, just focused on thinking of different things, like the uing war, how he''d supply more grenades to satisfy all of these masters'' needs, and also how to get out from here.

    He kept his mind busy while cing a fake smile on his face. He didn''t believe in having fun and living the life of masters. Both wouldn''t meet together, wouldn''t work with each other.

    He kept himself too focused over the issues he had in mind till thete hours of the night. When he tried a few times to lure her away from here, seducing her by sleep and dreams, she didn''tply. She was too carried away by the music and dancing, by the new world she found herself in.

    William had no other option but to wait for her to grow tired, sleeping even on his shoulders. He looked at her angelic face and couldn''t help but sigh.

    "A body of a mature girl, a mind of a four years old girl, despite being a million years monster¡­" he muttered in low tone, looking around and checking everyone in an area of a few kilometres.

    This party was wild! It attracted the attention of many masters. The ones who did it were masters blessed with music spirit elements, enough to entrance and let anyone hearing their y go into a weird state of euphoria.

    This was something that might be considered as a deadly weapon inrge battles. It wasn''t any less effective as illusions. And that was the reason why he kept himself vignt all the time.

    Their music power was strong enough to even affect him at various asions. When he felt weird, he''d use at once one of the cores he umted during hisst adventure to get her, start devouring it without any hesitation.

    To cleanse his mind and spirit of such illusions, he could use different ways. The easiest way to increase his spirit power, even for a single point.

    He didn''t know if this group of masters meant well or not, but he had to watch out for the worse. Karoline wasn''t the only one sleeping right now, as everyone else who attended this party did.

    "It''s weird¡­ They all fell asleep at the same moment¡­" William already prepared himself for a big battle. Yet he didn''t know where danger woulde from.

    When he looked back at the group of masters who started all this, he didn''t find a trace of them. "This is fishier¡­" he slowly ced Karoline''s head on the ground, gave her ast look before turning around, looking at the world in a serious gaze.

    As far as his spirit sense could reach, all the masters were sleeping like babies. He was sure this wasn''t a normal sleep. Even if they exhausted themselves during the party, they wouldn''t fall asleep in such a way, at the same moment.

    In his eyes, this was the effect of a strong illusion that came from music. And that meant the ones who held such parties didn''t have good intentions at all.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "It''s remarkable how you managed to stay awake even after getting bombarded with our music for hours!" as he stood in his ce motionless, a weird voice came from far, like a voice that came out from an ether or something. Yet he felt like it was like an arrow, assaulting his mind with no mercy.

    "Show yourself, bastard!" William seemed enraged, but in fact he wasn''t. He already suspected their malicious intentions and acted based on this from the beginning.

    "The famous William, the one who is rumoured to stay behind all the big changes that happened in this world¡­ I heard you have a master, the one who made all this possible. I nned to let you sleep, abduct you to lure him out. But as you are still awake, then I''ll kill you and use your corpse to fool your master."

    William didn''t know why, but since he met with Karoline and everyone he metter on started to speak non-stop about anything they had in mind. He didn''t know why his enemy spent such effort to exin these things over.

    "Why won''t we consider sleeping then? Come and get me," he mockingly said, and just from his tone, anyone could tell he wasn''t speaking seriously at all.

    "We''ll see whoughs at whom at the end," William knew he had to trigger the hidden enemies'' wrath and taunt them toe for him. He could use detection arrays to find them out. But considering therge space they might be in, it wasn''t a good choice.

    He didn''t transform, didn''t take a single weapon out. He wanted to first lure these enemies closer, trick them by his weakness and unreadiness. They looked very confident in their music elements and techniques, and they wouldn''t totally believe he didn''t get affected at all.

    So he acted as if he was partially affected by their music, not showing what any master would do in such a situation.

    "Got you!" In the next few minutes, nothing happened. He kept himself standing idly, looking at the world around without batting an eye.

    All of sudden, one shadow appeared in his spirit sense. It came from a blind spot from behind, and it moved fast, suiting anyone using the darkness element.

    What puzzled William the fact that this attack was done just by one person. He thought others woulde at him at the same time, but it felt like the leader of this assassination group was quite vignt against him.

    "Wanna see what I got? Let me y a good show for you then," William realised that this attack was like a probe, aiming to expose all of his hidden abilities, weapons, and techniques.

    Any master would respond in such a situation with everything they got, releasing out their full might.

 Chapter 869 A Battle Against Dark Masters

    ?

    William intended to do so, in case of everyone elseing at him, not just one enemy.

    As he already spotted where the attack wasing from, he was able to perfectly evade it. Yet all he did was to take out a sword, moving in a sluggish way to the side, ending up shing with the iing enemy, blocking most of the attack, ending up suffering a little wound at his nk.

    It wasn''t that deep, but William added ast touch of making his body struggle to stabilise himself for a few moments, before he finally leant on one knee.

    He nted the sword in the ground, supported himself against it with one hand, while holding the wound he suffered with the other one. "I swear to kill you!" he coldly said, in a threatening way that didn''t carry any weight.

    "Hahahaha! Just try and stand up straight, you moron, hahahaha!" seeing this made the leader of the dark master groupugh wholeheartedly, mocking William.

    It was clear thetter got affected by their illusion at the end. Even if he didn''t sleep, he wasn''t in the form to battle anyone at the moment.

    "That''s why you never moved a finger away from her side! And here I am, thinking wrongly that you wanted to protect her, hahahaha! You can''t even walk properly, idiot! Let''s go, we''ll kill him fast and then kill everyer on¡­"

    This was their aim from the start. William couldn''t tell if such a thing happened at other ces or was this just something prepared for him.

    As he dwindled about the answer, the leader weirdly said everything as if he was speaking with his best friend or something.

    "We will finish here boys, then go around and do the same to other foolish masters. Masters celebrating their victory before the battle would even start? Hahahaha! I never heard of such fools before, hahahaha!"

    "..."

    William couldn''t help but try his best not tough. This leader was acting funny, spilling all the beans without a single p on his face!

    He kept himself in such a posture, even tried to stand up to end up failing and falling again on one knee.

    "Don''t struggle, kiddo, this won''t take long," the leader''s voice came closer from him, and William could already hear subtle sounds from their haste approach.

    He could count a number of one hundred running at him. He didn''t know if these were everyone in the dark master''s team or there were still others who didn''t show themselves yet.

    He didn''t care about the ones who might or might not be here and focused mainly over the ones approaching him. He used his spirit sense to track and follow these one hundred dark masters, guided by hearing their subtle moves.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They were a few hundreds of metres away from him up to one kilometre away. He had to be patient for the far distanced masters to draw closer, so he''d be able to hunt down as many of them as possible.

    If he had the means to do it, he''d first target the ones who started all this, the ones with music elements. But he had no way to tell, so he nned to attack them using his full power.

    "Die!" In the next few minutes, the hundred groups of dark masters drew closer to him, and five were already less than ten metres away. One shouted before others shed towards him, acting like ck bolts of lightning.

    As things reached this point, William didn''t need to keep faking it anymore. The moment they shed towards him, he also started to attack them.

    The first thing he did wasn''t to activate his spirit body, but to release his two monstrous weapons. "Leave none alive!" he muttered in a deep tone, before his body grew up fast, and many weapons came out from his ring.

    "Watch out!"

    "He was faking it!!"

    Just as he did this, the ones far away shouted to warn theirrades at the forefront. But it was already toote, not only for those close to him, but to others around as well.

    William didn''t hesitate to use his newly developed technique. It was one that would release explosive attacks along the course of his dash, ending up releasing tons of damage at a grand area.

    From the first moment he realised this was a trap, he knew he wouldn''t be able to save everyone. The attacks he released were enough to im the lives of many in their sleep. If they were awake, then they''d have a chance to evade his approach. But this wasn''t an option now.

    As for trying to save them one by one, he wasn''t that free or caring to suffer such trouble in the first ce. His aim was to get all of these dark masters, killing them before they''d hurt him.

    The moment he dashed forward, releasing his mighty attack, he worked his flying weapons, letting them head towards a different direction. He was now at the high stage of gold grade, able to control hundreds of them. Not to mention the distance of his control expanded by arge chunk.

    He just took out three hundred flying weapons, letting them float and move around, iming the lives of any dark master nearby. He didn''t take more as this would ce more pressure over him, not to mention this would decrease the distance of controlling these weapons by a lot.

    His two monstrous weapons went in one direction, his flying weapons attacked another, and he moved to a third spot. His attacks came swift and deadly, killing many of the dark masters even before they''d got the time to retaliate.

    All of the weapons he was using were dark gold grade, enough to im the lives of the early-stage dark gold masters. The ones who managed to survive the first brutal assault wave were those stronger than that. And those William took notice of.

 Chapter 870 Dealing With The Formation

    ?

    Williamunched his new technique multiple times in the past few minutes, killing lots of the dark and normal masters at the same time. Then the entire battlefield changed, with around twenty dark masters being a bit stronger than early-stage dark gold grade.

    William knew his flying weapons wouldn''t be able to take them down. As for his two monstrous weapons, they could take a few of them, at the cost of consuming most of their spirit powers in less than half an hour.

    He didn''t hesitate to issue them the order to take any dark master near them as soon as they got the chance to. As for him, he switched gears, and returned to using his first technique, stacking attacks over his tails, before releasing them against targets one by one.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    Explosions erupted everywhere, with many of theseing from the dark masters still standing around. They were experienced, vicious, and lived through lots of deadly situations. So, they adapted fast, used their top advantage against any master in this world, activating their spirit bodies.

    William saw many monstrous bodies taking form at different ces. "Trying to fight me using these pathetic spirits? You are asking for your death then!" William recognised few of these spirits, and the ones he didn''t seemed to be weaker than his fox and snake spirit.

    He started to select his target carefully, attacking those who looked stronger than others. As for those weaker ones, he left his two monstrous weapons to handle them.

    The battle started at such a high intense stage. In just ten minutes, only ten out of the initially one hundred remained alive. And they were all filled with different wounds and injuries, with few losing limbs on top of that.

    William wasn''t feeling much better as well. Thisst batch of dark masters were using strong and weird techniques and elements,bining different elements and techniques together, making him and his two monstrous weapons suffer lots of hurt.

    Yet he wasn''t in any dangerous situation. As they were using healing elixirs and potions like mad, he also did the same. Yet thanks to the brutality of his attacks, their healing powers failed to save their lives at the end.

    "You will rot in the end, join us at hell!" The leader was thest one to fall. William recognized him as he was the leading master in the small team who yed that music before.

    "Don''t worry about me, worry about those waiting for you in hell," William waved his weapons, hacked this dark master''s body in many deadly ces, ending up iming his life.

    "I won''t grow tired of collecting rings until I die," he shook his head when he gained lots of rings from the dead masters in this battle.

    He couldn''t tell who the dark master was and who was the normal one, so he just collected all the rings he could find, starting with the ring of the leader.

    As he collected his loot, rings and gears, he found out that this battle left behind lots of dead masters. "It''s weird that such a high battle didn''t attract anyone''s attention¡­ What''s going on here?"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He was sure just from the explosive noises and shes of lightsing out from this intense battle were enough to attract tons of masters from tens of kilometres away.

    It was dark at night, and masters wouldn''t be all sleeping. Yet when he moved just a few kilometres away, he found out the reason. "An istion formation? They came prepared!" William saw a thinyer of semi-transparent membrane that expanded to cover up a grand area of bubble shaped.

    The entire battle and lots of sleeping masters were inside this ce, yet not a single trace or sound leaked outside. William looked at this formation, before starting to test it out.

    "It''s a gathering of nine headed star istion arrays¡­ Using such weak arrays together to make such a strong formation is something interesting¡­"

    William knew such an array, as it was one of the most basic ones in the outer world. It wasn''t that useful, except if used to seal a small space of a few metres only.

    He started to dig the ground around the formation, ending up finding lots of buried materials. He stored them all, adding more loot for himself.

    As this process was taking a long time, he used the help of his two monstrous and flying weapons as well. He let them dig the ground, ending up creating a deep groove that surrounded the entire area after many hours.

    The light of the day intensified, but there wasn''t a single sign that anyone sleeping inside was waking up. As for those outside, they already noticed the presence of the istion formation many hours ago and were trying to deal with it using brutal force.

    Using force to crack down such formation wouldn''t work. Even if it was made up of weak arrays as the cornerstone, these arrays were using the help of the world''s spirit power to augment and repair any damage suffered.

    To disarm it, one had to do what William was doing. He knew half of the materials used in making these arrays were buried inside this formation, the other half was outside. But taking away half of the materials was enough to destabilise such formation, ending up by its falling on its own.

    Even if this didn''t happen, William knew with all the brutal attacksing from outside, this formation wouldn''tst much longer. Before he''d removed the final batch, he was ready to dash away, safeguarding himself from any iing attacks from outside.

    Masters out there went crazy. The thought of having such formation in the middle of their grand army seemed to enrage and insult everyone. So it was expected how this ce turned to be the main focus of everyone, and tons of attacks werending over the formation every minute.

    *Rumble!*

    "Damn! There are tons of masters inside! Are you going to kill them as well?!!"

 Chapter 871 Returning To The City

    ?

    Just when William removed all the materials, he dashed away but the formation cracked even faster than what he initially expected.

    The explosive noisesing from the attacksnding over the formation were enough to scare even himself.

    He shouted back, while dashing away from here as fast as he could. He called back his monstrous and flying weapons, ran with all the might he had.

    His voice vanished like nothing in the middle of all these explosions. The entire world around him littered in bright lights, with massive shockwaves assaulted him from behind, carrying him forward at a faster speed.

    Luckily, he got wind elements and techniques that helped to stabilise his descent. He didn''t suffer much damage, but that wasn''t the case for those who were sleeping beside the formation.

    Lots of masters died, and then the entire ce grew hectic as much more came from outside, flooding the entire ce. William went first thing towards Karoline, stood by her side, and watched this circus unfolding in front of his eyes.

    Masters were looking for enemies, but they found none. "Silence! All masters move away from here," a loud voice came from one direction, one that told William he was a high-grade dark gold master.

    "Sir, enemies did this, and they¡­"

    "They are dead," the master shouted in his loud voice, "can''t you see? There is evidence of a harsh battle that happened inside. Whoever they were, they are dead now. And the ones who took them down are the ones who cleared the entire formation for us. Hopefully they aren''t all dead, and few are still alive. Back off and let me and other experienced masters handle the situation."

    William stood in his ce without caring about any of this. Soon enough the high-end masters came to notice him. He was, after all, a celebrity in the closed circle of high-end masters.

    They spoke with him, and soon enough they got to know what happened. William didn''t need to hide what happened here from them, as he wanted them to be aware of such a deadly trick. He also stressed on the point that the life of masters shouldn''t include any fun activities like these, especially when they were marching for a grand war.

    They agreed on his words, praised him for saving the lives of many. Lots of masters died, but much more survived. This was considered a better result than losing all of them at the hands of such a dirty scheme.

    As for what was going on to these sleeping masters, the formidable masters reassured William that this was amon tactic used by dark masters.

    They were going to wake up in less than a day, but they''d suffer from a terrible headache for many days. William went speechless when he heard that. If such a tactic wasmon and known to many, howe masters here fell for it?

    He and Karoline got their excuses. He didn''t know such a dirty method existed and wasmon in this world. And Karoline was new to the human world, very interested in everything rted to the human way of life.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Yet those masters¡­ In his eyes, they had no excuse for falling for such an old trick. He didn''t say anything, but his face told these masters everything. And they seemed to share the same viewpoint as him, shook their heads and said nothing before leaving.

    William didn''t want to stick here anymore. So, he released his two monstrous weapons, letting one carry the sleepy Karoline, and Charley cleared a way for them to march faster.

    Seeing such two massive monsters moving in the middle of the endless masters'' army was a scene to behold. Many got the wrong idea at first, soon to be stopped when they noticed the youngster who seemed to control these two monsters.

    The news rapidly spread, and many started to learn about William and his deeds. They also knew he was the one controlling the two monsters, walking like a king in the middle of their colossal gathering.

    Doing this saved William lots of trouble and time. Just by the passage of one day after what happened, and when Karoline was showing signs of waking up, the duo was at the edge of the city atst.

    "Where are we?" The moment Karoline opened her eyes, she found herself in the middle of a big house. There were two other youngdies in front of her, with William sitting opposite to her, examining her condition using his spirit power.

    "You are awake, and things look fine¡­"

    "What happened to me? Why am I here? What''s this ce and who are these people?" she started to rain him down with many questions, while he slowly exined things over to her.

    "Screw those dirty humans! They were friends of mine before and tried to curry favor with me favour! And now? They are trying to kill me? William, lead me towards their leader, I''ll rip his head off¡­"

    "Hey, don''t forget how weak you are!" William interrupted her train like words, reminding her of her new identity. He got two weird looks from the two girls standing by his side, Tara and Angelica.

    The two looked at him then at Karoline in a weird way. "Ahem, let me introduce you, this is Karoline, a young girl who lost her memory and speaks about weird things all the time."

    "Oh, what a poor girl!" Tara said in sympathy, feeling terrible for Karoline. As for Angelica, she already knew how mysterious William was, so she didn''t buy any of what he said easily.

    "I''m not sick! And you know that!" Karoline spoke in an intense way, and William simply smiled, said nothing. His response was clear to the two girls, as if he was saying: See? She isn''t well at all!

    "Anyway," William suddenly stood up, "I''m going to close on myself for one week. Don''t let anyonee near me, get it?"

 Chapter 872 Marching For The Black Holes

    ?

    "Sure," the other two girls got used to how weird he used to behave. As for Karoline, she objected a little, asked many questions, and all got answered that she would find thepany of these two girls interesting and amusing by joining him.

    As for his friends and team, Sloth and others, they were already busy helping everyone in the city, arranging the newly joined masters and helping city masters to prepare for the uing war.

    William already sent a work back using Fonda, who was present with the other two girls when he returned home. He already made lots of grenades. But with the current scary size of the normal masters, he knew the dark masters must be preparing their fullest forces as well.

    From the simple interaction with these dark masters from before, he knew they were using weird and umon ways in the tiny world to fight. And that meant their overall power wasn''t just depending on the spirit body advantage they got.

    So he closed on himself and started to melt what remained of ores to form grenades. To make best use of everything, he asked the city leaders to let him into the forging grounds that belonged to the city, plus much more materials and lots of artisans.

    He went all out this week. And the end result was for him to make enough grenades to arm up the entire army of masters twice! He made enough grenades to destroy any army of dark masters, and all that remained now was for the war to start.

    ______________________

    "Wow! Human world is so interesting! I love being a human, hahahaha!"

    William waited for one more week till all the mastersing here arrived and got arranged in different armies. One of the armies was led by Sloth, a gesture of goodwill by the various high-end masters from many ces in the world.

    William knew this was done to curry the favour of Sloth, hopefully he''d impart lots of his knowledge and wisdom to the masters in this world. Sloth knew this was all thanks to William, and so he couldn''t ept such a position without taking his opinion.

    William didn''t see anything wrong in doing this. After all, he''d have lots of forces following him, and his team and friends would be secure.

    Not to mention as they were leading one of the many armies, it meant there would be a good chance to make a better name for themselves.

    "Take this chance quite seriously, and make sure you''ll spread your name far and wide," William paused before pushing Sloth a little, "don''t forget, even if no one knew about who you are, you are carrying the honour and name of the Novistic kingdom anywhere you go."

    "Got it," Sloth nodded, getting what William wanted him to do. Even if William was a youngster in his eyes, he was someone who kept doing great stuff all the time. And he was right on top of that.

    Sloth didn''t hate such an opportunity. In fact, he knew this position perfectly suited him. He wasn''t just a normal mentor back at the kingdom, but also a general who led many masters in deadly battles to defend the kingdom.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    So he started to perform much better than what William initially thought. As Sloth led the army to such a high level, William ordered his team and friends to go and help him.

    He wanted them to learn from Sloth, gain more experience in such grand wars. As his team went to learn, William was now walking with Angelica, Tara, Fonda, Berry, Lina, and Ibra.

    Karoline was also with them, and she kept releasing such weirdments all the time.

    "I can''t believe she got her head messed up in such a way," Berry rolled her eyes after listening to such bullshit from Karoline for many days already, "I feel sorry for her."

    "I''m not sick!" Karoline shouted, argued with Berry and thetter seemed to not care anymore about what Karoline said. During the past two weeks, the girls in William''s inner circle friendzone already got used to how nuts Karoline was.

    In their eyes, she was just an unlucky girl, one who ended up having her head messed up in such an unbelievable way.

    The girls and everyone else started to grow used to how she spoke. Even if what she said seemed crazy, they all got to know how good hearted and kindly naive this young girl was.

    "Will we meet those humans who tried to kill me?" As the armies of masters walked towards the ck Hole region, Karoline kept asking this question over dizzilion times!

    "They are the enemies we are marching to fight," William left Lina and other girls to handle Karoline. As for him, he kept watching everyone around, seeing how Sloth was handling the grand army of masters marching towards the ck Holes.

    Things were looking cool, and William knew he''d have lots of freedom in this war. There were enough masters to handle any army they''d face. And that made him focus more on the ck Holes area itself.

    His aim, after all, was to go and open one of the portals lying there. As he promised, he epted arge number of mastersing from the city.

    In fact he epted more than he expected initially. The news about such a deal spread all over the world, and many cities and far away powerhouses got wind of it. They sent lots of their prodigies, lots of their strong masters to guard these prodigies in the uing adventure. That ended up for the expected couple thousand masters to be in the tens of thousands.

    William wouldn''t say no to such a big pie. He weed all and left them to help Sloth and others in dealing with the grand army.

    He knew things would grow hectic the moment the battle erupted. So he decided to wait until they''d push the enemy back enough, crush lots of their forces, before starting to head towards the ck Holes region.

 Chapter 873 Pyschological Warefar

    ?

    What was weird in the eyes of many masters was theck of any monster. Many thought monsters got terrified of such a gathering of humans, and others thought this was the act of dark masters. William knew both were correct. And he didn''t care about fighting any monsters during their travels.

    The distance between them and the ck Holes region would take one month normally to travel. During which, more masters kept joining them, as many grew impatient and moved to station themselves at the border of this region.

    They were the type to seek adrenaline in life, the type that William liked the most. Totally opposite to them, there were many masters who loved ying it safe, and waited for the grand army to move, even moving at the rear end of the grand armies.

    William didn''t interfere in anything, simply walking towards his destination while thinking about the ck Holes zone. He also was concerned about his enemy back in his world, the Nightmare monster.

    He might have drifted away from the contest that was going on at the Novistic kingdom, but he didn''t feel any loss or regret. He never liked the idea of taking part in this contest, and only decided to take part in it to find and kill his enemy.

    Yet he ended up experiencing another adventure in this world. Lots of time passed, and he was sure the Nightmare monster must have finished the contest and was now far away from the kingdom''s capital.

    William didn''t know that his enemy didn''t just take part of the contest, but he grew mad when he learnt about his absence. In return for this, he left a small surprise for William once he''d return back.

    Karoline kept showing interest in everything that she met, done by masters around, or even simply caused by nature. When the sky dimmed and rain fell, she kept speaking about how amazing it was to feel the rain drops while being a human.

    William and others ignored her, as everyone who knew her started to deal with her as if they were dealing with a very young girl, not exceeding five years in age.

    She was weak on top of that, and that made everyone underestimate her. They bought William''s story and didn''t doubt it even for the slightest. Even Angelica who had her doubts before dealt with her as someone who had a deformity in her mind or some sort of illness.

    The journey looked endless, especially with theck of any action or events. During which, the different masters leading the armies marching to war gathered twice, discussing the newest intel about the frontline.

    Sloth told William everything about these two meetings, and the news he learnt there weren''t that surprising to William, despite them being shocking for other leaders.

    The dark masters saw their inability to defend against the sudden surge in their enemies'' numbers. And so, they called for more reinforcements from other dark masters in the continent, a call that got lots of responses.

    That made the entire ck Holes are filled with endless dark masters and traps. It felt like there was death awaiting the normal masters at every corner. And William saw this normal and quite expected.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    As they drew closer, the general atmosphere changed and became heavy. The masters who were chatting,ughing, and taking this as a guaranteed win march towards their sworn enemies got all silenced now. More bad news kept flooding and spreading all over the armies in the past few weeks about the dark masters waiting up ahead and their insane preparations.

    No one knew who was spreading such news, but it was easy to guess their identity. In such colossal number of masters, it was easy for the dark masters to infiltrate the ranks of normal masters, spreading such rumours and false intel even.

    They wanted to deal a crushing blow to the unbelievable high morale of the masters. And William knew such psychological tactic was one of the most favourable tactics for dark masters in the outer world. And he knew how serious the current situation was.

    Even if the news and rumours spreading were half false, an army who lost their morale before a fight was destined to lose.

    The more they advanced, the more disturbing rumours spread. William once heard a rumour about the presence of a legendary grade monster on the side of the dark masters, and another about the presence of a mythical monster on their side as well. Another rumour was speaking about the endless trenches that filled the entire area,pletely full of deadly acid and weird liquids that could kill anything in mere breaths!

    He knew all this was the work of the dark masters'' imagination, and they were deadly serious about tricking the masters marching towards them and letting them believe they were going to lose badly, even before the fight would start.

    "This is a seriously bad situation," just when there was just one travel distance between their current location and the outer edges of the ck Holes area, Sloth came while fuming in frustration and rage, "these rumours¡­ I don''t know who the hell is spreading them!"

    "What''s wrong?" William calmly asked. During their march, he kept his silence, didn''t show any reaction to any of that.

    "What''s wrong?!! Everything is wrong! Just look around you! Everyone is already thinking about their death, their defeat! Those bastards are preparing lots of defensive measures, but it''s not that bad. It''s not even half that bad!"

    "I know," William rolled his eyes, "don''t tell me the grand mentor of the Novistic kingdom doesn''t have a solution for this."

    "Me?" Sloth went silent for a few seconds, before giving William a weird look, "don''t tell me you have a way out of this!!"

    "Sure," William calmly smiled, "just prepare a strong force, one that''sposed of elite masters from our army. Then follow me."

    "Where?" Sloth didn''t get it yet, but when William exined everything to him, he realised what a simple and yet effective countern he missed.

 Chapter 874 A Vanguard Team

    ?

    "Let''s do it your way then," Sloth went away to collect a team of elites, and William also contacted his friends and team.

    He wasn''t doing this out of charity, but to establish a better foundation and reputation for his guild branch in this world.

    In the next few hours, news spread all over the marching masters. A team formed of two thousand dark gold masters went out, led by none other than the starting to pick up fame Sloth.

    "Will William also be with him?" The leaders of various armies noticed this point as well. It wasn''t just Sloth, but also William went with him. In the eyes of others, Sloth might be the most mysterious person in the world. But to those who dealt with Sloth and William, they knew it was thetter who was far more mysterious than the former.

    "Are we going to fight the entire dark masters alone?!!!"

    On the distance away from the marching masters, the small team that got handpicked by Sloth and William were now getting closer to the ck Holes region. As they were moving light, and the entire team was formed of formidable masters and William''s rich team, it was expected for them to go full speed.

    They used their fastest techniques without reservations, using elixirs and potions to replenish their lost spirit power. The distance that could be covered by the slowly marching army in a day was crossed in mere hours by them.

    They didn''t need to slow down or wait for weaker masters to catch up. And as they advanced in such a speedy way, Sloth finally told everyone what they came here for.

    William already told his friends and team about this. He didn''t just bring those, but also selected a few of the ones who were supposed to follow him to the tiny worldter on.

    He selected the best out of prodigies, expecting to witness something remarkable out of them.

    "We have to save everyone by doing this," Sloth said what William told him a few hours ago. The n was simple, if the enemy was trying to crush their morals using rumours and false news, then the simplest way to counter this was by setting an example.

    What was the use of rumours and false intel against concrete and fixed facts? "All we need to do is to go there, crush a few of the dark masters'' traps and forces, and return with the great news of our victory back to the army," Sloth finished exining this n to everyone he handpicked. And the response was expectedly warm and enthusiastic.

    "We are going to rock it this time, hahahaha!"

    "Thanks Sloth for inviting us! We will write down our names in the minds of everyone present here today, hahahaha!"

    Everyone Sloth picked were veteran masters, and they didn''t need any more exnation to get the point and glory behind doing this.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Taking the lead like this,ing up in such a low number to crush the enemies and regain the devastated morale was something that wouldn''t get missed by any.

    They all grew excited to meet the enemy, and William wanted to remind them that they needed first to win before thinking about the glory that''d follow.

    The distance that''d need a week from the army took roughly two days from the team. Just as they were less than a few hours away, the scout team Sloth sent came back with lots of real and authentic intel.

    "You saw them digging holes, ones the size of ten metres in diameter, putting lots of materials and monster remains there, before closing them with red dirt?!!" William heard what the scout team brought and couldn''t help but ask in surprise.

    "Do you know what they are doing?" Against everyone''s expectations, Sloth took the initiative to ask for William''s opinion. After all, even Sloth didn''t know what these dark masters were doing.

    "They are making a nasty formation out there," William turned towards the direction of the ck Holes, "it can summon up lots of weird creatures, formed out of smoke, taking the shape of the monster remnants buried in these holes."

    "This¡­"

    "Can we fight them? Can we kill them?!" lots of masters were baffled and confused by what William just said. Even if they didn''t get his point, they still were focused over what mattered to them¡­ How to kill these things.

    "Well¡­ If you know about that beforehand, then yes, we can do it," William''s face changed to show a vicious look over it. This formation was something that usually caused lots of losses to any normal master army if they missed the early signs of spotting it.

    To make such a formation, a grand digging project would start, one that would have the same description as the scout team mentioned. It''d take lots of time, tons of preparations, and many hands to work on it.

    William knew everything was set for such a formation to be used. The distance that should be crossed in half a month took a month or might be more by the grand army marching here. As for the needed workers, they already amassed hundreds of thousands of dark masters.

    To keep any spying eyes away, they used the cover up of lots of monsters that surrounded that region. It worked to deter anyone away, and also as an early warning signal for anyone trying toe near and spy on their actions.

    But they missed one point, that a team like them would move towards there, with many high-end masters in the roster. These masters got a scary spirit sense with a huge area of coverage, ending up detecting what they were doing.

    And they missed William''s presence in their ns! Even if anyone managed to see what they were doing, they wouldn''t get the truth behind it. All they might think about was they were doing something like a trap or something and would never recognise what hell awaited them.

 Chapter 875 I Have One Life, Wont Risk It!

    ?

    The dark masters would simply retreat, leaving the normal master army to walk into their demise, watching them fight and die from far without the need to even take part in anything.

    William started to exin the right method to take this formation down. As logic depicted, fighting formation would be possible by another one. As for trying to fight these shadow monsters, it was a futile attempt.

    After all, they weren''t real monsters to begin with!

    "Let''s do it as William said," just as William finished speaking, Sloth interfered, "let''s arrange ourselves in ten teams, each will handle one part of this formation."

    "Ok," the high-end masters felt tons of doubts. After all such knowledge didn''te from the legendary Sloth but from the teenager who was his disciple.

    Sloth didn''t hesitate to follow William''s words to the letter. He started arranging teams, distributing the high-end masters over these evenly.

    "What about you?" As everyone got arranged in teams, including William''s friends and team, Sloth noticed he stood alone without joining any.

    "Like usual, he''ll go ahead alone," Ibra rolled his eyes, and his casual words attracted the attention of everyone.

    "Is it true?!" Sloth turned to William, and thetter shrugged.

    "For this n to work, I have to create a diversion," William lied, "so I''m going to do it."

    "Then I''ming with you," Sloth didn''t hesitate to volunteer. And William didn''t reject such a strong aider.

    Under the shocking gazes of everyone, be it the high-end masters who didn''t get what was going on between these two, or who was the master and who was the disciple, or William''s friends who saw him ept help for the first time ever without objecting or saying anything, the duo started to run towards the ck Holes area.

    "What''s the n?" After they ran far enough, Sloth turned to William and asked, "and don''t give me this bullshit about causing a distraction. You know perfectly well we could have done it afterying out the foundation of the formation."

    William looked at Sloth for a long minute before slowly nodding. "Did you notice something amiss here? Something that doesn''t add up?"

    "Like what?" This wasn''t Sloth''s idea to begin with, so he didn''t even grasp everything rted to such a n.

    "We are making a formation to counter the one waiting for us inside that area, but we are the one invading them, not the opposite."

    "This¡­" Sloth didn''t need him to exin any further to get what he wanted to say here. For a formation to counter another, the two must sh against each other. To do so, the two formations muste in contact with each other, fighting for dominance at a specific area.

    The best way to handle this was byying that formation inside the ck Holes region. Yet William was sure the enemy wouldn''t give them time to do so. And Sloth realised all this at this point.

    "What are we going to do then?" as he grasped the full picture, he couldn''t help but ask.

    "It''s simple," William shrugged, "you protect me, and I''lly down another formation inside that ce."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "..."

    Sloth got the idea behind William''s actions but couldn''t help but feel shocked and surprised from his daring thoughts. This n was doomed to fail using the few thousands of their team, and now William wanted to do it using just the two of them.

    William looked at Sloth''s eyes and knew what this old mentor was thinking about.

    "I can do it," William firmly said. He knew this wasn''t the time to act casual or light about this situation, "I just need you to protect me, and I can perfectly do it."

    "But¡­"

    "Don''t worry, there is another way to take these shadows down," William took out something. "Infuse your spirit power in these and throw them fast enough, ok?"

    "The Vibrant Ores?!!!" the face of Sloth changed the moment he saw what William took out, "don''t you have grenades? You made tons of them already! Just bring these out and let''s use them."

    "No, you got it wrong," William shook his head, while pushing the Vibrant ores he took out into Sloth''s hands, "what we aim isn''t to use fire, but another feature of these ores."

    "..."

    "These ores are very sensitive to spirit power, right?" William slowly exined, and Sloth didn''t even nod or show a single change on his face, "these shadows are made out of high concentration of spirit power. Using these ores, we''ll let the ores disintegrate into smoke."

    "..."

    "Just believe me¡­"

    "I''m going back!" Sloth decisively turned around to return to where the rest of the team was, "you go ahead and do this scary and crazy n of yours alone."

    "Wait, you already volunteered¡­ What a pussy you are!" just before William would move to grab Sloth''s arm, thetter vanished in a sh.

    "I have one life and won''t n to waste it to test something I never heard about before. Good luck kid, I''ll pray for your sess."

    The voice of Sloth kept going distant while William was left back alone. "What a soft boned master you are!" William grabbed the vibrant ores that fell on the ground and shook his head in disappointment. "I should have known better¡­"

    He sighed, returning to his initial n. He was going to use his two monstrous weapons to do this task instead of Sloth. But it''d cost him lots of elixirs and the situation would grow dire.

    What he didn''t know was that Sloth didn''t really retreat. He just acted out of impulse, out of fear, just like any normal master in his position. But something told him that William would need his help. And so, he decided to wait here for him. And he decided to call for reinforcement when that disturbing feeling kept growing inside his spirit, making him more restless.

    William advanced towards the ck Holes region without slowing down. He didn''t hurry to take out his two weapons, so he''d not rm the enemy about his abilities before the start of the battle.

 Chapter 876 Fighting Monsters For Hours!

    ?

    The distance that remained didn''t take him more than half an hour to cross. And when he reached the outer border of it, he found tons of monsters standing between him and that zone.

    The monsters blocking his path were arge collection of many kinds in this world. He recognised a few of them, didn''t recognise most of them, but that didn''t stop him from advancing forward.

    "I have to deal with you alone," William turned into his four tail spirit body, took out all of his flying weapons, the two hundreds of them, plus four weapons for his tails to hold.

    He didn''t think about using his two monstrous weapons, leaving them forter. The moment he took everything out, he gulped one elixir before dashing towards the endless monsters up ahead.

    He started his attack using his newly developed technique. The path he dashed through was lightened up by tons of explosions, turning the dark night into a zing hot area in this part of the world.

    Monsters roared, many tried to run and escape from this deadly attack. Yet in the end nothing seeded. There wasn''t enough room to begin with, besides the explosions William released were expanding like mad, covering up hundreds of metres areas in mere seconds.

    William didn''t just stop here. This was just the beginning. As long as he had elixirs, he didn''t care. All he needed to do was to keep pushing himself forward. As for the few moments which he needed to consume elixirs and start a new dash, he protected himself using his flying weapons.

    The masters who responded to Sloth''s calling were already close enough to witness this. ording to Sloth, they came here to rescue William from a deadly situation, helping the two of them to go forward and prate the thick ring of monsters.

    But what they saw was totally opposite to what they expected. William was like a ughtering machine, everywhere he went, death followed!

    Monsters were falling like flies in the middle of these attacks. As for the high-grade monsters, luckily for William the outer zone was void of anything like them.

    These monsters were all at early-stage dark gold or lower. The dark masters orchestrating everything decided to keep the big guns back, at the rear, letting only the weaker monsters to stand up front, acting as fodders.

    They wanted to tear the iing army of masters down before they''d finally reach the deadly monsters at the end. At the same time, if any surprise happened, like the presence of too many high-end masters or something, then these monsters would work as a deterrent force, protecting dark masters from those deadly masters.

    Even if the dark master army got enough high-end masters on their end, they always thought about limiting their losses. That was why they selected that grand formation in the first ce and used these monsters to buy them time to finishying down this formation.

    They never thought the master army would send a vanguard unit to topple up their arrangements, and they never saw Williaming. Thetter kept advancing forward quite fast, and that made the watching high end masters feel their blood boil, soothing with the desire of joining this fight as well.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They knew soon enough they''d have such a chance. After all, with the current advancing speed of William, he''d cross tens of kilometres in a few hours.

    William was just running, while leaving behind his death trail that left the monster army in disarray. He was too absorbed in fighting any monster he''d see to check out the surroundings.

    If he did, he''d notice that many weak monsters started to run, not towards him, but towards any ce away from here. His sudden charge managed to shatter the control dark masters had over them. And like this, a domino effect started to take ce.

    As weaker monsters started to flee, the number of monsters standing behind him was getting smaller by each passing minute. Yet he ended up getting surrounded by many dark gold and gold monsters, trying desperately to take him down without any sess.

    The danger moments were when he had to stop, replenish his lost spirit power using elixirs. This would take a few seconds, giving a chance for the monsters around to take a hit at him.

    At the first hour, he was able to fend off these monsters using his flying weapons. Butter on, this became more challenging. He couldn''t hold back all the monstersing for his life and had to use his dashing technique from time to time to evade the deadly attacksing from all directions.

    Gradually this became annoyingly pressuring over him. His advance speed that was high at first started to decrease. And when far stronger monsters started to join the battle, things became much harder for him.

    The dark masters were busy finalising their preparations for that grand formation. But the ruckus William created was something that couldn''t be easily missed by them.

    At first, they didn''t care about him. A single master was barging his way alone inside the endless swarm of monsters surrounding the entrance to this region wasn''t a threat in their eyes.

    Even if he was strong, even if he could transform and use his spirit body, he was still at gold grade and was alone. They knew sooner orter; his spirit power would run dry thanks to the mad use of such strong and ferocious technique.

    But when a few hours passed, and they witnessed how this master kept attacking in his prime like he just started the battle, they decided to add more trouble to him and finish him up.

    They ordered many high-end monsters to go there and stop William. They sent a few hundred middle stage dark gold grade monsters, led by a few tens of high stage monsters as well.

    This force was enough to take down a group of high-end masters, not just a single teenager at the gold grade.

 Chapter 877 Getting Surrounded!

    ?

    As they expected, the moment this force joined the fight, William was instantly halted in his steps.

    Thetter was already struggling to keep himself safe under the constant attacksing from the densely packed monsters around. When these high-end forces of monsters appeared, he felt instant danger.

    He was forced to stop advancing, and even started to consider retreating. His technique wasn''t great at dealing with such high-end monsters. And his other technique was enough to handle middle stage monsters, not the high stage ones.

    As he felt such a crazy threat, he didn''t hesitate to retreat a few hundreds of metres, trying to distance himself off the iing hellishly scary monster force. But these monsters weren''t just strong, but also intelligent.

    The moment he started to retreat, they parted themselves into two groups. One kept advancing towards William, releasing lots of attacks to limit his escape paths and freedom to move around, while the other started to circle William, intending to block his retreat path, totally surrounding and entrapping him.

    At this point, William was using his spirit sense on full cylinders. He could see the monsters divide up and start moving in two different paths. He knew what they were nning, and that made him expect the worst.

    He knew he could outrun any attacks and monsters using his dash technique. But against such high-end monsters, this was truly hopeless to try.

    "Be ready, we are going to intervene and help him¡­ F*ck! What is he doing?!!!"

    Sloth was just about to order his team to move with him to rescue William. The current situation was hopeless for thetter, and there was no way out of this deadly entrapment in everyone''s eyes, enemies and allies alike.

    But William had a different opinion than this. The moment he realised the trap the intelligent monsters wereying down for him, he didn''t hesitate to change his direction, heading directly towards the monstersing at him.

    He knew monsters wereunching lots of deadly attacks towards him, but there was a slim chance for him to survive this situation by taking such a path.

    The monsters were already spreading themselves thin to entrap him, so he had to face less than twenty monsters instead of a few hundred. He changed his route fast and used his dashing technique to the maximum, to not give the monsters any chance to run back and stop him.

    Just as he moved, he started to stack a few attacks over his tails. The moment he reached the monsters up ahead, he released a few attacks in one single blow.

    The monsters already released lots of attacks towards him. And when he changed route, the first reaction from other monsters was by releasing another wave of attacks, trying to stop his advance.

    But William was already prepared. Using his spirit sense, he started jumping around, evading the iing attacks by a hair breadth. The loud noises of explosions rang all around him, but that didn''t startle or distract him.

    He kept his eyes fixed over one direction, while seeing everything using his spirit sense. No matter how fast the attacks these monsters released were, he was able to evade all without failing once, without slowing down even once.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    *Boom!*

    The moment he arrived at the twenty monsters up ahead, he released his stacked-up attack and created a fierce explosion. But weirdly enough many more explosions urred, hitting these monsters and sending them flying away, opening a wide path for him to escape from this encirclement.

    He already threw many grenades the moment he arrived at these twenty monsters. He knew all this wouldn''t even mortally wound any monster, at most they''d leave behind a few scratches here and there. But his aim wasn''t to kill them in the first ce.

    And just as he ran out, he turned, took out his bow and arrows, releasing these with many grenades fixed to their tapering ends.

    The barrage of attacks ended up with forming a thickyer of explosions and fire, stopping the advancing monsters for a few minutes. And William just needed less than one minute to run away with his life.

    He didn''t even look behind after releasing these few hundreds of arrows and grenades. As he ran forward, he kept throwing away many vibrant ores.

    He was sure he was overstepping his boundaries this time, and this kind of battle was beyond his current limits. Luckily his win didn''t depend on killing all monsters and dark masters, but to simply set foot inside the ck Holes area andy down the counter formation. And he was positive about his ability to survive until doing this, was confident in his ability to run away with his life.

    Monsters didn''t have spirit sense, so they didn''t see what William was doing. But the masters led by Sloth were all able to see William''s actions down to the tiniest detail.

    "That kid¡­ Why is he giving us such a hard time to save him?" one of the masters sighed,ining about the ores William threw around, blocking any path for them to venture deeper and rescue him.

    "He is confident about his survival odds if he decided to do that!"

    "Or he is burning all the ships, nning to take down all monsters with him," another said, and Sloth kept his silence while watching what William was doing.

    "Let''s go around these ores," he finally decided, "I''m sure he''ll need our help by the end."

    Sloth was the leader of these masters, and what he said made perfect sense to them. They could see for many kilometres past what William could, and they saw how the enemy started to respond to William''s growing threat.

    More scary monsters were on the run now to meet him. For a reason, the dark masters caught a glimpse of what William wanted to do, suspected that he was desperately trying to get into the ck Holes region.

    Even if they suspected his destination, they couldn''t guess his goal. All they could do was to think about this kid having a way to report what he''d see back to the main master army.

 Chapter 878 Unexpected Surprise

    ?

    The dark masters were confident that no one would be able to guess what this formation was, and so they didn''t feel that much threatened by William''s existence.

    They sent another small group of high-end monsters, aiming to slow down William until the monsters they sent before would catch up to him.

    William didn''t know the danger that was rapidly approaching him, yet he could guess part of it. "These dark masters must have noticed my presence and sent those scary monsters before¡­ That means they are watching me right now and will send more to stop me¡­"

    He didn''t have much choice if that happened. If he got surrounded, then it was the time to use his two monstrous weapons, buying himself a little time and creating a safe path for him to escape again.

    As he was burdened by such disturbing worries, Sloth and other masters finally approached his location from a different route.

    They came to save William, never expected what they were doing would save him but in totally a different way.

    As they started to pick up pace, they soon entered into the spirit sense range of the dark masters. The moment they appeared there, everything totally changed.

    The dark masters took everything wrong! They realised why a single weak master was acting like a kamikaze, going all alone against all these odds.

    They realised he was just a decoy, some sort of distraction meant to disorganise their tight defences and pave a path for this group of scary masters to infiltrate the area deeply.

    They knew if such a group of masters managed to bypass the circle of monsters, then they were going to face a dead end. Sloth didn''t bring too many masters with him, but they were enough to bring forth tons of destruction, stall and interrupt the ongoing process ofying down the formation.

    If that happened, then everything the dark masters worked for would be gone! They realised how serious this situation was, and instantly reacted to such a threat.

    "What''s going on?!" William wasn''t able to see further than a few kilometres away from him, and yet he could see lots of monsters moving away, rapidly clearing a path away from him.

    He didn''t know what was going on, and all he thought about was for him to walk into a trap. He didn''t get why, but this looked fishy in his eyes.

    He decided to walk slowly towards his goal and see what type of trap was waiting for him at the end.

    He never thought that monsters were all marching away from him by the strict and urgent orders from the dark masters watching. And on the other side of this, the team led by Sloth couldn''t help but pause in their tracks, feeling puzzled about the sudden and grand changes that happened in the entire area.

    "This is our chance to help him," Sloth was the fastest to grasp such an idea, "I don''t know what went in the heads of those bastards, but it''s great! Let''s fight these monsters and drag them slowly away from William."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Let''s do it then!"

    "I''m feeling bored and want to warm up a little."

    "Let''s show the youngster how veterans fight!"

    Just as Sloth said in his piece, everyone agreed on such an idea. They didn''t believe there was any monster which could threaten their lives. And they were right in their confidence.

    If every one of them was here alone, then things would have been different. But there were hundreds of such high-end masters right now, and together they could crush anything and anyone.

    Just as they started to act, they released torrents of deadly explosions enough to be heard and noticed from far away. William was moving slowly and with caution when he heard such loud rumblinging from a certain spot at the horizon.

    "This¡­ Oh, so he came!" his eyes shone brightly when he realised what was going on. Everything now made perfect sense, and he guessed what happened.

    Yet he thought that Sloth came here alone, and to the dark master''s leaders, he was a highly valued target more than him. He didn''t mind such misconception and started to pick up pace forward.

    He knew there wasn''t a trap or anything, but Sloth appeared to help in such a critical moment. He was far from the group led by Sloth, so the sounds of their devastating battles reached him weak and low, making him mistake this was the work of a single master.

    He didn''t waste a single second anymore, even started to run and evade monsters instead of fighting them. He started to madly advance forward, crossing lots of distance in a short time.

    He knew Sloth alone wouldn''t be able to hold such an endless swarm of monsters alone for too long. And once he retreated, things would change for the worse.

    He didn''t know there were enough masters to hold monsters away from him for days. And when he started to crazily run forward, he attracted the attention of both his allies and enemies.

    The enemies didn''t care about such a small fly. They knew even if this gold master managed to reach the inner zones of the ck Holes, they would be able to easily wipe him out. So they ignored what William was doing and focused mainly over the scary force of masters fighting monsters right now.

    Sloth did bring deadly masters with him. They didn''t fight together before, but each one of them held tons of fighting experience. It didn''t take long for them to recognise each other''s techniques, strong, and weak traits. And in a few hours, they started to work like a coherent force should be, as if they were together for long years.

    That made the task of monsters quite hard, pretty much impossible actually to stop them. The dark masters had to call for all the big shots in the monster army they gathered to halt the advance of these masters.

 Chapter 879 A Brave Youngster!

    ?

    The masters led by Sloth saw William advancing like a sh, and he''d be soon away from their spirit sense coverage range. They didn''t want the enemy to send a detachment to stop William once he distanced himself from them far enough.

    Not to mention they all wanted to know what William was trying to do here. ording to Sloth, he wanted to make a formation inside the ck Holes area, one that would help the other one built outside the zone.

    They knew about the formation William told them to make, but they felt like the one he was going to build inside that zone was quite different. And so they started to pick up pace as well, crushing any monster they faced.

    At first, they advanced smoothly, even getting closer to William. But after ten hours, more scary monsters appeared, and they had to exert their full attention and power to kill them.

    This negatively impacted their speed, making William widen the distance again. Thetter didn''t care about anything else but to reach his destination fast, the sooner the better.

    He didn''t even pause for a single second to catch his breath and used his elixirs like mad. His body shed all the time, passing through the monsters he met. Even if they didn''te here for him, if they spotted a chance, they''d take this human down before continuing marching towards the scary master group.

    So he was totally focused on evading all monsters, not ending up standing in front of any in between his dashes. As for his two monstrous and flying weapons, he recalled them back for now to save his focus and spirit power.

    The distance between him and the inner area of the ck Hole zone would take five days to cross if he had to fight his way through. But now he just crossed it in almost one day!

    "Finally, I''m here!" he stopped the moment he went past the endless monsteryer. Inside, there wasn''t a single monster there, only lots of dark masters working.

    They were digging the ground just like how the scout team described, cing tons of monster pieces and organs in every hole, before closing it up with a specialyer of mud.

    William knew this wasn''t normal mud but something that was made of special powder of highly spirit power conductive ores, soaked with the blood of monsters. The working dark masters extended to cover the horizon, seemingly an army in William''s eyes.

    But he didn''t care about them. He knew whoever got to work here wasn''t strong to begin with, was someone who could be sacrificed and thrown away in the eyes of their leaders.

    When the dark master leaders saw him arrive at such a stage, they evilly smirked. "Let''s see how he''ll deal with our men, attack and kill this fly!"

    The moment the leaders gave the order, everyone stopped what they were doing, turned to look at William as if they were looking at their sworn enemy. And truly speaking¡­ They were indeed right about that!

    "Sorry but¡­ I''ll have to borrow the holes you dug," unlike what any master would feel and act in such a situation, he evillyughed, spreading both arms as if he was weing death with clear conscience.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The next moment, a brutal fight erupted, one that started between his two deadly monstrous weapons, his flying weapons, his arrows, his grenades, and his techniques.

    On the other side, endless dark masters left what they were doing, turned into shes of dark smoke, heading with everything they got towards a single target, towards William.

    "The kid has a ball!" As the battle erupted, the group of high-end masters couldn''t help but express their admiration.

    Even a veteran would be shaken by facing such an unexpectedly huge number of enemies. Any master in William''s shoes wouldn''t react in the same speed and professionalism as he did.

    These masters knew his enemies were weaker or at most at the same grade of power as him. But that didn''t affect their impression of him at all.

    William started the fight using everything he had. He didn''t join the fight personally except at the early moments, to stop the iing crushing advance of the dark masters. After all, the early moments in any battle were the most important ones, the ones that''d determine who''d win and who''d lost.

    The dark masters might seem many in number, but they weren''t united, weren''t prepared for a fight at this moment. They kept working for long days without getting enough rest, mostly were already pretty enraged and resentful towards their superiors.

    So, when they met William, they got easily shaken by the insane might he showed. If he was using just limited range attacks, then things wouldn''t freefall towards such an abyss in such a short time!

    William used a myriad of attacks, enough to leave everyone watching him in fear and awe. He attacked those close to him, those faraway, and didn''t let anyone escape the reach of his deadly hits.

    As for those too far from him, he targeted them using his arrows and grenades. In the eyes of everyone watching this battle, William was a killing machine, unstoppable, unbeatable, and would drive despair in anyone fighting against him.

    In just half an hour, and as William was replenishing the exhausted elixirs in the two monstrous weapons, the dark masters were already retreating, with many running away with their lives.

    "Go and keep them busy," William casually gave the order, before turning to see the many holes on the ground. It was as the formidable masters led by Sloth expected before, the formation William wanted to make was different.

    He would use the sameyout the enemy did to make their formation and change few of the ingredients used. Instead of using monster organs and parts, he filled the holes with vibrant ores.

    The masters watching this from behind couldn''t help but feel their scalp numb.

 Chapter 880 Time To Go Back!

    ?

    William used tons of these ores without a single speck of hesitation. And seeing this made the dark master leaders freeze in their actions.

    They were about to send a few strong masters to take William down. Who knew thetter would turn the entire area around him into a deadly grandndmine?

    "We can''t risk our top forces to just stop one master," one of the dark leaders sighed.

    "Will we let him move freely like this?"

    "What else can we do?" a third dark master leader shrugged, "he turned the entire zone into an inescapable of death. He is willing to take down his life and take many of our strong forces with him! It''s not a profitable bargain, let him be. What can a single master do anyway?"

    They agreed on what thest dark leader said, not realising that they made the biggest mistake in their life by underestimating William like this!

    Thetter was busy modifying the holes and filling them with vibrant ores. He didn''t need to empty them from any monster parts or materials, just filled them with ores, then used the dirt he found filling the rings of the dark masters he just killed.

    "They are so generous to provide me with this special dirt," William knew this dirt was processed to get connected with the grand formation filling a huge part of the region. To change it, he simply released one droplet of his blood over, infusing part of his lightning spirit element into it as well.

    This was the simplest way to establish a connection between him and the formation he was making. And that meant he was the only person in the entire world who could control this formation here, linking the grand ones being built by either his allies or enemies.

    If the dark master leaders got wind of this, or even if they suspected something like this, their attitude towards him would have changed drastically.

    Luckily for him, such simple and basic knowledge that was known in the outer world wasn''t known here. As the dark masters decided to close an eye towards his actions, he found it much easier to proceed and do what he came here for.

    He expected much fiercer resistance, expected even for the scary monsters he once met toe aiming for his head. But after staying here for three days, he never met with any of that.

    He thought the main reason was thanks to Sloth and what he was doing back there. He was partially true, as Sloth and his gang were still pressuring the monster army with everything they had.

    In fact, they could have retreated for tens of kilometres, buying themselves lots of time and space to fight easier, releasing lots of pressure they were suffering from right now.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    But as William advanced inside the ck Holes zone, they had to keep pace and advance to watch him. They saw what he was doing and couldn''t help but wonder about the benefits of what he was doing out there.

    They didn''t have a clue, not even Sloth who they all saw as the grandmaster and the mastermind behind all this. Sloth just kept his silence, and the only thing he said was that this was a crucial step to make the two formations link together without delving into any details.

    They started to question him, doubting the news they all heard about how fiercely strong and vastly knowledgeable he was. But this wasn''t the time for them to question such a thing.

    They were attacked from all directions by fierce waves of scary monsters. They had to keep their focus all the time, raising their guard against any monster that might pose a problem. And if they found any, they''d coborate together to take it down.

    William never knew anything about this, and he even thought Sloth was doing all this alone. He was expanding his activities when he noticed how weak the enemies around were. The dark masters lost their confidence after a few hours of starting shing with him. And after a few days, they wouldn''t fight him until he''d arrive at their location and even trap them using his weapons.

    If they got the chance, they''d simply turn around and start running away. Seeing this many times made William inwardly sigh. Even if the dark masters got many advantages to their side, they werecking the belief or the cause, the thing that would put any normal master on top of their shoulders.

    "It''s enough¡­" After five days, he finally decided to make a stop. He didn''t do it because he was worried over Sloth, or being tired and exhausted, but because he noticed the grand gathering of dark masters waiting at the far end of his sight.

    He knew he delved deeper to reach one of the main spots where the dark master leaders were. He wasn''t that insane to go there and stir the ho nest himself. So he decided to stop, very satisfied by what he did so far, and started his journey back.

    He knew this journey was going to be hellish hard! He had to go through the same monster bulk that made him suffer for days! Yet he was wrong this time.

    The moment he turned around and started running back, Sloth and others couldn''t help but heave a deep sigh of relief. "Let''s give him ast helping hand¡­ Together with me!" Sloth shouted, raised his long sword in the air, before using his deadliest techniques all together.

    He wasn''t the only one to do this. Even when they got cornered and pressured by tons of scary monsters, they never used their high-end techniques.

    They agreed before on this, agreed to keep their sharpest and deadliest des sheathed till the end. They waited for William to start his journey back, to release their strongest attacks all together, ending up with creating a ruckus that wouldn''t get ignored by their enemies.

 Chapter 881 We Need A Mountain!

    ?

    They were partially right! The moment they used such techniques, the dark master leaders panicked and felt great threats. It wasn''t because many of the scary monsters had gotten killed or wounded during just this wave of attack, but because this attack came at the same time as William''s retreat.

    All of sudden, everything they thought so far was wrong. These masters didn''te here to infiltrate the zone, but to send that gold master to do these weird things. And now they were going all out to help him escape.

    Yet when they thought about their options and put aside sending any of them out there to stop William or the other masters, they realised they had nothing to do to stop anyone!

    The high-end monsters were already fighting against Sloth and his team for many days now. They were close to the edge of the ck Holes zone, but that wasn''t considered an advantage at all.

    If they tried to send a few to kill William, they''d get stopped by the terrifying masters. They only got normal monsters to send out there, and frankly they held zero confidence in their sess.

    Their doubts turned out to be right! When William met with the weak monsters, he didn''t hold himself back anymore, used everything in his power, and started a massacre out there.

    He might be surrounded, but he was totally safe. There wasn''t a single monster that could threaten him, with the strongest out there being just at early-stage dark gold grade.

    William let his weapons take care of the weak monsters, while he stacked his attacks, waiting for any strong and challenging foe to appear. Once he spotted any, he''d simply dash towards it, release his attack, killing that monster in just one blow!

    After a few hours of this, the dark master leaders knew they wouldn''t stop either William or other masters. They tried to move the fastest high-end monsters towards William''s direction, but Sloth and others were attentive to such a point.

    The moment a single monster would distance itself away, few masters would detach from the group, take it down, beforeing back. And if they met with strong resistance, they''d seed in stopping these monsters, enough for others to catch up and take care of them.

    No matter how the dark masters tried, they failed. "Shall we go out and take care of them?" one of them asked, but others shook their heads or looked at him in doubt.

    They held a scary amount of power, but just like how Wiliam guessed before, they were all cowards.

    "We have the holes he dug before," one of them suddenly said, with eyes gleaming with excitement, "we can go there and ruin whatever he did!"

    "No, we won''t go," another rejected the idea, partially, out of fear, "who knows what these troublesome masters are scheming! Not to mention there are tons of these deadly ores in these holes."

    "Let''s send the weak and useless ones then," a third suggested, "even if they died, they won''t be a loss to us. And if they have any hidden trapid there, we''ll sniff it from faraway."

    They thought it was easy to do this, but William already thought about such a possibility before leaving. That was why he surrounded the entire area with holes that weren''t filled with vibrant ores alone, but with grenades as well!

    These dark leaders would realise how bad the situation over there was when they early batch of their forces would touch these mines. Seeing the deadly explosions taking away lots of the dark masters made these leader''s eye corners twitch.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They knew they could have survived such an attack, but they''d also get slight damage in return. And they wouldn''t put their lives at risk. As their earlier doubts proved right, they removed any speck of idea about going there and ruined that formation.

    "What can the vibrant ores do anyway? Our formation is grand and strong!"

    "And it came from the outer world on top of that!"

    "We are safe, nothing will happen¡­"

    Even if they kept praying like this, they were going to get the shock of their lives when William would activate this formation.

    "You are insane! Do you know that?!!"

    After long hours, William finally met with Sloth and others. When they got close enough to detect them using his spirit sense, he was totally shocked. It never crossed his mind that there were such many masters, high end ones on top of that,ing here to help him.

    But when he realised this, he knew everything made perfect sense. That exined how they survived for all this long in the middle of the monster army without getting crushed.

    And he was truly appreciating everything they did for him. He didn''t know any of them, only saw them speak and interact with Sloth from far when the army was formed.

    "It was something necessary," William shrugged, before cupping his hands and expressing his gratitude for the masters who came to his aid.

    "When are you going to show us the results of all this?" one of these masters asked, expressing everyone''s curiosity about the effect of these holes filled with vibrant ores on the course of the entire war.

    "Are others ready yet?" William was also eager to activate the formation, not to see its effect, but to exert revenge on these monsters and dark masters standing behind them.

    But without the readiness of the other formation, the one Sloth''s team was doing right now, then everything would be pointless.

    "They are done a couple of days ago," Sloth sized William up and down, "you are really something! You went all the way there, fought alone for many days, and came back without a single scratch over your body!"

    "I got my healing elixirs," William took one bottle out, "now let''s go. We need to find a ce high enough to use."

    "Use for what?" Everyone was looking at William the same way they looked before at Sloth.

 Chapter 882 Army Of Monsters

    ?

    "To activate the beacon!" William rolled his eyes as if this was something easy to guess on their own.

    "Who knows the area here?" Sloth didn''t want to waste more time on looking for something like this.

    "There is a huge series of mountains not too far from here," one master pointed towards a direction, one that was opposite to the one they came originally from, "but¡­"

    "It doesn''t need to be on the same line with the two formations," William knew what this master had in mind, "let''s go. And send a word back, let everyone stand on the formation as I instructed them before."

    William suddenly turned to be the leader instead of Sloth, and even Sloth didn''t have any say about that. They all followed his words, and the group started to run fast towards that mountain.

    The distance was thirty kilometres from their current spot, and they crossed it in just two hours. William managed to cross it this fast thanks to their help, and when he saw that series of mountains, he knew he found the right spot indeed.

    "Good suggestion," he raised a thumb towards the master who suggested this, "now you need to go back, bring the army here."

    "This¡­" What he said invoked surprise and doubt in everyone standing here. But when he slowly exined it, they got his point.

    He first spoke about how safe it was right here. He wasn''t that weak as they could tell, and monsters wouldn''t venture outside the ck Holes zone to just attack him.

    As for them, they needed to go back and bring the army here. The formation was ready, and he needed the army to be present when the formation would work. And he wanted Sloth''s army to be present here first, earlier than everyone else, so they''d reap all the fame and sess from this war.

    They started to move, all except for Sloth. Thetter decided to remain behind, stay hidden and watch William''s back and actions. He was both worried and curious about what this youngster wanted to do. As for others, they also wanted to see what William was going to do, and only left after getting a promise from Sloth to record everything he''d do.

    William didn''t know that he was being watched, but he guessed that from his past experience with Sloth. Thetter would say something and do totally the opposite. But that didn''t matter to him.

    "At least I have an old man looking after these monsters," William wasn''t that confident the dark master leaders wouldn''t send monsters to take him down. And he was right!

    His actions were all perceived by the dark master leaders. They ruled the entire region for endless years and had established ways to oversee anything happening around even if it exceeded the reach of their spirit sense.

    So, the moment they saw William stand alone, and everyone else was moving away, they decided it was the right moment to take down this annoying bug.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They got fed up with failure and decided to send arge army of monsters led by a hundred high end grade ones.

    Even Sloth would fall under the might of these monsters. As the army of monsters started to run like mad towards William, thetter was climbing the mountain, heading to its top.

    The higher he climbed, the colder it became. He had to use his healing and spirit power regeneration potions from time to time, keeping himself safe and warm.

    The mountain peak he selected rose up for at least five thousand kilometres, considered the highest peak in the entire mountainous series standing in front of him. The terrain was rough, and he slipped more than once, especially when he got closer to the top.

    Yet that didn''t stop him. He kept using his weapons to tten the hard area, making it much easier to climb. As for the annoying and slippery ice, he had to use his fire techniques from time to time, melting them down and paving the way to the very top.

    When he arrived there, he took around two hours of constant climbing. Just standing there, where clouds were just in the reach of his hands, felt truly amazing.

    But he didn''t have enough time to admire the scenery around. When he was close to the peak, he spotted something grand, something ck, somethinging towards him at a fixed high speed.

    And this came from the direction of the ck Holes zone. "So they sent their monsters after all," he stood over a wide teau at the peak and saw the monsters drawing closer. They weren''t more than an hour away from the mountainous region, and that told him they weren''t all high-grade monsters.

    He couldn''t use his spirit sense to detect these monsters clearly, but Sloth could. Two hours ago, thetter spotted the monsters, saw everything clearly, and knew he was unable to stop them alone.

    "Sorry kid, but you can''t me me for this," he hurriedly contacted the retreating master group, asking them to divide themselves into two parts. One would go back and get the army back, while the other woulde back and help him in stopping these monsters.

    These high-end masters were moving much faster than monsters, but that didn''t help them this time. The time they spent to cross therge distance made them too far from Sloth''s and William''s location. And they''d need more than two hours toe back.

    "Tsk! I''ll try to dy them then," Sloth was about to move when he felt something trembling,ing from the direction of the sky.

    When he shifted his spirit sense towards the source, he was surprised to see William detonating the mountain using his arrows and grenades.

    He just did this for a dozen times then stopped. "Is he trying to send me a message or something? Does he know I''m here?!" Sloth was surprised by this, yet this was indeed the case.

 Chapter 883 Forging The Heart

    William guessed that Sloth was standing somewhere in the shadows, watching over him. He also guessed what Sloth would think about, and so he decided to signal Sloth using this method.

    The message was simple, let theme! I can handle them! William wasn''t acting overconfident or way over his head or something, but he got what it took him to release such ims.

    He got the mountain on his side, and he was the one securing the highest vantage point here. He had his arrows and grenades, explosives that could tear downrge chunks of rocks, letting them freefall from such heights,nding fiercely and mercilessly over the heads of these monsters.

    This was clear when the effect of what William released just now appeared in Sloth''s spirit sense. Thetter looked at therge number of rocks covered up with thickyers of snow, falling all the way from the top of the mountain down to the ground.

    The moment they fell down, a great impact was the result. Sloth knew even if he was standing down there, he''d not emerge unscathed from such a brutal attack. And if William went all out, the same way he did when he was running away before, then things would turn very ugly to the iing monster army.

    William knew if there was any flying monster here, then things would have been much different. He''d not be able to stand up there, calmly overwatching the iing grand monster army without feeling a single thread of worry.

    As he sent such a message to Sloth, he hoped thetter would get it and trust him on this. Then he started to take lots of materials out, an oven, and his hammer.

    "It''s time to forge the heart of the beacon," the theory behind his method was to use one formation to counter another. To do so, he needed a medium to connect the two hostile formations together, and that was the use of the formation heid before at the ck Holes zone. And all he missed now was the axis that''d control everything, the beacon.

    The beacon would be considered the heart of all this, the mastermind that''d allow William to control the formations he and othersid. To do it, he needed strong materials to forget together, materials that could absorb and hold an insane amount of spirit power inside without getting ruined.

    On top of that, these materials would be handyter on. When this would all be over, he''d have materials forged together, infused with high concentration of spirit power, enabling him to absorb it smoothly to raise his power.

    He knew this might be enough to level up his grade to the high-end stage of the gold grade. Hecked a few thousand points, and if he gained them before absorbing the spirit power in these materials, then he''d be able to enter the dark gold realm at the end.

    He started to work enthusiastically over the materials, melting ores and mixing them with other herbs and nts. Then he hammered the mixture to cleanse it, before making out a special mould, one that was in the shape of arge heart.

    It was twenty metres in length and width, two metres in thickness. It looked a bit heavy, and he hoped it''d be enough to sustain the influx of spirit powering from all these formations.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The enemy''s formation would turn the dead monster parts and organs into shadows of monsters, undead shadows which could take down the lives of anyone without dying or suffering harm.

    On the other hand, the formation he entrusted Sloth''s vanguard team to make was going to target the monster organs buried in the holes, destroy them till they''d truly perish and vanish in thin air. The formation heid in the ck Holes zone would act as a medium to do so. And that meant there would be one problem left, the problem of the spirit power gathered by all these formations.

    The monster shadows would be gone after the destruction of the monster organs and parts, yet the spirit power used to summon them would remain. If such spirit power shed with the oneing from the two other formations, then things would grow a bit messy.

    His beacon would act as a regtor, would absorb such excess spirit power from all formations, tame and store it into the heart he was shaping right now.

    He needed a very high ce to be able to absorb spirit power from any direction. He knew this wasn''t going to just absorb spirit power from the formations, but also from the entire world.

    He trusted these materials to absorb and store no matter what amount of spirit powering. But the speed of doing this was what worried him the most.

    Absorbing such spirit power in days was different than absorbing it in mere hours or even minutes! Even if his newly forged heart was enough to store all this spirit power, he wasn''t that sure about its ability to tolerate the pressure if the spirit power gushed in torrents in a short time towards it.

    And that was why he was so delighted when he spotted the mountain series for the first time. He''d use the marvel of nature to his aid, let the entire mountainous series here to support his forged heart, be its back, support his heart and prevent it from shattering under the expected pressure.

    To do so, he was thinking about different methods. But who knew fate would send the perfect answer and deliver it to his doorstep in the hands of his enemies?

    The iing grand monster army was going to be a problem if he had to face them head on. Even if he got Sloth on his side, even if he got the help of many formidable masters running here with their fastest speed as he guessed it already, it wouldn''t be enough.

    The target this time was him, and he knew he wouldn''t be able to survive long enough if the situation was a bit different.

 Chapter 884 Let There Be Light!

    ?

    Right now, William was d they sent these monsters over. He''d reshape the entire mountain using his arrows and grenades without feeling a single speck of regret about his actions.

    He''d dig deeply into this colossal mountain''s body, make a deep hole, enough to ce the heart in the middle and get it surrounded totally with rocks.

    Like this, the heart would be part of the mountain, part of the entire mountainous series. And on top of that, he''d kill the iing monster army without even suffering a single scratch!

    This was what a perfect n would look in his eyes.

    The monster army didn''t take more than an hour to arrive. He waited and didn''t hurry to start his attack. The mountain was on his side, with all of its tough surface and irregr terrain.

    He let the monsters try to climb, struggling to level up through the hard terrain. They weren''t humans, weren''t small sized and agile. Even the agile and fast-moving ones found it hard to climb up. They had huge bodies, and they didn''t have any weapons or gears to help them climb up fast.

    So, William took his time in finalising the metallic heart, while monsters didn''t even reach halfway through the mountain. They took many hours, enough for any reinforcements Sloth would ask for would show up here.

    In fact, they arrived a couple of hours ago but didn''t proceed to attack or anything. Sloth already warned them against this, and they waited on the side till the attack of William would start.

    They wouldn''t be the main hit force this time, would justy low and wait until monsters would lose their focus and start running in the middle of the falling rocks and snow. Then they''d hunt down the strongest monsters first, before wiping the rest out.

    Doing this was the best n they came up with, the same thing that William wanted them to do actually.

    "It''s time!" As he finished making the heart, heid it down on the ground and examined it for a few minutes to make sure everything was right. It wasn''t perfectly made in his eyes, but it was passable.

    The heart came in the size of the mould he created, looked pretty heavy but it wasn''t actually like that. The secret was in the nature of materials used in forging it.

    It was crystal white in colour, with many parts that looked transparent. It gave the impression of a grand gathering of many bubbles inside it, and William knew this would all change the moment it started absorbing spirit power.

    After he checked everything, he didn''t forget to run a test and see if the heart would absorb spirit power from the world around or not. The test was a sess, even when the absorption rate was very low. After all, trying to gather spirit power from the world was something that would take a long time and lots of patience.

    William then shifted his gaze towards the mountain and monsters climbing it. They are already halfway through. Despite the hard surface, they were steadily advancing towards the peak.

    "Die!" William didn''t hesitate to take out his bow and startedunching a dense number of arrows with grenades. The peak looked as if it was raining ck droplets of water, soon turning to fierce explosions that covered most of the mountain''s lower half.

    The ground trembled and the mountain started to get shaken violently. Lots of rocks and ice began to fall, alongside torrents of fiery rocks that arched in the air, leaving behind long trails of smoke.

    The scene was something that many masters standing far away on the ground found fascinating. "This kid knows how to throw a party, hahahaha!" Sloth couldn''t help butugh out of happiness and pride. For a reason, he felt what William was doing here was rted to his kingdom. After all, William was still a citizen of the kingdom.

    The barrage of attacks keptnding over the heads of monsters for almost an hour. William never stopped what he was doing, didn''t even try to see what results his attacks brought.

    He knew even if the mountain was sturdy and strong, it wasn''t enough to stop the devastation brought by his explosive arrows and grenades.

    He kept attacking until the mountain looked like part of a living hell down below. There were rivers of fire, running amok down below, releasing thick bellows of ck smoke that rose very high in the air.

    The monster army on the surface of the mountain tried to resist the iing attacks for ten minutes. Yet when the fiery rocks started to grow intensively in number, they started to grow panicked.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Even the strong and formidable ones started to run away with their tails in their jaws after half an hour. It was impossible to stand against the force of nature falling over their heads.

    If it was just William''s arrows and grenades, then things wouldn''t have been this bad. Yet William''s attack started something, one that wasn''t any weaker than a mighty avnche.

    And it was an avnche filled with hellish fire, falling massive rocks and snow. The entire army started to disband in disarray, running everywhere, looking for safety.

    "It''s our time to shine," one of the masters said in excitement, one that everyone around him felt, "let''s show this boy how the old folks like us can fight much better than him!"

    "Well said!" more started to yell as they ran towards the rapidly fleeing monsters. Even if there were many strong and scary monsters out there, they didn''t pose a threat anymore thanks to William.

    They were running for their lives, trying to get as far away from the mountain and fountain of fiery death as possible. So, when the small group of masters appeared, not a single monster cared about them and kept running.

    Few managed to escape, with bodies filled with scars and wounds. The attack that William started didn''t just stop at the mountain base but extended to cover kilometres away thanks to the falling rocks.

    William watched all this from his high point, without feeling anything at all. He expected such a result and knew Sloth and masters he asked for their help down there wouldn''t let this chance slip by.

    After one hour, he stopped what he was doing, turned to look at the burning and destroyed mountain. "I hope a suitable hole appears down there," he wasn''t crazy to go down there and inspect things on his own.

    As for waiting for the fire to die down, it''d take long days to do so. He didn''t hesitate and grabbed the light heart, before throwing it like it was nothing of value off the top of the mountain.

    He threw it towards the burning body of the mountain, watched it vanish in the middle of the thick clouds of smoke and the zing fire. He didn''t look down there for too long, and hoped fate and luck would be on his side.

    "It''s time to start our counterattack," as he finished doing all this, he took Sloth''s scroll out and spoke directly to it.

    A faded shadow appeared after a few minutes, with a vague silhouette of Sloth. He nodded before saying: "The army is ready, they are close by. And the team managing the formation is also ready."

    "Let the army proceed forward," William paused, "I will start activating my formation in ten minutes. Let the team back there stand in the allocated positions I marked before and wait for the ground to shine bright red before releasing their spirit power."

    "They know what to do, how are you going to get down?" Sloth was worried over William. And he got the right to feel so. The mountain wasn''t now a ce that anyone or anything could traverse. And the fire out there would take long days to cool off.

    "I won''t go down right now, there is no need for me to do so," William shrugged, "I''m leaving the issue of crushing the army of monsters and dark masters up to you and the army."

    "Ok," Sloth wanted to argue with him, but as hecked any idea about how to solve this, he remained silent.

    William didn''t really need to go down at any time soon. He had to stay up there and control the formation at the ck Holes, keep managing things from his spot. The battle wouldst for longer than a week in his best estimates, and so there wasn''t a need for him to go anywhere right now.

    As he finished speaking with Sloth, he started to take many materials out, letting his two monstrous weapons dig a few holes for him. When he finished, a grand gathering of eleven stars, each was formed of five heads, appeared on the ground.

    The holes marked the heads of these stars, and he stood in the middle, surrounded with lots of elixirs. There were few of the spirit regeneration elixirs, but too much of healing elixirs.

    "Let''s hope I''ll survive this," he took a deep breath when ten minutes passed, closed his eyes, before slowly muttering: "let there be light!"

 Chapter 885 A Race Between Armies

    ?

    The entire thing might be depending on the heart William made and the mountain backing it up, however there was something else that was needed; a controller!

    The controller would be governing over everything happening between all these formations. As the heart was going to suffer from hellish pressure, the controller was going to suffer the same.

    William knew this, and that was why he took out tons of healing elixirs, much more than spirit regeneration elixirs.

    The first few minutes would require him to spend tons of his spirit power, butter on he wouldn''tck any spirit power anymore. In fact, his suffering would start when he''d face immense spirit power, one that he wouldn''t be able to handle.

    His body would suffer lots of damage, and he would spend lots of time healing and repairing his body than controlling the formations.

    As he said the magical words, the entire world around suddenly changed. The first thing to happen was for the air to change colour, turning all white, as if thick mist was invading and prevailing over the entire region.

    This wasn''t a simple mist, but spirit power. And William knew this was just the beginning. As the mist kept getting denser fast, he felt like his senses expanded.

    He first felt like he could see everything happening in the mountain. He didn''t now see the smoke and fire, nor the explosive falling rocks and devastation around. He could see the mountain itself, littered with many holes, with many pieces already missing.

    There were many holes that ran deep into it, one of which got the heart he threw earlier. He couldn''t only see the mountain, but also feel it!

    "Sorry about that, but this is something I needed to do to stop the evil in this world," William could feel how terribly bad the mountain was feeling, and couldn''t help but say these words to express himself to it.

    It might have felt weird, yet it was something he got the inspiration to do. And when he said these words, it was like someone patted on the head of a crying baby, one who lost his mother, reassuring him that everything would be fine.

    The bitterness and sadness he felt from the mountain greatly decreased. "Good boy," he muttered, before turning his attention towards the heart.

    It wasying down there without showing any sign of reaction or response to what was happening around. William didn''t get worried about this, as he still didn''t connect to the other big formations far away.

    In the next few minutes, he felt more pressure over him while his senses expanded massively. It was as if someone flipped a switch, and he could now see for a long distance, tens, even hundreds of kilometres away!

    He saw his friends, team, and Sloth''s men, closing their eyes, releasing their spirit power to activate the formation.

    The ground under their feet was shining bright with different colours, mainly white and golden. Before he''d take his time to inspect this area, another switch was flipped, and he started to see new ces.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    His senses covered a huge area, one that stretched out for hundreds of kilometres or even thousands. He didn''t need to closely inspect the new area as he knew it was the ck Holes, the areas that were filled with the grand deadly formation made out by the dark masters.

    "They did work hard indeed," he muttered to himself, knowing that the scale of the hostile formation was much bigger than what he initially expected.

    But that wasn''t going to change anything. "Time to kill the shadows!"

    The moment he intended to do so, he felt like spirit power was getting sucked dry from his body. It happened fast, but he was ready for this.

    He activated his spirit body, then started using his tails to bring elixirs from the ground, emptying their content in his mouth.

    His spirit power was now big enough to not show the previous remarkable effects of these elixirs. So he had to use lots of them. As spirit power gushed into his body, he felt a little better, but still feeling the pressure.

    "Tsk! The increasing size of that damn formation than what I expected is going to cost me a lot," as he finished thest elixir he took before, it didn''t look as if it was enough. This was thanks to his little mistake in predicting the sheer size of the hostile formation. And so he took more elixirs out without even caring to count how much he took out, gulped them fast.

    He kept doing this for almost two hours. During which, the army led by Sloth started to get closer fast from the ck Hole area. Sloth and other formidable masters gave the order, strictly ordering everyone to pick up pace.

    They even said to not look for anyone slowing them down. As a result, the united army was now running in different groups, eachpromised from masters in the same grade of strength.

    It was a very weird sight for masters in other armies. Using their spirit sense, they could see everything happening as if they were flying at high altitude. And the weird march of Sloth''s army didn''t make any sense, only giving them a single conclusion.

    Sloth found a way to crack through the deadly defences at the ck Holes, and he was aiming to reap all the glory for himself!

    They guessed it right. Even if they didn''t know how he did it, or what loophole or a solution Sloth found to bypass the tight defences out there, they knew they''d miss it big if they didn''t push forward.

    And soon enough, it wasn''t weird to spot the same weird scene happening all across the other armies. After a few hours, anyone seeing the entire region from high above would see these masters, running fast, as if they were racing each other, as if they were fearing to miss a date.

    Yet these armies moved just one hourter than Sloth''s, and they needed more time to let their masters get what they should do, and why they were doing it.

 Chapter 886 Activating The Heart

    ?

    In the end, a big gap was created between them and Sloth''s army. In their eyes, such a gap wasn''t a problem as it''d take a few hours for their masters to cross. But they missed something crucial here.

    Sloth''s army was going to dominate and rock the entire ck Hole area thanks to William''s n. So Sloth and others weren''t worried or even irritated by this. In their eyes, the iing armies would find nothing at all to do except for dead bodies of dark masters and liberated zones.

    As things were getting to such a point between the colossal master armies, William finally consumed enough spirit power to activate the heart.

    The moment the heart got activated, the insane pressure he was suffering vanished. It happened in mere seconds, and then he got the chance to finally check what was going on here and everywhere around.

    The heart that never showed a single sign or response before changed, started to shine brighter with white light. It appeared as if the mist was building up inside it, and William knew this was going to be the start.

    "Oh, they are racing up to arrive there," as he got time before the next step of the n would get into motion, he took a wide look over the world out there.

    He saw what was happening in the marching armies here. They were all racing up to catch Sloth''s army. And seeing such a scene made himugh. "They think they''ll get a chance in this? I won''t give them any, hahahaha!"

    He aimed to secure the glory of this battle for himself and his guild branch here. Even if they kept running like mad, they wouldn''t get any chance to do anything worthy of note in this war.

    He then turned his attention towards Sloth''s army. They were running like hell as well, even consuming spirit power potions and elixirs to keep their spirit power at max level. They were around two hours away from the ck Holes, enough time for the heart to show its worth and destroy any shadow in the ck Holes.

    Then he turned towards the ck Holes zone, quickly checking everything there. The dark master leaders already spotted what wasing towards them. And as they got total trust in their formation to handle everything, they started to evacuate their dark masters, moving them far behind the frontline.

    Seeing this made William evilly grin. They weren''t evacuating fast, not fast enough to keep the gap between them and the iing masters fixed. They seemed to grow interested in watching the expected massacre happening in the ranks of the normal masters, with many deciding to stand behind.

    Those who were blinded by greed wanted to stay behind and fish the loot from the dead bodies of the normal masters. As dark masters were filled with endless scum and dirty natured people, the number of them standing behind was enough to make an entire army of them.

    William was positive that what was going on here was perceived totally by Sloth and the high end masters on his side. So he didn''t bother to warn Sloth, and returned to examine the heart.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The white colour was now gone, reced by bright silver light. William knew once the colour reached faint gold, he could activate everything. That would happen in an hour or so. And that meant there would be one hour left for the dark masters to adapt and make countermeasures to the new changes.

    "That will be bad," he knew giving the enemy time to prepare himself was a big mistake, "I''ll warn Sloth of the timing, make him and others be prepared for it."

    As he spoke with Sloth next, thetter didn''t argue at all orin like how William expected. When he asked, Sloth exined that the early batches that''d arrive there were formed entirely of the highest and strongest masters in his army.

    He didn''t think they would find any trouble dealing with the shadows until the formation would take full effect. Sloth agreed with William about the need to activate the formation at thest moment, to not early warn the enemy about their n.

    As William got one extra hour before activating everything, he added more healing potion to the ground around him. He was now standing in the middle of many heaps of elixir bottles, forming a weird scene around him.

    After doing this, he started to focus more on the ck Holes area. He used the advantage of enhanced spirit sense and covered up many holes, further inspecting them.

    ording to Karoline, he got to know that each ck Hole was covering up a portal leading to ces outside this world.

    Each ck hole was like a massive ck dome, covering an area of tens of kilometres. He couldn''t see through these balls, and didn''t know whaty within. But from his talk with Karoline before, he knew there were lots of dangers inside, and also entrapped people and monsters.

    Not seeing through the ck holes didn''t startle or worry him, but he kept doing this out of boredom. Sloth''s army frontal units were drawing fast, heading closer to the ck Holes region with their highest speed. But they still took two hours to get there. And once they were less than ten minutes away, he started to activate the heart.

    The heart was now shining in a slightly bright golden colour. That meant it went to a much higher stage than he intended to. "It will need a bit more of my spirit power to kick its start," he muttered to himself, taking out five elixirs before activating the heart.

    As he guessed, the moment he activated the heart, a weird suction force appeared. It enveloped him, making him feel dried out of spirit power again. But with the help of the five elixirs, he managed to live through it.

    And then a loud rumble came from the direction of the heart, followed by grand changes all over the world.

 Chapter 887 Crushing Dark Masters

    ?

    The mountain started to tremble, with the ground shaking and other peaks vibrating in response to the activation.

    The heart once activated released a bright ray of golden light, one that rose for hundreds of metres off the mountain, forming a beacon to anyone from far.

    The ray of light didn''t stop there, and began to release wisps of power. They were all golden in colour at first, started to change to silver, blue, green, and then white the more they elongated. At the end, they became transparent, fading into the world, making it a bit hard to see.

    William knew these were tentacles formed by the heart, the things that would start absorbing spirit power from all formations connected to it. As these tentacles elongated and vanished in thin air, he knew it was time to start hitting the hostile formation.

    As he was busy activating the heart, taking half an hour in doing so, things were growing intense at the ck Holes region. Sloth''s strong masters and early batches of high end masters entered the area, to get weed with tons of shadows.

    They were just how William described them, made of weird smoke, not suffering any injuries at all. But every time a master hit them hard enough, they''d shatter and dissipate in air, before taking a few minutes to regenerate and gather their smoke up again.

    This bought the masters venturing inside enough time, enough to wait for William''s n to seed.

    Thetter wasn''t feeling any good at the moment. As he watched the masters advance into the ck Holes zone, he didn''t hesitate to activate the heart. The tentacles appeared, and then he felt the expected immense pressure,ing from the spirit power.

    It came from the grand formations William was linking the heart with. As spirit power gushed in crazy amounts, his body couldn''t tolerate it and started to show deep wounds, on the verge of copsing.

    The pain was something unbearable, yet he endured and started to consume the healing elixirs and potions he prepared before. As the hostile formation was on a scale much bigger than what he imagined before, and it was built there for a long time, the spirit powering from there was something scary.

    Even if he was going to suffer a lot, much worse than what he expected before, he was still excited about this. The increase in the spirit power meant the heart would store much more of it, ending up helping him to raise his power faster.

    For long minutes, he kept suffering from tons of damage, experiencing rounds of massive pain, followed by the soothing effects of the elixirs and potions. And during this, things were changing at the ck Holes area.

    The moment William started to suffer the bacsh from the spirit power, the shadows that filled the ck Holes area started to show signs of weakness.

    Their speed, strength, and even their ability to regenerate were all negatively affected. The masters who were in the middle of fighting them felt the changes, and they all knew that William started to work.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Let''s spread the word," many thought about the same thing. As the formidable and high end masters were inside fighting these shadows, they stopped masters of early stage dark gold grade and weaker outside the zone.

    They experienced how hellishly strong these shadows were, and they knew these weaker masters would do nothing in front of these enemies. But as the shadows were getting weaker, and William''s n was working, they decided to let masters of gold grade and higher to join the fray.

    Things started to be better after the intervention of William and the new blood. The number of masters joining the war increased exponentially, with more standing outside the zone, waiting for their signal to march inside and join the battle.

    William wasn''t aware of any of this. He was too busy to handle the torture of the spirit power gushing from the entire world around. For an hour he suffered hellish pain, used tons of healing potions and elixirs, until the heart finally got on the right track.

    It absorbed the spirit power in copious amounts, without the need for William to act too much. "Phew! I thought I was going to die," he felt his body trembling and couldn''t help but fall on his knees and hands, leaning on the ground with body soaked in sweat.

    William healed his body, but the mental pressure he suffered was still there. Not to mention such repetitive cycles of terrifying pain followed by the cooling effects of the elixirs and potions were something no one could properly handle.

    Yet this wasn''t something that bothered him. As long as the heart was starting to effectively store the spirit power, it meant everything was going as nned.

    Hey himself there for half an hour, before finally standing up and starting to examine everything. The heart was doing fine, absorbing spirit powering towards here without the need for him to intervene at the moment.

    He knew the heart was able to suck dense amount of spirit power, but it still had a limit to how it could tolerate the absorbed spirit power. From time to time, William expected the need for him to suffer again, giving the heart enough time to digest the spirit power it absorbed.

    As for the ongoing battle, things were progressing smoothly for Sloth''s army. The shadows lost more of their power the more spirit power gushed towards here. And many of them already shattered, vanished without showing up again.

    The masters fighting inside were nowposed of the entire Sloth''s army, and they were progressing like an unstoppable flood. They crushed any shadow they met, kept advancing, and now they were shing with the dark masters hiding around.

    These dark masters thought of the great loot they''d gain by taking such risk, never imagined they''d end up getting crushed like this.

    The bloody massacre they imagined happened, but in a totally opposite way.

 Chapter 888 Winning The War

    ?

    The shadows their leaders kept singing praise about got easily shattered by the iing masters. And now they had to fight an enemy who got the upper hand, high moral, and the good reasons to win this war.

    Masters didn''te here for loot, but to exert revenge. And revenge was always one of the reasons to push anyone beyond their limits.

    William watched how these dark masters tried to run, tried to regroup and fight back, yet all was futile. The masters were unstoppable, and as they spotted their archenemies, they turned into true monsters.

    The situation was heading much better than what he initially expected. As for the racing up master armies from behind, they still needed an hour or two to arrive at the ck Holes region. Yet their high end masters could already see the amazing results Sloth''s army brought.

    The guesses and doubts they had about Sloth and his army proved to be true. And yet they weren''t feeling any sadness or bad about it. If they felt anything, then it''d be pride, excitement, and envy.

    They didn''t know how Sloth did it. They saw how these shadows weren''t kible, the best any could do was to shatter them, before they''d regenerate again.

    Fighting against such an enemy was scary though, not to mention they never saw such an enemy before. Even so, Sloth learnt what to do to counter such an enemy and crush it.

    They were all excited, and envious of Sloth. They knew after this war, the name of Sloth would rise to new heights, would be well known and heard of all over the world for a new and glorious reason.

    They wanted such glory to be for themselves, but they''d never allow for such envy to stop them from taking advantage of the opportunity Sloth presented to them.

    The ck Holes area was massive, and there were tons of dark masters and monsters out there to fight. Monsters that stood at the edge were now fighting in the heart of the zone, as the dark master leaders used everything in their possession to stop Sloth''s army''s crazy advance.

    Sloth paved the way for them, for everyone here to win this war and crush their nemesis. And so they started to spread new orders: Go! Travel as fast as you can, and join the fray even if you came there alone!

    Such orders looked very weird in the eyes of everyone, but once they arrived at the ck Holes area, they got why the leaders issued such orders before.

    This wasn''t a war, it wasn''t even an easy battle¡­ This was one sided massacre, and they were the one crushing it!

    Gradually the number of masters inside the ck Holes increased and kept flourishing, pushed against their enemies without showing any mercy towards their enemies. Be it monsters, shadows, or dark masters; all fell under their attacks.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William''s heart reached the stage which wouldn''t ept anymore spirit power. So he had to withstand the damageing from this spirit power, and luckily his torment didn''tst for a couple of minutes.

    The heart was already activated, working on full cylinders. It just needed a little bit of time to digest the spirit power inside, and then it started to madly absorb more.

    With each time it experienced this, its capacity and ability to absorb and store spirit power increased. William estimated at first for him to spend a few days here before the entire shadows and the hostile formation out there would be destroyed.

    But thanks to the massive increase in that formation''s size, and the work of the entire dark masters to expand this formation, he spent a week there without any sign of the entire formation copsing.

    The dark master leaders picked the entire situation fast, knowing they were doomed if things kept heading down this path. So they had to buy themselves a little time, ordering their dummies to work again and expand this formation.

    The iing grand master armies were able to crush anything in their path, but the shadows still proved to be handy. If they couldn''t kill them, they at least could dy their advance, buying enough time for the dark master leaders to retreat deep within the entire area, looking for a way out.

    William was sure there were portals hidden somewhere in the region, enabling these leaders to escape. This was something running in their blood, being cowards and their nature to lean towards escaping any unfavourable battle instead of fighting to change it.

    So it was widely known as a fact that once you got the upper hand over these dark masters, you wouldn''t face a challenge or a risk in losing it again.

    William knew they were going to win this war, but it''d take longer to do so. He didn''tin about this, after all the fire at the mountain''s body was still raging wild even after the passage of a week!

    He was entrapped here, and he''d not say no to a chance in raising the amount of stored spirit power inside the heart. Even if the dark master leaders thought they were tricking the masters by what their minions were doing, William was going to be the big winner in the end from all this.

    At some point, his team and friends weren''t needed to remain behind anymore. The formation they were activating got enough spirit power to run on its own. And so he asked Sloth to bring them in, and asked him to deliver them a simple message: Do like always!

    Sloth didn''t get his point at first, but soon enough he realised what William meant. The moment his friends and team appeared in the war and they started to act like how proper scavengers were!

    They looted rings and gears from the dead dark masters, grabbed any monster and cut it open, and collected all the materials they could find. They didn''t even hesitate to collect loot from the dead masters on their side.

 Chapter 889 Collecting The Heart

    ?

    William never hesitated or felt any embarrassment towards doing this even to his allied masters. And he seemed to have taught them quite well.

    Seeing what they were doing, not fighting but collecting loot, made many masters feel terrible about this team. And even if they red at them with burning eyes of rage and me, the ck Tails team never stopped for a single second in what they were doing.

    William knew this might add a little undelighted infamy to his guild, but he didn''t care. There wasn''t something perfect in this world. And being practical and careful to collect loot wasn''t a crime.

    These things would be put to better useter, be part of the foundation he''d leave behind for his guild branch here.

    The masters gradually got used to how William''s team worked, and slowly they chose to ignore such shameful actions. Time passed fast, and another week ended.

    During which, the fire over the mountain died down, but that wasn''t the case for the ongoing war. Shadows were now gone, most of the monsters got killed, and yet things never cooled down. If anything, then it was heading towards a new rise, and that was thanks to the joining of the grand dark master army to the war.

    The moment the early master ranks got out from the area filled with shadows, they found tons of dark masters waiting for them. Thetter weren''t standing there to fight, but they were ordered to work like ves, and that was thest thing they heard from their leaders.

    When the two sides met, a brutal battle urred. The dark masters were filled with many negative traits, but they were never stupid. They knew they got ditched away by their leaders, and they were now all alone in front of the advancing master army.

    Surrender wasn''t an option. They might live for a few more days, perhaps weeks, but in the end they''d be drawn to cities and towns, and end up killed in front of many eyes.

    They would suffer even tons of torture and humition, would prefer to kill themselves than sumbing to such fate. So they didn''t even think about surrendering. And with running away became impossible, they had no other choice but to fight.

    They were never brave, not the kind to muster up their courage and fight for their lives. Theycked leadership, lost all the high morals that brimmed violently before in their spirits. They were like crushed weeds, standing hopelessly and powerlessly in front of a massive tornado.

    The situation was simr to how masters experienced it against shadows and monsters before. Still there were few who managed to rally lots of dark masters around, gave them orders and ns to put on ast good fight, before turning tail and ran for their lives.

    Betrayal was running in their veins like blood. And William and other masters watching all this using their spirit senses never found it weird at all.

    William was now freed from his obligation towards the heart. Thetter already absorbed all the spirit power from the formations connected to it, ending up smashing all the shadows, the entire hostile formation, and other two formations as well.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William simply felt like a great burden was removed off his shoulders when the formations shattered. He took a deep breath,y his body on the ground, closed his eyes, and took a nap.

    He deserved to rest, but he''d never let his precious gem be stolen by anyone. He sent his two monstrous weapons to guard it, while he kept sleeping like a baby.

    If he got a single speck of power, he''d prefer to go down there and collect the heart, then sleep down there. He slept for long hours, a day and half actually. And as he expected, no one riskeding up the damaged mountain to steal the heart.

    First of all, no one ever knew about the heart''s value. Even if formidable masters would see something of value in it, they wouldn''t risk leaving the battle ande all the way here to grab it from him.

    As for monsters, there were none in the radius of hundreds of kilometres around. So he slept in peace, without any interruption.

    "I can''t see anything anymore," once he woke up, he ate a dried up meal, then went to check on the current situation of war. He couldn''t see a thing, as the entire formation wasn''t working at the moment.

    This was expected, as the heart already finished absorbing spirit power and other formations were destroyed. Hemented hisck of enough spirit power to spread out his spirit sense, and headed down towards the heart.

    He found it lying there calmly, with his two monstrous weapons standing on watch. As they didn''t use a single technique or enter a fight, they didn''t consume much of their spirit power and elixirs.

    "It''s the most precious gain in the entire adventure here," William held the heart to feel how heavy it became. Even with all his might, he could hardly move it an inch off the ground. He touched and felt how hot it was, an indication of the immense spirit power stored within, alongside the bright golden colour with tinge redness and ckness in it.

    William took out an empty ring and stored the heart inside. His business here was over, and hecked any interest to join the ongoing war.

    "I recall there were tons of high end monsters down there, all got killed by fire, snow, and rocks¡­" his eyes shone brightly when he recalled this, turning to look at the ground in a greedy way.

    Even if he''d not get that much of spirit power from these cores, he''d still have a chance to raise his spirit power a little. As such he went down there, collected the cores and other materials, and devoured anything he got.

    Hecked two thousand points to reach dark gold grade. And after iming everything, he ended up with gaining slightly more than three hundred points.

 Chapter 890 Meeting With His Friends

    ?

    "Better than nothing," he spent a couple of days doing so, as most of the monsters were either buried under heavy rocks, or were thrown far away from here.

    As he was the one to cause the falling rocks and that disaster back then, he was able to devour these cores. And yet he found many that he couldn''t, guessing that these were the ones killed by Sloth and other masters when they were here.

    "I should head to check one ck hole then," William had nothing else to do. The masters were having a great time exerting their revenge, and so it was time for him to check his ticket back to his world.

    He didn''t intend to go back right away, not before he''d make sure the glory of this grand and epic victory would be appointed to his guild.

    He first spoke with Sloth. He asked about the current status of the war, and told him about his intentions.

    Sloth didn''t belong to this world, and he was determined toe back with him. There were also the masters from this world who were going to join him.

    He entrusted Sloth to inform everyoneing with him about his intentions. He''d go and scout the way first, and then he''de back to take them away.

    He decided to take Karoline with him, but he didn''t have any Bullet to contact her with. So he asked Sloth to let her wait for him at the ce where he made the formation at the ck Holes region from earlier.

    As he arrived there, he found Karoline, and also three friends with her. There were Ibra, Sara, and Berry waiting for him.

    "Why did youe?" William was surprised by their presence.

    "We have nothing else to do."

    "I was worried about you!"

    "You let us join the war when it''s over! It''s quite boring, tsk!"

    William got different responses from the three, as for Karoline, she justughed and said she enjoyed their presence and invited them toe with her.

    "Fine, but the ce we are heading towards is pretty dangerous," William paused, and before he''d stress over this again, Ibra shrugged as he pointed his ive to Karoline and said:

    "Don''t bother, she already exined everything in great detail."

    "I bet," William rolled his eyes, didn''t have anyints about this. Karoline was known for her love to talk about everything in great detail. And luckily she exined this issue to people close to him, "let''s go. We''ll just scout and return back to wait for others to be ready."

    "Why do I smell trouble then?" Sara chuckled, and herment made Ibra and Berryugh.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "This is our boss, he is a ma to trouble, tsk!" Ibra said it as if he was regretting being on William''s side or something.

    "Don''t jinx us with your foul mouth," Williamughed, not taking what his friend said seriously or anything.

    The small team of five moved towards the nearest ck hole. Each hole was gigantic in size. They couldn''t see anything through, and as they got closer, they started to feel the surge of gravity changing.

    At some point, they could feel as if someone was dragging them inside, and at another they felt such force vanish to be reced with normal gravity.

    They gradually got used to this, especially others than William who spent lots of time fighting and traversing the entire zone. "Are you sure any hole can take us home?" as they approached one, Sara couldn''t help but ask.

    Berry was now walking literally in William''s embrace, with her head over one shoulder. This wasn''t the only weird thing here, as she did so when Karoline moved and leant her head against William''s chest.

    William knew, like others, how na?ve and pure Karoline was. But she was still a fiery youngdy, one that would arouse the fire of jealousy in any girl close to William.

    "I told you, all of these portals are like white sheets or paper," William looked at Karoline and Berry, feeling more unsettled with such a situation he found himself in, "let''s just get inside and then find a way towards the portal hidden in there."

    All the knowledge he got came from Karoline, and yet thetter seemed to enjoy being in his embrace, enjoying the warmth of his body, and didn''t care or bother to answer any question at all.

    "Get ready, we are going in!" Just as they became less than two hundred metres away from the ck hole, William felt the sudden increase in the gravity attracting them inside, "if we got separated, don''t panic. I''m going to find you right away."

    *Fwoosh!*

    Before anyone would say anything, the gravity force pulled them all inside, ending up for them to hear and see nothing but howling wind.

    They speeded up, ending at a ce that was massive in size. It took them a few minutes to cross the distance that''d take them hours to cross. The moment theynded there, they felt like every single cell in their body ached, as if they got beaten up with a gang of formidable masters.

    "I never recall it was this bad before, ouch!" Karoline tried to stand up, ending up moaning in pain andnding again on the ground. She wasn''t the only one feeling this terrible, everyone else was. But she was the only impatient one to try and stand up, ending in such a miserable state that invoked everyone''sughter.

    And when theyughed, they felt immense pain that made Karolineugh on them. The pain didn''t go away when they used healing potions, or even elixirs.

    "It''s a direct blow to our spirit power," William recognised the core of the problem, "we need to train and rest for a day or so before we can move again."

    "Tsk! You should have warned us against this, what a lousy boss we have!" Ibra shook his head, feeling pain assaulting him as if he just pricked his neck with needles.

 Chapter 891 Dont Shout!

    ?

    "Stop speaking nonsense and start training¡­"

    "B¡­ But¡­" Karoline suddenly spoke up, as everyone already took the stance of training with utmost difficulty, all but Karoline.

    "What''s wrong?" William looked up and down at her, not getting why she didn''t get the stance of training yet.

    "I don''t have any training technique¡­ I¡­" she hesitated, looked around as everyone rolled their eyes.

    During the past period of knowing each other, she never stopped speaking about how she was a monster before and turned human. Everyone took this as a craziness sign, and never took it seriously at all.

    They got the right to feel so. After all, they never heard of such a thing ever happening. Not to mention William''s previous words when he introduced her helped in deepening such an impression about her.

    Gradually she got what they were thinking about her. And even if she felt terribly bad about that, she couldn''t do anything to change this. She was telling them the truth, and they never believed her, not even once.

    "You don''t have a training technique¡­" everyone was shocked to hear that, but William wasn''t. He just missed this little detail about monsters.

    Humans were able to traverse across the grades of the spirit world thanks to different reasons, one of them was training technique.

    Monsters didn''t have training techniques, and that was why they''d take thousands of years to just cross one grade.

    "Just close your eyes and breathe slowly," even if he knew tons of training techniques, he''d notmit such a mistake and give her a random training technique on the spot.

    He needed to test her spirit power first, detect what elements she had, what type of spirit she got in her. After that, he''d select the best training technique for her.

    She wasn''t just a friend, but was someone very important to him. He''d grow her with honesty and care, to grow up and be a formidable weapon by his side when he''d meet with that damn fox.

    Others gave him weird looks. The fact that she didn''t know a training manual was surprising, but the response of William and his words left them baffled, lost for words.

    He was known for many things, but the most prominent thing was his vast knowledge and willingness to help his friends. He casually gave everyone in the team training techniques that weren''t even heard of before. And they all knew how scary and strong these techniques were.

    But now? A friend needed help and he didn''t stand to help. This was quite shocking. William noticed their shocked gazes, ignored them for now as they wouldn''t get why he did that.

    As he closed his eyes and started training, everyone also followed him. Karoline did the same, but she didn''t feel much better as everyone else after one day, needed three more days to be able to move around.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Why did this happen to me? Last time I felt nothing like this!" sheined while moving with legs distanced away from each other, walking in a weird and funny way.

    "Call it luck," Williamughed, but didn''t say or exin anything to her. Thest time she came here, she was at the pinnacle stage of this world, and wasn''t as weak as she was today.

    Not to mansion monsters were blessed with their physical bodies, not as weak as humans. She was just suffering what being a human meant. And she had to get used to this as she''d continue her life as a human.

    "Hahaha, I''m intrigued to take a recording crystal out right now, hahahaha!" Berry pointed at Karoline,ughing and venting out all the frustration built up by thetter''s naive and annoying actions with William.

    "Stop it! I''m hurt and struggling to walk and youugh!" Karoline acted like how a six years old little girl would, and that made everyone, including William,ugh again.

    "I said stop it!" she shouted, and this time they didn''tugh. It wasn''t because she was greatly annoyed, but because her shout caused something in the grand space they were walking in.

    The ce wasn''t filled with anything but bones and dried up vegetation. There wasn''t a single living thing where their eyes would reach. And all they could do was walk around, hope to find anyone or anything alive to get any clue from.

    The sky was dimly lit and filled with a weirdyer of brown dust. There wasn''t any sun, any star, or any moon at day or night.

    Yet when Karoline shouted, the brown dust gathered up at the high altitude changed. It seemed as if someone punched it using a fist or something, created a hole, void of any dust, clearing out the space lying behind.

    They spotted no stars, no space, no blueness of the sky or anything there except for pitch ckness. This ck colour was familiar, as it was the same as the one that grabbed them here in the first ce.

    "Watch out!" seeing this hole appearing and cknessing up from behind, William instantly shouted. Yet his shout didn''tst before everyone felt a brutal sucking force grabbing them, moving them quite fast towards the sky as if they were flying.

    Before they''d realise what was going on, they were pulled the same way they got dragged here with. They ended up falling into another simr space, while feeling the same achiness and tiredness.

    "No shouting, do you get me?" After a day of training, Ibra was the first to express his dissatisfaction with what they experienced thanks to Karoline. Yet thetter seemed to not bother with him or others, simply closed her eyes and regted her breathing.

    "Tsk! I thought we got one annoying person in the team, to end up having two, tsk!" he was speaking about William, and thetter just chuckled and said nothing.

    Yet he was more interested in the mechanism of what happened to them. He thought the centre of each ck hole formed of a single space, but it seemed this wasn''t the case.

 Chapter 892 A Walk Through The Black Hole

    ?

    They ended up in the same exact space as the one theynded at before. That meant either the ck holes had many inner spaces, with each separated from each other by a thinyer of ck matter and insane gravity, or they got moved to another ck hole.

    He couldn''t tell, even if he walked around and checked the ce, he wouldn''t know. That didn''t bother him right now, but he was thinking about what would happen when they''d move towards the portal. Would they end up dragged like this, ending in another space or ck hole? How would he know the portal he''d activate and change to match the destination towards his world was?

    He hoped nothing bad would happen, and still he knew something like that was doomed to ur. Even if he showed his disagreement with what Ibra used to say about him, deep inside his spirit he knew that was true.

    He was a ma for serious stuff and bad things.

    "This should be the exit towards the portal," Karoline acted as the guide of the team, and led them all the way towards the edge of this space. There was the same brown dust, making a huge wall that spanned east and west, filling the world around and blocking any path forward.

    "Are you sure?" Sara expressed the doubts others had about this ce, "won''t we get dragged again?"

    "We will get dragged indeed, but this time we can resist it," Karoline paused, "we need to stay together, work to fight back the gravity and stop our advance. When we do that, we can explore the area there and find where the portal is."

    "Let''s do it," William knew letting his friends argue together wouldn''t help. They had to test it, and the worst thing would be for them to get dragged to another space.

    As he decided, others kept what they wanted to say deep within. "How are we going to do it?" William turned to Karoline, and thetter shrugged.

    "I just roared back then and a hole appeared¡­"

    "I knew you did that on purpose! Tsk!" Ibra shook his head, referring to the moment when she let them get dragged to this space. And Karoline just kept her silence, showing an evil smile on her face, confirming what Ibra just said.

    "Let''s shout then," William couldn''t help but surprised by how Karoline acted towards those insulting her. He then shouted, with others as well, ending up forming a big hole in the middle of all the brown dust.

    They felt the same gravitational force, yet when they got dragged forward, they felt how weak it was. It wasn''t like before, not acting domineering or overbearing in any way.

    William was prepared for that. He was in his spirit body form, moved his four tails, grabbing one of his friends, preventing them from getting far from him.

    As he held them, he spoke to make them use any technique to resist the pulling force. Everyone used their techniques and elements, all but Karoline. She had zero technique to use, and didn''t have any training technique to begin with.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William used his earth element, forming lots of rocks that grew up fast, surrounding him and others like chains, preventing them from following the will of the gravitational force.

    At first they kept moving forward at a fast speed, but soon enough their speed started to greatly drop. In just a minute, they totally stopped and didn''t move an inch,nding on the ground while being surrounded by William''s tails.

    "Where should we go?" William asked, feeling immense pressureing from this gravity. He knew Karoline''s past experience came when she was just too strong, staying at the pinnacle of the world''s power. So it was expected that what was pretty easy for her would be quite challenging for him and his friends.

    "Go north," she shouted, and her voice became quite shaky. Among everyone, she was the weakest, the most vulnerable one to get pulled by this force.

    Not to mention she felt more bitterness as she felt how crazy the difference between her past power and now was.

    "How can we find north in this situation?!!" Berry shouted, and her voice came as if she was screaming or something.

    "Just go opposite to the direction of that gravity," Karoline yelled, and William got what she meant.

    "Won''t we end up at the same ce we came from? Tsk! I don''t want to end up at the same empty and ruined ce¡­ Wait, why won''t we discuss it more before moving?"

    Ibra shouted especially when William dragged them and moved step by step to the opposite direction of the gravitational force. He trusted Karoline''s words, as she was the only person here who experienced this before, the only person who reached the portal and knew how to reach there.

    William ignored the whining of his friend, kept moving forward step by step. At first, he felt like his legs were moving in a denseyer of sand, but then things started to get better.

    The more he advanced, the weaker the pulling gravity power would be. At the same time, the world was formed of shingyers of ckness, but it started to grow fainter until he could see what was lying around.

    He was walking in the middle of a ce filled with green trees and nts. It was weird, as this ce shouldn''t nourish such vegetation at all.

    "I shall take a few and study themter," he grew curious about how these nts grew in such impossible conditions. So he worked his ws, and gathered lots of these herbs and nts, seeds, tree bark pieces, and even leaves and flowers as well.

    At some point, he grabbed entire trees and herbs, pulled them by the root, and stored them in his rings. He knew they wouldn''t survive that much there, but he was destined to meet up with a pleasant surpriseter on.

 Chapter 893 Guerrilla Monsters

    ?

    He didn''t know for how long he walked, but when the entire world became clearer and the gravitational force became so weak, he let his friends on the ground.

    "Tsk! I will hit your dummy head if we end up in the same space again!" Ibra stillined, and William shrugged.

    "We walked for a long time, crossed lots of distance that shouldn''t be here in the first ce."

    "What do you mean?" Sara asked, while Karoline stuck close to William the moment he let her down, attracting weird and warning gazes from Sara and Berry, warning her from hugging William again.

    "I believe this isn''t just a simple ck hole where gravity will be affected," William paused, looking around, "I think space also is affected."

    "And? Is that dangerous?" Berry asked in a worried tone, and William''s silence made everyone feel more worry.

    "Don''t worry, I visited this ce once before and came out unscathed," Karoline spoke in her casual way, waving her long hair while doing so.

    "Let''s go then," William knew they were going to exit this ce after seeing the portal. But he couldn''t say if there were any dangers here or not.

    The presence of such vegetation was evidence that life was supported here. It would be special forms of life, and that meant special types of monsters would be present here. But he couldn''t guess what type of monsters would live in such a scary environment without dying.

    Guessing this far aroused his curiosity to fight and study these monsters. And soon enough, his desire came true.

    *Screech!*

    Few minutester, a sudden screeching noise appeared from one direction. Before the team would see what wasing at them, more screeches came, and William knew this was the moment to meet monsters.

    "Get ready to fight, don''t move away from me for a hundred metres," William instantly took out his two monstrous weapons, released his flying ones, armed up his tails with weapons, and became instantly ready to fight.

    "Why are there monsters here?!" Karoline was the only one who didn''t respond fast enough like others. William''s friends were veterans, activated their spirits at once, took out their deadly weapons, and were ready to start a hectic battle without a speck of hesitation.

    "Let''s talk about thister, shall we?" William knew she got the right to feel such surprise and doubt, but there was a very good reason for this situation. Last time she was a monster, one on top of the food chain to all beings in the world. Who would be stupid enough toe near such a behemoth?

    But now they were just mere humans, an easy food for these monsters. "I hope they are vegetarians," Saraughed, trying to crack a joke to relieve the rising tension in the air.

    "If so, then we need to worry about nothing," Berry joined her andughed as well, yet herugh was a bit nervous.

    "Tsk! Why is it always bad when I''m out with you? I want to go out with my girl, not with some bad omen and trouble bringer like you!"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Who said you have a girl?" William teased him, before adding, "don''t worry, this won''t end up that bad."

    Yet when they saw the swarms of monsters running at them, they couldn''t help but feel a cold shiver at their backs. "G¡­ Guerris! The Blue Frost Oracle Guerris!! Ones in such huge sizes?!!!" Karoline was the first to speak up, instantly recognising the nature of these monsters.

    It hit William in waves when she said these words. The first thing he realised was that in this world, Karoline was the most experienced and well knowledgeable person in the world about monsters.

    She instantly recognised these monsters, identified them and said their name. And that name was the second thing that hit him.

    "Can they foresee the future or what?" he hurriedly turned to her, and she slowly nodded.

    "They are vicious and bitter losers! I once fought for hundreds of years against their king, didn''t get rid of their annoyance until I wiped out most of them in the world," she said things that others took as another aspect of her craziness. But William took every single word she said quite seriously.

    "They move inrge hordes then," he realised this from her words, "and they seem quite persistent."

    "They take grievances till they would be buried under dirt," she sighed, "they weren''t that strong before, but now? They are much bigger than how they used to be."

    "Stay inside the protection of my weapons," William waved his hand, and then the flying weapons moved to form circles around, surrounding an area of two hundred metres inside, "we are going to kill our way through. Tell me more about them¡­"

    *Screech!*

    The Guerris didn''t give him or her time to speak before they attacked. The first sh was really massive and brutal, ending up pushing his flying weapons closer to him. He already expected that, and so he made sure to expand the weapons for an additional one hundred metres for that reason.

    The sh pushed the weapons all the way to a stop just fifty metres away, yet they stopped any monster from getting inside that circle, wounding and even killing a few of them.

    "Attack!" William didn''t dy andunched his Holy Sword technique. He then reced his sword with bow and arrows, releasing lots of deadly explosions all over the ce.

    The Guerrising were indeed huge in size, the smallest was six metres in length, five in height! They walked on two, acted like humans, grabbing metal rods and staffs, using them as weapons.

    They got short tails, and many got two and three. Yet these tails weren''t long enough to help in holding weapons like William''s, but they were strong to work like clenched fists.

    Their bodies were covered up with ayer of sparkling little ores, in the size of fingernails. And they were all screeching, opening their big jaws a little bit, showing the thickyer of teeth there, ready to devour any human.

 Chapter 894 The Sharp Rocks

    ?

    "They aren''t vegetarians, I can swear on my life for this, tsk!" Ibra shook his ive, beforending over many guerris behind the protection of William''s weapons.

    William had to exert more control over his weapons, creating gaps for his friends'' attacks and weapons to pass through. If not, then their attacks wouldnd on his weapons, harming and damaging them instead.

    "They can foresee few seconds ahead of time," Karoline shouted from behind, "they can get wounded, won''t die that easily."

    "In the middle of all this craziness, I doubt they can evade a fly!" William knew what she said would be troublesome if they were fighting a little group of these monsters.

    Against such an insane number of guerris, enough to fill the entire world to the horizon, he knew it''d be impossible to try and evade anything, "keep firing your techniques and weapons, use anything you have and don''t spare any. Keep a close eye over your spirit power, replenish it when needed¡­"

    He started to ry his orders and advice, warnings and tips about how to kill these monsters. They weren''t the same youngsters he met five years ago, got into lots of battles and experienced many dark moments.

    So they didn''t lose their cool, instead venting out all their frustration, worries, and even fears over these monsters.

    As the initial shes passed, the fight turned to look like any usual monster battle. They kept killing the monstersing at them for an entire hour, piling up lots of heaps around, formed of dead meat guerris.

    "Karoline, I have a task for you¡­" William suddenly turned to the only person in the team who didn''t do anything but shout and yell, speaking about these monsters'' weak and strong points.

    "Not again! Did you hail from a family of scavengers or thieves or what? I grew tired of this, tsk!"

    "Shut up! I''m not asking you to do it," William evillyughed, and his hidden threat reached Ibra''s mind, making thetter keep what he wanted to say only to himself.

    "What do you want me to do?" Karoline was excited and eager to do anything to help. Watching everyone fighting like this aroused her old brutal and bloody nature deep within her spirit. But she was too weak to take part in this battle, and would turn into a burden if she tried to do so.

    "I''m going to push my weapons a little bit further," William paused, throwing a thin and long sword over to her, with a ck ring, "this ring has many rings stored within. You''ll do this¡­"

    He started to exin the usual and infamous habit of the Fox Guild that was known far and wide anywhere they went to. They were infamous for their love to collect loot, from enemies and allies alike, without any shame or regret.

    The most amazing thing about this was how they did it. They didn''t wait like others until the battle would be over, but did it in the middle of the ongoing heated fights.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They didn''t care whose their enemies were, they''d divide themselves into two teams, one to fight and kill, and the other to loot and collect spoils of war.

    Any battle they''d take part in, all the forces and masters there would realise they''d get scraps in the end. Even with knowing this, no one dared topete with them, as they''d instantly prevent anyone from stealing their loot, even using their enemies and letting theme to hit those trying to take part of their loot away with cold blood.

    Such infamy made any master force restless when they''d hear about the presence of the Fox Guild members. But who''d say no to such a grand help? After all, the guild members were strong, using unique and weird ways to fight, not known in the entire world.

    By learning this, Karoline was considered as an official member of the guild and the special ck Tails team. Unlike what others thought, she was pretty much excited about doing this, evenughed while dissecting monsters'' bodies and collecting everything!

    William told her to collect even the meat and bones! He wanted everything from these monsters, regretting not having a life storage device and only rings.

    He intended to buy a life storage device once getting out from this ck hole, which would transfer all the monster organs. They''de handyter on, as they got the right conditions to be used in performing the mystic arts.

    As Karoline filled the gap of this task, everyone felt familiar with their team. "Time to push forward," after a few hours, they killed tons of monsters, and Karoline finished collecting their parts, "let''s walk slowly, follow my steps!"

    Even if they fought for hours, the monsters didn''t show any sign of losing numbers. They kept filling the entire world,ing with the same viciousness and eagerness to feast on their flesh.

    Up so far, the highest grade monster they met was only at gold grade. Against William''s dark gold grade weapons, and his friends'' high grade weapons and strength, they didn''t struggle that much¡­ Yet!

    The first challenge didn''te from monsters, but from the terrain around. They were walking so far in open ins, yet ended up passing through hills and valleys, irregr paths that were filled with different sized hard and sharp rocks. They had to be extra careful, as Karoline warned them from these rocks.

    "They are poisonous! Back when I came here, I ended up with a scratch when I touched one of these identally. I had to sleep for an entire month, and consume tons of herbs to heal!"

    William knew she wasn''t exaggerating this, instead she might be underestimating these rocks. If she, one who was at the pinnacle of power back then, ended up getting wounded, then they''d instantly die! Not to mention the fact that these rocks were able to wound her was something incredible.

    William led everyone around, had to even stop many times to check the right path to take.

 Chapter 895 The Tornado Shaped Sandstorms!

    ?

    Spirit sense in this world was greatly pressured, only extended to cover less than a few hundred metres at most.

    Their advancement speed diminished greatly, but the good news was these monsters got wounded by these rocks.

    Seeing the effect of poison over them, watching their bodies getting eaten up from inside out, turned into a grand pile of brown dust, made everyone''s scalp grow numb.

    William was believing anything Karoline said, but others had their doubts until now. As they realised how dangerous these rocks were, William had another sh of realisation.

    Seeing this brown dust reminded him of the thick brown dust that enveloped the spaces he visited so far. "Don''t tell me these spaces got created thanks to the death of tons of monsters¡­ And people!" He couldn''t help but imagine these ces, filled with endless people and monsters, getting massacred by such rocks to form the spaces in the heart of the ck holes.

    And that made him also jump to another conclusion, that each ck hole was a gate towards a pocket world! It might be small worlds, but they were still separate worlds.

    "Worlds with their gravity element magnified, space element tempered with, and time are affected¡­ It''s a paradise for anyone performing mystic arts!" William''s eyes shone with greed and excitement when he realised this and decided to exert full control over this region in the future.

    He turned to Ibra and decided to tell him about this after getting out of there. Even if the team didn''t need to fight crazily like before, they got to move with great caution, trying to evade the rocks with extra care and full attention.

    The monstersing at them turned all into brown dust in mere seconds, and that relieved the pressure of these guerris off their shoulders. William knew if he stayed here long enough, all the swarms of these monsters would fall under the sharp edges of the rocks.

    But that wasn''t going to help him. He needed the organs and cores of these monsters, hopefully, he''d find an interesting spirit that he could absorb and add to hister on.

    Hecked less than two thousand points to reach the dark gold grade, and as such he was preparing for the next level of spirit purification when he''d take such a step.

    Not to mention they''d waste lots of time, and they already spent too much here. He didn''t know how long it passed, but he was sure days passed so far, and they still didn''t get to the portal.

    So he kept leading everyone forward, walking in the middle of such a forest of razors. Gradually they got used to such rocks, and evading them grew to be natural and reflexive to the team.

    But monsters didn''t get used to these rocks at all. They kept fiercely advancing after the team, even climbing over each other at some point. In the end, the team finally got out of such a dangerous maze, ending up in a grand open area, one that was void of nts and trees.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Instead of dirt, the ground was formed of thick brownyers of rocks. Seeing this ce made Karoline shout and point towards the front, "It''s there, I know I didn''t forget many things about this ce, hahahaha!"

    "You were leading us here with a broken memory?!!!" Sara and others looked at Karoline in doubt and shock, even William felt the same. He never thought she might have forgotten pieces of memory about this ce before. And now he had to be more vignt about the entire area.

    She might have recalled crucial things but also might have neglected a few. And one of them was rted to this special area, the one that contained the portal.

    "What? Do you think someone like me will keep track of such a messy and unimportant ce? It''s great I recalled all this, hmph!" she waved her hair again, acting a bit arrogant and haughty, not even caring to defend herself.

    "Stay here," William turned to inspect the iing monsters first. Luckily for them, the entire zone was totally surrounded by mountains and deadly rocks. So they have nothing to worry about, at least for now.

    But for a reason, William felt like this ce wasn''t that simple. He felt uneasiness the more he looked at it. He decided to go and test it first while leaving his team to heal and rest.

    They did indeed deserve such rest. They kept running and fighting crazily for long days. And when they got the chance by the presence of the deadly rocks, they had to keep their vignce high and suffered from insane mental stress.

    William started walking alone toward the depths of that region. The first thing he noticed was how fragile the ground was. It might seem like it was formed of strong rocks, but the moment he walked over it, he felt the ground cracking like walking over eggshells.

    The ground started to get covered with a thinyer of brown dust, forming a long trail where he walked. After walking for an hour, the wind blew out of nowhere, sweeping the sand on the ground away. It didn''t carry the sand far, but it started to weirdly gather all the sand around, ending up forming giant tornado shaped sandstorms.

    "This is new," William didn''t expect this, and he had to stop walking and inspect this weird phenomenon. The wind blew from one direction, yet it gathered sand into ten different points. In less than five minutes, all the sand he created by his walk gathered up, and then the sandstorms started to move.

    William was sure all this was against nature. The wind that blew shouldn''t have stagnated and stopped at these points, and the sand gathered shouldn''t have beenzily waiting there.

    So when the sandstorms moved, he was ready to wee them. They moved fast as if an arrow gotunched from a bow. And he responded using his dash move.

 Chapter 896 Getting Out From The Black Hole

    ?

    William passed through the gaps between these giant sandstorms. When he stopped and turned around, he didn''t see any sandstorm, but a giant monster made entirely out of sand.

    The sand particles were gathered to formyers of rocks, the same type of rocks he kept smashing under his feet. It had no head, a group of elliptical hollows in its trunk, acting like eyes or something. It had ten thick arms, four pairs of legs, and three tails.

    It was a weird-shaped creature, one that got no head, no mouth, and no ears. William didn''t care about what type of creature it was, as he knew he could crush it.

    The sand got formed thanks to his weight over the ground while walking. Even if it ended up forming such a massive monster, William didn''t hesitate to rush toward it. And the monster didn''t hesitate to do the same, as the two shed fiercely against each other.

    *Boom!* a muffled explosion urred, one that didn''t happen thanks to the sh of the two but thanks to William''s attack. "Weird¡­ A direct hit didn''t do much at all," William distanced himself away from the dancing huge arms of that creature while observing the small indentation he left by his sword.

    He used his Holy Sword technique. Even if he didn''t stack anything, he was sure such an attack would leave behind much damage. "Or¡­ The sand got a hardening effect thanks to stacking together¡­ If so, then I''ll use more hits to crack it¡­"

    This failure didn''t stop him, as he started to stack attacks before releasing them. He aimed every time at the same spot, aiming to deepen this indentation and form a hole there.

    At first, this method didn''t yield much result. But soon enough, and as he persisted in attacking the creature, a hole appeared, with cracks spreading alongside its edge.

    William didn''t take more time to bring this monster down. The moment it fell down, it turned into a giant storm of sand, but this time it didn''t gather up again. They spread over the ground, forming a newyer of rock.

    "I won''t pass over there," William evaded the newly formedyer of sand, taking a detour before moving forward again. His steps left a long track of brown sand, ending up with another creature to get formed after one more hour.

    This pattern kept repeated five times, until he finally arrived at a massive hole in the ground, one that stretched out for kilometres.

    "It''s down there," William looked over the edge, to see the hole filled with sparkling pieces of crystals and ores. He knew these were things that contained a dense amount of spirit power, enough to power such a grand portal without the need to do anything.

    He didn''t need to go down there and check the portal. He''d do that when he''d arrive here with everyone. And now it was time for him and everyone to leave this ck hole.

    He simply took a Bullet out and spoke with them. The distance he crossed was much lesser than the coverage range of a single Bullet. He exined to his friends everything they''d face, and asked them if they needed him toe and escort them back, but they refused.

    "Let''s have more fun!" <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "I want to see how strong I ampared to you¡­ My long losing streak is itching me, tsk!"

    "If I need your help, I will ask for it!"

    The three friends spoke about their desire to fight, and then it came down to Karoline. She didn''t have a Bullet, and she was very weakpared to others. So he asked them to take care of her, and they promised to deliver her back in one piece.

    William waited for an entire day until they all returned back safely. He kept checking on them, especially when they passed the time he expected them to take to arrive here.

    They weren''t as brutal as him, but they were strong. They took this much time thanks to Karoline, as she was a burden to all of them.

    "Don''t tell me we are going to test this portal, ending up getting teleported away without others¡­ You promised to let me live here with my girl."

    "She isn''t your girl yet," William rolled his eyes, and Ibra evillyughed.

    "She will, just stay your nose out of my business, tsk!"

    William shook his head, knowing that the biggest obstacle in front of these two would be Lina, the bigger sister. She might seem cool and friendly, but towards her sister, she''d turn into a real monster. Ibra was just lucky enough to see her transform like that, or else he''d realise the hints William kept sending to him from time to time.

    "Where is the exit?" William turned to face Karoline, "I checked the ce using my spirit sense, and couldn''t find anything," he wasn''t lying. During his time waiting here, he kept wandering around, looking for a way out but failed.

    First of all, his spirit sense shattered when it touched the air above that hole. He knew this was thanks to the overbearing nature of the space-tempering ability the portal down below had. Even if it was inactive, it was still releasing tons of spirit power, manipting and affecting the space above.

    "We need to walk the same distance in the opposite direction from where we came from," luckily she still had such a memory about how to go out intact. William inwardly sighed in relief, before leading everyone and going outside.

    The journey back was simr to their trip toward this hole. They had to pass through ayer of brown rocks, facing repeated attacks of sand giants, before ending up facing a familiar scene of rocky valleys. Yet this time they didn''t face any deadly rocks, didn''t find any monsters, and just moved through the valley and ended up outside.

    They got surrounded by weird ck mist that appeared out of nowhere.

 Chapter 897 Reaping Benefits Of Victory

    ?

    It took them out, appearing outside a ck hole, one that wasn''t the same as the one they entered before.

    William was sure now of his earlier guess. They moved to another ck hole space. He didn''t need to mark this hole or anything, he got what he wanted to learn and all the ck holes were the same.

    As he returned back, he found out that he and his friends took roughly a week inside that ck hole. The huge war was over, and they won it big!

    Sloth was waiting for him with many masters and his friends and team. They were all waiting for his return, to tell him the great news about their victory.

    He already expected that and yet he showed his fake excitement andughed all day. The war held great importance for everyone, and now a brand new territory was avable to grab.

    It was expected for everyone to be happy. The normal masters got a long dreamt revenge from the despicable dark masters, and their leaders felt they dealt a big blow to such dirty cancer in this continent.

    From that day, the dominance of dark masters over the entire continent. The enemies lost it big, and William scored another big score against dark forces sinceing back in time.

    The wars and battles wouldn''t get over, as the dark masters in other regions would see this one as a challenge towards their dominance over the continent. Even if they were cowards, they had to put a stand against such a threat. And from that day a long-term war started for many months and even years.

    Aside from all the turmoil that was going to happen in this continent, the leaders of the big cities and formidable masters insisted that William return with them and get decorated and rewarded for his achievements.

    They also invited Sloth, and that was mainly out of courtesy. During this war, news spread to the ears of every single leader and formidable master, learning more about how William was the mastermind behind all this, not Sloth.

    Yet they decided to keep Sloth in the grand picture, using him as a front to the public. William agreed with thetter to use the chance and make propaganda for his guild.

    Sloth was loyal to the Novistic kingdom, and William knew that. So thetter used this as a way to convince Sloth, telling him that this was going to help spread the name of the Novistic kingdom and its glory.

    After all, his guild was located at the kingdom''snds, something that Sloth wouldn''t disagree or find hard to ept.

    William then spent another week attending celebrations and receiving gifts. At the same time, he used this chance to spread out the guild authority in the entire continent. Many cities'' leaders arrived or took part already in the war. So it was easy for him to use this chance and speak with them about allocating pieces ofnd for the guild. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    It wasn''t a surprise for all to agree, and many even gifted him thends and even aid and support to build up the guild branches in many cities. The rest gave lots of discounts and promises to support his guild branch and members, helping them in doing their tasks.

    This wasn''t a surprise not only for William''s role in this war and victory but because he told them about the real purpose of his guild. It was a gathering of masters to attack and hit the forts of dark masters across the world, something one of these leaders would argue against.

    During all this, William had to ept more masters toe with him on his journey back. When he tried to expand his guild here, everyone got more secure and confident about his intentions to return back.

    During this week, they didn''t speak that much about what they should do with the newly gainednd. William wanted a piece of this rich cake, yet he didn''t speak up his mind at this moment.

    He decided to wait, giving Ibra instructions about taking any chance to ce a foothold there. He wanted to control the ck Holes area, after the rich supply of monsters there.

    "You have to learn wisdom and not just handle everything using force," William repeated his warning again for thest time, saying it to Ibra and Tina.

    He knew how impulsive the two were, and hoped they wouldn''t create trouble and do better than his worries. They just expressed their willingness and intention to lead the guild ording to his rules and instructions, before they said their goodbyes to everyone around.

    They were standing in front of a ck hole, and thest meeting with them was quite emotional. The most devastated one among all was Lina, as this was the first time ever to leave her younger sister behind like this.

    William had to hug her and take her away as she seemed to lean towards staying behind at thest moments. He led everyone into the ck hole, vanished fast thanks to the insane gravity pulling them away. He was thankful this time for this gravity, as it saved him from the trouble of taking Lina away.

    William already instructed therge group of masters about the uing challenges awaiting them. He stressed a few points, like never speaking in a loud tone, never shouting, and always moving in teams.

    The number of mastersing with him was enough to form a small army, amounting to a few tens of thousands. Most of them were youngsters with high potential, young spirit masters with a golden future waiting for them.

    As for the rest, they were formed by the guards protecting them. He knew moving as a whole group or a small army wouldn''t work, especially when travelling through the gravitational area.

    Once they went into the central space, they started to divide themselves into many smaller groups. This took a day to happen, and William was patient, took a few more hours to inspect the teams, and made sure everything was going fine.

 Chapter 898 Activating The Portal

    ?

    After that William led all of them towards the portal area. He instructed them if they got separated, they had to keep walking in the opposite direction of where the gravity came from.

    As he doubted, the grand army got separated into many areas. But thanks to his arrangement, they all ended up meeting at the portal area. "Wait for me here," William knew it was time to go and explore the portal area, "if I didn''t show up in a day, go down and you''ll find the portal ready."

    He knew he might end up activating the portal before everyone would descend and join him. He left a few of his friends behind, to have someone to contact if he wanted to let theme down and join him.

    He knew there wasn''t a single danger down there from Karoline, and knew the right way to descend as well. It was a weird way, by just jumping off and falling over the central portal.

    He didn''t take much with him, just Berry, Lang, Lina, and a few others. He knew there was no danger, but he had to cross lots of distance at the end. To save time, he decided to bring a team of twenty masters he trusted and knew their abilities quite well.

    "Are you sure we need to jump?" Lang expressed his doubts, and William simply shrugged.

    "What''s going to happen? Die from falling from such height? I hardly believe that" heughed, "don''t worry, we aren''t going to die."

    He was joking with them, and they were too familiar with their boss to realise that. Yet seeing such a grand distance they had to cross made everyone feel a little worried inside.

    "Let''s go," William took the lead, holding Berry and Karoline with both hands. He didn''t need to activate his spirit body, and simply let himself fall down to the ground.

    The moment he jumped, he felt the strong forceing from deep down the hole. It was a sort of mixed gravity force, one that''d pull them down in one instant, then push them away in the next second.

    He didn''t just jump like this based on Karoline''s words. Before doing this, he changed into his fox and snake mixed spirit body, used his tails, stretching them over the edge of the hole, and experienced how gravity acted funny there.

    Everyone jumped under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands. They were worried over the team failing, worried over this once in a lifetime chance to travel to another world, something that no one ever had in their lifetime before.

    The distance to the bottom took much longer than anyone expected. They spent more time thanks to the rapidly changing gravity, and yet they neverined about that. Without such gravity changes, they''d end up quite bad without any doubt.

    They allnded quite safely on the ground, feeling like they never jumped in the first ce. They didn''t feel anything at all whennding as if they were walking on a t and normal ground.

    "Let''s scatter," William inspected the ground while falling, knowing how it was quite safe out there. It was like a t area of open ins, with little grass here and there. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He didn''t want to waste any more time, sent messages to his friends up there through Bullets, before starting to explore the area like others.

    "This way," Karoline was excited about this, and kept talking all the way of their descent. She repeated what William said to his small team before, and yet no one everined about that.

    The direction she pointed towards was close to the centre of this region. There he found a small hole, with many others scattered to form a giant circle.

    "We need to ce blood, hurry, ce blood down there," she was acting like any impatient girl, and she indeed was quite impatient.

    She came here before but failed to activate the portal as she didn''t have spirits like humans. And so she was very anxious to experience what it felt like to go to another world.

    Wiliam already guessed that, so he didn''tin or say anything about that weird attitude of hers. Instead, he started to leave one droplet of his blood at all the holes.

    His team was also doing the same, and that was enough to activate the entire portal at the end. Without that, the portal wouldn''t budge an inch or get activated.

    This process might seem easy, but it took roughly ten hours from the entire team. William kept speaking with them using Bullets, making sure everything was fine and going ording to schedule.

    "Be ready, we are about to activate the portal," William spoke while holding Sara and other friends'' Bullets, "if I didn''t speak again in an hour, descend in teams. If the portal didn''t activate, use the same method we just used¡­"

    [Don''t worry, we can do it! Just go and start activating this portal. I miss home too much] Sara interrupted him, as he repeated such instructions dozens of times already.

    [Don''t worry about them, I promise to take everyone home safe and sound] Sloth spoke as well. And that made William sigh. He felt like being a father worried over his kids or something. He didn''t know when he got this attached to his friends, but he truly cared for them.

    "Fine, I''m going to activate the portal now," he ced thest few drops over thest few holes. The moment he did so, the entire ground trembled, before rays of blue and white lights started to rise up from down below, blinding him and everyone else watching or standing by his side.

    Then in the next moment, he found himself standing in the middle of a stony ce.

    "This is weird¡­" The ce he appeared at was the same rocky room he exited the tiny world from and went to the other world. But there were lots of differences now.

 Chapter 899 Something Is Terribly Wrong!

    ?

    First of all, blinding sunlight fell over his eyes before William got ustomed to the brightness of it. There were many holes in the ceiling, holes that expanded and extended from the surface down to here.

    He didn''t know how deep this ce was, but he was quite sure it was very deep. Thest time he was here, there wasn''t such a thing present in this ce. And that wasn''t the only change he spotted here.

    The room was narrow before, and couldn''t amodate more than one hundred people. But now? It was massive, enough to amodate thousands of people.

    When he looked closer, he saw lots of rocks filling the ground, as if they fell from the ceiling and walls, as if some sort of a brutal explosion urred here, changing the entire topography of this ce.

    Aside from rocks, the entire ce was empty of anyone. When he came here for the first time, he met Anjie and lots of strong masters. The opening of the tunnel leading here was covered up by dense numbers of masters. And yet there was no sign of anyone alive here.

    "What''s going on here?" Berry was the first to speak up, and then Karoline joined by saying her piece.

    "I smell blood and death in this ce like a deadly fight urred not long ago¡­"

    She paused when everyone turned to look at her. She might have turned into a human, but her sense of blood was still there.

    "Let''s explore the ce, all together, and don''t lower your guard," William strictly said, before turning to his spirit body form. He couldn''t smell blood like Karoline, but he was sure something terribly wrong happened here while they were away.

    As the team moved on, they noticed the absence of the weird wind and the fog as they never existed before. William threw behind his back the worry of his friends and newly acquired masters and focused on the problem he had in front of him.

    As they walked, they started to find dead bodies of masters and monsters in the middle of the rocks. It felt like a monster tide attacked this region, ending up massacring everyone and damaging the entire ce.

    William was sure a brutal battle urred, but this didn''t exin the great changes that happened in this room. Even if masters used their strongest techniques, they wouldn''t be able to damage the rocks that lined this ce before.

    This ce was a home for a portal, and that meant it was strongly supported by an insane amount of space elements. This was enough to safeguard this ce from anything and made it more peculiar for the changes that happened here to ur.

    "There is nothing here," after an hour of extensive search, they found nothing, "we should go up and see what''s going on here."

    "Good point," William agreed on Lang''s suggestion, leading everyone through the tunnel that brought them here before. As they walked up, they found many holes appearing in the tunnel, making it no different than the room they just visited and searched.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "A huge battle did indeed happen here," as they arrived at the surface, they were weed by a grand scene of ruins all over the ce. There were huge holes in the ground, with many ending up reaching the deep rooms underground and the tunnels.

    William and others started to slowly walk around, but all they found were dead and rotten bodies of both humans and monsters. "Someone came here and collected the rings and gears," William noticed such a thing after going around for hours.

    "Why do I feel like someone did this to tease you?" one of the team jokes, and everyoneughed. But William didn''t like this. He felt the same as this member of his team joked about, felt like this was done on purpose.

    It felt like there was someone who knew about him and his habits and decided to deprive him from gaining anything like rings or gears.

    "Or perhaps someone is trying to copy you, that would be hrious, hahahaha!" Berry joked and William kept his silence.

    "I don''t like this," he decided to stop looking, "let''s go back to the tunnel opening, and wait for Sloth and others toe."

    William didn''t want to go back toward the capital as he feared the worst. As he could tell, some sort of a big war happened here, and he didn''t exclude the possibility of it spreading toward the capital and other regions.

    They were brought here to help in solving a big crisis, but it seemed they took much longer to do it. He thought of the worst, thought of the death of the king and the turmoil that would happen in such a case.

    He was positive whoever ryed the deadly toxic fog here didn''t do it out of coincidence or boredom. And the scenes of damage and destruction everywhere were evidence for this hypothesis.

    "Why are they taking this long toe¡­" The team returned back to the tunnel they came out from, and waited for many hours. After the passage of an entire day without a single sign of Sloth or anyoneing from the room underground, William grew worried about the entire thing.

    "Don''t worry, they got Sloth and he seems quite a capable master," Karoline noticed William''s worry and tried to console him. Yet others thought she was crazy, as Sloth was nothingpared to William in regards to knowledge and wits.

    "Let''s go," after half a day passed, William decided to leave, "let''s go and inspect the capital until they''ll arrive."

    He didn''t know what dyed them and decided to go and scout things at the capital until they''de here. He didn''t know that nothing wrong happened, it was just the effect of the ck hole and its effects over time and space.

    Sloth and others followed his words to the letter, but the one-hour dy would turn into a few days here.

 Chapter 900 The Devastated Sloth

    ?

    "What do you think happened?" As they walked towards the capital, the team members started to speak about what was going on there. They all jumped to the same bad scenario that William guessed, yet thetter refrained from joining the talk.

    He knew even if the king died, another would take the throne. He wouldn''t care as long as the new king stayed away from him and his business. But if the new king was hostile to him, he''d not hesitate to fight back.

    The best scenario was for Anjie to take over the throne. By logic, she was the one who should inherit the throne. But she is young, weak, and a girl on top of that. Many old members of the royal family would see this as a golden chance for them to take over.

    He walked and listened to many useless debates about what would happen to the kingdom. He didn''t share the same attachment to this ce as Berry and others, and was feeling exactly like how Karoline did; detached from all this.

    Yet when they approached the capital, they all stopped talking. The capital that was bustling with life and activity, filled with signs of awe and prosperity, was now ushered under ruins!

    The walls were half gone, with thick tongues of smoke rising up from many ces out there. They weren''t this close yet, but they could tell how bad the destruction there was.

    "All this happened because of a monster tide?!!!" This was thement everyone had in their mind, shocked and shaken by what happened to such a mighty ce in such a short time.

    The capital of the kingdom was the most secure and well-defended ce in the entire kingdom. To see it in such a state was indeed a new experience for everyone except William and Karoline.

    Karoline was originally a monster, so she didn''t know how to appreciate the beauty of the old capital and didn''t even see it before to feel such sorrow of its loss. Not to mention she used to destroy ces humans lived in and didn''t feel any bad about that even now.

    As for William, this sight brought back many terrible memories. This scene was weirdly simr to many scenes he saw before when the world fell. He wasn''t there when the world''s strongest forts got crushed by monsters, and he wasn''t here to witness how monsters destroyed the capital and overran its defences and masters.

    As they drew closer, they found tons of the dead monster bodies surrounding the entire capital. The bodies got signs of burns and ugly wounds, making it clear how brutal the fight here was.

    The number of monsters alone was in the hundreds of thousands, and that was just the parts they passed through. The closer they got to the capital, the more deaths they saw.

    Slowly they met with dead masters, and they all had no gears or rings on them. They first were curious and inspected many dead bodies around, but soon enough they stopped doing this. There was literally nothing over these masters to tell them about what happened here.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    And when they arrived at the capital, they saw a brutal and shocking scene inside. The walls looked as if a god used his colossal arm and ripped everything into shreds. There were many holes, scars over the still-standing walls, and a huge amount of rubbles and rocks filled everywhere.

    When they passed through the damaged walls, they didn''t find a single building intact. The streets were gone, and were reced with tons of rocks and fallen parts of the once glorious buildings.

    The dead bodies of masters were everywhere, with a few monster bodies scattered here and there. William inspected the dead bodies of monsters and masters. found out that they were dead around a week or two ago.

    "There is no one living here anymore," as they passed through the capital, they reached the central ce of it. They didn''t find any humans or masters, making them feel like they were walking in the middle of a cemetery or something.

    "Even if we were walking on a battlefield, we''ll find anything living," Lang scratched his head, feeling more annoyed by this situation like others, "don''t tell me the kingdom is gone and the royal family is dead."

    "We have to go and scout the world around¡­" Just before William would continue what he was saying, he stopped. He just received a message from Sloth, as thetter appeared in the form of a fog, seemingly quite distressed and disturbed about what was going on back at the tunnel area.

    "Juste to the capital with everyone," William said but didn''t say anything about the destruction of the capital or the death prevailing here.

    He knew how deeply attached Sloth was to the kingdom, and so he refrained from telling him the grave news. He''d wait for him toe here and inspect everything himself. And Sloth''s reaction was quite expected.

    The old man who acted tough before seemed to get shaken by what happened to his kingdom''s capital. William even saw tears sparkling in his eyes, and everyone respected his feelings and stayed away from him.

    "Is he going to be alright?" Karoline felt very bad about him, and couldn''t help but ask in worry. Sloth was looking miserable over the past minutes and hours, ending up falling on his knees just in front of what seemed to be a big pce before.

    William and others didn''t need to ask to know what this ce meant. It was the pce from where the royal family ruled over the entire capital and kingdom, the ce where he held tons of memories towards.

    He remained there for hours, not doing anything but looking at the destruction and damage. "He is a good man, he''ll be fine," William said before turning to the grand number of masters here, "let''s use this time and scout the entire ce for any clue. Make sure to give my team your Bullets, and keep contacting them all the time. If you find anything suspicious, just inform them about it at once¡­"

 Chapter 901 News About Survivors

    ?

    William started to ry his orders to the newly joined masters. Thetter never expected this world''s situation to be simr to how their world was, or even much worse than that!

    William gave them orders to search the entire capital for survivors or evidence about what caused such a disaster here. It was clear a monster tide attacked this ce, but it didn''t make sense as this was the capital.

    The monsters William inspected before were all at gold and early-stage dark gold grade. They weren''t this formidable or scary. Even if they came in such a grand number, it wasn''t enough to take the capital down.

    Not to mention the signs of destruction here weren''t allying with this scenario. Monsters were brutal, but they couldn''t destroy buildings and demolish walls. It wasn''t just small areas destroyed, but the entire capital was gone!

    William didn''t know anything yet, but he was sure this was all the work of humans, not monsters. So he waited while his new followers scattered around, and inspected the capital and the areas close to it.

    During this time, he remained next to Sloth, standing all in silence while letting the old man deal with his grievances. Karoline only remained behind, while others went to do the task of reconnaissance.

    "I can''t believe they are all gone! Everything is gone! My kingdom¡­ My king¡­ And even¡­ Even Anjie is gone¡­" The voice of Sloth came so weak, choked with the tears that he didn''t release.

    William listened, didn''t say a single word back, letting the man vent what burdened his chest and spirit. He knew such a blow was severe, but he wasn''t shaken even in the slightest by it.

    The quake he suffered from watching the entire world fall and burn was enough to steel his heart and make him immune to reacting fiercely to such disasters.

    Humans were always seen as strong, but in such times, one had to admit humans were weak and vulnerable.

    Karoline wasn''t like William, she got affected by what Sloth was experiencing. Even if she was one day a monster, one which led swarms of monsters and demolished cities and towns, she still felt shaken from deep within by the heavy sadness of Sloth.

    Even William''s friends were feeling the same sadness for losing such a formidable fortress of humans.

    [Attention boss, there is something on the north side of this ce!] Just after a few hours, finally, someone spoke back to William.

    He was Lang, and William kept holding the Bullets of his friends to receive any message or news at once. But so far, he hasn''t heard anything from anyone but Lang.

    "Tell me everything," William''s voice was low, but it was enough to jolt the devastated old man sitting a few metres away!

    "What happened? Did you find any survivors?" like a drowned person who found a straw, Sloth jumped and caught William by both arms. In the middle of the surge of his emotions, he was this close to harming William.

    "Easy there old man, let me hear the news first and I promise I''ll tell you," William struggled to free himself from the lock of Sloth. And thetter retreated for a few steps, realising how badly he behaved towards William.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William didn''t say anything for a few minutes and heard what Lang said in focus and attention. ording to thetter, one of the scout teams heard faint noisesing from a single direction. But they said the noises were so low to tell them anything about what was going on or how far this ongoing battle was.

    "Gather up everyone in the southeast direction," William instantly held the Bullets firmly as he added, "The kingdom may need our help."

    "Just point in the direction and I''ll go there myself!" Sloth jumped again, but this time he kept his arms beside his body. He was trembling, out of fear, anxiety, and excitement.

    "I can''t guarantee they are anyone you knew," William paused, making sure Sloth got what this entire situation was.

    It might be anything, starting from a useless sh between monsters, ending up to be a group of nameless survivors fighting against the monsters and dark masters.

    William was sure humans were behind the destruction of the capital. And only dark masters would be the ones doing such hideous things.

    "I don''t care, I will go there and inspect things myself," Sloth seemed as if he didn''t hear any of what William said, "just point the way, and follow me with everyone!"

    "This way," William pointed towards a direction. And before he''d continued his words, Sloth shed, vanished from his sight, "Don''t forget to share news of what you found using that scroll¡­ Damn! He is quite impatient!"

    William didn''t know if he heard him or not, but he shouted when Sloth vanished. He hoped Sloth was still keeping a bit of his sanity, and activated his spirit sense.

    "You can''t me him," Karoline was deeply touched by Sloth and his loss.

    "I know," William bitterly sighed, "this is how our world looks like. What do you think? Are humans as strong and blessed as monsters think?"

    "I¡­" This question hit Karoline right at the heart. She couldn''t say anything, stuttering before William waved his hand, "Don''t bother, I was just thinking about my issues."

    He knew making her think about this was going to end up with bad results. She looked at him, and he kept his thoughts to himself. The two moved to the point of meeting, and slowly the entire army of masters gathered in less than one hour.

    "Let''s go," William was excited to go and check what was going out there, "we may expect a tough battle or nothing. So it''s better to keep your vignce and be ready to fight at any moment."

    William didn''t hear yet from Sloth, and that meant either he went into a spree of killing and forgot about informing him of what he found, or he didn''t arrive there yet.

 Chapter 902 Toxin!

    ?

    William didn''t want to guess, so he spoke directly with Sloth using the special scroll.

    "I haven''t reached there yet, but the battle going on out there is quite massive! I can swear on my name and honour this! Pick up pace, the distance to that ce is quite massive."

    William reassured him, as they were already running at their top speed towards the same direction. As there were many dark gold masters out there, he asked them to detach and go ahead, running fast to catch up with Sloth early on.

    William didn''t know what was going on out there, or who was fighting which. But he could easily tell the situation for those from the capital wasn''t that good.

    The high-end masters didn''t easily agree with his orders. They came here just to protect the offspring of many big names and families from their world. But under the persistence of these young masters, they finally moved out to support Sloth.

    William and the others kept running for many hours. After ten hours of departing the capital, he finally got news from Sloth.

    "They are alive! Hahahaha! The entire royal family is fighting alongside other big shots here. We have hope, things aren''t lost yet!"

    The excited tone of Sloth came from the vague shadow that appeared in front of William. Thetter hoped the masters he sent would catch up to Sloth.

    William told Sloth to engage, a thing he didn''t need to remind him of. He also told him that a group of strong masters were heading towards him, plus the rest of the army trailing them from behind.

    "Don''t worry, I won''t let a single one of them die until your arrival!"

    "Who said I''m worried about them?" William rolled his eyes. He just wanted to know what happened here and check over the situation of the new king appointed to this kingdom.

    He was sure the moment they''d join the battle, the fate of the royal family and others with them would change. Yet he asked Sloth to gather intel about the enemies and send this news to him.

    Sloth already scanned part of the ongoing battle. ording to him, the royal family and others took shelter in a deep valley, one that ran deeply in a huge series of mountains. That ce got four entrances to it, which were the main focus of the ongoingst-stand battle.

    On one side, there were masters fighting desperately to stop the enemies from passing through, and on another, there were tons of monsters and masters, masters wearing ck coats and capes, the dark masters.

    William wasn''t surprised to learn about that. He already expected them to be behind what happened here.

    ording to what Sloth said, it seemed the royal family and the masters on their side came here recently and ended up fighting the iing enemies without having enough time toy down any defences.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Sloth then went radio off and started to help his kingdom''s leaders to survive this. As for William, he kept his silence for an hour or so, thinking deeply about what Sloth said.

    "The monsters out there are many, but they aren''t that strong. The dark masters are numerous, but theyck enough high-end masters to threaten the capital, lest to destroy it¡­ What''s going on here? Something is off¡­"

    This was what puzzled William the most. No matter how he looked at it, there was no way the capital would fall under such invading force.

    As he was lost in thoughts, the army marched closer until all of sudden something happened. William was running in his human form, and didn''t activate his spirit body as there was no need to. But at some point, and as he was lost in his thoughts, he felt a weird surge of spirit power running through his body, before his spirit body got activated on its own.

    "Stop! Everyone stop and retreat!" William took just a few seconds before he linked the dots. Without any hesitation, he raised his voice to the max, shouted, and even used his lightning element to make his voice thunder for many kilometres around.

    The moment he shouted, everyone thought there was an enemy attack. Without a single moment of hesitation, they all stopped, and retreated as he ordered, while scanning the world around using spirit sense.

    "What''s going on?"

    "Where is the enemy?"

    Yet they all noticed nothing abnormal, and couldn''t help but turn to William who was still standing a few hundreds of metres away from the frontlines of the small army.

    "Just stand there and don''t take a single forward," William shouted again and didn''t exin anything. Slowly he kept walking towards them, taking step by step, as if he was walking in andmine or something.

    They didn''t get it, but his spirit body reacted to something in the air, something that didn''t have a colour or smell. William didn''t need to think about what caused this, as his snake spirit was the one that got stirred by what was in the air.

    Such spirit was stirred before when he came to meet the toxic fog for the first time. Thanks to it, he was able to withstand the toxin in the air without feeling anything and was able to handle the deadly fog when he got teleported to the back of that flying behemoth in the other world.

    As his snake spirit got stirred up again, he was sure there was something in the air, something corrosive and toxic at the same time. He was going to be fine, but the army of masters following him wouldn''t, the army of masters fighting far distance away wouldn''t.

    It hit him all of a sudden, finally revealing pieces of the truth of what happened at the capital. "So that fog and toxin weren''t just aimed to take down the king, but the entire capital¡­ Don''t tell me it has a weakening effect or something¡­"

    William started to see the mysterious puzzle much clearer now.

 Chapter 903 The Right Way To Handle Toxin

    ?

    The fact of destroying the capital, killing most of the citizens and forces stationed there, and pushing thest standing strong and formidable masters against the cold wall like this was all thanks to this toxic fog.

    William got this and also got a way to counter such a despicable scheme. To him, he wasn''t going to get affected by this toxin, but the masters following him would.

    Alone he wouldn''t be able to change anything. And so he needed to find a way to make all these masters walk into the area covered with the fog, without getting affected by it.

    He didn''t know how the enemy did it, but it seemed the fog wasn''t fixed in ce as he and others thought. The air in the capital and the area around it wasn''t polluted by this fog. Only starting from this zone the fog would appear. And that made him jump to the conclusion that the source of this fog was portable, easy to be carried over to any ce.

    "I need to find and secure this fog source by any means¡­" he felt how deadly and ferocious this item was. If he left such weapons in the hands of the enemy, then such a disaster would be repeated easily.

    For a reason, he felt like this item wasn''t one of a kind. He couldn''t help but think back to the massacre that urred to the entire world before, and thought it might be possible if more of these items were avable to the enemy.

    Putting all these thoughts aside, he first walked towards his forces until his body changed again to return to human form. He kept trying to deactivate his spirit body, ending up failing until he crossed three hundred metres.

    "See this line?" He took out his ive, and hit the ground with it after waving the ive a few times in the air. A deep line appeared on the ground, "this is the safety line. Passing through it will kill you."

    "What are you saying?"

    "Are you sure?"

    "What''s going on? William, why are you standing inside the line?!!" Berry shouted in distress and worry when she saw William pass the line. His body changed to form his unique fox-snake mixed spirit body.

    "I''m the only person here who is going to be safe once I pass the line," William paused, before adding, "I want any master with alchemy talent. Make arge space for them to work, and provide them with any materials they need¡­"

    William then started to ry more orders, organising everyone into three main groups. One contained the alchemists, the second would go and collect herbs and other stuff needed for the alchemists to work, and the third would stand by, protecting the alchemists and others from any possible attack.

    William didn''t know if the enemy would move the moment they''d realise what he was doing or not. But to be cautious, he decided to put such scenarios into consideration.

    And then it came down to the most crucial part of this, to recognise the type of this annoying toxin and make up a counter form against it.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William already got in contact with such toxic substances many times already, but he never got the chance to study them. This time it prevailed in the air, without getting seen or smelled. The task was going to be harder, yet he wasn''t worried about that.

    "Let me check therge number of materials I have¡­ There must be something that can help out there¡­" William already got tons of various materials during the past five years. Be it from the scary loot he gained from all the battles and wars he took part in or things he purchased from the market using his wealth.

    His rings were filled with tons of different materials. He started looking, looking for something that could absorb anything from the air, store it inside, and help in revealing its nature.

    This might be hard, but one would be surprised to know how many materials and ores out there had such magical effects. William didn''t struggle much and found arge group of materials that could help in solving this problem for him.

    There were ores, special types of nts, and even flowers and seeds. He even found a dried-up stool of one monster, a special monster that would poo something that could absorb any spirit power or materials diffusing in the air.

    "I hate the thought of using this," it was the best material out there in the things he got out of his rings. But the mere idea of using a monster''s poo to do it made him want to vomit.

    The next best thing was something like a sponge. It was the size of one''s head, brown gold in colour, with a surface that was filled with deep lines and grooves, dots scattered all over it as if someone picked a needle and pricked it out of boredom or something.

    It was a bit heavy, not soft as its appearance might tell anyone seeing it from far. He held this sponge and slowly examined it.

    "The Brown Sponge Bark¡­ The number of star-shaped diagrams over it tells how old it is¡­"

    This wasn''t an ore, but a miraculous phenomenon where old trees would grow such sponge-shaped things over their roots.

    One had to dig the ground to grab the entirety of these sponges. And the older they were, the better their ability to absorb anything from the world around them.

    It was used mainly to absorb spirit power, but William nned to let it absorb the toxin in the air. Itcked one simple aspect that the monster poo thing had, which was to interact with the toxin, and purify it!

    "I''ll need something else then¡­" William wasn''t out of options. As he searched for a material to absorb the toxin, he also looked for another to purify it.

    He didn''t look for much to find what he needed.

 Chapter 904 Extracting The Toxin

    ?

    This time, it was the perfect material to do what he wanted. "The Silver Starry Dew¡­ It''s the best thing to do this¡­ When did I get it?"

    He held arge bottle that was the size of his height. He opened its lid and sniffed the sweet aroma of the silver liquid inside.

    The liquid was sparkling with silver lights, so dense and bright to fall over his face and lighten it up. He knew how precious this material was in alchemy, and that made him doubt he bought it from the market.

    "I must have obtained it from the rings of dark masters¡­" William closed the lid again, and ced the bottle carefully on the ground, before taking something out.

    It was a big and deep te. He ced it on the ground, before filling it with the Silver Starry Dew. As he filled it, he stored the bottle away, held the sponge, and slowly infused his spirit power inside.

    To activate it, he had to pour out his spirit power to fully fill it. This sponge got seventeen-star diagrams, which meant it took around seventeen hundred years to get formed. Its age was appropriate, but not the best actually.

    The best would be for it to have thirty or more star diagrams. But William didn''t need to absorb too much of the toxin from the air. And if the amount absorbed wasn''t that much, he''d simply repeat the process.

    The moment the sponge absorbed enough of his spirit power, it started to shine and change. First, it grew slowly in size, became a bit lighter in weight, and the dots that filled its surface released wisps of pale gold power.

    These were the things this sponge would use to absorb the toxin from the air and condense it inside. William kept holding it while watching the wisps swirl and move around as if the sponge was trying to fly!

    "It didn''t absorb that much¡­" After half an hour, the sponge started to recede back to its initial shape, but its colour didn''t change that much. William knew if the sponge seeded in absorbing enough, its colour would change to ck.

    There was a tinge of ckness over the sponge''s surface, just forming thin lines over there. He looked around and decided to venture deeper.

    His team and friends objected to letting him go solo, and Berryined about this annoying habit of his. But he persisted to do it. After all, the concentration of the toxin in the outer areas was scarce and not enough to make him concentrate the toxin.

    He didn''t forget to take the te away, storing it inside one of his rings after emptying its content of dew back into the bottle.

    William started to walk deeper. He expected to see monsters or dark masters, but he found none. After two hours of walking, he stopped and formed a dense of detecting arrays around just to make sure not a single fly woulde closer without spotting it.

    As he made sure everything was safe, he took out his sponge and used it to absorb toxin from the air.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "It''s like what I guessed, the toxin is much denser the deeper I go¡­" he looked at the many ck lines appearing over the surface of the sponge, knowing that it absorbed too much of the toxin from the air.

    He remained there for an hour, but still, the sponge didn''t get filled up. He didn''t move deeper anymore, fearing he''d sh with the outeryers of the enemy forces, attracting undesired attention toward him.

    Instead, he walked around, in a giant circr path. He walked for two hours, then stood for an hour to absorb the toxin from the air. He kept doing this for an entire day. During this, Sloth kept sending him distressing messages.

    "The enemies are much stronger than I thought! I can''t believe howe, such weak enemies, are this hard!"

    "Where are you? Didn''t you promise to bring reinforcements with you?"

    "Come on! Toxin?! That''s the silliest excuse I heard in my entire life!!!"

    William tried to reason with him and exin things that made such enemies look much stronger than they initially were. But no matter how hard he tried, it seemed as if he was talking to a dead rock or something.

    "That toxin must have illusional effects as well¡­ Tempering with one''s mind and train of thoughts¡­" William decided to store away Sloth''s scroll, not respond to his repeated and annoying messages.

    The sponge was ready, and now it was time to purify the toxin. He didn''t do it here and took a few hours to return back to the same spot he left from.

    "Let''s start," William took out the deep, huge te again, and filled it with the dew water, before cing the sponge in the middle of it. The sponge was now pitch ck in colour, much heavier than before.

    As he ced it in the dew water, the water started to change from sparkling and shining bright silver to ck. This was the initial step, and with it, the sponge returned slowly back to its normal shape and appearance.

    William knew this was just the initial step, as the dew absorbed the toxin from the sponge. Then the process took a few hours for the dew to cleanse itself from the toxin, forming tiny and purified dark green crystals at the base of the deep te.

    William waited for seven hours before all the toxins got purified. He then collected the crystals, ending up having ten big ones, thirty-two medium-sized crystals, and many tiny ones.

    "Time to see what this toxin is formed of¡­" William just extracted the toxin, and with this, he crossed half of the distance needed to find a cure for this toxin. The next thing he''d do was to discover the nature of this toxin. And to do so, he had to use different methods, and form many potions using this toxin.

 Chapter 905 The Potion

    ?

    The process of making potions wasn''t just rigid or strict. It was an art, and he was like an artist drawing a masterpiece.

    With each potion he made, he discovered a trait of this toxin. Slowly the entire picture revealed itself to him. "So¡­ It can destroy spirit power inside anything, slowly weakening anyone and adding a sense of illusion of being overly weak¡­ It also affects the spirit and spirit elements, making anyone infected with it unable to exert his full power while using any technique¡­"

    William grabbed the main features of this toxin. It wasn''t that deadly, provided that no one got contracted to it for long enough. Its main lethal feature was the weakening effect for any master, making anyone vulnerable and quite weak and powerless against any foe.

    William knew to ovee this, the right method was by using some sort of stimulus. He had tons of potions in his head, ones that could turn anyone berserk and crazy.

    These were used as ast resort for many masters in the outer world in battles. As these potions would burn one''s potential, ending up causing severe damage. But William wasn''t worried, as these potions would work against the toxin, ending up causing little damage.

    "It''s better to modify the main forms, adding mental stability effects and healing properties as well¡­" It was futile to use any healing potion or even elixir to heal the damage brought up by these potions. Such damage would affect the spirits first, and that was where the big losses came from to any master.

    The only way to do it was by modifying the main forms and making the potions heal the damage on their own. As he decided that, he took out scrolls and started writing down lots of stuff there.

    Others watched what he was doing attentively. During the past day, they felt more eager to join the battle happening far away. Even if they couldn''t see anything by eyes or spirit senses, they were hearing continuous noises of the fierce shes going on out there.

    William ignored all this and focused on the task at hand. Others thought he was going to deliver to the alchemists what he was writing, letting them make the cure for the toxin he spoke about.

    None ever felt anything before when they walked past that line he drewter. But the ones who met Anjie before spoke about this toxin, and everyone started to understand why William was acting in such a way.

    Against what they thought, once William finished what he was writing, he didn''t give any alchemist a single piece of paper. Instead, he returned to make potions again, seemingly testing something.

    William was testing the new form he devised right on the spot. He experienced many setbacks and had to modify a few parts here and there before finally, he produced a potion that satisfied his needs and high standards.

    "Listen, this is the potion you are going to make," the moment William seeded in making it, he went in the direction of the alchemy masters gathered up at one spot.

    Their number was in the thousands, luckily, and they stayed on an empty piece ofnd, which was enough to amodate tables, ovens, and various gears and materials they''d use.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "... I don''t want to just make enough potions for our use. There are lots of masters entrapped out there, intoxicated by such deadly toxins. We need them, need their help to win this war. So make as much as you can, and keep me posted about this."

    William already handed them a scroll with detailed items they''d need. He asked them to copy and distribute this scroll over to other masters, sending them around to look for the materials in the area around or bring them from their rings.

    But the moment he said hisst piece, his friends'' faces changed. Many sighed, many rolled their eyes, and just a few spoke up.

    "I have to go," William knew they grew sick of such an attitude, but it wasn''t his fault. Every single time he was ced in a situation he''d have to take the lead alone, or work solo without the help of anyone.

    Just like this situation. He wouldn''t take them with him, ending up getting intoxicated and falling victim to much weaker enemies. He said his reasons and left, didn''t know if they got what he said or just nodded as they were powerless to stop him.

    William started to run fast, quite fast. He already spent lots of time making and finalising that potion. And now it was up to him to save the day out there.

    To make these potions, one master would take around half an hour to produce enough to fill a hundred bottles. Using the thousands there, then tons of these potions would be produced in a single day.

    However, there was a catch. First of all, the materials needed were quite high. He had to make aplicated form, one that''d require lots of materials to concoct, not to mention a very high standard of the masters producing them.

    So it might seem that thousands of masters would work on this, but he had to devise a system through which less skilled masters would help in processing the materials and making the easy steps. Then they''d deliver the semi-finished products to the more skilled ones, letting them finalise everything.

    Doing it this way wouldn''t affect the productivity of the masters, but it''d allow for many mistakes to ur. Not to mention he didn''t yet try it out with masters, didn''t know for how long the effect of potions wouldst.

    A single potion mightst for a few hours, or even a few minutes. It might produce different results for each grade, for masters with certain spirits or elements.

    It was a turf that he couldn''t guess any about without trying. Not to mention the concentration of toxin in the air. He was sure that the higher the toxin in the air was, the shorter the effect of the potions wouldst.

 Chapter 906 Fighting Monsters Solo

    ?

    If it was just to allow them to travel towards a certain area, then it wouldn''t be a problem. Yet they had to fight, and that was a variable he couldn''t predict.

    Giving them a day? He was thinking about a week! He decided to go out there and help, trying to buy enough time for them to make more potions.

    William didn''t want to just let his small army use these potions, but all the entrapped masters in that valley. ording to Sloth, there were hundreds of thousands entrapped there, with a fighting force equal to a hundred thousand and a half.

    Thanks to such arge number, they managed to survive against the monsters, dark masters, and the toxin. He knew trying to save the day, win the battle solo was impossible. Yet trying to create trouble for the enemies and attract their attention wasn''t that hard actually.

    "Why do I feel like I''m the dark masters'' troublemaker? Hahahaha!" thinking about that drove a smile over his face, evenughing while running towards the direction of the battle.

    He didn''t need any guidance from Sloth as the loud sounds of the fierce battle out there were enough. He ran for fourteen hours until his spirit sense finally picked up the enemy trail.

    He saw lots of monsters packed over each other, seemingly trying to pass forward. But they couldn''t thanks to their huge numbers. Yet he didn''t see any dark master among them.

    William didn''t hurry to advance anymore. He knew if there was any formidable dark master here, then he was spotted already. So he tried to waste time until they''d react.

    He hoped they''d send a detachment over his direction, but that didn''t happen. After half an hour, he decided to actively approach and take down the monsters blocking his path.

    He took his flying weapons out, and when he got close enough, hended using his deadly techniques. The first attack came from the Cannon Ball technique, followed by the Death Spreading technique, and ended thebo using his Holy Sword technique.

    William''s grade already got upgraded a lot, and that left a deep impact on the ferocity of his techniques. His dashing distance was now over one thousand metres, and the explosions he released were enough to create deep craters along the path he''d traverse.

    The only drawback of this was the decreasing effect of his elixirs. He missed the time when he''d use just a single bottle and wouldst him for tens of normal attacks. But now? Just using it was enough to power up a few, not exceeding seven.

    The moment he started the barrage of his attacks, the noises of his techniques merged with the loud noisesing from the forefront. It was hard to notice his presence at first, butter on it was impossible for anyone to miss him. And that was mainly thanks to his explosive arrows.

    The moment he noticed that his attacks didn''t attract the attention of the dark masters, he decided to make a big scene, one that they''d not miss.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He took out his bow and released many arrows at once. The arrows he used were already armed with grenades, ending up releasing a series of deadly explosions, sweeping lots of monsters away.

    He didn''t stop there and kept advancing deeper through the gaps created by his arrows and grenades. He joined the battle for two hours without anyone paying attention to him. But the moment he used his arrows, ten minutes didn''t pass and he heard an earth-shattering quakeing from the far distance up front.

    All of sudden, all the monsters that were busy trying to advance halted, turned around, and looked at him as if they were looking at the most delicious human in the world.

    This scene was enough to shake any master, any but William. "Come, let''s y a hide and seek game, one which I''ll kill you all in the end with," Williamughed, instantly using a series of his dashes without a moment of pause. He knew monsters were going to hunt him down mercilessly, and things would end up quite badly if they surrounded him.

    So the first thing he did was to run fast while releasing his arrows without stopping. He got arge number of arrows with grenades, enough to create enough havoc for all these monsters.

    His arrows and explosions seeded in dying the fierce advance of all these monsters. Not to mention they killed much more than before thanks to the craziness these monsters were in.

    He couldn''t help but notice that the monsters weren''t acting in any way normal. They looked like they were possessed, lost their minds, and couldn''t control themselves.

    William didn''t care. Any monstering at him would simply die in his hands. As he retreated enough distance, he stopped, focused more on releasing his arrows.

    This time, he didn''t just release his arrows randomly. He made sure to let the monsterse at him through narrow paths and controlled the arrows to explode and limit any other path leading to him.

    In a few minutes, the monsters packed around two thousand metres away from him, unable to advance thanks to the denseyer of fire that blocked their path. They tried to bypass the fire, ending up facing more arrows from him.

    He knew he wouldn''t be able to kill all the monsters trying to circle his fire, but the ones remaining alive would be heavily wounded and woulde at him in a few numbers.

    "Go and kill them," as he left two paths only for the monsters to pass through the fire, he released his two monstrous weapons and let them go to start the massacre, "thinking you can stop me using numbers? Let me show you how a single master can equal an army!"

    He used a tactic that he could only use in this world, one that was once used by a formidable master a long time ago in the outer world.

 Chapter 907 Reinforcements Are Coming

    ?

    Even if that master was at the pinnacle grade of power back then, it didn''t matter to William right now.

    The monstersing towards him were all weak, much weaker than him. So to these monsters, he was like a pinnacle master or something.

    He didn''t just limit himself to releasing arrows. Whenever he found a monstering from a different direction, he''d release his flying weapons to bring it down. Thanks to the difference in powers between the monsters, him, and his weapons, taking down these monsters was a piece of cake.

    Even if they came inrge groups, he managed to ughter them all. His flying weapons worked as an electrical saw machine, killing and cutting all the monsters without a single speck of resistance or challenge.

    The monsters never stoppeding, and William made sure the attention of the leader of this grand army would be fixed over him using his arrows. The monsters roared,ing at him from all directions now, but to William this was nothing.

    He already was moving and retreating, dragging the monsters slowly away from the main battlefield. Like this, he''d create a wedge in the enemy''s ranks, ending up relieving the pressure over the frontlines.

    At the same time, he wanted to drag as many monsters as possible so the army waiting at the edge of the toxic region would take them down easily. This blow would weaken the monster army here, making things much better and a lot easierter on to save everyone trapped out there.

    He didn''t hurry to run away to not arouse any suspicion in the leaders of the army. Not to mention if he did so, he''d end up dragging much fewer monsters, and would kill much less than what he was killing right now.

    He let his flying weapons enforce an area of protection around him, spanning for a few hundred metres without much problems. As for his two monstrous weapons, they weren''t living things to begin with to get affected by the toxin in the air.

    Every now and then he''d recall them back, take a few minutes to rece their exhausted elixirs, before releasing them out again. As he kept retreating, he made sure the reign of fire he was releasing was still following him. And this continued for long hours.

    No matter how he retreated, monsters followed. The world looked like it was formed of monsters in his eyes, as if there was nothing else but monsters roaring and running towards him, monsters falling and dying in his hands.

    "You are betting on my spirit power to deplete? Let''s see what you''ll do when I keep doing this for days!" He knew the enemy leaders were trying to force him to deplete his spirit power using the sheer number of monsters that came without pause. If a blind was watching the entire fight he started so far, he''d release his aim by now.

    And yet the monster leaders never stopped sending out more monsters towards him, adding more wood to the fire. William wasn''t annoyed by this, yet he regretted not having another hand to help in collecting the cores from these monsters.

    He started to devour the cores he got from the other world first. He learnt toote about the nature of these cores, how they''d dissipate their power if they were left untouched for a long time. Using them would replenish his spirit power, add more to his total spirit power count.

    As he consumed everything, he gained around two hundred more points. This wasn''t only thanks to the low amount of spirit power inside these cores, but because the higher he climbed the less effective his Devour ability would be.

    "You are doing great atst! That''s the youngster I watched in that alien world! You are rocking it!"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Sloth kept speaking to him from time to time, saying stuff like these. This wasn''t his nature, as the old man was always secretive, didn''t talk that much even if William knew how deeply impressed he was with him.

    William simply ignored hisments, and kept his focus over the harsh ongoing battle around. He was doing everything he could to bring as many monsters down and drag them away from the main battlefield. And from Sloth''s repeated words, he knew the pressure out there was decreasing.

    Or else that old man wouldn''t have praised him, instead would continue pestering him withints and shouts like before.

    An entire day passed like this. William didn''t know how much distance he crossed during this fight, but he was sure he dragged the monsters away, enough distance toe closer to his master army.

    "Tell me you made enough potions," he waited for half a day before contacting Sara. With Ibra''s absence, she was the leader of the team and guild in such times.

    "Enough for each master here to carry twenty potions on him. Is that enough?"

    "Send one third of them," William paused, "let them follow the sounds of explosions, I''m close to you. But I don''t know where I am."

    "Are we going to join the battle?" she seemed more excited than what William thought.

    "Just one third, and let them consume potions once per hour," William didn''t want to risk them getting poisoned in the middle of battle.

    "This means¡­ We have only twenty hours?!!!"

    "Enough to kill many monsters, retreat and restock, beforeing again to fight," William didn''t have time to inspect the effects of the potions thoroughly enough in the middle of all this, "make sure to select the strongest out there, don''t send any weak master."

    "We don''t have many weak masters like you, hahahaha!"

    "Go to the dark gold grade first then speak," Williamughed back, "don''t waste time and send them as fast as possible. I''m setting the stage for them to arrive."

    William knew he couldn''t just depend on his grandes and arrows for the entire battle. He did fine with them, and it was time for the grand number of masters on his side to show their value.

 Chapter 908 Let Everyone Come!

    ?

    William didn''t know he was this close to everyone. In less than one hour, he spotted the early batches of mastersing towards him. And that made him store his bow away.

    "Attack!" he heard the shoutsing from the direction of these monsters. Theynded heavily and fiercely killed these monsters. They were all at dark gold grade, fighting against gold and silver grade monsters, or even weaker.

    They weren''t affected by the toxin, and so they easily killed their way until they met with William.

    "Boss," they learned how to call William from his team and friends, "what orders do you have for us?"

    "What else? Advance and kill any monsters or dark masters you meet. After fifteen hours, start retreating and I''ll cover up your backs. Don''t forget about your potions."

    William released them over the monsters, and then it became one-sided massacre. He stood on their backs, watching any unfavourable situation that might arise and heading to solve it. Luckily such situations were quite rare, and they only happened when the leaders of this monster army sent high-end monsters to deal with the unstoppable reinforcements.

    The battle kept escting and being favourable for William and others till they finally met with dark masters. The first sign of their appearance came when violent explosions happened. This wasn''t something monsters would do, and William instantly headed towards the direction of these explosions, alongside many formidable masters as well.

    The masters here came from the guards sent by big forces and families in the other world. They were all experienced and strong, not much different from Sloth.

    As William drew closer, he spotted arge number of dark masters, using darkness-based techniques and arrays to release torrents of attacks toward the masters. They were strong, many, and coordinated enough to cause many casualties in the past few minutes.

    But all this changed by the arrival of William and other masters. The formidable masters took charge of the masters fighting against the dark ones, and William simply circled around and targeted those operating the annoying arrays.

    Once the masters controlling the arrays were handled, the arrays would turn useless. They were strong masters, and William had to use his arrows and grenades to throw them away from the area of the array. Once he did so, he reced them and took over the entire array alone!

    "Did you think you are the only masters with darkness elements? Hmph!" William released the attacks of the arrays over the dark masters around. Even if his power was low to kill any of them solo, using the array he caused enough distraction and damage, stopped most of the arrays, and gave masters on his side the chance to fight back and kill those despicable dark ones.

    The dark masters appeared inrge numbers and attacked from different directions at the same time. It seemed as if the leaders of the monster army wanted to get rid of William and others as fast as possible. But they missed one thing.

    The attacks came fiercely and managed to push the masters backward. Seeing this made William not hesitate to issue another order.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Let everyonee! Let them get ready to fight arge number of dark masters, strong ones on top of that," he held Sara''s Bullet and issued such an order. If he allowed the dark masters to force them back, then everything he worked for all this time would be lost.

    He managed to crush the dark master gathering he aimed at first, but there were around six more of these spots. William moved with others, forming a single mighty force. He didn''t need to exchange any words with them to arrange things between this force. They dealt with the sporadic dark masters around, attracting the heat of attacks from all the arrays, before he''dnd over their heads, disturbing their formation and messing with their attacks.

    This might look effective, but it took a long time to handle just a single one of these dark forces'' gatherings. A single group would take an hour for them to disband, and more hours to kill their masters. And while the losses on their side kept umting, reinforcements arrived.

    William''s group advanced and crossed long distances before. Not to mention the attack order came out of the blue, so they took a few hours to arrive at the ongoing harsh battle location.

    Their arrival relieved lots of pressure on other masters. William left others to handle the dark masters and monsters, while he and the formidable masters started to attack fiercely the stronger dark ones.

    Things started to stabilise after an entire day. During this, his side lost many good masters. But the situation would have been much worse if they didn''t have these potions.

    "Retreat now," William knew calling everyone here was a risky move. He didn''t just stop the production of potions, but also lost many good and capable alchemists in the middle of all this, "go and make more potions. Be always ready to be summoned for battle."

    The dark master leaders didn''t try this method again. If William''s side lost a lot of masters, the dark masters lost a ton. The list of their losses wasn''t limited to masters, but also monsters.

    As the pressure was relieved and only monsters were present, William decided to continue the battle solo. Not to mention masters on his side already consumed most of the potions they made.

    During this battle, William knew it wasn''t enough to just let them make potions for a day or two. He decided to go all out and let them make potions for an entire week. And to do so, he needed help from the entrapped masters inside.

    "Give me the extra potions you have," William decided to take a risk and let the masters on his side return back with just a single potion. He received thousands of potions, and watched everyone leave while he contacted Sloth.

    "You want me to leave the battle ande to meet you?!!!" Sloth seemed to be startled by this, "but¡­"

 Chapter 909 Something Seems Off

    ?

    "Listen to me, I''m going to give you something to cure the toxin you and others suffered. This is a game changer for you, for everyone. Select a capable team of one hundred formidable masters, and make them get ready to massacre the enemies."

    "Ok¡­ Let''s see what the hell are you talking about¡­" Sloth was under the effect of the toxin, and his personality changed dramatically. William got used to this weird side of him and knew it was expected for him and others to doubt his words.

    The master army entrapped out there had many formidable and well-knowledgeable masters. So it was expected for them to doubt his words as they never felt the presence of any toxin in the air.

    William told Sloth to follow the distant sounds of explosions and battle, while he continued massacring the monsters. He was feeling a little doubt about something. He fought and killed with others tons of monsters, yet it felt like the pressure over there was still strong and threatening.

    William was sure he attracted many monsters, and that didn''t exin why the pressure wasn''t relieved that much. When the dark masters attacked, they came with swarms of monsters, many ended up dead and the remaining ones were surrounding him.

    There was no exnation for such a weird phenomenon. And so he decided to take his time and explore the enemy areas, with the help of Sloth and his team of course.

    He wasn''t that suicidal to act alone, go and deal with dark masters of much higher power than him. He''d use Sloth and his one hundred team as a vanguard unit, distracting the attention of the dark master leaders, while he''d do the scout mission.

    He knew he wouldn''t escape the attention of the dark master leaders this easily, butpared to the team of high-end masters, he was a mere fly not worthy of paying attention to.

    He didn''t try to exin all this to Sloth when he met him. He knew thetter wasn''t in his best form, and trying to knock any sense into him was futile. He just lured Sloth by using the card of the survival odds of the royal family and the kingdom, making thetter fall for his words and buy all of them without any doubt.

    "So these are the rumoured potions? Will see what they do right away¡­ F*ck! What the heck happened to me?!!!"

    The moment he gulped the potion, his eyes froze for a few seconds before his breathing changed. William didn''t know what was going on, but soon enough Sloth looked much better.

    William realised this was the process of cleansing the toxin off his body. And when he saw the eyes of Sloth, returning to look sharp and deep again, he knew he got cured of this toxin.

    "Thanks," without saying much, Sloth expressed his gratitude and cupped his hands towards William. He didn''t say more than this, but deep inside he was feeling more gratitude towards William, plus admiration.

    If not for this youngster to sniff the toxin that no one else felt, their fate would be doomed. "Do you know for how long these potions willst?"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "That''s one of the tasks I want you to handle," William said before exining in great detail what he was doing and wanted Sloth and others to do.

    "I don''t know why I didn''t notice this before, but out there a gathering of big gates is located," the moment Sloth said these words, all the mysteries got solved. William''s eyes shone brightly, feeling this did indeed exin the insane number of monsters the dark masters sent for days on two fronts.

    William also realised why they focused on using monsters, not caring even if they got ughtered in his hands. "They are waiting for something¡­" William jumped to the next wild guess in his mind, "Are you sure the king is alright? The royal family is well protected?"

    "Yes, they are surrounded by the royal guards¡­ Why?" Sloth knew William wasn''t going to mention such a point without something in his mind, something grand and dangerous.

    "And you know all of them?" William knew Sloth was curious about his interest in such a point, and yet he didn''t bother to exin anything yet.

    "They are all old friends andrades in arms," Sloth felt like William was suspecting someone of the guards. And so he had to make it clear how much he trusted them.

    He guessed it right, but his words didn''t help in convincing or changing William''s mind.

    "I have a task for you," William paused, "it''s a bit dangerous and you won''t like it."

    "Just tell me whom you suspect and why," Sloth didn''t like how William used to speak about things, and preferred the more direct approach, "I vow on my life if any is involved in this, I''ll personally kill him!"

    "It''s just a hunch," William wasn''t lying, yet his words made Sloth''s eyebrows rise up in surprise, "but I believe there is someone out there, someone close to the king, a traitor!"

    "Why do you suspect that? You have to give me something so I can work on this issue with full heart and dedication," if anyone else dared to use any of the old friends, the royal guards, then Sloth wouldn''t hesitate to silence him with force even. But this was William, and he got lots of credit to add more weight to his words than any normal master.

    "You saw how this toxin works, and yet the enemy doesn''t seem that distressed by the elongation of battle," William thought for a short minute before adding, "They look as if they are waiting for something. The toxin we all suffered isn''t that hard to deal with, not that much deadly. Yet the king was suffering the most out of it. I suspect someone close to the king, someone still present near him right now, and that traitor is about to kill him."

 Chapter 910 The Monster Gates

    ?

    "Damn you! Why does it always have to be this hard whenever you are around?" Sloth cursed, feeling more enraged about the crazy possibility William just proposed, "Tell me then, how can we deal with this traitor? How to expose him? You don''t expect me to go around shouting: "Who is the traitor here?!!"

    "There is indeed a simple way to uncover him¡­" William then told Sloth about his n. And the more he spoke, Sloth''s face eased up.

    "I like this n of yours," he nodded, "in the worst-case scenario, the king will be saved, right?"

    "He will be saved from the toxin," William refused to give such a huge promise, but that didn''t bother Sloth.

    "As long as you can cure him of this damn toxin, then it''s fine. Leave other stuff to grown-up men."

    William didn''t object to such a statement, before seeing Sloth walking away. He did everything he could to save the king, and extricate everyone from this impending crisis. And now it came down to one more task to do.

    He initially wanted Sloth toe and act as a distraction with his team. He wanted to explore and scout the reason behind this attack and the ones standing behind it. Yet he already got the answer.

    There were many monster gates releasing endless swarms of monsters towards here. This meant whoever was attacking the capital was prepared for this for a long time already. And that also told him a lot about the identity of the people standing behind all this.

    His first doubts drifted toward the Nightmare monster. But now he has changed his mind. This couldn''t be the work of a single enemy, it must be a coboration of many dark masters for a long time, much longer than the transformation of the Nightmare monster and bing one of the Mutants!

    He didn''t know how big the dark master of groups was in this, but he was sure they must have thought about different scenarios before starting their operation. And that made him suspect the presence of a traitor even more.

    The deadliest enemy wasn''t the one known to the master, but the one hiding in the shadows, acting as his friend and most trusted ally.

    William knew where he had to look for evidence leading to these despicable masterminds, the monster gate area. He wasn''t that delusional to think about taking care of them alone. But he''d use the distraction caused by what Sloth and others were about to do and sneak deeper behind enemy lines.

    As he decided, he moved toward the direction Sloth specified. He continued to kill monsters like usual, not finding any trouble in dealing with them. Yet he knew the moment he''d arrive there, he''d be faced with monsters and dark masters.

    So he refrained from using his arrows or grenades, leaving them forter. As he kept advancing forward, he thought about another dilemma.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "The monster gates are damn hard to crack¡­ Back then I used the help of tons of dark gold Scarlet Bears to tear them down. I can''t repeat that move now¡­ And without closing them, they''ll keep pouring fresh reinforcements for the dark masters. I need to make them feel more pressure¡­"

    He thought about this dilemma while walking towards the monster gate area. For the first time ever, he felt more regret that his enemies this time weren''t the Scarlet Bears. Or else he''d have an easy time dealing with these gates, dealing with the entire army of monsters and dark masters.

    He threw such thoughts behind his back when he spotted the gathering of gates from far. When Sloth mentioned them, he imagined the gates to be around twenty or thirty at most. Yet they were in the hundreds!

    Seeing such a grand number of monster gates made William surer that at least one hundred different groups of dark masters were taking part in this operation. He didn''t know how many groups of these dirty masters were active in the kingdom, but he doubted there were such a huge number of them.

    "Don''t tell me the entire dark masters of the continent are working together¡­" his thoughts jumped towards such a crazy conclusion, and yet it was the only one that could solve such a scene.

    William stopped a few kilometres away from the gates, and watched how things were going out there using his spirit sense. He couldn''t reach the gates using his spirit sense, but he saw how monsters ran in the direction of the entrapped royal family the moment they came out of the gates.

    "Like this, what I did wasn''t effective at all," he didn''t need anyone to tell him that. It was clear with all these monsters gushing out from the gates that the losses he tried to bring to the dark master leaders weren''t enough to make them even feel any worry.

    "I have to shut these down¡­" William knew even if he released all of his grenades together, the most he''d do to a single monster gate was a few cracks. He didn''t have any power to deal with these gates, but he wasn''t alone in this war.

    "I''ll wait for them then," William wanted to add more pressure by synchronising his attack with Sloth and others. But as he got no power to stop these gates, he decided to keep killing monsters, trying to relieve pressure over Sloth''s side.

    As he started to fight desperately, many monsters came from the gates to keep him busy. He kept his focus on the overall region using his spirit sense, and the things he saw didn''t make him feel any satisfaction at all.

    He was killing tons of monsters, but tons more were gushing out from the portals every single second. He was like trying to stop a flood using a single tree branch, a fragile thin one on top of that.

    Yet he didn''t stop what he was doing. Even if it was pointless, he didn''t dare to stop. As he couldn''t stop the iing monster flood, he decided to work on scouting the entire area.

 Chapter 911 Sloths Struggle

    Chapter 911 Sloth''s Struggle

    William moved around, taking the monster gates as a fixed monument, and walked for arge distance around. Aside from this ce, there was another one that he couldn''t get closer to. And that was thanks to the dense number of dark masters guarding that area.

    It was around fifty kilometres to the north of the monster gate zone. Being this far away made William suspect the leaders selected it to be out of most masters'' spirit sense coverage. And with all the dense number of dark masters guarding it, he was positive it contained the leaders and top dark masters inside.

    He didn''t dare to approach this ce again and kept scouting other areas. At some point, he also met a ce that was slightly guarded by strong dark masters. They weren''t that numerous in number, but they were well hidden and used high stealth techniques, ones that even his detection arrays failed to spot.

    He barely got away with his life thanks to his two monstrous weapons and many grenades. If not for his fast-dash technique, he''d have fallen back there.

    "The first spot is fifty kilometres to the north from the monster gate, and this one is fifty kilometres northwest from the leaders'' position¡­ Is this another base? Or a small detachment responsible for securing a way out for them?"

    William leant more to the second possibility. With such a gathering of many great and dirty minds, and putting the nature of the dark masters into consideration, it was expected for them to secure a way out if things went south for them.

    William saved the location of this group in his mind, decided toeter with enough high-end masters to secure this ce and block any path for retreat for the dark leaders. As he kept scouting for days, he didn''t find anything worthy of note.

    He spent days doing this, during which he didn''t receive any news from Sloth. The mission he asked thetter to do wasn''t that hard, but William underestimated the current situation over there.

    Once the capital was attacked and destroyed, the royal family became very vignt and quite suspicious towards anyone. That made the atmosphere closer to the king and royal members quite heavy and hostile.

    Sloth took this time to convince the leaders of the royal family of his n, but he never expected that such a suggestion and scheme would be met by fierce resistance from many.

    He didn''t know who leaked the news, but many royal members dered their rejection of his suggestion. The news that he tried to keep stealth and secretive spread out, and by the sixth day, he decided to act solo.

    He knew if there was any traitor, he''d be warned by now. All he said was that he had a way to save the king, and he asked for permission to meet the man. But who thought such a request would be met by a fierce rejection, a tough situation he never expected when he came back here!

    He didn''t want to look suspicious, but he couldn''t help but believe more in William''s theory. Saying that he got a way to save the king was enough to pave the path for him to be there. And yet many objected, saying that they were fearing the king''s fragile health from deteriorating.

    more distressed and worried. The more he watched such internal useless debates, the more he felt his kingdom wasn''t as perfect as The two sides fought internally for days, while Sloth was feeling more distressed and worried. The more he watched such internal useless debates, the more he felt his kingdom wasn''t as perfect as he thought before.

    It was filled with many dirty-minded masters. And the most depressing fact he discovered was that many of these held high positions in the royal family and the entire kingdom.

    "Screw them all! I want to see who is going to stop me from going to meet the king," Sloth had to speak with the group he carefully selected. A group of one hundred high-end masters, ones with undying loyalty to the king and kingdom followed him towards the king''s tent.

    The king wasn''t able to even stand up and move on his own anymore. So he was carried by his guards, ending up lying in that tent since the start of this miserable war.

    Sloth was someone known in the inner circle of the capital. Many masters admired him, and few got the privilege to work under his leadership or learnt from him a thing or two. So when he approached, not alone but with many celebrities and men of high power, the guards were petrified in their ces, unable to do anything to stop them.

    The quarrels that happened in the royal family reverberated all over the entire army. The king''s guards were close by default to the ce where the royal family fought among each other, so they knew better than anyone what was all this about.

    Seeing the man who caused all this strife walking towards the king''s tent made many unable to take a decision. Would they stop him? Or let the man who was famous for being loyal and trustworthy go and save the king?

    Many stopped in their ces unable to do anything, while few decided to act. Yet they weren''t this suicidal to try and stand in front of his path, not when he came with a hundred of the most ferocious masters in the capital and the kingdom.

    They ryed the news to the royal family, telling them what was going on here. They did that to extricate themselves from this mess, letting the sides fighting among each other handle this situation as they saw fit.

    Sloth already expected that and didn''t care. After watching the silly quarrels for days, he grew tired and cold of all this. William, a youngster, one who wasn''t even at the dark gold grade, one who wasn''t even living in the capital or got any interest from it, was risking his life to save everyone.

    Sloth couldn''t believe an old man like himself, one who was looked upon as the grand tutor and one of the kingdom''s pirs, would stand powerless thanks to such an unrealistic situation.

 Chapter 912 The Kings Tent

    Chapter 912 The King''s Tent

    "Move!" As Sloth got closer to the king''s tent, the closest confidant of the king''s guards moved out from in there and stood, blocking his path inside, "or die!"

    Sloth didn''t have the mind to argue or negotiate with anyone. He came here to save the king, and he was prepared to fight the entire world to achieve such a result. The moment he said his words, he released his monstrous spirit power, and he wasn''t the only one doing so.

    Others who came with him also released their spirit powers uncontrobly. Anyone in their shoes might not believe what Sloth said, but they were different. They tasted the real magic of William''s potions, and knew Sloth wasn''t lying, was quite sincere and determined to save the king.

    And when he decided to go towards the king''s tent even by force, they supported his decision and rooted for him in their spirits. At this moment, these one hundred masters were acting like a scary army, an army following the orders of their leader; Sloth.

    "No one is allowed to enter by the orders of the Grand Uncle¡­"

    "Scram!"

    Just when the guard elites hesitated to fight their old friends, a sly-looking young man came out from the tent, shouting in a loud tone as if he was trying to rile up the passive guards around.

    He was the king''s consultant on the general affairs of the kingdom, one who was supposed to be one of the closest and most loyal to the king and kingdom. And yet the first thing this man said was mentioning someone else other than the king.

    Just seeing his ugly face and hearing what he said drove Sloth''s rage to the point of boiling. "You¡­" the consultant couldn''t believe himself while his body flew high in the air from Sloth''s explosive spirit power surge, "you''ll pay for this with your life! This is treason! This is treason!"

    The man tried to shout and scream and tried to use Sloth with things that''d make anyone caring for the kingdom to react aggressively. And yet this man missed a very important point; the value of his name against Sloth!

    He might be very high in standing, but he was weak. Many already knew the story of him bribing many of the royal members to get this position. At first, it wasn''t important, as his role was just advisory to the king.

    But the moment the king fell ill, unable to do his tasks well, his role skyrocketed. He became the undered king of the kingdom, able to take decisions that would change the fate of the entire kingdom.

    Yet even with his sudden and unbelievable rise to power, he didn''t gain any respect from anyone. Trying to frame Sloth? The old man who spent decades of his life fighting on various frontlines, killing different enemies, and facing tons of hellish situations to save and secure the kingdom? That was indeed hrious.

    The moment this consultant acted like this, all the hesitation piled up in the hearts of the guard elites vanished. They slowly moved aside, opening a path for Sloth to go inside, and meet the king atst.

    "Thanks," Sloth didn''t forget to cup his hands to the guard elites, to everyone before turning into the tent, "I promise what you did today will be forever remembered by the kingdom for generations."

    Sloth''s casual words of gratitude would forever be remembered by many masters as the most impressive words that came from any general in the history of the kingdom.

    "My liege," Sloth once entered the tent, his nose was met with a thick aroma of something unfamiliar to him. When he smelled it, his mind felt a little dizzy, and yet his reflexive act was fast.

    He instantly took five potions out of his ring, and gulped one at the spot before hurrying towards the fragile dried-up body of an old man, lying over the bed like a dried leaf in the winter.

    Seeing the face he always admired and looked at in veneration and respect towards turning to such a man on the verge of death made Sloth''s heart clench. The king''s face was filled with deep grooves, ridges that ran deep and thick, covering his face.

    The king didn''t look like a king but like a beggar. And seeing such a fate for his most cherished man in the entire kingdom made Sloth''s body tremble, soothing out with rage and disgust.

    "Please, please drink these, my liege," Sloth got jolted awake when loud banging noises came from close by. He knew the royal members arguing against what he was going to do were rushing up here, trying to stop him.

    Luckily he had his own little army to stop them, and now it all came down to William''s potions to do the magic. "Please, please work," Sloth didn''t know how many potions he needed to use for the toxin to get away. He used five potions first, then went ahead and looked "Don''t tell me¡­" Seeing the thick smokeing out from this small corridor made Sloth''s mind freeze. He expected the traitor to be for the source of this annoying and toxic smell.

    "Found you!" at a corner of the tent, there was a small corridor there. He recalled this as it was something gifted to him by one of the royal members, the Uncle that the consultant mentioned.

    "Don''t tell me¡­" Seeing the thick smokeing out from this small corridor made Sloth''s mind freeze. He expected the traitor to be one of the royal guards, one of the king''s servants, or even concubines, never thought the one to do all this would be one who shared the same flesh and blood with the king!

    He slowly and cautiously opened it, to find a small candle, one that was thick as a closed fist and short as half a finger tall inside there. It was flickering with green light, releasing the smoke he smelled.

    He tried to touch it, yet for a weird reason he couldn''t. At the same time, his fingers got severe burns, one that turned into blisters in mere seconds, festering pustules as if they got heavily infected or something.

 Chapter 913 [Bonus ] I Owe You Big

    ?

    "If I can''t kill your dirty smoke, then I''ll throw you away," he tried to move it away from the tent, but couldn''t. He felt like there was an impregnable wall that prevented him from taking it away. "F*ck! What the hell is wrong with this thing?!!!"

    He got more frustrated by all this, and then couldn''t help but try and store it away inside one of his rings. The ring epted it, ending up getting ruined and smashed as if a bomb exploded deep within.

    Everything that was inside the ring got ruined already, burnt, and turned into thin wisps of green gas. As for the corridor, itnded peacefully on the ground, like nothing happened.

    "Hmm¡­ I want you to check that corridor, see if there are any weird writings there," as hecked any clue about what to do, and the king didn''t wake up, Sloth had to ask for the advice of the only person he trusted he''d know the solution to.

    The battle out there was already heated up as more of the royal members and their followers flooded this ce. Even the ones who agreed to let Sloth try curing the king didn''t ept what he did. It was an act of treason in many eyes, a dirty insult in the eyes of others.

    Thanks to the team Sloth gathered, and as they weren''t affected by the toxin anymore, they managed to stop them so far. Yet their task was hard, as they had to exert total control over their powers and techniques, to not end up severely harming or killing anyone.

    Even if this was a sh, it was something like internal strife that would end up quite good in the end by the waking up of the king. The masters didn''t want to harm their friends, colleagues, and even disciples, and didn''t want to do what the enemy failed all this time, killing and harming what remained of the kingdom''s force.

    Sloth knew every single minute passing would end up making the situation worse. So he took out his special scroll and told William about everything.

    As he expected, William did indeed know the right way to handle the situation.

    Sloth was busy trying to get rid of that candle and corridor and didn''t even examine it. When William mentioned it, he knew he acted on impulse and was quite impatient. He scanned the entire thing using his spirit sense, and even left the small door open so he could scan the interior as well.

    "There are indeed weird symbols and writings there¡­ But I can''t read any of it," Sloth said to William, and thetter paused before saying:

    "Are there any symbols of circles with rays going inside instead of shining outside? It will be like the symbol of stars, but with rays pointing to the centre."

    "There are lots of these symbols, all with weird small letters written in the centre of it."

    "Great! Then you can definitely store it away inside one of your rings¡­"

    "I tried that before but failed, told you already¡­" Sloth was hoping for William to say something new, but in the end, he didn''t. He felt like he rose up to the seventh heaven, to end up falling into the deepest hole in hell.

    "Don''t jump to conclusions yet, what I mean is a special type of ring."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "There aren''t any special types of rings, there is only one type of them!"

    "There are the ones which can hold any living things inside," William didn''t need to borate any further for Sloth to get his point.

    "You mean the life storage devices? Will that work?"

    "There is no time to exin anything, but the thing you are dealing with isn''t just a normal candle. It''s something living, eating up on our spirit power and growing intense and bigger by it."

    Sloth knew William meant something he couldn''t get, and he didn''t know how William knew such a thing. But without any hesitation, he took out one of his life storage devices, stored that corridor inside, and it worked!

    The corridor vanished like magic. Sloth ced the storage device that was in the form of a thick bracelet on the ground, and waited for it to explode or something but it didn''t.

    "Thanks, William, I owe you big this time," he muttered to himself, vowing that such gratitude wouldn''t go without heavily and richly repaid.

    The moment that candle vanished, Sloth turned to the king. He fed him ten bottles of potions so far, and yet the king didn''t show any sign of recovery.

    "You don''t need to add any more potions, the ones you gave him are enough," William knew Sloth was impatient, but this process would take a long time to yield results.

    The king was poisoned for a long time already, got poisoned by a heavy concentration of the toxin. So it was expected to take much longer to relieve the symptoms and cure the king. Giving him more potions wouldn''t help, instead, it might backfire in the end.

    Sloth needed to be patient, and yet he asked William about how long before the potions would show their magic. The toxin was deeply rooted inside the king''s body, and William wasn''t there himself to check and give Sloth the right answer. But as he learned about the critical situation Sloth and others were in, William decided to give a rough estimate for the old man.

    "Buy yourself at least half an hour, then things will start getting better¡­ I hope," William wouldn''t give a definite answer, especially when things were heading toward a dead end for Sloth and his team.

    "Fine! I''ll work with that," Sloth turned his eyes over the king, feeling more responsibility towards the fragile-looking man, "I won''t let you die, my king, even if it ended up for me to follow you to the afterlife first."

    As a man who had nothing to lose, Sloth started walking in heavy steps toward the outside.

 Chapter 914 Sloths Vow!

    ?

    The moment Sloth arrived there, he found lots of quarrels, and tons of attacks falling over the one hundred master group he summoned. And yet everything got shielded by a formidable defensive array that surrounded the king''s tent.

    It was something expected, so no long-distance technique of the enemy wouldnd and take the king down.

    Seeing Slothing out like this made everyone halt in their actions. He was still standing in the middle of the defensive array and was quite safe from the reach of anyone out there.

    But that wasn''t the main reason for everyone to stop, the most important question about the king''s health was. Sloth kept iming his ability to save the king and ended up meeting the king atst.

    The ones who argued against this move from the start shouted next and pointed at him with a single word: Traitor! As for those who supported him before, they remained silent, and didn''t know what they should do.

    There were only limited options for him right now, and the only thing everyone thought about was for him to join the fight.

    Even the masters who he rallied with him thought of the same thing. None ever expected what he was going to do right now.

    Against what others expected, he turned around, waved his arm, and all of a sudden his spirit power surged violently. Everyone was shocked by such a scene, watching the tent getting ripped by his spirit power and turn into nothing.

    "Stop him!"

    "He has gone insane!"

    "He wants to kill the king!"

    All of sudden, many shouts came and rose up, riling everyone against him. No one knew who spoke, but the shouts managed to change the hearts and minds of many.

    Yet before any would do a single thing, Trevor did another totally unexpected thing to all. He took out his sword, and ced its sharp edge over his neck without turning to any of them, without shifting his eyes off the man he served for his entire life.

    "I, Trevor, the Royal Tutor, the Holy Guardian of the Novistic kingdom, vow on my spirit that if the king died or didn''t wake up, I will im my life right here with my own hands!"

    His voice came deep and calm, wasn''t that loud, to begin with, but it was like thunder reverberating in the ears of everyone witnessing this scene. His voice silenced all the shouts asking for his life, and no one could issue a single sound or even breath!

    Sloth''s determination was clear and touched everyone''s spirits. Even the ones who were standing against him couldn''t help but look at him in different lights, all except for those damn traitors.

    The tent was now gone, and everything inside was revealed. The ones who ced that candle inside knew Sloth took it away. And that also meant he knew what he was doing, and what he imed before was mostly going to happen.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The king they tried for long years to poison was going to rise up from the ashes. And by then, they''d be doomed!

    Yet they got nothing in their power to do. The array surrounding the king was now activated, protecting it, and wouldn''t go down for an hour. Not to mention by what Sloth said, he managed to recruit everyone to his side.

    Trying to harm him? This was going to be futile! They had nothing to do to save themselves, except for praying that what Sloth did wasn''t enough to save the king.

    Sloth stood out there, in front of everyone, standing like a mountain. He never turned around, never shifted his eyes off the king, never moved the sword away from his neck.

    He was really determined to take his life if harm touched the king. He knew it wasn''t his fault if that happened, and the end woulde at the hands of that nasty toxin.

    But he held himself responsible for this. It was a failure, a failure for the ones the king selected and trusted, a failure in protecting the man who meant everything to the kingdom and its people.

    William told him to wait for half an hour for the potions to work, but he was prepared to stand there for days even until the end result would be clear. And yet he still anticipated the first half an hour ording to William''s words.

    Time passed slowly, very slowly, not only on Sloth but on everyone else.

    "Father¡­ Please¡­ Please be ok," from one side, Anjie''s eyes were all red and sore, on the verge of crying. During the past few days, she fought a brutal battle against her blood rtives, uncles, and cousins, to try and rally enough support for Sloth to do what he imed and save the king.

    She wasn''t thinking about this emotionally as the king''s sole daughter, but she knew on what basis Sloth was saying these words. She was the one who watched him walk away with William''s friends and team, vanished into that deadly fog, and he came back!

    No one ever went there and returned. She knew the mystery behind this didn''t lie in Sloth but in William. The reason didn''t matter, and she believed in what Sloth said.

    Yet she met unexpectedly fierce resistance led by her uncles. They refused to even let Sloth try and save her father. She was a princess, one who was supposed to lead after the passing of her father. And yet she hoped such a day wouldn''te.

    Seeing Sloth take such a risk to save the king made her quite shaken internally. She realised she got stuck to the stupid royal rules to even forget the duties of hers as a daughter.

    She should have been by Sloth''s side, aiding him in all this. Even if they would be branded as traitors, she saw nothing good about the throne in her father''s absence.

    She prayed from the depths of her spirit, praying that her father would wake up.

 Chapter 915 The Kings Manifestation

    ?

    Yet that was totally the opposite of thing others prayed for. Many got fooled by the dirty schemes of a few of the royal family''s high elders, the king''s brothers, and cousins. They were the ones who led this scheme in the first ce and yed the role of traitors and assassins to get rid of the king and pave the road for them to rule.

    All of this changed because of an old man they never thought he''d cause such trouble before. Many of them regretted not taking Sloth down when they got the chance. And few thought about what they should do if a miracle urred, and the king woke up.

    As they were preparing for such a scenario, a few others of the loyalist to the king and kingdom were preparing a counter for this! Without showing anything on the surface, the entire ce was brimming with fire, hidden and waiting for the right time to explode!

    "Kingdom that lost its heart, its capital, its people¡­ And you are fighting among each other like this to save an old man like me?"

    Just as everyone was watching the king''s fragile body lying on a bed, the voice of the king appeared. Yet it didn''te from the body out there, it came from a different direction.

    Everyone moved their heads slowly to watch a gathering of dark gold fog appearing tens of metres away from the king''s bed. It was still within the protection of the defensive array, and no one needed to ask about what this fog was.

    "The king''s manifestation¡­ It''s the king''s special technique¡­ It''s the king¡­"

    "The king¡­ The king is alive!"

    "Long live the king! Long live the king!"

    "Attack!"

    The moment the fog appeared, taking the shape of a weird two-headed tiger, many muttered in disbelief and delight. Then a wave of cheer prevailed next, with voices raising the words to the high sky. But in the middle of all this, and as many had tears flooding from their eyes, another type of shout appeared.

    This was the kind that would appear from anyone towards his deadliest enemy. No one had time to act when many shadows shed, shadows using the darkness element to travel fast, head like a bullet towards the tent.

    "Stop them!" Anjie was one of the few who got jolted awake and realised what was going on, "protect the king!"

    She didn''t know who was heading toward her father, but she was pretty sure of their ill intentions. Just the fact they had darkness elements and used darkness techniques was enough to point towards their identities.

    They were dark masters, and they were hidden within the masters gathered here. Even if she knew that she couldn''t move in time to intercept and stop them. She was away from her father''s tent, and she wasn''t strong enough to sh like them.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "You think this useless array can stop us? We are the ones who ced it here in the first ce, and we know how to stop it!" One of the many who moved spoke up in a tone that was filled with mockery and weird anger.

    "Grand Uncle¡­ Why?!!!" Anjie wasn''t the only one to recognise the owner of this voice, but everyone as well. He was the Grand Uncle, the king''s uncle, and oldest rtive alive to the king.

    "The capital is gone, and the king is halfway through the death doorsteps¡­ There is no Novistic kingdom anymore. I''ll kill the king myself, kill all of you together with my friends and trusted allies, then rebuild a brand new kingdom¡­"

    "Shut the hell up!"

    Just as the Grand Uncle was speaking, many shadowsnded around the king''s tent. It seemed he was buying time for them to do something, and he was this close to seeding only if Sloth wasn''t here.

    Thetter already expected traitors to move and knew about their presence before all this. It was thanks to William who proposed such shocking and unbelievable doubts to him. If not, he''d have been like others, standing in immense surprise and feeling much confused.

    The moment these shadows moved, Sloth gave the order to his handpicked masters to get ready to move. Everyone on his team already trusted him. And after hearing the voice of the king and seeing his unique and famous technique of his, they knew they were this close to sess in saving him.

    Being this close and yet about to lose this chance was enough to drive them mad. When Sloth gave them the signal, they were prepared to move and stop these shadows.

    Yet Sloth waited for the shadows to arrive at the array. He didn''t imagine such a formidable and terrifyingly defensive array had weak spots. And so he wanted to see how these traitors would deal with it.

    The moment they reached the array, he saw them taking a few materials out, throwing them on the ground. Without waiting any further, he spoke up, giving the signal for hisrades in arms to act.

    The next instant, a big and intense battle erupted between the traitors and Sloth''s men. The battle jolted everyone awake, and they joined the fray, helping Sloth and others to protect the king.

    "Damn you! I won''t stop until you all are dead! Do you hear me?" the Grand Uncle knew he already lost his chance the moment Sloth spoke up. He thought he hid himself quite well and didn''t arouse any suspicion at all. Yet Sloth seemed to not get fazed by his act, seemingly prepared for him.

    If it was just Sloth, then things wouldn''t have ended this badly. Yet there were one hundred formidable masters on the side of Sloth, acting and moving at the same time, stopping the Grand Uncle and his treacherous subordinates.

    As any proper dark master would act in his ce, the moment the situation turned worse with the joining of other royal members and their guards and top masters, he turned around and started to run for his life.

 Chapter 916 The Kings Orders

    ?

    He was strong, a high-end stage master. And he had the darkness element, a secret that no one knew but the ones he recruited and nourished over the years. So it was expected for him to escape sessfully while most of his subordinates ended up either dead or getting captured.

    "Lock them up," the king was watching all this happening using his manifestation, "and prepare for the counterattack. We can''t stay here entrapped without fighting back!"

    "My king," at this moment, Sloth approached the king''s tent. His body was soaked with blood, the blood of traitors he mercilessly y, "there is a nasty toxin spread all over the ce, weakening our forces and making us lose any direct sh. It''s the same toxin that poisoned you."

    "And?" the king got what Sloth wanted to say. Just by watching what happened here, he could tell the powers of his family members and top masters weren''t the usual, were weirdly much weaker than ever.

    Only Sloth and the group of hundred masters he gathered showed the usual scary power he used to watch from them. And if not for them, the situation would have ended in a totally different end.

    The Grand Uncle and traitors on his side showed the usual level of power suiting their grades. The king didn''t need to ask to know that Sloth had a way to handle the toxin, the same way that was now working to save his life and cure him.

    "There is a youngster, one of our kingdom''s people, he is out there fighting alone against the enemies, trying to help¡­" Sloth would never allow for such glory to stick with his name. Instead, he started to speak about William, telling the king the main points of his deeds and crucial contributions.

    The king and others listened attentively and with great shock to what Sloth was saying. The name of William wasn''t that alien to many, as he created a storm five years ago. They knew he was the one behind the storm that swept away many of the dark master forces, not only in the kingdom but in the entire world as well.

    They were all shocked by what Sloth was saying, all except for Anjie and Sloth''s one hundred masters.

    "He sounds like a goodd," the kingughed, "alright, let''s wait for him to deliver us more of his magical potions. As for now, keep the enemy busy with us. We can''t fall behind a single gold-grade youngster when we have all these masters with us."

    "My king¡­ Father¡­ Are you alright?" At this moment Anjie finally stepped up, showing concern and worry that any daughter would show it to his father.

    "I''m fine, just need a bit more rest," the king warmly said, "sorry for that, but as my only daughter, you must have lived through tough times during my illness."

    "It''s all for the kingdom¡­ It was all for you¡­" Anjie managed to control her tears well so far, but right now she failed. Her eyes got drowned by tons of salty tears, and yet all she felt was happiness and excitement.

    Her father was saved and would return again to rule over the kingdom. Everything she tried to do yielded unexpected and happy results. So she was happy, without feeling any pride or arrogance about it.

    "Go, do what you need to, and we''ll meet together back at our home when all this is over," the king''s manifestation vanished slowly with hisst words.

    Watching their king''s unique technique vanish made everyone here quite determined to win this war and emerge victorious, just like how their king came back from death.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The first thing they did was to cuff the captured traitors. They were all familiar faces, with few of them belonging to the royal family, and others who served the kingdom for years.

    Yet at this moment none of this mattered. They dared to scheme this big and deep against the kingdom, and were this close to seeding. So no one held any speck of respect or attachment to any of them. And it was expected how much hatred they held towards these traitors.

    Part handled the traitors, torturing them to learn about the enemy''s ns and schemes. As for others, they returned to control the disturbance caused by such internal conflict and returned to lead their loyal masters in the harsh ongoing battle.

    Learning they were acting this poor thanks to a toxin, and there was a way to cure it, was enough to make them show much better versions of themselves. Not to mention the mere thought of a youngster fighting alone out there, risking his life for them, was enough to drive more power out of their spirits.

    All started to fight madly, pushing the enemies for the first time since the start of this disaster backward. All fought here, except for Sloth and his one-hundred master team.

    "Let''s go, we have another mission to do," Sloth turned to his selected and most trusted one hundred masters, "I know I''m not acting fair with you, throwing you from one hell pit to another. But¡­"

    "No need to say anything," another formidable master interrupted him, "we are all in this together, either live or die together."

    "Well said! Let''s do it! What''s the task Sloth?"

    "Don''t give me a bullshit task of killing weak monsters! I want to handle the toughest task out there!"

    Sloth was deeply touched by their instant and clear responses. His words held one meaning only, he was leading them towards their demise, towards a fight that they wouldn''t be able to win and survive through it in normal times.

    Yet they never flinched back, never hesitated. Sloth took in a deep breath, slowly moving his eyes around, engraving their faces into his spirit.

    "Let''s win and live through it together," he steeled his heart before starting to exin what William asked him to do.

    "You sure? Damn! That''s why we never had a single moment of breath!"

    "That''s a crucial mission, we have to do it no matter what!"

 Chapter 917 Is It Our Time To Shine?

    ?

    "Let''s go, we must reach there and crush these damn things once and for all!"

    The moment they heard what Sloth said, rying the intel William told him about, they couldn''t help but get more excited and hyped to go there. They weren''t suicidal, but they never learned about the presence of monster gates before. Only Sloth noticed them when he was on the way towards here.

    William didn''t give him this task only, but another to do something about the dark master''s main base. Yet Sloth knew with only one hundred masters on his side, he couldn''t do it.

    He decided to keep this intel hidden from them, and yet shared this with a single person, the one he most trusted after the king in the entire kingdom.

    As he left with his team, William was still immersed in fighting monsters. He didn''t get what happened back with the king and others as Sloth didn''t send him anything so far. Yet he trusted the old man and knew how deeply loyal he was to the kingdom.

    William focused solely on dealing with monsters for long days. His presence became like an annoying fly that dark master leaders got used to. They didn''t try to take him down anymore, especially when Sloth pulled that act back at the king''s side.

    The moment Sloth interfered and the king showed his famous manifestation technique and all the leaders knew their attempt to assassinate the king using toxin failed.

    This meant one pawn was down, and only brute force remained. They decided to kill the king using monsters and dark masters, by eating up the defending masters and shielding the king piece by piece.

    They had no time to care or worry about a mere fly like William, not about Sloth and his miserable one hundred masters who just left the main battlefield. They focused mainly and solely on the king and directed everything they got there.

    "Something happened!" William saw the monsters that tried to rip him apart during the past days stoping, turned around, and roared while their eyes shone in bright ck lights. Then they all started to run, madly run, all together, heading towards a single direction.

    "Something must have happened back there¡­ He must have done it," William didn''t need to speak with Sloth to get to know what happened. And yet he couldn''t allow these monsters to run and head towards the king''s location.

    He wasn''t struggling at all to keep up with the iing monsters. After all, the monsters here were at most at early stage dark gold grade, pretty weakpared to William''s techniques and weapons.

    By the sudden change in the entire situation, he didn''t need to bother to defend against any iing attack. He simply acted like a shark in the water, like an Orca whale in open oceans.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He released all of his techniques without the need to stack any attacks, killing tons of the monsters running without even thinking of fighting back. To him, this was a great experience, one that he knew Ibra would have enjoyed to the heart.

    But he also knew he alone wasn''t enough to stop them. "It''s time for you toe," he decided to call for cavalry, calling everyone in. For more than a week, he left them to make as many potions as they could. And he was sure they made enough to route the monsters and dark masters here.

    Sloth finished his task of saving the king, and that meant he was now on his way to deal with the monster gates. William''s priorities shifted. Instead of trying to deal with monsters and stop them, he knew the top mission right now was to go and save as many masters back there as possible. And he needed his potions to do such a miraculous feat.

    [Is it our time? Atst!] Sara''s voice came, [We were dying out of boredom here! Gathering herbs, doing nothing at all for days! Where are you? We areing!]

    "Just bring all the potions you made, make sure to give them to the strongest masters we have. Head directly after the sounds of the big battle, head directly to the king''s location and give the potions to those out there. Tell them to attack, move without pause, and go towards the location of the monster gates. We have to take them down together!"

    William knew Sloth was heading there right now. But he and the one hundred team he had wasn''t enough to deal with all of these gates. Not to mention the moment they approached there, dark masters would start to retaliate. And things would turn worse starting from there.

    As Sloth was advancing towards the gates, William decided to move as well and do everything in his power to support him. He didn''t know if he could save him or not, but at least at the end of all this, the dark masters would lose! And he had to know who was standing behind all this.

    As he gave his friends and masters with them the order, he knew he had done what he could to help Sloth. He then returned to focus on killing monsters, heading slowly back toward the monster gates'' direction.

    His progress was smooth for a few hours, killing an endless number of monsters. He didn''t feel any pressure, and yet he still couldn''t undo his spirit body form. That meant the toxin was still thick and high in the air.

    He thought the source of this toxin came from the candle Sloth found. By taking it away, he imagined things would be better. Yet it wasn''t.

    "There must be other sources of this toxin," his thoughts shifted towards the heavily secured base of the dark masters here, "I have to think of a way to prevent them from leaving with such a weapon."

    He grew interested in getting his hands over the source of this toxin and studying it. He was sure such a thing would help in bypassing the uing grave disaster of this world many yearster.

 Chapter 918 Fighting Dark Masters Like William

    ?

    Not to mention he wanted to learn about more ways of the dark masters, a thing that would help him even in the outer world.

    "I''m here if you are free to speak back," William approached the monster gates area, to be weed with loud explosions and fierce battle sounds. He knew things were heated up out there, and Sloth was busy fighting alongside his team against the monsters.

    William tried before to get closer, but he was stopped the moment he saw scary monsters standing on guard. Yet with Sloth and others here, he finally got a chance to break through. He just needed to cooperate with Sloth, a thing that he didn''t get!

    Sloth was too busy to fight right now. Hearing William''s voice made him heave a sigh of relief. He was worried over William, and knowing he was alive was great news.

    But he wasn''t in any position to allow him to speak back to William. He was now entrapped within a tight andrge circle of scary monsters, ones that were guarding the monster gates. He was fighting desperately alongside his team for a couple of hours and suffered lots of wounds with others.

    William expected such a situation. When he got no response from William, he decided to proceed and delve deeper towards these gates.

    Even if they were just portals gushing out tons of monsters, he was sure fingerprints of the ones whoid these would be present. He also wanted to see if he could find any weak spots to use, even try to take down a single gate to help.

    At the same time, he could deal with the normal and weak monstersing out from these gates if he was close enough. A single master was nning to stand all alone in front of such a flood, and yet he wasn''t afraid.

    As long as the scary monsters were busy handling Sloth and others, William was going to be safe. As long as his friends, team, and masters who were with him arrived at the king''s forces, he was going to be safe.

    Yet William underestimated his enemies this time. The moment Sloth and others approached the gates, they didn''t hesitate to gather up all the scary monsters and throw them toward this dangerous group of masters. But when William''s friends and masters started to go into the area, not affected by the toxin, these leaders smelled trouble from them.

    They didn''t hesitate to send out a detachment, made entirely of dark masters, led by high-end dark ones. William didn''t expect that, and his small army was marching without paying much attention to the surroundings.

    Their main focus was to arrive as fast as possible towards the king''s location, thinking only about fighting monsters. So the initial sh thatnded imed the lives of many hundreds, more than a thousand. And that happened just in a few minutes.

    "Dark masters!"

    "Use anti-darkness techniques and elements!"

    "Spread out, use detection arrays, fast!"

    The response of the grand army was varied and different. William''s team''s first response was to scatter out detection arrays, while the ones who came from the other world focused on using techniques and elements that could negate darkness.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The two were working in different directions and yetplemented each other. When they started to act, they were surprised to see thousands of dark masters surrounding them already.

    "There are too many of them!" Berry muttered, "What shall we do?"

    "What else? Transform into our spirit bodies form, and contact him to see if we can use the grenades," Sara shrugged and said what she had in mind.

    "Let''s rearrange ourselves," Peter looked around, "we have more options by our spirit bodies, but they don''t. And yet, they are the most experienced ones in dealing with the dark masters, so¡­"

    "Your point?" Lang looked at his long-time friend, and thetter added:

    "Let them take the heat first, deal with the strongest ones out there. As for us, let''s do it like how the boss used to."

    "Fishing in the muddy waters, I like that!" Lina activated her spirit body, one that made her look all muscr and covered up in a fierce-lookingyer of skin.

    What they all got from Peter was something they used to witness for many years. William always leaned to attack when the enemy was busy dealing with other targets, and used the tactic of hitting the enemy hard, killing the ones he could easily handle while leaving the troublesome ones to others.

    They decided to do the same. Their number wasn''t big to begin with, just a mere two hundred or a bit less. And yet they never felt fear.

    Staying by William''s side for this long, training and learning from him, had a much deeper impact on their minds and hearts, much more than William himself might believe.

    They acted like how William would if he was present here, and didn''t feel fear. Instead, they had such weird calmness, one that stemmed from their overconfidence in their ability to bypass this, not only survive but also win.

    They let the other masters handle the iing dark masters, and they waited. Any chance appearing, they''d move out in small teams, hitting the enemies, reap the loot, and return back inside without risking much.

    This kept happening under the leadership of many vices, under the watchful eyes of the masters who came from the other world. Seeing such a unique way to do things made them try to learn, and mimic the unique way the ck Tails team was using, ending up adding more damage to the enemy and limiting lots of losses.

    Sara ryed the news to William. Thetter couldn''t help but feel how cunning the leaders were. They didn''t aim just to stop him, Sloth, and others here, but also cared about the reinforcements heading to the king''s location.

    He suspected they sniffed the mission his team and masters with them were about to do.

 Chapter 919 The Unstable Monster Gates

    For a moment there, he considered going there and helping them. But when he heard about the good performance they were doing, he decided to stay where he was.

    Right now Sloth and others were facing hard times dealing with the strong monsters here. And yet William knew this was great, as like this his path towards the monster gates was wide open.

    He killed monsters until he reached the first gate. There he stood like a mountain, stopping any monster he spotted. He released his two monstrous weapons freely, letting them kill as they liked without worrying about their safety.

    The dark leaders noticed what he was doing, but they decided to not do anything to stop him. Even if he showed weird power and killed tons of monsters, he was just affecting a single gate, nothing else.

    Yet they didn''t get that William alone was much more dangerous than any of the scary masters led by Sloth. As he stood close to the giant monster gate, he got the chance to inspect it thoroughly.

    "Hmm¡­ A gate with spatial elements is normal, but to have to write down space powered runes¡­ That''s quite weird¡­"

    He knew using runes and oldnguage letters was something normal to stabilise such gates, but the runes used were mainly focused to stabilise space, not control it!

    Seeing this made him realise something, the ones controlling these gates didn''t have any space element in the first ce. If so, they wouldn''t need to use the runes'' power to supplement such ack.

    That also meant these gates weren''t that stable, weren''t that immune like normal gates. When he considered the huge number of these gates here, he couldn''t help but think this was quite normal and expected.

    Having to establish these gates would require tons of preparations and materials. Not to mention spirit power consumption rate. To establish a single monster gate, a space based dark master was required to make it appear and get linked to the other ce filled with monsters.

    William started to sum everything up, and his mind provided the perfect way to handle these gates. Normally speaking, this method would usually fail.

    "I know you are dead busy, but there are things that I need your help with," as he got an idea about what to do, he decided to ask the help of Sloth. If he started alone to do it, he''d attract the attention of the cautious dark leaders.

    He knew they left him alone all this time as he was weak and didn''t pose a threat to them. Once he acted, they''d link the dots and that would open gates of hell on his face.

    Besides, he didn''t want to rm the enemy. "I know you are dead busy, but this is important¡­ It''s rted to the survival odds of your king and kingdom¡­"

    Before he''d even finish his words, Sloth''s fog appeared in front of him. "Speak quickly, I''m in a very dangerous situation right now."

    "Cool, we are going to do this¡­" William knew the soft spot of Sloth, and he perfectly used it every single time.

    "Are you sure?" Sloth heard William till the end before he added, "you know if we retreated, we won''t get this chance again."

    "This is the best counter to all this," William stressed over it, "plus my people are going to help the king and his forces. Yet they are attacked fiercely right now. We need to make a diversion as well."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Sloth got what William wanted to say. They were here to not kill monsters, but to save the king and kingdom remaining elites. Once they got saved, destroying these gates and dark masters wouldn''t be this hard.

    "Ok, give me half an hour then."

    Sloth didn''t say anything else, went to continue his fights while arranging things with the masters he had on his side. William knew he could depend on him, and so he waited patiently for half an hour.

    "It''s time! Let''s do it!" Sloth kept his word and spoke to William after half an hour.

    "You start, I''ve something else to do," against what Sloth expected, William decided to stay behind.

    "You¡­"

    "Just do it! I have something different to do," William knew he was going to face huge trouble like this, but he decided to do this task. He was the only person able to do it thanks to something silly; his weakness.

    He was the weakest master here, and so far the enemy didn''t ce a trophy on top of his head. And that gave him an advantage that others didn''t have.

    "Tell me when you are in the right spot," William kept doing the same, killing monsters while waiting for Sloth to give him the green light.

    "We are there! Will start doing it now!"

    "Great," William didn''t move out when he heard Sloth''s words. He waited, waited until he felt the ground tremble fiercely and tons of roars came from one direction.

    "It''s starting," William turned his face towards one direction, "sorry old man, but you have to honour your age and shield the pressure for the youngsters like me."

    William tricked Sloth, or didn''t tell him everything. The moment he heard such ruckus, he knew the dark master leaders moved everything they got and were trying to stop Sloth and others.

    To William, this wasn''t a big deal. After all, Sloth was facing hard times with others before, and this wasn''t much different than what they experienced in the past few hours.

    As Sloth was taking the heat, William started to move. He wanted Sloth toy down a space disruption formation, one that would destabilise any portal.

    Such a formation would work best against normal portals, not against such behemoths. Putting into consideration the weak space element embedded in these gates, William was sure the formation was enough to tear many gates down. Yet there was something missing.

    He had to disrupt the connection between the dark leaders and these gates. If he dared to do so before using Sloth and his team as a decoy, he''d be doomed.

 Chapter 920 Attacking The Monster Gates

    ?

    The moment the dark leaders would feel their connection getting severed with the gates, they wouldn''t hesitate to evene here themselves to kill him. And before that, the scary monsters would flood his way, and he got nothing in his power to stop them.

    During the past hour, he started to scatter many vibrant ores all over the ce. He knew he was burning the ships at the shore, letting himself entrapped with the monsters at the gates, waiting for a miracle to happen at the end to save his life. And he didn''t believe in miracles.

    "Make sure to keep the monsters at your end busy," William would deal with anything, anything but these scary monsters.

    "Why do I feel like you are using me for something else?" Sloth wasn''t stupid, not to mention he was watching William all the time using his spirit sense.

    When William spoke with him just now, he was advancing towards the gate in front of him for the first time sinceing here. What William asked him to do meant he nned to do something grand, something more threatening than the formation William asked him to do.

    "Justy down the formation and keep the monsters busy," William didn''t have time to exin what he was going to do. As he said his words, he finally arrived at the gate closest to him.

    To cut the connection, he could use different approaches. The simplest of all was by infusing a space element, alien to the ones controlling these gates, to interrupt the connection. But he had no space element, so he couldn''t use this method.

    He decided to use a small array, one that would surround the gates and disturb the connection. Each gate spanned for hundreds of metres, a distance he could cross with a single dash.

    "Time to make you feel panic," William shed around one gate and scattered the materials around while running. He didn''t activate the array and went directly toward another gate.

    As the monstersing out from these gates were weak, he didn''t face any trouble to go to each gate and surround it. Yet midway through, he heard loud roars drawing near his ce, meaning the scary monsters were heading his way.

    "Didn''t I tell you to keep them busy?" William expected such an oue and wasn''t startled by what happened. Yet he med the old man for letting this happen when he didn''t visit half of the gates yet.

    "There are too many of them, and we can''t stop them all!" Sloth said in defence, "We are halfway through. Can you hold up? We''lle to rescue you after getting rid of this formation."

    "No need, I''m going toe to you soon enough," William knew destroying half the gates was enough, so he didn''t hesitate to activate the arrays heid already.

    At the same time, he took out his bow and released lots of arrows around. The arrows were armed with grenades andnded in areas filled with vibrant ores.

    The moment the two met, a very violent wave of explosions urred. The explosions were very fierce, fierce enough to raise pirs of fire toward the high sky.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William saw this and got satisfied by such a result. He just needed to release a few more waves of his arrows, before the entire world around would be filled with deadly explosions.

    "Let me see how you are going to deal with this," William evilly smirked, before turning his face to examine the gates he already visited. The array he activated released something like a dome over each and every gate he visited. This didn''t stop the iing monsters, but it felt threatening to those watching this from afar.

    The dark leaders now realised that William was posing a greater threat than Sloth. They didn''t hesitate to issue orders, moving half of the scary monsters to deal with William.

    They couldn''t close an eye over the threat of Sloth and others posed. So they got to divide up their forces. As for asking for half of the scary monsters to go toward William was thanks to the denseyer of explosions and fire that thisd created around him.

    Passing through such ayer was risky, and many monsters would be gravely harmed or even killed. So they sent arge number, just to make sure they''d get rid of William once and for all.

    As more roars came towards him, he knew the enemy was starting to take him quite seriously. William didn''t hesitate to move forward, heading towards more gates, and cutting the connection using his array.

    He knew he had limited time here, but every single extra gate cut with the dark leaders was a gain and not a loss.

    He estimated himself to have at most half an hour before the ce would be overrun by monsters he couldn''t handle. So he kept using his dash technique and didn''t care about any weak monster around, even bashing directly into many through his dashes.

    His aim was the gates, and nothing else. His estimates were correct, and in half an hour, a few scary monsters managed to bypass the sea of fire raging around. William once spotted them, knew he had no time to fool around anymore, and released more arrows toward the fire zone, adding more intensity to them.

    "Go, keep them busy for me," William still wanted to cut the connection with more gates, so he released his two monstrous weapons, turned around, and dashed in the totally opposite direction from these scary monsters.

    In normal situations, sending his two monstrous to meet up high-end monsters was suicidal. But this time the monsters which passed the fire region were filled with tons of wounds, and were this close to dying anyway.

    They spent most of their spirit power just to bypass the fire. They were weak, severely hurt, and weren''t this threatening anymore.

    William knew even if he went there and dealt with them, nothing bad would happen to him. But he had no time to do that.

 Chapter 921 Using One Tail Form

    ?

    He left this task for his two deadliest weapons and went to execute his n, cutting the connection of more gates.

    The dark leaders watching this from afar went mad! They realised how grave their mistake was, underestimating William and focusing mainly on Sloth and others. Yet even if they regretted that, they got nothing in their power to do.

    The monsters they summoned to deal with him were facing a hard time dealing with this fire. This wasn''t a normal fire, as it was created by three different sources, one of which was quite scary and deadly. Even after the passage of an hour, explosions were still happening from the vibrant ores, ending up releasing more fire.

    This made the task of these monsters much harder. William didn''t care about any of that and kept doing his task diligently.

    Sloth and others were watching William all this time and saw what he was doing. When he released fire, they knew he was determined to do whatever he was doing back there.

    They wanted to go and help, but Sloth stressed over them to stick to the n. They got their role to do, and they got to trust William.

    If he knew anything for certainty about this youngster then it would be that he wouldn''t take the initiative to do something without absolute confidence in executing it, without losing his life in the process.

    William knew he was closely watched, by allies and enemies alike. He was sure the dark leaders were going mad right now, feeling their connection with more gates getting severed, and yet they couldn''t do anything to stop him.

    As for Sloth and others, he trusted they were mature enough to know what was far more important right now. Laying down this formation was much more important thaning here and saving a single master''s life.

    *Roar!*

    Yet Wiliam finally hit the hard and cold wall. The two monstrous weapons bought him barely half an hour before they both got thrown away by the increasing number of scary monsters.

    Even if they were weak and exhausted, terribly wounded, they were still strong. William didn''t delude himself, didn''t think his two monstrous weapons could kill all of these monsters. So the moment they got thrown away by fierce hits, he summoned them back, looking at the gates he sealed in satisfaction.

    "Severing the connection with seventy percent is enough," he nodded before looking at therge number of monstersing his way, towards the raging sea of fire that kept burning zingly and fiercely, filling the world around without showing a single safe path outside, "let me show you how you can bypass fire."

    He randomly selected one direction and dashed towards it. As he was moving too fast, he changed his form. Instead of having four tails, he reced this with just one.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He intended to use a single element this time. To maximise this element''s effect, he had to shift from the four-tail form into the single-tail version.

    And the element he decided to use was the Earth element! He nned to do this from the start, filling the entire surface with fire, while running away safely underground by building up tunnels!

    The moment he arrived near the edge of the fiery region, he felt the hot wind hitting his face. He knew if he continued forward, he''d end up suffering lots of damage. And so he activated the earth techniques, creating a narrow tunnel under the ground, one that was only enough for him to go inside.

    If he risked it and made a much wider tunnel, then monsters running after him would follow. The moment he went inside, he released part of his flying weapons, infused them with his earth element, and let them dig as well.

    The soil and rocks all around him were very hot, dyed red from the intense heat that came from the surface. And yet he kept digging, going deeper and deeper, heading away from the reach of the heat and fire.

    From behind, he could hear the angry roars of the monsters. Many didn''t have the Earth element, but few did. And those started to copy him, digging tunnels as well, and followed him.

    But as they got much bigger bodies than him, they got to take more time in digging the tunnels. Not to mention the dark leaders controlling these monsters wanted all of them to go, so the tunnels had to be bigger and wider.

    The moment William went underground, he escaped the reach of the spirit senses of those watching him. They needed to exert more power to try and follow his actions inside the tunnel. And when they tried to do this, they were shocked by the fact that there was more than one tunnel down there!

    There were three, and then at some point, each tunnel of these would change into three again! William was simply using his two monstrous weapons to pull such a trick. They were badly damaged, but not to the extent of being useless and powerless.

    He let them dig the ground and create two more tunnels, before calling them back and resummoning them to dig two more tunnels. He kept doing this repeatedly, while making the tunnel he was digging personally twist right and left, and get covered by other new tunnels.

    Like this, he didn''t just bypass the deadly fire he released at the surface, but also escaped the pursuit of the monstersing from behind. Without the guidance of the dark leaders, these monsters had to work blindly, digging deeper and deeper, without knowing where they should go.

    The heat was already relieved after a few minutes of digging toward the depths of the ground. Once that happened, William started to work horizontally, heading towards the space that was beyond the reach of the deadly fire.

    As he kept doing this, he knew hecked guidance thanks to his spirit sense limitation. Such a thing was a double-edged weapon for him. And yet he didn''t care that much.

 Chapter 922 They Did It!

    ?

    "Even if I ended up away from the ce of this battle, it won''t make a difference," he already told Sloth to activate the formation the moment they finished it. And like that, the dark leaders would get another problem to solve, a disaster they couldn''t handle.

    By this time, they''d feel like they got their house made out of ss, and they had to stop the approaching falling burning meteorite shower from the sky.

    William kept digging and didn''t care about anything else. He estimated to keep doing this for two hours before he''d start heading towards the surface again.

    His digging speed wasn''t slow, but the reach of the fire sea he started was enough to cover up kilometres around the gates. So he had to make sure to not make a little mistake in his calctions, ending up in the middle of the deadly ocean of fire up there.

    As he kept progressing in his digging, Sloth and others finishedying down the formation in one hour. The moment they did so, they activated it. And then they waited.

    "Is that it?" one of the team turned to Sloth, "didn''t that kid say this formation is going to shatter the enemy? Shake their armies?"

    *Rumble!*

    Before that master would continue saying his doubts, a muffled rumbling urred. It came from the direction of the gates, attracting everyone''s attention.

    Be it Sloth, his team, or the dark master leaders¡­ All turned their focus and attention towards the monster gates'' direction. It started with a low rumbling, followed by a series of other low-toned rumbling.

    Then they all watched the miracle happening right in front of their eyes. All the gates Williamid down his array around got surrounded by a dome. It was faintly yellow in colour, seemingly not doing anything remarkable in the eyes of Sloth and his team.

    But after the series of muffled rumbling, all of these gates started to shake violently, issuing much louder and much scarier rumbling noises. The shaking wasn''t just limited to the gates, but also the domes that surrounded them.

    It started with the fall of the domes first. It appeared as if a point of strong gravity appeared in the centre of each gate, sucking inside the domes surrounding them.

    As the domes copsed on themselves, cracks appeared over the surface of the giant gates. The cracks were spreading like spiderwebs, covering up the entirety of these gates in mere minutes.

    The dark leaders watching all this happening didn''t have anything to do to stop it. They got their connection severed with the gates before, and that meant they couldn''t intervene to support them, preventing them from copsing.

    At the same time, the formation Sloth and others did wasn''t just targeted at these gates, but at the rest of the gates as well. That made them work fast and hard, supporting the remaining gates they still had a connection with.

    Doing so took most of their spirit power and attention, and prevented them from thinking of a way to counter what these masters did.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    In just half an hour, the gates started to explode on their own. With each explosion, a surge of fire emanated and spread out from these gates, heading towards the surrounding monsters, and eating them up.

    In the eyes of those watching, it felt like anyone or anything standing there was doomed! There was no way to run, fire was everywhere anding from every direction, heading towards all!

    At this moment, be it Sloth, the masters with him, or even the dark leaders¡­ All admired what William did. Such a young master was able to change the tide of such a high-end battle, one that was enough to tear down the capital, kill tons of its people, and force even the king and his elites to get trapped like rats in the middle of nowhere.

    And the dark leaders felt another thing; deep hatred running through their dark spirits. They knew William''s name from a long time ago, thanks to what this kid did five years before. Yet they felt what happened back then was the fault of the dark masters at that time, and thought that these dark masters were incapable and weak.

    But they now realised the truth. It wasn''t the fault of the dark masters of that time, William was the main problem.

    Realising the core of the threat came a bit toote for them. They couldn''t do anything right now to stop what was happening, the best they could was to save the little few gates that remained without getting covered with these domes.

    William didn''t know what was going on out there, but he could imagine it. He kept digging, thinking all the time about the monsters chasing him, trying to see if he lost them or not. What he didn''t know was that the moment Sloth and his team acted, the dark leaders called the monsters back, ending up getting bathed with another sea of fire.

    They were hurt, and exhausted, so it was expected to lose more of their numbers on the second wave of explosions. After two hours, William finally decided it was enough and changed his direction, heading towards the surface.

    He made the tunnel rise up in an oblique way, enough to secure more distance at the end. He took half an hour to reach the surface, and when he did, he looked instantly around.

    Finding no fire was great, and made him sigh in relief. Then he turned to spot the distance. Right now, darkness prevailed over the world, and the fire he left behind was like a zing torch in the middle of such ckness.

    Yet he saw two sources of this bright red and orange fire, one surrounding the other. "They did it, hahahaha!" Williamughed, feeling at ease atst.

    *Roar!*

    Just before he''d take a single moment of rest, he heard faint roarsing from far away. It came from the totally opposite direction to here, the direction that shouldn''t have monsters.

 Chapter 923 The Unexpected Move From Dark Leaders

    ?

    "Oh, they withdrew monsters from Sara and others'' ce¡­ Fantastic!" William instantly recognised where these monsters came from. Right now, monsters were gathered in three main spots, here at the gates, there at the king''s location, and back where his team and masters from the other world were.

    The dark leaders were very enraged by what happened. So during the past hour, they searched for William far and wide, wanting to kill him first before anyone else, even before the king!

    As they looked for him, they decided to call for monsters to take aim at him anywhere he''d arrive. Sloth and his team activated the formation, and crushed most of the gates, cutting almost eighty percent of the monsters gushing toward here.

    But they still had close to half of the scary monster numbers right on their tail! They had to continue the brutal fight, without having a moment to breathe.

    The dark leaders had no other choice but to call back many of the monsters they sent to deal with William''s friends, team, and masters. The main attack force there was the dark masters in the first ce, and monsters were just acting as their support.

    So withdrawing these seemed the best approach and counter, better than calling monsters from the king''s ce. Yet they again underestimated William.

    They thought about him like they''d think about any normal gold master. He might be strong and might have special ways to do things, but he was still limited by spirit power.

    What they didn''t know was that this wasn''t a problem at all for William. Thetter once heard the monster roar and realised what was going on. The first thing he did was to gulp an elixir and take out all of his flying weapons, even the badly damaged two monstrous weapons.

    Then he headed directly towards the iing monsters.

    "Old man, you shall retreat," before he''d meet with monsters, he spoke with Sloth, "You did enough! Go back and stay by your king''s side. Wait for my arrival."

    William then stored the scroll away and didn''t care about what Sloth said. Thetter was indeed exhausted, and even terribly wounded. His team lost around one-third of their numbers, and the remaining masters weren''t looking much better than half a step away from dying.

    But he and others never epted the idea of retreat. Besides, he knew what William meant. William was going to help his team and masters there, bring them all the way to the king''s location.

    That meant they''d have to face hellish battles and deal with scary enemies all alone. Sloth knew William had many strong masters on his side, but it wasn''t enough to let him feel any guarantee about the sess of this move.

    Not to mention he wanted to help. But William never responded back, while he and others watched William run in the middle of a thick monsteryer uponyer, killing his way through without a single moment of pause.

    "What a killing machine you found!"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "I have to admit, this kid is very interesting and promising!"

    "He is a gem! Nice catch, Sloth!"

    Others sang praises to Sloth while doing nothing but retreat. Unlike what William asked Sloth to do, they weren''t going in the king''s direction, but after William''s.

    They mistook everything and thought that Sloth took William as his disciple. Sloth knew they got it all wrong, but was too exhausted to argue with them about this.

    "Taking this little monster as a disciple? What the heck can I teach him? How to roar?" Slothmented over this inside his head, without sharing any of his thoughts with anyone else. He kept running with others, fighting the rest of the scary monsters using long-range attacks. This wasn''t enough to kill any, but it was enough to add more wounds to them.

    Sloth''s n was simple: he''d go to where the reinforcements were, and use the help of the high-end masters there to kill these annoying monsters. Once done, he''d go back with everyone toward his king, and start the counterattack from there.

    It was a good n indeed, too good toe true. He missed one point, the same point that William also missed; the dark leaders!

    These leaders were different from the typical dark masters present in this world. They weren''t cowards, wasn''t this tolerant towards anyone insulting their pride. And so they did something that William never sawing, something that''d add more trouble to everyone; they decided to put an end to all this, head towards the king, and kill him themselves!

    William never read such a scenario when he told Sloth to go to the king, and if thetter listened, things would have been much better.

    Yet no one learnt about that until it was toote! William kept moving towards his friends'' location, running fast as he killed his way through monsters around. He was worried about the scary monsters behind and didn''t want to risk falling under their attacks or getting surrounded by them.

    He didn''t know that Sloth was following from far behind, keeping these monsters busy. As the two moved in the same direction, the dark leaders amassed their top force and moved in a huge army toward the king''s location.

    They didn''t need to draw any monster from the gates, as this would rm the annoying masters there. These masters might be small in number, burdened by tons of wounds and injuries, but they weren''t affected by the toxin they were spreading.

    That made them quite dangerous. The dark leaders didn''t get why they were like this, but they felt this wasn''t just a coincidence or a fault in their n.

    William also was like them, and what happened back at the king''s tent was an rming sign. The dark leaders feared the worst, that these masters had a way to save others from the toxin. If that happened, then everything they worked for so far would be gone!

 Chapter 924 They Have To Endure

    ?

    Thanks to such fear, they decided to direct a deadly blow toward their most precious target; the king. After that, anyone else was less important and valuable. And they''d be freed from all the worries they had.

    They mobilised the entire grand army William spotted before, heading in a big entourage of dark masters and elite monsters toward that valley. The trip took half a day for the entire force to reach there, and once they arrived, they started a huge battle from the start.

    The moment they appeared there, the news was sent to Sloth. Yet Sloth was already too far away from them, was this close to getting to the location of William''s small army.

    William already gave the orders for his friends to lead everyone closer to his direction. He wanted to save time and gather up with them fast enough, a task that was met with lots of challenges and setbacks.

    The dark leaders in this war were really of a different calibre than others. They already read through this move of William and made sure the path leading towards him, towards the king''s location, would be filled with tons of deadly traps.

    William already noticed this, but couldn''t do anything to solve it. The enemy was acting too overly cautious and was very well prepared for every scenario. That made him want to unveil the identity of the one behind all this.

    Even with all the traps set by the dark masters all over the course of their travel, William''s friends and army were advancing steadily.

    Mastersing from the other world used to fight dark masters more frequently and much more violently than the ones living in this tiny world. They saw tons of things, and with the presence of lots of stronger and veteran masters, things weren''t that bad in the end.

    Traps got detected fast, and suitable masters advanced to deal with them. This might have dyed their progress a little bit, but their losses weren''t that severe in the end.

    William managed to join them in five hours, while Sloth and others joined in eight. The entire group marched together and advanced toward the king''s location when they received the grave news.

    "That''s bad! They are targeting the king and others!" Sloth hurriedly found William, before adding, "We need to divide ourselves, all the high-end masters shalle with me and head towards the king."

    "It still will be toote to do it," William knew the distance could be crossed in mere three up to five hours if they went all out. But there were tons of deadly traps, monsters, and even dark masters standing between them and the king''s location.

    He could understand how Sloth felt right now, but it wasn''t that good to do something that had more failure odds than sess. Especially when there was another alternative.

    "They''ll die like this!"

    "They have to handle the pressure," William rolled his eyes, "look around you, does it seem like we are fooling around? This is what the spirit master world looks like! They have to endure, fight with everything they got until we arrive there."

    "But¡­"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Trust them," William knew this was very hard to ask, but there was no other option here, "trust your friends and others. As you are worrying about the king and kingdom, they also do! And they aren''t that weak."

    "..."

    Sloth wanted most to leave here and go directly towards his king, even alone. But he knew this wasn''t going to work. As William said, the path toward the king was bathed with deadly traps.

    He wouldn''t make it, even if he gathered all of the high-end masters with him, he greatly doubted he''d make it in time or in enough force to stop the impending crisis.

    He didn''t want to admit it, but the solution William proposed was the only path he had, the only logical one.

    As he didn''t have any way to go there right now, he vented all his frustration over the enemies. His fighting and killing prowess skyrocketed to a level unprecedented in this world, making others feel awed and great about him.

    He wasn''t doing this alone, but all the masters he brought with him from the king''s ce were doing the same. They fought like they got nothing else to lose, fought as if they didn''t truly care about their lives anymore.

    Seeing this little group of old masters fight in such a way inspired and ignited the fire and will to fight in others. Slowly everyone started to fight like them, pulling a remarkable performance like never before.

    They destroyed traps much faster than before and killed the dark masters as soon as they spotted them. In mere two hours, the dark masters who felt superior and mighty were now feeling the totally opposite.

    They were scared! Doubting even themselves to end up fighting monsters and not humans!

    On the other side of all this, the king''s location was experiencing a very deadly and brutal battle. The iing of the dark leaders was like thunder, but it ended up like a flood crashing against a tall and mighty mountain.

    The enemy thought they would easily uproot the masters standing there. And they have all the reasons to believe so. First, they got poisoned, were fighting for weeks already without getting rest, ending up with few numbers, entrapped inside that valley, surrounded totally by dense numbers of monsters and dark masters.

    But they missed a tiny detail, one that changed the entire equation; the king! The moment the king showed signs of getting revived from the abyss of death and these masters started to act differently.

    They weren''t fighting just for themselves anymore, they were fighting for their kingdom, for their king. And fighting for something much higher and far more important than oneself was always enough to drive anyone to exert much more of what they could do!

    They started to fight ferociously, not desperately as the dark leaders thought.

 Chapter 925 We Need To Do Something Different

    ?

    The king''s good news that spread like wildfire yed a great role in this, not to mention the news of reinforcementsing.

    The moment everyone heard about Sloth and his grand army marching towards here, they started to have hope. And hope was enough to create miracles!

    The dark leaders thought bying here they''d end up iming the life of the king easily, then turn around to deal with William and others. But that didn''t happen. Every single metre gained for them came for a hefty price to pay. And they had to use everything at their disposal even to get this single metre!

    What drove these dark leaders mad was the other spectacr performance William and his masters were doing. It wasn''t just happening at the king''s location, but also at William''s side.

    "Damn! We will get ruined if they keep doing this!"

    "Why isn''t the toxin working? Are you sure we didn''t screw it when we moved away?"

    "Should we retreat?"

    Many dark leaders started to speak among themselves using spirit telepathy. They were doing much better than most of the dark masters in their shoes, but they were still infected by the same illness of cowardice as others.

    The moment their ns didn''t go ording to what they envisioned, they started to think about fleeing.

    "Don''t fret! We already secured our path out before starting all this," the grand leader of them, the one who was the scariest and strongest of all dark leaders here, one who was truly admired and respected by many, feared by all.

    He was the one who nned this entire scheme from the start and made sure everything was going ording to n. "I doubt they can keep this surge of power and morale for long. Let''s continue pressuring them, and if the worst happens, we''ll still have a safe path out."

    His words were like a decree from a god, and they all listened to what he just said. No one objected anymore, and focused on orchestrating the attacks from different directions, using everything they got to crush the masters and kill the king.

    The fight kept burning zingly on the two sides while time passed fast. Many hours passed like a breeze for the dark leaders, passed like an entire lifetime for the king''s and William''s masters.

    Yet after ten more hours, the two sides were close to each other, and the two battles were going to merge and be one.

    "It''s time to do another thing," as William received the news from Sloth about how close they were, about the current situation out there at the king''s location, William started to think about something else.

    He knew the moment his army joined the king''s, things would totally change. His potions would make all the difference and winning was already set in stone.

    As he thought this far, he couldn''t help but think about another issue, a far more important one than just winning this war.

    "You want me to leave my king ande with you? Nonsense!" the moment William told Sloth to follow him away from here, thetter grew instantly mad, "What went wrong in your head? Dammit!"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "It seems the toxin in the air is getting stronger," William felt how Sloth suffered a change in his attitude and returned to looking like the impulsive and impatient version of himself. And that was evidence of how thick the toxin in the air was.

    "Spread the word, let everyone use two potions every five minutes¡­ Watch out for signs of their attitude change and decline in power. All the vices, team leaders, and masters about middle stage dark gold grade shall take three potions, not two."

    Once he spotted such change, he instantly took out his friends'' Bullets and spread the new instruction over.

    "What the heck are you talking about?" Sloth was still fuming with rage, only to get an answer from William by taking three potions and handing them to him, "cheers," he said, and Sloth reactively grabbed and drank them like a nice kid!

    "Oh¡­" the moment he drank them, and his temper started to grow milder, "you want me to follow you out, why?"

    As he regained his calmness and mind rity, William heaved an inner sigh of relief.

    "I know you are deadly worried over your king, but you are well aware that my potions will solve the situation and disaster."

    "That''s not enough for me to go away and leave my king''s side," Sloth paused, "give me a proper reason to do so."

    "Revenge," William slowly said, pausing for a few seconds before adding, "you and others, the king even, shall have their chance in executing justice from the ones who did all this, right?"

    The moment William said it, the eyes of Sloth changed. He wasn''t the only one who experienced such an intense reaction, but all the masters who came with Sloth also showed the same fierce response.

    They were watching everything going on between these two using their spirit sense. They heard what William said, and couldn''t help but jump to the same unbelievable conclusion that Sloth reached.

    "You have a way to get these motherf*ckers?" Sloth lost his cool, but this time it wasn''t thanks to the effect of the toxin, "tell me, tell me everything!"

    "We need to walk away first," William knew if Sloth and other high-end masters could already see the ongoing battle at the king''s side by their spirit senses, then the enemy''s leaders could do the same as well.

    "Ok, let me get more help," Sloth was about to speak with his mates when he got their affirmation to go with him using spirit telepathy.

    "They are more eager to go," Slothughed, "let''s go, they are already on the move."

    William''s worries weren''t groundless, as few of the dark leaders were keeping an eye over him, Sloth, and others. But they weren''t this attentive like how William feared, didn''t bother to spy over what they were saying at least.

 Chapter 926 Tossing The Rings

    ?

    Yet the moment this troublemaker group moved, the dark leaders instantly noticed them.

    "They are going away? Right now?!"

    "Something doesn''t sound right!"

    "We should send a few to stop them!"

    "We don''t have time for that!" their leader shouted in more annoyance than before, "we have to try onest time to take that f*cking king down. If we fail, we''ll retreat and live to fight another day."

    His words made perfect sense. They tried during the past hours for many times to breach the tight defences surrounding the paths to that valley. And yet they failed!

    With the approach of William''s masters, the dark leaders felt like death was drawing closer. They didn''t know why they felt this way, but it was clear the entire armying here didn''t suffer anything from the toxin!

    Even when the grand leader burnt more spirit power to release more toxins, they ended up without gaining any results! The army suffered from the toxin, and showed its unique signs of weakness, loss of temper, and delusional effects even, just for a few minutes!

    Then everything changed! The dark leaders decided to give it a go for onest time, try their best to breach these stubborn masters, and kill the king. Failure meant retreat, the loss of this war, and the entire preparations they made for years.

    It wasn''t the most perfect oue, but it wasn''t either the worst.

    Their desire to score a win here, not lose what they painstakingly prepared for this moment, they missed the critical moment in the entire war. And after that, their lives were doomed, and the best oue they''d get was to be locked in prison for the rest of their lives.

    "Now we are away from their senses," Sloth and others who came with him knew why William acted like that, "tell us, what do you have in mind?"

    "I know where they are going to escape from," William dropped such a bomb, and everyone''s face changed at once. They got the value of what these words meant. And without the need to say anymore, they all followed William towards that location.

    William was still feeling sceptical about directly going there. He didn''t know if the dark leaders would fetch a few of them to track their moves or not. So instead of heading directly towards that spot, he went in the totally opposite direction, taking a longer time just to make sure the deadly strike wouldnd sessfully at the end.

    Thest attempt to kill the king was really the most brutal attack the dark leadersunched ever. They even joined the fight themselves for the first time, unleashing deadly techniques and devastating waves of attacks over the masters shielding the king.

    Things looked bad, and for a long time there, many thought they''d fail to stop this attack, and would fail to protect the king.

    The masters lost hope until a fierce sh happened from one side. A group of scarily strong masters appeared there, killing their path, heading steadily toward them.

    "Reinforcements!"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "They are here!"

    "Stand tall, stand might, protect the king without fright!"

    Many shouted, and lots more screamed in delight and shock. They were feeling as if they already won the war. Just seeing fresh mastersing, so strong and scary on top of that, made them feel more secure in the safety of their king, for the future of their kingdom.

    None ever thought that even before these masters would arrive there, arge number of rings were thrown in the air. Using wind techniques, they all moved and fell in the middle of the entrapped master ranks.

    "Use the potions inside, distribute them over everyone now!" one master shouted from behind, blocked by lots of monsters and dark masters, "three potions each, consumed once per five minutes¡­ Do it and save your king!"

    The one who shouted was one of the masters who came from the other world. But he and others already grasped the ins and outs of the entire situation and knew what these masters were fighting for.

    The situation was very intense and critical that these masters feared they''d not make it in time to save them. So they agreed on using this method, hoping the masters inside would believe them.

    The moment the rings got tossed, the strongest masters overwatching the battle and leading others moved and collected them. They already heard the news from Sloth and saw the effects of these potions on him and the small team he had.

    They first tested it, and when they regained their rity and long-lost power, they realised everything.

    "Distribute these potions equally," they started to shout, "take three potions every five minutes¡­ We will win this war, we definitely will!"

    Once the big shots decided that, everyone started to take the potions and consume them ording to these orders. The moment they gulped the first batch, they felt instant recovery from the toxic effect.

    Their minds regained rity again, and their sealed powers were unleashed. The enemies they fought desperately against before to halt their advance were looking for nothing more than dried weed in front of them.

    They crushed all, and pushed the enemies back, so fast that even many dark leaders didn''t have enough time to react and retreat.

    Many got entangled in the unstoppable flood of masters. The entrapped army of the Novistic kingdom was venting the endless rage and humiliation they felt for many weeks. Even if a god was here, he''d have turned around, and ran without looking back!

    The ones who were lucky enough to react fast ran, and the only thought they had was to go towards the safe exit they secured beforeunching the attack.

    Lest to their knowledge that such a route wasn''t safe anymore. William led Sloth and others on a long detour, exining everything about the n he had in mind. They liked what he said and added even a few touches to his n, to make sure they wouldn''t just capture the leaders but also kill everyone and everything else.

 Chapter 927 An Ambush!

    ?

    To do so, they started to make arrays and traps all around that safe route. Theyid these for tens of kilometres, and didn''t hold back in using everything they had.

    They made sure to not rm the forces stationed in the safe route leading the runners away from here. They didn''t know if there was a way tomunicate between this force and the dark leaders away from here. And luckily they didn''t expose themselves or else the entire n would be screwed.

    Just a few hours after doing so, they felt something was amiss in the force stationed in that ce. They noticed weird movements there, with lots of masters running away as if they were running from a que or something.

    "They areing," this was what everyone thought about at the same time, "let''s get ready then. Don''t make any mistake, and kill everyone you get," Sloth added using spirit telepathy before they ally in wait, hiding themselves in many stealth arrays.

    The traps theyid around this ce were all remotely controlled by their spirit senses. They didn''t activate them to take down the runners, fearing to rm the iing leaders. Their wait didn''tst more than half an hour before they started to spot many dark masters running in their direction.

    They saw how they were scared, moving with lots of wounds. They were running as fast as their techniques could carry them, making haste towards the safe route.

    "Now!" Sloth waited until he saw the early batches of his kingdom''s masters running and chasing these down. He knew these were running for their lives, and other dark masters remaining were entrapped and fighting against the kingdom''s masters already.

    The moment he gave the order, a series of deadly explosions urred. The masters on his side activated the traps theyid and took the lives of endless dark masters in mere minutes.

    When the explosions ceased, the dark master''s remaining force was less than twenty percent than what it was initially. And yet there were still thousands with them, alongside tens of thousands of monsters.

    "Attack!" As they dealt such blows to these filthy dark masters, Sloth gave the order to pursue the attack and fight directly against the remaining dark masters.

    They targeted everyone, and William just targeted the wounded. His first priority wasn''t to kill, but to gather all the rings as he could, from the living, from the wounded, and even from the dead.

    Sloth and others didn''t care about what he was doing and just fought bravely against the remaining dark masters. This was a force that was stationed with the leaders, and that meant they were quite strong and deadly.

    Taking these down took two days entirely before they fell down. If not for the traps set earlier by them, Sloth and others wouldn''t have managed to kill all of them.

    In the end of this prolonged war, the kingdom''s masters were fighting monsters and dark masters all over the region. They didn''t stop until a few dayster, and they didn''t even feel tired.

    The first thing they did was to go back and check on their king. The king was already getting better and weed the remaining forces of his mighty capital while walking to inspect what happened there.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The king was sleeping all this time and didn''t get what happened to his capital, to his mighty armies, to his royal family. When he got briefed about what happened, he was totally enraged, especially when he learnt about the ones who were behind all this.

    He couldn''t believe that his uncle, the grand uncle, was the one behind all this. That culprit was already on the run, but the masters here were looking for him madly all over the ce.

    The king knew that his kingdom, the one he inherited from his ancestors, was badly hurt this time. The capital was gone, the royal family seemed to get infiltrated by the dirty dark masters, and many of the good masters of the kingdom were gone.

    As for the people, the good news was that most of them managed to escape as the dark masters were targeting him all the time.

    The king listened to the stories others said about what happened, and yet two names kept reverberating in his ears every now and then; Sloth and William.

    He knew Sloth quite well and wasn''t feeling any surprise about the deeds he made. But William was a different case. The more the king heard about this youngster''s story, the more he got impressed and admired him greatly.

    "Let hime and meet me," these were the words of the king before he retreated back to the valley he and his loyal masters got entrapped for a long time.

    He decided to change this ce, making it a symbol of his kingdom. Even if the capital was destroyed, it could be rebuilt. And this ce would always be remembered for the brutal sh that happened here, as long as the world stood.

    William was now busy checking the loot he got. He fought in various ces, collecting tons of rings from dark masters. Yet the most valuable came from thest battle that just ended.

    He fought against the dark leaders and their top masters, and collected the loot from masters he killed or didn''t. He gathered a really great harvest of rings, all filled with tons of things.

    And yet he was looking for two things in particr, the source of that deadly fog, and any clue leading to identifying the ones who started all this.

    He wanted to know who nned such a meticulouslyplicated and deep n. It goes without saying that such a n was set in motion many years ago, even before he''de back in time from the future.

    That meant whoever was behind this was very strong, had far eyesight, and was pretty dangerous. Thinking about the Nightmare monster wasn''t logical. And for a moment there he felt like he found a clue to the people who stood behind the downfall of this world.

 Chapter 928 Why Humans Have Kings?!

    ?

    They were dark masters without doubt or ones who controlled them behind the curtains. He didn''t care who they were, just wanted to know their identities to start nning a decisive blow for them in the future.

    After the end of this war, he released his friends and team to collect more loot. The masters of this kingdom went towards their king, leaving behind endless corpses of monsters and dark masters. And William collected all of this loot for himself.

    Weirdly enough, the masters who came with him from the other world showed great interest in doing the same. William didn''t know that his effect on them was deep, and they learnt from his friends and team how to properly scavenge the battlefield.

    As everything became calmer, William found a safe spot, isted from all the ruckus going on around. It was a small hill, and there he carved a cave using his flying weapons, sat down, and started to examine the rings.

    "It''s regrettable I didn''t collect the cores from the monsters I killed¡­" He mulled over this point, yet wasn''t that bitter about it.

    In the middle of that war, he didn''t have any time at all to breathe. He was fighting in the middle of a flood, without a moment given to him to collect anything.

    On top of that, the monsters he fought and killed were all weak, and wouldn''t donate that much of spirit points anyway. He knew thest stretch between him and the dark gold grade would be crossed by old-fashioned training. In addition to the absorption of spirit power stored within his fox statue back at the Scorching Lands city, or from the things he acquired from the other world.

    Arriving at the gold grade wasn''t a problem, but starting from there his real struggle would start. The monsters he could kill and devour their cores would grow scarcely low in number, hardly found in the first ce.

    That meant he''d depend mainly on his training techniques, a thing that''d take him long years to reach the pinnacle of power.

    He was ready for such a step as he already foresaw it from the start. But when he felt he was this close to overstepping in that domain, he started to miss the old good days.

    "What''s the problem in killing monsters, devouring their cores, and levelling up?" he shook his head whileughing in mockery over his personal greed, "anyway, as there is a path, I''ll dauntlessly tread it!"

    He started to open the rings and check their content. All the rings were sealed, but he had the right method to crack them open. Using his darkness element solved everything, and he found tons of stuff inside every ring.

    Be it gears, materials, cores, even riches, and crystals¡­ He found tons of things there, but not the things he truly wanted.

    "Come on, where the hell is that thing?" William was sure the source of this toxin came from a portable item. Sloth gave him already inspiration about this, and he was looking for something simr to that candle.

    Yet after a few hours, he went through hundreds of rings without finding anything of value. The most he found was a group of scrolls,

    He randomly checked them, and they were all sealed. He knew the right method to read their content but decided to do this when he''d return back to the Scorching Lands.

    He knew Lara wanted him to return back to her city with her, yet he didn''t like this. The next period was going to be tough, needing lots of time to close on himself and focus on training.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Besides, he''d need to focus on his friends, team, and the newly gained masters. He''d search for the gems among all that, and start supporting them totally using his vast knowledge and growing of interests and guild.

    Not to mention Karoline. She was currently so weak, but she was the most important asset he had gained sinceing back in time.

    As he was going through all the rings, he suddenly received a call from Sloth. Thetter''s tone seemed more cheerful, as the disaster facing the kingdom ended atst and the king was safe.

    "The king wants to meet me? Right now?!" William was surprised when he heard what Sloth said, "Isn''t the capital destroyed?"

    Sloth exined in brief what the king intended to do, and why he wanted to meet him. Sloth was also invited, something that William took as a move to appreciate both efforts in this war and even reward them.

    "You have toe, he is the king after all," Sloth knew William enough to read hisck of enthusiasm to do this.

    "I wille," William took in a deep breath, "I need to speak with him about different issues in the end."

    William''s guild was in the kingdom, so it was foolish to not have good ties with the monarch leading the entire ce. At the same time, he did indeed want to speak with the king about a few things.

    He looked at the many rings he hadn''t checked yet and decided to postpone such a task. Sloth asked him to start moving right away to meet the king as soon as possible.

    "Let''s go," William was inside the cave he created, but wasn''t alone. Lina was there, per habit, and Karoline as well. The two kept their silence, as they got used to what William was doing.

    They heard him speaking with Sloth and got what was going on. "Why do humans have kings? Are they like the strongest monsters in a region?" Karoline returned to speak weirdly in the eyes of Lina after behaving normally during the past war.

    "It''s something simr," William casually responded while he led them toward the King''s location.

    "I want to see what a king looks like."

    "Is he a normal human? Or a giant?"

    "Does he roar?"

    As the three of them travelled, Karoline kept speaking like this, making even William feel irritated by her.

 Chapter 929 A Golden Holy Shifter!

    ?

    "We got another Tina in our roster it seems," he said as a joke, not realising that his words touched a sour spot in Lina''s heart until it was toote.

    Lina''s face changed, and she looked as if she was on the verge of crying.

    "Don''t worry, she isn''t the child she was when I met you the first time," William paused before adding, "not to mention, between the two of you, she is stronger."

    "Hell no, I''m stronger!"

    "You are bigger, indeed, but not stronger," William teased her, and Lina red at him for a while before finally showing a faint smile on her face.

    "I just hope she won''t make anything stupid when I''m not by her side," she muttered, and for a moment there William felt as if she was a mother worrying on her only child.

    "She isn''t alone over there, I got Ibra and others by her side¡­"

    "The more for me to worry," she rolled her eyes, "Ibra isn''t that dependable. Plus¡­ Can''t you see how he is looking at her?"

    "They are just young," William felt he shouldn''t start this topic, "and he is strong and capable. Don''t worry that much. He is, by far, the most trusted friend I have by my side."

    "Liar," Lina chuckled, and realised that William wasn''t willing to speak about the issue between her sister and Ibra. Besides, she felt that if she pressed over the matter, William wouldn''t mind the two getting along together.

    "Oh, you look lovely like a couple," Out of the blue, a weird voice suddenly came from the side, "are you in love?"

    "Who are you?" William went vignt the moment he spotted this old man. He never saw him before, and he didn''t feel him approaching the three of them at all.

    He was spreading his spirit sense out of habit. And that old man appeared out of thin air, a sign that he was much more powerful than him.

    "A friend from far," the old man was wearing a golden cloak, covering up his face.

    "I don''t like you," Karoline suddenly said, "you have a smell that I hate, a rhinoceros scent!"

    "Rhinoceros?" William looked at the old man and sized him up and down. He had an arched back like he lived for too long in this world.

    "Keen senses you have there, ex-monster girl," the man said something that rang all the rm bells in William''s mind.

    "What do you want?" As he asked, he released everything he got, "I don''t like strangers spying on our business."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "I told you, I''m a friend," the old man seemed to not be bothered by what William did, "I know you can gauge my strength. If I wanted you dead, then you''d have died long before you''d noticed me. As for why I''m here, consider it as a friendly reminder¡­"

    The old man suddenly transformed. His body swells up and the cloak weirdly stretches over his growing body mass. A giant figure appeared, one who was filled with life and vitality, not looking anything simr to the old man he once was.

    "It''s a rhinoceros as I said," Karoline turned to William and Lina as if she didn''t feel the insane danger they were facing.

    "It''s not a normal rhinoceros," William slowly muttered, feeling a cold sweat soaking his back, "what brings one of the Holy Shifters here to this tiny world?!!!"

    "You know who I am, interesting¡­" the old man paused, before adding, "I''m here to warn you, trying to meddle with the way of the universe is futile. Just live your life and don''t try to do anything like you did here again."

    "Or else?" William''s attitude suddenly changed abruptly, "Don''t think I know you don''t have the power you have back there. This is a tiny world, anding here means you are limited in many ways."

    "Speaking as if you know everything, but¡­ You are wrong!"

    The next instant, the entire world changed and an insane amount of pressure mmed over the three of them. William heard two thudding sounds as Lina and Karoline ended up falling on the ground.

    Yet he didn''t!

    "I told you, such tricks won''t work here," William started to slowly walk towards the rhinoceros, "your kin has a very high standing and might be up there, not here. Being here means you just sent a clone, a weak and powerless one that can only use such lousy tricks of illusion. Stop messing around and speak, what the hell are you doing here?"

    The Holy Shifters were a very infamous party of the dark masters in the outer world. They were once monsters and ended up being humans like Karoline. Yet after changing race, they decided to mate with monsters, ending up having sons and daughters who were quite abnormal and special.

    These were the Holy Shifters, and this old man was one of them. He could change his human shape into a massive and scary monster form. But there were many limitations to obtaining such insane power.

    They couldn''t leave that world! Or else their bodies would shatter. The only trick they got was to send clones of themselves like that old man''s. And that also came with a negative side effect.

    They were infamous for their brutal strength and illusion abilities. They were naturally gifted with making illusions, strong enough to make anyone fall to these by just looking at their eyes.

    The cloak this old man wore wasn''t made out of clothes. It was part of his body, and that was why it got stretched out like this.

    "A golden Holy Shiftering to such a tiny world¡­ That''s the first," William took out his ive, before adding, "Don''t think I won''t kill you. So just save my time and tell me what you are doing here."

    "Not the typical situation I envisioned, and here I''m,ing with good intentions to warn you¡­ Tsk! Youngsters are all impatient and arrogant, tsk," he didn''t know why but this old man reminded him of Ibra. and yet William never stopped walking towards him.

 Chapter 930 The King Is Waiting For You

    ?

    "Listen, this time I''ll take this as just an unintended mistake of yours. But next time, I swear I won''t let you live through," before William woulde close enough, the old man vanished. The massive rhinoceros'' body vanished as if it was a bubble of soap that got burst by a needle or something.

    "What did hee here for then?" Karoline was feeling puzzled, the same thing Lina also felt.

    "Are you ok?" William didn''t exin anything, just asked even without shifting his eyes away from the spot the rhinoceros vanished.

    "We are fine, but¡­"

    "The headache will vanish in a week," William said as if he knew what was going on with both of them.

    "How did you know that?!!" Karoline was surprised as she was feeling an intense headache already.

    "Just endure," William didn''t exin how he knew that, "let''s go. That bastard won''te again."

    William knew this attempt came to scare him away from interfering in this world''s affairs. And yet the unexpected visit exined and solved many mysteries to him.

    He now knew who was behind doing such a thing here, the person behind the attempt to destroy the capital. The Holy Shifters were indeed quite scary folks, especially when they coulde here with many things brought from the outer world.

    What he couldn''t get was why they came for this world, or why they were this fixed in destroying it. They were extremists, ones who wanted to rule the outer world. And so they sent their clones to smaller worlds, building armies of monsters before sending them out to meet with them in the outer world.

    They wanted to turn any world into a factory to produce lots of monsters. And yet they never cared about destroying any world. They saw the normal masters in any world as the perfect training grounds for the monsters they breed.

    "Something is off here," William knew something must have changed for such a Holy Shifter toe here and try to ruin the world, "what happened out there I don''t know about? Is it a solo action? I doubt that¡­"

    William was sure this Holy Shifter wasn''t the only one here. By normal situations, they used to send a small army of thousands of them to any world they set their eyes on. If he was alone, then this act wasn''t going to be important.

    William knew he got the answer to the question he had, but ended up acquiring more puzzles and questions without any exnation or answer.

    He walked silently by the girls'' side, without saying a single word to them. The two kept exchanging silent gazes during their walk, feeling how serious William was.

    Karoline might be new here, but Lina kept herself by William''s side for a long time already. She never saw him acting like this unless there was a grave issue at hand.

    They arrived at where the king was without saying a single word for hours! The moment they arrived there, William noticed the changes this ce experienced since thest time he saw it.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The traces of battle vanished and got reced with lots of fortifications getting built. William got distracted from what he was thinking about and started to examine what was going on here.

    "You finally came," Sloth appeared from the middle of the big crowd of people working to build a grand fort here. And as he approached, William turned to the two girls and motioned them with his eyes to keep what happened to themselves.

    "I was walking slowly," William yawned, "you do realise we didn''t sleep for weeks!"

    "The master''s life is very harsh indeed," Slothughed, e, after you''ll meet with my king, you''ll have enough time to sleep and rest."

    "What are you doing here by the way?" As William followed him inside, he was surprised to see more of the building process happening all over the ce. In his eyes, he thought the king wanted to build a wall and a few towers here, turning this ce into a private mansion for him or something.

    He didn''t know if the king liked this ce here or not, but when he went deeper, he was surprised to see tons of fortifications and foundations gettingid everywhere.

    He spread his spirit sense and saw that this was currently happening all over the ce. Even the areas beyond this valley were experiencing changes as well.

    This wasn''t an attempt to build a resort for the king or even a temporary ce for the masters here to live in. This was like building a grand fortress here, one that would be a thorn in the back of any iing forces, trying to invade the capital again.

    "The king wants to turn this into a fort," Sloth confirmed what William had in mind, "he wants this ce to stay in the memory of the entire kingdom, and the royal family in particr."

    "The royal family?" William didn''t follow the issue of the traitor, the idea he nted in the mind of Sloth before, "Don''t tell me¡­"

    "It was the grand uncle," Sloth paused, taking a deep breath before adding in a low tone, "Please don''t bring this matter in front of the king. He is still shaken by such betrayal."

    "And the man in question? Did you catch him?" William asked despite expecting the answer. When Sloth shook his head, he knew the man ran before everything would fall over his head.

    "You''ll catch him," William was sure such a blood feud wouldn''t get forgotten quite easily.

    "The king is waiting for you," as they arrived at the king''s tent, one that was like the old tent that Sloth once smashed using his spirit power, a strong looking middle aged master said, stopping the four of them outside the tent''s entrance.

    William didn''t bother to spread out his spirit sense to see what was going on inside. In fact, he wasn''t that enthusiastic, to begin with by meeting the king.

 Chapter 931 Speaking With Anjie

    ?

    Not to mention if this tent allowed his spirit sense to go through it, then it wouldn''t suit a ce for the king to stay in.

    In the next minute, the man returned and invited only Sloth and William inside. William left the two girls behind, fearing that Karoline might say something inappropriate and let the king grow mad instead of rewarding him.

    The moment he entered the tent, he saw an old looking man, one that looked as if he just got out of his deathbed or something. There were lots of strong looking masters, many shared many features with him. And on one side, Anjie was standing there, showing a big smile that seemed to be there for a long time.

    William felt good for her. After all, she endured a lot for her father. And finally, her father got saved, and the kingdom didn''t end up destroyed.

    "And here you are, so¡­ You are William?" the king examined William with eyes that told thetter how deadly this master was. Thinking how such a master ended up being killed using poison told William a lot about this king''s abilities.

    If they could assassinate him using normal means, then they wouldn''t have learned to use toxins to do it.

    "I''m honoured to meet the king," William greeted the king formally, cupping both hands and bowing even his head slightly deep for him.

    "No need for such formalities," the king waved his hand, "I heard everything you did for me and my kingdom. You are very capable, and that is something worthy to celebrate."

    The king seemed to be in a very great mood, and William just yed along. The two kept talking about different things, and William realised the king did his research quite well.

    The king was well aware of what William did five years ago, what he did in his guild, and also what he did sinceing here. The idea of building something to fight dark masters was a novel and interesting idea for the king. And he willingly offered his help to William, wanting to support his guild.

    "I want to ask something from the king," as William got the blessing and agreement of the king to further expand his guild branches to cover all the kingdom''s main cities, he decided to speak about the real purpose ofing here.

    "Anything," the king was in a very good mood right now and kept smiling and evenughing from time to time.

    "I heard the spirit masterpetition got ruined in the middle of the attack," William paused, and took a long nce at the king''s face, trying to see if thetter was unweing to speak about this point.

    "Go on," the king''s face slightly changed. After all, thispetition was meant for the entire continent''s spirit masters. And ruining it was a big stain in the face of the kingdom and him.

    "I want to be selected for the finalpetition of the entire world," he finally said what he came here primarily for, "I know this may look rude of me to ask something like this, but¡­"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "No need, you have shown enough power to get rmended to go there," the king waved his hand, casually saying his response, agreeing with what William asked for.

    "For real? Oh, sorry, didn''t mean that," William already prepared a long list of excuses to convince the king. But when he realised that he got what he wanted without the need to do anything else, he was too delighted about it.

    "Hahahaha, it''s really energetic to be a youngster, hahahaha," the kingughed for a few seconds, pointing at William as if he was pointing to a rare species or something, "but¡­ I have to warn you, you won''t be the only teaming from our kingdom, or the continent. Such events may be bitter and bad, but they happened before, they aren''t rare. And on such asions, each kingdom will send five teams to take part in the grand contest."

    "I see," William got what the king wanted to say, and he truly didn''t care. He wanted to go to that grand world contest, score the first position there, and secure himself ess to that heavenly city.

    Without it, getting out from here or reaching to the ceiling of power in this world would take decades for him and others!

    The two kept talking for an hour or so, and the king seemed to highly value William and appreciate what he did for him. He even asked his opinion about a few things and ns for the new capital, and William was sincere in every single piece of advice he gave.

    During the talk, it wasn''t just the king who ended up impressed by William, but the rest of the old and formidable masters standing in the tent. In the end, they all highly valued his words, the same as the king.

    "Don''t tell me you wanted to impress my father back there," as the meeting ended, William was walking out with Anjie. Karoline and Lina were also there, with the former showing more interest and joy than before.

    She went around and created a little scene during the meeting, made many mastersugh at her and she didn''t stop shouting at them. Yet she was enjoying her time, at least much better than thest few hours of silence she experienced whileing here.

    "I was just giving sincere advice," William didn''t know why but he felt like her words held deeper meaning.

    "You do know that my father isn''t an easy person to value anyone?" she kept speaking with words holding other meanings, "and to him, I''m untouchable."

    "I assure you, I had no other motive back then but to help him and the kingdom."

    "What a regret," she suddenly said, and William didn''t know what he should say in response, so he changed the subject.

    "Tell me, are you going to stay here?"

 Chapter 932 We Are Going To Drag You By Force!

    ?

    William waved his hand around, "Or go to another ce to stay while the capital is built?"

    "Why? Do you want to take me back to your city?" she didn''t follow him on changing the topic, "I heard you live in two cities right now, which one will you head towards next?"

    "The Scorching Lands city," William''s answer was swift and decisive. It wasn''t just the ce where his guild''s main headquarter was, but it was also too far away from here. And that meant if she had any idea abouting here, then she''d drop such thought.

    "It''s far away from here," she got the meaning behind his words, "will ask my father to let me go."

    "Let you go? And the capital? And the kingdom?" William was surprised to hear how determined she was ining with him.

    "I''m¡­ Very tired from all this," she said in a heavy tone, showing a side of someone who grew sick of his life, "I hate such a life as if I was living in a prison. Everyone around me is pushing to make me better. I don''t hate this, but the diplomacy life¡­ That''s hell! It''s a nightmare!"

    "Your father needs you¡­"

    "He is getting better now," she sighed, "I was carrying everything on my shoulders for years as he was sick and unable to lead the kingdom. But now he is very capable of doing so for decades! I deserve a bit of rest, go out and adventure the world just the same as any master would do."

    "I don''t n on doing that," William felt like he got framed with her or something, "I''m going to close on myself and train!"

    "A very peaceful life indeed, I want it!" and unlike what he thought, she kept sticking to his side no matter what he said or did.

    "Go and talk with the king first," William had no other choice but to leave this matter to the king to handle, "if he says no then I got nothing in my power to do."

    "And if he says yes?" she evilly looked at him, and William felt like she already spoke with the king to have such confidence.

    "Then wee onboard," if the king''s daughter wanted toe with him, then why would he say no? It might be quite problematicter on, and he didn''t know if she was a hard worker or a troublemaker, but she''d still be quite valuable to him.

    "I knew it, hahahaha!" sheughed, and William didn''t know why but he felt like she wasughing at something entirely different thaning with him.

    "What shall we do now?" as the issue of Anjie got solved, Lina suddenly asked.

    "What else? I heard there is going to be a grand festival soon enough to celebrate this victory. Let''s join it, please," Karoline tugged on William''s arm, and thetter couldn''t help but nod.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They kept stressing themselves for too long already. And it was just perfect to get little rest between all this. As he agreed, Karoline started to shout and jump in delight, telling everyone in the team and masters who came from the other world about the uing festival.

    As for where they were going to stay, William decided to return to his cave and continue checking the rings. He got a lead about the culprits behind such an attack, and yet he''d say no to any more loot.

    The three girls decided to join his team and other masters, continuing to loot the gears, rings, materials, and cores from the vast battlefield.

    Anjie was surprised at first, but she grew used to doing this. At the same time, she felt like she was doing something new, something she''d never expected herself to do. And doing something this different was enough to make her feel refreshed.

    William''s friends already knew her. Despite the old bitter memory of sending them towards the other world, they knew why she did it and they also agreed to do so at some point.

    So they warmly weed her, as if they were weing an old friend. This helped her to get into the team without any issues, and Sara became her best friend out of all.

    William left them to have their fun, while he did what was amusing to him. At some point, he felt that checking through rings, collecting their content, and organising these, was some sort of meditation act for him.

    All the loot he gained was stored in separate rings ording to their value and type, all but the scrolls. They were all sealed, and he gathered arge pile of them on one side.

    These were all sealed by the darkness element, and he decided to go through them in one go. By the time he finished checking the rings, he got a calling to join the festival.

    "Go and have fun, I won''t be free this evening so won''t be able to make it," he hated festivals and celebrations, seeing them as a sort of distraction.

    [Come on! We are all going, and you won''t? There isn''t any war to fight, no enemy to worry about. Why won''t you join? Huh?] Berry shouted as if she was displeased with his strict nature.

    "Sorry, but I can''t go. Have fun and enjoy your time," even when others spoke to him to persuade him, he didn''t budge an inch. To him, being here was much better than wasting time on useless celebrations and fun.

    He was a strict spirit master indeed, and that wasn''t his fault. He experienced too much in life, either now or during the previous one. He would prefer to spend every single moment in training than going to the festival.

    [We areing and will drag you out by force if needed] yet unlike what he expected, Sara suddenly said through her Bullet, e on your own will, better than seen dragged by all of us!]

    "You¡­" William didn''t see thating.

 Chapter 933 The Crazy Celebration

    ?

    Before William would think of any excuse, he suddenly noticed five shadowsing into his cave.

    "We won''t let you run away from the fun," Karoline was the first to run towards him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him away, "Come on, let''s have fun! Fun is fun, hahahaha!"

    "Wait, let me collect my stuff first," William knew they''d not leave him to do anything like this. So he had no other choice but to go and enjoy his time with them.

    "What possibly could go wrong?" he thought to himself while collecting the scrolls and other stuff in the cave. Karoline and others led him towards the ce of the celebration held by the king''s orders.

    It was weirdly back at the ce of the destroyed capital. And there William spotted millions of normal people gathered there, singing and dancing, drinking and shouting, enjoying their time.

    It was just the time of sunset, and after the night fell, things became more hectic and crazy! The fire spread all over the capital, making anyone seeing this from afar mistake it for another round of destruction.

    William tagged along with his girls before they forced him to dance with them. There were different types of drinks and meals distributed among the people attending the festival, and William refused to have any of these.

    Yet he was the only one doing so, as everyone else enjoyed drinking, eating, and dancing. Karolien called him the party boring master, a nickname that others found interesting and perfectly suited him.

    William kept theirpany till the early rays of the morning. Then many started to sleep, while others kept celebrating. "Don''t tell me this is going tost for days!!" he knew that normal people might get tired of doing this for one day, but masters could stay awake for days! And as he feared, the party continued for many days straight!

    He tried to leave more than once and got ambushed by his friends. They were all enjoying their time, and that made him smile, happy about what they were feeling.

    "Phew! It''s finally over!" After five days, the festival finally got concluded. Masters fell on the ground, sleeping like other normal people, extremely tired and exhausted.

    As he kept himself away from dancing and drinking, he was sober and a lot better than all of the ones attending the festival here. As he got freed from this, he started to first roam around the capital, making sure there wasn''t any danger around.

    "Oh, you are making a patrol on your own? Good boy indeed," just when he started to do this for half an hour, he pumped into Sloth. Thetter wasn''t alone, as he was with the same group of one hundred masters from before, alongside many others.

    "I''m just worried about their safety," William knew this old mentor was keeping an eye on him for the past half an hour. And his appearance here wasn''t a surprise.

    "Don''t worry, the king won''t let his people feast and celebrate without ensuring their safety," Sloth pointed around with his arms as if he was telling William this was just part of the army stationed around, protecting the people celebrating the hard-earned victory they gained.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Masters would fight and die, but normal people were the ones always celebrating in the end. And that was how spirit master life was.

    "That''s reassuring," William was prepared to excuse himself and return to his cave. He nned to sleep for a half day or so, before starting to unseal the scrolls and read their content.

    "By the way," when Sloth noticed his intention to leave, he stopped William by saying, "I heard that our princess ising with you towards your home, is that correct?"

    "Not my home," William rolled his eyes, feeling like the entire situation was understood wrongly by many, "it''s the Scorching Lands city, not my home."

    "That''s still your current home," Sloth winked, "anyway, you have to get used to my presence around you from now on. And I have to warn you, I''m not that easygoing if anything happened to my princess."

    "You areing?" William asked in doubt, while looking around, "Why do you all try to ditch the ship that you painstakingly fought to protect and save?"

    "It''s not a ship," Sloth patted Wiim''s head using his knuckles, "it''s the kingdom. And it''s filled with far more talented and loyal masters than what you may think. Missing a couple of hundred masters from here isn''t going to make such a big difference."

    "A couple of hundred masters?!! Who else ising?!!!" William felt like this was going way out of his control. He never invited anyone toe with him, and now he was faced with hundreds who woulde.

    "The princess'' guards," Sloth buffed his chest, "led by me, and you can greet them all as they are standing behind."

    "Them?!!" William was more shocked by this. All of the masters standing behind Sloth were dark gold grade, and many were formidable and capable as they were the ones who made the drastic change in the past war.

    "You don''t expect the kingdom''s cherished gem to go somewhere without enough entourage and protection," Sloth winked, and William didn''t know why but he felt like this old man was doing this on purpose.

    "You don''t have anything else to do?" he couldn''t help but ask, "the kingdom needs more protection now than ever!"

    "Don''t forget your ce is situated far away from the capital, so we are also helping the kingdom this way," Sloth was adamant abouting, and William couldn''t say anything to stop him or others. Not to mention, having such a strong force around would be good. Only if they followed his orders and epted the missions of the guild.

    Thinking about all that made William recall something. In the middle of everything that happened here, there was a tiny rat that didn''t show up and seemed to manage to run away in the end.

 Chapter 934 A Very Weird Tale!!!

    ?

    "There is a friend of mine, someone who was supposed to meet in thepetition," William paused before starting to describe the lookout of his nemesis in this world.

    Everything might have been solved, except for the Nightmare monster. William never met or saw a trace of it, even in the middle of such a big war.

    To William, he felt like the Nightmare monster spied on the fate and destiny of this war, and knew it was going to end badly for the dark masters. Not to mention there was another big shot leading the entire assault, making it impossible for a Mutant like the Nightmare monster to do as he liked.

    "Hmm¡­" Sloth didn''t answer him directly, instead, he turned to his group and waited for their response. William expected that, after all, Sloth was with him during their adventure to the other world.

    So if anyone heard or saw someone like that, it''d be among the group following him. And yet William was destined to get disappointed.

    The group of masters didn''t recognise that master. "Don''t worry, the contest had tons of mastersing from different ces in the continent. It''s normal for them to not see him, but¡­"

    Sloth paused, and William got what he wanted to say without saying a single word. "I''m prepared for anything, even the worst," William said, while internally he hoped to hear the worst news about that monster. It''d be great if he fell in the middle of thest war, yet it was something quite far from happening.

    "Just give us a few days, we are going to inquire about that dude and hopefully will bring you good news¡­"

    "Any news is ok, even if it''s the bad ones," William tried to focus more on the bad news, hoping that words and hopes would make it happen. Yet he knew deep within himself that it wouldn''t happen the way he dreamt of.

    "What will you do now?" Sloth asked, looking back towards the ce where the big party was held, "going to sleep?"

    "Going to rest indeed," William lied, "how about you?"

    "We have to protect them," Sloth motioned his head towards the far away festival ce, "you go and rest, prepare to leave in one week, got it?"

    "Cool," William didn''t intend to go and rest. When he recalled the enemy he came here for was missing, he decided to start looking for him.

    As he left Sloth, he started his first tour around the ce. They were in the middle of the ruined capital, and still there were lots of buildings still standing there.

    "He should have stayed at a hotel, right?" William decided to go and check on the hotel ces first. Finding them wasn''t that hard, as they got to cover a huge area. Such ruined ces were either hotels or big merchant bases.

    If it was thetter, then he''d find great things there. As he walked around for many hours, he found nothing of value actually.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Those damn merchants¡­ Who would take away everything of value before running away in the middle of a great war and disaster?" he mulled over this, while walking out of the capital area.

    He didn''t find anything here, and that meant that the bastard must have stayed in a ce around the capital. The only ces that could have this monster would either be dark master bases, or very dangerous ces, filled with scary monsters.

    All the monsterirs were emptied during the war, and dark masters already got killed. Finding the locations of these hidden bases wasn''t an issue for William. He just needed to crack the sealed scrolls, and find out the locations of these hidden bases. And there he might find a clue about that monster.

    Yet he never expected what he''d find in these scrolls!

    He went to one hill and carved a cave there per habit. When he used his darkness element, he cracked open the seal of many scrolls.

    At first, what he read was just normal. They were speaking about ns regarding the final attack and what they should do to surround the capital and attack the masters there.

    Butter on, he started to find weird scrolls. They were few at first, but soon enough most of the scrolls he read were speaking about the same thing.

    "Someone was trying to ruin their ns by attacking the capital? A Mutant? One who seems to be unknown to them? No way!!!"

    William had his doubts until in one scroll he read a detailed description of that mutant. It matched the same face of the Nightmare monster in his mind. And realising this made him quite shocked.

    "What happened in the world? Huh? A Mutant is fighting a dark master and monsters? No way!!" He kept reading the scrolls, getting more interested in knowing what happened when he wasn''t here.

    He never expected that such a thing would ur. He thought the Nightmare monster would help the dark masters in their task, the worst-case scenario would be by retreating and leaving them alone.

    Yet fighting against them? That was unheard of before! When he read more scrolls, he found out that the Nightmare monster proved to be a scary foe for these dark masters.

    He was strong, but that wasn''t the main issue, he knew their ways and how they used to move in a time of war. So he was always present anywhere they tried to deploy and scatter their forces, ruined the arrays and formations theyid, even controlling monsters and releasing them towards their bases!

    William read many scrolls and felt like he was living the action the Nightmare monster brought here. Yet the fun ended just a few days before theunch of the main assault, as the Nightmare monster was cornered and forced to leave.

    "So it isn''t here¡­ What a loss¡­" He knew after such an epic battle against top dark masters, that monster would be severely wounded.

 Chapter 935 Going Home

    ?

    It was a perfect chance for him to go and kill that monster once and for all. And yet the scrolls never mentioned where he went, as if the dark masters got relieved for getting rid of that nuisance and the scrolls returned to talk about war preparations and other stuff.

    William didn''t lose hope to find any mention of his nemesis'' location, but he was destined to get disappointed in the end. The scrolls ended by the middle of the war events, without any additional information about that monster.

    "It''s blessed with damn luck that I don''t know where it got¡­ Damn!" William was quite frustrated by this. He didn''t know why that monster turned on its people, but it was the golden chance for taking it down.

    What he didn''t know was that he was the root of all this. The Nightmare monster was well aware of what happened to William, and knew about him going to another realm.

    So if that war happened, the contest would be over, and it''d lose its chance to kill William. And so it decided to start a tough battle against the dark forces in the region, ending up losing quite badly in the end.

    William had no reason to go and look for the monster anymore. As he lost his target, he decided to start training.

    The journey of training to reach the pinnacle would be quite long, but he had lots of things at his disposal. He decided to check the loot he gained from the other world, hoping it''d help him in crossing a stage in the dark gold realm at least.

    William kept training, locking on himself even when his friends asked for him. After the festival, everyone slept for a long time, almost two days straight!

    They were stressed out, jumping from one battle to another for a long time. So it was expected how they slept and rxed for two days straight.

    Yet when they woke up, they got a severe headache thatsted for two more days. They tried to find William but he told them to remain inside the destroyed capital and help masters there.

    In one week, everyone was ready to move out. When William joined them, he was surprised to see three more members going into the dark gold realm.

    "Berry, Sara, and Ro¡­" William muttered while looking at the three who apanied him for too long, "that''s great news! I want all of you to be prepared for a long-term, and very harsh training program I''ll set for you¡­"

    He said this to his ck Tails team and the young prodigies sent from the other world.

    He didn''t check them up yet but nned to do so when they''d go back.

    "What about me? Huh? Will you train me as well?" As he finished his words, someone jumped all over his face, making him unable to see anything but hair dancing left and right.

    "Karoline, you know I will," he rolled his eyes as if he needed to specify her in person to know that.

    "How about me then?"

    "And me?"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    As the girls saw how Karoline got an answer from him, they started to speak up, ending with him raising his hand to stop them.

    "If you have such energy, use it to fight monsters on our way back."

    Yet what he expected never happened! As they started walking towards Lara''s city, they ended up meeting not a single monster on the way there!

    Monsters seemed either to go extinct or were retreating into deeper parts of the forest, evading humans passing through.

    As for the dark masters, they seemed as if they never existed in the first ce!

    "I never thought I''d clean up this big area in the continent¡­" William knew this was all thanks to him and his efforts during the past time. He started all this five years ago, back at the Scorching Lands battle.

    The world then went on a spree to hunt down dark masters, yet the most affected by his actions was the area of the kingdom. Then he started cleaning the monsters and dark masters around Lara''s city, ending up clearing the enemies from the capital.

    He didn''t aim for any of that to happen, and yet he was very proud of what he did. The entire army of masters marched towards Lara''s city, while thetter kept convincing William to stay there.

    "If you don''t stay, I won''t!" she said at the end of the long discussion that took over many days already.

    "Fine! Do whatever you wish!" William gave up on convincing her to remain in her city. She was very excited and curious about the special training others spoke about.

    ording to his close friends, the ones who apanied him for the longest period, this training would change anyone''s life! Be it special ways to assess one''s power, passing through tips and advice about training, and even providing special training manuals suiting everyone¡­ The team spoke richly about everything and William didn''t interfere to stop them.

    Everyone wanted to experience this training, even the old geeks who reached the high stages of the dark gold grade. Even Sloth wanted to experience what William''s special training was.

    In the eyes of the youngsters, these words made William look like a superhero. But to the old ones, they thought of the legendary and world-famous masters, ones who would change anyone''s life once they adopted them as their disciples.

    No one of these old men ever realised that William was much higher in status than any of these. He didn''t just have extensive knowledge, but he had knowledge that bypassed the boundaries of this world.

    William listened to the long chats that erupted between his close friends and others, even listened to the soft whispers between the ones following him.

    This wasn''t bad. After all, the first and foremost important rule for a master was for the disciple to honour his teachings. William would exert more effort to convince any of his friends back then because hecked enough capital to do so. But now he didn''t need to take such trouble.

 Chapter 936 The King And Sloth Are Wrong!

    ?

    Besides, there was nothing else for the entire army to do. The bloody battles they all dreamt about didn''t happen. And their journey back to Lara''s city was smooth and peaceful, enough to make William feel deadly boredom inside his spirit.

    He''d do anything to trade such peace with the adrenalineing from fighting monsters and dark masters. And yet he didn''t say anything like that out loud, kept these thoughts only to himself.

    "We are here," Lara said when they approached the location of her city. Yet the city Wiliam and others were familiar with changed drastically!

    The city now was ten timesrger than the old city, not paling inparison to the capital in its glorious times! And that wasn''t all!

    The city was surrounded by tall and mighty-looking walls, filled with tons of defences and masters defending it. Even with such walls and great gates, there were tons of small houses, even tents, constructed outside, filling a far wider area of space outside the city.

    And everywhere, anyone could see swarms of people and masters walking, chatting, and trading with each other. It was a magnificent scene, one that even Lara never expected.

    "What the hell happened here?" The first to speak and express his doubts was Sloth, followed by many masters who came from the capital, "did someone copy our capital or what? What''s the meaning of this?!!"

    His tone was filled with joy, doubt, and surprise. And yet all he got was soft chuckles, even loudughs from William''s team.

    "He happened," Lara said amidst herughs, pointing towards William, "he came, he stirred trouble, and he crushed everything standing in his way. Then our city underwent a grand expansion, seemingly it went much better than we all hoped for, hahahaha!"

    She was happy, proud of her city, and she had all the reasons to feel so. Anjie felt a little jealous from the side. As the daughter of a monarch, she was raised in an environment filled with tons ofpetition and high expectations.

    By seeing Lara''s city in such a way, Anjie felt like a bucket of cold water was poured over her head!

    "You did that? How?!!!" Sloth wasn''t the only one asking this question in his head right now, but many others did. They all looked at William, without knowing how he did that!

    Sloth experienced how troublemaker William was, and how strong and capable he was. He was a great youngster, a prodigy even. But to have the power to change an entire city and make it look like it was the capital of the entire kingdom, was something totally unexpected.

    "They can exin," William wasn''t the type to show off and boast about his deeds. So he let his friends and Lara handle the exnation, while he silently walked from the side.

    The masters from the capital heard everything that happened since William stepped in Lara''s city. They felt remarkable about how things ended up in such a way, yet there was something that attracted many''s attention.

    "Are you telling me there is an underground old city down there? One that can yield things not belonging to this world?!!" Sloth paused, turned around as if he was referring to the ones who came from the other world, using them as evidence of how true these words were, and how vitally important this news was as well.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Join the club," Laraughed, "there are tons of forces and masters who came here just for this. If you want, I can make a seat for you there," she winked, and her words were clear.

    "Ahem, I only work for the king," Sloth cleared up his throat, making sure he''d draw the line clearly between his desire and what Lara wanted from him, "but as I can speak for the king, we want a piece of that treasure."

    "Nothinges for free, right?" Lara paused for a long minute, seemingly thinking through all this deeply and quite seriously.

    She got all the right to be terrified of saying something inappropriate. After all, Sloth used the king as a front, not speaking for himself or expressing his opinions.

    "Sure, anything the city needs, we''ll satisfy," Sloth knew this would make the king very happy. Before leaving, the two spoke for long hours about the weird journey towards the other world.

    The king was very excited about that, except when he learnt about the vanishing of that gate from hisnds. If his kingdom had ess to the other world, then it''d be great. Many good things woulde to his kingdom, and dreaming about turning into an empire wasn''t impossible.

    Yet there was no way to do it back then, but now it could be possible. Using this ce, the kingdom could attract more masters and strong forces and impacts than other ces in the world.

    If the king and Sloth learnt about William''s ability to go to that world, then they''d do anything to convince him to activate that way.

    Yet William wouldn''t! He already saw that ce as a safe haven for his forces, guild, and friends. As for giving it for free, he wouldn''t do it.

    Besides, he needed much power and tons of preparations for the closed portal to reopen again.

    Sloth and the king were both wrong, all the masters back there at the capital were wrong. William knew the portal might seem to be gone, but it wasn''t!

    The fog was just a medium to activate a deeply hidden portal in that ce. All William needed to do was to use something simr to that fog.

    In fact, when he got out and found that the fog was gone, he felt relieved. The pain he expected in clearing the fog that he didn''t control beforeying out the other medium that he totally controlled was something that gave him a headache already.

    The king and Sloth missed a little detail here¡­ If the portal was gone, then howe they all came from the other world and arrived here safe and sound?

 Chapter 937 Laras City

    ?

    "Are you sure of this?" Lara had to ask, "my city may look grandiose, but it indeedcks tons of things. If you promise the king''s and kingdom''s support, then¡­"

    "Any strong ce in the kingdom is a gem in the eyes of the king," Sloth stressed over this point, "with or without that underground city, your ce would have gained total support from the king."

    "Then¡­ What will we get back from this deal then?!!!" Lara went speechless for a long minute before asking in much confusion. And all she got was a loudugh from Sloth.

    "Wee to the world of monarchs, Miss Lara, hahahaha," Sloth only said amidst hisughs, and sadly Lara didn''t get what he meant by his words and thought he was just teasing her or something.

    "Fine, we agree," she took the offer quite seriously and agreed right on the spot, "but¡­ I won''t be handling the city for a long time. I n to go with William and train. So you''ll have to make this deal with someone else."

    "Your uncle?" William already guessed the identity of the person Lara would leave behind as the leader of the city in her absence. And she slowly nodded to confirm his guess.

    "He is a great person indeed," William agreed on this. Without realising it himself, he started to control the fate of other cities and ces, helping in making decisions there and such.

    Even such a crucial decision was made right on the spot, and it got his blessing to make it viable from this moment onwards.

    The two agreed on the same man, and Sloth expected to meet someone great. As they arrived at the city, passed the walls, they found the newly built outer zone was totally crowded and bustling with masters and normal people.

    They just walked for a few minutes and they got why this city looked this way. It experienced something simr to what the Scorching Lands had five years ago, ack of threatening atmosphere and dangers.

    Yet unlike the Scorching Lands city, this city got the advantage of many portals linking it with other areas in the kingdom and in the entire continent. This was enough to drive more people here, mostly those normal people without any spirit power, or masters who got tired of fighting and facing dangers all the time.

    William didn''t know that many masters followed their families here, fearing over their safety and such. That wasn''t all, as even a few academies came here to establish branches, trying to recruit fresh blood, send away their oldies and kids to enjoy peaceful life before entering the harsh spirit master world.

    There were even a few academies who got established here, and wanted to enjoy such peace to grow up, recruit more members and train them before going outside and opening other branches there.

    The city was indeed growing with more activities than just these. When William entered the inner section of the city, he found his guild branch there filled with dense lines outside, waiting for their entrance exam and getting epted.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Seeing such a scene drove a big smile over William''s face. All of these masters were eager to join his guild. Not many of them were up to cater to the high standards he ced for epting new members before leaving, but many would get epted in the end.

    This was just the tip of the iceberg! When he got into the branch, after creating a scene outside as most of the masters cheered for him and the guild, he learnt that such events became regr once per month.

    News about this spread far and wide. Many preferred this branch here than the Scorching Lands as thetter was quite far from here.

    "Then where are all of them?" William got to see the numbers of masters joining the guild so far. The figure was in hundreds of thousands, making it a very crazy group to organise and control.

    Luckily he left behind few of his trusted team members, or else they''d have lost their grasp over the entire branch and the situation.

    "They are sent out, doing lots of missions, clearing areas from monsters and dark masters¡­" Sara held a scroll and started to read its content slowly, as she didn''t believe the scary number of missions the guild was handling so far.

    The missions were in thousands! And more wereing every day. ording to the data, his guild branch here got tons of wealth, materials, cores, gears, and even elixirs as form of payment.

    Many forces warmly weed the idea that this city spread all over the continent. Having a strong and organised force, dedicated solely to fight monsters and eradicate dark masters was indeed quite a fancy idea.

    Not to mention this force didn''t have any aspiration for power, and would leave after doing the task. This added more reputation to the Fox Guild, encouraging more to hire them.

    These missions spread all over the entire continent. It was something to cross the entire continent back and forth, but the guild managed to pull such a feat thanks to the dense number of portals in the city.

    ording to the news he learnt from the masters he left behind, the city developed two more zones with portals. They heard there was a treasure found at the underground city, one that was filled with tons of portal cores.

    Doing this helped in expanding the arms of the city to every corner in the continent. William knew the city upper council used his guild''s reputation as a bait, to lure others into epting linking their areas with here. At the same time, there was a promise made, a promise toe in rescue to any ce connected to the city no matter how dire the situation was.

    William was sure such a promise was made after calcting the number of high end masters in the city. As the figure was expected to be quite high, no lesser than what the capital had.

 Chapter 938 The Guild Admission Test

    ?

    William knew this ce was going on the right track already, using everything in their disposal to help and raise up the overall might of the city and its masters.

    "I hope what they are doing can help in the end," William inwardly sighed when he recalled the Holy Shifter, the one he met before. He knew the disaster that befell this world didn''t originate from dark masters or monsters, but it came from other sources, far dangerous ones.

    Be it the Mutants, the Transformers, the Holy Shifters, or even any other mysterious force that he didn''t meet up yet, all aimed to tear this world apart.

    "But¡­ Why?! Why are they focused on taking down this tiny world? It''d be more bizarre if they aimed at other tiny worlds as well¡­"

    William''s thoughts drifted towards the old tale, the myth that Karoline told him before. If that was true, then all of these enemies were moving in different directions, all serving the single master, that damn fox!

    William was puzzled by this, yet he decided to train after reaching no conclusion.

    He trained while his team and friends were doing many tasks for him. Lots of masters joined the guild branch here, and they needed to look for their scanned data and see if there was any good seed anywhere in the mix.

    At the same time, the guild acquired tons of supplies. He asked them to go and start arranging the grand loot based on the value and rarity of the stuff there.

    He stressed over anything that wouldn''t have any known use or function in the world. Such things might be considered gems buried under dirt, things that woulde here from the outer world, or other worlds.

    Since his trip to the other world, he started taking the odds of having gems and treasures here quite seriously. As there was no knowledge about these, it was expected for them to be considered unknown, or even trash.

    He also asked them to send the word, in one week he''d start a grand selection based on his special analysis of spirit power.

    William knew this was his chance to recruit any gem before starting his long time seclusion and training session for his friends and team members.

    He nned to give them all the support he could. The ones who would rise in ranks fast would apany him towards the grand contents happeningter on, woulde with him towards the outer world.

    This might look like another random selection of the Fox guild, but he made sure for his guild members to spread the word quite wide, and stressed over the importance of this chance.

    He even let his friends and ck Tail team members to spread some news about how special and different training under him was.

    William wanted to go to the outer world with as many masters as possible. Yet he knew hoping for that was something, and achieving such a step was a more difficult and challenging matter.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William left the task of doing this to his mates, and focused on training. He was slowly progressing, but he wasn''t worried. He knew the moment he''d end up at the Scorching Lands, he''d cross the dark gold milestone by absorbing the spirit power remaining at the fox statue.

    But he never expected that fate would be on his side, not only once, but twice!

    "Are you ready?" One week passed fast, and William stood now in front of the main guild branch''s central building. The entire branch got evacuated already from all members. He already gave such an order to make sure the ce wasn''t going to get crowded by the newly arrived masters.

    "The ce outside is a circus! Never thought your name and reputation would be this grand!" Anjie said in envy, while referring to therge number of masters surrounding the entire guild, filling the entire city, and even a wide area around.

    "Hahahaha, it''s just normal for masters to aspire to gain more power, right?" William already received the initial reports about the number of masters applying to this test. ording to these, there were hundreds of thousands of masters waiting.

    "You are insane, but I like that!" Lara was already here. After she went out to introduce Sloth to the current leading council of the city, she returned and waited with William''s friends and ck Tail team members.

    "Are you sure you only want the few of us to do it?" Sara asked in doubt, while Berry rolled her eyes as she said:

    "He ns to do it the same way he did before when we established our guild five years ago, right?"

    "You are my friends and most trusted people I know," William smiled, "why is it wrong to depend on you? Just do it like we did it before, five years ago. Scan everyone, and anything you feel weird there just refer the master to me."

    William left only his friends and less than two hundred ck Tail team inside the empty guild branch. He wanted them to run the first screening round of testing masters.

    During the past years, they watched him perform this test countless times. Be it over themselves to assess their progress, or over newly acquired talents to assess their potential, William did it frequently and they learnt tons of stuff about this kind of test.

    They weren''t the same five years ago! They knew more now than back then, and knew how to assess spirits, spirit elements, and define the weird findings in any crystal.

    Every time William would point towards someone and say he was special, everyone would ask about the reason. He exined it slowly to them, and over the long course of years, he exined lots of special findings, tiny details that anyone would easily miss before.

    So he could now rely on them to do such a task. And they were up to the mission.

    "Let''s start then," Peter shrugged, "I miss Ibra right now. He''d be quite fanatic about this test, hahahaha!"

 Chapter 939 Looking For Gems

    ?

    "He would have run around, waving his ive, and wanting to test and challenge any master marked as special by William," Roughed.

    "As if you''d leave them alone," Jaxughed, and Ro puffed her cheeks while making a fake angry face that looked a bit funny.

    "Say it to John, he is the one crazy about going around and challenging people!" she pointed at John. Thetter grew up to be a strong master, a fierce one who was walking on the same steps of Ibra.

    He started as amoner, but with William''s teaching and care, he ended up being in the dark gold grade. That wasn''t all, as he learnt tons of techniques, making him very scary in any fight.

    The more he grew stronger, the more he leant towards calmness and silence. Yet whenever a new gem would emerge in the team, he''d go crazy to challenge him.

    William knew this was expected and natural. Such amoner master, one who was always looked down upon held such immense power, so it was normal for him to feel itchy against prodigies.

    William looked at John and recalled his greatest weak spot, hisck of any spirit. In fact, John wasn''t alone, as many members of the fox guild didn''t have spirits.

    This was all thanks to John and his continuous activity during the past five years to lure in anymon master to the guild. He promised them a great future and support, something that all had without doubt inside the guild.

    "After all this is over, I''ll take care of those without spirits using my special method," William muttered to himself, deciding to grant all the masters spirits, and help those with ones to evolve and grow stronger.

    He intended to go full out in supporting them, turning them entirely into a force that was worthy of going to the outer world with him. Yet this would take lots of time and resources, and he''d not do this for just anyone.

    That was why this selection round was very important. The ones who''d miss it, would miss the most valuable opportunity ever in their lives. And those who weren''t going to impress him would also deeply regret itter on.

    "Let''s start then," William stopped his friends from elongating this anymore by their jokes and gave the order for them to start the test.

    The next few minutes, the entire empty ce became crowded with many masters. The rules were clear, any mastering had to undergo a first screening test. If he was cleared, he''d leave from the back door. If he got a chance, he''d go and get screened by William himself.

    Everyone knew getting the chance to meet William meant a life changing opportunity for them. So when few got selected, many looked at them with envy. And those who got lucky to get selected went towards William with total respect and veneration.

    William didn''t limit any age for mastersing, but he set a rule that anyone above twenty-five years won''t be sent over to him. He knew old masters were strong and got lots of things going on in their lives, but he did want to support the young ones.

    Sloth strictly objected to this, and yet William didn''t change his mind. He had limited time to spend over nourishing his team, and trying to deal with old masters was going to give him lots of headache.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    It was like a cup, if it was filled with water then there was no room to add more. William tried to exin to Sloth a few things about spirit purity and spirit elements, but he ended up without making any progress with the old man.

    Even if Sloth was interested in all these, thetter found it difficult to do anything William said. Even the spirit purity training techniques looked quite challenging and hard for him to execute.

    William stood in his ce, tested lots of masters, finding many great talents. And yet, there wasn''t a single one who picked his interest.

    At this point, and with therge pool of masters the guild had, selecting a single master was going to be difficult to join the ck Tails team.

    He wasn''t just searching for good and rare talents, but for true gems. He was looking for people with spirit fusion, twin spirits, masters with extremely special elements, ones like time, space, fate and destiny rted elements. He was looking for masters with spirit affinities, and all of these masters were quite rare, hard to find.

    So even if he tested hundreds of special masters, he didn''t grant any ess for a single one of them to the ck Tails team. Instead, he established another team, the Golden Tails team, and let them join it.

    This team would be the secondary team for the guild, the one who''d take over things when the time woulde and he''d leave with most of his friends and ck Tails team to the outer world.

    And who knew, he might find a hidden gem with great potentialter on in that secondary team.

    Hours passed without finding anyone interesting, until he met Ford!

    "You are called Ford? How old are you?" William examined the giant masters standing in front of him, so tall that he could block the sun in front of William.

    "I''m seventeen," Ford said, a shocking number that made William raise an eyebrow, "you can ask around at my home and see that I''m not lying."

    "Ok," William nodded, while not believing such a behemoth was just seventeen. He turned his eyes again to the crystal he held in his hands, and focused over whatid beneath the shimmering gold particles there.

    Ford was a gold grade master, one who was at the early stage of it. It was remarkable how such a master did it, especially when he had no spirit inside him.

    But when William looked deeper, saw through the dancing golden particles without taking a fixed form, he could see something shining deep below.

 Chapter 940 Testing Those From The Other World

    ?

    It was a faint blue in colour, with a tinge of green there. He knew this wasn''t just a spirit element, but also an affinity.

    "Is there something wrong?" Ford grew restless when William took much longer to examine his crystal, especially when a small row was formed behind him during the past hour.

    "You, my friend, have dual spirit affinities¡­ Great!"

    "What¡­ What does that mean?!!" Ford was acting shy and didn''t know what William was speaking about.

    "It means your future has changed, for the better indeed," William responded with a wide smile, "go and find Sara, tell her that I''ve granted you ess to the ck Tails team."

    "F¡­ For real?!!!" Even if he was a shy mastering from a small ce, from a remotely away ce, he still knew what William''s words meant.

    "Just go," William evenughed, "a master with dual affinities, with one that''s touching the requirements of the fate and destiny rules¡­ Hahahaha, he is indeed a gem, hahahaha!" William muttered while watching Ford walking away, heading towards Sara.

    His expectations got revived again, and he soon found more gems like Ford. It looked as if Ford got lucky and blessed him with it. In the next five hours, he found ten suitable members to join his special team, all with spirit affinities and rare elements.

    Yet after that, he rarely found any talent. The screening processsted for an entire week, with hundreds of thousands of masters going through the process William established here.

    Out of them, he ended up adding close to five thousand masters to the Golden Tails team. It might look few, butpared to the little figure of the masters he added to his ck Tails team, this looked great!

    He allowed for less than a hundred to join his ck Tails team, gaining most of them during the first couple days. As he ended the selection, he didn''t feel dejected.

    [You need to allow the old masters to join this] just before he''d start another round of screening, one that was directed towards the onesing from the other world, he heard Sloth''s voice ranging in his mind.

    "Old man, stop spying on youngsters, it''s not appropriate," William knew the timing Sloth spoke wasn''t coincidental. That old man, and many others perhaps, were watching the whole process.

    Even if they were looking, without William exining things over to them, they''d learn nothing in the end. [I just can''t see the old masters standing and watching without having such a chance!]

    "You know I tried to teach you, and what was the result? What''s the point then?" William sighed. If it was going to produce any result, then he''d do it. But it was futile to try and teach anyone living for decades something new.

    [How about this then, let me hold a round with oldies, teach them what you told me, and see¡­ If anyone passed, you can add him or her, right?]

    "You are dreaming about the impossible old man," William sighed.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    [Just try it, you won''t lose anything, right?]

    "Fine," William felt like if he didn''t ept even such an offer, Sloth wouldn''t stop pestering him. So he decided to let the old man waste his time and effort, "once you are done, let me know. I''ll personally test the ones learning the techniques I told you about, got it?"

    [Deal! I promise you''ll get shocked, and regret not allowing old masters to join] Slothughed, and for a moment there William felt like he was speaking out of something solid.

    "Let''s see what you are trying to do here, old man," William faintly smiled, knowing that Sloth was watching and hearing everything he said, "clear the area, send the ones from the outer world inside."

    [Is it necessary?] Berry paused, [the ones from the outer world are just a few thousands, not that much!]

    "I know, but just do as I say," William felt that most of thoseing from the outer world would have too many gems. And he was correct!

    Batch after batch of those masters started to get screened. Not a single one was allowed to go out from the ce, all were sent towards William to screen.

    Amidst all, around half were allowed to join his ck Tails team! That was quite a shocking result! In just a single day, the ck Tails team gained thousands of masters, exceeding the total of four thousand in the end!

    As for the Golden Tails team, it got another boost, ending up with a staggering number of ten thousand masters!

    Seeing such a result made William''s friends quite surprised. They never expected that mastersing from the outer world would be this special. And they couldn''t help but recall the weird request from William to evacuate the entire ce before letting them in.

    "He knew that¡­ He expected such a result¡­" Sara muttered, and she did indeed guess it right. William guessed all this, as the onesing from the other world weren''t normal masters.

    They were handpicked by the various forces back there. They were all prodigies, hailing from strong and ancient families and forces in that world.

    It was quite expected to find such arge number of gems in them. After the screening rounds were over, William watched the two teams in front of him with pride.

    "Now I can aim to head towards the outer world with more confidence," he grinned, and couldn''t help butugh from time to time. He knew not all of them would follow him towards the outer world, but at least he''d go there with hundreds of his gang.

    It would be a great boost for him out there. The hardest time for any master going to the outer world would be the initial stage, the one in which everyone would lose most of their powers, returning back to square zero and starting over.

    They wouldn''t lose their power indeed, but the standards of the new world were quite high, and their former power would look useless out there.

 Chapter 941 A Mission

    ?

    Being alone would be the hardest thing for any master, and having such a group following anyone was a blessing. William didn''t think ahead of himself, didn''t think about what he''d do when reaching the outer world.

    And yet he was excited as he knew he''d start with a big bang out there!

    "Gather up," William looked around, and said to everyone here. In a few minutes, everyone in both teams gathered around, "I won''t separate any of you from you in my training. But this will onlyst for six months. After that I''ll personally check on all of your progress. The ones who impress me will continue to get my special training. So make sure to work hard and not ck, got it?"

    "Got it, boss!" The new members learnt from the old ones how to call William.

    "Good, now the first task for you is to arrange the newly joined members of our guild, form teams led by you, and send them out to do missions," he paused before adding, "Your task is to eradicate any dark master base or air of monsters below dark gold grade alone. Once done, return with everything and report to my vices¡­"

    William then took out a map of the entire continent. He had it from Lara before, and then he pointed towards different regions. He didn''t care about which area belonged to which force, and simply allocated every region to his two team members.

    "Is this a test?" Peter asked, and William nodded.

    "A good master isn''t just strong ones, but those able to lead others and execute the tasks required from them," William paused, looking around before adding, stressing his words, "this won''t be the final test, but it will tell me a lot about your potential. So make sure to execute the task, and not lose too much of your members¡­"

    He turned to his friends before adding, "you will gather up the lists each team leader will provide. Make sure to make a recheck after their return, including the time they took to finish the task, their gains from it, the number and strength of the enemies they fought, and the number of losses they suffered during the tasks¡­"

    William numerated the parameters he''d use to assess their performance. He didn''t just want them to execute the tasks, but also to preserve most of their members.

    He didn''t just select this mission out of blue. It was a standard method in the outer world to assess any potential master''s abilities. Not to mention he wanted them to develop more ties with everyone else in the guild.

    Doing so would pave the road for those staying behind to rule the grand behemoth of heritage he''d leave behind. He wasn''t that much caring about the guild after leaving here, but who knew? The guild might continue to produce good talents and send them to the outer world from time to time.

    "How about you?" Berry asked, "don''t tell me you are going on a trip alone!"

    "Well¡­ I was thinking about training a little bit," William paused, "just do your task and don''t interrupt me. I''m going to seclude myself and train until everyone is done. Good luck to all, and see you soon."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He didn''t stick behind and went back to the main building here, aiming to lock down on himself. But who knew he was destined to get disturbed in just one day after all this.

    His friends and two team members started to do what he said. The entire guild went on fire when news spread. It was a mission not to extricate the dark masters and monsters all over the continent, but it was something that the boss issued.

    And the ones who would execute perfectly in this mission would rise up in ranks. That meant masters could help in elevating their newly appointed leaders to high ranks, rising up with them as well.

    This started a fever among the entire guild members here. And soon enough, many guild members outside heard the news and decided to return back.

    They asked for more time to return, and the vices couldn''t help but ept that. More masters came every hour, and the vices said they''d wait for one week beforeunching the mission.

    During this time, the two team members started to recruit masters to join their teams. They weren''t just picking the strongest ones, but also masters with different abilities and techniques. At the same time, the old members had more experience and learnt a lot from William. So they started selecting members based on the same unique testing method William used.

    As the new members watched this, they started to imitate them. However trying to mimic the method without knowing what to see through the crystals wasn''t going to help.

    Few started to ask, seeing if others were willing to help or not. And when they got good answers and detailed exnations from everyone, even many went to the extent of showing them examples of different crystals belonging to many masters, others started to ask and learn as well.

    Slowly everyone of the newly joined members learnt how to do it. And that helped them greatly in screening the early talents and recruiting the strong masters with good potential.

    Soon the gems were all picked, and then it came down to add numbers to each team. William didn''t expect this to happen, and when he''d learn about thister on, he''dugh of happiness.

    But one dayter, he got a visitor that interrupted his training.

    "Sloth? What are you doing here?" William rolled his eyes, didn''t even bother to stand as he was about to resume his training, "I''m training now, can you dropter?"

    "There is something I heard, something that I thought toe personally and tell you about," Sloth seemed a bit serious, didn''t bother to pick a seat and sat opposite to William, crossing his legs as if he was going to train with him.

 Chapter 942 The Scarlet Bear Is Alive!

    ?

    "What? Old man, I train alone!" William was about to distance himself away when Sloth whispered in low tone:

    "I heard there is something unusual happening at a ce you created, that deep pit you left not too far from here."

    "That ce? What happened there?!" William''s interest was instantly piqued the moment he heard about this. It was the ce of the Blue Hills, or what it once was.

    He fought brutally against dark masters and monsters there, ending up crushing the trapid out for him by the Nightmare monster, ending in meeting its clone in the end.

    That ce changed drastically and was now a deadly and deste deep hole. William never thought about that ce again, and hearing Sloth mentioning it was quite weird.

    "I heard there was some sort of a weird storm roaming there," Sloth paused, then tried to exin what he heard in more detail.

    "Are you saying that a colossal storm cloud is moving there, and anyone passing through it won''t return or hear from him again?" William was speechless for a moment, before his thoughts shifted and focused over a single suspect in mind.

    "It''s not just masters, mostly monsters are drawn to that ce inrge numbers. Masters of the city feared the monsters wanted to turn that ce into their new turf, build up their forces beforeing at them here. So they sent many masters to investigate, and many didn''t return back."

    "When did it happen?" William was taking this matter far more seriously than what Sloth thought. He wasn''t thinking of the danger that thing might pose, but was thinking of the great opportunity presented itself to him and others.

    "This is quite recent, just before we''d arrive here," Sloth paused, "this isn''t important. The leading council decided to lock down that ce, preventing anyone from going inside. I tried to speak with them to send an army there, or even tell you about this, but they took this matter far lighter than what they should¡­"

    "They are doing good by sealing it," against what Sloth thought, William agreed with the weird decision of the council.

    "This¡­ How? We can''t let monsters gather up and build their nests there! We need to hit them before they grow out of control. Not to mention such a big move must have some nasty dark masters behind¡­ How can you be this cool and even smile?"

    "Hahahaha, chill out old man," Williamughed, couldn''t control himself in front of Sloth''s desire to fight, "it''s not like masters lived without having monsters by their side, threatening their lives."

    "But¡­ This ce will lose its value the moment this happens!" Sloth finally exposed the main reason behind his outrageous worry and concern about this matter, "if you don''t do anything to stop this, I will go personally with others¡­"

    "Don''t, or else you''ll all die there!" William''s suddenment and serious warning made Sloth pause in his words, then he gave the youngster in front of him a weird look.

    "You do know what''s festering out there, right?" atst Sloth guessed it. And William couldn''t help but stay silent for a long minute.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Just trust me on this," William paused, "wait for two weeks at most, then I''ll go with you and check that ce, got it?"

    "Ok," Sloth wanted to say more, but he knew why William refrained from exining anything. It was as if William didn''t want others to hear what he knew about that ce, and that was indeed the case, "don''t forget to invite me by then."

    "As if I have a choice to keep you away in the first ce," William rolled his eyes, and Sloth justughed while walking out.

    "I almost forgot about that dude¡­ So it managed to remain alive after all this, hahahaha!" Williamughed while muttering to himself, knowing he got a great chance to increase his spirit power.

    It was the Scarlet Bear, the one he once met before when he was moving from the Scorching Lands to here. It appeared back at the Blue Hills, in the middle of the great fight back then. Yet William thought it was gone, got killed by the disaster that befell that ce.

    Hearing that monster was alive made William''s mood a lot better. He was sure now he could cross the dark gold threshold even before heading to the Scorching Lands city. As for the fox statue there, he hoped it''d be enough to let him cross the first stage of that grade.

    "If I ended up at the mid stage of the dark gold grade, then my fighting power could be enough to kill any high stage master¡­ As for those at the pinnacle, I can preserve my life against them, run without dying¡­"

    He knew he was able to cross stages during any battle. Putting this in mind made him train in a great mood.

    As he locked up himself again and trained, his two team members waited for the members scattered all over the world toe back and join this chance. Even the ones from the Scorching Lands base came here as well and joined the fun.

    "It''s going to be epic," seeing all this made Laraugh.

    "This is epic? You should have seen the brutal wars we experienced with him then," Berry rolled her eyes, while looking around, as if she was asking for others to say their pieces about this.

    And one by one they all nodded, agreeing on what she said.

    "I witnessed a war with you, did you forget?" Lara crossed her arms, as if she didn''t like being referred to as a newbie in the team by Berry and others.

    "You weren''t here when we fought against hordes of monsters and dark masters," Saraughed, "we were just weak, at silver grade at most, with many at bronze grade. We fought back then against much stronger foes, gold and even dark gold grades as well! And we won!"

 Chapter 943 A Crazy Bet!

    ?

    "That''s indeed true," Ro weed Lara''s attitude with a scoff, "you didn''t see the real action yet. This? This is just a breezepared to what we suffered at his hands!"

    "And you didn''t yet experience a single training session with him," Peter paused, as if he was thinking of something horrifying, "just wait.. You''ll know everything when you see how harsh and strict he is!"

    "It''s William, not a monster!" Lara didn''t believe how they were speaking about William, but her words only garnished her pathetic looks, ones that held much sympathy than support.

    "If he was a monster, he''d have sent us to fight out there," Karoline joined the fun, supporting Lara in this.

    "Come on! As if staying behind and doing the paperwork isn''t torturing enough,Sara rolled her eyes, "I prefer to go out there and fight. Be it monsters or dark masters, I don''t care!"

    "Me too!"

    "I agree with that!"

    Many started to voice their support for Sara''s suggestion, while Lara and Karolien felt like they were the only ones supporting William in this.

    "Humans are a bunch of weirdos," Karoline puffed her cheeks, while looking cute when she did so. Othersughed at herment. Even if they grew used to how she acted, her words never failed to drive a smile or augh to any of them.

    "They are ready," John returned from far, carrying lots of scrolls in his hands, "these are the lists they produced. Let''s distribute them among us¡­"

    "Why are you acting so enthusiastic about this?" Even Berry didn''t like the task William issued to them, "if you like it this much, why not go and do all of this paper work instead of all of us?"

    "And what will I get from doing this?" John''s face showed an evil expression, "if you offered me something nice, then I''ll definitely do this on your behalf."

    "For real?" Berry wasn''t the only one to shout like this. After twenty more minutes, John moved away with a big grin over his face, the same grin everyone else had.

    He volunteered to do the work of Karoline for free, but thetter insisted on doing this. She was curious about anything rted to humans, and grew far interested when most of William''s friends didn''t want to do this task.

    "Phew! John is really a big man, hahahaha!" Berryughed, and others smiled orughed as well. They might have paid for things that John asked for, all were quite expensive or useful. But during all this time, they looted too much for them to have their rings filled with numerous valuable items.

    So they didn''t refuse his requests just to get rid of such a hard task. "Now what?" as they got freed from this boring thing, Sara turned to all. Her face beamed with a bright smile, and they all got what she was thinking about.

    "Don''t tell me you want to do it like me, hahahaha!" Lang said.

    "Come on! We don''t have anything to do for now, right? Why not have fun then?" Sara moved her eyes among William''s friends, and they all nodded in agreement.

    "Let''s go then, all the good goods are picked."

    "Why not have a littlepetition?"

    "About what?"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Let''s see who will form the strongest team¡­"

    "We won''t fight, or else our annoying boss will notice what we did."

    "Yes, we can''t fight, let''spete on whoever finishes more missions then."

    "It''s settled," Ro rubbed her hands, before she evilly turned to all the girls in the team, "why not have a little extra spicy thing?"

    "Oh, you are an evil girl, hahaha," Berry got what Ro wanted, while Lara asked from the side in puzzlement:

    "What are you two talking about?"

    "Whoever wins, will get William!" the two said in the same breath, seemingly quite excited about such a crazy bet, "what do you think?"

    The two girls turned to the rest, and all of sudden the atmosphere got a lot hotter and tense. Others could smell gunpowder in the air, and they simply took many steps away, getting themselves out of the uing disaster.

    "Taking William forever won''t do," Sara said in a challenging tone, "let''s do it this way, whoever wins among us will stay by his side for an entire month."

    "Month? It''s William! Since when did you see him going into his room or sleeping in a proper bed?!!" Berry was speechless before shouting in her face.

    "Oh, we have a girl on fire here, hahahahaha!" Ro said while winking, making Berry''s face a little redder before she turned to her, crossed her arms, and bellowed back, "as if you don''t dream about the same thing, lewd girl!"

    "Lew¡­ At least I''m respecting my body, desire, and needs!" Ro shouted in defiance, and the two girls had sparksing out from their eyes.

    "Let''s do it as Sara said then," Lina suddenly interfered, making other girls turn to her in doubt and confusion.

    "Are you sick perhaps?" Ro moved and ced her palm over Lina''s forehead, as if she was checking if she was ok or ill.

    "What?" Lina shrugged Ro away, "isn''t it for all the girls to take part in this or what?"

    "It is but¡­" Sara paused, checking Line up and down.

    "I''m a girl!" Lina shouted in annoyance.

    "You never showed any interest in him before," Berry said in more doubt, as she was like others, couldn''t believe that Lina was going to take part in this contest.

    "I had him by my side for a long time," she harrumphed, "why do I need to fight and struggle for someone who is totally with me?"

    "You¡­" other girls got stirred up the moment they heard what Lina said. And thetter didn''t stop there, and upped the stakes even, "and drop any dreams about him, I''m the one who''ll get him in the end. And one month? What can one month do? Let''s make it ten years!"

 Chapter 944 A Storm!

    ?

    "T¡­ Ten years¡­" Even Lara got shocked by Lina''s greed.

    "If it''s up to me, then I''ll set the stakes to be for a lifetime!" Lina scoffed, and other girls wanted nothing more to punch her in the face right now.

    "One year is too long," Sara took over this situation, "let''s make it six months then."

    "I''m curious to see how you''ll win me over him!" Berry issued a direct challenge towards Lina, and other girls nodded in agreement.

    "Let''s do it then," Lina shrugged, "but a piece of advice, stop dreaming or else you''ll cry when you''ll lose."

    "Girl¡­ Speak with your actions not tongue!" Berry was getting over the edge towards Lina. if not for William to prohibit internal fight, she''d have challenged her right on the spot!

    "No rules here?" Lara suddenly asked, and other girls missed totally what she truly meant in the middle of their overly focus over Lina.

    "Everything and anything is allowed," Sara said in a fiery tone, "let''s go! We have two weeks set by him as a deadline. Let''s see who will win in the end!"

    Everyone started to move, and the men in the team shook their heads in bitterness. They knew William would be left in a tight spot in the end, especially if Lina in particr failed.

    The girls might have not noticed her, but the men in the team did. She was ferocious and quite deadly, not the type to handle loss quite easily. She fought the most in any war. But as girls were focusing on each other, they never noticed what she did.

    "Our boss is going to celebrate his seventeenth year with a big bang, hahahaha!" Peterughed, while others nodded, smiled, andughed with him.

    "If Libra was here, damn! I can''t even imagine what would he have done, hahahahaha!" Jax said, while others couldn''t help butugh again when they tried to imagine Ibra in the middle of all this.

    "William kept fighting for a long time, it''s time for him to start thinking about settling down and starting a family," Smith said.

    "Start up a family? Hahahaha, our boss is going to start a family farm of families, hahahahaha!" Langughed, before adding, "but I''ll root for my n''s princess. She was the first girl he ever met, the one who helped him the most!"

    "It''s not a contest about who did what to him," Peter rolled his eyes, "stop being biassed towards your n! Your n isn''t here anymore, they are far away!"

    "I''ll still root for her," Lang persisted, and that little talk gave Jax an idea.

    "Why not start betting on who will win?"

    "Great idea! I''ll bet on Sara!" Peter suddenly said, "she is the strongest and most daring and capable one among all."

    "Pick whatever you wish," Lang scoffed, "my n''s princess will win in the end!"

    "We''ll see about this," they started settingrge bids over each girl. And then they looked in one direction.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "How about him?" Peter asked.

    "He is quite busy anyway," Lang shrugged, "let him be alone¡­"

    "I will bid everything I have over Lara!" Just when they were about to leave, John came running from far.

    "Lara?!!"

    "Everything you have?!!"

    "Are you sure? She is¡­ A bit weak¡­" Smith tried to dissuade John from doing this, but thetter insisted.

    In fact John noticed something others didn''t. He was using spirit sense to watch everything happening, and noticed thest remark Lara said.

    "She intends to use all the power of the city as the leader of it, hahahaha!" he inwardlyughed, knowing that the end result would fall in Lara''sp no matter how brilliant other girls performed, "I just hope she won''t get killed in the hands of other girls when they''ll learn about what she did, hahahaha!"

    John was the only one who saw through Lara''s little scheme here. As he guessed, the first thing she did after selecting her team was to head back to the city, ask the help of the leaders there.

    She was the queen of the city, and her wishes were orders for others. Not to mention anyone wanted to curry a favour with her. And without any other girl noticing this, she was way ahead of any of them, of all of them collectively.

    "Hahahaha, let''s see how any of you will get him," Lara didn''t just stop there, even asked for a mansion to privately get prepared for her long stay with William. She ordered for this mansion to be modified,pressed by arrays and special space elements to be able to carry it with her in any ring.

    She nned not only to settle with him in any cave with others around, but to have him for herself without anyone interfering. She nned for the future, while other girls were kept in the shadows about what she did.

    William didn''t know about any of that, but the old masters in the city heard and watched everything that happened here.

    "Hahahaha, William is going for it, hahahaha," Sloth was the one tough, before he thought about his princess, "she is in this too. I must consult with the king. If he wants to let her win, I''ll do everything in my power to help. If he didn''t want her near William, then let that chick have him, hahahaha!"

    He was feeling great about William''s predicament.

    John missed Angie totally, just like the rest of the team. They focused more on the girls'' they were quite familiar with over the years, even seeing them as anyone would see his sister.

    With Sloth''s intervention in the image, other masters also started to contact others. The ones who belonged to the new academy of Berry''s and Sara''s grandfathers managed to send the message over. And soon enough, things started to escte to new heights.

    "This kid¡­ What''s wrong with my granddaughter? Does she need to go through such a silly contest to get him? Tsk! I''ll teach him a proper lesson next time I see him."

 Chapter 945 The Contest Growing Intense

    ?

    "Just living to fight isn''t good or healthy. He shall focus on selecting his first girl¡­ My Berry won''t lose here, even if she went against that damn city or even the king!"

    Kong was sitting inside his mansion when he got the news. And when he did, he instantly shouted and gathered the n members, issuing them a strict order.

    He wasn''t the only one to do it, Sara''s grandfather also did the same. Both had big ns supporting them, and soon enough the two heard about each other''s actions.

    "Old man, stay your nose out of this matter at once!" Sara''s grandfather came to Kong, shouting at him in a threatening way.

    "Or what?" Kong rolled his eyes, as if he didn''t care about what this old friend said or wanted.

    "I will interfere with myself then!" Sara''s grandfather was prepared to go all out.

    "Then I''ll join the fun as well, hahahaha," Kongughed, making his old friend more enraged.

    "Damn you!" Sara''s grandfather moved out, fuming with rage, "let''s see who will gather up more friends to help him then, arrogant old man!"

    "You¡­" Kong knew alone he was enough to scare anyone here, but he always acted haughty and arrogantly with everybody. Unlike him, Sara''s grandfather was much easier to approach.

    And that meant if that old man asked for others to help, then many would answer his call. Unlike Kong who would get just a few old friends to stand by his side.

    "Let''s see how you''ll make your daughter win¡­ Spread out the word, anyone helping my n in this matter will have rich rewards, nothing is forbidden to get rewarded no matter what!"

    Kong raised the stakes, and all of sudden this little bet the girls had over William turned into a sh between various forces.

    And the man who was the centre of all this didn''t know anything about this, not until it was already toote to intervene!

    William kept himself locked on training, and didn''t care about anything happening in the outer world. He never thought something grand was going on thanks to him, idently moving lots of forces all over the kingdom!

    During the next two weeks, it was expected how things went all over the continent. Tons of master armies moved out to support the different girls with power, and the most prominentpetitors were Anjie, Lara, Sara, and Berry.

    The king liked this idea. He already highly valued William, and wouldn''t say no to such a man to his daughter. The kingdom''s royal forces might have been dealt a big blow during the past war, but they still had tons of forces stationed all around the kingdom.

    Yet thanks to the dy in moving forces to the right locations or portals to move around the continent, the other three girls had pulled the lead over Anjie. Lara was the one who ended up running neck to neck with her, and news about this sh started to be a hot topic among the grandmastermunity all over the continent.

    Even such news spread over the other continent, and a shitload of biddings and bets were done over such a thing.

    Many even started to track the girls and the forces who belonged to the top four all over the continent. News about this was going vial, sold hot for any merchant impact or auction house.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    It was a fever! And the girls taking part in all this heard the news fast enough.

    "Those girls¡­ I swear to kill them all!" Lina was the most frustrated one. She boasted about her ability to win thispetition, "they¡­ They didn''t act fair! Damn them!"

    Ro also was feeling the same, like other girls who came without any backing. No matter what any of them thought, they knew they wouldn''t be able topete against big ns, the forces ruling a big city, or the royal family!

    "Hahahaha! I''d pay anything to see her face right now, hahahaha!" far from Lina, Lara wasughing, "she dared to say he belonged to her, tsk! Let''s see how she''ll deal with such a loss then, hahahaha! William is mine, hahahaha!"

    Away from her location, Berry and Sara were quite frustrated. The two learnt about what Anjie and Lara did, and couldn''t help but think about something crazy.

    [Are you sure of this?] Sara wasn''t the one who came up with this idea, but Berry. Thetter contacted the former using Message Papers, as the two weren''t that far away from each other in the first ce.

    [I prefer to share him with you, rather than letting him fall into any of these two girls'' despicable hands]

    [I know¡­ And I agree¡­ But¡­]

    [Don''t underestimate our ns, or grandfathers!] Berry evillyughed, [The royal family is a name that can scare anyone, but we already saw how pathetic their capital looks right now. They can''t exert much power on this]

    [The big problem is Lara] Sara said, agreeing with Berry''s analysis.

    [It''s her indeed¡­ But if our two grandfathers got united, even asked for the Scorching Lands city''s help, then¡­]

    [Let''s do it!] Sara didn''t need to hear anymore to get convinced, [You speak with your n, and I''ll do the same. Let''s do it!]

    [Let''s win him, together¡­ I admit I never thought I''d say such a thing to you, but at least you and I are the longest to know him]

    [Aside from Lina, that loser, hahahaha!]

    [That b*tch! She dared to boast and brag¡­ Let''s see how she''ll serve the three of us for six months, hahahaha!]

    Such a decision changed everything and added more fuel to the wild fire in this contest. More news spread about the alliance that was done by Berry and Sara, and many started to root for the two.

    Yet there were still many who hated this. They knew bybining forces together, their chances would escte. The two started to close the gap over the two whales advancing at the forefront, adding more hype to the ongoing war.

 Chapter 946 Knowing What Was Going On

    ?

    The excitement didn''t stop there! All of sudden, Ro got sudden support from the Scorching Lands city. When the city higher ups learnt about what was going on, and received the request from Sara''s and Berry''s grandfather to cooperate, they decided to support their native!

    The city was already a bustling ce. It might not be on equal grounds now with Lara''s, but it held quite the power to push Ro to the front stage pretty fast!

    "What the heck is going on here?!!!" Just after two weeks, William decided to go out and meet the team leaders, assess their performance, and see who was worthy of his support.

    He expected the entire guild branch to be filled with tons of his masters, but he found none! Not a single person was there. And that made him feel quite peculiar.

    "Didn''t two weeks pass already? Did Ie out a bit early or what?" He was puzzled, before deciding to take a stroll in the city. When he did that, he got shocked by the mainstream news everyone was talking about.

    "I heard that Anjie is killing it!"

    "It''s Lara who is winning everyone!"

    "Ro is also the dark horse in thispetition!"

    "The duo team is rocking it! They''ll win, they surely will!"

    "What''s going on here?" William couldn''t help but stop a few masters and asked them about what everyone was talking about.

    He heard the names of his close girls, and yet he didn''t get what everyone was speaking about. All he could get was that there was some sort of apetition, one that put everyone he met on the edge!

    "Mate, where were you the past two weeks? Living under a rock or something?" the masters he stopped seemed to not recognise him.

    "I was just training outside," William honestly responded, "so¡­ What''s going on with this contest and those girls?"

    When he heard the answer, the detailed one that came from these masters and others who overheard the ongoing conversation, he couldn''t help but get truly shocked.

    "Amazing! They decided to use me as a betting chip without bothering to notify me about it? Let''s see how they''ll im their proimed winning reward in the end," he evilly smirked, turned around and looked at the far away guild branch of his, "but this is great! I bet none of them ever expected such a grand reaction or attention from many masters in various ces¡­"

    William was feeling a little helpless about their bet. They decided to bet on which girl would be by his side for six months, and they did that without consulting him first.

    He nned to close up and enjoy a peaceful life of training. And yet it seemed hisdies were adamant at doing something else.

    "Let me entice things up¡­ A little bit," heughed while heading towards the guild again. As he arrived there, he took out Sloth''s scroll and instantly told thetter what he wanted to do.

    "Damn! You enjoy girls fighting for you, what a surprise!!!" Sloth was taken aback by what William said to him. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Sloth didn''t know William very well, but he could guess a thing or two about his personality. He looked like a die hard master who was born to fight and kill. And for a reason, he felt Wiim''s focus over dealing with monsters and dark masters quite interesting, and stemming from a deep grudge towards them.

    "I just want them to have more fun, hahahaha!" William was really enjoying what he added to this contest, "make sure to deliver the news to all of them."

    "Leave it to me," Sloth only needed to spread the word to the corresponding girls'' forces and then it''d spread all over the world, "what are you going to do now?"

    "I''m going to train," William stretched his body, "don''t dream about going to that deep hole, or else you''ll die out there without me."

    "Tsk! You are a very annoying kid, do you know that?"

    "Stand in line, old man," Williamughed before heading into the main building that he used to train into. Just before he''d arrived there, he saw two familiar faces,ing out from one building on the side.

    "What are you two doing here?!" William was surprised to see John and Karoline. They looked exhausted, as if they didn''t sleep for many days and pulled long nights.

    "Here, these are the reports we wrote down after studying the lists of teams," John tossed a ring towards William, yawning before adding, "I need to have some sleep. But I need to check on something first."

    "You mean the ongoing contest?"

    "You already know¡­" John already expected how William would react if he heard the news.

    "The entire world knows, do you think I won''t?" William rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, "why didn''t you try and stop them?"

    "He betted on Lara''s win," Karoline exposed John without the need for William to do anything, "he said she is the best one with winning odds, even better with everything he got."

    "You did that? Hahahaha! Serves you the best then, as Anjie is the one who is going to win, hahahaha," William felt like this was the fate redemption act over John for not telling him about what was going on here.

    He was inside the guild branch all this time, and yet he never thought about going to tell him anything.

    "Who said Anjie is going to win?!!" John''s face went pale out of shock and horror. In response to his words, William couldn''t help butugh, shook his head, and patted the poor friend''s shoulder without saying anything.

    "Tell me boss, what happened?"

    "I''m now your boss? Not something to bet with?" William raised an eyebrow, and John realised the mistake he made wasn''t going to be forgiven by William quite easily.

    "Please, boss, I didn''t do anything at all but bet. The ones who started all this are these girls, not me¡­"

 Chapter 947 A Fortune Teller!

    ?

    John was on the verge of crying. He knew William never joked about anything, and if he said Anjie was going to win, then it was most likely to happen.

    "Just man up and endure," Williamughed, "anyway, I have an offer for you. How about you go and form a team, join this contest?"

    "Me? Join the contest? But¡­ What shall I do there?!!" John wanted to earn anything after the expected huge loss he was going to suffer would happen. And yet he didn''t get what William wanted from him.

    "You''ll go out there and cause trouble," William evilly smirked, before telling him about everything John didn''t know.

    "Are you telling me you prolonged this contest for two months? And opened an invitation for any master, any master who doesn''t belong to the guild, to help any side?!!! That''s¡­ Insane!!!"

    John was greatly surprised by what William just told him. This was what William asked Sloth to spread. If the girls managed to attract such attention already, then why wouldn''t he add more fuel to the fire?

    Asking others to not just be watching from the side and actively participate would be a game changer! It would make all the ones who betted before to move and help the girls. And that would add more fame to his guild.

    As for the extended time period, it was to allow for masters scattered in many vast ces toe and join the girls they supported. Not to mention this long period would also lure many masters from the other continent.

    In addition to that, the initial advantage the four girls had before would be greatly nullified. With such a great influx of masters to each girl''s side, the final oue would always be under question and great anticipation by everyone.

    As long as the final winner wasn''t decided until thest stretch of this race, William was sure this contest would attract more attention and garnish more hype. And that was what he precisely wanted to do.

    He expected another surge of joining applications for his guild. Not to mention the fame of his guild would skyrocket to another height. On top of all that, the monsters and dark masters would suffer greater blows than what they already suffered.

    The master world would see what it was like to fight in one grand force, how it was easy to crush any enemy if they got united.

    William''s revenge over what his girls dared to do without his consent was to make them stand over the edge till thest seconds of this contest. It was going to be a tough race, very close even for those without any backing.

    "What about me? What about me? What can I do? I want to do something!" Karoline kept raising her hand and jumping, making a fun scene out of herself.

    "What are you doing?" William raised one eyebrow, while examining the jumping little monkey Karoline turned into by what she was doing.

    "I saw many humans do this before in the party," she stopped, feeling a bit weird, "isn''t this right?"

    "You have to admit, she is really something," John bitterly smiled, seemingly thinking about the hard situation he found himself in, "anyway, I''m leaving now to do that task, don''t forget about your promise."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Don''t f*ck up this time, ok?" William evilly smirked, before turning to Karoline, "You have a very long list of things to do¡­ Let''s go."

    "Many things, hahahah, I''m going to have more fun. Tell me, are we going to chew more of these scrolls or what?"

    "What the hell did you teach here back there? Huh?" William shouted at John''s back, and thetter shrugged and said nothing, kept walking forward.

    "We had a lot of fun! He told me to pass him scrolls and line them up, as if we were chewing them¡­"

    "And you did buy any of this bullshit! Damn! You have a long way to learn tons of stuff, and that brain of yours needs to be put in use all the time!" he poked her head, and she touched hers while touching out.

    "Aren''t we going to chew scrolls then?" she was puzzled while following him into the main building.

    "It''s time for you to start a serious training," William led her to a grand hall before turning to her and giving her a candle of light and a crystal.

    "I love training! Thest time I trained I locked up for one hundred thousand years! It was fun¡­"

    "We won''t do it for one hundred thousand years¡­" William''s scalp went numb when he thought about what she said. He never liked training more than going out and fighting monsters and enemies. But he could tell she was really honest about this.

    "What else could a monster like myself do?" she spoke as if this was everything she had in life. When William listened to her words, looked at her face, he couldn''t help but feel sorry for the empty life she lived during all this time.

    "Human life is full of lots of interesting stuff," he didn''t know why he was telling her that, was it sympathy perhaps? He couldn''t tell! "And I''m sure you''ll enjoy every single moment with us."

    "I''m already feeling so," her face beamed with a bright smile, "now, tell me, what do you want me to do with these two things? y that game others yed with you?"

    "Game? Yes, let''s y this game together," William yed along with her, "do you remember how they did it?"

    "Sure," sheughed, looking excitedly towards the crystal and the candle in her hands, "I wanted to do the same and y with you. Hold on, let me do it and you''ll tell me my fortune¡­"

    "And now I became a fortune teller¡­" William inwardly sighed, but didn''t say anything back, simply watched from the side while she activated the crystal after covering it with the green wax.

    "Here," she handed him the crystal, "tell me, what future do I have? Is it bright and great? Or just normal? Huh? Tell me! Tell me!"

 Chapter 948 Causing Another Storm

    ?

    Karoline handed him the crystal, and kept dancing around as if she was really waiting for magic to happen. He rolled his eyes, looked at her and didn''t say anything when he noticed how excited and happy she was.

    He also got why she mistook this as a fortune telling game. During that test, he and others kept assessing masters'' talents and potential, while manymented as this was their life turning point and such stuff. She must have taken everything a bit wrongly, though they were seeing their future or something.

    It was indeed partially true. Using this method, William could tell if anyone got a good potential or not, would have a bright future ahead of them or not.

    He then turned to focus over the crystal he got in his hand. When he saw the little white dots there, he couldn''t help but recall the first time he tested his spirit power aftering back from the future.

    His crystal was weirdly like this, one with little white dots, without a spirit, without anything special about it.

    Yet he was sure her crystal would show more features and hidden treasures than what he once showed before.

    As he looked closer, out of the few tens of white particles, he could see something down there.

    "A stamp!!! A spirit stamp!!!" he couldn''t help but feel his body shiver, slowly turned towards her, and looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time.

    "Yes! Yes! My future is great, right? Hahahaha, I knew it!" Once she saw the fiery look in his eyes and sheughed, raising both fists in the air as if she was punching air or something.

    "You need to focus, calm now and focus with what I''m going to say," William took a deep breath, partially telling this to himself not to her, "you have a stamped spirit."

    "Stamped? What does it even mean?" she paused, before asking in seriousness, "is it bad? Am I going to die?"

    "Die? No, no it''s not like this," he shook his head before adding, "your spirit is marked with something that''s extremely rare and valuable."

    "Phew! You got me a heart attack just now," she ced her hand over chest before adding, "but what does it mean? You didn''t exin¡­"

    "It''s like your spirit has a blessing, the type that ''ll absorb spirit power from anything, evolve fast and get a highly purified rank."

    "Purification rank? Ah, you do mean my spirit is going to be pure, right?"

    "Not that¡­" William started to slowly introduce the terms alien to her. The stamped spirits were something considered legends and myths, only mentioned in ancient scrolls.

    William never heard of anyone having such a thing for thousands of years in the outer world. Thest master to have such a thing was this close from reaching the top of power in that world, and ended up getting killed by a great herdes of monsters and dark masters.

    Not to mention his rival masters who felt great envy towards him.

    He was this close from levelling up and leaving this world.

    "Don''t tell me that fox also has it!" he suddenly thought of a possibility. If that was true, then that monster was indeed worthy of all the power it had.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William kept exining things over, before she finally asked the most puzzling question she had in mind.

    "But¡­ You told me I don''t have a spirit¡­"

    "That''s not true," he shook his head, "every living creature has a spirit."

    "Then¡­ What''s mine?"

    "Yours? It''s in your body," William already thought deeply about this problem. He knew monsters didn''t have normal spirits like masters, but when they''d turn to humans, what would their spirits be?

    ording to what he learnt, the giant bodies monsters had were considered their spirits and spirit forms. And that made him have such a theory, one that monsters like Karoline, turning to humans, would end up being like Selvators, like Lina and Tina.

    They got their spirits in their bodies. And to activate these, William needed to just use the same method he used before over the two girls.

    "We''ll do it this way, listen and pay attention to my words¡­" he already prepared everything for her to unlock her spirit. As he started to exin what was going to happen, she started to follow his instructions down to the letter.

    "Good girl," like Tina and Lina, she ended up unconscious, "thest time these two took a few weeks to wake up. Hopefully you won''t take more than two months¡­"

    One of the reasons he extended the duration of the girls'' contest for all this time was to allow Karoline to evolve and unlock her spirit.

    As he got done with that, he left her surrounded in denseyers of arrays. He established defensive ones, with many spirit gathering ones to help in elerating the process.

    Back when he did this to the two girls, hecked enough materials to do such a thing. But now hecked nothing.

    "Time for me to train¡­ A stamped spirit, I truly envy those monsters¡­" he kept muttering to himself while returning to his room, started training there, and forgot everything about the contest, his girls, and Karoline.

    He continued training, and didn''t know about the grand storm he started by what he asked Sloth to spread. When news spread, it was like fire contracted an oil mine or something.

    All the masters who were standing on the side, watching and cheering, all got hyped up!

    "Forming a team to support the royal princess, who ising to support our Anjie?"

    "Lina is a girl without backing, with the lowest chances of winning. I''m going to bet on her sess, do everything in my power to help her seed. Winning will give me tons of profit in return, hahahaha!"

    "I''m supporting the two angels, supporting Sara and Berry!"

    All of sudden, endless masters started to recruit others, shouting to support one girl over the others. All of them weren''t driven by loyalty or admiration, but out of their pure interest.

 Chapter 949 Williams Intentions

    ?

    All of them bidded already on one girl, and they all wanted to see their girl win. It happened as William expected, and yet the magnitude of this went way beyond what he initially thought.

    The main reason behind this was the fever of bidding that spread across the entire continent. Many bet over girls as a source of fun at first. But when news about the forces standing behind each girl spread out, many joined in to have more fun.

    It was interesting to take part in such a risky and close end challenge and bet. When William spread the new rules out, many more who were watching from the side decided to take part in this.

    Masters loved adrenaline driven events, that was why they went outside and ventured the dangerous forests and ces of the world. It was in their DNA, fighting and risking everything to enjoy such a feeling.

    Bidding on something and waiting for the odds to settle on someone was always tempting. And when it was connected to one''s abilities and powers, the motivation increased by a ton.

    The fever spread even to the other continent, where lots of bidding happened. The auction houses there worked fast to collect biddings, and many masters decided to work on that continent, fighting dark masters and monsters there, spreading the fever from the other continent all over here.

    William''s new instructions were clear, it didn''t matter where you killed monsters and dark masters. All one needed to do was to collect cores and rings of the dark masters he killed, deliver them all to the guild branch in two months time, while registering this under the name of one girl.

    This might appear like an innocent way to determine the winner, but William never said anything about returning any of these loot back. A group of masters might kill thousands of monsters, hundreds of dark masters at best. Their loot wasn''t going to be massive or something they''d regret to offer for free like this.

    But imagine if endless masters donated their loot? Wouldn''t this be something impressive? He sat his eyes over collecting all this, to give his guild another push forward.

    Using all the uing wealth William would push his guild to new heights. He nned to send envoys to the other kingdoms in the continent, and even to ces in the other continent. He wanted to buynds, build branches, recruit masters there, and start operating from various locations.

    He''d use the fame and attention his guild garnished thanks to the girls, and expand the guild to new heights. He was looking for a breakthrough point, one that''d allow him to expand his guild to further ces, especially to the other continent, when he heard that the final master contest would be held out there.

    He wanted a foothold there, one that''d gather intel about the big teams and strong youngsters in that continent. And it went without saying that he also wanted to do it here.

    He took that contest quite seriously, and wanted to win first ce there. One of the main rules of the contests was to prohibit the use of potions, elixirs, and even arrays in anypetition. And that meant he had to depend more on his carefully selected team.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Knowing the strong and weak spots of his foes was going to help him that much. It''d be weird if he went there before the contest, tried to collect data and such. It was much feasible to open branches there, let his loyal members gather intel over these masters for long months, exploring all the ins and outs of each prodigy and promising team.

    And yet his highest hope was to obtain two up to three ces on the other continent. By how things are going right now, even buying a dozen pieces ofnd there wouldn''t be impossible!

    As for this continent, if he wanted, he''d have the capital to purchasends in every kingdom and empire here.

    The contest started to escte to a new height, with everyone pumped to fight to win. Soon enough, many started to notice something else. The dark masters and monsters were getting wiped out at many ces like they were nothing!

    The scary enemies any master would be wary of turned into mere rats! They kept running and hiding, unable to stop the flood of humans marching at them.

    It was always happening the opposite way, with dark masters amassing tons of monsters, assaulting master''s ces. Be it a town, a city, a n''s home¡­ or even a kingdom''s capital¡­ All were getting hit mercilessly and without enough time to prepare or call for aid.

    This time it was totally the opposite! Masters ran down over the enemies, crushing them like nothing. Theynded over them like thunder, out of the blue. And if the dark masters tried to seek aid from their dirty allies, they''d end up hearing the same distressed signals others sent, looking also for aid!

    It was an amazing and unique feeling, one that made more masters want to take part in this. Without realising it at first, they were fighting to purge many ces out of monsters and dark masters'' infestation!

    William knew it was going to be bad if the entire world got emptied out of monsters. They were the training grounds and dummies sat for masters to evolve and get stronger. Not to mention they provided tons of materials that would be used to forge and concoct great stuff.

    However it was still impractical for the entire world to live under the threat of monsters. He hoped after two months of battling, many ces would turn like Lara''s and Scorching Lands cities, being safe haven for humans, ces where people would live in peace without any worry over what would happen tomorrow.

    This was indeed what was going to happen. But as he expected, at many ces in the world, monsters were just too strong and too much to handle.

 Chapter 950 Johns Weird Decision

    ?

    As for the dark masters, William just hoped they''d get all killed and extricated from the world. Yet he knew this was more like a dream, or fantasy, not something that''d happen this time.

    As things headed down this path, the leading board of the girls'' stand kept changing all the time! Even girls like Ro and Lina, ones who came without much or any backing at all, got a chance to get on top of the ranking at some point!

    Time flew fast, and two months passed while William was locking on himself, training without any care of what was going on out there. He didn''t know that the simple task he entrusted John with took a very drastic turn!

    John knew it was impossible for him to recruit anyone to his side. He wasn''t one of those girls, not taking part in thepetition. And in the middle of all the craziness William unleashed, it was impossible to find masters willing to take part in his special mission.

    And then it suddenly hit him out of the blue!

    "It may be impossible to recruit masters to my aid, but dark masters¡­ They will be willing to help, right?" he knew it was going to be risky if he went out there and tried to recruit dark masters to his side.

    First he didn''t have any dark element to begin with, and then it came down to all the craziness everyone had against dark masters right now. Not to mention he didn''t know how William would react if he heard about such a thing.

    But he got no other solution for this. He tried to recruit normal masters, ending up getting mocked and even chased away by many.

    "Traitor!" that was what many shouted at his back. And he understood why they called him this name.

    "That William¡­ Why does he always love to stir trouble and send me to do impossible things?" John shook his head, before deciding to take the risk, "what''s the worst thing that can happen? Getting exposed and chased down by them? If that happens, I''ll simply run towards the nearest gathering of normal masters and ask for their help¡­"

    He summed up his courage, and decided to do it. Yet hecked many things. First of all, where he should go, how to find these dark masters, and how he''d convince them to join him.

    Thest part was the easiest to solve. He already took part in tons of operations against these despicable masters, and collected tons of their uniforms. All he needed to do was to wear one, imitate how Ibra acted, and everything would go fine for him.

    In his eyes, if he had to pick anyone to be a dark master from the gang, it''d be Ibra for sure. William might be a good candidate, but he rarely spoke to the team unless there was a mission or a hellish training awaiting for them.

    He knew Ibra more than he knew William, even if he knew thetter much earlier than the former.

    John then thought about ces he should go and recruit dark masters. To do this, he listened to the news spreading about the recent updates from the frontlines, even paid to get more exclusive information, detailed intel about battles in ces he could easily ess using the portals.

    "That ce looks perfect!" he heard there was a ce in the middle of the continent, one that was close to the borders of three different kingdoms. It was filled with tons of dark masters, something that John wanted.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Let''s go there," he decided, instantly walking towards the portal area, booking a portal and paying its fees before heading towards that ce.

    He appeared inside onerge capital, one that looked like the Novistic kingdom''s capital before the attack on it. He went out, headed with swarms of masters who wereing here to support the girl fighting in the region.

    The one fighting here was surprisingly the current number one runner in the entire race; Anjie! She was here, fighting with lots of her father''s elite masters. She selected this ce as it was rumoured to be filled with tons of dark masters and monsters.

    She wanted to score it big, especially with all the hectic changes happening so far. John moved towards that location, when Anjie heard the news.

    "Damn it William! Why did you have to leave your seclusion!" she bitterly smiled, knowing that she was going to suffer the most out of other girls.

    She knew William did so to bnce the odds. Now it didn''t matter if one hailed from a royal family or came from a big city, all girls had a shot in winning over him.

    "I told you, someone like him won''t sit down and ept you doing things on his behalf," one of the most trusted elites, one of the royal family, said to her. He was her uncle, and he previously warned her against doing all this behind the man who was in the dead central spot of all this.

    "He was away back then, it''s not our fault he loves to train this hard, tsk!"

    "You should learn something from your future man then," the uncleughed, and she showed a childish and funny expression that she rarely showed to anyone.

    "Stop causing trouble and start working," the uncleughed again, "I''m sure all of yourpetitors are eager to take your spot now, hahahaha!"

    "Uncle, are you with or against me?" she shouted. And before her uncle would stopughing and respond, she heard a voice she never expected to hear at this ce.

    "What the hell are you doing here?!!!" she held John''s Message Paper and shouted in excitement, "are you here to help me? Hahahaha! I never expected that!"

    "No, I''m here to stop you," John said something she never expected.

    "You are kidding, right?"

    "No, it''s the boss ''s orders, what can I possibly do?"

 Chapter 951 Johns Crazy Plan!

    ?

    "William asked you to stop¡­ Me?!!!" she got shaken from deep inside, felt like she fell from the seventh heaven into the deepest abyss and hell.

    "Not you, but against everyone," John saved her from the torture she just experienced for few seconds, "he wanted me to help in bncing out things. And here I am¡­"

    "Why are you contacting me then?" she icily said, and then she heard his idea. When she heard about what he intended to do, she first cursed him out loud, called him a crazy person, infected with William perhaps. Yet when he exined further, she started to grow silent and calm.

    "Brilliant! I like that idea of yours, hahahaha!" she finally got why he contacted her, "but you do know that boss won''t be happy about this, right?"

    "Who is the person you are calling boss?" her uncle asked, teasing her even if he knew who she meant by her words.

    She looked at her uncle, rolled her eyes, before returning to speak with John who just said:

    "You don''t know the boss that much yet, but his most hated enemies are those dark masters. Even if I acted against his orders, he won''t get that mad when he knows what we did here and at other ces¡­"

    "Other ces? No, you are going to stick by my side for as long as this conteststs!"

    "This¡­"

    "If you dared to walk away, I''ll order my men to capture and imprison you, hahahahaha!"

    "I now know you are the one who is going to win¡­" John bitterly said, and sheughed while taking his words in the wrong meaning.

    "I''m a genius, right?"

    "You are brutal, merciless, the same breed as boss¡­" but what he said made her freeze in ce for a few seconds.

    "You¡­ Great! I swear if you dared to go away, I''ll hunt you down even if Willy tried to stop me!"

    "Who is Willy?" both John and her uncle asked at the same breath, making her evilly chuckle.

    "William is mine, and I decided to call him Willy from now onwards," sheughed, while the two of them didn''t know what they should respond with!

    "Now, let''s get down to business¡­ When are you going to start?" she asked, and John told her all the specifics about what he intended to do from now onwards.

    He had such a great idea when he came here. He saw tons of dark masters fighting against normal masters literally everywhere in the forest. So he started to consider this as a main fort of the dark forces. And he was quite right in his guess.

    This ce was considered one of the few main forts which would control the entire dark forces in the entire continent. It was filled with tons of strong dark masters, formidable monsters, and tons of dark masters and monsters lying everywhere around.

    Trying to take this ce down was the long dream of masters living anywhere close to here. And yet this wasn''t something that could happen, even if the three kingdoms united their forces together to take these dark masters down.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    And so John had such an idea, a crazy idea actually. He wanted to be the Trojan horse in all this, infiltrate the dark master forces, lure them towards ces where deadly ambushes were. At the same time, he would arrange things with Anjie, letting her reap lots of credit for taking down these despicable masters.

    It might seem great and such, but it was still quite hard to execute, very dangerous actually. Yet he was willing to take the risk. He also agreed with her that at any given time, if he sent a distress signal, she had to respond ande to extricate and save him.

    "I''m curious, how will you convince them about your identity as a dark master?" she finally asked, and heughed as he exined how he learnt all this from.

    "You didn''t meet Ibra for long, hahahaha! He is someone who uses the darkness element, very cold and arrogant. I bet if you met him in a ce away from your boss, you would instantly suspect he is a dark master in disguise!"

    "Oh, your team has a darkness element master? That''s interesting¡­"

    "What? Don''t tell me you don''t know!"

    "Know what?"

    "Hahahaha! Your Willy is also a darkness element master, hahaha!"

    "..." she froze this time for an entire minute, before adding in doubt and confusion, "he used lightning elements, howe he has a darkness element as well?!!!"

    "That''s how he is, hahahaha! Isn''t it interesting?"

    "It¡­ Is¡­" she was still finding it hard for a single master to have two opposing and extremely hostile elements like that. And on top of that, he was someone who kept doing miracles all the time.

    "Are we going to do it or what?" John asked, and she got jolted awake at once.

    "Sure, I''ll deploy masters to always be near you. If you feel any danger, then just inform me first and you''ll get saved in one hour."

    "Deal!" John stored away her Message Paper, then went to a secluded area, changed his outfit, before headed directly deeper into the forest.

    The moment he spotted movement, he started to run, acting as if he was in distress.

    "Who is chasing you?" The moment he did that, a group of dark masters appeared. They were all wearing cloaks, hiding their faces and appearances. They didn''t ask about his identity, or which dark force or family he belonged to. They took him as one of them thanks to his outfit, blood covering him, and the way he ran when they spotted him.

    They took him as one of their people, running for his life in the middle of all this mess like everyone else.

    "There¡­ There is a small group of masters who ambushed me¡­" he faked being out of breath, pointed towards a direction while leaning on his knees, as if he was resting.

 Chapter 952 He Got Discovered

    ?

    "A small group? Where?" the leader of the team who stopped him asked in great interest.

    "They are strong, all at an early stage dark gold masters¡­ I barely ran out with my life. We should avoid that ce¡­"

    "No, we shall strike," the dark team leader grew more interested in attacking that small group of masters, "how many are they?"

    "There are around five hundred of them¡­" John sighed, faking his desire to not take part in this, e on man, you are insane to go there! Let''s just run away with our lives¡­"

    "A soft boned bastard like yourself can''tpare himself to me!" The leader puffed his chest, turned to his team before adding, "Call out everyone, we are going to take down this small group of masters, and then show off this to my father."

    John didn''t care about what that dark master said. But if he knew, he''d have pped himself many times, or evenughed hysterically about this great loot he just wanted identally.

    He was the youngest son of one of the big dark leaders in this ce, someone who held great power and reputation here. He was the youngest in a long line of sons and daughters, making him crave more for sess. And that was what made him the favourite to his father.

    John didn''t stick around thanks to his continuousints about going there and fighting these masters. He just described the way there, speaking about a valley, deep in the middle of the ground.

    It was actually a big groove that seemed to get created by a series of violent earthquakes or something. But it was so wide, enough to turn into a normal valley, filled withvish green vegetation, nts, herbs, and trees.

    They went there in a huge force, exceeding five thousand in John''s initial estimates. When they went far enough, he took out Anjie''s Message Paper, and ryed the great news over to her.

    "Hahahaha! I know I''m the one who is going to win this, hahahaha!"

    Anjie was quite excited, and her uncle couldn''t believe such a naive n actually worked. He led his forces and went towards that valley, setting up a trap there, one that ended up killing everyone who went there.

    John warned Anjie that much more dark masters were heading there right now. That son wanted to show off in front of a big audience, to spread his name far and wide, never knowing he was misleading everyone into a ce they''d never return back again from.

    "We did it!" Once the battle ended, aftersting for long hours, Anjie finally ryed the great news over to John, "your n worked! You need to do it again¡­"

    "I''m changing location now, so I won''t be suspicious," he already changed outfit, looking like normal masters, moved around and changed locations, "after I''m relocated, I''ll tell you where I''m, then we''ll repeat this again¡­"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Fine!"

    Her uncle didn''t believe the dark masters were foolish enough to fall for the same trick twice in a row. But the truth proved it against his doubts. John didn''t just seed one more time, but many times in a row!

    He kept changing locations after sessfully pulling a mission. And that made it hard for the leaders at the very top circle to notice anything wrong about this. Yet after one month of this, they started to notice something was off.

    The frontline was crumbling and cracking, infiltrated many times sessfully. They didn''t lose muchnd at first, but after one month they ended up losing a huge area ofnd, alongside tons of forces and monsters stationed there to protect them.

    This was the frontline, something that was heavily fortified and well guarded. To get infiltrated by the masters, it meant the deeper areas were going under attack as well, under the risk of falling.

    In the next week, morends and dark masters fell. Everyone started to gather intel about anything peculiar that happened before and they missed.

    "There is a rat in our troops¡­" they reached such a conclusion in the end. After all, the list of names John took down wasn''t small, wasn''t that easy to miss. It was only thanks to all the hectic battles running out there all the time that many missed this link, yet right now the leaders found it.

    The dark master world was a hard one, one that would get earned by force and not with anything else. The ones who gained their reputation and position weren''t anxious to go to the frontlines. But the ones who weren''t favoured to control anything there were very eager and excited about this war. Whoever would make a name for himself here would secure himself a bright futureter on.

    And that all served John''s and Anjie''s best interest. The two kept taking down one big name after another. Every one of them ended up calling more forces to his aid, ending up massacring tons of dark masters and even monsters.

    When the dark leaders suspected John''s presence, they tried to think of a way to entrap him. They decided to send one of their favourite and strongest youngsters out there, fake falling in John''s trap, while keeping in touch with a more formidable force that kept their distance away.

    But they underestimated the strength of John, thinking he''d be at most at gold grade or something.

    But that wasn''t the case. John was at the early stage of the dark gold grade, one who could spread out his spirit sense to cover up a huge area. That ended up for him to detect the early lines of the dark force that stalked him. And very soon he knew there was a grand trapid for him.

    "Alert! There are lots of dark masters trailing me down! I need help to get out of here¡­" he instantly sent the message over to Anjie. And against what he expected, thetter didn''t ask him to run away.

    "Keep them walking towards the same ce," she said, "we''ll save you and take them down!"

 Chapter 953 Scoring It Big!

    ?

    "You¡­ You want to sacrifice me to get them?!!!" John was instantly scared. But she reassured him.

    "I''m going to send a pinnacle grade master on the lead of a strong force, and rescuing you will be their top mission and priority."

    "I¡­ I will listen to your promise then," John had no other choice but to trust her. He knew he got exposed, and there was no way out of here for him.

    He yed along, led the dark masters with him towards the trap, while batting an eye over the dark mastersing from behind. He made it sure that no one suspected anything, acted all normal and such.

    He was too absorbed in his role for an entire month. So he perfectly yed his role, while others were following him while thinking they were going to have a nice hunt this time.

    ording to the reports the dark leaders examined, each time a trap wasid, at least tens of thousands of masters would be there. That meant they could hunt down a strong force, bncing the odds a little bit.

    They never thought that Anjie was amassing hundreds of thousands of masters at this moment. To do this, she had to call for many masters from various ces, and that would expose their n.

    But she had no other choice but to do it. And to make sure the enemy wouldn''t get rmed early, she asked the masters to move just when John and others were so close from the ce of the trap.

    "This is going to be the start of a hellish battle," her uncle warned her from the side, "we need to call for more reinforcements¡­"

    "Call for anyone, call for everyone," she was excited and didn''t care about what her uncle was worried about, "we have to deal a big blow to them this time. Hahahaha! John, hahahaha! He is going to let me inside that damn ce, and would make me return to the top again."

    At this moment, and after one month of the storm that William started in the entire world, the ranking changed. The first spot was reserved for Lara this time, followed by thebined forces of Sara and Berry, and then her.

    The difference wasn''t that big to begin with, and she knew after this battle, she''d regain the top spot easily.

    As the uncle expected, the moment many masters moved from various battlefields, the dark leaders got wind of this. And instantly they mobilised their forces to follow suit.

    Yet they were half beatte, as the dark masters weren''t prepared to move out like the normal ones. That little dy helped a lot innding a devastating blow to the dark forces trap sat around John. and thetter got rescued by Anjie''s forces.

    "You are this battle''s hero," the battle escted and went on for an entire week. By the end of it, the dark leaders had to retreat, and now the entire region was purged from their presence.

    This came as a shocking surprise for everyone, and no one would ever expect that this all happened thanks to the efforts of a single master! Anjie was one of the few who learnt about this, and John didn''t ask for any credit or anything.

    "Just give me a few things," he finally confessed about what he did. Anjie felt bad at first, but then felt mad at him.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "You¡­ You didn''t bet on me?!!!"

    "Don''t me me for that," John bitterly sighed, "you are the new here, and no one knows anything about you. But the boss said¡­"

    He was about to say something but stopped, and Anjie''s face beamed with a big smile as she expected what he was going to say and didn''t.

    "Come on, tell me," she evilly grinned, "I promise to pay you double what you lost on that stupid bet."

    "For real? Then I''ll say it," Johnughed, "the boss predicted that you''ll be the one to win in the end, that was what he said to me."

    "Hahahaha, do you hear that, uncle? My Willy has such trust in me, hahahahaha!"

    John wanted to correct her, say that William thought that way thanks to her father and the kingdom standing behind her. It was like having a grand mountain on your back, while the entire world was getting shaken fiercely by violent earthquakes.

    Yet he refrained from saying anything, fearing that he''d lose the gains he had so far from her. And with the silent warning nce from Anjie''s uncle, John knew he made the right call by remaining silent.

    News spread like wildfire, and Anjie''s taking down that strong fort of the dark masters made every other girl speechless and confused.

    "Howe she did that?" Lara was frustrated when she heard the news, "she struggled there for weeks, howe she managed to pull through?" she was puzzled, not alone, but other girls as well.

    Anjie''s main reason behind her decline wasn''t for the storm alone, but also for her being stuck at that ce for a long time. She tried hard to kill her way through, ending up getting in the middle of a moving sand pit, unable to free herself out, unable to crush its way forward.

    Yet when she crushed that fort, she gained tons of points as she killed an endless number of dark masters and monsters. Not to say that she gained tons of loot, something that William was going to be very happy about.

    William would indeed grow excited, but not for the loot, for the rings they gained. These rings would help masters in this continent to extricate more bad weeds, purge lots of ces from the dark masters.

    Anjie didn''t stop there. Starting from this battle, she selected another hot spot and went directly towards it.

    The girls were spread all across the continent, and the map of their locations and movement was well known to most of the masters in the world by now.

 Chapter 954 Their Glorious Return

    ?

    And yet other girls avoided any hot spot, aiming to reap benefits by winning lots of small battles and killing tons of weak enemies.

    Yet Anjie was different. She got the backing and balls to go against the grand dark forces in the continent without fearing anything. In return for that, she also had her Trojan horse, John.

    Thetter did the same as he did in the previous battlefield. He infiltrated the enemy''s lines, disguised himself as a dark master, before starting to lure different forces to deadly traps.

    "Hahahaha! Uncle, you said these dark masters weren''t going to fall again to this trick. And here they are, hahahaha!" Anjieughed the most after clearing the second strong fort of the dark masters in less than one month.

    This time, she knew what to do, and had a sessfully proved way to win the battle here. She didn''t struggle like before except for two weeks, and then shended the deadly blow towards the enemy''s main force.

    It happened exactly the same as before. The dark leaders didn''t notice anything at first, not until they lost a huge area ofnd, monsters, and forces in a very short time. Then they suspected John,id the same trap for him.

    "They are stupid, and didn''t even bother to connect with each other¡­ What a stupid arrogant bunch of fools they are," her uncle shook his head, as if he wasmenting for what the dark masters in the region did.

    "Uncle¡­ What are you saying? Are you regretting them not winning over us?!!!" Anjie teased her uncle, and thetterughed, rubbed her head and messed with her hair.

    "Stop it, I''ve grown up!"

    "Not to me, you''ll remain that crybaby you always were, hahahaha!"

    "I never was one!" she puffed her cheeks, acting as if she got insulted or something. But that made her uncle mess more with her hair, whileughing.

    "It''s time for us to return," he said, "aren''t you excited to meet him?"

    "I''m sure you want to meet him the most," she rolled her eyes. During the crisis that hit the capital, this uncle of hers was away with lots of capable and strong masters. He was one of those who were away on various missions, deeply regretting not being by his brother''s side when the sky fell over his head.

    And yet he was indeed very curious to meet the youngster who changed all this. He heard tons of stories about William, and wanted to see the man himself to better assess him.

    "Let''s go, naughty troublemaker," he messed with her again, but this time she was ready and moved in nimble steps away from his hand.

    "What a nice technique this is!"

    "Willy taught me," she said with a smile, "and he is going to teach tons of awesome stuff."<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "I''m happy for you," her uncle honestly said his opinion and expressed his feelings for her, "let''s go¡­ We have a long road awaiting us."

    "And a long time of work," she sighed, recalling what awaited her, "hopefully he won''t let us do this ourselves. He won''t, right?"

    "I don''t know what you are speaking about," her uncleughed, "but I can tell you this, long work is awaiting for you back there, hahahaha!"

    "Uncle! You can''t side with him from the start like this!!" she totally got what he meant wrong, and just shook his head, warned John from saying anything with a long gaze of his.

    Time was up, and everyone knew who won in the end. It was Anjie, then Lara, Lina who came as a ck horse from down below, then Sara and Berry. Other girls cameter and filled the short list of ten girls in William''s inner circle.

    The names of these girls were now widely known all over the world. As for the Fox guild, no one now didn''t know about this name.

    The girls wrapped their gains, and headed back towards Lara''s city. They made tons of friendships with others, especially the girls without backing.

    They didn''t miss inviting everyone into the guild, join there and be part of their own forces. The girls released from this contest the value and importance of having their own factions inside the guild. And so they all invited tons of masters to join, adding them under their recently established private forces.

    Even Anjie didn''t miss such a thing. As the entire world was going on a long peaceful calm period after all this, their eyes sat over one direction; William.

    They all wanted to see how the Fox guild would do after this. The old and formidable masters all knew about what William intended to do. And even kings and strong forces in other kingdoms were prepared to wee such a fiercepetition over snatching masters from each other.

    They knew the most logical move after all this was to push forward and hit the iron when still hot. Yet they weren''t unfriendly towards the general idea. After all, the Fox guild stressed many times over its main purpose, fighting dark masters and monsters, nothing else.

    As the girls returned back to Lara''s city, they were weed like how heroes would be. They were heroes in the eyes of everyone living there, and tons of masters headed here to watch their glorious return, and live to tell the taleter on.

    William was still in his seclusion, but he already left orders for other member of the guild who returned few days ago. He asked the girls to enjoy their stay in the city for a week, enjoy what they deserved, the glory they worked hard to earn.

    They didn''t get his point at first, but when they remained awake for two entire days while crazy celebrations were going on everywhere in the city in their honour, they felt warmth and pride.

    All the bitterness about losing to Anjie got washed in this one week. And now the girls didn''t even feel much sadness like before.

 Chapter 955 The Silkworm Monster

    ?

    They enjoyed these moments, and Berry was the one who knew what William wanted to do. It reminded her of what he did back at her n, and recalled how he pushed her over the stage to enjoy the warm wee of her nsmen.

    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm William did want them to enjoy the glory they worked hard for, and yet this wasn''t mainly why he gave them one more week. Karoline was still sleeping, unconscious, and didn''t show any sign of waking up even after all this time.

    He stopped training and started to add more spirit power gathering arrays, even using lots of spirit power affiliated materials to aid in speeding up her wake up.

    Then he returned to train for one more week, hoping by this time Karoline would wake up.

    "What happened to me?!"

    Just after he did all this for her, and as he was in the middle of his training, Karoline finally woke up. And yet she wasn''t feeling the same as she was before.

    The main reason behind this was for what William did. She felt like her body returned to the time when she was a monster. And yet this wasn''t just because she awakened her spirit.

    It was also thanks to what William was experiencing during training. He might have evaded a bullet when his snake spirit got activated. But there was still another spirit dormant there, trying to wreak havoc against the two merged spirits.

    The fox and snake spirits were in the stage of merging. And that meant he got one less enemy and one more friend. But as the sh was still present, it stirred up Karoline''s spirit, making her feel quite unsettled.

    "What''s going on with him?" as she looked at her body, seeing the familiar shielded silkworm body she once had, yet it was much smaller and hellish weaker than what she used to have, she also noticed what was happening around William.

    Thetter wasn''t sitting by her side, fearing that his spirits would harm her. And still her spirit got stirred up, feeling quite challenged by the three spirits William had.

    After all, the three spirits William had were all at the pinnacle in the spirit world. She slowly approached his room, feeling more awe, fear, and intimidation. She didn''t halt in her steps, drawing close towards his room step by step.

    As she did that, William felt something strange. He was immersed in his training, but didn''t miss the ongoing sh between his three spirits. The third dog spirit was trying to dominate the other two, but it didn''t have enough power to do so. All it could do was to make William feel a bit uneasy, feeling as if the sh between his three spirits got fuel and started to rage wildly.

    "You¡­" the moment he felt this way, he instantly interrupted his training. The first thing he saw was the big armoured green silkworm that was standing not far from him, "a solid spirit body¡­ That''s amazing!"

    "You¡­ You have something¡­ Something strange¡­" she seemed as if she didn''t hear what he said, kept murmuring this while standing just ten metres away from him, "your spirit¡­ No, your spirits are all calling for me¡­"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Calling?!!" William was surprised by her words, even raising one eyebrow when she said that.

    "It''s like¡­ They are inviting me here¡­" her spirit body suddenly vanished, and the next instant she fell to the ground. William moved fast and stopped her body from falling, looked at her closed eyes and angel-like face, feeling slightly conflicted.

    "What did she mean by calling?" He ced her on the bed, sat beside her before recalling what he felt when she approached him.

    He was immersed in training, got used to how his two merging spirits were dominating the third one. He grew anxious the moment he felt this bnce was broken, feared his dog spirit would do something dangerous and unexpected.

    But right now he knew this wasn''t the case. That feeling wasn''t anything rted to danger, but it was as if the three spirits were rejoicing about something.

    "A call you said¡­" he turned towards Karoline, as if he was seeing her for the first time, "my spirits also reacted to yours¡­ But why? Damn! That spirit world is indeed a big mystery to me¡­"

    He read lots of scrolls about the spirit world, and yet he felt like he knew nothing at all. What happened here was something that couldn''t be exined by anything he knew, and yet he felt what she said was true to some degree.

    He felt like his three spirits were reacting to something, and that thing was a missing piece, something pretty important to them. "It seems my spirit needs hers, but why? And for what?" He ended up having more questions than answers. And the worst thing was that even if she woke up, she wouldn''t be able to answer any of that!

    She was speaking subconsciously back then, not realising what she was saying or getting why she said that. If he asked her, he knew he''d not get any valuable answer or a clue to what happened back then.

    "If I don''t have answers, then it''s better to repeat the process again," since what happened back at the Fate and Destiny cult, he decided to not train in front of anyone ever again. Who knew what his three spirits might cause harm to his friends.

    But right now he decided to take the risk. After all, Karoline was indeed special, different from any master. As he decided on trying this again when she''d wake up, he recalled the form she appeared in.

    "Pretty amazing for a Silkworm monster to keep growing and living for one million years like this¡­ She is blessed with great luck without doubt¡­"

    He knew her kind of monsters weren''t the strongest out there in the wilderness. Sometimes, being overly strong and special would be a curse and not a blessing.

 Chapter 956 You Want To Rule The World?!!!

    ?

    "As you woke up, it''s time for me to put an end to the ongoing contest," he shifted his eyes outwards, spreading his spirit sense to cover up the entire guild branch here.

    As he expected, the guild was filled with tons of masters, all wereughing and celebrating with the grand sess the guild achieved in the past two months.

    He spotted the girls, and noticed how each was now surrounded with lots of new faces. "They started to form their factions¡­ Atst!"

    It was time for his guild to expand, not only in quantity, but also in quality and order. His strongest and most trusted masters were in his two special teams, in his friends. But they were all alone, without any gang to support them or move by their orders.

    He hoped his girls would start a trend, one which would drive everyone else in the two teams to start their factions. Friction between guild members was forbidden by him since day one, and that would solve tons of problems by forming these factions.

    He decided to leave Karoline sleeping here, and went outside in slow steps. The moment he appeared out of the building, it felt like a bomb dropped and all the masters here stopped what they were doing.

    They all turned to look at William, looking at him as if they were looking at some legendary figure. He was the one who started all this, introducing to the entire world the new term of guilds.

    As he appeared, his girls, friends, and two special teams were the first to move towards him. And then everyone else approached the guild headmaster, waiting for his next words and orders.

    "I see you finished the contest," William looked at his girls first, and they all red back at him.

    "Dammit William! Why did you need to do it?" The first toin was Berry, and she shouted in pure rage stemming from her bitterness of loss.

    "Hahahaha, you lost and you areining now, hahahaha!" Anjie didn''t let this chance slip by,ughed and bragged about her win. Other girls red fiercely at her, showing their enmity wide in the open.

    "Let me be clear about this," before anyone would say anything else, William added in slow tone, "you all made a grave mistake to start something rted to me without consulting me first. I interfered and changed the rules as a form of punishment to all of you. Yet I can tell you all enjoyed your time and had fun, right?"

    "But we lost!" Lara was feeling more bitterness than anyone else. She was contending neck to neck with Anjie, until he came out and dered the new rules. If not for this, she''d have a better shot in winning.

    "Lost what exactly?" As he heard this word twice in a row, he crossed his arms, calmly looked at them before adding, "you betted on who will stay by my side for six months, but that doesn''t mean you won''t be with me."

    His words made Anjie choke in the middle of herughs. At the same time, other girls'' faces beamed with bright smiles, looking at Anjie as if they were telling her: You won nothing, and we lost nothing!

    "But¡­"

    "Let''s speak first about what you did," William paused, stretching his arm towards Anjie. And thetter moved slowly towards him, feeling a bit hesitant and confused.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    But when William ced his arms around her waist, all the negative thoughts vanished like they were never there. Her eyes looked at him, from this close angle, seeing him standing by her side as if there was nothing else in the world out there but him.

    This made her heart thumb, thumb hard like never before. And without feeling it, her cheeks developed two faint rosy touch. Seeing the two like this made other girls forget what William just said, looking at Anjie in great envy and deep regret.

    They knew William meant what he said, and yet Anjie still ended up close to him, something that not any girl enjoyed except for Berry, Lina, Ro, and Karoline.

    "You''ll need to prepare the scrolls of what you did, go through your loot, organise these and then hand everything over," William then turned to Lara before adding, "I want an extra thing from you."

    "What?" Lara was feeling terrible every time she looked at Anjie enjoying his embrace in front of everyone. She recalled the portable mansion she asked others to make, and couldn''t help but feel more bitterness and torturing regret.

    "I want you to send envoys to all the kingdoms," he paused, "send envoys to all the kingdoms in both continents."

    "Both continents?!!" She wasn''t the only one to say this, but many did. All looked at each other, while a crazy idea popped in their minds.

    "We are going to expand," William rolled his eyes, "what''s wrong about this?"

    "Expand? To both continents? How?!!" Anjie got jolted awake from the awesome feeling of being held by him like this, "you know this will cost a fortune! Not to mention you need these kingdoms to agree first¡­ Wait¡­ don''t tell me¡­"

    As she was speaking, she suddenly realised something. She connected all the dots, and felt like William did intervene before in their contest not just to punish them, but also to pave the path for such a move.

    And when she realised this, she couldn''t help but feel shocked at how farsighted he was. He nned this from the start, knew what he was doing when others were just immersed in watching or taking part in the contest.

    "We need to expand our forces," William nodded, "send envoys out, ask for permission from the kings to allocate pieces ofnds in their capitals, the main cities in every kingdom, and the big towns as well."

    "..."

    They all thought William hoped to establish a branch in every kingdom''s capital. And yet his appetite was much bigger than what they took him for.

    "You¡­ You want to rule the world?!!!"

 Chapter 957 Factions

    ?

    "Who the hell are you?" William looked at the middle aged master who just spoke, feeling a bit familiar with him despite not meeting him before.

    "He is my uncle," Anjie realised she didn''t introduce the two, looked at her uncle while feeling much weirder and a bit unsettled. She was held by her man, in front of one of her closest family members. This was quite embarrassing, a situation she never faced before.

    Out of impulse, she wanted to distance herself away from him. And yet William''s arm looked as if they were stuck by glue to her, unable to push it away even in the slightest.

    "The king''s brother or cousin? I''m honoured to meet you, sir,"'' William acted both haughty and politely at the same time, not showing any weakness or much arrogance in front of this man.

    "Brother," the uncle paused, assessing William up and down before adding, "you didn''t answer my question."

    "Why answer something you already know?" William looked innocent, but his answer made the uncle raise one eyebrow.

    "You know doing this will stir others against you."

    "Going to the top isn''t easy."

    "That''s given," the uncle nodded, "but it doesn''t mean you have to butt your head against a rock andinter on."

    "Who said I''m going toin?" William tilted his head as if he just heard the most absurd thing ever, "and who said I won''t crush that rock?"

    "You aren''t that naive or arrogant to not realise your limits."

    "And that''s why I''ll aim to the very top in this world," William smiled, looking around, in an intentional way, before adding, "and I won''t go there alone."

    "..." Anjie''s uncle got the hint William hid in his words, but others didn''t. "What a nice and daring youngster he is! I bet my brother will be fond of him when he meets him a few more times¡­" the uncle thought to himself, while returning to watch in silence, and doing nothing.

    He was here from the start, and saw how William dealt with the problem of his girls. He liked how he handled the situation, and yet couldn''t control himself when he heard William''s aspiration to expand all over the world.

    This was a move that could crush all the sess William had with his guild. And so he had to make sure this youngster knew what he was doing, and he got impressed by his self confidence.

    "As for the two special tail teams¡­" William finished handling the problem of his girls, distributing orders about his future ns of expansion, and then sat his eyes over the newly recruited and old members in the two teams, "deliver your reports to John, he''ll assess everything."

    "Why me?!!!" John shouted from the side, while everyone else looked at him in sympathy.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "You do know what mistake you did," William icily looked at John, and thetter gulped in nervousness, not knowing how William knew what he did.

    But it was expected how Anjie bragged about what John did with her. This solved all the mysteries of her sudden rise, and made many girls hate John for what he did.

    John didn''t know that William was trying to help him. His girls were adamant at torturing this poor master for picking Anjie and not any of them. Even if he''d swear on his spirit and lifeter on that all this happened by ident, and he picked that ce randomly without knowing Anjie was there, no one bought any of what he''d say.

    "I will return to train again," William then looked at Anjie, before moving a few strands of hair away from her face. He felt her body tremble faintly in his arms, and he stopped doing anything else with her for now.

    William returned into the main building, checked first on Karoline. She was sleeping like a baby, even snoring! "At least she is fine," he paused, listening to her loud snores, shaking his head before leaving.

    He went back to train, and this time he was expecting something new to happen. But he got disappointed as the three spirits returned to sh among themselves without showing anything abnormal again.

    As nothing happened, he returned to train diligently, leaving his friends and team members to do what he ordered.

    His friends found it hard at first to do all these tasks alone. But when Sara suggested using the newly joined masters in their factions to help, they started to feel much better.

    Each girl''s faction started to help greatly in organising the loot and recording everything. As others saw this, they decided to mimic what these girls did, and started to announce the formation of their factions.

    The two special team members made many friends during the past two months. And yet it wasn''t enough to make them even close to what the girls did.

    They never thought about inviting everyone they met and fought with in the past couple of months to join the guild. And only a few of the masters who took the initiative to join were here. That made them regret missing such a chance, and work hard to recruit more members from the guild''s huge pool of masters.

    As William retreated, the entire guild was experiencing a new makeover move. For the weak period he gave to everyone, the two team members now were faction owners, with different sizable factions getting formed.

    It wasn''t a surprise that the girls'' had the biggest factions, but it was a surprise for John and Smith to have two big factions as well.

    The former already invited tons ofmon masters into the guild. Common masters might be weak and not united, but they were still holding loyal feelings towards John to introduce them here.

    John was a silent person in the ck Tails team, but out there with othermoners, he was a very talkative person. He had tons of rtionships with other masters, and this proved its worth at this moment.

 Chapter 958 Old Masters Rock!

    ?

    As for Smith, aside from the small n he moved in the guild five years ago, he was someone feared and respected. He was seen as a grand artisan in making, one who always provided the guild members with grenades for free.

    The masters in the guild always tested the great use and value of his grenades, ending up holding such favour to him deep in their hearts. In addition to respect. So when the time came and he asked for others to join, he managed to establish a big faction.

    A third member who wasn''t here could have established arge faction, perhaps even rivalling the girl''s factions. It was Ibra, and unluckily for him, he was away and not present during these times.

    He was seen as the bullish member of the guild, one who was like an idol to many masters. He was cold, strong, decisive, and very capable. He''d never stand alone in front of any injustice, and for many times he travelled far distance to aid and help entrapped guild members in any mission.

    As for William, he returned and checked over Karoline. She was still sleeping as a baby for five days in a row, before finally waking up. This time she found him waiting by the side of her bed, not training like how he used to be.

    "What happened?" the moment she woke up, she felt a terrible headache alongside recalling what she experienced after activating her spirit.

    "You activated your spirit body¡­"

    "Did I return to being a monster now?" she said it in a tone that held both joy and regret at the same time. Luckily for her, the answer she got was a shaking of his head.

    "You are now a human, and it''s normal for masters to activate their spirit bodies."

    "I see¡­" she paused, looking at him in a weird way before pointing to the air above and around him, "before I saw¡­ Saw something¡­ Something weird¡­ It''s like I was drawn to you by ma force¡­ It''s weird¡­"

    She couldn''t describe the feeling she had back then. And yet he got what she wanted to convey.

    "Don''t worry," he approached her, patting her head, "you are going to be fine. The only regret is that you missed tons of fun."

    "Fun? Did you say I missed fun? What happened?" when she heard what he said, she literally jumped off her bed, held his hands, looked him in the eye, before adding, "tell me everything!"

    Just before he''d continued half of what he wanted to say, she went all out, ran outside the building, went to the girls, and started making a huge fuss out there.

    "Tsk! Even if she was a million year monster, she is still acting as a six year old girl¡­ She reminds me of Tina, somehow¡­"

    He shook his head, knowing that he got nothing in his power to stop her. At the same time, the girls keptughing at Karoline and her reactions, and were d to narrate what she missed in great detail.

    Even if everything started and stemmed up from the same point, each girl had different tales to tell. Karoline kept jumping from one girl to another, and soon enough all the girls learnt about her actions and expected her to pump into their ces and interrupt their business at any given moment.

    Yet they were never mad at her. They dealt with her enough to know how pure hearted a person she was. And she was very naive and a bit funny, especially with that monster background history story of hers.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    William decided to have a long nap for a day, before he woke up and sent a message to a certain person.

    "So it''s time? Atst!" Sloth appeared in the next hour inside his building, with a wide smile on his face. William knew this smile wasn''t for calling him here to start talking about that weird ce and monster. It was all thanks to how brilliant Anjie performed back at the contest, and how she rocked everyone and won in the end.

    "You need to know that ce is quite dangerous," William stressed over this point. Yet before he''d continue, Sloth raised a hand to interrupt him.

    "Listen to me first, you need to apologise."

    "Apologise? For what?!!" William was surprised and puzzled by what Sloth said.

    "We, old masters, did learn the techniques you told me about," he puffed his chest, and William realised that he guessed the reason for such a smile wrongly this time.

    "You are kidding!"

    "Be polite, kiddo, humph! If not for me being in a great mood, I''d have knocked your stubborn head with my knuckles¡­"

    "Don''t do it old man, or else you may break a bone or a nerve," Williamughed, and Sloth''s smile vanished before getting reced with a brutal expression there, "anyway, how many learnt my technique? Five? Ten?"

    "Humph! You are really underestimating the old masters," Sloth''s smile returned, and this time it was a wide grin, "I taught this technique to a group of five thousand masters, and out of them four thousand learnt it!"

    "F¡­ Four thousand high end masters?!!!" William was shocked when he heard that, and Sloth puffed his chest even more, looking cocky.

    "That''s great," Williamughed, "they are all invited toe with me towards that ce."

    "Who said we needed your permission to do it?" Sloth scoffed, "besides¡­ I also learnt these techniques! Nothing can stand against this old man, hahahaha!"

    "..."

    William didn''t know why Sloth was taking this matter far more seriously than it was. Yet in the end he was happy with such a result. If old masters could learn the spirit purifying techniques, then great things awaited them!

    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm They needed to raise their spirit purity level to a certain extent to be able to pass through the world''s barrier. And the key to all this was to learn the spirit purification techniques.

    And then it came down to the Scarlet Bear monster.

 Chapter 959 Entering The Bronze Grade

    ?

    "I want to tell you something," William looked at the old man for a long minute, while thetter misunderstood what he wanted to say, "in that little trip, we are going to have a great opportunity. The ones who areing with us will have a great shot to shoot to the pinnacle stage in the world, or even go beyond it!"

    "This¡­" Sloth got what William wanted to say, and was surprised by what he said, "do you want to limit the number of masters going there? Didn''t you say it was dangerous?"

    "It is," William nodded, "but it''s dangerous for you, not to me. As long as I''m with you, nothing will happen."

    "Arrogant youngster," Sloth scoffed, and yet he knew William wasn''t the type to brag about something he couldn''t do, "then¡­ How many can we have with us?" William was lost in thoughts when he heard what Sloth said.

    "Anyoneing has to be either below twenty-five years old or learnt the techniques I taught you."

    "This¡­" Sloth paused, "how long do we have then?"

    "What? Do you want to train tons of people or what?" William was speechless, before he added the condition that Sloth was looking for from the start, "we can''t have any master beyond ten thousand, ok?"

    "Ten thousand from my side? Got it!"

    "No! no! Ten thousand as a whole," William stressed over this, "I''ll bring half, and you bring half, how does it sound?"

    "Not good," Sloth shook his head, and before William would issue any objection he added, "the city leaders are setting their eyes over that ce as well. So it''s better for us to give some slots, right?"

    "Hmm¡­ Let them have then one thousand quota," William paused, "and this is going to be cut from yours, got it?"

    "Then we won''t give them anything," Slothughed, and William couldn''t help but shake off his head thanks to the old man''s shamelessness.

    "So we do have one more week, right?"

    "At most," William paused, "I will undergo a big training session for the ones I''m selecting. You should also do the same to those you''ll select."

    "I can''t just select all old men, right?"

    "I don''t advise that," William shook his head, "it''s better if you focused more on the younger generation."

    "I get it," Sloth nodded, "let''s meet in one week then. It''s great this city has a portal leading to the capital¡­"

    "Since when was there such a portal?" William was surprised by this, and Slothughed, telling William he was the one who stood behind such a thing.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    As Sloth went out, William knew it was time to go and start the training schedule for his people. "Gather up, I see you are now having lots of followers, interesting," William paused, took a longer look over his friends and therge number of masters standing around each and every one of them.

    "We established factions," Sara was the one to speak up, while Anjie moved herself without the need of saying a single word, and went towards William. Thetter surrounded her waist with his arm, making other girls regret not having such a treatment from him.

    "Factions are great," William stressed over this point, "as long as you won''t do anything bad between each other, got it?"

    "Got it, boss!" they all shouted in the same breath, before William started to spread the great news:

    "In the next week, I''m going to train five thousand selected members of the guild. The two tails team members are all invited, and you will select the rest ording to their talents and such¡­"

    He paused, letting them get the point behind his words before he added, "in this training, and as you already established factions, then you are going to have a little contest here. Let''s see who is going toe on top at the end with his faction members."

    "And the prize?" Berry suddenly shouted, and for a moment there, all the other girls got hyped for that.

    "Come on, don''t you think it''ll be weird if I ended up with John sticking by my side? Or Smith? Hahahaha!" Williamughed over their naive thoughts, making other girls unable to respond for a few minutes.

    "You have one day, after thate here with your members. Make sure to bring five thousand in the end, and select wisely. Once selected, you can''t change the person you selected."

    William then let everyone move away before turning to Karoline, e, we need to start giving you another test."

    "Another fortune telling? Yes! I love that!" She got instantly hyped after feeling a little depressed. Everyone was standing around them, all but her. She felt like she was the only person here who was secluded and isted, and felt the need to do like them.

    But when William told her that, she totally dropped any thoughts and focused more on one thing; to go inside with him and have more fun.

    William got used to how she spoke about the test as if it was some sort of a game. And so he simply led her inside, and didn''t say anything to her this time when giving her the crystal and candle of light.

    "I know, I know what to do, hahahaha!" sheughed, held the two items together excitedly, before doing the test. When William held the crystal in hands, he could easily tell there was a significant change from the past.

    "Congrattions, you got into the bronze grade," the moment he saw the bronze coloured dust particles he said that. Yet he didn''t drop the crystal, focused more on whatid deep within.

    There he spotted four different colours, indicating the elements she got. Two of them were having bright hues, as they got spirit affinity as well.

    "You have the darkness element¡­ But also the light element¡­ Interesting¡­" William found two opposing elements in her crystal, and that made him quite interested in how she used these two.

 Chapter 960 Giving A Lecture

    ?

    "Light? I used to release very strong and deadly beams from my body¡­ Is that what you mean?"

    "That''s it," he nodded, "you also have the wind and earth elements¡­ and you have affinities for both of them¡­"

    "I have four different elements then¡­ Is that great or bad?" he couldn''t help but roll his eyes when he heard what she said.

    "It''s great indeed! Your strongest elements are the light and darkness¡­ As the two are antagonising each other, you have to use my training techniques then¡­"

    William knew how hard it was for her to train on a single technique. Like this she was going to augment an element over another. To solve this, he decided to give her his own devised training technique.

    "Your training technique? Is it special?"

    "Only I train in it," he could tell how excited and hyped she was about this, "how about this?"

    "This is awesome! Teach me, teach me now!" she shouted in excitement, and even jumped to grab his arm. William couldn''t help butugh over her actions, ending up teaching her everything rted to his devised techniques.

    "It will add more to these techniques, but for now they are fine to get you again to the pinnacle stage in this world," he ended his words with this, and she couldn''t help but beam with a bright smile.

    "Then let me start, I want to y with all of them¡­ I never trained before, is it fun?"

    "You''ll get to feel tons of things, and it''s indeed fun," he patted her head, acting with her as if he was dealing with a daughter or something.

    She didn''t dy and sat on the ground, began her training. She wasn''t going to stop until she''d try out everything he taught her. He gave her techniques to train her spirit power on, depending on her spirit elements, and a technique to purify her spirit.

    He knew her spirit was indeed quite high levelled as she once reached the pinnacle of the power in her world. But monsters were naturally blessed with spirit purification with each upgrade in their spirit power. And humans weren''t.

    She had to train over these techniques diligently, and the moment she started just the first one, she couldn''tst for more than an hour before opening her eyes, shouting in loud tone:

    "It''s so much fun! This training thing¡­ I love it! Hahahaha! It reminds me of the old days, hahahaha!"

    He watched her while shaking his head. She was hyped for this, and he was happy for her despite feeling how odd it was to say such words.

    As she trained, he decided to go through the records the team members gathered and worked up.

    In no time, one day passed fast. Then he was interrupted by knocking over the door, with his friendsing in.

    "We are ready," Berry said, while moving her eyes around, "we agreed that the top girl will¡­"<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Don''t include me again," he motioned his head towards Anjie who was enjoying his embrace, "I''m busy as you can tell."

    "..."

    The girls gave him a fierce re and stare, making him want tough. Who did they think he was? A machine or what?

    Besides, when they said that, he could feel Anjie turning her head towards them. He didn''t need to watch her face to know she was ring back at them, and that would start a strife he and his guild didn''t need to.

    "You gathered up five thousand already?" he asked, and they slowly nodded with great disappointment. As for the men, they were allughing and said nothing, enjoying the little show here.

    "We have them outside," Sara said, while ring back at Anjie in a challenge, "when do you want to start?"

    "Right away," William started to move, "I want many to record what I''m going to say. This will make valuable data for the guild."

    William thought about inviting everyone to listen to what he was going to say. But it seemed quite impossible for that to happen. The guild branch wouldn''t take everyone in, not to mention there were many members out there doing tons of missions.

    Instead, it was much more optimal for him to use the recording crystals. William then got out there, started a long session, spoke about tons of stuff, including things rted to spirit purity, spirit elements, techniques, and such stuff.

    He kept speaking and speaking for an entire day, while everyone was mesmerised by what he said. Then he started to tell them a spirit purity training technique, one that could help all, even the ones who''d watch the recording crystalster on.

    "It''s time for you to train," William paused, before adding, "if any of you failed to train over this technique in one week, you won''te with us. The vacant space will be filled by me, and I will select people outside your factions."

    "Boss¡­ This¡­" Even Smith was shocked when he heard that.

    "I warned you all before, once selected, your team members won''t be swapped or changed, right?" William evillyughed, "so if you lost any member in one week, you won''t restore it."

    "Evil," many jokinglymented, and they were all the male members in his team. They were still enjoying the moment of sh between his girls and Anjie, not caring too much about this chance.

    William didn''t say anything grand to them, didn''t even tell them how big this opportunity was. He kept watching them train hard, and moved all over the ce giving tips here and there, correcting many mistakes and such.

    This was something that took all his time in the first few days. Many weremitting mistakes, had tons of questions to ask, and needed guidance on many steps.

    Yet slowly the number of masters here who started to learn the techniques began to rise up starting from the fourth day. By day seven, William was standing, watching them from the side, while almost ny percent of them learnt the techniques.

 Chapter 961 Going To The Blue Hills!

    ?

    "You know you are biassed towards them, right?" Sloth already arrived one day before, and he kept watching how William attentively cared for his masters.

    "They are my guild members, right?" heughed, "and how can I bepared to you, old man? You are far stronger and much better at educating others than me, hahahaha!"

    "A bully at such a young age isn''t a good sign," Sloth rolled his eyes, "but I got copies of the recording crystals that had your teachings, hahahaha!"

    "You¡­ this fast? Anjie did that?!!" William was surprised at how fast these crystals spread and reached the old man. And he could only think of one person capable of doing this.

    "Don''t meddle my princess into this, it wasn''t her."

    "If she didn''t do it herself, then masters in her faction did," William shook his head, and Sloth felt worried over his princess.

    "Don''t take it on her, it was all my request¡­"

    "It''s ok old man, just make sure only capable masters, ones you trust and want to support, have these," William''s warning was direct and its meaning was clear. These crystals were like a treasure, and not everyone should have them.

    Not to mention it was also a warning from other kingdoms. After all, it''d make the Novistic kingdom in a better spot if they were the only ones holding on to these.

    "Don''t worry, we highly value your crystals."

    "We?!" William didn''t miss the way Sloth used to speak of himself, and thetter justughed and said nothing.

    This was enough to tell William that his crystals went all the way back to the capital, and perhaps the king also had them. It was true, and the king was listening and watching William''s lecture, alongside many others back there.

    "Are your batch ready?" William dropped thinking about what Sloth and the kingdom could do with his crystals. It was destined for them to spread, and he wasn''t really that stuck to keep the knowledge to himself.

    Such knowledge was essential to let masters of this world grow up and get the needed requirements to go out of here. And yet that was in case this world survived the uing turmoil in the next few years.

    "We are ready," Sloth seriously said, "I selected five thousand, mixed from my people and the city''s."

    "And their age? Don''t tell me you selected old men and left the youngsters behind!"

    "I''m not like you, humph!" Sloth raised his head to the sky, as if he was going to touch it with his chin, "I''ve selected mostly the young ones. But I selected one thousand of the old men, and I''m going."

    "I knew you''ll butt your head into this!"

    "Stop speaking nonsense! It''s as if you wouldn''t have invited me along!" Sloth was speechless for a few seconds, before bellowing onto William''s face. And thetterughed.

    "It''s time to bring them out of this city," William then went to his vices, asking them to gather up all the ones who learned the techniques he taught. In the next few hours, a small army of ten thousand masters marched out of Lara''s city, led by William and Sloth.

    The citizens of the city already knew William''s face. And seeing him alongside the famous names and faces of his ck Tail team members made everyone hyped.

    Many tried to follow, and William asked Sloth to send masters to stop them. He asked him to use any lie to convince people to stay back, not follow, as it was going to be extremely dangerous for them. <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    Sloth asked his men to spread out the truth. If anyone wanted to risk his life, then he wasn''t responsible for him.

    As Sloth expected, many didn''t leave the moment they heard about this. They spected tons of stuff, including the presence of an immense dark master camp nearby, or the gathering of tons of monsters or something.

    They even invited more of their friends over, increasing the number following them instead of making it lower. When William learnt about this, he couldn''t help but re at Sloth.

    "Old man, how unreliable you are!"

    "You asked me to warn them, right?"

    "I told you to tell them lies, not the truth!" William was speechless. He knew telling masters there was danger up ahead was like issuing them an invitation to follow and invite others! Masters weren''t like dark masters, wouldn''t run away from danger, weren''t cowards!

    "I just wanted to make them learn about everything before deciding to follow¡­"

    "If anyone dies, it''s on you, not me¡­"

    "It''s their responsibility to think about this thoroughly, they aren''t kids!" Sloth scoffed, "Let them follow if they wanted. I won''t say no to a big audience watching us kill that monster!"

    "..."

    William knew speaking with Sloth wasn''t going to work. That ce wasn''t dangerous for him, for everyone following his orders. But to those outsiders, it was going to be highly deadly.

    He hoped no one would be crazy enough to follow them into the depth of that storm. Or else bad things would happen to them.

    As the army marched with the grand gathering of masters following and tagging from behind, an entire week passed. During this, William spread out something to all the masters around, some sort of a technique and arraybined.

    "Won''t you exin what these are for?" Sloth kept asking this, and William continued to remain silent about saying anything about it.

    "You''ll see for yourself once we are there," William rolled his eyes, "why be so impatient?"

    "I want to understand what I''m doing," Sloth looked at William as if he wanted to punch him in the face or something, "and that''s the case of many masters here."

    "You mean old ones, right? That''s why I hate dealing with old men!"

    "You¡­"

    "Just be patient, we are almost there!"

    In a few more hours, they finally arrived at the location of the Blue Hills. After that grand war that happened here many months before, the entire area looked different than what it used to be.

 Chapter 962 Facing Deadly Situations Out There!

    ?

    When William left it, it was just a ce of ruins and death. There were tons ofva flooding the ce, forming rivers, and eating up everything and anything in its path. There was a huge deep hole here, one that covered up the entire area.

    But now things look a bit different. The hole was still there, andva rivers were also. Yet theva gathered up to formkes, ones that looked weirdly calm and mind-relieving to look at! And that wasn''t all! There were many weird trees and vegetation that grew all over the ce!

    "These¡­" William''s eyes shone when he spotted these trees and vegetation.

    "ording to what I learnt from the city, it seemed like many seeds fell from the wind and got themselves to grow," Sloth shrugged, "we don''t know how this happened, but it''s remarkable, isn''t it?"

    "Indeed," William gulped while not telling Sloth anything of what he knew. These weren''t trees and vegetation that came out from seeds carried by the wind. These came from the seeds buried deep in the heart of the world! And they were quite special to be called: The Origin Red nts!

    No one actually knew how seeds were nted and hidden deep under the ground. But on rare asions, these seeds would find their way out, get in touch with copious amounts of spirit power, ending up growing and reaching such a stage.

    "It''s that Bear monster, hahahaha!" William suddenly spotted the trigger for what caused all this to happen. Seeds came out when this zone got destroyed like this, and yet that wasn''t enough to let them grow.

    If not for the wandering colossal storm, with the Scarlet Bear in its heart, none of this wouldn''t happen! William imagined that monster marching around, enveloping areas with seeds, letting them get nourished by the concentrated amount of spirit power in that storm, ending up growing like this.

    As he figured out the reason, he looked again at these trees. They were still growing, and didn''t yield any fruit yet. Once they produced their fruits, one could consume them to cleanse their spirits, add more spirit power to them, and even open more meridians.

    He knew meridians wasn''t a term known in this tiny world, but it was pretty important in the outer world. There was a logical exnation for this world to not know about them, and that was thanks to the low-level spirit power here.

    Meridians needed high-ss spirit power to open and function. That was why William didn''t focus too much on trying to open more meridians than the basic set he and others had, as he''d eventually fail in doing so.

    "I need to take over this region¡­" his eyes shone with the brightness of greed, "I''ll establish a grand spirit power gathering formation here, letting these trees and vegetations grow fast and produce their products in a few years¡­ If that happens, then I''ll be able to begin with a better start than I hoped for¡­"

    He was feeling like he was supported by fate recently. He found lots of things that could help him to start on higher ground when reaching the outer world. The more he met such chances, the more he felt more confident.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Listen up," as everyone arrived at the burnt-down Blue Hills zone, William turned to everyone and said, "We''ll march down there. The area isn''t safe, and we have to expect to face tons of dangers down there. Make sure to stay alert, help each other if needed, and always listen to my orders spread out to you by my vices and my team."

    He already agreed with Sloth about themunication system established amidst this army. It was a mixture of mastersing from different origins. And so it was hard tomunicate and control everyone.

    Sloth suggested using old masters to do so, but William trusted his vices and team more. He spread them all over the army, acting as ry points, sending messages over to everyone through them.

    He also wanted to deepen and strengthen the image and authority of his team in other masters'' minds.

    Then he started to walk down, and the entire army walked behind him.

    As he expected, the moment he walked through this zone, many dangers appeared.

    The first and the hardest to counter against was theva fountain. The ground might seem solid, but it was like eggshells, getting cracked under their feet.

    As they marched forward, many holes appeared, gushing tons ofva towards the sky. Many masters got burnt and even a few lost their lives. William had to spread out the army to cover ten kilometres while marching forward. Sticking together right now was quite risky. But things didn''t develop to the better when he did so.

    The army spread out, and then monsters appeared. These weren''t normal monsters, as they appeared from the depths of the ground. This was enough to tell much about how scarily strong they were. Not to mention they got thick armour around their bodies, to let them handle the deadlyva underneath.

    There were a different mix of these, crocodiles, frogs, snakes, and even rats! All were bright golden red in colour, with thickyers of scales or hardened skin as armour surrounding their bodies. They moved underground like sharks swimming in water. They appeared without warning, attacking viciously, enduring any attacksing at them, before vanishing underground.

    On many asions, they grabbed a master or a few of them, took them deep into the ground, to kill and feed on them down there. William and Sloth had to give many orders, and even old masters found it hard to deal with them.

    "The weakest of these is at an early stage dark gold grade! We can''t continue like this!" Sloth came to find William, asking for his advice, "we tried to use water and ice, but nothing worked! Their outer bodies are like a hard rock, shielding anything we throw at them and making them not suffer any deadly wounds!"

 Chapter 963 The Lava Lake!

    ?

    "That''s because we are using the wrong methods," William was watching these monsters all the time, "we can''t harm them using the opposing elements of fire."

    "Then what do you suggest, genius?" Sloth didn''t like that William didn''t directly say the solution.

    "They are fearing fire, and so we need to use fire andva elements in our attacks."

    "You are crazy, right? Can''t you see? They bathe inva!"

    "No, they are shielding themselves from it," William pointed to the ring weakness of these monsters, "these shields are their strongest trait, and weakest soft spot as well. We need to use concentrated techniques ofva and fire, and you''ll see how these shields are going to melt down."

    "They won''t die¡­"

    "Theva underground will take care of them for us," William winked, "and if they have little intelligence, then they won''t return back. So we can continue fighting them until they are down."

    "Let me test it then¡­" Sloth didn''t trust this n. But when he executed a few tests around, he was shocked to see it working!

    "Told you, hahahaha!" Williamughed, shaking his head while feeling like he was speaking to a kid who thought himself the king of the world, "spread the news and let those fire andva based masters spread out and cover everyone else. The moment these monsters get their shields ripped off, others can join the fun."

    "Ok¡­ But this will greatly slow us down¡­"

    "At least we won''t lose many masters¡­ So far we lost a few hundred, and if this continues, then we''ll lose thousands before finding that damn monster."

    William was frustrated because that bear monster was nowhere to be seen. He asked Sloth and other high end masters to spread their spirit senses, and they covered almost one fourth of the entire zone, yet didn''t find a trace of that gigantic ball of storm.

    There were still lots of areas to cover, but with all these dangers it was pretty impossible to arrive there with the main bulk of the entire army intact.

    Yet things started to go for better when the new strategy spread. The masters started to hit monsters hard, and their shields melted down like ice facing fire. Many monsters didn''t return back to the ground after losing their shields, and these ended up dead in the hands of the rest of the masters.

    As for the foolish ones which returned back to the ground, William knew he didn''t need to worry about them. Theva underground would take care of them. Few even hurried back to the surface with tons of deep wounds and fierce and painful roars, before they got killed by masters in no time.

    Things were going smoothly for them. But for the masters who followed the army, it was a hellish nightmare! Soon enough, everyone retreated fast, returned to the edge of this area, watching how the small army of masters was bravely facing all the odds and crushing them!

    This made everyone watching feel more awe towards these masters. And soon enough, many more people gathered to watch such a legendary performance with their own eyes.

    Masters valued strength, and admired the dauntless. These masters down there were fighting against the impossible, and the most impressive thing was that they were winning!<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The monstersing from underground looked endless, but masters started to rule over them. The big losses declined, and many masters ended up having fewer wounds than deadly ones.

    At the same time, William''s vices and two teams started to collect loot. They grew such a habit that would never die. Even in the middle of all this, they were too focused on grabbing the loot and taking anything they could.

    This attitude grew old for the masters who interacted with the Fox guild. William didn''t bother with any weird looks from those old masters, and kept moving forward.

    He knew his fire element and techniques weren''t enough to take down monsters, but he was fast enough to evade any iing danger. Yet as he progressed forward, the number of monstersing kept increasing, without showing a single sign of stopping or decreasing.

    "Where the heck is this damn bear?!!" After twenty hours of such a crazy and hectic run and fight, William started to grow tired of this, "we should have crossed a great part of this zone, and yet you can''t find it?"

    "It''s not in any ce we looked at," Sloth didn''t like how William talked to him, but he could understand why he was so frustrated about it.

    They kept killing and fighting tons of these monsters. And as they progressed deeper, it wasn''t just the number of monsters that grew up, but also the frequency ofva fountains as well.

    They could handle the monsters, but a sudden surge ofva from the ground was something they couldn''t tolerate. They lost good masters thanks to this, and many were part of William''s two teams.

    Luckily not a single one of his close up circle got killed, or suffered heavy casualties. But he couldn''t be certain if such a thing would persist until they''d find that damn bear.

    "Is it hiding perhaps?" one of the old masters asked, and Sloth sighed.

    "I searched, but couldn''t find anything except for the deep hole that was situated in the centre of the zone."

    "Deep hole?" William turned to Sloth the moment he heard these words.

    "There is a big hole in the heart of this ce," Sloth said as if it wasn''t a big deal, "I heard back at that war, it was created from the academy it was here."

    "Let''s go there then," William felt like this was something important.

    "There is nothing there," another old master said, "we already scanned it with our spirit senses¡­ There is nothing butva out there, nothing else at the rock bottom."

    "Let''s go there then," the more it looked normal, the more William wanted to go there. He started to link the dots, thinking about something unbelievable.

 Chapter 964 Asking Sloth For Help

    ?

    "Don''t tell me it''s going to level up, reach that stage," William thought about this while starting to get why he didn''t see any trace of that monster yet.

    It wasn''t on the surface, it was hiding deep inside thatva pool! Thest step needed for humans and monsters to reach the pinnacle was dangerous. If anything happened, even if it was something tiny, it''d change everything.

    The more he thought about it, the more he grew excited. He now understood why all these monsters were here, why the vegetation grew. The copious amount of spirit power released from that bear was enough to turn a barrennd into a paradise! And that was what made William greatly excited.

    Like this, the amount of spirit power he and others would gain was quite immense, much better than what he hoped for. At the same time, it was also a point to consider that this monster wasn''t going to fight that hard, only at the beginning.

    When they''d consume lots of that monster''s spirit power, it''d grow crazy. It''d know there was no hope for it, and so it''d turn berserk. That made it very, very deadly. And William had to put this into his consideration.

    Facing a scary beast that has nothing to lose? One that knew it had one leg passed the door of death? That was a true nightmare truly meant!

    William prepared to suck dry that monster''s spirit power, then nned to make a run with everyone else. But it now looked impossible to do it. To ess that monster, they had to dive into the pool ofva or find a way to get that monster out. As things would go south, the monster would summon all the deadlyva beasts, ending up getting surrounded and massacred.

    Running away before killing that monster wasn''t going to happen. They had to take that monster down, and they needed to do it quite fast!

    Realising all this changed the entire situation. He started to think back about the Scarlet monsters, and how to kill them properly without the presence of that yellow river.

    He still gained many of these old weapons soaked with the yellow river aura. They were effective, but they wouldn''t do anything useful here. That monster wasn''t in its conscious state, wasn''t sane. And that meant it wouldn''t respond to any outer stimulus no matter what.

    "We need explosive powerful attacks to take it down in a short time," William looked at the old masters who Sloth brought. For the first time, he felt appreciative that Sloth was such a stubborn master.

    "I shouldn''t let him know about this," William looked at Sloth and couldn''t help but expect the future. It was impossible to let this old fox not notice the value of the old masters he brought over on the entire course of battle. And that meant Sloth was going to pester him for a long time, reminding him of the great help he did back then, and how deeply wrong William was.

    Thetter shoved away all these useless thoughts and focused on the task in hand. "There is almost an entire day before reaching that hole¡­" he considered the time they''d spend to arrive there and thought about how to better use it to prepare for the uing battle.

    William didn''t like to just depend on one single n to win. So he nned to also make preparations for other masters following, making them able to help if something unexpected would happen.

    "It''ll take more time to organise all this¡­ And formations won''t even suffice¡­ It''s a tight spot indeed¡­"

    He knew if the situation was different if these monsters andva fountains didn''t exist, then it''d be easier to organise their forces. But with everything happening right now, no one would ever pay any attention to sophisticated orders, not to mention training or something.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "They should be organised into two teams then," William found no other choice but to do so, "old man¡­ Can your old man handle the pressure for an hour?"

    "An hour? Against these monsters?" Sloth turned to William, seized him up and down, "what are you up to, sneaky little one?"

    "I''m not running away!"

    "Saying it doesn''t help at all!" Sloth rolled his eyes, e on, spill all the beans. Since you learnt about thatvake and you changed. What do you know?"

    William knew he would fail to trick Sloth even if he tried to. So instead of lying, he told a piece of the truth.

    "That monster¡­ It''s in there."

    "How can you tell that?!" Sloth turned to other old masters around, "We searched¡­"

    "It''s not on the surface, it''s hiding underneath theva," William interrupted Sloth, before adding, "so we need to change everything. To do so, I need you to shield us for as long as you can handle."

    "Do you have a way to get it out from there?" one old master said, and Sloth sighed.

    "He ns to take us down, right kid?" Sloth got to know William for long enough to get familiar with how this youngster was thinking. Any other master would think about luring that monster out, but William would prefer to crush the party and barge in.

    "We have no choice this time," William turned around, "there isn''t any time to waste. How long can you handle this?"

    "If all of us worked together? Five hours, give or take," Sloth paused, before he evilly grinned, "I''m waiting to hear it from you!"

    "Hear what?" William''s earlier conjuncture about Sloth proved to be right. This old man didn''t intend to drop the matter, and even with such little help, he started to bark and pester him.

    "I want to hear that you were wrong about us, we oldies aren''t that useless, hahahaha!" Slothughed, and othersughed with him. It felt like Sloth spread the news over, and everyone learnt about William''s previous opinion about them.

 Chapter 965 The Grand Technique

    ?

    "Aren''t you ashamed of yourself? Being on the top of the world in power and you bother about a mere gold-grade youngster''s thoughts? Tsk!" William imitated Ibra at this moment, and this was the only possible way out for him from Sloth.

    "You¡­"

    "Let''s just do it," William coughed, clearing his throat, "once we are done, I''ll let you know."

    "Don''t miss us from these ns, got it? I''m warning you!" Sloth raised a finger in William''s face before he led everyone he brought to take the toll of this battle.

    It was going to be hectic, challenging even for such a group of old masters. The monsters were fierce and persistent, seeming endless with all their numbers flooding here non-stop. Even with the old masters taking the front, it was still quite hard to keep these monsters in check.

    Not to mention there was the threateningva fountain risk. Even if it was hard to kill a single old master with thisva, it was enough to disturb any master''s tempo, even throwing them away, making them suffer wounds on top of that.

    As William knew how dangerous it was going to be for these old masters, he didn''t dy and asked his vices to gather everyone up.

    "Listen, we are going to divide ourselves into two teams¡­" William started exining things in detail while speaking as fast as he could. He asked the entire army to divide into two parts, one that would be formed mainly of fire,va, wind, and earth elements, and the other one that had rare elements.

    William asked anyone with special elements to gather in one team. Be it light, lightning, darkness, and even sound elements were all grouped together.

    It was expected that one team was much bigger than the other. "You''ll go and help the old masters in stopping the monsters. You can take a break for one hour, heal and recuperate," William spread more orders, letting the bigger team retreat.

    That made everyone realise he nned from the start to use the second team in whatever he wanted. "What''s in your mind, little boy?" Sloth and other old masters kept their spirit senses focused on William, wanting to know what he nned to do.

    "Now, I want you to use your techniques, the strongest and deadliest ones," William turned to the few hundred he had, pointing towards a direction, one that was filled with tons of monstersing from the far horizon, "attack there, one by one, and let me examine your performance."

    It was hard to assess any master''s techniques, but in the middle of such a hectic battle, it was easy. William just pointed randomly towards a spot, and let all the masters unleash their attacks one after another.

    "What''s he trying to do?" one old master asked others using spirit telepathy.

    "I believe he is trying to understand their ins and outs, their strengths and weaknesses," another said.

    "But why? We are fighting for long hours, days even! Why didn''t he examine them beforehand?" <novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "He never does things ording to the scrolls," Sloth paused, "he ns something, something like a coborative technique or something¡­"

    Sloth guessed it right. William did indeed want to mix all of these masters'' techniques together, to end up with something grand.

    Just depending on a master or few to deal with that bear wasn''t going to work. Not to mention there would be the risk of the monsters. So William wanted to make a grand technique, one that had a simr concept of grand formations.

    Formations were formed of tons of arrays, stacked together in some sort of a way that would augment all the arrays inside, and support any possible weaknesses.

    This would result in a far greater effect than just adding up these arrays together. And William wanted to create something like that.

    Yet to do it, he had to first understand everything about these masters'' strongest techniques. Then it''de down to him to devise something out of the blue, trying to coordinate all these techniques together in some sort of a tempo.

    Formations used fixed arrays at certain locations, usingyouts to produce their scary results. But the grand technique he was trying to pull here required a different sort of organisation, it required timed tempo.

    Like a musical note, where the maestro would coordinate different instruments, organising their y and timing to perform the greatest piece.

    One by one, different masters started to execute their deadliest techniques. William spread out his spirit sense and closely watched and examined everything.

    The techniques used were various and quite strong. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses. William took note of each master and the technique he performed, recognising all of these techniques right on the spot.

    "They allck a lot¡­" He could spot tons of points that could change the entire performance of these techniques. At other times, he''d prefer to modify and strengthen these techniques. But now it was better to ept them with all the ws they got.

    As he decided to ignore this point, he started to focus more on thinking about how to mix these different techniques together. Even masters with the same element didn''t perform the same techniques. And those who performed the same technique, a rare asion in fact, performed them with many differences, making them look like they were using different techniques.

    Every master had his own opinion and experience about using techniques. So even if two masters were using the same one, they''d perform it quite differently. And that was mainly thanks to the great ws each and every technique in this world had, allowing them to have lots of space for modifications and improvement.

    These techniques were like a massive gathering of colours, and William had to arrange them thoroughly and quite fast, to end up making up a masterpiece.

    His mind kept working,ying down an initial theory before adding and editing many items to it. The more masters performed, the more he edited.

 Chapter 966 Doing The Impossible!

    ?

    William spent three hours watching and thinking in silence, while others kept waiting for what he was going to say and do. His mind was like a storm, a ce where a nuke just exploded there. It was filled with tons of information, a massive amount of techniques, and different scenarios about how to mix them.

    He performed tons of scenarios, where he modified everything and imagined what the end result would be. There were slightly over seven hundred masters here, and trying to organise them was like trying to pull seven hundred whales with fishing threads, trying to grab them over the shore at the same time.

    It was quite impossible at first. Yet when he started to ce himself in the centre of all this, things started to roll out quite nicely. He had many elements already and could act as the axis while others would build up over his performance.

    Instead of being the maestro, he decided to be both the key yer and coach at the same time, the actor and director in the same film.

    "I''m going to point out to each and every one of you," after three hours of saying nothing, and when everyone thought he might not speak about what he had in mind, he suddenly looked around and added, "I won''t call you by names. To be honest, trying to remember your names won''t work. So I''m just going to give you numbers, memorise them, and when I say it, you have to execute your technique, the one you performed here, with all your might, in the shortest time possible¡­ Got it?"

    No one got what he truly meant, even Sloth and those old and formidable masters didn''t. As William started to give others numbers, the old masters kept talking among themselves while fighting the monsters.

    At first, things were quite hard and stressful. But the moment most of the masters returned to help them, things started to roll for the better. They had just to work as team leaders, only intervene when a group of strong monsters would appear, or argeva fountain would rise up all of a sudden.

    As their task got greatly relieved, they started to pay more attention to William. And when thetter said hisst words and started to do what he promised, they got all puzzled.

    They were now sure of what Sloth previously said, that this youngster was aiming to do something grand, something new. And realising this, while not guessing anything about it, made their curiosity grow to the peak.

    They kept specting, thinking mostly that William would form special teams, with masters using the same elements, and try to use techniques to augment others based on their elements.

    This wasn''t a novel idea at all. For example, wind elements and techniques were used to augment fire, and even using antagonising elements and techniques could do the same if used with experienced masters, like adding water or ice to fire orva would re thetter two out.

    They never expected what William was doing correctly until he finished giving out numbers. "We''ll run a test, perform as best as you can, no stress here, this is just the first test," he knew imagining and thinking about things wouldn''t be like practically experimenting on them.

    And so he decided to run a few tests here, to perfect the idea he had in mind, and add many modifications there to make the end result quite satisfying.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He didn''tck the right environment to do it. Everywhere around there were a dense number of monstersing or fighting them.

    And when everyone thought he was going to select masters to perform like before, he started to gather up his spirit power, and dash around, starting his Holy Sword technique, the worldwide famous technique.

    "I''ll shout the numbers and you perform, aim in the same direction I''m dashing towards, don''t worry about anything else¡­" he shouted after dashing a couple of times, before adding, "Seven, twelve, fifty-three, five hundred and six¡­"

    He started to narrate the numbers without even taking a single moment of pause! To many watching here, they thought he was just spouting out numbers randomly, without any order or logic behind it.

    The mere thought of them releasing their technique toward him seemed odd. It was very possible for him to get severely hurt. And yet the moment the ones called started to perform, deciding to trust William and see what he wanted to do, things started to change.

    William didn''t continue his dash towards a single direction but kept alternating and changing his trajectory, using the refined ability he had to change his route once every three metres crossed.

    That made him look like a ray of light, shing over many mirrors, zigzagging right and left, back and forth, changing his direction quite fast. This made many unable to keep up, as they released their technique to thest spot he was at, the one their eyes could track.

    William looked quite impatient, moving before even the masters would release their techniques. This made him miss many of them, and Sloth and other old masters couldn''t help but question what was going on in that youngster''s mind.

    Yet when they watched closely after a few minutes, they realised something.

    "He¡­ He is letting techniques fall on different spots, merging their effect together before he''d move in and add this to his tails! How in the world is he doing this? Is that even¡­ Possible!!!"

    The masters looked at everything happening from all possible angles using their spirit senses. And that made them not miss even the slightest detail. William did look like he was evading the techniques he asked masters to release, yet after a few seconds, he''d change his trajectory all of sudden, take a long dash, ending up at the spot where many techniques fell.

    The moment the techniques fell on any spot, they detonated and released their full might.

 Chapter 967 Affecting His Spirits

    ?

    As many techniques fell together, different attacksnded. Before the techniques would release their full might, William would sh, pass through them, and weirdly enough he''d look like he was absorbing the techniques, adding them to one of his tails!

    He wasn''t truly absorbing it, but using an element that was used in these techniques. As he didn''t have all the elements other masters had, he had to improvise and mix a few elements together, making different element masters release their techniques in the same spot.

    And in the middle of these techniquesbining their full devastation force, he''d sh, and use an element present in that mix, while activating another Holy Sword technique. Doing this would let the explosive techniques that were in the middle of getting unleashed merge with his Holy Sword, using thatmon element as a medium, ending up forming ayer over one of his tails.

    Like this, he became the maestro who orchestrated the whole thing, the anchor who would let everything getid over him, and the main key yer in thest form of this technique.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ He is going to release all these techniques together, all at once!!!" Sloth was the most experienced one among the old masters here about William''s way of fighting. He watched him execute his Holy Sword technique frequently and knew how scarily strong it''d be if he got time and umted enough attacks over his tails.

    Seeing him absorb other masters'' attacks and add them over his tails made Sloth jump to this conclusion. And when he did, he couldn''t help but take another look at the seven hundred masters William gathered, "is he¡­ nning to borrow their techniques and strengths, mix them with his, and release all in one single technique? Can he really do it? Can his spirit power suffice for that?!!"

    Sloth was indeed a veteran and a genius master for him to spot the main issue William had to solve, or any master other than William. Spirit power was indeed quite limited for him, but by using elixirs, nothing was impossible!

    William was borrowing others'' techniques, but he needed to consume his spirit power madly to control all this. Not to mention he wasn''t just adding them up as Sloth and others thought, he was merging them as well.

    As he umted more of these techniques, things started to grow harder and the pressure madly increased. He could feel his spirit body trembling under such pressure, and for a moment there he feared he wouldn''t be able to handle everything.

    Even if he was replenishing his spirit power using elixirs, the pressure over his body couldn''t just be solved by spirit power. It felt like he needed to be on the higher stages of the dark gold grade to be able to control all these techniques, especially when they started to resist his control the more he added techniques over his tails.

    Yet he never felt his body was going to crash, and that made him continue doing this until he''d hit the rock bottom of his endurance. William was wrong, it wasn''t because he could endure that his body didn''t crash, but it was thanks to his spirits or the third one in particr.

    Under such pressure, it felt as if the needed stimulus, the one that William was missing, was finally here. The dog spirit that kept attacking fiercely his other two started to wake up, and integrate with his fox and snake spirits, ending up forming something totally new.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He didn''t feel it, and the final result of such a merge and change wouldn''t appear right now. The merge needed such pressure to start but also needed a threshold of his spirit power to show up regrly, one he currently didn''t have.

    As he could sustain the pressure, he kept dashing and moving around, collecting these techniques without thinking about doing anything else. In the end, he had to consume one elixir per minute, which was something scary!

    "He gathered everything, and charged his tails, now what?" doing all this might have taken a long time to happen, but it just happened in less than ten minutes. In the end, it wasn''t just Sloth who knew what William intended to do, but almost everyone watching what happened did.

    Even the ones who knew nothing about William could already guess what he nned to do. They all thought he was just adding up techniques so he could release them one by one, releasing them in a very short duration and in a concentrated manner to add more damage.

    Yet no one ever thought he was merging these techniques together, forming a single grand one out of all.

    "It''s time!" The moment he gathered up thest technique, William looked in one direction and decided to dash toward it, "thest touch must be quite epic! Let me do it big then!"

    For the first time ever sinceing back in life, he gulped two bottles of elixirs at the same time. This was insane! And no one would do such a thing in normal times, not even him!

    The moment he consumed the elixirs, he felt like his body was an oven, filled with raging fire. He felt like a dragon, with its belly storming with deadly fire, wanting to release it out in the form of a fiery breath.

    The next instant, William dashed. This time he didn''t cross a few tens of metres, didn''t cross hundreds of them, he crossed five kilometres in one second, looking as if he got teleported instantly there.

    And before anyone could keep up with his sudden leap, hended his sword, coupled with all the brightly shining tails his, releasing all the attacks together.

    William wasn''t just adding techniques randomly on his tails, in fact, he was doing this ording to theyout in his mind. Heid down the techniques on each tail to merge together, and that made every tail like having a smaller version of the final grand technique.

 Chapter 968 A Terrifying Technique

    Yet when William released the attack, he didn''t use the same old method he always used, didn''t just channel the stored attacks from his tails, through his body, towards his sword. If he dared to do it, he was sure his body was going to explode.

    It wasn''t just the danger stemming from these techniques, but because every tail had a different set of techniques, making them sh with each other if he dared to do it the old way.

    So he used another method, used his tails as if they were his weapons. The four tails curved andnded with his sword at the same contact point at the ground. And with it, William could feel the fierceness of the attack he formed, and also its weakness.

    "It''s thatpatible yet!" he could tell that even before the final form of the grand technique would appear. But before that, he needed to get himself away from here.

    He instantly shed back, while releasing his spirit sense to examine what he created. It started with a tiny ck ball at first, before a myriad of lights started to form and appear, expanding this ball outwards at a very rming rate.

    If he was one second slow, he''d have ended up getting engulfed in such a scary attack. But that didn''t mean things ended there.

    "Get cover! Everyone uses your strongest defensive techniques and gears!" The moment Sloth and other formidable masters got over their shock from the attack William released, they instantly shouted at everyone, moved in unison and without prior agreement, heading to the front to shield the masters here from the threatening attacking at them.

    The attack William released expanded to cover a radius of three kilometres, but it didn''t end there. Just from the size and shape of that multi-coloured ball of lights, anyone could tell bad things were going to happen when it''d explode.

    William just arrived back when he saw what he released. He didn''t know if the uing shockwave would do great damage or not, but he was very curious to go and examine the ce that technique hit.

    Unlike what everyone expected, the ball didn''t explode right away. In fact, it receded, shrank back, and became smaller and smaller before it finally stopped for an entire minute at the size of one hundred metres radius. And when everyone thought it was over, the ball suddenly expanded again, and this time it did it with a fierce explosion.

    The sounds and noises of everything around died, and the world went on silent as if someone pressed the mute button. Then a bright sh of light appeared, releasing a wave that blinded everything in everyone''s eyes.

    Even spirit senses got crushed and no one could tell what was happening. "Sh*t! It''s releasing a threatening spirit power wave!" This wasn''t just what William had in mind, many masters also thought about this as well. Before anyone could think of what they should do, they felt like their bodies were carried in the air, flying for an unknown time, before fiercelynding on something hard.

    They all felt immense pain, and with that fall, the blinding light vanished. Alongside it, the mute vanished as well, and everyone could hear deafening thunder rumble and explosions, making them feel like the world was ending or something.

    Thissted for half an hour, but from the first minute of their harshnding, they could see and check everything using their spirit senses.

    "We got thrown away for kilometres!!!" The first thing William thought about was this. He tried to use his spirit sense, and all he could see was everyone scattered on the ground, covering up a huge area, with many monsters lying there dead and motionless.

    The ground looked as if someone held a shovel and kept digging and removing its surfaceyer byyer. The already deep ground here got deeper after that explosion, and luckily there seemed to be zero casualties to any master here.

    This was thanks to the fact that the ones who started all this were masters, and the first thing the wave of this explosion hit were these masters. They shielded others without knowing it, ending up absorbing tons of spirit power from that attack.

    It might seem it was a very dangerous attack, one that would hit both the enemy and allies together. Butter on, all the masters hit by this wave would see great results in training, getting to rise up quite fast, shocking even themselves.

    "Don''t do it again!" The first thing Sloth said to William after everyone gathered was this. He looked around, watching all the wounded masters in their small army before bitterly sighing.

    In fact, he was shocked and scared by the might of this technique. It went without saying that he and other great masters here got a taste of how scarily strong this attack was. They weren''t the ones tounch it, and as they moved fast to shield others, they suffered a great toll of damage.

    They might seem ok and fine from the outside, but they knew they suffered heavy internal damage. They each took out healing elixirs and started to consume these as water while eyeing up and down the youngster who did all this in awe and admiration.

    Even if they used all their might to release their deadliest techniques, even if they coborated together and released their techniques at the same time, it was hard to say if they''d bring the same result as William did.

    "I''m just testing," William rolled his eyes, "don''t you see? This technique is quite enough to take down any enemy we''ll face! Even those annoying monsters got silenced now."

    "Our masters are wounded, and we can''t go on like this¡­"

    "There are always healing potions and elixirs to use," William shrugged, acting stubborn, as if his brain was reced with a dead piece of rock or something, "I can''t stop experimenting, the technique isn''t finished yet and it''s filled with tons of ws¡­"

 Chapter 969 The Decay Effect

    ?

    His wordsnded, and all the great masters around got speechless. They couldn''t help but turn their eyes around, looking at all the devastation William caused by his technique, all the dead monsters around, and the wounded masters who didn''t know what to say.

    They wanted to shout at this youngster: Are you blind? Is all this, not enough? But with a silent gaze from Sloth, they all went into silence, didn''t say anything.

    Sloth felt the urge William had. He watched this youngster for long enough to know he wasn''t delusional or some lunatic who was obsessed with perfection or something.

    He knew William was aware of the current might of his technique. And if he said it wasn''t enough in an indirect way, then it meant there must be a good reason for him to say so. And they had to endure the uing deadly scale of techniques William was going to unleash.

    William went and checked on his friends and his two teams, and was relieved that none was killed or suffered heavy wounds. He handed them all potions and elixirs, letting them heal and help their team members to heal as well.

    At the same time, the great masters also did the same to the ones they brought with them. When everyone did that, they all noticed something. The batch that William selected, the one team which released their techniques before, didn''t suffer a single speck of harm at all!

    It felt like they weren''t here when the explosion happened. "This is weird¡­" Many masters were positive that these masters were the closest to the explosion, and they didn''t have time to help these weaker masters. So seeing them fine and harmless like this was a real mystery.

    But they didn''t think too much about it. The entire army of masters marched again towards the area of the explosion, and there they could see for themselves the true might and fear of these techniques.

    Saying there was a hole in the ground was an understatement! It felt like a god punched the ground, and pierced through it, creating a very deep hole that extended for hundreds of metres! Seeing this and recalling what William said made the formidable masters turn to William, and re at him as if they were seeing a monster!

    William didn''t stand there like everyone, went around that hole and examined everything. He even climbed down, risking his safety, and reached the deep bottom there.

    "Amazing! The technique isn''t fully synchronising the techniques I used before, and yet it reached such a degree¡­"

    In front of him, the bottom and the close parts of the rocks around were shimmering under a myriad of different lights. It looked the same as the colour of the ball that exploded before. And that meant his attack didn''t end by that explosion and was leaving a trace that seemed as if it was alive.

    It was a testimony to how high this technique''s grade was, reaching the stage of semi-immortal. In this stage, the techniques would leave behind a part that would linger around the target, and keep damaging it for a long time.

    If the technique wouldst until it''d eat the target up and kill it, then it''d reach the eternal stage. And that was a legendary stage, one that William never heard of anyone reaching before. Just one hit and the target would die eventually. And that would make anyone look like a true god!

    He examined the rocks at the surface and those forming the walls of this deep hole. It was clear the technique had a corrosive nature, plus a decaying effect.

    The rocks didn''t just get destroyed, but it felt like it aged by lots of time. There was already a weirdyer of dust over these rocks, one that could be blown and turn into dust, eating away great parts of these rocks.

    "I now see why all the monsters died¡­ But we didn''t suffer from such a unique effect¡­ Why?" he was puzzled, but happy as well. If this effect touched the old masters in the army, then they''d all die in the end!

    This didn''t happen as the masters who unleashed the techniques in the first ce shielded everyone. But William decided to not experiment again until everyone was away and safe. He''d let those who released the techniques hang close and would try to dash a little bit away before releasing the final form of the technique.

    "How is it down there?" When he returned to the surface, he was met with many questions from the old masters. They tried to scan this hole, and yet failed. Their spirit senses couldn''t even touch the hole, and they had to use their eyes to see. The bottom looked pitch dark, and they couldn''t tell what was happening down there.

    "It''s all good," William paused, looking around before adding, "next time you''ll draw back, all of you, including the formidable masters as well."

    "Us?!!!" Every one of those old masters looked at each other in doubt and confusion, "why?" Sloth spoke on their behalf, and William didn''t intend to exin anything.

    "Just trust me on this, if you highly value your lives, don''te closer, ok?"

    "This¡­" The tone and attitude he showed were enough to make everyone know he wasn''t lying. But as he never exined anything, and they couldn''t guess what was down there to make him say these words, they kept talking about it among themselves for a long timeter.

    The only good news about this technique was that not a single monster dared toe to them for six hours! They marched in peace, arranged their lines, shared their experience about what happened, and healed themselves.

    They used this peace to recuperate, then pick up pace towards their destination. They shared valuable intel about the monsters each faced, and how to better kill them and evade their attacks.

    William listened and didn''t speak or share in this talk. He was busy thinking about the technique, and how to perfect it.

 Chapter 970 Much Stronger Monsters

    ?

    "The entireyout is wrong," he knew the main problem stemmed from this. And yet trying to go through everything and modify it was a true nightmare. Soon enough, the masters met monsters again, and they started to get busy fighting while advancing.

    William restrained the ones who released their techniques and forbade them from taking part in any attack or fight. He even asked Sloth to deploy a few formidable masters to watch over their safety, and protect them from the unendingva fountains.

    Even in the past peaceful matches,va fountains never stoppeding. And that was the only danger they had to watch out against. Yet the old masters already devised a perfect way to handle this love, using abination of earth, metal, and ice element-based techniques. It proved its worth, protecting everyone from any danger they met so far.

    As they progressed forward, the monsters kept increasing in number and ferocity. Higher-grade monsters seemed to dwell in areas close to that bear monster. And that made their advance speed greatly decreased.

    During all this, the formidable masters kept their eyes and senses over William. They were curious about the next version of that scary technique, and how such a terrifying attack would get even more terrifying.

    William kept his silence for ten straight hours. He kept revising and editing everything in his mind, using the experience he lived before as a reference. He could spot a few ring issues in the technique, but he found it hard to find all the ws in one go.

    "I need to test it again," the moment he muttered these words to himself, other old masters got both excited and worried. They knew William was going to do it again, and they waited for him to act.

    Yet he didn''t move at once. First, he checked the terrain they were marching in. William could tell that rocks would help in shielding masters from the final form of the technique, so he had to wait until they passed through rocky terrain.

    This area wasn''t filled with great mountains, just many hills and a few low-altitude and small mountains. It felt like they were babies waiting to grow by the long passage of time. But it was better than the open ins they were marching through in the past few hours.

    "I''m going to do it," William knew Sloth and others were watching him keenly using their spirit senses. So he didn''t need to look for Sloth personally and just shouted towards the air, "Make everyone head towards these mountains when others would release their techniques. And make sure to release torrents of long-ranged attacks to cover us up!"

    William thought about withdrawing everyone back while keeping only him and the few hundred selected masters with him. But doing so wasn''t practical considering the fact of the densely packed high-end monsters surrounding everyone from every possible direction!

    If he dared to let most of the masters go away, others with him wouldn''t survive. They''d have to fight brutally and weren''t able to do anything to help him execute that technique. Not to mention he needed time to gather these attacks up, fresh and concentrated minds of all to focus everything over synchronising the techniques with his orders.

    In return for this, he had to shield and shoulder the attacks he''d umte, and dash for as long as he could before releasing it. He didn''t notice in the middle of all this one single point; he never got a single damage from the technique despite him being the one closest to the entire thing!

    This was all thanks to him being the one who mixed all together and unleashed the grand attack at the end. At the same time, his technique helped his three spirits to merge, and the amount of spirit power his body absorbed would be all directed towards such an end.

    "Are you sure?" Sloth appeared after a few seconds, moving fast and headed directly towards him, "we won''t get far enough from the attack."

    "The rocks will help," William motioned towards the hills, "just make sure everyone is hidden inside safe caves there."

    "Better to be in underground tunnels," another master appeared, and many followed. They all shared their thoughts, ending up sending small earth-based old masters there, working over these hills and preparing the setups for others.

    They decided to build underground caves, linked to the surface with many tunnels. Then they''d leave at least one earth-based old master in each cave, just in case something bad happened to the tunnels they dug before.

    William didn''t have a saying in any of that and just agreed on whatever they wanted to do. He was taking care of the part regarding mixing the techniques into one, and they had to take care of other things.

    As they agreed on the general n, they moved the grand army and surrounded these hills and low mountains. Luckily for them, theva fountains didn''te near this ce. And only monsters tried to kill them, but there wasn''t a single one of theming from the direction of these hills.

    This greatly helped in alleviating tons of pressure on them. Then the old masters started to dig the ground, build these caves, then they spread a big of tunnels everywhere.

    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm They made tunnels and linked them to the surface, to other caves, and even to other tunnels. They were just preparing for anything and took around four hours to do so.

    In the end, they were ready, and then William asked the selected masters who did nothing in the past hours to unleash their techniques.

    As they stood there watching others fight without help, they felt great stress and desire to take part in all of this. So when they got the order, they hurried to execute it with everything they had.

    William felt their techniques were a bit different, much stronger than before. He thought this was thanks to their desire to fight, never expecting that these masters grew stronger after absorbing the spirit power from the recent attack.

 Chapter 971 Things Went Wrong!

    ?

    William umted the techniques, and with his experience in doing it before he managed to do it better this time. He kept a close eye on anything that might go wrong, and he spotted a few little ws here and there.

    "I need to edit it again," he inwardly sighed when he spotted dozens of little ws that made the end result not quite satisfying for him, "I need to deal a single blow towards that monster, as we''ll only have one chance to take it down, or at least weaken it¡­"

    He thought to himself, before finally gathering thest bit of released techniques. "Retreat! Retreat now!" he knew once the order was given, he''d be all alone in the middle of an ocean of monsters.

    He already gulped two elixirs together, and pushed himself beyond his limits. Then he pushed with everything he got, dashed madly forward before finally couldn''t handle the pressure.

    It felt like his body was getting torn in different ces by sharp des. And even his bones started to issue cracks as if he was carrying an entire mountain on his back!

    The moment he couldn''t take it anymore, he released the technique. And then he didn''t look back, turned around, and dashed madly towards the hills and small mountains.

    He didn''t forget to gulp one elixir bottle while retreating, helping him in releasing more power and travel faster. Yet the insane speed he had before was gone, and he couldn''t dash more than one kilometre every time.

    But he wasn''t worried. Last time he got distracted by what the technique did. And this round he didn''t need to even watch it using his spirit sense. He knew what was going to happen, and knew this technique would take a few minutes to show off its true might.

    During these minutes, he dashed madly toward the tunnel''s direction. The army of masters was already inside the caves, leaving only Sloth and a few selected masters of his gang watching.

    They feared he might not be able to make it in time, and thought about being out there to help. Seeing them from afar made William shout: "Go inside! Go inside dammit! Do you want to die or what?!!" he knew if they got hit, they''d age and decay, ending up in bones!

    "Just move your ass here!" Sloth shouted back, but he and others turned into the tunnels and vanished. They knew he was going to make it. And yet this time it was a bit different.

    As he perfected the technique more than before, the explosion happened quite faster this time. Just before he''d reached the closest tunnel, he ended up getting smashed by that fierce attack, ending up flying in the air, missing the entire tunnel area!

    He felt the same as before, sounds vanished, lights became blindly brighter, and his body flew in the air like a broken kit in the wind. Hended and crashed fiercely against the ground, feeling the same immense pain as before.

    He knew he missed the safe tunnels, and hoped he wasn''t going to die. Even before he''dnded, he took out a healing elixir and emptied its content without a single moment of hesitation. He hoped the wounds he''d suffer at the end weren''t that severe, or life threatening.

    He waited for one whole hour this time. The explosionsted much longer, and that was enough evidence that it was on a much higher might than the first attempt.

    "It''s indeed much better, but not enough," when he could see everything around, he checked the world and all he saw was a brutal scene of destruction all over the ce.

    Even the hills and mountains didn''t escape the damage thatnded here! They got lots of their parts ttened, ending up looking as if they got severe and deep wounds. Even many hills vanished, without leaving a trace but a huge pile of decayed rocks and dust.

    As for himself, he didn''t suffer a single wound! He felt immense pain and moved with extreme difficulty, but even his inner organs were intact. Aside from the pain, he was fine.

    He thought the healing elixir he consumed before was the reason for him to end up like this. And he thought the pain he was feeling was what got left from all the wounds he suffered. He never guessed that such pain came originally from the scary amount of spirit power his body absorbed after getting hit by that attack.

    His spirits were evolving, merging together using this pure and highly concentrated form of spirit power. As he was fine, he endured the pain and left the ce hended at. He was at least ten kilometres far from the ce of others and had to cross this on foot without using any of his techniques.

    The world was peaceful and quiet right now, with tons of dead monsters lying on the ground till the end of his eyesight. He stretched his spirit sense and tried to see if he could get what was happening in the tunnels and caves.

    What he saw was just rocks! All the tunnels were gone, and there wasn''t a single opening out there anymore. He wasn''t worried as he knew there were earth-based masters in every cave, and they were enough to dig tunnels again.

    He felt lucky to have such experienced masters by his side, ones who put much consideration into the matter and made preparations earlier on.

    Or else things would have looked much worse than now. He waited for one hour and got to contact his friends and Sloth using Bullets, making sure they were all ok and didn''t suffer any harm.

    They were all deadly worried about his safety. The moment they heard his voice and they all cheered and shouted in celebration. The moment the world came on them, with the blinding light first then pitch darknesster on, they felt worried and bad about him.

 Chapter 972 We Are Here!

    ?

    They tried to contact him and failed. Sloth and others used their spirit senses and got to see the tunnels copse and blocked by tons of rocks. They saw everyone safe inside the deep caves, but there wasn''t a single trace of William anywhere.

    "You are really a troublemaker!" When everyone found paths to the surface, his friends and girls came, hugged and cried, and even a few shouted at him in distress and worry. William met all this with a big smile andugh, knowing that they did all this because they were extremely worried about him.

    Sloth punched him on the shoulder while looking at Anjie who was now leaning on William''s chest, before adding, "you have to consider others who truly care for you before doing anything stupid again."

    "I need to keep testing¡­"

    "Not that bullshit again!" Sloth got fed up with him, "I won''t ept this madness without proper exnation!"

    "Listen, you know I won''t persist unless there is a reason¡­"

    "And I want to know that damn reason!" Sloth was speaking on behalf of Anjie, yet got silenced when thetter slightly shook her head as if she was asking him to trust him, trust her man.

    "Dammit! Kids of this era are all crazy!" Sloth didn''t like that and had to leave while fuming in rage. Other old masters chuckled at his struggle, and even a fewughed as well.

    "Thanks," William knew it was Anjie who drove this stubborn master off him.

    "You just have to promise me that you''ll return safely every time," Anjie was deeply worried about him like others, but she also knew William was perfectly fine. Even if what he was doing looked quite dangerous and crazy, it was still safe for him. And that was all it mattered to her, to other girls and friends as well.

    "Let''s go," as he took his time speaking with his friends and girls, checking on his teams, William then decided to keep going forward.

    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm "You are really adamant about testing it again!'''' After doing this two more times, Sloth and the other masters were getting puzzled and much curious about what William truly wanted to do here.

    With each attempt, he ended up creating a really scary technique. The damage caused by thest one was severe enough to let them not face a single monster for half a day! Not to mention the area affected stretched out for tens of kilometres!

    If they were in his shoes, they''d all get satisfied by such a result. And yet William wasn''t. It felt like he knew what they were going up against, and knew there was a formidable and terrifying enemy lying at the end of this trip.

    They thought about what type of monster they were up against, and couldn''t help but think about the scarcely few infamous monsters which reached the pinnacle stage of power. And yet they weren''t close enough.

    Only Karoline guessed it right! "It''s a monster which is half a step away from ascension, it''s a truly terrifying foe indeed," she spoke out of personal experience, knowing her power before she''d go into hibernation was enough to kill any enemy or enemies no matter what!

    Yet no one took her words for real. She got a reputation for being crazy and naive, a girl that got her mind broken and messed up. Yet William knew she guessed it right, and couldn''t help but thank his luck that no one here believed her.

    If any master here, even the old and scarily strong ones, knew about the true might and identity of their enemy, no one would be sane to stay here for another second! Facing a monster that was this close to getting out of this world? This was enough to drive anyone to run away for their lives.

    William and others kept walking forward, crossing the areas filled with monsters at a very slow pace, while making this all up when walking through the empty regions after releasing his attacks. With each attempt, he''d spot a few ring issues, and think about how to fix these before releasing another attack.

    Yet before he''d perfect this technique as he hoped, they ended up at the ce of that monster.

    "We are here," Sloth and other old masters saw the deep hole long before anyone else. They were less than twenty kilometres away, but every metre crossed took them lots of time.

    "We need to clear these monsters first," another formidable master said, paused as he turned around before adding, "but¡­"

    "These monsters are all at mid stage dark gold grade," a third chimed in, saying in bitter tone, "it''s amazing how in a single area such a grand number of high end masters are gathered! A single one of them is enough to be considered the overlord of an entire region! And yet there are tens of thousands of them¡­"

    "Let me attack then," William paused when everyone looked in a weird way towards him, "this is the fastest and most guaranteed way to kill them, right?"

    "I still don''t know how your attack can take all of them down in a single blow¡­" Sloth sighed. Thest attempts were quite hectic. They didn''t find much of the mountains and hills to hide under and had to dig their own caves deep in the ground at some point. And yet few of them ended up getting hit and died, with many more having severe wounds.

    If not for their timely intervention and the use of healing elixirs, the death toll would have been much higher than this.

    "We need to do it," William knew Sloth was fearing that other masters would die on his hands, and he was also worried about him.

    William never managed to return back in time in every attempt. As he strengthened the technique, the time needed for it to unleash its full might became shorter and shorter. This made William get brutally hit every single time, feeling much pain with every attempt he did.

 Chapter 973 The Master From The Outer World!

    ?

    And yet he never suffered a single wound. When others asked, he told them about using the healing elixir before getting hit. They bought this excuse like him, and no one thought beyond that.

    Sloth couldn''t say anything to stop William. Thetter simply started to work to form the grand technique, and everyone started to prepare by digging tunnels and caves.

    After doing this for many times, everyone grew ustomed to this. So it was expected for the task that took hours from them at the first time to take just thirty minutes or even less.

    William started to gather all the techniques and then merged and released them. The attack this time came like thest one, releasing a huge amount of spirit power all around, blinding everyone for one hour, and killing all the enemies in the area.

    As William said, one single blow was enough to take down all the monsters here and clear the area. Yet when things settled, and he came from far after suffering a grand fall, he ended up getting shocked like everyone else.

    "What''s going on in that hole? Why is there a shield protecting it?"

    When the attacknded, it revealed the presence of a huge shield. It looked like a colossal bubble, one that surrounded the hole and what was inside.

    Yet that wasn''t what surprised William. He expected that monster to go into hibernation, preparing for thest step, afterying down tons of traps.

    The monsters and theva fountains were part of this trap, and what was inside that bubble shield was. The bubble was pitch red in colour, looking like it was formed out of blood or something. But William could see shes of bright golden and ck lightsing from within.

    He couldn''t see the shape of what released these lights, but could easily say it was letters, letters ofnguage he found before in the other world, the samenguage the scrolls he read there were written with.

    "What''s going on here? Howe a monster learns humannguage and even writes them down?" he felt something was amiss the moment he spotted these letters. He couldn''t tell their meaning, as the thick shield prevented him from seeing everything. But seeing them was enough that a human was here, a human was behind all this.

    His thoughts first stopped at the Nightmare monster. This monster was the one who started the grand battle here before, and it made sense it''d be the one behind the presence of that bear monster here, and these letters.

    But then William thought about the other enemy he met before, the one who led the attack at the Novistic kingdom''s capital.

    "One has the power to do it, but it doesn''t have any interest here¡­ As for the other, it wants to see me dead at any cost, and yet itcks the strength to do it¡­ what''s going on here?"

    William didn''t know who was behind this, but he was sure about something. Whoever tried to do it was trying to help this monster to level up, or lure them here and cause them trouble.

    "No one would ever dare to pass that region without getting killed¡­ Spreading out monsters was enough to make us die¡­ There is no need for any enemy to go to such lengths and help the bear monster to take that step¡­ Not to mention there isn''t anyone here who has such ability in the first ce!"

    It didn''t add up, and William had to think about progressing forward. Seeing him stand motionless for long minutes wasn''t something normal to those who knew him.

    "What''s wrong?" The first to speak was Sloth, "I thought we''ll have to drag you back, stop you from attacking that monster deep in that shithole before getting our preparations done!"

    "Yes, why are you standing like this?" Sara asked next, "you were preparing for this for a long time now¡­ What happened?"

    William looked at them, while the words of these two attracted everyone''s attention. When they looked at William, they could tell things weren''t that great just from his face.

    "Is there something wrong with that shield?" Sloth asked again, as this was the only thing that came out of their ns and expectations.

    "It''s not the shield¡­" William slowly shook his head, "it''s the one behind it."

    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm "The monster you mean?" Sloth asked again, and yet William shook his head one more time.

    "It''s the human standing behind all this!"

    The moment his wordsnded, and everyone''s faces changed at once. They all looked at William, looked at each other, while their minds shared the same idea. "A dark master you mean?" Sloth asked again, and like the previous two answers, William shook his head for the third time.

    "Is he a normal master? One like us?!" Another old master couldn''t take how William was acting secretively. And like the normal, William shook his head again.

    "I believe¡­ He isn''t from here¡­" William knew such a conclusion was quite crazy and scary, but it was the only thing he could think about.

    Thenguage he read in the scrolls was something unknown to the tiny worlds. It originated from the outer world, and it only made sense that someone who came from there would know about it.

    Even he learnt about it because he once lived there. Seeing these letters made him doubt such a possibility. And when he thought about how it was impossible for anyone from this world to have knowledge, enough to let a monster level up and reach the stage to leave here, he knew this was indeed the act of someone from the outer world.

    "This¡­" When he said it, everyone looked at him as if they were looking at someone crazy, "are you sure?!!" Sloth was one of the top masters in the world, and he knew the dream of going out of here was something that all masters in his tiny circle shared.

 Chapter 974 Lina Is The Key

    ?

    And yet no one ever learnt of the right path to do it, not to mention thinking that someone would go and then return back to this ce.

    Who would do it? And for what?

    "I¡­ Can''t tell you how I know this, but I''m sure all this is the work of a human not from here," he paused, turned to look at the masters he brought with him from the other world, "and he isn''t part of another world like these¡­ This person¡­ He is someone quite scary and strong! So strong that even all of us here won''t hold a candle to him!"

    His words were heavy, and even the strongest masters here couldn''t help but get afraid.

    "The only good news is that in our world, no one can yield such power," William paused, trying to sort out his words for them to understand, "so it''s either he is here and his power is sealed, yet he is still so dangerous, or he is outside, watching all of this happening, and may intervene in any moment."

    "How is this good news?!!" Sloth couldn''t help but bellow out the moment he heard what William said. He was like others, and thought what William would tell them would be something reassuring.

    "It may seem this isn''t good, but in fact it is. If he is in this world, then we can coborate together and kill him. If not, then we have to endure for one minute, and then the world will shut down his connection with our world, and make him unable to ess here again."

    "So¡­ We have to suffer a ton in the end, right?" one of the old masters said, "but we''ll kill or stop him eventually, that''s your point, right?"

    "How do we know this is going to happen? How can you tell all these?!!" another asked, while others nodded in agreement, and looked at William in doubt and surprise.

    "I know it seems weird, but I got ess to rare scrolls on my visit to the other world," William referred to his adventure in that world and the scrolls he gained ess to, "Sloth can speak up for me about that."

    He already prepared such an answer beforehand, and Sloth couldn''t help but confirm what William said, "we need to act fast. The monster is protected by such a shield, and someone from the outside world is intervening. That only means one thing¡­"

    "Which is?"

    "This monster is going to take that step," when William said it, many faces dropped, and others gasped. Even for such old masters, taking that step and heading to the outer world was an impossible dream and a fear that no one was willing to experience.

    It was like a gamble, one that any master or monster tried before failed ording to the news spread in the world. That also meant this monster would be quite hard to deal with, very strong and quite threatening.

    On top of that, there was that hidden master who was behind all this.

    "That''s why you were focused on developing that attack?" Sara got over her shock and fears, asking while looking at Sloth and other formidable masters.

    "I suspected it''d be strong, but not to such a degree¡­"

    "Liar," Sloth sighed, didn''t mean anything by hisment, "I didn''t know you for so long, but I can tell at least this about you. You will never do anything without a proper reason¡­"

    "Regardless of reasons, we need to move fast," William turned around before adding, "Monsters won''te here for long hours. We need to find a way and deal with that shield first."

    "Won''t your technique do it?" an old master said, "coupled with our strongest techniques, we can take it down."

    Others nodded in agreement, but William slowly shook his head.

    "This shield seems different," he paused, "I believe it''s immune to any spirit power techniques and attacks."

    "This¡­"

    "Without spirit power, how can we do it then?"

    "Using physical strength perhaps," William already had a theory about this shield. If it was made by someone from the outer world, then it''d aim directly towards one of the deadly weaknesses in this world, which was overly dependent on spirit power.

    In the outer world, people like Lina and Tina were numerous. Out there it wasn''t just spirit power that could unleash explosive attacks, but also physical strength as well. Yet in this world, all they knew was spirit power.

    "How can we do it?" Sloth looked around before adding, "We all have an inhuman level of strength, but without spirit power, we can''t do anything."

    "We''ll use her," without wasting more time, William pointed towards his girl before adding, "We''ll help her to take down that shield."

    "Me?!!!" Lina was the most shocked person there. She knew William wasn''t trying to push her on the stage just for show. He believed in her, and yet she didn''t seem to get why he thought like that.

    "You are the best when ites to physical strength," William nodded, "you are a Selvator! You hold an immense amount of physical strength, yet you don''t have enough spirit power to unleash it."

    "If she can''t unleash that strength, how do you expect her to take down that shield?!!!" Sloth was speechless for a few seconds before adding, "You don''t expect her to just punch that shield and it''ll go down!"

    "What exactly will happen," William nodded, "with our help, she can do it."

    "How?" it wasn''t just Sloth, but everyone else wanted to know the answer. They were willing to do anything to take down this monster, take this shield and see whaty within.

    "We''ll use a spirit power harnessing formation," William paused before adding, "as spirit power will be donated from us, while we use our physical strength-based techniques, that shield won''t stop it."

    "But¡­"

    "I''ll teach you all a technique, a physical-based one," William interrupted one of the old masters before adding, "Let''s start. We have limited time here. You train, and I''lly down the formation. Then we''ll take down that shield and hit that monster hard, and kill it in the end."

 Chapter 975 Attacking The Shield

    ?

    "Let''s do it!" Many masters got the vibe to fight ignited inside them, and William started to show and exin in thorough detail how to do it. The technique wasn''t that hard, and it was just releasing a punch that''d take the form of a dragon head and tiger body in the end.

    They didn''t need to release it to hit a target, as the formation he was going toy would gather all these techniques and move them towards Lina.

    It was simr to how he used to absorb the techniques of other masters to unleash the deadly final attack. Yet unlike him, she didn''t need to depend on her spirit power to do it, the formation would handle that part for her.

    As all the masters here started to train on this simple technique, William went around andid out the formation. He made sure it was close to that shield and took his time to check the direction of the final blow Lina wouldunch.

    He studied the shield, and from what he could tell it was indeed like he guessed. The shield was immune to any spirit power. He just tested and released many attacks towards it. All the techniques he used were useless, and yet a single explosive arrow was enough to show faint cracks on the surface of that shield.

    "Grenades can take it down¡­" he felt relieved when he saw these faint cracks spreading, yet they healed just as fast as they appeared.

    It meant this shield could instantly heal itself once damaged, which was a bit of bad news.

    "I need to sync with them then," he looked at the formation heid, adjusted a few things before he finally was done, "I''ll start first with a bellow of my arrows and grenades, then her punch would dive in and deepen the cracks¡­ If one hit didn''t do it, then ten will break that shield in the end¡­"

    The most important feature about formations was that they didn''t consume much spirit power, and didn''t get depleted after being activated and used once.

    That meant they could repeat the attack, and eventually, that shield would be breached.

    As he finished the formation, he checked on the progress of everyone. The older masters learnt the technique pretty fast, then they started to guide and help other masters to do it.

    William and other masters who learnt the technique went on and helped others with tips and advice. In the end, they all took three hours to learn it. And William took one hour to teach Lina what to do.

    Anjie kept his side, while other girls surrounded him. They got pushed away at the end when he learnt they didn''t train on the technique yet. But in less than one hour, they all returned and kept his side.

    "You need to just control the formation as I taught you," after four hours, everyone stood in their ces on the formation, while William said to Lina, "Don''t feel any pressure, I''ll be by your side all the time. Just follow the direction of my arrows and aim towards there without looking for the result."

    "How long will it take?" She was nervous, and she had all the reasons to feel so. After all, the fate of everyone fighting here depended on taking down this shield, or else their mission would be a failure.

    After all this struggle and sacrifice, it wasn''t eptable for them to fail. Realising all this made her feel more nervous, despite how William tried to support her.

    "I''ll do fine, right?" She rarely showed such a weak side of her, but at this moment, she couldn''t help but want anything else in the world but lean on his chest and forget everything she was feeling.

    She wanted to hear it from him, as if when he''d said it things would turn for the better in the end. "Everything will be great," and when he beamed with a smile, she felt like the entire world was shining with that smile as if all the pressure and anxiety she was feeling were gone.

    "Let''s do it," William then retreated, leaving the stage for her and other masters, "use your techniques and activate the formation. Keep releasing your techniques together, and when done, do it again!"

    The next moment, everyone started to execute their techniques. The older masters kept controlling everything, timing out the different masters'' potential, mastery, and power in executing the technique.

    Even if it was the same technique, it''d be different from one master to another. Stronger masters would take much less time to execute the technique. And if theysted a bit longer in doing it, they''d unleash a much stronger form of it, while spending more spirit power.

    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm So it was a must for them to organise everything, and with their spirit sense and vast experience, they could do it perfectly fine.

    William watched the ground shine while the formation got activated. The techniques released by the masters got absorbed by the formation, all channelled towards Lina.

    "Do it now, Lina!" William shouted while holding his bow, pulling the string as hard as he could. There was a single arrow there, but this one carried dozens of grenades, making it look like an arrow that got cancer over its shaft.

    He kept his spirit sense focused on Lina. The moment she got his shout, she started to execute her strongest punch technique. This came of course from William, and it was a very deadly attack towards any master at the same level as her.

    But with all the support she had from the formation, she ended up releasing a very violent attack, one that looked as if she was releasing aser ray, not just a simple technique.

    The moment her technique was about to get unleashed, he released the arrow, "target and follow my arrow, don''t miss it!" he shouted while knowing that he took care of this matter as much as he could.

 Chapter 976 The Monster Awakens!

    ?

    William adjusted the formation so it''d release the final blow in the same direction as his arrow. But he just wanted to make sure nothing wrong would happen and asked her to intervene and control the technique as well.

    As the arrownded, a fierce explosion happened. Faint cracks spread, and before they''d heal, the deadly torrent of the punch technique she used fell over the same point, and that made the cracks deepen and spread fast.

    William couldn''t see much using his eyes, but with spirit sense, he could clearly see the cracks. It was a great result, but it wasn''t enough.

    "Again!" as he predicted, they would fail in taking down this shield in one hit, "aim at the same point! Do it again!"

    The masters in the formation were already unleashing the second wave of the technique. The moment he shouted, Lina waited for the techniques to gather around, before she released another hit, then another, and another.

    She and others kept doing this twenty times in a row. William expected the shield to break in just ten attempts, but it took double that to bring the shield down.

    The moment the cracks spread all over its surface, William knew the shield was going to fall in the uing few hits. So he instantly dashed towards the few hundred masters he kept watching on the sideline all this time.

    "It''s our time to shine, let''s do it!" These were the masters who were going to help him in unleashing his deadly blow.

    As the shield got a self-repair feature, William feared that after taking it down, the shield would regenerate in a few minutes. So he wanted to time his attack tond on the hidden monster down below just after the shield would be brought down.

    And then if the shield respawned, it''d be for the better. The monster inside would be severely wounded, very enraged, and quite deadly. Yet with that shield''s presence, it would help everyone and stop the berserk monster.

    The technique got formed just before the shield would break apart. And the moment it got smashed into specks of lights, William shed instantly and dashed towards the hole. He appeared on top of it, holding his sword with both hands, with his tails curved and pointing towards the same point as his sword.

    "Do it kiddo," Sloth and others muttered and thought this to themselves while watching William ready to unleash his technique, "retreat! We need to take shelter now!"

    The technique was known for being brutal, and even if they wanted to wait to see what it was going to do, they knew they wouldn''t be able to handle the aftermath.

    So the moment William appeared on top of the hole, they all ran away. But it was toote for them to even cross half the distance towards the nearby underground caves and tunnels before the technique got fiercely exploding.

    They knew it was the end for them, but when they turned to look at the man who released this technique, they found him still in midair, not moving or dashing away.

    "William¡­ Run!" This shout didn''t juste from his friends, his girls, but from almost everyone. It felt like a thunderous roar, one that vanished the next moment by the deafening silence that the technique ushered.

    Yet William didn''t move. As he hovered over the hole, he could see theva down below. It was indeed a pool ofva, one that was close to a giantke. Yet that wasn''t what stopped him from moving away, the shield that got formed again was.

    With that shield, he knew the technique he released wasn''t going to be leaked outside, not in the slightest. The shield was able to negate any spirit-powered technique, immune to any spirit power. Even if the technique he unleashed was overbearing, and even if the monster was expected to go wild, the shield would help in protecting him and everyone from any of this.

    And when others were feeling puzzled and confused by his actions, and when they all expected themselves to die or get severely wounded, nothing happened!

    The usual bright sh of light that''dst for hours didn''t appear, and in return, it was just the hole that shone brightly, nothing else.

    "The dome¡­ It''s back¡­"

    "It''s unexpectedly protecting us¡­"

    "Howe¡­ Don''t tell me he is a prophet!!!"

    Many eximed in shock and surprise, while the older masters watched William who justnded over that dome as if he was standing on the ground, not on a bomb that might explode at any given moment.

    The image of William grew far more mysterious than ever in their eyes and minds. "Told you, he isn''t your typical master," Sloth smiled, as he already warned others of his circle and calibre about William''s unexpected actions and unique prowess.

    Thetter didn''t think about any of that, only focused on the ball of fire he was standing on top of. He couldn''t see anything through the bright sh of light down below, and his spirit sense wasn''t working either. Be it the shield or the nature of his technique, nothing allowed any spirit sense to pass through.

    He wasn''t worried at all, instead, he was excited. This shield contained the technique he released and made it look like he kept releasing the attack for a long time, focusing on a single point, this hole.

    The attack wouldst for an hour or more, but just in ten minutes, William felt the shield tremble fiercely. At the same time, cracks started to appear and spread, before they got fixed on their own.

    William was sure the thing that caused these cracks wasn''t his technique but the monster lying inside. "You are finally awake," he evilly grinned, before feeling another tremble, and with cracks appearing once more, "it''s better to retreat and wait then¡­ Let''s retreat!"

    He turned to the masters around and shouted before dashing away. There was nothing in his power to do, there wasn''t anything any master here could do.

 Chapter 977 Hiding Underground

    ?

    The monster and the technique he released were both entrapped inside that shield. And he''d either had to wait for the technique to get exhausted, or the monster to break the shield and escape that hell. Either way, William was sure the bear monster wasn''t going unscathed from this.

    The monsters were trying to reach the underground tunnels and caves at first. But when they all realised there wasn''t any threat, they stopped and even returned to surround the hole and the dome covering it, as if they were waiting for something magical and big to happen.

    The moment William shouted, they all knew something bad was going to happen. They couldn''t hear anything, but they could see the cracks spreading over the shield with every violent shaking.

    Without the need to ask, they all knew this was the cause of the monster entrapped inside. And it was better to run away into a safe ce and wait, rather than face the wrath of that monster or get hit by the entrapped technique of William.

    They all arrived at the tunnels and hid inside the caves. This was the first time for William to see these. He walked into the tunnels until he ended up in a very spacious underground cave.

    The caves were enough to amodate a thousand masters each and were enforced by thick pirs connecting the ceiling with the ground. This was why these caves stood in front of any shaking and trembling that followed the release of his techniques before.

    William was with his girls and close friends, and he had Sloth and a few other old masters by his side.

    "We shall wait here until the technique will kill that monster," Lang said, while others looked at William, waiting for his confirmation on this.

    "It won''t die just from one hit," and like what everyone had in their hearts, William shook his head, "We have to prepare for a long battle against it."

    "What is it then?" Sloth finally asked the question he had in mind since the beginning, "you always mentioned it, never said what it was."

    "I saw a glimpse of it back when I released the technique," he paused while making it like he was struggling to bring pieces together, "I believe it''s a Scarlet Bear, one that''s much bigger than anything I ever saw before."

    "A bear?!!" Both Lang and Berry shouted in the same breath, "We can¡­"

    "No, it won''t work," William knew what they wanted to say and do. They thought as it was one of the Scarlet Bears, they could use the same method he used before at their n, "this one won''t respond to any of that. I told you, it''s much bigger than the usual bears we fought against before."

    "You are hiding something," Sloth red at William, saying what everyone else here thought about. It was clear William knew more than what he told them, and for a reason, it felt like he knew all this from the start, even beforeing here.

    "We need to rest," William didn''tment on the doubts everyone showed on their faces, "I can assure you that a hellish battle is waiting for us."

    "Let''s rest and prepare then," Sloth knew that pressuring him to say anything wasn''t going to work. Not to mention they have a limited window here to rest and recuperate.

    Since William developed his devilish technique they faced lesser enemies and pressure. And yet they were fighting straight for many days now. So it was better to take a bit of rest, eat and heal, even sleep for half an hour or so, before the big battle would happen.

    Unlike what William expected, masters only sat on the ground, sitting in circles, as if they were in a fire camp or something. They all started to discuss everything they passed through, even releasing a few jokes here and there, making the general atmosphere a bit lively.

    "This is how humans rest?!!" Just when everyone sat and talked, William was standing near the tunnel. Anjie never left his side, alongside his girls and friends. Karoline watched all this in curiosity before adding, "I like the human world even more."

    "It''s¡­ Indeed quite interesting," William didn''t know how to tell her this wasn''t the case everywhere, and what the masters did here was just abnormal in his eyes. But he let her enjoy this moment, while he shifted his attention towards the outside.

    Even if they were far and safe from any danger, William wanted to see what was going to happen to that monster. He spread out his spirit sense and kept watching that dome. Luckily for him, the tunnels and caves weren''t that far off the hole, and so his spirit sense could touch the edge of that shield.

    William wanted to assess the state of that monster the moment it''d go out, as it was supposed to be the weakest point of that monster. He didn''t want to wait, as the monster could heal itself and improve with each passing minute.

    He had to make sure he and others would attack the moment the monster came out. As for the technique he released, he was sure it wasn''t going tost for long or be as strong as usual to threaten his life.

    He was ready to risk his life to take down this monster. He wasn''t just doing it to absorb the monster''s spirit power, but also to obtain its core. As for absorbing its spirit power, this was going to happen the moment the monster became severely injured, unable to pose any threat to them.

    "We are ready for any possibility," seeing the youngster who orchestrated everything standing beside the tunnel, looking very serious and worried, Sloth came by and added, "We are ready to take the monster down."

    "We need to weaken, not kill it," William strengthened on this point, making Sloth pause.

    "Why?"

    "You''ll know in time," William didn''t exin anything and returned to watch what was happening out there.

 Chapter 978 Its Hiding There!

    ?

    Sloth was about to say something when the entire ground shook, and out there the shield seemed to bulge upward.

    "It''s breaking the shield!" William''s eyes shone brightly, ready to move out when the monster would appear from that hole. Almost forty minutes passed, and that meant the technique was on itsst dying breaths.

    Yet when the shield got broken, everything changed!

    "This¡­" Everyone who spread their spirit sense outside got instantly shocked, before they all suffered from the crush of their spirit sense, "what happened?!! Why does that technique seem much fiercer?!!!"

    Everyone in the cave who observed the surface looked at William''s direction. He was the one who unleashed the attack, and the one who always provided them with answers.

    "That''s¡­" Even William found it hard to believe. The moment the shield broke, a surge of spirit power flushed out in torrents, with the deadly technique of his.

    Yet everything looked much more exaggerated than usual as if this technique was the merge of ten of his grand techniques or something.

    He got no exnation for this and didn''t realise that the hole that this bear monster took as a ce for an upgrade wasn''t normal. The stone and rocks forming it were blessed with the ability to absorb and conserve spirit power.

    That was why this monster selected this ce to level up, endured theva and hid deep within. It''d release tons of spirit power out, and all of this would get stored within these rocks, allowing the monster to reabsorb it again at theter and most dangerous moments of the process.

    When William released his attack, and the shield acted as a bottle lid, sealing everything inside, the rocks forming the hole couldn''t endure it anymore and released their stored spirit power out.

    The spirit power came out like a flood, and as the monster was jolted awake and got interrupted, the only thing that absorbed and made use of this spirit power was the technique William released.

    And that made that technique look as if it grew in intensity and ferocity.

    "It doesn''t matter, as long as the technique is still on, that monster will get attacked and wounded," William knew better than anyone else here about the true might and terror of his newly developed grand technique. The Decay effect wasn''t just simple, and no one could stand a chance against it.

    Ageing and spending one''s lifeline wasn''t something that any technique or element could stop. William didn''t say anything and kept trying to spread his spirit sense, ending up for it to get crushed.

    The technique up there was violent and it continued to rage for four hours straight. During this, the tunnels copsed, and for the first time ever many of the pirs shouldering the caves also fell.

    Sloth asked other masters in this cave and others to start digging new tunnels. As they did it in the middle of the technique raging wildly up there, most of the tunnels ended up getting blocked by falling dirt and rocks.

    "Keep digging," William heard Sloth shouting while holding many Bullets in both hands, "we have to be ready the moment that technique up there is over."

    Sloth realised what William grasped, like many other old masters here. They all waited for the moment that technique would end, before heading up there and finishing that monster off.

    When the technique started to fade away, they managed to dig lots of tunnels. By the time the technique vanished, many masters gushed out of these tunnels, ending up at the surface, to be met with a very terrifying scene.

    The ground was deepened by almost one hundred metres! It felt like a nuke just exploded there, and that wasn''t all.

    When William went out with the early batch of masters, he noticed the lingering multi-coloured mes all over the ce. He knew this meant the technique grew stronger again, to affect such a grand scale and leave a trace of its power behind.

    That also told him about how terrible the bear was. Yet unlike what he and others expected, the bear was nowhere to be found!

    "Can you find it?!" William turned to Sloth and other strong masters. His spirit sense was limited, not like theirs.

    "No trace, nothing at all," Sloth shook his head while the other masters kept their silence. Before anyone would say anything to exin this, William turned briskly towards one direction, where that hole was.

    He didn''t need to spread his spirit sense to see that the shield was intact and got reformed again. When he spotted that dome, looking perfectly fine, he realised what happened.

    Without saying anything, he dashed forward, heading towards the dome. When others noticed that, they tried to inspect the dome, but their spirit sense couldn''t prate through the shield.

    So they all moved like William, heading towards the dome.

    "Is that a monster?!!"

    "It''s not a Scarlet Bear¡­ This¡­"

    "Are you sure this is one of the Scarlet Bears we know?!!!"

    The masters who arrived and stood by William''s side on top of that shield couldn''t help but be shocked by the sight appearing deep down the shield.

    William could understand why they felt this way, and yet he didn''t say anything or exined what was going on.

    The monster that appeared down below was indeed massive! It wasn''t just ten metres in height or even twenty like the biggest bears recorded in history¡­ This monster spanned for a few kilometres in breadth! This was something unbelievable!

    Its shape wasn''t uniform, just a massive body with scarlet red fur and short scales all over its body. Yet it was filled with numerous and deep wounds from thest attack.

    William knew this wasn''t the real body of that monster, but a cocoon that got formed for it to evolve and take thatst step. It was very famous how strong and hard to crack shells these cocoons were, and yet his technique managed to hurt them and create such gaps inside.

 Chapter 979 Run For Your Lives! Its Coming!

    ?

    William got what happened, the monster crushed the shield and then instantly returned back inside to heal. It knew the shield was going to reform, and that shield was its life saviour now.

    As for the bear monster, it was inside that giant thing lying down below. "Gather up everyone," William seriously said, "we are going to repeat what we did."

    "Again?!!" Everyone looked at William as if they were looking at a madman, "can''t you see? This isn''t something we cane close to! We need to retreat¡­"

    "This is just an outer shell," William interrupted one of the old masters'' words, "and the real monster is huge indeed, but it isn''t that colossal. So gather up everyone, we are going to do it again and again until it gets severely damaged."

    "And then what? Won''t we kill it?" another master said, and William looked at Sloth as if he was telling him that such little tricks wouldn''t work on him.

    He already told Sloth everything, and Sloth had this habit to share what he learnt with his friends. "We''ll do something else," William mysteriously said, "but leave it forter. When the time is right, I''ll tell you what to do."

    He didn''t care about any of the masters now, focused solely on the monster hiding inside that massive shell. He tried to see through the deep gaps in that shell, but couldn''t see anything but pitch darkness.

    Then all of sudden, he raised his thumb up, and made a move across his throat, threatening that monster it was going to die on his hands. The moment he did that, everyone could feel the shield trembling while the massive body down below shook violently and frequently for a few times.

    This made the already healing wounds open up again, and yet the gaps weren''t enough for William to see anything through. "Enjoy your stay down there, and I''ll make sure toe and kill you soon enough," he said in a low tone voice, but for a reason, he felt like the monster could perfectly hear and understand him.

    "Are you ready?" In the next half an hour, Sloth and others brought everyone out of the caves. They just left the Earth-based masters to make new caves and tunnel systems, this time close to where they were.

    They didn''t want anything surprising to happen likest time. And old masters already spoke with the ones making these underground structures, asking them to fortify everything with all their might.

    As everyone started to power up Lina''s attacks, William waited on the side with his group of masters, waiting for the right moment to intervene.

    Once the shield was on the verge of copsing, he gathered everyone''s techniques and finally released them over the broken shield. Then he moved away with everyone else, heading into the nearby tunnels.

    This time everyone went inside before the technique would unleash its full might before the shield would respawn again. And like before, they waited inside the caves until the monster managed to break the shield, releasing the technique, and returned inside the newly formed shield to heal and hide.

    There was no way for it to run at. This monster was intelligent already, realising that running away from this hole was going to end its life much faster. Its only hope now was to buy more time until its master would show up and help.

    William could guess the monster''s thoughts, and that was why he decided to keep hammering the shield and it with his technique without mercy. The moment the technique faded, he''de out and start doing all this again with everyone.

    Yet at the fifth attempt, something new happened!

    "Watch out! It''sing!" Just when William hovered on top of the hole, he suddenly shouted. The shield was down, and the monster''s shell was now filled with tons of wounds and gaps. As he moved over the hole, all he could see was a massive scarlet red behemoth filling all his vision,ing fast at him.

    William didn''t hesitate to shout in warning while releasing the technique he had. Even if the monster was trying to ambush the annoying master who kept torturing it four times already, William knew his technique was strong enough to push that monster back inside the hole.

    Things turned out slightly differently. The technique did indeed push that monster down, but it took almost a minute for it to ovee the monster''s brutal strength. William felt like every inch of his body was aching with immense pain, even his bones shattered in many ces, broken severely from that temporary sh.

    "Retreat!" Yet the moment the monster finally got into the hole, he dashed away and shouted. He endured tons of pain and kept moving fast using his technique one time after another. Things were quite hard for him to keep using his spirit power with all the damage he got. Even when he gulped two healing elixirs, he didn''t feel any better.

    He knew the monster dealt a severe blow to him, and luckily he emerged out of this with his life intact. Even with all these injuries, he considered himself extremely lucky.

    Others didn''t need him to shout again, as they were already retreating away. Many entered the tunnels, while those up there noticed how terrible William looked.

    "William!" Berry, Anjie, Lina, Sara, and the other girls screamed in panic. William didn''t get why they shouted like this until he felt a fierce gust of winding at him from behind.

    And when he looked back, all he could feel was for his heart to clench with a very cold hand. That monster didn''t stay inside the hole after taking the hit, instead, it moved with all its might, aimed towards the master who caused all this trouble to him.

    It was very adamant about taking William down, even if it meant he''d take the toll of the attack outside the shield, even if he was going to lose the protection of that shield.

    "Damn! Why are you following me? I''m not that tasty, you do know that!"

 Chapter 980 The Bear Shows Itself

    ?

    When everyone thought William was done for, his voice that carried tons of mockery rang in the entire world.

    And then he took out the two weapons of his, released them towards that monster¡­ "It''s an unlucky day for you¡­ Release your techniques again, release them twice in a row!"

    With his shout, the two weapons moved toward the monster, shed with everything they got, temporarily stopping it before being sent flying in the air.

    As they flew, they weirdlynded at the ce near the tunnels. The masters who released the techniques were thest ones to arrive there, and when they heard William''s shout, they didn''t know what to do.

    "Just do it, we''ll protect you, we''ll protect him, we''ll protect everyone," and at such desperate moments, the formidable masters like Sloth and others would shine and show their true value.

    The monstering was like a death god, but William knew it was just talk and not muscle. It was severely wounded, not to mention it got ejected forcibly from the middle of its promotion process.

    That meant it must have some sort of bacsh. Adding all these together, William was sure this monster wasn''t the threatening behemoth it looked like by the naked eye. And that was why he dared to do this.

    The moment his two monstrous weapons shed against this behemoth, William managed to pull out distance. Yet when everyone thought he was going to retreat, he didn''t. The moment he pulled distance away from the monster and he started to dash around, umting attacks on his tails, preparing to unleash them.

    *Roar!* The bear monster regained its momentum, roared in a fierce way, and headed directly towards William like a cannonball. Thetter didn''t evade it this time, instead moved directly to meet the enemy.

    "All on me!" Sloth didn''t let the youngster sh against the monster alone. He led his group of high-end masters, used their deadliest techniques, and attacked the Scarlet Bear with William.

    A barrage of attacksnded from all directions, and the sounds of explosions rang violently and shook the world. The masters underground heard what happened, and moved out to see what was going on. And what they saw made them all speechless and quite scared.

    "It''s the end of the world, it''s the end of us," one of the masters who came from the other world muttered, while he couldn''t even move a finger or run back inside the tunnels.

    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm "They stopped it!" yet when the atmosphere was going south like a speed train, one of the masters here shouted. They all looked and in the middle of the colossal dust storm, they could see something massive being thrown back like a ragged ball.

    It was that monster, and it looked much smaller than before. What William and others hit was just the outer shell that the monster took as shelter. After all this time, the shell was now filled with holes and gaps. And William aimed directly toward these holes, while others followed through.

    William knew they couldn''t touch that shell no matter how hard they tried. Even his terrifying grand technique failed to leave anything but holes in it. So instead of wasting time hitting an immovable mountain, it was better to just aim through these holes and gaps.

    The moment torrents of deadly attacksnded on the bear inside the shell, thetter tried to run away. And yet all the masters attacking it pursued it and didn''t let it have what it wanted. In the end, the monster had to ditch this shell, and with that, it lost most of its protection and showed its terribly shaped body.

    It was a bear indeed, with a giant body that spanned thirty metres at most. It looked ferocious and scary, yet its body was covered in deep wounds, oozing tons of blood out.

    It looked strong, but it was weak. Any experienced master who saw this knew this monster was just pulling itsst straw of resistance before falling down.

    And yet that didn''t make any of them happy or rxed. They knew the hardest time in dealing with any formidable monster was thisst stretch before its death.

    They weren''t just dealing with a normal dark gold monster, but one who went beyond the pinnacle stage. That made it quite deadly, and they raised their vignce even more.

    "Retreat!" Just before the two sides would sh again, William suddenly shouted, "I''m going to release the technique twice in a row¡­ Retreat and take cover fast!"

    William and others just shed with that monster for one time, a sh that didn''t take more than ten minutes. During this, the two monstrous weapons were already charged up with the techniques others released.

    Unlike what William expected, his two monstrous weapons couldn''t take all the pressure from the techniques. He thought they were like him, could handle the pressure, and hoped for each one to release a single attack solo.

    But this wasn''t going to happen. As he was controlling them, he realised if he pushed forward, then the two would break apart before even stacking all the techniques!

    So he made a decision on the spot, to divide the techniques over these two. Like this, they''d just unleash one grand technique, provided that they''d synchronise things together, or he''d control them perfectly to do so.

    As he knew one single attack wouldn''t do much damage, he decided to risk it and do the second hit himself. He was risking everything by doing this, not knowing that he''d end up just fine in the end.

    He never got time to analyse what was going on, didn''t get that as he was the one to release the technique, spirit powering from this sh wasn''t going to harm him. Instead, he was going to greatly benefit from it, just like how other masters who released these techniques got stronger from this.

    As he ordered everyone to retreat, he controlled his two monstrous weapons to move forward and hit the iing monster.

 Chapter 981 There Is No Other Way!

    ?

    "Let us stop him for you," yet before he''d even let his two monstrous weaponse closer, Sloth shouted, "Do whatever you need, and we''ll buy you time."

    "Thanks¡­" William knew that Sloth and other old masters got what he nned to do. Despite knowing how suicidal it was, they never tried to stop him. Instead, they chose to step up and stop that monster, not wasting the technique his two monstrous weapons were going to release.

    Despite knowing how suicidal it was for them to do this, as they wouldn''t have enough time to retreat from the surge of decaying spirit power, he never tried to stop them.

    This wasn''t a kindergarten, this was the spirit world. And in this world, living was an everyday challenge for any master!

    He selected to do it, and they chose willingly to do their part. As the two sides understood each other''s thoughts and feelings, they both went to execute their role with everything they had.

    Sloth and the other masters knew William only needed five minutes, at most ten, to finalise his technique. So they had to just keep that monster busy for this time. As for retreating, they didn''t think much about it.

    William stacked up the techniques over his tail, then dashed forward.

    "Leave now!" he shouted, "I''ll buy you time to run away."

    "You can''t¡­"

    "Just do it!" There was no time to argue or anything. So he just dashed along a circr path, getting past the group of masters and that monster, e on, show me what you truly got!" he mocked the monster, even making an inviting gesture to that monster. And the taunt worked!

    The monster dropped any interest with other masters and focused only on William. It roared before it started to dash towards him.

    "Make sure to stay alive after all this," Sloth shouted before he and others made a run for their lives. Everyone watching all this from the tunnels was feeling quite scared and worried over William, especially his friends and girls.

    No one found a scenario where William would survive. He distanced himself a lot from the tunnels, even standing on the totally opposite side of it. When he''d release his technique, he''d be pushed away from the tunnels. And that meant there was no escape for him.

    "Come back alive!" all of a sudden, his girls shouted, before all of his friends chimed in. All they could now be to pray, pray that things would end up quite well for their leader and friend.

    "Let''s go inside," the moment Sloth and others arrived, they started literally dragging these youngsters away from the iing disaster, "you won''t do him any good by risking your lives like this," Sloth kept persuading them until they all resigned and moved with others towards the caves.

    When William watched them vanish inside the tunnels, he knew he could start his final attack. He was truly exhausted, greatly pressured, and his body was on the verge of copsing. The technique he formed had to be released, and yet he was enduring beyond his limits to give them time to escape.

    He was running madly while that monster chased after him like a mad bull. At the same time, the two monstrous weapons kept their distance fixed from that bear. William wanted to deal a strong blow this time, enough to leave this monster unable to resist or fight back again.

    "This is my only hope," he knew he couldn''t get away from the st. So he nned to not waste any time trying the impossible. Instead, his thoughts drifted towards absorbing this monster''s insane amount of spirit power.

    Doing so would end up with him replenishing his spirit body and even healing his body a little bit. It might not be enough, but he hoped to be enough to make him evade death.

    As he decided, he stopped running, turned around, and weed that crazy bear with a bear hug of all his tails and sword. The technique hit the monster before the two monstrous weapons also hit it from behind.

    The monster roared, trying to fiercely destroy the human in front of it, but it couldn''t. Its body got pinned in ce by the two mighty techniques of force, ending up unable to evennd its ws over William''s head.

    William was just a few metres away from it, yet it couldn''t even leave a scratch over him. In the next minute, two bright shes of light appeared, expanding fast, merging together, before a violent explosion urred.

    William was at the heart of it. The moment he unleashed the attack, he didn''t even stand for a single second to watch its effect. The moment he unleashed that technique, he sat down on the ground cross-legged and took deep breaths to calm down himself, before starting the spirit power absorption technique he knew.

    The technique was the key to absorbing spirit power from anyone, as long as the target was unable to resist. William once started the technique and he ced one palm over the monster''s huge body, as if he was patting or reassuring it that everything was going to be alright.

    Then he waited¡­

    The monster was pinned in its ce, but it was still resisting the technique he just started. William had to wait until the two techniques would kick in and deal tons of damage to that monster. During which, he took out healing elixirs, and gulped them without hesitation.

    He was preparing for the worst, and yet nothing of this happened. The world turned blindly bright for him, and he tried to absorb the spirit power from that monster. As he felt pain, he was expecting his body to get hacked, and his death was drawing near.

    The attack wouldst for one hour at least, and he felt he wouldn''t survive for even a few minutes. Yet minutes passed slowly, and he never felt like he was going to die or something.

 Chapter 982 The Master From The Outer World

    ?

    "I must be absorbing the spirit power from that monster then¡­ Better to focus on training then," he thought this was the case, and returned to focus solely on his training techniques, with the spirit power absorption technique running as well.

    It was hard to run two training techniques at the same time, and yet he tried his best to run both together. When he failed, he had to run one for a few minutes, then alternate it with the other technique.

    As time passed slowly, he was positive he was absorbing spirit power from that monster. Yet when the world got cleared, all he could see was nothing at all in front of him. His hand was touching thin air, and there was no trace of that bear.

    "Don''t tell me I vaporised it!!!" he blinked, looked at his body, and saw nothing wrong there. But when he looked at his two monstrous weapons, seeing them turn into two scraps and useless pieces of metal and ores, he knew he wasn''t dreaming.

    He lived through the brutal attack from two grand techniques from such a close distance, and he didn''t know why.

    *Roar!*

    Just as he was in the middle of his puzzlement, he heard a muffled and low-tone roaring from behind. When he looked, he found that bear monster standing on top of the shield, falling on its legs, as if it couldn''t control its body anymore.

    "You were trying to run back into the shield? Sorry pal, you tried to sneakily attack me, and this is just the fair price to pay," William didn''t care about why he remained alive in the end and simply embraced the fact that he didn''t die. He stood up slowly, gathered up his ruined monstrous weapons, and stored their pieces inside his rings, before turning towards that extremely exhausted and terribly wounded monster.

    "Don''t resist, you are going to grant all of us a big helping hand," William then walked towards that monster slowly, step by step. He was about to take out everyone''s Bullets, to let them know he was alive and everything was fine. And yet just before he''d take even a single one out, he felt something like a cold shiver down his spine.

    "What do you think you are doing to my pet?!" The next instant, he heard an alien voice in his mind. The voice wasn''t loud, but it carried its own majesty and pressure, making it bell in his ears like a violent thunder strike.

    "You are the one who let it do this? Why?!" William turned around, and looked at the sky before adding, "It was going to kill me, kill my friends, and it''s just fair to kill it!"

    William was feeling true terror at this moment. He knew the one speaking belonged to the outer world. And it felt like he wasn''t just a normal master out there.

    Just his presence was enough to drive shivers to his body. And yet that didn''t let him show a single sign of weakness or fear.

    "You are indeed someone from such low and trash realms, now knowing you are speaking to a god, not even realising you are close to your death!" The master from the outer world seemed to feel sorry about William''s attitude, and thetter couldn''t help but gather up his courage and snort.

    "You act like you can do whatever you want here, and both of us know this isn''t true¡­ I''m not afraid of you!"

    "But your body is telling me something different, you are shaking out of fear, so why not admit your mistake and leave my pet alone?"

    "No way!" William would ept anything else but this. He spent all this time and effort, with everyone with him sacrificing a lot to just get this monster. And that master simply wanted him to walk away and leave it? Without even promising anything in return?

    "How about this then¡­ Why not walk away and live?" the master from the outer world seemed to lean towards violence and threats to scare William away. Yet thetter never budged an inch. Instead, William responded while walking towards that monster.

    "You didn''t introduce yourself," William said while trying to buy himself enough time before Sloth and other strong masters would pop out from the tunnels.

    "Someone living in such a trash world doesn''t have the right to know a god like me¡­"

    "You aren''t a god, you are just a master from that realm," William slowly shook his head, while not stopping his feet for even one second, "why not drop the act then? This monster is already on the verge of dying. It''s evil, and I have to put it to rest."

    "You won''t do it," the master shouted, seemingly quite enraged and surprised by William''s precise predictions and guesses, "I won''t let you do it!"

    "Thene down here and try to stop me," William shrugged, casually saying it as if he could handle this master.

    As he said his piece, Sloth and others finally emerged from the tunnels. The moment they came up there, they all felt the same fear and cold shivers as William.

    "I see, so that''s why you have such confidence in talking back to me¡­ Do you think these flies can really stop me? Hahahaha, that''s hrious, hahahaha!"

    "Come here and bring everyone else," William ignored the master from the outer world, controlled his fear, and tried to stop his body from shaking, but couldn''t, "let''s get it done with this bear before leaving."

    "You¡­ Keep your hands off my pet!" The moment William said these words, he shed and dashed toward the monster. The monster was on itsst dying breaths, and it couldn''t even lift its head to look at the sky or at the iing human who did all this to it.

    "It''s already ruined and won''t be able to take that step," William said when he arrived just next to that monster, "why not you go and find another pet somewhere else and let us kill this one?"

 Chapter 983 The Reason Behind Coming Here

    ?

    "Do you think an ant like you can speak back to a god like myself?"

    "I just did, what can you do? Hahahaha!" Williamughed while speaking in a mocking tone as if he didn''t care about that master or anything.

    In fact, he knew this master could crush him and others if this conversation was done in the outer world. But here, that master got nothing to do unless he''d risk descending here himself.

    If he did, he was going to suffer great bacsh, and wouldn''t enjoy his current strength. If the master was indeed quite serious, he''d havended here before even saying a single word. But it felt like he was worrying about something, and William could easily guess it.

    "He is sceptical about my technique, hehehehe," he inwardlyughed, knowing that this master must have witnessed what his grand technique could do.

    Even if it was limited by the low spirit power quality in this world, it was still quite threatening to anyone. If that master suffered injuries here, then returning back to the outer world would be impossible. He had to wait here until he''d heal, and staying much longer would put more risks on the table.

    Once William reached this conclusion and he started to get cocky against this master. He wasn''t doing this asking for death, or because he lost his mind. He wanted this master toe here, and by this, he''d end up getting a huge gain from his rings.

    William wanted to kill the man and loot his rings. Even if the process would be quite hard, he was willing to take the risk as long as that master was also willing toe here.

    But the master didn''t do that, he wasn''t stupid.

    "Is he gone?" Sloth arrived next to William while that master from the outer world vanished, and didn''t speak for the past ten minutes.

    "I tried to call, but he seems busy or away," William paused, beforeughing, "or perhaps he is scared."

    "Are you sure he won''te here?" another master asked in worry, "if he did, I don''t know what we can do¡­"

    "We''ll do the same," William knew this master was speaking out of his pure instinct, with loud rming bells ringing in his mind, "we''ll struggle and persist, cooperate and fight."

    "But¡­ Can we really kill him?"

    "If not, then why do you think he didn''te here from the start?" William turned around before adding, "Let''s go. The technique I taught you before we sat on this journey, let''s use it."

    "That master is still watching," Sloth waited for others to get distracted and be busy with arranging masters around before whispering to William.

    "I know," William looked at Sloth in a weird way, "and whispering like this won''t stop him from eavesdropping."

    William got what Sloth wanted to say. Even if that master went silent, he was still present and watching. They all could tell because that intimidating feeling was still present, that cold sweat and shivers.

    "Then¡­"

    "If you are in his shoes, would you speak and reason up with weaker masters like he did?" William slowly said, before adding, "Even if you are a good master, or were in a very good mood, would you have tolerated everything I said and did so far?"

    "Frankly? No," Sloth paused, and looked at the sky before adding, "Are you trying to say that¡­ If he has the ability to get down here, then he''d have done it. And he is just bluffing?"

    "He isn''t," William shook his head, "he can get down here any moment he wants. But he''ll have to pay a great price for that."

    "Why do I feel you were once part of that world? Got down here as a form of punishment?"

    "Think as much as you like, we need to start rolling things now and get done from all this¡­" William paused before turning towards the masters around.

    Even if they were all scared, they moved and stood in the ces William specified for the old masters before leaving the city.

    "It''s now time for me to exin what we all suffered here to get," William paused, looking back towards the helpless monster. They were already surrounding it in circles,yers like an onion or something.

    "This monster is, as you all know, just half a step away from getting out of here. But to do so, it started to sleep, lure monsters and masters here, before absorbing their spirit power to enrich itself. Right now we are going to exert justice over it, absorb its spirit power, and distribute it among all of us."

    "Absorb¡­ Do you mean¡­" Everyone realised what William said, but they never dared to believe it. Even Sloth and other old masters doubted it, looking at William for more exnation and further confirmation.

    "That''s like what you all heard, we are going to take its spirit power and add it up to ours¡­ Impressive, isn''t it? Hahahaha!" William was also excited, excited by this, excited by their reaction.

    He looked at the sky, but that master from the outer world kept his silence even when he dered his intentions.

    "Let''s do it then," William sat crossed-legged, just next to the monster, being at the heart of all the masters, "sit down, extend one arm towards the one next to you. As I exined before, only old masters can extend their arms and touch others in their inner circles¡­ Let''s start¡­"

    William waited for a few minutes before everyone sat down and did as he said. During this, he kept an eye over the sky, raising his vignce against that master.

    If that master wanted to save the Scarlet Bear, then it was just the right moment to move. If he waited until they''d start absorbing the spirit power from the monster, then he wouldn''t be able to do anything to stop them.

    "As you wish then," as everyone got ready and that master didn''t make his move, William shrugged, "Let''s start then¡­ Say the incantation I taught you out loud, make sure to chime it in unison¡­"

 Chapter 984 See You Later!

    ?

    As he gave the green light to them, all the masters started to do as he said. The moment they did, they felt a sudden surge of an insane amount of spirit power,ing from the man theynded their hand on. This was enough proof to wipe away any doubts they had about William''s words from earlier, and now they believed what he said.

    They were going to absorb the spirit power of this monster, add it up to them, and then raise their grades and stages. It was like a dream, and even old masters knew this was a once in a lifetime chance.

    The moment William started to say the incantation with others, he felt the greatest amount of spirit powering from the monster. He didn''t mention this to any, didn''t say that the ones sitting closer to the monster would benefit more from those sitting at the rear.

    That was why William made sure to ce his friends and two team members in the first few circles. Then he ced the masters who came from the other world. Even if they weren''t part of his guild for long enough, they were going to live their entire life with him and his guild.

    Giving them such help was enough to make them feel indebted to him, deepen their ties with the guild, and turn them into undying loyal members of his guild.

    At the same time, he let Sloth and a few others of those who he got to know during this adventure in the inner circles as well. He needed them to act as connecting nodes, ones to bridge the spirit power from one circle to the ones outside.

    As they started to absorb the monster''s spirit power, they got engulfed with ayer of concentrated spirit power. This was why William didn''t care about that master anymore. Thisyer was enough to stop anything, literally anything in the world, as it got the ability to absorb any spirit power without any limit.

    That meant if that master decided to attack them, he''d be giving them a huge helping hand. And yet that master wasn''t feeling any rage or bitterness at all while watching all this.

    "You think you got me here, damn brat! Hmph! You know nothing of the world yet, greenhorn¡­" The master was sitting in his grand mansion, suddenlyughing while watching everything through a water mirror item in front of him, "there isn''t just one pet out there, but two¡­ You idiot, hahahaha!"

    The master didn''t act thanks to his worry of the retribution he''d face from doing so, or from the cost he had to pay if he descended to that tiny world, nor from William''s technique orpanions. He got another Scarlet Bear monster away from here, and that monster was going to be a recement for the one William was going to kill.

    That was why he didn''t respond to William''s taunts, and yet he was amused by this kid. He looked at William''s reflection over the surface of the water while wondering how such a kid knew many things about the outer world.

    William didn''t act as if he was on impulse, he acted out of his knowledge of the rules of the outer world. He knew what this master needed to do toe to the tiny world, knew about the hefty price that master had to pay, and seemed to know about how to get out from there.

    If he knew all this, and he was just a youngster in the tiny world, then it meant there was a huge secret behind William. Instead of feeling enraged or something, that master felt more interest in William.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He was one who was obsessed with gathering weird and unique stuff from the tiny worlds. And William looked like the newest nice addition to his collection.

    "Work hard and grow stronger, as soon enough we are going to meet again," the master muttered before shutting down the water mirror item he had. And at the same moment, William heard the master''s voice perfectly clear in his mind, as if that master was just standing next to him.

    He was tempted to open his eyes and check the world around him, see if that master arrived here or what. But if he dared to do so, the entire formation would copse, and he and everyone might end up with severe bacsh on top of that.

    He resisted the urge to look over for that master, as he knew even if he ended upnding here, he didn''t have anything in his power to stop them.

    But if William got tempted to interrupt the entire process of his own volition, then things would go south drastically for them.

    As he focused on absorbing the spirit powering from that monster, he could feel himself growing stronger at an rmingly fast pace.

    "Will I be able to see it again?" as he was close to crossing the dark gold threshold, he was excited about meeting the fox spirit one more time.

    Thest meeting was a bit hectic and didn''t go well. On top of that, William never had time to check the technique left by the fox on his back. And frankly, he didn''t need to check it anymore.

    It felt bad at first, and yet after going to the other world, he felt better. Two spirits were merging together, while the third was causing little problems that didn''t threaten him.

    He didn''t know that even the dog spirit was already kicking in a merge, only waiting for him to arrive at the dark gold grade to show such results. William kept madly absorbing spirit power like everyone else. And as all were progressing quite fast, he also got closer to the dark gold threshold fast.

    "I''m there¡­ Let''s meet, old fox," he was excited the moment he felt something tucking inside him as if a locked door got opened or something.

 Chapter 985 Entering Dark Gold Grade!

    ¦Ñ¦Á¦°d¦Ás¦­¦Ïvel.c¦Ïm ?

    Yet unlike what he expected, nothing happened! He kept absorbing spirit power and didn''t get into that fox''s world like how it should have happened.

    "What''s wrong?" for the first time ever, he started to worry over the fox spirit, "is it dead or something?!!"

    William knew such a possibility wasn''t practical or even possible. If the spirit was gone, then his spirit would be gone as well. "Something bad must have happened to him¡­ But if I missed this chance to meet it now, when will I be able to meet it?"

    He grew puzzled by this, feeling there was something wrong about all this. The dark gold grade was the end journey for everyone. And even the next stages were just made up by masters to organise things.

    The dark gold grade spanned for tens of thousands of spirit points, which was a very huge distance to cross. And yet it was all considered as one grade. And that meant he wasn''t going to meet that fox spirit again until he''d cross the final threshold in this world, and be ready to move towards the outer world.

    "See youter, fox," he bitterly smiled and returned to focus on the task at hand. He didn''t waste any more time thinking about anything and kept absorbing the insane amount of spirit powering out from that monster.

    Unlike him and other younger masters, the old masters like Sloth were advancing slowly. They were already at the pinnacle of high stages, and that meant they''d require tons of spirit power to advance.

    Even so they were happy and satisfied with all this. By normal means, they''d take years to get the same amount of spirit power they gained in just a few hours!

    As for the younger masters, they grew stronger fast like William. Many started to climb ranks, reaching the dark gold grade, and even many crossed the early stage milestone, reaching the middle stage of it.

    The most to gain from all this was Karoline. She was at bronze grade before absorbing the spirit power. And in the first hour alone, she jumped from bronze to silver, then gold grade in the following hour.

    She kept absorbing spirit power until there was nothing left to absorb. William knew if he had less number of masters here, then he and others would have benefited more from this. But that would also mean they''d have to face tons of dangers, and they wouldn''t even have made it this far at all.

    He wasn''t that bitter about this. He ended up at the early stage of the dark gold grade, just a few thousand spirit points away from entering the middle stage. As for the rest of his friends, they all arrived at the middle stage without exception. Only Karoline stopped at the gold grade,cking a few hundred points to reach the dark gold grade.

    It was like a dream, and everyone woke from it and didn''t want to do so. They felt like they were in heaven, and jumping up in ranks was a simple matter that wasn''t that difficult at all!

    The moment the spirit power influx ceased, everyone heaved a deep sigh of regret and sadness. They weren''t happy that the fountain of spirit power dried up, and hoped it wouldst a bit longer to reach another milestone in their power.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "Shakey wakey, the fun is over already," William stood up the first, and stretched his body, feeling like he was reborn anew, "let''s get up, stretch our bodies. We may not take lots of time here, but our spirit power surged with a sudden gush. Our bodies need training, adapting to the new power we consume, so don''t ck off and start working out."

    He took initiative under everyone''s bitter and sad gazes. He seemed to be the only person here happy about this being over, him and Karoline of course.

    "I''m going to join you, hahaha, I feel great by regaining part of my former power, hahahaha," sheughed, jumped off the ground, and started to stretch her body as he did.

    As these two did that, others couldn''t help but sigh, stand one by one, and join them. William let them do this for a few hours, while he started to collect something important.

    "Hehehehe, I killed a pinnacle-grade monster, hehehehe," he evillyughed while holding a core in his hand. It was a lot bigger than any other core he acquired before and felt much heavier as well.

    He was so excited about this. He knew he absorbed most of the spirit power from this monster with others, but there was still lots of spirit power inside this core. Once he''d absorbed it, he wouldn''t get surprised to surmount the remaining distance to the middle dark gold stage and even might gain a few hundred more points on top of that.

    Everyone watched him doing this without saying anything. Even Sloth and other old masters didn''t speak. They all felt like they lost something dear and precious, as if they missed something extremely important to them.

    They watched William collect that core, then different parts of that monster. It was a very unique monster, and he decided to not even leave behind a single hair.

    He even went to collect the shell that protected the monster during the promotion process. And then it came down to the shield that stood like a mountain, blocking the top of that hole.

    "I want to go there," William wanted to go and check the hole, wanting to see if he could find anything useful. Yet when he saw how others looked, quite gloomy and depressed, he decided to put that thought on hold for now.

    "It won''t go anywhere," he shrugged, deciding to visit this ce sometime in the future if he had time to do so.

    "Don''t look like that," even after leaving them for ten hours, went to collect that shell, he returned and found them looking the same, "you should be happy and excited about this chance, not looking like this."

 Chapter 986 A Pleasant Surprise!

    ?

    "I need to start hunting down monsters like this one," Sloth suddenly said.

    "Add me in!"

    "I''ll join such an adventure at any time!"

    As Sloth said in his piece, almost everyone started to show their support to do this. William watched them, blinked twice, and didn''t know how he should respond to this.

    "Finding such a monster? As if they weremon cabbage or something!!!" he inwardly cursed, before starting to move, "let''s go, we''ll head back to Lara''s city and rest there for a few days. Then we''ll continue our march towards the Scorching Lands city."

    William walked back with everyone else until they got out of the Blue Hills zone. There they spotted a huge gathering of masters, alling here to watch the legendary battle unfolding inside this region.

    No one dared to trespass through this area after what happened to the first batch. And even when the small army of masters vanished from their eyesight and spirit sense reach, they didn''t dare to step forward.

    Yet the sounds of explosions and fierce fighting that happened in this adventure were all heard by all. They were shocked to hear such violent explosions from such a far distance, a testimony to how brutal the ongoing battles were.

    The sounds of explosions grew especially when William released the grand technique frequently. Hearing these thunderous noises made everyone scared, trembling out of fear and worry over the ones inside. And yet every time they heard such explosions, they knew there still were few masters alive.

    They all had bad premonitions about all this, suspected that at the end only a limited number of masters would return, if any returned alive. Such gloomy and dark feeling intensified the moment the sounds ceased, and the world ushered under weird calmness.

    As the army of masters took a few days to arrive at the edge of this region, mostly because William''s teams were focused on collecting any loot, and infecting others with such weird habits, the worry over the safety and survival odds of the masters inside escted to a new height for those waiting at the edge.

    Yet the first master who spotted them returning shouted, couldn''t believe himself. It wasn''t just a few of them returning, but arge number, almost seventy to eighty percent of the army who went inside.

    This was quite unbelievable! Masters used to fight against unjust odds, and yet they knew their survival odds were so low. In such a legendary battle, the army of masters triumphed over their enemies, cleared the region from all the scary monsters, and ended up returning with most of their force.

    That was simply a miracle! One that started to spread like wildfire in the entiremunity of masters and even normal people living on this continent, and then in the entire world.

    This battle was destined to be narrated as a bedtime story for small kids, to teach them that against hard odds, failure wasn''t a guaranteed result.

    When the army of masters climbed up the edge of this region, they were weed as how heroes should be. Many shouted and celebrated their safe return, while tons asked about what happened, wanting to know everything in great detail.

    The masters who experienced all this felt proud of what they aplished and started to warmly answer anything thrown at their faces. They kept talking and talking until all of the masters arrived back at Lara''s city.

    The true heroes of this battle were William''s guild members, Sloth, and his gang of old masters. They were extremely tired, and William gave them the order to rest and heal, recuperate in the city, and do nothing for a few days.

    He decided to reward them by giving them such rest. While they all were excited about this, they couldn''t escape the persistence of everyone in the city, inquiring about what happened everywhere they went.

    They weren''t annoyed by any of that. In fact, they felt like they were enjoying a glory that didn''t belong to them. The one who should be here, enjoying all such extravagant treatment was William. And yet thetter closed in on himself and announced that he''d stay locked for a few days, up to a week.

    He asked for no one to disturb him, and his words became like a royal edict. No one dared toe near the central building where he locked himself in, not even Anjie, nor any of his girls or friends.

    William sat inside that building and started to examine all the gains he had. First of all, and the foremost important gain he had in this adventure, was for his spirit power to grow beyond the dark gold threshold.

    "I gained three thousand and five hundred spirit points above the dark gold threshold¡­ Like this, I can enter the mid-stage in less than one year¡­"

    He paused, before looking closer at the crystal he held in his hands. "The spirits¡­ That dog spirit¡­ It''s merging with the other two¡­" he was shocked to see this.

    The spirit form in that crystal was quite bizarre. It got the head of a fox, the neck of a snake, the body of a fox, the legs of a dog, and the tails of a fox, snake, and dog!

    He didn''t have just four tails anymore, but six! The rudimentary and short snake tail elongated and grew to be like the fox tails he had. As for the newly developed dog tail, it was a bit longer.

    "Interesting¡­ That means my crisis is over or what?" he couldn''t help but heave an inward sigh of relief. He got scared back then when he entered the gold grade, and now this crisis is gone forever.

    "What abilities do I have now?" he knew how special the two other spirits were. His fox spirit gave him the Devour ability, and yet the other two didn''t give him anything yet.

    "Don''t tell me I need to wait until they finalise the merge to show off their uniqueness¡­"

 Chapter 987 A Pinnacle Grade Monster Core

    ?

    William tried and failed to feel anything special or new about his power. All he could think about was that the three spirits were in the beginning phase of merging. And that was both bad and good news.

    It was good that the risk of shing between the three spirits vanished, but it was bad that he didn''t gain anything extra in the end. He sighed, before storing away this crystal, and thought about everything he experienced in thest adventure.

    "That mysterious master¡­ He seems interested in me¡­" William knew how entric the masters of the outer world were. From thest words that master said, he was sure he piqued the eyes of that master, "yet I already have a master, what he''ll do about that?" he evilly smirked, before thinking about something else.

    He entered into the dark gold realm, and that meant his spirit sense grew exponentially, covering up much more area than ever. He spread out his senses and got delighted to know it could cover up an area of twenty kilometres in radius.

    "That''s just the early stage¡­ But it''s almost double what others should have¡­ Weird¡­" he didn''t think too much about this, not knowing this was thanks to the newly forming spirit after the merge of the other three he had.

    Then he started to test another ability he gained, the Spirit Telepathy.

    "I canmunicate with anyone in the same area of my spirit sense coverage range¡­ That''s fantastic¡­" he didn''t try to do anything extra, missing a vital ability he gained by spirit telepathy.

    He''d discover itter on, in the middle of a hectic and deadly fight against his archenemy in this world. But for now, he started to wrap everything he gained, before taking out the core he gained from that bear.

    "A pinnacle grade monster core¡­ I''m curious how many spirit points it''ll give me¡­" he looked at it in greed and anticipation, before starting to drop his blood on it and started devouring it.

    The core was indeed filled with a scary amount of spirit power, not to mention it was a very high-grade spirit power in this world. So the moment he started absorbing it, he felt immense pain assaulting his body.

    He felt like he ingestedva instead of spirit power. And yet he never thought about stopping what he was doing. He persisted and endured, and yet this processsted for the entire three days!

    The more hested, the more he felt like something was getting better inside his body. He couldn''t tell what exactly it was, didn''t know that by what he was doing, he was elerating the merge between the three spirits of his.

    "Middle stage dark gold spirit master¡­ I''m now strong enough to fight those at a high level easily, and can keep my life against many pinnacle grade masters¡­"

    He tested his spirit power after finishing devouring the monster''s core. As he expected, he got enough to cross the middle stage threshold. And now his power was two thousand points extra than that threshold.

    He expected to get over that line by a few hundred spirit power points, but he got much more than he expected. "Now¡­ It''s time to call everyone and go towards the Scorching Lands city," he decided to leave at once and start his training schedule with everyone else.

    From now onward, he knew it would be only limited to training to gain more spirit points. Yet when he spread his spirit sense around, he saw how everyone was enjoying their time, getting treated as heroes in the entire city.

    "It''s better to let them continue enjoying such a feeling," he didn''t walk out and didn''t summon anyone. He knew the moment the training started. They''d not be able to go out and enjoy their lives for a long time.

    As he decided to wait, he went through the things he gained from the other world. He read through the scrolls he copied from there, read everything rted to the spirit world and Mystic Arts.

    The more he read, the more he gained more understanding of everything. The spirit world wasplicated, filled with conflicts between spirits, between spirits and masters.

    They seemed to William like they held vengeance toward the entire world. These were the Chaos faction. "I hope you are ok, fox spirit," he muttered, before turning towards the Mystic Arts scrolls.

    He was already a Bishop at the cult in this world, and yet he felt he gained tons of knowledge about Mystic Arts from these scrolls more than anyone here in this world knew.

    The advantage of these scrolls was that they mentioned not only the Mystic Arts used to repair the fate and destiny world but also spoke about arts that would alter and damage everything. Knowing how your enemies worked was an advantage indeed.

    "I need to start building up my own Mystic Arts team¡­" he knew how extremely valuable this was. The fate and destiny world was a turf that could control lots of things in this world, and more importantly in the outer world.

    He checked over the organs he collected before, and they were all in great condition. He already scanned all of the members he gained from the other world, in addition to the newly joined members in the two teams. He set his eyes over a few of them, who were naturally blessed with affinity and elements rted to Mystic Arts.

    However, this wasn''t enough. The number of these wasn''t more than ten people. And that wasn''t enough at all. "It''s better to teach my ck Tails team about the Mystic Arts. I have enough organs to operate in this world. As for the outer world¡­ I shall leave things until then¡­"

    He didn''t collect the scrolls of the Mystic Arts. Instead, he took out new scrolls, a brush, and an ink stone, before starting to write down the vital knowledge about Mystic Arts.

 Chapter 988 Spying On That Monster Again

    ?

    William decided to let his team study these scrolls to get to know that mysterious part of the world better. He also wrote down the way to let anyone train over Mystic Arts and also added his own perception about his experience back in that world.

    "Mentioning that world¡­ I shall go there and see what that Nightmare monster is doing," he knew he might get a bacsh, but it was worth it. Feeling terrible for a few days wasn''t an issue for him as long as he could gain intel about his enemy.

    For a long time, he tried to look for and hunt down that monster. And yet he failed. That monster was like a sneaky rat, one that was smart enough to evade all the trapsid for it.

    After finishing writing down everything, he used Mystic Arts via the organs he had, before entering into the fate and destiny world.

    He was standing on top of his fate and destiny wheel, the name he got from the scrolls about the wheel structure he was standing on top of. ording to these scrolls, all the living creatures in the world had such wheels, and affecting the wheels would affect anyone.

    Damaging the wheel was enough to cause long-term damage to anyone. And that made him consider strengthening and defending his wheel. Yet it was very hard to do so.

    Aside from those blessed with fate and destiny protection like himself and his arch enemy, it would require training over many techniques, doing lots of great things, and using tons of rare and precious materials to shield one''s wheel from damage.

    He decided to teach his team and close friends these methods to shoulder their wheels against any harm expected from his enemies. When he arrived there, he closed his eyes, thought about his enemy, and then the world changed.

    "This¡­" thest attempts to try and spy on that Nightmare monster always failed, ending up with severe bacsh from this world. William was prepared for fierce resistance from the world, and yet none of this happened.

    For the first time ever, a wheel appeared clearly in front of his eyes. It got attached to his wheel. It was slowly rotating, and the moment it got attached to his wheel, he felt like he could see tons of things about this monster.

    He saw the monster when it was just a baby, growing up by stealing the remains of the big monsters'' leftovers. Be it humans or monsters, he consumed tons of these and ended up growing in both strength and size.

    The more it grew stronger, it became more ferocious and deadly. It kept living in the deep parts of the forest until one day something big happened and it had to leave.

    William knew from a long time ago about this incident and guessed that something bad must have happened back then to force lots of scary monsters to leave. Yet he never got to know the reason until today.

    "After five years¡­ I can finally get why all these monsters fled¡­ So it was the ascension of one monster to the outer world¡­" William saw clearly a huge bull-shaped monster passing thest step, opened a portal, and got selected by one of the dark masters in the outer world, before leaving.

    He could tell it was a dark master as that master came down onto this world. He looked massive, grand in shape and power. And with his presence, everything living in the entire area was left with fear and worry.

    "These monsters and dark masters¡­ They help each other out and have a stable way to go out from here, not like any normal master¡­" he sighed when he saw these scenes before he finally saw the parts rted to himself.

    He saw how this monster ran for days and weeks, ending up finally at a ce where many other monsters gathered, seemingly interested in the few humans inside.

    He saw how this monster paused in its tracks and roared. William knew it was the moment when that monster sniffed the fox spirit inside him, and decided to chase and kill that human to evolve.

    Everything then happened as William knew. A chase happened, ending up with William running away. He saw how this monster got unlucky to be chased by a scary master, ending up running far from him, unable to follow and kill his prey.

    Then he saw how this monster gathered up all the remnants of the dark masters, led them towards the Blue Hills, and there it started to mutate and change into a human form.

    It was severely wounded from the fight with the formidable master, ending up choosing to turn into a human.

    If it didn''t take such a step, it''d have died instead. William watched him build that dark academy, and rebuild the entire Blue Hills zone to end up with the deadly trap he faced and crushed before.

    Then he watched it leave for the capital. And there things started to go south for it. It met up with more formidable dark masters and forces, and tried to find a way there for itself but ended up failing.

    "The dark masters hated that Mutant and it didn''t know the main reason behind this was the presence of another predator leading these forces, hahahaha!" Williamughed at the bad luck that monster had. He watched how it tried to stop the ns regarding taking down the capital, ending up suffering another round of severe wounds and deadly injuries.

    It had to retreat and went far away from the capital and the kingdom. As William saw, it kept running towards the west, until it couldn''t stand it anymore, went inside a cave, and copsed.

    Then the scenes got fixed in that cave. "It''s in hibernation¡­ That exins why the fate and destiny world didn''t stop me¡­ That monster¡­ It''s dying!"

    William was surprised about that, and felt tons of happiness before he recalled the advice he heard from the fox statue.

 Chapter 989 Gathering Up His Friends

    ?

    "Damn! Don''t tell me I''m going to save the enemy I wanted to kill!!"

    He couldn''t believe he was thinking about doing it. Yet the more he thought about leaving that monster to rot in that cave, the more he recalled that advice back then.

    He couldn''t make a decision right now, so he exited the fate and destiny world, and returned to the building in his guild branch, before thinking deeply about this.

    It was indeed a tough decision to make. He hated nothing more than that fox monster and anything rted to it. The Nightmare monster kept harassing and causing him trouble, wanting to see him dead as he wanted the same for it.

    Trying to find that monster and save its life was something that made William feel disgusted. And yet the words of that mysterious person from the outer world, the old advice he left for him for hundreds of years, still rang in his mind like sirens.

    He felt like he''d miss a great thing by letting that monster die. After going through this for two days, he decided to find it first and think about a way to control this monster.

    "I won''t save it without being one hundred percent confident in my ability to control it¡­ If it tries anything funny, then its life must be in my hands to control, or else I will end up dead in its hands¡­"

    William knew of many ways to seal monsters and even humans, but none of these were safe proof. They were just arrays, ones that could turn any ce into a prison.

    This might look good and all, but it wouldn''t give him what he wanted. He wanted to have total control over that monster, control its life if it ever dared to betray him, and he was sure it was going to do so at any given opportunity.

    It was indeed a dilemma, but William decided to first look for that monster''s location. All he could tell was that it ran towards the west, ran for an entire week or something, before finally copsing.

    He couldn''t tell where exactly it ended up, but he saw lots of mountains and rough terrain at the ce the monster fell. He knew if he followed that direction on the map, he''d find a few spots where the monster could be at.

    He checked the map he had, and his doubts got confirmed. "All of these ces are in other kingdoms¡­" he still didn''t expand his guild to other ces despite gaining approval from many to give himnds in many kingdoms, "I have to start building branches there first, then search for that monster¡­"

    Thest thing he wanted would be for other masters to go excited and check the ces he showed interest at. Finding a strong monster on the brink of death would have a certain ending. And so he had to y it nicely.

    As he decided, he summoned his friends. They got enough time to rest and celebrate, and enjoy the special treatment everyone here was giving them.

    "So¡­ You want us to select capable individuals from the ck and Golden Tails teams, send them over to various kingdoms here in this continent and at the other one, and establish branches there?! You are indeed quite impatient!"

    Anjie was the first to speak up. And William simply shrugged, "We have to act fast when the iron is hot. We have the fame and glory anyone would dream about. So why shall we wait? We have to act fast, establish branches there, and gather more masters to our cause."

    "Still¡­" Sara paused, and looked at everyone before adding, "All of us want to train under you."

    "Who said whoever is going there will miss my training?" William blinked before adding, "They''ll be gone for a couple of months only, establish the branches there, make things go on the right track, before returning here again. Like that, they will join us and continue training."

    "And who is going to lead these branches?" Berry asked, and many nodded in agreement on her point.

    "By then, many masters will join us," William rolled his eyes, "don''t think too much about these branches. They are just extra outlets for us to gain more resources and masters. As for the most important tasks, the guild branches in this city and the Scorching Lands city will be the main force to do these."

    "You don''t expect those kings to stand by and watch us expand nicely," John looked at Anjie as if he was fearing his words might have insulted her, "they''ll send many of their own gang to join our branches there¡­"

    "They won''t make any problems at all," William interrupted him, "we don''t aim to interfere in anything, won''t even try to join any power faction in any kingdom we join. Our main and sole goal is to help masters crush more dark masters and monsters, that''s all. Such a goal is universally agreed by all masters no matter when or where they lived, right?"

    "..." They thought he was taking this matter quite lightly, and they were right about that. He didn''t think too highly of these branches, and didn''t even care if he ended up losing a few of them in the end.

    His sole purpose in doing this was to look for talents, and that was the main point he focused on. He asked them to send masters able to do the test, very experienced in reading and interpreting it. And if they found anyone interesting, they''ll send him here for William to test.

    Out of one thousand masters would be sent here, he''d expect a hundred good talents and up to ten rare gems would be found. And he was very satisfied with such results.

    "Now, it''s time for me to speak with you about a few things¡­" William looked at his small gang, his inner circle, and his close friends. He knew all for many years, except for the recently joined Karoline and Lara.

 Chapter 990 You Got The Fox You Dreamt Of In The End!

    ?

    All of them lived through tons of stuff with him, experiencing ups and downs for many years.

    "I''m going to tell you about something, something not known by masters in this world¡­" William already fortified the building and the hall hosting this meeting with tons of sealing arrays and formations. If any master wanted to spy on what he was going to say, he had to exert tons of time and effort to do so, and he''d eventually fail.

    Even those pinnacle masters would fail without doubt. William started to tell them about the Mystic Arts side of this world, about impacts, about the fate and destiny world. He kept speaking for hours, taking out lots of scrolls, the ones he prepared beforehand for them to read and learn from.

    He spread these over them, let them stay inside, and started studying this. They spent two days doing so while feeling amazed and doubtful at first, turning to be more awed towards this mysterious side of the world.

    "Never thought there was something like that existed in the world," Thomas sighed, shaking his head as if he was regretting knowing about such a mysterious world.

    He was the expert when it came to such mysterious things. His karma element was like a godsent ability he had, and hearing about the presence of something simr and even much better than his ability made him quite jealous.

    William looked at him for a long moment before shifting his gaze away. "You have to suck it, my friend," he thought to himself, before receiving tons of questions from his friends, ending up everything with taking out lots of organs.

    "Let''s start learning about this world by doing the first Mystic Art as I taught you," William said, taking the initiative to ry the organs around in a fixed pattern, before everyone followed his steps, once we get to that mysterious foggy world, don''t panic, and try to feel everything out there."

    He didn''t know if they''d appear with him or not, so he also added this note and told them to not feel worried if they appeared there alone.

    But when they all did what he said, they all appeared together at the same ce.

    "Amazing!"

    "Is this the fate and destiny world?"

    "It looks strange¡­ Where is thend?"

    Many of his friends looked like kids getting out of the house alone for the first time in their lives. They all looked at everything around them, tried to move, and see whaty behind the thick curtain of fog.

    William left them to test and y before he gathered them again. "You won''t find anything without thinking about something or someone¡­"

    "Let''s think about you then, hahahaha!" Ro said in a suggestion, more looking like she was cracking a joke or something. But William''s serious reaction made them know something was wrong.

    "Don''t ever try to spy on my fate and destiny!"

    "Boss, we already know everything about you¡­"

    "It''s not that," William interrupted Lang, "my fate and destiny is heavily secured by this world. If anyone tries to spy on me, he''ll suffer a deadly bacsh. So never try to do it, no matter what got it?"

    William was strict and clear about this point. And the ones who apanied him when he first visited Lara''s city and experienced what happened to that old man knew what he was speaking about.

    As he warned them, they took this note to heart. "Let''s start with this¡­ Select someone and think about seeing through his fate and destiny. If you feel something is opposing you, stop immediately and don''t be stubborn. Bacshes here are really dangerous, can''t be healed by any potion or elixir even¡­"

    He already mentioned this before, but he preferred to stress over this point again as it was very important.

    "I''ll spy on Sloth," Anjie said in an evil tone and smile, making many agree to do so.

    "Let''s spy on him then¡­" Williamughed, and agreed with her selection. The moment he thought about that person, his wheel appeared, like many others.

    "This¡­"

    "What''s this wheel?!!"

    "Is this normal?"

    Williamughed at their astonished expression. He didn''t tell them about this part, as he expected their faces to be pretty amusing.

    "It''s all normal¡­" he started to exin everything afterughing for a bit longer. As he exined things, everyone knew there was no reason to worry, and followed his steps to summon Sloth''s wheel.

    Sloth was slightly supported by fate and destiny, but he didn''t have the same protection as William and his sworn enemies. As Sloth''s wheel was summoned, it got attached to everyone''s wheels.

    William thought the wheel was going to expandrger to amodate everyone, but didn''t imagine that the wheel would break into many levels, while each got attached to a few wheels.

    And then they all saw pieces and bits of Sloth''s past, present, and future. ording to what any of them thought, each saw different parts rted to Sloth.

    "That old man¡­ He was the person to sell me out to my father back then!!!" Just as William was inspecting everyone, expecting them to ask questions or say things about what they should and such, Anjie suddenly shouted and eximed in anger, attracting everyone''s attention towards her.

    "What did you try to see exactly, naughty girl?" William rubbed her head, but he couldn''t touch anything as he and the others were in a special foggy form, not with their real bodies here.

    "Cough! Cough! I choke, does anyone have water with him or something?" she tried to evade answering the question, yet making everyoneugh at her futile attempt.

    Trying to not answer William? That was something that wasn''t going to happen!

    As everyone expected, William kept pestering her until she finally spilled all the beans. "Fine! I wanted to see something that happened when I was seven years old! Back then I went out and didn''t attend the daily training sses, I went to see the nearby forest and monsters there..."

 Chapter 991 A Suspicious Person! Lets Spy On His Fate And Destiny!

    ?

    "... I was curious about why we have to kill them, and not try to tame these monsters and take one as a pet. I wanted a fox, with such nice and smooth fur, to be my pet¡­"

    "You wanted a fox? Hahahaha! Your dreams came true, and you ended up with a fox in the end, hahahaha!" Peter couldn''t control himself when he heard her words, and pointed at William while others got what he meant.

    And when they did, a chorus ofughter appeared and spread among everyone else.

    "Not funny, not funny at all," William looked at all of them while feeling annoyed by their mocking attitude. Yet they keptughing even when heined about it.

    "I did indeed get the fox I wanted,e here little fox, let me y with you a little bit, hahahaha!" even Anjie chimed in and yed along,ughing with them at William. As for thetter, he couldn''t help but shake his head, feeling how hopeless this situation was.

    He left them enjoying teasing him while he remained silent. He was happy they were dealing with all this in such amusement and didn''t try to ruin the mood at all.

    After half an hour of saying things like this, they started to test more until one of them touched someone he shouldn''t.

    "It''s protected by fate and destiny in the world¡­" It was Lara, and she tried to spy on one of the faction''s leaders in her city, "I never expected him to get so heavily protected. I never liked that man¡­ Damn!"

    "Tell me more about him," William got instantly interested in such a person. When he learnt there was someone protected by fate and destiny, he tested it after getting a detailed description of that man.

    And when he felt the fierce resistance there, he knew this master wasn''t simple nor normal.

    "He came after the first batch that joined our city, you recall that time, right?" she paused as if she was trying to organise her thoughts.

    "Back then you didn''t ept anyone offering to join the high circle, right?" William was surprised by her words. And then he learnt about what happened to that man.

    He came in, spent tons of wealth and supported the city in the rebuilding process. He supported too many masters and forces there, ending up gaining their favour, and managed to finally join the elite higher circle of the city.

    "Wealth indeed can do miracles," William sighed when he heard all this, "you do suspect him for getting into that circle using such methods?"

    "I met him after we returned, and I didn''t like him. He gave me a bad feeling, and so I wanted to see if I could get to the bottom of his¡­"

    "I understand now¡­" William also got curious about the identity of that person. As he looked, he was someone who was quite meticulous, knew what he was doing, and had some sort of backing.

    ording to Lara, this person spent enough wealth to rebuild the entire city twice! He bribed a lot of masters and gave a huge amount of riches to many forces and big masters in the city.

    He wasn''t simple, and William could tell that. He didn''t ce much focus on Lara''s city, except for her underground portal that he had a total interest in.

    "If he is aiming to secure that portal for himself or the power supporting him or what?" he couldn''t tell, but he ced a red g over this person like Lara.

    "How can we know the truth then?" Sara knew from William''s words and silence that he nned to dig deeper into this.

    "I learnt of a way to do so," William recalled how the headquarter Bishops used a formation to see through his fate and destiny without suffering much of a bacsh, "it''s not that safe, but if we did it for a little time, we are going to end up fine."

    He knew back then hested for too long to see through the life story of the Nightmare monster. This time he nned to do it on shots, in short intervals and such.

    "Let''s go back," he was eager to expose that person''s identity. And as he and everyone got out, he started to tell them what to do.

    It was his luck back then to witness everything right from the start. He remembered everything they did, and let everyone do the same as those Bishops did.

    "We have fewer numbers than them, but hopefully that dude won''t be a hard rock to crack," he knew he was just using much less than the actual number these Bishops used.

    As he started to lead everyone back to the fate and destiny world, he let Lara be the leader of all this. "Remember, don''t let yourself get drifted in the middle of his fate and destiny. Stay there for one minute, then end it up¡­"

    "I know, I know, I''m the leader in this process," Lara nodded, before adding, "let me test it then."

    "Remember¡­"

    "I know!" she sighed, as William stressed on this point for dizzilion times already. And he got a point in that. Back then, he got totally immersed in watching the Nightmare''s history, present, and such. So he knew how it felt to be met with an interesting tale yed in front of one''s eyes.

    "Let''s start," William turned to Lara and was about to remind her again when she raised a palm in his face.

    "Let''s just do it," she felt already annoyed by his overprotective actions this time. As all were ready, she calmed down and thought about that person.

    This time the fierce resistance vanished! She and others felt nothing much but how the wind would blow on one''s face on spring days.

    As the start was good, she progressed and recalled that man''s face, and name, and even recalled the little interactions she had with him.

    She did that, and a new wheel appeared while everyone''s wheels appeared.

 Chapter 992 Laras Little Trick

    ?

    Back then, William was in the middle of all this and didn''t have time to check anything around.

    But now he was seeing what others experienced when he went through all this. The wheels of everyone didn''t just appear, but they got locked with each other, locked with Lara''s at the centre, and that made everyone able to see and hear everything she''d experienced.

    "That''s how they managed to see everything back then," he sighed, knowing that by this method, he could spy on anything Lara would see.

    Lara then started to see the image of that person. He looked like a normal middle-aged man, without anything remarkable or unique about him. If not for what Lara said, William would mistake him for not even being a spirit master.

    The images showed that man while walking in the middle of nowhere, then the scenes shed, and changed to show something like a big hall, with dimly lit lights, before he''d started to kneel.

    "He is kneeling for something¡­ Or someone¡­ But why?" William didn''t get it, and the images didn''t show anything of that figure he was kneeling towards. And then he suddenly prostrated one arm forward, his left arm, before the pressure suddenly intensified.

    "Take us out! Now!" William shouted, and as he guessed, Lara lost herself in seeing the images. She felt the same as him back then, felt like she was close to the truth, and all she needed was tost for a little bit longer.

    Unlike him, she got jolted awake by his shout. And then she cancelled the formation used, but it was a littlete for that.

    "Cough! Cough!" as they got back to the real world, all of them without exception fell to the ground, vomiting blood. It was a bizarre scene, and soon enough William got the strength to stand up.

    "That man isn''t the problem, but the thing or the person he was kneeling towards is," he wiped the trace of blood off the corner of his mouth, and looked at the ashen white faces of his friends, before sighing.

    "These Bishops¡­ They are indeed quite special and strong¡­" he now realised he was well protected back then by the Bishops'' strength. And he also knew how badly hurt they were, "I have to repay their effort one day."

    He never thought highly of what they did back then. But now he knew they endured for too long, and suffered lots of damage.

    "What was that?" Sara slowly stood up next, followed by everyone else. They all looked feeble, like mes about to get extinguished by the wind at any moment.

    "I frankly have no clue," William paused, "but the protection that man gained came originally from that mysterious figure. I believe there are more secrets hidden behind him¡­ Lara, he is indeed dangerous."

    "I know what to do," she paused, trying to stand but ended up getting swayed. If not for William to move fast and support her, she''d have fallen.

    "Hey, hey, stop these silly games¡­ This fox is mine!" Anjie roared from the side, while not being able to stand erect on her own without supporting something.

    "I''m hurt, like you, can''t you see that?" Even if Lara said that, she still leant over William''s broad chest, felt its warmth, and that made her heart pump more vigorously.

    "I''m going to teach you a lesson,ter on," Anjie promised, and as Lara was technically hugging William, she tugged her head aside, and extended her tongue to tease Lara.

    "Enough, don''t you know I can use spirit sense here?" William was a bit speechless by what Lara did, but couldn''t help but intervene before a bloodbath would erupt between the two girls, "we need to rest, all of us. These injuries won''t heal by anything else but rest and time."

    He turned his head around, before adding, "Let''s rest here. As for you¡­" he looked down at the allfortable and rxed Lara, "didn''t you say you have something to do?"

    "I''m weak," Lara suddenly spoke in a low tone, as if she was whispering or something, "Can you¡­ Carry me please?"

    "B*tch!" Anjie wasn''t the only one enraged by Lara''s daring actions, but other girls remained silent, watched and enjoyed the show.

    "What? I''m your princess after all," Lara said as if her words carried tons of logic and righteousness, "I came second, don''t you remember?"

    "There was just one winner, don''t you remember?" Anjie couldn''t believe what Lara was saying, or how she could argue about such a known matter. And yet she missed the whole point in the middle of her rage¡­ Lara was trying to buy more time, to remain in William''s embrace.

    Yet thetter put an end to all this, slowly carrying Lara''s body under the shocked eyes of all the girls and even the rest of his friends. And when everyone thought about something lewd, he simply ced her on a seat, before walking away.

    "Rest here as long as you want," he said, not only to the stupefied Lara but to everyone else, "contact the leaders of the city, warn them about this man. This man must be held captive and interrogated, so¡­ Keep it secret."

    "..." Lara was still unable to fathom what William did. She thought she sessfully tempted and lured him, ending up with her having a nice time privately, only the two of them in a locked room or something.

    But William resisted her charm, and that granted her a tugged-out tongue from Anjie before thetter climbed up and swayed to the ground.

    "Stop ying around," William hurried to support Anjie, and this time thetter threw her body literally over him, forcing him to carry her.

    "I''m weak," she imitated Lara, making everyone look towards thetter, waiting for her response.

    And yet Lara knew she lost this attempt, however, she didn''t lose the war over William.

    The males could already sniff gunpowder and blood floating in the air, while the other girls eyed the two of them with anticipation.

 Chapter 993 The Weird Monster Tide

    They wanted the two to quarrel, drive William bored and tired of all this, flip the coin, and then the stage would be freed for them.

    William didn''t think about that right now. He made sure that everyone would stay in separate ces. Be it a room, a hall, or even a small corridor, he checked that everyone was resting, and he also did the same.

    The bacsh was indeed quite severe, the first of its kind for William to suffer. He thought a few days would heal everything, but even after a week, he and others still didn''t feel the same.

    Lara already spread the news back to the leaders of the city, and William had to meet with them, and endure how they spoke greatly about that man. He ended up telling them one thing:

    "If I have any credibility to you, after all, I did here and at other ces, then trust me¡­ This man isn''t what he ims to be, he is an enemy. And you have to extricate toxic weed to secure your future."

    His words indeed carried heavy weight over their spirits. They trusted him and knew he didn''t mean anything bad.

    Yet that man seemed to have lots of supporters, people he bribed and kept friendship ties with for a long time already. So it was also hard for them to see that man as a traitor.

    After discussing it for long hours, debating among themselves while William watched from the side without taking part in any of that, they decided to capture and interrogate him first, to see if he was indeed a friend or a foe.

    But when they went to his home, they were all shocked to not find anything there. It wasn''t just him, but his entire home vanished like it never existed before!

    Hearing such news made William more confused, not until he heard more about the grave losses the city suffered.

    Everything that man did, built, donated, or gifted to any of them vanished in thin air like it was never there in the first ce.

    "No way¡­ Reality Bender?!!!" William''s mind jolted with a crazy thought, and couldn''t help but mutter in a loud tone.

    "What is that? Do you know anything about him? Any clue?" Lara was sitting opposite to him, watching in burning gazes how Anjie leaned over William''s chest, sitting on hisp, while caressing his chin and face with her fingers.

    Lara knew Anjie did all this on purpose when she was around William. And yet she couldn''t help but get more frustrated, wanting her over William at any given time.

    "I can''t tell for sure, but such weird stuff once happened¡­ Back in the world''s long history," William was about to speak about that incident in the outer world, but got over it quite fast. He already heard about such an incident and read a few details about one of the old ruins he once discovered in the outer world.

    There was a great kingdom back there, one that wasn''t any weaker than the big kingdoms here in this worldpared to other forces back at its time. And yet, that kingdom''s capital suddenly vanished in one night!

    Legends spoke about a man, a special and unique master, who built the entire capital after a great war hit it. This man was famed for being quite wealthy and generous, yet one night, he tried to attempt a coup but ended up failing.

    People at that time said he vanished in thin air, and then everything he built, gave, or gifted vanished alongside him. Buildings vanished in a blink of an eye, alongside lots of items, weapons, defensive structures, and even treasures.

    Everything vanished without a single trace, and weirdly enough there was an army of monsters waiting at the city''s gates location. The monsters ran a bloody massacre against the unprepared and puzzled masters, ending up killing most, ruining the capital over one night.

    And like this, a mighty kingdom vanished from the outer world, one that couldst for tens of thousands of years without doubts.

    William didn''t totally believe in what he read back then, and yet the name of that person''s weird ability was in his mind till now.

    "This master can alter reality, create things out of the blue¡­ It''s not just simply an illusion, but it''s like his thoughts can turn into reality. He can bend reality using things he donated to anyone. Be it wealth, weapons, items¡­ Anything he gave to anyone and got used to building or produce anything would vanish alongside him¡­ Quite a scary foe indeed¡­"

    William didn''t know if that man was like the one who took that ancient kingdom down or not. But to be safe, he decided to take this as a serious possibility, one that carried lots of high odds.

    Yet even if he held doubts about the powers of that man, he didn''t have any clue to help in finding him. ording to the scrolls he read back then, that man who brought the destruction of the entire capital in one night vanished and never appeared again.

    There were lots of attempts to capture or find him, even posters were drawn and yet he wasn''t found. William didn''t know what to do except warn the city leaders about the threat that might befall them.

    "Monsters?!!! Are you sure?!!!" Lara wasn''t the only one shocked when she heard that, but all of his friends as well.

    "Just deliver the warning," William''s face told everyone he was quite serious, not joking about it, "it''s better to be safe rather than sorry."

    As Lara delivered the news back to the city leaders, they also got shocked by it. Yet after what the city experienced, they all started to take such warnings seriously.

    On the third night, a brutal wave of monster tide appeared. They came out of nowhere, and yet the city was quite prepared for it. The fightsted for an entire week, and William prohibited any to move toward that fight and ordered them to stay inside.

 Chapter 994 The Hunch!

    William wanted nothing more but to go out there and see how these monsters appeared. But he trusted the strong masters to do such a task for him. All he did was spread out his spirit sense and try to watch everything happening outside like everyone else.

    It was indeed weird, having such a big fight happening nearby and they didn''t take part in it. This was by far the first time William didn''t throw himself in the middle of a hectic battle, didn''t even consider going there and joining the fight.

    Even when the city''s masters were ready for the iing monster assault, it still proved to be hard to stop the herds of monstersing towards them. Luckily the damage that man did wasn''t that severe, didn''t touch the key defences nor the grand structure of the city.

    Walls, towers, and even trenches, and traps were all intact. That helped the masters to reduce their losses, slowly grinding the monsters with the passage of days.

    Gradually the number of monstersing started to decline before it suddenly vanished on day seven. No one knew where they came from, or why they suddenly stoppeding like this.

    It wasn''t the normal situation of the monster tide in the world. Monsters woulde inrge numbers, but when they''d know the battle would be a loss, they''d turn around and run.

    Masters were prepared for the expected and usual chase for many days in the woods, but none of this happened. With the fall of thest monster, the entire world returned to look quite peaceful again.

    "They are asking for advice about this weird situation," Lara said while looking at William as if she was looking at a fortune teller.

    She and others knew how William was different from any other master they met, and yet that was just limited to his vast and unique knowledge, his weird way of doing things, and his hard to understand decisions on many asions.

    But this time, it felt like William was able to read the future. He warned the city masters about that man, then warned them about the illogical monster tide.

    One had to know that this city and the entire region around it was void of any monsters. It was considered a safe haven, and just thinking about meeting a single monster anywhere around was mere fantasy.

    As for speaking about the monster tideing here, people would call anyone iming that to go crazy or something.

    Everyone here used their enhanced spirit sense after passing through the dark gold threshold and witnessing part of the ongoing battle. They also saw how monsters kepting until the veryst one of them fell. And then there were no more monsters to hunt.

    If not for the densely packed dead bodies of monsters, stretching out for tens of kilometres around the city walls, then no one would believe such a thing actually happened.

    "Let them send many teams out," William paused, trying to recall anything he might have missed from the scrolls he read a long time ago, "let them look for the source of these monsters. It''s not normal for such a grand number of monsters to appear here."

    "It''s normal for monsters to appear here in the first ce," Sara sighed, while everyone nodded in agreement, "now what shall we do? We already got over that terrible bacsh¡­ Are we going back to the Scorching Lands city?"

    "No," unlike what everyone expected, William shook his head, "We are going to keep spying on that man."

    "What?!!" Even Lara, who was in the middle of rying his past advice over to the city leaders, couldn''t help but freeze in ce, "Do it again?!!!"

    "We need to," William shrugged, "this man is quite dangerous. We need to at least figure out where he is hiding, capture and interrogate him to know who stands behind in the shadows."

    His words made sense, but he didn''t expose everything. The reason behind his weird decision was actually his hunch. He got such a feeling, one that told him that man was now severely wounded, a perfect target to spy on.

    He didn''t know why he felt that, or what made him jump to such a conclusion, but he was sure he''d miss it big if he didn''t do that. He was curious to know everything about that man, and so he made up his mind and decided to take the risk.

    As he intended to do it, everyone else didn''t have any say in this but to y along. William then left Lara to ry more of his words about what to do, and most of what he said wasn''t actually needed.

    The city was filled with tons of masters, with a shitload of experienced and veteran ones. They already knew if a monster outbreak happened without any proper cause or exnation, then there was a high possibility for other waves toe.

    As for repairing the damage, rebuilding the areas vacant, and even sending out teams to search for the truth, all of these were already decided by them.

    William took more organs, and spread them around over his friends. They stood in their designated ces, before entering the fate and destiny world again.

    This time they weren''t happy or excited about the world. In fact, they all felt gloomy. The bacsh they all suffered was a horrible experience, and the worst thing was that it didn''t heal by anything else except time.

    "Let''s do it," As they arrived there, William was eager to see if his hunch was correct or not. And if he was right about this, he was curious to know the reason.

    The man vanished without a trace and didn''t even face a single master. William never felt like this until the monster outbreak got crushed and ended. Before that, he never had such a feeling at all.

    "Are you sure?" Lara was hesitant, like everyone else, "It''s not toote to retreat¡­"

 Chapter 995 The Almighty God!

    ?

    "What possibly could go wrong? Huh? That bacsh didn''t kill us, and all we''d suffer will be just the same bacsh. Don''t tell me you hated those ten days of vacation and rest."

    "Being in the same ce for ten days without being able to go out isn''t nice," Roined, feeling like this wasn''t as fun as William tried to present it.

    "Not to mention in that monster tide, I felt terrible not being there and fighting," Lagn sighed, speaking the mind of most of his friends here.

    "Just ept such little loss for a greater gain," William''s tone didn''t change, and was still filled with unexined excitement to everyone, "Without risk, how do you expect to gain big? Let''s go, we need to see if we can spy on that man or not¡­"

    "Fine," Lara sucked in a deep breath, "but I''m telling you, this time at the first sign of that fierce resistance, I''ll cancel everything."

    "Fair enough," William shrugged, feeling somehow that such a thing wouldn''t happen.

    Lara thought about that man, and waited¡­ She waited for the insane pressure tond, as everyone else, except for William.

    And this time, it happened as William predicted. Nothing came to stop her, no pressure, no resistance, nothing at all!

    She saw the previous scene she witnessed before, and this time the scenes progressed. It showed the man kneeling a few more times, on seemingly different asions. In all, the man kept his silence, before he finally spoke up.

    "Dear Chaos God, the almighty over any other, I''m here to answer your long hunger, presenting a chance to take down one more thriving ce, with tons of foolish humans, aesthetics to your excellency and almighty. I''m here to gain permission to do it¡­"

    He kept speaking nonsense for a few minutes, while everyone felt this man was indeed crazy. Yet William thought differently about that.

    The word Chaos rang lots of rming bells in his mind. He already read about this in the other world. It wasn''t a god, and he knew this was just a mere spirit, ying the role of a god.

    The man didn''t mention any detail about the ce he was speaking about, not anything about his ns. Yet everyone got what he nned to do.

    The thriving ce filled with foolish humans, those who were in love of peace and harmony, was indeed Lara''s city. As for what he intended to do, they already witnessed it. And William knew even more than what they learnt.

    Then the scenes shifted, showing this man arriving at Lara''s cities. They watched a mixture of scenes that showed lots of things, ending up with this man''s uprising in position and power.

    But that wasn''t all! The scenes showed also part of his doings, how he did what he did to the city.

    "Interesting¡­ He is indeed a reality bender¡­" William thought to himself when he saw the first scene showing this man''s use of power.

    The first scene William and others saw was for the man to stand motionless for an entire minute in the middle of the room. He wasn''t doing anything, on the surface, but there was a copious and weird-looking scarlet red foging out from his body. It was so red that many even thought it was looking closer to ck than red.

    The fog spread covered everything in the room and filled the entire space inside. Then he opened his eyes, and two irises appeared there, two were scarlet red, the same colour degree as the fog he emanated.

    His eyes shed like they releasedsers or something, and the fog started to shrink, swirl, and condense. Tons of things appeared, be it wealth, weapons, gears, and even treasures. Lots of stuff appeared, and Lara was the only one able to recognise a few of them.

    "They are the gifts he gave to many city leaders, to curry and buy their favour¡­" she muttered in disbelief, not knowing how that man formed all this out of thin fog.

    Such weird scenes kept ying and repeated often in front of their eyes. They forgot everything about their worry and fear of fate and destiny''s bacsh and got totally immersed in watching what was going on.

    Even William lost himself while watching, analysing, thinking, and trying to pick anything that could be useful in identifying this man''s weaknesses and points of strength.

    This was indeed quite dangerous. If anything happened, there wasn''t a single awakened person among them. If a bacsh hit, then they''d eventually lose their lives.

    Luckily that fearsome bacsh didn''t happen. The scenes progressed fast, reaching the moment when that man seemed to hear about what Lara said to other city leaders.

    "Damn! Never thought that few of the city leaders actually went to warn him! And that meeting with William meant to dy things, give time to that man to escape!!!" Lara and others got shocked by that, as the scene which just yed right now, showed a meeting between this man and five other faction leaders in the city.

    They warned him of what wasing to him, then promised to buy him some time to escape. They also promised to make trouble for William and Lara, the two instigators who started all this in their eyes.

    After things would settle down, they promised to tell him through Message Papers toe back. Yet the man didn''t agree to using Message Papers, and gave the five of them a weird-looking crystal, and asked them to crush them if the time was ripe.

    He mentioned something about opening a portal to the ce where he was. And then the five left to join others in meeting William, while the man took a simr crystal out.

    He crashed it on the ground while muttering something about it was too early to do this. Then the same kind of red fog appeared again, one that started out of him, from the world around, and started to get inside that crystal.

 Chapter 996 The Dangerous Man!

    ?

    The crystal was looking silver in colour at first before it turned slightly red. The red colour intensified with time, but it stopped just when the redness became slightly like blood mixed with water, faint and wasn''t like the fog the man released before.

    A portal did open, and the man vanished through it. And yet the red fog he released still lingered in the air. Before he''d left, he mentioned something about the iing disaster to hit the city, and he spoke in a weird way about the five crystals he gave to these foolish city leaders, hoping they wouldn''t use these fast to give more time for his scheme to finish.

    Then he appeared in a vacant space, one that looked like an opened turf or something. It was filled with nothing, looking quite barren, without nts or vegetation, without any sign of life.

    That ce didn''t have a single unique feature to it, and no one could tell where it was. Yet William wasn''t distressed or worried, not even frustrated by this. He knew there was a way to go there and find that mtherfcker, and then he''d interrogate and torture him to know everything about that proimed god.

    And yet the scenes didn''t show why this man got hurt, or why everyone was able to see through what this man was doing without getting the same bacsh as before.

    When William got puzzled by this, he suddenly saw something that answered everything. The next few scenes showed the man resting, enjoying his time, without a single speck of worry over his face.

    Yet all of sudden, and at thest scene, he looked quite distressed, as if something went wrong or a disaster just befell him. William could tell from the features of that man that something huge went bad. And he could already guess what it was.

    "It''s the monster tide that he lost already¡­" William got to that point without the need to watch anymore. But then, things started to be far more interesting.

    In the middle of that man''s panic, a copious amount of red fog appeared. This time it didn''te from his body but fell over him like a tornado that appeared out of nowhere.

    Things looked quite dangerous for that man. And yet William was quite sure he wasn''t going to end dead.

    "God! Almighty god! Please, please show mercy on your loyal servant!" The man was quite scared, not faking it. It was as if he was looking at the deathing at him, as if he was facing something he couldn''t deal with, or even escape from.

    The man screamed, pleading for mercy, and yet the red fog kept assaulting him. Soon enough his voice went coarse, and his pleads turned into violent and blood-curdling screams.

    Everyone thought the man was done for, and yet that didn''t happen. In less than two minutes, the man finally got out of that red fog, while the fog turned, showing a weird bright red star, just tens of metres above the ground.

    William''s body froze the moment he saw this star. For a reason, he felt like he saw it before, saw it when he met the fox spirit for thest time.

    "I don''t tolerate failure! Do everything in your power and take that ce down!" a very fierce and loud tone came from that star, without showing any mouth, no eyes, nothing at all that could resemble faces known to humans. But William felt this star was just a fake front, a facade appearance of that spirit.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    He was now sure this wasn''t a god, but a mere spirit, one which belonged to the Chaos faction. It was trying to destroy everything in the world, trying to see the entire world burn.

    "It''s working not only on this world but on other worlds as well¡­ Including the outer world¡­ Was it he who did that to the big kingdom back then? Or was it another member of its dirty faction?"

    William couldn''t tell, and he suddenly became far more curious than ever toy his hands on that man. To him, it wasn''t just a way to secure the city and others from this man''s unstoppable abilities, but also a treasure vault for the spirit world and the Chaos faction there.

    William wanted to learn more about such an enemy he never learnt of its presence except recently. And now he knew why the Mystic Art worked this time, why things went on without any bacsh.

    "It seems the Mystic Arts, the entire Fate and Destiny world are all attached to one''s health condition. If he was injured, then it''ll be the right time to do something like spying on him, without getting any bacsh."

    He was just in the middle of his thoughts when that man suddenly stood up, looking in a vicious and extremely dangerous way towards a point. Weirdly enough, it appeared as if he was looking at them as if he could see through the shackles of space, see them standing here in the fate and destiny world.

    "Scram!" The man waved an arm, and even with all the wounds he suffered, he had the strength to eject them out from the fate and destiny world.

    "What happened?"

    "What did he do?!!"

    "Are we ok? Is everyone ok?"

    The next moment, everyone returned to the real world. They fell to the ground, and they were all shocked and puzzled.

    Even William didn''t get what that man did. He couldn''t believe there was someone in this world who could see through the world of fate and destiny and even had the power to stop what they were doing.

    As everyone got into what happened, what they saw, and what they heard and learnt, William took a corner and started deeply thinking about what this man did.

    "It''s not possible for him to see through the time and destiny world without being there¡­ My best guess is that he felt someone was spying on his actions, and he released a surge of power to cut such a spying attempt. Thanks to that, we got ejected from there, without suffering any bacsh or a single wound or injury¡­"

 Chapter 997 I Have A Way

    ?

    William was close to the bottom of what happened. The man didn''t see them, only felt like someone was spying and watching. The thing is that this scene just happened at the same time as they were spying, and that allowed the man to take action.

    Yet the man didn''t do it, he borrowed the strength of the spirit backing him up and managed to sever such a connection between them and him.

    "We learnt tons of things, but ended up with nothing¡­" Lara suddenly shouted in frustration, feeling rage like no one else was here. This was her home, her city, where her friends and family lived. She didn''t like that someone was trying to damage it, didn''t like that there was a great danger looming anding towards her, and she did nothing in her power to stop it.

    She thought by doing this she''d learn tons of stuff about that man. She first didn''t believe they could bypass and evade the brutal bacsh power. And yet when nothing happened to them, her hopes skyrocketed, and started to look for anything that could exin what happened, for any method to use to protect her city.

    She knew what happened, but didn''t find any way to find that man. As she was stressed and pressured, William suddenly gave her hope, like always!

    "Who said we can''t find him?" William looked in a weird way towards her, and in return, she and everyone else looked back as if they didn''t get what he was speaking about.

    "You saw what we saw, right? The same thing I mean," Sara pointed at the air as if she was referring to the fate and destiny world, "there isn''t a single useful thing we got¡­"

    "There are those five traitors," William icily said, "they got crystals from that man, the same as the one he used to open that portal."

    "Do you mean¡­" Lara beamed with a smile, one that was filled with tons of expectation and hope.

    "That''s right, we can use these crystals and head directly toward that man''s ce¡­ However¡­ I believe there is a catch¡­"

    "What do you mean?" William would never mention anything casually. If he said there was a catch, then it must be something horrifyingly huge and bad.

    "That man¡­ You saw that weird star speaking to him, ordering him to elerate things and take down the city."

    "And?" William didn''t exin everything in one go but started to slowly tell them what they missed.

    That man got ordered to use all of his power to take the city down. The man alone was weak, but somehow he got blessed with an immense amount of power and weird ability from that spirit calling himself a god.

    William was sure the spirit was referring to the crystals he gave to the five traitors. These crystals seemed to need a long time to recharge, and that was what William got at first when he heard what the man muttered before leaving the city.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    But now he knew this wasn''t the case. They were active, but they got little power stored inside to release enough monsters out. William was now aware of the way this managed to gather such a grand number of ferocious monsters to attack the city.

    He guessed it, and his guess was right on the spot. The crystals would release that red fog, and like how they witnessed the man making up stuff, the fog could make monsters out of thin air!

    But there seemed to be some sort of a limitation to that, which was the amount of power stored within the crystals. This was a point that William didn''t get an answer to, didn''t know if the crystals were absorbing and gathering up spirit power or something else.

    If it was spirit power, then there was no point in waiting like that. The man could justy down a grand spirit power-gathering formation, and through this, he could fuel up all the crystals he wanted.

    "If it''s not spirit power, then what is it?" he kept asking himself that, feeling like he missed something in the middle of all this.

    Yet he exined what he knew to his friends, aside from the fact that god was fake, and was just a mere spirit working for the Chaos faction.

    "So¡­ You are trying to say that once we crush those crystals, monsters will appear?" Lara asked, before adding, "That''s not a problem! We crushed a single tide already, and can stop a hundred like them! Not to mention this time we are going to take part in this¡­"

    "That''s not my point," William corrected her, "I mean these crystals can bring forth tons of monsters like you said. The monster tide the city crushed came just from one crystal, and we have five. Not to mention there is a high chance that these traitors would activate the crystals, crushing them, while we are trying to capture them¡­"

    "You are fearing they''ll release the monsters inside the city directly?!!" her face dropped when she got what he truly meant. If that was the case, then things were going to end badly for the city.

    Even if they had enough masters to stop this monster invasion, even if they won, in the end, it''d be a bitter win.

    "We need to do it discreetly then," Anjie interfered. She didn''t like Lara but hated the man who was trying to bring destruction to this city.

    She knew this city was going to be the crown jewel of the kingdom. Not to mention it was close to the Scorching Lands city, close to the capital. If it fell, there was no guarantee such a scheme wouldn''t get repeated in other ces. And frankly put, she knew no one could stop such a man if he set his eyes over any city.

    "That''s given," William nodded, stressing over this point, "assemble the leaders you only trust and tell them about what we found. They need to separate these five, and move them outside the city, before attacking and getting their belongings. Make sure to do it quickly, as there is a chance that man would activate the crystals from far away."

 Chapter 998 Digging Into The Scrolls For An Answer

    ?

    "Damn! I need to move now then," she was about to move, before suddenly recalling something, "how about you? What are you going to do?"

    "Me?" William pointed at himself as if she said something weird and quite surprising, "Nothing, I''ll wait for you to bring the crystal over, and then head towards that man and kill him."

    "Alone?!!" everyone said in the same breath, "not again!" they all added in the same breath, making William unable to respond for a few seconds except by wryly smiling and scratching the back of his head.

    "I want to take you all with me, I truly do," the more he tried to sound truthful and honest, the more they didn''t buy any of what he said.

    "Then take us, I want to explore the world outside," Karoline was the first to speak before many chimed in.

    "Come on, you know me¡­ I can''t drag you all with me toward dangerous zones¡­"

    "Just confess it, you are an introvert," Sara rolled her eyes, "such an attitude of yours is really annoying. What''s dangerous out there? It''s just a single man, and he is terribly wounded as you can tell."

    "It''s not just him," William knew he always used to move solo when facing great danger out of habit, but this time hecked concrete reasons to share with them.

    All he got was simply his feeling, and he had a terrible feeling about that man, or the spirit that stood behind him.

    If not for him to have the ck fox spirit on his side, even if it didn''t show up when he got promoted, he was sure he''d end up safe. But this wasn''t guaranteed to any of them.

    "Habit or not, Is it my fault for being overly caring about you?" he sincerely said, and his honesty touched their hearts and made them look at him in silence.

    "Just go, you have a hard task to do," he waved his arm, and when they looked in doubt towards them, he borated further, "You forgot? Monsters can appear in the middle of the city! The strong masters will be focused on dealing with those five traitors. But just in case things went wrong at some point, you have to help Lara protect the city¡­"

    He paused, and then stressed over his real goal of doing all this, "most importantly, protect the underground city! These five have ess to that ce. And I have my own reasons to believe that man came here just for this."

    "My great grandfather''s city? Are you sure?" Lara went on red alert the moment she heard his words. To William, this was all benefit-based actions, and to her, it was all sentimental thanks to her family.

    "I can''t say for sure, but is there anything else that has a high value and importance to a god?" he pointed to the entity standing behind that old man. And when he did, they all got his point.

    They didn''t just get his point about giving their task to them but also got why he prohibited them from following towards that man''s ce.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    "I''ll deliver one crystal to you once we acquire any," Lara promised, "but¡­"

    "I''m not that crazy to use it here," he interrupted her, "just be quick and discrete, hopefully not a single one will be unleashed here or in any area nearby."

    "Fingers crossed," she even crossed her fingers out for luck. He watched his friends move away and then started his digging task.

    "I never thought I''ll face one of you so soon," he took out the scrolls he copied once more, digging deeper into these, trying to find a way to handle that spirit.

    He could deal with that man. ording to Lara, he was in the gold grade. Even if he was hiding his power quite well and was at dark gold grade, it wasn''t an issue for him. That Chaos faction spirit was the real problem he had to face and solve.

    He got a bad premonition if he just walked towards there and faced that spirit with what he had. Something told him spirits were different. Even if everything lived by spirit power, he felt like his techniques and weapons wouldn''t do single damage against that spirit.

    As he flipped through the scrolls, he ended up gaining more confirmation of his earlier doubts. "I read it here then, that''s why I felt it was something solid¡­" he mutters to himself, holding a few scrolls that spoke about a roughparison between masters and spirits.

    Spirits had a unique way of using spirit power, so any attackunched on them would end up getting absorbed, turned into pure power that could be absorbed. Using this, they wouldn''t get hurt, but also would heal themselves, increasing their overall power slightly.

    "That''s cheating¡­" The more he read, the more he got convinced of the uselessness of masters'' ways to fight these spirits, "much information is listed here, but why can''t I get anything about how to wound, or even kill them?!"

    He read through ten scrolls without finding what he wanted. He already went through these two times so far, and yet he didn''t get how valuable this was until he was faced with this situation.

    He read the scrolls for hours, while Lara led his friends to meet with the city leaders.

    She selected the only ones she trusted, but when she exposed the traitors, she faced disbelief and slight resistance among them.

    Those five were here since the start of the evolution stage of the city. They poured their sweat and effort, and did everything honestly and sincerely to make the city reach the stage it was in today.

    They had tons of connections with others, and many asked for proof of their involvement in this.

    "How about this then? Let''s get them away from the city and confront them with what I told you," After long hours of debating, Lara got extremely tired of this situation, "and like this, if they were honest and clean, they wouldn''t show or do anything wrong, right? But if they are guilty, and they are, then they''ll end up revealing their true colours."

 Chapter 999 Thomas Vital Role

    ?

    "..."

    Her words held logic, and with her family''s big masters, other city leaders gathered here agreed. Yet there was a catch.

    These five weren''t just part of the inner circle of the city, but leaders of the grand five factions here. They had lots of masters supporting and following their orders.

    If they started a fight against them, then the city would usher under great turmoil. At the same time, the city was established for a long time, enough for all the factions'' forces to mix together and work in different areas and do various tasks.

    They could handle five, could handle hundreds, but not tens of thousands!

    "If we left them untouched, then they''ll unleash hell over everyone," Lara was already sick of repeating her words, speaking about the same point over and over again.

    She knew the city leaders got a good point, but the risk of letting those masters alone was lethal! She and others grasped the gravity of this tough situation and knew there wasn''t an easy way out of here.

    "How about this¡­" just when everyone was gloomy, Sloth, who got invited here by Anjie, spoke up, "We can record their interrogation using recording crystals. If they get convicted, then we can distribute these as a way to calm down their forces and exin everything in great detail."

    "It may work¡­ But¡­"

    "I doubt after attacking and killing their leaders, these masters will listen to us¡­"

    "We don''t need to kill them, we can just detain them and hold them for trial," Anjie suddenly said, "back in the capital, we did that to avoid any big problems with masters holding power and have others to follow."

    "Hmm¡­ Why do I feel this task is getting harder and harder? Don''t tell me he predicted all this!" Thomas sighed, before adding, "I can also track their karma, and see if they hid these crystals anywhere. I don''t think they will carry these alongside them while walking in the city."

    "You are thed with the special ability to see karma, right?" a few city leaders didn''t meet Thomas before, but they already heard about his name.

    He was quite famous for his rare and unique spirit element.

    What Thomas suggested was something that they needed. And so they started to discuss further details about what they should do, decided to take it quite slowly and not rush things up.

    "Do you think William will ept such a dy in action?" Berry spoke up after the meeting ended. They kept talking for half a day, formting a general n first, before thoroughly speaking about tons of little details.

    They decided to do two things at the same time. First, they''d spread the news about spotting monsters at ces around the city. They''d use this as an excuse to fortify the city defences, summoning up everyone, before they''d start the next phase of the n.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They''d then announce the formation of long-distance scout teams, sending all of the high-end masters out. This might seem risky and dangerous, considering the fact that Lara''s words might be true, and these five would release endless streams of monsters toward the city.

    And yet they agreed to do it so they could distribute the forces loyal to these five leaders apart from here, apart from each other.

    Like this, they''d end up having the five leaders separated from their top and elite masters. They''d send many masters who were loyal to them, and if the five leaders'' top masters tried to cause trouble, they''d all coborate and bring them down.

    At the same time, they''d use the excuse of going out to check on the various scout teams to spread the five leaders apart, and take them away from the city, before confronting them separately.

    This was the best n they came up with. Yet it was going to take at least five days up to one week to fully execute. During this, Thomas would move around the city, looking for traces of these five leaders, trying to find any ce they might have hidden these crystals at.

    "I''ve already spoken with him," Lara paused, looking at Anjie as if she was boasting about doing this in front of her, "and he is cool with it. He likes the n, and wants us to keep ourselves inside the city just in case."

    "I speak with him all the time," Anjie didn''t like how Lara looked towards her, crossed her arms, and retorted back.

    "We all speak with him," Roughed, "so it''s not a big deal."

    "Anyway, let''s go around and meet these five leaders first," Lang knew if the girls started theirte trend ofpeting with each other over William, then they''d waste lots of time without doing anything else, "we have a message to deliver to each, remember?"

    "I just need to check them once, and then I can mark their karma threads and look for themter on," Thomas shrugged as if this was something easy to do.

    Thomas grew to be a dark gold grade master, at mid-stage on top of that. During all this time, he kept diligently upgrading and evolving his powers, gaining lots of improvement in the techniques William taught him before.

    One of these was about a special ability to mark someone''s karma thread and then look for this thread anywhere in the world, even if that person wasn''t present with him.

    Before, Thomas had to be with the person to see through his karma. Even if that person was far away from him, as long as he could see him, Thomas could see the karma threads belonging to that person or monster.

    This had great limitations, one that got lifted off the moment he trespassed into the dark gold grade. He agreed with the other leaders to meet these five traitors, check their karma threads, and mark them, before searching the entire city.

    Few masters suggested he had to go out as well. Many masters used to go out to venture into the world, to do their own business out there, or even to chill out or train.

 Chapter 1000 1000

    ?

    So it was expected to have such valuable items stored somewhere outside the city. Thomas and others decided to first inspect the city, before going out and searching the areas around.

    William received the news from many of his friends already, mostly his girls. "These hotties¡­ They arepeting even on whom to contact me first¡­" he shook his head, not in the mood to even smile about this.

    He went through the scrolls he got about the spirit world and yet didn''t find anything useful. He got that dealing with that spirit was going to be hard, so hard to fight it using the same ways masters used to. And he didn''t find anything or any hint about how to harm these spirits.

    "It''s good I have much time before going out. They''llplete everything in one week, and before sorting things out, they''ll take a few more days as well. I''ll move when the monsterse to the city. Crushing more waves will hurt that man even more¡­"

    He was sure that man wasn''t at the gold grade at all. His worst worries were that man would turn out to be at the pinnacle of power. So waiting a little more and letting that man get weakened was the best course of action he could think of.

    Besides, he wouldn''t dare to go and confront that man without having a method to deal with that spirit. He didn''t dream about killing it, but just wanted to find a way to fight back and preserve his life.

    "It''s better to scan through all the scrolls I have then¡­ Perhaps I''ll find something about a technique or a unique way of fighting, one that can help me against that spirit¡­"

    He didn''t find any clue at all in the scrolls regarding the spirit world. He just needed a clue, a spark of inspiration to guide him towards the right path, then he''d start devising a new strategy or even invent a new technique to ovee this ordeal.

    So he kept closing on himself, going through all the scrolls he gained from the other world. At the same time, he kept track of what his friends, team, and city leaders were doing out there.

    The news spread like wildfire among the city''s citizens. They came here to run away from such nightmares, and that was the main issue that worried all the city leaders who devised and agreed on this n.

    They feared the city would suffer from major relocation, yet that didn''t happen! The masters and normal people who came here already enjoyed peace for a long time in the city. And without realising it, this city became like their home, safe haven, the heaven they all dreamt to have in such a brutal world.

    So the moment they heard about a threating towards their homnd, they got all stirred and riled up. Endless calls for arms spread all over the city, and normal people even volunteered the work of building more defences, moving out any weapons, gears, and supplies to the walls and to ces outside the city.

    The mastermunity was the most active. They might have selected this ce to get away from all this madness, but they got a long break already, enough to let them wee such a challenge with wide arms.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    They started to form fighting teams like old days as if they were going to explore the world and face monsters. The hype started to grow even more when news spread about sending teams formed of high-end masters to stop the monster army and dy them.

    This move that targeted something else was seen as a glorious sacrifice from these masters to help those in the city to get prepared, strengthen the defences,y down more traps, and such matters.

    As news spread about everything happening here to various ces in the kingdom and continent, tons of masters got hyped up by such news.

    In recent years, masters have be addicted to rallying up and attacking their enemies. Be it dark masters or monsters, they started to not fear any.

    On top of that, the moment the news spoke about the name of William and the Fox guild, more masters made up their minds. In past events, the key yer and the main instigator for such a new phenomenon.

    In the eyes of many masters, William and his Fox guild were the role model they admired, the courageous and brave masters who dared to stand up against many enemies, and win in the end!

    Hearing just their name made all the masters confident in their victory. No matter how the odds were, William always prevailed with his guild over anything.

    As the various high-end masters went out to execute their part of the n, a flood of masters rushed in from the portal zone. Seeing this made the city leaders speechless for a long time before they actually hoped for their city to get attacked in the end by swarms of monsters.

    If that happened, and they managed to win in the end, then things would roll in their favour. Their city wasn''t going to be seen just as a safe spot, but it''d also be seen as a strong fort for all masters in the world, one that could stand its ground and face any tsunami without falling, a tall mountain in front of any terrifying storm.

    The aim of the city leaders shifted all of a sudden from just seeing through the reality of what Lara imed and getting more glory and attention to their city. And as such, all of them started to hope what Lara imed to be true, and that the expected monster tide would strike again.

    William was still busy reading through all the scrolls. Going through everything was indeed quite stressful, and yet he persisted to read everything, not missing a single scroll or any information mentioned there no matter how unimportant it seemed.

    "They are getting excited about this, I can''t me any of these leaders¡­"

 Chapter 1001 Spirit Power-Focused Entities

    ?

    Williamughed the moment he received the news about the new changes in the leaders'' minds. And he didn''t care about what they wanted to do.

    All he cared about was securing the underground city, protecting the city on the surface, and making sure things wouldn''t end badly for his interests here.

    Just when he returned to read through the scrolls, he met something that made his body freeze right on the spot.

    "That''s it¡­ Damn! I never thought the answer lies in the Mystic Arts!!!"

    The scroll he was holding was part of those speaking about the mysterious Mystic Arts and the Fate and Destiny world. He read through everything about these before, yet he never linked this with the problem he was facing.

    The scroll spoke about the use of a special Mystic Art, one that could be used inside the Fate and Destiny world. This art would do something to the wheels of someone or something out there, adding or removing little things from it, and end up building a bridge between the wheel of the user and the wheel of the target.

    This art might seem useless right now to deal with such a problem, and yet there was a phrase that caught his eye, the key to solve all this.

    "... This art is rumoured to be the best against any spirit power-focused entities. It has its cons and pros, but it''s one of the most effective ways to handle such troublesome foes¡­"

    This phrase was mentioned at the end of the scroll, followed by a talk about the cons and pros of using it. William read it before and never got the hint behind it.

    Yet when he read the part about spirit power-focused entities, his mind froze. These were the same unique words mentioned before in a few of the spirit world scrolls.

    "These spirits¡­ They have considered spirit power-focused beings¡­ I don''t mean what such words mean¡­ Does that mean their entire bodies are formed of spirit power or what?"

    There wasn''t any further exnation about this matter. And he didn''t care about that for now. He finally found something he could work on, and started to read this scroll like he was reading a treasure map or something.

    The Mystic Art mentioned here aimed to link his wheel with anyone else. The great news was that even against targets with insane amounts of protection from the Fate and Destiny world, this art still worked fine. He''d not suffer any bacsh from using it over anyone.

    The bad news was that by using this method, he''d not be able to harm the target at all. In return for this, he also wouldn''t get harmed by the target! It was like a ceasefire agreement, one that would get effective on a higher level than anyone''s power and control.

    The art would build a bridge, one that would channel spirit power in both ways. If William tried to damage that spirit, he''d end up doing no harm as the spirit power used would be channelled to heal and support the target. In return, if that spirit tried to hit him, the same thing would happen as well.

    "Wait¡­ It''s not just about protecting myself from him¡­ I can absorb spirit power every time he hits me!!!" The moment he realised this point, he couldn''t help but feel a shudder all over his body.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    The spirit power used tounch any attack would be transformed into the target by the power of this art. The art would break down any attack, and turn it into pure spirit power that the target could absorb.

    "Does this mean¡­ I can sit down, let that bastard attack me as long as he wants, and evolve? Can I get stronger like this? Is there really such a way in this world?!!"

    William was totally shaken by such a realisation. To him, this art was enough to be considered one of the most omnipotent arts and techniques in the entire world! Even his Devour ability paled inparison!

    Yet there was a catch!

    "The bridge, once done, can''t be revoked or removed by any means possible¡­ This is perhaps why this art isn''t considered a top-tiered one¡­"

    It was indeed a very great disadvantage for him and for anyone. If he considered using it against that nine-tailed fox, then he''d be safe against it. He''d not get harmed by this fox, and the fox wouldn''t be killed by him as he wished.

    This was uneptable! Turning an enemy into a lifelong neutral entity might seem the best solution in various cases, but not this one.

    "At least I''m going to survive that dude¡­" William then started to see how to execute that Mystic Art in the middle of the Fate and Destiny world.

    Many arts would be done in the real world, while others would be done in the Fate and Destiny world. To do that, one had to exhaust a ton of spirit power to do so. And that was why formations were done, and grouping masters with Mystic Art affinity started to be a trend.

    William decided to do it himself if he asked anyone else to help, he''d be forced to bring this person over. He didn''t want to do that, especially when he felt like he''d learn tons of stuff about the spirit world and its current events out there.

    And he got the feeling that he''d learn more about what happened with his fox spirit, or even get a chance to meet and speak with it.

    As he decided, he started to finalise thest touches. He spread the organs over, before taking an elixir out and gulped its content.

    In that world, he couldn''t bring anything from the real world with him. "I hope everything will go as that scroll said," he muttered to himself while activating a random Mystic Art, and entered the special world.

    The moment he arrived there, he acted at once.

 Chapter 1002 Using The Mystic Art

    ?

    The first step was by summoning the target''s wheel. Luckily he saw what that spirit looked like, like a big star.

    As he recalled how it looked, recalled everything he saw before in hisst visit here, a wheel suddenly appeared from a far distance. And from the first nce, he could tell how special this wheel was.

    All the wheels he saw before were just formed of a single wheel that could expand into many copies of it underneath. But this one was different.

    First, it was weirdly golden in colour. On its surface, there were tons of smaller and different-sized wheels, spinning at various speeds, not interacting with each other, while many were lying on top of one another.

    It looked¡­ Weird. It was as if someone was looking at a Swiss watch interior or something.

    The wheel looked quite heavy, and it flew slowly like a snail. William kept watching its unique design and kept a note of this in his heart.

    This was the first spirit wheel he ever met so far. And knowing that Fate and Destiny world ruled over the spirit world as well made him quite relieved.

    "This world is quite special¡­ Does it also preside over the god world as well or what?" William read before about the presence of the God-world in the scrolls, but it got a very scarce amount of information there, mainly getting mentioned in the middle of the context.

    "Let''s do it," as the wheel finally stopped in front of him, he started to do the art. This time all he needed to do was to stand in a special pose, raising one leg up, while touching both palms together. He had to remain like this for a few minutes, muttering an incantation during all this time, waiting for the bridge to start forming.

    At first, he felt nothing. But soon enough he felt little heat in his body. He knew this was a sign that spirit power was getting drained from him, going to fuel up that art.

    He persisted and trusted the elixir he consumed before. If not, he''d end up in a very terrible state, got quite exhausted and bedridden for many days.

    "It''s happening," as he persisted for five minutes, something started toe out from his wheel. It was white in colour, looking like a little bud or something like a young sprout.

    It kept growing until it formed a tentacle, and then it moved to meet up with the wheel opposite to his. The distance between the two was at least half a kilometre away, but the newly born bridge crossed it in no time at all.

    "Is it over?" Just before he''d assessed the new bridge, the one that was just in the form of a thin bond that linked the two wheels together, something new happened.

    "A new one?!! How many do I need to form before the bridge is done? Don''t tell me I need to wait for a long time here¡­"

    He suddenly realised there was no mention of the time needed to form this bridge. If he knew it''d take a long time, he''d prefer to consume more than one elixir to safeguard himself.

    As he realised that, he watched one tentacle after another grow from his wheel and move towards the opposite one. He was worried his spirit power would get depleted, didn''t know the art already absorbed what it needed and was just giving out results.

    He waited, waited for a long time while tens of tentacles already formed. When many of them appeared and he didn''t feel anything weird or funny about himself, he realised he wasn''t in any danger or anything.

    He simply waited and watched, until a true structure that could be best described as a wide bridge, got formed between the two wheels.

    And then no more tentacles grow anymore. "Is it over? Is it now active?"

    As he just muttered these words to himself, he watched something new happen. The bridge was white in colour, looking like a t surface of whitend. But right now, its surface started to change.

    Parts started to rise up, while other parts began to thin out. A wave of golden colour started to appear and spread over from the other wheel towards him.

    "This¡­" just after what seemed to be ten hours, the entire bridge was now totally different, "this is a gathering of small wheels¡­ And my wheel now had a tinge of golden colour¡­ Is this good or bad?"

    His wheel changed from being pure white into having thin golden lines. He didn''t know if this would negatively affect him, or if would it even impact him in any way. "I hope this is the link between the two of us¡­ I''ll wait for a bit longer, who knows what else will happen¡­"

    As he sat over his wheel, he kept watching and examining it. He felt nothing wrong there, didn''t feel what changed aside from the golden lines.

    He then shifted his attention towards the smaller wheels that connected his wheel with the other one. These wheels were interlocking with each other, spinning slowly, without showing anything remarkable to them.

    After waiting for five more hours, he decided to call it a day and return. Yet the moment he wanted to return back, he felt he couldn''t.

    "What''s going on?" he tried many times and yet nothing happened. Before he''d think about what was going on, he saw the other wheel moving away slowly from him. And as this happened, the smaller wheels started to produce new wheels, looking as if the bridge was stretching out, keeping the link intact.

    "I have to wait until you walk away? Come on slow turtle, move your fat ass away and don''t dy me for any longer!" William grew impatient after waiting for half a day here. The spirit wheel was moving like a snail and didn''t cross too much distance in the past twelve hours.

 Chapter 1003 They Found Nothing Yet...

    ?

    Yet no matter how he shouted at it, the wheel took two days entirely to vanish from his eyesight. William kept trying to get out, and it didn''t work until the golden wheel turned into a tiny speck of light in the far distance.

    And then he finally returned back.

    The first thing he did was to check on his body. Nothing much happened, and then he checked over the current situation outside.

    "I was gone for five days¡­ That''s a long time indeed¡­" he estimated tost that long, or even a bit longer than that. Luckily things didn''t develop that much outside.

    With the influx of masters from many ces in the continent, the city masters decided against starting to act. They waited until the entire city was filled to the brim with masters, and lots of areas outside had tents of endless masters as well.

    Then they started to build more defences there. From one point, this would help in strengthening the city defences, and from another point, this would helpter on when they''d expand the city.

    They expected a new surge of masters joining here. And so they started to n for the up ahead, nning for the future.

    One day before William''s return, they started to act. They lured away the five traitors, separated them into different ces, and went away from the city, much further than what they initially nned, to evade any curious eyes from the masters staying outside the city.

    As the city leaders lured away these traitors, William''s friends started to dig and search all over the ces Thomas pointed towards. He already marked the karma threads of these traitors, and searched the entire area outside, for any of the ces that got linked to these traitors.

    The search resulted in a huge number of potential ces to hide the crystals. These five were already leaders of huge forces, and they got business and interest in tons of ces.

    So it was expected how huge the list of ces Thomas pointed at was. The good news was that most of these ces were inside the city, and almost half of them were in the main bases of their forces.

    The city leaders already excluded the possibility of them storing away these crystals in any of these bases. They were filled with tons of masters, with a very high risk of getting these crystals exposed and found by others.

    So they had to search for other ces in the city. Using the current heat about the uing battle, and with theck of arge number of masters inside any ce away from the defences spots, they found not much hardship in doing what they wanted.

    And if they pumped into someone curious about what they were doing, the city leaders on their side already gave them a scroll, to enable them to ess any ce under the excuse of looking for any weaknesses in the city to repair before the uing war.

    They got stopped on a few asions, and that scroll did indeed help. No one questioned them again after that, and they entered most of the ces without any trouble.

    "We ransacked the entire city, without finding them!" Sara was furious. She thought such a task would be quite easy, but it felt like they were butting their heads against a hard wall or something.

    "We still have ces outside the city to look at," Peter paused, looking at Thomas before adding, "and even if we didn''t find any out there, we still have onest ce we haven''t looked at yet."

    "I know, I know, their rings, right?" Karoline seemed like the only one enjoying all this, "I now realise why William kept collecting rings, why all of you did that¡­"

    "We don''t do that out of option," Ro interrupted her, "he did that to us! He is the main viin here¡­"

    "Then he is a genius! Hahahaha!" Karoline took Ro''s words in the totally opposite meaning, making thetter unable to follow her logic, preferring to remain silent like others, and let Karoline live in her dreamy world.

    "I didn''t mean that," Peter looked at the two before adding, "I meant there are their bases, and we didn''t check there yet."

    "I hope it didn''t reach such a stage," Berry sighed, "we discussed it before. If they hid these out there, then we would have little chance of finding these crystals without starting a big mess in the entire city."

    "We need to take risks then¡­" Lara looked around, before adding in a low tone, "We all have darkness-based masters in our teams, right?"

    "You want to use them to¡­"

    "We have no other option, right?" she rolled her eyes when Thomas was about to object to her n.

    "And if they got caught? What will happen then?" Anjie looked deeply at Lara, taking an extra note about her as being brave and wouldn''t stop at anything to get what she''d want.

    "Then we''ll use force," she shrugged, as if she didn''t care about the mess that would erupt in her city, "we will fight the masters defending there anytime soon anyway if we don''t find the crystals anywhere outside. So¡­ Let''s just pray we will find these crystals there."

    "We shall also notify other city leaders about this," as no one objected to what Lara wanted to do, Anjie added, "We need them to start acting and check the content of their rings. If they didn''t find any there, then it''s up to us to find the crystals here by any means."

    And as everyone slowly nodded, they all agreed on this.

    They were on their way outside the city when William contacted them. They told him everything, and they were relieved he didn''t press them to hurry things over.

    After all, they didn''t have any say in any of that!

    "They''ll take a few days like this to finish scanning everything," William thought to himself after speaking with his friends, "during this time, I shall get little rest before starting to repair my two monstrous weapons¡­"

 Chapter 1004 Something Weird Is Found!

    ?

    William''s spirit power already surged and grew up fast. As he was in Lara''s city, he had ess to an endless supply of outer world''s material.

    He used his two monstrous weapons frequently, and he knew how extremely valuable they were. But he made these when he was much weaker than now!

    He nned not only to repair these two, but also make at least three more of them, if he got the time.

    "I hope they take much longer before getting these crystals," he muttered to himself, before lying his body on a bed, closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep, "it''s really nice sleeping on a normal bed from time to time," and this was thest words he said before the world vanished from his perception and entered the dream world.

    As he hoped for, the task of looking for the crystals wasn''t that easy on his friends. They went out, visited lots of ces where Thomas pointed at, and found nothing in the end.

    "This is getting silly¡­ Where the hell did they hide these crystals?" John was growing restless, and he wasn''t alone. Everyone here was feeling the pressure already.

    The city leaders didn''t show their real intentions towards the five traitors. They asked Lara to find at least one of these proimed crystals, so they''d be able to confront these five with solid and concrete proof. Without it, they didn''t intend to face them with anything.

    At the same time, their options were growing thin, and the list of ces that Thomas provided got most of its content marked as empty.

    "We still have few ces to visit," Lara still held to that little hope, "if not¡­ Then we know what to do, right?"

    "I don''t like this thief n," Berryined, and many supported her thoughts. And yet all knew there was no other possible option to them but to do that.

    "We already gathered those darkness based folks back there," Sara sighed, "I hope we don''t need such a n. But if it''s a must, we''ll see it through."

    "I still prefer to knock on their doors, fight their masters, rather than doing this," Berry still objected, and Lara shook her head without saying anything.

    Either option was bad, but at least the darkness based master n, the one many called as the Grand Theft n, held little riskspared to the other one.

    Gambling an internal war when there was a crystal out there that could bring forth tons of monsters inside the city wasn''t the ideal situation Lara or anyone here wanted to see.

    "Let''s keep searching then," Thomas paused, before adding, "I got a good feeling about finding one crystal there."

    "I hope you are right this time," Peter rolled his eyes, "this is the fifth time you said these words, mate!"

    "I got a very good feeling this time, I''m sure we''ll find a crystal in one of these areas¡­"

    Thomas persisted in his opinion, and no one had anything to say to him. He said this a few times already, and they found nothing in the end.

    The next stop was supposed to be towards an empty ce in a group of mountains and hills. Every time they heard about the presence of hills, they recalled the bad reputation of these. Yet ording to the general and known knowledge about this ce, it was empty and without anything suspicious.

    "What''s going on here?!!" But the moment they drew closer, the first thing they saw wasn''t an empty ce, but a ce that was filled with tons of masters, walls, trenches, and other fortifications.

    "Did the masterse here to establish a defensive zone or what?" It wasn''t a rare thing to see nowadays. With the influx of all these masters, the city leaders and grand masters already dispatched lots of them to build forts and defensive points at lots of ces.

    They already met many while looking for the crystals. But this was a bit different than what they used to see.

    The defences they saw before were still in the process of getting constructed, mainly formed of a hastily built circr wall, with shallow trench and few traps here and there. This one looked different, way different and advanced than any of these rudimentary defences.

    It had a very well established thick and grand wall, one that stretched for tens of kilometres right and left, and went beyond what their spirit senses could detect. Out of it, a very deep and wide trench was there, filled with tons of green liquid, emitting green and ck vapour all the time, releasing bubbles all over its surface.

    It went without testing it that this liquid was toxic, corrosive, and quite lethal to anything trespassing over it. There were two big gates with two huge dropped bridges connected to them. Without these bridges, no one could trespass this.

    Inside the walls was another tale of densely packed defences, lots of grand towers, and even small-sized trenches were there. William''s friends were sure this ce was filled with tons of traps and wasn''t a ce friendly to any master.

    "This is weird¡­" Lara looked at all this from afar, using her spirit sense, "I never heard of something grand being built here before¡­"

    "Told ya, I got a great feeling about this ce, hahaha!" Thomasughed, but for a reason, he felt quite nervous andcking self-confidence, not like how he tried to show using his words and attitude.

    But no one cared truly about what he was doing. They all looked at that fortified zone, trying to get a head or tail about it.

    The ce was filled to the brim with tons of masters, all were wearing cloaks that hid their faces. They weren''t wearing ck cloaks, or else everyone here would mistake them for being dark masters. These cloaks were blue in colour, without any emblem or symbol ced or drawn there.

    "Hmm¡­ I better ry this over to William and them."

 Chapter 1005 I Know Him Better!

    ?

    Lara started to tell everyone about this weird ce. Such a fort was abnormal, and the fact that it didn''t match any record mentioned about it made Lara quite pessimistic about it.

    The reaction from the city leaders was quite expected. They asked her to make sure this wasn''t another ce than the one mentioned on the map. And when she confirmed, they asked about how they reached there.

    She exined to them that Thomas specified lots of ces where the five traitors went to frequently and visited. When the leaders heard that, they started to grow suspicious of their long-time friends and allies.

    Having such a ce secretly built here, while silencing any news about it was very suspicious. And when they heard about how strongly fortified this ce was, they became wary of that zone.

    It was close to the city, and yet the city leaders and masters never learnt about it. From the look of it, and from what Lara described in great detail to them, everyone knew this area took a long time to get built.

    "They ask us to wait until they''ll confront the traitors," Lara turned after a few minutes towards her friends, "and they''ll gather a grand army, and send it here to im this area for us."

    "What will William say?" Sara and others didn''t put what the city leaders thought in their eyes in the first ce. They only cared about their boss, their most trusted and capable friend, William.

    "Well¡­ I''ll inform him now," Lara felt a little embarrassed when she said these words. And the response she got was enough to make her feel more nervous.

    If anyone else of these friends was in her shoes, they''d instantly inform William first. As for the city leaders, their opinion didn''t matter in the first ce.

    Waiting to confront the traitors? Waiting to gather up an army? Everyone here mocked such ame andzy decision from these leaders. They all knew what William would say, and expected what was going to happen.

    "We are going to have fun, atst, with him, hahaha!" Ro couldn''t control her excitement, while everyone else chuckled and few evenughed.

    "What are you talking about? I haven''t contacted him yet!" Lara felt weird from their reaction andments. And her words invoked a wave ofughter at her.

    "You still don''t know him," Sara shook her head, before puffing her chest and added, "I bet on anything that he''ll get riled up, ask us to wait until he''lle here. Then we all will go into that ce, rampage through everything, and he won''t stop until he gets what he wants."

    "That''s true, that''s what he will say and do," Berry nodded as well, supporting her long-term rival and friend, "waiting for those leaders to deal with the traitors? Waiting for an army to gather? Waiting isn''t an option for William!"

    "Yes, that''s how the boss will do it!"

    "That''s our boss, not a wait guy, but a man! That''s why I admire him the most!"

    Lots of friends started to speak up their minds, leaving the newly joined Lara, Anjie, and Karoline a bit speechless.

    But when they recalled the short-term period they had with him, they couldn''t help but notice this pattern. And when they realised how they didn''t know him quite well, especially Anjie and Lara, they felt unexined sadness in their hearts.

    "We''ll see¡­" Lara refused to admit her defeat in front of the two girls and ryed the news to William.

    William was already in the middle of making new of his monstrous weapons. He fixed the ones damaged and already finished making two of his weapons.

    Using his enhanced power, and with the endless supply of materials here, doing this was going much smoother than he thought. He didn''t just repair the two weapons but enhanced their fighting abilities as well.

    In the middle of doing that, he kept making more of his grenades, enhancing them a little bit as well.

    He used grenades a lot recently, as they were quite deadly and helpful. He loved the way to arm the arrows with them and dreamt about the day he''d have an entire army armed up with his arrows and grenades.

    Such an army wouldn''t get stopped by anything. But to make these, he needed lots of materials, mostly precious.

    This wasn''t the case when he randomly came up with the theory to make these before. Back then, he usedmon materials as time was tight and he wasn''t sure of the end result. But now he started to up the game, using lots of precious and rare materials to greatly enhance their explosive firepower.

    In addition to the rarity of these materials, he needed lots of time to make them. So he knew he''d ce part of his time after returning to the Scorching Lands city to make these grenades and other war supplies.

    In the middle of doing all this, he received Lara''s message. He heard what she said, and couldn''t help but have his eyes shine brightly in excitement.

    "Wait there, I''lle and check it myself," as everyone expected, he wasing, and he intended to y it big this time.

    "He said he''lle, right? Hahahaha! I knew it! That''s my man, hahaha!" Just from the weird reaction on Lara''s face, it was clear to everyone else what William said. And that invoked Berry''sugh, and then manyughed as well.

    Lara didn''t say anything, and looked around before Anjie helped her from such an awkward situation, one that she''d face if she was the one handling things instead, "Let''s help him then, let''s scout the entire ce and gather as much intel as we can."

    As she proposed, everyone got hyped up and started to move. They didn''t separate, fearing to meet any patrol teams, ones that would prove hard to conquer, or took a long time to take down. They didn''t want to rm the forces inside that fort, or else their fate would be expected.

 Chapter 1006 There Is A Shadow Around You!!!

    ?

    As they started to circle the entire zone, looking for anything useful like a weak point or a ce they could use to enter, William went out of his building, and looked around, before giving a single order.

    "Assemble the entire guild, we are going out for a hunt!"

    The moment William said it, everyone inside the guild branch stopped what they were doing. All knew their boss, and all recognised him right on the spot.

    But that wasn''t why they all looked like this. Something new appeared around William, a vague gigantic shadow of something, something they never saw before around their boss.

    "What? Why are you standing like this? Didn''t you hear what I just said?" William was puzzled by their response. He expected them to hurry up, move as fast as they could, gather up everything in the guild, and follow him out.

    But they stood in their ces without taking a single step or making a single sound. Seeing the entire guild stand in such a way, all looking at him in such disbelief, made him doubt himself toe out from the building naked!

    "Even if I go out naked, they won''t show such a response¡­ What''s going on?" William was puzzled, and when he checked himself and found nothing, he felt more puzzlement.

    "Boss¡­ There¡­ There is something around you¡­" when the nearest guild masters to him noticed what he did, and from the look on his face they knew he didn''t see what they saw, one of them said, referring to that shadow surrounding him.

    "What''s there? I can''t see anything!" William thought they were pulling a prank on him, but all of them? All of these masters? That was quite unrealistic.

    "Boss¡­ It''s something grand, like a huge shadow of something surrounding you," another master could tell William didn''t see anything, so he added, "it''s like a star, a big golden or orange star¡­ Can''t tell, it''s very faint¡­"

    "Oh, it is?" William was inwardly shaken, but he kept his cool in front of everyone. The description he heard was rted to the spirit he used Mystic Art upon. "Don''t stand like that, move and bring everyone. We''ll depart right away¡­ Follow me!"

    William didn''t say anything else, and moved towards the gates of the guild. As he walked, all masters parted ways for him to pass, and he noticed they cleared arge area for him to pass through.

    "Don''t tell me I ended up with something from that spirit¡­ Does that mean it also got something of me?" he couldn''t help but feel like a frog in the depth of a well. The more he thought he grasped things about the spirit world, the more he learnt how deeply mistaken he was.

    As he marched out of the city, he didn''t care about the shocked gazes of all the masters he met in the city. They were shocked because they recognised him, recognised the Fox guild masters marching all out. And that meant something huge was going to happen.

    And they also noticed the huge shadow that enveloped him, something they never saw before. It drove fear, awe, and admiration in their spirits, making them unable to shift their eyes off him until he and his guild members went away from the city.

    William kept walking towards the destination Lara marked for him while checking himself and the area surrounding him from time to time. Seeing nothing made him not get what was going on.

    "Shouldn''t I see it? Why can''t I?"

    The more he thought about it, the more he got confused. In the end, he decided to drop thinking about this matter until he''d meet with that spirit. If such a thing happened to him, then a simr thing must have happened to that spirit as well.

    What William didn''t know was that there was something bigger he got himself involved in, something that started a long time ago without him realising it!

    As he led his guild masters towards where his friends were, the entire city exploded with the news. The masters who spotted the scene reported it back literally to everyone they knew, met, or saw.

    The news spread like wildfire, and the reputation of William and the Fox guild made things explode even further.

    "What do you think happened for the man himself to lead his entire guild out?"

    "I''m sure it''s dark masters¡­ That fox master never moved out to fight and it didn''t turn out to be rted to dark masters."

    "Don''t forget monsters! I''m sure something huge is going to happen soon."

    "Why are we standing here and specting? Let''s go out, let''s see for ourselves what''s going on!"

    "Yes, let''s go!"

    All of a sudden, many masters led the wave, and then a tsunami appeared! The entire city that got filled to the brim with masters got suddenly emptied, with tons of masters moving in session, heading towards the direction that William and his guild masters took.

    Even the ones who were stationed outside got the news and followed the rest as well. Under the watchful gazes of the top masters remaining behind in the city, they watched the entire grand army of masters gathered here for many days move in unison.

    Such a scene was indeed breathtaking! They received orders from the city leaders away from the city and were thinking about how to raise an army and go to aid the little team entrapped in the middle of monsters.

    The city leaders came up with that excuse to avoid any suspicions from masters rted to the five traitors. And yet when they saw how the whole master army moved from the city, heading towards the same direction their leaders specified, they all got confused and didn''t know what to do.

    "We need to report this," after long minutes of discussions, they decided to tell the faraway leaders about such a move. When the leaders got wind of this, they asked Lara for rification.

 Chapter 1007 Lara Was Right!

    ?

    "What? I know nothing," Lara already expected such a message from the city leaders, and prepared an answer already for all this hustle; which was total denial.

    Yet she never thought such a thing would happen. She thought they''d notice William''s departure, and didn''t even imagine that he''d take such a grand step, one that''d stir up all such responses from the city masters.

    At the same time, she first realised how grand William''s reputation was in the entire mastermunity. She was always by his side and didn''t have the chance to experience the opinion of others about him.

    As she now knew, she got to admire him even more and knew her earlier decision of following him and leaving the city was right.

    She got away from the expected interrogation of the city masters by what she stood by. She kept denying anything about William, denied knowing anything about his ns or moves. She wasn''t faking it, and that helped her to speak honestly and with sincerity most of the time.

    In the end, the city masters couldn''t help but wish her luck, asking her to stay safe with others and try to get to know why William made such a move. She promised to return back with answers, a lie that none of the masters believed.

    Once she stored away the Message Paper, she turned to the entire team and narrated what happened.

    "Told you, he is going toe and do something big," Sara and Berry boasted about what they said before. And Lara couldn''t find an answer to that.

    "Let''s try to move faster then," as they learnt about the grand army marching here with their boss and following him, they got pumped by more courage, "we don''t need to fear those inside anyway."

    Thomas was right, they didn''t need to bother with those masters inside that grand fort. The news of what William did spread over to the ones stationed here, and they learnt about the grand armying for them.

    So they locked up everything, raised the bridges, and the walls were filled to the brim with masters ready to fight. mours of armour and war supplies getting moved inside the fort were so loud to reach the team''s ears. And they knew the news must have reached those masters.

    "They are indeed hostile to us," seeing this made Lara jump to this conclusion with absolute certainty. And everyone else nodded in agreement.

    If these masters were forces belonging to any city master, then they wouldn''t have reacted in this way. It was a possibility, slim but still a possibility. And now everyone was sure they weren''t part of the city, and they held ill intentions towards it.

    "We can move freely now," and by what they did, everyone knew they could now move without much worry. Even if they got spotted, and they were sure that''d happen, they were sure the enemies inside that grand fort were very busy preparing for the uing fight.

    At the same time, the city leaders were away in five different ces, discussing everything about what happened back in the city.

    They knew keeping the news off the ears of the five traitors was impossible. And many didn''t like how William responded to this situation.

    They did as William expected, and didn''t want to confront the five as they told Lara. Instead, they wanted to amass enough army discreetly, send it away without attracting any attention if possible, hit that ce and uncover the truth about it. Then they''d start dealing with the five traitors after that.

    And yet William wasn''t patient, acting out of their expectations. Thetter saw directly through their hesitation. He knew they acted like that because of the long period of peace in this city.

    When danger vanishes, the mindset of people would change. Warriors became peacekeepers, and their leaders would turn into investors and merchants. Caring about wealth and peace was detrimental to any master. And William hated such situations the most!

    Yet he wasn''t against having such safe havens in the middle of all this chaos. That was why he didn''t object when things developed down this path in this city or back at the Scorching Lands. In fact, he was quite thankful that people who got tired and sick of fighting got a chance to live in safe ces.

    So against such uncertainty and questionable force nearby, William decided to act fiercely against it. Yet he never expected the entire city would follow him out in such a way. And when he got the news, he was quite happy about such a response, as it said a lot about his current prestige in the entire world.

    "What''s the meaning of this? They are my forces! Are you trying to be hostile to me?!" As the five traitors got wind of what happened, they all stormed in rage, iming to have the ownership of that mysterious force, and directly confronting other leaders.

    If this happened at one or two ces, it wouldn''t be weird. But all five of them said the same thing in the same breath as if they were trained to say so a long time ago.

    The leaders were connected via spirit telepathy, and they all shared what they just heard with each other. Without the need to say a single word, they all turned to the traitors and acted.

    "What''s the meaning of this?"

    "Do you want the city to usher under ruins?"

    "This is treason!"

    "You are backstabbing the same leaders who supported the city!"

    "How dare you! I''ll see you rot in hell!"

    As the attacksnded fiercely and without any warning, the five traitors were shocked. All shouted and cursed, tried to resist and fight back but failed. They were outnumbered, and out of nowhere lots of high-end masters came out from the areas around.

    They couldn''t believe their eyes. And soon enough, two of them took the crystals out.

    Seeing the same crystal that Lara described made everyone''s hearts fall to their feet.

 Chapter 1008 Two Monster Tides Got Unleashed!

    ?

    They confirmed these five were traitors, what Lara said was true, and they knew they were in a very tight spot right now.

    The two crystals would unleash a hellish wave of monsters, and two monster tides would appear here. And they were right in the centre of it!

    "Retreat!" without the need to say anymore, the two groups in the heart of this instantly retreated, and moved as fast as they could. But soon enough, the crystals got crushed, alongside the viciousughs of the two leaders who did it.

    Through spirit sense, masters in the other three locations could see what was going on there. "Hehehehe, you are all going to die, hehehehe," one of the traitors said, before starting to fight back fiercely.

    "You won''t make it out as you dream," but the response he got from his ex-friends and allies was unexpected to these three. They thought the monsters would run away as fast as they could, like how the other two did. But they didn''t, "we already came prepared for such a scenario¡­ Release everyone, let them try to contain the iing monster tide¡­"

    The city leaders already sent lots of forces outside, acting as early rming beacons for the city. Yet the main goal was to first separate the high-end masters following these five traitors, and provide aid and support if monster tide appeared like now.

    As they got here, they already spread orders to gather the dispatched teams closer. And when the monster tides showed up, they gave the order for these masters to intervene.

    "As for you, you''lle with us," the city leaders and the high-end masters on their side surrounded the traitors, and forcibly dealt with them, ending up capturing two. The third was quite a fierce master, at the pinnacle of power, and capturing him ended up in killing him instead.

    "We''ll have to search far and wide for those damn crystals," the city leaders totally believed Lara now, and they realised how truly grave the city''s situation was.

    "How about their masters?" one asked, and then they agreed to proceed on the same n they agreed before upon.

    "Let''s show them the recording crystals, show everyone in their forces. If any tried to stir up trouble, then we won''t show mercy to any," this was the decision they all agreed on right on the spot. Yet there was still one problem left.

    "That fort¡­ This force¡­ I got a bad feeling about it!"

    "It''s too close to the city, and it''s well fortified¡­ Do you think they wanted to drag us into a long war of attrition war, to make us shift our gazes away from the city and leave it defenceless?"

    "I don''t think so, you heard them, they were trying to make us stay away from there. I bet there is something big going on in that ce¡­"

    "Let''s be cautious, let''s send part of the masters back to protect the city. After all, we got two monster tides to handle."

    The two monster tides were the real problem here. They were sure whatever they did here would only dy their advance, not stop it. And without the need to read the future, they were sure these monsters would march towards their city.

    Just one monster tide gave them a headache already. And there weren''t only two, but three uncertain tides if they didn''t find the crystals as fast as possible.

    Right at this moment, they regretted not listening to Lara''s words, regretted not acting that fiercely against such a possible threat before when they got time to do so.

    They wasted much time and effort when they could have done much better. And slowly, all of them asked themselves this simple question: Since when did we deteriorate to such a low stage?

    As they tried to control the explosive situation there, they did three extra things. First, they warned the ones in the city about the uing disaster, asking them to do everything in their power to prepare. Then they warned Lara, asking her to convince William to send back part of the masters to protect the city. Then they sent back the captured two traitors to the city for further interrogation.

    In fact, the interrogation started the moment these two got caught. They got sealed by many arrays and got to suffer horrifying torture to force them to spill out the beans and tell everyone about where they hid their crystals, speak about everything else about this treason and dirty scheme.

    As for the other two traitors, they ended up in a miserable fate. The moment they released the monsters, thetter didn''t differentiate them from any other human, ending up getting mercilessly killed and eaten by the endless monsters.

    "When this is all over, you owe me an apology," Lara said this in an icy cold tone. She didn''t like how her city''s leaders treated her warnings like they were lies and trash. And yet she didn''t focus on this as there was a grand disaster heading their way.

    She knew this was the act of that mysterious man and the five traitors who got yed in his hands like puppets, but the city leaders had their share of the me as well. If they listened to her and acted a bit sooner, things would have been much different.

    Luckily the two monster tides appeared tens of kilometres away, giving them time to prepare and ready themselves for the iing impact.

    They got hours, up to half a day at most if the high-end masters managed to pull a miracle out there. But it was enough to rally everyone and prepare themselves for the iing hit.

    The only and main problem now wasn''t in the city or its preparations, wasn''t in the number of masters ready to fight, but in this weird fort and force lying within.

    So far they didn''t get much to tell William about their identities. These masters kept their powers hidden, carefully moving things using little of their spirit power.

 Chapter 1009 Making His Guild Look Better

    ?

    They didn''t use any technique, didn''t activate their spirit bodies, and didn''t show anything noticeable about their spirit elements.

    She informed everyone and informed William first. Thetter was already getting closer to her, only one hour away at most.

    What dyed him was to arrange the huge influx of masters following him. He sent out many of his guild''s top masters to help in leading others, getting advantage of this chance to deepen the impression everyone had of him.

    A true leader shouldn''t just win wars, but lead others to win their own battles as well. William tried to do that, and when he learnt about the iing monster tide, he knew it was the right time to make a bold move.

    "Spread out my words, there are two monster tidesing at the city in a few hours from now. I want all the masters following us to return, and I''ll keep the guild masters leading and organising their defensive battle to save the city. As for the mysterious force lying up ahead, trust us guys and leave this to the Fox guild to handle."

    William instantly spread the news to everyone, and didn''t miss taking the chance to show off his guild as the main hero here. He didn''t just n to deal with that mysterious force with his guild only, but he also dispatched lots of strong masters to help others in the uing defensive battle.

    Once the masters following him heard that, they all got riled up. The news about the mysterious force lying inside such a highly defensive fort already reached their ears. Either by sending scouts up ahead to see what William aimed at, or by asking the masters he sent to organise their colossal numbers and lead them, or by using the spirit sense of the strong masters when they drew closer, they learnt about this and were sure of how hard that battle was.

    It wasn''t the problem of the masters waiting there, but the tons of traps and defences built. Not to mention the hard rocky terrain inside, the huge size this fort covered, and that trouble-looking trench surrounding the ce.

    When everyone heard about William''s intention to handle all this with his guild, they could only think of one word to describe him: Legend!

    As William said, everyone listened. Many offered their services to help him and his guild in taking down that force faster, then return altogether to help in saving the city. But William refused to share such glory with them, and just told them the monster tides weren''t a game and they had to take it far more seriously than that.

    They finally listened to his words and went back to the city. Even if they marched all this distance for nothing, none wasining about it. In return, they were all hyped about the iing monster tide.

    The newly joined masters asked the old ones about thest monster tide that hit the city. And they all got shocked when they learnt how fierce and deadly it was. When they heard about how it ended, not by monsters running away but continuing to fight down to thest one of them, they felt something was amiss here.

    Yet they were monsters, with all materials and cores any monster would have. As they got no exnation for that, they all thought someone was controlling them, making the monsters advance without showing a single moment of pause or retreat.

    They were right, someone did indeed control them, and that was the master who instigated all this from the start.

    As they heard everything about thest monster tide, they got why William refused to keep any with him and insisted on sending all of them back. They admired him even further, knowing that he took such a hard decision for the sake of everyone and the city masters.

    Few tried to dig into the reasons for all this. It was widely known that this city, alongside the Scorching Lands city, was the two safest spots in the entire world for masters.

    Not a single monster was spotted for a long time, not even in the faraway ces rted to these areas. Not to mention there wasn''t a single dark master daring toe here again after what happened here.

    No matter how these curious masters tried, the truth was kept hidden from them as no one here knew about it. In the end, they returned back to the city, listened to the words of William''s masters, and started to take over defences there.

    The city was already vacant of most masters, so they handled everything without an issue. Not to mention the high-end masters left here to handle things out warmly weed them.

    War was at every corner now, and the entire safety and survival of the city were under questioning. Everyone was too hyped to even think about losing, how could such a huge master army lose?

    Yet they were going to face a true challenge when things would turn south. Always the main reason to sunset empires didn''t stem from them growing weak, but from internal schemes and conflicts, from treason.

    "So¡­ This is the ce you mentioned?" When William arrived, he met with his friends. They got informed about his arrival, and followed him using the spirit sense, "it''s indeed quite challenging to crush."

    They were inside a border forest, just a few hundred of metres away from the trench surrounding that fort. They were slightly elevated than the level of the trench, but much lower than the great mountains and hills standing deeper in the zone.

    They were well protected by the trees, but they could only see a few kilometres inside that fort by eyesight. Using spirit sense made it feasible to see deeply inside, but mountains and hills always stood in the way.

    William''s friends needed lots of time to scan through everything in every mountain and hill. So they decided to take a grand tour around, scan the areas they could easily inspect, in areas away from the rocky terrain.

 Chapter 1010 Using Power To Crush Power

    ?

    They already told William everything they found, and there wasn''t much to say anyway. That ce was filled with tons of masters, lots of traps, and hellishly strong defences.

    The moment they saw him using their spirit sense, they got shocked by the weird and intimidating shadow epassing him. Yet he told them it was nothing, after listening to their description and thoughts about it.

    "It can''t be built overnight¡­ This must have been built sooner after the expansion of the city," William muttered while knowing how hard this battle would be.

    "Is there any weak spot there? A ce we can use to get inside?" he could tell how dangerous that trench was. Trying to cross it was futile, and even if it was impossible, it''d take much time and lots of losses to do it.

    He had to think of another way to deal with this, a weakness he could exploit no matter what.

    If he had time, he''d prefer to run around and scan the ce himself. But there wasn''t much time left before the two uing monster tides appeared.

    "The trench surrounds everything," Lara bitterly sighed, "we already circled the entire ce. It''s huge, and it''s fully surrounded by that trench."

    "Without the falling bridges, we have no ess there," Sara added, "we need to think of a new way to enter."

    "Hmm¡­ I have a way," William looked at the fort up ahead, and before he''d continued his words, all of his friends looked at him in a weird way, "What? Why are you giving me such a look?"

    "We do know what n to do," Berry rolled her eyes, and many nodded, "you n to go there alone, again!"

    "Well¡­ My hands are forced here, right?" he felt wryly weird from her and others'' attitude towards him. He indeed thought about going inside alone, as he had a way to do it. But they didn''t seem to like that idea.

    "Why not try it once? Just once? Take one with you out there¡­"

    "It''s too dangerous like you see," William interrupted Ro''s words, "and I''m not that sure I''ll even make it."

    "As you said you will, then you will make it," many said in the same breath, while others nodded in agreement.

    "Anyway," he coughed twice, clearing his throat, before adding, "I want you to get ready. The moment I''ve opened a path inside, you need to push forward and secure it."

    "You n to lower one bridge?" Anjie saw directly through his n, and he simply smiled.

    "You said it, there isn''t any other way in but this," William looked at the grand fort, knowing this was going to be quite hard to pull, "just be ready. I need to start preparing."

    He didn''t stop there, walking towards the trench, alone. His guild masters here were in tens of thousands, and they all witnessed how their legendary leader, the one who established all this, walked towards the grand set of enemies alone, without showing a single moment of fear or hesitation.

    William approached the trench and could see how wide it was. It stretched out for hundreds of metres, a distance that wasn''t easily crossed by any master.

    He was sure any high-end master would be able to trespass such distance in a single jump, but that wasn''t the issue. The main issue was the high possibility of having tons of traps lying up ahead, that huge wall, these fortifications, and the masters standing on top of everything there.

    He knew his dash technique could carry him across that trench, but the main challenge would start the moment he''dnd there.

    The trench was lining the walls directly, without a single piece ofnd or a rock standing there. That meant the moment he moved, he had to think of a way to deal with the walls and all the defences out there.

    "I can add up two dashes together," he knew he could do that if he calcted things right and timed his dash to stop midway over the trench. Doing so would let him hover over the trench for a few seconds, and he just needed one second to change his trajectory and aim towards the top of that wall.

    The walls were at least two hundred metres in height, a distance he could easily cross. But he was going against gravity, and that meant the distance he could cross was greatly decreased. Not to mention the moment he moved towards that direction, the enemies wouldn''t wait for him tond on the walls and would start firing at him with everything they got.

    He could expect something hellish during the few seconds he''d take to reach the top of the walls. The solution to this was by either using defence or crushing offence. He didn''t like defending, not to mention hecked anything that could stop such a crushing force.

    So he had only to use power to contend against power, and he was thinking about his options while walking towards that trench.

    "I need to arm up first," as he arranged the attack options he had in order, he started to dash around. With every dash, he stacked one attack over his tail. After upgrading to dark gold grade, this would be considered the first real fight he had, a chance to see how his fighting prowess reached.

    The enemies on top of the walls grew restless the moment he showed up. The golden shadow that enveloped him was quite intimidating and eye catchy, hard to miss or ignore.

    And when he started to dash around, they grew more nervous and started to release tons of their attacks.

    They got ballistas out there! They were known already in the world, but they were quite rare and pricey. Just when the masters behind saw these ballista release their bolts like rain towards William, their hearts clenched.

    Ballistas were quite fierce and deadly, especially from a short-range distance. They released fast arrows, ones that were more like spears than arrows.

 Chapter 1011 Ballistae!

    ?

    With the fierce power added from these big war machines, it''d be quite hard to stand against their attacks.

    The deadly force sent by the ballista was important, but far more important was the grade of the arrows used. If they were made by high-end artisans, then they''d be very lethal.

    The moment William spotted these ballistae, he knew this was going to be harder than he initially thought. Evading these arrows wasn''t a problem for him as long as he was on the ground. He kept dashing right and left, stacking attacks on his tails, while taking note of the iing arrows.

    The arrows flew fast like they were lightning bolts. As he moved fast, in an unpredictable course, the arrows all missed him. The moment theynded on the ground, they left deep holes there, with loud bangs with every hit.

    The scene was quite terrifying to behold for his guild masters. They wanted to help, but even the strongest defensive masters knew it was quite impossible to stand against such an unstoppable attack.

    The only possible way to handle this was to run and evade, keep doing this until the ammunition would dry out. But no one here thought the force inside had low storage of these arrows.

    The number of ballista used was in the hundreds! And they released arrows with each passing second. William was sure the enemy behind the walls had tons of arrows to be used by these ballistae, and that meant he had to find another way than to try and deplete their reserve of arrows.

    "It seems I have to hit two birds with one stone, risk it all this time," he looked at the iing rain of arrows and knew it was going to be a hard jump. But he didn''t care.

    He kept dashing until he stacked five hundred attacks on his tails. This was by far the strongest pull of his technique he had ever done. He felt pressure like never before, and he had to stop when he felt like his body wouldn''t handle adding any more, would even crash down if he continued to add more, or dyed in releasing out the attacks he stacked.

    The moment he couldn''t handle it anymore, he gulped two elixirs at one go, one spirit power regeneration and one healing elixir.

    He took a deep breath, and prayed that he''d time everything right before he changed his trajectory and headed directly towards the trench.

    He was around six hundred metres away from the trench when he moved. He didn''t know how long his new dash technique could take him, but he decided to interrupt it in the middle and stop just four hundred metres away from the walls.

    This was enough distance to negate most of the far-ranged techniques of masters, enough to let him change his path and head towards the top of the walls.

    And yet there was still the problem of the arrows. The moment he changed his path, the ones over the walls controlling these ballistae started to notice his trajectory and aimed towards the path he''d take.

    Instead of just raining down a grand area, all the arrows came andnded over a thin and limited zone. This made it quite hard for him to move forward without getting hit. Yet he started to change his trajectory, zigzagging left and right while moving forward at a fast speed.

    This ced more pressure on him, but he endured. He had to do anything to just arrive at the point he selected before moving out. The enemies tried their best, but as his trajectory returned to be hard to read, they started to shift the gears and returned to aim towards a huge area instead.

    "It''s showtime!" The moment he drew closer to the point he wanted, he waved his sword right and left, hitting fiercely any iing arrow, blocking them from hitting him. This resulted in a strong repercussion, one that shook his body many times, and even dyed his advance forward.

    But that didn''t matter as he already was at the ce he wanted.

    "Let there be death," the moment he arrived there, he didn''t hesitate to release everything he got. Unleashing the attack relieved him from the pressure, and yet the impact that it caused was quite shocking!

    He used tounch such attacks directly on the ground, and it always left a deep hole with a thunderous boom. Yet this time, the attack was so violent that it formed a cone-shaped wave, one that travelled fast, hit the walls, enveloping anyone standing on them, and crushing all the arrows that kept annoying him.

    Even the ballista didn''t escape from such destruction. The attack came with a muffled roar before an ear-deafening rumble urred. In the middle of all this, he dashed again, heading up, towards a safe spot that his attack didn''t hit.

    Even if the attacknded over an area that wasn''t more than a few hundred metres in width, the adjacent ces ushered under a heavy silence. No one ever imagined such a single master to release such an attack, one that would be only released by one of those standing on top of the powerdder in the world.

    Even if they saw himing towards them, the masters in the area he selected didn''t dare to move a muscle. They were petrified, by the terrifying attack, by the scary shadow enveloping William, and by William himself.

    A giant fox was heading towards them, enveloped in a bright golden shadow that looked like a star. No one knew who shouted it first, but soon such a shout infected many masters, and all started to act based on it.

    "The fox master ising! Run for your lives!"

    One just shouted in the middle of his fear, and others who felt the same fear responded. Williamnded while many masters in the area started to turn around and run. Even many were more scared and jumped directly off the walls towards the ground.

 Chapter 1012 The Troll Tower

    ?

    "Who said you can leave?" and even in the face of retreating enemies, William didn''t show a single speck of mercy, "go, kill everyone, spare none!" and with a wave of his hand, he released the four monstrous beasts he made so far, unleashed them over his enemies.

    Each weapon was the size of a huge truck. After William evolved the first two and made sure to use very rare and precious materials to make the other two, the four were looking like hell gatekeepers.

    They roared, and with their giant bodies and such a fierce roar, coupled with the attack Williamunched, more masters got scared and started to run for their lives.

    But many masters stood their ground, activated their spirits, and came for him.

    "Dark master! I knew it!" The moment they activated their spirit bodies, and used their techniques, it was easy for William to guess the spirit elements they were using, guessing their identities.

    They were all dark masters. And that just aligned with everything that was associated with this ce.

    He didn''t think much about that, didn''t even ask himself how dark masters appeared here without the notice of everyone in the city, or from where did theye. He didn''t even ask himself about their master. All he cared about right now was to kill as much as possible in this spot, before heading to the hanging bridge nearby, lowering it, and letting his guild masters get inside to start the real battle.

    He selected this spot specifically as it was very close to the gate and the drawing bridge. Once he left his mark here, it''d be easy to go towards the gate and lower the bridge.

    But as he started to fight against the dark masters, he realised they weren''t weak. Weirdly enough, the weakest one of them was at mid-stage dark gold grade, something that would let such a master be a faction leader or something.

    But here, the normal soldiers were at such a grade! And the ones leading them were at a high stage. It felt weird as if this ce was the gathering of all the top dark masters in the world.

    "If that is true, then¡­" the moment he thought about the grand number of masters here, and the possibility that the weakest one of them would be in mid-stage dark gold grade, and he felt bad about all this.

    He brought all of his guild masters, but themon level of power there was a gold grade. There were even silver-grade masters among them! He got mid and high-stage dark gold-grade masters, but their number wasn''t that much, to begin with.

    Facing such a grand enemy with such weak force? William felt this battle was going to be much harder than ever! He turned towards his guild masters behind the trench, waiting for his call to advance, and he hesitated.

    Sending them here was going to be like sending them toward their deaths.

    "Let me then test things out first," he decided to hold, not continue with the n he had in mind, "if things were this bad, then it''s not going to work."

    Instead of following his deadly charge by heading towards the gate and lowering the bridge, he started to fight these enemies using his techniques.

    He switched gears and used his wide-area attack instead. He hit a group of masters and sent most flying in the air, while many got wounded, and a few got killed right on the spot.

    "It''s not as strong and deadly as my Holy Sword technique, but it got lots of improvements¡­" he assessed his new power, and knew he grew much stronger than what he imagined before. His enemies were all at dark gold grade, and killing a few using his weaker technique was great.

    He repeatedly used this technique for ten minutes consecutively. During this, his four monstrous weapons kept killing enemies all over the walls, and even on the ground. They jumped off the walls when William switched gears and started to stop the influx of masters towards the walls.

    *Boom!*

    And just in the middle of his spree of fighting, a bolt of a blue coloured ball dropped all of sudden over him. He noticed something shing brightly in blue light, and he didn''t stand his ground to wait and see what it was.

    The moment he saw that sh, he felt a bad premonition. Without even hesitating, he jumped off the walls andnded on the ground in the middle of tons of enemies.

    And then a fierce explosion urred, one that wasn''t any weaker from his strongest strike by the Holy Sword technique.

    "Damn! They have a Troll Tower?!!" The moment he saw the destruction caused by this bolt, spotted the weirdly dancing blue mes that started to invade other parts of the walls, and he turned his head towards the direction this shot got fired from.

    There he spotted arge dark blue tower, one that had a blue ball of fire on top of it. The ball of fire looked like it was suspended in midair, not attached to the tower by anything, and yet it was stable and didn''t fall or shift right or left.

    The moment his eyesnded on that tower and he felt a cold grip holding his heart. This was a fierce war weapon, one that could crack any defences and kill any foe no matter how strong he was.

    The deadliest part of it was the Troll mesing out from the Troll Eye on top of that tower. As long as that eye was intact, the mes it spread all over the ce wouldn''t die down, would keep burning without an end.

    "Howe they have this?" William knew the tower was deeply situated in the middle of a group of big hills, hard to detect actually from outside. If not for the bolt that came out from it just now, he''d have missed it.

 Chapter 1013 His Friends Response

    ?

    "On me!" the moment he recognised that tower and he knew what he had to do. The moment any master spotted such an infamous war weapon, he had to first do everything in his power and take it down.

    William called on his four monstrous weapons, and together the five of them cut through waves of enemies without any hesitation.

    "What is he doing?" as everyone was watching what their master was doing, they all got startled by what he was doing. Instead of heading towards the gate nearby, lowering the bridge, and letting them in, he headed directly towards the heart of that fort.

    "Is he trying to kill more of them to make our entry a bit easier?" another guild master asked before the stronger ones started to educate them.

    "He won''t let us in," this was the same conclusion all the strong masters here reached, as William''s friends, "These enemies¡­ The weakest is at mid-stage dark gold grade. It''s a battle we can win, not something we should get ourselves involved within the first ce!"

    "But¡­" Barry turned to Anjie, and thetter sighed.

    "She is right," Sara hated saying such words, but she knew like many others here that what William was doing was right, "he won''t let us in. and he had to deal with them himself."

    "Alone?!" Berry wasn''t the only one terribly worried over William, but she realised like others how futile and hopeless it was to dream about barging their way in there to help.

    If they ever did that, they''d not just fail to help but would turn into a heavy burden on him. "We need to do something to help him," she turned to Anjie and Lara, before adding in a tone that held more plea than ever, "Can you call for your strongest masters here? Can you help in saving him?"

    "I''ll call you Sloth!"

    "I''ll call the city leaders, this ce must be burnt before the arrival of those monsters."

    The two girls didn''t just say their pieces, they took out Message Papers and started to ry the news over.

    At the same time, others went around, gathering up an elite force of all the strongest masters in their guild. There wasn''t enough to win the war, but there was enough to help William and relieve lots of pressure off him.

    As his friends were trying their best to help, William was dealing with tons of enemies, blocking his path toward that Troll tower.

    He faced fierce resistance from them. Even with the presence of four monstrous weapons on his side, on the same level of power as him, using his techniques, it was quite hard to move forward.

    "F*ck it!" As he knew their aim was to dy him until that tower would charge up, something that usually took around ten up to half an hour, he didn''t hesitate anymore, took his bow and arrows, before releasing a rain of his explosive arrows armed with grenades.

    The moment he released his newly made grenades using the arrows, waves of deadly explosions erupted all over the ce. Each explosion was enough to cover hundreds of metres of distance in a big dome-shaped explosion. And that greatly cut the influx of enemies towards him, lowering the pressure he felt to a high degree.

    "Keep pushing forward," as if he was shouting to an army following him, William shouted to push himself forward. He was moving under great pressure, facing every enemy as he was facing a life and death moment.

    They were strong, all of them were hellishly strong. They all used deadly dark-based techniques, ones that he had to counter by repeatedly dashing around, andnding his Holy Sword technique when he got the chance.

    As the grenades exploded, he didn''t hesitate to lead his monstrous weapons toward them. He carefullynded them to create enough path for him and his weapons to pass through, leaving narrow space for his enemies to stand.

    But he didn''t know the fierceness of his newly developed grenades until he used them. They expanded much further than he expected, and that left many paths with very narrow space, and many others got obliterated as the explosive balls merged together.

    His grenades kept releasing deadly explosions for long minutes, and this was his long-awaited window to pass through all this.

    Just as he passed through the narrow paths created by his grenades, his spirit sense noticed something. He spread out his spirit sense to pick up any new surprise these enemies would prepare for him. And yet the first weird thing he picked wasn''t from the enemy side, but from his guild''s direction.

    "They areing!" He spotted a group of almost one thousand running towards here, led by all of his friends, even Karoline came. She was considered the weakest one in his friend circle, and yet she dared to follow others inside.

    "Tsk!" He knew they''d struggle to cross that trench if they got anything to help them cross it. He could guess their n already, using earth masters to build up a bridge over that trench. It was a simple n, one with tons of ws.

    The greatest w came from the trench itself. It got corrosive fluid, one that could eat up anything, including rocks! And that meant they had to run fast over the bridge, while the earth-based masters would keep building and repairing the damaged bridge.

    At the same time, the enemies on top of the walls wouldn''t let them build that bridge and walk towards it without intervening or fighting back. The area they selected to cross was one that got hit by that Troll me hit. It crushed down an entire section of the walls, ending up creating a big hole out there.

    The path looked paved for them to cross, but there were still tons of masters standing on top of the walls. And those were the main problems they''d have to face.

 Chapter 1014 Pushing Towards The Tower

    ?

    "Let me give you a helping hand," William dyed his advance until his friends drew closer from the trench. The moment that happened, he released lots of his arrows, releasing them one by one to make each arrow cross the distance to the walls,nd, and explode fiercely over the heads of the forces back there.

    His attack came just in time with the arrival of his friends and masters of his guild. When they saw the arrowsnding and exploding fiercely, they all got that William saw through their intentions, and he was agreeing with their decision.

    "Let''s go! The boss is helping us even in such a situation! Don''t let us look bad in front of him!" Sara, who acted like the temporary leader of this team and the entire guild in William''s and Ibra''s absence, shouted to re the mes of fighting inside all of them.

    William watched them build up the bridge as they expected. Even if his grenades helped, there were still many dark masters who attacked them. The deadliest attacks came from the few remaining ballistae scattered all over the walls. And once he spotted these, he aimed his arrows and hit all of them in session.

    Yet the damage these ballistae caused was severe. Many gaps appeared in that bridge, and a few masters fell to their deaths into that trench.

    They didn''t even put up a single struggle to survive, just fell and vanished, leaving behind arge pool of red blood, one that kept growing fast before slowly vanishing.

    "Quite scary! Killing a strong dark gold grade master in a single second! That''s insane!" William sighed, knowing that he did everything he could to help them, and they had to depend on themselves from now on to survive and join him.

    As they crossed the trench atst, he finally returned to push forward. He knew there were many enemies back there and they''de and try to kill his friends. But as they decided to join him, they had to fight and do their part.

    As for him, he''d take the frontline toll and shoulder most of the deadliest enemies here. As he returned to advance forward, he released tons of his arrows and grenades, either around him or back to help his friends and guild masters.

    The moment their feet touched the ground, they were weed by a tsunami of fierce enemies. They didn''t fret, as they already saw everything from far, and knew what they threw themselves into.

    They did just like how William envisioned, fought fiercely back, secured a spot, before moving forward, trying to catch up with him.

    They faced strong resistance, but it was nothingpared to what William faced before. And when thetter released his grenades toward their direction, the pressure they faced greatly decreased, and they could finally breathe.

    As they started to roll on, they gained momentum. The guild masters had a tacit understanding between themselves, and William''s friends knew each other quite well.

    So the two worked fine with each other. While William kept pushing forward, they managed to pass through the initial hurdle, then started to pick up the pace.

    They started to close in the distance, especially when they finally arrived at the exploding grenade zone. The dark masters tried to fill the gaps to surround and stop him, ending up getting squeezed between him and them. In less than ten minutes the two sides finally met, and William couldn''t help but give them an appraisal look.

    "You did great this time," he psaised on the decision they took, "but I can''t promise it''s going to be an easy run."

    "We faced worse," Langughed, and others nodded while smiling or chuckling, "but¡­ Why are you going all of a sudden towards the heart of them? This is going to end up getting surrounded, any ns here that I missed?"

    "See that tower?" William pointed towards a direction that all missed even when they were close to it. They got no me for that, after all it was well hidden behind the tall hills, "that''s our target."

    "Seize or destroy?" Sara asked.

    "Destroy," William paused, "and we need to do this in the next five minutes at most."

    "Let''s go then," Ro waved her swords, the same as how Ibra used to do with his ive, "let''s kill those mtherfckers and take that thing down!"

    Crossing the remaining distance to the hills didn''t take more than two minutes from them. William just released his grenades around, and they did the rest.

    As he had such a grand boost to his followers, he shifted and used the old grenades instead. At the same time, he made sure to spread his grenades over a much wider area, increasing the area between the explosive zones to amodate hundreds walking side by side.

    Like this they all marched in one big group, heading towards the hills. The moment they arrived there, Anjie shouted:

    "The top of through?"

    "The top!" William looked at the tower before adding, "You cover me from up there, stop any iing enemy and prevent them from taking the high ground."

    "You¡­"

    "There is no time for that," he rolled his eyes, stopping anyone from bringing this topic again to the table, "let''s go! We have less than three minutes to do it!"

    He didn''t stand there for a single second, and dashed forward, forcing his way through the enemies using his brute force, his monstrous weapons, and his grenades.

    He didn''t spare anything to reach the tower. He passed through a wide passage in between the hills, killing anything that stood in his path until he finally arrived at the tower.

    "This will be the furthest you''ll reach," and before that tower, there was a master d in ck armour, holding a giant scythe in one hand, a big rounded shield in the other, "and this will be the end of your journey and adventure!"

    "I beg to differ," William could tell this master was at least at high stage dark gold grade, or even higher.

 Chapter 1015 The Troll Heel

    ?

    Before entering the dark gold grade, he wouldn''t dare to confront such foes. And now he wasn''t afraid from fighting against him.

    "Let''s see what you got then," the dark master started with a darkness technique that summoned a gigantic tornado of darkness that enveloped both of them, "in here, you are a mosquito waiting to get crushed¡­"

    "Not on this day!" William didn''t hesitate and turned back to one tail form, using the lightning technique, before dashing forward without caring for anything else.

    He didn''t need to kill that master now, and he doubted he had the ability to do so. But trying to survive and escape from here wasn''t a problem for him. Using the nemesis spirit element against darkness, he managed to prate through that ck tornado like a true bolt of lightning. And the gap he passed through got expanded and ate away a lot of that darkness.

    The dark master inside was shocked by that. He watched William fight from the start and knew he was at best at mid-stage dark gold grade.

    He was at the high stage himself, a few steps away from entering the pinnacle stage. Not to mention he was blessed with an innate spirit body, one that would be activated alongside using his techniques and elements.

    His darkness element was one of the purest in any dark master he saw so far, and he got a bright future lying ahead as many of the more formidable masters told him. All that made him sure he could entrap William here, at least, until that tower would end recharging and hit that annoying master and take him down.

    But that never happened. William used a lightning element, and in such a pure and concentrated level to be enough to crush his darkness element like fire meeting dried-up weed. He looked in disbelief towards that gap William created for a few seconds, and all William needed was these seconds before he arrived at the base of this tower.

    "Time to dig," as he arrived there, he left his four monstrous weapons which followed him closely all the time, to start digging the ground and creating a wide tunnel. At the same time, he didn''t forget to dash a few times before releasing a Holy Sword technique with his lightning element only.

    It was hard to do it with just one element, but he got enough spirit power to arm it up and released a shot like an arrow, made out of lightning, and mmed at that gigantic ck tornado with the dark master within.

    Just when that dark master was about to follow and stop him, William''s attacknded. And that was just the beginning of a brutal series of grenade explosions that William released using his arrows.

    "Keep digging," William shouted at his monstrous weapons, "find that damn core, and hit it with everything you got!"

    When he modified the old two and built the new ones, William made sure to add extra space, enough to store up elixirs within for their usage. He filled these spaces to the brim with elixirs, and that made him able to fight crazily like this without worrying about recharging them.

    The Troll Tower was something infamous from the outer world. To build it, one had to sacrifice tons of masters and built a tower around something close to a ughterhouse.

    The tower would absorb the spirit powering from the deceased masters,bine them together, and form its eye at the top of it. Anyone not knowing much about it would mistake that eye to be the most important part in the tower, or perhaps the entire tower itself.

    But they didn''t know none of these mattered. No matter how hard they tried, the tower would rebuild itself in mere minutes like it was immortal or something.

    The weak spot of it was the core, the thing that got formed at the same time as the eye. Some called it the Troll Heart, and others called it the Troll Heel, but William didn''t care about names.

    The core wasn''t something fragile, but it got formed of very condensed and highly sturdy naturally formed ores. It was filled with a ton of spirit power, and taking it down was always a time-consuming process.

    Yet William decided to try and destroy it using his four monstrous weapons. They weren''t weak, and there was a possibility that trying to build the tower here in this world would turn it weak.

    He kept releasing his technique while his four monstrous weapons dug the ground deeper. The core was usually around one hundred metres below the surface, and they had to dig through hardyers of rocks that were strengthened by tons of spirit power.

    "Use your techniques, dig using everything you got," he shouted again when he noticed that his enemy wasn''t that damaged after getting hit by all of his attacks.

    The only thing that stopped that dark master was his lightning element, and that alone wasn''t enough to badly damage that man. William knew sooner orter, that dark master woulde and attack him. And that made William quite impatient towards his four monstrous weapons.

    At the same time, his friends were having a brutal fight as well. As they went to the top of the hills, they found lots of strong masters lying there in wait, holding tons of ballista, and waiting for William to get a bit deeper so they''d close the and kill him.

    "Attack!"

    "Protect boss!"

    The moment they saw these ballistae and everyone knew what was going to happen. The vices shouted, and everyone sprung forward, heading to meet thousands of dark masters up ahead.

    They were outnumbered, and all of their enemies were top-grade dark masters. They struggled to stop the enemies from killing any of them while trying to take down as many ballista as they could.

    Yet many of them started to fall, and the only good news was that they killed much more of their enemies in return.

 Chapter 1016 The Lightning Formation

    ?

    There was a nice trick that Karoline identally discovered, which was by kicking the enemies off the hills when she got surrounded by three of them.

    Sara handled one, Berry stopped the second, while the third got no one to stop him. But unlike what anyone expected, Karoline jumped in the air all of sudden, kicked him in the chest, and sent him flying backward.

    She wasn''t strong enough to harm this master, but her kick sent the man flying, crossing the edge of the hill they were standing upon, before free-falling to his doom, down to the ground.

    "Let''s do this!" as everyone saw this, they realised they could use this method to solve many problems here. And once they started doing this, they picked up pace again, gained momentum, and started pushing through lots of dark masters.

    Yet they weren''t able to cover up the entire ce in the short time they had. William was already standing at the tower base when he got attacked with many arrowsing from different directions.

    "Come on! What are you doing up there?!" He knew his friends and selected elites of his guild masters had it harsh at first, but now they were pushing with everything they got. However, he wasn''t in the situation to allow for such a distracting attack toe.

    He had to exert more attention towards these arrows, they came fast, and exploded fiercely on the ground, creating holes there. So he had to move and zigzag left and right, while his attacks at that dark master got decreased.

    "Got you!" the moment he lowered his attack speed rate, he knew he was done for. The dark master high-end master wasn''t some weak enemy or something, and he''d not waste such a chance.

    Yet the moment he spotted that dark mastering, William didn''t jump forward to meet up with him. Instead, he jumped backward, and retreated for hundreds of metres, while enduring a few arrowsnding on him.

    "Don''t think about running away, you are going down now!" The dark master knew how bad William''s situation was. And he already envisioned taking the life of this annoying weakling. Yet William didn''t respond, dashed backward for a few hundred metres again, while his eyes were fixed on the dark master.

    "You are going to hit the tower next, or do you think that tunnel will lead you out of here? Hahaha!"

    "Now! Do it!" in the middle of that dark master''s words, William shouted, and then something appeared. It was like a blue ball of lightning emerging from the ground, and it wasn''t just one, but four!

    "You¡­" the dark master seemed startled by that. His spirit sense just focused on William, missed or didn''t care about what the four monstrous weapons were doing. And that was mainly because he didn''t know how this tower initially worked, or what it was his weakest spot.

    When William realised that he wouldn''t be able to stop that dark master alone and keep him away, he decided to take the risk. He could see his friends leading masters to circle the entire hill zone, and soon enough all these annoying ballistae would stop firing. So he got to buy himself and others little time here.

    And that was why he controlled his four monstrous weapons and let them take detours, appearing at the right moment,ing up from one direction each. The five of them were now forming a big five-star array, and that dark master was just in the middle of it.

    "Do you think this will work again?" the dark master realised what came out from the underground, and noticed how they all were using a lightning element, burning it while using some sort of a technique.

    "Yes, I believe so," William''s icily cold tonended, while he ced both hands together, closed in the fingers on each other, before hended his hands as if he was hitting someone with a fist or something.

    At the same time, the other five monstrous weapons did the same, all releasing lightning elements, while William muttered something in a weird tongue, ending it with these words: "... The lightning is my body, my life, the enemy of my enemies, the nemesis of darkness¡­ Strike!"

    It wasn''t a technique, but a unique form of a small formation made up of five masters, using the same spirit element, Lightning.

    It was known as the Lightning God Strike, and it was a pretty fierce formation. Its only draw side was that it''d deplete one''s mental strength by arge margin. Using it in a battle would render anyone weak for a few hours before he''d regain and recover slowly.

    Trying to push during such a weakness would end up with a very bad result. Not to mention the fighting prowess of anyone who used that formation would greatly decrease. Yet William had to risk doing it.

    He had to either flee, fight and risk his life and death with that dark master, or use this formation. As his enemy was using darkness, then he knew that enemy wouldn''t keep his scary fighting powers after using this formation.

    The moment he shouted these words and the entire world around the dark master changed and became bright blue. The dark master already surrounded himself with a thickyer of ck fog, protecting himself from any iing annoying lightning elements.

    He was sure whatever William would use wouldn''t stop him, and he soon realised how greatly mistaken he was. That teenager didn''t use the same level of power he used all this time against him but showed a much higher level of strength.

    The moment he got engulfed in that bright blue storm-like cloud, he could hear sizzling soundsing from all over him. He knew his darkness protective shield was getting eaten away. And that was just the beginning of the worst for him.

    The next minute, tons of lightning already struck him and that darkness clouded.

 Chapter 1017 Trying To Trick Him

    ?

    As the dark master was entrapped with that blue lightning cloud like being squeezed by it, he felt like all the lightning strikes were aiming specifically and perfectly for him.

    He tried to resist and fight back, but everything he used got negated and evaporated under the brutality of lightning. He suffered one hit after another, and this time his body showed its advantage as being a high-end dark gold master.

    He didn''t suffer much damage actually, yet with each lightning strike he felt like part of his spirit power would get burnt away, and there was an additional annoying numbing effect that assaulted him, umted with each strike, ending up greatly impacting his reactions and responses.

    William didn''t need to use his spirit sense to know how bad that master was experiencing right now. He knew his current level of power wasn''t enough to badly hurt that dark master, but he was aiming at putting him into a long sleep.

    The moment the formation got activated, he and the other four had to remain in their locations, not move an inch. They provided the formation with more lightning spirit elements and power, while William controlled the lightning falling on top of that dark master''s head.

    Using spirit sense, he could see how that man''s responses started to grow sluggish and slow. Soon enough, the man couldn''t stand erect, fell on one knee, then on two. And when that happened, William didn''t need to strike a wide area and focused over the head of that master.

    If anyone was looking at this scene from afar, the thing that many masters on both sides were doing right now, they''d get both scared and shocked.

    His friends and guild masters shouted in triumph, gained a huge push from seeing their boss dealing with such a scary dark master without suffering much, and he even was crushing him!

    They pushed harder, killed more of their enemies, and destroyed more of the annoying ballistae. They even managed to im many of these, and stored them in their rings, alongside the loot they collected from the dead dark master which became a naturally gifted habit and talent for all of them.

    What made their task much easier was the negative blow of watching their leader of this area get crushed like this in front of a mere early-stage dark gold-grade master. They lost their will to fight, and many already ran back and retreated to join other forces around the ce.

    In the next five minutes, the task William asked his friends and guild masters to do got done. And yet there was a new challenge awaiting them.

    A dense number of dark masters appeared a couple of minutes ago. They gathered up, regrouped under the lead of a new leader, and wereing towards William and them from all directions.

    "Let us handle the hills," Sara shouted, "let our mighty boss handle the ground, and we''ll keep these hills secure."

    "It''s his way out after dealing with that dark master and weird tower," Berry shouted, "let''s make it clear and safe for him!"

    As they started to shift their attention to fight the iingrge number of dark masters, it was time to let them suffer from the same bitter medicine they gave to them before.

    They took all the ballistae they got so far, and started to attack the enemies from high ground. This was something new for all of them, and they experienced how deadly and impressively effective such a war weapon was in the face of arge number of enemies.

    William was closely watching his enemy, but he was also paying attention to the world around him. When he spotted the iing dark masters, he knew this was going to be tough. The dark master entrapped in the middle of his formation didn''t issue a single sound or a move for more than a minute now. But he knew he was just faking it.

    It wasn''t hard for such an experienced dark master to guess William''s true aim from doing this. And so he tried to trick the youngster about the sess of his move, pushing him to end it a bit earlier than it should be.

    William didn''t fall for such a trick, but the iing dark masters were something he had to deal with soon enough. Before he''d make the hard decision of shutting down his formation, he saw what his friends and guild masters did.

    "Great job! Just in time, hahaha!" He spotted them using ballistae, and raining down deadly arrows over the heads of their enemies. Just by using these ballistae, the dark master''s fierce momentum got halted and they couldn''t get close to the valley he was in.

    They focused most of their fire to stop the enemies from getting close to him. He did this to buy them little time, and they were now repaying the favour.

    As he got nothing to worry about for now, he returned to totally attack that dark master with everything he had. The dark master inside could tell his enemy didn''t fall for his little scheme, so he decided to try something futile.

    He tried to run! Yet William was prepared for this. The moment that dark master tried to dash out, moving like an arrow released from a bow, he got mmed heavily by a fierce blow of lightning that appeared just on the trajectory he selected.

    There weren''t many targets here anyway. That dark master had to select between William and his four monstrous weapons. And the target he selected was quite clear to William from the start; it was him.

    So the moment that dark master finally opened his eyes and was about to make his move, William instantly shifted the direction of his lightning strikes, letting them fall over the path leading towards him.

    The dark master went speechless from such a timely response. He underestimated William, and thest thing he thought about before losing his consciousness for real this time was how could such a young master have such vast and rich battle experience.

 Chapter 1018 The Troll Heart

    ?

    "He is down¡­ Phew! I thought this was going to take forever," William was about to heave a sigh of relief when he noticed something, "damn! That tower¡­ go deep, get me that damn heart now!"

    The top of the tower suddenly started to shine out of the blue. This meant the tower was getting close to releasing its deadly attack. William knew he had little time left, and he even jumped into the tunnel with his four monstrous weapons, all five of them were fighting against the sturdy rocks and ground to get deeper.

    He nned to let the four monstrous weapons handle that heart, but there was no time for such a thing now. All he could do was to try and store this heart away, hopefully, this would help.

    As he joined the digging team, the speed to dig the ground increased by a huge margin. They kept getting deeper and crossing ten metres every few seconds. "Please just wait, wait until I''m there," William muttered while he didn''t know where that damn heart was.

    The next minute was really stressful, not only for him but for everyone. The moment the tower shone brightly and all the dark masters turned around, made a run for their lives. They didn''t care anymore about these enemies, didn''t care about the ordersing from their leaders. They all witnessed how deadly that tower strike was, and they wouldn''t dare to stick close to it when that strike wouldnd.

    "William¡­'''' As their enemies retreated on their own ord, everyone moved their eyes away from them, looking at the deathly quiet tunnel next to the tower base while the tower''s ball on top of it was shining brighter with every passing second.

    They all saw this scene from afar, and being this close made them realise how scary such an iing attack was going to be. They didn''t know if they were going to get in the middle of this hit or not, but all they could do right now was to trust their friend, boss, and trust William.

    William was racing against time here, using everything he had to dig deeper. He didn''t know how long he had, but he felt like the attack wouldnd over him at any given second.

    "There!" just when he reached deep enough to spot the heart, he felt like the ground around was shining with bright blue light, "damn! It''s attacking! Come back here!"

    The first thing he did was to call back his monstrous weapons, then he threw himself over that brightly shining grand diamond piece, releasing different lights.

    He didn''t have time to check over this heart, and simply threw himself and took it away in his ring.

    "Damn! It''s not moving!" William tried to pull it, but thatrge diamond didn''t budge an inch, "don''t tell me I have to dig all the ground around¡­"

    He just managed to expose part of it, while the rest was still attached to the rocks around. When he failed to move it away, he started to rain down his techniques over it without restraint.

    No matter what technique it was, as long as it got an offensive power, he used it. The ground around started to crack, showing something like a spider web, while he kept hitting everything he got.

    He knew this wasn''t even close to half of his fighting prowess before using that formation. But it was still worth the attempt. He had to stop that dark master, or else he''d be barbecued up there with that deadly strike.

    The ground all around shone in bright blue colour, and William knew sooner orter a hole would appear and he''d get a direct hit from that weapon.

    What he didn''t know was that this wasn''t a simple strike from the Troll Tower. The ones controlling it knew all the ins and outs of it, and knew about the weak spot it had.

    That was why they sent such a high-end dark master to stop him and get stationed there. But when that dark master failed, they tried to keep him busy by sending tons of their forces.

    They never expected their forces to get cold feet, and run away the moment they spotted the earliest sign of that tower getting activated. They also didn''t ce the small team on the hills in their eyes, not until they used the ballistae and managed to stop the huge influx of masters towards them.

    As everything failed, and they watched William going into the deep tunnel, they decided to give it all. They didn''t just release a single strike, but continuously poured their spirit power to fire up a long shot of this tower.

    William was already deep enough to be safe from a normal strike. But right now, things were heading down a dangerous path ahead. And the worst thing was that he didn''t know that, and his friends and guild masters couldn''t help.

    The only way out was by taking down that heart as soon as possible. But the task of digging the ground alone was quite tiring and took much longer than what he initially expected.

    "The rocks around it are really sturdy! But it''s now clear¡­ Oh, it''s connected to the tower by this pir? Is that why I couldn''t move it?"

    When he just removed thest piece of rock around that heart, the one on top of it, he found a thick roding down towards the diamond heart, fixing it in ce.

    He didn''t need to try to know this rod was the thing that stopped him from taking the heart away. "Fine! I find it hard that such a silly rod can stop my Holy Sword¡­"

    He examined that rod and found out it was made of special alloy but it didn''t look that hard. It was indeed more difficult than the rocks he crushed before, but it wasn''t that indestructible!

    The only problem he had was that hecked enough space to arm up his technique.

 Chapter 1019 William Is Unconscious!

    ?

    William was sure if he got enough space and time, he''d be able to take it down without any hustle.

    But hecked both. And so he decided to go straight forward, attacking this rod one time after another. As hecked the scary stacking ability of his, he decided to use all the weapons he could, the best of all.

    Even that scythe he collected from the unconscious dark master above was used. Per habit, he didn''t miss collecting his loot, the gears, and rings from that dark master.

    *Bang!* *Bang!*

    One hit after another issued loud banging noises. Yet the loudest came from high above. The attack was cutting the groundyer byyer, melting the rocks, and turning them into weird red-blueva. Theva fell through the tunnel and gaps in the rocks around, and he had to take Charley out to shield him.

    "Keep this filth away!" he left Charley to do this, while he continued batting his weapons against that pir.

    At first, nothing much happened except for the loud noises. But after twenty attacks, fine cracks started to appear there. The moment he spotted these, he focused all his attacks on that point, further weakening it.

    He kept dashing around non-stop and didn''t even take a single moment of rest. He gulped three elixir bottles just in one minute, a scary consumption rate indeed. But he wanted to push his depleted and currently low spirit power up, trying to make up for the lost power from the lightning formation he used.

    *Sizzle!*

    Just when the cracks deepened and thickened, he heard loud sizzling noisesing from the rocks above his head. "It''sing¡­ Smash to pieces, dammit!" He knew he had little time left, and in the middle of such a critical moment, he summed up power he didn''t know where it came from.

    If he was looking at himself right now, he''d be shocked to see the shadow everyone spoke about and he didn''t see it getting brighter. The sudden surge of power came from that spirit he got himself connected to, and it felt like his life was linked to that spirit''s, and it got forced to help him in such a disastrous moment.

    *Boom!*

    With just two strikes, that rod smashed into tiny pieces. William didn''t even heave a sigh of relief, didn''t even shout for celebration, as the world around was turning brightly blue. He could feel his body getting hotter as if it was subjected to a star directly or something.

    Once he spotted that rod smashed into tiny pieces, he extended both arms and touched the diamond heart. "Get in!" he roared, and then everything went nk in front of him.

    He managed to grab that heart, but it was a bit toote. The deadly attacking from the towernded on top of him and Charley. Thetter got destroyed and melted in mere seconds, while the former fell to the ground unconscious.

    If not for that bright golden shadow enveloping him, William would have died at this moment. Yet he lost his consciousness, and everyone watching this knew about it.

    "We need to hurry!" The moment his friends and guild masters saw the tower crack and fall on its own, and saw that scary blue light fading away, they moved their spirit sense toward the tunnel. They couldn''t see anything before thanks to the brutality of that blueser-like beam of light. And now they could see it clearly.

    They saw the moment when William''s body mmed and hit the ground. He remained there, not moving a muscle. Even his breath looked a bit ragged and irregr, giving all of them a scare.

    They didn''t feel themselves, and shouted at each other before running directly towards that tunnel. At the same time, the leaders of the dark master forces here knew this was the chance to take these annoying flies down.

    They instantly gave the order, and even before William''s friends and guild masters would cross half distance downwards, they spotted the huge number of dark mastersing.

    "I''m staying back!"

    "Go, I''ll keep them busy!"

    "Hurry up and save the boss!"

    The males shouted while Wiim''s girls didn''t stop for even one second. Bringing William back wasn''t that hard a task to pull. And so most of the masters here returned back to the top of the hills, controlled their ballistae, and fired tons of arrows toward the iing enemies.

    They didn''t wait for them to get close this time,unched the arrows far and fast, hitting the army thousands of metres away from William''s ce.

    "Easy, let''s carry him together," when the girls arrived at the depth of that tunnel, which now turned out to be a big hole, they first examined him. Anjie took out a top-ss healing elixir, while Lara gave him one made out of the materials found in the underground city.

    Sara and Berry stuffed spirit power regeneration elixirs into his mouth, as the two knew him the longest. They knew how addicted William was to such elixirs, and the first thing that popped into their heads was to use these.

    Then they started to slowly lift him, before running as they could, with the most care to not let his body tremble or feel anything while climbing up their way to the top.

    When they arrived up there, all they could see was densely packed dark masters trying to barge their way toward the valley. If not for the ballistae, things would have gone south for them and William.

    Yet they all knew this was a temporary solution. They got limited ammo in the first ce. They just looted the few dark masters they killed on top of the hills, while most of them were thrown off to die from the fall.

    "You go, we''ll gather the arrows from the dead," as they saw the current situation, Anjie took the first step, while Lara, Ro, Lina, and the other girls followed suit.

 Chapter 1020 Paying A Lifetime Debt!

    ?

    They left him in the hands of Sara and Berry. The two wanted nothing more than to secure William to the top of the hills, and then they''d go down there and help others to collect arrows.

    They all knew without the need to talk that their lives, William''s life, were now depending on how many arrows they got. Yet the moment they went up there, they found a piece of bitterly shocking news.

    "The arrows are about to finish?!!" The two of them looked at the masters and friends around. Without the need to say anymore, they all knew what to do.

    "We''ll leave him here in your care," Thomas said, before Lang added, "we''ll go down there and stop them. Make sure¡­ Make sure the boss is going to be ok and get out safely from this."

    The atmosphere went all down by these words. Many masters here didn''t say anything, while all looked at William as if they were saying their goodbyes to their legendary leader.

    "Thanks, boss for everything you did for us," just before they''d all leave, one of them suddenly turned, bowed deeply towards William''s direction, "I won''t say I feel bitter for ending my adventure here at such an age, but I have to say the past few years were a hellish ride with you. You inspired me with things I never dreamt to think about or feel, made me take revenge over my enemies, feel safe and strong for the first time ever in my life. Please, stay safe, keep living, and don''t feel sad for any of us."

    "You helped us before, and stood by our side when you didn''t need to. And today, such a debt is going to get repaid."

    "Thanks, boss!"

    "Thanks, boss!"

    All of them cupped their hands, and bowed deeply, while memories of the time they met William surfaced in their heads. Many just joined the guild and followed him recently, but there were a lot who stayed by William''s side for years. It was true, especially for those old friends of his, the ones William first handpicked when he was weak and young when no one ever heard his name or trusted whatever he said and promised.

    All the things they experienced together appeared and shed in their minds at this moment. They all felt a warmth deep down their spirits and realised for the first time how deeply indebted they were to him.

    And with such intense feelings, they threw themselves off the hills, running fast towards their enemies. Even if they were going to pay their lives for it, they were totally willing and epting this. All they asked for was tost a bit longer,st long enough, and kill too many of the enemies, enough to let William get out of here.

    Theynded on their enemies and used their deadliest techniques right from the start. They imagined what William would do if he was in their shoes, and took tons of elixirs out, and gulped them without even reserving any for the future.

    They threw grenades, explosive arrows, and dangerous ores like the vibrants. They did everything exactly like how William did and decided to exhaust all their ring''s content down to thest war supply, as they all gained these thanks to William.

    They didn''t want the enemy to get his hands on a single scarp of any war item, even the weapons they got were taken out, thrown like they were darts or knives, hitting masters all over the ce.

    Yet they were few, and their enemies were endless! After half an hour, they started to suffer wounds, and slowly few started to fall down.

    That didn''t discourage them. Instead with every member of them falling down, they got pumped up, shouting: For boss! And then the me of fighting burning inside their spirits caught another surge.

    The enemies facing them felt shocked and terrified by this bunch of masters. Even the leaders who watched all this from far felt cold shivers down their spines when they watched this scene.

    It wasmon to see masters fall down on their hands, but it was the first time to meet real lions like them. The more they killed them, the more they got more courage and grew stronger, as if losing any of them was like losing a part of their family, like opening a door locked up, gushing out power from an unknown source.

    "It''s indeed remarkable how that youngster managed to turn these masters into such a state¡­" Just as everyone was fighting without care over themselves, when they lost one-third of their numbers, and the rest were already riddled with different wounds, a weird sound erupted, making the entire battleground freeze.

    It wasn''t just for hearing such a voice, but because all of sudden, an irresistible force appeared, one that was so suffocating to all.

    And then shes appeared, and many silhouettes came out of the blue. When everyone saw them, William''s friends and guild masters recognised few.

    "Sloth!"

    Anjie was already on her way to the top of the hills, bringing all the rings she collected. All of them contained arrows, and she already knew what was going on.

    Just seeing their friends andrades throw away their lives to protect their boss, their man, drove all the girls crazy. They all worked harder than they could usually do, collected everything, and returned fast toward the hills.

    Yet midway, they saw thousands of new faces appearing, with few known figures among them. They were the kingdom''s elite forces, the high-end masters sent from the other world to safeguard the talented youngsters sent to William.

    There were also a few leaders there as well! After all this time, the few who returned back with their captives caught wind of the news, learnt about the deadly situation William was facing.

    They gathered up arge team of high-end masters, raced the wind, and pushed themselves over the limit to arrive here just in time. And they truly arrived at the darkest hour.

 Chapter 1021 Are You Crazy?!!!

    ?

    William was already unconscious, his friends and guild masters were either dead, wounded, or scattered to collect things from the dead. Seeing all this made them feel terrible, feel great rage, one that made them release their spirit power uncontrobly like this.

    There were ten thousand of them here, almost one-fourth of the entire city''s strongest spirit master count. They appeared on top of the hills, coldly looking at the dark masters down below, feeling more disgust and hatred towards them.

    "Attack!" Sloth shouted it first, and then everyone followed. They didn''t need to say anything else, didn''t need to ask about what happened to make things reach such a dire situation.

    When they got Lara''s distressful call, it was just when William was entrapped in the middle of the enemies. He was safe and sound, and many things changed since then.

    If the youngsters put such an effort and did all that to crush the enemies, then it was expected how these old and more formidable masters would do. They all used their top and deadliest techniques from the start and didn''t preserve anything.

    They joined the fight as if they were fighting the strongest and fiercest enemy they''d ever faced in their entire lives. The barrage of attacksnded, and things changed by then.

    The dark masters felt their legs grow feeble and numb, and they struggled to even fight back, or even run away. Tons of them fell in the first few waves of attacks, and then the deadly ballistae arrowsnded and imed more of them.

    The tide shifted, and all of them got immersed in killing more enemies. As reinforcements arrived, the masters on the ground became more confident in their ability to pull this through.

    Yet dreaming about winning this battle was something out of pure fantasy. Even to the ones like Sloth and city leaders, they all knew this wasn''t going to happen.

    The dark masters here were a gathering of top-tiered ones, and they knew they had to ept the fact of theirck of power to crush them.

    When they thought back towards the iing monster army, they knew things were going to be bad for them, for the city. They could fight against two monster tides, but not when they got supported by such a scary gathering of high calibre dark masters.

    Their main task now was to kill as many of them as possible and use the chaos they caused to pave a path for them to retreat and walk away. But things didn''t mean to go down that path for them.

    Just after an hour of their arrival, they were this close to giving the order to retreat. They killed enough, and the number of dark masters blocking their path toward the walls and outside was growing thin.

    They felt it, they could make it once they left the hills zone. But just before any of them would react, something new developed.

    "This¡­"

    "It''s the damn crystal!"

    The leaders who spotted the opening of the monster gates from these crystals recognised what was going on right on the spot. All of sudden, two gates opened, releasing an explosive wave of monsters from far away.

    They were spreading their spirit senses already, and such a big thing didn''t escape their senses, didn''t escape all the masters here.

    Seeing this felt like reaching the seventh heaven and falling deep down the hellish abyss once more. They all looked at each other in silence, knowing dreaming about retreat now was impossible.

    As for thinking about pushing forward and killing more monsters¡­ This was far more impossible.

    The situation grew worse all of a sudden. The dark master leaders didn''t want to use these two crystals now and wanted to wait a bit longer until the other two monster tides would arrive here first.

    But they got forced to use them, or else this huge prize would run away. All the masters here were at a high-end stage, and taking them down was enough to weaken the city by almost fifty percent.

    "Let''s try and push together," Sloth and other high-end masters couldn''t help but lean towards such hope. They all knew how fierce and deadly a single monster tide was, and they got two right now.

    They weren''t in the city, didn''t have defences or anything but these hills and mountains. There was nothing in front of these monsters, not to mention the presence of arge number of dark masters who started to flood their way in endless floods.

    The first wave of monsters was drawing closer to them. They had to return and fortify themselves in the hills and mountains while knowing this was all futile. They tried to push their way back towards the walls, ending up getting engulfed in facing tons of dark masters.

    Thetter stoppeding at them from the front, already circled the entire area, and blocked their path for retreat.

    "They want to bury us this time," many masters knew the end was drawing near, "then let our death here be glorious and filled with tons of stories to tell¡­"

    "Who said we are going to die here?" Just when everyone lost hope, William''s voice suddenly rang from their backs. They all turned to him, even the ones far away on the ground fighting deadly battles against dark masters.

    "But¡­" Sara was the nearest one to him. He wasn''t good, didn''t look that great actually. His face was ashen white, and his body trembled like a leaf in the wind.

    He wasn''t in his top condition, not in his good condition at all. Yet he stood tall, and looked at everything happening here, before finally shouting:

    "Make sure to open a path to the walls!"

    "That''s crazy! Don''t you see we can''t do that?!!" Sloth and other masters shouted from far behind, not sure if he woke up sane and fine, or if he was delusional and terribly hurt his head or something.

 Chapter 1022 Let Them Come Inside!

    ?

    "Drive everyone in," as if he didn''t hear them, he turned to Sara and Berry, and shouted in a tone that came feeble and shaky, but was well heard by everyone around, "Let theme inside, and you¡­ You''ll secure a path to the walls by attracting the attention of all the dark masters and monsters here."

    "This¡­"

    "Do you hit your head or something?"

    "Isn''t it enough to lose us? You want to add everyone else?"

    Many shouted and bellowed back in disbelief. But all William did was walk forward, reach the edge of that hill with the support of Sara and Berry, overlooking the valley where everything went south.

    He pointed towards there before shouting again: "We don''t need to be in the city to have fortifications and defences, all we need to do is build them! My guild masters there aren''t strong, not that strong to take part in this battle. But they are talented enough to turn this ce into a fort, one that won''t pale inparison to the city defences¡­"

    He didn''t stop there, started to speak more about his crazy n, "Weck war supplies? Let''s forge them! Do we have broken gears and weapons? Let''s repair and make more then. Do weck potions and elixirs? Let them do it! We need to build towers and trenches, andy down traps all over the ce? Let them have this task, and let us just kill. All we need to do is kill, keep fighting until we kill thest enemy here, and win this goddam war!"

    "..."

    His wordsnded, and all, everyone without exception, realised now how crazily and scarily different William was.

    Everyone could tell and point out the ring issues and problems they had. They all knew what theycked, and yet no one ever had such an idea before.

    In the middle of a war, William wanted to build amunity using everyone he had? Make them build up defences, forge and concoct various items, and make them work to build a small version of the city here?

    One word popped into their heads, all without exception; Insane!

    "What are you waiting for? Let''s do it!" He looked at everyone around, "we need to risk it, either we win and survive together, or fall down here with our heads raised high!"

    His words invoked the excitement of many. They knew alone they wouldn''t survive the iing tsunami of enemies. And so they had nothing to lose.

    Sloth and other high-end masters here knew the real decision makers weren''t them, but the ones at the far back, those standing in safety and had a chance to run away.

    Sara ryed the news to Berry, and they all waited. The choice was indeed hard to make, and the newly arrived masters knew if they ever stood in front of such a decision, then many would prefer to run away.

    "They areing!" and yet the shocking thing happened. It wasn''t just a few of them, but all of them moved. The more shocking fact was that they didn''t take any time to think or reconsider this decision, they simply received the news, and then started running towards the fort.

    "Set the stage for them toe in," William shouted, "Sloth, pick a team and lead them towards there to help if things don''t fall out right."

    "Leave them to me," as they decided to step in, Sloth and others held high respect for them. He selected a few and started moving towards the direction of the walls.

    It wasn''t that great of a distance for the masters of William''s guild to cross. They repeated the same trick Sara and others used to cross the deadly trench, and with theck of the defending dark masters, their passing went out quite smoothly.

    At the same time, the high-end masters pressed hard with everyone, forcing the dark masters around to focus on them and not care about the iing masters.

    It was clear these masters, despite being too much, were quite weak. And that made even the leader of that dark masters'' army not put them in their eyes.

    They heard what William wanted to do, and couldn''t help butugh at their naivety. A bunch of strong masters wanted a swarm of weak ones toe here and share the pressure with them? Fighting against not only high-ss dark masters, but against two deadly monster tides as well? This was quite pathetic.

    And yet when everything pointed out towards them winning this without breaking a sweat, something new happened, William acted!

    He was feeling too weak right now. He didn''t just get hit by that deadly beam, but he suffered such a blow when he got his power halved.

    He was too weak to take part in that war, but he could do something else.

    "Hurry, arm these ballistae''s bolts with these grenades," he might not have made enough of his upgraded version of these grenades, but he got enough of the lower-quality ones, enough to make the enemies shake and even force them back.

    The moment he shouted, he touched his rings and emptied a huge stock of these grenades. There was only Sara and Berry beside him, but soon enough many of the masters who were close by moved.

    Even high-end masters, ones who didn''t belong to the guild, moved as well to help. At such drastic moments, it didn''t matter what grade the master firing the ballista was.

    They all attached the grenades to the bolts, and the high-end masters attached more than one grenade to the same bolt.

    "Let''s do it!" no one needed William to tell them what to do. They all went to the ballistae, and armed these up with the new bolts, before releasing hell over the heads of the enemies.

    The moment these bolts armed with grenades appeared in the picture, everything changed. The explosive powers of these grenades were strong enough to cause problems for the dark masters around.

 Chapter 1023 Using Ten Thousand Master To Make A Formation

    ?

    When the fierce power from the ballistae was added, things became out of control for the enemies.

    Every single bolt exploded, and a huge pir of fire erupted. It wasn''t only that, but the shockwave erupting from it was strong enough to push away all the enemies around in arge area, making it impossible for anyone toe near that area for many minutes.

    With that supporting out to the stage, things became much easier for Sloth and his handful of selected teams to secure a path for the iing masters from outside.

    That wasn''t all! Few of the masters pointed their ballistae toward the iing army of monsters from afar. The monsters were still a long distance away, separated from them by mountains and hills. But with such fierce explosions, the already established paved routes got blocked by tons of rocks, falling from the mountains and hills around.

    Not to mention they killed tons of dark masters using this. Watching all this unfolding didn''t just direct a heavy blow to the dark masters around, but it inspired the fighting masters here with hope.

    They could do it! They all could understand why William didn''t do anything else but call for these masters toe. He wanted to make more of these grenades, and with them, this war could be won.

    Yet they didn''t go over their heads, and didn''t think this would be an easy win. They all expected a brutal fight, one that they''d emerge victorious at the end after paying a heavy price for it.

    William watched all this unfolding without saying anything. He knew and expected such a result, or else he wouldn''t dare to call for hisrge number of guild masters here.

    "Expand, let''s push outward!" Using this moment of chaos and weakness of the enemy, William shouted and everyone followed. They were already pushing the enemies everywhere, and with his shout, they kept doing it harder.

    They pushed the enemies back, covered more mountains and secured more valleys. This was the main aim of William from this shout. He wanted to secure more area for his iing masters to reside in, work and operate without suffering from narrow space.

    The early batches of the guild masters arrived. The first thing everyone thought William would ask them to do was to go inside the valleys, secure the areas inside, and start building defences inside. But unlike what they thought, this wasn''t what William gave as his first order.

    "Spread out, line the outer circle of our masters," he paused, taking his sword out, before adding as a valiant leader, "any dark master or a monster being on the verge of copse, finish them using your strongest technique!"

    The order looked bizarre in the eyes of all, but the masters who arrived here didn''t care and hesitated, moving at once to do what he said.

    And when they reached the frontline masters, everyone was curious about the value of such an order.

    The mastersing here were all at gold grade or lower, not a single one was above that threshold. That left them hopeless and powerless in front of the strong enemies surrounding them.

    However, when they started to do as he asked, when they started to attack the dark masters who were on the verge of dying, everyone could see why he asked these masters to do this.

    If the two sides were fighting directly and head-on, then such an order would be like giving them a suicidal order. But that wasn''t the case. These masters were protected by much stronger masters, and thetter were dealing with the defence and main offence.

    When their targets grew weak, and were close to death, the masters behind them acted and dealt thest blow to kill these dark masters. This helped to save the masters at the forefront of a few spirit powers, let them have few moments to breathe, not to mention they also started to reposition themselves, meeting up with the iing new waves of the dark masters, and then better deal with them.

    Little change and help managed to bring those strong masters at the frontline a great aid. Seeing this made everyone realise something, this battle was going to be different, and William intended to show his true prowess as a prodigy this time.

    Even his long-term friends knew they were going to witness something brand new this time, and they''d have the chance to see how truly special and different William was.

    And that feeling deepened when he gave out his second order with the arrival of the second batch of his guild masters.

    "Listen up, I want you to arrange yourselves in terms of a hundred, scatter around, take the formation of one hundred-headed star."

    "Each master will stand over a single star head?" Sara asked, and William shook his head.

    "The entire team of a hundred masters will stand together, forming a single star head."

    "That means¡­" Everyone knew what William meant, and that made them startled, "You want to use ten thousand masters to form a single formation?"

    "Formations are meant to be made out of a huge number of masters in the first ce," William didn''t have time nor strength to speak back to Sara and Berry, to exin everything to them, "Just make sure to cover up all the distance we control. Gold masters will lead the teams, will use their spirit sense to guide and direct everything."

    "And?" Berry asked, "What will they do?"

    "They won''t," William''s face turned ice cold, "I''ll be the one doing everything here."

    "You¡­ You just came out of aa¡­"

    "Just do it!" William knew Berry was feeling terribly worried about him, but it wasn''t the time to feel that. Everyone''s safety was on the line here, and they had to do what they could to help.

    As he said it, none of the two girls could dissuade him. They knew him long enough to know that if he was dead serious about doing something, then nothing could stop him from doing it.

 Chapter 1024 The Game Changing Formation

    ?

    Not to mention he was right, and they knew it deep down in their spirits. Even if they were deadly worried about him, they had to do as he said.

    Gathering ten thousand masters wasn''t a problem. The guild members who followed them here were in the hundreds of thousands, a number that was enough to form an army on their own. The only drawback in this was theirck of enough power to contend against the enemies here.

    As they ryed the news, the guild members showed another remarkable feature to all the high-end masters here; discipline and order!

    Any other army of masters would take a long time to arrange themselves into the teams William asked for. But in mere minutes, teams got formed, and they stood in their ces as he asked.

    "It''s time to bring these mtherfckers a surprise," William arranged this formation so he''d be in the heart of it. All he did was toy down a smaller version of that one hundred star-shaped formation around him using his blood and different vibrant ores.

    Seeing these ores made the two girls worry even more about him. No matter when or where the moment William started to use these ores, it meant he was going to do something scary and crazy.

    "Ask them to release their spirit powers," he said in a low tone, closing his eyes, while standing in his ce motionless, "let them release their spirit powers and elements, use all the techniques they can. If they got any potions or elixirs, let them use them as well."

    "Fine¡­" the girls ryed the news while retreating for tens of metres away. They didn''t want to do that, but he asked them to. Watching his body faintly tremble as he stood on his own made their hearts clench.

    At this moment, the entire battlefield was heading slightly under their control. The explosive grenades released by the ballistae managed to bring severe damage to the iing monster tide, and to the surrounding dark masters.

    At the same time, the guild masters kepting from outside, heading like an unstoppable flood towards the interior of the fort. Even with theirrge numbers, any sh with the enemies ended in them losing arge number of their masters.

    "Let''s even the odds a little bit," William looked at the iing monster tide from the front, at therge number of dark masters surrounding him and his friends, guild masters, and allies from all sides, looked at the iing guild masters from outside while fighting desperately a losing battle towards the dark masters near the walls, and he became more determined to do it.

    "Make them release everything they got, do it now!" he shouted, and even his voice came shaky and weak, all the masters around heard and heeded by his orders.

    The moment they released their spirit power, elements, and techniques, the entire world around them changed.

    The masters released everything as ordered, and instead of their techniques to move forward, instead of their spirit powers and spirit elements burning around like zing fire, they watched everything move as if they were dragged slowly by some kind of force.

    William''s body was bathed in different coloured mes from the first moment he activated the formation. The blood he left on the ground shone before it started to form some sort of a curtain of red light that started to elevate up and cover him in a bubble.

    He got surrounded, and all the masters making this formation got engulfed by a mixed-coloured gigantic bubble. Seeing this from afar made many stop what they were doing, turn their eyes toward that direction, and wait.

    Be it enemies or allies, everyone felt something grand wasing. The only thing that didn''t get affected by any of that were the monsters. They kept running towards the humans, trying to devour them.

    The iing wave of monsters was severe and huge enough to let the grenades not affect or stop them.

    "Die!"

    But then everyone in the entire fort heard such a majestic voice, one that came from the sky, as if it came from some sort of a god or something. Everyone who knew William knew this was his voice, and hearing iting from the sky,ing in such a majestic and strong way, made them question themselves.

    And what happened next gave them the shock of their lives!

    The moment William''s wordsnded, the sky started to dim. Out of nowhere, whirlpools appeared, small in size, but they were very huge in number. Everyone thought they were going to issue thunder and lightning, or something like that. But that didn''t happen.

    They all watched these whirlpools sh like bolts of lightning, and m against one of the masters on William''s side. When everyone expected pain or something bad to happen to them, they were astonished to see nothing.

    When they looked closer, they noticed the faint circle that surrounded their bodies. It was one at first, but soon enough, it proliferated and became many, covering up almost their entire bodies.

    "Listen up¡­" When they all grew puzzled by this, William''s voice came to exin things to them, "I''m going to support you, not only me but everyone else. Just release your techniques and fight the way you used to. Don''t fret, and you''ll get what I mean when you release your techniques¡­"

    His words didn''t exin anything, but they trusted him. He didn''t justy down these circles around the high-end masters on his side, but over many of his iing guild masters as well.

    He selected ten thousand masters from all over the battlefield, supported them, and let them enjoy something cool.

    "Let''s do it!" Sloth shouted while feeling more pressure by therge influx of the dark mastersing from the front. He was with a small team of his, fighting desperately and trying to protect the iingrge number of the Fox guild masters.

 Chapter 1025 Crushing The Enemies

    ?

    Yet the enemies were too much to handle, too strong to stop, and the iing masters covered up a huge area that was impossible to cover.

    But the moment everyone who had these weird circles surrounding their bodies started to unleash their techniques, they got shocked and scared by what happened.

    Previously, no matter how they tried, they couldn''t even leave a single scratch over the enemies. This was true, especially for the iing Fox guild masters, the ones who got arge gap between them and their enemies.

    But now? When they released a volley of their techniques, they watched their enemies get thrown away, with their bodies getting shredded into many pieces, dying right on the spot!

    It felt like they weren''t fighting dark gold masters, but bronze-grade masters or something!

    "Don''t stop attacking, I can''t hold this formation for long," William''s next shout jolted everyone on his side awake. But the same shock they had was also experienced by the enemies, on a higher scale in fact.

    The humans they were crushing before like weeds transformed! It felt like they gained two grades at least, and became as strong as them, even a bit stronger.

    This was the magical effect of this formation. It would suck all the spirit power, elements, and techniques of everyone taking part of it, gather all this together to form a grand pool of spirit power, one that would be used to augment and strengthen ten thousand masters selected by the one controlling the formation.

    This was a real game-changer! But it has its own downsides as well. The masters making this formation would suffer from a bacsh at the end, suffering a great period of weakness, and wouldn''t be able to fight for a long time.

    They wouldn''t be in grave danger, but their fighting prowess would be greatly diminished, even sealed! Yet that didn''t matter, as in this battle, these masters couldn''t hold a candle in front of their enemies.

    William also knew the time he could lend aid to everyone was limited by the amount of spirit power these masters had. That was why he asked them to use their potions and elixirs if they got any.

    In his best estimate, the longest they couldst on their own spirit power would be no more than five minutes. If they got potions, this could reach seven minutes. If they had elixirs, then it could take up to ten minutes.

    As he knew this, he didn''t want the masters he supported to waste time. And the moment they heard his shout, they all returned to kill their enemies.

    "Push towards the monster army, you have five minutes then retreat!" William shouted, and this time his orders were directed at the masters fighting at the forefront line. They heard him, and without any hesitation dashed forward.

    They could see their techniques reap more lives much faster than before. They knew they had grown stronger, and this was the moment to kill more enemies to relieve the pressureter on.

    Armed with the weird formation of William, everyone fought like lions in the face ofmps. They killed and dashed forward, didn''t stop even for one second to check on their target, knowing that all were dead.

    Things grew much better for the newly arrived masters for the next ten minutes. They sprinted into the fort, and went directly towards the already heavily wounded enemies lying on the ground, leftovers by the boosted ones at the forefront, and killed them!

    "All the neers, gather up around me, We need to make another formation," William knew he had little time here, but he nned to make a second, a third, and even a tenth formation like this one to keep things under check.

    He knew this formation wasn''t enough to let them win the war, and it was impossible for such a low number and weak masters to make a difference here.

    Yet his main goal was to buy time. He knew there were two more monster tidesing, and the masters in the city were making preparations for the uing war.

    He nned to wait until the masters at the city would arrange everything, then send an army to free them from this trap. During this, he''d try to cause all the damage he could bring to these enemies.

    Yet things were destined to head towards a different path.

    The Fox guild masters came and arranged themselves in different teams. They took different positions than the ones others took before, just surrounding them from the outside. And then they waited.

    As more masters came, William made them line up and take their positions to make the formation. Like this, he ended up having fourplete circles, each having ten thousand masters.

    "Next!" As the masters who made the first formation finally depleted their spirit powers, William instantly shifted towards the masters standing next to them. The formation got instantly activated, and things continued like before.

    "Rest, don''t do anything," in the middle of all this, William said to the ones who exhausted their spirit powers already, "As for the extra masters, go inside and make arrows and grenades based on this!"

    William took a scroll out and threw it towards Sara and Berry. He didn''t need to say anything and the two got what he wanted.

    They copied the scroll fast, then distributed its content over the newly arrived masters.

    Each formation used ten thousand masters and took roughly from five up to ten minutes. He intended to use the formation ten times at most, and that would leave behind hundreds of thousands of masters without anything to do.

    He didn''t n to keep depleting their spirit powers to make this formation. If he ever did so, he''d issue the sentence of death to them. He was preparing for their uing retreat and didn''t want to have many monsters as a burden.

    He also wanted these masters to craft the grenades and arrows the ballistae needed.

 Chapter 1026 Reinforcements

    ?

    Right now they didn''t need a ballista to fire anything, they didn''t need his grenades. But when the time woulde for them to retreat, he was sure they''d depend on them to survive and go away with the least number of losses.

    As everyone started to do their tasks, the ones who were fighting at the forefront were crushing it. Even William was surprised by how easily they pushed the enemies back, and killed tons of dark masters and monsters, turning this into a one-sided ughter.

    Even the masters he sent before to support them didn''t have anything to do but kill the ones on the verge of dying, or collect the loot.

    Things kept rolling in their favour for almost half an hour. And then, the main bulk of the two monster tides appeared.

    The monsters came in huge numbers and they even started to run on top of each other. They looked ferocious, strong, and quite hard to stop.

    The masters had to retreat for the first time since gaining that formation''s boost while using the deadliest attacks they could release.

    "This won''t do," watching all this from the top of that hill made William mutter, "If we managed to push like this for an hour or so, then trying to retreat would be quite easy for us¡­"

    He turned his eyes around and looked at the masters who were busy making the grenades and arrows he asked them to. "Gather all the ballistae, pick enough masters, all at gold grade, and head towards the frontline, stop those monsters."

    He gave this order to Sara and Berry. Right now, he was feeling much better than before, and could at least stand erect without the need to use any help.

    Part of this came from the impact of the critical moment they were all in, and another came from the formation. As the formation salvaged and concentrated the spirit power of everyone, he got his share of support, and his fatigue and weakness got cleansed pretty fast.

    He didn''t have time to think about any of that. He watched his girls move towards the front, with arge number of masters, amounting to a few thousand.

    They spread the precious ballistae around and then released hell on top of these monsters.

    Grenades fiercely exploded, andrge areas of explosions appeared here and there. William didn''t tell them what to do, but they got his aim from doing this.

    Spreading such fierce explosive zones in the middle of the iing monsters was enough to dy their advance, make these ferocious beasts unable to sum up their numbers, lose much of their momentum and so their advantage.

    With the sudden appearance of the ballistae, things started to calm down after getting heated up. The masters at the forefront pushed the line further ahead again, returning to gain more distance while killing tons of monsters.

    But this didn''te without any risks. All the time, many monsters would find gaps and run through these, heading towards the masters using ballistae.

    If not for the high-end masters at the front to pay close attention to the team behind them, things would have been much worse for all of them.

    Few ballistae got destroyed in the first hour, while masters fell down either dead or suffering severe wounds.

    At the same time, William was this close to ending the supporting formation. He did enough, he and others did their best. And now all that remained was for the masters at the frontlines to kill more, pave a safe path for them to retreat.

    Yet the moment he thought about asking them to start clearing the rear, which was a task handled by the masters he enforced, led by Sloth and a few others, some sort of a bang happened.

    "This¡­" the source of it didn''te from the front, not from the enemy side. In fact, it came from the rear, from beyond the walls and trench.

    When William and others looked, they were surprised to see tons of masters running towards here, a grand army of tens of thousands, all looking at gold grade or beyond! And there were still moreing from the direction of the forest!

    "They are finally here," William heaved a deep sigh of relief, alongside many others. The reinforcements he hoped they''d arrive in a few more hours, came early, shifting the entire scale of the war.

    It wasn''t just therge number of strong mastersing here, but he spotted many moving fast in the air as if they were flying. "Thousands of high-end masters? That''s great!"

    These masters were enough to shift the tide towards them. When William spotted them, he decided to push forward towards winning this battle.

    "Send more masters here, we are going to keep doing this!" He already had twelve rounds boosting the strength of everyone fighting at the frontline. This ended up with tons of masters weakened, feeling quite exhausted, unable to even lift a finger or move a muscle.

    Yet when he spotted the iing reinforcements, he decided to push further ahead. With the fresh blood thrown into this mess, it was possible to turn this ce into a grand grinding ce.

    Not to mention, if he bought enough time for the ones making grenades down below, then things would turn for the better.

    Even if they didn''t have enough ballistae, arming up the masters at the frontlines with these would change the entire course of the war.

    The moment his first batch of masters got arranged in line, he fortified the onesing from the city. He knew his masters were fighting for hours, and they got exhausted beyond their limits. He nned to give them little rest, before throwing them at the ughterhouse again.

    Yet when he asked them to retreat, make room for the neers to act, and shoulder the toll, everyone literally refused to do so.

    They knew he wanted to help them recover and rest, but that wasn''t the right time to do it!

 Chapter 1027 Do You Me To Leave Her And Return Back?!!!

    ?

    "Just keep boosting us, and leave the rest to us!" Sloth shed by him, and said these words before joining the fight upfront. With the appearance of masters from outside, the battles around the walls concluded pretty fast. And now everyone focused solely and mainly on the brutal fights happening at the front.

    Even against the seemingly endless monster and dark master tide, the masters stood their ground firm and even pushed the line up ahead.

    The more they killed their enemies, the more they felt the desire to keep moving forward. They kept pushing the line for hours, while William turned his guild masters into fuel to aid their strength ze wildly.

    The battle kept burning for hours. The dark master leaders didn''t have any other option but to send everything they had to stop the scary city masters.

    The reinforcements that came were way beyond what William and others imagined. Hundreds of thousands came here, and the scariest fact was that almost one-third of them were at dark gold grade.

    That meant they were able to contend easily against the enemy, even without William''s aid. When thetter noticed this, he started to select whom to support, selected those gold-grade masters, and helped them to obtain power enough to crush the enemies around.

    Doing this added more to the ongoing fighting roster at the frontlines, and made things much easier for the masters to press forward. Yet at some point, the frontline spanned for tens of kilometres, turning this into a hard-to-track war.

    If not for his upgrade in spirit power, his spirit sense wouldn''t have enough support to cover such arge area. And in the middle of all this, the two monster tides that appeared first came atst.

    William didn''t know this, but the city leaders decided to turn this ce into the grinding front base of the city. They thought about it thoroughly, and this ce served best to do such a task.

    They felt if they let the enemies arrive in the city, then things would turn south for them. So they decided to send almost one-fifth of the entire master army in the city, including almost half of the top fighting force they had.

    They didn''t make such a decision based on such a reason only, but when they received the news about what William was doing out there. They knew with that weird formation he used, things were going much better than anyone expected.

    And so they sent tons of masters here and even sent much more to dy the iing monster tide. But all they could do was to buy William and others almost half a day, and finally, the different monster tides merged together atst.

    Things rolled the way they all hoped for. The monsters and dark masters focused on winning this war over this ce, and that turned this ce into the core of the entire war.

    William finally could get what the main aim of the city leaders was behind sending all these masters here. And yet, he couldn''t do anything beyond what he was doing right now.

    Even if he got much better thanks to the support he gained from the formation, it wasn''t enough. He was still feeling weak, and if he joined the fight now he''d turn into a liability.

    The best he could do was to unleash his three monstrous weapons out there to help. Charley had already been destroyed, and sending these out was the only extra help he could muster right now.

    The fight continued for days in this ce! No side wanted to retreat or budge an inch about losing this ce, all tried to secure this fort for themselves. And yet William''s focus shifted midway towards something else.

    "You want me to leave here?!!!" As he had no other one to trust with this mission, he summoned Sloth and told him this crazy request.

    "This war isn''t going to end by killing these monsters," William slowly said, before exining things over to Sloth.

    "Damn! But mark my words, you''ll take me with you, got it?" Sloth fumed in rage. Thest thing he''d ever want was to go away from such brutal fighting. All the enemies any master despised and hated deep down their bones were here. And the master''s army needed any possible help.

    But William exined things over, told him this was the doing of that mysterious man. The only way to stop all this was by heading there and killing that master once and for all.

    If not, then after crushing all the monster tides here, more would pop up. Sloth understood the gravity of the situation, and yet he still hated leaving at such a critical moment.

    As Sloth moved away towards the city, William returned to pour every ounce of his focus over the war here.

    Right now, the fight expanded beyond his limits. All he could do now was to rx and let others do their task. From time to time, he''d spot the frontline getting pushed back, enough for him to return to support them.

    After days of persistence and fighting, things started to get much better for him. He regained his former power and yet didn''t go forward to join the battle.

    He knew a much bitter fight awaited him soon enough. So instead of wasting his power on this, he started to focus on making his special grenades.

    The grenades he offered to everyone were his weakest, and yet they were enough to cause such damage to the enemies. As for his advanced version of grenades, they were quite lethal indeed. But he was the only one able to make them, as they needed many precious materials, many of which came from the outer world.

    So he took over this task for days, while Sloth was busy dealing with the task he got. Everyone was fighting everywhere and updated news of this epic fight. The more they heard, the more eager they wanted to go and help.

 Chapter 1028 Looking For The Missing Crystal!

    ?

    Per the city leaders orders, they had to stand their ground and not do anything for now. The leaders knew there was one crystal missing, and they were desperately looking for it!

    The mission William gave to Sloth was this, to go back and look for this crystal. If it was here, then the enemy would have activated it a long time ago. And so there was only one ce left for them to find it; the city!

    Sloth didn''t move there alone, grabbed Thomas alongside. The two arrived in the city, to learn about the desperate search of the leaders for the missing crystals.

    Everyone in the upper circle was sure thisst crystal was here. And that meant one thing; the city was under grave danger at any given moment!

    When Sloth and Thomas arrived there, they got to know about everything the city leaders did. After all, they had to use the help of everyone here, invade the bases of the five traitors, and kill any master who objected or stood in their way.

    Many things have changed since they first heard about it from Lara. they were now quite aggressive, especially after discovering that hidden base outside the city.

    Many innocent people didn''t know a thing about what their dirty leaders did, but others were involved in this. So it was expected how things turned out, quite bloody in the end.

    Many turned out to be dark masters, and that made it quite hard to crack through these bases. And yet they managed to infiltrate three main bases, and fifteen affiliative ones. And yet they didn''t find anything worthy there.

    They didn''t find any crystal, didn''t find anything that could be used to help them defend the city. Be it elixirs, potions, and even good gears or weapons. All they found were tons of materials, mostly those which came from the underground city and the outer world.

    There were still two remaining main bases left, and yet Sloth and Thomas didn''t care about them.

    "Boss predicted it, like usual," Thomas sighed, while Sloth kept walking in the city, without saying anything. There were lots of masters here, but all were serious and either running towards somewhere or carrying something to help in strengthening the defences.

    The two passed unnoticed by all, headed straight towards one direction.

    "I hope his guesses will be true," Sloth looked around, while seeing much more using his spirit sense, "or else the crystal will be activated if the ones inside thest two bases felt threatened."

    "If boss it''s inside the underground city, then it''s there," Thomas had zero percent doubt at William, "we need to go there using our guild''s ess door."

    "First time for me to be there, is it dangerous down below?" Sloth reminded Thomas of this problem, and thetter couldn''t help but sigh.

    He exined to Sloth about the weird monsters present there, how to detect and how to kill them. Sloth grew far more interested in these monsters, and yet when he met them, he couldn''t help but feel Thomas didn''t give any right at all when he spoke about them.

    They were quite ferocious and deadly, the type that even someone like Sloth struggled to kill them. And yet that wasn''t the main concern here.

    "Your boss said we''ll find the crystals where we find masters here, but the entire ce is empty!" Sloth already spread his spirit all over the city, and yet he found no one there.

    "That''s because they are hiding," Thomas knew more than Sloth, "let''s check all the buildings and ces, using attacks¡­"

    "That will take forever!" Sloth was eager to finish his task here and return back to help everyone else, "let me find them my way!"

    As he was fighting against lots of bubble monsters, he started to not limit his techniques. He released them freely, without any care or concern, ending up engulfing lots of buildings in the middle of his attacks.

    He didn''t get what Thomas meant, but just in a few hours, he managed to find and crack open lots of sealed ces. These were made by various forces in the city, and they were all vacant.

    He crushed them all, and slowly started to get what William meant. Everyone got summoned up there, and the only masters who would be left here would be the ones with a mission to do. And there was only a single mission here.

    "Something doesn''t add up," in the middle of doing this, Sloth suddenly muttered to himself, "if they want to release monsters to take down the city, why would they focus on this ce then? This doesn''t make any sense¡­"

    He got a point here indeed. The entrance to the underground city was sealed and couldn''t easily get in or out without permission. If they released a monster tide here, then monsters would just roam in this city and lock any entrance for anyone to get inside without putting a deadly fight against.

    In the end, the monsters would be all killed. Even if the city masters had to pay a hefty price, they''d end up crushing all of them and reiming the city.

    So Sloth was questioning why in the first ce they''d do this? And why did William even consider such a possibility in the first ce?

    Sloth didn''t know much about this underground city. It has an interworld portal, one that could lead to the outer world. William was sure the mysterious man would ce high importance on securing this portal. If things became shitty for him, he''d at least secure a way out from this world and vanish forever.

    Not to mention that man already had confidence in crushing the masters at the surface. If that happened, then there would be only one safe ce for the masters to run and hide at, which was the underground city. Sealing it like this would deprive the city masters from theirst ce to hide, a move that would end logically by checkmate for all of the city masters.

 Chapter 1029 Securing It!

    ?

    For all these reasons, William was positive thest crystal would be left here. Even if it was kept at one of the bases up there, it must have been relocated and hidden in the underground city.

    "I don''t know," as the two were all alone in the middle of this grand city, Thomas already heard what Sloth said in a low tone, "But if the boss said it will be here, then it''ll be here."

    "Tsk! You are stubbornly loyal to that youngster, do you know that?" Sloth rolled his eyes, before adding, "I heard you have a unique talent, one that''s very rare to find. Why not¡­"

    "I don''t have any interest in serving anyone but William."

    "Even if¡­"

    "Even if the king himself came and asked me to join him, I won''t," Thomas wasn''t acting disrespectful, didn''t speak in any ill or mean way about the king or anything. He casually said it, interrupting Sloth''s words, and made sure thetter would get what he truly believed in. He only believed in William, and that made Sloth feel a little envious of that youngster.

    "He really did a great job, knowing a king is by knowing his subordinates," Sloth muttered to himself again, before releasing much fiercer attacks, venting the frustration he had inside, "why not use your ability then? William told me you already memorised their karma threads, whatever does that even mean."

    "I''ll look," Thomas rolled his eyes, "if you just gave me a break and stopped smashing things around."

    "I now know why you like William this much, tsk!" Sloth rolled his eyes and didn''t like how Thomas spoke back to him. And yet he remained silent, waiting on the side, and kept watching in interest.

    He heard about Thomas'' ability from others, but he didn''t get the chance to thoroughly inspect him. The only person who got his total focus before was William, and now he got the chance to witness what Thomas could do.

    Thomas didn''t mind using his techniques in front of Sloth. As he did, Sloth tried to feel or sense anything abnormal about him, trying to see if there was something that could help him and others back in the kingdom to find such rare talent.

    But he was disappointed to notice nothing aside from the physical and outer changes that happened to Thomas. "Tsk! It seems I need to dig deeper about that weird way to assess masters that he uses¡­ I''ll ask Anjie to spill the beans then," he muttered to himself while waiting on the side for Thomas to finish what he was doing.

    "There," and when he thought Thomas would fail to find anything useful, thetter suddenly stopped what he was doing, and returned to look normal again, while pointing towards one direction.

    "What''s there?" Sloth didn''t get what Thomas meant.

    "There are lots of traces of these traitors over there," Thomas said in weird confidence, "however¡­"

    "What?"

    "I can tell there are too many masters hiding out there, and¡­"

    "Don''t take me for a walk, kid!" Sloth felt like he got pped on the face or something, "if you are afraid, feel free to remain behind then."

    "I will," Thomas didn''t fall for such a cheap trick and instantly agreed on Sloth''s idea. Thetter was speechless when he heard what Thomas said. And when thetter moved towards the direction they came from, he knew this man was a coward at the end of the day.

    Yet his opinion changed the moment he drew closer to the area Thomas pointed towards. That spot was located at the edge of the city, at a ce that was close to where William once took shelter during the big battle that he experienced a long time ago here.

    The moment Sloth went closer to that ce, he spotted around a hundred masters running towards him. He could tell they weren''t at the pinnacle stage like him, but they were all at a high stage, and on top of that they were all dark masters!

    They were using the darkness element, and that made them quite hard to deal with. In general, the dark masters usually could cross gaps with stronger masters, especially when they got the numerical advantage.

    "It''s good that brat gave me grenades," Sloth knew this was going to be a tough fight. He felt like this group of dark masters was just the tip of the iceberg, and there were still many more dark masters hiding inside that sealing ce.

    As they sent just part of their forces out, that meant they needed to buy some time to do something. And without the need to specte, Sloth could tell they were going to activate the crystal.

    He didn''t know why they needed time to do so, but he nned to not retreat or fight carefully and safely against them. He started shing with them using William''s grenades. Violent explosions erupted, covering arge area, taking down lots of these masters, and even attacking the concealed area behind them.

    When the concealment array went down, it exposed whaty behind. Sloth spotted around a few hundred dark masters, sitting on the ground cross-legged, with one crystal in the middle.

    "They are trying to activate it!" Sloth knew the moment he saw that scene that his earlier guesses were true. He didn''t care about the remaining dark masters from the team who came to stop him, dashed with everything he had, and threw more grenades toward them.

    He didn''t sh the grenades toward these dark masters, as he could do it easily from his spot. But he charged forward, and that to secure that crystal before it''d be toote.

    The moment the dark masters sitting on the ground saw the grenades flying towards them they flushed away. One of them held on to the crystal and tried to run away but he couldn''t outrun the bull that wasing towards him.

    The moment Sloth spotted that dark master taking the crystal away, he instantly changed his trajectory and headed directly towards him.

 Chapter 1030 More Reinforcements

    ?

    Even when the grenades exploded, he passed directly through the middle of its fierce exploding heart, feeling for the first time how truly brutal these grenades were.

    Yet that didn''t matter to him. He came here to retrieve this crystal, and he''d not allow himself to lose thanks to the grenades. "Come here, give it to me!" the moment he caught up with that dark master, and everything was over for that dude.

    Sloth held the crystal and didn''t have time to examine it carefully. He hadn''t seen any crystal before, but he heard about its description from William, and this one just looked the same.

    He stored it away, before turning towards the group of enraged dark masters. Few were already killed in the middle of the explosions, many got wounds, but the survivors moved at once to stop him.

    "Do you think you can stop a pinnacle stage master like myself? Hmph! I wish to see you try!" Even if he was outnumbered, Sloth stood erect, tall like a mountain, before taking out a sword, the same sword he ced its cold de over his neck in front of the king''s tent, "Let''s dance!"

    He didn''t stand in his ce and started to move around. He goes on to admit to himself that he learnt such a tactic from William. Before that, he used to fight like a steady bull, moving forward step by step, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies.

    Yet when he apanied William, he couldn''t help but get infected by that youngster''s love to dash around. This way, he was able to deal with lots of enemies fast, evade tons of attacks, and end up harming them more than getting harmed.

    As he already secured the crystal, he felt like a huge burden was lifted off his shoulders. He started to fight better than before, killing the enemies while evading their attacks brilliantly.

    The fightsted for an hour, and the main reason for it tost this long was the noises that attracted many monsters here. Sloth had to take care of those seemingly endless monsters in the middle of the fight, something that kept distracting him and dyed the end of this battle.

    "You did great," When Sloth finished, he went back towards the entrance where Thomas was there, "You ran when you should have stuck with me and fought against them¡­ What a man!"

    "I know the limit of my abilities," Thomas didn''t get offended or feel annoyed or anything, "What''s the use in overestimating myself and ending up getting killed?"

    "Good point¡­" Sloth didn''t like Thomas the more he interacted with him, "Let''s go, we secured that crystal, and we need to rush back to that battle."

    As the two went out and left the city, things were going smoothly to the masters favour inside that fort.

    They kept fighting and managed to push the dark masters back for a long distance. Yet the problem still was in the monsters. Even with the grenades that kept getting made by the Fox guild masters, these monsters still came like they had no end to them.

    The masters here were familiar with this pattern. They experienced it before when the monster tide hit the city. Monsters would keeping till thest one of them, and they wouldn''t show a single moment of weakness or anything during the entire assault!

    The main problem they had now was theck of proper defences. Yet William already instructed the extra masters in his guild, the ones who weren''t either artisans or alchemists, to start building trenches, rudimentary walls, and even small towers that were built by many low-level ores.

    William didn''t have high standards for these fortifications, and he asked the guild members to build them all across the grand area under their control right now.

    Soon enough, the masters fighting at the frontline started to use these roughly built defences to their support. They helped, not that much, but they at least gave these masters a ce to rest a little bit in the middle of all this.

    Everyone here knew they''d take a long time to deal with the monster tides. A single monster tide took days, even more than a week from the city masters back then. So it was expected for such a battle tost even longer than that.

    William and other high-end masters knew this wasn''t the right ce to fight for this long here. Not to mention they just had a handful of strong masters. Even if they got lots of them, they weren''t enough to stop the iing onught of monsters and dark masters.

    To bnce the odds, William had to relocate, select another batch of masters and perform his support formation again. This helped a lot in reducing the losses and pressure on the masters, helping them to kill many more enemies in a short time.

    But he couldn''t do it for longer than one hour every day. He sent the masters exhausted from the formation to the rear to recuperate and heal themselves. Yet even with using potions, they didn''t get on their feet quite fast and weren''t able to help in using the formation again.

    When things looked like they were heading towards retreating from here and losing this ce, news spread about the iingrge number of masters from the city.

    It happened because Sloth already found the crystal. Before he left with Thomas, he sent a message over to the leaders staying in the city. They kept all these masters there fearing thest crystal. And as it was found, there was no need to keep such a force here.

    The news reached the masters'' ears long before Sloth and Thomas arrived at that fort. And with such news, everyone started to regain confidence and high morale again.

    "I''m here with the crystal," and if good news wouldn''t stop raining over him, William received the message from Sloth using his scroll.

 Chapter 1031 Time To Leave

    ?

    "Sara,e here for a second," William knew the moment he''d get his hands over this scroll, and he had to leave.

    Opening a gate towards the ce that man was at meant he''d also release tons of monsters into this world. He didn''t want to do it here and nned to travel away first, taking a few days before daring to use the scroll.

    He exined everything to Sara, asked her to do his task, and led the guild masters in this battle. They were doing just fine so far, but they still needed a leader to be present. He also stressed keeping in touch with high-end masters, coordinating with them, and not missing any grave news or big ns or something.

    Sara wanted to ask about the reason for his sudden leave, but she got it without asking anything. She recalled the talk about that crystal and gate, the enemy he was about to go and face.

    When she recalled Sloth''s presence with him, she was much relieved. In her eyes, having a high-end master by his side was the best guarantee he''d end up safe. Yet she''d never expect there was another fierce enemy out there, and without William, no one else would be able to go away, including Sloth or any high-end master.

    She listened to everything he said and took note of the points he highlighted. He told her that this battle could end at any moment, and they''d have to retreat if the masters couldn''t hold a strategic position here.

    It was the walls, not the mountains as she thought. He asked her to try and put it towards the sides, get control over the walls, to control almost half of the entire grand fort space here.

    Using the semi-circr walls to their advantage, they could sustain more, spread the masters over the long walls, and shift the battle to something close to what it should have been if they were in the city.

    She agreed on his vision, despite knowing how hard it was to execute this. Most battles happened in the midsection of the fort, and the only part of the walls they controlled was a small stretch at the rear, at the point they came through. On top of that, that part of the walls was partially destroyed.

    "Don''t forget, you promised me¡­"

    "I know," William interrupted Sloth when thetter appeared next to him in an hour or so, "let''s go out. We can''t do it here."

    "Oh, got it," Sloth realised what William referred to. And the two of them left the fort, heading away while evading the grand number of monsters.

    They took more than what William expected and monsters were the reason for it. The two feared to fight and attract the attention of the dark masters in the fort, and that would end up quite badly for them.

    So they made sure to avoid making any contact with the monsters for two days before they finally got out of the longest spirit sense range any master could have. Then they started fighting monsters directly.

    William regained his former strength and started to fight like normal. As for Sloth, he was an unstoppable killing machine.

    "Tsk! These monsters are endless¡­" At some point, Sloth even sighed, "They''ll need weeks to get rid of them¡­ That ce can''t sustain such a long battle."

    "They''ll retreat back to the city in the end," William said as if it was a given fact, "let''s trust them, and focus on the task we have."

    "Are we going to use it now?" They have been running for five days now. They crossed a huge distance and were very far from the city. Even if they released a fifth monster tide, it''d take days to arrive at the ce of the current fight, or perhaps even a week.

    "Let''s do it here," William looked around. The ce was in the middle of the forest, but it had a few elevated ces there, which gave William an idea.

    "What are you doing?!!" Even after running for all this time, the monster tide still existed nearby. He watched William take lots of grenades out, prepared to throw them around.

    "What else? I''m going to make it hard for these monsters toe out from here," William said as if this was something easy to guess, "Just watch, I''m going to leave a present for these bastards."

    He didn''t use his grenades while walking toward a ce that was slightly deeper than the rest. And Sloth followed silently from behind.

    "Let''s do it here," William looked around and felt like this ce was ideal for his n, "take it out, but don''t activate it yet, I need little time to prepare the present for them."

    "As if we do know how to activate it," Sloth took the crystal out, and it was exactly the same as the one William saw in the world of fate and destiny before.

    "Why are you saying that?" William started to carefully ce his grenades around. He arranged them like he was arranging dominoes or something while scattering tons of vibrant ores in between.

    "Because the folks who had it seemed to struggle to activate it¡­" Sloth narrated what he saw before at the underground city, while William kept spreading grenades and vibrant ores around.

    When he got done, the entire ce that stretched out for a few kilometres got covered literally by ores, with grenades in the middle of all this like gold particles in the middle of the dirt.

    Sloth watched him from the side and didn''t say anything more. Weirdly enough, William didn''t feel any stress or worry after hearing what he just said.

    In fact, William knew the reason. The underground city had of a kind interworld portal, and that meant the space there wasn''t stable. To activate the crystal, they had to gather up enough spirit power to fuel it, enough to ovee the crazy powering from the interworld portal.

 Chapter 1032 Retreat!!!

    ?

    That was the case in the underground city, but here it was different. So William didn''t care about any of that and kept doing his task until everything was ready.

    "Let''s do it," William came by Sloth''s side and took the crystal from him in one hand, while the other held a group of grenades, "Make sure the moment the gate is open to jump into it. Don''t care about anything else, got it?"

    "Take care of yourself first!" Sloth harrumphed while waiting to see how William was going to activate it. He already heard about the way to activate this crystal from other city leaders and high-end masters who were close by when two monster gates were summoned.

    He thought William would do something else, but he just mmed the crystal to the ground, while waving the grenades randomly around. He didn''t need to target anything with them, knowing that the moment these grenades got detonated, others would catch fire as well and explode.

    "Let''s go!'''' The moment he smashed the crystal a few metres away, a surge of domineering spirit power got released. William felt like he got mmed by a fierce wind or something, but he resisted the power and remained pinned in his ce.

    As he shouted, the crystal released a monster gate. He knew they had a little window of time, a few seconds perhaps before the gate would release tons of monsters towards here. At the same time, the grenades he released would detonate, fiercely exploding other grenades around, ending up turning the entire ce into a piece of hell.

    He didn''t look at Sloth, didn''t look at anything else, and simply dashed forward. He was in his full fox mode, holding all the weapons he had, and dashed directly towards the gate.

    By his side, Sloth was moving much faster than him. The two passed through the monster gate like two bolts of lightning, vanishing inside while the next moment, a gush of dense monsters appeared.

    *Roar!*

    The monsters roared, announcing their appearance in the world. And yet what weed them was a fierce wave of fire, one that enveloped and engulfed all of them inside, killing all, leaving none alive.

    The monsters came out for the next few hours and kept getting killed and incinerated by the trap William ced there. What made the firest this long was the use of vibrant ores, which acted as fuel to make the fire run for long hours.

    That was why William used tons of these ores. This trap took much more than what William even imagined when he made it. The monstersing out from the monster gate were quite dense and numerous, and they were killed the moment they appeared. So in the end, and without even realising it, William alone managed to take away almost ten percent of the expected total monster tide volume in mere hours!

    As for him and Sloth, the moment they passed through the portal they found themselves in an alien ce.

    "We are here!" William instantly recognised this ce. It was the same which he saw before in the fate and destiny world, the ce where that despicable master was.

    Yet when the two arrived, they didn''t see anything. They appeared just next to a small hill, while many others were around, covered all in green grass.

    "I''ll look for him," Sloth whispered, before spreading his spirit sense. William didn''t speak, spreading his spirit sense as well, while searching for that man.

    He first thought that man would be waiting for them here, but it seemed he wasn''t. Something felt amiss the moment William scanned the area under his spirit sense coverage and couldn''t get a glimpse of that man.

    "Damn! He is running away!" Before he could say anything, Sloth pointed towards a direction, then extended his arm, grabbed William, and the two raced by Sloth''s insane speed.

    "Is he too far from here?" This was the first question that rang in William''s mind.

    "Not that far, it seemed he got rmed by using here¡­ But how? Who did it?!" Sloth thought about a different matter, a thing that didn''t interest William.

    "Reason doesn''t matter, we need to stop him before running away," William said what Sloth already had in mind.

    "Don''t worry, he is already running while climbing," Sloth evilly grinned, "he is just twenty kilometres away. By my speed, we''ll reach him in ten minutes."

    "Good," William then started to look around, spreading his spirit sense, trying to find any trace of the other hidden enemy.

    He never told anyone about that spirit, or else he''d have to exin things he didn''t want others to know and would be too difficult to exin in the first ce.

    The chase didn''tst longer than fifteen minutes before arriving at where that man was. What made them take a bit longer was a grand mountain that stood in front of their path.

    Sloth decided to directly climb it, while the man circled around. In the end, the two parties met just at the other end of that mountain, and the three masters exchanged hostile gazes towards each other.

    "How did youe here?" the master said in a vicious tone, "Don''t bother¡­ I''m going to finish you first before running away. Who knows if other rats areing here or not¡­"

    "Stop bullshitting us! If you got it in you, why the hell did you run in the first ce?" Sloth got overwhelmed by rage thanks to that man''s words. In a sh, he dashed forward, aiming to hit that master and finish him in one blow.

    "Stop! Retreat! Go back now¡­" yet William was half a beat slower than Sloth. The man already arrived at his foe, and waved his sword, aiming to decapitate the man while using the fiercest technique he had.

    His sword and body were covered in bright dancing arcs of lightning, looking strong enough to crush an entire mountain with a single blow of his sword.

 Chapter 1033 A Shameful Battle Against A Spirit!

    ?

    And yet, the man didn''t even try to evade or defend himself, simply stood there motionless with an evil smile on his face.

    "One is down," the man said as if he were a god stating matters about fate. Before Sloth would even yell or say anything, his sword froze in the air, just a few centimetres away from that man''s neck.

    It wasn''t just the sword that stopped, but also Sloth''s body as well. Then as if a fierce gale of wind blew from the East, Sloth''s body flew like a deted balloon to the West!

    "Hahahaha! Foolish ignorant master! Do you think your pathetic toys, techniques you call, can stop me? Hahahaha! Pathetic! Hahahaha!"

    For a moment there, a weird scene surfaced in William''s mind. He resisted the urge to recall such bitter events, shoving all of this away, before ring at the man, and that bright star that shone on top of his head.

    "Kill the other one, leave none alive!"

    "I''m not your servant, you do know that?"

    "You already consumed tons of spirit seeds thanks to me! These two are going to stop me from giving you more, do you want to see that happening?"

    It was a weird discussion indeed, and William didn''t have time to think deeply about it. He felt like there was something grand said in between the lines, yet he decided to postpone all this and think about what that man said at ater time.

    Right now, he had to see if the mystic art he performed was effective or not.

    "Fine!" the spirit that was behind that star seemed annoyed, and yet it shed like it instantly teleported. All William could see was a bright golden glow that filled his entire vision and the world. Before he''d even move a finger to respond, he felt like his entire body shook violently by irresistible force.

    Then the next thing he felt was for his body to fly like a cannonball, heading towards the nearby mountain he and Sloth just crossed. He felt his body m against tough rocks and felt immense pain before the world around him turned into long lines of deep brown colour.

    He could see a bright lighting from a small circle at the end of the gap he ended up at. What he didn''t see was for that bright star to hit him hard, but something stopped it.

    The shadow that appeared around him came up and delivered what was promised. The spirit couldn''tnd a single harm on him, but the force sent him flying backwards, ending up mming against the mountain and creating a deep tunnel there.

    He struggled to get out of there, feeling less harm than he expected. The shadow that epassed him made him able to heal fast, not to mention he absorbed spirit power from his foe on top of that.

    "How¡­ How is that¡­ Even possible?!!'''' The spirit was still shocked and stupefied by what just happened. William took a few minutes to climb up, and yet that spirit was in the ce he was before, floating there motionless while its deep voice came out, quite shaky and shocked.

    "Piece of sh*t! Do you think you can kill anyone you like? Do you think you can help me? Hahahaha, I want to see you try!" Williamughed, even pointed at the spirit as if he was making fun of it, and he was indeed doing that.

    "Damn you! I''m going to f*cking reap your head off this time!" The spirit got instantly enraged and moved to hit William one time after another. With each hit, William didn''t suffer much damage, and ended up creating more deep tunnels in the colossal body of the mountain, while that spirit never ceased toe and hit him.

    At the third time, William took a few moments in that hole, sending a message over to Sloth, asking him to finish the task they came here for.

    William was well aware of the presence of that spirit, not like Sloth. Yet he came prepared to stop that spirit. Yet there was still another enemy out there, the real target they were here for.

    As he kept that spirit busy hitting him like punching sandbags, William asked Sloth to hurry and take that master down. Sloth was indeed feeling bad at the moment. He didn''t get the same direct hit as William, but even with his high level of strength, he still ended up with grave wounds.

    In the end, things looked gloomy to Sloth when he saw that golden weird star sh towards William. He imagined the worst and even closed one eye to not see the full bloody scene unfolding in front of him.

    Yet when William came out from the tunnel in one piece, and with the shocking words that came from that weird star, he knew that William was going to be fine.

    "Don''t tell me he came here¡­ Prepared for that!!!" Sloth grasped this quite fast, and before his thoughts would jump towards the task he should execute, he received William''s message.

    "Yes, he came here prepared for that weird enemy¡­" Slothnded ast gaze at that weird star, "That kid¡­ Everything around him is always quite novel and very bizarre!"

    Yet he didn''t hold back anymore. As William handled that deadly variable, that man was considered dead in his eyes.

    William kept keeping that star''s attention busy, until the shouts of that despicable master came, distressfully asking for the spirit toe and save him.

    "Damn! I''ll go kill that one first, thene to y¡­ What the hell are you doing? F*ck off!"

    Before that star would move an inch, William had already thrown himself on top of it. He surrounded it using his tail and didn''t let it go even when it started to rotate fast, sh right and left, even paving the mountainside with his body.

    William kept clinching with everything he had, summed up all the strength he had, and never let go.

 Chapter 1034 You Arent A God! Wake Up!

    ?

    This might be considered themest battle he''d ever going to win in his entire life, but this was also the only way to win.

    This spirit¡­ It was something that no master should face and deal with! So he didn''t mind having such a shameful memory, it was better than losing such a good master like Sloth or losing that dirty enemy.

    "Kill him!" William felt his tails getting loose over that star, "Do it now or you''ll die!"

    "F*ck it!" Sloth wasn''t having it easy though. He came here prepared with thorough intel about this man, knowing he was just at gold grade. But when he directly shed against him, he was shocked to see someone on the same level of power as him.

    As this was the case, and seeing how William was risking everything, even his life, to buy him little time to execute the task, Sloth didn''t hesitate anymore.

    He started to burn his life essence, in return for gaining a crazy amount of spirit power boost.

    "Burning your life essence? Are you crazy? This is cheating! This can''t be¡­"

    The man instantly recognised what Sloth was doing, and yet he got interrupted in the middle of his shout. The technique that previously was stopped by the spirit waspleted and linked this time with that enemy''s neck.

    Then a head went in the air rolling, while a fountain of red blood erupted like a volcano!

    That man¡­ He was dead! The man who caused all this fell just simply like that. And the moment he fell down, lots of things happened at the same moment.

    "Get away! Run away fast!" William didn''t want Sloth to fall under the expected wrath of the spirit. He killed the man that dirty spirit nourished, and that would turn that behemoth into a killing machine.

    Sloth didn''t need William''s shout to get away as fast as he could. He knew the man he killed was the pawn of that weird thing William was fighting against. And even if William could stand his ground against it, Sloth''s presence was in fact a liability.

    He didn''t get what that thing was, or why it was so deadly and indestructible. He noticed how William didn''t use any of his tricks and techniques, didn''t do anything but let that thing hit him one time after another.

    The moment he killed that man, saw his head flying in the air, and Sloth used all the power he got and flushed away. Seeing him do that made William heave an inward sigh of relief, one that soon changed and became filled with worry.

    The moment Sloth shed away, William felt like the behemoth he was trying to stop seemed to slip away. He didn''t feel its big power that resisted him during the past few minutes. And when he looked, he found in the mere seconds he got distracted with Sloth, that bright star vanished from his grasp!

    "Damn!" he looked around, spreading his spirit sense, and yet he found nothing. He didn''t lower his guard, knowing such a spirit wasn''t the type to drop off his grudges, or let those who ruined his long time interest go unscathed like this.

    "Don''t tell me you n to y a hide and seek game," William slowly said, while keeping track of anything happening all around. And yet there was a single ce he didn''t look at, a spot he totally missed; himself!

    "You know absolutely nothing about the realm of gods, humans!" in the middle of his frantic search, the voice of that spirit came just from his body. It felt like it came from him, making William focus his spirit sense over himself, seeing something he never expected to see.

    He saw the shadow atst, the shadow that surrounded him before. It looked majestic, golden and bright, grand and intimidating. And yet there were two eyes there, something that no one ever mentioned before. It felt like he was looking at a face, the face of that spirit.

    "You can''t harm me! You can''t touch even a single hair of mine!" William didn''t show any sign of weakness by seeing this. He now realised that spirit didn''t hide, instead, it attached itself to the golden body that surrounded him before.

    "And why should I do that? You used something that you don''t fully understand. Do you think this is some sort of a bond, a shield to protect you from me? Nah, it''s an application, one that will put you in line to inherit my will and power, something to act like the man you just killed, hahaha!"

    "Liar!" William knew that the spirit was trying to twist facts and manipte things. He indeedcked enough intel about the spirit world,cked enough understanding about Mystic Arts, but he knew what he saw and experienced back there at the Fate and Destiny world.

    It wasn''t just a simple link, it was like the two got connected by a higher power.

    "I don''t lie, and why do I need to? You are now my pawn, you''ll do as I say, do everything you hated before. It''s going to be fun!"

    "You can''t force me to do anything," William shrugged, "so keep saying your bullshit, and I''ll continue living my life the way I wanted!"

    "Nonsense! You applied to be my servant, and by the power of gods you''ll listen and do what I say!"

    "You aren''t a god! Wake up!" William felt like this spirit was a bit funny. And yet from the short interaction between the two, he could tell one thing for sure.

    That spirit had no power to do anything to him anymore. William didn''t get why, but he was sure he and Sloth were safe, everyone else was safe.

    "What are you doing? Stand away from the dead man! That''s an insult!" William just moved out of habit towards the dead pawn of that spirit, and then thetter kept screaming like he was going to touch his wife or something.

 Chapter 1035 The Sealed Ring

    ?

    "What? Can you stop me?" William smirked, before getting close to that dead headless body, and examined it thoroughly. He even removed everything from it, and examined every inch, trying to find anything interesting and special out there. But he didn''t find anything at all.

    "It''s in the ring then," there was one single ring that the man wore. It looked the same as any ring in the world, and yet there was something in the inner circle of it.

    William found a golden small gem, installed deeply in the interior of the ring. When he wore it, he didn''t feel anything at all, as if that piece wasn''t even there.

    But when he tried to check the content of the ring, he was met with something that stopped him. "A sealed ring? With a sealing multiyers? Interesting¡­"

    "Howe¡­ How do you know about this?!! Your world can''t have such a piece of knowledge yet!!!" the moment William said his piece and that spirit kept screaming again.

    "Shut up! You are damn noisy! Are you going to keep doing this all the time or what?" William rolled his eyes, before taking out a de.

    This ring was sealed in a way that was only known to masters in the outer world. It was impossible for anyone in this world to know about the right way to do or undo it as the spirit said. And that meant the previous owner of the ring learned how to do it from the spirit.

    William knew this ring was sealed by multipleyers, notyered one on top of another, but interlinking together and forming a tight. It was a bitplicated, but there was a simple way to undo it.

    Luckily this didn''t require high or pure spirit power to unseal, it required attention and focus. The right way to do it was to link one''s blood to the seal, control it using spirit power, and start to slowly unseal it.

    One had to deal with every seal as if it were some sort of a puzzle, and as all theyers were connected together, it was important to first study everything before starting to unlock it.

    To unseal this ring, he just needed to change little things about theyers inside the ring. The heart of it was that gem, and it was like trying to open a lock without using the right key to fit it.

    "You do know how to do it indeed, where did you learn it? And who taught you? That silly ck fox? He can''t be that attentive to you!" The spirit was something annoying, always speaking, always talking without pause.

    At first, that spirit was distracting William, but soon enough he grew used to it. As he did, he started to speed up the process of unlocking that seal.

    "Where is that damn thing? Is it gone?" As William stood in ce looking at the ring he imed for half an hour, Sloth felt like there was no danger here. So he approached, and shouted while drawing closer, not lowering his guard, staying cautious of his surroundings.

    "It''s still here," William just said, before returning to focus on breaking the seal.

    "Where?" Sloth turned around, and if William was free at the moment, he''d haveughed at that old man.

    "It''s hiding in the shadow surrounding me, can''t you see it there?"

    "Shadow? No, there isn''t anything around you!" Sloth said something that made William halt for a brief second, before resuming what he was doing.

    "Are you telling me that the shadow is gone now?" William linked this to the attachment of that spirit to him.

    "Shadow? What shadow? What are you talking about? Are you alright?" Yet when Sloth spoke in such doubt and worry, William froze again. His mind ran fast, and this time, he couldn''t help but think of something.

    "You can erase people''s memories, what an ability!" This was the only exnation for what Sloth said.

    The shadow that surrounded William was clear to all, and everyone noticed it. And yet Sloth spoke as if there wasn''t any shadow around William before, as if he didn''t know something like this even existed.

    The only exnation for such a thing was the ability of that spirit to manipte memory. It was something that William never heard of before, but it was the only thing he could think of. Sloth wasn''t your normal day master after all. And nothing normal would be able to affect that man.

    "Good guess, but it''s not that bad, right? I can even erase your existence from their memories, as if you did never exist at all, hahaha!"

    "I doubt that," William didn''t fall for such a trap, "If you have such power, then you could have done it already!"

    "But I have it!"

    "My bet is that you can only temper with people''s memory about you, not about anyone else," William paused, keeping in his mind lots of things as he made such a guess.

    If that spirit had such power, then he''d better make the pawns he used before forgotten from people''s minds. This would serve the best in covering up his tracks. And yet it exined why he never found any clue before about such a scary spirit, or any other spirit like him.

    "I won''t show mercy to you if you don''t stop what you are doing¡­"

    The spirit kept threatening William, but thetter didn''t stop what he was doing. From the side, Sloth felt like something was amiss. William was speaking to the air, and it felt like he was really speaking with someone. He turned around and double-checked, but he couldn''t detect any with his eyes or spirit sense.

    "Weird¡­ Did he hit his head or something?" Sloth couldn''t think of any other exnation but that. Yet he felt like something was off, something he couldn''t fully grasp or understand.

    "... No one is going to remember you! Do you want this to happen? Stop what you are doing, leave that ring right away!"

 Chapter 1036 The Cube

    ?

    "Or else?" William rolled his eyes, "Can you shut the hell up and let me focus? I''m close to cracking it open!"

    "..." Sloth gave him a weirder gaze and had to turn around William a couple of times before finally making sure there wasn''t anything out there. William was shouting out of the blue, acting as if there was someone speaking all the time to him, trying to stop him from opening the ring.

    Noticing the ring made Sloth gaze at it and focus on what William was doing. At first nce, it felt like he was holding it, but when he focused, he could notice the slight spirit power gushed from him towards the ring, as if he was trying to really unseal it.

    "Is it part of the process of unlocking it?" Sloth sized up and down William again, before ignoring anything weird this kid was doing and continued to watch the ring closely. He knew this ring came from the dead man, and it meant it had lots of things inside that could exin lots of unanswered questions.

    And yet he wasn''t familiar with the process of unsealing the ring seals. To him, this was something weird, something that he never seen before. The usual method to unseal anything in the world was by using a high concentration of spirit power, trying to crush whatever seal is on anything.

    But William wasn''t doing this. After observing for ten minutes, he could tell thisd was trying to tweak something inside, not crush the seal, but manipting and changing it.

    It felt weird, but this was what William was doing right now. Sloth guessed it right, and yet he couldn''t grasp why William was doing this and didn''t know if such a method would seed or not.

    "This youngster¡­ Everything rted to him is very weird¡­" Sloth waited on the side, feeling curious about the end result of all this.

    William kept shouting from time to time, smirking or snorting, but he never got distracted again. He kept focusing on unlocking the seal, a task that took four hours to get done.

    *Crack!* The faint sound that came from the ring didn''t miss even Sloth''s ears and senses. He was surprised to hear such a faint noise, as if a lock was opened, and the door of a vault was going to be opened next.

    "It''s unsealed!" William said it, confirming Sloth''s doubts, "Let''s see what you keep inside there, bastard!"

    William knew with such persistence, it was logical to find great things inside. He expected to see treasured scrolls speaking about tons of secrets, even things rted to the ns of that spirit.

    Yet all he found inside was a single item, a cube. It was a small-looking cube, with golden corners, ck walls, and silver lines and symbols that he couldn''t get.

    Yet the moment they took it out, that small-looking cube changed, turned into something gigantic, giving both William and Sloth a surprise.

    "Put your hands off my grail!" the spirit''s voice jolted William awake, making him mutter while examining that cube: "You grail? What a nice name, but what is it? Won''t you tell me?"

    Sloth got used now to how William acted, and still, he got attracted to that cube as if it had some sort of allure to it. Just when he tried to get close, he felt like some sort of an invisible shield of power stopped him from getting to that cube.

    "What''s wrong?" he asked himself, turning to William to see that thetter was able to pass through the shield, passing the point Sloth stopped at. He then reached the cube, and touched its surface while that spirit kept shouting and screaming, throwing threats right and left.

    "It''s nice," William muttered, as he felt like he was touching something soft and cozy. He didn''t get what was special about this cube, or why it was called the Grail, but he was sure it meant something valuable to that spirit.

    When he tried to find a way to open it, he failed. He tried to carry it but also failed. The cube was too heavy to even budge an inch, and Sloth wasn''t that near to help.

    "Why are you standing there? Come and help me flip this cube on the side," William looked in a weird way towards Sloth, while thetter bitterly smiled.

    "Do you think I have a choice to do so? There is some sort of a shield around that thing¡­ Howe you go inside and I don''t?"

    "Good question," William didn''t get what Sloth meant, but he knew there must be something stopping him from going near that cube. Or else that old master wouldn''t stand nice back there and let him have his fun with the cube.

    "So you have some sort of protective shield around, to prevent anyone froming near it? It must be something truly valuable¡­" William thought about why he passed through, and the only exnation he had was for him to have a connection with that spirit.

    "If I can''t move or open you, then go inside then," After an hour of trying everything to open or move this cube and failing, William decided to store it away.

    He used spirit power, spirit elements, even his blood and weapons¡­ All failed to do anything. Even stacking his technique for the most he could handle and releasing the destructive power failed.

    "You should forget anything about this cube," as he took in the cube, the spirit heaved a loud sigh of relief.

    "I''m just temporarily holding it away," William rolled his eyes, "Don''t think I won''t crack it open and see what''s inside."

    William was sure such a huge cube had something stored within. He didn''t know what it was, but he thought it was something very important to that spirit.

    "Are you ok?" Sloth watched all this, watched how William kept trying and failing, shouting from time to time at thin air. After seeing all this for a long time, he started to have his theory about what was going on.

 Chapter 1037 The Islands!

    ?

    William didn''t look like he lost it, and that made him think more about the presence of someone or something he couldn''t see or detect, something that was connected only and solely to William.

    He was right indeed, but he didn''t feel any rage to look for who it was or find a way to see it as well. He already thought about something, and when William took that weird cube away, he got the chance to speak about it with him.

    "I believe we are somewhere unknown," Sloth said, "I tried to scan the area, and none of this rang bells in my head at all."

    "We may be somewhere else rather than the kingdom," William suggested, but Sloth shook his head.

    "I lived long enough to go around the entire continent, visited all the kingdoms and tons of their ces there. I''m sure we aren''t on that continent anymore."

    "Then¡­ Are we on the second continent?" William knew this crystal was special, but didn''t guess it could take them all the way through continents. If so, then it must have been a high-grade portal.

    And that also meant they were lost!

    "We need to get out of here first," William agreed with what Sloth said, "I''m sure once we find a ce with people, we can get home fast."

    "I''m not in a hurry right now," William knew Sloth wanted to go back and join the battle. But as they were on the second continent, doing so was now impossible. Unless they were fortunate enough to find a ce with portals linked to their continent, then going back would take forever!

    William never left his continent before, and this was the first time to gone to this second continent. He learnt little information about it, as it was the continent that had two huge empires within.

    In terms ofnd size, this continent was at least four times theirs. And despite that, it got fewer kingdoms than theirs thanks to the presence of these two empires.

    Sloth started to lead the way, using his wider spirit sense coverage, leading William towards the great ins, a ce where he nned to start from and head towards the nearest town or a city.

    As the two marched, Sloth asked William about what happened, the being he was speaking with. William didn''t satisfy his curiosity, as he knew it was very hard to exin many concepts rted to that spirit.

    Making everyone forget about its presence actually came as a favour to William. Trying to give answers to everyone and exining lots of stuff about the spirit world was a headache he didn''t want to suffer from.

    He didn''t get everything about the spirit world, and all he knew were just bits and pieces, not that useful actually, and didn''t exin everything about them.

    Not to mention letting masters know about them wasn''t going to help anyone in the end. Masters weren''t able to meet spirits face to face, and William had to learn more about the active spirits in this world, in the outer world, and in other worlds, including that middle world he previously visited.

    As Sloth led the way, William didn''t need to do anything but think about what he just went through. Learning about the presence of spirits here, interfering with the world of masters was new to him, something that he never learnt about before.

    "First there were the Mystic Art masters, and now there are these spirits¡­ What else is hidden from me, from everyone else, about this and other worlds?" He felt like a frog at the bottom of the well, and that was something he truly didn''t like.

    Yet he was powerless here. Aside from the scrolls he obtained by ident, and the noisy spirit that was delusional enough to consider himself a god, there was nothing else he could do about it.

    As for that spirit, it never stopped speaking all the way until they arrived at the first town. Sloth''s wide range of spirit sense was indeed quite helpful here, and they arrived there in just five hours.

    "Let me do the talk," Sloth went to the town, leaving William behind. Thetter just spread his spirit sense and examined the town. It was a simple, small one, with around a few thousand humans there. It was obvious at first nce that they weren''t spirit masters, and if there were any, they must be at the weakest scale of power.

    As he expected, Sloth didn''t find any spirit master there, but he found great people who were weing to help. They told him about many things, and William heard everything using his spirit sense.

    What he learnt was that they weren''t in any area that was under the control of any empire or kingdom. They were indeed on the second continent, but they were inside a huge ind that was one of many that were in the middle between the two continents.

    That meant they weren''t that far from their continent, and yet they weren''t close to any city with portals leading to their continent.

    "You heard everything, right?" Sloth returned, before adding, "ording to them, we can head towards there and we''ll end up at the next trait connecting this ind to the next one. Going this way will make us reach the continent in the end¡­ but¡­"

    "We''ll take forever to do it," William expected from the news he just heard, "we have almost twenty inds like this one, all are self-controlled, without any big city except one at each ind, and there isn''t a single portal in any city of them¡­"

    "Our other choice is to go towards the opposite side and cross twelve inds. But we''ll end up on a new continent, one that we know nothing about¡­"

    "Let''s go home," William wasn''t that bitter about this journey. In fact, he trusted everyone back in Lara''s city to do what was needed to save the day.

    But Sloth Was feeling different!

 Chapter 1038 The Fox Guilds Big Losses!

    ?

    As for Sloth, he wasn''t feeling the same as him. He''d pay anything right now to just be present there in Lara''s city, helping everyone else defend the city.

    While the two started their long journey back home, things in the city were getting heated up. Even after the fall of the mastermind of all this, the monsters and dark masters were still putting up a huge fight there.

    The masters came from the city, flooded the entire grand fort, and fought the enemies bravely.

    The fight kept flipping from one side to another from the start, but after a few days, it was totally clear it was going to end in the pockets of the city masters.

    It wasn''t just because all the masters were now fighting together for the first time ever. Tons of masters came to the city from different ces in the continent when they heard the news about the battle development, and even many came from another continent as well.

    As masters were fighting monsters and dark masters together, and there were such weird and new phenomena that other masters hadn''t seen before, many were curious toe and help were curious to see what was special about these monsters, and to kill more of their most hated enemies.

    Things started to get better starting from day five. It went like how William said it before leaving, the moment they controlledrge ces of the walls, and things began to shift to their side quite smoothly.

    The masters all migrated and got positioned at the walls, using these to fight against the enemies all over the ce. As there was a deadly trench surrounding the entire zone, the enemies could never entrap any masters. And that made the battle end with the masters controlling the entire section of walls, ending up entrapping the enemies inside.

    This happened on day eight of the start of this war, and from there it was simply a one-sided massacre. The enemies tried hard to reim parts of the walls but failed. Nothing they could do was helpful, and they ended up losing more and more of their numbers.

    The only hope they got was the constant supply of monsters either from within the fort or from outside. They kept flooding the entire fort, cing tons of pressure on everyone. But as there were enough high-end masters there, they formed separate teams and went either deep into the fort or outside to stop the iing monsters from time to time.

    This helped greatly the defending masters in taking precious moments of breath. At the same time, it felt like they were fighting monsters and dark masters in sessive waves, and that made them grasp the tempo to do it without exerting their spirit powers.

    The battle put itsst curtain on the twentieth day. Even when they won, they paid a hefty price to do so. The big losses came from the early days of this war, and many members of the Fox guild took a great toll and a great hit this time. Even members of the ck Tails team were lost, many actually.

    Even in the circle of William''s close friends, he lost three, including Peter, and Smith.

    "We lost big this time," Sara was standing on top of the same spot where William got hit deeply before, and lost his consciousness, the ce where that Troll Tower was. She wasn''t alone, as all of William''s friends were there.

    They lost three, but all of them were suffering tons of wounds at the moment. They kept fighting for long days while suffering more wounds as they struggled to heal the old ones.

    Other masters went to rest, celebrating such a win, but they didn''t. They remained here, looking at the three dead bodies of their friends, of the masters they used to see for a long time by their side, even growing used to not losing any of them.

    But this battle taught them a valuable lesson, something like a cold p on their faces. They all returned to the bitter reality and knew how cruel and hard the spirit master world was. At any given time, any of them could fall, and none was an exception.

    "I hope he is fine," Berry muttered, while others remained silent. They were all deadly worried about William, especially when they didn''t get any news from him since he left.

    "He said he''ll take time to return back," Sara said, "let''s believe in him. Besides, he isn''t alone."

    "Sloth is a very capable master, I trust he''ll keep William safe," Anjie paused, turning to all the gloomy and exhausted faces of William''s friends, "but it''s not the right time to be here. We need to move and act fast."

    "For what?" Ro looked around, "We already won this war, and there isn''t a single enemy left."

    "She didn''t mean that," Lang was feeling devastated at the moment. The loss of Peter was something that was like losing Berry or William or something. Peter was his childhood friend, the longest friend he ever had, the longest person he ever known, and the one he totally trusted to the depths of his bones and heart.

    He felt like he lost a father or a brother, and that was indeed true. But that didn''t stop him from taking part in this discussion, "We won this war, and the city masters didn''t secure it without us. Our fame and name are now at the top. There are tons of new masters here. And we need fresh blood to replenish the ones we lost."

    "You mean¡­" Lara looked at others, before nodding, "Leave this to me. Before opening the gate for new blood, we need to do a little propaganda first."

    "Don''t take long on this," Sara felt how important doing this was, "we need to use the hype right now around us to do this."

    "Got it," Lara left, and the rest remained behind, looking at everything as if they were looking at a sad story and bad history.

 Chapter 1039 Admitting New Members

    ?

    They coborated, buried the three fallen friends, and left their graves here in this spot. As everyone returned to celebrate the win back in the city, the Fox guild announced pretty interesting news.

    First of all, they were opening their doors to recruit. Under the banner of the need for more masters to nourish and crush the bad people, everyone heard about the call for recruitment.

    At the same time, they also announced their im of the damaged fort. It was just a normal piece ofnd, one that had tons of mountains and hills, but it was also a strong fort.

    There was that huge wall, and the deadly trench surrounding it. That wasn''t why the Fox guild leaders imed this area for themselves, but it was because of the great significance this ce held to them.

    All the battles they took part in so far were just coboration between them and other forces. But this one, was handled by them, especially at the very beginning.

    They saw it as a mark of their destined rise in power and growth. At the same time, there were lots of graves inside this fort, all of great masters and friends, very talented members of the guild.

    This ce was destined to be known as the heart of the guild. The guild might have started from the Scorching Lands, but the ce most cherished and looked at by guild members in the future would be this fort.

    Lara handled everything back in the city, and yet the test ce to get admitted was in the ce of thest epic battle. At the same time, many masters all over the world heard about that and wanted toe and join.

    Yet another piece of news spread over; the Fox guild would only select from the pool of masters who took part in thest war.

    This news was quite shocking and depressing to many, quite surprising and delightful to others. The ones who didn''t take part in this war deeply regretted it now, and the ones who did were d they came and helped.

    The one who made such a decision was Anjie. She spoke about the future battles of the guild, as they grew to such heights to be able to shoulder entire battles on their own. So if the time came, and they asked for assistance, then they should reward those answering their call more than everyone else.

    This also would teach everyone a lesson. If the Fox guild asked for help, then all should jump at once to volunteer. Or else, a big opportunity would be missed, and they got nothing but to me themselves for not acting per the guild''s standards.

    Lara gave everyone one day to heal, recuperate, rest, and thene to join. The admission window was open for as long as it took, and would only stop when thest master would show up.

    They also decided on that so they''d let all the masters here feel privileged and rewarded for their aid. Not to mention this would make the guild look much better in the eyes of everyone, even in the eyes of those who failed to join the guild.

    As for the admission test, it was done by William''s standard method of assessing spirit power. But this time, they raised the standards to join the guild.

    They only epted gold grades at the guild, and dark gold at the Golden team. As for special talents, they''d be admitted directly no matter how their spirit power grade was.

    They met many they couldn''t fathom, and they knew when William would return, he''d take a decision about them. But in the worst case, they''d be admitted to the general pool of the guild. So they let all of them in.

    They first thought by raising the standards, they would ept a low number of masters. But eventually, they let a huge number of masters in, getting much more than what they best hoped for.

    During all this, William and Sloth were having fun while travelling through the inds. They felt they got separated from the entire world of spirit masters, without any means to learn about anything at all. In fact, meeting a spirit master on these inds seemed much harder than they initially thought.

    They''d walk for days without meeting a single one, something that they never thought a ce in the world would have. The inds were mostly inhabited by normal people, and for a reason, they were void of monsters or dark masters, void of any dangers.

    "This gives me the vibe of the two safe zones you built before," Sloth sighed, before looking at the distant ocean, "If not for the presence of deadly aquatic monsters, I''d have considered this ce totally safe."

    "They sent their masters to the two continents to train, and they didn''t have any feud against one another, didn''t have any big enemy or threat to worry about," William paused, before adding, "It''s nice to see people living safe and sound from time to time, right?"

    "It''s great and all, but it''s still weird," Sloth shook his head, before adding, "Won''t tell me to whom you are speaking?"

    "Not telling," William tucked his tongue, enjoying this little game that started from the early moments of their long return adventure. Sloth kept asking about the spirit, and William didn''t say anything.

    While they walked, the spirit never stopped speaking, spamming William''s mind like a pro trash-talker! He got a headache sometimes, pretty annoyed other times, ending up shouting at that spirit, or even mocking him from time to time.

    Sloth didn''t miss any of that. Even if William''s words didn''t make any sense at all, he tried to link them and get any meaning from them. But even till now, he couldn''t decipher any. So he kept pestering William, and thetter found it interesting to spend time thinking of new ways to say no to him.

    He sometimes tugged out his tongue, sometimes ced both arms to form an X sign, or even transformed, shook his four tails, to let Sloth unable to hold back hisugh.

 Chapter 1040 Ocean Sickness

    ?

    When he transformed, William felt something different about his spirit. He felt a connection with something far, far away from him, like some sort of a bond. He didn''t need to think deeply about it, knew this was something rted to that Mystic Art he did, the connection with that spirit.

    In the meantime, he tried to walk in the transformation form, ending up feeling exhausted weirdly after five hours every time.

    He tried to look for the reason, and he spotted it on his fourth attempt. It felt like if he transformed and did nothing, didn''t fight or anything, his spirit power would deplete in five hours! It was new, strange, and yet quite rming.

    That made him try to fight something. As Sloth didn''t ept his request to train, asking him to not waste time and keep heading fast towards the continent, he decided to try fighting the ocean monsters every time they passed a trait.

    All the inds were connected together by some sort of a huge bridge. And yet monsters still came in and stormed the bridges whenever people walked over it. That was why the main ce they found masters stationed at was at bridges, watching over those who were going to cross, helping them to safely pass.

    Every time William left the mission to fight these monsters to Sloth. Thetter was getting bored from all this tranquillity and peace and wanted to spend some time fighting anything. Yet after realising the crux of this problem, William decided to fight ocean monsters as well.

    This wasn''t new for him, and so he didn''t feel the same excitement as Sloth. But when he fought for one hour, he noticed his weird spirit power consumption faded away, and he even gained spirit power as if he was regenerating it, or consuming a potion.

    It wasn''t like when he used elixirs, but it was remarkable. "Like this, I can sustain longer in battles¡­ but trying to run using my spirit body won''t do anymore¡­" he weighed what he learnt, and knew the ins and outs of the changes he experienced.

    As he figured out what went wrong, he stopped wasting his time dealing with ocean monsters. Ocean monsters were the same asnd ones, and had cores and materials. The cores were the same, but the materials did indeed differ.

    It was widely known that using ocean monster materials in forging and concocting would bring water-based traits to any product. Not to mention it''d grant anti-fire features if high-ss materials were used.

    Gradings of ocean monsters were the same asnd ones, but it was harder to fight monsters in the water. If the master didn''t have any water-based element, then he''d struggle to survive the attacks of them over water.

    It was a new experience for Sloth, and that was apparent in the loudughs and shouts he kept issuing all the time. For a moment there, he reminded William of Ibra, and he knew what fate awaited that violent and hot-blooded friend of his.

    They took roughly a month to cross the inds and reach the maind. Thest couple of inds looked different. They got more masters there, and news about big events in the continent reached these ces.

    "So we won?" Sloth muttered when he heard the news.

    "Why act like you didn''t see thising?" William rolled his eyes, "Come on! They are waiting for us back there."

    "Of course you are happy, your guild ruled over that war, and got a nice boost to their name and fame. And you left behind genius kids indeed, they didn''t miss the chance and hurried to recruit masters from the city. If I don''t know you, I''d say this genius idea came from my princess."

    "She is part of my guild now, old man," William rolled his eyes, "even if she was the one to propose it, it''s still considered an ideaing from my guild."

    "She is my kingdom''s princess and heir!" Sloth used to speak with William like he was speaking with his grandson or something. From this long travel together, and after witnessing too much with him, the two became familiar with each other, speaking like they were old buddies or something.

    On many asions, Sloth would feel like William wasn''t a teenager, but a grown-up man, one with tons of experience. And that made him admire this youngster even more.

    Yet from time to time, William would still act as an annoying jerk, making Sloth lose his cool and temper at most times, like now.

    "Ok old man, don''t forget she fought against everyone to be with me!" This wasn''t the first time the two argued about this point, and William always won the debate by using such irrefutable facts. Whenever Sloth got reminded of this point, he''d try to change the subject at once.

    "Do we need to board a ship to go to the shore?" Sloth seemed a bit startled when he heard this. During the past journey, they just passed over bridges. But weirdly enough, there wasn''t a bridge linking this ind with the maind.

    "What''s wrong old man? Don''t tell me you are afraid of riding ships!" William felt like Sloth''s reaction wasn''t groundless, and there was more beyond that man''sstment.

    "Come on, like I''m not the only master growing sick after boarding a ship!" There was a reason why Sloth never treated the ocean or fought ocean monsters before. He wasn''t afraid of the ocean, but he always ended up pretty dizzy and weak every single time he boarded a ship.

    If that urred, he''d turn pretty useless and damn weak, something he hated when he grew up and became stronger.

    "Growing sick? Oh, you are one of those suffering from Ocean Spirit Sickness, right?" William resisted the urge tough, and yet his face told Sloth what he was having in mind.

    "Come on! Do you think I''m a pushover or a weakling? I''m sick on water, a lion onnd, what''s the problem?"

 Chapter 1041 Stop It, Old Man!

    ?

    "Nothing is wrong about that," William tried to resist the urge tough again, and yet he failed this time.

    "Stop it!" Sloth was pretty annoyed, especially when William kept looking at him from time to time, smirking and evenughing at some times when they boarded that ship.

    The moment the ship moved, Sloth started to grow weak. He leant over the edge of the ship, and held it with both hands while trying to not throw himself off to the ocean.

    "Come on! It''s not that bad, don''t tell me you can''t swim, hahaha!" Such a sight of Sloth made William itchy to get out a recording crystal and save this moment forter, forever. Yet he couldn''t tell what Sloth would doter when they''d leave the ship.

    So he refrained from doing so. And in the end, he controlled and behaved himself, especially when they got closer to thend.

    When they took the journey, they knew a bridge was impossible to build here. In the middle of the path between the closest points of the two sides, there were lots of huge whirlpools that would turn anything over it into shreds. Not to mention there were thunderstorms appearing out of nowhere, hitting that area ferociously before suddenly disappearing.

    As they had to take a long detour, they took roughly one day to cross the ocean and reach the maind. When they arrived there, and the moment Sloth''s feet touched the ground, he turned to William in an evil way.

    "Old man, if you dare to touch me¡­"

    "What will you do? Huh? Ungrateful brat! I followed you all this way to help you in this adventure, and in the end, this is your thanks and gratitude to me? Screw you! I won''t let you live in peace for days!"

    The moment he said that he started to chase after William. Trying to run away from a dark gold master, one at the pinnacle was something impossible even for William. But thanks to his dash technique and his ability to change trajectory every two metres now, he was able to evade all of the iing ps of Sloth.

    "I swear if you don''t stop right now, I willin to the king! No, I''llin to Anjie! Stop this madness!" he couldpete against Sloth in response and swift reactions, but he couldn''tpare with him in terms of spirit power.

    If he kept this going on for long enough, he''d either be forced to use elixirs, a big loss for him, or to let Sloth p him as he wished.

    "Telling them? Hmph! Tell the whole world if you want, I won''t let you off the hook, troublemaker!"

    "Stop it! I have a recording of you back there, do you want me to spread it over the entire world or what?!!" As things reached this far, William had toe up with an idea to stop Sloth from doing what he intended.

    If not, then he''d end up suffering a lot! And when he shouted like this, Sloth did indeed stop.

    "Give it to me!"

    "No way! Do you take me for a fool?" William would never give it to him, as he didn''t have it in the first ce.

    "Fine! Then I''ll p you and beat you to a pulp before taking everything you have¡­ Come here, why are you turning to your spirit form? Do you want to fight? For real?!"

    William had no other choice but to lean to that. He knew if he didn''t fight and kill, then his spirit power would get depleted in five hours! But to make sure he''d go away from the crazy Sloth, he had to do it.

    Just as he transformed, Sloth also transformed. His spirit body was a big ck ape, one that had two tails with snake heads, a red fur, two golden horns, and a very deadly triple set of razor-like ws.

    The next few hours were quite weird to many masters in the area. They saw two masters running, activating their spirit bodies, with one seemingly shouting for help and the other cursing and threatening him.

    If these masters knew this was William, the same legendary master whose name was reverberating all over the world right now, they would be tempted to record what was going on and spread it over for wealth.

    "Stop it, old man! I''m not as strong as you!" William felt that his spirit power was approaching rock bottom, and so he had to try again to dissuade Sloth from this. But thetter didn''t respond, acting as if he didn''t hear him.

    "What if I promised you anything? Anything you want?" William tried to tempt Sloth to not p him, but his attempt failed.

    "A promise from a sleek like you? No way! You won''t hold your word or keep your promise! Come here, I will p you ten times, the same number of times youughed on that ship!"

    In the end, William decided to ept the punishment, ming his luck for not recording that old man before. Sloth already saw through the little lie of his, and didn''t stop until he pped William for ten times in a row!

    In the end, William got out with swollen red cheeks, and a deformed face that made Slothugh at him for hours!

    "I won''t let you off the hook this easily," William returned the words Sloth said before to him, "I will tell Anjie, masters from your capital, and even the king about how you abused a teenager like me!"

    "Hahahaha, suck it, kid, you won''t do anything bad to this old man''s name or reputation, hahahaha!"

    "We''ll see," William knew Sloth was right, he couldn''t do anything to him at all, "When I grow strong enough, I''ll generously repay this kindness many folds back!"

    "Waiting for you here," Sloth even yawned, "but hurry up, like this, you''ll reach my level in fifty up to a hundred years."

 Chapter 1042 Learning The Grave News

    ?

    We''ll see," William wasn''t serious about this. He''d take fifty years in Sloth''s best estimate to reach the pinnacle stage, but he promised himself he''d do it in less than a decade, not five!

    As the two walked on the maind, they finally found themselves near a big city with portals. Yet this one wasn''t connected directly to Lara''s city. When they asked about a portal to Lara''s city, and with the description that matched the legendary Fox guild founding master, everyone started to recognise William.

    This created hype in that city! William and Sloth had to stay in a hotel for a few days, while the former kept meeting tons of masters, epting their good wishes and will to join his guild.

    He didn''t refuse any, kept smiling and exchanging good words with them. He knew they admired him too much, and he had to ept their good intentions without any annoyance.

    Sloth kept watching all this from the side, and William didn''t miss telling him about how great his guild was, but he wasn''t going to ept him even if he begged for it.

    Sloth tried to control himself to not p this rude teenager again. And after a few days, they finally finished their task here and went towards the portal zone of this city.

    They got to another city where there was a linked portal to Lara''s. And yet they had to wait for a few more days there, as more admirers flooded the two and kept speaking with William for a long time.

    During all this, news of William''s appearance in the first city reached Lara''s city. His friends heaved a deep sigh of relief when they heard that. The war ended over a month ago, and they integrated the newly recruited masters to their teams and into others'' teams. They were awaiting William to know what else they should do.

    They all knew he nned a specialised training program for them, and they were pretty excited about it. They also cared about his reaction when hearing of the three dead friends, and the many dead members of the guild.

    "I told you, my mentor will keep him safe. I bet the two became best friends now," Anjie spoke as if she was a fortune teller or something, not knowing that when the two arrived, they''d give her a big shock.

    The moment William and Sloth appeared back in the city, the two were instantly surrounded by lots of masters. They were weing them back, and soon enough William learnt about what happened to his friends and guild members.

    The moment he got the news, he instantly dashed forward, leaving everyone behind, and didn''t even say anything to anyone. He ran directly towards the direction of that fort, the ce which now turned into the base of his guild.

    He just heard about the loss of three of his best friends, in addition to thousands of the guild members, including hundreds of the two special teams of his guild.

    He personally selected everyone, and the loss count wasn''t just limited to the old ones, but also many new members died, including the ones who came from the other world.

    William felt something he never felt before. All his life, he was the one who lived in the shadow of his master. He never got responsible for any team, and didn''t even feel the responsibility of taking care of any master before. All he got to know were his teammates, while all worked under the leadership of his master.

    Now he got what it meant to be a master, and got to feel how deeply terrible to lose masters who trusted him. As he ran without feeling himself towards that fort ce, he couldn''t help but wonder about how his master felt back then.

    They all died, and he wondered so many times about how his master felt back then. She didn''t show a speck of emotion on her face, didn''t say anything to express her true feelings. But now, he was pretty sure she was feeling so bad deep down in her spirit and heart, just the same as he felt right now.

    Just as he got near the fort ce, he found the guild masters all waiting for him. They were standing outside the trench, lining up in a grand scene. They heard the news, and they came out to wee the return of the legendary master.

    The moment he spotted them, he felt something different. He came here devastated, ming himself for not being by their side when things went south, and didn''t train them properly as he should have.

    Yet the moment he saw the grand gathering of his guild masters, how they came out to wee him, how they bowed in respect while he stood like a statue in front of them, he learnt something new about how his master felt back then.

    Even if he lost a few of his closest friends, even if he med himself for what happened, he still had masters who ced their total trust in him. And he had to be up to the task and be the man they all wanted him to be.

    He couldn''t believe how being a master was this bad andplicated. In times of mourning, he needed to show them there was still hope, acting tough as if nothing happened, the same as his master always did all the time in front of him.

    "It''s time to show them there is still hope," he took a deep breath, looking at the faces of his friends who were still alive. They stood in front of everyone, looking at him in worry and concern.

    They must have heard the news from Sloth, heard about how he ran out the moment he heard about what happened.

    "I know we all faced great turmoil this time, but we''ll do like we always did," he didn''t know what the heck he was supposed to say.

 Chapter 1043 His Mindset Changed!

    ?

    So William took inspiration from what his master used to say after every failure, after every battle with losses in his team back then, "We will train, we will pour every sweat we have to get stronger, and in the end, we will survive and prevail! Raise your heads high up, we are the Fox guild!"

    The moment he said hisst piece, the one he improvised at the spot, he raised his fist high in the air, and shouted while releasing all the frustration swelling deep inside him.

    And yet his shout was perceived in a different way to everyone else. They all shouted, raised their fists in the air, and shouted in defiance and courage.

    They were excited about what he said, and the new members knew they made the right decision to be here. As for the old ones, they knew their master was the best master in the world.

    His friends heaved a silent sigh of relief when they saw him do this. It meant at least he was having total control over himself, but they didn''t fall for his words.

    From his shout, they all could feel his pain, his agony, and how he terribly med himself for what happened.

    "Let''s go," After letting his friends do this, he knew he had done enough and it was time for him to release his repressed emotions, with the people he mostly trusted, "Show me where they are buried."

    They didn''t say anything to him and just walked by his side, passing through therge number of masters who gathered there. They heard shouts, filled with excitement and hope,ing from all, and said nothing.

    They led him through the fort, heading back towards the ce where all this went wrong. When he saw where they buried them, buried all the ones who fell here, he couldn''t help but sigh.

    "Sorry guys," he said this to the ones who were under dirt now, and said this to everyone who stood by his side, "I¡­ I hold total responsibility for what happened to you¡­"

    "William¡­" Berry from the side felt like her heart ached, as if someone got a de and cut it into tiny pieces in the slowest and most brutal way possible.

    But he didn''t respond to her, leant to the ground, grabbed a handful of the dirt, and hardly clenched on it.

    Deep inside, he took a vow. All his time, he dealt with them as just given facts, as if they were just going to follow him forever, head with him towards the outer world. He took their talents as something for granted, and didn''t focus on personally training and guiding them the way his master previously did.

    He thought this was the main mistake his master fell into, or the only choice she had back then as she couldn''t train to grow strong enough and fight that enemy back then.

    But now he knew he was wrong, and he learnt it the hard way. He vowed to take care of those remaining by his side, totally focusing on supporting and growing them, the same way his master did to him and others, the same way he should have done it before.

    "Don''t take it on yourself like this," as he kept looking at the graves around without saying anything, Sloth suddenly appeared, "They are masters, and they knew what they were up to. They selected to follow you, listen to your orders, and knew this was going to happen at some point."

    "I still didn''t do what I was supposed to," William said these words in a heavy tone without even turning towards Sloth, "change of ns¡­ We are going to stay here and train. Send the word back, and let everyone at the Scorching Landse here to train. We are going to close on ourselves for a year, and I won''t let you have a single moment of rest!"

    His tone wasn''t loud, but it held all the determination in the world. His friends could feel how he changed, how he seriously meant what he said.

    "Cool, we are going to have a hellish one year of our lives then," Ro tried to joke, but no oneughed, not even smiled. Even William ignored what she said, and remained standing in front of the graves, feeling the responsibility he had to shoulder, feeling the pain of their loss.

    His friends started to move around and spread the news. ording to what he asked them to do, he was going to train every one of them separately, devise a n for them and for their teams as well.

    He stated it clearly, from now on, the entire guild would get reformed. The guild would be rebuilt over a pyramidal structure, one that would be led by him at the very top, then his friends and vices, next their selected masters, and then everyone else.

    His vices and theirs would all have teams of their own. He''d train his friends, and they''d train their vices, and all would train their team members. As for William, he''d be lying on top of all that, watching and observing, leading the training, and doing nothing else but to mentor them.

    He also would take periods of time to go and train, and that would happen at the Scorching Lands. Sloth stayed by his side and gave him tips and instructions about what he should and shouldn''t do. William didn''t need much help, as he got the coolest master in the entire world from his past life. And yet he appreciated what Sloth was saying.

    "Listen up," In one week, everyone from the Scorching Lands and other branches around the world came and joined. The new branches were still recently built but didn''t have that much development yet. But they got masters there and needed to train.

    William gathered everyone around. He already moved and examined the entire area of the fort, his guild''s new home.

    It was filled with hills, ones that he didn''t leave intact, and kept digging tunnels there to make sure there wasn''t any hidden base somewhere.

 Chapter 1044 The Falcon Mountain

    ?

    William found many of these, all empty, and decided to block them with rocks and not let any chance of threat be present there.

    "I''ve selected my ck Tails team before. They are now going to be army leaders. Each army will have vices selected from the Golden Tails team. And all of them are going to select masters from you to join them. At the end of the day, all of the masters will join one army or another. Then you''ll each select one mountain peak and take it as your symbol, as your residence, as your home¡­"

    William already counted the mountains in the area; there were a few hundred of them, enough to make each a symbol of one army.

    He decided to let the armies be led by his friends, then they''d select people from the ck Tails team. After that, they all would select masters from the Gold Tails team and the grand pool of masters in the entire guild.

    As he exined in great detail what everyone was going to do, he selected three of his friends to form a small team and follow him around.

    This special little team was led by Karoline, John, and Thomas. And they were going to be like his record track holding of the entire training process of the guild.

    John already showed great skill in handling lots of paperwork, and Karolinecked much experience in dealing with the master world, not to mention trains. As for Thomas, he had a unique talent, one that wasn''t suited to be on the frontline and do various tasks out there.

    He intended to go all over the ce, and give specialised training directions and methods to every single team. A good master had great followers, and he had to take care not only of his friends but of the masters following them.

    In other words, he nned to train everyone in the guild, selecting suited and tailored training techniques, fighting techniques, and even weapons for them.

    To do so, he''d consume lots of time, and that was something he couldn''t avoid. To make up for that, he decided to let this special team handle everything else. They''d keep track of how they trained, and how well they progressed, spot any problems or errors they made, and inform him about all that in detailed reports.

    Like this, he''d keep track of everything going all over the ce without the need to personally visit everyone. As for the masters who were going to join them, he decided to train them from time to time as well.

    Even if these three weren''t great fighters, and weren''t going to handle tasks at the frontline, it didn''t mean they wouldn''t join any battle or something. Like the past war when everyone had to fight for their lives.

    He gave everyone a few days to settle everything, selected their trusted masters, and they all would select from the grand pool of masters. He didn''t limit anyone wanting to join any of his friends, as long as his friends epted.

    They all worked the same way he used to, using the special method of assessing spirit power to select the most capable and talented masters first.

    As the guild already epted members based on such screening methods from the early beginning, it was expected that it to have tons of good talents.

    They struggled to pick who was going to fit in their close circle, and on many asions, they got into quarrels with others about a few talents here and there.

    William set a single rule to solve all this, fight! Whoever wanted to pick a talent, had to fight for it. And that started a trend in the guild; boss fights!

    They called their army leaders as a boss, like how they called William before. These fights attracted hype and attention, not only among the guild but among many others as well.

    Many formidable masters took in watching what the Fox guild mini-bosses were doing and started to watch everything using their spirit sense. The battles raged on for days, and William just let them have their fun.

    At first, many tried to snatch talents from others, mainly driven by their envy and desire forpetition. Butter on, they started to enjoy what they were doing, enjoyed the battles, and started to fight over lots of masters, elongating the battles even more.

    William let his guild masters construct rings, one hundred in total. After seeing the hype these created, he decided to leave these rings all the time open, giving his guild members the chance to fight against each other, and get a better taste of real battles inside these rings.

    He had to wait for one week, and then the entire new structure of his guild was done. There were thirty-two armies here, led all by his friends. They absorbed the hundreds of thousands of masters in the guild, and each selected one mountain, taking it as a symbol.

    Anjie started a trend of cing a symbol over her mountain peak, a falcon! She decided to call her army the Falcon Novistic army, and soon everyone followed her steps and did as her.

    William didn''t object to such a thing. Even if he found it weird for her to select a flying monster as an icon, something that was considered a myth in this world, it was still great. Such a symbol was something that would deepen her masters'' belonging to her side and would make them feel more attached to the guild.

    Berry selected her family''s dragon as a symbol, mixed with the feathers of a phoenix. She called her mountain the Dragon Phoenix Hybrid mountain, and William knew why she selected such a name.

    Other girls and friends started to pick names based on things they held deep to them. Few selected their spirits, others selected their families, and rarely selected things they admired, even if they weren''t rted to.

    William let them have total control over this and didn''t interfere or say anything.

 Chapter 1045 Grand Training Plans

    When they got done, he started to visit every mountain, alongside the record tracking team.

    "Line up, you''ll all get tested by me," William stood at the base of the mountain before adding, "I''ll hand everyone a set of techniques and advice, memorise these to the heart, and make sure to write them downter on and practice properly on them¡­"

    He didn''t have time to make copies of everything he had and knew it wasn''t a good n either. To save time, he decided to select the best practice for everyone when tested right on the spot, tell them what to do, and they''d have to memorise it all.

    One by one he tested, and with every test he''d pick a selected set of training techniques, fighting techniques, and even a spirit purity training manual. He made sure to select the best ones to pave a path for everyone to train and rise to the outer world in the end.

    Every mountain had tens of thousands of masters waiting, and it took a long time to do such a startup task. Spending more than ten days at every mountain made him consume months in doing so, and that wasn''t going to work.

    So he started to do something else. He grouped the masters who had the same spirits, spirit elements, and spirit purity stages together. Then he''d tell all the right path to tread, saving himself lots of time.

    Instead of spending months on that, he spent just one month. When he got done, he left tracking the progress of everyone over to Karoline, John, and Thomas.

    He started all this by testing them and their selected teams. Even if each picked up a mountain, selecting a grand number of masters like others, they handpicked just a few thousand to follow them around, helping them in that task.

    As for others, they were left on their mountains to train. William stressed over them taking shifts and turns, so they wouldn''t fall behind as well.

    "Now it''s time to take care of the subsidiary professions¡­" As he did that to the masters, he had another task to do, helping artisans and alchemists.

    He decided to go all out this time in training. Building up a strong master didn''t just depend on spirit power or spirit purity, not only on training and fighting techniques.

    Gears, weapons, potions, elixirs, and even special products like powder and toxin were essential as well.

    During the initial selection stage, William added another choice, a different one, for his guild masters. Whoever wished for, he could select another path to train at, either being an artisan or an alchemist.

    To make everyone understand the importance of this, he made sure to tell everyone that these special teams of masters would take tons of his care and attention, would be provided with everything they''d dream of, and would learn tons of cool stuff, not like anyone else.

    He wasn''t lying, as to be efficient here they just needed skills, and anyone with talent and dedication could learn any talent, even if it came from the outer world.

    He did what he promised, taught them lots of things about forging and concocting, spending weeks in doing so. He made sure they got what he taught them, left tons of advanced blueprints of different stuff, and let them work their hardest to produce the best weapons and war supplies for the guild members.

    They might not develop to be the strongest unit in his guild, but with them on everyone''s back, everyone would grow to be far stronger than what training could do.

    After doing all this, he decided to close on himself for three months, beforeing again and checking on their progress. And so he decided to leave for the Scorching Lands city.

    "What are you doing here?" When he was about to leave alone, he spotted someone waiting for him at the main gate of the fort. This gate was recently constructed, much bigger than any other gate in the fort, with the broadest falling bridge here.

    There he found Anjie, and she wasn''t alone. Sloth was standing on top of the wall, seemingly acting like her angel guardian or something.

    "I won a six-month period with you," she casually said, shrugging as she added, "You wasted too many months around, and that time won''t be calcted."

    "I bet other girls won''t be happy about it," William grinned, "Besides, don''t you have an army to train?"

    "They have capable vices," she paused, and looked at Sloth and William got what she meant.

    "You asked for the help of your father?" he couldn''t believe what she did. She didn''t leave behind the vices she selected from the guild, but seemingly brought those old masters and mentors from the capital.

    "He is my father, and it''s expected for him to support me, right?" she seemed a bit happy about it, while William didn''t know what to say back.

    This was like cheating, and her father, the king, was helping her out on this.

    "The king has to do what he can to protect the most precious people to him, right?" Sloth seemed to enjoy this better than anyone. And frankly seeing his face and hearing his voice made William recall what he did to him back there.

    Yet he got over it already. After the shock of losing his beloved friends, things changed for him. He started to act how he should have done a long time ago, since the first moment he came back to this lifetime.

    He also knew what Sloth said held deeper meaning behind it. Having such formidable and extremely experienced masters here would let them see the new teachings and methods he developed for his guild. This would back up the kingdomter on, and let it enter a new era.

    William didn''t mind that. After all, he knew he wasn''t going to spend the rest of his life in this world and would go eventually to the upper world.

 Chapter 1046 The Grand Scorching Lands City

    ?

    Not to mention he needed the king''s help to go to thatpetition, and win it in the end. So he saw this as a little future investment, a pay up front for the services he was going to ask forter on from the king.

    "Let''s go, I believe you are going to a grand adventure," Sloth seemed interested and amused about this, but William evilly grinned.

    "I have to disappoint you, I''m just going to train at the Scorching Lands city."

    "Scorching Lands city? Why not remain here and train?!!" this wasn''t only Sloth''s words, but also Anjie''s.

    "I like it there, not here," William casually said, before starting to walk outside the fort, "let''s go, we have a long road ahead."

    As he walked away, the other two looked at each other then at him, before they followed. They didn''t say anything or object, as the two thought about something different.

    From the news she learnt from others about William, she knew how addicted he was to go out and fight monsters alone. It looked like a never dying habit, but today was an exception.

    The path towards the Scorching Lands city would take roughly one week. Without any dangers on the road, the three of them went smoothly towards there. The area was void of dark masters and monsters, and they just walked and talked all the way about different things.

    Sloth got used to having William by his side, even if he grew annoyed with this teenager from time to time, he still felt it wasn''t that bad. As for Anjie, she cherished every single moment with him, even slept in hisp whenever they rested. She tried to let them rest for many hours every day, but William objected to this.

    She knew once William returned to the Scorching Lands city, he''d close on himself and train. She wouldn''t have the same chance again, and she insisted on enjoying every single moment of it.

    "This city¡­ It looks no smaller than the other one!!"

    It wasn''t just Sloth to get shocked by seeing the Scorching Lands city, but Anjie as well.

    "Are there such cities in the kingdom and we don''t know anything about their progress?!!" she looked at William, and as Sloth, she felt this young master was full of tons of surprises.

    The two already heard the story of the Scorching Lands from other team members who witnessed it happening. It was just a small fort, and William changed it to be like how it was today.

    Like Lara''s city, this ce also has three levels. Yet unlike Lara''s city, it looked more advanced and properly developed. After all, it took lots of years to grow up and develop.

    The outer section of the city was well developed and properly designed, and had aplete wall surrounding it. The city that William used to see for five years changed dramatically, and that was thanks to the storm he did back at Lara''s city.

    To the people of the world, these two cities turned out to be the heart of safety, the heaven on the ground. Many flooded Lara''s city, and many more came here as well.

    After all, Lara''s city was much newer than this city. The only problem they had was theck of portal area, something that greatly dyed their speed up progress. But that didn''t stop many toe here and enjoy the peace.

    "Let''s go, we''ll go towards the Fox guild main branch," William left this ce for a long time, and now he felt likeing back home.

    This ce held lots of good memories, it was the ce where he established his guild, the ce where he started walking down the path of being a celebrity and a legend.

    As he was away for long enough, he expected that no one would recognise him. But the moment he appeared close to the main gate of the city, and many shouted, pointed at him.

    And then it was like a bomb exploded here!

    "You sure have tons of admirers here," It took the three of them roughly a day to pass through the three levels of the city until they reached the main base of the guild at the central area, "You are famous despite being young, I''m jealous!"

    "Suck it, old man," William didn''t like this situation to be honest. He knew people admired what he did for them, what he did by killing the enemies everyone hated, but he still felt awkward whenever he was surrounded by all of these masters.

    "Don''t act humble, you are like a hero to everyone in the city," Anjie rolled her eyes, before looking around, "So¡­ This is the main base of your guild? The ce where everything started?"

    "That''s true," he nodded, looking around. The ce was much more deste than the city outside, as all of the guild members got summoned to Lara''s city. There wasn''t a single person left here, and that made Sloth ask in doubt:

    "Isn''t it a bit dangerous to leave the base of your guild undefended?"

    "Who said it''s not?" William knew why Sloth got such a misunderstanding, "I''m inviting you to go out, and try toe inside using force if you may like."

    "Let me see why you are this confident then," Sloth was about to move before he stopped, turned to William before adding, "I know you are a sly fox! Come with me outside, so you won''t do anything while being here."

    "Fine," William shrugged, casually walking with the two of them out. When they got out there, they found lots of people gathered up, seemingly waiting for some sort of interesting show to happen or something.

    Seeing them made William recall every single time he came out, he''d always see such a scene here. People of the city were hoping for him to open the guild doors to ept more, and they always knew he was up to something big.

 Chapter 1047 Failing!

    ?

    They didn''t want to miss the show, or the chance to join the guild. When recalling this, he realised that it was a long time before thest time he opened the doors of the guild to any of them.

    "Ahem," before Sloth would start hitting the shield surrounding the fort base, William cleared his throat before adding in a loud tone, "I''m going to give you all one week to prepare, then I''ll personally test anyone willing to join my guild¡­"

    He was about to continue saying his words when earth-shattering apuse, shouts, and cries of happiness rose from all of the people gathering here. Seeing this drove a smile over his face, making Anjie chuckle from the side.

    "Not bad, you know how to show your support to your hometown, nice!"

    "It''s not my hometown, old man," William corrected this mistake to Sloth, before turning to the people around and started to tell them his conditions.

    He didn''t want anything from anyone but to be ready to leave for Lara''s city the moment they got selected. If not, then it was pointless toe forward and apply.

    He didn''t intend to leave anyone behind, and didn''t like to let others stagnate because they wanted to live beside their families. This ce was safe, and there was no harm present there. So if any master wanted to stay behind, he should be doing this for the sake of living with the ones he loved.

    Such masters weren''t that bad, not that rare, but William didn''t want any of them in his guild. He wanted warriors, masters who were willing to not only protect their families but the entire world.

    Once done, they kept cheering and celebrating such a chance. It was indeed too long since thest time they got such a chance. And many masters came here and waited for such a chance for many months.

    News spread all over the city and even went to those who were living outside. What William didn''t know was that many academies and ns preferred to set up their bases outside the city. There was no danger lurking out there, and they could easily live and expand.

    But no matter how grand and big the academy or the n was, once William''s invitation to join his guild spread like wildfire, and almost everyone wanted to join.

    Yet he only epted young masters, those at twenty-five or below. He wanted to support the new generation, leaving the old ones to just watch in regret from the side, regretting they were born too soon than his time.

    "Let''s see what you can do, old man," once the masters around dispersed to spread the news, William turned to Sloth and invited him to try.

    Sloth cracked his knuckles, before adding in a signed warning, "if you got anything of value inside, please go and get it. I won''t hold back my power¡­"

    "Just do it," William rolled his eyes, "let''s see if you can do it in the first ce, at least leave a scratch over a single building and I''ll call you master."

    "Hahaha, that''s one more reason to do it, hahaha!" William was speechless for one second there when Slothughed like this. He never felt this old man''s desire to see him bitterly lose or something. And yet his surprise was nothingpared to Anjie.

    She knew her mentor for many years, and she never saw him act like that, never! She recalled how the two came back and acted a bit weird, slightly nervous, and tense against each other as if they were enemies, not friends.

    "This is going to be interesting," she stood on the side, watching how this show would end up at. She was already amused, and then Sloth acted.

    He started by using one of his most destructive techniques. It was enough to form a gigantic iron fist, one that was surrounded with wisps of fire and smoke, enough to tten a mountain if Sloth wanted to.

    William was familiar with Sloth''s way of fighting like Anjie, and he knew such technique was quite overbearing, but it could suck away one-third of his spirit power in one go.

    This was pretty insane indeed, as this amount of spirit power was calcted over the huge amount such a pinnacle master had.

    William once offered his help to evolve this technique and fix the ring issues it got, an offer that was weed with a mocking gaze andment from Sloth back at that time.

    William wasn''t trying to show off. This technique was quite impressive and strong, but itcked in many ces, letting it suck much spirit power without giving proper results.

    As Sloth used his technique, he watched itnd over the wall of the base. Yet what he expected didn''t happen.

    All of sudden, a shield that wasn''t there appeared all of sudden, stopping his punch like it was nothing. He blinked twice while watching his formidable fist evaporate in thin air, turning into ck wisps of smoke as if it died on its own.

    "This¡­" shocked as one might think, Sloth turned towards William and couldn''t get what he should say.

    "I told you before, your technique is full of holes," William rolled his eyes, acted as if he was a master and Sloth was just a white-grade spirit master learning under him, "Why didn''t you listen to my advice back then? Huh?"

    "Shut the hell up! I can''t believe my technique is stopped, or others can be!" Sloth fumed in rage, turned towards the shield that vanished and didn''t appear again, and took this challenge quite seriously this time.

    Instead of using just one technique, he used three at once! One technique formed a gigantic ball of fire, and the second turned it into a fiery thunderstorm, and thest one was his punch.

    This was by far the strongestbo Sloth could muster by his current level of power and knowledge. To be able to do it, he had to consume five bottles of elixirs.

 Chapter 1048 I Got A Clue!

    ?

    William saw each technique alone but never saw such abo before.

    "Going all out this time? Sorry, but you''ll fail!" Even before the three techniques would perfectly merge together, William sighed, and shook his head, as if he was someone who could see through the future or something.

    "Shut up and watch how your beloved guild base will crumble on¡­"

    *Puff!*

    Just before he''d continued his words, the three terrifying techniques mmed fiercely against the shield once more, before finally evaporating like the first attack he used.

    Sloth felt the shock of his life at this moment. He''d ept such a result if he was met with a scary enemy, one that was on par with or much stronger than him.

    Settling with one failure? No way! This wasn''t Sloth''s nature. In the next few hours, he kept mming against the shield of William''s guild base, one time after another, using different techniques and everything he had!

    He even activated his spirit, used his strongest weapons, and tried to attack the shield with everything he had.

    "Let me give him a hand," at some point, Panther came in with lots of old masters from the city and Lockheart. Even that sly old master came as well, giving William a regretful look as if he missed recruiting a gem back then.

    "Let me help him as well," othersughed, joining Sloth in attacking the shield of the guild''s base. It was well known it was an impregnable shield, one that could stop a behemoth from getting in, stopping any master no matter how strong he or she was.

    Seeing many steps in, and nothing happened, made Sloth finally realise the bitter truth. After hours of butting his head against that shield, he finally resigned.

    "I acknowledge my failure," he bitterly admitted, while feeling ashamed for his failure.

    "My friend from the capital, don''t feel this dejected, hahaha! I already foresaw your loss, hahaha!" Panther patted over Sloth''s shoulder, and yet his words never helped at all.

    "What do you mean?!!" Yet from the words of Panther, Sloth could find a clue or more. First, he knew that man was familiar with him, or else he wouldn''t state the capital clearly in his words.

    And then he mentioned something about foreseeing his loss, something that meant only one thing; this master here could see the future.

    "He is Panther, the current head and leader of the city," William made the introduction on Panther''s behalf, "As for Sloth¡­ I do have the feeling you already know him, right?"

    "I met him four decades ago," Panther nodded in agreement, "back then, I was still weak, just as the gold grade, and he was still at the same scary level of power he had today, tsk!"

    It felt like Panther was envious of Sloth or something, and that made thetter regain a bit of his dignity. "That''s true, I kept my level of power for many decades, but¡­"

    "I went there to train in the capital''s famous red army," Panther exined everything to Sloth, and William knew that the master wasn''t just the previous head of the Lockheart impact out of nothing.

    He went out to venture into the world, and trained under the very best. In fact, Panther admitted that he tried many times to train under Sloth, but thetter always acted cold and arrogantly towards him, refusing everything he did back then to let him train under him.

    "Let''s leave the kids alone," after speaking for a few minutes, and getting to know each other better, Panther suddenly proposed, "William is known to have his own ways, different and unique ones, to do things. So let him do what he came here for. I''m sure he is here for something important¡­ That reminds me¡­ The old thing you asked me to search for, we finally got a lead on it a few months ago, but couldn''t get any lead on your location to deliver the news."

    "Old thing¡­" William was lost in thoughts for a few seconds before all of a sudden his body boiled with rage and will to fight. His body didn''t change to his spirit body form, but it emitted copious amounts of spirit power, enough to give anyone the impression he was activating it, "Are you sure you got a lead on them atst?"

    He said it in a tone that told Sloth and Anjie how dead serious and enraged he was. The two looked at each other, then at William, thenstly at Panther.

    "I got a vision," Panther nodded, "there is a way to go to where they are, big statues, speaking in weird tones, right?" Panther tried to make sure what he saw was true, and William slowly nodded to confirm his doubts.

    "We have a window to ess their location, every time the moon is full in the sky, we can have a way in," Panther raised his head towards the sky before adding, "The moon just turned full a few days ago, so we need to wait for forty days or so¡­"

    "I''m not in a hurry to leave," William interrupted Panther, speaking in a heavy tone, "make your preparations. My guild members are all away for training."

    "I got the news," Panther nodded, yet he seemed a bit hesitant about something.

    "It''s going to be nasty, right?" William guessed what troubled such a strong master, and Panther sighed.

    "Lots of good people will die," he paused, turned to Sloth and Anjie, turned to everyone around him, "that fight¡­ It''s going way much worse than what you can possibly imagine."

    "What did you see?"

    "Nothing much actually, just our way in, then everything going bad from that moment onward¡­" he paused as if he was finding it hard to recall what he saw using his unique spirit element, "I tried many times to see more but failed. All I can see is just pieces and bits of everything, nothing that could be useful¡­"

    "Let''s meet in one month then," William felt there was something amiss here.

 Chapter 1049 Going Deep Down The Abyss

    ?

    William knew Panther''s ability wasn''t godsent, and had its weaknesses, but it wasn''t right for him to feel such hesitation about what he saw.

    It felt like he didn''t find such an answer on his own, and someone else presented it to him. And that was why he felt such uncertainty and doubts, yet he couldn''t get what drove him to question his ability after all these years. So he couldn''t express himself in a better way.

    "Sure, I''ll prepare everything for that battle¡­ About the recent recruitment you issued¡­"

    "They''ll go back to Lara''s city," William firmly said, "they won''t be part of this. They are going to train to get ready for the worst that''s going to happen."

    "Is something big happening?" Panther wasn''t the only one who said this, but Sloth as well. The two grasped the meaning behind William''s words, and thetter rolled his eyes.

    "Do you think I''m just loving to get my as* kicked all the time by stronger enemies? Be sure everything I''m doing is for the greater good of everyone. And for that slim hope we have, we need to put all the efforts we have, kill any enemy we can find, to make our future odds much better."

    He waved his arm, and turned around, before adding, "I''m going to lock on myself for a month, then you need toe. Bring with you a few hundred capable masters, ones you totally trust, better to have any rtion with time, karma, life, and death elements, got it?"

    "... These are all pretty damn rare elements, and what''s about the death element? Is there even something like that in the world?!!" Panther was surprised by William''s words, but he felt this youngster had a way to get to the bottom of what he saw.

    "There is everything you can and can''t imagine in this world, just bring good and capable masters by then. I''ll leave Sloth in your care, take note of him as he is pretty noisy and annoying."

    "You are a rude kid!" Sloth didn''t want to lose the glorifying image he got in the eyes of Panther and his men, so he controlled himself to not go there and p William again.

    "You two seem close to each other," Anjie followed William inside, and thetter looked at her in a weird way.

    "We? No way! He is pretty annoying for an old fart!" he knew she was referring to Sloth, and hisment made her chuckle.

    "He never had a family, never acted like this towards anyone. I bet he is taking you as a son, or grandson perhaps, hehehe."

    "Stop spreading rumours, it will ruin your skin," he coughed, "now we are going to train, in a ce that may seem dangerous, but it''s not."

    "Dangerous? Here?!!" She was surprised by his words, but soon enough she got to learn about what he meant. The two of them went towards the central building, where there was such a big hole in the ground.

    William wasn''t the same as before, he got his spirit power increased and he was much better at handling the situation. He protected her, and held her by a w while jumping deep down to the bottom of that hole.

    "Impressive¡­" she couldn''t help but think about this ce and the city, think about Lara''s rumoured underground city and the surface city, "don''t tell me every big ce in the kingdom is built over something!"

    "These are just coincidences," William knew what she was talking about, and yet didn''t believe what she said, "Let''s go, you are going to train here, and I''ll train there."

    "A statue?!!" she felt weird the moment she spotted the fox statue, "is it for you?"

    "No, it''s not built on me, can''t you see we don''t look simr?" he rolled his eyes, before pointing towards a faraway ce, "train there, we got one week here before going out to meet the new recruiters."

    "You are going to send me up there to test them, right?" she could see through his intentions pretty fast, and he couldn''t help but raise a thumb toward her.

    "Nice quick wits you got there!"

    "And who said I''ll agree? Huh?" She crossed her arms, and he couldn''t help but bitterly smile.

    "I got no one else but you on my side¡­"

    "You said it in a way that''s not totally rted to this situation¡­" she paused, before her face turned a bit rosy, "At least you can speak well to girls, nice¡­ I''ll do it for you then."

    William smiled, knowing that he yed her right in his palms. He didn''t say anything more, went to sit beside his statue, closed his eyes, ced a palm over its head, and then started to absorb its spirit power.

    The spirit power stored inside sounded endless, but he knew it wasn''t enough to let him cross the gap to the pinnacle stage. The best estimate he got was for it to make him reach the high stage at most, but mightck a few thousand points to reach there in the end.

    As he started training and absorbing the spirit power from that statue, Anjie was getting the shock of her life right now. She thought William wanted to distance her away to concentrate, but didn''t realise he was trying to protect her life.

    When he trained, a massive shadow appeared. It wasn''t just his fox, but there was a snake, a dog, and a weird bright star in the middle of all that.

    Just seeing all this gave her cold shivers down her spine, and she couldn''t tell if she was going to die if she was just next to him or what.

    She took a few hours to ovee her fears and a few more to get used to such a scene. William kept training diligently and didn''t bother about what was happening around him. He kept absorbing spirit power madly, while she started to train atst.

 Chapter 1050 Using Mystic Arts To Clear All Doubts!

    ?

    In the next week, the two kept sitting like this, rarely taking a break, rarely sleeping and resting. They just ate once a day, a small meal made of dried-up rations and such.

    When they slept, Anjie insisted on sleeping in his embrace, surrounded by his arms. He didn''t mind that, as being by her side made his mind a bit rxed and a lot clearer. He woke up refreshed every time she slept with him, and he started to grow a habit of that.

    "I''m going up," one week passed, and she had to go to meet others, "If anyone has a mysterious result, I''ll leave him aside for you to checkter, got it?"

    He nodded and continued to train while she went away. She took ten whole days before returning back, and she told him how much she missed him all this time.

    He also missed the peace of mind she brought to him every time he slept with her. In the end, he learnt that she found around a few hundred gems, had around a thousand with unknown test results, and she admitted roughly twenty thousand to the guild, or a bit more.

    He was surprised about that, didn''t know she used the help of Sloth, and thetter used the help of Panther and other old masters in the city.

    They all learnt how to screen spirit power using William''s special method. They worked and started to screen people fast, making it possible for her to screen such arge number in such a short period.

    She didn''t tell him about any of that, as she didn''t know if he''d like something like that or not.

    "Anyway, did you send everything to Lara''s city?" He felt something was fishy, but it was impossible to use spirit sense while being in this ce. There was something to stop him from seeing what was happening outside of this deep cave, and yet he was pretty sure she couldn''t have done it alone and could guess Sloth got involved here.

    "I sent all, except for the one thousand undetermined results," she paused, "you need to check them yourself."

    "Fine, leave them up there for now," he didn''t want to leave this ce for now. During the past two weeks, his spirit power grew to a good level, and he was now at the middle stage of the dark gold grade.

    He knew if he kept doing this for two or three more months, he''d end up expanding all the spirit power stored within the statue, and would end up at the high stage of dark gold grade, or the worst case would be a few points away from that threshold.

    To do so, he had to first handle the situation Panther presented to him. Thetter spoke about the long-term enemies Wiim tried to hunt for years and failed, those Transformers!

    He knew they sent their newly joined young members away, but the old statues were still here. As they were lying in wait, he didn''t like their presence this near to this city and his guild''s main base.

    Even if he nned to start a grand training schedule at Lara''s city, gradually turning it into the heart of his entire guild, he still had to deal with the threats in this city once and for all.

    Not to mention he knew these Transformers had a connection with the Nightmare monster. And he wanted to know how they did it, how they made lots of new Transformers, despite how hard such a thing was.

    As he got a clue atst, he decided to give it all. And even if the panther warned him of the expectedrge number of losses, he didn''t care.

    Something told him there was a y under the entire thing, and all he needed to do was just see what Panther really saw.

    To do so, he nned to go into the fate and destiny world, see what Panther saw, and get a grasp over what truly happened.

    William put the possibility that something interfered with Panther''s ability and made him see such scenes. That meant this was a trap, and also meant that no matter who he was, was someone that would be protected to some degree by the fate and destiny world.

    As such a possibility existed, William prepared to use the help of other masters to do this using a fate and destiny formation. And yet when he heard from Anjie about therge number of masters awaiting for him up there to check, he decided to use them instead.

    After all, they were going to be part of his guild, one way or another.

    As the two slept for the entire night, William woke up pretty refreshed, and she got a wide grin on her face. She imagined the faces of other girls, watching her sleep in his embrace at night and they didn''t. And that made her want tough, yet controlled herself to not make him doubt anything.

    She was enjoying this and was d she came all the way here with him. William then started to train for two more weeks, gaining a few thousand more spirit points while doing so. And then it was time for the meeting he determined with Sloth.

    "Let''s go," he woke Anjie up, before taking her up again. She couldn''t do it herself, and so he took her out previously, before getting her in after receiving her call from her Bullet.

    "I like this ce, can we make something like this back in the other city?" She didn''t like saying Lara''s name, not when she was with him.

    "I can''t, I''m not the one who did all this in the first ce," he slowly shook his head and went outside the central building to see Sloth standing at the main gate, alongside Panther and lots of the masters he selected.

    "No need for them," William said even before he''d arrived at Panther''s side, "I have my own people to help."

 Chapter 1051 A Big Surprise In The Fate And Destiny World

    ?

    "You¡­ Didn''t you ask for them?!!" Panther was surprised by this, yet when he moved his eyes around and spotted the one thousand young masters there, he got what happened.

    "Fine, you can all go back," he waved his arm, feeling a little annoyed. After helping Anjie in screening the masters using William''s unique way, he grew more interested in learning more about his special ways.

    He was certain that William intended to do something unusual this time, and he just wanted more masters to be present and learn, so they''d all benefit from this.

    After his masters left, only he and Sloth remained. William then motioned to them towards the heart of this area, just near the central building.

    "I''m going to check everyone''s spirit power, then we''ll proceed," he paused before adding, "I''ll start doing something first. Then if I fail, I''ll let you know what you need to do to help, got it?"

    "For what?" Sloth finally asked the question Panther didn''t pose, "Why are we doing this? Shouldn''t we go towards that ce and kill those enemies?"

    Sloth knew about the Transformers and what they did back then from Panther. It wasn''t that easy to believe something like that existed, and yet he felt William didn''t exin everything back then to Panther or everyone else.

    "You can ask him, not me about this," William shrugged while waiting for the one thousand masters to stand in one long line, "he isn''t feeling that confident about what he saw, feeling there is something wrong in all this. And I''m just going to see if there is something wrong there or not."

    "Is that true?" Sloth knew how terrifying and formidable Panther''s method was. And yet the person never mentioned something like that, not even to him when the two were discretely speaking about tons of stuff.

    "I see you still have your sharp senses, perfect," Panther''s words confirmed what William said, making Sloth feel a bit lost.

    "Let''s start," William knew Panther didn''t say it out loud because he couldn''t fully understand such feelings of doubt about his ability. And yet it was enough to raise red gs about such a vision he had.

    William spent a few hours scanning everyone in front of him. He found true gems, found normal talents that had something sleeping and dormant deep down in their spirits and found rare spirit elements as well.

    He nodded to Anjie, telling her good job by just this motion.

    "Now what are you going to do?" Sloth asked, and Anjie had already guessed what William wanted to do.

    "Just watch," she said, while William started to take weird organs out, confirming her guesses and doubts, "You are going to see something interesting if fate allows you to."

    He didn''t get it, nor did the Panther. And yet William looked a bit serious here. "If anything bad happened to me, don''t fret, ok?" he said in his weirdst piece before activating his Mystic Art and going inside the fate and destiny world.

    As he did so, he ended up in the same foggy ce he used to go to. Yet at this moment, there was something different.

    "What the hell are you doing here?!!!" he found a grand golden star, lying at his side as if waiting for him here all the time.

    "Oh, so this is how you did it? Did you gain ess to the supreme world? How the hell did you do it if you didn''t have any connection with that world? Not the right talent, spirit, or spirit power?!!!"

    That spirit never stopped speaking for the entire time, even when he was training and absorbing the spirit power from the fox statue. He kept speaking, speaking non-stop, asking questions,menting, andining. But William trained himself already to totally ignore it and didn''t care about anything that spirit said.

    But finding him here was a bit surprising for him. Before he''d jump to any conclusion, he noticed the faint golden and white chains that were formed out of small wheels, the same wheels that had formed before when he used that Mystic Art.

    "Supreme world? Nice name," William heard such a name for the first time, and when he thought about it, he couldn''t agree more to such a calling.

    This was indeed the supreme world, one that resided and ruled over all other worlds beneath it.

    "You have to exin¡­"

    "You have to shut up," William rolled his eyes, "I''m going to see something grand here, something that''ll give me a severe bacsh if I did anything wrong."

    "Better if it ended up killing you then!"

    "That will be bad news for you, as you can tell, we are connected," William evillyughed, "if I die, you''ll die. If I get harmed, you''ll also suffer the same, so¡­ Shut the hell up and let me concentrate."

    William could tell from thements and the way that spirit spoke that this was his first timeing here. It felt like it knew a lot about this world, and yet he didn''te here to experience it itself.

    So it was easy to y it, especially since William wasn''t lying about most of what he said.

    When the spirit got the real threat William mentioned here, he couldn''t help but shut up for the first time ever since meeting William and getting connected to him.

    William then started to think about the Panther. He knew such a strong master, one who got the leadership of an impact, then a grand city, was someone who''d be protected by the fate and destiny world.

    Prying on him woulde with consequences, but these weren''t what William was worried about. He brought Panther''s wheel, then he started to see through that master''s life.

    Images shed fast, and he could see many things he had done since he was a kid. What was surprising though was that he didn''t feel any bacsh as he expected, and didn''t feel a speck of resistance.

 Chapter 1052 Panthers Life Story

    ?

    That was quite surprising, but it got a perfect exnation that he thought of quite fast. "It seems having that noisy spirit by my side has its perks after all," he couldn''t help but take a peek at that golden star which now was silently standing on his shoulder after shrinking its body to be as small as a tennis ball.

    The spirit was indeed quite shocked by everything happening around it. It was his first time toe here to this world, and everything William did was new to him.

    Even though it knew the way, it couldn''t do it as it didn''t have the right elements or pre-requirements to do it. It saw William take lots of organs out, but it didn''t know what was special about these, and didn''t know how to obtain monster organs and bring them to the spirit world in the first ce.

    It was quite frustrating for it, and yet it intended to pester William a lot about this after getting out of here. But first, it kept watching everything happening with great interest.

    As it was within William''s body and spirit, it could clearly see everything William was seeing. And as William guessed it, it shouldered lots of pressure and resistance, making it hard for William to suffer any bacsh in this world.

    After all, spirits were well protected by fate and destiny, and were on a whole new level than humans and monsters.

    William kept seeing shes of Panther''s life. And he had to admit, that master really lived a great life indeed. He faced lots of challenges and troubles, starting with losing both parents when he was six, just about to start his spirit master''s life journey. When that happened, William saw the kid swear to himself to not rest until eradicating all the monsters from the face of the world.

    As he progressed and grew up, he learnt about the presence of dark masters, knew how they were the ones controlling the monsters, the ones behind everything bad happening in the world.

    Once realised this, he made his top mission to eradicate such cancer from the surface of the world. William knew why Panther was so supportive to him and his guild from the very beginning. It was indeed because of his life dream.

    Panther then discovered his ability to see the future in one of the adventures outside, when he saw how dark masters ambushed him and his team. He tried to warn them, but none listened. Then after he tried to save everyone, failing to do so eventually as he was alone, he decided back then to build up something that he only could control; the Lockheart impact.

    Like William, he had a goal to achieve, and had the means to do it. He used his ability to see the future to recruit all of his future impact''s big names from a young age, looked for them, did them favours, helped others, and at some times he even gave benefits and paid for others to work for him.

    He slowly gathered lots of talents, rose up in power, while amassing wealth and connections. In the end, he managed to establish the impact here, and named it Lockheart as a symbol of how his heart was deadlocked on one and single goal.

    William saw everything rolling to his favour since then, worked to gather more members, expand the reach and fame of his impact, and tried to build branches in other cities.

    He eventually reached the stage he wanted, and yet his dream was hard to achieve. He saw him speaking with others about giving out a long term task to take down dark masters, and that was the one William picked in the first ce beforeing to the Scorching Lands fort.

    And then things totally changed the moment William appeared in the picture. Everything rolled out quite nicely, and he could see how excited and happy, how proud Panther was.

    After all, even if William was an outsider, he came here thanks to the mission he issued with his friends long years ago. He saw in William someone who answered his callings and prayers.

    William saw Panther gather up with his impact''s higher ups circle, and stating clearly that supporting him was this impact''s real goal and highest aim. Even if many didn''t believe in William, they believed in their leader. So they listened to him, showed lots of support to William.

    William would have felt bad if the leadership of the new city didn''t fall in Panther''s hands after seeing all this. But he knew the man got his long dream fulfilled, got his revenge, killed and eradicated dark masters and monsters from this area as he wished for. In addition to that, he got richly rewarded by fate and destiny, ending up for him to lead the entire city.

    Then William watched the events that happened for five years after that war. Everything was shown to William in great detail, and he could tell how Panther was happy by such a result, how he was excited about the future.

    He saw everything until that day. It appeared as shes of images and scenes like usual, and there Panther was sitting in his building, overseeing the new construction project that aimed to triple the current size of the city.

    He and others learnt about what happened at Lara''s city, and they didn''t dy sending lots of envoys out to the entire world, asking masters and normal people toe.

    Even if normal people weren''t masters, they were the grander pool that gave birth to a constant supply of masters. As the world focused on Lara''s city, it was time for them to take part in such a big cake.

    Panther sent lots of masters, and didn''t adopt the same strategy og Lara''s city leaders. He didn''t just spread the word, and nned for his delegations to personally meet various forces and ask them to join the city.

 Chapter 1053 Things Going Down Pretty Fast!

    ?

    He even offered them lots of benefits, like having a seat at the upper council running the city or even epting having just a ce for their forces here, not necessarily needing the entire force to migrate wholly here.

    The n was great, and William knew it seeded more than Lara''s city leaders'' n did. And yet as he was absorbed in listening to Panther''s line of thoughts that he kept muttering to himself out loud while being alone in the office, something appeared!

    It appeared like a cloud of ck fog, something that came out of the blue and didn''t show any sign or any warning. When it appeared, everything changed!

    "Agh! Damn! This¡­ This is a bacsh!!" The one to scream out first was the spirit. And the moment William heard these words, he didn''t hesitate to put an end to his inspection of Panther''s fate and destiny. And yet he was half a beat slow and ended up suffering just a slight touch of that bacsh.

    Yet it was enough to make him fall on the ground and twist fiercely while feeling like his spirit was about to get crushed by something. He didn''t know what was going on here, but he felt this wasn''t a normal bacsh and didn''t feel like any bacsh he suffered before.

    Any other bacsh would make him feel terribly bad and weak as if he got the beating of his life just now. He''d feel like he ended up in a hectic war with endless monsters and enemies, but this¡­ This was totally different.

    He felt like something was trying to eat away his spirit, ending up making him feel this close to dying. He didn''t feel any weakness, didn''t feel like he got any blow to his spirit power or anything.

    The next instant he didn''t stand on the ground, struggled in the middle of the shocking screams of Anjie and others around, sat on the ground cross-legged, closing his eyes, and tried to regte his breathing to the best of his abilities.

    He needed to train, and as he decided that, he struggled hard to say a single phrase, pouring every ounce of power into his words, "Get the hell out of my ce now!"

    "What?!!!" Panther was the one to get shocked, but Anjie then got what he was about to do.

    "Run! Run for your lives!" she didn''t hesitate and screamed, turned around and ran, ran towards the direction of the main gate of the guild.

    When everyone saw her doing this, they knew something bad wasing their way. They didn''t hesitate anymore and followed her in trying to get out of here.

    But they were a bitte. William felt death approaching fast, and he couldn''t hold back anymore. He started to train, and the moment he did, his giant spirit shadows appeared.

    Anjie had seen these shadows before, but this time it was different. There was something gloomy, something ck, hovering on top of the three spirits and the shining golden star.

    It was like a hemisphere in shape as if some sort of a bubble was slowly forming and trying to encapste all of his spirits inside. It already covered half of his spirits and was moving fast to cover the rest.

    Yet the moment he started training out of instinct, that speed seemed to halt. The smooth ck surface of that hemisphere trembled as if it met its nemesis or something.

    "You, b*tch, wanted to consume my spirits? Hell no!" William''s deep voice came so loud and majestic as if he was a god speaking. His voice thundered in the ears of everyone present here, and all without exception felt a shiver deep down their spirits.

    It was as if they met something they couldn''t contend against, something that was totally out of their league. They all had their faces ashened white when William''s body shone in a mix of lights.

    ck, green, blue, and gold¡­ Four colours appeared and shone alternatively, one after another, forming some sort of pulse waves that emitted from his body as a centre, then moved outwards towards the world around.

    With every hit, they felt like they were fiercely mmed by something they would never be able to stand a chance against. With every hit, their bodies rose in the air, and flew for a few metres, before fiercely hitting the ground.

    "Damn you kid! Why does it always end up this way whenever you try to do something? Screw you!" Sloth screamed in pain and anger, as this was by far the most embarrassing moment he ever faced in his entire life.

    And yet he didn''t mean to be angry at William, he was terribly worried about him. Everyone was also feeling the same. If they were feeling so terrible from such power, then how about William who was in the centre of all this?

    This power didn''te originally from William, all could easily tell that. In fact, William was desperately trying to fight against such power, using everything he had, while the bacsh of such a fierce sh released these pulse waves.

    If they felt so terrible from the bacsh of these waves, they couldn''t guess what he was going through.

    "We need to help him!" Anjie screamed at the top of her lungs while trying to stand up from thest brutal fall. Everyone else wanted to help, but none got what he was going through.

    "Dammit! If I just knew what he was doing in the first ce, I may have learnt what to do!"

    "He saw through your fate, your past, present, and future," Anjie was terribly worried over William, and couldn''t control herself from telling everyone this.

    "This¡­ But he didn''t have the needed elements for that¡­"

    "It''s somethingplicated, but I''m telling you he can do it!" Anjie knew there wasn''t much time left for William here, "he can ess a special world, one that can give him insights on anyone and everything. Yet there is a risk of bacsh, and he is just suffering from it."

 Chapter 1054 The Devour Ability

    ?

    "This¡­ Are you telling me I''m the one who did this to him?" Panther was totally shocked by that. But with Anjie''s firm answer to confirm his doubts, he couldn''t help but try to ept all this.

    "But it''s weird," as she looked at William, she couldn''t help but feel odd, "this¡­ This isn''t anything like any bacsh we suffered before¡­"

    "You also can do it!!" Sloth was as shocked as everyone else, and she nodded.

    "He has a way to let us go there with him," she paused, not knowing if she had to continue spilling more beans or not. But she decided to stop here, "I suffered a bacsh once with him, and that wasn''t anything like this."

    "What''s different?" Panther knew he was about to learn something unexpectedly huge after all this would be over. He couldn''t help but recall William''s desire to recruit him before, and he didn''t ept that offer back then.

    Yet now, he deeply regretted not taking the offer. He never expected there was such a thing, a world where any master could see the past, present, and future of anyone or anything.

    That would be like a god mode for his time element and techniques¡­ Something that would be considered totally priceless for someone like him.

    Unlike others who were either worried, confused, or scared, Panther was getting overly excited the more he thought about what Anjie just said.

    "Back then, we all felt weak, weak like we exhausted ourselves in a very long battle or something. But this¡­ It looks as if something is trying to invade him, eat him away, or something¡­ It''s weird¡­"

    "Hmm¡­ If that is true¡­" they just suffered another wave and ended up the same as before, "then this thing is rted to you¡­ You must be aware of it¡­"

    Sloth turned to Panther, and thetter couldn''t help but get confused. He didn''t recognise any of this, and that ck thing didn''t ring any bells at all.

    "Come on, you need to think of something¡­" Anjie was feeling more panic, as that ck sphere was resuming its descent. It went without saying much that William was struggling, and she couldn''t stand to watch it anymore.

    "He went there to see what happened to you when you got that foresight of yours¡­ Can''t you remember anything about that day? Anything suspicious at all?" Sloth tried to help Panther remember, remember anything that''d help.

    "Everything about that vision is suspicious! That day is like a blur to me, my memories didn''t have any clue about what truly happened there except for having that vision out of nowhere¡­"

    Just as he was in the middle of his words, a loud roar from William silenced him and everyone else.

    William wasn''t losing the fight as they all thought. In fact, the moment he started training, summoned his spirits, and that talkative golden star spirit started to talk again, or scream in panic in fact.

    "Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! We are screwed! We are done for! The ck Phantom Reaper is here, the ck Death Reaper is here, damn! Damn! What brought a boogeyman to such a weak master''s path? Damn!"

    "Shut up!" William shouted to silence that spirit, "Do you know what the f*ck is going on here? What is that ck thing?"

    "It''s death! Death! Can''t you get it¡­"

    "I said shut the hell up and stop saying such meaningless words! Screaming won''t save your as*! Just tell me what the heck is this thing, how to stop it!"

    "It''s the ck Phantom Reaper, a spirit that no one can stand against, no one, literally no one! We are¡­ Screwed!!!"

    "Just stop whining and give me something solid to work on," William grew impatient and frustrated from this spirit, "Just tell me everything and trust me on this¡­"

    "I said, just said, he can''t be stopped by any spirit!"

    "I''m not a spirit, idiot! What the heck did they feed you back when you were a kid? Microphones and shitty food or what?!!!"

    "Stop insulting me! I''m a far superior being to you, a god!"

    "You are nothing but a shitty and bitter loser! Just get a better hold on yourself and tell me everything about that damn spirit!"

    "Fine, let''s see you deal with it then¡­"

    The golden star spirit started to speak atst about that ck spirit it was scared shitless from. When William heard enough, he understood why this spirit was this domineering and scary.

    "So¡­ in a way, it''s just like me and that fox''s Devour ability¡­" From what he learnt about it, this spirit could devour any spirit and consume them to level up its power.

    It killed endless spirits, acting as a solo hunter, without any friends, with everyone else as a foe. And yet no spirit managed to kill it or harm it. Every single counter with such a scary spirit ended up with the death of its prey.

    William got the Devour ability, and he knew more about it than anyone else, than any spirit. When he heard about this, the first thing he looked at was that ck sphere surrounding his spirits and himself.

    It was apparent this was something simr to his blood. "If it''s my blood, then it means it''s connected to it¡­ and that means I can devour it, right?" A crazy idea popped into his mind while feeling there was a great chance in front of him.

    Devouring was always a thing that belonged to his enemy, not to himself. And so he never got enough details or control over it. He couldn''t level it up, and didn''t have any spirit or spirit element rted solely to this ability.

    And so, he never was able to push it further beyond the stage he acquired it at. That also made it quite useless at suchter stages here.

    Facing an enemy who could use the same ability? A spirit on top of that? It was something great for him.

 Chapter 1055 The Black Phantom Spirit

    ?

    "What do you n to do now, genius? Running away is futile! That spirit once locked on something, won''t stop hunting it down!"

    "Just shut up, and watch how the pros are fighting," William rolled his eyes, before slowly standing up. At this moment, it didn''t matter if he broke his training, as his spirits were madly shing with that ck Phantom spirit with everything they had.

    The shockwaves released from this sh didn''t originate from him but from these spirits. They were instinctively trying to fight back with everything they had. ording to that golden spirit, the ck Phantom wasn''t going to just devour their small representation here but was going to devour their main bodies back at the spirit world using this link with him.

    If they got the chance or the choice, they''d prefer to cut any ties with William at this desperate moment, but this wasn''t up to them to decide.

    Once he stood up, he took his sword out, and then cut his hand and his blood gushed out. The blood was like a small fountain, slowly tainting the ck hemisphere up there with little sshes of redness.

    But that was what he needed before testing out his theory.

    "Let''s devour you then," the moment his blood touched that ck hemisphere William prepared himself for the uing sh.

    As he expected, the moment his blood touched that ck thing something came towards him. Yet unlike what he expected, it wasn''t the spirit trying to kill him, but it was a pure form of spirit power, one that he never tasted before in this world.

    "The spirit power of the upper world¡­ Damn! I hit the jackpot!" he felt excited the moment he recognised this pure form of spirit power, a thing that soon changed to the total opposite.

    "Agh!" he roared in pain in just mere seconds. It was the spirit power of the outer world, something that he could never tolerate or control with his current level of power.

    It felt like he was lettingva enter his body, not his spirit body. He never felt such terrible pain before, and yet he never stopped devouring this spirit power for even one second.

    He knew he took that spirit by surprise, as it had never faced such a challenge before. So it was better to hold on and keep devouring as much spirit power as he could before that spirit would notice what he was doing.

    He knew he was treading on a dangerous path. The risk now wasn''t in the expected sh between him and that spirit, but there was also the high grade form of spirit power.

    He needed to endure, and yet such high and pure spirit power started to bring harm to him. He instantly took out healing elixirs, and gulped them like running water, without caring about anything else.

    "Oh¡­ A mere human can have such power? Interesting¡­" he didn''t know how long hested, but he didn''tst more than ten minutes actually. It felt like he stood there for many years, and was now resisting the urge to let go of all this and sleep.

    "Thest time I met someone like you was a monster, a despicable one who stole a wisp of my power. I can sniff part of that bastard in you, but you aren''t him. You are interesting¡­ Tell me, how can you stand against a god with a stick and believe in winning?"

    "At least I''m struggling to win," William gritted his teeth hard, and couldn''t think about anything else but to keep holding up. He said anything that popped into his mind, without even thinking for one second about it, "At least I''m fighting, not trying to run away like those cowards!"

    "They are cowards indeed, I agree with you on that¡­ However, do you believe in your odds of winning? That ability of yours isn''t backed by anything, not by the spirit who originated this in the first ce, which is me, not by a god, or even by any world''s natural powers, the thing you humans love to call elements¡­ It''s even in its rudimentary stage, and I''m at the peak¡­"

    "I don''t care, as long as it works, I''ll persist on using it!" William thought that the spirit was fearing his devouring ability, and decided to stall for time to do something, or perhaps seed in shattering his fragile will and let him give up.

    Yet he never thought that spirit wasn''t feeling or aiming for any of that. In fact, it was genuinely interested in William and was amused by what he was doing.

    "Tell you what, I never put humans in my eyes before. And here you are, giving me an interesting time already, hahaha!" that ck Phantomughed, before it suddenly turned all serious, "Tell you what, why not make a deal here?"

    "F*ck off and we can speak as long as you wish!" William spotted these words amidst his blood. His body couldn''t handle the pressure of the pure spirit power anymore and was on the verge of copsing.

    Even with the lots of elixirs he used, nothing worked. If he could sit down and train, he might absorb part of this brutal spirit power and alleviate the pain slightly. But he couldn''t feel his body nor control it the moment he started absorbing that spirit power.

    "Trying to boss me around? Hahahaha! I like that spirit, fragile and weak, but at least it got hard and not soft bone¡­" the ck Phantom spiritughed, seemingly totally amused by William.

    Yet thetter wasn''t feeling that great, and could only struggle to keep himself standing awake in the middle of all this torture. He knew the moment he closed his eyes and resigned to rest, he''d die!

    "Watch me devour you then¡­"

    "Hrious! This is the funniest thing I ever heard in my long life, hahaha! Human kid, do you know who you are talking to? Do you know that if I wanted, then I could devour the four miserable spirits you have here?"

 Chapter 1056 You Are Biting Something You Cant Chew!

    ?

    "I won''t fall here, never!"

    "Good fighting spirit and will¡­ I like that¡­'''' the ck Phantom spirit paused, before asking all of sudden, "I noticed the connection between you and that damn fox, what''s the rtion between the two of you?"

    "The nine-tailed fox? It''s my sworn enemy!" William said every single word while gritting on his teeth, to not roar in pain again. And yet he failed, ending up roaring in pain once more.

    "You enemy, I like that," the ck Phantom went into silence, seemingly considering something, "How about that? You are weak but still have the heart of a true warrior. You have a seed of my power, and yet you can''t even push it a single step forward. Rise up to the higher realm and then I''ll sponsor you with part of my power."

    "Sponsor me¡­ What the heck does that mean?!!"

    "You idiot! Just ept it! Say yes!!!"

    "Shut up!" It was both William and the ck Phantom who shouted at the golden star spirit to silence it up.

    "I''m going to lend you my power, part of my spirit. Like this, you''ll have a backbone, enough to let you train and evolve my rudimentary devour power you have here. You just need to arrive in the outer world and show me how deeply you hate that fox monster, and then it''s a deal."

    "You mean you are going away? And your spirit power¡­ Ahem¡­" William didn''t realise he was greedy to absorb that spirit''s spirit power but now.

    "Stop being like this, since when humans were greedier than monsters? Tsk! You can''t even handle the tinge of my spirit power, can''t you see how it''s futile to keep absorbing it?"

    "I want to rise up in power, and yours is a fast arrow to reach my target¡­" William couldn''t refute what that spirit said, but he still wanted to get a bite off him, if he could, if he could handle it, if he could survive in the end.

    "You may die¡­"

    "F*ck it! I won''t let this chance slip by! Let me devour myself, let me take more power!" William roared, and this time his words were heard amidst his roars from others standing far away.

    For the past few minutes, the fierce sh shockwaves ceased and didn''te at them. They didn''t know what was going on out there, but they could see William''s blood rising endlessly towards the ck dome on top of him,ing out from lots of wounds.

    He couldn''t feel his body at the moment and didn''t examine it at all. He was focused and totally absorbed in doing it. He suffered tons of damage thanks to the berserk spirit power he was trying to absorb and devour.

    His body was breaking apart slowly. If not for the tons of healing elixirs he consumed prior, he''d have been gone by now.

    "William¡­" like getting her heart stabbed by a poisonous needle, she felt terrible pain deep down her spirit and couldn''t help but want to go there and rescue him.

    But the moment she wanted to move, Sloth moved faster and stopped her.

    "He has only himself out there," he slowly said, shaking his head as he knew what she wanted to do.

    "He is going to die! Can''t you see it!" she roared in pain but didn''t have any power to move that arm of Sloth away from her path.

    "Trust in him," Panther was the one to say it this time, "he¡­ Always made miracles when things looked desperate and hopeless¡­"

    "..." she couldn''t refute that, and her resistance died down while she looked at William. If sight would kill, then she''d have died countless times by now.

    As for William, he was going through tons of pain and struggle, yet he set his eyes on the great gain.

    "I won''t force you to stop, as if what you are taking from me matters. You are like a mosquito sucking my blood, go ahead but don''t end up killing yourself."

    "Great, watch me then¡­" William knew he didn''t have much time here. The moment he got the confirmation of agreement from that ck Phantom spirit he started examining his body.

    He saw it in a mess! And yet he never panicked. He gulped more healing elixirs and started to focus on absorbing that crazy spirit power.

    As he couldn''t train, he started to dash around, trying to use his techniques to push the heavy lead spirit power in his body. The moment he moved, he wasn''t surprised to see himself dashing for just a few metres and stopping.

    His spirit power was stagnated in his body by the newly absorbed one. "F*ck it! Keep iting then, and let''s see how it''ll stop me!" he overstepped the boundary of insanity already and started to dash right and left without a single pause or moment of rest.

    At first, it felt like he was pushing his body against a mountain! And then things started to roll nicely after doing this for a few tens of times.

    Once he started to feel his body shing faster, not the same as usual, but at least there was an improvement. So he started to push further, trying tounch an attack on top of that.

    It was insane, but he knew the only chance he got was to try and circte the absorbed spirit power through his body. Or else, he''d end up in bacsh, suffering a lot instead of gaining a single thing.

    As he started to move a bit faster, he started to release his techniques. The one he selected was the easiest, the cannonball technique. He jumped high up andnded on the ground.

    The shock he got was severe, but that didn''t stop him. His attack power was as miniscule as any white master actually, and that didn''t stop him from trying again and again.

    He ended up regaining part of his former power back in a few minutes. By then, he could feel the pressure over his body slightly alleviating, and yet the pain was still unbearable.

 Chapter 1057 I Didnt Do It, That Fox Did!

    ?

    "You should stop," the ck Phantom spirit slowly said, "You can''t handle it anymore, your body can''t."

    "I won''t stop until I''m unable to do it!" William roared while shifting from right to left, jumping high in the air andnding like a rocket.

    He tried to take a sword out but failed to even hold it in his hand. This was something that he''d determine, not his body, not the berserk spirit power he was absorbing, not even that ck Phantom!

    "Ok, let''s see how long further you are going tost¡­"

    The ck Phantom wasn''t speaking out of nowhere. As William shed around, his body was leaving a long trail of blood on the ground, even sshing fresh blood on the air every time he jumped in the air.

    Things looked bad, not just to the ck Phantom, but also to Anjie and others. The newly joined guild members were the most shocked ones here.

    They heard tons of stories about the glorifying legendary master of the guild and its creator, but this was way beyond their wildest expectations.

    Their guild master, the one who wasn''t over seventeen years old, was now fighting against powers that even masters at the pinnacle powerdder didn''t know anything about!

    This was like opening their eyes for the first time and seeing the world. They all stood in their ce, watching William shing against powers that no one else dared to contend against.

    If such a master was on top of the chain in their guild, then they now realise the path towards a bright future was secured in their pocket.

    They realised now and believed totally that that move was the best thing they ever did in their entire lives so far! And perhaps wouldn''t make another move like this ever again!

    They felt like winning the lottery! And now, they all prayed for such a legendary master of theirs toe out from this unscathed, without losing his life.

    Winning or losing didn''t matter, just living was.

    "I have a question," at some point, William felt like his body wasn''t acting normally anymore and wasn''t responding to his orders and wishes. It was a red g sign that he had to stop, and yet he had to make sure of onest thing before ending this bizarre adventure.

    "Ask whatever you want, you literally paid your blood to earn this chance¡­"

    "Why did you invade Panther, affect and manipte his time ability, and infuse him with fake vision?"

    "Did what?!!!" This time the ck Phantom spirit got startled, "Who are you referring to with your words? Are you sure it''s me? I never mess with the human world, it''s boring, f*cking, and totally boring!"

    "Then howe do you think I ran into you in the first ce? Huh?" William was feeling more confident in his earlier doubts and ims. But even for the ck Phantom to not realise it, made this all unbelievable.

    "Wait a minute, check on something¡­ Is that person here?"

    "It''s out there, standing with others, but I can''t even move a finger or raise an arm to point at him¡­"

    "I''ll find him then¡­" The next moment, the ck sphere started to fade away. And all of sudden, a sh of a ck ball surrounded Panther for a fraction of a second, before vanishing.

    "What just happened?!!!" Panther looked around madly, checked himself, and even closed his eyes and inspected his spirit power. He tried to use his time element and techniques, and all was fine.

    "Something seems off here," Sloth noticed this meri sh of ck thing around Panther, "You are rted to that thing indeed, that''s now confirmed."

    "As if I know anything about this!" Panther shouted in impatience and frustration. He could tell this was true, but couldn''t get a head or tail about it.

    "It''s true, that human has a print of my power," Back at William''s side, the ck dome returned again, before the voice of the ck Phantom paused, "Tell me everything that happened."

    "Sure," William knew if there was an answer to all this, then it was in the hands of that spirit. So he told him in detail about what happened, how he went to the fate and destiny world and ended up getting in contact with him.

    "Are you telling me you can go there? Like go there and f*ck with that world? That''s awesome! Totally brilliant!"

    William couldn''t believe the only thing this spirit cared about was his ability to go into this world. "It''s not like there aren''t many doing this, y''know!"

    "But no spirit can, no higher being can!" the ck Phantom seemed to be more confident about his earlier offer to William, "Listen, if I didn''t do it, then that bastard must have done it! Is it in your world? This is a lower realm, how can he be here?"

    "It''s not him, it''s his clone," William''s tone turned icy cold, realising who was the one behind this, "can''t you help in discovering what happened?"

    "Me? Nah, don''t have permission or the ability to do this¡­ Let me offer something different¡­ It tried to trick you into doing something, right? You spoke about vision and that master had the time element, right?"

    "It tried to lure us towards a ce¡­"

    "Then go there," the ck Phantom said something crazy, "I will leave an imprint of my power on you. Once you are full in that trap, try to see what''s all about. I''m sure it''s trying to take you down. But with me by your side, leave things over for me to fix and handle."

    "Are you sure?" William knew this was crazy. Trying to fall into an obvious trap of the enemy was the dumbest move anyone would make. And yet it was the only way to get that enemy once and for all.

    William could sniff the trapid for him by that Nightmare monster. And yet he also smelled opportunity.

    "Let''s do it then," he knew he couldn''t tolerate anymore.

 Chapter 1058 Unexpected Sitation!

    ?

    All he saw was a tsunami of ck light, before everything blurred and cked out for him.

    He fell to the ground atst, closing his eyes, while his body released a pond of his blood around, one that was slowly growing.

    "William!" and with his loss of consciousness, all the weird things happening around him stopped. This time Sloth didn''t try to stop her, and let Anjie run all the way towards him, he and others followed as well.

    William fell on the ground and lost consciousness, but it wasn''t over for him or others. For others, they were terribly worried about him, and tried to do everything in their power to check on and help him out.

    In front of them, things didn''t look that great for William. His body was in a mess, and he looked in such a terrible state that made everyone think of the worse.

    "We need healers, any special masters here who can help?" Sloth turned to Panther, and thetter just slowly nodded in a heavy way.

    "Leave this to me," he said, while turning around and flushed away from here. He already considered himself responsible for all this, as this happened thanks to that weird vision he had.

    "Can the healers enter here? Without him around to give them permission?" Sloth turned to Anjie, asking about this point.

    He heard this from Panther, no one could trespass the territory of the Fox guild without the permission of the leader; William.

    "He gave me authority to let people in," Anjie slowly said, while her voice was choked in her throat as if she was on the verge of crying, "he¡­ He is going to be ok, right?"

    She turned to her mentor, the most trusted person in the world after her father and William. Sloth could tell how devastated she was. And even if he wanted to lie, words stopped in his throat, unable to give this youngdy a false hope that would backfireter badly.

    "Oh heavens!" she turned her face away, couldn''t even take a look at William anymore. She knew even Sloth didn''t believe in the good odds of his survival, and all she had now was to pray, pray that Panther would find enough healers to help William.

    Using healing elixirs wouldn''t do. They all watched how William gulped them as if he was drinking water. In such a terrible state, there was no hope for him using elixirs, only healers could do such a miracle.

    As everyone was experiencing such a bad situation, William was having his own encounter as well.

    "You¡­ You have the guts toe here after not showing up at thest time? I can''t believe you!!" William went into deep sleep, and there he found himself standing in the middle of a world of fog.

    It went without saying this was the ck fox spirit world, or home. He came here twice, and he could recognise this even when closing his eyes.

    "Why are you silenced? Can''t you say anything?" After a few seconds of silence, William shouted. And as he requested, something answered him, something that was alien to him, not the ck fox spirit he awaited for.

    "So¡­ You are the ant that stupid spirit selected to ascend? Did he suffer a head trauma or something? Can''t he see how weak you are?"

    "Who are you?" William turned around, but all he could see was ck fog. It looked the same asst time he was here, nothing seemed to change at all, except for that weird voice that wasn''t the ck fox''s.

    "I''m someone far beyond yourprehension and power."

    "Try me, are you a spirit? You must be, after all nothing else can enter that spirit world of yours¡­ Let me guess, you belong to the Chaos camp there? Came here to beat my little fox?" William wasn''t feeling any weakness or injuries at all when he was here. In fact, he always thought about his past experience in this world, and he made a guess.

    He wasn''t here in his flesh body, but with his spirit. And when he read through the scrolls, he realised that nothing but spirits coulde here and go. And that meant by being here, he was like one of these sports, more like a normal person to masters, or how white grade master looked to a pinnacle grade one.

    "You do know a lot about my world and people¡­ That damn fox! What the hell did he say exactly?" The weird voice seemed a bit enraged by what William said. And that simply confirmed everything William just stated above.

    "Don''t take it on him, I found a treasure vault somewhere and there I discovered lots of stuff about you," William calmly said, inspecting the world he was in again, but couldn''t find a single problem there.

    "A treasure vault? Interesting lie from a human¡­ Just typical¡­" The owner of this voice didn''t seem to believe William, and thetter didn''t care.

    "What do you want from me? Why am I here? And where is my ck fox?" As the owner of this voice acted this hostile towards him, mocking and not believing anything he said, William got no other option but to get done with all this.

    He just came out from a crazy encounter, one that he gained a great opportunity from. And so he didn''t want to waste more time here, wanted to go back and see how to heal his wounds and think about the choice that ck Phantom gave to him.

    ying ording to the Nightmare monster''s scheme? That was something he didn''t like at all despite knowing it made quite sense.

    "You are here to be the representative of that silly fox," the alien spirit paused, "he tried to stand up for his choice, saying that you are going to lead him towards glory. I can''t believe how silly he is! I gave him a monster to support, and he ended up selecting a human instead, what a foolish fox he is!"

 Chapter 1059 The Hostile Spirit!

    ?

    "You¡­" the moment William heard these words and he couldn''t control his rage, "you are the one who sent that nine-tailed bastard to my world?"

    "I didn''t send anyone, I just picked and supported it tons of years ago. Time in our world holds no meaning, nor value, not like how you pathetic humans see it. That monster, you aren''t worthy to act as a servant to him! He is overbearing, the hope of all spirits to pave the path towards ascension¡­"

    "You are one of those damn Chaos camp lunatics," William confirmed his early guess, shaking his head slowly as if he got disappointed by this or something.

    "You¡­ Do you think your beloved fox isn''t one of us? How naive of yours, hahahaha!"

    "I don''t believe it! The ck fox isn''t like you, lunatics!" William didn''t buy what that spirit said, and simply argued back, in a calm tone.

    "There is no point in arguing about it. That silly fox was indeed part of us, buttely, he seemed weird and distanced himself away from us. Now we realise the crux of the problem, it''s you! Now, you are going to fight for your life and his, survive this and win against all the monstersing at you and you''ll win your life and he''ll return back."

    "Sure, why not?" William stretched out his muscles and body, "Tell me, are you here to supervise over this or you just watch from far?"

    "I''m now in control of the entire world of that pathetic fox," the spirit fell for his trap of William without realising it. Trying to y ording to the rules with someone as dirty as this spirit? No way!

    William didn''t know what type of spirit it was, but he was pretty sure that damn spirit would use any dirty method to let him fail. Even if he could win, he knew he''d end up failing. These folks were joking around and were ready to use any means possible to achieve their goals.

    So, William never intended to y ording to these rules, norpete under such unfavourable conditions. His only hopey in something else, and he just confirmed the existence of that spirit here.

    "And my precious ck fox? Where is it?"

    "Why? Won''t y until seeing him or what?"

    "That''s given," William shrugged, "without seeing him all the time in front of me, I''ll just wake up and get out of here."

    "You can''t do that!" that spirit tried to act calm and collected, but its voice carried doubt and uncertainty. William already thought about this, why he came here just at this moment.

    He was in a very terrible state out there, and only at such a moment did hee here. That meant something prevented that bastard from dragging him here, and it needed him to be in a deepa to get into this world.

    So if he woke up, and if he wanted to, he could leave here. He wasn''t out of options, and yet he wanted to send a direct message to the damn chaos camp of spirits.

    Mess me with, and I''ll mess back with you!

    "Try me," William crossed his arms, "I''ve been here before, and I know how to get out. So let''s hurry up, as my people are trying to wake me up with everything they have. So, we have little time left¡­"

    "Fine, here he is!" The next moment, arge portion of the ck fog cleared, showing a grande cage at the ceiling of this ce. It wasn''t like a cave, but it was like a grand world, with a high levelled sky up there where that cage was.

    And inside that cage, William spotted the ck fox. Unlike how he saw it before, this time the fox was looking miserable, not that much different from his state in the real world.

    Ity on the ground of the cage, motionless, closing its eyes, and had many ugly-looking wounds all over its body. William could tell these wounds were caused by fierce ws, and that told him a lot about the brutal battle that erupted after thest time he was here.

    "Don''t tell me it was captured and tortured since that time¡­" he felt a great amount of rage towards the ones who did that to his spirit.

    Doing this to his spirit meant they were doing this to him. If his spirit died, then he''d suffer a deadly blow without a doubt. Even if he had other spirits, they weren''t his main spirit, they were just additional spirits to him.

    His life would be saved if any of them managed to take control of the dead ck fox. And that was like literally gambling one''s life in a game that one knew nothing about.

    "That silly fox deserved to die, but ording to our world''s rules, not a single spirit shall die without a trial¡­" That alien spirit kept bbering about their world''s just rules and such, while William didn''t buy any of that.

    To him, he knew any rule was meant to be broken. And if the one speaking about how just and fair these rules were, was someone dirty and filthy like this spirit, then it was expected there were tons of loopholes there.

    "Are we going to do it or what?" William grew tired of hearing such useless words from that spirit.

    "Let''s start, You have to walk from your point towards the cage, doing this and still alive means you win¡­"

    "Wait a sec¡­ That cage is high in the air, how can I get there?!!" William saw the first dirty y that spirit did here. And yet he still showed as if he fell directly into his enemy''s trap.

    He didn''t make a mistake here, that spirit was on the side of his sworn enemy, and that made it an enemy for him. William decided to aim directly at killing it, or better could get more information from it about his sworn enemy.

 Chapter 1060 Killing Shadows Again!

    ?

    There was a side he didn''t know about its enemy, and for the first time, he met something who knew about it. The myths he heard from Karoline all spoke about another lifetime of that nine-tailed fox monster, and it seemed this spirit here was on by that monster''s side back at that time.

    "It''s not my problem, this is the rules of this sh, and you have to figure out how to reach there yourself. Now, shall we begin?"

    William already expected this, but he acted as if he was frustrated by such injustice. Before he could say anything else, the ck fog around swirled.

    "Oh, this looks familiar," William looked around and there he spotted a huge number of monsters appearing out of nowhere.

    "This time, you won''t have it nice like before," the voice of the spirit came as a sinister being was speaking, "You won''t get protected by anything, will suffer damage, one that''s directed towards your spirits¡­ So let''s see¡­ Damn! Howe you have these four spirits together!!!"

    The moment that spirit spoke, William acted. He already expected such a thing to happen. That spirit would look weird and suspicious if it didn''t aim to deprive William of any advantage he''d get.

    Thest time he fought against monsters and enemies he got the total protection from damage granted to him by the ck fox. But now, he expected there wasn''t a single aid to be on his side. And so he didn''t wait to hear more from this ck fox, ending up getting into action at once.

    The first thing he did was to call upon his spirit. The moment it appeared, it silenced that talkative and arrogant spirit, giving it the first surprise of tonight.

    "I grew up and worked myself a little bit," William shrugged his shoulders before calling forth for his weapons, "Let''s start!"

    "..."

    This time the spirit didn''t say anything. As William started acting, he noticed two things. First, all the monstersing at him looked a bit familiar, like the same monsters he fought against and killed before.

    That made him jump to a conclusion, that spirit couldn''t form anything from nothing. It was the same back when the ck fox used the enemies in the real world and let theme at him. This time, it was the resurrection of all the monsters he killed before.

    All the fog turned red, and that meant they were all enemies. "No allies this time," he slowly muttered, before testing out another matter.

    Thest time he fought into this mess, he had an endless amount of spirit power. And that is what made himst for a long time here. If that wasn''t present, then he was in front of a big problem.

    "Phew! The spirit power support is present at least," he muttered to himself while killing tons of monsters using his strongest techniques.

    Once he made sure of this point, checking on his spirit power and found it still the same, he started to madly fight without caring about anything else.

    Worrying about defending was only a problem that''d arise when fighting against stronger foes. And in William''s case, he leant towards using absolute might to kill and crush anything else around, before any of these shadows would reach him.

    Seeing this made the spirit a bit startled. He took care of everything, but seemingly it missed this slight point of spirit power constant regeneration.

    "Doing this would have been a headache even to a group of spirits like myself¡­ He is blessed with the world''sws and will gain an infinite supply of spirit power. But what can this do against endless enemies? Even if he can use strong techniques, he still hasn''t seen everything I prepared for him yet¡­"

    The spirit didn''t see thating, but it already prepared something for William. Soon enough, William started to guess it.

    "It made this challenge so dead monsters will merge and form much stronger monsters? Interesting¡­" he knew the power of the monsters he faced so far was quite low actually, mostly at bronze and white grade. Yet after an hour of killing like a machine, he noticed their power rose slightly up, bing at silver grade.

    He instantly guessed what was going on here, and knew the end of this path was going to be quite deadly and dark for him. He could handle up to the high-stage monsters of dark gold grade, not anything higher than that.

    If the spirit designed this test to keep monsters evolving the more he killed, then this was going to end up quite nasty for him. Even if he was at the pinnacle stage, he wouldn''t be able to fight against endless hordes of pinnacle-stage monsters.

    "The only way out of here is to get that ck fox out, let it take back control of this world¡­ But there isn''t a way to get there¡­"

    William suddenly froze while thinking about this point. He was now sure all the monsters here were the ones he killed before in this current lifetime. And that meant there was something that could help him get to that cage.

    It was risky, but he had to do it. As for using his trump card, he first had to release that ck fox to make it work. Or else, things weren''t going to end that great for him even if he killed or drove away that hostile spirit.

    He tried to recall what grade these monsters were, and he could recall they were either at gold or dark gold grade. Either way, he had to wait for more hours and kill more monsters, before reaching such a stage.

    As he decided that, he started to focus on killing more of these shadows. They didn''t pose much threat to him, and he kept fighting like mad for hours.

    During all this time, those outside were dead worried about him. Panther returned in half an hour with lots of healers, and yet they weren''t much help.

 Chapter 1061 Please... Come Back To Me...

    ?

    "We can''t do anything, his situation is a bit bizarre¡­" the oldest and strongest healing master said while shaking off his head, "he is in a very bad state, but for a reason his spirit me is igniting fiercely like he is going through evolution or something. His spirit power is increasing, I can tell you that, but his body is in a mess¡­ So¡­"

    The words he said didn''t make any sense at all, but they were clear about one thing. He and others couldn''t help.

    "So what?" Anjie was deadly worried over William, especially after the weird words that the healer said, "Will we leave him to die?"

    "You heard them, we got nothing in our power to do," Sloth was as annoyed and depressed as Anjie, feeling more frustrated about all this. He never thought this situation would be unsolvable.

    "As long as his spirit me is burning fiercely, then there is no danger to him," Panther turned to Sloth for support, and thetter could only nod without saying anything.

    "You two are lying," like a wife who just lost her husband, Anjie finally crashed. She leant over William''s body, didn''t care about the blood that covered her, hugged him as if she was doing this for thest time in her life, "Please, pleasee back to me¡­"

    She whispered these words, and kissed his cheeks, before burying her head in his body. She kept weeping for hours before her tears dried up and yet she didn''t stop sobbing.

    Everyone around couldn''t believe any of that. Panther had to bring the healers again to check on him, before Anjie asked them to stay by their side, checking on him once per hour.

    They didn''t bring any good news, just the same old ones. William was still in such a messy situation, but ended up having his spirit power increasing and his spirit me was still burning fiercely like always.

    This became like a puzzlement, and none here could exin such a weird phenomenon. As they were feeling like this, William finally started to see the early batches of dark gold masters.

    To him, they were nothing. And yet he focused more, focused on a certain spot, in the air.

    *Screech!*

    Monsters roared all of sudden after one hour, a roar that came from the sky. "They are here," William''s eyes shone brightly, while he felt excited about what was yet toe, "Let''s see how that spirit would react then¡­"

    William didn''t hurt to execute his n and started first to stack up his technique. Things started to heat up as more monsters appeared, stronger ones, and then flying monsters appeared.

    William once fought against these, ending up letting a few get tamed. He didn''t know what happened to them but was pretty confident they were kept in a very secret ce, a ce that no one would easily sniff.

    As they appeared, he knew his way towards that cage was secured. Last time he let others take control of them, and now he was the one who was going to fly on top of these.

    Yet he waited, patiently umting more stacks on his tails. He kept evading any iing attack and didn''t kill any more monsters as it was futile.

    "What is he doing?" The spirit was watching all this from afar, and yet he didn''t get what William was doing. As there was no sign of risk yet, he didn''t care about what that human wanted to do.

    But the moment William leapt in the air,nded on the back of one of the closest monsters to him, and that spirit started to get a bad feeling about this.

    "Don''t tell me¡­" Just when William kept shing from the back of one flying monster to another, he started to pick up altitude. Gradually he became closer to that cage high in the sky, and that made that spirit guess what William wanted to do.

    "Sh*t! I need to control these monsters before¡­" Yet before it''d continued its words, William jumped all over the distance between him and that cage. For a second there, the spirit froze in his actions and didn''t continue his words. Soon enough, William''s swordnded over the cage, leaving behind a ferocious explosion.

    "It''s toote¡­" the spirit finally continued his words, but the damage had already happened. William arrived at the cage, and released his technique, before free-falling towards the densely packed flying monsters that tried to get a bite off him.

    "Wake up, you damn fox! Get up and retrieve your world!" William''s shout roared in the world as if he was a monster himself. He used a light element to magnify and erge his voice, ending up with everyone in the world to hear him.

    William didn''t know if his strike would smash the cage or not, but he was sure the fox inside would be awakened by it. As it was the lord of this world, it was expected for the cage to get smashed, not by William, but by the ck fox.

    *Roar!* *Roar!*

    And even before the explosion up there would settle down, things started to cave, and the other came from a certain spot in the sky.

    William didn''t need to raise his head to see that second roare from the direction of that hostile spirit. It got what he wanted to do, and moved fast before it was toote.

    But it never crossed its mind that it fell down the trap of William.

    "Come forth,e out now, my ck Phantom!"

    The spirit didn''t notice something ck in the middle of all the mix of his spirits. This was the mark left by the ck Phantom, and William intended to use it the moment he stepped in here and learnt about the current situation.

    It was an inevitable move for him to target that spirit. He knew it was strong enough to take down his ck fox. Even if it did it with lots of other chaos-order spirits, it was still strong for both him and the ck fox.

 Chapter 1062 The Black Phantom!

    ?

    The first step must have started with that ck fox. Waking it up was the key, and it must be done before doing anything else.

    Bringing the ck fox out of the cage would serve as a distraction for that spirit, letting it move as fast as possible to stop it from causing problems. That wouldn''t just serve as a distraction, but would also let that spirit show itself, bringing it out of its hiding spot.

    It wouldn''t imagine the presence of such a predator here. In worst cases, the ck Phantom would scare that spirit away, but William wanted it dead.

    Like this, he''d send a clear message over to the ones who caused all this to him. And that would alsoe with lots of benefits at the end. After all, this was a spirit, one which knew lots of hidden matters in the spirit world.

    But first he had to see if the ck Phantom would be able to kill it or not.

    The right way to activate that mark was still a gamble for him, yet he hoped it would be like trying to activate his spirit body. When he infused his spirit power inside that mark, it shone brightly, making it hard for that spirit to not notice it.

    "What is¡­ This? Why do I feel like¡­ Like¡­ I''m going to meet my end here?" The instincts of stronger masters were always quite high and sharp. So it was expected how this spirit felt such a bad omen about that ck mark.

    Yet again, it was a bit toote to do anything about it. The moment it was about to move, head towards the source of that fear and get rid of it, something shed out from William''s body, taking the form of something grand and majestic.

    This time, William had the chance to see the full body shape of that ck Phantom spirit. It was like an angel, dark and ck, filled with feathers, without any eyes at all. His eyes weren''t present, and he had two huge wings, ones that could p once and send his body away like a bullet!

    And he was a real giant, one that stretched for more than one hundred metres at least. His body emitted huge amounts of power, enough to make anyone looking at him feel heart trepidations and trembling.

    "You¡­ You¡­ The ck¡­ Phantom¡­" As the ck Phantom appeared, the spirit which was in the middle of moving towards William stopped, muttering in disbelief as if it couldn''t believe its eyes.

    "Is this where that monster set its trap for you? Why do I sniff the smell of home here?" the ck Phantom turned to William, ignoring the other spirit which couldn''t dare to move a finger in front of such a scary predator.

    It''s only hope that this scary spirit was just passing by here by ident or something, and didn''te here to fight or know William. But what thetter said next literally froze the blood in that spirit''s veins.

    "See that spirit there? I can''t see it but I know it exists somewhere close by¡­ It''s the one supporting that nine-tailed fox, alongside many others but they aren''t here for now.``

    "Oh¡­ Is that true?" The ck Phantom''s attitude changed from being surprised and disappointed by William''s actions to getting hyped by this, "How can you tell?"

    "It told me personally about that," William suddenly flipped a recording crystal out from his rings. After all, this time, he came here with everything he had in the real world.

    In the middle of speaking with that spirit, he silently recorded everything. He knew the ck Phantom wouldn''t take his words for granted and would ask for proof, and here he presented it to him.

    The moment he yed the recording crystal, and the image and voice of that spirit appeared, showing off his support to that fox monster,ining about the choice of the silly ck fox.

    Yet right now, that spirit felt it was the silly spirit here. "Sh*t! I screwed up!" it realised that by trying to remove the protection of this space towards William, he had to let thettere here with his real body. That ended up with William having his rings and everything else.

    It thought that wasn''t a big problem, but now it was the only mistake that''d take its life away.

    "Hey, where do you think you are running towards?" Just when that spirit knew it was doomed, it tried to escape, and it was indeed futile to do so.

    All William saw was for the ck Phantom to sh, appear a couple of kilometres away from him, and grab something shiny.

    It was a star, but it was a dimly lit one, not the golden star that he had inside his spirit. This one was dark green in colour, looking sinister at first sight.

    "Esteemed¡­ Esteemed spirit, Esteemed ck Phantom, please don''t believe that human¡­"

    "Shut the hell up!" the ck Phantom roared, turning to William before throwing another mark at him, "I''m sure next time you''ll give another surprise. I like you, human kid, but make sure to not head against things out of your league."

    "Than¡­" before William could continue his words of gratitude, that ck Phantom vanished alongside that hostile spirit.

    He didn''t need to ask, that spirit was done for. The ck Phantom would squeeze everything out of it, and learn about others in the Chaos camp, before going on a spree of cleaning the house.

    William was sure the ck Phantom was up to the task. But now it wasn''t the time to worry about that. He looked up towards the cage, with broken bars, and then returned to resume his fight.

    The challenge didn''t stop with the disappearance of the mastermind behind it as William feared. The test continued, and he had to use everything in his power to keep his life intact while killing as few monsters as possible.

 Chapter 1063 How To Heal A Spirit!

    ?

    His attack before at the cage might have awakened the ck fox spirit, but it didn''t show any sign of being alive so far. It just helped to crack open the cage, and still didn''t move an inch from there.

    William didn''t know for how long that spirit would keep ying dead, and he couldn''t risk it as it might take much longer than he expected.

    So he made sure to focus on evasion, not fighting and killing. Even if he ended up with lots of wounds, he was sure the moment of the high-end monsters to appear would be dyed as long as possible.

    But hours passed, and that fox spirit didn''t wake up. "Don''t tell me I need to go up there in person to wake it up!" he rolled his eyes while noticing the appearance of many middle-stage dark gold monsters.

    They weren''t that threatening yet, but if they grew up in number, they''d pose a threat to him. He''d be forced to shift gears and start mass killing, ending up facing the high-stage monsters fast.

    He didn''t dy and started to dash up and over the backs of flying monsters. This time he didn''t need to stack any technique and just adjusted the trajectory of his dashes to adapt to the monsters'' fast and swift responses.

    It took him half an hour to arrive high enough to reach the cage. And when he dashed up there, he had to sh against a few flying monsters which came to take a bite off him while being in midair.

    The first jump failed, and then he tried again. This time he slowly bid his time, spending one more hour in doing so. He kept luring many flying monsters around, then dashed over their backs until he reached the right spot, and then did all this again.

    But flying monsters didn''t let him board their backs and wait there peacefully or without resisting. On many asions, the flying monster kept rotating, diving up and down, trying to throw him off its back. But using his ws and tails, he managed to survive this.

    On other asions, the flying monster would simply dive deep towards the ground, aiming to take him back there. He had to abandon ship anytime such a thing happened, and that dyed him even further.

    In the end, he finally arrived at the cage. He was fuming with rage, nning to p that fox in the face. Yet when he arrived there and saw how bad that spirit was, sounding like it was dying or something, he instantly panicked.

    "Damn! Don''t die on me, or else I''m screwed," he hurried over to the gigantic body of that fox monster, who didn''t know what to do. The fox suffered from tons of wounds, and there was a ck pool of blood filling the base of that cage.

    He didn''t care about that sticky blood that reached almost to his waist! Even if he looked massive in his spirit form, he was still looking smallpared to the size of that fox spirit, or the entire cage.

    As he arrived at the ck fox''s side, he felt at a loss. The fox had a very huge body, and he didn''t know where to start or what to do.

    "Healing elixirs won''t do," he muttered to himself, "they work on humans, not over anything else¡­ Plus spirits are much different than humans¡­ Wait¡­ They are formed entirely of spirit power¡­ Doesn''t that mean these elixirs can help?"

    He took out healing elixir bottles at first, before swapping them with another type of bottle. They were the spirit regeneration elixirs. He looked at the fox''s body and could tell using just a few wouldn''t work.

    "Screw it!" He took out enough of these bottles to form a small hill next to him. And without hesitating, he struggled to open the mouth of that fox, using his tails and weapons, ending up adding little wounds here and there.

    He didn''t care about that. The moment a small gap appeared, he instantly started to grab batches of the elixir bottles, smashing them against the fox''s huge teeth. Doing so ended up releasing tons of elixirs inside the fox mouth, alongside many ss shards.

    He was sure these shards wouldn''t do anything to such a formidable spirit, but the main problem still was in how long it''d take to wake up, how many elixirs it''d need to open its eyes and get on its feet.

    After the passage of half an hour, and consuming tons of his precious elixirs, William started to lose hope. He thought he mistook things here, and this method wouldn''t work.

    Just before he''d stop, the fox jolted its body, slowly opened its eyes, and looked at him. For a long minute, the two kept looking at each other, one fox lying on the ground of the cage, in the middle of a pool of its blood, with a human opening its mouth with his tails and weapons, while with his ws he was holding elixir bottles, prepared to smash them into its mouth.

    Without saying anything, William felt the blood pool retracted and got lower in level. He looked around, and made sure this wasn''t an illusion or something.

    The fox was taking back its blood, and that meant it was getting better.

    "You do know you gave me a lot of headaches and trouble, right?" The first thing the ck fox said was this, even before it retracted all the blood, even if it didn''t stand up.

    "I saved your as*, killed the enemy which did that to you, and released a scary predator at the end, and this is your thank you to me?" William rolled his eyes, couldn''t believe the first thing that ck fox said wasn''t an expression of gratitude, but a statement of his resentment!

    "Oh, tell me everything then¡­" It felt like this fox wasn''t acting normal, not on his usual attitude that was arrogant and haughty. But William knew this was because it didn''t fully wake it, and didn''t heal properly yet.

 Chapter 1064 Cough! Cough!

    ?

    William exined what happened, starting from the moment he entered here till the end.

    "The ck Phantom? The same ck Phantom spirit? Are you sure?!!" The moment William mentioned this scary spirit, the ck fox couldn''t help but shout in panic, with its body trembling out of fear.

    "Don''t worry, he is a friend," William evilly grinned, resisting the urge tough.

    "You are a friend of the boogeyman? No way! That spirit is a solo, never teamed with or befriended anyone in our world! It''s impossible for him to be a friend of a human¡­"

    "I''m not lying," William shrugged, "or else how do you expect me to know about his name? Do you want me to draw a sketch of him for you? Besides, that spirit that entrapped you here isn''t weak, not something I can contend against. So, howe I drove it away?"

    "Good points, but this doesn''t make any sense at all," the ck fox was still finding it hard to believe what William said, "This is the boogeyman! The BOOGEYMAN! You can''t befriend someone who is going to eat you for dinner, or even lunch!"

    "Do you want me to summon him again to be sure of that?" William crossed his arms, and gave that fox a mocking gaze, "but you''ll need to deal with his wrath! He told me to not summon him until there is something for him to eat, so¡­"

    "No, f*ck no! Stay away from me, go away, go back to your crazy world, and leave me alone¡­"

    "Tsk! And here I thought you were going to reward me for saving your life¡­"

    "I will," the fox took his words as a hidden threatening one, "just stay away, go back, go back right away."

    "Do you think if I can, would I stay here?" William rolled his eyes, "Just take a look down there, that spirit messed with your home and spread all these monsters around to kill me. Not to mention there isn''t a single way out¡­"

    "Here, just leave and let me alone to heal," the fox just moved on its tail, hardly lifting it for a few metres before falling. William could tell it exhausted much of its power to do so, and yet he didn''t feel any guilt at all.

    A door appeared, one that was shining brightly with golden light, "This will lead you back¡­"

    "Not before you promised me to meet again," William wasn''t in any hurry to leave. He had to set up a meeting with that ck fox in the future, to ask him about tons of stuff, and also learn more about the spirit world.

    "Fine, once I''ve healed, I''ll call you back here¡­"

    "If not, I''ll call the boogeyman and let him eat you for lunch, hahaha!" William left with such threatening words, while hisughs echoed in the ce, "see youter, my friend."

    William didn''t need to open the door. The moment he got near it, his body got sucked through, and passed without any hindrance, while a bright sh of golden light blinded his vision.

    In the real world, Anjie was sobbing without shedding any more tears. She buried her head in his embrace, and didn''t raise it for hours!

    Sloth and Panther were standing here, alongside all the prominent figures in the city. It pained him to see William like that, especially when they learnt about the root cause of all this.

    Panther was the one feeling the most terrible out of all. He med himself for all this, didn''t know how things went south like this.

    If he knew, he''d never have told William about anything.

    "Cough! Cough!" Just as everyone was feeling dejected and depressed, waiting for the inevitable to happen, a miracle happened instead!

    William coughed! And with just coughing twice, everyone jolted awake from their dark thoughts, looking at him in disbelief.

    "The blood¡­ The blood¡­ It''s receding back¡­" Just the same as it happened with the fox spirit, William''s blood started to move towards him as his body absorbed it slowly. Under all this, Anjie slowly raised her head, and looked at William in disbelief and delight.

    "William¡­ You¡­ You are alive¡­" she muttered these words as if she didn''t believe herself at all. She wasn''t alone, as everyone watched this miracle unfolding right before their eyes.

    William didn''t juste back from thends of the dead, but he also came back in top shape! He took ten minutes before he absorbed all the blood around, then slowly stood up, looking totally fine.

    In fact, he was much better than before! He gained lots of spirit power from that ck Phantom, and what he went through helped him to digest all of these.

    Not to mention while being at the ck fox''s ce, he ended up absorbing too much spirit power from there, increasing his total toll of spirit power points by ten thousand points directly!

    Right now, he wasn''t at the mid-stage dark gold grade anymore. Right now, he has formally stepped into the high stage, bing one of the top elites in this world.

    Yet he didn''t check on his spirit power for now. He looked around, looked at all the happy faces around, those who had tear marks over there, looked like they stayed there for a long time, stayed by his side, and he realised what they went through.

    "I''m fine," he paused when his eyesnded on Panther. Before he could say anything, Anjie threw herself into his embrace, crying like never before, yet this time she was crying out of her happiness.

    She didn''t say anything, and William could only pat on her head and back, didn''t say anything either. At this moment, there was no need for words anymore, as he felt her true feelings for him, her worry and concern, her happiness for his return.

    As for others, they were also giving him the same vibes.

    "You made us deadly worried over you, what happened?" Sloth cleared up his throat, trying to get to the bottom of all this.

 Chapter 1065 Let Them Come!

    ?

    "It''s my vision, right?" Panther slowly said, in a tone that was burdened with self-ming and regret.

    "I saved your life, say thanks then, William didn''t act humble or kindly with Panther, looked at him in a serious way, "What I passed through would have happened to you, instead you wouldn''t have made it."

    "This¡­ Thanks to that," Panther lowered his head for the first time ever in decades, and he did that for a youngster, one who wasn''t on par with his level of power in the eyes of everyone.

    "It''s not worth it," William sighed, looked around, seeing the old faces who he used to see in the city for years, saw the new faces of the new members of his guild, "I wanted to say everything is over and we are going to live our lives happily ever after, but that''s not true. We still need to do something else, something very dangerous without doubt."

    "What do you mean? Tell us everything!" Sloth''s attitude and vibe changed, as he released his spirit power in caution. He and others saw what William went through, and if he said things weren''t over, then they had to expect the worst.

    "It''s not here, the danger is out there, at the ce your vision showed and specified for you¡­" He motioned towards Panther, before stating what he could tell them.

    He kept any part rted to spirits off their knowledge. He just told them this was the act of the monster he tried to hunt a few years ago and failed, the same monster who brought down the capital.

    William didn''t mind throwing the me for what happened in the capital on that monster, didn''t even mind ming it for anything bad happening all over the world.

    "So¡­ You are saying this vision was something that monster did to entrap you and us?!!!" Panther already thought about such a possibility, but never truly hoped for it to be true.

    "And you want us to follow that trap and fall into it? This is madness!!" Sloth shouted in disagreement, "Even if that bastard is the one who did all this to my home, to my friends and people, I can''t throw my life away and fall into such a trap, no way!"

    "You have to listen to me," William knew they were all speaking logic, but it wasn''t enough. He knew more, and couldn''t tell them any, "I have a n, and that''s not all. I''m going, either by you on my side, which is what I personally prefer, or alone!"

    "I won''t let you leave alone," in his embrace, Anjie''s weak and shaky voice came, but everyone could hear the statement clearly.

    "Anjie¡­"

    "Don''t say anymore," she slowly raised her head and looked at her mentor, "if my man is going to face such dangers, then I''ll stick by his side, either win and survive or fall down together!"

    Her words carried tons of firm belief and determination, ones that made Sloth realise there wasing back from this. She decided on that path, and he had to follow her as her mentor and guardian.

    "As the one who started all this, I''m going to follow," Panther suddenly said, attracting everyone''s attention from the city.

    "Panther¡­ You can''t¡­"

    "It''s my decision," he stopped his long-term friends from adding more or trying to dissuade him. He already decided to make something up for William, to repay for what he did to him, "and I''m going to kill the one who caused all this to me and others."

    "Then we areing!" many of his friends said, while others simply nodded.

    "Guys¡­ You know this may be a one-way trip¡­"

    "Don''t say anymore, we won''t leave you alone," his friends made up their minds as well. But not everyone decided to follow.

    "Sorry Panther, but in such a situation, it''s better for me to return."

    "I will pray for your sess and safe return!"

    "Kick his as* for me, for all of us, got it?"

    Few left the guild while no one said anything to belittle them. The ones that remained behind made up around one hundred, one hundred of high-end masters.

    It was a sizable force indeed, but William was sure that monster was well prepared to face more than that.

    "We also want to go," Just before William would speak with the big shots, the ones who joined the guild recently suddenly pushed someone up front to speak for them.

    "You don''t need toe, it''s a stage you shouldn''t step on for now¡­" William was appreciating their kind intentions, but this was truly a ce not suitable for them.

    "We won''t let our guild master go there alone," but it felt what they witnessed with William during the past hours left a deep touch on them, "We will apany you, to the bitter end of the glorifying win!"

    "Hmm¡­ Why don''t we do it this way then?" William could already spot the root of this, as they were here and watched everything he went through and did, "We have ten days before going there. Why not take your time and think about it then?"

    He gave them a gentle way out from here. He wouldn''t say no to any help right now, but if it meant for them to die for sure, then it was better not to follow him.

    "Let theme," but before any would say anything, Anjie raised her head and slowly caressed his face, "You are going to risk your life, and they won''t? They aren''t babies, they are Fox guild masters, your masters. Let theme, do what they can, and hopefully, we''ll celebrate this win at the end together."

    "..." In front of such eyes, in front of such words, William couldn''t say anything back.

    "Fine, wee on board," William resigned to her and their wishes, "prepare well, get anything you can from the city. We''ll leave in ten days," he then turned to Panther and others,

 Chapter 1066 Letâ€™s Train!

    <h4>Chapter 1066 Let''s Train!</h4>

    "You need to scout the area we are going to invade, and also try to recruit more masters to our cause."

    "Can we spread the word out? Ask the help of the entire world?" Sloth suddenly asked, making everyone wait for William''s decision in impatience.

    "Why not? It''s not like we are fighting this for our gains," William shrugged, "let anyone wanting toe to hop in," he fixed his eyes over the newly joined members of his guild, realising that many masters deserve a chance to decide for themselves.

    "Cool! But what shall we say to them?" Sloth asked again, "What is our enemy exactly?"

    Even if heard them speaking, he still couldn''t get a head or tail about the enemy they were supposed to meet.

    "Let me tell you this, the world knows the dark masters and monsters, but these are just pawns in the hands of truly formidable and much scarier enemies," William knew it was slightly hard to exin the concept of Transformers and Mutants to Sloth and others.

    "That¡­" and as he expected, his words left nothing but confusion and doubt in everyone.

    "Let it be much simpler then," he sighed, "tell the world we are going against the monsters and dark masters'' leaders, got it?"

    "That''s much better," Pantherughed excitedly, "let''s go, we have only ten days to wait. And the distance between here and Lara''s city will take five days with the fastest master to cross¡­"

    "Speaking about that, why not use these?" William took things out, many sealed boxes actually. When everyone looked in doubt towards him, he slowly exined the value of things inside.

    "Portal cores?!!!" This was the same shockingment everyone here muttered to themselves.

    "These are connected to Lara''s city," William exined, "I got them to use these for my newly established guild branches all over the continent, but got no time to spread them over yet. Their other half is already installed there at the portal zone, and so all you need to do is to install these here¡­"

    He exined in great detail the method to use these cores. He learnt this from Lara, and right now he found them more useful to help this city fix the ring issue it had.

    He knew Lara and other leaders back there wouldn''t be happy about doing this, but he already owned these portal cores. And it wasn''t like he gave them out of the blue. This situation was quite critical, and he needed all the help he could get.

    He knew he was going against that sly monster and other transformers, but that didn''t mean they wouldn''t face hordes of dark masters or monsters.

    Everyone went excited by this and went as fast as they could to install these portal cores. Panther promised to establish a portal zone here, one that was like the one at Lara''s city.

    William knew it was going to be much smaller, but it was going to solve the main and biggest problem this city had.

    "Lara won''t be happy about that, hahaha!" Anjieughed, making him a bit speechless.

    "Why are you happy?!"

    "Nothing, hahaha!" she keptughing, not bothered by the weird gazes she got from him.

    "I''m going back then," Sloth suddenly said, "I have to meet with the king."

    "My father?!!"

    "What for?!!"

    The two of them asked at the same moment, and Sloth evilly grinned.

    "You said it, the ones behind this scheme are the same ones who tried to destroy our capital and kingdom. It''s just fair for us to have a chance for a payback, right?"

    William could tell just from the look over Sloth''s face what he truly intended to do. "Don''t tell me you are going to mobilise the entire kingdom''s army here," he rolled his eyes, and Sloth didn''t say anything, simply turned around and left.

    "Make sure to be ready in ten days," he said to William and Anjie, "and expect something big from my king."

    "If my father is going to let the kingdom''s main army join, then we can win this!" Anjie got hyped by that, and William knew her opinion was based on other reasons than just logic.

    "Let''s hope so," yet even with all this, he could tell the iing battle was going to be so damn hard, "let''s go, we need to train."

    "Train? No, we need to sleep!"

    "Girl! We slept long enough¡­" he was speechless for a few seconds, and when he tried to speak, he got interrupted by her. She ced a finger on his lips as she slowly said:

    "You slept, but I did not. So let''s go there and rest. Don''t forget, you just came back from the doorsteps of death, something that must have left a toll on your body and spirit."

    "But¡­ I''m totally fine!!!" William was speechless, but in the end, he had to listen to her words and follow her towards the underground foxir, before resting for hours by her side.

    She literally threw her body over his, closed her eyes, and slept. Every single time he tried to walk away, she''d clutch at him, making it impossible for him to leave without waking her up.

    "Phew! I finally got away," After five hours, he finally got the chance to escape from her without risking waking her up, "Girls¡­ They are a real distraction for real men¡­"

    He shook his head, before taking out a crystal and a candle. The first thing he did was to inspect his spirit power, and he was extremely shocked by the result he found.

    "Wow! I am now in the mid-level of the high stage¡­ That''s awesome!" he couldn''t believe himself, counting the tsunami of spirit power residing within the crystal many times just to be sure of this, "damn! I should have persisted a bit longer, wouldn''t I have been at the pinnacle stage now?"

    He regretted notsting a bit longer back then, absorbing more of the ck Phantom''s spirit power.

 Chapter 1067 The King Is Here!!!

    ?

    If Williamst a bit longer, he''d have saved himself long months of training.

    "But this power rise came abruptly, I need to train to digest it¡­" he thought such spirit power was still raw and not refined by his spirit and body, didn''t get that he already passed this stage.

    It was thanks to the tough battles and intense moments he had back at the ck fox world. As he trained, he lost himself there. Being at such a stage of power meant he''d need tons of time to gain a little advancement in his spirit power.

    And after all this, his spirit was hungry for more spirit power to digest. After hours, Anjie woke up, found him training, making her roll her eyes in frustration.

    "A workaholic man indeed," she sighed, before looking at the bright shadows that surrounded him, "they look different¡­ He grew in power, that''s my man!"

    She happily chuckled, before selecting a spot and started training as well, "I can''t fall too much behind, right?" She told herself this while training seriously like him.

    As the two locked on themselves on training, and while William continued to absorb the spirit power remained in the fox statue, things out there in the world was heated up.

    News spread, and this time it was a much bigger bomb than before. The Fox guild legendary leader announced a crusade, not against dark masters and monsters like usual, but against the big leaders!

    The location of this big war was a ce that made everyone shocked about it. It was in the all safe for many years, the Scorching Lands city. But as the news came from reliable sources, everyone decided to take part in this or follow the trend of the news.

    This time the war came just after a hecticst one, and no one forgot their bitter regretting feelings when William closed the door on anyone from outside to join his guild.

    Soon enough, many started to flood the Scorching Lands citying from various ces in the continent, even from the other continent. The establishment of the portal zone there made it quite easier to arrive in that city. And yet Lara''s city leaders didn''t like it.

    "At least he got consciousness to establish these portals through our city," the leaders could do nothing about what William did. After all, he got these portal cores for his many guild branches, and they were all linked to their city.

    It meant for anyone to go to the Scorching Lands city, he or she had to pass through their city first. It was something that made everyone feel at ease, then they started to speak about their war preparations.

    Everyone wanted to join, and yet more news came. It wasn''t good news, but a strict warning: This war isn''t easy, and we are going against scary enemies, so don''t join if you fear for your life, or are a bit weak!

    The news came from a surprising figure, one that no one ever expected to release such a statement, the Novistic Kingdom''s king!

    These words spread and all of sudden more turmoil urred. Many knew this warning wasn''t a game or a joke, but others focused on another thing that such a statement said in a hidden way.

    "The king¡­ He is going to let the kingdom''s army take part in this war!!!" Realising such a shocking fact, alongside the strict warning the king issued, made it clear how huge this war was going to be.

    It wasn''t like any other big wars any master world witnessed in the recent decades, or even millenia. And instead of scaring many away as many formidable masters feared, this statement drew more toe and join such a crusade.

    They called it: The Purge of the Century! And others even went to say it was the biggest war in the entire history of their world!

    In front of such hype and craziness, no one could do anything but ept these masters, arrange them outside the Scorching Lands city, while preparing and arranging the armies to fight.

    Scout teams already were sent to that location Panther once saw in his vision, and the man himself led these teams. ording to what he saw, that ce was in the middle of nowhere, in open ins, without any hills around.

    This was by far the first war against dark masters which didn''t happen with hills present around. And that made everyone who knew about this expecting a much fiercer battle than the one they had in their minds.

    As an endless stream of masters passed to the city, the kingdom''s army came atst. This was a very grand scene and a historical moment for the city, especially when the one leading the army was none other than the king himself.

    "I''m going to exert justice and vengeance over the ones who tried to backstab our kingdom and capital, tried to kill me and other loyal masters of my precious kingdom¡­ in this war we''ll show the world of dark masters and monsters that humans aren''t that weak, aren''t pushovers, and we cane and fight them at any time, and win!"

    The moment the king stepped out of the portal in the city, he raised his sword high in the air, shouted these words in the middle of a grand gathering of his most loyal masters, his strong kingdom''s army masters. And then an earth shattering shout came once, then got repeated while the king led his army outside the city to make a camp there.

    Panther and other city leaders went to meet him, and they were surprised to see how highly the king valued their city and appreciated their efforts done here so far.

    They were delighted by suchments and praise, but they all knew all this was thanks to one master; William.

    The king then asked to meet Panther and Sloth alone, where he heard from them about everything that happened to William.

 Chapter 1068 Bye Bye Fox Statue!

    <h4>Chapter 1068 Bye Bye Fox Statue!</h4>

    "Interesting kid indeed, I like him, hahaha!" The king was delighted by such stories, and couldn''t help butugh while the other two masters didn''t know what to say and remained silent.

    "How is my daughter doing in all this?" All of sudden, the king shifted the topic toward his daughter, and Sloth exined how she reacted to what happened to William.

    "She did great recently, good for her. She still had such fighting spirit from her mother, hahaha!" the kingughed, and thatment made the other two feel a bit awkward.

    "Anyway, I believed this war was special when I first heard about it, and now I''m sure it was going to be epic, hahaha!"

    The king was such a fierce master, one who didn''t resign to any defeat, and got excited in front of any new challenge.

    "I do agree with Your Majesty, but we need to prepare for big losses¡­" Sloth wanted to gently remind the king that with every great battle, lots of sacrifices were expected.

    "That''s not an issue," yet the king didn''t think the same way Sloth and Panther did, "We suffered a strong blow by what happened to the capital. Even with everything that we tried to do,ter on, our fame and name are tarnished. We need something to wipe away such shame, and that muste at a price¡­"

    The king was indeed right, the fame of the kingdom became as low as any weak one. He wanted nothing more but to do something to regain respect for his people, to his kingdom. And that was why he decided to personally show up and lead this crusade.

    "Spread my orders, This battle is going to be tough, but we will win it," the king paused before adding, "Let everyone shout the name of our kingdom all the time, when walking, when resting, and even when killing the enemies. Let the name of our kingdom be heard far and wide, let us remind everyone about who we are!"

    The king didn''t just aspire to win but wanted to use this victory to wash away the shame the kingdom suffered recently. Sloth and Panther could get his viewpoint and got nothing to say but to bow and leave to execute the orders.

    The next few days were quite hectic! The people of the Novistic kingdom army kept shouting the name of their kingdom all the time! They made it like a chorus, as a song everyone sang in praise for the kingdom.

    William was sitting in his underground cave when he suddenly got jolted awake. "Damn, bad luck! The spirit power ran dry from this statue¡­" he couldn''t help but sigh while watching the statue turn into powder.

    He absorbed the spirit power stored within and learnt everything that the mysterious master left inside. He now knew the right way to capture and seal that monster, and that all started with the powder left by that statue.

    The statue wasn''t gone, as it had the spirits of a master and a monster. It was impossible for it to turn into dust like this, but this was all the doing of that master.

    This powder was the key to the scheme that Master nned a long time ago. And William could do nothing but carefully collect it, not leaving behind a single speck of dust. He stored it all inside one of his rings, and then he checked the time.

    "There are still three days till our meeting¡­ Shall I go out and check over things? Or¡­"

    He had an idea already about what to do once the statue would run dry of spirit power. He wasn''t like without options here, and so he decided to keep himself locked in here and work over the new item he had.

    *ng!* *ng!* *ng!*

    He took out lots of heavy boxes, ones that he gained from the other world before. These were his idental loot from an adventure there, one that he ended up having, and a mysterious scroll.

    The scroll was still sealed, not showing anything to him, not even opening at all. He tried to open it now but failed again.

    "It seems the problem isn''t in theck of enough spirit power¡­ There is something else missing here¡­" he muttered to himself while storing this weird scroll away.

    Then he turned his eyes towards the boxes.

    The boxes he took out were big in size, very heavy, and they were sealed. He knew they were absorbing spirit power from the world around them, and inside every box of them tons of spirit power.

    He couldn''t tell if the spirit power inside every box was enough to take him towards the pinnacle stage, but he was sure they weren''t any lesser in amount than what that fox statue had.

    "I''d better store others," he knew the messing out from releasing the spirit power stored within one box might stir up the stored spirit power in other boxes. And so he just left one out, before starting toy down arrays around it.

    To absorb this spirit power, one had to release it first. And so he started by making a spirit power entrapment array, then one that''d concentrate it inside and purify it.

    He knew at his current stage of power, absorbing the spirit power of the world wasn''t enough for him. So he needed to concentrate this spirit power, to let him elerate in absorbing the spirit power in the shortest time.

    Yet he never thought he underestimated these boxes, and he was going to learn this fact in the hardest way possible.

    As he finishedying down the arrays, he started to write symbols over the box surface using his blood. He needed to establish a connection between himself and that box first, then he''d take out the spirit power stored inside.

    As he did all this, he sat directly on top of the box and didn''t activate his spirit body.

 Chapter 1069 The Outer World Berserk Spirit Power

    <h4>Chapter 1069 The Outer World Berserk Spirit Power</h4>

    This was by far the ce with the highest spirit power in the entire array, and he wanted to absorb as much spirit power as he could once be released.

    Then he closed his eyes, and ced two palms over the box, before muttering something. It was the incantation of a training technique, as he decided to go directly into training, allowing him to elerate his absorption speed.

    He took care of everything, and yet missed one simple and game-changing fact; this box didn''t contain spirit power from this world, or from the other middle world.

    The box came from the outer world, and William thought it was kept in the other world for long years, absorbing spirit power from there. But he was wrong. The boxes came originally while being filled with spirit power to the brim in the first ce!

    So the moment he started training, his blood written over the boxes started to shine. The next moment the box started to slowly glow, and spirit power began to gush out.

    It first came out like a thin running stream of water, then a flood appeared. The high level of spirit power was brutal enough to take away all the arrays heid before, expand, and fill the entire underground cave.

    Anjie was sitting cross-legged at the corner, training. At first, she felt like all of her skin pores got widened without warning as if her body was weing something magicaling in.

    She felt refreshed, and strangely gained lots of spirit power in a short time. But soon enough, she started to feel pain. And out of impulse, she hurriedly stopped her training, activated her spirit body, and was ready for battle.

    Yet when she looked around, she found nothing here. All she could see was a weird green hue, one that covered and filled the entire cave. At the same time, William was sitting on top of a weird big box, one that she hadn''t seen before.

    Before she''d think about anything, she felt like her body was getting pricked by needles. She felt instant panic, didn''t know what was going on here but knew for sure this was pretty dangerous.

    Her eyes fixed over that box, It wasn''t here before, and that meant it was the origin of such weird changes. Without hesitation, she activated her defensive techniques, and yet all they did was elerate the absorption of her body to the berserk spirit power around.

    "William, wake up!" she knew she had nothing in her power to do but to scream at William. Yet thetter couldn''t hear her. He was immersed in deep training, feeling awesome right now.

    "F*ck it!" she cursed, trying tounch a technique at William to wake him up but failed to evenplete the technique without screaming in pain.

    She felt like she wasn''t standing in the cave anymore but in the middle of a burning hotva pool or something. She moved her eyes around and tried to throw a weapon toward William, but her strength failed her again.

    "That way¡­" the only thing she thought about was to reach a safe ce first. Her eyes scanned the entire ce as her spirit sense got crushed under the pure form of spirit power here. And as she looked for a safe spot, she finally found one.

    "It''s time to climb then," the air all around was shimmering with that weird green glow, all except at the area just below the opening leading to the surface.

    She knew she had to climb high to be close to that safe spot. Under the inhuman pain, she started to climb up, slowly getting closer to that hole.

    During all this, William was still feeling great. The past experience dealing with the spirit power from the ck Phantom made his body able to withstand the berserk pure spirit power from that box.

    It took him roughly a few hours before he finally started to feel something was off. The refreshment feeling he felt vanished, and was reced with great pain, one that was weirdly simr to the time when he tried to absorb as much spirit power from the ck Phantom.

    "What''s going on here?" When he felt things were heading down a terrible path, he instantly stopped his training. Yet he never expected to witness the scene in front of him.

    The entire world around was now ushered under a heavy curtain of green colour, something that jolted his mind awake.

    "It''s¡­ This¡­ This is the outer world''s spirit power¡­" he shockingly muttered in disbelief, said it out loud, and didn''t notice Anjie who was now hanging by her nails and legs to the ceiling of this cave.

    "William! Hurry! Put that damn thing away!" her distressing shout jolted him awake, and made him turn to look for her.

    "Here, I''m up there!" She wanted to wave her hands, but if she did, she''d instantly drop down to the ground, and fall back into the embrace of that berserk power.

    "Damn! Wait for me,ing!" he instantly transformed into a fox, and looked at the box for a long moment, before dashing towards her direction.

    "Take it away! Why did you leave it there!" The moment he grabbed her, she shouted as if she didn''t believe what he did.

    "I can''t, Once taken and activated, it has to be left in ce or it''ll explode!" he shouted back, before moving fast towards the opening of the path leading to here.

    Without looking back, he carried her and moved all the way up to the surface. When the two entered the hole, they felt like they jumped from hell into the cold freezing water.

    It felt great! And for long minutes, the two kept hovering on top of the hole without feeling that!

    "What was that back there?" as William took her to the edge of the hole, inside the central building, she pointed towards the hole and asked in rushing breaths.

    "It''s¡­"

    "Don''t lie to me, I heard you mentioning spirit power from the outer world," she interrupted him, looking him directly in the eyes.

 Chapter 1070 You Are Crazy!

    <h4>Chapter 1070 You Are Crazy!</h4>

    William didn''t know what to say, except to change the subject:

    "I got this from the other world we went to, it seems its spirit power is quite concentrated and pure. This is great news! We cane here when reaching the pinnacle stage, and get endless benefits from training here."

    "This¡­" Speaking about this shifted her attention away from what she wanted to ask, "Are you sure it''s safe?"

    "Nothing in this world is safe, right?" he shrugged, "As long as I''m here, we can handle it."

    "What if¡­ It just came out¡­" She pointed towards the hole with both hands and didn''t know how to exin her thoughts.

    "I hope it won''t," William looked at the hole before adding, "This hole is the only thing stopping that spirit power from spreading. I''ve been there for hours, and so far it''s so good."

    "But it may leak out, and hurt lots of people right?" She interrupted him, and he couldn''t refute her words.

    "Then we''ll shut down this base, for now," he decided, "at least everyone is already away. And we have another base outside for those who want to return and live here."

    "Good decision," she nodded in agreement, before looking around, "What shall we do now?"

    "Now? We''ll train," he paused, looking again at the hole before adding, "Do you want to hear something crazy?"

    "No, don''t tell me any of that," she raised a hand in front of his face, as she realised what he wanted to say without the need to hear his words.

    "Come on, it''s bad indeed, but at least you''ll save months of training," he winked, and his words managed to tempt her to think about doing it.

    "But¡­"

    "I saw you, you can handle yourself pretty well at the hole opening down there¡­"

    "By hanging myself to the ceiling? Holding by my four? No, thanks, that was pretty humiliating, and don''t ever bring any of this to any girl, got it?" she recalled this point and felt how bad this would be if news spread over.

    "Don''t worry, let me get down there and do something for you," he didn''t wait for her to say anything, jumped directly into the hole, and vanished.

    "He¡­ Is indeed something else," she stood at the edge of the hole, muttering these words while looking at the emptiness of that hole.

    He didn''t take long and returned in just one hour. When he came back, she noticed how his gear and uniform were all stained with ck colour.

    Even his face turned ck, giving her a fright when she saw him at first. "What happened? Are you alright?"

    "It''s ok, just ash from the burnt ores," he paused, coughing a couple of times, before adding, "Let''s go, I prepared something nice for you down there."

    "Are you sure it''s safe?" She gave him a doubtful look, but he shrugged and casually said it was okay before holding her and jumping down into the hole.

    This time she screamed, as she expected the worst. And as she expected, the moment they arrived there, she felt great and intoxicating refreshment for a few seconds, before needles started pricking her skin again.

    "Hold tight, I''m going to jump," theynded just in the heart of this ce, and so they got surrounded with copious amounts of dark green fog.

    Yet he didn''t wait for more than a few seconds to stabilise himself, before jumping high. The ceiling wasn''t that far off of his reach right now, and with a single dash upward, he managed to get to a ce that had a metallic little cave there.

    "Impressive, you built this for me? So sweet!" She couldn''t help but feel touched by his efforts. This was like a small room, built with ores that could transport and store spirit power inside.

    As this room was built near the hole opening, the concentration of spirit power there was low enough for her to endure. It was safely connected to the rocky edges of the hole, and that made her able to sit freely and train without any problems.

    The room could handle William''s big spirit body''s weight, and that was enough testimony to how safe it was.

    "Stay here, I''ll go down there to train," he jumped off the circr opening of the room, "Once getting tired, wille and rest here."

    "Waiting for you," she ran to the edge, looking at the world down below as if she was looking at a dangerous pit of hell or something, "Please,e back safely," she muttered, before trying to see anything down below but couldn''t.

    The ce down there looked more like a green sandstorm just struck there, and was fiercely growing in strength and size. After a few minutes, she started to train, and he also did the same.

    The spirit power concentration grew exponentially during the past few hours, and he couldn''t handle being down there for more than one hour. Then he''d make a run to her room before he''d suffer from this spirit power massively.

    He found her training for hours, so didn''t try to interrupt her. Even if he came here to rest, this ce still had the pure spirit power. So he continued training for two hours there, before going down below to resume the hellish training.

    The higher concentrated spirit power down below was very beneficial to him. After doing this ten times, he couldst for ten minutes longer, and this made him quite excited.

    "I''m growing stronger, getting used to this power¡­" he knew this wasn''t just a growth in spirit power terms, but also a fundamental and revolutionary change that was affecting his body right now.

    He was going through a total body rebuild, one that would make his body suitable to sustain the outer world. As such benefits were on hand, he decided to bring all the team members and friends he''d selected to go out with him to the outer world, and let theme here and train.

 Chapter 1071 A Crazy Hypothesis!

    <h4>Chapter 1071 A Crazy Hypothesis!</h4>

    The chamber he built here was enough to amodate twenty up to thirty masters, sitting here, training and living for a long time without an issue.

    "I can build more chambers," he looked at the remaining big space around the hole opening, and envisioned this ce filled with chambers, looking like bubbles attached to the ceiling from down below.

    As he felt the greatness of this training, he kept doing it for the uing three days. At the same time, he made sure to check his spirit power daily.

    Every day, he''d gain around one hundred up to three hundred spirit powers. It wasn''t much indeed, butpared to the normal snail advancement speed of other training techniques and methods, this was by far quite shocking.

    Not to mention if he managed to elongate his time of stay down below, then this number would increase.

    He knew that Anjie didn''t have much improvement like him. Every day she''d take a break for a few hours, couldn''t handle the spirit power anymore, and asked him to take her out.

    During this, she''d examine her spirit power. "Twenty points increase by day? Damn! If Father learnt about this, he''d wage a war to get this ce off you, hahaha!"

    "Can''t believe he''d do this to his son ofw, hehehe."

    "Who said you are? Huh?" She raised her chin, and acted as if she never ced him in the eye. And that made himugh.

    "Says the girl who fought others to win a chance to be with me, hehehe," even if she was joking, he didn''t let her off the hook easily. And that made him gain a fist on his shoulder, one that made the two of themugh for a few minutester.

    "By the way, how many points did you gain down there?" As they ate and rested together, she suddenly asked with great curiosity.

    "Around a hundred points¡­"

    "Damn you! You are a monster!"

    "Come down there and train with me, that if you dare, hehehe!"

    "A big bully you are," she pouted her lips, puffed her cheeks, and acted as if she wasining about his mean and wrongdoings, "still impressive to have all of this increase in one day! It''s shocking that such an increase is enough to turn a white-grade master into the bronze realm!"

    "That''s in case they can handle the pressure for even one second down there, hahaha!" he shook his head, before standing up, "Let''s go, we have to resume training, then leave tomorrow."

    They had only one day left before the start of the expedition. And as they knew this, they persisted a bit longer down there, ending up sleeping for ten hours straight after pulling out an entire night.

    As the two woke up and went out, William didn''t forget to put a sign on the door, stating clearly that this ce was now closed and non-approachable by any.

    The moment he finished hanging the board on the door, and went outside of the city, he was shocked by how many masters were there waiting for him.

    "This¡­ It''s like the entire kingdom is here!!" Anjie was quite shocked, and William could see much further than hers.

    "It''s like the entire continent is here, Let''s go, your father is here already."

    "M¡­ My father?!" her face showed a bright smile of happiness and pride. She missed her father a ton, and hearing he was here made her even miss the point of him being in this ce.

    As she didn''t ask orment about it, William decided to keep his silence. He knew the king came to lead the entire crusade, something that gave William few ideas about the true aim of that old man.

    Seeing the lots of masters here made William feel more confident in their ability to win this. He had never seen such a gathering ever in his past crusades and wars against the dark masters and monsters.

    The moment the two appeared, everyone literally recognised William right on the spot. He was now a celebrity, an idol to many masters, and to most of the younger generations.

    So passing through the crowd was harder than they thought, taking them a few hours to get to the king''s secure ce. The moment they arrived there, and all the hype died down and everyone just shouted from far, didn''t dare to barge inside.

    "You do know how to make a scene," the moment he arrived at the king''s tent, he saw tons of people he recognised.

    All the city leaders were here, and all of Lara''s city leaders were as well. He also saw faces he met back at the capital and many of the strong masters he fought with in the past wars.

    To him, this wasn''t a king''s tent but was a ce that could be least described as a war council.

    "I just found myself surrounded by them out of the blue," William shrugged, shredding any me away.

    "Anyway, let''s get into business," the king motioned towards Sloth, and thetter took a table out, lots of scrolls, and arge map appeared there.

    "This is the map of the entire area we are going to fight at¡­"

    "Sorry to interrupt, but I guess you get everything wrong here," William interrupted Sloth''s words, making everyone look at him in doubt and confusion.

    "May you share why?" the king crossed his arms while sitting over his seat and feeling curious. He knew William must have a good point to interrupt like this, and indeed he had.

    "You all guessed we are going to fight in this part of space here, inside our world¡­ But that''s not true¡­" William turned to all, before adding a crazy point of view, "In my guess, a portal will open there, one that''ll take us to a ce filled with monsters and enemies."

    "This¡­"

    "Why do you say so?!!"

    Many were shocked by what he said, and others questioned his theory.

    "That''s because..."

 Chapter 1072 The Kingdomâ€™s Army

    <h4>Chapter 1072 The Kingdom''s Army</h4>

    William rolled his eyes, and turned to the ones who argued on his theory, "There isn''t a single monster or dark master around in that region, not any close by region. So howe that army will show up here then?"

    "They maye out from a portal¡­"

    "That won''t do," William interrupted Panther, "the vision you got showed we are going to open something and pass through it. You may have missed the sh appearing next after opening that gate, but we''ll end up in a new ce, not here at least. So we have to n ordingly, and be ready for such a possibility."

    His wordsnded as if a bomb exploded here. Everyone exchanged silent nces and didn''t say anything. They were all experienced masters, and they could tell he got a point there.

    "Let''s put such a crazy possibility into our consideration then," the king slowly said, turning to all as he added, "We have our ns for a battle in this area. So let''s n what we shall do if we go to new terrain¡­"

    "We have little time for that," Sloth sighed, "and we have no clue about that area we are jumping into¡­"

    He didn''t question William''s insane words like others. In fact, he felt he was telling the truth here. William always managed to spot things like these, without following any logic, and he ended up quite right every single time.

    Plus what he said made perfect sense. If the enemy was lurking here, why wasn''t there a single sign of them before? This area was considered the safest spot in the entire world for many years now, and there wasn''t a single sign of any monster intrusion or a hidden base of dark masters or something.

    "Then let''s go there and trust our army leaders," the king decided to listen to the hidden messages in Sloth''s words, "William, your guild didn''t send anyone, saying they won''t move until you give them the order. Do you want them here?"

    "No need," William knew this was by far the most dangerous move he was going to make against the enemies in this world. It was enough for the one thousand masters who decided to join him, and he didn''t want more to throw away their lives.

    Especially when the guild just came out from a severe war, one that they lost too many in. They needed them to close on themselves, train, and get stronger. More battles were ahead of them, and it wasn''t like he needed them here.

    "Quite protective and thoughtful master, good point indeed," the king saw through William''s line of thoughts, and appreciated them, "let''s go then. Who is going to be in the lead?"

    "Me!"

    "I''ll go too!"

    "Add me in the line," Three issued their willingness to go, Sloth, Panther, and William.

    The first two were quite expected to go. One was acting as the general leader of all armies here, which was Sloth. He wanted to go and check the new terrain first, get to know the odds awaiting them there, before adjusting their ns, or throwing them away and making new ones.

    As for Panther, he wanted to go there and check what his vision was going to cause to everyone.

    As for William, he wanted to be in the first lines to check everything. He knew this was going way beyond what other masters here experienced before. He wanted to be there to spot any differences and warn them against any hidden dangers or things new to them.

    After all, such a tactic wasn''t known in this world. In this world, dark masters always prepared huge armies and sent them toward their targets using portals and monster gates. But doing the opposite was the trend in the outer world.

    And that meant whatever was going on here, it had a strong connection with lots of tactics of the outer world.

    "Ok, the three of you can go," the king slowly nodded, stopping for a long minute over William, then over his daughter, "I''ll send my kingdom''s army in the first batch, Make sure to explore the enemy lines and ranks, that expected new terrain, got it?"

    "Yes, Your Majesty!" The three said it in unison before William left with the other two. And as everyone expected, Anjie tagged along.

    "Will we summon our newly recruited members?" she asked the moment they came out from the main tent of the king.

    "No, let them stay behind,eter on," he stressed on, "Things are going to be quite hectic at the beginning. Do you want toe?"

    "Anywhere you go, I''ll go," she insisted, and he didn''t say anything else except ask her to tag on his side all the time, never getting away from him.

    The four of them went out, and the older two took care of the orders and summoned the kingdom''s army.

    The army was quite massive, well organised, properly trained, and well-equipped. Seeing them made William want to do the same with his guild''s masters.

    He only had two teams with brand names and uniforms, and that was barely enough considering the huge number of master pools he had out there.

    "I have to ask them to take care of this," he muttered to himself while looking at the grand army of the kingdom''s masters marching all around him.

    "Pretty impressive, right?" Anjie was feeling happy about this, as she could tell William was touched by such a scene.

    "I will make my guild like that¡­"

    "Don''t tell me you are dreaming about building a kingdom now!" she rolled her eyes, and he simplyughed and said nothing.

    His aim wasn''t to do something like that, he just wanted to reach the outer world with as many strong potential masters as possible.

    They were ten hours'' march away from the ce where things were supposed to start. During the march, Sloth and Panther sent lots of scouts, trying to spot any potential enemies there, but there were none.

 Chapter 1073 The Grand-Scale Teleportation Portal!

    ?

    The more responses about not spotting anyone returned to them, the more they felt gloomy inside. They became surer now that William nailed the right scenario they were going to face, and that was the ugliest scenario any could think of.

    Starting a war at the home turf? In an area unknown to all? While the enemy had the home advantage? Pretty prepared for them? This was the worst thing any master would hope for.

    "We are here," Sloth stood at the edge of that area, which was a huge open space, without a single hill or rock anywhere around for tens of kilometres. The kingdom sent an army of one hundred thousand masters with them, filled with lots of strong masters. And they all stood around that area, covering an area of a few kilometres.

    "May you have the honour then," William turned to Panther, and thetter took a deep breath, before moving in front of the tens of thousands of masters, heading to the centre of the open space surrounded by the tons of masters.

    To open the gate, he only needed to drop his blood and allow his spirit power to activate what was left there for him. This was what he saw in his vision, what William also saw in the fate and destiny world as well.

    Panther didn''t actually want to do it, as he felt bad about what was yet toe. At thest moment, he felt great hesitation, turned around and looked at the faces of everyone here, then stopped at William.

    "Just do it, everything is going to be fine," William slowly said, in a low voice, but Panther could hear it all. He nodded, and turned to the empty ground, before dropping his blood over there.

    And then, magic happened!

    William expected a fierce earthquake or something, the same as everyone else. But all that happened was a myriad of shes of bright lights appeared, then expanded to the sky, covered the ground, and in a sh they all vanished.

    The next moment, they all found themselves standing in a grand space, one that was surrounded by mountains on the far horizon. They appeared in full numbers, and surprisingly as it might seem, William and others could spot the king''s tent at a far distance using their spirit sense.

    "Damn! This gate brought everyone here!!!" This was what everyone thought about, and that made William think about something else.

    "A grand-scale teleportation portal? What a nice touch that damn bastard did!" He recognised the type of portal that took everyone here, and that wasn''t the main issue now.

    "We came, but where is the enemy?" Many asked this while Sloth and Panther went to the king''s tent to see what they should do. They didn''t forget to send out scouting teams, including William and Anjie.

    William decided to scout the new area here first and didn''t see any point in going back to meet the king.

    "You were right," Anjie said while trying to catch up to William. He didn''t just run, but kept using his dash technique, heading straight towards the far away mountain region, "but why are you going ahead of everyone else?"

    She was puzzled by this. William felt like he wasn''t running to check things out, but running away for his life!

    "I want to see the entire situation myself," he got an idea about what this ce was, what the enemy prepared here, yet he wanted to be sure of this.

    The two kept running towards the faraway mountains for an hour! The area they crossed was very massive, looking much bigger than what it seemed from their initial spots.

    "Damn! Why did they have to make it this huge? Why not juste for us?" she was panting while leaning on her knees, looking around as they finally arrived near the mountains.

    It looked as if the two of them were standing in front of a huge rocky wall or something! There were narrow valleys between the mountains, looking like gaps or holes there, twisting right and left in a dangerous way.

    "This is their aim then," as William arrived here, he could see what was waiting for them beyond the mountains. He could see an endless number of monsters and dark masters, all on top of the mountains and beyond.

    "What? They are just standing there without moving! Are they nuts?"

    "No, you don''t get it," William slowly shook his head, adding in a heavy tone, "we came in, but where is the exit? It lies beyond all this. And to go there, we need to cross all of this¡­"

    The moment he said it, she got everything. And without feeling it, she gasped in horror and fear.

    "This¡­ this is pretty damn bad!" She got what the enemies nned for them. They had to cross these mountains, either by climbing or passing through the narrow and dangerous paths in between. Either way, they were going to screw it big this time!

    "Tell me you have a n!" she turned to William, knowing that if there was hope, any hope, then it''de from him, not anyone else.

    "Just spread the word behind," William slowly said, "let the army of masters stay there, note here. And I want all the masters who can forge to be gathered at one spot, in the heart of everyone¡­" he paused before seriously adding, "I want all the ores any master here had to be gathered and delivered to the artisans. If they want to fight us using this circle of death trap, then I''ll show them the might of human grand war weapons in front of this!"

    She literally got nothing of what he nned to do, and yet she felt he knew what he was doing, knew this trap, and had the right method to crack through all this. And she was right.

    "What about you?" she turned to him, and he evilly smirked.

 Chapter 1074 Making Weapons!

    ?

    "Let me stay here for a while, I have to do a few things," he paused, looking around before adding, "I''ll give you a few blueprints, deliver them to the artisans, and let them work on the essential pieces. If they meet anything they can''t make, leave these for me to do."

    "This¡­" she blinked while her mind realised something, "do you n to stay here for a long time?"

    "One few days," he didn''t look at her while examining the mountains, "make sure they built as many parts as they can. Our survival odds depend on these¡­"

    "Ok," she got the blueprints he gave her, turned around before pausing for a second, "take care of yourself, will you?"

    "Don''t worry, we aren''t in any danger," he paused here while muttering to himself, "at least for now¡­"

    Thinking that the enemy would leave them alone and trapped here without harassing them was delusional. The enemy would give them little time before they''d start sending lots of monsters here to wear them down.

    They had no choice but to try to prate through the mountainous walls around them. Without breaking through, nothing would work.

    William gave herplicated blueprints, ones that he never shared with anyone before, not even his guild. These were quite advanced, having lots ofplicated and sophisticated mechanisms, ones that would require more than Artisans to do it.

    He knew they could forge around eighty percent of the entire structure, but the remaining twenty percent was all that mattered. Without these, these weapons wouldn''t show their prowess at all.

    As for himself, he decided to focus on doing something else. During the past events, he lost Charley and had the other three monstrous weapons of his suffering lots of damage.

    His spirit power increased exponentially. He could now control around ten of these scary monsters.

    "It''s good that I gathered tons of materials from Lara''s city beforeing here," he decided to go all out, and make seven more monstrous weapons this time. Not to mention he nned to make many more flying weapons.

    By his current level of power, he could control thousands of these weapons. He nned to prepare better for this, making everything he could before starting to move.

    As the masters inside listened to his orders, the king and other big masters began to discuss what to do. The scout reports came to confirm what Anjie ryed on William''s behalf. They were entrapped, totally surrounded from all directions by huge walls of mountains, filled to the brim with monsters and dark masters.

    They couldn''t tell how strong they really were, but in such a huge gathering of the enemy, it was expected to find lots of strong enemies out there.

    Their main puzzlement didn''te from the enemies nor from their preparations, but from their ally and friend; William.

    "Did you get any ideas from the blueprints my daughter brought?" The king was in his tent, while the big names of his kingdom''s masters, including many city leaders and formidable reclusive masters, were standing around.

    The king was standing as well, in front of a small rounded table, where William''s original blueprints were scattered.

    "Ahem, we have ideas and such¡­"

    "Ideas?" the king turned to Sloth, feeling like he was speaking with young masters, not the formidable and most capable ones of his kingdom.

    "These are¡­ Pretty advanced andplicated, my liege," another master cleared his throat, knowing how awkward this might seem, but he got to answer the king and exin things over to him, "we can understand almost eighty percent of them, but the other twenty¡­ It''s like someone mixed magic with forging, something that doesn''t exist in the first ce."

    "Interesting¡­" the king looked again at these scrolls, feeling more admiration towards the one who made them, "make sure to get a few copies and keep these for our next generations to learn from. As for now, keep a close eye on him when hees back, record every single move or word of his, got it?"

    "Yes, Your Majesty," all of them bowed, knowing that the king was doing this for the kingdom''s sake.

    As for every one of them, they all felt the itch to learn about the value and hidden techniques behind making these weird things. Even after reading everything, they couldn''t get a single idea about what was the final weapon William was trying to make here.

    If not for Anjie stating clearly about this, saying that William mentioned big human weapons, they''d even not guessed about the end result of all these scrolls and blueprints.

    As everyone went on to work over these things, doing exactly as William said, few also went ahead to keep a close eye on him.

    The king wanted to know why he locked himself away and wanted to be alone. At the same time, he also sent many scouts everywhere around, while giving orders for various capable masters to start putting different ns for offence and defence.

    Everyone knew how bad their current situation was. As William guessed, they all knew their top problemy in how to get out of there. They came from a portal, and there wasn''t any way out from around here.

    Panther tried to use his blood to open the portal again, dropping his blood over the same spot he appeared first at. But nothing happened. And that meant there was a portal somewhere, leading out from this world.

    Few suspected this being a pocket world, and others suspected this to be in the second continent. But no one had a clue about where they were, even William didn''t know, and didn''t care.

    He was now busy forging the monstrous weapons of his. Putting in mind the uing severe war, and other wars that seemed to be as intensive and deadly as this, he decided to make the strongest weapons he could forge at this stage and world.

    "I''ll take inspiration from him¡­" The first idea that popped into his mind was to mimic the ck Phantom.

 Chapter 1075 You Stirred The Hornet Nest!

    ?

    The ck Phantom was, by far, the strongest being he met aside from that nine-tailed fox. If not for his deeply rooted hatred, he''d have preferred to build up clones of that fox.

    He started to work on the models, making seven identical-looking monstrous weapons from the surface. He made them huge, with lots of shields and armours surrounding their bodies. They looked like humans, but without eyes, and with huge bodies and wings.

    "I can''t let them fly by my current level of power, but I can let them do something else with these wings¡­" he knew these wings could be used as weapons, and made sure to add flying feathers on the wings, ones that could be controlled by these monstrous weapons.

    He didn''t forget to add a huge storage space where he ced tons of elixir bottles there for their use. And then he started to take care of the weapons inside every one of these.

    And that was where the main differences began to show up. He didn''t make them identical in their internal weapons, making sure that every one of these seven would be efficient in using one spirit element on top of others.

    This would make them a bit weak from the first nce, but that wasn''t true. He nned them to be like his single-tail form, using one element and magnifying its abilities to the maximum of his power. Like this, every one of these would act as a deadly single-element weapon, and together they''d be far stronger than the real him.

    He used all the outer world materials in the forging, limiting the use of this world''s materials as low as possible. And even when using these, he made sure to select only the high calibre materials, not just anything normal.

    As for the gears, he made sure to use all the extra dark gold weapons and gears he had. He didn''t have time to forge anything new, and he nned to run an upgrade round to all of his gears and weapons once he got done from here.

    He was now at the high stage level of power, one of the strongest masters in the entire world. His forging abilities were way, way different from what they were before, at leastpared to the time of the academy or when he first established his guild.

    As he didn''t need to forge anything extra, he took five days before finalising what he was doing. In the eyes of the masters watching him, they saw him building something humanoid, giant, and looking brutal.

    "Is he building weapons as well?" The king heard the news live all the time using spirit telepathy. And that made him turn to Sloth and his daughter, "Do you recognise what he is making?"

    "I think he is making one of these insanely strong monsters of his," Anjie recognised what William was making from the words of her father right on the spot, "he used to have four of them but lost one at thest war at that fort. They are quite strong and terrifying in any war."

    "I saw them before, my liege, and they are very handy in fighting."

    "This kid¡­ He has tons of new tricks, that''s amusing," the king muttered to himself, while a grin appeared on his face as if he was amused by all this.

    "What shall we do now?" Sloth cautiously asked, "Will we send master''s out to try these enemies?"

    "We have," the king shrugged, "they are going to die, and we have nothing in our power to change that. Make sure to let them volunteer, don''t force anyone."

    "Ok," Sloth didn''t have any high hopes for this n, and yet he slowly nodded, before leaving.

    "But dad, Willy said to wait¡­"

    "He is Willy now?" Her father gave her a serious look before smiling, "Listen my beloved daughter, we need to scout the areas around, test those enemies, and see what''s lying in wait for us. Doing so is inevitable, and I''m sure Willy knows that already, guessed it happening."

    "..."

    She got her cheeks a bit rosy from her father''s words that carried lots of hints within them.

    As the king said, William already guessed they were going to make such a move. And yet, he hoped they would take much longer before doing it.

    "They are on the move," he was just about to finish assembling and finalising his fifth weapon when he noticed therge number of masters going towards an area nearby, "they held themselves back for six days¡­ Not bad!"

    He looked at the remaining two and decided to continue making them, "Hey, I know you can hear me, whoever you are," and as he was trying to elerate in his assembly, he suddenly shouted, "Tell your king that what he did is a mistake. He isn''t going to scout or get any useful knowledge, and the enemy wille at us next after crushing those. It''s like stirring the ho nest, so he is better prepared for what''sing."

    William''s words were surprising, making everyone watching him a bit startled before they ryed these word by word to the king.

    The moment the king listened to the first part, heughed. He already guessed that William would see through his intentions, and would know about the presence of people watching him.

    And yet when he heard theter words, he couldn''t help but stand slowly up. "Damn! If you already know this, why didn''t you say it directly to Anjie?!!" the king was feeling puzzled in his tent before another voice of one of his followers watching William came into his mind again.

    [My liege, he is saying that if you are wondering why he didn''t warn you about this, then the answer is simple. The enemy wille, sooner orter, so it''s futile to try to not do it in the first ce, as it won''t differ that much]

    "This kid¡­"

    The king wanted nothing more but to punch him right now, "at least we''d have more time to prepare¡­"

 Chapter 1076 The Monster Flood

    <h4>Chapter 1076 The Monster Flood</h4>

    [My liege, William says there is no time to think about useless things, let the masters around to get ready for defensive battle]

    "This brat!" The king fumed in rage for one second, as he didn''t like the fact that someone else was able to read his mind and thoughts. Then in the next second, he couldn''t help himself fromughing, "My daughter has keen eyes indeed, just like her mother, hahahaha!"

    The king wasn''t insulted or irritated by what William said at all. Heughed, before turning to spread his orders to his trusted followers.

    The next few hours were quite hectic everywhere. The batches sent out to scout the enemy faced deadly encounters, all ended up killed!

    They didn''t take one path but threaded through the narrow and twisted paths in between the mountains. At the same time, they also climbed the mountains, trying to surprise the enemy and test their defences against such tactics.

    But everything they did failed! The enemy was well prepared indeed, and they attacked the kingdom''s masters from all directions. Rocks fell, and lots of arrows, alongside monsters climbing down the mountains and descending on the heads of masters everywhere. Things were quite crazy, and the deepest point masters managed to reach in the valleys was less than two kilometres!

    It was insane! And the news delivered back to the king and other formidable masters carried tons of bad things. The monsters weren''t just numerous, and strong, but also got quite the collection there.

    They got monsters that could climb mountains like walking on the ground, monsters that could pass through rocks, others that appeared from the ground, and even monsters that could move fast, jump agilely from high points andnd without suffering any damage.

    The mainstream monsters they faced were at gold grade, but that wasn''t good news. These were considered the useless fodders in the monsters'' army, and that meant there were tons of much stronger monsters lying way behind them.

    What was depressing though was the fact that the scouts didn''t bring back much intel to make the best use of. They didn''t have time to fight back the enemies in such tough terrain, didn''t have time even to ry back the news in time.

    As things ended up this way, the masters decided to go themselves to the frontline, and inspect the masters'' fights using their spirit sense. Yet midway there, they noticed something disturbing.

    "Monsters¡­ Floods of monsters areing!" the shouts spread all over the entire army of masters. Right now, the morale was pretty low, for them being in a ce they didn''t know, for them to be surrounded like this, and for the bad news that spread just now about the grave losses in the entire scout master units that just got deployed.

    And when they weren''t able to figure out what was going on, news about iing monsters appeared. They all got frightened, looked around, and looked for anyone to give them hope, for any beacon of light that would shove away all the gloomy darkness swelled up in their spirits.

    Yet all they could see were scared faces like theirs. They didn''t know what to do, they had no way to run and had no defences to fortify themselves at.

    William asked the leaders of the army to gather Artisans and make weird stuff that no one ever knew what their uses were. They didn''t get any orders to build forts, walls, even trenches or traps around!

    And when they all felt like this, the leaders came to arrange their lines, preparing for the iing harsh battle.

    "We are going to die!" this was the general belief that everyone had in their minds, got it deep down in their spirits. Even many army leaders knew this, as the scene in front of their eyes was quite shocking and scary.

    The entire world that was previously vacant was now filled with endless monsters, all running towards them. They could see lots of weird-shaped monsters, monsters they couldn''t get a head or tail about.

    They felt like they never fought monsters before in their entire lives. And those who were either citizens of the Scorching Lands or Lara''s cities felt like the world greatly changed after they stopped fighting monsters.

    Just when everyone was feeling like this, something suddenly shed from afar. At first, it was just one, but soon they noticed there were eleven beings, moving in a fast way, passing through the forest of monsters around, without getting stopped by anything.

    They released deadly explosive attacks, attracting everyone''s attention from both enemies and allies sides. "It''s William!" The moment the explosions fell, the formidable spirit masters released their spirit senses towards his direction, spotting him alongside ten other monstrous weapons.

    The eleven of them were moving like a single unit, attacking and killing tons of monsters without a single moment of pause or rest. "Listen up," as he knew he attracted their attention, he instantly shouted, "Move out of the army, lead others by example, attack and kill monsters without looking back, as if you have nothing to lose!"

    The moment the monsters came, and he wrapped up everything he was doing. In the past few hours, he managed to finish one more monstrous weapon fully, and thest two he had to work fast on, without adding many weapons or grenades there.

    Yet they were enough to deal with these monsters. William knew these monsters weren''t simr to anything present in his world, so it was expected for everyone to feel doubt and worry, even fear.

    At such times, the responsibility of supporting everyoney on the shoulders of the formidable masters. They had enough strength to crush any monster no matter what had the ability to kill all monsters they''d face here, and make others behind feel hope again.

    As for these monsters, they were indeed different, but not that much. They had weird outer shells, like sea shells or something, protecting them from much damage.

 Chapter 1077 Shocking And Scaring Everyone

    <h4>Chapter 1077 Shocking And Scaring Everyone</h4>

    William also noticed their ability to heal from wounds, even high-grade ones could regenerate any severed limbs in mere minutes.

    But that didn''t mean they were indestructible! Using brute force was enough to kill them. As for the weaker masters, they could coborate together, and work in teams, to take down these monsters.

    William kept fighting for half an hour, while the formidable masters decided to throw themselves in the middle of the iing monster tide and see things through by force. As they started to fight, they noticed what William noted before, and they knew these monsters weren''t that scary after all.

    "Advance! Work in teams to take these down! Don''t fight them solo, they got strong shields to protect them from most damage," the moment the leaders and top masters realised the ins and outs of these monsters, they instantly ryed the news back to the army waiting behind.

    And then it was expected what happened next. The masters turned one hundred and eighty degrees, from being pressured all the way to venting this pressure and fear over the monsters.

    "We can kill them!"

    "They aren''t that strong!"

    "Let''s kill them together!"

    "We can do it!"

    Soon enough, masters realised how easy it was to kill these monsters provided that no one faced them alone. As they got this point fixed in their minds, they started to crush the monsters like crushing weed.

    Even if monsters had an absolute advantage in terms of numbers and constant and seemingly endless reinforcements, things didn''t end that badly for the masters.

    William kept himself fighting at the frontlines, even distancing himself away from all others. He kept fighting and testing his new monstrous weapons, seeing their limits and potentials, assessing their strength and destructive powers.

    "They are okay," he didn''t find them surprisingly strong or deadly. Every single one of them was a bit stronger than him, considering they were using just a single element there. Bybining them together in abo or something, their overall strength would skyrocket to be equal to any pinnacle stage master.

    "Like this, I''m not that powerless against those scary folks," he evilly grinned, looked at the direction all these monsters wereing from, andughed, "Let''s do a little demonstration of the terror you are going to suffer on my hands, let''s go boys, let''s make a great show for our beloved audience!"

    He didn''t remain in his ce for even one more second. He simply controlled his ten monstrous weapons and moved them all the way towards the mountainous walls.

    "What is he trying to do?" his actions went unmissed by all the strong masters on the battleground. Yet they didn''t get what he wanted to do. When William moved in an unstoppable way towards the distant walls, they didn''t think of following him.

    "Nah, he''ll be fine," they all said to themselves, while other masters noticed what William was doing, and waited for some sort of miracle to happen.

    And a miracle was what they got, in addition to the expected surprise and shock as well.

    The moment William came closer from the mountains, he started releasing the true might of his monstrous weapons. All this time, he was just using them in what he called: Low Fighting Mode. they didn''t use anything shy and didn''t burn much of their power to kill monsters as their enemies didn''t need such power to begin with.

    But now, he intended to give those bastards standing behind the mountains the shock of their lives.

    "First, let the ground tremble!" The first monstrous weapon he released was an earth element one. It released a mighty technique, one that could change thendscape of an entire area, tten a mountain even. But as these mountains were lying one after another, it was impossible to bring one down using just this technique.

    "Then let the fire spread," William didn''t stop his actions, let the second monstrous weapon release a breath of fire, one that expanded and erged to engulf tons of monsters, and two mountains even.

    "Let wind blows!" he released his third monstrous weapon and made it bring down a hurricane over that region. The moment the hurricane appeared, things started to heat up.

    "Let right prevail!" he released another monstrous weapon, making it use a deadly light-based technique that looked as if it released a nuclear bomb of bright white light or something.

    "Let the storm rage on!" He instantly added the lightning-based monstrous weapon to the mix, adding lightning on top of all these. Then it came down to thest two which he didn''t fully build perfectly.

    "Release water, release gravity!" He let them release two strong techniques while knowing their might wouldn''t be on par with others. But it wasn''t that big of a deal. After all, they weren''t going to be the heart of all this.

    "You, go and release all the darkness you have," William turned to one of the original three he had before. He didn''t have time to fully develop and upgrade them, but they weren''t weak.

    "And for you two, release my Holy Sword technique in session, never stop until I say so or your power runs dry!" William shouted while joining these two in doing so.

    The three of them kept releasing their techniques while others kept their techniques ongoing. From afar, it looked as if a gigantic storm enveloped that region, deciding to bring doomsday there.

    They could hear loud banging noises of explosions, thunderps, and even shattering rocks as if a volcano was going to erupt there. Watching all this from afar made even the masters on his side experience cold shivers and goosebumps!

    "He¡­ He grew stronger again! Damn fast! Damn, heavens!" Those who knew him, especially Sloth, felt tremendous shock by such an amount of power.

    This was just like eleven pinnacle stage masters putting all their strength together, pouring in everything they mustered, and developing a grand technique that was built over their own fighting techniques.

 Chapter 1078 Itâ€™s The Black Phantom!

    <h4>Chapter 1078 It''s The ck Phantom!</h4>

    It was hard to aplish such a feat, pretty impossible in the eyes of the experienced masters. It wasn''t just the issue of knowing each other''s techniques, nor the problem of developing a grand technique out of theirs, but it was the problem of them synchronising their powers at the same tune, pouring out the same level of power at the same time, without messing it up.

    It was pretty impossible, but to William it was nothing. He was the one in control of all this, and he knew how to control everything perfectly fine.

    Not to mention everything was rted to him, and that meant he was fighting like he was fighting with his clones or something.

    The explosions thatnded out there made everyone focus more on that area, even monsters stoppeding, stopped running towards them, and focused on such terrifying force.

    It was expected they felt a weird fear down their spirits, one that would emerge when an ant met a god. "Don''t ck! Move, hit them hard! Use the chance to kill more!"

    The moment the stronger masters noticed the weird state of the monsters, they didn''t show a single speck of mercy or tolerance. This time, it was a flood of masters that overran the monsters, killing tons in mere minutes!

    This felt great! But what was truly great was what William did next.

    "Move!" He didn''t know what was going on in the area he was attacking. He was bombarding an area of two mountains in width, around dozens in width. But he wasn''t satisfied with that, "move to the left, all together, don''t stop your techniques!" he shouted and controlled his monstrous weapons to move ording to his will.

    He didn''t actually need to shout, but it was a habit of leading others for a long time. As he moved with them to the side, the devastatingbo he and other monstrous weapons created expanded, looking as if the scary storm was engulfing more mountains.

    He didn''t just want to create a path out from here, but he wanted to leave a shockingly deep impact in the spirits of everyone watching this from the side of the enemies.

    If they dared to stand against him, they''d die! This was the message he wanted to send to them in the simplest and clearest way possible.

    Seeing this from far away made the formidable masters inwardly curse. "Thisd, he is insane, hahaha!" They allughed at what he was doing, feeling more itchy to do the same.

    But they knew such abo was only feasible to someone abnormal and out of the way of nature like him. All they could do now was to exert more power in killing more monsters, to not look worse in the eyes of everyone present herepared to him.

    They all fought with their strongest techniques and didn''t care about anything else. They started to gulp elixir bottles as if they were nothing.

    In the next twenty minutes, the masters managed to cross almost half of the distance of the entire zone they were entrapped in. No one ever realised this, and when they''d do itter on, they''d question themselves for that!

    They crossed the distance they''d cross by running for an hour or so in just twenty minutes! And they did that while killing monsters all the time!

    This was the magic effect of high morale, of having someone holding the zing torch at the forefront of everyone, the presence of someone like William to them.

    William knew he couldn''t keep doing this for a long time. He estimated it tost for an hour, but in just thirty minutes, he could tell his ten monstrous weapons were struggling to keep up.

    This was mainly thanks to his crazy expansion move. He ended up pushing the area of his grand technique to cover up an area of thirty mountains in width, which was quite something.

    "Enough," as they reached their limit, William started to take rounds, replenishing their storage of elixirs, "Let''s keep doing this for another round, then stop."

    As he stopped, he turned around and took all the newly forgotten flying weapons out. He couldn''t forge more than five hundred of them, but they were enough to protect him and other monstrous weapons by his side for hours!

    These newly forged flying weapons joined his two hundred old ones and started to rotate fiercely all over the ce. He released them over monsters around, expanding the area of damage to his weapons.

    "They aren''t retaliating¡­" yet the first thing he noticed was for these monsters to not fight back, and didn''t even try toe at him when he stopped. He spread his spirit sense around and found this was the case for almost everywhere on the battlefield.

    "They are terrified of my technique? Is it that great?" William felt the itch to stop the technique right now and examine it. But he got a better idea against doing this, "it''s better to give them a chance to crush all monsters. Like this, we''ll hit two birds with one stone, or is it three?"

    Heughed while keeping his monstrous weapons working on their techniques. Things started to head smoothly to their favour, and masters kept crushing monsters all over the ce.

    As he expected, this grand technique of his left the dark masters watching this scene quite scared. They thought they were going to crush the entrapped masters here like squashing a fly or an ant.

    But things turned out totally the opposite. The technique William used was quite fierce, enough to drive anyone scared shitless, wanting to make a run for his money, and life.

    And that was just the fear they felt deep down in their spirits. William didn''t notice it right now, butter on, he would. This wasn''t only thanks to his grand technique, but was mainly thanks to something extra he had; the ck Phantom mark.

    It wasn''t actually a mark!

 Chapter 1079 The Terrifying Ball Of Light!

    <h4>Chapter 1079 The Terrifying Ball Of Light!</h4>

    The first time the ck Phantom left a mark, he did it with a mere speck of his power. So it was expected to be a mere mark. But the second time, he did it with his real body. And that wasn''t just a mark.

    When the ck Phantom saw the grand prize William prepared for him, just in short time after meeting him for the first time, he decided to grant him a speck of his power.

    It wasn''t as if William was alien to such power, after all the Devour ability he had originally came from the ck Phantom. So William never noticed the difference, never noticed that something was off in his and his monstrous weapons'' techniques.

    The techniques all had the vibe of the ck Phantom spirit, the scary spirit that was enough to scare any other spirit or life form by mentioning his name. So such a response from everyone, be it allies or enemies, was quite expected.

    He persisted for half an hour, during which the masters pushed the line further. They crossed almost eighty percent of the entire space here, onlycking thest twenty percent and they''d reach the walls.

    "Time to put a final showdown on this show," William looked at his exhausted monstrous weapons, and without any hesitation, he called them all back.

    Then he turned around, didn''t even take a single look behind, and ran like he never did before! He pushed his dashing technique beyond the limits, crossing five kilometres with each jump, getting so fast away from here.

    The moment he stopped pouring any more spirit power into the techniques, they started to swell up, and expand, showing signs of getting out of control.

    Then a terrifying explosion erupted, one that had never been witnessed before by anyone standing there. They first saw a bright sh of light, then everything turned white in front of them.

    They heard a scary rumble, one that made their spirit shake. They felt like they were going to die, everyone was going to die, literally everyone and everything.

    The explosion was quite overbearing, but the part that affected everyone''s spirit was rted to the ck Phantom''s seed. William kept moving as far away as possible, yet the explosion still caught up to him.

    "Don''t tell me I''ll fall to my own technique¡­" he muttered to himself while watching that scary and rapidly growing outward ball of light that chased after him.

    In mere seconds, he was engulfed inside. But weirdly, he felt nothing at all! Instead, he felt something amazing!

    "This¡­ Why do I feel like I can suck dry everything in that explosion and add it to my spirit power?!!!" This was something that stemmed from his spirit, like a hunger or thirst. He didn''t know why, but the moment he ended up inside that ball of light, he instantly sat down cross-legged, and started training!

    The training was the fastest way to absorb spirit power, yet he didn''t realise he never needed that. Such a feeling came from the bottom of his spirit, from that seed left by the ck Phantom.

    As he sat there, something unbelievable happened. Everyone was watching such a scary ball of light expanding and getting close to them pretty damn fast.

    "We need to run!"

    "Run where?"

    "There is no ce to run to!"

    Everyone knew it''d be over the moment they''d get into this. Yet when they expected the worst, a miracle happened.

    The ball of light suddenly decreased its expansion speed, ending up stopping, and began even to retract on its own!

    "Something is calling it back¡­" This was apparent to all, but none could see through this ball of light. Everyone stood in their ce, prepared for anything bad that might happen.

    After all, before any deadly explosion, such a move would happen. The retraction of that ball of light didn''t mean good in most scenarios, yet that was only known to the experienced masters.

    The normal ones felt like they were saved! Seeing the cheerful faces around, those formidable masters felt terrible, but decided to not ruin this moment and tell them the bitter truth.

    Yet the truth they expected never showed up! The ball of light kept retracting without a single moment of pause, without showing a single sign of going berserk. The moment that happened, they noticed something else.

    "It''s not getting back to the same spot it started off from!!!" They could see that after a few minutes passed. The ball of light seemed to retract to another core point, somewhere tens of kilometres away from the ce it started from.

    It was crazy, but the moment the ball of light retracted from the mountainous wall, showing the scary devastation left over by it, they all knew this was true.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ It''s him!" Sloth and Panther were the first two to jump to such a crazy conclusion. Sloth already ced William in the spot of those miracle doers, the ones who wouldn''t get evaluated under normal standards or known logic. As for Panther, he simply used his time foresight ability, seeing William emerging out from the middle of the ball of light, unharmed, unscathed, with even the aura of a fierce predator.

    This vision truly happened in the next hour. During this, the masters stood watching for a few minutes, before their leaders spread out the word: Keep fighting!

    They felt like the ball of light would take more than a few minutes to fully recede and vanish. The moment it passed the mountainous wall, they knew it wasn''t going to detonate or something.

    So they guided their masters, aimed their techniques and weapons towards monsters, and started a killing spree.

    Monsters weren''t feeling any better than humans did, but theycked enough intelligence or spirit sense to detect things like humans did. They stood in their ce, not moving a muscle, fearing with trepidation hearts, fearing that intangible sense of death that overwhelmed them.

    It was expected how smooth killing the remaining monsters was.

 Chapter 1080 A Golden Chance

    <h4>Chapter 1080 A Golden Chance</h4>

    In the end, the task didn''t take half an hour, before they all stopped, and turned to look at the ball of light.

    It was now much smaller than before, yet it still looked huge. "I hope you are going to be fine," Anjie tried to look for William everywhere, tried to reach out to him using Message Papers, but to no avail.

    Her heart told her William was in the centre of this ball of light, was actually the one dragging it inside, the one handling it. She didn''t know if he was going to end up okay or not, but she clung to hope with desperate prayers.

    "We need to keep an eye over monsters¡­" the King was watching everything from his tent, and noticed that everyone was focused on that ball of light. He guessed what many now reached about William''s role in all this. And yet he was thinking about the fate of everyone here.

    So he spread orders, sending scouts to watch all the valleys, and even go into there and try to see what was going on on the monster side.

    Monsters stoppeding here the moment William unleashed his scary technique. The king was shocked as well, shaken from deep within, like other masters, dark masters, and monsters.

    He never expected that the causal order he issued out of his caution and fear for the worse would work best in their favour. News soon came back, the monsters were standing like petrified giant statues, and there wasn''t a single enemy attacking anyone passing through the valleys.

    "A chance! A golden chance to break through!" The king''s eyes shone fiercely with the desire to fight, "Spread the news, let the vanguard armies go and take a bite at these monsters. Don''t stop, just push forward, and try to clean paths for the army to pass through."

    The king wasn''t the only one excited about such news, everyone else was. The moment the news spread, everyone shouted in triumph. What was stopping them from getting out and crushing the enemies? It was this stupid massive wall of dead rocks!

    By passing this, they''d end up killing the enemies like usual, or that was what they thought.

    They all turned towards the ball of light and thanked William from the depths of their hearts and spirits. They prayed for his safe return from all this, and then the leaders started to send out arge number of masters, acting as vanguards.

    Seeing all these masters running towards the mountainous walls made everyone think back about the bad encounters the scout units suffered before. But the moment they heard the loud shouts of victorying from there, with humans shouting and monsters moaning in pain, roaring weakly as they fell to the ground, they all knew this was going to end a bit differently than before.

    Masters who went deep into the valleys couldn''t believe themselves. Tons of monsters stood there, motionless, waiting for ughter, without even fighting back!

    The most they did was roar when falling down, and even if any touched another monster while falling, it wasn''t enough to jolt any awake.

    At the same time, they never got attacked from above like before. That made the leaders get more daring, and start to issue orders for earth-based masters to lead the way, and pave a path towards the tops of these mountains.

    Just before William would emerge from the ball of light, tens of grand paths were formed, leading from the ground, all the way to the top. Masters were already running towards the peaks, where they found tons of dark masters, standing like statues, in the same condition the monsters suffered.

    "This is¡­ Amazing!" The king couldn''t prevent himself fromughing, "The hero of this war is indeed thatd, my daughter indeed has keen eyes like her mother, hahaha!"

    "What just happened?!!" The ball of light kept shrinking down until it stopped to be just a few metres around William. He slowly stood up, and walked step by step outside of it, feeling immense power running through his body, feeling greatly refreshed.

    He was feeling puzzled by this. He thought he''d be able to absorb spirit power enough to make him replenish what he lost to release this attack. But what he gained was way, way much bigger than that.

    He gained over one thousand points in these mere hours. He didn''t know this, but his attack was powered by the ck Phantom''s pure and higher grade Devour ability than his. As the attack rampaged through everything around, it also devoured everything, salvaging spirit power even from the air itself!

    The spirit power he absorbed came from thousands of monsters, tens of thousands of them even. And as the Devour ability was way higher in grade, it purified and concentrated this spirit power, making it increase his own despiteing from much weaker monsters than what he should absorb at this moment.

    That weird feeling of being powerful after releasing such a brutal attack, without even consuming any elixir or anything, was quite new for him. William was about to check on his body when he noticed the weird happenings all over the ce.

    "This¡­" he couldn''t help but spread out his spirit sense all around. The first thing he noticed was that his spirit sense covered a huge area ofnd, much bigger than what it had covered before.

    "I grew stronger¡­" This was indeed the case here, without any speck of doubt or hesitation. William focused on what was going on around him and was shocked to see such grand changes.

    The monsters were killed, the paths were breached, and there were tens of grand rocky paths leading all the way to the peaks of mountains. This was by any means a ground-changing shift in the course of this war, something that he couldn''t believe it would happen in a mere one hour!

    "Did I take longer or what?!!" he was immersed in his puzzlement, didn''t get what truly happened here.

 Chapter 1081 The Materialisation Formation

    <h4>Chapter 1081 The Materialisation Formation</h4>

    As he was feeling so, he spotted Anjie, running like mad, towards him.

    "You do know how to make your girl scream and worry about you! You are mean!" she shouted in his face and punched his chest before her tears ran through her eyes. The next thing she did was to jump over him, giving him a bear hug like they hadn''t seen each other for an entire decade or something.

    "Easy there, I''m alright," after hugging and softly kissing his cheeks in the middle of all this, she distanced herself and started to inspect him thoroughly, looking for any hidden wound or injury.

    "But¡­ You got engulfed in that scary ball of light¡­"

    "Don''t ask, even I don''t get what happened back there," he raised a hand to silence her, before turning his eyes around, "what the heck happened here? Did I miss something? Or did I take days toe out from that ball?"

    "Hahaha, you just did all this without even realising it, hahaha!" Sheughed at what he said, thinking he was ying or fooling around with her. But when she saw his dead serious face, she stoppedughing and added, "Listen, this happened¡­"

    She started to tell him everything, starting from the weird fear feeling she and others felt, to the weird petrification status of the enemies. Be it monsters or dark masters, all were standing motionless in their ce as if they got a freeze spell or something.

    "Interesting¡­ I wonder what invoked all this¡­" he knew all this happened because of his grand technique, and yet he didn''t have a clue about the root of all this. He didn''t have time to dig deeper or look for the main reason behind this, looked at the faraway fights as he added, "What''s the situation out there?"

    "So far all great," she chuckled, "we are killing everything we meet. Soon we''ll control many paths and peaks, and we won''t need that huge hole you created¡­"

    *Rumble!*

    Just before she''d continue her words, a fierce rumbling noise came from many directions all at once.

    "Damn! You jinxed us!" he looked at her in a ming way, and she put an innocent face there.

    "It''s not me, I didn''t do anything¡­ Anjie is a good girl, right?" She even put two fingers opposite to each other, acting so cool in front of him. But this wasn''t the time to fool around.

    She took this as normal fighting battle noises, but William could see far beyond what she could. These weren''t normal explosions, as something got triggered, something that urred at many ces at the same time!

    "They have explosive traps there!" This was the first thing that popped in his head, not just him, but everyone else who watched these explosions thought the same.

    The ground shone brightly in shiny lines, expanding to cover the entire peaks, entire sides of mountains, and evenrge areas of many paths.

    Then it felt like something kept hammering over these sturdy rocks with giant fists, gaps kept appearing everywhere, while rocks got thrown away, turning into smaller rocks, before all rained down towards the ground.

    This was quite deadly for those in the valleys. The rocks fell and were mercilessly buried underneath tons of good masters. Before any leader would interfere and issue any order of retreat, many masters there acted.

    They released all of their formidable and strong techniques, used their elements to either control the rocks to fall away from masters, melt the rocks by fire, use wind to blow them away, or even useva and ice element-based techniques! They all used what they had, and few of these ended up making the situation worse!

    Lava, fire, and ice turned these rocks into much more fierce weapons of killing! The elements that worked best were mainly earth, wind, and water.

    "Retreat!"

    "Stop using fire,va, and ice, dammit!"

    Shouts spread from the leaders standing at the rear, and that helped in saving the lives of tons of masters. The valleys that everyone thought they controlled already were lost, and they were gone with arge number of masters.

    That wasn''t all! The paths got lines shining all over them, and then a gush of monsters appeared. These were newly summoned, refreshingly joining the fight. No one knew where they came from, but William had an idea about their origin.

    "These¡­ These are materialisation monsters!!!" he slowly muttered, looking at Anjie for a long moment, "hurry, tell your father to order the armies¡­ All of the fire andva-based masters have to go to the frontline now!"

    "What?!!"

    She looked at him as if he lost it or something. She didn''t believe that he just asked for the same masters she just heard they brought out a disaster at the frontlines.

    "Just do it!" He gave her a serious look, one that told her he knew what he was doing.

    The next moment he started to walk towards the front mountainous walls. He didn''t aim to go toward the peaks, as the situation there wasn''t as serious as the one at the valleys.

    The mountain peaks had formations that exploded up there, but it was just enough to create gaps and cracks over there, nothing as serious as the monster army summoned at the valleys.

    William recognised that nasty way to bring forth monsters. In fact, it wasn''t an illusion or something, these were real monsters, brought here by some sort of a small version of Monster Gate.

    But being small didn''t mean it wasn''t deadly. These monsters appeared in the heart of a special formation, one that could salvage the spirit power and even organs from the dead masters and monsters in an area, before adding all this up to the newly summoned monsters.

    The masters watching all this didn''t get any of this now. All they saw was a normal flood of monsters,ing towards them, in the middle of a slightly dense ck fog.

 Chapter 1082 Proving His Point With Actions

    Chapter 1082 Proving His Point With Actions

    This wasn''t fog, it was the effect of that materialisation formation, adding more to the monsters, making them stronger.

    Be it by elevating their spirit base, or adding more to their size and power, all was possible. In addition to that, there was also a chance for these monsters to get heals and even organ and parts recements for a limited amount of time.

    If that happened, if William let that fog take its time to show its magical effects, then things would instantly shift towards the worst again.

    "What? Is it asking us to send all the fire andva-based masters to stop these monsters?!!! Is he mad?!!!" The king couldn''t believe what William just said to his daughter. She instantly contacted her father, using some sort of a special scroll, the same as what Sloth once gave to William.

    Using that scroll, she told her father about what William said. She didn''t follow him, as he told her strictly that this was going to be extremely dangerous. He even asked her to go all the way back to her father and stay by his side.

    This was enough to tell her how dangerous the entire situation was. Yet her father didn''t believe that. He instantly contacted Sloth, and thetter contacted William using the special scroll.

    "Don''t waste time! This isn''t the time for that!!"

    "You should exin," Sloth slowly responded, "you are a prodigy, strong and capable, but you aren''t yet on the top of the world to order people like me and others around. If you have something to say, just say it in logical words so we can all get your point."

    William knew this wasn''t going to do any good. Trying to exin to them theplicated concept of materialisation formation? This would end up with tons more questions than getting satisfying answers.

    "Just watch me then, and you''ll get it!" as he knew words weren''t going to solve it, he leaned towards using direct actions.

    Luckily he wasn''t that far off the valleys. He dashed for a few minutes, before ending in front of one of them.

    And without thinking twice about it, he continued to dash forward. The valleys were narrow and had sharp twists every couple hundred metres. He adjusted his course, taking a zigzag course until he got close enough to monsters.

    "Watch clearly, old man!" he shouted while taking out his bow, releasing a volley of ten arrows reinforced with deadly grenades. The moment they got released, William took out much more. Yet he didn''t release them, instead, he summoned four of his monstrous weapons.

    "Use any water technique you have to protect all of us," he said while starting to walk forward. The ones he took out were the original three who could use all of his elements and the water-based monstrous weapon he recently developed.

    As the five of them moved, the arrowsnded and exploded. Pirs of fire rose high in the air, while fierce shockwaves erupted, spreading all over the valley, fiercely hitting the grand mountainsides, bringing tons of rocks down.

    Seeing this made William take another monstrous weapon out, "make sure to shield us from these rocks," he said to the earth-based monstrous weapon he just summoned, and didn''t halt for a single second in his steps.

    The next few moments were quite intense. The pirs of light exploded and released a gushing wave of fire, one that looked like massive ocean wavesing at him.

    Any master watching this from behind thought of one thing; thisd had a suicidal wish! No one would dare to go directly into such a hell bath, not even a pinnacle stage master, not without a proper reason.

    Just when they were feeling puzzled, and confused about what he had just done, something new happened.

    "The fog¡­ The fog is taking monstrous forms and fighting hard against the fire!!!" This was shouted by one of the high-end masters, as the scene he and others saw was quite unbelievable to any of them.

    The fire was supposed tond over William and his monstrous weapons, but none of that happened. Instead, the fire rose high in the sky, turned around, and started to sh fiercely against something.

    It was fog, but it wasn''t just normal fog as they all thought. The moment the fire appeared, the real appearance of that fog was revealed.

    Tons of shadows of monsters and masters appeared, looking as if they wereing out from a thick veil of darkness, as if they were all merged in the same body, moving together or something.

    It was a weird scene, but it was clearly evident now that this fog wasn''t simple, there were weird things lurking inside, and fire was the nemesis of it.

    That was the sole weakness of that fog, fire! Provided that one acted fast before that fog enforced the monsters long enough. If one moved out toote, then it''d be much harder to take down these monsters or burn away that fog.

    "Do you see it now?" As he walked towards the front, a thick veil of water, acting like a bubble, appeared and surrounded him. At the same time, all the rocks falling were pushed away by his monstrous weapon, "This is why you need to listen to my words, move all of the fire andva-based monsters into the valleys affected by this que right away, and let''s burn this fog before we all die here!"

    His words this time carried a heavy weight behind them. No one ever questioned his words again, and they all acted as he said before.

    They moved all the masters they just took out from the valleys, and asked other masters inside to evacuate. Things looked a bit intense, especially when the army leaders and high-end masters saw how William kept marching forward without pause and kept releasing his grenades and arrows without rest.

    "He is going all the way to the end of that fog¡­ Is that fog this deadly?"

 Chapter 1083 The Harsh Battle Against Fog

    Chapter 1083 The Harsh Battle Against Fog

    For a moment there, the king felt curious about this fog and wanted to leave a single valley untouched to see what was going to happen. But when Sloth stressed against this, he finally dropped such a thought.

    "It''s risky to try things out in wars, let''s kill all the monsters and burn the fog then¡­" he ryed his orders, and Sloth heaved a sigh of relief.

    He also was curious about this fog, but the way William said hisst words made him drop such an idea as well. He and others worked their best to orchestrate this counterattack, while other masters started to help the selected ones, killing monsters that dared toe closer to them.

    Soon enough, they started to feel something weird. The monsters that were easily killed before started to put up a good fight against the masters. This started at a few locations first, before it spread out like que.

    "A que¡­ That fog¡­ It can increase the power of monsters¡­ Damn!" it wasn''t just Sloth or Panther who realised this, but all of the high-end masters did almost at the same time.

    Seeing such weird changes happening at the frontlines had no other exnation but that. And when they coupled the urge William showed before, they realised this was indeed a disaster.

    Realising this made many send lots of stronger masters to the frontlines, and even a few of them personally joined to stabilise the situation. At the same time, they now understood why William kept walking forward, attacking the deeply situated monsters and fog.

    He knew if he stood at the front, then much stronger monsters would appear from the rear. He had to reach all the way to the beginning point of all this, burn away all the fog, even if he had to throw himself in the middle of such a scary amount of monsters.

    They all saw how tons of masters struggled to keep the bnce against these monsters. So it was expected how immense the pressure on him was.

    In fact, William wasn''t suffering from such pressure as they mistook. He first used his grenades and explosive arrows to wear down the monsters around. Then he used the shockwaves created from the continuous explosions to let a dense amount of rocks fall on the heads of these monsters.

    Then he released his flying weapons, adding thest touch to all this. Things weren''t that bad for him, yet he wasn''t having it nice as well.

    "An earth-based monster? For god sake! Come on!" Just as he advanced a bit deeper, the ground started to crack open, releasing tons of monsters from the depths of the earth.

    William could tell these monsters were hidden underground. They might pose a threat thanks to their earth elements, thanks to the surprise attacks theyunched, but they were far away from the fog.

    They didn''t get blessed, and that made them pretty weak in front of William.

    "Die you bastards!" he didn''t hesitate to direct all of his flying weapons to kill those monsters that popped from the ground. And yet he kept walking forward, didn''t even pause for a single moment.

    No matter what happened, be it monsters, falling rocks, or even the tsunami of fire he released, nothing could stop him! He kept moving forward like a king, like an asura, while his body started to get soaked with the blood and ash of his killed and burnt enemies.

    Monsters kept dying from fire, falling rocks, his weapons, and even from each other. At some point, William started to release his techniques, taking down a fewrge groups of monsters that tried to block his path forward.

    These were all high-grade monsters, and he needed to take care of them quite fast before getting supported by the fog. Yet the moment he released his techniques under such stress, he identally used the hidden power of the ck Phantom. Even if he used a small amount, wasn''t aware of its presence or what it did, the monsters around got petrified out of fear.

    He didn''t get what went wrong with them, but he was d they stopped and let him butcher them like cattle and sheep.

    As he got rid of those few obstacles, he returned to release his arrows and grenades again. The path he had to traverse would take him almost two hours using this pace, and yet he couldn''t help but lean towards caution and not rush things out.

    He knew he was far upfront from the mainstream of masters, separated from them by a raging ocean of fire and deadly blockage of huge amounts of rocks. There was no saving for him if he ever faced a deadly enemy, or fell into a trap or something.

    So he yed it safely and didn''t think about moving fast or using his dash technique even once. As he progressed here, smoothly in the eyes of everyone, things were getting heated up at other valleys.

    Masters didn''t think about mimicking his actions, didn''t take the initiative to go deeper into the valleys. They thought by staying at the front, they could burn down the entire fog, and take all the monsters down, without risking anything.

    But after one hour, they all realised how foolish they were. They realised William did the right thing from the start, a thing that meant he knew what he was doing, not just following his instincts or something.

    They learned this the hard way though, after facing the scarily growing stronger paced monsters, ending up suffering a ton against them.

    Even the high-end masters had to put it all together to kill the high-end monsters appearing from far behind.

    "Let''s push forward! Let''s do like him!"

    "Bring all the water-based masters here, bring all the earth-based masters as well!"

    "Let''s push forward! This won''t stop until we burn all the damn fog!"

    They all got the point of what William was doing from the beginning.

 Chapter 1084 What Are You Waiting For?

    Chapter 1084 What Are You Waiting For?

    As they learned that, they started to do the same as him, even using any war weapons that could explode, even arrays were used!

    They spared nothing to take down these monsters and burn the fog supporting them. As they progressed forward, atst, they started to see the results of this.

    Monsters stopped growing stronger the deeper they advanced. In fact, they grew weaker, as if they didn''t get enough time to evolve or get support from the fog.

    As William''s adventure was seen by all the high-end masters, they knew about the ground monsters and were pretty prepared for them. Once they appeared, a small team of high-end masters would sprint forward, taking care of them in the shortest possible time.

    As they coborated together, things became much easier and their losses plummeted by a huge margin.

    Seeing such a result made everyone hyped for doing this. They started picking up pace and didn''t fear the same fate as William.

    But William didn''t guess that a few high-end masters were already tagging along, all were trying to watch for his back, nning to interfere if things went wrong.

    These were sent out by his friends; the king, Sloth, Panther, and other leaders from the two cities and the kingdom''s army. He didn''t get that he made such ties with lots of influential figures, enough to send a few of them to risk their lives to keep him safe.

    He took three hours to finally head to the end of the valley, to the point where the fog stopped. Thest stretch was indeed quite risky, as all the monsters there were at a high stage.

    "Let''s test my new power then," unlike what everyone tagging behind or watching him from afar thought, William didn''t fret when seeing arge gathering of high-end monsters blocking his path forward.

    Instead, he looked excited. He stored away his bow and arrows, and started to use his des and techniques, taking down one monster after another with a single hit each.

    This was quite shocking to all. They knew he was strong, but he seemed to grow far stronger than what they initially thought.

    "Thisd¡­ He is making old people like myself ashamed¡­" The king was watching everything William was doing, and couldn''t help but shake off his head.

    "Father, is he alright?" from the side, Anjie got worried the moment her father spoke like this. She knew he was watching William, and that meant he was speaking about her man.

    "Get a better hold of yourself, my beloved daughter," the king then started to give her a few life lessons, making her blush from time to time before she finally couldn''t handle it anymore.

    "I¡­ I''m going out to¡­ To breathe a little air," she hurriedly left the tent, leaving behind her startled father for a few seconds, beforeughing at her.

    "She is still young, but she is her mother''s daughter, hahaha!"

    Anjie knew where to go after leaving her father''s side. She knew how terribly bad the situation would have been if they didn''t listen to William''s advice back then. And if that happened, then the best ce for her to be safe was by her father''s side.

    She knew William did this for her, and yet she still regretted not being too strong to be by his side.

    "He isn''t that far away from me in terms of strength, yet he is able to shoulder all this alone, and I''m just standing by my father''s side¡­" She inwardly pledged to do whatever it''d take to grow stronger, be strong enough to not just be by his side in times of peace, but also at such times.

    She felt deep regret not starting to train like others, but when she recalled the furious encounters she had with him, reminded herself that she stayed by his side for the longest time recently and the other girls were all away, She felt a lot better.

    "Once we are done from here, I swear to stick to that cave and keep training there no matter what!" she clenched both fists, deciding to do this once they got out of this ce.

    William was fighting the monsters with excitement and pleasure on the other hand. He evenughed from time to time, making everyone watching him a bit puzzled and confused.

    He didn''t show fear or hesitation. He didn''t stop until all the strong monsters were gone, and then he released his arrows and grenades again, burning thest bits of this fog.

    "It''s over," he finally heaved a sigh of relief. The fog was burnt, the monsters were killed, and there wasn''t any danger lurking here, "I wonder what they are doing out there," he spread his spirit sense wider for the first time since starting such a hectic run.

    What he saw made him grin in satisfaction. And when he saw the group of high-end masters tagging along from behind, he couldn''t help but raise a hand, and wave to the air, before shouting in greetings:

    "Thanks, sirs foring all the way here to help me, I''m really touched by that."

    He never noticed their presence before. He didn''t want to miss any sudden ambush or attack from the enemies around and didn''t dare to spread out his focus and expand his spirit sense beyond the reach of the nearby battles.

    Yet when he saw them, he couldn''t help but feel a warmth inside him. He knew these faces, as they were leaders from the two cities he helped before.

    "Isn''t it time for you to return back?" He waited in his ce for ten minutes before they arrived at his side. The moment they did, the oldest one of them asked in curiosity, "We thought you wereing to us, so waited for a few minutes before deciding toe and ask."

    "Why shall we return when we can advance and see where these valleys end up?" William winked, before pointing towards the remaining part of the valley, "let''s go, we will do a real scout mission this time and will survive, return and tell the tale."

 Chapter 1085 The Wall

    Chapter 1085 The Wall

    "Goodd," one of them nodded, while others smiled in satisfaction. Even when he won this battle, he didn''t drop his guard, and didn''t shift his eyes from the main goal behind this entire war.

    They came here to find the source of trouble and take good care of it once and for all. And to do so, they needed to get out from this entrapment first, or there would be no end to the traps and attacks of monsters and dark masters.

    "You did enough, if you want to go back and rest then¡­"

    "No offence, esteemed master, but I have to go with you if you want to survive this," William interrupted the kind words of the old master, without showing any disrespect or anything, "This war is being orchestrated by a far more dangerous enemy than you may think. Let''s go, I''m ready to move and fight anytime."

    William moved and they had no other choice but to tag along. They were sincere in trying to help him out and were serious about giving him a well-deserved rest.

    But William knew they wouldn''te back if he left them. Besides, he wanted to see who else was leading this war.

    It didn''t add up, all these preparations and machinations couldn''te from the Nightmare monster. Even if it had the knowledge, it wars.

    William led them forward, while they kept scanning the area around didn''t have the ability nor the means to do any of that.

    As for the Transformers, they were a possible candidate, but they weren''t that powerful enough and didn''t have control over suchrge forces to build up such a trap here.

    He saw it when the formations got ignited and things went bad for everyone in the mountains and in the valleys. It was as if the entire ce was remodelled, got changed to suit the different scenarios of wars.

    William led them forward, while they kept scanning the area around using spirit sense. For a reason, and at some point in the valley and mountains around, it felt like there was a wall blocking all of their senses.

    "We need to see what''s preventing us from seeing through," They were fighting while walking forward, and didn''t have the time to chat a lot with each other.

    Even if these monsters were weak, they greatly outnumbered them. They had to put all their effort there to make sure they cleared a path forward, and still, they felt they were walking slowly if not for William.

    They could unleash deadly attacks, but they had to take a breath between each and every attack they released. As for William, he simply used thousands of flying weapons, his ten monstrous weapons, and himself on top of that.

    He didn''t use his grenades and arrows, as there was no need for such a thing. He got the help of a team of seven pinnacle stage masters, and they were enough to help shoulder any dangerous monster out there.

    As they progressed, they found it quite harder to get closer to that wall. Monsters closer to that wall were quite ferocious, aided by tons of traps, and there was still the issue of falling rocks on top of their heads.

    "We need to find a way to kill as many of them as we can," one of the old masters sighed, "The more we wasted time here, the more monsters appeared¡­ We need to act faster."

    This was indeed true, as they took roughly three hours toe near that wall blockage. They noticed the constant increase of monster numbers the more they stayed inside that valley.

    "Can''t you use your grenades?" one of them asked, and he couldn''t help but say no by shaking off his head.

    "If I did, the rocks would block our path, and we would find it harder to advance or retreat."

    "You have the same bad omen, right?" another said, and William slowly nodded. He didn''t like it when he thought about that wall. ording to his knowledge, there weren''t many things that could block the spirit senses of pinnacle stage masters. Even if the enemy used the knowledge from the outer world, they were still bound to the limited resources in this world.

    So he was curious about that wall, knowing that it was one of the hardest lines of defences the enemy had built here. He wasn''t sure if he''d find the Nightmare monster or any of the transformers beyond this wall, and he hoped his luck would be good and he''d end up meeting them.

    As the team worked together, fighting harsh battles one after another, they finally came closer to the wall. The moment William saw it, he sucked a cold air of breath.

    "This is the wall of silence¡­ Damn!" He instantly recognised this wall right on the spot. It wasn''t a wall that got built of rocks as everyone guessed, but one that was built of the coborative spirit powers of tons of dark spirit masters.

    "Do you recognise this?" one of the old masters said, before another stepped up, wanting to test this wall.

    "No, don''t do it," yet before that master would move a single step forward, William shed and blocked the path forward, "This wall can absorb any spirit power no matter what, reinforce itself with it. It''s in some way indestructible."

    "Indestructible? Can''t we use anything else to take it down? Like raw strength?"

    "No," William slowly shook his head and pointed towards the wall while another batch of monsters appeared, passing directly through it, "This wall extends all over the area. My bet is that it''s surrounding us inside, and that means no matter what, we can''t touch it."

    "Then¡­ How can we get through it?!" The masters looked at each other, before sending three of them to handle the monsters while the other four spoke with William.

    "I now know why we haven''t seen a single dark master yet," William''s tone suddenly turned icy cold, "We need to make a rough change in ns, in our strategy, we need to aim for the mountain peaks¡­"

 Chapter 1086 Time To Forge The Deadly Weapon

    Chapter 1086 Time To Forge The Deadly Weapon

    The entire structure of the areas he spotted by eyesight or using spirit sense appeared in his mind. He could now tell why there were lots of mountains here, why the dark masters remained seated on top of the peaks, and didn''t risk leaving there.

    This was all connected, and these dark masters weren''t there to watch over the valleys or take care of the invading masters. They were here to do something else, donate their spirit power constantly to make this wall stand like a mountain.

    They had no chance of taking it down if they tried to fight it directly head-on. No matter how, even if the entire army of masters gathered here, they''d end up failing to do a single harm to this wall.

    And without bringing this wall down, they wouldn''t be able to leave here. This wall was also a piece of good news, as it was considered thest line of defence, one that''d protect something precious behind.

    William was sure once they took this wall down, they''d find themselves in front of the main masterminds of all this.

    "Do you have a n then?" one of the masters sighed, "As you saw, the peaks are all filled with deadly traps, not that easily trespassed nor reached by us."

    "Luckily I asked for many things to be made at the beginning of all this," William returned to the same old idea he had before, the one he thought of when he first saw the mountainous wall entrapping them here.

    He never thought such a desire to crush the enemy hard enough and teach them a brutal lesson woulde in handyter on.

    "You mean these weird things? What are they by the way?" it wasn''t just this old master who was curious about what William made Artisans make back there, but all of the masters whoid their eyes over the blueprints had the same question in mind.

    "You''ll see, but I can tell you this," William started to retreat, and others followed without the need to speak about this move, "these are going to pave the path of our victory, with might and ferocity."

    His worries told nothing much about his real intentions for making these weapons, but they could tell he nned for something huge.

    They apanied him back, and helped him to bypass the area of raging fire that his grenades caused. He didn''t forget to leave behind more grenades, also tons of vibrant ores, making this valley look like a true piece of hell.

    Once they returned back, they found that all other teams and armies returned from clearing their tasks. They ended the gue, burnt down all the fog, and were now resting.

    There were few monstersing from the valleys, not that many to make them feel any threat or danger. The king gave his orders, letting them rest for a bit longer, recuperating while discussing the next move at his tent.

    "You go and inform the king about this; we need to prepare to take down the mountain peaks, and kill all the dark masters, before dreaming about going through that wall," William raised his fist high in the air before he spotted Anjie running towards him from afar.

    "Are you going to rest?" one of the old masters asked when Anjie arrived. She didn''t say anything, and looked at him in silence, while her true emotions were clearly shown on her face.

    She was worried and yet excited about his safe return. She was sad about not being with him, but also proud of what he aplished so far.

    She didn''t say anything, but William got it all.

    "Rest? There is no time for that," William shook his head, "I''m going to finish forging the remaining pieces of the weapons, then assemble them. Make sure to keep monsters away, as the moment the weapons are assembled, great disturbance will happen."

    "..." They wanted to ask again about the weapons and their value, but they knew they''d not get a clear or satisfying answer from him. Instead, they decided to return to the king, and share the news with him, while they''d all watched what William was going to do, alongside other formidable masters.

    "Are you ok?" This was the first thing she asked him while walking towards the heart of this grand master gathering.

    Everywhere they went they were weed like heroes, or he was. She felt more pride by walking by his side, watching all the masters part ways for the two of them, nod and even cup their hands in respect.

    They all knew what he did for them, how he helped to save their lives so far. His image as a legendary master deepened in their hearts and spirits, and he simply responded humbly by cupping his hands and nodding his head in response to such respect.

    "I''m fine," he muttered, "Don''t worry, I haven''t gotten into such an intense battle yet."

    "..."

    She didn''t know if he was saying this to not make her worry or if he meant it. She knew how terribly bad the fights all over the valleys were from her father, from the sights of long rows of dead and wounded who got carried away from there.

    She kept her silence and walked by his side until they arrived at the forging ce. The ce there looked as if it came from another world, from another time perhaps.

    The ce was filled with ovens, lots of masters working on ores, forging tons of stuff there non-stop. They knew about what was going on out there and felt how bad it''d be if they messed with their task.

    They poured every single ounce of their strength and focus into making these various items. Even if they didn''t know what purpose they were for, they believed in the master who asked them to do so; believed in William.

    With more newsing from the frontlines, they knew trusting William was right. And so it was expected how they all reacted when William showed up atst.

 Chapter 1087 Using Monstrous Weapons In Forging

    Chapter 1087 Using Monstrous Weapons In Forging

    The moment he came close enough to be detected by their spirit senses, they stopped what they were doing, spread the news fast, and came to meet up with the legend.

    William watched them gather up fast enough to block his path inside. He stopped in front of them, before deeply bowing.

    "I know it was hard to stay here, watching yourrades fight the enemies bravely. But I assure you, what you did here isn''t wasted, isn''t worthless or less than their contributions out there."

    His wordsnded, and everyone went speechless. They never expected the first thing William would speak of would be addressing such an issue. And by what he said, they knew they were right to trust him from the start.

    "Let''s see what are you going to do here," The one to speak up wasn''t any of them, surprisingly it was Sloth. He came with lots of other masters, looking as if they ran all the way from the king''s tent to here.

    "You could have watched everything using spirit sense," William rolled his eyes when he saw all of them.

    "It won''t be like seeing you working in the flesh," Panther smiled, before adding, "It''s not widely known, but I know the new gears and inventions in the Fox guild came originally from you. Not only that, I even heard the early batches were forged by you, and under your supervision and guidance, right?"

    "I see we got moles in the guild then," Williamughed, while joking about this, "let me pass then, I have to work for five days straight. Make sure monsters are away from here no matter what."

    "The king has already ordered to build traps around the valleys, the mountains, and alsoy down many forts and even build a wall here¡­" one of the masters said about the king''s decisive n to strengthen their hold here.

    It was apparently clear that they''d take a long time in this ce before getting out. And staying here exposed like this, without a single shred of defence, wasn''t something nice at all.

    So it was better to fortify this ce, build defences andy down traps, as long as they got time to do so.

    As William walked into the forging ce, masters parted ways, making space for him, enough to make what he wanted. He looked at the hot ovens, the ores that were still melting and waved to the masters around.

    "Keep working, I only need ten ovens," he shouted, while pointing towards a spot in the heart of this ce, "I''ll work there. Deliver all you made over, stack them in batches ording to type, and I''ll do the rest."

    "Ten ovens?!!" This was a crazy statement of his, but the old masters who watched his performance all this time got a glimpse of what he intended to do.

    As he went towards the heart of this ce, he took out his ten monstrous weapons. They were strong enough to fight bravely in any battle, but this wasn''t just the sole use of them.

    He could control them perfectly fine, and make them use his forging techniques, helping him do various tasks.

    As he went there, he started taking out tons of materials. Any master having little knowledge in forging wouldn''t recognise a single piece of these ores and materials. And those who came from Lara''s city instantly recognised these.

    "Do you want materials from our city? We have many of these," masters from Lara''s city stepped up, and offered their help to him in such regard.

    "Sure," he''d say no to more materials. As they took out their materials, he started to sort them ording to their usage.

    There were materials he didn''t need, and he let Anjie return them all to the masters from Lara''s city. They didn''t ept it and insisted he''d take them all.

    "As you wish," he didn''t reject their generosity, ending up storing anything he didn''t need.

    "You work on these, melt them down," he started to point at his monstrous weapons, asking them to melt ores or start to move around with hammers, to familiarise themselves with these.

    As he didn''t have but three hammers, he decided to borrow the rest from others. He got high-grade hammers, as masters were all willing to help.

    "You work on these, bring them when I say," he didn''t actually need to speak to order them around, but it was sort of a habit now.

    "Raise the temperature of fire! Pour your spirit power into it to ze fiercer! This isn''t like melting normal materials, but like melting something that''s not meant to get affected by any heat¡­"

    He kept giving his orders for almost three hours straight, losing himself in doing so. He just started this as a habit, but soon he began to put the future interest of the masters of the world watching him.

    It was a golden and rare chance for them to learn about things that wouldn''t be known by any in the world. So he kept telling his orders, while everyone listened attentively.

    "Now!" he stood beside the anvil while waiting for the melted mix to finally get ready. To melt these ores, his monstrous weapons needed at least half a day of constant work, something that made everyone else quite speechless on how hard it was to do this.

    "Hammer it!" There were three of his monstrous weapons working on melting down the ores. He also helped from the side whenever they needed such a thing. As for the rest, he left two to arrange materials, and take care of the already forgottenponents, and the remaining five were now ready to hammer down the melted ores.

    "Hammer it using your spirit power, hammer it as if you are fighting an enemy!" William kept shouting from time to time, while masters around gained more knowledge about this.

    They took half a day to melt these ores, but hammering them took two days straight.

 Chapter 1088 You Want The Kings Blood?!!!

    ?

    William needed them to hammer, then return the mix into the ovens again, before hammering it once more.

    They kept doing this for two days, cleansing the melted ores until a dimly shining silver melted liquid appeared.

    "It''s not the best result, but this will do," he then turned all of a sudden towards the high-end masters around, "Bring me the army leaders, all the high-end masters, they need to do something for me."

    They didn''t get what he wanted them to do, but when they arrived, he said something weird.

    "I want you to drop your blood here, over these," he pointed at thirty melted semi-solid liquid on trays, waiting for them to do this.

    "What do you mean?" they asked in doubt, but he simply exined things over to them.

    He gave them something they could understand, telling them they had to do so to make sure the final weapons wouldn''t hit them or any of the masters affiliated with them. They didn''t get it even when he gave such a simple reason, and yet they started to do as he said.

    "Now¡­ It''s the turn of the king," When thest master ced his blood here, William turned towards one spot and muttered.

    "What? You also need the king to do this?!!!" It wasn''t just Sloth, but almost everyone here felt the same kind of shock and surprise about what he said. They looked at him in a weird way, but he remained silent and waited.

    He already fetched Anjie to bring the king here. In the next few minutes, the king appeared in everyone''s line of vision, walking alongside his royal guards and his daughter.

    "You want my blood? I hope this is going to end up well in the end," the king ced his blood without hesitation, but William wasn''t satisfied with this.

    "ce it over all of these," William didn''t let masters ce their blood over more than one alloy. And now he asked the king to drop his blood overall.

    "Do you want to suck my blood dry or what?" the kingughed, but William responded with actions not words like his habit.

    He dropped his blood following the king, on all of the alloys here. "Now you can go back," William said not only to the king but also to all the formidable masters here, "make sure the iing spirit tides are going to be stopped no matter what."

    "Monster tides?" his words made everyone puzzled, but he simply nodded as he added:

    "Just trust me, things are going to turn for the worst the moment I start finalising this. Go now, and make sure to protect this ce with all your might, got it?"

    He didn''t stand on stage for a single momentter, as he ordered his monstrous weapons using his mind control to take them back to ovens and keep working on melting them.

    As they watched him return to work, in silence this time, they got his message. It was as if he was saying: Go and do your job, and I''ll do mine.

    As they started to disperse, the king ordered a few to remain behind, watch and learn from William. He noticed their presence, but didn''t mind that actually.

    Yet he didn''t say any more about what he was going to do. As the monstrous weapons returned to melt the ores, taking almost half a day to do so, he started to forge something special.

    He already left part of the melted ores in one oven and kept it melting and popping there. He didn''t try to cleanse it, nor let his monstrous weapons do this.

    "Time to make use of that thing I almost paid my life to obtain," the first thing he did was to take something out. It was arge ball, one that was still covered in pieces of rocks, with a small stumping out from it.

    It was the Troll Tower Heart, the piece he had to risk his life before to obtain. He didn''t n to use it before. Yet when he saw that huge setting of the enemies, he decided it was time to do something no one ever heard of before; a giant Troll!

    This wasn''t simply like any of his monstrous weapons, as his monstrous weapons could be controlled solely by him. But this one, the Troll, needed lots of masters to control it. And that was why he asked them to drop their blood over the alloys.

    As for the king, he decided to leave this piece of art as a legacy in the kingdom. By the blood of the king, he and any of his sessors would be able to control such mighty weapons in times of need, alongside all the sessors of the high-end masters who left their blood here as well.

    To make this Troll, he needed lots of things to be done first. These were normal parts that could be forged by normal masters. He let them do it, while he''d do the core of this weapon.

    The items they made were the joints, the internal structure, the pipes of spirit power, and even the limbs of that Troll. As for the final product, no one could ever imagine it was something as gigantic and scary as the one William nned to make.

    As for mimicking his doing, this was by far quite impossible. The secrety in the heart he acquired, something he was pretty sure had no equal in the world.

    Without that heart, trying to build a Troll would fail! As he took the heart out, he started to take measurements and make modifications on flexible moulds, before ending up forming a big ball that was almost double the size of that heart.

    And he didn''t stop there! He started to add more of the flexible moulds, turning this ball into something that looked as if it had many hairsing out from it.

    "Time to make the capsule."

 Chapter 1089 Making A Troll!

    ?

    William let one of his monstrous weapons bring the melted piece of alloy that he left aside all this time, before slowly and carefully pouring it into the ready mould.

    He dropped his blood over this, making himself the true controller of this Troll. It was just a failsafe measure, one he hoped not to use at any time.

    Using this link, he could give the order and this Troll''s Heart would detonate. It''d be an apocalyptic event, one he wished to never use at all.

    Once the melted alloy filled the gaps in the moulds, he didn''t leave it to cool down. Instead, he forcibly opened the alloy, and ced the ball inside, before asking all of his monstrous weapons toe and hammer this.

    It was a weird way to forge this core of the Troll, but it was the only way to make sure the melted alloy would mix and link itself with the Heart of the Troll.

    Seeing them doing this made everyone speechless and left them confused. They didn''t get what that ball was, but Sloth already heard from William''s friends about the risky battle he had against the Troll Tower. He went to examine that ce of the battle, and there he found an empty space, with a roding from the rocks above it, all simr to that ball.

    He guessed it right but didn''t know yet why William took it out. And like others, he didn''t get why William used such a rough method to forge this piece of metal.

    The hammering continued for one day straight, while the other ovens were keeping other alloys burning and in the melting stage. William let the alloys melt and burn their impurities, hoping their grade would increase in the end.

    "It didn''t make much difference¡­ It''s truly limiting trying to make something of the outer world here," he sighed, before pointing to his monstrous weapons to stop what they were doing. The ball was already hardened, and the moulds used got smashed a long time ago by the hammering.

    He then controlled them to go and work over the melted ores, while he took care of making the moulds. Everyone thought he''d make different shapes with the moulds, and yet he ended up making the same thing thirty times!

    "A long tube? Is he making thirty long tubes?!!" Everyone questioned what they were seeing, but what William made out of the moulds had no other meaning but this.

    He made thirty exactly the same tubes, simr in size and length. And then he let his monstrous weapons bring the melted ores, pouring them into every mould.

    Like before, he let them hammer these all the time. But as there were thirty of them, he had to let them alternate between one tube and another. He didn''t need them to cleanse anything, as they already done that before. And now all they did was to make the moulds harden while getting smashed by hammers.

    No one knew why he did that, but it was essentially to temper the final metal, making it have the same traits as the Core of the Troll. These monstrous weapons didn''t just use hammers, they kept pouring insane amounts of spirit power while doing this. They weren''t trying to mix the moulds with the alloys but were trying to mix their spirit power into the alloys.

    After all, these alloys were made from the outer world''s materials, used to a much higher spirit power type. By hammering this way, he made sure these alloys would recognise and respond to this world''s spirit power, which was a very essential step in doing what was yet toe.

    Once the melted ores hardened, he left them alone and didn''t use any cooling method. Instead, he controlled his monstrous weapons, letting them bring the already forged materials here.

    There were lots of weird stuff, with many in shapes that seemed to not even fit being used as weapons, or sticks to fight any monster with.

    William let them bring everything closer, and then he started to arrange every group of forged products to be just in line with one of the many tubesing out from the ball he just made.

    When masters watched him doing this, they knew no matter how he tried, there were still too many of the tubes without products associated with them.

    But when his monstrous weapons moved the first batches and left them over the tubes touching the ground, the different products started to vibrate, flew slowly in the air, and moved towards every tube there.

    William didn''t need to arrange them, as they got arranged out of their own ord. No one got what caused them to fly or act in such a way, but William already expected that.

    He waited until the first batch of products flew and stuck themselves to the tubes, and then he let his monstrous weapons bring more and more of these products. The more of them flew, the more everyone started to notice the appearance of something great here.

    These products didn''t act like this on their own, in fact, William was in total control of everything. He used the link between him and the Troll Core, to initiate some sort of a gravitational field to such materials towards different tubes.

    Then the materials would be arranged easily over the tube, as the core would start kicking in, controlling these to work as building blocks to produce the final version of the grand Troll.

    All William had to do from now on was to just control the gravitational force, to gather up more of the finished forged products, and then the building process would finish on its own.

    Gradually the grand number of forged products was getting consumed, yet it''d take days for such a big number to get depleted.

    During all this, what William warned the formidable masters from happened. The moment he took that Troll Heart out, added that alloy to it.

 Chapter 1090 William Is Screwed!

    <h4>Chapter 1090 William Is Screwed!</h4>

    William started hammering the ball with the help of other monstrous weapons, something changed in the enemy camp.

    At first, no one noticed anything. But just when William started the first assembly of the Troll''s body, the mountains started to faintly shake, while the ground trembled.

    It appeared as if some sort of giants were marching here, with every step taken, the ground would shake and the mountains would tremble.

    "Don''t tell me¡­"

    "The boy was right¡­"

    Everyone started to wonder in their own hearts about this. The shaking wasn''t that strong to be easily noticed by normal and weaker masters yet, and that meant the scale of powering was very high to be felt by these weak masters.

    The first thing the leaders and high-end masters did was to call everyone to stand on the frontline, and be prepared for what was yet toe.

    For the next four hours, nothing truly happened, and yet the shaking and tremblings kept getting fiercer and stronger. At the same time, some faint roars, like thoseing from distant ces, appeared.

    "Look at the sky! Look up there!" Just as everyone''s focus was mainly attracted towards the valleys, the mountains, and those peaks which they already lost control of, few shouted, pointing towards the sky.

    "There are¡­ Flying dragonsing here!!!" The moment they looked up, everyone could see lots of massive dragons flying in the distant sky,ing towards them.

    Dragons were known in this world, as many masters had some sort of spirits rted to them. But they didn''t really exist in the realm of monsters in that tiny world.

    It was weird though if anyone thought about it deeply. If dragons didn''t exist here, then howe people of this world knew about them in the first ce? Howe many had their spirits rted to them?

    In fact, this wasn''t just a sole or rare case about dragons only, but many other spirits as well. All of the flying monsters weren''t present in the tiny world, and that made spirits like the phoenix and the eagles sound more bizarre to be in this world.

    The moment they noticed the iing dragons, and then someone else shouted, attracting their attention towards the valleys.

    There they spotted gigantic monsters, looking like rhinoceros, with very thick and prominent armour around their bodies, three arched spear-shaped hornsing out from their heads, and a pair of tentacles extending from their bodies as if they were two whips or something.

    No one recognised this type of monster, but they all could tell how strong they were. They had an insane defence, and brutal offence, and were pretty agile despite theirrge bodies. They didn''t just run, they shed right and left, acting like bees or something.

    "Damn! He said to watch out for monsters, but these¡­" Sloth couldn''t help but suck in the cold air of breath, "Listen up, we have to divide the high-end masters on two fronts, a group to fight these dragons, and another to fight these weird rhinoceros¡­"

    "Why not ask him then?" the king''s voice suddenly came from behind Sloth. Sloth was gathering with everyone on his calibre, standing inside a tent that was close to the frontline.

    "Your majesty¡­ This is pretty dangerous here¡­" Sloth feared the king to get in the middle of the uing fierce battle.

    "There is no ce safe here," the king waved his arm, turning to every one of the strongest masters in his kingdom and many other kingdoms in the continent and even in the world, "Does any of you know anything about the iing ground monsters? Or how to stop the flying dragonsing towards us?"

    "Well¡­" everyone knew this was the most difficult question to answer, especially when it came from the king himself, "for the dragons, we can use abination of ice and water-based techniques to shield against their fiery attacks. We can''t take them down for sure unless they arrive near us. As for the ground monsters¡­ Despitecking any knowledge about them, we can easily fight them using the same methods used to fight any other formidable monsters¡­"

    "Why don''t we just ask the kid?" the king got the hidden meaning behind that formidable master''s words. He was by far one of the top three masters in the entire world, the strongest master in the entire army here.

    "Sure, if he can point towards anything that can help, it''ll be great," Panther hurriedly stepped in to help. As this master was known to be extremely arrogant and self-focused, didn''t like anyone trying to teach him something new, taking this as a sort of insult, a way to brag and show off on him.

    So before this master would say anything toplicate things here, Panther tried to intervene and help. Others were about to chime in and support him, but that scary master suddenly stepped up and went outside the tent.

    "I''ll go and ask him in person," he said these words, and then shed and vanished.

    "Damn! William is screwed!" The king couldn''t help but shake off his head while looking at everyone else, but none volunteered to help William this time.

    Who was insane enough to stand against such a scary and tyrannical master?

    "Let''s prepare for the worst then," the king moved his eyes around, "align our masters to stop the dragon''s deadly fire breaths. I believe the dragons will take the lead to mess up with our defences and lines, while the ground monsters will take the charge of killing everyone."

    "I also believe so."

    "That''s what I can do if I was in their ce."

    "Good point, my liege¡­"

    All started to support the king''s idea, as this was truly what they thought of. Sloth looked at them, then took a peek at William''s location, feeling bitter and sad about the iing troubleing towards him.

    "Let''s go then," Sloth wrapped up his thoughts, and decided to leave this issue to the king.

 Chapter 1091 Fang!

    <h4>Chapter 1091 Fang!</h4>

    With just a short nce between the two, the king got what Sloth wanted, didn''t say anything, and left.

    He knew everything about this master''s reputation, after all, he was one of the strongest three in the entire world. But he also knew he was a good person, and wasn''t the type to do something rash out of impulse.

    The worst he could do was to insult William using mean and harsh words, not using any strength or power in the middle. And that was why he and other masters weren''t that worried about William.

    They all were right about everything, but there was one more thing they didn''t know about. That master already stayed on the side all the time, watching how William acted and behaved since the early moments of this war, even before the war started.

    He thought at first that William was some lucky master who could guess the right answer out of thin air. But gradually this impression started to change. He started to feel like William wasn''t the one he imed to be, someone he once heard about in one of the ancient scrolls he found at many relic sites he unearthed; a reincarnator!

    ording to the legends mentioned in that scroll, there was a rare breed of humans and monsters, ones that could get past the doorsteps of death and return to life. Yet as a punishment for doing so, they''d appear in much lower and weaker worlds than their first ones.

    "He knows things out of this world, knows things that no one else knows¡­ He always did things differently, using methods no one heard about before¡­ He must be one of these¡­"

    The master wasn''t angry at William as everyone thought, and didn''t feel insulted by him. Instead, he was feeling more curiosity towards him, wanting to confirm his wild guess.

    If that guess was true, then this master could think about a much crazier scenario¡­ "If he is a reincarnator, then he must havee from that higher realm we all want to go¡­ And he knows the right way to go there!"

    That is what drove this master to meet William in private like this. He noticed that since the start, every big name here was focusing on William. So it was impossible to meet thed without getting spied on.

    If he tried to seal the space using any means, then things would heat up. He knew better than anyone about his infamous reputation and knew they''d take the wrong idea if he dared to do that.

    So in the middle of such chaos, and in such a critical moment, he decided to make his move. As he approached William fast, he saw what the youngster was doing.

    "He is making something out of this world indeed, he must be a reincarnator!" he kept telling himself this until he already bought it! In fact, his mark wasn''t off the target. But would William listen to his request and show him the way to the outer world?

    William was busy assembling the different parts of Troll. The moment he took that Troll Heart out and worked on it, he knew the immense amount of spirit power stored within would leak, reach far and wide, and attract all the scary monsters here.

    Yet he never expected this ce to harbour flying dragons and the infamous tanked rhinoceros!

    This was by far beyond his wildest expectations. "It''s going to be hard to stop these¡­" he muttered to himself when he noticed someone shing towards him like a rocket, "they must be anxious, and they should be¡­ What bad luck!"

    He knew the task he gave to them wasn''t going to be easy. The dragons could simply fly over their fortifications and forcese directly towards him. As for these rhinoceros, they weren''t the type to stop even if a mountain blocked their path forward.

    He knew more about these monsters than anyone here and knew how bad their situation had be. And yet he had a glimpse of hope.

    "I need to finish assembling the first stage at least," he watched the huge batch of materials produced and gathered to the side by various Artisans, "the first stage can give these dragons a bit of a headache. As for the rhinoceros¡­ They have to deal with them¡­"

    He nned to tell the iing master about all this before returning to focus again on the task at hand. They had something to do, and like him, they were racing against time.

    Yet the moment that master appeared in front of him, William felt something was off.

    "Who are you?" This was the first question he had to ask. This master was new, and didn''t recall seeing him before. And yet, he felt a tremendous amount of dangering from him.

    He was strong, hellishly strong! William was now at the high stage of dark gold grade, a stage that could allow him to gauge the strengths of those at the pinnacle. This master gave him the feeling of standing in front of a deadly predator, one who was far stronger than any master he met before.

    "I''m Fang," the master said, while sizing William up and down, "you are far stronger than what I heard."

    "I never saw you before¡­"

    "That''s because I kept myself away from you all this time," Fangughed, "when you reach my stage of power, you can easily mask your presence off anyone''s senses."

    "One-half step away from ascension!" William''s eyes shone brightly before slowly adding, "We have more chances to pass this with your help."

    "I''m indeed here to help, but I have something to ask for in return," Fang didn''t feel embarrassed by saying this, "Like anything in the world, you help me and I''ll help you in return."

    "Wasn''t it you help me and I''ll help you back?" William raised one eyebrow, knowing that this old master purposely twisted this known saying, not out of coincidence or mistake.

 Chapter 1092 A Reincarnator!

    <h4>Chapter 1092 A Reincarnator!</h4>

    "I want something from you, so it''s up to you if you''ll help me here or not."

    The words of Fang were crystal clear to William. That old master wanted something before he''d step in and join the stage with others. That made William realise that during all this time, Fang never moved or acted, not even once!

    "Say your price then," William had a bad impression about Fang, and thetter could already feel so, but didn''t care about any of that.

    "I want two things from you¡­"

    "You can just have one for now," William interrupted Fang, coldly adding, "one answer for your help here. If you want more, then you have to find ways to repay me beforeing to ask."

    "Fair enough," Fang paused, "what if I can kill you? Then won''t this count as a favour if I let you live?"

    "Do you think an ant like you can kill me? Hahaha! That''s hrious!"

    "Don''t count on any of them to step in to help you, they are all afraid of me and I can fight all of them and escape with my life intact," Fang shrugged, as he guessed wrongly where William''s confidence stemmed from.

    "No, you got me wrong," William slowly shook his head, "you were here when I took down the mountains, right? Tell me, could you move back then?"

    William''s wordsnded on a tight spot in Fang''s heart. Back then he couldn''t even move for a few minutes, and felt an indescribable fear that stemmed from his spirit.

    Someone like him wouldn''t get scared easily, wouldn''t get feared by anything else but failing to ascend and ending up facing death in the end. Yet he felt such a weird feeling, and that was a shocking experience for him.

    William already heard thements from everyone he met about that moment, they all experienced such unexined fear, and all became stupefied in their ces. Even the enemies didn''t move, and stood motionless even when masters came asking for their lives.

    William didn''t know what caused all this, but he knew this happened. And if it happened to everyone and everything here without exception, then this Fang wasn''t an exception as well.

    "That doesn''t count¡­"

    "I''m just stating that against me, you can''t be that confident about taking my life away," William paused, before putting a serious look on his face, "and trying to ask me for a favour won''t do if you use threats and such underhanded means. A piece of advice, help me honestly, and I''ll generously repay you."

    William knew this master wasn''t the type to use such methods with others. He was the type to lean to violence and threats, preferring to use power to solve everything.

    William knew his current limits, and knew it''d be a miracle if he escaped unscathed from the clutches of such a formidable and scary master. But he also knew trying to kill him wasn''t that easy of a task. And if he gained help from everyone here, then things would change for the better for him, for the worse for Fang.

    "Let''s not speak about this then," Fang paused for a few minutes, looking deeply at William, knowing that he wasn''t lying about any of what he said just now, "First of all let''s make the first deal¡­ One answer for helping you out in one battle here¡­"

    "In the entire war," William couldn''t believe how shameless this master was, "and you dare to call yourself on the top of the world? What world? The world of scammers and ouws or what?"

    "You are indeed much worse than I heard," Fang looked annoyed, before an evil grin appeared on his face, "What if I were the leader of the scammers and terrible masters in the world? I''m still on the top of thedder, while you are still climbing it up."

    "One day I''ll surpass you," William shrugged, not knowing his casual response to teasing Fang made thetter far more excited.

    But Fang controlled his emotions, not showing any on his face.

    "Let me ask you then, are you from the higher realm?" the moment Fang threw his question, and William''s body intensified.

    It went without saying that he used to pull miraculous feats one after another, but no one ever asked him such a question before.

    "No¡­ I was born and raised here in this world¡­"

    "Then let me rephrase my words then¡­ Are you¡­ Perhaps a reincarnator?"

    This time, William''s face froze for a brief second. He knew what this old master meant, and couldn''t believe that someone in this tiny world was aware of this.

    Reincarnators were people blessed by their ability to bypass the cruel and ruthlessws of the world. All the living beings in all worlds had to go into the reincarnation cycle the moment they died. But in very special and extremely rare situations, few might escape such a rule.

    Going through a reincarnation cycle meant to lose all the memories one had, toe back to life without recalling anything of his past life, or life.

    But for these special individuals, they''de back in life while retaining all of their memories, orrge parts of them. William knew that his nemesis enemy, that fox, was a reincarnator. And hearing such a term from this master made him freeze for a moment.

    And that slight change in his face didn''t escape Fang''s keen eyes and senses. "So it''s true," he didn''t wait for William to say anything, feeling satisfied with that slight sign that appeared out of William''s intentions, "you came from the outer world, one of those lucky bastards who escaped the cycle of reincarnation!"

    "You are the bastard!" William bellowed back, annoyingly. He didn''t like how this master acted so far, didn''t like how he saw through this.

    William didn''t know if he died back then and got reincarnated, or did hee back in time. In either case, he got the knowledge he learnt from the past life, from the outer world, and that made, in one way or another, a reincarnator.

 Chapter 1093 Capture Or Kill?

    <h4>Chapter 1093 Capture Or Kill?</h4>

    "I don''t mind that, hahaha!" Fang was in a weirdly great mood right now, "I have another question or a request¡­"

    "No, I won''t take you with me!" William strictly and directly jumped towards the crux of the issue. He didn''t know how Fang learnt about reincarnators, a thing that even in the outer world only a handful of people knew. But he could already guess the reason behinding here and speaking with him about all this.

    "Why?" The moment William said his direct refusal, Fang''sugh died short. His face returned to show his cold and unfriendly face, giving William a look of disdain.

    "I don''t like you," as Fang acted straightforwardly from the start, and didn''t show any courtesy or respect towards him, William decided to do the same here.

    "You don''t need to love me to do it, I know you are into girls not men¡­"

    "Damn you!" William couldn''t believe how this master had the ability to twist things over and bend the conversation to head toward weird topics, "I won''t help anyone who isn''t part of my gang."

    "Gang? You mean that childish guild of yours?" Fang raised an eyebrow, before suddenly bowing his head, "if you ept, I''ll join it."

    "Screw off! You are just licking my boots to get what you want!" if not for that Fang to be a much fiercer and far stronger master than him, would have preferred to literally kick his as* away from here.

    "Master, you can''t be serious, I''m honestly expressing my willingness to join the guild and serve master¡­"

    "Stay the hell off me!" Fang was acting shameless enough to even cling to William''s legs. Thetter shrugged himself off, and looked at that old man in a weird way, "You¡­ You stay the hell out of my way and sight¡­"

    "Not until you let me go there, hehehe," Fangughed in an evil and sly way, making William feel he was going to suffer a lot at the hands of such a master.

    "Aren''t you ashamed? Aren''t you worried anyone will spot you doing these actions, and end up tarnishing your reputation?"

    "I already have a very bad reputation, so what?" Fang still acted shamelessly and didn''t care about what William said, "and in return for going there, any master will be willing to do more than that."

    "You¡­" William got the hidden hint that the old man was inclined in his words. Fang wanted to say if William didn''t help him, then he''d end up causing far more trouble to him than just slightly giving him a headache.

    "It''s a little help for a fellow human, right?"

    "Why do I sniff the smell of monsters from you then?" William harrumphed, but he knew he had no way out of there.

    "I''m a human, believe me! Do you want to see me naked?"

    "No! Go the hell out of here!" William wanted nothing more but to punch Fang in the face and send him flying far away from here. But he knew in terms of strength, this master would win by miles.

    "Then say yes and I''ll go on my way," Fang shrugged, as if this matter was out of his hands.

    "Fine," William finally resigned, "but there are rules. First of all, I won''t take any street beggar because he is quite annoying, got it?"

    "Sure, I''m Fang, not a street beggar," Fang nodded his head, acting as dumb as any master could be at this moment. Hearing his careless response to such an insult made William''s scalp go numb.

    "This war is a test for you then," William seriously said, "if you perform well, then I''ll ept you in my gang."

    "This is easy," Fang interrupted William''s words, cracking his knuckles as if he was really going all out, "I never fought in this war yet, so you''ll get shocked by my performance."

    "I''m not done yet," William''s eye corners twitched slightly, "If you passed this test, then you''ll end up serving me for a hundred years out there."

    "A hundred years is nothing, but¡­" Fang paused, looked at his body, and touched his wrinkled face, "I''m already old, don''t know if I can survive all this long¡­"

    "By going there, your life span will increase by three hundred years," William rolled his eyes, "howe you know about reincarnators and not know about such trivial matters?"

    William said it on purpose, to remind this master here that even if he was stronger now, even if he managed to join him to go out from here, he still needed his help and guidance, as William got tons of information and knowledge that this mastercked.

    And his message was received well by Fang. "Fine, I ept that," he finally epted William''s conditions.

    "That''s not all¡­" William paused, and thought about what he had to say for a few seconds, "Out there, I have an enemy, one that''s very very dangerous. It''s now here, in this world, in this ce, the one behind all this¡­"

    "Damn! Are you getting reincarnated with your troubles?!!" Fang blinked, didn''t get how his luck was bad.

    "Don''t worry, it''s not in its former power," William paused, "my best guess is that it''s also like me, a reincarnator."

    "Damn! Why are you making it sound like reincarnators aremon, present at every side and corner?!!"

    "Just ept this theory for now," William rolled his eyes, "I''m telling you this because I need your help. We have to capture it."

    "Capture or kill?" Fang gave William a weird look, and thetter knew by Fang''s presence in this special task, that it was going to be much easier for him.

    "Capture, not kill," William strictly said, "killing it means you won''te with me, even if we have to fight till one of us is dead, got it?"

    "Sure¡­" Fang felt there was more than what William just said here. But there wasn''t any way for him to guess what William truly wanted.

 Chapter 1094 The King Knows!

    Chapter 1094 The King Knows!

    Trying to capture his archenemy? Did he want to torture it or something? Did he want to interrogate it about the ce of his love? A treasure perhaps? Fang''s mind ran wild with tons of exnations and scenarios, without any clue about which was right or wrong.

    "Do you know this enemy of yours?" Fang looked around, "As you can tell, we are surrounded by tons of enemies here and it''ll be hard to spot him¡­"

    "I met him once," William took a scroll out, one with the drawing face of that Nightmare monster, or how he looked now as a human, "here¡­ this is its picture."

    "Its picture? This is a human¡­" Fang paused, before asking, "is this some sort of bad drawing or a mistake? Why does he have such a gem in the middle of his forehead?"

    "It''s not human," William just stopped here, "don''t take it as a human, don''t deal with it with your guard down, or else you won''t see iting, won''t know when you died or what killed you!"

    "Interesting¡­ I love this feeling, hahaha! I''m going to find him for you, master, trust me on this, hahaha!"

    "Damn this Fang!" William didn''t get the chance to say anything when Fang dashed fast, and vanished from here, "he is going to have a headache! I was relieved by Ibra, and how Fang!"

    William could already sniff trouble and headache from Fang. but on another note, having a pinnacle stage master in the guild and by his side would solve tons of problems.

    He didn''t know that Fang wasn''t just a normal pinnacle master, but one of the top three in the entire world.

    As everyone was focused on dealing with the iing monsters, they didn''t get to inspect or watch what was going on between William and Fang, except for one.

    "Oh, this is getting far more interesting¡­ My daughter is indeed like her mother, has very good eyes for special men, hahaha!"

    The king wasn''t far off from William''s ce, and saw and heard everything that happened using his spirit sense. Despite not getting much of what the two were speaking about, he could at least guess what a reincarnator meant and guessed that William wasn''t just a normal master.

    "That exins everything then¡­" The king, excited about such a discovery, decided to keep William''s secret with him to the grave. And yet he didn''t stop himself from going there and meeting William.

    "Oh, you are here," William was puzzled by the sudden departure of Fang. he came here to ask for his own stuff, left after getting what he wanted, and didn''t even think for one second to ask about how to stop these weird monsters.

    William was puzzled and confused by this Fang. When he was about to take the special scroll out and tell Sloth about everything, he spotted the king running fast in his direction.

    "I was worried because that crazy master went after you," the king acted as if he never listened to a single word between these two, "What did he want?"

    "Nothing, he just wanted to join my guild," William cleverly escaped mentioning anything about the real purpose of Fang''s visit and also gave the king a suitable answer.

    "Niced," the kingmented in his mind, "OK, as long as things work out great for you then I''m d. Fang isn''t just a normal pinnacle master, he is one of the Three Lords!"

    "Lords?" William was puzzled for a second, but then he got everything when the king exined in brief, "It''s great indeed. That way, my guild obtained a strong backing," Williamughed, didn''t show anything on his face, not even the slightest hint of worry.

    Having such a scary figure by his side had its perks and cons. But he decided to ignore any cons and focus on making the best use of him.

    "Now¡­ As you can see¡­"

    "These monsters are real trouble," William was d they returned to speak about the real issue here, "they aren''t the typical monsters we used to fight against."

    "At least one of them has wings, hahaha!" The king tried to act serious, but his excitement about what he eavesdropped made him unable to hold back hisugh. And when heughed, William didn''t know what to say in return.

    "They are trouble, why are youughing?"

    "Because you know them, and that means they aren''t a problem anymore, hahaha!" The king kept acting weird, and William decided to ignore such a high attitude from him.

    "Listen¡­ I can handle the dragons, but you have to stop them for half an hour¡­ No, make it an hour," William looked back at the progress of the Troll assembly. He got interrupted twice, and that dyed his estimated progress by half an hour.

    "We have water and ice masters waiting for them¡­"

    "No, they won''t help," William slowly shook his head, "these monsters can use fire, water, lightning, and even ice breaths there. Trying to fight them using the same elements won''t do."

    "This¡­"

    "We need darkness element masters," what William said made the king pause for a second, and his smile and happiness vanished.

    "You don''t expect us to go and ask the help of those fckers! They are the ones who started this in the first ce, the ones releasing these monsters upon us!"

    "I don''t mean them," William rolled his eyes, before activating his darkness element, "I mean masters on our side, just like myself."

    "You¡­ Yes, I totally forgot about this," the king slowly nodded, while it still felt weird to watch William release the darkness element from his body, "but their numbers won''t be great¡­"

    "We can also use earth-based masters, and any other master with elements aside from the ones I mentioned, plus wind. No wind masters should be present near these dragons."

    "I got it," the king knew that wind was enough to augment any of these dragons'' elements, adding fuel to the fire, and making things worse, "how about the ground monsters? Those rhinoceros?"

 Chapter 1095 Fighting Dragons And Rhinoceros

    Chapter 1095 Fighting Dragons And Rhinoceros

    "They have a hellish level of defence, so the only way to deal with them is to dy their advance and speed," William paused, "we can use earth masters to change the terrain into something muddy, entrap them there. Use fire and other masters you moved away from the dragons to bombard them¡­ Always remember, the aim is to crush the first lines, let thoseing from behind hurt those upfront, then do it again."

    "This¡­ We won''t be able to take them down using all of our might together?" The king got the hint in William''s words, and couldn''t believe this.

    "That''s true, unfortunately," but William did confirm this guess while sighing, "Without letting them hurt each other, open gaps and wounds on their armour, we won''t be able to kill any."

    "So¡­ We need to focus on the frontline, right?" the king finally got what William meant before, "leave it to us, but those flying dragons¡­ Even our long-ranged masters don''t have any confidence in taking them down."

    "Leave them to me," William confidently said, "I''ll handle them, but give me one hour."

    "Deal," the king left, and his mood was much different than what it was when he first came here. He went back to meet with everyone, discussing and agreeing on what to do.

    As he saw him leaving, William returned to care about his Troll. "It needs at least one day to get done¡­ And these products aren''t enough¡­" he could estimate even with all these items produced, he still needed more. When he turned to check on the Artisans around, he found out they were pouring every ounce of strength there, doing their best already.

    "I need to work harder then," he knew he had to stop amassing this Troll to deal with the dragons. That would take roughly a couple of days, and by then he hoped they''d make enough items for his Troll to get done.

    As he poured his spirit power into the Troll Core, making it absorb more of the items, the masters already agreed on what to do.

    "I''ll take my masters and stop these rhinoceros."

    "Leave the dragons to me, I''ve spread the word and many are alreadying up, all with darkness and other rare elements."

    "I''ll try to see through time, try to see where they''ll hit next and warn you."

    Everyone started to do their tasks diligently, ending up dispersing all over the ce. With them at the lead, everyone else started to move and follow them.

    Masters with special elements joined different leaders and moved to their assigned spots. At the same time, masters without any role here kept building traps and fortifying defences all over the ce.

    The dragons seemed to fly fast towards here, but they took roughly one hour to arrive. This was mainly because they waited, gathered up each other, and formed a scary gathering of them up there.

    The rhinoceros weren''t that patient though. They kept running towards masters, and those unfortunate enough to move out and try to stop them all ended up dead.

    They were indeed quite ferocious, blessed with abnormal armour and an insane level of defence. They couldn''t get harmed, not to mention killed. And on top of that, they had such weird agility, one that ended up for many of the attacks to miss.

    Yet when the new orders arrived, with masters of earth elements to take the lead, things dramatically changed.

    The ground changed and became like soft sand and fragile mud. The monsters fell deeply there with their heavy bodies, and their agility didn''t help at all.

    When the frontline tumbled like this, the following monsters came fiercely after, hitting them hard from behind. More monsters fell and even many flew in the air and fell down like cannonballs.

    "Their bellies are exposed!"

    "Hit them there! It must be their soft spot!"

    "Use everything you have! There are many with wounds, aim for these gaps, kill them!"

    Many shouts erupted, and everyone got excited by achieving just this. But when the first monster fell, their excitement skyrocketed, reaching a high stage like never before.

    Many shouted and got hyped by this. More and more monsters started to fall everywhere. Soon enough, the area around the camp changed, bing surrounded by a huge wall that was identally built by the dead and fallen bodies of these huge monsters.

    As William told the king, the moment the first line fell down, the battle would change for the better. The following monsters fell one line after another, like a cascade that all happened by the first trapid down by masters.

    All that remained now was for masters to take advantage of the wounded ones at the frontlines, and kill them fast enough before those at the back would climb up. This didn''t go all well all the way, with many monsters managing to climb and dash towards the huge gathering of monsters in front of them.

    Whenever that happened, these masters would instantly use the same trick again, trapping the iing monsters into soft sand and mud, ending their charge with a fierce falling.

    This became like a tempo, and the masters could heave a sigh of relief. But before they''d get much relief and control over the situation, the dragons came.

    The first thing that happened was for an earth-shattering roar to erupt, one that invoked fear in everyone hearing it. Then all of sudden, arge group of dragons drew closer, while many started to breathe at the masters down below from far.

    Even if the dragons'' breaths didn''t enjoy the long range, even if their breaths killed the monsters first, they still did that and flew towards the masters in a fixed path.

    It was a hellish and terrifying scene for those on the frontlines. Seeing such gigantic behemoths with wings, breathing all kinds of attacks, fire, water, ice, and evenva,ing towards them while burning and killing the monsters they struggled so much to hurt, was indeed quite the moment.

 Chapter 1096 What Is That?!!!

    ?

    Yet before they''d imagined the worst, a loud shout came from their direction, and many masters started to run and meet these dragons.

    "I will handle them! I will kill them!" Yet before a single master would show up and arrive at the dragons, a single one moved like an arrow, flying in the air, aplishing something that none other ever did.

    Masters at dark gold grade would develop some sort of hovering ability. They could float in the air, and move for a few kilometres at most while being too close to the ground. They could'' literally fly until they''d arrived at the top of the pinnacle stage.

    Like anything else in the spirit master world, with every increase in spirit power, a gain to all the abilities would be obtained.

    "It''s Fang!" many recognised the infamous master right on the spot, "since when was he with us?!!" This was by far shocking news, and also great news.

    Fang was infamous for his temper, the same as any formidable master. But he was way worse than any top master. Yet he was known as well for his ferocity and brutal techniques.

    The moment everyone spotted him, and hope surged up by a ton! They watched him fly, high in the air, evenly at the same level as dragons, without knowing how he did that.

    He was blessed with a few elements, and one of them was space element and the other was wind. He managed tobine the two together, ending up traversing long distances using space, hovering in the air by wind, and then jumping to another spot.

    To those watching from far, he was flying, but to those using spirit sense, he wasn''t. No matter the reason, he was now going to the dragons, alone, and all waited for what he was going to do.

    "Let there be a hurricane!" he suddenly muttered, and all of sudden, a giant tornado appeared, "let the world turn into a hurricane!" he muttered again, and this time, he kept jumping from one spot to another, ending up spreading more tornadoes everywhere.

    He was using space techniques to jump through distant points, and wind to summon deadly hurricanes. The wind was the ally of flying monsters, and also their deadliest enemy.

    The moment these dragons got entrapped into one tornado, they tried to escape it by going any direction away from it. But eventually, they''d get caught in another tornado, and another. As many fell for this, they either kept struggling against these, or ended up getting thrown far away, or to the ground.

    "Kill them!" The moment these dragons fell to the ground, many masters shouted, and jumped with their deadliest weapons and techniques, wanting to take the honour of the first master ying a dragon in the world.

    They were all driven by greed for glory and power, ending up facing a terrible ending for most of them. These monsters were all at high-stage dark gold grade, not the type to be easily toyed with by any master.

    Until the pinnacle stage masters arrived, things looked a bit difficult and bloody for everyone. The dragons fell to the ground, feeling dizzy and weak, but they were still hellishly strong.

    They had a high defence and a scary offence. Their breaths kept killing lots of masters, until the strong ones appeared and started killing them.

    Even if they had high defence, it wasn''t even close to those rhinoceros. In the end, dragons kept dying, and masters began to organise themselves once again.

    In just half an hour, Fang single-handedly changed the course of this battle. Yet he had his limits, couldn''t go on like this even with elixirs.

    When one arrived at such a stage of power, elixirs would turn pretty much useless. Unless one was willing to use tons of these, their effects wouldn''t be that significant, not even that useful.

    "Tell me this is enough," he tried tost for another half an hour using much of his stored elixirs, but he ended up sustaining just for fifteen more minutes. In the end, he withdrew, and retreated, while the dragons entrapped got freed.

    The tornado vanished all of a sudden, and then things started to look bad for everyone.

    *Roar!*

    The dragons were famous for not letting their personal grudges down. They ignored everyone and focused solely on the despicable human who let them suffer all this.

    They flew and roared, chasing Fang using everything they got. Fang was running at first in the middle of an army of masters, ending up realising this was going to kill tons of masters here.

    "Screw this! Why aren''t you ready yet?!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, knowing that even by using his spirit power to strengthen his voice, William wasn''t going to hear any of what he said.

    As things reached this far, he turned around, and ran away using his space element and techniques, "Make that kid use his weapon, or else we are done for!" he shouted, knowing that other formidable masters were listening to his words attentively, would deliver the message over to William.

    Thetter wasn''t ignorant of all this. In fact, he finished making the first stage of the Troll ten minutes ago. But he decided to wait, let that master suffer a little for his harsh attitude back there with him.

    Yet when the dragons broke free and ran amok amidst the tons of masters, he had to act. Before Fang''s shout would end, something roared from far behind, attracting everyone''s attention, including the dragons.

    "What is¡­ That?!!!"

    This was what everyone who watched this thought and shouted aloud. Just at the direction of the forging ce, at the ce where William was, a giant metallic behemoth appeared.

    It had no eyes, head without anything special about it but being irregr in shape and appearance. It looked ugly, yet it felt deadly.

    "Is that¡­'''' the king, Sloth, Panther, even Fang and other formidable masters, muttered to themselves the moment they saw that behemoth.

 Chapter 1097 He Owes Me An Explanation

    ?

    It felt like a small mountain was rising up from the ground. And yet when they thought it was going to stand on two feet, showing the same appearance of a man but on a crazilyrger scale than any human, they watched it stop there, not moving an inch.

    "Is that¡­ It?!!! No way! No f*cking way! How the hell are you supposed to fight them then?!!!" Fang was totally shocked and quite enraged by that. He thought like everyone else, that what William made would stand up, walk towards this spot, and join the battle.

    But it stopped just right there, as if it was a dwarf, or was built without legs or something.

    "No way! Are you f*cking kidding me!!!" Fang was almost this close from exploding out of rage, not until that weird thing William built started to act.

    As everyone saw it using their spirit senses, this thing was at least twenty metres tall, thirty metres broad at the shoulders. It was like a colossal man standing, with only half of his chest rising off from the ground.

    It was clear lots of work needed to be done. It missed eyes, and missed lots of parts actually. Its body was filled with gaps, but this was the best William could do at such short notice.

    "Time to show you the terrifying power of my Troll!" William evilly grinned, knowing without the need to use his spirit sense what everyone thought about his weapon.

    The moment he thought about the attack, the empty eye sockets started to shine in zing red light. It looked dangerous as if it was going to release a deadly beam of red light, enough to incinerate the entire world with it.

    Things happened fast, without anyone''s speed of evenprehending what was going on. William''s weird and ugly weapons suddenly had its empty eyeshockets brightened up, releasing tons of thin red beams of light, before it suddenly died down.

    Things happened pretty fast for anyone to realise what went on. But in the next few minutes, they all opened their mouths agape. All the dragons got petrified in their ce, seemingly unable to move like before, or as if someone pressed the freeze button.

    Then one by one, they turned into ash, slowly as if their bodies were getting eaten away by something from the inside. They watched not just a few of these dragons, but almost sixty percent of them showing such signs.

    As for the rest, they started to fall down, while their bodies showed a piercing hole, one that was zing in faint red light.

    "He¡­ He did that¡­ Using that ugly thing over there?!!!" This wasn''t just Fang''sment, but everyone else also thought the same.

    They were all shocked and had to look around to make sure there wasn''t another reason behind such a thing happening.

    "What are you doing standing like this? Move out and attack, hit the dragons that are still alive and kill them!"

    The king''s mighty roar woke everyone up, making them move at once to hit and kill these dragons.

    "Sigh, I couldn''t kill all of them in one go¡­" *Thud!*

    Just as William saw what his unfinished Troll did, he couldn''t help but bitterly mutter, before his body mmed on the ground.

    "William!" Anjie shouted in distress and worry and went towards his body. He was breathing normally, and didn''t do any harm¡­

    "Don''t worry about him," Just before she''d scream for someone to help, she saw the same man whom William spoke with in riddles.

    She was around when Fang came to William, but unlike her father, she got nothing at all from their talk. If not for knowing William, she''d have thought he was fooling around with that master, or they were ying a game or something.

    "But¡­ His breaths¡­"

    "He is just sleeping," Fang rolled his eyes, and turned around before moving fast, "tell him he owes me an exnation of how he did it, tsk! Girls are a distraction, only good at bed, tsk!"

    "..."

    Anjie didn''t know how she should respond to these words, yet her face blushed when she saw William''s face, lying on herp.

    "Bed¡­" she muttered to herself, while wild and crazy thoughts shed through her mind.

    As she was lost in her thoughts, and William was sleeping out of his spirit power exhaustion, things went crazy out there at the frontline.

    The dragons got shot badly, and couldn''t even fly on their own anymore. Masters jumped on them, killing and hacking their bodies, using everything they got to get these dragons down.

    They weren''t like the Rhinoceros and didn''t have such an insane level of defence. They fell sporadically, spreading over a huge stretch of area, falling in the middle of the master army.

    If William was awake, he''d not let them do such a stupid thing. These were dragons, and they were fierce and extremely unique species. Instead of killing them, it was better to capture all, prepare them to move back towards their world after all this was over, and then try to tame them.

    An army of dragon riders, that would be the phrase William would shout with for many hourster on after knowing about what they did here.

    Yet none had such a crazy idea in their minds, as such a thing as taming monsters wasn''t present in this world. Here, it was either monsters killing humans or humans killing them.

    Even if these monsters were hard to kill, they had no power to resist or fight back. That turned such mighty beings into hopeless and powerless creatures, like sitting ducks, waiting for death and ughter.

    At the same time, masters finally got their focus on the rhinoceros. They released tons of attacks over them and didn''t hold back anything.

    The aerial threat was gone, and all they had to do was follow the old and proven effect tactic, wipe out these monsters by slowly grinding them.

    Yet the number of these rhinoceros was quite insane! They didn''t stoping until five days passed!

 Chapter 1098 The Kiss!

    <h4>Chapter 1098 The Kiss!</h4>

    That was crazy! No one ever imagined they had such an endless number of rhinoceros in this area or pocket world, not to mention they didn''t act normally at all.

    The dragons showed a level of intelligence that was much higher than any high-end monster in the world. But these rhinoceros, despite being strong and deadly, were dumb! They kepting and charging forward, not caring about anything else but advancing, even on top of their mates'' bodies, even on top of anything else!

    During this, William woke up after just half a day of rest. He got exhausted after pouring all the spirit power he had into that Troll.

    It wasn''t meant for a single person to operate it, but luckily the number of enemies wasn''t that high, the Troll wasn''t even half finished, and he only needed to release one hit only.

    The attack hended was guided by his spirit sense. As he did not enough control over this, he struggled to guide the hits toward the deadly spots of these dragons.

    Not to mention he couldn''t unleash most of the terrifying power of the Troll. So he couldn''t burn away all of them. Yet when he woke up, he learnt how things went smoothly after his hit.

    The first thing he saw after opening his eyes was Anjie''s face. She was looking at him, with tired and puffy eyes, as if she was crying.

    "Are you ok?" he couldn''t help but ask, and hearing his voice and seeing him open his eyes made her lean over his face, and without any warning, paint a soft kiss on his lips.

    Before he''d get over this shock, Anjie was gone! She ran as fast as her legs could, couldn''t wait for a single moment there, and didn''t have the courage to look him in the eye.

    "This girl¡­" William touched his lips, feeling how sweet the kiss tasted, before sighing again, "She is treading a dangerous path¡­" he evillyughed, before turning his eyes away from her.

    The world around was still filled with shouts of war, fighting spirit, and the loud roars of the rhinoceros monsters. Everything looked great, and he then found Sloth standing at the rear, supervising something.

    "Tell me, what did you do with the dragons?" William''s mind jolted awake when he realised there wasn''t a single dragon seen anywhere at all. He feared the worst, and what he feared turned out to be true.

    "No, no, no, that''s not true, no way," William instantly broke into shouting, not believing what he just heard, "my dragon riders¡­ Dragon riders¡­ You fools¡­"

    He kept shouting while Sloth didn''t know what he was talking about. "Calm down, for whatever reason you have, We are rocking the enemy and winning¡­"

    "Shut up! I hate you! Do you know what precious chance you just ruined? Damn! Why did I have to lose consciousness at such a time? I miss my guild masters, my dear guild masters¡­"

    "..."

    Sloth stood in his ce motionless, feeling much weirder the more he listened. He just got reprimanded by a youngster, one who was too many years younger than himself.

    William wanted to throw the scroll away, not speak with Sloth again, but he controlled himself at the end. "It''s true that if you wanted to do something, do it yourself¡­" he muttered before turning towards the far away mountainous wall, "will there be more dragons? They got attracted by the spirit power released from the Troll¡­ I need to work on it, I need to do it now!"

    He now had more reasons to finish this Troll. He hoped and prayed for more dragons to appear, and by then he''d make sure no one would touch his dragons!

    But his dreams never came true. No matter how he waited, even purposely dying the final assembly of the Troll on the excuse of not having enough items, he still didn''t see a shadow of a single dragon anywhere.

    He spread out his spirit sense and kept watching, without finding anything by the end of this battle. By the fall of thest rhinoceros monster, he had to finally wrap everything, onlycking the final summoning call for the beast he built to rise.

    He didn''t do this. The Troll''s appearance didn''t change much. Its two empty eye sockets were now having two cylindrical ss-like eyes. The missing pieces were gone, and they looked perfectly smooth and shining silver and ck from far.

    Yet it wasn''t showing its true mighty shape. It got everything attached, waiting for William''s call to be summoned. And yet William did totally the opposite, didn''t summon its full form, instead ordered it to shrink back in size.

    This was the beauty of this Troll. It could shrink all the way back to what its core looked like, with lots of small cubes surrounding the core, forming someyers around the core.

    Once it shrank in size, shocking everyone watching this either around or by using their spirit senses, William stored it away in one of his rings.

    Yet he selected a high-level ring, and emptied it from anything inside before storing the Troll there.

    "One day, I''ll build my army of Trolls," William knew using Trolls wasn''t efficient at offensive wars in the outer world. They needed arge number of masters to support and supply it with spirit power, something that was indeed a hindrance in times of offensive battles like this one.

    Masters activating it had limited freedom of movement, couldn''t move around and fight freely, and needed to be heavily defended as well.

    So its main usage was in defensive wars. As it was something too advanced for the current level cap of the world, it was okay to use it in such an offensive battle.

    "Why did you take it back?" The moment William stored the Troll, he was about to walk towards the direction of the frontlines, but he noticed the approach of many figures.

    The king even came!

 Chapter 1099 The Trouble Seeker

    <h4>Chapter 1099 The Trouble Seeker</h4>

    "Sorry my liege, but my weapon needs time to be adjusted and charged," William apologised to the king, "I need to find the most suitable location for my weapon to show its might."

    "It''s indeed quite handy," the king nodded, "but you said it''ll be used to take down the mountains around."

    "I know, but I couldn''t build it the way I wanted," William didn''t want to use the weapon for now, wanted to let them go and fight the dark masters first, try to find any trap before using his weapon.

    And he was still feeling a bit salty about losing the dragons. So he wanted them to struggle a little on top of that.

    "Cool, but the masters are tired," Sloth shrugged, not buying any of what William just said, "We need to wait for a few days then."

    "Risking more monsters to arrive? Come on, we need to go and start dealing with those dark masters."

    "But we don''t have lots of bridges towards the peaks of mountains," a formidable master belonging to the kingdom said, "and these peaks are filled with lots of traps and explosive formations."

    "We will build more then," William didn''t care about this, " we need to pave paths to all the peaks of the mountains. Dark masters filling these ces are the ones protecting the shield. Without taking them down, we won''t be able to get out."

    "Ok¡­" the king looked at everyone before adding, "I''ll go and supervise over everything from the tent, You make sure to build lots of paths first, protect them quite well. Also, send more scouts to the valleys, we need to get rid of the monsters inside these, and ce more pressure on the dark masters."

    "Yes, my king," everyone said and bowed while getting the point behind the king''s idea. He wanted them to go into the valleys, and keep the dark masters busy, while they''d build paths and head toward the peak.

    This would ce more pressure on the dark masters. They might be in very well-secured ces, but they were also entrapped there, without a way out.

    Everyone started to discuss what to do, but William had a different opinion.

    The dark masters would never entrap themselves in a ce without a way out. For such veterans in digging the hills and building bases underground, he was sure of the presence of at least one huge base under all these mountains. From there, they could escape using tunnels.

    He didn''t want to let a single one of them escape. Monsters might be considered the main problem they had to deal with sinceing here, but William knew the crux of the problem came from the dark masters.

    They were the ones pulling strings from behind the curtain, the ones who were executing the schemes of the ones leading all this.

    Taking them out of the game would change the entire situation, and the leaders wouldn''t have a way out to solve any of this.

    As he watched everyone get arranged into teams, few went to rest, few went to venture in the valleys, scout them, search for any monsters, and attract the attention of dark masters, he started to gather the one thousand masters who just joined his guild.

    They didn''t get the chance to do anything remarkable yet. And William intended to lead them, digging the ground till he found an entrance to the underground base.

    Then he''d start attacking and clearing the base, collect any riches there, and prepare a ce for the formidable masters to train on using the Troll.

    Trying to control such a behemoth wasn''t an easy feat, not even for the pinnacle-grade masters.

    William had to let them train and get used to how to pour their spirit power in different ratios to release the different attacks from the Troll. To control the Troll, they need to release their spirit power in certain amounts and rates, and they have to do this together.

    This needed training, and he wouldn''t let them train on the surface for that. If so, then he''d warn the enemies about the various abilities of his Troll, ending up losing such a scary card in such a foolish way.

    As everyone went to do their tasks, while most of the masters started to help in building paths towards all the mountain peaks here, Anjie came with one thousand masters, or what remained of them.

    "We lost around two hundred of them," Anjie sighed, looking at the remaining masters, while they didn''t feel any regret. In fact, they were quite excited about being in front of William again.

    "Don''t me them," William nodded in appreciation and recognition, "they don''t deserve to be in my guild if they leant to safety, didn''t join, and risked their lives in the battle, just like their master."

    His words were clear, he highly appreciated what they did, highly valued the sacrifices they made, and that made them more excited.

    "So master¡­ Are we going to do something special? Something dangerous?" One of them spoke what everyone had in their minds right now. Once they heard from Anjie about this, their minds ran wild with different thoughts.

    "Sure, don''t tell me you are afraid," heughed, and they all shook their heads, and said in unison: Never!

    "Goodds," William acted as if he was an old master overlooking his disciples or something.

    "Where are we going? And which enemy are we going to hit?" Anjie asked, and everyone''s eyes fixed on William.

    Thetter waited for a few seconds, before hitting the ground with his feet, "we are going down, going to look for the hidden base of the enemy, take them out, and kill them all."

    "..." Hearing this made everyone''s blood boil, south with desire and will to fight. And yet the masters who heard all this from far couldn''t help but inwardly sigh.

    "This kid¡­ He isn''t a ma for trouble, he is a trouble seeker, a far troublesome kind¡­"

 Chapter 1100

    Chapter 1100

    The king was in his tent, shaking his head when he heard what William said using his spirit sense, "Sloth, make sure to prepare a grand army to help."

    "Sure, my liege," Sloth was in the tent, alongside Panther and many others, "but¡­"

    "What?"

    "Fang is already tagging along," Panther suddenly said, "he is hiding himself from William, but I kept tracking him since that battle¡­"

    "I don''t think he got anything against that kid," the king exined why Panther was worried, "thed told me Fang wanted to join his guild¡­"

    "No way! That madman wants to join someone else?!!!" This wasn''t just Panther''s words, but Sloth and many others bellowed at the same time.

    "I didn''t believe it at first, but as you can tell, he is working like a watchdog for that kid," the king sighed, as he had tried a long time ago, tried many times already to recruit Fang, but failed.

    "So¡­" Sloth paused, looked at the king and thetter got what he wanted to ask about.

    "Fang alone isn''t enough, and I doubt he''ll do any trouble as long as that kid is around."

    "Ok," everyone knew the temper of Fang. in addition to his infamy, he was also known for his harsh and hostile temper to anyone trying to meddle with his affairs.

    Yet that was only limited to him going out to kill monsters, look for treasures, and such. Right now, he was just following William, and the king and others were going to help William, not interfere with Fang.

    As the high-end masters agreed on what to do, the newly recruited members of the Fox guild moved alongside William and Anjie, heading towards one direction.

    "Why here?" Everyone was puzzled, as William selected a direction and headed towards it. It was the same spot that got with his scary grand technique, the ce where lots of mountains got crushed and the ce looked like a lost tooth in the mouth of a monster.

    Even if everyone wanted to ask, only Anjie could say it out loud to William.

    "The entrance to this base will be well hidden," William knew this wasn''t the typical dark master base everyone used to deal with, and that meant the entrances would be securely hidden under the bodies of the mountains, "If I was them, I''d let the tunnels be hidden under the mountains, only essible after removing many rocks or activate some sort of an array."

    "Then¡­" Anjie looked at the grand gathering of different-sized rocks, "How can we find it¡­"

    "It''s easy," unlike what others expected, William spoke in a carefree tone, "we''ll just bombard the ground with lots of techniques. The ce to show more damage than usual will be the ce with an entrance underneath."

    "This¡­" No one ever expected it to be this simple, "Isn''t it so easy to do?!!"

    "It''s just logic," William shrugged, not seeing anything weird about his way, "select those with fierce techniques, ones that will ce more pressure on the ground. Then let them start hitting the rocks, and others will examine the area of damage, looking for any abnormally damaged spots¡­"

    William started to assign rules to everyone, putting thest touches on the n in his mind.

    The n was simple. A team would move at the forefront, hitting everywhere without discrimination. They''d get elixirs to support their attacks, and then others would follow from behind.

    Once a ce was marked as a suspect, part of them would start removing rocks and unearthing the lower details there. Once they found an entrance, they''d shout at others and then they''d go inside.

    It was indeed a simple n, but executing it proved to be quite challenging and hard. They took hours to attack, with the help of William. He used his cannonball technique, and yet they needed almost ten hours until someone finally shouted: "We found it! It''s here!"

    "Goodd!" It wasn''t William who said it, but Fang who tagged from behind. He watched William and others and listened to the simple and yet highly effective n.

    He liked this n, as it was quite effective and wouldn''t take lots of time and effort. In mere hours, they managed to find an entrance, a task that''d take long days from anyone else.

    "That''s it," William dashed fast and arrived in no time towards that spot. There he found a grand hole, dug by his guild masters, with a deeper and ck opening at its end, "I''ll go inside first, then you follow."

    He said it without waiting for anyone to say their opinion. The opening was wide enough for a group of hundreds of masters to pass through, but William decided to go there solo.

    Before Anjie could jump and follow him, William already vanished. "Damn! Why is he that good at running? Let''s¡­ Who are you?!!"

    Just before she''dpleted her words, something shed by her side, a shadow that she didn''t get its full features clearly. It passed so fast, and as it appeared out of thin air, without warning, and moved at such a high speed that made her unable to see anything of it, she felt threatened.

    "Move, move fast! He is in danger!!" The next instant she shouted in distress, feeling deeply worried about him.

    "Don''t worry, that was Fang!" Just before anyone else would move a finger, a few silhouettes shed with a familiar voiceing from one of them.

    "Mentor Sloth? Why are you here?!! What''s going on?!!!" Anjie was shocked to see a group of a hundred high-end masters, all belonging to her father, alongside many others who were on the way here.

    "We came to help, what else?" Sloth rolled his eyes, "That kid is crazy! Thinking he can take the underground base of dark masters with such limited force? That''s insane!"

    "My father sent you?" She already guessed what happened, "How about the thing that moved inside? Enemy or a friend?"

    "He is Fang," Sloth said, and his answer was enough to let Anjie heave a deep sigh of relief, "let''s go, even if he has Fang on his side, it''s not safe for him."

 Chapter 1101 Attacking The Underground Enemys Base

    Chapter 1101 Attacking The Underground Enemy''s Base

    "Sure, let''s go," Anjie''s tone changed, was filled with hope and confidence. With everyone her father sent here, she was feeling the confidence to go through this battle.

    William didn''t know about any of this. He simply dashed towards the opening, and there he found himself free falling. "Damn! They made it perfectly vertical, is it a trap then?" feeling his body free falling, he didn''t hesitate to take out his weapons, shing against the fast passing walls to reduce his descent speed.

    "Got you!" After struggling for two minutes, he finally managed to stop his body from descending freely. He had to turn to his spirit body form, using his tails to cling to the prominent rocks on the walls. Once he stopped his descent, he took a few seconds to catch his breath, then spread his spirit sense down below.

    "It''s indeed quite deep¡­" he saw the tunnel he was falling inside extending for five more kilometres, before ending in a huge open space. The distance between the ceiling and the ground was around two kilometres at least, and the ce opposite to the tunnel''s end was filled with tons of deadly thorns that looked both dangerous and toxic.

    He guessed it right. And as he confirmed his earlier doubts, he started to slowly climb down. He kept his spirit sense focused down there, before taking a Bullet and warning Anjie to be cautious when descending.

    He didn''t wait for her answer, and kept descending. When she got his message, she was about to enter with Sloth and everyone else.

    "Wait¡­ There is a trap down there¡­" she told everyone what she just heard from him. The moment she said that, and everyone stopped. They asked for what happened, and she simply said what William just told her.

    "It''s quite expected to have traps down there," one of the masters who came with Sloth said, "the only problem is what he''ll do against these¡­"

    "He got Fang, so no need to worry about him," Sloth shrugged, "let''s get down slowly, we don''t want to end up falling in that trap."

    They agreed to take it slowly, the same thing Fang also decided. As for William, he just went down pretty fast, clinging himself to the walls using his tails. He was like crawling on these walls.

    During his descent, he paid more attention towards the world down below. He could see lots of humans wearing ck cloaks, with tons of monsters down there.

    They didn''t seem to be there for him, for anyone. It felt like the idea of finding an entrance to this base and getting down there wasn''t in their list of possibilities.

    "They are gathered up to do something else¡­" William noticed these enemies weren''t moving, weren''t sitting to rest. They seemed to stand there, waiting for something to happen, "are they here to attack us from behind?"

    This was the only possibility he had in mind. Their presence like that had no other exnation, and he guessed it partially right.

    Just when he came to the edge of the tunnel, carefully leaning his head out from the hole, and before he''d moved to the ceiling, he found something there.

    "A formation?" William saw lines and symbols, all shining bright red, like they were drawn by blood and spirit power mixed together. The formation he spotted wasn''t in just one direction, it covered the entire ceiling, extending on top of the heads of everyone down below.

    When he spotted this, he knew he had to inspect the entire structure before deciding what it was used for. It was also connected to the purpose of all these enemies gathered down below. And yet he couldn''t see everything from his current spot.

    "I need to start killing them first," he shifted his attention towards the endless enemies down below. He couldn''t tell their power grade just from looking, and so he started to n his attack.

    "I''ll first create a distraction," he pinned himself to the side of the opening, only showing his head from there. Then he took his bow and arrows out, aimed for various far away locations, and fired.

    The explosions that rang there caused enough ruckus to disturb the enemies down below. They moved towards the spots of explosions, while few smart ones looked at the directions these arrows and grenades came from.

    When they looked up there, they spotted a fox with four tails, moving on the ceiling like it was a monkey. When William crossed enough distance away from the trapid at the bottom, he didn''t hesitate and dashed, crossing the entire distance in one jump.

    "The enemy ising!" Just before the smart dark masters would shout and rm everyone, Williamnded. And a bloody massacre started!

    William didn''t hold back anything this time. From the moment hended on the ground, he unleashed his ten monstrous weapons, his flying weapons, and used all the techniques he got. He didn''t stick to one spot, kept jumping everywhere, shing non-stop, hitting everyone he met.

    He spread grenades all over the trap area, knowing this would be the main obstacle for Anjie and others when they''d arrive here. He never knew they got more help, he got more help, and they were going as fast as they could right now when they heard the loud explosions that rang down below.

    The tunnel that looked ck before was now dancing with bright lights. Anjie wasn''t the only one worried about William, but all of the guild''s newly joined masters shared her the same feeling.

    As for Sloth and others, they could see what was going on down below using their spirit sense. They knew whaty in wait down there, saw what William was doing alone, like a shark in the ocean, with enemies so densely packed down there to be like ocean waves.

    William was apparently holding up, but as they looked around, they knew things were meant to turn for the worse soon enough.

 Chapter 1102 He Doesnt Need Our Help

    ?

    The various enemies down there got distracted and disorganised by his initial grenade and arrow attacks. But the moment hended down there, and they started to drop any concern for these explosions, they were arranging themselves and running towards him from all directions.

    It felt like a tsunami was heading towards him. Even if he was strong, even with everything he had, there was no chance for him to survive this.

    "What are you waiting for? Move now before it''s toote!!" Sloth and others could tell how terrible Wiliam''s situation was, and still Fang never made a move. No one knew why he stood at the opening, watching everything without showing any intention of helping William.

    "I know you are watching, so keep watching him and see how he''ll kill everything here," Fang suddenly muttered, in a low tone that couldn''t be heard well if anyone was by his side right now. But for those watching him using their spirit senses, they heard his words perfectly fine.

    "Damn lunatic¡­" just before Sloth would curse Fang, something did happen down below at William''s ce.

    "He¡­ He is using it again¡­" This wasn''t just Sloth''s words, but everyone else whom he brought along. They watched William using his grand technique again, with the help of all of his monstrous weapons. This time, he didn''t attack mountains, just attacked monsters around.

    Once released, the grand technique left everyone down there stupefied and motionless in ce. They all felt indescribable fear surging in their spirits and bodies, feeling like they were ants standing in front of a god.

    They didn''t dare to move a muscle, and the only ones moving down there were William and his monstrous weapons.

    William didn''t just stop there and kept moving his flying weapons, cleaving the lives of any enemy he could reach. He knew his grand technique had such a scary ability, to freeze his enemies. Without the need to know why, he kept using this technique with the help of his monstrous weapons, ending up expanding the area of their activity, killing tons of enemies in a short time.

    The enemies were already preparing for a grand assault, an unstoppable charge that was enough to kill thousands of William''s calibre. Thetter was watching everything the enemies did using his spirit sense, and he timed the use of his grand technique to match the moment before they''d starting at him.

    The timing was perfect, and before the enemies could draw close to him, his grand techniquended and hit them with irresistible power and fear.

    Seeing this from afar had its own effect on all the masters in the tunnel. Fangughed, feeling like he won a bet or something.

    "Told you, he doesn''t need any help," he said amidst hisughs, while others felt they underestimated William, forgetting all about the scary grand technique he previously used.

    William kept pushing himself beyond the limit, attacking the enemies around and moving across tens of kilometres in that underground base. Not a single enemy he met survived his attacks or even tried to run away for their lives.

    It felt great, but he was sure he wouldn''t be able to keep doing this for a long time. Such great technique ced lots of pressure on him. Even if he consumed elixirs, he knew at some point he needed to stop.

    "Let''s go," Sloth said after a few minutes of watching this legendary show, "he is paving the path for us to get down there and kill the enemies he missed. Stick to the walls, don''t try to do anything funny, or lower your guards¡­"

    He said his orders while moving towards the end of this tunnel. At the same time, Fang also started to move.

    In fact, he didn''t stop back there except for his fear of William''s grand technique. It was the only side effect of this technique, as it didn''t differentiate between foes or friends.

    The moment he got better control of himself, mainly because William moved deeper into the base, heading away from the ce of the entrance tunnel, Fang descended atst.

    He flew in the air, overlooked all the dead bodies, the explosions that rang all over the ce and couldn''t help but inwardly sigh.

    "Such power¡­ It shouldn''t be wielded by someone at the mid-stage of dark gold grade¡­ It''s even on par with my power if I went all out¡­"

    He was totally shocked by William''s performance, and that made him more eager to follow him and head towards the outer world, "Reincarnators are really an abomination and an abnormality¡­" he muttered to himself while flying towards a different direction than William.

    Thest thing he wanted to experience was the fear of William''s technique. Plus, William was taking care of enemies in one direction, and there were still tons of them at this colossal underground base.

    As Fang went in one direction, others arrived atst. The weaker masters had to lean on the help of the older and far stronger ones to descend carefully towards the ground.

    "Let''s go¡­" Anjie was just about to go to follow William, but Sloth stopped her, "What? We are here, and we need to go and help him."

    "That Fang didn''t follow William, and that''s for a proper reason," Sloth slowly shook his head, "he is afraid of William''s weird petrification and fear effect, and we also shall fear it."

    "This¡­ But¡­" Anjie experienced the terror from William''s technique before. And yet she couldn''t help but reject the idea of leaving her man behind.

    "We can help him, in another way," another master said, "Let''s divide ourselves into three teams, each will handle one direction. Fang already went in one direction, and William took another. So we''ll head towards three different ces than these two took."

    "How can this help him exactly?" Anjie was overwhelmed with her worry over William''s safety and didn''t get the hidden meaning behind this master''s words.

 Chapter 1103 The Underground Battle

    Chapter 1103 The Underground Battle

    "We need to take care of monsters and dark masters he couldn''t handle," Sloth slowly exined everything to her like she was a five year old kid.

    The idea was simple. Everyone knew William wasn''t able to continue pulling such a grand technique for a long time. So they had to protect him when that moment woulde, the moment of him losing control over his spirit power, unable to continue releasing that grand technique.

    Instead of letting him get in danger, as tons of enemies would flood him from all directions, they''d stop these enemies instead.

    So William had to just worry about enemies around him and a few more who''de here from ces they didn''t visit.

    "Ok, let''s do it," Anjie finally got what they meant. In a mere five minutes, they arranged themselves into three teams. The bulk of these teams were made of the newly joined guild masters, led by a group of scary masters.

    If not for knowing the bad temper Fang had, Sloth and others would have formed a fourth team and sent it for Fang to lead.

    "Keep close to me all the time," Sloth was of course leading the team Anjie was in. They just ran for twenty minutes, before finally meeting up with enemies running towards their direction.

    It was just like what Sloth and others said. The moment William''s scary technique''s aura faded away from a region, an endless stream of enemies flooded that region, trying to close on him.

    The end of all this was just the same as all the high-end masters predicted. If they didn''t interfere, then William would be entrapped inside an endless ocean of enemies,ing from all directions around.

    "Let''s fight, let''s protect the guild master!" Once they spotted the enemies, Anjie raised her sword high in the air, shouting as if she were leading a fierce army.

    And when the old masters were prepared to protect these youngsters, they were surprised to see how well they performed against their enemies.

    Their morale was very high, and they weren''t that weak to begin with. They killed monsters and dark masters while suffering little wounds in return.

    What helped more in this was the general low level of the monsters and dark masters. That was expected, as the stronger ones were sent before to stop William before they all got massacred and killed.

    "Don''t forget to collect everything from monsters and dark masters," Anjie got infected by such a habit of the Fox guild and shouted to everyone from the guild to do this. Looting during fighting, there wasn''t any crazy group of masters other than the Fox guild masters to do such a thing.

    The older masters took the lead, dealing with any strong foes they faced. If they didn''t find anyone strong or threatening to deal with, they focused on causing more damage, scattering the enemies into smaller groups, leaving the task of killing them to the following younger masters.

    Like a closed fist, they all marched together, all the teams did the same. Fang was already watching everything, and couldn''t help but mutter in bitterness:

    "Couldn''t you have sent a little hand to help this old man?" he shook his head while fighting solo against the hordes of monsters and dark masters, "if not for that damn sly little fox, I''d have retreated and joined others a long time ago¡­ Tsk! William, he makes me feel bad just by thinking about it!"

    He wasn''t the only one fighting solo here, as William was doing the same, and he was doing great. So if he tried to retreat, it''d look bad on his name.

    Fang wouldn''t have rejected any help at such a critical time. Even if the enemies around were weak, he knew by being alone, the enemies would ce him as an easy target to eliminate and would send tons of strong forces to kill him.

    Yet he didn''t stop killing and advancing, trying to take down as many monsters as he could. At the same time, he and other high-end masters kept watching William all the time, seeing how he was doing back there.

    William was indeed getting close to his limits after two hours. The enemies seemed to have no end, alwaysing at him. Yet they all ended up getting frozen in ce. But William that''d all change the moment he''d stop releasing his grand technique.

    "I need to find a ce to fortify myself," he spread his spirit sense and could see what others were doing. He knew they were trying to help, in their way. And even so, he still had too many to deal with at the moment he''d stop using his grand technique.

    He knew he had close to half an hour before he''d run dry of his spirit power, and his mental fatigue would reach a stage he wouldn''t be able to handle. This mental fatigue was the worst of all, as he needed to control the ten monstrous weapons all the time using his mind, or else they wouldn''t be able to fight on their own.

    "If I have those mind-enhancing elixirs from the outer world¡­ It''s a regret that such materials aren''t here, and I never found them in Lara''s city."

    He started to not blindly fight and move around, instead looking for any ce suiting to be considered as a temporary keep for him. Yet this wasn''t the surface of the ground, this was underground. And for a reason, the ce was formed of an extensivelyrge open space, without any hills or mountains, without any buildings, or even walls and forts.

    "If there isn''t anything like this here, then I have to improvise and make something simr¡­" As he didn''t find anything for ten minutes while spreading his spirit sense to look for such a special location without avail, he decided to use his techniques to create something like that.

    The first idea that came into his mind was to use earth-based techniques.

 Chapter 1104 Building A Fort In An Ocean Of Enemies

    Chapter 1104 Building A Fort In An Ocean Of Enemies

    William had a monstrous weapon, one that could control the earth''s elements perfectly fine. Yet he still needed all of them to make the scary grand technique.

    "Screw it! Taking one out won''t greatly weaken my technique. And I''m already close to my limit, so it won''t differ if I stopped now¡­"

    He decided to take the risk after five more minutes, ending up taking the monstrous weapon with earth element out from the formation. The moment he did that, the entire grand technique faltered, and started to show signs of instability, and its effect wasn''t that great in the end.

    He didn''t care about that. He left his earth-based monstrous weapon to handle the restructure of the entire terrain around him while he kept defending the zone he selected as his rest spot with other monstrous weapons.

    Even if his grand technique suffered a weakness, it was still scary. The petrification effect continued, butsted for much less time, and covered a much smaller area.

    William gave his earth-based monstrous weapon half an hour. During this, the entire terrain for an area close to two kilometres radius got totally changed. There was now a big hill, with a very vertical surface that''d stop any iing monster. The hill rose up for almost five hundred metres, with different levels on which William nned to scatter his monstrous weapons there, acting as the main assault units.

    Monsters would be stopped using this terrain, but the dark masters wouldn''t. And yet William wasn''t worried.

    "Let''s go," William called back all of the ten monstrous weapons, turning them into ornaments and equipment surrounding his body. Then he shed, crossing hundreds of metres while releasing two monstrous weapons on each stage.

    The newly constructed hill was circr in shape, and it had five stages before the very top point. William scattered his monstrous weapons before he took the post of the highest point there.

    "Time for me to rest," he knew this wasn''t exactly a rest, as enemies still flooded this ce from many directions, but at least he got rid of one problem for now.

    As he predicted, monsters couldn''t even scratch their way up to his monstrous weapons. But then it came down to the dark masters, who were able to cross the distance to the stages using different techniques.

    Even before they arrived at the stages, they were all bombarded either by his monstrous weapons or flying ones. He kept his flying weapons circting around the hill, ending up protecting the entire structure, and stopping anyone trying to climb up.

    "He is smart indeed," seeing this made everyone watching William smile in satisfaction. They all predicted him to get tired sooner orter, and they were curious about what he''d do to save himself from the enemies around.

    Many thought he''d continue fighting them using standard methods, techniques, and such. Yet others argued that if he grew tired, he wouldn''t be able to do such a thing. The only option he had was to actually waiting for William to make such a move. He intended to use this as a favour, getting closer to William. Yet thetter never escape and return to any group scattered here, seeking refuge and shelter there.

    The closest one was Fang, and thetter also thought the same, actually waiting for William to make such a move. He intended to use this as a favour, getting closer to William. Yet thetter never thought about such an option in the first.

    "He is really hard to grasp and read¡­ A true genius is a pain in the as*," Fang sighed, shook his head as he knew he missed a good chance to get closer to William, "it''s better to wait for another opportunity then. I found it hard to believe he is going all out, all alone, without the need for any help at some point¡­"

    Yet he was destined to be disappointed. William built a strong fort for himself. By eliminating more than half of the enemies by using this method from the very beginning, he saved himself tons of trouble and headaches.

    All he needed to do was to spread his flying weapons around and hit anyone trying to climb up while leaving the stronger or the faster ones to his monstrous weapons.

    The pressure was relieved greatly, and yet it was still there. William estimated that he''d take roughly half a day until he''d finish his rest. And then he started to watch others while things went ording to his will.

    He was the one who got it nice so far. He killed when he wanted, he rested whenever he wished, and he didn''t suffer a single wound or something. But others had to struggle to do something close to his results.

    He spotted Fang, fighting monsters and dark masters like a death reaper. He was unstoppable, and yet he was alone. Fighting too many enemies ended up in him being surrounded, had to consume elixirs from time to time.

    For someone like him, drinking a few elixirs wouldn''t add any value. So he needed to consume almost one hundred bottles every time he needed to replenish the scary amount of his spirit power.

    As for the three teams led by the high-end kingdom masters, they were doing fine. They were just killing on much lesser speed than him or Fang despite having lots of high-end masters. That was because they worked to protect the weaker guild masters, a thing that made William grateful to all of them.

    Even if they were advancing and killing their way slower than him and Fang, they were still doing a good job. "This ce looks as if it extends for the open ins we appeared at, and all the mountainous regions as well¡­" After checking on others, he shifted his attention upwards, "I wonder what''s the use of such a formation up there¡­"

    He shifted his attention towards the formation drawn over the ceiling of this ce. Even after running and moving away from the entrance he came from, the formation still spread over and extended even beyond what his eyes could see.

 Chapter 1105 Getting A Clue At Last, And A Threat!

    <h4>Chapter 1105 Getting A Clue At Last, And A Threat!</h4>

    "I''d better use my spirit sense then¡­" as he couldn''t grasp enough of it, he used his spirit sense instead. He saw lots of symbols, lines, and even drawings of different monsters and creatures up there. The formation was made of shining red material as if it was made out of blood or something.

    William spent hours studying this formation diligently, not missing any detail. On many asions, he lost himself studying that formation, letting many dark masters reach his monstrous weapons.

    "Thankfully I forged them using outer world materials," he always got jolted awake by fierce explosive sounds, happening all over the ce. Yet his monstrous weapons sustained such damage and attacks, and he hurriedly interfered and saved them.

    "That''s a world shifting formation¡­ Damn! They want to flip those up there with those in here¡­" he finally got the use of this formation, and yet he didn''t get the point of doing it.

    He thought this was some sort of a trap, one that''d let parts of the masters up there to get moved down here, and face such an insane amount of ready enemies out of the blue. That would deal a huge blow to any group of masters, and yet that wasn''t the real value of this formation.

    It worked by simply exchanging ces with the two forces, one on top and one under the ground. This didn''t exin anything, as what was the value of doing so?

    He felt more puzzled by this. "There must be something I missed, or didn''t find yet¡­ Fine, time to move to another location then," he rubbed his hands, and looked around, before taking his bow and arrows.

    "He is ready to move!" Fang and others were paying close attention to William, feeling curious about what he was going to do after resting.

    The moment he took his bow and arrows, everyone knew he was about to move. The tactic they used to relieve the pressure on him worked a little to reduce the magnitude of enemiesing towards him. But this didn''t truly help to reduce the numbers greatly.

    Right now, and for tens of kilometres, there were endless enemies waiting for him down below, surrounding the hill he built as if they were bees surrounding their queen.

    He knew using arrows and grenades would just buy him a little time, and open enough space to jump and leave this hill safely.

    The moment he released his barrage of attack, he jumped and dashed towards the location with the least enemies there with his ten monstrous weapons and thousands of flying weapons.

    The moment his feet touched the ground, he started to fight. This time he didn''t use his scary grand technique, and simply used his normal techniques instead.

    Alongside ten other killing weapons like him, William moved forward without facing much resistance. Even if he was surrounded, even if he got rained down by tons of techniquesing from dark masters, he didn''t suffer much.

    He already spread out his flying weapons in circryers, surrounding him for almost a kilometre. No matter who tried to attack him, the attack would end up hitting his flying weapons at some point. And those who escaped the deadly assault of his flying weapons ended up falling into the hands of him and his monstrous weapons.

    Everything looked great for hours! This time, he didn''t need to suffer anything at all. As everyone watched what he was doing, they got hyped up and fought more bravely, wanting to reach the end of this ce and kill all the enemies.

    Yet all missed one simple and yet crucial detail. William didn''t learn to use such a method in fighting to save his power or something. In fact, he selected to do this to empty a huge area around and examine the ground carefully.

    He knew what the formation up there was going to do, and yet there was something missing. Something told him what he was looking for wasn''t at the ceiling, but on the ground.

    The ceiling was covered to the brim with that formation, and the ground was literally paved with enemies everywhere. It was impossible to see through them no matter what, and the only way to do it was by using such tactics in fighting.

    Like this, he didn''t just buy himself enough time to scan the ground, he also emptied the ground for almost half a kilometre distance around, allowing him to properly inspect it.

    "I can''t find anything yet¡­" After going on for hours like this, he didn''t find a single clue about the trapid on the ground, "this doesn''t add up¡­ What''s the point in bringing the master forces down here if not to kill them?!!"

    The more he didn''t find anything, the more he felt uneasy about the entire situation. "I need to dig the ground then, perhaps the answer is down there¡­"

    He guessed it right, but the moment he started to let his earth-based monstrous weapon dig the ground, and gates of hell opened in front of his face!

    He was sure whatever he was doing here was watched by the dark master leaders. As they didn''t move a finger to stop him or others so far, it meant they didn''t touch anything of value, anything that could endanger the entire schemeid down here.

    That was also driving William to uncover the truth. So the moment his earth-based monstrous weapon acted, and he spotted a grand monster gate appearing just ten kilometres away from him, he knew he hit the right note this time.

    "It''s definitely buried down there," he slowly muttered, knowing that he got a real clue this time, but he was also about to face the greatest challenge sinceing down here.

    This monstrous gate wouldn''t just add monsters, but higher-grade ones. William was sure these monsters were going to be a headache, hard to fight against, the true force that the enemy had hidden so far.

 Chapter 1106 Hyenas!

    <h4>Chapter 1106 Hyenas!</h4>

    "If I guessed it right, then I''d expect something like dragons," instead of freaking out, William felt more excited when he thought about it.

    He still regretted not being around when the dragons appeared. As he thought about this, he knew he first had to deal with these dragons.

    "Using that weapon again is a big no!" he knew he couldn''t use that Troll he made, or else he''d end up suffering the safe side effect. This time he wasn''t in the middle of allies and was totally surrounded by enemies. If he dared to risk using it, he''d not end up just missing a chance.

    "Let''s do it again," as he expected what wasing, he started to do the same as he did before. He let his earth-based monstrous weapon make a huge hill, this time it went double in height than before. He had to fight these dragons on the same height as them, or at least be close to their flying altitude.

    Not to mention he''d escape any danger if that gate released ferocious ground monsters as well, the same calibre as the rhinoceros.

    As he already had his flying weapons secured a huge area, he didn''t need to do any preparations. He even joined his monstrous weapon to build that tower fast. And this time, he didn''t ce any stages in the middle of this tower.

    He didn''t want to bother with any dark masters and wanted to solely focus on the iing dragons.

    *Roar!*

    Just when he finished building his tower, and jumped to its top, even before he''d recalled his monstrous and flying weapons, he heard a loud roaring from the direction of the gate. When he turned to look, he found a gush of giant-shaped monsters, all running on more than six pairs of thick legs, without a single flying monster out there.

    "There are no dragons, only ugly hyenas¡­ What bad luck!" William knew these hyenas were one of the most ferocious pack monsters in the entire world. They moved inrge numbers, always usedplicated tactics to take down their targets, and they were pretty deadly.

    A single hyena at gold grade would be ten metres in height, but one at dark gold grade was double that size. The hyenasing out from that gate were all huge, telling William they were at dark gold grade.

    "A huge monster tide, all at dark gold grade¡­ That''s something no one can easily stand against¡­" he knew he got his life saved by building this hill, but it wasn''t enough. He was safe, yet entrapped here, and wouldn''t be able to get down.

    He looked at the tsunami of hyenas running in his direction like it was the end of the world. For a moment there, he thought about using the Troll, hit that monster gate, and crushed it. "There is no guarantee they won''t summon another the moment I take it down¡­" and yet that wasn''t a viable option for him.

    He had no other choice but to start grinding this tide from his high altitude. As he got the advantage of high points, he started to think about his options.

    "I can use any technique to summon a giant projectile, sending them down will kill lots of them¡­" he looked at the monstrous weapons he just took out, and let them use various techniques.

    They formed giant rocks, massive fireballs, and even big water spikes that went all down there. Even the darkness, light, and lightning-based monstrous weapons released different forms of their elements, taking the shape of balls and rocks, even spears and arrows,nding everything over the enemies down below.

    The hyenas hadn''t yet arrived here, and so he got to test this over other enemies around. "It killed them, but these are all weaker than dark gold grade¡­" he knew this test wasn''t enough, and he had to wait for the hyenas toe closer.

    At the same time, lots of dark masters tried to climb the tower, shing using their darkness based techniques, moving fast, and heading towards the top. Yet they all stopped using his flying weapons.

    "I don''t have time to deal with flies like you," William snorted, not cing them in the eye. He focused on the iing hyenas and waited until they came close enough before releasing another barrage of attacks.

    He watched the different techniques fall on these hyenas, but they ended up mostly getting blocked. "They got higher stage monsters¡­ That''s not good¡­" he knew such shield techniques were used by high-end monsters. And that means trouble for him, "Shall I use my grenades?"

    He didn''t like such a solution. After all, he got limited grenades and arrows considering the massive number of hyenas down below. He wanted to find another solution.

    "Should I use the grand technique again?" He knew his technique worked like magic against enemies so far, but he only dealt with lower-grade enemies. This time, he was fighting against special enemies, ones who were on the same level as him, or even stronger.

    He decided to give it a try. As he guessed, the technique showed a much weaker effect over the stronger monsters, yet it was still effective.

    The hyenas stood in their ce motionless for ten up to thirty seconds. They also showed fear and hesitation and didn''t dare to advance at some point.

    Using this technique was good, but there were also little problems he needed to solve. First, he was far off the ground, and wouldn''t be able to use such a window of petrification and fear to the most. He could onlynd lots of attacks over the heads of these hyenas, hoping that the far away and unaffected ones wouldn''t step in and help those closer to him with their shield protective techniques.

    The second problem was theck of members around him. To make this technique, he needed to use all the monstrous weapons, and that meant they''d not be able to use their attacks like before.

 Chapter 1107 Fangâ€™s Frustration

    <h4>Chapter 1107 Fang''s Frustration</h4>

    William could only use the flying weapons and hoped they''d kill lots of monsters in a short time.

    This wasn''t practical though. He was standing almost one kilometre away from the ground. This was a great distance, one that limited the deadly effect of his weapons.

    "Screw it¡­ I''ll go down and fight like I used to," he didn''t hesitate to dash down towards the enemies after releasing one more big technique of his. Once he got there, he called all of his monstrous weapons, spread his flying weapons around, and started a grand massacre.

    Yet things weren''t that easy for him. The far-away hyenas had techniques to dash forward and cross long distances, directly bypassing the grand technique and arriving at his side. This was quite dangerous, and he needed to fight personally to take down these hyenas.

    The ones who tried to do this while the grand technique was released ended up getting affected by it. Yet the ones who attacked in the rest period between releasing his grand technique managed to arrive to his side.

    He tried to let his monstrous weapons deal with them, yet they took longer than he expected, giving time for other hyenas around to break free from the petrification and fear effects of his technique ande at him.

    So he decided to just use his flying weapons, and retract them around him the moment he spotted any iing hyenas. At the same time, he fought personally using his Holy Sword and cannonball techniques, ending up killing those vanguard hyenas fast.

    They were all at high stage dark gold grade, at the same level of power as him. And yet they looked slightly stronger, hard to take down as he thought. They were all armed with their shield defensive techniques, ending up for most of his attacks to leave nothing behind.

    If not for using his cannonball technique, and the brutal and crushing force that came with it, he''d have to struggle more to take them down. All he did was create gaps in their shields and leave things over for his flying weapons.

    "It''s my luck that I used outer world materials in forging them¡­" he muttered when he noticed how hard their defensive shields were, and how sturdy their bodies were. Even with the cracks and gaps he created in the shield, his flying weapons still ended up facing lots of resistance to take a single monster down. Considering the unstoppable flooding towards him, this wasn''t a good sign.

    "I still need to use the grenades, at least I can use them to relieve the pressure in the rest periods¡­" he needed his monstrous weapons to take a few moments of rest, to recharge and prepare for the next onught of the grand technique. He also needed time to kill most of the monsters getting affected by this technique, or else there was no point in using this.

    "He is going to ask for my help soon," Fang was keenly watching everything happening around William. Even he knew how hard it would be if he was the one facing all these monsters. And that made him sure of William''s next request for help, one he''d dly ept.

    "Come on, ask for help, why act stubborn!" Yet unlike what he expected, William persisted for an hour! During which, he kept using everything he got, killing tons of hyenas and enemies around.

    The hyenas weren''t the only enemies that appeared, lots of dark masters and monsters also appeared. William didn''t care about the weaker enemies and focused mainly on the most dangerous ones.

    He knew these weak enemies would end up falling under the barrage of attacks he and his monstrous weapons released. At some point, he had to use grenades and arrows to relieve the pressure he faced, something that helped him greatly.

    Each grenade would take ten minutes to run dry of fire. This turned the areas they hit into forbidden zones for any monster. Only the high-stage monsters were able to survive the fire and pass through it, yet they suffered lots of damage, especially to their shields.

    The moment William noticed this he instantly shifted gears. He released lots of arrows, enough to form a grand circle of fire surrounding him. Then he started to lead his monstrous weapons around, freezing any monster inside that circle, including the ones passing through it. He controlled his flying weapons at some point, dashed forward to reach the edge of the fire ring, and hit any hyena monster that came out from it before they''d take their time to repair their shields.

    This method proved its worth soon enough. Monsters had to pass through this fire for ten minutes. The weaker ones died, and the stronger ended up suffering great damage, ending up falling under the hands of William and his weapons.

    This turned the entire situation around, giving William an advantage for the first time since the appearance of these hyenas. As a result, all the pressure he felt before vanished, and he felt his ability to crush all these enemies alone.

    That made Fang get frustrated. He was sure this was the right moment for William to ask for his help, and yet that never happened.

    "Don''t tell me I have to go there and show my support to him without invitation!" Fang gritted his teeth, feeling how troublesome dealing with that youngster was, "screw it! I''ll go when things be hot and show up like a hero saving a kid¡­"

    He decided to wait and didn''t advance towards William''s direction. He has his problems to solve. After all, the hyenas didn''t stop just at William, and went towards others around, trying to take them down.

    This added more pressure on everyone, greatly slowing down their advance. Few of the newly joined guild masters fell down, and many suffered lots of wounds. Things didn''t look that great at any ce, yet they were still killing enemies and moving forward at least.

 Chapter 1108 Dig!

    <h4>Chapter 1108 Dig!</h4>

    "I hate these hyenas!" At some point, Anjie couldn''t help but shout in frustration, "Isn''t there a way to solve all this? They areing like they have no end!"

    "This is nothingpared to what William is facing," Sloth said this, and everyone here gave him a weird look, "ahem, what? Do you think such monsters came here out of thin air? A monster gate appeared at William''s side, and all this is just the leftovers from fighting with him."

    "..." Hearing that all these hyenas they struggled to kill were just an extra, and William was dealing with the main outbreak alone, made everyone speechless. The higher masters knew all this from the start, and they truly admired William. He was standing alone in front of all this, without having a single help from any high-end master. And yet he didn''t show a single sign of fear or panic, always thought of ways to solve the situation and break through the densely packed monsters.

    "We should go and help him then," Anjie made an emotional decision, one that was instantly rejected by the older masters here.

    "You should care about your lives first," Sloth sighed, "if we are alone, we''d have fought better. But we need to carry you along, and we are even facing great trouble in doing so."

    "..."

    Anjie got what he wanted to say. Sloth meant they were going to be a great hindrance and liability over William''s shoulders. And so they shouldn''t get near him at the time being.

    "How about we take the kids to that tower?" one of the big masters suddenly suggested, "he left two grand towers, and the first one is suitable for them to fight there and defend themselves perfectly."

    "Nice idea," Sloth agreed, "let''s go, this isn''t a fight you should take part in."

    No one of the guild''s newly joined masters gotta say that. They all felt how hard this battle was, how high level it was, especially after the appearance of that monster gate.

    So they followed the older masters without saying anything. In the end, they arrived after a few hours towards that tower, the first hill William built, the one with five stages on its side.

    "I''ll stay here to help them," Sloth would never let Anjie alone, "you go, kill, and fight freely, I wish you good luck."

    All the high-end masters here came from the kingdom, and they had undying loyalty to the king. If Sloth didn''t volunteer to do it, then others would have done the same. So they didn''t object, leaving while Sloth led everyone to the stages and top of that hill, taking it as their base for now.

    At the same time, William noticed their presence there. "Nice pick, old man," he muttered, knowing that this was a very wise decision indeed.

    That hill might not be that strong, but it was enough to stop the monsters froming. By eliminating the danger of monsters, the guild masters and Anjie would have it much easier. They only needed to deal with dark masters. And with Sloth''s presence by their side, it was hard to face a real threat over there.

    As he got reassured over his guild''s newly joined masters and Anjie, William returned to fully focus on fighting the hyenas and enemies around. He kept releasing his fire and fought in the same pattern as before.

    He killed tons of monsters and enemies and even had time to collect loot as well. He felt like he was missing something important when he just fought without cleaning the battlefield. And yet there was still something annoying.

    "I need to dig the ground," this was the thing he felt more frustrated about. Without digging and getting what was lying deeper in the ground, he wasn''t going to uncover the true scheme of the enemies here.

    Yet he didn''t have enough time to do this. All the time, new hyenas would pass through the fire ring, and on some asions, he''d also face dark masters.

    The enemies never stopped flooding his way, and he had no way to dig the ground for now. He tried to let his earth-based monstrous weapon to dig the ground, while he and others handled the enemies. But such a tactic failed miserably. The technique he used became weaker, and couldn''t stop all of the enemies in time.

    He faced a life-threatening situation when a group of dark masters passed through the fire and didn''t get affected by the technique he released over other monsters in the opposite direction. They shed and surrounded him, using a mix of techniques that ended up entrapping him in the middle of the dark world, with his reflexes and moves getting greatly slowed down.

    Just when he released his Holy Sword technique, he evaded the assault of tens of hyenas just by a hairbreadth. He killed everything around him and decided to not go through this experience again.

    So he called back his monstrous weapon, the earth-based one, and used all of the monstrous weapons to release his grand technique.

    Things stabilised again, and he could only ept such a result.

    "Do you need help?" Just when he dropped any idea about digging the ground, he heard Fang''s voiceing to his mind directly using spirit telepathy.

    "Sure, why not?" William didn''t reject such help in such a critical time, "Come here, we have lots of work to do."

    *Fwoosh!*

    It felt like Fang wasn''t that far away in the first ce. In a few seconds, William heard a loud wind fluttering noiseing from one direction before Fangnded from the sky, standing by his side.

    "What do you want me to do?" Fang asked in a weird excitement, as if he already hit the jackpot.

    "Dig!" but the order he received from William left him a bit baffled. He looked at the youngster in front of him, blinked, and stood there speechless for a few moments, "What? Aren''t you here to help?"

 Chapter 1109 Spirit And Body Fusion State

    <h4>Chapter 1109 Spirit And Body Fusion State</h4>

    "But¡­ We have monsters and enemies around, why should I dig the ground? Are we trying to escape?" Fang felt great humiliation from what William just said. If not for William being the key to the outer world, he''d preferred to teach this rude master a bitter lesson instead.

    "Come on, don''t tell me you didn''t get it yet!" William rolled his eyes, shed around, and killed another batch of enemies before adding, "Just look up, don''t tell me you can see them."

    "See what?" Fang looked up, feeling puzzled, "there isn''t anything there!"

    "These writings, these lines, these symbols, you can''t see the entire formation lying above your head all the time? Come on!" William didn''t buy what Fang said, took it as a way for that old master to y with him or something.

    "There isn''t anything up there but mere rocks!" Fang persisted in his words, saying while feeling weird and frustrated, "Do you see something up there?"

    This was a wild thought, one that once crossed his head, he felt shivers running down his spine. He was one of the top three on the power scale of the human world, in the entire world. And yet, he couldn''t see something a youngd saw.

    And when William got what was going on here, he felt the same shock that Fang had. "You are telling the truth, right?" he couldn''t help but ask again, and Fang gritted his teeth, trying to not explode in the face of William.

    "Do I look like the type to fool around and lie?"

    "This¡­" the expression on William''s face was enough to tell Fang William wasn''t fooling around either, "if you can''t see it, that means¡­ No one else can¡­"

    "Tell me what you can see up there," Fang paused before seriously adding, "If it''s hidden from our sights, then it means we can stop it, no matter what it is, right?"

    "Just dig," William sighed, "old man, dig and don''t care about anything else. I''ll protect you, but dig as deep as you can."

    "What the hell are you asking me to do again?!!" Fang roared, "I''m not here to do such a low job!"

    "If you won''t do it, then let me do it then," William rolled his eyes, not wanting to exin things he hadn''t gotten any of yet. Even if he realised he was the only person here able to see that formation at the ceiling, it didn''t help to solve anything and instead just added more mystery to the entire thing.

    He didn''t get why others couldn''t see that formation high above. Was it his spirits? Or spirit elements? Or perhaps something else? He couldn''t tell. Frankly, that formation was like a zing sun in the middle of the night!

    "Fine, let me handle them for you," Fang felt that William didn''t know what he was doing or looking for exactly, "but keep releasing those grenades, they are limiting tons of enemies outside."

    "Sure," William agreed on that, releasing a few volleys of his explosive arrows before finally turning his full attention towards the ground, "Be prepared, the moment I tried to dig the ground before, that monster gate appeared," he said in warning, and Fang couldn''t help but slowly nod, getting what William wanted to convey here.

    It meant something grand was hidden underground, and the enemy''s leaders wouldn''t let him or anyone else dig to find these hidden secrets. "Nothing can stop in front of me, nothing can stop in front of lightning!"

    The moment Fang said these words, he totally changed. He looked before a dangerous man, but now his vibe totally changed, and started to look like a lethal beast.

    His eyes shone in bright white colour, while his hair and physique changed. He released tons of lightning arcs that stemmed up from his body, looking as if he was the god of lightning or something.

    "This¡­ It''s the spirit and body fusion state!!!" William paused and looked at Fang in deep shock, couldn''t believe a man from a tiny world could reach such a high stage.

    It required total synchronisation between one''s spirit, spirit elements, and spirit power. It was the perfect state where one''s three holy grails would merge perfectly together, ending up showing something that was way far beyond one''s current stage of power.

    This wasn''t a stage jump show of power, this was a game-changer! Masters enjoying such blessings wouldn''t show their spirit bodies, as their bodies would turn into the reservoir for their spirits. Merging everything together would turn masters into living weapons, able to release tons of attacks, all deadly, all unstoppable!

    "This must be an innate ability, born and blessed with it¡­ Damn lucky bastard! I now know why he reached such a high stage of power, and why he is aspiring to go to the outer world¡­"

    It was like a calling, or a weird hunger that came out from the depths of one''s spirit. Masters enjoying such blessing would crave for more power, especially when such ability would show its true terror once one reached the outer world, and got to use the high form of spirit power out there.

    Masters could train diligently to reach such a stage, but they needed tons of effort,plicated nning, and lots of work before they''d do such a thing.

    And that wasn''t even guaranteed to happen. For example, in William''s past life, he only managed to experience such a magical state once, only once!

    He got how hard it was to do this. To synchronise everything, one had to take into ount the unmeasurable spirit and spirit elements aspects, try to test things, and pray it''d work out.

    "You go and do your thing, and I promise that nothing will touch you, no matter what!" Fang slowly muttered while he started to act. William wanted to stay behind and watch, see how good Fang mustered such god-sent ability of his.

    But he knew such ability would ce tons of pressure on oneself.

 Chapter 1110 The Troll Is Out!

    <h4>Chapter 1110 The Troll Is Out!</h4>

    The tremendous increase in power was always apanied by a scary increase in spirit power consumption rate. And even for someone like Fang, he couldn''t continue this form for more than two hours at most!

    William instantly gave the order to his earth-based monstrous weapon, in addition to the initial three he had before, to dig the ground. He also joined, and the five of them started to dig fast, forming a big hole that started to expand and deepen fast.

    The moment that happened, it felt like a bomb just dropped in the entire world. One gate after another fiercely mmed against the ground, opened, and released tons of monsters in mere minutes!

    The moment William saw this using his spirit sense he knew it was good he didn''t use that Troll before. It happened as he feared, and the enemy was able to summon monster gates.

    "A dark master base summoning gate? That''s new¡­" In one of these gates, tons of dark masters flushed out and ran towards the ring of fire. Seeing such a special gate meant that the enemy''s leaders finally started to act all out, even using the dark masters from another base or something.

    William knew the enemies were using everything they could to take him down. And that was good no matter how he saw it.

    "If they used everything they have, then it''s time to ruin all of their ns¡­" William knew Fang was going all out, the same as his guild masters, Anjie, Sloth, and other high-end masters. So it was time for him to go all out as well.

    Without saying anything, he left his monstrous weapons to do the digging, and he took out his Troll. The moment that gigantic metallic behemoth appeared, and even Fang stopped what he was doing.

    "You are going to use it again?!!!" he was shocked, as he knew how terrifyingly strong this thing was, "Do you want to take down all of them? That won''t do! More will still flood out of the gates¡­"

    *Rumble!* William didn''t say anything and gulped tons of elixirs before he activated the Troll. He didn''t aim to use its full power this time, or else he''d end up suffering the samea he suffered from before.

    Before Fang could continue his words, before Sloth and other high-end masters to absorb the surprise of seeing the Troll again, William used it andunched one single strike, hitting one gate.

    He didn''t aim towards the dark masters'' gate. In fact, he wanted to properly protect and seize this gate for himself. It wasn''t just a way leading to another grand dark master base in this pocket world, but it was also their way out from here.

    Even if he dealt with the hidden and deadly traps here, he knew that wasn''t going to help them that much. It''d just protect their lives from a hidden danger, but wouldn''t let them go out from here.

    But that portal would! He was sure it was linked to a ce outside the area of that grand wall. And that was why he dared to act and use the Troll.

    If the enemy found themselves in such a tight situation to use a gate linking to the outside from here, then it meant they reached the dead end of their power and fears. And that was the perfect time to hit and ruin their ns, letting them only have this dark master gate to depend on to stop him and others.

    As they summoned these gates, they could seal them. But William wanted them to keep this gate open, so he''d seize and control it. He knew of a way to do that, but he had to be close to it.

    A n started to take shape in his mind, but he didn''t reveal any of his intentions while attacking a monster gate. He didn''t hit more than one gate despite having the ability to do so, to not warn the enemy of his interest towards the dark master gate.

    As the hitnded, the monster gate exploded into tiny kes of fire, before vanishing like it never existed before.

    "Damn! You can do that? How I never thought about it before?"

    Fang was taken aback like others. They always used to fight and deal with monstersing out from monster gates but never thought about taking these down early on.

    This was quite normal, after all these gates were quite sturdy, and it would take a long time and effort to take them down. At the same time, the monsters gushing out from these gates would make it impossible for any master toe close enough, or stay for a long time beside these gates.

    Yet William used a long shot, one hit, and that gate was gone. It was pretty impressive, and that also made it clear about his intentions clear to everyone, including the enemy leaders.

    William nned to take these gates one by one, and he got the ability to do it. Taking these gates out of the picture would make things much easier and less stressful for everyone on his side, and make things harder for his enemies on the other hand.

    The enemy leaders freaked out! They knew if they let William do it again, and again, then they''d lose all the gates they summoned. It wasn''t just the loss of the constant flood of reinforcements on their side, but the magnitude of riches and power they used to summon these gates would go for nothing.

    They nned to take a long time to rest, to recuperate and heal, while William and others would be busy dealing with the monsters and dark mastersing towards them. In the worst case, William and others would take one week to clear everything, and by then the enemy leaders would be back to their prime of power.

    But now they had to deal with such a scary youngster, one who could smash all the gates in a short time, and then the rest of their forces there would be annihted in one or two days.

 Chapter 1111 What Are You Building?

    <h4>Chapter 1111 What Are You Building?</h4>

    In addition to that, there would be no one to stop William from digging the ground, reaching down there and spotting what was hidden under the ground.

    William wanted such thoughts to fester in the minds of these leaders. And the response that came next by increasing the number of monsters and dark mastersing out from these gates, even to the extent of jumping on top of others, was clear evidence on how truly panicked and worried these dark leaders became.

    "That''s good, keep panicking, while I''ll take my time to dig the ground and smash the gates," William was about to turn to Fang and ask him to do his best, before seeing that lightning god release a scary wave of attack, one that covered all the enemies around in five kilometre radius, killing everything inside.

    Then he took out lots of elixirs, and started gulping them without pause, "dig that damn ground and keep taking down those gates. I swear to protect you in my name!" Fang roared while releasing another volley of lightning showers, killing tons more of monsters and dark masters.

    "Great," William nodded, turned to the deep hole his monstrous weapons dug, before taking back the Troll.

    "What are you doing?!!!" his actions startled not only Fang, but everyone else.

    "What? I need time to heal and prepare for the next attack," William shouted, knowing that his voice would reach the ears of his enemies, "I''ll take two hours of rest, then attack again. Like this, we''ll take all of the gates down in just fourteen hours!"

    At the same time, he sent something using spirit telepathy, whispered in a tone that couldn''t be heard by any, except for the person he used the spirit telepathy on.

    "Oh, if that''s the case, leave those mtherfckers to the end," Fang heard what William sent to him using telepathy, before pointing towards the dark master gate, "I hate dark masters the most. Leave them to the end, as I want to kill as much of them as possible."

    This was yed by William, to make it seem legit and not arouse the suspicion of the dark master leaders. "Got it, will leave them to the end. Just kill as many as you can, and leave that gate till the very end."

    He made it as if he was responding to the wishes of Fang or something. Fang was, after all, a very known figure in the entire world, known to both masters and dark masters alike.

    Once this y was done, while Fang was questioning himself about the true purpose of William''s weird request just now, thetter started to dig the ground with his monstrous weapons.

    The hole kept getting deeper andrger, and yet nothing special appeared. William was starting to question the value of doing so until they crossed one kilometre threshold.

    The moment that happened, and something new appeared down there.

    "Stop!" The moment William spotted that shiny rock at the bottom, and he instantly ordered his monstrous weapons to stop digging, "widen the hole, dig the edges and expose more of this rock¡­" he got worried that by what they were doing, they''d ruin the special ores at the ground. But when they started to dig horizontally, part of their techniques had to touch that shiny ground. And yet nothing happened.

    He was sure he reached the ce that would solve everything. And yet he couldn''t tell a thing just from a few shining rocks. The rocks shone in different lights, red, ck, blue, silver, and golden. He couldn''t see anything but the bright lightsing out from these rocks. And so he waited, while he saw how the monsters responded to what his monstrous weapons were doing.

    The monsters and dark mastersing out from the various gates started to show signs of increasing their outflow rate, with signs of the appearance of much higher and more formidable enemies from them.

    William was about to use the Troll again, before Fang released a much fiercer barrage of his lightning, striking tons of enemies around, burning and incinerating them without exception.

    "Good old man, you still got it in you," Williamughed, while Fang shed and appeared next to him.

    "Shut up! I can''t keep doing this for a long time! Are you done here or what?" Fang shouted, in a tone that told William he got weaker. His face paled a little, and he looked a bit older than before.

    "You are burning your life essence?!!" William couldn''t believe Fang leant to use such a method to stop the iing enemies. And thetter got startled for a brief second, before sighing.

    "A reincarnator is someone special indeed¡­ What exposed me? I thought I hid my aura quite well in the middle of lightning¡­"

    "I know the signs," William motioned towards Fang''s face, "and you shouldn''t do it again¡­"

    "If not, then there isn''t anything to stop these bastards!" Fang interrupted William, and thetter could only sigh.

    He knew the enemies weren''t just numerous, but they also raised their grades, using high end monsters and dark masters. This might be considered like a gamble for them, as such high end power shouldn''t be burnt or thrown away like that.

    "Let me help you then," William was honest in his words. He nned to help Fang, as he highly valued the spirit and body fusion state this old master had.

    Such ability was very rare, and extremely valuable. William meant what he said. And before Fang could say anything, William took lots of materials from his rings, went through them fast, selected a few and stored the rest. He kept doing this for almost ten minutes, during which he released a barrage of his arrows, hitting the faraway enemies, and adding more fire to the fire ring.

    He expanded the ring, and he did that to buy themselves enough time to do what he intended to do.

    "What are you building?!"

 Chapter 1112 And Then... Thunder Fell!

    <h4>Chapter 1112 And Then... Thunder Fell!</h4>

    ?

    Fang watched William''s monstrous warriors, as they jumped off the hole, leaving only the four who were digging there behind. The monstrous weapons started to spread the items they received from him, burying these under the ground for one metre each.

    "I''m making a mini-formation," William sighed, "if I have enough materials from the outer world, then I''d have built something grand to help you crush all without any worry. But I only have a small amount of materials right now."

    "You have materials from the outer world?!! Just how?!!!"

    "You didn''t hear about Lara''s city then?!!" William was surprised, as this was supposed to be a known knowledge by now among the higher-up circle.

    "I don''t meddle with others, you know, I prefer to stay away from the lights¡­ But what''s the purpose of this formation exactly?"

    "Don''t be curious like a little girl, please," William rolled his eyes, "You are going to taste how it is to have the help of materials from the outer world. Go to the middle of the formation, stand there, and wait for my signal. The moment I''m ready, you release your lightning attack, once per five minutes, Attack the ground around you, not the enemies¡­"

    "You want me to burn the formation?!!" Fang was speechless for a few seconds before bellowing at William''s face, "That''s madness!"

    "You are the mad one if you don''t make the best use of this chance I''m giving you," William''s tone was deadly serious, "just attack the formation, and you''ll see what will happen. Just remember, this formation can support twenty attacks from you, only twenty, then you''ll need to shoulder everything for ten minutes before my weapons will exchange the materials¡­"

    William kept telling Fang more warnings, mentioning strictly that during the five minutes between his attacks, he wasn''t allowed to leave his spot no matter what, or else the entire formation would get ruined. He advised him to train, replenish his lost spirit power, and rx his exhausted mind.

    Fang couldn''t believe he was taking orders from a youngster like William. But he had no other option but to follow his words until he''d taste and see the results of this formation.

    William''s monstrous weapons took five minutes to spread everything. During this, many monsters and dark masters prated the fire ring. William didn''t let Fang fight them, moved solo and killed all of them.

    "They are growing stronger," he returned and said thisment before adding, "Go, the formation is about to be done."

    "Ok," Fang knew William wasn''t the type of master to show off or something, and he hoped he''d not be the type to over-exaggerate their abilities and powers.

    "Now!" William sent this simple word through spirit telepathy. There were already lots of enemies prating through the fire ring, and aiming for Fang and William''s monstrous weapons.

    The main aim for the dark leaders was to eliminate William''s helpers first, and decrease his fighting powers before they''d attack him. Trying to aim directly at him wouldn''t work, as he got many cards and helpers up his sleeve, and he''d emerge unscathed at the end.

    But before any of them wouldy a finger over Fang, thetter suddenly turned into his god of lightning mode. He released tons of lightning, and attacked everything in the range of the formation and fire ring. He didn''t feel bad like before about doing this, at least he''d clear all the enemies inside the ring before seeing how William''s formation would do.

    The moment he released his attack lightning fell all over the ce, burning and killing all the enemies inside the fire ring. At the same time, the bright lightning white light masked what happened on the ground.

    Lines appeared lines that Fang missed. William didn''t just give them materials, but also some sort of special liquid in twelve small bottles. They emptied the fluid on the ground, drawing lines in the form of a few droplets every few metres. This wasn''t noticeable at first, but when Fang released his lightning attack, these drops shone brightly, got connected together, and formed lines that appeared to make a twelve-headed star diagram.

    The star had some sort of inner smaller stars that got interloped into each other, forming a veryplex pattern.

    The moment Fang stopped releasing his attack, and as he checked the entire ce inside the fire ring, he was surprised to see all this appearing on the ground. And that was just the beginning.

    He was in the heart of that star, surrounded by many smaller stars and diagrams, lines that weren''t there.

    Fang could have noticed them, if not for his underestimating what William''s monstrous weapons were doing here. But right now, he knew William wasn''t fooling around, wasn''t lying.

    Just feeling the auraing from the formation at the ground made him feel like he was a fish and just returned back to the water. He felt weirdly refreshed, felt like he was back to his prime state.

    That feeling wasn''t an illusion, as someone like him was able to differentiate between real and fake things. And as he stopped his lightning attack, the ground started to shine brighter, while expanding to cover the entire fire ring around.

    "He is releasing more grenades¡­" Fang saw William''s arrowsnd all over the fire ring, adding more explosions there. He didn''t get why he was doing this, after all, Fang''s top element was lightning, not fire.

    Yet when he saw the fire ring turn from bright red and orange into white and silver, with a tinge of blue there, looking like dancing lightning arcs, he felt as if he just watched a miracle of some sort of magic show.

    The fire changed into lightning, not just in appearance, but also in nature and essence. Instead of raising zing mes thick and copious, rising up to the sky in thick tongues, it changed and became thick lightning arcs, dancing right and left, moving too damn fast.

    Then thunder fell! And with it, the entire world started to change!

 Chapter 1113 Stop Daydreaming!

    <h4>Chapter 1113 Stop Daydreaming!</h4>

    It felt like there was a thunderstorming here. William''s formation stored the lightning attack from Fang, and fueled the materials around, charging them and the formation to change the nature of the ring of fire around, turning it into a ring of lightning.

    Then with thunder, the lightning arcs forming the ring now expanded, travelled fast, and crossed arge distance in the blink of an eye, prating through tons of bodies, and turning them all into ash.

    "..." Fang stood in his ce, motionless, watching all this happening without being able to say a single word. He even had his mouth open agape, while watching something that even he at his prime wouldn''t be able to do something close to!

    It wasn''t just turning the fire into lightning, it was as if William''s formation borrowed the fire nature of being berserk and aggressive, and gave it to the shy and short-timed lightning.

    The lightning didn''tst for a few seconds as it used to, itsted for a long time. The arcsing out from the ring of lightning started to dance around, prating everything they touched, and kept elongating and expanding, reaching long distances, even close to the areas around the gates.

    This made the enemiesing towards this ce unable to defend themselves. There was no way to defend against lighting, even if they used darkness techniques, even if they worked together to stop these brutal lightning arcs. At the same time, they couldn''t even retreat, as no one was faster than the speed of lightning.

    As things took such an interesting turn, Fang looked at William, feeling like it was the first time he ever saw this youngster. He might be a strong and well-knowledgeable spirit master, but when it came down to lightning elements and techniques, he was the best in the world.

    He could assess anything rted to lightning with a nce, yet he failed to spot the high value of this formation despite him being this close to it, despite watching it getting formed under his nose.

    And such a result was something he never imagined to be real. It was unreal, was something he never thought to be true, never crossed his mind that such an explosive might would be in this world.

    And then William''sst words about this formation rang in his mind, driving him even more insane.

    "This is just a small result of the true might of the lightning formation, the true might of the outer world materials¡­ Damn! What will be the real effect then if he has enough materials on him? Would it destroy the entire world or what?!!"

    Fang felt fear, for the first time in long decades. At the same time, he felt unmeasurable excitement, one that stemmed from the depths of his spirit.

    If this was the true might of the outer world, then his desire to go there ignited fiercer than ever! He was now willing to do anything, anything at all, and get a chance, even if it was slim, to reach that higher realm, to experience wielding such power.

    Then he thought about the man who did all this, William. "He did this and he is still a youngster¡­ Damn! I''m envious, truly envying him¡­" he muttered to himself before the loud voice of William rang in his mind.

    "Old man, what are you doing daydreaming like this? Five minutes passed, and you need to release another strike now!"

    "Got it," Fang''s attitude changed by one hundred and eighty degrees after seeing this formation. He released his technique again and watched the magical effects of the formation as if he was watching the show for the first time ever.

    "Don''t daydream again! Use these minutes and rest!"

    "There is no need for me to do anything else," Fang honestly said, "your formation is killing it already!"

    "Damn you old man! Do you think such materials are easy to find? I only have a limited stock of these. If not for your life being in danger by what you did before, I''d not have even considered wasting such precious materials on such lowly enemies!"

    The words of William jolted Fang awake. He was right, this wasn''t the right stage for such a brutal and scary formation to appear at. The enemies weren''t even that important, to begin with, weren''t the leaders of the dark masters and monsters, weren''t even the leaders of the dark forces in the entire world!

    To Fang, such a formation was like the Holy Grail, the grand artefact, one that should be used properly against enemies suiting its devastating effects.

    "Let me heal then, I''ll shoulder everythingter on," Fang said, in a way that felt like he was swearing or taking an oath or something.

    "Old man, I didn''t do this to burn your life essence again!"

    "I won''t do that! Can''t you see? The formation messed with the enemies around, and they needed lots of time to regroup," Fang saw the effects of the formation were weaning and getting weaker, but the enemies were indeed in a total mess, "not to mention there are still leftovers hanging over the ce. The enemies will be weaker than usual, and I can handle them as long as I can."

    "Then don''t push yourself too much, you have neen more times to do it. Then the materials will be lost, and you''ll handle the enemies until you say you can''t."

    "Deal!" Fang returned to be the serious Fang William got used to. He saw how Fang was shocked by the formation''s effect, and that felt quite satisfying for William.

    But he also needed the old Fang in this battle. "It''s great he returned back to his old self," he muttered, before turning towards the ground. During all this, his four monstrous weapons never stopped uncovering the shiny rocks at the bottom of the hole, "I''m curious to know what all this is about¡­"

    His monstrous weapons cleared good space already, but the shining rocks that appeared so far didn''t give him any hints or a clue about anything.

 Chapter 1114 Sulpher

    Chapter 1114 Sulpher

    So William ordered his four monstrous weapons to continue expanding the hole, even if they had to dig directly through the sides of the existing hole they dug already.

    He didn''t want to waste more time to expand the hole from the surface all the way to the bottom. So he let them form pirs to support the ground above the space they dug while waiting for them to expose enough rocks to reveal this mystery.

    And during all this, Fang kept releasing his deadly lightning attack one time after another, while taking five minutes rest in between.

    At the same time, all the high-end masters in this underground space saw what Fang was doing. They saw what William''s monstrous weapons did, but didn''t get what he aimed to do first until the lightning fell from Fang, and lit everything on the ground bright silver, white, and blue.

    "The lightning-mad dog is going all out," Sloth rolled his eyes, feeling a weird itch about having such power, "When will the timee for me to wield such power? By then, no one will ever try to touch the kingdom!"

    "Does something happen to William?" from the side, Anjie couldn''t help but ask in worry, making Sloth roll his eyes.

    "You need to learn how to control and behave yourself a little more about this youth! Doing this won''t help you at all!"

    "Doing what?!!" Anjie blinked before adding, "he isn''t here! And it''s normal for me to worry about him."

    "Why?" Sloth asked in a sly tone, ending up for Anjie''s cheeks to turn red. She shifted her eyes away from her mentor, knowing that he was teasing her.

    "Don''t worry, your fanboy is doing great, actually he is rocking it with Fang out there," Sloth motioned his head towards the direction of these two, "these loud bangs are all of their doing."

    "I know it, he is quite strong, hahaha!" sheughed, making Sloth unable to say anything back for a few seconds.

    "Let''s focus on killing more of these enemies here," he turned his attention towards the dark masters trying their best to climb this tower, "I got the feeling that these two will end this little war in a day or two."

    "It''s my man who is going to do it, not this Fang," Anjie harrumphed, leaving Sloth speechless for the second time in a row. He wanted to tell her that Fang she was belittling was one of the top three masters in the entire world, a person that all the kingdoms and empires in the world were seeking his help and support.

    And then he recalled the fact that the same Fang proposed to join William''s guild, and thetter seemed to not be that weing to ept such an offer. He felt how weird this situation was for the first time when he thought about it in such a way.

    "Anyway, you need to worry about your father as well," Sloth cleared his throat while clearing such thoughts from his mind, "he is up there, fighting against monsters."

    "They are all weak," Anjie rolled her eyes, "and he isn''t alone, he got all the big names who came with us."

    "Are you for real?!!" Sloth blinked, and she shrugged.

    "I''m just stating facts, this war here is quite hard to win, and we are supposed to lose it, lost most of us actually, right?"

    "..." Sloth went speechless for the third time in a row, didn''t know why this favourable girl of his turned into such a die-hard fan of William.

    "Love really does miracles, and turns anyone stupid," he couldn''t help but inwardly sigh, muttering to himself, before looking around. Even if he hated admitting it, he knew she had a point here.

    This battle was a lost one if anyone considered the tons of enemies and how high their grades were. If not for William pulling one miracle after another, then they''d have lost their lives and wouldn''t have thought about winning, instead, they''d think only about running away.

    The king and the masters up there were indeed having it much easier than them. Since the disappearance of William and others, the king led everyone to take down monsters and dark masters around. He kept conquering one peak after another while facing great battles in his eyes.

    The dark masters were hard to deal with, as they got the higher point advantage. And yetpared to the brutal fights down below, they were really having it so nice.

    As the two sides were fighting desperately, William was busy trying to get the meaning of all these bright rocks on the ground. His monstrous weapons cleared arge area of dirt and rocks, exposing lots of shiny tes of rocks at the bottom.

    "This can''t be done in a short time, can''t be done by dark masters at all¡­" William muttered after studying the shining ground for an hour. The rocks thaty in front of him were all identical in size, having a diamond shape, with three metres each in length between the two furthest nodes, and one metre between the closest nodes. Seeing this made him feel this ce was found by the dark masters, and they decided to use it.

    What made him think so was the perfect shape of all the shining rocks, not to mention this ce was buried under arge amount of rocks and dirt. It didn''t feel like this ce was built by dark masters more than it was discovered by them.

    "If that is true, then the secret isn''t in this ground, but in something elseid on top of it¡­" he shifted his attention, and looked at the dirt and rocks his monstrous weapons removed so far.

    They were piles in different spots on the surface. So he went up there and started to closely examine all this. "Sulphur¡­ They got a faint odour of sulphur¡­" This was the first thing he noticed after going up there.

 Chapter 1115 Its A Landmine!

    Chapter 1115 It''s A Landmine!

    William was holding a few rocks close to his face, trying to see if there were any small inscriptions or hidden writings there. But what he found was this smell, something that made him feel familiar. Yet he didn''t get any clue yet, and so he kept studying the rocks and dirt.

    During this, the lightning formation around Fang started to fade away. Fang was already pumped with the power he absorbed from this formation, getting inspired and hyped up to do something simr to the deadly effect of the formation.

    William kept studying the rocks and dirt for six hours, while Fang started to fight the enemies after the exhaustion of the materials and the destruction of the formation. Fang saw what William was doing, and felt curious about this.

    Yet he didn''t ask anything as he was more interested in studying this lightning formation. The formation released copious amounts of lightning, and it also released high and pure lightning power. Fang felt his body getting better at first before he realised it was thanks to the high stage of the lightning power he was bathed in.

    As he found out about this, he started to madly absorb this power. At the same time, he tried to study and analyse it, trying to learn how to upgrade and evolve his lightning spirit element to reach such a pure stage.

    Fang didn''t find anything concrete from the short time he had to study this power, but he got some sort of hint or feeling. He started to use his lightning spirit element differently, trying to rotate it inside his body first, before releasing the power out.

    It was something novel to him, and if William knew about this, he''d recognise what Fang was doing. He was trying to circte the lightning power in his meridianwork, something that would enhance the purity and increase the strength of the lightning power.

    As Fang started attacking, he instantly felt how different his attack power was. Realising this made him quite excited, even thought about asking Williamter to build up more of these formations, even after getting out from there, to allow him to study it better and learn more.

    But he knew it was going to be a hard task to convince William to do so. Thetter stated clearly how precious the materials he used to make this formation were. And that made Fang think about what to do to convince William to agree.

    As he kept thinking about this while attacking the enemies around him, William suddenly stopped.

    "Sulphur in the rock, green oil mixed with the dirt¡­ This¡­ This is a naturally formed mine-ce!!!" his body froze, before suddenly realising everything.

    He looked up at the formation at the ceiling, then looked at the shining rocks on the ground. "One formation to bring everyone here, and then they just needed to light up a fuse, and the entire ce would explode fiercely¡­ Damn!"

    The moment William realised this he felt goosebumps all over his body. The shining ground wasn''t filled with colourful rocks, but rocks that stored an insane amount of spirit power. The rocks and dirt covering it were filled with the least vtile precursors to make a bomb.

    Even if these materials held a weak effect, their scary size and magnitude made this ce deadly. As for the fuse, the enemy would just need toy down a formation, to turn the stored spirit power in the ground unstable, then everything would follow in a terrifying cascade.

    The moment he realised this, his thoughts instantly changed. He knew the enemy was buying time, trying to charge up the formation surrounding the entire ce.

    For the fuse formation to work and bring the desired results, it should surround the entire ce.

    "The solution is simple, but it requires lots of work¡­" William came here to kill the hidden enemies in the underground base. Then he found out about the formation at the ceiling, and then gates appeared. He started to take this as a chance to solve the current bad situation, to use that dark master gate for everyone to escape.

    But this wasn''t feasible anymore. He was sure the moment that formation got finished, and the dark leaders would light the fuse, and let the entire formation detonate.

    So thinking about controlling this gate and letting everyone pass through it when the enemy would move everyone here wasn''t going to work. William looked at the far end of this ce, a ce that was at least fifty kilometres away from his current spot.

    "We need to move," he said without any hesitation, "call everyone else here, we need to move as one whole group."

    anything else about what he learnt, as he was sure everything he was saying and doing was closely monitored by the dark leaders, "Now?!!! For what?!!!" Fang felt like William hit his head or something. Minutes ago, the youngster never showed any signs of asking others to join them. And now he asked him to bring everyone? And they were going to move?

    "We need to do something very important," William didn''t say anything else about what he learnt, as he was sure everything he was saying and doing was closely monitored by the dark leaders, "Let them move here as fast as they could, we need to act fast."

    "Ok¡­" Fang didn''t know why William acted like this, but he was sure there was something hugeing. William wouldn''t show such distress and urgency without proper reason. And if he didn''t say it, it meant he feared for the enemies to hear what he''d say.

    "You can tell me through telepathy then," Fang sent to William, "and don''t worry, I''ve already sent the distress signal to everyone I can reach."

    "Thanks¡­ That''s why I discovered it so far¡­" William said what he learnt using spirit telepathy. He just thought about what he wanted to say and sent it directly to Fang''s mind. Thetter kept getting shocked the more he heard, and by the end of William''s words he understood the magnitude of the current crisis.

 Chapter 1116 Panic!

    Chapter 1116 Panic!

    "Are you sure the entire ce is lying on a grand bomb?!" he couldn''t help but ask again, and William confirmed this, "That''s¡­ That''s quite bad!" he wanted to roar in anger, but he controlled himself to not arouse any suspicion.

    As he learnt about the reasons that drove William to make such a decision, he agreed on it. It was better if they stuck together, as William''s intentions were clear. He wanted to go there and mess with that fuse formation, the ring weak spot of the entire scheme.

    Yet it went without saying that such a weak spot would be heavily guarded by the enemies. It was going to be a real challenge for all of them, and yet they had to take such a step if they wanted to survive this.

    William didn''t say anything else, knowing that Fang was smart and experienced enough to read through his intentions. As he left the task of gathering everyone here, he started to think about what to do to go there and ruin the formation.

    Such a formation must be located near the shining ground. And that meant they needed to dig deep, and they had to deal with that formation next.

    To ruin a formation, the easiest way was to locate its foundations and remove materials fueling it. But he was sure such a formation would be something built on the outer world''s knowledge, and that meant there must be trapsid there, and lots of defences to make it hard to remove the materials.

    Formations in the outer world had a very special stance, and they were quite valuable. Building one wasn''t that easy like doing it here, as they got auxiliary formations and arrays to serve and defend the entire grand formation.

    If that was true, then the task of ruining part of the formation here was going to be quite challenging. If they didn''t have such dense enemies around, then William was sure of their ability to handle that formation.

    In addition to that, they were pressured by the tight timeline they got. He didn''t know how long the enemy needed to fuel the formation, but it seemed like they had been doing this for a long time already.

    And there was another problem, how much of the formation they needed to mess for it to stop running? This was something he wasn''t sure about.

    As he was lost in his own dilemmas, others around him received Fang''s distress signal. Thetter just told them toe, as this was the request of William. He stressedter on the urgency of this after he learnt about what William discovered here.

    "At least tell us why we need to risk everything ande to you! It seems like you are doing great, not needing any help!" Sloth sent back, asking for more rification, the thing that many other high-end masters also did.

    For Sloth, he knew trying to move towards William was going to be a very dangerous trip. He didn''t want to risk doing it without proper reasons.

    And when he heard what Fang said, learnt the truth about the entire ce, he couldn''t help but suck a cold breath of breath.

    "Damn those mtherfckers! They are aiming to kill all of us!" he roared inwardly, soothed with endless rage.

    This wasn''t just a danger towards masters, but also a threat towards the king and his daughter, against the formidable pirs and top masters of the kingdom.

    Realising this made him see how grave the current situation was. Without any speck of hesitation, he contacted other high-end masters here.

    "We areing to you!" they all responded at the same moment, and that told Sloth Fang must have told everyone about the entire situation.

    As they had to move to William, it was better for the high-end masters to join them first. Then they all together would march, while the stronger masters would protect the weaker ones.

    The high-end masters were already fighting far away from the two of them. So it took them roughly two hours to arrive back at Sloth''s ce before everyone started to march towards William and Fang.

    William didn''t keep his hands anymore. He started to hit one monster gate after another, leaving only one behind, alongside the dark master gate.

    If it was up to him, he''d ruin all the monster gates. But this would only leave the dark master gate behind, making it a bit weird.

    So he kept his hands off one monster gate and selected the one closest to the dark master gate. He made it as if he feared hitting the dark master gate by ident, and decided to leave the monster gate to the end.

    "They joined Sloth and others, and are marching now towards here," Fang delivered the good news, "they''ll need around one hour to arrive. Anything to do before they''de here?"

    "I want you to preserve your powers," William slowly said, "make sure you won''t overexert yourself."

    "But¡­"

    "I''m going to help," William knew at the uingst battle in this ce, his role was going to be quite limited. He might be useful in digging the ground, finding a way to ruin the formation down below, but he wouldn''t take part in any fight.

    He expected the moment they arrived at the edge of this ce and started unearthing the ground, the enemy would read through their intentions. Their response was expected, sending everything they got on their way. The enemiesing here would all be quite high-end, and very tough to deal with, and only high-end masters got a chance at stopping them.

    William nned to use his lightning formation again, and his grand technique to aid others from behind. This was the best tactic he coulde up with right now, the only tactic he could think of.

    "Let''s hope things won''t be that hard back there," he sighed, while watching everyone running towards his direction, fighting monsters and dark masters during their march.

 Chapter 1117 A Greedy Old Man And A Youngster

    Chapter 1117 A Greedy Old Man And A Youngster

    Sloth, Anjie, and others took roughly one hour and a half to arrive. They luckily didn''t lose anyone, but they were all quite exhausted.

    "Take two hours to rest," William was already spreading his monstrous weapons around,ying down another lightning formation, "Fang is going to defend all of us during this time."

    Everyone looked at Fang while recalling the terrifying lightning attack heunched before. And yet seeing it from this closeby was a totally different experience for them.

    The might and ferocity of this attack took them all by shock. They watched how Fang released an attack once, then the entire world thundered under the scary might of his lightning.

    The formation worked as an amplifier to his power, all the high-end masters knew this. The moment they got such an idea, they turned to William, asking him to do the same with their powers and attacks as well.

    "Sigh! Do you think this is something easy to do?" he rolled his eyes, before adding, "Line up, show me the deadliest attack you can ever release. Tell me the main spirit element you used, and I''ll see if I can help or not."

    They didn''t hesitate to follow his words, lining up before one by one released their techniques, stating the spirit elements used inunching these techniques. To make sure they''d get a shot here, they didn''t use just one attack, but three up to five.

    They used attacks with different spirit elements, hoping for William to find an element for them to use. All of them were at the pinnacle stage of the dark gold grade, and that meant they were all quite special masters.

    Having more than one spirit element was something extremely rare, but it was one of the main conditions for any master to reach the pinnacle stage.

    William didn''t find it weird at all. Yet he still had a headache when they used more than one attack, showing their ability to use more than one spirit element.

    He wasn''t lying, his reserve of outer-world materials wasn''t that high. After all, he needed a special type of material to form such a formation. He got enough to fuel around twenty up to forty formations of each element. And now he had to select from all these scary techniques to augment.

    If each one of those high-end masters used just one technique, then things would have been easier for him. Yet now he had to focus more and select the deadliest techniques, took note of them, and then he''d augment themter on.

    "I''ll tell everyone the techniques he is going to use, and the element I''m going to support for every one of you," after watching the show for half an hour, he finally spoke, "The most I can do is to support everyone with three times of formation, so make sure you will make the best out of this. Watch how Fang is using the formation, as this is the only way to do it."

    They didn''t need to watch anything. They already watched Fang many times and knew all they needed to do was attack the formation with their technique. Then the formation would start his magic.

    They noticed that Fang needed to only fire up his technique once per five minutes, and then the formation would augment and release his lightning technique for five minutes. They weren''t as strong as him, but they were all eager to test the effect of William''s formation on their techniques.

    "If you want, I can share you little and valuable intel about this formation," Fang suddenly said, while taking his five minutes rest, "but doing so isn''t free. Who is going to pay me for such service?"

    "Despicable!" it was William whomented that, shaking his head as if he got disappointed by Fang.

    "Don''t me me, I need tons of resources to keep advancing forward," Fang was speechless for a few seconds, fearing that he got on the bad side of William. He tried to give a good reason for doing this, aside from being greedy.

    Yet he never expected what William said next.

    "If you are going to take a loot, then you have to pay half to the guild you want to join," William shook his head again, and this time he didn''t leave just Fang speechless behind, but everyone else.

    "You dare to call him despicable? What makes you then? Huh?!" Sloth crossed his arms, and William didn''t get fazed off by the gazes from Sloth and others. He simply shrugged, before adding:

    "I''m just too weak, and I have a guild to feed."

    "I like you more now, hahaha!" Fang couldn''t help butugh, while all the other high-end masters knew they fell prey to such greedy masters.

    Fang didn''t cut it short for them and didn''t sell his information for they tried to study the technique augmented by the formation.

    At first, no one got what he meant, not even William. But when Fang cheap. He knew aside from getting greedy, he was about to give them a very great help. After he collected tons of rare materials and high-end equipment, he told them about the benefit they''d have if they tried to study the technique augmented by the formation.

    At first, no one got what he meant, not even William. But when Fang spoke about the way to do it, by letting the power circte inside one''s body, and how this was so beneficial even to him, William got what he was referring to.

    "You found a crude way to circte your power inside the meridians? Impressive master indeed¡­" William thought to himself, while others didn''t feel the great chance Fang just proposed to them.

    "You need to listen to him," and when he noticed how they felt bad about this as if they got scammed or something, William cleared up his throat and added, "This is going to help you a lot, take it from me¡­"

    "Shut up! You aren''t helping at all, but making us feel worse!" Sloth shouted in dissatisfaction, seemingly taking William''s words in the wrong meaning and impression.

 Chapter 1118 Make A Way, Old Man!

    Chapter 1118 Make A Way, Old Man!

    "I''m just trying to help you," William shrugged, knowing that they got his words in the wrong way. But he didn''t care. He knew the moment they tried the crude method Fang came up with, then they''d get how valuable this chance was.

    In fact, William started to think differently about this. "I can use this method to open meridians for me and others¡­ It''ll consume lots of materials, but Lara''s underground city is an endless treasure trove for these materials¡­"

    He knew he just collected part of what he could have obtained back there. He left many back at the guild, much more with his friends, not to mention he hadn''t collected his past shares of the materials fully yet. If that wasn''t enough, he''d also find a way to exchange these materials with Lara''s city leaders and big forces.

    He didn''t want everything, just a few selected pieces of these materials. As no one truly knew the overall value of these materials, it was easy to exchange many of what he didn''t need right now with the few he desperately needed as much of them as possible.

    Thinking about that made him look at Fang, standing there, bathed in fierce lightning. This old master was indeed special, that was what William thought.

    At first, he didn''t care about adding such an old man to his gang. He didn''t believe old masters had such an opportunity to rise up and learn about new stuff easily. But this old man proved him wrong.

    He was quite special, attracting his attention first by the spirit and body fusion state first. Then there was this thing, a way that even William never thought about before.

    As he proved to be quite worthy and valuable, having such ability to deduct things and reach new heights, William decided to give him a shot, and add him to the roster of his special training schedule once all of this was over.

    "I first need to deal with that nightmare monster first," he muttered to himself, turning his eyes towards the faraway edge of this ce, "I need to take care of the Transformers as well¡­"

    He rested with others for two hours, enough for the formation he made for Fang to be this close to exhausting its power. "Line up, we are going out," William didn''t move out, but first shed around, and started to stack his technique''s attacks on his tails.

    "What are you doing?!" Sloth and others were already familiar with William''s way of fighting. And yet they didn''t get why he was charging his technique up, "We''ll secure you and others. Just focus on running¡­"

    "We need to prepare the stage before leaving," William said in a low tone, before adding a few minutester, "Old man, make way for me¡­ I''ming to help!"

    Fang was about to release another volley of his lightning technique, feeling this would be thest to do before the materials in the formation got exhausted. But when he heard William''s words, he stepped aside, watching what this youngster was nning to do.

    "With me, let''s hit the formation together," William was a few hundred metres away when he shouted, "Now!" He appeared the next moment, tens of metres off the ground, before shing again,nding with all his tails and weapons, mming fiercely against the ground.

    He merged his Holy Sword technique with cannonball. Fang got what he wanted to do, and instantly released another brutal wave of his lightning technique.

    The two techniquesnded at the same time at the formation, turning everything around quite blinding. Bright lightning arcs started to dance, spreading over, reaching far ces they never reached before.

    "You are insane, do you know that? You could have gotten killed by my technique!" Fang said with a deep sigh, while William shrugged.

    "It''s not that easy to kill me, old man," William looked around, "The lightning strike willst for five minutes, after that we''ll make a run forward."

    "Leave the rest to us," seeing how grand the formation turned by adding two techniques of the same element together, everyone started to have ideas of their own.

    They decided to work in teams, two each, to release far deadlier attacks than any of them separately would do. This was expected, as the formation released a barrage of lightning that was at least five times stronger than what Fang alone did.

    That wasn''t the only effect William added by joining hands with Fang. The formation''s lightning strike reached further away spots, covering at least three times the area it covered before.

    It grew in intensity and covered much wider areas. And that was enough to entice anyone''s eagerness to try such a method.

    As five minutes passed, Sloth, Fang, and others led the charge forward. They ran for ten kilometres without facing anything, before the enemies started to appear.

    William''s addition to the formation made the final attack cover twelve kilometres at least. All the enemies inside that zone got killed right on the spot. And newly added hyenas, monsters, and dark masters got killed as well.

    The enemy tried to gather up most of their forces in an area of twenty kilometres around them. So by taking away twelve kilometres, and killing anything inside, the enemy lost at least fifty percent of the gathered forces here. And as the enemies kept moving forward, trying to survive and bypass the lightning area, they lost at least twenty per cent more.

    It was expected for the iing enemies to be disorganised, fewer in number, andcking morale. They got crushed easily by Sloth, Fang, and others, while the weaker masters ran alongside William, surrounded by the high-end masters.

    William didn''t just run without help. He spread his flying weapons and released his monstrous weapons around. They all worked tounch deadly attacks at the enemies, killing anything they could reach, anyone daring toe closer to them.

    The high-end masters were from the kingdom, worked together for a long time already, and were quite familiar with each other''s way of fighting, the techniques used, and the tactics pulled by them.

 Chapter 1119 The Great Rocks Flying Monsters

    Chapter 1119 The Great Rocks Flying Monsters

    So it was expected for them to have tacit understanding, and work like a team.

    They didn''t meet any strong resistance for half an hour before they finally became close enough from the remaining two gates. "Will we try and smash through these, or go around?" Sloth shouted, and William gave him the answer. They took a little detour around, evading these two sources of trouble.

    William had the ability to smash these gates, and yet he didn''t do it. That made everyone realise he must have another purpose for these, yet they didn''t have time to think about it.

    They were now facing tons of enemies, mainly from the high-end stage. Each step was taken now with absolute difficulty, and yet they kept crushing anythinging and blocking their path, slowly pulling distance away from these gates.

    *Roar!*

    Just after two hours, and when everyone crossed half the distance towards the edge of this ce, William suspected the dark master leaders had already exhausted their tricks and defences so far.

    Yet a fierce roar came before many winged monsters appeared. They came from a direction far from them,ing from one opening at the ceiling.

    "New iing!"

    "Monsters areing from the surface world!"

    "They are winged giant birds!"

    Many shouted in rm, and everyone felt quite the pressure. They were left in the open, surrounded by tons of hard to deal with enemies. They had no terrain to hold at, nothing to defend themselves against the iing monsters. And now they had to fend off against flying beasts.

    Yet the only one who got excited was William. "They aren''t dragons, but they are like the great Rocks in the outer world¡­ Not bad!" William couldn''t tell the real breed of these monsters, but he could tell these were rted in one way or another to the great Rocks birds in the outer world.

    These great Rocks were formed mainly of rocks as if giant birds got petrified and turned to stones. Instead of turning to statues, they weren''t less livelier than any other monster.

    Having bodies made out of rocks gave them a huge boost of defence, and their unique method of raining down rocks from high altitudes made it quite annoying to handle their attacks. William knew they were immune to fire, lightning, and even earth elements. They were a problem indeed, but he knew the right way to handle them.

    "Any water-based masters here? Gather up, alle in the middle of the group," William suddenly shouted, and everyone knew he must have a way to handle these monsters.

    "They are formed of rocks! We need to hit them with fire!" Sloth argued.

    "No, fire will take a long time to melt these rocks," Fang shook his head, releasing a barrage of his lightning formation before adding, "Let''s use lightning¡­"

    "Just let the water-based masterse here now!" William also called all of his monstrous weapons, "We will halt our advance for now, spread out the line, let''s cover the furthest area we can control."

    "..."

    It was indeed quite crazy to do so. They weren''t that far off the two troublesome gates. And if they stopped, they''d give the enemy time to gather up, arrange their lines, ande at them with much harder does to counter.

    They knew once stopped, it''d be too damn challenging to return moving forward again. Yet William was acting stubborn and even asked for one of the most useless element-based masters against such monsters.

    "You are making a formation?!!" Fang wasn''t the only one who noticed what William''s monstrous weapons were doing, but everyone else, "isn''t it a waste? Using such formation to augment water-based masters? It''d be better to use this for fire or even on me!"

    "Shut up already," William was focusing on the iing monsters. They appeared from one hole at first, but now they came from at least twenty. They were building up their numbers while drawing too fast towards here.

    Even if they were made out of rocks, even if they had very heavy and giant bodies, they could still fly light and fast. William knew the moment they appeared here, they''d rain everyone with rocks.

    So he turned towards the twenty water-based masters gathered here. He recognised one of them, as he was one of the high-end masters who used their techniques before.

    He was quite excited to have the ability to use this formation. He showed five of his deadliest techniques and was wondering which one William would suggest to use.

    "I want you to use all of your five techniques you performed before," and when the mass was wondering about this, William suddenly said, "As for others, release any technique you have, as long as it''s fierce and strong. You''ll release the techniques continuously, and won''t take a break. Make sure to replenish your spirit power, get it?"

    "They won''t take a five-minute break?!!!" Fang shouted from the front before anyone else would say a singlement.

    "No time for that," William didn''t exin anything. The moment his monstrous weapons built the formation, he retreated with them to another spot, "attack on my mark, and don''t stop until we get all of these monsters."

    He didn''t say anything about his real intentions. Having such giant Rock monsters by his side was a great boost. But there was another catch other than how to hunt them down, which was how to entrap them.

    If they were in another ce, then he''d have simply used different methods and got enough time to y with these monsters. But now, there was no time for that.

    He didn''t want to kill these monsters, but he would do so if his rash idea failed. As the masters stood in the heart of the formation, waiting for his signal, and as everyone else was fighting monsters and dark masters while anticipating what he was going to do, William did something weird.

    He asked his four monstrous weapons to start digging the ground. In a few minutes, deep holes appeared.

 Chapter 1120 The Rock Melts Away

    Chapter 1120 The Rock Melts Away

    It wasn''t one, but thirty in number, with each one looking like a circle, around twenty metres in radius.

    This took almost half of the space the high-end masters fought bravely to control. Just before anyone would think about what was going to happen, the flying monsters were already upon them.

    "Do it! Release your techniques now!"

    William didn''t hold back and gave the order instantly to everyone. The moment they got the order, they started to release their water-based techniques.

    Everyone else held their breaths, waiting to see the result of such a crazy n. No one believed water could conquer rocks, even the water-based masters themselves didn''t believe in that.

    Yet the moment they released their techniques, something unbelievable happened! The formations Williamid started to shine brightly in pure blue light before something grand started to rise up from one formation.

    It was the one where a pinnacle stage master was present there. The formation released a thick pir of water and moved to the sky while roaring fiercely as if it were a dragon.

    And it was! It was a giant Chinese dragon, with a long and huge cylindrical body. Its body looked ethereal as if it was formed of fog and not water. It had long whisks, and smooth scales, and it didn''t look ferocious or strong at first nce.

    Yet it travelled fast and shed against lots of iing giant Rocks was going on here. The moment that dragon touched any Rock monster, the rocks seemed like ice meeting fire melted and turned and flying monsters. And then a miracle happened.

    "The water¡­ The water is turning rock into mud¡­ Damn! Can such a thing even happen?!!" many eximed in shock, didn''t know what was going on here. The moment that dragon touched any Rock monster, the rocks seemed like ice meeting fire melted and turned into thick torrents of mud.

    Such a result was indeed quite shocking! No one ever imagined this. Rocks would get depleted by water, and rivers could dig a path through the tallest mountains. This was all known, but it was also known that such a process would take a long time to happen.

    Right now, they were watching this happening in mere seconds, even in the blink of an eye. They didn''t know how William managed to do this, and they only thought about the formations heid behind.

    That was indeed true. These formations didn''t just augment the powers of the techniques, but as manyunched theirs, they also merged these techniques together, making them reach new heights.

    The only drawback for this was the short life of the new techniques formed by the formations. That was why William asked them to constantly keep attacking, even if that meant exhausting the materials quite fast.

    Instead ofsting for two hours at least, these formations wouldn''tst more than twenty! Yet that was sufficient to change the entire scope of this harsh battle.

    Everyone thought William built these holes to entrap the fallen monsters, and kill them there. No one thought about William''s intent to tame and capture them. And yet what happened was totally out of both expectations.

    "These monsters aren''t like the giant Rocks in the outer world¡­" William watched while entire monsters turned into a flood of mud, falling over their head, falling everywhere, "They didn''t stand a chance against these techniques. Their bodies are much weaker than what I expected¡­ What a loss¡­"

    He didn''t like such results. He hoped to im a few of the highly injured monsters to himself. Even if he didn''t yet solve the problem of how to transport these and keep them docile in the middle of the hectic ongoing war, he still wanted to capture a few.

    But in the end, the monsters all turned into mud, fell and rained over everyone''s heads, and fell on the ground, filling the holes he built before.

    "This¡­" yet the moment he touched arge piece of mud, removing it away from his head, he felt something special and new, "This isn''t normal mud, but one infused with these monsters'' spirit power and vitality¡­"

    This realisation was enough to make him excited. This wasn''t a totally wasted chance. Such mud could be used to solve lots of problems, creating many chances in the future.

    As he realised this, he started to take empty bottles out, fill them with mud. Yet soon enough, he learnt this method wouldn''t work. The mud was like giant pieces of y. If he tried to divide it into small pieces, he noticed it became something less valuable, with less amount of vitality within, even a few bottles containing dead pieces of mud.

    "Screw this¡­" out of everyone''s expectations, William took outrge pots, the ones used in forging and alchemy.

    "Is he trying to make something in the middle of all this?!!" Everyone was surprised by what William took out from his rings, but they soon got shocked when he did something out of their expectations.

    He started to fill all of them with the mud filling the holes he dug before. They didn''t get what or why he was doing this. And before they''d find any exnation or feasible reason for that, he emptied the thirty holes off all the mud, then stored all of the filled-up pots in his rings.

    "This is going to be fun," William then turned to everyone around, "anyone with alchemy or forging pots, moulds, or anything that can store this mud, please pass it to me."

    "For what?" Fang was the first to shout. He and others were still immersed in the brutal fighting happening everywhere. And yet he and others wanted to know the reason behind William''s weird actions.

    "No time for that, but it''s a very valuable material to make more formations," he lied, and all could tell he was. But they also knew there must be a good reason for him to do this.

    "Take this, it has all the big storage equipment I have," The first to act was none other than Anjie. Seeing their princess do it, everyone followed. Be it from the kingdom or the guild, they all threw rings containing lots of pots, and wide items that could contain mud.

 Chapter 1121 Collecting The Mud

    <h4>Chapter 1121 Collecting The Mud</h4>

    William caught everything thrown at him, didn''t say anything more, and started to sh around.

    The threat of the iing flying monsters was negated and dealt with using the water dragons. So everyone stopped worrying about them and focused on fighting the fending off the ground monsters.

    William didn''t care about anything else but to collect more mud and store it away. He shed right and left, collecting even the mud that fell on the ground, away from his holes. He kept doing this for half an hour, even after the formations heid before got exhausted, even after all of the flying monsters died and vanished, turning into a flood of mud.

    Everyone kept fighting while keeping an eye on William. He did nothing else but collect mud, and didn''t even take part in the ongoing battles for almost one hour.

    During which, the monsters and dark mastersing at them were getting harder to deal with. "We need to move!" Sloth shouted, feeling that they had given enough time for William to y in the mud, "We can''t handle the pressure for too long."

    "Give me ten more minutes," William still had lots of mud he didn''t clear, "I''m going to withdraw my monstrous weapons."

    "This¡­" Sloth didn''t know why, but William acted childishly at this moment. They were in desperate need of help, and William just announced he was going to take away his ten monstrous weapons at such a critical moment.

    "It''s for the team, for everyone, for the formations," William quickly grasped what went through Sloth and others'' minds, "Just give me these ten minutes then we''ll leave."

    He gathered a huge amount of mud already but didn''t want to leave without getting more. This was a rare chance, as he knew this mud was quite special, very hard toe by even in the outer world.

    It was his luck that these flying monsters weren''t strong, and didn''t have the same scary outer defence as the giant Rocks in the outer world. Like this, they turned into mud quite fast, and that mud was going to be one of his most precious materials from now on.

    It wasn''t just mud infused with spirit power, it contained the monster''s vitality. It meant with the right means, he could nt these monsters, and let this mud turn into huge flying birds. On top of that, the newly formed monsters would be all loyal to him, without the need to worry about taming them or anything.

    In addition to that, he could use this mud to support any formation, equipment, potions, and elixirs with its rich vitality. He wasn''t truly lying when he said that this mud was going to help the formations he''d make, but he lied about his true intentions of wasting his mud in doing that.

    He did what he said, withdrew all of his monstrous weapons, and controlled them to help collect more mud. It felt like he grew ten more hands, and that elerated greatly the speed of collecting the mud.

    Others were speechless when he did that and didn''t even think he was speaking seriously before. Ten minutes went by like they were a year, with tons of pressure ced on everyone.

    "Let''s go!" William stuck to his words and stopped what he was doing after ten minutes. When he looked back, he realised he collected more than seventy percent of the total mud there.

    Even if he regretted not having enough time to collect the rest, he knew he gained too much of this mud, enough to sustain his needs for years.

    "We need to stick together¡­" Before Sloth would continue his words, William did something that silenced him and shocked everyone.

    He took out his Troll!

    "Sorry, but let me pay back for your help before," he didn''t say much, simply activating this behemoth. And then rays of lightnded, killing tons of enemies around.

    The pressure they all struggled to control vanished all of a sudden, and all of them felt like this was a dream.

    William didn''t overdo it, after all these enemies weren''t that threatening. As they all gathered up to surround them, releasing the attack blindly killed tons of them without much effort.

    "Don''t stand like this, let''s push forward!" William called back his Troll after ten seconds, but ten seconds were all it took to kill enemies that all of them would struggle to kill for half an hour! It was expected how big their shock was, and even Fang shook his head while muttering as he started to run with everyone else:

    "No matter how many times I see this behemoth in action, I won''t stop getting baffled by it!"

    Everyone around who heard his words couldn''t help but nod, didn''t say anything, and kept walking forward. They soon picked up pace, crossed the distance that got cleared from all the enemies, and ended up facing new ones.

    But these were stilling from faraway ces and didn''t have time to stick around or gather up. At the same time, the morale of everyone was sky high, and everyone fought like they just joined the battle.

    Without much pressure, they felt like they were dragons that got out of cages. They kept fighting and releasing their deadly techniques, ending up killing more of the iing enemies, and opening paths for them to pass forward.

    They didn''t face much trouble like before and managed to cross the remaining distance towards the edge of this area. Even when high-end dark masters and hyenas appeared, they got dealt with other high-end masters without much pressure.

    Things were heading much better after William used his Troll. And the moment they arrived at their destination, they all turned to him.

    "Spread out," this was the first order he gave, "buy me as much space as you can. I''ll build formations for everyone, except for earth-based masters. Those will gather up after finishing the formations, will help me dig the ground and find that hidden formation down there¡­"

 Chapter 1122 The Floating Rocks

    <h4>Chapter 1122 The Floating Rocks</h4>

    The n was simple, and yet it was still quite risky. They all knew they got it easy as William handled arge number of monsters in a short time. But when they''d stop here, they''d return to suffer once more.

    But noneined. They all waited to see the grand effects of William''s formations. They watched how he transformed Fang''s technique, and how he formed a scary water dragon before.

    As they got enticed by this, they all spread out, killed anything and anyone standing in their faces. They expanded fast, thanks mainly to the disorganised enemiesing at them. Yet soon enough, things started to slow down, as they faced more formidable foes, and their outer line got stretched thin, without being able to help each other.

    "Fang,e here," William suddenly shouted, "and Sloth as well¡­" he started to pick names, calling on them one by one.

    William knew such a situation could develop fast, deteriorate from having the upper hand and having it nice, all the way down to the rock bottom. So he didn''t wait toy down all the formations, didn''t wait even to form many of them.

    The moment he''d finish five of them, he''d call for the corresponding high end masters toe and activate them. "We''ll take it slowly, a single attack per five minutes," he paused before adding, "I made more formations to support your other elements. Once done here, go there and activate others."

    "Are we going to be the only ones to use these formations?!" Sloth was surprised by this, and yet William nodded against everyone''s expectations and opinions.

    "I''ll support the help from one hundred high end masters, controlling around three hundred formations," he paused, before adding, "The rest will lead everyone to kill anything passing through or surviving your attacks for any given reason. Plus, the moment you exhaust your powers, you''ll shift with others¡­"

    His thoughts were quite on the spot, and everyone knew this despite feeling bitter about it. The ones who didn''t have the chance to get into the first batch using these formations felt much regret and hoped that William to select them in the uing batch.

    He only selected five this time, then he started to build more formations, calling more masters. He made sure he''d spread these formations at the outer edge of the zone controlled by them, scattering a few inside to act as thest line of defence if things went south.

    But he never called anyone to use the deeper formations, leaving them forter, truly hoping they''d need to use them in any given situation.

    The moment the first five took charge of their formations, things started to dramatically change. Fierce waves of attacks came out from these formations, and everyone started to leave parts which got hit by such brutal force.

    Lightning shower, fire flood, or even a hurricane of metal needles¡­ Lots of deadly techniques got amplified and augmented by these formations, showing a scope of power never imagined or seen before by anyone.

    At the same time, William made sure to remind everyone using the formations to not sit by idly and rest. They needed to do as Fang once advised, trying to circte this power in their bodies to get better results.

    From the early moments these formations kicked in, and everything looked the same as when William used his Troll. Yet this time, the effect wouldst for hours! And that made everyone quite relieved, quite confident in taking down the nasty explosive formation hidden underground and escaping here without much harm.

    When everything started to roll nicely, and as William finished building the entire three hundred mini-formations of his, he rubbed his hands, before turning towards the ground at the edge of this ce.

    He worked to build formations, while other masters started to dig the ground with the help of his monstrous weapons. The moment he ended, he went and checked on the current state of the digging process.

    The entire group of masters here controlled an area that looked semi-circr in shape. It covered a total surface area of five kilometres square at first, and the widest point was at its base, where the digging process was.

    The edge of this underground space was formed totally of rocks. It felt like they were standing at the bottom of a grand series of mountains, reaching from the ground all the way to cover up the sky.

    The group of masters dug enough to reach a few hundred metres depth for five kilometres in length. They found lots of weird rocks, buried at different depths. What made these rocks remarkable and unique was their inability to move a single piece of them. And when they dug around these rocks, they ended up floating in the air, as if they were held by an invisible force or something.

    Seeing this made William feel puzzled. "The floating ores aren''t that rare, but what makes these special?" He knew these rocks were naturally gifted rocks from the outer world, able to float in ce for aeons of years.

    They could be moved when the right method would be used. But aside from being a pleasant sight to see, they usually have nothing special about them.

    They couldn''t store spirit power, nor release it. They couldn''t be used in forging, and didn''t have any special effects aside from defying the gravity andmonws of the world.

    "We can''t move them," one of the masters helping in the digging process said the moment he spotted William standing on the edge of this deep hole, "What shall we do then?"

    "Nothing," William moved his eyes around, seeing the group of tens of floating rocks filling the empty space in that hole, "Keep digging and let me take care of this."

    He knew this wasn''t an answer to that master, to what others had in mind, but he needed time to investigate these rocks. As they were suspended at different heights, he started to dash around, standing on top of each one, trying to see what made them special to be there.

 Chapter 1123 The Formation Runs Deeper Than He Thought

    ?

    Each rock was the size of a boulder! And when he stood over them in his spirit body form, nothing happened to these rocks as if a fly stood on them.

    "That''s weird¡­" he kept scratching them, infusing his spirit power at some point, attacking others to see what was different. And yet he found nothing at all, "What makes you special to be here? Huh? Can''t you speak and tell me why?"

    He didn''t find anything even after jumping around for an hour. He could tell these were like the floating rocks in the outer world, without anything special about them.

    Yet at some point, he started to get a hunch about something. Without warning he dashed high in the air, crossing hundreds of metres, before floating there for a few seconds. He then looked down at the entire hole, where lots of floating rocks were there.

    And then he saw it!

    "They are arranged in a formation¡­" he could tell their arrangement wasn''t that random. They were all located away from each other with fixed spaces, and they formed some sort of triangr ends at that area, "that can form grand star-shaped formation¡­ This formation must run deeper, much deeper than I thought¡­"

    He returned to the ground, looked at the ongoing battle, then at the hole dug by everyone, "dig further inward," he suddenly shouted, before turning towards the masters fighting at the forefront, "We need to push the frontline further."

    "And the formations?" Sloth asked, while releasing another volley of his deadly technique, "Will we leave them behind?"

    "Three hours," William raised three fingers, "every formation canst for three hours, then we''ll work together and push the frontline further deeper and broader. We need to expand the area we control."

    "Got it," Sloth wanted to ask more, but he already saw like others what the digging team found. They also noticed what William did before releasing his two orders, "We''ve got less than half an hour, then we''ll push forward with everything we got."

    "I''ll keep along then," William knew what Sloth meant, and he could tell others listened and got what Sloth had in mind. The high-end masters would use the current weak state of the enemies to push the frontline further, and that meant they''d cross huge distances in a short time.

    This wouldn''t be a problem at the beginning, but when the enemy would line up and gather their forces, it''d be impossible for them to defend the newly gainednd, or stop the invading enemies through their thin and stretched-out frontline.

    So he had to follow them, make new formations, to let them defend these newly acquired regions. As for digging, he''d leave this task to the digging team and his monstrous weapons.

    Half an hour passed fast, and then they started their counter offence. As everyone expected, the high-end masters managed to push the frontlines for tens of kilometres in mere one hour! Then things started to prove quite hard to keep going forward.

    The enemy sent more forces to stop them. And with the stretched-out frontline, they had to exert more effort to defend the newly acquired zones.

    "Retreat for five kilometres," William suddenly shouted, "Sloth, Fang¡­ Come here all of you and take control over these formations¡­"

    William already built hundreds of formations, stacking them in semi-circr designs. He then shouted the names of those who were going to take control of these formations, before he returned to make more.

    As the outer frontline was already too vast, he couldn''t use the previous tactic. He couldn''t let these high-end masters use the formations to handle the entire frontline and had to ce them with gaps between each other, enough for other masters to stand there and defend the ce.

    He didn''t have enough time to build up formations and cover the entire frontline.

    Things started to develop fast with the iing of more enemies. William stayed a few hundred metres behind the hot frontline, watching all the scary fights going on all over the ce.

    If not for theck of enough masters here, he''d prefer to call back his newly joined guild masters. Such a battle was way beyond their abilities. Even if they suffered lots of losses, they still got the chance to experience what a high-end battle was like.

    He kept himself busy building more formations. And for the first time, he started to use the dirt he collected so far. Everyone was focused on dealing with the enemies all around, but the high-end masters still kept an eye on him.

    They watched him taking small pieces of that mud, just the size of a finger or even smaller, cing it in the middle of each formation heid. They didn''t get what such a small amount would do, but when they''d try out the formationster, they''d get surprised to see how the released attacks got elevated or another level.

    At the same time, the situation kept growing so intense that even the masters controlling the arrays had to leave after releasing their attacks, using the five-minute period to not rest or train but to join the fight and stop the enemies.

    It was indeed quite hectic. And yet that was all for one purpose, for the digging team to expand the hole behind.

    Seeing how everyone was struggling to buy them enough space to work, the masters working on the digging process got pumped up. They showed more skill and the digging process elerated, while they added more to the hole, growing it fast in size.

    William kept examining that hole using his spirit sense. After ten hours of brutal fighting, they still were unearthing more of the floating rocks.

    During this time, he kept making more formations while the earlier batch he made got depleted. They exhausted their materials, and that made the frontline shrink slightly to the inside.

    The high-end masters kept jumping from one formation to another, moving backwards without any chance of pushing the frontline forward.

 Chapter 1124 Did You Forget Me Or What?

    ?

    After ten hours, they retreated for almost ten kilometres on all fronts, and they lost at least one hundred young masters who joined William''s guild.

    "This can''t keep going on like this¡­" William muttered while examining the size of the hole he digging team was digging. The hole extended and covered around half of the entire controlled area here, and like this in ten more hours, they''d cover up the entire area. That would be bad if he let things progress this way.

    Like this, the frontline masters wouldn''t have any room to retreat towards, not to mention he didn''t feel like the hidden formation of the floating rocks would be done in just tens of kilometres area. "I have the feeling a one hundred kilometre area must be unearthed and dug to show the entire formation¡­"

    This meant the current area they covered, around forty kilometres, wasn''t enough, not even close to enough. "It''s time to use it again¡­" as there was no other option, William waited until the current formations activated by the high-end masters were about to deplete their materials.

    Then he acted.

    He took his Troll out. The moment that behemoth appeared, everyone could finally heave a sigh of relief. And yet his next shout startled everyone.

    "I''ll need help this time, Sloth¡­ Alle here right now!" He called for twenty masters, with the lead of Sloth. Everyone looked at each other, before looking in one single direction.

    "Did you forget my name or what? I''m called Fang!" Fang shouted in a weird tone while feeling much weirder by the looks of everyone towards him.

    William used to call for him alongside Sloth as the two first names he''d ever select and shout for. Yet this time, William dropped Fang, and it felt like he was teasing him or something.

    "You weren''t there when I made it the first time," William shrugged, "Sorry, but you can''t be of any help."

    "That¡­ Are you for real?!!!" Fang was shocked, but when he saw how William ignored him and focused on others, he couldn''t help but feel irritated, "You do know that I can help, right?"

    "Not this time," William rolled his eyes, feeling like a headache wasing towards him from this old master, "Like I said, you weren''t around when I first built it."

    "What''s the difference? Add me now and let me help!"

    "It''s not a list that I''ll write your name in!" William red at the stubborn old man, "If you want to help, then go there and activate a formation. Buy us enough time to activate this thing."

    "But I want to help¡­"

    "You want to y," Williamughed, "but this time you won''t have fun with us."

    "..."

    For a reason, Fang felt like William was teasing him as if he was speaking to a kid or something. He didn''t like it, but he had no control or power to force William to let him in.

    "I want to see why you won''t let me take part in there," Fang snorted and started to walk towards the frontline, "I''ll keep an eye on you, see why you don''t let me take part in this!"

    William was quite powerless about this. He made the Troll by using the blood of the high-end masters of the kingdom, and the king. So the ones to control the Troll should either be them or anyone with blood ties with them.

    Fang wasn''t part of the kingdom and wasn''t there to donate his blood when he built the Troll. So it was impossible to let him use the Troll or take part in the process of activating it.

    "What do you want us to do?" Everyone looked at the growing smaller silhouette of Fang before Sloth asked the most important question.

    "Just stand around me, release your spirit power, and leave everything to me," William was considered the highest one with authority here, and that made him the one able to control the Troll.

    He didn''t try to activate it himself, as this wouldn''t get the desired result he wanted. This time, he was going to use close to fifty percent of the Troll''s total power, and that meant he was going to release something truly scary.

    The next instant he touched the Troll, leaving a bloody imprint over its outer surface. The moment he did that, he motioned for others to release their spirit powers, and soon enough everyone got bathed under zing fire of different colours.

    Yet unlike what used to happen, instead of the spirit powers of all to rage wildly and expand, rise to the sky, they started to move towards the Troll, as if thetter was feeding and sucking them dry.

    The pressure everyone felt made them unable to guess how William had done it before. "Rise!" What they didn''t know was that William was using a small version of that Troll all the time. And right now, he was releasing the true might of it.

    The moment he said the word, the Troll everyone knew so far changed. It started to grow in size as if it was a giant standing from its slumber.

    It rose up, reaching one hundred metres tall, looking like a true colossal giant. It moved both arms, following the moves of William''s closing one fist, and cing it against the opened palm of the other.

    Then things started to change! The high-end masters didn''t know how much spirit power this behemoth absorbed from them, but it was colossal without a doubt. Every one of them felt like they depleted one-half of their spirit powers, and many were left with only one-third of their spirit powers.

    That was indeed a quite substantial amount of spirit power. Every one of them had spirit powers above twenty thousand mark, and few even were at fifty or more.

    They all watched that colossal giant follow William''s actions before something started to shine in front of the cupped hands of that giant.

 Chapter 1125 The Terrifying Full-Version Troll

    ?

    It appeared as a tiny ball of light, then expanded to form a massive ball of bright white light. Then it started to emit dazzling rays, ones that travelled fast and seemed to cover the entire world.

    In the eyes of the masters standing close to this behemoth, it felt like this ball was a bomb that got detonated. As for the masters standing away, they saw the giant form a ball, one that turned to be a real star, shining rays of light brightly and blinding all of them.

    The lightsted for ten minutes straight. During which, no one could see anything, not even while using spirit sense. Only William was the only one able to see and control the attack.

    The minutes that passed slowly on everyone, felt quite boring to most, passed quite fast over William, while he developed small beads of sweat over his forehead.

    They might have released their spirit power to the Troll, but William had to control everything, guide such a brutal force and lead it to attack without allies.

    This wasn''t an easy feat, as he had no power to perfectly control this behemoth now. He tried his best to just let the rays evade any area close to the masters standing around, even if he left a buffer zone of a few kilometres, didn''t risk attacking it.

    It felt terrible, but luckily all he had to do was to try his best to control this behemoth, not fuel it. So even if he got exhausted mentally, his spirit power was still the same at the end.

    The moment the attack finished, the entire world started to appear again in the eyes and senses of everyone. And the moment that happened, they all sucked a cold air of breath.

    "This¡­ Is this the true strength of that weapon?!!!" Even Fang felt a cold shiver down his spine. The world before was filled to the brim with monsters and dark masters, filled with enemies to the brim. But now the world looked vacant and deste, as all the enemies in here got killed!

    There wasn''t even a single speck of dust left behind by them. They vanished as if they never existed here before. If not for the standing tall two gates, with newly gushed-out monsters and dark mastersing out from them, then everyone would doubt the enemies before were real.

    William killed everything, but left a few monsters and dark masters around them, stretching for a few kilometres around.

    "Kill the remaining enemies," William said the words as if he were a god speaking to his creations, "Push the frontline to cover one hundred kilometres then we''ll stop. Let''s use anything to defend that area, we need to persist as long as we can!"

    They all jolted awake by his words, looked at him, then at the giant Troll that was just shrinking in size as if it was totally innocent about all this.

    "What are you waiting for? Attack!" The remaining enemies were already petrified by the scary night of the Troll. The Troll released a scary amount of spirit power in such a deadly attack, one that swept clean all the enemies in a mere ten minutes.<novelsnext>I think you should take a look at </novelsnext>

    As they felt the true might of that attack, they couldn''t even move a muscle. And that made the task of clearing them quite easy for the masters when they started attacking.

    Then they moved out, and expanded the area to cross one hundred more kilometres quite fast. They didn''t meet a single enemy during their march. The enemies needed time to gather up their forces, arrange their lines, and get over the shock and fear from the scary attack the Troll unleashed.

    For hours they didn''te at them, and during this, the masters started to use their techniques to form defensive lines.

    They made hills, and lightning holes, and evenid down traps with explosives and corrosive materials. They did everything they could, and William just stood behind, working on building more formations.

    He didn''t forget to collect materials from the unused formations heid down before. After five hours, the enemy finally managed to gather up enough forces toe at them.

    "Let''s do our best," Sloth said to everyone around. Right now, they were scarcely scattered across the entire frontline, having a group of tens of weaker masters on their side to help. This wasn''t even enough to be considered enough force to stop the iing enemies. But they had to safeguard the frontline with everything they got.

    As the fight resumed again, William finished a few more formations, then he personally joining the fight. Before starting to move out to expand and barricade the frontline, he made sure to leave clear instructions to the digging team.

    "I don''t care what you''ll do, I need you to dig through all this as fast as you can¡­"

    He knew the digging teamcked enough members to dig a hundred kilometres of areas in a short time, but he made sure to let them work on lines, extending from all the way behind to the frontline.

    He didn''t ask them to do so just to take a look at the entire underground formation, or to make sure they covered the entire formation with this. He wanted to use these deep holes as lines of defence as well.

    William had to find a way to help everyone in defending this area as long as they could. Not to mention he had to think about the floating rocks, and find a way to handle this formation.

    He still didn''t get what the true nature of the formation was. And he had to find out everything about it as soon as possible and find a way to counter it.

    Trying to take the floating rocks away from their ces wasn''t a problem for him. But he had to make sure doing so wouldn''t end up triggering the entire formation, ending up detonating the entire area instead of deactivating the formation.

 Chapter 1126 This Is Bad!

    Chapter 1126 This Is Bad!

    The fight seemed impossible to win, especially under such circumstances. And yet everyone fought bravely, showing great might and challenging any iing enemies, stopping them all without losing much in return.

    The high-end masters didn''t hold back at anything, and used their strongest techniques when time needed to. They didn''t focus on killing everything around them, just wounding them enough for the rest of the masters around to take them down.

    Doing so made them free little time and effort, enough to sustain a faint bnce between getting crushed or overly exhausted. As for William, he kept moving between the vast frontline, acting as a firefighter. He''d spot any ce where things were going out of control, before heading towards and help masters there to sustain the pressure.

    These asions weren''t rare, happened especially at the intervals between the formations heid before. He used everything in his power, his monstrous and flying weapons, even his grenades.

    Slowly two days passed. During which, they had to retreat slowly as the formations kept getting exhausted one batch after another.

    William tried his best to dy such retreat, by cing formations in the areas that were before in between the previous formations. Like this, masters who were operating formations had to shift ces with the teams defending the areas between them. And that saved them around half of the distance they should have crossed if he simplyid formations in one circle.

    After two days, the digging teams managed to dig many longitudinal holes. But it was still too early to say they dug even one-fifth of the entire ground.

    Yet it was enough for William to assess things down there.

    First of all, the hostile formation ran for around seventy kilometres deep. That meant they got around thirty up to fifty kilometres of distance as buffer zones, enough for them to retreat slowly while killing the enemies.

    They just retreated for five kilometres in two days. And that meant they could spend around twelve up to fourteen days before they''d arrive at the edge of the whole area.

    At the same time, William built formations enough to cover half of that distance. He still got around twenty kilometres without a single formation there, and he started to fill this gap with formations, tightly packing them like before, while examining the rock formations unearthed at the holes.

    They were ced in a slightlyplicated design. As the linear holes were at least five kilometres apart, William had to read through all this and specte the designs that were hidden under dirt and ground.

    At first, it felt hard to do so, especially when he tried to find a familiar pattern in his mind and memory. But when he failed, he decided to just keep reading through these designs randomly and decided to divide them into segments and zones, pieces of a grand puzzle.

    Doing so made him realise something. "This isn''t just a single formation, but three alternating with each other!!!"

    This was quite a surprising discovery, as he never expected that. He found out that out of the linear holes, every three seemed to share the same design together. And when he moved around, checking other holes, he realised such a pattern alternated with two others, as if three formations were ced in a group, and this group got repeated all around the ce.

    "This formation is close to the Eye Focus formation, and this one is simr to the Spirit Condensing formation¡­ The third is simr to the Explosive Mark formation¡­ These three are simr to famous ones in the outer universe, with little changes to make it suitable for the low realm¡­ Interesting!"

    He figured out the three formations, and the moment he did so he managed to link these to three of the most famous formations in the outer world.

    The Eye Focus formation was one that could help in concentrating spirit power from the world or other formations around into a single elliptical eye shape. It has the ability to store an insane amount of spirit power in a region.

    Then the Spirit Condensing formation was there to aid the Eye Focus formation in gathering up and concentrating spirit power. Then the third formation was the one responsible for detonating the entire spirit power stored within.

    "This is bad¡­" William realised everything rted to the three formations used, and then he knew how grave the current situation was. He nned everything based on the presence of a single grand formation around this area. By interfering and ruining this formation in arge part, the entire formation would crumble and lose its function, fall apart on its own.

    And yet this wasn''t the case here. There wasn''t a single grand formation surrounding the entire area, but a group of three alternating with each other, surrounding the entire area.

    That meant he wasn''t dealing with just a single grand formation, but arge number of these three formations. Every three formations formed a unit, working together to deliver the same desired effect the enemies wanted.

    Trying to mess with a single unit or a group of units wouldn''t change anything. The area would still get detonated by the remaining formations, ending up exploding like a colossal bomb.

    Discovering all this was a game changer for William. He now revoked his old n, and didn''t think that much about the time and effort he and others spent on achieving that n.

    Right now, he is only two paths ahead of him, two paths ahead of everyone else. They''d either try the impossible, circle the entire area, dig the ground, fight enemies endlessly, and hope for a miracle to happen.

    Or, he''d have to find a way to foil all this, without the need to do any of that. To him, the second path was the most logical one, yet it needed a genius idea to have it executed.

    "The problem is the Focus Eye formation¡­ Taking it out of the form, and everything would be for nought¡­" he muttered to himself, standing still while thinking deeply and thoroughly about this.

 Chapter 1127 The Counter Plan

    Chapter 1127 The Counter n

    Everyone was fighting for their lives, putting their lives on the line, killing enemies without even having a single moment of rest.

    They were risking everything, and that made him think deeply about the right way to do it. If they were taking such lengths to protect themselves and others, he also needed to do the same.

    "I don''t know if this will work or not, but hopefully it will," he looked around before deciding to go through with this n.

    The first thing he did wasn''t to go back to join the ongoing fight but retreated all the way towards the digging teams. Right now, the digging team divided itself into ten smaller teams, all working hard and fast to dig the ground and form the linear holes.

    "Change of ns, you need to dig this way," As he arrived at the teams, he started to give new instructions. At such timing, there wasn''t anyone who''d question anything he said.

    Even if he asked them to stop digging, they''d do this as well. As he finished touring the digging teams, he returned to study something that kept him puzzled for a long time; the floating rocks.

    *Boom!*

    Just as he arrived at a group of them, he went to the ground and started digging it using his Holy Sword technique. He removed dirt and rocks fast until he dug for ten more metres. And there he found something buried underneath every rock.

    "It''s like I guessed, these rocks are justndmarks to help the formations work together¡­" he found different types of ores at different longitudinal holes, each having different values and effects.

    Some had the ability to gather spirit power, others had the ability to concentrate and filter the spirit power. Thest were the ones that could channel spirit power, letting it go berserk and explode.

    All of these worked best to serve the three formations. And William looked at the holes dug so far before he summoned his monstrous weapons.

    "Sloth, Fang, I know you two and others are hearing me¡­ I need these materials fast, any amount will do, but the more the better¡­"

    He started to narrate a short list of materials, and then he started to add more to the list, acting as viable alternatives to the materials the first list had, "ce these in rings, and then deliver these to my monstrous weapons¡­ Go, collect rings from everyone, ande back fast!"

    He didn''t give any of them time to ask or question his weird request. He released them after these high-end masters, controlling them with part of his mind. And then he started to dig the ground, using his Holy Sword Technique.

    The base was filled with the diamond-shaped ores lying throughout the entire area. And just a few meters on top of these, there were these special ores ced there. He dug the ces of these ores, using the floating rocks as a guide.

    As he did that, the high-end masters started to do what he asked for. They didn''t just use things that belonged to them but also spread the news over, asking other masters here to donate anything as long as they had it in their acquisition.

    No one asked about getting paid back for doing so. They all knew this order came from William and heard about the weird things he was doing back there at the holes dug by the digging teams.

    They knew he must have a good reason to do something like this, to ask for such materials. They didn''t know what he truly aimed for but knew he was doing this to save them, save everyone else.

    So they all donated the ores needed without anyint. Soon enough, the high-end masters gathered tons of ores belonging to the two lists, and gathered them in different rings, before handing them over to William''s monstrous weapons.

    During which, everyone watched the digging teams change their way of work, digging the ground in parallel transverse lines. They seemed like making the entire ground behind a honeb appearance, and that made everyone quite puzzled.

    "What is he trying to do?" Fang and others kept asking themselves this, especially when seeing William taking the rings from his monstrous weapons and starting to rece part of the ores he found during his digging with the newly acquired ones.

    He didn''t exchange everything, just reced parts with new ones. On a few asions, he''d add more ores at ces that got no ores at, as if he was building up something.

    And indeed he was. But he wasn''t building just one formation, but three! Not including the one formation he was modifying along the way.

    As he asked others to dig the ground in crosswise lines, more of the floating rocks started to appear there. Masters digging the ground weren''t all high-end masters, but the few who had enough spirit power coverage to watch what William was doing asked everyone to dig the ground below the floating rocks until they''d reached the diamond-shaped tiles underneath.

    Doing so was aimed at helping William, and he noticed and highly appreciated such help. He wasted lots of time and effort to dig these parts, even if he used his monstrous and flying weapons to do so. The area he needed to unearth was vast enough to make him take an entire day to finishying down the foundations he wanted, even with the help from others on the digging teams.

    During which, the masters at the frontline showed signs of exhaustion and mental fatigue. They couldn''t keep the enemies out and had to retreat further deeper to stop the enemies that passed through their fragile frontline.

    Things were declining faster than what William and other high-end masters expected. The main reason for this was the rapid exhaustion of the weaker masters. Even with potions and elixirs, they couldn''t maintain their top fighting abilities for much longer.

    William was attentive to all this and kept an eye on everything going on at the frontline.

 Chapter 1128 The Final Battle

    Chapter 1128 The Final Battle

    The moment he got doneying down and editing the formations, he didn''t hesitate to speak up:

    "Listen, release all the formations," he paused before adding, "Don''t wait for five minutes, all of the masters with the right spirit elements shall work together, constantly activating one formation after another."

    He knew as he was watching everyone, that everyone was also watching him. The moment he said these words tons of doubts appeared in the minds of the high-end masters.

    "After exhausting all the formations, retreat all the way to be twenty kilometres away from the edge of the whole area," he added, trying to let them get the point from all this.

    He wasn''t asking them to make a final stand, but just to take down as many enemies as possible before they''d retreat and barricade in this area.

    Right now the entire area was looking like a real honeb. And William didn''t just make others dig it like this to make the formations or alter the existing ones.

    In fact, he did this primarily as a form of changing the terrain and making it advantageous to all of them.

    As he expected, they all got what he wanted to do here. So they started to retreat while releasing a barrage of deadly attacks everywhere.

    The moment many masters joined hands, continuously releasing their techniques, the formations started to get depleted fast. At most, a single formation wouldst for half an hour instead of many hours. They arranged things together, making sure to not retreat and leave a few of them behind.

    On the other hand, tons of enemies fell into the hands of these brutal attacks. As they retreated, it felt like they were leaving behind a long bloody trail. The process that should have taken two weeks took roughly an entire day before they finally reached the area of the holes.

    Yet they did that at the cost of killing tons of enemies, and that made everyone feel much better.

    "I hope you are preparing something nice for these bastards," Sloth said the moment he met with William. He and others retreated, and walked over the still standing ground, while finally meeting William twenty kilometres off the edge of the whole area as he said before.

    "Are you ok?" William ignored everyone, turned to Anjie, and asked. She suffered a few wounds here and there, like others, and got covered with a thick driedyer of blood, one that came mainly from the enemies she killed.

    "I want to get done from here," she slowly said, feeling a bit warm inside from his words, "I hate this ce."

    "Me too," William smiled, before looking at the distance, where a dense wave of enemies were running as fast as they could towards here, "but we need to make something first, to make sure everyone up there is safe."

    "Don''t tell me you want to stand here and defend this ce using these," Fang pointed towards the ground they were standing on, referring to other ces like this all over the area.

    "This isn''t the n," William shook his head, pointed towards a few spots, and added, "I made enough formations to kill the enemies for one more day. Make sure to release your attacks continuously, the same way you did it before."

    "This¡­ It won''t be enough," Sloth sighed, "this way is great, but we need to take it slowly if we need to kill all of them, or at least kill much more¡­"

    "We don''t need these to kill them," William interrupted Sloth, "we just need enough fuel to run the formations I made."

    "..."

    Many wanted to ask him about what he truly meant, but they knew they had little time to waste on speaking about this. And many already got the way William used to do things, not exining himself using words but actions.

    They were right, if they asked, then William would have asked them to wait, watch, and see. "Rest and heal for half an hour, they need time to cross that distance and arrive here," Sloth said to everyone, before turning to William, "I hope you know what you are doing. We are all tired and exhausted, very close to dropping the towel."

    "Not in my presence," William slowly said, and then rested with everyone else. He wasn''t any less stressed out than others, and he even got the confidence in winning this to lean his head over Anjie''sp, resting himself for a few hours.

    He wasn''t needed to join the uing battle. The moment the enemies crossed the distance to the honeb area, they started to dy a lot, even many of them got pushed by othersing from behind, falling inside the holes.

    Masters watching this using spirit sense couldn''t help but wonder if this was all calcted in William''s n or if it just was coincidental. As the enemies started crossing the solid bridges ofnd, they still suffered from more losses.

    The dark masters were smart enough to evade going near the edges, but the monsters weren''t. Many pushed each other, pushing many all the way down to the bottom of these holes.

    If such a fall wasn''t enough to kill the high-end monsters, it left grave wounds behind. The ones who survived this couldn''t stand straight and didn''t have a way to climb their way back to the top. And to make things much worse, more monsters were getting pushed, falling all the time,nding on their heads, crushing many of them underneath.

    The entire situation was quite chaotic, and seeing this made everyone feel the high odds for their win.

    This ce mightck any formidable defensive structure, but it got the terrain modeled out to be quite scary and deadly to the iing enemies.

    The enemies kept losing more numbers the further they marched, and by the end, only small groups of thousands arrived to meet the masters.

    "We don''t need to activate the formation to take these down," Everyone decided to not waste the formations over these low numbers, and started to fight them using their weapons and techniques.

 Chapter 1129 Charging Alone!

    Chapter 1129 Charging Alone!

    William was sleeping like a baby while everyone deviated from his initial orders, messing up with his n. When he woke up six hourster, he couldn''t help but shout at all of them.

    "What the heck are you doing? I asked you to use the formations, not kill them by yourselves!"

    "They are weak and low in numbers, we can handle them!" Sloth was the closest, as he made sure to not leave his princess'' side no matter what.

    "I said activate the damn formations, don''t try to act smart at such a critical time! Do you want the king and others to die? Do you want to die as well?"

    His words jolted everyone awake. They soon realised they made a grave mistake, and William didn''t expect such a situation to develop. All they needed to do was to follow his orders down to the letter, but they used their brains, and that made them mess with everything he nned so far.

    Luckily he woke up before they''d miss their window. They didn''t know that they were racing against formations that kept gathering up spirit power for a long time, and were this close to releasing their mighty effect, exploding everything around.

    "Alright, you heard the man," Fang didn''t know why William hated what everyone did, "use a meteorite shower to kill some ants, Let''s do it!"

    William gave Fang a side nce but didn''t say anything. He knew it was normal for these old masters to see all this as a waste of effort and resources, a waste for such deadly formations. But it was a must to do it this way. He stood on the side, watching how the masters started to use the formations, activating them with everything they had, continuously bombarding them with their techniques.

    Tons of deadly attacks came out from these formations, hitting the enemies at the front. They didn''t spare anything, killed even the ones who fell in the holes, and were lucky enough to survive everything so far.

    Watching this made William finally heave a deep sigh of relief. "It''s about time for me to start," after half an hour, and when close to one-tenth of the formations got exhausted by the masters, William suddenly started moving.

    "Stop your attacks, hold back for an hour, let theme again," he shouted while dashing forward.

    "Where are you going?" many shouted, as he went fast beyond the area they stood at, and started to go towards the outer edge of this region.

    "I have to do something," he shouted back, "start attacking after one hour."

    "I bet he is going to do something crazy," Sloth shook his head while taking a side nce at Anjie. She seemed eager to go and follow him, but in the end, she refrained from doing so. She hesitated long enough for him to vanish on the horizon. " I hope he won''t do something reckless¡­"

    She muttered, in such a soft tone that told everyone around that she was hoping and praying, and yet they all felt this wasn''t going to happen.

    In such timing, William''s move meant one thing; he was going to activate the formations heid before. And that would end up for him to be the focus of the heat from the iing enemies.

    They didn''t know what his formations were for, and yet they could already watch the bloody fight happening between him and the enemies.

    "We''ll step in if things go south," Sloth turned to everyone, "he said to not activate the formation for one hour, didn''t say anything about not following him."

    His words were weed with a silent nod. They were all ready to move out and support William, but didn''t realise that they''d never have the chance to do so.

    William ran as fast as he could towards the edge of the entire region. It was true that he was going to activate the formations, but he left the triggering area right at the very edge of this ce. He didn''t do it as a mistake, but as a crucial part of his n to seed.

    "If Thomas was here, he''d be so excited about watching all this¡­" William muttered to himself while he was this close to reaching the edge.

    And yet there were tons of enemies blocking his path towards there. Even if he ran with all his might, he still ended up being half a beatter than the enemies.

    "Do you take me for a weakling or something? Hmph, let me show you the true might of the Fox guild master!" he didn''t even slow down, and took out everything he had. Be it his weapons, flying weapons, monstrous weapons, even grenades and arrows¡­ He took out everything, and like a crazy bull, he charged directly towards the densely packed enemies.

    The paths between the holes weren''t more than a few kilometres in width. It might seem like wide areas, but against the huge numbers of the enemies, they were really narrow and quite limited.

    The moment he dashed towards them, releasing his attacks by starting this with his cannonball move, many enemies couldn''t stand their ground, flew in the air to fall in the holes, or pushed theirrades around, ending up pushing more to the holes.

    William was moving forward like he was a driller machine. He didn''t actually aim to kill anything, just pushed as much as he could away, making them push others to fall down into the holes.

    He spread out his flying weapons to cover an area of two kilometres. That made the enemies outside his weapons ring get pushed all the time. As for the ones who were kept inside the ring, he killed them using his monstrous weapons and techniques.

    After securing this area, he started to move forward, pushing more enemies into the holes while advancing steadily. In case he met with stronger foes, enough to pass through his flying weapons, he''d instantly use a grenade to take it down.

 Chapter 1130 Activate The Formations!

    Chapter 1130 Activate The Formations!

    If such an enemy survived such an attack, then he''dnd at it using his techniques and weapons, all together to take this enemy down.

    This happened frequently, and weirdly enough it didn''t dy his advancement speed. He kept fighting and moving at the same time while getting closer to the spot he wanted.

    "These holes are really doing much better than what I initially expected," as he arrived at the right spot, he couldn''t help but take a look around. The holes made it hard for the enemies to gather tons of their forces here, and they even couldn''t control their forces to not fall off andnd in the holes.

    That cleared lots of the enemies in a short time and without much effort. "It''s to activate the formation¡­ I hope it works¡­"

    William was trying a simple theory out. He knew he couldn''t handle the great number of small formationsid all around this area. So his only option was by trying to establish a link between these formations using the ones heid before.

    His formations aimed to suck the spirit power stored by the Focus Eye formation, and then shift all of this towards one direction; the masters here!

    If his n worked, then the colossal amount of spirit power stored here would get absorbed by the masters. They wouldn''t just solve the current crisis, but they''d also have a grand chance of increasing their power significantly.

    Such an effect would be clear and obvious over the weaker masters. Their total spirit power was low, and any slight increase would drastically change everything for them.

    Yet for the high-end masters, including William, they''d not enjoy the same benefits. They''d gain spirit power and would increase their total spirit power points indeed, but it wouldn''t be enough to let them rise in ranks.

    At most, William expected everyone to gain around three thousand points. It wasn''t something big for the high-end masters, yet it was a game changer for the weaker masters, especially those at the gold and early gold stages.

    William started activating the formations by dropping his blood. Then he sat on the ground, started to control the formations, and activated the connection between them and other formations around.

    "Come on¡­ You need my spirit power to operate?!" William was surprised when nothing happened. At the same time, he felt like his spirit power was getting depleted for no obvious reason, "fine¡­ Let''s see how much you''ll suck of me then¡­"

    He took out his elixirs and consumed them, while the masters at the rear watched what he was doing in surprise and shock.

    William just left his monstrous and flying weapons to handle the enemies, and sat on the ground, as if he wasn''t in the middle of a hectic battle.

    His decision to not aim to kill and simply focus on pushing the enemies over the holes was quite right indeed. He saved himself from the trouble of directly fighting enemies, used the current situations to his advantage, and didn''t need to worry about anything.

    The enemies were alreadying towards here in great numbers, unable to avoid falling off the edge. And with his help, they started to lose much more of their numbers.

    Yet when they watched him sit there for half an hour without moving a finger, they started to have different thoughts and worries. They wanted to go and help him, but in fact, there wasn''t anything they could do to help.

    "There isn''t a single danger around him¡­ He makes me feel bad for all the trouble I suffered so far, What a troublesome kid, tsk!" Fang shook his head, expressing what others felt.

    William made it like this wasn''t something bad or hard to do, as if this all was a nice walk in the park or something. If he could sit there, close his eyes, and enjoy doing nothing while pushing all the enemies off the edge, then why did they suffer in the first ce?

    Yet before they could guess what he was truly doing, something suddenly started to sh. It started from down the holes, the ce they didn''t check frequently nor focus on.

    There, a bright golden light appeared, faintly at first. It released light rays to the sky before all of a sudden the entire world turned bright golden in front of their eyes.

    They didn''t see it using their eyes, but with spirit sense, they could clearly spot what happened. The holes started to release such golden light one by one, ending up turning the entire world around them into a bright golden world.

    "This¡­ This is a very pure and dense spirit power!!!" The stronger masters were attentive to the quality of spirit power, and instantly sniffed it out, "Don''t tell me¡­ Does he want us to train?"

    "Howe he released such high-levelled and pure spirit power?!!"

    "No time to waste, everyone hears me out¡­ Let''s sit and train, absorb as much spirit power as you can¡­"

    "And the enemies? What shall we do about them?!!!"

    "A group of us will remain behind then," Sloth put an end to such discussion and debate, we''ll need just enough to activate the formations. Thatd said we need to activate the formations one hourter, and that means we need to activate them in half an hour¡­"

    "But¡­ We won''t be able to train until then!!"

    "We''ll just manage," Sloth sighed, bitterly smiling as he also regretted saying these words and missing such a chance, "Let''s hope such a phenomenon willst for a long time¡­ Long enough for us to finish releasing the attacks and then absorb the spirit power¡­"

    Just before Sloth would finish his words, he and other high-end masters spotted William finally opening his eyes, and slowly standing up. He turned towards them, as if he knew they were closely watching him, and slowly said these words:

    "Everyone must participate in the activation of the formations I left behind. Listen to Fang''s advice, try to circle the power in your body to maximise the gains from it. Don''t activate it continuously, and like this, you''llst for three hours there at least. Then you''ll train and forget anything about this fight¡­"

 Chapter 1131 The Golden Spirit Power Changed Everything!

    ?

    William''s words were like a doctrine from a god. What he said was unrealistic, and didn''t make much sense at first until the high-end masters recalled how great they felt when they listened to Fang''s advice.

    "Good kid¡­ He is really smart, hahaha!" Fangughed, attracting everyone''s attention, "Why are you looking at me? You heard him, let''s do it this way. We''ll all benefit greatly from this chance."

    "But the enemies¡­ And him¡­" Anjie was worried. After all, William stood just on the direct path with the range of attacks released from their formations.

    "I''m sure he got a way to ovee this," Sloth was the one to speak this time, "or else he wouldn''t have asked us to do this."

    "..."

    Anjie went into silence, as she knew Sloth got a point here. She turned towards her man and hoped everything would end up alright.

    William watched them stand in the formations, prepared tounch their techniques. As he saw this, he smiled, not showing a single speck of worry on him like many expected.

    And when they released their techniques, they were taken aback by what he did. He simply¡­ Did nothing! He stood there, watching the formations release tons of attacks toward the world around, without even worrying about any of the iing attacks.

    They didn''t get it, but the moment they released such attacks in the middle of this weird golden world, their attacks melted and blended with everything else around.

    It wasn''t the issue of a higher force meeting a lower one, but the problem of a higher power meeting a lower grade, totally oveing and absorbing it.

    Just when they were worried over William, they ended up seeing their attacks melted and went into oblivion.

    "What''s going on?!!" This was what everyone thought, and the higher-grade masters could guess part of the reasons behind this. Yet they couldn''t get why William asked them to do so.

    They thought he didn''t know such a thing would happen. But if so, then howe he stood all the way there, not worrying in the slightest?

    So evidence and logic pointed out one thing only; he knew this was going to happen. If so, then what was the point? Why did he ask them to do such a thing that would give nothing in return?

    But they all missed a tiny and yet very crucial thing; they gained a higher absorption rate through channelling the power of these formations in their bodies. Like this, they''d end up gaining much more spirit power in a much shorter time.

    On another hand, they''d also enrich the entire golden phenomenon, stirring up the golden power, and ending up releasing torrents more of it.

    The spirit power that got released so far came originally from the formations other masters dug so far. And yet that wasn''t his main goal of doing all this. He wanted to lure the spirit power from other formations, ending up sucking the entire formations here dry of any spirit power gathered.

    To do so, he needed to stir them up with something, and there was no other better way than using the formation''s empowered techniques to do so.

    Watching everything going as he nned, he started to train. In all this, everything was sorted out perfectly, all except one; the enemies!

    The high-end masters kept their vignce, prepared to interfere if William faced any danger. Just when the golden spirit power appeared, William stopped everything he was doing and focused on training.

    That meant he was vulnerable to getting hit. These high-end masters knew such a chance of absorbing spirit power was something they''d hardly meet in their stage of power, yet its effect on them was quite negligible.

    Comparing other weak masters with them was likeparing heaven with hell. And that made them ready to interfere if any sign of danger approached William.

    Going by logic, enemies should easily approach William and attack him. Yet when they started toe closer to the edge of the hole''s area, they ended up suffering tons of damage and wounds. It appeared as if they got attacked fiercely by hidden power, and there wasn''t another power here except the golden spirit power.

    Everyone was shocked by this, and they watched how the enemies evaporated into thin air just before setting a single step over the bridge ofnd leading to William, or even at any other bridges around.

    They were all shocked, but William''s calm look and a faint smile on his face told them he already anticipated such a result.

    William knew this golden spirit power would be avable for anyone to absorb until they released their augmented techniques through the formations.

    The moment they did that, the entire golden spirit power turned to their best allies, the most toxic against the enemies.

    So no matter how hard they tried, even if the high-end enemies tried, they all faced the same fate. Their bodies melted down, and ended up evaporation in thin air, adding more spirit power to the colossal pool gathered here.

    William already knew that, and that was why he didn''t feel any worry or distress at all. He simply knew the moment his formations kicked in, released tons of spirit power, and the masters released their augmented attacks, then things would be over for the enemies here.

    His main concern from the start wasn''t a single enemy here, but the underground trap, the colossal bomb he and everyone were standing on top of.

    So he started to focus on training, absorbing more spirit power, while others started to do the same one by one, after spending more time examining and studying everything that happened around them.

    The enemies started to melt down and vanish, while more kept gushing out from the two gates still standing here. The enemy''s leaders felt true dangering from what William and others did, and couldn''t help but try everything they had to stop them.

    Yet nothing they tried worked!

 Chapter 1132 Things Turning South At The Surface

    ?

    Even when they tried to activate the trap formationsid under the ground prematurely, they failed.

    These formations were now linked to the colossal cloud of golden spirit power. Such connection was draining spirit power from all the formations underground and also protecting them from responding to any outside stimulus.

    Failing this ended up making them more troubled and worried. They slowly started to grow scared. They built this trap based on this special area here, over the special underground tiles they found in this pocket world by ident.

    It was as William guessed before, they didn''t build anything. They found this ce, studied it out of curiosity, and ended up learning how it was great in setting a deadly trap for their enemies.

    So when the Nightmare monster was seeking any lead about a great way to kill William and others, these dark master leaders proposed the idea of using this ce for the trap, an idea that soon garnished enough support and encouragement from everyone, including the Transformers and the Nightmare monster.

    Yet none ever expected such a situation to happen, for William to find a way that none heard about before to stop everything. It was a game-changer move, and they could only watch helplessly while William and others were benefitting from the golden spirit power cloud, while their forces were annihted by it.

    What William didn''t know was that they had to ask for the help of the Nightmare monster and other Transformers. And yet they all got afraid of meddling in such a situation, refusing toe near this deadly golden spirit power cloud.

    The Nightmare monster was the angriest one of all. It wanted to take William down, alongside all of the big names in the Novistic kingdom.

    He had nothing particr against such a kingdom except for his desire to take over the entire kingdom for himself. He wanted to rule and make everyone work for it, the same amazing feeling it experienced before when it built that dark academy and gathered the dark masters before.

    William was sitting cross-legged now, training and absorbing the high and pure spirit power from the entire world. He didn''t care about time, didn''t care about anything happening around him. He knew the golden spirit power would handle everything for him.

    He didn''t even care for how long this process might take. In fact, he hoped for it tost for a long time.

    He calcted and thought about everything thoroughly, and yet he missed a singly tiny detail in all this; the masters on the surface!

    Just when things turned out bad here, the enemy leaders decided to counter their losses and make up for this by fiercely attacking the masters at the surface.

    The king led everyone and started to hammer hard against the many peaks all over the ce. Their n was simple: they built bridges to go up and reach the peaks, attack dark masters, and soon im the peaks.

    They didn''t face much trouble or challenge ever so far. Even when the dark masters tried to rally themselves, and fight them hard at a few peaks, things turned out bad for them.

    The king organised his people and sent arger number of masters towards these hot peaks, led by high-end masters. The end result was a devastating defeat of the enemies, and they lost not only these few peaks but many others which these dark masters moved from.

    Yet everything suddenly changed. Without warning, the monsters that were weak and not worthy of their worry or care began to surge in terms of numbers and strength. More formidable monsters started to show up, alongside lots of high-end dark masters.

    The sudden appearance of these made things hard for the king''s side. They tried to push forward, yet failed. Gradually they started to get pushed back, losing even peaks they secured before.

    "What''s going on?!" The king was in the frontline, watching all this personally. When he received the reports, he decided toe and check on things by himself.

    Things didn''t look as good as he expected. The enemy started to move seriously against them, throwing tons of forces everywhere.

    The king wasn''t a greenhorn, he lived through many bad times he could even count. When he saw the current situation, he could already see the end result of this; total annihtion of everyone here!

    "Retreat and regroup," this was the first order he gave. The masters following him here were still huge in number, but they were already spread over a huge area, thinning themselves out, "Let''s just strengthen ourselves and defend the circle of ten peaks deep from the base!"

    The open ins in the centre already got the name of being the centre, or the base of their operations. His words didn''t make sense to the weaker and younger masters, the most inexperienced ones.

    To them, this war was still winnable, they could crush the enemiesing at them if they persisted a bit longer. But this was a false hope, one that if the king let them cling to would lead to their downfall, inevitably crushing defeat.

    The older and stronger masters agreed with the king''s orders. So they started to lead others to retreat. Seeing the big names and shotsply with the king''s orders in such a swift and decisive way made others forget about what they had in mind, retreated, and helped in strengthening the limited area the king specified.

    Doing so made things more stable, and they started to finally put up a good fight against the iing enemies. The high-end masters were given one order, to gather in different teams, roam the entire battleground, and fight any high-end enemies there.

    They worked as firefighters, the only thing they could do at such times.

    In a single move, the enemies changed the entire game for the king and others. Their top priority now wasn''t to expand their reach or control more peaks, not to find a way to crack that shield but to just defend this spot and try to survive.

 Chapter 1133 A Single Move Changed Everything

    ?

    At some point, the enemies loosened their grip at the frontline. All of the high-end enemies suddenly stoppeding, and the weak enemies appeared again to take the front.

    "They want to lure us to expand the area we control¡­" The king and other high-end masters saw directly through such a scheme and didn''t fall for it. They exerted much control over others, to not let themselves get carried by the heat of battle and expand outwards.

    Soon enough, the scary enemies returned again. When the enemy leaders did such a trick failed, they returned to send their top elites to the frontline. And this time, they sent lots of them, enough to put immense pressure on the high-end masters.

    The king even felt at such moments that they wouldn''t seed in defending the area anymore. He started to arrange things at the base, knowing that they were going to return back to point zero.

    Yet this time things were different. They weren''t going to fight the enemies over an open space like before, as they built lots of defences andid tons of traps and arrays all over the ce.

    If they retreated, it''d be like returning to the castle, fortifying there, and fighting the enemies under better conditions.

    Yet when the king saw how his masters stood tall against the enemies, he revoked such thought. He decided to keep holding these peaks, giving the enemies a hard time.

    Things weren''t that easy for the enemies. To get to the peaks, they had to climb their way up to it. Even if they tried to build bridges as well, using the help of the dark masters, they faced great resistance from the masters stationed at the top.

    The deadly battles happened all across the valleys in between the peaks. These were quite bloody and brutal, as most of the high-end enemies were gathered there.

    Enemies tried their best to control the peaks, push the masters back, and try to force them to retreat to the base area. And yet they failed in doing so for hours.

    The more time passed, the more confidence built up in the spirits of these masters. They were taken aback by the sudden rise in the strength and numbers of their enemies. But all of this was gone by the second day.

    They epted their role to defend these few peaks and forgot nothing about the peaks they lost already. They kept fighting and defending the peaks until something happened on the fifty day.

    William was still training all this time like others, absorbing spirit power as much as they could. By the first day, they finished using his formations, and they had to train normally since then.

    The moment they did that, they started to notice the great disparity and difference between sucking spirit power. They felt like they left a shooting star, and boarded a snail instead!

    Yet they had nothing toin about. They all knew how valuable and pricey the materials William used to build up these formations with. So they wouldn''t go over the line, ask him to just make these formations for them to suck the spirit power around a bit faster.

    Not to mention such formations were real killers! They shouldn''t waste this on doing this.

    In the middle of all this, and after six days, something new happened!

    The enemies didn''t try toe at the golden spirit power cloud anymore. It might have taken them a long time to do this, but the leaders decided to throw everything over the battle up ground.

    The moment they decided that they let everythinging out from the two gates pass through the holes in the ceiling, pass through the same tunnels William and others passed through, before ending up at the surface.

    This was a game-changing moment for the king and masters up there. They were already used to fighting the densely packed enemies, almost growing numb to the endless rows of enemiesing in their direction.

    In the middle of all this, they lowered their guard totally about the central ins, the base. The first batches of monsters and dark masters that came to the surface were all high-end stage, and that meant one thing; massacre!

    The moment the enemies appeared in the heart of the existing force of masters, everything started to turn into chaos. The king was luckily at the frontlines, checking on the ongoing battles there, or else he''d have fallen back there.

    "This¡­ They came from the same ce Anjie, Sloth, William, and others went to¡­ Don''t tell me¡­" the king had many wild thoughts running through his mind. And for a moment there, he imagined the worst.

    "No, she can''t be dead, she won''t be," he tightly clenched his fists, while everyone around was at a loss of what to say about the current situation.

    "Spread out my orders, the masters back there must take over the defences, activate the arrays and traps¡­ As for others, half will keep supporting the existing battle against the outer enemies, and the rest will move to help stop the iing enemies from underground¡­"

    The king didn''t finish his words before more enemies appeared from various ces. Yet he didn''t change anything. He let masters down there fight to protect their lives, using the already built defences, while activating all the formations and traps.

    The first sh that ended with lots of losses was stopped abruptly by his swift orders. Then the enemies started to flood the entire t grounds, while the king was watching the ongoing weird battles down there from the peak he was standing on.

    The masters managed to im most of the defences. And when they activated the arrays and traps, things started to cool a little at their end.

    But that wasn''t necessarily a good thing.

    After a few hours, the entire base that was previously controlled by masters was now filled with tons of enemies. In the middle of all this, masters down below were surrounded from all directions inside the small forts they built before, looking like small inds gathered in the middle of a grand sea.

 Chapter 1134 A Single Master Leads The Charge Alone

    ?

    The king didn''t like that, as no matter how he thought about it, these masters were destined to fall and die in the end. In addition to that, more pressure was exerted on masters fighting in the paths between mountains.

    If not for the presence of high-end masters there, these paths would have been controlled by the enemies a long time ago. The enemies came from both directions and with the help of masters at the peaks, they managed to survive such pressure so far.

    "We can''t continue like this¡­ I must think of something¡­" The king muttered to himself while squeezing his brain, trying to find a way to solve all of this.

    But there wasn''t much to think about, much to do. The enemies came with everything they got, took advantage of everything, and they were taken by surprise.

    The only ce that was good enough to fortify at was the peaks they controlled. But the area was narrow, and the enemies had their ways to go up there and threaten their control over them.

    Not to mention if he dared to call everyone back, then he''d risk the entire ground down there to get under the total control of the enemies. If that happened, then his daughter would have no way toe here, no way to survive this.

    He had no other option but to keep the masters everywhere struggling against such odds. And when things looked desperate, many forts got breached and masters were fighting for their lives, literally, something new happened; hope!

    As masters struggled on the surface to fight against their enemies, William and others were enjoying a great time in the underground space.

    Yet like any good times, they were short-lived!

    "Sigh, it ended," everyone got deprived of the amazing spirit power at the same time, but William was the first to wake up from such an amazing feeling, "what''s going on here?!!"

    The moment he woke up, he turned around, prepared to fight a deadly battle against the enemies. And yet when he looked around, all he could find was emptiness!

    The underground world was weirdly peaceful and calm. There were tons of monsters and dark masters passing out from the two gates, but they didn''t remain for a single second. There were many bridges connecting the ground to the surface, and they were all walking over these bridges, heading through the holes, and reaching the surface.

    "This¡­" William slowly grasped the entire situation in mere seconds, "they shifted their attention, wanting to get rid of the masters at the top¡­" he moved his eyes to the direction of the surface. He could guess how bad the situation up there was. And yet he didn''t feel any panic.

    As he was thinking about how to counter this, selecting between too many options ranging from destroying these gates entirely, activating the teleport formation at the top, or just barging their way through the ocean of enemies here and going to help the masters up there.

    As he was lost in his thoughts, others woke up one by one. The first thing the stronger masters did was to check the world around them. As for the weaker masters, the first thing they did was to try out their newly gained strength.

    "This¡­ This is bad¡­" Sloth and others slowly muttered when they saw what was going on in this part of the world. When they saw the monsters and dark masters going to the top, they all got the same idea as William.

    Then they looked at the youngster who was away from them. They saw him standing there, motionless, before he raised one fist in the air, then lowered it, pointing towards the distant enemies.

    Without waiting for their responses, he started to dash forward, while taking out everything he had.

    "Gather up, we are going to attack!" Sloth roared before other high-end masters shouted the same order, and few exined to others in brief words what was going on out there.

    William didn''t wait for any of them. He knew the situation looked dire and desperate up there without the need to even take a peek. So he had to do whatever he could to stop the influx going up there.

    He knew the moment he''d move out, the enemy leaders would notice him. As the top leaders included the Nightmare monster and those despicable Transformers, it was highly expected for them to move arge number of their forces here to intercept and kill him.

    Even if others needed half an hour to catch up, he didn''t want to miss this chance at all. So he dashed forward, even used his dash technique to the max.

    He gained thousands of spirit points during thest chance. He didn''t know how much he gained exactly, but he could feel himself stronger. He could now cross five kilometres in a single dash, making him look like he was teleporting or shing like a bolt of lightning.

    William predicted it right. The moment he moved out from the hole''s area, they started to send a few of their forces to stop him.

    They wanted to kill him if possible, but they knew to do so, they needed to divert lots of their high-end forces. It wasn''t just because he was strong and quite resourceful, but because he got arge number of high-end masters behind, moving as well to catch up with him.

    Yet the forces they sent didn''t even stop William for a single minute! Thetter released a barrage of his grenades and arrows, sweeping a lot of them before they even drew closer. They sent tens of thousands of weak monsters and dark masters, all ended up getting killed by William.

    Thetter didn''t even stop in his ce for a single second. He simply dashed directly through this grand number of enemies, crushing and killing everyone he met using his monstrous and flying weapons.

    He knew he was running low on his grenades, but at this moment, he had to use everything he had to save everyone up there.

 Chapter 1135 Attacking Bridges

    ?

    Making new grenades wasn''t an issue, and all he needed was just enough time to make more.

    He kept pushing forward, and the enemies finally started to take him as a real threat. All of sudden, he started to face stronger enemies, a sign that much more formidable enemies were about to move and meet him.

    "It''s time to wait for others then," he knew his limits. Even if he grew stronger, he didn''t think he could face high-end enemies right now.

    A single one would be quite the headache for him. He was sure he could keep his life against him, but if more appeared, he wasn''t sure about that.

    So instead of pushing forward, he stopped, even retreated for a few kilometres while fighting the enemies he met.

    The moment he did that, the enemy leader knew he wasn''t going to keep pestering them. Yet the Nightmare monster tried its best to push everyone to send the high-end masters to take William down.

    "It''s a chance! We need to kill him before others join!" he shouted in the face of all the statues around, but no matter how he tried, they didn''t like this n.

    "We are this close to crushing the master''s army at the surface. Once they are taken care of, we can divert all of our attention over this mere fly," the statue with the wolf head said, seemingly giving the final answer to the Nightmare monster in front of it.

    "You''ll all regret this decisionter, I promise you this!"

    "Is this a threat?!" the statues looked in vignce towards the Nightmare monster. Thetter knew he could handle one or a few statues, but with such a huge gathering of them, hundreds of these Transformers, he had no way to force them to do anything.

    The Nightmare monster hated the fact that it had to work with others on this. It thought highly of this chance and felt how it was close to taking William down. Yet in the end, the Transformers here decided to take care of the king and his forces.

    The Nightmare monster knew taking the king was a good move, but it still needed a long time for such a high figure and tons of the kingdom''s best masters to fall up there.

    Even if they were surrounded, infiltrated by endless enemies, and many of their fortifications got crushed, the king and high-end masters were still safe at the peaks and valleys.

    There was still a long road ahead to cleave the king''s and other high-end masters'' heads. The Nightmare monster knew how crucial it was to crush the current masters at the ins above, and then they''d end up squeezing the masters in between two deadly fronts.

    Yet that required time, and he could tell what William was trying to do here. He didn''t drop the idea of going forward and stopping the enemies, just took a step back to regroup with others, before he came and caused trouble again.

    As the Nightmare monster expected, William kept fighting until he grouped with Sloth and other high-end masters. The moment they met, and they moved like a single force, hitting all the enemies around, pushing forward at a much higher speed.

    Their advance took the Transformers by surprise. They thought William would care more about his safety, and wouldn''t lead everyone again to do such reckless charges. And yet William didn''t lean towards safety, and took the gamble, moving as fast as he could towards the nearest group of bridges.

    For the enemies to board the bridges fast and move to the surface, they built bridges close to each other, arranged in groups.

    That made them able to mobilise lots of their forces quite fast toward the surface. But now William and others were aiming towards one of these bridge groups.

    "I told you," the Nightmare monster was watching everything happening using a spirit sense like others around, "don''t tell me I didn''t warn you."

    "Losing one group of bridges won''t make much difference," one of the Transformers argued, "it won''t even make any difference if they joined forces at the surface. The surface battle is already lost for them."

    "..." The Nightmare monster wanted to say something against such logic, but couldn''t. It knew what this Transformer said made quite sense, but it still felt bad about what William intended to do.

    And soon enough, it saw how its feeling became true.

    "Spread out!" The moment William and others drew close to the group of bridges in front of them, William suddenly shouted, "Half of us will prevent any enemy from approaching¡­"

    "What about the rest?" Fang noticed that William paused and didn''t continue his words, so he had to ask what others had in mind.

    "We''ll take these bridges down!" William''s next words made them all get what this youngster wanted to do. They thought at first he was leading them around to kill enemies, then they''d all secure a group of bridges, wait for other masters behind toe, then go to the surface to join others.

    But it seemed William had another n, a more ambitious one. He didn''t want to just kill a few enemies here and leave, he wanted to take care of the bridges, cut them all, and then kill the enemies around.

    That meant two things; William wanted to cut the path for any enemy reinforcements to go to the surface, and he didn''t intend on leaving the underground space for the time being.

    That was indeed true. William would never leave as the only path towards leaving herey in the gate of the dark masters he left intact. Through this gate, he and others could leave and head towards the main base of the enemies.

    Yet the main problem now was in how to make the king and others move from the surface all the way down to here. They were busy fighting deadly and hard battles against their enemies. And he could already tell that it was literally impossible to try and bring them down here.

 Chapter 1136 Stop Them!

    Chapter 1136 Stop Them!

    As for leaving this ce and joining them up there, it was pointless. First, they didn''t have much force to make a difference up there. Not to mention once they left here, it''d be hard to return back down here.

    If the enemies noticed their intentions toe down here, then they''d rally everything they had, and fortify thending points at this ce. So it''d be like falling directly into the enemies'' trap.

    The only path ahead of William was by cutting any way for the enemy to reach the surface. Then the enemy would have to activate the switching and portal ground formation up there at the ceiling, move the masters down here, and let them face the enemiesing out from the two gates.

    At the same time, the endless enemies that went up there would return back through the holes. It wasn''t the best approach for the enemy, and that was what made William take such trouble in handling the bridges before doing anything else.

    He had to force their hands here. As the masters realised part of what he truly had in his mind, they started to scatter around. Half went to surround the bridges, while others started to attack them.

    Every bridge was around half a kilometre in radius, built out of rocks, rising up in spiral fashion. To take them down, all they needed to do was to hit the lower parts of these bridges. And then the bridges would either crumble and crack, fall to the ground, or they''d just suffer the lowermost parts of them.

    The moment they attacked the bridges, the enemy leaders all went speechless and froze out of shock. They watched William and others wrap things at the first group of bridges before they headed towards the next group.

    "Stop them! Everyone must rally and group, march and stop those maniacs!" the wolf headed Transformer shouted the moment he saw William and other masters getting closer to the second group of bridges.

    They all got what William and others down there wanted to do. And if they let them have it their way, then they''d lose everything they built so far.

    "Told you, but you didn''t listen¡­" the Nightmare monster shook its head, "you didn''t listen¡­"

    "Shut up!" the wolf Transformer, the leader of all, shouted and silenced the talkative Nightmare monster, "I do really hate you! You two deserve to face the same fate¡­"

    "Hey, I''m on your side!" The Nightmare monster didn''t like thement of the wolf Transformer, and showed an arrogance suiting its ce in this evil group.

    "Hmph, so prove yourself worthy and think of ways to solve this¡­"

    "None of this would have happened if you listened up to me¡­"

    "Screw you! Know what? I don''t want to hear anything from you again!" The wolf Transformer couldn''t believe how silly and naively fixed minded the Nightmare monster was. And so it dropped any idea of listening to its advice, and focused instead over its friends andrades.

    The only thing they could do right now was to stop any attempt to reinforce the surface, direct everything at the direction of the masters trying to destroy the bridges. Yet to rally the scattered forces, the ones that were already going up the bridges or gathered around, it''d take much longer than what they expected.

    By the time they gathered enough high end dark masters and monsters, William and others already took down three more bridge groups. Taking these didn''t just cut the path over the enemies to reach the surface, but they also sufferent tons of losses when any of these bridges cumbled and crashed, fell to the ground.

    More enemies fell with more bridges taken down. Yet soon enough, things started to turn for the worse for everyone. It wasn''t just the forces the enemy leaders tried their best to gather in the shortest time to stop them, but it was also the forces that came constantly from these gates.

    "Why won''t we take them down?" Sloth asked the question that everyone had in mind. If they did that, then they''d have deprived the enemy of constant supply of forces. At the same time, they''d relieve themselves from a huge amount of pressure.

    Even with Sloth directly asking this, William never answered. He kept his silence while fighting, doing nothing but trying to cut a path towards the next group of bridges no matter what!

    The enemy built tens of such groups, and they just took down five of them so far. It wasn''t enough to cut the connection between here and the surface, and that is what made William think of using something else.

    He thought of using the Troll. And yet to do so, he and others needed to clear an area and attack the bridges with the Troll. Such an attack wouldn''t take down all the bridges, but taking at least half was feasible.

    Yet it wasn''t easy to do such a thing now. They were now surrounded from all corners by enemies, and many of them were quite a headache to deal with.

    "Don''t try to kill them," William suddenly shouted, "just push them away, keep moving towards the next group of bridges¡­"

    "This is a bad idea¡­ We will end up surrounded by enemies we won''t handle!" everyone knew this was asking for suicidal! Letting their high end enemies stay alive and have the time to group with others? This was by far the silliest idea William presented to them so far.

    "Just trust me, I know what I''m doing," yet William still persisted, "when we arrive at the next group of bridges, wait for my orders¡­"

    He didn''t say anything about his ns, and just kept using everything he got to clear a path towards the next group of bridges. They followed him, while not epting what he asked them to do.

    Yet as he moved forward steadily, they had to keep up. Even if this looked crazy, Sloth and Fang stood by William''s side and convinced everyone to take such a risk.

 Chapter 1137 [Bonus ] Scatter, Defend, And Dont Attack The Bridges!

    Chapter 1137 [Bonus ] Scatter, Defend, And Don''t Attack The Bridges!

    After all, and from the current development of things, they wouldn''t be able to crush more than two to five more groups of bridges. Then they''d have to retreat, or else they''d fall down here.

    This wasn''t just the analysis of these high-end masters, but also the enemy leaders reached the same conclusion. That made them a direct part of the grand forces they had there to resume walking through the bridges and climb all the way up to the surface.

    The enemy leaders could already see the annoying masters retreating, and that made them look at the Nightmare monster in mockery.

    Yet thetter kept its silence and didn''t try to warn them about what it felt. And it felt really terrible about everything, and was quite positive that William was going to do something bad soon enough.

    It was right, William was going to do something that would change the entire equation of this war.

    The run towards that group of bridges didn''t take more than ten minutes from them, yet they didn''t kill that many of their foes. The most they did was to leave behind a few wounds here and there, something that didn''t make them feel any satisfaction at all.

    And when they arrived at the bridges, before they''d do what they got used to doing, William suddenly gave another weird order.

    "Scatter around, defend this ce, and stop any enemy froming inside¡­"

    "Are you nuts? Did you hit your head or something?" a few shouted back at him, yet William didn''t answer them with anything but start a massacre at the enemies filling the area under these bridges.

    The bridges weren''t closely built, as they got around a few hundred up to a few kilometres apart. From afar, they''d look close to each other, yet that wasn''t true. Asking them to secure the entire area, without taking down these bridges, was insane!

    It wasn''t just about the forces surrounding them from all directions, but the bridges were filled with tons of enemies. The moment they didn''t try to take these bridges down, these forces would turn around, head towards the ground, and attack them from behind!

    The end result was easy to imagine, and that was why they needed to take the bridges down as fast as possible.

    Yet as Sloth and Fang trusted William, they followed these mad three, surrounded the bridges, and waited for either a miracle or a disaster.

    "I hope you know what you are doing," Sloth gave William a weird look. Even when thetter asked everyone to go and secure the entire bridge area, William still asked these two to follow him there.

    "We will crush the bridges," William slowly said, while touching one of his rings, "we will crush all the bridges in one go."

    *Boom!*

    The next instant, a giant appeared. The Trollnded fiercely on the ground, making everyone watching this spot quite surprised.

    And then they all got excited. They got what William wanted to do. He wanted to activate the Troll. And yet they didn''t get why he asked them toe here and protect the area.

    In their eyes, all he needed to do was to take it out, and activate it. They didn''t get that the Troll needed little time to operate, enough for any enemy around to interfere and stop the process. Stopping charging the Troll midway was going to unleash a bacsh, enough to cause damage to both them and the Troll.

    So William had to do it in a ce that was well protected, void of enemies, which was here.

    "Sweep the area, kill anythinging," William said to Fang, before turning to Sloth, "recall everyone in ten minutes, I need to do something first."

    "Ok," both of them nodded while feeling that in front of this youngster, they were the youngsters!

    As they went to do their tasks, William stood in front of the giant. "It''s time to use that supreme mode," he slowly muttered, before hurting his hand, and letting his blood cover parts of this Troll.

    The Troll was built and linked to many masters by their blood, but William still held the upper hand in controlling it. Using his blood, he infused his spirit power, giving this Troll the push it needed to use its ultimate mode.

    The Supreme Mode was something special in any Troll, and quite dangerous. It required arge number of masters to activate it, preferably to be quite strong, as it''d absorb tons of spirit power. Yet the most crucial step still depended on William.

    He had to infuse his spirit power inside that behemoth, enough to activate that mode. To do so, he had to consume lots of elixirs and spend roughly ten minutes filling them with his spirit power.

    During this, all the masters received the news the moment he said it. Everyone watched William give up his spirit power to the Troll, closing his eyes, cing both hands over it while gulping many elixirs from time to time.

    They didn''t get what he was doing, but they could guess he was infusing his spirit power madly into the Troll. "He is up to something big this time," after seeing this Troll in action several times, they could see how different this time was, how special it was.

    And now they realised why he did all this in the first ce. He needed time to do this, and this ce was just perfect. Knowing the purpose of what they were doing made all the doubt vanish, and they returned to kill enemies with full power and concentration.

    Yet things weren''t that easy for them. As they all feared, the enemies over the bridges started to descend, and they had to fight on all fronts at the same time.

    Luckily for them, William didn''t need more than ten minutes to finish activating the Supreme Mode. The moment he got done, he opened his eyes, and looked around, seeing no one by his side.

 Chapter 1138 Let There Be Death!

    Chapter 1138 Let There Be Death!

    Even Sloth and Fang had to go out there and help. The situation was least described as critical and dangerous. Enemies were everywhere, and it was very hard to keep them away from William and the Troll.

    But the moment the Troll was ready, everything was going to change for the better.

    "Gather up!" William didn''t shout, even muttered these words in a low tone. And yet he knew everyone heard what he said perfectly fine.

    As all the high-end masters gathered, he took a peek at the rest of the masters. Anjie was leading all of them, while unable to prate through the denseyers of monsters and dark masters.

    Luckily for them, all the high-end enemies were attracted like bees over honey, surrounding William and others, not caring about any of them. So they kept fighting weaker enemies, only suffering against the endless numbers of them.

    As they were fine so far, William shifted his attention towards the Troll. "Do it like you did before," he muttered while moving his eyes around, looking at all the bridges and enemies flooding over them as if they were nothing.

    The masters already activated the Troll before, so they knew what to do. And yet, there was still a single master who stood in the middle of all this and didn''t know what to do.

    "What about me?" Fang pointed to himself, feeling weird about this situation again, "What shall I do?"

    "Stay behind, do nothing," William didn''t bother to care for his feelings, said it clear and straight. At the same time, he shifted his full attention over the Troll, "Rise! Rise and roar, show the world the true might of yours¡­"

    *Roar!*

    As if the Troll was a sleeping beast, it rose up, and mmed its two gigantic fists at the ground, while roaring in a very life-like way.

    It rose like it was alive like the Troll wasn''t built out of ores and cold metals. It looked around as if a god descended upon this world. And without doing anything, everyone, literally all the enemies, stopped in their ces, and froze out of fear, as if they were in front of the death god in the flesh.

    "Let there be death," William muttered, and yet his voice didn''te from his throat, but from the Troll. The voice was so deep and held its own majesty.

    Then as if the gates of hell opened, the eyes of the Troll shone in bright and threatening light, before it released a very deadly beam of light.

    Before this, the Troll would release rays of light, exploding everything they touched. But this time, it released a single beam from each eye, and the two beams started to move around without any moment of break.

    These two beams didn''t just kill the enemies they touched, they also dented the ground, and released fierce explosive waves all around, evaporating anything that got into the middle of all this.

    It was scary! And the scariest part was that even when seeing this, not a single enemy dared to move a muscle or tried to escape. They all stood there like statues, waiting for death toe andnd over them without any mercy or discrimination.

    What was different as well was the lengthy period the attacksted. Before this, the Troll couldn''t keep attacking for more than a minute or two. But this time, it went straight for one hour!

    William didn''t just hit the bridges, and the enemies around, but also tried to hit the ceiling, aiming to activate that formation up there, yet failed.

    As a result, he kept hitting the holes up there, trying to either close them or kill anything inside. He did this on purpose, sending a message over to all the enemies'' leaders, making them believe he was going to destroy that formation.

    If that formation got destroyed, then they''d lose everything. They worked hard to shift the forces up there into this ce. And even if they got two gates left, they still had a chance to take down lots of enemies.

    Even if they were crushing the masters at the surface in recent days, things were going to change now. The bridges got destroyed, and most of the enemies here got killed. New enemies poured out, and yet they were killed the moment they came out.

    William didn''t give them any hope at all. He showed them he had the weapon to change everything in this war. Even if they perfected a trap, he''d crush it. And there was only a single trap left for them to activate; that formation.

    He kept alternating between hitting the ceiling, destroying the holes, and killing the new enemies. He did that for an entire hour, while all the high-end masters were feeling something different.

    In the previous attempt they felt like they were draining their spirit power in a short period of time. Yet this time, they felt as if they were normally giving out their spirit power.

    They didn''t feel the pressure, or the drain. In fact, they felt like they could keep doing this for a long time. Yet William knew this was all thanks to the initial activation he did using his spirit power. And after one hour, all of this would change.

    The moment one hour passed, and everyone returned to feel the same crazy suction force that drained their spirit power. William didn''t continue using the Troll and severed the connection with it.

    "It''s enough," William patted the Troll as if he was patting over a little kid or something, "you did enough. And now, it''s up to you to keep the enemies under pressure."

    He said hisst words to other high-end masters. As the enemies got cleared, the bridges got destroyed, and most of the holes got crushed and blocked, they were now back to square one.

    As the enemies got crushed, the separated masters found their way to William under the leadership of Anjie. "Move, join, and help them," Anjie was now like their temporary leader in the absence of William.

 Chapter 1139 Attacking The Ceiling Formation Hard!

    Chapter 1139 Attacking The Ceiling Formation Hard!

    The moment they drew closer, she gave the order to everyone to join the high-end masters.

    They only needed to fight the newly arrived enemies from the two gates. And that wasn''t going to be a terrible task, not after what they experienced so far.

    "Are you okay?" this was the first thing she said when she joined him. William looked at her and examined her body. She was covered in tons of wounds and blood, but she never looked as tempting before as now.

    "I''m alright, hoping you are the same," he cleared up his throat, before looking away. She noticed this, and couldn''t help but show a faint smile over her face.

    "You love tough girls covered in blood and wounds? What a weird taste!" she couldn''t help butment, ending her words with a loudugh.

    "You don''t like that?" he harrumphed, shaking his head as if he got disappointed or something.

    "I bet you want to hold me right now," she teased him, and he coughed twice, before suddenly grabbing her to his embrace.

    "I can hold you anytime I want," he looked her directly in the eye. Even if she was willing, happy to be this close and held by him, she couldn''t help but have her cheeks reddened. Her throat suddenly ran dry, and her heart kept thumping hard in her chest.

    "Let''s hang out after all this is over," he winked, "after all, you fought others to be by my side."

    "As if you ever gave any time for yourself to have fun," he released her, and then she regained part of her courage.

    "Do you want me to hold you again?" he teased her, and she responded by sticking her tongue out.

    "What''s the n now?" she looked around, shifting the topic towards the ongoing battles happening around the two gates.

    As the enemies got cleared from everywhere, the masters only ran towards the two gates and stopped the enemies there. The entire ce seemed void and empty now. After fighting for so long, it was a bit weird to see the ce void of swarms of enemies except around these two gates.

    "We''ll just kill whatever they threw at us," he paused, sending her a ring warning nce, to prevent her from asking the question she wanted to ask.

    She would ask about why not take these gates down instead. And that was something he didn''t want to alert the enemies towards.

    He did all this but evaded destroying these two gates. Part of the reason she aimed at the ceiling was to shift their attention from this point. Yet if she or anyone else mentioned it, then things would turn for the worse to him, would ruin his ns.

    He needed that dark master gate, and with it, everyone could escape from here.

    He knew the enemies wouldn''t feel the pressure the moment the Troll wasn''t around. And it wasn''t feasible to just keep using it. That Troll was indeed a beast in sucking spirit power. Even the high-end masters would struggle to keep it running for a few hours straight.

    So he had to think about something else.

    "Fang, I know you can hear me,e here and bring ten of the lightning and light element based high-end masters with you," all of a sudden he said these words, while Anjie looked at him in silence.

    She couldn''t get any of what he wanted to do. And if she learnt something from her dealing with him, then it''d be the deadliest version of him when he''d act this mysterious and hard to fathom.

    Fang didn''t hesitate to select ten high-end masters and bring them in half an hour. During which, Anjie watched Williamy down the foundations of eleven formations.

    She didn''t need to ask to know all of them were lightning-based formations. Yet she was dying to know why he was doing this at this moment.

    The enemies were already contained around the two gates, and there wasn''t any danger there. As for the situation up there, she knew like everyone else that it must be going for the better. And they were all correct.

    "Take charge of each formation," once Fang and others arrived, William pointed towards the eleven formations he built, "Use your deadliest techniques like usual, and release the deadly attacks."

    "To hit what exactly?" Fang asked what everyone had in mind, moving his eyes all over the ce, "There isn''t a single enemy here to kill!"

    "You just do it, and let me handle the rest," William didn''t exin anything, and all of them noticed he was building something. It was a formation, but this one was surrounding the eleven he built in a giant circle. William was about to get away from doing it, and as he didn''t exin, Fang knew he wouldn''t say anything until they did as he said.

    "Let''s see what he wants to do, let''s go folks," Fang shrugged, and sighed while saying his words. He didn''t like such an attitude of William, and yet he was like others, very curious to see what William nned to do.

    This new circle was a few tens of metres in width, and he just didn''t ce materials on the ground to make it. He used liquid materials he had in vials, with the colour of silver and gold. This material was drained from a spongy ore, one that came from the outer universe. He didn''t have much of it, but it was enough to make ten of these formations.

    The formation he was doing aimed to gather up the lightning from the area it covered and a few kilometres around. Then William would control it, release this energy towards anywhere he liked.

    No one got what he was doing until the formations linked together, and the lightning attacks they released gathered, united, and were guided by the formation William controlled to hit the ceiling.

    William didn''t want to leave the enemies'' leaders free from such a headache.

 Chapter 1140 These Idiots...

    Chapter 1140 These Idiots...

    William had to find a way to keep threatening that ceiling, prove to them that he knew what they schemed by that formation, and how serious he was at trying to destroy it!

    The formations he used wouldst for hours, and he was ready to replenish them once the materials got exhausted. And yet after one hour of constantly hitting the ceiling, the enemy leaders finally got the message.

    "That jerk! He won''t stop until he destroys our teleportation formation!"

    "Howe he knows about it? Wasn''t it supposed to be something of the outer world?!!"

    "I never met someone like him, someone as hard to deal with or fathom!"

    "We need to act fast! He is using an element that antagonises our darkness. If this continues for a few more hours, the entire formation will crumble!"

    The statues got panicked by what William was doing. And that was precisely what he wanted them to feel. From the side, the Nightmare monster watched all of this happening without saying a single word.

    If any, he developed a smug smile over his face, as if he was enjoying how they were suffering because of William.

    "These idiots! I warned them before, told them to take care once and for all of that human. And yet they neglected and even mocked my suggestion. It serves you right, bastards!" he thought to himself, while moving his eyes towards one direction, "at least I have a way out from here if things went wrong. We can detonate the entire region, including the underground one, and leave through the portal. He damaged the firstyer of the explosive trap, but we still have another buried deeper than that ground¡­"

    He wasn''t worried thanks to that. And that was also why others didn''t lose their cool despite losing this much.

    They had twoyers of explosive trapsid there. William destroyed one, yet the second one was still intact. The only drawback of this was that it needed a longer time to activate. And it would release signs that William nor other high-end masters would miss.

    Another problem was that if the explosion came from deepyers, the explosive tiles wouldn''t release much of their powers. They tested it before in another area and exploding it from deeper levels released much weaker and far limited explosive waves than doing it from the superficialyers.

    That was why moving everyone down there was crucial to get rid of them. At the same time, they''d leave through a gate, heading towards a secured base of them.

    None thought about a trivial detail, one that''d change the entire situation upside down. Even if William never realised a clue about the presence of a second trapyer, the n he had been working on for a time now was weirdly hitting the enemy''s trap in a deadly spot!

    At the same time, it''d allow him to catch up with his enemies, against what his enemies would expect in their wildest thoughts!

    Under the watchful gazes of the Nightmare monster, the Transformers activated the teleport formation.

    During all this, the situation at the surface was growing better and better. The king was out of options against such deadly attacks of the enemies. He tried everything, and nothing worked!

    He could only stand there at one peak, watching the masters down below fight deadly battles against such odds. Not all of the fortifications got lost, but even the ones standing down there couldn''t help those who got breached.

    That was one of the main factors that made the situation worse for everyone. They could hardly keep their posts unbreachable, unable to lend a helping hand to anyone.

    Yet this all changed all of a sudden. Without warning, the seemingly endless swarm of enemiesing from the holes dried up.

    It felt like someone flipped a switch, or the enemies just lost all of their forces down there. The holes stopped gushing out more force. And that single change made all the difference.

    Masters could now kill the enemies without worrying for much more to show up. The first to get freed from such a nightmare were the ones stationed inside intact defences. They managed to y all the enemies around them, and then they moved out to help others.

    They didn''t need orders to do so, they acted out of pure instincts. The king watched the entire situation down below change drastically for the better, quite fast actually.

    The stressed and pressured-out masters exploded! They fought the enemies down below and killed them like they never fought for days!

    In less than six hours, the entire base was cleared in a fashion that inspired everyone. The masters fighting at the forefront learnt of the news, and could feel the changes already bycking the threatening enemiesing from behind.

    As there were no more threats from the rear, they focused everything on taking down the enemies up front. For the first time since everything changed, they started to push the frontline again.

    The king and other high-end masters could heave a deep sigh of relief atst when they saw all this. The nightmare was over, and they knew it was time to do something about these holes.

    They didn''t know what caused the enemies to stop were William''s actions underground. And so they dispatched teams, all earth-based masters, worked over blocking these holes, and put an end to such a threat.

    After that, the king gave orders. He let loose his forces to go out and attack all the enemies over the peaks, killing whoever was there, and taking down tons of them while adding more peaks to their reign.

    Even after suffering great losses, getting exhausted, and such, the masters managed to keep pushing the frontline forward.

    The enemies already rearranged themselves, focused solely on the valleys, trying to take down the masters in the past days. This made the remaining dark masters over the peaks quite low in number. And that made it much easier for the masters to im more peaks.

 Chapter 1141 The Teleport Formation Is Activated

    Chapter 1141 The Teleport Formation Is Activated

    ?

    No matter how they did it, the fact they gained more peaks helped in adding more fuel to their zing morale.

    And yet all this had to change soon enough when the enemy activated the teleportation formation.

    To the king and others up there, all they saw were bright shes of lights, rising up from the ground, even from the mountains and paths. It looked as if someone scattered bright shes all around the ground, and these rays of light started to twist,bine together, and form a grand of lights.

    "This¡­ They are merging with the faraway wall!!!" the king and other high-end masters could tell what was going on using their spirit senses. They saw the wall at the far distance getting in touch with all of these lights, forming some sort of an inescapable surrounding them all.

    Without the need to think much about it, their guts told them how bad this was. Yet they had nothing in their power to change any of that. The shes of light kept increasing in intensity, shining brighter, before they couldn''t see a single thing around.

    To them, this was indeed a scary experience, but to William, Anjie, Sloth, Fang, and others down below, this was something interesting.

    The ceiling suddenly brightened up, as all the writings and symbols up there started to appear clearly in front of everyone''s eyes. William already saw everything rted to this formation, but even he felt awed by such a sight.

    It felt like the drawings and symbols up there were getting alive! They shone brightly, moved, and even danced! The lights felt alive, and during all this, no one felt any speck of fear or doubt.

    Even when the ceiling turned all bright, and shone bright rays of light over the ground as if it was releasing spotlights, no one panicked. They felt curious about what was going on, and when William exined in brief, they got what was going to happen.

    "This is a formation that will teleport everyone from the surface to here," William paused, before adding, "the moment this happens, we''ll find tons of our allies here, alongside tons more enemies. So get ready, once they arrive, we''ll strike hard and keep the enemiesing out from these gates under control¡­"

    His n was simple, yet effective. The moment the ceiling started to show such changes, William knew his task was done. He led Anjie, Fang, and others to join the rest of the high-end masters, before exining everything to them.

    Just learning they were going to meet up with others made them quite excited. They got separated for too long from the rest of the army, and it was time to join hands together.

    The most experienced masters could tell there was more to it than what meets the eye. It was clear now that William knew everything about this formation from the start, and aimed to activate it all the time. They recalled everything he had done sinceing here, and everything pointed toward this single conclusion.

    As he aimed to do this, instead of doing the obvious and trying his best to return to the surface, meant he got something else up his sleeve. Sloth and Fang recalled how William acted before when they asked about a certain matter, and they started to grow thoughts about this.

    Despite wanting to, no one ever questioned him about this. They knew soon enough they''d learn about what he was nning all this long. And then they started to prepare.

    There wasn''t much time to do anything, but theyid a few arrays and traps here and there, aiming to contain the enemiesing out from the gates.

    No one could tell how bad the situation up there was, not even William. Yet everyone was sure the enemiesing from high above were numerous. On top of that, they would be notified of such a movement, not like the king and other masters there.

    After all, the ones who activated this formation were the enemy, not them.

    William watched them work, while Anjie looked at him with a soft smile on her face, without saying anything. After a while, William couldn''t help but smile as well.

    He knew his girl guessed part of his n, and that made him smile regardless.

    Soon enough the ceiling shone brighter, and then the world turned all bright to all of them. In a sh, the light vanished, and everything returned to look the same, but the world around wasn''t.

    There were tons of people and monsters here, all standing on the ground, looking around, as if they were subjected to some sort of magic trick or something.

    "Attack!" William''s shout came first, and with it, the higher-end masters on his end started to move in two directions. Part of them went to help the king and others and inform them about what happened, and the other part took care of the enemiesing out from the two gates.

    "I want you to deliver something over to your father, urgently!" in the middle of all this, and as the situation turned from being deadly silent into a hectic and crazy bloodbath, William leant over to Anjie, whispering a few words over to her.

    As he suspected, she guessed part of what he nned, but not everything. She thought he''d use one of the gates for something, something to help them win the war. And yet she didn''t get what he really was up to.

    The moment he told her the message, she realised it. "Leave it to me," she seriously said, "just when do you want to act?"

    "Now!" William''s answer was swift, "let him rally everyone, move towards here the moment he heard the news."

    "Got it!" she didn''t get why he was in such a rush, but sheplied and started to run in the direction of her father.

    It wasn''t that hard to find that man, after all, he was the only one surrounded by lots of high-end masters, surrounding him in circles, as they were protecting the king.

 Chapter 1142 Gathering Everyone Towards The Gate

    <h4>Chapter 1142 Gathering Everyone Towards The Gate</h4>

    William knew he was rushing out things. The masters just came in, were scattered all across this colossally wide ce, and there were tons of enemies around.

    Asking everyone to run as fast as they could to here was a risky move, without giving them time to even handle their current situation or deal with the enemies around.

    But he couldn''t help it! The moment they arrived here, and an irresistible itch of feeling deadly danger kept assaulting him like never before.

    He''d prefer to inform Sloth or Fang about this, but the two were quite impatient. The moment the masters appeared here with the enemies, and they led a team and went towards the enemies to kill. He had to use the help of Anjie, as for himself, he joined forces with the masters here, stopping the iing enemies from the two gates.

    It wasn''t that hard before to stop these enemies. But as the high end masters divided themselves in two teams, it became harder to contain these enemies.

    So he had to join, and he had to use everything he got to take them down. He took out his monstrous weapons, flying weapons, transformed into his spirit body form, took out his weapons, and started a barrage of unstoppable attacks towards everything he spotted.

    He and others kept fighting desperately for ten minutes straight. During which, the sense of danger kept mming him fiercer than ever before. As ten minutes passed, he finally spotted masters running towards here.

    "What''s going on?!!"

    "Why does everyone run towards here?!!"

    "Is there a disastering or a scary enemy chasing them away?!!!"

    The high-end masters noticed this weird phenomenon and couldn''t help but question what they were seeing. William didn''t stand idle, and shouted at top of his lungs:

    "Follow me! Kill the enemies!"

    William didn''t give any exnation, didn''t say anything that would give reasons for everyone around about what was going on here, about what he was going to do.

    He simply shouted, raised his ive in the air, and waved it twice, acting as if Ibra was in his stead. Then he dashed forward, brazenly striking against enemies, opening a path towards one gate, the monster gate!

    His aim wasn''t to go to the monster gate, and yet he had to start off with it. He was a bit worried that the enemy still held control over the gates, able to close them at any given time. So he feigned his interest, and soon enough he''d learn that his worries weren''t groundless.

    The enemies didn''t have full control over the gates as he feared, but it seemed they could control the gate''s magnitude. The monster gate he was going towards suddenly shrunk, and the other gate started to expand madly.

    "Good boys," seeing this made William evilly grin. The enemy didn''t get what he was after, and yet they felt something was off. William could crush the gates anytime he wanted, and yet he didn''t.

    The moment he picked the monster gate and led everyone towards it, the enemy leaders knew something was special about that gate. They couldn''t close it down, but could at least make it much smaller than before.

    Like this, the gate wouldn''t gush out lots of monsters like before. And to make up for this, they expanded the other gate, reaching almost ten fold its original size.

    This action was just on impulse, a sort of being reflexive. And yet they just served William right, helped him in his aims without knowing it.

    "Turn around," the moment this happened, the early batches of the grand number of masters were almost here, "go to the other gate, surround, and kill everyone there!"

    William kept releasing unorthodox orders one after another. And yet he never gave any exnation to any of his actions, never waited to exin anything in the first ce.

    He simply changed his path, and dashed towards therge number of dark masters who came out from the gate. Then everyone followed.

    As they followed him, they noticed the newly arrived masters were also following him. "At least they got the mind to know we need to stop them," this was what everyone on William''s side thought, mistaking newly arrived masters'' actions as some sort of great call.

    Yet they''d never know this was the order from the king, for everyone to head towards William, and then aim to go towards the dark master gate.

    The moment William arrived there, he started to circle this gate. It was now a giant, epassing arge number of areas. He needed roughly twenty minutes to circle it, and he didn''t just do it out of boredom or fun.

    Heid an array around, one that aimed to do only one thing; stabilising space!

    This was a simple array that would serve to guard this gate. The moment he was done, he started to activate it, controlling the space around it, forcing the gate to not respond to any given orders from the enemy leaders.

    "Follow me!" William didn''t need to say anything more, just led everyone and moved toward one direction; the gate!

    "Sh*t! His aim was that gate from the start!!"

    "Don''t tell me¡­ He is after our main base here?!!"

    "Dammit! Let''s shrink it! Let''s hurry!"

    "I told you, we needed something to close these damn gates with!"

    "No time for that! Order the dark masters, we need to take this gate down, or even destabilise space there!"

    In a snap of a finger, every one of those Transformers panicked. They got what William aimed for atst, yet they realised this a bit toote.

    William already did everything to secure a path out of this trap, going towards the main base of the enemy. He even stabilised space using his array, and that made the gate not respond to any call from outside.

    They tried, yet nothing worked! As for the dark masters at the area, they had to think about themselves first, before thinking about taking down the gate.

 Chapter 1143 Internal Fight Between Enemies

    <h4>Chapter 1143 Internal Fight Between Enemies</h4>

    Taking down the gate? Their only path towards safety? That was an absurd order from their bosses! The moment they got it, they knew things were heading south for them, and they all turned around and passed through the gate without batting an eye.

    Seeing this drove the leaders mad! They lost everything in that underground space, and now they have to deal with William and others in their base. This wasn''t a great thing, as their statues were situated in that base.

    "See youter," the Nightmare monster was about to turn around and leave. The path outside of this pocket world was just around, and he needed to sh five times to arrive there, "what the heck are you doing?!!! Release that seal now!"

    Yet the moment he tried to sh away, he couldn''t. The space around seemed like it was made out of thick lead or something. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn''t move an inch forward, not even budge.

    "You aren''t going anywhere without us," the wolf statue coldly snorted, "did you think we let youe here and join us without having a backing-up n?"

    "Let me loose, I''m warning you!" the Nightmare monster felt like a b*tch got stabbed by her man or something. He could only move his eyes and mouth, shouting with all the power he could muster, "Let me go!"

    "Not yet," the wolf statue scoffed, "you brought this cmity upon us in the first ce! We investigated, and the one who sat that human youngster''s wrath upon us was you!"

    "I never did that!" the Nightmare monster knew he lowered his guard against these bastards, and thought he was the one ying them in his fingers, but it turned out to be the other way around.

    They prepared a sealing formation here long before he arrived. This formation was quite strong, and it meant all of these statues were controlling it.

    The Nightmare monster knew it was the end for him if he couldn''t break that sealing formation. And all of a sudden, the allies who worked together for a long time turned their backs on each other, something that was quite typical and ssic for dark and evil-minded folks.

    "You won''t go anywhere else, but to meet up with that human, and settle scores with him once and for all," the wolf statue evillyughed, "this is your problem, you brought this upon yourself and us. If he kills you, then he''ll drop the heat off us. If you kill him, then it''s a big headache getting solved by you¡­"

    "I won''t forgive you ever for this," the Nightmare monster roared, roaring like a real monster who was just terribly wounded and cornered, "I won''t let you off, won''t let you enjoy your lives¡­"

    "Keep that spirit, you''ll need it against that human, hahaha!" another statueughed, "As for us, we''ll leave here and will watch everything happening from far, far away."

    "You can''t leave," the Nightmare monster suddenly roared in a burst of fierceughter, "you can''t even move on your own, you are statues!"

    "We have¡­"

    "Your men will be ughtered by me, just watch," the Nightmare monster evillyughed again, "the moment you let loose of this binding, I''m going to kill those morons. I know I can''t touch you, you are far scarier than myself. Killing you is hard, but stopping you from leaving is easy, hahaha!"

    "You¡­ Son of a b*tch!"

    "Don''t force us to kill you!"

    "Try it," the Nightmare monsterughed again, "if you have the ability, you''d have done it already, left my corpse for that stupid human to find. Yet you didn''t, and that means you can''t!"

    "..."

    It was just as the Nightmare monster expected, they couldn''t kill it. It wasn''t just because the Nightmare monster was strong. They were afraid of escaping their assault, ending up creating a scary enemy for themselves.

    Instead, they preferred to let William do it. The two were already enemies. And even if the Nightmare monster managed to kill William, it was impossible for it to escape the assault of all the high-end masters on his side.

    On another note, even if the monster managed to escape without facing or killing William, it''d still be fixed on William more than them.

    In any case, they knew they''d get rid of this annoying monster once and for all. Yet they never expected the prey they thought it fell into their trap to turn its fangs in such a way, flipping the table around.

    If they didn''t escape here, it''d be all pointless!

    "Your only choice is to keep fighting by my side," the Nightmare monster harrumphed, "as for what happenster on, we''ll figure it out by then."

    If words held a simple meaning, it wasn''t going to drop this grudge. Yet it was willing to push it aside for now, to get rid of the human it wanted to kill.

    Yet this also meant the statues had to release it free, and that was something they never epted!

    They were afraid of its retaliation now, and the Nightmare monster showed no worry on its face. It stood calmly there, while the statues were getting worried.

    William already arrived at the gate, secured it with his array, then led others through it. Passing through the gate wasn''t that hard, yet killing the enemies passing through was. He used everything in his power, alongside others, and they managed to crack an opening after a few minutes of struggle. The sheer number of dark mastersing through was simply insane. And they had to kill their path through them, literally!

    The moment William passed through the gate, a new world opened its arms in front of him. The space wasn''t underground, it was an open space, with many hills, tons of hills, scattered all over the ce, stretching to the end of the horizon.

    The moment he spotted these hills he felt how familiar this ce was. "This is where you are all hidden, right?" he evilly grinned, knowing that he finally came to the main base of the enemies.

 Chapter 1144 War At The Enemy Main Base

    Chapter 1144 War At The Enemy Main Base

    Yet this adventure wasn''t a smooth one. The entire ce looked a bit simr to the ce they came to before, with a grand open space in the middle, and tons of hills surrounding it.

    He came out from the centre of the open space, and he was surrounded by tons of dark masters, filling the entire ins, with much moreing out from these hills.

    He didn''t need to use his spirit sense to know these dark masters just came out from the underground bases, the ones under the hills. With such a huge number of hills here, it meant there were tons of bases, with tons more of dark masters still hiding deep inside.

    He didn''t know how the enemy gathered so many dark masters here. But it was clear there would be lots of high-end dark masters in this ce. "Scatter," the first order he gave to others who came alongside him was, "clear the area around the gate, make sure there is enough space for newly arrived masters."

    Even if he was ordering high-end masters, he neither felt anything amiss about this attitude. He grew to be one of their respectedrades, and he proved to be a trustworthy master after everything they lived through with him.

    They moved together and hit the enemies around, while William selected the ones he could handle. Among every hundred dark masters, a single one would be of high-end calibre. He dealt with those ny-nine ones, leaving thest troublesome dude over to the high-end masters around.

    Doing this might be weird and hard, but to him it was nothing. He controlled his flying weapons and made them fly around him in circles, cutting through anything they''d touched.

    The ones who managed to get out from this barrage of attacks would be high-end masters, and they''d get handled at once by the high-end masters on his side. Slowly the flying weapons expanded, pushed the line further ahead, and surrounded the entire gate, while gaining space with every passing minute.

    And with every minute passing, more masters would gush through that gate,ing here and joining the fun.

    Gradually things became much easier for everyone. The enemies were all dark masters, not the type to stick around and defend their territory.

    If things went south, if things didn''t go ording to n, they''d start panicking, freaking out, and think about one thing only; escaping!

    So it was expected the early moments were the hardest ever, then things started to roll nicely ever since. With more mastersing here through the gate, dark masters started to panic. And with morend secured, dark masters started to turn around, trying to run back into their underground bases.

    "Idiots!'''' The king arrived just minutes ago, and all he could see was the dark masters trying to race each other, heading towards the faraway hills, "Chase them, and see where the entrances to their bases are. We''ll hunt and burn down everything, won''t let those despicable human traitors live for much longer¡­"

    The king spoke calmly and yet in the middle of his words, loud banging noises came from the direction of the hills. When he looked, he saw a giant rising up, with fierce two rays of lighting out from its eyes.

    It was the Troll, and William just activated it again to release its supreme mode. This time, he aimed directly at the hills, dealing deadly blows to these, cleaving most in two halves, or even detonating many into a dead pile of rocks.

    He took half an hour to set the stage and donate his spirit power to it, before letting others join and attack. They already did it before, so it was easier to do it this time. William knew this was thest battle they''d fight here before getting out of this ce. So he didn''t refrain from using everything, including the Troll.

    The attacksted for one hour, and by the end of it, the entire terrain around it had changed dramatically. The hills were mostly gone, and the ones still standing were looking as if they missed half of their bodies or something. The enemies stopped gushing out from these hills, or even entering the bases underneath.

    Things turned finally for the better for the side of masters. They pushed harder, killed everyone they met, and were getting steadily closer to the hill zone.

    By the end of that hour, they already cleared the entire ins, regaining control over a new base of theirs. Learning from the past lesson, the king ordered many to focus on building strong defences, even if it seemed they didn''t need these for now.

    Yet the king didn''t want to suffer the same disastrous situation as before. As for the rest, they pushed the enemies back, and went inside the bases, cleaning them one by one. William didn''t do anything else except for walking forward, activating his Troll once every few hours. He destroyed tons of hills, and kept amazing and scaring his allies and enemies alike.

    The final battle was indeed much better than what anyone imagined. The cowards weren''t putting up a single worthy fight against them, and all they cared about was running from one base to another. In three days, and after constant fighting, the final showdown of this war finally came. It was amazing how in three days, the entire master army rampaged through all the enemy bases here. There were tons of bases, and yet they took just three days to run through them, push the enemies out of these, and end up gathered in one ce, with their backs against a huge wall.

    This wasn''t a metaphor, as the enemies gathered in a huge basin, with a huge mountainous wall behind, and paths in between mountains up front.

    And these paths were now filled to the brim with the master army. Even the mountains up front, they were all taken by the masters. which gave them total advantage this time.

 Chapter 1145 Enemies Are Very Hard To Deal With

    Chapter 1145 Enemies Are Very Hard To Deal With

    "We are going to crush them like rats," the king advanced in front of everyone, acting as a real king leading his army in a fierce battle, "we have suffered a lot on their hands. Don''t mistake my words, I wasn''t talking about what we experienced here. For thousands of years, for even longer than that, we kept getting crushed by them. I don''t believe there is a single family in the entire world who didn''t suffer or lose a member over the long history of theirs on their hands¡­"

    The king paused, took out a long spear, and waved it in the air a few times before pointing it toward the enemies, "they might not be the entire dark mastermunity, but they are part of it. We''ll take them down, we''ll kill them all, and we''ll keep doing this until we free our world¡­ Attack!"

    William was standing on one of the mountain peaks around. He watched how the king stepped up at this moment, how he addressed and riled up morale, how he united everyone together.

    He agreed with what the king did, and highly valued his actions at such a moment. The masters were stressed and exhausted for a long time already and suffered lots of losses in this campaign.

    Even if the enemy was nearby, it was still hard to ask them to crush thest stand the enemy put. This wasn''t the normal dark masters whom they fought against so far. They were scared humans, with their backs literally against the walls, with nothing to lose.

    They were the most dangerous type of enemies in such situations. And that was why the king decided to step up and light the morale and will of fighting inside everyone here.

    William watched the masters around shout and yell, watched them move, and start running towards the enemies. And as he and other high-end masters expected, the initial shes were quite brutal and bloody!

    The enemy had nowhere else to be, no exit to run towards. This might seem weird in William''s eyes, as dark masters always prioritised a way of escape before even finalising any n. Yet for a reason he and others didn''t know, the enemies had no way out from here. And that was precisely because of the ongoing deadly sh between their leaders at the final underground base.

    William was wrong! These enemies weren''t the type to have nothing to lose. They got a way out, yet there was a grand obstacle stopping all of them from running away; the Nightmare monster!

    That monster was indeed a nightmare! Whenever any group of them approached the underground space, they''d get massacred by the endless clones of this monster. They tried and yet failed. Nothing worked, and even if the monster was bound and sealed, it was still quite deadly and ferocious.

    So their leaders, the statues, ordered them to go up and fortify the entrance to this base. While they''d find a way to deal with the Nightmare monster, they''d have to protect the base with their lives, with everything they got.

    This was where William was wrong, they weren''t humans fighting without a way out, they were fighting for hope. And even if they were cowards, at such critical moments, they turned into a far more dangerous type of enemies, one that was much worse to deal with than what William and others thought.

    The shes showed to everyone how it was so damn hard to advance. The enemies didn''t mindlessly fight like everyone expected, instead, they worked in groups, used their darkness based techniques to the fullest extent, and put up a great fight against their masters.

    Even if they kept losing ground, they lost it at a very slow pace, while killing lots of masters in return.

    "This can''t go on," Sloth slowly muttered while observing everything from behind with many high-end masters, "shall we intervene?"

    "No," William slowly shook his head, "we need to give them time to feel the credit of winning this."

    He was standing with hundreds of high-end masters, watching all the ongoing fights using spirit sense. William kept these behind, as they were the ones he needed to activate the supreme mode of the Troll.

    "I can understand why we are here, but¡­" Sloth turned to look at someone, "Why the hell are you still here?!"

    "What? I want to take part in activating that behemoth," Fang snorted, and for a moment there, everyone looked weirdly at him.

    "You can''t help that, sorry," William didn''t know how to deliver the news to this stubborn old man to understand. He tried to convince him to leave, go, and help others like how many high-end masters were doing. But he refused!

    "I will take part in activating it this time, won''t let anyone stop me!" Fang was indeed acting like a spoiled brat in William''s eyes at the moment. He didn''t have anything to say, sighed, and silently shoved his eyes away.

    "You are indeed something¡­ Aren''t you ashamed?" Sloth didn''t let the old man off the hook like how William did.

    "Hmph," and yet Fang crossed his arms, even sat on the ground cross-legged, as if he was nning to strike here or something.

    "..." And what he did left everyone baffled with his actions, not knowing how to properly respond to this.

    In the end, they all ignored him the same way William did. Thetter kept his silence while watching the masters fight desperately for two straight days. Then he started to act.

    The moment he took out his giant, all the masters around got riled up. It wasn''t that easy for them to watch others fight while they did nothing, especially when their presence out there would have helped the masters a lot.

    But they forgot all this the moment the Troll was taken out. "You know what to do, and this time we''ll persist a bit longer than before," William said, and he didn''t need to exin why they''dst for much longer.

 Chapter 1146 Why Are You Following Me?

    <h4>Chapter 1146 Why Are You Following Me?</h4>

    William intended to wipe out all the enemies here, pave a path toward the underground base, and kill many of the enemies inside.

    The king knew what William intended, so the moment the Troll appeared, he gave his orders for everyone to break free from the fights and retreat.

    It wasn''t that easy to do so, and even if William took much longer this time to activate the Troll, the king didn''t manage to recall more than ten percent of the entire army.

    This was expected. After all, if the masters tried to retreat, the dark masters wouldn''t give them the chance to do so. Yet the king worried for nothing. William never intended to use his Troll against the frontline enemies.

    The moment he and others activated the Troll, things started to turn truly bad for the dark masters! They finally woke up over the deadly and unstoppable attacks from the Troll.

    They tried to defend, but it was futile. They tried to retreat, but it was pointless. In the end, they tried to run back into the underground base. Yet they couldn''t make it in time, not to mention William never intended to let the bass go unscathed from his attacks.

    This time it was different, not only because he intended tost as long as it took to destroy everything and kill everyone on the surface, but because the king joined this time.

    With this, the Troll was officially used to its full power. The attack came swiftly, and the damage it left behind at any ce itnded was quite clear.

    It was catastrophic for the enemy, and nothing they tried worked. William persisted for two hours, much more than what he ever used his Troll for.

    The supreme mode was quite lethal, but it had the disadvantage of covering up a little area in a short time. He needed two hours to cover most of the area controlled before by the enemy and focused for half an hour at the underground base entrance.

    He couldn''t tell if he killed so many or not if he caused enough damage to the underground space or not. All he did was to try and move the two deadly rays from one side to another, slowly trying to kill anyone and damage anything down below.

    All the masters were watching this as if they were watching a magical show. William''s Troll was seen once by most of the masters when he used it before at the surface battle and hit the flying dragons.

    And yet this was totally different. The scale, magnitude, and ferocity of this Troll took the masters who were at the surface by surprise.

    When the attack started, William made sure to avoid the frontline. The first ces he hit were a few hundred of metres behind the frontline, ending up creating a weird gulf behind this frontline, erged by the explosions that erupted from his attack.

    Then the masters killed their foes in a short time, and all retreated. They didn''t need anyone to order them, and simply moved back, the moment they broke free from their enemies.

    "This behemoth of yours is indeed something," the king couldn''t help but express his admiration towards it, "I''m d I can control it¡­"

    "Don''t dream about having it," William interrupted the king, before pointing out towards Anjie, "I''ve made it for her."

    "That''s even better," the father looked at his daughter, and for the first time ever, he felt her future was in safe hands as long as William was on her side.

    "Gather everyone, we''ll go into thatst base and win this," the king turned around, spreading his orders, while William took back his Troll. The Troll killed tons of enemies, but there were still many more surviving the assault of the Troll.

    They might be huge in number, but they spread all over the ce, scattered. They weren''t united, and suffered lots of wounds thanks to the explosions that stemmed from the attacks of the Troll, and that made the task of taking them down quite easy.

    They weren''t the same enemies who stood like unmovable mountains in front of everyone before. In less than one hour, the entire surface belonged to the masters. And the early batches of vanguard teams got dispatched to the underground base.

    William joined the early batches, alongside all the high-end masters in the army. The holes the Troll created to the base were all wide, and the attacks left deeper holes at the base like ugly scars.

    The moment William jumped through one hole, alongside Fang, he found lots of enemies waiting for them down below.

    "They don''t get scared easily, are they really dark masters?" Fang asked, and William couldn''t help but give the old man next to him a weird nce.

    "Why are you following me?" William couldn''t help but ask, as it felt weird when Fang kept trailing him anywhere he went.

    "I want to keep you safe," Fang shrugged, "you know there are lots of high-end masters down there, right?"

    "..." William didn''t know why, but it felt like Fang grew a weird obsession with the Troll. The old man didn''t want to miss a chance and try this weapon. And William''s guesses were right.

    Fang found it hard to stay on the side, watching everyone else using the Troll and destroying the world around. It was something that he didn''t like, didn''t ept, and just wanted to try and convince William to let him y with that lethal toy.

    The hole William selected was in the outer area of the base. William selected it so he could simply explore the base, and look for his enemies fast.

    He didn''t want to get distracted by the fights with other dark masters. So he felt it weird to have Fang on his side, as he used to do such tasks solo.

    But what Fang said was indeed true. It was expected to meet lots of high-end enemies all across the base. So it wasn''t a bad idea to have someone like Fang by his side.

 Chapter 1147 Advancing Towards The Leaders

    Chapter 1147 Advancing Towards The Leaders

    To descend there, he used the help of Fang instead of thinking of a way to do it. The hole he selected, just like many others, opened directly at the base without a direct path down. Fang used a lightning technique to move the two of them to the ground. And the moment theynded, William didn''t hesitate to select a direction and started running towards it.

    Fang didn''t know how William selected this direction and hated such a selection that looked random in his eyes. William selected a ce that was filled with lots of dark masters, the densest ce ever.

    Yet before they''d approach there, they had to fight lots of weaklings, and the two simply crushed their path without much hindrance.

    During this, more masters arrived and started to sweep the ce fast. Many dark masters had to intervene and act and had to stop the iing masters at any cost. And that helped greatly decrease the numbers gathered at the direction William selected.

    William didn''t randomly select this direction. He knew the ce where most of the dark masters gathered was the right direction towards an exit from here. And that meant the leaders were behind all this lot.

    He took out everything, and luckily the enemies were too many to have lots of high-end masters to stop them. Anytime he''d meet up with a strong enemy, he''d simply throw him over to Fang, before taking a detour and circle around him. Fang might have suffered the most during the next three hours, but in the end, the arrival of more masters here helped alleviate tons of pressure on him and William. In the end, William finally passed through the dense enemies and found himself in front of a long and wide path, built in the middle of thickyers of rocks.

    The path wasn''t empty though, filled with enemies. And these ones weren''t weak or the average enemies the two met before.

    "It''s growing harder to pass through here, are you sure it''s worth it?" Fang was suffering from tons of pressure, while William tried to help him from behind. At this point, the two just crossed half a kilometre distance, and yet they didn''t feel they passed through anything yet!

    Enemies came from the front and back, making Fang deal with the front while William dealt with the rear enemies. The two tried to push enemies aside and run forward, but they failed to bring any difference. They ended up getting surrounded by tons of strong enemies, a thing that made William make a decision right there.

    "Screw it! I''ll leave you to handle everyone," William said something that left Fang speechless for a few seconds there. He even grew scared for a second. Yet when he spotted what William was doing, he couldn''t help butugh.

    "The formation again, hahaha! It''s time for the old me to show you how tyrannical the lightning god is, hahaha!"

    William knew he had two options here, either to retreat, or work with others until they''d clear everything. Yet this option would take a long time, and he''d risk the enemy leaders to run away.

    He didn''t know why they didn''t run so far, and yet he was sure they were still here. There was a sign for dark master leaders if they ran away, which was the chaos striking the lines of the dark masters.

    So he had the second option, which was to keep pushing forward. But the enemies were just too much to handle, too strong to crush. Even with Fang on his side, it wasn''t enough at all.

    So he had to use the lightning formation. William didn''t need to say anything to Fang, as thetter knew what to do. Fang started to use lots of deadly techniques, ones that had arge area of coverage, to push away as many enemies as he could, away from him and William.

    Thetter didn''t take long to make the formation, as he grew used toying these down after all this time. "I''ll depend on you," William said, "make sure to send long-range attacks to cover the rest of the path."

    "And you?!" Fang expected what William said, but didn''t expect him to take initiative and move in the middle of the scary lightning attacks he''d release.

    "I''ll survive, don''t worry about me," William didn''t stand in his ce, moving fast towards the dense enemies at the forefront.

    He didn''t take such a risk without much guarantee. He knew Fang would release a scary wave of lightning, but he had an advantage here.

    The moment he moved forward, he changed his form into one tail, using the lightning element to the fullest. The next thing he did was to cover up himself with a thickyer of lightning, one that was enough to shield any iing attack away.

    As he dashed forward, he looked as if he was a lightning ball himself. Then Fang''s attack started.

    The world around turned to be filled and formed out of lightning. To William, it was as if he was swimming in a sea of lightning. Fang tried to control his power, to not aim at William, yet it was a bit hard to do. Yet his little effort helped in relieving lots of pressure on William, and thetter just kept moving forward.

    The lightning around hit him, making him feel sting like pain. Yet it was something he could endure. At the same time, he made sure to gulp healing elixirs from time to time, in addition to spirit power regeneration elixirs.

    It looked insane, but he managed to pass through the thick veil of lightning like a whale in the ocean. Fang could only sigh when he spotted this and realised that most of the deadly attacks caused by the formation came originally from the enemies that had a darkness element.

    On top of that, William left a little of his blood and spirit power in the formation when he created it.

 Chapter 1148 The Mystic Art

    Chapter 1148 The Mystic Art

    This made the lightninging had his own power, not enough to severely wound him. But it was a different story for the enemies.

    The enemies who stood in front of them and blocked their path were now barbecued by Fang''s lightning. They couldn''t even defend themselves, lest they try and stop William.

    They tried to retreat, but Fang made sure to cover the entire path with lightning. William ran this time without getting any hindrance, ran for five minutes at his highest speed, and ended up at a big hall that looked a bit familiar.

    "This¡­" The ce was already bathed under Fang''s lightning, yet he could still see ck balls surrounding things inside. He could see hundreds of ck bubbles, all with statues inside. "You are here," William moved his eyes around, seemingly not surprised to see such arge gathering of these statues in one ce, "and that jerk is here as well. That''s cool, the party is full, hehe!"

    William saw the Transformers and saw the Nightmare monster in its mutant body. Heughed evilly, while not surprised even by their ability to stop Fang''s lightning.

    Lightning was the nemesis of any dark master or monster, but these were all unique and special beings. So it wasn''t surprising for them to have a trick to keep the lightning away.

    They were gushing out tons of their darkness element, forming a ball around them, one that''d keep the lightning away. And yet it wasn''t that easy for them to do this. Heughed, and they watched him with ring eyes. If eyes could kill, he''d have burnt to death millions of times already. "Come on, we have been enemies for a long time, long enough to be called mates, right?" heughed again, while taking out a few things, materials and bottles, even monster organs.

    "I can tell you are quite busy dealing with lightning, it''s nasty, right? I won''t act like a stranger, let me cook something for you, prepare the party," he started to walk around, dig holes, and ce many organs there. It was clear he was building a formation, one that wasplex as it even contained monster organs as well. He was doing something new, something he learnt about from the scrolls speaking about Mystic Arts.

    He was doing a lethal Mystic Art, one that wouldn''t just kill these, but turn them into something far worse!

    The scrolls he read weren''t just speaking about Mystic Arts to correct any faults done at the Fate and Destiny world. There were lots of arts that could cause significant damage to anyone''s fate and destiny.

    William already selected one nasty art to use, one that was suitable to be used over a group of enemies and worked best against those blessed by fate and destiny protection.

    He didn''t just want to kill them, he wanted to do something else, reaping benefits from them before they would die.

    "You are a coward!" The statues didn''t get what William was doing, but the Nightmare monster seemed to tell something from his actions.

    "You are indeed worthy to be that abomination''s clone," William scoffed, "but fret not, I n something different for you."

    "If you are a man, true man, then let''s fight!" the Nightmare monster roared fiercely, but it was already in a very tight situation. The lightning released from Fang was brutal, and it had to exert every ounce of strength it had to keep itself safe.

    "Says the one who turns from being a monster to a human being," William snorted, "don''t try and teach me how to be a human. I''ve been a human for many years, and you just joined my people for a few years only."

    "Fight me if you dare!"

    "Shut up!" William kept working on his formation, "can''t you see that I''m busy fighting you?" He buried another group of materials and added one monster organ before closing the hole.

    "You are a shame on humans¡­" The Nightmare monster never dropped its trash talk, something that made Williamugh most of the time.

    That monster was feeling the threating at it, and it wanted William to y against him using the old rules. But thetter knew this was just meaningless.

    He wanted to kill everyone here and entrap that Nightmare monster like how he was advised to do. It was just his lucky day to find all of them gathered here, without even trying to escape.

    He didn''t know why they were standing here in the first ce. It was clear they were watching everything happening, saw how he and Fang were heading their way, how tons of masters were killing their way towards here.

    And yet they never tried to escape. It was a true puzzle for William, but he didn''t bother to dig the truth out.

    They were here, lying like sitting ducks, and it was the perfect setting for this Mystic Art.

    This art wouldn''t kill them directly, but it''d deprive the protection granted by fate and destiny, and give it all to him. William knew how deadly Fate and Destiny world was, and he wanted to add moreyers of security over to himself.

    In addition to that, the effect of depriving anyone of such protection would leave him under a long period of weakness, and would make him suffer lots of setbacks. Their spirit power grade would decline, and their overall fighting prowess would decrease greatly, even losing much of their unique abilities.

    William nned to turn them into mediocre beings, weak and harmless, unable to even defend themselves. Like that, killing them wasn''t going to be an issue anymore. As for capturing that Nightmare monster, it was going to be an easy task.

    The main problem he had to solve was what to do with that monster. It was something he''d care aboutter on, not worry about it for now. And so he started to work over his Mystic Art, while everyone around tried to get what was going on from the Nightmare monster.

 Chapter 1149 Fang Is Startled And Puzzled

    Chapter 1149 Fang Is Startled And Puzzled

    Thetter exined what he got, telling them William was building something to affect their abilities, unique traits, special powers, and such using something that not many people could.

    He didn''t get exactly what William was doing, but from what he mentioned they got how terrifyingly scary that art was. They exerted more power, trying to push the lightning away, and merge their ck bubbles together, aiming to join hands.

    But dreaming about that and achieving any sess was an entirely different story. They resisted, and struggled, without achieving any of what they dreamt of.

    Lightning was their nemesis, and they couldn''t ovee it no matter how they tried!

    As Fang was watching, he couldn''t help but inwardly sigh. "Their luck is just bad! They faced William out of all people¡­ And that kid is just deadly when dealing with dark masters¡­"

    Fang could tell how William behaved against any of the dark masters. He didn''t see him act except in this war, but he still heard stories about him from others.

    William might look hard to deal with, but when facing dark masters, he''d be unstoppable. Fang didn''t know what he suffered to hold such grudges, and yet he was supporting every single action William did.

    No one lived dark masters or traitors, and tons of people suffered on their hands for centuries. It just felt great to see the young generation hold such enmity and determination against them. And it felt great to see William kicking their asses.

    Fang didn''t stop too much over this point. Instead, the nature of these enemies was what piqued his interest. All he could see was hundreds of statues, giant statues, which didn''t look alive, and yet they acted, spoke, and released spirit powers like they were alive!

    And in the middle of all this, there was a weird human, with a gem-like thing in the middle of his forehead. For a reason, he felt like William knew all of them, knew them for a long time, and he had lots of shes before with them.

    This was weird, totally weird. For someone like him, one who was one of the strongest three masters in the entire world, it felt weird to face an enemy he never saw before. And on top of that, there were two of them, not just one.

    "What''s going on? Howe he knows these and I don''t?"For the first time ever, Fang felt like he was a frog in the depths of a well, going out of there for the first time, seeing the grand world.

    Even when he met William, even when he guessed that William came from the outer world, a Reincarnator, he didn''t feel like this. At least he knew about that concept and was looking for people like William for a long time.

    Yet this time, he was seeing something that was totally new for him. And after suffering for all this time on their hands, he was sure they weren''t justmon enemies, but ones who were much stronger than elites.

    As he was puzzled, he watched and listened to the ongoing talk between William and the Nightmare monster. And that left him more puzzled than giving him any clues.

    First of all, if he was to select which of the two was the deadliest enemy here, he''d select the statues. They were giants, looked mysterious, and they were numerous. Yet William seemed to be fixated more on that Nightmare monster, speaking with him as if he were speaking with his deadliest enemy.

    At the same time, he heard the Mystic Art''s words more than once and heard the weird terms of Fate and Destiny world. These were all new to him, and he couldn''t help but wonder if what they were talking about was real or not.

    Yet soon enough, he''d see by his own eyes that all of this was real!

    "I will kill you¡­ I swear¡­"

    "Stop this nonsense," William stopped, cracking his neck right and left, as he just finished adding thest touches for his formation, "you are going to get barbecued by me right now. So sit tight, and enjoy it."

    William finished his words by taking a few organs out, scattering them around himself, before sitting cross-legged and starting to use the Mystic Art. The moment he used it, the world around changed, as he was brought into the Fate and Destiny world.

    From afar, Fang saw William''s body change. It started to shine in a myriad of lights before a bright golden star suddenly appeared from him.

    It appeared as if he was a star himself, a zing golden star. Soon enough, Fang felt an indescribable sense of danger, one that made him fear looking at William for a few minutes.

    He didn''t know how a youngster like him would wield such power, one that made him experience such fear. And yet he resisted such feelings and took a look at William from time to time.

    William didn''t show anything, except for that weird golden hue surrounding him. As for what he was experiencing, that was something that only William and his enemies would feel.

    The moment he entered the Fate and Destiny world, his wheel started to spin. There was a chain linking it to a faraway wheel, one that didn''t appear to him. And yet he could tell the connection with that golden star spirit was active, and he could draw power from it any moment he wanted.

    "I don''t need that," he didn''t try to do so as he didn''t need such a thing. Before he''d do anything, something started to sh from afar, then a second, then a third. Soon enough, the world around him kept shing with lots of shining little dots, and he knew what they were without the need to look.

    These were the wheels that were rted to his enemies, as they shone brighter from far, he saw wisps of lightsing from them. This was the Fate and Destiny world protection, luck, and everything special about them.

 Chapter 1150 They Are Untouchable!

    Chapter 1150 They Are Untouchable!

    This Mystic Art would allow him to take anything of worth from them, and add these up to himself. Right at this moment, he felt how scary these Mystic Arts were. Just one art was used, and all of his enemies lost tons of their powers and abilities. As for himself, he gained all of what they lost.

    He didn''t know how much he''d gain, or if any of this would reflect on the real world. But he was sure his enemies would look like babies in front of him when he finished.

    "This is taking longer than I expected¡­" At first, William thought such a process wouldn''t take longer than a few minutes. Yet he stayed there for a few hours, and these whispers were stilling towards him, "Shall I move and approach them or what?"

    He tried but felt like his wheel was fixed in its ce by a higher force. He sighed when he felt this, knowing there was no point in trying again.

    He had to wait until this process would be over, no matter how long it might take. His main concern was about the enemies back there. He knew his formation wouldst for three hours at most, and hoped for Fang toe and protect him.

    In fact, he didn''t need to worry at all. The moment he started his Mystic Art, his enemies lost the power to move around, just as he lost his ability to move. Even when Fang''s lightning attack stoppeding, nothing happened as the enemies kept standing in their ces, while the same golden hye kept surrounding them.

    William didn''t know that when he changed the fate and destiny of his enemies, the Golden Star spirit was taking its share of this loot as well. And that was in return for lending such help to him, keeping the enemies bound by the Mystic Art force.

    If William had done it alone, then things would have been much different. He was dealing with hundreds of enemies, all were quite special, and all got enough support from Fate and Destiny World to fight back.

    If he did it alone, he''d have ended up losing control over more than half of them. They wouldn''t just let him continue what he was doing, would have interfered, even at the cost of suffering great bacsh from the Fate and Destiny world.

    The end result would have been disastrous for him and them. That was why that golden spirit interfered, and that was why it was sharing the gains with William.

    Even if thetter knew about all this, he''d not object. He just wanted to weaken his enemies, and that gain was simply a bonus.

    The biggest gain William was looking for was the expected support he''d get to fate and destiny support. Even if there were such scary Mystic Arts out there that could evade the protection and directly impact his fate and destiny, he was still eager to strengthen his protection even further.

    After all, such scary arts weren''t thatmon and were quite rare actually. Out of the scrolls he read, and from the tons of arts he learnt of, only less than ten Mystic Arts existed that could do something without suffering the bacsh from this world.

    As he was strangled inside that world, Fang was feeling puzzled and confused. The lightning formation gave up itsst attack an hour ago. Then he feared what William feared.

    Yet after the absence of his lightning attacks, the enemies didn''t move a muscle. He thought they were feigning it, to make him leave before finishing off William. But then he tried to attack and kill them and ended up with absolute failure.

    "They are untouchable, unable to move¡­ What''s that weird technique he used? Is this an art? What does an art even mean?!!"

    Fang was getting more questions than answers. And yet he knew he had to ask William to rify all this, instead of squeezing his brain to find an impossible answer.

    "It''s better for me to go back and help¡­" he checked everything and everyone before deciding to head back. The enemies were fixed in their ces, unable to move a finger. They weren''t sleeping, weren''t immersed in the same world William was in. They kept watching Fang while moving their eyes left and right. And thetter knew this was the most hated fate he''d ever dreamed for his enemies to suffer.

    Standing right there and waiting for their fate to be decided by their sworn enemy? That was the hellish torment anyone would suffer ever in their lives.

    The battle back there was still bloody and brutal. The enemies were standing like tall mountains in front of the masters, trying their best to stop the inevitable.

    The king and other high-end masters knew this was going to end up in their favour. And so they started to care more about limiting the losses on their side, especially after Fang''s return.

    Thetter summed up what happened, telling them that William was sessfully dealing with the enemy leaders without any need for help from anyone. They just had to focus on thest stretch of enemies here, kill everyone, and wait for his return.

    The king and others wanted to know more details, but Fang was clear that William used something he didn''t even get. When he mentioned the words of Mystic Arts, Sloth instantly recognised this, alongside Anjie and other masters who joined the Fox guild.

    Anjie was about to exin things, but Sloth was a half-beat faster than her. Then she realised that Sloth didn''t get much about this mysterious world, didn''t get what they did over there, or how mystical that world was.

    In the end, she decided to keep her mouth shut. If William wanted to tell the world about that, he''d do it himself. As for others, they got a glimpse of what Mystic Arts meant, yet they didn''t fully grasp the entire meaning and value of that ce.

 Chapter 1151 Safety First

    Chapter 1151 Safety First

    Even Fang and Sloth didn''t get it either. Yet the former could now get why the enemies back there were terrified. A world of fate and destiny, with the power to change things beyond one''s recognition or dreams? That was wild!

    Thinking about all this made him crave to learn more. He didn''t like the feeling of not getting what was going on, for having something in the world that he didn''t understand or even experienced before.

    "This kid¡­ He is indeed worthy to be followed," Fang inwardly muttered to himself, while his earlier decision to follow William strengthened at this moment.

    As the high-end masters of the army got to know how this war was going to end, nothing surprising happened. They led thest stage of the war in a very calm way, learning to take down the stronger forces of the enemy first while taking out lots of enemies in the least stressful way.

    They arranged their lines, made teams of masters, and started to deploy arrays in the battle. It might have slowed down their killing speed, but this way made it hard for the enemies to kill lots of them in return.

    Safety first, was what went into the king''s and other high-end masters'' minds at these moments.

    Everyone started to slowly clear the enemies, while Anjie didn''t find much to do. "Let''s do what he''d instruct us to do at such times¡­ Let''s collect the loot," out of the blue, and as she didn''t have anything to do, she ordered the newly joined masters in the guild to do the trending feature of the Fox guild.

    No matter when, no matter where, they''d ce collecting rings, gears, and monster materials above anything else!

    Masters around got used to such actions from the Fox guild, yet the father couldn''t help but inwardly sigh when he saw what his daughter was doing.

    "That William¡­ What the hell was he teaching her?" The king couldn''t help but mutter in annoyance, feeling that his daughter was doing something low and not worthy of her image as the next queen of the kingdom.

    Yet he had nothing to do right now. Even if the situation was under their control, it wasn''t easy or safe yet. He had to pour all of his attention into running the ongoing battles, making sure his kingdom wouldn''t lose many of the masters belonging to it.

    In the middle of all this, William was immersed in the Mystic Art he was using. The suction of the potential and special abilities of every single one of his enemies took a long time, and it processed slowly.

    This wasn''t because the art was slow in the first ce, but because he was targeting hundreds of enemies, all with great potential, and strong protection from the Fate and Destiny world. So it was expected for such a process to take an entire week.

    He could feel it, the more he absorbed, the more he felt his wheel getting thicker and stronger, seemingly a sign for the protection of this special world to get intensified and strengthened. At the end of the week, his wheel wasn''t anything like before.

    It was now like it was made out of mountainous rocks, sturdy, thick, and massive. It expanded in size to cover up almost ten times what it was before and got thickened more than thirty times than before. And he got smaller wheels formed underneath him, making it look like it was a giant tower of wheels.

    He didn''t have time to inspect the final look out of his wheel. The moment that art finished, he felt a strong force pushing him out of that world. He didn''t get why and had zero control over this.

    He didn''t know that what he was was just the tip of the iceberg. His wheel changed, his fate and destiny changed, and the world needed to synchronise the new changes. So he had to leave.

    When he appeared in the real world, all he could see was bright zing golden light, surrounding him, surrounding everyone, filling the entire space he was in.

    It felt like he was drowning in the golden sea or something. "You¡­ You got benefits from me?" William took a second to get what was going on, slowly and deeply said in a slow manner.

    "This is something unexpected, a gain I never foresawing from someone like you. Thanks for the good meal, I truly loved it!"

    The voice of that spirit rang in his head, amidst wildughs. William knew he had no say in this, and it seemed the luck of that spirit was great to gain such a huge harvest.

    Even if he knew his gains were halved, he didn''tin or even get mad. Life taught him that nothing was without a price, and what he gained was something truly special and priceless. That meant he had to pay a price, and sharing what he gained with that spirit seemed the most inexpensive price he had to pay ever.

    "Scram," William noticed that the golden hye receded and was fading away, "make sure to remember this, I helped you, and you''ll have to help me¡­"

    "Or what? It''s not as if you made the call for this¡­"

    "Next time, I''ll make sure you won''t sniff anything from me then," William shrugged, "I''m the one who made you gain ess to that world and such gains in the first ce, and I can cut that off next time if I wanted to."

    The spirit went into silence, a long one this time. It couldn''t tell if William was bluffing or speaking the truth. To Tell the truth, this spirit was hungry for that world. It never gained ess there before its connection with William, and it couldn''t dream of gaining such a good harvest.

    As it was unable to make up its mind fast, the golden aura around William got weaker and smaller, shrinking until it covered just a few metres around him.

 Chapter 1152 Your Words Held No Weight Here

    Chapter 1152 Your Words Held No Weight Here

    It was this close to vanishing, and soon William heard the voice of the spirit, deep and slow, as if it didn''t want to give out such a promise.

    "Deal! You have my word, I''ll step up to help you once, in return for such help."

    "That''s good," William evilly smirked, as he was indeed bluffing. He didn''t have a way right now to cut the connection between him and that spirit. Yet luckily for him, the spirit didn''t know anything about that connection, didn''t know it wasn''t something that could get severed or changed.

    As the spirit said itsst piece, it vanished. And yet William knew how to find it. It was inside his spirits, and it was expected for it to appear every single time he went to visit the Fate and Destiny world.

    "Now¡­ What shall I do with you?" As he finished dealing with the spirit, he turned around, and looked at his enemies, "who wants to die first? Who wants to serve me and live for a bit longer?"

    He wanted to kill all of them, but he had to keep that Nightmare monster alive. If he was going to do this, it was okay to offer others such a promise.

    If they wanted, they could offer service to him. He didn''t intend to keep such treacherous beings by his side, and he didn''t need their help. But speaking about the masters in this world, things were different.

    These weren''t just your normal day dark masters, not even close to the level of the dark master leaders. They were quite special. They lived for hundreds, even thousands of years, witnessed tons of stuff, and got ears and eyes everywhere.

    William wouldn''t find it weird for them to know secrets about the grand apocalypseing in the near future, and they would know tons of stuff about dark masters and monsters.

    If they were willing, then leaving a few behind for the humans to learn real stuff and reliable secrets about their enemies would be a great help. In fact, it would be a historical moment, where humans would have the chance to see through their enemies for the first time ever and know tons of valuable stuff about them.

    "Screw you!"

    "Who said you can even touch us?"

    "You are an ant! You¡­"

    Just before the few who spoke early on and were rash to express their hatred could finish their words, William acted.

    He simply took out his weapons, and transformed into his four-tailed version, before he started to act.

    He dashed, right and left, and didn''t even stack a single attack over his tails. He simply dashed one time, and hit the target with his weapons, before turning around and hitting another. In a sh, he hit dozens of these statues, and in the second moment, they all started to break apart, showing cracks all over their bodies, before finally falling down.

    They were hard to destroy, and that was in case someone like the Nightmare monster tried to hit them. But now, with a single attack from William, they looked like mere toys in front of him.

    They didn''t get it yet, they didn''t just lose simple things, they lost most of their powers. As they gained most of their current strength using the special elements and affinities they got, they lost a lot when they got deprived of these special things.

    William didn''t yet know how much he gained from them, but he knew with his former strength, taking them down wasn''t going to be an issue.

    Seeing theirrades get crushed in such a way made everyone shocked and scared. They never expected a human-like William, a teenager, to wield such strength.

    To take one of them down, one had to use an army to do so. Even high-end human masters would find it quite challenging to bring a single statue down. That was mainly thanks to their almost indestructible bodies.

    Even if they couldn''t do much on their own, they could use the help of their minions to do their tasks. And even if they were taken by surprise, like how William did to them here, they weren''t that worried as they had the ability to call forth endless hordes of enemies to take down anyone like William.

    But all of this changed the moment William used his Mystic Art. Even if they wanted, they couldn''t fight him, even if they united forces together.

    As for calling reinforcements here, this was going to take a long time. They already started doing this and were waiting for these minions to show up.

    They thought they had enough time for that. Even with the threatening words from the Nightmare monster, the big statues were sure they could escape, only thinking about how many others they could bring with them, and which ones to leave behind.

    Yet all this shattered the moment William used this Mystic Art. They never expected that, as no one ever knew about the existence of the Fate and Destiny world before.

    Seeing other statues get smashed by William jolted them awake to the bitter truth. They lost, and it seemed they got no way out of here, except by following William.

    "Sure, why not?" one of the statues who had a high status in the entiremunity suddenly said, "From now on, we are going to follow you¡­"

    "That won''t work by words," William instantly interrupted that statue. He didn''t need to have a mind-reading ability to know what was inside that statue''s head, "you are going to do something with me, something to make sure you won''t betray me under any condition."

    "What? Do you want us to take an oath?" another statue said, while his tone was filled with mockery, "Sure, let''s take an oath, raise your hands everyone, and let''s hail our new king¡­"

    "Funny," William snorted, "you are going to perform a Mystic Art with me, something that will bind you with me on a higher level of power that you can''t trespass."

 Chapter 1153 This Is Going One Way, My Way!

    Chapter 1153 This Is Going One Way, My Way!

    His wordsnded, and the entire ce ushered under heavy silence. If any of them heard these words before, they''d haveughed at him. But now, after seeing how scary these Mystic Arts were, it was understandable for them to get shocked and terrified.

    They knew William wasn''t bluffing, wasn''t joking around, or fooling either. He knew what he was doing, and held the upper hand by delving into a turf unknown to them, and yet could impact all of their lives.

    William did indeed have such Mystic Art, one that could be described as a contract on a higher level. It was something that''d ce one''s fate and destiny into others'' hands. It meant if they tried to think evilly about him, or the human masters, tried to fake wrong answers to any questions, provided false support and intel, or even tried to work behind the curtains and scheme, they''d get a severe form of bacsh from that world.

    It was the safest approach William thought of to handle the Nightmare monster. He always thought it was impossible to tame such a monster and force a sworn enemy to act docile and follow his instructions without any risks.

    But when he read through the scrolls back then, he got to learn of a way to do it. Yet it required the full cooperation from the target for it to work, or else the art wouldn''t pass.

    That was why he needed to weaken them first, make them on the verge of dying on his hands at any given moment. Like this, even if few tried to act smart, and agree on the surface but would renege on their promises when he''d perform the art, then he''d simply go back and kill them right on the spot.

    Luckily for him, there were hundreds of these statues here, and that meant there were hundreds of examples he could make to warn others to follow him.

    Losing tens or even a hundred or two from these statues wasn''t a problem. And he was sure the highest in status, the ones leading all of these statues, wouldn''t risk it at first, and would let others try everything out first with him.

    If there was no other alternative, then they''d all agree and ept working for him. And that would leave behind the cream of the crop, the most important statues in this lot.

    "What? Did you think I''m naive to ept your empty words and worthless promises?" William couldn''t help butugh, "This is going one way, my way. So, who is willing to ept this Mystic Art with me?"

    "As if we have a choice in that," the wolf statue suddenly said, making everyone look at it, "let''s do it. He will start¡­"

    "Not right away," Williamughed, "let''s wait until the useless war out there is over. They are almost close to finishing."

    "You¡­" the wolf statue''s simple scheme was easily seen through by William. The former wanted William to do what he did before, use a Mystic Art, and then they''d find a way to get rid of him.

    It was a naive scheme indeed, as William wasn''t that rash to begin this anytime soon. Even if he felt there were reinforcementsing here in the future, he wasn''t worried. No matter who came, the masters behind were able to crush anything. Not to mention he nned to remove the leaders of this army before it''d arrive, by either forcing these statues to work for him or killing those who refused.

    "I don''t want to follow you, kill me now!" all the statues remained silent, watching William vigntly while praying inside their reinforcements would arrive sooner thanter, the Nightmare monster suddenly said.

    "As if you got the choice in the first ce," William rolled his eyes, "even if I have to beat you up, break all of your limbs, you are going to follow me in the end."

    "I prefer to die¡­"

    *Fwoosh!* William didn''t like using words to convince this monster, especially considering how deep hatred he had for it and the fox monster it came out from.

    So instead of continuing this useless debate, he showed that monster, showed everyone here, the hellish fate any would suffer if they dared to object again.

    He didn''t use his weapons, didn''t use his techniques, simply used his tails as fists, and mmed heavily at that monster. The monster tried to resist, fight back, but all was futile.

    Its power greatly decreased, falling from the high-stage dark gold grade down to being a mere silver grade. On top of that, the ability it got to use clones was gone, and its spirit elements weren''t there anymore.

    All it could do was roar in pain and scream with every single hit Williamunched at it. It started to suffer wounds, and his body looked ragged at the end.

    "I hope you are quite satisfied with my mercy," William ended this misery with such words thatnded like boiling oil over the monster, over the statues. He simply moved, rubbing his tails, as if he was cleaning himself of dust or filth.

    "I will kill you, one day I will¡­ I swear¡­"

    "Shut up and stand straight like a man," William didn''t know why, but beating this dude felt just great. He got beaten before, even killed, in the hands of the parent of this monster. And today, it felt like he was giving back part of what he suffered back then.

    To add more irony, he was a human back then, and the fox monster rampaged his body with its tails. And today, he rampaged that monster with his tails, hitting it while being in human form.

    How ironic indeed!

    William returned to stand where he was initially and looked around at everyone without saying a single word. Everyone here didn''t speak, only took nces at the current miserable status of the Nightmare monster.

    Thetter knew how truly weakened he was right now. He couldn''t heal his wounds properly and took some time to even stand straight.

 Chapter 1154 Just Refuse

    <h4>Chapter 1154 Just Refuse</h4>

    It red at William, but this time it didn''t open its mouth or say anything. It wished it could kill William, but it knew right now it was impossible to do this.

    It looked at William, and thetter looked back at it. To William, he only and truly cared about this monster. As for the statues, they were just coteral bonuses.

    As William expected, the fight back there didn''t take longer than three days to finish. In fact, the king and masters out there could have cleared the enemies much sooner if they wanted, but William agreed with their approach.

    "You did indeed tame them, hahaha," Sloth, Fang, the king, and all the high-end masters were the first ones toe to William. They were able to see everything using their spirit sense and knew William was holding all of the enemy leaders back alone.

    It was remarkable! And even if they didn''t truly get what William did, or what the Mystic Arts meant, they knew these enemies were unable to do anything right now.

    "I''m d you are here," William didn''t respond to theirplimentary words and instantly jumped straight to business, "I need you to keep an eye on them. I weakened them already, it won''t be a problem to take care of and kill if they try anything funny¡­"

    "Wait¡­ Aren''t we going to kill them now?!!" The king and others were speechless the moment they heard and got what William inclined by his words. So the king couldn''t help but bellow out on William''s face, interrupting thetter.

    "I know this may sound crazy, but I have a way to let them fully obey us¡­"

    "For what?" Sloth and others exchanged looks, while Fang shouted, questioning himself about William, "A good enemy is a dead enemy, that''s the thumb rule in life, for everyone, in every case!"

    "I know," William was totally focused on thinking about how to do it, more than thinking about their reaction to any of that, "but I can turn them to our side¡­"

    "For what? For what gain?" Sloth was the next to speak, "You know they are our enemies, our deadliest enemies!"

    "We need them!" William got fed up with others screaming in his face, "They are the enemy, and that makes them very valuable! Aren''t you tired of walking in the dark, fighting an enemy that we literally know little about? They will be our gate, the source of tons of extremely important intel. We won''t fight the enemies on their terms anymore, we''ll do it our way from now onwards!"

    William''s words left everyone speechless for a few minutes before the king said what everyone had in mind:

    "That''s a great reason and aspiration, but you need to first be sure they won''t betray or backstab us. Who knows, they may even lie on every single piece of intel they''ll give to us!"

    "That''s why I''m going to do it using my way," William didn''t get fazed or moved by what the king said, "I just need your help. Until I do it, they can still fight back and cause trouble. So make sure any troublemaker is put in their ces, under dirt."

    William didn''t stop anymore to speak with them. He knew they had tons of unanswered questions, and he had no patience to exin or give any answers.

    He waited for them for days and wanted to get rid of this problem. Not to mention using the art over every one of them was time-consuming, and he still didn''t know if he''d suffer anything in return.

    There were hundreds of these statues here, and that wasn''t a simple number. "You, get ready," William pointed towards the Nightmare monster.

    He did all this to get this dude, and he didn''t want to risk losing more time, for any enemy to appear out of nowhere. So he picked it first, and the Nightmare monster was still feeling hesitant about all of this.

    "I won''t do it¡­ I won''t follow you as a servant¡­"

    *Blop!*

    The next instant, William shed, moved, and attacked, hit that monster in many ces, and broke its arms and limbs again.

    "Stay down there and reflect," William had no other choice but to do this. Thest enemy here he''d want to kill would be this monster. So he decided to keep it lying down for now, and selected one of the statues, "you, get ready, once I''ve started, you''ll hear a calling, and answer with approval, or else¡­"

    William simply moved one of his tails, to cross his long and cylindrical neck in a threatening move. He didn''t forget to point with other tails toward the directions where other statues got demolished and crushed by him.

    The statue picked by William wished it didn''t join this group ever in his life. Yet there was no value or benefit in regret, and all it could do was silently watch while weighing in its mind the odds, risks, and benefits of William''s offer.

    Like others, the statue got the offer though the first thing about rejecting William. But soon when he recalled how brutal he dealt with everyone who rejected him before, killing all, with only that monster as the sole exception, then the mere thought of rejecting William was negated at once.

    The statue had only one choice, one path to follow, the same as others. Refusal meant death. They couldn''t hold a candle in front of William, and now there were lots of others on his side, not looking any weaker than him.

    [Just do it and refuse] just before William would finishying down the organs and materials needed for this Mystic Art around the statue, it heard a voice ranging in its head, [We''ll handle others here, create chaos for us to escape. Juste back as fast as you can, got it?]

    [Yes, wolf boss] The statue William selected wasn''t of a high standard in themunity of statues here, and the one that spoke to it was the wolf statue, their current leader.

 Chapter 1155 A Spirit Level Connection

    <h4>Chapter 1155 A Spirit Level Connection</h4>

    The statue totally believed his boss, never imagined it was a trap, and it fell directly into it.

    William finishedying down everything, and then started to use the Mystic Art. The moment he did, he and the statue appeared in the Fate and Destiny world.

    "This is new¡­" The moment William arrived there he found out something new there. The world was filled with fog like before, and it had weird buildings.

    They looked like small two-floor buildings, with dome-shaped tops, and seemingly simr to each other. All of these buildings were white in colour, shining bright in a linear fashion, showing off the blocks that built them.

    William could see a grand gathering of these buildings, stretching to the end of his eyesight. The buildings went everywhere as if he was standing in the middle of a giant space.

    This was the first time for he to see this. And before he''d check anything, the statue appeared. It was still huge in size, but it wasn''t that huge anymorepared to the buildings around.

    "You got a building, and I also have one¡­" William noticed that the moment this statue appeared, it came on top of a dome, standing on top of a building.

    And that building shone in a different colour, while he noticed he was standing on top of another building, one that started to shine in the same colour as that statue.

    This was a pale golden colour, and William tried but he couldn''t control any of this. The two buildings shone, while others looked like they were in a dormant stage.

    "Where is this? What happened?" The statue got scared the moment it appeared here. But it regained its calm the moment it recalled the words of the wolf statue, alongside what William said.

    "We are going to initiate a deal with the two of us," William paused before he muttered something, the mantra for the Mystic Art he was using, "Get ready, you''ll need to ept this¡­"

    "I don''t!" out of the blue, the statue bellowed like this. The moment William said the incantation of the Mystic Art, a sort of rope came out from the building, moving towards the other building that the statue stood on top of.

    But the moment the statue issued his rejection, the rope seemed like it bounced off the building. William heard a soft cry as if something was regretting the failure of the rope. Then the rope itself broke into many butterflies of golden specks of light, before William felt an irresistible rejection force, pushing him and that statue out from this space.

    "Cough! Cough!" The moment William returned back, he felt terrible! He coughed blood, leant on four, and couldn''t take his breaths regrly.

    "It''s great I asked for their help¡­" William didn''t take more than a few seconds to control himself. It wasn''t the first time he suffered a bacsh, and this one wasn''t that severe to begin with.

    In a few seconds, he felt a lot better. And then he turned his eyes, looking in a cold way towards the statue, "You are a dead piece of rocks¡­" he said it as if he was issuing the death sentence to that statue.

    Thetter was scared and shocked the moment it got back. It felt terrible, just like how William felt. And yet that wasn''t what baffled it.

    It did what the fox statue ordered, and it totally trusted the words of its leader. And yet, instead of finding a bloodbath here, it found everything looking normal. There wasn''t a single difference here, nothing changed. And it realised it got yed by the wolf statue.

    "You¡­"

    "Die!"

    William didn''t give the statue any room to continue its words. He didn''t need to even ask, as he knew this was all the doing of the wolf statue.

    The moment he could move, he shed and smashed that statue using his tails. The statue was already weakened, and now it was much weaker thanks to the bacsh.

    Unlike him, this bacsh was more severe over the statue. And with one hit, it broke down into lots of small pieces of stone.

    "Try to f*ck with me, and I''ll f*ck you back," William turned to everyone around, said it in a vicious and brutal way that left everyone silenced, "You, it''s your turn, get ready and make up your mind away from anyone else. After all, it''s your life that you are bidding with here¡­"

    William didn''t give the poor statue any time to consider anything. He instantly started working again, taking out stored monster organs and getting them in the right spots.

    As it happened before, the wolf statuemunicated with the selected one. Yet this statue wasn''t the loyal type, wasn''t like the first one William picked.

    "ept the offer, or you''ll perish," back at the Fate and Destiny world, William said in his piece, before muttering the incantations for the Mystic Art.

    The rope appeared, and this time it didn''t rebound. It extended fast towards the statue''s building before it started to get thicker.

    "A bridge?" William could tell the rope turning into a thick bridge, linking the two buildings together. This was all novel to him, didn''t get what it meant, or if he should do anything else or not.

    The Mystic Art scroll just mentioned this, and didn''t add any details about anything else aside from the use and incantation used. In one hour, the rope that wasn''t thicker than an adult''s arm changed, and became a bridge that spanned for tens of metres.

    Then William felt it. It was like a door was unlocked inside his spirit, and some sort of connection was established there. "Wow! It works on a spirit level¡­ That''s why they said no matter who, the moment this Mystic Art got used, no one can betray me¡­"

    He didn''t totally get the effects of such Mystic Art, but at least he felt a connection with that statue''s spirit. He could severe it if he wanted, and he got the feeling that if he did so the statue would suffer a deadly bacsh and die.

 Chapter 1156 Never Showing Mercy

    <h4>Chapter 1156 Never Showing Mercy</h4>

    "It''s cool, you did great," William said in praise of that statue, "at least you didn''t listen to that jerk."

    "You knew?" the statue was surprised by this, and William evilly smirked.

    "It wants to learn if there is a weak spot in my way, and unfortunately for it, there is none," Williamughed, "all that''ll happen in the end is for more statues to get destroyed and wrecked by me. Anyway, it''s time to go back."

    It wasn''t William''s will, but he felt the world starting to reject him. It wasn''t the same as the fierce rejection force he felt before, as this one was quite nice and soft.

    He went back to the real world, and this time he didn''t feel any pain or exhaustion, no bacsh at all. Everything went smoothly this time, and a few more times next.

    William made sure to invite the fox monster every single time he ended up dealing with a statue. That monster was stubborn, and that made it suffer more beating from William.

    After doing this dozens of times, the monster''s face was all red and swollen, while all of its four limbs were broken. It was now lying on the ground, unable to move, while others could only watch it andment its bad luck and foolishness.

    It was clear how brutal William was. Any statue that dared to reject the offer ended up getting destroyed under his tails. William didn''t show mercy and never gave anyone a second chance. All he did was just lead others into the Fate and Destiny world, and then deal with the consequences.

    Out of ten statues, three would act rogue and refuse to ept the deal. William killed these without batting an eye while leaving the big names for thest on purpose.

    He kept beating the Nightmare monster until it turned into a meat pie. Eventually, the number of statues rejecting his offer reduced to be one in every ten statues.

    The statues couldn''t do anything with the presence of all these masters. It wasn''t just the leaders of this army, but tons of normal masters flooded this ce and were ready to intervene.

    [Our only hope lies in the iing reinforcements, any news?]

    [They are still dealing with the gate issue, and need more time¡­]

    [We need to buy them time then, any ideas?]

    The leaders of the statues didn''t stop speaking among themselves. They went through all the possibilities and suggestions, ending up with literally nothing of value.

    Trying to debate with William, speak, and argue didn''t work. The man was fixed on activating the Mystic Art every single time he finished with thest one. And their attempts to start any debate, negotiate, or speak about anything ended up in failure.

    And they couldn''t cause any trouble here. The number of masters was simply overbearing. And they were weakened, unable to hold a candle to any of them.

    They tried to instigate other statues to cause trouble, speak up with William at the Fate and Destiny world, and try to waste some time. But they either didn''t listen, or they tried and failed.

    William was sure reinforcements were on their way here. Staying behind and waiting for them to arrive was the dumbest option he''d do in such a situation.

    The best way was to get done from all this, then move back and leave this ce with everyone. He didn''t get where the exit portal was, and the attempts to find it by masters didn''t yield any results.

    It sounded as if there wasn''t a single gate here, something that didn''t make sense to him.

    "I''m sure one of you knows the right way out of here," he thought to himself while eyeing the ten leaders of the statues. After two days, he finished dealing with all of the statues, except these ten. In addition to them, the miserable Nightmare monster was still left behind.

    William stopped asking it anymore, simply came back, and then gave this monster a hellish beating. After some time, the Nightmare monster stopped cursing, didn''t heal itself as it was futile, and pleaded for mercy.

    "Please, kill me, end this, kill me, and get rid of my presence¡­"

    "Shut up!" William''s response was always the same, shouting to silence that pathetic monster, then giving it a proper beating. He made sure to not hit it at any ce that might kill it. After all, this monster wasn''t the same as before and was greatly weakened.

    "It''s your turn now," William already asked many of the statues he made a deal with about the location of the main exit gate from here, but none gave any useful answer.

    They knew such a gate existed, but didn''t know where it was, or how to activate it. They all shared the same answer, stating that the ten leaders knew such an answer. And that made William quite curious about where this gate was.

    The masters were sent everywhere, searching the entire area up and down. The ce was already vast, but it went without saying that the gate wasn''t that far away from here.

    An escape route must be close, and easily essible by the statues. Or else, it wouldn''t be marked as a safe exit path.

    "You, get ready, I''ll start with you," William gave them enough time to know it was a futile endeavour to mess with him or think about rejecting his offer. He selected the wolf right from the start, the one whom he met the first back at the Scorching Lands fort before, the main leader of all the Transformers.

    William decided to go with it, so if it tried to act funny, killing it would scare the rest. And if it was smart enough, it''d agree and ept the offer, ending up following William.

    "Hmph! As if we have any choice in that!"

    "As if you deserve such a choice in the first ce," William snorted back, before starting to prepare the materials and organs needed for this Mystic Art.

 Chapter 1157 Nice Try!

    <h4>Chapter 1157 Nice Try!</h4>

    And then he and that statue appeared in the Fate and Destiny world.

    "Wait, I want to speak with you about something¡­"

    "Hush! You want to waste time, so stop it," William was about to mutter the incantations of the Mystic Art when the statue suddenly said:

    "Don''t you want to know news about the interworld links? Gates linking here with the outer world? Won''t you need to learn about something like that?"

    The moment it said these words, and William paused for a few seconds there. "That''s why I''m forcing all of you to sign this deal with me. With my art, you won''t be able to hide anything off me¡­"

    "That''s in case we know anything about that in the first ce," the statueughed, interrupting William''s words, "don''t take me wrong. We do know tons of valuable secrets. But do you think we''ll let you gain ess to that for free? Are you aware of the presence of mind wiping techniques?"

    "Mind Wiping techniques require a very rare Brain Wave element, something that''s considered a myth¡­"

    "Not for us," the statue snorted, "or how do you think we convinced all of them to follow us unconditionally? We have someone who has this ability, and it''s ready to wipe all of our memories if you continue to do this."

    "You¡­" William dropped what he intended to do, and instantly focused on that statue, "if you can do it, you should have done it before¡­"

    "We can do it anytime we want, but as you can imagine, it''ll require a hefty price to pay¡­ We can''t erase selected memories, and that means once used, we''ll turn into brainless pieces of rocks¡­"

    "You already are," William evilly snorted, "and don''t you think you are just bluffing too high about it?"

    "We can try this out then," the statue paused, arranging its thoughts, as it knew this was the only andst chance it got to free itself from such miserable fate, "we can go back, and I''ll demonstrate things over. I''ll make my buddie erase memories of one statue, and you''ll see by yourself how he''ll turn into a dummy, nothing worthy at all."

    "Hmm¡­ Sure we can do that, but what tells me that dude of yours can''t do it again? Like it needs to pay a price for using such an ability?"

    "Come on, we controlled an endless number of people and monsters, do you think such ability has limits?" the wolf snorted, "if you want, I can let him erase the memories of everyone you gained, everyone around, all the masters on your side, how does it feel?"

    William didn''t feel intimidated by what the wolf statue threatened with. In fact, it made him curious, "if you have such power, why didn''t you do it before? Against me?"

    And when William asked this, the statue couldn''t answer.

    "Let me give you a hypothesis," William suddenly showed an evil expression on his face, "like my art here, your man can''t force and wipe anyone''s memory without getting their consent or approval to let him in. or else, with such ability, you should have dominated the world a long time ago."

    "F*ck you!" The wolf statue couldn''t control himself, as William''s words were right on the spot, "at least we will wipe everyone''s memories, including myself¡­"

    "No, you got it wrong," Williamughed, "you missed your chance in doing so. Right now, you all belong to me. I''ll make sure to give you all the order to not follow that man''s orders, or anyone''s order to do anything bad to me or your memories and precious intel. So let me see how you''ll do it then."

    William didn''t know how this wolf statue thought of this n, exposing such a secret in such a way made it impossible for that statue to do its magic.

    If it was him, he''d have wiped everyone''s memories first, left only himself to bargain with. But it felt like that wolf statue underestimated him, greatly taking him lightly or something.

    It was the single w in such a tight spot and good n, and William was just very grateful that the statue made such a mistake.

    "Now, will you lower your stoney head to me, or not?" As he got through this mine trap, William returned to do his business. His wordsnded, and the statue didn''t say anything.

    The rope appeared, and like how William expected, that wolf didn''t reject the offer. Yet the moment they all returned back, he made sure to give the order clearly to everyone to not listen to anyone else, to specifically not listen to any memory wipe out offer from anyone.

    Then he did the same, beat the Nightmare monster, before heading to deal with another statue. The leaders fell down one by one, and in just one hour, the ten of them were now following him.

    "And now, it''s all down to you," William paused his eyes over the miserably looking monster before shifting his eyes around, "but before that, I want answers to two questions first, when and where?"

    "..."

    His words didn''t get any answer, and soon he started to exin what he wanted to ask about. He wanted to know where the portal leading out from here was, and when the reinforcements wereing.

    "We don''t know when they''lle," one of the ten statues spoke up, against what other masters here thought, "but they won''t take long to arrive, perhaps in a day or so."

    Masters who stood here and watched the show didn''t get truly how fearsome William''s art was. They thought no one could link and force anyone to obey him, but it seemed like William had a way to do it.

    "And the portal?" William didn''t find it weird for the enemy''sing date to be this near. Yet he felt from the tone of that statue that it was toote to think about running away.

    "Well¡­" the statue that spoke, the one with a cow head, looked in one direction. It wasn''t only it, but everyone from the leader''s circle looked in one direction, the wolf statue.

 Chapter 1158 A Big Secret Revealed

    <h4>Chapter 1158 A Big Secret Revealed</h4>

    "Come on, spill the beans," William snorted, "or else you''ll suffer a huge bacsh."

    "If I suffer from it, then you won''t get to know the answer, right?"

    "Still dreaming of resisting," William slowly shook his head, "don''t you get it? You have no other option or way around it. Just give up, and tell me what I want, and keep your head on your shoulders."

    "I''d prefer to die with the secret, instead of just serving you!"

    "Tsk!" William shook his head, "why do you always try things the difficult way? Ok, watch me then¡­"

    William knew that statue meant to challenge his authority. It wasn''t just about this point, but what if it started a trend among others?

    And so killing it was going to be the final solution, yet he still needed to know the answer to his question before killing that wolf statue.

    "I know you have a way to breed more of your kin, so tell me, how did you do it? Where are these breeding grounds?" William turned his full attention towards other statues. He didn''t care whom to speak to, whom to answer, because the answer was known to many, if not all.

    It wasn''t a secret, as all of them either were indulged in making new Transformers, or got born and raised at one of these secret locations.

    The moment he said his words, an eerie silence prevailed over the ce. William moved his eyes around, as if he was asking: anyone?

    *Blop!*

    Just in the next second, three statues cracked into fine rocks and rubbles, and fell to the ground in pieces. This sight gave an instant shock towards the rest, while William slowly said, with a voice that sounded like it came from the depths of hell:

    "I''m not asking nicely, not even asking at all. This is an order, refuse toply, and I won''t hesitate to kill all of you."

    William knew this was the first test of his new authority over them. It was hard for others to imagine how this Mystic Art worked, so he needed to demonstrate first, speak second. And as he expected, the statues started to act and respond third!

    William listened, and soon enough, a great detailed intel was gained, enough to even draw a very detailed map of the entire continent, with tons of ces marked as breeding sites.

    It wasn''t only that, he also gained insights about how they managed to do it in the first ce, how they managed to breed such arge number of statues over a short time.

    "You were using human blood to nourish your newly formed statues?!!" William looked at everyone around, at the king and others, "howe tons of people went missing without anyone noticing it?"

    "I¡­ I can''t say it''s easy to notice that," the king felt like William was ming him. And that was indeed true. From the words he and others listened to just now, they all knew these statues killed millions of people over the past century alone. It was scary to hear that, but it felt true as many said the same thing.

    "We used tounch monster tides over ces crowded with humans, so it''s expected no one ever heard about this," one of the leaders said, "we were very cautious to not rm the humans, or else they might investigate what''s going on and discover what we were doing."

    "In fact, I heard you got into one of our monster tides, the one weunched against a n at your academy before¡­"

    "You¡­ You were the one to attack Berry''s ce?!!!" William knew he didn''t fully grasp the intentions behind that monster tide, the one that came at the Long n. But now, everything was fully exined to him.

    It wasn''t a normal monster tide as he expected. It was something to cover up these statues'' schemes, and that made him realise he and them were fated long before the two met.

    "What do you n to do?" The wolf statue felt a little nervous about William''s true intentions. It looked at William in silence all this time, trying to think of another exnation but the obvious one.

    "What else?" William shrugged, "I''m going to purge all these ces, kill your newly formed statues, and make sure not a single human will suffer again. This is my response to your stubbornness. So sit tight, I won''t kill you soon¡­"

    "The more reasons to not tell you about the gate¡­"

    "Don''t think too highly of yourself," William snorted, "it''s true my masters looked everywhere, didn''t find a thing. But that''s not true. There is a ce we haven''t searched yet¡­"

    William didn''t speak further, simply raised his left leg, beforending it heavily on the ground. A faint tremble urred, but it was nothingpared to what this statue felt, a shattering earthquake, one that was fierce enough to make it tremble and sway.

    "I guessed it right, right?"

    William evillyughed, before turning to the king, Sloth, and Fang, "you know what to do."

    "Dig!" the king spoke in a low tone, one that was filled with tons of anger and hatred. He was mad, and got all the reasons to feel so. After all, he just learnt that millions of good masters and innocent people got killed under his nose without sniffing any of it.

    The next hour was quite noisy. All of the masters here were high end stage, but many didn''t have earth elements. So they went out there, brought back tons of earth based masters.

    As the entire hall wasn''t that huge to amodate all of them, they started to restructure the ce, expanding it, taking down tons of rocks, and expanding it ten times.

    Then they started to work on the ground. The moment they spent half an hour doing this, the entire ce looked as if a grand disaster just hit it! The ground was gone, and instead, there was a huge and deep hole there.

 Chapter 1159 I Found It!

    <h4>Chapter 1159 I Found It!</h4>

    Soon enough, everyone could see something shimmering in silver lights, sending off rays from the ground. Seeing the early signs of these rays made everyone know what William guessed was true, and that pumped up their wills, and made them dig faster and work harder.

    William thought deeply about the options of ces that the gate could be at. He knew the masters looked for a long time for it, and yet they failed to sniff a thing about it. That meant it was somewhere they didn''t get to, and it had to be close by and essible by the statues here.

    It went without saying that the wolf statue knew how to get ess to this gate quickly. And that made William guess it was buried underneath the ground, the only ce they didn''t look at.

    The rays kept increasing in number, but they felt like they were too far away. William watched others work for hours, and all they progressed aside from digging deeper, was more rays shining, nothing else.

    "Something is off¡­" for a moment there, he thought he cracked the puzzle and found the solution. Yet as the masters kept digging without finding anything, he couldn''t help but feel this was weird.

    And when he looked at the wolf statue, he could swear he saw a smug smile on its rocky fate. That statue was very calm, indicating they were doing something wrong.

    "Stop," as he knew something was off after five more hours without achieving anything, he had to intervene, "Get out from there, all of you, get out now!"

    His wordsnded, and everyone looked in the king''s direction. "You heard the man, do as he said," the king confirmed the order while giving William a long nce.

    It was as if he was asking him: What are you doing?

    The king was excited like others about having these rays, but like William, they started to feel something was off hourster. It was unexpected to not find a single lead towards the gate. And so when William intervened, they knew he had an idea.

    "Bring me someone with a space element," William waited for the master''s digging to get out before he turned to the king, "better to be someone in the pinnacle or high stage¡­"

    "I can do it," one of the high-end masters volunteered, "what do you want me to do?"

    "Go down there, inspect if you can sense any space fluctuations down below," William pointed towards the hole the masters dug, and waited for the master to do his part.

    Any gate would work using a space element, and that was enough to create fluctuations. If there were none, it meant there was no gate here. And that would just make them return to zero square.

    The only issue he and others had in mind was these rays. They looked like the ones released by any high levelled gate. Having these just added more to the confusion, and didn''t solve anything.

    "There is nothing here," and as William feared, that master said after a few minutes of contemtion and testing, "there isn''t a single speck of space fluctuations here."

    "Look around then," but he knew the gate was definitely here. If it wasn''t in the hole, it must be elsewhere, "it''s here, just sniff any space fluctuations to find it."

    William didn''t wait for the master to do what he was told, turned to the king, and added, "About the iing enemies¡­"

    "Don''t worry, our masters already gained enough rest, recuperated, and healed. We built preliminary defences, and ced tons of traps and arrays around. Even if they came in huge numbers, even if they led a strong force, we can defend here until we find that gate¡­"

    "Found it!" Just before the king could continue speaking, the master who was currently in midair, was in the middle of his jump, as he was about to move from the deep hole to the surface.

    Yet it seemed he felt something when he was in midair, something that didn''t add up at all. But what he said next exined it all.

    "Found what?" even William didn''t get what that master meant. And yet the answer had to wait until that master returned to the ground, jumped off again, and this time he went all the way to the ceiling.

    "Yes, yes, it''s here, I''m sure of it," he muttered these words, ones that didn''t exin anything. This time, no one tried to ask or question him, as they waited for him to get down and exin things, "I found it! Found it! It''s not down there, it''s up there!"

    Like crazy he kept shouting, pointing up and down, confusing everyone. "Calm down, Joshua, tell us what you found in in simple words," Sloth interfered, asking one of his old friends, "exin to us as if exining to a six years old kid."

    "Isn''t it obvious?" The master named Joshua looked around as if he was feeling crazy or something, "fine¡­ it''s that simple, you asked me to find the gate, and I found it up there, at the ceiling, not at the ground."

    As he got the answer to his question by the weird silence and looks from others, he exined. The moment he did, everyone realised what was going on.

    "So¡­ You made it hide up there, while the way to activate it lies at the ground? Brilliant idea indeed," William nodded, praising such a good n and scheme.

    Enemies would look for the gate in one direction, and then they''d get confused. If they looked up there, then they''d find nothing. ording to Joshua, only the areas touched by the rays of lighting from the bottom had space fluctuations. As for others, they had nothing.

    It meant the key to unraveling the presence of this gate was through digging the ground, releasing all the rays, and then starting working on the ceiling. It was double the effort and work, but this was a very intelligent idea, and he''d not restrict praise for his enemies over such great moves.

 Chapter 1160 The Nightmare Monsterâ€™s True Thoughts And Feelings

    <h4>Chapter 1160 The Nightmare Monster''s True Thoughts And Feelings</h4>

    "Let''s do it!" the king and others got things the same way William did. And so they all went to arrange things up, as they knew what to do. The digging teams returned, and started to work on the ground. This time, they knew what to do, as they ignored the spots that already released rays, and focused on other spots. Slowly, different levels appeared down below, making it look a bit weird.

    "You were confident about this, and I have to give it to you, you nned everything greatly," in the middle of all this, and as the masters found all the shining rays from the ground, they started to work on the ceiling. The first few minutes passed and they soon revealed the early parts of that portal. And when that happened, William moved and stood in front of the giant wolf statue.

    "Tell me, as I got what I wanted by my own abilities, what''s the value in keeping you alive?" he asked, and his tone held much mockery and teasing, no hatred or enmity at all.

    But he wasn''t joking or bluffing, he was dead serious. And everyone around could tell that from the look on his face.

    He was ready to kill that wolf statue, and yet he gave it a chance to redeem itself and try to give him something valuable and save its life.

    "Go and screw yourself¡­" Yet against what others thought, that wolf statue sounded very arrogant and full of itself. It went without saying how many secrets this statue knew, and it wasn''t that hard to share a few with William to buy its life.

    "Then die!" William didn''t show any tolerance to such an attitude. In a sh he dashed forward, struck that statue, turning it into many fine rocks and dust, "I gave you a chance to redeem your life back, but you are just too stubborn and an idiot to drop that."

    As he said these words, he turned to thest target he had, the biggest goal of his, the Nightmare monster, "hey, it''s time. Either submit, or die!"

    William already gave that monster enough time and beating to knock sense back into it. The monster was feeling bitter and desperate right now, especially when he watched how William acted with that wolf.

    It knew how vast knowledge that statue was, and it was sure William was aware of this. And yet, thetter didn''t show any mercy, never backed down, and mercilessly in that statue.

    If he did that to it, what prevented him from killing it? The Nightmare monster was feeling depressed and frustrated by such a situation. It tried its best to take William down, and yet it failed!

    The most frustrating point in all this was the fact that William was always weaker than it. Not to mention it always had the upper hand, held the initiative, while William simply fell in its traps one after another.

    And yet, in every single time, William found a way to turn things around, get out unscathed, and even grew stronger. And now, he was the one having the upper hand, the one holding that monster by the neck, able to determine its life or death.

    If it was up to it, it''d have selected to die instead of following such despicable humans and enemies. However, it exerted great effort to reach such a stage, was this close from reaching the pinnacle, and reaching the higher realm next.

    It got a goal, one that was a bit different than killing William. In fact, it was weirdly simr to its sworn enemy''s goal, to take down the parent that gave birth to it, killing the nine-tailed fox.

    The Nightmare monster held a deeper grudge against its parent, seeing it as the one which should die and let it take the lead. It didn''t know for certain what was awaiting for it out there, but it was sure something terribly bad would happen to it if it went up to the higher realm.

    So it started to ce the goal of taking down that nine-tailed fox monster above even taking down William. And that was the only reason behind its current hesitation.

    "Let''s go up there, let''s see what you''ll decide," William didn''t give it any time to think, and started to deploy organs around the monster. The Nightmare monster''s human body was in a terrible state right now, without even a single spot intact.

    If not for William to avoid hitting any lethal spot, it should have died a long time ago from all these wounds.

    Watching William act this fast, without any hesitation, without speaking again with it, made it feel more crisising up it. Before it''d go over this feeling, William finishedying down everything and activated his Mystic Art.

    The foggy world appeared again, and it found the mysterious Fate and Destiny world, but a new ce it never visited before.

    "Get ready, either ept and live on, or reject and die¡­"

    "Wait, I¡­"

    "You already got your chance to think about it thoroughly," William interrupted the monster, and was about to start releasing the rope when the Nightmare monster shouted in pure distress and anger:

    "I want to know what you will do to that monster. The one that gave birth to me!"

    "The nine-tailed fox? Why are you asking this?" William tilted his head, looking in pure amusement towards the Nightmare monster, "Don''t tell me you are feeling worried about that monster, hahaha!"

    "I despise it!" Yet against what William expected, that monster spoke in pure hatred and enmity, "I truly hate it!"

    "Oh, that''s new," William felt surprised at first, before getting more amused about this situation, "may I know why?"

    "I¡­ I don''t know the reason, but¡­"

    "You are bluffing, do you take me for a fool or something?"

    "It''s not that, I truly can''t get it. But I feel like I''m going to die in his hands, and it''s not fair! I''m me, and he is himself! I can''t believe I''m going to end my life to serve someone I never even met, lest I owe my life to him!"

 Chapter 1161 Mr. Human!

    Chapter 1161 Mr. Human!

    "Hmm¡­ Interesting take¡­" William couldn''t tell if this monster was trying to pull around the bush or was speaking its heart. Yet he knew in the end, it was either two fates in front of this monster, either fell to serve him or fell on his hands.

    "Let me tell you the fate you are going to face in that monster''s hands¡­" William decided to y along and see what will be the end result of this weird meeting.

    He had to admit to himself, that his main hatred and enmity wasn''t towards this monster, but towards the parent one. In addition to that, he wanted to get this monster on his side. So he started exining what he knew about the nine-tailed fox''s weird ability to divide its spirit into seeds, and from one of them, that monster was born.

    The more he spoke, the gloomier that monster looked. It had a feeling about that fate, but it was just a vague feeling. And now, it got the chance to obtain concrete and solid data about what was going to happen to it.

    The more it listened, the more it became surer it was right to think that way, it had to kill that monster at any cost.

    "So, make up your mind, I''m going to use the art now," William didn''t give that monster much time to think about what he said. He already gave this monster enough time to reconsider, and it was now the time to make the final decision about this issue.

    "I''ve already made up my mind," the monster slowly said, yet it didn''t add any more. William didn''t even ask, as in a few minutes, he''d learn the right answer and see it with his own eyes.

    William muttered the incantations of the art before a rope appeared and then it got linked with that monster''s building. Like before, the rope took its time to strengthen and broaden the connection, building up a bridge in the end.

    "You made the right choice here," William didn''t know if this was true or not. This monster kept causing him headaches one after another and was considered the top enemy he had in this tiny world.

    But this enemy was now nullified, at least there wasn''t a single threating from it now. This was a big achievement in William''s eyes, despite him preferring to kill the enemies, not keeping them around like this.

    "I hope I''ll get to know why you are useful to me," he muttered to himself while the monster didn''t say anything. After the connection finished, the two of them got ejected from that world, returning back to the real one.

    "They are doing great¡­" William checked the situation around. The masters already uncovered more than one-fourth of the entire portal up at the ceiling. They might need almost one day to reveal everything, and that meant the time for their departure and return was around the corner.

    But it seemed like fate didn''t want to let them go away easily like this!

    "Mr. Human, there is something about to happen," just as everyone was doing their tasks, with the king and other high-end masters focusing on arranging their forces, preparing them to move away from here, while the earth-based masters were revealing more of the portal up there, one of the statues suddenly said.

    "Are you speaking to me?" William found it weird, to be called Mr. Human. So he pointed to himself after checking around, while expressing his doubts.

    "Yes, you are Mr. Human, right?" the statue looked either dumb or this was the right way to address masters to these statues perhaps.

    "Sure, what do you want to tell me about?" William jumped over this weird nickname and was curious to hear what this statue wanted to tell.

    "It seems the reinforcements we called upon before are almost upon us," the statue delivered such grave news, making everyone around look towards it in a weird way.

    They got almost half of that portal uncovered so far. And all they needed was just half a day. It was this close to leaving this ce, and yet the enemies came at the most terrible moment.

    "Where are they going to appear? Tell me everything you know¡­" William didn''t stop at such bad timing and went straight for the valuable news.

    The statue told him everything it knew about the iing enemies. They were from another pocket world, and they had to pass through aplicated set of portals to arrive here. As they were moving from one pocket world to another, without passing through any real world in the middle, they had to take much time toe here. ording to that statue, they were going to appear at the upper surface, not here. That meant they had to pass through the holes and paths the masters took to arrive at such an underground base. And that was great news for everyone.

    "Leave this to us, we''ll dy them as long as we can," the king said, and William simply nodded. He left the pros to do their part, while he kept watching earth-based masters unearthing more of the portal.

    "Go, help them," he didn''t stand idle, and took out four of his monstrous weapons. They got earth elements and could help.

    Anjie stood by his side, alongside everyone remaining from the masters who joined his guild. They wanted to go out and help, but he stopped them. "You did enough," he said, "just rest and let everyone else do thisst task before we go home."

    William knew his newly joined masters did marvellous in this adventure. They didn''t get any training from him, and didn''t learn anything at all. They just joined the guild and didn''t even get the chance to get any gear or supplies from the guild.

    On top of that, they were few to begin with. And now they lost close to half of their original number. William felt he was a little indebted to them, and yet he knew he wasn''t to be med here. They made up their minds and chose toe and join this expedition.

 Chapter 1162 The Weird Gate

    Chapter 1162 The Weird Gate

    In the next hour, loud noises started to echo from the direction of the base, meaning the battle already started. William spread his spirit sense and could see parts of what the king and others did.

    They took this base as a fort and started hunting all the enemiesing from the upper surface.

    He spotted monsters and dark masters flooding from up there, passing through the holes, and ending up falling into the deadly traps the mastersid already. They couldn''t get past the traps, as there were tons of masters waiting around, killing everyone and everything falling from up there.

    The enemies poured forces like endless rain, and it was clear if they persisted like this, nothing would change. "They have dark masters, and that means they''ll find another way toe here," William slowly muttered, moving his senses towards the king and other high-end masters out there. They were giving orders, arranging lines, and ordering for more arrays and traps to be built. Just seeing this made William calmer, as they reached the same conclusion as him.

    "Is everything going to be alright?" After six hours of fighting, the enemy already found a way into here. They dug many holes at the surface, and even dug twisted paths and tunnels, opening at unexpected ces.

    dug many holes at the surface, and even dug twisted paths and tunnels, opening at unexpected ces.

    The fight was raging wild out there, and enemies were flooding the base in huge numbers.

    William couldn''t see everything happening, as the base was very vast to begin with. And Anjie next to him couldn''t see even one-tenth of what he was able to detect using spirit sense.

    "It''s going to be ok," he paused, "the enemies areing strong, but we aren''t losing either."

    He was right, as the king and other high-end masters made sure to fill the entire base with tons of traps and arrays. The moment the enemies gained any new foothold, these traps and arrays got detonated and activated. The enemies suffered tons of losses, and during these periods, the masters had time to retreat and regroup. The situation might look scary from the outside, but things weren''t that bad. William took note of how the king and other high-end masters controlled this grand-scale war without losing too much, without losing focus on the main goal of all this.

    They weren''t fighting to kill the enemies but to buy as much time as possible until the portal would get uncovered. So they made sure that every gained metre by the enemy woulde at a great cost, and would take a long time for them to secure.

    Time passed slowly on everyone, and after ten more hours, the entire portal was now exposed totally.

    It was a huge circr-shaped portal, seemingly engraved over the rocky ceiling. William could see spiral-shaped lines running and shining from time to time inside, while faint shimmering symbols appeared in faint silver light.

    "This needs a huge spirit power to activate¡­"

    William noticed how high-level this portal was. It wasn''t the type to run over materials forming it, but needed external aid as well.

    "Gather up," William knew this wasn''t the right time for this to happen. The situation out there was vtile, and they needed more time now to power up this portal, "we''ll divide into one hundred-man teams, each will stand on this pattern¡­" William drew something on the ground, showing a spiral-shaped diagram, one that sounded like the portal above, yet in a smaller-sized version.

    He marked the one hundred spots for masters to stand on top of. Then he made sure to teach them the right incantation for this array to get activated.

    "What''s it for?" Anjie grew curious and asked, while she and the newly joined masters to the guild stood and formed that array.

    "It''s for gathering spirit power," William said, "just do as everyone, sit down and train."

    "How about you?" Anjie asked, feeling curious about what William intended to do.

    "Nothing," he shrugged, "you are more than enough to power up this portal. Let''s start!" he turned to everyone and gave the signal for all of them to start.

    There were a little more than two thousand masters here, not that high number actually. That made him estimate that activating this portal would take roughly five to ten more hours to get activated.

    They did like he said, and then wisps of spirit power started to slowly rise up from the arrays, soon turning into thick torrents. At the same time, he paid close attention to the portal at the ceiling.

    "It''s taking much longer than usual¡­" William muttered, before turning to the statues around, "Any suggestions?"

    Yet his question got no valuable answer. After all, the only one who knew everything about this portal was the wolf statue.

    "We''ll need more time this way," William had to deal with the current situation realistically, "I''ll go and help them then."

    He didn''t take part in the ongoing battles as he didn''t see any need for him to do so. But right now, things changed and he had to help, buy more time, without risking the loss of many.

    The situation out there was slightly changed by a thin thread. The king and others were keeping the bnce between their side and the enemy. Yet this bnce was dangerous, as it was fragile.

    If a single front got breached, tons of enemy forces would push forward and prate through the frontlines, ending up creating more chaos and deaths.

    The king and others were aware of the reveal of the entire gate, and they might have thought it was close to getting out from there. But when they noticed William moving out, he knew things weren''t developing for the better as they thought. "What''s wrong?"

    "Is something wrong?"

    "What happened to the gate?"

    "Why are youing here?"

    Many voices shouted in his mind directly using spirit telepathy. William felt an instant headache, and couldn''t help but shout:

    "Shut up! It''s annoying to hear all of you at the same time!" he took a deep breath while running forward, "hear it well as I''ll say it once¡­"

 Chapter 1163 Joining The Front Battles

    Chapter 1163 Joining The Front Battles

    William started to exin the current situation in great detail, without hiding anything from them. He told them about the solution he used, and how long it''d take to give results.

    Learning about what was going on, and knowing they needed to take more time before they''d leave, the king and other high-end masters started to adapt fast enough.

    They were controlling the current pace of battle to make everyone retreat in a few hours towards the portal and leave. That entirely depended on the fact that the gate was about to get ready for use. But now they have tost for more hours here. They already spent most of their traps and arrays over stopping the hostile forces, and never tried to lead the charge towards the enemies to maintain the loss count as low as possible.

    They also didn''t want to do that to not give the enemy any chance to break through their frontline. But that now changed.

    By the sudden development, they had to switch gears, and lean towards offence rather than defence. William didn''t need to tell them anything, as they acted the moment they got the entire picture. He spotted many high-end masters taking the lead, forming teams, and seemingly ready to start a counter offence at the enemies.

    As for him, he didn''t need anyone to help. He selected a point, the middle zone, the most important area, and headed directly towards it. Unlike other masters, he didn''t need to waste half an hour gathering up masters and forming a team.

    He simply took out his ten monstrous weapons, his flying ones, armed up his four tails with weapons, beforending at the enemies.

    The moment he appeared there and joined the fight, things started to change for the better out there. The enemies were densely packed, formed mainly of monsters. These were trying mercilessly to kill masters, without fear or worry over anything. They kepting like an avnche, one that was stopped all the time by the smart organisation and teamwork of masters around.

    There was some sort of bnce there, the same everywhere. But the moment William appeared, such bnce shifted, and the entire situation leant over, favouring the masters.

    The enemies got used to the pattern of the fights going on at the frontline. Masters weren''t that strong, but they made up for that by organising and timing their attacks. So it was hard to take down anyone, and they could mostly push them back, forcing them to retreat. Yet this all changed the moment William joined them.

    Hended like a bull, crushing and killing, moving steadily forward, without anyone or anything able to stop him.

    The enemies adopted the same approach as the masters, sending their weak forces while reserving their best. That made it quite easy for him to crush silver and even early stage gold grade monsters. Even if they had a huge number, they were still unable to stop him.

    He felt like he was overkilling it! The monstrous weapons were each like a machine, truly overkilling it. "It''s better to spread them apart, let other masters join," he muttered to himself before turning to the grand number of masters behind, "listen up, follow either me or one of my giant weapons. Keep yourselves around, kill and push forward, don''t worry about anything!"

    He instantly spread his monstrous weapons around, and he led everyone to push forward. They covered up a space of a few kilometres this way, and many masters joined in such pushing moves.

    The sudden switch in tactics took the enemy by surprise. The masters never tried to fight back, not even once. And now the masters were switching gears, heading fiercely towards offence, not defence.

    The situation didn''t just rise up at William''s front but at all fronts. Seeing him taking charge and advancing, other high-end masters did the same with the teams they hastily selected. They moved forward, killed the weaker enemies, and expanded the area under their cover for much further.

    But in one hour, their progress started to slow down, with the arrival of the enemies'' big forces.

    Monsters and dark masters'' high-stage and pinnacle grade appeared. William didn''t have anyone on his side at first, and that made him struggle and hesitate to keep moving forward. But then someone appeared, Fang!

    The moment he showed up, the man demanded for a formation to let him burn everyone and everything. William didn''t hesitate to build one for him, before he stayed back with everyone, letting the man handle the tough rocks up front.

    And then the lightning god appeared again, bathing the entire ce with lightning.

    William held back until Fang finished his attack. He asked Fang to release his attack continuously, as there wasn''t time to wait for hours for it to get depleted. On top of that, there were lots of enemiesing their way, all were quite formidable, and all weren''t that easy to deal with.

    Fang knew this as well. Even if he was one of the top three masters in the world, he knew it was too hard and challenging for him to stand alone in front of hundreds of such strong enemies. As lightning bathed and barbecued everyone here, other ces were doing better. The high-end masters faced great challenges at first before they started to coordinate and work together. They managed to take down high-end enemies by ganging up, making surprised attacks, and jumping from one spot to another.

    Even if they were doing this great, they couldn''t push the line forward for an hour. They had to deal with the high-end enemies, and other masters around couldn''t help. Yet in the middle of all this, the lightning god finished his berserk attack, and the path to advance was open again in front of William and others.

    "Go, help others as well," William said to Fang, but thetter shook his head, rejecting this.

    "There is no guarantee no more high-end enemies won''t appear again," he got a point, and William let him tag along.

 Chapter 1164 The Retreat Dilemma

    Chapter 1164 The Retreat Dilemma

    Soon enough, such doubt proved to be real as more high-end enemies came their way, stopping them again.

    "They came from other areas," William and Fang noticed. "At least we are helping them this way, right?" "I don''t care about any of that," Fang shook his head, "I''m just super excited I''m going to use that awesome lightning booster once again, hahaha!"

    "..." William didn''t know what to say in response to that, so he kept himself silent while building up another formation.

    Like before, Fang released tons of lightning, while killing lots of those high-end enemies. As these enemies were shifted from other locations, the masters out there spotted a chance, and they moved to grab it.

    Yet it wasn''t enough for them to gain the upper hand, or create momentum. They just pushed forward slightly every now and then, much better than just stagnating back there and doing nothing.

    William and Fang could see such results, and the two knew they were the ones behind such little progress. "Let''s keep going," Fang was excited about this and asked to push forward.

    Even if the two were pushing up ahead of the entire army, while lightning forced others to stay behind and watch, keep their distance, it didn''t matter. Fang''s lightning was enough to take down tons of enemies, and it never seemed like there were just two fighting out there.

    As for William, he returned to collect loot from the fallen enemies, while Fang did his part. But keeping moving forward alone wasn''t good. So he had to slow Fan down, and spend enough time fighting the enemies normally while other masters would catch up.

    Then they''d separate and head forward, do it again. This might have slowed them a little, but it was much better than just advancing alone deeply in the enemy''s lines.

    William knew Fang was intoxicated by the feeling of being unstoppable. But killing the enemies here was never their goal in the first ce. They just needed to buy themselves enough time for the portal to get activated.

    So he prioritised moving wisely and strategically with everyone, instead of doing the normal and crushing the enemies solo as he loved to do.

    Fang on the other hand wasn''t epting this. He wanted to use that formation more, wanted to feel that awesome superiority as much as he could.

    Every single time William stopped him and thetter fumed in rage. Yet thetter never listened to hisints and kept the game steady and slowly progressing.

    Slowly hour by hour passed, and things were heading as everyone on William''s side wanted. The enemies tried hard to fight back, but they failed. Even when they used their top force, they couldn''t stop them. And the hour came for them to leave atst. But there was something important before announcing the order to retreat, to put a concrete strategy for such a risky retreat.

    William knew he didn''t need to bother himself with such a troublesome matter. This wasn''t about organising a retreat of a thousand masters but for tens of thousands. On top of that, all of them were already engaged with the enemy.

    There were tens of thousands who could be easily mobilised as they were acting as reserves and didn''t take part in the ongoing brutal fighting right now. Yet there were still too many fighting hard against those enemies, and that was the main problem the king and others faced.

    They weren''t just concerned about how to safely recall them back, but if this line fell, then others behind would get attacked as well. In other words, these masters were defending and securing the lives of those standing behind them, a very important piece to get away safely from here.

    Sloth told William on behalf of the king about this dilemma and asked him to persist there for one more hour. [... We will do our thing, but we may need your help at some point¡­] Sloth spoke for roughly five minutes straight, telling William what they had in mind about this n.

    They wanted to depend on the frontline and slowly retreat until the area of fighting would be enough for the high-end masters to take the toll. Then William would show in the picture, using his deadly formations to hit the enemies hard before they''d all retreat.

    William knew this was a feasible n. After all, the high-end masters were very experienced and could keep their lives intact until all of the weaker masters would retreat.

    The only challenge was in the huge number of the masters fighting at the frontlines right now. Trying to let all of them retreat at the same time was something impossible to happen without suffering lots of losses at the high-end master gang.

    And so they had to slowly retreat, making masters evacuate the front battle slowly and steadily. That was their burden to handle, and he had just to keep the enemies busy during the uing hour.

    If it was something easy to do then Sloth wouldn''t have even mentioned it. But as they were all stressed by fighting the high-end masters of the enemy, they didn''t have time to consider a proper retreat n.

    To do it, they had to focus totally on making and executing the n.

    And that meant all the pressure wouldnd on William and Fang. "We''ll stop here," William said, before exining everything to Fang. Thetter got the news as well, and he knew what wasing at him.

    Yet he never regretted it. In fact, he felt this was a blessing, as he''d experienced constant use of that awesome formation before the end of this war.

    As he guessed, William asked him to keep releasing his attacks while he''d build more formations to use. William didn''t bother with any of the masters following them, as they''d get the orders to retreat from the king and others.

    He started to build formations on a fixed and direct retreat path. Time passed slowly, while the high-end masters of the enemy kepting without stopping.

 Chapter 1165 Enduring For Too Long

    Chapter 1165 Enduring For Too Long

    Even when Fang used the lightning formation, it wasn''t enough to deal with all of them. The most they got was just injuries, with rare life-threatening wounds and a few deaths every now and then.

    It wasn''t the perfect result that Fang produced during the past hours. And that was thanks to the huge increase in the high-end mastersing their way.

    Fast enough, the two started to feel the pressure. The high-end force of the enemy didn''te alone, as they rallied tons of forces around, using them as shields to protect them from the attacksing from Fang.

    "It''s not working," Fang shouted when he suffered a gruesome-looking wound on his chest, "forget about one hour, we can''t survive for ten minutes!"

    "Leave them to me!" William already saw this from the very start. He hoped for a big portion of the high-end force of the enemy to keeping at the king and other high masters, but they didn''t. He hoped for the king to dispatch a team to help, but this didn''t happen.

    He didn''t me them, after all without a proper retreat n, many of the good masters would fall here. And so, he took out his Troll once more and used the time Fang released two consecutive lightning formations to charge it up.

    The moment he spoke, Fang noticed the Troll. He was all focused on releasing his technique, without enough time to check on anything else. The pressure was simply too much for even him to handle. Yet the moment he saw the Troll, he knew things were going to be great. "Don''t overdo it!" he shouted in warning, as he knew if William activated it alone, he''d end up getting exhausted and would enter deep sleep.

    This was the worst time ever for William to experience that. "I know, just keep releasing your lightning, I''m just helping from the side," William shouted back before the Troll released its deadly attacks from its eyes.

    The moment the raysnded, everything they touched evaporated into thin dust. Seeing this made Fang pumped up, as he released more lightning while focusing more on the gaps the rays William released caused.

    Yet William didn''tst for more than half a minute, then he stopped everything. He took the Troll back while moving around, building more formations.

    "We''ll do it this way, every three formations, I''ll use my Troll," William timed everything and knew half an hour of doing nothing much was enough. Fang didn''t say anything back and knew it wasn''t going to end badly this time.

    Before this, he didn''t think they couldst more than ten minutes. But with what William did, aiming and targeting mainly at the big shots in the enemy''s front and midlines, things began to look much better now.

    The first twenty minutes were stressful for the enemy. After all, William kept taking out the Troll every now and then, pushing tons of fear into their spirits. And yet the monsters never feared that and kepting at Fang, eating tons of lightning and losing too much of their numbers.

    Soon enough, the dark masters saw how bad this would turn at the end. They got separated in such a simple and effective way from the high-end masters. And if they allowed this to continue, they''d be pressured into a very tight spot.

    So they threw fear of the Troll behind their back, especially when William took it out multiple times without using it. The moment they joined hands with monsters, the pressure returned again over Fang. but it wasn''t like before.

    The twenty minutes of hesitation were enough for Fang to kill lots of monsters. That helped in reducing the overall strength of the iing enemies, making it a bit lesser than what it was before using the Troll.

    "Get ready, another attack ising," William shouted, delivering his earlier promise. As Fang was about to finish the third formation, William reminded him of that. He didn''t need to, as his Troll wasn''t that easy to miss.

    The Troll attacked, and then Fang linked it with his own lightning-augmented brutal attacks. The duo kept doing this for an entire hour and a half, while the king and other high-end masters were nning their retreat.

    [We are ready, let''s do it this way¡­] After one hour and a half, Sloth''s voice finally rang in William''s mind. He exined how they were going to do it, and William didn''t object to this n.

    It was actually a simple n, one that depended on his formations and Troll. They agreed to let the king and the group of two hundred high-end masters activate the Troll at the end and defend the long path leading to the escape portal.

    Sloth told him they already tested the gate and sent a few teams out there and the news they brought back was simply great. The gate opened just next to a kingdom''s capital in their continent. They were away from their kingdom, but it wasn''t a problem.

    The ce was safe, without any enemy out there. The teams who went out there found out the location of a big hill nearby, which meant it was a hidden base of the enemies.

    William and others couldn''t tell if this ce was filled with tons of enemies or not. Yet they weren''t worried. This was their homnd now, an allied turf, and any war would ring rms to everyone around.

    In fact, if any, they felt quite excited and relieved. News spread among the entire army, and they never felt any depression when learning about the situation out there.

    Even if they got stressed out and exhausted, they wouldn''t flinch back and reject a chance to burn one more fort of the dark masters. "You heard the news, right?" from the front, Fang''s voicended, "they need your help on this."

    "Don''t tell me you don''t like using my formations a few extra times," Williamughed, and Fangughed with him. Thetter didn''t say anything, as it was clear what his stance about this was.

 Chapter 1166 Starting The Final Stand Battle

    Chapter 1166 Starting The Final Stand Battle

    Fang was extremely excited, not only because he was going to feel such a god-like feeling again before leaving, but because there was another battle waiting for them at the surface.

    As the two got the n from Sloth, they waited for his signal. The first part of the n was to mobilise the extra and unneeded masters from here first. It wasn''t just to empty enough space for others to slowly and orderly retreat, but they now needed to go up there and start fortifying the entire ce with traps and formations.

    Building defences out there wasn''t feasible. The retreat n would take roughly one day, and they wouldn''t be able to build anything of value during this short time.

    Instead of wasting time on this, they''d better spread out more formations and traps. To make sure they''d do it well, the king issued a small team of high-end masters with them. This team would act as their temporary leaders, stopping and fighting any iing enemies before the entire retreat was done.

    William and Fang had to wait for hours and got the chance to retreat but Fang refused. "Let''s keep doing it! I want to burn those fckers with my lightning all day!"

    "Says the man who paid nothing to get any of that!" William rolled his eyes, and Fang cleared up his throat, acting as if he was some venerable master or something.

    "Don''t you think I saved your life many times already?"

    "When? Where? Don''t tell a lie and believe it!" William evilly snorted, "You are going to pay for all this, mark my words. But for now, let''s kill them."

    Fangughed, as he knew he got his wish fulfilled. Yet even after four hours, he never felt enough of using this formation. It was something that made him feel invincible, something he never felt before, something he''d love to feel all the time.

    So it was expected that even after using this formation for all this time, he still felt bitterness inside when they got the signal to pull back.

    "We are going to retreat using the formation," yet when he felt this low, William''s words came and revived his spirit, "we can use up to three more formations, then join others."

    "Only three times?" Fang muttered in a depressed tone, while he was fighting monsters around. Dark masters already retreated after tasting one hellish defeat after another.

    They tried to join hands with high-end monsters, but this failed. Under Fang''s lightning showering bolts, nothing could survive after many hits.

    So they finally retreated, abandoning the front battle, leaving it all to the monsters. And these were the easiest to deal with, as their weakness was they had no brain at all.

    "You are going to have more fun while they retreat," William motioned towards the grand number of masters waiting for them back there. Many masters already retreated, but they weren''t the main bulk of the army. The king and other high-end masters were orchestrating a slow and strategic retreat, well nned, filled with tons of traps and deadly attacks for the iing enemies.

    So even if they took hours to evacuate the free masters, they''d take a day to evacuate the rest of the army. And that meant Fang would get many chances to use the lightning formation, he and other masters would actually get the chance for that.

    Yet all the hype Fang felt went astray the moment he saw the Troll again. The two retreated and reunited with others. Without the need to say anything, everyone knew what to do.

    The king even took part in this, including his personal high-end master guard team. Things were looking so serious, after all, it was up to them to hold the fort and stop the enemies, buying enough time for masters to safely retreat.

    And that wasn''t a simple or safe task at all!

    Everyone knew the moment they withdrew all of their army''s main bulk, they''d end up suffering a ton of endless attacks. Even the scared dark masters would find courage and get greedy to kill them.

    And that was why the king and others ced their full trust over William''s formations and Troll. The issue was after thisst stand, William would run so low on his outer world materials, not enough even to make ten of such formations. Yet that wasn''t something he''d worry about.

    He knew the moment they got out of here, things would shift totally in their favor. Fighting in one''s homnd was way different than fighting right in the middle of a hostile turf.

    "Ready?" The king waited for everyone to spread out, standing on the main key points carefully nned before, "Let''s do it!" and then he gave the signal for everyone to start this final battle.

    Everyone moved the moment the king gave the order. The normal masters started to retreat as if they were all running away for their lives from a deadly foe.

    At the same time, the high-end masters took the lead on the key points, holding up the frontline. And at this moment, the tide suddenly surged in front of their faces, when a few thousand masters were doing the task of tens of thousands of masters.

    The worst moments were the early moments when they had to take the crushing tideing endlessly from the front. To add more, the king strictly refused to use William''s formations at such a critical moment.

    It was all up to them, up to every single master to do what they could do to the best of their abilities, and hold that line.

    Even William found it hellishly hard, even when he got his ten monstrous warriors, thousands of flying weapons, and even his grenades and arrows.

    He used literally everything and fought like never before, and he wasn''t alone. Everyone else was doing the same.

    Anyone watching this from far away, or by using their spirit senses, they''d see a tsunami of enemies, monsters, and dark masters, racing against time to hit the few thousand masters standing on a single line.

 Chapter 1167 Williams Stubborness

    Chapter 1167 William''s Stubborness

    The high-end masters were covering an area of kilometres, tens of kilometres even, and they were alone. Behind, a sea of masters were racing as well, not to their aid, but to run away from here.

    It''d be a very weird scene, one that''d implement a false idea in the minds of anyone watching this without knowing much details about what was going on.

    The most shocking part was that no matter how many enemies came, no matter how hard the enemies tried, the masters managed to stop them and hold their ground. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    They showed a legendary performance that day. Even if they used most of their treasured war supplies, they didn''t hesitate to do it.

    It was still their life mission to take down the dark masters and monsters, no matter what. "Now!" After hours of fighting desperately like this, the king couldn''t help but shout at William. It wasn''t the first time someone shouted at him. In fact, the king asked Sloth, other high-end masters, and even Fang to ask William to start using his formations and Troll.

    Yet thetter always responded with the same line: "It''s not the right time yet!"

    In terms of battle experience, William was the most experienced one here. No one ever thought about that, and all doubted that William lost his calm. They never expected themselves to be the ones who lost their cool, not him.

    William was calm, so calm and peaceful inside. He knew his formations and Troll was going to crush tons of the endless enemies around, but the issuey mainly in the right time to use them.

    Using them prematurely would end up losing too much, or forcing him to use more formations, activating the Troll more than what he intended to, and not gain a result close to what they''d get if they were just patient.

    "Not yet," he looked at the king, before motioning his head back, "we need to do it at the closest point to the tunnel."

    "We are already close!" even Fang was feeling great pressure and greatly exhausted, "let us use the formations at least, relieve part of the pressure, let us breathe!"

    He got a point, as for hours they kept fighting without daring to take a single moment of rest. Things didn''t look that great for any of them, as a single master had to deal with thousands upon thousands of enemies at any given minute.

    They fought hard, but against such an endless flood of enemies, it felt futile and hopeless. No matter how many they killed, many more would spring up ande for them.

    "Just persist more," yet William didn''t move by their words, "We just need to cross more few kilometres, and then we''ll rest."

    They couldn''t do anything about his stubbornness, yet he was right in his words. They were around five kilometres away from the tunnel, and using their deadliest weapons at this stage wouldn''t help.

    They couldn''t retreat the moment they activated the formations or the Troll. And that meant they needed to be so close to the tunnel, to run away as fast as they could the moment the formations and the Troll got drained of their powers.

    If not, then enemies would flood them again soon enough, and they had to return to either desperately fighting like now, or reuse the same tactics to crush the iing enemies again.

    So they dropped asking him for now, focused on keeping themselves alive. Even if a single one of them was a deadly powerhouse, it was still impossible to survive against endless enemy floods in such a way.

    So they had to be smart, one hundred percent focused on evading and killing the enemies in the simplest and most effective way possible.

    Crossing these five kilometres proved to be quite challenging. The distance any master of them could cross in a few minutes took almost two hours. That was mainly because the enemies brought flying monsters, and many monsters appeared from underground.

    They got attacked from the front, from behind, and even from the air. It was hell, and even Fang suffered lots of wounds.

    "For heaven''s sake, let''s fcking do it!" Fang couldn''t take it anymore, and shouted like many others when there was one kilometre left of the tunnel.

    "Fine, I''ll build the formations now," William finally sumbed to their will, someone muste and cover my spot¡­"

    "I''ll do it, just make these damn formations," Sloth shouted, and he didn''t just move alone, a few others also moved to cover up the spot of William. Thetter was fighting desperately as well, facing tons of deadly confrontations every now and then. It wasn''t that easy for high-end masters, so it was much harder for someone weaker than them.

    If not for his monstrous weapons, flying weapons, grenades and arrows, he wouldn''t have survived. After fighting for eight hours straight like this, he lost four of his monstrous weapons, had two more on the verge of breaking down, and lost close to seventy percent of his flying weapons.

    He suffered lots of wounds, many of which couldn''t heal fast even when using healing elixirs. His current situation was best described as miserable, something that everyone else suffered as well.

    He instantly moved around, and built three formations behind every group of masters, spacing them by a few hundred metres each. He made sure to build five different formations inside the tunnel as well, acting as theirst stand if things went south.

    "It''s ready, you are going to do this¡­" once done, he shouted, exining in brief words what they needed to do. He asked masters to group up ording to spirit elements, and then group up and activate the formations.

    He asked them to release their attacks constantly, then jump towards the next formation and do the same.

    "... As for the Troll, the masters who activated it before will help me activate it, but that will happen when we reach the tunnel¡­" he continued his exnation, before ending it up by referring to the five formations he left inside the tunnel.

 Chapter 1168 The Little Detail That Everyone Missed

    Chapter 1168 The Little Detail That Everyone Missed

    "... These will be ourst line of defence, and we''ll activate them if we don''t have the chance to safely retreat to the gate¡­"

    "You heard the man, let''s do it!" the king shouted, while others yelled in response. They all moved and started activating their formations. As for William, he remained in the tunnel, took out his Troll, and started activating it.

    From experience, he knew it''d take an hour to activate this Troll, just almost the same time needed for the three formations to get ready. He decided to go all out this time, over-infusing the Troll with his spirit power, so it''d have a much broader range and fiercer power in its attacks.

    The moment they started using the formations, everything changed. They finally found their time to breathe, and killing the endless stream of enemies without the need to personally get involved was like a heaven-sent gift to all of them.

    One formation got depleted after another. And by the depletion of the first batch of formations, they all realised why William acted stubbornly before.

    They all thought these formations would buy them enough time to retreat, but that wasn''t true. The moment the formations got depleted, enemies ran towards them, crossing the area cleared by the formations in mere tens of seconds!

    It was insane! And if not for William to establish the next set of formations closer, they''d have suffered and had to fight desperately again. N?v(el)B\\jnn

    They realised William was right, realised he got a point in refusing all of their shouts and demands before. If he listened and built the formations back then, things wouldn''t have changed much for them, and they''d have ended up suffering again.

    Seeing this made William smile and nod in satisfaction. He knew they had the reason behind his constant rejection.

    "I hope they are ready at the other side," William finished activating the Troll in forty minutes, twenty minutes less than what he initially expected and aimed for.

    He used lots of elixirs to replenish his lost spirit power, but at some point, he couldn''t match the insanely growing absorption rate of the Troll. Even when consuming elixirs like running water, he couldn''t make up for the insane amount lost per second from his spirit power.

    So he had to stop, or else he''d suffer it badly, or even worse, get a deadly bacsh or something.

    As he finally stopped doing this, and other masters were midway through activating the thirdyer of formations, he got a few minutes to think about something that many missed.

    There was another battle waiting for them at the surface. He wasn''t worried about fighting enemies out there, but he was worried about the enemiesing from this pocket world.

    After all, that gate was now widely activated, and they had zero control over it. The statues he had total control over didn''t have any control over this gate. And that meant these enemies also had the ability to pass through and chase after them out there.

    He didn''t fear that, as this battle was going to happen on their continent. But the early hours of it were the most important, as they needed to endure and fight until news spread and reinforcements arrived.

    Fighting enemiesing at them from everywhere wasn''t the best situation anyone would dream of having. And that was why he thought about the masters who went to the surface.

    "I hope they didn''t lean to rest and started building up traps and defences around the gate," he muttered, while hoping the high-end masters who apanied therge number of masters out there would act wisely.

    "We are about to finish," lost in his thoughts, he heard the shout from Sloth, "Get ready to activate the Troll."

    He wasn''t shouting at William but at everyone else. ording to William''s earlier n, they had to retreat, and activate the Troll, while others would retreat.

    A group of them would be left behind to activate the deadly formations in the tunnel. Before experiencing everything, they felt like this wasn''t necessary. But now, they were d William thought this far ahead, considered such a matter deeply and prepared beforehand.

    "I''m ready here," William shouted back, "All the unneeded masters will return back, make sure to fortify the area around the gate, make sure there is enough defences to stop the enemies¡­"

    "What enemies?"

    "What are you talking about?"

    "You mean the ones we expect to appear from that single hill?"

    Many eximed in surprise, even the ones who were going to help him and the king in activating the Troll.

    William could only sigh, "Do you think the enemies here won''t follow us out there?" his wordsnded, and all of sudden they all realised what he wanted to convey. And frankly speaking, they were shocked by it.

    They were totally immersed in fighting and nning to get out of here to miss such ringly obvious points. And when they realised it, they all fell into silence.

    "You heard him, we need to fortify the gate out there," the king was the first to speak, the first to get a better hold on himself, "let''s go, we''ll try to buy you enough time to do it."

    There wasn''t enough time to do any of that. All of the masters here were exhausted and terribly wounded. And they were this close to the gate.

    Thest line of defence was the Tro and the five formations William built inside the tunnel. They weren''t enough to dy the enemies more than two hours, three at most. And that meant they had little time on their hands.

    Once realising this, they didn''t stop anymore and started to run towards the gate. The masters who were supposed to help William and the king to power up the Troll stood and poured their spirit power into it. While another group of masters, led by Fang, decided to wait inside the tunnel.

    "We''ll buy you more hours by activating the formations slowly," Fang shouted, "it''s lucky that the first formation is lightning, my type, hahaha!"

 Chapter 1169: Transformers Big Secret

    In the middle of all this, this old man never grew tired of using William''s lightning formation. Hisugh looked a bit absurd, making everyone look at him in a weird way.

    "It''s not luck, it was all intentional," William rolled his eyes when he heard that, "you got at least ten hours to prepare, we''ll slowly grind them here, and try to buy you more time. Go, go now."

    Masters paused when they heard Fang''s words, but they returned to run again. They knew they had much more time than what they initially expected. And that was great news to them.

    The Troll got activated, and hordes of monsters and dark masters got cleared out in batches in the next two hours. As William took his time to power up the Troll, thetter couldst a bit longer, and its attacks reached far-distanced ces.

    Yet the enemies relentlessly came after them. In two hours, the Troll exhausted its power, and then the time for the formations inside came.

    As Fang said before, he and others started to activate these formations one after another, slowly, taking two up to three hours each to activate every formation.

    "We''ll go out now," the king didn''t wait to watch and took everyone with him to leave.

    "I''ll remain behind," but against what everyone thought, William decided to stay behind.

    "Are you nuts?" Sloth shouted, "We''ll need every help we need¡­"

    "I need to take them out," William pointed towards the statues, "so leave now and I''ll follow."

    "..."

    They all looked at the giant statues, knowing how hard it was to move them on one''s own. They were alive, but they couldn''t move. And no one knew how to move such behemoths of stone.

    They offered their help to William, but thetter refused, "Just go, I know how to get them moving."

    He wasn''t bluffing. The moment they all went through the gate, William turned to all of the statues, "You know it''s time for you to show your real self¡­"

    "You also know about that?!!" This wasn''t just a shockingment from one of them but from many. They never expected William to know such a secret about them, one that even the Nightmare monster didn''t.

    "What are you talking about?" the Nightmare monster couldn''t help but ask, "What secret?"

    "You''ll see by yourself now," William crossed his arms, "I know this will consume lots of spirit power from you, but it''s not a problem. You aren''t going to fight anytime soon, and you can restore these by resting for a few days, right?"

    "You do know a lot about us¡­ How?!!!" another statue asked, one of the remaining leaders of them.

    "Consider me a prophet, just do it, we have little time here," William gave them a serious look, "you need a few hours to finalise that change, so start it now!"

    William knew more about these Transformers than anyone else in this world. Their top weak point was their inability to move around easily, but they could move! Or else, howe they moved from the Scorching Lands city all the way to here?

    The secret was simple, they could change their bodies from being colossal immovable chunks of stone into bulbs of light!

    In front of the Nightmare monster, it saw these giant statues shift and change in the next few hours. The first change that happened was for the giant stone statues to melt down as if their bodies got exposed tova or something.

    Soon enough, the Nightmare monster realised it wasn''t melting, but evaporating. The stones didn''t fall, just turned to copious amounts of smoke that rose up, merging with thin air, leaving nothing behind.

    "This¡­" the Nightmare monster was shocked by this. He watched them, then watched William, and couldn''t help but wonder where this youngster got all this information from.

    William stood up there, without showing any sign of getting surprised by any of that. Even when the hundreds of statues changed into oval-shaped bulbs of light, he didn''t show any surprise on his face.

    This was something he had seen before in his past life. "Let''s go," William pointed at the gate, "out there, we''ll find tons of enemies, and will fight a lot against them. You can''t stay like this for a long time, you do know that. So you need to work and kill the enemies, absorb their spirit power to survive¡­"

    "We can eat up humans, right?" one of the statues said, "that''s how we used to do it¡­"

    "If you have a suicidal wish, just let me know beforehand and I''ll ease your passing to the afterlife," William snorted, "just stick to my orders to the lettre. I''ll keep an eye on all of you, so don''t let me down."

    The statues went into silence, as these words told them he knew even the traits and limitations of this special version of theirs.

    It was true they could change into this form, but it came with a grave cost. Their spirit power consumption would skyrocket, something even the oldest and strongest ones couldn''t handle.

    The only way to survive was by absorbing others'' spirit power, Suction Ability it was called. They could merge with anyone''s body, suck their spirit power dry in mere minutes! This was an ability that could be considered tyrannical, especially when considering such time was needed to empty scary folks'' spirit power like Fang.

    Other weak targets would take a much shorter duration, even a few seconds for those at the silver grade or lower. They might be considered killing machines in this mode, and they always try to kill humans all the time when travelling.

    But now William ordered them to not touch a single master''s hair, focus only on the enemies, their old allies. This was something unexpected for them to believe to happen. And yet William''s words knocked more sense back to their minds.

    They didn''t enjoy their past freedom anymore. And so they unwillingly followed William out through the gate.

 Chapter 1170: Going Back To The Continent

    To pass the gate, one had to jump high to reach it. It was hanging almost a hundred metres off the ground. Yet anyone jumping to be fifty metres away from it could pass directly through.

    Not to mention there was some sort of suction power by the gate, facilitating such a pass. Before leaving, William made sure to check on everyone standing behind, making sure things were rolling nicely out there.

    Two formations were drained, and the third was just activated. He knew they''d take around six up to nine more hours before they''d get done here. Then it''d be a hellish survival battle out there.

    *Fwoosh!*

    The moment William passed through the gate, and the world outside brightened up. It was already midday time, and all over the ce, he could see lots of people. They were shouting, fighting, and building. He spotted traps, arrays, and even rudimentary defences being hastily built up there.

    The gate opened in vast open ins, with a single big hill at a distance. The area was filled with tons of masters, and all around, there were shadows of dark masters and monsters fighting hard against them.

    "They aren''t slow to react," William muttered while hundreds of light pulps appeared all around him in no time.

    "They already rmed the forces in the area, great," the Nightmare monster''s voice came from the side, pretty annoying to William.

    "It''s obvious they built a connection to a strong base of their dirty allies," William restored back, motioning towards the flying light bulbs hanging around him.

    "Don''t me them, me yourself for stirring the ho nest when you aren''t ready," the Nightmare monster snorted, "couldn''t they keep their activity low? Build a few traps and defences here and there instead of wasting their effort and distracting their forces like this?"

    "Shut up," William rolled his eyes, "move, we won''t stay here."

    He instantly dashed forward. He knew the situation was hot on all fronts, as he inspected it using his spirit sense just now. There were tons of enemiesing, flooding this ce from the hill in the distance. But that wasn''t a big threat, not yet.

    Even if they came hot, they were stilling from a single direction. And that left most of the shes pointed in one direction mainly, the hill''s direction.

    William was exhausted and wounded, tired of fighting for such a long time. And in such a stage, his efforts weren''t that needed. The main goal of everyone here wasn''t to crush the enemy but buy themselves enough time before reinforcements would arrive.

    The main challenge they had to deal with wasn''t actually the enemiesing from the hill, but the ones about toe from the direction of the gate. That was also why he decided to take a step back, rest and recuperate until such a thing would happen.

    He didn''t leave the perimeter of the gate area. He moved for five hundred metres, before sitting on the ground, closing his eyes, and training.

    "Can''t believe you are training in such a situation¡­ Weirdo¡­" The Nightmare monster mulled over William''s actions, and yet thetter didn''t even shake an eysh for what he heard.

    William wasn''t actually training, he was resting. But trying to sleep in the middle of such an outrageous and bloody battle would raffle lots of masters and make them feel ufortable.

    So he decided to take the stance of training while waiting for thest batch of high-end masters toe out, then the enemies would flood next.

    If it was up to him, he''d prefer to take a long nap. Even training was much better than just forcing himself to stay awake and not sleep. Yet he had to keep himself like that, waiting for the enemies toe.

    In the next few hours, lots of masters kept working around. William kept himself awake by watching their moves. As for the Nightmare monster, it showed no interest in any of that, mimicked William at some point, sat on the ground and trained.

    "Get ready!" Just seven hourster, Fang and a few others appeared out of thin air. To William, they felt like they jumped from a small altitude, andnded on the ground. He thought the gate opened at the ground directly, but it released people from a point fifty metres up there.

    "Enemies areing," another high-end master shouted, warning other masters working around about what wasing towards them. William slowly opened his eyes, and took a deep breath, before standing up.

    "Wake up, idiot, it''s not time to sleep," he didn''t spare the Nightmare monster from a kick, forcing that dude out of training as it got electrified by a bolt of lightning.

    "Can''t you have shouted instead? Damn you¡­"

    "Get ready, you are going to fight on my side," William didn''t give any heed to any of that monster''s enraged words. In fact, it felt amusing to kick this monster''s as* and force it out of training like this.

    William took out the remaining monstrous weapons, spread thest standing of his flying weapon arsenal, and waited. He held his weapons, changed into his spirit body form, and armed up his tails with weapons.

    "Can''t you spare me from this?" from the side, the Nightmare monster tried to find a way out from doing this, "it''s just weird how I''m going to attack my old allies¡­"

    "As if you do care about any of your allies," William rolled his eyes, "consider them as weaker monsters, and you are eating them for lunch."

    "Doesn''t sound that bad when you say it this way," the Nightmare monster evillyughed, "so, what''s the n?"

    "Nothing, we''ll wait for them toe out, hit them hard, and keep them confined here," William didn''t know if this was the contingency n the king and others devised or not. But to him, this was the simplest and most effective n ever.

    "We are going to fight freely then, let me go that way, and keep these enemies under check," the Nightmare monster pointed towards one direction, totally the opposite direction from where William was.

 Chapter 1171: He Wants To Play

    "Trying to go away from my reach? No way! You''ll stay by my side, fight together. If you cked, I swear¡­"

    "Fine, fine, don''t try to threaten me, I won''t ck," the Nightmare monster said such apologetic words, in a tone that was void of any apology or sense of ming.

    "You too are going to fight," William turned to the flying balls of lights. And before anyone would say any lie, he added, "I know you can absorb one''s spirit power and kill him in mere minutes. Together, you can bring down any target in mere seconds! So, don''t ck."

    "..." he got no response from the Transformers, but they knew they couldn''t hide it from him. He knew, knew everything rted to them, knew all their secrets, and that was simply frustrating as it was weird.

    "They are here!" Fang jumped next and appeared by William''s side, "why didn''t you build a formation for me?"

    "Do you take me as a candy shop owner or what?" William rolled his eyes, before turning to look at the front. The gate gushed out many enemies, all dressed in ck, with cloaks covering up even their features, "this isn''t a battle needing to use such a weapon."

    "I can kill anythinging no matter what!" Fang didn''t drop his desire to use that formation one more time.

    "Just get used to this," William evillyughed, "no more lightning formations for you to y with in the near future. Let''s go, let''s kill all of them, on me!"

    William didn''t stand back to entertain Fang, moved fast, and shed directly towards the iing enemies. The first batch was formed of a few hundred, but then more started toe.

    The early batches fell victim to the traps and arrays around and got killed fast. But then the traps got exhausted, and the arrays werecking the ability to stop them all. William didn''t move alone, as other masters stationed here moved, fought against the iing enemies bravely, stopping them from advancing.

    They got an area of a few hundred metres around the gate to gather and station at. But when the high-end enemies appeared, they pushed the line back further, doubling and tripling that area in no time.

    Masters around felt the pressure, yet William already saw such a thinging. The enemiesing from that pocket world weren''t all weak. Even if they killed lots of their high-end members, there were still enough to cause problems here.

    "Let me use the formation," Fang shouted at the top of his lungs when that happened, but William didn''tply.

    "Just keep fighting, and we''ll slowly retreat," he looked behind before adding, "They secured a huge area already, we can use that."

    He wasn''t wrong. During the past hours, the masters here fought the enemies pushed for more distance, and gained morend. They controlled enough area to allow them to retreat safely without many issues.

    Not to mention the enemiesing from the big hill weren''t that strong nor threatening like the onesing from the pocket world. And that was mainly because they never saw the appearance of masters hereing.

    Unlike them, the enemiesing from the pocket world were prepared for a deadly fight. William knew the king and other high-end masters could spot such differences, and they''d rearrange their forces, making sure to send more stronger allies to this side of battle.

    In the next half an hour, what he predicted happened. The king sent Sloth, leading lots of high-end masters, close to eighty percent of the total count the army had. With their arrival, things started to stabilise again.

    "Easy boys, the big dudes are here," Sloth said in a loud and happy tone, yet what he got was an enraged shout from Fang.

    "Screw you! Big dudes? You are just big idiots," Fang fumed with rage, making Sloth and others even pause for a few seconds in their tracks. They all looked at him, and behind Fang, William started to madlyugh.

    "He is just pissed off because you cut way over his expected y with formations," William couldn''t prevent himself from pointing toward Fang and saying these words.

    "Screw you as well! As you know, why didn''t you let me y with these before this is all over? Huh?"

    "Come on, a big guy like yourself and still want to fcking y? Aren''t you ashamed of yourself?" William pointed again at him whileughing without control.

    "I won''t be ashamed of such a thing, this formation rocks! I want it, want to y with it again,e and build me one!"

    "Stop it already, you are embarrassing yourself in front of the kid," Sloth couldn''t help but interfere, after controlling his desire tough over Fang, "anyway, we are here, and that means things are going to be okay for now. Let''s start, we''ll take down the big ones, and you handle the rest."

    He led everyone, scattered around, moved to contain the untamed big forcesing out from the gate. With their arrival, pressure all over the masters here was instantly relieved. And then William led others with Fang to crush the other weak enemies.

    Fang was like glue and didn''t move away from William. It felt like the man feared missing a moment William would need to use the formation and find someone else other than him to do the job.

    Others didn''t object this time, as the situation wasn''t that intense. Even if there were many high-end forces on the enemy side, their number wasn''t that high nor threatening to begin with.

    Even if they intended to send all of their high-end forces here, they had to do it slowly thanks to therge number of other weak forcesing alongside.

    "It''s fun," Williamughed, intentionally saying this out loud while giving Fang next to him a nce, "isn''t it?"

    "F*ck you!" Fang wasn''t in the mood to enjoy this fight at all. In fact,pared to all the hell they suffered so far, this battle was like a peaceful period, a resting stage, after having a very hard and long working day or such.

 Chapter 1172: Its Over

    The battle between high-end forces was intense and quite deadly. So it was expected for the weaker forces on both sides to move away from any ce near these.

    The high-end masters led by Sloth ced the mission of protecting other weaker masters in front of their eyes. But to the dark masters, this wasn''t a thing to consider in the first ce.

    That made them try to engage weaker masters in the ongoing battles, ending up with Sloth and others expanding the area of their fights, asking other masters to retreat and evacuate, and ending up forming isted areas in the middle of the masters'' army.

    When new high-end enemies would pop up, Fang would interfere and keep them a little busy. Then others woulde and shoulder the pressure off him, before taking them away from the area close to the gate.

    This kept happening for seven hours. During which, William and other masters never felt the same pressure they felt before inside that pocket world. Compared to before, this was like walking in the park to them.

    And that wasn''t inclusive for them. The high-end masters felt the same. At least they could cooperate to take down a single high-end enemy, and most of these were monsters.

    Dark masters were clever enough to note here and throw their lives. They must have heard the news, and they stopped showing up inrge numbers after the first two hours.

    "Great news," after seven hours, a loud shout came from the middle of the army. Without the need to look, William knew he was the king, "reinforcements are here! They are upon us already!"

    Just as his wordsnded, many masters could see arge number of masters, dressing in different uniforms and attires, running in groups, heading towards the enemiesing from the hill.

    Just from the first look, it was easy to tell how grand this army was. "They are finally here, and here I thought they''d nevere," William said while showing an evil smile on his face, one that teased Fang greatly and left him venting over what he was feeling over the enemies around without saying anything.

    He hoped the enemies would get a chance to put up a good fight, one that would leave William behind with no other option but to use his formation again. But that never happened.

    The arrival of reinforcements put an end to all this. They focused first on the hill, hitting it withrge groups of masters, ending up cutting the iing flood of dark masters from there.

    The moment this happened, the king led everyone and went to crush the rear enemies, the onesing from the gate. And soon enough, masters came to reinforce them, making things much easier.

    After a long time of fighting inside that pocket world, the masters who were terribly exhausted and burdened with lots of wounds found a chance atst to breathe and rest.

    For the first time since all this started, they finally had the chance to rest and recuperate properly without fearing or worrying about anything. At this moment, they all realised how truly exhausted they were, how their bodies were in a very terrible state.

    They kept pushing hard all the time, pushing over their boundaries and limits long enough. By the arrival of the reinforcements, it was clear they weren''t in need to keep pushing forward.

    One by one fell on the ground, unable to do anything but look at the ongoing battles as if they were living a dream or something. Even William felt the same. In this expedition, he didn''t end up any better than everyone else, even the high-end masters got their share as well.

    He lost most of his flying weapons, lost eight of his monstrous weapons. He exhausted his grenade and arrow stocks and consumed a ton of the outer world materials in making formations.

    He looked at everything happening around him, yet felt nothing but happiness and pride. He knew such consumables were gained to be used and consumed, and it was great indeed to use them in such a big war.

    It wasn''t like he ended up without reaping any benefits. He looked at the flying balls of lights, the ones that kept fighting for the past hours, killing tons of enemies, sucking their spirit power dry, and ending their lives mercilessly. They were killers, unstoppable, undefeatable, and unkible.

    After fighting for all this time, they never showed any sign of receiving damage or getting tired. In fact, they were shining brighter than before, something that told William they were doing just great.

    "You did well," he didn''t miss the other addition to his team, the enemy that kept bringing him trouble at every corner, the Nightmare monster.

    That monster was a killing machine! It kept using weird techniques, cleaving the heads of tons of enemies in a short time. William didn''t see it use the infamous cloning ability, yet it seemed like it never needed to do so in the first ce.

    "Hmph," the monster sat next to him, without saying anything else. It wasn''t like the balls of lights, suffered a few wounds here and there, and was pretty exhausted by the end of this war.

    "Come on, we''ll have a big party to celebrate our victory soon," Williamughed, teasing this monster and recalling that it killed the folks who were once his most trusted allies.

    "Hmph," the monster didn''t say anything again, simply closed its eyes, and enjoyed these moments without the need to fight.

    William kept that evil smile on his face for a few minutes. He knew that the monster was dying from the inside of what it did. And that made William feel more satisfied.

    He changed his smile to a sweetheartugh when Anjie appeared. She was tired, wounded like everyone else, but that didn''t prevent her from walking and climbing until she arrived at his side.

    Once there, Anjie let her body copse, before throwing her head deeply into his embrace.

    William patted her head while looking around. To him, this was just the perfect conclusion for such a long battle.

 Chapter 1173: Back After Many Weeks

    "You are finally back!"

    The moment William''s feet touched the grounds of Lara''s city, he was met with lots of familiar faces and shouts.

    "Oh, you all came to wee me," he smiled while two heads with long hair pumped in front of his eyes, blocking his vision, as Karoline and Berry threw themselves over him.

    "Hey hey! I''m standing here and you dare to do that?" Anjie crossed her arms, and raised an eyebrow while shouting in a tone that showed no intention of holding back.

    "You got him for fcking too long already, aren''t you satisfied yet?" even Sara stepped up, giving Anjie a defying look.

    She wasn''t alone, as other girls also stepped up, even Lina did. They were all stuck here, training and ruling everything back at the guild''s new base. And when they heard the news of what William was doing, they all regretted not being there with him.

    They waited for his call when they learnt about the grand call for reinforcements, but all they got was a surge in neers joining the guild, with clear instructions delivered from him to not step into this mess.

    They first thought it was going to be an easy battle. But when news spread weekster, they heard how legendary and tough that battle was.

    News spread just one month ago. The return of the Novistic Kingdom''s king was heard by many, and news especially spread in the kingdom and reached their ears.

    They appeared far away from here and brought a ton of enemies alongside them. Luckily the ce they appeared at was at the border of three other kingdoms, and one capital was close by.

    Lots of masters moved there to help, and the battle raged on for ten days straight. In the end, the enemies stopped appearing out of nowhere, and a huge base of the dark masters was undermined and crushed in the middle of all this.

    Then the king and others were warmly weed at one kingdom, the one which had a capital nearby. They remained there for a whole week, recovering and healing. And then they started going back.

    William took his time to return. In fact, he found a good ce there to recruit more masters. His fame skyrocketed, and many were willing to follow him.

    At the same time, he spent some time with his newly gained allies, the statues, and the Nightmare monster. These two knew tons of valuable information about the dark masters and monsters, and he delivered all this intel to the four kings who were present.

    He knew they wouldn''t make a move right away. After all, the statues and the Nightmare monster provided a very detailed map of almost half of the entire continent.

    There were tons ofyers for dark masters and an insane amount of ces to breed monsters. Most of these were located too deep in the vast forests, and that was quite challenging for anyone.

    Just four kings weren''t enough, and William knew that. These four kings agreed to start recruiting more to the cause, n things ordingly, and set a date one yearter to hit and purge all theseirs.

    William didn''t bother himself with any of that. He entrusted this expedition to all of them, retreated, and rested for a few days at the capital with Anjie, before deciding toe back.

    Beforeing, he had to go out and help the statues to farm spirit powers from monsters there. They had to shift into the light balls form again, and that was going to ce huge pressure on their spirit powers.

    In the middle of all this, two were causing him a headache; Fang and the Nightmare monster!

    Fang was obsessed with the lightning formation William made. He kept pestering him for days after the battle ended, asking him to make more formations for him.

    In the end, William gave up and taught him the way to make that formation. "Don''t forget, these materials can''t be reced with any from this world. The only source I know is in Lara''s city¡­"

    "Then I''m going to rob that city and control it!"

    "Shut up! It''s my girl''s city! Don''t ever dream about touching it!" William went speechless for a few seconds when he heard Fang''s words back then. Then he warned the old man to drop such madness.

    In the end, the two agreed to let Fang gain ess to the underground city when they returned. He''d farm the materials he''d need, and try to purchase the rest hecked.

    This was the best oue for William. After reaching such an agreement, Fang retreated and stopped nagging him.

    Yet the Nightmare monster was a different type of pain. That monster kept asking William tons of questions about the Fate and Destiny world, about the future ns, about the nine-tailed fox monster.

    It kept asking, and William never answered a single one of these. He helped Fang as the man was already part of his guild, part of his special team. And Fang proved his worth back at the war.

    He was a freak, very strong, very reliable. His hunger for power wasn''t a bad thing either. But the Nightmare monster was a different case.

    Even if William knew it couldn''t betray him, he still didn''t like that monster. So no matter how hard and desperate the Nightmare monster tried, William never gave him any answer at all.

    William''s constant rejection didn''t undermine the Nightmare monster''s will. It kept throwing tons of questions over William''s head every time William came out of his room. In thest couple of days, William decided to lock himself in his room and train, better than getting a headache from that monster.

    On his side, Anjie never left. The two at a few moments had very intimate situations, ones that ended up with both sleeping in the same room and on the same bed, while enjoying the delicacies of each other.

    That was why when Anjie challenged other girls, William couldn''t help but roll his eyes.

 Chapter 1174: Fangs Dangerous Hint

    William knew she didn''t just have the privilege to be on his side for a long time, away from other girls, she got the chance to enjoy something no other girl had tasted so far.

    "And so what? I''m the one who won that challenge before, remember?" Anjie didn''t back down, even when William gave her a silent gaze.

    "Easy there, let''s just go back first," he had to intervene, or this happy reunion would change into a battle or something.

    Along the way, the girls seemed like they were more united than before. They moved in one group, while ring at Anjie.

    "You seem to trap yourself in a very big mess, hahaha," Fang from the sideughed in amusement, while watching what was happening with much interest

    "As if you didn''t have manydies running around you," William rolled his eyes, and Fang justughed, winked, while adding:

    "I never let a girl by my side unsatisfied, so they were all happy."

    "We are all young here¡­"

    "As if this prevented the two of you from having little fun back there."

    "Fun? What fun?" Like a cheetah, Berry jumped in the talk, while other girls turned their heads towards Fang.

    "Ahem, it seems I need to go¡­ Do something elsewhere," Fang cleared his throat, with a face that showed an evil expression.

    "You damn old fart¡­" William knew Fang did this on purpose, and yet he had no way to punish him except by this, "forget any dreams about having the materials of that formation, let me see how you''ll gain ess to that city, hmph!"

    "I''ll grant you ess," just when Fang was about to plead for William to let him in, Lara stepped up, "just tell me what happened between these two."

    "This¡­" Fang felt the pressure, and without even thinking twice, he turned around and started moving away fast, "I''ve forgotten, that Sloth kid took something from me. I''ll need to get it back. Willeter and meet you at the base of the guild."

    "You¡­" Lara went speechless, and Fang didn''t give her any time to ask or say anything.

    "Let''s go," William tried to control hisugh as hard as he could. Lara was feeling like other girls, that something big must have happened between William and Anjie. But as there was no news about it, they remained silent about this matter.

    During the way to their base, the girls tried to get near William, and Anjie tried her best to stop them. Yet no matter how hard she tried, many managed to draw closer to William. Not to mention Berry and Karoline were already leaning on his shoulders while moving.

    "I see you did great work while I was away," when William reached the base, he noticed it had already turned into a big town. There were huge walls present when they controlled this ce, but they were mostly damaged. Now they were all repaired, looking grand and majestic, with many sentry towers all around the perimeter.

    Inside, there were lots of buildings and wide streets. But that was nothingpared to the empty grounds that were dedicated for the guild members to train.

    "We decided to divide the ce into special regions, each for one of us with his team," Thomas said, and others started to exin everything to William.

    "Good, you didn''t ck, perfect," William was feeling satisfied with what they did. They kept training over the manuals and techniques he imparted to them before. And without agreeing on anything, all of them started a healthy naturedpetition between their teams.

    Sara even thought about arranging some sort of weeklypetition between the teams ording to their spirit power grades.

    "You''ll do it, however¡­ Give theds a few weeks before we''ll do that," William was now inside the central building in the middle of the guild town.

    This building was built to resemble the central building back at the first homebase of the guild. And everyone else was sitting in the big hall in the heart of that building''s second floor.

    "To train?" Lang asked, and William nodded in agreement.

    "They are training for enough time already," Ro argued, "we need them to move some muscles¡­"

    "We have one year," William interrupted her, "our main goal isn''t to have fun, or make them move their muscles. We need to find gems that cane with us to that tournament, and help us win it."

    "But¡­ We trained them very well¡­" Berry interfered, and yet William didn''t listen to any of their words.

    To him, he was focused entirely over the uing tournament. "This tournament is something we need to win no matter what. So, training them well means they raised a grade, did they?"

    His words made everyone look at each other, before Moore asked:

    "Since when did you be a tournament maxi? You always hated such stuff!"

    Moore''s words surprised everyone, not because of what he said, but because he spoke up in the first ce.

    Since this ex-dark master joined the team, he kept himself silent. William and others tried to make him blend, but after the rough start, he kept himself silent and distanced a little bit from everyone.

    "I just got fond of that one," William didn''t exin anything about his true reasons, "just take this matter very seriously. You also won''t get off the hook¡­"

    "What? You just came back after a long time apart and want us to move and train? For real?!!" Berry wasn''t the only one asking this, but other girls had their thoughts the same like hers.

    "What else do you want?" he acted ignorant, as if he didn''t know what she and others had in mind.

    "We need to take a day or two off," Sara cleared up her throat, and seemingly what she wanted to say next choked in her throat.

    "You can take a few days off," William paused, before dropping his bomb next, "but I have lots of work to do. So, feel free to rest away from me."

 Chapter 1175: Let Me Find You A Home

    "This¡­" when William said thest words, he turned to Anjie as if he was speaking to her. She was surprised a little, before looking at the floating balls of lights following them since the battle ended.

    She asked him before about these, and he simply said they were his enemies, and now changed sides.

    "Who are these again?" Sara and others already noticed the floating balls and the weird guy with a crystal on his forehead. Their minds ran wild with many thoughts, and yet William never gave them any direct answer yet.

    "They are his enemies, conquered and now following him," Anjie sighed, as she realised there was no chance in repeating what she had with William anytime soon.

    "Enemies?"

    "Don''t tell me¡­ He is that fcking monster, the one who wanted us dead!"

    "Let''s kill them then¡­"

    Many exploded when they linked the dots and realised the identity of the Nightmare monster. Many of his friends experienced hell on the hands of that monster before, and they shared years of history with it.

    "They are valuable," yet William strictly declined what they asked for, "they are untouchable."

    "..." Everyone exchanged looks without saying anything, they all knew how much William despised these enemies, especially the Nightmare monster

    He slowly exined to them their identities and values. When everyone learnt about the Transformers identities, they couldn''t help but feel more enraged and desire to take a bite off them.

    Yet William refused again to touch a single hair of these. He wanted them to spill out the secrets they didn''t share with anyone before, even to him.

    He didn''t have the mind before to do such a thing, but now he has all the time in the world to do so. "You either rest, or train, I don''t care. You have one week, I''ll be very busy during this¡­"

    "We won''t leave you then," Lara interrupted him, "you were away for too long. We don''t need rest, we need you."

    "Yes, we won''t leave your side," Berry said, while ring at Anjie.

    "Win next time then, and you can enjoy him like me," Anjie was shameless, moved and ced her hands around William''s neck. Thetter cleared his throat, knowing that this situation wouldn''t get any better anytime soon.

    "Let''s go then."

    "Go where?" Everyone was surprised to hear what he said, and before they''d hear the answer, he started to move outside of the building.

    Surprised, they moved and followed him. When they got close to the ce where their friends fell before, they felt a little heavy in their hearts.

    "Are we going to the underground base?" Sara noticed that William led them not to the graves of their friends, but to the nearby hill. It had ess to an underground base, one that the enemies here used to operate from.

    The ce was cleansed back in the day, but it was still abandoned and not used since.

    "We need a ce away from themon eyes and senses," William said this while walking towards the entrance.

    Everyone followed him through the door, into the tunnel, then into the huge space underground. It was like another town under the ground, one that was void, cold, and dark.

    "This is going to be your home," William said to the balls of lights that kept floating around, "pick the ce you like, and I''ll deploy some light arrays around, this ce looks gloomy this way."

    The balls of lights didn''t speak, despite being able to do so. They simply floated around, adding little light around the ces they went to.

    In less than an hour, they already found a suitable ce where they decided to take as home. It was a big hall underground, with one wide entrance, and rocks wereing out from the ceiling and walls.

    With all this darkness, the ce looked much gloomier. Even when William added a few arrays around to lit the ce, it didn''t help much.

    "You surely are great at picking dimly lit ces," William said to the statues, which were now starting to transform back to their solid form, "I''ll leave this ce like this. I believe you like it this way."

    They didn''t answer, and kept transforming. The process took around five hours, and William decided to do something else during this time.

    He was away from the guild and didn''t get thetest updates that happened here. So he used this time to get to know what happened when he was away, and listened to everyone of his friends'' opinions and thoughts.

    Things were indeed quite interesting and great. They led their teams and trained, evolved and kept getting stronger. ording to Lara, many people came from all over the continent toe here, and the number of the guild members tripled since thest time he was here.

    Everything was so good, except for the overall spirit power level the guild had. Even with such influx, most masters were either in gold or silver grade spirit power.

    They still had a long way ahead of them to grow, even with William''s support and his unique training manuals. As for the high end masters, there were still few of them in the guild, not exceeding a hundred.

    A hundred out of hundreds of thousands wasn''t a good percentage at all. And William knew that. What made him more depressed was the fact that all of them were old farts, without any young masters in that limited list.

    To him, depending on this group of old masters was great if he wanted to build a kingdom for himself in this world. But if he wanted to bring a talented team of masters, he''d prefer them to be young.

    It''s not that he was against old masters, he knew it was hard to fill an already filled cup.

    Aside from this, there was a weird phenomenon happening at the underground city, one that started just two weeks ago.

    "Are you saying that the rate of the portals increased?"

 Chapter 1176: The World Gate Issue

    William asked, and Lara and others nodded, in much excitement as if this was great news.

    "We are getting much more materials from the outer world, something like every day''s gain is equal to one month¡­ Can you believe that?"

    "I want these materials!" Before William would say anything else, Fang appeared out of the blue. William was sure he didn''t actually leave, and just followed them silently from the shadows.

    "If he says so, I''ll give them to you," Lara was resentful against Fang for not saying everything that happened between William and Anjie. So, she decided to punish him a little, until he''d spill out what he hid.

    Fang''s face changed the moment he heard Lara''s words, but William waved his hand as he said:

    "It''s not the time for that! I''ll go to the underground city."

    "I''ll being with you then," Fang''s face beamed with excitement, and evenughed, "you are after these materials, right? Right? Let mee, you promised to give me ess¡­"

    "I said it before, no underground city for you for now," William instantly rejected, "just stay in the town, Lara wille with me."

    "Why her?" Anjie shouted in distress, while William rolled his eyes and said:

    "I was away for a long time now; I need her to guide me to the city."

    "Just say it, you''re afraid I''ll make a deal with her and enter that city!"

    "As if I''ll hide her forever from you," William evillyughed, "stay patient, and reflect on your actions, old man."

    Fang was indeed impatient. When he heard William was going to the underground city, he wanted to go there with him. And yet William blocked every path that existed for him to do it.

    "I''ll follow you there," he said in a low voice while watching William and Lara move outside the town.

    "It''s pointless," Berry said, without shifting her eyes away from the couple moving far from the town in fast pace, "without ess from the big shots in the city, you can''t get past the doors leading to the underground city."

    "Little girl, you don''t know me, I''m one of the top three masters in the world, I''m famous¡­"

    "Screw you! Who are you calling little girl?" Out of the blue, Berry changed her attitude from being nice to him to being aggressive, "I now understand why he dealt with you in such a way, you are horrible!"

    "..." Fang was taken aback, and when he learntter that the key to the guild''s door ess were held by Berry, he med himself for being too rash and lost his chance again.

    "You must have something to do out there aside from gathering materials, right?" as William ran beside Lara, heading towards her city as fast as possible, she started stating her doubts.

    "What makes you say that?" William didn''t want to say anything rted to what he was truly thinking about.

    "We already are gathering materials by lots of teams there, and your share is well preserved," she gave him a side look, before adding, "and I never saw you in such a hurry except when there is a huge matter going on. So¡­ What''s going on?"

    "Something I need to deal with personally," William paused, "speaking about the teams working there, I want them out."

    "Want what?!!" Lara was shocked when she heard him say that, "that''s why you made mee with you?"

    "You guessed it right," William winked, "let everyone out, it''s going to be so dangerous down there."

    "More reasons for more masters to be present to help you¡­"

    "No, they''ll just stand in my way," William instantly interrupted her words, "When we arrived, send out the word. They have three hours to leave, or else they are responsible for their lives."

    "Is it that serious?" For the first time since William said he wanted to go to the underground city, she felt deep worry over him, "are you going to be ok?"

    "I''m going to be fine," William said, "but no one else is. I don''t have time to take care of anyone, so it''s best for them to leave."

    "Got you," she nodded in agreement, and then didn''t speak with him again until they arrived in the city.

    William didn''t have time to check the city when he came here hours ago, but now he could. As Lara went to deal with things to call everyone back, he went around and strolled around the city.

    He didn''t do this to check on the city''s progress, but to try and sort out his thoughts.

    "The only way to make the portals increase in frequency is the destabilisation of that gate¡­ What possibly could have gone wrong for it to go berserk?"

    He muttered to himself while walking down the city streets. As he went off radar for a long time, not many recognised him. The ones who did, only stopped walking, looking at him as if they were looking at a ghost or someone great.

    He didn''t care about any of that and kept walking while listing all the answers he could get.

    There were many scenarios that would cause such a phenomenon. "The worst is that someone found the crack in space in the outer world, and is trying to amend it¡­ I can''t do anything if that''s the case¡­"

    This was the worst scenario he could think of. Luckily, he knew such a thing had a very low chance of happening. It required a very skilled master with a space element to detect the crack there, and that needed him to be close to the crack by less than five hundred metres, and be there when the crack worked.

    There was a long list of conditions William could think of for anyone to detect such crack. And that made such scenarios hold the lowest chances in his list.

    As for the one that got the highest possibility was for someone or something to interfere with the gate. This was a verymon thing to happen, if someone interfered with the gate.

 Chapter 1177: Going To The Underground City

    "These gates are like giant formations, so it needs a big part of its foundation to get ruined¡­ If someone was doing it, then others would have detected him already¡­"

    Yet such a scenario didn''t make sense. The underground city was filled to the brim with masters from different forces. Even if someone tried to hide his actions using a concealment array, this would take him forever to undermine enough foundations of that gate, ending up for it to act this way.

    "The only logical possibility is for the gate to lose its source of power¡­ This will exin everything¡­" he reached this conclusion after two hours of deeply thinking about that.

    For the gate to work, it needed to absorb power from the world, and also from materials buried in its foundation. If these materials got exhausted, then the gate would malfunction, and such weird happenings would ur.

    "It''s time to check on Lara," after reaching such a conclusion, he felt a little at ease. He knew the gate was made by people from the outside world. And that meant to repair it, he needed materialsing from that world.

    That wasn''t an issue, especially after all the surge of the iing materials here. He just needed to study the gate, see what materials were used, and then assemble them or something simr from the drops the city was gathering for so long.

    As he decided on a n, he started to spread out his spirit, examining the entire city in a calm mind and spirit. The city did indeed grow to be something simr to a kingdom''s capital. Be it in terms ofnd size, the diversity of buildings, and the endless stream of people living here, it wasn''tcking in anything to be called a capital.

    People here seemed to grow used to the life of peace and safety. They were happilyughing, walking around and not even paying attention to the walls or anything. There weren''t any patrol units inside the city, only a few individuals would show up if a problem happened like a fight or something.

    But overall, the city looked as if it was living in another time and ce than the rest of the world. And William was quite satisfied with such developments.

    "Are you sure you don''t need any help?" Lara was standing with William in front of the door leading to the underground city.

    She already called back everyone from there, and yet she didn''t like the idea of William going inside alone.

    "I''ll be fine," yet William still rejected, before passing through the door and closed it behind him, "don''t send anyone in, or else they''ll all die," he added thisst warning just before closing the door.

    "Tsk," and Lara knew he saw through her intentions, "as if I''m going to believe high end masters won''t survive inside and protect you," but she didn''t listen to his warning the same as he rejected her offer to help.

    As she went to find a group to enter and keep an eye over him, William stood in front of the tform on top of the long stairs, overlooking the entire underground city.

    "It didn''t change that much," he muttered to himself while watching the demolished buildings and ruins filling his whole eyesight for kilometres around.

    The ce was silent and calm, without any trace of any monster. And yet he knew the moment he''d step on the ground; he''d get hunted by hordes of monsters.

    "I''m not here to y with them," he waved his hand, and the remaining two monstrous weapons appeared, "go, test monsters out."

    He controlled them using his spirit sense, and that meant he could now control them for tens of kilometres of range.

    The moment he thought about it, they moved at once. As they reached the ground, they got weed by hordes of monsters.

    William wasn''t interested in monsters, and he knew it was impossible to try and get rid of these. But he knew they were feeding over the energy released from the gate.

    If the gate got weakened thanks to theck of power, then these monsters would show a change. That was why he stood up there and watched, while his monstrous weapons kept fighting against many monsters, and attracting much more towards here.

    He closely watched the monsters fight against his two monstrous weapons. And in half an hour, he reached a conclusion.

    "They are weakened indeed¡­ Something is wrong with my precious baby¡­" he shifted his eyes away from the ongoing battle and looked at the direction of his well-hidden gaps.

    He created holes leading to the deeply embedded gate before. And then he covered these so no one would find them. "I have to go and check it then¡­" he looked at the ongoing battle, controlling his two weapons to lure the monsters away from here.

    Once he reached the nearest hole, he removed the rocks and dirt he ced there. "Luckily it''s near the stairs," he muttered while removing the rocks and creating a small gap for him to pass through.

    He didn''t want to remove the rocks entirely, or else he''d take much longer to cover it up. As his earlier assumptions were correct, then he knew he had to go and check on various ces. And he didn''t want to dy himself by covering up the holes.

    As for monsters, he knew these bulb monsters could pass through the ground. So it didn''t matter to them if there was a hole or not.

    The moment he cleared enough space for him, he didn''t hesitate and took out his weapons. He had just a small distance tunnel for ten metres, then there was the bottom of this hole.

    He moved his flying weapons, and dashed directly through the hole, barging directly towards the end of it, worked his weapons and flying weapons, used his technique, and exploded the wall of rocks blocking his path deeper.

    The moment he hit that ground, he crushed it and found himself pushing forward fast.

 Chapter 1178: Pyramids!

    "F*ck off!" The moment he prated the ground, he got assaulted by tons of monsters that came from every direction towards him.

    And his answer was simple, he waved his flying weapons, and started to hit all the ground using his weapons.

    The deeper he went, the more monsters he met, and that made quite sense. After all, these monsters were feeding over the power of the gate, and with it getting weaker, it was normal for them to gather closer.

    At some point, advancing just ten metres deep was a real challenge! He didn''t call back his two monstrous weapons, as they were doing just fine by lowering the pressure off his shoulders.

    "I finally got to you," the moment he felt like his tail prated into the air, and he knew he had reached the space that had the grand portal. The gate was deeply buried under the ground, and he was sure there was a vast space down below. And he was right.

    The moment his tails prated thestyer of rocks, William didn''t hesitate to push forward with everything he had. The moment he passed through that line, monsters that kept hunting him started to weirdly burn.

    "Interesting¡­" William was in midair when he noticed what happened to the monsters chasing him, "this ce is filled with high calibre spirit power¡­"

    The space he fell into was at least one kilometre in height. He let his body free fall before using his technique, moved fast and changed his trajectory, hitting the ground.

    Yet it wasn''t a smoothnding. He left behind a long trail while his body rolled on itself for hundreds of metres.

    "Ouch¡­ I miss flying at such moments," he slowly stood up, took out a healing potion, and waited for a few minutes for his wounds and crushed organs to heal.

    The space he got into was indeed quite vast. "It''s spreading under the entire city, and even extended beyond¡­" he couldn''t touch the end of this space with his spirit sense, and he was able to cover tens of kilometres now. That meant the city was just lying on a tiny part of the entire area of this gate.

    "Inded close to the edge of this ce¡­" the area hended upon was filled with rocks and dirt. It wasn''t that different from Lara''s city or the underground city area. Yet there was something different here.

    William saw before a few inter-world gates, and they were all looking like any formation. Yet this one was different. Instead of having lines drawn on the ground and materials buried there, he noticed the presence of small pyramid shaped structures, assigned in a grand formation.

    Each pyramid was about ten metres high, five metres wide. Their outer surface was shining with red light, yet it was dimmed and felt like it was dying or something.

    "These pyramids¡­ It''s the first time for me to see one of these¡­" William''s curiosity was instantly piqued. He didn''t recall anything he saw or read before close to these pyramids. And that made him realise this wasn''t a simple gate as he thought before.

    The first thing he jumped off to was the fact this gate was dying out of spirit power. The lightsing out from the pyramids weren''t equal in intensity. Some were still shining bright, and others were dimly lit.

    "Hmm¡­ These pyramids are made out of the same type of ore¡­ But what type is it?" He touched the pyramids around, and luckily he didn''t get any bacsh or any harm.

    The light shone from them wasn''t acting like a shield. And when he touched the pyramids, he noticed that they got different temperatures at their surfaces.

    The ones shining bright were feeling a bit cold, and the ones dimly lit were warmer. "Power produces heat, why do these pyramids turn icy cold when they are filled with power?" he said these words to himself, while checking more pyramids.

    He first wanted to see what type of ore these pyramids were made of. And yet he failed to identify this ore. Then he tried to find a hole or a mechanism to open these pyramids and see what was inside. But he also failed to spot anything.

    "Hmm¡­ They look as if nature formed them in such a way¡­ No holes, no gaps, everything lookspact and a whole¡­" he kept analysing and thinking about these mysterious pyramids.

    And then he decided to leave the question of the ore and test something else.

    The first thing he did was to ingest his spirit power into one pyramid. The moment he tried to do it, he felt like his spirit power got sucked dry in a blink of an eye. If not for his swift response to stop what he was doing, he''d have fallen dead in the next few seconds.

    "Damn it! These pyramids are really brutal!" He was struggling to stand up after such a setback. The spirit power he got as big enough to allow him to fight using his strongest techniques for hours! And yet it got depleted in a mere second.

    Yet that didn''t prevent him from trying it again. Yet this time, he came prepared. "Let''s see how you''ll suck my spirit power dry," he made a small array to harness the spirit power from the area, standing in the middle of it, while one pyramid was there.

    The n was to let him absorb spirit power while touching that pyramid. And yet what truly happened was for the pyramid to shine brighter, while the area inside that array started to get filled with faint white mist.

    He just spent a few moments to finalise the array and activate it before entering. And the moment he did, he stood in his ce motionless, closely watching all this unfolding.

    "Hmm¡­ The pyramid seems hungry for spirit power, even racing me towards it," he couldn''t help butugh when he noticed this, "but¡­ I thought they could absorb spirit power properly¡­ Something is wrong here¡­"

 Chapter 1179: An Easier Plan To Repair The Portal

    William looked around, and decided to do two things. First he''d set up more arrays around pyramids, and also wait patiently to see the result of this.

    As he finished preparing everything, he waited on the side for ten hours. At first, the pyramids kept shining brighter with every passing minute. Then after three hours, he noticed the light didn''t increase in intensity except after ten minutes

    Ten minutes turned eventually to one whole hour. And after that, he felt like there was no hope for the light to intensify any further.

    "Perhaps the pyramids need more time," he muttered to himself, "yet this will take forever¡­" he knew waiting now wasn''t going to work. And yet he wasn''t that dejected.

    "If I managed to build arrays around all the pyramids, I may be able to fix such a problem, right?" he looked around, before feeling how crazy this n was.

    This ce was simply gigantic. Trying to make a few of these arrays wouldn''t take that much longer. But trying to cover up everything was insane.

    "I need more help¡­" At this point, he realised doing it himself wouldn''t do, "I need to rebuild more of my monstrous weapons¡­"

    Yet building these was going to take him quite some time. Building a single weapon would take roughly half a day now from him. And yet that didn''t stop him.

    He already lost eight of his monstrous weapons in thest expedition. And this time, he nned to build twenty more.

    "I have nothing to worry about so far, so why shouldn''t I do it?" As he decided on this n, he started to spread out the two monstrous weapons and all the others he''d manage to build around.

    He controlled them to build more arrays while he was building more weapons. As he was immersed in all this, and after the passage of two days, Lara finally decided to send people to look after him.

    She wanted to send people after his entry to the underground city. And yet she was worried he''d notice them,e back, and give her a long talk.

    Yet after two days, she finally decided to take the risk. "He must be somewhere working and busy, so search carefully in all buildings and try to not cause too much noise, ok?"

    She gathered a team of a hundred, led by three of the high end masters in her family.

    Her best guess was that William was working somewhere inside a protective shield of many inside that city. And so she asked them to start looking for him inside these ces.

    The ones she selected knew that ce very well. They didn''t need a map or guidance, didn''t even think about walking around aimlessly and looking for these protective arrays.

    The moment they entered the underground city, they knew exactly where to look. And all that made their presence unfruitful, as they were all looking in the wrong directions.

    William was busy building his monstrous weapons and controlling them to build arrays around pyramids. As he guessed it, trying to cover up all the pyramids proved to be a very long and tedious task.

    After he finished building up twenty of his monstrous weapons, he had to stop. First he exhausted part of the necessary materials to build the weapons. And controlling this number toy down arrays while building more weapons was cing a huge pressure over him.

    "I should stop it here," he looked around, covering up the area his monstrous weapons worked at, "even after all this time, I doubt I covered even ten percent of this ce¡­ Who is the crazy one who built this portal here?"

    He had to drop what he was doing. This wasn''t going to work, and so he started to adopt another approach.

    "At least fifty percent of the pyramids should be repaired and supported with my arrays, this way the portal will be fixed¡­" he knew this was going to work, and he''d have to do less work.

    "But¡­ If I will do it this way, it''s better to do it on a grand scheme¡­" William said to himself, as he thought about using the little arrays to form a grand formation.

    "Trying to do a spirit power absorption formation won''t work¡­ For a reason, spirit power here is quite limited¡­" he knew the spirit power in this ce was of a higher grade, but it felt like the pyramids couldn''t absorb it properly.

    And that made him think about doing something different. "Aplex formation, one that''s built over the spirit absorption concept to concentrate and purify the spirit power in the area¡­ Whatever the source of this high grade spirit power is, my formation will suck spirit power from it like a whale."

    Willim loved this idea, but there was something he had to do first. He needed to scout the entire area, so he''d get a rough sketch in his mind about the entire area.

    "I spent many days making my weapons, what''s the problem in adding few more days as well?" he harrumphed, and then started to work on this goal.

    He moved around, memorising the areas he visited, as he expected, he took three days toplete moving around the area. And that was incredible as his speed now was like the speed of an arrow.

    "It''s indeed quite huge," William muttered, before taking in a deep breath, "this can be done using thebined three big formations¡­ It won''t take much time, and its effect will be grandiose¡­"

    This formation was like building three formations on top of each other. This might seemplicated, but it wasn''t that much considering he''d built it using the same array.

    He just needed to draw the general design, then everything would roll out nicelyter on.

    Once decided, the first thing he did was to draw the general design of the grand formation. Then he started to mark the key points of each of the three formations, and let his boys handle making them.

 Chapter 1180: Thomas And Fang

    William didn''t take part in making arrays, instead he kept examining and observing the pyramids around. He didn''t drop the idea of getting to know what these pyramids were. And yet after days of examining, all he got was little info about them.

    "They can store spirit power, and yet they have limited ability to do so. The amount they can store isn''t that much, and that may exin the huge number of them here¡­"

    This was the first discovery he noticed, and then after two days of observation and walking around, he noticed something else.

    "The ground¡­ It''s pulsating with power between a group of pyramids augmented by my arrays¡­" he noticed that with every group of pyramids, some sort of a link was established there.

    As his weapons kept building more arrays, more pyramids kept shining brighter, and also the ground. But it felt like pulses of power got emitted in between these pyramids, like some sort of a signal or something.

    "Are they giving power to each other? Sharing it perhaps?" He kept thinking about what it meant. At the same time he dug the ground at different ces, and yet found nothing special at all.

    He thought there would be some sort of lines connecting these pyramids underground, like a grand. But with the absence of this, he could tell the power came from pyramids and moved to other pyramids.

    "If they are sending these as pulses or signals, what are they trying to do here then?" he muttered to himself after two days of deep study and digging. He got that these pyramids kept sending signals between each other in a group of one hundred. These signals came at any given time, without order nor logic behind.

    This was another mystery added to the pyramids. And that made him more curious to learn more about the true use and nature of these pyramids.

    As he kept studying and testing, time passed fast. After two weeks of his absence, his friends all gathered with Lara, and they learnt about what happened so far.

    They didn''t feel it was weird. After all, it was a custom for him to vanish and do things solo. And yet this never happened before unless there was something grand that was going to happen.

    They wanted to go into the underground city and see what he was doing. But just before they''d move there, the team Lara sent returned, and they brought the bad news back.

    "He isn''t found anywhere there?! Where did he go then?!!" Lara was very experienced about the city more than anyone else.

    "Let''s go and look for him then, I can''t believe he can escape my spirit sense," Fang cleared his throat, putting a veil of cooperation and good intention in front of the rest of the team.

    He kept tagging along and had high hopes to get into the rumoured underground city. So when he heard everything, he couldn''t help but act as a wolf impersonating a sheep.

    "I''m sure he is doing something big," Lang shook his head, "and I believe a hellish battle awaits us down there."

    "Battle? Why are you saying this?" Lara asked in doubt, and the old members of the team just smiled and said nothing. They all experienced a lot with William before, and it was normal for the to

    "You''ll get it when we go in there," Sara said, while taking out two swords, "let''s go, I''m sure he is going to face a tough situation in there and will regret not asking us to help."

    "But we have no clue where he is," Anjie looked at Lara, and thetter shrugged.

    "This is not a problem while I''m here," Thomas suddenly stepped up, "leave this task over for me to handle."

    "Oh¡­ We''ll follow your lead then," Sara and others nodded, while Anjie and Lara looked in doubt towards Thomas.

    "He is special," Berry said, as if Thomas'' unique ability was something to brag about in front of the newly joined members of the team.

    "We don''t need you, I can easily find him within seconds," Fang snorted, "just stand aside, so you don''t block my way, kiddo."

    "Ok," unlike what others expected, Thomas shrugged, "but if you fail, don''t stand in my way, grandpa."

    "Hmph," Fang didn''t put Thomas in his eyes at all. In fact, anyone not knowing how scary this youth''s talent was would underestimate him.

    He got the karma spirit element, and under William''s special care, he grew to be someone truly scary. He couldn''t just track things using karma, but also could now fight back and kill his enemies under certain conditions.

    "Let''s go then," Lang rubbed his hands, "I''m excited to see what boss is doing down there."

    "Follow me," Lara was also feeling the same curiosity, like everyone else. So she led them into the underground city, and there they found nothing special.

    "It''s impressive," this was Fang''s first time here, "I can see tons of shielded arrays in the damaged buildings, what for?"

    "You don''t see the monsters?" Thomas evilly grinned, "and you want to find a boss with such ability?"

    "Hmph, you stay here then, I''ll go down there and find him for you," Fang didn''t like the tone nor the attitude of Thomas. And so he hurriedly left, literally jumped off the cliff, without waiting to hear what Lara and others had to say.

    And then it was expected how hard he experienced down below in the next few minutes.

    "Damn! Those monsters¡­ They are endless! And how can we kill them?" After an hour, he couldn''t take the pressure anymore and had to retreat.

    "Hahaha, you went down there and kept attacking right and left with all your might? You really have a suicidal wish, hahahah," Lara couldn''t control herself and keptughing, while Fang felt like he didn''t get any of that.

    He tried to attack with everything he got, but against what he thought, the monsters didn''t die.

 Chapter 1181: Finding Williams Traces

    Instead, their numbers kept growing like there was no end for that. In the end, Fang had to return back as he couldn''t figure out how to kill these monsters.

    When anyone saw this from above, he''d see a grand storm of monstersing towards Fang from everywhere, like locusts. Fang returned back to the cliff and was ready to continue the fight, but nothing happened.

    Monsters just retreated the moment he got on top of the cliff. They seemed to fear something, and that made Fang heave a sigh of relief.

    "What the hell is this ce? Is it cursed?" he couldn''t help but ask, and his words brought forth another wave ofughter.

    "You just went down there without even asking anything about these monsters," Thomas was the most enjoying all this, "stand aside, grandpa, and watch how we''ll do it."

    "..." Fang was about to snort again, say something mean and rude, but he recalled what he experienced down below and decided to keep his mouth shut and watch.

    And then he saw how the team of youngsters managed to kill these monsters efficiently, without even suffering a single damage.

    William''s friends were together for a long time, and they developed some tacit understanding towards each other. Even the newly joined ones like Anjie and Lara had no problem in integrating with the team and got mixed in the tempo.

    As the team had previous experience in dealing with the monsters here, they easily walked through hordes of monsters, killing their way, while taking breaks in the middle of the ruined city.

    Fang grabbed the idea behind their tactics quite fast. And soon enough, he started to kill monsters faster than anyone else.

    "Stay here and rest, I''ve just started warming up," he said after ten hours of fighting inside the ruined city streets. He was impatient again, as he wanted to regain his image in front of the youngsters.

    "Wait¡­ That old man is quite fast to run," Sara was about to stop him, but she was half a beatter than Fang.

    "He is quite impatient," Thomas shook his head as if he was watching a naughty kid creating trouble everywhere, "he totally forgot why we are here, tsk."

    "Tell me u got the trail of our boss," Lang looked around, "he can''t be here, so where is he?"

    "Perhaps he is here but those who came didn''t search well enough," Berry said, while giving Lara a side nce. Even if the girls got amon enemy, Anjie, they still had their friction and differences.

    "Hmph, I sent high end masters, and they won''t fail to search far and wide for him," Lara snorted, epted the challenge of Berry with calm demeanour, "on top of that, they are well aware of the city, know every spot here."

    "He isn''t here," Thomas suddenly said, putting an early end to this repeated andmon sh between the girls, "I saw him going to a certain spot, then his trail ended there."

    "Ends there¡­ Like vanishing?!" Anjie asked in doubt, and Thomas slowly nodded.

    "Don''t ask me, he is the boss, and he always does things differently," he shrugged, "but my karma technique won''t lie, he went there, and vanished."

    He pointed towards a direction, one that wasn''t that far away from the hill they came down from. They were around five kilometres away from it, but they knew such distance would take them hours to cross.

    "I scanned that area, and I found traces of battle left there," Sara said, and others nodded.

    "It''s the usual leftovers when he fights," Lara bitterly smiled, "it''s a shame they missed this ring sign, like the rest of us."

    "We got Thomas," Berry pointed at the young man, "we are different from your shitty team."

    "..." Lara red back at Berry, yet she didn''t start this fight again. She knew her team failed to miss such obvious signs, and they weren''t to be med. After all, it wasmon for masters to fight against monsters, and such leftovers would be normal to find.

    Yet what was different was how condensed the killed monster''s parts were. They also held traces of how William used to fight and kill his enemies, a thing that only his friends and close up team would recognise.

    "Shall we go now?" Thomas ignored such useless debate between the girls, as he and other males got used to this unending cycle of conflict, "or wait for him?"

    "He won''t stop until killing all of the monsters here, good luck with that," Lara snorted when she looked at Fang. Thetter was lost in his battle against the monsters, as if he was enjoying doing this, or venting his rage for his earlier failure over these monsters.

    "I say we move," Ro agreed, "let''s go, and he''ll follow us eventually."

    Ro was right. The moment they moved out from that safe zone, Fang spotted them at once. "These kids¡­ Where are they going?"

    He indeed forgot all about why they were here in the first ce. And soon enough, he recalled why they came down here, not to kill monsters, but to find William.

    "They found him?" he questioned this in his mind, unable to ept that they found him, and he couldn''t. He spread out his spirit sense again, and yet he couldn''t find anything remarkable or unique at first.

    Then after a couple hours, he guessed the direction they were heading towards. After all, the team fought like a solid rock, crashing down from the top of a mountain over the heads of the monsters. And yet they never changed their direction, heading straight towards one way.

    "These marks¡­ They resemble what that youngster left before at the past battles," Fang didn''t fight alongside William except once at thest expedition, and yet he was able to link the battle traces to William.

    "Yet¡­ There isn''t any safe zone there, there isn''t anywhere to hide. And the traces end around that small hole, don''t tell me he is hiding underground?!"

 Chapter 1182: A Weird Hole

    Fang looked closely at that spot, but couldn''t find any other traces of battle aside from that hole. In fact, he found the traces of the battle left by William to grow the most around that hole.

    It felt as if William made ast stand there, and that didn''t make any sense to him. He knew these monsters came from underground. And that meant William decided to take shelter deep down, where the monsters took as their home and yground.

    "He isn''t an earth based master, not primarily at least," Fang watched William fight before, and he was sure he was a lightning based master like himself. And that made him more puzzled and far more curious.

    As the team progressed towards that hole, Fang also moved quite close. They progressed slowly amidst the swarms of monstersing at them, and during this William was facing up something new.

    As his friends were trying to find him, William started to notice something new. The first thing he noticed was the pulses that shed between pyramids to show a slow and progressive change.

    Instead of moving in between pyramids augmented by his arrays, they slowly started to send pulses elsewhere. At first, it came as one pulse every ten minutes or so. Then slowly, he noticed the pulses as they started to happen once per couple minutes.

    The first time he noticed this he mistook this to be sent to another group of pyramids. His first guess was that as there was a link between pyramids in certain groups, there must be a simr connection between different groups.

    But when he closely monitored this, he started to notice something different. "They are all converging in the same direction¡­ Right there!"

    He noticed after an hour of monitoring this that these pulses were all heading from different groups, heading towards a certain direction. When he realised this, he started to look for where these pulses were heading. and there he found a surprise waiting for him.

    "This¡­ A hole? In here?!" he was surprised by this. The presence of the hole he found, one that spanned for tens of metres, wasn''t a surprise as much as his inability to see it before using his spirit sense.

    It didn''t make any sense to him. He was sure he covered this spot before using his spirit sense, and yet he missed it. "Something smells fishy here," he muttered to himself, while getting all vignt about this hole.

    The hole wasn''t just wide, it was deep. He couldn''t get any view of its bottom, all he could see was ckness. He stood just a few metres off the edge, while a serious look was on his face.

    "Something must have been down there, the portal didn''t malfunction on its own as I suspected¡­" he started to deal with this whole presence with the most ominous possibility ever.

    The moment this thought shed through his mind, he summoned back all of his monstrous weapons. The twenty-two giant monster-like bodies appeared around him, forming an army.

    "Charley, go down there and see what''s hiding," Charley was his first creation, and yet after all this time, and even after he rebuilt and repaired it many times, it wasn''t on par with the ones he recently made.

    William watched his monstrous weapon descend slowly and cautiously. As there was a connection with Charley, he could see everything.

    The first few moments, nothing happened. The hole was looking like a normal gap in the ground, with nothing but touch rocks. Yet soon enough, William could see something weird.

    The hole was quite deep, and the deeper Charley went, the more William felt like something was interfering with his connection with Charley. "It''s consuming my spirit power at an rming rate¡­ Interesting¡­" he muttered the moment he spotted the issue.

    Using spirit sense never consumed much spirit power. Yet this time, it felt like he was in a battle, using his techniques non-stop.

    He felt weird about the intervention with his connection with Charley, especially when he got the intuition that this wasn''t caused by something at the hole, but from something in him. So the first thing he checked out of habit was his spirit power. And there he found it rapidly getting consumed.

    "Using elixirs won''t do, it seems I need to use that array¡­" he didn''t hesitate to gulp a few bottles of elixirs when he noticed this. But they didn''t help much as his spirit power kept getting consumed.

    So he instantly gave the order, and his twenty-one monstrous weapons built arrays around him. One array wouldn''t work fast to solve this problem, wouldn''t be fast enough to work and supplement enough spirit power.

    Yet with twenty-one arrays built on top of each other, this stopped to be a problem. He started to absorb spirit power madly, and the more time passed, more spirit power gushed into his body.

    Yet it felt like he was dealing with a ck hole here. The increasing spirit power entering his body didn''t help but to stabilise his spirit power level at forty percent.

    "This hole¡­ What the hell lives down there¡­" After a stressful twenty minutes, he still couldn''t see a glimpse of what was down there. The deeper parts of the hole were all dark, and spirit power consumption was reaching scary and terrifying levels right now.

    Yet he never ordered Charlie toe back. He felt he was so close to touching the truth about this hole. Not to mention any idea of repairing the portal wouldn''t work as long as this hole and whatid within persisted to be here.

    As he expected, in the next ten minutes, his monstrous weapon finally reached the bottom. He couldn''t feel what Charley was feeling right now, couldn''t tell if Charleynded on t ground or over something.

    The area there was pitch ck, with not a speck of light. "Let there be light," yet that wasn''t a problem. Charley was a weapon that could use all his elements and techniques.

 Chapter 1183: The Double Element Monster

    The first thing William did was to let Charley activate a technique using a light element. The moment he did so, the world down there brightened up, and there William managed to get a glimpse of what was down below.

    "Damn! The Gluttonous Berserk? Out of all things, that troublesome dude is down there?!!!"

    The moment William took a glimpse of what was down below and he instantly recognised it. It was nothing else but an infamous monster, one which got the ability to madly absorb spirit power and consume it from anything.

    There were monsters which could absorb spirit power from living creatures. Be it humans or monsters, they could get their spirit power depleted. And yet this had to follow certain conditions and situations, and mostly would require the monster to harm the target, let him bleed, so it could absorb the spirit power.

    Yet this monster was different. It didn''t need to do any of that, all it needed to do was toy in slumber and sleep, and it could absorb spirit power from a certain radius.

    If it got awakened, then it could increase the threshold of such an area ten fold. And yet there was a limitation over this. It couldn''t continue absorbing spirit power for more than one hour, then it had to either shut down such ability, or go to slumber.

    Yet that didn''t mean this monster was weak or easy to deal with. Its sole weak spot was this one hour window, and the main challenge for anyone was tost for such a period.

    "If I knew earlier, I would have never stirred that mfer," William cursed while retreating as fast he could. He used his dash technique and crossed one kilometre with every dash. Yet in the next few seconds, something gushed out from the hole.

    "Poor Charley, you always get wrecked bro," William looked back as he saw a fountain of something glistering in ckness getting out from the hole like a sent out rocket.

    It was that monster, and it went without saying that Charlie got it hard from this dash. William had his connection with Charley severed, and that was enough to tell him what happened to thatd.

    *Roar!*

    The next moment, a gigantic behemoth stood in midair, looking like a giant ck cloud just got closer to the ground here. William looked at that behemoth, while thick pirs of smoke started to rise from its body, moving around like snakes. "It''s awakened, just one disturbance and it''s awake, f*ck!"

    He looked around, the area was filled with pyramids without showing an end to them. Many already got their arrays, but the majority didn''t. "I expect no help is going to appear here," he mulled over this, while knowing this wasn''t a bad luck of his.

    Even if high end masters appeared here, there was no guarantee for them to emerge unscathed from this sh. "First things first, I need to prepare arrays fast," the first move he did wasn''t to run, as running away was futile at this moment.

    Instead he ordered his twenty-one monstrous weapons to start building arrays as fast as possible. He didn''t watch them work, as all his senses were focused over that gigantic monster.

    "It''s amazing how little things can use such power and show off such strength," he clenched his weapons, while looking at the monster in midair that kept roaring for the past minute.

    It didn''t have wings, William was sure of that. Even if never met one of these before in his past life, the drawing of that monster was quite famous. This one was known as the death ambassador for most masters in the outer world. Only few could dare to call themselves worthy of fighting and killing it.

    The most remarkable note of this was that this monster wasn''t actually that huge. Its real body wasn''t any bigger than a human''s body. And yet it has the ability to use the absorbed spirit power to his advantage, utilising it to condense such fake mass around.

    And this mass didn''t work for intimidation only, it also worked to defend the real body of the monster, and add a tremendous strength to its attacks.

    "If I recall it right, this monster has darkness and lightning elements, one of the rare monsters tobine an antagonising element to darkness¡­"

    Darkness element was enough to add a scary speed to the monster. Yet with lightning there, this monster wasn''t just fast, but was also quite explosive.

    The condensed absorbed spirit power mass helped in stabilising such conflict between the two elements. And that made any attack iing from it very deadly and highly explosive.

    "I see you are ready now," after two minutes, the monster stopped roaring, stood in midair, without any sign of its face or eyes. Yet William was sure this monster was ring at him, and it''d attack at any given time.

    "Best defence is offence, let''s see how you''ll fight me here," William snorted, waved an arm, and all of his monstrous weapons spread around.

    They weren''t strong enough topete and fight against this behemoth. On top of that, they already finished building the arrays around him. And it was time for them to do something else.

    *Roar!*

    "Here we go," William couldn''t feel any pressureing from the monster for ten minutes. And it seemed the monster realised its biggest weapon got nerfed and had zero impact on William.

    Thanks to the arrays his monstrous weapons built, the spirit power he had didn''t get depleted in a sh. Instead, he felt like there was some sort of a battle between him and that monster, a battle where his spirit power kept hitting the bottom and rising to the top in the blink of an eye.

    The moment the monster roared, it shed forward. All William could see was a big ck cloud, moving like a bolt of lightning, while it started to get ignited with lots of lightning arcs.

 Chapter 1184: A Smart Monster

    The monster moved and started the battle with a badass move, and William was well prepared for it.

    "Activate the formations, trap this bastard here," William never nned to defend himself using any technique he had. Instead, he depended on his monstrous weapons to do such a task.

    His monstrous weapons already built many arrays, making up a small formation around. The moment the monster moved, William gave the order for them to activate these formations at once.

    The monster was a two element being, and that made it quite deadly. And yet it wasn''t that hard actually to stop it. The moment William gave the order, and his monstrous weapons activated two types of arrays, built over wind and gravity elements.

    Massive waves of gravity kicked in and pulled the monster down, and other waves appeared and wind blew like it was a raging wild storm, pushing the monster forward.

    If facing other monsters, then such a way wouldn''t work. But as this monster pumped its mass by using its elements and absorbed spirit power, it made it vulnerable to such attack.

    The moment it got hit with such a wave the monster started to slow down its insane speed. William didn''t move a muscle, only watched while that iing rocket-like behemoth got stalled, until it stopped a few metres away from him.

    "Hit it again boys, send it back to the hole it crawled out from," he waved his arm, while the monstrous weapons started to act again.

    The best part of these weapons was that they weren''t living creatures, and their spirit power supply came from elixirs. The monster could drain little, but not that much as it could only affect the spirit power slowly from nonliving things.

    On top of that, William had already packed them all with tons of spirit generation elixirs, enough to keep them fighting for hours against such mad.

    When he gave the order, the wind blew and gravity shifted. Instead of pulling, it started to push, and that made that behemoth fly back for hundreds of metres in one breath.

    Yet that didn''t mean the monster didn''t release an attack over William. In that brief moment when it stopped a few metres away, it managed to extend many ck tentacles from its body, taking the shape of long spikes, and wanted to prate William''s body and make it filled with holes.

    "Not a chance!" yet before that attack wouldnd, William already shed, moved fast around using his dash technique. He evaded that wave of attacks, and then returned back into the protection of the arrays.

    "Fck! Just few moments outside and my spirit power got drained more than half¡­" the moment he returned back to the arrays, he sucked in a deep breath and started to gulp few elixirs to make up for what he lost, "if I stayed out there for a minute, I''d have died. That monster is a true freak."

    William knew this wasn''t going to end by such a simple failure. Yet he tasted how it was terrifying to deal with that monster head on. He got tons of questions, like how such a scary being existed in this world.

    "From that sh just now, I can tell it''s not as strong as I expected," he narrowed his eyes, as he used his tails to sh with a few spikes that tried to chase after him. And when he saw these spikes get stopped and show even cracks, he knew that monster wasn''t that strong after all.

    "Did it get born here or what?" this was the first thought that shed in his mind. And it made absolute sense. Yet the fact that such a scary monster was here made him wonder what was special about this world.

    "It isn''t the first huge name to be found here, that Nightmare was also here¡­ What else is here? Oh sh*t, it''sing again!"

    Just when he was in the middle of his thoughts, that monster roared once more, and he knew it wasing.

    *Boom!* This time the monster didn''t aim directly at him. Instead, itnded a few tens of metres away, causing a big hole there, and a violent explosion.

    "What is it up to?" William expected the monster toe at him after hitting that hole, but it didn''t. Instead, it retreated, then jumped again to cause another hole, and started on a spree of this.

    "The holes are starting to form a circle, one that surrounds me in threeyers¡­ Fck! It''s trying to make an array!"

    It hit William right out of the blue. The monster just formed fifteen holes so far, and they looked as if they were forming three parallel semi-circr arcs around him.

    When he realised this, he couldn''t help but add a very important note to this monster; it was sane! He mistook that as it was born in this world, it''d be limited to be dumb and such. And yet it showed the same remarkable level of intelligence like the Nightmare monster.

    Yet this was a very tough situation. He knew he safeguarded against the deadly threats from the monster, and thetter knew about how futile it was to keeping at William using the old method.

    So instead of wasting time, it started to think of another way to get to William. "I don''t know what it''s building, but it''s not safe to stay here. However¡­"

    This was the tough situation he found himself in right now. He built all his defensive strategy over him staying in his position unmoved. And yet staying here meant that he was risking everything.

    He had two options now in front of him, either go out and take the risk, losing the base he built, or remain here and wee whatever that monster was doing.

    "Screw this, if he is building something, I''ll also build something of mine," William didn''t like either choice. And so he decided to make something different.

 Chapter 1185: It Wants To Bring The Sky Down!

    The first thing William made was to move half of his monstrous weapons, ten, directly towards the expected directions that monster would hit in the next few minutes.

    He had few ideas, but as time was tight, he decided to go with something that could mess the monster''s ns; using earth elements to strengthen the area, and also act to cover up what the monster would do.

    At the same time, he moved three towards the holes the monster dug. If these holes were important for the monster, then he''d try his best to ruin it.

    *Roar!*

    "It''s targeting my monstrous weapons?" The moment William sent those three out, the monster stopped hitting the holes it was making, andnded over one of them and destroyed it in one hit.

    William expected the monster to defend its holes, but the monster moved faster than he thought, and that made him question if the monster was going to do anything initially or this was all a trap.

    "It''s getting harder to deal with monsters," William paused before he showed an evil smile, "yet the goal of all this isn''t to kill that bastard, it''s to stall time fortunately," heughed while finding a way to waste more time with that monster.

    It was nearly impossible to tell where that monster would hit next as it got insane speed. And yet, there was something that William noticed during the past few minutes.

    Every single time that monster would make a move, it had to roar and then attack. So roaring became like an rm signal for William, and every single time the monster roared, he called back all of his monstrous weapons at the frontline.

    When he tried first to make them run back, this didn''t help at all. The monsternding and hit was so massive to take away another monstrous weapon of his in mere seconds. Just the shockwave of that attack was enough to destroy one weapon, and show signs of damages at another.

    "Forget it, I''ll just call them back to me then release them again," William knew trying to outrun that monster using his dash technique was futile. Instead, he called these weapons back, forming a grandiose armour around his body, before releasing them again.

    Using this method didn''t take more than one second to aplish, and that ended up for all of his weapons toe back safely. And the monster ended up losing its prey, just hitting the ground and creating another hole there.

    "You were fooling around then, not trying to make an array or something," after half an hour, William finally heaved a sigh of relief, as the monster left behind tons of irregr holes, ones that couldn''t be aligned together to form anything at all.

    On the other hand, he kept ying this game of cat and mouse with that monster, without losing anymore of his precious weapons.

    "Tired already?" After ten more minutes, the monster stood midair, far away from him, while doing nothing. William waited for the next roar, but it never came. His monstrous weapons already spread over the area, while part kept the arrays working, and another kept digging the holes.

    This was going smoothly and right until that monster stopped roaring. William knew it figured out how futile this y was, and that meant it was going to change its tactics.

    "I don''t like this," As the monster stood midair for a few minutes, William started to feel uneasy. He felt bad omen assaulting him, and that was something rming.

    Spirit master''s sense was something that shouldn''t be neglected. The moment he felt like it, he called back the neen monstrous weapons, took five out, and let them start building arrays to protect him.

    The moment he got such a feeling, he decided to leave this spot for now. Yet he couldn''t just dash forward like he used to, or else he''d get drained of spirit power and die.

    He wanted to take out all of the weapons, yet his intuition told him against it. So he just took five, the lowest number enough to make him move away fast enough.

    Every monstrous weapon would take a few seconds toy down a single array, then they''d move andy others down. William had a path protected by arrays, ending up taking him away from the monster by two kilometres before the monster started to act.

    The first thing the monster did was to start rotating. From this far, it appeared as if a gigantic ck cloud was amassing power, ready to start a violent thunderstorm.

    The rotating speed started to rise fast, and William couldn''t help but feel the pressure. "It''s umting spirit power from the pyramids¡­ Damn!"

    From his position, William could see the shes of light moving like bullets, heading too fast towards that ck cloud. The more it received, the bigger it grew, and more pressure Wiim felt.

    The entire ce William was in had no source of light from outside. Yet like the underground city, it got shining rocks illuminating the entire space here.

    Right now, all the lights seemed to dim, as if the monster was negatively impacting everything with its growing dark mass.

    "What does it want to do? I don''t feel good about any of that," William thought before that this monster would pull a trick to force him out then snipe him down. And yet that didn''t happen. Instead, it felt like the monster grew tired of this ce, and wanted to take it down.

    He knew the monster wasn''t as strong as he expected, but it didn''t mean it was weak. The monster was at early stage dark gold grade at least, or perhaps at the same level of power as him.

    And that meant if that monster directed its full power to attack this ce, bad things would happen. This space wasn''t supported by any pirs, and it was just sustaining itself based on the natural phenomenon that formed it.

 Chapter 1186: Tough Battle For The Team

    That made William envisioned the fate of this ce if that monster got allowed to release its attack. And yet he didn''t have a way to stop it.

    "Damn! This monster wanted to burn everything and bring the rocky sky down!" he gritted his teeth, while looking for any way to stop this monster or counter its deadly n.

    William knew he got stuck here. The monster seemed to run out of options or got simply tired of him, and decided to destroy everything.

    There was no way out of this without directly confronting that monster. "Fck that bastard! I only need to wait less than fifteen minutes and it''ll get forced into deep slumber again!" William gritted his teeth knowing the monster just crashed the table and threw away everything he worked for in the past forty-five minutes.

    Yet confronting that monster wasn''t just that simple. He knew he was protected from it thanks to the arrays, but during a heated up battle, no arrays could help. He had to move in unexpected paths, ending up leaving the protection of the arrays at the end.

    "Screw this! I''ming for you bastard," William had no other option but to take the battle to the monster and try to force it to stop. And as he let his five monstrous weapons build the arrays towards that monster, his friends already were on top of the hole he came through to this ce.

    "Are you sure he went down there?" Sara looked at the hole while most of the friends were fighting off the monsters.

    Weirdly enough, the closer they got to the hole, the more monsters they faced. And much weirder was that the hole itself was void from any monster.

    They got used to seeing monstersing up from the ground, and yet for a reason the area around the hole was void from any monster. This gave them little sense of relief, as they could take the hole as a centre and start defending it.

    "That means he went down there and killed the monsters," Fang suddenly appeared, while taking with him tens of monsters like they were nothing.

    "You don''t get it, this ce is cursed," Lara looked at him acting arrogant while the old scenes from his defeat and retreat made this quite funny, "even if we killed thousands, more wille and no ce can be secured."

    "Perhaps he used an istion array or something," Lang said while thinking of other possibilities, "or he may have dragged the monsters down to that hole."

    "Or he isn''t there in the first ce," Ro looked at Thomas, "are you sure he went through this hole? He might have just stopped here, fought monsters, and then moved out¡­"

    *Rumble!*

    Before she''d even continue her words, and before Thomas would reiterate what he said before, the ground underneath their feet trembled and rumbled all of sudden.

    Such a move wasn''t that loud or fierce, but it was easily noted and grasped by all. "He is down there," Berry shouted in distress and worry, "he is fighting down below."

    "What are we waiting for?" Lina held her broadsword, "he is fighting like always, against tough enemies. Let us go down there and lend him a hand¡­"

    "Watch out!"

    Just before she''d take a single step towards the hole, Fang suddenly shouted and moved. Without anyone realising until it was toote, a colossal wave of monsters popped up from the world around, like they got expelled from their homes or something.

    They appeared in a sh, moved and tried to hit anything around, including the team. The hole wasn''t an exception, as it released a fountain of monsters, aiming towards everyone.

    Fang moved and hit the monsters without missing any. He didn''t have time to kill all of them, and at such moments he truly missed William''s lightning little formation.

    "Get away from the hole," this was a must right now. The number of monstersing out from it was much higher than anywhere else.

    "We won''t make it!" Everyone looked at the world filled with monsters, alling at them from every corner, "there is no hope¡­"

    "Anyone have these materials?" Fang didn''t lose his cool like everyone else. He was experienced in life and faced tons of deadly situations, so he simply thought about a solution. And luckily he had one.

    He started to say the weird names of materials William once spoke about, and even described how they looked. When he got done, Lara took at once tons of these materials, and even more which didn''t fit most of his words.

    "Take them," Lara shouted, "do whatever you want, but hurry!"

    Fang didn''t say anything. The moment he saw the familiar materials William kept using before, and his eyes shone brightly, "let me show you how your boss came up with such a scary way to kill our enemies."

    He shed and used a small part of the material set to make one formation, then stored the rest. Even in such a dangerous situation, even when everyone else was having their moment of panic, he was having his moment of excitement.

    He finally got his hands over the materials he desperately wanted to make the formation. And now he was about to taste it again, feel how great it was to have such might beyond what humans here could wield.

    "Get around me," Fang knew this time he had to release his lightning all over the ce, and that was going to be dangerous for William''s friends, "just get inside the area marked by the red stones and you''ll be safe."

    He gave them a few moments toe inside the safe zone. He spotted tons of monstersing at them from all directions, and the worst came from the hole. Yet he didn''t care. The moment everyone got around him, he started to act.

    The moment he acted, released his lightning technique, and the world got bathed with lightning arcs from his formation.

 Chapter 1187: I Have To Warn Them

    Monsters might be hard to deal with in normal situations, but this time they were butchered like they were white grade or something.

    "I''ll keep attacking, and will focus more on the hole," Fang realised the point Lara spoke about before. He was killing monsters in hundreds and even thousands, every passing minute, and yet more wereing at them as if he didn''t do anything.

    His mind spinned fast and knew if he used thezy mode of the formation, the name he loved to call using his technique and taking a break for minutes, wouldn''t work.

    The only way was to use the turbo mode, which would allow him to secure the areapletely for almost half an hour.

    And yet his main goal wasn''t to do this, but to clear the monsters at the hole, and go with everyone through it. Staying here wasn''t going to work. He didn''t know what caused all this madness, but something told him it was rted to what William was doing down there.

    To get out of here safely, they have to move deeper and head directly towards the source of danger. He focused most of his lightning over the hole, incinerating and killing every single monster there for twenty minutes straight.

    "Ready, we are going now," when he felt the power of the formation was getting weaker, he knew it was close to getting exhausted. So he shouted, while moving his lightning away from the hole, "go first, I''ll catch upter."

    "Let''s go!" Sara took the lead of everyone, while looking back at Fang and his scary lightning attacks. They weren''t with William when Fang used this trick a lot back then. And only Anjie didn''t see that surprising, even when she admired what Fang was doing.

    During all this time, she kept her silence, thinking only about one thing. "He came here knowing what dangers await¡­ Howe he knows all this? Howe he doesn''t feel fear from all this?!"

    The more she thought about it, the more she knew how great William was. She already witnessed him do lots of crazy stuff, and yet she couldn''t fathom how he managed to get such knowledge and news, how he kept moving forward without a single moment of hesitation.

    She was a king''s daughter, and she knew how important one''s resolve and courage was to keep winning in this hard world. However she never saw a man like him, and yet she couldn''t help but get curious about how he knew about all this.

    As they moved, they met lots of monstersing out from the hole. Yet after all these attacks from Fang, the hole was now much wider and bigger. It was enough for five of them to pass through it without having any problems in fighting monsters off.

    "Make sure to move slowly," even with all this, Anjie didn''t feel any better like the rest of them, "the deeper we get, the worse, so make sure to step up and help, clear path if you get overwhelmed or tired¡­"

    Even if she wasn''t the leader of the team in William''s absence, she felt she was the most experienced with enough experience to deal with this situation. But when they advanced into the hole and the tunnel beyond, she realised she underestimated William''s team.

    Everyone fought bravely, and worked together in a marvellous way. They didn''t lose their cool against the swarm of monsters, and steadily kept advancing forward.

    From behind, Fang released hisst wave of attacks, before moving fast around the hole. He didn''t go directly through it, and first threw around a few formations just in case.

    "Make way," as heid down five formations in a haste, he went directly towards the hole. He shouted as he passed quite fast, and soon he passed through everyone, hitting monsters on his path.

    He was thinking like everyone else, thinking that the deeper they''d go, the more monsters they''d meet. But as he passed a certain point, it felt as if monsters suddenly vanished, and all it remained was a clear path lying ahead.

    "Twenty metres, and all monsters will be gone," he shouted while not stopping in his tracks, "I''ll go ahead and help William. Don''t ck behind."

    As there was no monstering, he dashed directly and crossed the remaining distance in a sh. The next moment he found himself in a new underground space, one that had too much to absorb in a short time.

    The ce was vast, very spacious and grandiose. Even him couldn''t reach the end of this ce using his spirit sense. At the same time, he saw the weird pyramid structures, few shining brightly, many already dimmed, and in the middle of all this, he spotted William.

    "What''s going on here?" Just as he passed through the hole, he stood in midair using his power to float, while feeling something strange assaulting his body, "my spirit power¡­ It''s decreasing!"

    He felt such weird movement of his spirit power away from his body, and that was quite weird. For someone like him, he was fully capable of controlling his spirit power freely. And yet he felt like his spirit power went rogue, didn''t listen to him, and started leaking outside his body.

    This wasn''t good news for him. At the same time, he noticed the weird dark cloud, which was emitting huge pulses of power, making the entire ce rumble and tremble.

    "That''s the root of all this? What is that in the first ce?" His first guess about it was that it was a normal cloud. But when he felt such a weird effect, and when he noticed William was steadily heading towards that cloud, he couldn''t help but think of a totally different case.

    "Don''t tell me it''s a monster!" Fang thought about flying monsters, those legendary beasts, and sucked in a cold air of breath, "they shouldn''te here¡­"

    The first thought was to warn the team.

 Chapter 1188: The Monster Is In Weakened State

    William''s friends were just about to cross the safe border, and get rid of the monsters. "They can''t remain high above, and can''t get here¡­ That short zone is the only ce they can stay in¡­"

    Fang didn''t dy and sent a message towards Sar, Anjie, and Lara, telling them everything using spirit telepathy.

    "He doesn''t want us toe down?!!" The moment the threedies spread the news, everyone couldn''t help but question their doubts.

    "He says it''s deadly for us," Lara paused, looking at the other two girls Fang picked to deliver his message, "we need to be extra careful even here¡­"

    "What about William?" Berry interrupted her, and the other three didn''t know what to say.

    "He promised to help him," Anjie stepped up, "and he said William is fine and alright."

    "But¡­"

    "We can''t get down there," Lara sighed, "he said it clearly, we''ll end up dying if we dared to step past the tunnel. Something is protecting us here, and we can handle ourselves in this ce. But down there, it''ll be death."

    "And we are going to be a liability for him," Sara cleared up her throat, while speaking in a very suffocating tone, "the best we can do right now is to sit tight and hope he''ll manage."

    She hated such situations, the same like everyone else. They came here to help, but it seems they were going to be a liability instead.

    They trusted themselves better than anything, but Fang wasn''t someone to take his words lightly. He was one of the top three in the world, and he seemed to harbour good intentions to all of them and William.

    If such a person said it was lethal down there, and they''d be a hindrance for him and William, then they had nothing to say against that. And what made them believe him more was the fact that their spirit sense got crushed the moment they extended it beyond the opening of the tunnel.

    They all tried to see what wasying down there, but failed. At the same time, the trembling of the ground came more frequently, and they started to worry if even the tunnel they were in would sustain all this.

    As he gave them a warning, he turned around and focused on William and that cloud. "What''s going on here?" Without waiting to arrive at William, he spoke with the youngster using his spirit telepathy, "what do you need me to do?"

    William was just struggling to move forward when he heard Fang''s voice ranging in his mind. He abruptly turned, looked around while spreading his spirit sense.

    "What are you doing here?!!" William was surprised to see Fang here. It was something he never expected to happen.

    "Speaking as if you have full control over this," Fang harrumphed, and yet William''s next words, the ones he said with a shout, forced Fang to stop flying, and even head directly to the ground.

    "Do you want to die? Get down at once and establish a spirit regeneration array!" William shouted with disbelief, before he realised something.

    "The monster¡­ It''s getting either too focused on me to miss Fang, or it''s growing weaker and can''t spread its deadly effect to distant ces¡­"

    William was walking towards the monster, prepared to start a deadly battle with it. And yet when Fang came, everything changed. It didn''t change thanks to Fang''s presence, but thanks to what William noticed.

    It was supposed for the monster to absorb anyone''s spirit power fast and kill any person in a few seconds. Even if Fang was much stronger than him, William was sure he would have died in less than twenty seconds.

    Fang wasn''t only fine, but he was so fine to even speak and fly over towards him without any problem or threats. William''s shout was just a precaution, out of impulse, and now he realised Fang wasn''t in any danger of any sort.

    That all pointed towards the monster''s weak state. And it meant William didn''t need to directly confront it head on. "If it was pushing itself beyond the limit, then it''s time to change ns."

    William looked at Fang, who was now at the ground,ying down arrays to regenerate spirit power as William warned him.

    Fang already got the answer he wanted from William''s shout, it was all the doing of that ck cloud thing. Even if he didn''t know if it was a monster or what, he knew there was a way to stop his spirit power leak. And so he started to make many arrays to protect himself.

    "I need your help, will make formations like before for you, and you''ll rain that cloud thing with your lightning," William''s voice came to stop Fang from what he was doing. He already built five arrays, and was in the middle of adding more.

    "Can youe over?" he looked at William, and thetter seemed to struggle to move around fast enough. He was limited by the arrays his five monstrous weapons were building, and got little room to move through.

    "I will send one of my boys over," William had to do this as he couldn''t reach Fang in time, "just do as this¡­" he started to exin everything over, and Fang grasped what was going on here fast.

    He looked at the ck cloud, while asking himself why he was getting to meet weird stuff since meeting up with William.

    He had materials enough to make tens of these formations, but he didn''t even speak a word about that. He knew William would knowter on, and Fang frankly didn''t care. To him, all he loved was to amass more materials, and he wouldn''t give any for free.

    The formations he used already were important to secure his life and others. And he got paid already by lots of materials to do this. He even had lots of materials he didn''t need and didn''t know what their values were. But he''d swap them for the materials he wanted, adding enough stock to make up twenty more formations if he wanted.

 Chapter 1189: The Battle Heats Up

    But Fang grew more curious about that monster. ording to William, it could absorb spirit power from anything around without any limits. And from what he learnt, that monster was in its weakened state.

    "Being able to absorb my spirit power out of my control like this and it''s in a weak state¡­ Impressive foe," Fang muttered to himself before adding, "and its main element isn''t just darkness, but also lightning. That kid¡­ He selected a brutal way to kill this enemy, I like it!"

    Fang knew fighting such monsters would require a different approach, after all he saw William make other formations for different elements. Yet William stressed over using the lightning element despite the monster having it. And that meant he wanted to overload the monster with such an element, and brutally kill it using this way.

    It was brutal, but Fang didn''t dislike the approach. So he waited for William''s monstrous weapon to carry the materials in one ring over and then he started to deploy them.

    "You got interesting new friends here, why not give me a few?" As he made the formation, Fang kept pestering William about thetter''s monstrous weapons.

    "Just attack, we got little time to waste here," William couldn''t believe how Fang was acting this uncaring in such a situation. The monster was releasing tons of power that started to show faint cracks all over the world here, alongside the unstopping tremors.

    "Ok, ok, I just asked for two of your big things," Fang mulled over William''s stinginess. He saw five monstrous weapons helping William, and now William took one more out to deliver him the ring with materials.

    That made him realise that William had more than just these six monstrous weapons. Asking for two or three from him wasn''t a bad thing in Fang''s eyes. And yet William refused.

    Before William would shout again, Fang acted. He was already experienced in building these formations, and in less than a minute he built three formations.

    "I gave him enough to make two formations¡­ That bastard, he must have found a way to get materials from Lara," William didn''t miss this little detail, and knew how Fang got his hands over the materials.

    And yet he didn''t care. Fang started to release the lightning attacks from his far ce, andnded a torrent of lightning over that ck cloud.

    The first shes didn''t bring any harm to the monster. If they did any, they added more power to the monster''s destructive move. And yet William knew this was just a temporary boost.

    The early minutes were a bit stressful. William changed his n entirely, and instead of walking towards the monster, he started to run away from it. It wasn''t that easy to get away with the risk over spirit power.

    To add on top of that, when Fang released his attacks first, William could feel an intangible surge in that monster''s ability to suck spirit power from him. Even within the protection of these arrays, he still kept losing his spirit power.

    He resisted the urge to take more monstrous weapons out, as he didn''t feel at ease to do so yet. So he had to let the five focus on building more arrays at every step he took, dying his retreating speed even further.

    *Roar!*

    "Atst! Too much sweetness isn''t good now, huh?'''' At some point, an ear deafening roar came from the monster, making William''s tensed up face ease a little bit.

    He knew this roar meant the monster was starting to struggle with the lightning power infused into it from Fang. This was what William aimed to do from the start, and couldn''t help to turn and look in an evil way towards that ck cloud.

    "You were enjoying it all the time so far, right? d you are going to suffer now!" he checked the power emitted from that ck cloud, and it seemed like the monster was losing control already.

    The vibrationsing from that attack kepting faster, yet they started to feel weaker. The cracks all over the ce slowed down, and William knew the monster wouldn''t be able to return to the same peak of power in that attack again.

    It already lost control over this attack, and the power stored within was getting dissipated fast. Yet he wasn''t still out of danger, he was too close from that monster. And so he returned to focus on running away.

    As the monster lost control, the infamous spirit power absorption ability of it started to grow weaker as well. That allowed William to return to the old way, letting his five monstrous weapons build arrays faster.

    *Roar!*

    "Watch out! It''sing for you!" Fang was keeping an eye over everything happening. Be it the monster or William, he never missed a thing. As the monster started to respond, he instantly warned William, something he didn''t need to do actually as the man was already aware of the threating for him.

    Just less than a few minutes after the monster lost control over its technique, it roared, and came hot for William. Thetter just crossed a few hundred metres away, and yet he kept an eye over the monster.

    "Screw off!" William knew the monster was using the first attack it used when the battle erupted. And yet this time he wasn''t ready to take the monster head on.

    The best thing he could do was to move fast, away from the way of harm. Yet that made the other five monstrous weapons in a tough position.

    "I now know why I didn''t feel at ease to get more of them," just one attack and William lost another two of his weapons. He managed to call back only three, and if he was half beat slower, he''d have lost all of them.

    Thest time William managed to get away from the monster assault thanks to the arrays sat before by his monstrous weapons. And now he had no array on his side to solve such a problem, so he had to just run away.

 Chapter 1190: Come, A Tasty Human Is Here

    What made this more problematic was the fact that the old arrays that solved the problem of spirit power absorption got ruined by the monster. Even if the monster was in a weakened state, William still lost ten percent of his spirit power once per few seconds.

    He solved this issue momentarily by consuming elixirs. Yet that wasn''t going to solve this problem for long. And that forced him to take out five more monstrous weapons and let them make arrays again. Yet this time, he had to build three types of arrays, and that was going to take time.

    "Stop it! Use everything you have to dy it!" William knew the monster would keep targeting him if he didn''t find another way to dy and keep it busy.

    And that answery in the hands of Fang, as he was the only one able to attack the monster from his position without getting into any risk.

    "I''m showering it with everything I got," Fang''s voice rang in William''s mind the next second, "you need to keep moving."

    "I can''t," William shouted back as he had no other option here. Trying to run away was going to deplete more of his spirit power, and his elixirs wouldn''t be enough to help at some point.

    His only hope to stop the monster didn''t work, and he could already imagine what was going to happen next. William prepared himself for the next attack which came swiftly in a few seconds, and this time he made sure to take back all the monstrous weapons he deployed before the monster would hit.

    He had to dash out again, and he suffered another blow to his spirit power. "This can''t go on," William gritted his teeth, and decided to do something crazy, "scatter, two in one team, go!"

    He took out all of his monstrous weapons, except for four, and scattered them all over the ce.

    Six groups of monstrous weapons dashed all over the ce, all moving away from him and the monster. "Come, a tasty human is here," as he took such a risk, he followed by taunting the monster, even showing off his body by jumping and literally dancing. Doing this made him look weird even in the eyes of Fang, yet that didn''t matter to William.

    Thetter wanted to distract the monster away from his monstrous weapons, and he seeded. The monster started toe at him, one time after another, missing him every single time.

    "I need to endure a bit further," William was stressed like never before sinceing back to this world. He was now focusing everything over avoiding the iing monster, and kept an eye over the monstrous weapons. He needed to spare part of his spirit sense and focus to control the monstrous weapons, letting them build as many arrays as possible.

    He threw rings randomly over to them, without having time to properly inspect any of their content. He just took materials in batches and scattered them along the rings. And that made any of these weapons'' loss would be grave loss for him.

    He was going all out, risking everything on the line. At the same time, Fang never spared himself in the past twenty minutes, kept releasing his lightning in torrents, trying to stop the monster.

    Even if the monster showed signs of getting affected, roaring from time to time in pain, even the ck cloud showed faint white cracks that never healed, the monster never showed a sign to slow down or get weakened.

    Even when thirty minutes passed, and the supposed time for it to go into slumber was crossed. "Dammit! Why the heck isn''t that bastard going to sleep?!!" William has already passed his limits here. Trying to do all this while his spirit power was on the constant decline was like fighting a losing battle.

    "It must be burning its spirit essence," Fang''s voice rang in William''s mind, "get ready, will switch formations in any given minute now."

    "Do it," William looked away in one direction, "it''s time for me to start helping you as well. Let''s get this monster down together."

    "Finally about to move? I thought you were taking me as your ve or something," Fangughed, and William didn''t even smile.

    Even if Fang was right, William was the one taking all the pressure on the frontline, keeping that monster busy. Or else Fang alone would have zero chance at taking this monster down.

    William knew what Fang guessed was correct, this monster was burning his spirit essence to keep itself awakened and strong. That meant it was able to fight like this on top shape for hours, yet it also meant it had weak control over its abilities and powers.

    Even if the monster didn''t show any sign for that before, William was sure it would soon enough. All he needed to do now was add a little more pressure over this monster, and it''d crumble to pieces in no time.

    That was why he decided to stop what his monstrous weapons were doing, and start to move all of them to stand at the nearest set of arrays. It was a tricky situation now, and there was no room for any mistakes.

    That was why he didn''t move right away, and took the monster around in another tour. When the lightning stoppednding over the monster, William could tell it got much faster and a bit stronger, yet that didn''t even rm him.

    "Ready old man?" William gritted on his teeth while trying his best to sync drinking elixirs and properly time his dashes and his trajectory.

    "Let''s go on a second round," Fang paused, "I just can''t see my lightning affecting this bastard."

    "Just hit it," William was ready to move as well, "let''s put more pressure at it. I''ll change location now, keep up."

    Fang wanted to curse, as William acted with him as if he was a little kid or something. He was able to follow that monster from earlier, and he didn''t have any doubt he wouldn''t be able to do it again.

 Chapter 1191: The Monsters Real Body

    The moment William said hisst words, he started madly dashing around. This time, he had a trajectory and destination to reach. Using his spirit sense, Fang was finally able to link the dots and realised what William was aiming for.

    "I''ll barbecue that area once you pass," he said to William, and thetter didn''t take more than twenty seconds to reach the side of his monstrous weapons.

    "Make sure to not hit my arrays," William icily said, while waving an arm, and his monstrous weapons activated their arrays. The spirit power regeneration arrays felt like they were unable to do anything against the monster''s berserk ability. And yet William gulped more elixirs while looking closely at the iing monster.

    "Now!" he shouted, while controlling his monstrous weapons to release torrents of wind and gravity. The iing massive ck cloud was already getting hit by Fang''s lightning, and now it got to face William''s double attack.

    *Roar!*

    This time the monster didn''t get sent away like before. It simply stood motionless in ce for a few seconds, before a mighty roar came and with it lots of spikes came forward.

    They didn''t aim just for William, but mainly for his monstrous weapons. "Sh*t! You want me to call them back? Fck you!" William didn''t hesitate to order four monstrous weapons to step up and take the hit directly, shielding others.

    At the same time, he took the remaining four monstrous weapons out, deployed them topensate for the destroyed weapons.

    The spikes looked dangerous, yet in fact they didn''t do much harm more than leaving behind lots of gaps in the monstrous weapons. William looked at such a result, and couldn''t help but heave a sigh of relief.

    "Even if it looks dangerous, it''s still weakened by all these hits," he muttered to himself, and yet he didn''t stop the newly added weapons to join the rest.

    Instead, he gave them the order to build two arrays, all defencive. Even if the monstrous weapons escaped a close death call, it wasn''t guaranteed they''d still be standing after frequent attacks from that monster.

    As the monster was halted in its tracks, and its initial outburst of spikes didn''t take down any of his monstrous weapons, William felt more confident than ever.

    "Keep showering it," he said to Fang, "just stay away from myds."

    "As if you are making it easy on me," Fang gritted his teeth, "you added four more. Do you want me to go nuts?"

    "Just focus, we are almost there," William resisted the urge tough at such a situation, and yet he showed a smile on his face.

    As Fang struggled to keep up, William''s weapons started to do their magic. At this moment, William didn''t stand idle like before. He knew adding any pressure would elerate the fall of this monster.

    He took out the remaining flying weapons of his, and started toe at the ck cloud. From time to time, he''d dash out to evade the iing spikes, before dashing towards the monster and hitting it with everything he got.

    One minute passed, twenty passed, an hour passed, and the two of them wereing hot at the monster, and thetter kept fighting back.

    Yet starting from the second hour, the monster showed sluggishness in its movement. William questioned why the monster didn''t pull back and retreat, escaping the situation it was facing right now. And in the third hour, he got his answer.

    The monster wasn''t able to do so, or it feared once it got pushed back, it''d lose all the momentum it umted. This got clear when after two and half hours, the monster finally got thrown backwards by thebination of wind and gravity arrays.

    The moment it flew back, it fell to the ground, rolled on itself, leaving behind a huge trail, looking like a deep groove. At the same time, violent rumbling and shaking happened to the world, with it being thest one toe.

    "It''s down!" William was vignt and ready for the monster toe back and attack again. And yet thetter didn''t, and sat on the ground, struggling to get back up. The ck cloud began to dissipate, showing the real shape of that monster.

    It had a pale white skin, with eyes at its shoulders, and a head that looked like an ox. William knew this was the real body of the monster as he recognised it right on the spot.

    Yet that all came as a shock for Fang. He thought that ck cloud was the real body of the monster, but now he realised he was deeply wrong.

    The monster that caused all this trouble to him and William wasn''t a giant to begin with. It was just using a trick to erge its body, and it looked nothing more than a normal human, or a bit bigger.

    "Keep hitting it," William felt Fang''s lightning attacks didn''te as hard as before. So he had to awaken the old man from his momentarily daze or his messed up moment of judgement, "it''s not that safe or weak, it''s very dangerous now."

    "For real?!" Fang was indeed surprised by these words, and yet he returned to focus and shower that monster with more lightning.

    "It can now move faster than before," William''s wordsnded, and that monster roared, raised itself using a long tail, before it started to sh fast, evading most of the iing lightning at it.

    "Damn! Howe it can move this fast?!!!"

    "Just focus, it has toe at me and take me down, so¡­" William was about to tell Fang to focus on the monster while it got affected by his monstrous weapons'' arrays. And yet in the middle of his words, something unexpected happened.

    "Watch out! It''sing for you!" Instead of targeting William, the monster seemed to hold a deep grudge against the other humans who kept showering him with lightning.

 Chapter 1192: Keep It Busy

    "I''ll keep hitting until it dies!" Fang snorted, and yet he didn''t know he was making a great mistake here.

    "Just move out!" William shouted, "if it got closer to you, you''ll die out of spirit power consumption, not by its attacks!"

    "Sh*t! I totally forgot about that!" Fang instantly recalled how William struggled to keep up with that monster using arrays. And William had lots of helpers, and Fang was alone, "but the lightning formations¡­"

    "Just forget about it," William knew Fang was worried about the materials, "willpensate you."

    "I''ll hold you responsible for your words," Fang promised, and then he gushed out one more attack, then left the formation while it kept releasing its lightning.

    Without his guidance and control, the lightning just hit randomly. Luckily its area of coverage shrunk and that saved William and his monstrous weapons a big deal of trouble.

    William thought the monster would drop the idea of taking Fang down the moment thetter left the formation and stopped hitting it. Yet as Fang wanted the monster to drop its interest in him, lightning kept falling, and that seemed to stir that monster up. And that made the monster more focused and determined to get Fang.

    Yet Fang wasn''t like William, he wasn''t close to the monster in the first ce. In terms of power and speed, Fang outyed William by miles, and also triumphed over the monster.

    The gigantic ck cloud moved fast after Fang, but it couldn''t close the gap even. William finally got the chance to heave a deep sigh of relief, as the area of effect of the monster''s nasty ability finally got away from William.

    As he finally got rid of such a nuisance, he didn''t take this chance lightly. He knew sooner orter the monster woulde back to its senses and drop the idea of killing Fang.

    The lightning didn''t end yet, but it was soon about to. William gave the monster a few minutes before it''d dropped the idea of getting Fang. and That meant he had around ten up to twenty more minutes.

    "It''s time to prepare for the final show," William shifted his attention away from this useless chase, and looked at the remaining monstrous weapons, "sigh! It feels like I''m using shitty materials to build you, not just too precious materials¡­ What a waste!"

    This wasn''t the first time to lose monstrous weapons in any fight, but this was by far the greatest loss of them. And he knew more would fall at thest encounter before that monster would fall.

    Yet that didn''t stop him. He controlled these tools and let them start building something. "The greatest risk is for that monster to go berserk and aim to bring down the entire ce¡­" he muttered to himself, pinpointing the highest danger he had to solve first.

    The entire underground space was already too huge to control or support using any formation. If he had time, enough manpower, and materials, he''d aim towards such a goal. But he was limited in everything, and that made him improvise.

    Instead of thinking about making useless formations to support the entire ce, he decided to go for something different. "Without the ability to release your power outside, you''ll be like a trapped dragon, with its wings cut off," he looked at the finished formation made by his weapons and nodded in satisfaction.

    "Time to build formation for that nasty ability," William checked, and even when lightning stoppeding, that monster still stubbornly chased after Fang. it seemed it got more hurt than what William imagined, and it was still in berserk mode.

    "Keep chasing the rabbit," William evillyughed, while his monstrous weapons worked hard to finish a grand formation this time. He had no chance to build such a big formation before, or else he''d have a much easier time dealing with this monster.

    The spirit generation formation wasn''t like the arrays. The formation could absorb and condensate spirit power inside as long as its materials didn''t run out of power. And in the middle of building it, William got the inspiration to add a little touch, letting his weapons work extra and build little arrays in the middle of that formation.

    These were aimed to supplement part of the gathered spirit power back to the materials. Like this, it''d be as if he built an eternal formation that couldst as long as the world stood.

    This wasn''t done for the monster, but for the portal. William wanted to solve the problem the monster caused once and for all, just in case more unforeseen dangers came for the portal in the future.

    He nned to go into a serious training period, where he''d train himself and his carefully picked team. The team he''d select would be the one who''d go with him to the tournament, and also the one who''d apany him out from here to the new world.

    He needed to carefully pick great talents and focus heavily on training every one of them. That meant he''d have little time toe and check on the portal, worst to keep guarding it from risks like this monster.

    He still didn''t know how the monster managed to get its way here, passing through the upper city, going through the heavily secured gates towards here, without getting spotted.

    "It doesn''t matter, my best guess is that there is another entrance elsewhere here, something away from the doors leading to here¡­" William muttered to himself while his monstrous weapons were working over building offensive and defensive formations this time.

    "Keep it busy, don''t let ite back now," just when he noticed the monster''s sluggish chase after Fang, William knew the monster was waking up from that weird state. It wasn''t the right time for it toe here, and William needed more time for that.

    "Do you take me for a punching bag? I don''t know why it kept chasing me like a mad dog all this time, and I don''t know if I can keep it after me¡­"

    "Just build a formation and rain lightning over it."

 Chapter 1193: The Last Show

    "Do you think I can do this?" Fang felt like William sat his eyes over the bag he gained from Lara. And that made him feel a little insecure.

    "Don''t worry, I canpensate you," Williamughed when he realised what made Fang sceptical, "or Lara can, after all she owns the entire city."

    "Ok," Fang hesitated for a few moments before he made up his mind. He saw the monster stopping. He couldn''t see through the ck cloud surrounding the monster, but he was sure the monster was about to return to aim at William.

    Fang was keeping his focus over the monster all the time, but that didn''t mean he didn''t follow what William and thetter''s monstrous weapons were doing. So, he knew William was in the middle of making his final preparations to take the monster down, and he just needed a little extra time.

    "Screw it," Fang acted the moment the monster started to fly fast towards William. He took out materials and built the lightning formation fast before the monster even crossed two kilometres away.

    Then lightning fell, and the moment that happened, the monster stopped and roared. Fang swore he felt like getting focused by two gigantic eyes for a brief second there, a moment that made him feel a rare chill down his spine.

    "F*ck! Why did I listen to that madd''s words?" In the next minute, Fang couldn''t help but curse. The moment he activated the formation, the monster came fast, forcing him to ditch the new formation he made and make a run for his life.

    Or else he''d suffer from the same fate as William from earlier. Fang couldn''t believe he just used his precious materials to end up throwing them away like they were nothing.

    "Do it again!" Just as Williamcked a few more minutes, the monsters dropped their interest again with Fang. The lightninging from the formation still came, but for some reason, the monster stopped chasing, turned around, and started to fly towards William.

    "Do you take the materials used for these formations as being sand or what?" Fang gritted his teeth, unable to believe how William was acting this careless about such precious and rare materials.

    "Just do it, nothing is worth our lives!" William couldn''t believe that Fang missed the point entirely. That old man was too attached to the lightning formation to start to be a nuisance.

    "I must be crazy, must be," Fang shook his head helplessly before starting to make another formation. This time, the monster didn''t show any sign of stopping or getting interested again with Fang. for a reason, it sat its eyes directly over William, nothing else.

    To Fang, this was the best news ever. He didn''t need to throw away the formation he just made. And yet this didn''t mean all great news.

    The monster returns back to its senses and recognised the threat William posed. William was almost done, and only a few arrays were missing.

    "Screw it, I''ll work with whatever I have," he had no other option but to do this. Fang was raining tons of lightning over the monster, and yet thetter never slowed down even. The gigantic behemoth of ck cloud was heading like a meteorite towards William, and thetter got ready to wee the iing wrath.

    *Roar!* The monster came with unstoppable momentum, one that made the arrays William had here pretty much useless. The monster passes through everything, heading directly towards William without any sign of stopping.

    "Run!" Fang''s voice echoed in William''s mind, and yet thetter knew this wasn''t going to work. William prepared the setting here, and if he left, he''d suffer a lot this time.

    "Come, let me see how long you''ll keep standing on your feet," William knew the monster was this close from crushing down. It should have entered a deep slumber an hour ago, and what kept it standing on its feet so far was burning its spirit power.

    So, the battle could end smoothly by stretching it out as long as he could. As he already sat in a big formation here, he got to thest area to move around without fearing over losing his spirit power.

    Even with such a big formation, the presence of such a behemoth here took almost half of the entire space avable for him. So, William had to move around in little areas, while keeping an eye over his monstrous weapons.

    That monster showed intentions before to target his monstrous weapons, and he didn''t want to lose any of them anymore. The moment the monster came to him, William started to dash around, using his techniques all the time, while fighting freely for the first time ever in this battle.

    From the beginning, he was on the defensive side. This time was different. He finally could use his offensive techniques without any worry in his life. The battle finally came down to the familiar turf, the one where he just needed to move fast, evade the iing attacks of the monster, while raining down attacks on it.

    The only downside of this was that Fang couldn''t follow the monster and attack it inside William''s formation. If he did, the formation would crumble and fall apart.

    "Let it out, I want to roast it!" Fang said to William using telepathy, and yet thetter didn''t respond orply. If he tried to do it, then he''d risk suffering to lose his spirit power again.

    And through the past half an hour, William could tell the monster was pushing over its limits for kilometres. It was moving so fast that annoyed William. He knew if he dared to go out, he''d take much longer than expected toe back into the protection of the formation.

    That was why he closed an eye over what Fang said, making thetter grow a little mad. "Damn you boy, you are ruining another precious set of materials for nothing!" he fumed with rage, and yet he had nothing in his power to do.

 Chapter 1194: Self-Detonation

    "Just wait, when the monsteres down to itsst leg, I''ll push it out and let you roast as much as you like," William finally responded back, while panting for breath.

    He had his spirit power replenished all the time, but the mental stress was simply too much to handle. The monster was pressing hard on him, and a single fault would result in a bitter end.

    William kept moving, and the monster chased relentlessly. After a while, he could feel the monster was starting to struggle. Its speed got lowered, and the spike attack frequency got diminished as well.

    Less than ten minutes after feeling that, the monster moved all of sudden, heading out from William.

    "It''s running, roast it!" William roared, while chasing after that monster. He knew if he dared to go out of his formation range, then he''d suffer the monster''s nasty ability again. So, he moved five of his monstrous weapons, the closest to the monster, to stop it. And yet the monster was adamant at getting away from William no matter what.

    His monstrous weapons unleashed lots of attacks, and yet the monster dashed through them without stopping. The ck cloud that already had few gaps showed more gaps, and few of these were so deep to show the deeper parts of it.

    William and Fang were using their spirit sense to watch the monster, and the two could finallyy an eye over what this monster really looked like through these gaps.

    It wasn''t huge, the same as William read before in the old records. It was how the tales described it, three metres tall, with a body that didn''t look that threatening.

    There was little muscle bulk out there. "Is this the bastard causing all this trouble to us?" Fang couldn''t help but ask William using telepathy, and thetter could only nod.

    Even if he read about that monster and heard stories about it, it was still another experience to take a glimpse on what it looked like. "It''s growing weak by every minute," William jumped over what Fang was feeling, "roast it now! Don''t give it a chance to heal."

    "On it," Fang got distracted for a few moments there when he spotted what that monster truly looked like. But as there were holes leading directly towards the monster''s real body, Fang focused his attacks over these gaps.

    It wasn''t easy, as the monster kept moving fast and rotating around itself to protect its weak spot. However, Fang persisted, and didn''t show any mercy to the bastard. The lightning felt like a flood, and the monster eventually got hit by lightning, and got barbecued by the attacks.

    William kept himself inside the protection of his formation without daring to take a single step forward. "It''s almost time," he could see easily more gaps appearing at the ck cloud surrounding the monster. These got created by Fang''s attacks, and more were getting formed by every passing minute.

    Fang also noticed the same, and that made him more excited in releasing his lightning attacks.

    The monster started to roar in pain and anger, yet it had nothing in its power to do to stop this torment. The world was filled with tons of lightning arcsnding over it from Fang. and the only secured spot was William''s formation, where it suffered hellish beating from William.

    "It''s about to fall asleep any minute now¡­ Sh*t! It''s losing control over the spirit power it absorbed!!" Just when William was excitedly shouting about the monster''s soon to sleep state, something new developed.

    The normal development was for the monster to lose its consciousness and end up falling asleep. And yet the monster seemed to take a different approach, letting all the spirit power it umted all this time loose, triggering something that looked like a scary explosion.

    The ck cloud that was covering up the monster, showing many holes in the past hour, was now shining weirdly by bright blue light. There were also shes of lights that came dancing from within, as serpents of blue arcs, giving a very dangerous vibe.

    The moment William spotted such changes, and his heart sank in his chest. He didn''t need to go out there and inspect the monster thoroughly to know what was going on.

    "It''s about to self-detonate, we need to hurry and take it down," Fang also recognised what was going to happen, "we can''t risk losing the precious core and materials of this bastard."

    "We can''t afford to let it explode and bring down the entire ce with it," William roared, realising this wasn''t the time to y safe, "let''s go, you keep hitting all the lightning over that mfer, and I''ll keep hitting it with everything I got."

    William hoped during this moment of losing control over its abilities, the monster''s ability would be weakened or gone. Yet when he stepped outside the protection of his formation, he realised he was wrong.

    "Dammit! Even when it''s going to die, it''s still keeping hold over its ability¡­" the moment William went outside of his formation, he felt his spirit power getting sucked like running water leaking. Yet he didn''t stop this time.

    There was no time to retreat, and let his monstrous weapons handle the situation. He took out tons of elixirs, emptied them into his mouth, while releasing tons of his attacks over the monster.

    This time the monster didn''t fight back. It was already remarkable to keep its ability active during all this. The attacks flooded the monster from William and Fang, and every passing minute felt like an entire lifetime.

    The two knew how to handle this critical situation. A normal monster in the dark gold grade would explode to take down an entire area of thousands of metres. And this monster was special as it absorbed tons of spirit power already.

    Letting it explode was like letting tens of dark gold monsters explode together. Fang eyed the loot of the monster, and William eyed the safety and integrity of the portal.

 Chapter 1195: Competing Over The Monsters Core

    "Come on, don''t be stubborn and die already," William gritted his teeth while most of the ck cloud surrounding the monster was already gone. Most of the monster''s body appeared clearly to him and Fang, and they focused their attacks over these parts.

    However, as the monster was progressing in detonating its core, the berserk spirit power added ayer of protection for the monster. The attacksnded, and only little damage was left behind.

    "F*ck it! I''lle and take it down personally," at some point, Fang could feel the urge to take this monster down as fast as possible. He had to stay way behind because of the risk that monster''s ability posed. But right now, it didn''t matter anymore.

    The monster was this close from dying, and as William adapted, he was ready to. He shed for a few times, crossing the distance between him and the monster, then started to issue a torrent of his attacks non-stop.

    As he personally joined, the marks and wounds left behind got much deeper. William started moving right and left, shing alongside Fang, while the two released their strongest attacks without caring even about coordinating together.

    It wasn''t a battle that could be won by teamwork at this moment, but it was like a race against this monster.

    "It''s almost there," Fang roared, "move aside, I''ll release my mightiest attack¡­"

    "Together," William could tell this was a delicate moment. The monster was roaring faintly under their barrage of attacks. And the critical point of the detonation was almost there. The lightsing out from this monster were now expanding in a pulsing way, a sign that this monster was so close to releasing everything out.

    Everything looked as if it was running in the same direction, and the fastest to achieve its goals would win. William knew Fang''s intentions, as thetter eyed the core of the monster more than anything else.

    As the two came to such a stage, even William eyed that core. He''d need something tobine with his spirit, something that''d add something cool to his overall powers.

    If he managed to snatch the core and mergeter with it, then there was a good chance for him to gain a heaven defying ability. Absorbing spirit power from his enemies would be a great ability. At the worst cases, he''d be able to release attacks that''d suck spirit power dry from his enemies and weaken them.

    Fang gave William a side nce, as if he was telling him he warned him to step aside. The next thing he did was to release a really strong attack filled with lightning.

    The attack gathered up, forming a hurricane of lightning. It wasn''t like a thunderstorm, but a thunder hurricane.

    The moment it fully formed, it started to rip apart anything in a radius of hundreds of metres. Fang wasn''t lying, the attack was indeed his strongest, aside from the one released by the aid of William''s formation.

    Yet when he took a look at William using his spirit sense, he was surprised to see William standing fine. Then it hit him. "Damn! You are releasing a lightning technique to aid mine and let it not harm you?!!"

    Fang was sure even if William had lightning elements within his spirit, he wasn''t going to make it. Even if he wanted to get the core and other precious materials of the monster, he wouldn''t stand idle and watch William throw his life away.

    He was prepared to intervene and kick William out of the way of harm at any moment. And yet what weed him was William standing like nothing affected him, not only intact without any expected harm, but also was slowly walking towards the monster step by step.

    "Back off! This monster''s core and materials are mine!" Fang was well aware of William''s intentions from the moment thetter decided to stay behind. And then he started to walk as well towards the monster while roaring like this using spirit telepathy.

    Even if the two were close from each other, the deadly technique of Fang made it impossible for William to hear him if he shouted.

    "Are you sure you want to step in?" against what Fang predicted, William didn''t even halt in his steps, simply replying using telepathy as well, "this technique of yours isn''t easy to handle or control. It''s better for you to focus on it, or else you''ll end up suffering a bacsh."

    "Screw you!" Fang was about to take another step when he felt what William already anticipated and warned against. This technique was quite domineering, and that was why it needed full attention and control from Fang over it. Or else the technique would lose much of its power and deal a severe bacsh to him.

    If that happened, the dying monster would find another chance to finish its killer move and detonate. Being this close from it and suffering from a bacsh on top of that would mean a bitter end for Fang.

    The old master got through all this quite fast, and he knew he had no choice but to focus on controlling his technique. "I would love to see how you are going to get¡­"

    *Fwoosh!*

    Just before he''d continue his words, Fang watched bolts of lightninging from outside, heading towards William in a sh. They were William''s monstrous weapons, and at this point, William called them back, ready to redeploy them.

    He knew even if the monster was down and weak, it was hard for him to take it down without going into huge risk. And the odds of failure were quite high. So instead of taking the toll himself, he summoned all the remaining monstrous weapons, and then redeployed them around.

    "Go!" he got a narrow window here, and so he moved alongside his monstrous weapons. Alongside behemoths like these, he had enough security to get his way through the pulsating powerful surges of spirit powering from the monster.

 Chapter 1196: The Unexpected Happened

    The dash didn''t take more than a second, and yet it felt like a year to him. William could hear the cracking noises of the weapons on his side, as they got hit badly from the monster''s spirit power. At the same time, he used his deadliest technique, and dashed forward towards one direction, the monster''s belly point.

    During all this time, he kept looking for the most suitable ce for the core to be. He knew much information about the monster, but there was no lead about where its core was located, as no one killed it before.

    So, he kept closely watching, looking for any sign for the ce of this core. The core is the richest ce with spirit power, the most ce that''d attract more spirit power than other organs. At first it looked impossible to locate as the monster was entirely lit with spirit power.

    But when the monster went on self-detonation, William finally could find a lead. The monster''s body got exposed, and spirit power even if it got intensified, it still went on pulses and in a wave pattern.

    In between releasing the spirit power surges, William could clearly spot the ces rich in spirit power. Spirit power at such a stage was almost in physical form, able to be seen and felt easily. And that made him spot the most suitable ce for the core, the monster''s belly.

    "It''s mine!" Fang roared from behind when he saw where William was aiming at. He was thinking all the time the same as William. Even if he didn''t have any information about the monster they were fighting, Fang was looking for the ce of the core.

    Once the core was taken out, the monster would turn into a dead corpse. Even if Fang was stronger, he knew the moment William got his hands over the core, he had no way to take it back from him.

    "Sorry," William heard the roaring Fang from behind and couldn''t helpughing evilly. His tails were already prating the monster''s thick skin, while his monstrous weapons were shielding him from another spirit power surge, thest one.

    Fang was toote, and even before he''d make a move, William already secured the core. Seeing the glisteringrge diamond shaped weird core held in the tails of William made Fang quite frustrated.

    "I''m willing to pay anything to get it!" Fang was indeed honest when he shouted this, but he mistook one thing.

    He didn''t know, the same as William, that this core they worked hard to get from the monster wouldn''t remain intact. Just after William grabbed it out, and before he''d even dash away to safety from the monster''s harm way, the core started to shine brighter while gradually turning into wisps of smoke.

    "This¡­" Fang was just getting closer to William when he stupefied in his ce motionless. He saw the core he dreamt to have turned into smoke, while William''s body started to grow weak and soft, falling to the ground with his eyes closed.

    "Dammit! Not now!" Fang got awakened over the sudden and threatening surge of spirit power that came from the direction of the monster. The two were so close to it right now, and Fang knew what was going to happen.

    The core might have most of the spirit power that the monster gathered, but there was still a significant amount still stored within the monster''s body.

    William didn''t even see thating. While fighting against the monster, he already suffered lots of wounds. His entire body was soaked with his blood, and that included his tails.

    The moment he grabbed the core, he felt such unexinable hunger to devour it. He didn''t get what was going on until it was toote. In such a brief moment when he lost control over himself, he ended up triggering the core absorption, adding it to his spirit.

    He didn''t expect this to happen, and part of this came from his earlier ns to do so with the core. He never expected it to happen at this moment, and with this, his body grew weak.

    When he''d absorb any core, he''d enter into deep slumber. But this was the perfectly worst moment for him to experience this. The monster was dead, and the spirit power stored within its body was going to get unleashed at any moment now.

    "F*ck!" Fang didn''t hesitate for even a second after, grabbed William''s body from the ground, and dashed like a rocket. He didn''t have time to save what remained from William''s monstrous weapons.

    Fang didn''t care that much about these, but he wanted to im one or two for himself if he could. Yet he had no time but to grab William before a surging spirit power umted and reached a critical point.

    "Sh*t! All this is gathering and umting, and the core isn''t there? What the f*ck that monster was made of? Did it n to take half of the continent with it or what?!!"

    As Fang dashed away from the monster, his hair stood to no end. It was clear that something terrifying was gathering anding, which made him very surprised.

    He expected a bang, but it wasn''t anything near what he expected. The monster''s spirit power started to form a scary storm, with ck clouds popping out from its body.

    Each cloud was like a ck ball, very dense and opaque, looking extremely dangerous. As if they defied anything of logic, they started to float in the air without any effect from gravity whatsoever.

    Seeing this made Fang realise he and William were far enough. And for a moment there, he recalled William''s team stuck at the tunnel up at the ceiling.

    "Dammit! Why the hell have you lost consciousness at this time!" Fang wanted to go to the tunnel, but the monster stood between him and that destination. If he dared to take a detour, he''d risk being too close to the monster for a long time.

 Chapter 1197: Monsters Are Gone!

    "No time for that," Fang had to select the hardest choice and dash as far as possible while carrying William on his back.

    And then the balls that kepting out from the dead monster''s body started to weirdly buzz, before they started to collide against each other.

    With each collision, thick tongues of lightning got emitted, dazzled and danced around, eroding and taking down anything that came on their path.

    *Rumble!*

    As he ran for a few seconds, a mighty rumble came from behind, forcing him to stop. "Yes, this bastard wanted to take down the entire continent back then," he already was feeling a cold touch down his spine, and yet he didn''t lose his cool.

    The moment that rumble came, and he started to deploy all the defensive techniques he was familiar with. He knew this was going to be a brief and yet life threatening battle against those ck balls and berserk spirit power. So, he didn''t hold back, and used everything he knew of.

    The first thing he saw was a bright sh of light, as a massive ball of light appeared from the ck balls. It kept growing, gulped all the remaining William''s monstrous weapons, before finally releasing a mighty explosive power that took lots of pyramids around in no time.

    Fang was spreading his spirit sense, and yet this was the first time since stepping onto the pinnacle stage to get his spirit sense destroyed and crushed against anything.

    "Come on!" he didn''t stop using his defensive techniques, even when everything around got blindly bright.

    He kept William on his back for better protection. And all he thought about was William''s team. Least to his knowledge that the team already sent Anjie out a few minutes ago, and what she saw made her feel danger.

    "Retreat!" what Anjie saw made her climb up the tunnel and reach fast to her friends. She got selected as she was one of the strongest, and she wanted to be the first to go down and be by William''s side other than other girls.

    Anjie didn''t even buy there was such danger to stop them froming down. And yet when she saw the monster going berserk, about to detonate, she couldn''t help but jump to the worst conclusion.

    "What about William?" Berry screamed, but Anjie dragged her by the arm while shouting back:

    "He has Fang, and the two are still fighting down there. We have to hurry, there are tons of monsters ahead to fight before going up to safety."

    Yet against what she and others thought, there wasn''t a single monster standing in their way. Monsters already felt the uing danger, and they all retreated away from here.

    They cleared the path for the team to retreat all the way to the surface. And when they arrived there, everyone couldn''t help but feel much worse about all this.

    "Monsters never stoppeding at us at any ce here before," Lara muttered, while looking at Anjie like the rest of the team, "what the hell is happening down there?"

    "Told you already, I saw a giant ck cloud shining brightly like it''s going to explode," Anjie repeated her earlier words, "I felt real danger when I saw it. So, it''s not safe, even monsters can tell that."

    "It''s not safe indeed," Lara looked at the direction of the stairs, "shall we go up there or what?"

    "I say we go."

    "If it''s dangerous to force the monsters away, then we shall go out from here."

    "My opinion as well."

    Everyone started to state their opinions, and then they felt the ground trembling all of sudden.

    "Let''s go, there is no time to debate about this," as few, led by Berry, were arguing against leaving William behind, the sudden and fierce tremble forced them all to stop what they were doing.

    "Follow me," Lara led everyone towards the nearby stairs, "William has Fang, and I can''t believe these two together can''t handle the situation down there and escape with their lives intact."

    "Don''t forget that William never went into anything without having n B," Sara added while running alongside everyone else. Even if she and Lara said that, the two weren''t any less worried over William. And yet they knew they had nothing in their power to help.

    This time they were wrong. Things developed way out of what William expected. The core that he gained forced him to enter into slumber mode. And if not for Fang to be there, out of his ns, then things would have taken the wrong turn for him.

    The rumble the team felt was just the beginning of much more toe. More trembling urred thanks to the scary amount of spirit power released from that monster. And as the team went outside to safety, leaving the underground city behind, Fang was entrapped down there, fighting against the berserk spirit power explosion.

    "Dammit! This monster was a freak!" At this point, Fang couldn''t help but think about the case if that monster didn''t get killed and lost its core.

    Just the amount stored inside its body was scary enough to force him to use everything he got, and still he ended up having more wounds.

    Yet all this didn''tst for more than a couple of minutes. Even if they felt like an entire lifetime to Fang, it ended and nothing remained of that monster but shallow crater at the ground.

    "Phew, it''s over," when the spirit power vanished the same way it appeared, turning into wisps and then gone, Fang could finally heave a deep sigh of relief. He didn''t feel his body crashing on the ground while panting heavily for breaths.

    Things escted to a threatening level, yet he and William managed to get past it.

    "All this and only left such a shallow mark behind? What is this ce?!" After a few minutes of resting and collecting himself, Fang finally moved. He kept William on his shoulder, while looking at the shallow crater left by that monster.

 Chapter 1198: Damage Is Everywhere

    Fang was surprised by this. The detonation was so fierce, enough to make the ceiling show deep and threatening cracks. Lots ofrge chunks of stones fell already, and yet the ground didn''t show much as a result.

    This was the first time for him to start paying attention to the ce he was in. It wasn''t hard to notice how special this ce was, with all the pyramids that kept shining in different intensity.

    "You came here, specifically for this ce, right? For what exactly? Why is this ce special?" Fang walked around and could see a few arrays that Williamid around still intact. He couldn''t help but take a deep look at the unconsciousd on his shoulder, feeling how deeply unfathomable William was.

    "The more I get to interact with you, the more amazed and puzzled I be," Fang took a tour around for half an hour but couldn''t get what this ce was for.

    "I can tell these pyramids are used for something, but I can''t detect anything as spirit power is berserk here," he muttered as he failed to break apart one pyramid or take away one to inspect and analyseter.

    "If so, then let me give you a helping hand here," Fang didn''t get anything about this ce, but his instincts told him it was a very important chance. As the recent explosion ced this ce at huge risk, with deep scars alongside the ceiling, Fang started to repair the entire ce.

    He left William on the ground and started to work out. He kept building stone pirs, linking the ground with the ceiling, while trying his best to use earth-based techniques to repair the gaps that appeared up there.

    He wasn''t that proficient at using earth elements like lightning, but that didn''t mean he couldn''t help.

    As he was busy doing this, the team went back to the underground city.

    "It''s the same as always," Sara sighed, "every single time he went outside alone, a disaster was left behind."

    "It''s our boss," Langughed, "if he didn''t break down the world around, he wouldn''t be satisfied."

    "This is still bad¡­" Lara mumbled while watching the grand scene of damage across the entire city. The weak and old buildings that were already half damaged were now mostly lost. The buildings turned into big chunks of stones, while few only stood erect, with most of their bodies lost.

    The best word to use to describe all this was utter devastation. The city wasn''t best described as an old city, but as ruins, nothing more.

    What she cared most about wasn''t the city and buildings, but the materials dropped. "I hope monsters are dead¡­" she was about to head down with everyone when she saw someoneing out from the entrance to this underground space. "What are you doing here?!!"

    "Lady, mydy, this¡­" he was one of the leaders of the big forces in the city. Yet the old man''s face twitched and changed the moment he spotted the grand damage the old city here had.

    "Don''t worry, it happened because of a weird earthquake," she waved her hand, trying to act as a city leader who didn''t fear or get worried from anything, "what brought you here? I strictly gave orders for everyone to evacuate the city and not approach it."

    "It''s not about here," the man seemed to get jolted awake back to his senses, "the city, the city mydy, it''s in a mess right now¡­"

    The man started to exin what happened up there, making Lara''s face twitch and change in colour the more she heard. The devastation that happened here seemed to extend a leg up there, destroying many buildings and causing lots of panic.

    "I have to go," Lara knew her presence was a must right now, "you keep looking for him, and thene up to help."

    "We won''t take that long," Anjie could understand the feelings Lara had right now. She was the daughter of the king, and she witnessed how her capital and home got destroyed before, and knew how terrible such a feeling was, "go and we''ll follow as soon as possible."

    The team watched Lara leave in a hurry, before they started to speak about what caused such damage in the first ce.

    "You saw a monster down there; can a single monster bring such damage?" Ro asked in great doubt, while walking alongside everyone through the ruins. They were heading towards the hole they escaped from, but looking for it amidst all this damage wasn''t easy.

    They got where it was, but now it was covered by tons of rocks and rubbles. The hole was gone, and they needed to dig another one to get down there.

    "If it was at the pinnacle stage, then yes, it can bring such damage," Sara paused, while she hit the ground with one of her techniques like others, "weird¡­ This ground is far sturdier than before¡­"

    She was right, the team had many who had earth elements in their spirits. And yet they weren''t able to clear the rubbles and rocks away from the whole area.

    It felt like the ground melted and merged, purified and hardened, to form ayer of hard to crack rocks. "We are progressing at least," Thomas looked at the shallow hole the team created after half an hour of digging, "hopefully this is just the outeryer."

    Yet he was wrong. The entire ground was like that. The hole they could dig in mere minutes wasn''t even dug after one whole day!

    During this period, Fang was busy with fortifying and supporting the ceiling. He never learnt that the ceiling wasn''t that weak at all, in fact it became stronger and sturdier.

    He spent half a day fortifying the ceiling before he saw he did enough. "These pirs canst for a couple hundred years without any issue," he muttered to himself, while watching the twenty metres radius pirs that spanned a huge area around, "it''s time to see what this ce is all about."

 Chapter 1199: Getting Into The Black Fox Home

    Fang didn''t forget to take a peek at the hole that led him and William here. He could see it intact, didn''t know it got obliterated just a few metres away from the opening.

    Even with the monster gone, Fang couldn''t spread his spirit beyond the limit of this ce. And he wasn''t interested in checking that hole. To him, it was open and the path to the surface was secured. Even if it got blocked midway, he was confident to dig a path and get away safely.

    His main focus was still on the pyramids and this area. "I can''t believe that kid is here for that monster only¡­" yet after hours of looking, he didn''t manage to find a single clue about anything, "mentioning that monster, it''s not something that can get its way here easily, not the type I''ve seen before¡­"

    His thoughts drifted towards the monster. He never saw something like that before. And yet he knew the world was too vast for anyone to know all the monster types existing.

    "The city is well guarded and protected, and the entrance to here is impossible without the help from someone holding the keys¡­" he thought about the same thing William did before, that this monster was here all along.

    "But if it was here, then why did that kide and try to kill it now?" Fang recalled how William acted before, "it was obvious he knew tons of sh*t about that monster. If so, then alone he wasn''t able to handle it, not even close to keeping his life intact¡­"

    The more he thought about it the more he believed William never knew about the monster''s existence here. "That means he came here to check on something going wrong in this ce, and identally pumped into this monster. That means he knew what this ce was, and this monster wasn''t here all along¡­"

    He looked around, and his mind got fixed on the idea of the presence of another entrance to this ce. Yet the ce was so massive for him to look for such a leak. And he was far more curious about this ce than the presence of another way to enter here.

    "The more I look at it, the more I believe this ce is special¡­" Fang got pumped up, "alright, thatd is sleeping like a little baby, and there isn''t any danger around. If I need to, I''ll dig every rock and pyramid until I get what''s hidden here¡­"

    As he decided on, he started a spree ofunching his techniques to dig the ground, and yet he failed. The ground wasn''t just sturdy, it looked quite indestructible.

    "F*ck! I''m even using that kid''s formation and can''t leave a single scratch here!!!" He looked at the shallow hole left over by the monster from earlier and decided to go there and expand it.

    Yet he didn''t know that when the monster died, most of the stored-up spirit power got absorbed back by the entire formation. That was why the explosion didn''te even close to the ferocity it was supposed to, and that was why the ground all around this portal got hardened like it was forged from steel.

    As Fang and the team were busy trying to dig their way through the hardened ground, William was in his own world.

    The moment he touched that core and unintentionally activated the absorption technique, his mind drifted away. "This is the Foxir¡­" he looked around, to find himself standing in a very familiar ce.

    The ck clouds were still there, and yet they weren''t that dense, and he could easily see through. The ce was the home of the ck fox, and yet he couldn''t see any trace of it.

    "What brought me here in the first ce?" he looked around, looked at himself, and couldn''t help but recall thest moments before he came here.

    "I was about to hold that core, or did I get it?" His thoughts were a little hazy about these moments, making it hard for him to get to the bottom of this.

    "Oh, this is the home of that ck fox," just before William could get any idea about what happened, his body suddenly shone brighter, and a golden star appeared out from it.

    The star floated above him, expanded as if it got a booster or something. "It''s indeed quite generous for that fox to let you in, quite generous and risky indeed."

    "What do you mean?" William knew spirits had their own rules that he didn''t get so far. And from the words of that mysterious spirit he got attached himself to, he sniffed new intel about this world.

    "Being here means you can absorb part of its power, increasing the grade of your spirit, cleansing your body, elerating your training speed, tons of benefits¡­"

    "And the risks?" William wasn''t that much interested in knowing the pros of being here at first. He was far from curious about the cons. If being here had risks over him, then he should be aware of these.

    Yet the pros he heard weren''t that bad. To him it felt like he got himself into a body cleansing zone, one of those rare areas in the outer world.

    "It''s not about you, it''s all on the fox," the golden spirit seemed to read William''s line of thoughts, "being here means there is a gap in the protective shell of this ce. Like this, any outsider can work a little extra and will find a way here."

    "This¡­" William couldn''t help but recall the explosive encounter he once had here against the mysterious spirits. He never thought he was the reason behind their entry here, and yet that golden spirit''s words piqued his interest about a different point.

    "Why do you need to secure your ces?" he didn''t get this, "humans live in open and well-known ces."

    "We are different," William felt in an arrogant tone in that spirit''s words, "we can''t let any holes in our homes, or else bad things will happen."

 Chapter 1200: Chapter 1200

    "That is something I can understand," William paused, "but why is it dangerous for you? I can tell you all are strong and mighty!"

    "To peeps like you, we are gods," the golden spirit kept speaking in its arrogant tone, "however to other spirits, we aren''t that invincible. We have grades, stages of power, like how you humans have."

    "Hmm, I see, but why does it feel like it''s the wild wild west out there? You are speaking as if all spirits want each other dead or something¡­"

    "It''s something a human like you should stay away from," yet unlike how William expected, the golden spirit didn''t continue spilling any more beans, "just focus on your shitty stuff and don''t die."

    "Is it dangerous here?" William looked around, "there is no one but me and you."

    "I meant in your shitty world, hmph! You were this close from getting your neck snapped by that ant."

    "But I still killed it!"

    "With the help of another human," the golden spirit snorted, "anyway, I''ll take a tour here¡­ Why are you following me?"

    "To make sure you won''t do any harm to my ck spirit home," William followed the golden spirit when thetter moved.

    "You are such a suspicious and funny little human indeed," the golden spiritughed, "do you think I can do anything in such a form? For real?"

    "I don''t know anything about you guys," William shrugged, "besides I got nothing else to do, so will tag along."

    The golden spirit had nothing to do to stop William. As it stated before, it didn''t hold any ill intentions, only toured the ce.

    The home of the ck fox wasn''t small at all. As the two moved along, William saw lots of areas that he never visited before. There were valleys, underground tunnels that led to a few huge halls, with gigantic pirs of stones and tons of ck fox decorations.

    There were many hills, and one mountain. The golden spirit seemed used to such ces, as it didn''t issue any question orment during the journey. As for William, he never thought the home of the ck fox was so massive and rich in detail.

    He kept asking questions and getting only short and useless answers. The golden spirit seemed so tight lipped about the spirit world and didn''t say anything that''d teach William anything new. And yet thetter never stopped asking.

    As William kept annoying the golden spirit, thetter started to speak about thest moments that William missed. It tried to divert the talk around the spirit world and its secrets, which was something that might bring a catastrophe for the golden spirit if it dared to speak.

    "Are you saying that the core started to turn into ash the moment I touched it?!!" William was surprised to hear that. And with the golden spirit confirmation, he couldn''t help but jump to the only conclusion that could exin everything.

    "I''m absorbing it right now?!!" he couldn''t help but mutter to himself in doubt and disbelief, "but¡­ How?"

    His mind started to drift about what caused this to get activated, and why he was dragged here this time. It wasn''t the first time for him to absorb a core, and yet it felt like something was extra special about this core.

    "It seems when I was thinking about absorbing the core, I identally triggered it," he couldn''t think of anything else but this, "yet¡­ Why the f*ck am I here?"

    "Don''t ask me, ask yourself," the golden spiritughed, feeling relieved the past few minutes from William''s annoyance.

    "That''s something rted to spirits without doubt, and you are one, not me," William shifted the topic magically back to the spirit realm, "tell me, why am I here? What brought me here?"

    "You¡­" the golden spirit couldn''t help but stutter, couldn''t believe William jumped back to the same topic in such a way, "won''t tell, even if I know something, which isn''t true, won''t tell."

    "Don''t believe you!"

    "No, it''s something rted either to you or your spirit," the golden spirit hurriedly added, "I don''t know the ck fox personally, but heard lots of stories about it. Yet can''t tell why you were dragged here."

    "Hmm¡­" William could tell this spirit wasn''t lying, and that made him think about what brought him here.

    "If I was brought here out of my will and intentions, then it must be rted to the ck fox," William started to keep his thoughts focused on this point, something that gave the golden spirit a final breath of relief.

    The first thing that made William take this thought quite seriously was the fact that the ck fox wasn''t here. It was the home of the fox, and it was weird for it to not be present.

    "Tell me, is itmon for spirits to move around your world and leave their homes?" as he felt more suspicious about this point, he couldn''t help but ask.

    "We don''t like to travel a lot indeed," the golden spirit seemed to think the same as William, ending up spilling little information without realising it, "going out means we are vulnerable to attacks, something that''s not trivial to begin with. So, when we leave our homes, we tend to leave in groups¡­ F*ck! Why am I telling you this?"

    The golden spirit seemed to return to his senses, realising that he was speaking of the nature of the spirit world without realising it.

    And such sudden realisation made William evilly grin, "see? It wasn''t that hard after all, hahaha," Williamughed before adding, "so if the ck fox left the ce, then he must have done it with other spirits, right?"

    Even if he wasughing, William''s mind couldn''t help but recall the fierce scene he witnessed when he came to meet the ck fox before. In his mind, it seemed like the ck fox was going out for revenge, and yet that didn''t help answering why William was dragged here in the first ce.

 Chapter 1201: Four Spirits Are Here!

    "Anyway, telling you this won''t bring any harm," the golden spirit paused, as if it was weighing the risks of telling William anything special about the spirit world, "if spirits went out on a crusade, blood always follows. And as spirits moved to attack another, news always leaked, and that can lead to a very critical situation."

    "Like what?" William responded without thinking too much about what the golden spirit was saying. His mind was still trying to guess what the rtionship between the ck fox was going out for war and him being dragged here.

    "We work in a special way, not alone normally¡­"

    "I know, you got factions, right?" William interrupted the golden spirit''s words without thinking too much about this, "I know all this already. so?"

    "You? How?!!" The golden spirit seemed a bit startled at first, before it realised what happened, "I see, it seems that fox took a great deal of liking to you."

    "Speaking if I don''t worthy of such support," William twisted his lips and the golden spirit sighed.

    "Humans are always arrogant; do you think you are special? Do you think you are the only strong creatures in the world?"

    "Monsters have strong names of course¡­"

    "Not monsters, you won''t get it even if I told you, "The golden spirit seemed like it was speaking to itself more than to William, "anyway, as you know about this already, then you can expect what can happen if one group moves to attack another, right?"

    "They''ll strengthen defences at the target, ask for help from other group members," William paused, looking around, "however the ck fox is the one attacking and moving out, not the one getting attacked¡­ It doesn''t add up, right?"

    "No, you are getting it all wrong," the golden spirit paused again for a few seconds before adding, "the home is like the heart of our folks, if one got attacked and lost home, it''ll get severely weakened and even die."

    "This¡­" William couldn''t get how a ce was rted to one''s strength and life, "then¡­ You want to say¡­"

    "The ck fox must have got wind of somethinging to attack his home, so he asked for your help."

    "My help?" William blinked, "but I''m not that strong to help and stop any attack from other spirits."

    William recalled again the old experience against the group that came to attack the ck fox home. It was a very stressful moment, and he was positive he had no power to stand against any of these enemies.

    "At least you are realistic and not that arrogant, good," the golden spirit seemed to think about something entirely different than what William was speaking about, "I believe the ck fox already knows about my existence by your side."

    "This¡­"

    "It''s not a surprise, he is your spirit after all," the golden spirit sighed, "it''s understandable, he needs my help, and yet this isn''t the nicest way to ask for that."

    "..."

    William knew the golden spirit was either speaking rubbish or it was telling something he had zero knowledge about. He leant towards thetter possibility, and that made him evilly grin to himself.

    "That ck fox¡­ It''s really cunning," he thought to himself, realising how the ck fox forced the golden spirit''s hands here.

    If William got into a deadly situation, then the golden spirit''s life would be in danger as well. That meant dragging William here would force the golden spirit to act. The target wasn''t William, but the golden spirit.

    "What did he want from you?" William cleared up his throat, "you are aware you can''t do much in such a state, right?"

    "I''m sure he also knows that," the golden spirit seemed to think about the same question William had in mind; what did the ck fox want from the golden spirit?

    And before the golden spirit would say anything else, the entire ce suddenly rumbled.

    "What''s this?" William didn''t need to have a spirit sense here to know something bad wasing.

    "Someone is here," the golden spirit confirmed William''s doubts, "some spirits are trying to barge their way in."

    "Some? Not just one?!" William felt more surprised, before hurriedly asking, "what if they came here?"

    "Told you already¡­"

    "No, I mean if the ck fox is gone, what will happen to me, and you?"

    "Don''t start mentioning the bad stuff," the golden spirit coughed, while the world around the two rumbled again, "let''s see who ising uninvited first, then talkter."

    "Can we see them?" Before William would continue his words, the golden spirit suddenly shone brighter in gold, releasing a huge burst of power that started to spread fast all over the ce.

    "What are you doing?" William was surprised to see that. He thought the golden spirit had no power to use here.

    "If the ck fox of yours wanted me to help, then he must have left something to let me do it," the golden spirit spoke, and William could feel how tired his voice was, "and he really left something for me to tug into his home. I can''t do much, not alone of course, but at least we can see who is attacking here."

    As the golden spirit ended his words, part of the power it released started to gather and form some sort of a screen. It floated midair, around tens of metres above the ground, and was hundreds of metres in width and length.

    Soon enough, the screen started to show different concentrations of the golden power particles, taking shapes, ones that looked quite vague at first before clearing up.

    "Hmm¡­ We got four different spiritsing for your fox, that means he targeted a big force¡­ Not good¡­"

    As the golden spirit said, four different shapes appeared in front of William. One was a big wolf, another was a big snake with three heads, the third was an ox, and the fourth was a hybrid between an eagle, horse, and scorpion.

 Chapter 1202: Battle Against Spirits

    The four looked quite ferocious, and William could recognise these spirits from first nce. "This is indeed bad," these spirits were infamous for the big variety of elements they supported. They were all spirits of dark masters, and quite special ones on top of that.

    Seeing such four standing outside, gathering up their power and hammering the shield protecting thisir made William sure this was going to be super hard to stop them.

    "Don''t panic, as long as we are here, they can''t do anything," the golden spirit paused, "but alone I can''t do anything. I need your help."

    "How?" William pointed at himself, "can''t you see? I''m in special shape and mode right now."

    "I know, but if that fox prepared for you toe and hold his castle, then he must have left something for you to use in such a state," the golden spirit paused, "I believe you can use your techniques right now, right?"

    "Yes, I did it before," William felt puzzled, "but I can''t see how it can make a difference¡­"

    "Just try and you''ll see for yourself," the golden spirit didn''t exin, after all this was one of the special things of the spirit world.

    William shrugged, didn''t know how using his human techniques would be enough to stop four strong and ferocious spirits. Yet he didn''t cling much on doubt, and started using his strongest technique ever; the Holy Sword technique.

    He shed a few times, stacked a few attacks, before releasing them. As he moved, he didn''t notice the swirling ck power that appeared out of nowhere, surrounding him.

    It was clearly visible to the golden spirit, and yet the dude never mentioned anything about it. When William was done, he released the attack towards the emptiness around, not at any specific target. And that was when something new happened.

    The attack moved like a gigantic bolt of lightning towards the front, yet it didn''t live for more than a few blinks of an eye. A ck vortex appeared out of nowhere, without any warning, and sucked dry the entire attack.

    "This¡­" before he''d ask about what happened, he couldn''t help but shift his eyes towards the golden screen. And there he spotted something new shing on its surface.

    The same bolt appeared, yet it wasn''t small, wasn''t just one. Weirdly enough, it felt like a rain wasing, a storm was hitting, and everything around the four spirits got blurred by what William could tell it was a bloody hell storm.

    The screen could only ry a detailed image of what was happening out there. Yet itcked lots of stuff that made William unable to tell what was going on out there.

    There was no sound, and the images were just viewing the scenes from one direction, from the outside, without the ability to delve through the current storm he created and tell what was going on to the four spirits inside.

    "Don''t tell me my attack will harm them!!" William couldn''t believe that, but as the stormsted longer than five minutes, he couldn''t help but think about this possibility.

    "It can, but not from just one hit," the golden spirit seemed to know much more than what he said, "why are you standing like that? Recuperate and recharge your spirit power tounch another attack!"

    "Recharge? Come on! I don''t need that," William harrumphed, before releasing another wave of his attack. Like before, the attack came at the enemies outside, boosting the storm outside, erging it even further.

    One hit after another came, but soon William felt something weird. "My spirit power didn''t decrease that much, but why do I feel empty?!!"

    He wasn''t exaggerating. Right now, he was panting, leaning on his knees, supporting his body with his arms, while feeling tired like never before.

    "Told you to recuperate," the golden spiritughed, "this isn''t you using spirit power, it was never like this. Don''t tell me you thought you released all this using spirit power? Hrious!"

    "If not, then how did I release the attacks then?" William didn''t get it, yet the more he tried to speak, the more tired he felt.

    "Just rest, you won''t do us any good while being half wasted like this," the golden spirit sighed, "damn you humans, you never listen to a word of advice until it''s toote."

    William didn''t argue against this, as the spirit was right. Yet that made him recall something. "I never suffered from any loss in my spirit power before, I thought this is rted to the ck fox''s special world¡­ Yet it seems I was wrong¡­"

    As he sat down and started to train, he couldn''t help but have his thoughts drift towards that point. He fought here before and never felt exhausted nor felt like his spirit power was decreasing.

    He always thought this was the act of the ck fox, but it seemed like this wasn''t the case. "It''s something rted to the spirit world¡­ Don''t tell me these folks don''t use spirit power!!" This was a wild conclusion, yet he couldn''t think of anything else at the moment.

    It was another huge discovery for him. If spirits didn''t use spirit power, it meant they use another form of power. And that was like opening a brand new door for him.

    He wanted to ask about this quite badly, yet he knew he wouldn''t get any answer from that golden spirit. And he didn''t have much time even to rest and recuperate.

    "Hurry up, they are about to get freed from your attacks," the golden spirit suddenly said, disturbing William from training and thinking, "release three attacks and then have ten minutes of rest."

    "I''ll try my best then," William stood up, feeling much better. Yet after releasing the second attack, he started to feel weak again, and by the third, he felt even a little dizzy.

    "F*ck! I can''t keep releasing two attacks," after doing this for the fourth time, William couldn''t even keep his body standing, and crashed on the ground, while fighting for his breaths.

 Chapter 1203: The Ox Spirit

    "Two attacks won''t give you much time to recuperate," the golden spirit knew his part here, an auxiliary and supportive role. He couldn''t help William except in channelling his attacks using his unique form of power, turning them into something deadly to any spirit.

    It wasn''t just William who was acting, the golden spirit was. And it wasn''t just William who got tired, the golden spirit was. And yet the difference between the two''s levels of fatigue was like the distance between sky and ground.

    "I need to find another way¡­ If I have my rings, I could have used my elixirs and potions to cleanse my fatigue¡­" William knew the crux of all this was him getting tired, and that could be easily solved by the potions and elixirs he had.

    Yet in this world, he wasn''t with his real body. That made him unable to solve this problem.

    "It''s not a physical fatigue, it''s something you won''t get," yet the golden spirit said something that made William more puzzled, "don''t ask, if you have a speck of strength left, just use it to heal."

    William couldn''t refute that, so he kept all his thoughts and guesses to himself and started training. It might be impractical to train as his spirit power wasn''t depleted or affected, but doing so would also heal his body faster.

    But as William thought and feared, after three more tries, he couldn''t even stand straight to perform the third strike.

    "Didn''t you have that lightning formation?" out of the blue, the golden spirit said.

    "I''m d you were watching me doing all this cool stuff, however as you can see¡­" William slowly and heavily raised his two arms, "I don''t have a single ring here."

    "Again you are thinking in human terms and logic, wrong," the golden spirit calmly corrected William.

    "How can I make an array without materials then?!'' Yet what it said didn''t help in clearing anything for William.

    "Just imagine having these, and let me do the rest," the golden spirit didn''t exin anymore, and simply stuck to silence even when William asked for more rification.

    In the end, William had to go with what crazy words that spirit said. He didn''t get what was going on, but he imagined having rings and such materials, and started to dig the ground and ce the materials at their specific spots.

    Weirdly enough, after digging a few holes, he could feel some sort of bond forming between these holes. He looked back, and could see swirls of golden and ck dots around every hole.

    "What are you doing? Don''t stop! We have no time for that!" The golden spirit urged William to continue, and thetter was about to ask and demand an exnation except when that spirit''s voice came much weaker than ever.

    It was clear that something was done by this spirit, and it was consuming too much power off it. So William continued, imagining the materials he needed until he finallypleted the formation.

    It wasn''t a big formation, actually it was in the size of any normal array. However, thanks to the great impact such an array would cause, it was considered a formation instead.

    William tried to inspect the holes he was making, tried to see what was going on by the golden spirit, yet he couldn''t find anything abnormal. The holes didn''t look any much different than empty ones until he covered them again and left to dig another spot.

    He noticed though that after digging three holes, something would be born, something would activate the holes and bring difference to them. He wanted nothing else but to go back and dig these holes again, check what happened there, what went wrong.

    And yet he didn''t have any time for any of that. On the screen, it was clear that the four spirits that came here were about to break free from the storm he created. The attacks stopped as he had to dig the holes, and the four spirits were this close from breaking free any moment now.

    "Start activating this toy of yours, we got no time!'''' The golden spirit could guess what was in William''s mind, so it had to shout and rm William against doing this.

    It didn''t need to, as William kept an eye over the screen. He didn''t have the sense to see everything, but he never dropped an eye over that screen.

    "On it," William started using his lightning technique, releasing a bolt of lightning while standing in the formation. The entire formation lit up, and tons of lightning arcs came out.

    Yet it was half a beat slow. One spirit managed to get away from the encirclement of the storm, just in time to evade the newly iing lightning storm.

    It was an ox-shaped spirit, and the moment it went out from the first storm, it didn''t stop and kept shing right and left. It had a behemoth body, one that looked like a small hill. And yet it kept shing and moving around like it was as light as a feather.

    The story was different for the other three spirits. They weren''t as lucky as the ox, got engulfed into a barrage of lightning bolts that made it more impossible to catch a single glimpse of them.

    "One is out," William shouted, "what can we do?"

    "Fck that Ox! He is fcking annoying!" the golden spirit seemed well aware of that enemy, "we can''t get him as long as he is moving around like this. Luckily, he can''t attack while moving, so the moment he''d stop to attack, we''de for him."

    "You do know how my formation works, right?" William paused, while releasing one more wave of attacks, "should I use the slow mode of the turbo one?"

    "The slow one indeed," the golden spirit sighed, "you won''t be able to maintain it while attacking continuously. You have to get rest in between. Luckily, you''ll need to attack once then rest for ten minutes."

 Chapter 1204: The Golden Spirit

    "Yes, that''s a blessing indeed," William paused, as he sat on the ground, prepared to train and rest, "between, are you alright? Your voice is getting weaker."

    "Don''t mind me, just focus on doing what you need," the golden spirit seemed pretty annoyed about what it was doing, and yet it never thought about stopping, "if we fail here, both of us will struggle for the rest of our lives! No time to rest, no time to y it safe. We need to keep taking risks one after another."

    "Got it," William couldn''t get much of the reasons and logic behind the golden spirit actions, but he was sure the golden spirit meant well here. If they lost the ck foxir, William would lose his spirit and would suffer from it.

    And that also meant the golden spirit would also suffer at the same time. Yet it felt like the golden spirit knew extra, and it was true. It felt to William that the risks of losing one''s spirit were too much different and severe than what he initially had in mind.

    Yet that wasn''t the main problem now, that ox was. The ox kept shing all the time, making it literally impossible to target and lock it down again.

    It kept moving fast, but as the golden spirit said, it couldn''t attack while moving like this. It was untouchable, but it was also harmless.

    "Come on, stop and let us hit you," William kept resting, feeling much better after doing this for three times in a row. He needed to attack just once, then he''d rest and recuperate. He felt greatly refreshed, and all the exhaustion he suffered from before vanished right now.

    So he started to simply stand still, and watched the screen, "for how long it will keep shing like that?" after one hour, the ox didn''t stop even for once. It looked as if it was a shark in the ocean, moving constantly and without a single moment of pause or slowing down.

    "He can go on for hours if he needed to," the golden spirit paused, "but I feel he''ll act the moment you need to make a new formation. In that minute or two, he''ll try and attack this ce with everything he got."

    "We can build another formation then during the ten-minute wait¡­"

    "No, it won''t work, can''t you see? I''m struggling to keep up with one formation running! Building another will negatively ruin everything!"

    William couldn''t argue with that. It was clear that this golden spirit was really struggling to keep up with the formation running and releasing the attacks outside.

    He didn''t know all the specifics, but it seemed like the imaginary materials he ced needed the golden spirit''s constant attention, or else they''d lose their unexined existence, and everything would be lost.

    As the golden spirit said, William had no other choice but simply ept that. He stood on the side, watching everything happening through that screen, while the guess of the golden spirit looked more legit to him.

    That ox kept shing, yet it kept itself close to the shield protecting this ce. It was evident that the ox would try to barge its way in here, find and deal with them before anything else.

    Yet what he was curious about though was the effect of his formation and attacks. He imagined the spirits would get hit badly from this, yet when the ox came out, it was apparent it was totally fine.

    There wasn''t even a single scratch over its body, so William started to believe what they were doing here wasn''t to kill these spirits, but to dy them. It was clear that the strategy from the start was to defend and buy themselves time, until reinforcements woulde.

    "It''s betting everything over these reinforcements," William couldn''t help but take a long look at the golden particles swirling a few tens of metres away from him, "such a n isn''t practical, doesn''t even have a guarantee for reinforcements to be reallying."

    "They''lle," the golden spirit looked as if it was gritting on its teeth, "I''m confident they are on the run here as we speak."

    "I hope so," William didn''t really buy any of this. To him, the golden spirit was acting a bit desperate, "isn''t there any way to harm them? Not killing them, but at least forcing them to retreat a little bit¡­"

    "I get what you want to say, but it''s already remarkable that we can stop them using your useless and shitty technique and human powers."

    William looked at the golden particles and didn''t know how to respond to that. He was sure the golden spirit was doing anything in its power to make such a battle winnable. And yet such remarks were quite harsh.

    If not for him, the golden spirit wouldn''t have a way to stop these spirits at all. Yet William decided to close an eye towards such insults, and focus more on resting.

    After the second hour, he was ready for his formation to die down. The materials he used back on his world wouldst at most for three hours. Yet he didn''t know for how long such materials crafted by the golden spirit wouldst.

    "Any time soon," as he expected, the golden spirit seemed to push itself beyond limit, and sustained for two more hours than normal, "I can''t sustain this anymore. The formation will stop, and you''ll need to release attacks whenever that happens."

    "You need to rest," William looked at the golden particles. Aside from the very weak voiceing from that spirit, the shining golden particles started to dim, a sign that this spirit was going over its limits already.

    "I know, but I can''t¡­ At least won''t take longer than half an hour to do that," the golden spirit paused, "not to mention without my help, your attacks won''t link with whatever that ck fox left here."

    "Won''t even speak, even in such a state," William sighed, shaking his head as if he got disappointed with that, "anyway, let''s do this, we have no other choice, right?"

 Chapter 1205: Burning Spirit Life Essence

    "Get ready," the golden spirit was at its limit already, "I''m going to stop supporting the formation in five, four¡­"

    Once he reached zero, William could feel the formation around getting cracked and ruined on its own. It was like the time when the materials would get exhausted back in the real world. And that meant he lost the aid of such a formidable formation.

    The next thing that happened was for the golden particles to fall on the ground, looking like they were sand got attracted and pulled down by gravity. Before William would say anything or ask about how it felt right now, the golden spirit spoke first.

    "Attack! Don''t give them the chance to break free until I rest a little bit!"

    "On it!" William noticed that even if the golden spirit was terribly exhausted, it didn''t stop the screen projection, and it wouldn''t stop supporting his attacks and delivering them to the outer world.

    Yet the main concern of William was still rted to that ox. Unlike what he and the golden spirit expected, the ox spirit didn''t change its tactics ore at the shield once the lightning formation got cancelled.

    Instead, it kept shing right and left, as if it was still wary of any trap or worrying about William''s barrage of attacks.

    Bolts of lightning still rained down over the other three spirits. And that maintained the huge bubble of storm that surrounded the three active and supported it for long minutes.

    William learnt his lesson from before, attacked three times in a row, then sat down and trained for a couple of minutes. Luckily thest formation left behind a huge storm, enough tost long enough for him to rest.

    He kept attacking and resting, while focusing over the ox. For a reason, he felt like that spirit had another motive and n, as it didn''t follow their initial guess.

    William couldn''t tell what that ox was up to, but he was sure it was something out of their expectations. And William was right.

    The golden spirit took almost an hour during its rest. William thought it''d be back on its legs again after half an hour, but it felt like the little extra work it had to do to help guide the attacks was still pressuring it.

    And after one hour many things happened at the same time!

    The first was for the golden spirit to suddenly cough, entering into a spree of sneezing and coughing. William paused his actions totally, looked at the direction of the golden particles, and there he spotted deeply dimmed golden specks.

    William didn''t need to ask to know that the golden spirit was struggling to keep itself awake and active at this moment. The pressure on it was massive, and William didn''t know if it was subjected to the same type and magnitude of exhaustion like how William suffered.

    And now he could tell the golden spirit was suffering the same exhaustion, yet it had to keep fighting alongside William without having much rest.

    "Are you ok?" William had to ask, as without the help of that spirit, he knew his attacks would lose most of their power. They were already useless to kill these spirits, and now he was risking them losing their ability to stop the invaders.

    "Give me a minute¡­ Sh*t!" Just before the golden spirit would continue its words, something new happened. William turned and looked at the same spot that could bring anything new to the current situation, making it worse. And there he saw what made him inwardly sigh, out of worry and powerlessness.

    The golden screen that showed everything happening in the outside world showed new changes. The shing ox like a bolt of lightning, unresting and never stopping before, finally stopped. William didn''t know how, but it felt like that ox had the power to watch them, see what they were doing, the same way they were watching them.

    The ox stopped, with a face that showed an evil smirk, before it started to move again. This time, it didn''t act like before, and didn''t run around endlessly. Instead, it went towards the current storm that surrounded the other three, and directly attacked it using a very fierce and brutal attack.

    William couldn''t tell much from the golden screen alone, but he could see a tsunami of golden specks rising up and filling the entire screen for a few minutes.

    "This is bad," the golden spirit was the first to speak up, "it''s freeing the trapped spirits, this is terribly bad!"

    "But¡­ How?!!" William couldn''t get any of that. The storm that got formed from all the lightning attacks he made before wasn''t that weak, wasn''t that easy to handle. But it felt like it was so fragile, for a single spirit to take such a mighty wave of attack down single handedly.

    "He is using his special ability, the shield cracker," the golden spirit coughed again, before hurriedly adding, "we need to keep attacking, stop them and buy ourselves more time¡­"

    "We can''t do that, can''t you see? We are already beyond our limits, and you can''t help in such a state," William knew this was the only option they had, but the risks were too much and the odds of failure were way higher than any sess.

    "Just keep attacking," the golden specks that were so dim started to shine brighter, giving William a hint about what was going on here.

    "Are you burning your life essence?!!"

    "We are different, but I''m lending something simr to that," the golden spirit didn''t give a direct answer to William, and thetter shrugged before resuming his attacks.

    "It''s your life you are putting on the line here," he said, while releasing a barrage of his lightning attacks.

    "It''s our lives that we are fighting for here," the golden spirit corrected William, "let''s try to stop them, hopefully we aren''t thatte¡­"

    The attacks came,nded over the chaotic storm outside, adding more chaos to it.

 Chapter 1206: We Are Doomed!!!

    To William, it felt like the golden spirit was trying its best to control things out there, trying to regain control over the disarrayed attack storm outside. And yet it proved to be futile to do this.

    *Rumble!*

    The entire ce echoed with an ear deafening rumble first, then the screen showed four dark silhouettes shing out from the chaotic storm. It felt like something pressured over the storm, pushed it outwards, clearing everything. And there William and the golden spirit saw the four enemies standing, freed from any entrapping attack.

    "They are out," William slowly muttered.

    "We are doomed," the golden spirit added. The four spirits they tried their best to contain for the past hours were now out.

    "At least they are wounded," William could tell they got many wounds, even the ox spirit got one of its arms chopped off. He couldn''t tell what went wrong, but it seemed for the ox and the other three to get freed, they got to pay a price for that.

    "Not enough to stop them," the golden spirit didn''t agree with William, "this is bad, this is terribly bad¡­"

    William''s mind exploded while trying to find a way to solve this situation. From the start, they were on the passive side. Even if his attacks ended up leaving wounds on the bodies of these spirits, it wasn''t enough to save their lives.

    He didn''t get how to kill a spirit yet, and that golden spirit kept its lips shut. William didn''t need to have any foresight element or technique to know what was about to happen.

    He could already envision the four spirits teaming up, taking down the protective shield no matter how long it''d take. And then they''de for the two of them, and running away wouldn''t be an option.

    "It was never an option," William muttered this to himself, while releasing more attacks. He never shifted his gaze away from the screen, and what he feared happened.

    The four spirits were wounded, but as the golden spirit said earlier, they weren''t in any life threatening situation. That made them shift and move fast, evading any iing attack the same way that it did before.

    It went without saying that the ox exined everything to them and let the other three learn about the right way to handle the iing attacks. As for undertaking the attacks lightly, the wounds the four of them suffered so far were enough as a reminder to not do that mistake again.

    "It''s not working," the golden spirit nervously muttered, while his voice stuttered and without being able to speak that short sentence in one go, "we are doomed¡­"

    "We are still alive," William gritted his teeth, "is there any other way to stop them? Any traps installed here?" This was hisst straw, or else the two of them had to retreat and leave this ce before it was toote.

    Thinking about losing his spirit after all this time made William bitter and hopeless. Yet staying alive was much better. "I came all this way with my knowledge and determination, I won''t fail to repeat such an aplishment again."

    He said this to himself, trying to prepare himself for the worse. "We need to leave, we need to leave now!" but after one hour, the four spirits were this close from barging through the shield, and the golden spirit already lost its cool.

    The two tried to maintain their tacit work and yet failed. The golden spirit crashed and failed to deliver the attacks like always, ending up for William tounch his normal attacks, which didn''t cause anything to the four spirits.

    The attacks became scarce, low in number, and slow. The moment this happened, the four spirits shifted from being defencive into all offence.

    The golden spirit rested for forty minutes, before it regained its activity again. It looked much better, yet it wasn''t anything close to its prime condition.

    William left it to rest while kept watching the ongoing onught from the four spirits. They were ferocious and deadly, and together they started to crack the shield steadily.

    The rumblings returned, and when the golden spirit regained its activity again, things were toote to rewind back. William could see cracks at the world he was in, and lots of dust trails kept flowing from many spots.

    It was apparent that this ce wasn''t going to handle the pressure, and the shield would get opened at any given moment. Even when the two regained their former teamwork, nothing new changed.

    The four spirits were well aware of the current progress of their assault, and they''d never stop at such a stage. They ignored William''s attacks and kept bombarding the shield with everything they got. Even when they got surrounded by the attacks, the ox used its powers to crack this storm of attack clean.

    There was no result of their efforts, and that is what made the golden spirit drop the towel and admit defeat.

    "We need to leave this ce before they''de in," the golden spirit stressed when he spotted William standing in his ce, continuing the barrage of attacks like normal.

    "Don''t know, but something tells me we won''t fall here¡­"

    "Stop daydreaming," the golden spirit shouted, and yet his voice came quite weird with its weakness and exhaustion.

    Before William would say anything, an ear deafening roar came from everywhere around. "We are doomed, I am doomed," the golden spirit muttered as it already expected the oue. To it, death was near, and it closed its eyes and senses, prepared to fall down here.

    And yet at such a critical moment, and with such a response, the golden spirit missed something grand! A new change happened, something that even it forgot totally about.

    "They are here," William said what the golden spirit already was aware of, and yet something was strange about this statement. William''s tone wasn''t anyway depressed or burdened with fear. Instead, it felt like William was joyfully shouting, celebrating a victory or something.

 Chapter 1207: Why Are Activating Your Technique Now?

    The golden spirit couldn''t help but look at William while it felt absurd. At such a desperate time, William lost all hope and went mad. And yet when it checked William, it swore it saw a cheerful smile and a look of relief over William''s face.

    "Just look over there," William didn''t know why the golden spirit couldn''t see what he saw, didn''t notice what just happened, so he pointed towards the screen.

    And there the golden spirit realised what happened. "They¡­ They really came¡­" he muttered in disbelief, while a group of ten spirits appeared on the screen, fighting the four hostile spirits in a big battle.

    The battle seemed to wreak havoc across the entireir of the ck fox, causing it to tremble and rumble. The noises of the brutal fighting outside echoed inside, and that was what tricked the golden spirit and made it believe the end was drawing near.

    William didn''t know why he was feeling calm and collected until this group appeared. The moment they came into his vision on the screen, and he recalled the initial strategy of the golden spirits.

    They weren''t fighting to kill the four hostile ones, but to dy them, enough for the help to arrive.

    The new group didn''t exchange a single word or even pause to give the other four a chance to retreat. The moment they arrived, and they looked as if they recognised old foes, they started fighting without any moment of hesitation or dy.

    The fight raged on wildly from the very beginning, and the four spirits dropped their attempts to crash through the protective shield entirely, and focused on defending and trying to escape.

    Ten against four, and thetter were already wounded and exhausted from dealing with William''s attacks. Things were different for both sides, and that made the four shrunk in number to three in mere minutes. And soon another spirit fell.

    "That''s great! That''s fcking great!" the golden spirit shouted like a kid, making William unable to hold back hisugh.

    "Told you, I have a good feeling about the end of this battle," William said amidst hisughs, "now, shall we give them a helping hand?"

    "No," the answer from the golden spirit came swiftly and decisively, "we shouldn''t announce our presence in any possible way."

    "But¡­"

    "Just trust me," the golden spirit returned to its former self, being strict about telling anything rted to the spirit world, "it''s far better this way."

    "Ok," William knew their aid wouldn''t make much difference at all. He just wanted to do exactly what the golden spirit guessed, announcing their presence, and inviting the new group inside.

    William knew from this adventure that his spirit wasn''t safe. It could be wiped out any given moment, and that would deal a great blow for him.

    He even thought it was lucky he ended up safe and sound after thest encounter from hostile spirits. Yet he now realised the magnitude of danger and risk he and everyone else were in.

    The world of spirits wasn''t that nice and cosy, it was in fact the wild west. And that made him decide to find more clues and intel about that world, and find a proper way toe here and know how to help the ck fox defending and securing this ce.

    As for the warning from the golden spirit, William couldn''t get it. But this wasn''t the first thing he wouldn''t get about the spirit world or the words of the golden spirit.

    The golden spirit remained silent, and William did as well. The former was thinking about how their luck was great, and how fate didn''t want to see the two of them dead right now.

    As for William, he was taking a proper look at the ck fox''sir, as well as thinking back towards how he ended up here.

    One of the main problems he had was the fact that he had no direct ess towards this ce. He came here only on special asions, something that he hated to have. He loved to have full control over ess to this ce, or else the entire idea of trying to help would be meaningless.

    Despite this being hard, it wasn''t impossible. He shifted his eyes towards the golden specks that formed the imaginary body of a golden star of that spirit, and couldn''t help but evilly grin.

    "Fate¡­ It has its mysterious ways all the time," he muttered to himself, while he felt like the main obstacle he had wasn''t the problems he thought of, but how to convince this spirit to spill all the beans.

    He got the ck fox spirit, but it was hard tomunicate with that one whenever he wanted. Yet he had another spirit connected to him, one that was by his side all the time.

    "You seem terrified from these spirits, enemies of yours?" all of sudden, and in the middle of the heated up battle going on outside, William suddenly said.

    "Don''t specte impossible sht," the golden spirit harrumphed, "and stop such useless mind games, they won''t work on me."

    "I know," unlike what the golden spirit expected, William evilly grinned, "I was just making a clear statement here."

    Before the golden spirit would speak, ask William about what he meant, thetter suddenly acted. "What the heck are you doing?!!!" in a distressed tone. And it got all the right to feel so.

    Out of the blue, William started to move. He dashed right and left, crossing arge distance in no time. The golden spirit watched William execute such a technique too many times to count, and it jumped to the only conclusion anyone could possibly think of.

    "Why the fck are you activating your technique? We don''t need to help them, we shouldn''t!" the golden spirit shouted in more distress, as it knew what William intended to do.

    "I''m bored," and yet William never stopped, "I want to y a little before leaving here and note back."

 Chapter 1208: We Are Cool Now, Right?

    "You¡­" the golden spirit was shocked and terrified by the determination and carelessness William showed. And yet its mind calmed down fast, grabbing the little hint William threw in the middle of his words.

    "Who said you can''te here again?" the golden spirit gritted its teeth, while cursing William with the worst curses in its mind.

    "It''s thew," William acted as if he didn''t care about what the golden spirit was speaking about, "I came here only limited times only, all without my consent or control. So I n to invite those folks here, and ask them about the fate of my beloved and precious ck fox."

    "Fck you!" the golden spirit couldn''t control his anger when he heard William''s words, "you are fcking shameless, fcking shameless!"

    "Hahaha, I''m a human as you used to say, right?" Williamughed, feeling amused by how the golden spirit felt right now.

    This was all his n. He knew there was no way for him to force the hand of the golden spirit, no way to enforce it to spill out the beans and speak about the secrets of the spirit world.

    And yet there was something that terrified the golden spirit, the group of spirits fighting right now outside. So William decided to take this bet, betting that the golden spirit wouldn''t let him do whatever he wanted, and invite those spirits inside.

    For a reason he didn''t know, the golden spirit feared this group of spirits. And regardless of the reason, William was sure he''d get out of this with something valuable.

    The most valuable thing he could think of was having a way toe here whenever he wanted. This was very crucial, something he had to secure before anything else, to help study this ce deeper, and be here at any moment of danger in the future.

    To force the hands of that spirit, he had to start stacking his attack. He knew the golden spirit watched him diligently before, and would instantly recognise this pattern of his signature attack.

    William also wanted to show the stubborn spirit how determined he was about releasing this attack. So far the attacks he released were augmented or processed by the spirit. And without its support, his attacks would lose their value.

    Yet stacking lots of attacks and releasing them together would create a scene indeed. And that was a loud deration of the presence of people inside the ck fox''sir, thest thing the golden spirit wanted to see.

    William kept stacking the attacks without saying anything, leaving the golden spirit to make up his mind. "Fine, fine, dammit! I''ll teach you a special technique, one that''d help you get inside this ce whenever you want."

    "No, you are tricking me," William didn''t stop his movement, while dashing around and stacking more attacks, "you won''t say anything like that, it''s dangerous for you."

    "Come on, do I look like I''m kidding or fooling around?" if the golden spirit was a man, it''d be on its knees right now. Yet all it could do was to continue speaking, hoping for William to stop moving.

    In the next minute, the golden spirit spoke and exined a special technique for William. The technique required William to use the same elements the ck fox had. At the same time, there were few requirements like spirit power level and previous preparation for the level of spirit purity and such stuff.

    Luckily William fulfilled all these conditions. Even the need for a huge amount of spirit power was something easy to solve. He''d either use elixirs or use a spirit power gathering array or even a formation if needed.

    Everything was easy for him, and yet the way the golden spirit spoke about was quite genuine and unique. The idea was simple, he had to use tons of spirit power to reverse the movement of his spirit power inside his body.

    If it was someone else, then this would be hellish difficult to achieve, very impossible actually. That was also why the golden spirit was open to teaching him this technique.

    "Let me see how you''ll know the right ces of your thin and fragile meridians," after exining everything, and while watching William slow down before releasing the stacked attacks at a distant hill, the golden spirit evilly smirked.

    To it, it was impossible for a human from a mere tiny world to know such intel. And it didn''t intend on exining anything about this to William, or even mention it.

    One single wrong move, and William''s meridians would shatter and suffer. He wouldn''t die, nor would have any major issues, but he''d experience hellish pain and would be bedridden for weeks, even months.

    "Curiosity killed the cat, and greed killed the man," the golden spirit controlled himself hardly fromughing and pointing at William,menting his bad luck.

    And yet the golden spirit would never get that William wasn''t in any danger at all. He was special, and meridians were something he memorised on the back of his heart.

    To him, it wasn''t even a problem. And William could already see the dirty scheme of the golden spirit. But he didn''t think too much about it.

    "I got it!" he clenched both fists, while ignoring the mighty explosion he just released, "I got it, hahahaha," he couldn''t help butugh, making the golden spirit alsough inwardly over his stupidity.

    "We are cool now, right?" After getting what he wanted, the golden spirit feared that William would grow greedy and repeat the same process again.

    "We are cool," yet William didn''t intend on pushing forward down this path. He already has one of the most difficult problems solved. As for the rest, he knew he''d have more chances in the future.

    One of the reasons was that he started to act a bitte. The battle out there was close from over. Three spirits were killed, and the group of ten didn''t lose a single member of them.

 Chapter 1209: Getting Out Safely

    They came fast, hit swiftly and ferociously, using the element of surprise to their advantage.

    The remaining spirit of the enemies was the ox. Right now it was apparent what the group wanted to do. If they wanted to kill that ox, it was an easy task.

    The ox already lost two arms and a big part of its trunk. Yet the group of spirits wanted to capture it alive for further interrogation.

    William and the golden spirit watched while the battle was about to end, and yet itsted for a few hours. It wasn''t that easy to capture an entrapped beast like that ox spirit. And in the end they managed to secure it, tied it up with tons of chains, before walking away.

    "Phew," the moment they went away, the golden spirit finally heaved a loud sigh of relief.

    "One day you''ll tell me why you acted like this in front of them," William winked, and the golden spirit simply harrumphed, saying nothing. When it thought back at the dirty little gift he left for William, it felt a lot better.

    "I''ll go and rest now," the golden spirit didn''t want to stay out any longer as the danger was cleared, "you can explore, train, rest, do whatever you want, I don''t care."

    "Thanks for the technique," William waved at the golden dust before it vanished with a soft chuckle.

    William could guess what the golden spirit was thinking of, and yet he never thought about correcting this misunderstanding. For him, he was sure the golden spirit would watch him using this techniqueter. And that meant he didn''t need to provide any exnation.

    The golden spirit vanished, and William wasn''t in any hurry to leave. After learning his fate and future was tightly tied with the ck fox spirit, he decided to take his time and thoroughly study this ce, digging up all the secrets he could find.

    Like this, he started a spree of search and study for an entire day. During which, his team was still struggling digging the ground.

    The deeper they went, the sturdier the ground became. Things were looking weird to them, and they questioned if this was the same ground they could easily dig before.

    Yet they never stopped digging. And as they were busy doing this, Fang was still trapped in his puzzlement maze. Nothing worked, and he failed to dig the ground as well. The pyramids were indestructible, made out from materials he never saw before.

    "Sht! After all this time, I can''t even find a single information or clue about what this ce is!!!" After an entire day of doing everything he could, even to the extent of going all out, he failed to unveil a single clue or secret.

    This ce was like a huge mystery to him, a secret he wanted to learn no matter what. "Howe I can''t find anything about this ce, and that kid can?!!!" This was also something that got on his nerves.

    It wasn''t the first ce he found and didn''t get what its value was. Yet on every single asion, he ended up leaving without looking back.

    As long as he couldn''t get a clue about something, he was confident that no other master could. But this ce was different, as he was sure William knew everything about it. And that was the main drive Fang had to keep looking.

    But failure was imminent and clear to him. No matter how he did, he wouldn''t get a single clue about this ce. "I''d better wait for him to wake up¡­ It''s weird, howe he hasn''t woken up yet¡­" he turned his senses towards William, and thetter was sleeping peacefully like a baby.

    William''s body was engulfed in a tinge of ck smoke, something that gave Fang a little fright when it first appeared. But when he examined thed, he found nothing worthy of his worry.

    So he dropped his worries, and refocused on finding a clue about what was going on here. But right now, he decided it was time for the two of them to leave this ce.

    "Fck! This kid stings!" When he tried to carry William, he felt something like a cold sting, a little pain and nothing more.

    In fact William had the ability to suck spirit power from anything and anyone he touched slightly activated. He didn''t fully absorb the core yet, and he was also asleep. So this ability only released little of what it got, and Fang missed the little dip in his spirit power.

    Fang carried William, got over that stinging pain that came from time to time, and then moved towards the hole. And there he was met with another surprise he didn''t ount for.

    "The ground¡­ It''s changed¡­ It''s crystallised¡­" Fang wasn''t like the young members of the team. He was pretty experienced to recognise the material that the ground turned into, "I used to find such material around ancient ces filled with tons of treasures¡­ This ce¡­ It''s without any doubt a treasure trove!"

    Fang muttered before starting to dig. Unlike the team, he knew what worked best against these material. It wasn''t an earth element, but any destructive element and technique would work.

    His lightning technique worked best against it. The team took hours and even entire day to dig a distance of ten metres. Yet Fang needed five hours to find his path to the surface.

    He came out from a distance nearby from the team. The moment he came out, the team noticed him and stopped what they were doing.

    "William!" Berry was the first to run towards William, throwing herself at him. Fang could tell without the need to ask about how the team felt during the past period.

    "I''m d you are safe," he muttered, while feeling like a big burden was removed off his chest. He wanted to curry favours with William, not be the person responsible for the death of his friends and the entire team.

    Fang stood by the side, watched how the entire youngster team members flooded William and checked him. Weirdly they never asked Fang any question about what happened, and much weirder was that they never asked about William''s condition.

    What he didn''t know was that this wasn''t the first time for William to lose his consciousness. The team and his friends got used for this, and they knew their leader woulde back stronger, hellish stronger, every time.

    "Let''s go," Sara suddenly looked at Fang, "the city needs our urgent help."

    "The city? Help? What happened?" Fang was surprised by these words, and as everyone left the ce, he learnt about what happened to the city above, and noted the magnitude of damage that happened here.

 Chapter 1210: Monsters Evovled!

    "I slept for one month?!!!"

    William was sitting on a big bed, surrounded by lots of familiar faces. He just woke up an hour ago, finding himself in a ce he never expected.

    To him, it seemed like he passed out for a day or something. He examined the ck fox''sir, found lots of good stuff and tons of things he didn''t understand.

    Yet one day passed after the end of the battle before he found himself getting out from the spirit world. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying over a bed, in a spacious room, while sun rays passed through opened windows and curtains.

    He didn''t recognise the ce, but knew the fact that her owner threw herself over him. It was Lina, and she got two big bags under her eyes, looking much paler than ever, as if she never slept well for a long time.

    Soon enough he learnt about the ce he was in. It was the current base town of the Fox guild, outside Lara''s city.

    Before he''d ask Lina about anything, she ran out and spread the news. Soon enough, the room got crowded with all of his friends and trusted team members.

    They kept asking about his condition, what happened, and he also asked the same back. Soon enough he learnt about everything, how he passed out for the entire month, which was quite surprising for him.

    He doubted what he heard, but as everyone was agreeing on this, he couldn''t refute this fact. "One month¡­ I only felt it was one day¡­" he felt more puzzled the more he thought about it.

    This wasn''t his first visit to the ck fox''sir, and yet it felt like this visit was quite special and different. William listened to how things escted for the team when the monster exploded, how the underground city experienced almost total destruction, and how the surface city got massively hit and damaged.

    Ruins were everywhere, and lots of people died or were injured. The city was known for being safe, so most of the people living there weremon and normal ones, without powers to even protect themselves from falling walls and buildings. Yet with the help of masters, including the Fox guild members, things stabilised fast out there.

    William didn''t doubt Lara and other city leaders'' ability to fix things. ording to everyone, a massive rebuilding started on the surface city, yet the main problem still remained at the underground city.

    William was far interested in hearing about the current development of the underground city. His friends described how the entire city got destroyed, only a few buildings remained, and they even had one or two walls standing.

    "Rebuilding the underground city isn''t important," William said when he noticed how the team was anxious about failing in rebuilding the city, "we just need arrays to defend us against monsters."

    "Monsters¡­ They changed," Sara paused, before she started to exin the current situation down there.

    The monsters before were huge in number already, yet they used toe out from underground and hunt humans while walking around the city. They never managed to sniff the istion arrays, never had the chance to attack these.

    But this all changed. By Sara''s and others'' words, William could grasp a general idea about what was going on down there.

    "Are you telling me the monsters can now sense the presence of any array? Attack and crack it open?!" This was quite surprising even to William.

    "That''s what teams sent down their experiences," Berry sighed, "I went there with Sara and few others, and watched from the safe stand at the stairs how these monsters attacked masters even inside istion arrays."

    "Hmm¡­ That''s new," William''s thoughts drifted towards the explosion that happened after taking down the monster.

    The monster absorbed tons of spirit power from the portal for who knew how long. And when it died, it exploded and released most of the power stored within its body.

    This spirit power seemed to work its magic over the monsters dwelling in the underground city, evolving them to a dangerous new stage.

    "... And like this we couldn''t do anything at all down there. The best is to go and watch monsters move around, as if they were mocking us¡­" Sara added which jolted William awake from his thoughts.

    "And the materials? Are they still appearing?" This was a very important point to ask about. Unlike what the team members and friends here thought, William wasn''t interested that much in these materials.

    What he was caring and worrying about was the portal itself. He knew the secret behind these materials popping up. As long as they were stilling, the portal was still functioning.

    "No one knows," yet Fang delivered the bad news while walking in the room, "you slept for a long month kid, what? You never slept before or what?"

    "Let''s not talk about this," William had zero exnation of what really happened. So he bypassed answering this question and asked back, "did you check?"

    "I couldn''t go down there and keep my life safe," even Fang seemed to face trouble dealing with these monsters, "they aren''t the same breed the masters here used to fight against."

    "I doubt they can be a threat even for you," William was surprised by these words, raising an eyebrow while Fang cleared his throat in response. It really felt awkward especially by how William said hisst words to him.

    "It''s not that they are stronger than myself, but they changed their tactics," Fang cleared up his throat again, feeling more desire to go down there and kick those monsters'' as*yes, if he could.

    "Tell me more¡­" William nned to go and pay the underground city a visit. He learnt about many changes considering the ground, but the monsters were a problem he never anticipated.

    Fang started to exin what changed in these monsters. "They got hit by all of our attacks, yet nothing worked against them," he added after a few minutes of talking.

 Chapter 1211: The First Three To Train

    "They are immune to attacks?" Fang spoke about how faster they became, how they moved daringly over the ground, and how they could sense the presence of istion arrays. These were all old news to William, yet thest part wasn''t.

    "I can''t tell the reason, but I saw many mastersunch many attacks and techniques, yet all ended up with nothing," Fang sighed, "it''s like the monsters would get hit, yet no damage would be left behind¡­ Weird¡­"

    "Indeed," even William felt intrigued by this.

    "That made the underground city a forbidden zone for all masters," fang sighed in a depressed way, "we can''t even tell if the materials are stilling after what happened down there or not. Even if materials are there, we don''t have any means to get any¡­"

    "You know how important materials down there are," William interrupted him, looking at Fang in a meaningful way.

    "What do you want me to do?" Thetter got the message from William, and yet shrugged, "the ce down there is a death trap."

    "I''ll check itter," William waved his arm, "till then, you shall form a team and try to gather any intel you can from down there."

    "You want me dead this badly? What did I ever do to you? Did you forget? I saved your life back there!"

    "I said I''ll go myself down there and check the situationter," William rolled his eyes, "how can I want you dead by sending you there? I''m still in love with my life and won''t throw it away as well."

    "..."

    Fang wanted to refute back what William said, yet William took one material out from his rings, and threw it in the air, "you think these are infinite? We have little supply, and sooner orter we''ll run dry and will have nothing left."

    "..."

    Fang gulped while looking at the material William took out. He recognised it, as it was one of the needed materials for the lightning formation.

    William''s message was clear, if they didn''t solve this problem down below, then Fang should kiss goodbye to any dreams about using that terrifying formation anymore.

    Fang already used most of the materials he got from Lara back then. And he couldn''t get anymore, as Lara stated it clear without securing a path into the underground city, all the current materials would be locked up and saved for future generations.

    "I''ll do my best," Fang sumbed atst to William''s wish, "shall I select people from the guild or outside?"

    "Select whoever you feel is right to recruit," William didn''t care about this point, "I need as much intel as you can get me. Keep me informed if you find anything new."

    "And you?" Fang didn''t speak too much about this point, instead gave William a deeper look, "don''t tell me you are going to sleep and rest while I work."

    "I have another task," William moved his eyes away from Fang, looked at Sara and added, "gather the ck Tails team, in addition to the special talents from the Golden Tails team."

    "Training?" Sara''s face beamed with a bright smile, and William nodded.

    "It''s time to get you all on a long and hard training period."

    "Atst!"

    "Finally!"

    "Can I bring the goodds in my team?"

    "How about my faction? Am I allowed to select a few from them?"

    Many spoke, mainly in celebratory tone, while few spoke about the possibility to bring more masters from those following them in their factions.

    "As long as they are in the Golden Tails team, you can select from them," William calmly said, "but¡­ Don''t overdo it, I''ll only select the best to train, not just anyone."

    "You are pampering them," Fang snorted, "if I were them, I''d select most of my faction''s top masters. I visited the guild you built when you were sleeping like a baby, and you have gathered many little monsters here."

    "I''ll ept any monster to train," Williamughed, taking Fang''s words as apliment instead of a criticism.

    "Then you''ll be busy for the next few years," Fang raised a fist in the air while walking away, "don''t forget, you still have something to do, a world to visit."

    "I never forgot," William muttered while watching Fang''s back vanish, "you have five days to test and select whoever you want. However¡­ If you misused this privilege, delivered fucked up talents and masters, I won''t let you off the hook."

    "We''ll select the best," Lang confidently said, "let''s go, we''ll show him how strong our factions are."

    "You and you, stay behind," just before everyone would leave, William pointed towards three in specific and asked them to stay behind.

    "Me?"

    "Me as well?"

    "Yes, I didn''t want to leave in the first ce!"

    The three were Angelica, the one who jumped in joy and a childish way when William pointed towards her. She even ran and jumped over him, giving him a bear hug that made him chuckle regardless of anything else.

    As for the other two, they were Thomas and Moore.

    "Why these three in particr?" Berry gave the innocent looking Angelica a staring gaze, while William couldn''t help but inwardly smile.

    "These three are without factions," William calmly said, "or do you think I never knew how you built and raised factions? Go, leave these three with me."

    "Lucky them," few muttered while leaving, while William only watched them leaving without saying anything back. He knew people in his ck Tails upper echelon were either having factions or being part of one. But the story was different for these three.

    Angelica came with him from the other world, didn''t have any faction, and even no friends. As for the other two, Thomas didn''t even try to build any faction for himself. He saw nothing gooding out frompeting with others. Not to mention he doubted he''d find anyone else having the same or quite simr abilities like him.

    Moore was a slightly different and special case. Even after all this time, many still looked and acted in a hostile way towards him. So, it was impossible for him to establish his faction even when he tried to make one.

 Chapter 1212: Merry Christmas

    "Are we going out to party?" Angelica was still attached to the party she experienced before. She had much fun back then, and since that party she wanted to have one every day.

    "No, we are going to y a different game," William knew she might have been a scary and formidable monster before, yet now she acted as a kid.

    "A game? I love games!" as he expected, the moment he said this, her eyes shone brighter.

    "Hahaha, I''m sure the kind of games he is speaking about is totally different from the one you have in mind," Thomas couldn''t help butugh, shaking off his head, while William remained calm.

    "As long as it''s a game, I''m in," Angelica missed the hint and kind warning from Thomas, and soon enough she realised the game she had in mind was totally different than what William nned and intended for her and the other two.

    William wasn''t feeling that bad. He slept for an entire month, and he didn''t sleep in the first ce thanks to exhaustion or something.

    He still didn''t get why he ended up sleeping this long, and he was curious to know what changed in his spirit about the additional monster spirit that got added to his. But first, he got these three to train and set them on the right path of development.

    The first thing he did was to take them out and away from here. The ce he woke up at wasn''t suitable for anything like training. And he wanted a ce that could sustain such activity for a long time.

    The only ce he had in mind suitable for that was the underground old base of the enemy left here. It was vacant, vast, and suitable for long term training. And it could also amodate arge number of his folks without getting crowded, with everyone having their own space and rooms to train and even rest.

    "Are we going to y here?" so far, the innocent Angelica was still thinking about ying and games, didn''t get none of this woulde from William.

    "It''s a nice ce to y at," William smiled, hardly controlling hisugh. Yet the other two couldn''t help butugh, shake their heads, as they knew how unfortunate the little girl Angelica was.

    "It''s all dark!" Angelic didn''t get why these two wereughing, but she still added, "how can we y in a ce like this?"

    "As if you are afraid of the dark," William winked, and Angelica recalled the long times she lived in darkness as a monster and went into deep silence.

    "Now, let me start ying with the two of you," unlike what the other two thought, William decided to start with them first, "tell me what progress you have made so far?"

    "Well¡­" Thomas looked at Moore, and thetter motioned with a shrug, as if he was telling him to have the honour, "I''ve trained over the techniques you gave me before, mastered them now. I can even kill someone using karma¡­"

    Thomas paused, as this was everything he managed to achieve, and they were all granted for him by William. "Not bad, yet not good as well," William nodded, before shaking off his head, "I expected you toe up with a new technique or something."

    "..." Thomas didn''t know how to respond to William. Yet he knew thetter made sense. Masters shouldn''t just depend on the techniques told to them by others or superiors, have to constantly research and try to make new techniques.

    "At least tell me you got some nice ideas in your head," William poked his old friend, while Thomas embarrassedly smiled.

    "I tried to think of ways to better use my spirit and element, yet failed," he paused, "any help here?"

    William raised an eyebrow, while Thomas continued, "I got offensive and exploring techniques, tracking ones as well. Yet I suck at defence."

    "Then you know the area you should focus your training upon, right?"

    "I know, but¡­ How can using karma be used to defend oneself?" Thomas was puzzled by this point for so long that he dropped the idea of finding a solution to it. And yet when William opened the topic for discussion, he couldn''t help but return to his old ambition.

    Even if he could kill his opponent using his techniques, he still needed to find a proper way to defend himself. Or else, doing any of that would be pointless as his enemies would never give him a chance to execute his techniques without retaliation.

    The best scenario for him was to depend on others, something that would work in big wars, but not in solobats and missions. That made him unable to aim higher and made him drop the idea of establishing his faction.

    After all, he has no name yet, not like others at least.

    "You are taking the karma thing too lightly," William rolled his eyes, "karma isn''t just about detecting the karma threads of someone, it''s a very special element. You don''t see just a track of someone, you are seeing his past, present, and also future."

    "How does it help me defend myself?" Even after all the amazing words, Thomas didn''t get what he should do to defend himself.

    "It''s easy, you can control one''s karma, and let him move ording to your intentions," William paused, before slowly adding, "you''ll need to n ahead, be a master who excels in mind games. To defend, you''ll need to manipte others'' karma, making them move ording to your wishes, either missing you entirely, or moving to block iing attacks from your enemies."

    "This¡­" Thomas opened his eyes wide, while feeling like he never knew his element before, "how can I do that? Tell me, tell me boss¡­"

    "Stop begging me," William shrugged Thomas away, "you''ll need to figure out this part yourself. I only read an old scroll speaking about this possibility and thought to share it with you."

 Chapter 1213: Happy New Year

    William wasn''t lying, as this was one of the aspects that made karma masters quite ferocious at the outer world. They might be considered weakpared to other masters in terms of pure strength and such. But that didn''t mean they could be taken lightly.

    William knew that Thomas needed more than thinking and training to get there. The main obstacle was rted to the quality of spirit power in this world, and theck of any suitable monster spirits that Thomas could absorb.

    Despite knowing all this, William didn''t even think twice about giving hints to Thomas. He wanted to prepare the loyal youth to what would happen when going to the outer world, a move that he decided to adopt from now on when dealing with his friends and carefully selected team.

    "Hmm, if so then there must be a way to do it¡­" Thomas got lost in his thoughts, which made William slightly nod in satisfaction.

    He wanted Thomas to start working over this theory, and hopefully he''d discover a way to do it. If not, then when they''d arrive in the outer world, he''d tell and teach Thomas further about it.

    "How about you?" William turned to Moore, and the man bitterly smiled.

    "I can only help in times away from direct fights," Moore stated the truth, "I can''t be of much help during battle times."

    "No, you are wrong," William calmly said, "your ability isn''t just about dreaming. You have some sort of a connection with illusions and mind reading powers. You should start training over these two¡­"

    William slowly exined the rough concept behind the unique dream ability of Moore. So far, that man only focused over training and using his spirit element to get into others dreams during sleep.

    He got a good point when stating that his ability had no use during battle times. That was also part of the reason behind his absence in the faction roster, in addition to the negative reputation he had as he was an ex-dark master.

    Yet when William exined the concept behind what he said, Moore''s eyes widened. The man never expected his spirit element to be rted to such grand uses, including illusions.

    William exined the rough concept, yet he never taught the man anything directly. Like Thomas, Moore''s spirit element was restrained in this low levelled world. And as he wanted Thomas to start testing and experimenting, he also wanted Moore to do the same.

    "Are you telling me I can do this?!!!" After William finished speaking, Moore couldn''t help but gulp and mutter in disbelief. His body uncontrobly trembled out of excitement, and William simply nodded.

    "Yet all I know is the general theory behind this," William stressed over this point, "you need to figure out the right path to tread upon, and unlock such marvellous abilities¡­"

    "I''ll do it," Moore decisively said, "I never thought about such a thing before. But now¡­ I have a guidance that will help me achieve such great heights."

    William didn''t say anything and left the two behind to contemte and think deeper about his words. There wasn''t a real way to do this in this world, and that made him not ce many hopes on them doing any of what he said.

    "Are we going to y now?" Once he turned his full attention to Angelica, the girl cheered, and her face beamed with a bright smile.

    "I want to y a game with you, it''s called regaining former strength," William patted her head, acting with her as if he was dealing with a little girl, not a monster that lived for thousands upon thousands of years.

    "It''s not funny," Angelica showed a serious look, one that she rarely showed, "I want to y! I came here to y!" she returned in the next instant to her childish nature, even stomping her feet on the ground in a stubborn way.

    "You''ll have fun, I promise," William knew that dealing with her was going to be more troublesome than dealing with anyone else in his team. He didn''t buy how she acted, and knew she was trying to have fun and enjoy these moments to the fullest.

    This was expected, after all the lifespan of monsters was too longpared with humans. And William just wanted her to wake up to the reality of being a human.

    Even if she showed a disgruntled expression on her face, as if she just swallowed a rat or something, William didn''t stop what he intended to do.

    He started by taking out lots of materials and arranged them on the ground, making a small array. Angelica first pouted andined, yet she slowly started to grow curious about what William was doing.

    As curious as she was, she came closer and followed his steps. William didn''t just make one array, but many, arranging some sort of a big formation that took arge area around.

    She kept asking, pointing at the arrays he was making, and he kept his lips tightly shut. The more he kept silent about it, the more curious and unsettled she became.

    "It''s ready," William intentionally kept everything about this formation secret from Angelica to arouse her interest. And his little trick worked as he anticipated.

    "Won''t let me know what you built here? Come on, tell me," She tugged his clothes, making William unable to control hisugh. Minutes ago, she wasining and grumbling about not ying or having fun. And like any child, she soon forgot about this and got lured to know what he was doing.

    "It''s something to help you better amodate the human world," William didn''t exin much, before gesturing for her to stand in the heart of the formation.

    "All you need to do is to release your elements, better to try and activate the same techniques you used to perform before¡­"

    "But I don''t know any technique¡­" she interrupted him, while rubbing her chin, "do you have anything fun like that for me? I watched you teaching others great stuff."

 Chapter 1214: I Want The Big One

    "Hmm¡­ Let me think about this while watching your elements in y," William didn''t rush and tell her any of the techniques he knew. As a start, he didn''t know if human techniques were suitable with monsters or not. Besides, he felt like she was ying with him.

    "Howe you don''t know any technique? Howe you used your powers back then?" This point puzzled him. Even when he asked while putting into his mind she was toying with him most probably, he never expected to get to know a secret about monsters.

    "We don''t perform techniques, we just use the elements purely and out of our imagination," she said lightly, as if she was saying something normal andmon like walking, sleeping, and eating.

    Yet William couldn''t help but get his eyes slightly widened and his eyebrows raised. "You can''t be serious, right?" He looked at her again, assessing if she was telling the truth or fooling around.

    "Not a clue why you are surprised by this," she noticed how he behaved, and then she pointed out something he totally missed, "did you forget? I never took part in any battle before, that''s because such ability got severed from me the moment I became a human."

    "..."

    William totally missed this point. "I thought¡­"

    "I was weak and confused to use my powers? Or did you take me for a weakling and a coward? Hahahaha, that''s really hrious, hahaha!"

    William bitterly smiled. He totally got the wrong impression this time. And yet he totally ignored this side of what he heard and focused more on the real value of what he just heard.

    "So monsters can use spirit powers and elements in totally different ways than what humans do¡­ Interesting¡­" he muttered in a low tone, while thinking deeper about what this meant.

    Humans might be considered geniusespared to monsters, and yet they were limited with many things. Without knowing the right technique, no human could make the best use of his spirit power and elements. And that is what made monsters quite lucky in William''s opinion.

    Just taking a look around, how his two cherished gems were struggling to use their elements and spirits to the best of their abilities thanks to theirck of the right techniques was enough.

    If these two, and others, knew how to use their spirit powers and elements without the need to learn or create new techniques, then things would be quite different.

    "It''s not that easy," Angelica heard what William said just now and couldn''t help but chuckle in amusement, "it''s somehow rted to our spirit power grade. The higher we climbed, the more efficient we could use our spirit powers and unleash far deadlier attacks¡­"

    "Still, you don''t need to struggle and find a technique that matches your spirits and elements," William bitterly sighed, interrupting her while shaking his head, "monsters are indeed lucky, fcking lucky!"

    "It''s not fair! Humans can grow much faster than any of us, and in a few years a single human can jump ranks while we are still stagnant¡­"

    She kept defending the monsters, as if she was still one of them. William calmly listened to her barrage of words, while keeping a slim smile over his face.

    "Don''t forget, you are now a human not a monster," he calmly interrupted her after a few minutes of continuous talk, "and that means you got the best of the two worlds."

    "How? And I can''t even feel a single speck of my former power!" she pouted her cheeks, looking more lovely than ever.

    "Don''t worry about that, I''m here and I''m going to teach you how to train and use techniques¡­ But first, let''s have a little game¡­"

    "You are lying to me again, ain''t you?" she felt like he was about to trick her, and that made her cross her arms and look at him in defiance and challenge.

    Even when she did that, she looked so cute to make him unable to take her words seriously at all. And his attitude just made her much angrier and more frustrated.

    "I wasn''t lying, see this?" he took a crystal and candle out, "let''s have a little game, it''ll be fun," even when he tried to act serious, he couldn''t, ending upughing at the end of his words.

    "You are a bad boy," sheined, while trying to look away from the crystal and candle but couldn''t, "tell me, how can I y with these?"

    She used to see humans using different items when she was living as a monster. To her, this was always something she regretted for being a monster. And now she got the chance to enjoy everything she couldn''t before.

    William controlled hisughs, and started to exin everything regarding this test. The moment he told her there would be magical stuff going on inside the crystal and she got hyped and pumped up to try this out.

    *BOOM!*

    "What''s wrong?!!!" Yet after trying a few times, she ended up exploding the crystal every single time she tried to do the regr test.

    "Wow! It''s like fireworks, I love this game, hahaha!" yet unlike the deep puzzlement he had, she was having fun exploding crystals. She took this as some sort of a y, a fun game where she could explode the crystals into colourful shlights.

    "This isn''t right," William ignored her excitement, before taking something out, "try doing this over this piece here."

    "Wow! Much much bigger one to explode? That''s amazing!" her eyes sparkled before she turned around, looking for something, "where is the candle?"

    "Here, did you already miss it?" William already took out a candle like before, yet she didn''t take it and instead shook her head.

    "Not this one, I want the bigger one," she moved her two arms around, as if she was envisioning herself hugging a big rock or something.

    "Just use the candle and it''ll be enough," William could helplessly smile when she said her words. The crystal he took out was the size of a big rock, but that didn''t mean there would be a candle of such calibre.

 Chapter 1215: Angelicas Special Spirit

    Crystals were mined from mountains and hills, and there were lots of different sizes to it. He got this big one, and he got much bigger ones.

    Yet there wasn''t a difference between the various sized crystals. They all had the same function, and the only difference would be in the total amount of spirit power stored within them.

    William didn''t know what caused the crystals he took before to explode. So, he decided to take out a much bigger one and see if it''d endure the spirit power surge from Angelica.

    His best exnation would be in the high grade of her spirit. After all, his test would assess one''s spirit and spirit power. Even if she was weak right now, her spirit was still the same as the one she had as a monster.

    "Didn''t I test her spirit power before?" William felt a little puzzled about this. He couldn''t exactly recall if he examined her before or not, but he got the feeling he did it already, "if so, then it seems like by raising her spirit power grade, her spirit would escte to higher grades¡­"

    He was lost in thoughts while Angelica started doing the same procedure again. "It didn''t explode, why?" yet this time the crystal didn''t explode like the previous ones. Instead, it showed faint cracks all over its surface, making William''s eyebrows twitch.

    "Even this huge crystal couldn''t endure her spirit¡­ She is a beast indeed¡­" he muttered to himself, while looking at her as if he was looking at a monster.

    "It''s not funny anymore," she mistook his reaction as if he was also disappointed like her in such a result, "let''s find another game to y¡­ What are you doing?"

    William didn''t listen to her words or even bother to respond. He simply walked towards the crystal, checking it with care and interest.

    "Hmm¡­ You got twoyers of spirits¡­ Weird, it''s not like having twin spirits¡­" William muttered while his face showed a deep and serious frown.

    In front of him was something that he first met for the first time ever. The big crystal had two levels inside, like two realms separated only by a simple membrane, like separating two worlds entirely different.

    There was a world of green in the centre of the crystal. Thisyer extended to fill almost a third and a fifth of the entire crystal space. Then there was another zone, which was purely blue in colour.

    William could see the spirit dots dancing around in the two worlds, together moving in different directions. It was apparent that this wasn''t a twin spirit condition, not like Berry for example. The two spirits here were totally separating from each other, as if there were two different entities inside Angelica.

    It was a situation he never faced before. He closely inspected the situation inside the crystal while his attitude and seriousness attracted Angelica''s attention.

    She stoppedining or even speaking, came closer and noticed atst the shimmering little dots inside the crystal.

    "Amazingly beautiful," she couldn''t help but admire such a scene, "is this the game you promised me to have? That''s pretty impressive!"

    She even raised a thumb in front of his face, making him raise one eyebrow before adding, "what are you doing with this?" he motioned to her raised finger in front of his face. And she smiled before responding in pure confidence:

    "I saw many humans doing this move to each other, isn''t it cool?" This time she added her other hand and made the same gesture, while her face beamed with a much more glorious smile than before. She looked as if she was proud of what she did, and this made him unable to respond, either by augh or a lecture.

    "This is you," he motioned with his head, instead selecting to speak something rted to what he was doing here, "this is all you."

    "Me?!!" she opened her mouth agape, "no way! Howe I have such amazing and beautiful things in me?"

    "That''s just facts," William shrugged, before starting to exin what these dots and the entire test meant.

    "Amazing! Humans do really have weird toys and concepts about spirit power¡­ Yet¡­ You said I''d have one spirit, and I can see two in there," she pointed towards the two separated spirits, one bigger than another, before adding:

    "I can tell they look like me before turning into a human. But¡­ Why do I have two?"

    "I¡­ Don''t have an answer to this yet," William honestly responded, "how about you train first, and let''s do this test¡­"

    *Boom!* before he''d continue his words, the entire crystal smashed and exploded, turning into wisps of fire. Angelica jumped in the air, pping her hands in the middle of this fiery shower.

    "I want this firework, I want to y," she shouted in joy while William speechlessly watched the crystal getting burnt and explode.

    He couldn''t tell how big a crystal he should get for her to endure her berserk and violent spirit power. Yet he took another big crystal out, before pointing towards the formation he built earlier and said:

    "If you want to y, you''ll have to y first with my formation," he paused, before evilly smiling, "this formation will support you with special spirit power. It''s not just normal spirit power gathered up, but it will be condensed and purified, making it easier for you to raise your power¡­"

    "But you didn''t teach me a technique yet!" Angelica crossed her arms andined, making William unable tough or fall on the ground from hisughter.

    "I''ll teach you one, watch me and learn," her condition was pretty much special, but he knew she wouldn''t settle with such an answer.

    Trying to exin this to her was pointless. Besides, letting her train and increase her spirit power was the ideal solution for him to figure out what was wrong with her.

    The technique he selected was one suiting anyone with a darkness spirit element. Even if he couldn''t tell much from her chaotic spirit power, he could tell she had the darkness element into her spirit.

 Chapter 1216: The Weird Phenomenon

    William selected something that could help Angelica fight efficiently. If he selected anything else like movement technique, she''d continue toin and wouldn''t ept such one.

    "Ok, I will try this out," she looked a bit satisfied by this technique. She got hyped up and instantly started to train over this technique.

    William knew she would need a long time to get adapted to the technique, and yet before he''d move, he felt some sort of a waveing from her.

    He turned around and found a scene he hadn''t seen before except for himself. She was standing still, moving her hands around, while muttering the incantation he taught her just now. Around, he could see a shadow that rose up from her body, rising slowly and covering up an area of a few metres around.

    She emitted a dangerous vibe, while the shadow that appeared was vaguely resembling a small version of what she looked like before turning to human form.

    "This is bad¡­" William knew how troublesome her eroding power was. And when he got worried about the other two, the shadow stopped growing, and seemed to cease expanding.

    Yet he didn''t like such results. He thought back to how he had such an unexined phenomenon. "Something must bemon between me and her," he muttered to himself, while an idea shed in his mind.

    He didn''t train for a long time, and now he felt the urge to start training right now. For a reason, he felt like doing so next to her would be a good idea, one that could help him understand why his training was this bizarre.

    He took a glimpse over the other two, making sure they were away for enough distance. The two were training diligently, deeply immersed in what he taught them, and weren''t aware of anything happening around.

    "I hope nothing bad will happen," William took a deep breath, sat on the ground, crossed his legs, and started to train.

    Usually when he trained, he''d lose any connection with the outside world, even time would run and feel differently. And yet this time it was different.

    He didn''t feel detached from his surroundings, instead he felt everything happening crystal clear. In fact, if he didn''t know he wasn''t deeply immersed into training, he''d say that he was experiencing a moment of epiphany.

    He saw the shadow growing from his body, he saw the three spirits within his body appearing again, with his fox closing his eyes. The shadow rising up from his body was more massive than the one rising from Angelica, and soon enough it covered it up, totally engulfing it.

    *Sizzle!*

    Just when things were going smoothly, he heard a muffled sizzling sound,ing from the shadow surrounding Angelica. Unlike whatmon sense would depict, the shadow of hers started to grow, in an elerated rate, and in a blink of an eye it totally grew to be like his own shadow.

    "You¡­" Angelica slowly opened her eyes, with a sh of greening from deep within, "what''s happening?"

    She looked around in disbelief, while William stood slowly up.

    The moment this happened, and all the feelings he should get when starting training vanished. He felt like he couldn''t train, could move, and yet for a reason this didn''t stop the weird phenomenon from happening.

    "Fascinating¡­" he looked around with a glimmer of interest in his eyes.

    "Do you know what''s going on?" yet Angelica wasn''t feeling the same excitement he had. Instead, she was panicking a little, "I feel like I got kicked out from training the technique you taught me, but for another reason¡­ It feels like¡­"

    "You are still training, right?" William said these words, interrupting her messed up thoughts, without even turning towards her. His eyes were focused towards the merge that happened between his and her shadows.

    Even if both had different spirits, for a reason, their shadows were aligning with each other perfectly fine.

    "Do you have an exnation for any of that?" She resisted the urge to speak for a few minutes, yet William didn''t say a word. He kept moving around, looking at the weird shadow that got from the merge.

    "So far I know nothing," he paused, turning towards her before patting on her head as if he was a father patting on his daughter''s, "but it''s for our own good."

    "How so?!" she got irritated from getting treated like this, hurriedly pushing his hands away from her head while pouting her lips inint, "I can''t train right now!"

    "Indeed you can, indeed you are," William raised an eyebrow before adding, "just treat this like a special form of training."

    "Can humans train like that? Amazing!" like any little girl, she jumped fast from being irritated and returned to her old curious self.

    "Treat it like this," William truly got nothing to say to exin any of this, however he decided to go along with this solution she provided to put an end to this useless discussion.

    "Cool!" As he expected, she forgot everything about what happened, got distracted like always with anything rted to humans that monsters never had, "can I dance then while training? Can I sing? Can I drink? Can I sleep?"

    Yet unlike what he expected, what seemed to be the best way out of all this turned to be a new source of trouble for him. She kept jumping around, asking such weird questions non-stop, making his eyebrows twitch uncontrobly for a few minutes.

    "How about this, can you teach me another technique and let''s see if I can train with it as well?" just before he''d explode on her face to shut her up, she suddenly said such words that froze him in ce.

    "Howe I never thought of this before?!!" against what she thought, he pped his forehead, as if he was regretting something, "sure, let''s try this out¡­ How about a¡­"

    "I want to learn something cool, something explosive, something deadly!" without waiting for him to finish his words, she excitedly shouted, making him inwardly sigh.

 Chapter 1217: Weird Space Element

    William was nning to teach her a mobility-based technique, something to help her evade any iing attack. During the past battles, she was always struggling with iing attacks, and had to stay on the side of others to get safe.

    "Not a bad idea," yet when he thought back to how poorly she did against stronger enemies, he decided to teach her this, "but this technique won''t show its real value before heading into the gold grade¡­"

    "Pft, as if I didn''t get there before," she confidently said, beforeughing out of her excitement, "teach it to me, teach it to me¡­" she held his arm and kept swinging it right and left, making him unable to control hisughs anymore.

    "Alright, memorise the incantations first¡­" he started to teach her the technique, while his mind was diverted towards something different.

    All this time he had to use either old techniques that weremonly used for other masters, or the Holy Sword one that he developed a long time ago.

    Despite that technique being like a real killer in any battle, it still had its limitations. Before he was limited by his spirit power grade, but now he could safely devise something new to make up for the shorings of the Holy Sword.

    "Holy Sword technique is good against a single or few enemies, but against arge group of them or an army, it always tied up my hands¡­" After teaching Angelica the technique, he left her to have fun while going over a corner and started to contemte over this issue.

    What he had in mind was to invent something that could be used against arge number of enemies. He was sure the explosive power of this technique would pale inparison to what the Holy Sword technique provided. But he needed to have such a technique.

    The Holy Sword wasn''t justcking against arge number of enemies, but it also required a time to charge up and show its real might. On many asions, he had to struggle hard to do this. And so, he decided to not go for such a way while inventing this new technique.

    "I got a new piece added to my spirit, and that means I can use the same ability of that monster¡­" William stood in his ce motionless, contemting what he should do. At the same time, Angelica started to train over the new technique he taught her, and she looked very excited about doing that.

    William smiled when he spotted her in such a mood, and then he returned to his thoughts. "I can feel the element added to my spirit is rted to space, but it''s not purely a space element¡­" he took out a crystal and inspected his spirit. Even if he knew a lot about the monster he fought and killed, he still wasn''t fully clear about its spirit or elements.

    That made him curious to see how the new element he gained would be. But the crystal test wasn''t conclusive for him. He could see the unique nature of the space element in there, but it still gave him the feeling there was something extra to it.

    "Space element can be helpful in creating sealed spaces, and also boosts one''s speed. It can allow me to move faster, even create spots where I can jump in between during any battle¡­ But neither of these were simr to how that monster fought¡­"

    William tried to find simrities between the space element and the monster''s way of fighting. The monster used to move fast, and it was floating in midair most of the time. But that wasn''t even close to what a space element could do.

    "Aside from the weird space element, there is the heaven defying spirit power consumption ability¡­ It seems to be a form of a decaying element, but strictly for spirit power¡­ It is an evolution!"

    William''s eyes shone brightly when his thoughts reached this point. He saw the decaying element particles inside the crystal, but they were the same as space elements. There was something different about it!

    As he knew precisely how the spirit power decaying ability worked, he was able to jump to this conclusion. "This monster had two evolved elements, new and unique, amazing!"

    It was now clear to him why the space element felt different. "I can''t just depend on a spirit power decaying ability¡­ Even if it can bring trouble to arge number of enemies, it must work for a period of time before killing or severely weakening them¡­"

    He knew how troublesome that ability was, but at the same time he didn''t want to develop a technique that would require much time to give results. So, he knew if he wanted to do something extraordinary here, he needed to unveil the mystery over the evolved space element first.

    "Let me try a basic space technique then¡­" to test the space element he got, he needed to put it to the test. And without wasting much time, he started to execute a basic form of a space bubble technique, one that could iste an area off the world, cutting off sounds.

    It was a weak technique, which he could easily develop to make it able to cut even spirit power from outside, either use it to defend himself or trap an enemy inside.

    The technique was supposed to create a semi-transparent bubble, covering an area of ten metres around him, without any extra. But the moment he used the technique, something else happened.

    "Oh, is that how it evolved? Amazing!" William experienced different things at the same time, but the most impactful change was rted to the technique itself.

    Instead of creating a ten metres bubble, the bubble came smaller, only covering three metres. At first William thought he executed it wrong or something, but then out of the bubble, a weird smoke came out, one that was weirdly simr to the ck cloud that covered that monster from before.

 Chapter 1218: Inventing A New Technique

    In mere seconds, the bubble got covered entirely by arge cloud of ck smoke, which extended beyond thirty metres. William stood in the heart of it, looking at the bubble that got masked by the ck cloud, and then something new appeared.

    "Lightning?!" He was surprised to see thin lines of lightning dancing through the ck cloud. It didn''t make sense at first, as he didn''t stir his lightning element while using the space bubble technique. And before he could get a clue of what happened, bright shes of light dots appeared and vanished quite fast, as if someone was throwing sparkles and shiny particles over the cloud.

    "It''s not just light and lightning¡­" This kept happening and going on without any clear rhythm or rule. But when he closely examined it, he could tell there was another element in y; the Darkness element!

    Every time lightning arcs or light dots appeared, a swarm of darkness followed, covering these up. What made it weird for him to not notice it first was the fact that this darkness came from the ck cloud itself. And that gave him an idea of what was going on here.

    "It''s like¡­ The evolution in the space element made some sort of connection between my three elements¡­ But why these three in particr?"

    William was puzzled about this, and yet he didn''t focus too much over it. What he was more interested about was confirming his theory, seeing how he could implement it better.

    What he didn''t realise was that he guessed things partially right. The evolution in the space element allowed him to forge a connection with the darkness element, but not the other two.

    The monster was able to use the evolved space element thanks to the darkness element. But as William was different, having two opposing elements as well in his spirit, the link stirred the light and lightning elements as well.

    That was the reason behind the appearance of the light dots and the lightning arcs, and also the reason why these two didn''tst for long, got killed fast by the darkness element.

    As he threw the exnation that he couldn''t get behind him, William started to think back. He recalled his bloody battle against that monster and ended up noticing a few things.

    "The fog is simr, but back then there wasn''t any light or lightning¡­ In addition to that, the fog wasn''t just a mask to give a false impression, it was real, strong, and held offensive and defensive abilities¡­"

    He was lucky he fought against that monster personally, so he got ideas about how this evolved space element worked. It wasn''t just about creating a darkness-based fog around him, but it felt like the fog was solid, acting as a second body of his.

    "This basic technique can''t show the full abilities of this, I need a far advanced one¡­" he stopped using the technique and waited for the fog to slowly subside. It turned into wisps of ck smoke that took a bit longer than expected to vanish.

    "Interesting," seeing this made him smile regardless. It was known that the moment any master would stop his technique, the effects of the technique would instantly subside. Only if the technique was too strong, used too much spirit power, or had something unique to it, then the time would be elongated.

    The first thing he did was to check his spirit power, and as he expected, it didn''t get consumed to any abnormal degree. "That means the evolution in the space element is so terrifying," he grinned while feeling he got blessed with this spirit.

    "I know lots of space techniques, but mostly are used either for defence, training, or entrapping enemies. I need an offensive technique, one that could impact arge number of enemies at one go¡­"

    William stood in his ce thinking about this dilemma. The techniques he knew of weren''t that suitable for his needs, and the offensive natured ones weren''t that strong nor could work over a wide area.

    "I have to invest in something new," this wasn''t the first time he''d do something like this. And with his rich experience,ing up with his new technique didn''t take longer than a single day.

    During which, he kept testing his theories. The first thing he tried to do was to use the light and lightning elements alongside darkness in that technique, and he miserably failed.

    Every time he tried to do so, the entire technique crashed, and he couldn''t sustain it. In the end, he decided to go for using darkness alone, and through this he noticed the frequent short-lived activation of the light and lightning elements.

    Starting from there, he began to better finalise his technique. His main inspiration came from two things actually, first to use the evolved space, and second was to implement the evolved decay elements.

    After many trials, edits, and failures, he finally managed to get the technique ready.

    *Boom!*

    "What just happened? Why am I outside? What did you do?!!" The moment he reached the final form of the technique, his experiment ended up with exploding the training unique experience he and Angelica had.

    It was expected, after all, that the new technique he developed was quite brutal and explosive. It covered up a huge area in mere seconds, and that shattered the magical effects the shadows created for him and Angelica.

    Thetter didn''t like that. She was acting like a little girl, wanting to return back into that awesome experience, train on her new technique and also train to raise her spirit power.

    "You have to train alone from now on," William didn''t get moved under her constant begging. He was sure he didn''t perfect the technique even if he invented it. He felt there was still huge room for progress, but doing this while training with her wasn''t quite right.

    "But¡­"

    "This ce is going to host the training of everyone in the team," William interrupted her, moving his eyes around, "you can stay here and train for as long as you need¡­"

 Chapter 1219: They Arent Back Yet?!

    "How about you? Won''t you train with me again?" She knew he made up his mind to leave now, but she didn''t lose hope. She even held both hands forward, put a cute little expression on her face, while looking at him as a little girl looking to her best friend.

    "Alright, wille from time to time," William didn''t agree, thanks only to her cute looks, but also he wanted to experience this unique phenomenon a bit more. He didn''t get yet what was going on, and needed to clear up his mind and test thingster.

    "You are the best," out of her joy she jumped, hugged and kissed him on the cheeks, "I will always await your return," she said these words, shouting while he was walking away.

    William kept his smile while walking outside of this ce. He already spent enough time here training others and ying with his new technique, enough for others to do the task he asked for.

    "They aren''t back yet? Weird!" he thought he''d find everyone waiting for him back at the headquarters. However the ce was empty from any of his close friends and team. He looked around, with his eyes directed towards the direction of Lara''s city, "it seems I need to pay them a visit myself."

    The road towards Lara''s city wasn''t new for William. As he walked outside of his guild town, he noticed how his guild members were alert and active.

    The walls were filled with masters guarding and patrolling even in the middle of the day. Streets were filled with tons of masters, who were training and talking among themselves about techniques.

    William walked in the middle of everyone, unnoticed as he made sure to wear a cloak and hide his presence quite well. He avoided the main streets until he reached the gate, and there he had to show his face to let the guards open it for him.

    "They got trained quite well during my absence," William walked outside with great satisfaction after he passed through the noise created by his sudden appearance. He treated everyone quite well, and politely refused their offers toe and apany him.

    What was a pleasant surprise for him was the fact that most if not all of them weren''t included in the top master list he got in his mind. He knew the top masters were either in the ck Tails team, or in the Golden Tails two teams. Aside from these teams, he expected the overall level and ability of his guild masters to be average, or even below average.

    But that wasn''t true. It seemed even the normal masters in his guild were strong enough to be on the high levelpared with other masters in the world.

    "The city grows once more," William was now free to inspect Lara''s city this time. He walked down its streets, walking through its three huge zones, looking at the swarm of masters walking inside.

    However things didn''t look that great when he walked further inside. He noticed many buildings losing parts of their bodies, and few totally copsed. He recalled the big battle he had against the monster in the underground city, and he could tell how severe that battle was.

    Even after over a month, the city still didn''t fully recover. And seeing all these scars, he could imagine how bad it must have looked when that battle ended.

    But these signs of damage didn''t seem to bother the masters living here. In fact, he felt like he was the only one noticing these scars, stopping from time to time to inspect a fallen building or partially damaged ce.

    "You are back," as he walked down the streets, he finally found himself standing in front of Lara''s tower, the ce that witnessed a big battle over the city. It was the ce that Lara decided to turn into a memorable spot and took it as her pce.

    The moment he went there, he found a grand wall surrounding the ce, with arge gate semi-opened, and an old man stood in front of it.

    "You are still alive, old man," William grinned when he saw the face of the old friend, Sloth.

    "What a rude kid you are¡­ Do you think I''m too old to die for a month?!" Sloth''s eyebrows twitched while William couldn''t help butugh.

    "What brought you here? I thought you went back to the king," William sized Sloth up and down, "it doesn''t seem you just arrived here, what''s wrong?"

    "It''s a secret," Sloth decided to pay back the rudeness of William and didn''t say what he was here for. But instead of watching William beg or use any tactic to make him spill the beans out, thetter simply smiled in confidence as he replied:

    "You don''t need to tell me then, Anjie will."

    "You little jerk¡­" Sloth wanted to smack Willian on the head, but he controlled himself, "why are you always good at making others mad at you? Why not simply act your age and make us like you?"

    "I can''t lie to myself, right?" William evilly grinned, "so, will you tell me or¡­"

    "No need to hide then," Sloth shrugged, "the king wants to meet with the princess, and so I''m here to apany her back."

    "For what?" William looked in a suspicious way towards Sloth, but thetter seemed to not intend to spill any beans this time.

    "Even if you asked her, she won''t tell you anything¡­"

    "Wanna bet?"

    "Screw off!" Sloth knew he''d lose such a bet against William despite his desire for Anjie to keep this information secret from William. But honestly he knew this wasn''t going to happen.

    Any blind man would be able to tell how strong and deep the bond between these two was running. Sloth didn''t object to this, after all he witnessed how special and different William was, how great of potential his future held.

    "Don''t bother then, I''ll find out myself," William winked in a teasing manner, and for the second time Sloth wanted to smack him on the head, and hardly controlled himself.

 Chapter 1220: The Weird Change At The Underground City

    "She was supposed to leave earlier today with me, but something stalled her behind," Sloth seemed a bit puzzled about this, "she looked disturbed, and when I asked, she refused to give me a clear answer."

    "She is in the underground city," William casually responded, "perhaps she is on the verge of finding something important there¡­"

    "The underground city is open? I thought it was off limits since that incident in the past month¡­"

    "They went there to solve the problem," William paused, "everyone from my guild I mean."

    "But it''s super dangerous down there, damn! Why didn''t she tell me? I should have gone there and helped!" Sloth seemed more worried about this, but William took things lightly.

    "Don''t worry, it''s not that dangerous," he paused before adding when the expression over Sloth''s face didn''t change, "why not apany me then? I''m heading down there now."

    "Lead the way then," Sloth wanted to add something, like Anjie better be alright when they''d arrive there, but he knew it was pointless to say that. William would worry over Anjie the same way he would.

    William got into the tower, where he found lots of masters who recognised him but he didn''t get any familiar faces.

    "Sure, sir William is super famous and our local hero, you can follow me to the underground city," one old man bowed slightly in an inviting gesture when he realised why William was here. He did what he promised, led William and Sloth towards the underground city corridor.

    "The underground city is forbidden even for the different powers in the city, but ourdy instructed that if you came, we''ll let you through," the old man said while opening a door towards the corridor. And the moment William stepped passed the door, and loud noises came from the direction of the underground city.

    "They are fighting hard," the old man paused at the door, "sorry, but I''m not allowed to step in here for now."

    "I understand," William nodded to the man while Sloth sized the man up and down. For a reason, Sloth felt like the man feared more to step into here than to follow orders as he imed.

    "What''s going on here?" Yet when Sloth went past the entrance and stood by William''s side over the hill, he froze in his ce while watching a scene he never imagined.

    He knew about what happened here, and heard about the restrain orders issued by the leaders of the city. But when he stood on top of that hill, he could see a huge number of masters down there, fighting constantly against monsters. The fight extended further deeper into the city, which looked now a truly ruined old city.

    "They are sure of the heat today," William smiled widely before he started to release his spirit. And when he did that, the smile slowly faded away, and he started to show the same worried look that appeared first over Sloth''s face.

    From the first look, things were good. Masters were fighting the monsters and managed to push their way through the ruined city. But when he used his spirit sense, he could see much deeper details that changed everything.

    "They aren''t fighting to push forward, they are entrapped!" This was the first thing the two noticed, and Sloth muttered in a low tone filled with anger, "don''t tell me you are behind this seriously bad situation!"

    Sloth turned to William, while thetter didn''t bother with what he just heard. His main focus was to try and grasp what was going on down there, and where his team was.

    As far as he could tell, a great part of the master''s down there weren''t part of his guild. They didn''t wear his guild uniforms, and there weren''t any of his friends or the ones he knew down there.

    "Something is off," after a few minutes of closely checking, he finally spoke up his mind.

    "Everything is wrong, terribly wrong!" Sloth was also looking around, for Anjie only. That was why he missed what was bothering William.

    "None of these are part of my guild," William turned back to the corridor they just came from, "that old man¡­ Something smells fishy here."

    "What do you mean?" Sloth started to regain hisposure, linking the dots the same way William did, "are you telling me these masters are outsiders?!!"

    "They aren''t part of my guild," William didn''t want to jump to conclusions pretty fast, "something is stopping my spirit sense, how about yours?"

    William could see things clearly for an area of five kilometres radius. This wasn''t that muchpared to how huge his spirit sense can cover. But every single time he tried to see beyond that, he felt like something blocked his senses, turning him blind.

    "Me too," Sloth nodded, "I was concerned more about the ones down there close to us. The outer area has monsters only, no masters."

    He was right, but as William knew these masters weren''t part of his guild, he knew his friends were in the zone he couldn''t reach with his spirit sense.

    "We need to inspect things ourselves then," Sloth took out a long sword, "if you want, you can stay behind me¡­"

    "Follow me, old man," William didn''t respond to Sloth''s words except with actions. He took out a dark gold grade sword, and started to climb down the stairs without even waiting for Sloth.

    The moment he stepped on the stairs, it felt like he entered a whole new realm. The pressureing from the world around intensified, and for a moment there he felt how suffocating this pressure was.

    "Are you ok?" Unlike him, Sloth walked past William like there wasn''t anything at all.

    "Can''t you feel it?" William looked at Sloth, and thetter shrugged, "I don''t know what you are talking about. Let''s go, we just walked down the first few stairs. Like I said, stay behind me, you just woke up from a longa as I heard."

 Chapter 1221: Using The New Technique

    Sloth thought William was acting weird thanks to the longa he suffered recently. In fact, he acted out of kindness before, but William mistook his actions.

    "This isn''t rted to thatma," William muttered to himself, while feeling harder the closer they got from the ground, "it''s not a spirit power suffocation¡­ It''s like a sh of something from outside with something within me¡­ Is it rted to that spirit?"

    William couldn''t help but move his attention towards the spirit he gainedtely from here. That monster was bizarre in the first ce, and its spirit must have held tons of secrets, rather than the ones he explored already.

    But as Sloth was walking normally, he had to keep up. He had no time to investigate what was going on, and so he decided to activate his spirit at once to counter that pressure.

    "Using that this early on?!!" Sloth paused when William''s fox spirit appeared, "do you want to retreat and let me handle this?"

    "It''s fine," William said these words calmly, but inside, he felt a tornado brewing inside. The moment he activated his fox spirit, and something tapped into his spirit power, something that was previously suffocatingly pressuring him.

    The moment he activated his spirit and gained his spirit body, it felt like all the pressure was gone. Instead of being pressured, he felt like an external power was gushing fast and in copious amounts, heading directly towards his spirit.

    He knew it wasn''t spirit power, or else it''d affect everyone else, Sloth included. He knew it was something rted to the new spirit he gained, and so he started to think about what this would be.

    "It''s not touching my spirit power at least," he closed his eyes and examined his spirit power, to end up feeling no change in it, "so¡­ What is it?"

    Before he''d figure out what initially pressured then supported him, the two arrived at the ground.

    "Intruders!" and even before they''d touch the ground, few of the masters around shouted the moment they noticed them, "stop them! Stop them at all costs!"

    "They sure are friendly," Sloth evilly grinned, "wait here, let me deal with these fools first then we can handle the monsters together."

    "Be my guest," William didn''t want to go into battle directly when he got something to test his powers. On top of that, from the look of it, these weird masters were too many in number, but too weak in their overall strength.

    As expected, releasing Sloth over them was like releasing a tiger over a horde of sheep. The masters couldn''t hold a candle in front of Sloth, and all William could hear were screams of panic, pain, and agony.

    But he didn''t mind himself with any of that. He left the task of clearing the space around over to Sloth while he tried to get what was wrong with his body.

    "It seems I can''t get a head or tail about what''s going on¡­ Then¡­" William looked around, with an evil look over his face, "let''s test my new technique then."

    William didn''t find a clue by examining himself, so he had to practically test his powers to see what changed. As he had the hunch that everything was rted to his newly gained spirit, he decided to go with his semi-finished technique.

    He already developed a great part of it, but it wasn''t still done. There were still many rooms for improvement and modification. Yet for now, it was enough to deal with the weak enemies around.

    "Pick a side," all of sudden, William took out his sword, dashed forward while shouting in warning, "this is a strong technique, but I can''t fully control it."

    "If you can''t control it, don''t butt yourself in then!" Sloth felt speechless. Moments ago, William was struggling to keep himself standing on both feet. And now he was going to use a technique he didn''t master yet?

    But it was toote to stop William. Thetter didn''t dash forward to release the technique, only moved forward, evading the surrounding enemies, or hitting them randomly with his sword.

    His aim was to bypass the encirclement of these masters, and head directly towards the monsters deep inside. He knew the masters wouldn''t pose a threat or a challenge to him and Sloth. His main focus was to test his new technique over the monsters and see how things would turn out.

    "I''ll release it now," when he got close enough to see the monsters up front, William shouted to warn Sloth froming closer to him, "stay back there, keep them busy."

    "You¡­" Sloth was getting on the edge thanks to William, but before he''dplete his words, William released his attack.

    The technique wasunched without a weapon, against what Sloth imagined. The first thing William did was to nt the sword to the ground, roll his sleeves up, before forking his fingers in a grasping motion.

    "Let there be death," William muttered to the incarnation fast, but Sloth could hear thest words he mumbled before the attacknded.

    The moment William unleashed his new technique, a huge ball of darkness appeared. It wasn''t a normal one, even if it grew to a twenty metres radius, it still gave Sloth bad vibes.

    The ball expanded in one breath to such a size, then stopped. When Sloth looked closer, he could see arcs of lightning dancing across its surface, but for a reason they got engulfed all with the darkness.

    He could see sparks of small dots of lights that popped up and died fast across the surface of that ball as well. And before he''d got any clue of what was going to happen, William suddenly lowered both hands down, as if he was carrying this ball with his bare hands, and was about to throw it away.

    And it flew, past over the heads of masters, then monsters. The ball travelled fast, crossing a thousand metres in a single breath, before it finallynded on the ground.

    *Boom!*

 Chapter 1222: Getting A Clue About What Happened To Monsters

    "What the hell did this kid use just now?!!!" from behind, and using his spirit power to witness everything happening, he could see the shocking effects of William''s ball.

    From the first look, he felt this ball was dangerous. But he never expected its terror to reach such a scale. The ideas he got from the outer surface was that this ball depended mainly on the darkness element, with other elements like lightning and light twinkling from time to time.

    But when William let it fall on the ground, the ball exploded like it was made out of thin ss. The ball shattered in a sh, turning into tons of little pieces that covered a huge area around.

    And then fog appeared!

    The fog seemed to get stored inside the ball. Sloth couldn''t detect it at first, until the ball crashed and shattered. And when the fog appeared, he couldn''t get what element it belonged to.

    "What kind of trick did this little monster learn while he was ina?!!!" Sloth stole a peek over William, feeling like he never managed to unravel everything about him.

    When he went back to his king, he felt like he knew everything about William, his temper, his habits, his beliefs, and his powers. But right now, it felt like it was the first time for him to meet this youngster.

    The fog didn''t dissipate as Sloth imagined, didn''t rise high and dilute. Instead, the fog expanded alongside the shattered pieces of the ck ball, ending up covering the same area the shattered pieces covered.

    This didn''t make any sense to him. The fog didn''t look that thick or enough to cover such distance without getting stretched out and thinned. But the fog defied any logic he had before about it, fell on the ground, stuck closer to it, and kept its ugly grey colour thick and united.

    When Sloth felt everything was over, a new event happened. The moment the fog touched the boundaries of the area covered by the shattered ball, it invoked a new change there. And this time, this change made absolutely zero sense to Sloth.

    "Lightning? Light? Howe these two work side by side with darkness?!!"

    The fog was clearly rted to the darkness element. But the moment it covered the entire area, thick lightning arcs and bright shes of lights appeared.

    They weren''t like how they popped up before, weren''t eaten by the darkness, weren''t shy and disappeared. The darkness seemed to not bother with the two hostile elements, instead it felt like it was augmenting their strengths!

    The lightning arcs grew in both thickness, size, and magnitude! The lightning shes were like a carpet of starsnded on that area, and kept getting brighter with every passing second.

    At some point, it proved hard to see through all this even while using spirit sense. "No way! Howe this attack has a higher grade than mine?!!" Sloth knew this wasn''t thanks to the brightness of the attack, but its fierceness and high grade.

    It was like he was at gold grade, trying to see through someone in the dark gold realm. But that wasn''t the only surprise he got, the following explosive sounds shook his entire body, and he felt his hair stand in response.

    Even without seeing anything, he could tell how horrifying such an attack was. "Interesting," he turned to look at William, and instead of seeing him panting for breath as he expected, he was totally fine.

    A big smile was on his face, and he stood there like he just waved his arm and released nothing. In fact, William wasn''t that great as he looked from the surface. His spirit power dropped by a whole forty percent, and he felt like his body ached after releasing such technique.

    Yet the thing that made him smile was this was way better than the version he tested before at the training bubble. He could feel the power and scale of this technique grew by at least three times stronger than before. And on top of that, his spirit power consumption didn''t skyrocket except for one fold.

    "So that pressure and weird feeling came from the evolved space element here? Didn''t know by killing that monster back then, a great deal of its power would dissipate and escape here. This ce¡­ It''s perfect to train my new technique!"

    Just from using the technique once, he got insights about how to enhance the technique. This ce provided a great environment to test and further refine his technique, and that was also a source of headache to him as well.

    "Now I know why monsters were able to detect the istion arrays¡­ Tsk," he mulled over this point. After all, the rich evolved space element in this ce made it possible for the monsters to grow a strong sense for any space rted technique or array.

    As istion arrays were all built over the space element, this meant using such a method was pointless here. "If I need to make something that can''t be detected by them, it must be either on a higher grade than what these monsters have, or be built entirely over a totally different element¡­"

    His mind went into deep thoughts while pondering over this point. As he detected where the problemy, he knew he''d find a way to solve this in the end.

    But he didn''t let himself lose focus over this point for now. He wanted to see how scary his new technique was, and as one attack taught him a little, he decided to keep going on using it.

    "Stay here," he didn''t need to turn and look at Sloth, or even use his spirit sense to know the old man was ring at him as if he was seeing a monster. William didn''t ck behind, moved fast and shed around the area of destruction he created.

    "This kid¡­" Sloth knew William was going to test his technique again. He stated it clearly that he had no control over it, which meant it was something he recently learnt.

    "But from whom?" Sloth couldn''t help but think deeply about this, "don''t tell me it came from that old monster¡­ But that doesn''t add up¡­"

 Chapter 1223: A Barrier

    Sloth''s thought drifted towards Fang, but soon enough he dropped the idea, "if that old monster had such power, he''d have used it already. No, it''s not him¡­" Sloth was very curious to know from where William learnt such technique. But soon enough, his attention got diverted to the swarms of weak enemies who came at his direction.

    "Scram!" Sloth wasn''t in the mood to y with these weaklings. But for a moment there, he recalled something, "I need to know where you came from, and what are you doing here¡­ So¡­"

    He cracked his knuckles and looked in an evil way towards the iing masters. William didn''t bother about this point, but Sloth felt like he shouldn''t neglect that.

    As he started to interrogate those masters while killing those who weren''t cooperative, William was pushing forward amidst the masters and monsters.

    "This technique is the nemesis for those monsters indeed¡­" After a few more attempts, William could tell his new technique was sweeping monsters like they were nothing.

    Monsters were hard to deal with, as they always hid through the ground, attacked and ran away without warning. But now they couldn''t hold their advantage against his technique.

    For a reason, the areas he attacked with the technique seemed to dig the monsters out of the ground. He couldn''t see clearly though the waves of attacks, but he could tell the monsters were drawn to something in his technique, luring them out of their safe spots in the ground.

    At some point, he had to check the areas he attacked to make sure his technique didn''t cut the earth open or something.

    From examining the leftovers of his technique using spirit sense, he found out that most of the masters got killed and never left behind anything worthy. But this was different for monsters.

    The monsters looked as if they got dried up, as if their bodies got drained from any fluids. Their outer physique shrank slightly, with most of it being hidden under the ground still. Yet when he went there and examined these leftovers, he could tell even their bones were intact.

    "Hmm, it''s like a direct blow to their spirit power¡­ The evolved decay power I got seems to work better on monsters, but why?"

    He was slightly puzzled by this, yet he didn''t have many options here. The monsters were all touched by the evolved space power, and he couldn''t tell if such effect was just limited to these monsters here or was generally at all monsters.

    "In any case, this is a great bonus," he shrugged, "now it''s time to look for my friends¡­ Where are they? And what''s wrong with that point out there?"

    William thought the limitation enforced over his spirit sense was just a limit in range. But this proved wrong. As he advanced and crossed a few miles, he couldn''t still bypass the point that his spirit sense stopped at before.

    That meant one thing, something there was stopping any spirit sense from intervening. "Aside from natural causes, like space power going rampant, there could be an array installed there or something¡­"

    As he kept drawing closer to that zone, he kept thinking about the possibilities behind this. He knew even with the presence of a special space element here, this held the least possibility ever. "I lean more towards those folks using such arrays, and if so, that means there must be other arrays to iste any outsiders from intervening¡­"

    He looked around, at the scared faces of the masters. Even if they knew they weren''t a match to him, they still kepting as if they feared nothing. "Why bother asking when I''m this close to finding out the truth? Besides¡­ There is someone else doing this for me."

    William was eyeing what Sloth was doing the same way Sloth was eyeing him. He could see Sloth fighting and interrogating the masters around, but so far he failed to grasp something useful. Even if they were on the verge of dying, they never spoke openly about anything rted to their origin, or the purpose of their presence here.

    "I''ll find out soon," William turned to the front, where there was less than two miles between him and that zone, "I''ll find out everything out there."

    He didn''t need any spirit sense to tell him that his team was surrounded out there, deep into that part of the underground city. Yet trying to see anything through the tons of enemies, debris, and ruined buildings filling the entire city was impossible.

    If he had to know the truth and find his team, he had to go there himself and force his way through everything. And that wasn''t a problem to him until he reached that edge of that zone.

    *Sizzle!*

    "Yes, it''s a man-made thing then," as he released an attack that touched the edge of this region, it was clear that it was made by masters.

    He unleashed many attacks already, and was familiar with what these attacks would cause. But when he got close enough, hisst attacknded and a big part of it got stopped by some sort of a hidden barrier.

    The shattered ck ball pieces didn''t expand like usual, instead almost one third of the pieces got stuck at a barrier, one that rose from the ground to the sky.

    As there was something able to stop his technique, it told him how strong the arrays implemented there were. But he didn''t jump to considering solutions, waited for the second and more devastating part of his technique to kick in.

    And as if his technique got insulted and enraged by such a barrier, almost most of the attacksnded at that barrier. In front of him, the thick tongues of lightning and shes of lights kept piling up and rising in intensity while the fog swirled and rose higher, trying to dominate that barrier with brutal force.

    "Get it," William stood from behind as if he was cheering for his technique. But as expected, the technique failed to crush the barrier.

 Chapter 1224: A Weird Situation

    The technique stretched out trying to dominate and cover up the barrier, and that ended up greatly weakening its overall might. But that didn''t make William feel any worry or regret. After all, the technique left behind many faint cracks all over the barrier surface it touched.

    "It''s not designed to cause massive damage in the first ce, but my other technique is," William snorted, took out weapons, and held them with his tails, "it''s time to crack you open, and see what they are trying to hide from me."

    He looked around, at the many masters and monsters heading towards him. "Time to charge up my mighty Holy Sword technique!" and like this, he jumped over his enemies, dashing around in shy moves, reminding Sloth who was looking from far behind in the old days.

    "He is finally getting serious," Sloth turned around, "time for me to get serious here as well. I''ll get the truth out of you, one way or another¡­"

    William started to stack attacks over his tails until he gathered around one hundred of them. Once he gained enough confidence, he dashed directly towards the barrier. He crossed around one thousand metres in one go, tond with a huge bang over it.

    "Crack open, you mfer!" he roared while pushing with everything he got to crash his way through the barrier. It was just oneyer of barriers, but a group of them. And that made him prate through them one by one as if he was digging his way through them.

    "I''m in!" Atst he managed to get past these barriers. And the moment hended there, the first thing he felt was a restriction forcending heavily over his body.

    "Hmm, that reminds me of the restriction arrays from the outer world, pretty annoying ones indeed¡­" he muttered while pulling a long face. Dealing with this kind of arrays was quite troublesome, as they were fixed not on the ground but over people.

    It was simr in general concept to the array he once used a long time before with his team when they moved out from the academy and met the Nightmare monster.

    "To disable this, I need to either find the ones controlling it and kill them, which is hard¡­ Or¡­" he looked around, as many masters turned their attention fully towards the intruder, and wereing towards him.

    "Fine, I''ll kill you all to relieve it, after all I''m not nning to let anyone slip through with their lives¡­" he looked at everyoneing at him, be it monster or masters, he decided to kill them all.

    As he started a spree of killing here, new developments were happening everywhere!

    First thing that happened and he missed was the gap he created at the barriers. It started to slowly close, without affecting the entire barrier structure. As this happened at a very slow pace, and as he kept walking deeper into the region, he missed this point.

    If he noticed it, he''d realise that his actions were closely watched by the ones controlling these arrays. This wasn''t a good sign, as it was normally expected for the arrays to fall down on their own once a great force barged through them. But that didn''t happen, and that was a testimony of the presence of strong masters here.

    On the other hand, something new was happening at Sloth''s side. For a reason once William vanished from his spirit sense detection, the masters who kept their mouths shut all this time started to speak!

    Unlike what it was before, all of sudden many started to speak, actually everyone. That took Sloth by surprise. But when he heard what they said, he couldn''t help but turn around, take a long look towards the direction William vanished.

    "Fck it! He walked directly into a trap!" he gritted his teeth, looked at the weak masters around and couldn''t help but decide to neglect all of them.

    His main focus now was to go and catch up with William, warn him about what he just learnt.

    But this was easier said than done!

    "Damn! Why can''t I get past it and he could?!!" When he barged his way towards the barrier zone, he tried to crack it open using everything he had. But unlike what he envisioned, the group of barriers proved to be hard nuts to crack.

    The barriers looked more robust, with way better regenerative abilities than what they showed in front of William. "I can''t believe I can''t crack what that kid did with a single attack of his!" fumed with rage and impatience, he envied Fang for learning the secret behind William''s arrays.

    "Why was I this thick headed before? I should have moved aside my pride and asked that kid about his array!" He knew it was toote to regret this, but decided to ask William after all this was over.

    As Sloth struggled out there to crush the arrays, some other development was happening deep inside the region. And this wasn''t happening at William''s side!

    "That looks bad!" from one direction, Berry was struggling to breath. She was deeply situated in a pit, one that had only her and few others of the team members.

    "Is everyone ok?" She used her spirit telepathy to connect with others around, but all she got was her spirit sense crushed, and telepathy to never pass through. So, she had to shout, on the top of her lungs.

    "We need to get out from here," but she didn''t get any response, and it was expected. She and the few others of the team were in a very deep pit, one that crossed over fifty metres depth.

    "We need to get out first," one of the team masters said, as he and others knew how sentiment Berry usually acted.

    "Something smells wrong about all of this," another team member said, "howe all of these masters came here? And they have very strong masters among their ranks."

    "It''s not useful to discuss how they got here now," Berry interrupted his words, but that master didn''t stop.

 Chapter 1225: Getting Attacked

    "I''m not speaking about how they got here. They came, and we fell into this trap. You saw them, they got three who could battle Fang and win over him!"

    "What do you mean?!" Berry looked in confusion, and what that master said next added anotheryer of mystery towards what she and the team suffered from in the past twenty-four hours.

    "I mean if they wanted, they could have killed all of us! But so far, they just pushed us to this trap area and let us fall into these pits. They didn''t do anything else, as if they were watching us from above, as if¡­ They are waiting for something¡­ Or someone¡­"

    "William!" as if the answer was clear in front of her, Berry jumped to this conclusion. Everyone around looked at her in doubt, as it was famous how she held William high in her heart.

    "It''s William," but unlike what everyone expected, she didn''t jump to this conclusion out of her feelings towards him, "this situation, everything¡­ It''s simr to how things happen when he is around. Yes, it''s him, they are waiting for him, but¡­"

    As she was speaking out of deep experience with William, her heart feelings kicked in and she couldn''t continue her words. She saw how Fang, the strongest master she ever saw in her life, struggled and even lost against those masters. And that meant if William came in, a worse fate would happen, something that she couldn''t even think about.

    This talk happened also at many ces around, where William''s friends and guild top members were trapped in various holes. No matter how they tried, it was impossible for any to leave these pits.

    Few tried to use wind elements and techniques to cross the distance to the top. But whenever they did that, they got immediately attacked by the mysterious masters guarding the area.

    "We need to be patient and wait," this was what everyone agreed on. They knew William was far away from here, training and waiting for their return.

    But the wait would be over at some point. If he grew impatient and noticed their absence and dy, he''d surelye here and check on things.

    So they all knew he was going to be here in the future, never thought he was already heading towards them.

    "He ising!" Just outside the pits, a group of middle-aged men and women turned their heads towards a certain direction, "you know what to do, bring him alive, harmed or not it doesn''t matter."

    "Yes ma''am," the group bowed slightly towards a very beautifuldy, then they moved fast and vanished.

    "Don''t take it on me," thedy turned her eyes slightly over towards a corner, where the body of a young girl was lying there. The girl looked as if she was in deep sleep, enjoying a happy dream, "she is even dreaming about you over and over again, tsk!"

    Thedy clenched both fists tightly before her face showed a very serious look. She moved her spirit sense, looked towards the iing youngster she was looking for. Exclusive content from m,v le

    William passed through the barrier, but he lost his spirit body. It took a toll of effort and spirit power to get past the barriers.

    He took out a spirit regeneration potion and drank it. Then he felt like he was a fish returning to the ocean. His spirit sense that was stopped before was fully released, working on full cylinders. He could see everything for tens of miles. And there he spotted something that forced him to stop.

    "This¡­" he saw pits, new things that weren''t present here before. Inside these, he found his friends and guild members. They looked fine, but the idea of them being there meant one thing.

    "They captured them, to try and threaten me or what?" he held his sword tighter while his rage was boiling inside his body. It didn''t need a genius to tell him what was going on. This foreign group of masters came and held his friends and guild members hostages. If they wanted, they could have killed them. But they didn''t. And that meant one thing.

    "They were waiting for me?" William moved his spirit sense around, and soon enough he spotted thatdy, and the unconscious friend of his on the ground.

    "I know you can hear me," even if he felt enraged at the moment, William controlled himself well enough to say these words as if he was squeezing them out of his mouth, "don''t hurt her, I''ming over for you."

    "Hmm, let''s see if you have the option in the first ce toe or not," thedy evilly smirked. Seeing this made William realise what was going on.

    In a sh he activated his spirit body. But the next moment, he felt a gust of winding at him.

    "Damn! This fast? Must be wind and lightning elements together!" he didn''t hesitate to retreat, back down and create a distance between him and the attackers.

    But the moment he moved, they followed. "This won''t work," one of them shouted, and William already realised this.

    "Then let me push my path forward with force!" William roared, and the next moment he activated his Hole Sword technique. He shed fast, as fast as the iing masters.

    "Something seems off!" William used to how he''d outpace his enemies in terms of speed. Yet for a reason, every time he targeted someone, that person moved one beat earlier, evading his iing attack.

    "Are they reading my mind or something?" William didn''t think too much about this. He could tell these masters were weirdly familiar with the way he fought with and were quite prepared to wee his technique.

    But overall, this didn''t matter. As he kept shing, the masters finally opened a path for him to pass through and he didn''t let such chance escape him.

    "We won''t let you leave!" one of them roared, and all he got was a loudugh from William.

 Chapter 1226: Sealing Spirit Formation

    "As if you can stop me!" William evillyughed, while his sense was cautiously following the masters around.

    The entire situation felt off. These masters came prepared, knew what to do to get in here, capture his friends and guild members, and awaited him.

    And they knew his technique and fighting style, something that only the close friends and regr guild members fighting alongside him would know.

    "You think you can outrun my guards? Let''s see¡­" while he was busy jumping and pushing forward, the voice of thatdy echoed in his mind.

    It was spirit telepathy, and that told him she was very confident about these masters'' ability to stop him.

    "Bring it on!" yet he never flinched, epted the challenge and weed it head on. As he expected the masters toe at him with something new, they all suddenly retreated.

    "This¡­" in front of him, the masters drew a distance of a few kilometres before they finally stopped. Each and every one of them stood in their ces motionless, closing their eyes, and holding a gpole in their hands.

    The gpoles held red triangr gs. There was a turtle drawn on them. And the moment they were taken out, a weird surge of power emanated from these masters.

    "A sealing spirit formation?!! Howe such advanced formations appear in this world?!!!" William instantly recognised the formation and knew what would happen next.

    "Impressive! To know our n''s secret weapon by a single look, very impressive. However¡­ There is no point in trying to get away now, hahaha," thedyughed shortly, shaking her head as if William''s fate was sealed.

    "This formation seals my movement indeed," William didn''t show the look that thedy imagined. Instead of feeling puzzled, or fear, he simply crossed his arms as if he ruled everything.

    "Are you trying to act tough? Hmph, let''s see how you''ll keep that silly smile on your face in the end," her voice echoed again in his head. And yet, he kept his calm.

    His eyes were moving right and left, while in his mind he kept tracking the movement of the masters around. "You heard thedy, we''ll get him alive, but with missing limb and few teeth," one of themughed, and then everyone moved.

    They walked in slow motion, step by step, as if they were acting slow. Yet William knew this was all thanks to the sealing formation he was in. If anything, it could even twist and pressure the spirit sense, making it miss the speed things were happening with.

    In fact, these masters were normally walking. So, William ignored what his eyes and spirit sense were sending to his brain and kept counting silently in his mind.

    "Ten¡­ Nine¡­ Two¡­ One¡­ Now!" The moment he finished the countdown, he started to act.

    "Toote!" one of the masters evilly smirked when he saw what William was trying to do. Yet what William took out made all of them puzzled.

    "Get them for me!" William waved, and his body seemed as if it was frozen in ce. And yet what he took out was his flying weapons.

    He got arge number of these weapons. So, when he''d take them out, they''d scatter around him for tens of metres distance. What he was counting actually was to determine the remaining distance these masters were away from him. And that to make his weapons appear outside the reign of the sealing formation.

    This formation wasn''t simple at all. It might look as if the gpoles were controlling it. And yet what was really controlling it was the masters themselves. The poles acted as points of rying spirit power between masters, to synchronise and unite the different spirit power emitted from them.

    The formation worked by suppressing everything under its cover, including spirit sense and even time. There was no way out of it. Even using techniques would take much longer time to execute and would take way longer to arrive to hit the target.

    By then the ones controlling the formation would shift their positions and evade any iing attack. Or even use a defensive array on top of the formation.

    The only weakness of this formation was that it reacted only to a moving target. Normally when someone got entrapped inside, he''d try his best to get out or attack. And yet that''d end up with him falling deeper into the enemy''s trap.

    Unlike that, William stood motionless in his ce, and waited for his moment to act.

    William had one way to get out of this situation, which was by using his thousands of flying weapons. He lost many already, but he got enough to stumble and attack a few of those masters.

    "Damn!"

    "Don''t lose your positions!"

    "Stay focused!"

    "Rotate!"

    Many shouts came, but it was toote to stop William''s weapons. It wasn''t enough to kill or severely harm any of these masters, but William only needed to distract them.

    And the moment he felt they got distracted, William dashed forward. If it was before, they''d have controlled the formation and slowed down his movement. But now they were blocking the weapons and couldn''t stop him in time.

    One dash was all he needed, and then he activated his Holy Sword technique. It was over the moment the technique linked.

    "Got out, hahaha," William didn''t stop for a single moment further the moment he went out of the formation area. He kept dashing forward, while the masters around pushed forward, trying to catch him.

    This time he didn''t hold back or y with them. He didn''t just run but kept dashing forward one jump after another. They were fast, but he still kept his distance thanks to his initial push ahead of all of them.

    He already recalled his flying weapons, as they lost their value for now. He wasn''t that far off from that mysteriousdy, and so he managed to get to her in less than five minutes.

 Chapter 1227: One Desire Palace

    "Give Sara back!" William roared the moment he approached thedy. The body lying unconscious on the ground was no one else but Sara. She looked fine, but she was apparently held hostage.

    "Hmph, let''s see if you have the ability to get her back," thedy waved her arm, and in the next moment, tons of flying weapons appeared.

    "This¡­" Seeing all these weapons startled William, but he already charged his tails and was ready to unleash. No matter what stood in front of him, he decided to keep dashing forward andunch thest hit over thatdy.

    "You won''t make it!" seeing him dash forward like that made the mouth of thatdy tilt up. And yet she didn''t show any mercy even if she admired his courage. The next moment, all the weapons changed trajectory, moved in lines and started to rain down over his head.

    "F*ck that!" William didn''t anticipate such mastery in controlling the weapons in such a way. This wasn''t something a master in this world would do, it was a skill taught in the outer world.

    "Impressive response, you seem to know a lot about this little trick, little boy," thedy chuckled when she saw William retreating.

    "Who are you?" William knew he lost his chance. He already released his stacked attacks, and little they did to the torrent of flying weapons, "howe you use the Dragonfly formation of the flying weapons?" his eyes narrowed as he seriously looked at thatdy.

    This wasn''t a simple trick at all. It wasn''t just about controlling the flying weapons in such an amazing way. But when he attacked the weapons, he could feel therge amount of power backing them up, something that wasn''t normally present in controlling the flying weapon.

    He instantly recognised such a way in using the flying weapons. His flying weapons for example were just getting controlled by his spirit power, butchers were different. It was like she was holding them one by one, infusing her spirit power fully into every single weapon.

    That was different. And that made it nearly impossible to ovee those flying weapons.

    "Told you, it''s futile, hahaha," as he got stopped here, he got surrounded instantly by the masters he ran from before. They surrounded William, ring in anger towards him as they were going to get scolded by theirdy.

    "We''ll get to teach you a lesson¡­"

    "Shut up!" but thedy shouted and silenced her masters. On her face, there was aplicated look, "howe you know about my flying weapons formation? Who are you?"

    "It seems you belong to that pce after all," William was acting so serious right now. He didn''t ce any of the other masters around in his eyes, he only looked and focused on thatdy.

    "What pce?" Thedy seemed to not take him seriously, but her eyes were frozen on him as if she was dealing with a very deadly enemy.

    "The world can''t stop us, the world is ours, the meny down under our feet, and we control the world on our heels¡­ Do you want me to continue?" William''s face showed a little smile, one that wouldn''t tell if he was intending it or not.

    "You¡­"

    "So you are from that pce, that means¡­" William shifted his eyes towards Sara, "it can''t be, right?"

    "I only wanted to meet you because she kept speaking about you," thedy turned her eyes towards Sara before returning over to William, "she said you knew what dormant spirit element means, so I wanted to meet you. Who knows¡­"

    She didn''t continue, and for a moment there the masters around didn''t get what was going on between theirdy and that youngster. It felt like a hidden debate was going on between these two, done in silence, done through their eyes.

    "I won''t let her be wasted in here," as if the two were in the middle of conversation or something, thedy waved her hand and with her words, the flying weapons bustled and seemingly got ready to move out.

    "I won''t let her leave," William was acting as if he knew what thedy was talking about, "not to that ce, not to your pce."

    "You don''t only know about it, you seem to hate it, hahaha," she chuckled, seemingly amused by what she just heard, "but my daughter won''t be at any other ce but this one."

    "She has to choose¡­"

    "She won''t get any help to solve her spirit problem," thedy seemed a bit troubled by William''s words, "you only got her on the right path, that''s impressive indeed for someoneing from a tiny world like here. But for real, she can''t get beyond this stage¡­"

    "A spirit element bound by shackles, delete the restraints, and the spirit element will soar¡­"

    "How do you know the sacred incantation¡­"

    "Hahaha, I know who you are, I know where you came from, so it''s normal for me to know the sacred incantation of your pce, right?" William crossed his arms, seemingly amused by the situation he found himself in.

    "You don''t know who I am!" Thedy''s tone started to pick up volume, as she began to be annoyed by William.

    "That''s true, I don''t know, was bluffing, hehehe," William rubbed his nose, before adding, "but that doesn''t mean I don''t know too much about your pce."

    "This is yourst warning, leave Sara behind, and I won''t kill you¡­" Thedy was in the middle of her threatening words, but surprisingly William totally ignored her.

    It wasn''t just him acting this way, he even moved towards Sara''s direction, as if thedy wasn''t here at all.

    "I said I will kill you!"

    "If you would, you would have harmed my friends down there first," William acted calmly, and this time he wasn''t faking it. He knew where thisdy belonged, knew what rules restricted her.

    "I can''t tell you know¡­ Annoying."

 Chapter 1228: Saras Mother

    She finally realised what William had in mind, and her face looked ugly when she had to move away her flying weapons.

    "The Pce of One Desire has its reputation after all, hahaha," Williamughed from the bottom of his heart this time, "you can''t harm anyone unless he harmed you first. And to those who you owe them a favour, they have to ept anything you need to take from them, which means¡­"

    William stood just in front of thedy, looking at her smooth and young-looking skin, "you are indeed a piece of beauty, must be someone who matters out there. But here¡­" William''s mouth tilted, showing an evil smile, "you owe me a big favour dear, so you can''t take her away without my agreement, right?"

    "..." thedy''s body trembled faintly. What William said was entirely true, and she was unable to get her daughter back with her.

    "This is for the best of her, you can''t take her out of here¡­"

    "Howe I know all this about your pce without me getting out of here?" William rolled his eyes, stood by Sara''s body, before adding, "I will forgive you this time, as you are her mother. But mark my words, I won''t tolerate a second time, got it?"

    "Next time I''lle prepared!" thedy said in a muffled tone, as if she was squeezing the words out of her mouth.

    "Next time we''ll meet in the outer world," William motioned towards the empty air, "next time you won''t have the chance to get any of my friends."

    "We''ll see about that, but¡­"

    "Sara stays with me¡­ That''s final," William turned to face Sara''s mother. In fact he was still unable to believe any of this. Sara came from the outer world, and belonged to the infamous One Desire Pce? They were assassins, ones who were very well trained from a young age.

    They were very proficient in using the darkness element, using their appeal as sexydies to lure any target, be it male or female, and kill them.

    William didn''t get how such a beautiful flower of his had such a terrible background. More importantly, why did her mothere here and mate with Sara''s father? This was indeed weird, very weird.

    But he got to worry about thatter. He now had to see those uninvited guests away.

    "Do you expect me to just leave? You must be a greenhorn if you thought that, hahaha," she broke intoughter, before waving her arm, "we''ll camp here, watching how you deal with my daughter. Believe me, your favour will end when something bad happens to her." Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr

    "Sounds as if you n to do something to her," William met her challenging words by another, "if you dared to do something, I won''t let you live."

    "Speak about something you can aplish," Sara''s mother acted tough, but from the inside she was storming with tons of doubts and questions.

    She heard about William when she met her daughter. Sara instantly recognised her, as she never aged a single year at all.

    The mother came to get her daughter to the outer world. The condition was for Sara to reach the dark gold realm, then she''d go with her mother to the outer world. But the mother was surprised when she heard about William.

    It wasn''t just about how he helped her, but the affection in Sara''s tone worried her mother a lot. To make sure none of their offspring would go astray and fall in love with any man, the One Desire Pcedies would make sure to leave behind a trauma in their daughters'' spirits.

    Sara''s mother left without any warning, which left behind a deep scar with a puzzling quiz about dormant spirit elements. Her mother was sure no one woulde up to solve this, and that would keep Sara on the right track all the time.

    Who knew a capable man woulde into her daughter''s life? He didn''t only know what dormant spirit element was, but also knew how to nourish and support its growth. In fact, she was surprised to see the darkness element shimmered with power inside her daughter''s spirit.

    Only someone from the outer world could do that, she was certain of this. And that made her want to meet William more. Who knew when she met him, she''d end up having more questions than answers. She wasn''t just sure thisd came from the outer world like her, but he also knew tons of secrets and stuff he shouldn''t.

    Her pce reputation was horrible and horrifying at the same time. Only those in high power circles would get to hear about them. They were an elite assassin ss, a circle that no one could hear about except when reaching a certain limit of power.

    And the youngster in front of her wasn''t even close to such a circle. On top of that, she was now sure that her daughter wouldn''t leave William''s side easily, nor would he let her go on his own will.

    She wasn''t in front of just one dilemma, but two actually. She had to let William release her daughter on his own will, and also try to find a way to wipe the love inside her daughter''s spirit towards William.

    If it was only that debt, she''d have gone overboard and stole Sara away. But that strong seed of love must be killed before anything. Or else taking her daughter away would be pointless.

    Sara needed to be pure hearted, without a man in her life, or else training her to be an assassin out there would fail. Her mother was still unable to believe how this happened, but she needed to extend her stay here, and do something to foil all this.

    This wasn''t her n, but she had to improvise and handle this unexpected hup.

    "C''mon, we are going to camp here," Sara''s mother shouted, and the next moment everyone followed her around. William stood in his ce, while following them using his spirit sense.

 Chapter 1229: Lets Return

    "This doesn''t bode well," William''s spirit sense got cut off when masters made a big array to seal the area Sara''s mother selected, "for the monsters here of course, hahaha."

    He knew his spirit sense couldn''t prate through that array, but that didn''t mean Sara''s mother wasn''t able to watch him.

    "At least the monsters here would find someone to y with," William knew this ce was going to be far more dangerous with the invaders'' presence.

    Sara''s mother was right, he had nothing in his power to stop them if they intended to do anything. He also didn''t find it weird for her to stay here and not go back. She once came and lived in this world for years, and she was capable of doing the same.

    "One more headache," William looked at the direction where Sara''s mother went before going towards the pits and shouted, e out, everything is safe¡­ For now."

    His friends seemed to not be aware of what was happening up there. This was expected as there was some sort of sealing barrier to prevent them from sensing anything the moment William appeared.

    But hearing his voice made everyone pumped and excited, also a bit worried.

    "It seems I''m a bitte," as William waited for his friends toe out, he spotted Slothing from far away. The old master found his way atst when the barriers stopping him vanished.

    "You are alwayste to the party, cough, cough!" and from the direction of the pits, Fang appeared. He was in a very terrible condition, coughing blood and having a gruesome looking wound on his chest.

    "Are you ok?" William felt rmed when he saw Fang''s condition. He knew the masters with Sara''s mother were tough and strong, but he never imagined they''d harm Fang to this extent.

    "I''ll survive," Fang coughed again, "where are those mfers? I want to have another round with them!"

    "Hahaha, you are indeed funny, hahaha," Sloth didn''t drop such a chance and pointed in mockery towards Fang.

    "Hey hey, we are still in the middle of danger," William stepped in to stop the old two rivals, "the monsters wille any minute now. And those enemies¡­ They didn''t leave."

    "Didn''t leave?!" This wasn''t just the answering from Sloth and Fang, but also from many of his friends who just climbed their way up.

    "They are going to stay here," William shifted his eyes away, towards the direction of the stairs at the far distance, "from now on, the underground city is going to be a sealed ce, forbidden for anyone to step in. Or else we won''t be responsible for their fate."

    "I''ll make sure these orders reach everyone," Lara came out, and like everyone of William''s friends, she was excited and yet embarrassed.

    This was by far a humiliating defeat, not only for William''s guild, but for Lara''s city.

    "Don''t think too much about what happened here," William could read what went through her head, "the enemy this time is someone you can''t defeat."

    "But¡­"

    "Leave them enjoy their stay here," William turned around, towards the many monstersing towards them from all directions, "this ce isn''t friendly to masters anymore."

    "I''m d you are ok," Sloth ignored all this and went to Anjie when she came out. But Anjie ignored him, as her eyes were fixated at the direction where William motioned towards before.

    It went without saying this was where the enemies disappeared. "Old Sloth, you need to return as soon as possible to my father and tell him this¡­" She started to tell the old mentor what she wanted to convey to her father.

    "Won''t youe?" Sloth was surprised, "you know¡­"

    "Tell father I''lle over in a few months, but first¡­" Anjie was someone who knew the roof of strength in this world. But meeting the outsider masters made her feel threatened.

    She fought against them with everyone else, with Fang. Even William failed to stop them. And Sloth seemed to not even take part in this battle at all. This all was something that drove the sense of danger and urge inside her spirit.

    She wanted to get stronger fast, and being here beside William was the best thing to do. Even if her father wanted her for something important, being here was now far more important.

    In addition to that, she felt dangering. As everyone was chatting amidst themselves about what happened and waiting for others toe out, William went and carried the unconscious Sara.

    "Let''s go," he moved his eyes around his friends, making sure everyone was fine, "it''s time to go back. But the monsters will be tough and relentless, don''t lower your guards."

    "Leave this task to this old man," but before William would continue his words, Sloth stepped up, "I didn''t get to do much here anyway. Let me help you move out."

    William just nodded, but he also turned his eyes towards his friends and they got what he wanted them to do. He wasn''t the type to depend on others, and so was his guild, team, and friends.

    Luckily Sara''s mother and her masters weren''t harsh against most of William''s masters. Only few suffered wounds, those who tried harder than the rest, those who were stronger than the rest.

    The worst of course was Fang, and that old man refused any offer to help from others. What was weird though was that he used lots of healing potions without any effect on his wounds and injuries.

    "Why don''t they heal, dammit!" he cursed out loud after emptying the tenth potion bottle in his mouth.

    "This is a special type of darkness element, one that can linger in your spirit and flesh, can''t get removed easily," William knew such knowledge was impossible to know on his own. After all this was something secretive about the One Desire Pce''s unique way of assassination.

    They didn''t need to kill the target directly, just using their special and evolved element as if they were using poison.

 Chapter 1230: Bring Me Jenny!

    It was like poisons, without using the proper spirit element and techniques to counter it, the target would eventually die.

    "You speak as if you are aware of what hit me," Fang coughed blood, and this time he couldn''t walk on his own. Two of William''s guild masters moved fast and supported him to not fall.

    "I''m fine," but Fang didn''t thank them, instead he pushed them aside as if he was enraged by the help they offered.

    "You need to know the more power you exert, the faster you''ll lose your life," William rolled his eyes at this stubborn old master, "help him, and don''t let him fight any monster¡­"

    "I''m not that old to get support from kids!" Fang''s pride kicked in and made him shout, interrupting William''s words.

    "I just told you to not get enraged or driven by your emotions, and here you are¡­ Tsk," William shook his head before adding, "this poison works on your spirit power, eroding it away and with it your spirit will perish as well. So don''t use your spirit power, you already made things worse by continuing the fight in such a state."

    "As if they would have let everyone live without me stepping in," Fang rolled his eyes while he was supported by two masters to walk, "so¡­ About this poison¡­"

    "We''ll talk about that when we get back to our town," William evilly smirked, and that made Fang feel like he was going to suffer big on this youngsters'' hands.

    On

    William knew Fang wasn''t here just fighting monsters and finding out what went wrong with them. He was collecting materials, and that was something William sat his eyes on.

    It wasn''t hisck of materials; he knew Lara and her city''s leaders were stacking these materials in huge amounts for a long time now. But he didn''t like Fang to have more of these materials. Who knew what might go into this old man''s head and perhaps would dream of repeating the same formation with other elements or masters.

    These materials were top secret of the city of Lara. The more news spreading, the more masters would flock here, the harder it would get to stop them from discovering the underground portal.

    William was now sure that being here wasn''t impossible. The monsters didn''t gain any boost in their strength enough to worry any force. However, remaining here for a long time would be an issue.

    Even with Sara''s mother''s presence here, it was impossible to keep the portal presence secret if this ce attracted fame.

    "Monsters are too stubborn!"

    "Keep fighting and killing them!"

    As they progressed towards the exit, they faced more monsters. The monsters had been killed inrge numbers by Sara''s mother and her masters. So, arge chunk of monsters was closer to the exit.

    Yet that didn''t pose a threat. Even if there were too many monsters, William had close to two thousand masters on his side. Not to mention they got well rested already.

    "We are out," it took roughly three hours to get past the floods of monsters and get out. Everyone was exhausted, but they all turned to William who shrugged and said:

    "What? We''ll make it back and rest in our town."

    "I''ll stay behind," Lara said, "I need to do a little stuff here before joining with you."

    As everyone followed William back to the town, there was a meeting somewhere else.

    "Mydy, are you sure it''s ok to let our little miss go away like this?" one of Sara''s mother''s masters asked, while everyone else waited to hear the response.

    "Thisd¡­ He isn''t that simple," Sara''s mother paused, "I initially thought he was some lucky bastard who identally said something to trick my daughter. But seeing this¡­ He knows about us, knows where we came from, knows us as if he came from our world¡­"

    "But mydy, it''s impossible," another master said, while looking at others for support, "toe here, one has to obtain a portal back home. Only ones belonging to big powers can do this. And this youngster¡­ He is weak¡­"

    "He can''t be from our world, impossible!"

    "Shut up!" Sara''s mother shouted, to silence everyone. She knew going by logic, it was impossible for William toe from her world. But nothing else exined how William knew about her and the pce.

    "Even in our world, only those wielding a certain level of power and authority know about our existence¡­ Something is missing here¡­"

    She kept lingering about this point for an hour, then she raised her head, looked at the masters around, "Max, you''ll disguise yourself as someone from this world. Find your way to the town outside, and gather all the intel you can get about that youngster."

    "Sure mydy," Max said, "do you want me to try and get closer to him?"

    "No, this was never a man''s job," Sara''s mother rolled her eyes, "Lingar, go back and bring Jenny back."

    "Jenny?! Are you sure?!!" the moment everyone heard that name and their faces changed colour.

    "What? She is fierce and untamed, but still one of us," Sara''s mother paused, "besides she is the most beautiful girl we have around thatd''s age. She''ll do fine, just go and bring her."

    "..."

    Masters around didn''t have anything else to say. As the two moved out to do their task, Sara ordered everyone else to keep guarding and clearing this spot from monsters around.

    As she got a moment for herself, she took a seat out of one of her rings. It looked more like a throne than a seat with all these golden decorations, depicting phoenixes. She was in her forties, but she looked as stunning as someone in her twenties.

    She recalled everything that happened, recalled her conversation with Sara, her talk with William. She even recalled everything William did since he stepped into here.

    "This kid¡­ He is bad news¡­" she couldn''t stop herself from feeling like that. She saw so much in the world, and she knew she couldn''t judge a book by its cover.

 Chapter 1231: Returning To The Town

    William might seem weak right now, but he was giving her a very dangerous vibe. Everything around him looked very suspicious, and something kept telling her that he couldn''t be left out to live, or else he would bring disasters upon herter on.

    "If no for my real power is sealed here, tsk!" she clenched her fists, and yet she didn''t feel the same awesome strength flowing in her veins. As someone strong in the outside world, the decline of power by being in this low world was quite severe on her.

    That was also one of the reasons she decided to pick Jenny for. Thetter wasn''t strong, so the impact of power decline on her would be much lighter.

    "I just hope she won''t end up creating problems rather than solving them," she sighed, while her mind recalled everything she knew about Jenny. And simply put, Jenny was a real troublemaker without doubt.

    Away from the underground city, William led everyone back to the guild town. The march was almost void of any excitement or talk. Everyone felt terribly bad from what they passed through.

    Their guild master asked them to go down there and investigate the monsters. Instead of helping, they got into an enemy trap, getting captured, and had to get rescued by their guild master.

    Even when William said it out loud that this wasn''t their fault, no one felt better. Seeing him walking while carrying the unconscious Sara made them all me themselves for that.

    William could feel how low the atmosphere was, but he didn''t say more than what he said earlier. He knew this wasn''t their mistake, but it wasn''t that bad to let them feel the pressure.

    Masters weren''t living a nice and cosy life at all. And having setbacks and self-mes like this time around was something good in the long run for all of them.

    So, he kept his mouth shut, walked towards the town, while the only person who didn''t keep his silence was trying his best to annoy him.

    "Come on! Tell me something!" Fang screamed the same way he kept doing in the past few hours of their march, "do you have a way to heal me? I''m starting to have doubts, you can''t do it, you are just bluffing¡­"

    "Shut up old geezer! If I''m not able to help you, then you should write your will as you are going to die!" William rolled his eyes, while his jaw muscles twitched. Fang did all his best to pester William, asking about how William intended to heal him.

    It wasn''t just out of Fang''s annoying nature; the man was feeling terribly worse the more time passed. Right now, he was barely able to stand on his own, and walking was like a real challenge to him.

    At first, he took the gesture of William to let other masters support him as a joke. He was feeling way better than now and could walk on his own if he wanted to.

    But now he couldn''t. If not for the two young masters supporting him, he''d have fallen to the ground, unable to even stand up straight a long time ago.

    William could tell how worse Fang was from a single look. But speaking all the time and asking for how he''d cure the old man wasn''t that good.

    After all, William knew how hard it was to heal Fang. Thetter got poisoned by someone from the outer world, a very dangerous assassin on top of that! Find adventures on m,v lem|p,yr

    The main problem was the type of power Sara''s mother used, a Yin spirit element that wasn''t found in this world so far.

    William tested lots of masters, and his friends did the same, but such a Yin master wasn''t found. To counter this poison, William had very limited options, and the best one was something he had no control over.

    To heal a Yin poison, he needed to find a Yang master. As Yin, he never met a Yang master anywhere so far, and he even doubted he would!

    "The only option for him is to dy the poison in his body using Yang based herbs and potions¡­" William muttered to himself while considering this dilemma.

    Fang aside from being overly annoying proved his value and worth to the guild and William''s ns. The old man was so strong to help them pass through lots of hard times, and he''d y a great roleter on in achieving what William wanted.

    "Yin is cold, Yang is fire," William kept contemting on this issue on the way to town, "there aren''t Yin or Yang herbs, but there are tons of ice and fire-based herbs. The main issue will be if these herbs can counter an element from the higher world or not¡­"

    He knew he wouldn''t know until trying. Even if this method failed, he''d try to find good herbs from the stuff found in the underground city. This might be challenging as herbs never survived for long enough. Herbs needed high quality spirit power to survive, and even storing them never worked.

    So he had to seek Lara''s help in that regard. As for going back into the underground city and looking for herbs, this would be hisst resort.

    Thatdy wouldn''t let him find any Yang herbs. And even if she let him look freely, it was a game of luck to find the right herbs, even finding any herb at all.

    "You go in there, and I will be back," once they reached the town, William led his core team and friends over to the big central mansion. There he pointed towards a big hall for Fang to stay at while moving to a different direction carrying Sara.

    "You are going to treat the chick first and leave me behind?!!" Fang''s voice acted as if he got betrayed or something, but William ignored his meanment though and kept walking.

    "Is she going to be alright?" Only Fang was left behind with the boys, while Berry led the girls over and followed William.

 Chapter 1232: Yin And Yang Problem

    "She wasn''t poisoned like that old man," William slowly said, while putting Sara''s weak body over a bed in the room he just entered, "besides, she was her mother. I hardly believe she''ll do something bad to her own child."

    "She is cruel, look at what she did to us!" Ro blurted out, but William simply smiled while caressing Sara''s face.

    "At least she let you live," he paused, "anyone else would have killed you instead, right?"

    "..."

    "Stay with her," he moved outside the room, "when she wakes up, make sure she won''t leave."

    William knew this was by far an easy meeting for Sara. He wasn''t there when that happened, and he asked but no one had any recollection of what happened between Sara and her mother.

    But something told William this wasn''t an easy meeting. Going by Sara he knew she wasn''t the type to take things lightly, and she might have said lots of things to her mother to let thetter knock her off consciousness.

    If she was tied by ropes or a technique, then this wouldn''t look as bizarre as finding her losing consciousness.

    "Seeing a mother who she didn''t see for agese back must have been a great and shocking moment for her, and arguing with her about me must have been hard¡­ Tsk!"

    William couldn''t tell how bad Sara''s mental status would be after waking up, but he could expect the worst. He knew Sara wouldn''t leave, or she''d have left a long time ago with her mother.

    "It''s weird that she didn''t try to take her back there by force, Sara was asleep, what prevented her from doing that?"

    William was feeling puzzled about this. Even if Sara didn''t like going to the outer world with her mother, it made zero sense to wait for William toe and argue with him.

    Something told William that there was some sort of limitation over Sara''s mother, or something else he didn''t know. It was as if Sara muste willingly to the outer world, or else nothing would workter on.

    "Oh, you came back fast," as William appeared from the corridor he left through a few minutes ago, Fang looked at him in a weak way, while speaking in a tone full of mockery.

    It wasn''t that he didn''t want to chase after him, but he couldn''t. He was way too fragile right now to even stand. So with the help of boys, heid on the couch, waiting helplessly for William toe back.

    "If you don''t manage that temper and tone of yours, I may leave you to handle this on your own," William threatened this, while rolling his eyes. And yet what Fang said distracted his thoughts away from Sara''s mother''s weird actions.

    "I won''t," Fang had no power to jump on fright, but his pale face told William how scared he was, "please tell me you know how to deal with this."

    "This is¡­ A very tricky poison to deal with," William took in a deep breath, before telling bits of pieces of what he knew to Fang.

    The terms of Yin and Yang were very new to everyone in the hall, including Fang. The more thetter listened, the more he felt desperate.

    "Are you telling me there is no way for me to heal?!!" Fang said it as if he epted his demise. But William''s bright smile made him feel little hope inside.

    "Not in my presence of course," William paused before adding with a mischievous smile, "worst case scenario we won''t be able to fully heal you until we go to the outer world."

    "Do you expect me to survive till then? I won''t survive the night!!" Fang''s calmness and relief vanished the moment he heard what William just said.

    "I''ll do something to dy its effects," William rolled his eyes again, "so stay put, and let me work."

    Fang watched William take out his alchemy pot, tons of herbs that filled almost half of the hall, before he started working.

    William knew he wouldn''t be able to make a cure using these herbs. But first he needed to know which worked and which wouldn''t. So he picked one random Yang potion recipe, and started testing the herbs he took out.

    The herbs he brought out of his storage rings were all famous for their fire element. He wanted to see if fire was a lower element for Yang in this world or not. And unfortunately these herbs didn''t work at all!

    "Damn! The entire fire based herbs I took out didn''t do it¡­" William''s face was now stained ck from all the failures he suffered so far. With every failure, a small bang would happen, followed by a pillow of ck smoke that painted his face.

    Fang watched all this from the side, while feeling panicked and yet didn''t say a single word. He knew William was trying his best, and he wasn''t cking. So anything he''d say wouldn''t help at all.

    Instead he was far curious to know how this Yang rted to the fire element. "Why are you only using fire based herbs?" After hours of watching William fail, Fang couldn''t help but open his mouth. William just took another batch of fire based herbs to use in his tests.

    "Yang is special by hotness," William exined, "and Yin is cold. So¡­"

    "You are trying to imitate that element''s effect using fire? No, that won''t work," out of the blue, and if he knew what he was talking about, Fang shook his head as he added in some sort of overconfident tone, "fire is basic element, you are speaking about a mutant element then, so you need mutant element as well from fire."

    "What do you know?" William felt irritated from what Fang said. In fact he also thought about this point before, but hecked any mutant herbs, so he had to use fire for now.

    "Here, this ring has manyva based herbs."

 Chapter 1233: Lava Based Herbs

    Fang tossed a ring over, "it has a special zone inside filled with air, so herbs won''t die. Tsk! I collected these from the heart of a volcano and wanted to sell themter on at a high price, tsk!"

    "Thanks," William didn''t reject the gift, threw away all the herbs he got out, and reced them with fewer herbs. Yet these ones were like burningva, all deep red in colour. And just by taking them out, the entire atmosphere felt like it was an oven!

    This didn''t happen when half of the hall was filled with fire based herbs. William looked at theseva based herbs and smiled. "This gives me a good feeling," he muttered before starting to use these herbs to make a potion.

    "Why so?" Fang who acted confident moments ago looked doubtful, and more curious than ever. Find this and more on m-v lem|p-yr

    "They give me the same feeling of Yang herbs," William felt the same simrity when he took theseva based herbs out.

    That kind of warmth and heat was what made Yang herbs stand apart from other fire based herbs. And yet, this was way less than how hot the real Yang herbs would emit.

    "I knew it, hahaha," Fangughed before he started to cough, making William shake his head.

    "Just rest, old man, or else my potion won''t be useful anymore."

    "Cough! Cough!" Fang wanted to reprimand William, but his condition was indeed getting worse. So he returned to being silent, trying to reserve his power as much as he could.

    As for William, he turned his full focus on making the potion. Even if theva based herbs got a sniff from the Yang element, they were still pretty low in level and much weaker in effect.

    Yet they were way better than the fire based herbs he kept trying to make the potion with. As theva based herbs were useful in some sort, William shifted his focus towards making this potion seed.

    It wasn''t an easy job at all. This time he needed to tweak and try the herbs in different forms. The amount Fang had in that ring was indeed plenty for someone in this tiny world, but it wasn''t enough for William to try freely.

    So, he started to use the herbs in scanty amounts first, testing and experimenting. The potion wasn''t that hard to make, but he didn''t know if it was going to be helpful to Fang or not.

    The potion he selected to make was how the spirit power regeneration potion worked. Yet it was used to slowly nourish the Yang spirit element in one''s body.

    It was a concept not known in this world, and yet its main effect was to arouse and augment any trace of Yang element and strengthen it. It was the first time for William to try something like that, and he hoped Fang would get some benefits from it and heal.

    The main factor here was if Fang''s body had any sort of Yang power. He once heard his master speaking about a theory, which considered any master''s spirit to have all sorts of spirit elements in different status.

    "If not, I hope this potion can slightly counter the effect of the Yin poison in your body," after an hour or so, William finally managed to make the first potion.

    To do it, he needed to alter the initial recipe, adding even a few high grade fire herbs from his storage. This time the fire based herbs he used didn''t end up exploding, instead they merged nicely withva based herbs.

    "Here, drink this and let me know what you feel¡­"

    "Give me this¡­" before he''d evenplete his words, Fang grabbed the bottle as if his life depended on it, and literally it was.

    William simply smiled while watching the old man empty the bottle content in his mouth. "Damn! It''s burning like hell!!"

    "Tried to warn you, hehehe," William rubbed his nose before adding, "now you need to help the potion, get down here and start training."

    "Why are you acting as if you are my master?" Fang rolled his eyes, but he didn''t notice that slight tinge of vitality ran through his body, ending up for him regaining part of his annoying temper.

    "Perfect," William stood on the side, watching while Fang started to train. The moment the old man started, his body started to shine with a faint orange colour.

    This was the colour of the Yang spirit element, diluted and weak, but it was still there. Seeing this made William heave a sigh of relief. "It now works, the issue is will it be enough to cleanse his body of the Yin power or not?"

    As the potions showed evidence of generating Yang power, it was now up to how much of it was needed to counter the Yin in Fang''s body. And as William suspected, this potion didn''t help for more than ten minutes, then all the orange halo vanished at once.

    "This¡­"

    "Is pretty expected, and good as well," William saw how Fang looked depressed and disappointed, but he didn''t feel so. He knew they cut a long mile in treating the old man, and all they needed now was to keep trying.

    One potion after another, one orange halo after another, until William exhausted all theva based herbs he got from Fang. he didn''t stop there, as he fetched his friends to ask Lara in the city to get him anyva based herbs.

    Of course getting such precious herbs wasn''t easy, and the amount they gathered came with a high price and ended up with more rounds of healing.

    "I''m feeling better, a lot better," it took around two days to exhaust all theva based herbs they got.

    "Are you sure?" William felt this wasn''t over yet. Even if he made lots of potions, he knew this wasn''t even close to enough to heal the old man. And all he was feeling right now was simply a weakening of the Yin power.

 Chapter 1234: Something Seems Off

    "Do you want me to fight you? Come on, bring it on, I won''t say no to give you a hell of a beating¡­"

    "Alright alright, you seem ok to me," William decided to y along, "you just need to rest and everything will be fine¡­"

    "Rest? I''ll go and find that ho¡­"

    "No!" William swiftly rejected what Fang had in mind, "this time we managed to bring you back from the doorsteps of death. What will happen next time? Get your dead body back?"

    "..."

    Fang knew what William said was true, and yet he still felt insulted from hearing this out loud. He truly didn''t have any intention at doing it the way he said it, just trying to look cool. And now everything was destroyed.

    "Make sure he''ll get well rested," William said to his friends, and they nodded.

    He went and checked on Sara. weirdly during this time she didn''t wake up, something that made him check her body. And yet he never found anything rming.

    "She can''t hurt her daughter, right?" William left the room while telling himself that. He still didn''t know why she didn''t wake up, and something started to feel uneasy about this.

    "Do you think she will be fine?" Berry followed him, while Anjie also tagged along.

    "She won''t get hurt by her mother, right?" Anjie said what William was thinking about. And yet hearing the same opinion from Anjie made him feel a bit worried.

    "Something isn''t right," William paused, looking at the two girls, "make sure to keep an eye on her. I''m going to take a day off and sleep, that old man exhausted most of my mental power."

    "Is he alright?" Berry asked, and William briefed what happened to the two before he finished his words by saying:

    "Make sure to not get to the underground city, or let any of our members go there. Thatdy¡­ I smell danger from her."

    "She did enough already," Berry sighed, but Anjie grabbed the worry in William''s words.

    "Do you think she''ll try something?" Anjie asked, and William nodded.

    "She won''t stay there and do nothing."

    "If she can do anything else, she would have, right?" Berry asked, but the two didn''t respond, and that made her realise how dangerous the situation was.

    "We should strengthen our guard then around the town," Berry said, but William faintly smiled.

    "Do whatever you feel right," he said before turning around, "I''ll go and enjoy a day long rest."

    "Why did he smile like that?" After William vanished, Berry turned to Anjie, and thetter rolled her eyes.

    "Do you think we, any of us, can be a match to any of them?" Anjie shook her head before adding, "but it''s a good point to strengthen our guard. We also need to train."

    "I agree with that," the two of them moved outside the mansion, and started their arrangements to make this ce like a real fortress.

    William went back to the room he found himself in when he woke up. Heid there on the bed, closing his eyes, thinking about the weird things that happened.

    "Am I cursed?" heughed on his thoughts before thinking seriously about that. "Thatdy came without me in her ns, that means she retreated to think of a way to change Sara''s mind and get rid of me¡­ Quite sneaky b*tch she is¡­"

    William thought about speaking with Sara''s grandfather, but this wasn''t going to help. That old man only knew the woman his son married, not the professional assassin Sara''s mother was.

    On top of that, William knew how cruel and ruthless thedies from the Pce of One Desire were. They were infamous for being relentless, and never hit unless they were sure of a kill. That made their failure rate close to almost zero, and that built their infamy across arge area of the outer world.

    "I need to be prepared, she won''t stop," William''s eyes kept closed, but his mind was working like a machine. He recalled everything he learnt about this pce, how they worked, what was known about their habits, even to the rumours that were considered insane to anyone, even to him.

    He wouldn''t miss the tiniest detail about them. And yet everything made him wonder if he could handle them on his own, or it''d be impossible to do.

    That pce was known to get rid of the basic obstacles first, creating the perfect conditions to reach their goals. And now he was the main obstacle in front of Sara''s mother. And it seemed killing him on her hands wasn''t an option.

    "Will she send someone from her entourage?" William considered this option, before feeling like this wasn''t how things would turn out to be, "if she could do that, she''d have ordered them to kill me. No, she will lean towards something else¡­"

    William was getting on the right track, and yet he was only specting. So his thoughts drifted between other options, and ended up without having a guess to bet on.

    All he knew he was going to wait, wait for thedy to make her move. And he hated this. After a long day of thinking, and little rest, he went down to check on Sara.

    "She hasn''t woken up yet?!" William was now sure what Sara had wasn''t just simple sleep, "don''t tell me she used a sleeping technique on her daughter¡­"

    Three days passed since meeting Sara''s mother, and yet William could tell this wouldn''t be over this easily. Sara''s unconscious state wasn''t normal, and hecked any way to detect or undo what her mother did.

    As he was puzzled and without a clue, he kept trying to test various things with Sara. He also strengthened her room and the entire mansion with arrays and formations of different kinds, even using outer world materials to form many protective formations.

    And yet what Sara''s mother prepared wasn''t any of what William thought of!

 Chapter 1235: Ah... Ah... Aah...

    "You sent for me? What a joke! This ain''t you, ma''am!" away from William''s town, and deep within the underground city, a youngdy appeared from the portal. She was twenty years old, having an explosive body and emitting a very special aura.

    She was Jenny, the young assassin whom Sara''s mother called for. She was infamous for her troublesome personality and questionable actions.

    "I thought taking you out from that hell pit would make you worship me," Sara''s mother smirked, while sizing up and down that youngdy she summoned.

    Jenny was perfect to deal with William. As Sara''s mother expected, the negative impact of being here wasn''t affecting Jenny that much.

    "I suppose you didn''t do this out of kindness, after all you are the one who ced me down there," Jenny met Sara''s eyes with a challenging one.

    "Still stubborn as before, not bad," Sara''s mother evilly smiled, "I need you to do something for me, and then I''ll talk with the Pce master to let you stay down there a bit less¡­"

    "Either be freed, or I won''t do it," Jenny instantly said, without a speck of hesitation. She even adjusted her stance, to show her intentions to really walk back into the portal and return to the outer world.

    "You think I really can''t find anyone but you?" Sara''s mother scoffed, but Jenny kept looking at her in the same challenging way, without saying anything else.

    "Fine," after long minutes of silence and exchanging threatening looks, Sara''s mother said, "you''ll get freed, in exchange for doing this mission¡­ Perfectly!"

    "That''s what I want to hear," Jenny sweetlyughed, while moving her body right and left in a tempting way.

    "Stop these useless tricks, they won''t work on me," Sara''s mother sarcasticallyughed, "your target is a youngd, he is part of this world, and I want you to kill him for me."

    "Is he this strong?" Jenny''s attitude changed to be far more serious than ever. She looked at Sara''s mother, while knowing how strong thisdy was.

    If she couldn''t kill someone, howe Jenny would?

    "He isn''t strong," Sara''s mother said in disdain, "he is just someone I can''t personally kill¡­"

    "An oath it is, I see," Jenny''s blue eyes shone brighter, "I can do it if he is weaker, or at most at the same level of power as me."

    "He is weaker, this I can vouch for," Sara''s mother paused, "I need you to do it this way¡­"

    And for an hour, the two assassins exchanged views and discussed the best way to kill William.

    "Achou!" far away from the underground city, William sneezed, "it seems someone is speaking about me, hehehe," heughed as he got a feeling who was speaking about him right now.

    Visit m,v le,mpyr today

    "What about Sara?" Berry asked in a worry, "when will she wake up?"

    They were standing outside Sara''s room, after William examined Sara for hours without reaching any conclusion.

    "I don''t know what her mother used to make her end up like this," William shrugged, before adding, "if you remembered anything, it will be of great help."

    "We weren''t there when she met her mother," Ro shook her head, "we first met her masters, ending up getting pushed into the pits, and only Sara was left up there."

    "Hmm¡­ Try to ask around then," William couldn''t believe Sara''s mother appeared without anyone seeing her, "we need any clue about that meeting¡­"

    "Ah¡­ Ah¡­ Aah¡­"

    Just before he''d continue his words, he and everyone else heard a weirdughing from inside the room. Without any moment of hesitation, all went back into the room to find something they never expected.

    "Sara¡­" Berry muttered in shock, the same as everyone else. In front of them, the unconscious Sara was now awake, standing on the edge of the window in the room, while looking at them in a way they never saw before.

    "If you want me,e and catch me if you can¡­ Ah¡­ Ah¡­ Aah¡­"

    Sara''s look was different, totally different. She seemed as if she was someone else, or as if she was deeply drunk, despite the fact that she never liked drinking.

    "Wait here¡­" William''s tone was heavy as well. Unlike the shock everyone else got, he had a different type of shock. He didn''t just see the different look of Sara; he noticed way more details than that.

    Without any speck of hesitation, he dashed and jumped off the window. Sara was nowhere to be seen in such darkness. It was pitch ck right now as time had already passed midnight.

    "Sara¡­" William took a deep breath before he released his spirit sense. In a sh of time, he found Sara. She was running crazily,ughing the same weirdugh as if she lost her mind.

    William dashed forward, heading towards the direction Sara took. As if she knew how to get out of the town without getting noticed, Sara managed to get outside without much trouble.

    "Even when the security is tight, we still have such blind spots¡­" William was well aware of what Berry and Anjie did before. And yet with tightening the security, there was a path for Sara to get away undetected by the guards.

    Only if someone was releasing their spirit power looking for her, he''d find her. William noticed she stoppedughing the moment she got near the walls. And in the end, he followed her path and got out of the town as well.

    "Sara!" As the two were running, William kept using his technique, crossingrger distances than hers in the same amount of time. As he got closer to her, he shouted, without expecting any response from her.

    "You finally stopped¡­" After running for a few hours, taking the direction that didn''t lead to Lara''s city or anywhere near it or William''s town, Sara finally stopped.

    William stopped one hundred metres away from Sara. Thetter kept the crazy look on her face, opening her mouth wide as if she was mocking William.

 Chapter 1236: Unexpected Meeting

    "Did you miss me?" Sara spoke in a tone she never had before, "do you want the two of us to have our little fun time, hehehe¡­"

    "Stop it, you ain''t Sara," William decisively said, "show yourself, why hide and use spirit possession on someone unconscious?"

    "Sp¡­ Spirit possession¡­ How¡­"

    "Oh, you are surprised?" William raised an eyebrow, "thought she told you everything about me."

    "She?!! How do you know all this?!!!" Sara''s tone and attitude changed the moment William said his piece. In fact, William instantly recognised what happened to Sara the moment he saw her weird look.

    He would recognise spirit possession anytime by a first look. It was one of the dirtiest ys any dark master would use. And that also exined why he couldn''t awaken Sara before, or even detect anything wrong about her.

    "Come out, let''s talk in person," William evillyughed, "after all you came here to meet me, right?"

    "Tsk! You are a bastard," Sara''s voice suddenly grew soft, then her body. In a few seconds her body fell on the ground, weak and powerless, and didn''t make a move or make a sound anymore.

    And the next moment, a body appeared from the nearby bushes. The possessed Sara led William to a ce that was on the verge of a nearby forest. And that was where the person who possessed her was.

    "Oh, it''s you¡­" just when the person appeared from the hiding spot, William''s eyes went all wide.

    "You know me?! I seriously doubt that¡­"

    "Jenny¡­ What the heck are you doing here?!" outside of Jenny''s expectations, William''s wordsnded on her like a thunderbolt!

    It was her turn to look at him with wide eyes. "How¡­ How do you know my name?"

    "Oh, about that, hehehe," William rubbed his nose, feeling like fate was really on his side this time, "so from all the Pce girls, she picked you to deal with me, hahahaha! I bet she''ll scream in rage when she realises what she did, hahahaha!"

    "I don''t like you!" Jenny felt threatened, the same kind of feeling Sara''s mother felt. In fact she came here thinking this mission was going to be a breeze, some sort of a walk in the park. But now she felt how dangerous this man was, "who are you?"

    To her, all she knew was that William was from this world. Of course Sara''s mother kept all the information about William knowing her origin and lots of outside world stuff away from Jenny.

    That wasn''t the only reason she felt this entire situation was wrong. She could gauge William''s power, and could tell he was indeed weak. She came from the outer world, and if he was from there, then his power should be touching the ceiling of the top level in this world.

    Yet she could tell how weak he was. He struggled to keep up with her speed at first, making her purposely lower Sara''s running speed when she controlled her.

    "I''m the person you came here to kill, I assume, right?" William calmly said, as if he got the whole situation under his control.

    "And I will kill you¡­"

    "No you won''t," as if he was speaking about someone he grew up with, William said with absolute confidence.

    "Oh, why are you saying such words with such certainty?" Jenny crossed her arms, leaning her body right and left, as if she was showing off her explosive curves.

    "Because you are unable to kill a fly, not to mention a person," William''s look kept showing how calm and confident he was about what he was saying.

    "You don''t know me, don''t know where I came from, where I belong¡­ You are wrong!"

    "Then why do you always fall in trouble with that nasty pce every time you make a job?" Williamughed, e on, you don''t even tolerate being there, if not for that old debt of your family, you won''t be there in the first ce!"

    "You¡­ You¡­" Jenny''s body shook, this time genuinely out of immense shock, "who are you?!!"

    What William said was true. She joined the One Desire Pce to pay a long and old debt of her family. She hated being there, and couldn''t tolerate the idea of killing innocent people for money. Every time she went out on a mission, she always returned without killing the target.

    At first everyone thought she was inexperienced. But when they watched her actions onter missions, they realised how good she was in using her feminine skills. And yet she never dirtied her hands with any innocent blood.

    The only missions she killed in were the ones dealing with bad masters. She felt like she was taking justice over the innocent spirits who suffered at the hands of those masters, a redemption she kept telling herself that.

    "Told you, I know you more than you even think," William paused, sized Jenny up and down, "what shall we do now?"

    "I''ll kill you, you are a terribly bad person," Jenny screamed, before her body shone in bright deep blue light.

    "Using your Yin power? On me? Hahaha!" William shook his head before taking out a broadsword, "you do know I''m not a bad person."

    "You kidnapped her daughter," Jenny motioned towards Sara, "you are no better than her."

    "And you think I''m the one who used an illusion technique on her? Come on, you know her mother well enough to know this was done by her."

    Jenny paused for a single moment, before her attention suddenly shifted, "then I''ll kill her. She is the daughter of that ominous person, she is terribly bad as well!"

    "Stand down!" Without any hesitation William dashed forward, and in that single second, his sword met with Janny''s long knife, the one she took while jumping high in the air, aiming to im Sara''s head and life.

    "Stay away!" Jenny shouted, pushed with more power aiming to knock William away.

    "She isn''t like her mother."

 Chapter 1237: I Will Kill You

    William gritted his teeth, and had to activate his spirit body to resist her power, "she rose her entire life in this world, is a dear person to me¡­"

    "She will be as dirty as her mother, let me relieve her and the world from her evil!" Jenny seemed like a stone William was speaking to. Yet he never dropped the attempt to convince her using logic.

    He knew Jenny was far stronger than him at this moment. He wouldn''t win a direct sh against her, so using words was the only way to get out of here without losing Sara.

    "You can''t judge a person''s future by others'' deeds," William gritted his teeth, pouring every ounce of power into his sword, "the same as you hated people judging you for your father''s sins¡­"

    "Shut up!" the moment William tugged into that sensitive topic and Jenny transformed. A gust of immense power got into the knife, finally knocking William backwards. But as this hit came out of impulse, Jenny didn''t control her power and made William fly over Sara.

    William didn''t waste this chance, grabbed Sara''s soft body using his tails, and carried her alongside him while flying in the air.

    "You¡­" Once Jenny saw this and she realised what William did, "you tricked me! You tricked me to save her! You ain''t any better than them! I''ll kill you!"

    "Can''t let you touch her," Williamnded swiftly, turned around and started dashing away using his technique, "catch me if you can, hahahaha."

    "I''m going to kill you," Jenny felt an immense amount of rage. She hated bad masters, and hated getting tricked. Seeing William move fast away made her clench her fists, and then dashed after him.

    "Running away from a top pinnacle master is indeed a pain," William looked at the rocket like iing Jenny using his spirit sense, "but at least she still holds that weak point in her personality, hehehe."

    He knew Jenny way back when he was in the outer world in the past life. He met her once before, when she was getting mercilessly hunted down by the One Desire Pce folks. He learnt about the pce''s existence from back then, and helped her to survive and escape their assault, even helped her take revenge from those who harmed her family, even if this came at the cost of her life back then.

    She was a poor person, one who lived a hellish kind of life. And yet she didn''t seem like she lived through this kind of life yet. She didn''t lose her family, and she didn''t make herself a target for that nasty pce.

    Most of his knowledge about that pce and enmity came from her. He felt it was a good sign meeting her this early in life, and hoped he''d find a way to help her before everything would get ruined for her.

    But now he needed to get away from her. "Got you!" In just a few minutes she managed to cross the distance between the two of them, and then she dashed with higher speed, aiming to grab him by the head and knock him down.

    Yet when she felt she got him, he suddenly switched direction and dashed in the totally opposite way, heading directly towards her. "You¡­" his sudden switch startled her, and a brief moment was all he needed to slip past her grasp.

    "Will get you next time¡­" she gritted her teeth, changed her direction and chased after him. Yet this happened again and again, weirdly repeated when she was this close to get him.

    Every single time he''d change direction ande at her. Every time she tried to prepare herself for that, but in the end she failed. And that was one of her unknown weaknesses to anyone, but William.

    When he met her and travelled together, he trained her. And there he spotted this weakness. For a person from that pce, it was indeed funny to be unable to fight someone head on.

    Every time she met with a foe head on, seeing his face so close up, she couldn''t get herself to attack him head on. She wasn''t the type to hit someone directly face on, was best suited to hit someone from behind.

    He once joked about that, telling her she was best suited for assassination. Acting like this was the best for sneaking on someone and iming his life from behind. Yet she wasn''t that type of person.

    She got a trauma from her child period, where something terrible happened in front of her eyes, something that left a deep scar inside her spirit. William didn''t know before what this ancient ident was, as it seemed her mind decided to blink over this incident and forget about it.

    But now he used this point to his favour, kept nimbly passing through her grasp, slowly moving closer to his town. After a few hours of chasing without gaining anything, she started to change her tactic.

    "Blocking me now?" William noticed her actions. Instead of directly chasing after him, she stopped hundreds of metres away, blocking his path forward towards his town.

    "You want to go back, and so I''ll stop you from doing this," she shrugged, "you are indeed something, to make me unable to catch you using these weird tricks¡­ Dirty bastard, I''ll kill you!"

    Your story source m_v lem|p-yr

    "Can''t we reach a truce?" William knew he wouldn''t get away from her if she started blocking his path this way.

    "No truce with dirty masters," she blurted out, "you must be killed so the world will be a better ce."

    "Tsk! Judging me without knowing anything, not the old Jenny I knew¡­"

    "You don''t know me! I never met you before," she raised her knife high in the air, in a way that made William''s eyebrows raise, "I''m going to kill you now!"

    "The Rising Thunderous Knife? Do you think you can pull this high trick of the outer world in such a low one?"

 Chapter 1238: This Young Man Is Crazy

    William''s face changed from getting serious tough as if he saw a childish y. And yet his wordsnded and made Jenny''s body tremble again.

    "How the heck do you know all this about me? This will work, I will show you¡­"

    "Please don''t," William shook his head, "this technique requires a highly purified spirit power, in addition to a rich environment with lightning. You can''t see any lightning around, and this world has a low level of spirit power, not enough to even trigger the technique¡­"

    "We''ll see¡­" Jenny interrupted him, feeling more intrigued by his words. She decided to go on, even if what he said made perfect sense.

    "Ah!" This time her shout was filled with immense pain. The technique didn''t activate, instead it failed andnded a severe bacsh on her. On top of that, she unintentionally depleted her spirit power while trying to activate the technique.

    "Tsk! You are still as rash as the time I met you," William expected all this. The technique failed, her body got bacsh, and her spirit power got depleted.

    The end result was pretty much expected. Jenny felt like all the power in her body drained and vanished. When she realised what happened, it was toote for her to do anything.

    "I told you, you can''t use this technique here," William moved closer to Jenny''s weak body. Thin tongues of ck smoke rose from different parts of her body, as if she got hit by lightning or something.

    "You¡­ Stay¡­ Away¡­" she struggled to say these words, before her body grew soft and fell to the ground. Before she''d hit the ground, he moved and supported her body from falling.

    "Oh Jenny, you should have listened to me," she was still conscious, but had no power to even say a single word. She kept ring at him, while he held Sara using two tails, and held Jenny with both arms.

    "Lemme tell you more about yourself, you¡­" William started talking, using this chance of her losing all of his power to nt a seed in her spirit.

    He wanted to let her believe without any speck of doubt that he knew her even better than she knew herself. He spoke for hours, taking his time toe back, while showing her how deep he knew her.

    His words kept ringing in Jenny''s ears, while she had no clue how he knew all this. He wasn''t just speaking about her habits, something anyone from the pce could tell, but also things of her past, things she never said to anyone before, even things she decided to forget about.

    Her past, her struggles, her painful moments, her dreams, her beliefs, everything he said was correct and shockingly revealing everything about her. At some point, she regained part of her power, enough to push him away and move on her own. And yet she didn''t do that.

    At first she felt rage, then shock, then pure and endless curiosity. The main puzzling point was how William knew all that about her. She never met him before, and he couldn''t havee from the outer world. And yet he spoke about stuff no one in the world knew about.

    "We are here," after almost ten hours of walking and talking non-stop, speaking in great detail about stuff of her past and events she once told him about, they finally approached the outer border of his town, "I know you can move on your own now, so¡­"

    "Screw off!" she jumped off his arms the moment he said these words, feeling little humiliation as if her pride took a stab from a knife or something.

    "It''s you who should decide," William calmly looked at her, "shall you screw off, return to the pce and continue your pathetic life there, or you stay here with me¡­"

    "Stay here? No, no, no way!" she suddenly felt terrible fear, "I¡­ I can''t¡­"

    William didn''t need to ask to know what she was thinking about. In her mind, all she thought about was her family, how to save them, what would happen to them if she abandoned the pce.

    "You are paying a debt that ain''t yours," William knew this point was the toughest nut he had to crack to let her free from all of her misery. And yet as he expected, his words never helped at all.

    "No, no, I can''t," she turned around, and dashed after a moment of hesitation away from William.

    "Remember, they won''t forgive you failing again," William shouted, and got no response from her, "remember, my town is always open for you anytime, got it?"

    He could see her silhouette vanish through the distance without even turning to look back. It felt like she was running from danger or something, and that was how she looked at William.

    Meeting someone who knew more than you even knew about yourself was indeed threatening. Not to mention William could use the chance she lost all her power to kill her, instead he cared for her, carried her and kept telling her stories of her life.

    "This young man is indeed crazy," she told herself that, "but he knew stuff about me, about the outer world, that no one in this world should know¡­ I must use this point to get out of this trouble¡­"

    She told herself that, throwing behind William''s problem for now and focusing over the next level of danger awaiting her up ahead, Sara''s mother.

    She was sent out on this mission to kill William, and yet she failed to do it. She started to think of ways to get out of this trouble, using the fact that Sara''s mother hid lots of details from her as some sort of excuse for her failure.

    She didn''t think about fabricating stuff to get out, as she was sure Sara''s mother must have sent someone to tail her and watch her actions from far away.

    "If someone listened to all this, then¡­"

 Chapter 1239: Artefact Spell

    As Jenny realised this point, she changed direction, didn''t return to the underground city directly. Instead, she went towards the nearby forest, luring that master watching her into that direction.

    As for William, he knew she was going to find a way to get out of Sara''s mother''s grasp for now. He said too much to make her believe he was someone from the outer world, and that was something to use against Sara''s mother.

    "She is really adamant at getting me killed," William was about to return to the city when he spotted three cloaked figures appearing from far away. They didn''t give him the vibe of being at the very pinnacle of power in this world, and that meant they were indeed from this world.

    "She was fast to hire assassins, it''s indeed true that cockroaches know where other cockroaches live," he scoffed, cing Sara carefully on the ground, "it''s time to release all this on you. Come, let me vent out some steam with you."

    As he expected, these three weren''t that strong dark masters. Sara''s mother didn''t know that yet, but the magnitude of dark master powers in this area of the world was by far the lowest right now.

    William didn''t know how she could find these dark masters in such short notice. Only a few days have passed since Sara''s mother arrived here. And yet she managed to find three dark masters in areas around Lara''s city.

    "At least they are very weak," William killed two easily, and the third got a hard time in dying as William tortured and extracted news from him. From what he learnt, it seemed Sara''s mother spread over her men, "she is trying to rally any dark master forces in the region to attack me. Poordy, she doesn''t know how futile this move is, hahaha!"

    William couldn''t believe that the cleanse of dark master forces from this area years ago woulde with such benefits now. He knew Sara''s mother was desperate to find any dark master force, and she had to gather these three random bandits from the nearby mountains where they lived.

    They never worked together before, but thanks to the rich ransom she dered, they met and came targeting William.

    "Keep trying, hahaha," Williamughed in such a situation, "you can''t kill me, and your alternative ways to kill me failed. What will be your next move, olddy?"

    William said these words to empty air, while having the feeling that someone was watching him right now and would deliver this news back to Sara''s mother. And he was right, there was someone stationed near his town to watch over everything happening inside and outside it.

    And what he said would reach Sara''s mother at ater time, and that would make her more enraged than ever.

    William then turned into his town. This time, he knew what was wrong with Sara.

    "You saved her, that''s great!" The moment he came closer to the town, he spotted lots of his guild members outside. They seemed as if they were looking for someone, or something.

    "What are you doing outside?" William got puzzled when he saw all these masters from his guild outside. He met with his friends, where Lina came to him with a clear worried look on her face.

    "What''s wrong?" he couldn''t help but feel something bad happened.

    "We got attacked, and¡­" Lina looked at Anjie and others around, before thetter added: "They hurt Berry¡­"

    "What?!!" William felt instant rage, and all the relief and calmness he had vanished, "is she alright?"

    "She¡­ She lost her consciousness, the same as Sara," Ro pointed at Sara''s weak body carried by William''s tails. Stay tuned with m,v le,mpyr

    "This¡­ Isn''t that bad, right?" William''s worry suddenly vanished the moment he heard these words, making everyone around feel confused, "tell me everything, what happened?"

    As he heard that Berry got what Sara had, he couldn''t help but feel more reassured. He knew what went wrong with Sara, and he knew how to reverse that. And that also applied to Berry.

    He realised that Sara''s mother didn''t depend only on Jenny. In fact, it felt like Jenny''s attempt was just a distraction, making him leave the town for her men to infiltrate and attack Berry.

    "She sniffed how important Berry is to me just from these brief moments? Scarydy indeed," he sighed while watching his two girls and old friends lying on two beds in one room.

    He learnt what happened. A group of cloaked masters attacked the mansion. They didn''t kill anyone, but their target was Berry. They released some sort of an arrow, small and fragile, shattered the moment it hit her smooth neck skin and turned into grey smoke.

    William knew this wasn''t a normal arrow, wasn''t actually an arrow at all. It was one of those artefact spells, something that was quite rare in the outer world.

    These were built on old scrolls found in ruins, where seemingly the ancient masters used to make. They mix alchemy with cksmith, making something that wasn''t a technique, wasn''t a weapon, but it was a mix of both, using alchemy and otherplicated stuff to make this bridge seed.

    On top of that, most of these were used by dark master elites. It wasn''t a surprise as most of the artefact spells used dark methods to bind one''s power and pour its spirit power into the crafted item.

    "Thanks for letting me know how you did it," William evilly smirked, turning to everyone before adding, "fetch someone to warn Lara, I want her to stay in the city and not leave until I say so¡­ And ah, send a word back to your father, I need Sloth back with lots of stuff."

    He said hisst piece towards Anjie, and thetter felt weird about this. This was the first time ever that William would ask her to do something simr. But she was a smart girl to guess what was going on.

    She realised that William got the right way to heal the two girls and wanted help from her father about something.

    "Do you need me to go personally there¡­"

 Chapter 1240: A Deal And A Truce

    "No, it''s too risky," William instantly declined what she was about to say, "just send someone with something they can recognise it came from you, and I''ll write down the list of things I want."

    "Ok¡­"

    "Make sure Sloth will bring them, no one else," William stressed over this point, making Anjie feel he had an ulterior motive to say so.

    "What are we going to do now?" Lina looked at Berry and Sara, "will we also suffer like them?"

    "I bet," William didn''t hide this fact, "but next time we''ll be well prepared¡­"

    "We had most of our guild masters actively guarding, but we didn''t find any trace of them until¡­" Ro paused, looked at others around, and they silently nodded or looked down to the ground.

    This was the second failure, the second time they failed to deal with this new power. And yet William didn''t find this surprising. The masters they were facing this time were quite a headache.

    "I noticed a few blind spots around the town," he paused, before taking a scroll and a brush out and started drawing and marking certain points at the walls and town, "make sure to cover all these, and we need an rming signal to be distributed across our guards."

    "Will we be able to stop them?"

    "What would happen if they came again, and we found them?"

    "I don''t think we can kill them¡­"

    Doubt started to find its way deep into their spirits. But William wasn''t feeling the same. "If they wanted you dead, they''d have killed you when they entrapped you back there," he slowly said, before adding, "and don''t forget I''m here. If I said we can stop them, then we can."

    His wordsnded and everyone''s doubt vanished. They got a moment ofck of confidence, something quite expected after what they lived through.

    "What do you need from us?"

    "Yes boss, let us know and we''ll prepare!"

    "Just say the word!"

    William smiled in satisfaction when he saw such a response from his friends.

    "Will let you know, but first do as I just said," he wasn''t in a hurry to do anything now. For a moment there, he felt lucky that he met Jenny earlier.

    "I''m d she went back to you, this way you''ll have more trouble to deal with, hehehe," William knew the temper and habits of Jenny. She wouldn''t forget nor forgive Sara''s mother tricking her. And that was enough to keep thatdy busy for a while.

    Sara''s mother nned for attacks from different directions and forces. And yet all failed. Even the force she sent over to attack Berry failed, even if they seeded. William knew now what happened to Sara and Berry and was ready to make a counter for that.

    What Sara''s mother used was some sort of Yin toxin. This one was so light and hard to detect, deeply situated within one''s spirit. It could be discovered easily if one tested their spirit power using the crystal way, but this wasn''t applicable right now.

    To do this, one had to be conscious and cooperative, or else nothing could be done. So, William failed to notice the presence of this toxin.

    "Using the Spirit Possession toxin was a brilliant move, but not anymore," William took out his alchemy pot and other stuff to use. This toxin was way different than Fang''s toxin, it was a childish y to remove.

    The toxin was infamous for being hard to detect, always leaving the person affected suffering from deepa. Once triggered, the toxin would grow even weaker, making it way easier to remove.

    The trick this time was to use a strong fire-based herbs to make a potion, one that would work on spirit and not just on the body. William knew of many such potions, and so he started to concoct a few of them.

    Making these wasn''t hard for him, and yet it took him a few hours to finish. He didn''t make just one potion, but many. Plus, he wrote down the recipe on many scrolls, nning to distribute them across his guild alchemy masters.

    "You are really troublesome to deal with!"

    Just before he''d start healing the two girls, he heard a sudden voiceing from one of them. William slowly turned, looked with a calm smile over Berry who was now slowly standing on the ground.

    "What took you so long?" he chuckled, and Berry moved her fingers across her hair, a move she rarely used, never used in such a natural and sexy way.

    "You were awaiting me, impressive," she checked Berry''s body before adding with disdain, "this type of body won''t lure any good man towards it, what a waste! I should have moved into my good girl instead."

    "Risking cutting off thest toxin strand within her? No way!" Williamughed before pointing towards Berry, "and I like her. That makes her attracted to a very good man."

    "Can''t argue with that," Sara''s mother tilted her mouth before adding, "I used a technique to read through Jenny''s memories. It seems you know quite a ton about her. Who are you?"

    "Sorry, I''m not interested in olddies!"

    "As if you can reach me in the first ce, hehehe," Sara''s mother paused, before adding, "I''m here to call for a deal and a truce."

    "I get it, but a truce? You n on staying here for a long time?!" William threw one of the potions he made in the air, as if he was ying and not facing a deadly foe right now.

    "Something tells me this won''t be ourst meeting," Sara''s mother said in a serious tone this time, and William also met that with a serious look on his face.

    "You can count on that," he paused, before adding, "Sara will remain with me¡­"

    "Not eptable!"

    "And Jenny," William continued speaking as if he wasn''t interrupted by her.

    "Why not add me to your bag then? A fcked up man with deep desire and sexual hunger you are!"

 Chapter 1241: Unexpected Side Effect Of The Potions

    "Hahaha, told you already, not interested in olddies, no offence, hahaha," William took her words as a joke,ughed before adding, "I just want these two¡­"

    "And you won''t get any of them!" Sara''s mother blurted out without any dy, "this isn''t a deal I will settle on¡­"

    "Do you need to be the Pce Master or not?" out of the blue, William suddenly threw this bomb over her face, making her face change at once.

    "Hmph! As if you know what you are speaking about!"

    "Lingerie, the legendary leader of your pce isn''t someone I won''t know," William''s smile widened as he kept speaking, "you want her throne, but can''t. I get you; this isn''t a simple task to do. A failure means death, and no one ever touched a single hair of hers, even the strongest masters in that world, right?"

    "Hmm, can''t say you lied so far, still¡­"

    "I know her deadly soft spot," William wasn''t bluffing, but telling a story he heard before when he was in the outer world. He always felt Sara''s mother was kind of familiar, though it was thanks to her for being Sara''s mother.

    But when he met Jenny, he knew why he thought she looked this familiar. In his past life, Sara''s mother managed to kill Lingerie, ending up being the master of that infamous pce.

    He even met and fought against her a few times, and that was why he even could read through her mind and anticipate her next move.

    "Bullshit!" Sara''s mother scoffed, "no one knows anything about any weakness about her, not even the strongest or the closest confidants of our pce know¡­ This is total bullshit. Nice try though, I can at least give you that!"

    "I''m not bluffing," William shrugged, before adding in a calm tone, "if you want to keep living the life of a servant, then don''t bother with my words."

    He didn''t stop there, he even dragged a seat, sat and extended his legs over the bed, crossing them while closing his eyes. It felt like he never cared about what was going to happen to the two girls, neither worried about what Sara''s mother would decide about his proposal.

    "You are this confident that I''ll agree?" Sara''s mother possessing Berry raised an eyebrow in surprise and doubt. William gave nothing else but pure confidence in what he said, as if he was stating the truth.

    And when he even ignored her words, she felt more concern about what he said. Without even intending to, she started to consider what he proposed.

    To her, being on top of the pce was her biggest dream. Yet the only option she had was for the current pce head to die, and no one could kill her from inside the pce.

    Lingerie was such a badass master that no one could rival orpete against. It was great when considering outsiders fearing them thanks to her. But for someone like Sara''s mother, with her ambition to be the head of the pce, she hated this.

    "Tell me then¡­"

    "Not today, not here," William interrupted her, as if he didn''t care at all about this proposal or was in a hurry to get rid of Sara''s mother.

    "You¡­"

    "I won''t say a word without making a proper deal with you," William stressed over his words, slowly opened his eyes and looked straight at Berry''s, "you need to give me something to make sure you won''t backstab meter on."

    "An oath then¡­"

    "No, tried it before and got scammed," Williamughed, "nice try though."

    "..." Sara''s mother paused and didn''t know what to say. In the outer world, a spirit oath was something sacred, but to someone like her, there were always loopholes to get away from it.

    "What do you want then?" if an oath wouldn''t work, she didn''t know what was in William''s mind instead. But she was sure of one thing, whatever this youth would ask for, it was going to be something troublesome to get away from it.

    Experience more magic at m v l e mpyr

    "It''s something you own, carry with you, and hate to show it to others," William said something vague, something that seemed like he didn''t know what he was talking about. Yet opposite to him, Berry''s body shook slightly while the look on her face turned all hostile.

    "I don''t get what you are talking about," she said in a heavy tone, in a way that a kid could tell she was lying.

    "Hahaha, you know it very well, or you need me to describe it for you?" When William said hisst words, he moved his hands as if he was touching a female body in the air. Yet this body was too small to be a real human, mostly a doll or something.

    "You won''t get that, never!" Sara''s mother gritted on her teeth and her tone showed how much hostility she had towards William right now.

    "Not even curious to know how I knew about this?" William on the other handughed, as if he was enjoying such hostility from her.

    "Fck you!" The next moment, Sara''s mother''s presence vanished, and Berry''s body grew soft, falling on the ground like she had no spirit or power.

    William shed and grabbed her body before touching the floor. He looked at Berry''s angelic sleepy face and sighed. "Let''s see how long it will take for you to agree on my proposal."

    William knew Berry and Sara weren''t going to wake up without using his potions. And for a moment there he didn''t want to wake Berry up. He knew Sara''s mother woulde backter on, as what he offered was something she couldn''t reject no matter what.

    "Screw it! I''ll make them wake up and let that btch worry abouting to me herself," after a few moments of hesitation, he took out one of his potions, and emptied its contents slowly inside Berry''s mouth.

    Just when he did that, Berry''s face started to turn rosy. At the same time, he could feel heating from her body.

 Chapter 1242: Jacky

    As William didn''t know how long his potion would take, he slowlyid her body on the bed, and did the same to Sara.

    "Fck! Never thought this will be the side effect of these potions!" After a couple hours, William was lying on bed, with two sleepy beauties around him. The bed sheets were in disarray, and the two girls were sleeping, this time out of fatigue and arousal.

    The moment Sara and Berry woke up, the two looked as if they were filled with endless lust. Out of the blue they grabbed him, and a very intimate wrestle happened between him and them.

    He looked at their naked bodies and couldn''t help but grin. Even if this came without warning, he still enjoyed every second of it. And for a moment there he thought about giving it a second round, with him fully prepared this time for it.

    "It''s better to leave them for now," William knew they did that thanks to the side effects of his potions. So, when they''d wake up, they''d be terribly embarrassed, and he didn''t want to add more to this moment by being present when they woke up.

    He was still feeling sleepy, so he just found a room and threw his body on it. As he went to sleep, there was something else happening far from here.

    "I didn''t believe myself when I heard the words you recorded, hahahaha, the same mistress I''ve chased for years is now asking for me? Hahahaha!"

    "Shut up! I swear if not for the needs of this situation I''d never have sought your help out!"

    "That''s true, I know you better than you know yourself, hahaha!"

    Sara''s mother was sitting on top of her throne-like seat, while overlooking a robust looking man. The man was bald, with a deep scar running across his neck and vanished into the ck leather coat he was wearing.

    He just came from the outer world, based on an invitation sent out by her. He was an infamous bandit in the outer world, and he was known to have a deadly affection towards Sara''s mother.

    Thetter always ignored him, never gave him what he dreamt of. But now she was in a very tight spot that she had to improvise.

    "I want you to do something out for me¡­"

    "I''ll do anything, but first we need to discuss the price," the man evilly chuckled, examining Sara''s figure slowly, taking his time feasting on her curves before adding, "you know how much I''m paid, right?"

    "That won''t be an issue¡­" Sara''s mother raised a hand to stop the man from interrupting her again, "and¡­ You''ll get a nice bonus if you do it tonight."

    "Easydy, I just arrived, and my power isn''t stable," the man cracked his neck muscles, touched the scar as if he was used to doing that, and¡­ I don''t guarantee you. Deliver the dessert first, and I''ll do the jobter."

    "You want to get something without working for it? Hmph!" Sara''s mother scoffed in disdain, "just do what you need to do, and thene ask for your reward."

    "Still cold as always, what''s wrong with me? Am I not that good for you?" The man seemed to be deeply hurt by what she said, shook his head while saying in a low and sad tone.

    "I only get attached to the ones I''m going to kill," Sara''s mother evillyughed, "you are a good man. If you want to die, let me know and I''ll make yourst moments unforgettable even in hell."

    "..."

    The man felt a cold shiver down his spine as he knew Sara''s mother wasn''t bluffing. He was called Jacky, and he met with Sara''s mother for the first time when she killed his master.

    Since then, he got a deep shock down his spirit, one that could be best described as trauma. And yet he didn''t hate Sara''s mother, instead this incident fully activated his obsession with her.

    "Good, now you can go and do your task," she smiled before adding, "your target is a young kid from this world, he isn''t twenty years old yet, not even close to the pinnacle of power in this world¡­"

    "Why didn''t you kill him then?" Jacky looked at her in doubt, "what are you hiding from me about this kid?"

    His words rang a bell inside her head, stirring up the emotions she kept in check. William was already a puzzle to her; he was surely a person of this world. But he acted and behaved as if he was from the outer world.

    On top of that, he seemed as if he knew tons of information, things that no one should know. The things he spoke at theirst meeting were still fresh in her mind, and that request he hinted at in the end was something quite shocking to her.

    No one knew about that thing she held, not even her masters in the pce. She made sure to keep that thing hidden and secretive, after all her entire life depended on it.

    "I came here with ropes binding my hand," she cleared up her throat, "I can''t kill him, can''t even touch him¡­"

    "You still have lots of subordinates," Jacky''s doubt didn''t diminish, instead the more he looked at it, the more he became more sceptical, "why¡­"

    "I can''t touch that kid, not me, not someone rted to me," Sara''s mother said in an icy cold tone, "this is the answer you''ll get. Will you do it or not?"

    "Killing a kid? That''s the simplest mission I ever took," heughed, while Sara''s mother threw a ring over to him.

    "You''ll get the location of that kid, and everything rted to his group of people in there," she paused before adding, "kill only him, understand?"

    "Only him, got it," Jacky raised his fist in the air while walking away, "make sure you are fully prepared, I won''t let you off this time, hahaha!"

    "Tsk!" Sara''s mother watched Jacky walk away, "aside from everything, this annoying kid will be killed, hahahaha!"

 Chapter 1243: Jacky 2

    Sara''s motherughed while imagining how William would react when getting attacked by Jacky, "this isn''t your typical spirit master, he is one from a mysterious force that I identally tapped into. If normal methods can''t deal with you, then let''s see how Mystic ways will, hahaha!"

    She was quite confident in Jacky''s ability to kill William. Jacky wasn''t a strong master himself in the outer world, but he inherited weird methods from the master she once assassinated. She knew from that mission about the existence of that weird side of Mystic Arts. and since then she made sure to keep Jacky around.

    Jacky would never guess it, but a big part of his affection towards her came from her mind games that she kept ying around him. She knew how special Mystic Arts were, and what was weirder was that no one else in the pce knew about that side of the world.

    She nned to use Jacky''s power to help her in getting rid of her pce master. She never imagined she''d use him to assassinate a youngster instead. And she didn''t regret calling him.

    "It seems you don''t need me anymore," just before Sara''s mother would return back to her seat, Jenny appeared from the distance, "you have someone to do the job¡­"

    "The one you failed to execute," Sara''s mother kept walking calmly to her seat as if Jenny didn''t appear.

    "It''s not my fault, you hid important information about him¡­"

    "It''s still a failure," Sara''s mother coldly said while ring at Jenny, "do you want to repay the debt or lose your life here?"

    "..." Jenny''s body trembled, not out of fear, but of rage. She was just like how William told her, didn''t ept the life she was currently living. And yet here she was, unable to say no or refute such words thanks to the shackles enforced on her by her family''s debt.

    "Sure, anything you want I''ll do," she finally sumbed to Sara''s mother''s wishes, controlling her rage that was mistakenly perceived by Sara''s mother as fear.

    "Good, your target now is different," Sara''s mother paused, "when Jacky executes this mission, there will be a lot of distress at that useless town. Go there and bring my daughter here¡­"

    "I''ll do it once that youngster is dead," Jenny didn''t find anything abnormal about Sara''s mother''s request. She already sniffed around, and learnt from many here about the purpose of their stay in such a low world.

    "Wait¡­" just before Jenny would walk away, Sara''s mother stopped her, "thatd seems to have lots of good girls around him, so¡­"

    "You want me to bring them as well?!!" Jenny could read through the demoness'' thoughts. And thinking about dragging more innocent girls into such hellish life was something that made her death with rage again.

    "Do you have any objections to that?" Sara''s mother icily red at Jenny, and thetter struggled to keep her thoughts and rage in check.

    "Surely not, will do as you wish," Jenny paused, "this will pay thest debt of my family, right?"

    "You do well, and I''ll see how much is taken off your debt," Sara''s mother evilly grinned, "if you killed him, the entire debt will be dropped. But just grabbing a few girls over isn''t enough¡­ At least for me¡­"

    "..." Jenny knew she would struggle more to get away from that nasty ce grasp, not to mention away from such a demoness.

    And yet she could only ept her fate and move out of here to do the task. It wasn''t a hard mission, and something told her Sara''s mother was quite confident in Jacky to execute the task Jenny failed.

    "Take note that this time¡­ I won''t tolerate any failures!" Just before Jenny would vanish from her eyesight, Sara''s mother calmly said as if she was saying goodbye to Jenny.

    "Pray then your new dog will do the job so I can do mine!" Jenny responded with the same attitude, as if she wasn''t worried about Sara''s mother''s threats.

    "He won''t fail, neither will you," Sara''s motherughed, as she had absolute confidence in Jacky and his mysterious ways.

    Away from here, William just woke up from a deep sleep. The moment he got out of his room, he found the entire ce felt weird.

    "What''s wrong?" he asked and what he heard made him not know if he shouldugh or regret it. Sara and Berry woke up, and as he expected, they felt quite shy from what happened with him. It seemed they recalled everything, felt everything, and that made the two unable to look him in the eye for the time being.

    They decided to go out and lead a few patrolling units around the town. At the same time, the closest girls to them learnt about what happened, and they leaked the news to enrage Anjie.

    Anjie was considered the only girl who got a shot with William so far, and it seemed this frustrated lots of girls in the team. Knowing what happened, Ro and other girls made sure to spread the news. And that quite enraged Anjie.

    Thetter decided to go out as well to lead patrolling units. And many spected a big fight would erupt between the three girls.

    "I won''t get my nose into such stuff anymore," When William heard about all this, he shook his head and decided to not interfere in such a silly situation.

    The next thing he did was to release orders, making sure everyone is prepared and ready for battle. He knew Sara''s mother wouldn''t ept his wish this easily, and surely she''d lean to violence first.

    He knew their enemies would be on the top pinnacle of power in this world, but they also would suffer lots of restrictions on their techniques. Also they wouldn''t be quite familiar norfortable with how their power got forcibly decreased and limited.

    That made him quite confident in their ability to stop any iing attack. But the main problem still was in the ways Sara''s mother would use.

 Chapter 1244: The Holy Trial Mystic Art

    "If she just fought properly and directly sent her forces to attack the town, things would be quite easy to handle," William sighed while going to check on the three he left to train underground, "but she''ll always lean to sneaky attacks¡­"

    He hoped his guild masters led by his core team and friends would make it harder for anyone to sneak into the town without getting spotted. Experience more magic at m v l e mpyr

    "For now, I just need to check on these three, then train a little bit, and wait for her next move," he thought Sara''s mother would take days before making a move. And he was quite mistaken about that.

    "What''s we got here?!" Just as he was lost in his thoughts about the selected masters, he felt something different around. Without knowing it, the underground rocky world he was walking in vanished, instead there was a thickyer of fog that he never saw before except when dealing with the ck fox.

    "This isn''t his ce, this isn''t his fog," William''s eyes constricted while he noticed the differences in this fog.

    This fog looked like the ck fox on the surface, but this fog was way lighter, also it gave William a different feeling.

    "This¡­" As William was trying to see through the fog, the fog suddenly got thinner all of sudden, revealing a grand space that was quite familiar to him.

    "Fate and destiny world?!!" he couldn''t help but mutter these words, and the next instant an alien voice came, filled with immense shock, shouting at him.

    "How the fck do you know about this world?!!!"

    "You¡­" William''s senses tried to see through the fog around, but couldn''t find the man who just said, "show yourself!"

    "I came here to kill a kid, and now this kid knows about this ce, interesting," the man seemed to speak to himself without caring about what William demanded, "I nned to kill you fast, but let me take more time and know how a master from such low world knows about this prestigious world¡­"

    "..."

    William instantly jumped into the right conclusion in mere seconds when he heard what Jacky said.

    "She sent you? Hahaha, no way, she picked someone knowing the Mystic Arts to kill me? Hahaha!"

    William didn''t feel threatened, instead he keptughing on the entire situation. On the contrary what he said drove more doubt and little fear into the heart of Jacky.

    "He knows about Mystic Arts, it''s not a coincidence to know about the Fate and destiny world¡­" Jacky''s thoughts started to drift towards William being a Mystic Art master like himself.

    In fact, Jacky wasn''t a big shot in Mystic Arts, he was even considered a big failure in the eyes of his past master. And yet fate led him to be present when Sara''s mother killed his master, so he inherited a lot of very valuable scrolls about Mystic Arts.

    If he was against a normal master, he''d not even flinch. But as William showed clear signs for him being a Mystic Art master, Jacky started to fear him.

    "Can''t be, he can''t be that strong," yet he calmed down quite fast, "he is from a low world after all. Even if he is a Mystic Art master, he can''t know a lot, right?"

    He kept convincing himself about that, which was a good logic that didn''t apply for William. Thetter knew a lot of knowledge to make Jacky not only get scared but even turn around and run as far away from here as possible.

    But Jacky didn''t know that. And soon enough he''d regret not listening to the rm sounds in his spirit.

    "Come on, show yourself," William on the other hand was calm. The main issue about using Mystic Arts for him was to get into the Fate and Destiny world. And Jacky just gave him a free invite over this world.

    William didn''t know how Jacky did it, but he was so curious to know the way. If he learnt about the method, it''d solve tons of problems for him. And that was why he was luring Jacky out.

    "Not a chance," but Jacky decided to use force against him, "I''ll kill you first then go and get my promised prize."

    "I can pay, I''m not that poor," William tried to y on the tone that might appeal to Jacky, but he was mistaken this time.

    "That reward can''t be given by anyone but her, so drop it already and get ready to die," Jacky finished his words and suddenly the fog around started to swirl.

    "And here we begin," seeing this didn''t scare William, instead he stood calmly watching and waiting to see what was going to happen next.

    "Everything in this world is ruled by deeds," Jacky''s voice came deep as if he was saying a ritual or something, "good you do and you get rewarded, bad you do and you get punished¡­ Let''s punish you kid¡­"

    "Oh, Karma Mystic Art master, incredible," William''s eyes shone brightly when he heard what Jacky said. And the words he said infused huge amounts of fear into Jacky''s body, making thetter''s body tremble on its own.

    "Let Fate and Destiny world judge you; I summon the Holy Trial¡­ Ah!"

    The moment he called this trial thing and things started to hit bad for Jacky. The Mystic Art he used was considered the strongest thing he ever learnt in his entire life. He rarely used it as the scroll he got from his past master clearly warned against overusing this Mystic Art.

    It was a double-edged weapon. Just like any Mystic Art, failing in executing it would result in a bacsh. And this bacsh was considered quite fatal for any master regarding this art.

    Yet he never expected William to have something up his sleeve to stop the art. The moment he called the trial and the world of fog swirled even faster and more disturbance urred. It happened the same way Jacky used to see whenever he used this art. But this time there was a slight difference.

 Chapter 1245: Moore

    A huge bright star shone brightly all of sudden, clearing most of the fog and breaking the art.

    "What the hell is that?!!!"

    As the one executing the art, he could tell exactly what was going on. The star wasn''t normal, it felt as if it was a terrifying predator that sat its eyes on him. Jacky''s body didn''t just tremble, he even got soaked in cold sweat out of immense fear.

    That wasn''t the end of it, but the beginning of Jacky''s struggle. He saw his art getting broken, and a scary bacsh assaulted him.

    "I can''t get killed this easily! Not on the hands of such a useless master!" he roared in pain and regret, but it was toote to do anything.

    "Here you are," during all this, William was acting all calm. He knew he''d get shielded from any harm thanks to his special connection with the golden star.

    So, he didn''t even focus on anything happening around and focused on looking for Jacky. When thetter roared, his presence started to take form fast, and soon enough he appeared out of his stealth.

    William didn''t know how Jacky hid his presence in the Fate and Destiny world. Here the rules of spirit masters didn''t apply, and that meant Jacky had a unique art to hide his presence in this special world.

    The more William thought about it, the greedier he became. "It seems Sara''s mother sent me a fat sheep this time, hehehe," heughed while imagining the amount of knowledge he''d get after finding Jacky.

    But first, he needed to find Jacky. And he got a way to do it.

    "Fck you!" Jacky realised he appeared in front of William. The meeting was short and didn''tst more than a few seconds before the two got dispelled from the Fate and Destiny world, making William return back to the real world.

    "Hurry, here, find this man for me," the moment William returned to the real world, he didn''t dy and ran directly towards Moore. He shook Moore''s body, getting the man out from his training without warning, "hurry, he is going to die. I''ll draw a sketch for him¡­"

    "A sketch?!!" Moore was feeling terrible right now, but he couldn''t help but add in a worry, "you said he is going to die? If I went into his head, then¡­"

    "Don''t worry, I just need to know where he is and that''s it," William knew what terrified Moore. If thetter went into someone else''s head and that person died, then he would also fall down with him.

    "But¡­"

    "I just need you to get me his location," William hurriedly took out a brush and started to draw Jacky''s face, "find him for me."

    "..."

    Moore knew William wouldn''t ask something like this from him without a good reason. Yet he hesitated for a moment before he finally grabbed the paper and sighed.

    "Your drawing sucks," he said as the drawing wasn''t as clear as he needed, "I''ll try my best."

    "You are the best," Williamughed out of his excitement, "hurry, hurry go and find him for me," he urged Moore, and thetter couldn''t help but repeat his words before going to sleep.

    "I don''t guarantee finding him," Moore said before activating his technique and started to drift into the world of dreams looking for Jacky.

    "Who said my drawing is this bad?" William grabbed the scroll from the ground and shook his head, "you should see how Ibra sucks in drawing¡­"

    Moore drifted into the dream world as usual. This time he was feeling worried about the fact the master he was looking for was about to die.

    "I hope this won''t kill me," when he first joined William''s side, he could only use his power in the dream world. But William taught him lots of stuff, made him even able to tap into the dying masters minds before they''d pass away.

    It was a very risky move, and he never used it before. He was also sure about William knowing the risks, and that made this task far more important in Moore''s eyes.

    "Let''s see¡­ That drawing was really bad, I hope I can find him," he finally decided to go for it and try his luck. The theory behind what he was doing came from the link between death and dreams as William said to him before.

    When people became this close from death, they''d tap into different realms, including the dream world. With immense hesitation and fear, Moore started the technique the same way William taught him before.

    He simply imagined the face of Jacky as best as he could from William''s drawing. And yet nothing happened for a couple of minutes.

    "Don''t tell me¡­" yet before he''d continued his words, he felt a weird surge of power tagging on his body, taking control of it, and pulling him towards one direction at an elerated speed.

    "I found him!" William was waiting patiently beside the weak body of Moore. When thetter would use his power, he''d look as powerless as a mere fly. Moore went to sleep for ten minutes, before suddenly jerking up, panting heavily, and his body suddenly soaked in cold sweat, "I found him!"

    "Where?!" William instantly stood up, "here, this is the map of the area¡­"

    "No need, I just got a glimpse of the ce he is in and instantly recognised it," Moore slowly stood up with William''s help, "he is heading towards the Blue Mountain."

    "The Blue Mountain? The old base of the dark masters?" William''s eyes shone brightly up when he heard these words. The Blue Mountain was indeed a ce hard to miss.

    It was once a big base of dark masters, but Lara''s city masters cleaned it a long time ago. It wasn''t that far away from here; no more than an hour walk and around fifteen minutes running.

    "Sorry about the trouble," William shouted while starting to move fast out of here.

 Chapter 1246: Warning William

    "Don''t ever ask me to do it again," Moore was still feeling shocked from what he was experiencing, "that master is this close to die, so hurry up and get to him before he leaves this world," he added while watching William vanish from here.

    "I just wonder why he is looking for him," Moore could tell Jacky was this close to dying, and yet he didn''t have time to go through many of his memories, "let me see¡­"

    Out of pure curiosity he started to recall what he saw in Jacky''s head. He didn''t have time to look closely or dig deeper. So, he just looked fast at random memories, and now he started to study them thoroughly.

    "Damn! He isn''t from this world!!!" The first thing Moore figured out was quite shocking. And this wasn''t the biggest surprise he''d find in Jacky''s memories.

    William didn''t know about that. He only cared about racing time and going where Jacky was. "I wanted to get him alive, but it''s not a problem," he muttered to himself while running as fast as he could, "his rings must have good stuff, great stuff, hahaha!"

    William kept running as fast as he could, and in mere twenty minutes he reached the Blue Mountain region.

    The moment he got close, he spread his spirit sense over and scanned the area. In minutes he found his target, a lying body on the ground, soaked in his blood pool without moving a muscle.

    "Mystic Art bacsh is indeed quite scary," he muttered while examining the dead body of Jacky, "he got three rings, but there is a slight problem¡­"

    He got everything on Jacky''s body, armour, shoulder guards, even shoes. He even got the leather belt and the earrings this man wore.

    All of these came from the outer world, and even if William wasn''t a fan of wearing earrings, he knew they were made of good ores from out there.

    But the main thing he came here for was sealed. "Outer world seals might be a little challenging but with materials from Lara''s city, I can do it."

    William''s face beamed with a bright smile. His enemy sent an assassin to get rid of him, without realising they just gave him a great gift for free.

    William was hungry for anything rted to Mystic Arts. He learnt a lot about this mysterious world, but he was far interested in what Jacky used in theirst battle.

    Just as he cleaned everything, even clothes off that dead man, he felt something moving nearby. "Show yourself," he didn''t get startled by this, as he already was familiar with how Sara''s mother acted.

    She used to not send only one assassin, but a group of them. As he said these words, a figure appeared from the shadows, someone that William never saw before.

    "A new face, oke and let me kill you fast¡­"

    "I''m not here to kill you," the man was wearing a dark cloak, covering up his features, "I''m here to warn you."

    "Warn me? From what?" William didn''t buy what this master was saying. But what this man said next took William by surprise.

    "She sent Jenny over to the town," the man paused, seeming a bit hesitant before adding, "she wants her to bring all thedies on your side, she¡­ Wants to lure them into the pce and trap them there."

    "This bitch!" William cursed, and was this close from moving back before he suddenly stopped, "but why are you doing this?"

    "It''s not for you," the man paused, "it''s¡­ An old debt I have for someone, and I''m just repaying it."

    "I see," William could guess what happened, "thanks anyway, next time we meet I won''t kill you¡­ For one time," William said this as a form of thanks to what this master did, "prey we won''t meet on the battleground."

    "I hope so as well," the master was indeed wary of William. But he did his job and left as soon as William moved.

    "She is a good girl, I like her," William muttered to himself while moving as fast as he could, returning back to the town. That master came to repay a debt, to warn him from what Jenny was about to do. And there was just one person who could orchestrate all this, Jenny!

    She knew she couldn''t refute the orders of Sara''s mother, so she thought of another way to let William get a head on warning and move to stop her.

    He liked that move from Jenny. "Expected from her," he muttered while the walls of his town appeared from the distance, "she didn''t even give me a clue about where she''d be. She is very serious about hiding what she did from Sara''s mother!"

    William knew she was quite cautious, and she had the right to. "If she thinks she''ll leave this time, then she is gravely mistaken!"

    William intended to recruit her the first time he recognised her. But back then it wasn''t suitable to do so, not like this time around.

    He already nted a seed inside her spirit, and what she did meant she started to trust him. He nned to hammer this hard and make her abandon Sara''s mother''s side.

    Yet what he nned gave no fruition in the end. No matter how hard he looked and searched, he couldn''t find a glimpse of Jenny.

    "This girl¡­ She is quite savage," after hours of touring around the city, scanning every inch inside and outside, William decided to drop the search for her.

    He could guess what happened. Jenny didn''t n on meeting up with him in the first ce. She just wanted him to be back so she can return back and give an excuse of his presence here to Sara''s mother. And that was exactly what happened.

    "Screw off!" When Sara''s mother heard the news of what happened from Jenny, she couldn''t help but roar in rage at Jenny, "don''t show me your face or else I''ll kill you!"

    "The deal was to bring the girls after he was killed¡­"

 Chapter 1247: Offence Is Better Than Defence

    "Screw the deal, I ordered you to bring the girls over, useless scum!" Sara''s mother was brimming with immense rage at this moment.

    She didn''t want to recruit the girls over to the pce, she wanted them as hostages in case Jacky failed. She nned to have a leverage over William, chips she could use to negotiate with that stubborn young master.

    But now all this was done for. William killed Jacky it seemed, and now Jenny didn''t get any girl back with her.

    This quite frustrated Sara''s mother way more than Jenny imagined. Even William couldn''t guess this ulterior goal, didn''t get he was saved a ton of trouble thanks to Jenny''s help.

    "Useless, they are all trash," Sara''s mother kicked the seat in the middle of her rage, throwing it for tens of metres in the air, "if you want to do something, do it yourself. It seems I have to go back to that t chest girl again¡­"

    Yet this time she was doomed to fail. From far, Jenny could hear the loud screams of rageing from Sara''s mother''s direction.

    "I don''t know what I did, but it seems bringing those girls over wasn''t just for the pce," Jenny evilly grinned, before her friend showed up.

    It was the one she sent to warn William. The master didn''t say anything, just nodded and kept walking away from her. "A cold bastard indeed," Jenny muttered to herself, but she wasn''t feeling that bad towards this master.

    She could tell he was also a good man deep inside his spirit. If not for the fear of Sara''s mother to sneak peek on her, Jenny would have gone and tried her luck with that master, trying to recruit him over to work with her against the pce.

    But time wasn''t right yet, and she didn''t want to risk making such big moves in the presence of such a demoness.

    Far away from here, William wasn''t aware of any of this. He dropped looking for Jenny, imagining she never came near the town in the first ce.

    "This can''t keep going," William knew Sara''s mother was restricted in a way, or else she''d havee to im his life herself.

    He didn''t know what stopped her from breaking such a restriction, but staying in the town and waiting for her to keeping at him wasn''t an idea he liked.

    So he returned back to the mansion, closed the door on himself, and started to deeply consider how to provoke her and make her in the defensive position.

    Continue your quest on m,vl-em-py-r

    He knew her location, but trying to go directly to her wasn''t a wise move. "If she wanted, she could have simply killed everyone back then. It seems she is restricted to not killing if she wasn''t attacked first¡­"

    The only way to annoy her was by trying to see what she would do and foil it. The only thing he knew for sure was her desire to acquire Sara, which was something not that useful to William.

    "Unless¡­" his eyes shone brightly before he thought about something, "if I sent her away, to her grandfather perhaps, then her mother will be forced to move out and act out of ns¡­"

    What he thought of was to slowly chip down the masters she brought with from the outer world. This way he''d corner her at a tight spot, and perhaps would force her to ept his terms.

    And yet when he was about to go deeper into this idea, setting ns and stuff, someone came into his room uninvited.

    "Moore?!" William was surprised to see the master he left underground to train, "what brought you over here?"

    "I came to tell you what I learnt," Moore''s face showed his hesitation, "that master, the one you told me to find his location¡­ He isn''t from this world!"

    "Ah, I know that already¡­" William thought Moore wanted to speak about something important, and yet when he heard what Moore said, he dropped all interest in listening.

    "Not that alone, that man is part of arge group of masters who use the same weird methods you used before¡­"

    "Yeah yeah, I already know that¡­"

    "Do you also know he got summoned here today?" Moore could tell William wasn''t interested in listening, so he dropped the biggest thing he learnt from Jacky''s memories.

    "Oh, you saw that?!" This time William''s interest revived, "tell me everything you saw."

    "Not that much¡­" Moore wasn''t lying, he was in a hurry back then to see where that dying master was. He just saw glimpses of Jacky''s memories, and from them he saw him moving through the portal underground anding to this world.

    "Hmm, that''s quite annoying," after Moore said everything he had, William sat in the room alone, reconsidering the idea he had before meeting Moore, "it won''t do, she can get as much help as she can from the outer world¡­"

    William remained silent, considering all options he had. The biggest strike he could think of was going to the underground city, destroying all the supporting arrays he painstakingly made before.

    This hit would flip the table over Sara''s mother, but it was like stabbing someone with his sword. William threw this idea behind his back, and started to think about something else.

    "Jenny!" After hours of thinking and contemting different ideas, William finally found something that he could use to threaten Sara''s mother, "I need to get her first on my side¡­"

    He nned to do it already, but this time he missed meeting her. And now the goal of getting her on his side changed. "It''s time to use that recording crystal, hehehe!"

    The more he thought about that idea, the more he became excited about executing it. Doing this would leave Sara''s mother no other way but to eithere and kill him personally, or sumb to his desires and surrender that precious thing over.

    "I need to find a way to contact her," William knew Jenny must be in the underground city.

 Chapter 1248: The Meeting

    William didn''t know if he should go and attack that ce or not. In the middle of his thoughts, he couldn''t help but p his forehead while shaking his head.

    "Damn me! I totally forgot about that," heughed the next moment when he realised something. He couldn''t help but shake his head while imagining how this dude would react when he''d hear about what he''d ask him for.

    "It''s the safest way," William said to himself while heading out from the mansion, "this is something even Sara''s mother won''t seeing, hehehe!"

    William moved back to the underground training base where he went directly to one of the three training there.

    "You can''t be serious!" Moore was the one William came here for, "you want me to do something again?!!"

    "It''s safe this time," William couldn''t resistughing when he saw the look on Moore''s face.

    "You said this thest time as well!"

    "It''s safe, believe me," Williamughed before exining what he wanted Moore to do.

    "Ah, it''s something easy," Moore paused, "do you have a sketch for that girl?"

    "Let me draw one for you¡­"

    "Not you again!" Moore shook his head, st time we got lucky!"

    "No, we don''t!" William red at Moore, "my drawing is the best!"

    "..."

    Moore didn''t want to argue with William about this. He knew how stubborn his guild master was. So, he silently watched William create another miserable drawing before thetter handed it over to him.

    "Do you recall what you are going to say to her?" William asked for the third time while Moore was lying on the ground, preparing to sleep.

    "It''s not that hard to say these words," Moore felt weird about how William acted, "I memorised everything, can you let me go and do the mission then?"

    William knew how critical this little move was for his grand n. So he didn''t want any hups or mistakes at all. He stood on the side, watching Moore go into deep sleep, while waiting for his return with good news.

    As Moore was doing his task, there was a meeting that William wasn''t aware of. Sara, Berry, Anjie, Ro, and Lina. The five girls sat inside a small room built inside the structure of the wall surrounding the town.

    Even if they were rivals, they were also friends. And now they were gathered here to discuss something important.

    "Is she really your mother?" Berry couldn''t help but ask, and Sara paused for a few minutes, while other girls looked at her in silence and anticipation as well.

    "I¡­ Can''t tell¡­" Sara sighed, "I know she left when I was young¡­"

    "Surely you remember her face, right?" Ro bluntly said, making Sara''s face change for a brief moment before returning to normal.

    "It''s the same face, but not the same person¡­" Sara didn''t know how to exin this, struggling for a few moments before deeply sighing, "the mother I recall was kind, can''t even see a bird getting hurt. But thisdy¡­ She is¡­"

    "A monster," Berry said in disdain, "I recall everything she did while controlling my body¡­"

    Sara was ring at Berry when thetter said the word "monster". But after hearing what she said next, Sara could only return to silence and didn''t say anything to Berry.

    She knew Berry was right, she also recalled everything her mother did to her while controlling her body.

    "Are you¡­ You know¡­" Lina looked at the two, examining their bodies.

    Discover more on m|vl|e|mp|y|r

    "She won''t control us again," Sara got what Lina was worried about, "William cleared that weird technique¡­"

    The moment she said that her face blushed as she recalled what happened between her and William. She wasn''t alone, as Berry''s face also changed at the same moment, in the same way.

    "Hehehe, just look at your faces now, hehehe," Anjie couldn''t help butugh while pointing at Sara and Berry, invoking other girls''ughs.

    "We need to seriously consider Sara''s mother''s threat," Berry pouted her lips, while Sara red at Anjie in silence. After all, Anjie was the first girl to really be in William''s bed.

    "We need to know how she used that technique over you," Lina looked at the two girls, then at herself, "we need to know if any of us has the same curse as well!"

    This was why the girls met today. What they experienced during the past days proved how impossible it was to stop Sara''s mother or her masters from sneaking into the town or attacking them and William.

    What the girls feared was Sara''s mother''s weird ability to control others'' bodies. They didn''t fully get it, but they were all smart enough to grasp the general thesis about it.

    What they thought was that Sara''s mother infiltrated the town and used some sort of secret technique over Sara and Berry to control their bodies. They were all worried they''d fall into the same fate, getting controlled as well, ending up harming William, others, and themselves.

    "I believe she used the technique when we were captured back at Lara''s ce," Anjie paused, looking at other girls who went into silence.

    "It''s possible," Sara said, "but we can''t eliminate the possibility of her getting into the town and throwing the technique on us."

    "But how can the two of you do not spot her before in town?" Lina asked another logical question, and the two girls didn''t have anything to respond to her.

    "Let''s not miss all possibilities then," Ro looked at other girls, "if she can infiltrate here, we need to find how."

    "I''m sure there must be a tunnel underground," Lina said in disdain, "I saw such tunnels before at many dark masters bases."

    "Me too!"

    "That indeed exins how she and her masters can get into here without getting noticed!"

    "Good point," Berry nodded in agreement, "let''s then start scanning the area around, let''s look for these tunnels and seal them!"

    "Shall we start from underground?" Ro asked, and Sara shook her head.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 1249: I Accept!

    "The ce there is veryplicated and vast, we''ll take longer time and more manpower to do it," she looked at Anjie, the most experienced one in the little group when handling such procedures.

    "That''s true," Anjie agreed with Sara in a rare moment, "we need masters to help us. And thest thing we want is to take too much to create holes in our defences."

    She didn''t need to say more, as other girls here got what she meant. They were trying to solve a problem, not ending up creating more problems instead.

    They started to further discuss how many masters they should have, who would leave for this task and who was going to stay here defending the town.

    In the end, they agreed that Sara and Berry couldn''t leave the town. They seemed as top targets for Sara''s mother, and it''d be foolish to let them out without proper defence.

    So Lina and Ro decided to go on this mission. Anjie couldn''t leave as well, as she was a high figure that if anything happened to her, bad things would ur to William from the king.

    Even if they didn''t like Anjie, they couldn''t look away from her social status. And so Ro and Lina volunteered to go and do the task.

    "We''ll make sure no one will get into the town," Anjie concluded the meeting by saying these words, "let''s go and get the needed masters for you."

    The girls started to move, and without William knowing it, they''d create far more problems for him than help.

    As the girls were meeting, Moore drifted through thend of dreams, looking for Jenny. He already knew her name and rough draw of her looks. Even when he had doubts, he felt the same tuck on his body, force surrounding his, the sign that his technique worked.

    "Who are you?! What are you doing here?!"

    The next moment he found himself standing on top of a small hill, overlooking a big battle where a valiant lookingdy was fighting against hordes of monsters. She wore golden armour that couldn''t be noticed from a distance, and she fought in a very brilliant way.

    Nothing stood in her path without getting smashed and shattered with her big sword and lethal techniques. Moore''s appearance instantly rmed Jenny, who was dreaming about this big battle.

    "I''m a friend," Moore paused, especially when Jenny red at him in a very dangerous way, "I came in peace¡­"

    "Screw off!" Jenny seemed to put Moore at top target for her. She ignored the endless monsters around, dashed directly like a thunderbolt towards Moore''s hill.

    "Wait, I came to deliver my master''s message," Moore was about to continue his words when he found Jenny instantly appearing in front of him, "sht! Dream world works with totally different rules indeed!"

    He gritted his teeth, knowing that the master of the dream had full control over the dream itself. Jenny wasn''t moving or fighting based on real life rules but based on her mind rules. And if she wanted to get to Moore instantly, she would appear in front of him just like how she did now.

    He didn''t hesitate to summon a huge shield, one that took a severe blow from Jenny, ending up throwing his body like a broken kite in the air.

    "Easy and safe task my as*!" he hastily stood up from the ground, cursing inwardly at William while summoning another shield, "William sent me!" he shouted on the top of his lungs, before he got tossed away again by another hit from Jenny.

    But this time she stopped and didn''t follow through. "William? How do you know him?!" Jenny got surprised instantly when she heard what Moore said. And thetter spitted blood on the ground, before starting to speak.

    Even if he was in a dream world, he could get easily injured and even die. That was why he didn''t underestimate Jenny. It wasn''t about real-life power level or something, it was totally a rtion between a dream master and an intruder.

    That was why he heaved a deep sigh of relief when she stopped. Fighting against someone in his dreams without using the deadly techniques of his was a suicide.

    He shouted William''s name while preparing to escape from here if she didn''t stop. And luckily, she recognised William and seemed to highly value him.

    "He is my guild master," Moore paused before adding, "he sent me here to deliver a message to you."

    "Send you here? This¡­"

    "I''m a master who can easily ess dreams," Moore didn''t know why, but being in front of Jenny made him say such a secret that only the closest people to William knew.

    And weirdly, he didn''t feel any regret or worry from telling her this.

    "Hmm¡­ Interesting," unlike what he thought, Jenny calmly epted what he said, "don''t give me that look, dream masters aren''t that unheard of in the ce I came from."

    "You also came from the outer world like that master?!" Moore was taken aback when he jumped to such a conclusion.

    "That master¡­ You don''t mean Jacky, right?" Jenny started to smile, "it seems you are close to William to know about all this. Ok ok, tell me what he sent you for."

    "He wants you toe over and be with him," Moore didn''t know why but he felt weird saying these words in front of her. And he wasn''t alone, she also felt the same.

    "Come to be with him?!" she blinked, and Moore cleared up his throat, recalling atst what William kept stressing on him to say.

    "Interesting¡­ So, he wants me to do something insane, against that btch, and quite dangerous on top of that¡­ Hahaha, I like that!"

    Unlike what Moore thought, she didn''t argue or debate about the task. In fact she seemed to totally agree on doing it.

    "Don''t you want some time to consider?" Her clear and fast agreement made Moore suspicious, "this isn''t an easy task, not a walk in the park¡­"

 Chapter 1250: Moore And Jenny

    "I know," instead of showing worry on her face, Jenny looked as happy as if she heard the best news ever in her life, "tell him I''ll do it! He just needs to send that thing over."

    "He''ll ce it in the city above¡­" Moore was still sceptical and worried over her fast approval. What William wanted was quite insane without doubt, and the one who''d be in the most danger would be her.

    But he didn''t know she was genuinely excited about doing this task. Her family was kept hostages by Sara''s mother. And targeting her like this would free her family, and herself, from the miserable life they were living for years.

    William already thought about everything. He even selected a ce to hide that crystal in Lara''s city, where Jenny could ess easily.

    "... That''s it! Any inquiries orints?" Moore still wanted to give her a chance to reconsider doing this mission. Without knowing it, he started to grow some attachment and worry over her. And unlike what he hoped for, she shook her head and evenughed.

    "I''m cool with all of this¡­ When will we start moving?"

    "I''lle again and tell you about the date," Moore improvised on this, as William didn''t say anything about the time to act.

    "Great, what''s your name by the way?" when Moore was feeling good after realising he''d meet again with her, she said something that got him startled.

    "I''m Moore," he introduced himself, feeling a bit awkward as he didn''t introduce himself until she asked.

    "Ok Moore, I''ll wait for our next dream meeting," Jenny was indeed in a very good mood, she even sent a kiss in the air over to him, "you are now officially my lucky charm, hehehe."

    When she did that, Moore''s face turned a bit red. She felt a little amused by this and decided to add an extra touch by herstment.

    "She agreed, good!" William was anxiously waiting for Moore''s return. And the moment his master opened his eyes, William literally interrogated him.

    Moore kept the worry over Jenny and his hints to give her time to reconsider. He also didn''t say anything about the kiss she sent, nor thest words she said.

    "Yeah, we need time to prepare," William was pleased by Moore, "go back to training, you''ll revisit her again when everything is ready."

    "Sure," Moore struggled to keep his excitement hidden, but not from William''s keen senses. Thetter noticed the strange attitude Moore had, and couldn''t help but frown at first, then smiled and said nothing while walking away.

    William knew he crossed half of the distance by getting Jenny''s approval. And the rest of the n wasn''t easy.

    "Send a message to Lara," William returned to his mansion, calling everyone on his team, "make preparations, we are going to war soon."

    Your adventure continues at m v|l-e-NovelBin

    "Whom are we going to fight?"

    "Are you stupid? We are going to attack those mysterious masters."

    "But¡­ How about being super powerful and we aren''t a match for them?"

    "William must have a n," Anjie said, stopping everyone''s worriedments. What she said made everyone turn to William, waiting for his next words.

    "We are indeed weaker than them, however¡­" William moved his eyes among his closest friends and trusted masters, "I''m not asking you to throw your lives away. We will go there with one goal in mind, and I have a n."

    "That''s what we all want to know," Sara said, "when are we going to move? What is the n?"

    "The right question shall be: What is our goal from doing this," William smiled before exining everything rted to this part of his big n.

    As he said everything, everyone started to get what he wanted to do. "So¡­ About the real reason behind doing this¡­" Fang was standing with everyone in the room and kept himself silent all the time except now.

    He was the most eager one to go and attack those foreigners. He suffered a ton on their hands, and he wanted to fight against Sara''s mother and repay the kindness she showed double.

    But from what William said, even if it meant it was quite easy to execute, he could sense there was something extra behind such an attack. "I won''t exin anything further, for now at least," William was worried Sara''s mother had a way to spy on their meeting.

    So he kept silent about the real goal of taking such a move. "Ok," Fang nodded in understanding, "but you''ll tell uster, right?"

    "At the right time," William paused, before giving Fang a serious look, "don''t overdo it."

    "I''ll just y by the rules," Fang shrugged, walking away as if he didn''t hear what William said, "notify me when we are about to move."

    "Sigh! I hope he won''t end up killing himself," William could tell what Fang intended to do. And even if he was one of the top three masters in the world, he would be in grave danger if he decided to target Sara''s mother.

    "We''ll move in three days," William ended the meeting by saying this, "don''t lower your guards."

    William didn''t want the town to get massively attacked by Sara''s masters before moving out. He intended to move and attack the underground city. And this time he wasn''t going there to fight a life and death battle against Sara''s mother forces, also not to pay back part of what she did. He had another goal in mind, and now he needed to make a little extra preparation.

    The first thing he did was to send a master to Lara''s city. He told him to go to a certain building there, one that is part of his Fox Guild belongings, but outside of the main base.

    At the same time, he asked that master to notify Lara about the time of their move. William didn''t intend to just use his guild masters in this battle and wanted the help of Lara''s city masters.

 Chapter 1251: Going To Laras City

    The threat of Sara''s mother wasn''t limited only to William and his masters. On top of that, he didn''t want to take lots of masters from the guild, to not risk a bloody retaliation from Sara''s mother after this attack.

    There were many things he needed to take care of, including informing Jenny about the time zone of the attack and other details. Moore was more excited to do this task, which made William sigh inwardly.

    He could tell Moore grew attached to Jenny. William didn''t have an opinion about that, except for Jenny to be a master from the higher world, not from this one.

    "I hope you aren''t overstepping here," William muttered to himself after meeting with Moore for the third time. Thetter said he visited Jenny again in her dreams, a third visit that William didn''t ask him to do.

    "She seems to get wind of what we are trying to do," Moore warned William and delivered the message Jenny ryed.

    "Ok," unlike what Moore expected, William seemed careless about this info, "now go and train. Don''t get distracted by anything, you got my words?"

    "Yes, sure," but even with Moore''s confirmation, William had his doubts he''d listen to him. As for Jenny''s warning, it wasn''t unexpected for Sara''s mother to know about what he nned.

    In fact, he hoped for her to notice the weird movement in the city above. This was also part of the reasons he wanted Lara to gather masters from the city for this attack.

    "The more you worry, the better the results will be," William evilly grinned, "one day before the attack, we''ll start moving tomorrow morning then."

    The day passed fast, and William kept busy handling different stuff. He checked on the mastersing with him on this adventure, and also checked on Jenny through Moore.

    Thetter seemed to like visiting Jenny in her dreams. He came to William three more times, speaking about things that William didn''t care about.

    "She is getting more anxious," William was on his way to Lara''s city while recalling thest words he exchanged with Moore. Jenny ryed a final message, saying that she got what he left for her, and she was ready.

    She also stated that Sara''s mother sent her masters to set different traps in the underground city. News already reached her ears about the grand gathering of masters in the city plus what William was doing in the guild.

    The more he heard about that, the more William felt relieved. The more anxious she got the better the results would be. And before leaving, he made sure to give Jennyst instructions through Moore.

    "Are we finally going to reim the underground city?" The moment William came close to the city, Lara ran towards him while saying this in greetings.

    "The girl who we are after isn''t that weak," Williamughed, "but yeah, we can try, why not?"

    "Why not?!!" Lara blinked while her mind guessed something, "don''t tell me¡­"

    "You''ll know in time," William looked at his friends, "let''s go, we''ll attack now."

    "Won''t I get some rest?" Lara looked at William in a weird way.

    "Won''t we wait for my mentor toe?" Anjie asked, but William shook his head.

    "We need to hit the iron while it''s hot," he paused before adding, "besides our enemy is already watching us. We need to hit hard and fast, or else we''d end up falling into more trouble."

    He knew Sara''s mother would get tempted to send her masters to the surface city to cause havoc if they dyed the attack. She was the master of assassination, and it was a bad idea to create the ideal situation for her to do what she was experienced about.

    "As you wish," Lara turned to spread the news, before returning to William and added, "about the attack ns¡­"

    "We''ll just hit and kill everything and anything we find down there," William fiercely said, "we''ll hit all the enemies down there. We got the home advantage, know the underground city better than anyone else, and our enemies are few inparison to us. Let''s go and kill all of these bastards and reim our city!"

    He said hisst sentences with a loud voice, shouting at everyone around, using his spirit power to magnify his voice. The moment he did so, earth shattering cheers urred,ing from different ces in the city.

    The next moment many masters shouted with orders to move. Like flood, the masters moved in unison and quite fast, close to running towards the gates leading to the underground city.

    Many doors were already distributed across the city to amodate the huge number of masters here. And in the next few hours, tons of masters would keeping at these doors and passing towards the underground city.

    William and his friends moved into the underground city at the first hour. The moment they arrived there, they found the ce was already filled with tons of fighting noises, while many heart-curdling screams echoed all over the ce.

    Explore stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "They are holding quite well," William spread his spirit, and examined how the current situation looked, "interesting¡­ She didn''t set that spirit locking formation¡­"

    William expected Sara''s mother to use the same trick she used before, the one that led to him not noticing her presencest time. But this time it felt like she was overly confident in her masters'' abilities to stop the iing army.

    William knew going by logic, it was almost impossible for the city and his guild masters to kill Sara''s mother masters. The difference in power levels was so vast to make anyone feel powerless and hopeless. But he wasn''t here to reim control over the underground city.

    "What shall we do now?" Anjie asked, while Lara just joined.

    "We''ll keep pushing of course," Lara seemed so excited about this battle, "we''ll kill everyone and get our city back!"

    "I''ll go ahead then," Fang suddenly moved, "I''ll find the strongest ones and take them down using your formation."

 Chapter 1252: She Is Overly Cautious!

    "Tsk!" William could tell Fang was lying and he''d just head directly towards Sara''s mother, "just make sure your head remains on top of your shoulders, ok?"

    In fact, William secretly supported what Fang was going to do. He wanted someone to keep Sara''s mother busy. And Fang was the best one to do that.

    He watched Fang move fast, bypassing lots of fights without interfering. "Let''s go," he led everyone down the cliff, "be aware of the monsters, they won''t let us pass through without a fight."

    The moment he said that, a loud roar came from the side. "I''ll handle them," Sara volunteered, leading tens of masters she brought with to fight the iing evolved monsters.

    "I''ll help her as well," Berry volunteered as well. Seeing the two girls go to fight the monsters around made William inwardly sigh.

    "Make sure to not overdo it!" he shouted before leading everyone to the front. He knew Sara didn''t want to fight or meet with her mother. It was expected, as the two had aplicated rtionship so far.

    As for Berry, it seemed what Sara''s mother did to her still left a scar on her heart. It wasn''t time to speak about any of this with these two, and it was better to let them do what they wanted while he led everyone to the upfront battles.

    "Our n is simple," the moment they met the hostile masters from the higher world, William shouted, "we''ll slowly grind our way to the front. Always step in and help each other, never fight an enemy alone or in a small group¡­"

    William started rying his orders before the fight started. Even if Sara''s masters were stronger in terms of spirit rank, they still got affected negatively by the limits enforced by this world.

    William depended on this. And to take down any higher world master, lots of these world masters should cooperate and work together.

    The early battles were quite hectic, many were fighting without paying attention to what he warned earlier. And so, it wasn''t weird for many to lose their lives in the early hours of this expedition.

    But soon enough, lots of masters started to gather and work together. William didn''t join the fight at first, kept watching everyone and intervened when danger arose. At the same time, his main focus was on someone else, on Fang.

    He couldn''t spot Sara''s mother''s location easily in the middle of all this mess. So it was better to let Fang lead his spirit sense towards her. And as he expected, Fang ended up spotting Sara''s mother, and came hard at her using his lightning formation.

    The attacknded but didn''t leave much impact. Sara''s mother wasn''t standing alone, was surrounded by lots of strong masters, the strongest of the army she brought here.

    "Found you!" Sara''s mother, Fang, and William muttered the same words at the same time. It was a moment of fate, and William kept his senses focused on Sara''s mother, to make sure she got involved with Fang before making his next move.

    "She isn''t easy to get tricked," William helplessly smiled. Even after an hour of constantly showering her with lightning, Sara''s mother never budged an inch from her spot.

    Fang was doing his best to take revenge, and yet all he could do was to kill other masters, not her. He didn''t even leave behind a single wound, making him more enraged.

    That wasn''t what William wanted. He wanted Fang to keep Sara''s mother busy. Staying uninvolved in a direct fight with Fang wasn''t the best situation William wanted to see.

    "Lara," out of the blue, William suddenly approached Lara. She was fighting alongside many of her city masters, alongside the masters from the Fox Guild who followed her faction.

    "What?!" she shouted, whilending a hit over a monster that popped out of nowhere towards her, "what do you want? Don''t you see I''m busy?"

    "I want you to do something for me," William knew she was frustrated not because she couldn''t kill her enemies, but because their progress was as slow as snail.

    She seemed to think this battle was going to end up fast like lightning. Yet what happened was for all the masters to struggle against their enemies.

    "What? Are you insane! Can''t you see we are having much trouble already?!!!" she couldn''t help but blink twice, before exploding at William''s face.

    "This must be done," William stressed, "we came here to do something, and we need to do it fast!"

    "..." Lara already had her doubts about what William was doing here. At first, she thought he wanted to get rid of the new threat in the underground city. But after directly fighting against those masters for the second time, she couldn''t help but feel this goal wasn''t realistic at all!

    Even if they spent weeks fighting here, the disparity in power was enough to make them fail in the end, or worse. They could win after paying a very scary price, one that even she wasn''t willing to do.

    Thinking about that made her realise this wasn''t William''s goal from the start. And she couldn''t help but guess vaguely about what he wanted to do.

    And now he just asked her an outrageous request, one that meant they wouldn''t be able to progress at all. If their current progress was slow, she would never rece it with a status quo situation like what he wanted.

    "Trust me," William tugged on her arm, "we''ll have our victory on her, but¡­"

    "Not this time," she sighed, deeply sighed when she realised her worst worries were true. William didn''te here with any intention in reiming the city. And that meant any more time spent here was pointless.

    Explore stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "Fine," she finally sumbed to his wish, "but after all this is over, you owe me a big apology and a huge exnation."

    "I promise you that," he showed the sincerest look on his face, making her feel he was lying.

 Chapter 1253: Williams Weird Actions

    "Don''t think I won''t hold you ountable to this promise," Lara warned, "I can ask the help of others, and even you can''t stand against them!"

    "I won''t renege on my words," William raised both hands in the air, acting as innocent as a liar would be. Seeing him doing this made Lara more certain he wouldn''t tell her anything.

    Yet she didn''t refuse his request. She knew him, someone who loved to do things on his own and never thought about asking for help ever before. And that meant the thing he came here to do was quite important, and he truly needed her help.

    In the next few minutes, she ryed the orders all around her city masters. And in the next half an hour, a huge change urred on the entire battlefield.

    The main change stemmed from the movement of almost half of the strongest spirit master force to attack Sara''s mother with Fang. William noticed that even with Fang''s brutal attacks, it wasn''t enough to make Sara''s mother budge an inch.

    This wasn''t his intention, he wanted her to be fighting for her life. So, he asked Lara to send half of the top masters to help Fang. and that made her hesitate at the start.

    The enemies they were fighting weren''t that weak or easy to handle. Even with the full force gathered here, it was hard to push forward or kill the enemies up front.

    And with the absence of half of the elite masters, it was expected other masters started to struggle.

    "Pull back!" William didn''t think twice and shouted at the masters around, "let''s group together and endure."

    "I hope you know what you are doing," Lara gave him a ming gaze, but what she got in response was a calm smile on his face.

    "We are doing great!" he wasn''t lying. What he came here for finally happened. Sara''s mother was forced to get into the fight herself when half of the top city masters moved. If not, then her elite masters would fall fast, and she''d be left defenceless.

    She got her hand forced and thought this was the intention of William. She mistook his actions as if he wanted to chop her elite forces and leave her to the end. So she threw herself bravely in the middle of the ongoing battle and started to help her masters.

    On the surface, things looked quite ugly for William''s side. The masters were pushed back to get near the hill. And the elite forces sent to help Fang couldn''t kill that many of the top masters of the enemy.

    It didn''t need a genius to guess they were going to lose! Even his close-up friends gave him a weird look filled with questions and doubts.

    What made them feel so was the usual look on his face, the one they used to see when he got things under control. And that was what made them question what they were witnessing around!

    But they knew him, and soon enough they pushed aside all the worries and waited for the moment when all of this would make sense.

    In fact William knew this would look bizarre. He was in a very tight spot right now with everyone else. And if they persisted in fighting, they''d aplish nothing but having lots of losses on their side.

    This was a suicidal act, but he had to do it this way. When Sara''s mother got engaged into the battle, he could finally heave a sigh of relief.

    "I hope you know it''s time to move," William thought to himself, while bidding his time, waiting for the right signal to withdraw.

    And after two hours, the signal he waited for finally arrived!

    *Rumble!*

    A sudden and weird rumble urred in this world, apanied by a myriad of lightsing from the ground. The moment this happened, almost all of the battles stopped, all except the ones which had Fang and Sara''s mother at.

    It wasn''t an involuntary action from Fang or the other elite masters. In fact, when William spotted Sara''s mother enter the bloody fight, he instantly sent a message using his spirit telepathy:

    "Some sort of an earthquake will happen soon. The moment it happens, do anything in your power to keep that btch busy fighting you and others," this was what William said to Fang. And thetter didn''t think too much about it, and simply ryed the words over to other masters.

    But when the shaking happened, he and other masters realised William wasn''t joking. And that made them fight harder, push with everything they got to make sure Sara''s mother and her other elite dark masters would be pretty upied with them.

    In their minds, they thought William had a hidden n that would start by the rumble and shaking. Then it was logical for them to jump to the conclusion he didn''t want any of the high-end forces of the enemy to get into the fight.

    They were partially right. He did indeed have a hidden n, but he wasn''t aiming to kill his enemies. The moment the shaking ended, and the lights vanished, William shouted on the top of his lungs:

    "Retreat! Let''s get out of here!"

    His wordsnded, and it was like a deadly explosion urred. Everyone stopped fighting, even his enemies, all looked in one direction, his.

    Weird and heavy silence ushered around the underground city. Even Sara''s mother stopped in her actions, couldn''t get what went wrong in William''s head to say something like that.

    "Do as I say," yet he stressed over this order, "retreat!"

    He didn''t even stand there for a single second, turned around and started running over the stairs like crazy. Seeing him do that made those hesitant and those in disbelief to wake up. And without knowing it, everyone started to run and retreat as he ordered.

    "This is wrong¡­ Something is fishy¡­" Sara''s mother watched even the strongest masters who kept her busy retreat.

 Chapter 1254: Im Going To Kill You!

    This didn''t add up, and Sara''s mother couldn''t help but think about the short rumbling and shaking that happened shortly, the weird lights that appeared for brief seconds before vanishing.

    "Sht! The portal!!!" the moment her mind got time to think about it, she couldn''t help but guess what the root of all this was. And when she thought about that, she couldn''t help but look at William''s direction.

    "What did you do exactly?" even if she realised what happened, she was sure William was behind it. And yet she couldn''t guess what could possibly be that important to send to the higher world.

    She was busy fighting against the relentless mastersing from the city above. They weren''t that strong, but they had the numerical advantage, and they were stubbornly attacking her regardless of anything else.

    She got absorbed in stopping them, setting her gaze mainly over William. Thetter didn''t make any suspicious moves, and that made her neglect the rumbling and the light shower that shortly appeared.

    William showed clear signs of being from there, and yet his strength was quite weak. It wasn''t just him, everyone else in this world was very weak. If any master tried to cross the portal before fulfilling certain conditions, like getting to the pinnacle of power for example, then their bodies wouldn''t tolerate the transition, ending up getting killed!

    Thinking about that made her unable to read through William''s scheme. And yet her instincts told her that something bad just happened. She looked at William''s direction and thought about getting to him, forcing him to spill what he did.

    Yet the moment she realised all this it was already toote. William was now running as fast as he could, getting away from here. The moment she wanted to give chase, he was already up the hill, overlooking the underground city below with a mocking gaze on his face.

    Seeing the look on his face was enough to make her confirm her earlier doubts. "You little bastard¡­ What did you do?" she muttered slowly while knowing William was watching her as she was watching him.

    "It''s just a little gift, consider what I told you earlier or else¡­" William ended his words with an evilugh, then didn''t stand in his ce for another second. He turned around and dashed out of here, while other masters followed.

    Sara''s mother was soothing with rage at this point. She knew she got yed, and the only thing she could do now was to vent her rage on the surrounding masters.

    Yet the masters closest to her were strong enough to sustain her iing wrath. Even if she was a top pinnacle master in this world, she was still unfamiliar and ufortable with the decline of power she suffered by being here.

    As the closest masters stopped her, she could only watch while William vanished. "That damn rat! He can run very fast!" she gritted her teeth, knowing she wouldn''t catch him.

    "You will pay!" she turned and with more wrath attacked the masters. If not for Fang setting more lightning formations, shielding many masters, then the losses would have been on a whole different level.

    In the end of the day, she couldn''t kill more than five of the strongest masters the city had. There were lots of wounded masters, but everyone knew if not for Fang, they''d have been all dead by now.

    "You¡­ You left me down there and ran!!!" The first thing Fang did was to look for William. If Sara''s mother was pretty enraged of him, then Fang wasn''t different.

    He saw it as if William ditched and abandoned him down below. So, the moment he found William, outside Lara''s city walls, he didn''t hesitate to move as fast as he could, holding him by the cor, while shouting in pure rage.

    "As if the formation you kept using didn''te from me," William slowly and calmly responded, while he moved his hands with force to remove Fang''s. But he failed to make thetter''s fingers budge away from his neck.

    "You¡­ You really are audacious!"

    "I''ve done this for the proper reason," William''s face didn''t change, looking as calm as ever, "''it was worth it¡­"

    "Exin then! Exin now!"

    "Now? Here?!" William raised an eyebrow, while his friends looked at each other, feeling worried about him.

    "..." Fang struggled as hard as he could to not punch William on the face to wipe that annoying smile off. "Let''s go then," he knew what William was referring to, and couldn''t help but let go of William''s neck, "if I didn''t like your reasons, then consider yourself dead¡­ Do you hear me? Dead!"

    "Cough!" William touched his neck after Fang released it and sneezed twice. Even while experiencing that, the look on his face didn''t change.

    "Are you ok?" Berry asked first, while looking at William in a weird way.

    "It''s nothing," he smiled, "let''s go back."

    "..." Berry was like everyone else, like Fang, wanted to know what all this was about. Lara even tagged along, as she was dying to know why William did all this.

    However, William kept his mouth shut while they headed back to the guild town. They never stopped asking, but he only kept his lips sealed tight and never said anything of value.

    William knew Sara''s mother must have sent a few of her masters to track and spy on him. He didn''t want to spill all the beans in one go, wanted to let her keep running in circles, feeling puzzled and lost about what exactly happened.

    William was sure Sara''s mother would guess that he activated the portal. But no master from this would be fit to pass through it, not to mention the real reason behind doing this.

    He knew she''d start guessing someone from her side would do such a move as thest option. In fact, she never suspected such a thing until she''d meet himter on.

    As William and others arrived at the town, he made sure to set many sealing arrays and formations, hoping they''d be enough to stop the prying eyes of Sara''s mother.

 Chapter 1255: Preparations For Battle

    William started to exin everything he did, the reason behind starting such a short-term war, and why he ordered a haste retreat.

    "You recruited one of the enemy masters?!!"

    "She is called Jenny?!"

    "Will she do what you wanted from her?"

    "Will this enforce my mother''s hand and make her sumb to your wishes?"

    "You sought out another girl? Don''t you have enough with all of us here?!!"

    Once he finished speaking, many expressed their shock and doubts. William calmly listened to all this, ignoring thements regarding him recruiting another girl.

    "I know it sounds weird, but yes, I know she will do it," William confidently said, "we don''t need to worry about her, but about your mother."

    He and everyone looked at Sara, and thetter sighed. "I can tell she won''t easily ept such a result," she muttered, and William nodded.

    "She would ept this situation eventually," William calmly said, "but first she''ll try to vent her rage on us. You saw how strong and capable she and her masters are. We need to put extra effort inying down traps and strengthening our defences¡­"

    "Will that be enough?" Fang said, speaking in a more realistic, terrified tone, "I fought against her and other masters on her side¡­ They are the real deal!"

    "Don''t forget, we were the ones invading their turf," Williammented, "and when theye here, they''ll be the ones invading ours."

    "But¡­"

    "Don''t worry," William took out a few scrolls from one of his rings, "these are rted to grand formation, one that can be used by gold grade masters at least and can stop them."

    "Interesting," Fang didn''t continue his argument while his eyes shifted towards the scrolls William took out, "may I?"

    "Sure," William handed the scrolls to Fang, "this trap isn''t enough to kill these masters. But it''ll give us chances to kill them¡­"

    William moved his eyes around everyone standing here. He picked up and trained every one of them during the past years. And they evolved through time, getting stronger, forming factions, and having followers.

    So, when he said these words and moved his eyes in silence among all of them, it was apparent what he wanted from them.

    "Leave this task for us!"

    "We''ll make sure to hunt them down one by one!"

    "Even if they are stronger, we have more masters on our side!"

    "We still got my lightning formation!"

    "I''ll prepare more formations like that," William rolled his eyes when Fang said his piece, "but we need more formidable masters, so¡­"

    He paused over Lara, and thetter got what he wanted from her. "Leave it to me. But when do you expect the attack toe?"

    "I''ll wait for her toe and pay me a visit first," William evilly smirked, "let''s say she''ll do it tomorrow, so let''s get our preparations done by then."

    William was guessing what Sara''s mother would do, and he guessed it correctly. Once he left with everyone from the underground city, the first thing she did was to pay the portal a visit.

    She checked and found nothing suspicious about it. "Interesting¡­ It seems the portal got activated naturally, and that means only someone eligible to go there did it!"

    To activate the inter-world portals, few requirements must be met. The most fundamental one was to have a suitable level of spirit power to activate it.

    There were other ways to do so, which would leave behind lots of traces. And yet she didn''t find anything out of the ordinary down there. It was clear the one who did it was eligible to go to the outer world.

    "No one in this world has reached that level of power yet, which means¡­" she moved her eyes, looking at the rocky ceiling. She was looking at the direction of her masters, and that was where she knew she''d find the answer to this puzzlement.

    She realised one of her own went out of their way and helped William. She didn''t know who he or she was, and she needed to figure that out first before guessing the deal they had with William.

    But there was a simple problem, many of the masters lost their lives in the past attack. If it was at other times, she''d simply gathered everyone and saw who wasn''t present. But now she needed to first gather the dead, see who was missing from the alive and dead lists.

    This task would take roughly a day as William expected. And by the end of that day, Sara''s mother finally found the traitor.

    "Jenny!" she gritted her teeth, clenched tightly on her fists, while rage stormed inside her spirit. She called Jenny over to kill William, eventually failing. But she never imagined for the two toe close to each other, even to the extent of working against her in such a way.

    "Did he just help her to escape? Or is there something else I don''t know about?"

    The simple exnation for all this was for William to risk everything and do this useless little show back then to help Jenny escape. Yet this didn''t add up.

    She met William many times already, and he never gave her the impression he''d do something out of charity. Besides, there wasn''t an option for William and Jenny to meet enough to fall in love with each other or something.

    "That bastard¡­ He knew I''d get stuck in the end!" In the middle of her rage, she destroyed the seat she used with a single punch filled with her spirit power.

    Seeing their leader this enraged made other masters around gulp and tremble inwardly in fear. "You asked for me to pay you a visit, and I''ll do it¡­ But don''t regret inviting me over¡­"

    She moved her eyes and looked at everyone around, "gather up, we are going to visit that bastard. Make sure to show him how generous our pce is!"

    Continue reading on m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    And just like that, Sara''s mother gathered everyone on her side and started to move out from the underground city. William guessed all this, but never expected she''de with all of her masters.

 Chapter 1256: Warm Welcome

    The mastersing out from the underground city was a scene that many spotted. Without any dy, news spread over and reached William''s ears back in his town.

    "Oho, she seems quite impatient, hahaha," when he heard this, he first got surprised before heughed, "nothing changes in our ns. We''ll wee them as we nned."

    "Will they attack my city?" Lara asked in sincere worry, but William shook his head and reassured her.

    "They aren''t that stupid to do so," he calmly smiled, "they may be stronger than all of us, but theyck in terms of numbers. They are limited by this world''s rules and can''t exert much of their true prowess. Not to mention they still have not adapted to their lowered powers. So, they won''t make such stupid mistakes."

    "Plus, they wanted him, not your city," Anjie paused, "it''s a pity that my kingdom''s top masters haven''t made it here yet¡­"

    Anjie acted like Lara, sent an envoy to her father, exining everything. Her father and his trusted masters found it interesting to have such a threat in their kingdom''snds. And so she got the response of sending enough top masters to not only crush the enemies, but also capture as many as possible from them.

    Yet her father gave her five days'' time before these masters would arrive. William already told them Sara''s mother''s big attack wouldn''t happen before she''d meet up with him.

    Things didn''t happen the way William envisioned, and so the kingdom''s top masters wouldn''te here in time. Even if she sent out a distress signal, it''d be already toote.

    "No need for them," Lara scoffed, "my city already sent a hundred top masters here¡­"

    "No offence dear, but your city''s top masters can''t bepared to my kingdom''s top masters," Anjie weed the challengingment with another. And William couldn''t help but roll his eyes in response.

    "It''s not the right time for any of that," he sighed, "if you have extra power, go out there and help in finalising the preparations. We have a big fighting up, so let''s do it!"

    William moved with everyone towards the walls. He already nned everything with themst night. Even if he expected to have more time and Sara''s mother foiled this point, their situation wasn''t that bad overall.

    The cornerstone formation was alreadyid, and many traps were in ce. The stronger masters from Lara''s city came here, and more were supposed toe but it was already toote for that.

    The distance between the city and town would take a few hours for stronger masters. Sara''s mother woulde in a few hours, and they had to make sure everyone was in their positions before that would happen.

    William left everything to his trusted friends and masters. All he did was to stand on top of a medium sized tower, overlooking the open ins which was in the direction of Lara''s city.

    "They are here," he already spread his spirit sense to detect Sara''s mother and her masters. In mere three hours, they were already within his spirit sense coverage range.

    The moment he spotted them, he said to those standing around him, "spread the word, they''ll be here in twenty minutes at most."

    Your journey continues at m v|l-e''-NovelBin

    William knew Sara''s mother wouldn''t directly start the battle, yet this wasn''t the case for him.

    *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

    "You thought I''d sit here and wait for you toe? Hahaha!" Just a few miles away, lots of banging explosive noises erupted. William let his guild masters bury bombs, covering up a huge area where Sara''s mother and her little army of masters would pass through.

    Sara''s mother didn''t bring everyone as William expected, she only brought a couple hundred of them. It seemed she picked the strongest out of her masters and led them here.

    In fact, she was forced to do so. After thest battle, she knew the weaker and inexperienced masters in her party were going to be an easy hunt for William''s masters.

    Not to mention many masters were left with deadly wounds. So she just picked the strongest and healthiest ones and thought this was an overkill.

    Yet even before she''d arrived at the Fox Guild town wall, she and her masters got assaulted with lots of bombs.

    "Landmine? Interesting!" The attack didn''t cause much damage, and Sara''s mother could instantly recognise the nature of this assault.

    She looked at her masters, and they nodded. Without the need to say anything, they all spread over, activating the buried mines and bombs, ending up detonating lots of them in a short time.

    The sounds of explosions came constantly from different directions. "You think I ced these bombs there for fun? You are greatly mistaken!" William looked over what was going on using his spirit sense, and he wasn''t fazed for even a moment by Sara''s mother''s actions.

    He already expected her to do something like that. If there was a big weakness in her, then it''d be arrogance and overconfidence.

    She always looked down on him, and he knew she had reasons to feel so. She came from a higher and stronger world, and they were all ants in front of her.

    But she was gravely mistaken as she was limited by thews in this world. Even if she was hundred times stronger, her current strength was bound to the lower world rules.

    These bombs weren''t situated there just to trap them, in fact there was a hidden formation buried deep under the ground.

    The bombs would activate the formation, but the bombs needed to get detonated on arge scale, and in a very short time. He used her arrogance against her, out yed her, and this was just the start.

    The formation was the one he told his friends about, the one designed to entrap these stronger masters and weaken them. But it wasn''t a strong formation on its own. So, if the masters stood together, they could easily shatter it.

 Chapter 1257: Battle

    Yet Sara''s mother already spread her masters over a huge area, making them isted from each other. In addition to using them to activate the formation, William also depended on Sara''s mother to scatter them over the area, separating them, and making it hard and pretty impossible to destroy the formation.

    "Get ready," seeing what his enemies were doing made William evillyugh, "our friend from far is about to get her warm weing ceremony. Do it!"

    The formation was some sort of both sealing and weakening formations. Its main foundation wasid already out there, but the main controllers were selected masters from the guild.

    William didn''t interfere in picking them, yet he advised his friends to pick the gold grade masters, leaving the dark gold ones to fight the enemies. As for the weaker masters, their role was to support any needs both groups of masters needed.

    Everyone was waiting for his signal. And the moment he gave the order, everyone started to move.

    The ground which was filled with explosions suddenly got lit up. "What trick did you use this time?" seeing this myriad of lights made Sara''s mother suspect what was going on. She looked around in vignce, and yet nothing else happened.

    The lights were mainly cyanish, dancing at the distant sky as if they were some sort of fireworks. She didn''t get what happened at first, thought that William was just ying useless tricks on her and others.

    Yet when she tried to spread her spirit sense, she noticed how limited she could reach. It was new to her, and noticing this made her look at these dancing lights in more vignce.

    "This is a weakening formation," she shouted, "let''s gather up¡­"

    The moment she said these words, her masters moved out of instinct. They tried to converge at her side, but the moment they moved for twenty metres, they were abruptly stopped as if they hit an invisible wall.

    "Sealing formation?!" she instantly recognised the formation that stopped her masters, "weakening formation and sealing formation¡­ Why do I sniff the Dragon Head Bites A Tail formation?! Can''t be¡­"

    She knew this formation as it was pretty famous in the higher world. This formation was used heavily in the big battles and wars between guilds, ns, kingdoms, and even individual entities like her pce.

    And yet to think someone from this world was able to do it made her realise William was indeed from the higher world.

    "But how¡­ That formation¡­ It needs lots of special materials, not present here for sure!" She was partially right about this, but she missed a few points.

    First William had enough materials from the higher worlding from the underground city. At the same time, she and other masters on her side were now limited by this low worldws. So it wasn''t that hard to restrain and weaken them using that formation.

    "You bastard! I''ll kill you myself!" she roared the moment she saw an army of masters flooding from the town''s gates. They ran directly towards the masters entrapped within the formation.

    "It''s the nasty Dragon Head Biting A Tail formation, try to connect your spirit powers as fast as you can," she shouted on top of her lungs out of frustration, unable to believe she and her men fell into such a naive trap.

    If this battle was on the outer world, then she''d have guarded against the possibility of the enemy using such a formation. And yet she lowered her guard thanks for underestimating the masters of this world, underestimating William.

    The only way to destroy this formation was by linking at least ten masters'' spirit power together. This was enough to crush the formation surrounding those ten masters. And once a group was out, they could easily destroy the formation from outside.

    That was why dealing with such formation was always easy once one put in their minds the possibility of its existence. Just having a few masters wait away to destroy it from the outside was enough. But now she has no such hidden group to help.

    The only hope now was for the masters on her side to manage to destroy part of the formation and get out. She knew William would never kill her, but that wasn''t the same about her masters.

    She could bring more if they got killed, and yet if all of the top masters she brought were gone, it''d still be a big problem to rece them in a short time. Not to mention she''d be looked down at the pce, perhaps even getting mocked at.

    Not to mention the time wasted in doing this, which would give William more time to adapt and prepare more tricks. She started to grow wary of him, seeing him as a worthy rival, not just a useless youngster in such a low world.

    William knew how hard it was to entrap such a group of strong masters. And yet his aim from doing this was to cut a good chunk of Sara''s mother power.

    He wanted to chop enough, not to make her feel threatened to ask for more assistance, but also not enough to make her feel overconfident. And as he expected, after half an hour the masters entrapped managed to break the formation and free themselves and hers.

    He never intended to attack her. In fact, he saw her as a priceless asset, one he''d aim to recruit slowly to his side. Doing this was quite dangerous and tricky, after all Sara''s mother was someone nasty and treacherous.

    During that half an hour, the guild masters managed to kill almost half of the masters entrapped. Most of this was thanks to Fang and other high-end masters who used William''s brutal and special formations to augment their spirit elements and techniques.

    Sara''s mother recognised the formations these masters used. She already saw Fang using it before, thinking it was a fluke of luck for that old master. She mistook what Fang showed as finding a relic in an old site, without knowing what exactly he was doing.

 Chapter 1258: The Recording Crystal

    Yet when other masters used simr formations, she started to realise the truth. "This William is going to be a headache," she muttered to herself, feeling like she found herself a trouble she never imagined finding in this world.

    When her masters escaped, almost all of them suffered from different degrees of wounds. She knew she wouldn''t be able to put on the scary show she envisioned before. And yet she refused to leave empty handed like this.

    "Didn''t youe here to know what I did back there?" out of the blue, William calmly walked through the army of masters he had. He looked as if he was experienced and used to lead tons of masters in deadly and dangerous battles.

    A youngster in his age,ing from this low world, wouldn''t show such confidence nor calmness in front of her and other masters on her side. And when William stopped a few tens of metres away from his masters, she raised an eyebrow in surprise.

    "Do you think I won''t kill you from such a distance?" she scoffed, as if William just made a grave and fatal mistake.

    "I know you can, but you won''t," William evilly smiled, "you didn''t want to kill any of us or dirty your hands with our blood. What was it? An oath perhaps?"

    "Screw yourself!" she roared faintly while gritting on her teeth as a wounded tigress.

    "Let''s talk business," William''s face turned all serious, "how about we speak about what I sent Jenny to do?"

    "I want to know why you decided to help her escape," she shook her head, as if what William did was a bit childish, "she can''t escape, her life is bound forever to the pce and me¡­"

    "Who said I did this to let her escape from here?" William raised an eyebrow, feeling as if he was surprised by what she said.

    In fact, he was, he thought Sara''s mother woulde here clueless. And yet she thought about a reason he never thought of before.

    "Then¡­" hearing his words and seeing the reaction on his face made her feel a bit doubtful, "is this a useless act in front of me?"

    "Catch this," William didn''t like continuing such useless talk, so he took something out of his rings and threw it towards her direction.

    "This¡­" she grabbed what he threw, looked at it as if she was looking at a bomb. To her surprise she found a spirit crystal, looking like any normal crystal, but a bit bigger and had faint hue to it.

    "This is¡­"

    "A recording crystal," William paused, "a copy, one like what Jenny took and delivered to your useless pce."

    "..."

    Hearing his words made her face change for the first time sinceing to this world. She looked at the crystal in her hands, looked at William, while feeling a bad omen about what this crystal had.

    "Take it with you," William didn''t even wait for her to check the content of this crystal, "and make sure to listen to it alone, just a friendly advice. See you when I see you."

    He raised his fist in the air as if he was saying goodbye to a friend of his or something. She clenched tightly on the crystal, resisting the urge to step ahead and im his life.

    He was right indeed in his guess, she was limited and bound by an oath beforeing here. And that was why she never took the initiative to attack, never fought to kill, or else even Fang wouldn''t have gone unscathed from thest fight.

    Yet what he said, the way he said it, made her feel there was something big in that crystal. She thought about Jenny, and yet couldn''t get how the two of them coordinated something like this.

    "If I can agree on something, then the two of them hate me down to their bones," she muttered to herself, while feeling like everything was fitting each other.

    Bitterly as a loser, she dragged herself and the remnants of her masters back to the underground city. She wasn''t in the mood to continue this fight, or show of power that she miserably failed in.

    "Will we let her leave like that?!" Lara couldn''t help but stop William and point towards the walking away Sara''s mother and half the army she brought within the first ce.

    "Let her be," William calmly smiled, "she¡­ She had more trouble to care about from now on."

    "..."

    Neither Lara nor anyone else of his friends knew what he was speaking about. Only Moore knew what he was speaking about, and even he looked at the shadow of Sara''s mother and inwardly sighed.

    "Let''s go," William paused, turned around and added, "don''t forget¡­"

    "We know," Sara rolled her eyes while others struggled to keep theirughs inside, "let''s clean the battlefield and collect the loot¡­"

    "This isn''t any normal loot," Fang jumped all of a sudden, "all of them came from the outside world, and you all know how much materials and interesting stuff they held in their rings¡­"

    "Never dream about that," William stopped the old man from continuing his dreams, "everything will be delivered to me, intact and fully, got it?"

    His words weren''t just for Fang, but for other strong masters who seemed to drool for the generous loot in this battle. When William said his words, he focused his eyes over Lara, Anjie, and other friends of his to make sure they got what he needed them to do.

    They would be his eyes and ears, and any master taking something for himself would end up getting punished by himter on.

    William wouldn''t need to trouble himself with them, he''d just spread rumours about them having lots of precious treasures, and the rest of greedy masters would do the trick for him.

    Knowing everyone here was smart, he left this mission to others while he retreated. He had to consider what would be the reaction of Sara''s mother towards that crystal.

 Chapter 1259: Attacking Laras City

    William''s main goal from killing lots of her masters today was to make Sara''s mother unable to think of attacking him seriously for revenge. Like this, she''d be forced to ept her fate.

    Even if she thought about asking for help from the other side of the portal, she''d rethink this move hundred times before doing it.

    When she''d see the crystal, realise that he recorded her words and ns towards the head of her pce, things would turn ugly for her.

    Her pce wasn''t a merciful ce and wouldn''t tolerate such treason in their eyes. It was normal to have dirty aspirations and thoughts, but to speak about them in front of an outsider, in such a way, and get recorded on top of that was a crime in itself.

    William knew the pce head would get mad at Sara''s mother for getting tricked like this and get herself recorded on a crystal. It was obvious she fell for a trick to get recorded like this. And that meant she was acting sloppy.

    Sara''s mother would guess all this and more, and so William was considering how to deal with her retaliation.

    Thinking she''d easily sumb to him was a fantasy. He knew her quite well, and knew she wasn''t a person who''d forgive such a crime against her.

    But at least he burned all the ships linking her with the pce. And no matter how hard she tried to get her revenge from him, it was a closed case now getting back to the pce.

    "Fck you!" The moment Sara''s mother saw what was recorded on the crystal, she couldn''t control herself. She never felt such rage before, never felt such humiliation and getting yed by a youngster, one from a low world on top of that.

    "Good, very good," after an unknown time of losing control over herself, killing tons of monsters in the underground city, she finally stopped and looked at the direction of the city above, "do you think you can y with fire and not get burnt? Let me show you how bad such a move you yed was."

    She evillyughed, before turning to her masters, "prepare to move on, I always hated being locked in here, underground, without any sun or warmth, without living in the city I deserve. Let''s go!"

    Sara''s mother could read everything William did so far clearly as if she was seeing a bright full moon in a clear summer night sky. And yet she could onlyugh at his naivety.

    "You thought I''de for you for revenge? Hahaha, as if I didn''t notice how important you value the city above¡­ I''ll take this city off you first, then will watch how you''lle to me, trying toe and get it back without seeding, hahaha!"

    As she expected, William didn''t see this moveing. When she went out of the underground city, she could see how peaceful Lara''s city was.

    "Go rampant, kill and destroy, leave none alive!" When she saw there was no one waiting for her and didn''t see the annoying face of William anywhere around, she got more confident in doing this.

    But she mistook one thing, the city, Lara''s city, wasn''t a ce which could be taken down lightly and with a handful of masters like that!

    The first wave of attacknded and left behind lots of damage. The masters of Lara''s city were taken off guard, and many lost their lives without having a chance to defend or fight back.

    "Hahaha, this city is weak as hell, its people seem to live in peace since they were born, hahaha," seeing such a result made Sara''s mother mistake the history of Lara''s city.

    She already could see this city falling under her control. And she even started to n stuff based on her control over the city.

    Yet things started to change sooner than she even thought in her worst nightmares!

    "Who the fck are you?!!!" out of the blue, a group of strong masters appeareding from one direction. Then more groups started to convene and move towards her. She even spotted lots of normal masters arranging themselves, gathering up, preparingrge armies and started to support the strongest ones.

    She never imagined such weak masters who got hit badly minutes ago by her masters to suddenly show such resolve and strength. On the other hand, the strongest masters who came first showed a weird level of strength than any other masters she saw in this world so far.

    "I''m the king''s mentor, who the hell are you?" Sloth was the one leading this group of masters attacking Sara''s mother.

    He received the memo from Anjie a few days ago. Despite helping here as top priority, he still needed some time to arrange for more formidable masters toe from the vast regions of the kingdom.

    He took all this time to make a group of fifty masters of top notch in the kingdom, also added to them around three hundred of the most elite masters he could find in the army, beforeing here.

    He knew Anjie didn''t give a definite date for the battle she asked him toe and help her with. But the moment he came out from the portal area, he noticed the attack that justnded from Sara''s mother and her masters.

    Seeing such weird masters attack the city made him realise this was the battle Anjie asked for his help. And seeing how strong, brutal, and bloodthirsty those masters were, he got the reason behind Anjie''s request for him to gather all top notch masters he could find ande to help.

    Without even thinking twice, he led everyone he brought and moved to meet up with Sara''s mother and her masters.

    The battle started hot at the very moments of it, and Sara''s mother was as shocked as Sloth from the level of strength their opponents were.

    "I''ve been lurking in your underground backyard, and you even came to attack me recently, and you don''t know who I am? Interesting!"

 Chapter 1260: Cornering Her

    Sara''s motherughed, before adding, "I will show you how the difference between ground and sky is, how futile it is for you, weaklings, to fight someone like me¡­ Come and kill him for me!"

    She couldn''t kill anyone in this world, but her masters could. So, she gave the order, and all the masters around moved at once to answer her call.

    "Stop them!" Sloth gritted on his teeth, "I swear you must be rted to that bastard! Don''t know what''s wrong with him, but William is always bad news no matter when or where!"

    "I fcking hate him!"

    "Me too!"

    The two of them roared while exchanging blows one after another. However, it was clear that Sloth wasn''t a match for her. And if her masters arrived to her help, Sloth would be dead.

    Luckily for him, Lara''s city top masters appeared at this moment. The sudden surge of all these masters, with much moreing from different areas of the city, made the entire situation hopeless for Sara''s mother.

    "What''s wrong with all of you? You were so peaceful and weak!" Sara''s mother shouted in pain, not from the blows she received, but from the clear defeat she suffered for the third time in a row!

    The city masters were all riled up, gathered and surrounded her and her masters. She didn''t even get unscathed from such a battle, suffering few wounds from the top masters like Sloth. At the same time, she lost more good masters on her side, making her force dwindle even further.

    After six hours of fighting, she finally could see her defeat looming from the horizon. On top of that, thest man she wanted to see finally arrived here!

    "This city isn''t that kind of useless ce like how you imagined, hehehe," William showed up, calmly walking towards her, while rubbing his nose, "you thought they were in peace their entire lives? This isn''t a piece of heaven as you thought, we created this from the heart of hell."

    "Hell yeah!" many masters shouted in unison, feeling more energetic from William''s words.

    "You¡­ Great, very great¡­ Next time¡­"

    "Why shall I be there next time?" William stopped a few hundred metres away from her, tilted his head before adding, "let''s put an end to this useless show right here, right now¡­ Sloth, Fang¡­"

    William muttered these two names, and all of sudden the two appeared next to him, with many other masters. Seeing this made Sara''s mother retreat a couple of metres behind, feeling like she was going to suffer for real this time to get away from here without losing her life.

    During the battle, she missed the ce where it led back to the underground city. She was now far from that ce and had to fight hard to get there.

    She needed to be more vignt now that her little walk in the park battle turned upside down on her. Thest thing she wanted to see was to lose more of her masters, ending up with too little to keep her reign over the underground city intact.

    William gave her the impression he wanted to settle things right here, right now. She knew if she was in his shoes, she''d also aim for that. This was the best situation anyone would imagine his enemy to be in, and that made William very dangerous at this moment.

    "Don''t be afraid, I won''t kill you," William paused, beforeughing, "but the same thing can''t be said over your masters. Not to mention without them, you won''t have a chance to regain control over the underground city, and won''t have any chip in your hands to trade for staying here in the first ce¡­"

    William moved his eyes around, and without the need for him to say anything, Fang and Sloth moved.

    Sloth was totally oblivious to what was going on here. But he could tell Sara''s mother was a threat, and her masters weren''t weak either.

    As for Fang, he already held a deep grudge against Sara''s mother. If that would put her in a worse spot, he''d not hesitate to chime in and help.

    In the next few minutes, Sara''s mother watched fifty of her masters getting hit brutally by Sloth, Fang, and other top notch masters on William''s side. Instead of jumping in and helping, she turned around, and moved as fast as she could toward the underground city nearest entrance.

    "Where do you think you are going? Stay here!" Yet just after dashing forward for a few hundred metres, she was abruptly stopped by William. He appeared out of thin air, blocking her path forward.

    "Screw off!" she roared, not stopping for one second. She wasn''t alone, as the rest of her small force masters followed, leaving behind the fifty miserable masters as bait.

    But as William moved, the others didn''t stick to attacking the fifty masters. Sloth and Fang moved with few of their top masters, leaving enough to keep the fifty enemies under control.

    "You won''t go anywhere!" Fang roared, "I''ll make you my btch, btch!" he roared, and if not for William to stop between him and Sara''s mother, he''d have gone for her life.

    Sloth looked at Fang, feeling more puzzlement and loss. Fang was one of the top three masters in the world and making him feel such rage meant Sara''s mother must have done something terrible to him.

    And that made Sloth look at Sara''s mother with more sense of threating from her.

    "Tsk! You are very annoying," Sara''s mother knew she wouldn''t make it this way, so she turned around and tried to run in the opposite direction, "let''s see how you''ll stop me¡­"

    "I told you, you won''t leave here," yet Fang was the one to hurry faster than everyone else and stop in front of her. Then everyone else followed.

    "Annoying," this time, she was totally surrounded. As for the rest of her masters, they were surrounded as well, but not in the same circle as her, "what do you want?"

    "You know," William evilly smirked, "will you agree or refuse?"

 Chapter 1261: Explosive Meeting

    "What if I refused?" she crossed her arms, showcasing the beauty of her body, "what will you do?"

    "Nothing," William was sincere when he said he wouldn''t kill her. She was, after all, Sara''s mother, and he wouldn''t do such a horrible thing to Sara if he got the option to.

    "Then I''ll say no¡­"

    "Why?" William shook his head, "you have no ce in the outer world, and here? Your little force is going to be killed now¡­"

    William crossed his arms in return, as if he was challenging her. As he ended his words, a big massacre urred, where all the masters on his side acted and worked together, killing whoever remained on Sara''s mother side for good.

    The battle wasn''t easy, but it was short. The screams of agony ended abruptly in half an hour. During which, both William and Sara''s mother kept ring at each other without saying a word.

    "Do you think this is the end?" Sara''s mother scoffed, "you don''t know me, don''t know the ce I belong to¡­"

    "Belong to," William corrected her, "do you think that pce will let you live for even one more second? The moment you put a foot there, you''ll be hunted down like a treacherous rat. You have no future there."

    "..." Sara''s mother knew what William said was true, and yet she didn''t ept failing in such a way, "I''ll go back and exin everything," she moved her eyes around, "none of you can stop me!"

    "Indeed, we can," Sloth stepped forward, waving his big sword in the air while Fang appeared next to him, "let''s not get this overboard. Something tells me you have a value or else this little bastard would have killed you already."

    "Tsk!" Sara''s mother moved her eyes around, as if she was looking for a way out.

    "Mom, please stop," just when she was looking, a hesitant voice came from the distance, attracting everyone''s attention.

    "Sara¡­" William was the one to mutter her name, while her mother squinted her eyes, feeling disgusted from seeing her daughter pleading in such a way to her.

    "Please¡­"

    "If you think I hold any speck of love towards you then you are mistaken," Sara''s mother coldly said, "to us, daughters are just a tool, a way to enrich our pce heritage and grow our forces¡­ And a means to expand my influence inside the pce¡­"

    "You don''t have a pce now," William interrupted her, not feeling as surprised or shocked like everyone else, especially Sara, "you don''t need to go this far¡­"

    "Don''t lecture me, I''ll go back and tell them the truth."

    "On the cost of your life? Come on! You aren''t that attached to that ce anyway," William sneered, "stay here for a while, and fulfil the deal I offered, then the entire pce will be yours."

    "..."

    His wordsnded, and it wasn''t just Sara''s mother who was surprised, but everyone else. They all thought William was seeking to control her and keep her here, act as their guide in training and a way to get faster to the outer world.

    Everyone thought the same, even Fang and Sloth. Thetter two knew about William''s ambition to go to the outer world. But hearing him speak in such a way, speaking about the offer they didn''t know, made them doubt what they guessed before.

    "What offer?!" Sara was the one to ask, in a tone that was heavily burdened by sadness and disappointment. The words she heard from her mother were something she tried to prepare herself to hear, and yet she still wasn''t ready.

    "He wants me to take control of the pce, in a way¡­ That''s not heard of before," Sara''s mother paused, looking directly at William as if she was asking him in silence again about his offer and n, "is that how confident you are about that?"

    "I know what I''m talking about," William calmly smiled, "it''s you who aren''t confident in my words."

    "Good one, but no, thanks, I won''t believe someone from such a trash world to handle something about my pce," Sara''s mother declined again, and that made William inwardly sigh.

    "Stubborn as always, that''s why you''ll keep struggling and failing," he sighed, "you need to trust me on this. Just take a look around you, howe I managed to kill a forceing from the outer world? How did I manage to corner you to such a low point?"

    "..."

    His words made her mind snap out of all this and look at the entire situation in a different spotlight. Indeed, it was quite miraculous for someone from this world to do such a feat.

    If someone told her beforeing here that she''d end up losing everything and everyone on her side, and the one who''d make her lose all this was a youngster from the low world, she''d call him lunatic.

    And yet this was what happened to her. And even if it was unbelievable, it still happened. She never asked herself how he managed to do it. And when he posed that question, she finally started to look at things from that angle.

    "You¡­ Got lucky¡­" Read new adventures at m_v-l''e|-NovelBin

    "Bullshit," William waved his arm, "look around you, even if tons more masters came from my world, they shouldn''t be able to handle yours. Luck has nothing to do with what I aplished, and you know that."

    "Getting lucky once doesn''t mean you''ll be lucky all the time," Sara''s mother didn''t abandon her opinion about how William did it.

    "Ok, let me then tell you something as a gift," William paused, before adding, "do you recall the crystal I gave you? Do you recall what was recorded there?"

    "Don''t remind me of that again!" Sara''s mother faintly roared as if she was a wounded beast, "I''ll kill you right now if you mention it again¡­"

    "Just remember what was recorded on it," William didn''t care about her threats, interrupted her as he added, "it was a recording about your ambition, but that wasn''t the only thing recorded there, right?"

    "I warned you¡­"

 Chapter 1262: No Other Option

    "If you are in the ce of thatdy, and you saw a recording speaking about your most vulnerable point, your deadly point of weakness. What do you think you''ll do?"

    William totally ignored her threats, while calmly continuing his words. The things he said made zero sense to anyone standing around, but the face of Sara''s mother changed the moment she heard his words.

    "You¡­ Didn''t say anything of value back then¡­"

    "I hinted to it," Williamughed, "and I''m sure she''ll get the hint and act based on it."

    "You¡­" Sara''s mother wanted to say something more than once, but she stopped midway when she wanted to say it. Atst, and after ten minutes of silence, while everyone was looking at both of them, she finally said:

    "Are you this confident about that piece of information you hold?"

    "Indeed," William slowly nodded, "and now let me rephrase my offer again. Give me the thing I asked, in return for that, I''ll lead everyone here to entrap that btching for your life, and whoever she brought with her as well."

    "Or¡­"

    "I''ll let you on your own, won''t kill you now, but will make sure you''ll get entrapped into that underground city, next to that portal, without any means to resist or fight back. Then you know, when shees, you¡­"

    William didn''t continue his words, but calmly moved his hand over his neck, in a clear sign of death.

    Experience new tales on m v|l e''-NovelBin

    "Fck you!" she roared, and yet she didn''t add anymore words after this. She red at him, as if she was taking what he said quite seriously.

    "Let''s see then," she suddenly shrugged, "your entire hypothesis is built over and she''d recognise the weakness spot you proposed. If so, she''lle, if not she won''t."

    "Which means?" William already got what was in her mind, but acted as if he didn''t get anything.

    "If shees, I''ll sumb to your wishes and give you that thing, if not¡­"

    "No deal," William knew she was trying to scam him with this offer. And without giving her any more room for negotiations, he turned to Fang and Sloth, "take her down there, make sure to tie her up quite well and not let her escape from the underground city."

    "You¡­ You can''t do this to me!" she roared again, and this time she was in fear. She wanted and hoped for tricking William by the offer she proposed.

    On the one hand, if he proved a liar, she wouldn''t lose anything at all. And if he proved right, she''d use the chaos in the middle of the expected heated up battle and escape, leaving this trashy world and everyone behind, go back to her world and ruin that portal for good.

    She was sure there were other portals in this world, but who knew if the masters here knew about their locations? And if they did find a way, every portal was linked to a faraway spot in the higher world.

    That meant she''d get a golden chance and enough time to go and take control over the pce. She''d fulfil her wishes and get away from the deadly trap William nned for her.

    But William wasn''t that naive or inexperienced master she thought. He instantly spotted the trap she wanted toy around his neck, and without any hesitation issued the order to sentence her to death.

    At this moment, even the toughest would crumble. Sara''s mother never took what William said seriously, and yet what he did so far made her atst change her mind.

    She couldn''t help but think and consider the possibility of him saying everything right. In such a case, she''d end up being doomed. But handing over her thing based on such a low possibility wasn''t practical to her before.

    "Wait, I ept, I ept," everything rted to logic vanished when she got bombarded by the masters around. Even if she was the strongest master in the world right now, she wouldn''t stand against such hellish attacks from tons of masters.

    Not to mention Fang didn''t hesitate to use the supreme technique he learnt from William.

    "Sorry, but didn''t hear you quite well," William didn''t budge an inch even when she screamed like that. He even put a finger in his ears, as if he was clearing it out of wax.

    She couldn''t believe he acted like that! But there was no time to argue with him, everyone else was hammering her hard and she would lose at any moment.

    "Damn you! Here, take this shit and leave me alone!" she couldn''t help but toss a ring over to him. She looked at him while grabbing the ring, examining its exterior as if he was admiring a piece of beauty.

    "..." for a moment there she couldn''t believe what he was doing. And in that moment of losing focus, she got finally hit by Fang''s showering lightning.

    "Ahhh!" she screamed out of pure pain, something that made Fang feel the joy of his life.

    "Enough!" William shouted, and his shout stopped everyone except Fang, "I said enough!" he had to dash forward to stand between the crazy old man and his prey.

    "She is finally powerless, let me teach her a lesson for what she did to me," William couldn''t believe that Fang wasn''t satisfied with the hit hended.

    "Don''t make me repeat my words," William red at Fang, and thetter red back at him for a couple minutes before finally sighing.

    "Fine," Fang gave Sara''s mother a dreadful look, "next time, he won''t be there to protect you!"

    "Next time he won''t be there to cure you," Sara''s mother roared faintly while she was pressing over a gruesome looking wound on her left nk. She got hit severely by a single hit, and couldn''t help but re back, not at Fang, but at William.

    She wanted nothing more right now than to crack William''s head open and see what he went through since birth till now!

 Chapter 1263: William Isnt Bluffing

    William inspected the ring, and as he expected he found what he wanted in there. It was a doll, small in size, ck in colour, with features that looked like Sara''s mother.

    This was a secret totem she invented using scroll guidance. She found this scroll in an ancient site, and rumours said she wouldn''t die unless this doll got shattered.

    William couldn''t tell if this doll was one of a kind, or if there were still many other dolls she created. But to him, having this doll was equal toying a weakness technique over her, or a curse.

    "We are now good, right?" Sara''s mother looked at William in a weird way, "however¡­ If you proved to be wrong, I swear I won''t stop at anything until I get your hand chopped off your body!"

    "No need to think this way," William evilly smiled, "to me, you are one hell of a chip I managed to get my hands on, hahaha!"

    "..."

    His words meant one thing for her; he wasn''t bothered by any of the current situation. He sat his eyes way further ahead, way away from this small world and way past the normal life at the outer world.

    She didn''t know why, but William gave her the feeling of standing in front of a very seasoned master. And indeed he was!

    "You don''t truly expect someone toe from the other side of the portal, right?" hearing his words, and seeing how he acted in front of Sara''s mother drove doubts in the spirits of everyone here, Sloth included!

    As William was busy handling Sara''s mother, Sloth already asked Fang and other big names he knew in Lara''s city about the entire situation. He never imagined something like this to happen.

    A portal that linked this world with another, it was the second asion he''d hear about something absurd like this. And on top of that, he learnt that the ones who came from this portal were all strong and quite troublesome foes.

    If what William said was true, then more of these troublesome masters woulde hereter. And that meant a huge disaster for the kingdom, one that none ever imagined or prepared for.

    So, he wanted to make sure if William was just ying with her, or what he said earlier was going to happen.

    "We need to prepare," but what William said made Sloth''s heart drop to his feet, "the uing enemies are going to be a challenge, but we''ll prevail."

    The way he said it was filled with utmost confidence, one that made Sloth settle a little. He knew William and knew he wouldn''t over-exaggerate his limits nor abilities.

    "You weren''t faking it then?" Even Fang was surprised by this. Not alone, but everyone else present here felt the same.

    "We need to talk about how to prepare instead of wasting time on such useless debate," William rolled his eyes, "we can win, but not just by our current strength. The enemies we are going against this time are very formidable, very cunning, and won''t be easily killed by our weapons and techniques."

    His wordsnded and if anyone had doubts, they had all vanished by now. They all looked at him in vignce and seriousness, in a way he liked and wanted to see.

    "What do you need from us?" Sloth was the first to ask, "this isn''t just rted to this city, it''s rted to the entire kingdom. I will personally go back and speak with the king, so¡­"

    Sloth''s words'' meaning was clear. He intended to get the king personally on this matter. And it meant even if William needed the entire army here, he''d get it!

    "That''s good," William rubbed his hands in excitement, "we''ll need all the help we can get. But it''s not about numbers, we need more capable and high end masters than just an entire army."

    "Got it," Sloth slowly nodded as he got what William wanted, "what else?"

    "We will go down there now and start gathering the underground city materials," William said these words in loud tone, not speaking only to those around him, but to all the masters present here, "our main n is toy down grand formations, enough to weaken and paralyse the mastersing. In addition to this, we''ll need tons of materials from our world¡­"

    "Leave this to me," Sloth interrupted William when he got what he wanted, "just prepare a list and I''ll prepare everything in it. But¡­ Do you have a timeline?"

    "Around a week," William paused, thinking seriously and deeply about this point, "give or take a couple days."

    "Just a week?!" Sara''s mother muttered from the side. After all this, she finally came to stand beside William, listened to what he was saying without giving anyment till now.

    "I suspect you came here from the Cyan Peak Mountain in the Dirty ins, right?" William turned to her and said something she never imagined hearing from him.

    "H¡­ How? How do you know about that¡­"

    "No need to exin to you," William calmly said, "the distance from there to the pce is around five days. If Lingerie is getting as half mad as I expect, then she''ll call out the present masters guarding the pce. They are roughly a force of a thousand masters, right?"

    "True¡­" the more he spoke, the more Sara''s mother''s shock deepened. Slowly she started to grow numb to how many shocks he''d present every time he opened his mouth.

    What he said was true, and she started to go way beyond her doubts towards what he said earlier. She was now epting what he said, and realised he had a way to kill her pce''s master.

    Realising this now made her regret not believing him before. If so, then she''d have not gone into all this trouble. Now she was seen as a traitor from her pce, and had to bet everything on the uing battle, one that her life was the most endangered one.

 Chapter 1264: I Have My Reasons

    It was toote to regret any of that. She was now fully ready to do what it took to kill her pce master and everyone she''d bring with her to here.

    "So, we have ten days?" Sloth interrupted Sara''s line of thoughts, but William shook his head.

    "Jenny, the one I sent out there, is already out for a couple days. So yeah, we have only one week, give or take¡­"

    "Ok," Sloth got the point, "that means we have no time to waste. Let''s start with the task I need to do¡­"

    "No, the top priority now is to go down there and start gathering materials," William turned to his friends, focusing his eyes on Lara, "I''ll leave this task for you to handle."

    "Sure¡­" Lara was feeling confused like many, but at least she knew this task was doable. The underground city was a dangerous ce, but only for those who intended to camp there and live inside the protective arrays.

    But for thoseing to attack and leave, doing stuff like gathering materials, it was going to be a bit safer. So, she nodded, started to arrange things with her city masters, while Berry and others started to arrange the guild masters.

    "Why are you standing here?" Sara''s mother noticed her daughter was still standing like a statue, not moving with anyone around, "go and y with your friends."

    "I''m not a kid anymore," Sara weakly muttered, but didn''t say anything else, didn''t even budge an inch.

    "You¡­" her mother eyed her up and down, before shaking off her head in disappointment, "can''t believe my womb carried such a weak assed girl in the end¡­ What a waste!"

    "You need to change your attitude with her," William felt annoyed by what Sara''s mother said.

    "Or what?" Sara''s mother crossed her arms in defiance, "this is me; this is how her mother is, and if she doesn''t like it, let her go and find another mother then!"

    "..." Sara heard those words and couldn''t tolerate it anymore. She turned around and left in silence. Even if she didn''t cry, William could easily tell she was struggling to not let her tears out.

    "You are¡­ Pathetic person," William turned his eyes towards Sara''s mother and couldn''t help but sigh.

    "She can''t depend on me, not before, not now, not in the future," Sara''s mother slowly said, without even looking at her daughter''s devastated look from afar, "she needs to forget about me¡­ This is the way¡­ This is the only way¡­"

    "Sigh!" William knew what Sara''s mother did with her daughter was intentional. She wanted to kick Sara away, knowing she''d only bring harm to her daughter if she acted in a different way.

    And yet this was too cruel, even for William who could read through everything. But this problem was something very personal for Sara, and he trusted she''d do good handling it herself.

    All he could do now was to make sure Sara''s mother slowly interacts with her during the uing preparations for the battle. As for if her mother decided to change attitude or not, this wasn''t up for him to decide or control.

    It didn''t take more than an hour for this part of the city to get evacuated. The city that looked bustling with activity and filled with tons of masters was now looking more deste and calmer.

    "Now¡­ What do you have in mind?" Only the big names in Lara''s city remained behind, alongside Sara''s mother, Sara, Lara, Anjie, Fang and Sloth. Thetter was curious to hear William''s thoughts about the uing battle.

    "The enemiesing are going to be relentlessly hard to kill," William looked around, "thoseing will be on the same level of strength as those here, and their number¡­ It''ll be way higher than just one thousand."

    "More than one thousand? But¡­"

    "Your pce guard is indeed just one thousand," William interrupted Sara''s mother''s words before adding, "however she won''t juste with them. She''ll rally more."

    "More? But why?" Sloth started to feel more headache about the entire situation.

    "She knows how much power Sara''s mother has here, and that will make her prepare more."

    "Won''t Jenny say they were killed?!" Sara''s mother was speechless for a few seconds, "you asked her to keep this secret?"

    "You did?!!" Everyone looked at William in disbelief. The way it looked, William intentionally and deliberately hid this information from Lingerie.

    "I have my reasons," William just said this, and Fang couldn''t help but point at him.

    "You want to get more loot from that world, don''t dare to say I''m wrong!"

    "Hehehe," William rubbed his nose when Fang exposed him.

    "Come on! For real!"

    "You want more loot? Unbelievable!"

    "You can''t be serious!"

    Everyone couldn''t help but look around, where the dead bodies of Sara''s master were. William already shed and gathered everything on their bodies while others were busy sending everyone to the underground city.

    He didn''t entrust such a task to himself. Every single piece of armour, cloth, and rings were collected by him.

    He knew how extremely valuable these were to him and other masters in this world. He couldn''t say the same if they were in the outer world. But if he got a chance to gather more of these precious materials and stuff from the outer world, he wouldn''t hesitate to do so.

    "Easy everyone," when Sloth noticed how agitated everyone was towards William''s scheme, "if I know something of this little bastard, then he won''t do anything he isn''t confident in winning it!"

    "It seems you started to know me very well," William couldn''t help butugh when he heard these words. And that made everyone settle a little bit.

    "Still, it''s a very dangerous situation," Sara''s mother paused, "how much exactly do you expect her to send?"

    "From twenty up to one hundred thousand masters," William looked at the sky that was going dark at this moment, "it''s not bad for a good harvest, right?"

    "..."

 Chapter 1265: A Dance!

    Hearing the rough estimate he said made everyone speechless. They were worrying to death from just one thousand, and he casually raised it to twenty folds at least without flinching or even showing he cared about that.

    "What''s the n then," Sara''s mother sighed, "at least tell me you have one."

    "It''s simple," William spoke in a very carefree way, as if he was speaking about an attack from silver grade masters or something, "when they''lle here, they will get forcibly limited by thews of our world. And so, they''ll be in their most vulnerable status¡­"

    "Don''t tell me you n everything only on this," Sara''s mother panickily interrupted him, "damn! You can''t be serious, right?"

    "Well, with the weakening formations, we can have a smooth start," William cleared his throat, "that''s why we need toy down as many formations as we can until theye."

    "..." Sara''s mother looked at everyone in silence, "you can''t think this is a good n, right?"

    "Do we have any other options?" Sloth wasn''t saying this out of desperation, but he hoped she''de up with a way better n. Yet when she sighed, he and others knew their fate was sealed in the hands of William''s n.

    "Don''t think this is a bad n, at least it''ll give us a good start," William rubbed his head, "also we''ll arrange our masters, so those strong enough will use my special formation to augment their elements and techniques."

    "These formations are deadly, ask me about them," Fang paused, "but still¡­ Only depending on their weakening from the worldws and our formations? Isn''t this¡­ A bit hopeless?"

    "You all are taking the limitation enforced by our world lightly," William defended his idea in a stubborn way, "ask her, even now she and who was on her side suffered from such limitations."

    "But we were still strong!" Sara''s mother didn''t want anyone to take the wrong idea or feel overly confident, "it''s not enough, barely enough¡­ Damn! If you nned to do it this way, you should have left many of my masters alive. At least they could have caused lots of problems to the iing enemies!"

    "It won''t make a difference," William shrugged, "after all, the formations I''ll make down there will target thoseing from the outer world specifically. And that means your people wouldn''t have made any difference at all."

    "..."

    "Is there such a thing?" Fang felt sceptical about what William said, and even if he hated it, he turned towards Sara''s mother and asked for her opinion with a silent gaze.

    "Don''t give me that look," not only him, but everyone else moved their eyes to focus on Sara''s mother, "it''s my first-time hearing about such a formation¡­ But yeah, why not? The world of formations is very vast, and I''m not a big master in it."

    "It can be done," William confidently said, "but doing it requires tons of materials. We need to gather many materials from the underground city, and much more from our world."

    "Give me the list then," Sloth didn''t want to dy this any longer, "I''ll move at once and bring everything you want as soon as I can."

    "Cool," everything thought William would take hours to write the list down. Yet he suddenly touched his ring, took a scroll out, "here, this is the list of materials I need."

    "You¡­" Sloth looked at the scroll William handed over, couldn''t believe William even prepared this beforehand.

    "You were confident in getting my approval to this extent?!" Sara''s mother blinked, feeling the same shock as Sloth and others.

    "I need to be ready for whates next," William smiled, "or else wasting time on writing the scroll would have been a waste. Here, take it and go to the capital. We need materials, tons of them, and also capable masters, ok?"

    "I''ll leave now," Sloth paused, looked at Anjie but William stopped him from saying what he wanted:

    "She will remain here," William said, "we have lots of stuff to do."

    "Got it," Sloth nodded and left.

    In fact William didn''t want Anjie to go back to the capital so her father wouldn''t rethink about stepping in and helping. The list of materials William asked for wasn''t that cheap, and he wanted a great deal of these.

    He could get lots of these materials from the city here, but he''d still be limited to how much he''d gather. Not to mention he doubted he''d find everything in Lara''s city alone.

    Having the backing of the king himself and the kingdom was going to solve a lot of problems for William. On top of that, he wanted more formidable masters toe here and help. Or else the few strong masters the city had weren''t going to make a difference in the uing battle.

    Sloth was a smart master, and he got what William wanted by keeping Anjie here.

    In fact, William didn''t need to worry about such a thing. After all, if Lara''s city got attacked and fell under the enemies'' hands, it wasn''t guaranteed for them to stop there.

    The king decided to interfere the moment he heard the grave news from Sloth. And like thetter, the king started to see William as weird phenomena and crazy incidents ma.

    Discover more content at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "Now what shall we do?" Anjie also got why William kept her by his side, "shall we go down there?"

    "No need, we have a more important task to do," William paused, before adding, "I need to teach you how to control the formations."

    "Control?!" Lara looked at William in a weird way, "isn''t it the same as any other formation?"

    "These formations are different," William smiled, "we need to learn a dance to control them."

    "A dance?!!!" Everyone standing here couldn''t help but shout at the same time, making Williamugh when he saw their reactions.

    "It''s the only way," he said, "it''s a very special type of formation, and it needs a special way to control them."

 Chapter 1266: The Humming Bird Formation

    "I will never dance," Sara''s mother decisively said, "I hate dancing!"

    "Oh, howe you work using¡­ Without dancing from time to time?!" William paused, moving his eyes around her fiery body. Seeing him eyeing her in such a way didn''t make her ufortable. Instead, she felt there was something familiar atst in how he looked at her.

    "Ahem," Sara from the side couldn''t help but clear her throat, "we can let my mother away from this and we''ll handle this dance."

    "Ok, but it still feels odd," William evilly smiled, "why don''t you learn and perform it if we need help?"

    "Screw you!" Sara''s mother knew he was teasing her on purpose, and so she showed her fierce side again to him. And from the side, Sara couldn''t help but roll her eyes, unable to decide if what he was doing was right or wrong.

    "Alright," after a few teasingments that ended up with Sara''s mother moving away from him, William finally got a little serious, "I''ll show you the dance now. Try to memorise the moves, then train as much as you can and teach it to other masters as well¡­"

    "Ahem, let''s first see what this dance is," Fang had a bad feeling about this dance. Something told him William intended bad from doing this. And yet if this was for the better good, he couldn''t argue against this.

    But learning and executing it for the uing battle was something, and teaching others was a different thing.

    "It''s not that hard," William evilly smiled, making everyone get the wrong idea here, "let me show it to you."

    William then started to move, while humming a weird tone. Once he started to move, and everyone couldn''t help but get rmed.

    "This¡­ It''s like¡­" Fang couldn''t help but mutter in shock, feeling how bad this dance was going to be.

    "How was it? Did you like it?" William stopped after five minutes, looked at everyone with a bright smile on his face as if he was proud of what he just showed them.

    "Ah, I recall I need to do something!"

    "Yeah, my daughter asked me to get something for her, and I totally forgot it!"

    "Let''s talkter about it, I need to urgently leave now!"

    "No one is leaving!" William wiped the smile off his face, "without this dance, the formation we need to execute won''t run on its own."

    He fiercely looked at everyone, moving his eyes slowly among them, "the formation is like a symphony, lots of spirit power would channel through it. And without controlling the spirit power infused within, we won''t be able to exert the control we need over our enemies. Doing this dance is a must, and don''t take me wrong, it''s not an easy task to do!"

    "I doubt it!" Sara''s mother scoffed, "you just want to embarrass us using this useless dance¡­"

    "It''s the Humming Bird dance," William rolled his eyes, "don''t tell me you don''t recognise it!"

    "What?!!!" the face of Sara''s mother instantly changed, "are you joking? No one knows this scary formation¡­ Don''t tell me¡­"

    "Howe I''m so confident about stopping who areing here then?" Williamughed, "with this, I''m positive in our ability to stop them."

    "No way!" Sara''s mother blinked, "howe you know such legendary formation? I don''t believe any of that!"

    "Fine," William rolled his eyes, "let''s give everyone a demonstration then, shall we?"

    He motioned his hand for her to step up. He knew what she said was true, as such formation was known as long forgotten from the outer world.

    He was just lucky to have a super lucky master, who found the scrolls describing in great detail the formation and how to execute it in an ancient ruin.

    William knew no matter how he exined, she wouldn''t get it. And so, it was better to show the real effects, not only for her, but also for everyone else.

    The Humming Bird formation was known as the deadly encounter for any stronger enemies. It had the ability to weaken any foe as long as the formation wasid properly and activated in the right way.

    It wasn''t an easy formation to execute, not the typical kind of formation. As his master once said, this formation was like using a living monster to fight on one''s side.

    William''s master trained all of her disciples over this formation. She wanted to use it against the nine tailed fox. And yet when the battle happened, many of the masters on William''s side failed to do their part properly, ending up with great failure.

    "Are you sure?" Sara''s mother raised an eyebrow, looking in doubt towards William, "are you this adamant on embarrassing yourself?"

    "We''ll see," William was busyying down the formation. The list of materials needed was quite long, needing lots of very precious materials from the outer world.

    But William didn''t n to use the full powered version. Hecked tons of materials needed. So he just reced these with materials from this world, ones that had the general aspects of the outer world materials.

    "As you wish," as she saw him taking tons of materials out, she curiously stepped up while everyone else moved aside to clear a space for the two to perform.

    Sara''s mother didn''t need to do anything. She stood in the middle of a big empty circle, crossing her arms, and looking at William with little interest on her face.

    Yet she was meticulously watching every single move from him. She didn''t believe he''d know such a legendary and unknown formation. But William always seeded to impress and shock her since she met him.

    Just to be sure she wouldn''t regret missing this, she made sure to watch what he was doing using her spirit sense.

    "Ready?" After half an hour, he finally stopped digging the ground and putting different materials there.

    "Are you?" she asked in response, while feeling odd about what he did.

 Chapter 1267: The Scary Dance

    Sara''s mother thought he''d do something superplicated, yet all he did was just normally cing materials in the ground, the same way any other formation would beid.

    She missed a hidden move from him. When he ced his hands in the holes he dug, he released his spirit power profusely, to link this hole with materials in other holes he dug.

    If anyone looked using special technique at spirit power at the region of the formation, he''d be surprised to see aplicated spiderweb design down there, buried deep underground.

    This formation wasn''t easy toy down, wasn''t easy to grasp and learn. And that was why William was calm about using it right now, without worrying for anyone to peek and learn its secrets.

    "Ready," after finishingying the formation, William rubbed his hands, "are you prepared to get beaten like hell?"

    "Hmph! Let''s see who is going to get his as* kicked," Sara''s mother''s face changed in return for the rude way William intentionally used. He wanted her to go all out, to demonstrate the full power of his formation.

    "Bring it on," she took out two sharp daggers, and got into fight mode.

    "Let''s begin," as he said these words, he started to dance. The dance he showed before was funny and hrious, but this time it felt totally different.

    The first change was in him using a profuse amount of spirit power. It felt like he was gushing everything he had into the dance, which gave a very dangerous vibe to the dance itself.

    The masters watching had to retreat further away from this battle. And Sara narrowed her eyes when she saw the change. "Interesting," she was curious to see if William was going to really use the legendary formation or not. But the beginning move was indeed quite catchy. Your adventure continues at m v|l-e''-NovelBin

    But Sara''s mother and everyone else weren''t ready for what was going to happen. Even if she thought William was going to put on a good show, Sara''s mother never doubted her ability to crush William anytime she wanted.

    However, what happened next exceeded her and others'' expectations.

    The moment his dance finished for the first time; the ground started to be lit up. It felt like dense mes were brimming under the surface of earth. And soon enough, eruptions happened!

    It felt like miniature volcanoes erupted all at once in this area of the world. mes gushed out from the belly of the ground, with tons of wisps, smoke, and burning dust, dancing in the air.

    This wasn''t the end. All of this started to move in the air, weirdly following William''s movement. Sara''s mother standing in the heart of all this felt everything happening better than anyone else.

    "Damn! It''s true!!" she couldn''t help but mutter in immense shock. The moment these mes appeared, and she felt like a grand mountain was weighing down on her body, like heavy ironed forged shackles were now surrounding her body, pinning her to the ground.

    It wasn''t just her movement that got sealed up, but also her spirit power got greatly reduced. At this moment, forget about William, a mere silver grade master would kill her easily without any suspense.

    "Cough! Cough!" yet this show didn''tst more than half a minute. It ended abruptly, with William coughing and gushing blood like a fountain.

    "William!" Sara, and the other girls felt immense worry and shock when they saw how William ended. Without saying another word, they moved fast and supported William''s weak body before falling to the ground.

    "You are insane!" Sara''s mother stood beside all of them, with a conflicted look on her face, "you went too far!"

    "It¡­ Was¡­ Worth it!" William struggled to say these words, before taking an elixir bottle out and emptied it, "I''ll get better, but yeah¡­ You all got the point, right?"

    "..."

    Sara''s mother knew for sure he wasn''t bluffing. And yet it felt like the requirements to seal her power were too severe. They had to face a grand army of elite and stronger masters, and that meant with their current top master powers, they would still face immense danger.

    Yet even after seeing such a fierce ending and retaliation, none felt hesitation or fear. If any, they felt they got hope atst, they felt they could do it!

    Facing masters of higher calibre, stronger powers, anding from a way higher and stronger world was indeed scary to anyone. But with William''s solution, they knew they could stand and fight, they could win.

    "Let''s all train on this dance," unlike before, Fang and others felt how tremendously important this dance was, "let''s teach it to all masters we trust, all gold rank masters at least."

    Fang said, and everyone nodded in tacit agreement. The dance was now the key to their survival and winning. And they got the reason behind William''s stress over teaching the dance to all masters they know.

    Seeing them finally ept to learn and teach the dance made William feel inwardly better. "At least my struggle wasn''t in vain," he amusingly mulled over this sudden turn of the situation, while leaning on the ground, watching others train.

    "Can''t we just use spirit power regeneration potions and elixirs?" Sara''s mother didn''t train at first, stood by William''s side while trying to think of a way to get more information about that formation out of him.

    She closely watched every single move William did, and yet she didn''t find anything abnormal or special aboutying the materials in the ground. She wouldn''t believeying the foundation was just like other formations.

    Aside from this point, everything else about the formation was quite special. And that made her more suspicious that William intentionally hid what was special inying the foundation.

    "It won''t work," William shook his head, "to activate the formation, we need to release our spirit power while doing the dance. So, our spirit power before starting the dance would be the only spirit power used to activate and control the formation."

 Chapter 1268: We Can Do It!

    "This¡­" Sara''s mother''s doubt grew deeper and deeper by what William just said, "then we can do it before restarting the dance¡­"

    "That will end the formation abruptly," William shook his head again, "so we can''t do it the way you want."

    "Then¡­ How can we maintain the formation then?!" She raised an eyebrow, "don''t tell me we got only one shot, that half a minute or whatever!"

    "We''ll send masters in turns," William began to suspect the reasons behind her questions, "so it''s like turns of masters doing the dance in different stages, making the formation all active all the time."

    "This is veryplicated," she looked around, "and we need to train a lot on it!"

    "Yes, that''s why I asked them to spread the dance first," William sighed, "yet they are very excited about training for now."

    Everyone was pumped up, and he couldn''tin about that. At least they grasped the importance of the dance and showed dedication to learn and execute his ns.

    "How does it look to control the formation then?" as she got a little piece of information, Sara''s mother pushed again to learn more.

    "In time," but William this time wasn''t that cooperative with her, "for now, let''s just focus on learning the dance and teaching it to others."

    "I don''t have anyone to teach anyway," she shrugged, before hurriedly adding when she noticed his weird gaze, "and won''t teach anyone. I''m not from this world, and hours ago I was your deadliest enemy."

    "Don''t tell me you are afraid of your life, hahaha!" William teased her, and she only scoffed, before asking again:

    "About the materials and the way to build the formation, may you teach me that instead?" she paused, before adding, trying to convince him, "I want to help by adding more formations if they manage to destroy a few¡­"

    "No need," William grasped what she was after atst, "I''ll handle that part, so you and others don''t need to worry yourself about that. All you need to do is to fight, help activate the formation, and leave the rest to me."

    "Tsk!" she could tell he saw through her, "why are you acting like this? I''m on your side now!"

    "For now, yes," William evilly smiled, "but can''t tell what will happen in the future."

    "Stubborn, and idiot at the same time," sheughed before moving away, "I won''t stop until I get what I want."

    "Not this time," William shook his head, feeling how troublesome and annoying Sara''s mother would be from now on.

    As everyone started training, William got a time for himself away from them. He went to the main mansion of Lara, where he closed himself in a big hall, took lots of scrolls out, and started thinking about how to do it.

    "The portal is buried deep underground," he had two options here, "doing this at the area of the portal is the best. But it''ll have lots of limitations in regard to space avable for us, and I also can''t tell if activating the portal will alter or destroy theid formations¡­"

    After careful consideration, he decided toy the formation on both locations. Ignoring the portal area was a terrible mistake he wouldn''t fall into.

    Even if the area wasn''t as spacious as the underground city, it was still big enough to hold hundreds and even thousands of masters.

    Not to mention, once the enemy arrived, they should work their best to deprive the enemy from any ess to the portal.

    Thest thing William wanted to see was for the enemies to send messengers back, calling for more reinforcements. Or even worse, for Lingerie herself to run away and not get killed.

    "I need to kill her," he was confident that once she got entrapped in his formations, her life would be doomed, "I need that btch to take over that fcked up pce!"

    William wasn''t a big fan of that pce to try to control it for his own pleasure. On top of that, he wasn''t feeling anything towards Sara''s mother.

    The main reason behind this desire of his, was just like most if not all the roots of his actions; the nine tailed fox!

    Back then, the pce was a fierce ally of that nasty fox. The fox used them to kill lots of his master''s allies and even personal disciples. William wanted to deprive that monster from such a godly weapon, and perhaps use them to target any other assassins that fox monster would hire.

    "Starting the ambush from down below won''t do," William knew how hard and challenging this would be if they started attacking all mastersing through the portal, "it''s way better to let them lower their guard at the portal area, and focus more on the underground city¡­"

    This was the ideal situation he thought of, and yet it wasn''t easy to handle. After all, it was impossible to try to hide people around the portal. The mastersing even if they got limited by the world''sws, they were still having their sharp senses and deeply rich battle experience.

    "First lure them up there, then start hitting them from every angle," William highly doubted the surface ambush would be enough to scare Lingerie away, least to rm the iing masters and let them send for help.

    "We can do it," after hours of nning, he finally felt satisfied with the n he devised, "yet it''ll be a little tricky at thest part."

    He knew his enemy this time was going to be quite tough. They weren''t normal masters of the outer world. He knew little about Lingerie, but enough to know she never took treason lightly.

    Or else she wouldn''t be looked upon as one of the legendary heads of the pce''s entire history! She was known for being brutal, bloody, and stopped at nothing to get vengeance from those betraying her.

    To her, she was using such incidents to remind everyone who was the boss in the pce.

 Chapter 1269: Preparations For Battle

    To lead a group of wolves, one must be an alpha, the scariest of wolves!

    Few days passed fast. During which, William watched all his friends, the city''s big masters, and the masters who arrived from the capital train over the dance.

    Sloth didn''t return so far, but he sent lots of masters at gold and dark gold grades. At the same time, he made sure to send lots of materials back to William, promising to gather more.

    William could tell how honest and serious the kingdom was to support him in the uing battle. He didn''t feel any weirdness about that, as this was a move to hit many birds with a single stone.

    First this was going to happen on the kingdomnds. In case the enemies thought of expanding their presence here for any reason, there would be a countermeasure already to prevent that.

    And if they didn''t want to continue here, the masters sent by the kingdom would get a once in a lifetime chance to experience fighting against higher realm masters.

    Such experience was priceless and couldn''t be reced by anything else. On top of that, William expected these masters to gather loot from the fallen masters from the outer world. Even if he would spread masters from his guild for this purpose, the expected grand magnitude of the battle would make impossible to prevent such actions.

    Another reason to send support was Anjie. The king knew his daughter would go anywhere William would. And thetter proved for many times how reckless and trouble ma he was.

    William didn''t mind any of that. He knew this was a special experience for many masters, including his guild. So, he made sure to ask all the masters in his guild at gold grade and above to be present. He also asked his friends to keep a close eye over the masters away from the ck and Gold Tails groups.

    As everything was going smoothly on that part, William started to make the formations at the underground city. This wasn''t an easy task, not only because of the monsters, but also because of Sara''s mother.

    "Why are you here?" After a few hours, William couldn''t help but repeat his question a dozen times.

    "I told you, I''m here to help!" Sara''s mother puffed her cheeks, acting as a little girlining about his words.

    "Told you, no need for you to be here¡­"

    "I have nothing else to do, so deal with it," Sara''s mother didn''t give him any chance to kick her away. William knew she was watching closely his actions, wanting to know how this fierce and legendary formation would beid.

    Yet no matter how long she stuck by his side, she failed in getting a clue. The actions William did got repeated over the course of five days. He kept digging holes, throwing into each the same set of materials, without anything special about it.

    At some point, she even went away and tried doing a repeat of what he was doing on her own. And as expected, she failed, making her more frustrated and clueless.

    She tried to ask tons of questions at one point, tried to go away and watch using her spirit sense. She felt like William wasn''t doing everything as it was supposed to, leaving a few crucial steps forter times when he''d get rid of her.

    And yet she failed to notice anything abnormal. And William never returned to any hole he dug and covered with dirt.

    The more she got clueless, the more frustrated she became. In fact, everything was happening right in front of her eyes. William did nothing more than pouring his spirit power, connecting the same holes of a single formation together, through underground.

    Her perception was just on the surface, never trying to probe things happening underground. It never urred to her that this would be the only trick she wascking.

    Watching her getting more frustrated started to be an amusement for William. He evenid more formations and took more time to enjoy himself, her sight and her anger. And yet she never exploded on his face, never acted out of ordinary despite her face said otherwise.

    "You are evil!" After the end of the fifth day, she couldn''t tolerate it anymore, "can''t you just tell me the secret?"

    "In return for what?" William didn''t directly refuse, instead he looked at her in a meaningful way.

    "You know¡­"

    "Not that," she was pointing to her body in a seductive way, "I need something else of value, extreme value¡­ Do you have it?"

    "You already got my most precious thing!" she rolled her eyes inint. But that didn''t stop William from evilly smirking:

    "Then the day you find something of value,e and let''s exchange."

    William closed this page by saying. He didn''t think Sara''s mother had something that could satisfy him. But he wanted to give her hope, luring her more to his side.

    As he nned and prepared everything, it was time to wait. He alreadyid down tons of formations, and adding more wouldn''t help at all.

    During all this, the monsters kepting at him, yet his group of masters standing on guard kept these monsters away.

    "Now it all depends on her," William shifted his eyes towards the direction of the portal, "when youe, this ce will be your grave."

    William didn''t stand idle waiting for Lingerie toe. He still had the task of organising everyone in their spots, also checking on their training progress.

    As he exined to his friends and top masters on his side, the masters taking part in this war had different tasks to do.

    First there were the ones controlling the formations. These dancers had toe in order, with an almost twenty seconds window between every batch. Timing was everything, and failing to do this even once would have great consequences on the ongoing battle.

    Thest thing William and others wanted to see was for a group of outer world masters to get away from the shackles of these formations. But he didn''t just depend on the masters promising to do their best.

 Chapter 1270: High Grade Explosive Arrows

    William created another group of masters, who were tasked to take care of any escaping outer world masters. This group had to act fast, or else the escaping masters would create more troubles than expected.

    It just needed a few waves of masters to get dyed for other outer masters to escape the formations. So, he made sure to pick a few of the strongest masters in the firefighting group.

    A third group would deal with the entrapped outer world masters. This group had to be brutal, using deadly attacks and techniques. To make sure things would be quite good, William started to make different augmenting formations of his, the same type Fang was obsessed with.

    These formations depended entirely on materials from the outer world. But this wasn''t a problem anymore. After days of gathering these materials from the underground city, William had more than enough.

    Fang acted as the leader of this group, while Sloth acted as the leader of the firefighter group. As for the group controlling the formations, William entrusted his friends and guild top masters in doing so.

    After all, the scope of the formations and the uing war was expected to be huge! He wouldn''t be able to control things himself, nor selecting a few friends would help either.

    As he prepared all this, he knew everything was ready. "Now we wait," he said to his friends, "just notify me whenever an activity happens at the portal."

    Activating the portal wasn''t a one second action. Signs would appear minutes before the activation of the portal, like ground shakes and lights shing all over the underground city.

    Such remarks were hard to miss, and William made sure to teach them to his guild masters and others. Those who apanied him before when they raided Sara''s mother force easily grasped these signs. As for others, they had their imagination to rely on.

    William decided to retreat and try something new. He had little time to experiment, but this was a good chance to test a new theory he had in mind.

    During all his journey in this world, he depended upon the explosive arrows for a great deal of battles. These were very impressive when dealing with a mass number of enemies. They were also the first thing he invented in this world. But he didn''t evolve it for a decent amount of time.

    And now it was the time for him to make a good amount of a new version of these arrows.

    "I have a good amount of outer world materials," he muttered to himself, "all I need now is to try making as much as possible from them."

    William knew he could make a good number of arrows using these materials. It would be easier as well. After all, his knowledge about explosive arrows came from the outer world.

    But that wasn''t practical in the long run! The number of materials he got wasn''t low but wasn''t that endless either. "I hope I find something of value in these rings, hehehe!"

    He didn''t just rely on the materials gathered from Lara''s underground city. He had thousands of rings, the ones that his guild acquired after fighting against Sara''s mother forces twice so far.

    He went through the content of these rings before in a haste. He found tons of materials, weapons, elixirs and potions there, even scrolls of techniques were found as well.

    Yet he didn''t intend to use these until now. The techniques weren''t of value to him. He just carelessly went through their content, without many expectations. He was sure the knowledge he had from his previous life was far bigger than anything he''d find in these useless scrolls.

    He started to check the materials and arrange the ones he''d need in a separate ring. He found a great deal of materials in these rings, and many of these could even be used in his augmenting formation.

    "I can even make lots of stuff using these materials, those masters were quite generous, hehehe," William knew that before taking off for a long adventure, masters in the outer world used to pile up a shitload of materials for future uses.

    Materials could be used in strengthening and repairing their weapons. They also could be used by any alchemist in their group to make more potions and elixirs. And that exined why there were tons of materials, low number of spirit crystals.

    But these spirit crystals held a special importance and value for William. "They came from the outer world, meaning they got the higher and more purified spirit power from that world¡­"

    He looked at the one crystal he got out in a hungry way. The crystal didn''t look much different than the crystals from this world. But he was confident the value of absorbing its spirit power would outweigh training for weeks here, even months!

    "Tsk! It can''t survive for longer than a few minutes," but after taking the crystal out, a rich cloud started to emanate from it. The difference between this world spirit power concentration and purity made it impossible for this outer world crystal to maintain its shape and content.

    Spirit power kept dissipating from it, and in five minutes it turned into pure dust, "I need to make it extremely efficient to use these crystals before taking them out," William thought, while going through lots of spirit power concentrating formations in his mind.

    Enjoy new adventures from m-v l''e|-NovelBin

    He wanted to use these crystals to train himself and others he''d select to go with him from this world to the outer world. Using this crystal for a group of people would lower its effects, but it''d make it much faster to absorb the spirit power before the world here digested it.

    Going through the various rings he had, and seeing how scarce the crystals there were, made him think of Sara''s mother. "I''m sure she has tons of these, but¡­"

    He knew trying to negotiate with her for such trade would be impossible.

 Chapter 1271: Jennys Unexpected Touch

    In fact, he didn''t mind sharing the secret behind his formation with her, but he''d prefer to fetch such a secret for a much higher price.

    "I hope theing masters will have more of these crystals, and treasures," William moved through weapons brought from the outer world. He couldn''t tell their rank as they were all here at the pinnacle of dark gold grade. But even with such a downgrade, they were all better than any weapon found in this world.

    "I should distribute these weapons to my people only," William muttered while examining a big sword he found, "only for the selected masters, not to everyone¡­ This sword is good!"

    His eyes shone, and he wanted to test the sword for a brief moment, before saving it in his own weapon ring, "I need more weapons for my tail¡­ I''ll need a big hammer, a spear, a broadsword, and a big knife¡­"

    William started to pick the best weapons from his outer world weapon pile. There were more than enough to arm up half of his ck Tails group to the brim. And he intended to do that before the battle.

    As he sorted all this out, he started to fully make the explosive arrows. The arrows he previously made were all based on forging. But now, he was going to add alchemy to the mix.

    Doing this was how truly making an explosive arrow was in the outer world. This wasn''t simple, and needed lots of preparations and steps to process the materials and ores he had.

    As he already sorted out the ores he''d use, he first processed the herbs and made sure they were ready. Many bottles with different colours, concentration of herbal essence, and also effects were ced carefully all around him.

    And when he got done from this, he started to forge the explosive arrow heads. This was a bit tricky, as he had to melt down ores and add the herbal essence he prepared in different stages of the entire process.

    This wasn''t a normal procedure anymore, and he knew a single failure would result in a fierce explosion.

    He wasn''t worried about his safety, but about the herbal essence he had already prepared. If he lost them, it''s not like losing what he prepared, but losing all the materials he used in making them.

    So he carefully executed every step with extreme caution. As he was doing it this way, his speed in making these arrows was expected to be extremely slow. But he didn''t mind that.

    "Safety first, keeping the materials intact is the top priority for me," he kept saying these words, reminding himself of the right way to do this, and epting his slow speed in production.

    As expected, when the enemies came, he didn''t finish the amount he wanted. "This isn''t half bad either way," he consoled himself, while looking at the hundreds of arrows he made, "every single one of these is enough to bring a one hundred times more power than what I had before¡­"

    He nodded in satisfaction, while Moore was standing in front of him.

    "It''s time," Moore said, "they are here¡­ Between¡­ I wanted to ask¡­" the man seemed a bit hesitant about something, something that William instantly grasped.

    "Don''t worry, she is safe," William patted on his shoulders, "but she won''te back, not now at least. The only way is for you to work harder and make it all the way to the outer world."

    "..."

    Moore wanted to ask if Jenny wasing after this battle. He hoped to meet with her, but in the end it seemed his dreams got dyed for now.

    He knew it was futile to ask William for more. They were stuck in this world, and as the man said it, they needed to go first to the outer world to find her.

    "You stay here," William moved out from the underground training base, "this battle won''t need you."

    Moore nned toe and watch, hoping to find Jennying through the portal at any moment. But now it was pointless for him to go there. He was extremely fragile in terms of directbat. And being part of this battle was more as a liability not help.

    William stepped out from the underground base, knowing he''d be hourste from joining the battle. And yet he wasn''t bothered by that. He already taught everyone he trusted the way to control the formations, and even led a few tests beforeing to his guild town.

    During the way to Lara''s city, William kept receiving reports from the frontline. The battle started hot as expected, with lots of mastersing out from the portal, way higher than what he initially thought.

    William imagined Lingerie woulde with five thousand masters, at most would bring ten thousand masters. She was supposed to go against a couple thousand masters that Sara''s mother had. And yet William missed something here.

    Jenny had a deep grudge against Sara''s mother. On top of that, she had her family to help and save. So, when she went back to the pce, she didn''t just ry the news over for nothing.

    She fabricated a good story about how she escaped from the clutches of Sara''s mother. And she asked for her family to get released in return for more information about Sara''s mother.

    Jenny exaggerated everything, made sure to make Sara''s mother look as if she had an army of tens of thousands of masters, both from this world and the lower world.

    Hearing this made Lingerie seek help from many more masters. The initial wave alone was formed of ten thousand masters!

    It wasn''t Jenny''s fault to me, as when she left, Sara''s mother force was still mostly intact. She didn''t witness the destruction of Sara''s masters, didn''t witness the flip that happened at some point.

    Jenny wanted Sara''s mother to suffer the worst fate regardless of anything else. And she didn''t want her to escape thanks to Lingerie bringing a small army. But all that ended up in a very unexpected situation for William''s side.

 Chapter 1272: Turning The Tables!

    Luckily William nted tons of formations all over the underground city and portal. So, when the third wave arrived, it was literally impossible to keep them in check at the underground city alone. And the leading masters had to use the formations surrounding the portal area.

    This was quite risky, as William stressed upon not using these formations until it was desperate. And it indeed was!

    If they didn''t do that, theing masters from the outer world would have taken control over the underground city this way. So, Fang led the elite master group, went all the way down to the portal area using special tunnels they dug before, and started a massacre there.

    Doing it at the portal area wasn''t as bad as it was at the underground city surface. Mastersing out from the portal were exhausted and not ustomed to the pressure and decline of power they suffered whening here.

    Attacking them at this moment was way easier than attacking them when they got used to some extent to their decline of power. And so, they started to release the pressure from the surface, while they slowly started to face troubles of their own.

    Doing it on the portal area was indeed easier, but as William feared, the portal itself had an effect over the formations. It started with releasing a few masters from the grasp of the formations down there, ending up with weakening the formation sealing effects at some point.

    Discover hidden stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    But that was something these masters were prepared to face. William already exined the risks he expected, and they were prepared, to some extent.

    The masters from the surface sent more reinforcements to help them. Also, more masters activated more formations regrly. Even when some formations stopped working at some point when the portal went active, others stepped up and activated other formations.

    "This William is a beast!" Sloth was on the side of Fang, watching all this with a look of surprise on his face, "he even anticipated the unknown effects of the portal, andid preparations for all this!"

    "He isn''t ying around," Fang said, while releasing a torrent of attacks towards a group of outer world masters entrapped in the formations, "but he missed in expecting the iing master size. So far, we faced much more than what he expected we''d face as a whole!"

    "Not a problem," Sloth looked around, "so far at least!"

    The situation was kept under control for almost one more hour. Then all of sudden, things started to heat up!

    The masters arriving here sent messages about what was happening to the other side of the portal. Lingerie had prepared an army of fifty thousand masters for this. But when she got the news, she started to call more reinforcements.

    The main obstacle was the weird formations attacking anyone going to the other side of the portal. And so she decided to send her best masters out there first, to try and destroy as many formations as possible before the reinforcements would arrive.

    Or else even if she sent a hundred thousand masters over, none would be able to change the situation. And so, a gush of strong masters happened, ending up with lots of pressure exerted over William''s masters.

    Even if they used the supreme augmenting formations, it was still quite hard to keep the situation under control. The mastersing from the outer world didn''t know what this formation was, but they could tell a few things about it.

    They noticed the formations showed lots of weakness signs when the portal was activated. And so Lingerie didn''t send them in just one batch, but on five subsequent waves, with couple minute intervals between every wave and the other.

    This made her consume lots of precious materials, but it was fine if that would result in crushing the weird resistance on the other side of the portal.

    Fang and Sloth led the strongest masters to crush the iing ones. But when the fourth wave arrived, cracks happened in the entire formations around the portal and many masters broke free at the same time.

    "Kill them!"

    "Let no one touch the formations!"

    "All on me!"

    Shouts erupted, and masters down there fought bravely against the loose free masters. But even with all of this, the masters from the outer world managed to destroy lots of formations.

    They weren''t ignorant about what they were doing. The ones who got here before already nned out lots of possible spots for the formation foundations to be. And they directly went towards these ces, ran them with their deadliest attacks.

    The situation shifted all of sudden from the good to the worse! And the city masters didn''t know what to do except trying their best to maintain thest few formations active. But it was a futile attempt in the end.

    The remaining formationscked the ability to cover the entire portal region. On top of that, theycked the ability to control such a great number of masters at the same time.

    And yet William''s masters knew they got to kill as much as they could, even if defending this area was a lost battle. So, they started to rain the entire area with deadly techniques, not holding back anymore.

    William already warned them from doing random attacks or else the foundation of the portal would get damaged. He even marked the crucial parts that they shouldn''t mess with, or else trying to repair the portal in the future would be impossible.

    They tried their best to not touch these parts, and even with that, they ended up damaging a few of them. Luckily William marked more than enough, so the remaining pieces were enough to make the portal run. Yet it made the material requirement to get activated soar to a scary level, and also the time dy between activating the portal got longer.

    The situation couldn''t be described as a win for either side, but it could be described as a lose-lose situation for both.

 Chapter 1273: Count Me In!

    The city masters lost their control over the portal area, and that was indeed quite a severe blow as they lost almost all the formationsid down by William in this region.

    As for the Lingerie''s masters, they lost a substantial number of them. On top of that, the damage received to the portal was enough to dy the reinforcements, making them feel like they didn''t gain any advantage at all by controlling this area.

    And as the city masters retreated back to the surface of the underground city, William arrived!

    He already was briefed and updated of everything happening here during his travels. He was informed by Sloth''s weird scroll ofmunication. And as they were in the middle of a heated fight, thetter couldn''t say more than the update and ended the technique.

    William wanted to issue orders, but he failed to catch up with Sloth''s fast arrival and departure. And so, the moment he arrived at the underground city, even before hended from the cliff, he shouted on the top of his lung:

    "Don''t give them a break! Attack! Keep hammering that damn portal area and kill as many masters as you can!"

    His shout came to startle everyone. They all looked at the direction the voice came from and couldn''t help but wonder why he said that.

    "Just do it!" as he saw the master army here standing motionless, didn''t react to his words, he shouted again, "do it!"

    "He must be crazy!" Fang shook his head, "but if he said so, then let''s do it!"

    "This doesn''t make any sense!" Sloth looked at Fang in a weird way, "are you sure?"

    "I''ve seen crazy stuff with thatd, but all the time he knows what''s the best way to win. So yeah, let''s do it!"

    "..." Sloth didn''t know if William was the crazy one or Fang. But as Fang decided to step back into the portal area, Sloth decided to follow.

    It would be a grave loss to let Fang fall here! He was one of the top three masters in the entire world, a pir for the kingdom!

    They could have waited for William to arrive to speak back to him and get why he did so. But this was in the middle of a very difficult battle. And they were all experienced enough to know any second dy would cost them a tonter.

    But when they went back to the portal, they all got surprised to realise the current situation.

    "The portal¡­"

    "It''s now working like before!"

    "Mastersing from the other side are taking way longer than before!"

    Before this, the portal would sh once every five minutes. But now, they went into a deadly fight against the masters down below for ten minutes, and the portal didn''t work!

    It only shed after fifteen minutes, and that marked the start of a very long cool down. They soon realised everything, and without any exception, they all thought back to William and the way he shouted back then.

    It was clear that William could read the situation even better than them. And he just arrived! That made them unable to shake this moment easily off their minds.

    As they got into the disadvantageous situation their enemies were in, they regained their confidence in winning this battle.

    "What''s the use in destroying the formations when you can''t get reinforcements in the needed time?" Fangughed, "let''s kill them, don''t leave any alive!"

    "It''s our chance," Sloth shouted, "let''s kill as many as we can, I''m sure thatd has a way to support us!"

    It wasn''t that easy to attack these masters without the help of the formations. And yet the fact they couldn''t get any more fresh blood anytime soon pumped their morale. William joined them just half an hourter, and the situation looked way better than he even imagined.

    He came and didn''t head directly towards the portal area. From that moment he got thetest report from Sloth about what happened to the portal area, and he knew what was going to happen.

    He knew the masters on his side would retreat back to the surface, leaving the space for Lingerie''s masters, fearing the endless swarms of mastersing from the portal.

    But he knew this wasn''t going to happen. And as he knew this, he started to build more ns on top of this fact. The first order he gave was for the top masters to move back to the portal area and keep hammering the masters there.

    Discover hidden stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    He didn''t want to give these masters any time to breeze and prepare any traps. As Lingerie''s masters would realise what was going to happen, they''d lean towards fortifying the portal area until enough masters would arrive from the other side.

    So the top priority was to keep them pressured, not giving them any time to think about doing any trap. As for him, William had another task to do.

    "Gather around," William said to his friends, "I need your help with something¡­"

    "I''m in, count me in, count me in!" Just as he said these words to his friends, he heard Sara''s mother''s voiceing from far away. She was eavesdropping on him from the very first moment he arrived here. And once he said these words, she got the feeling he was going to say something important, something rted to the Humming Bird formation.

    "Mom!" Sara rolled her eyes the moment she heard her mother''s voice, "you were absent all this time!"

    "I won''t miss helping my daughter and her man," Sara''s mother was acting shamelessly, without any speck of hesitation, "I''m your mother, let me help."

    "Ok," William gave Sara''s mother a serious look. He knew even if he shoved her away, she''d still listen to everything he''d say.

    So, it was futile to chase her away.

    "Listen up, right now the situation down there is going to determine the fate of this battle. The portal is broken, won''t deliver any masters from the other side anytime soon. The masters going down there are going to create a gap for us, and we need toy down new formations before Lingerie fixes the portal from her end."

 Chapter 1274: Sudden Reinforcements

    "Yes! At fuckingst!" Sara''s mother shouted out of excitement, couldn''t believe she finally got the chance to learn about the formation and how to make it without paying or begging for it, "what? I''m happy we have the upper hand on them atst."

    "..."

    Everyone looked at her in a very suspicious way. She didn''t show up till when William came. And she showed weird excitement, one that made everyone realise her aim from being here, not to help but to learn.

    They all looked at William, but thetter looked as if he didn''t notice anything. "The formation is formed of twenty-five groups, each group¡­" William started to speak about the foundation of the formation.

    In fact, Sara''s mother knew all of this. And even when he narrated the needed materials to use in every hole, she could already say all of them without missing a single one.

    Slowly her excitement died down, and instead got reced with a look of doubt and disappointment. Herst hope shattered when William ended his talk with saying:

    "This is it! Just do as I said and leave the rest to me."

    "Mfer!" Sara''s mother couldn''t control herself anymore, "you lied! You didn''t tell us anything of value, bastard!"

    "Who said I''d do that?" William evillyughed, e on, let''s go and do our part in this battle. Others are risking their lives down below, and we have a short window to act before Lingerie fixes that portal."

    Everyone gave Sara''s mother a weird look while they moved after William and followed him through one tunnel. It was clear like a sun in the middle of a clear sky, that Sara''s mother was after learning the formation secrets, not here to help!

    This entire battle was directed to help her live through the uing enemies attack. And despite that, she never showed a single speck of appreciation, nor the will to step up and help!

    It was a veryplicated situation, only Sara''s mother and William knew the ins and outs of it. She knew William framed her, forced her hands into such a situation. And so she didn''t see any of this as helping, but instead a way to further deepen her legs into the muddy water.

    She didn''t know what was in it for William to help in such a way, but she was sure he must have a great gain from doing this or else he wouldn''t do any of that in the first ce!

    She was the best one reading his mind, even among all of his friends who apanied him all this time.

    It wasn''t weird to not see her following them down to the portal area. She knew she wouldn''t get anything of value out of William. Thetter was determined to keep the juicy part of how toy the formation only to himself!

    She was right indeed. When William decided to ask everyone for help, he made up his mind on only sharing the basic type of help everyone could offer to make the formation.

    As for the most essential part, of how to link the materials together using spirit power, he decided to keep it for himself. It wasn''t just only for Sara''s mother''s presence, but also theck of an essential skill that everyone didn''t have. Discover stories with m,v l''e-NovelBin

    To do such a thing, they needed to learn how to project their spirit power in needle shaped lines. This wasn''t an easy trick to learn, and it was literally impossible to learn it in this low world.

    To learn such skill, one had to have a purified spirit power in his body. Trying to learn this using the impurified spirit power in this world would end up with spirit power getting shattered and falling apart.

    As they stepped into the portal area, the situation there looked more tense and deadly than what William himself imagined!

    Without the help of the Humming Bird formation, the two sides were directly shing against each other. Even if the mastersing from the other side of the portal were far stronger, they still weren''t ustomed to the limits enforced upon them by this world.

    Using numerical, morale, and tactic understanding advantage, Fang and Sloth led everyone to slowly crush the outer world masters. But that didn''te without paying a hefty price in terms of great losses on their side.

    Be it dying or getting severely wounded, the number of masters on Fang and Sloth''s side was getting crunched slowly by the outer world masters.

    That was good until the portal shed and another batch of reinforcements arrived. This time, the batch didn''t have a couple of thousand masters, but a whole lot of fifteen thousand masters!

    There were already five thousand masters from the outer world in the portal area. Adding the newly joined ones up, the entire lot was now around twenty thousand! It was a staggering force to fight against, especially when the other side lost many of their top masters and elites!

    "Just in time!" Yet when that disaster happened, William finally arrived. Seeing him get into the portal area with lots of his guild masters, made Fang and Sloth feel there was still hope.

    "Don''t tell us we are going to retreat!" Fang was the fastest to go to where William was, followed by Sloth.

    "We had them, were this close when the portal gushed out tons of those bastards!" Sloth was frustrated. The big win was in their hands to grasp, and yet the sudden iing wave turned the tables around!

    He hated how the situation turned around when the win was in their pockets already!

    "We will keep pushing," William responded in a serious tone, "provide protection for us, we''ll start surrounding this area with the weakening formations first."

    "Hell yeah!" Sloth clenched his fist while Fang shouted in excitement, "let''s show these bastards that our world isn''t a pushover! Let''s fcking go!"

    Seeing Williaming here, saying these words, inspired even the top and old masters here. Everyone thought it was the best move to retreat, and yet when William mentioned the formations, they all got hyped again!

 Chapter 1275: I Need Five Minutes!

    They knew their opponents were strong, but they weren''t far off their current level of power. If they regained the help of the sealing formations they had from the start, the tide would shift again towards them.

    William wasn''t doing this out of impulse. When he spotted therge number of mastersing here in one wave, he knew Lingerie''s intentions from doing so.

    "She wants to buy herself extra time to fix the portal," there was no other exnation for her to take such a huge cost to send such arge number of masters in one go.

    She wanted her masters to take control of the portal zone, causing lots of trouble for us, buying herself enough time to repair the portal.

    And that also meant another thing; "she ising in the next wave!"

    If he was in her shoes, then he''d feel threatened and pressured from what happened. She woulde here in the next wave, and this wave would have tons of masters, enough to crush any resistance here.

    So, it was a life or death situation forying down the formations in this region. He must do it before she''de, and this turned entirely into a race of time battle.

    Continue your saga on m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    He previously intended to take his time inying down these formations. His friends and other guild masters just took a theoretical lecture about how toy it down. And even if few of them witnessed himying down the formation before, this was far from enough.

    He wanted them to take their time in learning and experimenting how to do it. But now it was toote to do so. "Listen up, we would do it right from the start," he turned to everyoneing with him, "keep attentive, if I shouted something to correct, do it at once and without hesitation. No time to ask anything, keep your questions forter, got it?"

    "Yes!" they all shouted in one breath, while recalling what William said before aboutying down the formation. It was easy to dig holes, but it was quite challenging to recall the right order toy down the materials.

    William also asked them toy down one material first, then wait for him to do something, then they could continue. He intended to link all materials in all the holes together, oneyer at a time.

    Doing it on a normal day would be easier than doing this in the middle of a hectic battle. The newly arrived masters from the portal seemed to know what to do, moved fast to attack the masters around without the need to even know theyout of the portal region.

    It seemed they wanted to kill all masters close to the outer area first, where most of William''s masters were. Doing this would iste the masters in the portal area, making their fate quite sealed.

    The outer world masters formed twenty spear like formations, heading straight to the outer area here. Once they did that, every seasoned master knew what they wanted to do.

    "Don''t let them approach the border area!"

    "Attack them, stop them at once!"

    Shouts erupted from all the experts in the area, directing all the attacks towards the iing twenty spear formations. William looked at this situation and couldn''t help but smile in return. "This battle is going way faster than I thought," he turned his attention towards his people, as they were digging the holes first in the ces he marked for them.

    The first formation was going to cover an area of half kilometre. He wanted toy down the formations one by one. But it seemed this was going to be quite impossible.

    It was clear that this world''s masters were struggling. They managed to stop many outer world masters, but still at least five spear formations were approaching their destination quite fast and uninterrupted at all.

    It was expected with such difference in power and numbers, pouring all odds into the outer world masters favour. So, he instantly shifted his ns, and adapted to the emerging situation

    "Dig holes ten metres to the north of the holes you dug," he shouted, "then dig another set of holes five metres to the east, then seven metres to the south¡­"

    He kept giving out orders, ending up making his guild masters dig holes for twelve formations at the same time. It was quite challenging for him to link materials in all these holes, not to mess any hole or order. But he had to do it.

    Laying down these formations sessfully would turn this area into a strong base for all masters here. Even if the entire twenty thousand outer world masters flooded here, they wouldn''t be able to take down the masters here fully.

    Laying down the base turned to be the top priority now considering the entire situation. Luckily, he got enough time to do so, before the outer master wouldy their eyes over this spot.

    Yet soon enough, the outer world masters noticed what he was doing here with everyone. And without fully knowing everything, they felt the threat and started to rally themselves and head towards here.

    "Stop them!"

    "Everyone defend this spot!"

    "Don''t let them gather here!"

    Many shouts came, and soon enough these world masters rallied as well, forming a strong line of defence. The battles started to be very bloody, with both sides losing masters on an rming rate.

    "How long do you have?" Sloth couldn''t help but shout at William from afar, "we can''t hold more than a few more minutes!"

    "Give me five!" William said something that made Sloth, and other masters here feel more pressure.

    "Ok, we''ll secure five for you," Sloth knew it was going to be quite hard to do it, but there was no other option. If they lost their foothold here, it''d be quite harder to reim this area again.

    Everyone knew by now the importance of the portal area. Taking control of it meant controlling the future of this battle.

 Chapter 1276: The Evolved Explosive Arrows

    Keeping pressure over the iing masters from the outer world was the best situation for this world master.

    William knew he could end the formations in less than five minutes. But he wanted to make sure he had enough time for any unforeseen event.

    Sounds of fierce explosions and attacksnded all over the ce. And the more time passed, the harder the situation became.

    It wasn''t rare now to see a few masters prating through the defensive line, approaching the area where the formations wereid down, and attacking masters there.

    But whenever they''de this close, they''d end up getting massacred by the strongest masters like Fang and Sloth. Even so, William knew they had little window left, and he poured everything he had into finalising the formations. Continue reading at m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    "It''s ready!" Atst William shouted the thing everyone waited for, "activate the formations!"

    His voicended, and everyone heaved a deep sigh of relief. At once the masters who were pressured and squeezed by their enemies finally felt the blessing of having such formation on their side.

    All of sudden, the pressure got relieved, and William''s masters finally could breathe. The high rate of losing their masters stopped abruptly, and their enemies started to move slower, showing many weak spots and signs, making it easier to take them down.

    "Take care of the formations," William shouted at Fang and Sloth, "we need to expand!"

    "Right now?!" both of them looked at William as if they were looking at a monster. Everyone thought it was time for them to hold this area and defend, giving time for everyone who was pressured for far too much to take time to recuperate.

    But William was thinking differently. He knew they wasted enough time, and even if Lingerie wouldn''t send anymore waves until she''d fix the portal, they were getting closer from this moment.

    It''d be way better to have more zones under their control when Lingerie would arrive here with her deadliest masters.

    Without any moment to waste, William didn''t respond to Sloth and Fang with words, but with actions.

    He ran towards a different spot, not even waiting for any of the other masters toe and help. He instantly shifted and used his spirit body, took out all of his weapons, and started a barrage of deadly attacks using everything he got!

    He shed like a cheetah, jumping from one point to another, stacking attacks on his tails, while hitting the masters from the outer world with something they had never seen before!

    William never took part in this battle so far, and so his presence here was alien and totally new for everyone on the enemy side. They got intel about the strongest masters in this world''s side and knew most about their strongest techniques. That was why they were evening the odds before the formations kicked in.

    But now, they were dealing with a hard to stop master. William didn''t target those affected by the weakening formations, but those rushing over to help those entrapped inside. As they were in a hurry, they showed many weaknesses and openings, making it easier for him to hit them where it hurt.

    William progressed without waiting for anyone to follow and aid. And when he came into the spot he wanted, he unleashed the couple hundred stacked attacks on the enemies around.

    "Rumble!" The attack was strong enough to shake arge part of the entire portal area. Lots of masters got into the aftermath of this attack, and that bought enough time for other masters on William''s side to catch on.

    "You know you are crazy, right?" Sloth was the one who came here, "Fang will stay behind to organise things there before catching up¡­"

    "Let him get ready to move to another spot," William intended to not stop here, "make this area under our control, I''ll be back when the foundation is ready. You, divide yourselves into two groups, one will follow me, let''s go!"

    "..."

    What William said was clear. He nned to not stop here and wait for his guild masters to prepare the holes and everything. He had to speed up, and so he started another barrage of attack towards the enemies.

    He moved to another spot, did the same and managed to clear his path without many problems. The outer world masters tried to stop him, rained lots of attacks over him, yet all got foiled the moment Fang caught up.

    "You are insane!" Fang shouted when he arrived. Heid down the lightning augmenting formation fast enough, before raining down the enemies with tons of lightning that made it impossible to hit William.

    "I''ve been told so before," Williamughed, beforeunching all the stacked attacks on the disarrayed enemies, "I''ll leave this spot over to you

    "How do you n to go back¡­ Forget it!" Just when Fang was in the middle of his words, William suddenly shifted back to his human form, took a bow out, a dark gold one, and his arrows came next.

    The first few arrows sent released torrents of explosions all over the enemies hit. The explosions were so violent to not only incinerate the master''s hit, but also release a wave that sent many in midair.

    And like an eagle hunting down enemies from the sky, William shifted and hit all these masters in a symphony of moves that were least described as marvellous!

    "This is new!" even the masters on his side were surprised by these explosive arrows. Many saw William use these arrows before, and yet this new and evolved version of the arrows was so brutal and quite deadly.

    William''s path was now open for him. He looked like a fish in water, no one could stop or pose a threat to him.

    Even when the outer world masters tried to rally and form arge group to stop him, he shifted his direction using his outstanding dash move to avoid them, while raining them down using his deadly arrows.

 Chapter 1277: Totally Unexpected Surprise!

    Even when he was using his arrows, he kept using his Holy Sword technique. He didn''t need to shift back to his monstrous form, and just stacked attacks on his new dark gold sword.

    Dash after dash, attack after attack, a torrent of arrows after a torrent, he used everything. And again, William reminded all of the masters on his side how he could take an entire army all by himself!

    "Ready?" Once arrived at the second spot, he asked everyone. He gave them enough time to dig the holes, and they should be ready by now.

    "One minute," but yet Sara shouted, "we got dyed by many infiltrations¡­"

    "Keep working then, leave those bastards to me," William didn''t hear the rest of her excuses, release a torrent of explosive arrows and move at once to aid the frontline.

    Even with the presence of Sloth and many other strong masters, the line was fragile without doubt. Many masters from the other side could pass through from time to time, putting pressure over his guild masters digging the holes.

    The moment William joined the fight, things started to look hopeful for his guild masters. In less than a minute they finished setting up everything, and they were ready for William to take over.

    "Stay steady," William dashed back three times before arriving back at the hole''s area, "I''ll set everything up here, then we''ll head towards a new spot."

    "..."

    They thought he''d move back to the third spot, but it seemed he nned to do something else. William could tell it would take much longer than he expected to finishying the foundations for the formations.

    So, he decided to attack another spot, while giving more time to his guild masters to finish their part at the third spot.

    He didn''t take a couple minutes to finish linking the materials of the formations together. "Take over this point, and let''s go," he said to the masters who came to activate the formation, before taking the lead and charging forward.

    Having one area fortified by his formations gave everyone a room to breathe. And when heid more areas, more masters came from the underground city and aided the existing masters here.

    Slowly things started to shift towards their side atst. Even with the huge number of enemies, they managed to kill a lot and build more safe zones.

    William didn''t stop, even when heid down twelve areas, cleared the outer border of the portal zone, he didn''t stop!

    He started to push deeper,ying down five more safe areas before the portal finally shed.

    "It''s time," William was in the middle of moving to the sixth spot to attack, yet he abruptly stopped, "she ising."

    He didn''t dare to continue venturing forward. Instead, he retreated back to the fourth area and started finalising the formation.

    "You go back now!" William gave the order to his guild masters, "go to be close to one tunnel. If things ended up bad, run back to the surface. Also send a word up there, let them send arge number of masters here, as we are going to need them."

    His words meant one thing, what was about toe was going to be ugly. No one doubted his judgement, and so they took the chance of the portal dy and went back as fast as possible.

    Luckily he connected the deeper areas with the ones at the border. So now there was a huge area under their control, one that they could run through without worrying about their lives.

    "Is it this bad?" Fang was the closest, and he ran towards William, asking about what was about toe.

    "It''s her," William said while starting to dash, "and she wille with lots of masters."

    "We''ll kill them all!" Fang didn''t hesitate, and started making not only one lightning formation, but many, "I''m going to hold this point, bring it on, bastards!"

    "Count me in!" Sloth shouted from far, while running leading lots of masters towards the frontline.

    "I hope you are prepared," William said to everyone while moving towards the fifth spot, "this is going to be a hard wave to stop."

    "We''ll see," Sloth was pumped up. So far this battle kept swinging between both sides, ending up with them finally having the upper hand thanks to William''s formations.

    The only pessimistic one here was William. Everyone else saw their odds higher than ever and had an unmatching feeling of supremacy at this moment.

    "Is this the low world that challenged us?" Just after a few minutes, and as William was halfway to finish the fifth zone formations, a strong feminine voice erupted from the direction of the portal.

    And then the portal shed with a blinding bright light for everyone standing in this area. Just from such bright light, William could exceed even his worst estimations.

    He knew that to send a huge number of masters through a portal, Lingerie had to pay a costly price for that. He imagined her toe with ten up to twenty thousand masters. But that wasn''t the case.

    Just from the brightness of the portal, William could tell at least double what he expected wasing. And that told him Lingerie was adamant at crushing all the resistance here no matter what the cost was.

    When he heard her voice, he knew she was here as expected. But as he was trying toplete linking the materials of the different formations, what she said startled him out of the blue!

    "So, this is where William is living? Come on, tell him his big sis wants to have a long chat with him!"

    "What the fck¡­" William couldn''t resist raising his head, looking at the direction of the portal. The brightness was fading away, and a huge number of masters appeared, with a group dressed in golden outfits, all hotdies, attracting his and everyone''s attention.

    "Find him for me," the same voice came, with a long and deep sigh, "bring him alive¡­ Kill anyone else."

 Chapter 1278: Very Tough Situation

    "Find me? Not Sara''s mother?!!" and this came like a totally unexpected surprise, not only for William, but for everyone else on his side.

    Lingerie should be here for Sara''s mother, but now things seemed to run into a direction even William didn''t anticipate.

    "Don''t tell me¡­ She wants me dead because I was the one who spoke about her weakness," William realised this point, before breaking into a wideughter, "bring it on! No matter what, you are going to fall here today!"

    His words made everyone around him feel more confidence. They got startled by what Lingerie said, even felt more doubt towards their initial ns.

    But as William showed such resolve, they all regained their determination once more.

    "Show yourself, pretty boy, I heard a lot of stories about you," yet when William thought he grasped the situation, and before he''d focus on the development happening on the frontline, Lingerie added this weird line.

    He raised an eyebrow, while not knowing if she was telling the truth or just fooling with him. "Stop the iing enemies," this was the first shout echoed among William''s side. Sloth and Fang found the situation as ugly as William was fearing.

    Not only were there tons of mastersing from the portal, but they were all strong and prepared. More than thirty thousand masters appeared from the portal, and they took a huge area in the portal in a sh.

    Luckily William''s side wasn''t stretched on arge area, nor was it close to the portal centre. Their distance at the periphery acted as a protection in such a situation. And yet the mastersing from the outer world didn''t stop at their spot for any minute.

    The moment they appeared, they moved towards the outer border of this area. It was as if they didn''t just arrive, as if they were already here.

    In front of William and others, a huge tsunami of masters appeared, led by a huge wave of attacksing to im their lives.

    "Hold the frontline!" Sloth shouted, "don''t let them pass!"

    It didn''t need a genius to know that if this first wave of attacks let Lingerie''s masters through, then William''s masters would lose control of this region.

    It wasn''t just limited to that; the losses would be unimaginable! And yet when everyone was ready to wee such a deadly charge, William''s shout came to make everyone doubt their ears.

    "Let them through!" His shout made everyone turn and look at him, but what he said next exined everything, "let them fall into the effects of the weakening formations!"

    If they tried to resist such a sh, it was impossible to stop most of these enemies. This was something clear to William, and so he decided to use another tactic.

    "You heard the man, do it!" Fang shouted, "but I won''t let them pass!"

    "Neither will I," Sloth also shouted, "rally around me, let''s stop them here like a mountain!"

    William''s intentions were clear to the top masters leading the city''s army. He didn''t want to let the enemies take control of everything. He wanted his masters to gather up, rally around certain points, while letting other areas get under control of the enemies, for now.

    The formations wouldn''t be detected unless someone from here would pinpoint towards them. And to do so, they needed time, which William intended to not give them any of it.

    Once the masters on his side acted, the enemies arrived. As expected, the ces held strong by Fang, Sloth, and other top masters proved to be hard for the enemies to evene near. That turned the entire situation as if a mighty ocean wave, getting broken on very solid scattered rocks, losing momentum and strength in the time being.

    "Attack!" and once that happened, once the enemies dispersed around these strong forts, William shouted and acted. The first wave came in the form of explosive arrows, targeting the enemies he could reach on the periphery. And then he started to dash, move fast from one point to another, stacking attacks and releasing them.

    The situation was least described to be critical. William moved alone most of the time, while torrents of attacks kept showering any ce he went to.

    Yet the turning point came not from William, not from the strongest masters on his side, but from his guild masters. Once chaos erupted all over the ce, and it became quite hard to predict where to advance, where to stand, or even where to retreat.

    And in such a situation where it would be impossible for any masters to take the right decision, his guild masters showed their real value and strength!

    During all this time, his guild masters learnt a lot from William. Even when they didn''t realise it, anyone apanying William in many adventures started to act and think like him. And when chaos would erupt, it''d be the perfect timing for William to act, and so his guild masters.

    The charge was led by Sara and Berry. They didn''t move together, but each led her faction to one side. As if they arranged this before, they didn''t even need to exchange a single word before taking such initiative!

    Then others followed!

    Seeing this from far, in the ce of Lingerie for example, would make such moves quite illogical. But when these masters wearing ck and golden outfits moved using nimble techniques and strong attacks, passing through everything as if they were born in the heat of war, everything started to make sense.

    And when they activated the formations, things became more logical. "So, they are the ones controlling these formations? Interesting¡­" Lingerie''s eyes shone brightly when she saw this, "I can''t tell what''s the type of this formation, but I''m sure it''s strong enough to threaten all my masters entrapped within. Others must step in from outside to help¡­ Forget it, tsk!"

    Just when she was about to give orders for masters not entrapped within the formations to step in and help, she saw William and other strong masters do their task to push such masters away from the formations area. Your adventure continues at m v|l-e''-NovelBin

 Chapter 1279: Monster Den Orb

    It felt like everything was chaotic, but weirdly enough they were all synchronised and linked together.

    She thought that someone must have been orchestrating the entire battle for William''s side. Or else howe these masters moved in such perfect timing and fulfilled such unbelievable retaliation.

    If this happened on the outer world, then she''d think these masters were experienced enough, lived through hellish battles to develop such brilliant judgement. But she overlooked the masters of this world, feeling they were as weak as ants were.

    In the middle of all this, she was looking constantly using her spirit sense for William. She would have found him fast if she knew the general area he was in. But since the entire ce was in chaos, middling her masters with William''s, it was hard for her to find him fast enough.

    On top of that, she didn''t know how he used to fight, or else she''d have spotted him the moment he used his signature moves.

    But in mere half an hour, she finally spotted him. In the middle of the ongoing chaos, there was a single master that looked quite outstanding in the middle of everything!

    He ventured alone in the swarms of her masters, killed any master he met, released weird attacks repeatedly that brought trouble to everyone around.

    He was the only master who constantly charged at the frontline without any reservation. He could move fast without any problems, dashing from one point to another, as if he was teleporting or something.

    "Is that you, William?" her voice came from the distance, not that loud, but quite audible perfectly for William. Thetter was trying to relieve the pressure over others, allowing his guild masters to activate all the formations heid before.

    Currently the situation is looking way better than when Lingerie came here with her masters. At least these masters were now entrapped into the formations, or trying to intervene and help to get stopped by many attacks, and William.

    They tried to stop him many times, gathering lots of masters to entrap and kill him. But the end result was the same, whenever any of that happened, he''d simply jump back to any safe zone, using his unstoppable dash technique, ending up escaping any deadly trap.

    William knew the limits of his power. And that made him escape the moment he sniffed something bad wasing his way.

    But when he heard her voice, as clear as if she was standing next to him, he abruptly stopped. He looked in vignce towards her direction, to be met with a melting face smile.

    She had the most beautiful face he had ever seen in his life. There wasn''t a single speck of w at her beauty, even that little nevus at her chin added more allure to her.

    William never saw her before, but he was sure she was very seductive as ady. She looked as if she was in the prime of her youth, even if she was way older than that.

    "Why don''t we put down our swords, stop this hrious show, and start talking together in private?" she winked at him while saying these words, and even sent a kiss in the air for him.

    "You won''t do anything good for my world," William directly refused, "sorry, but we are enemies, and you''ll die today no matter what you tried."

    "Hahaha, I beg to differ," sheughed amusingly as if she heard the funniest joke in the world, "to be honest, I''d prefer to solve our problems in bed. Let''s wrestle there, see whoes on top of the other, hehehe." Find exclusive stories on m_v l|e-NovelBin

    William totally ignored her. He knew she wasn''t just talking nonsense for no reason. As she was speaking with him, lots of her masters moved and were slowly surrounding him.

    "You are a rough man to deal with, William," as she thought she had him in the spot she wanted, William suddenly dashed around, stacked lots more attacks, before releasing them in one direction, and running towards the opposite one.

    He instantly escaped the tight circle her masters were this close from tightening it around his neck. And that made her squint her eyes, before taking something out.

    "If you think you will have it your way under my nose then you are gravely mistaken," the thing she took was a glistering little orb, one that looked so normal except for being held by such dangerousdy, "I''ll show you, in this world, masters are the least worries you have."

    As she said these words, she threw the orb high in the air. She didn''t choose a free spot for it tond at but selected one of the crowdest areas with her masters.

    "Boom!"

    The moment the orbnded and shattered; an explosion urred. What came next made William furrowed his eyebrows, as he instantly recognised what she used.

    "A monster den orb? Fuck!" This orb was something that could be described as a portal to a monster den. But this wasn''t a true portal, this was a truly monster den stored within this orb!

    If such a thing came from this world''s masters, then William wouldn''t worry. But it came from Lingerie, a very strong master from the higher world.

    Without the need to wait for what wasing from this orb, William knew it was bad news. He instantly turned to his side, shouted on the top of his lungs:

    "Prepare for a swarm of deadly monsters, if we can''t hold, we run back to the surface¡­"

    "Roar!"

    Just before he''d continue his words, an earth-shattering roar came from the direction of the orb. The orb shattered and released a thick pillow of fog, one that epassed therge number of masters around, eating them up as if a deadly acid fell on their bodies.

    They melted in front of everyone''s eyes, and no one could do anything to help. Even masters closest to them ran, not to help and save whoever they could, but to get as far away as possible from that fog.

 Chapter 1280: Chimeras!

    The moment that roar came, William felt a cold shiver down his spine.

    "A flying Chimera? Damn you!" he instantly recognised what was about toe out, "listen up, the monstersing out won''t be too many, but they are very deadly. The world here will limit them, but as they are monsters not masters, it''ll take longer than usual for that to happen¡­"

    "You do know a lot of stuff as I heard, not bad, not bad at all, hehehe," Lingerieughed in amusement, "but even if you know all this, you have no way to handle them¡­"

    "Watch me!" William''s response was ice cold, with a very serious look on his face, one that was filled with endless determination.

    Seeing his reaction made Lingerie stop her yful act. She was an assassin living by using her seductive body and abilities to kill her targets. And far above that, she was a person who was trained for a long time on judging the situation and people right.

    Her strongest point was this, something that led her all the way to the current powerful position of the pce head. She could tell at this moment, even if all the odds and signs pointed against William''s victory, but William gave her the feeling that he was going to win this!

    Such a feeling was weird, but she never doubted her instincts. Yet she had nothing to do except to order her masters to stop him. Even if she didn''t know what William intended to do, she nned on stopping him way before he''d start doing it.

    She didn''t know, but William knew a lot more about this portal area and the underground city. The ce here was special, very special, and someone who just came here wouldn''t read the entire situation right about this portal.

    The orb Lingerie used was a monsterir, but it was in the end using a space element. And William aimed to hit it directly at this point of weakness.

    "Roar!"

    Another terrifying roar came, and this time one shadow passed from the fog like a bolt of lightning. It rose in the air, to end up mming into the ceiling of this portal area, causing miniscule earthquake.

    It fell as fast as it rose. And luckily it got over the heads of Lingerie''s masters. Yet itnded unscathed, as if such a fall wouldn''t leave a mark on such a behemoth.

    A scary and giant flying chimaera monster appeared. It was at least twenty metres tall, seven metres in height, with a full length of thirty metres when it fanned its wings.

    It looked as deadly as nothing else any master from this world saw before. Even Fang felt like he was eyeing death directly in the eye when he spotted that monster.

    "Keep it busy," and before anyone would jump over their fear and shock, William''s voice came to startle everyone, "I''ll go and do something."

    "..." Even Fang and Sloth looked at William as if they were looking at a crazy man. It was clear that dealing with this monster was impossible. It wasn''t just strong; it was a flying behemoth! And no one in this world had any experience in dealing with flying monsters.

    Even when they once met such monsters when they got into that other realm identally with William, it was a fluke to get through these monsters alive. As for killing them, it was all thanks to William and his instructions.

    Not to mention the flying monsters they faced before looked like harmless kitties to this scary flying Chimera.

    "You want us dead this bad?!!!" Fang was the first to speak up, and yet what he saw next made him gulp the rest of the words he wanted to say.

    William didn''t turn around and flee, the same thing any master standing here thought of doing. Instead, he charged forward, as if he wasn''t fearing death!

    The direction that Chimera fell to was close to the den. It just got out when it got hit badly by the ceiling. "Chimaeras are terrifying beasts¡­"

    "We already can tell that! Thanks for nothing!" Sloth roared in anger, "what the hell are you doing here? Mydy won''t run away as long as you are here¡­"

    Even in such a situation, the kingdom mentor never forgot his primary and most important assignment, to keep Anjie safe. And what he said was true, Anjie would never leave here as long as William stayed!

    "Just listen and don''t interrupt," William responded with a fierce shout, while Lingerie''s masters were in doubt at the moment. Chimaeras were terrifying monsters, even in the outer world. And they were known for their bottomless hatred towards humans!

    Even if Lingerie summoned them using that orb, even she had no control over them. And that made her masters in such a confused situation. They didn''t know if they should attack the monster, or attack the masters upfront. Or even better, turn around and run with their tails tucked in their mouths, heading to stand with their master, Lingerie.

    William could tell all this even before it happened. The moment he saw the Chimeraing out, he couldn''t help but feel much relieved.

    Even if they were scary monsters, they were still hostile to the masters who summoned them. And falling in the middle of Lingerie''s master army was enough to keep them quite busy, for now.

    Just from this miscalction from Lingerie, the entire situation stabilised for a good amount of time in William''s eyes. And he started to ry such news over to Fang and Sloth using spirit telepathy.

    The two couldn''t believe that seeing the disaster get dyed and busy by handling their enemies was seen as such great news, even an opportunity as William described.

    "Howe he says this is an opportunity?!!!" Sloth came to Fang, as he was fuming with impatience and rage, "I can''t get how this kid''s mind works! Fck!"

    "I know him," Fang heavily said, "if he said it''s a chance, then it is¡­"

 Chapter 1281: William Is Up To Something

    "Bullshit! I can''t believe I''m risking my kingdom''s future queen for such weird words!"

    Fang gave Sloth a deep look before he slowly said, "To be honest, running from here will doom your precious kingdom. This enemy, she seems prepared and knowledgeable about our world. It Wouldn''t be a surprise if she decided to rule over it!"

    "What?!!!" Sloth''s eyes went wide, as he realised such little detail that he missed before.

    "Just trust William, he isn''t just doing this for himself, he is doing it for all of us, and to your kingdom and its future queen."

    Fang left Sloth at this moment, while arranging the masters here to be ready for what yet toe.

    As William told them, the Chimera started attacking Lingerie''s masters without any discrimination. The monsters moved fast, tried to fly many times, ending up mming into the closeby rocky ceiling. That limited greatly its movement, and fueled its rage even further.

    Chimaeras were one of the sky lords in the outer world, but they weren''t as good onnd. Yet against such weakened masters, this monster killed a ton without suffering much in return!

    Seeing this happen made Lingerie frown. For a reason, she felt like she made a big mistake taking these monsters out!

    She thought taking flying monsters, ones that this primitive world never saw before, would scare and terrify everyone. Even if they persisted in resisting, they''d end up dead in the end.

    She, as Fang thought, wanted to take over this world. This was the least price she''d ept for all the humiliation and threat she received.

    She wasn''t here just for Sara''s mother, but she was after William and his world. But now, she had to find a way to let her masters evade the unstoppable and cruel wrath from that monster, and also find a way to deal with the yet toe Chimeras.

    Just as she was thinking about this, another roar came, and a second Chimera got out. It flew in the air like the first one and hit the ground as fast as the first Chimera.

    Seeing a second monster out made Lingerie speechless for a moment. "There¡­ Is something wrong here¡­" she didn''t know if she should feel fortunate for this or not, but the rate of releasing Chimeras out of the monster den was very slow.

    At any usual situation, Chimeras would have gone out in batches of hundreds of them in every wave. But now they were getting one out per minute, a very noticeable slow rate.

    She couldn''t help but move her eyes over someone, over William, who was running and attacking her masters, heading towards one direction: the den direction. Continue reading at m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    "Don''t tell me¡­ He knows something¡­" her mind worked fast. She was a very intelligent person, and soon enough she could swear that William previously anticipated such a result and situation.

    It was quite unbelievable, but if any other master was in his spot, he''d have run away instead of dashing forward. On top of that, he wasn''t just moving around, taking this situation to his advantage and killing her masters. Instead, he was heading in a straight line towards the den location.

    This was the worst decision any master would take at this moment. Even if she was in his shoes, she''d prefer to take down more masters, using the disturbance, doubt, and fear spreading across her master''s side.

    Yet she had nothing to do right now, unless she moved on alongside her personal guard. Doing this held quite the risk, as William was drawing near that den. And she feared on her life!

    This moment of hesitation¡­ This moment, she''d regret it deeplyter on!

    "What can you do? I already saw your strongest move, and it''s good, but not enough to threaten Chimeras!" she said in a low tone, but William perfectly heard it.

    "Hmph, as if I''m targetting those useless birds," William snorted. At this moment, he was just few hundreds of metres away from the den. Even this close, the Chimeras released were very busy killing and eating her masters, far away from him.

    He spent ten minutes to reach there, and during this time, ten monsters came out from the den. Lingerie didn''t know why the den was releasing monsters on such slow rate, but William knew.

    "Let me show you what does a home advantage mean," Williamughed when he got this close from the den, "let me show you my other strongest technique¡­"

    Lingerie knew this was the moment for William to reveal his cards. As she was worried, she was far more curious about what he intended to do.

    She analysed his way of fighting. He was using a technique she didn''t recognise, but she could tell a lot from it. She could tell the elements William used in his technique. Despite it was amazing to have such antagonising elements, it wasn''t enough to contend against the Chimeras!

    Even if he miraculously managed to kill those ten, he wouldn''t be able to kill all monsters!

    She had the den for a decade now, kept nourishing it non-stop. The den had tens of thousands of Chimeras. Not that impressive considering using it against any army in any battle at the outer world. But against those weaklings in her eyes here, it was an overkill!

    Even if she was worried, she didn''t believe William woulde up with something to change the end result. And yet, she didn''t know that, but she was about to get proven wrong soon enough!

    Just as she was waiting for him to start using his Holy Sword technique, Wim did the unexpected. At this point from the den, there was so little masters to stop him. Everyone feared the monsters, and they feared getting closer to the den as a result.

    So, he could finally do what he came here for, without worrying about other enemies around. The first thing he did made Lingerie''s eyes widened out of surprise.

 Chapter 1282: Weird Thing Happened To The Monster Den!

    William didn''t charge, didn''t use his sword. Instead, he left the sword on the ground, nting it strongly there, as if he didn''t need it anymore!

    "What the hell¡­" seeing this move was enough to make her realise she highly underestimated him! William then followed that with a weird hand grasp motion, one that made zero sense to her.

    But what happened next, made her feel panic, even fear for her life!

    "Let there be death!" William ended the incantation of the technique quite fast. And then a ball of darkness came out, moved fast towards the front, heading directly towards the monster den.

    Lingerie looked at this ball while flying, noticed the subtle moves of the light dots and lightning arcs before they got swallowed by darkness. It was a weird thing to witness, and when the ball hit the monster den, it crashed and released ayer of fog, while light and lightning elements wrecked havoc across the entire area.

    Without realising why, she felt an unexined sense of fear haunting her spirit. It was as if she was a weak master, standing in front of a scary monster. She even retreated a few steps behind, without even knowing it until it happened.

    "This¡­" watching the devastation that attack brought made Lingerie feel astonished. And yet there was still something unclear about such an attack.

    "Hitting an empty area? My monster den won''t get smashed this way!" she harrumphed, as the end result of this attack was now clear to her and everyone.

    William targeted the den area, and there was not a single master around that point. All masters were either killed or they ran away for their lives. And even the Chimeras were flying away from the reach of this attack.

    In her eyes, this attack was scary and amazing, but it did nothing in the end. And that turned it into some useless move in her eyes.

    But what weed her was a calm smile over William''s face. It was as if he was very satisfied with what his attack caused, making her doubt what she saw and tried to inspect again and check if she missed anything.

    She never found out what happened until twenty minutester. William didn''tunch this attack just for show. He wanted to make something with it, and he perfectly scored a full score here.

    As she was feeling puzzled, he calmly took out a spirit regeneration elixir bottle and emptied it in his mouth before taking another one out.

    "Emptying forty percent of my spirit power in just a single attack is still too much," he muttered to himself, before turning his eyes around, "now¡­ It''s time to take down those useless birds¡­"

    The Chimeras were terrifyingly strong, threatening everyone here. Even if they were just toying with Lingerie''s masters for now, William was sure a time woulde when they needed to handle them. And now it was the perfect time to do this.

    It wasn''t just to take them down, but also he wanted to make the best use of the disarray and chaos they''d bring while he''d attack them. As Lingerie was still puzzled about what he did, not making a move until figuring out why hended this attack on the monster den, he started to make moves.

    He didn''t use anything else but this bizarre technique of his. Every time he used it, all masters died in the area covered with the ck fog, light balls, and lightning arcs.

    He didn''t target the monster den until thirty minutes passed. Instead, he focused his attacks over the surrounding masters, and Chimeras. The Chimeras were already feeling strictly limited by the shackles of this ce. And adding what William did, they started to get more enraged.

    They poured all their rage and frustration over Lingerie''s masters. A couple of them even moved a few times and targeted Lingerie herself. If not for her strong masters around pushing these Chimeras away, she''d have been in a very tough situation.

    William made the best out of such a situation and brought more chaos all over his enemies. At the same time, he sent a message over to Sloth and Fang, asking them to clear more areas and make more formations to spread out their reign.

    The other side of battle was progressing favourably for his side. Once he moved and attacked using his new technique, and Lingerie''s masters showed signs of weakness. Theycked any organisation as Lingerie was more focused on handling the Chimeras she released herself.

    As for other masters on her side, they were busy fending off these scary monsters, protecting their lives against such threats.

    That left the frontline totally unsupported. And slowly William''s side started to gain the upper hand, crushing more enemies and clearing more areas.

    William didn''t need to send this message using his spirit telepathy. Fang, Sloth, and other friends of his were smart enough to realise the importance of making such a step, using such a godsent chance.

    At first everyone was worried about him. He ventured all solo towards the enemy, the ones they were struggling against for hours!

    And yet when he used his technique, things started to look hopeful. Even in the presence of such scary flying beasts, they knew he could handle himself very well, and their enemies were the ones who should be worried.

    William kept checking on the situation at the rear from time to time. As he saw how they kept pushing and building more formations, he couldn''t help but feel more relieved.

    He knew the Chimeras wouldn''t pose a threat for a long time for Lingerie''s masters. And when she''d realise the trick he did, she''d hasten killing those Chimeras and try to entrap him.

    "Something is off¡­" After twenty minutes, Lingerie finally grasped what William did, "that den didn''t release any monster during the past twenty minutes! It should have sent out two Chimaeras by now. Weird¡­ Don''t tell me¡­"

 Chapter 1283: Williams Weird Shout!

    Lingerie''s eyes red at William, and thetter slowly turned over and met hers. He justunched another technique and was taking his time replenishing his lost spirit power.

    As the two exchanged looks for a few seconds, William slowly tilted his lips up, as if he was mocking her. "Did you finally realise it now?" heughed while muttering these words in a faint tone, one he was sure Lingerie would hear as loud as thunderp!

    She was now sure of her wild guess. And yet she didn''t get how he did it!

    The reason was simply rted to the unique circumstances in the portal area here. Since thest battle in this ce, the space element became berserk! They didn''t just affect the monsters, but also his technique.

    So when he attacked that den, he knew his technique would heavily disrupt the space element rted to that den. In the first ce, the den didn''t work as it was supposed to and kept gushing out one Chimera on a longer duration than it was supposed to. And when William hit it using his technique, the den stopped working.

    Yet William knew this was all temporarily. If he left the den alone, it''d slowly recover and would return to work like how it was supposed to. So, he returned after half an hour, andnded another technique, making Lingerie realise this point as well.

    "I won''t let you touch it again!" she roared, but she didn''t know the situation was way beyond salvation. Her masters were already in disarray, and William''s masters gained control of a huge area, and even managed toy down the foundation for tons of formations.

    All William needed to do was to spend less than an hour and he''d activate all these formations. Once that''d happen, the entire region would be under his side''s control.

    If she wanted to flip the tables now, she had to pay a hefty price for that.

    William could easily retreat to safety and let his masters slowly grind their way forward. And yet he didn''t do that.

    Even if his side secured a big advantage for now, there was still a variable that could change this, the portal!

    He knew Lingerie came here to buy others on the other side enough time to fix the portal. Even if she failed in crushing everyone here and gaining control over the portal, there was still a substantial number of masters on her side.

    The number of masters showed up here already exceeded his entire expectations. With Lingerie''s current move, it meant only one thing; there was still much more waiting on the other side of this portal.

    On top of that, the den must be taken care of, or else the Chimeras would pose a huge threatter on. As William decided to keep attacking, he started to sh and hit masters all around the ce.

    Lingerie looked like a wounded beast. She knew if this was on the higher world, then this battle would have been nothing for her and William would have been killed by now.

    Yet they were all subjected to this world''s limitations. Even if she dashed forward to meet up with William, she doubted she could take him down even if she brought everyone on her side.

    It was a far-fetched dream for William to kill her either. This was a weird stalemate, in which she''d lose more than she''d gain. The morale of her side was already low to begin with. And if she dashed forward to meet William and failed to kill him, the morale would plummet even more.

    Not to mention she feared that William would be hiding another banger technique on his side. So if she let herself get close enough from him, she''d suffer deadly injury or even lose her life!

    That was why even if she was feeling rage fire dancing wildly in her spirit, she didn''t take a single move against William. But that didn''t prevent her from sending a few of her personal guards, to lead other masters around, calm the worry and chaos spreading out there, and kill the loose Chimeras as well.

    Right now, it was clear taking Chimera den out was a bad move, one that didn''t do any good at all for her.

    "What will you do now?" William evilly smirked while feeling her dilemma. He wanted her toe at him, so he''d try and take her down, or at worst he''d learn more about her abilities that were still unknown to him.

    "Just watch, I''ll surprise you," just when he thought he cornered her, Lingerie replied his smirk with another. Seeing her response made him feel something bad was going to happen.

    Yet he had no time to waste on worrying about what she was going to do. He was alone in the middle of a swarm of strong and deadly enemies. If not for the ten Chimeras, he''d have no shot at all to get this far without risking his life.

    "No matter what, you don''t have any possible move to turn things around," as he returned to fight, he shouted on top of his lungs, attracting everyone''s attention.

    "What''s going on?!" From far, Fang couldn''t help but raise his head and mutter in worry.

    "Though he got everything under his control," Sloth killed a group of masters before turning to Fang, "but it seems he is facing a much deadlier confrontation than what we have here."

    "Shall we go and help him?" Fang felt the same as Sloth. The two felt like other top masters here, thinking that William had everything running smoothly ording to his ns.

    But thatst shout meant one thing; things weren''t happening as he wanted nor nned. William didn''t shout out of coincidence, it felt like he wanted to ry some sort of a message over to everyone on his side.

    "Let''s wait here and be ready to intervene," Sloth paused before adding in a serious tone, "his shout wasn''t a distressful one for help, it felt more like¡­ It was a warning shout!"

 Chapter 1284: The Situation Escalated Fast

    "Yeah, it must be," Fang looked around, "as if we are in a way better situation for things to turn ugly¡­ Let''s kill as much as possible before things turn south."

    The two grasped William''s intentions like other top masters perfectly right. William didn''t know what Lingerie intended to do, but he was sure of something¡­ She was going to do something that''d change the entire situation.

    Just as he was fighting, he kept an eye over her. She didn''t dy in making her move, and out of any expectations he had, she turned around and walked away from his direction.

    "What do you n to do?!" William thought she''d go to take care of him, or the den, or even lead her elite guards and go all the way to the forefront and kill his side.

    Handling the den or even taking it back would have been the best move to stabilise her side. As for going to kill his masters, it''d be enough to force his hands to retreat and give up on any advantage he got here.

    Instead, she didn''t do any of that and went in a different direction. And soon enough, he could tell where she was heading towards.

    "The portal?!!" William muttered these words faintly and in pure puzzlement, before a scary answer popped up in his mind. "No way!" Once he realised what she was after, he couldn''t help but feel threatened!

    "You have no say in this," Lingerie stopped just a few metres away from the portal, with her back turned towards William''s direction. She slowly turned her head, showing an evil smirk on her face, "you did great, but missed this little part kiddo. Fixing the portal is way easier from here than out there!"

    Her soft wordsnded in William''s ears like ps of thunder. That confirmed the worst scenario his mind jumped towards. She nned to fix the portal from this side. And William knew what she just said was true.

    The portal had two sides, but it was way easier to fix the damage caused to it from the side the damagended at in the first ce. So doing it from here meant she could return to the portal working again.

    If she was a normal master from the outer world, William wouldn''t have felt such worry. But she was the leader of the pce, and she came here fully prepared and knowing everything rted to this portal.

    William knew she got him best this time. There was no need to even consider if she got the right material to do the task. He was pretty sure her rings were filled to the brim with tons of materials.

    "Ok, if you want to y like this, then let me apany you," William''s look of worry changed from his face to be reced with another fierce look. He didn''t hesitate and dashed forward, ignoring the disarrayed masters around, heading straight towards one direction.

    "Yes,e to mama, let me relieve that weight off your shoulders¡­ What the fck?!!!"

    Yet just as she was feeling like she got William where she wanted, luring him to attack her recklessly and alone, thetter proved to be a really troublesome foe!

    William dashed first towards her direction, giving her the impression he wasing for her. Then all of sudden, he changed his trajectory, jumping higher and higher, as if he wanted to fly.

    From her spot, she could easily sniff what he was aiming at. And when she realised that she couldn''t help but feel much weirder about that.

    "The Chimera¡­ Don''t tell me¡­" Just as William read through her ns, she also read through his. True enemies were the ones knowing oneself the best, that was indeed true here!

    Once she realised what he nned to do, she couldn''t help but inwardly curse. Without any hesitation she gave the order, a rally cry for all of her strongest and most experienced masters to drop what they were doing and flock to her direction in haste.

    The best way to stop William was by directly targeting him. Yet for a reason she knew this wasn''t going to work. After all, most of her strongest masters were far away from William and wouldn''t reach him in time.

    It was best to call them over her direction. Even if they were away from her, she was sure with her personal guard surrounding her right now, she could dy William enough for others to catch up to both of them.

    "They won''t make it in time," William could tell what she''d do in such a situation, "Listen up, push forward, kill everyone!"

    This was the second time he shouted in this battle. And this time, he gave such a weird order for everyone. Only the top masters on his side knew that their deadliest foes, the ones who brought tons of trouble to them all this time, were retreating at the time being.

    Without even William''s shout, they''d n to push forward and start a massacre. Even without the weakening formations, without the strongest powerhouses on the enemy side, the enemy was like swarms of weak fists that could crush with strong pressure.

    William''s shout wasn''t meant to give Fang, Sloth, and others the order. He knew they were smart enough to grasp the change in the tide. He wanted to instigate hesitation inside Lingerie''s spirit, ending up for her to not bring everyone to her side.

    Even if he lured the remaining seven Chimeras over Lingerie''s spot, he knew he''d be doomed if all the strong powerhouses came to her aid. Retreat wasn''t an option, or else she''d have the chance to fix the portal and let tons of her masterse here non-stop, ending everything.

    Retreat wasn''t an option, so his only chance was in forcing Lingerie''s hand. Yet she didn''t fall into his trap!

    "Hmph! That''s a desperate attempt," she scoffed, "let all the masters here die, I''ll just bring much more in no time to rece them!"

 Chapter 1285: Williams Unexpected Move

    "Sht!" William cursed out loud when he heard her words. He knew his attempt failed, and so his mind spinned hard and fast, looking for a way to turn this situation around.

    Calling for Fang, Sloth, and other high-end masters on his side wasn''t going to work. They were far away from him, separated by tons of enemies that they had to kill their path through to get to him. He was sure he wouldn''t survive long enough for them to catch up to him. And even if they did, they''d suffer lots of casualties in the process.

    "Screw it! I''ll y it dirty as well then," as there was no other option left, William decided to take the hardest route. As he was in midair for the third time, he managed to catch the attention of three Chimeras, while the rest finally noticed his presence and actions.

    William jumped in the air, high enough to throw one of his attacks on the Chimeras. Hitting them once was enough to lure them over, and he finally managed to get the attention of all the seven Chimeras over to him.

    The moment his feet touched the ground, he kept dashing in zigzag lines, evading all the iing attacks from the monsters.

    It was easy at first, as there weren''t many enemies around. But soon enough, he found himself in the middle of tons of enemies, and they seemed to not care about the monsters more than about him.

    "Fck off!" He wasn''t in the mood to worry about such flies. So he changed into his monstrous form, kept dashing left and right, umting attacks on his tails.

    Yet he didn''t release them on the masters, but the monsters chasing him. He didn''t want to run away fast to drop the focus of the monsters on him. So he kept attacking them from time to time, while making sure he wouldn''t bring them deadly attacks.

    Even if the Chimeras were very deadly, Lingerie''s masters managed to y three of them. On top of that this happened from the weaker masters here, not the eliteing to her side.

    William knew only seven Chimeras wouldn''t be enough to threaten the iing masters, but at least they''d bring enough trouble and chaos. And so, he kept dashing forward, heading towards Lingerie.

    Knowing the danger, she was about to face, she didn''t start fixing the portal yet. She gained what she wanted from this move, and lured William to her direction. But things didn''t go as she nned and wanted to, and now she had to stand against a fierce gathering of seven Chimeras alongside her guards.

    The guards she had were all sexy looking females, personally trained by her. She knew their abilities, and a single one of them wasn''t weaker than any strong powerhouseing to rescue her from faraway.

    Yet their number wasn''t thatrge to begin with. There were less than a hundred here, and most of them were burdened by wounds from the earlier Chimeras attacks.

    If it was just the Chimera, then she wouldn''t have worried like this. But she knew William was the biggest threat she had, and he wouldn''t hesitate to take any of her guards down if he got the chance to or even take her down.

    "Take the Thorny Flower formation," as William and Chimeras got closer, she didn''t hesitate to pick the strongest defensive formation she and her guards knew to use.

    "This¡­"

    "Isn''t it the strongest defensive formation against a single foe?"

    "Shouldn''t we use another formation instead? This one won''t help us against the Chimeras¡­"

    "Just do as I say!" she heard weirdments from her personal guards, and yet she fiercely shouted back at them, "no time to waste! That mfer is our main threat."

    Her guards felt weird about her persistence, but they got no other say in this matter. She watched her guards move to take the right spots to activate the formation.

    "The Thorny Flower formation? That''s an honour indeed," William instantly recognised the formation Lingerie''s guards formed in a nce, "but¡­"

    Instead of showing worry on his face as he knew the abilities of this formation, he only showed a look of victory on his face. "Activate the formation!" Seeing such look after hearing what he said drove more eagerness into Lingerie''s spirit to activate the formation and safeguard herself.

    The formation was strong against single enemies, William knew that. But what she missed wasn''t the Chimeras as her guards were worried about, but William''s true intentions in the first ce!

    William was drawing closer to her on steady steps and pace, and yet his attention was focused on another spot than hers. And when she activated the formation and expected him to start his attack, things shifted all of sudden!

    William dashed like always, looking as if he was evading an iing fire attack from the Chimeras. Yet when he changed his direction, he didn''t alter it with another dash. Instead, he pushed forward onto the same direction, heading away from Lingerie''s spot.

    "What the actual fck¡­!!!" just when he dashed for the fourth time, she was sure he wasn''ting to her. Just taking a broader look by her spirit sense and she could tell what William intended to do!

    "He¡­ He is targeting our iing powerhouses!" she wasn''t the one to say it, but one of her guards did, "that''s bad!"

    This was indeed the worst situation ever for them! Her top masters abandoned the fights they had, hurried all the way to her side, running with their fastest speed.

    Their top priority was toe to her side as fast as possible. And that made them distanced, not grouped, and that made them easy targets to hunt by William and the Chimeras chasing him!

    When William changed his direction, the Chimeras followed. William''s first targets were a group of distanced twenty-seven masters, the closest ones to here.

    The moment Lingerie and her guards realised what was happening, the iing masters also realised this. But the ones William targeted had no room to change anything, and in the mere span of five minutes, all of them were killed by the wrathful attacks of the Chimeras!

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!